"Momma Said There’ll Be Days Like This…."

26. August 2009 · 10 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

First, thanks for answering the poll — I guess changing/washing linens once-per-week is the standard and I need to be better at it 🙂

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

I’m at it again.

Now that the school year and academic year is in full swing, it’s time to get involved in stuff again.

“What stuff? What else could you possibly pile on?”

Lots. Jacob’s on his way to being the Spawn of the Overachiever with soccer, piano lessons and Cub Scouts all starting up in September. Thankfully soccer is only 8 weeks. I know how much Jacob loves it…he’d give up everything else to fit in those 8 weeks of soccer!

The piano lessons and Cub Scouts will be new for Jacob and I wonder how he’ll do with each of them. I’m certain the scouts will be fun, he loves camping and learning about nature. The piano lessons? Well…as much as Jacob loves music, I predict a struggle when I ask him to practice for 15-20 minutes every day. He’s already gotten a head start on his books (Faber and Faber “Piano Adventures”) but it’s on his own and I think once a schedule is attached to it we’ll see resistance.

Then again, I could be wrong about all this and he’ll embrace it like a champ!

Timmy’s going to be involved in soccer after Labor Day weekend, and I’m debating piano lessons for him, too. He might be on the young side in some respects, but he really enjoys playing with our piano (we have a digital piano) and his teacher still has a couple spaces available.

As for me, I start my new AF Reserves job next month, plus I’ve taken on secretary duties for our local AMS Chapter. Last week I also offered to become webmaster for the Spouse’s Group where Dave works. I’m looking forward to serving all of these functions as well as I can.

Right now I have an evil cold. Nothing super-debilitating, but enough that I can’t fill my days with activity the way I usually want to. This week I wanted to get some items repaired (our cuckoo clock, a necklace), plus sharpen our knives, plus clean out our basement storage. None of that is getting done this week, I’m afraid.

I can keep up with the bare minimum this week (laundry, cooking, keeping the house straight), hopefully next week will be better. Planning for Jacob’s birthday party is forthcoming, along with Timmy’s back-to-preschool activities just before Labor Day.

A Neat Idea: A Coffee Can Ice Cream Maker

20. August 2009 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

On Wednesday Timmy and I visited the Offutt AFB Community Center for a “Moms, Pops n Tots” (MPNT) Open House/End of Summer Party. Since Timmy was in preschool in the mornings last year, we never made it to the MPNT sessions. But this year maybe we’ll show up when we can, since he’ll be in afternoon preschool starting after Labor Day.

Timmy had a really nice time, there’s a big play room and an arts and crafts area. For yesterday’s party, there were a food spread and face painting.

What caught my attention was when one of the Community Center ladies (Ms. Villi, I think was her name, she’s wearing a red shirt in the picture below) brought out the supplies to make ice cream using a coffee can ice cream maker! I’d never seen this setup before. It was essentially two coffee cans: a 1 lb. can embedded inside a 3 lb. can. Fill the inner can with the ice cream ingredients. Then you surround the inner can with ice and rock salt inside the outer can. Seal up both cans well — so the salt doesn’t leak into the inner can, and so you don’t get melted ice all over the place. Timmy’s adding rock salt below.

From 2009 08 19 CommunityCenterParty_IceCreamMaker
From 2009 08 19 CommunityCenterParty_IceCreamMaker

Roll the can back and forth for 10-15 minutes. You have to periodically refill the ice and salt.

From 2009 08 19 CommunityCenterParty_IceCreamMaker

But when it was done, it was no-kidding ice cream! Made with pure ingredients! The kids loved this (although it was hard to keep the preschoolers rolling the cans for the full 15 minutes…we parents ended up taking over).

Considering I have all the supplies for this sitting around the house anyway (well, I’d have to work through a 3 lb. can of coffee, I have a recently-emptied 1 lb. coffee can already), I think this is worth a try!

From 2009 08 19 CommunityCenterParty_IceCreamMaker
From 2009 08 19 CommunityCenterParty_IceCreamMaker

"We Hold the World Ransom For….FOUR…BILLION…STUDS…."

