I'm Back...again.

I'm probably the worst blogger ever when it comes to unexplained blogging sabbaticals. I haven't written since JULY! How crazy is that?! Here's the thing, stuff happened. I probably won't go into great detail on all the "stuff" but I'm back and here's a quick run down of what we've been up to...

*Most importantly, I'm still pregnant. We had a couple complications  (given my history, no real surprises there) but everything is going well now and I'm already huge which is good...mostly. 

*Joshua has a new civi job...this one takes a little explanation. His old civi job fired him. Yup. Fired. He's never been fired before and despite the fact that they always gave him glowing reviews and he's never had a complaint, they fired him...basically, they were tired of having to work around his Guard schedule and responsibilities so when he came back from his two week AT, they let him go. I wasn't surprised because they've been anti-military since day one but I was angry and if I think about it too much now, I'm still angry...but I'm also grateful. He hated that place. They were HORRIBLE. Not everyone who worked there of course but yeah, horrible is the only word for it. Just to give you an idea of the atmosphere, before he deployed they were interviewing people for an open position and he overheard one of the managers say that there was "no chance in hell we're hiring that guy-he's another Guard guy and that's the last thing we need." Then, when Joshua returned from deployment, several of his co-workers thought it was funny to surprise him with loud noises just to see if they could make him jump. Classy, right?! Anyway, I say I'm grateful because his new job is better. I mean it's not hard to be better than his old job but it's WAY better. Like God did an awesome thing better. The hours are a little odd but we're good with odd and he enjoys the work.

*We've started with our new homeschool group and curriculum-Classical Conversations if you're interested. It couldn't be going better. I'm tutoring the 4/5 yr old class which has been a blast and the boy is amazing us with how much he's learning. Actually, our little 2 yr old princess is even trying to get in on the action sometimes.

(1st day of CC-our homeschool group which meets once a week and our 1st day of homeschool at home-yup, in pjs)

(our favorite project this semester...we created a multi-level eco-system...I plan to write a post with more details to come but if you want to build one yourself, you can find the step-by-step tutorial we followed here)

*I was asked to be a pattern tester for a new "ruffle top" which I loved making but unfortunately in the process my sewing machine died :( so now I'm at a bit of a standstill when it comes to sewing.

(here's the finished project...once the pattern is available for purchase, I'll post a link to it)

*The boy is, at this very moment, on vacation with his grandparents at Disney World. I'm jealous. I'm really jealous. But I'm also really pregnant and on travel restrictions...kinda going crazy with cabin fever. I have, however, enjoyed the one-on-one time with our princess. We switched some of the kids furniture around in preparation for Baby 3.0 so now the princess is in a big girl bed and loving it-still waiting to find out the gender but Joshua's trying to convince me not to wait so we'll see if that changes.

That's been us the last couple of months. I plan on spending the next week reading all the blogs I love and have been missing to get caught up on your lives!

PS>I just got a pic from Grandma of our little man and a couple of his cousins at Disney World's Pirate's League...so wish I was with him!

Princess Pics

Over the weekend, I had a little fun with my camera. I got my wedding dress out and took some shots of our daughter in it.

(I'm a horrible bride-it's been 7+ years and I STILL haven't had my dress professionally cleaned/preserved...but I will...soon...) 

This is why having a daughter is fun...makes her first sentence, "I'm mad at Mommy" so much easier to deal with.

Goodbye Deployment

Today is so much more than just St Patrick's Day for us. Today marks the one year anniversary that Joshua has been home from deployment. To say I've been anticipating this date would be an understatement. I've been desperate for it...particularly for our children. Reintegration has been hard, at times as hard as the deployment was. Learning how to be a family of four, discovering our marriage again while also simultaneously helping Joshua adjust to how much our son had grown was difficult-Joshua left for the deployment when the boy was two and a half and was gone for 13 months but to be honest, Joshua really left for training when the boy was a year and a half and was gone 19 out of the next 24 months. It took a toll. I'm in awe of how well our son has done but there are remnants of the pain he felt. 

Last week when we took both the kids to the optometrist (neither needed glasses-more than a small miracle itself!), we were about half way through the 45 minutes route when the boy's eyes got huge and filled with tears. I was almost panicked, watching him struggle to get control of himself to be able to tell us what hurt/what was wrong and then he said it...

"Does this mean Daddy is going far, far away again?" 

His four year old mind had linked the one other time he remembered being at the optometrist with his Daddy being gone as it was shortly before Joshua had returned. 

It's not the first time he had asked it...when we were on our way to Disney last September, he had remembered the year before's R&R trip and had a small breakdown thinking we were all going to Florida but that his Daddy wouldn't be coming back with us.

I've been so ready for this day to come. To be able to say a year ago today my husband was home (or at least not being shot at) is a blessing that I treasure. The deployment taught me many lessons but one of the biggest was patience and what long-suffering love really is. It took long-suffering love to get through the deployment but it's also taken a long-suffering love to get through reintegration. We've made it to a year. We're still married...and I'm sad to say that isn't the case for everyone we've walked this journey with. Our children are healthy and happy and we've found our new normal. With Joshua still in the military, I don't take his being home for granted. I recognize and accept we may go through this same cycle again but today, we celebrate the time we've had together.

