Monday, May 31, 2010

Letters to my Hero


Dear Rob,
I love you and am so glad you are healthy this Memorial Day and are safe. I missed having you with us today. I took the kids to our local Memorial Day event. It was small maybe 50 people mostly older people. It was so neat though watching all the men stand up for when they served. There was a man in front of us who served in Dessert storm. When he saluted it brought chills down my spine. I guess you never forget how to salute.
I came home and cleaned out the girl’s closet and put away most of their winter clothes so we had more room and could stay organized.
The kids played outside in the rain this evening but only for about 20 minutes before it started lightening. We got a whole day of school done today. Michael only has about 7 days left of school. I am looking forward to a break.
I think I will be going to Fuquay in the next couple of days because Roberta said I could borrow her steam cleaner. Okay the rest of this letter is going to be in pictures. I love you babe and cannot wait to talk to you.
Love ya babe,
Pamela PETRIE
okay the first two pictures are 2 of about 30 that I took of the kittens today. I am trying to take pictures to make posters and this is how they came out. Do you think they will help?
This is the girls at the Memorial Day event. I think I want to make them red white and blue outfits.
Hope demanded that I take a picture of her playing baseball to send you. She cried all day until I got the picture.

the last picture was tonight when they were playing in the rain, everyone came running in and left her. Michael went back outside and helped her inside.

Cookies and Cream torte- candied grapes



I got the recipe for candied grapes from my friend Kristie. They are super simple.
1 box grape jello
Grapes
pour jello (powder) in a ziploc, pour grapes in bag, shake. Now the fun part. Put them in the freezer for a couple of hours or days. These are yummy sweet and sour snack. The kids love them. They are a great snack on a hot day.


Cookies n Cream Torte
1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
½ cup vegetable oil
3 cups eggs
6 Oreos ( I used generic of course) crushed
12oz cool whip thawed
1. Heat oven to 350. Grease two round pans
2. Beat all ingredients together
3. Bake 27-33 minutes, let cool
4. Fold cookies into cool whip
5. Layer cake, cool whip, cake cool whip and then sprinkle the top with crumbled Oreos
Blessed with Grace


BWS tips  button

i'm already there(message from home) Tribute Video

listen to the words, Listen to what the families are saying, listen to what the children say. If you are not military then you can not understand how scarry it is when your little girl says "mommy, when I close my eyes I can not see my daddy's eyes anymore". It kills you, your heart break and all you can do is tell them that daddy loves them and he will be home soon. And then you pray that what you are saying is true.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Mamarazzi Monday

I am a little addicted to taking pictures of my kids while they are eating. We went to the zoo on Friday and I told the kids we were NOT eating there but I could not help it, I had to buy them ice cream. They were being so good and even I was tired. It was just enough to get through the rest of the day.

Mamarazzi Monday

Camera strap cover give away WINNER

The winner of the camera strap give away is......
Stacey, please stop by her blog and tell her Congradulations. Her blog is Just Keepin Up
If you did not win but are still interested come back because I think I will give another one away soon.

Not me Monday

It is not me who may be doing some repeats this week because I have not been good about keeping my notes cleaned out. Not me, I am always organized and on top of things.
It is not me who had to call poison control because her daughter ate half a bottle of gummy vitamins. Not me, because I always keep all meds put away.
It was not me who received liver instead of fried chicken from KFC on mother’s Day. Because KFC had to have known what kind of day I was having and that I NEEDED my fried chicken.
It was not me who called ADT this week after hearing a crazy beeping all day from my alarm to be told it was not my alarm. I would never mistake the sound of my dishwasher for the sound of the alarm.
It was not me who almost woke up her children to go out looking for the dog after looking in the backyard and checking in the house. I would never have to do this because this dog has slept under Hope’s bed for 3 months and I know there to look first.
It was not me who threw away bananas this week instead of using them in banana bread (SHOOT) I just remembered I could have froze them. I try hard not to waste food.
My children do not roam the streets or even play outside in our front yard so it was not me who let me kids play outside in the rain. And even if I had let them play outside in the middle of a storm I surely would not let them do so in their pajamas. And if they had done this neighbors would not have drove by and stared and even stopped and stared. I did not refuse to play in the rain with my children because I wanted to take pictures, not me.
Have a great week and please be sure to check out other not me Mondays. They are so much fun and WOW the guilt is gone.


Please check out other Not me Monday post on MckMama's blog.
Mckmama- Not Me Monday

Letters to my Hero



Dear Rob,
I know you miss us but today I am sure you will be glad you are not here. We came home from church to a horrible smell. Apparently the cat got sick while we were gone. On the rug in the kitchen, on the living room carpet, and on the rugs in our bathroom. YUCKO and you know how I am with YUCK.
I honestly did not want to go to church this morning because I knew with it being Memorial Day there would be talk about soldiers being away. But guess what they never said anything about it being Memorial Day weekend. Honest it kinda annoyed me but I am not totally for sure why.
We came home and relaxed most of the day. This evening the kids went outside and played baseball. I love when they play together. Grace came in the house and cried and said that I have been forgetting to feed her the second lunch of the day and she is hungry. I promise I am feeding her.
I love you babe and hope you come on line tomorrow so I can tell you. I guess I am going to go to bed early tonight so we can get things done tomorrow.
I love you babe,
Pamela PETRIE

Daddy, Where You Going?

