Busy Busy Weekend

Ok so fair warning this is a LONG post with LOTS of pictures. We have had a busy past 2 days. On Friday Andrew's class went to the fire station on a field trip and then yesterday Adam and I took him to Old McDonalds Farm. There is this cute little farm in a near by town that you can visit. They let you feed the animals, go on a hay ride, pick pumpkins, go through a corn maze, take a pony ride and tour the dairy to learn how they get milk. It is so much fun and Andrew loved it. Here are the pictures from the 2 trips.

Andrew's class with Fireman Joe in front of the truck

Andrew got to hold the water hose

Sitting inside the truck. He did not want me taking his picture.

Learning all about the rescue boat

A future fire fighter perhaps?

Back at school having a snack with his favorite 2 girls.

Playing on the playground before we went home

It took him forever to decide on being the horse.

Feeding the baby goat a piece of popcorn

Humphrey the camel

Feeding Humphrey some grass

Andrew is trying to pet the Alpaca while Adam was pulling down branches so he could eat

Playing on the hay stacks

Going on a hay ride

Since I never have a picture of myself I thought I would add it. Don't you just love my yellow sticker?

Isn't he a cutie!

Feeding a very large cow some hay.

Riding on Winter the pony

Which way do we go? Lost in the corn maze

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I appreciate you sticking around to look at them all. Stay tuned for more updates. We're still working on the house and I hope to have at least 1 room completed in the next week or so :-)

I love this time of year!!!!

Well Fall is officially here and I'm happy to see it. There is just something about this season that I just love. Usually it is a welcomed break from the summer heat, but this year we had a VERY mild summer so it wasn't too hot. I am excited that college football is in full swing (yes in this family I am the football junkie, not Adam) except for the fact that we don't get many Arkansas games up here. Maybe 2 or 3 a season, but I take what I can get.

October is shaping up to be an incredibly busy month for us. Andrew's school is now in full swing so that means field trips and class parties all which keep me busy since I like to chaperon when I can. Adam and I have finally started work on the house. We've been scraping wallpaper off of the walls in the living room and with any luck will have everything ready to be painted in a few weeks when Adam's leave starts. I'm very excited to get this work started and even more excited to have it completed. There is still alot we want to do, but you have to start somewhere. As I mentioned before Adam's leave/vacation is coming up this month and on top of the home improvements we are also trying to plan a few things to do with Andrew during that time. I already have a few things in mind that he will just love. And of course we can't forget during all of this I still have my school. Like I said we have a busy busy month ahead. Keep an eye out for lots of pictures of the house and of Andrew's adventures :-)

Father Son Camp out

Saturday night Adam and Andrew had a father son camp out in our backyard. We set up the tent and made a fire in the fire pit. Andrew was super excited about his camping adventure with daddy. Here are a few pictures from that night.

posing by the tent

checking things out

looking at the fire

(I promise he wasn't as close as it looks)

loving on daddy

Andrew's first smore

Do you think he liked it?

ready for bed in one of daddy's Army sleeping bags

My first week of school is done!!!

Well as of tomorrow my first week of school is completed and I have to say so far so good. Now I will admit this first week has been fairly easy and things will become more difficult, but I am still proud of myself. So far I have gotten perfect scores on the assignments I have turned in. I just hope this trend will continue without too much difficulty. Secretly I am hoping that this week hasn't been as easy as I think, but that I'm just that smart. Of course this isn't the case, but it's nice to think about. As of right now if I stay on track my projected "graduation" date is July 4, 2010. That's a heck of a day to complete school in my opinion. I'll be sure and keep everyone updated on my progress. On another note, Andrew is doing very well in school so far this year. We had a few issues with tantrums at first, but his teacher has worked out a deal with him. If he behaves and stays on the green light Andrew is allowed to help clean the tables after snack time. Yes my son who refuses to pick up his toys at home LOVES to help clean the tables at school. Who would have ever guessed.

Stay tuned for a future post about Adam and Andrew's camping adventure tonight. We set the tent up in our back yard and they are sleeping out there tonight. We also made a fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows for smores. It was lots of fun :-)

Remember...........