Maybe it's providential that this anniversary falls on St Patrick's Day. Many mistakenly assume he brought Christianity to Ireland (or miraculously rid it of snakes-although that would certainly be something to celebrate) but what he really did, according to Jon Sweeny who wrote a book about St Patrick, was organize, inspire and expand Christianity within Ireland but he didn't even do that right away. He spent six years as a slave-which is where he discovered his faith and then decades studying before he returned to Ireland. 

Regardless of what the future may hold...what deployments, training separations or anything else we may face, St Patrick's Day will always stand as a personal reminder to "rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope."

Time Flies

Hello blogging world...you may (or may not) have noticed my total desertion of this page for the last month (and a half). To be honest, nothing major really happened to drive me away. I just needed a break. I needed to focus on my family and myself. 

Here's a (hopefully) quick breakdown to catch you up...

We cracked down on homeschooling and have officially decided to go with Classical Conversations next year and are super excited about it. 

We had a snow-pocalypse that was a ton of fun...

I got a new .22 rifle for Valentine's Day and we took some good friends shooting... (the boy and one of his best friends had a blast)

I escaped. I took a long weekend and flew down to El Paso (thereby leaving the children alone with Joshua for the first time ever!) to visit this awesome lady...

(cell phone pic...eh, sorry)

Joshua and I had a weekend away...hotel, theater tickets (Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan-I highly recommend seeing it!-that woman is in better shape at 60 than I am today!), dinner out...the basics

In related news, the boy also got to see Peter Pan as his first broadway show with his Grandma. He LOVED it!...he wasn't so much a fan of the pics I insisted we take before he left but I couldn't resist. I love my bow-tie-lovin', suspender-wearing little man!

Also, I've been on a sewing kick...big time. I made a couple new dresses for the girl...

(she was less than thrilled to do pics at that particular moment)

(I got the hat from Halo Heaven)

And finally, the biggest news (for me at least) was that I finally got my much coveted Brother PE-770 Embroidery Machine!!! I'm in love! This was the first thing I made...

So that's what we've been up to...kind of a crazy busy season for us but a good one. 

5 (Post) New Year's Wishes

I've been tagged. 

But it's actually pretty cool...JG from Me and My SoldierMan was tagged by Mrs Banana Pants to post 5 Christmas Wishes...that deadline passed and JG posted 5 great New Year's Wishes so now I'm posting my own (Post) New Year's Wishes. It was pretty tough for me to come up with them because I hadn't really given much (read: none, zero, zilch, nada) thought into a resolution. I'm not against resolutions in general, I'm just cynical about my own abilities to follow through and I can't stand saying I'll do something and then not doing it...sorry, therapy tangent. Anyway, here they are...

5. Be Nice. I should mention that I think I'm a pretty nice person by nature but there's a very cynical, sarcastic, sometimes hurtful side that bubbles over. It's not good. If I was totally honest, it's arrogance and it's rude. So, this is me pledging to be nice...even if you're the idiot hippie type of individual who feels it necessary to openly hate everything I love. 

This one's going to be tough to keep on Twitter.

4. Be Generous. With my time and resources. Specifically, I want to keep fostering puppy dogs one at a time...eventually (read: bigger house) we'd like to become Puppy Raisers who help raise and train assistance dogs. It's so easy to say this week isn't good for us or someone else can do it but if everyone says that, the problem of dogs being put down would only get worse. We lost our precious Murray a couple years ago and now with just our Bubba, we have the space and I can't begin to count the ways it has helped our children grow in empathy and understanding.

This one makes me glad we got rid of all the carpet in the house.

3. Be Together...as in with Joshua, just Joshua. He's home. We've given it time and the kids have adjusted really well. No one's nursing or pregnant (woohoo-my body is my own again!). Now is the time to embrace "us" time. Joshua and I haven't taken a vacation just the two of us (well, apart from a really great road trip to and from El Paso) since before our 4 1/2 year old son was born. This will be the year we escape. I'm not sure where we'll go or what we'll do but I do know we'll have a great time.

Thanks to my parents, we've already got three awesome date nights planned between now and May...for Christmas they bought Joshua and I theater tickets for three different shows...Jekyll and Hyde, Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan and Westside Story. SUPER EXCITED!

2. Be At Peace. I'm not very good with change...particularly change I have NO control over but we already know there will be a ton of changes in the year to come...like huge changes...changes that will effect our family forever. Intimidating changes. There's still a dozen things that need to happen before I feel comfortable posting any real details but I can tell you that I'm proud of my husband and I trust that God will open the doors that need to open and close the doors that need to close. In the meantime, I (gulp) choose peace. 

Ok. I'm a total control freak. This one's hard.

