Eleven!

Has it really been a month since I posted on here? Er, sorry about that. I'm afraid I must admit that my patience with this deployment has been completely exhausted and my mental status is sketchy. I'm grumpy, moody, distracted and useless most of the time. The good news is, I only need to survive a few more weeks of this as today marks eleven months. November 17th should be a worst case scenario for Jeremy's return. I'm trying not to get my hopes up that he'll be home much before that, as I'd rather have a pleasant surprise at the end instead of disappointment when it takes all 365 days for him to get home.

We've had a busy month around here. Lucy has been completely weaned for several weeks now(yeah!). Ross has had a sudden burst of success with potty training -- in fact, an amazing burst of success. About two weeks ago I decided it was time to get serious and after about two days of constant supervision he just seemed to get it. He already is telling us when he needs to go on his own (I rarely prompt him to use the potty anymore, except before we leave the house or bedtime). In fact, he's only had one accident (which was luckily at night when he was already wearing a diaper) in the last five or so days. Jeremy had told me to have them all potty trained by the time he got home...at least I'm 1/2 way to that goal. I'm thinking he should be responsible for potty training Lucy, since he missed out completely on potty training Ross.

I seem to be "nesting" in anticipation of Jeremy's return. In the last 2 weeks I tore apart, cleaned, organized and painted the master bedroom closet and the pantry. I've re-organized both the boys and Lucy's closets in the last several weeks. I re-did some of the shrubs in front of the house. John power washed the house and I cleaned all the windows inside and out. The kitchen cabinets have been scrubbed. I shampooed the carpet in the upstairs of the house (downstairs is still on the to-do list). I still have a few more things on my list, but I have plenty of time to get them done (I think). The nesting seems to be a result of my restlessness and a desire to have the house perfect when he gets home. Though at this point, the restlessness seems to be the driving factor. I just HAVE to keep myself busy all the time or I feel like I'll go crazy. I seriously think I might end up pacing around the house waiting for him to walk in the door if I don't keep myself occupied.

To top it all off, I seem to have developed a case of insomnia in the last month. I'm tired ALL THE TIME. I just cannot fall asleep at night and when I wake up I can't fall back asleep easily, no matter how exhausted I am. I know this will all get better when Jeremy gets home, so I just keep telling myself I only need to survive a few more weeks of this.

So I'm off to the next thing to keep myself busy, which will probably be assembling the kids Halloween costumes.