Confession: We had a fight over R&R

Yes, you read the title correctly. Believe it or not, R&R was not 2 weeks of complete bliss, but that's the reality of marraige. Isn't it? Anyways, the point of this is that maybe just maybe I won't have to explain my point of view on this to people for yet the 100th time.
So if you remember back to Februaryish I was in a frantic state of cleaning. Mr. B was coming home and I wanted everything to be PERFECT. I succeeded too. The house sparkled and shined. The kids were clean and well groomed. I even managed to find the mostest wonderful new dress to wear to impress him. I was so proud of me.
Insert reality: I only wore my fancy dress twice while he was here and my sparkly clean house was soon covered by the contents of his backpack. Seriously, how did he get so much stuff in there? I was still proud of me though. Until.....
On the way to Florida, Mr. B confessed to me that he was a little weired out by the extreme cleanliness of our house. He even went as far as to say that it all felt fake (btw, fake is pretty much the worst thing you can call me). I was devestated. All I had wanted to do was make him happy and proud of me.
The great thing about have time apart is that time gives you perspective. I know I am about to sound absolutely out of my mind crazy to some of you, but he was right. The reality of the matter is that, in the grand scheme of things, it isn't going to matter if my house sparkles and shines, if I have the perfect outfit, or if every hair is in just the right place when he gets home. What matters to him is that I am still here and that I am as happy to see him as he is to see me.
Yes, Mr B. will be home very soon, and I am very excited. However, I have not purchased a fancy new outfit and I am not frantically shining every surface in my house. The house will be at a normal state of clean. There might be a dirty dish in the sink. There will probably be an unfolded basket of laundry somewhere in the living room. The walls will definitely need washed. And believe it or not, the world will not come to an end. It will still be an awesome day and we will all be happy because we will be together again.
Honestly, I like it better this way. It's alot less stressful.

R&R Story #1--The surprise

If you remember from back in the day, Mr. B was pretty determined that he was going to surprise us for his R&R. The bank account revealing his whereabouts kindof ruined that up for him, but he still tried. Just in case, I went on a massive house cleaning rampage so everything would sparkle and shine when he got here. I talked to him Sunday morning before church. He was in the US but still not sure that I would need to pick him up from the airport.
Finally, I decided that I was done playing the "I don't know" game. I put on my new dress, got all fancy, got the kids ready, and went to church. He called me I assume from the runway in Atlanta and told me that he did need me to come pick him up in Nashville while I was hanging out with the nursery kids. My awesome friend (Thanks Sam!!!) volunteered to watch the kids while I went to get him. I told the kids I had to go "pick something up for daddy" in Nashville. Then I started my drive to Nashville. I was not even out of Clarksville, when Mr. B called and said that he had just landed. Ummmm....Really?? Not much I could do at that point, so he had to wait. I went and retreived him, dropped him off at home, and then went to pick up the kids. Jade was super curious about what a had gone to get from Nashville. When she walked into the house, she saw a pillow on the couch. She picked it up, "Mom, really?!? you drove to Nashville for a pillow??? Couldn't you have gotten that from Walmart??" This was the point where she turned around and saw her daddy sitting on the stairs. To describe her as excited would be an understatement. Had I been on task I would have made a video of this event, but I wasn't so there isn't one.
Where was Caibo during this whole adventure? He was getting a hotdog out of the fridge completely oblivious to it all.

Dear So and So: Yep, still procrastinating

Yes, it is now noon and I still haven't even pretended to tackle my to do list I showed you yesterday. I told you I was a good procrastinator. However, Mr. B is still stuck in undisclosed location. I have time, so I am going to write a dear so and so or 5.

