Yeah we didn't totally dodge the sick bullet...

Thought we might not have to start the summer being sick but alas... Hubby seems to have acquired the same crude as Child#3. It hit him a couple of days ago... total Man Cold reaction... and he's just really starting to feel human again. He even broke down and went to the Doctor it was that bad. Doctor told him he had a flu virus.

Needless to say I wiped the whole house down with Lysol and vinegar. Lots & lots of handwashing!

I think I might have had a touch of it earlier in the week. Mainly the heavy fatigue and several trips to the bathroom but not as wiped out as both Child#3 and Hubby.

At least so far the rest of the Krewe hasn't shown any signs of the flu virus.

Single Parenting.

Hubby had to leave for two weeks early this morning. He has to attend an AGR course/class in Brownwood TX (about 3 hours away) for the next two weeks for work. He'll be back sometime on the 27th, the last day of school. Hopefully he get to come to the kids school parties.

So its time to switch into the "single parent" mode.

Enjoying the beach

Well, we were talking about going camping with the kids before the weather turned really hot... yeah like it isn't already hot here... but we are talking the scorching oppressive heat that is a Texas summer day. So going to Pedernales Falls State park was gonna be the choice of camping location when I heard the morning guys on the radio talking about camping on the beach at Port Aransas. Hmm camping on the beach, the kids would sooo love that. I remember camping on Pismo Beach CA when I was a child, it was awesome and an experience I wish my kids could have. Soooo in light of recent events in the Gulf with the British Petroleum oil drilling platform exploding and continuing to pump millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico maybe its a good idea to hit the beach sooner rather than later when the oil sludge starts washing up on the sand. I've never been to Port A before so it would be an adventure for me too.

All week the weather forecast kept saying scattered thunderstorms for the weekend. Great camping in the rain isn't fun and at the beach really isn't fun. So we kept watching and hoping that it wouldn't rain. Game plan was to load up and leave Friday morning-ish and stay until Sunday afternoon. Its a four hour drive from Austin. Friday the day went out every direction but how we planned. So we thought we'll leave late afternoon and get there Friday night setup camp and go to bed. As the day progressed we decided we'll sleep at home and get up really early (by 5 am) and head out to get to the beach by mid morning. Yeah that worked... 5 am and its a massive storm outside, thunder, lightning and a gully wash of rain. Good thing we threw a tarp over everything loaded on the roof rack of the truck or it would have been a really unpleasant experience with a wet tent. Needless to say both Hubby and I rolled over and went back to sleep until the storm was over a few hours later. A friend of Hubby's was also at Port A with his family (staying in a condo) and he texted message that it was storming really bad there right about the time we had been planning on arriving to the beach. Sooo because of the Hunter Family tradition of getting a late start on a trip totally worked in our favor. If we'd gotten down to Port A on Friday we'd have been in the rainstorm in a tent with 4 freaked out kids aka we'd have been sitting in the Land Cruiser watching everything get soaked. Or if we had gotten up at 5am and headed out we would have been in the middle of that storm... don't know if the kids would ever want to go camping with us again... don't know if I'd ever want to go camping again. LOL!

So we finally got on the road and heading to Port A late Saturday morning. We did a leisure drive down and stopped at a local Farmer's Market on the way and picked up some peaches and a watermelon.

Hubby decided that he wanted to camp as far away from other people as possible... so instead of camping at Mustang Island State Park where there are shelters and electrical plugins and BATHROOMS... he decides we need to truly camp further down the coast at Padre Island National Seashore... about 4 miles down the beach away from any civilization. seriously?!?! So we didn't even get to have one of those semi-sheltered picnic tables. We were on the empty beach. Yeah got to teach the kids how to make a "cat hole" because there weren't any bathroom facilities.



It was early evening once we picked a spot. The kids went down to play "near" the water on the beach while Hubby and I unloaded and set up the tents. At one point I looked up and with the sun low in the sky and looking over the seaweed dune line between us and the kids I could see them jumping and hopping along the sand all carefree and joyous. It was that perfect Kodak home movie moment... of course the camera was in the truck at the time and the kids all wanted to pose once Hubby got the camera and tried to catch them unaware.

It was beautiful to see though.

After we got the tent set up and a fire going we enjoyed hot dogs and then later of course s'mores. I think that is really the reason the kids love to camp. LOL!

Kids also got to chase a little sand crab around for a few minutes. Especially once it vacated the tent.

Kids went to bed while Hubby and I enjoyed the evening and the stars. We even got to see a little sand mouse scurry around in the darkness.

