Smelling Good…
June 29, 2009 | Filed Under Eliza Dove, Musings, Uncategorized | 16 Comments
Last week while in Walmart I bought Judah some “Boy” body wash. The same one that Daniel uses, Dial “Magnetic” (you know I razzed him about the magnetic part every day!).
Today I saw the bottle sitting on the shelf while I was in the shower. I totally used some.
I catch a whiff of myself every once in awhile and it’s a comforting smell. You won’t laugh at me for smelling like a guy, will you?
What a great idea…!
June 27, 2009 | Filed Under Daniel, Love songs, Lovers, Photos | 7 Comments
Pioneer Woman posted a photo of her husband today. It was a photo portraying how her husband truly looks to her.
Sigh.
I had already been in a wistfully romantic mood anyways this evening… it all started with listening to our wedding song a few times while out running an errand. There is something about this song that moves me way down deep.
So, when I read Ree’s post and saw her photo, I knew just what photo I would use to describe how Daniel looks to me.
His love for me is the emotion in his eyes. He loves me completely and there could never be anyone else for me.
This photo, coupled with the gorgeous gravely voiced of Marc Cohn singing True Companion, coupled with the thousands and thousands of miles currently between Daniel and I, makes me wistfully lost in the memory of dancing on our wedding night, under the stars as this song swirled around us.
I need him. I want him. I will wait for him.
(This is our current song: Faithfully by Journey. Just need to change the words “music man” to “military man” and you have us.) (Steve Perry is my absolute favorite artist and I will never ever change my mind.) (Have you ever heard him sing When you love a woman?)(Sigh. I really miss my husband.)
Rootin’ for Team Air Force
June 27, 2009 | Filed Under Eliza Dove, Military Life, Photos | 2 Comments
Eliza was rootin’ for our team tonight.
It’s awful nice that her eyes match our beloved Air Force blue.
Go team Air Force!
Friday Night Cupcakes
June 26, 2009 | Filed Under At the In-laws, Photos, Recipe | 10 Comments
Made dessert for my mother-in-law’s church meeting tonight. My simple (dairy and egg-free) chocolate oil cake was the cupcake base.
Ground some sugar (in the gorgeous evening sun) for a light and fluffy (the secret is adding a 1/4 cup of whipping cream to the butter/sugar mixture) vanilla buttercream frosting.
Topped the frosted cupcakes with strawberries… added a couple mint leaves on the side. Because everyone knows fancy cupcakes taste better.
Quintessential summer time fare.
Who’s that lady?
June 25, 2009 | Filed Under Real life Blogger Meet-ups! | 25 Comments
(Photo taken by none other than Judah)
No. Not the one with the ginormous root growth and the big cheesy smile. The one behind her.
Can you tell me?
Hint: She’s a blogger. (Well, hello Captain Obvious!)
Here’s my second question… Of all the blogs you read, who would you most like to meet up with in real life? For me…. it would be YOU! (And I have met a lot of you, actually. I love it more each time I do!)
5 days into 7
June 22, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Photos | 17 Comments
We are on day 5 of a 7 day road trip from New Mexico to New York. Tonight I am writing from a TLF room on Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. It’s been quite the trip so far; very challenging but I didn’t expect anything less. The hardest part has been yesterday and today but only because Daniel has been traveling to his new base and we have zero communication. Things will improve, I know. We will settle into our new normal soon enough. I can’t wait for that, for the kids sake.
Daniel’s deployment is around 26 weeks long which gave me a great idea. I decided to buy some big, cardboard alphabet letters from Lakeshore, a bulletin board, and some paint to decorate with. The kids and I are going to take one letter a week and work our way through the alphabet. We will eat foods that start with that week’s letter, do activities, go places, take pictures of things that begin with the letter, decorate the board with that week’s souvenirs… you know, generally wear the crap out of the letter.
I think it will be a good way to have some great fun and mark the time without making six months feel too terribly long. We have been brainstorming already and are really looking forward to starting in.
As far as the here and now, tomorrow we are headed to Cleveland. We will make a stop in Columbus for some stocking up at Trader Joe’s and one last Costco trip (sniff.). One more night in a hotel room (after tonight, of course) and then we will have reached Nana and Bubba’s house. It will be nice to have a place to relax in for a few days. My great grandfather died a couple of days ago so we will be heading up to New York a little bit sooner than expected, for the memorial service. I am so very sad that I can’t get a bone-crushing hug from him ever again, but I am overwhelmed with happiness that he is whole again. He can hear! He can walk! He can run! He can see my great grandmother! We have hope, indeed. And that is to see him again someday.
I will leave you with a few pictures and words from the last five days…
Saying good-bye to Daddy. It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure.
