Ice “storm”

We had what they call an ice storm yesterday. Basically, we just got some freezing rain and they cancelled everything and a lot of places were closed. We got maybe 1/4″ of ice on our cars and stuff. The roads weren’t even slippery. Here’s some links to pictures of our cars and house with the ice: My van, Ryan’s car, and the front of our house. I guess they got hit worse in Atlanta, but they’re just a tiny bit more north of us.

We spent the weekend relaxing and stitching and playing on our computers. And playing with Robbie, of course!! Here’s a link to his 5 month picture. He’s sure getting to be a big boy! He can get onto his hands and knees and even hands and toes (push up position!), but he hasn’t figured out how to crawl yet. He does scoot backwards, though.

We went to church this morning and our pastor was late because she drives from Atlanta and it took her almost 1/2 hour to get through the ice into her car. But the service started without her and she just jumped right in when she got there. After church, we went to Souper Salad for lunch (they have an all-you-can eat buffet of salads and soups and a few other things) and then grocery shopping. Ryan had his bowling league in the evening and I stitched while Robbie napped.

Long week. . .

Despite it only being 3 work days, this sure was a long week for me. Monday and Tuesday were nice because we were off, but I still ended up on post both days. Monday was Robbie’s 4-month well baby check up. He’s up to 18 pounds, 1 ounce, and is 26 inches long. He’s in the 95th percentile for both weight and length and his doctor said that he is doing very well and is well-proportioned! He also got 4 shots – hardly cried at all and then went to sleep almost before we got back to the waiting room. Tuesday I had to go in to be issued one piece of equipment – everyone in the band had to go. Robbie came with me, but he was a good boy. It was quick, so we were back home about an hour after we left. Wednesday was a day of admin so we could get caught up in our offices. I did reenlistment stuff all morning and training stuff all afternoon. I got a lot accomplished, but there’s still some more to do to be all caught up. Thursday we played at the post retirement ceremony in the morning and then after lunch we attended an awards ceremony and we got Certificate of Achievements from the Commander of Ft. Gordon for playing at the Signal Symposium that was in early December. After work, Ryan and Robbie and I went to the hospital to bring a plant and a card to the family from the band that just had a baby on Wednesday. He is TINY – only 5 pounds, 14 ounces!! But he’s cute!! Mom and baby are both doing fine. We stopped for dinner at Dave’s Famous BBQ on the way home – YUMMY food! Today we had flu shots in the morning during PT time and then concert band all morning. We sight read a lot of the songs for our next concert which is on 7 February with the TRADOC Band from Ft. Monroe. I was also CQ today – found out that I was doing that after I had gotten my flu shot. That was kind of nice – I got to stitch all afternoon as there wasn’t anything going on. After work, I went to the gym and worked with my personal trainer and then came home and made spaghetti.
Whew! How’s that for a short week?

Home again

Our final concert on our Winter Tour was at the USS Alabama Park in Mobile, AL. It went really well and there was probably 500+ in the audience! The trip home was uneventful – I finally got to ride in the van with Ryan and Robbie. That was nice! It sure was nice to be back home and sleep in our own bed again. Hotel beds aren’t bad, but they’re not your own bed. Our 2 kitties were glad to see us as well!!

Today we ran a few errands in the morning and then I got some laundry done in the afternoon. I also finished up my alumni newsletter for my fraternity. Now I just need to get a copy to our International President for her approval and then it’s off to the webmaster to get on the website! I’m glad I’m done with that – it’s a lot of work and I kept it all until the last minute. This year I’m going to enter stuff as I get it and work on it throughout the year.

In the stitching department, I finished a Noah’s Ark piece for Robbie. You can see it here: Noah’s Ark by Whimsey & Wit. I’ve also made some progress on his birth sampler, but you’ll have to wait until I finish it before you can see it! This weekend I’m working on a cute snowman from Shepherd’s Bush.

Full house tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our concert at the Marina Civic Center in Panama City, FL, was awesome!! We played to a full house, and I mean full as in standing-room only full!!! WOOHOOO!!!! This certainly made up for Monday night’s non-concert! They estimated we played for over 2600 people. And despite having a couple of days off from playing, everyone played really well. Ryan and Robbie came to this concert – Robbie slept through most of it, but woke up in time for the Army Song at the end of the Armed Forces Medley and then Stars and Stripes Forever. We’re off to Mobile, AL, in the morning. I’m off to bed now before I fall asleep at my computer.

