Long Time...Happy New Year!

Eek. Last time I blogged was in...AUGUST??? Man, THAT was forever ago. So much has happened. August & September were filled with school & dance starting up again, October was Emma's 4th birthday & the girls had a great time trick or treating on halloween with their friends Hailey & Harley. November brought Abby's 8th birthday & Thanksgiving which we were able to celebrate with my friend Beth & her family. Good food & good times! Bethany was sick with a stomach bug that day but overall it was an ok day. December brought with it the craziness of getting ready for Christmas, in-laws coming, daddy coming home, daddy leaving again and prep for entrence into the new year.

2010 has been an interesting year. Not horribly bad, but could have been better. Hoping that 2011 is better. Both Abby & Bethany start their 2nd half of their year of school and hopefully will imprve even more on their marks from last semester. Abby has completed 3 semesters of gymnastics and 2 of tap & ballet and is now taking a try at Karate...something she has wanted to do for a few years now. Bethany & Emma will continue to do the combo gymnastic/dance class on saturdays. Dom is back in Japan, with a hope to come home somewhere around May-ish. Right now, I am taking one day at a time. Today is the 1st day of a new year...hopefully a better year.

Growing Up

There are days lately that I feel like each day I am simply surviving from day to day...especially during those "special" times during the month...makes things even harder with Dominic already gone. I HATE the "just surviving" days. In retrospect it makes me feel ungrateful for what I have. A loving husband, 3 beautiful daughters, a home, a working vehicle, steady income, no debt, sitting here I could make the list longer. I've had at least 2 of those this past week. The "I can barely get outta bed to get the kids off to school" days. Last night wasn't great either, 2 out of 3 of the girls were up and down all night long so sleep wasn't something I got much of. But today...as I went to pick up my girls from their church class...with my little Emma running in front of me...I realized...there's my baby. My youngest. She'll be 4 in a little over a month. Where has the time gone? I almost stopped walking it hit me so hard. As much as there are days when all I can think "WHEN is it BEDTIME?!?!?!" I need to appreciate the moments I have now with them. They are little for only so long. Emma will go to school next year. God grant me the patience to hug and cuddle and color and play when all I want to do is sleep. Help me to appreciate what you've given me and be thankful for both easy and hard, good and bad times.

Summer Craziness

It has been so crazy this summer. We've done a lot. I took the girls camping for the 1st time a few weeks ago. They did well, and we plan on going again when Oma comes down at the beginning of October. The older 2 did VBS here at the base chapel and had a blast...they've been running around singing the songs all day every day for the past week, and Abby even made our local paper in an article about the VBS!

School starts tomorrow!!! We had open house today. Both girls met their teachers and I think they will do good in their classes this year. I'm sad that Abby doesn't have Ms Jolly as her resource teacher this year. It took me by surprise when she told me at the last second today in the hallway. :( Abby has 2 girls in Ms. Boswell's class that she knows...Aisha from church/awana and Sjorabel from Ms Cissell's class last year. Bethany has Gunner, Anna, Sammy & one other kid from Ms. O'dell's class from last year in her new class this year. I feel sorry for THAT teacher. She will have her hands full with little Miss Sassy Pants aka Bethany. Overall I think they will both do well. Kinda sad that Emma didn't make the age cut off this year...she is academically read for Pre-K, only reason she can't go is that she doesn't meet the age requirement. Boo-hiss.

Independence Day

I know that it was 2 days ago, but this week has been crazy. We had a good day. Had a wonderful church service then EVERYONE...even mommy and daddy took an afternoon seista. :) Then it was off to Lunga Lake for a fun time. They had rides, water gun tag, music, food, fireworks, etc. The girls had a blast and only Emma was a little freaked at the fireworks and that was only until daddy picked her up then she was fine with her hands over her ears. We left early enough that we got home at a decent time, yet still saw the finale from the car, yet didn't get stuck in traffic. WOOT!

And while I am sure our family and many others had fun, let us not forget WHY we celebrate Independence Day. The celebration of our nations birth. The freedom speech or religion, free from tyranny or dictatorship. But every YEAR, every WEEK, EVERY DAY...our freedom comes with a price. Our troops are fighting and some are paying the ultimate sacrifice and DYING for our freedom. Let's not forget the sacrifices that they and their families are making to secure that freedom for us. From the Army, to the Air Force, to the Navy, the Coast Guard & the Marines...we salute you, we thank you. God keep you and bring you home safe.

Crazy Days

Home from Ocean City where we had a great time with family. This is the 1st time that I think all 3 girls could TRUELY appreciate the beach. We walked on the boardwalk, went swimming/boogie boarding in the ocean, buried mommy in the sand, made sand pits & castles, rode scooters & a surry, went and rode rides, ate ice cream...it was fun times. Aunt Hannah rocked b/c she had brought crafts for the girls to do when it got too hot to be outside (which was a lot). The girls loved playing with their cousins and were sad to leave. :(

We came home early for Bethany's recital practices. Yesterdays regular practice (but at the high school where they are putting it on) went fine...tonight's dress rehearsal was a TRAIN WRECK. >:( I can't believe that I left the beach early for THAT!! What they did tonight was NOT how they have practiced ALL spring! The teacher threw like 6 teenagers in there to "help" and all it did was COMPLETELY confuse ALL the little girls. Bethany had some older girl take her hand and made her dance with a kid from the 3-4 yr old class in the middle of the stage...which Bethany just rolled with it even though it wasn't her partner...but then near the end the teenager let go of her hand and kept holding the little girls hand and danced at the front of the stage leaving poor Bethany in the back BY HERSELF with no one to dance with. So OF COUSE she burst into tears. I did NOT pay well over $100 over the course of the past 6 months for costume, shoes, leotards, tights, tickets, & classes to have my kid spend over half if not all the whole 2 freaking minutes up on stage crying...and I was NOT the only parent mad. Pretty much every parent of the kids in Bethany's class was mad that just TONIGHT the NIGHT BEFORE the recital the teacher stuck a whole bunch of teens in there who didn't know what they were doing. If she was gonna do that the time to do it was YESTERDAY when we could have stopped when they screwed up and redone it. What made me even madder was that at the actual recital tomorrow we aren't allowed to take pics or film...so tonight was it. Which PISSED me off even more b/c of THEIR screw up Bethany wasn't where she was supposed to be dancing (our tickets we SPECIFICALLY bought so that we would be on the side of the stage where BETHANY was dancing...) and b/c of the screw up I only got 2 BAD pics and NO video and I am CERTAINLY not giving them MORE money for the professional DVD of tomorrows proformance b/c of THEIR mistake today. I am SO mad right now! >:(

Good Times!

We had a blast on the cruise! It was cold and quite a bit windy, but then again we DID go to canada. lol Got some great candid shots and some professional ones as well. The girls had a good time with my in-laws. Thankfully we have a week to re-coup before we have to pack back up to go to the beach with Dom's family. I will be glad when the craziness of this month is over...but then again that means that the time for Dom's leaving is closer. :(

Choas

Goodness. Things are going to get so nuts around here. We leave for PA/NY in 2 days. TWO DAYS!!! I'm dreading the drive up there as the girls NEVER do well on long trips...but the cruise will be worth it...3 days of NO "MOMMY!!! Mommy, mommy, mommy! What are you doing, mommy????" The silence will truely be golden. :)