Engleberts in Missouri [miz-er-ree]

Okay so lesson learned…when complaining to your mother about not posting any new stories about the family be prepared with something of your own.

First, I just want to thank everyone that has sent Eric a package or a letter. He really enjoys receiving them, plus it is always nice knowing that people back home are thinking of you. So thank you for making his days a little bit brighter.

On to the news…

So, the life of a Military Wife and a Temporary Single Mom is definitely harder than I had imagined. Sure I knew that it was going to be hard but somehow you don’t quite know how hard it is really going to be until it happens.

Laying awake at night wondering if your husband is going to be okay that day, or whether it could be his last (very bad thoughts to have running around in your head…definitely wouldn’t recommend that to anyone), wondering if you are going to get a phone call or a letter in the mail, and then being let down when neither happens that day. Having exciting news to share and having to write it down on paper so that you don’t forget the next time that he calls.

It is a difficult road to travel down, and those of you that have gone through it know what I mean. Some days are definitely better than others. I keep myself busy playing with Alex, or scrap-booking about all the things that are going on (Eric got me started when I was preggo), making fleece military blankets for some of our friends that are overseas with Eric, or trying to finish my knitting that I will never be done with…

Some days are really hard when I look around our home or when I look at Alex and realize that he is not home and that it will be a long time before he does get home. Those are the worst days. When the only thing that I want is to hear his voice or to get a hug from him. But I know that I am strong and that I can make it through this and that Eric has it way worse than me and that he needs me to be here and stay strong for him and for Alex. I’m just taking it one day at a time!

Alright, enough with the sad things going on in my life and on to Alexander the Great!!!

Well he is getting so big for starters! He turned 6 months old today. Wow - doesn’t seem like I had him that long ago! So why don’t I let you in on all the new things that he can do!

He can roll over both ways and does this all day long. He also takes his arms and rotates his body to the direction that he wants to go and then proceeds to roll his way there! He has found himself a new hiding spot! Quite funny when you think about where it is - under the furniture! He can get himself out of his bouncy chair if I forget to buckle him in (lesson learned)!

He “talks” a mile a minute. Well, more like babbles but when you put the phone up to his ear he won’t make a sound. He smiles big and laughs so loud. He likes to make dinosaur noises which are hard to describe - he sucks in and makes a squeal noise.

He can sit by himself if I put him in the sitting position. He can feed himself his bottle and tries to feed himself baby food. He is on squash now. He loves it but he really didn’t like sweet potatoes very much.
He is doing wonderfully and getting so big. I don’t know what I will do when he can crawl!

Well I don’t know what else to write about so I think that I will end it here. But thank you again for sending those care packages!

Love, Stephanie

Give a child a fish, they eat for a day. Make them get a job, they eat for a lifetime. Give a child a car, they get a personal mechanic…for life.

My life has been exceedingly boring lately - nothing to blog about of any interest to anyone else. Since Vicki is very concerned that readership of my blog will fall off if I don’t have new and interesting posts to be read, she will be filling in for me today!

Heeeeerrrrreeeee’ssss Vicki!

Well, this whole blogging thing was kind of thrown on me last minute here. I think Mom is just looking for excuses to not have to blog anymore.

I had today off from school. Something about Senior Assessment Day. I was so excited in fact I have been looking forward to today for weeks. I even had tonight off from work. So I slept until 12:30 and then I had some waffles. Then I watched TV and took a nap. Now, I’m at Mom and Dad’s house for dinner and to give them some money for school.

You see last year at about this time I was doing a really good job of flunking all of my classes. Mostly because I forgot that one of the most important parts to doing well in school is attending all your classes. So needless to say, I lost my scholarship. It was not exactly the proudest moment of my life in fact far from it. Now, I pay part of my tuition (the part of my tuition that my scholarship used to cover). This semester though Dad challenged me to get a 3.25 GPA and if I did he said that he would give me my part of the tuition back. Which would be really great because I can use it to pay for next semester:)

When I first made this deal, I thought “A 3.25! Oh that won’t be any trouble! I’ll just go to class everyday and the rest will be gravy!” But no. This semester has been really tough. I have gone to every class (I swear!) except one Biology class when all the power went out at my apartments and my alarm clock didn’t go off consequently. My grades are good, don’t get me wrong but that 3.25 is looking more and more unattainable. I’ll be very upset if I end up with a 3.23 or something.

I don’t know how many of you out there are keeping track but for those of you who don’t know, on Sunday it will be 3 years since my father Phil died. Every year since he died, on the anniversary, Steph and I would drive down to Shell Knob (where he lived) and visit the cemetery. Well, this year Stephanie can’t come home (because she lives in Georgia and has a baby) so it has fallen to me to go alone. Luckily, my boyfriend Jaymes is going to drive me, otherwise it would be a very long walk ( I don’t have a car). Anyway, I called Steph yesterday to get directions to the cemetery and these are the very comical directions that she gave me: ” UM, well, you take that road that goes to Springfield (I-44) and get off at the Mt. Vernon/Aurora Exit, then there’s going to be that turny place by the KFC and Long John Silver’s where we saw that homeless guy 2 years ago (we gave him granola bars) and then just follow the signs to Shell Knob, the road to the cemetery is before you get to that one gas station so if you go over the bridge or to where the donut shop was (Dad and Nan owned a few donut shops) you’ve gone to far”. Well, thank you Steph I sure hope I can find the place :)

Other than school, my life is pretty boring. I work at Dryer’s Shoes in the mall, which is an independently owned comfort shoe store. So, we don’t sell like high heels or anything but a lot of our shoes are still really cool. I am what they call a “key holder” which is basically a night shift manager. I get to count the money and bring it to the bank and stuff.

I also have a bunch of great friends and as I said boyfriend whose name is Jaymes. It’s a little weird to be talking about him on my mother’s website being as how she and Dad don’t like him very much. He really is a great guy though and they would really like him if they tried to get to know him.

Well, I blogged. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope some of you even made it down this far and didn’t just stop reading somewhere above. Bye!

Vicki