Letterstodaddy’s Weblog

I am so sorry about the delay in writing this, my computer crashed last week!  What timing hey?  Anyways, I really don’t have time to write for long so I will let you see for yourselves!

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These videos say it so much better than I ever could!  It was a night I will never forget.  Thank you, thank you , thank you to all of you that came out to make it so special for him/us!  It was beyond what we ever could have imagined!!  You have no idea how much it meant!!!!  Thank you!!

I have word that Mark landed in New Jersey late last night and was en route to North Carolina by bus!  It feels so good to know that he is on American soil, I have been tearing up all day long!  I can’t believe the level of emotion that goes into all of this, I am going to be so exhausted by the time he actually comes home!  He is due home sometime next week and we can’t wait!  Tonight the children and I made up some signs  for when he gets off of the plane.  It feels so good to talk with the children as if it was all over, just knowing he is out of harms way is such a load off of my mind! 

So much has been going on over here that I have not been able to blog as of late.  I feel bad about that.  A lot of people have asked if I will keep up the blog after he is home and well, I will not be continuing Letters to Daddy, this blog had a very specific purpose, that for the most part has been fulfilled.  I am excited to get the blog printed up into a book!  I do think it is a neat way to chronicle your family life and so that very reason, so my children will have a recorded history, I may start a new family blog.  It would strictly serve as a way of journaling our lives’ events with pictures.  This blog was officially started with the day you left, Nov 26th, 2007, and so most appropiately it will end with the day you come home.  Until then I will let you know the details as I find them out!

Bear with me, I am overdue with these, but I thought you would like to see the children and what they have been up to lately.

This is one tired little girl, caught her taking a rest

Here he is, your mystery son, this is what he’s been up to lately!

A few of B’s Birthday party

not really sure what is up with A and J in this picture, but B looks cute!

And finally some Halloween costumes

Here would be our little genie

and our little Native American, she made the headband herself.

No, he is not a walrus, he is a saber tooth tiger of course, couldn’t you tell?  Yes, he made this himself!

and he is a jaguar, and yes, he made this himself!

and she is of course, Medussa (sp?)  again, couldn’t you tell?  And yes, she made this!

she wanted to make sure that you saw her pumpkin!

And now for our little bumblebee

and one of her stinger, she was a very nice bee and didn’t use it!

Till next time~

Just thought I would let you know that I am officially off of coffee!!!  I don’t even think about it anymore, well, except for in the morning when I drive by Alterra’s and the aroma is out on the streets, or in the early afternoon when I get that sleepy feeling and need that pick-me-up.  Oh yeah, and when I feel cold, which is all of the time, I start to miss my warm coffee mug with warm coffee aroma to smell.  *Sigh*, oh well, who said it would be easy?  What I want to know is how can all of you out there just have your one cup a day and stay normal?  It really messed with me in every way!  One cup became two and I never felt awake except for right after drinking it.  My mood was seriously affected by it too, which is not a good thing.  I am definitely more even when I am not drinking coffee.  So after a week of feeling VERY tired and dealing with the headache, I am officially myself again, without any coffee influence.  I do pray this can last forever, but you never know, coffee has a way of calling your name in the sweet smells that emit from it’s brewing, the sneaky beast!  Just remember out of kindness, when you see me next, to please not offer me a cup of the JO, it may be a weak moment for me! 

Signing off with P and her signature “grump”, truly she is one of the most joy filled, giggly babies, just not in front of the camera.  I dare say she is going for the “model pout”, do you know what I mean, they always seem to strike some pose with an expression that either looks like they are in pain or in deep, deep thought…

Just thought I would share a few of the conversations that have been going on around here. 

A: “Mom, what is a taxi?”

Mom:  “It is like a cab, it is a car that drives you around and you pay the driver to take you places.”

A: “Oh, yeah, they’ve been raising a lot of taxis lately”

And this homework paper from your second daughter, oh my she is such a hoot!  Where does she get this from?  She had to use her vocab words and make up a story with them, so here it goes, vocab words are italicised.

On second thought I will save this for our phone conversation, I have no idea where she gets this stuff!  Goofy girl!  Here’s a picture of your Miss personality anyways.

In her Halloween costume

Later!

