1st Weekend of Drill

John attended his 1st weekend of drill for the Army National Guard. He left super early on Saturday and got home Sunday evening. It was nice because he could call on his cell when he wasn't busy--it was just as if he was out at Pantex. He rode in a passenger van with about 5 other guys down to Lubbock to their training facility. He got to do PT (physical training), marching, drills, etc. He actually had a really good time!
I had to laugh when he called from the motel on Saturday night. Apparently the military doesn't give you 4 star accomodations--the Motel 6 was a bit scary. His main complaints were that the bar of soap was tiny, there was no shampoo, the beds were "iffy" so he chose not to sleep under the covers, and there were about 4 locks on the door. Haha! At least he didn't have to sleep in a ditch somewhere, right? :0)
All in all, I think it was a great experience. He has 1 more drill weekend in July and then off to basic in August. He gets to borrow his ACU's (the uniform below) until he gets his own down in Ft. Jackson.

As for me---I didn't have such a super swell weekend alone. Not only was my hubby out of town, but my parents were too. Usually they are my backup if anything goes crazy while John's gone.
And of course, what weekend alone would be complete without a few "mishaps?"

Jeez.

Saturday:
I got everyone dressed and ready to head to the gym. I decided to take the VW Passat (John had the Bronco) instead of my van, just to shake things up a bit. I got in, turned the key, and all of the dash lights flashed---nothing worked---battery was dead.

Great.

I made everyone get out and get in the minivan. There was no cause for concern since I had another vehicle, and I knew John could fix the battery situation when he got home.

It was too overcast and rainy to head to Splash, so we just hung out here. Fun times.

Sunday:
Got everyone dressed and ready to go grocery shopping mid-morning. It was looking rainy again too. Bleh. I put Caroline in the van and pushed the garage door opener button....it tried to go up and then fell back down. What??? I tried again...nothing.

I had to pull the emergency cord, get Caitlin to help me hoist the door up, and then try to find a clever way to keep it up---the spring was broken. THANKFULLY the neighbor behind us heard the commotion and came to help. He held the door up while I backed the minivan out, closed it for me, and then recommended I call a garage door company to fix the broken spring.
Yeah, I'll get to that...or I'll wait until the hubby comes home. I thanked him for the help and drove off.

Grocery shopping went fine until it began to pour rain. Uggggg.
Since I now had to park outside, I got drenched carrying the groceries in.
Obviously Splash was out of the question again. Super fun times.

One more thing: I volunteered to take care of my parents' poodle (Napoleon) and cat (Whiskey), which consisted of letting the dog out twice on Sunday and making sure both animals had food/water.
Simple, right? Not.
Apparently Napoleon has something against me. I think he associates me with 3 small children that give him heck when we visit Mimi and Pappaw. On the first visit of the day, I tried everything in the world to get that dog to go outside. He backed himself in the very back of his portable kennel, and wouldn't even come out when I turned it upside down and shook it. How he stayed up in there is beyond me. After about 15 minutes of "conversation" with him--that might have involved a broom--he went outside, did his business, and was happy as a lark.
I came back that evening to let him out one final time. He sat on the couch and watched me enter the house. As soon as I got near him, he bolted for the spare bedroom and got up under the bed. He WOULD NOT come out. I got the above said broom again, and he ran like lightning to my parents' room and went...you guessed it...under the bed.
Arggggg.
After running out of ideas and breath from chasing him from one end of the house to another several times, I called the 'rents. Mom clued me in on tricking him into thinking he was going outside to get the newspaper. It worked like a charm. Wish I woulda had that little nugget of information the 1st time. *deep sigh*
I think that if Napoleon could have kicked me in the rear on the way out, he would have. He's a cutey bug, but he certainly doesn't care much for his big sister Melissa. :0)

I have never been so glad to see John come home--even if he was only gone for a day and a half. It certainly felt like 10 days in my book. :0)
Can you tell I'm super pumped for the 10 weeks starting in August?!?
Just kidding.
But really....

~Mel