Day 173

Happy halloween

From a skunk and a ladybug

We hit the jackpot on candy

And hardly went anywhere

Good for mommy as well as the kids

Enjoyed neighborhood trick or treating with just my 3 year old

And this is the first year he really understood it and participated

Which was fun to watch

Still just counting down days now

And getting ready for a wonderful 2 weeks

That will go way to fast

But will be wonderful all the same

Day 172

Busy day of church and Sunday school

I love how much my son loves church

He seriously loves it

And hates to leave

What a wonderful problem to have

Hopefully next week we will be heading to an airport instead of church

And picking up the love of our lives

Day 171

Can not wait for my husband to be home

8 more days until I see his face

I'm trying not to remember the fact that it is for such a short time

I'm so burned out on kids

And not being in my own home

And deployment in general

I just want him home

Day 170

Tired

So tired

Physically

Mentally

Every possible way

Of every possible thing

Day 169

Busy busy day

From 5:45am this morning

Until late into tonight

That was my baby's wake up time today by the way

We were up and at them

Hung out together

Had some coffee

Got the 3 year old ready for his preschool costume party

Went to preschool

Went to the gym

Got a bridal shower gift

Picked up 3 year old from school

Went home for lunch

Attempted to put everyone down for nap

Failed miserably

left for haircut and color

(Just me!!!)

Felt super guilty for spending so much money on my hair

Even though I can't remember the last time I had my hair done

Or spent money on myself

Mom's guilt...what do you do?

Came home

Got 3 year old in costume again

Went to ECFE costume party

Came home for dinner

Bath

Bedtime

No one is asleep yet

But man am I tired

Day 168

Nothing major today

Which is probably classified as a success

Had another swim day

Which equaled both my kids passed out for nap within minutes

Nothing bad to say about that

I have yet to hear screaming for bed time

So knock on wood

Maybe all it took was weeks and weeks

We'll see

The night is young

Getting ready to start our halloween festivities tomorrow

And excited about seeing my cute kids dressed up and enjoying them

And finally were counting the days to seeing our soldier

Less then 2 weeks and I'm getting excited

Now I'm going to go wait for my phonecall

Then call it a night

Day 167

Busy, Busy day

After preschool drop off was errand running

For 2 1/2 hours

With a 20 pound baby in tow

I thought my arm was going to fall off by the time I was done

I might have the most ripped right arm ever

Just don't look at my left

Success tonight as I am currently listening to more of a fussing crying

rather then a full out hysterical crying

I take what I can get

spending my days explaining to people how my husband will not come home early from deployment

despite the crap they are saying on tv about how the war is over and the troops will be home for the holidays

They just forget to talk about the other place they are sending all the troops instead of Iraq

I hope and pray he doesn't finish early in Iraq

Because the thought of heading to afghanistan is way worse

Nothing more irritating the people updating facebook statuses

With something they know nothing about

But thats life I guess

And I'll keep my mouth shut

And wait for my husband to come home

Day 166

Beginning of another week

I am currently listening to my 7 month old cry

again

Every night the same thing

Wish someone would tell me how to make her go to sleep and stay asleep

All I know for sure is my son was an awesome sleeper at this age

8pm rolled around and my night was all mine

He was fast asleep in bed until 7am

If her bedtime crying and stubborness is any indication of whats to come

I'm in for trouble

I don't even want to think of the teenage years

I'd write about something else

But something about a screaming child in your ear

Leaves very little room for you to think of anything else

sigh....

Day 165

Today is one of those days

I'm tired

I'm fairly certain I'm getting sick

My patience is non existent

My children are driving me insane

And I really miss my husband

I miss our house

I miss our lazy Sundays spent as a family

I'm tired of deployments

Did I mention I feel like I'm getting sick?

That never works well with 2 kids around

Like I said

One or those days

Day 164

Birthday parties for toddlers

In theory it seems like a good idea

In reality...not so much

Lots of little kids

Lots of running around

Lots of "mine, mine, mine"