I have to do just a few at a time, but here are a couple of A.  I made it through the weekend!! It was a packed weekend, but a good one.  Three birthday parties (two at our house), gymnastics, shopping,a sleepover, trick-or-treating and putting together costumes and carving pumpkins!  That is what happened on top of the regular day to day stuff.  Yeah, I made it through, yes, I made it through ( I am doing a little dance here).  One more week finished before you can come home!  Please hurry, because P thinks your brother is you!  She saw your brother this weekend and exclaimed to me, “Mommy! Look! Daddy!”, as she pointed to Peter….. I cried.  Then after trick-or-treating she followed him around calling him Daddy, he did a great job of just pretending for her, but yikes, that got me down!  At least there is a very good side to this, she is definitely remembering you from your visit this summer and she knows there is a Daddy in her life.  Come home soon honey, come home soon…

I thought I would just drop in and share a few.  Things have been not so good, I seem to be losing my patience lately.  I always struggle with how much to put on the blog, do I pour my heart out or do I make it all look like roses over here?  I guess I am erring on the side of being more honest in the hopes that everyone who reads this can relate somehow and has in some way or another “been there”.  Finishing up this deployment proves to be the most difficult part, I am not sure why that would be.  The biggest comfort to me is the skittle jar and the x’s marked on the calendar that counts down the days.  My biggest complaint is feeling like my everyday events control me, I can never seem to finish any project completely without being interrupted a thousand times.  The guilt I have for not being able to be there for everyone in my life is huge.  I never feel as if I am providing enough for my children and I know I have not been able to be a good friend this year to anyone.    I pray that my friends and family can hang in there and know that I still care about them and can’t wait until life is  normal so I can be a friend again.  I haven’t even been a good wife lately, as I am just so consumed with managing life that I haven’t really been able to be there for you. 

Blah, blah, blah!!! I just read over the last paragraph and depressed myself!  I hope it wasn’t too much, I am about to delete it all!  Here is to making the best of what is left in this deployment!  I know we are still so supported, so how can I possibly complain?  I know I am surrounded by love from every direction, how can that not fill my heart with contentment?  I ask you to pray for me to keep my chin up and to finish this deployment strong.  A friend reminded me tonight to “lean on Him”, yes, these are wise words indeed, something great to think about, but even better if I DO IT!!  Thank you my friend for the gentle reminder!

A couple of J

Saying goodbye to Fall

I CAN’T BELIEVE I AM WRITING THAT!!!  We are beginning to count down the weeks until you are home with us!  Although we don’t know the exact day, we set the skittle jar straight today with the right amount of skittles representing the rest of the days that are left.  Even though I have been keeping crazy busy lately, the days have been going by sooo slowly because of our limited communication.  I so miss having you in our everyday lives ; I cannot wait to have you back where you belong.  I long for P to know you and I know the children all long for a father figure again!  That day cannot come soon enough!

I have been having a lot of fun taking other people’s pictures this fall but that has left little time to capture my own children!  In a sort of panic today I grabbed the girls after school and took them to a nearby park to catch some pictures before all of the beautiful color goes away.  Because of their school schedule I am not able to get as many photos of them, so I just had to make it work today.  I will be taking some of M on Wednesday, you never get to see him because of his schedule with gymnastics (four days a week after school).  So here are a couple of our sweet B who just celebrated her birthday.  This girl has such a personality and brings so much joy to all of us!  P worked her way into these as she usually does, but it is true to what you will see with B, she loves being around her little ’sis.  More coming tomorrow, it’s time for me to get some sleep! Click on first image to see larger.

I had the chance to get together with a very dear friend the other day.  I have to say, it is quite a gift to have a friend  who accepts you completely for who you are.  We have had distance between us the past couple of years, but it never seems to matter, when we get together it is just like we never missed a moment!  Thank you for everything MK! 

Just a couple taken around the house during our rainy day today…

G continues to work hard at school and cannot wait until he can read to you!

and goodbye to summer!  It’s official, the cool weather is here and along with that comes gorgeous color on all of the landscape, from the tops of the trees to the grasses on the bottom, everything is aglow with color.  I am enjoying taking the children to school each morning and seeing the landscape change, the only problem is then I get the “itch”.  I want to stop and take a picture of every beautiful scene I see.  Of course I am never prepared for this, but you  never know maybe one of these days soon. 

Recently the children and I ventured out to Old World Wisconsin for Autumn Days.  What a great way to usher in the fall!  There will be no pictures as I have a very strict rule that the camera does not go to crowded places or near water when I have children with me, but what incredible beauty we saw!!!  We played the game “looking for fire” (trees with wonderful color) on the way out.  We made it out there after church and well we went in “Mary” style.  That would mean  I packed the childrens clothing but of course forgot my own, I packed diapers and no wipes and well, no food.   I did however have water with me and at least wore my flats to church so I did not have the most uncomfortable shoes imaginable, but nonetheless, they were uncomfortable and I was not dressed for the day.  We made the best of it and I crossed my fingers that P would not be in any need of wipes and well, we had a great time!  The day was filled with lessons on how people used to get ready for winter.  We made it to most of the homesteads, however, we did not make a point of seeing the chickens get slaughtered.  No way, no how! I really want my children to still like eating chicken! 

So I took  a picture of our maple tree outside for you since I know you are missing the colors this year.  I included a couple of pictures from the year before too…

The “fire” in our backyard