It's Been a While

It's been about a week since I posted so I thought I would give you all a quick update on what is happening with me and the family.
Since my last post I have joined the AAPC (American Association of Professional Coders) and have scheduled myself to take the certification exam.  When (Notice that I didn't say "if") I pass the exam I will be considered an apprentice.  I just need the rest of the experience to finish this and become a Professional Coder.  This process hasn't been cheap.  My books have cost me about $500.00 and the exam and membership to the professional organization were another $370.00.  That cost doesn't even include the cost of the classes at MHCC.  That series included three separate 4-credit courses.  I just need an internship to give me the experience I need, then I will have it in the bag.  Yay for me!
Communication with Mr. Y. has been significantly reduced from the last deployment he made to Afghanistan.  I spoke with him weekly last deployment, and this time it is about every two weeks.  The skype connection has been slow and therefore, it can only be "without video" to avoid connection interruption.  I would love just to talk with him over the phone, but that will happen when it happens.  The strange thing is  Bunny has stopped asking for him.  I thought it might happen, but I wasn't prepared for how sad it would make me.  I have noticed a difference in Sarah's attitude in the last week.  Maybe it is easier for her to just be frustrated with everything else and that's how she has been dealing with it.  There have been so many transitions for her over the last couple of months that there is no way a sane person could prevent being crabby.  I'm really trying to give her a very stable environment so she knows what the predictability of events will be.  Some of you might think these things are very routine, but when other things in your life have been interrupted, routine is comforting.
We have school M-F and then on Friday afternoon/evening we go to dinner with Abuelita.  On Sunday morning we go to church and then have donuts in the rectory afterward. we do homework before the TV ever gets turned on (yes, even the kindergartner's get homework daily).  In between these chore-like activities we have to do some fun things like go to the park to play on the swings, play cards and all the other silly games she likes to play. These things make her life predictable.  I didn't say all of them were fun, but they are all necessary for our family.
We haven't worked on the garage in the last two weeks because we allowed the concrete to cure.  Now we will order the rest of the lumber and get the walls and ceiling started.  We will have this finished before December and hopefully we will have the floor poured before Mr. Y comes home.  As soon as I have new pictures to post to Picasa-Web I will post them for all of you to see the progress we have made.  I need to stress the "WE" of this operation because we have had help.  Sully, Dad, Mikey, Billy, Zack and Mimi have all helped.  Yes, I did help too.
Well, back to the studying.  Have a great day and know that I love you very much and am so glad to be sharing this with you!