So, I'm pretty ticked right now that Cam never send any pictures of wild beasts and bugs out in the desert. It's alright though...BECAUSE HE'S ON HIS WAY HOME RIGHT NOW! He just texted me a little bit ago and said they were back on Lejeune and had to turn in rifles and such and that I could come to get him in about an hour and a half (longest hour and a half of my life).

Jac was getting pretty cranky so I put him to bed. I know I'll have to get him up to leave, but it's worth few minutes of peace and quiet to try to get the apartment straight before I leave. The place was rancid when I got home! I mistakenly didn't take the garbage to the dumpster before I left on Tuesday night and with the tons of dirty diapers and Kory's puppy pads, the smell was horrible.

Well, I officially am the mother of a toddler now. Jac turned one yesterday and I wasn't feeling very festive. I'm glad this is the birthday he won't remember, because I spent the whole day on the couch and in the bathroom with a terrible stomach virus. I started out the morning at 2:30 to go shopping with "The Fam." Long, gross, story short, I ended up getting Kimberly to drop me off at her house to sleep while they finished up shopping and had lunch. Then, Mom came to get me and took me back to her place where I slept some more. I don't remember a whole lot about that day...sometime Dotty came and dropped off Jac and Mom and Dad chased him down for the rest of the day. I woke up (about 20 hours after I went to sleep the first time) at 7 this morning...feeling much better I might add. Good thing, because I had to drive back to Jacksonville to go pick up Cam.

Here's a picture of Jac at his Baseball/Turkey birthday party on Thanksgiving.

So, I'm finishing this blog up about a week after I started it. Cam called in the middle and I stopped to go get him and am now finding that with him home, I actually have a lot less time on my hands. I'm definitely not complaining...I'm so glad my BFF's home. I finally have someone to play with again!

Well, it's Sunday night and since I have to get up early while Cam sleeps in for the next couple of days, I better get some rest! Those first graders wear me out. Take care!

Getting there!

I'm so excited! Right now I've got clothes in the dryer and I'm ready to get tomorrow over with so that I can go back to Florence. Just one more day of work...but it's gonna be a doozie!

Cam found out that he will be flying out of California on Saturday morning...not quite what we were hoping, but he's coming home in less than a week and that's all I care about right now (assuming everything goes as scheduled...fat chance in the USMC). That means when I leave tomorrow, the next time I come back here...he should be here too...WOOHOO!

The cell survived the plunge but, the battery didn't. I've ordered a new one online so hopefully that will do the trick.

Until next time...here's a few more pics that Cam sent to me.

Here's the hill he calls me from

This is a funny pic he took of one of his friends, Joyner...he's the one in the middle. Super excited to be there too as you can tell!

Scruffy...

"The Hills"

Cam was able to send me some pics of his fabulous life in California.

This is where they were staying.

Cam in his tent in "the field"...playing war. I miss that boy!

Camp Wilson

A "motivated convoy" (according to Cam)

More pics (of tarantulas, coyotes, and snakes...oh my!) to come!

Catastrophe!

I just talked to Cam. He's out in the field for this last week. It's good news though...he has a great cell phone signal, so hopefully I'll get to talk to him everyday. He apparently has a perma-cold, from the crazy weather out there. He told me that most of them should be leaving next Saturday (the 29th) to fly back. There are about 40 that will need to stay and help break everything down and clean up. They won't make it back until around December 3rd. Hopefully, he'll get to come home with the first group, but probably not it time for Thanksgiving. :'(

Here on the home-front, we had a disastrous morning. I was finishing up getting ready for work and doing my make-up and Jac was being such a good boy playing quietly in the bathroom. For some reason he enjoys throwing my brushes in the tub. Anyhow, I glanced back there to check on him when I saw him playing in the toilet! Ewww!!!! I ran over to him and saw that he was dipping my cell phone in the water. I yelled "No Jac!" and it scared him so bad that he dropped the whole thing into the great abyss. I fished it out and tried my best to turn it off and get the battery out. I still don't know if it's gonna make it or not. Ugh!

Moral of this story: Cell phones are not toys, and keep the lid closed!

Let It Snow!

Today would be the one day I didn't bring my camera with me to work. I uploaded some pics on the computer last night and forgot to put it back in my bag. I'm in the middle of teaching a math lesson today when my entire class bolts to the window yelling out, "IT'S SNOWING!!!" We don't have very many "teachable moments" these days, so I had to stop and let them go out and play a while. It started coming down pretty hard and collecting on the sand and slides. A couple of kids were able to gather enough snow to make a tiny sand/snowball. They were so funny; you would have thought it was a blizzard!



