Getting Closer!

"Dear Mom,
From what I understand, I have to go to AIT straight from BAsic. Whether or not I'll be able to get off or see you guys at AIT is beyond me. I really don't know.
But I am DEFINATELY graduating. I passed my final APFT test. I got 38 pushups, 47 situps and ran 2 miles in 16:17 (side note: evidently Pete wasn't pleased with these numbers as he put frownie faces beside each one).
The reason I did so poorly is because someone fell and messed up their knee right at the beginning and I stayed back to try and help him. I was behind at least 15 seconds and everyone was ahead of me. Drill Sergeant came up and took over so I stupidly sprinted into the middle of the group and completely winded myself.
My besttime running is 15:58.
We got fitted for Class As today. I'm gonna be super hot. Hehe! :)
I actually haven't gained a lot of muscle. I'm getting rippped and skinny, but I'm not gaining any muscle. In fact, a guy here who was a body builder has lost a lot of muscle mass.
Will you ask Dad if he is gonna wear his Class As? The DS came and asked if any high-ranking personnel were coming for us, and I told them Dad was, and they asked his rank.
My battle buddies are requesting that he smoke the drill sergeants. I told them he would more than likely smoke us instead! :)
Last week of training! :)
With Love,
PFC Peter Nelson

(PS) No more phone calls all cycle. 3 soldiers in 2nd platoon snuck to the PX and got caught. The whole company got screwed. No more priveledges res of cycle."

"Dear Mom,
This letter is going to contain a little profanity....I messed up tig time yesterday. I got the entire platoon smoked while we were in the field.
My drill sergeant called for us to form up and my baddy and I (the 2 MGers) were close to the last to get there. I thought my platoon guide said to hurry and fall in, but it was drill sergeant. My buddy said, "Why don't YOU fall in?" and being me I said, "Yeah, why don't you fall the **** in?" Turns out my drill sergeant said it. He dropped the whole platoon and ran at me yelling, "You mother ****er! I'm the one that said to fall in!" Woops! Needless to say most of my platoon hates me. I'm not too upset about it because all we have left is 10 days! :)
Thankfully those last 2 months have somewhat flown. No doubt the days have drug on, but the weeks have gone by fast.
Change of plans. The final ruck march was moved to Tuesday night and Wednesday morning instead of Saturady night into Sunday morning.
Things her get pretty hectic. Right now, my battle buddy is walking around in NOTHING but his helmet, boots and camel back. And he has his rifle in between his legs. People are stupid.
Could you please send pictures? And stamps? I'm all out. :(
I'm so ready to be home. Todsay is almost over. :) There are only about 9 days now. :) I have a feeling we're about to be smoked, so I'm gonna go.
I love y'all. :)
WIth love,
PFC Peter Nelson

P.S. Could you PLEASE change my roster number on my letters ot 339 instead of 399? My drill sergeants are making fun at me for it."

The Latest (and best so far)

"Dear Mom & Dad,
We qualified with our M16s yesterdsay. Really, it was pre-qual, but they wanted to save time on Saturday (The actual qual day) and so they said if you shoot sharpshooter or expert, you don't have to come out to the range to qulaifty on Saturday.
Anyways, I'd been knocking down targets left and right throughout the week. As someone who has never shot a rifle before, I was getting a little cocky. The DSs and the company commander kept telling me that I was a great shot and to keep up my confidence. They did NOT tell me to get overconfident.
I made a bet with my buddy where the lowest score would take the higher's fireguard shift for the night. Fireguard is where 2 people stay up and keep account of where the other soldiers are at night, and each hour, 2 more people rotate.
I shot 32 otu of 40. Not bad, but not expert. I guess I could live with Sharpshooter, but I find my buddy and he shot 34. Oh great!! Now I get to do another fireguard shift next time he has one.
I'm getting to understand the Army more and more. We stand around and wait for hours to shoot for a few minutes. We were supposed to have an inspection of our bay today, so for the past few days we've cleaned like crazy, only to find out that plans changed and it's now a surprise.
I can't really tell if I'm at Basic or not. Tomorrow (Saturday) we get a pizza party and next Friday we're gong to a high school football game. That doesn't sound like Basic to me! Then again, I remember that we have a 5 or 6 mile road march on Monday with about 45 pound on my back. oh joy!
We took a PT test today. I passed my pushups and only missed my situps by about 5 or 6. We didn't run today because it was lightning.
Oh, and what's up with Michael Jackson's case? I saw they considered it homicide? What is wrong with them?! I saw he had drugs in his room? That's a bunch of bull!
Well, I've got to get to bed. I'm not feeling well and I'm getting hoemesick. Pnneumonia is going around, too.
5 more Sundays :)
WIth love, PFC Peter Nelso

PS I've been in the infirmary with 102 fever the past few days. I feel better now.

More Letters!

