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Cinderella Went to the Ball

On a normal day I wear jeans & a top to clean, do errands & cook. On Tuesday nights I put on a dress or skirt for my Mary Kay meetings. And on completely lazy days I lounge in my pj's & robe if it's cold. Friday I got to dress up - head to toe! This was the first Military Ball we have attended and it was SO much fun. Some people were complaining that they were starting late but I was dressed up with a drink in hand so no complaints from me!

Staying in procrastinator tradition I shopped for a dress the day before with a friend that was visiting to go to the ball with her fiance. We both got lucky & found a dress at the first shop we went to, I got a little "shiny" happy & bought shoes and earrings as well. On my way home I realized that I had two pair of earrings that would have went just fine but they were on sale & shiny so really I had no choice.

As a true procrastinator I didn't get in the shower & start getting ready until a little after 3:00...we wanted to leave by 5:00. I know 2 hours seems like a lot of time to get ready but my hair had to dry before I curled it and my hair doesn't always get along with curls. Plus my hormones went on attack & I had a HUGE mountain of a zit {could have been a mole if it were brown} to cover; luckily I have fantabulous Mary Kay products {concealer, foundation, mineral powder} that made it just about disappear! Next time I'll ask the sitter to come early & keep the kids distracted while we finish things up and I'll have her take some photos before the wind gets to my hair and we've had a drink or few.

I've heard that some balls aren't much fun & wives aren't always excited to go. O_O What?!? Not excited to dress up & get out of the house with your husband? When we were there I was glad that we had a seat far back from the stage. We clapped & stood when others did without having to hear the whole boring speech {just glad the FRG didn't get up & start talking) and we didn't have to fake a smile for the mediocre comedian. I'm sure he tried but most weren't very impressed. We were a little further than the dance floor then I liked but I still managed to drag the hubs out for a few songs. They played "Hold Me" which is 'our song' - not the song we danced to at our wedding {not sure why at this moment} but it has significance for us & if you google "Hold Me" and some strange song comes up, I may not have the song title correct - that's just what I call it. Or that is our song & we may be weird. ;)

After dinner & dancing and laughing with friends we headed to a little Irish Pub that was packed full of people - some from the ball, some not - and laughed more with friends. I even managed to get him on the dance floor again! We'd talked about getting out once a month or more for a date night since we have a sitter that we can trust & the kids like, but we haven't done that with everything else going on. I think we'll start soon.

Here are some pictures from the night. It was dark in the room so they all didn't turn out great but it works. OH & I was "posing" for pictures all night because I didn't think they had a professional photographer, found out they did just before we left! =] See what others are talking about today by clicking the button above.

PS. Michael told me that we could go to the ball ONLY if he & Lydia could go when they were bigger and Daddy & I stayed home with the babysitter...if only I grew younger as he grows older!

Our Homecoming :D

Before you shake your finger at me for being on the computer - Shawn is enjoying some time with the kids, seeing how much Michael has learned while he's been gone & showing Lydia some letters too. I have family who check my blog so I wanted to tease them with some of our photos. The day was great! We got up on time, out the door on time & his flight was on time. The kids were adorable in their little outfits & I had a sign hanging on the carport waiting for him. I couldn't find him in the sea of ACU's & started getting nervous that he wasn't on that flight for some reason. When they all came in the doors I actually started shaking - not convulsions or anything but couldn't hold my hands still. I was so anxious to see him & it still didn't seem quite real. I was still looking out into the crowd while standing on the first step trying to get a better view & he snuck under me. I screamed & jumped into his arms, we hugged & kissed and it was sweet. Then he hugged & kissed on the kids, Lydia was shy at first but as I type this she's sitting in daddy's lap giving him kisses and singing with him. Michael was all over it, I didn't tell him until this morning - he was excited but stayed calm waiting. They both did really well & the time passed pretty quickly. It still doesn't seem 'real' that he's home and part of me is still waiting for him to pack up & leave again. I'm sure that's part of the adjustment, but we're all loving it. Oh & I had planned on making him creamy chicken & green chili enchilladas for dinner but he wanted McDonalds, LOL. I would have been offended that he didn't want my home cooking but honestly I was tired and doing a drive thru didn't sound too bad. We'll have lots of homemade meals in the months to come.

