Christmas

All I wanted for Christmas was my husband. Santa didn't bring him. But, my parents were here for a week. Christmas went way too fast this year. That's good in a way, but it is my absolute favorite time of year. I love everything about Christmas. I had to go pick up some stuff from my friend's garage Christmas Eve. As I drove over there I was crying. It was really hard not to have TJ around for Christmas. We were apart our very first Christmas as newlyweds in 1997, because of a deployment. This is only our 2nd Christmas we have spent apart - and it was the kids' first away from Daddy. We enjoyed the week with my parents a lot. I put both of them to work. It seems like there is still so much to do in the house! Here is a picture of Christmas Eve after the kids opened their pajamas from Daddy and Mommy:

Before the kids woke up:

Tyler ate a lot of chocolate that morning:

Brena putting on a little too much make up:

The true meaning of Christmas

I get to talk to TJ a lot, it's wonderful. If you would have told me 12 years ago (when TJ was on his first deployment in 1997) that I would be talking to/seeing my husband on a computer on his deployment 12 years from then (in El Salvador for heaven's sake!!) - I would have thought you were nuts! But, we do. We use Skype and our webcams, and we talk A LOT. In fact, I don't get much else done around here because we talk so much.

Yesterday during one of our many conversations I asked him what he had been doing. He casually mentioned he had gone to an orphanage. This is so totally my husband - he never, ever will brag about himself or bring any kind of attention to anything good he has done. He is a very humble, modest guy. I asked him what he did at the orphanage. He said some of his squadron had gone there and delivered Christmas presents to the orphans. This touched my heart in a big way. Here are some pictures (that I had to cajole him to get from another guy who took them):

The Orphanage. Tin roof, no a/c in very hot weather. It is hard to imagine people live like this! TJ said a tin roof is a good house, some people just live in the bushes.

He said there were "lots of cuties there." He was right:

My husband doing something he does well: playing sports!

The part that broke my heart was that they didn't have enough presents for all the kids. I guess there were kids visiting from other orphanages. So, there were more kids there than they thought there would be. TJ said they will be going back when they celebrate Three Kings Day in January, to deliver more presents.

Basketball

Tyler loves to shoot hoops. He has been begging for a basketball hoop for about 3 months now. We just weren't able to find the time to go get one when TJ was here because of all the other stuff that had to get done. Then, I couldn't get one by myself, because I didn't know how I would load/unload it, etc. My parents are here visiting for Christmas, so I knew it was the time to get Tyler his hoop. I have such fond memories of shooting hoops out in my front yard when I was younger. I hope Tyler will have good memories too. I know when TJ comes home, they will have a blast with it. I have been out there playing with him and I have forgotten how fun it is to just shoot around.

Goodwill

Not the Christmas type of Goodwill, but the store! There is a Goodwill right by Brena's preschool. Sometimes when I've got a few minutes to spare I pop in there to check things out. Well, I TOTALLY scored the other day. Check this out:

1 practically new princess scooter and 2 pairs of BRAND NEW shoes! The white pair even lights up :) $1.99 for each thing! I couldn't believe my good luck - and that they were Brena's size too!

I know I keep promising pictures of the new house, sorry about that. I do hope to get to that soon. But, hey - here's a picture of the floor for ya'll! I hope to get better about blogging!

Halloween - finally!

Yes, I realize it is December 2, and I am just now posting Halloween pictures. That's just how I roll now. Here is a little synopsis of how our Halloween went. Brenalee begged to be a witch for Halloween. I kept trying to convince her to just wear one of her many princess dresses. I am all about making things as simple as possible nowadays. Tyler, a boy after my own heart says "I'll just wear my karate uniform Mom." Sweet. So, I find a witch costume for $5 and make Brena super happy that she can be a witch. Mind you, it wasn't all fun and games trying to find a witch costume that was cute, and for the amount of $ I was willing to spend. But, being the bargain shopper I am, I found it. So, we get to our friends' house to go trick-or-treating. Guess what the 3 other little girls are wearing?? Yep, you guessed it, their princess dresses. So, here's Brena's face when she sees them in their princess costumes:

She is throwing a complete fit because she can't be a princess. I, of course, am exacerbated by her and tell her she is a witch, not a princess (meaning costumes of course!). Of course the other Moms feel bad for her and tell her she can wear one of the girls other princess dresses. I am not one to give into my kids. I don't want spoiled brats on my hands. But, she did get her way. But only after I made her smile and be happy for a couple of pictures in her witch costume:

Now, she's finally happy in the princess dress - and I'm out $5. Girls!

How do you say good bye?

