Weekend Happenings!

Mike did it again! He surprised me with a Mario Manningham jersey, he plays for Michigan! He had told me I should expect something in the mail and then he asked what size shirt I wore. Well that gave it away right? Wrong! He asked me what I thought it was so I told him I thought it was a JCCS-1 T-shirt. He said that's what it was. Well I was really excited; anything to show my love and support of him and all the other Sailders who are supporting their country. Well when I got the package in the mail and when I opened it, I was totally surprised! I couldn't believe he did that. He is so sweet and thoughtful. Thanks again Mike, I really love my jersey and I can't wait to wear it proudly Saturday when I watch the game!

I had a good time in Delaware. My sister is doing GREAT considering she just had back surgery. I was surprised to see how well she is getting around. I didn't go to the NASCAR race because I wasn't feeling well. Some of it was due to my own fault and the other is because I'm still fighting this damn cold. So I stayed on my sister's couch and watched DA BEARS and started to watch the race during commercials, well I think it was lap 5, my driver Tony Stewart crashed so I was really glad I didn't go after I saw that.

Mike sent me the 1st and 2nd seasons of Desperate Housewives and LOST, so I've been a couch potato watching TV. I started with DHW and I am really enjoying it. I'm going to try to watch as much of LOST as I can this weekend because the 3rd season starts Oct 4th. I figure I will deserve to be a couch potato this weekend because I start working again the following weekend and I think the games go up to early December. So my weekends will be pretty full. I won't have much time to sit around.

As far as football goes from this past weekend. Mike had another GREAT weekend. Michigan beat Wisconsin 27-13, DA Bears beat the Vikings 19-16, but my PATS lost to Denver 17-7. I don't think they showed up to play Sunday. Oh well such is life.....

Again sorry I haven't posted and as I've said before I will try to do better. I hope all is well with everyone and thanks for reading.

I love you Mike!!!!

1/3 of the way!!!!

Sorry I haven't posted but I have been sick with a cold. It seems it's going around. I spoke to Mike's mom and dad today and they are both sick. Everyone at work has it too. I hope it's not an omen for the coming months.

Well Mike & I have hit another milestone. He has had his "feet in the sand" for 4 months now. Looking back it seems as if it's flown by, but looking ahead it seems as if it will never end. I spoke to Mike a few minutes ago and he sounds wonderful! We always have something to talk about and he always makes me smile. I love him and I can't wait to see him again.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to watch the MI game this weekend but I had to say something about MI.....so let's hear it...............GO BLUE!!!!

I'm getting ready to head out the door to go to Delaware. I'm excited as I haven't visited my family in a while. We probably won't do much since Reenie is still recovering from her back surgery, but just being with people who love you and are there for you will be nice. I am supposed to go to the NASCAR race on Sunday but if I'm not feeling better I probably won't go. I've been to a race before with a sinus infection and it wasn't fun at all.

I hope everyone is doing well....Carol & Glen I hope you start feeling better soon. I love you guys!

I LOVE YOU MIKE!!!!

Happy Birthday Dani!!!!

It's your Birthday..........Have a Party!!!!

Dani my niece turns 13 today! I can't believe she's a teenager. I will be going to her birthday party Saturday while I'm in Delaware. I can't wait to spend my day with a bunch of teenage girls!

I LOVE YOU MIKE!!

What a day.........

I chatted with Mike a couple of times today and he is doing so good. He says the temperature is starting to drop which he is very happy about. He actually had to turn off his AC last night because he was too cold! If he is able to come home in January, I'm going to have to hug him the entire time he's here to keep him warm. Darn the bad luck!! You know a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! Maybe we will have an Indian summer while he is here and he won't have to wear a parka the entire time!

This is the time in a "normal" Navy deployment that you start to get really excited. You've past the half point; it makes it difficult to realize we still have a LONG way to go. I miss Mike more and more everyday! I think he is having some homesick days as well. We are doing good, but it is hard. Not much longer and we will be at the half; after that it will be all downhill!