"Dear Mom & Dad,
Basic is ok, still. I honestly can't say I love it but I can't say I'm not having fun. The days drag, but the weekds fly. We only have 6 Sundays left.
"We did land nav in the woods yesterday and next week start BRM (rifle shooting). The woods were calm and relaxing. We saw a tree that had been gored by a boar. It looked like someone well, a beaver got a hold of it. Needless to say the five-man team was on guard after that.
Today we started BRM. We just did a simulator and tried to group our shots. Other than that, we did nothing much. I've been trying to stay busy cleaning and stuff.
I've been praying every night, mostly for the soldiers next to us and their family and friends. I also pray for y'all, Cat and the movie nighters.
My platoon is coming together. We're not fighting as much as we used to . We should be in White phase soon.
We had some soldiers imitate drill sergeants today. We almost got smoked.
We have an Eric in our platoon. His name is Pauly and he's 39. He makes the comments like Eric would. Just now (reason I'm writing about him) is we had a guy start coughing and Pauly said, "Don't push on his head or he'll start choking." Is that not like Eric? (side note: Eric is our next door neighbor who's a total ass, but the nicest ass you'll ever meet!)
I've been getting letters from Cat. I didn't get a phone call last week, so I haven't gotten a chance to let you know. Still no letters from anyone else. just you, Mabry and Cat. I've been keeping them all.
It's time for lights out, and we lost 2 hours of sleep last night. I love y'all and miss y'all.
With Love,
PFC Peter Nelson"

"Dear Mom & Dad,
We started shooting our weapons yesterday. It was fun. We zeriod, and then most everyone that was done got to go back to the bay. I didn't because I missed the first transport by two minutes, and while I:) was waiting for the second (around two o'clock)I was put on range duty. I had to stay out on the range for an extra three hours for roughly twenty people that couldn't shoot.
Today we shot at targets rom 200m & 300m. The Company COmmander said I was one heck of a shot. I had excellent grouping almost every time (3/4).
I almost felt like I was going to collapse today. I had to carry double the gear everyone else did because my battle buddy got really sick. I drank four camel backs of water, and a powerade today. I couldn't breathe! I feel alot better now though. We do hand grenades Monday after next!
I might have an article fifteen (ask Dad what it is). It's not good...apparently, the military doesn't like you destroying their property Who would have guessed? I probably should have worn sunscreen because getting a sunburn is destruction of military propery!
Still no letters from Cameron or anyone, although I got stuff from Mrs. Eaves and Miranda in Cat's letter tonight.
Anyways, it's bed time and I have to shoot again tomorrow. I love you and miss you.
With Love,,
PFT Peter Nelson"

Fun Stuff!

"Hey Mom & Dad,
We got stuck with IVs today. We had to get trained on how to do IVs and stick our battle buddy. I got stuck twice because my vein disappeared as soon as the needle was put in.
"We went on our first road march today. We walked 4 miles with 40-50 lbs on our back. I was drenched in sweat by the end. It was really difficult. I've got huge blisters because someone stole my inserts out of my boots.
"Tomorrow is another obstacle course. It's got to do with medical bullcrap. I'm gonna hate it.
"I've got two good battle buddies. One's name is Joseph Nishimiga, from Hawaii, and the otehr is Morgan. I can't seem to recall his first name. Every time I get a letter, they always ask if there is good news, then we swap stories and tell jokes about anything and everything. They make sure I stay focused on what I need to be focused on, just like I do for them.
"Thre's not many people I don't like. THere's one who I can't stand (he's SO much worse than Ryan) but everyone else is cool. We haven't gotten past the immature stage yet. Most people keep messing around, and the other people get caught trying to hush them, which is why we're in transparent phase still.
"Well, anyways, things are same old same old. I miss everyone. 7 more Sundays!
With love,
PFC Peter Nelson"

Letters from Pete

I thought it'd be fun to document Pete's adventures in Basic as he writes to us. So I'm going to either post whole letters, or excerpts from his letters. He Never dates them so we have no idea when they were written, or even in what order. Some times 2 letters may arrive the same day.

"Dear Mom & Dad,
I'm doing pretty well. It's still challenging. IT's hot too. The humidity is killing everyone. We spent all day today out in the field, in the sun, with an extra 35 pounds with us. We had to run around and do all these different things.
We march Everywhere!
So far, I've done 2 obstacle courses, received my rifle, gone across a single, double and triple rope bridge, repelled from a 65 foot tower, climbed a 60 foot fort, walked across it and climbed down on cargo net, I've been through the gas chamber and made some really cool buddies (even one from Savannah!)
We had to build our own harness for the repel tower. "If you tied it, you ride it," is what the drill sergeants said.
The gas chamber was terrible. I never want to do it again. It all burned. It burned my face, hands, eyes, throat, nose, ears. I had snot all over my face. I had a string running from my nose to my helmet, from my helmet to my chin, and a dangler. It was disgusting.
But so far everything is fun. I've become more confident in my abilities and myself.
I still miss everyone. Please send pictures. It really helps.
I'll see you Sept 30!
With love,
PFC Nelson"

"Hey Family,
Today was our first actual PT test. I did about 42 pushups, but only 27 of them counted. I did 32 situps, and I ran 2 miles 18:38. I only need to drop 2 minutes and I'll be good. Needles to say, I failed overall, but I feel good about the run.
We did the leadership reaction course yesterday. That was fun. There were severn different missions that each squad had to accomplish within 20 minutes (each station was 20 minutes). All seven had to do wit hgetting a box across water, but the "bridge" was always blown and we had random object that we had to use. 3rd squad, mine, was the only one to complete all seven missions. We also had to get most of our people across.
We got our red phase guideon taken away yesterday. We're in transparent phase now. I don't know when we'll be in red again, but I hope it's soon.
Tell Mabry I said to stay strong and I love her. Tell Ryan that if he wants to beat me when I get home, he better start working. Tell Dad that he better watch out too. Tell Mom that the guys down here are anxious to meet her.
I love you all.
PFC Peter Nelson"

Move-In Day!

