"D" Day

Well it's "D" day at our house. (D stands for deployment) The beginning of another adventure. Tonight Pete left for 60+ days. So he is off to the desert for an adventure and while we have one as well. We are still in denial, but I am sure in the next week we will all realize it is really happening. As my parents used to tell us as kids when we pestered them about getting to use our agency, "Oh, you have a choice. You can do it with a smile or you can do it with a frown." So for this deployment I am choosing to smile...but that doesn't mean there won't be a few tears. (Hunny we miss you already!)

Its been a crazy 6 weeks since I blogged last and I can't even begin to sum it up without it becoming a meaningless grocery type list, so just know its been crazy. We are moved into our house...though we still have three bathrooms to paint, some caulking to do, shelves to put up, and more than a little organizing that needs done. But it feels nice to have almost twice the space and to have a garage too! The girls are doing well. Madie is mobile and weaned. I just finished reading Charlotte's Web out loud to Megan. She loved it. So now we are on the look out for another comparable book to read out loud at bedtime.

I really have so much to be grateful for, and am resolved to refrain from complaining while Pete is gone...or atleast about Pete being gone.

In other news I am gather address for Christmas cards, so please send me your address so Ic an have it for Christmas card time...which is coming quickly!!! Thanks in advance!

today at 1:30

Today at 1:30 pm eastern standard time we close on our house! I am so excited and a little nervous...okay honestly a lot nervous. A little overwhelmed at how much work we have to get done in the next 8 days, but excited to have a bigger place... and a garage....and a tiny yard!!! I will post pictures later!!!

Pray for Alissa and Maddox

My sister and her husband Jeff are in Boston right now. They are seeing a DR for her unborn babies heart issues. Hopefully tomorrow they will have a procedure done that will save his little life. We know that God answers prayers and still preforms miracles. To know more about our little Maddox you can go to http://sweetheartmaddox.blogspot.com

Funny lines

Me to Meg at Bedtime:
You know you are just stalling.

Meg "what does stalling mean."

Me "It means you are just trying to get out of going to bed."

Meg " Well what's the point of that?"

So....

So Peter gets home tomorrow and its been a busy couple weeks. I am counting down the hours until he will be home...probably 27 hours from now. Whoo hoo!!! But while he has been gone we have had a multitude of adventures, really too many to write about, but I will try to hit the highlights and the low spots for you...
Monday July 20th Pete left early in the am. I got up early, woke the girls up and drop them off at a friends house then raced to the town home to meet the home inspector. He found a few little things and one moderate thing...the master bedroom floor, on the 2nd story sags in one corner. He said we needed to get a structural engineer or a contractor to come, saw the floor board open and take a closer peak. He said it may just be cosmetic or it may be structural. Bummer!
Meanwhile Pete, was helping to load the plane that they would be taking to Alaska and in the process sprained his ankle. I never saw it but from the description it was a pretty bad sprain. Bummer!
Wednesday, I went to the dentist and got a cavity filled. It took two shots to get me good and numb, but then I was numb for hours and hours.
The rest of the week was spent taking care of my kiddos and trying to gather all the paperwork, and fill out all the forms for the mortgage company. I swear I have never had so much paper work to do in all my life.
Sunday, my little sister, Ashlie was supposed to arrive, but flights looked horrible. (She was flying standby on a buddy pass) So we decided to wait for the red eye from SLC to Atlanta and then connect her to Tampa from there. Anyway to make a long story short...she didn't make the red eye. She slept in the airport and didn't make it to Tampa until almost 11pm Monday night. Bummer!
The next day we went to the beach!!! Yeah!!!!
The day after we went to Disney World. Megan cried through Snow Whites Adventure ride and sobbed clinging to my neck through Pirates of the Carribean. Hopefully she won't be tramatized for life. We all loved "Its a Small World" though. Otherwise we had a great time and the girls were terrific!!!
The rest of Ashlie's time in Tampa we just hung out. We went swimming and to the mall, and had a lot of fun. Well come to find out, that weekend was an embargo weekend for buddy passes, so we had to wait till Monday to try to get Ashlie home. She had to be at work on Tuesday. We watched flights all day and it looked bleak, but the one direct flight out at 5:30 pm looked good...it looked good until we got there. Then it looked like it would take a miracle. And sadly this time...no miracle. We ended up having to purchase her a last minute ticket out...it was pretty expensive, but better than her loosing her job. Bummer!!!
And then this week we were headed to the zoo with my Visiting Teacher Malinda when the alternator on my car decided to die. Luckily I was able to get off the freeway before it totally gave up the ghost. So there we sat on the side of the road, in atleast 95 degree weather, on the dodgy side of town. The tow truck was going to take an hour, so Malinda started calling ward members and found someone to come pick us up. My car got left there, all alone to wait for the tow truck. It spent a couple days at the car hospital getting fixed and the bill was anything but cheap.
And as usual when it rains it pours so while I am coordinating the car issues, the bank we are buying the townhome from decideds that unlike they had previously led us to believe, they will not be fixing the sagging floor. Bummer! We are trying to work through this issue still, but will see what happens.

It has been exciting and so I am sure you can see why I can't wait for Pete to get home.(besides the fact that we love him and miss him) I need a little help.

Only two hands

I am decompressing after church today and wondering why God only gave me two hands?

Surely he must have known that two would never be enough. How am I supposed to hold a crying baby, keep a rambunctious toddler from getting killed in the church parking lot, juggle two bags, one full of diapers, the other with items that cannot begin to fill the purpose for which they were brought; (that to keep one toddler quiet for 1 hour and 15 minutes), while retrieving car keys from purse, open car doors, put children in carseats with only these two hands.. Surely he must have forseen the need for another set of hands when balancing the 7 month old sitting between my feet on the cold, dirty bathroom tile while helping the toddler do her business on the "big girl potty."

Maybe that is why he sent my visiting teacher to come and "borrow" on of my little ones after the sacrament, so I could listen. It sure makes a difference when someone lends a hand. Maybe that is why God only gave me two, so he could bless my life through someone else's two hands. Or maybe so I could learn to open my mouth, let go of my pride, and ask for help. Hmmmm...something to think about.

3 weeks of fun

Pete is in Alaska for 3 weeks. Enough said. Thankfully, my sister, Ashlie, is coming to visit me on Sunday. Roo, as we like to call her around her is my little piece of sanity to get me through this spell of single parenting. Sunday can't come soon enough. But in the meantime we are staying busy. Tomorrow we brave the zoo in the heat. Send cool thoughts our way!!!