Leaving on a jet plane.....

Deployment went from being around the corner to being here. They left last week on their way to Afganistan. I cant be much more detailed than that though. He has made it there and in one of the first phone calls after he got there was to tell me he made it, he was safe, and did I know how many countries he had peed in in the last few days? Not how many he had been in - how many he had peed in. It was hard to see them all go, but luckily he has been able to contact me almost every day for at least a few minutes so that has been awesome. I looked at some info form people who are already at the place he is going and found this picture:

which admittedly doesn't show much but I liked it anyway.
Here are a couple more from when he left:

Just before he left we decided to have an awesome weekend. So we went to the beach with my sister on Saturday which was really fun. They had a St. Patricks Day Parade that the kids liked and the boys all decided to make sand angels. We went to the Crab Shack (not Joe's) after that. i really love that place. Except that just because I had told my sister how awesome it was it had to be super busy and slow. That wasn't half so bad as the swarms - and I mean SWARMS- of biting gnats that were trying to eat us alive. That had never happened to me there before, but of course had to happen then because I wanted to impress my sister. Oh well.

Then we went to a Rattlesnake Roundup on Sunday. Which I personally think was more of a fair with a pavillion in the corner with a few rattlenakes. Not that the snakes werent pretty and all but it just was a little underwhelming if you ask me. I think I drove him crazy because I just wanted to go in all of the little booths. Thats always my favorite part. I don't really care that most have the same stuff I still want to go check it out. :)

Since he left its been kinda quiet. My house was a disaster between my husband and his buddies Wolford and Mclain packing and unpacking nd repacking. And they stayed at my house on the couch for a few days too so I made my boys clean. Cleaning is good. If the boys go back to Utah this summer the house will be REALLY quiet lol. Hopefully he will get some leave this summer and we can all go back again for a visit. That would be nice.

Click your heels 3 times - and get on a plane.....

Deployment is around the corner - so the Army Gods (aka the company commander) saw fit to give leave so the soldiers could go home and visit their familes. My totally awesome brother Nate and his equally totally awesome wife Kimber were kind enough to get us plane tickets so we could do just that! Yay for them!Or us - or however that works. Gold stars for them either way.

So we left the kids with my sister (thanks again) in South Carolina, the dogs with my neighbor in Georgia, and got on a plane in Jaxonville leaving my car in Florida and headed out for Utah. How cool is that huh? Huh? Anyway - it was weird to go from 80 degrees to 28 when we got there at midnight. Brrrr! But it was wonderful to see my parents waiting for me!! Love you! We stayed with aforemetioned awesome brother who were oh so kind as to let us use the spare bedroom. (Thanks again!) My Uncle Clem let us borrow his suburban so we didnt have to beg rides and our vacation began! We got to see just about everyone in our families (well - immediate everyones anyway)which is good since that was the whole point really. He was able to see his mom but we were worried he wouldn't be able to see his dad. He was working out of town and wasn't sure that he would be able to come see us. Then the next day his mom died. (Aaron's grandma - his dad's mom - not Aaron's mom). His dad was pretty upset as you can imagine and immediately came home so he could be with his wife and plan how to get to the funeral in Wisconsin. This meant he could also see Aaron. Which worked out well since I think seeing Aaron and talking to him helped a lot. It was important. So we spent all day with them and then they had to leave for Wisconsin.
After that we spent some time with his brother, and visiting some friends. We had a couple lazy days with Nate which was nice even though he was sick. I made him some chicken soup - because that fixes everything. We were wanting to have a family dinner at my parents but then we thought - why just do dinner? Why not have a Murder Party? Yay! Who doesn't love those?? So me, my mom, and awesome Kimber went to the game store and picked out a disco one. I was Chaka Moon and Aaron was Vinny Divichi. There were some other pretty cool names like Angina Palpitori (Katie), Polly Esther Stuffincup (Kimber), Knight Feevah (Nate), Brady Bunsch (Andy), Barry Manitone (Dad), and Belle Badham (mom). It turns out - the dead guy really deserved to be dead, none of us were really great people, and I was the killer. Thats right - me! I did it - in the disco, with a golden cleaver, while naked. How about that?? Not bad for a blind chick who had crippled wrists that someone (Knight Feevah) had broken when I was a kid with his pet rock! Ha ha haha ha. It was a pretty fun night! (Pictures will post later I promise.)

We also has a great time playing darts at Gino's. I got pulled over taking evryone home - but they were just checking for drunks and since I wasn't it was all good. Gold star for me! It was snowing pretty bad though and I remembered something - I hate driving in it! Maybe I dont miss snow- not at all. Oh sure it looks all pretty on the mountains but I dont think that is a good trade off for driving in it, shoveling it, scraping it off the car, freezing in it etc. So nope - don't miss it. Saturday we went to Joes house and had a lot of fun there. Brad got out his guitar and started the weirdest sing a long I have ever heard. And if you know my family that is saying something! Aaron ended up naked in the hot tub and lost his underwear. (Sorry Joe) Of course if you know Aaron - this is not a surprise. :)

