Things you never thought you had to tell your kids

This morning I was getting ready to take the kids to preschool, I had just gotten Baby E into her car seat and was walking around to the other side to open the door for Little L. As I round the corner.....what do I see......my son taking one big lick of my car!!!!!! I instantly said "Yuck! Don't lick the car! That's yucky!!!!!" I never thought I had to tell my son he shouldn't lick the car. Ahhhh! :)
What can ya do??? :)
I hope he learned his lesson, especially because my car isn't the cleanest right now. :)

Well played Murphy.....well played

First I have to start off by saying a HUGE thank you to Marcella who posted my need for a photographer onto her facebook page. That was so sweet and heart felt, it brought me to tears. I will however not be needing a photographer in Orlando.
I found out recently that my husband, due to his injuries, won't be returning with his unit. He won't be participating in his unit's homecoming ceremony and I have to say I'm kind of sad about it. I was really looking forward to attending the homecoming, but I also know that my husband's well being is WAY more important than some ceremony. I want him to get everything worked out before he comes home.
Also, how do you deal with your husband seeming to be different now that he's back from war? I swear something is off with him. I'm not sure if he's not happy with me or if it's something else that is bothering him, but he's not being himself lately. He used to call me a lot, now I hardly hear from him, he used to say good bye on the phone a certain way, and now he's very clipped and abrupt. I'm trying really hard to not act crazy and remember this time isn't about me, it's about making sure he is mentally and physically ok before he comes home to us.

Ah Murphy. You are NOT my friend. I know I've talked about Murphy a lot since my husband has left, but I tell ya what, he waited until the end to give me a doozy. I ended up at the urgent care walk in clinic this morning to find out I had strep! Yup....strep. I knew I felt like crap, but geeze! I woke up Thursday morning feeling like I was swallowing razor blades and had a fever on and off that day. Friday I was feeling MUCH better, so I didn't think anything of it. I just thought I caught some type of flu and it was working its way out of my body. I had book club at our house Friday night and really enjoyed having the girls over. I was nice to have some adult conversations. I love going to book club. I realize we only talk about books for like 10 minutes, but it still is a great stress reliever. Oops....sorry I got sidetracked :) back to Murphy. Because book club lasted so long last night, my mom kept the kids. I thought I would get some good sleep.....haha yea right. I pretty much woke up at 0400 feeling worse than ever. I picked the kids up (because my mom had plans today that couldn't be changed) and called our friends. They agreed to watch the kids for me while I went to the docs and took a nap. I woke up feeling SO MUCH BETTER. Thank goodness! So, even though Murphy waited until the end to give me the biggest issue, I am glad I am feeling better and praying I didn't pass this onto the kids.

So, now I'm off to bed and sleep some more. Let's hope the kids sleep through the night :)

In need of a Photographer

Ugh! So, the last major thing I have to check off my to-do list is to find a photographer. This one seems to be the hardest. It's hard to tell people that you would like to hire them, but you're not sure what day or time and it could change and probably will. Photographers aren't too keen on that. I found the website OpLove which offers free photo sessions for those families of deployed soldiers. I thought "Hey! What a great idea! This shouldn't be too hard, they should understand." Haha! I was VERY wrong. The few that actually have responded aren't available, some even told me they don't actually do homecomings. I understand it's annoying dealing with their unpredictability, but that information should be included on the OpLove website. I'm also a big fan of people actually following through on the charities they say they are a part of. Don't just say you do something and not actually do it, if you feel passionately about it, then do it!

I did find one photographer I REALLY wanted to use, but she is going out of town during the time frame I was given for my husband to return. I've even enlisted the help of the Regional Coordinator for South Florida. She has been AMAZING to help me out as much as she can, especially seeing as she cannot actually take the pictures. She lives too far from where my husband will be coming in. :(
I never thought it would be this hard to find a photographer. You would think people would want to do something like this. Homecomings are amazing events! I'm even willing to pay!

So, I know most of you don't actually live in Florida, but if you happen to know anyone who takes good pictures and they will be in the Orlando area within the next two weeks and would like to take pictures, please let me know. I'm willing to pay for gas or babysitter or pictures. :) This is something I REALLY want and the last major thing I have to finalize before he comes home. (note for next time: start looking for photographer a LOT earlier than a week or two before arrival)
Eeeekkkk! I cannot believe we are finally at this stage!!!!

