Life just gets too crazy to keep up sometimes

Well, I wrote about us getting on the housing list last time. Well, if not 3 weeks later, they called us offering us brand new housing that I could sign for via fax. How perfect did that work out? We even have our desired garage. I sat there desperately trying to work out plans on how I could manage to move my entire storage unit with my sister and maybe recruit my friend's husband to help. Adam repeatedly told me I was crazy. I cried on the phone explaining to him that I was just trying to keep our family together when he was home instead of apart. I had thought of hiring movers, but was afraid he wouldn't go for it. Finally, he said, "Just hire some movers, I won't have to do anything when I get home and you guys will be waiting for me, it will be perfect". Three phone calls later, the movers were scheduled for November 19th at a really reasonable rate. The guy on the phone claims they will be done in about 5 hours...lets hope he is right! Now, instead of me attempting to fly to KY and spending hundreds of dollars on airfare, a rental car and hotel (while leaving the girls behind and coordinating childcare) we will ALL be together for his homecoming. Now, we hope and pray he makes it in time for Christmas.

This is the big weekend, I am heading to KY with my sister to handle the movers and move most of our stuff from here. I am hoping to get SO much done this weekend so it won't be too bad when I get back with the girls. I will then come back to NJ, spend Thanksgiving with our families, and then head out a couple days after Thanksgiving to KY and stay there and wait for our soldier (while unpacking, organizing and making our house a home). Allie is very excited about all of this! She gets a big girl bed out of the deal, so she is pretty pumped. A new bed, daddy and Santa all in one month, what else could a girl ask for?!

The girls had a fabulous Halloween. Em was tinkerbelle and Allie finally decided on a bumble bee. They loved trick or treating and Em seriously walked so much I was shocked. I am so glad we were here for Halloween, and grateful we will be here for Thanksgiving. However, I cannot WAIT to get back to KY and get things started. I can't believe it is only days away!

Well, well, well

Well, if life didn't throw us yet another curve ball. Before I knew it, September was over. Now, it is thankfully October! I am so very grateful. The weather is nice and chilly, and we are only 3 months away from this deployment being over. I just got us back on the housing list, so I am hoping and praying we will get a house by the end of December.

We got Emily's Halloween costume, she is going to be Tinkerbelle. Allie keeps bouncing around on ideas. She saw Lalaloopsy costumes, but I am trying to get her away from that idea. It is a cheesy costume and way too expensive. She kind of liked the Olivia costume. This morning she mentioned being a Wizard. I am telling you, we will be deciding two days beforehand!

She started PreK in early September and she loves it. She goes 5 days a week from 9:20 until 11:45. I drop her off and the bus brings her home. She loves taking the bus. It's so sweet to see her get off the bus and see the happiness in Emmy's face when she sees her. I really do think they are each other's best friend.

Other than that, we are just rolling right along. I am so ready for this thing to be over with. Just 3 more holidays to go. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adam will most likely miss Christmas, so it will be the girls and I at my parents. We will do a belated Christmas with the BIG Santa gifts when we get back to KY. Keep on keepin' on!

I am SO "Old" now...WAH!

Well, I turned 27 over the weekend...I am now on the downhill slope to 30! Actually, age has never bothered me one bit. This is probably because Adam and I have been together for 10 years. We started dating a month before my 17th birthday...but were really good friends for about a year before that. Essentially, we have grown up together. Sometimes I feel like we are still those 22 year olds, just married...but how did we end up with 2 kids?! Then I think oh my goodness, how am I 27? It seems unreal. But here we are...10 years later in life, 2 beautiful kids, married for 5 years...but yes I still feel like we are 17.

I had a pretty good birthday, probably the best I could of had given the circumstances. It was the 2nd year in a row Adam missed my birthday. He was home the year before that, and we actually went on a date. The year before that...I was insanely busy packing for our trip to the states, while he laid on the couch in severe pain because he cut his cornea on Allie's first birthday. The year before that, he was deployed, before that we were living seperate (I was in the states, he was in Germany trying to get me moved over there), the year before that he was in basic training. So basically, since my 21st birthday, he has only been home for 2 of them! Its crazy when I think about it, but its also why I really could care less about it.

