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Saturday is for the Dogs

Saturday is for the dogs. Which is a play on the “for the boys” nonsense hockey players like to say to each other. At any rate, today, like every other day in our house, is for the dogs. I’m fortunate to be able to work from home and spend every day with them. Anakin and Arrow are the best sales assistants around. I don’t think so. They don’t even burn popcorn or reheat fish in the microwave. They’re the ideal co-workers.

The boys and I started our morning with a walk around the block. There’s always so much to see that the walk takes a while. Birds, lizards, and ducks distract Anakin immediately. Arrow, on the other hand, gets super excited to see a squirrel. Neither dog can concentrate on anything else once they’ve seen their target. Eventually, I got them to do all of their business, but it was a process.

While I enjoyed my coffee on the couch, the puppies chilled with me. I did manage to have a productive morning by taking care of the dishes, the laundry, and the floor. Don’t worry, I saved some of the fun for the afternoon. After heating some leftovers, I got my clothes folded and put away. To be fair, I still have some that need to be put away. Unfortunately, my closet is full. It’s reached its weight limit. I am definitely in need of a closet upgrade.

P.S. If you’re not already following me on instagram, give me a follow!

P.S.S. I’ve recently partnered with Zulay Kitchen. I’m super excited about this partnership as I love to bake. You can use the code Welcome43 to get 43% off.

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: still training, signed up for a 5k on 9/20!
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: finishing 2.0 this week!
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): I made it into September and haven’t buckled!
  • Top performer at work: on it!
  • Travel: went to Vegas, but lots of work to do here. I’m tickled pink that we’ll be going back there in October to see Paul McCartney
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress. I’m reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Get out of debt: in progress, but still poor
  • Financial independence: in progress, but still opt

How do you relax?

I like to work out, bake, read, and spend time with my dogs to relax. My workout routine keeps me sane, while reading helps me decompress every night. My dogs’ unconditional love and attention is everything. Their presence and cuddles make me so happy and relaxed.

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Deployment Diary – Saying Goodbye

I decided to keep an electronic diary of my thoughts during deployment. By the time this is published, he will be back home.

Saying goodbye to our eldest is never easy, but this last time it was particularly hard. This time it would be the last time I got to hug him before he left on his first deployment. To say that hug contained a lot of emotion and love would be a gross understatement. While he was excited for this new adventure, the mom in me couldn’t help but be anxious and worried sick. Naturally, I tried my best to hide this from him. After all, I didn’t want him feeding off my anxiety. Nor did I want him worrying about his mom.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is not knowing the details. He’s limited in what he can share with for obvious reasons, but it makes it hard when you don’t know the when and where. At the moment, we’re just waiting for the shoe to drop. Obviously, it’s been a bit nerve wracking.

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Made it

After a sixteen hour shift yesterday, I can say I made it. AEP is over and normal life can resume. It’s been a crazy, productive and draining seven weeks, but I’m proud of how it went. However, I’m relieved the grind is over for a bit. Today was so dead, they let us leave early which was a total gift. It was slow, I was starting to fall asleep at my desk.

Since I got off earlier than expected, I was able to get some stuff down around the house. I took care of the laundry that’s been waiting to be fold since AEP started. I’m only kidding, the laundry hasn’t been sitting around that long. While I folded laundry and took care of the dishes, I finished the current season of the Great British Bake-off. I love that show and will be baking a ton over the next four days.

The best part of yesterday was receiving videos and photos of my oldest’s promotion ceremony. It was so much fun to see him being promoted. Moreover, I loved seeing the camaraderie that exists within his squadron. Honestly, love seeing how well he is loved and treated. It definitely puts my mom heart and mind at ease. The Hubby and I are so proud!

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Friday Update

Here’s my Friday update:  I’m still emotionally exhausted.  Just kidding today I’m both physically and emotionally exhausted.  Probably because I made my workout commitments every day this week!  Go me!!!  Excitedly, I started my day by vacuuming and moping my floors for the third time this week.  The upshot, of course, was that the house smelled great for a couple of hours.  Such is life with three dogs and a house full of boys.

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The lesson I’ve learned this week is that home schooling my kids even with a remote  teacher is soul crushingly difficult.  Honestly, I don’t know is you amazing teachers do it day in and day out.  Kudos to you for being super human.  Only my high schooler has work to do this week since he’s taking a few classes online.  I can only imagine the fun I’ll have when both are back in school virtually.

Goalielocks did get some practice driving today when he drove up route Clubhouse to take my Mayor to the pool.  Before you judge, I’ll have none of it.  There was nobody else there and they weren’t there for long.  Afterwards they had some social distancing with some buddies, who they went fishing with behind the house.

Thankfully, we live in South Florida and the weather has been perfect.  Naturally, the boys could have stayed out fishing all night.  Especially since the bass were biting today.  Fortunately, all the boys fishing caught some nice sized bass, which makes for some happy boys.   I loved seeing the boys outside fishing and not on their phones.  Consequently, we may take them to the Everglades tomorrow to fish and walk the trails.  It will be good get out of the house and into nature.

Meanwhile, hubby is starting to get concerned that we may run out of toilet paper before the stores replenish their stock.  I tried to order some on BJ’s.com, but received a message that supplies were running low.  Consequently, they wanted me to approve the replacement they suggest.  The replacement they suggested was a box of printer paper. Yeah….  Wish us luck on that front.  Finally, we will actually be taking our Christmas tree down tomorrow.  Although I’m pretty sure Anakin would prefer that we leave it up.  However, I have to admit I am sick of cleaning up the falling needles.

As for our day, here were our activities:

*reading Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery

*Watched Ratatouille with my Mayor

*yelled at Goalielocks to take his algebra test, he finally did and got an A.

*Completed BBG Week 5 Full Body workout

*Took Goalielocks to practice driving

*Bought myself some new running shoes, will get them up at drive up/pick up at Dick’s SportingGoods

*Boys went fishing with their hockey buddies while maintaining proper distances.

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Monday Madness

Monday madness took on a whole new meaning with the kids off of school for the foreseeable future.  They said they should be back in school in two weeks, but honestly I don’t see how that can happen. Unfortunately, this pandemic isn’t going to end on our schedule.  Having the kids home all day meant more food, more mess, more complaining and more arguing.

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I mean, my routine hasn’t changed much with them out of school.  Now I spend 76% of my time trying to get my middle son to complete his FLVS work and chores.  My little man has stepped up in a big way and has been helping out around the house

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I had planned to spend day one of the pandemic cleaning the house, but I expended all my energy yelling at my child.  However, I did manage to dust the wainscoting and piano, so I guess that’s a victory.   This morning I was finally able to vacuum and mop all the floors.  Truly, the house does look much better.

Sadly, my yoga studio has closed until the pandemic is over.  Fortunately, I can still practice yoga with Fightmaster, Yoga with Adrienne and Yogamundo on YouTube.  As for my gym workout, my BBG workouts are all designed to be completed at home, which is awesome.  I complimented yesterday’s BBG workout with a nice walk with the boys and our dogs.  It was nice to get out and enjoy the nice weather.
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Lastly, I yesterday was my Grandma’s 90th birthday.  It was fun chatting with her about aging and life in general.  My grandma has always been a rock for me and my family.  Unfortunately, her senior housing is on lockdown due to COVID-19, but I look forward to celebrating her big day at a later date.  Please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays!  Finally, let’s hope that Monday madness doesn’t continue into Tuesday.

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We Made It

We made it to San Antonio after a long, but fun day of travel. Our AirBnB is the cutest old house in all of San Antonio and in close proximity to everything. We did a trial run out to JBSA Lackland, so I think we have a handle on where to go early tomorrow morning. And now after a long day of traveling we’re off to bed since we have a very early wake up call tomorrow.

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Slacking

Gotta be honest, I’ve been slacking on the blog these past few days. It’s just I’ve been exhausted these past couple of days with little to share. Friday was productive for me, but left me exhausted. I completed a BBG AB workout, went to yoga and enjoyed a restorative sauna session. Needless to say, it left me exhausted. And I was in bed with my Virginia Woolf novel by 9:30.

Goalielocks has practice scheduled for most of Saturday, but it was a bit touch and go if we’d take him since he hurt his foot/ankle playing football. In the end, we decided to take him, so his trainer could evaluate the injury. The injury location is weird. He’s actually more comfortable in skates playing hockey than walking.

After his practice, the trainer was able to take a look at it. Fortunately, his Trainer felt it was likely a sprain, but wanted us to rule out a fracture to the navicular bone in his foot. Since the Vikings were playing at 4:35 pm, my scheme was to take him post game right before the urgent care closes.