A week ago today we moved Mabry into the dorms at MS State University. To say she was excited would be an understatement. Anyone who knows Mabry can imagine what it was like; remember the little dog that bounced around the big bulldog in the cartoons, saying, "Can we? Huh? Huh? Can we,Spike? Can we, huh? Huh?"
Her room in TINY! I didn't realize how spoiled she had become in her last 4 years living away from home. At MS School of the Arts (her high school), she shared a suite; 2 dorm rooms connected by a bathroom shared by 4 girls. At Northwest, her "dorm" was really a 2 bedroom apartment, complete with living room, kitchen and huge bathroom. For the last 4 years, she's had to share a bathroom with 4 girls only.
Enter Hathorne Hall, her new domicile. It kinda makes me giggle just thinking about it. Her dorm room is tiny, and the bathroom and shower are down the hall. It's also a co-ed dorm, which didn't concern me until I went to use the facilities. I walked into the only bathroom on the hall, and there were exactly 3 bathroom stalls....and a urinal! (Insert freaked-out gasp here!) I quickly walked out of the restroom and back into the hallway to check the doors. "Restroom" was only on one door, and that was the one I'd just come out of! Having to use the facilities really badly, I quickly locked myself into a stall and prayed like crazy that a guy wouldn't come in to do his business!
When I walked back out of the restroom, I decided I'd check the showers, just a couple doors down. Same scenario (minus the urinal)....4 shower stalls with curtains. I'd heard of co-ed dorms but always assumed they'd have seperate bathrooms! I was seriously freaking out, but also thinking it's gonna be pretty funny when Mabry finds THIS out!
Well, Mabry was already in the know, and the laugh was on ME. Turns out her dorm IS co-ed, but there are 2 wings in the building; the boys have one wing and the girls have 2. Last year the entire dorm was a boys' dorm, and the bathrooms haven't been re-done to remove the urinal and add another toilet. Whew! But I do wonder how they expect 3 toilets to be enough for about 40 girls!

The 13th One!

The media room stank really badly after they left all that teen-funk in there!


Last night was our 13th annual back-to-school ice cream party. We first started having ice cream for dinner on Mabry's very first day of Kindergarten. We went to Baskin Robbins and ordered anything we wanted and called it dinner. :) When we moved to Holly Springs, though, there was no Baskin Robbins. Well, just having ice cream at the house wasn't special, so we decided to have ice cream at the house, and invite a whole bunch of people over! That started Mabry's first day of 2nd grade, and Pete's first day of Kindergarten. We've been doing it ever since, and I don't believe attendance has ever dipped below 30.
We missed Pete this year, but most of his friends still came so it was almost like having him here! :)

WWW 3

The third annual "Wild Women's Weekend" took place at Gulf Shores from July 14-19 this year. Yes, I realize that's longer than a "weekend"; can we help it if Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday got in the way?
There were 12 attendees this year from 8 different states: MI, OH, MO, IN, KY, TX, TN & MS. It's amazing that we all met online. Most people, when hearing we met online, don't wish to know the story. I think they're afraid to find out that we're all a bunch of crazed lesbo-lover mass murderers....or they're afraid that we're not! The imagination, most times, is SO much better than reality, isn't it?
In fact, what brought us women together is Dave Ramsey's website, The Total Money Makeover. The tie that binds is money; we all want more! Actually, we really just want to learn to be better stewards of the money we already have. But it was through this website that we found more than money advice; we found true friends. Women who, had we met on the street, probably never would've given one another a second glance (ok, some of us probably would've made catty remarks about the others!). The Internet's an amazing tool, though; it forces one to get to know a person's heart before seeing the person's body. I LOVE that, and I LOVE my TMMO girls!
I suppose the highlight of the week was The Sailboat Cruise with Captain BJ. Patrick and I had been on this boat when we went to the beach in June, but for some reason, it because a whole different place when I went on it with my 11 girls! There was another family with young children on the boat with us, and you could just hear the parents whispering (hissing!) to their children, "You stay away from the back of this boat! No! Don't you even LOOK back there!"
Most late afternoons were spent in the Gulf, relaxing, talking, and Tracie teaching us that it's ok to pee in the water. The days were spent either shopping, at the pool, on the beach....the beautiful thing about it was that everyone could do exactly what they wanted! There was no pressure from anyone to do anything; everyone was on their own vacation!
We spent one evening at the Hangout. If y'all haven't been there, it's such a FUN place to go! There were kids in strollers and 100 year old people...the Hangout's for everyone. Kids and adults were on the dance floor; heck, there was even an 8 year old playing the accordian in the band! I will warn you, though; if you go and dance, you might want to wear shoes. The "dance floor" is concrete, and though I'm from MS and used to being barefoot, I came home with bloody, peeling, blistered feet. In fact, it was over a week before I was able to wear shoes again (I was forced to wear flip flops to work; I hate it when that happens!).
Perhaps because we were at the beach, this year's WWW actually lived up to it's name. I won't go into detail (what happens at WWW stays at WWW!), but Lena summed it up well in her deep TN drawl, "I tell y'all, trying to keep up with y'all (at the Hangout) was like herding cats! I might as well've been trying to nail jello to a tree!"

