Wisdom Teeth

   On Tuesday, I took Adrian to the dentist to have his wisdom teeth taken out.  When I had mine done, many years ago, it was painful!  I had all 4 taken out and many complications with them.  That was when I found out that I didn't do well with anesthesia.  I was miserable for weeks after.  I had dry socket on two of the teeth, all 4 were impacted, and then the reaction to the medication.  It was an awful experience!
   When I was prepping Adrian for what to be ready for, I made sure he knew it was going to hurt.  They gave him a prescription for the good stuff.  I made sure to fill that right away, as I thought he would need it.  Silly me!
   We get into the office on time.  Fill out all of the paperwork and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Almost two hours later, they called him back into the chair.  I waited an hour and a half for him to be done.
Meanwhile, there was a small child, about 4, in the waiting room with his Grandmother.  The kid was watching movies on his computer.  Loudly!  With no headphones.  Not only that, they were all pirated movies like Iron Man 2, Despicable Me, and something else I couldn't figure out.  I was the one who was in need of pain medication after all of this!
   The nurse comes out to tell me he was finished.  When I moved my car to their back entrance, they wheeled him out in a wheelchair.  He had the dopiest smile on his face.  When the nurse and I tried to put him into the car, he didn't want our help and almost hit his head on the roof.  She wished me good luck and laughed as she walked back into the office.
   The whole time on the drive home, I had to answer the same questions.  "No, I did not keep your teeth."  "Yes, the doctor said you did good."  "No, it was just the nurse and I who put you in the car."  "Yes, I will get you a shake eventually."  "No, you did not need 5 guys to put you in the car."  Mind you, the whole time I am trying not to laugh too hard.  Not easy given the situation!

The ride home

   When we got home, I helped him inside and onto the recliner.  That is when the funniest noise I have ever heard started.  It was like a hick-up/belch/croup-like sound.  It made me laugh so hard!  I couldn't stop laughing.  I figured that he was so out of it, I had to get it on video.  Thank goodness for my iphone!  When he realized what I was doing, he would just smile and make me laugh even harder.  I wish I would have taken more video, but I couldn't contain myself.  When I finally did, he passed out!   He woke up many hours later totally fine and pain free.  It's crazy how fast he recovered!

   He's doing fine now.  I showed him the videos and he just laughed.  He thought they were funny too.  I only posted them with his permission.  Too bad I can't post them her.  They are on my facebook page if you haven't seen them yet.  Sure to brighten up anyone's day!  I've watched it a dozen times and it still makes me laugh!

Change of Command

   We moved from Ft Hood to Ft Bliss about a month ago.  Since then, we have been trying to get into a routine.  School has started, I am taking all of these classes on post, and Adrian is trying to get into a groove at his new office.  Busy, busy, busy!  The house is the most unpacked as I think we have ever had.  Still need to work on the garage though.  Everything is starting to fall into place.

   Several people have asked to see more pictures of the Change of Command.  So here you go.  Adrian took command of the 7th ASOS a few weeks ago.  The ceremony went very well.  His new squadron is huge!  It has it's own room to host ceremonies like this.  Very cool!  One thing we forgot was to have a good picture taken of the two of us and a family picture.  I guess the family picture was taken without us while we did the reception line.  Oops!  

The kids.

The brothers.

Adrian taking the flag.

The ring attached to the flowers.  Glad they gave me the correct one!

One of the only pictures of the two of us together.

Family picture

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for my boys.  They are on a block schedule that they call year round.  I think they are going to like it better this way.  Only time will tell.
The big man is very upset about one thing.  Uniforms!   You would think it was a bad word or something.  He cringes every time he hears the word.  We have to keep reminding him that it is not the end of the world!  Really?  He looks nice and grown up in it!
They both have to wear uniforms everyday.  For the younger school, they give them a week to get "adjusted".  Not sure why you need it, but my child plans on taking advantage of that week!  He picked out the most un-uniformed outfit he could find.  That's my boy!  
Don't they look cute?

Daddy just had to be in the picture too!  Just like every year!  He gave himself the morning off to take the kids to school.  I guess it is good to be the boss sometimes. 

We ended up walking to school this morning.  It was a good thing that we did!  You wouldn't believe all of the cars!  The parking lots were full, they lined the main streets, and all of the side streets too.  It was crazy out there.  It was a little under a mile, so no big deal.  Except I didn't realize that to get home, you had to go up the big hill.  I guess that's what happens when you go down it on the way there, huh?  Go figure!

While the kids have been at school, I had breakfast with my parents before they rolled out of town, did a little scrapbook shopping while I was on the other end of town, and stopped by Target for groceries.  Oh the freedom of shopping without children!  