Unfortunately, the Vikings effort was anemic and Goalielocks was soon despondent. Consequently, we headed to urgent care during the beginning of the third quarter. By some miracle of god, there was no wait at the clinic. We were in and out with the x-rays and hands. Happily, the x-rays were negative for fracture. His diagnosis was sprain. Goalielocks was not happy when he was told to be non-weight bearing for 3 days.

That’s right folks the scooter is back- at least, temporarily. He isn’t quite the seasoned scooter driver that I was, but he’s learning. Additionally, he insists that he will not use the scooter or crutches at school. Tomorrow morning should be fun!

After a busy day yesterday, we’ve been slacking at home enjoying the pictures of my family’s vacation on the south seas. We did get most the laundry done and I did go to yoga, so the day wasn’t a complete wash. Tonight we had chilli and I was really regretting my decision to go gluten free. I’m not sure it’s possible, but I may have been lusting for a baguette. Thankfully, neither of us had the energy to drive and buy one. In the end, the bison chili was perfectly satisfying without the baguette. Someone who hasn’t been slacking is Jake. Today he starts WOT5 for Jake. Three more weeks til graduation!

Previous training weeks:

Week 0
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

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2019 is Coming to An End

2019 is coming to an end. After the insanity of the year, I’m not quite sure how to classify it. Was it good, bad or a mixed bag? I started the year with an incredibly hyper thyroid – thanks RAI. By the time mid February arrived, my thyroid and the associated hormones were dead and gone. Therein started the process of bringing my thyroxine levels back to normal.

In November, my last appointment, my levels had stabilized and were within the normal range. Victory was mine or at least partially. It will still take one to three years for the Graves symptoms to abate. Meanwhile, my antibodies are high, so the disease is still active. My goal is to find remission in 2020. Nevertheless, partial victory or not, it is still a victory. Mark one for good year.

In July, I transitioned from working mom to stay at home mom after nine years three hundred and sixty two days with the firm. It was a decade of achievement, change and philanthropy with some of the of the best people I know. Obviously, I was sad to leave the friends and relationships behind, but it had become untenable. I guess initially this could be marked as bad except for….

My oldest decided in June that he wanted to join the Air Force. We were thrilled he had a roadmap for his future, but sad that he may be moving away. As you know, he’s now left for the Air Force and is kicking ass at basic training. If I had been working, I would have regretted every day I didn’t spend with him. Fortunately, I wasn’t working so I got to spend my time with him.

One of my favorite memories from this year is the trip we took home, aka Jake’s Farewell tour, in October. The sole focus of the trip was to connect with our family, especially the grandparents, before he left for basic. Our grandparents, including Jake’s great great Grandma, are getting old. There is no telling when Jake will be able to return to Minnesota to see them.

This trip was soul nourishing. Words cannot describe the emotions I felt as my Great Grandma held Jake’s hand and told him she loved him and was so proud oh him. Or the emotions I felt when Luke’s grandfather afflicted with Alzheimer’s beamed with pride and remembered Jake as Steve (my FIL) told him Jake was joining the military. Unquestionably, these moments will reside forever in my heart.

Jake and I had so much fun with his cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents in Minnesota. It really would have been hard for it to be a better trip. We got to see my a Uncle Craig and even his new grandson Grayson, who is just the cutest. Additionally, we were able to spend a lot of time with Grandma T and uncle Mark. Jake has always had a very special relationship with his great Grandma T as she babysat him while I was in college and throughout my early career. Their bond is special.

The trip ended too soon and we were soon faced with the Thanksgiving holiday and his impending departure. My whole family had already plan to come to Florida for Thanksgiving, which was perfect. We celebrated all the big holidays in one weekend and even got family pictures.

No matter what else happened this year, Jake leaving for BMT was a seminal moment. The days leading up to his departure flew by while the days after have dragged. We’ve cried copious tears of happiness, pride, sadness and longing. Sometimes the tears combine all of the above emotions. Our family will never be quite the same, but Jake is on his way to a bright future and we couldn’t be prouder.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t give mention to our newest family member. Our dear friends John and Hanh has their beautiful, sweet Ava on the 15th of December. She has brought so much love and light into all of our lives. We’re blessed to be a part of all of their lives. Meanwhile, Ava and I are best buddies. She’s in Tampa visiting her auntie until January, but her beautiful mama sends me pics so I can see her.

As 2020 begins, Jake’s career with the Air Force will figure heavily in the happenings. Of course, there will be several hockey tournaments and games interspersed in there as well. 2020 will bring graduation from BMT, tech school and FDS. FDS you ask – it’s final duty station. Later this spring we should find out where Jake will be stationed.

