10/17 - Papa and Brad were here

So things have been very busy since I got back from Vegas visiting Brad. My dad stayed the whole next day which was great. The boys had a great time seeing him Aiden says to me in the van a few day after Papa left, "Papa likes to tease people." Aiden learned a lot about Papa while I was gone. :)








My sweet dad tried to help me change Aiden's bike tire. I bought a new tire for Aiden in Vegas because I couldn't find the size in Jax. It ends up it was still too big so I went to a proper bike shop (Open Road) and got the right size. I couldn't get the new tire on myself (I can do it on my road bike) so I ended up taking the wheel to the shop with me and they put the tire on the wheel. I get the tire back on the bike and the training wheels but I can't get the chain on. In fact, I can't even get to the chain because of the chain guard. A day or two later I take the bike to the store with me and they (after a lot of work from a very experienced guy) he gets the chain on. FOR FREE. They put the tire on the rim and then also put the chain on for free for me. That was awesomely nice.

A few days after I got home I promised Aiden I would go have lunch with him at school. He brought his poetry journal for me to see. I was so surprised. He is doing such a good job drawing things or at least trying. Before he was so scared to make a mistake or not know how to draw something that he wouldn't try so I love that he is being forced to at school. He even drew his stuffed animal Iggy and colored it. 

We went to Home Depot on the first Saturday of the month and made a plane. They had a helicopter fly in and Aiden wanted to sit in but Eli wanted nothing to do with it which was a little odd. The boys had fun and I finally got a new air filter for our main air conditioning unit in the house (it's a really weird size so I got stuff to make my own). They had police cars there but the boys didn't want to go see them because they kept making so much noise with the sirens. We were able to watch the helicopter take off and the boys thought that was pretty cool and very very windy. 

Awana just started at our church the 2nd weekend in October and the boys really wanted to do it so I signed them up. I love the Awana program but am not a fan that it is starting to late and the kids won't be able to finish what they need to this year to stay on track but I need to put aside my desire to finish things and embrace the big picture of the boys continuing to learn about God and how amazing He is. Here they are at church wanting me to take their pictures with the dinosaurs.  

The boys and I had been talking about doing karate or taekwondo. We finally went for it and tried this place that gave us free uniforms and 2 classes. The boys are enjoying it (Aiden more so than Eli) and I just signed them up for a month. I think Aiden enjoys the structure and Eli enjoys the activity but Eli doesn't care for all the rules and he wishes there were more than 2-3 water breaks in a 30 min class!! 

Karate Kid Aiden

Punching Eli

Aiden is already saying he wants to earn the yellow belt. We shall see. I just wanted them to be involved in something. It cracks me up that Eli keeps saying he wants to do soccer when the kid can't stand to walk and wants a water break every 5 min in taekwondo. When we go to the putt putt golf course the kid will run around the course for about 15-20 min straight though so maybe I should let him try it. 

Grandma Jo and Grandpa Dave sent Eli a birthday package a few days ago. Eli was really excited and loved all the stuff. (Look how he is holding that pen Rusty - he flips out if I try and correct him). Thanks grandma Jo and Grandpa Dave. Aiden loved his Brain Quest questions too and he even carries them around with him. 

Brad and I started talking at the beginning of last week and I said I would love for him to come home. Well, he came home. It was Change of Command at the training squadron and things would be shut down for a few days and the following monday was Columbus Day (a holiday in the Navy) so he came home late on Wednesday night. I had to include this picture because the poor hubby was trying to find something to eat on and eat with and he had a hard time with that. I forgot that he was only there in the house for about 2.5 weeks before he had to leave (compared to the 2.5 months he's been away). The boys woke up on Thursday and we super excited to see daddy here. Brad was a trooper and got up at 6:30am Florida time to see the boys. 

Brad even walked Aiden down to the bus stop and Aiden was pretty excited about that. The boys were glued to Brad the entire time he was here and the awesome thing was that Brad didn't mind a bit. What a great daddy. 

The boys were super excited to show daddy their new skills they have learned in Taekwondo. Here they were goofing around either before or after class. They are so cute. Brad enjoyed watching them do their thing.

We all went and had lunch with Aiden on Friday at school. Aiden was really excited to show Brad his science journal. It also happened to be the same day the firetruck came to his school so he was all decked out as a fireman.

Aiden's 1-384 dot-to-dot picture

On Friday night we decided to go out for pizza and use Aiden's first Pizza Hut coupon for reading for September. He was so excited to go which cracked us up because he doesn't even like pizza. Well, he likes crust but not the cheese. As we were waiting for our food he was doing a dot-to-dot (1 to 384). I think he's in the mid 200's. The writing is so small but he can see it all and is finally almost done with it. Eli wanted to play on the iPad some. 

