Plan C

I am starting to feel like my trip to CA and summer plans are going to exhaust the alphabet. Craziness in Las Vegas, but not in the typical Vegas fashion. Last week, Adam was getting ready for his trip to TX for the 2 weeks of training and taking care of deployment stuff, (more on THAT later). I had hoped to get over to the Honda dealer and get the oil changed while he was still here, to spare taking the kids and chasing Rowan around the dealership. That didn't happen, so I took it in on Tuesday of this week with Adelle & kids in tow. I thought at least Adelle and I could take turns chasing Rowan, which we did. I noticed something was leaking from the car recently, but thought it was water from the A/C. WRONG! It was the transmission fluid and apparently a lot of it. Ummm, we are supposed to leave the following day to go to CA. The mechanic said he didn't even feel comfortable if I drove the car back to my house. Uh oh. They kept the car, (all still under warranty), to repair or possibly replace it. I left with a rental car that Hertz promised to be a minivan, but ended up being a Camry, which barely fits the 3 kids in the back. I was getting ready to refuse the rental car and just have the shuttle take us home, but the kids were hungry, grumpy, and tired, as we had already been there for nearly 3 hours and would have to wait for the shuttle to return; you see how this is going. I took the free crappy Hertz rental and went home.

Fortunately, (sort of any way), Adam is out of town, so his car is available to us. We can squish more comfortably in the 4Runner than a Camry. Then I had to transfer all the car seats, again, parked the rental in the driveway and will use it to take myself back to Honda to pick up the van. So, the crappy rental will prove itself useful in the end, but it didn't seem that way when I got it. And I was livid to even have wasted my time on the damn thing. Honda was very embarrassed, but what can they do? They just pay for the rental and I certainly appreciated the gesture.

Back to the van. They ordered some parts for it, hoping to get lucky and fix the seals, as nothing looked wrong with the actual transmission. With any luck, it would be fixed today, (Wednesday), and we would be back in business to drive to CA in the van on Thursday. Do you hear those screeching brakes again? Oh yeah, that's right, Aimee & the gang no go to CA on Thursday. The transmission is still leaking like new breastfeeding boobies, (my description, not Honda's!!), with all the seals replaced. That means the van is getting a new transmission. This apparently is ordered and hopefully will be shipped overnight so the mechanic can put it in first thing Thursday and hopefully be ready with no leaking to drive on Friday to CA to be there for the party on Saturday.

Now I have to think, what if the transmission doesn't get there overnight? Do I leave on Saturday? At that point, Adam will be home in five days, do I even go at all? As Jess pointed out yesterday while I was complaining/venting, are all signs pointing to not going to CA? I am not sure.

In the meantime, I have no food in the house; we've been eating out or picking up milk and bread here and there. Adelle is here and only packed a few outfits b/c she didn't need much more. I know, she can do laundry, fortunately we are not out of detergent! And tomorrow our house in FL will be inspected b/c the old tenants are out, so at least I'll be here and can speak to the agent if she calls with bad news. What I am really hoping is that all the bad news stays here in Vegas and that the FL house will be in great, move in ready condition for our new tenants. Holy cow, if something is wrong there I might just need a new transmission, (well maybe liver), myself. I am not sure how much more bad news I can take! Maybe Plan C should be a beach in Hawaii and a great spa???? Now that is a plan I could get on board with!

Summer – Plan B

It was bound to happen….. So often I make my plans b/c I never know what Adam's schedule will be like and most of the time it always works out. Here I am making all my summer plans this year, everyone involved in my plans are making their plans and then our summer plans came to a giant halt. Deployment. It wasn't a shock, we knew Adam was high up on the list, meaning he's due to go. It kept looking like the Fall was when he'd go; missing the holidays and the kids' birthdays. Then this email was sent saying someone from some group had to go and a day later that someone was Adam. I don't understand how the numbers work or how they divide up deployments between the different organizations within the AF. Adam saw the email on Tuesday and Wednesday he was the guy. Can you hear the screeching brakes?

