Back Together Again

About two months after completing my deployment to Romania, the girls were set to finish school and finally come back home. In the meantime, I visited them in Texas, moved houses during my reintegration leave, and took on additional responsibilities at my job. But like everything in the interim, it all just seemed like preparation for when they got back home. After a cross country car ride and two more weeks of leave, the girls and I are happily back together at Fort Campbell and ready to get back to being our awesome little family again.

Since about February, the girls and I have had a very detailed plan for how we were going to spend my post-deployment leave. Initially, we were going to head down to Orlando to go to Universal Studios Orlando (including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), stopping in Chattanooga and Atlanta on the way. Heading back to Kentucky, we were going to stop at Cape Canaveral, Savannah, and Atlanta again. We had a ton of activities planned, including children’s museums, aquariums, and partaking in local cuisine, but that all came crashing down after coming home to the mold issue in our residence. After moving houses and buying new furniture, I had completely burned through the savings set aside for the trip. Thankfully, the girls understood and did not care where we spent our vacation, but “just wanted to be with Dad.” And all that worrying that they would be disappointed was for nothing, because we still managed to have an amazing vacation.

After picking them up following their last day of school (Elaina and Gabriella completed 3rd and 2nd grade, respectively), we leisurely drove back to Kentucky, stopping in Arkansas around the halfway point. I made sure to stop as often as the girls wanted, whether it was to get out of the car to find a playground or to cool down with (another) ice cream or popsicle, as the drive back was not intended to be one of efficient time management.

The slow pace allowed us to take in some of the finer things in life though, such as good old fashioned Texas Barbeque at multiple locations and every playground the girls could spot from the interstate. Homemade ice cream and small-town bakeries were on the docket as well.

Once we got home though, it took the girls about an hour to get back into their routine. The difficult part was deciding what to do first. After choosing to organize their rooms, including getting me to hang all their pictures up, the girls went right back to baking. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough was the first thing that they wanted to make, and since we were on vacation, I allowed it.

And the cooking and baking did not stop there. Every day over leave we made something, including several varieties of Belgian waffles, soups, and chicken recipes. And since I am still baking a lot of cakes, it was nice to have my official frosting testers handy for immediate feedback.

Elaina has also been cooking at her Mom’s house, so I got served hot dog and cheese omelets our first morning back. And since she can make instant ramen by herself now, she is officially ready to survive college (at least food-wise).

Speaking of ramen, trying to get them away from the normal two brands in American grocery stores, we started branching out by going to the local Asian market. While a little more expensive, we have been expanding our ramen palate, with the hopes of eventually making our own (and of course I already have the cookbook for that).

We also got back into our gaming routine, including Uno, Magic Market, and several different puzzles. As always, the girls beat me pretty handily.

Particularly at harder games, such as Monopoly. Is it too early to teach them Axis & Allies or War of the Ring so I can have somewhat of a fighting chance? At least I am still dominating Clue: Scooby Doo!, but that is usually due to unforced errors on Elaina’s part and less on my particular gaming skill.

We did add a few new ones to our game closet though, including On a Scale of One to T-Rex and Happy Salmon. While both are party games meant for larger groups, we still have a lot of fun playing them with just the three of us, sometimes even playing by the rules.

The activity that the girls were looking forward to the most was the new trampoline. They had severely outgrown their previous one, so after finding a great deal online, the girls arrived back at Fort Campbell with a 16-footer waiting for them. Yes, it takes up about half of our backyard, but it is well worth it. The girls and I have been getting plenty of exercise, bouncing whenever we get a free moment. With a giant trampoline, it is a surefire way to never be bored and get a little exercise (even though your leg muscles will absolutely be sore the next day).

And because it is June, we absolutely took advantage of the local pools and splash pads. Dolan Pool (on Fort Campbell) is pretty close to our house, so we headed down on a pretty hot day to take a dip.

They have a pool at their Mom’s house and have become very good swimmers. But, as always, swim time eventually devolved into jumping on Dad, trying to push me under the water as much as possible. Probably not the safest outlet, but they seem to enjoy it.

After swimming in the pool and running around the splash pad, it was nice to just bask in the sun, trying to get some color back in me from the Romanian Winter.

To continue with the water theme, the girls also wanted to take advantage of the scorching Kentucky weather by having water gun fights. After buying some water guns and spray tubes, we have spent hours running around our front yard getting each other soaked. To quote one of my neighbors, “You all looked like you were having some fun.” We absolutely were, and continue to do so.

Busting out the easels, Play-Doh, glitter, and slime, the girls continued their artistic streak with painting, crafts, and coloring. Nothing too fancy, but trying to get as many activities in as we could before my leave ended and they had to attend summer camp (activity-focused all-day child care).

With the girls serving lemonade, paired with their current snacks of choice (chocolate chip muffins, Cheez-Its, goldfish, Pringles, and Ritz crackers), I also attended far too many tea parties in the last two weeks.  But the lemonade was top-shelf, so I am not really complaining.  But Elaina definitely made me take sips with my “pinkies up.”

In trying to find a team sport for Elaina (volleyball, soccer, softball, and basketball were options) while Gabriella attended tumbling, I threw out some individual sports just to gauge interest.  Elaina said she would like to try tennis, so we grabbed some rackets from the garage and headed to the nearest court about a mile away.  After thoroughly enjoying it (and doing surprisingly well), the girls both picked out new youth rackets and we started playing regularly.  They are certainly getting better, with the goal seemingly to make me get as much exercise as possible chasing around their errant shots.  With that, they are definitely succeeding.

So far, teaching the girls some basics about personal finance has been a resounding success.  While I expected them to slowly grasp the concepts, they very quickly caught on that 1) If they save instead of spend their money, they will have a lot more money (which could lead to larger purchases), and 2) Investing gives significantly more interest than a savings account.  Even though I put all these rules in place so that they could not “game the system,” I did not account for them just putting most of their money in their investing jars and then watching it grow.  Well played, Girls.

As part of decorating our new home, we had to get new rugs for both the play area and the living room. I wanted to give them more of a say in how the interior of the house looked, and the concept worked out very well. Even at nine and seven, the girls already have a much better fashion sense than their old man Dad.

After trampolining and cookie dough, the girls were very interested in getting back into our routine for Calkins Family Movie Night. Even though their first pick back was Sky High (and all its cheesiness), this was a great routine to get back into. I think we all missed popcorn, M&Ms, and Junior Mints. Now if I could just get them to start picking quality movies…

In preparing them for the next year, we also dropped by their new school:  Barkley Elementary School. Elaina will be headed into 4th Grade while Gabriella will be going into 3rd.

Since it was Summer, there were no classes in session, so the principal allowed us to walk the grounds and check out their classrooms, including the library, music room, and art room.  If they were not excited about their new school beforehand, they are definitely excited about it now.

And with our karaoke machine, we sang a lot of Disney songs.  A lot.  That is all I am going to say about it.

Something that the girls were really looking forward to was exploring the rest of the playgrounds on Fort Campbell.  We took a few hours just to drive around post, stopping at every area they wanted to test out.  We found an amazing playground in the middle of nowhere (out by Gate Six) and had a great time playing spaceship for a couple hours (I was the astronaut they kept sending on missions).  Even though it started pouring on us, it never dampened our good time (no pun intended).

If you could not tell from the stories and the pictures, we are all extremely happy to be back together again, and were just glad we could spend two full weeks together fully getting back into our routine. Mission accomplished. It has been a long and difficult year for all of us, but I am going to make it up to them by continuing to try to be the best Dad I possibly can.

Thanks for checking in on us.

Cheers!