Happy New Years Eve!!

I was making good progress with my poncho (which still remains unclaimed and feeling very bad for itself since no one wants it) when that four letter word reared it's ugly head - W-O-R-K. I did my first official day of orientation, the second picture is the river I have to cross to get to the hospital, don't you just love it? The day was bit slow and usual for orietation, Karen gave me a boatload of information I won't ever remember. I also had to take a rather involved online test which took the FULL hour and a half which was more due to fact I was continously being kicked off, answers not being recorded, etc. Despite all I got an 88 and Karen said she would have to look at the test herself since I got the same answers wrong everyone else did. The rest of the day was pretty good and all paperwork. Today I am orientating on the ICU and off for the weekend. David is making good his threat of extending the loft over the dining room, he's waiting to hear if his bid on a job will be accepted and wanted to get this done now while he has the time. It looks like it'll go quickly. The people that bought the house next door are out this week, David didn't realize that when he was busy yelling for Charger this morning who was off eating "gifts" from the deer, luckily he didn't call out any of Charger's alternate names. The snow is still here but I think it will melt soon, I can't believe LI got 4 more inches than we did. They're calling for it to be in the 50's next week! Jackson's already complaining about the end of his vacation and getting back to school. Adam seems to be doing fine and hopefully has adjusted to the time zone. I'm sure he'll be staying close to the ship as he is broke. And before I forget - Happy New Year's Eve!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Jackson turned 15 yesterday. His favorite present this year was from Aunt Janet and Aunt Diane - a cell phone! I turned it on and Aunt Janet called at midnight since by then it was the official time for his birthday. He played with it all day yesterday, we know every ringer tone he has. We took him to the mall in Wilkes-Barre to shop and spend some of the money he got - his favorite store Hot Topic is there where all the clothes are black and very Dramatic and seem to have chains and so forth hung from all corners . The boots he wanted weren't there so David's taking him to an Army store today. We then went to Dickson City so he could go to Game Stop which for Jackson is as close to a religious experience as you can get. He no longer goes to church because he's going through a mad at god phase while exploring other beliefs so we go along with that, he and the big guy will just have to work it out on thier own. For his birthday dinner we did Olive Garden at 2pm and were going to do a bit more shopping but then the unpredicted snow started - what a mess! EVERYONE was making a dash for home so traffic was tied up forever. I'll tell you one thing - I would never buy a minivan, they cannot handle even an inch of snow. They were the only cars sliding and spinning thier wheels. David didn't mind the traffic too much because I put on a radio station that plays ALL the songs you know the words to. Jackson just turned his CD player up to avoid having to hear Buttercup and anything by Diana Ross.  We bought a boston creme pie for the birthday cake as Jackson doesn't eat regular cake and being unable to find birthday candles used a tealight. Whatever works. We've heard from Adam, a list of the stuff he forgot but he seems to be fine. I'm guessing he didn't get in trouble over his leave papers which clearly state on the top DO NOT DESTROY OR LOSE, but didn't say anything about running them through a washer and dryer (oops). He had taped them together so I guess they passed. His ship is going into drydock pretty soon so hopefully that will give him time to look into college loans, etc.. to prepare for his Dramatic Exit in a year and a half.

Sad To See It End....

I woke up feeling not so good this morning. Nothing concrete, just a bit sick to my stomach, vague headache, tired, achey. I'm not sure if I'm coming down with a cold or perhaps the cumulation of a busy and stressful holiday season. Quitting a job, getting a job, Adam's coming home - and the usual messy send off,  the first Christmas and Jackson's first birthday spent away from home. Adam (from what we can figure) must've caught the next flight out and then hopefully transferred in O'hare for Japan. We haven't heard from him yet which is causing mild anxiety - I know with the time zones and his 18 hours of traveling he probably won't contact us for a couple of days, but still - my stint on a trauma floor left me with the indelible lesson that it's called "the unexpected" for a reason. Worry worry worry - David claims I do it because I think if worry hard enough it won't happen. Probably right. Jackson will be 15 tomorrow, we're taking him shopping for his birthday and then out to dinner which are two of his favorite things to do. He's been playing Fable nonstop on his new XBox , turned out to be a good choice of a gift. The cats have been pestering each other all day, it snowed last night about 3" and the temp is about 16 right now. Even Mr. Lee has been misbehaving ,sneaking up behind sleeping Vincent and giving him a good rap upside the head and then sprinting off with him in pursuit. I'm once again attempting to build a fire in the woodstove, I'm beginning to think I might not be getting a badge after all. Unless they're giving out a Smoking Out The Basement Badge this year! Little Update: I just got an email from the CMC of the Gary (Of course I have the Commanding Officer's email, silly geese!!) Adam did arrive safe and sound to the Gary. I guess I can stop worrying.

The Day After Christmas Should Be Cancelled.....

