Seek Shelter Immediately!!

Gotta love living in "Tornado Alley"!!!

We have been under watches and warnings all evening and will be through the night!! I am not totally used to this weather yet.

Other than the crazy weather we are having, it's been a great day!! I went yard saleing with my friend this morning. Found some awesome deals!!

My son didn't sleep too well last night so I was soooo tired today and once I got back from yard saleing, I was pretty well useless. My babysitter was truley a God Send today. She has been here all day and she watched the kids so I could lay down. That never happens. Especially because my husband is deployed.

This evening I had a candle party to be at. I love demonstrating candles. They smell so good!! The only downfall was that it was seriously down-pouring when I left the hotesses house. So I hurried home and I will gladly stay inside!!

If I type in tomorrow, that means I made it through the night!! Wish me luck!

Only in the military!!

I found out so much information from other women here today. The joys of living on a military base!!

You know, I don't gossip and I don't really care for people who do but today was one of those days that I sat and listened. Usually I don't but I kind of got sucked in to it. So I wonder now, what they say about me when I am not around. Wouldn't I like to be a bug on the wall. Except for the fact that one of them is terrified of bugs and would probably kill me!

Other than listening to the gossip fest, it was an okay day. I had the two little ones at playgroup and got a phone call 3 hours early to tell me that my daughter had a fever. So I had to pick them both up!! Tell me that didn't suck!!

But the wonderful thing that happened today is that the table I bought about a week ago, arrived today. But they didn't put it together!! So here I am a whole 115 pounds trying to lift the top of the table which had to weigh close to 100 pounds! It is one of the square ones that seats 8 and it was whole. The leaf hadn't been taken out of it. So besides being heavy it was huge!! But I finally got it put together. Phew!! Thank Goodness the chairs were already together!

Whats funny is if my husband were "home" as in, not deployed but not physically at home, I would have still had it put together by the time he did get home. Thats just me. Theres no sense in waiting for someone to do it for you when your perfectly capable of doing it yourself!!

So it was a good day. Just tiring, so I am going to say good night!

Lasagne Recipe

Ingredients:

No Boil Lasagne Noodles
1 pound ground beef
Spaghetti Sauce
1 pound chicken breast
Ricotta Cheese
Mozzerella Cheese (shredded)

Fry the ground beef then add the spaghetti sauce. Cook the chicken and cut into small pieces.

Lay one layer of noodles in bottom of pan, cover with meat and sauce mixture, then cover with chicken pieces and Ricotta Cheese. Repeat until you reach about 3/4 inch from top of pan or run out of ingredients. Then top with Mozerella.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 45 mins. Remove foil and bake for 30mins or until golden brown on top.

Serve with bread and vegetable like salad or corn.

Meltdown!

So, last night about 1:30am (so I guess it would be this morning), I started typing an email to my husband. About 3 sentences into it, I started crying and I cried until about 2am. Then I fell asleep, finally.

I feel so much better this morning. Crying is a wonderful stress reliever.

Not much else happened today. I had to work for about 3 hours at the church but other than that, it's been a pretty laid back day. That in itself was a nice change from how things have been going.

BBQ Potatoes (not what you think)

This recipe is one of those that once you make it, you will want it each time you BBQ and so will anyone you share it with!!


Slice potatoes into round narrow pieces
Lay 2 pieces of tin-foil flat, one on top of the other
Spread potatoes on foil
Sprinkle with Garlic Powder, Season All, Salt, and Pepper
Chop yellow Onion and add that in (large slices work good)
Put butter, margarine, smart balance, etc... slices randomly over potatoes

Cover with 2 pieces of tin-foil and seal edges tightly. Possibly adding more foil for securing package.

Lay on BBQ grill for 30-45 mins, then flip to other side for another 30-45 mins.

Serve by putting package on cookie sheet and cutting the top of the foil open.

Tastes great with ketchup or alone!!

Enjoy!!

(if it doesn't turn out right for some reason, feel free to ask me for help. We have made them a bunch and sometimes have "mis-haps" when making them. :)

Happy Hump Day!

Not too much happened today. I finished the top to my mom's quilt. Wow, that was a long time coming. I started in November and just finished today. Not that I don't have a boatload of other things going on. But I did it. Now I just have to quilt it and we're good to go. The hardest part with the quilting is pinning it together. I am going to machine quilt it, which with my machine is kind of challenging but it goes much quicker than hand quilting it. I just really don't have time for that right now. Maybe when all the kids are in school all day... I will keep dreaming about that day :)

My wonderful husband called me today. His voice still makes my heart melt!! He's got that sexy, deep voice. Not too deep, just enough to make my heart skip. Amazingly the two little ones were both asleep and the the two big kids were at school so I got to talk to him without interuptions. Besides the nagging voice saying, "your call will end in 30 seconds" after 9 1/2 minutes. So he called me back. I just love talking to him!! He is my absolute best friend!!