Dear Mr. B,
I know you think you are all clever and all not mentioning where you are when I speak to you. However, the bank account tells me where you are. If you really want to surprise me that bad, you have two options:
1) Get some cash or 2) Starve for the next 3-12 days.
Good thing you don't read my blog.
Sincerely,
Mrs B. (not a fan of that kind of surprise)

Dear Mother Nature,
It's been a long time since I have seen Mr. B. I have big exciting fun things planned. I expect sunshine and lots of sunshine. If not, I will find you and beat you up and take away your birthday.
Sincerely,
Mrs. B

Dear Weather people,
Snow is a 4 letter word, and you are no longer allowed to say it.
I have had enough of the fluffy white stuff K?
Thanks,
Mrs. B

Dear CMCSS,
I was discussing with Mr. B your great and wonderful plan for making up all the "snow days" my children have been having lately. He wants to know how adding 1/2 hour to school for 3 days makes up for the whole day they missed. We just aren't getting the math here.
Thanks,
Mrs. B

Ok, so really there has been nothing overly adventurous going on in my life lately. I am totally fine with that. You can find more dear so and so letter's over on Kat's blog by clicking the picture at the top. I am too lazy to give you a link today.

Dear So and So: What deployment does to a girl

Yep Friday again. I would tell you how many Fridays are left, but #1 OPSEC and #2 I lost count Anyways, here we go.

Dear Mr. B,
I miss your face.....and your butt and your warming up my bed and your arms and your kiss and your stuff fixing skills. Ok. I admit it. I miss all of you.
Love you lots, Miss you tons, Counting down to R&R,
Mrs. B

Dear Deployment,
I had to change a lightbulb for the first time in who knows how long. All by myslef. I am holding you personally responsible.
Sincerely,
Mrs. B (expert lightbulb changer)

Dear Unreachable lightbulb,
It's not funny!!! You know how short and accident prone I am. Couldn't you have burned out before the spare army guy moved out or waited until R&R?
Sincerely,
Mrs. B (vertically challenged)

Dear Readers,
Don't worry. I promise not to try to change the lightbulb myself. For more Dear So and So fun go check out Kat's blog at The Three Bedroom Bungalow. You know you want.
Sincerely,
Mrs. B (occasional blog writer)

We survived AIT

getting his certificate

Mr Jensen pinning on Jerry's crab (btw Mr Jensen is from Brigham City. Yep it's a small world)


Well, it has been over a year, but I am proud to announce that Jerry got his crab. For those who do not know, that is what they call the EOD badge (I guess it looks like a crab). If you want to read all about the crab go HERE. I would explain it all myself, but I would probably get something wrong.

This is a major accomplishment. Almost half of the students in EOD school fail out. For 10 months he spent 12-14 hours a day learning all there is to know about Explosive Ordinance Disposal. He would start his day at 4am and not come home until after 6pm. He had tests where he had to disarm ordinance while being watched over by an instructor who was taking points away for every tiny mistake. Anything less than 80% was considered a fail. It was an extremely stressful inviroment, but he made.

I was want to let him and all of y'all (I'm practicing for Kentucky/Tenessee) how proud I am of him. I have always known how smart he is. He really can do anything he sets his mind to.
Jerry, I love you and I'm proud of you. Good work!!

Wordless Wednessday: Our fate has been decided

Don't worry I always come back (eventually)

