Return & Reunion Briefing!

OK I don't want to get TOOOO excited (who am I kidding, I already AM too excited)....

I got a call from our FRO yesterday to let me know about some upcoming dates for important get-togethers, including a free class for families of the Marines in hubby's detachment, called "Coping With Deployment" (better late than never, huh?) and......a date and time for the Return & Reunion Briefing!  It's not right away, of course, but just having THAT date on the calendar kinda gives me permission to start planning for the actual homecoming date.....and based on the R.R. Brief date, hubby's arrival home could very well be a week or two (or three!) ahead of what I had originally pictured or been told.  Sorry to be so vague, you know, OPSEC and all that.

I had told myself that I could start counting down weeks until APPROXIMATE homecoming as soon as we reached the halfway mark...which we just recently hit.  I was afraid to start counting down and then get disappointed if his return takes longer than expected, so I then told myself that "as soon as the baby is born" I can count weeks until hubby comes home......

Now, with this briefing date on my calendar, I am SO READY to start really counting down those weeks (and I pray they go as quickly as the weeks of this pregnancy have!  Already 35.5 weeks along!!!)

Another reason to smile: I won a giveaway!!!! Amber over at Goodnight Moon had this really cool Vintage Pearl Necklace giveaway and I WON!  WOO HOO!  :)

I happen to love vintage pearls, and the charm on this one says, "Live, Laugh. Blog".  How perfect is THAT for me?

THANKS AMBER!  Go check out her blog if you're not already following her.....her hubby just returned from a deployment and her adventures while he was gone literally had me laughing so hard I cried on more than one occasion.  Definitely one of my favorite blogs to read. :)

What made YOU smile today?

Updates

OK this post will be a little rushed because I put it off last night....

Bonehead moved back in with us 2 weeks ago, and aside from him being, well, a BONEHEAD, things are going well so far.  (If you missed the drama with this, you can catch up here  and HERE)
I'm working on getting another IEP meeting at his school, and hoping we can get him to actually TRY in school this year (school started Aug 11 here!)

Knucklehead on the bus leaving for Operation Purple camp

Knucklehead got to go to Operation Purple camp again this year, which was AWESOME - and is part of why I've barely SEEN him in the past 3 weeks.  The other part of it was the couple of weekends he spent with Grandpa (my FIL) and then the 8 day trip to Hawaii with same Grandpa.  He missed a week of school for this, but how often does a kid get to go to HAWAII, right?  My FIL was stationed over there about 10 years ago (he is now retired USMC) and he bought a house there, which he still owns but it is rented out since he now lives here in so-cal...a little over an hour away from us.  Anyway, Knucklehead had an awesome trip, and got a surfing lesson while there.  One lesson, and this kid can SURF!  I guess we'll be spending a lot of time at the beach next summer, since Bonehead also learned to surf this year, at his Operation Purple Camp.

Knucklehead surfing in Hawaii

I am almost DONE with the baby's nursery - I will post the before/after pictures over on the pregnancy blog soon.

Hubby is doing better, his moods are still kind of erratic but it sounds like he is focusing on his job, not stressing about things here at home.  I got a package from him last week that included the flash drive I had sent him full of photos from home - he actually loaded over 100 pictures from over there for me!  YAY!  There are only a handful of pictures of HIM on the drive, and most I can't post due to OPSEC, but here is a cropped one that I think is OK....and I LOVE this photo of him.

I miss him horribly - baby's birth could intensify that, but I'm hoping to keep busy enough at that point that it won't hit me too hard.

I'm still looking for more ideas for a giveaway for my 150th post - though at the rate I am going, it could be awhile before I get to 150.....

100 posts already?

Somehow I have missed a major milestone - this is my 102nd post on this blog!  I was planning to do something special when I reached 100, but since it slipped right past me, maybe I will mark the 150th post?

I'm considering doing a contest or giveaway, but don't know what type to do...so I am asking you, my followers and anonymous stalkers, to please COMMENT here and tell me what kind of contests and giveaways you are most likely to participate in? 

For instance, do you like the ones with a random number generator choosing the winner?  Or maybe the ones that call on readers to VOTE for the winner? 

And for a giveaway, would you prefer a tangible prize that has to be shipped, or a semi-tangible (like an e-gift card that you can actually USE but don't have to wait for the snail-mail) or a non-tangible prize like design services?  I don't personally do blog design or photo editing or any of that cool stuff, but I am sure I could arrange for someone to either donate that type of prize, or sell their services to me really cheap so I could do the giveaway.  For tangible prizes, I make some pretty awesome custom greeting cards, or I could pick up a prize or 're-gift' something LOL (you guys re-gift stuff too, right?)  Or, I was thinking about giving away one of the books I am currently writing reviews on for my FRG....

