The overachieving mom and Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!

Since it is my dad’s 60^th birthday I thought I would write a blog that had him in it. After Dr. Seuss week this topic has been on my head and I finally have a second to sit down and write about it. So first off let me start by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! You are awesome and I love you and I can’t believe you are 60, you certainly don’t look it (ok deflate your head, you know you look good for your age) 

Ok now to the blog, I have noticed I have a habit of over achieving when it comes to things involving the kids and school.  I committed and I do the letter of the week in Allie’s hair. When the girls get to dress up I try my hardest to get them what they want. Like with Renae going out and spending money and borrowing a sewing machine for Sam I am.  I admit that week was exhausting but so AWESOME, the look on her face was worth every penny and amount of time spent. When I am in charge of food for a school party I can’t just buy something, if I have them time I pour my heart and soul into it, like when I cut out little pumpkin and ghost shape sandwiches.  Justin tells me why; no one will care if you go buy something. And I just respond I have to, being a mom is the one thing I am good at and I enjoy doing that kind of stuff.

Well I sat down and wondered why? Why do I go overboard on that kind of stuff? The crafty creative stuff, especially considering until recently I NEVER considered myself crafy.  Now I do different hairstyles, make bows, paint pictures, and even SEW!!!  My brother asked me today where this came from; well I think it goes back to my child hood and my dad. It just took me having school-aged kids to figure it out.  When it came to school my mom helped with the boring stuff like reading and spelling tests. Then my dad took charge of any and all projects. And he would not just throw something together when it came to my school projects. No it took planning and brainstorming and way more time and effort then I thought when I was a kid. Here’s just a few examples that I can remember, In 5^th grade science we were suppose to make an insect of our choosing to bring in to the class. Most kids just made something out of paper, not my dad… nope what did he do, well we choose to do a butterfly so he went and got fabric and pipe cleaners and with his hot glue gun we made (mostly him lol) a beautiful butterfly with all 6 legs and antennas and eyes and everything.. The teacher loved it so much she actually displayed it along with her son’s praying mantis (made out of wood) on her filing cabinet the rest of the year.

Then we make it to the Egg drop. If any of you went to Eastgate you probably got to do this… my dad actually packed two eggs in my box just in case lol… One made it and one broke but he actually had to test a bunch of different material out before we settled on an egg mattress. Stuffed in a box with lots of duct tape. Now bring us to 7^th grade we got to make Toothpick bridges for science.  I didn’t win because my bridges weight vs what it held was higher but my bridge held the most weight. It held all the sand bags and about 4 textbooks before busting.  I probably could have stood on it. He wanted to make sure it would hold.

I know there are a ton more that we did together through out school but my favorite was an Indian Village Diorama I did in high school.  Not only did it look awesome my dad actually whittled me a little totem pole which I kept, See picture to left.

So you see, over achieving with my kids comes naturally cause that is what I grew up with.  It breaks my heart a little for the other kids in Renae’s class cause half the time they don’t even participate in dressing up and stuff like that. Tomorrow is actually Kite day and they were suppose to have their kites turned in by today so the coach would have a head count of participants and only 4 out of 16 kids brought in kites. Of course Renae is one of them.  I just feel bad cause I am sure they would have loved to participate too and the kites don’t cost that much.  Ok before I talk myself into running to Wal-mart and buying 12 more kites I am going to end this blog.

So yes I am an over achiever on projects, dress ups, hair do’s even Soccer mom but I take pride in my kids and the things I can do for them. And I hope you guys do too, it can pay off for your future grandkids in the long run. Thanks Daddy for always over doing it no matter what I said. I always thought it was cool but didn’t always see the point in the effort. But I learned the lesson that if anything is worth doing it is worth doing not only right but in a grand way, CIMH My father is also the reason the guests at my wedding reception had doggy bags, he would rather have to much food then not enough ;)

 Now if I could just get myself motivated to be an over achiever when it comes to working out I would have that beach body lol…  Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Green Eggs and Ham how we love Dr. Seuss

Last week and this week have been a fun week for the girls and I celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday and doing all the fun activities at school. I have always loved Dr. Seuss books as a kid, my favorite Dr. Seuss book to this day is Theres a Wocket in my Pocket... so I have def been in heaven living vicariously through the girls and wanted to share our fun.

It started last wednesday with Allie and whacky clothes/hair day. Even Morgan wanted to join in on dressing up :)

 

Then we move on to last friday Allie had Dress up as your favorite story book character. Well I really wanted Allie to be thing 2 since Renae was thing thing 1 last year but she protested and we narrowed it down to Cinderella or Doc Mcstuffins... Well Thursday night she picked Doc as most of you know from facebook but I want to share the pictures again anyways... and again my sweet Morgan joined in on the dressing up :)

Well Saturday we continued with Dr Seuss by having a movie marathon and watched Cat and the Hat and The Lorax (the new one). Which I had never watched the new one and I really enjoyed it... 

