Thursday 30 October 2008

it's been a while

Ahhhhh, I finally have a few minutes to myself. All of the kids are upstairs playing the Wii, so I figured I would post a short blog to let everyone know what has been going on in the world of Horne.
As most of you know Allen left for his 7th deployment in July. He took a team of 13 guys and has been keeping busy in the desert. For a while he had considered applying for a commission in the Army, but THANK GOD that was short lived. He decided that when he gets home he will apply for OTS and try to get a commission in the Air Force. Please keep him and his guys (and their families) in your prayers.
Since Allen was gone, the kids and I decided to go back home for a few months. I decided that I would home school them, and keep them on the same curriculum that they were on in DODDS. I think home schooling was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. Getting Ritza to do math was like pulling teeth. Martina has a hard time in math, so spent a lot of time on it. Ricky loves math! He would do his assignment in 15 minutes. But getting him to do anything else was a nightmare. I think I spent over $300 a Barnes and Noble trying to find a book that he would enjoy reading. It was nice Because school only took a couple of hours a day, but those 2 hours were HARD!
While we were in NM Ricky decided that he wanted to play tackle football. I was a little reluctant, but with a little persuasion he convinced me. Man, football is a HUGE commitment. We had practice 5 days a week for 2 hours a day and after games started we had practice 4 days a week and a game on Saturday. Thank GOD I had my dad there to help me. He would go to practice once or twice a week, so that I could get home before 8pm. I don't think I ever missed Allen more than I did during football season. It was hard, but we managed and Ricky had a great time.
Azariah turned a year old and started walking while we were in NM. He is a little terror. He got kicked out of nursery at church every Sunday that we went, because he is so rough. I don't think he was trying to be mean, but he doesn't know how to interact with kids his age. This deployment has been really hard on him. After Allen left he quit eating table food. All he wants to do is nurse and use me as his pacifier. Poor little guy!
The kids and I came back to England on Saturday and we had planned on staying until right before Thanksgiving. Then the girls went to Club Beyond (the youth group at the Chapel) and they saw all of their friends and they came home and told me that they don't want to go back to NM. I asked Ricky how he felt and he said that he wanted to stay here and go to school with his friends too, so yesterday I enrolled them back in school.
Now that I am home I am hoping to have more time to organized the house and maybe work on weaning Azariah. I can't believe he is 13 months old and has never slept in his bed. I used to be so good about keeping the kids on track. The girls and Ricky were sleeping through the night by the time they were 2 months old. I had them weaned by the time they were a year, they always took naps and stayed on schedule. Azariah has a mind of his own and he is just as stubborn as his daddy. I think I have finally met my match, with a 26 pound little man named Azariah Francisco Martina Horne! Wish me luck cause I think it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

No comments: