Funny faces..

I realized as I was looking at some photos that I have some pictures of the kids making some really funny faces. I realize I don't post these pictures because they aren't smiling all cutesy or anything, but thought it might be fun to share some of these funny faces with you.




Josh's Mom and Grandma will be arriving tomorrow afternoon! Then Thursday I'm headed out to see Josh! I'm very excited! I will definately post pictures when I return! I'm sure I'll have some good one's to share!

You know there's trouble when....

Your four year old comes downstairs and says it's snowing in his room! So I go upstairs and He and Maddie, and probably Eliza had taken out this foam packaging out of a box for a statue I was given for my birthday, and ripped up the foam packaging to make it look like it had snowed! And it had snowed, all over the entire attic room upstairs on BOTH sides! I wasn't thrilled at all since I had just gotten the entire thing cleaned and vaccumed yesterday. And so I had to do it again because Eliza was trying to eat the snow. GRR! It's funny now, but at the moment it wasn't.
This has been a nice quiet weekend at home for us. I have spent a lot of time cleaning and trying to get everything ready for when Grandma Nori and Great Grandma Betty Hensley come to watch the kids for me to go on my trip.
The Colts won yesterday, and for the first time EVER, I'm hoping the Patriots win against the Chargers so the Colts will get tp play the AFC Championship game at home. We shall see, the Patriots are trying to lose right now!
Josh said something cute in his e-mail to me yesterday before the Colts played. If the Colts won we'd be able to watch the game together next week... and now we will! YEAH!
UPDATE- THE PATRIOTS WON, so the COLTS WILL BE PLAYING AT HOME!!! WOO HOO!!!!!

I would've been on an airplane right now...

But due to bad things going on in the world, my flight to see Josh had to be changed since they wouldn't be in Dubai, and since I didn't want to go there alone, we changed it! So I'm now leaving Thursday afternoon. I'm getting excited, and now thinking of all the things I need to have done around the house before Josh's Mom and Grandma arrive on Wednesday to take care of the kids. Not only am I going to see my husband in a week, but he's going to be returning home with me!! I'm so glad, and the kids will be so excited too! And, on our flight back we'll be in Minneapolis for a longer layover, so we will be meeting up with my longtime friend Eli and his wife Tiffane, I can't wait to see him again and meet his wife for the first time! I'm just looking forward to spending a weekend at home, and getting laundry washed and put away, and me starting to pack for my trip!

Walk a mile in her shoes....

I realized something about myself today that I'm not proud of, but I'm going to admit it and get it out there. I have been judging someone I go to church with because of her sons behavior, now not to say that I know she's not trying, or that our sons are exactly alike, because they aren't. I'm sure she is trying, but I have been judging her thinking she's must not be doing enough, since he still continues to act up. I realized that I'm being a hypocrit. Yep, there it is. That's what I am, a hypocrit. As the saying goes, walk a mile in their moccasins. This woman puts on a brave face at church, but no one sees (I'm just guessing here) the tears she cries, or the prayers that are said to receive some guidance on what to doto help her son. No one knows (until it happens to you) how humilitating it can be to have your child brought to you for misbehavior at church or to be told your child was terrible at school.

Recently Jonas has been acting up/or out if you will. I know he misses Josh a lot, I'm not saying that justifies his behavior, but I do know that every child deals with things differently. He truly does miss his Daddy. This deployement has been difficult for him. He's had a handful of incidents at school, but the majority seem to be happening at church where he misbehaves, and no matter how many timeouts were given during the block of church time he has continued to act out. Recently I've taken a new approach, that I'm hoping will work. What's the new approach, grounding him from his favorite things. Before now I didn't think it was right to ground as he wasn't old enough to really understand. When he realized yesterday that I was actually going to ground him as I had warned him would happen, it definately sunk in. (instant remorse was shown, but of course didn't soften my heart to change my mind) It will take time, he is a good boy and wants to be, it's just learning to control all that energy and all of those emotions that he has and seems to freely express. That is the challenge that I face, and have been facing alone for now. Jonas and I will make it through this. Now don't get me wrong, I love this kid so much. He's really so much fun, and says stuff that cracks me up! And it's so fun to watch him learn new things, and see that look of enjoyment on his face. I just have to remind myself that he is only 4 and still learning, and honestly so am I! IF you read this far you deserve a medal for reading my ramblings.

