Celebrating Veterans Day

Whether you have a family member who is a veteran or not, Veterans Day is a great day to thank those around you for their service and to educate your own family about Veterans Day.  

Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11 because that is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended WWI.  People in other countries call this day "Armistice Day" or "Rememberance Day".  Ultimately it is a day where we take the time to thank a veteran and show our appreciation any way we can.

If you are a veteran or are the spouse of a veteran or have a friend that is a veteran, I came across this website that lists a lot of great discounts and free meals for veterans.

Today is also a great day to let your children know about the great men and women who keep our freedom free.  Many towns have programs at their local museums or libraries to teach kids in a fun way about Veterans Day.  If you live near Fort Benning, the Columbus museum has a great program for kids this afternoon.  

Today, Caleb and I are going to spend time thanking our very own veteran that we are so proud of.  He received the sweetest letter in the mail yesterday from a little girl that he has never even met.  I am blog friends with her mama, Kristan, and her daughter sent Seth a sweet card thanking him for his service.  It meant a lot to him :)  Right now we are letting Seth sleep in on his day off, since every other weekday his alarm goes off at 5am!  "We" also made him some muffins and coffee and we are all going to the park to exercise today, which strangely enough is a perfect outing for him.  Then we might take up one of those free dinner offers tonight :)

Commission Day 2008

I can't help but think of all the veterans who are no longer here because they gave everything.  I think about my friend Nicole whose husband was murdered in Iraq 3 years ago when her son was Calebs age.  I think about my father in law who went to Vietnam twice and somehow made it back alive, except back then no one was there to thank him when he returned.

So many people who gave so much.  Hopefully today we can put our own problems in perspective and realize that nothing seems all that bad as long as we aren't being shot at or blown up (crazy thought, but true for a lot of soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq today!).

I hope that you enjoy your Veterans Day and remember to take a second and thank a veteran!

Deployment Day 2010

Celebration Day 2010!!!

Daddy's HOME!!!

Some pictures from our first week back together again!

 Caleb the sword swallower!

 Watching Backyardigans together before bedtime :)

 Eatin some yummy donuts

 Nom Nom

 This is his new "cheese" face

 Om...he likes to ride the tractor backwards...

 Our new friend "pup pup" from next door

Our last day by ourselves

As many of you know by now...SETH IS HOME!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

We couldn't be more excited to have our Sethy Poo home (okay, he will kill me when he reads this!)

I got a little emotional Monday night when I realized that it was me and Caleb's last night as just the two of us.  I flashed back to the first days that Seth was gone.  How difficult is was for me when I saw all of the other husbands and daddy's pulling into their driveways at 5:00 pm, heading inside to eat dinner and spend the evening with their families.  Those first few days were tough.  I didn't know where Seth was, if he was safe, if he was lonely.  I wasn't used to not being home to get dinner ready and meet Seth at the door when he came home from work.  I wasn't used to having Caleb by myself 24 hours a day with no break, no 5 o'clock quitting time helper  walking through the door.  I wasn't used to taking the trash out much less taking the trash to the dump!  I had to find someone to mow our lawn because we never had a lawn to mow and didn't own a lawn mower...plus, how do you mow your grass by yourself and watch your 12 month old?  We had just moved to a new town in December and Seth left in February.  At that point, I didn't know anyone well enough to call if I needed something.  I didn't know any babysitters.  I didn't have any one to come over and sit and have coffee with me to help get me through those first few weeks.  It was just God, Caleb and me.  I look back at all kinds of events that have taken place since I married Seth and I am overwhelmed with the fact that all of those events led me to have a deeper relationship with Christ.  I am stubborn and God knows me better than I know myself.  He knew that if I was ever going to learn how to be dependent on Him, He would have allow me to get to the point where I only had Him to rely on...and that's exactly what happened.  I spent many nights laying awake in bed, too afraid to close my eyes because I thought I heard something and then my mind would go crazy with all kinds of terrible "what if's"...and on those nights I would end up drifting off to sleep as I prayed God would watch over us and give me the peace to be able to sleep.  Every night when I laid Caleb down to bed, we would pray that God would give Caleb a peaceful nights sleep, that He would watch over us and help Caleb to grow up to be a strong man who loves and serves God with all of his heart.  The last thing we would pray is that "God be with our daddy. Bring him back soon and safe to us.  Give him the encouragement and the courage that he needs to make it through this deployment."  I write this with tears in my eyes because God is so good to us.  So many of those first days were spent worrying about Seth, so much that I couldn't enjoy my daily life.  I became so exhausted because of all of the worrying I was doing.  One day I decided that it was time to stop worrying about him and time to give him over to God.  I can't even explain to you the peace that overcame me from that moment on.  It was as if God was sitting beside me saying, "I will take care of Seth...no more worrying."  Although I didn't know whether that meant God would bring him home safe to me or not, I knew that God was in control of whatever happened and that His plans are always better than mine.

