12/31 - Christmas 2014

So we learned some very valuable lessons this Christmas. Let's backtrack a little and I'll take you through our past 2 weeks. While waiting for Grandma Jo and Grandpa Dave to get here on Dec. 18 (Wed), Aiden and Eli decided to play their Tell Tale Story game and they made some very interesting stories for me to listen to. The boys were very excited to have Brad's parents here. On Thur, Eli had a dr appointment because his belly had been hurting him quite a bit and it was starting to effect his eating and his behavior. X-rays revealed he is really constipated and needs some help to move things along. Eli was also fighting a cold that Aiden and I already had when he woke up on Friday morning, he blew some blood out of his nose. While it was odd, he was acting fine. I then noticed lots of dried blood in his ear that still has the tube and that was a red flag for me. Needless to say we went to the dr on Friday afternoon and had Eli checked out. Thankfully Dave and Betty Jo (Brad's parents) went out grocery shopping for me because Eli and I were at the dr so long on Thursday (appt, x-ray, prescription, and driving = 3.5 hrs) and then unexpectedly on Friday. I was a ball of stress and I kept busy in the late afternoon trying to find hotels for Brad as he headed East towards us.

On Saturday morning, I decided to take the boys to Jump Zone (a local bounce house place) on Saturday morning. They had mixed feelings about this place which was funny. They ran around and bounced for a while and then Eli kept sneaking into the toddler's area and playing in there. Aiden snuck in the area as well and they played with blocks in there for a while. After I forced them out, they bounced a bit more and then wanted to wonder over to the video games. Thankfully they had a free air hockey game that was really cool because it was shaped like a u and the boys loved playing it.



Brad finally made it home on Saturday night. It was so good to see him and know he was home to stay for a bit. It was a busy mess from Sunday to Christmas Day. I've been so stressed with Brad being gone for so long and trying to keep up with everything and failing at that. I didn't even send cards out this year. I took care of presents for the boys but didn't have the time or brain power to do anything other than that. I bought enough stockings for everyone but didn't buy stuff to put in the stockings. I spent 5 hours trying to make Christmas presents snacks for teachers and ended up with nothing since I burnt the chocolate both times because I thought our microwave was under 1000 watts (according to the GE website) and it's actually over 1100. I didn't have a single present wrapped until company came to help me do it.

This year I really wanted to focus on giving to others and making the kids see the true meaning of Christmas and emphasizing Christ. However, I only partially succeeded. I had planned to do an Advent Calendar that I was working on but that never got finished and I was lucky the kids were getting fed and bathed during the month of december. Here is a picture of what the boys woke up to on Christmas Day. I will not lie to my boys about Christmas and Santa. Brad and I did not bring up the word Santa or say that Santa was even coming but we answered the boys' questions with other questions usually. I was barely hanging on this year to the idea of Santa and I think next year we might approach Christmas differently. The one thing my boys are sure of is that Jesus was born on Christmas Day and that is the purpose of Christmas. We did a minimal Christmas. Having all these crazy presents takes away the true meaning of Christmas in my world. The boys received a few presents from us, 1 or two from the grandparents and then Aunt Pat sent a bunch of stuff which we will ration out to them through the year for various holidays.


Below is a collage from Christmas day. Upper left: boys playing with a Hex Bug toy; Upper middle: Aiden looking at his cool new dinosaur book; Upper right: Daddy showing Aiden how his new toy that Santa brought works (which he couldn't play with because I didn't get D batteries); middle left: the boys opening up a box with hex bug which they were excited about; middle left below: Eli being super excited about the fake food he received as a present from Aiden; Center: Family picture on Christmas; middle right: Eli watching the hex bug crawl upside down in a tunnel; middle right below: Aiden being super excited that Eli also got a stars projector; bottom left: us opening up a family present which was the game of Twister; bottom right: Brad just built Aiden his new hot wheels track that Eli picked out as his present for Aiden yet both boys are playing with their transformers (which cracks me up for some reason)

We are thankfully in a position that if we really need something at some point in the year then we get it. Maybe because that is possible for us, I (and Brad) view Christmas and Christmas presents a little differently. Brad and I don't do presents for each other really.

