Operation Citadel Shield and Iron Curtain



My favorite flowers!

Operation Citadel Shield and Iron Curtain...thankfully we only have to play this reindeer game once a year! Don't get me wrong, these are very important drills that make us think and plan for real life events. So, we spend a week testing our emergency response systems. As a part of these drills, the base gets locked down. One year, the lock down was rumored to start at 1500, so I left work at 1400 thinking I would beat the clock. Hm. That year, it took me almost 4 hours to travel 6 blocks to get off base.  The problem and race this year was in that I was working on a different base this week. So, I had to leave the base I was on, get over to pick Annmarie up and get her out of the military child care facility before it locked down. This year, I left earlier. And yes, if the base is locked down and your child is on base and you are not, then they will graciously care for your child for you. Insert sarcasm here -as how well do you do if you don't have your own personal care items, medicines... Now, picture a baby in that situation. So, I left early. Way early. 9am early. Insert smile here.
Not only was I able to get out of there and get her out of daycare, I was able to finally get my car over to the shop. I have had a check engine light on for about two weeks and just haven't been able to get it taken care of. Annmarie did good.  The timing was awesome. There was literally only one other car at the dealership. After we left there I took Annmarie to lunch. She wasn't very hungry, but she was very well behaved. I also was able to fax off some paperwork and mail out a book of other paperwork. She fell asleep in the car so I brought her in and took her up to bed. She slept for almost 4 hours, but since I had her up at 4:30am, I let it happen. We went for a walk after she got up. Everytime we pass by the neighbors little purple flowers she has to stop and touch them. I can't remember what they're called, but I used to have them in front of my house when I lived in Point Loma.  Whereever I go next, I am definitely planting some of these flowers.

The other one was her thinking she was being sneaky. I had the camera held around the corner. You can tell when she spotted me because she just smiled and tried to eat the camera!

In the second video, she is trying to put my shoes on. Usually she gets really frustrated, but of course she spotted the camera before she got mad.

So, everything was good until I took her up to bath. It was the strangest thing. She was in the bath playing and all was well and then she just stopped in the middle of a giggle and looked at me. Then she started to frown. Then it just all went down hill. She didn't start screaming, but she was obviously upset. I took her out of the tub and she was hot and shaking. She doesn't shake like that when I get her out of the tub. I always bundle her up really quickly. She just layed there in my arms bundled in the towel shaking. I took her into the room and started to put lotion on her, but she wouldn't stop shaking. So, I just kept bundling her and rocking her. I took her temperature and she was at 101.8 degrees. She was alright when I put her into the tub for crying out loud. So, I gave her some Baby Advil and some honey...for the coughing that also just started again out of no where. She's been asleep for a couple of hours, but her breathing is labored and she is rolling around alot. I know this may sound selfish, but I really NEED for her to not get any sicker tonight. I need to get new tires put on the car tomorrow. I just don't have a lot of time that I am able to do this type of thing -and they are balder that my master chief.

I lost another buyer on the condo. But, luckily, I have another one already. I have lost count on how many buyers I have signed contracts for. It's got to be close to 10 by now. I am getting closer, this last one was 2 weeks away from closing escrow. So, the new one we talked the bank into just switching the names out on all the paperwork. That should shave a few weeks off of the paperwork process.