2 ear infections, 2 fevers, allergies and flu shots...Oh My!!

I'm thinking of inviting the kids Dr over for Thanksgiving.
In the last 5 days I've had to take Lillia to the dr for a horrible persistant cough and found out she had an ear infection, no fever, no waking up at night, not even complaining that her ear hurt but most definatly an ear infection. Then they both got flu shots and both had fevers and were generally grumpy, fussy and irritable, first lana then as soon as she was okay Lillia started with the fever. At least I didnt have 2 in that condition at once ? hey, I gotta stay positive. Then today I notice miss lana is jamming her fingers in her ears...hi ho hi ho it's back to the Dr we go. Of course, she's not running a fever or being awake at night...but its an ear infection. Heres a little trick for the mommies out there to know forsure if your child has an ear infection, take a little bit of hydrogen Peroxide and squirt some in the ear, I like using the lil medicine dispensers you get at Walgreens when you fill a Rx, if it bubbles up and fizzes it's an infection.
How can all that happen in 5 days?? Now, don't get me wrong I love the kids Dr. If you need a peditrician, definatly check out Dr Organ at the Family and Childrens Clinic in HH. He's fabulous....I just don't necessarily like to see him every 3 days. lol
I'm so tired of sick kids and ear infections. This will be lana's second since BD left 3 months ago. Luckily *I guess ?* My kids handle them pretty well and you can't tell when my kids are sick normally unless they are *reeally* sick, so that definatly makes my life easier.

ya can't make this stuff up.

Now as for Murphy....He can be shown the door!!!!!

Hello Fall

I don't know about ya'll but September flew by! I'll admit I was the one dreading september bc I had 'nothing' going on and was sure it would drag. Well, I was proven wrong. I don't quite know what happened to make it fly by so fast, but it sure did. I do know there was car trouble, house trouble, sick kids, dog surgery....wait...theres only 4 weeks in a month, that averages 1 'issue' a week..okay..maybe we were busy :-) We are finally cooling down to some semi-fall temps and I am so ready! Bring on Fall!
Lillia -loves- going to daycare, she's in the preschool classroom now and has done so well and learned so much! Allana is very clingy..always has been, but is even more so when BD is gone but she's doing better at daycare also, which does my mommy heart good.
Below are some pics of the girls all ready to go.



I'm so ready for October! We have a few things planned along with the normal everyday stuff that happens. I am taking part in the Walk to Defeat ALS on Oct 9th. My grandma had and unfortuantly lost her battle with ALS. It's a cause very close to my heart. For more info on ALS or if you want to make a donation to help find a cure you can visit: http://web.alsa.org/site/TR?px=2746706&fr_id=6567&pg=personal

What a week! and its only Tuesday!!

Yesterday was horrid! My day started rough anyways as the girls only 'allowed' me to get around 3 1/2 hours of sleep the night before. always rough! I very much need my beauty rest! :) Well as the day progressed it turned into one of those days where everything you touch either falls out of your hands, breaks or causes you to trip, stub a toe, whatnot. every...single...thing. Couple that wtih tired kids and a tired mommy, not good. I was just generally grumpy, tired of deployments and just annoyed. Lillia kept sayin "mommy, you 'rumpy'" ha
That afternoon I decide we need out of the house and needed to make a trip to Sams anyways, which is in Temple, so its about 30 minutes away. Trip there went great, kids napped in the car, got there, got everything we needed..all great. On the way home we're about 1/2 way there in an area thats very.....shaggy, shall we say. Theres bascially nothing there except a very old, very run down, very scary trailer park. As we're driving along the car starts feeling very hot and I just keep sayin to myself "oh, I'm just tired and stressed, i must be just havin a hot flash or somethin" lol They say stress ages you. And it starts feeling warmer and warmer in teh car and I keep thinkin I'm just losin my mind or somethin. Then I hear a little voice in the back saying "mommyy!! Its HOT!!" *okay..maybe I'm not losin it*
Im tryin to figure out whats happening and I decide to pull off the highway right next to...yes.. the very scary trailer park. I get out of the car and I smell a horrible smell, so thinkin I've just blown a tire or something Im checking the car and then I see it...Smoke comin out of my hood! Whats the first thing that my mommy brain thinks? QUICK, get the kids out of the car incase theres a fire or something. So there I am standing there on a frontage road off a busy highway, RIGHT off an exit ramp with 2 small kids, who I am clinging to for dear life for fear one may run into oncoming traffic, trying to decide what to do. I sure couldn't walk the 15 miles back to Killeen with 2 kids in the 95 degree heat. I was around -nothing- and I didn't know if my car was safe to drive. And heres where I get mad............You would be SHOCKED by the number of cars driving by -on the frontage road!!- who obviously see a mom, 2 kids and smoke comin out of the hood of a car and DO NOT STOP! at LEAST Pull up and ask if everyone is okay!!!! I can understand a woman not stopping but..men..REALLY!? Mothers need to be teaching their sons that if they ever see a woman with small kids and a smoking car on teh side of the road to HELP! I'm really fed up with men not acting like MEN! Shortly there after a couple men stop and help me out and figure out that my air conditioner compressor was blown and I could get home and if I just didn't run to AC and they offered to follow me into Killeen to make sure I got there okay. Thank you so very much to those to men!!! Can I just say that my car is an 06 and since we got it in 07 theres been NOTHING wrong with it...and in 3 months since BD been gone I've had 3 car issues!
We finally made it home safe and yes my compressor is all jacked up. Add that onto a house that needs leveling, cranky kids who aren't sleeping well, and that I'm in the midst of my 3rd deployment in less than 6 years and I'm just about fed UP!

