Blue Eyed Boy

I don’t know how it keeps happening, but we keep producing blue eyed boys. (and it appears Samuel’s eyes are going to be blue as well).

I admit that I’ve always kind of wanted one of our sons to be the spitting image of his father. Brown eyed. Brown haired. And drop dead gorgeous.

Okay, so my boys don’t need to be quite that good looking (I’m so not looking forward to fending off the females in the years to come!!) But still, I love the dark hair and dark eyes, and would love for my boys to follow after their daddy.

And they do.

In so many ways they are their fathers sons. The smiles. The expressions. The way they walk. Talk. Gesture.

But…

There are no brown eyes like their daddy’s here.

Oh goodness, aren’t his eyes just so blue?

 

*sure wish we’d wiped lunch off his face before snapping these beauties. Nuts.

A doozy of a day

Yep it’s been a doozy

It’s my birthday today. I’ve been blessed with twenty nine years of wonderful life. And it’s been a great and wonderful and beautiful day.

Only it didn’t start that way. In fact, it started quite the opposite. Let me go back to this early (early early) this morning.

It’s 5am and I’m awakened by a piercing yell of my dear little Noah. At first I roll over and try to ignore. Wrapped up in a happy dream of beaches and waves on the shore. Maybe Nick will get up with him, I think. But then I realize that Nick’s not home. And not going to be home again for quite awhile. I feel sadness as the realization of his absence hits me. And even sadder as the yelling doesn’t stop for the room next door. And sadder still when I remember today is supposed to be a special day. It’s my birthday.

I stumble out of bed to check on Noah, soothe him back to sleep, and tip toe out of his room, just hoping that I’ll be able to catch a few more minutes of shut eye before my alarm goes off at 6.

But I can’t sleep. I want to, but I’m stuck in the tossing turning almost awake, but almost asleep state of unrestful rest. My one year old keeps squawking now and then too, so each time I drift off, I’m awoken again. Finally I just get up.

As Noah smacks away on his morning bottle, I pull out my bible and try to get a few moments of quiet devotion in before the other boys wake up. But I’m cranky now too. And struggling to be grateful and focused in my prayer and reading time. And before I really get anywhere with my reading, I hear the other two boys wake up and not two pleasant words were exchanged between them before the fighting began.

Sigh oh sigh sigh sigh.

It’s my birthday. Can’t we all just get along? And be happy all day?

Josh woke up on the wrong side of bed. He realized a toy wasn’t in his bed, and worse, he found it in Isaiah’s hands. Whining and fighting, followed by more fighting and whining. Josh cannot get it together. Every word from his mouth is filled with rebellion and contrariness. My sweet and tenderhearted boy struck with a case of Mr Grumpy’s. And the hardest part? Disciplining consistently and training kids to obey regardless of how they feel, to follow God’s commands whether we feel like it or not. Whether we miss daddy or not. Whether we got enough sleep or not. Whether we have the prized toy or not.

So while I’m dishing out discipline right and left, Noah is playing with my cell phone and calls far and distant friends in far and distant time zones, and I begin receiving worried phone calls from elderly friends and formers pastors, “I got 3 calls from your number early this morning, is every thing okay?? We’ve been worried”

Meanwhile, Isaiah dumps out several board games and all their pieces in his bed, and then while trying to recover a lost cherry from Hi-Ho-Cheerio, he rips a page of his favorite book and dissolved into traumatized tears.

And what do I do? Oh competent accomplished sophisticated mother that I am?

I just sit down on the floor and laugh. I laughed and laughed and laughed. The boys said, “Mom!?!?!? What are you laughing for?” and between guffaws and giggles, I say, “It’s either laughing or crying, Guys!!”

And it was. Cause oh boy, I could have cried up a storm. It’s my birthday and my husband just left. It’s my birthday and there’s no birthday greetings whispered in my ear first thing this morning. There are no birthday kisses left on my lips. And it’s Labor day, and there’s no special packages or cards or boxes waiting to be delivered by a mailman on a National holiday. No mail at all. No Fed Ex or UPS either. It’s my birthday, and my kids aren’t old enough to bake me a cake, or buy and wrap gifts. It’s my birthday. My 29th birthday.  My last birthday in my 20’s. Oh boy, it really really was LAUGH. Or CRY.

