catch up of sorts.

I’ve been scarce lately. Way too busy to spend much time on the computer. And then when I do sit down, I’m exhausted and the last thing I want to do is recount my days.

My weekend was very enjoyable, however. I picked up George Friday morning from O’Hare, and we went to breakfast, did Christmas shopping and then picked up the boys. George, Josh & I and George’s parents went in on their big gift…

They’re going to go crazy over this. We’re going to just set it up in front of the tree. We also got them a set of tools w/ tool boxes each, some toy fire trucks, airplanes, cars, puzzles, trucks, etc. They are definetly getting crazy spoiled this year.

The kids were thrilled to see Daddy when we picked them up from daycare. Josh & I left Friday night for Chicago to celebrate his friends birthday. We went to a nice little Italian restaurant and then to Gameworks, an adult arcade. Crashed at a hotel for the night, and then Josh went to drill the next morning. I spent the day sleeping in, and getting ready for the Christmas party that night.

The Christmas party was insane. Open bar for 5 hours. I was keepin’ up with all the guys, doing shots of SoCo & Lime. I literally did about 10. And had 6-7 mixed drinks thrown in for good measure. I was drunker than shit at the end of the night. I ended up puking in our friends hotel room toilet. LOL During the party, the 1st SGT was pulling people to the middle of the dance floor and embarrassing them. Mostly because nearly everyone is heading out in the next few months. And I must have been thanked a hundred times over for coming the weekend prior to sell goodies at drill. Apparently I made them quite a bit of money, and made it possible for a lot of people who couldn’t afford tickets to be able to attend. Yay me!

Josh got definitive dates for his deployment. I can’t give them out… but, the itenerary kinda looks like this…
February thru April he’ll be back and forth between here and Ohio getting situated with the new unit. How often? We don’t know yet.
April thru May he’ll be going thru pre-mobilization.
And June he’ll be shipping out to Iraq.
He’ll have an appx. 2 week long R&R somewhere during the deployment.
Then he should be home around May 2010, where he will do appx. month long demobilization. And then come home.

So, this deployment will be more like 17 months long. Ideally, with a few visits between February and June. He should get a 1 week pass after pre-mob, before he ships out.

And he just got orders to go assist with a Yellow Ribbon Ceremony this weekend. Where he will be gone from Thurs – Mon. Not a big deal, but… I’m getting stingy when it comes to my time with him. And I’m off two of the four days he’ll be gone. So it sucks. But we could use the money… so, yea.

I’m trying my best to not think about him being gone for so long. =( It pretty much ruins our plans for a 2010 baby. We’ve talked about getting engaged, but he wants to wait until he gets home from his deployment. He wants to make sure I can "handle" it. I know it’s his own insecurities, and I respect that. Just… my baby clock is ringing like crazy, and the boys are going to be 5 & 6 before I have another child. It sucks. Stupid army.

They’re hiring 2 new animal control officers at work. I’m really contemplating applying. But I think I’d have to do third shift for a while… and I don’t know how that would be possible. So, bah. But I do want to eventually go that route. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about getting my criminal justice degree and becoming an animal cruelty investigator. -nods-