Allie was the sweetest thing. She was so excited about it being my birthday from the moment she woke up, until she went to bed, she was wishing me a HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYYYY! We went to the dollar store with my mom, and she went down the aisle and found a pack of beaded necklaces and hid them behind her back. She went running over to my mom and said, "Mom mom we HAVE to buy these for my mom, she is just going to love them! Hide them in your basket." When we got home, she proudly took them out of the bag and said, "These are for you mommy, I think you will love them!" I wanted to cry right then and there. She really was so proud of her gift. I went out to get a pedicure and manicure (after getting a birthday call from my husband!) and my mom and sister said she was so upset over not having a birthday card for me. So my sister went out to get a cake and a card for her to give me. Like I said, my birthday has not been a big deal to me for years. I never ask for gifts, I can't even think of what I would want when my mom hounds me asking. However, Allie made me love my birthday this year. She really reminded of how sweet and genuinely loving she is. She has such a big, big heart. She is my biggest helper, and even on the days when she is my biggest trouble and stressor, I do not know what I would do without her! She even has the "Spit it out!" and putting her finger in Emily's mouth to search for what Em just ate that she shouldn't of, down pat! I love my girls, and I am blessed to have such loving girls, even on the days when I want to cry because I feel like I can't take another day of doing this alone...they are the ones that get me thru, they make Adam being gone a little bit easier. They will get me to December.

Trying to go back...

I am trying to get us back to our healthier habits. When Allie was little, I was on top of what she ate all of the time. She probably never had syrup before she was 2, and even then it was rare. We never had cookies in the house, except for the rare occasion. I used whole wheat flour in a lot of recipes, all we ate was whole wheat pasta, her snack choices consisted of teddy grahams, yogurt, fruit, string cheese or fruit snacks, just for example. For breakfast she ate whole wheat waffles sprinkles with cinnamon usually with fruit. My family used to tease me about lightening up, because having things like donuts and ice cream were getting "treats". Allie does not even like soda (thankfully!) and even requested splash juice (V8 Splash) at her 4th birthday party while everyone around her was drinking soda. After having Emily, obviously I would go for things what were easier, more convienent and less expensive. But really that's no excuse. I want Allie and Emily to understand the difference between healthy foods and "junk". I remind Allie of these foods, especially when she has a tummy ache or if she has trouble going potty. She immediately says, oh no, my belly hurts, I need more fruits and veggies...I must of had too much junk! We went food shopping yesterday, and stocked up on our healthier options. Today Allie had salad for lunch and was so proud when she almost finished it, then she told me she felt so healthy. I want Emily to just see the way we eat (even though my eating habits are worse than Allie's) and understand that junk food just is a "treat" for maybe birthday parties or holidays, like it used to be in our house. It is definitely harder in NJ, when we are not in our home, and Allie can see others eat certain things that I wouldn't normally bring into the house and wants them too. We definitely are going back to the way we were eating when we started this family!

Everyone should have a family game night!

So over the summer pretty much, it has just started to pretty much become a weekly tradition that almost every Wedensday the girls and I go to my sister, Melissa's house for dinner. It's just a nice night to get together, let the kids play, vent, and sometimes we do something fun afterwards like movie in the park or go to Gavin's games before his season ended. Last week my mom came over for dinner as well. After dinner, we played a game Hedbanz. It was SO much fun. We played for hours before we realized it was 9:30. So my sister calls me this morning and says, Gavin was barely awake this morning before he said, "Mom it's Wedensday, are Aunt Sammy and the girls coming for dinner?". I'm not gonna lie, that warmed my wee wittle heart! He's gonna be 13 in October, meaning, we are gonna "lose" him soon. He won't think game nights with us are cool anymore, he won't appreciate hanging out with us and our "humor". He even invited my mom too, and my other sister came as well. We played Apples to Apples and it was pretty fun. I may buy a new game for next week. As much as I miss Adam and am "wishing" the time away until he comes home, I'm going to try to embrace the nights like this with my family. Then I will remind myself that hopefully soon enough, the four of us will be back here with our family, where we belong, having game night with everyone together.

Obviously, I am not a very good blogger!

Well, here we are! We are 7 months into this deployment. It feels SO good to say that. Life has certainly thrown us tons of curve balls this deployment. Adam was scheduled to in fact be home right now for his R&R to be home for Allie's birthday and hopefully mine. Well unfortunately, he had some major trouble with his back and had to go on R&R early...way early. He came home 3 months into the deployment. We had a wonderful time on R&R, but unfortunately when he left, it meant we had to face 8 months being apart head on. It has proved to be challenging, but it has also made us stronger. Allie knows Daddy will be home around Christmas time and she cannot wait! She has so many plans for when he comes home. She wants him to take her camping, fishing and he has to teach her how to play basketball. She doesn't know how to get the ball bouncing very long and needs help. We cannot WAIT for you to come home Daddy! 5 months and we get to be a family again!