Caleb and I spent a lot of time traveling.  We went to Virginia several times and we made a huge roadtrip to Texas, stopping in Louisiana on the way.  

We laughed with each other, we fought with each other.  Caleb learned how to throw fits and how to hit...and he also learned how to come and give kisses afterwards when he felt bad.  He took his first steps and said his first words.  We played together, every day.  Caleb overcame his fear of swings and is almost over his fear of dogs.  He slid down his first slide and swam for the first time.  We played cars together, read Goodnight Gorilla more times than I can count and had a zillion play dates at Barnes and Nobles where Caleb also found his love for Thomas the Train.  We found an amazing church with an amazing group of people that would have dropped anything to come and help us if we asked.  We made friends and experienced so many firsts.  We've had ice cream for dinner and pizza for breakfast.  But most of all, we have always known that through all of these "firsts" there was always someone missing.  There are no words to explain how excited I am to have my best friend back and how happy Caleb is to have a daddy again.  God gave Caleb and I these precious months together.  I have learned so much about him that perhaps I would have never learned otherwise.  God has grown all of us tremendously through this deployment and shown us so much.  The biggest lesson I have learned from all of this though is that I know that when I feel as though I have no one else in the world to help me, God is always right there...just waiting for me to ask Him for His help...and He is always faithful.  

I wanted to take a few pictures of Caleb and I's last night together, as just the two of us.  This was what you could find us doing on many nights :)

 Eating crackers, watching cartoons before bed

 Playing hide and go seek (after Caleb ripped a napkin into a bazillion shreds!)

 Playing airplane

 I know this is fuzzy but I had to post this picture because this is Calebs signature look...so funny.

 Trying to steal my glasses...

 Grabbing my face, wrestling...

Giving the sweetest kisses in the world.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you  for everything you taught me and my family during this deployment.  Thank you for keeping us safe and for bringing us all back together again to be a family.  Thank you for all of those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom and for the ones who never made it back home...all so that we can be free.  Thank you most of all that you gave Your Son to die on the cross for us so that anyone who believes in Him and professes Him as their Savior can be free from the chains of sin and can have eternal life with You.  

We love you so much. 

In Your precious and most Holy name, Amen.

What to wear....

...when I go pick up my soldier!  I definitely believe that you should be slightly overdressed rather than under dressed.  Maybe I am old fashioned, but I just think that only a dress or skirt would do for going to pick up my soldier from deployment.  I want to look nice and girly.  Sure, jeans are cute but I just don't think they are appropriate for this occasion. I want to run and hug him in a pretty dress.  I already have mine picked out but here are some others that I could definitely see myself in:

When my soldier comes home by retrogalusa featuring a slip on dress

P.S.  Check out my new poll!

R&R

We had so much fun together.  Can't wait to have him home for good!

Just off the plane!

He's home!

My hubby is back for 2 weeks!!!  I will be MIA  :-)

My Main Men

I sure do love these two cuties...

and really missin' the bigger one tonight.  I always miss him more when the weekend rolls around, good thing I have the little guy to keep me busy and give me kisses :-)

dEaR dAda

dEaR dAda,


i WeallY dO mIsS yOu. i Wuv eWe rEalLy mUch aNd i wAnT tO saY HaPpy FaThErS DaY aNd HurRy baK hOmE sO wE cAn wResTle (bEtwEeN eWe aNd Me, mOmMy'S nOt beRRy goOd aT iT)

WuV eWe,
cAlEb
 

Sometimes I forget

About these men

The men who gave their lives at Pearl Harbor...

  the wives they left behind

and their children who never knew them

Sometimes I get busy with my day and I forget about the men who are dying for me, each day

But tomorrow, I will remember.

Thanks to all of you who have kept America free... you have not been forgotten.