Sunday- getting to know you


It's Sunday!


Let's make it a FUN DAY..So if you're not busy and want to play along to a super rad blog carnival..you won't be sorry..It's the bee's knees! (just my humble opinion);-)


To play..copy the questions..post them..than come back here and link up!




1. Have you ever snooped around someone else's house? No, Never really thought about it. Trying to think whose house I would want to snoop through

2. Can guys and girls be friends? ( thanks Jen!) nope, I mean I would say my friends husband is my friend too but do I think married men and women should hang out alone with other men or women then the answer is NO

3. Can you curl your tongue? yes, I think that is what I am doing

4. Have you ever stolen anything? not that I know of. I have returned things my kids stuck in my purse or things that got left in the cart and the store always looks at me like I am nuts for returning it

5. Would you rather talk on the phone or text? talk on the phone, I love it. I clean when I am on the phone

6. Memorial Day plans? think about my husband, miss my husband. think about how we spent last memorial day

7. What do you do to relax? blog, talk on the phone, call a friend

8. Do you do anything to honor those that have died fighting for our freedom? I do talk to my children about this day and why it is so important.

Today is the last day to enter my camera strap give away right here.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Letters to my Hero


Dear Rob,
We have had a great day. We did not do school. I made and iced the sheet cake for church tomorrow and hopefully will remember to take it tomorrow. I wish I had thought to decorate it red white and blue.
I made four loaves of bread that turned out great. We had burgers for lunch. I made cookies for you and have a box ready to go out to you.
We had another rain storm today and guess what the kids went out and played. Hope was in one of my t-shirts and Michael was in his pajamas but I did not care. Faith came straight from the shower to play outside. They had a great time. I took a million pictures. I will admit that neighbors would stop and stare when they drove by. I am sure most of our neighbors do not even know we have kids. Grace walked out into the rain and came right back to the porch and said she did not want water in her eyes. But Michael talked her into it. I bet they were out there 30 minutes.
Thank you for calling this morning. I felt kind of sneaky hiding out in my room talking to you but it was nice talking alone.
I love you babe and hope when I wake up you are on line.
I love you babe,
Pamela PETRIE

How to connect to with your spouse?

How do I stay close to my hero when he is deployed? I have talked to several other wives in the last few weeks about deployment and how hard it is to keep the love alive. I have a friend who talks to her husband twice a day and loves it and talks about everything.
I have to be honest and say there have been lots of times when my hero is on line and I wonder what the point is because I have nothing to say. He cannot really talk about his job even though it is not high security. I love him deeply but for some reason I am not good at starting conversations with him.
This week I got particular snippy with him about not talking to me. You would think that since we have been through this SIX other times we would know how to do this. Maybe it is because we just moved and I am not as involved in things yet so my life is boring.
So how do you keep close to your husband when he is away? I have some suggestions. First be honest and I am not always honest. As army wives we are trained to not complain to our husbands. We are trained to not put any more stress on them. The reality is that by keeping secrets from them it is causing them more stress. Do not get me wrong I do not think every phone call should be about how horrible your life is. But there is nothing wrong with keeping him updated. You want him to come home and not know what is going on at home.
I remember our first few deployments and how he would come home and nothing would be the same, I would re arrange furniture, re arrange where things like toilet paper is kept. Please know my hero found it comical because he knows I do this all the time. But, when I moved his clothes out of our bedroom closet to give myself more space that was not so smart.
Ok, so back to the point of this post. How do you keep close to your husband? First and most importantly pray for your husband. Not just for his safety in a war zone. But for his emotional and spiritual self. Pray that he will see God in the war (or deployment or field problem). Pray for the people around him that he would be able to lift them up and that they would be able to lift them up. Honest I pray that my husband is not exposed to things like porn or other women. Ladies, our men are as lonely as we are but we have friends and church and facebook (snicker, snicker). They have lonely nights in lonely rooms with nothing but the internet.
Second, make time for him. Man this is the hardest thing ever. Do I set by my phone and computer 24 hours a day or do I risk that precious phone call. If I miss a call, or miss him when he is on line I feel horrible guilt. So I had to talk to Rob about this. His first response was “honey, you have to live your life”. But that did not help. What I had to realize is that I have to give myself some slack and realize that I may not be there.
Third, there are a couple of ways I stay connected. I write him nightly on my blog. His first 6 deployments I would literally write 6 or 8 page letters a day. Four kids later it just does not happen. I post the letters to him on my blog because I really do want others to understand what life is really like when your spouse is deployed. I have to admit I am not always totally honest. Like when Hope dropped a soda on my foot and it hurt a million times more than I admitted. Writing on my blog also lets me send him pictures daily. Why do I write about the silly things like how we had chicken for dinner? Because he cares, as silly as it sounds he likes knowing that I cooked dinner.
Another thing I do is send him cards. Three deployments ago I sent a ton of homemade cards but now I go to Dollar General, Dollar tree, Walgreens, Family Dollar and pick up cards every week. They have a ton of 50 cent or dollar cards. I have sent him 20 Father’s Day cards, one for each day of June. Soon I will be sending him 21 anniversary cards, one for each day of July. I am sure you are thinking that is a lot of time and money. NOPE, remember where I bought them. And I keep them in a large Ziploc with tape and stamps. Then when I am setting at the DR’s office I can address them. Because, I am not tech savvy to make address labels. I will get all 20 ready to go at one time. Then set them by my front door and remind the kids to take them down daily. I wrote Happy Father’s Day on the front so he would know the difference. I do the same thing with everyday cards. I like to put scripture in them. So if you know any good ones let me know. You know the cards are neat because they say something cute. Which always gives me ideas of something to write about?
My marriage is good but it is a lot of work. We have had our ups and our downs. I am determined to not let this deployment or any other hurt my marriage.
Now to packages, what do you send your spouse? Everyone says homemade goodies. Mine prefers that I not send him homemade goodies. So I send him 100 calorie snacks. I send him beef jerky, his favorite toothpaste. He loves scented candles but cannot have them so I send him smelling things. I also send him clean pillowcases with a fabric sheets. There is nothing better than putting your head on a pillow that smells like home.
So how do you stay close to your spouse when he is away? I would love to hear your suggestions and ideas.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Letters to my Hero


