I'm Back!

The internet guy came today! We officially have internet again! So, let me update you all on everything!

Hopefully, you can watch the house tour video I just put up. However, I shot that last week and we have had so many changes already! Last weekend we bought a couch in Rolla. We sold our couch to Noah-Beth when we moved in with my mom, so we needed one. It is a really nice brown sectional that fits a few more people than our last couch. Next, we bought curtains for the living room. It only took two trips to Walmart to pick out the perfect ones, so we now in business. I also moved the lamp that you see in the bathroom of the house tour into the living room. So, it has felt amazing to actually have a place to sit and feel normal!

We still have to eat all of our meals on the stairs, which is really hard with Marley.And the sleeping situation isn't very fun either. After the first night, I started putting Marley on a pallet on the floor. She will sleep there for about half of the night, and then join us again. There is just not enough space on the air mattress. Once we get our stuff up here, the process of teaching Marley to sleep in her own bed will begin. But for now, we are just making it work this way.

Asa has been getting up every morning at 5:15 am and heading to PT. He said it is so much harder than anything they did in training. He said the unit he is in actually does real PT, while some units do not. But we both agree that its a good thing he is in the unit he is in. At least he will be deployed with people who are in shape. His whole first week was just tons of paperwork. He had to go to meetings, fill out tons of things, get issued gear, and drive from one office to another, just to be told to go back to the other one. He said it was frustrating, but luckily this week is a little more normal. We had been wondering what he will actually do during the day here, and it seems they just train. They practice all kind of things, sit around, work out, and clean evidently. He has found out a new thing every day. So far he says that for about a month this summer he will be training in Kansas, and they told him he will most like deploy next February or March. The unit he is in has not been deployed since July of 2008, so they really are getting their 2 years of wait in between. So, that is really great news!

We get to come home this weekend also! His leave starts this Friday and he has to be back on Monday the 12th. So, we are hurrying home to visit all of our family and friends and pack all of our stuff to get it up here. I had no idea what a big deal it would be to just take a trip home. Evidently in the Army if you plan to go more than 250 miles away, you have to have permission and a pass to do so. Asa had to fill out tons of paperwork, take a driving safety course, and has to check in with his Sargent while we are gone. I really didn't imagine it was that serious, but evidently the Army like to keep a very close eye on everyone. That kind of ruins our plans to just come home one weekend if we feel like it. We will still be able to meet people in Arkansas, which is better than nothing, but I wish it's wasn't such a huge deal to go visit our families!

Anyway, at least we get to come home for 10 days right now. We are planning to leave as soon as Asa gets off of work tomorrow and drive as long as we can without stopping. And Friday, we should be hanging out with our families!

Marley has been such a great sport through the past 2 weeks. Hell, she has been a great sport for the past 6 months! She loves having her Daddy with her every day. They get to play and laugh together, which she really missed doing with him. At the beginning of it just being the three of us, she would get really really upset when he left. Even if he was just going in the bathroom, she would cry. She did a constant roll-call and never wants anyone to be missing. But now she is getting better. I tell her every morning when he leaves that he is going to work and he will be back. And he tells me when he is getting close to home so we can run to the window and wait for him. They both light up when he comes down the driveway and she runs out to give get a hug. She misses him so much during the day!

She is getting a little attitude, though. Maybe it's because she wants to feel like she has control over something because things are so chaotic, or maybe she is just getting to "that age". But either way, it is hard to keep her happy all day. Without a car, we spend our days at the house, pretty bored. I get frustrated that we don't have anything to do, and she gets frustrated I that I'm not entertaining her. Until today, they weather was cold and rainy... not going outside weather. So, it's really hard to stay happy all day. I cannot wait until we get my car and Marley and I can actually do things during the day. We are both so bored during the day, that the second Asa gets home, I want to leave! Walmart, the park, the PX... I pretty much want to go anywhere we can. But Marley is lucking out in the evenings and getting to visit all sort of new parks!

Even with her little attitude, she is still the most perfect little girl I could ask for. Today, I was looking at her, just amazed at how beautiful she is. Her hair is getting so long, her skin is so soft, and her eyes are so bright. She is such a fantastic little person these days, so grown up and sweet. I need to start recording more of the things she is saying and doing now. She cracks me up at least every 5 minutes with something new.

Ok, that's all for now until I can think of what I missed. It is 11 pm now, and I was supposed to go to bed when Asa did. I am going to try to get on his schedule (up at 5:15 am, asleep by 9:30 pm) so that we actually have time to spend together! Hopefully I can get my homework done or a workout in before Marley wakes up in the mornings! Oh, and I'll upload some pictures tomorrow!