Running!

I'm a little nervous about waking up in the morning after all the walking and running I did today. My legs are sore now and I can only imagine what they will feel like after being relaxed in one position all night. This morning the kids and I decided to take Tibbles for a walk. My oldest and youngest were on skateboards and Shay held Tibbles leash. We didn't get far when I had a brilliant idea. My friend borrowed my truck for a couple days while her van was getting worked on. She called yesterday to say it was fixed, so I decided we could walk across post to pick it up. We came back home to get some water and headed out to her house. I'm not really good at guessing distance, but I'd say it was over a mile. That's not really very far in reality, but most of the way I was practically speed walking to keep up with the skateboards.

This afternoon was pretty uneventful. We played some games and picked up around the house a little and watched some tv. My husband called on skype this afternoon which was fabulous! I love talking to him and seeing him on the computer screen. I'm so ready to see him in person, but he'll be home in God's time. What a fabulous day that will be. I can just see him now, walking off the plane and running towards me. I can hardly wait! Until then Skype will have to do... I love you baby!

Tristan had his babysitters course today through the edge program here on post. When I went to pick him up, he said he had a good time, but it was a little awkward. He ended up being the only boy there. Luckily he knew one of the girls so he had someone to sit with. He's not a shy kid by any means and he really doesn't care what other people think about him (he gets that from his dad) so I'm sure he was just fine.

This evening I had the bright idea of going for a short run. My legs were already sore from running last night and then all the walking this morning. If I keep it up though, my legs will get use to it and stop hurting. I just have to convince myself to stay motivated. I just keep telling myself that if my husband can do what he's doing than the least I can do is start running again so when he gets back I'll be able to go the distance with him. He loves it when I go running with him and since we've been here in Hawaii I haven't done much of that with him. When he gets home I'll be in shape and ready to keep him company on his runs... All for you baby!

 I loved spending so much time with my kids today. If this is any indication of how the whole summer will be, it will be a great one! The only thing missing is Trint, but you can be sure we'll be spending as much time as possible on skype with him... We can't wait to see you again baby! We love you so much!

Last Day of School

I thrive on busy days when my husband is away. It passes time so much faster than sitting at home doing nothing. As you can tell after reading all my posts, I'm definately not lacking in things to do. Today was no exception. I got a text from a friend this morning asking if I'd like to play kickball at the school with our girls 5th grade class. I admit I was a little hesitant at first, simply because I had just sat down after taking the kids to school and wasn't planning on going anywhere. It didn't take long to decide I shouldn't sit at home, and my daughter would appreciate that I took the time to spend with her. I ran upstairs to change and put my hair up and headed to the school. I'm really glad I did. My friend and I ended up spending the whole day with the class. We played kick ball, dodge ball, minute to win it, ate hot dogs and other treats, played a game that involved basketball and math, and had ice cream. During first recess I found Syd and stayed with her for a little while too. It was a good day!

After school we came home and skyped with my mom for a little while, then went to the park so the girls could play with their friends. To top off the day I went for a run while Syd rode her bike. My run was cut a little short when Syd's bike pedal fell off. I tried to put it back on, but the screw was stripped so I ended up walking a little more than I had planned. We were already on our way back home so it wasn't cut too short. That really doesn't matter anyhow. I just had fun spending a little one on one time with her.

I'm excited to see what adventures God has in store for us this summer. I know one thing for sure, my alarm will not be set to 5:30 every weekday during the summer. In fact, it will not be set at all unless something comes up on occasion. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little. Another good thing about summer is that it always flies by so fast and before we know it school will be starting up for another year. That means my husband will be home for r&r before we know it because once school starts we'll be so busy with that, that time will continue to move forward quickly. As I said before, I don't wish time to just slip away from us, I just pray for time to go quickly while my husband is away so we have him back home and our family can be together again. All in God's perfect timing though. He's always so good to us and I trust He will always do the right thing for our family. What I want isn't always for the best so I leave it all to God.

Nonstop Day

Holy toledo! Today was the busiest day yet. I was doing something from the time I woke up until now. It was a good kind of busy though. It started this morning with getting myself ready (to include shower, hair, and makeup), while making a pizza (homemade I might add, not one of those frozen ones) for one of Tristan's classes, while doing Shay's hair, while keeping Syd focused (that's the most challenging task) on getting ready. All this in just one hour and 20 minutes.

I got the middle school kids dropped off and stayed at the girls school with them for Shay's aloha ceremony. They still have one day of school left, but she has her certificate and is off to middle school with her brother next year. After the ceremony we made our way to the library for a literacy program. The kids got a copy of Charlotte's Web and we did a project after reading the first chapter with our child. I signed Shay out after that so I could take her to lunch. As we were leaving the school we noticed Syd outside with her class playing in the sprinklers. Shay wanted to go say hi to her so we did. Then we were off to Taco Bell. It was a short day at school, as it is every Wednesday, so after lunch we had to head back to the school to pick up Syd.

