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Hmmmmmmm????????

Picture for Dad

Sorry it's sideways:) Every time I tried to rotate it, the picture got all messed up. So just turn your monitors;)

This is a picture that Connor drew for Paul on our front window with window crayons. Enjoy the description!

Quality Inn and Suites Maison St. Charles, a New Orleans hotel near the French Quarter

This is the hotel that I booked for Paul's 4 day pass. He gets to go up to 300 miles away from the base so I decided that the perfect place for us would be New Orleans!! The hotel looks and sounds wonderful, I hope that they don't have just a couple high priced suites that they take pictures of and then the rest of the rooms are dumpy;) At least the pool looks nice! I can't wait. This will only be the second time Paul and I have taken a trip just the two of us since we've been married. The last time was when he had his 4 day pass when he was deployed one week after we were married!!!! I went out to Colorado Springs over the 4th of July. Since then we have never had a vacation together! Man, even though deployments blow, we get nice trips out of them;) Enjoy the pictures and hopefully when I get back I will have even more to post. The next couple weeks are going to drag waiting for this trip!!!

The Quality Inn & Suites™ Maison St. Charles is conveniently located on St. Charles Avenue, near the French Quarter and the central business district. The St. Charles Streetcar, the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, runs right at the hotel's front door. This New Orleans, LA hotel is close to popular attractions, including the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, the Audubon Zoo, Mississippi River Cruises, the Louisiana Superdome and the University of New Orleans.
The hotel has just completed an extensive remodeling of the grounds and guest rooms, including 32-inch flat-screen televisions, painted walls instead of wallpaper, new carpet and new vanities that rival those of higher priced hotels.
The Unofficial Guide to New Orleans (Macmillan Travel) named this hotel the Best Accommodation Deal in New Orleans.
Hotel amenities include free continental breakfast, free local calls, free in-room coffee, free weekday newspaper, free in-room premium movies and delicious free coffee, juice and pastries. Be sure to take advantage of the outdoor pool with hot tub and poolside cabana.
This New Orleans, LA hotel provides business travelers with conveniences like wireless high-speed Internet and access to fax services. Meeting and banquet space is available to accommodate most events and business functions.
The guest rooms are located in buildings that surround patios with tropical flowers, plants and trees. Five of the hotel's buildings are listed as historically significant by the United States Department of the Interior. Select rooms come equipped with refrigerators and microwaves.
Whether traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana for business or pleasure, the Quality Inn & Suites Maison St. Charles provides friendly customer service, unique accommodations and affordable rates to every guest. Come enjoy this hidden gem in the heart of it all.

Woooo Hooooo!!!

I got the mower started on the first try!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That may not seem blog post worthy to some but if you have ever started my mower you would know that it is not the easiest feat to get it running and I went out and got it on the first try tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then Robin mowed ;) Very nice!!

I fought a 4 year old and the 4 year old won:(

Connor, like most children his age, is known for stalling tactics at bed time. Things such as: "I have to go potty." "I have to go poopy." "I need to tell you something." and if I walk in he says, "love you" "I need a hug" "I miss you" "When you going to bed, 10:00?" I think that about covers them. Oh and the just sneaking across the hall to hide in my room or after I do go to bed he tries to crawl in bed with us. So since Paul has left I have to admit the first night I told him at 10 when I went to bed I would bring him in to my bed and when he says he's scared I melt a little and am concerned till I go in and all it takes is a hug, then I realize I was scammed. So last night I decided to do some tough love. Does anyone remember the show "Mad About You" when they decided to let Mable cry it out? It was an hour show, no commercial breaks and it was them at the door saying things like, "We are teaching her to self soothe" and then mom would reply, "Are you sure we aren't just teaching her that we won't always be there when she needs us?" Well Connor got a bath at 7:45, in bed by 8 but then Paul called so he got to talk to Dad little and then I put him down. I was in my room talking to Paul when he opened his door and said he had to go potty. I honestly couldn't remember if he went before his bath or not so I told him he could go. Then I hung up with Paul, we attached the link to our paper chain that we forgot to do, then I put Connor back to bed. He said, "Mom, I need to tell you 3 things. I need to go potty, I just go. You going to bed at ten o'clock. I need to stay in bed." To which I replied "Yes, good night" and I was out the door and downstairs in one fell swoop to watch True Blood:) I got down there about 8:30 and away we went on our True Blood ride. You know what our background music was???????????? "Mooooommmmmmyyyyyyy, I neeeeeed to go poooooooootttttttyyyyyyyy!" "I need a hug" over and over. Robin and I were talking about it and I decided to not go up. To just ignore it and he would go back to bed, right????????? One would think. So we finished True Blood, and started watching Mad Men. And he was still screaming. It went from conversational tones to screaming, jumping up and down and throwing things. I held tight and turned up the TV's volume. Went back to conversational tones, then crying and whining and back to craziness. I held tight but started to wonder when I looked at the clock and it was 9:45. Well at 10:15 when our shows were done we went up. I took him by the hand and led him back to his room and closed the door. He erupted again, he kept coming in my room, banging on my door (right outside Abby's room) screaming and throwing things. I walked him back to his room a number of times. By 11pm I caved and said, "BED, NOW!" He looked at me and said, "sorry mommy, good night" to which I replied, "night" and then silence until 6am when he came in to my room bright eyed and bushy tailed saying, "I have to go potty mommy." Fine then back to bed Connor. Didn't hear anything else till 7:45am. What in the heck will be in store tonight????? That was the hardest thing, I just wanted to go up and hug him. I have a jar of change that Paul left for the kids to give them through out the year. I really don't want to pay my son to stay in bed but it may be worth a few coins to NEVER have to go through that again. I'll keep you all posted.......

