Lazy Days

August 27, 2012


I was planning on writing everyday when I started this journey, but like a lot of things in life, it just didn't happen. I'm kind of sad that it only took a couple days for this to happen instead of weeks or months. However, having two young children at home and a slew of activities makes for long days. I'd like to say I have a good excuse, but I'm fresh out of creative ideas. Mainly it boils down to me being lazy.

Friday didn't hold much promise for anything. In the middle of the night, there was a huge thunderstorm that just wouldn't quit. It made for great sleeping weather, but it appealed to my lazy side.

Samuel was in hourly care all day on Friday. After the whole week of running back and forth to get him to school, I needed a break from all the driving. I took him in the morning and didn't pick him up until after I got Genevieve. I spent the morning cleaning like crazy and the afternoon watching TV with my feet up. It was great.

Saturday brought more rain and a day on the sofa reading books. We took a time out for an indoor BBQ, but other than that I read, read, and read some more. It was nice to be able to take the time to just veg out.

As you can see, I haven't been living up to the crazy hectic life I think I usually have. However, if you can't take a break form time to time, what can you do? It was a nice break while it lasted.

Today was back to the grindstone. I was back to the old take the kids to school, hurry up and get stuff done, and drive, drive drive. As the days slip by, things should hopefully slow down to the nice school time pace.

There is a Season

Before I start today, I want everyone to know that while I may complain from time to time, I am actually very content with my life. I hate being in one place for too long. When my husband and I were first married, we moved yearly. We just liked the change of scenery and the ability to do something new.

Life in the Army suits me well this way. The longest we have ever been in one place has been three years. That was our stay in Germany. We not only stayed there for that length of time, we also stayed in the same apartment all three years. That was huge for me. I passed the time with rearranging furniture, buying new pieces, and more rearranging. It kept me happy.

What seems so sad to me right now is how I'm already looking to the future. I am already thinking about our next move. While I am so glad we got the station we wanted, I can't help thinking about where we might go next. It seems my brain is wired to think so differently than most. I guess that is nothing new though.

I guess where I am going with this is simply this. I am going to try and challenge myself to live now, and thankful for all that I have been given. I need to be still and just enjoy the things here that I love. I need to remember that no matter where I end up, it's not by my doing. There is a reason, and I need to remember that more.

So my challenge to all of us is to find your purpose for right now. You have one. There is a reason I'm a stay at home mom. There is a reason I am struggling with making real connections. There is a season for everything and everything has its time and place. Be still and see what you can hear what your purpose for this season of life is.

Umm Yeah

So I have sat down and tried to blog three times recently. To write in my blog. Each one having something great in it, of course. However, they must don't get finished and posted. So, today I'm finishing a blog post. I know all of you out there miss me, so I'm back.

I guess I'll start off with a joke? What do you call a person who has been stuck with ten needles? A pin cushion? I my case, you call her one happy camper. This past week I went to the specialist for a nerve block shot. Little did I know it also included injections on my shoulders and down my back.

All that said, the result was amazing. I haven't been pain free for years. Finally I have manageable pain again. I think with a few more treatments it will even get better. I told a friend of mine that I was in so much pain and didn't even know it. When it builds over time, you don't notice just how bad it is. In that first absence of pain, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my head and shoulders.

I think the shots, and maybe my new meds are doing the trick. We will see in time how things work out. For now I'm just happy with this little bit of time I have.

The Pharmacy Blows!

You'd think the painful part of my day would be rehashing my entire medical history to yet another neurologist. If you have ever been to one, you probably have the same experience as I have had. You go in and spill the beans about everything you have tried, done, etc. My issues go back to 1998, so that is a lot of history. However, that part of my day wasn't the worst part. The hour drive there and hour back wasn't either. The thing that was just the turd in the punch bowl was my wait at the PX Pharmacy waiting to get my meds. Oi! I have now been here over an hour, and I'm still waiting for my number to be called the second time. The first time they called me I had to give them my prescriptions. Then came the bad news. I was to take a new number for pick up. I started out with my first at 101 and I was 118. Now I'm 196 and they are only on 186. This makes me miss my tiny little pharmacy up on the hill that makes you call in the prescriptions.

