I will wait until you are home to have Christmas...

I miss you Honey, and we love you so much!! We are so proud of you, not too much longer baby and you will be home in our arms again! I love you KS.

Day 7

I am thankful for my home and all of the amazing resources that the Army provides us through my husband and his job as an American soldier. Yes, it can be a hard and sometimes frightening life, but it is also a very rewarding and fulfilling life.

Days 4,5,&6.

Day 4, I am thankful for God and the faith I have in Him.

Day 5, I am thankful for amazing friends who are willing to come pick up my kids  and take care of them when I am too sick too. 

Day 6, I am thankful for lazy Sundays relaxing and watching movies with my kids.

Day 3

I am thankful for my amazing parents and sisters. I don't know what I would do without any of you in my life. I am truly blessed. I love you all.

Day 2- A month of Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my three children. They may drive me absolutely batty at times but I wouldn't want to change a thing about them. They are wonderful and true blessings from God.

Day 1

I am thankful for my husband and everything he does for us. Love you Honey!

Be Proud.

This is for the young women that are waking up at 6 a.m. every morning with small precious children that they have been left alone to care for. This is for the pregnant Military wife wondering if her husband will make it home in time to watch their miracle happen. This is for the childless Military wife, living in a town or on a base alone where she is a complete stranger to her surroundings. This is for the women that feel like a third leg when they go out with their friends and their husbands. This is for the Military wife that cancelled all her plans to wait by the phone, and even though the phone broke up and cut off every time you spoke to him you waited anyway. This is a pledge to the women that cry themselves to sleep in an empty bed. This is to recognize the woman that felt like she was dying inside when he said he had to go, but smiled for him anyway. This is for those of you that are faithfully in that long line at the post office once a month handling 2 large boxes and 2 small children like a pro. This is for that woman that decided to remodel the house to pass time, and then realized that she had no idea what she was doing and sighed and wished she had a little help. This is for all the lonely nights, all the one-person dinners, and all of the wondering thoughts because you haven't heard from him in days. A toast to you for falling apart, and putting yourselves back together. Because a pay check isn't enough, a body pillow in your bed is no consolation, and a web cam can never compare. This is for all of you no matter how easy or hard this was for you. Our military men are brave, they are heroes, but so are we. So the next time someone tells you that they would never marry a Military guy, don't bother explaining to them that you can't control who you fall in love with. Just think of this and nod your head, know that you are the stronger woman. Hold your heads up high, hang that flag in your front yard, stick 100 magnets on your car, and then give yourself a pat on the back. Be proud to be the woman that you are, be proud to be a MILITARY WIFE ♥

It's not goodbye, it's see you soon.

This is my story, of my life and feelings leading up to deployment #2, not only is this deployment #2 it is also the second time in this year that we have had to say "see you soon.."  The second time we have faced the D word... 2011 will be known for deployments in my family, both for goodbyes and hellos.  

Sept 21st- Here we are once again looking down the barrel of another deployment. By the time he leaves again he will have only been home 5.5 months.... These past 5.5 months have been a blessing and blessing that could have and should have been so so much shorter. If it hadn't of been for his back issues we would have said "see you soon" again months ago instead of in a few weeks. Is it so wrong to be thankful for something that causes my husband pain day in and day out? If it is then I am a terrible person, but that pain kept him from being sent to a place we would never want him to go, a place where each day would be spent in worry and fear.... A place that I pray for day in and day out for the ones who went.

Yesterday I was feeling the weight of this deployment. I was feeling the sadness and heaviness that comes from knowing we will have to watch him leave again in such a short amount of time and for such a longer amount of time this go round. In so many ways for me deployments are a weight I have to bare until his boots are on the ground and I am in his arms again. I literally carry it with me day in and day out. Homecomings are in many ways hard to describe if you are looking to express what you feel within. When KS came home in April I had no clue how heavy the pack was I was carrying but seeing him again lifted all of that. I was able to stand up straight, to breathe again... I could literally feel the difference within my body... the stress just lifts and seems to evaporate into the wind, but now the pack is back. I can feel it filling itself up with each passing day. I can feel the weight of it settling into my back and on my shoulders.... I can feel it settling in for the long haul. Some days pass and I can barely feel it it is just a paper that blows in the wind, one that I feel rustle along my back and other days... other days it feels as if I am carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, but this is how it goes. This is deployment. Some days you breeze through the day and its okay you think to yourself "I've got this no big deal..." and other days if feels as if you can barely function in this world... I am not looking forward to getting back into this cycle and while I am already starting to feel it it is nothing compared to while he is away...

Why, hello there.

It has been so long since I have graced this blog with my often infrequent ramblings that I actually had to go dig out the little piece of paper that has my password on it for this account. I couldn't even remember it... now whether that is a good thing or a bad thing I don't know. I know my family would say bad because I have been neglecting this blog and there for neglecting their updates for my family... my family and my sanity on the other hand my be saying THANK YOU, you needed the break. Plus writers block is an extremely sucky thing, it is like a sore that grows and grows until you cant even form words in your brain when you are staring at the laptop with your "New Post" open and it remains blank... and stays that way for months it seems. Oh well... it happens to the best of us.

Life around here is getting hectic again, as it does every September. You see we have celebrated two birthdays this month. Didn't know that did you? Well, our precious Cayleigh-Grace turned 3 on the 3rd, her golden birthday, and our first born turned 8.... today! Happy birthday Kiale!! School is in full swing around here and has been for a month now. I can say with great enthusiasm that it is going MUCH better then last year. Thank God for that!! Kiale is doing great. The first 2 weeks were rough but it has been smooth sailing since then. Coin is doing excellent and his teacher is wanting to have him tested for gifted because it is just too easy for him. The poor boy comes home telling me how bored he is in class on an almost daily basis, thankfully he has a amazing teacher who is going to start giving him extra work that is at an advanced level to try and keep his interest.

We have added something new to our schedules this month, Cub Scouts. The boys are finally old enough to join in the fun and they are loving it. Some nights it seems like added homework for KS and I but it is all worth it. Now if I would just get around to getting their patches sew on they would be really happy with me. ;-) They are starting popcorn sales this month so all family and friends out there please help support my two Cub Scouts, I will be sending emails today or tomorrow with the website where you can order popcorn. (hint, hint) A percentage of their sales goes to their troop and helps keep costs down for patches, dues, activites etc.

