Sad

First tomorrow I plan to add some pictures of our trip on here.

It's 3:21 am and I'm finally feeling tired, thankfully because I have to be up in 4 1/2 hrs for me to make it to PWOC/bible study in the morning. I have the boys school books all set out as well as some art supplies. I'm going to let them each take a puzzle and a board game as well with them so if they finish their school work up they have things to keep them busy. We now have a homeschool group with in PWOC so those of us mom's who homeschool can still have our bible study.

I talked to my friend B tonight and her husband was told that he should have his orders by tomorrow for their move in November. I'm so absolutely sad over this I don't know what to do. I've obviously had worse things happen in my life.  I've been blessed to have some good friends as military wives, but B has been truly a best friend and I love her and her family and the thought of having to go through most of this deployment without her is so hard for me. I find myself crying quite a bit thinking of her not being here. We've spent nearly everyday for the last 1 1/2-2 yrs together. My oldest son and her son are best friends and I don't have the heart to tell him, well either of my boys that they're leaving so soon. I don't know when to tell them honestly. This is going to be devestating for them. They love B's whole family and it's so hard for them to have Chad gone and to now lose them. Then in December two more very good friends are leaving and their kids are all good friends of my boys too. I will say that I think this winter is ultimately just going to suck for us. I really just feel sick at the thought of all this and want to bury my head in the sand and pretend, but reality is staring me right in the face of what's about to happen in the next 2 months. Please be praying for me and my family as we say goodbye to friends who are more than friends, but family. B is like a sister to me. She has an identical twin and calls me their triplet. Part of me regrets going to the states,  because I could have spent those weeks with her and I won't get that time back.

This is a part of the Army life I DETEST. I know what life was like before B moved here and it's been so much better with her here. To have a friend that you can just be yourself with 100% and know she loves you faults and all, is a precious gift and I KNOW that. I do NOT want her to leave. Oh how I don't want her to leave.

Home Sweet Home

I'm Home!!!!!!!!! Suffering from jetlag, BAD...but so thrilled to be home! We landed about 3 pm German time, got home about 9:30 pm. The airline broke my stroller, so had to file a claims for that (it's the military so it's going to take a while of course!!), then forgot what floor my car was parked and had a mini panic attack, but one of the airmen working at the airport there at Ramstein and another airmen went and found it!! (I thought it was on the 8th floor, it was on the 3rd). Whew! Grabbed some Taco Bell for a late lunch/dinner, filled the gas tank up, and off we went. We got out of there at about 6 or so, not a lot of traffic, it was a pretty smooth drive home and I have never been so happy to be home!!!!

 

The 7 weeks away was full of about everything from joy to anger...peace to annoyance.

It was WONDERFUL seeing my brother, my Emily, Tami, and amazingly my inlaws. I can't say it was so wonderful seeing my parents. There are now new boundaries being set with them. Chad and I have a lot to discuss on just what exactly we'll be doing there, but the boundaries will be HIGH and STRICT and right now communications will be VERY limited. I must protect my family and what we feel is in our children's best interest. Having an ocean between us is a HUGE help, but knowing that one day we will indeed move back to the states, these boundaries need to be determined and set now.

I will say that if I've learned anything, it's how I will and will NOT be with my children when they become adults and parents, etc.

I have lots of pictures, I'll share a few here as I finish editing them.

Emma turned 1 and is starting to take steps. My baby girl is growing up and it's too fast for me. She's even more beautiful than just a few months ago I think! She's a mess that's for sure, but a wonderful, beautiful mess! I think she may actually be a little more spoiled now than she was! :X Jackson turned 5 while we were gone. My goodness it seems like he was just toddling around and now he's no longer a toddler. We will begin kindergarten work on Monday. Jacob will begin 2nd grade work on Monday. Jacob's great. The kids had a great time in the states and Jacob definately took leaving places the hardest.

My places leaving that were the hardest was definately Emily and Tami's. I'm so truly blessed to have the two most amazing best friends a woman could ask for. I just adore them and love them with all my heart.

We also ended our trip with an unplanned extended stay with my dear friend Beth. We met when Jordyn was dying, she found Jordyn's caringbridge page. She's the mother of 7 and 1 foster daughter. Her oldest (son) is a leukemia survivor and at the end of this month will celebrate 15 yrs since his bone marrow transplant that his little brother donated! We were initially only going to spend one night there, but extended it a few extra nights! LOL I had a nice break while I was there and the kids had a GREAT time!!!

I have tons to do now that we're home and need to get out of this lazy housework phase and get my butt in gear. Tomorrow is the day that housework begins. I do have most of my travel laundry done. Tomorrow is cleaning the kitchen (dishes, floors, etc), and my dining room so we have a nice calm space for school!

