Family Time!!

We are finally in New York relaxing with family!  It is so nice to have this down time with each other.  After the crazy that followed Thanksgiving with the movers and packing, I am not taking this time for granted.  The hubs and I even got to have a date night at Toy R Us! HAHA My in-laws kept the kids for us to we could go to dinner and do some Christmas shopping.  We went to The Melting Pot and then to do our shopping.  It was fun!  Next week starts the arrival of the rest of the family and then of course Christmas.  We are celebrating both my daughter's birthdays as well.  I am beginning to worry a tad about all of the gifts under the tree.  How are we going to get all of this stuff to Japan with us?!!  I guess we will just need to mail them all to our new address there in Japan and they will be there waiting on us when we get there.  Lots of changes taking place and so much up in the air.  SO many unknowns right now.  Makes me a little nervous seeing how I am such a planner and like to be organized.  I am starting to embrace this new sense of adventure though.  I know I will not regret stepping out of my comfort zone and taking advantage of this opportunity for our family.  I truly cannot wait to tell of our experiences!  I know they will be wonderful!  But right now I am enjoying all of this family time with nowhere to be and no commitments!!

Latest and greatest

So clearly I have been super busy and haven't really had the time to post!  I will have to load pictures and all of that jazz at a later date but for now I just wanted to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the planet.  The hubs made it home and we are so thrilled to be back together as a family.  I knew once he got home that we would be running around crazy trying to get ready for our move to Japan.  I was not wrong in my assumption.  I have been going through things, organizing, making list, separating and doing inventory of everything in our home.  We also had Thanksgiving in there for which we drove a 21 hour drive to spend it with family.  It wound up taking us 2 1/2 days to get home.  The movers were at our house the day after we got home to pack up our house.  We are currnetly living in a hotel until our final packout on Friday.  Then we are either heading to Disney World for a few days or heading to NY.  Yesterday was not a fun day at all!  I woke up feeling like I had the flu and the movers were at the house all day long.  Thankfully I had a friend to pick the kids up from preschool and take them until they left.  Then the hubs comes home from work and is having trouble breathing and has abdominal pain.  He ended up in the emergncy room trying to figure out what was going on.  He left 6 hours later with no anwers.  Mean while I am stuck in the hotel room with 3 little ones who are full of endless energy and still feeling like complete crap.  I really hope the rest of this journey goes a little more smoothly.  If nothing else, I would really prefer no more sickness so we can function to full capacity.  So as of today, our household goods are on their way to Japan, we are living in a hotel room, and we still have one more packout to go before we leave town for good.  I will post as much as I can throughout this whole process.  There will be a point where I have no internet or phone or any connection to family until we get situated once in Japan but hopefully that will be short lived.  There you have it ladies and gentlemen, the latest and greatest in our lives!

Veterans Day

Just taking a moment to thank ALL of our Veterans!  The sacrifices they make/made are priceless and are truly a selfless act.  The freedoms we enjoy in the USA absolutely do not come free.  They sometimes come at the ultimate price.  I am so incredibly thankful they are willing to put themselves out there for my family and I.  For that I thank you from the bottom of my heart!  A special thank you to my favorite veteran, my hubby!  We are so lucky to call you our husband, father, and protector!!  You are my ultimate hero!!  I love you babe!

Feeling pretty blessed!

Today I have a lot to be thankful for.  Not just today, but everyday really.  I am feeling rather blessed today though, because my husband just informed me that he is planning a trip to NYC for us when he gets home and before we leave for Japan.  He told me he had worked things out with his parents to keep the kids and we were heading to the city for a couple of days.  The rest is a secret.  I am so excited!  I love going to the city.  But what I love even more is "dating" my husband!  I love and adore my children more than my next breath but after being with them 24/7 with no help for the last 7/8 months, I am ready for a mini break to rejuvinate myself.  The thought of spending a few days with my best friend, soul mate and partner in crime makes me giddy!!  I love him so much!  I do not take this man for granted!!  He is of a rare breed and I thank God for him every. single. day!  Now I really cannot wait for him to come home!!   

