Counting Up

So this is a project I've been wanting to do for a while since the deployment started. 

In 2008, we counted up the deployment (as opposed to counting down) with little paper hearts we taped in the hallway.  This was much to the chagrin of my landlord who was trying to sell the house we were living in at the time.  Counting up seems like a better deal then counting down for two reasons.

1) I like the idea of just taking it seven days at a time.  Each week is an accomplishment for all five of us.

2)Deployments aren't set schedules, and if for some reason it does get extended, we can add on more weeks as the time goes on.



This time around, I purchased some little foam cards from the Dollar Store, each just a little larger then the size of an index card, and printed out a little sailboat from a clip-art program.  Each week we complete during deployment, we move the ship over to that card.  Since I've been slacking with this project, we started out on week 5.  I have to say, it looks a little daunting being at the beginning, but I look forward to seeing that ship move forward!

In other news, we had a fantastic weekend.  My mom, sister and nephew drove up and the grown-ups shared lots of wine, good food and laughter, while the kids shared playtime with their cousin.   I'm so blessed to have family within driving distance!  I couldn't do this otherwise. 

My wonderful husband spent the last few days in Malaysia and it was nice for a chance for him to get some liberty after quite a few days at sea.  The highlight of his trip was having a foot massage in which he dunked his feet into a fish tank, and the fish proceeded to eat off all of the dead skin.  It sounds pretty gnarly, but when you wear those steel-toed boots every day for hours and hours, I'm sure it was Heaven for him.  Somewhere a PETA member is covering his ears and going, "La la la la la."