Month: November 2013

My parents are in town this week. The kids are having a great time with their grandparents and enjoying all the special treats that come with visitors in town. (Later bedtimes, dessert for breakfast, movies in the middle of the day, etc)

My mom’s birthday falls right after Christmas so I decided to take her clothes shopping for her birthday. My mom rarely buys anything for herself, she is always giving to others. I thought it would be fun to take her to the store where my daughter works and get her a pretty outfit.

We had a great time shopping and it was fun to see my mom actually doing something for herself, which never happens!

The kids are distracted from real life with all the holiday hustle and bustle. I’m hoping the distraction carries over until after Christmas.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

I had  great day. We were surrounded by family and friends and even though I broke my Thanksgiving rule and spent the whole day baking, it was awesome.

A half a world away, he had a lonely Thanksgiving. He ate dinner by himself and spent the evening in his room, alone. I can’t imagine feeling so alone, but I’m sure it is common for many of our troops overseas, and at training here in the states.

I use to be a letter writer. When we were first married he lived in Panama and I lived in Florida. I wrote him a letter almost every day.

This time around I’ve sent him one box and it didn’t even have a note inside.

I guess things are different now. We Facebook message or text almost every day. I feel like there is nothing left to say, and nothing left in me to say it.

I want to say that I will start writing him letters, but the reality is, I won’t. I can’t even remember to water the plant he gave me before he left.

I don’t know how to keep him from feeling so alone and really I don’t think I can.

 

My parents are here visiting. Yay!!!

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

After the excitement of yesterday, there is so much to be thankful for today.

As we approach this holiday season I realize that even though things are tough around here my life is better than I deserve.

I’m truly thankful for all the prayers and support we’ve received from people both online and offline. We could not make it through this time without it.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

Today we headed into DC to visit my sister-in-law and family. They are in town on vacation and we were headed to the Natural History museum for the afternoon.

The five youngest kids and I hopped on the metro and headed downtown. About two stops into our ride Cora started doing the potty dance. I had just taken her to the bathroom before we left so I figured she could hold it.

One stop later she was sobbing saying she couldn’t hold it any longer.

I realized that having a screaming four year old on the metro is not ideal for anyone so we got off at the next stop and tried to find a bathroom. I was a little nervous getting off with the kids since not all of the stops are in family friendly areas and I had no idea where a bathroom was in the station.

I asked an employee if they had a bathroom and they led me out a side gate so we didn’t have to get our tickets swiped. Then my older kids had to wait in a yucky hallway while I took Cora to the bathroom.

We got back on the metro and I was glad the excitement for our day was over.

We had a fun time at the museum and then we decided to grab dinner in the city.

My sister-in-law headed in one car with the girls and I took all the boys. We got to the restaurant first and got table. We waited for the girls to arrive. I saw them pull up and then waited for them to come in. It seemed like it was taking a really long time for them to get inside.

The hostess came up to the table and said,

“Are you with a group of little girls?”

I said I was and she told me I was needed at the front. I couldn’t figure out why they would need me, but I got up and walk back to the front of the restaurant.

When I arrived at the front I saw several people surrounding the revolving door. I walked closer and realized Cora was stuck in the door. Not just stuck but trapped.

Apparently as she was walking in she slipped and her foot became wedged between the door and the circular casing. Her whole body was trapped in one compartment and her foot was stuck in the compartment entering the restaurant. Her foot was acting like a door jam making it impossible to move the door in either direction.

She was hysterical. Actually she was beyond hysterical. She was uncooperative and completely out of control. I don’t blame her, she was face down on the ground, with her leg twisted in the other direction, trapped in this glass box.

The restaurant staff was working to get her free, but she screamed in pain every time they tried to turn her foot to get it out of the door. I walked out of the restaurant so she could see me and tried to calm her down. Seeing my face caused her to get even more upset.

After a few minutes I realized the only way to get her out was to get the boot off her foot. The boot was keeping her ankle and foot from being able to bend enough to maneuver it out of the door.