Roads worth traveling

As I drive the same roads that I have driven for that past 3 years, I am suddenly reminded that in a very short period of time I will no longer be driving them.  It makes me sad that I won't be passing over the drawbridge to meet the girls for breakfast every Wednesday morning, or the long stretch of road boardered by the oh so tall pines that lead to my best friend, or even the road that leads "home".  There is nothing special about the town we live in, no big shopping malls, museums, professional sport arenas.  Just a typical military town with the extremely loud sound of the jets passing over.  But this little town has been our "home" for the last 3 years and we have come to love it here.  We have made some amazing friends that will stand the test of time and it is those friends that make this place our home and so special.  I know chances are we will end up back here but goodbyes are never easy.  Because you know when you return, nothing will have remained as it was.  So as I am driving through I will take it all in and remember with fond memories our time spent in this place we call "home".   I have no doubt that our new place of residence will also leave a lasting impression and we will be just as sad to move on from there as well.  It's the roads that we travel daily that create the map of our lives and that make up the story of our lifetime.  Make sure they are roads worth traveling!  I know we sure have!

Restaurant Tasting Tour

I got together with a few ladies yesterday for a day of down time!  My brother-in-law came to the house to keep all 3 kiddos for me so that I could have a relaxing day with the girls.  We headed to Raleigh to do a walking wine/gourmet food tasting tour of some local restaurants.  It was amazing!  We had a fabulous time and there was something for everyone's liking.  After the tour we hit the mall for some shopping too.  I think I finally made it home at midnight and let my head hit the pillow.  My babies even slept in a little this morning!  I am so grateful to my brother-in-law for giving me the opportunity to get away for a bit and be "me" instead of mommy!  I sometimes forget who that is anymore.  Enjoy the pics!

 First Stop was Mecca:

 Second stop Dos Taquitos Centro:

 Third stop Crema:

 Fourth stop Draft Carolina Burgers and Beers:

 Fifth stop Solas:

 Sixth stop The Raleigh Wine Shop:

 And the final stop for dessert The Cupcake Shoppe:

Critters!!

I am so tired of all of the critters that my house seems to attract!  I mean seriously it is a magnet for all things creepy crawly!  The list includes but is subject to be added to: lizards (the favorite), snakes (we're up to about 8 now 2 of which were actually in the house), birds, frogs, palmetto bugs (otherwise known as roaches in my book), mice (thankfully only in the garage), spiders, and ants oh my!  And don't you know these critters never decide to come for a visit when my husband is home so he can do the dirty work!  Oh no, we can't have that.  I guess maybe they think I am lonely and need some company or something to do, not sure, but trust me when I say I have plenty to keep me busy!  I can handle just about all of the above mentioned except the snakes!  I don't appreciate them making themselves at home IN my home or IN my garage!  In fact it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if I never saw another one again for as long as I live!  I promise you too that once the hubs gets home, we won't see another thing in this house, leading him to believe that I make all this up!  Because that's the way they roll- these unwanted house guest of mine and mine alone it seems.  Cooler weather cannot get here soon enough as far as I am concerned! Bring it on so these critters can go hide for awhile. 

Sleepiness!

I did something today that I don't do as often as I should!  I actually took a nap while the kids were napping!  To say that I have been sleep deprived here lately is a severe understatement.  I just do not sleep well while the hubs is gone.  So 2 am tends to be my bedtime these days.  After getting up with my son multiple times in the night most nights from his anxiety issues he is having, 7 am comes extremely early for this mommy!  I am dragging for most of the day.  Not to mention how grumpy I have been.  My patience level has bottomed out and I have to make some changes.  This no sleep business is wearing on me and it is really showing in my appearance as well.  So today I took a nap.  And it felt soooo good!  We have an extremely busy time ahead of us as we are very quickly approaching our departure date for Japan and I know I will need every ounce of energy I can muster to make it through the chaos.  Still no news on the hubs return but we have been told that our orders to Japan still stand.  So the next plan of action is to do my best to get more sleep  and gain more patience!  If not, it's going to be a long, hard, bumpy road for all of us 

Happy Birthday!!

