Wordless Wednesday

Our little girl is figuring out how to sit on her own!!! She did great, until she decided she wanted to attack the apple with her mouth. :) Happy Wednesday!

Memorial Day: We will never forget to remember!

As you enjoy your day off and time with family.....please remember the true meaning of the day. Please take a moment to remember those who aren’t able to spend the day with their families and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for your freedom. Thank you isn’t enough. We will never forget to remember.

I just want to say THANK YOU to all who serve, past and present. Especially those that have given the ultimate sacrifice and those families who have been left behind. THANK YOU!!!!!

Soldier Survival Kits

My civics class had to do a project about helping someone. They wanted to do something for my husband's platoon. I was looking online and found this survival kit and the kids got excited. We raised the money to buy the supplies and they helped assemble them. Little L also helped put them together. I also decided to add yellow ribbons to the kits and hot glued all 50 of them myself. :) I was pretty proud of my kids and thought they turned out really cute so I wanted to share. First here is the "poem" that went into the kits....

SOLDIER Survival Kit

“Tucked inside this little bag

When your spirits are starting to sag

Are some little reminders that we care

As you fight for freedom over there.”

 Toothpick: To help you pick out the good in every situation you encounter. 

Hershey’s Hugs: To let you know there’s always someone on your side

 Paperclip: to help you “keep it together” when it all seems to be hitting the fan.
 Marble: To replace “the ones we all lose” from time to time.
 Snickers: To remind you to “laugh” even when you feel like crying.
 Rubber Band: To help you be flexible and “bounce back” in times of trouble without breaking.
 Stick of Gum: To remind you to “stick” with the task at hand.
 Mint: To let you know you’re worth a “mint” to us.
 Cotton Ball: To help “cushion” the rough times.
 Lollipop: To help you “lick” the problems you encounter.
 Star Burst: To let you know we are “bursting” with pride for you.
 Nut: To remind you to relax and get a little “nutty” sometimes.
 Tootsie Roll: To remind you of the important “roll” you play.
 Lifesaver: To signify the “lifesaving” things you do to keep our country free.
Yellow Ribbon: So you will know you will always be supported till you come home.

 Now here are the pictures

I printed the poem on flag paper

Making the yellow ribbons

Completed yellow ribbons....I'm pretty proud of these

Little L helping

The completed kits

All boxed up and ready to go



 I was really proud of these and happy that we were able to send some good thoughts to the soldiers. I hope they enjoyed them. I'm not sure if they liked them or not, but I like to think that they did. I thought it was fitting with this weekend being Memorial weekend and remembering all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, that I share this care package which was sent to our soldiers.  I hope you all have an amazing weekend and remember all of those who are serving or have served our country.



Happy 3rd Birthday Little L

Oh my goodness!!!!! I can hardly believe it, today is the day our Little L was born. You can read his birth story here. It was quite the day, let me tell you.

Lucas,
You have grown into quite the little man.You are no longer a baby and no longer a toddler. You love your trains, trucks and cars. You can be found playing with one or all three of these at one time. You love to "fix" things and can be found "fixing" your Jeep or bike. Your speech has finally blossomed and I can understand you more and more every day. Even though you love to have people repeat everything you say, I still love being able to talk to you. You are your father's son. You have so many of his personality traits. It's amazing to watch nature vs. nurture at work. I know once daddy comes home, you will once again be his little shadow.
You are still small for your age, you have finally grown into some 3T clothes (even though some 2T clothes still fit) and you remain very thin. I'm not quite sure where that gene came from.
You are one amazing little boy. Even though you were a surprise, I wouldn't change anything for the world. I love you so much booger and have loved these last three years more than I could ever have imagined. I never knew the depth of love I could have until I met you. You will always be our Baby Cakes and mommy and daddy love you so very much!!!! I hope you have an amazing day booger!!!!

Love,
Mommy

Our little family of three

Daddy and Little L

He isn't a baby anymore :(

Today we had a party for Little L, just something small. Mostly it was M's family that showed up, because they are the ones who live down here. I do wish more of my family could come to these things, but oh well. I decided to only do cake and ice cream, I didn't want to have to cook for everyone and this seemed the easiest for me.
This morning we woke up and played. I was trying to tell Little L all about his birthday, I still don't think he fully understands. All he knows is that everyone is paying attention to him, he gets cake and he gets presents. :) We had to drop off our LAST care package at the post office this morning. Yup that's right, I sent the last one out this morning. I'll post about it once the husband gets it. I'm pretty proud of it. :) Anywhoo, afterwards my mom offered to watch the kiddos while I ran some errands and got the house cleaned. Little L was all for this 'cause he knew Gra would take him swimming. He is a little fish, let me tell you. That boy would stay in the pool all day if you let him. I meanwhile went to the grocery store, got what we needed for this week and picked up his cake. It is sooo cute!