Counting down the HOURS!!!

Shopping for Snacks

Yesterday I went to the commissary, crazy as usual around payday and as usual I had to go because we were running out of important things like jelly and cereal and this coming week is busy like most have been lately. I went in thinking I was all prepared with my menu plans and shopping list. Somewhere in the middle of the busyness of the aisles, Michael wanting to dance around or 'help' me shop & Lydia trying to squirm out of her seat I realized that I could get Shawn's favorite foods and NOT send them off in a care package but rather have them waiting for him in the fridge or pantry. :D I would have done a cartwheel if I weren't in the crowded commissary. I take that back, I'm not sure I can even still do a cartwheel. Anyways, I was excited. I got biscuits, pepper jack cheese, pepperoncinis and mandarin oranges. I JUST realized that I forgot to get bacon, hot links & soda. I'll have to go back for milk in a few days so I'll get the rest later.

I still can't give out any dates - don't have a specific date & OPSEC rules. But I can say that my husband SHOULD be home in just over a week. So we're literally counting down the days. No longer months or weeks but DAYS. It's amazing. Nearly 14 months ago it felt like it would be forever until he was back home, I was venturing into an unknown reality. I've grown a lot during this time, made good friends & found that I am capable of taking care of several things on my own. But I really enjoy doing it all with my husband alongside & leading the way.

The last time I talked about Shawn coming home I had a to do list of sorts....I just looked at it and wow I was crazy to think I'd get all of that done while maintaining a clean house, getting Michael to & from school and working my business. So I've got a new more realistic list that I'll share.

• Vacuum and clean couch
• Clean baseboards
• I started to write clean ceiling fan until I looked up & realized we don't have one in this house. Yes, I'm losing it. No, it doesn't bother me. ;)
• New filter for vent
• Change shower liner {for $2 I'll save myself scrubbing time}
  
• Take my old clothes to Back Door Boutique {store that lower ranking families can get items for free once a week}
• Find someone who wants Michael's old clothes or BDB
• Send Lydia's old clothes to my sister for my sweet little neice
• Organize scrap stuff
• Organize Mary Kay product/supplies Check
  
• Return patio chairs to friends
• Computer boxes to Lydia's closet {I'm holding two computers for a friend who got them as Christmas gifts for two of her sons but they're in our bedroom, Lydia's closet has room so they're going in there}
• Trash out of car
• Vacuum car
• Wash car
• Organize closet??? {this one may or may not be done until he's home and we get a dresser}

I have some other things that I need to take care of like getting Shawn's cell phone turned on, adding his truck back to the insurance, update registration & get a new battery because he forgot to remind me to start it up once a month or so. I also have to figure out just what I'm wearing to pick him up, have an idea but it's not set yet. The kids' outfits are set & I'll hang up my sign closer to him coming home. Now I'm all motivated to go start getting things done, yesterday I organized my MK product & supplies, the laundry/storage room looks SO much better now but still more to do.

We did this webcamming a few weeks ago & I got screen captures of it. It was fun to do, even more fun knowing he'd be home in person soon. No more worrying if I forgot to forward the house phone or if Comcast was having technical issues, no more putting messenger on my phone everytime I leave the house, no more taking the phone into the bathroom & everywhere with me. No more VTC scheduling, waiting & connection issues. It will be strange to be able to call my husband rather than just waiting for a phone call, but I'm sure it's an adjustment I'll get used to quickly. =]

Another Milestone

I've been busy over the last week or so. My Mary Kay customer base has grown, appointments have increased and it's been exciting - though keeping me busy busy busy! The busyness has been a great distraction & time filler waiting for Shawn to come home. And of course there's still work around the house to maintain some level of clean {some days higher than others}, Michael's school schedule, feeding, bathing & playing with the kids...so after a while it can get overwhelming. Monday I took a day 'off' to celebrate Lydia's 2nd birthday. This was a milestone for her life and for our family. Shawn deployed about one month before her 1st birthday so her 2nd birthday was another marker counting down through this deployment. Shawn was able to call that morning to say hi & wish his baby girl a happy birthday, not the same as being here but still special.