Army life... well sometimes I don't even know where to begin on that subject. Today marks a year since we arrived at this post. In so many ways the time has literally flown by. We have got a new house, been through a deployment, finished one school year and started another, and celebrated many birthdays already. Many people ask me what I feel about our current post and after being here a year I can honestly say that I am indifferent to it. I don't see anything bad about it but there is nothing great about it either. I am thankful for the lack of negative things here. It makes being here easier. We are close-ish to home and there are so many outdoor things to do around here it makes it very enjoyable. We are a pretty active family who enjoys hiking and out door activities and they are plentiful around here. The biggest thing that has happened recently was that KS was promoted. Yay, go KS!! Other then that it has just been life as usual.

My Ballerina

Cayleigh-Grace has started dance classes. Her first class coincided with the boys first week of school. She has one class a week and begs us non stop to take her more then just the one day. I think she would be thrilled with 2 days a week but at this point we are just going to stick to one. Here are a couple of pictures from her first day of ballet and tap class. To say she was excited is a drastic understatement. I have never seen my daughter so excited for something in her life. We couldn't get to dance class fast enough, and the rain boots... yea they are her FAVORITE fashion accessory right now. If she manages to leave the house without them on she is sad because "they miss her." The first think she said after her first dance class was "Dance class was super fun!"

First Day of School

Do you ever see a correlation between blogging and pulling teeth? That is what it has been like for me the past few months, I just cannot get myself to do it, but here I am... We are wrapping up our second week of school here and I must say it has been highly successful. The boys like their teachers and at this point I am very happy with them. We seem to be back into our school schedule and the transition from summer to school has been pretty seamless for the most part. Except for the usual, "I don't want to do my homework now..." etc. That goes without saying though. Here are the pictures from the first day of school. Kiale started 2nd grade and Colin started 1st grade, I cannot believe how big my boys are getting.

Blah

That is how I am feeling today, just plain blah. This morning was good and productive, registered the kids for school, took Kiale to his speech class, came home and KS made me lunch during his lunch break. It was nice, and this this afternoon I have just spiraled into a bad mood with 0 patience for the kids. Which always makes dealing with them so much harder, especially when the littlest things set you off... but oh well. We all have our good days and our bad days. I didn't work out this morning and that my have something to do with my attitude, although not the main reason. I just started back to working out after taking a month off. Back in late June I got really sick and was out of commission for almost 2 full weeks. Turns out I had a gallstone and I had a pretty serious gallbladder attack. I was too stubborn to go to the hospital for until KS told me I had to go 3 days later because I was yellow and clearly jaundice. Somehow I managed to have one large stone that ended up blocking my bile duct resulting in the jaundice. Let me tell you people, for those of you who have never had jaundice... it SUCKS. You itch, and I'm talking severe itching that doesn't stop. I would wake myself up in the middle of the night because I was scratching in my sleep. The itching lasted for almost two weeks and I thought I was going to loose my mind from it. Thankfully it subsided just in time for my sisters wedding July 9th!

Summer's end

As many of you have noticed I took the summer off from blogging. With the kids home I just couldn't bring myself to blog, so I decided to just take the summer off. It has been a good summer, but it has also been a very rough summer. The boys will be starting school in the next few weeks, Cayleigh-Grace will be starting dance lessons and homework will be back into full swing. The latter of which I am not looking forward to but it comes with the territory. With school back in I will be back to regular blogging as well as a recap of our summer. We had some pretty big things go on these past three months; the boys played T-ball for the first time and I my sister went from being a Miss to a Mrs. I am looking forward to getting back into our school time routine and I think deep down the boys are too. Talk to you all soon!

I like it hot.

My food that is... For those of you who know me in real life you know of my obsession with hot sauce and all things spicy, so it will come as no surprise that when I was approached by Cholula to do a review on their hot sauce I jumped at the opportunity. They were kind enough to send me four bottles of their hot sauces and let me tell you they did not disappoint. KS and I have used all four of them and they were wonderful. In my opinion they were not too spicy but they were big on flavor. KS thought they were spicier then I did but that is normal, it has to be really hot for me to pick up the spiciness.

I used their original to marinate my chicken for my special fried chicken that I make. I didn't have time to marinate it for the usual 12+ hours instead I only had 6 hours, but you wouldn't believe the flavor that came out in the chicken after it was fried! It was delicious and you couldn't even tell that I didn't get to marinate it for as long as I would have liked.

Out of all 4 of their flavors, Original, Chipotle, Chili Garlic, and Chili Lime my favorite would have to be Original with their Chili Garlic coming in a close second. KS and Kiale preferred their Chili Lime as did Cayleigh-Grace. Needless to say they have made a future customer out of my family, and my bottle of Original is already almost out.

If your not sure how you want to use their hot sauces go to their website and try out their awesome recipes. Their food looks mouthwatering and I cannot wait to try out their Bloody Mary Shrimp Cocktail, it looks delicious!

Summer is here!!

My kids are being wild and crazy today and I am fixing to take them all to the grocery store.... I may have just lost my mind. Although, KS would argue that I lost my mind 10 years ago when we started dating and then I really lost it when we wed 8 years ago. I like to argue that I was brainwashed ;-) Summer is in full swing in the south the heat is rising and the humidity won't let anyone forget its sticky presence. The saying you could cut it like butter couldn't be closer to the truth. I was under the assumption that the further south you got the hotter and more humid the weather was.... well folks let me tell you I was WRONG (yes KS I just admitted that, and don't expect it to happen again) Not only are we more inland then our original home we are also further north. Neither of which matters when it comes to heat and humidity...  chalk that up to a lesson learned.

I have been away from blogland for the past month and I must say it was a much needed break, May was busy. We finished up with reintegration with KS, Kiale and Colin had graduations and end of they school year ceremonies, as well as the start of T-ball season for both boys. Cayleigh-Grace decided that she wanted to test out the "terrible twos" for a little while and I read... a lot. Eight books total in May, and we went back home for a few days this past weekend.

Life on post is going good except for one MAJOR issue... they closed the pools. Their are two pools on post, one indoor and one outdoor. The indoor pool has been closed for a couple of years now due to renovations and now they decided to close the outdoor pool as well, I cannot help but wonder how many years it is going to take them to build a new outdoor pool and splash pad if it has taken them over two years to just renovate the indoor pool. Needless to say my water bugs are ticked off and their Mamma is as well. We already have two blow up pools for the backyard but they are no where near as fun as a normal size pool with a giant slide... but we will deal.

I do have several bog posts coming up as well as a product review from my new favorite brand of hot sauce Cholula! (They are amazing folks, go get some and try it. You WILL love it.)  Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things and get some steady posts coming out of this blog again. It has been too long since I was on here regularly.

