A Day in the Life of 5...

The crud

2012-02-15T09:51:00.000-05:00

Sickness has officially invaded our home. As of right now only two of us have it and I am hoping that the other two miss out on this nasty head cold that has invaded Kiale and I. My sister swore by Emergen-C so I went to the commissary yesterday and picked some up. I am hoping it works. I should have went through my medicine box yesterday before I hit the commissary but I didn't and what happened today when I was trying to find some meds for Kiale? I realized they were all expired by at least a year or two, and yes while this shows that I am blessed to have a very healthy family who is very rarely sick it also becomes annoying when we actually need some sort of medicine and I have to go out and buy all new stuff every single time. Has anyone else used Emergen-C, if so what did you think about it?

Valentines Day

2012-02-14T18:18:00.001-05:00

Since this was KS and I's third Valentines Day apart I figured I would just do something small for the kids. Not to mention I am getting one heck of a head cold and I just didn't feel like doing anything remotely big. I ended up going to Bed Bath and Beyond today in search of new Tervis cups for the kids. Imagine my sunrise when I walked in to see a rather large table full of 50% off Tervis cups! I was thrilled and ended up getting six cups for what I was planning on paying for three. Needless to say the kids got their new cups for V-day and I still have three cups stashed away for St. Patrick's Day or Easter whichever I decide. I bought the cups and a bag of chocolate as their gifts from KS and I. The rest of the chocolate was sent to us by my Mom and I just combined everything and used it as our table centerpiece for dinner tonight. The kids were thrilled with it!

Round 2

2012-02-05T21:36:00.001-05:00

It has been a very long time since I have blogged. A lot of it has to do with motivation issues and even more to do with lack of inspiration. I just cant figure out anything decent to blog about. We are currently several months into our second deployment within the past year. I have to admit this deployment has gone much smoother then the past one. I haven't had any major issues with the kids. The Hubs is doing great and communication is amazing. I'm blessed to be able to talk to him every day with only the rare communication issue. This past holiday season was our first one apart since we became a couple 10 years ago. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either. We were able to skype with him from 0600 until about 1300 Christmas day. We are getting to the point in this deployment where CG asks when Daddy is coming home and then argues that he should come home Sunday and not when I tell her. She is getting impatient, and if my laptop is open she demands to be able to type on Skype whether the Hubs is on or not. The boys are handling it great and I am so please to say we have not had any of the anger issues we were having this time last year. The boys are also doing great in school, both of them have made straight A's all year which makes Mommy and Daddy very proud. I am hoping that the remaining months of this deployment continue to go smoothly and that the kids and I are able to remain patient and in good spirits.

Hopefully this recap will be the first of many blog posts from me in the future it is just hard to blog when I have nothing decent to say. I hate to bore everyone with monotonous posts since its rare we do anything out of the ordinary lately. Our days seem to be carbon copies of yesterday... I might need to do something to change that, any good ideas on how to get out of the deployment rut?

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

2011-12-23T09:45:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-07T22:36:00.001-05:00

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.

2011-11-06T21:10:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-03T22:38:00.001-04:00

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

2011-11-02T22:17:00.001-04:00

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

2011-11-01T22:34:00.001-04:00

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

Be Proud.

2011-09-26T21:18:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-09-22T22:17:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-09-21T09:12:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-22T08:37:00.000-04:00

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

2011-08-19T14:35:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-03T19:45:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-31T12:45:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-06-07T14:50:00.000-04:00

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!!

2011-06-01T13:10:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-04T10:15:00.004-04:00

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

2011-04-27T14:41:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-04-25T17:09:00.003-04:00

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!

2011-04-24T09:32:00.001-04:00

From 3 to 4

2011-04-23T09:06:00.002-04:00

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;

Pay off the truck.
Sell the house.
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

2011-04-22T09:48:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-17T10:23:00.000-04:00

A Letter from Jessica's Parents.

2011-04-16T14:25:00.004-04:00

*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

2011-04-16T08:11:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-10T11:23:00.001-04:00

Silence

2011-04-03T16:24:00.001-04:00

*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

2011-04-03T10:57:00.001-04:00

Breaking Dawn

2011-04-01T18:29:00.002-04:00

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

2011-03-27T10:35:00.001-04:00

Blinded by Cuteness

2011-03-21T19:54:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

Happy 6th Birthday Colin!!

2011-03-16T19:59:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-15T17:46:00.003-04:00

*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.

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

2011-03-13T09:16:00.006-04:00

Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls

On hold.

2011-03-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

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

2011-03-11T19:54:00.000-05:00

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

2011-03-07T22:05:00.001-05:00

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

2011-03-07T10:52:00.001-05:00

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

2011-03-06T20:35:00.001-05:00

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

Nook vs Kindle

2011-03-03T14:07:00.004-05:00

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!

2011-03-03T08:29:00.007-05:00

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

2011-03-02T22:18:00.001-05:00

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

2011-03-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

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!!

2011-03-01T14:33:00.000-05:00

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

2011-03-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

*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

2011-02-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Please help Logan.

2011-02-17T09:42:00.001-05:00

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

2011-02-13T15:55:00.002-05:00

Deployment Goals

2011-02-10T09:58:00.003-05:00

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.

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

2011-02-09T11:15:00.002-05:00

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...

2011-02-08T19:23:00.002-05:00

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

2011-02-07T10:43:00.001-05:00

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

2011-02-06T13:38:00.002-05:00

Up and running!

2011-02-04T15:30:00.007-05:00

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

2011-02-04T10:04:00.004-05:00

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

2011-02-03T21:12:00.003-05:00

*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.

Feelings

2011-02-01T17:49:00.001-05:00

I cannot help but find myself laughing at people on facebook sometimes. Its not me being mean its just the reaction to the lifestyle that I am growing accustomed to. People will say how they miss their hubbys while they are at work during the day. I totally get that I was the same way, when KS was working I couldn't wait for him to come home. The afternoons and weekends where my favorite parts of the day, and on those special days when he would be home for lunch were made just that much better, but now... now it is totally different. Life is different, it is empty in so many ways. I guess that is really the best way to describe it. You see I am one of those women who loves their husband more then their children. That sounds terrible doesn't it? I promise I love my kids more then life itself and I would lay down my life for them in an instant but it is different with KS, when we wed it was till death do you part. I believe I will always love him more, but that is the way it was meant to be isn't it? If you loved your children more then your spouse, your soul mate, then there would be something seriously wrong with your relationship. When we had our children we knew that eventually they will find loves of their own and start their own lives away from us, have children of their own, and then the cycle will repeat. Children only spend a short amount of time with us, 18 years (give or take a few) it is such a short period of time in contrast to the lifetime I plan to spend with KS, and yes our children with be here long after we are dead and buried. We will love our children every day of our lives, but I do not want my children to be dependent upon me their entire lives. I want them to grow and succeed on their own, without our help. Of course we would help them however they needed it (within reason) but I want them to know that they can survive without us, I do not want their lives to revolve around us to the point where they think they have to depend upon us for everything. Anyways... tangent over... with KS gone there is definitely this part of me that is empty. It is truly the strangest feeling, this feeling of longing, sadness, loving, and emptiness all mixed in together to form one cohesive emotion. The best way to describe it would be that it feels like I have this numbness in my chest that just wont go away. Sometimes I don't notice it as much as others but it is always there. Its strange really. I have a feeling it will magically disappear in about a year when KS is home with us again and this deployment is behind us, but for now it will remain where it is.

Disgruntled Kids

2011-01-31T20:02:00.001-05:00

I think the title of this post pretty much sums up my boys right now. They are learning some pretty harsh lessons that I would rather them learn now rather then later. They are not happy about this at all. You see I am tired of them mouthing off to me and not listening to anything I say. I am over Colin being sloppy on his homework just because he doesn't want to do it, and I am tired of Kiale being down right rude and hateful to me on a near constant basis. Colin has no excuse when I ask him about it, he knows I am right, but Kiale has one HUGE excuse that I am not going to put up with anymore. His excuse? "Because Daddy is gone." Well guess what, I get that and I understand that yes it sucks that Daddy had to leave for a year, but you know what... get over it. Every single time he does anything wrong or steps out of line he throws that excuse in my face. I will not put up with this behavior for the next year, "because Daddy left." It just isn't going to happen, all this does is show them that if they can give me a good enough excuse they can get away with anything. They were wrong. Take tonight for example, we decided yesterday that we were going to do dinner and a movie tonight. We finished homework and I told the boys to clean their rooms, that they did, but here is where it went downhill. I told Kiale to read 2 chapters from his book. He didn't do it. It wasn't until 30min later that I asked him if I needed to quiz him that he told me he couldn't find his book. This being the book he showed me 30min earlier.... he said he hid it from Cayleigh-Grace and now he couldn't find it, but amazingly enough with the threat of bed without dinner he found it right away. Isn't it funny how that happens? After finding the book it spiraled into the whole why do I have to read, I hate reading argument. I do not know how to get him to enjoy reading the way I do. Anyways, after lots of yelling at me I told him he was not allowed to watch the movie tonight. Then Colin shoved Cayleigh-Grace while she was standing on the stairs so he also lost his movie privilege tonight. I think I went back on threats too many times throughout the years and now they just don't care about my threats anymore. Now I get the lovely task of making them (Kiale in particular) respect me again. Which basically means that they hate life right now because I am following through on every single threat and punishment I make at them. Hopefully they get the point pretty soon... and if not, I just hope we are able to find a balance again. I miss balance.

Music Sunday Week 1

2011-01-30T10:28:00.013-05:00

Here are the two songs that I have been loving this past week.

Realizations

2011-01-28T23:10:00.001-05:00

*You never realize just how big your house is until your husband isn't in it anymore.
*You never know how you are going to handle a situation until you are finally faced with it. Sometimes you may even surprise yourself and that can be a good thing, or a bad thing. It all depends on your frame of mind when you are looking at it.
*Kids are rezelent but they still hurt and I need to remember that.
*I feel incredibly guilty for handling this so well... is there something wrong with me?

Photo Fun

2011-01-28T09:16:00.042-05:00

I was bored (imagine that) and messing around with some old pictures today when I got a crazy idea. Why not make some collages of the kids at the same ages. So here is what my boredom turned into. Left to Right,

Kiale, Colin, and Cayleigh-Grace

At Birth

Six Months Old

One Year Old

18 Months Old

Two Years Old

What did I learn from this little exercise? Cayleigh-Grace looks so much older then her brothers at all of her different stages after the first year. I wonder why that is... its like my boys retained their baby faces longer and she developed more a little girl face at a very young age. I know one reason for that is she is so much bigger then the boys ever where at any of her ages. It was a running joke that my kids get their legs late, because that is exactly what happened. Their legs didn't start getting longer until they hit three. Did you notice how short Colin's legs were at 18 months? That right there proves my point. Then you have Cayleigh-Grace who goes and blows that theory clear to the moon. Obviously it didn't pertain to our girl only our boys. I remember when it came to buying clothes for Kiale it was super easy, whatever age he was was whatever size clothes you bought for him. For Colin his pants fit his age, but had to be rolled up, and his shirts where a year ahead of him. Cayleigh-Grace is another thing all together she already fits into size 3t pants. The boys couldn't wear that size pants until they were about three and a half. She will also be wearing size 4t shirts very soon and she will be two and a half in March. I have a feeling the girl is going to be at least as tall as my sister, and she just hit 5'11. I already have my fingers crossed that she will want to play volleyball when she is older, lets just hope she plays better then her Momma did!

Day 2, check.

2011-01-27T09:07:00.000-05:00

Shortly after this morning began we hit the 24 hour mark since we watched his bus pull away. It was kind of nice knowing that we survived the first day and we will survive the rest of them as well. The kids went back to school today, and I managed to get fussed at for going down the school hallway by one of the teachers. I just needed to let Kiale's teacher know why he was absent yesterday since I forgot to put a note in his backpack and one of the teachers made me wait in the hallway and made Kiale's teacher walk all the way down just so I could talk to her. It wasn't a big deal, but it was just enough to annoy me.

I am already starting to plan R&R... crazy I know.. KS wants to go home to see our family while he is back so I figure we can have him fly into Orlando instead of here and we can hit Disney World for a couple of days then drive up to see our family. Then spend the last week or so here at home. I have to clear all of this by him though of course, and since he is not interested in Disney at all it might not work out that way, but we will see. Either way the kids and I will be going to Disney World this year. I want to take advantage of the 3 day park hopper passes I can get through the Army. I just have to decide how many days we want to take advantage of. I have a feeling I know exactly what he will say... "Disney? Yea, you have fun with that." Which translates into sure you can go, but I'm not in KS speak.

The kids seem to be handling everything pretty well today. Kiale is doing a little better, he is handling it the worst which I am not surprised about since he is the oldest. He understands time a lot better then Colin and Cayleigh-Grace does. It is very lonely with him gone, and very quiet... well as quiet as it can be with three crazy children in the house. The lack of near constant adult interaction is something that I already miss very much. I spent the day yesterday reading Twilight (again) I managed to get through 390 pages and I plan of finishing it today and starting New Moon. Whenever I need an escape and a distraction these are the books I go to. It is just so easy to get sucked into them. Cayleigh-Grace ended up playing playdoh ALL day today. I don't think I have ever seen a child play with it for so long. We also managed to watch all three of the Rainbow Brite DVD's that we have, two of which are the seasons. She loves those movies, they are by far her favorite thing to watch right now. I need to pull out my She'ra DVDs for her to watch next. Gotta love 80's cartoons, they were the best!