My girl being an “imp”… she’s a card, that one!
I turn around to see… the second “imp” spraying the third “imp.”
I love this girl and her obsession with puddles. We were moments from walking into our hotel room for the night when she walked into this puddle. No scoldings just laughter. And pictures, because why not?
Proof that we were actually at the St. Louis zoo yesterday. It was so stinkin’ humid that I didn’t have the energy to take out my camera. This was taken on the way out when I knew there was the promise of some water-free air coming my way! We are use to the DRY New Mexico heat. This humidity is a whole new bird!
For whatever reason, Judah has been pretending to be a butterfly these last few days. So you can imagine his excitement when we walked into the butterfly atrium of the St. Louis zoo. Ecstatic. You wouldn’t believe how much effort and self-control it took for three year old Judah to not touch this butterfly.
It was enormously hard but he didn’t touch that butterfly. I was so proud of him. He did almost squish a caterpillar though. Poor thing saw his very life pass before his eyes. I convinced to Judah to leave him in the nice dirt… boys and bugs. Such a fascinating relationship!
Cleveland or bust….!
My Lighthouse.
June 20, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment | 9 Comments
*Wrote this on my Deployment Blog originally. But, after re-reading it, thought it fit better over here…
I was walking down the main aisle to the “milk” section of Whole Foods this evening when it occurred to me that I had just smiled.
My smile was directed at some happy little family; three kids, a mom, and a dad. They were out grocery shopping at Whole Foods just like my family does on occasion. A smile shouldn’t be anything too special, but to me, it was.
I wondered in the weeks leading up to Daniel leaving if I would indeed smile and laugh during the deployment. I closely watched my friends whose husbands were deployed… Did they smile? Did they laugh? Were they happy?
And I found that, yes, they did smile. And they laughed too. But the smiles just didn’t quite reach their eyes; the sparkle wasn’t all the way there. And their laughter wasn’t quite as true.
I wondered all of this because being with Daniel is when I am the most happy. It’s when I laugh the hardest, the loudest, the truest. My smiles are almost always directed towards him. We share secret smiles from secret jokes. We smile knowingly at each other over something funny or clever that the kids do. We smile at each other because it’s another way of saying “I love you” without having to use words.
And that man makes me laugh. He makes me laugh like nobody else in the world can. I love hearing him recount the days events to me because he knows just how to entertain me. And he gets me. He knows how to make me feel like I am alive.
Realizing this evening that I had smiled made me feel sad and happy simultaneously. There is nothing more that I want than to be with him. He is my lighthouse. But I am glad to know that I can smile, that I can laugh, that I can be happy. It just hurts to know that I am not smiling and laughing because of him. And knowing that there is this big gap in our life together that can never be patched or made whole in some way. We will always have this space of time where our memories separate and our lives don’t match up.
So far…
June 19, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment | 19 Comments
I am too tired to compose a well written post so bullet statements are going to have to do…
*The stress of: a cross-country move coupled with a deployment coupled with three small children coupled with a base housing house inspection… is brutal.
* I have really fantastic friends who know exactly how it feels to move, have your husband deploy, and have small kids. So thankful for them.
* Saying good-bye to my husband for six months broke my heart.
*Driving cross-country with three small children is a wonderful distraction.
*My kids are amazing little travelers. Amazing.
*My heart feels every mile that separates Daniel and I.
*Hawthorne Suites in Wichita Texas…. thumbs down. I think the desk clerk for the overnight shift was a twelve year old. And no crib or cot? Seriously, c’mon.
* I totally fell in love with Oklahoma. I would live there in a second. Beautiful, wide open spaces but it’s green and has an occasional hill. I even think I saw, gasp, mountains! This New Mexico livin’ girl’s eyes almost couldn’t believe it!
*Totally digging the midwest. The heat is wonderful. The humidity is a welcome change.
*I have curly hair again!
*The base pool at Tinker AFB leaves much to be desired. The attendants were super nice though!
*I am so happy to be driving a truck. Everything about it rocks my world.
*Amazon is on my black list for the second time in five years. They totally screwed us on a toneau cover for “Ruby” the truck. Hearing Daniel tell the customer service guy, in no uncertain terms, “Here’s what your going to do for me” might have eased the pain a little bit.
*Comfort suites in Wichita Kansas (we went from Wichita Texas to Wichita Kansas yesterday) is beautiful. I wish every hotel we stay in on this trip could be like this.
*Daniel made Tech Sgt. yesterday! So proud of him. He took that (really difficult) promotion test while taking 4 other intense finals all in 3 days time. Remember that 16 credit semester he just finished? He received all A’s. My man is cah-razy smart. I love that.
*Having my mom accompany me on this big trip from New Mexico to New York has been a lifesaver.
