The Chill of an early Fall...

Fall has arrived! I can feel the chill in the air and see the frost on my lawn. Brrr.. I forgot what this felt like after all our time in Hawaii and Arizona! Welcome back to the East Coast! Not to mention, we get to set our clocks back Saturday, something else I've not done in 5 years! (FYI - Hawaii and Arizona don't practice "daylight savings") It's going to take some getting used to, that's for sure! Jack already wakes up in the morning saying "Mom, it's still dark out!" Poor kid is still getting used to the school routine. I told my Mom the other day that I now know what she went through getting me up every morning for school. I have to LITERALLY drag Jack out of bed some mornings! I remember my mom turning my bedroom light on and continuing to yell at me for another half hour before I would come crawling out of my room. She tells me she would carry me out of bed to the living room until I was 7 years old (when she was pregnant with my sister) and get me dressed. I have to say, Jack is a little better most days. It takes some poking and proding, but he does EVENTUALLY get his clothes on!

Speaking of Jack, he is doing such a great job at school. He's been there less than three weeks and is already writing his name on his own! I was so surprised when he brought home some work this week and I noticed his name on the paper and HE wrote it! Yeah Jack!!! My baby is growing up! Tomorrow his class is having a Fall Festival in the afternoon so I've signed him up to stay all day at the CDC. He is excited about that. He should be thoroughly exhausted tomorrow night! I am taking Mom tomorrow afternoon to pre-register for her surgery next week. It'll just be me, Mom and Joe-joe. He's usually so good when we have to spend the day in hospitals. What a trooper!

I'm pretty proud of my little guy too. He had tubes put in his ears on Monday and after the anesthesia finally wore off (which he screamed thru for an hour!), he was his usual self. I could almost swear he's talking even better now! He had so much "gunk" in his ears, he must feel so much better now! He keeps himself busy while Jack is at school by watching "Cars" and playing with his "cars", dancing to the music, and - here lately - smashing matchbox cars with his new Monster Truck. After our trip to the Monster Jam last Friday, he and Jack are both pretty into the whole Monster Truck thing now. They can re-enact it pretty well! It's amazing what they can pick up!

Jack and Papa Joey being silly - love them earplugs! Waving their flags Papa bought them. A little of the action we enjoyed.

From the "Sandbox", hubby emailed me from Baghdad. They arrived there around 8am today and left tonight for their next stop. He is hoping to see the old gang from Hawaii while he's doing his 8-day training there before heading to his assigned location. He should have pretty good internet access from there so I hope we can get together via webcam soon. The boys are really missing him. Everytime Joey gets hurt or upset, he wants "Daddy". Breaks my heart...!

Well, it's after 1am so I'd better try to catch some ZZZZ's. It will be a long day tomorrow!

I'm a New Blogger!

It is my hope to maintain this blog as both a venting tool for myself and to chronicle our lives to share with my soldier in hopes he will feel more a part of our daily lives while he is away in Iraq.

That being said, October 2008 has been a very emotional month for me on SO many levels:

• 
  Jack started Pre-K at the CDC on post.
  

I was determined to get Jack started in school to help pass this next year more quickly and get him used to the idea of school. He was very excited about starting and has done really well his first week. His class consists of about 32 kids and he has one teacher that is in charge of his group of 8 kids. He never faltered once about going into class and me leaving him. It's only 3 hours but it was new for him regardless. Funny thing is, the first day we took him (Steve was here for his first day which was really cool) he asked us as we all got out of the car to take him in "what are you doing?" "Taking you into school," we replied. "When are you leaving?" he asked. We cracked up! And I was worried he'd be upset if we left him alone! As we went back out to the truck, Joey kept asking "Jack, where Jack?" Joey cried nearly the whole way home because he wanted Jack with us! I tried to tell him to enjoy the time alone while his brother wasn't around to bother him. Joey has since gotten better and DOES enjoy the quiet mornings at home. The first week they learned the letter "L" (uppercase and lowercase as Jack will tell you). This week they worked on number 2 and 3 and on cutting with scissors - not sure if that is a good thing or not - LOL!

• Joey and I took Steve to the airport for his trip back to Kansas and then deployment to Iraq.

On Jack's second day of school after dropping him off, Joey and I took Daddy to the airport. Jack said goodbye to his Dad as I tried to explain to him as I had several times before that Daddy was going away for a long time to the desert to work. He doesn't really have a concept of the amount of time. Eventually he'll get it. Joey said bye to his Dad at the airport as we pulled up the the departing flights driveway of the terminal. Neither of us wanted to prolong the inevitable by going inside the airport. I held onto Steve for dear life and cried my heart out. Thank goodness for Joey keeping me entertained in the car with his "air guitar" and singing to his "Cars" music!

• Mom's cancer that she BEAT last year is back and has metastasized to her lymph nodes.

My Mom fought and won the battle with breast cancer almost two years ago. After a follow-up PET scan, cancer was found in her lymph nodes. Mom struggled with whether she should tell me while Steve was still here or after he left. She told Steve and I together in her usual always positive manner. She had a biopsy of the largest lymph node the day after Steve left for Kansas, October 16th. This news was pretty upsetting as you can imagine with every thing else going on in my life. I was very angry to begin with and have now come to accept that if Mom is positive and will not give up the fight, then I won't either! She's my hero and has a lot of life left in her! She's not going anywhere for a LONG time!