Goodbye Dear Friend, You Served Me Well

I have a hard time with change.

I realize the irony in this since I am a military spouse. But the fact is, I like consistency and things I can predict. Familiar. Comfortable.

I have had the same frames for my glasses for eight to ten years now.

I love those frames! Every time I have had my eyes checked and the sales-associate-of-the-day has tried to talk me into new frames, I have always talked him/her into just putting the new lenses in my old ones. I have tried on others, but I can't find any I like as much as mine. About two years ago, it was time, so I settled on new frames and kept my old ones as a backup. Less than two weeks after getting my new glasses, we went camping and I left my glasses lying on the table with my laptop where Zoe retrieved them and snapped them. I was upset at first. And then I was happy, because it meant I could wear my old frames. And as loose and crooked and old as they are, I have been happily wearing them since then.

That is, until this past Monday when my frames met a tragic demise. I took my glasses off when I put on my sunglasses and laid them on the console in the van. When we got to our destination, I could not find them. Noah said he remembered seeing them slide off the console while I was driving. I made him get out of his seat and look underneath all the seats and down by his and Zoe's seats. They were nowhere to be found. So, while we were stopped at Sonic, I got out of the van and opened his side and crawled around looking underneath the driver's seat and his seat and all in the third row. I crawled across and looked under the front passenger seat and Zoe's seat. I couldn't find them.

It was then that I walked around the van and pulled on the handle to Zoe's door. It's automatic and it began to slide open and I heard a very distinct "CRUNCH". I could feel the bile rising in my throat and the tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't even have to look. I knew they were gone. One lens crushed and the frame snapped in two. I had to sit down. I cried a little bit.

I mourned their loss all the way home and have mourned the rest of the week. This morning, I had an eye exam and picked out new frames. It wasn't the same. The new ones are okay, but they aren't MY frames. I feel as if I am dishonoring their memory by moving on with new shiny ones. I miss them.

Farewell my friends. I hope you are whole again in the great LensCrafters in the sky. Know that you are/were loved and are dearly missed.

Note: I won't have possession of the impostors for seven to ten business days. I will try and remember to take a picture when I receive them.

The Wardrobe Malfunction A.K.A Mommy's an Idiot

I sincerely hope that people don't look at my kids and think I am a terrible and neglectful mom. I do worry about these things and I try to keep my kids presentable most of the time. But, the truth is that sometimes I have those moments when I am just mortified and wonder what other people must think of me.

Every morning, I put clothes out for Noah and Zoe to wear to school. They both get dressed and I usually give Zoe the once-over to check her shoes. She tends to put them on backwards. She has gone to school and spent the entire day with her shoes on backwards. I was embarrassed then; but not nearly as embarrassed as I was today.

I picked Zoe up from school and we had our usual race down the sidewalk in front of the school. Just like any other day, I was winning until the last minute when Zoe managed to squeak by me and claim a victory for herself. And just like any other day, I then congratulated her and picked her up to put her in the van. As I buckled her in her car seat, something odd caught my eye-a rough seam. I did a double-take.

Astounded, I asked, "Zoe? Did you take your pants off at school today?"

"No?" she replied, somewhat perplexed.

"Were your pants like this all day at school?"

"Yeah, my just put them on at home and wear-ed them ALL day!" she proclaimed proudly.



Oh yeah.. I really did that. She wore her pants inside out all day long. Hurray for me!

The One-Two Punch

Noah came home with his spring pictures today and I have to say, they are the best pictures he has ever taken. I am so pleased with them.

But because I can never be totally satisfied with anything, I still have one complaint: my baby boy looks so grown up! I look at this and I see a BIG kid!

I voiced this complaint out loud to him and he responded with, "Yeah, and since we are talking about me being a big kid, I figure it's a good time to tell you that I am no longer going to call you, "Mommy", I will now be calling you, "Mom".

D'oh!!! It was like kicking me while I was down.

Great timing, Noah. I guess he is growing up... that is just like a man!

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