Aunt Pat bought both the boys this star projector thing which is really cool. Here is a picture from Eli's room. It shines these green stars onto the ceiling that float/move around. You can then add this hint of blue in to the scene if you want.



Below is another collage from Christmas day and the days leading up to Christmas. Upper left: The boys playing Don't Break the Ice and Eli pointing to Grandpa Dave since he just broke the ice. You can see Aiden in the background all excited that the ice just broke; Upper right: Nana and the boys while they were on a walk; middle left top: Aiden and Eli walking outside looking at ducks while with Nana and Grandma Jo; middle center: Eli getting a ride in Grandpa Dave's truck and enjoying the view; middle right top: Eli sneaking in to a picture of Grandma Jo and Grandpa Dave with Bronco; left lower middle: Grandma Jo with the boys on a walk; right lower middle: Nana opening her present from Eli which was a craft she has to do; lower left: Grandma Jo and Aiden coloring a Christmas picture; lower right: Aiden giving Grandpa Dave his present of a sudoku puzzle book.

The boys have had a blast playing with the grandparents over the past week. Aiden was able to play the game of Sorry at least once a day I think (that's his favorite game). They were also able to play lightsabers quite a bit which has probably been a highlight of the holidays for them.









We kept ourselves so busy that we didn't get around to finally making our ginger bread house until after Christmas. Here are the boys decorating their house. Aiden was really in to it and telling me where he wanted the icing and carefully deciding where to put his candy decorations. Eli wanted to eat the candy and had a hard time putting the candy balls on the house (they would fall out of his hand and onto the floor). They worked hard on it and made a beautiful house. I've even let them eat some of it!!

I've been a bear for the past few works because of being so stressed and tired of Brad being gone. I've been short with people (my mom and Brad's parents) so we have definitely learned that we need a bit of a buffer period after Brad has been gone for a while for us to gather ourselves and then be social as a family. My friend had a good analogy for all of this. I'm this little wind-up toy and everyday I get wind-up more and more with everything that needs to be done. By the time Brad comes home I'm about to break from being wound-up so much; my little eyes are about to pop out and my feet are sprinting. Adding family and Christmas onto that wasn't a great formula because rather than starting to un-wind (not even sure how to do that at this point), I was still continuing to wind-up. We did have a good Christmas and enjoyed seeing Brad's parents but we also continue to learn about Brad being gone and how it affects me and the rest of the family and how we can deal with it better in the future.

Brad's parents left on Friday and then Brad headed in to work to check-in to the squadron and see what was going on. Here is a quick picture I snapped before Brad left. My little boys have missed their daddy so much and Eli kept asking if Brad was going to come back this same day. It is heartbreaking to hear him ask those questions but so cute at the same time. 

On Saturday, Brad took the boys and Bronco out for walk in the morning. Nana found a really cool path the other day when she took Bronco for a walk so the boys went to find the same path. They explored back there and had lots of fun running around and being Ninjas, which is their newest obsession. Brad took pictures of both boys doing their Ninja poses. Eli's picture cracks me up. He's the not-so-secret Ninja waving hi and wearing yellow and red. Aiden, serious as always, had no problem showing his ninja moves.

So a few days after Christmas we gathered the boys and told them we are re-doing the way we do electronics in our house. On Black Friday, Brad and I waited outside Best Buy in the freezing cold and it totally paid off getting $99 Kindle's for the boys. So now I have my original iPad back and we have 2 kindles in the house. This is great because it reduces setting the timer and taking turns with the iPad. Aiden is reading a lot more and we can check books out of our public library (electronic versions) and then he can read them on the kindle as well. I love the FreeTime App because we give the boys a limit to using the kindle and then it just turns off. They are learning to manage their time better and by now are not even using all of their allotted time. It does crack me up that while they have apps that are different, they also have a few that are the same. I don't even remember what Toca game they are playing in this picture but it was so cute to see them playing right next to each other and talking to each other about what to do next and where to go. 