Deployment Goals

2011-01-26T20:25:00.000-05:00

I have seen many places where they suggest a list of goals to occupy your time during deployments. What goals have you made, what do you do to keep the time passing quickly? Is there any particular goals that you would suggest? I am hoping to compile a list very soon, but I was looking for some pointers since as of right now my list is fairly short.

Our very own D-Day; Deployment Day.

2011-01-26T09:01:00.008-05:00

Wow, so its over. The deed is done, and the love of my life is airport bound. Our day started at 5am we had to get the kids up and ready plus our showers to pick up two of his friends and all their gear by 6. Thankfully everything went smoothly and we were where we needed to be by 6:30. Then we just hung around and enjoyed our last hour before we had to say our goodbyes as the soldiers got into formation. The ceremony was short and sweet. I am hoping that the welcome home ceremony is just as short, but I have a long time before I get to worry about that. I was so surprised with myself I really kept it together during the ceremony and even during the phone calls that I had to make afterword. I am one of the most emotional people you will ever come across. (Just ask my Mom she will confirm it, she always told me she had never experienced a child as emotional as I was.) There was no huge breakdown or scene made but don't doubt the fact that watching my husband board onto the bus was the hardest thing I have ever done. Not running after him and begging him to stay took so much self control, more then I thought I would ever possess. As he loaded the bus and took his seat I raised each of the kids up to his window (not an easy task with two 50lb boys and a 35lb daughter) so they could hold his hand and say goodbye one final time, and then the bus began to pull away and it was over; or really it has just begun.

In the days leading up to today I was filled with so many different emotions, so many of which I am still having a hard time expressing. I always write KS a going away letter and I just couldn't get the pen to write for some reason. The words just weren't coming out the way I wanted them too; so the letter went out unfinished and jumbled with a mess of random thoughts. Not the way I wanted to send him off but at the time it was just the best I could do. I even forgot to give it to him at the last minute. There they all were in formation and I have to have Kiale run it out there to him after the Army Song had run its course and they are fixing to load onto the bus. He just gave me his usual look that is normally accompanied by some comment about how "smart" I am... although this time all I got was the look. At least it got to him even if it was late and not written as well as I would have liked.

Day one is officially over. We can mark a day off the calendar and look forward to their being one less day of this deployment to go through. I let the kids stay home from school today for a "mental health" day. I figured after just seeing their Daddy leave they would need a day to just chill out and relax. We ended up coming home and having breakfast followed by everyone taking a three hour nap between eleven and two pm. After we got up the kids and I had to make a PX run to get some poster board for their 100 day celebrations at school. It ended up taking the entire afternoon for them to create their poster boards and get caught up on the past two days worth of homework since I didn't make them do their homework yesterday. Kiale actually had one of the read and response worksheets to do, I was pretty proud he did fairly well for his first one. He kept getting frustrated that he had to reread the paragraphs constantly to find the answers though. I keep telling him the more he practices the better he is going to get, but he just doesn't have the patience for it. He wants to be good at it now not later. Thankfully we were able to talk to KS multiple times throughout the day today and even tonight. He was able to tell the kids goodnight and we were able to have a bit of a conversation before he got on his last flight. He was even able to talk to his mom, Godfather, and one of his best friends from AIT and BCT. Now begins the parts of separations that I don't like (not that there really is anything to like about them...) the nights, the weekends suck too, but I am determined to find stuff to keep us all occupied. I just cannot wait for summer to get here we will be plenty busy then; doing our usual pool every day routine.

This is my 500th post... guess it seems fitting that it would be one that will change our lives forever.

This is difficult... Predeployment.

2011-01-25T08:52:00.008-05:00

Written January 2, 2011~ This part of being a military wife is hard to say the least. I don't even think the word difficult could even begin to describe the feelings and emotions that are surrounding my husband and myself right now. We are down to just a few short weeks before this deployment begins and it is hard to even describe what I am feeling. Today for instance I woke up and it was the first thing that I thought of. These days are the hardest. Its like I have this clock in the back of my mind that is a fixture in my peripheral vision. It isn't your normal everyday clock that is ticking away the minutes of the day, but it is a clock that is ticking down. Taking time away from us and it is constantly making its presence known. Every sweet moment between my kids and their daddy and even in the night when my husband and I have just finished making love the clock chimes and reminds me that the day is gone and that this is one last time that I will be able to hold my love for the next year or even see him wrestle with the boys or snuggle with our Grace. This is usually when the tears begin to fall and when the sadness sets in. This is when I feel the most vulnerable and the most transparent. It always hits me the hardest after sex, I don't know if it is just the emotion and hormones that are released that brings all of the sadness of pre-deployment to the forefront of my mind to the point where I cannot block it out or what, but as soon as we are through the tears start to fall.

Later on the 2nd~ Going about my day to day things no one could even guess that we are facing deployment. Unless you were to come into our house and see the bags and bags of Army gear packed and ready to be shipped overseas. We are not acting different and whatever emotion we are feeling is safely tucked away during any away time. Even when we are home and just doing our normal every day things it is as if this deployment is just a word and a thing we have to go through. We do not dwell on it and we do not even really discuss it. It is just there the big elephant in the room that at this point in time is staying silent in its corner just waiting and watching for when the ball finally decides to drop and become a permanent fixture in our household. The kids know and have known for quite some time. I was discussing it with the boys today while KS was at work (it is easier for me to talk about it when he isn't here) I was reiterating the fact that KS will be gone for a year, he will miss holidays, birthdays, plays, and anything else of significance trying to make sure that the boys understand what is going on and Colin flat out said the only thing he understands is that KS will be gone. I guess for a five year old that is all I can expect and really all that he needs to understand. They all know that KS loves them and wants to be here but he has to go and fight a fight to insure that people and families just like us are kept safe, and that parents can tuck their kids into bed at night without having to worry about terrible things happening. The next part will be to remind the kids day after day that KS loves them dearly and that he wants to be home but at this point in time he needs to be over there helping to protect everything that this country stands for.

Deployed; We are officially a Blue Star Family.