*Mocha Cappuccino by Bolt house Farms… also a lifesaver.
*I’ve driven over a tarantula and a rattlesnake in the last two days.
Got to go… it’s on to Kansas City today! Catch ya later.
Deployment Blog Link
June 16, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment Blog | Comments Off
Deep sigh.
I am hesitant to put a link to my deployment blog on here. And I don’t know why.
I will never have the comments open; I don’t give a crap if anyone ever reads this blog; I haven’t minced words and I am not about to start… It’s just so personal.
But, I know that there are other women who want to know that they are not alone during deployment times. Just how I am like a moth to a flame when it comes to reading other blogs of women going through a deployment…. we need each other. It’s hard and it’s lonely and we need to not feel like a lone ship tossing around in the waves during a storm. Our feelings are not ours alone. They are shared amongst a throng of military wives.
So, should you want to read my angsty pre-deployment syndrome filled posts… here you go:
The beginning is here.
Have I ever told you the (famous) crib story?
June 16, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Eliza Dove, Judah, Musings, Photos | 15 Comments
I’ve been cold-hearted with preparing for this move. I’ve thrown away, given away, generally gotten rid of… precious baby clothes, cards and letters, drawings from my kids, my high school diploma, a beloved hockey stick, the toy box, luggage, the rocking chair I nursed all three kids in, pottery… you name it, I’ve gotten rid of it.
But the one thing that broke my heart to leave behind was Eliza’s crib. Maybe the reason is because I know she’s my last baby and she is still little enough to need her crib. Or maybe because she adores her crib. Perhaps because it signifies that we are really leaving; the crib was the last piece of furniture to go.
Either way, I about lost it when Daniel started disassembling. Poor Eliza kept trying to lay on it. And when that didn’t work, she tried putting it back together. I had to leave the room.
The funny thing is, the crib was free; it held no long-standing, sentimental value other than it was my sweet baby girl’s place to lay her head.
The story of how I came to be the owner of this particular crib is a slightly interesting and totally providential…
Judah was still using his crib when I was pregnant and nearly due with Eliza. Daniel and I had waited on obtaining a crib until the last minute in hopes that Judah would be ready for a regular bed. But, reaching that milestone was not to be and I was not going to push him. As a woman about to pop with her third baby in four years, I desperately needed my son to continue with his good napping schedule!
One cold, rainy Sunday afternoon in December I headed to the Once Upon a Child store we had in Williston, Vermont in search of a crib. I was walking up to the door of the store when I noticed someone was trying to get my attention. I turned and saw a man waving his arms in the air while getting out of his car; as he got closer he (somewhat desperately) asked me if I needed a crib. Apparently my pregnant belly gave me away. I (skeptically) said yes, indeed I did need a crib. He told me the store had too many cribs and wouldn’t take the one he had brought in to sell. And if he brought it back home his wife was going to “kill him.”
We walked around to his trunk so he could show me the crib… it was beautiful, simple, and best of all, had a drawer underneath. Oh was that man ever grateful when I said that I would be happy to take the crib. I think that maybe he wasn’t lying about his wife….! He loaded everything up into my trunk and as he was walking away he enthusiastically informed me that it was a famous crib. Ooh, la, la! I’m not one that is much interested in fame and such but apparently this particular crib had been used by his friend’s baby. And his friend was the drummer for the band Phish. I tried to act impressed though I am sure I fell short.
All I know is that I loved that crib, famous or not. I remember standing next to it watching my tiny baby girl sleep. She was so little and the crib so big. Now she takes up about half of the bed! So why did we get rid of it? Well, once we move back to New Mexico from New York, Eliza will be two and I’m sure, ready for a regular bed.
Sigh.
These kids… they just insist on growing up, don’t they? Little stinkers….
An update of sorts
June 15, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Eliza Dove, Military Life, Photos | 26 Comments
Well….
I’m still here.
That’s good, right?
Even better…. so is Daniel. But only for a few more days.
My house is empty. E-m-p-t-y. The kids love it because they can race around the rooms without bumping into anything, plus… their voices echo. And, whoa. Is it ever loud! My poor neighbors.
Today is cleaning. And cleaning. And more cleaning. We worked on it a bunch last night but today is going to be a lot of hard work. These base housing final inspections are nothing to sneeze at. Next time I am definitely hiring someone to do the dirty work. Literally.
I guess one never realizes how dirty the house is until you have to take a tooth brush to the baseboards.
Wednesday is my last day here; and actually, I leave in morning, so it’s more of a half a day. I pick up my mom at the airport in Lubbock, 2:30 Texas time and we head north. I know you are praying for me and it means so much. It’s going to be hard for me to walk away from Daniel. I don’t know how I am going to do it, to be honest.