28. July 2009 · Comments Off on "We Hold the World Ransom For….FOUR…BILLION…STUDS…." · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

We have a Nintendo Wii. Some of you know that already…Dave got it as a graduation gift last summer when he finished his PhD. But of course the kids have all-but-taken-over it with some of their games.

From 2008 06 13 DavePhDDefenseWii

As a family we have a great time playing games on the Wii. We have a modest selection of games, most of which are family-friendly…the grownups can have just as much fun with Boom Blox as with Rayman’s Raving Rabbids.

Before our move from NC to NE last summer, after Jacob had a such a great time playing on his friend Daniel’s Wii last spring, we let Jacob take his own money and choose a game. He chose Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Last summer we were outright worried about Jacob, he seemed obsessed with the game, and it wasn’t till he started school in August that his attention was diverted enough that we didn’t have to seek outside help. All he wanted to do was play Lego Star Wars, and he didn’t seem very happy with the world otherwise. I think it was his way of coping with the move. It wasn’t easy for him.

During the school year, the boys are only allowed to play Wii on weekends and holidays, and we’re usually pretty busy on weekends and holidays, so it wasn’t often at all. I think that helped Jacob come off this “I’m only happy when I play video games” phase.

Fast forward a year, and Jacob is still working on that same Lego Star Wars game! Unlike last summer, Jacob isn’t obsessed with it, but he still enjoys completing one or two tasks at a time that would eventually lead him to “finishing” the game: earning 160 gold bricks and all the cool bonuses. He doesn’t fuss anymore when we tell him he has to stop playing to do other things.

As of this morning, Jacob was at about 140 gold bricks, and was about 85% finished with the entire game. This has been about 300 hours worth of play time over the past year (the game tracks this for you, aren’t they kind?)

Timmy decided he wanted to start his own game. On occasion he’d play with Jacob, you can bring up a 2nd player to “help out” with tasks, and when Jacob was in a patient mood, he’d let Timmy participate. This week Timmy was delving into his own game, and he’s about 5% through with lots of help from the rest of the family. Timmy isn’t bad, he just misses some of the finer points.

Then the unthinkable happened this morning: Timmy started another game today and accidentally saved it over Jacob’s 85% worth of work! I was sitting right there next to him advising him NOT to save it in the game-save space that Jacob already occupied, and he did it anyway.

Jacob’s year of hard work is now gone. I checked online: once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Every single character: gone.
Every single spaceship: gone.
Every single minikit: gone.
Every single Power Brick: gone.
4 BILLION STUDS: gone.

(Did you realize that the video game tops out at 4 billion studs? You can’t get any more than that.)

All he had left to do were the Bounty Hunter missions and a couple of the bonuses.

While there’s part of me who is thinking “It’s only a game…”, to a 6 1/2 year old, this is going to be a HUGE deal! Jacob comes home from camp in an hour and I know there will be tears flowing, angry language and (if I’m not careful) punches flying. I’m dreading this like you wouldn’t believe —

I had called Dave in a panic, he and I discussed a punishment for Timmy — while it was indeed an accident, Timmy didn’t listen to Mommy when she was helping him. He’s been on a somewhat stubborn “I can do it myself” phase, and hopefully today he’s learned that sometimes he should listen to the grownups.

Timmy’s punishment: he won’t be playing Wii until Jacob has caught up. Jacob will not take anywhere near 300 hours to get back to where he was, thanks to cheat codes and completion guide websites that we can access to help us remember how to complete all the tasks. But it’ll probably still be several weeks.

If I had backed up the saved games, there might have been hope, but I honestly didn’t give thought to doing such a thing till now.

Lesson learned: for those of you with Nintendo Wiis, use that SD card slot on the console to SAVE YOUR WORK! You can back up your games. Just follow the instructions here, where this parent had a similar incident 1 1/2 years ago with Super Mario Galaxy.

If you’re wondering what that title means, just hit play here:

Wow — What They Say About Crocs is True!

