Climbing Mountains

I typed the title of this particular blog and all I can think of now is "Landslide" by Stevie Nicks. "I climbed a mountain and turned around..." Anyway....
Okay so I am sure most of you have looked at a mountain or a large hill and thought, " I could climb that, it isn't too bad." We are talking both metaphorical and literal mountains, hills and/or mole hills here. So, I am assuming that most of you out there have looked at said mountain, hill/mole hill and thought, no sweat. Easily done. I too have been that idiot thinking I CAN DO IT!!
I have looked at the mountain from a distance and been all cocky and sure of myself, only to stand at the base and think, HOLY COW! What have I committed myself to?

Yesterday I attempted to climb. I chose to not stand at the bottom any longer. I chose to pull my boot straps up and go for it. I am of course talking about a mountain of such proportions that sitting here in my chair at home, the mountain looks more like a small hillock if you will. I am telling you it is a mountain!!
Yes my friends I demanded myself to get up the MOUNTAIN....

Did I succeed is the question...Sorta! This is the story my friends:
First and foremost I must admit that this is a story of angst and woe. No really this is just my pathetic little story of how I attempted to make it up the highest peak here in Gtmo. Yes, I tried with all my will, might and strength to climb to the top of a real mountain. And like I said, it looks more like a small hill from here in my house. Standing at the base it is entirely different. Sitting here today with aching hips, and calf muscles that refuse to stop the pulsing, I am telling you it is a MOUNTAIN.

I digress, on with the story. So there is a group of terrific ladies here that really work at lifting each other up. Their goal, at least from what I can see, is to make sure everyone is included. These are some of the same ladies I had chick night at the movies with. At any rate, they are a good group of women that, well put out the invites and then wait for people to get out of their houses and join them. Okay, so they have been telling me that three times a week they make the trek up this mountain, and they have been encouraging me to come along. I have been avoiding this, coming up with excuses and what not. Why avoid the climb? I have no good reason, other than I like to be lazy. Plain and simple. I don't like to work because I want to be able to sit on my couch at home and read a book. I like to lay around. Course, laying around for the last ten years have helped make me the very obese woman I am. So, now I have lost a good 115lbs and the truth of the matter is, I need to get my butt in motion, or the surgery will be for not.

So, yesterday I dropped the husband and two older kids off at school. I met the ladies at my shop and off we went. Oh I remember now, one of my reasons for not joining this group before is because I didn't think I could do the climb, therefore why even try. I didn't want to slow anyone down and I sure as spit didn't want to look like a big fat loser in front of these very fit women. Anyway, I had Maegan in a stroller and off we went. A really great friend walked with me and encouraged me the entire way. Not by telling me I could do it, but by keeping me distracted the entire time. Alas, I did not make it to the top. No, but I got darn close and will be trying again on Tuesday. I have convinced the family to try part of the climb with me and they are very excited about going. I am hoping to try tomorrow, but we shall see.
So today, I am sore all over. The surgery while great, has robbed me of a lot of muscle. I don't have nearly as much as I used to. I am hoping to remedy that soon as well, by lifting at the gym twice a week. At any rate, I am pumped up, although sore as can be.

I want to leave you with this. When you stand at the bottom of your mountain, hillock or mole hill, keep telling yourself you can do it, and when your mind and body give out, go for 20 more seconds. It makes all the difference. I send you all my love

The Baby's Birthday

Can you believe it? Our Maega-Fat is four? I can't hardly stand it. She still reverts back to baby talk and actions, which of course send me into fits of wishing she would just get older, so it is a never ending cycle. But darn it, I want them to just slow down the growing process. Maegan if four, Adam six and Madie almost eight. In the words of Joey Tribiani from Friends

"WHY GOD, WHY?"

Other than dealing with the fact that I don't want the kids to grow AT ALL, things are great. Maegan got her Gamma and Gampa's package so she got a chance to open their gifts, and then Gramps' came yesterday. She is in hog heaven I tell you...

