Merry Christmas 2012

                                                                 

            Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your family~

The most precious gift

I was blessed today and I just had to share. 

My sister, Jackie attends F.I.T. boot camp classes throughout the week and the day after Thanksgiving I went with her to one of the boot camp classes.  I knew a few of the women in the class and I knew of the instructor, Erica but just as an acquaintance.  All the other women in the class were strangers to me. 

Some of the women were aware of Joe's deployment and in the days to follow the Thanksgiving workout Erica came up with the idea to bless me this Christmas. 

(Erica is in the pink standing next to the lady wearing yellow)

 

 

 

 

Today I opened my front door to presents that were left for me from the class.  There were the most precious cards/letters that made me cry.  Reading the words of these women (most of who were strangers to me) on the cards they wrote was touching.  These women are thankful to me for the sacrifices I am making during this deployment. The sacrifices that is allowing them to be with their families this Christmas.  Erica put together with the help of all the women in the class a gift bag for me including hand weights, hair ties to wear while working out, leg workout DVD (which is great because I want my legs to look like Carrie Underwoods), chai tea that I love and a couple hair bows for my girls. 

Thank you Erica for coming up with this idea to bless us this Christmas.  You will never know just how much it warmed my heart.  Thank you everyone else who took the time to write cards and gave money towards my presents.  Being the spouse of a deployed member is hard and trying but days like today make it worth it.  Just to know that people are thankful for ME really means a lot.  You girls made my day- My week- My month.  Thank you again for blessing me and I will be sure to pay it forward-

Please contact Erica if you would like to join her boot camp class.  Let me tell you, its an awesome workout.  This summer I will be joining and I can't wait.  She knows her stuff and she even offers mens F.I.T. boot camp classes now. 





Enjoy your family~

I could keep this short and sweet and just say: This sucks.

Or I could say this sucks because:

We are treading on new territory and I had no idea what to except.  I thought that Christmas was going to be easy but Oh my word, it's not. I freaking miss you and it's making my heart hurt.  My heart literally has a piece missing and that piece is you.  This home, the couch we sit on, the table we sit at, the living room floor you lay on to play with the girls, our bed you lay in, the drivers side of the car is empty.  Everything is empty. 

Explaining it is hard, my emotions are all over the place and I just want you to know that I am okay.  This is just a rough patch for me.  Christmas screams family and part of my family is gone.  I want it to be over with so I can put all the decorations back in the attic and get back to normal life.  Watching my girls still love everything about Christmas this year makes my heart happy.  I know the Lord has everything to do with that. As a whole they have been doing amazing.  He has comforted them, given them strength and covered them in his blanket of love. He has done the same for me but sometimes I cant hold it together 100% of the time.  I try to be strong for them because I have noticed that the few times I have broken down in front of them, they cry and get sad also.  I don't want them to cry or be sad so I try to not be emotional with them. When the day to day life of dishes, laundry, sweeping, homework, stress, making lunches, refereeing our two ultimate fighters and keeping the house picked up catches up with me sometimes I just break down.  I need my tag-team partner to come into the ring and rescue me.

Looking forward to a new year and seeing you sooner rather than later.... I love you. 




Enjoy your family~

Christmas Themed Dinner

Traditions mean a lot to me.  I love starting them and continuing them.  Christmas is a great time to have traditions. The last several years we have taken Ava Christmas caroling.  She loves going house to house singing for our friends and handing out their goodie box.  The first year we took her she was so little and I loved seeing her face light up, she was singing and smiling at the same time.  Every year after that we have gone caroling.  We do the normal traditions of making gingerbread houses, decorating cookies and this year we added in our elf on the shelf, Si.  The girls love looking for him each morning.  Christmas morning is spent just the four of us, in our home.  After presents we eat a big breakfast then we head out and make our Christmas stops.  Joe and I love getting everything set out the night before and I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve because I am so excited for the next morning.  Having kids and watching Christmas thru their eyes is amazing. Last week the girls and I started a new tradition.  It was our Christmas themed dinner. 

The menu: Snowman Pizza

(he was a smidgen browned... lost track of time)

 

 

(Christmas Tree Brownies)

 

(Grinch Punch)

(Lime Sherbet, Sprite, little green food coloring.  Blended up)

 

 

While we were drinking our Grinch punch we watched (of course) How the Grinch stole Christmas. 

The girls had a fantastic time, we turned on Christmas music while making the pizza and I can honestly say it was one of the best nights I have had with them.  Cant wait to do it again next year.... WITH DADDY!!!  The traditions continue....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your family~

Happy Birthday Mom

I wrote this about my mom and it still rings true.