24. June 2009 · 10 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Disclaimer: If you’re a blogosphere friend — who shall remain unnamed — who’s going to write and say “I told you so” about my boys in Crocs, you don’t need to say anything here. My boys will continue to wear Crocs, just not on day trips into big cities involving escalators! 🙂

Escalators really do eat Crocs.

And here’s our proof:


That’s Timmy’s right-foot NC State Croc. This was on the down escalator near the Blue/Orange line platform at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station in D.C. I’m standing at the bottom of the escalator looking up.

I’d heard about this before. Merely Google “Crocs Escalators” and you’ll see all sorts of stuff. I was aware of this before — I typically make a point for my kids to stand in the center of the escalator no matter what shoes they’re wearing. Even in regular shoes or sandals, there’s a risk of injury. I’m aware of that. It’s so rare that we’re on escalators, I didn’t give much thought to the boys NOT wearing their Crocs on our trip into Washington, D.C. just because of the escalators.

But on this particular escalator we were consistently getting shoved out of the way by folks wanting to walk up and down the escalator steps. So I had Timmy way over on our right to keep him out of the way.

Suddenly Timmy’s stepping back and our escalator was grinding to a halt. Timmy had yanked his foot out of the shoe, evidenced by the broken strap on the right side, and he seemed fine.

There were all these people on the escalator when it stopped. They merely walked down the now-stationary steps and continued towards the train platform.

I after quickly whisking Timmy out of the way and checking his feet — having him wiggle his toes — we decided to leave the shoe there and just get on the train. After we took our seats I had to count to ten a few times — I was pretty freaked at what a near-miss that was! Timmy was and still is fine. No tears, no nothing. He was pretty matter-of-fact about the whole thing…even about the loss of a shoe. This was at the end of our trip into the city, so it wasn’t hard for him to be carried from the train to the van for the ride home.

Are we going to sue the D.C. Metro? No. We chose to take the D.C. Metro, we chose to incur the risks that go with it.

Are we going to sue Crocs? No. Buying/wearing Crocs is our choice, and we choose to accept the risks that go with it.

Part of me wishes we could sue the people who saw what was going on and refused to acknowledge our existence, but there’s obviously nothing I could do about that. Dave tried to find someone to report the now-stopped escalator while I was checking Timmy, but he couldn’t find anyone to help out. He tried to pull out the shoe, to no avail.

Will my kids continue to wear Crocs? Most likely. I’ll definitely give more thought to the escalator-ness of our travels…for example, perhaps Crocs aren’t the best thing when we’re doing air travel, with the escalators in airports. But of course they’re all of ours’ shoes of choice for the beach, pool or boating.

In the meantime, since my boys will be spending time at the pool over the next couple days, Timmy is now the proud, happy owner of a new pair of Spiderman flip-flops!

I Swear, I’m Not the One Teaching This!!!

16. June 2009 · Comments Off on I Swear, I’m Not the One Teaching This!!! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Okay, perhaps I am teaching this by answering Jacob’s many questions — but I really truly had to think hard about whether 15 is 1/8 of 120. And notice the complete sentences about it — I think we might be able to introduce fractions soon…

Yesterday, during the thunderstorms, we went to the library around the corner from Grammy and Grampy Vollmer’s house. Both boys were chomping at the bit to play the Jump Start computer games in the kids’ room, but I asked each boy to read me a book first. Despite Jacob’s incredible math skills, and his reading skills, he still can’t sit still to save his life. Less than halfway through the book Jacob will say “I don’t feel like reading anymore”.

Timmy, on the other hand, has no problem sitting with me for an entire book — Timmy cares about how the stories end.

We’re dealing with some pretty yucky weather here on Long Island…so many of our outdoor plans are in a “wait and see” mode, including the beach (was supposed to be today, we’ll try tomorrow) and a Yankees/Nationals game on Thursday.

Bottom tooth gone!

19. May 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Jacob was fiddling with that tooth all during field day today. He
wanted to get onto Mrs. Brockhaus’ tooth chart and he’ll just make
it! Tomorrow is the last day of school and his last lost tooth was
last July, just before we left NC.

