Please.

I convinced myself the other day, I need to start working out in the morning. Most days I usually have time in the evening, but warmer weather, fast growing grass, and two crazy dogs, I would love to knock it out before walk foot into my office.

I am a morning person, so I thought to myself, hey no problem waking up 45 minutes earlier. Howver, Daisy, as always, has other plans.




For the third night in a row, I woke up at 12am, 1am, 3am, and 5am.

Why? She wants to sit by the pool. I swear at 3:43 this morning, I resisted the temptation to lock her in the garage or leave her outside in the rain all night.


Any theories?


Here are my two:


1) Its around 70 degrees outside, pretty hot for an Alaskan sled dog so she might be uncomfortable sleeping in my room. (Although last night I finally turned on the air).


2) She is still not back on our usual schedule. From being at my parents house for two weeks and last weekend and the weekend before, my houseguests arrived at 1 and 2am.




Either way, PLEASE STOP INTERUPTING MY SLEEP!


I am so crabby without it.

Cravings.

My poor love.

After hearing the myth of crazy cravings while pregnant, I told him last week to prepare for some strange grocery store/gas station runs at all different times of the day when I become pregnant.

I swear I become fixated on some kind of food and my mind does not let me go elsewhere.

Two weeks ago, I could not stop thinking about sushi. After work, I placed a to-go order at our nearest sushi restaurant and enjoyed every bite.

Last week, I wanted an ice cream sandwich, not just any kind, the one that you purchase at the gas station. So at 9pm, I packed the dogs in the car and we took a trip down the road to the gas station.

Today, I could not stop thinking about the toffee chocolate chip bars at Starbucks. I left work at lunch to head to the nearest Starbuck and it tasted like heaven.

Probably the highlight of my day.

I do not know what I will be craving tomorrow, but I am kind of excited to find out.

Week 18...Week 19

Errrrr or something like that. Goodness gracious, what have I been doing? To my defense, I probably started close to 5 or 6 updates and forgot they were there with the phone ringing, dogs barking, etc.

I can hardly believe the end of this week starts the month of May. And the girls and I are slowly getting back into a routine.

I am desperately trying to work less. My last job I worked close t 110 hours a week and it completely consumed my life. I promised myself this time I would be different. However, I find myself at times falling into that trap. Overall, I enjoy my job.

Although I did not run the half-marathon for numerous reasons (fell again rollerblading...sick for 2 weeks...starting a new job), I feel somewhat accomplished for keeping up with my deployment goals.

I am still cooking many new receipes and quite proud of myself. Last week I brought over homemade macaroni and cheese for a woman in our company who delievered a baby less than a month ago.

In other exciting news, we (my mom and I) finished decorating the second guest room. And to be honest, its some of her best work yet. I spent less than $200 and my mom probably spent another $200. The result:

Before

After

I absolutely love it and more importantly, he loves it.

I am still reading. I read The Last Lecture last month and still deciding what to read for May.

Right now, I am trying to plan a trip for his R&R in August, desperately trying to get back in shape, and getting ready to open my pool for summer, which excites me.

I cannot complain. Time seems to be moving along nicely...

Get it together...

You think I would get around to a few more things in my life since the grandparents still have my babies up in Chi-town. However, this is not the case. I feel I am running around more with weddings, birthdays, etc.

Yes, believe it or not, almost two weeks since I last saw Dakota and Daisy. And as much as I miss them, I cannot even imagine my life with them here right now. Last Thursday I worked until 11pm to make sure I left for my flight at 3am Friday morning for my best friend's wedding. Tonight I walked in the door around 7:30pm after finally going to the grocery store.

Now I am hoping things will slow down once my boss finishes up her conferences and my streak of being out town for four consecutive weekends comes to a screeching halt.

That being said, I am desperately trying to get back in shape, but lacking serious motivation. Since I quit all sports my senior year of high school, I am either all in or all out. Once I fall off the wagon, it takes me awhile to get back into working out.

