31 July 2009

Today my husband's oldest child is 13 YEARS old... our child is 13 MONTHS old... lol. A little weird the age difference. Makes me feel young. Will be even more strange when we have another child in a few years and the oldest is like 17 and the youngest is a newborn... heehee.

Bar is doing so well. He is walking and running around the house now. He walks to and from the car a lot. He is trying to mimic what I say - duck, eye, ball, henri, etc. If I try to give him something he doesn't want, he shakes his head 'no', but on the other hand he will also throw a fit for something he DOES want. He is being so good and easy. I couldn't ask for a better little man. He loves his mommy and gives me hugs now. The best feeling is at the end of the day when I get to daycare to pick him up and he runs to me arms outstretched. He even tries to squeeze through a crack in the door to get to me - he doesn't want to wait. We miss daddy. Bar walks through the hallway now and points at his pictures saying 'GAAA!'... I guess that means daddy. He loves to point at his face in pictures.

My mother is leaving this weekend to come live with me for a while. I am both nervous and excited about how this is going to go... it will be awesome to have the help and maybe get a little sleep for once. However, it's always hard to be around someone new all the time and live with another adult.

Tomorrow morning we are going to the commissary. Then we have to do some cleaning and reorganizing for grandma to come. Sunday we will probably go play at the local indoor play center. Then, grandma should get here Sunday night.

Well, time to shower and then webcam with the love of my life. Oh, btw, he sent me a gift basket through FTD this week - gourmet tea with a mug, cookies and fruit and honey in an adorable box. It was the sweetest! That's like the 5th time for flowers or a gift since he left. All the ladies at work tell me how lucky I am - I tell them 'I know'. Everybody together now - AWWWWW! ;)

-Lu

Another great hero lost....

On Thursday, SSG Polk, was killed in action and SPC Drake was seriously wounded. SPC Clemeno got shrapnel to his hand and one of our interpreters lost an eye. It has been a rough couple of days to say the least. This war is really taking a toll on us as a unit and as a family. I got to know SSG Polk really well over the last couple of weeks and he was a great man, great soldier, and great leader and we will surely miss him. He died doing what he loved to do though. Please keep your thoughts and prayers for all of their families.
We will always remember you Polk. Rest in Peace...

I love my job.

Four little words that people don't say enough. So many people just bitch and moan about their job and want another one. My brother switches jobs about once a month. Although these people give me job security (since I am in staffing), it still never ceases to amaze me. We offer jobs to so many people who want everything under the sun along with the job - want to work part time sometimes, make $20,000 more per year, want them to hold the job 3 months until they are ready to start. It amazes me. Even one of my coworkers is not happy no matter what. She makes WAY more money than the level at which she performs, but she still isn't happy. Not too mention that we work for the fed govt in a job that people would give years of their lives for, AND we have great job security!

I was sitting in a training class that we put on for all the new supervisors today. I was sitting at a table with our labor attorney, a DIV Surgeon, and a BN Cdr/Bde XO. All of a sudden, I thought 'WOW, I'm so lucky'. I don't want to do this job forever, but I couldn't ask for better experience than what I'm getting. I meet so many people, and all these professionals see me on the same level as them. I have COLs who insist I call them by their first names.... weird. Anyway,I love my job. I have days I complain, and my boss is a terrible supervisor (although a great person), but all considered, I'm pretty dang fortunate with today's economy.

Lazy Sunday in Kirkuk

Well it is almost 8 pm here on a Sunday. Today was kind of a chill day-was pretty nice. Went in this morning and caught up on a lot of work and submitted my first paper for the class I am taking now (business communication-one week down, 4 to go!). Then this afternoon, I just hit a wall and really didn't feel like doing anything-one of those moments where would have been nice to be home in the States on a weekend and enjoying some family time. Been going non stop for almost 3 months now-7 days a week 13-14 hour day and it caught up. We had a little bbq today around 5. Had some good steak, cigars and near beer. It was just nice to relax and unwind a little. Left work around 730 tonight.
Been pretty quiet otherwise here. We continue to go through mountains of awards!
It hasn't been that hot lately-maybe it is cooling down now.
Other than that same old, same old.
Not much else to report. Will talk to you next time.....

Eczema Treatment.

This is random, but I thought that if one person does and search and finds this help, it was worth the post.

I have always gotten eczema. I can remember scratching all night as a kid. Then in college, if I even touched a dusty desk, my wrists would break out. Well, after I had my son, the doctor told me to put cortizone on him when he got eczema. I did,and it seemed to work for his soft baby skin, but it doesn't for me. I happened across this combo that actually works. First, start with a sugar scrub (I use warm vanilla sugar scrub from Bath and Body Works) and scrub HARD. It sloughs off the dead skin cells and opens up the eczema. That doesn't sound good, but you follow it with Cortizone cream and then pure cocoa butter (not lotion, but the forumla - stick or tub of it). Do that at least once each day while keeping the cortizone and cocoa butter on it, and it will dry up. At least it works for me...

Tuesday 14 Jun

Wow another week has flown by-sorry haven't been updating this. Lets see what has happened..
we have had two major sandstorms here the past week-one for about 3 days straight and now one for a day. It comes out of no where and literally can't see anything. They call it Iraqi snow here.
Things after the 30 Jun deadline have been relatively quiet.
We had a big visitor yesterday to our location-the Chairman of Joint Chiefs. He was supposed to be here for a couple of hours for a battle field circulation, but ended up staying overnight because the aircraft couldn't take off in the sandstorm.
My office has been very busy looking at and correcting and processing over 500 awards-definitely keeping us very busy. And one of my guys is currently on leave and another one will be going on leave pretty soon. So it will become even more crazy.
Speaking of leave, they are pushing hard to give me leave maybe in Sep or Oct-that would be great! Probably won't know for sure until end of Aug or beginning of Sep.
It is hard to believe that I have been here almost 3 months already! Can't wait to get home though!
Well it is 1015 at night-time for bed. Miss and love you all

Don't take a one year old to a duck pond and others...

