Conversations with the Devil Pup

I have the funniest conversations with Devil Pup while we are alone in the car. Awhile back, we had the following exchange:

me: I love you, DP!
*silence*
me: I said I love you!
DP: I heard you.
me: Well, what do you usually say when someone tells you that they love you?
after a pause, DP: Thank you.


And then, today, after a failed attempt at getting a milkshake (the first place we went to was out of chocolate):

me: DP, talk to me so I know you're awake! (Usually, she's Chatty Cathy and this is not an issue and I didn't want her falling asleep.)
DP: My throat is sore!
me: Why is your throat sore?
DP: Because I didn't have any milkshakes!

PCS? What PCS?

This summer will be my 10th move and 7th PCS in 12 years of marriage. So, you would think that I would have this whole moving business down to a science, or at least an art. Not so much. For one thing, my middle name might as well be Procrastination. And for another, life just manages to keep getting in the way.

3 weeks ago, my husband's parents came for a visit. Then the girls had Spring Break. Then my mother flew in for a visit. Just a week ago, I spent all day (literally) on a field trip with my 4th grader. We arrived at the school at 0530 and didn't get home until around midnight. The field trip involved a 4-hour bus ride...each way! Which wouldn't have been so bad. except the next day I drove 3 hours to see my sister and her family who were in the state to visit the Mouse for the first time. It was another 3-hour drive to get back home on Sunday night, after a full day with the cousins.

Yesterday, I suddenly realized that April was already half gone. I only have 2 more months to get ready for this move.

April is half gone! Oh, snap! I have a birthday party to plan and only have a couple of weeks to
do it! My youngest will be 6 the first week in May and has been talking about her party for months.

My only saving grace is that, somehow, everything always manages to get done. Maybe I'm just one of those people who needs a looming deadline to get myself in gear. This past week, I finally managed to take some pictures and start listing items online for sale. Even though I purge with every move, this move finds us with large items to unload. Furniture that is no longer needed, large toys that my kids have outgrown, and more all need to be purged before the movers arrive. And then there's all the organizing that needs to be done and the items we need to separate out that we'll pack ourselves or move ourselves. There are services and utilities that will need to be cancelled or shut off. Medical and dental records to be collected. School records to be copied. And a thousand and one other things to be done.

I think I need a nap....

*This is cross-posted on SpouseBuzz.

In which Stretch dislikes my choice in pens...

Stretch asked for a pen as he was getting ready to write a note to a pal. I handed him one and he started to write. Suddenly, he stopped and looked at the pen.

Stretch: "I'm not using a purple pen to write M!!!"
me: "What's wrong with purple?"
Stretch: "It's not that kind of Marine Corps yet."

And then we watched an episode of "The Pacific."

Tired

It's been a busy few days. Friday was an all-day field trip with my oldest daughter's 4th grade class (actually, ALL the 4th grade classes). We boarded 3 charter buses a little after 5:30 a.m. and hit the road by 6 a.m. We arrived at the historic city we were touring about 4 hours later! Then it was a long day of touring and walking, including climbing a lighthouse, before re-boarding the buses for the long ride home. We arrived home around midnight.

Thank goodness my mom was here visiting and could get my youngest to and from school and watch her for me!

Saturday morning found us packing quickly to get back on the road to meet my sister and her family 3 hours away. They had come down to visit the Mouse and we were going to get to visit for just the one night.

The next morning, Sunday, we made a last minute decision to enter the park with my sister's family for half a day before driving home. Mom had 3 tickets that would expire that day so only one child's ticket needed to be purchased. It was a nice time with the cousins, but it was warm and tiring, too! By the time, I finally pulled the plug, got my group out of the park and back to my car, it was around 5 p.m.! I still had to get gas and feed the troops before heading home. We managed to get home around 8 p.m. despite the torrential rains of the last hour of the drive.

Monday, the girls went back to school and Mom and I headed to our scheduled massages. How's that for good planning? As wonderful as the massage was(and it really was!), by the end of mine, my masseuse suggested that I soak in a hot bath with Epsom salts later that night as I was still "really tight." *sigh*

Oh, the things kids say...

After getting off the phone with my sister (who has 5 kids), I was explaining to Big Sis that they would be wearing the same color t-shirts as a family each day they were at Disney. I also said something about that being just another reason for us to only have 2 kids (somewhat easier to keep track of them). Big Sis informed me that she wanted 8 kids, but she wanted to adopt them. When I asked why, she said she didn't want something the size of a baby coming out her butt. I informed her that you don't "poop" babies. Instead, they come out of your "she-she." Big Sis was horrified by this: "But that's a really small hole!"

Then, this nugget from L'il Sis (aka Devil Pup) when she was throwing a tantrum, not wanting to do her homework: "Grown-ups have an easy life because they get to do whatever they want and children have a hard life!" Oh, really? Maybe I'm not making her life hard enough?