Can We Say "True Love?"

14. May 2009 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Timmy REALLY loves his little Webkinz puppy, named Thomas. This was Timmy’s first Webkinz, we got him at the end of the boys’ preschool year, about a year ago. Thomas has traveled with Timmy all over the place: Timmy sleeps with Thomas, takes him to child care on each day that he goes — for naptime, and Thomas has appeared in pictures throughout the past year….you can see the dates on the links below each picture.  I wish you could see how progressively grubby this dog is becoming…he’s been markered-upon, snotted-upon, thrown-up-on, and chocolated.

From 2008 05 25 ColonialWilliamsburgWithGrandmaGrandpaFox
From 2008 06 21 DriveToPA_Beilers_ThomasStrasburg
From 2008 06 21 DriveToPA_Beilers_ThomasStrasburg
From 2008 06 21 DriveToPA_Beilers_ThomasStrasburg
From 2008 08 12 JacobFirstDayOfKindergarten
From 2009 05 03 OmahaZoo

Last summer I let the boys decorate t-shirts for fun — Jacob did his own t-shirt, but Timmy dictated what he wanted on his shirt. “Mommy, I want a sand castle, and a happy sun and a crab family.” I did my best to accomodate him. Here’s a trip down memory lane with the t-shirts:

From 2008 06 15 HandmadeShirts
From 2008 06 15 HandmadeShirts
From 2008 06 15 HandmadeShirts

So (and here’s my point), I came across a stray green t-shirt when I was changing the boys’ clothes from winter to summer. I probably picked up the shirt in 2008 sometime, it’s kelly green and I probably planned to do something St. Patricks-ey, but I can’t remember. Timmy saw the plain shirt and asked if we could paint another picture, and I thought that would be fun.

This morning I set up things for Timmy to paint the shirt and once again he asked me if I could do the painting. He asked for a picture of him hugging his Thomas Webkinz. I couldn’t do that…but I attempted a picture of just Thomas. Then Timmy asked me to write “I Love Thomas” on the shirt. Here is the end result:

From 2009 05 13 Timmy Tshirt

I am NOT an artist at all, so this is super-corny, but Timmy thinks it’s great! The letters are actually a gold glitter paint, as it dried the opaque liquid gave way to just plain gold glitter. I think once the face dries I’ll fill it in with some of that gold paint like the body.

So there you have it — my baby LOVES his puppy dog and Mommy isn’t much of an artist.

What Have I Been Up To?

28. April 2009 · Comments Off on What Have I Been Up To? · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

Good question.

Right now, I’m enjoying Dancing With the Stars, although my enthusiasm is somewhat limited because I was away for the first 3-4 weeks. I couldn’t believe that Steve-O wasn’t eliminated the first week…I guess he was a better dancer than I gave him credit for…

I’m also back to a CD-burning spree. Not making new CDs, but rather going through my old college-era CDs and burning them to iTunes. With a few exceptions, the quality is doing well enough. This was something I started back in North Carolina about a year ago, but then got distracted for obvious reasons. I’m finally back and it’s like lightning on my new computer! I also managed to get my backup hard drive that’s still connected to my PC to backup the music 2x weekly.

Anyhow, I’m still getting the hang of things around here, starting with keeping up with all the activities the kids have: soccer, school field trips, dentist/doctor’s appointments, birthday parties, etc. Dave had a train show last week that I assisted with, and this coming weekend Dave is headed to Pennsylvania to enjoy a weekend of railfanning with some friends.

From 2009 04 20 JacobTimmySoccerUniforms

Here are the boys hamming it up in their soccer uniforms last week.

From 2009 04 23 Timmy_ChildCare_GiffordFarm

Timmy’s child care class went to a petting zoo and Timmy had a wonderful time!  I tagged along as a chaperone.

From 2009 04 25 DaveLayout_BurkeHS_TrainShow

Dave is on the far right in the maroon t-shirt. The “crowd” you see around his layout was typical during most of the show…he had at least 1 party there observing. Dave allowed some children to operate if it wasn’t too crowded (and if the child was well-behaved). Timmy spent quite a while operating on Saturday morning while I went with Jacob to the Apple Store up the street for a Mac User’s workshop.

