21 graces

Disclaimer: This week's list sounds particularly exciting, and it was.  However, staying busy (especially in this extremely hot and/or thunderstorm-y summer weather) is essential to surviving deployment.

1. Sydney's first day of preschool

2. Friday night dinner out with other single-due-to-deployment friends
3. FaceTime with Chet (technology amazes me)
4. A Saturday morning trip to the coffee shop and splash pad
5. A successful Saturday (Saturdays and Sundays are the hardest for me during deployments)
6. An evening trip to the park
7. The fact that the girls enjoy their Sunday School classes, allowing me to attend my own class and church
8. A successful Sunday (see #5)
9. An evening bike ride/walk
10. Going to the gym with Lorelei as soon as we drop Sydney off at preschool (the preschool and gym are within five minutes of each other)
11. Lunch at the Walmart Subway with L (did I mention I'm a huge fan of not cleaning up breakfast/lunch/snack/dinner messes at home?)
12. A post-dinner trip to the FroYo Shop...where Sydney and Lorelei both danced their hearts out to the music playing over the speakers

I didn't get a good action shot of Syd dancing, but here she is in all her accessorized glory.

13. A morning to myself
14. Scoring great deals at the consignment shop***
15. An evening trip to the mall to run off some energy on a drizzly evening
16. A post-nap trip to the local children's museum
17. Sharing a delicious pot of homemade soup with a neighbor (whose husband is also deployed...she made the soup, not me...I just ate it)
18. A great catch-up conversation with a dear, dear friend
19. A late afternoon trip to the pool, thanks to a break in the summer storms
20. Half-price cheeseburger day at Sonic
21. Not having to clean up a dinner mess due to aforementioned half-price cheeseburger day at Sonic (!)

***I have to share how good of a deal I got at the consignment shop: 1 pair of practically new maternity jeans, a dance leotard in the next size for Syd, three pairs of footed tights for Syd, a belt for Syd, 1 pair of pajamas for Syd = $9.03.  Granted, I had a little over $11 in credit at the shop, but I would have happily paid $20 too!