You name it, I committed myself to many different kinds of workouts from pilates, tennis, sand volleyball, running half-marathons, boxing, trainers, rollerblading, tae-bo, kickboxing etc. When I commit to any of those workouts, I become addicted resulting in the best shape(s) of my life.

I believe I am bored with the above workouts. I need something new.

Starting May 1st I will begin P90X.

I am also desperately trying to get myself on some schedule. Being out of town for a weekend throws thing off for me. However, I may have to wait for next week. This week is full of important appointments, after work Chamber events, huge luncheons, and keeping up with my boss's work.

Glass half full moment: My house is still spotless after cleaning it a week ago.

Running back to my bubble

My weekend was full of culture, family, and laughs. My best friend got married this weekend.

I met Janette in 4th grade. She was the new girl. Years later we talked about her struggles and being a curly hair Puerto Rican in an all white private school. Even at 9 years, I considered myself the social director, so my bubbly blond self was the first one to say hi.

The rest is history.

From basketball camps to 3am Monopoly games, to this day, I've never laughed as hard as I did with her. Her family became my family and vice versa. When my grandfather passed, my parents went to California for two weeks and I stayed with her family.

I argued with her dad about the remote control, fought with her older sister, and was chased down by her mother screaming at me in Spanish.

She moved to Florida before high school and we still managed to see each other twice a year. When I use to spend my Spring Breaks at their house, her dad would wake us up by singing to us in Spanish as loudly as possible until we started throwing pillows at him. Lately with our careers, we talk less and less, but Net and I hated the phone.

Her mother picked me up from the airport and took me to their house. While walking into their house, I noticed Net yelling at someone on the phone. I walked to the refrigerator, took out two things of string cheese, opened both of them and handed her one. She smiled and ate it immediately. All of this before she even said hi to me.

I tell people I think we might be twins separated at birth.

All weekend, I did everything for her. Many times I called her a crazy Bridezilla bitch and that if she gets married again, don't ask me to be a bridesmaid. She would laugh, give me a big obnoxious hug and tell me she loves me.

Its the best feeling in the world, being needed by your best friend and in return helping her out. There were eight bridesmaids, but she always yelled my name. Right before the father-daughter dance, I heard the groomsmen yelling that she was again calling for me. I had to busel her dress before she went out on the dance floor.

My entire weekend could be summed up in one picture and one sentence.

Janette wanted to go into the bathroom to have the hairdresser fix her hair, but didn't want her dress to drag on the floor. In my silver heels and pink dress, I squatted behind her holding her dress up.

Her sister snapped a picture.

And before we left for the wedding, we needed to pack the car. Janette went to grab a box and Lillie (her mom) said, "Don't take that one, let Courtney, it's too heavy" We all immediately started laughing.

After the reception, while she rested her feet on my lap and people came up to us to tell her good-bye, we started talking babies. I told her she was going to have beautiful babies and she in return informed me that I am already the Godmother for their first baby.

One of the best feelings...

I truly had a wonderful time at the wedding. The bridal party mixed so well together and shared a lot of laughs.

Today I could not wait to get back to my bubble.

Of course during the wedding, you see so many couples happy and in love. Followed by the "How are you". And then "Aw, deployment?" and a "When did he leave/when does he return?" and a "How are you handling it".

Every once in awhile I do not mind, but I love that I do not feel alone here, I have some amazing women her who keep me company. My good friend and I came to a realization we kind of live in a bubble where everyone understands.

And that is OK with me. I like my military bubble. I feel safe in it.

Can we laugh now?

So after pacing in my office this morning, I saw my dad's number on the caller ID. He gave me the news...

Her diagnosis: A cat scratched her eye.

Not just any cat, my cat at home. Now before you all laugh at the very crazy dog lady, the doctor did tell my mother and his mother the scratch could have been fatal. Apparently cats carry quite a bit of gross, disease like things in their claws.

