Life update :)

Well, there is so much to update about..I'm sure I'll forget something but here goes!

Things have been going pretty smoothly so far, just a few bumps and bends in the road but nothing major. The girls and I have been doing okay, I'm still waiting for my inevitable break down to take place. I've been told that every wife has a breakdown at some point, and I have yet to have mine, hopefully it doesn't happen! Tim has been gone 12 weeks and 3 days, or 87 days. I'll be relieved when we finally hit that 100 day mark, come on..it's 100 days closer to him being home!

Speaking of Tim, we've been having some health issues with him. A couple weeks ago he went to the clinic and was told that he suffered a SLAP tear in his shoulder and that he would need to come back to see the doctor. When he finally went back to see the doctor, a week later, the doctor told him that rather than a SLAP tear, he had a torn rotator cuff. Lovely! He is scheduled to go back to see the specialist on May 9th to see what they are going to do. They are hoping that it heals on its own, but with how bad it constantly hurts him..I see a surgery in his future. The possibilities are to send him home for his surgery, recovery and rehab or to throw his arm in a sling and wait til he comes home from deployment for surgery. We're torn on what we would wish for, of course we want him home..but he wants to stay and serve his country. I can't wait til I can see it for myself when he comes home on R&R this summer, whenever that may be.

Speaking of doctor's and what they think, tomorrow I go back to the cardiologist for my echo. I will also be getting my heart monitor in the mail, which I am dreading having to wear. They have prescribed me the monitor for 30 days, but if it records enough data on my symptoms prior to the end of the 30 days, my doctor may allow me to stop wearing it. So bring on the coffee and exercise!

School is almost out, I couldn't tell you how many weeks/assignments are left, I haven't checked! I am thrilled to be so close to summer and relaxation. It stinks when I have to chose between cleaning the house and staying caught up on homework, or taking the girls to the park or taking the time to get in the kitchen and cook a good meal. This whole single mom and student thing is tough stuff! I rarely catch a quiet moment..and when I do..I want to enjoy it! I am so looking forward to relaxing with my girls this summer without homework constantly being on the brain! I had planned on taking two classes this summer but with Tim coming home somewhere in there..its not worth it. I want to enjoy my husband and kids!!!

Mackenzie is almost five, can you believe it!? Yeah, me either! I am once again planning her birthday party on my own, thanks Army, and I absolutely hate it. Parties and holidays aren't my thing. Ask my husband how many birthday/Christmas/anniversary/valentine's gifts I have bought him in our seven years...he can probably list the items on one hand. It's just not something I do. I don't see the need in showing someone appreciate/love through tangible items, and I most definitely don't want people to do it for me. I would rather be able to spend the day with them and show them love..not have to go out buy a cake, presents, food, decorations. So planning birthday parties is a hard thing for me to do, but I do it for her because the look of happiness that will be on her face.

I know I haven't put anything down about Madison, which I feel guilty about..but no news is good news with Madison. Nothing crazy or drastic to update about with her, thank goodness!!!

Admitting my weaknesses...

Well, I'm finally doing it... I'm getting a math tutor.

Don't make me climb through this computer and beat you down, stop laughing or i'll kill you.

I suck at math..like as in, really suck. Ask me what 6*8 is...yeah..let me get my calculator real quick.

I had been doing amazing on my math assignments, til this week. I have five assignments a week and here it is, Thursday, and I have only been able to complete 1.5. ARGH! So, I'm breaking down and getting a tutor. Hopefully she is able to flip some switches in my brain, help me understand. Then again, I don't expect her to be a magician.

All I have to do is get through this semester and then next semester will be much easier. Next semester i'll be taking English Comp 1, US American History and Algebra. Yeah, I know..another math class. Shoot me. But at least it won't be a fast track class. It also will help that i'll be taking the two other classes, that I love.

Say a prayer for me, that God make me a genius..I'd appreciate it.

God Bless America...and berries.

Man oh man, I'm horrible at updating this thing now.

Life is pretty busy lately with everything going on. Tim has been in training for his MOS and is working long days. He loves every minute of it and is actually doing better than most of the upper ranking soldiers in his class. They keep asking him if he's had the course before, which he hasn't. He leaves for field training on Sept 20th and then will be in the field come October 22nd, for a month. The military life isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, or maybe we haven't been in long enough. Besides the deployment factor, it's pretty normal. He works his job 9-4 with PT early every morning and he is off every Thursday by 1430 (2:30).

Can I just say again how much I LOVEEEE hearing all the songs they play over the loud speaker and how much I love hearing the planes and helicopters fly over my house? Cause I do, I love it! Yesterday, my walls were shaken twice by C-130s flying so low that I thought they may land in my drive way. A couple weeks ago I kept getting on to the girls, who were playing up stairs, to stop kicking my walls. Mackenzie ended up being right behind me and said 'mom, that's not us...that's the soldiers'. She was right..they must of been doing some training in the field because I could hear the 'bombs' going off. Quite crazy.

