September 26th 2010

Hi all, we celebrated Katie's 14th birthday this weekend!  Man o live, 14!!  I am just hoping that "hormones" don't get any worse!!  I told Dave a few times that I will be having to fight more battles than he will while being home with a 14 year old girl!!  God help me!  Anyhow, we took her to dinner, because she already had her birthday party last month..she wanted to have it outdoors, and wanted it to be warm. Sooo, just a simple "family" celebration on Saturday. Jack, Katie, Aunt Terry, Grampa Gene and I all went to dinner.  Katie asked me to make her a chocolate cream pie for her "cake" choice.  It turned out wonderfully, if I have to say so myself!
So, why were Gene and Terry here?  Well, Gene, (married to Leanne, Dave's mom) has been working on finishing our basement, so he drives the 4 hours from Marengo, Iowa to work for a while, goes back home to have a normal life for a bit, then comes back to work some more!  It is looking so beautiful, I can't wait to see the finished product, it is going to be great!!  I am also looking forward to getting the television and Wii up and running down there!!!  It will be wonderful to have a place to send the kids! :O) That reminds me, I need to check if there is a lock on that door ;)  Aunt Terry (my sister from Spencer, Iowa) quit her job as director of the child care program at the YMCA in Spencer (and btw, they hired 3 women to fill her place...so, as you can imagine, coming here to help me out wasn't her ONLY motivation to leave the job!) and moved in with us last month.  Her kids are all in their 20's and living out of the house, so she just left her husband Mike and dog Nevel behind.  (Mike may also need to find 3 women to fill Terry's shoes while she is gone!) So, she is here, and the kids and I love it!  She is in the process of looking for a job, but not getting lucky!  She wanted to do something different, and a little bit fun for a while, instead of working with kids. She is a great people person, so she should be out there dealing with people!!  Any of you have any ideas, send them my way!! 
One of Katie's gifts, (and Jacks too, since his birthday is next Tuesday, the 28th) was an envelope that had a flight itinerary for a trip to Mississippi in it!!!  YES, to go visit their Dad!!  Dave will have 4 days of leave in October, and has known about it for a while.  At first, he wanted just me to go down, and leave the kids home with Terry, but I really struggled with that!  Dave didn't want to have to re-live the drama (mostly from Katie) of another good-bye, and lets just face it, he had "other" things on his mind that didn't include the kids;)
But, in the end, Dave decided that the kids should go also, and I got a 20 minute lecture from Terry on how I should be the only one going, etc, etc......:O) She thought it would be a great opportunity for just Dave and I to have some rare time alone!  Anyhow, Dave has rented a beach house in Mississippi and we will fly down there and get a few extra days of sunshine!!  I'll tell you all about it when we get back!
Right now, Dave is in California again.  They are spending two weeks out in the field, in the scorching heat in order to get better prepared for Afghanistan!  We will not be able to hear from him during the entire two weeks.  This should give us a taste of things to come once he gets to Afghanistan! (Scroll down for more)

I know before that I told you they would be heading out for the big A in October, but, now don't be surprised at this change, they won't be going until Nov.
Got to go, more later!  Love to you all!
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