I'll be turning my alerts back on in a couple days. I am going to try to pace myself. Getting caught up on emals first then we'll get back into journal/blog mode!

God Bless

Hi again! :)

I know here I am again, just one night later! Things were better today, still some tension, but the day was gotten through and that's all to the glory of GOD!!! He's so good. In the morning the kids and I head out. Today we went and got my rental, it's the same type of van I'm planning to buy actually! It's a Honda Odessy and it's wonderful! The boys love that it has a dvd player in it (that's all they wanted of course! LOL). 

Tomorrow we'll be stopping at our former neighbors from Ft. Riley. We'll spend the night with their family and then get up Wed morning and head to Kentucky! I'm so absolutely excited to get to Emily's and spend time with her and her family. We've hardly talked the last 2 weeks, well really 3 weeks (when you count the week of me just trying to GET to KS! Got to Loooove Space A). So we have lots to talk about!

Well, thank you for the prayers over last nights post and please continue to pray for us in all situations, especially now in the immediate for travel safety.

God Bless

An Update

I'm here in Ks and will be heading to Ky on Tuesday and definately ready. Things are VERY tense to say the least right now. I won't/can't get into it but lets just say that it's time to go without a doubt. Pray for safe travel as the kids and I head out for the next 3 weeks.

I have been able to talk to Chad. He's doing well. Having an 8 hr time difference between us has definately limited our communication and makes me that much more thankful that we are blessed to be stationed in Germany (and only a 1 hr time difference).

The kids have really been enjoying their time here and have loved getting to spend time with their cousins, especially (my brothers girls).

I know this is brief, hopefully I can write a decent update later, otherwise in about a month I'll be home and will be able to!

God Bless

They're home

No, not my little family, well we're home in Germany, still.  My best friend here, B....her husband came home this evening! T left May 4, 2007 and tonight August 19 returned to his family where he belongs! Their daughter D is 18 months old, son B is 7 1/2 yrs old.

I stuck with B as she searched for Tim since I was the official picture taker! :) What an honor let me tell you. Now I will give you a glimpse of what we were dealing with:

There is 250 soldiers waiting to be reunitied with their families who were eagerly awaiting them!! When they were told by their 1st Sgt. "Dismissed" off families went and off soldiers went in search of their loved one. I was with B and we were searching for T. Let me tell you when you're sitting in the bleachers looking at all the soldiers, they all look alike! LOL Then add on the amount of time you've been apart, the last time you saw your soldier and well it often becomes a bit of a blur looking for him. So there we were looking, looking, and looking and we could not find him. She was getting worried they'd told her wrong and he wasn't in the group. We were reassured his name was on that list and he was with them. By this point my boys were with me and that's when Jacob saw him! I was able to get pictures of them reuniting and hugging for the first time since November when he was home for R&R! It was beautiful and just so wonderful!!!

B and I are pretty well together every day and hopefully by the time I get back from the states we can jump back into our work out routine, we already have my neighbor lined up to watch her little girl and my 3 for that hour at the gym and so we will start back up once I'm home and adjusted to the time change! I'm thrilled about that. She's reassured me that the kids and I will be over at her home many nights for dinner (we had her over at least once or twice a week, often more while Chad was home and T was deployed!). We are so blessed to have each other. She leaves next spring and I'm absolutely dreading it. I've never had a friend like I have in her as an Army wife.  When my friend Michelle left that was really hard and we were very close, but B and I are even closer. We're truly like sisters. She will often call me her triplett! She has an identical twin sister already! LOL I just love her to death and wish so much we could just remain stationed at the same Army posts until we retired and then retire together in the same place. But she's from Pennsylvania and of course we're going to retire in KS. But I have quite a few months before I have to focus on her leaving and in the mean time I'll continue to be blessed by her friendship and our boys friendships, and just love her family for all that I can while I can.

Anyways....since T is back, I actually have their kids! Their son wasn't very thrilled because of course he wanted to spend time with his Dad, but he came anyways and he's been a good boy the whole time. Their little girl was fine, she was rather confused by bedtime, she's used to being nursed to sleep, so being simply rocked was an adjustment for her, but she only cried for a few minutes and then she was out. She's in my bed now. All 3 boys are in the living room. Jacob is on the couch, B is on the loveseat, and Jack is on the floor. They had popcorn and watched a movie and passed out quickly!

There's still some smaller groups to come in over the next couple of weeks, so please be in prayer for the soldiers, as well as the families awaiting their return. Praise God for the safe return of all the soldiers who have so far! God is good and gracious and although we don't always understand his ways, the truth is nothing happens without his permission. We are blessed humans and we need to always praise him!

 

I'm now off to bed. It's not even midnight here and I can barely keep my eyes open!  Pray they sleep in a bit.

God Bless

 

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Children's time

Give time to your children each day. The time you give makes the words you speak of more value to them.