The Presidents Veto

Being in the middle of this war myself, I have to say something here. I sit here and worry about my husband. I see news flying around about however many soldiers dying each day and wonder if I will get a knock on my door.

I am very proud of my husband and his fellow soldiers because they did what they were told and what they signed up to do. Even if they don't agree with it. Because it is their job. Besides, most of them wanted to go over there to kick some butt! That would be the testosterone flying around!!

I am disappointed however, in our government. I supported President Bush when this started. We went over there to weed out terrorists. Which I am thinking now, was an excuse to finish what Bush Sr. couldn't finish. That was getting Saddam out of power.

But I thought we were after Bin Laden. You seldom hear about him anymore. So who are we after?

The President is Head Strong, the Democrats are trying to win election, just as the Republicans are. The Army Generals and other high ranking officers are afraid of getting "fired" for disagreeing with the President. So it is impossible to get valid and fair information.

My solution, pull every single one of our soldiers out of Iraq, put some of them in Afghanistan to finish up there since that isn't a total lost cause. Bring the rest home and let them "re-group". They need to see their families and get out of the war zone for a while. This would allow us to invade Afghanistan and actually find the terrorists there. Iraq can either swim or die. If they don't swim, they are no worse off than when we began but at least if we let them be and see if they can do it, we may be happily surprised. It didn't take the US just a few years to become the way it is now. We had war after war after war in this country. But it worked out.

After we let Iraq be and let them work it out, if they need help then, we can figure out the best way to go back in and actually do some good. Instead of going into battle with the emotional disaster of 9-11 fueling the fire.

What would it actually hurt if we pulled out? I am pretty certain that there are terrorists in the US already. A pull out may or may not cause them to attack. If we focused our efforts on defending our country, in our country, we could probably find the terrorists that are actually here and stop them before they hurt us and stop more from coming in.

But instead of spending money here, where we need it to defend our country, we are paying our soldiers to leave their families and fight in a country that has now taken a lot of our man power and resources, leaving us like a sitting duck.

Okay Government, use the brains God gave you and figure out a real solution. Pulling out is a great idea, but please don't announce it to the world. Quietly bring our guys home and let the chips fall where they may. It will probably work out better that way!

Recipe for May Day!!

This is a great treat on a hot day!!

Vanilla Ice Cream
Fresh Fruit of Your Choice (blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and peaches are popular)
Make sure the fruit is fresh though and not canned.
Milk
Chocolate chips or your favorite cookies

Put it in a blender and make an amazing shake. The chocolate chips or cookies give it an extra crunch. It makes it a little different than a regular milk shake.

All the ingredients are measured by what you think should go in it. It tastes better that way.

I can't sleep

It's 4am and I have been awake for over an hour. For some reason, I can't sleep. I keep rolling over and reaching for my husband. I guess that's a lost cause for another 12 1/2 months! I am missing him so badly I can't even explain it.
I support our troops all over the world. They are there to help no matter what our government does and no matter who is against them. Even if they seem to lose, they are trying to help the world. Regardless of this, I really want my husband home!!!
He is my best friend and the love of my life!! How can I live without him for so long. It's been about 2 1/2 months and it feels like forever!! This sucks!
The worst part is that the kids miss him and they don't understand why he is gone. They know why but they just don't really understand it. And they definetly don't understand what he is doing over there as a job.
The kids ask questions like, "does daddy have food and water?" "does he have a bed and blankets and a shower?" the best and worse question: "will daddy have scratches and bruises all over when he comes home?" "Why would he have that?" I asked. "isn't he fighting the bad people?" That just led into a whole other discussion. This was from an 8 year old mind you, so I was trying to keep it on 8 year old level. I wanted her to understand but I didn't want to scare her, so I explained that daddy is there more to protect people and he carries a gun. They don't really get into fist fights like you see on tv.
She was temporarily satisfied with that answer. But I know there are more questions like that coming. There always is :)
I can hear the rain outside now. It's romantic... when my husband is home. But for now it just means that everything is wet and the kids will get muddy. I guess that is why there are bathtubs and soap, right? Kids and mud, it just kind of goes together. In the 15 feet from the front door to the car, at least one of my kids will get filthy dirty. I have a garden in front of my house next to the sidewalk going from my front door to my car. As soon as there is water in there 2 of my kids love to stick their hands in there and splash mud!! So lets hope for just one day, I can divert their attention and get them into the car, un-muddied!!