From Pinterest to Project....yummy dessert

I am part of a book club. It is the group of girls that I taught with my first year in Florida. Our school hired 5 new 4th grade teachers that year and 4 of us are in the book club. We meet once a month and everyone brings a dish to share. I've found some pretty amazing looking dessert recipes on pinterest so I thought I would give one a try.
Who doesn't love s'mores? So I thought dipped s'mores was a great twist on the awesome dessert.

From Pinterest, click on picture and it will take you to the recipe

These just looked awesome. I'm a huge fan of s'mores that I don't need a camp fire for, especially seeing as I'm not a huge camper. Actually I'm not a camper at all....but that's besides the point.

I started off with putting tin foil on my cookie sheet and laying out the graham crackers.

I figured this was easiest in case it made a huge mess.

Then I added a marshmallow on one side and chocolate on the other. **side note: the second time I did this I cut the marshmallows in half or I could have bought the smaller ones, the large ones are just a pain in the butt to use. I also cut the chocolate in half.**

 Then you put them in the oven for a little bit until the chocolate melts.

After you take them out of the oven they go straight into the freezer to help everything set. After about 5-10 minutes (I think the longer in the freezer the better, they are easier to dip) you put the marshmallow side on the chocolate side and dip into chocolate. Publix where I shop has a great little container that is actually chocolate for dipping. You just put it in the microwave for a few seconds, stir and repeat, very easy.
Dip in chocolate, then add sprinkles. Sprinkles make everything better.

 I also put them back into the refrigerator to make the dipped chocolate harden again. I will say, take them out of the fridge before you serve. They are much better at room temperature, plus you don't want someone to break a tooth. :)

Everyone really enjoyed them. I didn't have any to bring back home, which was awesome. Those kind of kill the diet.

I think next time I make them I will try and make them a little smaller. They were a little too big and I think having them smaller might make them easier to make.

HIS SANDY BOOTS ARE ON U.S. SOIL!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhh! Sorry for all of the caps but I feel that this deserves all caps.....MY HUSBAND IS BACK ON U.S. SOIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He still has two weeks in Texas before he will be home with us, but I am soooo happy and relieved to know he is finally in the United States. This deployment is almost over and we made it!!!!
Words cannot express how happy and relieved I am today!!!!

Thank you all so much for all of your support during this time! I could not have made it through without you all! I cannot express my appreciation and gratitude for all of you! Thank you!

Now off to kick butt on my to do list!!!!!

Yellow Ribbon #3 DONE! and Mommycation

Oh my goodness! I am so happy to say I just finished Yellow Ribbon event #3. If you are not familiar with Yellow Ribbon, it is a program from the DoD that was put into place to

"promote the well-being of National Guard and Reserve members, their families and communities by connecting them with resources throughout the deployment cycle."

Via

Let's just say the first two were not helpful to me At.All. The first one was a two day event where the solider attends with spouses and family members. They basically talked about not complaining too much to your soldier, not expecting a lot of communication and making sure the soldier prepared his spouse by making sure she knew how to balance the check book and how to get the car fixed. Now I'm not sure about you, but I knew how to do all of that before I met my husband. It was a waste of two days for me, but I went to support my husband. We did actually have one question that no one was able to answer and it had to do with our daughter's birth certificate, obviously we figured it out on our own, but I expected someone to know the answer to it.

The second one was just for families. Our unit dropped the ball on that one. It was scheduled for one day, then of course the day changed. There was a HUGE communication break down and not many people attended. It actually turned into a bitch fest. I'm not sure if I am just oblivious to what information I should be getting and am not or if I just don't make a big deal about stuff, but I had no issues or complaints, but oh my goodness.....others sure did. It was not a fun day, that's for sure. Plus I came with my mother in law (this was before the whole fight between her and my husband) and it was just a little awkward. Her and I don't have much in common, so finding things to talk about was kind of difficult after the first evening. But we made it through. No information was gained during this event either.

Today they actually had some good information. They did not allow the bitching to take place today. Which took away some of the entertainment factor, but made it less stressful I think. Although they did make everyone stand up and introduce themselves and I HATE that! Now I know what you're thinking, "but you're a teacher, you talk all day" you're right I do, but I talk to 12-14 year olds, I get freaked out about talking infront of my peers. Always have. But thankfully I didn't feel like today was a total waste of time. Not to mention I brought my friend Kristin and we are having a mommy weekend away from the kids. It was nice not to be woken up by the kids, even though I was woken up by my husband. I never mind being woken up by him. :)

Tonight we went to P.F. Changs for dinner and went shopping. It was a lot of fun to just hang out and not worry about the kids. I do miss my little boogers so very much! Nothing too exciting, just hanging out and relaxing. :)

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Pictures of the kids (warning: there are a lot but they are really cute!)

