BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I know this is a "family" blog, and this next post has little to do with our family, BUT I'm telling myself that Brandon will want to know about his Mom's love of music, namely Bush and Gavin Rossdale when he grows up. So, please allow me to gloat a little, and revel in the beauty that was Sunday night!!!


My 26th birthday present from Brian was tickets for Heather and myself to go see Gavin Rossdale!!!!!!!! ACK!!!!! Heather was going mostly just to go, and I was going because it is GAVIN FREAKING ROSSDALE!!!!!!!!! Haha.

A little background- I *LOVE* Gavin Rossdale. Love him. I fell in love with him during the infamous 1997 MTV Spring Break performance of Glycerine. From that moment on, he was it. Like any other teeny-bopper in love with an artist, I had a picture of him above my bed, surrounded by glow in the dark stars. Throughout my adolescence, he was always the favorite. Any new artist that came along never compared to Gavin. Heh. To this day, Gavin is always mentioned as my "it" guy. My celebrity crush. I <3 him!!! lol

Ok, I'm done gushing about him.

Anyway, rewind to a few weeks ago. I was driving home from somewhere, and heard that he was going to be at the House of Blues in May. So, I looked it up, and decided that I was going. I didn't care if I went alone, or if someone wanted to go with me. I was going. Brian decided to buy the tickets for me and Heather as my birthday gift, and the deal was done.

Sunday around 4, we pull up next to House of Blues and notice a bus. I joked that it was Gavin's bus, but didn't believe that it was. Heather and I had the valet park the car and we went to find the venue. We expected there to be a long line of people waiting for the concert since it started 3 hours later, but there was nobody there! So, we went down to the House of Blues restaurant to have dinner. After dinner, we went back up to the concert area, and there were 3 people in line. We sat down and held our place in line for the next 2 hours. While in line, we discovered that the bus WAS Gavin's and that he had come out of the bus and some of the people sitting next to us were able to get autographs and pictures with him! I was SOOOO jealous!!! Haha Once they opened the doors, Heather and I were able to get FRONT AND CENTER!!!!! The microphone was literally RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!! It was perfect!!!! The opening band, Nico Vega, came onstage around 8-ish. They were really good! I was pleasantly surprised. Then, after Nico Vega's performance, they took a few minutes to set up the stage for Gavin. I swear it seemed like it took an eternity. Finally, the curtain opened, and Gavin came on stage. It was an AMAZING concert! He played a great variety of songs including Bush songs, solo songs, and songs from Institute. During the performance, he climbed onto the railing RIGHT next to Heather and I and - yes, I did the typical teeny-bopper thing, and touched him! Awesome! Can I just say that Gavin has the hottest abs imaginable?!?! Heather noticed that his wristband (that he had thrown on the stage when it started to fall off) was stuck to his shoe. So, she grabbed it, and gave it to me. How awesome is my sister?!?! :) There were many times during the concert that he made eye contact with me, and at one point focused and was singing....ack!!! It was awesome!!!! After the show, Heather and I ran out to be near the bus in case he was able to sign autographs and take pictures. Heather was convinced that he wouldn't be out for at least an hour, but he came out shortly after we got there! He walked RIGHT PAST ME!!! As he walked past, I asked if I could have a picture, and he said (something along these lines), "Yeah, just a second. I have to go get something really fast." ACK!!!!!!! Gavin Rossdale TALKED TO ME!!!!!!! Hahahaha. His manager came out and told us all to wait along the wall and that Gavin would give everyone an autograph and picture. So, obviously, we waited! :) I was able to get TWO pictures with Gavin and an autograph. I made sure to tell him that it was my very first concert experience, ever, and that it was a birthday present from my husband who was in Iraq. (Ok, so that was a shameless use of Brian's service, but whatever.) Then, we proceeded to have a small conversation. Here's the breakdown:

Me: "This is my first concert ever, and is a gift from my husband who is in Iraq."
Gavin: "Oh really? When is he coming home?"
Me: "Two weeks!"
Gavin: "Oh, and then he will be home for good?"
Me: "No, he has to go back to Germany in a month because that is where his unit is stationed at."
Gavin: "You know, I never understood that. Why are there bases in Germany?"
Me: "I don't know. Leftover from WWII I assume."
Gavin: "Yeah, I know, but why are they still there?"
Me: "I don't know."
Gavin: "Yeah, I just don't get it."
Me: "Me either, but they are closing a lot of them."
Gavin: "Good."