The problem was that her boot was a zip up boot with a velcro closure at the top. It is hard to unzip when you have access to it, let alone when you only have a few inches to get your hand through an opening and the boot zipper is facing the wall.

The manager and I worked to get the boot off.

Someone showed up with scissors. They were going to try and cut the weather stripping from around the door. I didn’t think that would work, but I was willing to try anything. Every minute that passed Cora became more and more upset. I was worried she might pass out from crying so hard.

All of a sudden I looked up and saw my seven year old standing outside the door. I couldn’t believe she was still outside. I yelled at her to get in the restaurant right this minute.

She threw her hands up in the air and said she couldn’t. That’s when I realized she was trapped in the other compartment of the revolving door. She had been standing there quietly the whole time, just waiting to be set free.

Two of my girls were trapped.

Someone called 911.

We continued to work to get the boot off begging Cora to help us.

I finally got the velcro opened and we went to work on the zipper. I realized that maybe I could cut the boot off, although I wasn’t sure how I could do it given the angle of the foot in the door.

I realized that I might have to break her ankle to get her out of the door.

I’m not one to panic in stressful situations, but I could feel panic coming over me. I knew Cora could survive trapped in the door for a long time, but the fact that she wouldn’t calm down and was face down on the ground made the situation feel so urgent.

Finally, and I would say miraculously, the boot came off. I don’t even remember what happened after that, but in a second her tiny foot was free from the door and she was slumped in my arms, sobbing quietly.

As soon as she was free the paramedics and fire truck showed up. The firemen came into the restaurant with a giant ax. Panic once again filled my body. I couldn’t imagine them having to break the glass on my girls to get them out. The thought of glass showering upon my girls upset me almost more than the entire ordeal.

I was so thankful we got her out before they arrived.

The paramedics checked her out and offered to take us to the hospital for x-rays. Cora seemed more traumatized than hurt (thank goodness for little flexible bones) so I declined a ride in an ambulance through the streets of DC at 5pm.

I finished my day by taking eight kids, thirteen and under, on the metro home for the night. (My niece and nephews are hanging out with us for a day)

I have a problem in that I think I can do pretty much anything if I put my mind to it. Taking eight kids on a metro was not the easiest thing I’ve ever done.

Things that came out of my mouth-

Sit down.

Stand up.

Move over.

Stop staring.

Quit kicking.

Stay in your seat.

Move next to your brother. 

Stop getting up. 

Get away from the door.

Ahhh… another day in the books and one day closer to not doing it alone.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

Communication is still very spotty. Sometimes I think it would be better to have no communication than the two minute phone calls that consist of me yelling…

“What?”

“Huh?”

“I can’t hear you!”

I say that, but even a minute of yelling is better than nothing at all.

We got a post card today. My eleven year old read it aloud to everyone else. As soon as he got to the last line he burst in to tears. The real kind. The kind where your chest heaves and you can’t stop shaking.

I know he is taking this the hardest. My heart breaks for this one. I can’t do anything to change our situation. I can’t make it better for him.

He’s old enough to understand it all. It stinks as a parent when you can’t fix things for your children. Especially when it is something they don’t deserve or didn’t sign up for.

The last deployment he was only four. He had no concept of time. A week was a day, and a month was a year to him. This time he knows. He knows every day, every minute, every second.

He needs his dad.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

I keep getting up earlier and earlier in hopes to catch up on everything that needs to get done around here. Of course no matter how early I get up, there’s always something that comes up that makes it impossible to catch up. I attempted to make more progress on my stair project, and am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We moved the television upstairs to the family room because even though I watch no TV, I like the Christmas specials and I thought if the TV was on the main level I might actually watch them with the kids.

My son told me that I would still not watch any television and that we should have kept it in the basement where they could play movies as loud as they wanted without waking anyone up.

So, to prove him, wrong I watched the Wizard of Oz with my little girls last night. This is probably my all time favorite movie. I did not realize how scary it might be for a four and seven year old as we watched. Whoops.