1st week home

Since KS got home Easter Sunday a lot of stuff has been happening. The first couple of days were wonderful and honestly I don't think that accurately describes it. He went back to work on Wednesday and found out whats going to be going on for the next few months. He ended up getting the stomach bug that the kids and I had the week prior to his arrival on Thursday and spent the entire night throwing up and messing his back up even worse then it was before. He went to sick call for the second day in a row due to his back and the stomach bug and spent the entire day of Friday on quarters for 24 hours. He is supposed to have an X-ray done on his back, hopefully they will be able to figure out exactly what is wrong with it soon. We didn't do much of anything over the weekend other then spend time together as a family which was nice to do after a 3 month long break of it.

I have still been reading a lot and I managed to finish the last book in the Harry Potter series yesterday, its only the second time I have read them. I own all of them and I'm not really sure why I have only read them once. I forgot how good they were. I finally decided which E-reader I want to buy, I'm going to go with the Kindle.  The main reason is that I don't want to buy the Barnes and Nobel version and then us get transferred to Germany or somewhere outside the US and it not work. I haven't bought it yet but I am using the Kindle for PC to read the series I have just started and I will just transfer whatever books I have on my laptop to it whenever I finally get around to buying it.

May is going to be a good month for us, the kids are getting out of school and it will finally be the start to our summer!! We are hoping to make a trip back home this month and I am wanting us to take the kids to the zoo and the aquarium at some point this month as well. Hopefully I can get KS to agree to go. I have been dying to take them but I just haven't had a chance to go yet. Maybe we can go to one of them for mother's day this weekend.

The kids are doing good with KS home, Kiale is acting so much better and is not giving me anywhere near the problems he was giving me while KS was deployed. I'm hoping that this continues.

This is my 550th post, yay!

Roller Coasters

Roller coasters are something that I am not to fond of, I love the rush but I'm always paranoid I am going to fall out or loose my shoes and I'm small enough that whenever it dips or turns fast I come up off of my seat and it scares the living crap out of me. So needless to say they are not something that I frequently go on, but it is something that I live. Experiencing on a day to day basis. Some days the track is smooth and is lacking the severe drops and upside down loops that scare me so much, but on other days it feels like I am dropping two hundred feet going while going 100mph and lifting up out of my seat threatening to be thrown off. This is one of those days. This roller coaster that is our lives is giving us one hell of a wild ride and all I can do is close my eyes and hold on tight. I sit here on the couch typing this post while looking around my living/dinning room noticing the footlockers, the ruck sack, Kevlar vest and all of the other equipment that screams deployment. For now it means homecoming and that KS is home and safe, but I cant help but wonder for how long. The Army is notorious for changing plans and saying "hey you, go here!" without discretion. Every little bump and jolt on this roller coaster makes me appreciate my life and my husband more and more. There will be days, weeks, and months where all I have is longing and the ups and downs of deployment. Then there will be redeployment days where you are just thankful to have them home no matter how long they are able to stay with you. If you ever learn anything from being in the service its appreciation for those you love. You hold them a little tighter at night and you pick up their clothes breathing in as deeply as you possibly can savoring in their smell, the very essence of who they are because you never know exactly how long you are going to have them for. This lifestyle comes with so many different separations, the obvious being deployments, but not many people on the outside realize everything else that goes with it. You have schools, trainings, FTX, 24 hour duty, it is rare to be simply existing without the date of their next departure lingering in the background of your mind and thoughts. Its always there, but you learn to coexist with it. You learn to set aside the ticking clock and trade it out for the present, because that is what really matters. The here and now. Not the future. The future will be what it will be, but now, now is the time to embrace the things you love most in life. Its the time to hug a little tighter and love a little harder. Now, while you still can. In light of these things I think I'm going to tighten my belt a little tighter and hold on a little stronger and ride this roller coaster that is my life. Only God knows where it will go and how hard it will drop. The twists and turns that make up this life are not up to us, so I'm going to embrace them now and deal with whatever it gives me when it gets here. This is the life we choose and we are in for one hell of a wild ride. 

He is home!

Our Easter was amazing, Easter involved a homecoming, our first homecoming. KS is home and we are done with our first deployment. From the beginning of this deployment they kept bouncing around dates to return, we heard a year, then six months, then three months. No one really  knew exactly what was going to happen, and then on the 19th of March I heard it was a possibility, a rumor, that the guys were coming home after only 3 months there. Then on April 2nd I got the call, he was coming home in just a couple of short weeks. What I thought was going to be a 13 month deployment turned into 3. We are blessed beyond measure and I will treasure and appreciate every day we are able to be together that we, normally, would not have had if this deployment hadn't been cut short.

Yesterday was amazing, I got the kids up and it was business as usual. They had no idea what was in store for them just two hours after waking up. KS wanted it to be a complete surprise for them and asked me not to tell anyone and that is what I did. Cayleigh-Grace and Kiale got up first I fed them breakfast and started getting them dressed. I got the dress out that I bought over a month ago for Cayleigh-Grace to wear in June for R and R. As soon as she saw it she got all excited "Go pick Daddy up!?" she yelled. I just told her that since it was Easter I wanted her to wear her pretty dress she accepted it and put it on. Kiale got dressed and then finally Colin got up and got dressed. By that time it was 0930 and I was trying to get him to hurry up and eat his oatmeal but he really wasn't wanting it, so I just let him be done. By the time he went and got dressed it was 0945 and time to head out the door to pick up KS. I ended up going to the wrong side of the headquarters at first so I had to call him and figure out exactly where we were supposed to be picking him up. Once we got to the correct place I let the kids out of the truck and walked them over to the vans. They were so confused because they thought they were going to be finding Easter eggs. I told them to go find their big Easter egg and KS walked around the van. They just stood there staring at him. There was no running and jumping into his arms, there was just a lot of staring and disbelief. It took them a little while to realize that that really was Daddy. By the time we got home, about 10 minutes later, they were thrilled, and finally getting excited about having KS home. It took a little while for Cayleigh-Grace to warm up to him again but after a few hours she was Daddy's girl once again. The day was spent enjoying the presents KS brought back from Afghanistan and the rest of their Easter gifts.We spent the day laying around the house and just enjoying each others company once again.

I still cant believe that he is actually home. I never really got my hopes up about him coming home early, I mean, who ever hears of a deployment being cut short? I never let myself believe that he was really coming home and I was too scared to be crushed by the disappointment of it. Now that he is here I am just enjoying him being home. It has been 30 hours now and I cant help but think to myself that he is really here. Its like I am still trying to convince myself that he really is home and its not some figment of my imagination sitting here next to me on the couch.

If you are wondering why there is a lack of pictures on this post its because I didn't get any. Sorry.

Happy Easter!

From 3 to 4

KS and I have been batting around the idea of going from 3 to 4 kids recently. It started about 6 months ago when we decided that we did want one more child, then I decided no thank you during the month after he left, but now we are talking about it again. This time we are leaning far towards 4 rather then 3. The biggest question is when would be the right time. I know people that would argue there never is a "right" time and if you wait for that time it will never happen and I totally get that, but we want to be in the best financial standpoint possible this time around, and that takes planning. I want to be debt free, or as close to it as we possibly can. If I have my numbers crunched right we should be able to pay our truck of with our income tax money next year. That is really the only bill we have left and it is a huge chunk of our paycheck as well. If we are able to get that paid off I will be 100% okay with having another baby but a part of me still wants to wait until we sell our house back home as well. Its been for sale for about a month now and we haven't heard anything and with the market the way it is that doesn't surprise me one bit. Right now we have renters in it until it sells thank goodness but if those renters ever leave and we don't have our truck paid off we would be in big trouble from a financial standpoint. Then there is the issue of needing another vehicle. Thankfully my truck already seats 6 so it isn't at the top of the list for must haves but it is still on there. We would be using the profits from the house to buy a larger vehicle after it sells. So you see, my list of things that have to be done before we have another baby; 

1. Pay off the truck. 
2. Sell the house. 
3. Buy larger vehicle. 

The only requirement I have is to have the truck paid off before we have another baby the last two can come after and it wouldn't be a big deal. Like I said earlier KS and I are still talking about at this point but it is a nice thought, and we have been putting a lot of thought into it, or at least I have. Its kind of hard to figure out how much thought the he is putting into with him being deployed and all... Thankfully we paid off the rest of our debt with this years income tax money so we are in a good position to be debt free within the next two years. 

Life

My crazy kids.

Kiale

Colin

Cayleigh-Grace

The Ladybug that stayed with me for awhile.

Life and been kinda boring around here lately for the most part; we do have some things going on but nothing I can go into at  this point. We have just been doing our normal routine and not really varying from it at all which make for absolutely nothing to blog about. I took the kids to see the Easter Bunny last Sunday (you don't get to see the picture till Easter though) and then after that we went to the battalion Easter egg hunt. It was wonderful and the kids had a blast. I only have a few pictures my friend was able to take for me since I forgot my camera and could only take pictures with my camera on my phone and I cant find the disk to transfer them to the computer.

The kids and I have been really sick this past week. Kiale got sick the night of the 15th with a terrible stomach bug. He even got the honor of sleeping in the bathroom after he puked all over his wall. That lasted till Sunday (the day of the Easter egg hunt) when he was finally well enough to go out. Then on Tuesday night Colin decided he was going to start throwing up as well. The poor guy had it so much worse then Kiale did and today is the first day that he hasn't been miserable. He still doesn't have any energy though. I also got sick in the early morning hours of Wednesday (mine only lasted 24 hours thank goodness) and Cayleigh-Grace has had diarrhea for about 4 days now. (TMI I know, sorry) Thankfully she is still eating and drinking normally so I'm not worried about her getting dehydrated. She just has the upset stomach. I started feeling better yesterday and today I'm feeling 100% better but we still had to cancel our plans to go back home for Easter this weekend with Colin still being so sick yesterday.

Today I've got to go pick up the last bit of goodies for Cayleigh-Grace's Easter basket. I never got a chance to pick up her stuff with all the sickness going around, hopefully I can be sneaky and pick it up today even though she will be there. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful day and if your traveling to see loved ones this Easter weekend, be safe.

Music Sunday Week 12

A Letter from Jessica's Parents.

*Please go and send a letter of encouragement to our sister and friend. Times like these are when we need to band together the most and support the women around us. She needs us now more then ever, so lets not let her down.*

To all the wonderful people who responded to Jessica on her "Misadventures of an Army Wife" blog,
Tom and I want to thank all of you for the kind words you have posted on Jessica's blog.  Jessica is currently in the hospital for an unknown length of stay and will require continued therapy afterwords.  I was able to visit with her for about 1 1/2 hours on Thursday, 14 April, and she is starting to realize her actions last week as well as the events that led to her depression and suicide attempt.  I did print out all your comments from her blog and was able to give her a hard copy.

One of Jessica's friends had a great idea that Tom and I are following up on....an Easter Basket filled with notes and cards of encouragement, empathy, stories, understanding or good 'ole humor!  If we could be so bold to the virtual community, we would like to ask you to send your thoughts, notes, cards, etc. to the P.O. Box below that we have now established:

Jessica
P.O. Box 292138
Columbia, SC  29229

I will gather them into an Easter Basket of Cheer for Jessica this week to continue to let her know she is not alone nor are the events she experienced isolated to just her.

Please do not send gifts or money....just your words of encouragement and prayers.

Please let the word spread.....

Thanks again to all you,

  --  From the parents of Jessica....Tom in NM and now Sue in SC

Giveaway

If you didn't already know Julie over at Julie the Army Wife is giving away a free full size Scentsy warmer and bar. I haven't tried Scentsy out yet but I have been wanting to. From what I have heard they smell wonderful and last a long time, plus you don't have to worry about having a candle going which is great with three wild children running around all the time. 

Music Sunday Week 11

Silence

*I was supposed to publish this on the 30th... oops.* 

March has been a very busy month for us, the first 3 weekends were spent with a birthday party each Saturday, and then this past Sunday the 27th was my 26th birthday. Plus school with the kids, issues with Kiale... again, and Cayleigh-Grace displaying full on 2 year old behavior for a good two weeks make for one non blogging me. There have been several good things about this month, we are two months down in this deployment which means we are two months closer to seeing KS again! Yay!! Even though we still have a LONG way to go, but what can I say I like to look at the brighter side of things. I have been hitting the gym 5 out of the past 7 days and I am feeling great and sleeping better. Plus I hope to be in bikini shape by the end of the month (that being April not March) I am planning a beach trip and it cannot get here soon enough! I still cant believe its been 9 months since I last went to the gym, and I can feel it too. I am no where near in the shape I was in last June and I have a long way to go to get back there again, but I will get there.  I am crazy determined at this point. I know what I want and I am going to do everything in my power to get there. There were a few wonderful things that happened this month...

This is the AMAZING Reese's birthday cake that my dear friend Alicia made for me. It was DELICIOUS!!

Kiale decided that he wanted to start reading my books, this is him reading the first 4 pages of Eragon to Cayleigh-Grace. I had him trade it out with the first Harry Potter book since the words are quite as hard in those books.

This isn't a wonderful thing but it is kind of a funny thing... Cayleigh Grace decided that she wanted to stand on Kiale's back while he was leaning over the couch getting a book off of the bottom shelf of my bookshelf. She then proceded to fall into the bookshelf and give herself quite the goose egg and scratch. The first picture with her in the pink dress is from the 27th just a couple of hours post fall and the picture to the right is from 48 hours later and looking much much better.

