I've noticed I've been posting alot of pictures of the cuteness of our munchkin, but not too much of what's really going on in our lives at the moment. So, here's a little blow by blow update:
MackMack is taking a Pashto course at the base right now. (Pashto is one of the languages spoken in Afghanistan.) His unit is expected to deploy next year and so its beneficial to have a couple of people who speak the language, hence his new orders for a full year. He is absolutely thrilled about it, because Mr. Mack thrives on a challenge like this. I am thrilled about it, because it means he's actually home for a full year - which has not happened in our married life to date.
Mack's other obsession right now involves all kinds of technical mumbo and gadgetry involving salt water aquariums. We've decided that its not a good idea for him to start a project of the magnitude he wants his fish tank to be before his deployment, so he's taking the planning and development phase to the max. I have to listen to fish and fish tank trivia ad nauseam, but its all good and rather fun to watch him get so animated about something.
Also, somewhere, somehow, my whinging, whining, performing, tantrums sunk in because lately he has turned into Mr. Wonderful (he's currently cleaning my stove and oven - yes you read that right.) Our home life is peaceful and loving, and we spend alot more time together as a family.
Tamsine Taz is the delight of both our lives at the moment. She will be two in June, and is at a really funny and interesting stage of her development. She too is obsessed with salt water fish, but her obsession lies with the animated kind. I can pretty much quote (in full)
Finding Nemo right now I've watched it so many times. She has started to parrot our phrases back to us (but only if she understands what we're saying), loves that she can recognize certain colours and points them out all the time, and to my delight she still dances everytime she hears music and tries to sing some of the tunes I sing to her. She shuts her eyes tight and then loudly proclaims "amen" before she eats something, and loves to lie in her big girl bed, even though she gets too excited to actually fall asleep in it yet. We have a season pass to the local aquarium, and Taz gets so excited when I tell her we're going. She likes to stand in front of the fish tanks and go, "whoa" when a big fish swims past. I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can start going to the zoo again.
LeithI am taking every day one at a time. I still suffer from back pain, but am learning to cope with it, and try not to let it dictate how I live my life. I'm also trying to figure out why I don't sleep at night. I'm trying a few homeopathic things that are helping a bit, so life is on the up-swing for me. I have been working like crazy on
fern & lola these past few weeks. We were asked to be a part of an "art as part of everyday life" gallery in Avalon, NJ this summer. We just shipped off our first lot of table cloths, and I received an e-mail from the owner saying how she, "LOVE, LOVE, LOVE",s our stuff and how they're going to sell really well this summer - so I'm holding thumbs that she's right. Hmm, lets see, as far as the war between my sweet tooth and my will power is going, my sweet tooth is still winning, but I give my will power a pep talk every morning and one of these days I hope to see my will power gain a slight advantage. Other than that, I find the mantra I hum to myself more often than not goes, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming."
Life is good at the moment, yep, definitely good!