Last Will and Testament

Chris and I did our wills today. What a fun process that is. To actually sit down and think about what you want to happen after you die. Who gets what, who handles what, who gets guardianship of the children should we both die. And it doesn't stop there, you have to think of alternates in case any of the people you name die before you do! The hardest part is working everything out so that your wishes are clearly expressed, but nobody's feelings get hurt.

And it gets really complicated if you both die. Insurance money, and how we want the trust set up for Aiden and any other children we have, who's going to take care of that, blah, blah, blah. Then there comes the living will. Who's going to make decisions for us should we become incapacitated? Do we want life support? Nutrition and hydration? Talk about depressing!

BUT, it's necessary. Especially given Chris' chosen line of work. Most people make a will thinking that it won't be needed until they are old. In our case, considering what Chris does and where he's going, there is a real possibility that it will be needed much sooner than that. I sincerely hope that is NOT the case, but I refuse to bury my head in the sand and assume it's not a possibility, cause it is - whether I like it or not. I feel that I owe it to Aiden (and to Chris) to be prepared. And that means having a plan. What will I do? Where will I go? All of that needs to be at least thought about so that should the worst happen, I'm not caught completely unawares. Aiden would need me to be extra strong during that time, not hiding in a corner wondering what to do. Lucky for me, I have two great examples of Army widows to look to for help, should I need it. You two know who you are, and believe me, you are an inspiration.

So, as morbid as that all sounds, just chalk it up to one more of those "Army Wife Duties" I signed up for 7+ years ago. And I hope you will all go out now and make your wills!

The Power of a Good Salon

Those of you who lived by me in Germany know that I used to spend a lot of time and money on my hair. It had gotten quite long by the end of our tour, and very blonde. I went every 8 weeks to have my roots beaten back, have it conditioned and trimmed and just generally pampered. I loved it. So what happened? Well, two things. One, we moved back to the States and we went into a kind of sticker shock at how much it costs to just live here. We made an effort to cut back on expenses, and my costly hair care went bye-bye. Two, we had a baby. Suddenly, I didn't have time to get my hair done, even if I wanted too! It's like this. When we were in Germany, I lived the life of what we'll call an "Army Socialite". No kids, lots of friends, plenty of money to spend on whatever I wanted, and most of all, loads and loads of free time. When we hit the states and the kid came along, I was drop-kicked back to the real world!

My hair suffered. Then I started working, and I thought, "now I can afford to get my hair done again", but alas, now I have even less time (imagine that!). Finally, after tiring of in-frequent, very in-frequent, $12 haircuts at HairMasters, I decided enough was enough and I was going to splurge.

Enter the salon Bliss. Bliss is unique among Columbus salons, in that it doesn't belong here. It looks like it was picked up from somewhere in Orange County and dropped into the wrong place. However it came to be here, it's a good salon. And in the world of haircare, good seems to be synonomous with expensive. I thought I would take a money shortcut and go with one of the beginning stylists, they are cheaper. Yeah.....it probably would have been cheaper had I just stuck with the highlights I'd planned on. But I got in that chair and the possibilities were just too hard to resist. I got highlights, some sort of toning color to get rid of the brassiness of the bleach, and an elixer treatment to heal breakage. Not to mention the shampoo, conditioner, and various styling "potions" I picked up. And all of these products are exclusive to Bliss, so you have to buy it there. I did get a 15 percent discount for pre-booking my next appointment....

Did I mention the complimentary coffee and hand massage? There is nothing better than sitting in that chair, with a warm towel over your forehead, the smell of good shampoo in the air, and getting a hand massage. Sigh.....

So, I spent a little more than I had planned, but how much is too much to be transformed from a tired, ragged, old-feeling Mommy with split ends to a relaxed, feeling my age, hot mama with good hair? And that's what it's all about really, it's not the hair. It's the confidence boost that comes with knowing you have great hair. And while it's not to the color I want yet (we are going to lighten it quite a bit more), I'm on the road to hair recovery.

