Round 2

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?

Disgruntled Kids

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.

Packing Up and Moving Out!

That is right folks we are packing up and moving out!! In about three weeks we will be swimming in cardboard boxes and mountains of packing paper. Yesterday I went from thinking I would be moving back home in lieu of being homeless for two months while we wait on on post housing to today receiving a phone call stating that they have a house for us. KS and I have been scrambling around today setting up the movers and filing out tons of forms and turning them in. What is really exciting is that we were even able to get an address and even better news, our new home was just remodeled and is just now being released from the remodeling process! I am so thrilled that things are working out so well. This just goes to show you what you get through tons of prayer and being extremely nice and polite to people, even when you call them 4-5 times a day trying to figure everything out. The boys are only going to miss about a week of school once everything is all said and done, which isn't too bad in my opinion. I have to admit though, I am not looking forward to unpacking again. Hopefully KS will be able to help out as much as possible. Oh, and did I mention its a 4 bedroom 2 1/5 bath!

Totally Random

1. Still no orders :-(
2. KS was able to get me two POA's so once I do get the orders I can get everything setup to move and acquire housing.
3. School starts in a week, and I have to admit I am ready. I love having my boys home, but my goodness what is it about those last two weeks of summer vacation that makes them go CRAZY???
4. I have managed to get my downstairs spotless today... now to start on the upstairs.
5. We are planning a birthday bash for Kiale and Cayleigh-Grace it is also going to be combined with a graduation party for all our friends since we only have a couple of weeks left before everyone starts parting ways and heading to their duty station.
6. KS made expert on his weapons qualification last week, he made sharpshooter at BCT and was disappointed in himself. He is thrilled now, you cant get any better then expert, 37 out of 40, I am very proud of my man!

Well... I guess thats about it, its been a pretty boring week around here. Hopefully I will have good news soon! I hope!!

Day 9...

A photo I took... These pictures are from 2006, its never ceases to amaze me when I look back at old pictures and see how much the boys have grown.

Random Friday

 * First off I want to wish all of my fellow military spouses out there a wonderful Military Spouse Appreciation Day! I hope you have a wonderful & blessed day and if nothing else, relax and take a load off you deserve it.

* I will have to admit I am very proud of my husband right now. He is normally a very quiet and reserved person so when he came home last night and said that he got up in front of the entire company and sang the soldiers creed and the army song I was blown away. It was a commanders last day here so they had a special formation for him. KS had to run from the back of his platoons formation all the way up to the front of everyone and start of the cadences of the song and creed. He would yell/sing a line and then everyone would follow. He was still nervous about it after he got home, I am so proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone like that. Normally something of that nature would NEVER have been something he volunteered for.

* Kiale lost his third tooth yesterday. It has been loose for quite some time but KS and I don't want him wiggling his teeth around we would rather they fall out naturally so his adult teeth won't be so far behind them. (I know we are no fun) He was thrilled yesterday when he was finally able to pull his tooth out, it was literally hanging on by just a thread. He looks so different already without his tooth, older I guess... I don't like it.

* Cayleigh-Grace got her first dress sleeper the other day, I have been waiting on her to fit into them and to find one that didn't cost almost $15, thanks to Ross I found this one for only $7. Which is a much more reasonable price for a sleeper.... I just cannot see spending that much money for a sleeper... although this one is a 4t so it should be lasting us for quite a while. I think it fits pretty good actually. I am not at all surprised that Cayleigh-Grace loves this sleeper, it has her favorite person on it, her beloved Tinkerbell. I swear this baby can see Tinkerbell from a mile away. This is completely random but, we were passing a McDon@lds billboard the other day and she pointed and it and yelled Num Nums!... I think we have been getting the chocolate milkshakes a little to often...














* I managed to hit the gym yesterday, did 8 miles on the bike and 2 miles on the treadmill,  250 calories burned. Going back today for round two plus I am going to start doing the 20 ab DVD KS and I got in our cereal box the other day. Hopefully it will get this body of mine, particularly my still split abs back into shape. That is the only bad thing I have had in regards to my pregnancies my abs are literally split and no longer connected right down the middle...

