5K...and I'm not talking about money here...

As part of my physical fitness goals for this year I decided I would be running a 5K.  While for you fit running/jogging types you may snicker a little or even scoff a little at my piddly little goal, but if you aren't a runner...then you know as well as I do...the thought of running three miles or a 5K may as well be uphill both ways in the snow....

But, YES!  I've committed myself to participating in a 5K in just ONE MONTH...on my father's birthday...May 7th at 9:30AM.

So here's how my temporary insanity happened.  I was alone one night on the computer just messing around (i.e. playing tetris or bejeweled blitz on Facebook) when I saw that a new post had been made by our Vilseck Spouses Club...it was an invitation to join them at the "Fallen Dragoon Memorial 5K run." 

Well, sheesh...tug at my heartstrings for the fallen soldiers and all sense leaves my head and I immediately signed myself up.  It is a "family event" so I've noted that I'll have a stroller, a toddler and an 8 year old with me.  They wanted to know if I was planning on walking or running it.  I said, "both...we'll go at the 8 year old's pace." 

Totally threw Maddie under the bus.

I'm sure the 8 year old probably will have more of a spring in her running step than me.

But...I signed up...and I'm proud of myself...and on Monday, April 4th I will start the Couch to 5K Program (aka C25K) and hopefully by the time this 5k comes around I'll be able to run nearly 2 whole miles.

(Stop laughing please.)

Still talking about snot.

I know...I know...there should be more interesting things going on in my life than mucus, but the sad truth is that its what I am dealing with more than 70% of my day.  Between Maddie, Bella and I we've cornered the market.

I just can't believe HOW MUCH SNOT any one person can have during a cold.  Although, research suggests that even at the peak of a cold you are only truly producing about 14 grams or maybe 1/2 ounce of the stuff...

I don't believe it. 

Guess what else I found out in my research?  Somebody actually did a study on the effects of chicken noodle soup on mucus.  Drink up folks...those little bawk bawks and noodles vapors loosen it all up. 

Who would have thunk it?

Now, a quick shout out to the man who gave me all this great information - Mr. Cecil Adams, the self proclaimed smartest man in the world.  He's got the lowdown on anything you've ever wondered such as...

Can Coca-Cola be used as a contraceptive?

Is the Swiss Army Knife really used by the Swiss Army?

Did the inventor of the Slinky join a cult in Bolivia?

Yes...you can find answers to all these questions and more at http://www.straightdope.com/

Commercial is now over....and I need to blow my nose.

Tied to the tube...

About 10 years ago when I was living in Northern Virginia...I owned a tv set that was one of those small 19 inch televisions that was probably already about 10 years old (which in TV years is like 100 years old and everybody knows that television has a life expectancy of about 100 years...so this TV was the grandfather of television sets...)

Anywho...the point is that I lived in a rented condo and the people before me had spliced into the neighbor's cable.  So, when I moved in I automatically enjoyed the benefits of cable...  And to be honest...in those years I really was still very sweet and innocent and gullible and didn't even think twice about just "having cable" instead of wondering why I wasn't paying a bill each month for it and realizing I was stealing it from my neighbors.

Ok...so back to the point...(which is not my gullible innocent nature)...The neighbors that had lived there for nearly 15 years decided to move...and when they left...so did the cable.  Which left me with nothing but a century old television set...

And for 4 years I lived completely without tv....

And loved it...

Fast forward to this morning...  I had a conversation with a new friend about television.  Both of us rarely tv watchers BD...What does BD mean, you ask?  Before Deployment. 

This was interesting to me because what I have discovered is that many a non-television watcher becomes a television watcher DD...What does DD mean, you ask?  During Deployment. 

I think its like an epidemic of "adult conversation needs."  I truly do.  I can go an entire day without speaking to an adult without trying too hard to avoid them.  Its pretty sad.  Now, granted I get out and about and make a point of connecting with people, but the truth is...I miss having an adult around that I get to chit chat with about mundane stuff...without having to purposely go to the grocery store so I can talk to one...or the library...or my neighbor's house...or wherever.

And so now the tv in my house is used kind of as an "adult voice."
No...I do not mean I'm playing "adult tv" alto voce in my house...I can just imagine the "lingo" Bella would pick up....

But, I do now find that I turn on the tv set just because its nice to hear another human being over the age of 10 speaking.  John even commented on it when he was home.  "I can't believe how often the tv is on in this house."