I hope it will be a good day. If my husband calls, I know it will be! I am just on the verge of crying all the time lately so I have to not cry when he calls. It is a morale thing. We have to stay strong if we want them to stay strong. If they know everything is okay here, then they can focus on their job and not worry about us. In Iraq, a preoccupied mind is a dead soldier! We don't want anymore of those!

Well, it's probably not worth it, but I am going to try to get some more sleep.

It's Monday, What Can I Say!?

After dropping the kids all off for the day, I had to finish cleaning up the house. That seems like a never ending task with 4 kids working against me. But it only took an hour to get it done. So that was good.
I had to go to WalMart to get my prescription because for some strange reason, they don't carry it at the pharmacy on post. So that is very frustrating!! But nonetheless, I needed it, so, I deal with it.
Maybe I was just overly sensitive today because the slightest things set me off. Like the fact that I had closed my gate in the backyard and put bricks up against it to keep the yard guys out and low and behold, they moved the bricks, that were on the inside of the gate, and came on in. So I ended up yelling at them and telling them to get out of my yard. It made me mad because I just planted grass seed and all they were doing was mowing dirt and tearing it up.

Then I had to go in to the doctor because of some sort of cyst or lump in my hand. I ended up getting mad at the Physicians Assistant (no dr there today). He was very rude and ignorant. I had to get an Xray of my hand and so I asked the secretary at the Xray office if they could send the results to my doctor and not the PA. She made sure it was put in the computer. That hospital gets crazy sometimes!! See, that's one thing about being military. You go to the hospital for everything. Doctor appointments, labs, xrays, etc... and even emergencies and surgeries. It's crazy!!

After the doctor, I picked up all the kids. Normally if I am frustrated, it tends to spill over onto my kids after they get home. But today, as soon as I saw the two little ones, I was so happy. It was like a sunbeam through a gray sky. I felt so much better. Then we picked up the two older ones and I was just so happy to see them. So my day got better.

If one of the other wives from our company would have left me alone and not brought her kids over to irritate my kids, my evening would have been perfect. But, I think that is too much to ask for. I had a pretty good evening anyways. :)

Another Week Beckons

Sunday! Sunday!

What a day! Up way too early this morning. The kids and I had to be at the church at 7:45 am. It wouldn't have been too bad if it was just me. I could have woken up at 7am and made it. But with 4 kids in tow, we got up at six. I had to get everyone fed, changed and in the car with all accessories. For instance a bottle, diapers, pull ups and wipes. Make sure they all had shoes and their clothes were fairly clean. I say fairly because they are kids and I have learned that keeping them spotless is like dreaming the impossible dream!! Kids are dirt magnets. I laugh because when I was growing up, I always said, "my kids aren't going to look like that in public!" referring to the little kids running around filthy dirty from head to toe. Well, the reality is that at some point, all kids look like that!! It just happens. Dirt and kids just go together.

So we made it to church on time. I had to work in the nursery so I absolutely had to be there. About 20 minutes after we got there, my youngest started getting a fever. He was kind of fussy and just wanting to sleep but couldn't get comfortable. He was chewing on his fist, which for a 15 month old is not a regular occurrance. At least not for him. So I looked in his mouth and his last 4 teeth, the pointy ones on the top and bottom are all swollen. Well the gums are swollen because the teeth are trying to come in. He already has all of his teeth including his molars, just not those 4 teeth. So he is miserable. Children's Motrin works pretty good for it but you can just tell it hurts by looking at him. His eyes water and his lips are bright red. Poor guy!!

After church one of my friends came over for lunch with her two kids, one boy one girl. She brought a sprinkler so after lunch we had the kids outside running through the water. The baby wasn't too thrilled with water spraying him so he stayed back. Got a little wet and cooled his fever but mostly just watched the others get wet.

My friend is so great!! She is very normal, which seems odd for me to say that but around here, it's not common to find a regular person! We have psycho wives, cheating wives, lazy wives, fight all the time wives, gossip wives, etc... There are very few of us who actually get off our duffs and do stuff regardless of whether our husbands are home or not. She is not an Army wife anymore after her divorce but we have stayed friends. We are just regular people who like to be with our kids and when something needs done, we get it done and don't complain about it. I like that in her.

Anyways, another day to mark off the calendar. Lets get this deployment over with!! I really want my husband home!

Saturday Finally!!

I love Saturday!! It is the only day I get to sleep in until Summer Vacation that is! Sadly enough, sleeping in is 7:30am. My body just wakes up then, no matter what.

Well, today has started out pretty good! My husband called this morning :) I hadn't heard from him since Monday so just hearing his voice makes my heart skip. It still would skip from hearing his voice if he called everyday. I just love talking with him, even when he is home.

So many things happen during the week and I always forget to tell him something. I think I covered it all today though. You learn to talk quick and make it short. The phone cuts off after 10 minutes so if there is a lot to say, he has to call back. He talked to all 4 kids today, so he had to call back. They love to talk to him and are little chatter boxes.

