When You Come Home

For all my fellow Military Spouces/Families....

http://www.beliefnet.com/broadband/bnetPlayer.aspx?mediaType=rm&mediaURL=http%3A//real21mt.audiovideoweb.com/ramgen/avwebmt1283/BobPerks_whenyoucomehome.rm&mediaCaption=%27When%20You%20Come%20Home...%27%3A%20A%20Multimedia%20Tribute%20to%20Our%20Troops&av=vid&audPic=http%3A//images.beliefnet.com/imgs/broadband/bbSwirl.swf&wid=320&hei=240&logoURL=none&sqAd=00/13/21/79&bnrAd=00/13/21/78

My 3 Gifts among other things: This and That

My 3 Gifts among other things: This and That

This and That

It's windy today, but beautiful, and in my home we're beginning a new journey you could say. As all mom's who've potty trained know, it can be easy, hard, or well just be. My youngest has decided it's time! YAHOOOOO!!! Let me tell you this momma is a very HAPPY Momma! LOL He's not even 3 yet, so I've refused to get all stressed out, but I'm an honest woman and admit to being jealous when friends who's children are the same age (or gasp younger) who's kids are PT. Finally Jack's ready! He never made it to the potty once yesterday, but he was in big boy pants all day and he TRIED to get there, and that my friends is HUGE progress. Right before bedtime he told me, "Mommy I have to pee" so I told him to hurry up and get to the bathroom, he didn't quite make it, he walked back sad and said "oh no Momma, I peed." His underwear were soaked, but he DID try. I gave him a big hug and told him "Tomorrow you'll make it". That seemed to cheer him up and on went the diaper for the night, and into the pj's.

Both my boys have been "blessed" with allergies. I never had issues with them growing up, but as an adult they've reared their ugly head at me, and so we all seem to suffer together. The last few nights the boys just cough and cough. I went to the pharmacy and had their script refilled, but it's not helping, so I'm going to see if I can get them in on Tuesday and try something stronger. My oldest, does NOT like how the coughing breaks into his sleep and told me last night that he's just sick of coughing all the time. About 2 am both boys got into bed with me. I have a few extra pillows in my bed and them elevating their heads seems to help a little. Eventually I had one on one side of me and the other on the other side. Now in general I struggle to sleep like this, but last night we all just seemed to fall into a deep sleep. Of course my allergies are not bothering me, so I'm not sure what exactly is high right now that's irritating them. It's NOT pollen I know that. We had thick pollen a couple weeks ago, and I thought my head was going to explode and although it aggrevated them, it wasn't bad for them. I'm seriously considering having them do allergy tests on both boys if they can here at our clinic (I don't know we may have to go else where for that test). But, I need to know exactly what it is they are allergic to and make sure they're getting the best medication for that particular allergy.

Well, onto my fun topics. It's a pretty nice day, there are dark clouds looming over us, but it wouldn't be Spring in Germany if there wasn't the threat of rain! LOL The temps are perfect, there's a slight wind, hopefully the rain will stay at bay and I can take the boys out to play for at least an hour after they get up from their nap. If we don't, I'm going to pull out the paints and let them paint Daddy a picture and mail it off in his care package on Tuesday. I have a big package ready to go out. I had it ready Thursday, but Jacob had his Tball party, and we didn't get to the post office before it closed at 6. Friday somehow we just didn't make it there, we didn't do a thing either, I hate when days get away from you like that! Our post office isn't open on Saturdays and Monday's Memorial Day, so Tuesday it is! I plan on being there right at 10 when it opens to get the package out to him. I am thankful that I can mail him care packages for free. That's just one of the many perks of living in Germany. Since only the military touches the packages, we don't have to pay for them. Well as long as they weigh less than 70 lbs! Seriously that's not hard, even if I some how managed to get a package to weigh that much, I'd just split it in two!

Well that's it. Nothing too exciting, but that's life! :) Oh wait, a friend and I are planning a trip. We're trying to decide where to go...France, Italy, or Spain. I think we may end up doing Italy. She has 3 kids and then my two. We're going to find out the cheapest route to go, whether it's driving, flying, or by train...where to stay, etc. We both are wanting to go to Rome and to Vatican City (neither of us are Catholic, but seriously how can you not go there when in Rome!!) So hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll have that all figured out, dates, prices, etc!

