Gettin' Scrappy With It

I've been at it again! I noticed that I hadn't done anything since April & that was my sister's baby shower gift. Over the past couple of weeks I've been phonescrappin {that's a technical term} with my best friend and have accomplished quite a bit - almost enough to make up for months of not scrapping ;). While scrapping over the phone doesn't quite match up to scrapping in person it's still fun to take advantage of quiet kid time {napping, sleeping, zoned out in front of the TV - I kid, sorta}. We both like chatting on the phone & scrapping so it works and we have phones through Comcast which means digital which means free & unlimited long distance, which is just about the best thing ever!

Here is what I got done today:

And here's what I've done over the last times we've scrapped:











To Do's for the week:

Not a whole heck of a lot. I'm heading out of town Tuesday so the only thing scrappy like on my list is packing photos/paper to bring with me.

Last week's challenge: I haven't participated in Sunday Scrappin' for quite some time so this is new to me but I LOVE the idea ~ great for inspiration! I'll try to do a challenge my next SS post.

Thanks for visiting! Click the button above to see other scrappers & their scrappiness!

Happy Fathers Day or The Day My Stomach Stopped Hating Me

I should be washing dishes, folding laundry, sweeping & mopping floors and just about every other house cleaning chore there is to catch up from days of illness. But first I'll waste take some time to love on my babies daddy. He has spent all but three weeks of the last nine months thousands of miles away from home and still I couldn't ask for a better father for my children. He calls & gets on the computer as often as he can to talk to them, see them on webcam & find out what they are up to. Shawn stays interested in & connected to his kids no matter the distance or time between them and his love just grows for them each day. He is missing them so much right now. They miss him as well, though they don't always know how to express that feeling. Lydia doesn't struggle with her feelings as much because she is younger. But for Michael missing daddy often comes out in tantrums, resistance to talk about his feelings or outright defiance. I'm glad we all have only 6 more months to count down for this deployment. Anyways, though Shawn hardly never reads my blog I want to say Happy Father's Day, I couldn't want a better husband or father to our kids. We love & miss you! And to my own dad, a special Happy Father's Day wish as well. He is spending this father's day getting to know his newest granddaughter. Actually, this will be the first father's day that he has spent with only 1 of us 9 kids, 2 of 11 if you count the son in laws.

You may be wondering about the other part of my title "The Day My Stomach Stopped Hating Me". The short & less gross story is that our home was invaded & attacked, by a nasty stomach flu bug. It started with Michael Thursday night about 15 minutes after I laid him down for bed - he puked. So I changed his jammies, put him down in my bed & washed his bedding. Around 2am this vile bug caused my insides to turn out and cleaning up such a mess just about repeated the first offense. The next morning {just a few hours later} Lydia woke up with a mess in her bed, on her jammies & of course all over her hair. It was awful. Fortunately the kids didn't get sick more than the one time but I didn't have the same good fortune. I spent my 26th birthday on the couch, half awake with stomach cramps that put my regular monthly cramps to shame and a puke bowl by my side. :BLEH: I was definitely missing Shawn that day, wanting to be taken care of but more importantly wanting the kids taken care of so I could take a nap for crying out loud. Though I didn't have Shawn to help me out I did have a couple of good friends who brought over stomach flu friendly snacks & drinks and medicine for us all, one friend even included a movie for the kids in her bag of sicky goodness. Yesterday I no longer needed the puke bowl by my side but I was still hurting. I suppose my insides had to recover from all of the violent convulsive activity from the day before. I attempted to clean up house with not much progress and finally gave over to the couch once again.

Today I am finally feeling better and am determined to get this house clean again. There is much to do because just about every day I'm behind on something anyway so I started out behind before taking two days off and then really it just starts to multiply exponentially. It's too much math for me without having my coffee but I'm pretty sure it's close to the equivalent of 2 months of housework - or at least feels that way. Speaking of feelings, I feel like a jerk. Yesterday was a VTC day which means we had a 15 min time slot to see & talk with Shawn over video conference. I had my dates mixed up & thought it was today so we completely missed it. He waited for us for nearly an hour before calling to see if I was coming. He understood with us having been sick and all but still, I was sad. He was really looking forward to 'seeing' us and they had it scheduled because of Father's Day today. He isn't upset at me so I need to get over it but I'll be crossing my fingers they have another one soon.