Free day?

We left Tallahassee this morning and headed west for Pensacola. It was bound to be an interesting day. While we were checking out of our hotel this morning, our Ops (Operations) guy realized that he hadn’t taken into account that Pensacola is in the Central time zone when he was figuring times. Based on our schedule, we would be arriving at the hotel an hour early for our early check-in time of 12:30. So we took our time and even made an unscheduled Burger King stop for 45 minutes to give us a chance to get breakfast if we wanted. We ended up getting to the hotel about noon, local time. Our rooms were FAR from being ready. Luckily there is a mall right here by the hotel, so most of the band went there and wandered around (and some shopped) until 2:00 when we were to be back to finally check in. Rooms still weren’t ready for everyone, and they checked us in as rooms were cleaned. I think finally everyone had a room by about 3:30 or so. Not a good start to our day off. It wasn’t bad for me other than that we were still in the lobby of the hotel waiting for a room during Robbie’s naptime. He was starting to get kind of fussy. When we finally got into our room, he had a snack and went right to sleep. The three of us just hung out in our room all afternoon and then went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. That was pretty fun – Ryan had never been to one before. We played a few games and stuff and ended up with enough tickets to get a small football (soft one) for Robbie. He had fun chewing on the end of it. We spent the evening in our room as well and watched “Around the World in 80 Days” – a movie that’s out with Jackie Chan in it. It was pretty good. I stitched during the whole movie. Right now I’m working on Robbie’s birth sampler.
I’m heading off to bed now – we’ve got a LONG day tomorrow. We don’t have to be on the bus until 12:30, but we’re not scheduled to be back to the hotel until after midnight.

The Non-concert Concert

We are in Tallahasse for the second night now. Our concert this evening was at the Tallahassee Community College. We arrived at the site – a very nice theater – and got everything set up and did a sound check. We had a nice long dinner break – Ryan and Robbie and I went to Steak n’ Shake. They went back to the hotel after dinner and I went back for the concert. It was still early, so we just hung out and didn’t start changing into uniform. At 6:20, there was nobody there to start an audience. Same thing at 6:30 and 6:45. At 6:45, our Commander called us all together and said that he was cancelling the concert as there was no one to play to. So we tore down and loaded the truck and went back to the hotel for a free evening. Evidently the people that were hosting us here didn’t publicize the concert so no one knew about it. Oh well – they missed out on some good music.
When I got back to the hotel, Ryan and I gave Robbie a nice bath and then he (Robbie) had a snack and went to bed. I got to stitch on his birth sampler! I’m off to bed now. We’re on the road again tomorrow – heading for Pensacola, and a free day once we arrive.

Hi from Florida!!

The last week at work was A LOT of concert band rehearsals. We are now on our Winter Tour in Florida. We’re going across the panhandle and into Alabama. Yesterday we left Ft. Gordon and drove the 4-5 hours to Jacksonville. After checking into our hotel and having a little bit of down time, we headed off to our first concert. It went really well – only about 100 people in the audience, but they were a very warm and receptive audience!! This morning we loaded up the bus (and Ryan and Robbie in our van – they are following us) and drove to Lake City for an afternoon concert. That, too, went very well with a slightly larger audience. I got to meet an online stitching friend – she came to the concert with her husband and daughter. That was neat! Ryan and Robbie came to this concert (they didn’t go yesterday) and enjoyed it. We are now in Tallahasse, and will be here until Tuesday morning.

Oh, we bought a laptop Friday evening so we could get online while we’re traveling (now and whenever else we travel somewhere). It’s an HP Pavilion and it has a wide screen. It’s really nice. Besides using it for the internet and stuff in our hotel room, I played some games on the bus ride here this evening. It was too dark to stitch or crochet, so I played some games!

