I survived

It turned out to not really be too bad with the sleepover. It turned out only two kids were allowed to stay the night, so overall it went well. I did watch DEAR JOHN which was a great movie. I was able to figure out the movie pretty much from the middle to end. Also wathed THE MESSENGER with Woody Harrelson. It is about a Staff Sergeant that returns from the war and is reassigned as a casulty notification officer. These are the Soldiers that show up on class A's to notify the next of kin of someone's death. Not a good movie for RM to watch. Just finished watching VALENTINE'S DAY. That was a great movie with a lot of stars. I'm not going to ruin it for anyone, but it is a great movie to watch for anyone. Still have two more movies to watch before I return them tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow we go to the Sis's house for the family get together and the celebration of 3 birthdays, my son's, my niece, and my nephew's. They all have birthdays within a 30 day period and about a week or two apart in between, so Memorail Day is usually the day we can all get together to celebrate their birthdays as well.

I am getting ready to finish up my first week of Literature. The sight of the book when I received it scared me, but this first week has not been too bad. I am still waiting on the final grade for my last class. Can't remember what my next class is right now, but I have 4 weeks to worry about that.

Lord, help me through the night

Yesterday was my oldest son's birthday and tonight we allowed him to have some friends over to stay the night. So I have my three kids and 4 additional 10-11 year olds staying the night. You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now.

Nothing planned for the weekend. Have one of my Soldier's coming over to help me out with my car. He came over a few days ago and the problem was because the coolant was low. However, it is still smoking, but not over heating. He thinks it is because when I had an oil change done that they over filled it and there is excess oil on the pan. If so, I will never take my vehicles to Fletchers. When I took it in to them, it cost me $50 for diagnostics and then they wanted to charge me over $900 for the water pump and timing belt. I priced the water pump and it is only $70. My buddy said if that was the problem, all I had to do was buy the part and he would take care of the rest. I understand the economy is bad and everything, but don't try to lie and rip your customers off.

On Monday, Memorial Day, we go to the Sister's house for the family get together and the combination of three kids birthdays. We'll see how everything else goes. The other night I watched LEGION. It was pretty good. Last night I watched DEAR JOHN. Excellent movie, and yes, I did have a tear. We'll see what I watch tomorrow night and this weekend.

Whew!

So I went to court this morning for that tail light incident a month ago. I got there at 7 am and was out by 7:10. I went to a window, showed my ticket, proof of insurance, and reciept for the part that was purchased the same day as the ticket and was told I was good to go. At least that didn't cost me anything except for the gas to get there as the court was over 30 miles from my home. Now I just need to get my other vehicle through emissions and renew my tags before the end of the month. I may have to try to get an extension on it since the car is not really running too well right now. But I have someone coming over Saturday to take a look at it.

Seems I have been pretty busy this month. Those full time people are finally back to work now which has lightened my workload a bit, but I still have people expecting me to do their jobs. I'm like heck no, that is so and so's job I have things I need to get done here. I guess that is what happens when someone finds out you are better at doing someone else's job. Haven't watched any new movies lately, but I may be picking some up in the next few days to watch over the weekend. I know VALENTINE'S DAY came out last week, so I do want to get that one.

Kids have been out of school since last week. No real problems at home as of yet. I am sure my wife is still going to enjoy it though. Yeah, right. Well that's all I have for now.

What began as 4, is now 3

Well, I had 4 dogs and will be down to three today. I am getting rid of our beagle as she is a nuisance. She growls when she is in trouble, overprotective of her food, gets angry at the other dogs if their playing, and I am tired of her getting on my bed in the middle of the night and taking my side of the bed. I took her from my friends because they couldn't handle her when they got a new dog and they became frightened of her as well. They were going to give her to a rescue, but I said I would take it and if I couldn't handle her, I would give her to a good home. Well, one of my Soldiers used to have a beagle until he had to have it put down about a year ago. I told him about the beagle I had and that I wanted to get rid of her. I explained all of her actions and he said it sounds just like the one he had. So I am dropping her off today at his house on my way out to Phoenix today. Dropping the kids off at the mother-in-laws and going to a friend's going away party since he is deploying.

Monday is my last day for my college class and I have a 97% right now. Again the final paper is worth 25% of my grade, which is due tomorrow. It will be a week before I get my final grade. My next class that begins Tuesday already frightens me. I received the book two weeks ago and it is like 2-3 inches thick. I am not that much of a reader, especially for a class that is five weeks long. The class is Literature. Wish me luck.

The lord shall giveth and taketh away

Well, you see, my favorite breed of dog and one I have always wanted is a pug. Everytime I looked at getting one, it always cost money I didn't have. Friday, my oldest son was out with his friend and they found a pug and brought it home asking if we could keep it because it didn't have a collar. I looked at my wife with a look 'can we, can we?'. Well, of course I told my son we will hold on to it, but if someone is looking for it, we will have to return it. The pug got along well with the other dogs and it seemed she was fitting in. The next day, I was at drill and apparantly my oldest came home from staying the night at his friends and saw a lost dog poster with a picture of it. So while I was at drill, he came home, grabbed the pug and returned it to the owners. They gave him and his friend $50 for returning him. My son kept $30 and his friend got $20. Seemed fair as they both found it, but it stayed at my house. I was happy when they came home with the dog because I thought it was a small reward from God. Then the next day, it was gone.

Oh, well. Drill was long all weekend. We did have a family day and everyone had a good time. Come back to work this morning and I am of course bogged down with everything the Soldiers decide to drop on us over the weekend instead of calling us during the week to take care of something. I didn't even have time to check my school work today. I need this to slow down soon. Well, that's how busy I have been these past few days.