Here's a little trivia for you. Did you know that Vatican City is it's own state?!! I never did until we moved here to Germany. We get AFN (Armed Forces Network). We do not have to sit through all the commercials that you guys do, but we do have our own "set" of commercials. More of mini infomercials you could call it. Different information on Europe, the US, Asia, etc, etc...One of them it tells you all these facts and says "Can you Guess what city/state/country that is"! That's when I learned that Vatican City is not just part of Rome! Just a little information for you today! See now you can truly say you've learned something if you did not know that! I'll try to throw out some other little known facts here and there on here! :)

God Bless and Have a SON Filled Day!

Ignorant Parents

Ok, so I read a few different message boards and on one it's for parents of boys. This woman comes and starts talking about her 7 yr old son who is spoiled. She says that he just never accepts no, blah-blah-blah. Her complaint today was that there's a fair going on in their area, with a canrival. This woman's from my home state, so this is very common thing....fair and carnivals are just well all in one thing.

Well there's a build a bear at the carnival, and last year she bought him THREE. Ok, I know how much the bears are, to dress them, etc...and well that's insane, especially when you're a single mother, who would have been pg at the time! Of course just because some are parents doesn't mean they have common sense and you'll find out in a moment even more to that one! Anyways, the older son is part of the Big Brothers Little Brothers organization. She's had boundary problems with his big brother in the past, not understanding boundaries, etc. Personally I'd have cut it off with the big brother months ago, after he didn't obey my wishes in the first place, and the upcoming would have never have happened.

Ok, so back to the carnival. This year she told her son, he could only have ONE build a bear animal/outfit, etc...Because she has another son and wanted to get him one as well. She hadn't taken the boys yet, and her son went with his "big brother" and she told the "bb" as well that her son was not allowed to have anything from Build a Bear. Her son comes home, with a bear and dressed to the max, cost she's figuring at LEAST $50.00. The "Big Brother" says "well I know you said he couldn't have one, but he asked and I didn't have the heart to tell him no". Ok...so now this grown man who's supposed to be a good influence on him can't say NO and obviously has no clue about boundaries, has just went against this mother's wishes, but the next night she takes the kids to the fair....For fireworks and a concert. Her son then starts bugging her to have one, and bugging her and bugging her (those who have kids, you get it)...But instead of sticking to her guns...she gets it for him! YES, that's right...Ok so if that weren't bad enough...she's complaining on our board about how she doesn't understand why he does this and why when she says no, he won't just stop asking! ROFL!

Seriously, this is NOT brain surgery! I can't imagine why her son just keeps up his behavior, hmmm maybe because unlike his mother, he has HER number and knows he bugs her enough she'll give in. I'm honestly stunned at how many parents are like this. Another woman responded that her kids do the same thing and she eventually gives in as well. At what point did parenting become about giving into our children all the time and being more worried about if they "like" you and you're their friend..than about teaching them that they CAN'T have everything they want. That there are boundaries in life, with people. That when you say no, it means no, etc.

I love my kids and they definitely have more toys than they need. At the same time I have NO PROBLEM saying no! I know in general it's the "dad" who's the "hard" one...not in this house. I'm definitely the one that has NO PROBLEM saying no. I have met other military wives who when their husbands are away, give in even more, because they feel guilty and just so bad for their kids that they don't have Dad right there. I have a heart. I feel sad for my boys that they miss their Daddy and I feel for my husband that he's missing out on this time with our boys. At the same time I'm doing them NO FAVORS if I gave into them, let them run wild, and set no boundaries for them. Our rules remain the same when dad's home and when he's gone. I definitely get stressed out more often, but at the sametime...that's part of being an Army wife. You deal with it and get over it and keep going.

I guess I see this kind of parenting far too often. Parent(s) who are too scared to parent or just too lazy. Parents who are worried about their kids being mad at them, etc. What kind of example are we showing our children when we do this? A bad one that's for sure. People don't understand the problems our kids (in general) are having today....well it starts at home. It does NOT take a village to raise a child...I've seen the village and I do NOT want them anywhere near my children. What it does take is parents who are committed to raising their children, with high morals and values. Who understand what respect is to adults. Who when they mess up, understand that there will be consequences, etc.