I finally received a call from my mother about Reenie about 900 last night. Reenie did good during the surgery. The doctor had to remove a disc from her back. He really didn't have much more to say, other than we would just have to wait and see how she does. This morning I called my mother, or so I thought, and my first question was "How is she?", I heard giggling and "She is fine, you're talking to she, and she is getting ready to eat, I am starved!" It was my sister. She sounded GREAT! The pain & numbness in her leg is completely gone and the only pain she felt in her back was from the surgery! She was just so happy to be "pain-free". I can't imagine saying that after a 3 hour back surgery so I'm thinking she was in serious pain before the surgery. She was waiting for my mother to get there so she could go home. They sure don't keep you long anymore, do they? They were going to give her morphine for the hour long ride home. I'm getting ready to call to find out how her day went. Hopefully she's still feeling the same as she was this morning.

I found out today that my SportsPlex job is starting back up, YEA!!!!!!!! My first night to work will be October 6th! I really am excited! Although as the title to yesterday's post says, it will just be one more thing to make the weekends fly by........

I love you, Mike!

The weekends fly by, but the weeks drag.......

Another weekend has come & gone. I know I said I would post after the game on Saturday, but I actually met up with some friends, who just happen to be MI fans and lets just say we celebrated the 47-21 win over ND! Even if you're not a MI or a ND fan or even if you don't watch college football this was a GREAT game! I'm sure ND is still wondering what hit them. Well let me tell you, A-Maize-ing Blue hit them!!!! Mike & I had a great weekend with our NFL teams as well. DA Bears came out on top over the Lions 34-7 and the PATS just barely came out on top over the Jets 24-17. The PATS were leading 24-0 at the half and it seemed to be an easy win, but the Jets came out after the half with a purpose and almost came back. It's a good thing almost only counts in horseshoes!!!!

I talked to Mike a couple of times this weekend. I was really excited because he was able to see the Michigan game. He wasn't as lucky in seeing DA Bears but I think this weekend he really wanted to see the MI game so he was happy.

It is my sister, Vicki's birthday today. Happy Birthday Vicki!

It is also my nephew's anniversary. Happy Anniversary Brian & Salina!

My younger sister, Reenie is scheduled to have back surgery today. My mother took Reenie to the hospital around 730 this morning. I hadn't heard anything all day, so I finally called my other sister, Sheri @ 600 pm to find out what was going on and she said they JUST took Reenie into surgery! I could not believe it. She had to lay in bed all day with an IV in, no food, and nothing to drink! My mother kept asking what was going on and the nurses couldn't (or wouldn't) tell them anything. I guess at 400 Reenie had a little fit, which I don't blame her, saying she was going to pull the IV out and go home. She had a horrible headache, I'm sure it was from a combination of things. I'm not sure how long the surgery will be, but I'm praying everything goes as planned. I will be sure to let you know.

Well not much else to say. Sorry I haven't been doing very well at posting. I will try to do better.

I love you, Mike!

Sorry!!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I am headed out the door to watch the Michigan and ND game. I will post more after the game...

GO BLUE!!!!

Hump Day.....

Not much to talk about. It's been a very quiet week. The only thing that has happened is my dishwasher quit working. I called the landlord and they are supposed to come fix it.

Some friends of ours are coming to visit from Fredericksburg, VA on Friday. I am so excited. They have 3 kids so we should have a good time. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend as well. The baby, who I think is 1 1/2 years old, I can't remember, has never been to the beach so we're excited to take him.

The following weekend I will be going to Delaware to visit with my mother and my sisters. My younger sister is having back surgery on Monday. I'm really worried about that. She's already had one surgery last year and now she's just gotten worse. I'm sure she will be fine. I will leave after work on Friday, spend Saturday with my mother and younger sister and then go to the NASCAR race in Dover on Sunday. It should be a great time.

Mike seems to be doing good. He finally got his computer back and it's finally right. So he's been busy getting caught up. He's been doing some exercise classes and seems to be really liking them. He did "Hot Yoga" today. I had never heard of it, but I guess you do Yoga but with no AC on...he said he felt like he was in the shower. He has even done a STEP class.

Well that is about it for now. I hope everyone is doing great!

I love you Mike!

We Will Always Remember!

Today is a day we will always remember. As I watch some of the TV specials, the one I have enjoyed the most are about the babies who were born 9/11/01. Looking at their faces today as they celebrate their 5th birthday, what you see is hope and faith. America lost thousands of innocent people this day 5 years ago and we must never forget. But there were also thousands of babies born. The children give us all a reason to move forward and do what we can do to make America a safer place.

Thanks to all of the service men & women who are fighting for our freedom everyday.

