Ups and Downs ~ Stacey

Since I last posted, there's been a lot going on. The younger kids started school (yay!) and my oldest flew to Fort Benning, Georgia to begin Army Special Forces Basic Combat Training. (BCT) Yes, it was an eventful beginning to our September.

Labor Day 2013--we had a family dinner to send him off
and took a bunch of pictures.

In addition, we're still working on the remodeling in our house. Currently the bathroom is limping along. Yesterday, our 10yr old Arabian, Bullet, was supposed to head about an hour south for 2 months of training. His ship-date got postponed to today. I joked that he and Cody would be going through Basic Training together and had intended to do my monthly post on that. And I still am, but it doesn't quite mesh as well as it was supposed to.

Bullet has no idea what's in store when he starts his BCT

Because for the down part of my day, I got a call from the trainer that one of his girls who does a lot of the riding was injured today and he was going to have to delay. I wish her a quick recovery, and now I'm bummed Bullet won't be off just yet. I was really looking forward to riding him in a couple months.

Oh well, because...for the up part of my day, we got a letter from Cody! 

I grabbed my mail on the way home from the dentist--oh yeah, there was another down. Fillings. 1/2 frozen face. Then on to the eye doctor, who said I'm borderline needing bifocals, and that's normal between ages 40-42. Well, I'll be 41 in October, so I guess, yay me, getting old on schedule.

So anyway, I grabbed the mail, saw there was a letter to "The Netzel Family", and then sat in the van in the garage to read it. Nope, I didn't care if the milk in the back seat got warm--letter came first. He's doing okay so far, he now knows how to make his bed (lol), and he says he looks funny bald. It was great to hear from him and he even made me laugh out loud when he told me how the shot in his butt hurt like hell.

I read the letter to the kids when they got home from school and they laughed at the line: "I'd love to see Morgan try to have an attitude here."

Anyway, he hasn't actually started BCT yet, he's still in the reception stage, where they're waiting for the rest of his class (battalion?) to arrive. I have no idea when he'll start, but when he does, that's when his 16 wks and 3 days begin to count down until we can see him again.

So, that's it from me. Next month I hope to be telling you all about my new book out, but in the meantime, I'd love to hear what's GOOD in your life these days??

~ Stacey