I was then able to sit and rest for a little while at home.  I guess at some point I need to go get them this afternoon.  I am just enjoying the quiet.  That is, if you don't take into account the dogs snoring!  

School Supplies

Now I know that most of you still have many weeks before your little ones go back to school.  I, on the other hand, have only a few more days.  The school district that we moved into has a shorter summer.  The kids go to school for 9 weeks at a time.  Then they have a two week vacation.  So this year, they will have a fall break as well as a spring break.  Both TWO weeks long.  Long enough to get some real vacationing in as a family, we hope!  
So the school gives me a list for my third grader.  This is after our whole school fiasco that is too long to get into.  Let's just say that thanks to Mrs. Holstein and her connections here, it has been taken care off and he is officially enrolled in the proper school.  Phew!  It was a long ordeal.  But, I digress...
The school gives me a list of school supplies.  Not a big deal.  We go through this every year.  Last year we even got together 5 extra backpacks for the most financially challenged schools in our area.  So, I am thinking okay, let's get this knocked out before everyone else does as well and you can't find the supplies.  Been there, done that!  
We go to Target, right down the street.  Super Target by the way!  Anyway, we are going through the long list one by one.  The kids and I have learned some lessons from this annual shopping trip.  First is that when the list says "Elmer's Glue", they really mean Elmer's!  You can not by Rose's or the store brand.  The teachers will send it back and tell you to buy the correct item.  
Second, when the list says 4.75 oz bottle, that is exactly what they want.  Never mind the fact that they don't sell a 4.75 oz bottle of glue, it is a 5 oz bottle even through their website.  Yes, I have been told that I bought the wrong size glue before!  She really was a nice teacher.  Really!  
The big thing that really gets to me is this.  Why does a child need two pencil sharpeners, two scissors, and two boxes of crayons?  Now I can understand if they tell you that they need one right now and then another half way through school.  Just to give you a warning so that you can buy them when the prices are the best.  That would make sense.  Send the extra supplies in after Christmas break.  No problem.  Just what exactly do they do with the extra supplies?  The kid can't use two pairs of scissors at once, right?  I guess I never tried that before.  Hmmm.  An experiment to try later.
Today I was going over just what all my little one needs on the first day of school.  It filled three Target bags.  Very heavy Target bags!  I was so amazed at what all they "require" for just him!  I should add up how much it all costs.  Problem is that I had to go to three different stores to find it all.  When you need a certain kind of folder in five different specific colors, it's a little hard to find them all at one place!  
So here are the pictures of just what one third graders needs.

So now the real fun starts.  How is getting all of this to school on the first day?  And what does the older child need for school?  He gets his lists from all of his teachers on his first day of school.  Off to do this all again!  Ugh!

Moving to El Paso

It has been a long summer already!  Two moves in a year is hard on all of us.  The movers came to Harker Heights one year and two days after they came to deliver our household goods.  We still had boxes in the guest room that never got unpacked.  I guess in the back of my mind, I knew that we would only be there for a year.  With the military, you never know what to expect!

So we moved on to El Paso.  We are an AF Squadron here on an Army base.  Thank goodness for great friends back at Ft Hood to explain to me how this "post" thing works.  There are many differences on how things run on an Army post versus an AF base!  Too many to count or even explain!  

Dawn gave me a great reference book to go by.  I am sure I will need it!  I am already wondering what I am doing!

So we said goodbye to our friends, some of who moved along before we did, and packed up.  It took a couple of days to get from the middle of Texas to the end of it.  Anyone who has driven through Texas will understand the drive.  Ugh!  We knew to stop for the night!  

We stopped at the same hotel that we did when moving to Ft Hood.  In case you didn't hear, we had some excitement last year there.  Both of our cars were totaled with hail damage.  What a fun move that was!  We decided to risk it and try again.

I am happy to report that there was no real damage this time around!  Yes, we had a lot of furniture with damage.  Like my hall tree from England that I am upset about.  But, there is nothing to do but try and get it fixed.  Maybe next time will be the first time that they DON'T damage the poor thing!  Not holding my breath though.  Just one more thing on my to do list is reporting all of the damage and getting it repaired.  

We finally moved into the house after many delays.  Here is what it looked like when we were house hunting.

The grass and most of the bushes died with no water after the renters moved out.  We are bringing it all back to life slowly but surely.  There is a bird feeder in the back yard.  We now have the most birds in the neighborhood.  They ate a very large bag of bird food in a matter of days.  There were over thirty birds when I looked out my kitchen window yesterday!  Only a few are left now that they ate the whole bag.  I guess that is something I need to stock up on now.  

The house is mostly unpacked.  More so than our last house ever was.  It is still a work in progress though.  We will see if it gets completely unpacked before we move again.  Hopefully!  Speaking of which, I need to go unpack a few boxes today...