Time Gets Away From Us!

Last post was in May, and it's now August 1. Holy Smokes, time really does have wings!
So what's happened lately? I suppose the biggest news is that Pete's gone to Basic Camp at Ft. Benning. I can't believe how much I miss him! He left on Tuesday 7/21. He wasn't supposed to leave 'til Wednesday, and he had everything planned out. Going-away party Monday night, Tuesday would be spent with his friends that couldn't make it to the party, Tuesday night would be with us and his girlfriend,Cat, on Beale St in Memphis, then he'd leave Wed. I'd go to work as planned Wed morning so I woulnd't make a fool of myself, and Patrick would drive him to the Recruiting Center.
Then he got the call Monday, in typical Army fashion, that he had to leave Tuesday afternoon. Pete tracked me down at work and he was so upset; we both cried over his plans gone awry. I stayed teary-eyed all day long, my heart breaking because he wasn't going to see some of his friends as planned.
We had the party Monday night as planned, and it was well-attended. Pete's got TONS of friends and they can all eat TONS! In the first 1/2 hour we'd gone through 25 pounds of hamburgers!!!! Evidently Pete was expecting them all to eat tons, though, because I made the mistake of sending him to the store to buy the food. I gave him a list and said, "Add whatever else you want." Tip for the future: don't ever say those words to a teen! The boy ended up getting 2 huge containers of mustard, 2 huge bottles of ketchup, and a GALLON of pickles, as well as a 5 lb bag of mini Reese's and a 5 lb bag of M&Ms. I had "chips & dip" on the list, so he got the dip and about 8 containers of various flavors of Pringles. Ok, son.....Pringles aren't exactly the kind of "dippin' chips" I had in mind, but since I didn't specify I'll take the hit! LOL
The party "ended" at 10, at least at our house. They carried it to Huddle House 'til around 2am. Lucky folks at Huddle House! :)
Tuesday morning we took him (with Cat) to Huddle House for brunch. I'm pretty sure we were better behaved than Pete & his buddies the night before! Around 11, I decided to take the cowardly way out, though, and Mabry and I left them to go shopping. I just couldn't sit there and pretend life was just ducky anymore, and I didn't wanna make a blubblering idiot out of myself in public! So we said our goodbyes at Huddle House, and I haven't seen him since.
He doesn't have an address yet, but we did get a letter from him earlier this week. His letter sounded upbeat, and it almost sounds like he finds his Drill Instructors amusing. He's been "smoked" twice, and in the telling of it he made it sound pretty funny. He's such a great writer, and I can't wait to hear from him again. Of course, Cat has had THREE letters (that I'm aware of) and one phone call (which she missed). I told Pete before he left that if time would only allow him to call one person, he should call Cat if that's who he wants to call. Then Cat is to call me and let me know how he is. I remember what it's like to be the girlfriend! :)
One thing we did at his party was have everyone write him a note/letter in a notebook. MY plan was to mail him one every day (which would kinda take the heat off of me in figuring out what to write him!). But the boy found the notebook, took all the letters out and took them with him. Now I'm glad he did that, as I imagine they're getting him through these first couple weeks while he waits to get an address.
So...now we wait to hear from him. Hopefully he'll call soon with an address so we can start writing him. I'll let everyone know when we hear in case anyone else is interested in writing him! :)

FREE TOTS!!!

Evidently when you go to Sonic dressed in a flower bra they give ya free tots. I didn't try it, but Pete & CJ did and were rewarded for their efforts. Sonic better hope word doesn't get out; otherwise everybody in town will go to Dollar Tree to buy a flower bra, drive to Sonic and claim their free tots!

Thinking about getting a nose job....

I'm told with a good surgeon we could look like this:

Where to start?