  

This is by far the best thing that happened in March, Colin lost his first tooth on the 29th!!! I hadn't seen him so excited in what seems like ages, he was THRILLED to have finally lost a tooth, and the tooth next to it is already loose as well. Good thing the Tooth Fairy knows exactly how to get to our house. The bottom picture is from the next morning after the Tooth Fairy came and left Colin a dollar for his tooth in our special tooth lamb.

Music Sunday Week 10

Breaking Dawn

Am I the only one who thinks they should make two versions of Breaking Dawn? One rated R for the adults and then the PG-13 for all the kiddies out there? ;-)

Music Sunday Week 9

Blinded by Cuteness

Here are a couple of pictures from the past couple of days.

I guess Casey thought that Kiale needed help with his homework, either that or he was making sure he was doing it correctly... good cat.

They decided they wanted to sleep together this weekend, it was precious!

Loving their Pillow Pets

A post about Colin's birthday party will be up soon! 

Music Sunday Week 8

Happy 6th Birthday Colin!!

Yesterday was Colin's birthday, he has been looking forward to it for months now. I don't think he ever stopped smiling from the time he woke up until he went to bed last night. His day started off normal, wake up get dressed and head to school for breakfast. Once the school day actually began he was called up to the office and given a special sticker for his shirt that announced today was his birthday. He said the ladies in the office were giving him hugs and telling him how special today was b/c it was his birthday. After lunch I went up to the school and took his class cupcakes, and I managed to remember the napkins and juice boxes this time!

After school we headed to the commissary to order his cake, which unfortunately didn't work out. They no longer carry the Toy Story theme cake, so I told him I would just order it from somewhere else and we headed home. He relaxed and watched movies until it was time to go pick  up Kiale from CYS. That is when the real fun began. KS and I decided to attempt a Skype birthday party. It would have worked out great if KS had had a better connection but we made the best of it.

Colin had a blast opening his gifts, well part of them anyway. He got everything he was wanting. All three Toy Story Movies as well as the toy story box set that includes just about everyone! He was one happy and ecstatic little boy.

Poor kid cannot keep his eyes open during pictures... drives me nuts, but I still love this pic.

Journal Excerpt

*written last night before bed*

Tomorrow is the big day. My baby boy turns six. I have a few goals for myself in regard to Colin's upcoming 6th year.

1. Embrace the child within him. 
2. Remember that he is only 6, not almost 8 like Kiale. 
3. Do not uphold him to the same standards that I do Kiale. Yes, it is easier on me, but it is unfair to Colin. 
4. Read him a bedtime story every night. Even when I don't feel like it. 
5. Remember to show him extra love, kindness, and understanding. 
6. Make sure he feels loved and special every single day. 
7. Work on building a strong and lasting relationship with him. 

I only get his 6th year once, and in many ways I feel as if I wasted his 5th year so I do not want to waste his 6h. I want this year to be a great year for him. One where he is loved so much that he feels as if he will burst. He is a special and remarkable child and he deserves only the best, and that is exactly what I plan on giving him. My little Pudgy/ Cuddle Bug/ Buggy. I love that little boy so much, words cannot even begin to describe it... Happy 6th Birthday Colin Hunter.

I just went back in his room and gave him an extra hug, kiss, and I told him how much I loved him. He went to sleep with the most peaceful and happy smile on his face. Motherhood is a grand and beautiful thing. Definitely a gift from God.  

*Colin's Birth Story*

Music Sunday Week 7

Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls

On hold.

You know how you feel when you have been waiting on hold for what seems like centuries. The elevator music playing in the background and your phone on the speakerphone setting while you fiddle around on facebook or walk around the house debating whether to unload the dryer or clean out the dishwasher. That slightly annoyed but still  complacent feeling you get, you know, before the severe annoyance of being on hold for half the day sets in. That is where I am at right now. I cant decide what I want to do or where I want to go. I feel as if my life has been put on hold and I don't really care enough to change it. It is a sucky unaccomplished feeling to have. Its a feeling that I want to change; I just don't have the drive to change it. Its like I don't care enough to change it. I am perfectly fine with the monotone colors my life has taken on since KS left, and that scares me. There are more nights now that I go to sleep and wake up with my eyes burning and red from crying the night before. I have no reason to cry we are blessed with excellent communication, we see/talk to each other daily and we are blessed beyond belief for that, and yet for two nights this week I have cried. When I stop and think about it deep down I believe it is the accumulation of many things, deployment included. I am fixing to turn 26, my husband is in the middle of a war zone, my parents prepaid for my collage and I have yet to take full advantage of it, I want to go to the gym and start working out on a near daily basis and yet I don't, I want to sew and let my creativity run wild with fabric and painting and yet I don't. I just cant find the drive to do it, and I cant help but wonder if I force myself into doing these things if it will all crumble b/c my heart isn't quite in it yet. I know and fully realize that 26 is young, but if I am going to be honest it is way closer to 30 then to 20 and that fact scares the crap out of me. I am afraid to age, I am afraid to look in the mirror one day and see someone I don't recognize. Vain I know but it is the God honest truth, I don't want to get older. There are so many things that I want to do and so many ambitions that I want to conquer and yet I just sit here on hold accomplishing nothing, and I don't even understand why. I don't get why I cant get myself to step up the the proverbial plate of life and take a swing . What am I afraid of?? Yes I totally flunked out of my college math class and I have no idea how I will pass it the second time around but I have got to quit using that as an excuse. It cannot be what holds me back any longer. I want to have a smokin' hot body when KS gets home from deployment, heck, I want to be looking good when he gets home on R&R. I don't want him to come home to the same old me, I want him to go back thinking damn she is lookin good, not oh well hopefully she starts doing something now. I want to start working towards my goals by first getting all of my basic college courses completed and passed. All I have left is my two maths and the final English and they will all be done, then I can focus on taking classes towards what I want to do with my life. Delivering babies and becoming a licensed midwife. I need to light a fire under my ass and get to it, enough with being on hold. I am going to drive myself mad if this continues. I want be able to hold my head up and be proud of myself instead of just being okay with my life and my accomplishments, and I want KS and my parents to be proud of me too. Aside from my kids they are the three most important people in my life and I feel like I am letting all of them, myself included, down and I am sick and tired of it. Starting Monday I am taking myself off of hold, I am calling the gym and getting Cayleigh-Grace registered with their daycare. I am going to call the people who hold my free college credits and see if I can even access them being out of state, and I am going to get my butt in gear and start doing something with my life.