And thank you to my husband, Seth, we love you and miss you more each day.

Loving my hubby

My hubby has been on my mind all day today.  Don't get me wrong, I think about Seth all the time and I miss his constantly, but today I have missed him a lot more than any other day since he left. 

 I have been thinking about what our lives will be like when he comes back home.  I just miss the everyday life stuff with him.  Going to the grocery store, agreeing on what TV show we are going to watch, hearing him laugh about how even though our new house has twice the amount of bathroom counter space as our last place, I am still able to take it over, having a bad dream and waking up to find him beside me and being able to go back to sleep, playing with Caleb together, taking turns changing diapers, teaming up to get the house clean in record timing, having long discussions about what our future holds while we eat dinner together at the table as a family, spur of the moment car rides to the mexican restaurant for dinner, ordering in pizza and renting a movie....

It is amazing all the little things I miss about him when he is gone that I never even realized I enjoyed. Maybe I have been thinking about him more than usual today because I have also been thinking about several people I know who have been through one, if not more divorces and they are still so young.  It breaks my heart when people don't take marriage seriously and in turn, their marriage ends before it even had a chance to begin.  Obviously, there are extreme cases when divorce has to happen but I am talking about the situations when people just don't "feel" in love anymore.

Marriage is not easy...and hopefully no one ever told you that it would be.  There are days when married people just don't get along and you might even have a day, or several, where you question your relationship and you don't "feel" all lovey dovey like you did that first year you dated.  But ultimately, you have to keep your mind on why you fell in love with each other in the first place.  You can't change your spouse but you can change yourself. I started reading the book "Love and Respect" and I am understanding a husbands need for respect and a wife's need for love...if any of you have read it, I would love to know your thoughts...and if you haven't read it, maybe you can read it with me.

I wish our society could see the union of marriage as so much more than what it is viewed as.  Marriage is incredibly important and is the most serious commitment you could ever make to another person.  Too many times, divorce is the first answer to marital issues... but if divorce is the answer, why do so many people end up divorcing several times?  It takes both husband and wife, working together on a daily basis to make a marriage succeed.

I am by no means a marriage expert but I do know that marriage is something we should all hold in high respect and if we keep God as the center of our marriage...we can make it through anything together.  I encourage you to encourage others in their marriages.  We can all use all the help we can get, right?

With all of that being said, I have really been reflecting on my marriage.  I am remembering all of the things I love about Seth.  In the midst of everyday life, especially when kids come into the picture, all of the "good" traits about my husband can somehow hide themselves in the deep corners of our home.  I am really good at pointing out all of Seth's "flaws" to him.  Since he has been gone, I have come to realize that our marriage could be so much better if I could be the wife I need to be. Instead of tearing him down and criticizing him, I should try to find the good in every situation.  

It drives me nuts that Seth always puts his dishes on the counter right on top of the dishwasher instead of in the dishwasher.  I have asked nicely, I have yelled at him and I have even taped notes to the counter that say "DO NOT PUT DISHES ON THE COUNTER!" but nothing seems to work.  Instead, I can be thankful that I have a husband who cares enough to even bring his dish into the kitchen after dinner.  He has been at work all day, a lot of days he wakes up at 4:30am to make it to PT- what is the big deal if I have to load the dishwasher?

That is just one example among many.  I am realizing though that it is not always Seth that is the problem, although a lot of days it is so much easier to blame him for everything than it is to point the finger at myself and admit that maybe I have made a mistake or two..or three or four...

I truly love Seth so much.  He really loves me too...he waited for me for 6 years!!!  He still loved me even when I hurt him so badly and he stuck around and married me anyways.  He is a great dad to Caleb, he loves him so much and misses him right now more than I will ever be able to understand.  He hates that he can't see him take his first steps and that he can't hear him say new words every day... but this too shall pass and he will be home with us again.  

He loves his country too, he really does.  He has a great heart and he is always looking for ways to help other people out.  I love his heart and his character and his honesty and practicality (especially when I can totally get wrapped up in fantasy land!).  He is so smart and funny in a quirky way and did I mention that he is extremely good looking?  Okay, okay...maybe some of you are gagging at this point because I am being so mushy but can you tell I love my husband?  If you love your husband too, reach out and hold his hand today and let him know and maybe even throw in a good compliment or two and end it with a big smooch :)

We can do this :)