Cookies, Repair Calls and Everything Else

Today has been a very long day. When we woke up this morning, I thought we would have a nice relaxed day with not much to do. Wrong. Joey and I have been working hard on our letters and the sounds that they make. We also have been spending a lot of time working on a "top secret" Christmas project for Daddy. But...it seems the boy is unable to keep a secret so I am sure Brandon will know about it soon if he doesn't already.
We had to call the housing people again today. The fridge was making a noise that wasn't normal. These poor people must think I am crazy when it comes to noise. They have replaced all but one fan in our house and two washers because of noise and now the fridge is bothering me. They came just after lunch and after pulling the fridge out and cleaning the coils, they decided the fridge needs to be replaced but they have none to replace it with right now. They are waiting for a shipment of new appliances soon....so we wait. So...all that is left to replace now is the dryer, the stove and the dish washer. No strange noise coming from them yet.
We have a new family living next door and their shipment of household goods have not arrived yet. The military lends them some temporary furniture but it does not include things like a vacuum or a broom. She came over to borrow both. After giving her the explanation on how the vacuum worked (we have a Rainbow so it is a little involved) she asked if I ran a preschool out of my home or something. I had no clue what she was talking about. She pointed out all the things on the wall and it made me laugh. We have the Letter People proudly displayed on the wall across from the table. They are about 8" tall and colored and laminated. Then, over Joey's door are cut out letters and Sesame Street Characters spelling out his name. Last, there is the "Make a Better Choice Chair". It also has large colored and laminated letters telling what it is above it. Guess it could be confused as day care.
Today has been a "Cooking Day" for us as well. Joey helped me to make dinner tonight and then, following a trip to the gym, we all made gingerbread cookies together as a family. Fun Fun Fun. Joey likes to help stir and to measure the ingredients and gets rather upset if you don't give him the chance to help.
My schedule is starting to fill up a bit. We have only two other Navy families in our Branch(church), the rest of them are Air Force. We try and forgive them for that. One of the other Families has three children, ages 4, 2 and 6 months. Sister French also teaches piano lessons and is obviously having issues keeping the kids under control while she is teaching. I have very much wanted to take piano lessons sooo...we worked out a deal. I will be watching her children during her other lessons two days a week and I get lessons. Joey is looking forward to having friends coming over to play or going to their house (we are still trying to work out the details on the where and how).
We sure miss everyone back in the states. Its been hard to not be able to simply pick up the phone whenever I have the want to call and see how everyone is doing. No, we have to check the time and do the math to figure out just what time it is where.
Hope everyone is doing well. Time to get ready for bed here. Tomorrow is a busy day as well. We are meeting Brandon at the Weasels Den (a rec. center here on base with a rick climbing wall, put-put golf, a moon jump, and go-carts) for a picnic lunch and so we can watch Daddy climb the walls and Joey can play with the other kids. After that we get to join Daddy at the gym for an hour. They make all the service members go to the gym here, we might as well join him. They have a nice separate room just for parents. They have a little half wall dividing the room with cardio equipment on one side and toys on the other. After that is a quick dinner and then off to church for enrichment night. Fun fun fun.