Bloggers From Pluto

I'm thinking about this phase we are in life right now - how much fun it is, and that maybe we're a little older than we feel. Rhett, Cecily, and I went to the Pentagon yesterday for a briefing called "Hearts Apart", where we met with a counselor who helps the deployed military member and the spouse during the time apart. He was a kind, humorous man with a bald head (Do we know any other counselors like this?) . He asked me questions that I hadn't thought about before, and we went through a check list of things Rhett and I need to talk about and do before he leaves. We've been doing some preparation, but obviously not near enough. Gary (the counselor) will call/e-mail once a month to check on me, and let me know about all of the services avaiable through the military - like 30 minutes a week in free phone calls, free oil changes on base, free childcare, etc. He said "Do you know where your husband wants to be buried in case something happens to him? Have you updated your wills? Do you have all your husband's computer passwords? Do you know how to winterize your home? Do you know where all the shut-off valves are in your home? Who does the finanaces? Are you going to have separate accounts during your separation? Do you have power of attorney?" These questions were over the two hour period we talked. He offered lots of help and suggestions. So now all of a sudden, I have been snapped out of "la la" land and into the land of "Oh my gosh - we have like three weeks! Teach me everything you know!" I brought home a stack of books about ideas to keep your love alive during deployments and ways to help the kids. I laughed out loud during the book of ideas - Like "Eat together over the phone once a week... Watch the clouds together and talk about what you are seeing... decide you are going to meet in your dreams tonight - whether on the beach, wherever... Wear the same outfit on the sameday .Make a color copy of your face for your husband's pillow case." I thnk a Mormon wrote it - the same one who wrote the book about how to ask for /answer dates at BYU. Anyway, there were some good ideas too - do you have any?
I'm also totally in teen land. I have become one of those mothers who shop at Costco and Sams, who buys six gallons of milk for the fridge in the garage and hopes it will last the week, who packs two of everything in my son's lunch - and he's still hungry. I hear a lot "I hate my life" or
"I'm so tired". I also hear a lot of funny stories. Madison made some new friends in her drama class - one a large white rapper named "Stack Money". He likes Madison, so he wrote a rap about her, and ricknamed her "baby M". Now a group of black rappers see her in the hall and say "Yo Baby M, what's up with our boy Stack Money? You gonna give him your number or what? " She is not interested, which I'm happy about, but every night around the dinner table we hear about different people, and Becca calmly says, "So... how is Stack Money today?"
Rhett and I joke, so if things don't work out with Patrick, Stack Money is always around.
On the totally opposite side of "teen land" are the "three littles" . I need to remember that it's all new to Cecily, who loves to go to the library, watch Caillou, and have mom enjoy these activities as if it were my first time seeing them too! It is all mostly humorous.
I took a break from cleaning to write this, and I am also going through a phase about needing to listen to country music while I'm cleaning. Something about being a down home girl from a small country town wants me to scrub the bathrub harder, I guess. I just think I'm really wierd. I'll send more pictures of France soon!