* Colin has been doing good. We are still having our usual problems, you know the one where we just oh well that is Colin for ya.... basically he is lazy and never wants to do anything and if you ask him to do it he will take FOREVER and pout in the process. It isn't fun to deal with and frankly it is getting rather annoying to deal with every single day, but we are working on it maybe he will change and get over it one day. I hope, its only be 5 years of the same thing so there is still hope. Right? Other than that he is great and still in love with Tr@nsformers.

*The boys don't know it but KS and I are discussing redoing their bedroom as a surprise to them. We are talking all new bedding and some posters on their walls, the only thing I cant figure out is how to position their beds as you can see they are along the farthest wall right now. Colin has mentioned taking the beds down so that he isn't on the top anymore which is fine with KS and I those beds are very easy to dissemble but I just cannot figure out how to rearrange their room where this isn't a bed under the window and they still have plenty of room to sleep. I am paranoid of someone falling out of our 2 story windows. If you have any suggestions please leave them in my comments section. I am at a loss and not the best interior designer... that is where my sister comes in handy, but since she is 1200 miles away I would love your help! (Please excuse their very messing bedroom) Their room is very large so I know there should still be plenty of room to play with their beds torn apart I just don't want to take down their beds just to put them back up again b/c I don't like the way their room turned out.

Limbo

No, I am not talking about the fun game we all played in our childhood, and at some wild and crazy weddings. I am talking about where I am at right now. I am hanging in limbo waiting for either the green light or the yellow light. Unfortunately I will continue hanging in limbo until KS and I can sit down and talk about all of our options there are lots of pros and cons all of which revolve around when we should move. Should it be June or should it be March/April? If we move in March/April we will not have to wait for a house one is already ready for us, but we would have to move the kids out of their wonderful school into a school whose curriculum is quite a bit less then the school they are currently attending. They boys would be ahead of their peers but I do not want them bored in class. Colin would be going from a full day preK with reading, writing, math, Spanish, and Bible study to a half day of preK... Kiale will continue to be in a full days classes, but their new school just doesn't offer everything that their current school does so I am just starting to think that it will be better for the kids to finish out the school year here. KS won't be able to live with us until April-ish and I know I don't want to move until he can actually live with us. Although, we would get to see him at night and on weekends if we were to move, but I realize that a lot of his time will be taken up with school and homework. So if we were to move mid April, they would only have a month and a half of school left to complete if we were to stay, and looking at the grand scheme of things I keep thinking to myself why not just stay and finish out the school year. Kiale and my sister are both graduating this year, full cap and gown graduations ceremonies. One from Kindergarten and one from high school and I really want to get pictures of the two of them together with their cap and gowns and I also want to see her graduate, as well as be here for her Senior Prom. There are so many different reasons why I want to stay here, and of course the reason I want to move. Well that's the easy one, KS.
 
This is where I stop and ask all of my experienced Army Wife friends and any other readers experienced with moving school aged children for advice. So please leave your thoughts in my comments section, I don't want to overlook anything that I may not be currently aware of once KS and I are able to sit down and make our decision, and please remember, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. Thank You. ~Charity

By the way... I sold my van today, that is one thing I get to mark off my list, and buy selling that it means I will get to mark several other things off of my list that I needed the money from the van to complete!! I am one happy woman today!!

Thoughts and Decisions Made

I have a lot on my mind these days. We have  a lot of decisions to make and a lot of them will fall on me. The biggest decision I have to make is when to move our family to be with KS. I called yesterday and I have the opportunity to be number 2 on the waiting list to get a 3 bedroom house... Do you realize how close that is to number 1!? I could not believe it when I called, I spent most of the day on the phone to different people trying to get all of my ducks in a row. I have to finish the remodel on our house, clean our yard and clean out our garage before we can move. My goal is to have all of this done by my birthday. That is a month and a half away from now. I think I can do it, I know I can do it as long as I have enough people helping me. The hardest part of this decision lies with the boys and school. If I take them out of school, I will have to enroll Kiale in kindergarten out west, and Colin will just be home with me during the day. I doubt they will have k-4 out there but I will ask when I call the school they will be attending today. After talking to the boys last night many decisions have been made, the boys have decided that they want KS to go ahead and put us on the waiting list for the house and they do want to move in the middle of the school year. They are both sad to leave friends and family but they want to be with KS again. I am so proud of my boys for understanding everything that goes into moving our family. Kiale has taken it the hardest but after the tears he still says he wants to move in the middle of the school year, so that is what we will do. Today I will be calling the housing again to find out what local school Kiale will be going to, I will then be calling them to find out what all goes into transferring a kindergartner and if they have a graduation ceremony. I told him the kids might not talk to him the first day because they will be shy and he told me "that is okay I will be shy too." I am so proud of my son, he may be only 6 years old but he is wise beyond his years. Colin doesn't quite grasp what is going on, he is sad to leave his Brookie and Tres, but he wants to be with KS so bad right now I don't think anything else really matters to him. We will not be doing spring sports after all since we might end up moving right at the beginning of the season, the boys were sad about it at first but they said it was fine. We spent time last night looking at pictures of the houses and floor plans and dreaming of where their bedrooms will be and if we will have stairs in our new house. This is going to be a very bittersweet time for our family, but it will also mark the beginning of our journey into our new Army life. As my boys now say each night as they say their prayers, "Keep Daddy safe and happy and make us Army Strong, HOOAH! Amen."

