Hubby made the News!

The hubby is off for 3 weeks of training, and I got to see on the news what part of his training pertained to.  Well he had already told me he was taking a Pashto language class, but the Toddler and I both still thought it was pretty cool to see Daddy on TV! (the soldier on the right is pretty popular in our house)

If you are interested here is the link to the story:
http://www.krtv.com/news/afghan-language-lessons-for-montana-national-guard-soldiers/#!prettyPhoto[gallery]/0/

Mailday

In the mail today I (well my 2 1/2 year old son) received a survey from the Hospital:

Dear (Toddler)

Our mission at (Local Hospital) is to provide this community with excellent, compassionate health care in an atmosphere that respects the uniqueness of each of our patients and their loved ones.  To accomplish this consistently, we need to know what went well with your care and what we can do better. We depend on our patients and their families to keep us informed.  By sharing your thoughts and feelings about your health care experience, you can help continuously improve our care and make the experience better for others.  You can also help us recognize any caregivers and departments who made your experience special.

Please take a few minutes to complete the enclosed patient satisfaction survey and return it in the postage-paid envelope.  We welcome written comments, and your response will be kept confidential unless you request that we share your feedback with staff.

Thank you and please accept my best wishes for your good health.
Sincerely,
(stamped signature)
President & CEO

So I think I am going to let the Toddler have at his survey with crayons and possibly finger paints.  That should effectively let him express himself.  Though I don't know how much useful information they will gleam from his rendition of 'circles' and 'outer space', the President himself apparently felt Toddler had the necessary information.

**I will post a picture, when the Toddler has finished his masterpiece survey.**

Yellow Ribbon

I spent a long (in every sense of the word) weekend in Billings for my 1st Pre-Deployment Yellow Ribbon Workshop.  Much of it made me feel like livestock being prodded around and moved from pen to pen without much rhyme or reason.  Some of the breakout sessions I was disappointed in, some I was surprised by.  All in all I gathered much more information than I realized I wanted needed to know.

I won't say much about the topics I actually was interested in, and cared about. As they pertained to more specific details of the Deployment. Like dates and what a possible typical day for the Hubby will be like.  Thank you OPSEC for making me paranoid.

I also spent the weekend listening to acronyms, and though I held back, I did  feel compelled to yell out random letters from the alphabet and see how they like to be left out on code talk. But alas, my random letters would probably mean something and it would defeat the purpose.  So I did what I always do when I am with the Hubby and other soldiers....lean in and say "What does fill in the blank mean?"  After I have done this about 3 times per sentence for a couple minutes, they start to get the hint and talk in English...for a little while.

One of the best things about the weekend is that one of the Hubby's best friends was there. He is deploying with a different unit, but missed his Yellow Ribbon due to training and had to make it up.  I really wish they were going together, I would feel much better knowing they had each others back.  Wives's don't get to have their way with everything though, and I was happy they got to hang out. It had been too long.  In the Hubby and my early dating days this particular buddy was described by my future husband as "attached to his hip"....lol.

To be completely honest I actually think I owe my marriage to him.  If he hadn't approved of me, I don't know how things would have ended up.  He saw my ring before I did, and had dates worked out better, he would have been the best man in our wedding.  So naturally I spent some of my free time quizzing him down about what he likes, because he is on my care package mailing list also.

Another cool thing to come from the Yellow Ribbon dealio.  All the children that were there and attended the provided daycare made a big flag with their handprints.

A Big, Big flag!  With white handprints for the stars and the red stripes made by assorted sized handprints.  The kids walked it in (sans the napping toddlers and babies) and presented it to the Captain with a request for him to take it overseas, and to bring it back when the deployment is over. He promised to display it with pride and they folded it up all official like. It was one of the moments that actually got to me.  I had quite a few walls up trying to block out emotion throughout the weekend.

I wish I had my camera and could have gotten a picture, it really was an awesome flag.

I wish I would have brought my camera along period, and gotten pictures of anything.

Ever Wonder Why?

1) You all know the poem we were taught as children to remember how many days each month has?

30 days has September, April, June, and November all the rest have
31 (January, March, May, July, August, October, December)
save for February which has 28
and 29 on leap year.

Here is my beef.  Why the heck doesn't February borrow a day from two months that have 31? Then more months would have 30 days, and every 4 years February would have 31 days and we would be dealing with less variables.

