Josh's short trip

It was amazing to have Josh home even if it was for a short period of time. I can't imagine doing what he does, I have the boys and my friends and family. He has his soldiers and guns. I sleep in a comfortable bed for 8-9 hours a night. He is constantly on different missions and getting sometimes no sleep at all.

He is an outstanding man and what a great father. The boys absolutely adore him. I am glad he was able to come home even for a brief period of time. I will miss him this year and wait for him to hurry home to me.

It's great to be 8

Cregan turned eight on Friday, he was super excited. He turned 8 and got to have his dad home for his birthday. Josh flew in on Wednesday night very late and left on Sunday. On Cregan's birthday, Josh and he went shopping just the two of them he got this SWAT outfitand then, we all went to Chuck E. Cheese. We tried convincing him of going to the Olive Garden and a movie but nope... it was Chuck E. Cheese all the way. He had a blast playing games and getting tokens and then picking out the presents he wanted, after that we went to Steak and Shake and got milkshakes. It was a fun evening.The next morning was busy, like most of my Saturdays are now. First, Clay and Collin went to the church for practice on the Primary Program and then rushed home to get Josh and Collin and take them to soccer game and then back to the church to pick up kids and set up the church for Cregan's baptism!!

At 2pm, we had a double baptism for Cregan and our friends son Andrew. It was such a fun and spiritual baptism. Andrew's brother gave an outstanding talk on baptism. Bob (Cregan's grandfather) baptized him and then Tanya (my sister in law) talked on the Holy Ghost. I was so happy with how it turned out.

After the baptism, we had an ice cream bar in the gym and the kids were all jacked up on sugar so that was a lot of fun as well!

Soccer

I recently signed up Cregan for soccer with 3 of my other friends that I go to church with. And it feels great to have this huge cheering section at every game, all of us cheering for each others kids and bundling up against the frigid dropping temperatures.... They are the Crew and now I wanna take him and the boys to a soccer game in to see the Columbus Crew.... we shall see about that.

But I'm pretty lucky to have such great friends that are there for me while Josh is gone and ask if I need help with getting the chairs outta the back of the van, or ask if Cregan needs a ride to practice. I should have done sports like this years ago.... live and learn

When Josh came home from training for a week and a 1/2 we decided to do not much as far as going on vacation, seeing as we had been vacation like 3 times.... So for the first couple of day, we just hung out together and then 4 days before leaving, he decided to paint the outside of the house. Of course, we fought about the colors because we fight about everything that goes into the house, see here to read more about that.

I thought the colors were too dark and that it wouldn't look right. I... was... wrong...

And although we rushed to get the front and the back and it rained for a few days oh and I stained the front porch during this time as well...! It was not as difficult, like I thought it would be. All in all it turned out nice, and tons better than the eye sore we had before

Pirate Party

Here's a belated post about our friend down the street Andrew. He turned 8 recently and had a pirate party on the Santa Maria downtown.

The kids all got dressed up as pirates and went to the boat for a private party, it was loads of fun and included a treasure hunt and sword fighting

Another year away

Josh left last Sunday, ironically on September 11th, for active duty in the Army. He's National Guard unit will be attached to a unit in Afganistan in a few months and he'll be there for a year. It's really hard having him go, he is such a help with the kids and frankly being a single mom sucks... but it's more than that... I will just miss him...

On Monday we went to a wonderful closing cermony, the speakers (and there were plenty) did outstanding jobs. Tanya (Josh's sister) and her kids came up too and after the ceremony we all went out to eat. It was a lot of fun sitting there laughing and talking.
And as I sat there and looked around trying to take my own mental photograph, a thought came to my mind, I was going to be OK this time. My kids are a little bigger, and that small difference will be huge. When Josh left for Iraq the kids were 2, 4, and 7 and now are 5, 7 and 10. That's a huge difference...