Please pray for Gods will to be done in our lives, leaps of faith are never easy, but the peace I feel lets me know that everything will be okay.

Broken Glass

How many times have you woken up late and that just set the stage for a bad serious of events? Well that was me on Friday. I had forgot to set my alarm the night before until after midnight, so I had to change the set time before I could turn the alarm clock on. Once I did that I quickly fell asleep, forgetting to set the set time back ahead... needless to say I woke up on my own 30 minutes later than I wanted. I was rushing around the house, nursed Cayleigh-Grace, got the boys breakfast ready, stuck CG in her room and finally got into the shower. I honestly think that was the fastest shower I have had in quite a while. After I got out I had to pack Cayleigh-Grace's bag because she was staying with a friend while I took the boys on a field trip. The boys got dressed and we finally headed out the door, I had got everyone ready and out the door, including myself, in 45 minutes. I was thrilled, we were actually going to make it out on time, until I got to the truck. I quickly realized that I had locked my keys (all of them) in the house with my purse. I had grabbed Cayleigh-Grace's bag which is the same style as my purse and walked out of the house without a second thought. Normally this would not have been a problem, I have a hide-a key, but I had used the key on Wednesday after church b/c I couldn't find my house keys when I left. I had forgot to return the hide-a key to its designated spot... which meant that I was 100% locked out of my house, no one else has a key. So I put Kiale over the fence to the backyard hoping that the boys had left the backdoor unlocked, but of course it was locked. Even the doggy door was locked. So I go around to all the windows trying to get them to open to avail. Finally I am pushing on our dining room window that KS replaced before he left just hoping that it would give and open. Well it did give, but it wasn't the window that gave and opened. The glass ended up shattering all over my forearm and hand. (Granted I was angry and was pushing with way more force than I needed to be...) So I rinsed the blood of in the spicket, grabbed a brick and finished busting out my dining room window. Then I was able to climb into my house, FaceB@@k my friend and tell here it has been a bad morning and we were on our way, rinsed my cuts off again, and headed to her house. As soon as I got to her house, I was hiding my arm behind my back, I asked her if she was okay with blood. She gave me the oddest look and said she was so I showed her my arm and explained my "fun" morning. Thankfully she was able to get me all cleaned up and we were able to get Cayleigh-Grace settled and the boys and I headed off to our field trip. We ended up leaving only 15 minutes later than I had wanted too. I just wasn't able to check the boys into school, granted I don't think I would have been a good idea to show up to school with a bloody and cut up arm to begin with. They would have freaked out...Thankfully we made it to the theater with 10 minutes to spare. The movie, Under the Sea was wonderful and I had never been to an Im@x movie before so I was surprised by how nice it was. All I knew going into it was that it would have a very large screen. The only thing I was disappointed in was how short the movie was. It was exactly an hour long. After the movie I had the pleasure of panicking again due to the fact that I had forgotten to get gas before I left town and I could not find a gas station close anywhere. So my gas light was on and all I kept saying was please don't let me run out of gas, please please please... Thankfully we made it to the gas station right as the needle was on E. After getting gas the boys and I headed over to Sonny's for some lunch...  (the pic is from my phone)

After lunch we headed back to the house to clean up my mess... and boy was it a big one...