Lots of screaming

Lots of sugar

Lots of way past nap time behaviors

And a building that feels about 100 degrees

Equals the reality

Fun party

Pretty glad when it was done

Is what

Day 163

Sometimes the best laid plans go horribly wrong with children involved

Keeping with my schedule I planned an outing of fun

And mostly to get energy out of my 3 year old before nap time

Everything went smoothly

Until naptime

I had to very non nappers today

Both a little sick

Both a little snotty

Both a lot tired

And yet both refusing to sleep

I'll never understand kids

I give anything for a nap daily

I even had my 3 year old come into my room and TELL me

"I'm just about to go to sleep"

hmmmm....why do I not believe you

bedtime now and I currently have two non sleepers

They are both in their bed

HOwever they are both not using it for its intended purpose

I'll never understand it

Day 162

After a night of crying

And an early morning wake up up 4:45am

I had two sound asleep kids when I started my day with a run and a shower

As tired as I was I knew I would feel better after a run

And you can never beat a shower without small children in the bathroom

Between library and story time and running errands

I thought my arm was about to fall off from carrying an extra 20 pounds around

And we were all tired and hungry and ready for nap

Until we got home and actually got ready for nap

Then both of my kids were wide awake

Figures

Day 161

Spent all day bragging about my sleeping all night long baby

Now its 11pm tonight

I just listened to this same baby bawl for an hour straight

And I am currently eating my words

That's all I have to say about that

Day 160

I think my 3 year old enjoys testing every bit of patience I have

Somedays I really wonder

My favorite example

Tonight he told me "I'm the slowest person EVER"

good to know

Then we dealt with our soldier

Who was trying to tell me that we had a bad internet connection because I moved the computer to the next room to talk

All I'm trying to do was avoid waking up the baby

And not have to tell my 3 year old to whisper during his entire conversation with his dad

Which is obviously not understood while in a war zone

Not that I blame him for not getting it

But it would be appreciated if he believed me when I told him

Moving to another room to talk means

Baby stays asleep

3 year old gets to talk without getting yelled at

Mommy doesn't lose her mind

Trying to keep it quiet to keep baby asleep

Failing then getting upset with the 3 year old

And being up for the next 3 hours with the kids baby

Oh well

Its the end of the day

Im irritated but thankful for them all

Day 159

My favorite phrases...

"I'm not touching the dog, I'm just walking over here"

"I'm not touching it ...I'm just checking something"

"I'm not doing anything"

3 year olds are hilarious

I swear as much as he frustrates me

He also entertains me

You just can't beat the innocence of a child

And you can't make up for his dad missing it

And no matter how you repeat it to him later on

It's never the same

Or even close to as cute when it actually happened

Day 158

Busy day of church and Sunday school

I bribed my child to leave church today

By promising him some playtime at the indoor playground

To bad it was about 50 degrees inside

And I then had to bribe him to leave there

Because I couldn't handle being in the cold building anymore

Who'd think I would need layers at the indoor playground

The precise reason we went there was because it was cold outside

Who runs an air conditioner when its 40 degrees outside?

Took hours to warm up

Next time I'll head there prepared for the indoor weather

Coat, hat, mittens

Whatever it takes I guess

Day 157

Well I did it again

I went back to the pumpkin patch

By myself

With 2 kids

It was just so nice out

And it was the last weekend it was open

And I really needed to get the 3 year old out to burn some energy

And it really wasn't that bad

So much easier when were just there to play

And I don't have to haul 2 pumpkins

Along with 2 kids

So I say successful trip

Successful day

Day 156

Had another fire station field trip again

The fire station is a stressful place for me

Trying to keep track of a 3 year old

While lugging around a 20 pound baby is not my idea of fun

However the crowded mcdonalds playroom

Full of germs and kids was not my idea of fun either

But I guess that's what we do for our kids

My 3 year old had a wonderful morning

And at the end if the day that is really all that matters

Even if mommy is exhausted and in dire need of a drink

Preferably with an alcohol content

Day 155

Just your average experiencing a deployment type day

Went to school

Had our normal day

Heard some random comments from m 3 year old about his daddy

Leaving me wondering again

What he understands and what h doesn't

And just how much his daddy being gone for a year will effect him

Had a daddy save today with the book he sent him

Stopped mid tantrum when I told him he had a package from daddy

I hate that he has to miss his daddy every day

And that his daddy has to miss him

Day 154

So tired today

Took forever for the morning fog to lift

I'm not even sure it completely left today

Finding energy for kids was hard today

Can't wait for everyone to be asleep

So I can crash myself

Just one of those days I wished I could have slept in

Or taken a nap

Or gone to bed early

I got none of the above

But things are winding down

And I'm going to try to force myself to not stay up late

Cause really I'm half to blame with my late bedtimes lately

But its way easier to blame the kids....

