Inadequate Materials

We picked up the Captain VERY late Friday night, and I was hoping to get a nice family photo to share, but the fact that Rosemary's Baby didn't burn the place down was as much as I could've hoped for at that hour. Making him smile for the camera was just asking for trouble. I did get a shot of the Captain and Firstborn in the parking lot before we headed home for a reunion with the dogs. Please join me in BEGGING my husband to shave that insane moustache. Ever wonder what it'd look like if Hercule Poirot got sent to Afghanistan? Now you know. The highlight of the evening (other than two busloads of soldiers returning from war) was that I was interviewed by our local CBC Radio guy. I have not searched out that interview, and I'm holding out hope that he got a better sound byte from someone else because I'm pretty sure I came off high-pitched and hysterical. Plus, when he asked me how I felt, instead of giving the correct military spouse answer ("PROUD!...

I'll be back to proper blogging (and commenting) soon, honest! I posted my meatball soup "recipe" a while back to illustrate the kind of comfort food that makes you feel better when you're sick. I was reminded today that I have another kind of comfort food, and my need for that tends to hit when the weather looks like this: Unfortunately, the food I gravitate towards when the sky goes all grey and the rain starts pelting down is full of fat and carbs and sugar. But I swear, it must be an actual medical condition. I wake up to a gloomy day and all I can think about is baking! And then I bake and bake and bake. And a month later, I'm still sneaking slabs of cake out of my deep freeze and wondering why I can't get my jeans done up. While I can take a fridge full of leftovers and turn it into a pretty delicious soup, I am not very innovative in my baking. I'll make an occasional substitution, and I never, ever follow all those directions that tell you to ...

I'm still alive out here in the middle of nowhere, in case you were worried. As usual, things are moving at a lightening-quick pace here, and everything's happening at once. That's not to say things aren't going well. Rosemary's Baby's full-time therapy program began last week, and I am absolutely amazed at what intensive interaction with another person can accomplish. While he has never been completely non-verbal, I have never heard this much spontaneous and appropriate language coming out of him! One big reason I haven't been online is that having someone here all day every day, and trying to learn the program to keep up my end of things takes up a lot of time and energy. But that will change when we get into our therapy groove. And in other great news, we are finally approaching the end of the Captain's tour of duty! I can't give dates or locations for reasons of security, but there is a light at the end of this LONG tunnel, and thank goodness. I ...

Happy Mother's Day, hot mamas!! Despite the Captain's notable absence, this Mother's Day has been my most lucrative ever! The army sent me a yellow carnation. Firstborn painted me a picture, composed a poem AND made me a coupon book full of all kinds of great services, like making his bed, doing 2 weeks of chores, and "40 blueberries". I have no idea how I'm supposed to cash that last one in. Rosemary's Baby made me a mini pot of foam flowers. The Captain sent me shoes (he knows me so well...) and, because I unfairly assumed none of them would do anything for me, I bought myself an inexpensive-but-lovely sterling silver cocktail ring a while back and hid it on myself until this morning. So I pretty much cleaned up this year! And if that wasn't enough, Firstborn also brought me breakfast in bed! Granted, "breakfast in bed" to a 6 year-old is a handful of soggy bran flakes floating around in a large bowl of skim milk, but it's the thought t...

Today, as I was driving to pick Rosemary's Baby up from his last day of nursery school (boo hoo!), a light popped on on my dashboard display. So, after picking him up, I swung into our local garage and ran in, waving my arms and yelling "My battery light's on! My battery light's on!" They all know me there, and despite the fact that I'm frequently doing stupid things with my car that they then have to fix, they're always very nice to me. Maybe they feel sorry for me because my husband is never around to put out all my car-related fires. Maybe they think ditzy girls are cute. I don't know. But as always, they dropped everything, pulled my car in and got right to work. Five minutes later, the mechanic came out with the diagnosis. "Um, that wasn't your battery light. That was your engine light. But your car's fine. Your thermostat just might need to be changed sometime soon." So, just in case anyone else out there is as completely out-...

I got tagged twice yesterday, and this reminded me that AGES ago, the fabulous Janine bestowed this award upon me, and it's been sitting in my picture folder waiting to be waved around by me ever since: So, a very belated thank-you to Janine!! Heather and In Real Life (go check 'em out!) both tagged me and the rule is that I'm to re-post my very first blog post. Since I know most of you weren't with me right at the beginning, I thought you might like to take a gander at the nervous breakdown that started it all. Prepare yourselves. Here is my very first post, written on September 25th, 2008. It is aptly titled "Poo Incident #6". Enjoy! Don't you love it when posts start out this way? I realize now how spoiled I was with my first child. "Incidents" involved things like bottles of chocolate syrup being spilled all over the living room and then mashed into the carpet, or entire jars of Vicks Vapo-Rub being smeared through his hair. One unhappy ep...