Cleaning Cleaning Cleaning

That's what I've been doing today. Well, I can't say that. I can really only clean while Brian sleeps, since he goes behind me and ruins everything I do. So, during his nap, I tackled the boys' room. Did you know there's actually a floor under all those toys? Hehehehe

Their room is looking much better. Still will need a couple of hours to finish it up and vacuum it all. Then I get to move on to the living room. Aren't I industrious. At the moment the boys are enjoying having an even partially cleaned room, and no doubt destroying all of my hard work. But that's OK, because I'm dropping them off at the sitter's tomorrow morning so that I can have a bit of peace and quiet while I clean.

Yes, the most exciting thing that happens in my life is cleaning. I'm such a homebody.

Yesterday proved once again that the mini steam cleaner was a good buy. This time, Brian poured syrup on the couch. Steamer to the rescue, and Brian to time out. Now, if he'd just quit playing in the fish tank...

LOL. Just ran the spell check on this post. It's suggestion for homebody: amoeboid. How odd.

Escargot, Lizard Legs, and Cheese

I had an interesting day today. Cleaned the big fish tank while Brian napped. Made escargot. =-) Snails were taking over the tank again... So, I emptied it as much as possible, put 2 snails in with the contained fish, and poured boiling water into the tank. Instant "kill-a-snail" and great for algae. DC helped me clean the tank. He thought it was great, especially the catching the fish part. And I found the empty shell from one large snail that he loved. And has since lost. Oh well.

But, the big tank is clean once again. Had the door to the deck open the entire time, and Rose enjoyed going out and watching the birds. She didn't try to jump off or anything. Isn't that great?

Anyway, finally picked the van up today. Jennifer had a flat tire and had to take her car in, but she didn't want to fill it up with air while it was raining, or worse, change it, so it was kinda late when she picked me up. It pretty much rained all day. Yech!

So, came home, Brian decided to take a nap, and DC wanted some Mommy time, so I sat down to watch the Kim Possible movie with him. And what should I see but Rose hopping around on the back deck. I could have sworn that she was inside when I locked the door! She was locked out there for several hours and she didn't jump!!!!

Feeling guilty, I went to let her in and noticed what she was actually doing while hopping around. She was chasing a lizard. She actually caught it, and seeing me standing at the door, sauntered over with it held in her mouth, tail and not much else sticking out. My response: Nope! I told her quite clearly that there was no way she was bringing that in the house and if she wanted to eat it she could do so out there.

DC, watching all this and jumping around, thought it was very cool. Especially when our darling cat decided to let the little lizard go so that she could chase it again! DC was shrieking and the cat was hopping. It was very fun.

Anyway, the lizard finally got away, despite (or perhaps because of) DC's attempts to help Rose locate it, and Rose came inside, where she showed how pleased she was with herself for being the great brown-tiger hunter by jumping on the back of the couch and purring in my ear. She so wants to go to Rosehill!

Sitting watching the movie, DC cuddled into my side and Rose prowling the couch, and what does she do? She finds the bowl of grated cheddar cheese that the boys snacked on earlier. More than that, she eats some of it!

OK, for those of you who have never met Rose, I should probably explain a little about why this is so odd. Rose is about six years old, and spoiled rotten. And we didn't do it, honest! She was abandoned at a rental property and knowing that the Cannons are always willing to expand bloodlines, the owners of the property brought her and another cat to us. She adopted me the second I rubbed her belly. She was on my knees and just rolled backwards until she was on her back and sort of curled around the hand petting her.

Other bit of interesting information about her, she looks like Mrs. Norris. Yep, she's Filch's cat, but without the red eyes. Well, OK, maybe Rose is a little lighter than Mrs. Norris, but you get the idea. She's also just about the softest cat in the world. There's a woman somewhere in the US that accepts pet hair to make yarn and thread with and then makes apparel for the owner. Rose would be a perfect candidate for this (if I didn't find it oddly gross to wear my pet).