So that's my rant for the day, well at least for now...it's only 3:25 pm...who knows what else could come up!

Sunny Days...Rainy Evenings

It was beautiful all day long, but my boys did not get to play outside, much to my dismay. Their room is a disaster, seriously! They spent a good portion of yesterday in there and they've spent the past 2 days "cleaning" or in reality making it even messier, which I did NOT think was possible. They have clothes spead over almost every inch of the floor. They decided to drag toys from their PLAYROOM (yes they have a huge playroom, which is not as clean as it's supposed to be either). I'm honestly just furious with them at this point with their lack of doing what they're supposed to be doing. My husband called yesterday and said "take tv away", which I did...they got no tv or movie this morning when they woke up, instead they were immediately sent into their bedroom to start working on that after breakfast. I guess I just would be sick of being in there and would get it finished so I could get out of the room and get to go outside and play.

Now that it's evening it's turned really really windy and we had a brief rain, something tells me more rain is in store for us this evening and tonight. I prefer it raining in the evening/night so that during the day we can go outside and play (most days). IF the boys are able to get the room done today, tomorrow we'll do school work (we home school) and then go outside, ride bikes, and play at the park. Wednesday we're supposed to go to the pool. We all love swimming, I'd love to find out of the pool offers swimming lessons, I know Jacob would enjoy them. He can swim, and he can go under water and swim, but I feel like him learning at lessons would only make him a stronger swimmer. We'll see. We don't have a pool on post, unfortunately so if they are offered it'll only be offered off post. I may have to call a lady I know who was the swimming team coach here. I could find out if she knows anyone who's certified to teach, that'd probably be the best route to go. Ah...don't you love how I'm brainstorming here out loud!

I just went and checked on the boys progress with the bedroom, there's progress being made! My 5 yr old is the one doing everything, because my little guy is asleep in his bed. Part of me is tempted to wake him up, since he refused to take a nap today, but I'm going to let him sleep for about 20 minutes, which by then dinner will probably be done and he'll eat, take a bath, and then go to bed for the night. Yes he will actually do that too. My oldest is making good progress, so I think he's going to get the room to a point that we can go to the park tomorrow! I really love going to the park and just playing outside with them. We're going to go for a walk too. I'm determined to lose weight, and walking and diet is the way I'm doing it. I'm rejoining Weight Watchers online, and going to stop drinking Pepsi. So May 31 is my start day for WW's (payday!). I can walk 2 miles very easily, so we'll start with 2 miles a day and just keep going up as I feel I can.

Well, this was initally going to be a venting entry, but it's not turned out that way, and of course that's ok! :) I just checked in the boys bedroom and my little one's up, I guess he just needed a 1o minute power nap! They're on their way to getting the room done, I hope they will finish it tonight so we don't have to deal with it anymore!

Toodles! :)

