50 Days to Go

Hello my faithful followers! Not much to report since my last posting except for a couple of mentions:

I got an AWESOME box today from my crew down in Valdosta, GA - thanks to Cliff for putting it all together and sending me some incredible art supplies (can't wait to break these in!!), his Mama Landis for making me a huge batch of some YUMMY chex mix and picking up some of my favorite low sugar oatmeal (4 boxes!), and Jen for the assortment of Kashi nibbles. I can't believe how huge this box is and I am absolutely in love with you guys as usual. I am munching on the chex mix now and can't wait to break in the oatmeal tomorrow - I have missed it so much!!!!! Gotta to send some additional love out to Adam, Jer, and Arwen for tossing some love in there. I miss and love you guys so much - this meant the world to me. Cliff, you make the best gay Stateside boyfriend a girl could ever have.

The mail continues to flow in from my mom's AHT group - I am getting several cards a week from her friends and have even received packages from them containing things like magazines, DVDs, spa goodies, drink mixes, peanuts and such. It is just so cool that perfect strangers are reaching out like that - they tell me about themselves and their lives - one of them is a 3 time cancer survivor writing ME a letter to give ME strength. Wow, how humbling. Another woman sent me letters from many of the patients at the nursing home that she works at. I still cannot even THINK about that without getting weepy.

My Chief from base has been sending me regular cards and keeping me posted on what's happening at Andrews. I also got a card from my friend Amanda who found the time after recently travelling to India, adopting a sweet baby Gayatri, and returning home to a major home reorganization project to write me a sweet letter. Thanks, A. Got a shower invitation to my friend Steph's baby shower (which is next month so I will unfortunately miss) - it is the year of babies and absentee shower attendance I suppose.

Mollie sent me several pictures of the dogs this week - they were so cute!! A couple of them were the two sleeping together on the couch, and I just can't wait to snuggle up to those babies. MAN do I miss those babies!!!

We had an exercise this week - where we pretend that there are missles striking our base and we have to take cover and wear the gas masks - you may remember me telling you about this before. Anyway, it was really pleasant today becasue it only lasted about 10 minutes even though we thought it was going to last all day long. So we did it and it was over and then we had big smiles on our faces because we could resume our normal lives. People really hate when we are in exercise mode because you can't go to the bathroom or the shower without being in full uniform with your gas mask and canteen belted to your waist. So people just hide in their rooms and wait it out. So now we can galavant around like field mice without the restraints of our gear to slow us down in our micey ways.

I am completely and 100% addicted to RIPITs.

I am a recent convert to Shape magazine. Love it. Can't wait for every new issue to come out.

One of my coworkers, Kehinde, will be leaving next Sunday. She originally should have left on 3 June but agreed to extend becase her replacement was medically disqualified from coming. We are still not sure exactly when her new replacement will get here, but we know it will be after Kehinde leaves. So Jason and I will be working 7 days a week for the forseeable future, while we await our new staffer, get her rested and trained, and on board. It is about to get harder, but we'll get through it.

My little sister Megan is due to have her first baby in less than 30 days, and it is becoming so surreal. We have been working to try to figure out how we will communicate while she is in labor, so that I can be a part of it as much as I can. The hospital doesn't have great wifi, so we are going to probably do speakerphone supplemented by pictures and videos as much as possible. The great thing is that everyone here knows what is going on and fully supports my desire to be present for the whole labor, so I'll have the freedom to do so. I am so excited, and I know she is, too.

I guess that's it for now. Stay tuned...

Love xo