Friday, January 22, 2010

Expressions of a child

Today and the last few weeks have been good. There has been some sickness, some ear tube and adenoids surgery but all and all ~ considering my bestest friend is 1,000's of miles a way in a very hostile area - we are doing good. I have been keeping myself WAY busy which is good and bad - it is all work - church, freelance, friends - but my thought is, better take it now and then in a bit there will be nothing. So today after a week of 3-5 hours of sleep a night I decided to take the day off - today is my Saturday and it is great because that means I still have 2 days in the weekend! So, no work at all today and we will get back at it tomorrow. Today there were some funny things that Landon and Zach said so I thought this would be a good place to try to remember them....Enjoy!

* In a conversation at the dinner table - Landon randomly starts asking how we make the insides of a strawberry which leads to a discussion on God that had a little something like this in it . . . Landon-"So God is not 'who-man' he is just God." - That's right my big boy God is all that and more for he is God and he created all things and will never die!

* Started the Biggest Loser Challenge at my church this past Wednesday - today we are taking a walk/wagon ride down to the bay to enjoy this beautiful weather - for a moment I thought I may be raising a Bob off Biggest Loser (isn't that his name?) as Landon walks behind me and as I pull the wagon loaded with 2 kids and 2 shovels says rather loudly - not exactly yelling - "Walk Faster!" He had no idea I was exercising and enjoying them so I tell him yea mommy does need to go faster since I am exercising and he said he was exercising, too for soccer. I guess this is so funny since this is my child that looks at my belly and says in a desperate voice - Mom, when are you going to exercise! He even wanted to know how fast he would be able to see me lose weight - he better be glad he is only an innocent 4!!!

* Coming back from our bay outing I ask the boys what they want for dinner to which Landon so maturely said, "I wanted crab but I couldn't catch any". That boy - he had asked at first for me to put his swimsuit on so he could go in the water and get the big crabs like he has done once with my dad and Mike.

* Zach had surgery today and never wakes good from anesthesia - so he is a rather unpleasant person for the first 15 minutes or more. The nurse tries to make him happy by turning on the tv - of course all they have is Barney in our room and I say oh Barney will be just fine - knowing in the back of my head he was going to disagree. Barney comes on and his blood pressure still doesn't drop in fact he starts crying more and says "No Barney! No Barney! I go home!" Guess I can't blame him to much, but it is amazing a popsicle didn't do the trick, but changing to the Cars movie worked magic!

I am sure there are more and I love writing them down to look back at later. More to come . . .

Oh on a side note - I had a free Krispy Kreme coupon this morning so I got one for Zach and I was so proud of myself that I did not indulge at all!!! As I walked back to the car so proud of myself I thought this is crazy I am so excited and getting so much joy from me doing something that would of given me 5 bites of satisfaction plus feeling guilty.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Happy New Year

Well December came and went fighting all the way and I am happy to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Even though I can not manage to write 10 or 2010 on anything I date - it seems as though January has been here for a while - but the first week has treated us well. Michael flew out on the 1st heading to Afghanistan and just today has made it. As he sends me stuff that may sound interesting to all the readers I will post it - and here is his first since he has actually made it to his post as he is working with/in support of the army. What an experience!

from Michael Saturday, Jan 8 ~
I am here safe and sound. I got over 12 hours of sleep last night and feel great. I got to in process the morning at a different Camp and then convoy here. It is just like you read in every book about a third world nation. Donkeys being used as cars and work the fields. The scariest thing I saw today was a 6ish year old boy driving. The rule here is...if you have a car, you can drive it. All of the roads in town are paved but most are being worked on. When you get out of town you get to go onto unpaved roads or roads that may as well not be paved. I have to say, the training that we get for convoys goes out the window when you are here...the new rules for here is..drive and drive fast. The good news that I was told today is that I will not convoy with the group every time...but only when I have business on a different base. Much better then what I thought before. Well, I hope to get some pictures out soon of the area..the Mountains are beautiful.

Maybe I can convince him to start his own little update blog to post humorous things he sees and pictures. If you know Mike you know it probably won't happen, but definitely something to work towards :)

As for the family back in Florida - our first week has gone well. Little Landon had a meltdown at the airport, but since then things have been good - it helps that Michael has traveled so much, but I do think they will get inpatient in just a few weeks. Landon has been planning his birthday since the day he turned 4 last Feb, but now we are talking about it a lot and he questioned this morning if dad would be there. I told him no and he said he would send him an invitation as if that would change everything :) Tyler has been sick, but doesn't really act like it - I thought an ear infection that turns out to be RSV - an upper respiratory infection - long story on that since I took him to one unnamed doc on base (not Dr. nation - we love her!) and he said his chest congestion was fine about a month ago, but the positive is we have it taken care of now with antibiotics, steroids and breathing treatments and he really never got terribly sick, just uncomfortable for several nights of rest. Zach is well Zach and besides fighting me with potty training is growing, playing being all boy! I have lots of photos to catch everyone up with from Christmas to Michael's departure and our first week - the weather here in Florida is BRRRR, but my facebook friends up north say for me to hush - currently at 8 am it is 25-feels like 16 - I THINK that is a cold Florida day especially since I took a pic of an ice covered plant outside this morning!!!

Happy New Year to each of you - you have a choice, make yourself miserable or wake up planning to make the most of your day - for me December was quite honestly terrible and so for January I choose the later and so far it is working - nothing extraordinary, but just being able to enjoy my days - Besides the fact that Michael is gone I really have nothing to be so unpleasant or unhappy about - What about you - are you blessed beyond measure for the most part? Sure - life may not be exactly what we were thinking or wanting at this moment -- but it's all about the big picture. So be blessed in 2010!!!