Spring???

We had one awesome day here where it was 75 degrees and the next day it promptly went back to chilly temperatures with a north wind. It has gone steadily downhill all last week where the highs were only in the 40's. I am so over winter. I was over winter by January 15th. It won't quit. MAKE IT STOP, ALREADY!

And just when I thought I was the only person crazy enough to have a mental breakdown over weather, my seven-year-old son piped up out of the blue yesterday with this little observation:

Gosh! I wish Old Man Winter would just DIE ALREADY!



My sentiments exactly.

Eighty Down, Fifty-Two to Go

First of all, I wanted to mention that today is my husband's birthday. So- Happy Birthday, Sweetie! I wish we could all celebrate together.

Next I want to mention that we have survived eighty days of the deployment and have approximately fifty-two left. It feels good to see the deployment chain we created getting visibly shorter. A reminder- when we made the chain, it fell all the way to the floor on both sides of the entryway to our kitchen where we chose to hang it.


Tonight, it looks like this:




Wow! What a difference! I am so glad I decided to do this because Noah gets the concept of the months going by, but for Zoe, it is just an endless sea of her father's absence. This is very visual and she can actually see the time passing by.

Spring has sprung in New Jersey. And by that I just mean that my daffodils, hyacinths and tulips are coming up and the trees appear to be sprouting buds. We did, however, have snow flurries this morning and the weather is forecast to be cold for the next week at least. As in, not getting out of the 40's, cold. Ugh!

Zoe's school implemented a new rule on March 1 that no outside food was allowed into the school. Only items prepared in the kitchen on premises would be served to the children and so therefore, the Saint Patrick's Day "Green Party" they usually have did not come to fruition. I did make treats for Noah's class, though.


We had a spring clean up day outside where I raked up the leaves that fell after leaf collection in the fall and Noah and his buddy bagged them for me. I LOVE seven-year-olds! I only had to offer them $5 a piece and they bagged the leaves for me.




The day after this photo was taken, I took Noah to get a haircut. It was driving me nuts hanging in his face. He wanted it long and I kept having it trimmed and telling him he could keep it long as long as he kept it out of his face. At this point, he was staring at me through a curtain of hair and looked like a sheep dog. He's still mad at me for having it cut.. because I had it ALL CUT OFF!

During the brief period of warmer weather we experienced, Zoe got some time to play on her scooter she got for Christmas.

Both kids had a really rough week last week, so I let them have a rare treat- I allowed Noah to sleep in my bed with me last Friday with the promise Zoe could sleep with me this Friday. When I told Noah he could get in my bed, I expected the usual entourage- his blanket and his bunny- but when I went to bed I found Noah with his blanket and SIX of his closest friends taking up the bed! Left to Right- Rexie the Dinosaur, his bunny, there's a penguin under the blanket and I don't remember the penguin's name, Daddy Doll, Max and Chirp. Sheesh! I promptly evicted everyone but blanket and bunny and we slept peacefully.

Last Sunday, the kids were driving me bananas and so I decided we needed fresh air. I took them to Smithville and we walked the trail through the woods alongside the creek and over the floating bridge on the lake. When we finished the loop and arrived back at our car, I let them play on the playgrounds. Thankfully, I wore them out!

We've been over this before- my kids do not sit and/or smile for photographs. They are always moving and always making weird faces, so when I managed to get this...

... I considered myself very fortunate.

THIS is more like it:

Finally, these were taken on the playground at the end of our hike. I was totally being lazy and all of these are taken from across the playground with my zoom lens.

Our plans for the weekend include our weekly Skype session with DJ tomorrow afternoon after the kids get home from school. Saturday is Noah's last soccer day- they play a mini- tournament (they play each team for about ten minutes) and then have pizza and get their trophies afterwards. And Sunday, we have absolutely nothing planned. I like those days.

I apologize for the sporadic posts lately. I don't know if it is the deployment getting to me or what is going on, but I am suddenly exhausted all the time. No matter how much sleep I get, I have to fight myself to keep from taking a nap at 4 pm everyday and by evening, I just want to crawl in bed. I have been taking my vitamins and exercising, but it isn't making me feel any better. I think I am just mentally exhausted and that is manifesting itself physically in me. I hope to get my groove back when the weather gets warm enough that we can actually hang out outside for extended periods of time. I mean, I guess we can do that now.. but I just get cold and then mad because I am cold and go inside.

SCORE!

This afternoon, during the final soccer game of the winter indoor season, and after two years playing soccer, Noah scored his first goal.