It took me awhile before I felt like I was strong enough to post this. This picture was taken just hours before TJ left on October 21. The last time we knew we would see him. This deployment has been different for me for a number of reasons. The main one is we now have kids, whereas before - we didn't. This deployment is also different because I didn't know until very recently when TJ was actually leaving or where he was even going. When he deployed on a ship, we always knew when it would be and pretty much where he would be going. This time I dropped him off at the airport instead of the ship. And, let's not forget that he hasn't even lived with us since June 4. The rest of it is pretty much the same story.

The scene at the airport wasn't pretty. I could not let go of him. I was not just crying, I was bawling. I kept wanting just one more hug, one more kiss. Finally he had to walk away or risk missing his flight. I could not drive away from the airport for about 5 minutes. I had to get myself under control to drive, plus I couldn't even see to drive anyway.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when he calls and tells me to come to Maine for the weekend. I wanted to go, I really, really wanted to go. But, I can't describe the emotional toll these good byes take on me. Because I cannot stop my crying, it eventually leads up to me having a very massive headache and will sometimes turn into a migraine. I just kept thinking, I cannot go through another goodbye. But, I did it and I am so glad I did. I managed to have a wonderful weekend and just enjoy the 3 days I had with him, and not cry until we got to the airport.

Before when people would thank us for his/our military service I would kind of feel bad because we weren't away from each other, TJ wasn't deployed and hadn't been deployed in a very long time. But, now when people thank me, I actually feel like we are doing something to deserve their thanks. And, I appreciate people's kindness and thoughtfulness in thanking us as well. Just yesterday some guy thanked me for what we do, then he turned to Brena and said "and thank you for letting your Daddy be in the NAVY." I am very, very proud to be this guy's Navy Wife. And very proud of him and all he is doing for our Country.

hmmm, where to even start???

Good grief, I feel so behind I don't even know where to start. Especially because so much has happened in the last couple of months! First off, I want to post pics of the house, but I am going to do that next week. I am getting some plantation shutters put in next Monday and I don't want to take pictures of the house with the lovely paper blinds that are in the windows now!

Well, in the beginning of October TJ's mom came to take care of the kids for me while I flew up to Maine. I got to Maine late on October 6, we checked into a hotel, then left the next morning. We drove to Boston on the 7th, checked into another hotel, then headed off to the Boston LDS Temple. It was so beautiful! It was built in 2000. It was gorgeous. After our session there we ate and headed back to our room. The next day we drove to Maryland and checked into our hotel there. Then, we headed out to the Washington D.C. Temple. Another gorgeous Temple - but what one isn't? How blessed we are to have Temples in these latter days!

Washington D.C. Temple

Us outside of the Boston Temple - we forgot it would be dark when we got out of our session! We should have taken a picture before.

Boston Temple

Boston

Then on the 9th, we drove back to Florida. It was about 1,300 miles of driving. We went though 13 states in 3 days! Of course it helps that all those little New England States are so small! But, it was 3 days of alone time with my awesome Husband. 3 days wasn't enough... But, I have to share him with the kids too :) So we got home and the kids were so excited to have Daddy home again. We only had about 1 1/2 weeks until TJ left again, for good this time. I would like to say we just relaxed and had fun together. But, with all the things that had to get done around the house, we were pretty busy and stressed. It's not easy preparing for a deployment as it is, but then when you add in moving into a new house on top of it - it's a little overwhelming! The time, of course, went WAY too fast.

Jumping on the bandwagon

I have been wanting to do this for a while now and am just now getting around to it. My blog will be going private. So, if you want an invite, send me an email or leave me a comment letting me know. I'm off to visit my hubby - yea! I'm so excited to see him one more time I feel like a newlywed or something :)

AHHH!!!

I have not had internet access since September 23!!! I am GOING INSANE!!!!!!!!!! AT&T keeps telling me it's going to be this week...I've heard that for a long time now. Who knows when we'll be up. Other than that, things are going pretty well. We miss TJ, but I am actually getting to go see him one more time. Next weekend I am farming out the kids to some wonderful friends and flying to Maine for the weekend. TJ will be deploying to El Salvador in just a few short weeks. So, when he begged me to come see him in Maine one more time, I couldn't resist! The house is wonderful, I wish I could post some pictures! Hopefully soon. Well, my library time is ending. Hopefully soon I will be on my own computer again!

Maine, Moving and More

We are all settled in the new house, and it's AWESOME. I LOVE it. Did I mention I LOVE IT!! There are still some boxes that need unpacking and other minor things, but we are loving it. The only bad thing is that we have been without phone and internet for 2 weeks - UGH! It's awful. We are supposed to have internet by Friday. TJ's mom flew into Jacksonville on Monday. I flew up here to Maine yesterday. It's so beautiful up here. Nice cool weather (55 degrees or so) and beautiful trees everywhere. Nothing like Florida. And, I am enjoying being with TJ, just him and I. We will be driving to Boston tonight and visiting the Boston LDS Temple. Then Washington D.C. the next night where we will visit that Temple as well. I am so excited to have 4 days of my husband all to myself. TJ just found out he will most likely be deploying to El Salvador for his upcoming deployment in November. That's what we were hoping for. Hopefully nothing will change on that.

