Deployment Party

Here she comes! Returning from Fort Hunter Liggett CA for her party last 2 weeks at home. She has found out they are now going to Fort Hood TX instead of Fort Dix for 4 weeks. They have given them a 3 day weekend in Fort Hood prior to Afghanistan deployment July 24-27 so I shall be going to Texas to see her for one last time until she comes home to us in July 2011!

PFC Darleen Dolbee

As you all know both Samantha and Darleen are in the Army Reserves. Darleen's unit has been called to Afghanistan for 400 days of service. She has been on active duty since April 28th and is getting ready for training and service!

Thursday she leaves for Ft. Hunter Ligget in Monterey County, CA for three weeks. She comes home June 2 and then she has a black out period from June 3 - June 17. Then on June 21 they leave for Ft. Dix in New Jersey for four weeks.

She is at Ft. Dix for 4 weeks of training, then they get a 3 day pass and when they return they fly to Kuwait for 7-10 days and then head to their destination in Afghanistan. Her return home eta is July 2011.

Saturday June 12, 2010 we are having a deployment party for her. It's crazy that just a year ago my little girls graduated from High School. 19 years ago today was my first mothers day, when I was just 3 months pregnant and still thought it was only one baby. We didn't find out for sure they were twins until my ultrasound in July 1991, then 4 months later they were here!

Semester ends Saturday!

I didn't realize I haven't blogged since February. And Karissa thinks she is a blogger slacker! There has been so much going on, I finish my semester of online classes on Saturday! I think I got 2 A's (Nevada History & Gen. Psychology) 1 B (History 101) and maybe a C (critical thinking). I tried to get all A & B but this Critical Thinking class is like geometry! Totally don't know what I'm reading most of the time! And this poor teacher of mine has about 3 students petitioning against her for some lame reason. She posted a huge message and I commented back that I thought she did a good job, and any time I sent and email she replied! Not sure what the other students problem is.
Then June 2 - July 30 I am taking 2 summer school classes! They are 4 weeks each, one in June and one in July. They are both English classes I think (can't log into my school page on Sunday).
I am pushing myself to get done with my prerequisites in Fall 2010 so I can register at UNLV nursing program in January 2011!

Georgia in April

We went to Georgia to visit Cousin Lisa and her family. She was only 3 hours away from Darleen while at Ft Jackson, SC and they became her second family. We had such a great time in 4 short days! We went looking for silly bands for Katie, went to Wal-mart, cooked, ate at an awesome Mexican restaurant, made tie-dye shirts, went shopping at Charming Charlies, drove through Atlanta, and ate at The Varsity.
We started off by going to Baby land General Hospital, home of the Cabbage patch dolls.
I found my cabbage patch twin! Katie and I adopted suprise twins. She got a boy and a girl and I got twin boys!

It was so fun, I had wanted to go there since I got my first cabbage patch dolls in 1984~ Now they have new friends!We were there for the birth of a new cabbage patch baby and the little girls got to give it his first and middle name.
We found some sweet trucks on they way back.

We had a blast looking around in Gay, Georgia for the Big Red Oak covered bridge.
Found an old cemetery on this Big Oak Plantation, we thought might take us to the covered bridge. It didn't, it was a range and we got asked "if you ladies know where you are" we told the guy "actually no! we are looking for the Big Red Oak bridge!" He told us how to get there.We went to Senoia, Georgia this cool little town they filmed Fried Green Tomatoes in amongst other movies.

We ate lunch at the Redneck Gourmet diner. Looked at some antique stores and had a blast!
We also found a sweet man's type gas station, one stop shop! It sold knives, guns, ammo, food, lottery tickets, gas and had a pool table! Hoooey! Welcome to the South!

We had a great time looking for FDR little white house, and when we finally got there, they were closed. We talked to one of the guides and told him Darleen was deploying to Afghanistan in June and so he took us in and took our picture. He told us there were no tours that day anyway, because PBS was there filming a special on the FDR house that would air in the Spring 2011~

We saw the unfinished portrait that was being painted as FDR had a heart attack, then died later that day. We also got to see the completed portrait after his death.
When the last day was done, we wanted to make souvenirs of our trip. We made tie-die sister shirts.

On our way to the airport we stopped off at The Varsity, an old hot dog joint that was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. It is the largest and oldest operating Drive in in the US

Thank you Cousin Lisa and the Carlock Family for showing us such a good time in Georgia! We will be back next summer when Dee gets home!

Back to school

So I did it! I signed up online for 4 classes at CSN this semester. I am taking 12 credits all on-line from my home! Its great and I have a lot of reading to do. I am taking 1/2 semester classes so I have History of Nevada and Critical Thinking the first 1/2 (until march 15) then the second 1/2 I have Psychology and American History.

So far so good! I have a big goal in mind and I don't want to stop until I reach it! I have changed gears and will be enrolling at UNLV in a year for the Nursing program. I'm going to be an RN and maybe an RNM or Nurse Practitioner. I'm thinking of doing Oncology or looking into working at the VA hospital. We have only just begun so I have some time to research it!

home for Christmas

Thank you Christmas Exodus! The twins have gone 6 months with out seeing each other. We got to the airport a bit late and Dee found us first! She was squeeling and her hair was bouncing and the sisters grabbed each other and hugged for a few minutes.
Then we took her home and dad was waiting. They hugged and cried for about 5 minutes. This was awesome and we all cried and laughed together.
She was only home for 2 weeks so we wanted to make the best of it! We hung out at home. Dee made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and we made tamales for New Years.
Karissa and Nate came down Christmas eve and flew out to Oklahoma on Christmas afternoon.
Dee and her dad. The best part about this picture is the fact that they are looking the same. glasses, bottle, and you cant see it but they both have on flannel plaid pj pants.


As you can see, our cats love Christmas too. Rage is tromping in all the wrapping paper, Leeloo is eating my tree.

Oh and yes, those are zip ties holding the branches that I cut off that made my tree look lame. I got kudos from Eddie and Nate for my engineering genius.

My girls will be home for Christmas!

I am a Proud Army Mom and my girls will be home for Christmas!
Darleen - PFC Dolbee graduated BCT on 11/20/09 at Ft Jackson, MO and started AIT school at the same base the following monday 11/23/09. She gets 2 weeks off for Holiday Exodus and will be home Thursday 12/17! Cousin Lisa is getting her from the base on 12/16 and driving to their house in Georgia then taking her to the airport in Atlanta to fly home to Vegas~ then on 12/31 she will fly back to Atlanta and stay with Tim & Lisa until they return her to base 1/3/10. She will graduate AIT 2/3/10! Samantha - PV2 Dolbee graduated BCT on 9/10/09 at Ft Leonard Wood, Mo and began AIT school there a week later 9/21/09. She graduates from AIT this Friday 12/11 at 8:00 am and then will get her crap together, shuttle to the airport and fly to Dallas, then fly home to Vegas! She is DONE! Now she will be a full fledged weekend warrior~ HOOAH!