Almost there!

We are almost to Minnesota. Actually, we're almost to North Dakota, from which we'll cross into MN before long. This has been an insane trip.

First off, we left slightly later than we were planning on because it just took a lot longer to get everything done that we had to do before leaving. Then we got across the New Mexico state line, and Thak said nonchalantly that he hoped the cat hadn't gotten shut in Orren's room by accident. I was under the impression that he wouldhve checked on to find her in there before shutting the door, but no, it didn't occur to him until we were in New Mexico. So we thought about what to do for a minute, and couldn't figure out a way around going back and finding out 100% where the cat was. If she was stuck in one of the bedrooms, she'd have starved to death before we got back, so it was literally a matter of life or death. We turned around and went home. She WAS stuck in a bedroom. It was Erin's, not Orren's, but she was stuck in a bedroom no less. I'm glad we went back. Of course, that put us roughly 3 hours later than we had planned on originally. Not cool.

We drove through New Mexico, which is a GIANT pile of crap. I mean, I thought parts of that state were pretty, because people said that, but they were wrong (and from there for the most part... you can't ever take anyone's word on the place they're from as far as how good or bad it is). What's more, it's a pretty big state, and it took forever to get through, because we more or less had to go on somewhat of a diagonal path up it. Then we crossed back into north Texas, and that was beautiful. It was nothing but beef ranches, and it felt like we were in the US again. New Mexico has this creepy feel to it like the whole state is haunted by Mexican banditos and aliens (extraterrestrials... you know, Area 51, Roswell, etc). It was nice to get away from that in north Texas.

Then we crossed the Oklahoma panhandle, all 34 miles of it. It was ugly, but not horridly so. Kansas took a long time also because we had to go basically diagonal across it also. Kansas, I can safely say, is a butt ugly state. It really is. I am trying to find something good to say about Kansas, but I'm not coming up with anything. It's just a nasty place.

It was night when we crossed into Nebraska, and the first thing I noticed about it was how much snow was there. Nebraska has a ton of snow, more than I've ever seen before, and remember, I lived in Missouri for a winter once! Nebraska was very cold and gross, weather-wise, and their road signs were completely archaic. It looked like they hadn't been replaced since sometime during the Nixon administration. Nasty weather and old road signs aside, I envy every person stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha. Omaha is what I pictured for a big city before we moved to El Paso. It's pretty, and the roads are good. The houses are adorable, and while I'm sure they have poor neighborhoods there, it can't be many, because the city in general looked very middle-class. It was an adorable city. I now know why people stationed there get upset when orders come down for them to move elsewhere.

Shortly after Omaha, we crossed into Iowa, which is actually really pretty. We weren't there for terribly long before we crossed into South Dakota, which seemed 10 times as snowy as the other places. We stopped for the night there. By then, we'd been going for over 36 hours, and just really needed sleep.

We have been in South Dakota all day, and are close to the North Dakota line. South Dakota is gorgeous. It's exactly what people picture when they think of the heartland. There are farms everywhere, with red barns and concrete silos, crop fields as far as you can see, old farm houses with big front porches, and pines covered in snow. For all the wasted time in ugly states like Kansas and New Mexico, I am glad I have seen South Dakota. It is extremely beautiful, despite being inhumanely cold and windy.

We are roughly 100 miles south of Fargo, driving north on I-29. Slightly before we reach Fargo, we will cross into Minnesota, and from there, it will not be long.

I've taken a few pictures along the way, and will post them when I get home. I forgot the USB cable for my camera, so I can't download them yet. I will when I get home, though. There's even one of me with a Pamida! Pamida is me and Thak's oldest inside joke, and only people who are from the midwest (plus me) will ever understand it!!

It's something new for me to get used to.

I don't know why, but I always get the slightest chuckle out of friends who bring their cars here to be worked on because their husbands either can't or won't do it.

This is something that will become a huge factor in our lives within the next couple years, of course, and in fact, it's families without a competent mechanic in the bunch who will put food on our table and a roof over our heads. I certainly mean no disrespect to our future customer base.

It's just not something I'm used to AT ALL. Sure, I can't fix anything about either of our cars (See, that's one reason I married a mechanic! I can't stand the thought of paying shop fees and labor charges for the simplest of things! Haha!) so I certainly understand and do not think less of anyone who's in the same boat, but I don't know what I'd do if my husband didn't know his way around an engine.

One of my girl Army buddies used to always say, when someone's husband would be about to come home from a deployment, "It will sure be good to have him around for the things a man is good for, won't it?" For one, I sure agree with her, but for another, I'm glad that mine's good at fixing stuff! For all the messy garage, the dirty jeans, the gloves which have to be washed a certain way, the expenditures I don't understand, I wouldn't trade one thing. I'm so glad my husband is a mechanic!

Holiday stuff again.

So in case anyone forgot, or didn't know, here's what we're doing. Thak signs out on leave at midnight on the 19th (that is, midnight on the day that was actually the 18th, so Friday). We will all be going up to Battalion with him to sign out, and will leave IMMEDIATELY for MN. We're leaving at midnight so that the kids will sleep for much of the trip.

At this time, we're undecided as to whether we will drive straight through, or stop over somewhere along the way. We're going to play that by ear, see how we feel, and how it's going with the kids. It's a huge pain to get the kids to sleep in a hotel room, so that kind of makes us want to just drive straight through, but at the same time, we'll be beyond dead when we get there if we don't stop somewhere along the way. We'll just see, I guess.

But that's the plan. We're leaving late on Friday night, and will arrive either late Saturday night, or sometime on Sunday.

"I've done it all my life, and I'm just fine!"

I wonder when Americans, particularly American women, will wake up and realize that we have the wrong idea. Conversations within my group of friends run the gamut, and two topics that have come up recently is the influx of foreign brides from eastern Europe and Latin America (in the military community, the Asian ones don't even register with us anymore because there are so many, and always have been), and the ever-popular topic of contraception. Believe it or not, these two things are inextricably related. Hang with me, and I'll tell you how.

I don't object to American men marrying foreign women, not in the least. I mostly wanted to know why there seemed to be such a rise in the popularity of such unions, so I did a little research. I turned up some things that were unpalatable upon initial reading, but ultimately made quite a bit of sense. It seems that many young American men are dissatisfied with American women within their age groups for many reasons, and one of the big ones is that many such guys feel that the American women available to them are all fat. That seems totally ridiculous until you actually look a little deeper into it, and find out that while it's certainly a generalization, and therefore cannot apply universally, there is definitely some truth in it also. The average height and weight for an adult American woman is 5'4" and 160 pounds. The resultant BMI of this combination is 27.5, which falls squarely within Overweight range. If that's the average, then it's certainly no surprise that obesity affects so many Americans these days. In 2007, 27% of American women were categorized as Obese. That means their BMI is 30 or higher. Wow.