But I was able to laugh. God gave me the grace, the joy, the love, the patience… to laugh. To laugh at my boys. And life. And my situation. Oh and a merry heart makes good like medicine.

It was just what I needed too, because as we headed to the breakfast table, the meltdowns continued. Josh had to be excused from the table 3 times because he couldn’t keep it together (literally crying over spilled milk). I found myself waiting and wishing for Nick to call, knowing that he would try so hard to call on my birthday. Only to go grab my phone and realize that he had called. Twice.

AND MY SILLY PHONE WAS ON VIBRATE so I didn’t hear it and didn’t get it and totally missed my one opportunity to talk with my hubby.

Sigh. Major big-time. I shed a few tears over this one, I admit. Nuts!!

We finish breakfast and devotions and I load the dishes into the dishwasher, with my trusty Noah helper (and dishwasher unloader) by my side. And then I hear it. Gail's of glee from the back of the house. I head back to check on my boys, who had literally been left alone for 5 minutes, and find my bedroom door closed. Sigh.

I open the door to see two little naked boys jumping on my bed. “Where are your clothes?,” I ask. “We took them off, and put them in a pile, and then peed on them!!!” is the cheerful response.

And I laugh. I laugh so hard, so long, so purely and blissfully, I almost had to add my clothes to the pile of peed on laundry.

Oh what a morning. Not the birthday morning, I’d anticipated, but as my mom suggested, a very very memorable birthday in birthday history.

The rest of the day went (relatively) smoothly from there, and was filled with phonecalls and texts and emails and Facebook posts that delighted my heart all day. And as I was going down the grocery store aisles this afternoon, I wished out loud that Nick would be able to call again. No sooner had the words left my lips, when my phone rang. And it was Nick. And were able to talk for a few minutes before we hurried off to soccer practice.

Then tonight, a handful of girlfriends came over and cheered my spirits so completely, I can’t even express. We fellowshipped long and freely and enjoyably. And we ate birthday cake like crazy. I was showered with love and gifts and made to feel so special.

And here at the end of the day, I’m truly able to look back on the days events and praise God for every moment of it. And even more so, to remember the past twenty nine years that I’ve enjoyed and to say, God is good. The ups and downs, the joys and trials, the good, the bad, the ugly. God is good.

Pride

This past weekend, we were able to watch Nick perform his paratrooping skills again. Many of his jumps are at night, and many of them have follow-on missions, so we are not able to see him jump very often.

But when we are able to go… boy do we love it!. And I’m pretty sure Nick loves to jump for us. I don’t think I saw a frowning face from anyone that whole morning. Or if I did, I just chose to ignore them. Wink wink.

It’s hard to describe the feelings I have inside as I watch Nick jump. Fear. Anxiety. Joy. Patriotism. Amazement.

My breath always catches when I see the first paratrooper exit the plane… and I pray until I see the last one jump and all the parachutes open.

And just like the crew on chute detail, I’m thankful to count out the reserve parachutes… and to note that not a single one was needed.

But I think the biggest emotion that fills my heart is pride.

Huge, overwhelming, all-encompassing, pride.

My husband is a paratrooper and fearlessly jumps out of planes; ready and willing to serve our country at a moments notice.

Wow.

Guess I’m not the only one who thinks Daddy is amazing.

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Q-tips

Four little, five little, six little Q-tips…

Seven little, eight little, nine little Q-tips…

But just ONE little Q-tip boy!

 

And for the record, it was more than 10 little Q-tips. More like 750 of them.

Why do they make such big packages of  Q-tips anyway? Sigh. Being the frugal gal that I am, I shoved the Q-tips all back into the container despite the protests of my husband and insisted that we use them anyway.

