It's Over (this time)

If you have been hanging out with me during my husband's deployment I both thank you for your support and apologize for the spotty and sometimes woe-is-me posts. The moment we were waiting for since the day he left arrived last week. He came home.

We are so excited to have him home and he is off work for two weeks to spend time with us. Thank you for reading and thank you for all your kind and encouraging words! So, until next time....






This post is being linked up with Dumb Mom's Wordful Wednesday at parenting BY dummies.

What's Important....

I attended a Mother's Day tea at my daughter's pre-school where I was presented with a cute little card sporting flowers made from her footprints, a paper flower with her picture in the middle and a potted flower.



Noah stumbled off the bus today toting a top secret bag that he wanted me to help him carry, wanted me to know to be careful because it was breakable but didn't want me to know what was in it until Sunday. Then, he decided I should open the card. I told him I would just wait until Sunday and he insisted I open it right away.

Inside, was a list of things about "My Mother" and he filled in the blanks with words to describe me and things about me. Here is the content of Noah's card (with my comments in red):

Five Words to Describe My Mother are:

1. funny (Yeah! I am so glad he thinks I am funny. I thought only I thought I was funny.)

2.blue eyes (at least he knows what color eyes I have now. I wrote a whole post a couple of years ago about how he thought I had brown eyes)

3.Nice (Well, okay- "stinkin' awesome" would have been better, but I am glad to know he thinks I am a nice person)
4. Dyed red hair (ummm.... welll..... d'oh!)

5.Vanilla ice cream hater (it's true- and it's funny that he made note of it)

Four Things My Mom Does Best are:

1. makes mac and cheese (I fear that his teacher thinks I whip up boxes of Kraft with great frequency. The truth is, I make homemade macaroni and cheese that Noah LOVES. Honestly, I do.)

2.play Zumba (okay- he's reaching here. I only just started Zumba. Seriously, I've only been to the class twice. Perhaps he is talking about Zumba on the Wii since he said "play Zumba" but I only ever end up getting mad at the Zumba instructor on the Wii and wishing fat rolls and awkward NON-Latin hips on her.)

3.helping with homework (I am so glad he still thinks I am good at it. The reality is I jump on Facebook a lot for help with my second grader's homework. It's HARD, y'all! I have a bachelor's degree and I have trouble with his homework. I'm going to need a PhD to get him through 8th grade and after that, he is on his own)

4. helping with Zoe (Well, "practice makes perfect" and I get A LOT of practice "helping with Zoe".)

Two of My Mom's Favorite Things to Do are:

1.read books

2. take Zoe and I places

(I will forgive him the "dyed red hair" comment for not writing "take a nap", "yell" or "Facebook/computer" here.)

My Mom Really Likes it When:

Zoe and I are nice to each other. (This one is spot on.)

Two Things I Want to Tell My Mom are:

1. Get me some more Legos!

2.Get me some more Legos! (Where's the "I love you"? "Happy Mother's Day"? Yeah... show me some love, Dude and you might get some more Legos!)

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Military Spouse Appreciation Day

Last month, we honored our children. This month, we honor the spouses. Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day and I was going to say some things, but I just can't say it any better than

THIS

So, please go read it and take a moment to think about all the spouses out there, holding down the fort while their loved ones are gone. Our family's separation is coming to an end soon, but there are so many more out there who are at the beginning or in the exhausting middle of their deployment. Think of them. And there are even more families out there clinging to their final days/hours/minutes together right now as they await watching their loved one board a bus or plane and leave them alone to care for their family.

Thank you to all the military spouses. You lot really are an amazing bunch!

The Countdown Has Begun

We started this journey on January 4. It has been a long four months. It has been a short four months. It has been a difficult and exhausting four months. It has been a fun and exciting four months.

I have bonded a little more with my children as we leaned on each other and helped each other out in our times of need. There were many nights where I held or laid next to a child while they cried for their Daddy. There were days where one of my children patted my arm or cleaned up a mess while I sat on the couch and cried, defeated. That is what a family does- we stick up for one another. We are there for each other and we are closer because of everything we have done and been through together.

But at the very heart of it all, our family was fractured. One fourth of our family has been missing but will very soon return. The countdown has begun. We cannot wait to have Daddy, Husband, Playmate, Friend, Lover, One-Who-Picks-Up-Dog-Poop back with us again.

When we started this journey, I posted this the first weekend when we sat down and made our deployment chain. This is what it looked like when we hung it- it draped all the way to the floor on both sides of the door:

Here is what it looks like tonight:

That's right. We are down to ten days. TEN DAYS. We have one hundred and eighteen days behind us tonight and only ten measly days in front of us. I won't say it has been easy- it hasn't. It still isn't. But, we are so close. We have it beat. Colbert Family: 118 Deployment: ZERO.

Suck it, deployment. You are such a loser.

** I got ahead of myself- we have ELEVEN days left. Damn. Still better than 129.