Here we go again...

We close TOMORROW!!!!!! I probably won't be able to sleep tonight - it's just so exciting thinking about how much debt we're getting ready to take on...
Anyways...the house pretty much got packed up today, tomorrow the packers will come finish the Kitchen, master bedroom and garage and that will be it. Then, Thursday the movers will come and move it all to the new house.
This is our 3rd move in 3 years...I don't recommend it, and I'm not even the one who has ever packed a single box or moved it on my own. It's just all such a hassle. Hopefully we won't be without internet for too long.

1 more week

We close next Wednesday, Sept. 23!! The movers will begin moving our stuff into the new house one week from today! I can't begin to tell you how excited we all are around here! We have our final walk through on Monday. As I was walking through today I can still tell there is some minor work that needs to be finished, mainly the final cleaning - there is dust everywhere! And, they haven't put the stove in yet. But, it's all done except for the minor details, finally!! So this was taken April 21, 2009...

After a long hiatus due to the County losing our building permit...July 20, 2009...


Today (wish the garage door had been down) September 17, 2009. Crazy what they accomplished in just 2 short (long for us!) months.

Front door - living room to right and there's a powder bath and closets in that little hallway you see on the right. On the left you can barely see a door knob - that's the storage under the stairs.

Kitchen, dining area, and family room.

Laundry room - upstairs with all the bedrooms.

My sewing/craft room :)

Brena's room and closet.

Entry to Master Suite! The walk in closet is the door open straight in front.

If you turn right, this is the hall to the bedroom

In the bedroom.

If you turn left, this is the sink area...to the right more is a separate shower/toilet area.

Neapolitan finished

This is what I did all day yesterday with kids at school. Neapolitan is finished. I LOVE this quilt! Do I say that about all of them? My good friend is have a baby girl and this is for baby Paisley.

Maybe someday I will branch out on my quilting, but for now I am very happy stippling everything. Thanks to Amanda Jean over at www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com I was able to figure out an easy way to make labels. She is also the one who taught me how to stipple (via her directions on her website).

Brena the quilt holder :-)

Brena's first day of school

It seems like just yesterday she was like this...

Now she's in school??!!

Brena started pre-K today. She goes MWF 9am-2:30pm - that was a really long time for me to be away from her! But, she had no problem being away from me. She kept telling me I could sit by the bus (no idea where the bus idea came from, she doesn't ride it) and wait for her, or my personal favorite "you can sit home and cry Mommy." I wasn't alone for long though. I went in and worked in Tyler's classroom for a little bit. And, I got to run around and coupon by myself - no dragging any kids around with me - that was really nice!

I'm on a roll!

The kids were next door playing with the neighbors, and since I don't have a hubby to snuggle up with on a rainy Saturday and watch football, I decided to start another quilt. I made some progress! I kept looking at this material before I cut it up and sewed it together trying to decide on a good name for this quilt. I was originally thinking chocolate dipped strawberries, or something like that. Then, after I sewed the strips together, it came to me - it's Neapolitan!

Another quilt finish - finally!

This is for a friend's baby. I have known he was coming since she told me in January. Yes, I just
now finished it, I am really slow. He is now 6 weeks old.
This is a yellow brick road pattern. It did come together very easy. I stippled it as usual.

Glenwood Caverns - LOTS of pictures

On the way to Denver to get to the airport we stopped in at Glenwood Springs, CO. They have a fun park there called Glenwood Caverns. We had never been, and I'd heard really good things about it. I am so glad we stopped in - it was a BLAST!

There is a cave tour, which was really neat.

There was a swing - wow! This isn't us on the swing. This swing pulled you up to the right and then blasted you off the edge of the mountain!! It was awesome. Below the swing, which you can't see is I-70 and the beautiful Colorado River. You could see lots of rafts river rafting down the river and they looked like little ants - that swing is about 1,700 or so feet up above the river and interstate.

The Colorado River, Glenwood Springs and I-70.

They had a rock climbing wall and Grandma and the kids did that together.

Look at those mountains!! I miss the mountains terribly.

Tyler getting up to the top.

Brena was actually a better climber than Tyler.

Can't get enough of the view...

This is at the swing platform - that railing behind us drops down and the swing goes right off the edge. Brena wasn't tall enough for the swing, so she didn't get to go and she screamed like you would not believe because she couldn't get on it.

The bungee jump - they were flipping all over the place on this thing.

Grandma doing flips!

Tyler flipping.

The alpine slide!! I had never done one of these before - and it was so much fun! This is actually the part coming up - you don't go down right here.

Coming up after we had gone down.