        Happy Birthday to my big man "ROO"!!!



He had such a great day too!  This little guy has forever changed my life!  He is such an amazing person and has the biggest heart of any kid I know!  He makes me laugh, he melts my heart, and he keeps me humble.  I couldn't ask for anything more!  I love you buddy!  You make my world go round!

Memories

This morning I cracked open a jar of my Granny's homemade pickles that my cousin made.  I have had this jar of pickles sitting on my counter since May and have been holding onto them, not wanting to open them just yet.  You see my Granny past away 10 years ago, I miss her so much!  There is always something that reminds me of her and warms my heart.  So my cousin used my Granny's canning recipe for her pickles and brought them to our family reunion for everyone to enjoy.  I was lucky enough to walk away with my one lone jar.  I knew once I opened them that I would have to eat them within a fair amount of time or else they would go bad.  Eating them was not the problem, it was the problem of once they were gone!  With the very first bite of one, I was instantly flooded with memories of my sister, cousin and I standing over my Granny's pickling crock and sneaking pickles before they were ready!  We LOVED them!  She would always catch us and shoo us away with her dish towel.  I was taken back to that moment including the smells, sounds, and laughter as I bit into that delicious pickle.  Granny's pickles were always a side dish with almost every meal during the summer, along with home grown tomatoes.  She was a fantastic cook and all of her meals were made from scratch and with the most love in the world.  What I would do now for one of Granny's home cooked, made from scratch meals!!  Something I will never get to enjoy again.  So I am cherishing this little jar of amazing pickles.  Every. Last. One!

Guilty!!

Today is one of those days where I feel that I am not good enough to be my children's mommy!  The mommy guilt has set in hard.  I guess I have just reached a point in this deployment where I am so beyond tired of always being the bad guy when it comes to discipline, I'm tired of going to bed alone every night, I'm tired of keeping a clean house by myself, tired of being "on" 24/7, and as heartless as this may make me sound, I am tired of always putting on a happy face with my kids everytime they have an emotional breakdown missing daddy!  I am just TIRED!!  I miss "daddy" too!  I want him home so that our family can return to the way it should be.  With most deployments you have an end in sight, a date of return to help you cope and look forward to.  Well that is not the case this time around, we have no end in sight as of current and no date to help push us through.  That makes it even harder.  I mark days off the calendar every night but it just seems so pointless.  What exactly am I counting down to?  I don't know!  Our lives are literally up in the air at this point.  Yes, we are scheduled to move to Japan but even that is questionable right now.  I can handle a few things in my life being up in the air but to have your entire life up in the air is an entirely different thing!  I am wearing thin and it is showing with each passing day in how I handle my children and their behavior.  It isn't fair to them, they deserve the best and right now I am failing them miserably!  I am feeling guilty and beating myself up about it.  This deployment has officially brought out the ugly in me and I hate it!!  I am over it!  And yes I am throwing my own tantrum of sorts right now but I am entitled to it every once in a while.  This mommy needs a break like something fierce!  Ok rant over, now time to go put on my running shoes and blow off some steam! Whew!

Birthday Bash!

So now that I have seen my friend off and have gotten settled from her visit, it is time to post about my birthday celebration!  I am so glad she made the trip to make my birthday week so special!  We had a really great visit!  I decided that since I was turning the dreaded 30 this year that I might as well embrace it and make the best of it.  I opted to do a restaurant tasting tour of sorts with some of my best girlfriends.  I reserved a limo for the evening.  We were picked up at my house and made some stops along the way to pick up the rest of the crew.  From there we had appetizers at a place called Persimmons right on the water,  dinner at a place called Morgans, and we had reservations for desserts at a place called The Chelsea.  We never made it to desserts because time got away from us and it got too late.  So we had birthday cake and after dinner drinks at a Martini Bar called Mesh instead.  It was a great evening with wonderful company and a fabulous way to celebrate my big day.  We laughed, ate way to much food, had a "Mascot" for the evening, and enjoyed a few cocktails as well!  Fun was had by all and I could not have asked for a better birthday!! 