Greatness or Craziness?

I have been watching a show on Hulu (the only source of TV we have) where famous people go about tracking down people from their past. They trace either just one person or try and go back as far as they can. There are alway interesting stories about these people and where their roots are. This got me thinking, where does our family come from. I did a quick google search, and wouldn't you know there's an app for that. :p I swear there is an app for everything. Anyway, I started with the basics. I knew my parents, my hubby's parents, and most grandparents. I know my aunts and uncles, and so I simply just started to fill in the blanks. I didn't get too far, but I did find a public record showing my mom's birth, and a few social security death notices. When my hubby came in from work I started telling him that I had found this app, and I had gotten a few people put in. He then said, "you have to be careful digging up the past. You will either dig up something cool or a bunch of crap." So here is to my family tree. I know we are all a little on the nutty side, but it would be amazing to see if we are related to anyone "cool."

PTA (Potty Training Anonymous)

It's the little things in life right? Well today I celebrated one of those little things. To really grasp how this little thing isn't so little, we need to go back four years. Let me take you on the journey. Four years ago my son was born. He made his first cell phone call within an hour of his birth. You see my in-laws were at our home an hour away keeping a watch out over our oldest. He was screaming (as most newborns do as they are brought into the world), and my hubby had called his parents to let them know they had a grandson. From the second I laid eyes on him, I knew he was going to be stubborn. You see we didn't know if we were going to have a girl or boy. As my OB put it, we were one of the rare couples that wanted to have the full surprise. We had many ultrasounds due to not getting goods pictures of his heart (that should have been the first clue), and the fact that I was measuring so far ahead. I was always 6 weeks ahead measurement wise. While my doctor and I did not agree on the due date, she knew that I was just really big. My hubby was a recruiter at the time and never got to go with me to anything. I was that woman who brought her infant almost toddler with her to all the appointments. Genevieve was amazing though and kept busy. She was never in the way and was alway good. It just so happened that on the day of the scan (the one where they can tell you the sex) my hubby was able to come. As we were looking at the pictures of our baby, my hubby let me know he thought we were having a boy and pointed out the evidence. I then had to tell him the evidence was actually the baby's nose. My hubby was right though, and we had a baby boy come the end of December. We had picked out names for both a boy and girl. We weren't totally sure on the girl's name and had many conversations about it even up to a day or two before. I just knew that if we had a boy, we would call him Ayden. I loved the name. I was excited when they handed me my not so little baby, and told me he was in fact a boy. The doctor then looked at me and asked me what his name was. As I looked at his face, I just knew I didn't hold an Ayden in my arms. I had to tell her I wasn't sure on the name. She asked my choices and then said that both were really good names. It took me about 10 mins, but I knew that my little Samuel was going to give me heck as much as he could. As a baby, he was calm and mellow. I typed something up in his first year describing him as my mellow child. He was a great sleeper, and he was just so calm. He'd nap while his sister was at school allowing me to nap, and just was a loving little guy. Something shifted in that first year, and the guy I've come to know and love emerged. He has just always wanted to do things his own way and in his own time. He walked and talked much later than normal. His therapist said it was normal for little boys to lag because of the lack of wanting to develop skill sets at the same time. When he did decide to walk, talk, etc, it was really quick. He is smart as a whip, and he picked things up quickly. We didn't even use the therapist for the whole year because he was soon not only developing, he was advanced. This brings me around to the whole point. I have tried to potty train my son for over a year off and on. He would do fine sitting for a few days and then throw a fit the next. As you can imagine, it was very frustrating. I had Genevieve potty trained fully (no accidents on a regular basis) in 3 months. This was a lot harder the second time around. Well, I think my stubborn son might have decided it's time to be a big kid now. He is now at 4 days accident free. I feel like someone who is at an AA meeting or something. "Hello, my name is Emily. I'm Samuel's mom. He is 4 days clean." We have fought at times about doing yuckies, and we have even made up a song to help. He even wore undies to church today. It was a big step to trust he'd be okay, but you have to start sometime. After he gets off the potty and does said yuckies and the song is sung, he immediately asks for my phone. He wants to call his Gammy to let her know that he was a big kid. The conversation lasts for all of 10 seconds, but he likes to let her know. Sometimes he then asks for Pappy and Grandma and Grandpa via phone. They are all great and make a huge deal out of it for him. He gets excited telling them that he was a big boy. Needless to say, I think he might have made up his mind. I hope so anyway. It's the little things like phone calls to grandparents that can make all the difference in the world. Let's just hope this means it is for real this time. I mean the kid did tell me he was going to get married in diapers after all.

So today is a product review. I do this from time to time when I find something I really like or enjoy. Today's topic, my Kindle. My best friend got a new Kindle Fire for Christmas. She was awesome enough to sell me her's at a great price considering it came with the purple cover you see and the skin. Since it was a good deal I was going to buy it even though I don't really read. I knew my hubby could use it (if we found a new cover) to read on overnight duty or while he was away. Needless to say, he won't be getting it at all. I have had it maybe a month now. I have read 8 books and almost through my 9th. It is so much easier to read a book on the Kindle than in book form. I love the special ink that makes it look like a real book page. I have tried to read on my iPad, but because of the backlight, it eventually gets hard to read. I also find that due to how portable it is, I will take it more with me. Depending on what book you want to read, you could be in for a hefty load. I know some of the last books I read were 400 to 700 pages. That can make for a heavy addition. The Kindle is a lot smaller and weighs next to nothing. I won't go on and on why this has been a great addition to my electronic collection, but it is! If you are on the fence about getting one, you should take the plunge. I even have a blog I check to get titles of books that are free on amazon. I have a good amount of books to read after I finish the book I'm on. So run to the nearest store and pick yours up! I don't think you'll be sorry you did. :)

Location:I <3 My Kindle!

Red Van or Blue Van?

Have you ever wondered if you made the right choice? I'm sure most of us have at some time or another. It can be something as small as what you ordered for dinner or something bigger like did I pick the right car. I think at some point in all our lives we are faced with the question am I or did I do the right thing. I'm having one of those moments. I can't and won't go into much detail (I know, what's the point in blogging then). The matter at hand is not important. It is the lessons or insight you gain. You wonder if you should have picked the blue van instead of the red. You wonder if what you decided to do is worth being on that path. I was visiting with my sister today on the phone, and she was sharing about some things she is going through. As I gave her the most awesome big sister advice I could, I realized I needed to take my own advice. Funny how that works. I kept telling her that everything would happen in the right time, and even though we don't always like it, we just have to rest assured that what needs to happen will. I do believe that you have to make certain things happen. I know you can't just sit back and everything will happen. There is work involved. However, I believe that we are put in certain situations for reasons. I haven't always had a simple, easy life. I have had my fair share of shear crap that has entered my life. However, I honestly believe that through all good can be made. Anyway, as I'm taking a mental note of the year to come, I realize I'm in for one heck of a year and next year as well. It is going to be hard. I am dreading the year to come. I'm in a place I really wanted to be, but I'm not enjoying it like I thought. I'm still keeping an open mind, but it's hard. I fear the trials will be great, and I'm not sure I'm ready. I know all the things that are said like, "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I hate that phrase. Also one of my favorites my hubby uses is, "pain is weakness leaving the body." We have the army to thank for that one. I look back at my entire life, and while I know there were places and situations I didn't like or understand, there was some reason that I was there or something good actually came from it. Even horrible things that have happened have somehow been used for a greater good. It is with that in mind that I give up this whole year (and next) to just be open. I'm not sure what the purpose of everything is, but I pray one day I know that my time here and over the next couple of years was a blessing or worth something.

Back in Business!

