Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for my boys!

I'm thankful that Thomas is starting to feel better. His fever (102 yesterday) seems to have gone down, his appetite is back, and he was playing this afternoon! He's almost back to his happy-go-lucky self, but he's still a little fussy. We're going to keep him home from daycare tomorrow still and then hopefully by Monday he should be back to normal.

I'm thankful that we've instilled Patriotic values in Robert. Since we live on post we hear the daily bugle calls. Retreat is at 1700 when they lower the post flag and we've taught Robert what to do during Retreat. We picked him up from the Youth Center earlier than usual this evening and he was out on the playground behind our house with his friends, and when he heard Retreat being played, he and another girl made sure all the kids out there did the right thing! We're so proud of him for doing that!

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband!

Since Thomas couldn't go to the CDC today and I had a ceremony and a rehearsal, he got to stay home with Daddy. Ryan did a great job with him, gave him a bottle, got him down for a nap, and did whatever other things daddies and babies do when mommy isn't around. I'm thankful that he's so supportive of my career (and my running)!

I'm thankful for an awesome job!

Today I played my first gig here at Ft. Rucker, as a member of the 98th Army "Silver Wings" Band. It was a change of command ceremony and it was a full marching ceremony, out on the parade field, and it was 80 degrees out. I'm thankful that even after not much sleep last night I didn't fall out. And I'm thankful that I was able to stay home with Thomas this afternoon and provide him with some mommy snuggles.

Catching up

It's been a while again – I just haven't felt like writing. I'd sit down to write and just have nothing even though I've been busy doing stuff.

This past Monday I started my unit in-processing – it's pretty easy. I now have a government trombone and a music pouch and a pretty green PT belt (NCOs here wear green PT belts, officers wear blue, junior enlisted a different color, students another different color). I've been briefed on driving stuff, taken required Army training for Information Awareness and Antiterrorism, and driven here and there and all over. I had to in-process the Battalion we fall under and the mail room; neither were terribly difficult. All I have left for my unit in-processing is the Unit Fire Marshal, the First Sergeant, and the Commander. I should be able to finish all those tomorrow.

Training with the Army Ten Miler team is going well, although I did miss practice last Monday. Thomas was up ever 2 hours most of the night and then when I finally slept, I slept through my alarm. It's probably best I didn't make practice anyway – I woke up completely stuffed up and miserable. Rehearsal that morning was horrible – it felt like my head was going to explode. I was able to get an appointment for that afternoon to get my Claritin refilled and an antibiotic for a sinus infection. But anyway, back to my training. I'm still very much the slowest runner out there, but everyone is so encouraging and I'm definitely getting to be a stronger and faster runner! I can't wait until the 10K I'm doing at home while on leave in a few weeks. I'll be running the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Pioneer Days 10K. It supports the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Marquette and Alger Counties. I've set a fundraising goal of $250 and I would love to have your support! You can make a donation at http://pioneerdaysfunrun2012.kintera.org/laniyearicks!

Robert is still enjoying his summer camp and the Youth Center. They've been on several fun field trips, including one 2 hours away in Florida last week. He's made quite a few friends both at the Youth Center and in our neighborhood. He spends his evenings out on the playground behind our house playing with his new friends.

Thomas is getting better and better at crawling and is going exploring more and more. Of course, this also means that he's getting into more and more things, but I think he's also learning the meaning of NO. He's going to eat me out of house and home when he gets older if he keeps up his current eating habits. He eats pretty much anything we put in front of him and he's getting really good at feeding himself. We went to Shoney's after church today and they had their breakfast & lunch buffets up, so that's what we had. I got a scoop of scrambled eggs (probably close to 1/2 cup) from the breakfast side and some watermelon, mushrooms, and oyster crackers from the lunch side and he ate it all and then still breastfed right after before we headed home. Then for dinner, he had an Eggo waffle, a whole banana, and probably 1/4 cup of blueberries, and then milk after his bath. I can't wait til his 9 month well-baby check up to see how much he weighs.

Once again, I'm going to try and do better about writing more often. Fingers crossed. . .

Running and Stuff

I did my post in-processing the Monday and Tuesday after we got here. It really didn't take that long and I had a lot of downtime. The band here is giving me some time off to get my house situated and all that fun stuff, so I'm really thankful for that. I did go to rehearsal this past Monday and Tuesday because I'll be playing at the Freedom Fest concert (4th of July celebration, but it's on the 3rd). I've also gotten my allergy shots going here – really nice nurses that work in the allergy clinic!

This past Saturday we got our stuff. It was really fun marking off the inventory sheets as some of the boxes didn't have numbers anymore – the inventory number sticker fell off probably 10-12 boxes. The only major damage so far was to our chest freezer that's barely 2 years old. It looks like something heavy was set on top of it and the lid is quite dented. That will be going on our claim sheet when we're done unpacking everything. We've been working on getting things unpacked and put away this week. My kitchen is done except for getting the rest of my coffee mug collection put away – about half is up on top of the cupboards for display, but we haven't gotten the rest of them up there yet. I also haven't found my silverware and the rest of my baking pans yet. I've opened all the boxes that were marked with anything to do with the kitchen, and I have the other stuff that was in the silverware drawer and I have 3 cookie sheets. The rest is a mystery and hopefully I come across them soon.