My Night

 

My night will consist of watching this for the first time, and enjoying a nice full glass of this. Not as good as their Sweet Red but good enough to make me want to go back for seconds. I am coming to love Barefoot wines, and their mind numbing qualities.

Distance

Feeling the distance tonight in a really big way. Some days you just cant help but miss them in ways that seem to overtake everything else in life. Sometimes you just want your husband in your arms and to be able to say screw the mission, but this mission is what is important. It is what makes the difference and keeps people safe. Our sacrifice now is what makes the difference later, its what they are there for and what we are here at home for. 99% of the time I am good, I am functioning, and I am able to deal. Tonight is not one of those nights, but tomorrow is a new day. 

Skates and Elephants

For starters I want to give a shout out to my wonderful husband,  

Happy 8th wedding anniversary Honey! I love you!!  

Now, on to our feature presentation of 

Skates and Elephants.

Our weekend was awesome, it started off with a birthday party at the skating rink. We brought Kiale's roller blades and Colin, Cayleigh-Grace and I just got skates from the rink. The kids loved it. Cayleigh-Grace had a hard time accepting the fact that she could not do it. She just isn't coordinated enough to skate. She had never come across something could not do before. I ended up carrying her while I skated back to where the party was being held while she held her face in her hands and cried, "I cant do it" it broke my heart. I think she is going to be sensitive like I was.

Immediately following the skating party we headed down the road to see the Greatest Show on Earth. It was wonderful. We met some friends of ours there and all the kids (Moms included) had a blast. We were trying to get there early enough to make it to the pre show, but it just didn't happen. We got to our seats and a couple of minutes later the pre show ended. It was just too crazy and hectic trying to get from the party and to the circus within 15 minutes, it ended up taking 30. Thankfully the kids didn't want to go down to the pre show anyway. They wanted to stay in our seats so they could just watch what was going on. They knew if we had gone down there we wouldn't' have been able to see what was going on. There was just too many people down there. Right before the show began I took the boys out and got drinks for us to enjoy during the beginning. Here is the opening act. Which just happens to be one of my favorite parts of the entire show. I just love the music and it always manages to get stuck in my  head for hours after I hear it.

Once the show began and the kids got settled I waited on a slow part to head out and get some goodies. I ended up getting each of the boys a snow cone cup, Kiale got a tiger and Colin got an elephant. I also grabbed a bag of cotton candy, you just cannot go to the circus and not get cotton candy. Its the best! Cayleigh-Grace was getting fussy on and off during the performance, I cant imagine why we had only  had once heck of a busy day... she had finally settled down after going from her seat to mine when the people in front of us (well the lady) turned around and yelled at her for kicking her seat. I had no idea she was doing it. The lady kept yelling at her and said "I cant fill with you kicking my seat, stop it!" I didn't even have time to say anything to the lady Cayleigh-Grace went into hysterics right away. I just picked her up out of her chair and rocked her until she calmed down. Thankfully it was so loud in there she wasn't really bothering anyone. At that point I wouldn't have cared if she was I was in shock that that woman yelled at her like that. I don't even talk to her like that... anyways she finally calmed down except for her body jumping every few seconds b/c of her sniffling and trying to catch her breath. Eventually she fell asleep. She slept clear through intermission and through the rest of the show. While she was sleeping the concession clowns came around selling things and I bought Cayleigh-Grace this pink light up wand that spins around.

to the clown. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the show. They kept yelling over the music, "Did you see that?" "That was so cool!!" I already told them we would go next year if it is in town again. The circus is just too good to miss, and our seats were great! I loved where we were at. After the show we headed to the main concession so the kids could pick out some goodies to take home with them. Colin picked out a sword with a sheath like Kiale had got last year when we went before we moved. Kiale got a white tiger stuffy. He wanted one to keep his cheetah stuffy company. We got the cheetah when we took the kids to the zoo when I was five months pregnant with Cayleigh-Grace. Cheety as he is affectionately known as around here has become a fixture on Kiale's bed ever sense. Cayleigh-Grace wanted an elephant. The elephants were her favorite part of the show, unfortunately she missed their main feature since she had cried herself to sleep (dumb... stupid... mean woman....) Thankfully she was able to see them in the opening act and when they played the national anthem. I will admit this every time I hear the national anthem I start tearing up. It seems that that song, among others, is hardwired to my tear ducts now. Guess when you have a husband deployed in a war zone it makes you appreciate things like that so much more. At the end of the day we were all happy and thrilled to have had not

only such a busy day but a magical day as well. Everyone was happy. Once we got home I was exhausted, to the point where it wasn't even 7 O'clock yet and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. I ended up ordering Chinese from this place off post that KS swore by. I hadn't tried it yet but he kept tell me it was so much better then my usual delivery place. He was right, it was delicious! We will definitely be ordering from them again, it was great. Almost as good as the Chinese back home. As soon as we were done eating I put the kids to bed and tried to wait on KS so we could skype but I just coudln't do it. I ended up going to bed and getting an email from hem asking where I was. I was just too tired to hold my eyes open any longer. It doesn't help that Cayleigh-Grace had woke up at 0630 that morning. She doesn't even wake up that early on school days...  at the end of the day it was a great day and I wouldn't change anything... we except for the lovely woman who thought she could yell at my daughter. Yes, I am still bitter about it.

Music Sunday Week 6

Be safe honey and come home to us as soon as you can, love you.

Nook vs Kindle

Barnes and Noble's, Nook

Who has a Nook or a Kindle??? I am wanting to buy something like an IPAD just without spending the major $$$$. The books are much cheaper then buying hard copies and with our moving; I must admit my book collection ways a lot and adds up on our weight limit. I need help and I want hear personal your experiences with these gadgets. I also want something that is still going to work if we end up moving overseas one day.

Amazon's, Kindle

*update* The prices on books so far have all matched up the same. Really its coming down to Kindle will work overseas and Nook won't, and the Nook is in color for kids books and the Kindle isn't... this is going to get annoying to figure out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Show us your... Rings!

Did you look at rings together? 

Yes, we did. He had he was leaning more towards a different one but I fell in love with this one as soon as I laid eyes on it. 

Do you like your ring? Did you from the beginning?...and be honest!

 I LOVE my ring, in fact KS will laugh at me, because I will randomly hold up my hand and say "Isn't it pretty?"

How often do you wear your rings?

  Everyday. The only time it off is to clean it, it has been on my hand for 8 years now and that is where it will stay.

Do you clean your rings?

 I do. With just a little soap while I am in the shower. A toddler toothbrush works best to clean it.

What went through your mind the very first time you saw your ring?

"I love it!!"

