And so it goes..

Well, the Rhode Island said time's up and that they need Dave more than we do. We lucked out & got an extra day with him rather than him leaving Saturday, but the boat got underway yesterday. So here we go again - round five. Such is life as a Navy family. We miss him already, but we've made it through four, we'll make it through this one too. Everyone knows that I can't specify when we think he'll be home, or anything along those lines, but I'll make sure to let everyone know when the information becomes unclassified.

To continue with the Navy news, Dave has decided to re-up. He's going to make a go of it & do the full twenty - or at least that's the plan as of right now. He will be reenlisting while underway. This leaves us on the RI for at least another two years, & then he'll be on shore duty. We're hoping for shore duty here, or in Jacksonville if not Kings Bay, so that we don't have to sell the house or change Shelbye's school. Of course, trying to plan anything with the Navy is about as productive as nailing Jello the wall, so we'll see what happens.

Shelbye is, as always, doing great in school. She's looking forward to Halloween, especially since she'll be using her little brother's cuteness to score extra candy. She has a plan, & she's already made it known. As you can tell from the pictures, she's still the same little bookworm. We should be getting her report card here soon. She's growing like a weed & has almost caught up to me in height, as if that's a big surpise! :)

Chase is getting bigger by the day. He now has a whopping eight teeth & is working on another. He's a little over 20 pounds now & is in 18 month clothes at 13 months. He's doing lots of "big boy" things, & even went so far as to give up his bottle just after his first birthday. He's been on the big boy sippy cups ever since. He's figured out how to use his spoons & forks, but sometimes still prefers his hands. As of right now he still isn't walking, but he did stand up on his own for any significant amount of time yesterday - almost a minute! It figures, the day Dave got underway, bless his heart. Chop will be walking before we know it & then it'll be game on. I'll never be able to catch him.

Everything else is still the same ol'. School is.. well.. time consuming to say the least. One of my four classes will end next week. I have my final Thursday night. I've only gotten one B so far, so I'm pretty darn tickled. Then I'll be down to three classes. Oh what will I do with all that free time? LOL I've started *trying* to quilt again. Thanks to Grandpa Jack telling me Grandma Ruth's secret of sewing it inside out, I might actually make some headway this time! Shelbye & I will be working on lots of fun winter crafts this patrol to keep us busy. The baking has already begun with the cute pumpkin & ghost Halloween cookies we sent underway with Dave.

That's pretty much all the newness with the Gladdens. Hope everyone is having a good Coumbus day!