Busy week!!

It is going to be a busy week this week!  I started it off with having to renew my drivers liscense because well you see a certain someone just might be entering her 3rd decade of life and my licence expired!  I got just as nervous about having to take the stinkin driving test all over again as I used to get in college before finals!  Turns out, I didn't even have to take the test, yay!  Tomorrow happens to be the big day and one of my very dear friends is coming to visit me from Chattanooga for the week!  I am so excited to see her.  We have no definate plans while she is here other than my big birthday bash on Friday.  It is going to be a great time!!  I have the normal everyday errands to run and kiddos off to preschool, breakfast dates to attend, and pictures to be made of my punk punk!  I love busy weeks!  They help the time pass and just brings me closer to my hubs homecoming.  Each day gets an X marked through it, I need that visual!  Stay tuned for a post on my big birthday bash!  There is fun to be had for sure!!  'Til next time. . .   

Remembering

My emotions are high today and are a tad overwelming as I sit and watch the ceremonies marking the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.  I finally just had to turn the tv off.  I think it is important to be reminded of what we lost that day and I never want to NOT see it on our televisions for that would mean that we have forgotten.  But I don't have it in me to relive those feelings all over again today.  I am missing my husband terribly as this day marks the whole reason he isn't home with his family.  Maybe that is selfish of me to not want to feel those feelings again.  I have had tear filled eyes all day and trying to explain the reason to my 3 and 2 year olds has proven challenging at best .  I tried telling them that today is a sad day for so many people and that is the reason that daddy has to be gone.  I know they don't understand but one day they will.  I vividly remember where I was and what I was doing when our lives as Americans changed.  I have no words that could describe my gratitude and appreciation for all of the Heroes that were that day.  So on today as I sit remembering the fear, sadness, shock, and confusion of 9/11 I just want to say thank you to all of them for the sacrifices they made and the sacrifices still being made on the behalf of our freedom and safety!  You will NEVER be forgotten, ALWAYS remembered!

Girlfriends make the world go round!

I just had an amazing weekend visiting with my 2 best friends!  One came down from Virginia and the other lives a town over but it is the rare occassion that we are all able to get together at once.  I love reminiscing about college days and laughing until tears are rolling down your face!  There are few people in my life that I feel completely comfortable around that I can totally be myself and not have a care in the world and these girls are 2 of them!  It was a breath of fresh air for me to have that release and much needed adult conversation!  We may or may not have enjoyed a few cocktails and partaken in some school girl gossip talk!   And I would be lying if I said I wasn't little embarrassed to put my recylcing bin out on the curb this week with all of the clanking wine bottles!  It was nice putting the kiddos to bed and pouring ourselves a glass of wine and hitting the pool for a few laps too.  It was just a very relaxing weekend and just what I needed after the past week I had!  They took me to dinner for my birthday even though it is a few weeks away and we cooked dinner together while our kiddos played and had their own fun the others evenings.  Friendships like this are hard to come by these days and I don't take it for granted.  It is weekends like this that I am truly going to miss once we move to Japan.  Where I love meeting new people and making new friends, there is something to be said for old friendships that have such a history and continue to grow year after year regardless of the changes life throws us along the way!  I love my girls!!  Thanks for saving me from my own insanity this week!

  

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is mine and my husband's 5 year anniversary!!  I am so honored to call him my husband and blessed that he chose to take me as his wife!  We have had so much fun these past 5 years and I cannot wait to see what the lifetime ahead of us holds as well.  We have moved 3 times, had 3 kids, lost 2 babies, and spent more months apart than I care to count.  We have laughed, cried, teased, flirted, ruffled feathers, but one things for sure, we have LOVED with all of our beings!  Happy Anniversary to my best friend, lover, and soul mate!  I love you babe!!  Here's to growing gray and wrinkled together!