Eli playing Subway Surfer

Aiden really enjoyed reading to Brad. When Brad left Aiden couldn't read at all. Now Aiden is reading any BOB book and lots of other stuff too. It's amazing how fast they learn. Aiden will only check out "real" books at the library. I finally figured out what he meant by that when I went to his school and we were in the library. He means non-fiction. I told him it was okay to read pretend stuff and he said, "no, I like learning and I want to learn about real things. I will not read those other books." It's too funny because that is something that I would say (but I've never said that to him).

Great Grandma Hagan sent the boys something last week. She sent these two car rugs/mats with a set of construction vehicles for both boys. They love them. Aiden's is all folded nicely with his cars inside and Eli's is the one that is a ball of mess in the box we keep them in. Aiden has a rock collection and decided to get out his rocks and use them for real while playing on the mats. 

Aiden swimming over to Brad. This is new for Aiden!

It has been crazy chilly since the day Brad came here. On Sunday, it started to warm up a tad so we headed down to the pool. The boys have been so anxious to show Brad what they have learned. It was FREEZING. The boys didn't skip a beat and jumped right in. I jumped in because it was too cold and painful to try and do it slow. Brad eased his way in. The boys had a blast and finally Eli was shivering too much and his lip was blue so we decided to get out. It was great though. There were only like 1-2 other people at the pool since it was so cold so we had it all to ourselves pretty much. 

Eli posing with me. Love his smile.

The boys wanted to ride bikes and play when we got home. Aiden stayed outside with Brad for while and they baseball. Aiden is getting pretty good hitting from the tee and Brad throws it to him.  Eli went inside to get warm but then eventually comes out in the garage so Aiden can show him something. The child comes out in his undies. I asked if he's so cold why is he wearing just undies. He says "it's the sun that was making me cold. I'm okay inside." He's such a confused kid. Aiden thought it was pretty neat that his remote control truck can skid all over the garage floor and was anxious to show Eli. 

We ended Sunday night with family time and some wrestling. The boys really enjoyed seeing Brad and Brad managed to get all the things done on the list I had for him. He read them their story on Sunday night and then we all said prayers together. I can't wait until Brad can come home to stay for a bit. He's balances me out so much which is great for me and even better for the boys. That's one of reasons God gives us partners and I forget about that when he's gone for months at a time. Things are hard when he is gone and I'm stressed because there is always a ton of stuff to do and not enough time to do it and I feel like the boys deserve so much more than I can give them but I have to assume God paired me with Brad for a reason and He'll get me through all the times that Brad is gone. It was great watching all of my boys together on the couch. 

On Monday morning Brad got up with me and we left work. He went to my class and then we walked around campus measuring things to help one of my students out for a test he has to do. We ate lunch at Chick-fil-a on campus and then hurried off to a dr appt I was able to make the same morning. (I'll update on that next). After the dr appt is was off to the airport with Brad. It was so hard to say bye to him. I really miss him and we function SO SO SO much better as a family when he is around. I'm a better mommy and person when he is around. 

 

The day after Brad left it rained and this beautiful rainbow came out. It seemed so close like we could drive right under it. I've never felt a rainbow so close before. 

And to close out this post about Brad, he got to fly 2 times this week. That's the same amount he has been able to fly over the past 2 months he's been gone!! He is praying he is home by Thanksgiving, I'm praying he is home the first or second week in November. His orders say he is supposed to be back yesterday.  :(   It's out of our hands but we can still pray every night for him to come home soon. 

10/1 - Brad and Amy in Vegas

Thanks to my mom and dad, I was able to escape last week and get off to meet up with Brad in Vegas and stay at a timeshare we booked a few months ago when are points were about to run out. I ended up leaving a day early which got me in a good panic but it all worked out okay. Brad picked me up from the airport on Thursday evening and we went to his parent’s timeshare (they happened to be in Vegas as well and it was their last night) and had some diner. I didn’t really plan appropriately that night and learned a very valuable lesson: I honestly cannot have even the smallest bite of food at least 2 hrs before taking my medication or it will not work at all. At. All. 

We woke up about 6am on Friday and took his parents to the airport and then went back to the timeshare and stayed there until we had to leave at 10am. We headed out to the Hoover Dam and went on a tour of the power plant. It was great to learn about the Hoover Dam and why it was created in the first place. It was pretty amazing. We drove around a bit out there and then headed back to the timeshare since it was almost 4pm which is when we can check in. 

We checked in, grabbed some subway and headed back to the room. I was trying to stay close to east coast versus west coast time so I was done with dinner by 6pm and in bed by 8pm. Yeah I know. We are in Vegas and I’m in bed by 8/8:30pm but it worked out fine for us. We did head out to the hot tub and enjoyed that for awhile before we actually went to sleep.

Brad cooking breakfast

One of the hot tubs!

On Saturday morning we went to a Timeshare meeting (and scored awesome seats to the Blue Man Group for $30 total; normally those tickets are $100 a piece) and spent much longer than we normally do at the meeting but learned so much and finally have go-to people we can call for help rather than just floating around in the system and call the 1-800 numbers where no one ever really tells us how to use the system. We are pretty excited about some of the things we learned and cannot wait to use them and were excited that we didn’t have to hurry through a meeting because we have 2 kids that are bored out of their mind. We then headed over to the outlet mall which was about 2-3 miles away from our timeshare. We walked around and scored a few good deals. We then grabbed some dinner and headed home and then went to another hot tub for a bit which was so awesome.

On Sunday we spent the day at the Strip!! We hung around the room for a bit (I was waking up at 6am everyday) since Brad made such a great breakfast (omelet with ham and cheese, toast, bacon). We were on the strip by 10am. I wish I would have had my FuelBand on because we did some SERIOUS walking. We went to all kinds of casinos and lobby’s and just wondered around. We even watched the 3D M&M’s movie which our kids would have been completely freaked out by because of the blowing wind. We found a few cute souviners for the boys and Nana and Papa and just had a great time walking around and looking at the different people. I could sit and people watch all day I think. We happened to see SpongeBob and the Minions so we got our pictures with them. We also happened to be walking in front of the Bellagio when the water show started so that was awesome. If you have never been to Vegas, the later in the day you get, the crazier it gets. There are all sorts of people out on the corners trying to hand out little cards with naked girls on them and phone numbers to call for these calls. The people handing these out actually dared to give them to Brad when we walked by even when we were holding hands. They pretty much stick them out right in your way and then move their hand away right before you hit them because you are walking. I finally told Brad that if one more person tried to hand him a card while I was with him that I would honestly slap it out of their hand right there. I was so SO SO so excited to do this. Unfortunately no one got that close again but man that would have made my day. While it’s fun to people watch there, it’s also sad for me to see so many men and women going out and getting crazy drunk, wasting money, and doing stupid things (calling the numbers on the cards). 

 At 6:30pm we headed to the Monte Carlo to get our seats for the Blue Man Group show. It started at 7pm and was pretty awesome. They just changed their show and I had read mixed reviews about it. There were 1-2 slow parts but overall, Brad and I had a great time and found ourselves highly amused by their acts. It was great. We headed straight back to the hotel and I took my medicine and jumped in bed. I did sleep in a bit and didn’t wake up until 6:30am on Monday.

Monday we decided it would be good to get some exercise by hiking in the Red Rock Canyon. We love to do this kind of stuff together and really miss all our hiking outings in Maryland at Calvert Cliffs. After Brad made another yummy breakfast and I packed up some stuff, we headed out. It was about a 30 min drive to get there. I chose a trail with “moderate” terrain and it was supposed to be 1.1 miles each way. Well. We got there, started hiking and realized real quick that moderate in our world of hiking on grass/sand/etc was not the same as hiking on …. Rocks. Wow. It kicked our butts. It was awesome and fun and beautiful. However, we kept going and weren’t even sure if we were on a “path” a couple times. We calculated when we needed to leave by so I wouldn’t miss my plane and finally decided we just needed to turn around. It certainly felt like 1.1 miles but there was no end in sight. We hiked back and really did have a great time. Once we got back to the beginning, we realized we should have taken off to the right, not to the left. We were doing another moderate trail but it was 5 miles. Nevertheless, we had a great time together and realize how important it is for us to eventually live somewhere again where we can hike and do some of the other fun outdoor stuff that we like to do. We hurried back to the room showered, packed up, and left all within about 30 minutes.

It was such a great time with Brad. That is the first time we’ve had more than just a couple hours with just Brad and I. I can see how important it is to this from time to time to help us as a married couple, not just mommy and daddy. Brad was shocked to see me so awake (when he last saw me I hadn’t been diagnosed with narcolepsy or treated with this crazy expensive medication which actually makes my other medication (Provigil) work very well for the first time. It was so great to be the old Amy and Brad rather than me being so tired to do anything. I am so thankful that my parents can come together and work as a team to watch the boys. They have been divorced for … 15-20 yrs and have the ability to put their differences aside and be friends and I a so grateful and appreciative for that. I’m excited to be home and hopefully give my mom a little break now. I’m sure she will be exhausted. I’m hoping I can see my dad at least for a bit before he leaves but he is busy man traveling all around so we’ll see about that. 

UPDATE: I wrote all that on the plane on the way home and I'm happy to say that my dad stayed here all day today and even took us all out to dinner. My mom was exhausted and literally slept from 9:30am to about 2:45pm. My dad even mowed the yard yesterday and helped me pick up a bunch of yard clippings and weeds I pulled up today. It was great to be able to spend some time with him. My mom did a great job keeping everyone fed while I was gone and helping keep the schedule. The boys were very excited to see me and I was glad to be home and be able to give them their little goodies I brought back for them.