When we got home, we had just enough time to clean up the house a little before we had to go to Syd's theater class. Unfortunately I was so frazzled today that I got times mixed up and Syd was an hour late to class. Her teacher let her stay for the next class with the older kids. I felt terrible, but Syd didn't care and she had fun. I guess we all mess up at some point and this isn't something that is life changing so it is what it is. While she was in class I went to the office to enroll them in their classes for the summer. Syd is sticking with theater, Tristan is sticking with rock band, and Shay has decided to not only stick with cooking but to add hula. I'm so excited that Shay is finally coming out of her shell and participating in more things. She's definately growing up right before my eyes.

We came home from theater just in time for Shay and I to make blueberry struesel coffee cake and muffins for sgo. Before they were even done baking the ladies were here! YAY! We had great conversation and just a fabulous time praying and processing life together. There were only three of us tonight, but it was very productive and although I missed those that couldn't make it, God has a funny way of putting us just where we need to be at just the right moment. To top off the evening, Shay has decided to be baptized this Sunday at our church splash bash. The only reason she didn't do it in the past was her fear of going under water. After she talked with us tonight, she has decided she's ready! I can't wait for Sunday to get here! 

After my busy day, I'm now ready for bed. Nighty Night everyone!

Good night Trinity! Sweet Dreams! I love you more than all the circles! Muah! Muah! Muah! 

God's Peace

I'm going to bed tonight with sadness in my heart. It's breaking for our army families who recently lost their loved ones. I just can't even imagine what they must be going through right now. I just pray that I never have to find out first hand.

My mind is blank tonight, though somehow God is continueing to put this peace in my heart that is beyond my understanding. I would expect the recent circumstances would bring more worry to me, yet it hasn't. God is reassuring me that He's in control of everything in my life, in my families life, and that no matter what we will be okay. We have Him and that's ultimately all we need.

It's been a busy evening so I'm going to go to bed to rest up for the busy day I have tomorrow.

Note: My wireless internet stopped working last night when I was posting this and I was too tired to come down to fix it so that's why it wasn't posted last night.

Beautiful Moments

Headaches are no fun at all. Since we've been in Hawaii I get them regularly. I've heard a lot of people complain about headaches here and I'm told it's the barometric pressure. I really have no idea, but the one thing I do know is that it's annoying. I went to bed last night with a slight headache but after taking some tylenol I figured it would be gone by morning. My husband woke me up on skype around midnight and I felt fine. Perhaps that was simply because I was happy to talk to him. When I woke up this morning, it was worse. If I didn't have to get kids to school I would not have gotten out of bed when the alarm went off. However, I did have kids that needed to be at school on time so I somehow managed to get them all out the door on time. I had planned to go back to bed when I got home, but I was so wide awake that was not happening.

Despite the headache I went into Syd's room and got started cleaning. She usually does it herself, after several days of being stuck in there until it's done, but occasionally I go in and thoroughly clean it. I do that with all the kids, but expecially Syd. She's my child that keeps absolutely everything. Nothing gets thrown away, including small pieces of scrap paper. She claims that she may use it later. That's probably true with all the writing, cutting, and glueing she does, but it drives me nuts to walk in her room and see so many projects that she's started and never finished. When she walked into her room after school she was so excited. She said thank you many times and she promised to keep it clean since mommy spent her day cleaning just for her. I can't even begin to tell you how appreciative she was. It was definately worth my time to do this for her.

As slow as I was moving today, that was pretty much all I got accomplished, aside from the laundry that needed catching up. By afternoon my headache was finally completely gone, but by then I was tired. Too bad I couldn't have been tired when I had the headache. Of course then I wouldn't have gotten Syd's room done. Everything always seems to work out for the best in the end.

Tonight as I was sitting on the chair watching tv with the girls, Shay came up to me and wanted a hug. Apparently she got very comfortable because she fell asleep on my lap. Syd got the cam and snapped a picture. That's definately a moment to remember.

Today was the first time I missed a call from my husband. Not a good feeling. Regardless of the fact that he understands and it doesn't bother him, it does bother me. There isn't a whole lot I can do for him from this far away, but being here when he calls is one thing I can do. Fortunately, he called me back just a short while ago. Yay! I feel much better now!... I hope you have a good day baby! I'll talk to you again soon! I love you! Oh, and here's a picture of the roses you bought me. I waited a little too long to take the picture so they aren't at their best, but they have been beautiful and they just keep blooming! I LOVE YOU!

Kid's Church

I really don't know what to write about today. I have so many thoughts going through my head and there's so much going on in the world. Not even all of it affects me directly, but it still touches my heart. Last night and then again today, tornados have reaked havok on my home state. Last night a town south of where I grew up was devasted. Many homes were completely destroyed, businesses gone, peoples lives have been turned upside down. Then today another town was hit. I don't personally know anyone from either of these places, but I know people that do. My very best friend was born in the town that was destroyed today. She knows people that are still living there and has strong ties to the town.Relatives on my husbands side of the family lived there for several years and they also have friends that are still living there. To see the devastation in pictures and to wonder what they must be going through just breaks my heart. If you're reading this please say a prayer for everyone that has been affected by these storms.

