The Bigger Picture

I mentioned way back in my September and November Photo Re-Cap posts the big project that David had been working on for the kids. The project was completed in November but to this day I had never even taken pictures of the whole thing. So without further ado here is the whole thing, designed and built one step at a time by my amazing, talented, loving husband (with a little help from my own dear Dad too).

The kids absolutely love it and use it almost every day. Between the swings, the sandbox, the upper deck & bridge (which is often used as a spaceship, pirate ship, picnic area, or class room), the ball chute, the movable stepping stone path (made from slices of the pine Dad helped us cut down), the occasional visiting lizard or interesting bug... There is always something fun. I think they are incredibly lucky kids to have a Dad who would build such an awesome play place for them!

By the way, I never really know what to call this thing.. playhouse, treehouse, swingset?? Any ideas?

Also, I'm not sure why but our dog insisted on standing in front of me for every picture. I took the top picture 4 times before he moved out of the way.

The Missing "Moving" Pictures

I mentioned that I didn't seem to have any photos of the actual moving process, but as I browsed the files I did find this compilation of iphone photos...

We made a special trip to IKEA in Texas to buy some goods for the new house in NC, we knew the IKEA here was 3 hours away and decided it would be easier to put the stuff we already wanted in a trailer and take it with us.


Final cleaning of the empty house, and we already had renters ready to move in, yay!


Heading out! I drove the car, Dave in the Trailblazer with the trailer, one kid in each vehicle to keep the peace. We also invested in two portable DVD players for the 3 day drive. They worked so well, it was so quiet in the car I got really bored with no one to talk to!

Pit stop! Finally made it out of Texas.


My lively passenger.


After 3 very long days, we finally, finally made it. We had our wonderful friends here ready with our guest beds. The kids literally stripped down and jumped in the pool with their friends within 5 minutes of pulling in the driveway. Freedom!


After a wonderful night's sleep in a real home we had to hurry and meet our movers the very next day! Did I mention we hadn't even closed on the house yet... oh and we hadn't even seen it in person either! We did go and peek from the outside the night we arrived, then had to get special permission to get the key before all the papers were signed. I stayed at the house with the movers, Dave went to sign the papers, then the realtor brought the papers to me to finish signing while many boxes had already been moved in.

This mess was courtesy of Diego... I had asked him to throw the two boxes out the door. He took some liberty and threw whatever else he felt like too.

Thirty (30)

David turned 30 this week! As usual, the Army had him away from home on the big day but we were able to celebrate 4 days early, and with the Army sometimes "close" is good enough.

I treated him to a few of his favorite meals over the weekend (homemade enchiladas and grilled steak) then everyone's favorite chicken tacos on Tuesday night followed by the birthday cake. He chose yellow cake with chocolate frosting (homemade of course!) and I surprised him with 3 layers of frosting inside.

His gift from me: A 1966 Charles Hubbell Lithograph "Whirlybird Delivery. Boeing Vertol CH-47A Helicopter." He now flies the CH-47F model and yes he loved it. I have since gotten it framed but I had to special order the acid free matting and it wasn't ready in time for this day.

Happy Birthday honey, we love you!!

16 of 52

Best week ever! David finally returned from his second year-long deployment to Iraq. My friend Beth came with us to the Welcome Home Ceremony and took some amazing photos for us. Enjoy!

We're so excited!

I always get interviewed by the news crew!

Saying hi to the 1st Cav horses.The buses are coming!!!
We got him! Now let's go HOME.

This says it all...

My wonderful friend Beth volunteered to take our homecoming photos today and I gladly accepted! There will be more to follow.

Waiting...

...and waiting... and waiting. So it's that time, it has been a year. 52 weeks. 365 days and counting... My dear husband has completed his second deployment to Iraq, served our country well, is ready to return home but all we can do is wait. He is waiting, we are waiting. We've been waiting since the beginning of the week when he took his aircraft to port and proceeded to the "Camp" where he would begin the wait for his flight home. Unfortunately, returning from the Middle East is nothing like returning from Disney World. You don't hop in a cab, plane ticket in hand, go through security and jump on your given flight. That would be much too easy and straightforward. Instead we wait and wait and wait some more, we wait for a phone call saying "your soldier should be on his way within 72 hours" then we wait for a call that says "you soldier should be on his way in 24 hours" and then finally a call saying "the plane is in the air, your soldier is on it" and if by chance that flight doesn't come upon any other delays between there and here they will finally be on their way home!

We got to the point of "your soldier should leave in 24 hours", they gave us a day and a time and a place to meet them and where to park. I jumped in on the cleaning and announced to the kids "Daddy will be home tomorrow!" and told Cali to mark off the rest of the days on her chart except for the #1. Well, low and behold I receive a text message, a facebook message, and even a phone call from my dear husband himself all confirming that yet again we will wait. Everything has been postponed by 24 hours, at the least. He told me that at least they found beds for them to sleep in (after 18 hours of sitting on hard chairs) and they were able to take showers and shave although they've already taken their bags away and all they have is their carry-ons.