So the app I have been using to type up my blogs has been acting up since I updated my iOS. I tried another, but it was horrible. I'm so happy to be back in business since the surprise update today. So here it goes, my New Year post. I'm going to just go back to some of the ups and downs of the past year. Since I didn't blog much last year, this can kind of fill you in on my journey through 2011. The year started off like any other...hubby gone a lot. He was gone anywhere from 3 days to 6 weeks at a time. I couldn't complain because he loved his job. It was very busy, had long hours, but he was happy for the first time in awhile. Being in Germany, you develop a family you choose. You have people you know you can call no matter what. People that know you well enough to know that even when you say no over and over, they won't take no for an answer. I remember when I was detoxing my meds, a friend wanted to bring me dinner so I wouldn't have to cook. I told her no a lot. She knew I wasn't a morning person, so she called bright and early so I was thrown off. When I said yes finally, she hung up on me before I could change my mind. We had another couple that were great. Hubby sponsored them when they moved to Germany. We got to know them as I took him to the store to get stuff while they didn't have a car. We had dinner often after getting to know them. We would also play Wii, and were glad to have them over for holiday meals. We would even split up and the guys would play video games while the girls would go to girlie movies. The summer was great. I visited home in April with the kids. A few weeks after I returned home, my in-laws came for a summer visit. They had been to Germany, but it was in winter. We were excited to take them on vacation. We went down to Garmisch and then down to Pisa, Italy. While in Garmisch, we split up a few of the days. Our crew had already taken a few tours in the area, so we wanted to see what we could find. We ended up hiking to a couple of towns away, ate a nice lunch, and headed back because Genevieve was tired. We told her when we got home we would rest and then go swimming. Wouldn't you know she found her second wind, and she ran the whole way home (guessing about 5 miles). We also went up on the tallest mountain in Germany, and we went through and over a gorge. Italy was amazing. We spent only 3 days there, but they were great. We went to the beach everyday. We did go to the leaning tower of pizza (Pisa) before we went to the beach one day. We couldn't go all that way and miss that one. After that, we were in full move mode. We had orders, and we were having to get ready for the move. If we weren't going through stuff to get rid of it or sale, we were busy trying to figure out if we were even going to take it. Packing day came, and we were so thankful to end up with amazing packers. They got our stuff to the US in pretty much perfect condition. It wasn't long after we had the van turn in. If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen the picture of our van when it did not pass. To the normal human eye, it was amazingly clean. To the eye of a customs inspector, it was still really dirty. Nine hours total, and the van passed inspection and was loaded on a boat. Remember at the start when I said hubby was gone a lot? Well that turned out to be something that paid off in the end. He had enough frequent flyer miles to upgrade the whole family (for free) to business class. It was so nice being up there. We got our fair share of dirty looks at the first of the flight. They saw our two kids and thought they were in for a noisy ride. They were all surprised when not only did they behave, but they were also quiet. In fact one person told me that they forgot there were even there. I always joked that my kids had more airline miles than most 3 and 5 year olds in the US, and it paid off that day. After getting settled into our new home, we have just been trying to find our places here. I haven't found amazing friends that are like family, and my hubby is kind of bored at work with it being a much slower pace. However, we are adjusting and thankful for all we have. For the first time in 3 years, all grandparents were accounted for at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the kids' birthdays. There was no Skype needed. For the first time in 6 years, the WHOLE family (my parents, my in-laws, and my sister and her family) was together for a holiday. It was a nice feeling. I'm not sure what 2012 will bring, but I'm ready to embrace it with everything I've got. I'm hoping that this year will bring a debt free (we have a van payment and student loan) way of life, and make funds available for things like bigger payments to an IRA and more to the church. I'm also hoping too learn more in the way of cooking. I've been told I'm a good cook, but I don't believe it. I want to expand that and work on cooking. I have several things I've found to try already, and I hope to pick up cake decorating maybe. I hope you all had an amazing holiday, and a great start to the New Year. Now that my app is fixed, I hope to be doing this more often. :)