3 posts tagged “steve”

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving and I have so much to say and so much to be thankful for.

On Tuesday, November 25th,  my husband returned home from an overseas deployment in Some Places Where There is War.  We got to meet him in the airport terminal and Brenna & Mickey hugged on him and would not let go.  We have special spaghetti dinner with garlic bread and home made coffee cake.  

Wednesday, we packed up the car to drive home to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving.  During the nine hour drive from Norfolk to the farm, I polished off the last 2,700+ words to get over 50,000 words on my NaNowriMo novel.  This is the first year in all years I have done NaNoWriMo, that I have actually won. 

Nano_08_winner_large

My family keeps asking me "what did you win?" and I think they expected the prize to something substantial like money or having novel published when it was finished.  They seem really disappointed when I tell them "nothing"  or  "the satisfaction of knowing I did it."

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I got to meet my brother's new woman, Robin.  I am not sure how I really feel about her.  It seems weird to have a strange woman calling my parents 'mom' and 'dad' (and she seriously sucks up to  my dad, so that is even more weird).  

Tonight, Steve and I are leaving the kids with Mom and Dad so we can have an "adult night" all to ourselves.  We almost ever do anything like this, but I think that after this past 11 months, we more than deserve one.  We are going out to dinner and maybe a movie and then spending the night in a hotel.  

Hope every one had a great Thanksgiving!

Well, the birthdays are over.  Whose birthdays, you ask?  Mine (March 17th) and my daughter's (March 15th).

My parents drove down to help us celebrate and were here from 3:30 AM on Friday morning until 9-ish on Monday.  

We had a pretty busy weekend, in which I had no less than 12 people at my house at any given moment from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday.  I am exhausted.  

Highlights from Brenna's birthday include jumping on the trampoline and Brenna and Brittany making a 100% homemade blueberry pie.  From scratch. 

 Highlights from mine include playing with week-old Doberman puppies.  (I was grateful for the quieter birthday, let me tell you!)

Steve called Sunday to wish us both a happy birthday and let us know he's doing okay.  Brenna got weepy over that.  She misses him and wishes he'd come home soon.  This deployment feels like it's dragging on forever.

Lastly, I finally got around to creating that "brag page" group I was talking about months ago -- for people to share pictures of the things they love.  Check it out!

http://bragbook.groups.vox.com/

Since our son was born in December, we've been going grocery shopping as a family -- me, Steve, Brenna and Mickey. Brenna usually pushes Mickey around the store in his stroller, playing with him and generally keeping him occupied so he doesn't cry. Steve usually goes and gets my deli meats and sneaks things into the cart while I'm not looking. (Or even while I am looking, which is worse!)

Last paycheck (we get paid every two weeks, so we buy groceries every two weeks, as well), we shelled out just over $370 dollars for groceries.

Yeah, you read that right.

At first, we chalked the increase in price to the $60+ formula, diapers, wipes, baby food, etc we needed for Mickey. Babies are expensive, after all. But lately, I've begun to have my doubts about that assessment.

Today, Mickey and I ventured out by ourselves.

In the last five months, he's proven himself to be a mild-mannered baby. He doesn't fuss in stories or restaurants much and he's starting to sit upright really well.

Also, Brenna has a soccer tomorrow, and Steve has duty this weekend, so this weekend is prett much short as a "family shopping weekend."

So I packed him up in his shopping cart cover thingy (a gloried blanket with pillow & toys meant to cushion shopping cart seats, was more trouble than it was worth, considering I had to lug it out of the store with me) and we headed out into the great unknown.

Mickey was pretty good. He didn't cry and only really started fussing just as we got to the check out line. I was impressed.

I was even more impressed when I saw the grand total and realized I'd a) managed to buy everything on my list and b) spent over $150 less than last time.

The only difference between this and my last shopping trip? We didn't go as a family. It was just me and the baby.

Thus proving that I really should leave Steve at home more often.