Which I would like to note really isn't THAT much except that he's mostly used to no tv at all...so something more than that seems to him to be a lot of tv.

I'm not even quite sure what the point is anymore to this post...other than it was an interesting observation to me about one way in which things really have changed since John's been gone.  Don't think that this means I'm suddenly going to leave my tv tube friend in the lurch and immediately switch back to lonely nights with just me and my book and the radio...  Especially not Sunday evenings at 8PM...thats when Project Runway comes on and even though we're rerunning Season 7 I'm still totally hooked.

I'm totally counting on Seth Aaron to win the whole thing.  Those other fashion designers are pbtttttttt!

Aaaaachooo!

You know that you love someone when they are 2 years old and sneeze all over your lunch and you laugh about it instead of freaking out...

**Grossness alert**

This truly happened today and no, it wasn't just a small 2 year old toddler sneeze...it was the loud, I've been sick for the past week and still have a bunch of snot up my nose that I'm going to shoot out all over mama's lunch plate sneeze.

It was truly disgusting.

And it made me laugh really hard.

And then I ditched my pasta in the garbage can because it was truly unsalvageable...and had salad for lunch. 

2SCR Banner

Can you believe its AT MOST...69 days from now when all the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Soldiers return home? Well, at least if our Commander keeps his promise and they are all home by the end of May.

I remember the start of this deployment and how LONG 69 days felt. Two months, 1/6th of a year, about the same amount of time as kids have off in the summer for school...

It felt like forever.

But here we are, nearing the end of our time away from John and I can't believe we actually made it.

We made it!

Ok...lest I speak too soon... the real purpose of this post is to show you the little squares I made for the Welcome Home Banner. Some ambitious angel of an Army Wife decided to make a 12X12 square welcoming home every soldier that deployed from our Regiment.

She is sewing them all together...not quilting it or anything ridiculously crazy like that, but its eventually going to be a gigantic patchwork banner for our soldiers.

And, of course, she invited anyone and everyone to make a square for their soldier. So I did...Actually, we made 2 for John and one for each single soldier in his shop.

A friend heard I was making these and asked, "Oh! Do you like to sew?" I had to laugh...of course my reply was that as much as I'd like to claim that domestic gift and much to the sadness of my mother, I did not get the gene that makes for a great seamstress. Our squares consist of felt, hotglue, glitter and puffpaint...but I still think we did a pretty good job.

And the single soldier squares...

I also made a square for the fallen soldiers.  Sadly enough I have to add yet another two names to this square for soldiers that died in combat a few days ago.   

The squares are due by the end of March.  I have a little extra material so I will probably make a few generic ones for other soldiers who don't have a square yet.  It's a small way to show my thanks for all they do.

Its been a long week...

...its just been one of those weeks. One of those weeks where I should have stayed in bed. all. week. long.

Sunday night...Maddie barfed 4 times...fell asleep in my room, finally, then woke up in the AM insisting she go to school and that she felt fine... (she did and she was fine...go figure...)

Various craziness all week long (I'm giving you the cliff notes version so you don't have to sit through serious whining...) And, I haven't spoken to my husband for 4 days now...

Last night was what I hope was the grand finale...Bella was barfy and fevered and finally fell asleep at 4AM. I'm exhausted.

She's wide awake now singing a song about being "barfy girl" (apparently I used that term a lot in my exhausted state) and eating toast.

Mama needs a nap.

Light a candle...

Light a candle until they all come home...

Today I opened up my email to find (at my last count) the 15th Fallen Dragoon message from our rear detachment commander.

Fifteen soldiers who have died in the past 10 months...

Today's email hit me so hard.  In two and 1/2 months these soldiers come home.  I'm sure this soldier thought he was nearly done....headed home...in the last stretch.  I'm sure of that because thats what I have been thinking and feeling.  They're almost home!  We're nearly done!

But the reality is that its 2 1/2 more months and anything can happen.

And as I read that email message and considered the life of this young soldier I couldn't help but cry for him and his family.

Just say a little extra prayer for our soldiers tonight. 

And if you have an extra 20 minutes to spare...these moving tributes of fallen soldiers everywhere can really put into perspective how much they gave...

The switcheroo

Well, today I did something I've been thinking about for awhile.  I'm calling it the switcheroo.