Here is what I propose:

J 31
F 30 ( 31 during Leap Year)
M 30 (March is madness, it can spare a day)
~~~~~
A 30
M 31
J 30
~~~~
J 30 (take a day off...makes my birthday seem sooner!)
A 31
S 30
~~~~
O 31
N 30
D 31

*** Also notice how the number of days in each season are more uniform***

2)  What is up with the letter 'C'?  It brings nothing unique to the alphabet.  Seriously 'K' and 'S' have it covered.  And don't give me that, "combine 'C' + 'H' spiel, 'K' is totally up to taking on that duty. Afterall, 'S' does it just fine. Really it makes more sense for 'K' to do the same.

Here is what I propose, do away with 'C' altogether:


A B D E F / G H I J K / L M N O P / Q R S T U / V W X Y Z

25 letters of the alphabet, easily divided by 5, which I think splits things up quite nicely. Tidy and even for pre-school teachers to introduce the letters in groups.

In order for these changes to really have a shot though...we need a new 'Days of the Month Poem' and new "Alphabet Song Tune"

Like shouting out each group of 5 letters like a cheer!

A--B--D-E-F ! (double time on the last 3 in the group)
G--H--I-J-K !
L--M--N-O-P !
Q--R--S-T-U !
V--W--X-Y-Z !
And then ending the whole shebang with "GOOOO ALPHABET! YAAY!"

(I'll give you a minute to try it out yourself, I know you want to)

AND

Thirty Days Hath February, March, April, June, July, September, and November.  All the rest have Thirty-One; even February when its Leap Year. The End.

Catchy, No?

So remember how you vote in 2012, we can change the WORLD...mwahhahaha. Oh Yeah, and I hate Daylight Savings Time, so lets do away with that too.

Hack, Hack, Hacking on Heaven's Door

Okay, I may be prone to exaggeration. (Though not about the hacking, there is plenty of that going on) Our whole house is sick and crabby.  The Toddler has a double ear infection and they gave him a Z-Pack and Cough Syrup with Codeine in it!  Really Codeine for a two year old?  My Doctor did tell me that we parents should feel free to take a teaspoon of it also if our coughs get worse.

In other news, the toddler went to bed early and so far is sleeping quite well.

The Big D was deemed healthy, apparently his reason for crabbiness is getting 6 teeth this week.  Which I kinda figured, but she wasn't worried about his cough and just thought there was a lot of pressure from the new toof-ers.  He is in the 75% for noggin size and height, and 30% for weight.  He is 20 pounds of chunky monkey and 29 inches tall.  He just went through a growth spurt so his weight will likely catch up soon, although I would have  never known it would need to catch up.  Seriously the little fella has more rolls than I can count.


My dear sweet sister let me drop the kids off at her office while I went to my chiropractor appointment.  Which went very well, likely because I didn't have 2 crying babies along.  Then we went home, got the prescriptions filled and drugged up.


Hubby stayed at the farm for calving, and I didn't have the patience to wait in the waiting room with two crying kids long enough for an opening in the walk-in-clinic for myself, so I am hoping over the counter meds can cure whats ailing me.   (I did try out the recommended adult dose of the Rx Strength Cough Syrup...and now I also feel like sleeping.)



Top 10 Things that Suck about being sick
1) You have no energy and don't feel like doing anything = You don't do anything and the house falls to shambles.

2) You can only imagine what menopause will be like, You can't decide if you are freezing or cooking.  The family doesn't seem impressed when you touch the thermostat.

3) Hubby doesn't take the Toddler with him to do chores = less rest and more sick crabby people.  It's really quite amazing the Hubby comes home at night.

4) You have a glorious excuse to pull the sympathy card to get whatever you want....but you can't enjoy any of the fruits of aforementioned card because you are miserable sick.

5) If you do think you may enjoy the results of the sympathy card, your kidlets are much better at it than you so you will defer to fulfilling their whims...and somehow  they do manage to enjoy it.

6) Who really wants to use a sick day off work, by suffering and actually being sick?

7) Being sick throws off your entire schedule, so the effects last longer than the disease.

8) Nothing ruins the fun game of kissy face with the kidlets more than everyone having runny & snotty noses.  You suddenly regret teaching them any game that requires your being in close proximity.

9) If you do get a chance to nap, there is a greater than 79% chance the phone will ring...and 100% chance said phone ringing will wake up any napping kidlets in the vicinity. (Even though typically they could sleep through a hail storm on a tin roof)

10) You start putting your symptoms in WebMD and discover you only have days, possibly hours to live. (It's been nice knowing you.  In Lieu of flowers please send wine...if I do kick the bucket I have always been fascinated with the idea of wakes and would like you all to throw me one)

Seriously I can't get over the fact my 2 year old is on codeine!

What to do, what to do....

With the Hubby's deployment this Spring getting closer and closer, little projects that we have been meaning to do since moving into our house keep popping into my mind.

Like:

• Installing our smoke & carbon monoxide alarms (still in the protective hard plastic just like they were when we unwrapped them...Christmas 2010)

• Installing the ceiling fan the Hubby and I picked up the 1st week after we closed on our house. (April 2010)

