Wow a year since my last post. I really need to work at this and actually be diligent in my postings. Life has a way of barreling past though and I don't have time to write down my reflections. This has been a trying year. My husband deployed  in August. We try to skype daily but he is 14 hours ahead of us. My oldest child is about an inch taller than me now and his voice has changed from a childs' into a young mans. My big girls are growing up into young ladies. Even my little ones are getting big. My youngest will be 4 in a few short weeks. It does not seem like 4 years ago that I had him. I look at him and he still seems so tiny but I remember when his older brother was 4 I thought him so grown up. Funny how our perspective changes based on the birth order.

My oldest son is still struggling socially but doing leaps and bounds better than he ever has. His sister summed it up last night when she said  Daniel is still itty bitty inside even if he is big outside. Yes he is. Only 6ft tall teenager on the block that is out there playing with the 5-8 year olds that seem to populate our neighborhood. Yesterday he discovered an electric scooter and it was like watching a kid on a roller coaster. He initiates conversations with me now. Sometimes amusing, almost always thought provoking. He is an honor roll student and I am SO proud of him for that.

Ashlynne is home-schooled this year. That has been DIFFERENT. Never did I think I would home-school. It was needed though. She is thriving. I tell her she is always on the honor roll and has perfect attendance finally.  She lost so much weight last school year and missed so many days due to her stomach issues. She is being seen at UAB-Childrens hospital now. Finally a few answers. We know she has lactose and fructose sensitivities. Next up is testing for Mesenteric Artery syndrome. I almost hope it is the answer because at this point we have done every other test I know of.

Laureleiy is so grown up now. I have a hard time remembering she is only barely 11. She acts more like a very serious 20 year old. School is EVERYTHING To her. I am so proud of her desire to be that straight A student. She has maintained a 100% average throughout the entire year in every subject even citizenship. I can see her being a valedictorian someday. Her projects are painstaking in their precision and perfection. Her goal is to be a Navy fighter pilot or an astronaut. I see her succeeding at both of those. She completed an elective course earlier this year at the Naval Aviation museum, that pertained to the theory and evolution of flight. Of course she topped out and scored the highest grade in her school. She reminds me so much of her dad and I.

David- Oh what a stinker! That kid is on fire! He will be a household name someday. He lives for entertaining and his one-liners are killer. He puts on his own one man show that includes jokes singing and dancing. He is performer at heart and I love watching his antics. Schoolwork could use some help. I tell him spend more time working at school and less time playing and then you can play all you want too at home. Maybe one day this will sink in.He is on the a honor roll BARELY.

Katheyrn- Still my ethereal child. She is my daydreamer. Sweet loving and so creative. Watch for her designs someday. She loves dress up and decorating. School is sort of an eh point for her. She only does her work because she has no other choice. She is an A student though and there is little effort to be that. It all comes easily and she is content to do what must be done so she can dream.

Arriana- My sweet little neurotic child. This kid is so not an A student. She doesn't care about anything but rocks and ducks. If the subject matter doesn't contain one of those two subjects she is not going to do it. I'm fairly sure her classmates parents scratch their heads at homework assignments because it is almost always duck or rock related on the math sheets... She has struggled with her anxiety this year. Hair pulling has increased to an epic level and she half balded herself right before Christmas. I packed the kids up and drove to my mom and dads house for over a month. Her hair is growing back. Except now that she is back in school it has started again. :( Today I have a meeting with her teacher again. Therapy does not seem to help the anxiety.

Matthew oh the joys of little boys! His favorite color is pink. He likes wearing tutus because they fling mud so well. He can ride a bike with no training wheels, and boy does he ever ride it. He will fly down the street on it. It amuses him to see us running after him and it only makes him peddle faster. Oy! I have implemented yelling RED LIGHT!!! Which brings him to a temporary stop. He talks nonstop and is constantly building things digging in things and questioning things. His mind is so bright. He is so ready to be in school. He can already read and spell his name.

