Just stuff...

I know it's been 3 weeks since I last posted anything but there just hasn't been anything to write about. So, I will just ramble for a bit giving updates on random stuff.

Weather:
The snow melted about 2-3 weeks ago. It still freezes at night but depending on the day our temperatures range from 40° to 65°. This week, however, we are supposed to have some beautiful 70° weather!! Maybe those little buds on the trees will finally blossom, the grass will turn completely green, and some spring flowers will bloom. I can't complain though because I thought for sure we would still be getting snow right now. I didn't think we would see it leave until May. The locals say we had a mild winter and an early spring. How lucky were we?!

Jaren's Job (the Army):
For those that don't know what Jaren has been working on here for the last eight months, he plans and coordinates training for units deploying that come through Ft McCoy. Each unit spends a month or two at a "Mobilization Station" where they get paperwork done and train on what they will be doing while deployed. Since he is the only engineer officer (or engineer soldier in general) in his unit, he specifically plans the training for all different types of engineer units coming through. They have a one week simulation where they are training 24 hours a day. This is to give them a feel of what it will be like during deployment to have to do their job at any moment, day or night. This also means Jaren works long hours during these week long training sessions called a Mission Readiness Evaluation (MRE). Last week he probably averaged 12-15 hours a day. A new unit will be starting their MRE this week so he will be working long hours again. This will continue pretty much through April since there are back to back MREs during the month. He won't get much time off or even very many breaks. Poor guy! At least he will get his birthday off on the 17th after being gone all week!

Visitors:
My youngest sister, Ashley is visiting this week during her spring break. So far she has mostly stayed in her "dungeon" in the basement listening to music while texting or sleeping. She only arrived on Saturday and will be staying for the week. She's not really being forced to stay in the "dungeon". We don't have much in the basement other than our sweet home theater setup so she pretty much gets the whole thing to herself. It's just really dark down there so she calls it the "dungeon".
Once Ashley heads back to Washington, I will have a week to re-clean everything for my sister Kristina to come visit. I like having visitors! They will probably be the only ones we get here in Wisconsin since we will be moving in July. We don't know where we will be moving yet.

Lesson Learned:
Do NOT put a strong magnet (or any magnet to be on the safe side) too close to your GPS, IPod, or any other type of computer (hard drive) electronics. It will ruin them and then you have to spend the money to buy new ones.

That's about it. Nothing exciting and nothing new. I'll try to have some pictures to post soon from each visit and maybe even from a birthday party!