Day 153

I miss my husband

Nothing different happened today

Just your every day kind of day

Went to preschool

Took a nap

Played at the park

But I just really wanted to come home and see my husband waiting for me

Just one of those normal

But not so normal days

And I really miss my husband

Day 152

Another busy day

So happy for bedtime andme time

Today was also day 2 of major poop clean up

That's right

Be jealous

Each kid has had a turn now

At creating a disgusting uncomfortable mess

For my cleaning pleasure

Let's hope we stop at one each

Cause I'm certainly not enjoying it to much

I'm sure tomorrow it will be the dog

Seems about right....

Day 151

Lazy Sunday today

Not complaining though

Got up early for church and sunday school

Considered getting up and running after I was woken up for an early morning feeding

Fell back asleep as I considered it

Literally had to drag my 3 year old out of church

Never thought I'd have to convince my 3 year old to LEAVE church

Had a total of zero conversation with the hubby

Was trying to get my 3 year old to not wake up the baby during his conversation with daddy

He proceeded to sing some songs to daddy

In not a quiet voice

The conversation ended quickly

But still woke her up

Perfect

Day 150

So...

A pumpkin patch

2 kids

1 adult

2 pumpkins

1 running 3 year old

1 crying baby

I definitely underestimated the ease of the pumpkin patch trip

Last year it was me, hubby, and 2 year old

This year we took away one husband

And added one more child

I don't know what I was thinking

I still don't know what our pumpkins even look like

I grabbed the first two I saw and hightailed it out of there

It probably would have actually been just a fun outing

If we hadn't had to come home with pumpkins

But who goes to a pumpkin patch and doesn't come home with pumpkins?

The last part of the outing which involved walking 1/2 mile to where the pumpkins were

With a stroller in dirt

A crying baby

A tired 3 year old

And then adding 2 big pumpkins to the walk back

Is really what did me in

But we did it

We have two pumpkins ready to carve

And I'm proud of myself for surviving

And making sure my kids don't miss out on anymore then they already are

Day 149

Have I ever mentioned how I hate sleeping in the same room as my 3 year old?

It just doesn't work

He's easily distacted by pretty much anything and everything

Needs to be in a dark silent room

Completely by himself

Not to mention it really puts a damper on my alone dvr time

So I sit here as silent as possible

Listening to a 3 year old talk to himself non stop

Praying he doesn't wake the baby

And waiting for the sweet wonderful thing called sleep

Day 148

It's official I actually started on my to do list today

Feels good

I feel as though I might continue it tomorrow

Exactly a month until I get to see my hubby

Going to bed with an open window for fresh air

Sheets and bedding clean and smelling wonderful

2 sleeping kids

Lifes not to bad tonight

Day 147

Spent a few hours at the car dealership today

How fun is that with 2 kids in tow?

How annoying is it to wait for a few hours

Only to be told they can't find anything wrong with it

But we survived

We shopped at some stores afterwards and survived

Were all in bed

Both kids are out cold

And I'm exhausted

Day 146

Sigh...

Just how I feel today

I have such a to do list

And there is nothing on the list that I want to do

But I need to do it all

I hate how I put things off

Even though I know as soon as I get it done I'll feel so much better

I was also trying to put off bringing our car in for the next month

So the hubby could be with me

However the loud noises I heard today tell me that's impossible

And the thought of being at a car dealership for an unknown amount if time

With 2 children really does not sound appealing

Sigh...

Day 145

Got a few hours kid free tonight

And fully enjoyed every minute of it

Nothing crazy

As crazy as taking a community education class can be

But I had a great night with great friends

Made an awesome new necklace

And feel refreshed as a mom now that I've been away from them for a bit

Now I'm exhausted and feeling good

And ready to bring on the kid schedules again tomorrow

Day 144

I love watching my son grow up

Today he sang in church with his sunday school class

He also wore a superhero cape to church

Luckily he's not completely grown up yet

It was so fun to watch him

He wasn't nervous at all

Completely comfortable in front of a large group

I'm so proud he's my son

Of course there was the black mark on the day

Just like everything else this year

That his dad was not here to see it

Always that black mark in every occasion

Day 143

How many more days???

That's how I feel tonight

Played at the park with another family tonight

No one would know it but watching my son crave the attention of his friend's dad broke my heart

I hate that his dad is not here to play with him

Slide and swing with him

To be here to help me

And go out for dinner as a family after some park playing

Sometimes you don't realize how big the little things are

Until your standing there alone

Missing the person who should be standing next to you