2011-01-24T08:30:00.023-05:00

November

*Nov 2nd, By the time this posts he will already be gone and we will have officially started the Big D; our first deployment. Right now its November, 2nd to be exact and the word deployment is still leaving a sour taste in my mouth. I think it should considering I have only had 24 hours to really let it sink in that he is going to be gone for a year. When he comes home I will soon turn 27, Kiale will be 8 and a half, Colin will be soon to turn 7, and our precious Cayleigh-Grace will be 3 and a half years old. We will have spent our entire 10th year together and 70% of our 8th year of marriage apart. Welcome to the Army folks! Right now I am handling the news better then I imagined I would. Probably because I knew what was coming and I had prepared myself to say goodbye to him before Christmas even got here, so January feels like a blessing to me right now. With two months to go before this giant year long roller coaster begins I am feeling confident, proud, and scared out of my wits. Confident, because I know that he will do great over there and because I know I can handle things back home. Proud, because of what my husband is doing; helping to protect our family, friends, and our country's way of life. Scared... yea that is an understatement, what if someone breaks a bone on my watch or what if the unthinkable happens... or what if we drift apart instead of becoming closer through the distance and time. All of the what ifs are a waste of time even thinking about at this point. I am confident that we will become closer and that everyone will be okay once this year comes to a close, even if someone breaks something along the way. If you wouldn't mind keeping the 5 of us in your prayers, and hopefully this year will pass quickly and uneventfully.

*Nov 5th, I just woke up. KS is at PT and all I can think about is him being gone for a year. KS is fixing to hit his 1 year anniversary with the Army in just a couple of weeks and I was laying in bed thinking about all that has happened within this past year.... it just makes being able to wrap my head around him missing from our lives for that same amount of time unfathomable. I just cant wrap my head around it... We still haven't told the kids yet, I don't think either of us are ready for it to be quite that final.

*Nov 12th, We told the kids and KS's Mom last night. She took the news better then I had expected, but we both think she lost it on the way home. The kids just don't get it, they have no idea whats coming. I think it has been too long since KS was away at BCT and they don't remember what it was like to be away from him with no contact for so long. I was really hoping to be able to prepare them for this but its obvious now that they are still too young and cannot grasp the concept of a year away from their Daddy.

*Nov 14th, I asked Kiale why he wasn't upset that KS was leaving for so long. He said "Its so far away I'm not going to worry about it right now. I will be sad when it gets closer and when he is gone." That is so my son, glad to know at least one of the kids has adopted my way of thinking.

*Nov 27th, lost it at the hunting club tonight. Our buddy Scott was ragging on me for pouting, I just couldn't help it. It is so hard not telling any of our family and friends what is going on. No one except for our parents, and our sisters know about this deployment... I have a feeling it is going to hit the rest of my family like a ton of bricks when they find out, and I know for sure certain people are going to be livid with us for not telling them but we had no real choice. So, if this is how you are finding out sorry.

December

*Dec 1st, I hate to see it be December, because I know that January is right around the corner and so few days of January will be spent together... I just hope we can make it though Christmas without letting the cat out of the bag so to speak.... It is so hard having so much I want to talk about and share through this blog and not being able to sucks.

*Dec 27nd, woke up crying this morning. KS will only be gone on a 5 day hunting trip and it is already affecting me. It just made everything that is going to happen within the next month seem so real. I guess it was a wake up call so to speak. I have decided one thing, we are going to be staying BUSY during the length of this deployment. The first thing I need to do after the new year is find out what sports I can get the boys into and if the indoor swimming pool is opened back up again so the kids can restart their swimming lessons. Not to mention I STILL have to get all three of them setup with CYS so I can take advantage of those 16 free daycare hours per kid once this deployment actually begins.

*Dec 31st, The kids Daddy Dolls came in!! I cannot for KS to give them to them. We are waiting until the day he leaves. It will be their present to make the day go a little easier. I even got the recordable inserts for them, I hope they love them.

January

*Time A- Well we told the last of our family today, well the family we are telling at least. Hopefully everyone will keep their mouths shut and not spread the news around until after he is out of the country. Everyone took the news well and I swear some people could care less, although I think they never really cared about KS anyway. Not that it matters its just more annoying to me then anything else.

*Time B- KS is on night shift and I found myself just staring at his picture on my computer. It is going to be so hard not seeing his face around here anymore. Sure we will have pictures, but that is nothing compared to the living breathing version that I love so much. I am going to be bored out of my mind with no one to pick on me and drive me crazy. I know I have the kids, but that just isn't the same. I cant play fight and wrestle with them the way KS and I do on a regular basis, who am I gone to spar with? Its going to be a long hard year without my husband and love here.

*Time C- Went to bed before KS last night, which is nothing new. I swear the man must be part owl, but as I laid down without him an overwhelming feeling of loneliness swept over me. It was a feeling I have never experienced to that depth before, but I guess it is one that I will grow accustomed to feeling very soon. Every time I think about how close we are to his departure date I feel like I just got the wind knocked out of me. Literally my stomach lurches and I loose my breath for a couple of seconds, not to mention the tears that I fight back if I let the thought linger in my head for more then 30 seconds.

*Time D- Well it finally hit Colin last night. KS was repacking all of the bags that have been taking up my dinning room for the past month and Colin asked him where he was going. We explained where and when again and Colin just ran up the stairs crying. I guess it finally hit him when we said KS was leaving in a week for a year.

*Time E- It is so close now, and I feel like the walls are literally closing in on me. I haven't had a total breakdown yet, but it is coming. It is getting harder and harder to fight them off and my stomach feels like it has found a new permanent home in my throat. I don't want him to see me cry, and I don't want him to see the hole that is forming within me, but it is going to happen. Hopefully I can make it through these next couple of days and I can let the emotions of the past three months take over and I can loose it alone. Without him going through the pain of seeing me in the condition I know I will be in.

*Time F- Totally lost it this morning, you know the cry. The ugly one where you are hyperventilating and shaking so bad you can barely stand. Yea, that was me first thing this morning. Mornings are the hardest for me now that we are so close. By 11 o'clock I was fine, but before that I was a mess... in fact I don't think mess accurately describes it. Just a little over 48 hours now. God give us the strength to get through these next couple of days. I will need it and so will the kids. There is no amount of preparing that we can do to really get prepared for this. It is what it is, and it is hard.

*Time G- Less then 18 hours now... I am just ready to get the goodbyes over with and start marking the days off until I see him again. I think both of us are very much ready to begin this journey.