After the grocery store I came home and cleaned the house. It seemed to take forever and I know if the kids had been here, it would have taken me that much longer. Finally that was done, I had wrapped Little L's present from daddy and I and was ready to pick them up. Baby E had only slept about a half hour this morning and was still up and raring to go. Little L on the other hand was passed out cold on the bed. He took at least a 3 hour nap. Swimming sure tires him out. My biffle and her daughter came early to eat dinner with us and hang out. It was nice having her here early. I was really nervous about having my in-laws over. We haven't seen them since M was home on R&R. Thankfully everyone showed up pretty much at the same time. I watched my nephews walk in carrying two large balls and I thought to myself "you have got to be kidding me". Yup she brought two large balls into the house for the kids to play with. Gee thanks. They quickly found seats and planted themselves there. They barely spoke to anyone and pretty much sulked in the corner. Normally my MIL is on the floor playing with Little L and being loud. She basically said about 10 words to me. My FIL I don't think said anything. It was awkward to say the least. Thankfully the rest of M's family isn't being so stupid and weird and I get along great with them. Little L opened all of his presents. I wasn't too happy with the purchases my in-laws made, but that can be fixed while the little one sleeps. :) Otherwise he got a lot of clothes (which is what I had asked for seeing as he has TONs of toys) a few puzzles, and we bought him a Leappad. I am so glad I opened the thing up and put it all together before everyone showed up. It would not have been fun making him wait. He didn't play with it much tonight, but I don't blame him, there was a ton going on. After presents we sand Happy Birthday and had our cake and ice cream.  

opening presents

singing Happy Birthday

I think Little L had a great birthday today. My in-laws were weird but everyone else seemed to have a good time. I'm glad everyone who was around could make it. I only wish M could have been there. I know he hates missing these things and I hope one day he can be around for Little L's birthdays more often. I still cannot believe our little guy is 3!!!! Wow! I feel old now! But all in all it was a good day :)

Friday Fill-in the blank

I saw this on The Life of a Military Family and thought it would be fun to link up.

 

 

 

 

1. The best surprise ever would be, going on our honeymoon. We haven't be able to take one yet and I think it would be great for M to plan the whole thing and surprise me. I love surprises! :)

2.     Meeting M and the birth of our children are my most favorite memories. Sorry I couldn't just pick one. All of them are my favorites for different reasons.

3. The hardest, but most worthwhile thing I've ever done was  giving birth to our children. Labor is no joking matter and is very painful, but so worthwhile.

4. The best part of my day is   right now it's seeing my kids at the end of the day. They are both so excited to see me, and it just makes me smile and feel all warm inside. Also, hearing from M makes any day that much better.

5. Something I like that most people don't is I would have to say teaching middle school. I know there are quite a few people out there that like it, but most people give me this funny face when I tell them I teach middle school and actually like it. It's quite the balance between teaching them to be young adults but having them young enough to still need you.

6. Something I am willing to fight for is   my family and my marriage. Both are the most important things to me and I will do anything to protect them and keep them together.

7. Something you might not know about me is  Growing up I did competitive rollerskating for 8 years and then did ballroom dancing for 3 years.

Update on Baby E

First I have to say thank you to all of you who left super sweet comments and your prayers. Also a special thank you to Amanda at Somewhere Over the Camo who texted me today to check in on us. You are all amazing and I truly appreciate it!!! So THANK YOU!

Now on to the update:
We arrived at All Children's this morning and I had to tell our story to at least 10 people. At the end each person said "hummmm"......yea thanks....hence why we are here. I spoke quickly to the ENT doctor who would be doing the procedure. She basically told me that this was a routine procedure, but her equipment wasn't small enough for Baby E so she would see what she could, but she wouldn't be able to see everything. Hummm...then what is the point? You would think at a hospital that deals only in children would have small enough equipment to do the procedure on any size kid. Then I had the "pleasure" of speaking with the anesthesiologist. Who basically told me that there was a good possibility that due to Baby E's size she would need to be intabated after the procedure and kept for awhile for observation if she had problems with the anesthesia. Great....thanks for warning me about this before I left my house which is over an hour away so I could have come prepared. Ugh!

