Did I ever tell you?

That I NEVER win anything? Well today was my lucky day! I was so shocked to see that I have won something. This doesn't happen to me everyday, so I am thrilled.

Christian passed on an award to me and I just thought that was awesome! I only know her through blog world, but she has been such a great inspiration to me as a fellow military wife!

Go check out her blog if you get the chance.

http://whowouldvethoughtit.blogspot.com/

I am tagging the only other blogs I know! So here it goes.

I am tagging Melissa- she has been a long time blogger buddy. I met her through my sister n law.

http://nuessefamily.blogspot.com/

I am tagging my sister n law Mindy- cause she is a great mom and is the one who turned me onto blogging.

http://theousleyfamily.blogspot.com/

I am tagging Liz- she is Melissa's sister and has a HUGE heart!
http://alandliz.blogspot.com/



I tag Elissa- cause she is my sister and today is her birthday! Happy Birthday Elissa!

http://ourmaloneyfamily.blogspot.com/

I tag Shannon- she is my great friend in real life! I sure do miss her though. Her family retired from the military and they moved up to Washington .

http://chagnon6.blogspot.com/

I tag Kylene- she is one of my FIRST married couple friends! We were all stationed in England together. It's been too long Kylene!

http://nuessefamily.blogspot.com/

I think that's it! I hope you all accept this award and feel as special as I did!
Have a great Halloween everyone! I will be posting pics soon.

Some pictures from my husband!!!

Saturday Steve got to switch his days around and go downtown off the base. He was really excited to put on civilian clothes and get "away" a little bit. From the looks of the pictures he shared and our conversation, it sounds like he had a great time. I am so glad that he got away and felt normal again. He needed it after working 6 days a week, 12 hour shifts. Unfortunately since switching his days around, he now has to work 8 days in a row. I guess there could be worse things huh?
On their trip to town, they ate at TGIF's and passed a Cold Stone Creamery.....YUM...my favorite ice cream in the whole wide world. If you haven't been to a Cold Stone's, find one now! It is a must have! Anyway, Steve did a little shopping while he was there and worked on our Christmas gifts. It's nice that he can help out while so far away! Of course I am doing most of it, but he is helping some.

Things have improved from last week around here. I try to put a smile on my face and be as positive as I can everyday, but I am going to have my tough days too. I just pick myself up and move on, which is exactly what I did. I will be so happy when I can say that it has been six months and my husband is COMING HOME! Won't be too long now, but I still have many days to go.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did. I sure do miss my handsome husband! Seeing him in these pictures just puts the biggest smile on my face. I have to say that he has lost some weight while he has been over there. We'll see if he can tough it out and keep it off when he gets back to his wife's good cookin....oh yeah and IN and OUT Burger too!

This is the Mall that they went to, looks very nice!

This is a picture of the city. I believe it's while they were driving. Kind of reminds me of San Fransisco.

Here is Cold Stone! You know you are missing the USA when you take pictures of signs.....lol. We use to do it in England all the time.

Here is the inside of the mall. Steve said he couldn't ever take me shopping here cause it all was VERY expensive.

Here is Steve (on the left) and Mike together at the Mall. Mike has been a family friend of ours pretty much since we got here. He is a great guy and has been a good friend to Steve. He likes to compete with my husband and STILL hasn't learned that my husband always wins. Trust me Mike, I learned a long time ago. It's just easier to admit it and move on....lol.

Another picture of the guys.

Here is my husband sitting in front of some statue of an Oyster. Now the funny part is that my husband would NEVER eat or go near an oyster at a restaurant! Now me on the other hand.....yum!

An outdoor picture of the Mall.

Have a great week everyone!

Why is my air still running?

So I know you have heard me say that I love Fall right? Well, I am still waiting for it to arrive here in California! We had a couple of days that were a little "chilly", but other than that....nothing. I am so ready for some cold weather, wearing sweaters, drinking hot chocolate, and running my heater. From the sounds of the weather report, I still have a while to wait. They do say that we have some cooling coming in on Tuesday, but that means 70's, nothing too cold. Oh well, I will keep on waiting and hopefully when it comes, it will stay for a while. We are in dire need of rain here and I hope that it comes soon.

