Day 68

My kids are a mess! Never a dull moment with these two...

This picture isn't great - but look at the light! THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY!

Stuart so kindly informed me that he has been losing weight. Maybe he drank this...

Beyond disgusting. 

Day 67

It's freezing, not sure we made it to the positives today.  The insulation in our front door is less than ideal and theres pretty much an arctic chill flowing through... I finally decided to put packing tape on it. Lol. Not sure how much thats helping - but I don't feel it as much.  Stuart was supposed to fix that a long time ago. Oh well. 

I ventured out only to check the mail (since Js birthday is coming up...). Dang, it kinda hurt it was so cold. The driveway is an icy mess. Maybe tomorrow when it actually gets into the teens I will put some salt down. 

Its been one of those days around here. Hadley is majorly teething. Jackson is being his usual crazy, rebellious toddler self. I lost track of how many times he was in time out. He kept knocking Hadley over, throwing toys at her, pushing her etc. Again, I can not wait until she beats him up. He left a bruise y'all! Its crazy!

Stuart said today flew by. Wish I could say the same...

They played Risk last night

 Today was laundry day

The rest was the usual... gym, eat, nap. lol. He had to be rested for the big football game...

I can not wait until he returns. All I want is to be able to sleep through the night and wake up whenever I want to. I'll keep dreaming...

Day 66

The weather forecasters got it wrong. So much for 4-8 inches. More like a whole lot of rain. Looks like we may end up getting an inch of snow.  Will probably be an icy mess. Wind chills are supposed to be 35 below zero. Since we're gonna be cooped up inside for the next few days, we went out to dinner =)  Luckily, the restaurant was pretty dead at 5. Other than that, we did a whole lot of nothing on this dreary day. No one slept well, so we were all cranky.

Heres Jackson yesterday - with all of his hair! 

And now, the much older appearing J.... (don't pay any attention to his boo boo!)

He loves to wrestle with Hadley. It scares me to death. She laughs, which makes it worse!

And..... for todays picture from Bagram....

The highlight of his day, courtesy of Grant and Mary

Day 65

Stuart had to stay up late yesterday to take pictures this morning.  I must say, he has a good looking team! 

 Team Bertsch!

 One of the guys shopping at the Bazaar

The CCATT Teams

He was pretty tired from this change in his schedule, so we didn't talk much today. I assume he was bored again. He took several naps and watched football. I think he did some studying too. No word about another potential mission yet.  I guess its pretty cold there too - in the 20s. I don't think they will be in the negatives though...

Today, I learned to never go to Kroger on a Saturday before a snow storm. Pure torture. There were no "little carts" so it really through me off. Entirely too many people in the store. Somehow, I managed to cram both kids and 100 dollars worth of groceries in the cart. Ha. 

After getting gas on the way home, I decided that we deserved lunch out. Jackson and I split a 12 inch turkey sub. He ate his entire 6 inches! I'm pretty sure his side was bigger than mine too! He is a growing boy!!! We finished out the afternoon by getting a haircut. He finally let them use the clippers. Pics to debut the new do will be posted tomorrow!

I guess Hadley was just too busy for me to get pictures today.... more tomorrow =)

Jackson to the rescue! 

Day 64

I'm sick of snow. Our next house will be on flat land in a flat subdivision where they actually plow the roads.  I bought 40 more pounds worth of salt today. I'm sure it will be gone soon, lol. In addition to the ridiculously cold temperatures in the forecast, there is more snow coming. 4-6 inches of it.  Oh, and the high for Monday is now negative 5. The high. Oh my. 

I like Fridays because we can hang out in the morning and then I work in the afternoon. 

She likes remotes just as much as J man.  

This was J at 11 months.

J man is crazy. He insisted on putting on heels and jewelry to clean my shower. 

 hanging out with Karissa

His second gingerbread house!

Back in Bagram.... Stuart is being his nerdy self.  I asked for a picture, and then is what I got:

He then told me that he had been talking to his friends about skyping for Board Review Practice. He is taking oral boards in September. Last time I checked, it was January. He is insane. Or just very bored.  No word on his next mission. I'd much rather him be bored =) 

Day 63

Another snow day! Ahhh! I'm so sick of snow. I had a mini panic attack trying to make it up our street this morning. Then, I was passed by flying tractor and trailers on the way to work - but oh well.  Just call me Granny! I miss Louisville and living in the city. I'm pretty sure the roads got cleared back home (in the middle of nowhere) a lot sooner and more frequently than they do here. It's so frustrating. It snowed all day. The drive home was even worse. There were 5 cars stopped/stuck on the main drive in our neighborhood. I took the side drive up and somehow, with a lot of skidding and sliding, made it! I was too chicken to park in the driveway (with the several inches of snow) because my neighbors car slid down his driveway today. Crazy! Luckily it didn't hit anything!  He used his awesome snow blower to clean the driveway and then parked the car in the garage for me. Lets hope I have enough courage to back it out tomorrow... after all this mess freezes. Currently the wind chill is negative 2. Speaking of freezing, the high on Monday is 1 degree. Yes, the high.  Lord help me.

Todays pictures are courtesy of Karissa.

My New Years resolution is to be healthier.  Eat less, drink less (alcohol of course) and exercise more. 2 days in, I'm golden. We will see how long it lasts...  My boss at work bought us all Chick Fil A for lunch today, I got a grilled sandwich and only ate half of my fries. Stuart would laugh at this, and quite frankly - Im not sure he would believe me! If all else fails - I made it 2 days, ha.

He is waiting to hear whether or not he has a mission. He took a nap in preparation and will be quite upset if its a no go. I don't think he did much else, besides work out. Today, they did legs and I think he's a bit sore... working out muscles he forgot he had!

Selfie

We're currently reading Mockingjay. Well, I am anyways. He was impatient and didn't wait for me. He started yesterday and finished today. Ha. There aint no way in the world I'm reading a book in 2 days.  Today, I read 2 chapters. I'm just shocked that I have managed to read 2 books already during this deployment.

Last night, our face time was abruptly cut short. No goodbyes - just a black screen. The internet failed us. I wondered if he had been attacked. I couldn't sleep. Hadley woke up. One of those nights... and then it got even weirder.  I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that he magically came home and was in bed next to me. But I felt him... there are no words to describe it. I felt some presence and woke up and was so freaked out. Then, I really couldn't go back to sleep. I'm hoping tonight is much better.

Really hoping that this backwards county will clear the roads tomorrow so that I can make it to work. We're supposed to get Hadley's second flu shot... and Jackson needs a hair cut.  I guess there's always Saturday...

Day 62

Happy New Year! 2013 was a great year for our family. We welcomed sweet Hadley Anne in May, bought a beautiful home, started 2 new jobs, and have made amazing friends here in Northern Kentucky. We certainly weren't planning on ending the year with a rapid deployment - but in the long term, it's probably best it worked out this way.

2014 is going to awesome - Stu will be coming home in just a few months... yay!  My countdown calendar is looking better each day.  We will celebrate 5 years of marriage April 18th. Wow. Day 171 is April 20 - lets hope we get lucky and Ill have my man home in time for our special day! Plus, we have lots of fun vacations planned! Woo hoo!

I can't wait til Hadley beats Jackson up. I know thats horrible to say, but he deserves it. Lol.  He is so rough with her! 

We finished the day by having our baby gate installed! Thanks, Jody!!!

It was warm enough for J to play outside today. Its supposed to snow several inches tomorrow. Fun times ahead...