Long Time, No Post

Yeah, I know I'm slack. You'd think with all these extra hours I'm having not working and all, I'd have tons of time to write. WRONG! Here's how my summer has been going so far.

On normal mornings, Jac wakes up at about 6:15 or 6:30 (on mornings where we HAVE to get up early, I usually have to wake him up at 7:30 ish...go figure). Anyhow, after wake up time, it's breakfast and a cartoon or two. Then we usually hop in the shower, get dressed, hit the town for errands, grab a bite to eat for lunch, come home for a nap, swim lessons at 4, home for supper, bath if necessary, and finally hit the rack around 8:30 ish.

Thankfully, tomorrow is our last day of swimming class for a while. Jac and Penn have been doing awesome (except for the one day...I won't go into detail about it, but it was bad). Today, Penn looked like he was about to take off all by himself! Jac likes to chill with the armies on and can even balance himself unassisted. They're learning to kick and paddle. Penn is holding his breath when he goes under, but Jac sticks out his tongue...we're workin on it. Seriously though, these kids LOVE the water and we try to go to the pool every chance we get!

Last Wednesday, I got to go to Jacksonville and see my former students and co-workers on their last day of school. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to go back and that I left on good terms. The kids were all so glad to see me, and I was happy to see them. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Then on Friday night, I was starting to get nervous about that dumb PLT test I had to sign up to take on Saturday. I was on my way to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription diaper cream for Jac when I got distracted and rear-ended the truck in front of me. The people were really nice about it and Dad came out to do the talkin and worked out a deal with them to get their car fixed. My car will have to be put on the waiting list I guess. There goes my (near) perfect driving record. Well, according to the insurance company and the Highway Department, it's still perfect! :)

So, I'm sure you can imagine how completely dreary I felt about starting on this sour note and having to take the test, but I shrugged it off and headed to FMU early Saturday morning, trying to be optimistic. I really wanted to focus on managing my time, because a lot of the people I talk to that have failed the test, said that they didn't finish it. It is a 2 hour timed test. Well I focused the best I could and got started. About 15 minutes into the test, they girl sitting 2 rows next to me collapsed and fell out of her seat! We weren't sure what to do. For most of us, we didn't want to stand up and gawk, but we didn't know what to do to help. I could see people kinda freak out on the inside. We were all worried and concerned for her, but at the same time, they didn't stop the test! Finally, after about 5 to 10 scary/awkward minutes, on of the proctors ran in the room and yelled for us to stop working and told us that people were coming to help. After they got the situation under control, we were given time to collect ourselves and then we started testing again. I have no idea how I did, but I did finish it. I guess I'll know more in about a month. I'll let you know if I pass it; if I fail, I'll probably just avoid the topic all together. HA!

Yesterday, we went on our first excursion to the zoo in Columbia with our church. Our cousins, Brandon and Andrew, hung out with us for the day. We were so glad they were there to help chase down babies. They're really good kids and we hope that we didn't spoil their day having to hang out with the baby group. Our little ones were troopers. They really loved seeing all the animals and wanted to get out and look (no surprise there). We spent about 5 hours there and they really didn't fuss much at all. At the end of the trip, the moms got Dippin Dots, while the boys picked out a prize from the shop. Penn chose "the Big Bad Wolf" (I think it's a meerkat) and Jac fell in love with a rubber snake (that's actually quite painful when he whips you in the legs with it). All in all, a fun day, especially the ride home where they both slept the whole way back.

Cam's doing same as usual...boring I know...he feels the same way. He was kinda bummed last week because he found out that he was probably going to have to get a room mate. Since he has been in Iraq and because he is a Sgt., he's had a room all to himself. Earlier this week he found out that one of his friends from Lejeune who had been stationed in Al Asad was coming to TQ with him. Now, he's actally pretty excited about sharing his room. He knows this guy pretty well and maybe now, he'll have someone to keep him company. He's also been training for MCMAPS (the Marine Corps martial arts program). He's working on his green belt and will finish that in a couple of weeks. He's hoping to earn a black belt before he gets out of the military next April. Hopefully, they'll let him go on a black belt course when he gets back to Lejeune. I'm so proud of my motivated Marine (you know it's true, Cam)!

Me? I'm alright. My supposedly mundane day-to-day life, is alot like a roller coaster ride. I go through so many emotions in one day. Loneliness, exhaustion, excitement, happiness, and nostalgic just to name a few. Sometimes, I try to stay so busy that I won't have time time even think about the deployment and how much I miss him. We're getting so close to the 4 month mark and it isn't getting any easier. I'm just getting antsy and September seems like an eternity away!

I bought a new Sara Groves cd last week and remembered how much I love her music. I can always relate to her songs. So I'm gonna close with these lyrics from the song "Undone" (from The Other Side of Something), because I can't come up with the right words to describe how I feel on my own. I hope you understand.

Baby will you help me get undone?

I don't even remember how I got this on.

I started out pretending

Now I don't recognize myself

And I could use a little help.

You have no pretenses

All your walls are fences

I can see right through

You have no two faces

You know where our place is

and that's why I need you

Oh baby

Baby will you help me get undone

I truly believe you are the only one

Who will be the best reminder of

Where I am coming from

So if you'll help me now

I want to get undone

P.S. Sorry for the long post (it's what you get when I wait weeks between posts!)