A New President

With the election of the new president our lives have become increasingly more hectic. For the month of February George was home a grand total of 14 days. We are not starting off well in March either because he will get home the 2nd for a grand total of 5 hours and leave for Kansas City until the 6th. I had allowed myself to get comfortable having George home most days. It had been very slow travel the last few months of Bush's presidency.
I am looking forward to the new job, once the 3 weeks of training in Texas is over, and having George home more than he is away. Jakob is very aware when Daddy misses a weekend and is having major withdrawal this month. He gets weepy and very sad at bedtime. He has been a real trooper though and sleeps well once he is sad for a little while.
I have friends whose husbands have been/are deployed for 9, 12 or 15 months. I have the utmost respect for them and how wonderfully they handle the responsibilities of keeping the family going. I am grateful we only have a week or two each month and hope to never have to take on the responsibilities without George. The military life is interesting to say the least.

Friends

The weather has been "spring like" the last few days and we are spending more time in our front yard playing. Monday we had our neighbors over for some baseball and tree climbing. The girl is Lily and she is 10. Jakob loves to play and talk with Lily. One of the toys they were playing with got stuck in the tree and they decided they could climb the tree and get the toy. This was Jakob's first tree climbing experience and he thought he was the man.

Today we had some friends over for lunch after school. As a special treat I had them make dog cookies out of heart shapes. (It is Valentines Day in a few days) It was so much fun and they turned out so cute. We also made it outside for some bubble blowing and chalk drawing. We have such good time with our friends and can't wait for more warm weather.