Hahahahaha.....I am such a nerd. There was a little more conversation, but I can't recall what was said. I got 2 pictures and an autograph! It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Here is a slideshow of pics from the concert. Please excuse my hair. It is a hot mess thanks to Houston humidity. I swear it was cuter before the show! Hahaha

Parenting Technique vs. Luck

I must preface this post with a disclaimer stating that I do not intend to judge anyone on their parenting style, beliefs, or opinions. I am NOT an expert, and in no way, shape, or form is this post intended to suggest as such. This post is merely a means for me to take stock of myself, and note things that work and don't work for my son and my family. I understand that every child is different, and responds to situations based on their own unique personalities. I am basing this entire post off of my "vast" 15 month experience with motherhood (please note obvious sarcasm) and the things I have learned along the way. So, again, please try not to take offense to this post, and feel free to comment.

This evening, I was blown away by my son's willingness to follow instruction with little prompting. Yet again. From Brandon's birth, I have always voiced how Brian and I "hit the baby jackpot." He has always taken to every change so well, and has just generally been an easy going kid. Even despite my fears of whatever transition we are faced with, Brandon always exceeds my expectations. I am always so worried that he is going to not take well to whatever changes he has to adapt to, and am always so pleasantly surprised by his adaptability. Brian and I claim to be "lucky" and "lottery winners," but I question how much is luck, and how much is parenting technique. Granted, as I mentioned above, every child is different, and I am aware of this. However, I do believe that there are basics that, if in place, can help deflect some of the stress associated with parenting.

I believe that predictability and schedule are essential to parenting. Not only do I believe they are essential, I believe they are really the foundation of parenting and without them, it is quite easy to get "lost" for lack of a better term. From my own personal experience in parenting, and assisting with parenting some friend's children, I have learned that getting a child on a schedule they are familiar with and WORKS for THEM is vital. I believe that children thrive on predictability and routine. Now, obviously, some people take this to the extreme and do not allow any flexibility in the schedule and that is counterproductive. Brandon has had the same basic schedule since about a month old. It took that long to figure out what he was comfortable with, and what worked best for him. There have been changes to this schedule, obviously, as he has grown and developed. I believe that since he KNOWS his routine and knows what to expect, it has paid off. For example, this evening went as follows:

-dinner, bath, nightly hygiene, snuggle time in the rocking chair with his milk and a story.

After which, he was able to put his own cup in the sink, give Grandma and Grandpa a hug and kiss night-night, go to his room where he stood by his crib while I turned on his lullaby CD and then reached for me to put him in his crib but not without Mommy's hug and kiss goodnight. All of that is with very little prompting. I simply ask him if he is ready to put his cup in the sink and say night-night. The rest is all him. Furthermore, this is not the first night that he has done this. He has been doing this for weeks, and every night I am filled with pride for him and his great behavior. Again, I do believe that his willingness to follow the schedule is because he KNOWS what to expect. Now, the luck aspect may be that I have never had to "drill" any of this in to him. I simply started the schedule before he was mobile, and he just kept with the same schedule now that he is running around like a crazy toddler. I am aware that he IS in fact a crazy toddler, and he is not perfect (well, to me he is...haha) and he does typical toddler things....like running around the house naked because he figured out how to take his diaper off. I just think that the predictability of our routine has directly influenced his ability to start initiating some of the items on our regularly scheduled agenda.