A picture of something that has made a huge impact on my life recently

2011-01-23T08:46:00.000-05:00

A picture of something I'm afraid of

2011-01-22T08:41:00.001-05:00

If their was a phobia for alligators I would have it! I have had two encounters with alligators... We were having dinner with friends one evening at a restaurant that is on the river. There is a fence going around the outdoor dining area where we were eating to literally keep the gators out. KS thought he would be funny and point out a 3 foot gator that was about 4 feet if even that far way from where we were sitting... I screamed and jumped up on the table... not one of my best moments. The second encounter I don't even remember thanks to me having had a few drinks and KS waking me up while at my grandparents lake house to see this alligator that he and his friend caught. (yes they caught it) Supposedly I even touched it but since I don't remember anything about it and their are no pictures to prove it I say it didn't happen... (don't worry they released it back into the lake)

A picture of myself and a family member

2011-01-21T08:37:00.003-05:00

Cayleigh-Grace, Holly, KS, Colin, Dylan, Dixie, and I!

A picture of someone I could never imagine myself without

2011-01-20T09:28:00.000-05:00

How about 7 awesome women who I could never imagine myself without, these are some of the most amazingly strong and supportive women I have ever met. We all went through the trials of BCT and AIT together and now we are all enjoying the Army life. Many of us are separated by land and sea but we are all still as close as were were this time last year when we would stay up until the wee hours of the morning talking and enjoying a few glasses of wine together, and managing to get banned from Facebook a couple of times... lol, love you girls!!!

Top row, Lesley, Mari, and Jess. Middle row, Kelli, Tricia, Me, Amanda, and Kimmy.
Bottom row, Colin, Cayleigh-Grace, Kiale, and Niran.

Strength

2011-01-19T09:18:00.005-05:00

I don't make New Year resolutions, but I do have a word for the year. Strength. This upcoming year is going to take a lot of strength on my part so I figured it would be a good word and a good thing to remember as the year progresses. Another word that I have for this year is, determination. There are many reasons why I have picked these two words for this upcoming year, and really too many to go into right now, but hopefully if I am able to stay focused on the present then these two words will enable this year to run its course smoothly and eventually dissolve into 2012 without incident.

The Army Wife

2011-01-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

One of my best friend's Teri sent this to me and I thought I would share.

Click here to getImages &

Army Wife Quote Pictures - Pictures

A picture of my favorite band

2011-01-18T09:21:00.001-05:00

By far my favorite band would have to be The Judds, it always has been. My parents took me to their final concert and that is one memory that I have always cherished. I just wish I could have gone to their 2010 tour, they have three more dates in 2011 but none of them are close to me. You would think that this question would be an easy one to answer but it wasn't I listen to SO much music and all different genres that it really was hard to pick a favorite so I just decided on the group I have liked for the longest amount of time.

A picture of the person who has got me through the most.

2011-01-17T08:58:00.002-05:00

While my friends and family have been there to support me through thick and then, the most important person in my life has as well and he has done a good job doing it too; my husband KS.

A picture of something I love

2011-01-16T09:17:00.001-05:00

Following along with the food theme from yesterday here is something I love. My favorite food, SUSHI!! You cant get any better food then this, in my opinion that is.

(source)

My Day

2011-01-15T10:31:00.002-05:00

Its 10:30am, KS and Cayleigh-Grace are still sound asleep. I have already got the boys up, went to the commissary, came back home unloaded groceries and then took them to their art class. Now I am enjoying a quiet breakfast alone before I leave to pick the boys back up.

5:42pm, just finished a three hour nap on the couch with KS. It was so nice, I don't even remember the last time we did that. Now I need to go figure out what I am going to make for dinner tonight...

A picture of something I hate.

2011-01-15T09:14:00.001-05:00

English peas... or as I commonly refer to them; little round green things! I have always hated these, and I only make them when KS requests them. I don't even like the smell of them. I really don't see what the point is in peas... they are just NASTY!! What foods do you detest?

(source)

A picture of the person (or persons) I do the craziest stuff with...

2011-01-14T09:10:00.014-05:00

This was very easy... My sisters and I, but we haven't done anything crazy in what seems like FOREVER... So maybe it would be...

Holly, Dixie, and I.

These awesome girls from our days at AIT. Man do I miss them all.

Savanna, Teri, me, and Kalee.

Or, maybe this bunch of crazy people; who I end up doing crazy stuff with every day, from food fights to sledding down hills on metal cookie sheets.

I think its a three way tie, or a nine way tie, however you want to look at it.

A picture that makes me laugh...

2011-01-13T08:54:00.005-05:00

Kiale and I are notorious for having food fights in the house but this one happened to be a coke fight a few years back at the hunting club. This was at least 4 if not 5 years ago.

You can tell it was a long time ago; before Kiale made us cut his curls off.

A picture of my favorite memory...

2011-01-12T09:25:00.000-05:00

This is a really easy one, it is three memories actually...

Kiale's birth in 2003

Colin's birth in 2005

and Cayleigh-Grace's birth in 2008.

Sledding!!

2011-01-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

School ended up being closed both Monday and today which has been wonderful. KS didn't even have to work Monday and only had to go in for a short time today. Here are our pictures from Monday's fun in the snow. All the kids enjoyed another first together, sledding! With kids so far apart in ages it is rare that they get to experience a first together, but this one happened to be a super fun one to have! We were all really disappointed going to bed Sunday night. We all assumed that the snow would be gone by morning... we couldn't have been more wrong. Here it is almost 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon and there is still enough snow to go sledding on outside. Being from the south we do not own sleds, but we do own metal cookie sheets!! They worked wonderfully! The kids had so much fun out there and we ended up going outside three times throughout the day to enjoy the snow. I will be posting videos tomorrow of all the fun they had!!

Kiale

Cayleigh-Grace

Colin

The boys were even there to help Cayleigh-Grace slide down the hill. They had to keep hold of her until it was time to let her go.

They were so pretty I had to take a picture.

Snow Day!!

2011-01-10T08:31:00.000-05:00

10:15 PM, 1/9/11

7:00AM, 1/10/11

Favorite Show...

2011-01-09T08:58:00.000-05:00

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show this one is really hard for me since I don't really watch TV that much and I tend to just leave the TV on music stations, but if I had to choose one I would have to pick Guy Fieri from Diners Drive-ins and Dives.I love that show, whenever he comes on the boys always start yelling, "Mom your favorite guy is on!!!"

The One He Fights For (military girlfriends/spouse tribute)

2011-01-05T21:14:00.002-05:00

"This is not a world for weak women!!" I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!! I could not have said it myself!! Fast forward to about 4 min in to hear all the awesome truths 98% of us military wives all all too polite to actual say.

It has been 10 years since fate stepped in.