This was quite an exciting week around here, not to mention somewhat busy. Monday night was graduation at the kids' old school, Marshall Academy in Holly Springs. We went to see old friends and had a great time catching up with folks over there (though most didn't recognize me!).
On the way over there we found out that Mom was coming to our house the next day for Pete's graduation. Oh, boy....as she talked, I just kept picturing my house in my head. Or more to the point, I kept picturing the MESS in my house! I knew there was no way to get it looking decent before she got here (Patrick and I had to work Tuesday, leaving the kids home alone to "clean". Since I never really taught them, I knew we were sunk!). But we were so blessed to have her here and really enjoyed the quick visit. She got here Tuesday evening around 5, we left for Pete's graduation at 6:30, then dinner, then home to bed. Mom was gone by 7:45 Wed. morning.
I was reffing the water-balloon volleyball game, standing a safe 5 feet from the jello pool, when I caught a flash out of the corner of my eye. Next thing I knew I was flying through the air in Eric's arms, right into the pool! I had no time to brace myself so there was very little damage done (Patrick's first question was whether I "popped" anything!). Thus my first foray into the jello-wrestling, and it's awesome! In fact, if it didn't need to be an outdoor sport, I'd bring all the stuff to my sister Leslie's house and we'd do it for a new Thanksgiving activity! OMG the kids would have a BLAST (so would the adults!).
At some point during the party my neighbor Eric decided it was time for Ryan to have a haircut. So he recruited one of the kids' friends to help, and they duct taped him TIGHT to minimize the fight. Then Eric carried him outside to a chair and duct taped him to that, also. Then he whipped out the clippers and began to shave Ryan's head! I gotta give it Ryan.....he took it like a man! :)
The week's over now and all we have to do is clean up from the party....still. I picked up tons of stuff tonight, but we still have 50 gallons of Jello to dispose of!! That stuff is STILL the same consistency it was Wednesday night, so I had to call to find out how to get rid of it. That's probably something I should've considered before I bought it, huh?
Oh yeah, also on the agenda this weekend (besides disposing of the Jello) is cleaning the hot tub. Funny (or NOT) how that jello just clings to EVERY inch of you, even fully clothed! Put 6 or 7 teens in a hot tub after they've been wrestling, and well...it ain't pretty! I think there's probably a brownie or 2 floating around in there, as well. I know it's brownie, because I witnessed the act myself. Christy threw the brownie to Pete, who dropped it in the hot tub. When he said, "Where'd it go?" someone else said, "There it is!" and everyone else yelled, That's not a brownie!!!" Teens are so much fun!

Congrats, Ryan!

Ryan turned 15 a couple weeks ago, which means he's "permit-able". Pete took him to get his permit the day after his birthday, only to find out that there's a special application that we, his parents, had to fill out and sign. So they picked up the application, brought it home for Patrick to fill out, and headed back to the DMV (nearest one is 20 miles away)with Mabry. Got to the DMV, where Ryan realized that he forgot the application his dad had just signed!
Earlier this week, Pete took Ryan back to the DMV with the application. Ryan got to the window, handed the papers over to the lady, who promptly wrote "VOID" on the application because it wasn't notarized!. Oh, boy, was Ryan ticked off!(To be fair, he had every reason to be ticked; on the bottom of the application is a place to get it notarized, and Patrick didn't think it needed to be done. That in itself was an argument between Patrick and I, but we won't go there right now! :) )
So, Friday being my birthday, I took off work, spent $70 getting my hair done, checked Ryan out of school, got his application notarized and took him to the DMV. You'd think having JUST had my hair done that I wouldn't want to get it messy, but it was such a pretty day we drove Mimi with the top down and my hair flying free. When we got to the DMV, I realized that MY license expired that day. What a pretty picture I made.....NOT!
Anyway, Ryan took his test, passed, and got his permit. He didn't get to drive home, though, because Mimi's a stick. Ryan barely has a clue about an automatic, so I wasn't even gonna attempt letting him drive Mimi! I let him drive me around yesterday in Sparky (our '94 F150), and I've got to admit I quite enjoyed having my sunglasses fly off my face twice. I'm sure eventually the boy will get the hang of those brakes!

Graduation Party: Take One

I should have known. Nothing much else was going right so far: I'd paid $33 for express shipping from Oriental Trading only to provide them with the WRONG address (correct home street address, but with my work city/state!)I discovered my mistake Friday evening and was told (praise God!) that the box was in Batesville and I could go pick it up. That was 6:30 Friday, Batesville's 20 minutes away, and the FedEx closes at 7pm. I was up to my elbows in hamburger meat (making patties for burgers), so I yelled to Pete to finish the burgers as I ran out the door. Crisis averted! Got all the buckets filled Friday night for his party on Saturday. We're SET!
Saturday morning we're awoken by loud thunderstorms and rain beating against the windows. No sweat, I thought; party's at 5 so surely it'll clear up. And it did....right up 'til 4 pm, AFTER we'd set evertyhing up for the party (luckily not the jello yet). Promptly at 4 the bottom fell out of the sky and thunder & lightening came quickly & fiercely. It rained for hours! No way could we have had to games we'd planned on, so we moved on to Plan B. Everyone still showed up, so we projected movies onto the wall. They ate hotdogs (thanks, Patrick, for grilling them in the rain!), chips, about a million canned drinks, and cake. The music was so loud, and there really was no room in here for adults. So we (7 adults) did the practical thing: we took all the alcohol next door to Angie's house and sat on her (covered) pack patio, leaving our house to the kids! :)
When we came back they were playing a game they made up that involved lots of leis and the ceiling fan!
Later this week we're going to do it all again. We've still got plenty of food & drinks, so we're just gonna pick a sunny day, call all our friends, and have another party!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

For some reason we celebrated his birthday twice...I guess it's 'cause he's twice as special. Or as Mabry would say,he's 2-handed special! The night of his birthday, Patrick and I took Ryan to Windy City Grille. Since it was only the 3 of us (Mabry & Pete were otherwise occupied), it wasn't quite as lively. So we decided to try it again last night at Outback Steak House. YUMMMY!!!! We asked the balloon-lady to make him something special for his birthday, so she made him a lady-viking hat and sang happy birthday to him! LOL
How do these things go so fast?! The night before his birthday, I just kept remembering how short & fat he was when we brought him home from the hospital. At just under 9 pounds and only 18" long, he looked like a Butterball! I should've had my first clue he'd be tall when at his one week checkup he'd grown to 21"! Now the boy's 6'4" and looks like a string-bean!
He'll go to get his permit next week; he hasn't studied for it yet so didn't feel ready for it on his birthday. The boy had BETTER hurry up with it, though. In MS you can drive w/out an adult at 15 & 1/2, and by then all my other drivers will be out of the house. As it stands now, I'm gonna have to do my own grocery shoppping for 4 months!!! :O