So we're outside when...

Maddie says, "Mommy take my picture!" Well who can pass up an opportunity like that when your child wants you to take their picture! So I got my camera out and snapped some cute ones of the kids! It was fun.

Being 29....

Yesterday was my 29th Birthday. It's amazing to think that I'm 29. Growing up I used to think that once you were 29 you could never again share your age, and now I really don't care who knows how old I am. I think if I live to be 100 I will be proud to share how old I am, hopefully by then I will have become a little wiser than I am now. As I reflect on my 29 years, there are those early years of my life I don't recall, and then some I wish I could forget, but realize how much I've grown, and believe it or not matured (although I still have a ways to go). I still feel like I'm 21, but then again, I can't really relate to what 21 year olds I know are going through, or at least most of them. To celebrate I had friends over for Pizza and girlie movies, it was fun! And I needed it because I got some bad news yesterday. We are going to have to move the dates of my trip back to visit Josh. We're still working out the details, and I'm crossing my fingers that the trip is still on. I can't really say why they had to change things, but apparently stuff going on in the Middle East area caused them to not go to port as they planned. Josh couldn't tell me this, but told me enough that I figured that much out. Either way he will be home at the end of this month, and on a positive note he is now the 2nd Alternate on the list for the Olmstead program, and they are going to interview him, sometime around the beginning of February or end of January. YEAH! Today the kids and I went to the park, because it was 73 degrees here! It's crazy how warm it is, and in other areas in the country they are getting a ton of snow! I got some cute pictures!

Pictures from Christmas and Marilyn's....

Here are some Christmas day pictures, and some pictures from Marilyn's. The cat is Sammy, and Eliza had fun trying to find him, which was usually under the bed, which is what she's looking at, the cat! It was too funny! Enjoy!

The best day ever.....

I'm singing this song right now (if you don't know it, watch sponge bob's Best day ever show... it's hilarious!), I'm singing this because in 10 days I'm going to be taking my first ever trip over seas! That's right I'm going to be meeting Josh in Dubai! We have been talking about this for over a month, going back and forth on the if's and when's and everything has fallen into place and we finally got a date that I could go over! I got my passport a month ago, Josh bought my plane ticket, I got the Grandma's plane tickets, and am all ready! So next Thursday Josh's mom and his grandma will be catching a flight out of Pensacola to here. Then I will leave the following day!! I will only be gone a few days, but we're going to have so much fun with just the two of us! And we're hoping (cross your fingers) that he will be returning home with me since they should be coming back a week or so after that. Anyway, I'm thinking this about the best Birthday present I could have ever asked for. I'm giddy with excitement right now!! WOO HOO!

Being on your own with the kids for the Holidays 101

Things I have learned about doing Christmas and the Holidays without the help of my spouse:
1.Wrap presents as you get them, otherwise you will forget how much you have already bought and won't notice that the pile of toys in the back of the closet is getting increasingly bigger.
2. Things that require batteries, or have lots of those little plastic cords keeping the toy in the box should be opened prior to Christmas day and assembled in order to insure that Mom is not spending 3 hours opening those things. (yes this did happen)
3. Buy toys that come in one piece, not toys that have 109 extra pieces, even if you think your child will like it... YOU WILL REGRET IT! (see number 2)
4. Plan to be home a full day to allow your children to play with their toys, and don't expect them to want to share their toys (especially if they are 3) even days later with their cousins that are 6, so don't allow them to take on the trip!
5. Leave on road trips as early as possible to avoid all the other crazy people like yourself that are going to visit others for the Holidays, or just plan to be in the car sitting in traffic for awhile and find ways to amuse three kids. (which we did)