I love you Mom with my entire heart and I hope you have a fantastic birthday today.  You are beautiful inside and out.  If I know my mom at all I am sure I'll be getting a call today asking why I posted so many pictures of her on my blog.  "But my hair looked bad" "I was blinking" "I look so old"

Dearest Mom, If I look 1/4 of how good you look when I am your age I will count myself lucky. You are getting more beautiful as the years pass and I truly mean that.  I wanted to show you off a bit.... :)

(Old Picture. No, Jackie is NOT pregnant now.  She was weeks away from giving birth to O man in this picture)

( Mom and 'old school' EJ)

 

 

(Nini with her 4th and last grandchild)

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I LOVE YOU!

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                   

Wordless Wednesday

                                                                          

 

This past Friday me and the girls went to Christmas Train. It is affiliated with our church: Church on the Move. If you haven't gone its a great place to visit at least once.  There are puppet shows for the kids, pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus, restaurants to eat, free wagon rides, go carts, ropes course, bumper cars, carousal, salt water taffy and homemade fudge shops, arcades, amazing cinnamon rolls with hot chocolates or coffee plus a lot more... Lets not forget about the train.  It tells the story of Christmas.  While riding on the train it starts with the beginning where God created the heavens and the earth, the birth of Jesus and eventually the crucifixion of Jesus and His Resurrection.  If you have small children be warned that the scene with Jesus on the cross may scare them. Ava always shuts her eyes in that part. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christmas train has became a tradition for my family.  We missed daddy being around with us this year but we cant wait until next year and he will be walking around with us again and making memories.  Side Note: Emma actually sat on Santa's lap this year for the first time.  (without crying)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your family~

 

                                                                       

Our love story: Pt 2

Read part one HERE

Sorry it has taken me awhile to write part II but I was going back and forth on how I was going to start the story.  Sounds odd doesnt it?  You think, just start the story.  Its your story.. start from where part one left off... Most of you dont know the next part of our story and after contiplating on what to say I decided to be real and honest.  I have regret over how it came to be but absouluely no regrets with the end result.  Confused yet?  Read on and allow me to explain:

Last we left off I was driving home after seeing Joe excited about what was in our future.  He was leaving for Qatar in a few weeks time and I was sad to see him go. 

(I am in no way shape or form condoning my actions but it did happen)  Couple weeks passed and Joe and I consummated our relationship. Believe it or not in the years past he and I never did anything. We had a normal, clean dating relationship. We decided to wait. That is until after I saw him again.  (this is where the regret comes into play.  I was raised better than that, I knew it was wrong but I went ahead and did it anyway. I do regret not waiting.  We had waited for so long but I lost my willpower.  I was trying to make it right in my head by saying I love Joe.  I know we will be togther forever and he's being deployed in a few weeks.)

Moving on: Whew that was a hard paragraph to write.  All those who didnt know... no judging please.

Joe left for his deployment and 4ish weeks later I was feeling weird.  Tired wasnt even the right word it was more like exhausted to the 100th degree. I could not function and working 50 hrs a week was not helping.  My heart was palpatating so I decided to go to the Dr to see what in the world was going on.  June 10, 2005 I got the call at work that changed my life.  The nurse on the other end told me that my pregnancy test came back positive.  Please excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.  You have GOT to be kidding me.  There is no way I was pregnant.  Oh, there was a way and now I had to break the news to Joe and even worse, my parents. Dread took over my entire body. 

How would you like to recieve news that you are going to be a dad?  Well over the phone of course.  Joe called and I broke the news to him.  I wish I was able to see the shock on his face when he heard the news.   Fast forward to late August and we were married.  We knew we would eventually get married but with the current situation we decided to speed up the process.

The next few months were filled with Dr visits and we eventually welcomed Miss Ava in the winter of 2006.  She was the "end result" that I in no way shape or form regret.  She was the jewel that came out of Joe and I's actions and we couldn't have been more happy. 



And they are living happily ever after....



Enjoy your family~

The true meaning of Christmas

Please take 4.5 minutes out of your day to watch this video.  It is incredible and translates into the true meaning of Christmas.  Christs birth.  It is not a 'classic' Christmas tune but it is amazing regardless.  Faith Hill does a beautiful job telling this story. I absolutely love love love it. For as long as I can remember I have loved music.  Music touches my soul in a way that doesn't happen to others that often. The first time I heard this song, I played it on repeat, closed my eyes, listened to every word, tears welling in my eyes and goosebumps on my arms.  Every song I hear I try to imagine myself in that place in time and with this song in particular I was imaging Mary and how scared she must have been when she found out she was pregnant, all the traveling she had to do, giving birth.  She was young and she was having a baby.  The baby that changed everything. 

