We are going to be getting back a significant chunk of change for our taxes this year, like over $3,000! You'd think we could take a trip for that much, but going to Florida in April (time when Dr. Husband has off) is an insane amount of money. Flights right now are so vacation prohibitive that we might just stay home. Granted, doing stuff around DC may be fun for some people, but not for a two year-old and a baby. Museums, whatever. Memorial statues, yawn. Unless the outing is related to sea-life or PlayHouse Disney characters, there is no interest. Driving over 2 hours for anything with Alanna just does not work. "WAHHHHHHHH!"

Biggest tax return of our lives and going anywhere warm is too expensive to fly to, what gives? Honestly there could be worse problems, I admit. Just is very stinky you know? For the 3 of us to fly to FL with Alanna on my lap is like $700-$990 with a lay-over in like Detroit. No thanks.

A week spent at home goes like this: Jason and I drink a bunch of wine and play the Sims2, the house gets apallingly dirty and Connor eats french toast and pizza day and night. Where is my vacation? Technically I could drink wine and play Sims2 by myself while letting Connor eat junk all the time...the house gets apallingly dirty all on it's own. This is not an improvement in my life.

Jason has off April 7-16. Can you think of some things for us to do? Keep in mind that the weather here is about 60 degrees and rainy at that point. Let me know.

And TJ what gives with the blog being so funky looking? 1. It's cold, it's gloomy, I miss Florida.

2. I feel so fat and I love chocolate. Why can't chocolate make you thinner? This potty-training thing is ruining me. Connor gets 3 M&Ms for pee pee and 10 for a poopy, I get a few each times he goes on the potty for dealing with the whole mess.

3. The "feel and learn" pull up traing pants suck ass, even after 30 minutes of wearing them, if Connor tinkles a little bit in them his privates are covered with those little balls of gel. Ick, how fricking gross! I am throwing away all of his Buzz Lightyear pullups and just using underwear.

4. I am a tough mom, but what I am being put through this week just sucks. Connor had to have a VCUG when he was a baby becuase my family passes on hydronephrosis, or kidney obstructions that always resolve on thier own. This test sucks ass. Imagine putting a catheter into a baby while he or she is awake and then pumping radio active solution into your child's bladder until they pee radio active pee all over the place as they SCREAM BLODDY MURDER while a big piece of machinery take picture of thier innards and YOU have to hold them down.
This really sucks. The fear is that there could be some reflux of pee that goes back into the kidney if things are not working right, but in my family they have always resolved. Infact, Connor's latest ultrasound said everything was normal. Still we have to do this horrible test to rule out reflux. They wanted to do this to Alanna as a newborn, but I put it off until now. So we put her through this awful torture on Monday. Jason held her down for the procedure while she cried and looked at ME as if asking "Why Mommy, why?" It hurt my heart. Added to the torture was that she had to be on antibiotics before-hand to ensure that she did not get a kidney infection from the catheterazation, nice way to find out that she was allergic to Amoxicillin...and that she hates, no LOATHES medicine. We have to pinch her nose closed and force medicine down the back of her throat, even then she manages to spit it all over the place and fight us. The doctors doing the VCUG on Alanna got to see awful diaper rash from the constant diarrea the Amoxicillin gave her, AND the super cool body rash it gave her too. Freaxking great.

What is this foaming at the mouth rant all leading up to you ask yourself? Jason got a page yesterday from the head of Radiology at Bethesda Naval Hospital yesterday saying that all of the results from the test, the whole test itself had been LOST and that they had to do it AGAIN.

MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first instict is to say forget it, they had one shot at it and screwed up, which you can get away with if you are not married to a doctor. Fucking doctors, I hate them. I love mine, but I hate them in general. Being married to one does not endear them to you, they suck. Jason was all like "well then we have to keep Alanna on an antibiotic until we get the test done and can rule out reflux". Yea, because HE gets to administer it to Alanna everyday, NOT.

So this afternoon we are heading half way around the God-forsaken Washington Beltway with Connor because it is hard to get a babysitter on a Friday afternoon so that we can torture my baby again.