So without further ado here are pictures of the runt of the litter:

Gamma and Gampa found Maegan a cute little bag with Hello Kitty on it. She was thrilled. Did I mention we did the Hello Kitty theme this year? For some god awful reason Maegan loves the Hello Kitty cat. Me, well we all know I am not a big fan of cats, much less one with a huge head, and no mouth. But whatever makes this kids smile like that is worth it. SO like I said we went with the Hello Kitty theme this year....Nice bag, she hasn't stopped dragging it around yet. A sure sign she loves it..

Barbie!! I think Cindy must have super sonic hearing or can tell the future because my child never mentioned wanting a Barbie. Like I said, all she has talked about is that freakin' kitty junk. But two days before her birthday Maegan announces that she wants a Barbie. Little did I know Gamma had sent her one, whew!

So we were getting her stuff all situated in the living room, her cake and gifts, and while we did that we sent her up to her room so she wouldn't see the cake yet. It was a surprise! Anyway, while she was up in her room she found her crown and put it on. She came downstairs with it on her head and as she walks into the living room she explains that it is her birthday and birthday girls are princesses and so she wanted to wear her crown. Look at that beautiful girl. Her smile lights up the room I tell you

The cake...

A better picture of the cake. Alan ran with the Kitty theme. He copied the image off of Maegan's lunch box. Is that cat missing arms? Yep. Alan ran out of fondant. So the kitty is sitting sideways with no arms. Madie made a big deal of it, but of course Maegan didn't even notice.

We got her a bike and those pictures will be in the next batch later today or tomorrow. I will also go and get pictures of the kids rooms tomorrow and post those.

Plans for today. Well this head of mine is pounding again, I missed work yesterday because of it, and so I am going to relax as much as possible this morning, take some Benedryl and then nap. Then the craziness starts. Madie has her physical for Cheer right after school, then starting at 7pm we each have our own meetings we have to be at. Madie and I have the Super Catholic Girls Club or SCGC to go to and Adam and Dad have cub scouts. We have been asking for weeks now about Cub scouts and no one has heard a thing. Then low and behold we got an email saying that the person who used to do it is leaving the island and if anyone is interested in doing cub scouts please come to the school tonight. She said that the entire troop is gone, so we will be starting from scratch. Not really something Alan wanted to do since his schedule is stretched pretty thin already, but we can't really stand by and watch the GTMO troop dissolve. So he is meeting with the other parents tonight. Well we are hoping there are other parents interested, or even other boys interested in being part of cub scouts. If not, the troop dissolves and Adam will become one of only 200 lone cub scouts in the world.

Okay I am off. More pictures soon. I send you all my love

Chick Flick Night

Tonight I finally saw Julie and Julia, the story of Julia Child and a blogger named Julie Powell. It is a story of self discovery, that spoke volumes to me. I too am a lost soul looking for my way in this world. Who am I? What do I want to accomplish with this life of mine? Is being a mother and wife enough for me? Is clerk at a glorified garage sale it??? Like I said volumes spoken...Something for me to think about, as if I haven't been thinking of these things before.

Anyway, like I said I went to the movies tonight. I was invited to join a friend named Chris. She is actually Alan's boss's wife, and she is great. But let me not get sidetracked here. She invited me to come with her to the movies. We made a stop at Wendy's house, a commander here on base-also new- and had a glass of wine. Low and behold we got there and there were like 15 ladies all sitting around drinking wine, eating chocolate covered strawberries and having a good time. Now mind you, I haven't done anything like this lately, well really since college. There were women there I knew, some I didn't and a few that I have been on the fence about. Do they like me or not? Am I still an outsider? All the teen angst of course. However, the more I do with these women the better I get to know them and vice versa and long story short, I am starting to feel pretty comfortable around them.

So we all piled into cars and went to the chick flick and laughed our tails off, of course when everyone has had a glass or two of wine laughter ensues. It was a hoot to say the least.