We had Little L's 3 year and Baby E's 6 month pictures done at Sears last weekend. I really like how the ones at Sears turn out and they aren't too expensive, which is a bonus.  Plus in some of the packages you are able to get a CD of all of the pictures, which I love.

I'm very happy with how they turned out. Although I think next time I will make sure Little L gets a hair cut before we do pictures. :) ah well. Thankfully, he is still pretty cute. :)

On a side note, everything is great with the husband and I. He wasn't mad at me, he was mad at another situation which I completely understand why he was so upset. The amount of backstabbing just needs to stop and adults really need to grow up, but I have a feeling that is just wishful thinking.

I have Yellow Ribbon coming up this weekend. I'm not really looking forward to it, but my biffle is going with me so we are turning it into a girls weekend so it should be a ton of fun.

Happy Wednesday!



Blogger 411

I've seen this on a few other people's blogs and thought it looked like a fun idea. Better idea than what I was coming up with to write about today....which was nada. :) I hope you enjoy!

1. How long have you been blogging? And what got you started on blogging? Has your blog changed?

I have been blogging for less than a year. I started blogging about my life as a Reserve Army Wife, but I think I mainly talk about our kiddos and how we are dealing with this deployment.

2. Did you go to college? If so where, and what did you study?

I did, I went to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo Michigan. Yes there actually is a place named Kalamazoo. I studied Elementary Education with minors in math, reading and social studies.

3. Where have you traveled?

I have traveled quite a bit. I have been to a few states plus England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy, Australia and South Africa. I love traveling in Europe.

My friend and I who backpacked around Europe

Same friend and I at Stonehenge

4. If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you would buy?

I've thought about this a lot and I don't know what I would buy first, but I sure would enjoy trying to decide.

5. What are your 3 biggest pet peeves?

* Poor customer service

*People who cannot drive

* People who insist they know what they are talking about when in fact they do not.

6. What is your favorite movie?

The Princess Bride. I love that movie.

7. What is your drink of choice; wine, beer, or liquor. Or Water, Soda, Tea?

My first choice would be pop (yes I call it pop, you bake with soda) but seeing as I'm trying to lose weight I would have to say water.

8. What is something you enjoy to do when you have me time?

Watching my trashy TV shows or a good girly movie, blogging or reading.

9. If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, which store would it be?
Target. They have everything you need, plus it's all cute.

10. If your life was turned into a movie... what actor would play you?
I would like Sandra Bullock or Rachel McAdams. I love both of them as actresses. I don't think I look like either one, but I would be very honored for them to play me. :)

11. What are the jobs you had in high school/college/the early years?

Receptionist at my dad's insurance agency

Front desk agent at the Inn on Mackinac and Murray Hotel

Front desk agent at Courtyard, Days Inn and Bay Pointe Inn

Do you see a pattern?

Substitute teacher

12. Show us a picture from high school or college.

My high school best friend and I at my graduation party

Some of my sorority sisters and I at our Formal.

13. If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, where would you go?

Egypt and Russia

14. Show us the most current picture of you or you, or your family, or anything of meaning to you.

Most recent of the kids, I don't have one of the whole family yet

15. Where do you see your life 5 years from now?

Being happy. Maybe living in a newer house, but hopefully no more deployments to deal with, both of us teaching and enjoying our time together as a family.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me more. :) I sure enjoyed filling this out. :)

7 months

Holy Cow! Our little girl is 7 months old today!

Our dearest Lizzie,

Wow! 7 whole months. It seems like you've been in our family forever. You are sitting up like a big girl now. Actually you LOVE sitting up, that way you can see what is going on. Heaven forbid if you are not able to see what everyone is doing and you are not in the middle of it. Lizzie you sure make us know when you feel like we are ignoring you.

Lizzie (which is what we call you because your brother cannot say Elizabeth and he needs to stop calling you baby) you have quite the personality. You think you are really funny, you laugh at yourself constantly and are such a happy baby. But man oh man can you hold a grudge if you are mad and you let me know when you are mad. You coo and screech and make all kinds of noises. You are a very loud child, but that seems to be a trait from your father's side of the family. :)

The pool, you are not sure what to do with it. You have started blowing bubbles, which is pretty cute, and your newest thing is to stick your tongue into the pool water and blow. Sometimes you blow the wrong way and choke yourself, but you seem to really enjoy it.

