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