Monday, Monday

Good grief! Today when above and beyond as Mondays go:

• Drove to the dealership to sit for an hour so the new back to my driver's seat could be installed (see previous post). At least it was covered by the warranty.
• Have my first mammogram done. I'd been having some discomfort so the PA I saw last Friday wanted one done just as a precaution and because I'm of an age to get a baseline one done anyway. Yay. The most awkward moment had to be when the technician told me to remove the robe. Um. I can't just keep it on with the front open? Apparently not. The first two views (horizontal) she took weren't too bad although she wasn't kidding when she said, "Beginning compression." But I was not prepared for the vertical views that she then took. To her credit, she did warn me that they'd be more uncomfortable because muscle would also be, um, compressed.
  
• The 5 year old came home with a note saying that she'd received speech screening and needed further speech evaluation due to: "numerous articulation errors and poor speech intelligibility, very verbal." That last bit was followed by a smiley face. Never mind that my husband and I had raised these very issues with her teachers last fall during a parent-teacher conference. Oh, and yes, I know just how verbal she is since I often ask my husband to check if my ears are bleeding.
• The 9 year old continued to complain about her breathing (she'd been doing so all weekend). This prompted a call to the pediatricians' office. They got us in later this afternoon.
  
• We arrived 10 minutes early for the appointment because I'm well-trained by the military health care system. However, we weren't taken back to the exam room until almost 30 minutes after our appointment time where we waited another 30 minutes or more. The nurse practitioner we saw didn't hear anything untoward in her lungs but wanted a chest x-ray to be sure. He also prescribed an anti-reflux medication to try for the next couple of weeks to see if that's the problem. We're to go back in 2 weeks.
• The girls, especially the 5 year old have been bouncing off the walls and driving me insane for the past 1-1/2 hours spent at the pediatricians'.
  
• Leave the doctors' office. Look up the radiology place on my super-phone and call them to see about getting the chest x-ray. We can walk in anytime before 5:45 Monday thru Friday. It is already 5:15. Deciding we'll never make it and will have to wait until tomorrow, we stop at the pharmacy on the way home.
  
• Drop off the prescription for the anti-reflux stuff only to find he didn't put an amount on the scrip. Argh! And the office we JUST left is already closed. Somehow, while we waited, the pharmacist managed to get a message to the pediatricians' office and someone actually called back. Still, it took almost an hour to get the medication. Oh, and the girls continue to be squirrelly.
• Stretch won't be home until late tonight as he will be performing CACO duties again. It will be the first time he's had to this for someone deployed to Afghanistan. My heart goes out to his wife and parents who will be notified later tonight. Which really makes the rest of my day pale in comparison.
  

You know, I'm done with Monday. Let's move on to Tuesday.

Devil Pup Diaries

After dinner one night last week, we went for a walk around our neighborhood. L'il Sis insisted on taking her school backpack with her despite our warnings that she'd have to carry it the whole way. It still had her school folder, her math workbook and her lunchbox in it! And she ran almost half of the time while we walked about 1-1/2 miles.

Then a day later, as the girls and I were returning from an errand, I hear her say "uh-oh," from the backseat. Moments later, her sister dimed her out with, "You broke Mom's chair!" That's right: My 5 year-old broke the back of my driver's seat. The entire piece has to be replaced. That's what I learned the first time I went and sat at the dealership. I'll be going again this week for the actual work to be done. Because I have nothing else to do with a move looming over my head in 3 months.

I may need to change her moniker on here from L'il Sis to DP (Devil Pup).

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's weekend with good friends in for a visit. But in some respects, it might have been a rough Valentine's for Stretch.

On Friday, Big Sis (9) came home from school with a little pink gorilla with "I Love You" on its tummy from the boy who keeps trying to hold her hand.

Then today, a little boy from L'il Sis' (5) class who lives in our neighborhood came by with a hand-made card with a flower taped to the front that read, "Will you be my Valentine?"

It's not easy being the father of girls.

Oh, the modesty!

Tonight's conversation with the 9 year old, regarding the boy who keeps trying to hold her hand:

Me: So, why does Jimmy like you? Because you're smart?
Big Sis: No.
Me: Or funny?
Big Sis: No. It's pretty much my looks.

Who did I tick off?!

Was it St. Barbara? Or maybe Molly Pitcher? I'm wondering this as I'm mentally preparing myself for a move this summer (and no, I don't know WHERE we're going yet, just that we ARE going). I've heard that there are military families that get to stay in one place for 3 years. I've even heard of so-called "homesteaders" who get to stay in one place for years on end. But I think that might just be an urban legend. My family certainly doesn't fit into either of those categories.

Since moving shortly after my husband's first deployment to Iraq in the summer of 2003, this is the breakdown of how long we've lived at any given place:

18 months, 23 months, 17 months (with my husband deployed for 12), and soon 2 years.

Granted, I tend to think it's time to move after 3 or 4 years in any one place. But I haven't had the chance to develop those itchy feet in 7 years. Also, I'm a bit handicapped as military spouses go: I'm an introvert. Shocking, I know. It takes me a good 12 to 18 months to really feel comfortable in a place, make friends (not just acquaintances), find doctors, dentists, and hairdressers.