What’s the big deal? I asked him. There’s nothing wrong with using wet, sucked on, lint covered Q-tips.

Wordless Wednesday

The kind of male bonding that every mother hopes for: a dad with his sons.

Join the Wordless Wednesday Fun

Paratrooper

This morning the boys and I had the honor of coming to watch Nick's first jump with his (airborne) unit. He just finished Airborne school last week, so it was a great stroke of providence that he was able to do a jump so soon after the schooling. (He did 5 jumps at school, so this was not his "first" jump, just his first jump with his own unit since graduating with his wings)

I am SO glad that we were able to see Nick in action. It was truly breathtaking to see it all happen. I can't express how proud I am of my husband! He is simply amazing.

The soldiers ready to board the plane and make the first fly over

The plane flew off, turned around, and then came back to make the first pass. It was so amazing and exhilarating (and scary!!) to see the first soldier jump.

The boys were awe struck when the saw the soldiers leap out of the plane. We all started screaming and cheering when we saw the first parachute open. Wow!!

Nick is somewhere in the middle

Nick after a safe jump and landing

Proud family picture with our paratrooper! Yay Nick! We are so proud of you!

Oh what a man

Yesterday, my husband came home from work with these:

and these:

(yes, those are Lindt truffles)

It was such a thoughtful thing for him to do. I was having a bit of an "off" day (just a few more pregnant weeks left!) was feeling unproductive and discouraged. Shouldn't I start nesting soon, and have all these spurts of energy and times of great productivity?? My husband's loving gesture and encouraging words were just what I needed.

In fact, today has been amazing! By God's grace

I woke up before the boys, felt completely rested and had time to pray and exercise in peace.

I cleaned the fridge, reorganized the freezer, made 2 lasagnas and cleaned the kitchen (twice).

I swept (twice), cleaned the spare bedroom and put fresh linens on the guest bed.

I updated my blog (yes, I think thats 4 new posts??), responded to long lost emails and mailed some important mail.

I prayed and did my devotions.

I played with the boys for hours and was able to take them outside (!!!) to play for the first time in a long time (it was 50 degrees out today!! Of course with the wind chill it was only 30, but oh well, the sun was shining!!)

All this to say, if you have the chance to do something thoughtful and considerate for another person, do it. It is one of the best feelings to know that you are loved. It lifts a mood. It makes your heart smile. It's the best.

Watching for Dad

One of the boys latest pastimes is pushing their toy bins up to the front window, standing on their tip toes, and watching for anything exciting to happen. Sometimes they look at the neighbors, (hee hee!!) or at the snow falling, but today it was all about Daddy.

They spotted his car long before he was even close to the house and let out cheers of excitement and glee, "It's Daddy!!" "Daddy!!" They watched anxiously as Nick parked the car, gathered his things and then headed towards the front door. Daddy was home and boy were these boys glad to see him.

Daddy was pretty excited to see his boys too. And who can doubt it, when you are greeted at the door with this kind of attention? May the days never end when our children delight in our presence!! How wonderful to be eagerly waited for; to hear their squeals of pleasure as you open the door; to be smothered with hugs and kisses; to be asked how your day was and to hear detailed stories about theirs...these childhood days are so precious.

A salute to my soldier

For the truth you stand for

For the lives you've saved

For the battles you've fought

For the sacrifices you've made

For proudly wearing the uniform and standing up for what is good and right and true:

I love you.

For the times you held my hand

For the life you have given me

For the times you wiped my tears,

For the truth you made me see

For the day you gave me your heart, your love, your life and said, "I do"

I love you.

For all those times you loved me when I was so unlovable
For all the times you listened and encouraged
I love you.
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For all those times you hugged me, when I was busy crying over milk that had spilled
I love you.

For the children you've given me, both on this earth and yet unborn
I love you.
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For all these things and so many more
thank you, my dear husband, you are what I waited for.
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Thank you for being all that you are and for doing all that you do
I love you.

26.2

It doesn't seem that impressive until you add the word "miles"


Yes, 26.2 miles. A marathon.