Memories Made

So I shared in my last post some of the things we did over R&R and that we had a great time. I don't have much else to talk about today outside of the long list of chores around the house to do and many business calls I need to make. So today I'm going to share some pictures. Plus I know that my stepmom is just waiting in anticipation for the photo CD I sent to be delivered. This will be a nice little teaser of whats to come.

Also, to answer some questions in the comments of my last post. Shawn came home for R&R which during this 15 month deployment is 18 days. Soldiers are given R&R sometime during their deployment (12 months = 15 days home) so it's normal for a soldier to come home for a visit and then return to their tour. If things stay on schedule then Shawn will be home sometime in December, hopefully before Christmas. They come home in waves as they transition to the new unit taking command of their space. Since he deployed I've been counting on this being a 15-18 month deployment because the military can add an additional 3 months to a deployment if they find it necessary. I don't anticipate this happening but it's good to be prepared for changes like that. Thanks again for your supportive comments. Now onto the pictures. :D

There it is, a summary of R&R. I took several, okay - a ton, of camping pictures because it was the first time we took the kids - or even went together as well as the first time Shawn & Michael fished together. I'm looking forward to printing & scrapping these pictures...right after I print & scrap pictures from the last year {and even some before that}. Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

Getting Back to 'Normal'

R&R was wonderful! Michael was still "daddy's boy" and Lydia and Shawn bonded really well, something we were both unsure of before he came home since she was younger when he left. Mostly we just enjoyed being home together & playing with the kids, that is what Shawn had missed the most. Some things out of the house around the area we did were take the kids to the park a couple times, Michael got his first haircut at a barber shop, Shawn got new patches to prepare for his recent promotion, took the kids bowling, and Shawn & I went out on our anniversary. We also went camping for 3 days to a great campground about an hour away. We had a cute one room cabin that was about 50 feet away from a pond and within walking distance of a lake & playground. The weather was perfect, only rained one night and the kids had a blast. Shawn loves to fish and this was the first time he & Michael fished together. They caught quite a few fish & even left with a great fish 'tale' - Michael caught a blue gill and when he was reeling it in a big bass (about 7lbs by Shawn's guess) ate the blue gill off the hook! Shawn did try to reel it in but lost the 15 minute fight with the bass. The playground by the lake was nice because when Lydia would get restless and make me nervous by the dock I took her up there to play. One day we took a long walk around the other side of the lake and found some very pretty spots to fish. Next year I'm going to get a fishing license so the girls can join in on the fun too!

Saturday night before Shawn had to go we were both up later than we should have been with his flight leaving so early and there was a thunderstorm {complete with hail} that woke us up throughout the couple hours of sleep we got. Fortunately the power turned on minutes before we had to start getting ready so I didn't have to attempt applying makeup by light of cell phone or candle at 4:30am. We got to the airport with time to go to the gate with Shawn to say our goodbyes and take a few last photos. I was doing okay until Michael broke down crying as Shawn walked to board the plane. He turned around and came back to give him one last hug. It was harder on Michael this time around; he kept saying that he wanted to play with daddy and that he wanted to say goodbye one more time. The rest of the day I hugged on the kids a little bit more than usual and relaxed, even caught a nap.

Yesterday I started tackling the messes that had accumulated during his visit - laundry & dishes didn't sound like much fun compared to spending time with hubby so I did the very bare minimum while he was home and had A LOT to catch up on. I'm still working on cleaning the house but it's 10 times better than what it was. I had heard that taking them back the second time was much harder than the first time. I had the opposite experience though. Saying goodbye was still sad and I miss him already but I had a different perspective and different situations this time. I already have established friendships - something I didn't have 9 mos ago and I've made it through over half the deployment already so 6 mos doesn't sound so scary. During the time he was gone I had developed a new 'normal' so while I was getting used to him being home & LOVING it - it wasn't 'normal' for me. We have enough going on outside of the house between Michael being in pre-k, my business, good friends to hang out with and regular weekly errands we do.

Well it's about time to get the kids ready for bed and I'm going to get some cleaning done after that. Thanks to all for your well wishes & prayers over R&R and your continued prayers and support for my husband and the rest of our troops that serve.