Happy Halloween!

This is me! I really dressed up as a garbage bag! It was one of my favorite costumes because nobody else was dressed like me.

I am the baby and my best friend, Tricia, was Papa Smurf.
I thought it was cool that I got to take a baby bottle full of orange juice to school.

I think Tricia was trying to be a baby this time around and I was the Bride of Frankenstein. Another one of my favorites. The cabbage patch kid is Tricia's little sister, Kristi.

I woke up this morning intending to start posting a trip report of our travels. Well... my mom being the Facebook savvy grandma that she is... posted old halloween pictures on there. I decided I have not been sharing with my blogworld as much because I have been on Facebook. These pictures are so fun! I am so glad she took some pictures. You know back then we didn't always snap pictures the way we do now. Some days I take 10 pictures a day and other days I take 100 pictures. It just depends. I, seriously, have a specific pocket in my purse that my camera stays in all the time. My mom would have laughed at the thought of carrying a camera with her all the time when I was growing up. So, today is Halloween. I am being a mean and witchy mom who will require school to get done before the fun can begin. Much to Savannah's horrors!!! We will then be carving pumpkins. Last year, Sebastian was NOT into the whole pumpkin carving thing. I don't know how this year will go. I was thinking that we need to make pizza bread for dinner because that is what my mom always made on a lot of Halloweens. Of course, hot dogs would be much quicker! Did I mention that I love Halloween? There has not been a year that I have not gone trick-or-treating. I went every year as a child and even when I was pregnant with Timmy. Then I had kids and have gone every year since then. I think Sebastian is finally excited about it this year. It has taken him awhile to find it fun. When we were kids it was always cold and sometimes rainy. We still plugged along to house after house until our toes were numb. My kids are going to find it cold this year compared to Florida, but they will survive. Anyway, I wish you a fun day and evening of a time to be just a little more silly! Happy Halloween!

More words from Sebastian...

I did A LOT of driving during our trip out to Oklahoma. Tim takes prescription meds that make him pretty sleepy when he gets in the highway mode. He just prefers not to drive if he doesn't have to. That means I drove nearly 2900 miles over 10 days. Apparently, this had an impact on my youngest child. The last few days we have been home, I have had my very own cheerleader. When I pull into the driveway to park, Sebastian tells me, "Good job, mom! You did it just right!" When I turned onto a road today, he told me, "Good try mom... you got the turn really good!" He has been cheering me on with all of my driving this past week. Lots of "you drived good, mom!" as we go along! What a silly boy!

I probably shouldn't put this here, but I want to remember it a long time from now because it made me laugh really hard. One of the nights that we had to drop Tim II off at the Army base, we found another Army family having car trouble. Since Tim is a mechanic, he stopped to help. It was late and after a long day. Savannah and Sebastian were in the back of the car getting restless. Sebastian was just annoying his sister and then he was annoying me. I told him if he didn't stop, I was going to pull him out of the car and spank him. A minute went by in silence. Then he said, "Then are you going to run me over with the car?!" My mom was on the phone with me and heard him say it. She just busted out laughing! Now, I sware I would never do that, but oh, how my son makes me laugh! What a goof ball!

Little hands...

I have a lot of things to blog about and hopefully, little by little, I will get to them. It has been a busy week of unpacking, laundry and grocery shopping - with some school time thrown in where we could fit it. This morning, I read one of my favorite blogs - Amazing Trips. Jen - the author - is having a tough time deciding what is right for her triplets and her career. Full time work, part time work, full time Montessori, part-time Montessori, homeschool and a whole bunch of stuff. I feel for her. I have struggled with similar decisions in my life. Not exactly REAL career decisions, because generally I have just had a job, not a career. I left her a comment and it has been on my mind today. It was sorta long and I don't want to repeat it all here. The main part of it was about how quickly they grow up. Just last night, I was sitting here reading an email about a Marine being overseas. It brought tears to my eyes as I wondered when my very own son would be heading overseas. I closed my eyes and I could see his little face when he was about Sebastian's age. I am proud of him and who he has become, but boy - I ask myself over and over again - just where did that time go? I know that it is not possible that all moms need or want to be home with their kids. I know that is just not the right choice for each and everyone's family. I also know that it is right for my family. When Timmy was 4 years old, I worked full time. Yes, I missed some of his really frustrating battles from that age. I also missed a whole bunch of fun things from that age. Now, I am here with Sebastian. Some days I am so tired, I can barely think straight. Right this very minute, Savannah and Sebastian are screaming at each other. I am not loving this moment exactly. I remind myself it is brief and it will be gone before I know it. I am not a perfect mom. I get tired and I scream. I am loud and I get annoyed. I don't have the patience of a saint by any means. I just do the very best that I can each and every day. That brings me to this afternoon. I bought another 80lbs of hamburger that needs to be repackaged into smaller bags. It would be much easier to do this by myself. I could do it much quicker and with less mess. I am also going to make 14lbs of meatballs. Sebastian wants to help. His little hands want to do the work with me. There have been moments when I just want to tell him to scoot away and let me get my work done. Then I remembered my words to Jen at Amazing Trips. I told her they grow up in a blink of an eye. I know because I have seen it happen with my first. So, I am praying for patience and letting him fill these bags with me. It won't be all that long that he may be several states away and I will be missing him more than I could have ever imagined.