I’m now being beckoned to help wash dishes, so I’ll close here. I wish I had a little more to talk about, maybe I’ll speak more about the spring cleaning I’m enduring right now, we’ll see.  I had these artificial nails put on last weekend for an Air Force formal event — I wore a DRESS! for the first time in 15 years…no formal AF uniform!  (Pictures are forthcoming).  Anyway, the nails made it pretty difficult to type.

*Update: I just trimmed down those artificial nails.  They’re acrylics, so I was nervous about taking nail clippers to them, for fear their might simply shatter, but it did well enough and now my nice nails are at a reasonable length.

Deployment Reflections

23. April 2009 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

I’ve been mulling this one for a while…

I’ve been home about 11 days now.  For the most part, things have been fine.  I’ve gotten back into the routine…somewhat.  I have to admit, having the new Macbook has been more of a distractor than anything else in terms of keeping to the housework, the kids and a couple of loose ends related to my deployment.

I figured I’d write about some various things on my mind these past couple weeks.  Not everyone who I mention necessarily reads this blog, but perhaps one day if someone Googles a person’s name, this post will come up.

First off, I owe a thank you to all of the folks who helped me prepare for this deployment.  This is a varied listing, from MSgts Lehman and Beaupre, who made phone calls and arranged for a lot of my training to be done from Offutt, to MSgt Curtis at Air Force Weather Agency, who made my local arrangements for weapons, chemical/biological warfare training, and answered my questions about medical outprocessing.  These senior non-commissioned officers made magic happen so that I could leave for the deployment from home instead of from South Carolina.  They even arranged it so I could get some drill pay to compensate me for the time spent just doing online training — about 40 hours worth!  I also need to thank the Veeneman and Anderson families, who provided hours of Timmy babysitting when there wasn’t space in the Offutt Child Development Center.

Thanks to everyone who sent me e-mails and care packages while I was gone.  This includes the Goldman, Warlick, Buckler, Vollmer (both the Nebraska and New York Vollmers), Fox, and Gifford families.  You listened to my requests for St. Patrick’s Day goodies, 100-Calorie Chessmen, toilet paper,  and single-serve sugar-free drink mix packets.

Thanks also to those who made my deployment experience outstanding while on shift…this could never be done without great people who continued to find a sense a humor, kept things “real” and kept their chins up even when things weren’t going hunkey-dorey.  There’s no way I’m going to include all the names, but you know who you are.  I learned so much about leadership, officership and military professionalism in general.  I will carry those lessons for the rest of my military career.

To the members of the weather team with whom I had the honor of serving: Maj Matt Hauke, Lt Joey Clevenger, AGC Angel Rossy, MSgt Chris Canarina and SSgt Mike Main.  To Lt Clevenger and SSgt Main in particular, they were my night shift compadres and I don’t know how many times they kept me in line — their seasoned, experienced work in CENTCOM helped keep me looking good!  Thanks!

To my deployment buddies — those who emerged from my crazy active duty past to cross paths with me halfway around the world: Maj Rose Lathrop, Maj Kasi Traweek and Capt Paul Bryan.  Thanks for taking time out of your schedules so we can get together for Friday coffees and Saturday pizza/gyro lunches.  I was reminded of “Sex and the City” where the gals got together every weekend for lunch at a diner and would talk about anything and everything — Paul, I know you’re not a gal, but you could gossip/chat/emote as well as the rest of us!  Rose and Kasi, congratulations on your engagements, and Paul, congratulations on your new baby — I owe you a blanket, it’s coming this week, I promise!

