Day 7 {Your Best Friend}

This is one that could go on forever, but I'll try to keep it short. Chad's my best friend. I'm blessed that I can say that about my husband. So many women seem to spend their days complaining about their husbands, bashing them, etc. I know I'm guilty of it myself. I'm guilty of being annoyed with him, venting about him, etc. It's something I've been working on very hard to stop. I'm working on appreciating him as my husband and being a GODLY wife to him.
Now as a woman I've been blessed with female best friends. I will start with Rebekah. She and I met shortly after our family arrived at Ft. Belvoir, well actually we were still living at the Ronald McDonald House waiting on housing, while Jordyn was being treated at Walter Reed. Her husband and Chad were in the same unit, and her and I hit it off immediately. At the time they only had their oldest son, S, he was 6 months younger than Jordyn. When Jordyn died she wept with me, she gave me space to mourn, but never let go of me. After we moved from Virginia we continued to stay in touch. For a while we drifted a little, but we always found ourselves reconnecting and grew closer. The last 3 years we have chatted online nearly every day, until that fateful day in August. Chad had his accident on a Sunday and Thursday morning around 1 AM, Rebekah went home to our Savior. She had been in the hospital to have her spleen removed in hopes of it putting her the ITP (platelett disorder) into remission. Wednesday surgery had been postponed because of her passing out that morning until Friday. Wednesday night though she started having trouble breathing and xrays showed multiple pulmonary embolisms. Treatment didn't work and she slipped into the arms of our Savior. My heart hurts, Thursday willl be 8 weeks since she left this earth and I still have a hard time believing she's really gone, that I'll never hear her voice again, see her words being typed in front of my face, no hugs again, etc. She was a dedicated mom, she'd fought for a marriage that her husband had walked out on years ago and had come to the decision that she was going to move on and live her life the best she could without him, was finishing up her degree. She was simply put...amazing. The greatest thing about her, her heart for Jesus. I'm so thankful that she knew Jesus and had a relationship with him, so reassuring to know where she's at.
My other best friend is Tami. We met 10 years ago when Jordyn died and her Sydney died. We met on an online support group for parents who'd lost a child who died from cancer. We instantly bonded, initially it was because of our common loss, but it grew so much stronger. We were both unexpectantly pregnant with boys, who are only 1 1/2 months apart. We met aprox 2 years after Jordyn and Sydney died, in person. She's one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She understands me unlike most people. I can tell her anything and know she's not going to judge me.
The last one would be Bobbie. She's my Army wife best friend. I've never had a friend like her. We're like sisters. So much alike, yet enough differences to keep it fun and interesting. Her son is the same age as Jacob and they were best friends and her daughter is 7 months older than Emma and they loved each other deeply. She moved 2 years ago and I can't even find the words to describe how much I miss her. I find myself still in tears from time to time wanting their family to be back here with us. We were together literally almost every day. Walking, working out together, making dinner together, sports for our kids, fun activities, going to the park, PWOC, Hospitality House, you name it we did it together. Sometimes I have to make myself not think about her, because the pit in my stomach just hurts too much.
I have many other near and dear friends and am so blessed by them.

Day 6 {Your Day}

You'll understand the pictures once you've read the entry!

Well I got to sleep in this morning with Noah which was great. I got up at 10 AM *(see told you I slept in!!). Got up, checked email and facebook, nursed Noah, talked with the other kids, got Emma dressed. Did a couple other things (that I can't remember!) then decided that as much as I didn't want to had to figure out a costume to wear to the babyshower I was going to that said to dress up in a halloween costume! All of us attending are Christians, so no worries of being in something scary or anything. I wanted something fun and that I had around the house. I looked online and nothing and then I went to my closet and saw it....my Great Grandma's dress that she gave me. It was a classic grandma dress! So...I doned my grandma dress, put on some lovely blue eye shadow, and then I put baby powder in my hair! LOL The baby shower ended up being a blast and it was so fun to see everyone coming in all dressed up. We had a rocker, a girl from the 80's, the Virgin Mary (who's name is actually Mary and is actually pregnant, but with baby #3 lol), a house keeper, an authentic German in a dreidle, a fun (almost clown) lady, a rose bush and her dog was a bumble bee (rofl), a high schooler, and the momma to be was a pirate wench. We made bibs for the baby to be (which we don't know if it's a girl or a boy), bottle filled with m&m's that we had to guess how many, and then it was present time. Afterwards I came home and Chad was sorting through the stuff we have in our garage and he'd made great progress! Before we couldn't get into the garage without stretching over things into a small, narrow walkway, now there's a nice wide opening and a nice large walk way! (We're going back out tomorrow to work some more!) Emma got to go with one of Chad's soldiers downtown, she took her shopping and was going to get her nails done, but they ran out of time (so they're going on Monday lol). Jack was asked to spend the night at our neighbors and Emma was as well, so once she got home she ate and then went to the neighbors to spend the night. Jacob's having a friend spend the night here. Noah's passed out on Chad as I type this! It was a good day! :)

Day 5 {Your Definition of Love}

I have read a lot of people find this one kind of hard to answer, but to me it's easy. I can sum it all up in one word: JESUS. You can not know what real love is, if you don't know Jesus and when you know him you can know what love is. His love for me is so deep he died for me. As a mother I would die for my children, if I could have traded places with Jordyn I would have. If I could have taken 1 second of pain from her, I would have. I know that without Jesus I could never know what love truly is. How thankful I am to know my Savior, to have a relationship with him, to have his love.

