Tougher Skin Needed

Anyone know of an easy, quick,  painless way to get tougher skin???  If you do please let me know.  However, I am quite afraid that no such way exists, it seems the only way to acquire it is through a little hurt and maybe some tears.  Whatever the case maybe I need to hurry up and work on toughening up my skin.  With all the stress, lack of sleep, and craziness that goes on in the Sandbox, answers get snappier and fuses shorter.  We know its not their faults and they usually dont mean it, it is just a result of their environment, but sometimes it is hard to remember.  I wish there was something we could do for them to help take away all that they must go through, but since there is not we just have to been there for them, Love them, let them talk, and back off when we need too (the last one being the hardest). 


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I Love the Sound of Artillery in the Morning

And in the afternoon for that matter.  Back at home we live near an old Army post that is no longer an active post, but instead it is a training center for the National Guard.  Training and the amount of soldiers at the post increases every summer.  Even though my parents' house is just slightly over 10 miles from the installation, you can hear the sound of artillery very clearly and you can see and hear the sound of C-130s as they fly extremely low for practice.  Well a couple weeks ago in the local paper, several people wrote in complaining about the noise.  This just burnt me up!  I was so upset as I read their pathetic complaints.  I mean really? You are gonna fuss about some noise??!  I am thankful for this noise!  This noise means that the men and women who fight to defend our country are getting the training that they need in order to make that possible.  To me the noise is  a reminder.  A reminder that we live in this great nation.  A reminder that we have so many freedoms that we tend to take for granted.  A reminder of all the men and women that are away from their families protecting those freedoms and this great nation.  And a reminder to pray for their safe return.  I think we should be able to put up with a little noise for a lot of freedom.  And if you dont want to hear the noise of military training, then you go over there untrained and do it!  Hooah!


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Ah Technology!

I am so very thankful for modern technology!  I got to Skype with my hubby for the first time since he left yesterday! It was so good to be able to see him and he was able to see and hear me.  I was so excited and could not stop smiling!  But seriously, who wouldn't be able to stop smiling  if they haven't laid eyes on their husband's face for over 2months.  Plus the timing couldn't have been much better, since just the day before I had a really bad day.  I honestly can not imagine having to have been a military wife back during say World War II or so, having to rely solely on snail mail.  Modern technology, keep on improving!!!



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What Do You Do To....

...Fight off that on edge/kinda worrying feeling?  So as I was teaching today I saw that I had a missed phone call from a number that I did not recognize and the caller left a voice mail.  However, being that I was teaching I could not check it right away.  Then about a couple hours later, I saw my phone go off with a call from an 'unavailable' number.  This caller also left a voice mail, which of course I could not immediately check.  Knowing that I could not check my messages until the end of school and knowing that I had two of them from numbers I did not know, left me feeling on edge and just a little uneasy.  Thankfully, they were good messages, one about a job and the other from my husband (which I am sad that I missed).  So I was wondering, what do you all do when you get an uneasy or on edge kind of feeling when your DH is deployed?


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KABOOM!

If I wore a mood ring during my husband's deployment, I literally think it would blow up from changing back and forth so quickly and KABOOM is the noise that it would make as it explodes into a million little pieces.  My mood changes a lot and can do so at the drop of a hat.  One day, maybe I should attempt to count it.  For instance, yesterday I was just kinda blah, just trying to make it through the day but then I got a phone call from my DH!!!  Instantly my mood turned around!  It amazing how just hearing his voice can brighten my day and make me smile.  Another example, today I was substituting second grade and my day was going pretty good and I was in a pretty decent mood.  However, of course that quickly changed after school was over and I realized that I had missed my phone call from my DH and I dont know how many more days he has to be where the phones are. Instantly my mood plummeted.  So just as a warning, mood rings or people that could quickly set me off, that would like to stay intact, you may want to keep your distance.



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The Think We Know-it Alls......

......That will argue with you even if they aren't right.  So I recently had an experience with some fellow army wives that wanted to argue with me via facebook comments.  I can not begin to tell you how much this irked me.  Here is what happened:   A wife of an enlisted soldier in my husband's unit posted a link for ABC news, the story titled "Most Dangerous Mission in Afghanistan".  Then she commented on her post saying that her husband was there and right in the middle of it.  I just kindly wrote that they were not involved, which the new clip blatantly stated what unit did the mission and that they were not located in that area.  I said this because 1) I didn't want people to have the wrong information , 2) I didn't know how many wives she was friends with on facebook and some wives if they saw that posting would probably freak out and 3) some wives intentionally avoid watching the news and hearing about things like that.  Well apparently what I said didn't sit well with a couple of her facebook friends/fellow army wives and they decided to comment.  And basically they didn't see what the big deal was that she has said that her husband was right in the middle of it when he wasn't. So I have now decided that I am never gonna comment on any of their stuff again!  Nor will I help them when they have questions (which one of them has already asked me for help with about 4 different things).  Call me mean or rude, but I'm not gonna deal with it and I am thinking it is probably a good example of why we shouldn't fraternize.  Good luck to them on their own.


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Kids Are......

......Interesting.  I think that is the word that I would have to go with to describe them.  You have to wonder how they come up with some of the things they say or questions they ask.  My experience today was with substituting Fourth Graders.  As soon as I stepped into their classroom this morning, several of the children's mouths dropped open and eyes got wide.  Then I started to hear "Oh my gosh, she is soo tall", "how tall are you?", "why are you so tall?", "shh..you are being rude" and several other comments of that nature, as I am 5'11".  Through out the day I had to say "shhh.." or "ladies and gentlemen you need to get quiet" more times than I can count.  Fourth Graders have to constantly be reminded to be quiet and focus on their work.  They love to tattle on each other and they love to contradict each other in telling me what it is that they usually do.   And they also like to whine if they cant find the answer to their questions.  I tip-toed around a student with a disorder, trying extremely hard not to do or saying anything that sat them off, because my note said that screaming and yelling and tearing up papers was a norm for this child.  They are very inquisitive and most of their questions are not about their work.  And my last thought about them, is I think kids have shrunk.  I really dont think that my classmates and myself were as small as most of these kids in the 4th grade.  The old saying holds true, you are never too old to learn, for they taught me several things today and even refreshed me on fractions!


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