So I am in a book club, I know I know..someone alert the media. One of my friends up here, Jennifer, started a book club and a group of us wives meet together on Sunday's and have our book club meetings. Now before you laugh at us..we spend about 20 minutes discussing books then the next couple hours just talking. All of our husbands will be deploying together..so when they do so..we plan on also having weekly drinking nights and such ;) I love these girls, they are amazing and have made this so much easier.

So something in me must have clicked, I feel all wifely. Everyone who knows me, knows that I don't cook. I just don't do it, I don't like it. This works in my house. I raise the children, do the laundry, clean the house and all that jazz..Tim works and cooks. Oh he also mows the yard and takes out the trash and kills bugs. That's what men are for, right? Anyway..I've started cooking. Nothing fancy, I don't want to burn the house down just yet, but it's progress. Cooking from scratch get's expensive though..

My college classes are going well, thanks to my life saver. I was having some difficulty with my Macroeconomics class til I called my best friend, Ryka, who saved the day. I sat infront of the computer screen for a week straight, feeling like I was reading another language..and after sitting down with her..it all makes sense now. When I try it by myself, I just can't turn my brain on but when she explains it, a light switch just turns on. Ryka, you should become a teacher..seriously. I'm averaging a B so far, but hey, it's passing! Plus, everyone thinks I'm crazy for taking Macro instead of Micro or plain old Economics..but hey, if I pass this..I can definitely pass those.

Last week we were hit with an ass load of rain, like I mean TONS. That damn hurricane pushed up this massive wall of rain and it just poured for two days straight. I'm not sure how much we got here at Hood, but home in Round Rock (an hour South of us) they had 14 inches. The two roads leading to our community were completely flooded because some genius thought it'd be a bright idea to make the only entrances, ones that dipped low over a creek. So needless to say they were flooded and when the water finally went down, huge tree branches were on the road. I even had flooding come up into the front of my house. Thank goodness downstairs doesn't have carpet!


So Duke will be 12 weeks tomorrow and this dog has exploded. Last week he got ahold of one of Charlie's flea pills and suffered an overdose which resulted in us having to shell out $70 to make sure he wasn't going to die or have organ failure. I had given Charlie his medication, which was for an 80-120lb dog and Charlie spit it out and before I grabbed it, Duke had swallowed it. Duke weighs less than 20lbs. Within 20 minutes he was vomiting everywhere and refused to stand. Pretty scary stuff. Anyway, he has doubled his size and we're starting to believe he may be that 100lb German Shep we were expecting when we bought him. His feet are huge and his ears are too. I'll be happy when he is out of the puppy stage..we've seen a few people in the neighborhood eye balling him through the fence when they didn't realize we could see them. He now goes everywhere with us and won't be outside at night. He's such a good dog, can't risk someone trying to make him their own.

Oh, I also got my first tattoo..

Oh and one more thing..God Bless America...and apparently berries too.

I keep putting this off

I keep putting off writing this blog update, because I'm lazy.

Everything is FINALLY unpacked in our house and it feels like home. The only thing we have left to do is put up curtains in our bedroom and our living room. To me, a home doesn't feel like a home until those generic white blinds are covered, plus it adds life and color to a room. Madison's room is complete and all that is left for Mackenzie's room is her letters over her bed. Tim went out and bought a new tv for the living room, it's huge. It's a 50 inch flat screen LED-LCD and I love it. Next month I'm going to buy a new washer and dryer, a lawn mower and weed-eater, that's all we lack for the house.

Our life up here is a nice one. Our street is quiet and we don't have nosy neighbors or anyone who speeds down the roads or plays their music loud. If you walk outside after 9pm, it's silent. It's nice that all of the neighbors have kids so they understand and aren't loud or obnoxious around bedtime.

Today was Mackenzie's first day of school, I'm anxious to pick her up at 3:15 and ask her how it was. The school is half a mile from our house so I'm able to walk her to and from it every day. Kindergarten and Pre-K have their own hallway and entrance so they don't have to mingle with the big kids, which I like. This morning there was someone waiting at the door and the parents told their children goodbye and the staff would personally escort each child to their classroom. Mackenzie told us bye and gave us kisses and ran through the doors, she was so excited. I saw a few moms crying, but I'm definitely not that type. I can't feel upset or sad when she is so excited and eager to go.

Speaking of school, I'm officially a college student, again. I dropped out of college back in 2005 when I was pregnant with Mackenzie and I'm finally going back. I am taking online classes through Temple College, working on my associates. They always told us back in H.S, just go to college and you'll figure out what you want to do when you're there. Well, I hate taking classes if I won't need them so I have waited til I knew what I wanted to do. I've decided I'm interested in being a History teacher, so that's what I'm pursuing. I'll be able to have my summer and winter breaks with my children and won't have to work 12 months a year, my kinda job! Plus, I love History. My game plan is to take three classes a semester and two classes in the summer, in the beginning and then eventually go to four classes a semester. This will have me out of school with my Bachelor's when Tim is leaving the Army. I'll be able to have my job while he finishes his degree in Intelligence Operations (he already has 3/4 of it) and then we will both have our careers.

