O'lena's First Hair Cut!

One of the things I really wanted to accomplish before Derick left was gettting O'lena's hair cut. I knew she would need one before he got back and I wanted him to be there, so we made it a haircut family day! First I went and got mine done so O'lena could watch. Then we did hers. She actually did really well. She moved her head around a bit, but not too bad. Dawn did a good job trying to cut while she was moving. We didn't take much off, just trimmed it a bit. Then Derick got his done to get back into regulation. The nice thing about the Guard is that you can wear it however you want to until you have to report back. Well anyways- on to more pressing matters, like finishing my paper!

Offically Offical

Yep, it is official and actually have been official for a while, I just didn't really want to talk about it. D is leaving for Qatar next week. Well actually he goes to training first then off to Qatar after that. We are still not sure for how long, but we do know it is "no more than 400 days." Life has been one big stress ball trying to get prepared, mentally and physically. We are telling O'lena nightly and she seems to get it, well as much as she can. She is handling it much better than me :( I still kind of don't want to talk about it. The fun part is, we all get to learn about a new county and me and O'lena will get some good quality time. Well, I have better be getting back to my paper, which is due at the exact same time as he is leaving, of-course, but I have included the video of O'lena seeing Derick when he came home last week. It was really cute. He hid in the car for her to find him. The conversation went some thing like
Me: olena there is a surprise in the car for you
O: a pretty crown?
Me: no not a pretty crown
O: a pretty ring?!
Me: nope not a pretty ring.
Opens car door to find her daddy in her seat
O: it's my daddy!! He is here!!He is not a soldier!!!

Unofficially official

So Derick got a phone call yesterday from his captain. They are moving home from the bench list to the deployment list. It seems some dude tore his ACL and derick will be the one to replace him. We haven't seen any orders yet, but hopefully soon because we can't do anything financially or anything else requiring those documents without them. I guess you get what you wish for right? We are still not sure the length of the deployment or what specific day he leaves. That hopefully be on the orders too. Right now he is packing for a training, then home for a short stent, then gone to Qatar. I am just trying to keep everything on the positive because if I don't it won't be pretty. Everyone keeps saying it will be easy and he is going to enjoy it. I know he will. He is excited to go, just sad about leaving us. Hummmm

O'lena's learning/play area

I spent some time while d was gone this last time to re work Olena's area. We just finished moving around the pictures and adding the cork board. Not sure if I am liking the configuration of the boards but it is a "once you sticking you leave it" kind of a thing. Anyways- Lena likes her area so it is all good. She still just plays and plays with her princess castle.

Family Pictures 2012

Officially unofficial

Derick has been home for about a month and half..well a little less..and we just finished sitting through a workshop for families whose soldiers are getting deployed. At this point we are not sure about anything, only the fact that we need to be ready. Let me back up and explain-
Derick came home and went to check in with his unit in Arcadia. I get a phone call right after that goes something like....
Me: "Hey babe. How did it go?"
D: "Well, my unit is getting deployed to Africa for a year."
Me: .................."umm".............."Are you going?"
D: "No, I'm not on the list"
Well that is not exactly true. It is Qatar, in the Middle East. And He wasn't on the deployment list but he is on the "bench list." We have learned since that this bench list means he goes if there are men who can't go for whatever reason, medical or whatever. Here's the thing... because he is on the bench list he has to do everything the soldiers deploying have to do, everything! Oh and there are 5% of a battalion dudes on the bench list and 45 dudes not deployable!!! He has been doing his training like he is supposed to do and his sergeants are telling his he has about an 85% chance of going. We are getting orders sometimes next week to see for sure. If he is going, at least we known, but if he is still on the bench on his orders he can still get deployed up to the day they get on the plane. I don't know which is worse. Derick has to do everything like he is leaving- all the training, the pre deployment training for 30 days and everything. If he is not going he comes home and everyone else goes. We really don't know until he is home again.
We tried everything to get him to OCS (officer candidate school). The commander says that if he doesn't deploy he will start the paperwork for OCS. Because there is so much going on right now that he is not going to do it before.
So right now I am just trying to accept. I am having a hard time accepting my duty/fate. I just want to go too. I guess the units have known for a while and we have only about one month to prepare. They are deploying at the end of February. I don't know the specific date because he has some training first. So anyways that is the big happenings. It kind of keeps hitting me over and over. Sometimes I am okay sometimes I am angry and sometimes I am weepy and sometimes I am jealous. We have some major decisions we have to think about. Aka babies and big trips to Utah. The problem is we just don't know if he is going or not. I am trying to prepare as he is so it is not so bad when he really does. Oh boy.....

Daddy's graduation