As if waiting a whole year to have your husband back home, your kids' Daddy back home, isn't bad enough... this last week can really be a mess!

In the meantime, the kids have the first part of our "Welcome Home" sign all painted.

Happy Birthday

Just wanted to wish my dearest husband a very Happy Birthday today and do what I can to send my love across all those miles. I love you forever Davey.

39 of 52

Finally, the moment we'd all been waiting for. After four days of travel, Daddy finally arrived home to spend "Christmas" with us.

*************************************************************************************
Are you the Mom who's always taking pictures and look back only to realize you aren't IN any of them? Do your kids look through photo albums and ask "Where were you Mommy?" Well, Carin over at Forever in Blue Jeans decided to change all that and challenges any one who's interested to do the same. So hand over the camera, or at least figure out the self-timer and get on the other side of the lens more often. Post your photos of you enjoying time with your family every Thursday and share the link with other Mom's by posting it on Carin's blog. You can start any time with week 1 of 52, don't worry about being "behind" just jump on in.

That's MY Daddy??

Finally at 630 am I got a call from Atalanta, he was on standby for a morning flight into our regional airport! After breakfast and all I finally told the kids that today was "Christmas Eve" and that Santa had called to tell me that we need to go somewhere and pick up a present that was too big for him to fit in the Sleigh. It worked so well! I never said "airport" but when we got there Cali looked out and said "why are there runways here?" So I said well the present has to come on a plane. After about 30 minutes of some seriously excited kids (and myself!) waiting as patiently as possible here he came...



Right after I turned the video off D started saying "That's MY Daddy?? That's MY Daddy??" It was the cutest ever. We came straight home for lunch and to play a little. Now its naptime and tonight will finally be our "Christmas Eve"!

Still Waiting...

Thank you for all the nice comments, but alas I am still waiting! And once again I have no idea where in the world he might be at this time. At least today we went out and about and didn't stay holed up inside. We went to a couple stores, I worried about people asking "how was your Christmas" and yes two people did ask at Sam's Club. Very nice people, too nice, but luckily the kids weren't paying attention and I quickly said "no, no, no we didn't have Christmas yet" and tried to whisper to them why. Later in the day we went for a walk to the park and Cali spotted a Christmas tree out by the curb. Yikes! We had a conversation like this...

C: Why is their tree outside?
Me: Umm.... maybe its broken.
C: No, trees don't break.
Me: Well.... maybe their cat peed on it.
C: Eww yuck.
Me: Yeah, and now its all smelly.
C: Maybe they had a new little puppy and it peed on the tree.
Me: Oh yeah, that's true puppies like to pee on trees.
C: What if the puppy is in a box and it has to pee?
Me: That's a good question...

And then we were past the tree and we had changed the subject. Phew!

Waiting

Today was a very strange day for me, to say the least. You see I am waiting for someone. Someone much more exciting than Santa Claus. Someone the kids and I have not seen for over 8 months. We've celebrated birthdays, enjoyed an entire summer of swim lessons and new water parks, gone on a 2 week vacation, had multiple out-of-state visitors, Cali has started school and continued to learn new things in gymnastics, D has gone from speaking single words to holding entire conversations, we've had doctor visits and vet visits and car troubles... And today of all days, the 25th of December, he is supposed to be en route back home to us. It's only a visit for now, two weeks of R&R. The kids have absolutely no idea he is on the way.

I spent last night asking strangers to please not mention it was actually Christmas Eve. I spent today convincing myself as best I could it wasn't really Christmas. Because this year, lucky for me, the kids are not old enough to read calendars or realize what day it really is. I can push it back, I can simply not mention what day it is and they won't even notice. The plan is to go get him when we can, then that day will be Christmas Eve. They'll leave the plate of cookies, the artwork Cali has made for Santa, the carrots for the reindeer and go to sleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. There are plenty of presents under the tree from relatives already, but Santa has yet to visit until the much bigger surprise can arrive.

For now I continue to wait. I wait with no idea when the arrival may actually be. The last I heard a word from him was two days ago. He could be anywhere right now. I was wishing earlier today I had something along the lines of those "Santa Trackers" everyone was watching last night.

Today while I tried to hold my excitement and anxiety and curiosity at bay, the kids went about as any normal day. Except we did stay inside, away from friends' houses full of newly opened presents. And I did my best to keep them (and myself) occupied. We worked on our gingerbread village, colored, watched a movie, decorated paper trees, made pizzas, watched another movie... All the while I couldn't keep my eyes from straying to the windows or the front door, couldn't help but peek out every time I thought I heard a noise outside. A part of me thought.. maybe he is trying to sneak up and surprise us rather than call from the airport. Even now as I type I keep muting my music when I think I hear a noise. It's almost worse than waiting for Santa... at least Santa has a set day and time to come!!

Daddy! Daddy!

9 Chinooks flying in formation. Not something you get to see every day. Actually we won't see any of them for quite awhile since these birds are all headed to Iraq for the next year.



Just after I shut off the video Cali asked "Mommy do you think Daddy could hear us?" He told me he was flying the one second from the back.