Now for earlier in the day. Today was finish the house day. We have unpacked all our stuff and it has been sitting in piles just waiting for us to get it put away. Who am I kidding, it has really been sitting there waiting for Alan to do, you all know I don't do this sort of thing. But today we buckled down and got at least two rooms set up and cleaned. Alleluia! And then nap time, my favorite time of day. Afterwards it was race to get costumes on for Fall Festival at the school. I ran around for a good twenty minutes looking for a leotard of mine so that I could dress up as the fairy godmother from Cinderella, a costume I made two years ago for our Disney trip. Couldn't find the darn thing anywhere. So I gave up and thought I would try Alan's pirate costume. What the heck right. I mean I have lost 115lbs now so surely....Yep, I fit into a one size fits all costume. I was ecstatic. In fact the costume swallowed me up. The shirt was huge, hung almost to my knees and the sash wrapped around me twice. AMAZING!!!

We went to the festival and had a great time. Madie did the cake walk like ten times and never won. Adam, who can't eat any cake there does it twice and wins. Then there was the costume contest, Madie had the Hannah Montana persona down and was sure she was going to win. Nope, the disgusting zombies and a boy dressed in a hula girls costume won. She was crushed. She was so upset when we left there. She did however make a basket at the dunk tank and she dunked the school nurse. So it was a bust for her. The other two seemed to enjoy themselves. Maegan was a ballerina and Adam was, can you guess? An Army Man, complete with green face paint.

I was complaining to Alan the other day that I miss my girlfriends back home. I miss the closeness and the bond I shared with these women that are or have gone through a lot of the same things I have. You know that sisterhood. I told him that so far I have a lot of people I know but no one I am FRIENDS with in that sisterly sense. When we got in the car to come home today, he looked at me and asked me what I was talking about. He said there wasn't a person at the festival I didn't know or talk to, and that I hugged like thirty people. Hum, maybe I do have a lot of connections here and I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to just enjoy the people I have met. I did go to our cooking club potluck the other day and made some stronger connections and really had a great time. So, and here is the real kicker, maybe I just need to pull my head out of the sand and realize that all things come in good time. I didn't become sisters with Peyton, Mandy or Cathryn over night and it won't work that way here. Life changing moments I tell you people.

So on that note, I am off. Tomorrow we have rosary before mass, which the Chronister Family will be leading and then Sunday school. Madie gets to go to her bestfriend's house for the first time and Adam is going to his first birthday party on the island. Maegan gets to nap and while she does that we will decorate for her birthday. Can you imagine she is almost four. This time thing really does fly. We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow so that she has her mom and dad all day, not just for parts of it. We got her, nah I will write about that tomorrow. I send you all my love

potty Mouth

So I have a girlfriend who said she would love to read my blog to her children, but getting past my potty language is a challenge. So, with that in mind I will try and curb the bad words. Now on to the happenings.

Adam had his final soccer game today. Can I just say, AMEN LORD!!! I have had six weeks of soccer practice and games every other day. It was murder. We haven't had a chance to do ANY THING else because we always had soccer. But tonight finished us. Yes sirree we are done. And to commemorate this grand event I made green cupcakes, complete with green frosting. Did I mention they were the Green Gtmo Gators. My favorite part, we get to keep the uniforms, so we have a jersey with Adam's number 35 that says GTMO on it. Yippee that will be a great memento for us.

I also discovered today that even if I take the job with Navy Federal, I would make pretty darn near the same amount as I would with Treasures and Trivia. Yep, Maegan's day care would take half of my pay check every month. So..I am stuck at the trash hut forever. That said, now that I know where I am I can make it my own. I do love the natives that come in and see me every day and they seem pretty fond of me. Onward and Upward.

We had dinner with one of Alan's classmates from ODS today. She is a nurse that has been stationed here for the last year and a half. She was here without her kid and husband and so we got to see the bad side of life in Gtmo from her. She is so excited to be headed home..I really can't imagine leaving my kids for 18 months at a time. Makes me thankful for what we have I tell you and thankful to everyone who sacrifices so much for our freedom and rights.

