Fishing

Edward has been trying to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids.  He took Luke hunting (no pictures because it was dark and cold, but they are going to go again).  He took Madison ice skating, and he took Alex fishing.  Alex has been wanting to go fishing forever.  He's never been before, but he got a fishing pole for Christmas and hasn't stopped talking about it since.  Edward told Alex he would take him fishing, and finally, the time came.

 Edward caught one on his pole right away, and he let Alex reel it in.

Then, Alex caught one on his pole!  Yea Alex!!!

 After that, nothing.

 Alex did find some geese.

So, he chased them.

Our Feast

Since Edward missed Thanksgiving and Christmas, I promised I would make him a "holiday" meal when he returned.  He said the food they were served on both holidays was ok, but nothing great.  So, tonight, I made his big meal.  I decided to call the dinner Festivus from Seinfeld. George's dad made up the holiday on the sitcom and made George, Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer come over to celebrate it.  Edward said they watched the Seinfeld series while in Afghanistan, so it was even more appropriate.  We had a great Festivus, complete with turkey (Luke's favorite), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (Edward's favorite), green bean casserole, deviled eggs, cranberries (Madison's favorite), Jello (Alex's favorite), and rolls.  I do have to say that it was delicious.  Happy Festivus  :)

Local Fruits and Veggies

A few weeks ago, I found out about Carolina Grown, a local door to door fruit, veggie, and "other" service.  It's basically like a Farmer's Market delivered to your door.  Each week, you log onto their site, order your stuff, and it comes on Saturday.  What I like is that it's all local, grown here in NC (or baked).  Fayetteville doesn't have a great Farmer's Market, etc., but most of the stuff I ordered comes from around the Raleigh area.  Right now, even with very few fruits and veggies available, they have a lot of greenhouse grown stuff, including the strawberries. They buy from a lot of different farmers, local bakeries, etc.  Last week, the strawberries came around 2:00, and they were all eaten (two cartons) by 4:00.  This is my order for this week:  sweet potatoes, red potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, French rolls, and sourdough bread.  We're still trying things out (especially the different bread), but we're very excited for the fruit and veggie season to really pick up soon.  We're almost out of my local Yuma honey I bought at our church's farmer's market (held weekly during the winters when we lived there), so I'm sure I'll be ordering some of their local honey in the next week or two. 

Outnumbered through Pizza

I make a lot of homemade pizzas here, and the kids really have cared too much about toppings until lately.  We used to make a lot of our pizzas with sausage, which is still a favorite topping, but I'm quickly being outnumbered. I'm a "traditional" type of pizza girl.  Give me anything like pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, olives, tomatoes, etc, and I'll eat about any combo of that.  However, Edward enjoys chicken and pineapple.  Yuck to me.  Well, while he was deployed, the kids developed a love of chicken and pineapple on their pizza too.  I have to partly blame Rudinos, a favorite local pizza place. They run a "made to order" buffet at lunch, and my kids have started eating those weird toppings there.  So, now my version of our homemade pizzas are becoming less and less desired by the family.  I am down to less than a quarter of the pizza with the normal stuff.  The rest of the pizza is becoming the "other" stuff.  I guess making two pizzas, anyways, with the kids eating so much, is in the future.  Then, maybe I can enjoy normal pizza.  I need some normal pizza eaters to join me.

Ice Skating

Madison has wanted to go ice skating for awhile.  Now, while I am daring enough to do many things with three kids alone, ice skating wasn't one of them (although we did go roller skating).  Edward took Madison for a day out to Fort Bragg's ice rink.  They had a  blast.

Madison had never been on ice skates before.

 She was able to use one of these for awhile to build her confidence.

 Quickly, she moved on to skating alone.

 Edward said she did really well, and she's already asking to go back.  I love to ice skate too, so hopefully, I'll get to go next time.

January Terrific Kid

Madison came home last week with a notice that she had been selected as a "Terrific Kid" for the month of January.  It's basically a "Student of the Month" for her class.  The school holds an awards' ceremony each month for those selected.  Each teacher selects one child.  To go along with that, each month has a theme, and I learned that January is "Self Control," so the children selected were thought to demonstrate exceptional self control.

 The ceremony was held this afternoon in their gymnasium.  I can't tell you how much I love this school.  It's brand new, state of the art, and the staff is fantastic. Love, love, love it, and I am so happy my daughter is in love with it too.  These are all the kids selected. There are approximately five classes per grade level, so there were a decent amount of kids, including one of our neighbors.  Madison waits at the bus stop every morning with her friend Laura (also a first grader), and she won for her class.

 She was so glad I came.  It looked liked she had been to battle with her outfit, though.  She went with a cute sweater on too and hair looking slightly better, but hey, it doesn't matter.

Here she is with her principal, who gave her the award.  He's a really nice man, and he does a great job with those kids.

The comments written by the kids' teachers were read as they received their awards.  Madison's teacher said, "Madison is a caring student who works hard every single day to do her best.  She chooses to do what is right even when no one is looking.  By showing self-control, Madison is a Terrific Kid!"