I don't know, now I am just generating random babble.....time for you guys to weigh in!  Or, in the words of Adam Lambert, "What Do You Want From Me?"

(ha ha ha now that I got that song stuck in your head, hit the comment button and gripe about it - but only if you also answer the question!!!)

Set your DVR....

I went back to The Price Is Right again a couple weeks ago - trip # 17!  Some other audience members joked that I could be the 'Susan Lucci' of TPIR (she was nominated 17 times for a daytime emmy before she finally WON one).

Alas, I still did not get called to come on down, but one of the girls in my group DID!  Watch the show October 8th, and you will see me in the audience nearly wetting my pants when they called Christy down - and I know our group was on camera a lot because we had pretty good seats - we're in most of the audience shots.

caption on the back of my shirt:

"I've got a Marine, and I'm not afraid to use him!"

Christina's shirt said,

"He's MY Marine, get your own!"

After the taping we went out for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory - YUMMY!

I won't be going back to TPIR for awhile, since it is an all-day thing by the time you add L.A. traffic - maybe when little baby Bobblehead is 2 or so?  I'm not the kind of mom that can leave a baby for 12 hours before he can even talk.  If it was a shorter day, MAYBE I would go sooner.

Maternity Pictures

Thank you SO much to my awesome friend Tara who took these pictures for me!

We had a blast at the beach and pier for the first part (except for the part where the ocean stole Tara's flip flops).  I loved the part under the pier where a wave came up and surprised me, and Tara got the picture at exactly that moment - totally candid.

We also did some indoor bare-belly pics, but most of those are for hubby only - sorry girls!  You get just this one, because I LOVE it so much:

In six weeks (or less!) I will be holding this little bundle of joy instead of modeling his comfy coccoon.  :)  I'm getting so excited!

LIPS 'Gospel Brunch'

A couple weeks ago I got to go to LIPS for the drag queen version of Gospel Brunch.

I would love to go back again sometime when I can drink, because the brunch price includes unlimited mimosas or bloody marys - but even sober, this show is FANTASTIC!

outside with Laura before the show

hamming it up before the show

Tara (my photographer friend)

Nice melons!  LOL my 'girls' never come out in public...

this is my 'Vegas' shirt (you know, when in rome)

Oh yeah, and the watermelon was actually tasty.

The hostess for the morning, "Sister-Nun-Of-The-Above"

(sporting a fake preggo belly)...it doesn't get much more irreverent than that, folks! 

This group was throwing a bachelorette party - they got pretty WILD!

Laura double-fisting the mimosas

Tara sucked down quite a few yummy mimosas as well

Audience participation is always fun :)

I highly recommend this place to anyone in the San Diego area....check them out! 

Not a paid endorsement in any way, just my own unbiased opinion....even if you are not into drag queens (I'm really not) this is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!

I miss blogging

I really do miss blogging - had every intention of posting something every day this week, and just haven't found the time.  And when I do have time, I can't find a comfortable position to sit in for any length of time, so I log on to facebook, check email, and then put the laptop away.

I'm 34 weeks pregnant today, and I had belly pics taken last week by a friend of mine.  She is so awesome!  Can't wait to show you all what she did for me.

A couple weeks ago I went back to LIPS (the drag show we went to for my birthday a few months back) and this time it was their Sunday "Gospel Brunch"....totally hilarious.

I've been working like crazy on the nursery, which is finally almost done.  Just need to pick up a few more things, organize some stuff, wash the rest of the baby clothes & baby blankets, and order the bedding set online. 

I had an awesome baby shower last week, pics are on my pregnancy blog

Pictures of the rest of my misadventures will be posted here today too - in fact much of the blogging that I do over the next few weeks will be more "photo blogging" than writing, since I can't sit in a good typing position with this baby pinching my sciatic nerve.

Oh, and deployment news.....almost to the halfway mark!  WOO HOO!!!!!

not a real post

Sorry for (yet another) week-long blogging hiatus!  I want to blog, I really do, but have been gone a lot the past week or so.  MANY new tales to tell, WITH PICTURES, if I ever get around to it.

To those of you who grew concerned at my absence and took time to e-mail me to check in, THANK YOU! *MUAH* I love you too!

I am ok, just keeping very busy.

Posts coming soon, I promise!