And now my husband has run two of these 26.2 mile races just this year. His first marathon was in Iraq of all locations. During Nick's second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was able to participate in a Boston Marathon sponsored race for soldiers. In Iraq. That last part still amazes me.

His second marathon was much closer to home. It took place in Kansas City, MO. Obviously, the race was much different from the first in location, conditions, and climate-- but they still both involved a grueling 26.2 miles.

The best part of the run (for me anyway!!) was there at the finish line. I stood waiting for my husband to come running across. Perhaps you will think it silly, but I stood there with tears in my eyes. I couldn't help it. For a military wife who has been through so much waiting and anticipation, all the same emotions of pride, joy, and amazement came flooding in. Of course a marathon isn't the same as a 15 month deployment, but I felt every bit as proud of my husband at that moment. He had trained hard. He had worked hard. And now had reached the culmination of all the months of effort-- he had finished the big race and had finished well. I'm so glad that we were there to greet him at the end!

The boys were proud too. And they seized the opportunity to congratulate daddy as soon as he got down to stretch. Too cute. :)

Appreciation

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. And today, I was appreciated in a very thoughtful way by my dear husband. He really is a romantic at heart and goes out of his way to do sweet things for me.


After getting the boys up and dressed this morning, we came downstairs for breakfast. I got the boys seated at the table and quickly fixed their cereal. When I pulled out the cereal box a note fell out of the cupboard.

When we finished breakfast, I opened the Bible Story Book (by Catherine Vos) and did morning devotions with the boys. As I was reading I noticed there was another book mark in the pages. It was another note.

After smiling my cheeks off at the thought of my dear husband, we went out on a brisk morning walk. Then I loaded the boys into the car, still smiling away, and we headed off to the commissary and did our grocery shopping for the week. Using our well planned menu and shopping list, I found some great deals/coupons on the things we needed and was also able to buy a few splurges (like some good quality cheese for fondue) too. Best of all, I was able to restock on all the fruits and veggies AND stay below our weekly grocery budget! Nice!

When we got home from the commissary (and the library for story hour and seeing Nick) I unpacked the car, made lunch, and started putting away groceries while the boys ate. When I opened the spice cupboard, I discovered another note at eye level.

So yes, today my husband showered me with thankful recognition and gratitude for the role I play in our home. He wanted me to know that he was thankful for all that I do each day... and while I think I already know how much he appreciates me, today he MADE SURE I knew.

Sometimes it seems the best thing we can do for a loved one is to make sure they know how much we care. It's easy to take them for granted... to not think about the work they do... or care about the challenges they face... or even to be too proud to say, "thank you" because they never say it back. But let's not be selfish. A little appreciation goes a long way. As my husband's did for me today. :) My face aches from smiling so much. :) :)

Oh so sweet

My morning started out quite hectic.

Boys up at the crack of dawn (literally in the 6 o'clock hour).

Spilled milk and cereal at breakfast.

Dirty dishes in sink.

Then out for a quick walk/run through neighborhood.

Directly into car after exercise.

Off to run errands.

Then to the commissary. Longest lines ever. Apparently pay-day equals long lines (do that many people really live pay check to pay check?? Wow!!).

Cranky kids while waiting in line.

Rushing to get to story hour on time.

Running late.

No parking at the library.

Circle.

Circle.

Arg! Still no parking.

3rd circle.

See a soldier standing in front of library holding Starbucks.

Soldier approaches vehicle.

Realize that soldier is none other than Captain Daddy!!

Daddy hands Mommy the Starbucks treat.

Unbuckles boys and brings them into story hour.

I drink an iced coffee and get a few minutes of quiet while parking the car a mile away. But better than the Starbucks or the peace and quiet... I have an amazing husband who is always thinking of me. He got out of class early, and instead of doing his own thing, he drives to the only Starbucks in town, buys my favorite drink, and meets me at story hour. Yep, he's a keeper. :)

Hanging out with Daddy

I just love these pictures.