2019 is coming to an end. This year there’s no grandiose resolution. Instead, I’ll be focused on getting my health back on track, staying fit and being the best damn hockey/Air Force mom that I can be. As for 2019 being good or bad, I’d have to say it’s been challenging yet stellar! Happy New Year from our family to yours!

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Week 2

Week 2, WOT 2, is coming to an end today. For us, week two brought a Christmas Day call that was simply the best. Of course, their are mixed feelings of joy and missing him, but we’re grateful that he is doing so well. Ordinarily, the trainees don’t get to call home to week 3. Hopefully, we will get another call in the coming week. This call can come any day before lights out. Needless to say, I will be carrying my phone everywhere next week.

In week 2, airman are given their weapons and they start learning to assemble and dissemble them. Jake said it was relatively easy save for some rust on the weapon. Their practice weapons are fake m-4s and are kept in their forms. Next week they’ll start going to the range to practice with their M-16. They’re also learning to march and working on drill. Here’s a video on week 2: WOT2

This week they spent their classroom time learning about the core values of the Air Force, history of the Air Force, human relations and the organization of the Air Force. Additionally, the ABs have started their BMT jobs. Jake’s job is chaplain guide. He is responsible for marching the “baby flights” to chapels and helping the chaplain as needed. He loves it!

As for us, the Air Force Mom BMT group continues to be a saving grace. It’s nice for us to understand what he’s experiencing week by week and on a daily basis. Finally, tomorrow will usher in WOT3 and bring us one week closer to graduation!  We love you Jake!

Term guide:

AB: airman basic, his rank during basic training.

BMT: basic military training

MTI: military training instructor aka drill sgt.

WOT: week of training

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Week One

Week one, otherwise known as WOT1, is well underway at JBSA Lackland. The ABs are no longer know as skittles as they’ve been issued their ABUs, PT clothes, sneakers and combat boots. They also had their first official PT test to establish a baseline. Afterwards, the ABs are given a colored belt based on their performance. Hopefully, Jake got a blue or green belt. You can see a video on week one here.

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They also start their military education in week one. This covers everything from who they should salute to the military code of justice. Based on the pictures I’ve seen online, his classroom looks nicer than some colleges. Additionally, he was also issued his weapon a M-4 training rifle. This rifle can’t be fired, but will be used to teach the airman how to disassemble and reassemble their weapon. This week they also learn about nutrition, suicide prevention and reporting procedures.  Lastly, they’re getting used to living in their new digs.  Fortunately, Jake is in the new dorms AKA Disneyland.

We haven’t received any mail yet, but we know he is super busy. We’ve been trying to sending daily letters from all of us. We each write separate letters and mail them together. Today I wrote him a letter from our puppy Athena. Whenever Jake would come from work, school or Mel’s house, Athena would greet him with sneezes. It was so cute! Athena is definitely missing him. Hopefully, he’ll enjoy her letter.

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At the homestead, I’d like to say it is getting easier, but it’s not. The hubby and I find ourselves in our feelings all the time. Fortunately, I’ve stopped eating my feelings. My body is feeling the emotional stress thanks to the autoimmune disease, so I’ve dialed it back a bit this week.

My thyroid is relatively steady, but the symptoms will take 1-3 years to abate. Oh goody, said no one ever. Needless to say, with all that’s been going on, I’ve had trouble sleeping. Consequently, after being inspired by my niece and nephew this fall, I bought a Warmies microwaveable French lavender stuffed elephant. It’s filled with beans or corn and smells wonderful. When you hear it up, it functions as aromatherapy and heat therapy for sore muscles or joints. Needless to say, I’ve been sleeping much better since my I bought this.

I wrote earlier this week about the birth of Sweet Ava. Her arrival has brought so much joy to our world. Luckily, I got to spend some quality time with her and her mama yesterday. It’s amazing how the fear, excitement and anxiety of being a first time mom come back to you after almost twenty one years. In my opinion, there are few seasons in life as difficult or as beautiful as becoming a mom. Consequently, I’m glad that I’m able to help out.

Jacob and I on the Laerdalselvi in Borgund, Norway

Tonight I’m chilling at home watching The Office and missing Jake. He will be at BMT throughout the holidays. If you’re so inclined, please consider sending him Christmas card at the address below:

Countdown to graduation: week 1, 7 weeks to go

Week One video: https://youtu.be/2PPFxVFvBhs

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