After about an hour and a half of breaking all of the remaining glass out of the window and cleaning the floors we finally went and picked Cayleigh-Grace up from my friends house. This happens to be the same friend that took our family pictures as well as the pictures with KS in his ACUs. Thankfully Cayleigh-Grace did wonderfully her first time away from me. Yes, it has taken me 17 months to leave her with anyone... On Saturday my Dad came over and replaced the glass in my window, and I now have 2 hide-a keys instead of one.

Scroll down to see a pic of my hand and arm, it isn't that bad I promise. It didn't even hurt when it happened thankfully. I do realize that I got very lucky, if the glass had cut me any lower and any deeper it could have been really bad.

One of those days

I am having one of those days... you now THOSE days.

The type of day where my boys have been "cleaning" their room for the past 4 hours and it still looks like it did 4 1/2 hours ago.

Cayleigh-Grace still has not taken a nap today. Normally she would have already had a 2 hour nap by now; at least she is in a wonderful mood and is happy as can be.

I have already put in the one tax document that we have, I am counting down the days until we can file and get our return back. I am ready to pay people back and pay off bills and not have to worry about these money issues anymore.

I think I have decided to switch Cayleigh-Grace over to cloth diapers, I am tired of her being raw for 3 weeks and clear for a week.

I finally decided which pets we will be keeping, the only problem, we can take 2... we have 3 dogs and 4 cats. Does anyone else see a problem with those numbers?

I totally screwed up paying my truck payment and applied my truck payment to our 4-wheeler... talk about a big time screw up. That is going to be fun to fix. Of course I didn't realize it until after it cleared my bank account...

I am worried about KS's knees since he has had to go to sick call and have an x-ray. He did not accept the profile but I am figuring he will have to soon.

31 days until graduation... that time cannot pass soon enough.

Well time to go fuss at the boys again since they are playing and not cleaning... again.

What type of day are you having?

Reunited

Day 2 - December 16th

This day was the most amazing day I have had in years, well 16 months to be exact! We were finally reunited with KS. You would be surprised just how long a month can feel like when you have limited contact and never see the person. The morning started off great, Cayleigh-Grace and had breakfast downstairs, well Cayleigh-Grace did. I was too nervous to eat; I did have some apple juice though. We finally got to see what everything looked like since we got there so late we couldn't see anything when we arrived.

 

After breakfast we went and checked out of the hotel and met up with a fellow Army wife that I have met along this journey. To hear our stories you would swear we were twins separated at birth or something. We have been walking the same path all these years without even knowing each other. By the way "J" we are both fired, we have yet to get a picture together!

CG as we left our hotel room. 

Once we met up with "J" we had to wait for about an hour until our husbands were released. We didn't get to see our husbands march in but we did see another platoon march in. I think we both almost had heart attacks looking for our husbands in the group. They ended up standing in formation about two feet from us. Picking KS up ended up being very confusing they kept sending all of the families to different doors that all went into the same building. Even the Drill Sergeants that were running things were getting frustrated because it wasn't going as planned. Eventually we all, I am talking around 30+ people, got to the correct door filed into the correct line by platoon number and signed out our soldiers. Once we signed them out and confirmed that we had our vehicles inspected we could pick up our soldiers. That was also confusing. Some of the platoons handed out paperwork to the families and other platoons had their paper work with their soldiers. I finally got tired of waiting around being confused and just walked up to the DS at the door and asked for KS. He had to call him twice because he wasn't KS's DS so he wasn't sure if he was calling the right name. I think I had the biggest smile ever when I saw KS stand up from his chair and walk towards me, I just couldn't believe that I was finally seeing him for the first time in a month. I was on cloud 9 to say the least. They are allowed NO PDA (personal displays of affection) at all so I put my hand on him for a second and handed him CG because I knew he could at least hold her while we were on post. Cayleigh-Grace didn't recognize KS until he took his hat off, but as soon as he did she knew exactly who he was. She was so happy to see him.

CG after seeing Daddy for the first time.

After we pick KS up we met up with "J" and her husband and we all went out to lunch at Chick-Fil-A

After lunch it was finally time to head home. We went straight to pick up the boys at my parents house. I don't think I have ever seen them happier. It was so amazing to see them run out the doors of my parents house and jump into KS's arms. Colin ran straight out, but Kiale thought he had to put his shoes on until my sister Dixie told him not to worry about his shoes and to go get Daddy.

