5 more days!!

Only 5 more days until Adam comes home. All I can say is.....FINALLY!!!! This has been a very long 6 weeks for Andrew and myself. However it has given me some insight as to what this next deployment is going to be like. This will be the first deployment that Andrew will actually be big enough to realize that Daddy is gone & for it to have an emotional impact on him. He has dealt with Adam being gone the past 6 weeks fairly well, but has had some difficulty. I am hoping that being in school 3 days a week will help him cope & act as a distraction. Also I am trying to find some activities for us to do in order to stay busy (especially in the winter). We live in a pretty small town so I don't know what exactly is going to be available, but we will see what I can find. Until then we are looking forward to Adam being home by Labor Day and are going to try and do as much as possible before he deploys again.

A quick deployment update

As of right now there is no official word on when Adam's unit is deploying. However it is looking more and more like they will begin leaving sometime in November & are headed to Afghanistan. They were originally slotted to go to Iraq this time, but due to the surge in violence over in Afghanistan the Army has decided they are needed more there instead of Iraq. I will post something once we get official word & more information.

Starting school again, after 10yrs

My 10 year high school reunion was this summer and while I wasn't able to attend, it did cause me to start thinking about school again. Now I will be the first one to tell you at 28yrs old I have absolutely NO idea as to what I want to be when I "grow up". There are numerous things that I think would be interesting, but nothing jumps out and says "This is what I want to do with my life". For all of you out there who were able to figure this out I applaud you. Despite the fact that I'm not real sure what I want to do I have FINALLY decided that it's time for me to go back to school & get a degree of some sort. For the past several years whenever I would toy with the idea of getting a degree in something it usually comes back around to the same few things: Social Work, Education & Psychology. Each field has things I like and dislike so now it comes down to narrowing things down to what would fit me best. After consulting with a few close friends and getting their opinions I was able to decide on one. This last week I enrolled for online college classes to begin my Associates in Psychology. Now I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with this degree but it's at least a start in the right direction. This is actually a good time for me to start because we are quickly coming up on Adam's 3rd deployment. This should do a good job of keeping me occupied while he's gone. My classes start Sept 15 so starting sending good vibes & prayers my way. Keep your fingers crossed that I've managed to maintain a little knowledge after 10yrs of no school.

I realized it's been a few posts since I had any pictures for you so I added a couple from our trip to AR.

Here Andrew is showing off the cape his Great Grandmother made for him.

Helping Pawpaw mow the yard

Good Job Dude!!

San Antonio, spiders & a trip to the ER

Soooooo....here is out latest drama from the weekend. Adam has been down in San Antonio, TX since July 13 for BNCOC (Basic Non-Commissioned Officers Course). Things have been going fairly well for him despite the unbearable heat (he hates hot weather). Friday night he calls me, a little later than normal, and informs me that he was just released from BAMC (Brooks Army Medical Center). Apparently that morning he woke up and found 2 spider bites on him. One was on his right arm and the other on his neck just below his ear. Oh course being Adam he just ignores it and heads to class. Well by late afternoon when class was released the spot on his arm was red, swollen and burned when you touched it. So he FINALLY decided to go get it checked out. Turns out it looks like a Brown Recluse spider bite. They treated him with antibiotics, steroids and what not & discharged him back to his barracks. So far everything is fine, no big deal, just take the meds & enjoy the weekend. ha ha....if only.....

Now Saturday morning I was having a yard sale with a friend of mine on post. Adam was supposed to call me when he woke up that morning to let me know how he was doing. Well time passed and no call. When I called him there was no answer and I was a little curious as to what he was doing. Finally I decided to call his best friend who happens to live in San Antonio to see if he had heard from Adam. Last he knew about anything Adam was headed to some river with guys from the school he's in. Well isn't that just great. I will be honest and admit I was VERY irritated at this point. It's soooo typically Adam to head off to the river and forget to call me and of course not answer his phone while he's gone. As the day went on into evening I got even more irritated. About 7:30pm or so he finally called me and yes I had quite a bit of attitude when I answered. Turns out Adam woke up at 3am that morning and couldn't breathe. He was having an allergic reaction and took him self back to BAMC. They are assuming the reaction was to the antibiotics Adam was taking so they changed those out, gave him lots of steroids and what not and then discovered something interesting. The bite on Adam's neck (the one the Dr didn't think anything of the day before) had swollen up to the size of a golf ball. I'll spare you all of the gory details but when Adam called me at 7:30 he had just been released from the medical center. I didn't get a call because he managed to leave his phone in the truck. So now that all of the meds have been changed and he's doing better Adam was headed back to his room to get some much needed sleep.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Adam rolls out of bed around noon and heads up to BAMC to have everything checked out and repacked. This wasn't a surprise trip he was told to come up there. Once there they find another spider bite on the other side of his neck. This one doesn't look bad at all so they just tell him to keep an eye on it. Then Adam notices what looks like another bite on his knee. The Dr looks at it and decided that it is not a bite but the beginnings of a staff infection!! I mean seriously what else could go wrong this weekend?? The infection appears small and the antibiotics he is currently taking should take care of that, it's just one more thing for him to keep an eye on. So he packs up and heads back to his room and manages to sleep literally all day. I spoke with him once again around 8pm and he was going to get something to eat and then back to sleep.

This story does have a good ending though. I just talked to him a few minutes ago and he is doing great today. Feels as if nothing happened so hopefully the worst is over and he will be fine. Other than all of that drama there isn't much else going on with Andrew and myself. We're just hanging around waiting for school to start and Adam to come home. Fortunately it shouldn't be too much longer for either. I'll try and get my camera out and take some new pictures in the next few days so I have something to post.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain

So basically it has been raining ever since we got back from Arkansas. I'm being completely serious with that statement. Maybe once or twice a week it won't rain, but on those days you still can't go outside & play very much because the ground is soaked. We have been in NY for right at 5yrs now and I never remember having this many thunderstorms. I am soooooooo sick and tired of the rain!!! The fair is going on this week (right across the street from my house) and we haven't been able to go yet due to the rain. I'm hoping Saturday will be our lucky day since it is supposedly going to be sunny most of the day. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Now I want to prepare you because my next little rant is about the temperature. Those of you in the south will probably dislike me for what I'm about to complain about, but I just can't help it. All I want to know is..Where did summer go?!?! In April the temperature was soo hot (like in the 90's) and now for at least the last month it has barely gotten into the 80's. I mean we bought a pool to hang out in at the beginning of the summer and I have had no reason to fill it up because it doesn't get warm enough. Well I guess that's all of my weather rant. Thanks for listening & don't hate me too much for complaining about cooler weather :)