Because it always sucks. David, Adam and Jackson left out of here around 11 am yesterday. It was pretty well controlled mayhem, we'd kept track of the important stuff so there was no frantic scrambling. Adam ended up having to repack a couple of times, sorting through what he was taking and what he was leaving for Jackson to happily glom over, we found a carryon bag for him. In between he fielded a ton of phone calls of everyone saying goodbye. I cried when he left - I always do. I guess because I know I won't see him, it's not like he can come home on the weekends or for holidays. I'll be glad when he's done with this. They got to the hotel in good time - Adam and Jackson had fun prowling the hotel, Adam more so than Jackson since he can legally prowl the bar. Adam's flight is for 6:05 am this morning, the hotel had a shuttle that left at 4:40 much to David's relief - he was not looking foward to trying to find Adam's gate in the dark. Hopefully it'll go smoothly - he's flying American which is in the news today for stranding holiday travelers. The Lester Luck appears to  be holding out. The rest of Christmas was wierd for me, I spent it by myself for the first time in 43 years. It wasn't too bad, just quiet and certainly didn't feel like a holiday. The zoo and I had a nice fire going in the woodstove and then we sat and watched Christmas shows on the tv set. I start my new job on the 30th and I'm looking foward to it, it seems like a nice place to work. Sigh, I just heard from Adam. He missed his flight and is rescheduled for one an hour later. I was able to get ahold of David before he left the hotel thank goodness so we are now in a holding pattern.

Merry Christmas

The only complaint I have is it went way too fast. We opened gifts yesterday and everyone got what they wanted - long underwear is very popular in this neck of the woods. Adam had recieved a set last year from my mother and has worn it ever since. So we bought him a second set and bought Jackson the long underwear shirt which to our surprise - he loved! We went out to dinner early, there's a restaurant near Milford called the Happy Valley Family Restaurant that I've been dying to go to. You will all be pleased to know the food is good and the waitresses are hot so everyone was satisfied. We spent the rest of the day doing a little sightseeing and then back home for a quiet evening by the fire. The boys were both video-gaming themselves to death with all the new games. Adam was still goofing around with Vincent - we've discovered he is a VERY heavy sleeper which is a bit wierd for a cat. I have no idea how he avoided being eaten while he was outside given the fact you can actually pick him up,play with his feet, etc and he doesn't wake up. Adam would sneak him back to Japan with him I think if he could. Today he's leaving, they're heading off around 11 or so and will be staying at the Marriot which is actually on the airport. It works out well because the temps have dipped down into the teens and are going to stay there according to the weather channel. This way they can do thier traveling during the day and I don't have to worry about them getting stuck or lost somewhere in the middle of the night.  If David makes one more comment about how cold it is I'm going to put him on an ice floe and give him something to complain about.

There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays

Merry Christmas Eve! The past two weeks have flown by - I can't believe Adam will be leaving tomorrow. We went to the mall in Wilkes-Barre the other day, it was alright but not the great mall as touted. It certainly was no King Of Prussia! Adam is completely broke, but ok with it. He did spend more than planned but since most things he can't get in Japan he'll just cut back when he gets back to base. Yesterday we took him to Cinemark, the enormous movie theater - he was suitably impressed. You can see it from the highway it's so big, especially since it's sitting on the side of Montage Mountain. We saw Blade which was very good - we went in the afternoon at 2 pm and had to wait on line for our tickets. One thing about that theater, it always seems to be busy. When we got out it was pouring rain and we hit traffic but not too bad. We're going to do Christmas today and go out for dinner. I think Jackson will be going with David and Adam to the airport to send off his big brother. He only has another year and a half left and then he's done. We will miss him greatly. Not much going on other than that, the temp dropped this morning so since we had all that rain last night I'll probably be chipping my car out of it's ice sculpture. The deer have been hanging around our yard which makes a new problem since we have ChargerBarger Poo Eater. It's like a buffet out there!

Season's Greetings

Adam and Jackson with David's parents. I can't believe Adam will be leaving in two days already! David said yesterday it feels like he never left, it's been so good to have him here with us. There were a few things that didn't go right of course - his plans for NYC fell through, but with the limited amount of time he had plus the weather it was near to impossible. He's been shopping like a maniac, most of the things here he can't find in Japan or he says if he does find them, they're so expensive he can't afford it. We're going to the movies today and then will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow pretty much since he'll be leaving after lunch on Christmas Day. The animals have loved having him home, especially Copper. Copper really was Adam's dog growing up and since Adam has gotten here we haven't seen Copper at night - he's back sleeping with his friend, hogging the blankets and stealing the pillows. Adam 's starting to make plans for after the navy and is considering  being an english teacher - who would've seen that one coming? As much as he has not liked the navy I think it was the best thing for him - I think it gave him time to figure out what to do with his life while learning how to live on his own. His two friends are going in, one is starting boot camp in June and the other will be going later in the year. This will be three people that joined the navy because of Adam.