His buddy and teammate Logan passed the ball to Noah who was standing in front of the goal and Noah simply kicked it in. I screamed and clapped. Noah looked up at me and I gave him a huge smile and two thumbs up from across the court. For a small moment I saw excitement but then he reeled it back in, crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked away from me as if to say, "Eh.. it's all in a day's work."

That's Noah- embarrassed when people are paying attention to him.

When the game was over, he ran to the sideline where I was standing with my hand in the air to high-five him. He smacked my hand, raised one eyebrow and half rolled his eyes while saying (as if he were an 80-year-old man outside the general store commenting on the weather), "Yeah, I just decided enough of this nonsense, this is the last game and I am scoring a goal no matter what."

And that was that. The game was over and Noah had scored his first goal. His mother was ecstatic. His coach was congratulatory, our neighbors were happy for him and he was totally unmoved by the whole thing.

Later, though, he began to feel comfortable with his accomplishment and by the time we got home, I was instructed to call all of the grandparental figures in Texas so that he could tell them of his feat.

Congratulations, my boy- my sweet, tiny old man.

Even if I am embarrassing you.

Passive Aggressive Letter to the Dog

Dear Dog,

In the future, if you decide to try and sneak into my room after I fall asleep, perhaps you should try and not be so flatulent. Just sayin'. You are sooo busted!

Signed,

The Person Who Cannot Possibly Sleep Through that Sound/Smell and Who Also Wonders What in Sweet Caroline's Name You Have Been Eating

I'm Going Through the Big "D" and Don't Mean Dallas

I don't mean divorce either, I mean DEPLOYMENT. That's a big enough D, dontcha think?

Okay- so I haven't updated you in awhile. I was all gung-ho and let's make this deployment fun and then we all got sick, and then got better and then got sick again and the wind is out of my sails and well, I'm lazy.

Unfortunately, I have also been lazy about taking pictures of what we have not been doing. I am sure you would love to see a photo of us all lying near-comatose on couches staring, napping and drooling, but alas, I did not capture that- as exciting as it was.

Okay, first we will start off with Valentine's Day. I did what I do best (ahem, copy other people's ideas off the internet) and copied THIS idea because it was adorable and so, so easy! And, incidentally, that blog in general is full of great ideas.




On Valentine's Day, we had pancakes for dinner. The kids were delighted that I added food coloring and we had pink pancakes. Okay- Zoe was delighted, Noah was perturbed, but I assured him they tasted the same and no one had to know he ate pink pancakes. At least, that is, until now when I decided to tell the whole world about it.



I also got a few photos (albeit terrible ones with my point-and-shoot that completely up and died after this) of Zoe's Tumble Tots class. She insists on wearing the tutu every week. I don't know. I just don't argue.







I only half-heartedly decorated for Saint Patrick's Day. I just downloaded and printed a fabulous print from the same blog where I got my Valentine card idea. and added some green M&M's to a candy jar. Nothing spectacular. I can't wait to decorate for spring.




Speaking of spring...look-y what greeted me this morning in my flower bed:




Weeeeeeeee! It's a promising start!

And lastly, I have a small rant. They told us when Zoe started preschool not to dress them in nice dresses and such, because they play and are going to get dirty. They paint, color, stamp, cook and do everything that makes a mess and I get that. For that reason, when one of Zoe's nice Gymboree shirts comes home with a stain, I don't get angry. The stain is usually around the sleeve from ink or paint, and usually with a little diligence will come out. I expect these things. HOWEVER... I am not sending my child to school in dirty, old stained clothing. I'm just not that person. I want her to look nice. But, honestly, if she keeps coming home like she did the other day, I don't know what to do. I can't afford to keep buying her new clothes. There was no way I could get this out ( I am not even sure what it is) and there is absolutely no chance she will wear this out of the house again. (and sadly, that was one of my favorite shirts) But, seriously, WHAT where they doing? I mean.... COME ON?




Happy Not-Quite-Spring-But-I-Am-Going-To-Pretend-It-Already-Is-For-My-Own-Sanity-Now-Please-Don't-Burst-My-Bubble ! (Do you think that would fit on a Hallmark card?)

I am linking this up with Wordful Wednesday over at parenting BY dummies. (and incidentally- Amanda from parenting BY dummies is more than just a bloggy celebrity now, she is a full-on celebrity as she was featured on TLC's What Not to Wear last night! You can head over to her blog right now where she posts the behind-the-scenes photos and tells you all about it!)