On Monday late afternoon, I took the boys down the clubhouse area and we played around for a while. They were being Ninjas and deciding who could see them and who could not. I was having fun watching and listening to them and then I jumped in on the action as well and became a ninja for a bit. In the upper right, the boys were seeing if these 2 older boys (ages 9-10 playing putt putt golf) could see them. In the upper right, Eli was telling Aiden the coast was clear and they could run and hide behind something else. The middle circle is what happened when I said, "boys, give me your ninja poses." Lower right you see the boys hiding behind the bushes so they wouldn't be seen and the bottom right cracks me up because it's Eli hiding by just laying on the ground. In his defense, he was low enough not to be seen by the group of people they were hiding from. Unfortunately the group of people had no idea that there were 2 little ninja's around because they did a relatively good job hiding from them minus the one or two screaming streaks from Eli.

We celebrated the last day of the year with Brad doing errands, Eli at daycare, Aiden and I at home taking down Christmas stuff in the morning. Early afternoon we had a visit from our friends Mike and Grace and a long playdate. We ended the evening with trying to get this blog done in time to put in the book for 2013 and watching HGTV and watching people buy houses.

2013 was a challenging health year for me but thankfully we are figuring things out. I'm so thankful for a supportive family, traditional and modern medicine, and God continuing to show His hand in our lives.

11/12 - When life gives you lemons ...

I feel like life has given me a nice huge basket of lemons lately. Brad has lived in our house for 2.5 weeks and that's it. We were here for a week unpacking and then moved my mom out of her apartment and in with us and helped her get unpacked. We then took a family vacation and were back for a day and then boom, he was gone. He was due back on Oct. 17 but we knew he would probably have to stay a little longer and in our minds, that was till the very beginning of November. Last week, someone left a basket of lemons on my doorstep. OK. So not really a basket but that's what it felt like. We got the news that Brad is in a unique situation and nothing can be altered about what he needs to do. Since he came from a school (where he was not flying and thus not current in his qualifications) he is a different category and has to do everything by the textbook. Originally they told him he could come back in January. Brad pushed for a different date so now we are praying that they can push him through very fast and that he can leave San Diego by Dec. 18 and it will take him 4 days to drive back here so hopefully we can celebrate Christmas together.

So what did I do with my lemons? I threw some of the against the wall and pouted for the evening. The next day I told the boys the news. I then threw out most of my lemons. When Brad told me the news there was no reason at all to be upset. He was upset. He was frustrated. He wants to be home with his family. I quickly realized that while I wanted to complain and be upset, there was no use for that. I vented to a friend for a bit via text messages and that was my throwing a few lemons at a wall. I then bagged up the rest of the lemons and threw them away. I don't wanted rotten lemons. So now we trudge on. I'm not sure why God has made a 2.5 month training take 4.5 (we are praying for not longer than that) knowing that Brad will start work-ups soon and then he has a 9 month deployment. At times I feel like Satan is trying to knock on the door to our house and is seeing if we can handle everything he throws at us and I pray that we can handle it. That God will provide our family with the strength to handle the times apart that we have coming up.

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. 

6/16 - Brad's ACSC Graduation Ball & Ceremony

I finally got to wear a dress that I bought over a year ago to Brad's Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) graduation ball. I was glad that I didn't have to worry about finding a dress and jewelry but I must admit I was dreading going. I bought this dress a year ago when I was feeling much better and was not having medical conditions which prohibited me from exercising on a regular basis. That said, I felt like a stuffed sausage but at least it fit. :)

Brad has never had to wear this dress white uniform before. I got all the pieces he needed for it when I was in Jacksonville house hunting a few weeks ago. The only thing I didn't get is new medals; his medals are woefully not current but we can fix that when he can get all the stuff he needs when we move to Jacksonville again.

We actually had fun at the ball. We had good company at our table and the food was pretty good. We don't have many pictures because I couldn't take my camera. I didn't have anything to put my phone in except for a giant purse, diaper bag, or backpack. None of those things went with my outfit so I just left my phone in the van. