Operation: Love Reunited

There is a program that local photographers participate called "Operation: Love Reunited" (oplove.org) and it revolves around military families. The photographers donate their time to photograph military families at some point before a deployment, during a deployment for those left behind or for the homecoming. In a day where the military isn't always supported, it's always great to see those who still want our troops to know they care. Once we knew Eric was for sure deploying, I wanted to take advantage of the chance to get some fall photos. So on a non windy day (those are far and few between here in KS), we headed out to our photographers house and got what I think are some incredible shots. Eric was a good sport for it, as were the girls. I love how all the pictures came out and am so thankful to our photographer for taking the time out of her busy schedule for us. Again, her time was donated out of the goodness of her heart. Another part of this program is the photographer sends an album to the deployed member, so I'm excited for Eric to get his as a little keepsake for the next few months. Anyway, here are some of the shots our photographer caught. Be sure to check out the program and if you're in the Kansas area, check out our photographer, Ali Mocabee. (Click on her name to go to her website).

When did my babies grow to be so big?

I'm so glad I wanted to get pics of us all in our Dolphin jerseys. It's part of our life.

Probably one of my favorite pictures from the session and makes me tear up with Daddy being gone. My kiddos have one incredible Daddy.

2010 Update

So I've given up on trying to update New Hampshire, start of school, friends visiting, fall soccer, girls birthdays/party, a visit from Uncle Stephen and Aunt Libby and anything else that has happened that I haven't written about. Most likely, you've either talked to me or seen pictures on Facebook or Picasa. If you haven't, well I won't say get with technology, but check it out or call me. Because unfortunately with life being busy, I've started lacking in the communication department. (I'll blame my hubby who has been home more the past 6 months than in the past 6 years:)). Listing all those things above just makes me tired. But they have been all super fun events that have kept us busy making memories and going through life.

Which brings us all to now, two weeks before Christmas 2010. Unfortunately I'm having a harder time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Last year we were celebrating the blessing of my dad getting to be home for Christmas and spending the holidays with family. This year, it's my brother and I and the girls. Partially by choice, but certainly the minus Daddy bit was not by choice. We've lucked out until now to never hit the holidays on a deployment rotation, but it was our turn. So we'll stick around here in Kansas, spend some time with friends and hope the girls (read Mommy) survive Christmas break. As I've tried to sit and get to updating the blog in the midst of getting work done for my job, creating spin rides, taking care of my house and children, I keep hearing the songs playing on the playlist. I think the Dave Barnes songs is one of my all time favorite songs that I could hear over and over and never get tired of. It brings me back to reality and how blessed I am with a husband who loves me for me, appreciates my quirks (and cold feet) and even though he can't be with us this Christmas, I know he's busy doing a job he signed up to do and I couldn't be more proud of him. It makes me realize that even though he can't be here, I HAVE someone to miss and love and that in 5 1/2 months will be reunited with again. Not all of my friends have that for one reason or another. As I was in my rut over Eric leaving a few weeks ago and missing him, my dad quickly reminded me of my friend Leigh. I thought of her many times as I spent my last few moments with my husband and realized none of us ever know when a moment with someone we love may be our last. It's tough to grasp that concept living day to day and you end up falling into taking the time for granted. But when you don't have it, it turns into another story. Going through long TDY's and deployments always brings me to a very real appreciation and sympathy for single moms as well. I don't have the struggles that many single moms have outside of trying to be two parents in one. I simply have to constantly convey to my children who are missing their dad that he loves them and misses them too, but that we'll all be together again soon. Single moms don't have that luxury. So my goal for this season of life is to learn appreciation and strength. Sure, part of me is "missing" and I don't feel as complete as I normally do when I have my other half around, but we keep going. We keep the faith that one day this next summer, God will bring him home safely to us and we'll be complete again. Because after all, God gave me you for the ups and downs and God gave me you for the days of doubt.

See my next post for more of the latest family pictures.

*Note to author: Could you be a little more complete, more organized and less A.D.D. with your thoughts? I guess Emily gets it honest. ;)

Foreign Land

I have to brag on my brother. He made this video for an organization called "Honor Flight". He was asked to head up their reunion this year in Columbus, OH next weekend and this is one of the videos he made that they will be showing. He has a great passion for the military and their families and it is shown in this video. Please take a few minutes to watch. With Veteran's Day coming up thank you to all those who have served, are currently serving and have given the ultimate sacrifice through their service. Thank you Leigh Giglio for allowing my brother to honor "Rev" with this video as well.

Lead Me

A few weeks ago while preparing to share a devotional on prayer and using my dad's story over the past year, I kept hearing this song. I was led to the lead singer's website due to hearing on the Christian radio station how his newborn song was going through major surgery and I have been following them for the past few weeks. It's truly an amazing story you can find on Sanctus Real and listen to the song below song. I have heard interviews by the lead singer about the meaning of this song and how it came about. It is easily an all too true story in many marriages and lives. I'm so thankful to have had my dad as a great role model when it came to church and having a relationship with Christ and I see that now in my husband with us as a family. Anyway, I just wanted to share the song on here as well. Yea, I still have a few things to catch up on. As I always say, one day. Soon, I'll have the girls' birthdays to update on as well. Never a dull moment. Until then, happy listening. Oh and if you live under a rock and for some reason don't have Facebook or get any other updates from me on my dad, be sure to check out his latest blog entry. Some pretty amazing things going on.