Now, of course, these problems are not seen abroad as much, and especially not in eastern Europe, Asia, and parts of South America. Hell, if I were a single man my age, I wouldn't have anything to do with American women of this age category either!! I'm married and female, and I'm still disgusted. I cannot imagine how single men feel about the situation here stateside!

How can any of this relate to contraception? I'll tell you how. I was talking the other day with an acquaintance who wants to get a hormonal IUD placed, because she's been on the pill for over 20 years, and her doctor wants her to get off it. I said that synthetic hormones are not the best thing to use, and that she might look into non-hormonal options such as a copper IUD (which I have used for years, and highly recommend!) Everyone else looked at me like I had lost my mind. "But aren't there synthetic hormones in the pill? I've been taking that for x number of years, and I'm fine!"

You're fine? Let's see what "fine" looks like. Fine weighs well over 200 pounds and stands not a millimeter over 5'7". Fine has Type 2 Diabetes. Fine had to undergo extensive fertility treatments just to get pregnant. I think we're safe to say that is not fine. Nobody in that room was fine. They were all overweight or obese, with health problems out the wazoo, and most of them had some reproductive malady as well. They have all been on hormonal contraception of some variety since they were in their teens. I cannot even begin to believe that is a coincidence.

Internationally, hormonal contraception is unpopular. In fact, the very copper IUD which I wear is the #1 most popular form of contraception in the world. The reasons for that are the same reasons I use it. It's completely idiot-proof. It lasts 10 years, so you get a lot for your money. It does not contain any hormones, so it does not interfere with your cycle at all, or have any of the side-effects that hormonal methods have. The world got the memo that synthetic hormones are not our friends, yet here at home, our food supply is riddled with synthetic hormones, and as if that weren't bad enough, we further saturate our girls with them in the form of oral or injected contraceptive from the time they're teenagers. In no other country is it as popular as it is here, and the ones that come close are also the ones who are on our heels when it comes to obesity. This cannot be coincidental.

I wonder when the average American woman will wake up and see what she's doing to herself. I'm really surprised by the lack of self-awareness that I see in my peers. Maybe it is a universal human trait. Maybe I'm just as delusional as they are, although I try very hard to be self-aware. Still, the fact remains that it is obvious that a large percentage of American women are messing themselves up every day, and think they're fine. For the single ones, this means even more so than ever (within our lifetimes anyhow) that they are competing with women from abroad, who don't have these same afflictions. It's quite the situation, but very fixable.... if only the ones involved would be self-aware enough to fix it rather than sit there and insist they're fine, and (the single ones) wonder why they can't find Mr. Right.

What would you trust random Craigslist sellers with?

I'm a Craigslist fanatic. I don't know why I am anymore, though. Ever since we left the Savannah Craigslist area, it's been nothing but crap. On Savannah Craigslist, you find pretty much anything you want, and very decent prices. The best thing to ever happen to a middle-middle-class mom such as myself is to stumble upon a recent listing from a rich lady who just HAS to empty out that pesky old nursery TODAY!! Savannah had its share of rich people, so this was not an uncommon occurrence. Being the wife of a hardworking Staff Sergeant sure didn't hurt my case for getting some of these fine ladies to hold certain items for me until Thak could come with me to pick it up. Anyhow, sales like that explain how we scored the $600 rocking chair we wanted for $40. It's also how I scored a front pack that retails for $120 and had been used twice for $35. Sure, Savannah Craigslist was not without its crap. There was the lady who advertised "BEAUTIFUL maternity clothes, size XS!!" and then when we got there to look at them (and "there" was a bad part of downtown), they were NOT beautiful, and she failed to mention that everything was Petite length. (Yeah, that's a conundrum for another day, finding extra-small maternity pants in long lengths.)

Here, though, it's another story. I have not bought one thing off this city's Craigslist in the 9 months we've been here, and that's saying something. It's all crap, though. The baby and kid stuff is all Wal Mart brands which I wouldn't even use new, far less used (When it comes to baby gear, you really do get what you pay for.) and the kids clothing lots people list are always ugly or in bad condition, not to mention way overpriced. Yet for some unknown and probably completely inane reason, I peruse Craigslist at least every other day.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people sell used car seats. Now, it's not illegal to resell car seats. It's not even inadvisable if the person you're getting it from is a friend or family member who has similar car seat safety practices as you have. However, it is HIGHLY inadvisable to buy a used car seat from a stranger, and anyone who does is not thinking quite clearly. There are a few reasons why.

First, unless it's a Britax AND you know what to look for, you have no way of knowing if the seat has been in an accident before. A seat that's been in an accident cannot be used again.

Secondly, I've seen some seats sold that are probably close to as old as I am, and the people say something like, "a bit discolored, but still just fine." No, it's not just fine. Car seats expire. Have people not heard the term "plastic fatigue"? My chemistry background is limited to lower division courses in general chem, and one upper division course in qualitative analysis, plus anything I picked up as a physics major. My point is, I'm NOT a Chemist by any stretch of the imagination, and even I knew about plastic fatigue. Isn't it common sense that polymers break down over time? For this reason, buying an expired car seat is extra stupid. Selling one ought to be a misdemeanor.

Finally, in order for car seats to be effective, their straps can never be submerged in any liquid. They're treated with certain strengthening agents which could wash out, weakening the straps if they are ever submerged in any liquid including water. This is probably the most sinister of all because so few people seem to know about it (even people who know about expiration dates and accidents) and it's impossible to tell just by visual inspection whether a seat's straps have been soaked. I see it on about 75% of the ads selling car seats, "My wife washed it in Dreft, and it's ready to go." I always want to write them and say, "I hope you guys kept the straps out of the wash." but never do because frankly, people get ugly about car seats if you try to correct them on anything they're doing. It's ridiculous.


Basically, the thing a parent has to ask him/herself when buying a car seat is, "Do I trust this random Craigslist seller with my child's life?" If the answer to that question is no, then don't buy a used car seat. The average used car seat that's for sale costs about $20. I propose you the following:

Cosco Scenera, which will work fine from birth to preschool, and goes for under $60.

If you're the type who's absolutely got to have a carrier-style infant seat then here's an Evenflo Discovery for $60. If money's that tight, though, I recommend going with the convertible and getting more bang for your buck. (Yes, she of the collection of $300 car seats does still love a bargain, hard as that may be to believe.)

Yes, the above two seats are roughly $40 more expensive than the average used one on Craigslist, but isn't your kid's life worth $40?

Don't buy a used car seat.

A good example of sense of entitlement

On the video that follows, they are discussing the issue of whether or not obese people should have to buy two seats on airplanes.



I am of the school of thought which holds that obese people should buy as many seats on any given airplane as they take up. I just don't see how there could be any other school of thought on it. It's quite cut and dry as far as I'm concerned. Pay for as many seats as you take up, plain and simple.