Getting ready for pre-op

Basically they took her back, I sat down in the waiting room, called M and talked to him for a little bit (I cannot tell you how amazing it was to be able to talk to him. He is my rock and his voice can calm me down, which I needed at that point), started writing an email to my principal and the doctor came in. I think it took her all of 10 minutes. She came in to tell me they found nothing. Yup you read that right NOTHING! Her airways were clear and well developed. The doctor basically said she couldn't see anything, but her equipment didn't reach all the way to the bottom. I cannot believe they found nothing. I am just dumbfounded.
The pulmonologist said to continue doing the medicine and that we would then see her on Wednesday. Yea....another doctor appointment.

Sleeping before they took her back

So, we are back to square one. No one has any idea why she is still wheezing. I just want our baby healthy. Thank goodness she is a happy baby. I'm not sure what I would do if she wasn't. I was able to talk to M throughout the day today. I swear, even from thousands of miles away he can steady me and keep me calm. He seriously is my rock and is amazing! I needed him today and he was there for me 100%. I couldn't have asked for a better husband or father to our children.

After the procedure

Baby E did amazing during the procedure. She did great coming out of the anesthesia and was pretty happy for most of the day. However, she decided to fight going to bed for over an hour. It was quite frustrating. I lost my cool a few times.....we can thank PMS and stress for my short temper. I always feel horrible when I loose my cool, but I just couldn't help it tonight. However, both her and Little L made it to bed without a huge incident.
I was even able to make and frost cupcakes for Little L to take to daycare tomorrow to celebrate his birthday. I really enjoy being able to make cupcakes for him. My mom always made cut out cookies for me to take to school for my birthday. My family always made a big deal of birthdays and I plan on doing the same for our kids. I know M's family always blew his birthday off, but birthday's are important to me. Don't get me wrong, it's not about the presents, it's about getting together with family and friends to celebrate the day they were born. It's about making sure that person feels special. It's something that is important to me.
With that said. Baby E is doing great, thank goodness! Little L is turning 3 on Saturday!!! Eeeekkkk!!! and I am one pooped mama. Go figure too, it's storming outside right now, which means this mama isn't going to be getting much sleep until it stops. :)

We need some prayers

Our beautiful baby girl is going to All Children's Hospital for a procedure tomorrow morning. We could use some prayers please.
We have finally figured out what is wrong with Baby E.We saw a pediatric pulmonologist. She was confused at first, the wheeze would come and go, it would be more predominate on the right side, then the left, then both. So, she gave us 3 prescriptions, and ordered an x-ray and some lab work. Let me tell you Baby E HATED the x-ray. I had to hold her arms above her head and her legs out straight at the same time. She is one STRONG girl!!!! She screamed and cried and pulled against me the whole time. I felt horrible. We got the lab work done next, then finally headed out to the car. About half way home, I got a call from the pulmonologist office saying the ENT doctor would be calling us to schedule an appointment with us because they found a foreign body in her lung that needed to be removed!!!!! What?!?!?! How can that be?!?!?! The doctors asked me a million times if Little L could have given her anything, I told them no because they are not left alone together when they are with me. I take Baby E with me every where. The only place it could have happened is daycare. That's going to be a fun conversation when we return on Friday.
Anyways. They first scheduled a consultation appointment for us on Friday, I asked the scheduling lady to talk to the doctor and see if that was necessary. It is the end of the school year, I have been out of days since I came back from maternity leave and I wasn't going to be able to take a half day and make it up to the appointment on time. Plus I didn't want to have to drive up there on Friday to be told they had to do the procedure the next week. See where I am going with this? (I should probably also mention all of these appointments are in St. Petersburg and Clearwater which are at least an hour to an hour and a half from us) The doctors finally got back to me and they decided to just schedule her for the procedure tomorrow. So, she is not allowed any formula after 0300 and only clear liquids until 0800, but her procedure isn't until 1100. Oh my goodness!!!! I am going to have one pissed off baby!!!! She is not happy when she is hungry. I asked the nurse what could I do when she starts screaming 'cause she's hungry.....she gave me a nervous laugh and said "nothing". Great.....thanks!
So, tomorrow I will be taking our sweet baby girl up to All Children's again. I know she is in good hands there. It is a GREAT hospital and I'm sure this procedure is pretty routine. I'm not too worried about it. I just wish M was here. He is my rock and keeps me calm and steady. I could really use that right about now. Hopefully he will be able to call sometime tomorrow. I know he wishes he could be here too. These are some of the moments when I miss him the most. He really is an amazing daddy!
Well, I am off to bed. I have to wake up at 0200 to make sure I feed my girl so she doesn't try to plot my death when she's starving tomorrow morning. :)