Sanctus Real song "Lead Me" video link

Time flies...

Time sure does fly when you're having fun as they say. We've got almost another month under our belts and wouldn't you know it, I still haven't sat down to blog our NH trip. One day. I'll get there. Maybe. It's a long month coming up. This time last year things were looking pretty grim and this year, they couldn't look better. Just stinks that we won't get back to FL until January while Daddy is deployed. But oh well. Maybe we can convince them to come see us! At least that's what the girls think. They think we should be inviting all our family from home and they should just show up. Right girls. Anyway, Uncle Stephen made it back from the desert and the girls always bring out the silly in him. They quickly figured out how to sweet talk him into jumping them on the trampoline.

Emily hanging out with her friend Bri. Two cute princesses.

The two pics above were taken with a new camera we purchased recently (nothing like spending deployment money before you have it!) I do love how crisp the pictures look though. Anyway, we purchased the new camera and just had to go try it out. So we took the girls out to a place by K-State and bribed them to give us their best smiles. A few of the pics we got are below. However, I did take the originals and edit them on Picnik.com. I had fun playing around with that too. Too bad I don't have more spare time on my hands. Nichole has started soccer practices and loves it. Much better response than we had 2 years ago, so that's good. Poor Emily can't wait to start and puts on Nichole's shin guards while she isn't home and runs around the house. Ok well it's only been like 10 minutes and I'm already getting A.D.D. with not much else to report. So enjoy the pics!

Refer back to 16 May post.

So I keep hearing the song "God Gave Me You" on the radio and I finally found it where I can put it on the little song player thing. So I did. And then after posting about camping, even though it was a short and probably rather uninteresting post, I got A.D.D. So the NH update will have to wait, b/c I want to have fun writing it and I just don't have the energy for it right now.

Just a quick update from here. We have moved onto base, er post, and are loving living in a a neighborhood. The girls are always in and out with their friends which is fine by me b/c that means they aren't bugging me! :) They have also both started school and Emily loves it, so much that she has asked numerous times in the first week of school why can't she go all day. We keep telling her that when she's done with this year, we promise we'll let her go all day AND even ride the bus with big sister. For now, that seems to work for her. She is anxious to start reading but unfortunately the teaching degree I have doesn't usually turn into patience with my own kiddos when it comes to teaching them stuff. For now I am letting her get the basics at school and not over do it so she's bored next year or the following year. Oh well.

Nichole has lost quite a few teeth and her piggy bank is about to bust at the seams. I think we have 5 or 6 we have lost total in the past few months. Yesterday, she decided to pull one on her own b/c Daddy has pulled all the others (sorry not a fav thing of Mommy's to do) and she insisted she could wait on Daddy to get home from his TDY. Little did she know that he was on his way home from his TDY when she pulled it. Of course, it was only hanging on by a thread, but we'll let her think whatever she wants. It's hard to believe in just a few months she'll be 7! Time flies!

We are busy settling into a routine meanwhile knowing that routine will be a little jaded within the next few months. Daddy is set to deploy for 6 months starting this fall. We have talked with the girls about it extensively and they understand that he'll have to be gone to fight the bad guys again. At times it does lead to questions I'd rather not be having to answer like "Daddy, have you ever been shot?" and things that like, but we manage to give the best answers we can. It should be an interesting deployment since the girls are used to having him around a good bit since being in KS. It's weird not to have to ask if he'll be home for dinner or not when he's in town:) I'll be busy holding down the fort though while attempting to maintain my sanity. I will continue working from home part time doing my insurance work and also I'll be teaching spin classes at the gym on post. Hopefully enough to keep us busy.

So yea, that's it. Speaking of work, I want to get back to it so I can catch up and have some free time at the end of the week when Daddy gets back from his TDY. For now, take a listen to the song I posted about back on 16 May and enjoy. God puts everyone in our lives for a reason and I'm so glad God gave me a wonderful hubby and girls (and many others of course) to get through the days.

"God gave me you for the ups and downs
God gave me you for the days of doubt
For when I think I’ve lost my way
If there are no words here left to say, it’s true
God gave me you

On my own I’m only
Half of what I could be
I can’t do without you
We are stitched together
And what love has tethered
I pray we never undo"

Oh and a big thanks to "Living Proof Studios" for taking some professional pics for us while we were in NH this past summer giving me a new picture to put up top :)

Trying something out

So here we are trying something new, blogging from a cell phone! Crazy how times have changed. Not going to make this lengthy until I see if it works. Eventually I'll catch up on the blog. I have New Hampshire to still blog and we've got friends coming to visit soon so there will be even more to put me behind. Oh well, until I can update enjoy this silly picture of the girls.

The love of a family is life's greatest blessing.