Sleep wasn't the greatest because we couldn't use the air mattress, the pump that uses the car plug didn't get packed... so it was sleeping on a thin pad... not that great, I'm an air mattress camper now.

A good time was had by all though we made a few discoveries on items to always take with us camping... a good sun cover being one of them.

Everyone got burnt except for Child #2 who kept reapplying sunscreen every couple of minutes... he had a distinct bluish cast from the Avon "disappearing blue" sunscreen. Guess he learned from last year's camping trip to Pedernales Falls where he got blistered on his back & arms. Very bad mommy for not noticing that he'd taken his rash top off and was out of the water/shade most of the time!! Boy doesn't take his rash top off now.

Hubby and Child #1 got it the worst on their backs... definitely two crispy critters.

An enjoyable Saturday spent with the Fam...

Well, since Hubby was home we got to enjoy the Downtown Farmer's Market as a family again.

TacoDeli breakfast tacos. Ginger Scones, Blue Cheese and Bacon Quiches.... sooooooo tasty. Hubby was in bliss getting to enjoy his beloved breakfast tacos. Homemade while very tasty just aren't the same as the TacoDeli ones. He also enjoyed some of the coffee that he always gets from the Texas Coffee Traders and I enjoyed a lovely Hibiscus Tea from Nile Valley Herbs. It is sooo amazing and I just love to support him and his business. He uses part of the proceeds from the sales to help bring clean water and assistance to his home village in Kolomiseed in Africa.

I also got to see one of my wonderful AustinMamas who work one of the farmers stalls. Always great to see Ms. Debi.

After enjoying our wonderful breakfast while listening to a great singer playing at the sitting area we headed over to BookPeople another wonderful Austin based company. The kids enjoyed the bookstore and I picked up the latest copy of Alton Brown's new book Good Eats: the Early Years and my wristband for the book signing tomorrow. Yep, we're gonna see the Man himself, Alton Brown tomorrow. Okay I admit I'm pretty damn excited but then so are the kids. They soooo love to watch Good Eats. I've got about a dozen episodes DVR'd and they watch them just as much as they watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars. His only serious competition is the Weather Channel.

Yeah, so I've got weird kids... what's it too ya?!

It was a very enjoyable day... of course on the way home the kids (especially Child #3) wanted to go to Terra Toys. I swear he knows exactly where it is because as we were driving down Burnet on the way home he wanted to know if we were going to Terra Toys because it was right ahead (1/2 a mile away!). Boy is way too smart for his own good sometimes.

Today was a rough day.

This morning Hubby got a phone call. A phone call that no one wants to get. He found out that one of the vehicles with four guys from his unit in Afghanistan was hit by an IED in while on a mission Two of the men were killed and the other two were seriously injured.

Hubby was so upset. He was angry that he was here and not there. Not that it would have stopped it from happening but he felt so powerless being on the other side of the world when two men who were friends died. Even though they weren't "directly" his men, they were still his men. They were some of the men they are there to protect.

Hubby doesn't show lots of "sad" emotions. He keeps those inside a lot. I think I can count about a dozen times I think I've seen him seriously tear up or cry. Most of those were when each of the kids were born. In the past four days I've seem him tear up twice. When he was hugging the kids for the first time at the airport and again when he got off that first phone call.

I was about to call one of his best friends K (who is also military) tell him the Hubby needed him when the doorbell rang and there he was. K had heard the news and came as soon as he could. Hubby needed to have someone he could talk to who really understood what was going on. While I can be as supportive as possible, I've never been to war and I've never lost someone I knew closely like that. K has and he also knew two men who were injured. There was also another vehicle hit by an IED further south of them. All four men were killed. October has become one of the deadliest months for our soldiers in Afghanistan.

Please keep them all in your thoughts and prayers.

Homecoming.

He's finally home. He was able to get an earlier flight out of Dallas. He called me from Dallas and said he was about to get on the next flight... which gave me about an hour before he'd land in Austin.

So after a frantic gathering of the younger twosome, a quick run over to school to grab the older twosome and then it was off to the airport. I'd made a welcome home sign before hand and stashed it in the back of the Disco. I didn't tell them where we were going before but Child #1 is sharp and she figured it out. Thankfully she caught the look about keeping quiet about it.

Because of the rules about gate security we had to wait outside the terminal at the top of the stairs from the baggage claim. And of course the airport security guard kept staring at us like we were gonna rush her station and do "something". Yeah I'm there to create havoc and destruction on your airport with my four small children... wait a minute... okay you got me there. My four little hooligans are there to destroy the airport.

I can't believe I forgot to take any pictures of them standing there waiting with the welcome sign. DUH!!