                                                                    5 years ago today

Hurricane Irene

Well we evacuated for Hurricane Irene last Thursday and we just got home and settled after the storm.  I was hesitant to leave at first because it is a lot of work to pack up your irreplacebles and all the "stuff" you need for yourself and 3 little ones.  If I didn't have to, I didn't want to.  But since returning home, I am very thankful we left.  We came home to a mess!  It could have been much, much worse but it was enough.  I had my moment of feeling extremely overwelmed when I drove down my road and began to see the destruction so close to home.  I had a since of relief as I pulled into my driveway and it appearred that things weren't so bad.  Then I had another moment of being overewelmed as I entered my backyard and saw more damage than first perceived.  I let a few tears stream down my face as I looked around and had so many thoughts rushing through my head at once.  I hadn't even entered my house yet to assess the situation inside.  One of my fears while gone was that my house would have some flooding.  I pulled myself together because the kids were already feeling the stress of the whole situation and they didn't need to see me upset.  I gave myself those few seconds to feel the emotions of the moment and then slowly began to wrap my head around what needed to be done and had to stop my thoughts from thinking too far ahead.  I needed to handle things one step at a time.  I left the kiddos in the car while I went to check things out first.  I just wanted to be sure that there were no broken windows (glass) or standing water anywhere that might be harmful to the kids.  I was relieved once again as I realized there was no flooding or broken windows and there didn't seem to be any damage to the inside of the house.  I brought the kids inside and cleaned up the water in the floor from the freezer and fridge and then worked my way upstairs.  I walked into my bedroom and noticed right away that I had a massive leak in my roof and my ceiling was a drooping, sagging mess.  That feeling of dread and overwelm returned yet again.  I came down stairs and called the only person I could think to call to help me.  I needed to deal with my roof first because we had more thunderstorms rolling in at that very moment.  He was a retired Marine that used to work with my husband and he came over immediately to help tarp my roof until I could get ahold of my insurance company for repairs.  It is funny how a simple tarp could bring me so much relief and make me feel so much better right away.  Within an hour of returning home my cell phone was blowing up with people calling to offer their help. 

It makes me so proud to be a part of this community, this military community, that have been here helping me any way they can.  The spouses have pulled together, been there for each other emotionally and physically from start to finish in this whole ordeal.  We were all making phone calls to make sure everyone was paired with someone and had the help they needed from the preparations to the leaving town and through the returning home and clean up efforts.  We made sure everyone was accounted for and safe and have been one another's support system even as I type this.  To know that we didn't have to go this alone was more than I can say!  As we drove back home we made stops at one another's homes to access the damages and take care of things that needed immediate attention before moving on to the next home.  To have someone there as I pulled in my driveway and had my mini meltdown in the backyard to assure me that I could do this and handle it all was exactly what I needed to keep my wits about me.  For that I am so incredibly thankful!  I have had a spouse staying at my house for the past few days as we waited on power to be turned back on and to have her help with kiddos and get dinner prepared as I made numerous phone calls to my insurance company and family makes me swell with emotions! 

I have trees down all over my property, one in my pool, one over my fence, my fence gone, my deck busted, a massive leak in my roof (a brand new roof mind you), and some structural damage as my back door will not close or latch or lock and is sitting lopsided.  But I have power, my house is still standing, and I have 3 beautiful, happy, healthy babies that have been a nice distraction from the stress of the situation and an amazing husband who is doing his darnest to be that support and help that I need from the other side of the world!  The rest is just stuff.  And that is all that matters.  There are plenty of others around me right now that cannot say all that I mentioned and that breaks my heart to pieces!  Tomorrow is my husband and I's anniversary and I literally just had a knock on the door from the FedEx man.  My husband sent me diamond earrings with the sweetest message ever!  I am a blubbering mess right now.  I think the stress of the past week just hit!  It is moments like this, after holding my babies and reassuring them that everything will/is ok that I wish I had my husband here to hold me and tell me that everything will be ok.  Being strong and "on" 24/7 is exhausting and I think I need the day off.  I will think about all the rest tomorrow!  We will be ok and we will come out of this on top, that I do know.  It will just be a little bumpy along the way.    