You are thankfully still sleeping through the night, most nights, and wake up so very happy. We have lost the first nap of the day and are down to just one nap a day :( which make mommy kind of sad. 

You absolutely LOVE your brother! It is sooo cute to watch you two together.

He loves to play with you most of the time. If you are crying he tries to make you laugh and will talk to you. He loves coming in and waking you up in the mornings. You two are too cute to watch. I love that you think the world of him. You watch him so intently when he is playing near by.

I cannot wait to watch you with daddy. You are going to have him wrapped around your little finger in no time. It's going to be fun watching him learn all of your quirks and your personality.

You are not crawling yet, but oh my goodness....you want to be! You rock back and forth and have figured out how to bring one knee up, but that's about it. I would appreciate it if you would wait for your daddy to get home before you start. K? Thanks!

Lizzie you are an amazing baby and I feel so blessed to have you in our family. I have never seen a more happy baby in my life. Daddy, Little L and I love you so very much. You have brought a ray of sunshine into our lives.

We love you little girl!!!!

Love,
Mommy

P.S. We got pictures done at Sears yesterday, so I will have more pictures to post soon. :)

Oh PMS and Murphy I wish you would go away

We are winding down the days of this deployment and today was NOT a good day. :( First off, I am PMSing and that makes my temper very very short. For example, I generally don't call to complain about things but when I got home from Publix yesterday, I noticed the bagging lady put the Ammonia in a bag with food! Who does that?!?!? I had a perfectly good bag of trash bags it could have gone with, but nope.....let's put the cleaning chemical in with food.... good idea. So, I had to call and tell the manager. Of course I did not notice her doing this in the store because I was too busy keeping my 3 year old from pressing too many buttons and canceling my transaction before it went through.

That brings be to today. When I got home from the gym I found a huge buzzard in our trash!!!!! And of course he couldn't get the bag that actually had trash in it, nope he got the one that had the shredded paper in it. Lovely. (Hi Murphy, I could have lived without seeing you again).

Also at the gym I missed two skype calls from my husband. I HATE missing his calls, (it makes my stomach twist all up in knots and get icky) and I did not do it on purpose, I was literally in the middle of a class lifting weights. When I was done with that song, I checked my phone, saw I missed the calls and stepped out to call him back. He didn't answer. :(
Let me start off by saying I am a people pleaser. I cannot help it, I have been this way my whole life and it is a struggle to let things roll off my back. I want everyone around me to be happy, and sometimes it's at my expense. So, when hubby finally called me back I could tell he was NOT happy. I have no idea why. I know it has something to do with me, but he didn't want to get into it right then. However, with him where he is, who knows when he will call me back. :( I HATE leaving things unresolved. It literally eats me up inside. I worry about it constantly. I also hate thinking that he's mad at me for something. I try soooo hard to do things right and to make him happy. I love him with my whole heart and just want him to be happy, so it kills me inside when he is not. I know he loves me and is happy with me. He really is an amazing father and husband. I feel very lucky to be married to him. I just cannot stand that our conversation was left with him upset and me not knowing why. I hate that I don't know when I will hear from him again. I just pray to God that he will be safe and can call again soon. I don't like leaving things this way.
I can't really explain the feeling I get inside when someone is mad at me. It's like it physically makes me sick. I can't eat, it's hard to sleep and it's the only thing that is on my mind. I want it fixed and I want it fixed NOW. However, when you are dealing with another person a lot of that is out of your control.
I can't stand the thought that he is mad at me. I hope he calls soon. I love him so very much!

Happy Birthday Hunny!

My sexy hunny

Today is my husband's birthday!!!! My friend called me a "cougar" because my husband is actually 8 months younger than me. A fact that he does NOT let me forget. :)
 I'm sad that we weren't able to celebrate it together, but hopefully we will be able to celebrate together soon. We were able to Skype today and Little L was able to talk to him. It was great! I made him a card of the kids and sent it to him via Facebook, but I think it turned out pretty cute.

So, hunny.....I hope you had as good a birthday as you could and we will celebrate and make up for it once you get home!
I love you!!!!