I got Madie signed up for Cheer. Yes boys and girls, we are going to cheer our butts off. I am praying with all my might that cheer doesn't take up as much time as soccer, but here well there is NO TELLING..

Okay I am off. I promise pictures are coming soon, now that soccer is over. Whatever... I send you all my love

Holy Poop!

Okay so I am sucking this week at blogging. I could try and explain away my lack of writing to business, but whatever. So I am back and here are somethings that have been going on here:

First and foremost. I know I have explained how here on base the speed limit is 25mph. I am a person who follows the rules, really dad. If the limit is 65mph I don't usually go over it. So needless to say here, I am the one who everyone is following behind. I GO 25, and only when the freakin' Gtmo Special is coasting faster does it go over. Well, let me tell you, I got pulled over on Friday. Yep, I got pulled over, and the worst part was I had no clue why. I was going the limit, a little under in fact. I had just stopped at a stop sign, and I had my seat belt on. So what the hell. Well this 10 year old, well he may have been 13 seeing as that he had zits all over his face, anyway he pulled me over, took forever getting his shit together and then approached my car. I of course have Maegan in the front seat with me, here there are no car seat laws, and the only thing I can think of for pulling me over was because of her. He says so politely, "Mam," MAM when in the world did I become a MAM? I am only 33, not Mam in anyone's book, of course like I said you are a 13 year old boy hitting puberty. Long story short I was pulled over because apparently I pulled a Henrietta stop, the old roll through. I really thought I stopped, but whatever. I got a point added to my base record, I can get somewhere between 3-12 points before my license gets suspended. No one is real sure of how many points it takes to reach that status. So I went on to work. Then yesterday on my way to work again, that same zit faced kid pulled me over AGAIN!!!!! I know I was going the limit, I looked down at the odometer in fact when I saw the kid in his pickup just to be sure. But low and behold he pulled my ass over again. Why? Oh I was hot now. What is it, the taxi stripping down the side of my car? Or are my boobs looking that good that he just needs to see more. He pulled me over because he didn't see me with a belt on. Listen when I was fatter I didn't wear a belt for more reasons than one, but I wear a belt now. However, we have a GTMO special and the Ford has those automatic belts that follow the door. Well the car has sat in Gtmo heat for so long that the belt is useless and it doesn't look when you stop fast. Basically it comes across sits right across my mouth and creates a hazard, so I un-buckle that one and only use the lap belt, which I am hoping really works. Regardless...I explain to zit boy about the belt and point out that I do have the lap belt on. He says it looks good and he is going to direct me out into traffic, but I stop him. I say listen can you please make a note so that I am not being stopped everyday by him and his teenage posse and while we are at it, can Maegan sit in the front seat, because quite frankly I may go postal on these kids if they pull me over again for stupid shit again. He assures me that he will make notes and Maegan is fine. Yea I tell you if I get stopped tomorrow I am going to go talk to the officer of the day. I have my connections mind you. I found out my friend Wendy is the traffic judge, she was laughing her ass off at me last night as I relayed the story to her. I tell you.

On top of that craziness we have been setting up house. Yes my friends we are finally all unpacked. Is everything put away, hell no! Am I going crazy tripping over things left and right, yeppers. But we did get each one of the kids rooms done and I will post pics of those rooms tomorrow. I did finally get our camera out, yippee and I will be posting pictures soon.