I was actually quite surprised to hear such backlash against that type of sentiment on various online forums. I have noticed quite a change in netizens within the past couple years. I used to get away with certain brands of humor quite easily. For example, it was very socially acceptable to refer to my old First Sergeant as a fat bastard, since he is fat and he is a bastard. These days, if I say anything to that effect, I get chewed out by ten obese forum-goers (almost always American women, occasionally a British woman, and very rarely an American man) for using the word fat as negative, and the like. Of course this has only served to make me think even less of fat people than I already did, but that's a story for another day. Today, we're talking about fat bastards and airplane seats. My main point is that I was completely shocked at how many people thought the airlines should just give the fat people two seats for the price of one. I mean, are you kidding me? Since when is it the fault of any given airline that someone is too fat to fit in a seat?

I equate this expectation of free seats for the obese to Thak and I walking into any given airline terminal and expecting to be sold four seats for the price of three for our little family. See, we have an active 11-month-old toddler boy who WILL NOT ride on a lap. He's just not a cuddly baby like that. Erin would have been at that age, as would many other babies. With this in mind, couldn't we expect a free fourth seat since it's certainly not OUR fault that our 11-month-old won't be content as a lap child, and could we not argue that his active and independent personality should not result in us being charged for a seat for him, whereas a family with a cuddly baby who would be content on a parent's lap could get away without paying for such a thing?

The kid situation is ridiculous, isn't it? Of course it is. Who would ever walk into any given airline terminal and demand a free seat for their kid? Nobody. Yet it's basically the same request that these fat people are making, except there's no kid. It's the left or right half of their butt that needs the extra seat. Yet in the eyes of fat acceptance activists (don't even get me going on these annoying excuses for human flesh) this totally makes a difference.

I say it's horrible from a business standpoint, and bad from a social standpoint. As much as the fat acceptance crew may try to deny it, obesity is a huge problem in our country, and anything we do to enable these people to continue to be fat is doing our nation a huge disservice. With all this talk of universal health care (again, don't get me going on THAT), I think it's far more important than ever to make it as difficult as possible for the obese to continue to be obese, and stop them from developing a sense of entitlement to free perks on the basis of their enormity.

ASE Certified!!!

As you all know already, Thak took the first of his ASE certification exams about a month ago. It was the Electronics one, which is pretty universally regarded as the most difficult of them all. Surely, his 12 years as a generator mechanic did not hurt his chances a bit, but he was still nervous about the test. It was hard to wait a month for the results. I wasn't nervous, though. I knew he'd do it.

We will be receiving the results via mail next week, so we were surprised to receive notification from ASE today that we could check his results online. Sure enough, when Thak got home for lunch, he logged into his ASE account, and saw that while no exact test score was posted, he definitely passed, because he is listed as ASE Certified in Electronics.

So what does this mean for us? Well, basically, as of today, Thak just became about 10x more marketable. You are only required to have one certification done in order to be considered ASE Certified, and to wear the patch on the left of the page. Thak is in school to become a Master Technician (the patch at the bottom right is what they wear). We've still got our eyes on that, and there's a ways to go before he earns it, but today's news that he passed the first of his certification exams, and the hardest one at that, was just what we needed to keep going with all this entails.

It has not been easy, and we're nowhere near done yet. Everyone in this family has paid for this. The kids miss their daddy, and I'm raising them practically by myself. Then there's Thak, who's running from 5 am each morning until after 10 pm each night. Finally, it's starting to pay off, though. It's for something. If Thak got out of the Army tomorrow (yeah, I wish!) he could land better jobs thanks to just even having one certification area completed, than he could have before with none. As far as I'm concerned, that's worth something. We're on our way!!!

Car seat shopping AGAIN! They BOTH hit a growth spurt!

Both kids have hit a major growth spurt lately. Orren is pretty decidedly a size 3T, with the exception of a few 2T's which are from brands that run big. Of course, typical Orren, he's tall and slim as far as babies go. We had to move up the harness straps in his primary car seat (that would be the Britax Diplomat he uses in the car), and I made a dubious discovery. He's nearly outgrowing it in height. Yes, we'll soon be putting away the Diplomat for the next baby. I'm seeing a trend in this house. The average cost of our car seats is $273. Thus far, it takes Orren an average of 6 months to outgrow any given one of them.

This means we are in the market for a Radian XT SL (in Nitro) for Orren. We knew we wanted one anyhow, but thought we'd have longer to think on it than we do. As it is, probably within the next month or two, we'll go ahead and take the plunge on that. It's yet another $300 something car seat, but like the other ones, it's well worth it for its safety features. Plus, it installs via the LATCH system until 80 pounds, whereas other seats only install via LATCH for half that much. LATCH is a safer install than seat belt, so we definitely want the SL (Super LATCH) technology on our next seat, and Radian is the one that's making that. They also rear-face to 45 pounds, and when your baby is as big as Orren, and you hope to rear-face for at least 3 years, that high rear-facing weight limit is very important. If we went with just the standard 35 pound rear-facing limit that other seats have, we would barely make it 18 months at this rate.

Erin, too, has hit a growth spurt, and has nearly outgrown the 5-point harness of her Nautilus (BTW, friends don't let friends buy Graco. The Nautilus isn't bad, but since we're used to high-end car seats, it just feels cheap. Just dish out the extra cash and go for the Britax Regent if you're considering a Nautilus. In retrospect, that's what we should have done.) and the Nautilus has the second highest harness slots on the market (the only thing higher is the Regent, by an inch) so it won't be long before she will be unable to ride in a 5-point harness anymore. Therefore, I've been shopping for boosters for her.

Now, because I know everyone's thinking it, I have to say it. No, all boosters are most certainly NOT created equal. That $20 piece of crap you can buy at Wal Mart does not offer True Side Impact Protection, and will probably fall apart before you've gotten more than a couple years of use out of it. Not to mention, it'll probably be uncomfortable as all hell. It's kind of like putting your baby in a $40 car seat. Sure, the law says you can, but that doesn't mean you should. (Obviously, if that's all you can afford, then it's understandable.)

Anyhow, for boosters for Erin, we have one already. Her Nautilus will work as a high-back booster, and since it does top-tether and all that, we're happy with it for use as a booster. (In fact, I'll be happy on some level to get rid of those cheap straps! They're the part that disgusts me the most about the Nautilus.) We need one more, though, because she still only has the Nautilus, which we transfer back and forth between the car and the truck. The Nautilus was actually bought mostly for the truck since it's huge. We were going to get Erin a Radian car seat for the car, but now that she's too tall for that, we can't.

