Presents from Pakistan

Yeah, Dave brought Collin and I alittle something back with him from Pakistan. We're all sick! Ya! Didn't I just get over this?
We've all got the stuffy, sneezy, coughing wishing you could breathe crap. From what I have heard from some of the other wives going through the reintegration with us, everyone has the same crud. So these past few days have been pretty boring cause we've all been just laying around the house trying to get over this sickness.
I've been here in Germany almost three years and I have been sick more than I ever remember being sick back in the states. Maybe it's cause I'm being exposed to things over here that my body has never seen before, but I'm tired of being sick. It's always the same thing too. The coughing for three weeks spell. I get that atleast once a year. Strange.
It's been nice spending time as a family. Collin is really starting to warm back up to Dave. It's been pretty easy for us to get back on track. It was really weird that first day. I felt kinda awkward at first, but after that, it was almost like he never left. He's been a big help with Collin. He's jumped back in there and is really being a great dad.
Welp...I better go and get somemore Tussin...I feel a coughing spell coming on. Sigh....

WELCOME HOME!!!!

I feel like a giddy school girl writing this post, but I'm so damned happy to have my husband back. You just don't realize how much your life is affected by another human being until you have to live life without them. I love this man, he's my life partner and my friend and we've just been through so much together. He's missed so much and has so much to catch up on with Collin and myself. This deployment was hard for me, but I know it was a lot harder for him because he missed so much. He missed Collin's first words (he's up to momma, bye bye and in the last couple of days dada), his first steps, his first tooth, ect.

I may have had my moments, where I thought I had it rough, what with working and taking care of Collin and the house. Atleast I wasn't in the middle of a natural disaster with people dead and dying around me, without a nice bed to sleep in or a decent hot cooked meal. I'm really proud of the work that my husband and his unit did out there. They sacrificed alot to help others in a country that was devistated by an earthquake. A lot of these people still don't have a roof over their heads. I can only imagine what it must be like to be a mother in Pakistan right now, so I feel very fortunate to have a warm place to sleep at night.

I won't be updating my blog much in the next couple of weeks. Dave gets a couple of weeks of block leave so we are going to take a trip. I'm thinking we'll go to Garmish and then to and see the Neuschwanstein Castle. Germany is full of castles, but this is the most famous and I've heard the most beautiful of all the castles.

I'll let you know if we decide to make the trip. It's quite the drive from here, and it's up to Dave what he wants, or feels up to doing while he's on his leave. But I'll be sure and post pics if we go!

I want one of these!

I'm not a huge coffee drinker, but man...that is cool. Plus not only does it make coffee, it makes hot tea and hot cocoa!!! Another cool thing about this machine is that all you have to do is load those discs. It even makes cappachinos. Ok...enough of the product plugging...I just had to share. Too bad it's about $170. Which is too much when you're trying to pay off debts....sigh....
I have found a new guilty pleasure since my hubby has been away...and no, it's not perverted! It's Chai Tea. I've bought the International coffee Chai latte and Pacific Vanilla Chai latte and they are both delicious! Perfect for these cold German nights!
Well, I've had a pretty eventful day. I did some cleaning around the house, then went to the grocery store. I also stopped by Kaufland, which is a German grocery store. They have the best frozen pizza's there. I didn't think the pizza's here would be as good as in the states, but they are wonderful. Then Collin and I went to Chili's for a going away party. The reservists I work with are going home after serving here for a year. It was bittersweet. This is going to sound bad, but I only liked a couple of them. The new group of reservists are so wonderful to work with so they make the one's leaving look even worse. I wish I could have spent the last year working with this group. I think I would have had a much happier year at work.
The last thing I did tonight (beside this post) was make a couple of welcome home posters for my hubby's welcome home celebration tomorrow. They still haven't committed to a time, but they still say it should be tomorrow. (once again, I won't be surprised if it changes) I am so excited! My hubby is coming home! Momma's getting a time out when daddy gets here! Yeehaw!!!

This little guy keeps me busy...

This is Collin...when he's good, he's so good. And when he's bad...he's a little devil! Today I'd say he was about 40% good and 60% bad. I think some of it was due to boredom. We didn't get out of the house today cause I just wasn't motivated. I'm glad I didn't go anywhere, cause I got a call about from the FRG (family readiness group) regarding the return of my husband. It's coming up very soon and they are planning a welcome home ceremony tomorrow. I want to go and help decorate the gym, but I need to find someone to watch Collin for a few hours. Which is sometimes easier said than done. He is my little buddy, but I am glad to say I've finally got him off to dreamland!

Well, back to watching my Futurama marathon! I didn't really watch it when it was on television but my husband bought every season on DVD and they are so frickin funny! I think it's better than the Simpsons and just as funny as Family Guy. If you've never watched it you should slap yourself and run out as fast as you can and buy every season! The jokes just never get old....

Ta Da!

So here it is folks....the new do! It's not been blow dried or curled, but I really like the color and highlights. I'm usually a platnum blonde so I thought I'd give this a try. Unfortunately color fades pretty quickly in my hair.