After picking Michael up from school we headed to the park with gifts, cake & balloons in tow to celebrate her birthday with friends. It was a nice cool day and she had a lot of fun. It was a little too windy at times - like when a couple of gift bags were blown over onto the cake & when the candle wouldn't stay lit. None of it phased us though, Lydia still had a tasty cake & she even played along blowing out the candles. My little girl has grown up so much, and even though she says she's still a baby, she's very far from that. She talks & communicates so well, has such a fun personality and a sweet little heart.

Counting Down DAYS!!!!!

I can't give an exact date for two reasons, one - I don't exactly have an exact date, two - it would be violating OPSEC to give out specific dates. BUT I do have exciting news. I'm all :D :D :D about it! I'm no longer counting down MONTHS until my husband comes home, but counting down DAYS, to make it seem to go faster I'm counting PAYCHECKS or WEEKS. So I'm sure you can imagine the :D across my face. If my camera were working I'd take a picture for you to see. I'm THRILLED!!! I can say that my husband will be coming home eariler than originally scheduled...just not how much earlier. I've known for a while about the estimated date change but today it just smacked me in the face and well, I've turned into a little bit of a nutcase. I keep making lists in my head of all the things I just have to do before he comes home. Which is funny because none of them are actually must do things. I'll share some of my list with you so you can get an idea of how my CDO {like OCD but alphabetically as it should be} mind has been working:

• Recover dining chairs {a project I intended on doing 3 years ago when I bought the table at a yard sale}
• Scrub every surface - window sills, baseboards, light fixtures {I keep a clean house but I don't spring clean weekly}
• Switch Lydia into toddler bed
• Decorate Lydia's room, I found inspiration for some DIM {Do It Myself} projects
• Get Michael a twin mattress for his twin bed, along with bedding to fit
• Purge & reorganize toys in kids' rooms
• Move computer & desk to different wall in living room
• Get a recliner, bench or other seating for living room
• Get trays for my ottomans {so they can hold a glass or whatever}
• Paint canvas to hang on big blank wall in kitchen
• Get rugs for kids' rooms
• Organize laundry/storage room
• Finish Lydia's one year album
• Do more pages in family albums
• Organize our closet & figure out where all of his gear is going

The list could go on but I won't torture you anymore. Most everything on this list can {and probably will} be done after homecoming {army speak for soldiers coming home} but there are some things I'll want to have done beforehand. The most important is tackling our closet. Because I moved after he deployed we've never had ALL of Shawn's clothing, uniforms & gear in our closet. He's got enough that he could easily take up the whole thing. But because I'm not a nudist {you're welcome} I need some space in there too. So I want to go through all of my stuff & organize it better, making the most of the space. Once he's home he's going through his civi {civilian} clothes and tossing what no longer fits/he likes and we'll go from there. Likely Lydia will have a tub or three in her closet with Shawn's gear that isn't used regularly, she has the space so it'll work. I just don't want him coming home & feel that it's not home and there's no space for him.

I also want to get Lydia switched into the toddler bed {planned on doing that earlier in the week}, recover the chairs, tackle the laundry room and scrub every surface. I'm excited, nervous, anxious and thrilled all at once, but mostly ecstatic. It will be an adjustment for both of us and the kids but a GOOD adjustment. And I figure if there's some bumps along the way at least he'll be home to make up with afterward. ;)

I haven't had a chance to scrap this week...hoping for this coming week, that would help me check some stuff off my list right!

Look What I Can Do!