We got there a little bit before his flight landed (few minutes delayed) so we got to watch lots of other people walk by. At one point a man in ACUs walked by and the Wee One Child #4 stared at him watching him walk by, she kept watching him intently trying to make sure he wasn't Daddy. So of course she was turned facing the wrong way when he did come walking up. The kids totally mobbed him hugging on him. Again I forgot to take any pictures. Double DUH! I of course had to wait my turn to get a hug... several minutes later.

But now he's home... for two weeks. Such few precious moments before he has to return.

Heading home!!

Heard from Hubby... he's in Germany then onto Dallas and onto HOME... so soon!

He should get to Dallas early tomorrow morning and then his flight to Austin is in the afternoon. Maybe sooner if he can catch an earlier flight.

Trying to get the house straighten up before he gets here. Have to put the garage back together with all the stuff I'd pulled out for the garage sale yesterday.

So much to do!

It's been 229 days since I've seen him in person. Skype (when it works) is great but not the same thing.

T-Minus 4 Days... plus or minus a few days...

Just got to love how exacting Hubby's arrival date is. He should be leaving Afghanistan on Sunday the 11th... then it could take anywhere from 36 hours to 4 days for him to arrive in Austin. All depends on what flights are available and where he's routed through.

I can't believe he is going to be home again in less than a week.

I've miss him so much. It just isn't easy being a single parent when your other half is on the otherside of the globe for almost a year. It's going to feel so strange to have another adult in the house... someone else who can make decisions and understands the consequences of those decisions.

Its going to be very weird to have someone in the bed next to me again. Yeah the kids have made the rounds with climbing into bed with me on various nights over the past year but it isn't the same.

Less than 30 Days...

Well in less than 30 days plus or minus Hubby will finally be home. Well for 2 weeks. Then he leaves again until January-ish.

It will be so wonderful to have him home again. Even if I have to deal with the coffee grounds on the counter... oh wait, that won't happen because I sent his coffee pot to him so it will still be in Afghanistan. MWHAHAHA! Okay so I'll have to deal with his shoes at the bottom of the stairs which is also the middle of the hallway...

BUT...

I'll also have someone to snuggle with at night. Someone to cook with. Someone to laugh and giggle with. Someone to just hold and hold me.

Someone who should be home right now. But soon. Soon.

What its all about...

Taken at 9:37am Washington DC time 2009 in Ghazni, Afghanistan... 8 years from the exact moment of the Pentagon Strike.

The Day to always remember...

Visible from the International Space Station on Sept. 11th, 2001

LIfe on my own...

Well, right now I'm doing the *single* parenting thing. The beloved other half of my parenting team is currently on the other side of the world in Afghanistan. He's been gone since January though he was gone a lot in the couple of months before that with lots of training.

Its never easy to be the sole parenting unit. Yes, its easier because they can't play good parent bad parent with you but sometimes its really hard to be the only responsible adult around here. I'm very blessed to have four wonderful children who seem to understand how important it is for Daddy to be gone doing his job.

But its hard knowing he's missing their lives and knowing that they miss him so much.

I miss him so much.

And so it begins...

I slowly poke my toe into the blogging world. We shall see how well I really do with this.

Can I blog, tweet, facebook, read tons of emails, AND "single parent" (Hubby is halfway around the world in Afghanistan) four small children under that age of 9? Along with 5 cats, 1 dog, 2 parakeets, 1 guinea pig and more fish tanks than there should be in one household... while keeping said household clean... okay we won't worry about the cleanliness too much... will we?

I won't look at your floor if you won't look at mine.

Deal?

Because you know a non-sticky crumb less floor is highly overrated. Honestly, who really needs to be able to walk across a room without having funky grit stick to your feet. Socks are great. Slippers even better. Actually I keep most of the floors pretty clean I just HATE doing the kitchen floors.

Honestly, they look like hell within 15 minutes of doing them. The only time they look great for longer than 15 minutes is when I do them late at night. Then the hooligans destroy it when they get up in the morning.

Between the gallon of milk or the jug of apple cider that doesn't make it INTO the cup by Child #3 (the almost 5 yr old boy), Child #4's (the 3 year old girl) obsession with dumping the sugar bowl on the floor, the crumbles that don't stay in the mouths because they chew like horses... actually I think horses are tidier... the dirt tracked in from the backyard especially child #2 (the 6 yr old boy) who usually has pockets full of dirt, rocks, pebbles and other bit so flora and fauna that should remain outside and Child #1 (the 8 yrs old girl) who has the propensity for tearing/cutting paper into little bits and "saving" them... is it any wonder my kitchen floor looks like hell???

But enough of my floor...