There are two boosters we are considering. The Sunshine Kids Monterey is made by the same company that makes Radian car seats, and the quality is absolutely outstanding. It is also compact car friendly, which is exactly what I need. I am going to have to fit three car seats across the back of my HHR within the next couple years, and it'll work if at least two of them are Radians. The other seat we're SORT OF considering for Erin is the Britax Parkway , but at present, I'm leaning away from that because it's wide. Plus, it's uglier than sin. They're roughly the same price, as you can see, and honestly, as far as car seats go, a $120 booster is a lot cheaper than what we've been paying for stuff. Plus, it's the last car seat we'll ever have to buy Erin, and both of these models have the quality to stand up to many years of use. They both feature excellent side-impact protection, and their belt positioning apparatuses are superior to those of cheaper boosters. All in all, either one is worth our money, but we'll more than likely go with the Monterey. Plus, Erin likes the pink. I kind of would like to talk her into the red and black so it will match the car and Orren's car seat. I don't think I can sell that one, though. Trying to get a little girl to accept red when pink is available is far easier said than done!!

So yes, we are car seat shopping again. Thankfully it's slightly cheaper this time around since Erin is going into a belt positioning booster again. :( I'm a little sad about that. Just knowing how much safer it is to be in a 5-point harness, I was not looking forward to being unable to keep her in one. We'll just hope that there are a few more months before she truly outgrows her 5-point harness. She's got one more inch to grow, and then we'll have to take her out of it. With Erin, that could happen next week or three months from now. Your guess is as good as mine.

Snow day!!

Hell has officially frozen over. Yes, it snowed here! It came down for most of the morning in big fluffy flakes, the kind we had in Missouri when I was in AIT. I may not have seen snow in 8 years, but it was the kids' first time to ever see it, so it was a very big deal! Plus, we got to test out our snow gear BEFORE our trip to Minnesota in like 2 1/2 weeks. It works!

Erin loved the snow. She could not get enough of it. Orren, on the other hand, lasted about 5 minutes outside before he wanted to go in. Granted, it was coming down pretty hard at that point, and was probably getting in his face. He also doesn't have his boots or gloves yet. Cabella's really needs to hurry up with those. He was outside in Converse All Stars, his snow suit, and no gloves, so he probably got cold. They were both adorable in the snow, though! They're looking forward to MN even more now!!

Erin catching snowflakes on her tongue:


Erin again:


Both monkeys together in the snow:


It was really coming down! Erin couldn't get enough!


Orren is ready to go inside:

Happy Thanksgiving, 125th!

We just got back from the organizational day, which basically means mandatory fun day. It's an Army tradition for Thanksgiving. There is always, at bare minimum, an Officers vs NCO's football game. This battalion went us one better, and had that game, plus a football tournament in which every company entered the best team they could, and competed for a trophy.

It was fun. The soldiers of HHC were disappointed that Thak would not be able to be their quarterback, as he has easily the best arm in the battalion, but they still put up a good fight despite losing to F Co (whose Commander played the entire game in drag!) in the first round. It was still fun. The Officers beat the NCO's, which was a change from what I'm used to, but then again, they only allowed Senior NCO's to play on the team this time, and that's not exactly a fair fight when you consider that the average senior NCO is close to 40 years old, and most of the Officers are Lieutenants in their early 20's. It was all in good fun, though.

The single soldiers set up games for the kids (which were mostly played by other single soldiers), B Co's FRG sold hotdogs for lunch (which is why we came home and are making a chicken casserole for lunch! Hotdogs? Ewww!), and Sergeant Major kicked off the day by calling the entire battalion to a formation where she reminded everyone to be thankful for all they have because there are too many soldiers who are not able to celebrate the holiday this year the way we are. She is right, and Thak and I know that better than we want to since we've lost more than our share of holidays to Uncle Sam and his dirty bidding. It was good that she reminded the no-tour-wonders, though. They need to hear that kind of thing.

But anyhow, here are some pics. That's what you come here for anyhow (Hell, that's what *I* come here for!)

Erin throwing a baseball through the big tire:


Thak throwing the ball to some of his buddies, trying to help them warm up for the game:


The kids bored and cold while everyone was in formation:


Me with the kids, and Thak with the kids while we watched the Officer vs NCO game:



Your favorite re-up guy plus wifey:

Ready for Minnesota

Erin and Orren are ready for our trip to the frozen tundra! Well... at least the long underwear fit, and they think they look oh-so-cool in them. I tend to agree.

Oh, and now you have seen Orren at 10 months old. He will actually be 11 months old next week. He is roughly 32 inches tall, and about 25 pounds, still our BIG boy. Look for him in a Vikings uniform any given Sunday in about 20 years! But for now, he's just adorable.

What happened at Ft . Hood

Family members, please disregard this. You already know. Others, especially civilian friends and those who have never been to Texas, I just need to clear something up.

Yes, there was a horrible shooting today at Ft. Hood.
Yes, Thak and I met at Ft. Hood.
Yes, the shooting happened a stone's throw from our old battalion area and the barracks I lived in.

HOWEVER, we left Ft. Hood nearly six years ago, and we are on the opposite side of Texas, hundreds of miles from there. We are fine.

We know nothing more about this than you do. They haven't released any names yet, nor will they until all next of kin have been notified, which could take a while.

The official holiday plans announcement

So.... ahem.... attention to ticker....








Yup, that's right! We are making the trip up to the frozen tundra for the holidays this year! We haven't worked out the details on it all yet, but will within the next couple days. We're excited! Thak hasn't been home in 10 years, I've never been there, and none of the MN relatives have ever met Orren (only the bros have met Erin, for that matter).

As you guys recall, Orren's birthday is Christmas Day, so we'll also be celebrating his first birthday while up there. It's almost funny that the boy born on a 72 degree Christmas morning in Savannah, GA celebrate his first birthday by playing in the snow in Minnesota. In one year, he'll have seen more places than most kids 10x his age!! Not bad if you ask me.

It snowed!

Well, actually, it didn't snow on our side of town, but friends who live at the base of the mountain, on the other side of post, said it snowed at their houses. When we woke up this morning, the mountains were white.

I didn't take this pic. I ganked it from a friend who lives on that side of town.

Orren and his push toy

We got Orren a push toy! It says it's for ages 12 months and up, but we figure our boy is bigger than most people's 12 month olds, and he's also walking, so why NOT get him the push toy? The one we got him is SOOOO cute. It's the Melissa and Doug alligator one, so it's solid wood, and very beautifully constructed. Plus, the alligators mouths open and close and make all kinds of fun clacking noises when the little studmuffin runs down the hallway squealing with delight and pushing his new toy around. It's cute. You'd really have to be here to get the full effect. (I'll ask Thak if we can buy a video cam sometime within the next couple months! Then we'll set up a Youtube channel and you can see our crazy monkey children in their natural habitat.)

The pics I have today are not the best quality-wise, but you try photographing the boy who's trying to run you over with his new push toy, and see how well you do!!

