Skype!...

My sister took this picture on my birthday.  I was lucky enough to have Jason there to sing happy birthday to me, and it made my day that much more special.  I have to admit that this is one of the most hilariously funny family pictures that I have ever taken, BUT it has so much more meaning than any that have been captured.

I love the program Skype!  I wish they had it when I was stationed in Georgia or living in Virginia!  I would have spent many nights talking with my mom and sisters, being able to see them, rather than just listening to their voices on the phone!

If you have never spent a significant amount of time away from your spouse/boyfriend/lover/whatever you call them, then you may not understand the importance of being able to actually see them when you talk!  Being able to see Jason smile or blow us kisses has a real impact on our kids.  Kendall actually kisses the computer screen to give him kisses goodnight!  The way their eyes light up when they see him sitting there ready to talk, and even the way his eyes light up when he gets to see them is just incredible.  Sometimes, we just leave the computer in the living room and he watches them play and be crazy, which I know he really feels like he's missing out on. 

I know it sounds silly, but we actually scheduled to have a date night last week!  We didn't eat dinner together or anything, but I waited until the girls were asleep so that we could be "alone" and we just sat and talked to each other for 2 hours, uninterrupted!  It was the most glorious night I've had in a long time.  We laughed, I cried (of course) and we caught up on all the happenings of our lives!  I know it sounds weird, but we, maybe, talk on the phone for about 10 minutes on the weekdays.  His day starts at 4:30 a.m. with PT, he gets out of class at about 4:30 p.m., final formation at 5 p.m., PT again at 5:30, out at 6:30 p.m., then he has to eat dinner, and do about 2 hours of homework every night, and he is tired and ready for bed by 9.  It doesn't leave much time for family chats.  And I work weekends so there goes half the day then too.

So, to the creators of Skype, I freakin love you!  Thanks for letting my family be close even though we are far apart!

one of those days....

when you just can't stay awake, no matter how hard you try....

~

stinky Amelia....

with the absence of another adult in the house, time to find a shower has become a challenge for me.  on a rare occasion, Amelia will be so sound asleep that i can take a long enough shower that i actaully get to shave my legs!  however, in most cases i have to wait for her to be absorbed into an episode of elmo's world, sneak downstairs, get a quick wash in, then sneak back upstairs.... in less than 10 minutes... 7 times out of 10 she realizes that i have gone to take a shower and will come down and insist on talking to me while i finish washing.  of course, then she must watch me as i dry and get dressed.... and help me brush my hair...

so yesterday, i was just done drying when i heard her run through the kitchen to start heading down to find me.  we went about our routine and i told her that as soon as my hair was brushed she was going back to bed... i got her all tucked back in and went to my room and was just starting up my laptop when in comes Amelia.  this child, like any 2 year old i'm sure, will find any excuse she can to get out of bed to come and talk to me... this is how the conversation went...

Amelia:  Mommy, I smelled myself and I stinky.

Me:  Really.  Do you think you need a shower?

Amelia:  Yes, but you not stinky anymore.  Grammie is stinky and I stinky so I need to shower with Grammie.

Me:  (laughing)  Well maybe you and skinky Grammie can take a shower together tomorrow!

Amelia:  Yeah.  One day, when I get big, I can stand in the shower all by myself and shave my bod, and shave my pits, and wash all by myself, like you mommy.  When I'm bigger, I can go to counseling! (huge grin on her face!)

Me:  (hysterically laughing now)  Oh Amelia, I sure hope you don't need counseling when you get bigger!  Now go back to bed!

Amelia:  Mommy, will you come sing to me?

Me:  (heart melted)

Side note:  my nephews and niece go to counseling every week, thus the reason Amelia thinks it's a thing that big kids get to do.

cRaViNgS....

guess my cravings with this pregnancy are not all too random... 

craved brownies with all 3 pregnancies!  people say it's an excuse to eat them, but when i'm not preggo i do not eat them every weekend... or even once every 2 months...  

it's no secret i love taco bell, however, i am never a fan of hot, just the fire... started putting this on everything!  used 7 packets on 2 tacos the other day.... ummmm yikes!

devoured about 3 bags of these little suckers... it's not a candy i would choose over, say a butterfinger or reeses pieces, but def passing them up lately... 

greasy pizza... i would probably eat it every day if i could! 

i know this is probbaly the oddest one of all... i crave chinese food just so that i can pour soy sauce all over... what i'm eating is more like soy sauce soup, not fried rice.... yummy!

forever dance partners....

the other night, my dad came running into the house, flicked on the stereo, grabbed my mom and started dancing to one of their songs....

not even 30 seconds later amelia walked into the room, witnessed them dancing, then burst into tears....

no one is allowed to dance with her pappy, unless she says they can...

so as a compromise, she just joined them in their special dance...

and nope, this is not the first time it's happened LOL

making a house a home.... kitchen revamped!