So here is another view. You can get a better look at the highlights....

What do you think? I think it's knocked a few years off my look. I was starting to feel like an ol housewife with my hair always up in a ponytail! LOL!

Wow...now that I've been shown (Thanks leighann!) how to post pics, I'm gonna be posting more of them on here! See ya in the funny papers...

Need some help

I want to post a pic in a post(post a pic in a post, LOL)...and I can't figure it out! I want to show off my new hair, so any suggestions will be appreciated!

Transformation

Well it's time for me to reinvent myself again. I had a couple of friends watch Collin for me yesterday so I could go to the beauty shop. It was so relaxing! I was there for about 3 hours and it felt good to get pampered again. I especially love it when they massage your scalp...I nearly fell asleep! As some of you know my hair was down to the middle of my back so when I was thinking of what I wanted to do...I decided I am ready for something new and drastic. The end result? I had the lady chop it off to a bob and highlight and color it. I have made an observation about German hair dressers. They don't listen when you tell them what you want to do to your hair. I had a picture and everything. I wanted a bob cut with one big lowlight and one big highlight in the front and the rest just highlighted with small high lights. Now, she did a good job and I did end up liking what she did....BUT she didn't do what I asked. She gave me several chunky high and lowlights in the front and then highlighted and lowlighted the rest as normal. So my hair is pretty dark now (a dark redish brown) with bright blonde highlights. I'll try and get a picture on here so you can see it now. It's totally different, very european. I've always been pretty easy going when it comes to my hair. After all it's just hair and it grows, so why not do something fun with it. It's just gonna take some getting used to I guess.

I'm still alive!!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been sick and alittle pre-occupied with life. My son and I had a bad case of the cold/flu and are finally getting over it. There was a week there that I thought I was going to jump out of our two story window because I couldn't get my son to sleep through the night. He's doing much better now and actually let me get some rest this past weekend.
I'm starting to get really excited now that it's almost time for my husband to come back from Pakistan. He should be back in the next week or so, then we are going to have a few weeks of leave to spend together.
I've also put in my notice for quitting my job. It's really hard and kinda scarey, but I'm gonna stay at home with the kiddo for our last few months here in Germany. It was kinda weird timing because I found out that the government wasn't going to renew my contract, which is up in April anyway. So once my husband gets back we'll have a couple of weeks off together then I'll work the last couple of weeks in March, then I'm done till we leave. I think it'll be good for Collin to have his mom at home with him for awhile. I feel like the babysitter is raising my son, and frankly I don't think she gives him the attention that he deserves. Once the weather gets nice again, I look forward to taking him to the park and zoo and fun things like that.
I will miss the money. We have paid off two credit cards since he's been deployed and I had hoped to get more debt paid off before we go back to civilian life. But we're not doing too bad. I think we have one credit card left, then our cars and my old student loans. Still a large amount, but we're taking it one bill at a time. So me not working is going to put a damper on that plan. But my son will never be young again, how can you put a price on that?

Under the weather...

Ugh...I'm so sick. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. Tuesday night Collin and I went to my husband's unit for an FRG (Family Readiness Group) meeting about them coming home soon. Basically they just went over what to expect when your loved one comes back from a deployment, and what kind of entitlements you'd be losing once they returned. Everything was ok. Collin was crawlin around everywhere so he was running me ragged. Then he woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night, so Wednesday morning I felt exhausted and decided to call in sick. Well, no sooner I dropped off Collin at the sitter, I started feeling kinda sucky. I started to get the chills and felt nauseated. I just felt worse as the day went on, it was like I knew I was gonna get sick before I even started my day.
I got up this morning feeling alittle better, just really weak. So I decided to give myself one more day. Well, here it is, 8:30 pm and I still feel like crap. I think I have a stomach bug or something. Cause anything I eat gives me stomach cramps and I'm achey and so tired.
I feel like work is gonna think I'm a slacker cause they know I want more time off a week, but I'm legitimately sick. I think I will try to go to work tomorrow, but if I start feeling like this again, I'll try and get into family practice or the ER. The ER at our hospital is kinda a joke. It's basically and cold and flu clinic cause we don't get alot of trama. If someone needs major ER care they are taken to a German ER cause I believe we don't have the capabilities of a regular ER.
So that is pretty much why I haven't posted here in a couple of days. I've just felt like doodie.
I'm really looking forward to my hubby getting home. The homecoming is coming up in the next few weeks so I'm pretty excited.
I'm also going to give two weeks notice to my employer here in the next week or so. I really just want to focus on Collin and the household for a few months before we come back to the states. I know once we get back to the states I'll probably be the one to get a job the quickest, due to me being a jack of all trades! LOL So I want to take some time out for me and Collin. Plus once my hubby gets back he's gonna get leave and I really want that time off for the family. Hopefully we'll be able to get in alittle travel this spring before we leave. So I think it's gonna work out for the best.