All gone

After church this morning, we did our weekly grocery shopping. We shop at Kroger and each time we shop, our receipt lets us know how much we saved. The amount that we save each week is going into Robbie’s savings account! Last year we saved a little over $400!
During the afternoon, we took all our Christmas decorations down and got them put away. It sure looks bare in here with the tree gone. We also did a little bit of cleaning – got the trash taken out and litter box scooped and other fun stuff. Ryan had bowling this evening and went early so he could practice some as he hasn’t bowled in a few weeks. I stayed home with Robbie and watched the Packers/Vikings football game. Unfortunately my Packers lost so their season is over. But that’s ok – there’s always next year. Robbie napped during part of the game, so I got some stitching in.
Back to work tomorrow. . .

Productive Day!!

Ryan and I had an awesome day today!! It was nice to sleep in later than 4:40 (yes, there are 2 4:40’s in a day) – I got up about 7 when Robbie started “talking”. We came and snuggled on the couch and I dozed for about another hour. Ryan got up about 9:30 or so. After breakfast, we went to my cross stitch store to get a few things. Then we went to Target for diapers, additional storage space (a 3-drawer plastic storage thingy) for my cross stitch stash, and some other things and Babies ‘R Us for some stuff we couldn’t get at Target and then to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. It was really good food! I think we’ll probably go back to this one. Once we got home, we got our suitcases unpacked from our trip home to MI, and then I reorganized my stash. The storage space I had already had gotten too small and stuff was starting to pile up on top of it. Now it’s all nice and neat again! In the evening, we watched both Shrek and Shrek 2, and I got 2 1/2 hours of cross stitching done!

Here’s a fun link for the day: Monday Test Have fun!!

Back home and Back to work

We got home from Michigan on Tuesday evening and sorted through 2 weeks of mail and got caught up on e-mails and other stuff. Callie & Shadow (our cats) were glad to see us, and it was nice to be back home and be able to sleep in our own bed again. Wednesday was back to work for both Ryan and I and back to Miss Suzanne’s for Robbie. Instead of PT Wednesday morning, there was a full unit urinalysis. Of course, I ended up being one of the observers, but luckily everyone had to “go” right away, so it didn’t take too long and I was able to get home and changed (we were in PT uniform and I had to change into BDU’s) and eat breakfast without having to rush! We had concert band rehearsal all morning and then a promotion ceremony, sectionals, and drill band (marching band) in the afternoon. It was a long day, and I didn’t get home until almost 5. We had dinner at church, so at least I didn’t have to cook.
Thursday was pretty much a repeat of Wednesday except it was PT in the morning. I went to the gym and ran 3 miles on the treadmill. Then it was concert band before lunch and drill band after. I also had to go to the Staff Call meeting to represent the Training office. My NCOIC (Noncommissioned Officer In Charge) had other matters to tend to and I had to go in his place. It wasn’t too bad – Training had no issues, so I really didn’t have anything to do. Thursday evening was relaxing and starting to get caught up with our shows we Tivo’ed while we were gone. I got a little bit of stitching done, too.
Friday morning was PT again and then concert band. We had an early lunch as we had a ceremony that started at 1. It was my first marching ceremony in the almost 16 months that I’ve been at Ft. Gordon. I have Robbie to thank for that – while I was pregnant, I was on profile against standing at attention or parade rest for more than 15 minutes at a time. That precluded me from doing ceremonies. After the ceremony was done, we did our daily cleaning details and were done for the day. I actually left before 3 – an early day for me!! Once Ryan got home from work, we went to our favorite Chinese buffet place for dinner. I get the Chinese food and Ryan gets American (corn dogs, fries, chicken nuggets, etc.). As always, Robbie was a good boy while we ate, and he flirted with our waitress! LOL! After we got home, we watched some TV and I stitched. I’m almost done with one of my Noah’s Ark projects I’m working on for Robbie. I’ll be sure and share a picture when it’s done.

This quiz is pretty fun. I got it from my Dad’s journal (thanks Dad!). . .

Take the quiz: “What does your birth month reveal about you?”

March
Attractive personality.sexy. Affectionate.Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Loves to serve others. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Observant and assesses others. Revengeful. Loves to dream and fantasize. Loves traveling. Loves attention. Hasty decisions in choosing partners. Loves home decors. Musically talented.Loves special things. Moody.