Continuation of yesterday

So, I took half of my half day yesterday and I’m taking the rest of it today.  I really wasn’t feeling well after that PT test yesterday.  This may be TMI but my uterus felt funny.  It felt like it was constantly cramping.  Anyways, that part of me feels much better.  The rest of me feels like it got hit with a bolder.  I am SORE!!!!  I love the way I feel for about 2 hours after I take a PT test.  It’s almost euphoric.  After that I want to take a hot bubble bath and go to bed. 

 

In other news, my roommate moved out a few days ago.  I have no idea where she went nor do I care.  My neighbor told me that while I was gone she was doing 2 guys in here at once!  Ugh!!!  Ok, I should never have to mention her again.  Moving on….

 

Work has been slow since I got back which is fine by me.  It makes the days seem a little longer but they should start picking up again here soon.  There is a whole new team up on the hill too.  The old team left a day before I got back.  They had a nice little celebration while I was gone.  My boss had plaques made with a group picture on them.  He’s looking for a little reimbursement of the $600 he spent on them.  I asked him if I was in this group picture.  He said I wasn’t because he didn’t take the picture until I was already gone.  He said he procrastinated.  I said, “Then I’m sorry.  I wasn’t involved in any aspect of this good bye ceremony or gift giving so don’t expect any money from me.”  Sounds crass, I know, but I was just a little hurt that not a single person from that team left me any kind of note saying good bye.  I told them good bye when I left.  Whatever, the new team is ok.  It will take some getting used to.  By the time that happens they will be leaving and a new team will be taking their place.  And after that we leave!!  I check my countdown thing at work yesterday.  We are a little over 40% of the way through this deployment.  It’s going fast!

 

Well, I have to get ready to go into work.  These half days always fly by faster than the normal days.

Working on the kids menu at Outback.....

the night before I left :(

Haylie's bling

He knows....

....what's coming....

....Got him!!

My Valentine's gift from Cory.  I LOVE it!!!  I'm using it as my wedding ring since my actual wedding rings are too big now.  :D

The 6 layered chocolate cake I mentioned in my previous blog.

My husband.....the dork

I need another vacation already! :P

I know it’s been awhile since my last blog but I have been exhausted since I got back here!  It’s not that I’ve been busy with work or anything like that.  I think it’s jetlag.  I haven’t been sleeping through the night like I used to.  I toss and turn all night.  I go to bed at a decent hour…not too early but not too late either and I’m up about 2 hours before I have to be.  It’s very frustrating. 

 

Anyways, my 2 week vacation at home was wonderful!!  I got back in time for Cory’s birthday!  We went to Best Buy in Lawrence to pick up his birthday gift.  I got him the Ion Drum Rocker he’s been drooling over since before it came out.  After that we were going to go to Joe’s Crab Shack but time really wasn’t on our side.  It was about a 2 hour drive and we had to be back home by 4pm in order to be home when the kids got home from school.  So instead we tried to go to Outback just down the road a bit.  No luck there.  They don’t open till 4 on weekdays.  We ended up going to Old Chicago which was fine since it’s one of our favorites.  Joe’s Crab Shack was attacked by us a couple days before I left to come back here.  Oh man that was some good eating!!  We even got dessert!  A six layered chocolate cake!!!  We had lunch with the kids at school the next day.  That was fun!  School lunches have definitely changed since I’ve been in school.  I remember there being more flavor to them and actually having choices.  The next time we brought them Burger King.  That weekend we drove up to Omaha to see family.  I got my snow storm that weekend as well!  For Valentine’s Day we ate at Outback and then hung out at Mic’s Karaoke Bar with my sister and her hubby.  That’s were Cory and I met in person for the first time back in May 2005.  The next week flew by way too fast!  We had to go back up to Omaha on Wednesday for a funeral.  One of Cory’s uncles passed that previous weekend.  Haylie also got sick again.  It was another UTI!  As of yesterday she still had the same level of bacteria in her system.  The docs gave her a different medication this time.  That’s enough about my trip.  I’ll let the pics tell the story.

 

I took a PT test this morning.  I improved my pushups by 8 which is really good for me.  I killed the walk.  I really hate saying that.  I want to be off this permanent profile!  Anyways, I have 35-36 minutes to complete a 2.5 mile course and I did it in 26:52.  I know it’s only walking but that is a killer time and my hip flexors are very sore.  I weigh the same as I did before I went on leave: 146. 

 

Well, that’s about it for now.  My patience for writing right now is low so I’ll write more later.  Enjoy the pictures it took me forever to upload.  I’ll add more of those later too.

LOVE the crab legs!!

Me and my mom.  I love cheese!!!

This guy here is Sparky.  He's 18 years old!  He's been a very good buddy and I'm going to miss him when he goes....which may be soon  :(

Cory was sick the day we took these pics.  I think he's doing a pretty good job of hiding that fact.  Love you hunnybear!!

Cory had  just said something funny and mildly inappropriate.  Haylie makes that face whenever he does that.  I love it, it's so cute!