Growing up

I was very blessed as a child, teenager, and equally so as an adult...I've been blessed with wonderful friends. I grew up in a small town, so I went to school with the same people throughout that whole time. Our family moved to what's my home town when I was in 2nd grade, our daughter's buried in my home town. My parents still live in my hometown (well out in the country..but you get the picture), my brother and his family live there, etc. If you did not grow up in a small town and have never lived in one, you will really never understand the beauty (and at times pain! lol) of living in a small town. I graduated with 53 other people. To say you know these people is putting it lightly. Most of us grew up together. Most of us were best friends at one point or another and also hated each other at one point or another. I feel blessed when I look back at those teenage years (high school) and say that I was friends with most of my classmates and truly loved them. We knew some family secrets (you know the ones where this person's dad's an alcoholic and drug addict, so hey he's doing good just being an alcoholic..and I can happily say I heard his sober now!) but you know those things. You know who's parents will allow parties and who's parent don't even know where the party is. You know what families go to church and which ones don't. You always know where everyone's parents work, etc. You have the friends who's parents are like your parents, but better or worse in some way...but they DO love you and they would do almost anything for you. So...the point of this entry, I really AM getting there. I had many friends, but I had a special group of friends who knew those deep feelings, thoughts, secrets, wishes, prayers, etc...I can say in those years there were 3 girls who I told EVERYTHING to, I was a pretty open girl when it came to telling things to...but 3 of them were truly my best friends, and this is where I want to go with this entry. My friend "C" was beautiful. She is part Indian part Mexican. She had moxy like you wouldn't believe, she did her best to please her parents, although oh if they only knew a few of the things that girl did! She decided to die her hair once (now picture the most beautiful BLACK hair, and that was "C"'s hair...it was just beautiful!) She wanted to have a red color. We were all at one of our friends home having a little party, the girl's who's house we were at and "C" went to the bathroom to die the hair...as she's rinsing "C" 's hair...she notices how the water is BLUE. She ended up with BLUE hair. She was horrified, yet we all were cracking up, because this would only happen to "C" lol! At one point around this time, C had also mooned someone...and so of course a few people found it humerous to sing "Blue Moon" when they'd see her! LOL She eventually I think saw some of the humor in all of it! Although I do remember as we're all trying NOT to laugh, she's sitting in the bathroom crying her heart out! So...now over 11 yrs later, I'm sitting here in Germany, and this one time best friend got married last August and now she's about to become a Mommy. Quite a few of my friends have gotten married and became Mommy's, but thinking about "C" being married and about to be a Mommy brings tears of joy to me. I wish so much I could have been at her wedding, we'd only lived here for about a month when she got married. :( I'm a mother of 3, but it's "C" becoming a wife and mother that is making me feel like "We really ARE" all grown up. I'm sitting here right now, crying thinking about it. I get this way, so you'll have to just get used to it! LOL I'm so blessed to be able to look back on my childhood and know I have been blessed.

Annoyed

My best friend suggested this scrapbooking website to order from. She had went to a huge Scrapbooking convention this past weekend and actually worked at this companies stand, so she saw what they had and new I'd love it. I did! She knows me well! Well I got an email tonight saying that their FREE shipping on orders OVER $45.00 doesn't apply to me and they want an additional fee for how expensive it is to ship to an APO address. I decided to find out just how much more it'll cost....ready? A whopping 90 cents! They wanted to charge me $5.40 extra! I'm not doing business with this company again. I'm waiting for a reply, after I also proved that it says nothing about charging extra for APO, which the customer service rep said they state. I can't stand being lied to. I spent far more than the $45.00 they require for free shipping too. I really do not expect special treatment for being a military spouce. I do expect a company to know their business though instead of trying to rip me off. Maybe they've dealt with people who just accepted this, maybe I'm over-reacting. I guess I just think when a company says they'll ship for free, they'll do it and not try to get out of it.

My 3 Gifts

These pictures of the boys were taken on Monday, May 8. It marked 6 yrs since our precious Jordyn (she's pictured with her Daddy) went home to Heaven, safe in Christ's arms.

The boys and I went to a castle that's just about 10 minutes down the road from where we live. It has a lot of gardens, so it's very peaceful and just beautiful to walk the grounds. We've actually yet to explore the inside of the castle, we need to do that!!

These are my 3 gifts. God's blessed me more than I deserve. I look at my children and often think "wow, what did I do to deserve them?" Most of the time I'm saying that in a positive way! :) Hey, we all have those days, where they seem to knock you off your feet! Today my oldest asked me to make cookies with him. So we made up a batch of Choc. chip cookies. All three of us got in on the action, they got some tasty cookie dough as well! LOL As I was placing the cookies on the pan, Jack my little one said "Momma, good job!" He was just so proud of the work I was doing I guess! I am sure it's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but don't kids do that all the time. Give you those precious little moments that if you weren't there, you missed it! It's just one of the many reasons why I'm a SAHM/Homeschooling mom. I am so thankful I don't miss out on these moments. How blessed I am!