It's been a rough road the past few days. I have struggled with some things, so it hasn't been very fun for me. I have held tough this whole deployment and kept a smiling face, but Tuesday that all came to a halt. I had a rough day with my daycare, then ended the night on a bad note too. I ended up letting go of a lot of built up tears. It was a much needed release of emotions and once it started, I couldn't stop it. You know you start crying and can't stop, and every time someone is nice to you and asks you how you are doing, you just break down and cry more.....well that was me. After it was all said and done, I did feel much better. I did my nightly routine, pulled out my husbands cologne and sprayed his pillow, and closed my eyes so I could pretend that he was lying in bed next to me. Now that might send a little corny to some, but until you have spent 3 1/2 months away from your husband, don't judge OK? I fell asleep praying that tomorrow I would wake up and have a much better day, and I did.

Tonight I ask that you all pray for my family. I am not going into details about what or why, but I really would appreciate it if you could just pray for the Lord's Will for us. Thank you so much.

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

Samson!! Today is Samson's birthday and we celebrated it in style. Not really, but I did make him a doggie birthday cake and he LOVED it! He was the King of the day today. I bought him some bones, a retrieving toy, and of course his cake with a candle.

Some people might think we are crazy, but we treat Samson just like a family member. He stays inside with us, sleeps in our room (in our bed since Steve is gone), and also is treated like a family member. One of our rules on our fridge even says, "Samson is to be treated like a family member."
It amazes me that we have had Samson for a little under three years already. They have been wonderful years, this dog is the best dog in the entire world. I couldn't imagine NOT having Samson in our lives, he is just that special to us.

I hope that Samson has many many more birthdays and eventually gets to see more of the world. Most of our family back home have met Samson and they love him just as much as we do!

Happy Birthday Samson, we love you very much!

My most favorite day of the week!!

Have I ever told you that I LOVE Thursday's? No? Well, I do! It is the day before Friday, the night Survivor comes on, a day off from running, and a fun evening with my kids! I just love it.
Today has been a busy day though running around and getting a few things done with daycare kids in tow.

So I have a weird question. Everyone knows that I have lost a significant amount of weight. I believe I am at about 48lbs. WOW! Seeing that number on the computer seems HUGE! It's more than Jaelyn weighs. Anyway, my question is....do you think feet shrink too when you lose weight? I know it sounds crazy, but I have always been a size 8 1/2. I went shoe shopping- BOGO and tried on a couple of pairs of shoes. My normal size was too big! I could not figure out what was going on. I ended up buying 8's! So I am wondering if my feet shrunk in the process of the rest of my body shrinking? Crazy, I know, but I am just baffled. I came out with a couple of pairs of shoes though, so who cares what size they were right?

Daycare is picking up. I now have a 6 month old starting on Monday. He is the cutest little guy ever. I can't wait for him to start, so we can play together. I love having babies around, since I am not and can not have anymore. They are nice to take care of and enjoy for the day, but I also like sending them home with their mommy and daddy at the end of the day! I guess I will make a great grandma one day, a very far away day! It is way to early to be thinking about that right now.

I am looking forward to my vacation home so much right now. After three months alone with the kids, it will be great to see all of my family and to have them take my kids off of my hands every now and then. I am in need of a break from parenthood. Steve and I have a great tag team plan that we do while he is home, so when it's just me- I don't have anyone to tag up with and it can be tiresome. Don't get me wrong, I love my children with all of my heart, but there are days when I just want to run out of this house screaming and jump in my car and drive away! Those days are very far and few between, but I still have them. Think about being a single parent to three children, working 50 hours a week, taking care of all the household bills and cleaning, and taking care of the vehicles too. How would you feel after three months of doing that? Pretty tired, well that's how I feel today. I am hoping for a little relief when I get home at Christmas. This year will be an exciting year cause I am going to my Dad's side (Denslow) of the family for Christmas too. Not only will it be another function to fit into my already chaotic schedule, but it will be more family to see and enjoy too! I don't' get to see my dad's side of the family very much, so I am looking forward to seeing them all again. My dad is going with me and my sister is driving up from Kentucky to join us. It will be so much fun.

Well, I have probably bored you with all of my ramblings. I love coming on here and typing away about nothing. It makes me feel like I am actually sitting here and chatting with an adult. I don't get much adult conversation anymore. I have my close friends here, but other than that I don't have many people to talk to. It seems like people just go there own ways and kind of forget about you after a while, which is fine with me.