Oh Rob, it is the best. I am setting on the porch right now and it is quiet and the wind is blowing and the sun is down. I came out to talk on the phone 20 minutes ago and as I was talking the son went down and the wind started blowing. We are suppose to have storms tonight. I hope they start soon because this is wonderful. The kids are playing with the kittens. I do not even care that it is after bedtime because I am enjoying it so much. I swear I can hear the rain but it is not hear. I keep looking for it.
Speaking of bedtime I have to make you laugh. So you know I was up the other night talking to the alarm company and trying to figure out what the beeping was. Well last night I went to let the dog in and he was gone. I searched the house, went back in the backyard with a flashlight (note to self, the flashlight app is not very bright). Checked the girls room for the thumping sound of his tale and nothing. Even came out front thinking maybe he got out of the fence and nothing. I was getting really nervous and about to start driving around the neighborhood but did not want to wake the kids. So I looked under the girl’s bed and guess who I found. I stayed up last night watching some cop show and the night before watching dirty dancing. I have got to go to bed early tonight.
We had a great day. The zoo was wonderful. I was concerned my foot would hurt but it never did. The other one did for some crazy reason but the one hurt feels great. Most of the animals were laying around and not too active but the kids did not mind. Grace walked most of the day. We did not eat there but I did splurge and get ice cream. We parked in almost the same spot as last time. The new lens was wonderful.
OOH, I wish you could feel this wind. It is wonderful. I just told Michael to open all the windows up again. I am missing you now and wishing you were here to hear this thunder and lightning. I wish we had that swing on the front porch right now.
Can you believe a year ago today you got your first tube put into your leg. What a wild weekend last Memorial Day was. This year we are staying home and relaxing. The kids think they are doing school tomorrow but we will see how the day goes.
We did not order pizza tonight because we were all tired and I picked up dollar burgers on the way home but man am I wishing we would have right now.
Okay, I guess I should probably shut down my laptop since it is not even on a surge protector. I love you so much and cannot wait to talk to you tomorrow.
Love you babe,
Pamela PETRIE

Thursday, May 27, 2010

5 Question Friday

Questions for Friday, May 28th: (Special thanks to Lorilynne, Erin, Sandy, Kyrsten, and Renee for their question suggestions! If YOU wanna be linked in a future 5QF, c'mon over here, to my community and offer up your best question suggestions!)


1. Is there something you've always wanted to try but just can't muster up the courage to actually do yet? I want to know how to swim, really swim. I want to know how to dance.


2. If you had $100 handed to you in cash without your significant other knowing about it, what would you spend it on? ooh, I have wanted to buy Zumba DVD's for months now but do not want to spend the money


3. What was your favorite piece of playground equipment as a child? Swings, I still love them


4. Do you prefer a sweet or hearty breakfast? Recently I am loving a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit but I also love to stop at a gas station and pick up a HUGE mountain dew and large honey bun or donut


5. Are you a Neat Freak or a Messy Bessy? somewhere in between. I love things organized and it drives me batty having things lay around. But I never mop and rarely dust or deep clean

Mama M has worked hard at making sure she get's fun questions out there every week. Please click over to her blog and tell her thanks.

It is still not to late to enter my camera strap give away right here.

Friday Follow

friday-follow

The Girl Creative
The Trendy Treehouse



It is still not too late to enter my Camera strap give away here.
 
Content Troppetrie | Design Poppiness Designs