May was a hard month for us as well. My grandmom got really sick and passed away. That was really hard to handle with out Adam. I missed him terribly during that. Emily also turned ONE! That was certainly the fastest year of my life. She was not walking, barely crawling by her first birthday. She started crawling when Adam came home for R&R. She had a bumblebee birthday, but HATES birthdays and cries hysterically whenever we sing Happy Birthday to ANYONE.

June and July flew by in the blink of an eye. I guess we stayed busy enough for it to go by that fast. We had a great 4th of July. The weeks really seem to just be ticking by.

Its now August and Allie is 4! Her birthday came and went so fast. She had a WONDERFUL birthday. She wanted a Lalaloopsy birthday and I tried my best to give her what she wanted. She was the happiest birthday girl and so grateful for all of her gifts. She has been playing nonstop with her new toys. She may be sassy, but she is always grateful. My birthday is in a few days, and I am actually getting a pedicure and my nails done! Shocker! I haven't gotten a pedicure since the day before I had Emily...I am desperate. Emily started WALKING the day before Allie's birthday. She really took off on Allie's birthday. Her first real mission walking...she walked into the bathroom, opened my mom's make up, took out her blush brush, and dunked it right in the toilet. Today she was almost running down the hallway. She is climbing all over the place, including places like the coffee table and the 2 step-step stool. She is certainly a different child than Allie. Allie did not find herself in this kind of trouble! Am I really ready for what Emily is getting ready to get herself into?! I am a little scared!

September is right around the corner and I cannot wait. I am getting Allie registered for preschool and I think time will go even faster then. I keep telling Adam we just have to get to September and it should really start moving then. I hope I am right, for both of our sakes. He is really missing the girls. We are almost there though! I firmly believe staying positive helps get us through...and minus a few bad days in there when things just felt really, really bad...I have stayed really positive. So, lets keep on going and before I know it, we will have a few weeks left!

Happy Birthday Adam!

It is Adam's 26th birthday and he is spending it in Afghanistan. It is his 2nd birthday he is spending over there. He spent his 23rd birthday there as well. I hope he had the best day possible. My birthday package of course did not get there time! Yet the package I sent him with random stuff in that he needed and I sent it to him after I sent his birthday package made it there already. Grrr to the postal system! It's ok because regardless he will appreciate it no matter what. Happy Birthday Adam, we miss you so much! Can't wait until you are home with us again!

Somedays I need a reminder...

At why I do what I do...being an Army wife isn't easy. I love my husband so much, and I wouldn't trade our life for the world. Idealy, I'd like to be out of the Army because of deployments...not so much because of the seperation, but because of his safety. But, anyway, I read things like this, and it reminds me of why I do what I do.
The Military Wife

Lots of moving...

Moving...

Moving...

Moving far from home...

Moving two cars, three kids and one dog...all riding with HER of course.

Moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house;

Moving curtains that won't fit;

Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.

Moving away from friends;

Moving toward new friends;

Moving her most important luggage: her trunk full of memories.



Often waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting...

Waiting for housing.

Waiting for orders.

Waiting for deployments.

Waiting for phone calls.

Waiting for reunions.

Waiting for the new curtains to arrive.

Waiting for him to come home,

For dinner...AGAIN!



They call her 'Military Dependent', but she knows better:

She is fiercely In-Dependent.



She can balance a check book;

Handle the yard work;

Fix a noisy toilet;

Bury the family pet...



She is intimately familiar with drywall anchors and toggle bolts.

She can file the taxes;

Sell a house;

Buy a car;

Or set up a move...

.....all with ONE Power of Attorney.



She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her.

She reinvents her career with every PCS;

Locates a house in the desert, The Arctic, Or the deep south.

And learns to call them all 'home'.

She MAKES them all home.



Military Wives are somewhat hasty...

They leap into:

Decorating,

Leadership,

Volunteering,

Career alternatives,

Churches,

And friendships.

They don't have 15 years to get to know people.

Their roots are short but flexible.

They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.



Military Wives quickly learn to value each other:

They connect over coffee,

Rely on the spouse network,

Accept offers of friendship and favors.

Record addresses in pencil...



Military Wives have a common bond:

The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands; his commitment is unique.

He doesn't have a 'JOB'

He has a 'MISSION' that he can't just decide to quit...

He's on-call for his country 24/7.

But for her, he's the most unreliable guy in town!

His language is foreign

TDY

PCS

OPR

SOS

ACC

BDU

ACU

BAR

CIB

TAD

And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.