I need to vent

**Disclaimer: I need to get something off my chest, I hope it doesn't offend anyone. I know I cannot give all of the details so this might not make a whole lot of sense, but I need to do it for me**

Karma. I believe in Karma and I believe everyone gets what is coming to them eventually. I sometimes wish Karma would happen right when it is supposed to or needed, but that hardly seems the case. I really cannot stand adults who act like middle school girls, talking about someone behind their back and having others turn against them.That is a form of bullying and it really pisses me off. I mean come on! We are adults we are supposed to treat others the way we want to be treated. But then, to put these kind of people in a position of power just really irks me. I also cannot stand when they skew the truth to make another look bad, or make another look like they made the wrong decision, based solely on the fact they don't like the person because they are in power and you are not. If you want to be in the position of leadership, then do what needs to be done to take on a leadership role! Others have done it, you can to. Don't hate someone just because they are in the position you want to be in. I'm not saying you have to agree with others all of the time. Trust me, I disagree with my administration often, but I don't go around turning others against them, or talking badly behind their backs. But there is a way to deal with the disagreements and bullying another person, is not the answer.
I feel like the worst person in the world when I really want said person to have Karma kick him/her in the "nuts". I want him/her to fail. And I want him/her to fail big time!!!! How horrible is that? I'm not saying I want anyone to get hurt, I just want him/her to feel what he/she has put others through.....and maybe a little more. I guess my belief is, is that if you go out of your way to make someone else's life miserable, the same should happen to you. You should not be rewarded and put into a position of power where others are "looking up to you". I try to teach my students every day that you may not like your teacher, you aren't always going to like your boss, but guess what? you still have to do the work. You can go home and vent to your parents or partner about that person, but in no way should you go around to others, spread lies and turn others against him/her. You have no idea what the other person is going through in private, what private hell they have to endure on top of what you are putting them through. That is a hard concept for 12-14 year olds to get, but I sure do try to get the point across.
There is a part of me (maybe it's the teacher part, most likely the irrational part) that wants to call the spouse and ream them out. Tell them they need to get their spouse in line and have them stop acting like a 13 year old girl. I know in the rational part of my brain that will do no good. No spouse has control over what their spouse does, but still. I want to protect everyone that I love, and I know I cannot do it at all times. It's just not fair! I know, life isn't fair, but at the same time, why aren't others seeing what this person is doing? Didn't everyone learn that a form of bullying is being a bystander?
I just need Karma to work quickly this time and do what needs to be done. This person should not be in the position he/she is in and needs to feel the ramifications of what he/she has done. I'm just pissed off. My high school self would be telling me "it's better to be pissed off, than pissed on". :) But I just want/need for Karma to do its thing.
I'm sorry if this didn't make any sense. I think I'm going to go to the gym and see if I can work some of this aggression out. :) Wish me luck! :) And if you have any pull with Karma, can ya put a good word in for me? Thanks! :)

How to make a bad day better

Taking a day off as a teacher is such a pain in the butt. Not only did I leave detailed lesson plans, I even labeled everything so there would be no confusion on what was for 6th grade and what was for 7th grade. There was no way anyone could screw it up.....haha....jokes on me. My substitute screwed it up. She gave the lesson two packets before giving the lesson 2 notes. How did she expect the kids to complete the packet without the notes??? Not sure. Anywho, it was a long, long day!
But what made my day was when I walked into the babysitters house and both Baby E and Little L were super excited to see me!!!! I got big smiles from both of them. It made my icky day better!

5 months (a day late)

Where has the time gone? Our baby E is 5 months old as of yesterday.