Another basic I believe is essential is consistency. I've recently made changes to his routine that I thought were going to throw him off, and cause a tantrum, but was pleasantly surprised when it took very little if any transition. I started taking him with me to the gym daycare and it was a disaster the first day. The gym daycare was my precursor to when he has to start daycare full time in July. I geared up for a long, hard road to a peaceful daycare schedule. I began going to the gym regularly, with the intent to work out for a minimum of an hour; however, prepared to leave if he couldn't calm down. Imagine my surprise when after the third time he went, he didn't cry. He didn't shed a single tear, and when I checked in on him halfway through the workout, he was LAUGHING and PLAYING with the other kids!!! It was amazing to me. I was so proud of him, as was Brian when I told him. Again, I attribute this behavior to consistency. However, as important as I belive consistency is, I struggle with it in terms of discipline. I am unsure as to how to discipline Brandon. Brian and I know that we are anti-spank. (that may be controversial, please refer to disclaimer again) While we are anti-spank, we are not COMPLETELY against spanking if it is the only thing that Brandon responds to. We haven't really gotten that far yet. We haven't really gotten to any "hard" part of discipline yet. Everything he does is age appropriate, and we don't see a point in spanking him for acting his age. He is exploring the world that he lives in, and while we don't allow him to run rampant and destroy everything, we do allow him the independence to safely learn cause and effect. Even if that means we have a mess to clean up. Messes are not a big deal to us. It is more important for him to explore and learn things then it is for us to have to spend an extra 10 minutes cleaning something up. Now, that being said, we don't give him crayons and let him run around the house. The result of that behavior is crayons on walls, furniture, and anything else within toddler reach. Instead, we give him crayons in his high chair for now, and as he learns the concept of crayons (as we just introduced them) we will allow him a bit more SUPERVISED freedom. As precaution, the crayons are washable, so that helps too. :) Brandon does get the occasional swat on the hand if he is deliberately misbehaving (touching something he KNOWS he isn't supposed to while STARING at my as I warn him not to touch). We just don't feel comfortable spanking Brandon, yet telling him that he is not allowed to hit. It just doesn't sit well with us. There has to be a better, less degrading way. Again, I reiterate that we have not experienced much "hard" behavior yet, so I am not claiming to be an expert in this field. I have admitted to struggling in the consistency department as sometimes I will use redirection, and other times I will take something away without redirecting, and others I will smack his hand. I use my "Stern Mommy Voice" and sometimes I feel as if it comes across as too harsh. Sometimes I feel like my stern voice is more of a yell than a calm stern voice. I am contributing that to the fact that I was raised with yelling, so it is natural to me. I work on this, and do feel guilty when I raise my voice to him and he cries. I don't want him to be afraid of my punishment. Obviously, I believe a healthy level of fear is necessary in parenting; however, I don't believe that fear should be based on fear of punishment. I believe the fear should be of dissappointment, and understanding their own lack of responsibility. How to balance on this fine line, I am not sure. I just know that I always want Brandon to know that he can come to us when he has made a mistake and not be afraid that he are going to physically or mentally hurt him. We never want to hurt him. We want to instill values and morals that provide the compass for him to make his decisions, and when he falls short of his responsibilities (as we KNOW he will) he is aware of how his actions affect others as well as himself. We want him to be self-motivated and make his decisions as to not let HIMSELF down, as well as us as parents. Now, all of this sounds great, but like I mentioned before, I am NOT sure how to GET to this place. I suppose trial and error is in order.