Hope you love it as much as I do. 


Enjoy your family~

Little About Me

I love God.

Raw chicken scares me but I cook with it often and I hate to prepare it.  Touching it grosses me out.

Germs also gross me out.  My home is not always tidy, things are out of place but you better believe
my home is sanitized.

When falling asleep at night I must have a blanket touching my cheek

When falling asleep it scares me to have my hand or arm hanging off the side of the bed.  I always think of something reaching up and grabbing me.  With that being said:

I'm a scaredy cat.  I hate haunted houses, I hate horror movies or anything with suspense. 

I LOVE music of all types.  It's a 4th and counting generation thing.  My grandpa has a love for music, my dad, me and now Ava. 

I don't understand people who drive and are in a hurry to stop. The car that races past me only to stop at the light .02 seconds later. 

I have a slight crush on Oklahoma State's head coach: Mike Gundy

My feet are very ticklish.  I squeal during pedicures.

I don't like it when people clap loud.  The normal clapping I can handle but then you get those 1-2 people in a crowd that have the loudest clap.  I sat in front of one at the Nutcracker and I wanted to turn around and smack the guy.

I'm a cat person.

My happy place is laying in bed at night next to my hubby

I hate Britney Spear's voice.  Just the way her voice sounds when it comes out of her mouth. 

I consider my birthday a holiday.

Homebody isn't even a strong enough word to describe me.  My mom says I could be one of those people who live in the country and only 'come to town' once a month.  She's correct. 

Strangers who invade my personal space irritate me. 

I hate ironing.  It's right up there with folding laundry and putting it away.  toilets are better to clean in my opinion. 

Every morning before Joe left for work he would start my coffee.  I miss that. 

I miss being pregnant.  I would totally be a surrogate for someone if they wanted. 

I am generally a happy person or what people call an optimist.  I don't get the 'debbie downer' or 'negative nancy' lifestyle.  Pessimists wake up on the wrong side of the bed everyday.  That's no way to live life. 





Enjoy your family~

Week 10

Week #10 is in the books. Right now its hard to believe that yes I will be living through week #20 and #30 and even weeks after that.  They seem far far away.  Is this deployment over yet? No?  Wishful thinking... Hope the next 10 weeks go as fast as the first 10. 

Before the deployment I mentioned several times that even though I would miss Joe tremendously over the holidays, at least it IS the holiday season which gives me and the girls something to look forward too.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, family, food, hustle and bustle, Christmas.... I thought those months would just fly by and actually they have been but I was not expecting to miss Joe that much.  THIS much. I am such a 'holiday' person.  I love birthdays, I love celebrations, I love traditions old and starting new and I LOVE my husband being home to spend the Christmas season with us.  I miss him when we go look at Christmas lights, I missed him at Thanksgiving, I missed him when we decorated the tree, I missed him when we did our gingerbread house... So, yes the days are going fast but the emptiness in this house and in our hearts is huge. 

Highlights of my week:

All the Christmas shows were on this week.  We DVR'd all of them and have been watching them.  Its great to watch the same shows with my girls that I watched as a little girl. 

We made our gingerbread house and it wasn't a failure this time.  I learned my lesson from the Halloween haunted house and for the gingerbread house I bought the pre-built one.  Much easier. 

I made a new 'email' buddy.  Another wife of a husband who is deployed with Joe.  HI Tina!  Thanks for emailing this week  :) 

Friday morning before Ava left for school I asked her what I could do for her so that when she got home from school, whatever she picked me to do would make her very happy.  I told her to pick something that she wanted me to do for her to bless her.  Her pick:  Cleaning her room.  Nice move Ava.  The look on her face when she got home made it all worth it.  She ran into the kitchen, had the biggest smile on her face and thanked me for cleaning her room. I loved that moment and that I was able to make her day. 

Sunday afternoon I took the girls to a children's performance of the Nutcracker or Buttcracker as my Aunt calls it.  Ava loved it and was chatty cathy throughout telling me all about the dancers and their costumes, she was excited when the Nutcracker turned 'real' and Emma was ready to go 8 minutes after it started.  Luckily I sidetracked her with a coloring book but when that fun wore off it was time to leave. 





Enjoy your family~