On the Move

Pippa is officially mobile now! She’s not technically crawling in the traditional sense, but she’s doing the Army low crawl, pulling herself forward with her arms and using her knees and feet to help push. She’s pretty quick, all things considered. Aladdin is torturing her though. I set her down in the kitchen while I was making her a bottle and Aladdin perched out in the hall. So Pippa rolled onto her tummy and started after him. He let her get just shy of grabbing distance and then trotted off a few feet. He did that three times before finally disappearing around the corner and down the hall. Mean kitty.

I don’t quite know why but Pippa’s been waking up in the small hours of the morning, fussing and whining. She never actually cries, but she clearly wants my attention. This morning she pulled herself halfway into my bed and tugged at my hair, so I moved over and let her snuggle with my arm. Weird, but it makes her feel secure enough to go back to sleep. Unfortunately she slept until 8, so her whole schedule has been screwy today. Lots of fun.

I still haven’t heard back from Rosso, so I’m wondering if I might have scared him off a little. He asked me what some of my highlights at Southern were. To be frank, it wasn’t a great time for me in terms of my mental health and I was honest and said that going to his class kept me a little more grounded, since I enjoyed it and never skipped (maybe once). I mentioned a few other classes and professors as well. I’m hoping he writes back soon, because it’s been a week. ::sigh:: I’m such a schoolgirl when it comes to him. Funny though, getting in touch with him has cured me of some of my other crushes. So maybe it’s not all bad, even if he doesn’t respond. But I hope he does. I can’t help it.

After a week of being pretty lazy and a little down, I’m feeling more like myself. I’ve been trying to clean up some of the clutter, but some of it just has to stay out a bit longer. I have the pieces for my Halloween costume to put together and I have a bunch of things for baby-proofing the house now that Pippa is on the loose. It’s amazing how she goes straight for cords and outlets. What is with that? But the fact that she’s getting so quick is pretty good motivation to get off my butt and do it. All the outlets are covered and some of the cords.

And since I’m feeling so motivated, I got most of my Christmas shopping done last night. I already knew what I wanted to get almost everyone, I just had to get it. I still have to get something for Zach, another present for my mom, something for Rich and Kathy, and something for Alan’s grandfather. For Zach I’m thinking a book of landscape photography and maybe a book about how to improve one’s photographic skills. For Bill I’m leaning towards a DVD collection of "The Honeymooners" lost episodes – the original sketches from "Cavalcade of Stars" and "The Jackie Gleason Show" before it actually became a series in its own right. I have no idea what to get for my mom or Rich and Kathy. Of course, I still have a couple months to figure it out. Pippa and Alan are already done and I might get the cats a new tower/scratching post. They’ve been needing a new one for a while now.

Sometime this week I’m going to get the oil changed and wash the car. I’m also going to shampoo the carpet. I got one the Resolve Easy Clean system. It’s not as serious as a carpet steamer, but it’s more practical with a little one to distract me. I figure I’ll do it in stages, one room at a time. That way I can move as much furniture as possible and get as much carpet clean without having to find someone to watch Pippa and trying to get it all done in a day or two to try to avoid renting a Rug Doctor for too long. That way the house will be super clean for when Alan comes home.

He’ll find out this Friday or the next what the points will be for promotion. If they’re still low, he’ll make E5 at the start of November. Sometime before that he’s going to buy our tickets for the Spur & Garter Ball in February because an E4 pays about half the price for them as an E5. And sometime after that he’ll sign his reenlistment contract. If he waits on that one, he’ll get more options about where to go next and he’ll get a bigger reenlistment bonus. Hard to argue with that! I’m pretty flexible about where we go, provided it’s not in the Midwest or Texas with the exceptions of Ft. Leavenworth and Ft. Sam Houston. I kind of wish he was eligible to go to Ft. Dix, but since it’s National Guard, he has to be seriously senior enlisted to get stationed there as active duty. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to enjoy real pizza on those occasional visits back to Connecticut. Maybe we’ll end up in Germany. That would be an amazing experience, despite being so far from family.

Oh wait… did I say "despite?" I meant "because."

But just now it’s time for me to eat. I think it might be a late night. After dinner I’m going to cut out pieces for the skirt of my Halloween costume. And if I’m feeling really dedicated I might put the underdress together.

Fingers crossed that Rosso emails me this week!

~Liz