• Doing something with our little bathroom.  Pretty sure the wall is rotting away behind the tub/shower.  The plastic blue w/coordinating maroon tiles need to go!  In my dream world so would the blue sink, stool, and tub.  Maybe we could take down the tile, put up new sheetrock, a new stool and would it be hard to paint the tub?....Okay before I get carried away, I may need to have my BIL who is the Assistant Manager of Pro-Build and King of DIY House Remodels come take a look and give me some advice.

• Okay back to the Bathroom, I really want to be able to wash my hands with warm water without the use of a wrench. The hot water knob fell off and the bolt is stripped. To do list item...To-DONE! Thanks honey :)

• Install new curtain rods and window treatments. Okay maybe not really pressing due to the deployment...but so bugging me lately.

• Make a budget for the year.  I want to focus on save $, save$, save $.  To do list item...To-DONE! 

• Make sure I have grass seed and fertilizer on hand to get a lawn going. (I have the grass seed...now the motivation)

• Spring Tree Planting Party!  We need to plant some fast growing shade trees, as the hubby cut down all our mature trees when we had to dig out the basement to stop the flooding.  Also why we need a lawn again.

• I need to buff up so I can start the lawn mower...yes its embarrassing but I am really not strong enough.  Pull-starts just aren't my thing....maybe I could hire a neighborhood teeny bopper to do it for me?

• I would love to have a raised garden, that will need to be built...and I will need to miraculously get over being the black thumb of death to all things meant to be green and leafy.

• Shooting lessons for the handgun the Hubby bought me for an early Christmas present.  I want to get a concealed weapon permit, but although I'm good with a rifle, I am just not comfortable with a pistol yet. And lets face it, I would look pretty silly walking around with the kidlets AND a rifle strapped on.  Bet no one would want to mug us though....hmmm

• Insulate the garage and get shelving up.  Okay FIRST...I really need to finish unpacking and clean the garage but I am convinced that the shelving would help with that. (We moved into our house July-August 2010, should I be embarrassed I haven't actually finished unpacking?) It would also help make our little home gym corner more inviting.  Hmmm...maybe I could mount my old TV over the elliptical?

• I also would like to replace the shiny brass fan above our dining room table with a chandelier...but the hubby says no.  So I'm wondering, can you spray paint the gaudy dated shiny brass finish? 

For some reason, and I know it is dumb, so bear with me I just want our home to be well....homey.  I want everything to be perfect, our check list of to dos...to-done. I want everything finally unpacked and put away.  I want every room decorated and organized.  I want my husband to know that everything is in order, and that when he comes home he can walk through the door and feel 'at ease'.

We will still have projects to do, stuff we can do together.  That is just part of making a house a home.  I really want all the little and mainly cosmetic stuff done.  I think it will make me feel better, which hopefully in turn makes him feel better. I realize most of the list I can do by myself, for some reason it just seems important to have it done together.

Be honest now....have I lost it?

Great Job Mommy

Parenthood brings many words out of your mouth that are nearly impossible to make up or imagine.  Today I stayed home with both boys because the toddler was sick.

Throughout the day so many odd phrases and advice came out of my mouth.

• No! No! No!  Do not hit your brother on the head with a muffin!

• Sharing toys means he gets to play with toys too...He gets to hold the toy...He can play with the toy in his own way, he doesn't have to do it the same way you do....Just find a different toy please.

• INC, like 'ink'....say it with me, Monsters Inc not Monsters 'Drink'

• Stop luring your brother into rooms and locking him in.



My homegrown cheerleader

 and out of the toddler's mouth.

Toddler: I farted in my mouth!

Me: You mean you burped

Toddler: I fart and burp in my mouth

After I refilled his sippy with water; while unloading the dishwasher; turning on the TV; reading books; handing him a dropped toy; vacuuming; high fives & knuckles; getting a bottle for little brother I received the phrases of the day:
"Great Job Mommy!"; "Yay Mommy!"; "All Better!"; "Oooh Nice Job!" It is nice to be appreciated :) Makes me wonder though, he had to try reeeaaally hard to find something to be proud of mommy for.  At least we have the little things.

Mr. Grunt & Growl (why oh why couldn't this picture have been taken after I dusted?)

Toddler: hold on baby (finger up in the air)

Baby: grunting and growling while thumping rubber duck off the ground

Toddler: Mommy, tell baby brother no

Me: Brother is fine honey

Toddler: Not fine mommy, tell baby no no

Baby: demon possessed growling and thumping rubber duck off the ground

Toddler: serious look on face...Baby Mommy say No!

***The toddler thinks its up to him to decide the proper technique to be used when playing with toys.  He is having a hard time with his brother not doing things exactly how he thinks they should be done.
We have also been working on explaining that Mommy and Daddy are the only ones who can say no.  It pains the Toddler to not be able to boss his brother around, but he seems to think he found a loop hole today.***



The Toddler feeding his toys (why yes, that is the aforementioned rubber ducky...good eye)