Evacuating

So it appears Hurricane Irene is due to hit us directly on Saturday.  I was hoping to avoid leaving but the time has come for us to head inland.  I have tightened down the house to the best of my ability and I am loading the car a little at a time.  As soon as the kids wake from their nap we are heading out with another spouse to Raleigh to get a hotel room for the weekend.  Hoping we return to our house still in tack and in one piece.  My goodness what a week!  An earthquake and a hurricane all in the same week!  Crazy!  Stay safe all of you east coasters!!  Update later.

Missing my Tobie!

As we prepare for our move to Japan there are numerous checklists being followed.  We have had to get medical clearance, dental clearance, passports for all of us, and all the procedures taken care of for our dog Tobie, to be quarantined so he can get clearance too.  We have worried about how our puppy will handle this whole process since he isn't really a puppy, he's 12 years old!  He has been poked, prodded and microchipped but that was the easy part.  He has to be placed in a crate for the flight to Japan obviously but here's the kicker: once he is placed in that crate in NY he will not be taken out until 28 hours later once we land in Japan!  That means no food or water other than what we initially place in there and no going to the bathroom unless it is in the crate.  This breaks my heart!  He was my baby before we had babies, he was mine before he was "ours".  And the last thing I want to put him through is the torture of being squeezed into a tiny crate and forced to stay there for 28 hours.  He is old and has hip issues and this trip is not going to be easy for his old bones!!

So I was talking to my mom about my concerns and she threw out the idea of her and my dad taking him for us while we are in Japan for 3 years.  My first reaction was to absolutely say yes and take her up on this offer but upon further pondering it made me really sad.  This solves the problem of the crate issue but I hate to pawn him off on someone else and expect them to take care of him the way we do.  Not to mention how much we would miss him and how much the kiddos adore him and him, them!  He is so much a member of our family that I can't even imagine our lives without him. 

After much discussion with my husband we decided that we need to put our selfish needs aside and do what is best for Tobie.  And what's best for him is to leave him with my parents who will love him and care for him just as we do.  Because not only does he have to make it there, he has to make it back to the states 3 years later and 3 years older, putting him at 15 if he makes it that long.

That was the reasoning behind our last road trip.  To take Tobie to my parents- sigh!  This made me so sad!  I cried in the car on the way there every time I let myself think about the fact that he wouldn't be returning with us.  I even forgot to bring his bed and his food bowls because my mind wasn't thinking about him not coming back when we left.  When we did leave to come home and had to say our goodbyes, it was heartbreaking.  My 2 oldest were crying and I was a hot mess, it was not pretty.  Now that I am home I catch myself calling him to come upstairs to bed and tears fill my eyes when I go to check if he has enough water.  I didn't realize how hard this would be until we had to do it.  I miss my puppy and my hubby didn't even get to tell him bye.  So marking that off the checklist was not an easy thing to do! 

 

Changes

I like to think that I am one that embraces change.  I suppose I usually handle changes farely well.  Afterall that is how life works, it constantly changes and nothing ever stays the same.  I like that we move and change where we call "home" quite regularly.  I like watching my children grow and change with the seasons. And I like to change my furniture arrangements in my house much to my husband's disliking!

 But there are some changes I don't handle well or like at all.  Some of which are family traditions and dynamics.  Both of which are currently taking place within my family now.  There are family traditions that have literally happened every single year since I was born and even before.  Many of them still take place and have become such huge events over the years.  Others though, have started to lose their luster and are being either removed or changed.

 As the family grows and new members are added I suppose the dynamics of the family shift and ultimately affect the timely traditions we have had.  For example, we have always had Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations at my grandmother's house.  Everyone knows their role and what they are contributing.  This is all I have ever known Christmas to be.  However, just recently, my grandmother annouced that she was "tired" and was ready to pass the wand off to someone else to hold these rather large get togethers at their house.  She also just got remarried after my grandfather passed away.  It has been 6 years since he passed so it isn't like she remarried quickly or anything of the sort.  She is still relatively young and I won't deny her what makes her happy.  It is just that when my grandfather passed that is when things began to change.  He was sort of like the glue that held the family together and kept us strong.  Now that he is gone, the dynamics are shifting.