Wassup

Tomorrow one of my Soldiers, and one of my friends that has been in the military with me since the beginning, is getting commissioned as an officer after completing ROTC and his degree at ASU. So I will be going to his Commissioning Ceremony tomorrow afternoon in my Class A's. I don't get to wear it that often so it pretty much still looks new. I just always have to update my uniform when I wear it like adding ribbons or changing ranks. Yeah, that is how often I wear it.

Watched NCIS last night and it was good. I know the season finale is coming up soon and it will be interesting how things play out. Nothing really on tv tonight, but I plan on grilling dinner. I have been on work overload again all day today. It's nice to know that at least my higher ups know how much work has been dumped on me these past couple of weeks, but I am still hanging in there. Only a couple of more weeks to go.

I have drill this weekend so of course I have added work as well. Sometimes I wonder what I got myself into by taking on all of these leadership responsibilities, but I guess being paid is worth it in itself. That's all I got today.

Adrenaline

It is sometimes a good thing. It seems the more work I have, the more my adrenaline starts kicking in. However, this makes everyday turn into a stressful day even though I get everything accomplished. I have just been beat by the time it is for me to leave for the day.

I did watch THE LOVELY BONES on Sunday. It was a great movie and is RM approved. It is a suspenseful film, but I really liked it.

Last week, I finally went to Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. Apparently, if you are in the military, you get the American Soldier meal for free, which is like a quarter pound cheeseburger and fries. I noticed on the menu they had something called the 100ozer and called my brother later that evening telling him when I have money, I want to take him there to see if he could eat it. There is no time limit, but it costs like $30 and if you eat it all, you get a $15 coupon for your next visit. It consists of 32oz hamburger patty, 10oz bun, 32oz drink, 16oz fries, 4oz of cheese, and 6oz of fixings (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles). They say to allow 30 minutes for cook time. Can you imagine seeing anyone eat all that? So I want to see if my bro can do it and I plan on taking a before and after picture.

School is going ok, just finished my third week of this class and got a perfect score on last week's paper. Only 2 more weeks to go. That's all I got today.

Still surviving

Well, it has been a hectic week and a busy weekend as well. I was able to watch a few movies this weekend. FLICKA 2, don't waste your money. The first one was awesome and this is nowhere close to being a good movie. The storyline sucked, Clint Black wasn't all that great. The only thing worth watching this movie is the acting from Patrick Warburton. I also watched LEAP YEAR, which was pretty good. It is RM approved and is a sappy love story. I also watched NINE, which is a musical, and like CHICAGO, I was easily bored with it. I know it is a movie not worth watching if I get up to go smoke and let it continue playing because I am not going to miss anything, but want the movie to play all the way through so I can think I got my money's worth. I still have THE LOVELY BONES to watch, which I will probably be watching today.

I had to go into work earlier today. It seems we had a Soldier heading somewhere today and the place where they were going needed information before a specific time. So I had to go in today to take care of all that. Just finished taking a test for my college course to end week 3. Still have an A. Two more weeks of this class left.

Found out on a conference call last week that our unit was able to pick up a new location for our overseas annual trainings. We now are able to do Italy. I hope I can get on that first rotation, but it depends on when it is. School is more important to me right now and I do not want to have to put it off. That's all I got today.

I quit

At least that is what I have been saying to all the people I work with this past week. No, I am not quitting. It just frustrates me that there are 8 full time personnel at my headquarters in CA and I am the only one in my location. 2 of those people are out for the time being and apparantly I am the only one besides them that have complete access to the systems. So instead of just taking care of two platoons, I am taking care of hundreds of Soldiers. I still have 3 more weeks of this too. Some may say I am complaining because I actually have work to do now, and yes, I am. Work that I shouldn't have to be doing just because I learned the systems so i didn't have to rely on them to take care of my people. Talk about backfire.

I watched TOOTH FAIRY last night starring Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock". It was a pretty good movie. I have a few more to watch and will probably do so over the weekend. In my third week of my 6th college course, still an A. School work hasn't bothered me as much as my real work, but it is easy for me to do schoolwork at work than at home. So it is a matter of being able to do both work and schoolwork at work than it is to go home and do it. Being home is like work in itself, even though when I get home I just sit in front of the tv. However, it is also doing the grocery shopping, paying the bills, handling the kids, etc. My life is never dull and boring. If anyone wins the lottery, let me know. I need some.

Oh, my head is spinning

And it has been since Friday. It seems the main person we have that submits pay for Soldiers is currently elsewhere on orders and everything has dropped in my lap. It appears that out of all the full time staff, there are only 3 individuals that can access the pay to ensure Soldiers get paid. Two of them are gone on orders, which leaves me. Not a big deal if they had given me all of the information. For this past weekend, there 12 Soldiers that needed to be paid, but I was only sent 6 orders. I had to research the other 6. I do not know who else needs to be paid at this time because no one is giving me any information. I mean, I can't pay some one if I don't have the information. Yeah, so my job will be interesting for the next couple of weeks until they return.

This weekend was more of a time to relax. Didn't do anything and didn't go anywhere. Just sat at home and watched tv. Not that anything was good on, just didn't feel like doing anything. Just wrapping up my second week of this college course and I am still sitting at an A. 3 more weeks to go. They originally gave me a month long break in September, but I called my Academic Advisor and asked them to put a class in there. I don't want to take any unnecessary breaks, i just want to get it done and over with and keep the momentum up. I will be getting ready for my SAT test in June. I have to pay by 05 May, which I will to lock it in. After I take the test and get over a certain score, I will be submitting my direct commission packet. It may take 6 months to a year, but it will be well worth it.

That's about all I got going on now. Maybe later this week I will be able to go pick up some movies to watch. My oldest wants to see IRON MAN 2 in theaters, which comes out Friday. Don't know if I'll be able to do that or not just yet. We'll see.