I owe a special “thank you” to Maj Paul Gifford — yes, that same Paul you’ve heard me talk about for quite some time.  He’s the one who stepped up with me to divide our 179-day deployment in half.  For this to work, we both had to be medically, physically, and duty qualified.  We were putting an incredible amount of trust in each other and I thank Paul for coming through on his end of the bargain…

Last, but certainly not least, the biggest thank you of all goes to my awesome family:

Dave: if you remember, I got the “invitation” for this trip the same week you were feverishly making edits to your dissertation for that last Dr. Lackmann signature!  This past July.  On top of finishing your dissertation and getting the family ready to move, you cleared your mind enough to give me the chance to press forward with preparing for my trip.  I know you weren’t jumping up and down saying “Please go, Patricia!”, but you helped me work out the timeline, helped with childcare during preparations and — most of all — played SINGLE DAD for 4 months during the worst winter you’d ever experienced.  I wondered if you had a catastrophe-free week: Howie’s ACL injury, all 3 of you with colds, flooded basement, van repairs. Getting to talk, via phone, webcam or even IM chat with you was the highlight of my time over there…thank you!

Jacob and Timmy: to my babies!  You two are amazing — Jacob, you continued to thrive in school and trusted that I would be home in “100 days”.  Timmy, I can’t believe how much you’ve grown since I left — you’re now READING and talking so well!  I loved talking and web-chatting with you while I was away, hearing your stories always put such a smile on my face.  Thank you for all the letters and artwork, too.  Jacob, your Groundhog decorated our weather section for about a month, while we celebrated a Groundhog’s Day…over…and over…and over.

While I was deployed, I found out there are some limited job opportunities here at Offutt, so I’ll be transferring units later this summer.  I love my unit at Shaw, but it’s time to move on and minimize these commutes.

I don’t plan to volunteer for another deployment.  If I get sent over, I’ll serve honorably…but it does lead me to a new question: “What now?”  A couple options have crossed my mind — at the forefront is looking into becoming a math teacher.  There’s a program called “Troops to Teachers” that is supposed to offer some flexibility for getting teacher certifications.

In closing, I was so glad I was able to be part of the Global War on Terror.  I was in grad school on 9/11 and I remember feeling like the most useless member of our military — I remember trying to donate blood and being told that the Red Cross wouldn’t even take my blood because I had spent time along the Korean DMZ.   To be able to see how we’re running our war, and seeing how incredibly tough it is to forecast the weather for Iraq and Afghanistan, was an experience I’ll never forget.

This Week with David Brinkley…I mean, with Major Mom

04. March 2009 · Comments Off on This Week with David Brinkley…I mean, with Major Mom · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

I’ve laid low from the web lately. Partly on purpose, partly because the WiFi hotspot has been acting strangely. So here’s a summary of what I’ve been up to this week (omitting job-related stuff, obviously):

First off, a friend from when we were stationed in FL came over from a nearby base for a visit. She came over two Fridays in a row — Friday being her day off. The first time she came was to see a couple of us, and by her next visit, 5-6 other people had caught wind of her first visit and convinced her to spend the entire day on our base, catching all of us as we were migrating through our various shift schedules. Yes, she’s that popular 🙂

Her name is Kasi and we had a great time together in Florida. Here is a picture of the two of us in front of the dining hall, one of the few places we’re allowed to be photographed:

From 2009 02 27 Kasi_Patricia_AUAB

Just like how I have to wear civilian clothing when I go off base, she had to also for her visit over to here. Kasi’s been training for numerous triathalons when she gets home to the Washington, D.C. area this summer and her fit lifestyle and new boyfriend have been doing her very well!

On Monday, I got to take another trip off base, this time with my colleague on the weather night shift, Mike, and the night shift JAG, Brad. The point of the trip was to give Mike, our relative newcomer, a windshield tour of the city. Unfortunately, we had another pesky duststorm and we were a little limited. We went to the Villagio Mall again, and did some driving around downtown, and had lunch at a lovely hole-in-the-wall diner-type joint in the ‘burbs.

Meet Brad. It turns out he’s also stationed at Offutt and lives in a neighborhood very close to ours. We arrived the same week and I really enjoy talking to him — he’s one of the coolest JAGs I’ve ever met! I apologize for the picture of him stuffing his face, but I more want to point out the mixed dips and flatbread we had with lunch. This was SO GOOD!