Daddy

Abby ran to her room this morning and grabbed her Daddy Doll:) She kept saying, "dada, dada, dada" while hugging him and giving him kisses. It was VERY cute. So I picked her up and we cuddled and kissed daddy:)

Video

Phew!! I finally got it posted. It was taking forever to upload plus I would have "helpful" little hands that would push the wrong button or close the computer up:)

This is some video of the buses leaving. The Patriot Guard lead them out, they also lined the entrance to the City High Auditorium with flags all done up in their motorcycle clothes;) Even if you aren't a motorcycle person it was still a wonderful display and we all appreciate their support. We got to spend some time with Paul outside before the ceremony, that is when most of the pictures were taken. We went inside and then the troops marched in on both sides of the auditorium, very neat. They stood up front on risers and we had a few people talk. Not too many and they kept it fairly short;) Then they guys marched back out and we got a few more minutes with them before they had to go on the buses. It was hot but people were still hugging and holding each other close. I know this probably goes with out saying but I hate the send-offs. On the upside, we can't start counting down the days till Paul comes home until he leaves so it's nice to be on the count down phase now;) Connor and Abby did really well, mainly because I don't think they fully understand. I think it was hard for me because I didn't want to cry, I didn't want Paul to have his last look at his wife be a tearful one, I didn't want it to be harder on him to leave ( I can only imagine the strength it took for him to walk away from us and get on that bus, I didn't want to make it harder) I also didn't want to scare or upset the kids. Connor is very aware of my feelings, anytime I am down he can tell and I didn't want him to get sad, so I just tried to keep smiling. I didn't manage a smile the whole time but I don't think I cried either. The video shows the buses leaving, you can't really see it on the video but as the buses were driving by I could actually see Paul through the tinted windows. He had his hand pressed up against the window, it was perfect. You also can't tell how excited I was when I saw that on the video. Inside I felt like I was jumping up and down and I was so excited to see him I thought that the video would be all shaky, but I must have remained rather calm on the outside. All in all it wasn't a bad day. I got to talk to him on the phone while they were driving down to Camp Shelby. They are getting a 4 day pass while they are in Shelby and I don't know if I will go. Saying good-bye isn't as hard when you know they are "just down the road," saying good-bye knowing their next stop is Afghanistan might be too much. I know I will want to see him so bad, and I would hate for him to be one of the only ones down there with out anyone there for him but we will just have to play it by ear. Anyway, enjoy the video and the pictures and thank you all for your love and support!!

Paul's Send-off

My mom went up front and got a picture of the guys. It was great, I could see Paul from where we were sitting.

This flag was so beautiful. It was hanging off of two fire trucks.

Connor showing off his new bear and his flag while standing on the fire truck!!

Paul's Send-off

Just one more kiss.......

Paul and Me

Paul and the kids. I don't thin that he wanted to let go of either of them.

Paul's Send-off

Clark, Connor, Paul, Abigail, Me, and Ebby
We found a nice shade tree for some pictures before the ceremony

Our Fam!!
Abs is holding her "daddy doll" it has a vinyl slot for a picture of her daddy:) She goes to bed with it and hugs it tight!

I wonder if she is looking for the snacks that are on the other side of the bag:) You can also see Connor and Abby's dolls.

Front: Robin, Connor, Erin
Back: Megan, Paul, Abigail, Me, Ebby, Clark, Great Grandma Faye
This was after the ceremony and it was getting HOT. We did find some shade up by the school.

The Pool

We had a lot of fun in the pool the night before Paul's send off. The pool was really cold but the hot tub was nice and hot! Abby got her Daddy to take her in the hot tub and after that, that is the only place she wanted to be. She also liked wearing her big brothers goggles:) Connor was doing great at swimming under water and jumping off the side and going all the way down to touch his feet!

The Garden

Here are just a couple pictures of Clark's beautiful garden!!

Lilly and Papa's House

We went to visit Lilly and Papa last month and Abby got to help Papa fix a bike, ride a motorcycle(sat on it in the garage), Connor got to ride a bike, we all took a walk, and played some tennis. It was a very fun trip!!

Sweet Corn

Abby had sweet corn on the cob for the first time a couple weeks ago and I think that she really liked it. She took her time but she got most of the corn right off the cob!!

OCM

We had a blast at the Children's Museum. The upstairs had a Clifford exhibit and both the children LOVED it:) Plus the fire truck, water, ball room (Abby's favorite) and the farm/grocery store. It was a very long 2 hours but they had such a great time!

Zoo

Paul and I had last week off and we had some fun family days:) This is from our trip to the zoo. Abby had a pretzel on the train and thought that the paper dish was a hat and had tons of fun with it;)