2011-01-04T09:00:00.079-05:00

10 years ago today... I was a nervous wreck standing in front of my closet not knowing what to wear. Our Humanities class was taking a field trip to a museum and we were told to wear dressy clothes; I finally decided on a purple 3/4 length v-neck shirt that I had bought in Paris and a black knee length skirt with a slit on the lower thigh. I was so nervous that you wouldn't be there, I didn't even know if you were going to go or not. We had only begun talking for about a month or so prior but I knew this day would change everything, little did I know just how much this day would change my life, our lives. I was 15, you were 18. I had mentioned you to my parents around Thanksgiving break and then again in December. Somehow my Mom knew this was going to be different then any other relationship I had been in, or hoped at that time to be in. I remember she was so excited that I might be dating a Senior during my Sophomore year, I think she had already begun to dream about prom... I got on the bus and waited with some of the worst butterflies I had ever felt. I got to Mrs. Shannon's class where everyone was waiting, it was almost time for the bell to ring and you still weren't there. At this point my heart sank, you were late to school and we were fixing to leave in ten minutes when you finally walked in the door. I can still remember the way you looked when you walked in, tan slacks and a blue polo shirt with a squarish pattern on it. You came and sat down next to me with your best friends behind us. I couldn't believe you finally made it. It was time to go to the bus, I remember walking behind you wondering where I was going to sit. I wanted so badly to sit with you but I was to scared to ask you. Finally you asked me if I was sitting anywhere and when I answered no, you asked me to sit with you. So there we were on the bus. Nathan was sitting across from us and Howie was behind him. I don't really remember what all we were talking about but at one point we began to hold hands, I remember Nathan looking at you and then teasing you. You didn't even care. You had to hold one of your hands over your eyes to talk to me because the sun was coming in right through my window. We talked and laughed the entire way to the museum. After arriving at the museum we took in the sights, including the Mona Lisa, and just enjoyed each others company. Eventually you left my side to hang out with your friends. I remember my heart sank, that was it I thought. "What would he see in some boring 15 year old anyway" I remember walking around alone not really paying any attention in particular to what I was seeing, what seemed like hours passed by as minutes and you found my side again. We resumed our conversation, picking back up right where we left off. Soon it was time to load back up into the bus and head to lunch at Ci Ci's Pizza. We got a table to ourselves and started to get our pizza from the buffet. I remember being so nervous the entire time, I don't think my heart ever took a break from racing the entire day. Lunch was wonderful and interesting. I was so nervous and having never been to Ci Ci's before I just picked up some pizza that looked harmless enough. Cheese and sausage, or so I thought. It was the most disgusting pizza I had ever tasted, all I remember was that it was nasty and had some sort of bacon and ranch on it. I was so scared you would think badly of me if I didn't eat what I had got I managed to finish it, I still don't know how I ate it. It was that bad. After we ate we went into the arcade portion and watched your friends play the games and then just like it started we were getting on the bus to go, hand in hand once again. When we arrived back at school you didn't grab my hand and I was too afraid to grab yours, I was too afraid to mess up a good thing. The bell rang for dismissal just a few short minutes after we arrived back at school. We had just enough time for you to write you cell phone number down on a ripped piece of paper. (Oh how I wish I still had it...) Our first day together had ended, and I had no idea the journey we would go on together or how just a simple field trip had the ability to make our two worlds collide in such a way that we would never let go of one another.

KS and I never "officially" went out, he never asked me to be his girlfriend. We just were, it was an unspoken thing between us. We didn't need the high school will you "go out" with me stuff. We were what we were; a couple. A month after the field trip we had our first kiss, which was completely unheard of at the time. To wait a month before kissing, everyone thought it was crazy, but you see I was KS's first and only girlfriend and he wanted to make sure I was the right one. Shortly after our first kiss we told each other that we loved one another and then by three months into our relationship we were talking about marriage. That is right, I was barely a month or so into being 16 and we were already talking about getting married. We knew we were it for each other. There was no one else out there for us, we had met our soul-mates.

Eight years ago today we went on a date that would once again change our lives. It started off at a steak house and a romantic dinner for two. I was a nervous wreck once again, but that is because I knew what was coming I just had no idea when or where. After dinner, which I barely ate, we were on the road. KS was trying to take me back to the place where our lives changed forever, the museum, but it wasn't meant to be. He couldn't find it and finally in frustration broke down and asked me if I could remember where it was. Needless to say I could not, so we ended up pulling over into the parking lot of the city paper. It was right on the river and although it wasn't the beautiful gardens of the museum it was still beautiful to look at, and will forever hold a special place in my heart. I could tell KS was nervous, and he isn't the nervous type. Finally he walked over to me, looked down into my eyes and said "Charity, will you marry me?" of course I said yes. That was a given but it was wonderfully sweet. When we got back into the car we drove three more blocks and there it was, the museum. So you see, this was the first thing KS ever asked me. It was never "will you go out" with me, but "Will you marry me?" Really it says a lot about our relationship, we always knew that we would marry. It was never a question of yes or no, but of when.

Back to School and Work

2011-01-03T19:22:00.004-05:00

Today was nice, the kids were back in school from Christmas break and KS didn't have to go into work until after lunch. I had a hard time getting Kiale to go back to class, he was very nervous after being gone for so long. Colin didn't care, he was ready and willing to start school again. A lot of Kiale's problem is that they are doing "work" now. It isn't all the fun arts and craft stuff like they did in Kindergarten he is having to do really school work now and he repeatedly calls it boring and not fun. I was exhausted today for some odd reason and I ended up taking a nap first thing this morning, which really helped since KS was here to take care of Cayleigh-Grace. Heck, I didn't even get my shower until 2:15, it was just one of those days... After I picked the kids up from school we headed over to old navy to pick up a couple of shirts for our photo shoot we are having in a few days. I cannot wait to see how the pictures are going to turn out, cross your fingers for the best b/c these shots are going to mean so much to us. I was so happy, out of the four shirts I bought today all but one were on sale and two of them were only $5 each. Plus my local Old Navy gives a 10% discount on the 1st-4th of every month to all military. Next time you are in ask, maybe they give a discount as well. Homework today went really well, they did it in the truck on the way to and from the store so by the time we got home they only had a little bit left to finish. Hopefully the rest of the week goes this smoothly and I actually have some energy in the morning. I was great after my nap but before that I was just plain useless.

*Tomorrow is a HUGE day in our household, can anyone guess why??? I will give you a hint, its a good thing!!

Lindsay and I

2011-01-02T09:12:00.005-05:00

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

This is my cousin Lindsay. We are five months apart and when we were little we were either fighting like cats and dogs or getting along wonderfully. There never was any real middle ground with us. Thankfully there never were too many years where we were not really close, mainly just during high school because we were so different and she hated my taste in boys... well until KS came along that is ;-) We only had one year where we were in the same class during elementary school, 2nd grade, I have a feeling they put notes in our files not to keep us together. We tended to argue A LOT back then.