Everyone told us we did this backwards, having children, getting married and then school. To me, we did this the best way. When I'm forty, I'll have my degree and my job, but i'll be able to relax while my two girls (20 & 18) are in college! The ones who did it the 'right' way will be 40 with their careers and college educations with children still living under their roofs! See...I did it the right way, I'll be sipping margaritas on the beach ;)  ::this is how I justify it, haha, totally kidding of course!!::


On a different note, Tim is deploying. We don't know specific dates but it will be after Christmas but before the end of February. He has a two week field training coming up and then he'll be gone for a month starting at the end of October. We know where he will be going but we don't know how long he'll be gone for. Could be 6 months,12 months or 18 months..we're hoping for 6 months, but expecting 18.  With the Military, you hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I'm thankful he'll be here for Christmas but bummed that he'll be gone for our 5 year wedding anniversary. Every five years we plan on renewing our vows in some weird way. Five years was suppose to be married by Elvis in Vegas..guess we'll put that off til our 6 year ;) Such is life in the Army.

Well I know there is more to write about..but frankly, i'm too tired to keep writing..so The End.

Oh, an update on Duke. He is now 9 weeks old. He rarely has accidents in the house and his bark sounds more like a cat meowing than any type of noise that should come out of a dog..we love him.

The unknown is overwhelming.

School at ACC here in the Round Rock/Austin area.

OR

School at Temple College in Taylor.

I am all ready to go to school, applied for my FAFSA and I'm applying at schools tomorrow with the help of my best friend. Yes, it should be easy but I prefer for someone to be there holding my hand walking me through those big scary steps that I have yet to take.

But which school do I chose?

Tim and I are wanting to stay in Round Rock and him drive to Fort Hood, until on post housing opens up and we can move in. We'd still be able to use our BAH to pay off more debt and pay his gas to and from Fort Hood, which will be expensive. ACC would be right here and his commute would be the only long distance one. BUT, what happens if come September on post housing opens up and we move to Fort Hood, leaving me still having a class here in Round Rock to which I'd have to commute too?

Or, what if I attend classes at Temple College in Taylor while we lived here? Tim would still be commuting to Hood and maybe I could take my math class at the Temple campus in Taylor, just 17 miles east of Round Rock. That way when we do move to Fort Hood I can still finish my associates through Temple and not have to transfer credits from ACC. But then if come September or October if housing opens up..I still have to drive from Hood to Taylor.

I know I need to register for classes before I'll have that information, but I don't know which school to pick.

(I know I should pick Temple college, seeing as I plan on attending Temple College once we move to Fort Hood..but I'm nervous about making that decision final)

I feel all adult like..

I feel all adult like. Forget that I have two children and have been married for four years come this July..that means nothing ;), but THIS...this makes me feel like a grown up..

I'm going back to school, woohoo!

I'm going back to school, holy shit!

I am so excited to finally be going back, but at the same time I am terrified. I haven't been in school since I graduated from high school in May 2005, except for two weeks that is.

Yup, I'm a college drop out, I don't really consider myself one though. I was only enrolled for two weeks before dropping out after getting that positive pregnancy test, so it's not like I actually did much college work. I don't think I even took a test.

For the past four years I have been playing the mom/wife card. You know, raising kids and taking care of a home while trying to not kill my husband for leaving his dirty clothes all over my house. Yeah, the mom/wife card, you know the one.

I could of returned to college but I didn't WANT too. I know me and in knowing me, I knew that I wouldn't 100% apply myself to my classes unless I wanted to be there. Well, I am finally ready and wanting to go back. That and Tim asked me to return to work...and I'd rather go to school than get a damn job, working makes me ill. Seriously, ill.

Mackenzie will be enrolled in full day kindergarten and Madison will be placed in childcare. I plan on only taking two classes this upcoming fall, in hopes of not overwhelming myself right off the bat. I want to take my math class in a classroom since I suck at math and I know that I won't be able to do it online. Thankfully I will be close enough to Round Rock that I can drive to the ACC campus by TeraVista to take the math class there. I am hoping to be able to take my other class online, hoping for English or History for my first semester. We are guaranteed two years at Fort Hood and I'm hoping to be able to knock out my associates before the Army moves us.

If I am able to handle the two classes, a house and two children without being overwhelmed, I hope to be able to take 3 classes in the spring of 2011. I may take classes during the summer also, trying to play catch up since I won't be going full time. So far this is my college plan.

I am thinking of pursuing teaching for my bachelors. I would have my holidays and summers off with my girls and not need to worry about childcare in the summer when they are out on break. Right now I am just playing with the idea...but that is my plan! Wish me luck