That's just 5 things, I'm sure I could name some more. It seems Christmas creeped up slowly, and ever since time has flewn by! I will post pictures later. We spent two days at home the went to see my sister Marilyn up in Maryland. We had a lot of fun. Eliza especially loved their cats, and the kids had fun seeing their cousins. We got home yesterday and have had a nice start to the New Year. We talked to Josh several times over the Holidays, and that was nice to hear his voice. We miss him a lot, and are now on the final stretch and counting down the days till he returns, which should be by the end of this month! YEAH! Anyway, I'm also counting the days until my 29th Birthday! (yes I'm 29, and can't believe it!) I plan to have all of my best girlfriends that live here over for movies and pizza, and of course cake, and lots of junk food, it should be fun!

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas....

I can't believe how fast this month has gone by and that tomorrow is already Christmas! Thankfully the stomach bug I got didn't hit me until last night, and that I'm feeling a lot better today than I did last night! So hopefully I'll feel even better tomorrow. On Friday we went to the mall and got Maddie's ear's pierced! She did cry, but not for long. She's been asking for this for weeks, and I finally decided it would be a good Christmas present. She looks so cute! Anyway, the kids got to open one present tonight, their jammies. Jonas has sponge bob, and Maddie and Eliza are wearing matching purple jammies that have butterflies on them. Anyway, they are all anxious for Santa Claus to get here and to open all the presents under the tree! We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Eliza's stats at one year.... or 13 months...

We went in for Eliza's one year check up, and her shots. Yes it acutally took this long to get into the doctor! She did great during and after her shots!So anyway, Eliza is now 19lb. 10oz. and I don't remember how tall she is, but it's not too tall, but she's not too short! So she's still a small fry, but she's as busy as can be! Everyone that sees her is amazed at her walking because most don't know she' already been doing the whole walking thing for a couple of months now. She also has a big personality, she knows what she wants, and if you don't give it to her, she will let you know how she feels about it!
On another note, we are counting down the final days until Christmas. I think I am getting excited just to see the kids faces on Christmas Day! They are going to have so much fun! I can't wait!

Olmstead Foundation...

Just in case anyone wants to know what the Olmstead Foundation is and how it got started, etc. I got a comment that what I wrote about Josh was confusing. The Olmstead Foundation picks candidates for this graduate program from all the branches of the military, it's not a program run by the Navy. Don't know if that was the confusing part. Anyway, you can go to
www.olmsteadfoundation.org sorry if the link doesn't work!
It really tells the history, and why the program got started. It's very interesting.

Counting down to Christmas.... and other things

Jonas and Maddie have been taking turns asking me when Christmas is, and it's so nice to tell them today, only one more week! It's hard to believe it's only a week away. I need to correct something I wrote in my previous post. Josh got picked as an alternate in the program, the 5th alternate. 10 were picked, and then there were 8 others I guess that were picked as alternates, but not sure. I know there were 18. Anyway, Josh being picked as an alternate I guess I misunderstood doesn't mean he necessarily won't be picked, it's just who the Navy chose as their top choices, and then the Olmstead board will be the one's who really select. So if they decide to interview Josh it will be sometime in mid-January somewhere in Washington D.C. so we should hopefully find out by the end of next week if he will be interviewed, and if so he might be returning home a few weeks earlier, which means I might unfortunately not be going over there to meet him as I'd hoped. We'll see what happens. I am just posting this in hopes that everyone out there will have us in your prayers! Think positive thoughts for us. It would be very exciting for us if he was accepted in the Olmstead program, it would mean our whole family living abroad for 2 years in Russia, and Josh going to graduate school there! It would really be exciting, but I'm not going to get my hopes up as he's just an alternate to be picked. Yesterday I got to play photographer for my friend Jenn and her family. They needed family pictures, so we went and took some, and I thought they turned out pretty good. (as you can see above!)Tonight the kids and I will be taking a drive to see the Christmas lights at the Botanical Garden, it should be fun!