And time goes on

We are still here. My oldest children have even managed to become middleschoolers. Wow! How did that happen so fast? Seems like every day with them goes by faster than the last. I watch my oldest son, who has struggled with social and academic issues most of his life, and see him excelling. He actually has friends outside of children who belong to my own friends. AMAZING! My middle son has started to come into his own. He definitely is not afraid to voice his displeasure with life or his enjoyment. A far cry from the terrified sick child that was handed to me in the Guatemalan airport almost 6 years ago. Wow 6 years already. Best birthday present EVER. We will celebrate his forever family day and my birthday on Monday the 16th. :)
My children amaze me daily. They each have their own unique personalities and yet share many of the same quirks and qualities, especially their fathers quick smile. I am so blessed.

Ahhh the good days of Summer

I can not believe our time here has gone so fast. Kids are growing up. My husband made Chief. I still don't want to leave. I feel very much at home in this community. More so than anywhere else I have ever lived. However I am a Navy wife. I will pack my things and move to where ever my husband is sent. I will do it with a smile and willingness to enjoy each new place we go. My heart will cry for those I must leave behind. However now that Facebook is such a global phenomena I feel like no matter where we go, my friends will not be far away!

Upsetting news

My husband came home with upsetting news last night. He is at the top of the list for a deployment to Afganistan. I know this is a fact of life as a military life but it still upsets me because the past few years he has been on 4 deployments and lots of mini deployments. We are on shore duty now so usually it is not a worry about deployment. I know a lot of other wives out there are going through the same thing and some have even lost their husbands, so I shouldn't complain.

I just feel sad and I just don't want him to go this time. This shore duty was partially chosen by us, so that he could get to know the kids again. If no one else at his command volunteers for this then he will be selected because he is most junior at the command. We ahven't mentioned anything to the children yet because I don't want to upset them unnessecarily. When and if we know more details then we will have to sit them down. Right now I am just praying someone else wants the extra pay for going over there, enough to volunteer. Selfish of me I know, but it is what it is.

Katherynism's

My 5 year old Katheryn, received a 35 mm camera for her birthday. Of course she is used to my digital camera and having an never ending film supply. She went through the 24 shots very quickly, and now she wants to to shopping and buy more "clicks" for her camera. Her distinct way of describing things always tickles me.

A good day

Today we celebrated two of our daughter's birthdays. Normally we celebrate each birthday individually, but we have had party after party recently and we being military only know a few people at our new station and my almost 2 year old doesn't care when her party is. I say overall it was a raging success. We had two other families here with a total of 11 kids not including my own. 17 kids can eat a lot of cake! I say 17 although we had 18 because the baby is still far to young to eat cake. Pinata time was probably the highlight of the party. We had two pinatas and boy, I think we have some future major league players in our midst. They busted those things to high heaven. 2 cakes and 5 gallons of ice cream did not last long! It was such a hot day at 107 degrees that as soon as the pinata scavenge was over, they were back inside sucking down ice water and ice cream just to cool off.

At the end of the day my children were happy and exhausted which means they might let their parents sleep in a bit tomorrow although I doubt it. This weekend has been one event after the other. Last night we went on hot air balloon rides at a Balloon festival. Granted we were tethered and only got to go up about 15-20 feet, my children were still thrilled. This morning before the party they got to go to a church carnival. VBS is coming soon and they can not wait to be green comets and red rockets.



I like this new duty station. We have met such a nice group of people at church and we have wonderful neighbors to boot. I wish our time here could be longer than the 3 years we are assigned. The best thing about it is that my husband will not be going on long deployments while we are here. It is nice to have another adult around. 7 months or longer as a single parent is rough. It takes a mental and physical toll on you no matter how few or how many children you have. I know my thoughts are rambling. It is difficult to stick to one subject on a first blog because you question should you just plug right in and bare all or should you only give up to date blogs? I think mine will be a bit of both. More like an online thought filterer. If that [ filterer] is even a word. Well I suppose I will sign off for now. If you read it and are bored to tears, sorry! If you read it and wonder why I am still sane? Well the answer is by the grace of God and a having a wonderful mother as a role model of the virtue of Patience. god bless my mother. She deserves it and many other wonderful things.