I am sure that there are more basics that I believe are essential, but I am REALLY tired and if I go on any further I am sure I will stop making much sense. Not to mention, this post is already rather long, and I doubt that many will read the entire thing anyway. Before I close this post, I want to restate my intentions. Again, this blog was NOT AT ALL meant to point fingers or judge anyone on their parenting techniques. Obviously, there are differences of opinion and that is what makes our jobs as parents so wonderful and confusing. I have many friends that do things completely different from how I would do them. I know many people that co-sleep with their child. Brian and I are against co-sleeping in the sense that we wanted to establish a solid ability for Brandon to sleep in his own room, by himself. This example is particularly important to me because as happy as I am that Brandon can sleep 12+ hours in his crib every night, I am a little saddened by the fact that I can't put him in bed with me and have either of us sleep well. He tosses and turns too much to sleep with us, and sometimes I just want to snuggle him. :) So, while I am happy with my decision, I am jealous of the snuggle time you co-sleepers get! Haha. Perhaps when he is a little older, I can let him sleep with us on occasion. I am also all for co-sleeping when they are sick. Luckily, Brandon hasn't really been sick to where he has symptoms that make him so uncomfortable it hinders his sleep. So, I do think that if he gets sick and wants to sleep with us, we will let him. I guess the point of giving this example is that nothing is ever cut and dry, and that the ability for a variety of view points is one of the beauties of parenting.

Anyway...my eyelids are getting heavy. So, I am off to bed! Goodnight!

Funny Brandon Video

Hahaha, he is SO funny! Who knew that kids could make you laugh so much. :)

Our Family Earth Day Resolutions

I was thinking about Earth Day yesterday, and how I should have Brandon and I celebrate this day. I thought of the stereotypical things that we could do to better our planet, like plant a tree, and recycle. While these actions are monumentally beneficial, they are not practical for our situation right now, as we live with my parents and cannot force them to recycle, or plant a tree in their yard without permission. So, as a tribute to Earth day, and in an effort to make the world a better place, I am compiling a list of resolutions that we, the Hays family will begin to do to better our planet. I realize that the small steps that we take as a family will not drastically change the world, but it is my hope that we can raise Brandon and our future children to be aware that every little bit helps. Perhaps educating our children about the reality of pollution, and the impact that it has on our planet will bring them up to make smarter decisions and do their best to become part of a generation that aims to better the treatment of our globe. As a family, we will implement these resolutions when we move this Summer, and hope to continue to take steps to learn everything we can to be environmentally conscious. So, here are the steps that we vow to take in order to help better our environment.

1. Start recycling when we move to Killeen.
2. Plant a tree (or a few) in the yard at our new home.
3. Use our cloth bags EVERY time we go shopping. (We always forget we have them.)
4. Use all CFL lightbulbs in our home.
5. Buy each of us a reusable mug/thermos/water bottle instead of using styrofoam or plastic bottles.
6. Learn about and use cleaning products that do not contain chemicals.
7. Buy a water aerator to conserve water.
8. Buy a water filter or pitcher instead of buying bottled water.
9. Buy all Energy Star appliances for our new home, evenutally of course.
10. Use cloth towels instead of paper napkins.
11. Buy a water heater insulator to reduce the amount of electricity used to heat our water.
12. When we paint the new house, we will use no VOC paints.
13. Buy low-flow shower heads for all of the showers in our home.
14. Try to be aware of the amount that we drive and attempt to combine outings.
15. Reduce our junk mail by joining www.41pounds.org.
16. Use reusable plastic containers for food storage instead of buying pre-packaged foods/snacks.
17. Start having a "Meatless Monday" in order to reduce the amount we contribute to the processing of animals and the energy that it consumes.
18. Try to eat/buy foods that are the least processed to reduce the amount of energy that is put into the processing of foods.
19. Start a small vegetable garden at the new house to reduce our carbon footprint and to eat healthy produce. This activity will also bring our family together and allow us to have a common interest.
20. Put all of our appliances on Smart Strip Power Strips and turn them off when we are not home.
21. Install a programmable thermostat in the new house.
22. Look into obaining electricity from a 100% renewable Electric company.
23. Become more aware of the amount of electricty that we use by making sure that we turn off lights when we are not in the room.
24. Keep our cars tuned and well maintained to reduce their emissions as much as possible.
25. Regularly change our filter in our air conditioner.
26. Weather strip any window or door in the new house to ensure there is no air leak.

These are steps that our family is vowing to do to reduce our carbon footprint on the environment. We hope that by taking these steps, we can help create a better, healthier world for the future generations of our family and yours.

Easter!!!!!!!