Anyhow, without further ado, Orren and his push toy:

I approve this message, even if you don't!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8325579.stm

The above is a link to a BBC News story about a study that was done by a university in the UK. The study showed that couples in which the wife is at least five years younger than the husband had the greatest marital satisfaction. This was increased even more if said younger wife had a higher level of formal education than her husband. It was also shown that marriages in which the wife is older than the husband are the least happy of all.

I had to laugh, because it's Thak and me all over! Thak thought it was pretty great, too. We definitely give the researchers who drew these conclusions our stamp of approval!

The thing I've found funny is how many people are completely displeased with these results, saying they've got to be wrong, and other things of that nature. Sure, most people we know marry within a year of their age, so they wouldn't fall on the most optimal side of this study. Also, for some inane reason, the "older woman, younger man" thing is catching on like wildfire, and this study also showed that marriages in which the wife is older than the husband are the least happy of all, so that may be why a lot of people are taking offense to this. We think the study is right on in that case also. As you may recall, Thak's ex-wife was older than him, and she was pure hell to be married to. Sure, her age alone didn't make her that way, but it does put her neatly onto the bad side of this study, so I find it a little humorous if nothing else.

I don't know why people are taking offense to this thing. I don't take offense to things which go against what me and Thak are doing in some regard. Hell, I could name you three studies right now which we fall squarely on the bad side of. I guess I'm used to falling on the wrong side of public opinion, though. I am, after all, the younger, thinner, second wife who met her husband at work. I'm used to being Public Enemy #1. It's nice to have something that says we're doing it right for once!!

Cool new tickers!!

Seeee??? I put up cool new tickers on the sidebar!! They're really rather pointless, but they're fun. I have enjoyed these things throughout Thak's deployments, for anniversary countdowns, and stuff like that. Now there's a cool new website that has ticker designs which appeal far more to us. The typical flowers, butterflies, and fairies hardly fit our personality, yet these were the standard fare on most ticker sites until relatively recently.

Enter Alternatickers!! Alas, they have tickers for those of us who tread on the side of the line most would call odd. Yes, there are slider icons for extended harnessing and extended rear-facing! They have breastfeeding ones which are really cute even though we can't use them. They have bike (as in bicycle, not motorcycle) stuff, punk rock stuff, retro stuff, tattoo stuff, sushi stuff, and even cloth diapering stuff!! Did you see the cloth diapering ticker?? That slider is actually a Bum Genius diaper in Grasshopper! We actually have four in our collection just like that! They had a lot of kinds of dipes to choose from for sliders on the site. I was so impressed. Even the car seats in the kids' tickers are correct. That's a Nautilus in Erin's, and a Britax Marathon in Orren's. While ours are pink and Mossy Oak camo, respectively, the point is, we're not the only ones who think this stuff is cool enough to put on a ticker. One other thing we like about that site is that every one of those slider icons is available with the kid in various skin tones. A site that doesn't assume EVERYONE on the face of the earth is white?! This is far too good to be true!

Anyhow, I love cute little tickers, and now we have a lot of them. If you ever want to just real quick see how old the kids are, or how long till Thak's birthday, or how long we've REALLY got until he's out of the Army, it's just a click away. :)

Kiddos and general update

Things have been so busy lately! It's like we just lose weeks in there... like some customer will order something from me, and before I know it, it's been a month and I haven't even thought about their order yet. That's one reason I'm closing my business within the next two weeks, as soon as I get through the orders I have in house. It was too much for me to run this house 100% by myself since Thak is gone about 18 hours a day between work and school, plus homeschool Erin, plus represent him well within the unit, plus run a business. That's like three people's worth of jobs, and I'm one person. Something had to give. Since I never actually enjoyed my business, I'm more than happy to give it up. Thak FINALLY said it was ok for me to quit forever yesterday, and it was basically the best words I'd ever heard. I give it 3 months before he asks me to reopen. I'm not doing it, though. Sewing is monotonous, soul crushing, sweat shop work, and most of the customers treated me like crap, so I'm definitely never doing this again after I close my shop. I may make an occasional thing to put on ETSY, but I will NEVER take another custom order again, even from friends.

Anyhow, the kids are doing great. Orren cut four teeth this week, all at once, all across the top. That brings his total to six. For some reason, teeth is the one area in which he's actually behind a lot of other babies. He's 9 1/2 months old, and only had two teeth up until this week, and now he has six. I'm not worried about it or anything. He's doing everything in his own time.

He hasn't walked much more since the night he took his first steps. That's ok, though. He'll get to it when he feels like it. He's a big, strong, healthy boy, and we couldn't ask for better than him. He's the sweetest baby, and while he's not cuddly like his sister was at this age, he's still really nice. He's every bit a boy! I had no idea that even at this age, boys and girls were so different from each other, but they definitely are.

Erin is still the best big sissy. She loves helping to care for Orren, and playing with him. She sometimes gives him foods he shouldn't have, but she's no worse about that than daddy is, so I can't complain!! She has learned how to pick Orren up, and put him on her lap while she's sitting on their little bench. It's really cute, and he just loves it! She loves carrying him around, even though she can barely get his feet off the ground (when picking him up under his arms), and he weighs more than half what she weighs!

In school, she's doing great. We've started learning about nouns, verbs, and adjectives. She's understanding quite well, which is awesome since reading is not her strong area. She's doing well at reading in general also, and our goal is for her to read The Cat in the Hat all by herself by the end of the month. I don't know if we'll do it that soon, but we might. We're at least making progress in the right direction.

We also took a trip to the science museum (and bought ourselves an annual pass while we were at it!!) which was having an awesome exhibit about space. Erin has always been interested in space, so she really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, too, because much of the new research they were showing was done at GA Tech, or with GA Tech personnel, so I'd had my hands in it a little not all that long ago. (And by "had my hands in it" I mean I saw it in the lab next to mine, or helped the PhD candidate in charge of it tighten a bolt on his apparatus, or record numbers while he called them off to me!! Nothing terribly significant, but still, it's cool to see the research on display for the lay audience.) Thak also enjoyed it, and learned a lot. He wants to go back. I'm sure we will, maybe this weekend. I mean, we did buy an annual pass, so it's not like it would cost us anything!

In the remaining portion of the science museum, it was the normal science museum stuff, and all the kids there (and parents, too!) were enjoying it greatly. They even had a Tesla coil. I was impressed with Erin because she remembered that I built a small Tesla coil in my lab one day when I had her with me. She was impressed with the big one they had there, and even though she was a little scared of how much noise it made, and how big the sparks were, she still was just dying to volunteer to assist with the next demonstration. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Tesla is my homeboy, you see.