Haha, made ya look! ;) Well, after 10 days of not posting I suppose I should. I'm sure ya'll are just waiting on baited breath for what I've got to talk about huh? No? Good! I'd hate for you to get your hopes up. So here's the run down of the goings on for us in Kennessee:

* I let the kids eat a popsicle out of the box I bought at the beginning of the summer - this is the second or third time they've done this so they REALLY enjoyed it & I got proof that I didn't completely deprive them as kids.

* Michael now has a twin bed! He still fit in his toddler bed {he's on the smaller size} but I've been wanting to get him one. I found one on a yardsale sight - great deal & just what I was looking for. It has three drawers underneath & a bookshelf for a headboard. So not only can he sleep on it but it's functional as well! However, he is still sleeping on a toddler mattress which is placed on his twin bed. I haven't had a chance to go get a mattress but hope to do so next week.

* With the new functional bed in Michael's room I have moved his dresser into Lydia's room & will soon be freeing her from baby jail, otherwise known as the crib. I'm nervous about the transition into a toddler bed. She can be trouble enough without free reign, I'll have to triple check that all pens, crayons, markers & other things that can be used to leave a mess for me to clean later are put well out of her reach before bed. I am very excited about decorating her room though, have some fun ideas that I hope to execute over the next couple months.

* We recently marked 12 months of my husband being deployed. Looking back it's gone by a lot faster than we both thought it would, though there have been times for both of us that it felt like it would never end. We have made it through this far & only have the slow stretch home now. In a few weeks I'll find out just how much longer we have - I'm crossing my fingers for good news but trying not to get my hopes up. On about the same day we've crossed the two year mark of Shawn being active duty.

* I got my hair cut! Well, not all of it. I have decided to let it grow out some, it's been about a year that I've had the shorter 'do & I'm getting a little bored. I'm thinking about new colors too but not decided on anything yet. So this time I just cut my bangs. I had the sideswept look but it was grown out & not doing anything for me. I felt frumpy or unfinished even when taking the time to 'do' my hair so now I have bangs. I'm happy with it and will probably keep these for a while, I haven't had regular bangs in years. I sent a picture via cell phone to my sister & she asked me if I colored it or got a new style too. An $8 plus tip bang trim can go a long way I guess.

* Other than the above it's been the typical taking Michael to & from school {which he is LOVING btw}, trying to keep the house clean, fighting the laundry battle, running errands, cooking meals & working my business.

Thanks for dropping by!

7 Years

This morning I did an odd thing. I made a cup of coffee, sat on the couch & turned on the news while the kids played in their rooms. I haven't watched the news in nearly a year, because my husband is deployed, because of the tragic events that happened seven years ago. As I watched the news clips showing the attacks and some of the aftermath the thoughts & feelings I had that day came rushing back fresh. I lived in California, so far from it all, but it hit so close to home. I was 19, I was scared, I was sad for all of the lives lost & the family members they left behind. I didn't know what the future held for our country. Never in my lifetime was our soil attacked so viciously and in such a large scale.

I felt that we needed to take action against those who attacked us. The points that were attacked - World Trade Center & Pentagon (possibly an aim for the White House) were not random. They were attacking what they hated in our country - capitalism, military & a government founded on democracy. We lost more than innocent lives that day, we lost a sense of security and care free living. But also on that day we heard of heroic acts such as that on flight 93, they took back control of the plane & thwarted the plan of the enemy, all of the firefighters, police & service members who put their lives at risk to save others.

About one month after 9/11 I met Shawn. He wasn't in the Army yet but had talked about wanting to join, he had wanted to for a few years. Five years after the attacks he did join. And now he is overseas, defending the freedoms we value in our country. He is helping a people who had freedom withheld from them by a ruthless dictator. Giving freedom to others, I believe, is part of our responsibility as a world power that was founded on freedoms.

Today as you think of those who were lost in the tragedy of 9/11 also remember those who have fought, gave all, and continue to fight defending our country & keeping the fight off of our soil.

P.S. On my playlist there's a song called "How to Save a Life" by The Fray - it's a remix dedicated to 9/11. You may need a tissue.

Happy 4th

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!