Good Intentions

I decided yesterday evening that I wanted to rearrange my bedroom. It started out with a simple desire to put the TV and DVD player higher up, so that Aiden couldn't reach the buttons. He likes to change the channel and turn it off and turn on the subtitles (so I can't get them off!), and it's just really annoying. So, I thought, maybe we should put the TV up on the dresser, where he can't reach it. Only, if we do that, we'll have to move the dresser over to that wall, because that's where the cable outlet is. So if the dresser is on that wall, we'll have to move the bed because the footboard would be too close to the dresser drawers (I like space to walk!). So if we put the bed over there, that would fix the space problem, but then I have to move the bookcase. I guess I could put the bookcase over on the wall where the headboard used to be...yeah, that'll work. Only now, the wall where the dresser was originally is totally empty and blank. I can't have that, it'll drive me crazy! So what to put on that wall? I know, the couch from the spare room would go perfect on that wall! Let's see, do I have it right? Dresser, yeah...bed over there, okay...bookcase....couch on that wall, should have plenty of room to walk...perfect! HONEY!!!!!

WHAT???

COME IN THE BEDROOM!

WHY?

JUST COME! I HAVE AN IDEA!

Chris comes into the bedroom. What? I want to rearrange the bedroom so that Aiden can't reach the TV. He just looks at me for a full minute. Then he leaves the room....and comes back with the tape measure. Such a good honey. Two hours later the room was moved around to my satisfaction, and we only had to remove the door once. The TV was up on the dresser and out of the reach of little fingers.

This morning I was getting ready and turned on the Wiggles for Aiden to watch. After a few minutes he lost interest and started playing with some books on the shelf, so I turned it to the news. Apparently Aiden didn't want to watch the news, because he walked over to the dresser, reached up on his tiptoes and turned off the TV.

"Army Wives"

So I've been watching the new show "Army Wives" off and on. I can't decide if I like it or not. I mean, I like watching it, but I can't decide if they are helping or hurting the image the public has of Army Wives. I'm prepared to allow some creative license, it is Hollywood after all, but I'm worried they will take it too far. The preview for next week's episode, for instance, has me wondering. The preview leads the viewer to believe that two of the wives whose husbands are deployed are engaging in affairs. Come on now. While I realize that army wives are not perfect and some infidelity does unfortunately happen during a deployment, for every one that strays, 9 of us stay loyal! It's just so predictable that Hollywood would go that route. I hate for the average person to watch this show and think that it's a true representation of our lives. I would rather they have no impression at all then the wrong one. Oh well, I guess I'll just take the show with a grain of salt and try not to get too worked up about it. I have enough actual Army drama in my life to worry too much about fictional drama!

Vacation Pictures

Here are some pictures from our trip! I put in a little bit of everything.

Hometown Hero

Chris took part in the Fourth of July parade in our hometown of Crescent City. They made him a dignitary and he rode in a vintage Mercedes covertible, wore his Class A dress uniform and looked pretty snazzy. After the parade, he led a role call in the park, honoring our fallen soldiers. All the vets and National Guard soldiers in town participated, and it was really neat to watch. The people of our hometown really showed their patriotism and appreciation for our troops, Chris didn't pay for a beer all day long. Random people who we've never met before came up to thank him for his service, and total strangers were buying his drinks! It's nice to see him being appreciated for what he does. Thanks to all of you who support our soldiers, you have no idea what a random act of thoughtfulness can mean to us!

At The Beach

One of the best things about Crescent City, in my opinion, is the beach. It's not exactly warm, but it sure is pretty! We took Aiden to the beach while we were there, and he LOVED it! This kid has no fear of the water at all. He didn't even care that it was freezing! He stood in the tide and every time the waves would wash over his legs and feet, he would laugh and giggle and shriek and was just having the best time. I took lots of pictures, here are a few of them. I hope to put together a slideshow this weekend of all of the pictures I took while we were gone, so make sure to keep an eye out for that!! Until then, here are a few of my favorites....

Home Again

I just wanted to let all of you know that we are home again! I have lots of pictures to post, hopefully I will have time to do that tonight. We had a really good time, and it was nice to see all of our family for a while. I'll write more later, I just wanted to say hi!!