This is one of the best videos remembering 9/11 I have seen ....it takes time to download, it is about 7 megs....you will not regret it....

Mt. Trashmore is a park here in Virginia Beach. This morning radio stations and TV stations sponsored a Living Flag. It would have been GREAT to be able to have gone, but I really couldn't afford to take time off from work.


Mike, as my friend, lover and solemate....THANK YOU!!!! I am so proud of you babe and I will always be proud to say WE did this together! It has been tough but very rewarding.....I have never been prouder....keep up the awesome attitude! I am here and will always be here waiting for your safe return.

I love you Michael!!!!

Michigan 41, CMU 17

Well I have to say, I am really enjoying watching Michigan play football. Of course I wish Mike was here watching with me, but I did get to talk to him during the game. Unfortunately he was unable to see today's game. His plan was to go to bed early though and get up in time to watch the ND & Penn State game, but he was so excited about Michigan he couldn't sleep, so he called so I could tell him the score. It was so cute. He reminds me of a kid on Christmas morning!

Work has been slow for him, as of right now. The computer guys have not been able to get him the computer access he needs to do his job, so he's been getting a little frustrated. He's afraid of giving the impression of being a slacker so hopefully they will be able to get everything worked out soon. I know he is VERY anxious to do the job he's there to do. Once he gets the access he needs I'm sure everything will work out.

Well not much more to say......

GO BLUE!!!!

I love you Mike!!!!

Full Moon and the Beach!!!

Two of my most favorite things are the title of this post. When my nephew was 6 I had him convinced that Aunt Kym turned into a warewolf when it was a full moon! To this day, he's 32 now, I will call him and tease him. When he see's my number on his phone he always says, Yes Aunt Kym, I know it's a full moon!!!! Gay I know but a memory i will always treasure.

With that said, I have passed my love of the full moon onto Mike. So tonight I went to the beach for a walk and took some pictures of the moon! I will only post one picture because really they all look alike no matter which angle I took the pictures from. But I have to say....it was a beautiful night for a walk on the boardwalk. The one thing missing was Mike....I can not wait until he gets home so we can go together.... Mike, can you guess where I was when I took this picture? Yes babe, besides the beach on the boardwalk!!!!

The other thing I noticed was the beach was empty. Kind of nice after a long summer of tourist. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we have people who want to visit Virgina Beach, but after a long summer it is nice to be able to go there and not have to fight for a parking space.

That's it for tonight.

I love you Mike!!!!

American Music Fest, part 2

As you know from my previous post , I was unable to post some pictures. I was finally able to, so please take a look.

We had a GREAT time! We saw 3 Doors Down....they were awesome. Brady came out with some of his friends. Of course he's the one with his tongue sticking out...I'm not sure why they had their sunglasses on, but it was funny because I turned around and when I saw they had them on, I put mine on and they thought is was the coolest thing ever. I guess they still haven't realized, it doesn't matter how old you are, you can still be cool. No really, I feel very fortunate, all of Brady's friends are very nice kids and I get along with all of them.

Here is a picture of the band.....you can also see how close we were able to get to the stage.

This is a picture taken of Brady & I earlier in the day. We could not have asked for a prettier day, especially after the weather we had Friday with Ernesto. As you can see by my hair the wind was blowing off the water, but it made for a perfect setting. The only person missing was Mike.

I can't wait until next year. My sister and I have already decided to get a room on the boardwalk, so we don't have to worry about driving home after the concerts. If you ever want to have a vacation in Virginia Beach, this is the weekend. You really can't beat it. This year they had 50 bands and if you buy your ticket ahead of time, you pay $30.00 for the entire weekend. Yes you get to see all the bands, well all the ones you can get to. The biggest stage is the one we were at, it's called the 5th street stage and the furthest one from that is the 31st street stage. So it's quite a hike and if you only have 30 minutes between bands you would almost have to run...I'm sure it's been done, just not by me!!! Anyway it's a good time, I would highly recommend it for anyone.

I was able to chat with Mike over the weekend as well. He is still having trouble getting the new group to work with him or I should say getting the new group to get his computer up & running so he is able to work. He is on them every day and it seems they have a different reason on a daily basis. I know he wishes he could get going and do what he was sent there to do.

Well not much more to report. It seems as if "blogger" has been fixed. I sure hope so I tried posting yesterday, but I wasn't even able to log on. Keep your fingers crossed.