Here is how his deployment breaks down: (1) 6/21 he goes to San Antonio for some training and returns on 7/2 (2) Then he's home until 7/20ish and then (3) leaves for Ft Dix in New Jersey for a month of training and from there he leaves to go to Afghanistan for 6 months, well 179 days, but who's counting? So, really he'll be gone for 7 months. Ugh. Of course, we had planned to be RVing with DPA during the time he'll be home before he leaves. RVing is off the calendar. The new plan is to go to CA on 6/24 with Adelle & the kids. Go to my g'ma's 90^th birthday party, since Adam will be in TX there is no need to be here. We'll get to see Christine and Brielle in Yuba City for a sleepover. (Christine is already counting down the days until Yuba City – I think she is the 1^st person in history to EVER countdown going to Yuba City) When C & B leave, the kids and I will head to Napa to wear out my mom, see as many Garlands & other friends as possible, go to Train Town and then head back to Yuba City in 7/4. Adam will fly up to Sac on 7/4 to help me drive back with the kids. Then he's home for a couple of weeks and he's off.

Adam will be deploying with the Army. He'll be an EWO, Electronics Warfare Officer, in a battalion at some army base in Afghanistan. Nope, don't know which one!! He's still not exactly sure what he'll be doing. We know he'll be maintaining equipment used to look for IEDs, training people how to use it and will probably go out with the army guys looking for IEDs, but that's about all we know. No clue about internet, phone access, even what his living arrangements will be. We think he'll have some internet access and we're getting him a cheapie laptop to take b/c I guess with all the sand & dirt, it isn't worth to get a good one. We are hoping to use Skype to chat via the internet with web cams. Not sure how that all works, but we'll figure it out. I think Adam hopes to have some opportunity to write in his blog about his experience.

Man, this sucks. The 7 months really sucks. Having to be in Las Vegas for most of the summer (alone with 3 kids) rather than part of the summer sucks too! And I can just say this sucks!?! Ha! It will all turn out fine and once school gets going, the time will fly. It's just that part from 7/20ish until 8/24. I flirt with the idea of going back to CA for a couple of weeks. But, then I have to drive and I don't think I can do it alone yet. Once Rowan is a little older. Russ and Rach are great with him, but once Rowan gets really upset, Russell is upset b/c he can't help and it stresses him out.

In the meantime, I have started getting together my single parent plans/mode; make lemonade out of this lemon of a summer!!! I think I get a free membership to the YMCA while Adam is gone. That will be cool. The kids love the pool there – we just finished swim lessons. I think their gym is all right. I am really thinking about joining the new Gold's Gym that just opened up instead. The grand opening specials are just too good to pass up. So, that will help. Then I can use nap time for some 'me' time instead of working out at home. I did get a cleaning lady and I love her! She's coming every other week to clean bathrooms, the kitchen and mop all the tile floors (we have a lot of them!). If I could afford to have her come more and stay longer I would and maybe while he's gone I will! Ha! But, that helps knowing I don't have to do it 'all'. I did find a teenage babysitter in our neighborhood. I used her once; she's smart, capable, military 'brat' and the kids liked her. So, that is a relief. We'll cut back on some activities so we are home more than one night during the week. It's all coming along, now that the shock is over, as it always does.

Wait, did I mention that this sucks?

Vincent 100

At Fall Festival back in October, Russ & Rach won 2 goldfish. These two 20 cent goldfish cost about $40 for an aquarium, food, pump filters, and don't forget the all important sunken pirate ship and plastic pink plants. Russ named his fish Vincent A b/c in his class he had a Vincent B and a Vincent D. Rachel named hers Colin Girl. They had some funk growing on them and promptly died two weeks later. Off we went to Walmart to get 2 more fish that cost 40 cents and an algae sucker fish. The big joke was that we would have a Vincent C, Vincent E, all the way to Vincent Z and then start on Vincent 1, 2 ,3 maybe even 100. Well, Russ caught on to the joke and cut to the chase and named goldfish #2 Vincent 100. Rachel named her fish Colin Lady and they named the sucker fish Skipper.

So last week Vincent 100 had some weird gash on his side, blood, the whole bit. We talked about it; maybe we'd get a Vincent 101? Then the gash healed, but he had some funk on him. Adam cleaned out the aquarium in hopes of saving poor Vincent 100. Then we noticed that V100 was missing his top fin. How did that happen??? He wasn't swimming well, how could he, he had no top fin. We thought he was a goner. Yet a day later he perked up and the funk was gone. A day or two later we noticed that he is growing a new top fin. Yah, so I have no clue what Adam put in the water, but V100 is making a comeback and I can't believe it. We are really getting our 20 cents worth out of that fish.

a-MAY-zing

My second favorite time of year is Mother's Day thru the end of May, my birthday. How selfish is THAT?? Ha! Thanksgiving to New Year's is my favorite time of year, incase you were wondering.. But the last part of May was really good to me this year and I just have to share some highlights.