Sometimes, I question if it is all worth it. I am sure that puts me in the category of “Bad Military Wife.” But, it’s true, sometimes I just don’t know.
Well, before I get all angsty on you I will go. Thanks for being my friend and for sticking with me through the ups and downs!
One more thing…
I thought maybe some chubby baby legs might make you smile.
No matter what, Eliza always manages to bring a smile to my face.
I’ll always be thankful that we took the plunge and had a third baby. Little miss Eliza Dove is pure sunshine.
8 Year Anniversary
June 10, 2009 | Filed Under Andrea, Daniel, Life Stuff, Photos | 21 Comments
Our anniversary rainbow
Eight years ago we said, “I do.”
And we meant it. With all the depth of feeling we could muster.
Looking back, I am amazed at how little we knew. What narrow vision we had for the real meaning of, “I do.” Not that at the eight year mark our vision is wide and all-encompassing, but at least now we have our feet wet.
I have loved being married to Daniel. And I have always been thankful to call him my husband. We are in this together, with no end.
He rings my bell. He blows my skirt up. He is the cherry on top. He is all that and a bag of chips. He rocks my world.
A “Few” Weekend Pictures
June 7, 2009 | Filed Under Eliza Dove, Eve, Judah, Life Stuff, Photos | 15 Comments
Really, I love going overboard, so saying a “few” pictures is big, fat lie.
(But then, you already know about overboard me, right?)
I’d like to think that all I did this weekend was pack. And mostly that is true. But we did make time for a barbecue at a friend’s house. I was really tired and crabby and totally not in the mood to talk to anyone but I sucked it up and hauled my carcass over there. I can’t say as I was my usual “chatty-cathy” but I did have a nice time. Especially once I pulled my camera out.
Sunday was all packing; though, we did run a few errands…
(read: BOUGHT GROCERIES. Because otherwise I would have had mutiny on my hands. And that’s never good.)
But then it was all business.
Packing up the silver
Sometimes I wonder if all of this packing and moving is worth it. A lot of times I think it isn’t. I am hoping that I will be proved very wrong when I am passing six months happily at home.
This evening I was really tired. So instead of making myself press on, I decided to take pictures of the kids playing in the beautiful evening light.
Chubby legs
A ‘waterfall” hairdo glowing in the sun
Making mud pies
Making yummy “can’t remember what they called it” soup
Wistful wishes to be like the big kids
All fun stuff, right?
Right.
But the real good times of the evening involved teaching Eliza the fine art of hose drinking.
And that’s when the real fun began.
Such fun! Such great times!
Such eager…
And thorough teachers.
But there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed. And, thankfully, she didn’t cross it. I think he may have decked her if she had.
Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?!
Packing.
You should be so jealous. So very, very jealous.
Moving, Deployment question, and ice, ice baby…
June 5, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Military Life, Photos | 26 Comments
Or should I say packing and throwing out and Goodwill-ing….
Daniel thinks I am funny. I say, I’m realistic and honest. And that I have really messy handwriting when writing sideways on a box.
I am knee deep in chaos ’round here. Boxes everywhere, un-vacuumed floors, un-mopped floors. Missing furniture, bare walls.
Really, it’s lovely. Anyone wanna come over for dinner?
You know, all joking aside, I am loving it. I really dig getting rid of stuff, and boy oh boy, are we getting rid of stuff. My heart is ice.
If all goes according to plan (seriously, does that ever happen??) and Daniel is accepted into the Air Force Physician Assistant program come April, we could be moving five times in the next three years. That is my motivator for being so cutthroat with what we keep and what we don’t.
We have around two weeks now until Daniel leaves for his deployment. Today is a good day… yesterday, not so much. If anyone knows of another woman who writes a blog and is going through a deployment, will you send me the link? During Daniel’s last deployment, reading blogs written by women also slugging through the long deployment days really sustained me. Thanks ahead of time, I appreciate it so much!
Happy Friday, all!
She may be slightly obsessed
June 3, 2009 | Filed Under Eliza Dove, Photos | 27 Comments
Eliza is so weird.
No really, she is.
I’m her mother so I can say that and mean it in the most loving way possible.
For the longest time she has been quite the panties thief. She will scavenge through any and all laundry baskets looking for a pair of panties. And you know what she does with them?
She wears them. Around her neck, like a necklace. Or, on her head, like a hat.
I finally got smart and took some pictures of her for evidence. You know, the incriminating kind. I want something to embarrass her with when she is older. I mean, isn’t that what all good parents do?
Today, Eve’s panties were the victim…. but nobody’s underwear is safe from the grasp of Eliza’s chubby hands.
