Welcome to the Rum Family….

I think that the countdown will feel better when we get down to numbers like 15 and 10 and such…. LOL

Phoebe had her ballet recital last night and it was WONDERFUL!  I can’t do her justice to just describe what she did.  I’ll get some pictures posted up on flickr in a little bit, but she was so cute and so happy to be up on that huge stage!  And, the rest of the dancers?  They were beyond amazing!

This has been such a long few days and I am exhausted.  The kids are, too.  We are looking forward to a break when we go to grandma’s house tomorrow.  It’s a solid 6 hr trip, but friends of ours are riding with us to the Louisville airport (which we go right by) so that will help occupy some of our time.

I have talked to Daddy since he arrived at LDAC.  He is tired of all the administration stuff and just wants to get down to the dirty work.  He knows how the whole process works since he was once upon a time a US Marine, but that doesn’t make him any less irritated when they make you HURRY UP just to wait!  I think today is the last of all the paperwork stuff and that they start in on their big school stuff tomorrow.  I don’t expect to hear much more from him until July.  He may call (they handed out phone cards) but they have to go to the payphones during their “free time” and can’t use their cells after this morning.

Okay, I have 2 more loads of laundry to wash, a gazillion loads to fold, clothes to pack, dishes to clean, living rooms to vacuum and kids to annoy (LOL what fun is having kids if you can’t annoy them now and then )

I don’t know if I will be able to blog while in IN because we are going to be traveling hither and yon once we get up there to see grandma!

This time last year, Daddy and I were trying to get everything sorted out for the 07-08 school year. When he signed up for ROTC, we knew then that there would be a summer trip to Warrior Forge camp that would last approximately 33 days. It seemed so far off and so distant when talking about it, “oh, yeah, he’ll be gone the whole month of June and we’ll be fine…”

The same was also said about the ROTC formal which was 2 months ago. I am both excited and scared for this moment to have arrived. I am excited because it means that this is the last HUGE thing that has to be completed and it’s the last huge thing that can stop this dream in its tracks. I am scared because I hate to be apart from my husband. A weekend here or there because of ROTC or Nat’l Guard is one thing, but this is 33 days! I’m scared to be the only one for my kids and that we will be on summer break (well, that scares me without Daddy being gone LOL) and I’m scared that I’ll just miss him too damn much to stand it.

Okay, before anyone goes ballistic and tells me that this is part of being an Army wife, I do know that this is exactly what we signed up for. We tossed around, mulled over, researched, talked about and any other euphemism you want to use for over a year before making the decision (as a family) for Daddy to go back into the military. Just because I am familiar with all of the ramifications doesn’t make the feelings just go away - if it were that easy there would be no military family torn apart by too much time away from each other.

So, tomorrow morning, we are all getting up and dressed and taking Daddy to the airport. It’s going to be sad and we are all going to wish he was staying home, but this is a very good thing he is doing and in the long run (i.e. May 09) we will be VERY glad that he did this! I’ll just be trying to remind myself of this when all 3 kids and myself are wishing we were getting on that plane with Daddy in the morning!

To see the difference between the old and new countertops go to www.flickr.com/photos/mrsrum

It’s UNBELIEVABLE

I’m having a crazy afternoon. The kids weren’t too awful bad today, although we did have several flare ups. Daddy is finally home, but is tired and grumpy - though he’s very glad to see the kids! I had to remove everything from the drawers and cabinets under the countertop. There is shit everywhere. I don’t even know how I fit all that in the kitchen to begin with…I think it’s time to get rid of some stuff, don’t you?

Tomorrow I go to a new dentist. I haven’t been to the dentist in a very long time because they make me nervous. I know I have to have a good bit of work done and will have to go back several times which makes me that much more nervous about it. And, since I am a horrible mom and have not taken my kids to the dentist due to my fear of them, if I like the women in this practice I will make appointments for them to go, too. I really don’t want to pass along my fears to them.

Field day at school is tomorrow. I hope the kids have fun. I remember going to field day and really loving all of the cool games you get to play. I won’t be able to go watch the kids, but I know they are going to have a blast. And, since Field Day is imminent, that means the end of the year is also - only 8 more days left of school —————-HELP !!!!!!!! Yikes, it means Daddy will be gone, and I’ll be busy, but alone. At least I’ll have all of them at school next year (hopefully, I haven’t heard about Erik’s pre-k registration yet)

I’m also praying for a friend of mine who is having trouble. There is a lot of things that I really don’t want to go into, but I do want to go on record as saying that whatever a child does, no matter how bad - they do not deserve to be hit so hard as to leave a huge handprint/bruise on their face. And, that’s all I will say on the subject. It is being handled at home and all I can do is be supportive and to give the kids my love. I just pray that God will intervene and give help where help is needed.

***Should have been posted last Monday, but I guess there was a little operator error or something***

Today has been a pretty decent day! Erik had his surgery about 7:30 this morning and the outcome couldn’t have been better - he was up and about and charming all the nurses around him in record time. He had that whole same-day surgery suite convinced he was a complete and total angel!

We had a pretty easy going day after that, just lazing around and hanging out.