Playing in her jumperoo

At her 4 month well child visit she weighed 18.5lbs. She is in the 90th percentile for height, weight and head. She's a very healthy girl......well I guess I cannot say very healthy. I'll explain. Remember how I said on Sunday Baby E was coughing a lot, a very dry cough? Well, after she threw up on me twice, she was better. No coughing at all, until it was close to bed time. I fed her and she went to bed, no coughing all night. Fastforward to Monday morning. She wakes up and starts coughing again. Throws up on me....again.....so I call my mom. I ask her if she can help me. After being on maternity leave I am out of days off, my paycheck is already smaller than normal and every day I take off I lose money. So, I try to take as few days off as I can. I figured we would get her in to the doctor and they would give her some cough medicine and we would move on. Guess what? I was wrong. When my mom got there, they took her and Baby E right back, they took her vitals and her oxygen was really low. They told my mom she needed to go to the hospital right away. (Now what I found out later is the oxygen reading they did in the office was probably off. Baby E is never still and the doctor believes they didn't get an accurate reading because of it.) Anyways. My mom calls to tell me they are taking her to the hosptial. Cue the waterworks. I'm sitting in class, trying to teach and trying to keep my composure. Not happening. I call the office and tell them I need a few days off and start preparing lesson plans for the next couple of days.
At lunch time I go pick Little L up from daycare, pick up lunch for my mom and I and head up to the hospital....all the while feeling like a horrible mother.

Me and our happy wheezer

I get there and the attending doctor came in to explain what was going on. They did an x-ray to rule out pneumonia, ruled out RSV, gave her breathing treatments every two hours, saw she had a double ear infection and thrush. Our poor baby!!!! You would never believe she was sick though, she was all smiles and giggles the whole time. They called her a happy wheezer. :) Needless to say they wanted to keep her over night and make sure her oxygen level didn't go down.
The whole time I was there that afternoon I was warring with myself on whether or not to call M about this. I sent him an email, I knew he had a cell phone to call him in an emergency, but the reason I didn't was because I was so afraid that he would be out on mission, see he missed a call and think something horrible happened. While it was not good she was in the hospital, she was doing good, she never needed oxygen and she was eating good and overall happy. I didn't want him distracted while on mission when he wouldn't be able to call back and have something horrible happen to him. I couldn't live with myself if he got hurt becuase he was distracted by me. Now granted I now know I made the wrong decision, but at the time I was trying to protect everyone. I will never make that mistake again, and I hope I never have a reason to wonder if I should call him again. This was definitaly not my wife of the year moment.
The next day they are checking her and happy with the way she has responded to everything....but she still has a little wheeze thing going on. I got asked over and over and over if Little L had given her something and she put it in her mouth, I told them over and over again it wouldn't be possible because I don't leave them alone together. The only way that would happen is if it happened at daycare. And I would hope the babysitter would have said something to me. So the doctor ordered an upper GI, which REALLY pissed Baby E off. She was starving, they made us wait and then fed her the barium. She was NOT happy. We got that done and everything turned out all clear. She has nothing stuck in her lungs, no masses, nothing. The doctor is really confused as to why she is still wheezing. Thus we are going to see a specialist next week. In the mean time Baby E hates me twice a day.....she hates me due to the medicine I have to give her. She's on 6 different meds which most have to be given twice a day. Thank goodness. I don't think I could do it more than twice a day.

Can't tell she's sick can ya?

I so wish M could have been here for this. I really needed him with us the past few days. Granted I need him with us all of the time, but during these times....I need him that much more.  He is amazing in these kinds of situations. So calm and collected. He is great at calming me down too.
Even though I couldn't have my amazing husband with me, I had the next best thing.....my mom. I swear she is amazing. She took Baby E to the doctor and hospital. Then she took Little L home to pick up some things for me to stay overnight. She kept Little L overnight while I was at the hospital. She brought me food and stayed with me to give me breaks. She stayed with me last night when we got home to help with the overnight breathing treatments. (Thank goodness the doctor cut those out today, so I won't have to get up in the middle of the night for that). But it will be interesting tomorrow on how I'm going to get ready, get Little L ready, get Baby E her meds and get her ready. Thankfully my mom will be my extra pair of hands tomorrow.
I wish my in-laws weren't being stupid still and could help out, but they don't want to respect how M and I want to raise our kids, so we will only be visiting with them until they can accept and respect how we want to raise our kids. I have a story about all of this, which I will share another day.
We are all back home, sleeping schedules getting back on track and life moving on.
We have Little L's 3rd birthday next weekend, then our wedding anniversary two weeks after that. I can't wait until I can actually spend our wedding anniversary with my husband.
This has been quite the week so far. Hopefully the rest of the week will be quiet. I could use some normallcy and quiet right about now. :)
12 days of school left!!!! (not that anyone is counting) :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there, whether you are expecting, already have kids, fur babies etc....I hope you all had a great day!
I had a good day. It started off a little rough. Baby E was coughing a lot. It was a very dry cough, but she was coughing so much it seemed like she couldn't stop or catch her breath. Then she puked on me due to her coughing. After that.....she was fine. Gee thanks girl! So, off we went to my mom's house. She was making dinner and my biffle and her daughter were coming over to swim and eat dinner. It was a lot of fun!!! Our kids are literally 5 months apart and are best friends :), they used to even go to the same daycare.
It was a really nice day. I was actually relaxed and I always enjoy spending time with my mom. I'm so thankful to have her around during this deployment. I don't know what I would do without her. She has been a HUGE help to me while M is gone. Seeing as my in-laws are still being stupid (more on that another day) I am needing my mom more than ever. I just hope one day I can be at least half the mother to my kids that my mom has been to me.
I hope you all had a great day! I'm off to bed, school tomorrow.....15 days left.....not that I'm counting or anything :)

