It has begun

We knew it was coming and it came. In a manner in which we were not fond of but what can you do? When you are told you are going to be delayed a couple of days and instead show up to work the day before you were supposed to leave and told, "Go home, get your bags, your leaving in two hours." Yeah, not what we wanted.

Dan came home packed those last few things he hadn't. Said one last family prayer and he was gone again in ten minutes. For the children anyway. I got to take him alone since my sister was still at my house from Christmas. I stayed for long as they would let me and for as long as I could see Dan in those buses they had crammed them into to take them to the plane.

I have already heard from him twice on the phone and one email. He is fine but tired.

Day full one was good. Worked out at the Y. Took the kids back a few hours later to swim with friends, she let me take off and do some clearance shopping. Stayed up till 1 am though, playing with my new ipod nano and I am not so good and going to bed alone at the beginning.

Day full two, eh. Still in my pajamas. I have done some cleaning. A lot of reading, I got five books for Christmas, yeah. Haven't even brushed my hair. DD had some weird non-descript illness, aches and a fever. Whatever.

I did find online on some other military blogs the donut of misery (some say hope). An excel thing that calculates how many days they have been gone, how many left, minutes, weeks, etc. I put in Dan's info. We have no idea when he'll be home, 2009 is a long way out to plan ahead but I just put it in for 450 days which is 15 months exactly. Just to ballpark it. I'll have to put it on when it actually shows something. Right now it says 0% done and fresh off the jet. So right now I'll keep my donut of misery to myself. I'll share it when it starts seeming like a Donut of Hope.

It has begun.

Six Things

I am pretty much skipping over Christmas, it was the same as everyone else's too much food, too many presents. But good all the same. Maybe pictures in a couple days.

So the six things is going around and I thought I'd give it a try. But I think this will be kind of hard for me now. Six things you might not know about me after me running my mouth off on this blog for over a year? I'll give it a whirl.

1. In elementary and one year in junior high, I "played" the violin. Quotation are used because I was very bad and could never get the hang of it. For some reason after I played it always felt like I had rosin in my mouth (rosin is a powder used on the bow). I hated that. Did I not keep my mouth closed while I played?

2. I've had my car broken into three times. Once someone forced their way in and stole stuff, CD player, organizer, that sort of stuff, but they left my CDs. They actually opened my CD holder and looked in it and then dropped it. My thief was a musical snob and didn't care for my type of music, whatever. Another time is my is my fault, I left my purse in the truck while I ran inside "real quick." I came back just two minutes later and my purse was gone. The last time is pretty much the same as the first. I still had my planner in there and two cell phones. I didn't learn my lesson from the first time. I have since, nothing gets left in the car and I always lock. The three times were in a 18 month period with two cars and all in Salt Lake City.

3. I have fake cried to men to get out of trouble. Another three times thing. Once at the LA county fair when my friends and I were spitting over the ski lift thingy that takes you around the fairgrounds. We got caught and they wanted to kick us out, bring on the waterworks and we were told to not do it again. Once when I got caught ditching school and was given Saturday school detention. I cried to my counselor that I just couldn't go to Saturday school (if my mom found out she'd take away my car) he gave me a few detentions in the office after school which I told my mom I had sectional practice those days. She seemed to have forgotten that I was section leader and therefor in charge of calling sectional practices. The other time was when I got caught shoving a paper clip into a electrical outlet during band in junior high. I cried to my band teacher and I didn't even get detention. A boy did it later that year in another class of mine and he got suspended. There are a lot of men out there who cannot handle a little girl crying and I looked like a little girl up until last year I think. Although crying did not get me out of my first speeding ticket, I was really crying. But I was also going 49 in a school zone, no hard feelings, Mr. Policeman.

4. Thanks to Gilmore Girls I love watching bad movies and TV. Dan and I will go to the video store for recommendations on the worst movie the clerk has ever seen. It normally takes a while for them to believe that we actually want to spend money on a bad movie. We love making fun of them. Our two favorite bad movies: Reign of Fire and Battlefield Earth. On TV we look for those made for TV disaster movies with some has been actor in the starring role, those are guaranteed enjoyable hours.

5. My shower curtain drives me crazy. I just recently bought a new liner and for some reason it doesn't stay down like the last one did. It billows up and touches me, yuck. Shaving is a joke. I am driven to distraction trying to get this thing to be still.

6. I keep tally marks on my books, so I'll know how many times I've read them. When I started doing it I had already read some of them a lot so I just under guessed and wrote in those marks. I have read Pride and Prejudice six times, Persuasion five, those are accurate marks. I had to guesstimate on Harry Potter but I have five on that one as well.

I tag no one, because I don't think I know anyone who hasn't already done it or who would do it even if tagged.

Partied Out

We are officially partied out and we still have two more to go to tomorrow and three next week. Christmas Party number three for me and three for Dan and that doesn't even count the Birthday parties. And we cut out the school program last night, it was all too much. Start times were just too close together we knew we were never going to make it happen. Watching a couple hundred kids, who I don't know and don't give a crap about sing We wish you a Merry Christmas five times in a row while one kid crosses his eyes and another picks his nose. Nah, cross that off.

Anyway, Dan had three work parties this week. We only had to go to two of them. One for his section, one for his unit, and one for his battalion (each one is bigger than the first one). Birthday Party and Ward Party tomorrow. Earlier this week was DD's B-day party (just with the family) and the Relief Society Christmas Thing (I at least got to play my horn for that one). I actually didn't mess up too bad either. Not bad for the last time I played was last Christmas.

Next week the kids have their class Christmas parties all on the same day and of course I signed up for stuff for all of them. No baking, though. Plate, napkins, store cookies, and money. And presents for all.

I'm feeling a little over-whelmed. I still haven't mailed my Christmas cards. I started working on them in October like a good little girl, like I do every year. The only thing holding me back now is DD's pictures, I get them on Monday. Those who don't get individual wallets of the kids, I still haven't even sent those out. I'm not going to get them out 'til Monday or Tuesday, is that too late? Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.