Also, I interviewed at Navy Federal Credit Union. Do I want to work there? NO!! Again I have felt my age, which I just want to restate is not old, older or even worthy of Mamhood, but old I have been feeling. First with the zit boy and his pals but again at the interview. The manager of the CU is like 20 I think, she has a freakin' tongue ring for God's sake. I am looking at this girl and thinking when in the world did I start being the oldest in the room rather than the youngest? I have been the youngest my entire life.. my friends are all older than me, if not older than at least the same age, my employers have ALWAYS been older and wiser. But here is this girl with a tongue ring interviewing me. A shocker I tell you....It looks promising regardless if I want to work there or not. I did put some feelers our as well to babysit here at home during the day. We shall see how this all pans out. I am praying the God leads me down the right path. The CU makes more money, but I will be shelling out more cash so that I can put Maegan in the daycare program here. So it could be a toss up. I will be researching that this week.

Other than that, we are celebrating red ribbon week at school, the kids are drug free they tell me. Adam finishes soccer this week, THANK GOD! We were looking at doing flag football and cheer for Madie but for one thing it is expensive and we have no money and for another, we haven't had the time to be a family as much because we are constantly running back and forth to games or Brownies and now Little Flowers. So, Alan and I are thinking that both flag football and cheer are going to pass us by and we will start up again with outside activities after the holidays. Apparently the holidays are huge here so...At any rate Alan is going to begin doing cub scouts with Adam, they will be lone scouts as there is not a cub scout troop here and Madie and I will continue to do Brownie scouts and our super catholic girls club called Little Flowers of St. Therese.

Okay, until tomorrow I send you all my love

Hutia

So while Peyton the kids and I ate with Spencer, Gerald and Nohad on Friday night, Nohad posed this question. She leaned in and sheepishly asked if I had ever heard of a "Banana Rat?" I laughed and yet I was a bit shocked. How in the world had Nohad heard of our local "Banana Rats?" A Banana Rat, or rather the Hutia is a mammal native to the Caribbean. They are called "Banana Rats" by us here in Gtmo not because of what they eat, but because their poop looks like tiny black bananas. In fact Maegan once picked up one of the tiny "bananas" and asked me if it was a nut or baby banana. Yum!! Here are some stock photos of the Cuban Banana Rat.

Interesting enough, they are said to be all over the island and while I see their tiny banana poop and pee everywhere, including our porch, I have yet to see one alive. They remind me of that other elusive creature the Armadillo. You know they must be alive when hit by cars, yet you never see one that isn't smashed or with four legs in the air. So too for the Banana Rat. At least for me. Everyone tells me you can see them everywhere if you just look, but seriously I HAVE been looking, like mad and yet I have never seen one living. That is until last night. Yep I saw my first real living Hutia. Sitting on the side of the road. I was tempted to stop the car and enjoy the moment, but we are just talking about glorified rodents here, so on I went. I did find out one thing though that disturbs me quite a bit. The Cubans hunt and eat this animal. While they can get quite large, something like weighing close to 15lbs, I can't imagine eating one of them. Again sort of that back hills delicacy opossum back home. There is apparently a yummy stew they make out of it. I will be staying away from the roadside food stand that is for sure....

So I can now say that I have not only seen the evidence of said Banana Rats but I have had my first experience with a live one. On to more Gtmo adventures...

Back in GTMO and loving it

So I have been off island and off line for the past week, well really six days...what an adventure.

First and foremost---Coming here to Gtmo from Norfolk was a breeze. This is of course when we finally got to follow Alan here in Aug. The flight rocked, we had not one but two hot meals on the plane. Not a bump, not so much as an unexpected drop in pressure. Nothing. Coming to the US this time freakin' sucked butt. Not only did we not get a meal, the snacks were awful. The stewards had no ice and only a few things of water to offer us. The actual flight was rocky and bumpy and nauseating. SUCKED. I was so freakin' glad to land.
Maegan and I got to Norfolk at 8PM and promptly jumped off the plane into cold weather. Not to worry though, I had packed us jackets in preparation. What ensued were three chaotic days of doctors appointments and a visit to the lab, where they sucked 15 tubes of blood out of me, shopping, taking things back, shopping again, oh and have I mentioned shopping. I made a total of 9 trips back and forth to Walmart and one trip to Lowes. I wasn't very successful in any of my shopping as you are sure to tell by my frequent trips back and forth. I did however manage to get just about everything on my list and what I didn't get I was able to order online. YIPPEE. That means that both Maegan and Madie have birthday gifts and I did a tentative scout of Christmas gifts.