It won't make him being gone any less painful, but easier? Maybe, I don't know yet... I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Collin

My baby turned 5 today!! We are celebrating his birthday until his daddy comes home from training but I am so excited for him. Everyday for the past 2 weeks, he would wake, put both of his chubby fingers on my face and say "my birthday is today?", so when I woke him up this morning and told him today was his birthday, he was beyond himself with joy, he screamed and squeeled for a good 5 minutes!!

The cutest thing he did today was as we were sitting in church, he says with news bent down, I look like a 4 year and then he would pop his legs back to normal and say, now I"m a 5 year old... a friend suggested I should put him on a chair and say now your a 13 year old... but I don't think he would get the humor..

NCLEX

When I graduated nursing school I knew the journey was not complete yet, I knew I had to pass the state boards before I was a "real nurse". Unlike many of my friends, I didn't take the boards right away, I really wasn't in that big of a hurry to find a job, but wanted to spend the summer with the kids and Josh. We did a lot this summer, beach twice... King's Island ... and numerous trips to the movies... but one thing I consistently did all summer was study.

I felt if I had a spare minute, I should be studying. If the kids were by the pool, I should be studying. If the computer was on and I'm on facebook, I was also on a website, taking practice quizes... all ...summer... long....

The day finally arrived, I had a 2pm appointment. The minimum number of questions are 75 and the max is 265, you have up to 6 hours to take the test. And because it is computurized, the questions will get progressively get more difficult the better you do.

SO I go in, take the test and come out in 45 minutes! I got the minimum amount of questions and a lot of EKG strips and select all that apply questions. I felt there was a slim chance I actually passed... but here's the thing - this whole summer, I never would study a particular part in my books, I just couldn't get it.. I couldn't grasp the content, therefore, I skipped it... the day before the test, as I sat with a friend, I specifically said let's go over this, I feel like I really need to know it. She and I went over it but said it probably won't be on there when I couldn't get it after several times of going over it...I still felt prompted to study it, so I did that night and the day of the test...
THE TEST WAS FULL OF THAT MATERIAL! Thank heaven I listened to the still small voice prompting me to study the particular information! I would have not done as well, but I did do well and now I am a NURSE!!

Don't mess with an abscess..

Clay started complaining about his tooth on a Friday night, he had a friend over so I thought at first it was an excuse because he was overly tired. As the night progressed on later and later, I realized two things, 1. he was in pain, and 2. he had a good set of lungs... after pain meds, he finally fell to sleep. The next day, we got numbing stuff and temporary filling stuff at Kroger and I hoped I could fill the suspected lost filling and he's pain would subside until Monday.
But here's the thing... there was no lost filing... oh jeez.. it was a cavity I thought, well, he was going to have to wait until Monday with a cavity and brush better. So we had meds on Saturday every 6 hours and went to bed, around 3am Clay came into my room complaining about his mouth and it looked like this....

I kinda freaked a little bit and wondered what to do... gave him meds, and waited for a decent time to call my friend who's brother in law is a dentist. He (the dentist) saw Clay at church 1st thing on Sunday and confirmed it was an abscessed tooth... we started antibiotics and got his tooth pulled out the next day, what a mess...

Apparently when you get a cavity and then a loose tooth, that infection goes into your mouth and causes a lot of pain, it can be serious and go systemic too, scary, scary, scary....

Emerson

Both boys are at Emerson Elementary this year, and although I'm totally psyched about it, Clay needed some convincing that this was for the best. Clay has been going to his elementary from grade K and had a lot of friends. But I knew this magnet school was better academically and that the school was smaller so there is a lot of opportunity for more fun.

Cregan went to Emerson last year and I couldn't believe how much homework he had in comparison to Clay's 3rd grade. Having written that though, Cregan was reading and doing math that Clay wasn't doing until 2nd grade. Plus, my friends Sophie and Missi have there kids in school there and I love that if I need a backup, they are there for me.

Clay, met his teacher and looked at his class and still wasn't convinced, that was until the teacher said, oh and you need a flash drive for all your projects to do at home... wow, he's face lit up and he was eager from then on... plus the 1st day of school the 4th graders beat the 5th graders at football...