This year, Mother's day was a bit off with the tummy flu and all that. We celebrated again the following weekend – Adam got me a spa day – 1 hour facial and a 1 hour massage – so relaxing! We also tried out a new restaurant (new to us) called Agave. The food was pretty good, (pumpkin seed crusted salmon for me and Adam had a braised short rib with some fancy mushroom rice); however the real standouts were the margaritas. They were outstanding. The kids were really good, it was great family night out.

I have been to the library a few times this month. I am thinking that a lot of people in Las Vegas read Debi's blog, b/c the books she reviews and likes are hard to get! I have had to put requests in for those. In the meantime I read a few books, non that I would read again. I did read "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory. I have read a few of her other books and enjoyed them, but this book I really struggled to finish and finished it b/c I had invested so much time in it. I am just starting "The Family Tree"b/c Christine recommended it and next on my stack is "Snowflower and the Secret Fan" which was suggested to me by two different people. By the time I finish those, I hope some of my 'Debi books' will be waiting for me to check out!!

Memorial Day Weekend was terrific, but I already wrote about that.

Which leads us to the 36^th birthday. I mean, 29^th birthday! Just kidding, I have no qualms about my age, especially since I still get carded!!! I slept in, Adam made waffles, I worked out, spent some fun time playing the Wii with the kids, and then went and had a deluxe mani & pedi and enjoyed every second! I have really been wanting a new camera, so Adam, who gets nervous about buying me gifts, asked if I'd mind picking out my camera so I could get what I wanted. Heck no, I don't mind, I appreciated that he asked. So, I ordered my new camera (got a fancy one b/c I added my birthday girl money from my mom) and it should be here soon. We went to Lotus of Siam (Thai Food) for dinner. So delicious, again. I have to mention the great service too. The regular table service is very good, they have no problems making Rachel just a plate of lettuce (I bring her salad dressing since they don't serve Ranch dressing), and this time a server noticed that Rowan threw his bink on the floor and he brought us a cup of hot water to wash it off. We just really appreciate little things like the cup of hot water, it is very thoughtful. The night ended with a homemade coconut cake that I LOVE.

Adam also insisted that we try out a cleaning service a couple times per month to help me keep up with the house. Who is this guy? Oh, just the greatest husband, ever! : ) Ha!

So, I guess it isn't any wonder why I heart the last half of May.

Aleeka

For a while now, Rachel has been talking about a little girl named Aleeka. I thought, well here it is, Rachel has an imaginary friend. We had no clue where she even got the name from and quite frankly, I am not even sure how to spell it! We have picked out flowers for a pot and Rachel says they are "Aleeka flowers" because Aleeka likes purple flowers. She even has told us that Aleeka lives in Las Vegas, in the city, meaning down by the strip. She and I drove down to the strip to pick up my friend form college, Trina, (visiting from Iowa while her hubby was involved in a dart tourney and we spent the day with Trina, yay!) Rachel was sure we were going to pick up Aleeka too and was DEVESTATED that we didn't. She was genuinely sad, crocodile tears, the whole package. I have to admit I was a little flabbergasted. I didn't know she was so into Aleeka.

Rachel also has an imaginary pink house where she lives with her "babe" (we assume she means husband) and her boy children and girl children and a girl baby. One day she told me she has a red bench outside of her pink house that she sits on and watches her boy & girl children play. She'll explain how they play and what they do, complete with silly sound effects. Then one day she and her babe took the boy&girl children and the girl baby on a picnic with Aleeka. Another time her babe was using a hammer and he hit his thumb. He said "Ow, Ow, OUCH!" (Rachel imitating it perfectly) and then she said she had to put a band aid on her babe's thumb. She has drawn a picture of herself, her babe, the boy & girl children and some barbells b/c her babe likes to work out. (Babe is beginning to sound a lot like Adam!!!) She has told us plenty of other stories, that I wish I would have written down. Rachel has quite an active imagination.

Well, about a week ago I finally figured out who the heck Aleeka is and how she came into our lives. Rachel and Rowan like to watch "Your Baby Can Read" dvds (usually in the van while we are carting Russ to speech or whatever) and guess who is the videos? The one, the only……. Aleeka!!! We had stopped watching the dvds for a while (I don't think that Rowan will be reading any time soon, but I figure it can't hurt them to watch them and learn some sight words. This could be another post. Adam is big on them and I bought them to appease him more than anything. Enough about that!) Back to Aleeka. So, Rachel talked a lot about Aleeka when we had stopped the dvds, but now that she is watching them again more regularly, she doesn't talk about her anymore.