Isn't that the truth? I'm guilty of getting caught up in just getting through the day more often than I like. Tomorrow my goal is to just stop and spend that individual time with each of the kids. It'll be a little easier tomorrow since in the afternoon Jackson will be going to hourly care for 2 hrs. Jacob and I will actually be cleaning their bedroom, if Emma is awake I'm going to have my neighbor watch her, I'm hoping she naps for most of it though. When it's just Jacob and I we have the best talks. He's a very intelligent little boy and his heart is so with the Lord that it stuns me at times. I didn't have that at his age. I barely knew who God was, much less such an intimate relationship with him. I'm so happy he has that. I think being a child is hard, being a military kid (please don't ever refer to my kids as "Army Brats" I can't stand that phrase), is even harder, then add in the fact that we live in a different country 1,000 of miles from family. To know that he is confident in the Lord and doesn't doubt that relationship, how thankful I am.

Time is dwindling down and we'll be flying next week! I'm excited. I still have a lot to do. My living room looks really good and my bathroom is great. So tomorrow is going to be a hard working day. I have the gym at 1:30 although I'm going to see if we can move it up to 1:00 instead, if not then I'll have to leave a little early from the gym to get home and take Jack down to hourly, come home and clean the boys room. Tomorrow evening I plan to finish up my room. I am almost done with my laundry, just have towels left to wash. I will have smaller loads, but plan to wait until Saturday to finish, then I want to get my suitcases packed up Sunday and put into the car. I will do one last load Sunday night or Monday morning. Monday evening I am hoping to head to Ramstein. I have to call tomorrow and find out if I can get us a room up there, so I don't have to be up at 2 am Tuesday morning. Please pray we get on the flight on Tuesday. If not the next flight is the 24th, and we'll just stay up there. I still need to print off directions to Ramstein from here as well.

I'm exhuasted so I'm off to bed. Keep Chad in your prayers please.

God Bless

21 Reasons Why I love My Husband

My friend Amanda over at: I Am Mommy borrowed an idea from another blogger and I love it! So often you read women bashing their husband's, sharing why you should dislike him as much as they do at that MOMENT. It often is honestly rather heartbreaking. I think it's so important to be careful of male bashing as a whole, especially if you're a mother of boys. Everytime I'm tempted to bash my husband or read it I think, "how would I feel if a woman was saying that about one of my son's?" Let me tell you, I'd be fit to be tied. I NEVER want a woman to talk ugly about Jacob or Jackson. It's just some food for thought.

So in the spirit of lifting up my husband here's my list!

1. I love my husband for the man he is to me. He loves me with his whole heart and truly adores me and that is an amazing feeling...to be loved!
2. I love my husband for the father he is. He did not have a father growing up, but that has not ever detered him from being the best dad I could have EVER asked for my children to have.
3. I love my husband that he's willing to put his own life at risk for others. He's more than just a Patriot, he's a soldier who literally goes out there and puts it out on the lines!
4. I love my husband for the way he loves GOD. He knows who he is in Christ and doesn't question that. To have such assurance is awesome to witness and a great example.
5. I love that my husband is finding that one of his many gifts is working in the children's ministry! To see him interacting with a variety of children and them responding so sweetly to him is awesome!
6. I love that my husband loves to travel as much as I do!
7. I love that my husband's desire to be with our family is greater than going out with his friends.
8. I love that my husband is handy around our home and with cars. I can do many things around the house, but not with vehicles! He's a man's man!
9. I love that my husband loves his job! He's a soldier, nuff said!
10. I love that my husband wants me to find things that make me happy!
11. I love that my husband has seen that God's will for our family is up to GOD and not up to us! (Trust me that's HARD submission in today's society!!)
12. I love the way my husband holds me and makes me feel as protected phsyically as the Lord makes me feel protected spiritually.
13. I love that my husband is strong enough to argue with me, especially when I "think" I'm right!
14. I love that my husband is adventerous!
15. I love that my husband feels as strongly about homeschooling our children as I do and supports us 100%!
16. I love that my husband supports me breastfeeding (and extended bf) our babies and GETS why it's so important!
17. I love the way my husband still longs for our daughter Jordyn, as much as I do.
18. I love that my husband is such a strong example to our boys.
19. I love that my husband is such a strong and gentle example to our daughter(s).
20. I love that he can grill and will cook if I'm not in the mood!
21. I love when my husband comes home from a deployment and wraps me in his arms as tight as he possibly can and isn't afraid to let the tears of joy fall from his eyes!

So join in. Tell the world why you love your husband. It can be a list of 5 things or 100, just tell us what it is about him that makes you so blessed that he is your husband! I also urge you to share your list with your husband, just so he knows why he's so special to you! Let me know if you have joined in, I'd love to read some kind things about others husband's too!

 

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