When we lived back east, I often would take Bar to the pond to feed the ducks. He always liked how they came up to him. Well, that was about 5 months ago. He is over a year now, and I thought that it would be a great tiime to take bread to the ducks at the pond. The pond was really nice and located on a college campus. I thought Bar may actually be able to toss the bread to the ducks. First of all, he ate the bread. Second, he LOVES animals. He started trying to crawl (he crawls faster than he walks) and chase the ducks to play with them. It kept breaking his heart every time they'd run from him. Finally, he started crying. I felt so bad for him - he just wanted to play. That will be the last time I take him to the pond for a loooong time - at least until he's old enough to understand that ducks aren't dogs, and they don't play well with others.

We went to an inflatable play center today. It was great. First, it was free - until he is 18 mth old. Woohoo. There was a specific toddler area where he could walk and crawl and play, and I didnt have to watch his every move. He was a little independent. It was awesome. There were a couple others babies just a little older than Barrett, but the weird thing is that Barrett looked(or at least acted) the oldest. I was always wayyy older mentally than I was,and I think that curse may be passed down to him. One of the babies - a boy - was such a wuss. He threw a fit any time another child even got near him. Bar accidentally kicked him in the head (not even hard), and he starts wailing. I wanted to say, 'good lord, stop being such a wuss'.... but he's a baby. :) then, the little girl started throwing a fit when bar was playing with her ball. So, I said,'Ok, Bar, she wants her ball.' He gladly handed it over and then clapped or himself. The other parent said 'he's so happy, is he always that way'. Yep- he has his moments, but he is REALLY good about sharing. I took him to DQ on the way home as a reward for being such a big boy. I got him a chocolate dipped cone - spoiled butt. He was trying to eat it from the bottom of the cone, though. It was cute. Then, we came home. He had a hotdog, cheese stick, and strawberries for dinner, we took the dog out, then meds and bed time.

I'm trying to find enough energy to clean the house from him destroying it this weekend.....

And the list rolls on...

Next on the list of Barrett's health problems related to allergies in this hideous state of Texas....

He now has asthma. I have always been scared that my child would have asthma. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I had a lot of breathing problems (as well as ear infections) when I was little, and it really messes with your life. I was an allstar athlete in high school but eventually had to quit all of them because I couldn't breathe. I did lie and join the Army, and I turned out to be fine. However, I've always been scared to death that my child would have it. Especially since his half sister has asthma - pretty severely (although her mother SWEARS she's allergic to gluten, which is an interesting concept for multiple reasons: 1) no rashes 2) it's extremely rare 3) she went to a witch doctor to evaluate her). Anyway, both her parents smoke which is never good for those with poor lungs, either. Bar has started having a chronic cough. It even wakes him at night. Since we've been here, it's been one thing after another with allergies - first the sinus infections and runny nose, then the clogged ears and ear surgery, now asthma. The doc put him on breathing treatments that i give him every 4 to 6 hours. This means treatment before work, going to daycare during lunch for treatment, then treatment in the evening when we get home, and I'm NOT waking him in the night for treatment. Then he takes an asthma medication every day. We will see if this works. All I know is that I'm DONE with Texas - my son's health is more important than anything. We are leaving when my husband comes back - end of story.

Monday evening in Kirkuk

Well it is almost 945 pm here on Mon Jul 6. It has been a pretty uneventful past couple of days. We have had a major sandstorm here for about 3 -4 days. Can't see anything! No flights in or out (that means no mail and nobody going home on leave) so everyone has been kind of down. It says it is supposed to clear tomorrow-we will see.
We were gonna bbq for the 4th-but the sandstorm put a damper on our plans. Oh well
So far it has been very quiet since Jun 30-lets hope it stays that way.
Anyway, time for bed. Until next time.Maybe I'll have more to report.

NFL Coaches in Iraq

So it was a pretty good day today-5 NFL coaches came to pay us a visit-we got pictures, autographs and got to shake their hands. It was pretty neat-especially Bill Cower and John Gruden "Chuckie" former head coach of the Raiders

Got my haircut today-felt like a hippie and it is much cooler now with the mop off.

Laundry facililty finally found my bag-it was lost for about 3 days-starting to get worrried-but it worked out.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July weekend

Miss and love you all

Jul 1

Well, it is hard to believe it is Jul 1 already-almost 3 months done-time keeps continue to fly by, which is great by me!
The June 30 deadline came and went and really nothing significant has happened. We are still in a cautious mode. There is no change for us, but we have one of our companies that has been at another city and is moving here. If anything the bigger camps are going to become more crowded and the soldiers will have a lot more down time because they wont' be going on as many patrol as before-this is good and bad-gives them time to rest-but gives them time to get in trouble and think about home. We will continue to see what happens
We didn't have mail for 4 days because of airplane mechanical issues and weather-but we got some today. I got a letter from my beautiful wife and a box of candies from Mom and Dad-passed it out to some soldiers and they loved it-thanks a lot!
Tomorrow 5 NFL coaches are supposed to come here for an hour-probably going to be crazy-but I am going to try and go get some pics and autographs.
Yesterday was marathon meeting day-3 meetings back to back to back-I'm about all meeting out!
We had 3 more soldiers fly in today-they get lucky only a 6 month deployment!
The laundry service has lost one of my bags-hopefully by tomorrow they will find it-can;t wait to have a washer and dryer again of my own!
Probably going to have some sort of small 4th of Jul celebration here-hope everyone has a great weekend this weekend.
Well, I guess that is it for now until next time....