I survived...

I survived my first outing with six children. I mean I have been to the store a hundred times and to the park and even to a friend’s house but never to a official event. So this is how the evening went. Please feel free to laugh at me. My husband is in the field so he was not available to help.
I left way to early like usual. I arrived at the church for boy scouts. Not just any Boy scouts but a court of honor. A court of honor where my son had a speaking part, a speaking part he was very nervous about. We set in the parked car for 20 minutes because as usual we are way too early. Finally Michael went in and a few minutes later he came back and said no one was there. So we went ahead and got everyone loaded into the van. Please understand this is 6 children (okay 5 children and a teen) and we parked on the street. I get everything together and realize I FORGOT THE DIAPER BAG. So I search the van and find a diaper (that is his size). Walk everyone in and the only casualty was one skinned knee. Which by the way I just remembered I never gave a band aid or cleaned it?
We walked in and the place was a ZOO, they were taking registration for all kinds of sports. I saw no one I knew so we called and asked if we should be in another part of the church. That is when it happened. THEY WERE NOT MEETING AT THE NORMAL LOCATION! My first thought was I am going to kill my son and husband for not being prepared. So we go back to the van and load everyone and head to the new place. This would not be an issue for someone who is from here but giving me directions is like talking to a brick wall. I found it and luckily they were close.
We arrived and guess what? THEY WERE MEETING OUTSIDE AND ONLY ABOUT 20 FEET FROM A PLAYGROUND! What? I do not have jackets and how can I expect them to get them to set quietly when they can hear other kids on the swing?
We unloaded the van; did I tell you we were bringing a box of popcorn? Got everyone to the picnic area. We honestly made it through the ceremony with little issues. Jerry got bored rather quickly but a boyscout came to the rescue and played with him. Towards the end another mom got him out of the stroller and played with him. Then I held him for about 20 minutes. I loved it, he babbled and talked. I keep saying I know he is 17 months old but I want to be close to him. He loves to be held and he comes out of his shell and babbles more. I think in some ways it would be therapeutic for him. Okay, back to the tonight.
What I learned tonight: don’t forget the diaper bag, did you hear do not forget the diaper bag, lollipops only keep children quiet for a couple of minutes (a couple of short minutes and then they are a sticky mess), pack jackets even when you do not think you need them? Do not promise your children ice cream because you do not know how cold it will be when you are done; make sure you know where your meeting is at. And finally go with the flow, be patient and most importantly smile and know that the babies you are worried about making noise will be grown before you know it. I have got to stop worrying about rather other people are looking at my blessings or worrying rather they are bothering other people.
So tell me how do you handle having your blessings in public? What do you expect of them? I have not had anyone complain about our children and actually hear lots of compliments but I always worry. It drives my husband batty.
Pamela

I am so sad today

Today is a sad day. And no, it is not just because Not Me Monday has come to an end. Today is the last day of block leave. I wish there was a way my hero was home and never had to work. Today I wished I played the lotto.
The last month (well at least the last 3 weeks) have been bliss. I will be honest and say the first couple of weeks he was home were well interesting. I felt like we had nothing to talk about and well it was just not fun. I was not looking forward to him being home for a month. Then he signed out on block leave and it was like a switch got switched (boy that makes sense). I woke up excited for each new day. It was nice because we did not really have a bunch planned. I did not even have a huge list of things for him to do. Although now that we are on the last day I have a ton I wish we would have done.
So what did we do on block leave? We did very little school. No worries we started early and we do not take fall break or spring break. We went to the Aquarium, to the beach a couple of times.
My husband taught my children how to chop and stock wood. I think they will spend many more Saturdays’ chopping wood. I had no idea how much wood it would take. We do not need the wood to heat our home but having a fire going relaxes my hero and my kids love it. Honestly my thought is if it helps with the heat bill I am okay with it. We honestly stay in the livingroom and kitchen most of the day because that is where we do school and with the fire going those rooms stay warm. No idea why I told you all of this. Did I tell you my husband learned to make fire starters and made a bunch? You can learn how to make them here.
My wonderful, amazing husband did take the kids camping (well air conditioned with kitchen and bathroom camper)
for a week and at the end I got to spend 2 nights in the camper alone with him. Time to laugh and talk and eat out and fish and fish and fish. Did you hear me say he made me fish? But he did not get me to do the zip line.
Oh yeah another neat thing happened. Daddy taught Hope how to paint and let her paint her horse barn.
It was neat because I have wanted it painted for a long time. Plus afterwards she said mom it took a lot of work to get all the words off of it. So maybe this will encourage her to not write on things anymore.
Okay I will stop now. I do have a question. What do you enjoy doing on vacation? I will not lie, I would have loved to be able to travel the world but this was so nice and SO relaxing.
WAIT, how could I forget? My hero and I also made my first quilt together. He helped me cut all the fabric and then keep it lined up while I sewed it. Have I told you how much I love this man.

Going to get our nails done

A couple of weeks ago I went home. One of the things I enjoy about going home is visiting all the things I remember growing up. One of which is the beauty school. I remember going there when I was about 8 years old. I love going there because the teachers are always watching. Grace had her first hair cut and can I tell you they did a great job. We took my niece Erin with us and while we were there she told me she had never had a manicure. I do not know why but it made me want to cry. It was so much fun having my mom and my niece there. We had a great time and the girls had fun being pampered.

Family pictures

My mother in law wanted to have all her grandchildren and great grandchildren to have there picture taken together. I was surprised how well it turned out. I wish my mother in law and father and law had been in the picture. Oh course, it is my daughter with her mouth hanging open.

more fun with cousins

One afternoon I told Grace she needed to nap and if she would do it she could do it in poppal I would let her. I knew poppal would not complain. They made me laugh because poppal would fall asleep and then Grace would talk to him and wake him up. Then Grace would fall asleep and poppal would tickle her. I love when they get time to be together. Poppal read Grace a story and then it was outside for more trampoline time. I know some people do not love trampoline time but I have promised myself that the moment this one breaks we are buying a new one.

Family

My children are military kids and we are a military family. Most people will never understand that. What this means is that we move every few years. It means that we are not visiting cousins and grandparents like most kids. So when they get a chance to visit we jump on it. A few weeks ago my in laws came for a visit. But we are extra lucky because my 2 nieces live with them so whenever they visit so do the nieces. I love these girls so much and wish we could be closer. These girls have the prettiest red hair and I could so pass them off as mine. This time they got to stay for several days and so we had allot of time to do fun things. We went on a hike and fishing one day. Grace lived it up by having mommal carry her and then had everyong hold her hand. At one point we stopped at the chapel area and Grace took this time to preach to us about Christ love. She got so into it that she started dancing and then she called her cousin up to preach to her and then was making her dance with her. I do not know where she comes up with this stuff but I love it. We stopped by the playground to play and to of course eat more of the candy mommal was carrying around.

Cousins

When mommal and poppal visit they always bring there dog Jake. Jake is very comical, he is moody and grumpy. This time he had a good time. We have a huge back yard and he had a great time playing in the backyard with our dog. I love when mommal visits because she does things like play the board games that I do not enjoy. Every time the girls visit we know it is going to be alot of late nights because the girls stay up talking. This time we kept so busy that when it was bedtime they were quick to fall asleep. Luckily everyone sleeps soundly so I can sneak in and take pictures of them.