The irony in the ceremony is that afterwards, the kids were treated to punch and cookies.  One of the fifth graders walked away with five or six cookies...good self control, haha.

Good work, kiddo!  We are so proud of you.

The Potty Training Promise

Alex is now two and a half, and we've been working on potty training for awhile.  Now, as my third child, I have had experience with potty training and know much of it is being on "their schedule" and not mine, relatively speaking.  I would often ask Alex when he would stop wearing diapers, and would hear "when Daddy comes home." 

Well, we are on Day 5 of no diapers (except at night, and he's even been getting up then on his own to go), and he's doing great!  He's been to church and to preschool with no mishaps, and we are so excited!  For the first time in almost seven years, the end of diapers is in sight!!!! 

I'm just glad Alex is a man of his word  :)

Home

Two tough bins, a full duffel, laptop, and a ruck (ruck had to go in my car), not to mention what is still at the office

Alex says the stuff is home to stay.

 Gifts from Afghanistan...scorpion and camel spider

Edward kept asking me if I was sure this would be a good gift.  It was.

 One of the locals gave these bracelets to Edward for helping him out.

 An Afghan girl's outfit, so beautiful and perfect for Madison

My house was clean, but that's okay :)

An empty jar...so long and until next time.

A homemade red velvet cake, Edward's favorite 

-Edward had to ask me for a toothbrush and soap because he didn't know where I had them stored.

-Alex has been sporatic with the potty and kept telling me he would start being a "big boy" when Daddy came home.  He hasn't had an accident since Friday.

The Last Six Months

Kids-
-Madison started first grade and completed half the year while Edward was gone.
-Madison learned how to ride the bus, buy her lunch, make new friends, start at a new school, and be an independent kid. 
-Madison is six years old, and this is her fourth school (two preschools and two elementary).
-Madison played soccer.
-Luke started Pre-K
-Luke played soccer.
-Luke is four years old, and this is his second preschool.
-Alex started preschool.
-Alex was two (enough said).
-Alex got rid of his pacifiers.
-Alex stopped using a toddler bedrail.
-Alex broke the minvan's dvd player by sticking two dvds in it.  While I tried to get it fixed a few times, we finally found a guy to fix it yesterday (thank goodness!!).
-Luke and Alex each grew over four inches while Edward was gone, blasting through clothing and shoes.
-When Edward left, Luke was wearing a size 9 shoe.  He now wears an 11.  When Edward left, Alex was wearing a size 7 shoe and now wears a 9.
-Madison grew two inches and moved up two shoe sizes.
-Madison LOVES school and is learning Mandarin Chinese, reading long chapter books on her own, and has a better grasp on geography than many adults due to her dad's and our overall family's travels.
-Luke started using the computer and is really good with it.
-Our kids are true Army kids in every way.
-We each ate 184 Hershey kisses out of our kiss jar.

Holidays-
-We celebrated Halloween (pouring down rain).
-We celebrated Thanksgiving with my in laws.
-We celebrated Christmas all over.  My parents came to eat with us on Christmas Day.  We drove to -Tennessee, and we drove to Wilmington.
New Years was in Wilmington.


Household-
-Unpacked 17,000 pounds of our household goods (because we had just moved)
-Finished painting 3600 sq. feet of our house (Edward and I had started before he left)
-Painted baseboards for the whole house
-Installed (by myself) all new locks/deadbolts (former owners didn't leave the keys)
-Built two vegetable gardens outside and grew vegetables, even though we moved in the summer (thanks for helping with that, Mom)
-Put in gardens around the house
-Mowed yard a lot (about every five days), which doesn't sound like a big deal until you have three kids trying to "help"
-Put down 175 pieces of sod
-Had storm/screen door installed (I know my limits)
-Put shelving up in the garage
-Organized/reorganized every square inch of this house
-Hung all the pictures
-Put up curtains on all windows
-Had electrician here three times (again, I know my limits)
-Had my dad move three fans and a chandelier around to fit our setup (thanks for that, Dad)
-Had the closet collapse of '11 (all of the master bedroom shelving came crashing down on Labor Day weekend because the builder had not put it in the studs and previous owners didn't live here much)...Thankfully, my in-laws were here to help with that mess.  James, thanks for the help.
-Moved couch and loveseat upstairs when new one that was on backorder for four months came (thanks for the help, Mom and Dad)

Travel-
-We went to the beach in Georgia with Edward's family in July.
-We drove up to Baltimore in August to visit my college roommate, Jen, and her family.
-We were able to attend a deployed family retreat in Charleston, SC.
-We made five trips to Raleigh.
-We attended my niece's birthday party in Charlotte.
-We visited Nana and Pop in Tennessee two times.
-We made countless trips to Wilmington.
-We went to the zoo, beach, and other attractions.
-I put over 13,000 miles on the cars.