The best part was that my four year old fell asleep in my arms at the end of the movie. She’s never been one to fall asleep on you, so I this was actually pretty awesome. Even lugging her very heavy, sound asleep body up the stairs wasn’t so bad because I realized these moments don’t happen very often around here.

I finally hired someone to help me finish the stair project. My basic math computations told me it would be 2023 before I would finish it if I didn’t get some help. Looking forward to whatever progress gets made this week from my painter.

Internet connections are still pretty crummy and communication has been hard over the last few days. I’m thankful for the texts and messages that do go through.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

Today was a busy. I wanted to get a Christmas tree, but I couldn’t find a place that had them unwrapped on the log. I ran errands with the littlest and we all worked together to clean out the garage.

Let’s just say that cleaning out the garage with seven kids isn’t my favorite thing to do on a Saturday, but it needed to be done, so we all worked together to do it.

In the end it wasn’t that bad and the garage is almost finished. I can see a car parked in there in my future!

We tried to talk via Skype  today but the connection is spotty at best. I think that is one of the hardest things about the deployment. When he was in Iraq years ago we talked almost every day for a few minutes. He always had a way to contact us, but he didn’t have much time to talk.

This time around he has time off every day and access to internet but the connect is so bad we can’t talk. Yesterday I had some important stuff I wanted to talk about (which doesn’t happen very often) and we couldn’t get a connection.

I realize that many deployed service members don’t even have the opportunity to call, so I’m fortunate. The kids talk to him several times a week via video chat and I realize that is something many other families don’t have.

I worked on the stairs, we moved furniture (again), and we watched a basketball game. It was a good day.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

I realized one of the things my kids were missing is fun. In our house Dad is the fun one. He makes brownies for breakfast, takes them to Chuck E Cheese for no reason, and will rent and watch movies just because they asked.

In fact, my kids look forward to me traveling because they know they’ll get an extra dose of fun.

Even though he’s been gone for 24 days, he was at training before that with a short break in the middle, so we’re really going on about two months.

To try to make up for “fun dad” being gone I started weekly dinners out. Now I have to admit this is mostly for me so I don’t have to cook and we can eat vegetables, but the kids look forward to it and I let them vote and pick the restaurant.

So if you are reading this Commander, all your special deployment pay is going towards our weekly dinners, this week they picked Outback. 🙂

After we went to dinner we went shopping at Target. I had a few things I needed to get and instead of rushing in and out of the store, like I normally do we lingered and I let them spend way too long in the toy aisle making their Christmas wish list, looking at books, and trying out the electronics.

It was a really fun day.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

Good news: My eye is better.

Bad news: Today was really cruddy. It seemed like no matter what I got done, someone would undo it. For every thing someone would remember, they would forget two other things.

I don’t like getting upset with my kids, but today I was upset with them. All day.

They are good kids. Not perfect, but good. I need to remember their little hearts are breaking and show more grace, more mercy.

The more grace and mercy I show them, the more they have to show each other.

The more joy that flows from me, the more that flows from them.

It is a simple idea, now if I could only walk it out in real life.

We talked about getting our Christmas tree this weekend. It seems early to get a tree, but with my kids’ work schedules it might be the only time we can get one for the next few weeks.

Thanksgiving is late this year and maybe a little Christmas is what we need around here.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.

It’s been three weeks since he left. The days fly by but the weeks are creeping. In all the years with all the TDY’s and deployments this will be our first Thanksgiving apart in eighteen years.

We aren’t really big Thanksgiving celebrators (if that’s what you call it). For years we didn’t even cook a turkey, we had pizza.

When we lived in West Virginia our Thanksgiving pizza tradition was replaced with a Thanksgiving hunting tradition. We won’t be hunting this year as I have no desired to clean a deer by myself.

I think my boys are bummed about it, but they have a good idea in spite of it all.

I’m proud of my boys. They’ve all stepped up in one way or another. I know this is hard on them, really hard.

They miss their dad.

My husband has been deployed to the Middle East for 274 days.  These are my real thoughts expressing my heart during his absence.  I appreciate your prayers and kind words as we cope, adapt, and carry on without him until August 2014.  To read from the beginning, click here.