Saturday, January 22, 2011

kids in the kitchen

The kids have been helping me cook a few things lately. They loved the pizzas out of english muffins. Just spread the sauce and cover it with whatever you want :)


Olives are their favorite topping.



Then we made banana cookies with Nutella frosting. So yummy!




Especially the frosting.


Here is the recipe if anyone is interested.

splish splash





Sunday, January 16, 2011

cast decorating

When Emily first got her cast on it looked so pretty and it was 2 days before Christmas so I didn't let anyone sign it. I didn't want it looking messy in photos. Now that it is about to come off we went ahead and had some fun with it.







Friday, January 7, 2011

deployment

As we were driving home from the store last week, Anika said to me, "Mama, you shouldn't take Papa to work". I asked her what she meant and she told me that I took Papa to work in the morning and he got on the bus and the bus went too far away from us. It's been over 2 months since we watched him get on that bus at 4am on a cold October morning and she thinks he could still be here if only I hadn't driven him to the base.

In many ways this deployment is going quickly. We are somewhere near halfway through it. We get to talk to Eric on a daily basis and see him on the webcam almost every day. He got to see Anika open presents on her 4th birthday and he was able to join us for gift opening at Christmas. That webcam is a must have for any military family.

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We have had some rough patches (more detail in previous post), but nothing us girls can't handle. The girls have days when they talk about their papa and whine a little that he's not here and how much they miss him. I have days when I listen to the kind of music that fits my mood and don't even bother getting out of my pjs.



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Other days we just stay busy, have fun, and go about our daily routine like nothing is different. This week is a little bit hard. We are sick so no story time at the library or playgroup with friends to distract us. We can't play at the playground until Emily's cast is off (9 more days!). Maybe we'll paint in the backyard or pop popcorn and watch a movie :)

I'll end with a bit of military wife humor. I didn't write these, but there are variations all over the internet and I don't know who did to give them credit.

You know your husband is deployed when...

You cook something one night and the leftovers are still there in the morning

You find yourself carrying home a stack of those customs forms from the post office because you know you'll need them later

You only shave your legs when you think someone might see them


You get excited about "unknown" phone numbers calling you


You've exhausted every idea you could ever have about what to put in a box


You walk outside to get the mail and immediately run back in to get your cellphone

You enjoy weekdays more than weekends because you don't like watching other families


You lose all concept of time and/or day of the week, all you know is "x-ish" number of days until he's home

 

You go to the bathroom, in the middle of the night, with the lights out, and the toilet seat is still down

You see a couple kissing in the supermarket and immediately run to the tools section to find a sledgehammer...

 

You check your email every 15 minutes

You know what a "freedom 'stache" is...and secretly hate them


You save messages he has left on the answering machine just to hear his voice at a later time

 
You only have one load of laundry to do - and it doesn't contain any PT clothes

You're already trying to decide what to wear on the day he comes home - and that's within five minutes of when he left
  
Every time you go to check the time, you do math in your head to figure out what time it is over there 

 

Monday, January 3, 2011

December

I have mixed feelings about this last December. It started out great in the first few days. I was planning a trip to Oregon to spend Christmas with my family and I was going to surprise them all with the news that we were expecting our third child. On the 3rd, the day I was 8 weeks pregnant, there was a tiny pink spot. On the 4th there was more bleeding, but still not heavy so I went to the ER to ask for an ultrasound. I spent all day there and all they told me was that everything looked good for me being 5 and a half weeks and my dates must have been off. I know my dates so I knew the baby had stopped developing before 6 weeks. I did a lot of crying that weekend and my little Emily patted my back. These are the times it is hard to have a husband who is deployed. I had to share the news that I was pregnant over the internet and the news that I wasn't anymore over the phone.

On the 8th I boarded a flight to Oregon.


It went well until both kids ears started to hurt on our second flight's landing and they both screamed at me. I was so happy to see my brother and sister waiting for us after all that. The next afternoon the little baby left my body after days of cramping and bleeding. My brother was kind enough to go out in the pouring rain to bury the little one under a rhododendron bush for me. My mom had been through this before and it was comforting to not be alone.

The next week passed quickly. They were full of visiting and shopping and I even found time for a coffee and pedicure with my cousin and finally got to see the new Harry Potter movie. Then on the evening of December 17th Emily broke her leg. She is a prime example of why kids shouldn't play on coffee tables. Because it was the weekend and then the week before Christmas it took until the 23rd to get a cast on her leg.


Once she had the cast on there were less complaints of pain and she quickly learned how to get around. She was even climbing up and down stairs. While I took care of Emily's leg Anika got to go play in the snow with her cousins and grandparents.



We had a fun Christmas Eve with Eric's parents and sisters. Eric was able to get online and watch as everyone opened their gifts that evening. The next morning we went to my parents' home for more.



 Emily slept through most of the gift opening.


She woke up just before lunch and opened her presents before eating.




On the evening of the 29th we headed home. Thankfully my sister-in-law had a double stroller she needed to get rid of because a midnight layover with 2 sleepy girls in pjs would have been nearly impossible without it. Especially with Emily unable to get far on her own. We made it home at 4am on the 30th and are slowly getting back into our normal routine. The girls and I also had head colds for the entire month of December and Emily broke my "shockproof" camera by hitting the table with it. After that emotional roller coaster of a month I am hoping for a smooth and quick first month of the new year as we impatiently await Eric's return.