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*