I will be putting some pictures on here soon. I promise. My poor husband bought me my fabulous new camera and I haven't been great on sending him a lot of pictures. Shame on me! I will find the time to do that this weekend. I send boxes out to him all the time, so he knows I still love him......always.

I want YOU

To get moving today! I just finished running on my treadmill and I feel GREAT! I wish that more people would take initiative and give exercise a chance. I can't even tell you how great it makes you feel when you are done. You feel like you can accomplish anything. I changed my song (temporarily) to the song that I start my run off to. Talk about motivating! I hope it motivates you as much as it does me....

I don't know what motivated me to get on here and tell you to GET MOVING....but I feel like it's something I should share. There's no easy way around it, get up off that couch, chair, bed...whatever and get motivated. It isn't as grueling as most people think. Just go for a walk with your kids or run around and kick a soccer ball with your kids for an hour or so. It doesn't have to be on a treadmill, or in a gym, just get moving.

The Holiday season is upon us and this is the time of year when most people put on a few extra unwanted pounds. Don't let that be you! Keep busy, and keep moving. You will be amazed by the way it makes you feel and how you will become easily addicted to it in no time.

Can you tell I am in a goofy mood today? I am enjoying my day off and loving having some extra time to get some things done around here. Everyone needs to make sure to be selfish every once in a while and take care of themselves. If you don't do it, who will?

Moving on to the next project...

I hate to keep repeating myself, but it just seems that I never get a chance to stop. I am wondering how I am going to fit my husband into my busy schedule when he gets home. Just kidding. He will fit in just fine, don't worry.
My next project at Church is our Harvest Festival, along with working on our Children's Musical. Can you say busy? Yes, I will be pretty busy through the end of this deployment. The light at the end of the tunnel is that I get a vacation home (if you call it a vacation) and my husband home soon after I return from home. I was holding onto some hope that my husband could possibly come home at the end of December, but he crushed any hope of that yesterday. He shared with me a tentative date and lets just say that it isn't until January,of course I can't say the exact date. I was not happy with the news, but I held my composure. It has flown by so quickly, so what's a few more days right? At least that's what I keep telling myself.
Today we resumed our small group again. It was great getting together and making a plan for what our future holds for our group. We have decided to move on to a "leaders training" study. I think it's a great idea. The one bad quality about our Church is that there is always the same SMALL amount of people doing everything. I use to be on the sidelines (a few years ago) and let this same group of people do all the work, but now I am right in there with them. It can be very frustrating at times, but always rewarding. I have made such great friends by putting myself in there and plugging myself in a ministry. I love working in the preschool department and enjoy working with the kids, but I feel myself pulling away as a teacher more and more. I think it has started to be more intense since I started daycare back up. Working with kids for 10 hours a day, five days a week is very tiring. Then to turn around and do it again on Sundays, makes it even worse. I don't want to be burnt out with teaching and I want my focus to always be on God and what He wants me to do. It's hard though cause I also have to help provide for my family too. So how do these work together? That is the journey I am on lately. With much prayer and much hard work, I am trying to find a balance here. The problem is that I want to be more involved with Church and furthering his kingdom.
Things are going great around here. Like I said, time is flying by. I wish it would go faster, but as I look back it really is. I am enjoying the kids more and more each day. Today's sermon was living your life as you were dying. That's pretty much how I look at things anyway. I have learned a hard lesson in life, about how short it is and you never know what tomorrow may bring, so I am always sure to let my kids and husband know how much I love them every moment I get. I think I can always do better at this, so my goal this week is to find some kind of activity to do with each of my children individually. It is important for them to know that I am here for them and never too busy for them. Life can get hectic and busy, especially as a single mom right now, and I need to make sure I don't let life fill my time to much.
Today is a cold and windy day here and I just love it. I am sitting here in my sweatpants, T-shirt, and Steve's sweatshirt (which is huge on me) sprayed with his cologne, my big fuzzy socks on, with my fuzzy shoes, just relaxing on the couch. I so badly want to turn on the heat cause I am freezing, but really it's not THAT cold just yet. I think after a while I am going to go and get my fuzzy blanket from Saudi Arabia and snuggle with my big dog, Samson, on the couch. Have I mentioned how much I love Fall?
I guess I have rambled on enough. I just wanted everyone to know that I am still alive and well. I am keeping up with my healthy eating habits, which I believes helps me stay mentally balanced as well. It just doesn't stop amazing me how much and how well I am getting to know my body. I love it. I love the way I feel and I love the way I am happy mentally. It has made such a huge impact on my self-esteem and also how well I have managed this deployment alone.
I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. The kids and I are going to make our own Thanksgiving and hang out here at the house in our Pj's all day long. It sounds like the perfect Thanksgiving to me! I think we will make it a game day and just play games, eat, and watch movies day!

