Umm, I'm supposed to blog about how life sucked here.

I didn't really want to post these, because I was afraid they might cause dad nightmares or flashbacks. :)

So here is the bay I've been living in the last two months. This was taken the first day, before we really moved in.



Yes, they are World War Two era Wooden Barracks, intended to be used for only a few years, yet still in use today.





If you notice the little hill peaking above the rooftops in the last picture, I zoomed in on it on one of the few clear days we had.

Mt Rainier


Inside the Barracks

My Rack, I have the bottom bunk.


Looking towards the next rack over.


The neighboring rack again.


Me and one of the officers on my team.


The team minus our other officer.



Then after weeks of training somebody had the great idea that we needed to know what it was like to live in tents. This was to prepare us for living conditions in country. Great idea, except for the minor detail of the tent city being far from ready and thus the conditions were much worse than they will be "in country".

At first it looks okay. Except the first night there was no light, electricity or heat in the tents. They scrambled and got us electricity during the night. But still no heat the next night. Then they got smart and took the heaters from the working tents we used during the day and hooked those up to the sleeping tents. So now we could be warm at night and in the mornings when we got up (unless the heater ran out of fuel during the night.) But those of us who worked in the tents froze all day.



The Shower Trailers which were only available for a few hours each night, assuming the water wasn't all used up too quickly, which of course would close them down sooner.


Inside the Tents




And the Heaters, except for the really cold nights they really put out too much heat. And luckily ours only ran out of fuel once and that was just shortly before time to get up so the tent wasn't too cold.



And finally, on April 1st, the First Sergeant came back from his nightly meetings to find his bed moved out of his room, and hanging about two feet off the ground in the middle of the bay.

He said it was very comfortable there.

Dear Sweetie,

I noticed something ironic just recently. It's been ironic for a couple months now, but I just recently noticed that it is ironic. I'm a little slow, lately.

Between the two of us, I am definitely the Luddite. I'm the one who likes pictures printed off and taped in a book, rather than just stored on a hard drive; the one who gets overwhelmed by too many special effects in a movie; the one who would rather pick up the phone and call instead of sending an instant message (okay, that one makes me a Luddite only because phone technology is so much older than IM technology); the one who checks out non-fiction books from the library rather than just reading the Wikipedia entry on a given topic. But I'm the one putting up all these fancy, multi-media blog posts! Where are you, my beloved technophile?

You have a digital camera, a computer, and an Internet link. What website can possibly be more interesting than this one? And only one of us is making it interesting! I want pictures here, honey. I want a description of what you've been doing the last couple months, complete with photos. You have a slow week this week. I want photos of the barracks, the guys you pal around with, the mess hall (do they really call it that?), and most of all, I want photos of you!

Your boy loves photos of you. He watches my screensaver with great attention. I printed off a couple extra photos of you and he packed them around until I put a magnet on them and stuck them to the fridge. You're a fridge magnet, honey! Mr. Boo has accorded you the ultimate honor, too - your fridge magnet likeness actually gets put in the magnetic Wiggles book that is his favorite toy. Imagine! Your magnet alter-ego gets to drive the Big Red Car! No other fridge magnet has been accorded such a privilege.

So, I want pictures posted. I want descriptions. Surely you can get at least one blog post out of two months of training. And let me just head off one objection right now. You're going to say there's nothing interesting to talk about. I will just remind you that I made an entire blog post about a toddler eating a peanut butter sandwich. See? It's possible to write a post about day-to-day humdrum details, because there is assuredly nothing in the world so ordinary as a toddler eating a peanut butter sandwich.

All those who agree with the requests herein, please signify in a comment.

Love you tons, honey! Get chatty!

:)
Melinda

Stupid Human Tricks

When my sister was a baby, she had an endless string of ear infections. Like any kid with a sore ear, she played with her ears. But once the infections cleared up, she kept playing with them. Eventually, the cartilage turned into tissue paper, and she has weird ears. Now she uses her ears to entertain small children, and liven up boring business meetings. Honestly, could you concentrate on customer service discussions with this going on next to you?

Fat baby! Good cow!

Because I'm a nervous new mom, Boofer got to go to the doctor on Saturday. Turns out he's just fine. But the cool thing was that he got weighed again! He's gained more than a pound in just 9 days (since his last visit to the doctor), bringing him up to a grand total of 11 pounds! Yay for a chubby baby! Check out those cheeks!

Dang, I'm on a lot of herbal supplements to make that much milk. I got the list of what herbs to take from faceless strangers on the Internet when I posted my question about milk-making on a mommy blog when I was trying to nurse Mr. Boo. Nothing like getting medical advice from the same place that brings you viruses and spyware.

Here's some cute video of him doing some random wiggling, sneezing, yawning and other baby stuff. He also sticks his tongue out at you.

Playtime!

Last summer, we decided to pour a cement pad in the backyard so we could put a shed out there. Dirk dug out a good-sized section of the lawn. This summer, I discovered that Dirk was not making a place for a shed; he was making a play area for Benji. The dirt is loose enough he can dig in it, but not sandy enough for the neighbor cats to use it as a litterbox.

Our lovely garden spot in the front yard, with its high quality dirt purchased from a nursery and trucked down from Ed's garden (remember when he put in a swingset and offered garden dirt to anyone who would come get it?), is prime cat-pooping real estate. Benji doesn't get to play in the nice dirt because the cats got there first. Oh well. He can't wander off in the backyard, so I'd rather have him there anyway.

Lunch Time!

Mr. Boo will occasionally eat a peanut butter sandwich. Here is how to eat the good parts first.



First you open the sandwich up and gnaw off the jam.



Notice that this leaves you with peanut butter on one side of your face, and jam on the other, rather than an even blended coating of PBJ on both sides.



Then you just stuff the rest of the bread in. Once the good stuff is gone, why pause to savor it? For that matter, why pause to chew it?

And just because I think video clips are fun, here's the action shot:



And yes, in case you were wondering, he did manage to chew and swallow that entire mouthful without choking on it.

Cute Boofer

Look! He's coming up on his three-week birthday!


Kisses for my sweet baby.

This video clip is Boofer randomly wiggling. He finally has hands! I've had him in gowns with mittens for his whole life (except for a couple sponge baths). Imagine you've worn socks for three weeks and never taken them off. Boofer had a lot of toe jam and lint on his hands. They're mostly cleaned off now, and his nails are clipped. However, he still doesn't know they belong to him.