...life is good...

Can't believe it's the middle of November already! Time has been flying by for us lately. The family is doing great.

Michael is working dispatch for a little while so that he can expand his training and learn more and different jobs. I'm also very proud to announce that, by request of his chief, Michael will be taking an EMT course to become certified, which would carry over to the U.S. outside of the military as well. It's a very tough one month course that starts the middle of January and goes into February. He has been working days since he went to dispatch, which has also been absolutely wonderful for all of us, as we get to spend a lot more time together.

I have been feeling better than I have in a long time. I finally have some energy back and, as long as I stay away from smells like poop and cigarettes, I don't get sick anymore! I still babysit part time and just take care of Caleb. My college classes will be starting in February...I'm only taking 1-2 classes at a time so it won't be too overwhelming at first. I'm 22 weeks pregnant Monday and definitely showing now.

Caleb is doing fantastic in school. We have been getting nothing but good reports from his teachers about how well he works with the other kids and is excelling for his age. We recently found out about some sports programs that are available to kids his age. Unfortunately it was a little late to get him into the soccer program, but t-ball is starting in April, and they are trying to see if they can set up a basketball program soon.

Good news...we finally have a kitchen table! It's wonderful to be able to sit down together as a family to eat dinner, and it's a damn nice table if I do say so myself. We also ran across a couple dressers that were being given away for free. They're extremely nice, heavy duty dark wood dressers...so for the first time in 2 years we don't have to live out of boxes and suitcases anymore! We also picked up a spare twin size bed the other day, and a good size dresser came with that as well. It's not as heavy duty as ours, but it has a lot of space. I'm making it my project to paint and fix up, and we're going to use it for the baby's room.

Halloween was a blast. Unfortunately, the company we had ordered Caleb's costume from never got it out to us (long story), so we ended up getting him an FBI kit at the NEX. It turned out great though because he plays with it all the time, his favorite thing is the baton to beat up bad guys! That morning Caleb and I got up and went to the breast cancer awareness 5K run/family walk. There was a huge turnout, bigger than anyone expected, so it was really exciting. Caleb had a good time walking with me because he said we were like a parade! They had a lot of tents set up and a big blown up jumping thing for kids, so he had a lot of fun jumping in that too. That evening we all went out trick-or-treating and it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of balconies decorated, kids and adults were running around in costumes, and people were giving out handfuls of candy. A couple times while we were walking, a random adult dressed up in a costume would run up to Caleb and throw a handful of candy into his bag!

Today we spent the day in Pompeii. It is absolutely beautiful there! We spent a good part of the day there, and we probably only saw about 1/4 of it. It's enough to just look around and take in the views and the structures...but if you look closely, there are little carvings and statues and paintings everywhere. We plan on taking at least 1-2 more full day trips there so we can actually see it all. After we were finished walking around the ruins, we walked to a little restaurant just outside of it and had some FANTASTIC Italian pizza. We sat outside at some cute tables underneath a big tent/canopy, and the weather was absolutely perfect the entire day. The paths and walkways in Pompeii are all uneven rocks and big stones, so parts of it were like a hike. If you're not careful you can trip and fall with every step, but we had a great time and couldn't have asked for a better day.

Here are some videos I've taken in the past month or two, and I'm also sending out a link to snapfish for our Halloween/Fall 2009 and Pompeii pictures. We hope you enjoy!