There’s not much to really talk about even though I am just amazingly interesting. George had a great day at school. Phoebe was tired when she came home and ended up snoozing on my bed. After about an hour and a half I woke her up for dinner. She had a fever over 100. Poor thing, I thought she was just tired from all the running around and craziness this time of year.

Why do I have to yell and scream at my kids?  I get so frustrated sometimes because I know that I shouldn’t but sometimes it seems as if that is the only thing that works to get their attention.  I had a wake up call this afternoon after hearing and seeing the outcome of a father’s physical anger - I was so upset for that child.  He is a wonderful kid and I hated seeing that happen to him.  I yell more than I spank but sometimes I just feel like all I’m doing is yelling.  And, it makes me feel like a shitty mom when I can’t get the kids to listen when I talk and I have to yell several times to get their attention.  My anxiety attacks have been getting worse lately.  I know the kids and I are all stressed out about Daddy leaving for LDAC soon.  He’s stressed, too.  He’s gone this weekend for drill, but will be home tomorrow night.  All of the military stuff is definitely a change for us, but I think it is going to be the best thing once he gets through school and really only have one job rather than working full-time, going to school, ROTC and Nat’l Guard.

We had a busy, but fun day.  We went to the park this morning where we met my mom for a bit and she took George out to get a milkshake for having good behavior at school recently.  Then we played for a while longer after they got back.  We settled in for some rest/movie time at home while Erik took a nap.  While he was napping, I tore out the ceramic backsplash in the kitchen to start getting ready for the new countertops to go in Monday morning.  Then we grabbed a bite of dinner at IHOP and met some friends at McD’s to play for a bit.  The kids are WORE OUT :)  Phoebe started in on her usual obnoxious fit tonite and it was very stressful, but she did calm down after awhile and I was able to talk to her reasonably.  I guess that’s progress - maybe?

Tomorrow, we all go to church.  It’s nice since I haven’t been with all 3 of them in a while.  They are going to start coming with me all the time because I think it’s important and it makes me mad when they don’t want to go with me - one of these days my hubby will come around and start going back to church, but he has to make that decision on his own, I can’t force him, nor will I.

I have some good news!  I received a scholarship through an army spouse nonprofit organization.  I’ll be taking online courses to get my medical coding certificate.  I’m so excited.  I’ve already done all the pre-studies online and now am just waiting on the first round of text books to arrive on Tuesday.  It should take 4 - 6 months to go through the entire program and then I will be ready to get certified.  It will be much better pay than teaching preschool and I might have a chance to work from home, which I would love!  I’ve set aside 2 hours every night after the kids go to bed for studying because I need to focus on them when they are awake.  I hope I am able to maintain the grades I need to pass because I really want to do this!

I’m off to do dishes and then to bed.  I think I’m just as wore out as the kids are!  Sweet dreams!!!

~ The Momma ~

Well, today starts another busy week.  George has been having a hard time at school lately and has a deal with Daddy that if he stays on green and doesn’t get any warnings for the rest of this week and next that they would do a very big movie/dinner/dessert date day all by themselves.  Well, George did excellent last week, but this morning he got a color change to yellow because he was talking to a friend on the playground and didn’t line up when he was called.  When the teacher asked him if he lined up like he was supposed to he said yes, when she asked him again he said yes again - finally she told him she would check the camera (one of those little white teacher lies) to see if he did.  He fessed up finally, but not before he got a color change.  The best we can figure is that he misunderstood what he was in trouble for and it was just a huge misunderstanding.  He was so upset when he came home because he knew he wasn’t supposed to get a color change.  I just held him and let Daddy talk to him.  Everything is cool and groovy and they worked out a plan.  For me - if he stays on green for the rest of the week then I will buy him Alvin and the Chipmunks this weekend.  It will be ok, he’s just working through all the stuff going on around him right now.

I had a great Mother’s Day weekend, on Saturday I got flowers and I painted the base coat of Kilz in the boys room.  Sunday,  I went to church, Daddy painted the blue on the walls and then we had a nice relaxing evening.  I enjoyed the weekend!

Today Erik didn’t want to go to speech this morning, so he screamed all the way down the school hallway and wouldn’t let go of me.  After about 1 minute in the room, he was fine (as usual!!!!)  It was a gorgeous day outside so we spent a good bit working around the house and hanging outside after we got back from speech.  It’s hard to believe that he only has one more week of speech left and the kids only have 12 more days of school left — what am I going to do????????

We went to the Japanese restaurant because it was too crowded to go on Mother’s Day and the kids were upset.  It’s one of their favorite places to go and they know us well.  We had a blast as usual and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  Tomorrow I have to take Erik to the hospital for his tube surgery.  One of his tubes got impacted and quit working and needs to be replaced.  It’s a simple procedure, but still makes me nervous as a mommy.

There’s a ton of end of year stuff going on at the school.  It’s hard to keep up with all of it.  Plus, we are trying to get everything together for Daddy to leave for LDAC on the 31st.

I think that’s enough rambling for today.  I think I will get George or Phoebe to pen the next entry.  That would be funny - they always have something interesting to say!

Hi, welcome to our new home!  The kids really enjoy being able to share some of their most exciting stories with our family, so here we are!

We hope you enjoy hearing about our adventures and we hope you’ll come back frequently to see how we are doing!

~The Momma~