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…it has not been one of your better mothering days:
In quick succession, your children say after you've herded them into the car (finally!) "Are you tired?" and "I bet your throat is dry after all that yelling."
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~1~
Apparently, there are some crazy people out there who are close to finished with their Christmas shopping. I'm barely started. I don't even have lists! How about you?
~2~
I've been so focused on ballet and the Nutcracker that I've neglected planning for Advent. I've got a bit of a start with St. Nicholas. I know that Sunday supersedes it, but we'll still do some things. O Night Divine is an excellent resource for ideas as well as Catholic Cuisine.
~3~
A few of the ballet moms and I spent a great portion of Tuesday sewing. We didn't finish one single bodice but did get a lot of them put together. I know we'll finish them by performance time. I want them to sparkle! I also need to get started on the Waltz overskirt. These should be relatively easy; it's the cutting that will be a bit challenging.
~4~
Black Friday is coming up. Do you participate? I LOVE it. I am a person who never wakes before 7 unless absolutely necessary (something which should change so that I can get a workout in). But, something about those bargains combined with the brisk cold air and shopping just makes it all a fun, fun thing. But, we are back to that list thing. I need to get going on that.
~5~
I'm addicted. To Farmville. It's so much fun. I love watching my crops grow. I try to time my crops so that I don't have to worry about harvesting except in the morning, noon or at night. It doesn't stop me from getting on the computer but it does help. Sister is the best at reminding me that a crop is ready for harvest. All the girls love the animals. Brother likes to look at everyone's avatars.
~6~
I need a new vacuum. Not because mine is broken but I'm sick of changing out the hose each time I need it. My dream vacuum is a dyson animal as I know it would suck up all the hair that gets trapped in our carpet. We all have a lot of hair. And, it's long. The long hair gets into everything and is hard to vacuum up. I know the Dyson would work. And, they have the niftiest stair tool. The stairs are the bane of my existence (the vacuuming one, anyway). It hardly every gets done because it's too difficult. I'll have to save up for one.
~7~
There are three weeks until the Nutcracker performances. They will be performing in two different locations. I like to watch all shows. Yes, all 5 shows. I thrive on this whole thing but will probably crash on the 21st. I hope my children don't expect much from me and that I have my shopping done by then.
See more Quick Takes.
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Yesterday I had to take pictures of Ben. Three shots. One front, one side left, one side right.
Why?
He needed them for his recovery packet. Think about what that means considering where he's headed.
Yep.
I had to take them.
Why would we pay anyone to do it?
Why didn't the Army do it for him? Why put me through that?
Sigh.
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until Christmas!
To procrastinate even more, here's a fun quiz.
You Are Dependable and Trustworthy
You approach the holidays with drive and determination.
You're usually the one who does all of the organizing and work.You love being in charge of Christmas dinner, decorating the tree, and picking out presents.
You know that everything will be perfect, as long as you're the one behind the wheel.Of all the types, you're the most likely to search far and wide to find the best deal on the gifts you give.
You're also the most likely to have a very detailed system for how you wrap and label presents.
Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.
ht: Red Cardigan
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For a while now, Pumpkin has been yelling "Bah!" at her sisters whenever they have displeased her. I finally asked her what that meant. She replied, "You're poopy!"
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~1~
The Ballet Moms (yes, we are capitalized) are making the bodices for the Snow Dance. It's a bit overwhelming but I think with our collective talents, we will be okay. I don't know if they'll be finished before publicity shots although we will try our hardest.
~2~
Ben is not leaving on Sunday as originally planned. He has a short 5 day course he needs to perform his job well once in Afghanistan. We are all happy that we get more time with him…however, couldn't they have figured all this out earlier? Five days before deployment? Do you know how hard it is for everyone to shift gears? It's been a tough couple of days as we adjust to this new schedule. Poor Brother has to gear himself up again in a few weeks.
~3~
Thank you, everyone, for your prayers. I am still awed by the power of the connection of the internet. The relationships we have formed in cyberspace continue to astound me.
~4~
Why is it that I still have any hair on my head? I swear to you it seems like it's all sitting on my bathroom floor.
~5~
Sweet Honey had a great idea. She's so sweet and thoughtful. She wanted to know if we could have Daddy open his gifts before he left for Afghanistan. I thought we was a great idea. Maybe we'll do it on the 6th. I know that Sunday supersedes St. Nicholas' feast day, but I think it'll be fun.