It's Easter time! I remember this time last year, we were celebrating Brandon's first Easter. It seems like SO long ago! :) This year, he will be much more active in the Easter festivities. He LOVES to put things "in" anything. So, the Easter egg hunt should be a blast.

Today, Grandma and I took Brandon to get his picture taken with the Easter Bunny. I was really worried that he would freak out when he sat in the Bunny's lap, but he did really well. He has recently developed a tendency to be scared of things, so I was relieved when he smiled for the camera. He started to get a little creeped out for a second, but when he looked at me, he smiled and was fine the rest of the time. I am adding the pictures at the bottom of this post. He wore an ADORABLE little suit. Of course, I bought it, and he will only wear it for Easter before he cannot wear it again. Houston is too hot for him to be wearing a blazer. Oh well. It was SUPER cute, and I waited too long so most stores were sold out of the Easter outfits. He is seriously the cutest baby boy on the face of the planet! Not to brag or anything (but I'm going to brag, heh) but we get stopped on a daily basis by people that just love him, and we get SO many comments on how adorable he is. He gets compliments on his eyes, and cheeks the most. He perpetuates the complimentsby hamming it up for everyone and waving, laughing and smiling. :) I am not biased or anything, but I have to agree that he is the cutest baby EVER!

Tomorrow, we are going to bake and decorate Spring/Easter sugar cookies. I bought some Spring-ish sprinkles, and we will see how many end up on the cookies. Heh, it should be fun. Then, we are going to dye Easter eggs. I doubt that we will be interested in the cookie decorating, and egg dyeing, but he will surely appreciate eating the cookies and eggs. Not together of course. :)

Sunday we are having a little Easter celebration. He will get his Easter basket from Mommy and Daddy Sunday morning. We got him a huge basket and filled it with puzzles, books, sidewalk chalk, colorwonder markers and paper, and some other toys. He can't really have candy yet, but we did get him a chocolate Easter Bunny. We also got some m&ms, but he won't get to eat much of the chocolate. Grandma and Grandpa Bennett got him a new swingset for Easter. He outgrew the one they got him for Christmas, and since he LOVES to be outside, a swingset was appropriate. Grandma and Grandpa put it together today, and he will get to play on it tomorrow. I am so excited for him! He is going to LOVE it!

Now, as far as pictures of Easter are concerned, I will post them as I take them. Perhaps I will make a little slideshow of all of the Easter pictures, we'll see. For now, I will share Brandon's picture with the Easter Bunny. :) Too cute.

Wow....we are going to be BUSY!

I just posted the R&R blog, but I need to post a general update on our little familia.

Where to begin...

Well, after Brian's R&R, I had to turn my focus to figuring out what courses I needed to register for this Summer. In order to do that, I needed to call Tarleton State University in Killeen, TX and have them draft a tentative degree plan for me since Tarleton is where I was planning to go to school in the event we got stationed at Fort Hood. After submitting my list of courses I have already completed and speaking with the advisor, I discovered that the earliest I will be able to graduate is the Spring of 2012! The reason it is going to take so long is because Tarleton only offers the education classes in 4 class blocks, and there are 4 blocks. These blocks are only offered in the Fall and Spring semesters. So, after finishing up all of my undergrad and lower grad level classes, the earliest I would be able to start my education classes would be the Fall of 2010. Brian is scheduled to get out of the military in the Fall of 2011. So, we needed to do some decision making and decide what the next step was. After discussing with him the details of my school plan, we made the decision that he needed to re-enlist. We decided that he would re-enlist for 4 years (which will start the day he signs his enlistment papers) for an additional 2 years and 2 months added to his original enlistment. This will put him getting out of the Army in April of 2013. The benefit to this is that once I start teaching, we will have 8 or 9 months to put his salary in savings. Another benefit to him re-enlisting is that he will be able to choose his next duty station, so he can be guaranteed Fort Hood! That will take a TON of uncertainty our of the next couple of months. In the end, him re-enlisting is what is best for our family. So, that is the decision that we have made.