She is the long- distance link to keep them informed;

the glue that holds them together.



A Military Wife has her moments:

She wants to wring his neck;

Dye his uniform pink;

Refuse to move to Siberia;

But she pulls herself together.

Give her a few days,

A travel brochure,

A long hot bath,

A pledge to the flag,

A wedding picture,

And she goes.

She packs.

She moves.

She follows.



Why?

What for?

How come?

You may think it is because she has lost her mind.

But actually it is because she has lost her heart.

It was stolen from her by a man,

Who puts duty first,

Who longs to deploy,

Who salutes the flag,

And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military Husband,

She will remain his military wife.

And would have it no other way.



~Author Unknown~

The ending makes me cry everytime I read this because I know that no matter what decision Adam makes, I will forever stand by his side. I love and appreciate my husband for everything he does for us and his country. There are not many men brave enough to do what he does. I will forever appreciate his sacrifices he has made for us and this country...I hope he knows how much we appreciate and love him!

My Little Emmy

She is growing up so fast! She is such a ham. Her new things are waving, saying hi, saying dada sometimes, and fake coughing. She is so cute. If you say hi to her, she starts waving so hard that either A) Who ever is holding her is likely to get hurt or B) Her little arm might fall off. We finally have her drs appt all set up for Friday for her to FINALLY get her 6 month shots, even though she is 7 1/2 months old. The clinic at Ft. Knox was out of one of her vaccinations, so we didn't get any, and held off until we got here and she could get them all at once. She can sit up when she wants to, but she is a lazy girl. She does things when they benefit her, the little stinker. We did Skype with Adam yesterday and that was pretty funny. Whenever he called her name her little head went bonkers looking for him. She was attacking the computer screen trying to get to him, the girl misses her dada. She seems to be enjoying NJ where she gets plenty of extra attention and love. She is getting bigger by the day, now only if her hair would start growing ;)

Oh yeah!

And a new goal of mine is to get my camera out, and play with it! I want to start taking a ton of pics and use different settings on the camera. Within a few months I really want to get a DSLR similar to my dad's and really get into taking some fun shots of the girls. I really can't stand the lag (or the time it takes to focus...it makes me miss good pictures sometimes!) on our digital even though I think most of the time it does take good pics, Im ready for the next step up!

One week down!

We did it, we did it, we did it, yeah yeah, we did it! Woooo! *Doing my we did it dance!* We made it thru our first week. Not without a ton of stress, but we are still surviving haha. Allie's behavior is out of this world! She's just finding herself in tons of troubles these days. Her and Katie just fight, do something bad, tell on each other, beg for food and fight some more. This weekend my mom and I are dedicating the entire weekend to switching the bedrooms so the girls and I can be in our bigger room. Im so desperate for more space. We are unpacked in the room we are in, and fine for sleeping arrangements, but it will be nice when Allie and Emmy can play in their room when they want...and Em's toys aren't taking over my parent's living room! Tomorrow Im going to register the van, Im hoping everything goes well at the DMV and Im in and out, but I hate the DMV especially for something like this. But, we will see, hopefully I come home with my Jersey plates tomorrow!

Welcome 2011

I have never welcomed a year and wanted it to go by so quickly. I typically hate January, and especially I hated it during our last deployment. It went too slow, and it was just a hard month for me. I’m very happy to be facing it as our first month of the deployment so I can get it over with! The girls are doing really well in NJ. Allie of course loves having someone to play with all the time. She has a little cold or something, so her voice is pretty raspy. She enjoys it, so she has been singing, talking and even crying extra to hear the difference in her voice. Emmy is doing great also. With the new stuff she is doing, it feels like Adam has been gone so much longer than the 5 or 6 days that he has been gone. Tomorrow will be a week since we said our good bye and she is now waving, saying hi, has said dada and fake coughing. If you say hi to her she gets so excited she waves so hard that either, A) The person holding her is likely to get injured or B) Her little arm might fall off! She is also almost sitting up on her own. She can do it; it’s just a matter of when she wants to. Just like she can somewhat crawl to get herself around…when she wants to. Lazy, stubborn baby! She goes for a check up on Friday to get her 6 month shots. We are behind because the clinic at Ft. Knox was out of one of her vaccines, so we held off on all of them until we came here so she could get them all at once. There is so much that needs to be done. I need to get the van registered, which is definitely going to be a process, and I also have to get the oil changed on the van too. Hopefully I can get a lot accomplished this week and get it all taken care of.