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

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

Be Proud.

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

Why, hello there.

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

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

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

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

Summer is here!!

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

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

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

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

1st week home

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

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

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

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

This is my 550th post, yay!

Roller Coasters

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

Music Sunday Week 4

Day 2, check.

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!

Our very own D-Day; Deployment Day.

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.

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.

 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

A picture of someone I could never imagine myself without

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.

The Army Wife

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

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

"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.

Hopes for the New Year

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

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.

Full of thanks this Thanksgiving.

I have to admit I have been feeling very happy and uplifted these couple of weeks. Our lives are great right now, KS just got promoted, Kiale is doing better in school, Colin is doing great, and Cayleigh-Grace is just her sweet self. I am so thankful for everything God has given me. For my family and friends, for those people that I am blessed to see on a daily basis and for that handful of people that light up my life whenever the phone rings and I see it is a number from across the world or just across this continent.

Being in the military as a service member or even as a spouse really changes you as a person. It makes you look at life in a whole new light. In many ways it creates long lasting bonds between people and in other ways it divides you from people. I guess you could say that your life becomes more streamlined. It has been a year and  ten days since I said goodbye to KS and prepared for the ups and downs of basic training followed by a move to his AIT without him. I never would have guessed two years ago that I would be strong enough to pack up and move my entire household of three kids and pets halfway across the Untied States to rejoin my husband who I had just spent 4 months living without. This upcoming year with be filled with many ups and downs I am sure. Our life will go in directions we have never imagined before but for that even I am thankful; and I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for my husband and for the Army. Yes in many ways the Army makes things harder for families we cannot always be together even though "normal" people are always with their spouses, "normal" people also don't have to deal with the constant nagging anticipatory grief that floats around in my head on an almost daily basis, but that goes with the territory. For some reason I am thankful for all of that as well. The Army, including the good, bad, and ugly parts with always be something I am grateful for even though our lives may be difficult at times it has insured a way of life for my husband, children, and myself that I will always be proud and thankful for living this life.

Home Safe

Made it back home safe and sound! We coudln't believe it Cayleigh-Grace was looking at pictures and she pointed to herself and said "Cayleigh-Grace"!! I didn't think I would here her say her own name for years!!! The trip back was easy, granted I can say that... I wasn't the one driving. ;-) The only negative was that they boys TVs quit working on the way down. One had already been malfunctioning and they finally bit the dust this time. They were great while they lasted though. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday. I  know I am looking forward to seeing family that I have not seen in 9 months. We all feel very blessed to have been stationed so close and I am going to cherish every minute of it I can while we are here, because who knows where the Army will be sending us next!!

50/50

Pictures with Santa was a wonderful success. Cayleigh-Grace was very clingy at first but after a couple of minutes she really warmed up to him. I am so thrilled we were able to capture this year, now I even have hopes for Easter Bunny pictures in 2011!!

Well I decided against pulling out the decorations to decorate before Thanksgiving. Since we are going home in a couple of days the last thing I wanted was to come home and discover that our crazy cat knocked over our Christmas tree... So the decorating will have to wait until next week when I can supervise our psyco cat. Instead of decorating the house we spent the day having a BBQ with KS's unit and watching all of the units play flag-football. It was a blast, the kids had and wonderful time and I think all of the adults did as well. KS's unit even won!!