The Countdown

My husband has gotten an unofficial word that he will be rejoining us in 25 days - June 24, 2010. It's still not 100% set in stone (as nothing in the military is until its actually happening), but right now, its fairly likely.

So, I have begun to countdown...

25 more days of waking up to a big empty bed, 25 more days of killing bugs and taking out the trash, 25 more days of seeing only my clothes strewn about in our room, 25 more days of chatting on skype at night and seeing "unknown" pop up on my cell phone. There is only 25 more days of day dreaming about our reunion, 25 days of seeing his car sit unmoved in the driveway, 25 more days of wishing he'd walk in the door at dinnertime, 25 more days to work out and lose these last few pounds, 25 more days until I begin washing velcro ridden ACUs again, 25 more days until I will get a very-much-needed back massage, 25 days until my toothbrush gets it's partner back, and 25 more days until I feel his kiss once again.

After months and months of waiting for this countdown to begin, 25 days still seems so far off. Fortunately, I have company coming twice and C has multiple camps. Although MOPS, preschool, military childcare, and ballet have all ended for the summer, I still have the friendships I've developed. Those will carry me through the next 25 days. Almost single handedly, those women who I so heavily rely on will get me through. Daily chats with my neighbor across the street, waving at the boy on his bike up the road, the numerous phone calls and texts all day from my girlfriends just checking in, running into friends at the pool, and sitting by my fellow army wives at church...

So, 25 more days of missing him, 25 more days of wondering what his reaction to my weightloss will be, 25 more days of telling C that Daddy is coming home this summer, 25 more days until we are once again an "in person" family of four :-) Praise Jesus!!!

Still losing weight...

Most of you probably know that I am still working out and watching what I eat. I am not following any real program right now, but am definitely still in "losing" mode. I am doing Turbo Jam videos, some Chalean Extreme, and walking about 2 miles several days a week. As of this weekend, I am now down 38.4 pounds! I couldn't be happier :-) My goal right now is to lose about 8 more pounds. I know I can do it, it just may take me a while since I am losing about a pound to a pound and a half each week. Check out my most recent pictures in one of my new favorite outfits - leggins!

Lately...

I know a lot of you guys that read my blog love to see pictures, so in stead of writing about what has been going on around here...here are all the pictures :-)

D in his new Army PT shirt. Its just like the grown up ones!

He throws LOTS of tantrums now...he's hitting the "terrible twos" considerably early, haha.

Wearing his fire hat from the firemen at the carseat safety checkpoint. We passed with flying colors!! :-)

My kids had never eaten a powdered doughnut (so much sugar!) but I gave in and bought a bag of them. The kids LOVED them.

C's family picnic day at the park got rained out, so we had to stay at school and play and eat our picnic there. Notice how C made sure D had some leggos too...and how he completely enjoys wearing the Hannah Montana headset microphone.

Having a picnic lunch

C and her best school friend. I know she will miss her!

Most of the girls in her preschool class with their teacher, Miss. Jelly.

Story time!

I came out into the living room after washing my hair. The kids had gotten into all my Chalean Extreme things...C took one look at my face and before I said a word, she told me, "David did it!"

C is going to miss these girls (And I will miss their moms!)...these are C's ballet girlfriends. They were at our house for a playdate all snuggled up watching a movie :-)

Preschool Commencement!

C's class singing a cute song all in Spanish

Getting her diploma

My babies are getting SO big!

Showing off all her graduation goods :-)

Eating the cake she was so excited about - she told me for about a week that after they sang, they were going to eat cake. And eat cake she did!!

C with her very first teacher. We'll miss you Miss. Jelly!

What you've missed...

I have been missing my husband a whole lot lately, so this afternoon I decided I would channel all that "missingness" into a movie for him. I hope you enjoy it!

And B, I love you and I can't get you off my mind. I hope you like this video I that compiled for you. Come home soon, babe!

Saturday with the kids

Today is Saturday and aside from the 2 minutes my neighbor came over to bring me back my bag of chips, I haven't spent any time with another adult. I've been at home with the kids just about all day. We ran to Target (along with the rest of the world apparently) for a few items and then ate at Moes for dinner. But today has been all about me and the kids. :-) D licked salsa off chips. C dunked her chocolate chip cookie in sour cream. I actually got a shower and blow dryed my hair. Its been a good day!

We also spent some time at the computer taking pictures and recording short videos. I thought you may enjoy seeing a few snippets of our weekend :-)

Parties galore!

I have had a great 2 weeks despite all the stress from the previous post. My uncle's job brought him in town for several days so his lovely wife accompanied him and hung out with me.

I love company. I love anyone that I can chat with, relate to, and I especially love them if they help me with my kiddos. That is exactly what my sweet aunt did :-) She and I ran errands around town, priced stuff for my yard sale, ate pizza, went out to lunch, and visited. Yesterday, both kids were at C's school for the morning and my aunt and I had a few hours to go shopping all by ourselves! We hit up TJ Maxx and Marshalls...check out my new red dress!

Woohoo! I've never had a red dress! (Sorry for the poor picture quality...) I had to take a picture and send it to my hubby - I am ready for you to come home, babe!!

My aunt also babysat for me a couple times so I could run to consign some of the kids' clothes and then once so I could go to a Silpada Jewelry party. Have you ever been to one of these parties? The jewelry is so pretty. I think I tried on 75% of the pieces on display :-) I settled on a pair of long silver earrings. I can't wait for them to arrive on my doorstep!

Sadly my aunt and uncle had to go home yesterday afternoon. I was sad to see them leave...I am always sad when company leaves.