The Bully, Bullied

Bully Cat, aka Chico, has been the neighborhood bully for years. He's well-known around the neighborhood, and depending on whether he's killed/maimed your cat, he's either well-loved or well-hated.
He's been an indoor-outdoor cat, very well-trained. Or shall I say, WE were very well-trained. All he had to do to be let out was to sit at the door and stare it down, and we'd automatically go open it for him. His life was really sweet!
Until last week, that is. His latest victim was the cat across the street. At 14 pounds, Chico could do some damage to a measely 8 pound cat, and he did....repeatedly. I finally got a call from the distraught owner, begging me to do something with our cat. (sigh) (Why do things like this ONLY happen when Patrick's out of town!?) So on Monday night at 9pm, after hanging up the phone, I went to Walmart to buy everything we'd need to turn this hulking bully into an indoor-only cat.
After much crying and squalling like a girl, clawing at the windows, and scratching at the door, the cat's finally calming down a bit. Until this morning. I awoke this morning to the sound of something knocking on a window. I came out to the living room to find Chico sitting in the sill, but HE wasn't doing the knocking. Sitting on my vegetable box outside, just a few feet away from the window, was a robin. This robin hops along the edge of the box, then flies to the window and flutters against it. Then he'll hop around on the outer window sill, jumping up and down in front of Chico, looking at him the whole time! Chico is going insane! He's jumping at the bird, banging his head against the window, clawing and striking out at....the glass. The bully is being bullied. Nature meets out its own justice!

Oh yeah!

This was done one night this past week; I slept through it, though I'm not sure how! The "singer" is Pete's friend (aka my 3rd son) CJ, with Pete doing the lights and Ryan filming.

Been a while, huh?

It's been 3 weeks since I started back to work; holy cow, I can't believe it! It's been fine. My co-workers did an amazing job while I was out and it didn't take me much time to get caught up, but I haven't stopped running since! This past week was Spring Break, but it sure didn't seem like it!
Monday was spent on the road, returning from our trip to Augusta. We sure enjoyed seeing Mom & Bob, and felt especially honored to have Laura & the girls drive up to see us! I coudln't believe it when I saw her pull up at 11:00 AM! That's IN THE MORNING still! I hated that we couldn't stay longer Saturday, but we had to see Granny. One of these days we won't be in such a rush to leave Atlanta! :)
Tuesday morning was spent at my plastic surgeons' office, and the rest of Tuesday was spent in bed. It seems the trip was a bit too much too soon, though I wouldn't have thought nearly 2 months was too soon! At any rate, the swelling was so bad from the trip that I had to be aspirated Tuesday morning. THAT was a shock! I thought I was doing fine, it was just a scheduled follow-up visit. But once he turned me around to look at my back side, he was NOT happy! I knew I was swollen more so than usual; Monday evening when I got into bed, my butt literally bunched up around my waist! I had to lift my butt up off the bed and push it back down to where it's supposed to be! Whe I explained it to the doc, he called it Ascending Ass Syndrome! LOL At any rate, Dr. Aldea was very unhappy, and so was I as soon as I saw that huge needle and 60cc syringe! He had to stick me twice and got 100 CCs out of my back! I had to stand for this procedure, and after that 2nd time sticking me, I could feel myself blacking out. I told him he'd better hurry up or he's gonna have to pick me up off the floor! He and Patrick got me to the table in time so we avoided a minor mishap. So now I'm back to wearing compression granny-panties to hold in a rolled up towel to apply pressure to my lower back; it's so hard to feel sexy when you're walking around with what looks like a hard-on in your lower back!
Wednesday and Thursday were spent at work. I love that I can work when I'm supposed to be off and claim that time later as comp time! That'll allow me to take time off in April to go to the beach! :)
Friday was spent in Starkville, MS. They call it Starkvegas, and I can see why; that place is happening! It's still a fairly small town, but it's a university town with TONS of restaurants, and it's all spread out so it seems like a huge town. At any rate, we were there for a tour of Mississippi STate University, where Mabry will be attending in the Fall. Her friend Joel gave us such a detailed tour, and I'm so thankful he offered to do that! We had a blast looking at different dumps...er...I mean apartments. Mabry MAY have decided to stay on campus, but I dare not say that for sure!
Patrick left Friday night for his 2 week drill. We met him in Winona, MS for dinner on our way home. He's spending 2 weeks in Massachusettes....in March. Usually it's in some hot Hell hole in the middle of July, so this is probably a nice change for them! Oh yeah, and for those that don't know, he made MAJOR!
Finally, today....last day of Spring Break (kinda), and I didn't do much other than eat, eat, and um....eat some more. I'm sure it's exhaustion that caused me to do that, and I should've just stayed my butt in bed, but stupid me didn't. UGH! Guess I"ll always fight this food addiction, but it will NOT win! I'll go to the gym tomorrow, or at LEAST make an effort to eat right!