Beyond that, it occurred to me that just about all the exhibits there, all of the interactive ones at least, were physics-based. Everyone was enjoying them a lot, yet somehow I'd bet the majority of these parents shied away from studying physics in college, and the majority of these kids will also. The reason I say that is because it's the law of probability that they did/will. The majority of people think physics is either scary or boring. If it were so scary and boring, would an entire museum be geared toward it, and would that museum be a popular place to go? Highly doubtful. I even said to my friends, "Take that museum, sprinkle with some basic Calculus, add a pinch of Newton, and you've got your first semester of general college physics." The significance was lost on them, too. I wish more parents would use that museum, which all kids enjoy, as a way to encourage their kids to study physics. I know that's what I'm doing. Erin learns about physics every time I have the opportunity to teach her about it. Of course, she learns about the other areas of science as well. They all tie into one another. I find that other parents teach their kids a lot about the other areas of science, but avoid physics like the plague. That perplexes me. Because I majored in physics, I know the world around me on a level I would not had I shied away from it because I'd heard it was difficult or boring.

Anyhow, that's about it. My boy is growing like a weed, and my girl is learning well, and we're still not scared of physics in this family. Now I have to go and get ready for a unit function I didn't even hear about until last night. Luckily, it's just a picnic in a park on post, so it's casual. Thak has to work for most of the day even though everyone else is off, but hopefully he'll get out of there at a human hour even so.

New car seat for Orren!

UPS brought us Orren's car seat last night! I could not get the box open fast enough!! This thing is awesome. It's a Britax Marathon in Mossy Oak camo, EXTREMELY limited edition, and never being made again. We were so lucky to find one still in stock, and for suggested retail price, with free shipping (but on a car seat that costs almost $300 and weighs 20 something pounds, shipping BETTER be free!!)

We installed it in the truck this morning. It looks so cool! I asked Thak if he was going to be showing off his manly car seat to everyone at work, and he answered matter-of-factly, "hell yeah". Haha!!


OK, we now own four car seats:
-Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP, which is the infant carrier style one, long since outgrown.
-Britax Diplomat, which goes to 40 pounds, which Orren is currently using in the car.
-Graco Nautilus, which goes to 65 pounds and then converts into a booster. Erin uses it in both vehicles currently, but it will eventually be in the truck only since it's enormous.
-Britax Marathon, which goes to 65 pounds, and Orren uses in the truck (although Erin fits quite well in it, too.

All we lack is now a Radian for Erin to use in the car, and EVENTUALLY, within a year, we'll have to get a Radian for Orren to use in the car because he's going to outgrow his Diplomat at some point. In fact, once he reaches 30 pounds, we'll probably go ahead and replace the Diplomat with a Radian (save the Diplomat for the next baby) so that Orren can continue to rear-face for longer.

The Radian we want to get him rear-faces to 45 pounds, so with that, we might just make our goal of rear-facing him for at least 3 years. These other seats only rear-face to 35 pounds, and as big as Orren is for how young he is, and how fast he's growing, we would be one of those families who couldn't make even two years rear-facing. Even more crucial than weight is height, though. Orren's well into the 90's percentile-wise for height, and the Radian is the tallest rear-facing car seat on the market. That's a big reason we think we will need one in a year or so to replace the Diplomat, which is really short.

You may be wondering why we're so adamant on rear-facing for three years. Well, I read some research not long ago, stating that internal decapitation is SIGNIFICANTLY more likely in most types of car accidents if a child forward faces before the age of three. The reason is that sometime after the age of three, the spine becomes strong enough to not expand more than the spinal cord itself on impact. In kids under 3, the spine can stretch 2 inches, but the spinal cord can only stretch about 1/4 inch, so if they face forward, and get into most kinds of car accidents, they will die on impact, whereas a rear-facing child would not, because the seat back will not allow their head and neck to move much.

(Do you see now why I think people who forward face their kids at a year old despite there being tons of research available showing that it's a bad thing to do are complete morons?)

So anyhow, yeah, next project is Erin's Radian so we'll have a seat for each kid in both vehicles, then we'll be good for a while before we have to get Orren his Radian.

Right now, we're just thrilled with our Mossy Oak Britax Marathon!! I just love high quality baby gear. There is such a difference. It's easy to fit, easy to install, works awesome, and looks cool! Can't beat it!

First steps!!

Orren Kiet was born 9 pounds and 9 ounces. Today, he is 9 months and 9 days old.

AND..... HE JUST TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS!!!!!!

Thak was here to see it. He's totally overjoyed about that, and make no mistake about the fact that 9 is a VERY lucky number.

New pics

We had new family pics taken this past Saturday. They turned out well! Some were taken across the street from Memorial Park in downtown El Paso, and others were taken at the Ysleta Mission in the Lower Valley.

There were many more than this, and we love them all, but to avoid even more photo overload than we're already committing, I'll leave it at these. You get the idea. :)

More unit stuff

The thing nobody ever tells you is how hard it will be, after you leave the unit that's pretty much carrying the entire Army's load, to muster enthusiasm for the unit you go to next. Sure, it's nice for a few months to know that you can watch the news, bad things can happen, and it's not 100% guaranteed to land on your doorstep like it did every time when you were in 3rd ID. Then that wears off, and you realize that it's really not that great, and it becomes VERY hard to care about this new unit. You will find yourself saying, "Well, in 3rd ID, we did...." and "Well, if you think that's crazy, you should go to 3rd ID!" or "The thing about a person like her is that she wouldn't last a week in 3rd ID." and things of the like. ALL the 3rd ID people who come here feel the same way, and NONE of the other units' people do. It's like we've always said, when it comes to the Army, there's 3rd ID, and then there's everyone else.

We had another FRG meeting last night, and I do like this unit, although it is frustratingly different than anything 3rd Infantry ever thought up. There is one thing that disturbs me GREATLY, though, and that is that last night, I was the only NCO wife in the room. We had about four Officers' wives, then me, and then a whole massive gaggle of lower-enlisted wives who all said "this is our first duty station" at some point during their introductions.

Not cool. Not cool AT ALL. For one thing, when this unit deploys, and it will, the LAST thing any company needs at its helm or anywhere near its leadership ranks is a no-tour-wonder. These girls will do awesome when all the FRG does is plan barbecues and Christmas parties, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty of what the Army does, they're going to fall flat on their faces. I'm not jinxing them. I just know. Remember? I came from 3rd ID.

It was a weird feeling last night, knowing I was the only NCO wife in the room, the only 3-tour wife, hell, the only multiple tour wife, and the only prior service one aside from A Co's FRG leader, who happens to be the only male FRG leader I've ever seen, and also a retired Marine. He's great. Under his leadership, A Co will be shit hot. With a high concentration of Officers' wives, plus the token NCO wife, HHC will be pretty great also. The rest of the companies? I fear for those girls when the unit deploys.

I've got cages to rattle, and lots of them. There are a few problems, though, and I know them better than most, as a former soldier and NCO wife.

1) NCO wives are THE single most jaded group of people you will EVER meet. We've been around long enough to have horror stories a-plenty about how awful the people were in any given one of our former units, and watch out for the ones who don't have horror stories because they're the ones who were doing the perpetrating. The last thing most NCO wives want to do is get involved with another FRG because of their horrible experiences with past FRG's. The way we are trying to overcome this here is by emphasizing the fact that this is a BRAND NEW unit, and the FRG is JUST becoming established. It literally is what we make it. We set every precedent ourselves.