Our soldier...

Hey there. Some of you I have talked to or in some way got in touch with you, but the rest of you I haven't. Anyway, the good news is my son is AMAZING! The not so great news is that he missed passing his PT test by less than 10 seconds. Man, that stung to hear. I felt so stinking bad for him. Apparently, it showed on my face. I was sitting on the ground waiting for him to come down. His 1st sgt came over to me and asked me who I was waiting for. I told him and he asked me if I knew he didn't pass by such a close call. I told him I did. He went on to tell me how amazing Tim II was. He told me that he wished he had more of him because he had heart and integrity. Some of his guys come by this stuff really easy and they don't really realize their potential. He told me that he firmly felt that if Tim II hadn't had all the health issues he would have passed with flying colors. He went on to say that he had cut his run time significantly since he had arrived. All of that was great to hear, but my heart still hurt because I thought I would only get to see him on Thursday. This man went on to tell me that he would see about the weekend pass for him. As of right now, we are hoping for Saturday and Sunday, but we may even get Friday. We just have to wait and see. Here is the next good thing, when Timmy came out... my little boy had turned into this man. He looks awesome! He didn't come out whining or complaining. He gave me a hug and boy did my tears flow. I just missed him so stinking much! While we spent the day with him, he told me some things. He is sorta good with going on to FTU to get more physical training because you have to run even faster in AIT or you lose privileges. He said he would rather go on to this now than have a tougher time in AIT. This seems to be a well thought out process. For this mom, it pretty much guarantees he will be home for Christmas because AIT shuts down then. One final thing, my sister-in-law, Karen sent me an email about God's plans. She reminded that God may have had an excellent plan for him to head off to FTU for awhile. It may be to keep him safe at some point or meet his mate. It may be just as simple as spending one more Christmas at home. It may be for any number of reasons, but it is all part of God's plan for him. It helped for me to get that perspective from her. Did I mention that I have an amazing family? Anyway, I appreciate all of you and your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you all updated on our new, long and winding road.

Update on Tim II...

Hey! I am writing from Oklahoma City tonight. I got a call from Tim II tonight. It wasn't what I was hoping for. He has had yet another health set back. Apparently, he is allergic to the medicine they prescribed for his ulcer. His throat swelled nearly shut. He still did the run on Monday, but did not do well. He did not go to the clinic, yesterday, because of Columbus Day. He went in today and the doctor told him he should have gone the ER and he was very lucky his throat didn't close all the way. Unfortunately, the doctor put him on what they call PROFILE for 72 hours. This means no physical activity. He asked if he could be cleared to retest on Thursday. The doctor said he didn't think so, but to come back on Wednesday. I told him that we were only an hour away and we would be there tomorrow. He sounded really happy that we were coming. Honestly, I don't care if he graduates today, tomorrow or next week. I just feel bad for him because he has worked so hard and just keeps getting all this health stuff thrown at him. I called my mom tonight while Tim shopped in the Super HUGE Bass Pro store. I was pretty down and bummed for him. My sister, Michelle, got on the phone with me. She told me that God has a plan for him and that He is just testing my faith. It wasn't what I wanted to hear. I wanted to just cry to my mom and be down, but my sister wouldn't let me. She reminded me of what a great attitude Tim II has had and how lucky I am to have such an amazing child. She told me to pray and pray and then just pray some more. So, that is what I am going to do. Anything is possible!

Blog envy...

I have wanted to post birthday party pictures, but haven't. Mainly because I have blog envy. Yes, that is what I think it is called anyway. Over the last couple of years that I have been reading blogs, I have noticed something. I really love the blogs that do a slide show of something and put it to music. I am afraid to admit that I have no idea how to make a slideshow because I fear that will mean that I am getting !!!GASP!!! old. I want to know how to do that. I keep saying to myself that this is the day I shall learn to make a slideshow. For all I know, it could be the easiest thing in the whole entire world. I haven't even attempted to find out. I do know there is some website that you can do something like that on. I don't know if you can keep it forever on a cd. I don't want to spend the time doing it, if I can't keep it for my children to look at when I am 94 years old and senile. Anyway, that is one of my excuses for being absent. The other is that I have spent hours and hours looking up things to do and see in Arkansas and Oklahoma. I am so excited about going, but we still don't have the official "go ahead" from Tim II. I am trying so hard to be patient. I can't wait to see his face and have a week off with my family.