So many of the traditions that we have revolved around him or remind her of him so she now wants to do away with them or change them so much so as to not be a reminder of her "previous life".  These are the changes I don't like.  There have been many births of grandchildren and great grandchilden and new spouses added to the mix over the years and they have all just fallen into the traditions and family events with ease.  I can't help but feel that it is her new marriage that has lead her to this passing of the wand.  I get that my parents are now grandparents and we should start having Christmas for our children at their grandparent's house so it is a natural progression of sorts.  But after 30 years, I am finding this change to be a bit more difficult to handle and doing so with some resistance.  But as with life, I will ebb and flow with the tides and do my best to enbrace this change as well.  Change IS what makes life interesting afterall.    

On the road again!

I have always been one to love road trips. We traveled often growing up and we always had so much fun. Of course it wouldn't have been a family road trip without a sibling quarrel or two! I mean aren't those the kind of things that help build character and make us the people we are today?! Anyway, I have vivid memories of spontaneous road trips we were made to endure growing up. Stops at amusement parks only to find they were "closed for the season", getting into town at the same time a major national golf tournment was scheduled and unable to find a hotel room leading to a U-turn right back home, and endless hours of sitting on the interstate in the wee hours of the morning due to a horrific accident that occurred several hours before hand. But there were also so many trips that proved to be quite an adventure for us kids. The ones that landed us at the beach, Disney World, or just the ones that had us surrounded by our extended family. Times I wouldn't change for anything.

So this all leads me to our current family road trip in a few days. I will be taking the kiddos to visit my parents 12 hours away. I have been trying to get in as much family time as possible while I can before our big move to Japan. We have been gone more than we have been home over the last few months and my children have become quite the experienced road trippers to say the least. While traveling with 3 children 3 years and under can be anxiety inducing at times, I only hope to create the same enjoyable memories for them as I have now. Amongst all of the screaming and occassional sibling spats, I hope my children will one day look back and laugh with fond memories of their own spontaneous road trips. So now there are clothes to be washed, suitcases to be packed, a house to clean, and a car to load in preparation for memories to be made! Bon voyage!!

LOVES

Some things I am currently loving:

*Greek Yogurt

*My Kindle

*Apples and carmel

*My son retelling a story from his perspective

*Nap time (the kids, not me)

*And this:
Little Miss Punk Punk catching some air! You
will be crawling in no time!!

(she isn't crying, just making a weird face)

So what are you currently loving today?

Newbie

This is obviously my first blog post and my first attempt at blogging! I guess I should introduce myself. I am S2, 29 years old (though not for much longer, I'll post about that later!) and married to a Marine pilot and have been for 5 years. We have 3 beautiful children ages 3, 2 and 7 months. I am a SAHM for now though I am a teacher by trade. Being that we are a military family, we are always on the move. My husband deploys quite often and I am left to hold down the homefront. It can be a challenge at times but we all have our challenges right? We make the most of our time apart. I do a lot of traveling with the kids while he is gone, helps to pass the time! We are currently preparing for our next move to Japan! We are so excited about this experience for our family! I will be posting all about this process and our time there as well as we discover a whole new culture. Fun times ahead for sure!

Some of my interests include traveling (obviously), reading, running, children (all of them, not just my own-hence being a teacher!), and discovering new little hole in the wall restaurants just to name a few. I am a reality tv junky! I can't help myself, all the drama, who can resist?! I LOVE being with my friends and laughing at the dumbest things. My husband would tell you talking is my favorite past time! I am a talker! I just truly enjoy good conversation and no it isn't one sided! But my biggest and most favorite interest of all is spending time with my family and being a mommy to my 3 littles! They are what makes me happy and want to be a better person with each passing day! I hope you truly enjoy the tales of our life as I see it.