I went to church in my old ward on Sunday - that was really really nice. I almost forgot just how great those people are. Its the best ward I have ever been in. Lots of love I'm sending out that way! Then we had dinner at my moms. Monday was just pack up and do laundry day, spent the night at my moms and my dad drove us to the airport Tuesday morning. Also - Monday was a "pick up things for Gennee" day too. She wanted fry sauce in packets, Leatherby's fudge, and licorice. (Now the fry sauce I get, and the fudge, but I am pretty sure everywhere sells licorice.) It was pretty funny actually to go into Arctic Circle and just ask for fry sauce. She looked at me and said "to go with what?" I said "nothing - I would just like some fry sauce. I will pay for it but they don't have any in Georgia." She looked perplexed but sold me 10 packets then put like 20 in the bag. Nice lady. What's really funny is that I put them all in my suitcase in those small flat rate post office boxes, with the fudge in a plastic bag, and an Amish Friendship Bread starter bag. When we got home I saw one of those TSA tags that said they searched my bag. Ha ha ha ha - I wonder what they were thinking?
When we got back my sister was kind enough to meet us in Savannah to exchange hostages. Well, ransom back my children is porbably more accurate. I gave her the fry sauce, fudge, and licorice - and she gave me back my kids. I think she got the better deal. :)
It went by really really fast - but it always seems that way once it's over. I love my family very much and I am forever grateful I was able to go visit. But I have to admit - it was really nice to come home and sleep on my own bed. Anyway - this is way long as it is - I will post pics soon!

Superbowl

So we had a football Sunday. I have to say - I am rather pleased with myself. I cleaned the house, really good too. We made stuff for the game, muchies, salsa (oh man I love Aaron's salsa- I think I could eat an entire batch by myself and heartburn be damned), burger stuff, stuffed mushroom stuff, and I had time to clean the kitchen after all that prep before people came over! Yay me!

Now if my husband hadn't been grouchy because his external hard drive quit on him the day before and we couldn't figure out how to fix it and of course we hadn't backed anything up - since that WAS the back up. * sigh *
But it's all right. We managed to still get a few rounds of Golf in (a totally awesome card game I learned from my in-laws) and watch the Steelers go down in flames. Much to Curtis' disappointment. He and Josh were really rooting for them, they are Curtis' favorite team. Poor kid.

Then after everyone left around 11, I cleaned again! All my dishes were done and counters wiped down before I went to bed. Yay me! If only I could stay that motivated all the time. Visitors do that you know - cant let them think I live in a sloppy house. Well not all the time anyway. :)

2011 - It begins :)

First post in 2011 and it only took me until Feb 2nd! Whoo hoo! I never really did listen to my christmas music. But I did spend a couple days with Peter in my MP3 player. I wish I could have gone to see him but it just didn't quite work out that way. Christmas was nice - a little weird but nice. It was just strange to not have anywhere we needed to go you know? We opened presents and sat at home, watched TV and played games. It was nice. Josh got the skateboard he has wanted for a while. It was a nice one too - I was rather proud of myself. Curtis got some posters so his room wouldn't be so naked, and his own Zune with a docking station. It was relaxed, and somehow not quite real feeling. Does that make sense?

Of course, 2 days after Christmas I got snow. It was awesome. Just these pretty little flakes floating down for a couple of hours. Nothing to shovel, nothing to drive in, nothing to stick and ice over, just enough to float down and look pretty. Perfect! New Years was pretty calm too. And now we are in 2011. Can you believe it? Where does time go?? So here we are getting ready for Aaron's deployment. I am not sure how I feel about that. I have known it was coming for a while - it is just more real now. I worry of course but for the most part I am fine.

I know some of the girls here think I am cold beccause I am not crying hysterical, or angry and yelling about how I don't want him to go, or crying about how I will miss him so much I don't know how I wll live. He is out on a field excercise for a week now and some of the girls are crying about how much they miss them and cant stand having them gone. All I can think of is - seriously? It's 4 days! Get a grip. But then I am not a young newlywed so what do I know. Personally I find a week to myself relaxing. Is that bad? Maybe because I have been expecting for a while it easier for me? I mean - he did join the army in the middle of a war - we knew he would deploy sometime. Thats a given isn't it? How could you not expect this? If you didn't want to go - you shouldn't have joined. I know me and the kids will be fine. I work, my kids are older so I know I will be busy. My routine just wont change much. To be fair if it was me and a couple toddlers and no job - I could see this as daunting. Oh well.

On the plus side - where they are going they should have the internet at least part of the time so he gets to skype! Whoo hoo! So I guess it is just cuddle as much as I can while he is here and go from there. :)

Welcome Winter -- I think

It was cold this morning. Really cold. Like 35 degrees. Yes mom I know it is much colder there but when it was 80 on Sunday 35 is cold. I actually had to turn on my heater. Which is a good thing really because it is hard to get in the Christmas spirit when you still have to use the a/c in your car. I think I miss snow. Not driving in it - and certainly not plowing it, but the way it looks on the trees and the grass. I go outside and look at my little palmetto plant by the door and think to myself - yes, it will be a different winter here for sure.

I hope to get a Christmas tree soon. I really want to put it up to really get in the mood. Because I have to say planning this company Christmas party is really sucking the spirit out of it for me. I am almost done shopping for the kids though. Yay! But my kids are the only ones getting presents and they only get a couple. Everyone else gets cookies and love. Sorry guys - it's all I can do.

I just realized I havent listened to any Christmas music this year. Maybe that's the problem. I need me some Peter. He will be in Tennessee in January, it's only 8 hours away. I wonder if I could afford to go. That would be awesome.

Thats all I have now. Love ya!