Hope all is well with everyone. I feel so out of touch with everyone lately, but just know that I am still here.....

Is it Possible??

Rain in the forcast?? I surely hope so! I love the way the clouds look in the sky today and took a few pictures, while I had the chance. This was taken with my webcam, so the quality might not be so great. At least you can see my hair cut a little better. I LOVE it!

I am not sure if I heard correctly on the news this morning? I believe they said we are getting....rain...tomorrow night! We haven't seen a good rain since February, yes you heard me right, February. Rain is something we don't see around here for many months during Spring/Summer seasons. I get so excited when I hear that we might get some rain because that means Christmas isn't too far away! I can't wait for Christmas this year. We are going to see something we haven't seen in 5 years.....SNOW! I love the snow (even more now that we don't live in it) and can't wait to build a snowman and make snow angels with my children. I already found a snow suite for Jaelyn! I am slowly stocking up on the things we will need for the snow, things you don't own when you don't live in it. Like, Snow boots, scarves, hats, heavy winter coat, things like that. The last time we went home for Christmas, we landed in a snow storm in Pittsburgh. They opened the back hatch of the C-5 and all we could see was white stuff, everywhere. We didn't even bring winter coats. Luckily Steve's mom and dad were waiting for us at the base terminal with heavy gear for the kids.

So back to the rain, I thought I would take a few picture of the clouds floating around. It truly looks like Fall out there! I love it!

I also attached a few pictures of my daycare. You can see how it has overtaken my house. The only place I don't have daycare things are upstairs. It is against the rules to have kids or daycare things upstairs, which is fine by me. I need to have some place to call my own. Lately I have been retreating to my bedroom when I can. I love my bedroom and feel like it's mine and usually there aren't kids in there....sigh...usually.

I hope you like the pictures. I haven't had much time to take many, so take what you can get when you can get it. The kids and I are planning a trip up to Apple Hill sometime soon. I can't wait. I said last year that it was our last year doing the train museum. It just hasn't been as great the past couple of years. The kids DO love riding the train though, so we will see.

Enjoy the pics!

This is what USE to be my dining room!

More of my dining room....





My handsome son! He did his hair on his own. Don't worry, I fixed it before he went to school.

Chelsea, still in the process of getting ready for school
Don't be fooled by the "angel" face! She has been having some behavioral problems this week. We are working on them though!

The post I have been waiting for....

Ok. So I have been waiting for this day for two weeks now! Everyone knows that I have been working hard at getting in shape and losing weight, so now I lost the HAIR! I love it too. This isn't the greatest picture cause I was all ready for bed, but at least you can see how short I went. I am so excited about it and love love love it! I am hoping to make my life as simple as possible and I think this will help.
I will take more pictures tomorrow when the sun is out and my face is all fresh and done. Speaking of my face, I think my hormones are changing in my body. I did get a year older this month, so I guess it's bound to come. I feel like a teenager though! My face is breaking out like something horrible. Luckily I have a great friend who sells skin care products, so I am looking to make a purchase!
Things are great around here. Very busy though and I am tired and sluggish lately. I have started the past few nights to stay up late and then 5 AM roles around way too soon! I am hoping to get back into my routine of going to bed early soon. Right now I am working on our Church cookbook and just trying to get it done. We have alot of recipes and so it's alot of typing. I am getting it done and excited to see the final product. Thank goodness for my good friend Heather cause she has helped me so much with this production.
I hope you like my new hair cut. I am thrilled with it and so happy. Not sure if I will go back to long hair again, but time will tell.
Please keep our Church and family in your prayers. The kids and I are doing great and hanging tough during this deployment, but we could use all the prayers we can get. Mostly for strength for me being a single parent during this time. It takes alot of work and alot of energy. My Church is in a financial situation still and we are just hanging on by a thread. We need some kind of miracle to come up with some finances to keep us going. Please pray that we find a way to come up with this money.
Hope everyone is doing well!