So Today is looking to be a good day! It is warm and sunny, I talked to my husband and I feel pretty good!

Good Night

I am sitting here with my 2 year old almost in my lap, asleep. She played so hard today. She is just learning to talk where others can really understand her. So she has chatted away most of the day from what the teachers said and ran around the playground just as soon as they could go outside.

You never really know what innocence is until you hold your newborn baby and they fall asleep in your arms.

Clean Up!

Today was a total cleaning house day! Lately I have been rearranging my house, getting rid of stuff and basically Spring Cleaning. Today was a massive day of just cleaning!!

My two oldest kids are 6 and 8. They didn't have school today so they got to help me :) My two little ones went to playgroup from 8:30 till 3 today. So we got a lot done.

I am really tired but tonite is our scrapbooking night at the church so I am going to go. It's fun to visit and it really kills time :) Which unfortunately I am doing a lot of that lately!! When you are waiting for a year to pass by quickly, you kill time.

Normally, I wouldn't want my life to go fast. I enjoy every minute of it. But everyday that my husband is gone, my heart just aches more. My kids are truely a blessing because I can busy myself and focus on them. Times like tonite are good for the "grown up" side of me when I need to be around adults. But the majority of the time, I am surrounded by my beautiful little children who always remind me why I get up everyday!

Have you ever watched a sunset with a small child? The awe in their face and the questions they ask are priceless. My 6 year old asked me, "Mom, why is the sky pink when the sun goes to sleep, I thought the sun was a boy!" I told my son that the sky is pink when the sun is going to the other side of the world because it gets tired of being blue all day! Works for me and satisfied him!

Closing Another Day

Well, it has turned out to be a pretty decent day. The dark rain clouds went away and the day ended with blue skies and a beautiful sunset.

After getting the kids off to school, the little two and I went to church for a woman's group get together. It was nice to just hang out and visit with other women. It gives me kind of a boost for the weekend.

After that things weren't too eventful. I had to take my youngest in for his immunization shots, so after that we just came home so he could sleep.

When the two oldest came home from school, we had to go to the Cub Scouts Pine Wood Derby race. My sons car wasn't heavy enough so it didn't win. But we learned for next year. I felt bad because before my husband left, he started the car but didn't finish it. I don't know much about pinewood derby cars so I did my best with our son to get the car done. Better luck next year.

So, I sit here tonite with the kids all asleep watching tv. It has become a "killing time" thing to do lately. I have at least 12 months left until my husband comes home from Iraq. He has been gone 2 already. Possibly his tour is extended to 15 or 18 months. We don't know yet. So I keep going, and waiting. Looking outside, wondering if he is thinking of me or missing me. The days are going fast but the nights are too long. I miss him!

Thursday Morning

Today is a very rainy and cold day. It rained almost all night last night. This kind of makes the things I need to do today not seem very important. I’d rather just stay inside all day, but… these things do need to get done. So, load up the kids, get two to school and the other two are with me. No playgroup today. A one and two year old tend to slow things down a bit. Especially with it raining. A baseball cap is looking like it will be my hairdo for the day. God knows that rain and hair don’t mix!
We are off to face the day.

Welcome to the first post of my blog!

After the day I had yesterday, today was pretty relaxing. I returned two little boys that I had been watching since 5:30am yesterday to their mother. They about drove me nuts!! I have 4 kids of my own and can handle just about anything. But one of the kids did not behave himself from the time he got here until I dropped him off today. He kicked and hit and scratched. To top it off, he cursed and yelled all the time. So needless to say, I was glad when their mom got home to take them.

So for the rest of my day I got rid of my kids. Two went to school and two went to a playgroup. I went shopping!! It doesn't happen often but it was a well deserved trip. I bought a new dining room table. The counter high ones that are square and seat 8. When you have 4 kids, it just makes sense. How I came to decide to buy the table, ummm... I saw it! I knew I wanted that exact table but had been waiting. It was on sale! So I guess in a way it was an impulse buy. Not really sure when buying tables became an impulse buy but... it was today :)

Then I came home and cleaned. Amazingly after the amount of stress from the previous day, this was very relaxing. I didn't just clean though, I really just rearranged stuff. I made my youngest daughters room into a playroom for her and her younger brother. And I put a childproof gate at the door. With stairs in the house and a 14 month old, those gates come in handy! A good place to buy all sorts of babyproofing stuff is www.onestepahead.com. It may be cheaper somewhere else, but you can get some great ideas there!

Now it is quiet time. The baby is asleep and the other 3 are watching a movie until bedtime (7:30pm)

I have to say, my day started out a little stressful with the two boys still here but all in all, I have had a pretty terrific day!