We found out yesterday that his re-enlistment and request for Fort Hood is approved. So, he is officially re-enlisting for another 4 years, with a guarantee of Fort Hood as his next duty station. Plus, he gets a $5,500 bonus! Yay!!! Things are really falling into place!

Another decision that we have recently made is to purchase a home in Fort Hood as opposed to renting a home. With the new $8,000 tax credit and the other benefits to home ownership, we just cannot justify throwing our money away in rent. Initially, I was really hesitant to this idea. I just did not see how it would be possible to purchase a home before July, especially with Brian only being home for the month of June, and me being in school all day Monday through Thursday while he is here. After some thinking, and discussing with Brian, we realized that it made no sense for us to move to Fort Hood and sign a lease, just to turn around and have to break the lease because we purchased a home. It is also ridiculous to move twice in a 6 month period. The new tax credit is only good for homes purchased before November 1, 2009. So, we needed to make the decision to buy a home, and start the process as soon as possible. So, Friday, I spoke to a real estate agent, and started our journey to home ownership. The tentative plan is to narrow down houses that we are interested in as per the weekly emails we will be receiving from the realtor. The realtor has our search criteria, and will send us an email containing the homes that match our needs. From there, we will narrow it down to a few houses that we are really interested in. After the first week of May, I will have a 3 week break from school, and I plan to go out to Fort Hood to look at the houses that we have chosen. I will then take more pictures, and have my parents look at the houses as well to make sure that we are not leaving out anything important. I cannot stress enough how lucky we are to have family members in the housing industry to help us out with buying our first home! Then, after we have narrowed it down to a few houses, when Brian comes in June, we will make our selection, and make our offer(s). We are hoping to close by the end of June, so that I can start the moving process by July. So, that is huge! We are both SO excited!!!!!

So, these next couple of months are sure to be very busy and exciting for us. In addition to all of the changes and events that are going to be taking place, we also will be starting Brandon in daycare. I am extremely nervous about putting him in daycare, but I am also excited for him. It is important for me to make sure that we are at Fort Hood with enough time for him to be transitioned into daycare. The poor guy is going to be going through so much that to just throw him into daycare may be a bit much for him, and for me. He is going to have to deal with having Brian home for a month, then gone again. Then we will be moving away from the only home that he knows, and he will not be seeing his grandparents everyday like he is used to. Plus, he is going to be in a new home, and new environment, so that is going to be a big adjustment for him. So, to just put him in daycare worries me. So, the plan for that is to slowly introduce him into daycare. To start off with, I will be with him at daycare, then I will leave him there for a short time and gradually increase the length of time that he is there. Hopefully, that will make that transition easier for him. I am very nervous about it. Yikes!

So, the goal for the next 3 months is to buy a house, go to school full time in June, get moved and set up at Fort Hood, get Brandon enrolled in daycare, and get registered at the school there. Whew! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!! :)

R&R

As many of you know, Brian was recently home for R&R! He was home from March 3-22, and we had an AMAZING time together! I will start from the beginning....

Sunday evening (March 1), Brian called to tell me his flight arrangements. He was scheduled to land in Dallas early Tuesday morning (March 3) and was to catch a connecting flight and arrive in Houston sometime Tuesday afternoon. Impatient as we are, Brian's parents and I decided that we would leave Houston at 2am on Tuesday morning to meet him when he landed in Dallas. The original idea was that Brandon would just sleep in the car. Wow, were we wrong! Brandon decided that he did NOT need to go back to sleep, so he was awake the entire almost 5 hour drive from Houston to Dallas. When we arrived in Dallas, we had to figure out what terminal we were to pick Brian up in, and finally were able to get situated at the gate to wait for him. Shortly after we arrived at the airport, Brian's family in Dallas showed up to help us welcome him home. We were fortunate to only have to wait a short time before the plane landed and soldiers started trickling through the gate. It seemed like the entire plan deboarded before Brian came through the gate. FINALLY, he came through, and immediately I started tearing up and jumped on him! I was SO excited to see him! He said hello to Brandon, who was wearing his adorable "Welcome Home Daddy I Missed You" shirt, and then proceeded to say hello to the rest of the family. He was quite shocked to hold Brandon for the first time. The last time Brian held Brandon, he weighed only 16 pounds, and he now weighs in at close to 35 pounds. After the initial hello, we all decided to get some breakfast. After a lovely breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we headed back to Houston. Another 5 hour drive that Brandon decided he did not need sleep. He did fall asleep for about an hour toward the end of the drive, but overall, he didn't sleep much.