Anyway, I'm rambling. The point is, Rose is an odd cat. I know, that's a redundancy. She's odd even for a cat. She has no sense of balance (she's fallen off the windowsill at least eight times in one day before), her preferred method of being held is to be cradled like a baby, and she turns up her nose at wet cat food, cat treats, and pretty much any form of human food. The only thing we've ever seen her eat, other than her dry food, is a bit of ham that we gave her. We had to lay it on the floor at her feet and then ignore her for her to eat that. She's just an odd cat!

Of course, she is a constant source of entertainment, what with the falling out of the windowsill and waking up half-way to the ground. She always tries to pretend that it was her intention all along. She also fell off the marimba the other night, after trying to find a foothold on a couple of keys. The sound of it playing woke me up. As soon as I figured out what the noise was, I started laughing.

Lamar sends his "best wishes"

The photo below came for the boy from Senator Alexander's office in yesterday's mail.

This is a photo of then Governor Alexander with the 6-year-old Devereaux (now Spc. Cannon), at the meeting of the Presidential Electoral College in Nashville, December 1984.

AFI Announces 100 Greatest Movie Songs

100 Best Film Songs Ever

Other tunes ranged from sublime with Paul Robeson's "Ol' Man River (No. 24) from the 1936 version of "Show Boat" and Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (No. 76) from "Meet Me in St. Louis" to the goofy with "Springtime for Hitler" (No. 80) from Mel Brooks' "The Producers" and Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle's wacky rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz" (No. 89) from Brooks' "Young Frankenstein." (Emphasis mine.)

I thought Papaw and Dev might enjoy knowing that little bit of information, seeing as they love all things Mel Brooks (except Silent Movie, in Dev's case).

A Good Father's Day

Yes, my boy did call me yesterday. It was very good to hear his voice, especially because he is so upbeat.

He is at Camp Udairi, in northwestern Kuwait, near the Iraqi border. I found a couple of photos of Camp Udairi on the web.

This first photo shows the camp entrance, and the scenic view.


Here is another scenice view with some of the native wildlife.


And yes, as Jo mentioned in the post below, I am flying the Kuwaiti flag while he is in Kuwait. It is flying on Kate's flag pole at the fork of the driveway. I will switch to the Iraqi flag when he goes there. Other flags flying for him are our Blue Star Service Flag, and a Polk's Corps battle flag (his favourite Confederate flag). All, along with the US flag on the main pole, are flying at half-staff during this mourning period for President Reagan.

Just Got Off the Phone

Dev took a chance an called at almost 6 am. Luckily, I was awke and got to talk to him for a few minutes and wish him happy Father's Day.

He's doing well, a little bored at the moment. They're redoing the training they did over here, mainly just for something to do. 10th Mountain just finally arrived, and instead of training at their home base, they're going to do the training in Kuwait. Which means they got two weeks of leave before deploying while our guys trained. Kinda interesting the differences in attitudes, huh?

Apparently they're doing urban combat training at the moment, using 3-4 "dinky little buildings." Dev laughs because while the training is fun, they're used to doing it in a permanent city.

Latest rumors are that they're not going to move to Iraq for another 20-30 days. And another seven thousand guys are supposed to arrive at the camp today, so there's a chance he won't be able to get on-line or a chance to use the phone. On-line is the more likely mode of communication, because it's cheaper and the lines are shorter. $5/hr and 30 minute lines compared to $15/hr and 2 hour lines.

He sounds good, though. Spirits are up. Not that I was particularly worried, but it's good to hear his voice and know for sure.

And I'm sure that he told me other stuff that I should pass on. Actually, I'm pretty sure that I messed some bit of information up already... Lack of sleep with do that to you, but babies who think grinding their heads into you is sleepy cuddles and little boys who wake up screaming about robot baby heads make sleep difficult. As does the sound of the cat falling off the maribma, a noise that woke me up from a dead sleep and made me laugh once I figured out that it wasn't one of the kids banging on it. She tried to scramble away from the edge, I guess, and ended up "playing" the keys.

And now he's thrilling his Papa by wishing him happy Father's Day. Devereaux Jr. has been flying the Kuwaiti flag in honor of his boy.