Visitors-
Thanks for coming to see us and help while Edward was gone.  You have no idea how much it meant to me:
-Mom and Dad (many times)
-Jean Ann and James (many times and one of them always left a pair of sandals??)
-Clay (by himself, who also left a pair of sandals??) and then again with Karen, Weston, and dog, Lucy
-Angie and Baby Chase (good friend from med school days)
-Sara and crew (two playdates while moving to Florida...very good friends from Yuma, and we were in Bible Study there together)
-Elizabeth and crew for another playdate (another good friend from Yuma, in town over Christmas visiting family)

The Community-
-The kids and I joined our church.
-I found a Sunday School class.
-The kids and I attended the Wednesday Night Dinners offered at our church.
-I started going to a Monday Morning Bible Study at church with a lot of older ladies, but all very, very sweet.
-I tried to go to Protestant Women of the Chapel, but that was a nightmare, as they asked me to leave.  I had Alex with me since their childcare was full, and they told me the class I was assigned to was a "no kids" class.  You can guess I didn't go back.
-Harris Teeter's Express Lane rocks.  I am very grateful for a service where I can order my groceries, pull up, and they load them.  Mom of three kids with deployed husband says PRICELESS.
-We still went out to eat every Sunday after church.  Sometimes it was crazy.
-We attended Madison's school skate nights (interesting with three kids).
-I made a couple of friends (and one is already getting ready to PCS).
-We had a few friends over for playdates.
-I have not found a babysitter.  The kids were always with me.  There were three nights this whole deployment I DIDN'T put my kids in bed, and all three times either my parents or in-laws did.  Once, I was at a kids' consignment sale.  Once I was in Wilmington running errands, and once I was in Tennessee taking Madison to the movies.  The no babysitter was very hard.

Here-
-It was lonely.
-It was lonely.
-It was lonely.
-Moving and an immediate deployment is much harder than anyone can imagine.
-I had to have our loving cat of 10 years put down on Thanksgiving.
-My grandfather died the week of Christmas.
-Looking back, no one here in the community ever invited us over for a dinner, brought us anything, etc.  That's weird to me since I try to be the opposite and help anyone when possible.
-The kids had a lot of ups and downs.
-The kids had a lot of crying and "missing Daddy" moments.
-We had a lot of laughs too.
-People kept telling me I was "lucky" it wasn't "that long" (seriously????).
-People told me "that's what you should expect when you marry someone in the military.
-We NEVER had to go to the doctor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now, my kids had a few colds and such, but what a blessing, nothing major.  I know to stay out of the doctor's office to avoid getting sick  :) The worst we had was that Alex ran a fever for six days. Four days into it, we had been traveling and it was a weekend, I called one of Edward's friends' here, and he had us stop by his house on a Saturday to confirm (as I thought by his behavior) no ear infection, but just a virus.
-The least amount of sleep I got was about two hours (night he left), and the most was maybe seven hours (if I was lucky).  Average was about five hours, not for lack of wanting more.
-Now, six months of sleep deprivation and worry is hitting hard.
The kids and I had good days, and we had bad days.  We laughed, and we cried.  We loved the times we could Skype with Edward.  We prayed. We prayed. We prayed, and we prayed more.

We started this deployment in the dark of night with 100 degree weather.  We ended in the dark of night, very cold, and rainy.

I will never, ever forget seeing that plane roll by us with Edward on it. 

It's so sad to see a hanger full of kids waiting for their (mainly dads) to come home.  Military wives, no matter what walk of life they come from, are some of the strongest people you could ever meet.

Thanks to friends who would text, email, and call.  I needed all of them.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our family and was there for us in so many different ways.  I have so many friends in faraway places, and the little notes, etc. that you would email and send meant so much.  I know I am probably forgetting someone or something.  Please know I am very grateful for everyone and everything during this deployment.  I wish I could say it will be our last, but such is life in the military.

The End of a Deployment

It finally ended yesterday.

I hung this, by myself, in the pouring rain, but it was totally worth it.

Madison and Luke, heading into the hanger, with banner in hand.  It was still really raining, late, and cold.

Our banner

A huge flag!

It's quite an awesome sight to see a flag this big.

Waiting...waiting...waiting.  Once we got there, they announced another delay, so we had to wait awhile.

Then, the moment came.  They opened the hanger doors to the flight line.

Ready with their sign

We were all very excited.

It was really dark, and we could all hear the plane land.  It was a huge one, and you could hear it taxi well before we could see it (ironic since it was so big).  Then, we finally got it in our sights.

This was such an awesome sight for all of us.  That huge aircraft went right in front of us, and it was really, really awesome to know our soldiers were on it.

It's really hard to get in pictures the size of this aircraft.  The sound was unbelievable.

Waiting

Waiting a long time...they had a lot to do with the plane before they got off, including customs (again), etc.

Finally, here they come!!!!

Closer

Looking for Daddy, highest rank and last off.

Finally here

 Waiting for instructions at the hanger

 One VERY happy boy

 Listening to instructions

This little guy is very glad his daddy is home.