This past Monday I started training for the Army 10 Miler with the post team. There are quite a few runners training with the team, but in mid-August when they finalize the team, there will be 6 males and 2 females selected to represent Ft. Rucker in Washington, D.C., at the Army 10 Miler in October. I probably won't make the final team as I'm the slowest runner out there, but I'm still going to train with them, give my best at every workout, and see what happens. And even if I don't make the team, it'll be good training because I'll still be running the Army 10 Miler; I'll just have to pay my own way to D.C. Monday's workout was almost 7.5 miles for me (I cut the cool down a little short) and Wednesday I ran almost 6 miles. I took Tuesday and today off and plan on a 4-5 mile run tomorrow before Saturday's team workout. Next week I'm hoping to add swimming into the mix on Tuesdays.

Robert started his School Age Summer Camp last week and he loves it and has made friends already. They're at the Youth Center, and there's a game room, a technology lab, arts & crafts, discovery zone, and a gym with all kinds of activities. He gets lunch and an afternoon snack, and if he gets there early enough, he gets breakfast as well. They go on several field trips each week to various places – so far he's gone to the post library where they had something outside for the kids (learning related) and the post museum. Mondays they go to the pool for splash time, but this Monday they didn't go because of thunderstorms (outdoor pool).

Thomas started at the Child Development Center (CDC) this past Monday and he seems to love it there. He's having lots of fun with the other babies and toddlers in his room and his teachers are really nice. He's eating regular food pretty much all meals now – he protests when we try and spoon feed him baby food. He's a really good eater, and I'm going to be in trouble when he gets older. Last night for dinner he had probably 1/4 cup of mac & cheese and 3/4 of a kiwi, and tonight we went for taco night at the bar/grill on post and he had a good bit of the chicken, cheese, and tomatoes out of his taco, some of the tortilla, and broccoli.

Photo Tour of our House

Join me on a little tour of our new house!

Looking from the garage entry toward the rest of the house. Laundry room is on the right and dining room is on the left.

My laundry room! The cat's food, water, and litter box and our chest freezer will also be in here with a baby gate across the door.

The dining room is just about across from the laundry room. Why they put carpet in the dining room, I don't know, but we'll make it work. The piano and my sewing machine desk will also be going in the dining room.

Standing in the dining room, looking toward the kitchen which is to the left of the laundry room.

The living room is next to the dining room.

Looking into the kitchen from the other side of the living room. We're going to get bar stools to put under the counter on the living room side for a breakfast/snack/homework area.

The hallway leading to the boys' rooms. Thomas' room is on the left and Robert's room is at the end of the hall. The boys' bathroom is to the left of Thomas' door.

Robert's room

Boys' bathroom (also the guest bath). Linen closet #1 is on the right.

Master Bedroom. The door leads to the master bath.

Master bath. There's a separate room for the toilet and two sinks!

Shower and linen closet #2 is on the right and big walk-in closet is on the left. These are to the right as you come in the door.

Our entry door hallway has a closet right by the door. I forgot to take a picture of the entry hall. Oops!

I hope you enjoyed your tour of our new house! I'll post more pics once our furniture and everything arrives on Saturday and we get the house set up.

We have arrived!

Our trip to Scott, LA, was rather uneventful, other than the route I thought would be quicker ended up taking us through some back roads in Texas. While the scenery was nice, they were 2-lane highways with lots of hills and curves. Not so fun, but we eventually made it to Scott, LA, where we got checked in to our hotel and then headed to my friend J's house. She is a fellow cross stitcher and has been an online friend for at least 8 years. Not only did we get to meet her, but we met her wonderful family as well! There were a number of other kids for Robert to play with and they all had a great time, and us adults enjoyed the evening. She made a wonderful dinner, and that definitely was a nice change from restaurant food.

Our trip from LA to Enterprise, AL, was LONG and event-filled. As we were crossing the Atchafalaya Bridge (a 17 mile long bridge), a car pulled up next to us and it looked like they were trying to tell us something. So Ryan rolled his window down to find out that it looked like our trailer tire was going flat. He thanked them and we kept an eye on it. And then it went. Tire blow out. On the bridge. The shoulders were just wide enough for us to pull completely off, but not much else. I called the police so we could have flashing lights for safety as there was a lot of traffic. Ryan got to work on getting the tire changed, and he had the blown tire off before the officer arrived – like I said, it's a long bridge. We got the spare on and everything cleaned up and headed to a nearby Meineke Car Care Center. The manager there is a fellow veteran and he took good care of us. It took a couple of hours, but we got 2 new tires for the trailer and got back underway finally. We made it the rest of the way to our final destination without incident, although it was after midnight when we finally arrived.

Yesterday morning we went on post for the first time and signed for our house! We'll be living on post in a brand new single family house – so new that we'll be the first family to live in it!! It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room, 1 car (or in our case, 2 bike) garage, and a fenced in back yard. There are 2 playground areas that Robert can go play at – one out the back past the fence and one just down the hill at the end of the street. Our neighborhood community center has a fitness center, game room, pool table, and a pool! The pool has an area for lap swimming – 25 meter marked lanes – and a kiddie play area where the water is super shallow so Thomas can crawl around. Yay for something for everyone (except a hot tub for Ryan). After we were done signing for the house, we went back to the hotel and got the trailer and went and got it weighed before taking it to the house and unloading everything. Once the trailer and van were emptied out, we went and got lunch at the PX food court, bought a new litter box/cat litter/scoop for Callie and a few other things for the house that I know we'll need. Then we came back to the hotel and Ryan and Robert spent some time at the pool. There was another guy there with a boy about Robert's age and they had a great time. I took Thomas in for a little bit, but the pool water was a little chilly for Thomas so we came back to the room.

Today is going to be "Explore the Area" day. And I'll try and get some pictures of the house to share with everyone. Stay tuned!!