FREEEEEEDOMMMMMMMMM!!!!

I'M DRAIN FREE!!!! After 5 long, sometimes excruciatingly painful weeks, I got the drain pulled yesterday! I was afraid it was gonna hurt like crazy, but I barely felt a thing. Thank you Jesus, I can finally wear regular clothes!

(Yeah, it's a stupid picture; something on TV caught my eye just as the camera flashed!)

Mabry Rocked the House!

Isn't that top pic cool? Patrick was trying to be smart and take a picture of my boobs, but in doing he got Mabry's face in the necklace I wore to the show. I cropped everything else out (silly man!) 'cause she's the best part of the picture!

Ok, CATS totally rocked! I've never seen it before so I had no idea what to expect. I knew Mabry had a pretty big role, and she really knocked it out! She had several solo parts, including a solo tap/jazz! One entire song was dedicated to her character, Jenny Anydots, AKA Gumbie Cat. She was her usual charming, funny, animated self on stage (as she is off!)! I was so proud of her performance I teared up while the audience clapped and cheered her on! I know none of the extended family could be there, but we have ordered the DVD so perhaps y'all will get to see it one day (at least her biggest part). She just did such a great job, y'all!

Are People REALLY that dumb?

The picture has nothing to do with this post, but I found it on Ryan's Facebook, thought it was hilarious, so I stole it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog...
I know there are dumb people out there, the proof is in all the silly directions you read on various packages out there. "Product will be hot after heating"; "Do not iron clothes on body"'; or "Wearing this garment does not enable you to fly". All that's well and good (allbeit silly!).
But I would expect that people who get plastic surgery would be a bit more educated, or have a bit more common sense...something! Why, then, did my surgeon write this to me in an email: "Patricia (his wife, my other surgeon) told me you looked good and she pulled one drain out. Please, be extra careful with the remaining drain and bring the output sheet with you next time we see each other". Um....what exactly does he think I'm going to do with that drain? The thing is inserted into a hole HE put in my body, coming right out of the cooter area, and runs about 18" into my body around to my left hip! Does he think I'm gonna just pull it out or something?! That perplexed me, so I couldn't help but reply: "And I'm being very careful with the drain; I have enjoyed only having one. I use it for a jump rope and it hasn't gotten tangled up yet! LOL :)*

Big Weekend!

Each of the kids has had something exciting happening this weekend. Mabry attended the Allie Awards. The Allies are the equivalent of the regional Emmys or Oscars or whatever those awards ceremonies are. Though Mabry personally wasn't nominated this year (that's a sore subject with us!), the play "Musical Comedy Murders of the 1940s was nominated (and WON) for best comedy. Mabry was one of the lead characters in that play, and it certainly deserved the win!

Ryan was planning to attend the Allies, as 2 of his plays (Guys & Dolls and Mid Summer Night's Dream) were nominated for something (neither won). At the last minute, though, he was contacted by his band instructor about joining the I-55 Honors Band. He chose the Honors Band over the Allies, which meant that instead of sitting at a banquet table watching snippets of plays and enjoying a night out with his friends, he chose to go blow his horn with a bunch of other band geeks in the never-ending competition for first chair (he got 7th, which is still great in this Honor's Band!). He spent last night and all day today at that competition, getting home at 4:15. That was a pretty big deal, but an even bigger deal is the Mardi Gras Ball he's attending right this minute! He had all of 40 minutes to put on his tux and get out the door to go to the ball with Alexia and her family. Now this should be interesting, and I can't wait to hear how it goes down. When I asked Ryan if Alexia is his girlfriend, he replied, "I don't think so. I mean, we don't really talk. We only text." (insert confused smiley here) So I'm imagining that tonight, they're sitting at a table, sided by side, not saying a word, but texting each other all night long! I'll let y'all know if there's anything notable that goes on! :)

Finally, Pete had drill this weekend, and it's his first one in his uniform. Oh, is he SO excited!!! And he looks good, too, of course! He texted me this morning to say they were about to put an IV in his arm, though, because he puked during PT. Turns out they didn't need to put the IV in his arm...he was perfectly fine once he threw up! That boy is gonna be in SO much trouble come July when he goes to Basic!