Church this morning was great as always. We concluded the series "Heaven is for Real". It was a great one. I can't wait to see what the next series will bring. It seems that every Sunday there is something in it that I can relate to or something I need to work on. It's great how God always finds a way to get through to us. Sometimes there are things we don't even realize we need to work on or we just haven't ever thought about until it's brought up and it's like a lightbulb goes off over your head. Today is the last Sunday I have my amazing group of kids until after summer academy. During the summer we do something different with the kids. We offer them a choice between 5 classes that they can do during our summer. This year we have basketball, hula, praise and worship, water color painting, and photography. It's not grouped by age, just by catagory. At the end of summer academy we have a big family day where the kids can display their talents they have been working on. This was something new to me last year, but it was great. The kids loved it, as well as the teachers. After summer academy I'll still have my 2nd graders who will then be 3rd graders, but I'll be losing my 3rd graders because they'll be moving up to the next class. I will however be gaining some new kids that are moving up from the 1st grade. I'm excited to have new kids and to see what God has in store for them and me. One of my kids stopped me before class today and really made my day. He came to the earlier service today so he wasn't in my class, but usually I have him. He asked why I didn't teach him today. I told him it's only because he was at the earlier service and I teach later. He said, "But you're the fun teacher". What a sweet kid. I guess I must be doing something right for the kids to want to be with me. I love them all so much so that really made me happy to know I'm making a difference. The other day I had a mom tell me that her daughter didn't want to go to the early service because she wanted to be in my class. She argued with her mom about it, but she had a performance later in the day so the early service worked out better for them that Sunday. My kids are amazing and so sweet! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love teaching them!

Tonight I went back for the evening service to fill in because our co director had her son's high school graduation to attend. It was so much different in the evening. It's a relatively new thing becasue we just opened up an earlier evening service with kid's church provided. Most of the kids were newer and I had never met them before. It was a very small class of just 8 kids I think. I can't remember because I didn't actually count but it was small. They range in age from K-6th. I thought that would be a challenge in itself to keep everyone interested, but it went so smoothly. They all listened and participated and it was really a lot of fun for them and for me.

After all the busyness from the day, I'm tired so I'm going to cut this short and get myself some sleep. No more late nights for me. Yea right, we'll see how that goes with summer just around the corner. hehe Nighty Night!

Patiently Waiting

After last nights sleepover, I think it's safe to say we will not be doing that again any time soon. I spent the better part of my morning and early afternoon cleaning downstairs. I still have no idea how it happened, but there was wax and green gooey putty all over the place. The wax came from my scentsy warmer, but it's sitting in the corner of my computer desk completely out of the way. The girls shouldn't have been anywhere near it. It was splattered all over the desk and Tristans school binder is completely covered. Good thing they only have a few days left of school. I can say for sure that it is not all going to come off, but on the up side he will have the best smelling binder in school. They did try to wipe it up, but of course it dried quick so they didn't get much of it at all. Then they took the towel they tried using and put it on the island in the kitchen. There was wax shavings on the floor from point a to point b and it came off of the towel onto the island. What a mess. It took me a while to figure out what the green goo was. I asked them but didn't get a straight answer, or just didn't understand what they were trying to say. I found the container and realized it was that glow in the dark oozy stuff that for whatever reason kids love to smoosh between their fingers. It reminded me of the green ooze from teenage mutant ninja turtles toys. Don't ask why I came up with that. I never played with the turtles and I have no idea why that popped into my mind. They had rolled it up in little balls and I found the balls all over, even in Shay's hair. She had fallen asleep earlier than her friend and sister so they threw it at her. Some of it came out of her hair, but apparently just throwing it wasn't enough and someone, her sister uhhum, decided to take it a step further and smash a piece in her hair to turn it green. Not such a great idea. They had fun, or not so much, helping me clean this morning. I was not a happy momma.

Other than that I just stayed home today and did laundry. In between loads I sat around being lazy. Well, when I wasn't getting the kids meals, or running upstairs to bring my puppy, who was for some reason being very crazy today, back down the stairs, or running Shay and her friend back and forth between houses. Oh, and Shay had cooking class this afternoon and I had to run to the commissary to get some hygiene things to send my husband. Okay, so maybe I wasn't being lazy at all. I was able to watch a whole movie on lifetime this afternoon while the kids were all out playing though. I guess that's really all the time I had to be lazy. Even then I was folding clothes while I watched. I'm tired just after writing all of that. HeHe

I got to skype with my husband today. I'm so grateful that he gets ahold of me every chance he gets, if even for just a few minutes as he's passing through his room. My husband truly is the best of the best. He's the best husband, daddy and soldier. I'm so blessed to be married to such an amazing man. I love you baby and I'm so proud of what you stand for. You mean the world to me. I can't wait to have you back home with me and our kids. Just keep looking up and God will guide you through this deployment. You will be back home before you know it. I'll be waiting with my arms wide open, ready to close them around you! I love you soooo much! Muah! Muah! Muah!