Aviator Wings

Josh sent me a presnt for Christmas, which technically means I opened it up too early. I honestly didn't know if it was the present he mentioned or not, by the way it was packaged. I had an idea of what he was going to get me. When Josh got his Aviator Wings in 2003, he bought me some wings just like in the picture (as all good aviators do for their wives!) that I wore for 3 years. Well this past summer I took it off when we were going swimming and somehow lost it. I was very upset. To me, the wings were not only his accomplishment but they were mine as well. He joined the Navy, but so did I. The two years of flight school were tough for him, and they were tough for me. The wings meant that he was done with school and was a pilot, and finally felt like he was really part of the Navy! To me it represented a chapter of our lives that seemed never ending, and was finally over, but just beginning. It meant a lot to me that today of all days I got this package in the mail. It reminded me that our decision for Josh to join the Navy was the correct decision, and that after finding out today that he didn't get into the Olmstead program (for graduate school) that he really had wanted to get into; that things happen for a reason. He loves to fly, and I've loved being able to live in the different places we've lived. We've been blessed with all the friends that we've been able to make along the way. Today was a terrible day for me, I won't go into it because in the end it really won't matter in 30 years. To me these little wings of gold represent how far we've come in this Navy career, and how far we will go, and that we have an unknown adventure ahead of us. When Josh joined the Navy, the slogan on their commercials was, "Let the Journey Begin", truly that's exactly how it has been. A Journey, an Adventure.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

We got our Christmas tree the other night! It now officially feels like Christmas season to me! We went to Home Depot and picked up one of their trees with the Strickland Family, (Thanks Jenn and David!) and they helped me get my tree home and put it in my tree stand. The kids had fun decorating the tree, and are now enjoying moving ornaments around just about every day. (even though I tell them not too!) I finally got all the presents for famiy out and have begun wrapping. I'm hoping to get them all done tonight so I can mail them tomorrow. Ambitious I know. Is it possible to finish? Who knows! I'm babysitting for my friend tonight, and will have her kids overnight. It will be the first time I've babysatt any kids overnight, hopefully all will go well. We'll see.

Pictures from the past month....

Where does the time go? I've meant to post these pictures, but hadn't even downloaded them yet to my computer! The kids had their preschool Thanksgiving program, and I got some cute pictures of them. Then we went to a craft fair and saw Santa! It was so much fun! Then we went to a parade in downtown Norfolk for the lighting of the Christmas lights downtown. On a Josh update he woke me up yesterday, at 5:30a.m. They were in port for a few hours, so he gave me a call. It was good to talk to him. It will be a few weeks before we talk on the phone again. It took me several minutes to wake up and become coherant to have a conversation! But he's doing well, and glad to be on the Arctic again, although unfortunately doesn't have a phone in his room like he did before!

In recovery... kind of...

I know I haven't written in a week, so here's what has been going on in our little corner of the world. Last week, Wednesday the kids got out of preschool, it rained so much that it flooded and you literally couldn't go anywhere since the streets were so flooded, and I did try to take them, and then when we got there they had decided to cancel school. So we went home and got some dry clothes on as we were soaked! Thanksgiving day we slept in. Eliza was up a lot and had a runny nose and cough. No fever, but was very congested, Maddie had a cough no fever, but seemed fine. By the end of the day Maddie was running a fever and actually fell asleep with her head next to her Thanksgiving dinner. We were at a friends for Thanksgiving, so we layed her down in a spare room and she went to sleep. So since last week we've been dealing with a lot of runny, snotty noses, coughs, and all that comes with it. It has finally come to me. (which after being coughed on a gazillion times I'm not surprised!) Thankfully (and I mean it!) my head is just stuffy and I'm a little runny in the nose. Nothing major. So for a second time this week, both Maddie and Eliza are taking naps. Thankfully the girls are over their fevers which were only one day. But I'm ready for them to be snot free! =) You may wonder, what about Jonas, well he's been fine the entire time. (knock on wood!)My dad asked me if I put anything on my blog about Josh... and I guess I haven't for awhile. We did talk twice the day before Thanksgiving. They should be going to the ship they were supposed to be on before it broke, The Arctic. Josh says he's been reading a lot, and flying not so much. Hopefully he'll stay busy so he doesn't get too bored! I do get an e-mail every day, and have gotten some letters. I know I'm so spoiled! I love it! Here's a picture of Josh with his mustache... I don't like it... and he knows he'll have to shave it off before returning home!

