Kayla's Countdown Jar

I have been babysitting my niece and nephew, Kayla and Jake, while they are on the waiting list for their new babysitter. They are a riot. Jake is 10 months old. Kayla is 5.

Kayla has been asking a lot of questions about The Man's deployment. She told me she is sad about him going and that she is really going to miss him. She doesn't quite understand time so we decided to make a skittle jar for her.

We decorated a container. Then we counted out skittles - one for each day that Phil is gone. We also filled out a customizable calendar that she was given at his send-off ceremony so if she forgets a day or two she can catch up.

Every day she gets to eat a skittle and mark an "x" on her calendar. As the skittles dwindle, she'll know that Phil is getting closer to coming home!

P.S. I can't take credit for this great idea, I stole it off the internet, and changed a few things to suit Kayla's personality (like decorating the jar and using skittles instead of M&Ms...).




Decorating...





Counting...




Doesn't look so long when you view in terms of Skittles!

Time out to eat a few!

All done!

Fabu-light

The Man leaves in just a few days and I thought he would spend his last couple days relaxing. I was wrong.

I now have a completed bathroom (we remodeled the bathroom awhile back and had some odds and ends that needed to be finished - maybe I'll do a post showing our yucky old bathroom...another time). Among the odds and ends, the light fixture that we purchased didn't work out.

He moved the bathroom light fixture to the kitchen where we didn't really have a light fixture. He bought a new fixture for the bathroom and put that in. Then today he installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom! You should see this place now!

He added a handy little feature to our bedroom fan/light - a remote control. Now I can dim the lights slowly or shut them off immediately. It's pretty cool.

See a few bad pics below...one of these days I'll get some camera skills!

Kitchen...

Steamy bathroom...

Ceiling fan...with remote! It looks okay here, but really awesome in person...next is a new wall color. Any suggestions?

Army Wife Life

This weekend The Man had drill and I went along to meet the other wives and kids of the guys deploying.

We've also learned a little more about what and where The Man and the guys will be. I am going to have to come up with a name for the team because, as far as I know, they don't have any names or numbers associated with their team.

As we learn more, I'll be posting on The Adventures of Phil.

It was so nice to meet the other wives and their kids. They are all so friendly! Most have been through this experience before, so I am looking forward to learning about army wife life from them.

I met the husbands, too. I think Phil is on an excellent team with a vast pool of experience. It was interesting to learn their backgrounds and gives me some confidence sending The Man off to Afghanistan with them.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

The Man's deployment news was a big surprise to both of us. We have a lot to prepare before he leaves at the end of the month. There is paperwork and packing to be done.

Which leads me to the title of my post - an Albert Einstein quote.

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

In all this deployment chatter and activity, there are some opportunities!

We don't want to let The Man go without a proper send-off.

My mom and sister began planning a going away party while we were out of town. When we got back, I quickly created a invite for the party and started passing it out (I changed a few things to protect my parents address).

It was really fun for me to put my job skills to use on a project where I didn't have constraints!

Now, we just have to come up with a recipe for the Infantrynis.

Anyone have a yummy recipe for a light blue martini? We tried one last night that was not good.

I'll happily take suggestions!

"...all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman"

This year has gotten off to quite a start.

I shipped The Man off to Florida for a month right at the beginning of January. The day after he left, I was laid off.

The Man returned at the end of the month and mid-February we got a phone call.

Turns out, one of the head guys that The Man was working for in Florida requested him for a deployment.

At the end of March, he's headed to training for few months and then after that, he'll be off to Afghanistan for a year or so.

Then throw in the normal helping out family and friends through a few rough patches already this year. Whew. Is is really only March 1? I'd say we have had enough excitement to last the whole year.