As I'm sure most of you are aware today is the 7yr anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This is a special day for me, not because I knew someone who was involved in the attacks but because this was a day that forever altered my life. Like everyone else I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the attacks happened. I remember being glued to the TV in awe and disbelief watching that days events unfold. That evening while Adam and I were watching the news coverage of the attacks, hoping the death toll wouldn't be as high as they were predicting, a conversation started that would eventually change my life forever. From the day I met him Adam had always talked of joining the military, however because we were both complacent with our lives at the time it was usually just talk. This day was different. There was something new and different in his voice as he talked about wanting to join. Adam had a new found purpose for joining, and I had a new one for wanting him to. The conversation continued off and on for several months. There would be lulls when neither of us would bring the subject up, but eventually all conversations would come back to the Army. Finally in the fall of 2002 Adam went to see a recruiter. He came home very enthusiastic about the idea so the following day I went with him back to the recruiter to ask a few questions. The next month Adam was at the Meps in Memphis getting his physical, taking the ASVAB and signing his enlistment papers. It was official and he had 2 months before he left for Basic Training. In January 2003 Adam left for 6 months of Basic Training and AIT. That August he finished training and we moved to Fort Drum, NY. This was our first (and only) duty station. When we arrived the units had already deployed to Afghanistan so he was supposed to stay behind with the rear detachment. This plan lasted for about 3 weeks and then we were notified that he would be joining his unit after all and would be leaving in 2 weeks. On October 4, 2003 Adam left on his first deployment. Now 5yrs later we are preparing for deployment #3. A lot has happened in the past 5yrs some of it planned, but most of it not. Looking back now though I can't imagine my life any other way. As frustrated as I get with the Army I know that my husband is doing what he loves and what he is good at. I can't tell you if he's going to stay in until retirement, but no matter what I know that he has served his country well and I couldn't be prouder of him. He is my hero along with every other man and woman that has served in uniform. While this is a day we use to remember those who lost their lives in the attacks of that horrible day I ask you to also remember those who have since lost their lives serving this country and those who continue to put their lives on the line daily. Whether or not you agree with the wars or the state of our government please remember those who have chosen to defend and protect.

Back to School

The traditional first day of school picture

walking down the hall to his classroom

finding his cubby

looking for the bus with his name on it

hanging his bus on the attendance board

Well the 2008-2009 school year has officially started and so far we are off to an okay start. Andrew had a decent first day, although there were a few sharing problems. I fully expected issues with sharing since he hasn't been around a lot of kids this summer. Hopefully it won't take too long for him to get into the swing of things. His teacher this year seems to be very nice and I think it will be a good year. Andrew is going to school Mon, Wed & Fri this year from 8:30 to 11:00. Last year he only went on Tues & Thurs. Andrew generally loves going to school so I'm sure he will appreciate the extra day this year (I know I will). I'm sure there will be lots of posts from school events & I know that Adam and I have some plans for our family this fall before he leaves. I'll try and post on things as quickly as I can after they happen. We have lots to do around the house before Adam deploys so it's going to be a busy fall.

Daddy's Home

Well Adam finally made it home Monday night around 8pm. After 30+ hours in the truck he was obviously tired, but happy to be back home. Of course Andrew was super excited his Daddy was home and wanted to tell him about everything we had done while he was gone. Below are a few pictures from that evening just after Adam arrived. My camera didn't want to cooperate that night so I'm afraid the pictures aren't that great.

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 :)

How clean are your teeth?

This morning Andrew had his first official trip to the dentist office. I tried taking him in January of last year, but he ended up throwing a fit so we just left. Now that he's 4 I decided it was time to try again. Mainly because I wasn't sure how good a job he was doing at brushing his teeth since he refuses to let me help. Needless to say I was slightly nervous about this visit because Andrew can be VERY finicky with his moods. At first he didn't want anything to do with it so I went first while Andrew watched. After my turn was over Andrew climbed up into my lap and actually let the dentist look in his mouth and at all of his teeth without any hesitation or complaints. Then much to my surprise he let me get up and allowed the hygienist to help him brush his teeth & floss!! The flossing amazed me most of all. If you had told me yesterday he would have willingly let her do that I would have called you a liar. That just goes to show that children will NEVER cease to amaze you with the things they will and won't do. Here are 2 pictures I managed to take while they were brushing Andrew's teeth.

Arkansas vacation part 2

Ok so now it's time for part two of our vacation. I must warn you that this post will probably be just as long as the last one was so I hope you're somewhere comfortable. We got back in to Searcy late on July 3 so our first full day there was the 4th of July. That evening we went to Harding University (a college there in town) to watch their fireworks display. Once there we discovered they had kind of a carnival set up for the kids. It was really very cute. Simple little games set up where they kids could win prizes & have fun before the fireworks.

Here is a picture of Andrew in the back of my Mom's Explorer while watching the fireworks. He really enjoyed them this year. He kept telling us that they were cheering for him.

The next day we spent the afternoon and evening with most of my family. Everyone came out to my parents house for a BBQ. It was great watching Andrew play with his cousins and also getting to visit with family that we haven't seen in almost a year. We finally got to meet the newest addition to our ever growing family. Little Miss Lydia was born in March and it was great to finally see her in person instead of in pictures. Unfortunately my cousin Matt and his wife Beth were not able to make it along with my other cousin Mike, his wife Leanne & their new baby Eden. I guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see them. I just love the picture below. We were trying to get a picture of Andrew with his cousins Caroline and Mary Evelyn when someone blew bubbles over their heads.