The stone in the middle is a tanzanite surrounded by diamonds in white gold. I never wear yellow gold so this was perfect for me, and tanzanite is my favorite gemstone so I got the best all the way around. You can see my wedding band underneath it. I had them soldered together about a year after we got married. The two of them would continuously turn around and drive me crazy. I didn't want anything fancy for my wedding band because I didn't want to take away from my engagement ring, but for our anniversary one year I want to get a diamond band to go on the other side of my engagement ring... I am going to have to get it re-soldered when that happens though.

Go to Mrs. Yellow Ribbon's page and show off your rings too! Don't forget to link up!

An Awesome Read

I am Number 4

Cayleigh-Grace and I spent a good hour+ in Barnes and Noble today scouring the bookshelves looking for something good to read and keep me entertained, and this did just that. Well, for the few hours that it took me to read all 440 pages. Needless to say I could not put the book down. I have been wanting to see the movie but haven't got the chance, and the book did not disappoint. I absolutely loved it, and I must say it will go on my list of favorite reads, and I cannot wait until August when the second book in the series comes out. Hopefully it will be as good as this one is. 

I can officially mark off 5 of the 52 books I am hoping to read during this deployment off of my goals list, and I already have a list of about 6 other books that I am wanting to purchase... if only having unlimited funds was an option... since it isn't an option I will have to wait... maybe a book a payday??? Two books a payday is so very tempting though.

Fairies

Gracie just came up to me and looked into my eyes while saying (Gracie in Pink, I am in Red) "I tired." "Well, go on upstairs and I will tuck you in, but take your" "fairies" she interrupted before I could get the word out myself. "Yes. Take your fairies upstairs and put them away." "Okay" "I will be right there to tuck you in." and so she went upstairs toting her pink box of fairies up to her room. How does a baby that is just days away from turning 2 and a half grow to be so smart and observant in such a short period of time? I just love her... and really no words can accurately describe it.

See Ya February!!

February has been a crazy month for us, and blogging has been the absolute last thing on my mind. It had got to that point where I would sit down to blog and it would feel like shoveling 6 feet of snow. So, in light of that I decided to take a bloggy break. Except for the random Music Sunday posts that were already previously scheduled, but hopefully I will be able to get back into the swing of things now. While being a crazy busy month February was also a good month. We celebrated having completed one full month of deployment!!! A few more months and I will actually be able to count these deployment months down without having to use my toes. Yay! These past two weekends were spent visiting family and enjoying my youngest sister's high school pageant. I also managed to put over 1,500 miles on my vehicle traveling between my home on post and my home back home, but it was well worth it and lots of fun! Pictures and more post about our crazy month of February coming soon!! 

Update on Logan

*Copied from Goodnight Moon's blog*

Today is your last chance to enter

the raffle I'm hosting for Logan.

Raffle ends tonight at midnight.

I have some really awesome items

that are all up for grabs

graciously donated by so many

amazing women.

I also wanted to update all of you on how Logan is doing.

He is currently at home

{are you dancing because I am}

but

has to go back to the hospital for chemo treatments.

His tumor has shunk from it's orginal size

and

they are still waiting to hear from the doctors

to find out

when they will be able to do surgery to remove the tumor.

His family is able to have a sigh a relief

with Logan

finally being able to be home again.

It has been a very hard month for

Logan

and

his entire family.

They have been on a lot of

ups

and

downs

through the course of finding out that Logan has cancer.

So with that being said

please

pretty pretty please

with sugar

and

a cherry on top

and

then some more sugar ontop of the cherry

and

topped with alittle bit of rainbow sprinkles

please

donate

something

anything

to Logan.

Yes...

I just begged you.

I'm on both of my knees right now

begging you to click on that

button up on the top right side of this screen

where it says

"Prayers for Logan Donation".

Think about all the money that you just throw away

on a daily/weekly basis

on things you really don't even need.

You will be helping a family out

in more ways then you can imagine.

Thank you in advance.
Tomorrow I will annouce all the many winners! 

*Please go and donate, all you have to do is share $5 it isn't much but it can help out a lot. *
*Thanks, Charity*

Music Sunday Week 4

Please help Logan.

Logan is an eight year old boy whose father just returned home from a year long deployment from Afghanistan last month and about a week later they found out that Logan was sick. He's not sick with the flu or the common cold, Logan is sick with cancer. He has been diagnosed with stage 4 Wilms Tumor which is kidney cancer that is found in children. It is a rare situation because Logan is really too old to have this type of cancer. He is currently going through chemo for a six week period and then the doctors will do further testing to see if they can operate on his tumor. Logan's cancer has now spread to his lungs and lymph nodes. Logan is a strong little boy who loves animals gardening and legos.

How can you help Logan? Go over to Goodnight Moon's blog. She has put together an amazing raffle with some awesome prizes. 100% of the proceeds of the raffle with go to Logan and his family to help. Many of us bloggers banded together and donated several different items to help raise money for Logan, so please go and help out as well by entering the raffle and making a donation to help out his family. You could even win a toddler blanket made by myself.  


Thank you in advance,

Music Sunday Week 3

Deployment Goals

I have two main deployment goals to begin working towards:

1.Getting my Childbirth Educator certification.
2.Getting my Lactation Consultant certification.  

       I fully realize that these two goals could very well take a couple of years to accomplish, but it is something that I would like to begin working towards. Cayleigh-Grace is not going to be home with me forever, she will be starting school the year we move and I would like to be prepared to get a job while the she and the boys are in school. 

Then there are the many smaller and less life changing goals that I hope to accomplish.

1. complete the many quilts that I have in various stages of completion.
2. Make the quilts that I have had the material to make for the past couple of years.
3. Go to the Gym on an almost daily basis. 
4. Join a Pilates, and an Ultimate Ab class.  
5. Work on cardio and strength training big time. 
6. Work on creating a nice garden area around the house and in the back yard. 
7. Read at least 52 books while KS is gone. (So far I have already read 4) Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.
8. Purchase Cayleigh-Grace's new dresser as well as a headboard or full bed frame for KS and I's bed.
9. Work on my photography. 
10. Research becoming a doula. 
11. Sell our house back home. 

Knowing me I will be continuously adding to this list as the time goes on, but this is a good starting point. I am actually looking forward to going through this list month by month to see how it will grow and to watch myself mark things off bit by bit. 

5 days...

We are now going on 5 days being 100% paci free!! She kept asking for her turtle night night last night and I had to show her that the drawer where we keep her paci's was empty. She was not happy at all but when I explained to her that the paci fairy came and got all of her pacifiers because she is a big girl now and not a baby anymore she didn't know what to think. She kept giving me the sad face and then laid down and went to sleep.

well...