And I'm off to try to catch a few more Zs. PLease forgive any spelling errors today. I just don't feel like dealing with the blob's spell check, which does not recognise so many words that it's not funny.

God it's Hot! and Other Rambles

It was only 90 degrees today (ONLY!), but with the heat index, it felt like 97. Walking from the commissary to the van was enough to make us all feel sick to our stomachs.

Brian has declared that I am officially the Meanest Mommy in the Universe! I withheld the second pint of blueberries from him out of sheer spite, I made him get in and out of the hot van, I wouldn't let him use the end table to propel himself onto the couch. I'm just mean!

We actually had a pretty good day. I put off going to the store as long as possible, waiting for Dev to come online, since I had been at the library when he was available Friday. Of course, that meant he never came on-line. Nora did the same thing.

Had pizza for lunch and fish and chips for dinner. My diet is shot all to hell. Must get back on diet. Must get back on diet. Must resist the urge to stop at McDonald's just because I'm hungry and don't want to wait in line to get on base.

Just finished talking to Jennifer a few minutes ago. She's holding it together, which is always good. We made plans to drop the van off at Goodyear Tuesday and then go swimming. The boys should have a blast.

We borrowed a video about ants from the library. DC has watched it about 6 times now. He likes ants (this week, at least, next week may be a different story). He especially likes that ants like to be counted. The things you tell your children in order to give them something to do for a moment. Oh, but the video (part of the Bug City series) has a seagull puppet named Bugsy seagull! Someone thought they were being especially witty when they came up with that.

I've been flipping between listening to an 80s station and a country station on Yahoo's Launchcast radio. I've said it before, and I will say it again: today's country music is the same as 80s rock. Seriously, the similarities are scary.

Actually, I'm really enjoying listening to the 80s station. It's music I can remember coming from Jacque's room growing up. Dad didn't particularly like rock, and while he didn't forbid Jacque from listening to it (not that she would have obeyed), he didn't want to hear it. So there was always something a bit illicit about hearing the sounds of Madonna, U2, and Guns-N-Roses wafting from the wall. Listening to it now brings some of those feelings back. Hey, I have to get my thrills somehow, right?

Just found out that my neighbor kid will be gone for two weeks (I'm assuming block leave). Getting someone to mow the grass in the interim is no problem. Kids literally go door to door offering to do it. Of course, if he's still gone when I decide to make my way east, life gets a little more complicated. I was planning on paying him in advance to do the lawn and water my plants, maybe get his parents to let in any AC maintenance guys who have to do their routine thing. I'm sure I can get my downstairs neighbor to do it instead. Her husband just got back from deployment, and she left for quite some time as well, so I'm sure she knows the routine.

Brian has also decided that I don't feed him enough. And that fish food is a good substitute for human food. He used the rocking chair to grab the container off the top of the tank, twice, and proceeded to scatter the flakes all over the place. While I have no proof that he ate it, tomorrow I'm sure I'll be subjected to interesting diapers.

At the moment, both boys are on the couch. Brian is sleeping on one end and DC is fighting sleep on the other. He's taken to carrying Figaro, the cat from "Pinocchio" around with him. Well, the stuffed one I bought for Dev because he missed having a cat and our apartment complex didn't allow animals.

But, that was my day. Thrilling, huh?

Now for a Typical Day in LA

Well, since Nora expounded on her day, I might as well, too.

The day started at around 7. I left Brian sleeping in bed and got DC settled, only to be meowed at by the cat. You have to understand, about the only time Rose meows is when she's sick or desperately wants something. This morning it was access to the laundry room, and therefore her food, water, and litter box.

Instead of taking my time to wake up like I normally do, I rushed the trash and recycling out to the curb, a process that made me extremely happy I'm not allergic to bees since the curb is shadowed by a mimosa tree. But I missed the recycling truck last week, and the milk bottles were taking over, so down to the curb I went. About five minutes after I had gotten back in, the weather decided that it was time for our daily shower.