Military Spouse Appreciation Day Bloghop

In honor of Military Spouse Appreciation Day, Ann Marie at Household 6 Diva and RC at Riding the Rollercoaster. are sponsering this amazing blog hop! I first want to thank every single Military Spouse out there! We have an amazingly hard job and our soldier wouldn't be able to do their job without us. We are considered the "silent ranks" and I truly believe we are some of the strongest women out there! So, Thank You to you all for the amazing jobs you are doing at home!

Ok on to the introduction!

Hello and welcome blog hop visitors! If you don't already know me, my name is Kathryn. I'm a 20 something (actually closer to a 30 something, which my husband reminds me of quite frequently), teacher, mother to two beautiful children and an Army Wife. My husband is an Officer in the Army Reserves and he is currently deployed to the sandbox. :(

I grew up in Michigan and moved to Florida in 2007 to find a job. It was the BEST move I ever made!

I teach 7th grade civics and 6th grade Ancient Civilizations. I started out teaching elementary school, but with budget cuts and school enrollment going down, I went and got my middle school certification.I have been teaching it ever since. I actually love this age group. I especially love teaching Social Studies. That has always been my favorite subject and my dream subject to teach.

M and I met on Eharmony and fell in love. We've been together almost 4 years, although a lot of that time has been spent apart due to the Army. We got married on June 5, 2009 at the courthouse and had our (I should say my) white wedding on February 5, 2011.

Our little family on our second wedding day :)

Our two beautiful children are:

Little L who was born on May 26, 2009. He was born a month early and weighed 5lbs 15oz. He was and is our little surprise. He is his daddy's mini me!

And Baby E who was born on December 15, 2011. She was born right on time and weighed 8lbs 8oz. She is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen.

I blog about a little bit of everything. From military life, to school, the kids, friends and family. Not even a year ago I initially started this blog because I felt like I needed an outlet for my thoughts and feelings while my husband was deployed. Being a Reservists wife makes it hard sometimes, we don't have the support that a lot of spouses do who live near bases and other military families. I must say, I have met some pretty amazing women through this and am so happy I decided to do this.

Please feel free to leave comments! Especially so that I can come visit your little corner of the blog world. :)


Thank you for stopping by!

Operation Kid Comfort

One day I was visiting some websites and I happened across this one for Armed Services YMCA Operation Kid Comfort. This is what they do:

"Operation Kid Comfort creates custom-made quilts and pillows for children of deployed U.S. military personnel who experience grief from missing their mom or dad. Photos of the deployed parent are printed onto fabric and sewn into the quilt or pillow. Each child received a quilt/pillow depending on age. Children 6 and under receive a quilt, 7 and older receive a pillow. Both quilts and pillows contain pictures of the deployed parent."