~6~
I wish they'd air full episodes of my favorite show, Criminal Intent, on the internet. Sometimes I can't see the new shows because it's too close to bedtime. I really enjoy the show and like the characters. I especially like the interplay between Dr. Reed and Morgan.
~7~
Thursday night was Ditch and Stitch. I go over to my friend's house sans kids and husband to knit. I also ditch all my responsibilities. It's awesome. I worried about how I was going to continue to go to these nights, but I think we will be moving D&S to my house after Ben leaves.
Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.
This one is dedicated to my friend, Cecelia, who reminded me I had not done this today.
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~1~
The shootings yesterday took place at the SRP or Soldier Readiness Processing Center. This is where soldiers who are deploying go to take care of business in different stations. For instance, there's a legal station to take care of your will. A medical station to make sure your shots and health records are up to date. I know that soldiers also go through the SRP after a deployment but I don't know what they do. Ben is readying for a deployment. He was there all last week and this past Monday.
~2~
The commentary on the news was just too inane at times. Really, MSNBC? Salon.com and Rolling Stones magazine for analysis? And, by mentioning that one of the guns is a semi-automatic? A semi-automatic is just a regular handgun that you don't have to cock the hammer on each time you take a shot. It's not what most people might picture when you hear the word "automatic" when talking about guns.
~3~
My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were visiting for Ben's promotion ceremony. He didn't get to spend hardly any time with them. He got locked down and didn't make it home until 10 last night. They left this morning. My children loved having Auntie to themselves since she traveled without her children.
~4~
We went out to dinner after waiting around for my husband to come home. It was eerie. On a Thursday night at 6:30, we would've normally waited for a table especially as we were a party of 7. However, there were rows of empty parking spaces and lots of space in the restaurant. We were seated right away. To put it into perspective, a whole soccer team came to have dinner and were seated almost immediately. I'm sure all the businesses (especially the restaurants) learned how dependent they are on the soldiers in this community.
~5~
Ben is just devastated by what has happened.
~6~
I'm troubled by how long it took them to close down Fort Hood. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy we were able to get away. But, why did it take so long? The incident happened around 1:30. We left at 2pm to take the coffee urn back to the club. They didn't start the procedure to shut down until after that. Also, how can you stay away from windows and take shelter when places weren't letting you in the buildings? I have a friend who had to take shelter in her car with her children because the buildings she was outside when the sirens went off wouldn't let her in. Just how safe were we sitting in our cars? I cannot even stress just how close we were to getting stuck.
~7~
I have learned what an awesome community I am a part of; IRL and in cyberspace. I thank everyone for their concern and prayers. It was a truly rough day. And, I will do what our priest suggested. I will say a Hail Mary for each person killed and for each person injured. Even the shooter as much as I'd rather not (sorry, I have to be honest).
Photo credit: Photography by Cho aka my brother
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We had a wonderful promotion ceremony and reception. I have pictures which I will post later today or tomorrow.
I have a need to talk about yesterday and the shootings on Fort Hood. During the reception, one of our friends was called away back to work. He told us he had to go back to the hospital as there had been a shooting with 15 casualties. Never would we have imagined that it was an ongoing incident. Ben left to get his photo taken for his records; he needs to keep updated and since he is now a different rank, he needed a new photo. We needed to return the coffee urn to the what used to be known as the officer's club.
So, off we went. It took me a bit longer to figure out how to get to the club from where we were. I knew where it was but not in relation to where we were. Once there, my sister-in-law, Sue and I took the urn and their bowls to the club. I parked in the wrong place; the rear of the building. The first door we came to was locked; chained and padlocked from the inside. We were both taken aback. So we kept going around the building to find a door.
Then all hell broke loose.
Literally.
A siren went off. I couldn't hear all the words but heard something about windows and take shelter. Sue told me to give her all the stuff and to bring the car around. I took off running. As I was running, the siren went again. I jumped in the car and drove it around to pick up Sue. They wouldn't let her into the club. Here's a siren telling us to seek shelter and the buildings were already locked and the soldiers couldn't get them open. We just loaded the urn and bowls back into the car and drove off. I came to the intersection where I needed to turn left on to leave the installation. The light was red. I ran it.
In the meantime, the sirens are continuing. I drove through and exited the gate. As I was leaving, a gate guard was running out to close the gates. We barely made it. I shudder to think what would've happened if we had not made it. No one was letting us into the buildings and we would've been stuck in our cars the whole time; no doubt freaking out.
Ben ended up in lock down for 6 hours. It took him 2 1/2 hours to get home. It was quite a relief to hear his key in the lock.
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