No voice, potty training and book club

If you got the plate of the truck that ran me over, I would appreciate it if you would let me know. Little L's cold hit me like a ton of bricks this morning. :( I now have no voice. Does that stop Little L from trying to talk to me? Of course not, he's 3. Although now he can pretend he didn't hear me. This could get interesting real quick.
Little L has been doing AWESOME potty training lately. We finally had another success with pooping on the potty today and he stayed dry all day (except during nap time). I'm so very proud of him, so is his daddy. It's really cute when Little L tells him on the phone or skype that he went on the potty. He's doing so great at talking to daddy on skype now. It's really cute.
Baby E is trying SOOOO hard to crawl. She is doing her rocking/swimming moves and wondering why she isn't going anywhere. It's quite cute to watch. Poor Little L won't know what to do once she can move. She eyes his toys like you wouldn't believe. He already gets annoyed when he leaves a toy too close to her and she gets it.....he's in for a rude awakening. Haha!
I had my monthly book club last night. Oh it was a much needed girl night. We had great food (we each bring a dish to pass) and great friends. I think we talked about the book we  read for maybe 5 minutes. The rest of the time was spent helping one of our friends pick out guys to wink at on Match.com. Oh how fun. You never know what kind of trouble you can get in when 8 girls are "helping" you pick out who you should date and "helping" you IM some guy from another town. Haha! I don't think I've laughed that hard in a LONG time. It was a ton of fun. There isn't a huge dating pool of good guys in our area, so dating can get quite tricky around here. Especially if you grew up here. But it was sure fun helping our friend find someone (and I thank my lucky stars I don't have to do that anymore)
I am so thankful my husband understands that we each need our alone time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE spending time with my husband, but it sure is nice once a month to get together with the girls and just have some girl time.
Other than that, we are just hanging out and swimming at Grandma's house when we can. :) I really need to start tackling my to do list. I sure wish I had someone who could do everything for me while I sleep for like a month......that would be amazing! Anywhoo...I hope you all have a great weekend!

MilSpouse First Friday Fill-In (a day late)

Sorry I'm a day behind but we were really busy yesterday and I forgot to link up.

1. What’s one thing in the past month you would have changed?

The one thing I would have changed was eating better. I have a goal of how much I want to lose by the end of this deployment and I didn't do a good job this past month. I came up with a lot of excuses about life getting in the way, but I still should have done better.

2. What was your favorite thing that happened in June?

Being out of school and getting to spend time with my kiddos. Also we finally figured out why Baby E was wheezing!!!!! That was a HUGE relief!!!

3. What did you do to celebrate Independence Day?

We spent the day with my mom, swimming cooking out and went to the beach to watch the fireworks, only a storm rolled in before the fireworks went off.

4. When you PCS, what items do you take with you and not let the movers pack (and if you do a DITY, what do you take with you and not box up) (thanks to Sespi at And You Never Did Think for inspiring this question)?

Being in the reserves we will never have to PCS. But I would guess we would take important documents, clothes and such that we would need immediately and some toys for the kids.

5. What are you looking forward to in July?
I am looking forward to this being the last full month that I have to be a single mommy. We are in the final stretch of this deployment and I am getting REALLY excited!!!!!

Our 4th

We had a fun day today. We swam at my moms, cooked out, took a nap and went to the beach to watch the sunset. A friend of ours and her son came with us.

However, if you have ever been around toddlers you know that you cannot bring one toy for two kids. That is what happened tonight. I did not know my friend had a truck to play with and the boys had a hard time sharing the truck. Next time I go, I will ask what the other person is bringing.

Baby E loved all of the attention she got while at the beach. I have found out she takes after me and sweats like you wouldn't believe. I feel so bad for her, it's not fun to sweat so quickly, especially when you live in Fl.
We had a beautiful sunset.

When had this view on one side and this view on the other side:

See those lovely storm clouds coming in? Yea....they ended up making us leave before the fireworks began. The wind picked up and the lightning got closer, so we packed up and left. We literally made it to the car with about 2 minutes to spare before the rain poured down. Talk about good timing!

After baths, both kids passed out. I can still hear fireworks going off and I hope they stop soon. I have a feeling I won't be sleeping too good until they are done. Let's pray those who are setting them off are sober and making good choices!
Happy 4th! I hope you all had a great day!!!!

Happy 4th of July

I hope you all have a great 4th of July! The kids and I have already swam, cooked out and are now napping. We will be heading to the beach later to meet up with some friends to see the fireworks. Have a happy and safe 4th! Please remember we are able to celebrate this holiday because of those who are serving and protecting our country!