Back

My husband moved in with on Saturday.  It was all very trilling.  I went grocery shopping at 7:30 am we would have something to eat and so I wouldn't miss his probable early arrival. I figured after that I would clean the kitchen and vacuum the house.  Imagine my surprise when at 9 am while I still unpacking groceries I heard a car in my garage.  I found a tired look husband standing my doorway, he had started driving at 4.  I was ecstatic. My daughter was equally excited to find have daddy get her from her crib.  My son.. well I'm sure he was excited but he is pretty sullen, and you never can tell from his expressions.  Needless to say, I was glad I cleaned my room at 11 pm instead of assuming I could get it done in the morning, I really wasn't expected him before noon.
So the children and I have lived here for two months, my husband spent three weeks getting us moved and situated before he returned to school, he was gone for 5 weeks minus the 6 days he flew in to see us. I now a lot of people here for only living here for two months, so now people keep asking is he home?  Where is he what does he look like.  I told someone the other day, here he is he isn't imaginary.  Everyone here has been so helpful and supportive while he was gone.  At first I thought why are the making a big deal out of me?  This is military country people are use to spouses being gone for 6-12 months not, 5 weeks.  Then I realized, oh that is why, they realize how difficult life can get.

I haven't blogged much, because well, it seemed weird to blog about life without a husband. The kids got to the point that my five year old wanted to talk on the phone with his dad, but yet didn't seem to notice if he didn't talk to him for three or four days.  My daughter still daily asked "where daddy go"  but she no longer seemed to expect an answer.  She was just as happy to have fake conversations on her fake phone with  dad as to have real conversations on my phone.  In fact if she had a fake conversation that day she wouldn't talk that night.  Life became normal, and I now understand how single parenthood works.  I would hardly say 5 weeks is as hard, but always wondered how anyone could do it?  But now I understand like anything else, you just wake up and do it, and each day repeat.  Although I hardly think it was an ideal situation, I wasn't able to meet their needs like normal, and I also was being a poor substitute for a dad.  Brent wasn't around much during school, it was it was amazing how much he was around in comparison to living in a different state.  Anyway, we are all back together, the daily occurrences are maybe not so personal, so maybe I'll blog more.
Life is weird all together.  Last night we were out to dinner, when my daughter decided to take a nap on the floor, my husband took care of it, it was like some out of body experience. I really don't think I could describe how weightless I felt to realize I didn't have to wrestle my children 24 hours a day anymore. But yet life is hardly a vacation, my husband goes to work every morning, and I still have to grocery shop with both kids.  Its so miserable to shop with both of them.  My daughter threw a wicked fit today, to the point that everyone, I mean everyone even from aisles away were looking at us, I finally wrestled her into the basket and strapped her in, surprisingly she calmed down within 5 or so minutes.  I thought she was going to fight and scream the whole trip.  Yes, I still wrestle, but its nice to know in the evenings I have back up.  But honestly having back the second parent for my two parent household is really not the reasons I'm glad Brent is back.  I missed my bestfriend more than I missed the other parent.  If that makes sense.

Kids

Two stories:

My daughter was crying because she had spent about six hours in the car, with long breaks, and was sick of the last hour and half stay.  We were five minutes away from our house when I noticed a pink sunset horizon.  I said Nan, can you see the pink sky?  She stopped and laughed and said, nooo, blue!

Before the six hours my son hid a secret message under my husband's pillow, when we went to bed, I said oh, what is under your pillow?  He pulled out a very folded grocery store ad.  The top in big printed letters read, "Celebrate Dad".  My son can read, so he thought my husband would appreciate the Dad grocery store ad.  My son loves to peruse the food ads.

Around the Globe

My daughter was spinning the globe today.  I said where do you want to go?  She pointed to Indonesia.  I said good pick.  Then she said, Hoshy and pointed again, picking Eastern Europe.  Then she said Mama, and pointed to Latin America.  I complained saying why does everyone want me to go to Latin America?  I think she is ganging up with her daddy.

Stuff

Do you ever wish you had less stuff?  Wish you bought less?  Wish you careless about the things in your life?  Wish you wanted less? Had less furniture? (thats not me right now, I really want a guest bed) But seriously less stuff?  That would be nice, I guarantee that if we had less toys and less screen time my children would play more often with their toys.
This seems to be a recurring theme in my life... I don't know how many blog posts I've written and how many just sit in my head, but it is recurring.
Tonight I decided to blame it on my sister, she has written on envelopes for years, "Les is more" Subliminal I tell you, one day I might actually become a minimalism if she sends me enough birthday cards over the years. Although that is contradictory isn't it, enough birthday cards, les is more?!
Speaking of cards and my sister, I'm grateful we don't exchange mother's day cards. Les is more remember.  I think a call from me a few days later in a panic saying I didn't send you a card, and her calm response of nor did I, is a much more lovely tradition.
Less stuff, think about that this weekend.

p.s. junk mail, coupons, all of the above is the bane of my existence

Memorial Day Weekend

For memorial day weekend, Brent's oldest brother, sister in law and the four kids came to visit us.  It was terribly exciting to have guests in our new house.  I think all of you reading this should come visit.  They really came to go to my sister in law's nephew's wedding, so other than running around at 10 oclock playing pokemon, there wasn't much time during the three days they were here.  But we did get to go to Garden of the Gods together. We also went with my brother in law's friend, who knew my husband when he was about J's size.

Just for the record, you don't have scale rocks like a mountain goat when at Garden of the gods. Although its a family trait.  We have so many pictures of my husband on the top of red rocks. I'm sure my husband would have been sad he missed if except for the fact that he was scaling other red rocks with a backpack on.

Raspberry extravaganza

Last week was Raspberry Extravaganza at our house.  The local grocery store had them on sale for a $1 a package, I haven't seen them at that price since J was Nan's age.  I went planning to buy 20, they were advertised as 10 of 10.  But then they were in boxes of 12, 6 up top 6 below.  And since I was there first thing in the morning, had a busy day ahead of me, and had two whiny kids, I got confused.  I'll admit it, and I thought I was buying 18, in actuality I bought 36 packages.  So we ate a bunch, froze a bunch, and made jam.  Here is our jam adventures. Sadly enough I didn't realize how many I was buying until after I paid. I wondered why I was being charged so much.  Sometimes, I embarrass myself.

 "More" please

Don't worry she did the dishes after she made the jam.  So instead of cleaning up just raspberries, I also got to clean up the dishes.

Hi Daddy

Hi Daddy, Nan spent the first 10 minutes of the day talking about daddy.  She picked out her clothes and her bows all by herself, constantly talking about daddy and her clothes. 

Imagine that, my daughter after two and half years finally wants bows in her hair.  Always two, I had to trick her one sunday to only go with one large flower. Not to mention she needs a hair cut.