Just last week, I finally found a great hairdresser whose prices are more than reasonable. Then it hit me. We're moving in 6 months.

*sigh*

This is cross-posted on SpouseBuzz.

*Update: The PTBs (Powers That Be) are toying with me. We just found out where we're going. From all accounts, it will be a great duty station. The kicker? It will only be for a year.

Gus: Comm Check

Hey, Gus, Stretch is wondering if you're still out there.

Good thing L'il Sis is a toughie...

It's never a good thing to get a call from the school nurse. Especially as you're headed out the door to pick up the kids. Earlier this week, I had just such a call. Apparently, our 5 yr old had had an inauspicious meeting with a playground slide. Result: an abraded chin, bruised gums and loose front teeth. None of her teeth had been loose when I sent her to school that morning.

I picked her and her sister up from school and drove immediately to their dentist's office. She was x-rayed and examined and should be fine. In fact, her teeth already seem to have tightened up and no longer seem to be in danger of falling out of her head. But the whole time, I kept thinking 2 things: (1) this was very reminiscent of my sister with whom she shares more than a passing resemblance; and (2) these types of things always seem to happen to her and not her older sister. *sigh*

Negative Nellie

I started doing the Couch to 5K (C25K) program last fall. I stuck with it pretty faithfully. For awhile. Then life and the holidays got the better of me. In mid-November, we went to DisneyWorld for a week. The following week was Thanksgiving, with my sister and her family visiting us. Then there was Toys for Tots. Then the kids were off for their winter break and Stretch had two 96's (4-day weekends). All of this threw my routine completely out the window.

But the kids have now gone back to school and there are no more excuses. Stretch and I have a done a workout DVD in the evening a few times now. And I've tried to get back into running, this time outside (I'd always run on a treadmill in the fall due to the heat where we are). The runs did not go well. I walked at least half the time and wasn't going as far.

Today, I decided I needed to go back to the C25K program. I thought I'd go back to Week 4 but couldn't find it on my iPod. So I went with Day 1 of Week 5: 5 minutes of warm-up walking, 5 minutes of running, 3 minutes of brisk walking, 5 minutes running, 3 minutes walking, 5 minutes running, and 5 minutes of cool-down walking. It kicked my behind! And that was only the first 5 minute run!

By the time I was on the last 5 minutes of running, Negative Nellie wasn't just whispering in my ear, she was shouting. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a runner. Maybe those extra pounds around my middle aren't really that bad. Maybe I'm not a runner. Maybe I just don't want to lose the weight/ get in shape badly enough. What made me think I would ever be a runner?!

But I did it. I didn't cheat. I ran when I was supposed to and didn't stop to walk until I was meant to. And maybe I'm not a "runner." Yet. But Negative Nellie needs to go away and Motivated Molly needs to come back!

*This is cross-posted at SpouseBuzz.

Gee...Thanks?

It finally got chilly here. Not cold, but chilly. I was wearing an old college sweatshirt the other day with the name of the state of the state school I attended. Big Sis asked about it and I said it was where I went to school. High school or college, she asked. I explained that while I attended both in that state, the shirt actually referred to the college I attended. Big Sis studied it for a moment, then said, with surprise, "And you still fit in it?"

I know that to a 9 year old, I'm getting dumber by the day. After that remark, I really don't want to know what I look like to her.

Reading milestone

It took 2 nights, but L'il Sis finished reading Green Eggs and Ham tonight! Woot! She is the child that I can never get to practice her sight words, etc. Unlike her sister, she's usually not happy to sit still to have a book read to her and has had little interest in learning to read.

So. This was huge! I'm so proud of her!

Abigail Adams

We were watching Part 3 of the John Adams miniseries. That man was gone a LOT. During the part where John leaves with their oldest son to go to Europe during the Revolutionary War (leaving Abigail home on the farm with the rest of their brood), I commented that she was a strong woman. Stretch chimed in with, "and grumpy, apparently." To which I could only reply, "She had every right to be grumpy!"

Merry Christmas from Afghanistan

Thanks to SemperFi Wife for sharing this:

She's a genius! Um, maybe...

I walked into our 5 year old's room to find her "writing" D-O-G on Stretch's back. He deciphered the word and then exclained, "I think she just spelled Devil Dog!"

I had to start laughing. He'd obviously forgotten that the back of his t-shirt had the words "Devil Dog Run" on it.

Time for Toys for Tots!

It's that time of year! For the first time, I'm able to help out at our local Toys for Tots warehouse where toys are sorted and distributed. One of the Marines noted today that this year the warehouse is emptier than he's ever seen it. While the need continues to grow and surpass previous years, the donations are down. So, please, if you are able, consider donating a new unwrapped toy to Toys for Tots.

To learn more, you can read last year's post. Meanwhile, my favorite Marine commercial:

After the Ball

Wouldn't you know it? I forgot to take pictures before the Ball so we took some after we got home. Of course, part of the problem was that we were running late and we were supposed to meet 2 other couples to carpool!












In case you're wondering: I'm not on a box or wearing stilts. Stretch is squatting... Feel the burn!