You have to understand, in LA, a daily shower isn't a little pattering of rain. No, it knocks the satellite dish out, and lasts anywhere from 5-30 minutes. A pleasant break from the unrelenting heat, but adds to the humidity something awful.

From there it was pretty normal. Rose climbed into my lap and shed all over me. I just had her in my lap a few minutes ago and tufts of hair floated away.

Did dishes and used my new spot carpet shampooer to clean some of the places the kids have spilled food and drink over the last year. It worked pretty well, not as good as a steam vac you rent, but good enough to deal with the Rocky Road ice cream mess Brian created today.

DC, being four and a boy, has discovered his penis, and has decided he doesn't like the glans. He wants me to take it off. Stop laughing.

Dev and I talked a little bit over e-mail, then came the scramble to find the list of passwords that Brian had grabbed off my desk so that I could go to the Army AKO page and use their IM system to chat with him, while trying to listen to First Tennessee's automated menu in order to get a new PIN number for the credit card he took with him. Didn't manage to get into AKO before he got off the computer, but I feel better having talked to him.

Several baths, a nap (for Brian), a movie (for me),at least one showing of Harry Potter an' th' Rock, and hours trawling the net for usable pictures for some fanart, and the day has ended. DC announced at 9 that he was tired and he wanted his Snake Juice. He was asleep about five minutes after he finished the bottle. Brian is happily eating watermelon, and trying to share it with me as I type. Rose is lying down in a box lid, desperately asking for her own cat bed. Maybe one of those ones that attach to a window sill... She'd still fall off, but the occurrence rate would be reduced, I think.

All in all, a good day, I think.

Dear Dev:

Messages from other people.

From Dev:

This just came into my inbox.

We are safely in Kuwait. Not all that much going on yet; although, I have found a couple of things for the boys and will send them if can figure out how. We haven't gotten any useful info like mailing addresses or such and rumors abound. Looks like we may stay in Kuwait a while but that is just one of many rumors and we have no way of confirming anything. Let everyone know we're safe here and tell the kids I love them.

Love,
Dev

Deployed Today

Hey, all:

Dev loaded onto a bus at 11:45 this morning to go to Iraq. He had about 3 hours of family time before leaving, which was basically just us hanging out at the Company. There were a few tears, of course, but he left in good spirits.

I didn't actually stick around for the goodbye ceremony or watch the buses load and leave. I figured those would make me lose it and I didn't want to upset the kids. The next year will be confusing enough for them, I think, they don't need to see Mommy have a nutty. (And that's a perfectly good phrase, Dev. It describes the event rather well, I think.)

War Paint

DC and Brian have seen Braveheart one too many times and have decided to be William Wallace... Or they could have just had too much fun with sidewalk chalk.





I'm not sure I really want to know how DC got the blue mark right over his eye. At least sidewalk chalk doesn't have a point, right?

Didn't Take the Camera

Yes, the Deployment Ceremony was today, but I decided not to take the camera since I had to deal with both of the boys in the heat. And, let me tell you, Brian once again demonstrated his lack of fear by running all over the place, in between other people, and through one man's legs (while chasing the man's grandson[?], if that makes it any better). Our friend Jennifer was there. Yes, Porn Convention Jennifer. (If you haven't heard that story, I will post it eventually. Sorry, Jennifer, it's too funny not to share.) And she was amazed at Brian's lack of any self-preservation. I swear, I could hold him off the patio by his ankles and he'd just laugh.

Dop dodot do do

Not much is happening at the moment. Dev is in and out of the field for training. Got to come home for a couple of hours tonight for a hot meal and a shave. Then it was back to the slave pit.

DC started VBS today, which was an interesting experience. They had internet sign-up as one of their options, and that's the one I chose. Problem is, internet sign-ups don't always work well, and every time I tried to call to check to make sure it went through, no one answered the phone. So, as I knew would happen, my registration was one of the ones that didn't go through. But, they found a place for him, and he was happy.

Brian fell asleep 20 minutes before we had to pick DC up, though. And then fought finishing his nap for the longest time.