• I have four posts in draft that are almost finished (actual decent posts that are about something rather then random bullet points).
• Countless "picture of" posts that are not even almost close to being done. 
• Everyone is healthy and has been for a week. 
• I thank God everyday for Skype and Email.
• CYS registration is complete... well minus orientation, one of which I missed today. It helps if the lady tells you AM or PM when she says be there at 7 tomorrow. I assumed she meant PM... well, we all know what assuming gets you.
• I went to counseling last week, Kiale also went to counseling last week. Gotta love the Military Family and Life Consultants.
• New schedules around the house have changed this house from chaos to peace... well as peaceful as possible with 3 kids and a deployed husband.
• Lots of sewing projects in the works. Now if I can just find the drive to get them started and actually complete them... maybe I should finish the ones I have started first. That might be the better idea. 
• Kiale is finally enjoying reading!!! 

Routine

We have finally settled into a good routine here. I have never been a schedule person, but with this deployment I have found that they are not only are they a good thing to consider they are a requirement for our family. I guess you could say we had a slight after school schedule already but now it is more concrete. After the fiasco of the boys not listening and Kiale being very rude and acting out I reevaluated our routines and decided that that would be the easiest thing to change first, and that I could go from there if it didn't work our so well. Thankfully it worked out perfectly. Everything really came to a head on Monday of last week. To the point where I called the family and life consultants for two appointments. One for Kiale and one for myself. While my appointment wasn't until the following day, and Kiale's appointment wasn't until Thursday afternoon, I decided to try and fix things for myself first. Which bring us to the change and implementation of a firm schedule for after school time. Our schedule before was to come home have snack and immediately start on homework. It was not working.

Music Sunday Week 2

Up and running!

I finally got my Etsy store up and running again after a year off. Go look around and see if there is anything you like. All I have in it right now is hair bows, but I will be adding quilts and other merchandise as time goes on. I also updated the "My Etsy Store" page under my header. It has a window of a few of the hair bows I currently have for sale.

Love and Grace Designs

Charmed + Park Time

Since our week was so crazy and hectic I was loving how calm and relaxing our weekend was. Saturday morning we got up and took the boys to their last Saturday of art class, and Cayleigh-Grace and I went to the commissary to pick up some goodies for KS first care package. After art class the kids and I just laid around the house all day and did nothing. It was great. We did have our second "Charmed" movie night. I wanted to setup a routine for Friday and Saturday nights. Something we could do and all enjoy together. I decided on movie nights, we are starting the Charmed series from the beginning and thanks to Netflix we are watching one disk on Friday night and the other on Saturday. We all thoroughly enjoyed them, I know they are looking forward to watching them again this weekend as well. Sunday was beautiful here and in an attempt to soak up as much sun as possible on our one warm day we took a walk to the park. It was great, the boys road their scooters and I pushed Cayleigh-Grace in the stroller. The kids had a ball. We hadn't spent any real time there before and we ended up staying there for a hour and a half. They were worn out by the time we made it back home.

My Week

*I was supposed to post this on Saturday but the week just got away from me, so here it is today... Thursday. Oops.

 Saturday-Monday

I guess you could say that my week really started out on Saturday at about 3o'clock in the afternoon or 1500 whichever you prefer. Colin came down the stairs saying he wasn't feeling well. After going through the usual, what hurts? Let me feel your head I realized he had a fever. So, what did I do... I quarantined him. He was stuck in his room all of Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday in an effort to keep the sickness contained to one child. The poor boy had a nasty fever which developed into a cough that lasted the entire week. Needless to say he did not make it to school Monday. Have you ever noticed that kids get sick at the worst times. Since Colin had the fever so bad I had to keep him home, which meant that he missed the 100 day celebration at school. Instead he spent the majority of the day laying on the couch watching movies with Cayleigh-Grace while I read (Eclipse... again). Cayleigh-Grace on the other hand did not have such a relaxing Monday. She always takes her naps around 3 in the afternoon, but when I told her to go upstairs to her room so we could clean it I found her in bed covered up telling me she was going night night. Right then and there I knew it, but I was still holding out hope. Until she woke up at 3:30 with a blazing fever. Colin was all better and now Cayleigh-Grace was sick... lovely.   

Tuesday

 On Tuesday Colin returned to school and Cayleigh-Grace spent the entire day laying on the couch curled up with me, she was extremely sick. I'm not really sure who had it worse her or Colin, although all Colin got out of it was the fever and a nasty cough. Cayleigh-Grace got the fever, cough, and a full on head cold to top it off. There were some good parts to Tuesday, Kiale lost his 6th tooth, and my best friend from Jr-Sr high school sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to cheer me up since KS left for his first deployment.

Our sickie-poo

What my dinning table looked like when I went to bed on Tuesday.

 Wednesday

On Wednesday Cayleigh-Grace was still really sick and just not up to her normal tempo. Still laying around the house being pretty lethargic and not really wanting to do anything other then watch TV and cuddle. Which was fine with me, I was wanting to finish reading Breaking Dawn anyway. At about 1pm I received a text from Kiale's teacher saying he had a tummy ache but nothing else. So after texting her back twice she said he was fine and not to worry about it. All I could think was please don't let Kiale get sick too... So, I get to school and pick the boys up. Kiale is holding his stomach saying that it hurts and he wants to go lay down. Okay no big deal I though, maybe he just needs to go potty or something. Thirty minutes after we get home I walk downstairs and see this... 

Yes, that is him, asleep.

I ended up carrying him up the stairs into his bedroom, all the while wishing KS was there to carry him. 50lbs of dead weight is not lite. He ended up sleeping from about 4 O'clock until 7:30. Once he woke up I discovered the inevitable, he had the fever, and it was blazing. He only managed to stay up for an hour before he crashed again. Thankfully the day did end on a good note, Cayleigh-Grace was fever free by the end of the night and she even went to bed without her paci!! Yes, that is right I said it, without her paci, and she only cried for about five minutes before she went to sleep. This is HUGE for her, and I couldn't be happier. (and as of this post finally going live she is still paci free at night!!)

Thursday 

Thursday was Kiale's day to stay home from school and I ended up having to have a friend come over and watch him because it was awards day at school, and I couldn't miss my little man getting an award. Even if it was only for meeting standards. As my Mom would say, photo opportunity. 

Friday

By Friday everyone was finally healthy or at least healthy enough to be out in public. Colin and Cayleigh-Grace were still hacking up a storm with their coughs, but they were well enough to be around people so I jumped at the opportunity to go see the clowns that were visiting post. The kids loved the show that they put on, I don't think I have ever seen Cayleigh-Grace laugh at people so much in her life. It really was a treat and a wonderful way to end a very rough and nasty week.