All about Food!

2011-01-01T18:17:00.001-05:00

Happy New Years everyone!! Today in an effort to start the new year out on a good foot I managed to cook all three of our meals today!! I know it sounds weird, I cooked all three meals? Well instead of the kids usual oatmeal or cereal for breakfast I cooked a quiche a Boudin and Green Pepper Quiche, well minus the boudin. Our commissary does not carry boudin so I opted for a beer brats sausage. It was a total success! Normally I do not like quiches because I am really weird about how my eggs are cooked. I cannot stand cooked yoke, but this I loved!! The only person how didn't like it was Colin, but that is normal around this house. He doesn't like half of what I cook. He is our resident picky eater. For lunch instead of sandwich meat or corn dogs I made Mini Meatball Sandwiches, and instead of buying the meatballs I made them! I had never made meatballs before, but they were super easy and fun to do. For dinner we are having a typical holiday dinner for our house, just will a New Years twist, you cannot have New Years dinner without black eyed peas for good luck! In about an hour we will be eating, New Year's Black-Eyed Peas, slightly updated, ham, baked potatoes, and corn bread. Hopefully they turn out great, I know they smell good! The only thing that would make dinner better would be if we had some salad, but I always have to forget something.

All of these recipes came from the Pioneer Woman's recipe website Tasty Kitchen. I have heard rave reviews about her and her cooking but I had never really ventured over there to explore and try out her website until yesterday. I will have to admit I will be using her again and again in the future. The food is wonderful and easy to make! The only thing is that I feel like I have been in my kitchen all day! Its not such a bad thing just something I will have to get used to.

10 facts + a picture of me.

2011-01-01T08:29:00.001-05:00

Day 1, A pictures of me with 10 facts.... hmmm...

Fact 1- I married my husband when I was 17 and three months pregnant.

Fact 2- Sushi is my all time FAVORITE food!

Fact 3- My family has lived in the same town for over 100+ years now.

Fact 4- I had my first son when I was 18 and my second son when I was 19.

Fact 5- When I was attending collage a few years ago I changed my major 3 times from dance to nursing, and then to studio art.

Fact 6- I am the oldest as well as the shortest of 3 sisters.

Fact 7- I refuse to "grow up" as they say by having at least monthly food fights with my husband and constantly playing around with him like we are still in high school.

Fact 8- I have 9 piercings all of which are in my ears.

Fact 9- Summer is by far my FAVORITE season of the year, I could live in a summer climate year round and thrive in it.

Fact 10- My favorite flowers are hydrangeas, to the point that I told KS that if I died I wanted them on my casket. Morbid I know, but true.

My Goal for the new year is to attempt to blog every day and when I saw that Mrs. P from A Little Pink in a World of Camo had started this one I figured I would join in the fun. Not to mention that by starting off with this fun 31 day challenge it would get me started off on the right foot and help me accomplish my blogging goal for one month at least. Here is the 31 day list if you would like to join in the fun:

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts
Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show
Day 04 - A picture of your night
Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory
Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day
Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item
Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh
Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the craziest things with
Day 11 - A picture of something you hate
Day 12 - A picture of something you love
Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist
Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die
Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you
Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity
Day 19 - A picture and a letter
Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel
Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget
Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at
Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book
Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change
Day 25 - A picture of your day
Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you
Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member
Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of
Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile
Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss
Day 31 - A picture of yourself

Hopes for the New Year

2010-12-31T08:31:00.000-05:00

Here it is December 31st 2010, the last day of the year... it just doesn't seem possible. While 2010 was a year of changes and epic adventures for this woman who up until this year lived her entire life with her entire family within a 15 mile radius of her. This has been our first full year in the Army and I have to admit they haven't let us down yet. We have had the pleasure of living in three different houses in three different states. Two of those houses were and are at a military establishment and we have loved each of them. The people we have met have been great and we even had the pleasure of forming lasting bonds with a few extra special ones. I feel that I have grown into my own in 2010 and I have begun to depend on myself rather then my family. I guess you could say I am my own person now. While 2010 was a fabulous year 2011 will be a year all in its own. Full of its own challenges and firsts. We will experience things we have never experienced before and we will rise to whatever occasion God or the Army sets before us. 2011 will see us all grow a year older and a year stronger, the kids will begin new sports they have never played before, and I will set goals for myself that I never thought of setting before. Our lives will be forever changed in 2011 and I can only hope and pray that all of those changes are for the good. So here we are, at the end of my last post for 2010. I wish you and your family the best and may you all be blessed beyond belief in 2011.

2010 in 12

2010-12-30T10:35:00.001-05:00

I am in awe that the final day of 2010 is tomorrow. In many ways this year has flown by, but it has been filled with so many amazing things that it seems like it has lasted an eternity. Here is the summary of the year 2010 in 12 pictures...

January

In January we had to return Daddy to basic training after his amazing Christmas Exodus break.
February

In February we were able to celebrate KS's graduation from BCT. He then moved out west for AIT and the kids and I began to throw together a move three weeks later that no one was prepared for. We decided to join KS at his AIT location on a whim in March rather then June.

March

In March with the help and hours of labor from family and friends we succeeded in getting us moved out west within three weeks of KS's BCT graduation date. We had never been farther west then Alabama so this two day drive out west was a sight to see!! We also got the kids enrolled in their new school a week after we arrived out west, I had planned the move so we would arrive out west on the day their new school's spring break would begin. We signed the lease for our house on the base on Colin's 5th birthday.

April

In April KS was finally moved to stage five in his AIT training and was allowed to live with us once again. IT was so nice to be family of five again and not have to worry about getting him back to the barracks on time or having to worry about formations on the weekends anymore. We also got to celebrate Easter at their school and with the housing office, both threw wonderful Easter egg hunts and parties for the children.

May

In May Kiale graduated for Kindergarten and Colin had his K-4 graduation ceremony. We took the boys bowling for the first time and the boys discovered some wonderful lakes to go fishing with KS's and his friends. We also got a new addition to our family, a little kitten named Casey, and I pulled out the slip-n-slide which proved to be hours of fun the entire summer. One of the best parts about May, the pool opened!!

June

In June we went to the pool almost every day and began to make lasting friend ships with some amazing people who have become a second family to us. We also began to explore the town around us and enjoyed spending time together as a family. I discovered that Cayleigh-Grace finally had enough hair to pull back into pigtails.

July

In July we celebrated one of my favorite holidays with our some of our favorite friends, the 4th of July! The boys also began their swimming lessons which would prove to be the best thing for both of them. It really got Colin to come out of his shell. We also had our first visitors in July, my grandparents came out to spend a week with us. KS and his buddy D raced their RC cars almost every weekend together, which continued until we moved in September.