Raking Leaves

There must be something in the air that makes kids want to get out and rake the leaves. I was reading my sister-in-law's blog and she said her son Jeffrey wanted to rake the leaves, and got his Dad out there to help him. Since I'm the sole parent in charge, that left leaf raking up to me. So we did, and after awhile I realized even though we have a tiny yard, we have a ton of leaves! So I took up an offer for help with yard work from our friend Ethan. (who also mowed the yard when I was prego with Eliza when Josh was gone, so give him a call if you need your lawn mowed!lol, just kidding!) We got the leaves raked, and it looked great for about a day, and now it looks exactly the same as it did. And we had literally 12 bags full of leaves! Jonas had a good time though as you can see from the picture. Maddie isn't big into yard work, she mostly supervised from the side (aka played in the leaves we raked, and just played around). Eliza well, she just thought it was great fun to go up and down the front and back stairs on the house, which I enjoyed (said with sarcasm) getting her down! I have more pictures to post, we went to a craft bazaar on Saturday and the kids saw Santa! Jonas has informed me he only wants Age of Empires 3 (which Santa is Definately bringing him!), but nothing else... so I guess that means I can return everything else I got him. lol! Maddie said she wanted Little Mermaid stuff. It's funny when we're at home, every commercial is "I want that" but when they see Santa they get shy, it's so funny! Saturday night we went to the annual parade in downtown Norfolk, where they turn on all the lights that decorate the buildings for the Holidays (it's kind of cool), and they have Santa at the very end of the parade. It was fun, and a very busy day! I will post those pictures later!

The Party and Cake

Because Josh is gone, I got the idea from my friend Marie (thanks Marie) who when her husband was gone when her youngest, Ivan turned One, she had a little party with friends to help her celebrate. So, that's exactly what I decided to do. I had several friends come over with their kids. We had a fun time. They brought presents, which was nice, but I really didn't expect it, so Eliza got a lot of fun stuff. It was a fun time, and good for me to not think about how Josh was gone, although I did think about him a lot. I had Eliza's pictures taken at the picture people yesterday, she is just too cute! Let me know if you want to see them and I will e-mail you the link to check it out! I e-mailed it to almost everyone I thought would want to see, but I could've left someone out unintentionally! My friend Jenn made Eliza a sweet little Bear cake, and then cupcakes for everyone else! (Thanks Jenn) It was so great to have that part of the party taken care of as I ended up being really busy yesterday! Eliza is our winner of the messiest 1st birthday cake eater. As you can see from the pictures! You'll see her before and after!

Happy Birthday Eliza!

Eliza is officially a year old today. At 6:14a.m. one year ago today Eliza (finally, and I really do mean finally!) made her presence into the world. Eliza has grown and changed so much in this year of her life. I can't wait to see her growth in the next few years. She is going to have a little birthday party tonight with friends, so I will post the cake pictures either tonight after the party or tomorrow! Happy Birthday Eliza! Here are some random pictures of Eliza.

The sweetest thing...

She's so sweet isn't she? Underneath it all, she has me wrapped around her cute, tiny little finger! She is getting to be more and more independent every day. Today we went and saw Flushed Away, and no matter how many different tactics I tried to get her to just walk around our little area, it didn't work! She just wanted to walk all over the entire theater! She's such a little busy body!

The deployment meal plan....