That evening, Brian and I had dinner reservations Maggiano's Little Italy and hotel reservations at The Westin at the Galleria. We enjoyed a beautiful evening of wonderful food, drinks, and music at Maggiano's and then went back to the gorgeous Westin. Around 8am the next morning, my mom called to tell us that Brandon was not feeling well the night before, and suggested that we make a doctor appointment for him. I got up and called his pediatrician, and we got an appointment for that afternoon. When Brian woke up, he was regretting his three drink the night before. He had quite a headache, and was not feeling too good. After some asprin, toast, water and rest, he felt better. We checked out and went to lunch before heading home to take Brandon to the doctor. Brandon ended up having a cold and was prescribed a decongestant. The rest of the day was spent hanging out.

That following weekend, Brian and I had a date night out, and we had a lovely visit with Brian's Grandpa, Aunt Debbie, and Uncle Ralph. Saturday evening, we had a date night planned. We had reservations at the Intercontinental hotel in the Galleria area, and were planning on having dinner and margaritas at Cafe Adobe, and follow up with drinks and games at Dave and Busters. Dinner and margaritas were amazing. Then, we headed over to Dave and Busters was a huge disappointment. We were under the impression that it was for 18 and up, but apparently if you ar with your parents, you can be there. So, the place was swarming with kids, and packed with people. So, all of the games had a ridiculous wait, and we were tripping over kids that were being left unattended because their parents were losers. I mean, really, who takes their kids to an adult arcade and keeps them out after 11pm? Craziness. The next morning, we went to visit Brian's Dad's side of the family. We visited with Brian's Uncle Ralph, Aunt Debbie, and Grandpa. One of the anticipated events of that gathering was getting a generation picture. It was so great to get a picture of the 4 generations of the Hays men. We all sat around and caught up on our lives, and just generally hung out. It was a very great day.

Yet another outing we had planned for Brian's R&R was a trip to Fort Hood. Brian was recently promoted to Sgt., and since I was not there to pin his new rank on him, we wanted to drive out to Fort Hood to buy some rank. Brian also wanted to eat at his favorite mexican restaurant there, and we wanted to drive around and narrow down the areas that we wanted to live in when and if we are stationed there. It started out to be a horrible trip because it was downpouring when we left Houston. About an hour into our drive, the rain stopped, and things were looking better. It was still FREEZING though. We had a great time at Clothing and Sales, and then went looking for areas that we wanted to live in. We met some friends in the area for dinner. We met with Seth and Jen James. Jen had twins 2 days after Brandon was born, so it was SO great to meet her babies and for her to meet Brandon. After a wonderful dinner, we headed home. We had an awesome time in Killeen.

The rest of R&R was spent doing random things that we wanted to do. We took Brandon to see the animals at the Bear Creek Park, and then took him for his first ice cream sundae. Brian got a "Mom" tattoo, we went shopping, rented movies and ordered pizza, and spent time together. I think my favorite memories of R&R were every night when we put Brandon to bed. Brian read Brandon a bedtime story while I rocked him and he drank his milk. Then, we both took him to his room, gave him hugs and kisses, told him that we love him, and put him to bed. It was such a sweet time spent together. We had such a great time!

He left Sunday March 22. It was sad to see him go, but fortunately he will be home again in June for a month. Then, he has to go back to Germany until the beginning of September. We just can't wait to have him home for a considerable amount of time.