I love you and miss you so much Mike!

Good Bye Ernesto....Hello Football and The American Music Fest

Yesterday was a fun filled day. First as promised I displayed the colors........ Proudly!!!! This weekend is the American Music Festival. I went with my sister and her boyfriend. We had a BLAST! We saw The Zapp Band, Midnight Star and Kool & the Gang, they were all old school bands but they were GREAT!

As I was walking back from the boardwalk towards the stage, I took the picture on the left. We were standing as close to the stage as we were allowed, which was right up front. I thought it came out pretty good. See the moon Mike? It was a beautiful night. The other picture is of my sister, Sheri and I. Would you ever guess we are sisters? Most people don't believe we actually have the same parents, but we do. And she is a natural blonde!








We met the coolest couple later in the night. What is really strange is they are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they are here celebrating her birthday. Well her name is Sherry (she spells it different than my sister) and her boyfriends name is Reggie. My sister's first husband's name was Reggie. Unfortunely we lost Reggie at a very young age, he was 25. So it was strange that their names are Sherry & Reggie AND his birthday is July 24, mine is July 25 and my sisters is July 28....and Sherry is the same age i am....so it was like we were meant to meet. Do you ever feel like that? When you meet certain people it's like you have known them all your life (which is how we all felt) and your paths were just meant to cross... We are hoping to meet up with them again tonight.



I will let you know how tonight goes!

I LOVE YOU MIKE!

Triple Number!!! Finally!

I know I've posted twice today but with everything going on I did forget to mention something VERY important..........and it's something I've been waiting for long time...Look at the "Feet in the sand" counter....Mike has been in Iraq for 100 days.............only 265 to go............

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU MICHAEL GLEN VAN HAREN!!!!

During Ernesto!

Here are a few pictures during the storm. These are taken in front of my house. There is usually a sidewalk. If you look hard enough you might be able to see it.























The thing is...it's still raining....it's slowing down some, so that's good news. I know it could have been worse, so I am not complaining.

I thought I would share......

I love you Mike!!

Ernesto!

Well Ernesto is making himself known. There has been a lot of flooding just south of me. We haven't even gotten the worst of it yet but it rained and the wind blew ALL night. We needed the rain but I was hoping it wouldn't be this bad. As of right now (5:20 am EST) over 18,000 people have lost electricity just in Virginia. Hopefully I don't lose mine. Richmond is flooded in many areas already. The thing is....the storm hasn't even reached us yet...per se' ...and this is just a Tropical Storm!!

The good news...the storm is supposed to be outta here this afternoon or tonight. I was concerned because this weekend is the Music Festival at the beach. There will be over 50 bands down there over the weekend. I have been looking forward to it for a while now. It is also the weekend considered "Locals take over!" Most of the tourists have left so we, the locals, take back our beach! It's a lot of fun!! I wish Mike was here, he would love it!

A couple of things of interest to me in reference to reality shows...As you know from an earlier post, I am a HUGE Survivor fan, it seems GM has pulled their sponsorship for the show....Supposedly, it has nothing to do with the way the teams are being split up this season. Another favorite is The Apprentice, Carolyn Kepcher has been given the famous words...."Your Fired" from The Donald! It seems her head got a little big with all the attention she was receiving and was not handling her duties at the Trump organization.

Brady & Jess spent the evening with me last night. We had a blast. Jessica asked to see some of Brady's baby pictures, so we sat around and laughed a lot. Of course they were being BRATS and laughing at all my hair styles and my clothes. Brady was also weirded out about how he was dressed. He was like MOM you dressed me like a dork! Which I didn't; I had to remind them....times change guys!!! We had a really nice time. Then Brady fixed dinner. I was like you don't have to but he loves to cook so he fixed us dinner. It was very good. I wish I could say he got his cooking skills from me, but I have to be honest....his father did most of the cooking while he was growing up...sooooo....he used to be shocked if I was in the kitchen cooking...he would ask, Mom is dad sick or something? LOL! Kids....gotta love em!

I wasn't planning on chatting with Mike this morning because he had a meeting to go to, but the meeting finished earlier than he thought, so we were able to....YEA!!!! He didn't have such a good day yesterday so I was VERY happy to see and hear that he is having a much better day today!

Well I need to get ready for work....have a great day everyone!

I love you Mike :)