Day 4

So I got a little behind! ;) I'm going to do a few days today, but in seperate entries.

Day 4 is what did I eat today. Ok seriously this is probably the dumbest question for this sort of thing, but I'll play along! :)

I didn't get up until late (love cosleeping) so I didn't end up having breakfast. I had a baby shower at 1 so I waited to eat until there. I had pigs in a blanket, fresh veggies, meatballs in bbq sauce (mmmm), and spice cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting ( mmmm....mmmmm). For dinner we had chicken and mac n cheese.

Day 3.....My Parents

My parents. Well they're still married (I know rare) and have been for 34 years. They met via my mom's step-cousin who was my dad's best friend. J took my dad over to my mom's house and that's when they met. They dated in high school and the year my mom graduated they were married that November. I came a little over a year later and my brother was the following year.

My dad is ultimately a laid back man. He's worked hard his whole life providing. My mom is a woman who has very low self esteem (thanks to a very unkind step-mother, her biological mom died when she was only 2)...the damage that woman did left is a life long effect. I don't have a good relationship with my mother, which in turn makes not a fabulous one with my dad either. I love them, but my boundaries with them are VERY,VERY,VERY HIGH and contact with them is extremely limited.

Day 2-First Love

Wahoo...I'm doing day 2!! :)

My first love wow...well I think now looking back I had a lot more infatuations and really,really like vs love. I'd say my first true honest to goodness LOVE wasn't until I was in college (but hanging my head down very low thinking of all the boys I "thought" I loved and how easily I tossed that word around). The first love would be Mike Shirley. He and I met through a friend and his co-worker. Mike was in the Army. We dated for aprox a year. He was ultimately a good guy, but we just were not meant to be by any means and I ultimately was the one who broke up with him. . The relationship ran its toll. We both thought we were going to end up getting married even. We talked about it often, and he was the first to bring it up. I'm truly so grateful that we did not make that mistake.
The last I heard, he got out of the Army and married a girl who had a toddler. She lived in Kansas and he was from Oregan and I can't imagine they are in Ks if they're still married, because he deseperately wanted to go back to Oregan when we were together.
Wow, I hadn't thought about him in a very long time!!

30 Days of Me

Well, I've watched as others have done it and I'm going to do it too! :)
Thirty Days of me. Hopefully I can do 30 straight days of me, but if not...oh well the world won't end! :)


Day 1 Introduce Yourself....

Well....I'm Christy. First things first is that I'm a CHRISTIAN. Next I'm a Wife to Chad. Third I'm a Mom to: Jordyn who was dx with AML leukemia 6 days before her 1st birthday and 14 months later went home to Jesus. I'm also Mom to Jacob, Jackson, Emma, and Noah. I live in Germany (my hubby's in the Army) and have for the last 5 years and love it and honestly if we could afford to retire and stay here I would, but well it's expensive to live here without the support of the Army, so I don't see that happening, unless GOD calls for bigger things than what I see so far! (I wouldn't be against it that's for sure).

I was born and raised for the most part in Kansas. I LOVE and mean LOVE Wheat fields, especially in the evening as the wind picks up just slightly and starts blowing the wheat, there's just something so peaceful about it.

As a kid my dad was laid off of work and he did what he had to, my parents bought a travel trailer and he worked building railroad tracks in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. He also worked out in the oil fields, which we lived in Texas and Oklahoma. Both jobs required a lot of moving. I went to 5 schools for kindergarten. My 5th was back in KS because my mom saw how hard it was on me to be moving every couple of months. She told my dad that she was not leaving him, but was moving home to Kansas. Well, my dad quit and we all moved back to Kansas as a family.

I'm the oldest of 2. I have a brother who's a year younger than me. As kids we fought constantly. I honestly couldn't stand my brother for most of my childhood. Once in high school I started to appreciate him and see him as a good guy. After high school we became friends and now I can say that I am so proud of him, love him, and just think he's an awesome guy all around. He's a devoted husband and dad to my beautiful 2 nieces. He works full time at a Cardiac Center as well as going to school full time (taking 17 hours right now), to be a trauma nurse and then he'd like to go on in his schooling and become an anestisiologist (sorry if I mispelled).

I'm a Stay at home, homeschooling mom. I love it. I'm thankful GOD has called me into this calling, this job (and it IS a job), this passion.