Fortunately, I have been blessed with a great, loving family. While I realize not everyone can say that, I feel very blessed that I was able to go home to Florida and spend time with my family while the best hubby and dad (next to mine) stayed back with the girls. It was a long week for him due to unforeseen things happening like lightning striking and frying a few things, but hey, everyone survived and for that, I am very thankful :) The few days before my cousin's wedding I got to help out with running errands and hang out with the bride to be and my other cousins. We always have lots of laughs and good times together when we hang out. We're a crazy bunch :) I also got to hang out with my little sister (the same one who hung out with my friends and I when I was in high school) and some of her basketball buddies. Oh my, did I feel old :) Maybe it was the "Hey, do you mind if I drive" I got from her as we left one of her games.

It was also nice to get to spend Father's Day with my dad. My aunt came over and joined us for dinner and we got to take a walk down memory lane looking back on the past 9 months and the journey "Operation Breath of Life" has been on. We read through the letters between my dad and Timothy's mother and just enjoyed each other's company knowing how precious the time was and knowing that 9 months ago, we'd never have thought we'd be able to all sit together on Father's Day. It was truly a blessing and Father's Day I'll remember for many years to come.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

A family pic (well those of us that were there) after the wedding

My dad with the beautiful bride!

My little sister and I always seem to have a lot of pictures when we're together. This one was taken really for the girls :)

Daddy's girls!!!

Me with my crazy cousin Lindsey. Isn't she the cutest? :)

Can't believe my baby sister is 16! Where does the time go?

The girl cousins on the Hornsby side before the wedding

My baby sister and I with the beautiful bride, Kelly.

Mr. and Mrs. Brad Creviston!

A group of the cousins. Poor Brad. He's trying to fit in with us :)

There is an ongoing thing that puppy chow (if you don't know what it is, google it, delicious!!) is made with at least Kelly, Kylie or I involved. So Kylie and I decided that the new couple needed a little bit for their wedding. But not before we taste tested it:)

Not sure they ever got to taste test the puppy chow themselves. It was left behind while they were on their honeymoon, and we couldn't let it go to waste :)

We're not related... at all. Yea right, doubt there is a chance of trying to get away with saying that! After all, why would I want to?:) I love my family, cousins and all! I love that we always have such a wonderful time together and can always look back on events with such fond memories! Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Creviston! Can't wait until you're closer to us:)

Girls, girls, girls.

This is just a recent pic I wanted to share. It's too funny. Girls will be girls I guess. Funny thing is, they learned this pose from none other than their Aunt Kylie. Cracks me up. They are about to embark on a week without Mommy, only Daddy. They are excited for the week to pass though b/c that means we'll be moving all our stuff over to base housing! Finally! They can't wait to get out and play with neighbors and ride their bikes up and down the streets. That's it for now. Not much else to report. Will post more once I've been home for my cousin's wedding and have gotten to spend time with my dad for Father's Day. Check out his blog if you haven't for his recent update. It's one you don't want to miss!

What it means...

I saw this post on a fellow milspouse's blog where she posted a challenge to share what it means to be a military wife and thought it would be interesting to see what I could come up with. I think some of it is from a mil wife/mom perspective, but oh well. It's my list and it can be what I want :)

Being a military spouse means you get a lot of heartache coupled with a lot of joy. And a lot of other emotions.

It means that even little girls enjoy wearing "work clothes" like Daddy. Even if their best color isn't a green "bag".

It's feeling a huge sense of pride when at a public event such as a football game and having the National Anthem playing with your hero standing beside you.

It's trying to figure out what to do the day your hero is ready to be deployed and having a pit in your stomach the entire time.

It's having your kids (not even 3 and 5 at the time) still remember the previous deployment homecoming when they were woken up in the middle of the night, were good listeners for Mommy and we welcomed Daddy home a few hours later.

It's the girls wanting to sit down to read a story called "Tell Me About Faith" (a story about a little girl whose father is a soldier) for only a 48 hour TDY.

It's checking on the girls at night once they are asleep to see them cuddling with their Daddy Bears, even if he's home.

It's waiting for that phone call, even if it's at 3 a.m., or email, or text to let me know he's still out there, and is ok. A phone never becomes such an appendage as when your hero is deployed.

It's remembering where your kids were born or what stage of life we were in based on where we were stationed.

It means planning the addition and birth of your second kid around deployments, TDYs and exercises on base. Right down to the day of induction. Just to make sure he can be there to catch her.

It's about always making a home wherever the AF may take us and missing the jet noise when you're stationed somewhere without jets.

It's being sad for military friends who are missing their loved ones and feeling overjoyed for those about to be reunited.

It's the feeling of disappointment when your phone dings from a text and you know it can't be your hero b/c where he is, there is no texting.

It's reading a card your hero wrote and left with you as he said goodbye.

It's reading a letter your hero writes to his girls and them wanting you to read it 77 times a day from where it hangs on the fridge.

It's living up to the line that "absence really does make the heart grow fonder".

It's the school girl feeling and butterflies you feel on the day of his return that can only be explained and completely understood by another military spouse.

It means that when I think about how life has gone and if I would ever change a thing, I don't think twice before knowing I'm in this life for a reason and part of that reason is the man I love, my hero.