So hopefully my car won't cost me my first born :) and at least it's still driveable, no ac, but driveable. Hot...But driveable. and at least we all got home safe and those 2 guys didnt try to mug me or somethin. lol and thankfully I have a loving family to call on when I need to whine or I have questions and thankfully I have an honest mechanic...When my Uncle Steve can't fix it ;-) and Thankfully I have the amazing support of my loving husband, even from thousands of miles away!

Being Strong isn't about strength...It's about being able to pick yourself up after your pity party and moving forward.

Pity Parties are fine...but you just gotta know when to pick yourself up, put on your big girl panties and deal.

Mizz fix it

Murphy stopped by...in the form of a clogged kitchen sink. This kitchen sink has given me fits 2 other times *in 2 1/2 months* I'm learning a lot about fixing a kitchen sink, so i wasn't all that surprised when it was clogged yet again. I did all the tricks I knew to do, plungering, drano, ect and I still had a horrible clog. I was about to give up and call a plumber but at the last moment I thought, what the heck, might as well try to fix it, if I end up with tons of pipe pieces laying around I can always call a plumber at that point and tell him "sorry, i thought I was more hooah than I apparently am" and he'd fix it. Honestly, I HATE having worker dudes in my house..and I hate giving them my money..sooo I figured I had nothing to lose if I tried to fix it.
So I googled a bit and figured out that its usually the 'elbow joint thingie ma jobber" that is causing the problem. Now, nobody told me that when you unscrew said 'elbow thingie' tons of water comes pouring out at you and to have a bucket/towel handy...that was an exciting moment as I dodged all the sludgy/drano smelling water that once resided in my sink/pipes.
Found my clog *it was really gross Btw* and decided I would do an extra good cleaning job and rinse it out...........Note: Don't use the kitchen sink.
I failed to realize that what I was rinsing in the kitchen sink was in fact a key part to not causing a huge flood underneath the sink.......yyaa..again...exciting!

But I got it all cleaned out and put back onto the other pipe pieces to where there was No leaks! *GO ME!* and now my sink works good as new and I'm not out $100!!!!
I'm SO proud! This is the first project I've done all on my own without any calls to one of the dads or whatnot!

And to my darling husband,

I love you very very much but No..I will Not keep doing said repairs once you get home! What I am learning is valuable but I will cease all 'manly' work as soon as you get home! Do not ask, try to bribe, or beg me to do said 'manly' jobs as I won't give in! I do them while you are gone and that is it!
--Your loving wife