I was also able to go out with Peyton and Courtney for my birthday and I had a great time. Then it was all over before I knew it and I needed to head back to Gtmo. Now what I have failed to mention was my astonishment at life in the US and our existence here in the land of OZ. On Wed morning I had to be in Portsmouth for my doctors appointment. When I lived in the real world driving to Portsmouth, while taking about 45 min. was no big deal. So I thought nothing of jumping into Peyton's SUV and heading to yonder hospital. Can I just tell you, MY GOD PEOPLE SPEED!!!! I came to the intersection that leads out of the neighborhood and I couldn't go anywhere. There were thousands of people zooming past me at what seemed like 1000 mph. I was floored. I have only been gone for two months, but HOLY CRAP. I managed to make it across the median and into the flow of traffic, but to say I was going slow would be the understatement of the year. These crazy ass drivers were zooming and flying by me at warp speed. Something like 45 mph, compared to my 20. I did finally manage to get up to speed only to be waylaid by the interstate. The interstate, I loved the interstate. Fast, quick, got you to your destination in great time. I got onto the entrance ramp and all I could think of was the fact that my lovely interstate highway was designed by the devil himself for I had driven into the depths of hell. Lights, horns, zooming cars. I was a bit scared to say the least. But again I did the impossible. Not only did I manage to get onto the interstate, but I managed to get in the "fast" lane and even get the SUV to a whopping 60mph. For all my non-VA friends, the speed limit there is 55mph. What I used to think of as crawling. However, after I got done with the doctor I jumped into the car and it was like I had never left. Amazing.

This is the other thing I observed. People in general are not only rude, and standoffish, but they are in a huge hurry to get to THERE. Wherever that may be, they just got to get there NOW. Well it seemed like everything was expected immediately. Our meal at the restaurant, the lights changing, the lady checking at Walmart. If for one millisecond you take what is perceived as too long, you get the go to hell looks, the roll of the eyes the "geeze lady" looks.

Not so in GTMO. We are a small island, the people here go SLOW. Dinner at the Windjammer could take as long as thirty or forty minutes to appear at your table. Hell it could take your waitress twenty minutes just to get to you table. Not because they are busy, just because. The speed limit is 25mph. Period, sometimes it is even 15mph in the school and hospital zones. You are expected to greet your cashiers, ask them how their day is, tip them. Holding the door open for ten people is NORMAL and EXPECTED. Finding a toy, iPod, or wallet means you make an announcement on the roller and email everyone you know so that the word is out that someone on the island has found your thing. It won't be broken, or empty! People wave as they drive by, slow down when you ride your bike, pull over for the police/EMT/Fire on both sides of the road. Church is on Sundays and Wed evenings-nothing else happens. Am I extolling the virtues of GTMO, I sure as hell am, GTMO and all the other small rural communities out there that have not forgotten that we are all human, going through the same struggles in life and we are here to help each other. So I say to all of you, when you get the chance, STOP!!! Take a breather. Wave at the lady doing her yard work, ask the Walmart lady how her day is. Just slow down. It make a world of difference to your life.

I did love being back in the states, but I really couldn't wait to get home to the hot humid tropics and see my husband and kids. I will tell you our flight out of the US was so much better. Peyton and Noa took us up to DC where we had a chance to go the zoo, and see Spencer, Nohad and Gerald. It was a great day, and then Peyton and I headed up to Baltimore, where I once again got us lost. But we made it to the hotel and off to bed. Maegan and I woke at 2:45AM and got our butts to the airport for our 3:30AM check in. The flight was better, like I said, but still no real meals. We did get sandwiches and chips though, which is far better than the Delta flight coming into the US. The flight out was Continental. So far Miami Air has been the best though.

