Time Alone

I dropped the boys off at camp yesterday. It was quite an experience just getting them checked in and to their assigned groups. This is Brady's first time flying solo as far as his diabetes is concerned. He's having to take care of himself and change his sets the entire time he is there. I told him this is his chance to show me he can take care of everything himself. I've been doing it myself for so long, that its a little hard to let go. But, if this goes well, I will feel much more comfortable letting him go other places without me. Both Brady and Nathan were so excited for camp, that they barely gave me a hug and said goodbye after they got with their groups. And I too was surprised that it didn't bother me to say goodbye to them. I think I'm just happy that they could be a part of this camp and be with other kids who have a parent that is deployed. It was strange when I got home though. The house was so quiet and I kept waiting for one of them to walk into the living room and ask me for something. Plus, Sophie was at the kennel for the night, so I was completely alone. I just watched some TV, cross stitched and then went to bed. Not much else to do on a Sunday evening. And, I was tired from driving. The camp is in Parkton, NC and its about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Jacksonville.

Today, I slept until 9:30, got up, took a shower and went to Michael's for some cross stitch supplies. Then I stopped an got some lunch and then picked up Sophie from the kennel on my way home. She was stressed just like she was the last time she stayed, so she was pretty wild. But, once we got home and I gave her a bunch of love, she calmed down. She's been sleeping at my feet pretty much all day. I think she wants to make sure I don't' leave her again. Unfortunately, she's going to have to go back to the kennel on Friday. Its just easier to leave here there when I go to get the boys on Saturday than to take her with me.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I just wanted to get the blog updated before I sit down to watch Twilight. We rented it on Saturday and it has to go back tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it as it seems like a teenager's movie, but Brady wanted to me to watch it. So, we'll see how it goes. Have a great week everybody and God Bless! :)

Magic Show

I signed the boys up for the base library summer reading program and the kick off activity was a magic show. The magician's name is Jeff Jones and he came down from Raleigh. Brady got selected to help with a trick and here are some pictures of him on stage. I'd never seen this guy before, but apparently he's pretty popular. He's done assemblies at the schools and also did the magic show for the program last year. The boys had a great time, but Nate was a little disappointed that he didn't get picked to come up on stage.

The weather has been pretty crappy here, so we haven't been doing much. When it rains, it gets even more humid, so I don't like to go away from the air conditioning too much when its really hot. They are predicting hot temperatures this weekend, in the mid 90's to maybe even 100. Good Lord, 100! I may never come out of the air conditioning! Ha Ha.

I guess that's about it for now. Not much else going on here. Have a great rest of the week and God Bless! :)

Call From Monte

Monte called me from the ship yesterday. They finished their liberty in Greece and were off at sea again. He enjoyed seeing Greece, but really just wants to be home. I think Monte and I both are beginning to wind down from military life. We love being a part of the Marine Corps family, but its beginning to take its toll. We were feeling it before, but this deployment has made it even clearer that its time to move on to the next chapter in our lives. I know I've said this before, but it seems like yesterday I was saying goodbye to the family at the airport and flying to Palm Springs to begin my new life with Monte. Where did the time go?

Above are some of the pictures Monte was able to email me from Greece. He took a tour of a Greek Orthodox Monastery and that is what you see in the first few pictures. The rest, as you can guess, are some beautiful sunsets from Greece. The last one shows some AAV's (amphibious assault vehicles) out in the Mediterranean Sea.

Today is the boys' first day of summer vacation. Right at this moment, Nate is outside at the neighbors house in their pool. Brady is at his friend Mack's house hanging out. Sophie is asleep in the corner on her pillow. She's had a rough morning hiding from the vacuum cleaner. With the boys outside, I've been doing a bit of cleaning. I washed the couch cushions, vacuumed up the dirt that was under the cushions (how in the world does that much dirt get under there?), threw another load of laundry in the wash and will be vacuuming the floor is just a bit. I so love housework....NOT! Ha Ha

That's about it for now. Have a great weekend and God Bless! :)

A Sea of Learning

At Nathan's school, the classes are designated with animal names. I think there are 4 classrooms to each name and Nathan is on the dolphin team. Their end of the year program, called "A Sea of Learning", was on Friday. The kids put so much work into this program and you could sure tell by how good their performaces were. Here are some pictures from the program. I was going to post a couple of video's, but for some reason I couldn't get them to post.

Nathan and Brady both finished up their spring sports this past week. Brady played in his golf tournament with 4 of his teammates. They took 5th place, just missing 4th place by one point. He had a really good time though and wants to play golf again when they offer it next spring. His coach told us that he has a talent for the game. He was the most improved out of all 6 players on his team. Monte and I are going to encourage him to stick with it. We've got golf scholarship to college on our minds you see.... :) We went to Brady's team party at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday and despite the atmosphere, had a really good time. Brady had a great coach and a great group of kids on his team.

And here are some pictures of Nate with his trophy. His team lost their last game, but had a great time playing anyway. And Nathan was hitting every ball hit to him too. He's really improved on his playing too.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Have a great week everyone! God Bless! :)

It's June 1st Already!

Hey all. I can't believe its June 1st. May just went by too fast for me. I guess with Monte leaving and trying to spend as much time with him as I could before he left, I neglected the blog.

He's been gone for 2 weeks on Thursday and according to the counter, that puts us at 190 days left to go. For some reason, I like the sound of that better than saying 7 months. I actually got to talk to Monte for about 10 minutes Thursday. He was on duty and called me from the ships phone. It was so good to hear his voice. Ship life is slow as usual, but he's keeping busy working out at the gym and running up on deck. We only talked for 10 minutes, so I pretty much filled him in on what the boys and I were up to.

The last email I got from Monte he told me that he wouldn't have email access for the week. I think they are hitting a beach somewhere prior to port in Greece. So anyway, if you don't hear from him this week, you'll know why. He's going to be going on a Greek Monastery and Mt. Olympus tour when they get into port. I am so jealous now, let me tell you. I have been in love with Greek mythology since junior high and its not fair that Monte gets to see it...ha ha. Of course, I'm glad he's getting to see some cool stuff, I just wish I could be there with him to see it. Can you imagine how cool that is going to be? I told him to take tons of pictures and hopefully he'll be able to email some to me.

Well, I guess that's it for now guys. With Monte gone, the boys and I haven't done much. Their last day of school is June 11th and once that is finished, I should have a few more things to blog about from time to time. Have a great week. God Bless! :)