D-Day

So, I've realized that not a lot of people..mostly civilians, know what happens on D-Day...That horrid day when your spouse leaves for a deployment. So I'd like to share my D-day.
The day before D-Day was our 5yr anniversary. I was so thankful to get that day with him because for quite awhile it looked like we would be apart on our anniversary and at the last moment the Army pulled through for us. We had a fabulous day, spending time as a family. We didnt really celebrate as we were all celebrated out from our previous 2 "anniversary celebrations" a month or so earlier. But we had a fantastic day nonetheless.
I am normally very scatterbrained on D-Day and I end up doing a complete cleaning of the house that morning. Yes, instead of spending the last moments with my husband I am cleaning. I clean and flutter around the house keeping myself busy. Washing baseboards, vents, underside of the kitchen table, ya get the jist. My loving husband has just come to terms with the fact that thats how its gonna be. It's either going to be cleaning or me sobbing in a corner. SO I think he was a bit surprised when we woke up that morning and I said "lets go to breakfast" I was trying my hardest to keep upbeat and happy so as to not upset the kids and figured breakfast was a wonderful option. Plus I didn't know when BD would eat next, so knew he needed food.....I'm very big on making sure he has enough to eat, maybe thats why he gains weight when hes home ?....I have been known to throw a can of beans in his duffle when he was goin to the field for 2 weeks. Like the Army wouldn't feed him..I don't know why I do these things, But I'm very paranoid about making sure people aren't hungry.
SO off we went to Cracker barrel, Got dressed, kids ready, loaded everyone up and off we went...On our way to cracker barrel, which is a 15-20 min. drive from my house, I was priding myself on the fact that I was doing so well, maybe bc it is my
3rd deployment I was finally getting the hang of it, I was a seasoned Army wife, I had it together!...until we got to Cracker Barrel, turned to grab my purse and realized..OH CRAP!!!!!! I left it sitting on the front porch!!!!! phone, money, ID's everything on the front porch of my house. lovely. So BD tells me to go ahead and go home and get it, he'll take the girls inside and get them something to eat, no problem. As I'm 1/2 way home I realize.......wait.....if I dont have my purse, then............I dont have my drivers license. Then my mind starts to wonder if I do get pulled over for whatever reason I would get arrested for not having my drivers license and in that case would they not make BD deploy ? oh the possibilities.....luckily I made it home safe and everything in my purse that was in fact on the front porch was safe also.
We had a lovely breakfast and then came home and honestly, I can't tell you WHAT we did from then until he had to report at 1130am. I have no clue how we busied ourselves.
The past 2 deployments I start crying when he puts on his uniform bc that means we're about to go, last time I even begged him to take it off, I think maybe I mighta bribed him also..geesh, I sound like a crazy person..but comeon, give me a break, I am saying goodbye to my husband for a YEAR to go to a war zone!
And we made it out the door, I even had makeup on *thats a plus!*
We get to BD's offices and he has to draw *get* his weapon then its a lot of standing around and waiting *some units have a ceremony, in 3 deployments we never have* We stood around letting the kids play, visiting with co workers, bein social ect, some people just stay off to themselves. I even made a run to the shoppette *like a 7-11, kwick shop, ect* to get snacks for the girls and a sandwich for BD.
and then the mean man comes out and starts hollerin "10 Minutes until you have to be at the gym, say your goodbyes now, NO family at the gym!" (all the soldiers go to a gym on post and are 'locked in' for 4-5 hours before they leave, no family is allowed to go there, no soldiers leave) Theres no goodbyes by the airplane like you see on TV. Still, I was doing good.
I was still doing good until he started saying goodbye to the girls and I lost it...and i mean..LOST...IT! I kinda hid in a doorway so he wouldn't see me crying. Then I realized, crap...We were a good ways away from our car and to get to the car we had to walk through a lot of people and I could not have them seeing me sobbing, soo I pulled it together, yes..again.
We started walking back to the car. He helps me load all the kids up and I am really, REALLY trying hard to not crawl under the car and start sobbing. Finally everything is int he car and its him and I standing there and we hug and kiss and we say "I love you" "be safe" ect I dont quite remember our exact words at that point. Then I get in the car and I'll never forget this....all i could see was his stomach through my open side window and I make the sign for "I love you" and press it on his stomach bc I couldn't say it or else I'd cry more and he took his hand and pressed it over my hand and held it there and bent down and gave me another kiss. and he walked into his office.
I drove home, crying...I dont quite know how, but I did. Put the kids for their nap and had my pity party..>Then the kids got up, I was fine, made dinner and we carried out the rest of our day. They needed to see that everything was okay and I was bound and determind to show them.

So that was D-day..I dont think I have ever written it out before and even writting it out now I feel a lump of emotion in my chest. I dont even think our family knows how D-Day goes......It's emotional and hard but there will be a day when those lovely white busses pull up and I will have my husband ALL to myself again and its worth it!!

Hello September!!!

Hello again lil Blog!

I took a bit of a hiatius as August turned out to be such a crazy month. We had a nice trip back to Ks and I sooo enjoyed the cooler temps. Lillia had a fabulous Birthday and got spoiled rotten! I can't believe she's 3.
September should be a slower month. Not a lot going on. I do plan to start potty training noni. She's ready and this will be our only 'slow' month until R&R! WOW, thats so much -fun- to say!!!!!!! I also hope to touch up/finish some painting in the house this month.

On the weight loss front, I am about 5-10lbs away from my goal. I am, at this point, thinner than I have been in 3 years. I am SO super proud of myself. This is the first time I have had the want/desire/strength to do it. And I'll be honest, when I first started, I doubted I could/would do it. And as time goes on my goal is starting to shift. In the beginning it was "get skinny". Now it isnt so much. It's about eating healthy, its about being healthy, and a large part is that now I feel like I deserve it! I deserve to be healthy, I deserve to take time for me to exercise, even though some days my kids holler about it and I should be cleaning or doing laundry or whatnot, I deserve to take the time for me. I feel better, physically, mentally, emotionally. I have more confidence. I'm a better mother. Yes, most days I'm tired and don't want to exercise, but if I get out there and do it I feel so much better.
Once I get to my goal I won't change anything that I am doing now bc it's not about that anymore. It's about me and my journey. It's about feeling great about myself, its about being able to let go of some of the stress that I deal with everyday.
This is me...and if you don't like it, that's okay. For every person that doesn't like me, theres another that loves me dearly.

Well thats all for now, I have dogs barking, kids revolting and its time for me to get out of my lil blogging world and resume "Super Hero" status once again.

Peace!