Veterans Extraordinary

Hey there! Yeah, I was SUPER tired when I woke up this morning! Why, you ask? Because I went to bed super late? Nope. Went to bed before midnight. My husband, apparently, has super sonic hearing. He woke up at 3am asking me if I could hear that high pitched vibration. Whaaaat? No, didn't hear it. He informs me of his EXCELLENT hearing, and that even the doctor says that. Whatever. I don't care about your excellent hearing at 3am. hehe.

So I try and try and try to go back to sleep. And I just can't. And then at 3:30am, EVERY smoke detector in the house goes off. You know how they trigger each other.... Sigh. AND, everyone except Tom woke up. Yeah, we know who to check on in case of Fire. Captain Sleep Head...

So now I'm even more awake. Everyone else went back to bed just fine. Me? I laid awake until around 4am, then decided to get up and do the most BORING thing I could think of. Laundry. Then dishes. ROFL! I really wanted to get on Photoshop, but I didn't wanna start that as a habit. Let's associated insomnia with nasty chores, not something enjoyable. hehe.

I came back to bed, yawning and tired, at 4:30am, and laid around till 5am when I finally drifted off to sleep. And woke up to my alarm at 6:35am. Hit snooze, and woke up at 6:45am. Hit snooze again, and woke up at 6:55am, and got up this time. Captain America too. New Post-wide rule, PT is not at 3:30-4:30, or something like that, instead of butt crack of dawn. The duty day now starts at 8 or 8:30am. So Captain America is now at home when we get ready in the morning! Woohoo!

We all got ready, had family prayer, and I took Joe and Tom to school, and Eme went to the bus stop. She wanted to ride the Bus. Tom had to be to school early to practice for a Veterans day play he was doing, and I didn't want Joe to go to the bus stop by himself. Eme was big enough, but not big enough to supervise Joe.

I dropped them off, and headed back home. Looking real lovely, I'm sure. I have these nasty zits on my face, and I just CAN'T seem to leave them alone. Sigh. If they have the slightest raise in them, I'm squeezing and picking and junk. Why can't I seem to leave it alone.... I think I got my picking from my mom.... She's a picker too... Anyway, I'd put Carmex on it THICK, so my face was all shiny. And I had on my glasses, a hoodie, and sweats. Yeah, I was hot stuff...

I got Jake started on school, Jim set up with a movie, and went back to bed for a bit. I think I might have gotten an hour or so. I don't really remember.

I hoped on the computer for a while, and eventually got Jimmy ready for the bus. I put on my exercise clothes, gave Jake directions, and headed to the bus stop with Jim. Once he was on his way, Kari picked me up from the bus stop, and she and I headed to Stout gym for Yoga class. I'm REALLY loving Yoga. Its a great workout, and I feel so good and centered afterwords.

An hour later, we were headed back home. She dropped me off, and I had lunch with Jake, and we watched an episode of Fringe. And I reset some of his classes for him. My other kids get the whole week of Thanksgiving off, and Jake only got 3 days. And the other kids got Veterans day off tomorrow, and Jake didn't. He's in the Houston Independent school district (with the virtual academy based out of Houston - 12 hours away), and the other kids in the El Paso Independent School District. Anyway, I gave Jake the day off tomorrow, and 4 out of 5 days off the week of Thanksgiving. It just meant that he had a few extra classes to do in the next couple of weeks. No biggie :) He seemed pleased that I worked with him :)

Captain America came home at 1:15pm, had lunch, and I changed out of my workout clothes and put on some real clothes. hehe. I wish I'd had time for a shower, but whatever. I'd showered yesterday... hehe.

We hung on the back porch swing for about 20 minutes, then headed out to Tom's ceremony. We swung by Circle K by the school for a soda first. Nasty Diet Coke is all they had, but it was close to the school, and it was diet. So I wasn't complaining too much...

Then we drove over to the school. Here's Captain America and I. Yeah, I totally should have showered. hehe.


We went inside the MultiPurpose room as they were filing in the students. I think we were supposed to wait outside, but no one said anything... Here's Captain America and I waiting for the ceremony to start.

There's Joe in the red Cardinals shirt with the 1st Graders

Emeline walking in

All the grades

Then the color guard came in, with drums and guns. Yeah, the kids were SO excited. hehe. You could tell that many of them were NOT military kids, because they were SO excited. Military kids see that kinda stuff much more often - ha!

We listened to the National Anthem, and said the Pledge of Allegiance. Kari's daughter got to help lead it. She's SO cute :)

And then Tom's group did their reading/play thing. It was a nice little "history" lesson on Veteran Day.
Poor Tom has problems saying his "r" sound, and you know our last name, right? Harty. He tried SO hard to say it "normal", and it didn't come out right. So it sounded like he was either stuttering his last name, or forgot it. Poor kid. He played it off pretty good, though...

A few other kids did readings, and then this Lt Coronal (is that even how you spell it) who's group partners with our school talked to us for a few minutes. Then more readings.

Then some of the soldiers from his unit came up too

It really was a nice ceremony. They played a patriotic song at the end, which, of course, brought Captain America to tears.

The principal said a few words, and a theme of the program seemed to be "Veterans are ordinary people doing extraordinary things". Very profound, I though :)

Then the Sgt Major had the guys in his group do group push ups, so of course, all the other soldiers in the room joined in. There were 5 soldiers standing near us, including Captain America. It was pretty cool. The kids were all cheering them on :)

Captain America and I headed out at the kids were filing back to their rooms, and headed home. He dropped me off, and he headed back to work. Jake had picked up Jimmy from the bus, since I was at the school, and they were playing nicely at school.

Joe got home at 3:30pm, and Tom and Eme got home at 4:00pm. At 4:30pm, I gave the kids 30 minutes to get their chores done. Leslie came over to pick up Braxton (who was playing with my kids) and we visited for a while. At 5pm, I checked chores, and wrote down the names of those who weren't done (they'd lose a privlidge tomorrow...), and gave the kids another 30 minutes to get it done. I cooked dinner, and helped out with chores where I could.

At 5:45pm, I went around for a final chore and bedroom check. Everyone but Tom passed. His room as still trashed, his bathroom chores weren't done, and he hadn't cleaned the bottom section of the stairs yet. Sigh.

I let everyone eat, then sent Tom back to clean, and the other kids are watching Teen Titans. Captain America told me he should be home no later than 5pm today, but here it is, 6:09pm, and he's still at work. I hope he hurries. I know it's not his fault. He can't leave until his higher ups tell him he can go. Sigh. We're supposed to leave at 6:45pm to drop the kids off at Wednesday night activities, and the little kids and Captain America and I are gonna go walk around some store. Or play at Mc Donalds playland. Something like that.

Tomorrow everyone has the day off for Veterans day. I think we may go do something fun. Like visit the local zoo. We've lived here 2 years in January 2011, and still haven't been to the zoo. If we purchase a year pass, I can take the kids as much as I want next year when Captain America is deployed. Sounds like a plan to me...

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