5. Jason strong-armed me into going to a SuperBowl Party. For those of you who have visited this site before, you will know that Football caused me severe emotional truama as a teenager and that I do not allow it in my house. You could say that indeed, I hate it. Yes quite right. I don't eat meat, I hate football and can't stand the taste of coffee, so sue me. So here on a day that I am already a wee bit hyped up about, Jason "pretty-pleases" me with the party thrower listening in on his phone conversation. I am so going to be ill on that day. I can be a very outgoing, fun kind of gal, but faking having fun is not my thing. I am no good at it. For one thing, these people having the party are a bit on the strange side, which for me calling someone strange that has to be really bad. He is all touchy feely "No really how ARE you?" psychatric on me and she is center of attention loud and annoying in a bitchy way. They are not bad people by any means, they just annoy me. Now I have to go to their house and be surrounded by people who are there for the sole purpose of watching a football game, and the place will be so meat-filled I will about keel over in disgust as I eat the veggie burger I brought myself while everyone rolls thier meat eating eyes. Damn. He is going to SO owe me. I might just tell him how much I REALLY spent at Lane Bryant last week and then tell him to stuff it.

Thanks I needed to get that off my chest. Now I want to punch something. Better go eat more chocolate.

Update: they did the test TWICE on Alanna today but the tests came back as expected, no kidney reflux. It is 6:15 and Connor is in bed. I need a drink and a hot bath after my day. Oy vey. "The Ten Commandments of a Military Wife" for Amber and Julee

1.Thou shalt not write in ink in thy address book.
2.Thou shalt not covet choice assignments of other uniformed braches of service.
3.Love thy neighbor.
4. Honor thy Commissary and Exchange as long as they both shall live.
5.Thou shalt not ridicule a local politician, for mighty senators from local politicians grow.
6.Thou shall look for the best in every assignment, even though the best may be. "The most childhood diseases in one year," or "Record snow in one months time."
7. Thou shall remember all thy friends from all thy assignments, with greeting cards at Christmas, for thou never knowest when thou may wish to spendeth a night with them while enroute to a new post/base.
8.Be kind and gentle to retired, white-haired Exchange and Commissary customers, because thou too will be a retiree someday.
9.Thou shalt not curse thy husband when he's on TDY on moving day.
10.Thou must never arrive at a new post/base and constantly brag about how everything was much better at the last post/base.

*the unwritten commandment, buy a good vibrator because he'll be too busy or too tired too much of the time! It is so hard to find balance. Things are going really well with Connor right now, we have had some really good days and have really connected here recently as I am trying new approaches with him, one being NO YELLING. Sorry was I yelling in all caps?

We having been doing more art projects and spending one-on-one time, it has really made a difference, he behaves really well when we are getting along, hmmm...why does that make sense?

I have also been working out a bit, I have to get rid of this gut. I still look like I am pregnant!

So what has been pushed aside to make room for this extra time with Connor and extra time for me? Cleaning. I am appalled by the state of my house right now, it makes me scared. I want to cry. Hold me. It is so bad. I run around making sure that the pets and the children are cared for and the house suffers. Maybe if I were not married to a resident things would be better, I mean Jason only got to spend an hour with the kids in the past 48 hours, and that was only because I brought them to the hospital!!

So what have we learned here? Spending quality time with kids and working on my body, good. Nasty house, bad. Being married to a resident who works a bijillion hours, bad. Future income, good. Sanity level, so-so.

I feel like a Sims character, when my social bar is full, the environment bar goes WAY down. Isn't there a cheat for this? TJ can I control-click and type "auto-maid" so that I don't have to clean my house? I just want to hide from my mess. Game of Sims 2 anyone? I watched a good neighbor and friend drive her U-haul trailer away today. It is so sad, we both had tears in our eyes, We both have sons the same age, and daughters 6 weeks apart. We babysat each other's kids, shared our pregnancies, played Bunco, went to playgroup together, made crafts together, talked on the phone while our kids napped, breastfed the girls while we watched the boys push each other down the slide...

But it is the military way I guess. We are only in one place for a short time, so we make friends quickly, and say goodbye even quicker. This is the main reason I manage most of Jason's relationships, he moved so many times as a kid he just does not even know how to keep friendships going. Out of site out of mind for him.

It is wierd to think that someone who was always right there for you, someone you could count on is now gone. She will be living in California, and we are trying to get back to Florida for our next move so the likelihood that we will ever meet again is pretty slim.

Now that Rachel and her family are gone, it depresses me though. I watched out nice little street change as three really nice families moved this past June. Our nextdoor neighbors who have 2 kids the same age as ours are moving next month, another family with a daughter Connor's age and our babysitter down the street will be moving in May. That is NINE families that I have gotten to know pretty well, then watched them move, on one block, in a year and a half. We will be the oldest people on the block before long.

Nice knowing you Rachel. I don't know if I will ever really get used to this.