Also bought a couple of Father's Day presents for Dev. Trying to figure out what he can use, or possibly take with him, is not the easiest thing.

And, that was my day. The boys were bunctious, I cooked dinner, and Dev and I watched some TV. Don't we have an exciting life?

Mushroom Head and Other Silliness

Dev received all sorts of equipment in the last couple of days, and has been slowly sorting through it and packing it all away. He's also been treating his uniforms with insecticide, which is fun fun fun, as you can imagine.

Here's a picture of Dev in his Mushroom Helmet. Sorry it's not a very good pic. Cheapo digital cameras are nice, but aren't up to my camera's standards. Good for quick things like this, though.



He had an interesting morning today. On his way to PT, he blew a tire when he hit a pothole. So, instead of exercising this morning, he got to go to Wally World to get new tires and an oil change. Apparently all the tires had steel showing. *winces*

DC has been particularly odd today. He has been carrying his Teddy around and demanding Snake Juice for more than just going to sleep. He even demanded that Teddy have his own Snake Juice bottle. Luckily, he accepted the idea that teddies drink pretend juice, and an empty bottle was fine for that.

For those of you who don't know, Snake Juice is DC's special bottle. It's one of the ones that have a bend in it to help keep air out of baby tummies. Since it has a "curve" he decided it looked like a snake. It was very confusing the first few times he requested it, as you can probably imagine. Kinda like "Gold, with cheese, an' you eat it." That's DC speak for omelet.

From the looks of things, I'm not going to get DC into a daycare. Had to cancel the Child Development Center (CDC - Am I the only one who finds that acronym, and it's association with the Center for Disease Control, humorous?) today because DC's old doctor never sent up any of his records. Not even the shot record. May have to go home to TN just to argue with them in person. Yes, I know, I went to Knoxville at Christmas to pick up his records. Didn't realize until it was too late that the hospital didn't have a copy of the shots. *rolls eyes* I hate bureaucracies.

VBS starts next week, though. He should enjoy that.

Brian, for his part, as been very almost two today. He has an irritation, and so I left his diaper off for a little bit. He's apparently decided that he enjoys the freedom and has come running to me with a naked butt about 3 times in the last half hour. Now, if he'd only go to sleep... (Very much not holding my breath on that one.)

Dev and I are discussing when to take DC to see the new Harry Potter movie. If Dev does have parts of next weekend off, we'll go then. As it stands now, I'm the meanest Mommy in the world because the extras disk in the Chamber of Secrets box is obviously Harry Potter: P'isn'r of Ice-a-band and out of pure spite I won't let him watch it.

Pa is on board now

I have gotten on board with this. So now I can contribute to the Rosehill Academy blog.

Now, I want to see a photo of my boy in his funny new helmet.

Recovery and FRG

The last couple of days have basically been taken up with recovering from the weekend. Which means lots of sleep for us all. DC actually went to sleep at around 5 pm last night, and while he did wake up for a couple of hours around 8, he still went back to be easily. And Brian didn't keep me up until 1, which is always a blessing. Now, if only he'd let me clip his nails...

There was also an FRG meeting tonight. For those of you who haven't been indoctrinated into the life of a military spouse (yes, Nora, they do train us), FRG means Family Readiness Group. Dev says that "it's the wives club with a semi-official mission." And, he is right. FRG is a monthly meeting were the chain of command gives us any relevant information and we bring up any problems we may be having. In theory, it's a good thing. In practice... In non-deployment times, at least, it's waste of time unless you feel like being catty. I much prefer the Enlisted Wives Club, which is much more laid back and social, which FRG isn't allowed to be, for some bureaucratic reason.

Anyway, the meeting was pretty typical for an FRG meeting. There was a nice little brief on Iraq and the current situation there. We are not really being told anything, because of Operational Security. Therefore, I can't tell you anything. The little I know is enough to fill a thimble, and very little of that can be passed along.

Here's what I can tell you: There will be a deployment ceremony on June 11th. Apparently, they will have a few retirees from the last time the 509th was deployed in a war zone, WWII. He will be basically off from the 11th until he deploys. And I won't know he's gone until he doesn't come home for dinner, which will be very stressful, I think.