Are you intrigued?  It sounds like some kind of sneaky double cross thing....unfortunately, my life is way too boring...

So, before I build this up anymore only to let you down with a roll of your eyes...the switcheroo happened in the girl's rooms.  When we moved here, Maddie got the biggest room because of all the "stuff" she had...toys, books, clothes, stuff...  Bella was a wee baby and didn't need much space anyhow...

But, ever since Madmad McGee and the trouble she's been in...all the toys were removed from her room and I created a playroom downstairs...but its a small playroom for two girls of such drastic different ages...because they don't really play much with the same toys.  Plus...when we are home during the day and I need to be upstairs there is nothing up there for Bella to do...so she gets into my clothes and shoes and drawers and before you know my "drawers" (quite literally) are strung from one end of the house to the other.

SO...I switched the girl's rooms and now Maddie has the cozy littler room...and Bella has the larger room where I'll be creating her own little playspace.  I'm quite excited about it.  Both rooms look really good.  It makes more sense so that we can best use all the nooks and crannies in our little house.  Both girls like their new rooms and with just a few more touches they will be perfect.

Maddie's room needs paint and decor and a desk.  Paint, because right now there is a large, Isabella painted on her wall.  She loves her sister, but I don't think she wants her name painted on her wall. 

As for decor...I just got a little note from her grandma that she's shipping me some wall decals.  I had picked them out for her new room and grandma was looking for something for Maddie's birthday...these will be perfect!

And I'll be looking for a desk for her on the yard sale site...she is getting to that age where she wants to sit at a desk and do homework and craft and write letters... **sigh** She's growing up so fast!  I know I complain sometimes, but I'm gonna miss that "little girl."

Bella's room also needs some paint and I ordered her wall decals as well...

I'll be moving some of the toys up from the playroom so she has something to do while I handle incredibly important homemaker tasks....like shower.

And last, but not least...I changed her bed from a crib to a big girl bed.  **sniff sniff**

She was SOOOOO excited that she played in her bed all day long.  She read stories to her stuffies, pretended to sleep, got some barbies in there...it was a regular all-day slumber party.  She even dressed up for the occassion...yes, those are her swimsuit bottoms over her pants...yes, they are on backwards.  The scarf is from John....today it was a shawl, head wrap, baby blanket, skirt, tent and trampoline. 

Love the imagination.

Me, well I smiled and laughed and tried not to burst into tears at what a big girl she is.  She wanted to tell Daddy about it so we made this video... 



P.S.  I just checked on her and she's sound asleep in her big girl bed.

A successful switcheroo day.

ROUS update

Oh my dear Wesley!

Six ROUS's down for the count and more than 24 hours since the last "eviction notice" was served.   I think the last one actually cried, "Aaaaaaas Yooooooou Wiiiiiiiish" when the trap snapped close.  (Too much visualization?)  Yeah, well, I'm feeling extra sassy tonight....and thats all your getting by way of apology. 

I've got two poison feed boxes outside my house, a mouse trap set and an appointment tomorrow morning with housing to check the chew damage under my sink and to call the mason to come and fix it.

I will probably have to continue to set up my baby gate plastic mouse guard for awhile still.  *cue melodramatic music*

I may never sleep the same again.

I soooo happy!

The other day there was a man outside of our house in the street...Bella was watching him from my bedroom window and said, "Daddy home?"  I looked outside and he was generally John's build, but definitely was lacking the mesmerizing hairdo...

So we started to talk about daddy and I snatched up the camera to get a little tidbit...

R.O.U.S's

There are two things I've learned about myself this week.

1.  I really am wonder woman, and

2.  I hate rodents more than I hate the giant spiders in Germany.

Aha!  You sense a story coming on, don't you.  Yes, I've been quite absent from my blog for the past couple of days because I have a story...and its, unfortunately, seeming to turn into the neverending story.

Two nights ago, at 2:30 in the morning, I heard a scuffling on the stairs in my house.  Being a "single woman" these days I immediately sat up in bed to figure out what I was hearing...and then I saw it.

In the glow of the bathroom nightlight comfortably sitting in the doorway of my bedroom was a R.O.D.E.N.T.

GrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGross

So, in my 2:30AM intelligence mode I leaped from my bed and grabbed a towel from my laundry basket and chased that furry creature down the stairs.  At least I had the sense to turn on the light for the stairs because by the time I reached the bottom of the stairs I realized that I was actually terrified that a mouse or rat or whatever it was I saw was going to run over my bare toes.

But, the thought of a mouse or a rat (which I will now refer to as the R.O.U.S) coming back UP the stairs if I was to retreat...yeah, that was an even more powerful fear...so I spent the next hour searching for my unwanted houseguest.

And never found it.

Thinking back...what in the world was I going to do with a towel?  I think I figured I could throw it on top of it and trap it...and then what?  I have no idea....I can picture myself at 3AM with a ROUS trapped under a towel and me totally clueless as to my next step.  i. am. brilliant.

Anywho...my beauty rest was definitely over for the night, but I thought I'd better attempt a few more hours of sleep or....repeat after me...  oh wha....taygrummmm...pieyam....

So, because that hussy of an ROUS had already breached the unsaid limit of actually coming up the stairs to the bedrooms I lined the stairs with plastic bags so I could hear it coming if it attempted such a brazen act again...

Of course the night got worse...little Bella must have sensed my unease and was restless and whiney until about 6AM when she insisted on being in my bed where she demanded loudly for cartoons.  And I just gave in because there was no more sleep for our little house.

At 7:30AM exactly I called the housing department....they transferred me to facilities....they transferred me to Pest Control where I spoke with a nice German woman who said the earliest they could get to my house was the next day at 10AM. 

So I went to work...and discovered that the ROUS had entered my house from under my kitchen sink.  It had chewed a large hole in the drywall and around the pipes. 

Now, just a little housing information here...I live in an attached townhouse.  There are four houses connected.  Three of the houses have people living in them...one is empty.  The empty one is next to me and it has had workmen there for about the past 3 weeks...The wall the ROUS had chewed shared the living space of the empty house next to me.  Yes, in not so many words I am blaming the empty house and those workmen for inviting these ROUS's into my life...

Well, now that I knew where it was coming from I promptly duct taped shut my kitchen cupboard doors and rigged a ROUS no trespassing barrier for the stairs out of a baby gate, plastic bags and duct tape.  And then I waited for Mr. Pest Control to show.

So, here's the deal.  I'm just gonna spill my guts here a little...the idea of a ROUS in my house strikes an unreasonable fear in me...and the thought of having to set a trap or dispose of something caught in a trap literally makes my stomach churn.  Thus the second thing I learned about myself.  I really really really do NOT like ROUS's of any kind.

Which is crazy because I actually had a pet mouse that I named oatmeal and I loved him dearly.

Apparently my love for oatmeal does not extend to his untamed wild brothers and sisters.

So, yesterday morning, the pest control guy finally came...told me he was going to set the trap, put it under the sink (where I promptly reducttaped it shut)  and said he'd be back the next day to check and I was not to touch US. Government property in the form of a rat trap.

FINE BY ME...

...except that within 2 hours there was a mouse in it.  So I had to wait 22 more hours for them to come back and get it.

And today he came and got it and then reset the trap....just in case.  And said he'd be back on monday and reminded me not to touch US Government property in the form of a rat trap.

...and within 4 hours we had another mouse in it...which I managed to leave until about 10pm tonight where I decided that leaving a dead rodent for almost 3 whole days under my kitchen sink was asking too much.

So I put on my plastic cleaning gloves and with a sturdy plastic bag release the mouse from the trap and IT WAS STILL ALIVE.

**Should I have put a "not for the squeamish" caveat at the beginning of this?**

Anyhow...I still managed to put it in that bag and took the whole scrabbling little nightmare out to my garbage can that will be picked up Monday morning BEFORE my appt with the Pest Control man.

And then I reset the trap.

W.O.N.D.E.R.  W.O.M.A.N.

Yes, me.  The one who didn't think she would be able to ever 1.  release a ROUS from a trap (dead or alive)  or 2.  dispose of a ROUS in any way shape or form or 3.  not vomit from actually doing steps 1. and 2. OR...and here is the big one...4.  will actually repeat this process because within the time that I disposed of one ROUS and started writing this blog guess what I heard...

SNAP!

That dang trap has got another ROUS in it.

Thats THREE...THREE so far.  I am really not happy about this.

...and so I guess I leave you dangling...on the edge of your seat...desperate to know what the next step will be...with a TO BE CONTINUED...