I've been meaning to post pictures of our house that we bought 2 1/2 years ago... now that Jason and I have actually got the place looking how we want it to (or somewhat close) I figure I could start posting the upgrades we have done to our home on my blog.

This house was build in the 1950's, just keep that in mind!

I will begin with the kitchen!  This was obviously not the selling point because it is pretty tiny.  We barely have enough room for the kitchen table, but we make due with what we have!  It was painted in a southwest sort of theme, I think lol, but as you can see the bright orange and brown walls were quite a sight for sore eyes!  So were the gold lights that were all over the entire house!  I HATE GOLD!!  Those lights and all the paint colors were the first things to go!  We were also not very big fans of the white appliances, but we couldn't afford to upgrade and they were all in pretty good shape so we opted to keep the white.

So to make the house feel more "clean", all the ceilings and baseboards were painted white, which I have NO idea why they were painted that weird brown color anyway, it made the house feel a ton smaller!  All the southwest brown and orange were covered with this cactus green, which I wasn't 100% sure I liked, but it has def grown on me!  The cupboards were then painted a vanilla cream color.  They look white in the pictures, but it's not.  And we finally upgraded all our appliances to black/stainless steel!  The cupboard doors have always been a complicated subject.  They are painted with an oil paint and I really don't know what other color to paint them with, so we left them with the reddish brown.  It may look out of place in the kitchen, but it flows with the colors from the living room.  Jason and my dad also had to rip out the cupboard that was above the fridge to make room for the larger fridge.... we never used that stupid cupboard for anything anyway!

  

You would probably never believe that this wall was that horrid orange color.  Yes, the entire wall!  I must not have taken a pic of it because it was just so horrendous that I went temporarily blind!  We replaced the nasty white fan (can't find a pic of it) that used to be there with this one and finally upgraded our kitchen table!  We were using my Aunt Terri's old table, but the color didn't really match anything so we donated it to the DI and gave the chairs to my mom, since she can always use more chairs!  The second pic is from our Super Bowl party in 2009 so you get the idea of how the old table looked with that.

  

A big thanks to my sisters and my mom who spent a lot of time helping me paint and helping watch Amelia, since she was just a wee little babe when this project first started.  I think it took us 3-4 days to finish painting the kitchen, but it was loads of fun!  Times that I will forever cherish and remember!

my grannie...

found this picture on my computer at work today...
boy, do I miss this face... every day. 

reliance...

When you help someone up a hill, you are that much nearer the top yourself.  - Unknown

In 2004, I was deployed to Kuwait with about 8 other people from my unit.  One of those people happened to be one of my great friends, Bobby.  Bobby was married to Morgan, another one of my great friends.  I remember in the beginning of the deployment that there were days of Bobby worrying over whether or not Morgan was being taken care of while he was so far away, and I didn't really understand his concern, just thought he was being obsessive over nothing. 

Before he left, he had asked several of our friends to help her out with certain tasks that he knew she wouldn't be able to do on her own, and he thought he was leaving her with a pretty outstanding support system.  About 2 weeks into our deployment, he learned differently.  Turns out, none of these so called friends were willing to help her with anything and blew off any task that he had called and asked them to do.  He would have to call and call to get them to go over and help her with anything that needed done.

I mentioned to Bobby that Jason would be more than willing to help Morgan if he asked him to.  So Bobby made one phone call and that's all it took.  Every week, without fail, Jason went over to Morgan's house and mowed her lawn and helped her with anything else that she needed help with. 

Sadly for me, that awesome guy who is so eager to help is the one that had to leave me alone for a year.  Now that I am in the position of "Morgan", I have a better understanding of why Bobby was so obsessive over having good people around to help her.  I have been struggling with relying on my family because I hate putting the burden on so few people.  They do so much for me already, that when extra tasks come up I want to find someone else to help me so that they aren't always the ones to help.  I'm learning very quickly who I can rely on for that help and, unfortunately, who I can't.

Everyday I am more and more grateful for the wonderful people in my life and have a deeper appreciation for everything that they do, even if it's simply asking me how I'm holding up.  I miss Jason.