The doctor told them it was a blessing we treated Daisy for a UTI (you didn't loose a week and a half of sleep lady) because my dad religiously fed her the antibiotics since Saturday. The medicine pretty much killed all the bacteria and infection from my cat's claws.

I couldn't tell you the relief and thousand pound bricks lifted off my shoulders when I said out loud, "She's going to be OK".

Moving on to the good part. He hates...no, no, no hate is an understatement...he loathes our cat at home. I do not care much for our 15 year old cat because of my allergies. But everyone knows how he feels about the cat.

I will edit the love of my life's response to my news on Daisy. I laughed so hard at work. And I promise you he will not hurt the cat. They are all threats.

We all know I am a avid F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fan so I will replace any swear words with the word candy.

"I am going to kill that mother candy cat.I cannot believe that candy cat hurt Daisy. If she is not dead when I get home I am going to candy put that candy cat in the candy microwave"


That is all folks.

Fight Like Hell

On my drive home Friday night (before the bad news), I called his sister like I typically do on my long drives and we chatted for a good hour.

She and her boyfriend hit a rough patch in their relationship. They reached their one year anniversary last week. And she does what I use to do way back in my 15, 16 year old days with my love. I stubbornly sat on the other side of the phone refusing to call him. Have I ever mentioned our first year together was something out of a bad teen relationship movie?

Our relationship improved mostly because I refused to give up. Yes, I will take a lot of credit and most days he even agrees. I told his sister on the phone, "This advice might shock you and I am sure your other girlfriends might not be telling you this, but you have to call him, so what if you call him more than he calls you, big deal. If its what you want, fight like hell".

Fight back.

Moving on to his mother. Well way back almost 9 years ago, we butted heads on our first meeting together and over the years, it happened a lot more. I would never dare say I hated her, but we really didn't get along.

That is until I started voicing my opinion. Through this deployment we talk almost everyday like best friends. She took me out to breakfast on Sunday and we discussed many things. The topic of Army came up and we disagreed on something. She said something bluntly and voiced her opinion. And back in the day I would curl up into a ball and let her comments eat at me. I snapped back and spoke my opinion. I did not back down.

And when I walked into my house yesterday, I received the sweetest email from her saying she is so proud of me and loves being a part of my life. I think she respects and truly loves the fighter in me.

Fight back.

Now his grandfather. Diagnosed with cancer last July. I, unfortunately did not worry for a minute. It is his grandfather! I mean this 80 year old lifts at the gym, hunts, walks, goes to Church every Sunday.

So when I found out last week his cancer doubled in size. I suddenly wished I prayed a little harder for him over the last year. When I visited him this weekend, I did not see a 80 year old with terminal cancer, I actually saw his grandfather, one of the toughest old men I've ever met. He looked surprisingly healthy and God, you better know he is not going down without a fight. Grandpa keep...

Fighting back.

Now my events through the past two weeks might not get some people down, but I definitely hit a very low point. I cannot explain what I felt happening to my body, to my emotions, to my mental state. Where did my spunk go? I spend a lot of my time and days concentrating on the positive. I am without a doubt an optimistic. On Saturday, I honestly wanted to give up...to cry, to lock myself in my room until his mid tour. On my drive Sunday I continued to tell myself...

Fight back.

And Daisy. Tomorrow is judgement day. His wonderful mother and my wonderful mother will be taking her to a specialist together. She is my pistol, my ball of energy and humor, and I do not even need to tell her...

Fight back.

Because I know my dog will fight like hell.

Today, after three weeks, I received my first, new account at work. The love of my life surprised me with a plane ticket to Tampa Bay so I do not have to spend 24 hours in the car this weekend. And last night I slept for a continuous 7 hours for the first time in 10 nights.

And even though I truly believe Daisy will be OK, if you could, send a few prayers or good luck thoughts her way, I know we both will appreciate them.