Happy Halloween

Patrick deployed yesterday. We were handed orders less than 8 hours in advance of the plane leaving, but at least I have a copy. We're going to miss him a great deal, but so far we are doing okay.

Well this is getting ridiculous.

In just over 24 hours, Patrick is supposed to be on a plane headed overseas.

We still have no orders. The comedy is not lost on me, but the frustration is winning out. We've been on this roller coaster of "Yes he's going. No he's not. Yes, he is." and on and on since June. Just once I would like what I have been told and the actual outcome of events to sync up.

In the meantime, we've been filling our time admirably, with trips to a pumpkin patch and the zoo, buying last minute things Patrick might need, and generally just trying to enjoy the time he has if he is on that plane tomorrow. Sidney has started taking steps and is turning into quite the comedian. Tonight we're going to make some more pumpkin treats from our farm fresh pumpkins, let Patrick finish packing and try not to panic too much about the uncertainty tomorrow still holds.

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken the last week of September right before Patrick was scheduled to deploy. We'd been meaning for a long time to get a new set done, and deploying was the final shove I needed to schedule an appointment with the local cheap Walmart studio. They're not gallery worthy, but I am so glad I have these. Now I just have to remember to schedule portraits for Sidney's first birthday...

PS - Dad, if you want any of the portraits let me know, I have other shots; some 8x10s and 5x7s as well as wallets I can spare.

Patrick was bumped. He'll be home a little longer, tho deployed before the end of the month. Right now it's just a matter of when, tho we don't expect to have him home more than a few more weeks.

Today we took the kids to Build-A-Bear to pick out a deployment bear for each one, to cuddle while daddy is gone. It's usually our birthday activity to visit build-a-bear, but we decided to make a special exception.

We've heard back from the school district, and now we're just waiting on them to evaluate Gyven and Kyra and determine their eligibility and placement. Right now the soonest they could be in a classroom is sometime in November, just because we're going to have to wait a bit for an available evaluation time. Gyven and Kyra are both very anxious to get into school, Gyven has been asking about it constantly since we turned in the paperwork to the school district!