Then we make it to Monday and since we hadn't worn our Thing shirts yet I just had to wear them so again I want to share the pictures. I actually ordered me a new one for this year. My old one has Thing 4 on it, but after being asked if I was preggers I thought hmmm I need a Thing mom shirt... so I jumped on ebay and actually found the one I got, It has "Mom of" "thing 1, thing 2 and thing 3" in little white thing bubbles and I love it... 

Well on Monday I receive and email from Renae's teacher about Dr.s Seuss week. it stated the following:

Tuesday: Crazy Fox on Sox day, wear crazy socks (my thoughts as reading this: oh thats easy I can throw my long socks on Renae and borrow Allie's fox shirt)
Wednesday: Wear blue jeans, t-shirt and Dr Seuss hat (My thoughts as reading this: WHAT, crap I we don't have a Dr. Seuss hat... and I have no clue where to buy one, hmm maybe I can recreate her sisters paper one)
Thursday: Dress up as favorite Dr. Seuss Character (my thoughts as reading this: Hmm maybe I can just wash her thing 1 shirt and do her hair, guess I will ask her)

So then brings on our conversation and I asked Renae who her favorite Dr. Seuss character was and without hesitations she says Sam I am... I respond, Ugh I think he's naked with a hat. We look at the book and sure enough no clothes just yellow fur.. so I told her let me think about it. I then turn to trusty pinterest and found the cutest home made costume but it needed a sewing machine or was going to take FOREVER to make. So I posted on facebook to see if one of my neighbors could help. and Thank the lord I have fabulous neighbors and one of my bunco ladies/neighbors Laurie owned a sewing machine and graciously let me borrow it and gave me a quick run down of how to use it. Well since I had a machine now I decided to go ahead am make Renae a Dr. Seuss hat too.  When I picked her up today she told me her teacher told her she had the best Dr. Seuss hat of her class. I asked Renae did she tell her teacher I made it and she said that she did and Ms Davis responded to her. Oooooo that is awesome. :) Makes me feel great. So here is a pic of her Fox Sox day and Dr. Seuss hat Day.

Well now on to Sam I am... I have the machine so I can make it... Well when I first told Justin about the costume he commented that to bad we didn't still have our yellow tutu that we gave away to a little girl I baby sat once since it was almost her birthday. Well he got me thinking that I wanted to do a cute Sam I am... and after getting the costume done Renae loved it and loved the style so we had some fun with a photo shoot.. so DRUM ROLL PLEASE ............................................

Ahhhhh, I mean Happy, AHHHHH no wait Happy, AHHHH, ohh look at the kitty....

AHHHHHHH!!!!!! Ok now that that is out of my system I want to say thank you to everyone who has given us encouraging words and praying for us right now.  Now that the shock and aw is wearing off I have been able to calm down and put life back into perspective.

I am thankful that Justin will at least have a job especially in this economy when so many people are still without jobs and struggling to make it.  I am also glad that he will at least be in the country and not being deployed. Two of my friends are currently playing the single mother card because of deployments and a third will be joining them soon.  So again, it could be worse.

With that being said I am still not happy about playing single mom, and doesn’t matter how thankful I am every time I think about it makes me depressed.  I know I can do it and we will survive. We have done this on and off for the last 14 years. Our entire relationship has been spent with separation after separation. That is just the life of a military spouse/significant other. But never thought his civilian side of work would separate us like this. I hear of all these families who are living apart, one of which is my cousin and his family. But you never think it will be you. No, that won’t happen to us, we will be fine. And here it is on our doorstep.

Then you add in the financial burden of living two separate lives. We have been working hard on trying to follow Dave Ramsey with the exception of a few set backs at Christmas since we had not planned real well for it.  And now this is going to cause us to take even more steps back. Yes, we will be able to last longer bringing in some money rather then no money but it will not be enough to actually pay all the bills since he has to provide his own roof over his head. So that adds to my frustration, we finally see the light and go oh we should get out of debt and we hit a big roadblock.  And with 3 kids one of whom is still not in school it is difficult for me to help bring in money to help supplement the loss of money. So lots of negatives in my brain right now…. Ugh…

Oh step back for those who are going what the heck is going on; Justin has been furloughed since Dec 31. So he is still employed but not working. He has been searching for jobs since we found out his contract was ending but having a hard time finding something. And seems like every time he gets close, something falls through… so add that into not working. Lucky he had AT (guard training) for two weeks this month so we had another pay check come in.  Well, he got a call yesterday from Radiance stating that they had a position opening up in Augusta, GA but they needed an answer by today. Well of course we don’t want to turn it down because heaven only knows when he will find a job and we don’t have that much put away to last very long with zero income.  And they want him there by Feb 3.  So he will be leaving for work. And with it being a 6 hour drive and having to pay for his extended stay hotel we probably wont get to see each other very often. Again I know there are those who have it WAY worse. But still not happy about. And mostly because of the kids. It is hard because they are getting older and know when daddy is gone and they miss him. Just have to Thank God that we have the technology to video chat and  Renae and Allie have figured out how to text. Justin on the ipad and ipods so they are bugging him that way lol.