Little update on me....nothing exciting

Surgery was on 1/21, just 10 days ago. Wow...time went by fast! The EKG thing got straightened out finally; turns out abnormal is normal for me. They were very worried about my slow heartrate of 54 bpm. While it's low, it's still very healthy, thanks very much! So that got cleared up and surgery went on as scheduled.
Patrick and I went to a soccer game Tuesday night (1/20), where we froze our tushes off (ok, I didn't have one to freeze off!). Good Lord, I'll never understand why they have kids playing in 15 degree weather! It's just too dang cold!
After the game, we drove straight to the hotel across the street from the hospital. Since we had to be there at 6 the next morning, we felt it was prudent. Plus, it'd give Patrick somewhere to escape to during the next day. Took a sleeping pill (prescribed by my surgeon...I think she's done this before) and went out like a light! :)
Next morning we got to the hospital promptly at 6 and let them start all the fun prep work. The staff was great, friendly, etc...like they sure were glad it was ME doing this and not THEM! Once they took me down to the OR waiting area, my surgeons came in, stood me up, stripped me down, and started marking ALL over me. My surgeons are a husband/wife team and really play off each other well. Dr. Aldea (the husband) is a Greek man, very arrogant, very funny, and very open about how every woman should be voluptuous...he insisted that if I didn't go bigger with my boobs then I'd look "ridiculous". LOL HE wanted to put 700cc implants in! HOly cow, man! I told him no way, no how. At 6' tall, people would be coming to me for shelter from the wind and rain! No thanks to that! So we settled on 400 ccs, which still seemed huge to me, because I've never really had any boobs to begin with. So while Dr. Aldea is marking my back, I hear him say to his wife, "Go ahead and pull out those 700 ccs we ordered for her." (insert shocked gasp here) After hearing Patrick tell me constantly that he and Dr. Aldea had a deal between them, I did NOT find that funny!
That's really the last thing I remember before the surgery. I do remember being wheeled into the room, and it was SO cold! I asked if they did that to keep everyone awake (except me), but I honestly don't remember their answer. Whatever they use in those IVs really works!
The surgery last 9 hours, as was expected. I didn't come out of the anesthesia as expected, though. I've always been able to snap right out of that (yeah, I've had several surgeries), but then again, I've never been out for 9 hours either! They were expecting to send me to the hotel with Patrick that night, but because I was still so out of it, very nauseous, and couldn't pee, they had to admit me.
Once we got all my systems back in working order, we were let go the next day. We knew to expect swelling, but didn't know how much. Imagine my surprise when I woke up with side-tables attached to my hips! Geez, I've never had hips before, but I didn't want THESE! If I could've walked upright I could've carried around a book, a cup of water and a lamp, all on one hip! So we called the doc that Friday, went in so they could check it out, and yeah...that's "normal". (insert another shocked gasp here)
Fast forward to my first real follow-up appointment this past Thursday. I asked when I'm getting these drains out. I've got 2 drains in a very inconvenient place (ok, there's not really a convenient place to have 2 garden hoses coming out of your body!) and I'm SO ready to get them out. As soon as I asked, he said, "Tuesday." (insert happy surprise here) "Really!?" I asked, at the same time that his wife turned around and stared at him with her jaw dropped. He just smiled a little and said, "No, I was trying to shut you up. There's no set answer for that, we'll just have to watch the output of each drain and make decisions accordingly." (sigh)
At any rate, I'm recovering quite well. I can walk upright now (for the most part), shower by myself, sleep in my own bed (praise GOD!), and generally do everything but lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. I even started working out on the Wii Fit yesterday! They said I could go to the gym, but I can't drive yet (oh yeah, that's another thing I can't do yet), and I can't wear a bra yet, either. With 2 garden hoses coming out of my body and breasts w/out support, I'm thinking the gym's not really the place I wanna go right now! ;)

Dang, time flies!

Last post on Dec 30; no idea where the time went! I've been really busy with work these days, trying to get ready to be off for 6 weeks. Ya ever try to take 6 weeks off of work, when you're the only one in your office that knows how to do your job?! These last couple of weeks have been nothing but longer hours, no lunch, and oh yeah, I'm working tomorrow (Saturday), too! I probably wouldn't be quite so diligent about making sure everything was perfect, but we're being monitored shortly after I return to work in March and everything's gotta be perfect in those federally funded files. UGH!
Just a few more days before D-Day. Hopefully. Got a call yesterday to say my EKG was abnormal, and my surgeon's freaking out a little. They called me no less than 7 times yesterday, with variations of the following: have you ever had an EKG before now? Are you sure it was 17 years ago? NOt another one? What about when you had your surgery 6 years ago? Wasn't one done then? Who was your surgeon and what's his number? (sigh) Turns out I DID have an EKG during my surgery 6 years ago. NOw, WHY would an anesthesiologist do an EKG DURING surgery? Seems like he'd have done it before, so if anything was wrong they wouldn't go through with the surgery, right? Anyway, the records are buried deep in the "special place" the hospital keeps old records, and supposedly they're going to dig them out Monday morning and fax them to my surgeons, who will then fax them to the cardiologist that I have to see Monday afternoon. Upon arrival, I will stroke them a check for $550 (I just love the beginning of the year "meet your deductible" race!), for the priveledge of getting on a treadmill. Um, I can do that in Senatobia and it won't cost me a thing! At any rate, hopefully I'll get cardio clearance in time for surgery on Wednesday. Yeah, little stress there.
The boys last home soccer game was scheduled for tonight. For some reason they got smart and decided that 18 degrees was too cold for the boys to play in (they wear shorts to play!), so they postponed it. New day? Thursday, 1/22, the day after my surgery. UGH! It's Sr recognition night so I really wanna go; it's the "Passing down of the Jersey", where the goalie (Pete) passes his lucky jersey on to the 2nd goalie (Ryan). My PLAN is (and Mom will probably freak) to have Mom drive me over to the game during half time. We've got friends who will be there early and they'll park as close to the field as possible, and when we get there they'll move their car so we can pull in. Then I should have a really good "seat" from the van. I've got some oxycodone so I should be good to go! ;)
Hmmm....Ryan just informed me that the first pack of his 6-pack has come in. Like great abs will just appear like wisdom teeth or something! :)