With in the Army life (and military in general) you step up when a fellow Army wife is in need or their family in general. This past week a sister/friend needed support. Her husband had to go to Walter Reed for issue's he's dealing with (please pray that more answers come out from this trip) and as if that wasn't stressful enough, their youngest daughter was hospitalized. My sweet friend T won't leave her sweet girl M and there for wasn't eating much, and when you're pg and have Type 2 diabetes that's not a good combination, and well American's and German dinners well...it leaves a lot to be desired, unless you like having some bread (not always brotchen), some of their cold cuts (which to me is YUCK), and maybe if you're lucky soup and/or a salad (normally pretty good). So once I found out she was in the hospital I got other wives lined up and we've had dinner brought up to her every day since, and on Friday Chad took her lunch and dinner. Her other two kiddo's were staying with her best friend, but her son who's Jacob's age asked to spend the weekend with us, so N has been with us since Friday after he got out of school. He has school tomorrow so Chad will make sure he gets there and our weekend of an extra kiddo will be over. I've loved having him. He's a great boy and him and Jacob are pretty well best friends. This is what you do for a friend. You help them when they need it, especially when they are too stubborn to ask for help or don't realize they have help out there. Honestly we were very blessed while Chad was in the hospital last month through the various meals people brought us and can't imagine what I'd have done if friends hadn't blessed us that way. Money was being spent on gas, since in general our gas budget is set VERY low and when I set our budget I had no idea it'd be blown out of the water after 2 days, I then used up our grocery money after a few more days of driving back and forth, so having limited groceries in the house as it was, and not getting home until late....we were looking at having pb&j until the next payday had I not humbled myself and told a friend we needed help in that area. Let me just say my kids have a lot to be thankful for (especially Jacob since he's not a fan of pb&j...me on the otherhand am in a big kick for them "could" eat them daily....I don't but on yum!)...so anyways it's just a blessing that we can help others after being helped so much.


On other news...Chad returns to work in the morning. Say a prayer for all of us if you would as we adjust. I'm praying he stays on top of his pain meds. I know he can and will make it through his work days, I just know it'll be an adjustment for him and for the kids and I as well. He's been home for a little over 4 1/2 weeks. I'll start schooling the boys full time (Chad has been doing school the majority of the time with them since they started earlier this month) and juggling Emma and Noah. I'll be pulling out some preschool books I have for Emma to do while the boys are working on their school work, hopefully it'll keep her busy for a bit of a time at least.

God's Blessings

We have professional photo's done a couple weeks ago. Noah's 3 months, Emma's 3 years, Jack's 7 year and then we did all 4 of the kids and a family photo. Always missing one, but thankful for the blessings GOD has given us.

Eyes wide open

How many of you have found that in so many ways you're outspoken in life, that you always have things to talk about with others, but there's that one friend who no matter the reason they call it all turns back to them? When they call to comfort you, share in your joy, see how you are...that somehow and for some reason it all turns back to them and they do 99% of the talking, while you sit there wondering if they even realize it. Now with most people I'd speak up, but with one I find I can't. I know it sounds rediculous. I never have a problem speaking my mind, speaking up for myself, etc...yet this one person I find myself hanging up the phone and thinking "wow, I bet out of that 20 minutes I spoke 2 minutes, maybe."
I've recently discovered, that this friendship just doesn't seem important and that as much as I want this person to simply care about me and our friendship, I really don't think they do. It hurts, it makes me sad. I just recently lost one of my dearest friends, unexpectantly. She's in Heaven now. To lose another in another form makes my heart that much heavier.

I know my posts lately have been a big pile of "poor poor pitiful me", bare with me. I really will start writing and stop whining.

On good news. Chad's doing well. He's slowly healing. He's been doing physical therapy for a couple of weeks now. He also saw the MTBI clinic today. He'd been having some dizziness and had been getting light headed. They are working with him and he'll have another apt on Friday and they believe they'll have everything fixed. It at least seems to be a simple fix. Ironically the MTBI person is also his physical therapist, so he knows her and she knows what he's been through, so today when he went into the clinic she was able to just get to work and didn't have to know his back story! I am not sure how things are going to go for him when he returns to work. He tires out quickly, he still has a good amount of pain. He's still on heavy pain meds and when he doesn't take them on time is in extreme pain. Please be in prayer for him. While he's been home he's been helping with the boys schooling. It's been truly a blessing to have a little bit longer of a break for me, as I'm handling Noah and Emma and everything else that goes along with an infant and toddler and homeschooling. Of course he does things differently so I've had to work hard not to say anything, be critical, etc. I've tried hard to just be supportive and grateful.

I'm off. I'm doing 2 bible studies right now. Craziness I know. I have to still do my homework for tomorrow morning's class and tomorrow will have to do the homework for tomorrow evening! Nothing like putting it off to the last minute. I will say that I feel like I've not really had time and everytime I've gone to do it, it seems like Noah needs me or I simply can't stay awake to get it done! Of course often I find facebook calling my name! :X I'm thinking it's time to take a facebook break. No not giving it up, just limiting myself more than I have been.

God Bless and thank you for the continued prayers.