2) Officers' wives get all the credit for what the FRG does, but in most units, NCO wives do the majority of the work. It's just like when the unit deploys and is getting ready to come home, the Commander is always congratulated on how great his unit did, and the people who actually made those great things happen are not commended at all. It's kind of like that on this side, too. Most non-prior-service wives think this is incredibly screwed up, and want no part of it. I haven't figured out a way around this one yet, because it's just the way it is, and being that I AM prior-service, I'm used to it.

3) NCO wives are often thrown into the muck and mire of the general "enlisted" side. Since Officers' wives kind of have an excuse to rise above that kind of thing, and stick to their own little group, they generally do (and understandably so), but NCO wives don't really have that excuse, because since our husbands work directly with the soldiers, we're supposed to be good to the lower-enlisted wives, so it's rather difficult to segregate ourselves socially under those conditions, although many of us would like to. When we try, the lower-enlisted wives pitch a fit, and it's drama drama drama. So FRG is a sticky situation for NCO wives in many units. Now I am in a position in this unit to alleviate a little of that. Thak is not actually in charge of anyone here, so I can host little functions that are open to NCO wives ONLY, and not hurt morale within the unit. The ones who want to reenlist will still reenlist regardless of whether or not their wife was at my luncheon the previous week.

4) It's a volunteer basis, and the Army's done a great job of telling wives of all flavors that it's perfectly ok to have your cake and eat it, too. Yes, you should have ENORMOUS amounts of benefits, but you should not be expected to do ANYTHING aside from lap it up. No, volunteering is not expected anymore, and it's really hurt the organizations. This is most true right in the middle, right where I am. Most of my peers are not 5 year wives like me. No, they're about Thak's age, and have been married about 15 years volunteered with horrible units for most of it, and are getting tired. I can't blame them for being tired, but this isn't the time for it, nor the place. You can relax when he retires.

5) The divorce rate. We have almost no NCO wives because most of our NCO's are divorced or about to be. Those who are married are married to other soldiers. (Gee, that doesn't prove what Thak and I have been saying all along or anything, does it?)



So I've got a small pool to work from, and the deck stacked against me. Even if I can convince them that this unit isn't like others they've been in before, the real question is, will they take it from me? I'm younger, prior service, and married my husband 12 years into his career. I'm Public Enemy #1 to a lot of these women.

Let's see how it goes....

Stud muffin!

Here's Orren in his new fall clothes (size 2T!!) He'll be 9 months old on Friday. I can't believe it!!

Hail!!

The day after we bought the truck, we experienced our very first West Texas hail storm. It was nasty! Hail ranging in size from 1/2 inch to golfball came down for a really long time.

By and large, we got out without serious damage. I took a large hail stone to the eye while opening the garage door to move the car inside, and the truck, which does not fit in the garage, has a chip in the windshield, which we're going to have to fix, but otherwise, we made it out just fine. Many other people fared a lot worse than we did, despite the fact that we were in the most severe part of the storm.

Some pics:

Beginning of the storm:

After a few minutes:

It knocked all the leaves off our tree:


This is where it ran off the roof:


A close-up of some of the smaller hail stones... Thak said his hand was about to freeze off!!


Outside the front door:



A bit of the lawn, plus the street, which was more like a river:

Erin's new ride!

We got Erin a new car seat the other day. Babies R Us was doing this gear trade-in event, where if you bring in something old and crappy, you can get a voucher for 20% off something new and shiny, so I thought that was a great idea to go ahead and get at least one of Erin's car seats that way. We had this crappy old booster seat from which the straps were missing so we couldn't harness her in it. We traded that in, and got 20% off this beauty!! It's a Graco Nautilus, which is a high-weight-harness car seat. It'll harness her to 65 pounds, and considering she just hit 40 pounds at six years old, that means we'll probably have her in this seat until she's 8 or so. She'll be in it until she outgrows it, that's all I know, and that'll be a while. This seat goes normally for $180, but we got it for about $150 with our discount. You can't beat that.

It's a huge seat, which is why I didn't go with it for the car right off, because in the car, now she and Orren both sit by windows, and there's not enough room between them for a third car seat. In the truck, however, she can fit in this, Orren in his Britax, and there's still more than enough room for a third seat in the middle so when we have another baby, they'll all fit without a problem. For the car, we've got to get her a Radian eventually, but right now, we're happy with our Nautilus.

I have realized how spoiled I've become with car seats, though. To be blunt, with Orren, we've used expensive seats from expensive brands. Our infant carrier is a Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP which sells normally for $280. Our car seat that he ride in now is a $260 Britax Diplomat. Those two seats spare no expense, and they just feel expensive. The straps feel nice, the clips feel nice, the way they adjust is easy and luxurious. This Graco Nautilus is a well rated seat, which is why I bought it, but it's no Britax. It's hard to get used to the fact that the straps feel kind of rough, and they get twisted more easily, and that the clip feels so light weight compared to a Peg Perego or Britax clip. I'm not worried about it because, like I said, the seat has excellent ratings, and that's all that matters. Plus, Erin will only use it for maybe three years. For Orren, though, we're going to buy a Britax Regent for the truck because honestly, he'll be in that seat for the next seven years, and Thak and I both agree that Britax just feels sturdier.

So Erin loves her Nautilus, and the ratings are good, so obviously it'll keep her safe. Plus it's cute. What little girl doesn't love a pink seat with butterflies on it?! That's all that matters right now. I'm just REALLY glad I didn't buy this seat when she was 2, with the intention of using it for 6 years or so... But Erin thinks her seat rocks, and I'd never tell her otherwise.

Meet Odysseus!

Our new (to us) Dodge Ram 2500! It was sad to see our faithful old F150 go, but it was time. We put so many miles on that truck, and the last compression test Thak ran came out really uneven. We had two options, either get a new truck, or buy a crate engine for the existing one. Since we needed four doors anyhow so we can more easily get the kids in there, we decided to go ahead and look around last Saturday at what the local dealerships had to offer, price range wise. We figured out what we could afford, and found a lot of things that were within price range, but still more than we wanted to pay. Then we drove all the way over to the west side of town, and found this one. It's a certified preowned Dodge, which means it came with a warranty. It's a 2006, and has not many miles at all. Our payments after trade-in, well, let's just say a Private could afford them so long as they were single.

We're THRILLED with our new truck! See? Even Orren likes it! (OK, so he likes the shiny Ram on the steering wheel!!)