Haylie and Liam

Made it back in one piece

Just wanted to let you all know that I made it back to Baghdad alright.  I'll write more once I get over this jetlag and not so tired all the time.

I Love You the Greenest

This is a school project that Kevin had to do.  He had just read a story about a mother and her two boys and they had asked her who she loved the most.  Instead of giving a straight forward answer she told each boy what she loved about them and equated it to colors.  It reads:

I Love You the Greenest Mom and Dad

Mom, I love you the yellowest

I love you like the beginning of a sunrise

Like the base of a flame

Like the sun we revolve around

Like a sun flower garden

Dad, I love you the bluest

I love you like the soft fur on Blue

Like the clear sky in the afternoon

Like the start of a flame

We went up to the elementary school for a parent teacher conference today.  They aren't scheduled for another two weeks but since I was in town on my R&R they were nice enough to schedule one early.  We decided to have lunch with the kids while we were there.  It was really nice and we had a lot of fun.  I'm pretty sure I embarassed Kevin.  I was trying to give him kisses at the lunch table and as we were leaving and he was walking back I said, "See you later, Sweetie"!  You should have seen his expression.  Priceless!

My only success at sneaking in a kiss

Being silly

I did manage to get a picture where he's actually smiling, but I thought this one was more fun.

My princess.  She's growing up way too fast.

The Long Trip Home

I finally got home on the 6^th of February after 3 days of traveling.  I started on the 3^rd and I didn’t even leave Iraq.  My flight to Kuwait was very early in the morning on the 4^th.  It was at about 0300.  It’s only an hour flight but we didn’t get into Kuwait until about 0500.  Once we got to Kuwait we had to go through a ton of paperwork and customs.  They told us we were leaving that night so it made going through all of that crap worthwhile.  I don’t know exactly what we did anymore.  I’m pretty sure it was a lot of “hurry here and wait for an hour or two”.  I think we got to the customs lockdown at around 1500….that’s right, I said LOCKDOWN.  Funnily enough it’s an area called Freedom City.  From this point on it’s one disappointment after another.  We were supposed to leave for the flight line around 1730 as our flight was to leave at 2100ish.  For whatever reason that was pushed back to 1830 and then 1845 as they said our flight was delayed.  Not 5 minutes later they said it was back to 1830 and our flight was “ahead of schedule”.  So we are all lined up and ready to go at 1830 and we end up standing there for an hour!!  So it’s 1930 and we finally get on the busses to go out to the flight line.  It’s supposed to be a 30 minute drive and it ends up taking us 3 HOURS!!!  We get to the “rest stop” where we are supposed to take a 15 minute break.  At this point it’s 2130.  Given the way the whole trip had been I said the 15 minute break would be closer to 45 minutes.  Sure enough I was right.  At 2215 we finally leave the “rest area” and get to the plane we are to take to Germany at 2245.  That’s right, another 30 minutes to go maybe 4 miles.  I don’t think these bus drivers could go above 10 miles an hour.  When we get to the plane a guy gets on the bus and tells us that if the wheels aren’t up by 2330 it could be 2 to 4 days before we get the chance to leave again.  So we have 45 minutes to get the baggage under the plane and get us in it.  The baggage detail had all 100 bags under the plane in 4 minutes!  We sat on the busses for another 15 minutes before they told us we could board the plane.  By 2315 we are all on the plane with our carry ons secured….plenty of time to take off right?  Nope!!  The last 15 minutes some maintenance guy was on the plane trying to get a COFFEE POT to work!!!!!  At 2331 the captain gets on the speaker system thing and apologizes for not being able to take us home today but they will get a hotel and be ready to take us to Germany in the morning.  Oh, and the maintenance guy “finished” while the captain was on the speaker system.  The captain didn’t leave the plane until we were all off the plane.  I think he was afraid he would get attacked or something.  The only good thing that came out of this was that we weren’t going to have to wait 2 to 4 days before being able to leave.  Our entire luggage stayed underneath the plane.  The next morning, about 9 hours later, we go through the whole process again only this time it took us an hour to get to the flight line and we were only waiting on the plane for a half hour before we were able to take off.  I think the KBR guy who was in charge of getting us to the flight line the day before purposely delayed our arrival to the flight line so the pilot didn’t have to fly us that night.  So the flight to Leipzig, Germany was only about 5 and a half hours.  Upon arrival we learned that our layover was going to be 9 hours!!  We just couldn’t catch a break!  I think the layover would have been nice had we been able to actually go walk around the city or something.  Instead we were locked down inside the holding area.  The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, thankfully.  I got into Kansas City at about 1100 on the 6^th.  Two other people were going to Fort Riley so we just rented a car together and took off.  The flight they had us scheduled on wasn’t due to leave KC until 1500.  Why wait 4 hours for a 35 minute flight when we could drive the distance in 2 hours?  So that’s what we did. 

 

The kids had no idea I was coming home.  I got home before they got out of school and was waiting on the couch when they arrived.  Kevin about knocked me over and Haylie gave me the biggest hug ever.  She didn’t let go for a long time.  It was a wonderful feeling!