So now I am home and back to meetings, and soccer and homework and dinner as a family every night. Know that I love you all and wish you well....

So I have been very remiss in getting any blogging done. I whole heartily apologize to those of you who have been hanging by the seat of your pants waiting for my written word.

Today was a great day. The kids are in CCD after mass which leaves Alan and I time to get to know our fellow catholic islanders, there are not many of them I tell you. Anyway, as I was saying it was a great day. Our musician, who can play guitar great but lacks vocal talent, sang most of the parts of mass, and the Gloria had clapping. IT WAS SO REJOICEFUL. I was so thankful to God for this gift. The kids are really learning to be part of the mass rather than just sitting there. Adam and Madie are interested in all parts of the mass and follow along in the missal. Maegan tries for a few minutes but that is pushing it. Adam and Madie both want to be altar servers, but they have to have had their first communion. Not something either child plans on doing until we can do so with the family back home. So in the mean time they are simply learning. October is the month of the rosary and every Sunday they are having rosary thirty minutes before mass. I mentioned this to the family last night. Sure shootin' the kids were up and dressed for mass in nice clothes long before Alan and I were even up. We were a few minutes behind, but we came prepared with our rosaries and the kids followed along. We will be leading the rosary the last Sunday of October. The kids are each going to lead a decet of the rosary. Good Day....

I am in the middle of unpacking hell. Alan is busting his ass around here getting it all done. He is a worker I tell you. The house is an absolute mess, but there is an end insight. Yippee...

This weekend marked a first for two things. This was my first weekend to work in my trash garage sale shop, and this weekend is customer appreciation weekend thrown by the NEX(Navy Exchange). For all of you who don't know, the NEX is the Exchange here, like a PX. It is our grocery store /Walmart all rolled into one. It is pretty damn tiny, but it is all we have. Anyway, this whole customer appreciation thing is huge. There is a huge sale going on at the NEX as well as a 5K run, a concert, movie stars, and free crap. Did I mention free crap. Alan and I being who we are, have stayed as far away as possible from the chaos. We did go to the movies both Friday and Saturday nights, but other than that we have steered clear. That said we do drive past and I had to run in both yesterday and today for a few things. CRAZY!! Only word to describe this mess. There was a crowd gathered around the building with large boxes in their hands. Had no clue what that was all about, until I got out of the car to go in. There was one loooong table set up stacked with free stuff, and apparently you just walk down the length of the table and pick up you freebies. Then you get to the end of the line and get into a new one and get your free t-shirt from the NEX. I think we may have been one of the few families not there. Friday night after our movie, Cloudy with a Chance-again, some movie stars that stared in "Free Ticket" were there to introduce their movie and all that. And tonight Trace Lawrence is here giving a concert. Am I missing it? Yep, gotta get Adam's desk pit together and start packing for VA.

I have a list of my favorite things about GTMO life, and I promise to share it with you soon. This is one of them. Travel!! Maegan and I are leaving on Tuesday afternoon. On the flight will be us, our pediatrician, our physical therapist, Madie's Sunday school teacher and another family we know. I have never been on a flight where I knew so many people. The physical therapist, he is ALan's boss. Great guy, and I love his wife and kids. The pediatrician, Brian, great guy. Maegan loves him. The Sunday school teacher, her kids is in Madie's class and they live three doors down. So we will be well entertained on our way off the island. I have a list of things to get and am looking forward to driving faster than 25MPH. A bit scared as well, if I must say. I realize I have only been on island for less than two months, but getting used to this way of life is second nature. I can't wait to see what kind of reaction I will have to being off island. The people, no faces I see everyday, and the noise. We shall see.

So starting Tuesday I will be back in the states. I will try to blog then, but honestly I have a lot to pack into four days. I have to go Halloween costume shopping, birthday shopping for the girls, Christmas shopping and get some essentials for the house. Not to mention visit the Dr. and get blood work done. So until next time, I send you all my love