On a side note, Dev's trying on his new helmet. He looks like he has a mushroom on his head. I understand that it's a better helmet because it's stronger, lighter, and has "cushions that wick away moisture" (Dev seems thrilled by this), but it still looks funny.

I'll send you his mailing address as soon as I have it, which probably won't be until he's in Iraq. I'll also post a list of acceptable things you can send in care packages once I have it. I know some things you can't send, like porn and pork products, but a complete list will be helpful. And, FRG is setting up a website that will have the latest news, photos of the guys, and the like. I'll post it as soon as I get it.

And, that's all for today. If you have any questions, send them to me and I'll pass them along to Dev to get answers if I don't know off the top of my head.

Welcome to Rosehill Academy...

Where both living and learning occur 24 hours a day. This is the personal blog of the Cannon family, used to keep up to date on DDC3's actions in Iraq, and for him to easily see what his family has been up to while he's gone. I'm Joleen, your hostess.

I just got back from taking Devereaux, Nora, and Kate to the Alexandria airport. I had to wake up at 3 am for that little endeavor. Not fun, at all.

But, for the most part we all had a good time this weekend. They got in Friday afternoon and DC and Brian were thrilled to have them. Brian, despite the fact that he hadn't seen his grandparents in about six months went right up to them and gave them a big hug. Nora insists that I'd been coaching him. It's not true. He's just that cute.

Saturday was the big birthday day. We combined the boys' birthdays until one big party in honor of Dev leaving and the grandparents being here. To say that there was an abundance of presents would be an understatement. I don't even want to think about how much money we spent on the boys, much less the combined cost of all the presents and party supplies. It was a hit.

Sunday Dev decided that he wanted to show his parents "The Box." Now, if you've never talked to Dev about what he does down here in the Armpit of the Army, you have no idea what the Box is. Basically, it's where he goes and pretends to be a Palestinian, Iraqi, or other insurgent for the Army boys to practice on. The Box contains several small towns and other various things to make it interesting.

It gives him an interesting perspective. The Army has trained him to be a terrorist, basically, and now he's going off to fight terrorists.

Anyway, Sunday was Box day. We drove around, trying to show them Sugart-Gordan and letting them admire the signs written in Arabic and English. Dev had a great deal of fun pointing out where some of his more fun stories have taken place. Unfortunately, Shugart-Gordan was closed, so they didn't get to see much more than woods, wild horses, and the Geranimo Drop Zone.

And it's at the DZ that all the fun really happened. Dev, in his infinite wisdom, figured that if a Humvee can go around the DZ, our lighter van should have no problem. It slipped his mind that Humvees are meant to go off-roading and full-sized vans are not. Humvees, while heavier, also have tires that support their weight in sand. Guess what? Our van doesn't.

The first time... Yes, the first time, we got stuck, we got out pretty easily. Dev, who was driving, decided that we should try the other sand road, because surely the less steep of the two hills would be better. We, of course, got stuck. So, Dev floored the gas, trying to back out of the problem. Apparently, no one told him that that was the wrong thing to do. By the time he gave up on that idea, the rear axle was buried.

So, Nora, Kate, the boys, and I walked around the airfield, finding interesting things that the soldiers had left behind. Kate reminded her brother not to leave tabasco sauce laying around in Iraq, because that will tell the bad guys that he was there.

After an hour and forty minutes, they both had a nice little collection including something we thought was a gas cap, some type of practice round, and all sorts of artillery shells. And were very disappointed to find that they were allowed to take none of it out of the Box because it is all considered property of the US Army.

Monday, Memorial Day, was much more laid back, especially for me. I stayed home while the rest went in search of a swimming hole. They didn't find one, and the paddle boat rental was closed, so that frustrated Kate greatly. A lazy evening helped all around, though, and Devereaux greatly enjoyed the ginger chicken I had made for dinner.

And, that was our weekend. Doesn't it sound like we had fun?