At least there was a bright spot to the day. Overall, the kids went crazy! I left work with a massive headache. First graders are so high maintence. It's too bad you can't just teach curriculum. Here are some of my least favorite jobs:



shoe tier

jacket zipper

ziplock bag zipper

nurse (distributing meds, offering magical band-aids and wet paper towels)

condiment/milk opener

water fountain counter downer (3, 2, 1, done!)

shusher

hallway/bathroom monitor

psychologist

cafeteria worker

custodian

greeter

nose picker police

hand washer police

color flipper

tour guide



And that's just today....



Whew! I'm so exhaused...only 132 more days left...[sniff sniff]



I can't wait for Thanksgiving next week! Jac is turning 1 on the 28th and we are having his baseball/turkey birthday party at our Thanksgiving celebration. This year has gone by so quickly. I'm so sad that's already so big! I miss having a little baby, but everyday I'm amazed by how he changes and develops.



I didn't hear from Cam last night, and it's not looking good for tonight either. Now he's saying that he may not get back until the 28th or 29th! Everytime I get to talk to him, it changes, so hopefully he'll get to come home before Jac's birthday.



I'll close with this pic I took tonight of Jac. He fed himself for the first time! It was great that we both got to each at the same time...well...all three if you count Kory; she was going crazy bc Jac kept dropping his chicken for her to each and then laughing at her! You can see her searching for leftovers in the background (He was using the awesome no-spill bowl that a lady a Southwest gave to me as a gift when I was working there. Her son designed it.)


Ok...I was gonna close, and then I was reading my Living the Message devotional book and came across this verse for today. I've been struggling and this encouraged me:


"I grasp and cling to whatever you tell me; God, don't let me down! I'll run the course you lay out for me if you'll just show me how." Pslam 119 31-32

UNO!

So, I'm pretty bored tonight. I put Jac to bed a little early so that I could wash clothes and get packed up to leave for SC after work tomorrow...and here I am!

I've been thinking about starting a blog for a little while now to kinda keep people posted as to what's going on with us here in J-Vegas and how Cam is doing on the other side of the country.

Right now, he's in Twenty-Nine Palms, Cali. for combat training (to prepare him for the job he will NOT be doing when he goes to Iraq at the beginning of next year). He left almost 3 weeks ago. I'm going absolutely crazy without him here! I keep thinking of all these funny stories to tell him or questions I want to ask, but I never know if or when I'm going to get to talk to him. He told me he has to walk a half mile (not really a significant distance if you know Cam) just to get a bar or two of cell phone service. With the crappy reception combined with the desert wind, I can barely hear him anyway, so we don't really get to talk for very long, but it's nice to know he's doing OK. Some of his guys got in trouble this past week and now they've all been put on restriction and he may not be able to call again...BUMMER! The worst part of it all is that we have no idea when he will be home...sometime between November 24 and December 5...a lot of help that is!

Right before Cam left, we had a "Baby Boot Camp." Cam was conviced that Jac was going to walk while he was gone, so he had a little training regime to try to help things along...didn't quite work out. Much to my dismay, he took his first steps last Friday (check out the video). I was a little sad to tell Cam about it, but I kinda thought he might figure out that he missed it when he saw Jac running at his birthday party on Thanksgiving Day! lol He can barely get on his feet good and then Kory sees him, gets way too excited and knocks him over trying to lick him. I'm pretty sure that Jac thinks he's a dog and Kory thinks she's a baby...poor crazy kids!

Mama came up on Sunday to help baby-sit Jac while I went to the dentist on Tuesday. I thought I was doing good scheduling my appointment on a day that we didn't have school until I found out that daycare was closed too. Anyhow, I was pretty sure that I'd be felling pretty crummy after everything was finished and I was on pain meds, but everything went great, and my mouth never bothered me at all. I was really hoping that I might be able to lose a pound or two during my recovery (anything at all would have sweetened the $1000+ dollars I had to spend on one stinkin tooth). What do you know? The night after surgery, I'm eating Olive Garden...nice! I did manage to pop in my Yoga DVD last night...so I felt a little better about myself. Probably more so from the motivating instructor than that invigorating work-out...lol.

So now I'm prepping for another LOOOOOng drive back to Florence. Maybe Jac will be a good boy and scream his head off the whole way home again to try to keep me awake. Isn't it sweet the way he tries to help his Mama???

Anyhow, pray for Cam...he's fighting a cold, but still managing to go for a run and to the gym almost every day. Pray for me too....I'm totally bummed without him here! We really loved living in a new place, but now that it's just me being a single mom, with no one here to entertain me (and haul the garbage)....it's not nearly as fun (especially when I have to make 4 trips up and down the stairs to unload the baby and the groceries).

I guess this is all for now. I'll try to post more later.