 I have never seen this boy run so fast in his entire life!

Kiale finally caught up after ditching the shoes idea.

So as you can imagine December 16th was one amazing day for my family and it was a wonderful way to kick of an amazing Christmas break! 

He Keeps Me Singing

I wanted to put out a big THANK YOU to our wonderful photographer for taking all of these amazing pictures of my family. You can find her website here at He Keeps Me Singing please check out her website, and if you are local contact her. She is a wonderful woman who is full of God's love and uses that inspiration to capture wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. We have already talked to her about doing pictures for us next year after KS completes all of his training.

Dinner...

Man this is getting hard... cooked dinner for the first time since KS left. I had so much food left over... I started crying when I realized I had cooked way too much. Then the boys started talking about Daddy and Colin started crying, then I started crying again... Colin went and got the bear KS made him and played it, as soon as KS's voice started all 3 of us were bawling... This is going to be so hard but I know at the end of this all of us are going to be so much stronger. The boys are writing their letters to Daddy now and I had to tell Kiale that he cannot draw sad faces for Daddy he can only draw happy faces for Daddy b/c Daddy doesn't need to know when we are sad only that we are happy and proud of him. Praise the Lord he gave me strong understanding boys who are able to see and understand concepts far beyond their years.

Vampires!!

Do to SEVERE un-princess like behavior, Cayleigh-Grace pictures will have to wait. She sends her apologizes.

Boys

I love having boys, they are a blast to play with and are awesome to get rowdy with... but lately they have been driving me crazy! They are, well Kiale started it, at the stage where everything that has to do with any type of bodily function is hilarious and must be shared with everyone. I am almost to the point where if I hear the word "fart, poot, butt, Mr. Poopypants... etc." I think I am going to loose it! With having grown up in a house where the only male was my Dad and some of the cats I am not used to things like this and frankly I am not liking having to get used to the idea of hearing about said functions daily for the next 12 years +. They cannot seem to understand that passing gas and burping annoys me greatly... or maybe they have realize it and that is why they seem to do both things nonstop...

First Day of School

Well the school year has begun, and thankfully it went off without a hitch! Here are pictures from this morning. I still cannot believe that I have a kindergartner, it just doesn't seem possible. My baby is fixing to turn 6... it just doesn't even sound like any sort of reality. The boys had a wonderful day and were thrilled to come home and tell me how everything went today. They have some of their friends from last year in their classes. With such a small school that was bound to happen. There are 2 K-5 (Kindergarten) and two K-4 classes this year. I am thrilled to say that Kiale only has 11 kids in his classroom, how wonderful is that! I think Colin has around 14, I honestly forgot to count.

K-4 & K-5 Orientation

Well orientation went great. Both of the boys have wonderful teachers, Mrs. B who was Kiale teacher last year is Colin's teacher this year. Mrs. C is Kiale's teacher, Kiale and I requested her and were so pleased to actually get her this year. Their classrooms are right next to each other so that will make picking up and dropping of really easy. The boys go to meet their classmates and sit in their seats as well as find their cubbyholes. There are some good rule changes for this upcoming year they can wear any color polo shirt which is nice, although I did always like the red, white, and blue uniform code. At least this way there will be more of a variety in their clothing choices. I am really looking forward to Monday, I know the boys are going to have a blast. I still cannot get over the fact that I am going to have a Kindergartner and a K-4er.

Lost It!

That's it its official. My boys have absolutely lost it! Kiale and I were burning stuff in the burn pit last night trying to get this house ready to sell before Kiale leaves for boot camp in November since we both know he will not have time to do everything after he leaves. So I send the boys outside to play this morning (its only 9:30...) and then after a while I notice that its quiet, too quiet. As mothers we all know that something bad is happening when things get too quiet, so I go and investigate, and what do I find? Two boys playing in what is left of the fire from last night! KJ says to me, but we wanted to make a fire too. They both know better, I just do not understand what goes through their minds sometimes. Needless to say they are both in bed and not getting out for quite some time. Do they see anything wrong with what they did, nope. There in lies my problem... what am I going to do with two boys that have completely lost their marbles???

Wordless Wednesday

Boys will be Boys