Fortunately I had a fun event last night to cheer me up and take my mind off the back-to-normal-loneliness. My neighbor across the street was hosting a Passion Party. (I am not linking to the website. If you don't know what a Passion Party is, it may be better that way, haha) I didn't think I was going to be able to go, but my super-duper neighbor found me a babysitter and arranged for her to come to my house just yesterday afternoon. She is one great neighbor! So, after getting both kids in bed, I put on my red dress and headed across the street to my first Passion Party!

Okay, I have always thought I am fairly friendly and open and not easily embarrassed. I think I thought that because I had never been to a Passion Party before!! I was so embarrassed at the casual mentioning of some of the products and body parts on which they are to be applied, haha. I got over it though...all in the name of fun and bonding. We got a great laugh about how much we all loved one of the flavored massage lotions. It tasted so good we all though we might get caught at home just eating it right out of the tube when we craved something sweet! It has to have less calories than chocolate, right?

It goes without saying that once I got over the fact that I was hearing words that are clearly NOT in my daily vocabulary, I had a blast! Girl time is always fun...and licking lotion off our arms just has a away of bringing a bunch of neighbors even closer :-) I sure will miss these girls!

On another note, time is still ticking away and my wonderful husband is likely to be coming home sometime in the next month! We don't have a for sure date yet, and I am not really sure if we will ever get a "set in stone" date. But as of right now, it looks like he MAY be coming home in the middle of June. It could still be the end of June so I am trying not to get my hopes too high for mid-June. On the other hand, I can't help but get excited that he may be home in less than a month!!! I haven't seen him in 7 months!! It's going to be so amazing have him back in our home and back in my arms :-) Praise God!

Oh the stress!

Where to even begin with this post?!? The stress! Let me start by saying that today I had to return to the hospital a holter monitor that I wore for 24 hours to record all my heart activity because I have been having heart palpitations. I have self-diagnosed that they are stress-related. It makes perfect sense to me. I guess in a week the doctor will either confirm or deny my own self-diagnosis.

B still isn't home (Duh, there WILL be a blog post about his homecoming). He doesn't know when he is coming home. He has received his official report date to DC - August 10th. But, we don't have a hard copy of his orders. Those will not come until mid-June. So, naturally, I haven't been able to apply for housing or a moving truck thus far. Awesome :-) (I hope you can hear the sarcasm) The housing wait list is 30-60 days. The moving truck wait list is 4-6 weeks...hmmm, how is this going to work out?

Our vehicles have been at the top of my list of stressors lately. B's Saturn Vue is now reregistered but needs a new wheel bearing - which in my mind basically means I have to occupy the kids for HOURS at the mall while Sears replaces said part and then charge me roughly $400 for this "service." Sounds super fun right? At least I did the new shocks last month :-)

My van, oh my van! The check engine light, the rattles, the squeals, the shocks, the struts...I don't know where to begin on this vehicle. So, after weighing my options and all the expenses involved in each, I dug out my Power of Attorney paperwork and headed to the dealership to buy a new van :-) (Okay, there really was some discussion with my hubby for the last few months about this. I didn't buy a new van spontaneously without telling him, haha.) After 6 hours at the dealership with the kids - seriously - I drove out in my beautiful 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan which makes no rattles, sounds, or squeals. And I got a GREAT deal!

In the meantime, D has an audiology and an ENT appointment next week and should be getting tubes in his ears shortly thereafter. My doctor found cysts in both my breasts and has instructed me to "watch them for any changes or growth." Lovely... D has strep throat which has required 2 visits to the doctor/pharmacy for the proper medication. And because of this, he had to miss one of the two days (all year!) he was scheduled to be at C's school in the MOMs program. He better be well enough to go Friday! I live for the few child-free hours I get every once in a while.

Oh, and I had a yard sale last weekend! (Read that as, "I went through all our closets and pulled out everything we will not be taking to DC....and then tried to sell it on a 90 degree day." Needless to say, I also went to Goodwill and the consignment store this week to get rid of everything else) C has her "family picnic" next week at school and then she graduates from preschool - with a cap and gown! I can't wait for this. Hopefully D will behave nicely so I can give her my full attention and adoration on the oh-so-special day. Then in June she has her Spring ballet recital and ballet pictures.

I don't know how I would have managed this past month without my friends. They have watched my kids, helped me with my yard sale, come over at a moment's notice, listened to me rant about our doctor visits, walked with me, called to check in, rejoiced with me, given hugs, reassured me, and spoken words of wisdom from experience. Its because of all this that I had a breakdown today. How can I move from these friends? How is it that I have been praying for over a year that God would allow our family to move to DC and give B this job... and now that He has done everything I've requested, I'm not ready? How is that? I don't want to leave my girl friends. I don't want to leave my church or my little brick duplex. Or my carport, or my neighbors...

The only reassuring element in all of this is that I know that even if I stayed, things wouldn't be the same. My friends are leaving too - some this year, some next year. Nobody in the military is permanent. Everybody leaves at sometime. I know that I will make friends in DC. I am confident that we will find a church that we love and that after 4 years I will feel the same way I feel now - that I don't want to leave! But for now, I can only see where I am right now. I can't imagine any other "ballet moms" ever being as good as the moms here. I can't imagine a MOPS group ever being as great as this one (and there is no way they will have as good of food at the meetings!). No church preschool department can compare to mine. No preschool will ever treat my kids as good as C's preschool. No playgrounds will ever be as good. No other neighbors can ever live up to mine. I am sure you get the point...

As I enter the last month of this deployment, please pray for me. I am so stressed. My body is feeling the effects and I am sure my kids are too. I need my husband home. I need to know that we will have a house when we move. I need to know that we will have movers :-) I need to know that I will have friends and that I will always stay in touch with the ladies from here. In my head I know that the Lord has every step planned out for me. He will not leave me hanging in any area of life. But my heart just wants to wrap around everything I've worked so hard to build and never let go. I love it here. I never thought I'd say that about this city. But I do...