For those of you that have never had a spouse deploy, there are definately changes in your lifestyle that you don't realize until you go through an actualy deployment, and something people just don't really come out and tell you. One of the things that changes when the othe spouse deploys is the quality of meals. The days of nice dinners in the evenings, are but a fleeting thought. Breakfasts and Lunches are about the same, because usually Josh wasn't home anyway for those. Dinners are the big change. Sure every once in awhile when Josh was home we'd have homemade pizza (homemade as in: using the pillsbury crust, a bottle of ragu pizza sauce, and mozzerella cheese), or hot dogs with mac and cheese, or chicken nuggets with mac and cheese, or fish sticks with mac and cheese (notice a trend), or ramen noodles. But mostly dinner with Josh was pork chops, meatloaf, spaghetti, casseroles, baked chicken, fried chicken. Well I am going to confess once and for all that I do not intend to cook anything of that sort until Josh returns. Not because I don't miss it, I really do. I tried to cook a chicken casserole last week because the thought of eating macaroni and cheese more times than I can count already didn't appeal to me. Did my kids eat it, the answer to that is No. They both professed to not like chicken (which they do), or rice, cheese, or broccoli. (which was all in it!) So I ate it, and realized I am not wasting my time or energy on a meal that only I will eat, and end up preparing two meals.
I have stocked up on mac and cheese. Thankfully they had it for 50cents a box, and I've stocked up. I'm sure the check out lady thought I must really like mac and cheese, or maybe she just knew my husband was deployed and I have three kids. =)
Another change, remembering to put out the garbage on trash day. Josh teased me before he left, by "showing me" how to take out the trash. Not only do I have to take out the trash, but I have to remember to put it out on the side of the street, and have to remember if it's the right week for recycling that picks up every other week. (usually I check and see what the neighbors are doing, and then wonder if they check to see what I'm doing? Hmmm.) Last time Josh was gone I left the trash can out on the curb too long, and got a $50 fine, but got it taken back because they forgot to pick up my garbage so that's why it was out. I hate putting the trash out.
Yard work. I don't like it. It used to be fun to rake leaves, but I decided its not fun anymore, and trying to get a 4 and 3 year old to help along with a 11 1/2 month old who insists on climbing up the concrete front stairs to the porch is not fun. We did manage to get some done yesterday and today, but I decided, I need help, even though we will have more leaves that will be on the ground soon, we need to get these leaves cleaned up! So we'll be getting help from friends. Its sad when the 6 year old neighbor kid is helping, and it is a huge relief to get the help!
Well I think I've babbled enough... another thing is adult conversation is missed. I do get it, but obviously I need some more or I wouldn't babble so much on my blog.

Friends...

I forgot to post this picture before. It's of Jonas and his buddy Connor. I thought it was fitting that Connor was Woody and Jonas was Buzz. They are best buddies. When I see this picture it makes me want to sing the song from Toy Story, "You've got a friend in me."
It's too cute.
We've made it through our first week without Josh. It was a busy week. Hopefully this week will go as well as last week. Josh has e-mailed and is doing well. Sounds like he's had a lot of time to read, and write me of course! =) If any of you family members would like his address, or his e-mail address just let me know.

Trick or Treat and Field trips!

It was a beautiful night last night! It was so warm compared to last week! It got up to 75 degrees and I know it had to only have been 65 because it was still warm! It was awesome! The kids and I went trick or treating with Marie and her kids. I didn't take any pictures last night because I took some the other night when we went to the trunk or treat. Maddie was Snow White, Eliza was a bumble bee, and Jonas was Buzz Light Year. We had fun going around the neighborhood. Because our church Halloween Party didn't fall on Halloween this year, it was our first time actually going around the neighborhood. I have to say I was mighty impressed with the neighborhood, there were lots of people out, and it was fun to see the different decorations on the porches!
Today was Jonas' first field trip to the Fire station, and when the put the big 100 foot ladder up in the air Jonas said, "Mom the ladder touched the sky!" It was too cute! Too bad it didn't last, he apparently had a bad day at school after that. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow. I also heard from Josh via phone Monday night and then e-mail this morning. They made it to the ship, and were only two hours late in arriving, hopefully he got some sleep. He said he only slept 11 hours since he left us on Sunday! UGH! Hopefully my pictures will work here, if not I'll post later!