For those of you who don't know my family you should know that we tend to take lots of pictures, especially group pictures. This specific picture is of my Grandmother (Dad's mom) with 4 out of 5 great grandchildren. Baby Eden wasn't able to be there this summer, but hopefully we will be able to get a picture with all of the kids next year.

One night we went to an Arkansas Travelers baseball game. They are a minor league team in Little Rock. This was Andrew's first baseball game to see in person. Granted he didn't pay much attention to the game but all in all he seemed to have a good time. This is a picture of the field from where we were sitting. I hope that we can go to another game the next time we are in town.

Popcorn anyone? One thing I can safely say is that Andrew wanted to eat every single thing he laid his eyes on. I don't know how he didn't have a tummy ache later that night between the popcorn, nachos, cotton candy & soda. We finally had to cut him off because he kept saying he was still hungry when we all knew good and well there was no way he could be.

Below is Andrew hugging Shelly the team mascot. He really seemed to like her and was excited when I took him down to say hello & get a picture taken with her. I was a little surprised because in the past things like this have scared him some.

Now you should know the night of the game it was raining a little and insanely hot and humid. We were all soaked with sweat but I don't think anyone was quite as bad as Andrew. If you look at his hair you can see just how wet and matted down it was.

Well I guess that sums up the second week of our vacation. I'm sure I left out something, but right now I can't think of anything else. For those of you we were able to see it was great & we look forward to the next time we can visit. If we weren't able to see you I'm sorry. Hopefully next year we'll have a little more time to fit everyone it. I hope everyone is having a great summer!!

Arkansas vacation part 1

Our vacation started with 2 days in a car driving down to Arkansas. I have to say that this was probably the easiest drive we have had since Andrew was in infant. He did so well on his first long car ride since being potty trained & Adam and I were very proud of him. Once in AR we started things off at a fast pace and it pretty much stayed there until we left. With so many people to see and things to do it's hard to squeeze it all into 2 weeks. Probably the most exciting thing for Adam was taking Andrew fishing for the first time. The picture above was taken while we were walking to a catch & release area. I just love how it turned out.

This is a picture of Andrew's very first fish on the first day he went fishing. He ended up catching 3 total that day and they were ALL keepers. He was so excited it was all he talked about for the next few days.

What do you get when a 4yr old boy decides he wants to put sunscreen on himself? Take one look above and you will see. Andrew was in the back of the boat by Adam while we were out fishing on the White River and as you can see Adam wasn't paying close attention to him. Needless to say his little legs didn't get any sun that day.

One day we drove down to Blanchard Springs and went swimming. For those of you not from AR if you're ever in north central Arkansas you should try and go there. The main attraction is the underground caverns. We didn't tour them this time, but we're planning to next time we are down that way. I love this picture of him running up to say hello & shake water on me. He had a blast that day because the little swimming hole we were at wasn't very deep so Adam & I could always touch bottom which made Andrew feel more secure. The water was also crystal clear so you could see right down to the bottom & also all of the fish swimming around too.

There isn't anything special to say about this picture. We were at a local park cooking out with Adam's mom, sister & brother in law. Andrew had a lot of fun playing on the playground and chasing his Aunt Amy around. (Yes Adam's sister and I have the same name).

On July 3rd we went to Batesville, AR with Mike (Adam's step dad) & the company he works for. They had a cookout & reserved the go cart track and put put golf course for everyone to play on. It was a lot of fun despite how incredibly hot and humid it was. Andrew really enjoys "driving" the go carts although I don't think he could see over the steering wheel. They ended up taking 3 separate rides before Andrew grew tired of it.

Put put golf didn't last very long either. He did rather well for his first time, but I don't think it was exciting enough for him. We played 4 or 5 holes before he was distracted by kids on the playground. Oh well. Maybe we'll try again later on in the summer.

This final picture was taken later that same night in Batesville. We went to the local race track to watch the races & fireworks display they do every year. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay very long. We saw 2 heats when the lightning started to move in. Adam & I took Andrew to the truck before the rain started. While we were waiting to see what was going to happen they started shooting off the fireworks so we stood on the cab of the truck to see everything. About halfway through it stared to pour down rain so we watched the last half from inside the truck while waiting in line to leave. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see all of the races because Andrew LOVES race cars. If he sees a Nascar or Indy race on TV he will always ask to watch it. In case you're wondering what is coming out of his ears in this picture it's ear plugs. When the cars were doing warm up laps he complained about the noise so we got these for him. If only we had known 30min later we would be running to the truck. Oh well....

Well as you can see this post is very long & I'm only half way through our trip so I'll have to do another post. This week covered just about everything we did when we were up visiting with Adam's family. Next post I will show pictures and tell you about our adventures with my family. Andrew had so many firsts during these two weeks. I didn't realize how many until I sat down to blog and started sorting through everything in my head. No wonder the little guy was sooo tired and grouchy towards the end of our trip. Hopefully I will be able to finish posting about our vacation tomorrow, but I make no promises!!