From 2009 03 02 Doha_BradMike

And here I am enjoying it too, but you couldn’t see the mixed dips as well:

From 2009 03 02 Doha_BradMike

We also enjoyed a “mixed meat” grill, which was an assortment of lamb, beef and chicken kabobs, served with vegetables and more flatbreads, as well as chicken “shwarmas”, which are like chicken lettuce wraps. When all was said and done, it came to about $8 per person for an incredible amount of food!

I had some sleep issues this past week. In part from my off-base trip, but also in general, some temperature changes and some back problems posed challenges. For about 5 days straight, I was getting 4-5 hours of sleep per night. It used to be just once a week or so…such as after a trip off base and we’d get back sorta late. But after 5 days of it, I was a zombie by Monday night’s shift and I had a pretty tough time staying focused while on shift.

Thankfully, my sleep on Tuesday was wonderful, and I was able to get 8-9 hours of rest, and was so happy to see my boys on the webcam early Wednesday morning.

For the first time, Timmy cried while on the webcam and it nearly snapped my heart in two. He said the reason he was upset was because Daddy and I kept talking and he wanted to tell me something, but usually he can use his words to express himself that way, so the tears were definitely building up for some time.

So many other folks here with young children have told me about their kids having tearful episodes on the webcam right away, so I was considering myself pretty fortunate…they were right, it’s pretty emotional when it happens. Timmy was pretty strong, though, he took himself off the camera for 2-3 minutes, and then he came back to us with a big smile on his face, and he told me about his new friend at child care. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand his new friend’s name that well, it sounds foreign, like “Najoon”, but I did understand when he said his new friend’s name’s first letter is “N” and the second letter is “J”. So maybe it was “Njune?”

Timmy also told me I’d been gone 56 days. According to the count they’re doing, I’ll be gone 44 more days, but I think it’ll be more like 39 if I can help it. I won’t have any exact information until April, but based on what I’m seeing with the inbound/outbound flight schedules, I’m encouraged that I’ll be away for less than 100 days…

The temperatures are on the rise here. We got up to 93 last Saturday before noon (Feb. 28th), but then a duststorm came through and plummeted the temperature a whopping 12 degrees! But with the wind it made quite the difference. We’re still in a cool spell, but I think by this weekend it’ll be consistently in the 90s every afternoon. Unlike Iraq and Saudi Arabia’s hot, dry weather, we’re close enough to the Persian Gulf that we can get a bit of humidity here, too. I see my uniforms needing to be washed a lot more often, I was soaked in sweat just walking from work to my dorm at 8:30am on Saturday.

This upcoming week brings several diversions that definitely helps with the routine around here. Tomorrow I get to move into Rose’s dorm room while she gets a 2 week vacation. Rose is assigned here for a year, so it’s one of the benefits of commiting oneself for that long. Another perk is that her dorm is more like a suite hotel-type accomodation. I’ll take some pictures when I move in…I’m very much looking forward to a semi-private bathroom and kitchenette, a dinette set, a small easy chair in the room, and limited in-room Internet access. It’s government Internet, which blocks many sites, such as my blog, but I’ll be able to get into e-mail much easier.

Also, we have a number of visitors coming in from the states this week to visit with the weather teams stationed in the Middle East. As one of the few token reservists here, I’ve sought some advice from my commander and Senior NCOs as to what I should/shouldn’t discuss in terms of reservist issues. To be honest, we don’t have much — we’re an easy bunch, but I hope I get a chance to voice our concerns.

Such diversions to the schedule significantly help my attitude here. This past week was my toughest yet in terms of keeping my spirits up. I started eating poorly (no veggies or fruit, too much dessert), wasn’t motivated to exercise, and was frustrated from the lack of sleep. Those three factors together were toxic to my attitudes about everything else. I was decidedly crankier and folks started to notice. I think the sleep and eating have been improved, and today I ran 5 miles and did some bicep/chest weight training. I feel great right now!

Time for post-workout shower and lunch! Taco bar at the dining hall — I make myself a Moe’s style burrito!

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