Well I thought it was such a neat idea I found some pictures (they give you guidelines) and I sent the stuff in. They take about 6-8 weeks because they are done by hand. But oh my goodness! They are soooo worth it! Lucas got his on Saturday and it hasn't left his side. I never got him a daddy doll and I feel like I should have. But in the beginning he didn't express too often how much he missed daddy. I know he missed him, but it wasn't affecting him like it is now. He is sleeping in our bed more now and has some separation anxiety. He does get excited when I pick him up though. He keeps repeating "ma ma back, ma ma back!" In the past couple of months his speech has taken off and now at least 10 times a day I hear "me miss da da" then he pouts (he's a good pouter, bottom lip always sticks WAY out). I always tell him that daddy loves him and misses him too and will be home when his job is done. It breaks my heart because I don't know how else to explain why daddy has been gone for so long. Today I heard "da da home now!" I told him, I so wish he could come home now, but he can't, his job isn't done yet.
This blanket though I think has helped a little. He is taking it with him everywhere. It makes him smile every time he sees the pictures of M on his blanket. It's really cute. It's free for the children of deployed soldiers. I would highly recommend these to anyone who has a soldier either deploying or is deployed. I just wish I would have found out about them sooner. Ah well. I am truly happy with how amazing our quilt turned out. I will leave you with some pics of it.

How cute, right?

Little L LOVES his daddy quilt

Weddings sure make you miss your spouse that much more

Saturday was my friend Stacy's wedding. Our friends have been a little worried about how the events would go that evening, due to the groom's past of drinking himself under the table at weddings and acting like a complete fool. Thankfully none of that happened from the groom. Other than a butt load of PDA from the couple (I think there is a line when it comes to the newly married couple's PDA at the wedding, and they crossed it BIG time), it was a beautiful wedding.

This is me before I left for the wedding. I wanted a picture before I got all messed up from being out on the beach and dancing all night. I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Although this picture did point out the lovely lines I'm starting to get around my eyes, reminding me about the big birthday coming up in November. Ugh! We'll save that for another day.

The wedding took place on the beach. I picked up two of my friends and headed over there. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Here comes the bride

I had ran into the bridal party at the hair salon earlier that afternoon. I had made a hair appointment to get my highlights re-done and didn't realize that I had made the appointment for the same day as the wedding. I thought it worked out pretty nice, and it was great getting to see my friend get all dolled up for her big day. The ceremony was sweet but a little on the strange side. Her father was the officiant, but the beginning of the ceremony was, to me, a little strange. He was talking about how God made woman from the side of man because everything else came in twos, etc. I just thought it was strange, but it's probably just me. :) The bride and groom wrote their own vows and they were super sweet. Then they poured colored sand into a vase and included the groom's son. I thought that was super cute.


The beautiful bride and her parents



The wedding party



The sand as a new family

Husband and wife

 After the ceremony it was off across the street to the Yacht Club where the reception was taking place. It was a beautiful room with a beautiful view.

My "date" Marla and I

My "date" was my friend Marla. Seeing as my husband couldn't attend, it was nice to have someone to go with and not be the only one at the table without a date. I had a really good time with my friends. I was able to see some girls that I haven't seen in a long time, nor do I get to see often, so that was a major bonus. Plus I danced pretty much the whole night. I only sat out on the slow songs, dancing by yourself to those just isn't fun.

The Glenallen crew (who I taught with my first year teaching)

I have attended weddings with M before, actually him and I have only attended one wedding together and I've been to I think 3 without him, and it's been sad that he hasn't been there but it never really affected me. Let me tell you.....adding a deployment, and the end of a deployment at that to a wedding and you're bound for disaster. I cannot tell you how many times I had to catch myself from breaking down into tears. Watching everyone with their spouse really made me aware that M wasn't here to share this evening with. It also didn't help that some people were asking a lot of questions about M. I appreciate their concern for him and his safety and I don't see these people very often, so I assumed they would have questions. But nothing prepares you for the wide eye shock when you tell them what he actually does. I love talking about my husband, but tonight it just made me more aware he wasn't sitting next to me, and wouldn't be for awhile.
I cannot wait until we have an event that we can get all dressed up for, have a few drinks and go dancing. I really want to do that with him. I know he doesn't miss attending weddings with me, but it sure is nice to go to a wedding with your husband. Maybe one day we will get to go to another one together. Although I'm running out of friends who aren't married.
My mom watched the kids that night for us. It was nice to get some sleep. I still didn't log more hours than normal, but it was SOOO nice being able to wake up on my own and not have to jump out of bed the second I woke up. It was nice to just lay there, and of course fall back asleep for a minute. Sunday morning, when I finally got up I cleaned our house, went grocery shopping, talked to M and then went to my mom's to get the kids. I hung out there most of the day. Once Little L woke up from his nap, we took them to the beach. It is awesome to be at the beach around 5 or 6 in the evenings. It was a bittersweet weekend that of course went too fast.

Little L playing in the sand

Baby E on the beach