1. Be Aware. I'm blessed. I stay home with our children and we've chosen to home-school so I get the pleasure of spending a lot of time with my children but I've noticed it's easy to go through the steps of life while letting it pass me by. My son will be FIVE in June. My daughter will be TWO in July...it's surreal. I want to really see what they become next. If my son will continue to be overprotective of his sister. How he'll assert his individualism. It goes beyond if Batman and Capt America will still be his favorite super heroes or if he'll still insist on wearing a bow tie as often as possible. It goes to his core...the kind of man he will grow into. I see glimpses of it every day. These years are so precious. And our daughter...wow. She's just at that stage where her personality in all it's glory is really starting to show through and I can't wait to see what aspects are solidified and what traits fade to the background. We call her our little daredevil but she's deathly afraid of water. She's pensive and observant before she declares her opinion...but when she's made up her mind, watch out, there's no stopping that child.

These are the days I wish I could freeze time altogether. It goes too fast.

Don't Wait

I know that by now there are dozens, hundreds-maybe even thousands, of posts about the nightmare that happened in Connecticut last Friday.

I'm not going to write about gun control, school safety or mental health issues...I've seen and said enough on all those topics on Twitter and Facebook. Right now, I just want to take a minute and remind all the parents out there that as unimaginable as it may be, we are not promised a lifetime with our children. 

I have friends who say we'll do XYZ with Timmy or Jane when (fill in the bank). They wait to do sports. They wait to go on vacation. They wait to teach their children to bake or to shoot or to play an instrument. And I understand why they wait...they want their children to be old enough, they want to pay off this bill or remodel that room, they're too busy right now but the bottom line is that they always think there's time. Tragically, there's not always time.

Twenty sets of parents discovered that on Friday in the most horrific way I can imagine. Don't let time slip away or heaven forbid end before you act. Whatever the XYZ is for you and your family, do it today. Don't wait.

May all those affected by the shooting at Sandy Hook find Peace.

Jedi Training Academy

2013 UPDATE: The Jedi Training academy has expanded. It now can accommodate twice the number of children as the show has expanded beyond the stage to a roped off area in front-generally the children below the stage on circles on the ground are taller and older. Also, Darth Maul has been added to the show!

Hollywood Studios' Jedi Training Academy is one of the most exciting (and FREE) extras you can add to your next Disney World vacation. It started as something only offered during Disney's famed Star Wars Weekend (now held annually in late spring) but was so popular it has become a regular daily treat on par with Magic Kingdom's Pirate's League.

The 30 minute show gives children ages 4-12 the chance to become Padawans. A Jedi Master trains the young ones the way of the force and after taking the Jedi Oath and a quick light saber tutorial, they're put to the test when Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers arrive. Vader attempts to lure the children to the dark side.

*side note: Vader's dialogue is all pre-recorded and has changed over the years. At one point he would tell the children who to join him by coming forward and kneeling before him until apparently, one adorable little girl actually did...Cast Members told us that Vader had to walk away in the moment for fear of breaking character. Now, the script is less inclined to allow children to turn to the dark side and the Jedi Master seems well equipped to battle any such inclinations.

The Padawan students must resist the Dark Side and prove themselves against Vader with the help of their Jedi Master. They each, one by one defeat him by following a series of steps the Jedi Master teaches. After Vader and his Stormtroopers are forced to leave, the children each receive great praise from their Jedi Master as well as a Jedi certificate before they pose for a group photo and return both the robes and light sabers. 

Where To Go:

The show itself is held on a stage next to the newly renovated Star Tours attraction in Hollywood Studios but sign up is at the ABC Sound Studio (where the old Sounds Dangerous show used to be). There is only same day sign up for the Jedi Tutorial so advanced reservations of any kind are not a possibility. Also, be sure to BRING YOUR CHILD to the sign up area AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. There are usually 15 shows a day but only 15 children are permitted per show and shows for the entire day can fill up by 10am (earlier even during the busiest times of year). You must bring your child to the sign up-even if you are signing them up at 9am for a 4:10pm show because a cast member must ask them questions in order to ascertain that they are capable of following directions for their own safety and to be sure that the child is the one wanting to do the show and not being forced into it by a parent. 

Once you have signed your child up, return to the sign up area 30 mins prior to their assigned showtime. ONE parent or adult may stay there with the child while everyone else must leave (it's a small area so too many family members waiting around wouldn't be comfortable) but it works out great because it gives everyone the chance to get a good spot in front of the stage while the children are given basic directions. About 10 minutes before the show the children are lined up and marched to the stage for the performance.

Photos:

Most parents will take pictures or video themselves but Disney will (almost always-although I've never heard of a show where they didn't) have a Photopass Photographer there taking photos of the whole experience. At the end of the show, simply get a card from the photographer but keep in mind, that card will have pictures of EVERY child that participated in that specific show. It's a good idea, particularly if you plan to buy the Photopass CD (we recommend it if you can afford it) to take the Jedi Photopass card to one of the photopass locations and have just the images you want transferred to another card. 

Souvenirs and Extras:

Star Tours, which has a 40" height requirement, is next to the Jedi Training Academy Stage along with the souvenir shop, Tatooine Traders where children can build their own light saber, buy one pre-made and even pick up a genuine Star Wars Padawan robe just like the one they use in the show.


May the force be with you.