August

August was spent with even more swimming, also had friends over on a near daily basis. We celebrated Kiale and Cayleigh-Grace's 7th and 2nd birthdays early since everyone had to part ways the following month. I began organizing and cleaning the house to prepare for our move and we finally found out where we were moving to, about a week before KS's AIT graduation date.

September

In September KS graduated from AIT and we started to say goodbye to all of our amazing friends that we made out west. I also completed another three week notice move (I think this will just be my thing) and we were successful in moving back to the east coast. Close to home but extremely far from the majority of our closest Army friends. We got the boys enrolled in school and KS started his to actually do his job. Cayleigh-Grace got moved to a big girl bed and we were able to go home and see family for a couple of days. The first time we had seen them in six months.

October

In October the boys started to make friends and began to finally get good and settled into our new home and post. We celebrated Oktoberfest and the kids rode their first fair rides, and KS found a neat RC track to race his cars on. Halloween got here and instead of two sons and a daughter we ended up with a Gronkle, a NightFurry and a little Ladybug. We also went to the units Halloween bash and the we bought the boys their own rock crawlers.

November

In November we went home to have Thanksgiving with family and we really enjoyed our time there and had lots of fun decorating my parents house for Christmas with my sisters and their boyfriends. I was able to complete Cayleigh-Grace's duvet cover for her bed and made curtains for some of the rooms in our house.

December

This month we experienced our fist snow and our first Christmas away from family. We also had lots of visitors to our home this month, KS' mom, sister her husband and their son E, my aunt, uncle, cousin, her husband and their son, as well as my grandparents.

A Christmas Zoobalee

2010-12-29T08:53:00.006-05:00

On December 7th all of the kindergarten classes put on a holiday Zoobalee play. It was precious, and Colin had no intention of being part of it for weeks. To the point where he was trying to fake being sick and crying on his floor in the morning the day he thought would be the play, but in the end he participated and was thrilled to do so. We were all so relieved. That evening we left the house, him in all black, ready to be a tiger. Well let me tell you have I had one indecisive tiger because he turned into a brown/black bear! Go figure, but you know what he was the best brown/black bear in history!!

Colin and his black/brown bear

Watching the show

I love his smile in this pic, I was so happy he finally decided to participate.

Colin and his teacher

Suprise!

2010-12-28T08:38:00.001-05:00

We had a lovely surprise on the 23rd, my Aunt and Uncle as well as my cousin her husband and their sweet little boy V stopped by on their way up north. It was wonderful getting a chance to see them again, especially since I had forgot to get a picture of V and Cayleigh-Grace together at Thanksgiving. They are almost 3 months apart.

V Man!

She wanted to help out a bit.

They were only at the house for about an hour but Cayleigh-Grace managed to play with it the entire time.

My three and our Uncle Jimmy

your typical 2 year old picture

She is looking great

Now he is looking great, if only I could get both of them looking great in the same photo...

Our Christmas

2010-12-27T08:47:00.033-05:00

Christmas was wonderful and everything we wanted it to be we woke up opened presents, played, and never changed out of our PJ's all day long. It was delightful! I had been wondering when the excitement would start affecting Kiale and his sleeping. I remember laying in bed for HOURS not being able to sleep. This was Kiale this year, although it was only about an hour then he was asleep, and that was including two "potty breaks." Colin managed to fall asleep right away, which never happens for him. He is my resident night owl. Once again I slept like crap, I am always too excited for the kids to get a good nights sleep. I think the last time I slept well before Christmas was when Kiale was just 3 months old. Of course then it didn't really matter. The kids had a wonderful Christmas and got everything they were hoping for and even a little more.

Did you know that Santa Claus only uses paper that has only his image on it?

Their first look.

I had them wait a minute so I could take a good group shot of them with all the presents, thankfully it only took two takes.

Merry Christmas!!

My husbands YUMMY fresh green beans.

The amazing roast KS made, it was delicious and cooked just the way we like it!! (med. rare to rare)

9:30pm and still going strong Christmas evening, this girl needs no naps! (just ask her)

Our First Snow!!

2010-12-26T18:04:00.003-05:00

KS woke me up at 6am disappointed and seeing nothing but wet ground, but when he woke me up at 8am... well that was an entirely different story! The bad part with the snow, I don't think it is going to stick. We had so much rain yesterday that as soon as the snow hits the wet ground it melts. The boys were really looking forward to seeing white everywhere, but this sure does beat the flurries we saw for the first time on the 5th of December.*(see below for the flurry story) This day has been amazing, The snow has been falling off and on all day with about 3 hours in between where it was just flurries and we were all worried we had seen the last of it, until about 3 o'clock that is... this day ended up being the perfect end to our Christmas weekend. Who ever would have guessed that we would be seeing snow the day after Christmas.

8am

8:42am

10:42am

9:15am

12pm

3pm

and the snowballs start flying!

This was the perfect end to a Christmas weekend!

Kiale's snowman

Colin's snow bug

5pm

God Bless America!!

Their first snow!

group snow fight!!

*The flurry story- It was about three in the afternoon and I had to head out to the Commissary for the usual Sunday staples before they are closed on Monday and I could not figure out what was hitting me in the face when I walked out the door. It wasn't raining b/c it wasn't wet and it wasn't until I looked at my husbands car did I figure it out. It was solid white circles, snow flurries. I ran inside and got the boys to come out, they couldn't believe it, but the only way they could get a good look at them was when they got caught in each others hair. So there we were outside me in a jacket and my boys in a pair of shorts and a pair of pants... no shoes and no shirts. Then KS sent Cayleigh-Grace outside to experience it, and all she had on was a shirt and her panties. It was freezing!! What can I say? They were thrilled to experience the flurries even though it was freezing and they were all half naked, and I swear a car drove by and the woman looked at me like I was psycho. We are from the south, this kind of thing doesn't happen very ofter where we were from. In fact only once in the entire 24 years I lived down there. It was a wonderful and memorable Sunday for all of us.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-26T09:25:00.001-05:00

Our Christmas Eve was filled with.....

That is right, cleaning the bathroom with his shades on!

Chilling out on the couch getting in some quality Daddy time.

trashing the kitchen... aka baking Santa some yummy cookies!

concentrating hard on which cookie cutter to use,

Eating LOTS of dough when Mommy isn't looking

Our three crazy munchkins!

Our supervisor

I guess he had to make sure we were making them right.

Casey

Time for Christmas Eve presents!!

Yay for new PJ's!!!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T09:01:00.000-05:00

From our home to yours!!