Erin and Orren update

So Orren is now off commercial baby food. He used to get just the Earth's Best Organics and sometimes Gerber Organic, but seriously, when you factor in 3 meals, and stage 3 food, it was costing us over $100 a month in food alone. Then you add in formula (they discontinued our kind, so we switched to Similac Organic) which is another $200 a month (and hence, I kick Thak in the ass for being so insistent that I quit breastfeeding when I did). So $300 a month for the boy. Oh my... It definitely adds up! Thankfully we only have a little under 3 1/2 months left of formula feeding.

What we've done instead of commercial baby food is actually began using the food grinder that I've used for nothing besides bread crumbs for the past five years, and given him what we're eating, with slight consideration to sodium content, gassy ingredients, and the like. Today for lunch, for example, he had leftover chicken cacciatore which is the same thing Thak and I had.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat spaghetti
onions
bell peppers
garlic
tomatoes
red wine
chicken
basil
oregano
black pepper
capers
just a small touch of salt (half a teaspoon for a whole pan)

HE LOVED IT!! Tonight for dinner, we're having beef tips and rice, which is not a low-sodium dish since it has bullion in it, but to compensate for that, we'll go ahead and pull out a couple pieces of beef and onions before we add the bullion, throw it into the food grinder with some brown rice and zucchini, and that'll be perfect for him.

Now he still likes finger food, and he eats some finger food at every meal, but he doesn't get full off of that, so we have to help him along a little, and this is the way we do that. At least it doesn't cost $100 a month!!



Erin is doing great at homeschooling. We're going to have to get her a second grade math book soon. I've found that bribing her on sight words is pretty much the most effective way. If she reads them all correctly 10 times, she gets a candy bar. Oh well. Could be worse. At least she's reading them!

We're going to be looking for more homeschooling materials this week because we're running through ours so fast. What we got was good for getting us started, and we're now just burning through it so fast that we need things far more substantial. It's not a bad thing, not by a long shot.



I find that many of my friends don't quite understand how busy I am lately. I'm running a business and I'm homeschooling Erin. That alone is a lot. Beyond that, I have an 8-month-old, and Thak's schedule of school and work never gets any easier, so I have to do all this myself. I don't think many of my friends really get it. They would get it if I worked a 9-5 job, and they would get it if I had just one of the above things, but they do not get this:

Wake up, feed kids breakfast, sew, begin homeschool lessons, clean up, feed Thak lunch, finish homeschool lessons, sew, clean up some more, prep dinner so it's on the table at 5, eat, spend half an hour with Thak before he goes off to school, see him off to school, get kids bathed, rooms cleaned, and ready for bed, put kids down, sew, clean up, sew, spend maybe an hour with Thak after he gets home from school, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again.

I don't think people quite get it when I say I can't come to coffee if it means I won't be able to get dinner on in time.

And with that, I have to go finish today's homeschooling lessons, and then hang two loads of diapers on the clothes line. As for dinner, I'm ahead of the game this time... the stuff's not in the freezer at least!!

FRG

Why must everything in the Army be potluck? I hate potlucks. And most applicable to today's to-do list, why must tonight's FRG meeting be potluck? It's AFTER dinner time. Yes, "we" decided to have everyone just bring finger foods, but why do we even need food? We're just trying to fill leadership positions within the companies. If it were solely my decision [which obviously it's not!] we wouldn't have food there at all. Maybe it's my no-nonsense Ft. Stewart influence [which is part of why I'm in the position I'm in] but FRG meetings don't have food, and FRG potlucks are something completely different. Meetings are meetings and socials are socials. I guess we do them both together here??

The thing is, this unit is brand new, so there's no precedent on anything. We set the precedent, and the way we make things is how they will be in the battalion for a long time to come, long after I've left this place anyhow, so this is a big and important time for us. I guess we're setting the precedent of doing meetings as potlucks?? Oh well... There's another precedent I would like to set tonight, and that is of dressing nicely for meetings. I swear there is nothing I hate more than seeing some 400 pound Army wife in sweats and her husband's Basic Training company t-shirt [stretched to breaking point, of course], hair a mess, not a stitch of make-up, and coming to an FRG meeting like that. No, I'm sorry, but when you come to a unit function, you are representing your husband, and you need to have more respect for him, for the unit, and for everyone else in attendance than to show up looking like a fat sack of crap. For that reason, I have to figure out what I'm going to wear. I might end up making a new skirt. I've got tons of awesome material for just that in stock, so that may be something I'll go ahead and do once Erin's working on something independently today. Then tonight, I'll pair the new skirt with some dark brown heels (it is after labor day, after all!!) and whatever top goes with it, plus my peacoat since it's cold at night now, put my hair up in a Spanish chignon, touch up the make-up, and there you have Mrs. SSG M. I can only hope that others will follow this example. Since the unit is in its inaugural stages, there's a possibility. The Army needs more old-school, and this unit's got potential. I'm going to try.

Well, I have to run! Time for home schooling lessons, and sewing, and LOTS of cleaning!!! I can't get my game face on for the meeting if my house is a mess!!!

The Outstanding Adventures of Finger Food Boy and Home School Girl

OK, just for the pics, just Finger Food Boy today. There will be pics of Home School Girl tomorrow.

Anyhow, we got some good materials at the PX yesterday, and I made my first hard and fast set of lesson plans this morning. It's going well. We're WAY ahead of the game in math. We're behind in reading, but we knew that already. She lost everything she learned in GA when we moved out here and put her in that awful public school last year, so we knew we were playing a little catch-up in that way. She'll catch up fine at home with us, but in that school, I really believe she'd have fallen through the cracks.

We've decided to go with something called Unschooling. Basically, we're not buying a canned curriculum. We're making our own, and it's tailored to Erin's interests. Her biggest interest right now is agriculture, and since it's about time for us to put in our fall garden, that's an easy thing to plan lessons around. I feel like we'll make better progress this way than if we tried to get a canned curriculum, knowing that we're so far ahead in one area while being behind in another.

The other thing that I've found is that the deeper we get into this homeschooling thing, the more we like it, but the less our friends understand. I keep getting questioned by my friends as to why I don't go bitch to the superintendent, and try to get her into a better public school, and even some people trying to tell me that unschooling is against the law in the state of Texas, when in fact, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I never knew how strong homeschooling parents really had to be in sticking to their guns about their decision to home school, especially if they, like us, choose unschooling as opposed to a canned curriculum. For the record, the State of Texas Supreme Court ruled that a home school must be operated as a private school, meaning that children must be taught using books, workbooks, and electronic media, or any combination thereof, in the areas of reading, writing, math, and good citizenship. THAT'S IT. Not "Thou shalt pay someone a million dollars for a curriculum you could have written yourself." No, for once, this is one way in which Texas is a freer state than GA. Homeschooling is far less regulated here, and frankly, for someone just getting started, that's nice. Georgia may beat Texas by a mile in gun rights, but for homeschooling parents, Texas is definitely the best.


OK, so that's Home School Girl. Now, some pics of Finger Food Boy.