Anyways, Just want to say all the thoughts, prayers and concerns are not unappreciated. And I know God has a plan, just right now I am not a fan of the path we are having to take. But such is life, what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger, and we must embrace the suck. Hopefully we will come out the other end of this better then when we started. And hoping 2014 starts to get better.  We have our health (sorta, Allie and I have been battling a weird stomach bug, at least no throwing up this time) and wonderful family, friends and neighbors who make a great support group.  And if this does last into the spring I would love a volunteer to weed eat and edge my yard ;) I can mow it if the mower will start CIMH…  

Happy New Year... Good Bye 2013, hello 2014

Well 2013 is winding down to the end and we are going to begin a new year. Wow this year has flown by and has had many ups and downs.

First my oldest baby turned 5 and started kindergarten.

My second baby turned 4 and started pre school.

And Morgan turned 2 and is still my baby ;)

Another highlight was the birth of another niece, Carlee Raine… I love that little girl so much and she always has the biggest smile on her face. And she actually likes Justin haha which if you know him and babies well lets just say they don’t always seem so happy to see him CIMH

Lets see what else happened in 2013. Well I planned on running more and getting in shape but between sickness after sickness and an injury by august I had given up and then the girls started school and life just go hectic and I lost all motivation. I gained a few unwanted lbs and also never made it pass week 4 of my Body Revolution.  I did manage to run two 5ks and I PR’d at the Double Helix in April with a time of 36:19.  I am hoping to get back on my running in 2014 and finish the Double Helix even faster this year. I am also so proud of the girls and their fun runs and Renae running her first kids Marathon. She is already signed up for her next one in April and can’t wait. Justin killed his mileage goal this year not to mention PR'd at his half marathon and ran 2 marathons. He is already signed up for his next marathon and has a few other races planned for 2014. So hoping for a new life style change for me to have a healthier and happier me.

Cotton Row May

Double Helix April

Double Helix April 

Cotton Row May

Huntsville Sprint Tri June

Monte Sano Kids 1 mile fun run August

Atlanta Marathon October

Atlanta Marathon Kids Fun Run Oct

Huntsville Half November

Rocket City Marathon Dec

Some other quick high lights were getting to see Luke Bryan and Colton Dixon in concert J

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Made 2 ER trips one for Allie and her busted face due to some wild dance moves to Luke Bryan and Morgan for swallowing a heart charm. Thank God nothing serious came of either of those trips.

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Had a Snow day back in Jan and the girls loved it as much as we did… it was so much fun building our snowman and making snow angels…

We also went to see Disney on Ice which the girls loved..

Had a blast at the beach this summer with my mom and nieces and nephews…

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Renae played Soccer in the spring and enjoyed the few games that didn’t get rained out.

One of the bad highlights but had a good thing happen in it was the Stomach Virus of 2013 lol.. Renae started and within two hours Allie started and then within an hour of Allie Morgan started so all 3 where sick at the same time. The finally stop and fell asleep about midnight and 2 a.m. I start… all this while Justin is at his two week guard camp. And the weather was bad the next day and had a tornado warning while me and all three girls were taking a nap in my bed and here I am dragging them all to the closet lol after being sick all night, was not any fun but Morgan decided she didn’t like her pacifier anymore after that. So a good ending to that highlight Morgan broke herself of her pacifier.

We also started Dave Ramsey’s budget plan and I am going to write a separate blog about it so keep an eye out for it.

I know there are a ton of other memories that we made but those were just a few of my favs and not so fav CIMH. Thanks for reading.

Hope everyone had a great 2013 and has a Happy New Year and that 2014 is AWESOME for you!!! Looking forward to watching my babies continue to grow... going to hopefully be able to invest more into their tumbling and of course more races and fun runs in our future... Love watching the girls run and how accomplished they feel when they cross the finish line and hearing them cheer for their Daddy when he is racing. Morgan might start pre school and Allie will move into kindergarten and Renae to the first grade next year. Oh where has the time gone. Happy New Year!!!