He's coming home!

25 days until R&R. I may die of anticipation. I need these 18 days so badly. Prepare for me to go AWOL from my life the entire time! I may check email once or twice, but I'm not going to spend much time replying if I can help it.

We are taking a trip to Illinois so that Laurel can go to The National Young Scholars Program, where she is taking the CSI strand. She wants to be a detective when she grows up, so she is hoping this will either spark her interest further, or show her she's not interested so she can go on.

So, for six days, Jay and I are going to be camping with our two dogs, while Laurel does her class, and Miah hangs out with the grandparents. This will be the only time during the 18 days that I get him alone, so I'm going to enjoy it! The kids have had a much harder time of it this time, and I think it's because they are older now, and time takes on new meaning now. The last three times, they were too little to really understand the passage of time. So, because of this, I know that they are going to be all over him. Of course, they could also be little monkies, and do what they do now, and disappear into the office to play on the computer, or into the bedroom to read, but I doubt it.

The question now is, what do we do with the rest of the days he's home? I'm perfectly fine staying home and soaking him up, but I know him, and he's going to get bored. I'm picturing lots of family game nights, which will make Miah's year :D and a lot of playing the new Indiana Jones game Autumn got Laurel for her birthday, and the Jeopardy dvd game we got for Jay. I'm going to get creamed. Actually, that all sounds so good. Normal life. we can pretend for 18 days that there is no war, and the world isn't going to fall down around my ears when he gets back on that plane....

Anyway, not much else to report. Nothing I can talk about here anyway. Work is busy, for sure. Miah is loving her summer classes. She is in love with her teacher, and whines every day when I pick her up that she wants to go home with Mr. Cribbs. I don't bame her. He's a guy, he's fun, and really nice. Exactly what she's been missing from daddy for the past (holy cow) nine months. My poor babies. I wish I could look them in the eye and say that daddy is making a difference, and this is all worth it. But I don't lie to my kids, not even to make them feel better.

I would have a newly designed necklace to show off, but after I put it together, I had to go get Miah from school, and she knocked the entire thing off of my desk. I'm still looking for the beads. I think they dissapeared into the same place all those oddball socks run off to.

I have a couple of ideas floating in my head for another project. I have several charms I found that I'm going to put together with some of Jay's old unit crests to make a bracelet (I think). Sort of a "the last ten years" thing. Eventually I'll get it together, and post it here, but I'm sure between now and then it will have changed shape a thousand times. I do have most of the pieces I want though. I'm babbling now....life is just so exciting.