Rain...come

Ok, picture this...pollen so thick that your vehicle is covered in this "lovely" tint of yellow, that you can see it on your shoes, bike seat, inside your home for some lucky people, so thick that the stroller that was left outside, is now covered in yellow. You can't breath, because your nose is stuffed up, your throat's sore, your eyes are driving you insane because of all the itching, the headache that just won't go away....ah....yes, it's Springtime in Germany! I'm going to try to take a picture of my van tomorrow to give everyone an idea of this rediculous pollen. I've never experienced pollen that is this thick and that's on EVERYTHING it seems. You can guess who has an allergy to pollen. I can handle small amts of pollen, say having flowers in my home that doesn't bother me of course, it's just when it's so thick, and it feels like that's all you're breathing in, it gets a little much for me! Sorry, I'm sensitive that way. So if you haven't already done it...send some rain our way, let it wash this pollen away.

My Jordyn. This was taken at Homburg University, a couple weeks after she was dx with AML leukemia. She held onto that beautiful spirit throughout her life. On Monday May 8, 2000...Jordyn took her last breath in my arms. I miss my sweet girl. I long to hold her again. I can't imagine what she'd look like as an 8 yr old little girl. She made me a mommy, and took a piece of my heart with her when she went home to Heaven. How I miss my beautiful girl.

Bare, with me as I figure out how blogspace does pictures.the first is of my youngest, Jack, then my 2nd child/oldest son, Jacob. The last one is of some flowers from a tree that's just down the street from our building. I love flowers. I love tree's that have flowers especially. There's just something about them, that just I don't know. Makes them just that extra special, and definately more special. :)

Today's been a good day. I feel like I'm not home much on Sunday's, so neighbors can't get on my nerves so much! LOL We go to church and then in the late afternoon we have Awana, so by the time we get home it's getting later, although we know from a couple nights ago being late or not doesn't stop this neighbor from pumping up the volume so to speak. That was a Friday so hopefully she has enough sense to not do it on a school night. Hopefully in the next month once summer hits, her brain will not leave her totally, we'll just have to see!

I mentioned Awana above. Next week is the end of the year for it. We'll be giving out awards, saying goodbye to many families, having pizza, and afterwards the kids can skate. I know the boys will really enjoy it. Oh they'll have childcare too, which is always an added perk when the hubby's deployed and one's not old enough to be involved with Awana. At least during the awards ceremony I can concentrate on the kids and my oldest son, Jacob. Since we're a Christian Homeschooling family, memorization of bible verses is very important to me, since Awana is coming to the end, we're going to be jumping into his new children's bible and memorizing bible verses. I'm going to set a goal for him to memorize 1 big one or 2 small ones a week. We'll work on them daily and at the end of the week, he'll have to tell them to me without more than 2 helps (keeping the Awana thing going there). Once a month, I'm going to have him tell me all the verses he's learned over the month. My plan is that he'll do 3 weeks of memorization and the 4th week we'll work on the past 3 wks verses, as a refresher. It may or may not work, I'll have to see how things work best for both of us, but I think it will work and I truly believe that Jacob will grow in his relationship with God because of this. It'll also help me because I'm going to challenge myself to memorize these verses along with him!

Please keep me in your prayers tomorrow, it's the 6th anniversary since my little girl went home to Heaven. I'll try to write tomorrow and post some pictures of her, but we'll just have to see how the day goes.

New girl on the block

Hi! I already blog on another server, but thought I'd hop over here too. A little bit about me. I'm Christy. My husband's in the Army and we're stationed in beautiful Germany! Right now my dh is deployed, so it's just our boys and me enjoying Germany! I'm a homeschooling mom to my 5 yr old and do preschool work with my 2 1/2 yr old! We also try to do weekly field trips to different castles in the area! :)

I will just warn you there may be a few rants in here, as some of my neighbors are rather well, annoying! I like the area I live in, just not the person who lives below me. She has an "aunt" or it's her nanny, I'm honestly not sure...living with her, because she deploys tomorrow. I don't care for the soldier (single mom), and the aunt/nanny is possibly going to get an ear full of her music is up as loud as it was about 10 minutes ago. My feet were literally vibrating! She had the bass pumped up as well. I'm not a bass kind of girl, so you can imagine just how horribly annoying this is for me!

Well it's a beautiful day and my oldest son is up from his nap, now just for the 2 yr old to get up and we'll be ready to head to the park.