It is true. I haven't blogged alot lately. It's not that I don't have anything going on (quite the opposite actually). Honestly I don't even know where to begin, but because I like you (and because people are beginning to worry about my well being) I will fill you in.
Jerry has finished his 8 weeks of AIT in Alabama. Somehow the army manages to turn 8 weeks into 3 months. I don't know how they do it, but they are REALLY good at it. He is now at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. 3/4 of my time and energy have been devoted to trying to get myself, my children, and all of our stuff to Florida. It's more complicated than it sounds especially when you add the army into the mix. At the rate I am going I expect to be in Florida sometime before 2010 (I hope).
The kids are back in school. Jade is in first grade. She loves it. Her penmanship gets better every day, thanks to her teacher who has a handwriting obsession. It was fun to watch her last night as she sat down to study her spelling words for the first time (atleast that I have seen). I know she will do great on her test today. Caibo is going to Wee wonders preschool (thanks to everyone on facebook that recommended it to me and saved my butt). He absolutely loves it. Yesterday he brought home Slush the class pet (a stuffed dog). He was so cute carrying him around and feeding him his bottle.
I spent Labor Day weekend with Jerry in Florida looking for a place to live. We got to go to the beach. Fort Walton Beach has the whitest sand I have ever seen (and I have been to Aruba) and the water was so warm. It had been stormy all day, so there were waves to jump and play in. We had a great time. I didn't want to come home, but I did it anyway. I hope we get to move soon.
Last week, I tripped and fell. I hurt my arm, but refused to go to the doctor. Yesterday, my arm was still hurting me, so I finally gave in and went to the instacare. I got to have my first x-rays ever, which was kindof cool (until I get the bill). It turns out that I broke my elbow. (for all my readers who speak medical the words he used were fractured radial head) I don't have a cast yet. Dr. Prince will decide that on Tuesday. Jade says if I need a cast I should get pink. That seems a bit flashy to me. Caibo told me he tripped and broke his "elmo" and the put a pair of his "lucky underwear" on his arm to immitate the sling the Dr. gave me. I wish I could have gotten a picture it was hilarious.
I think that covers about half of everything, but I have written enough to prove that I am still alive. Eventually, I will post some pictures. Maybe I should make a poll. It could ask what you think will happen first: moving to florida or posting pictures.

First of all Kat mentioned Handy Manny in her blog Did you know that the guy that does Manny's voice was Fez on That 70s show? I have not been able to watch Handy Manny since I found this out.

I bought a little package of ribbon at target for the sole purpose of scanning and color picking it. Oh the things digital scrapbooking does to your brain!!
I found these plates on e-bay like 2 years ago when I decided that I needed new dishes. I love them, but not $112 dollars worth. I found something similar at the cracker barrel a couple of weeks ago. I considered buying the, (except I'm poor) Then I thought, is having an Americana kitchen over the top for an army wife?

One more random army thought. The army did a back ground check for my husbands security clearance. Nobody told me this was going to happen. One day I just got a phone call phone some man from the department of defense. He was coming to my house for an interview in just a couple of days. This left me wondering. What do you wear for that? Should I offer him cookies and lemonade? Is he going to go through my house, or can I just clean the living room?

And that's my random thoughts for the day.

Sadly this is a goodbye and not a hello, but it still cute

Jade painting all her friends' fingernails

I let the kids decorate cupcakes for Jade's birthday party. Gel frosting was a bad idea.

Jade in her kindergarten Program

They love goggles

This one is a hello

You can only do this at a small airport. The second plane back was the one we flew on.

Also, a goodbye. The building in the background was Jerry's barracks

Yes, I am a slacker (evidently more than once)

I went to type, "yes I am a slacker" into the title box, and it turns out I must have used that title before. Oh well! It's true.
Since I haven't actually blogged about anything in a long time I'll try to keep it short. (and I shall use Erin's list format because I like it)
* Went to to see Jerry's basic training graduation in Missouri. It turned out to be quite an adventure. The kids went on their first airplane ride and loved it. The best part was getting to see Jerry (even if it was only for a total of 13 hours)
*After surviving a week of the humidity and wind in Missouri I spent some time at the Dollar Cuts. I already posted about Jade's hair, so that's been said. I also cut 10 inches off my hair, and donated it. It only took me 2 weeks to work up the courage to tell my husband. (being a military wife can have it's advantages) Surprisingly he liked it or at least that is what he said. I will post a picture as soon as I take a good one.
* I finally know where I am moving to just not when. I guess it is something to work with. So, at some point between August and who knows when I will be moving to Florida.
* I took Jade to get her ear's pierced. She did really good, and she is being really responsible with her new earrings. I was going to take a picture while they were doing it, but evidently it is store policy not to allow pictures to be taken in the store (I am not a fan of this policy, neither was the employee)
*and today my little girl turned 6. I not sure that is even possible, but I guess it is Wow they grow up fast.
Next I shall post some random pictures and maybe if you are lucky I will give you some descriptions (maybe)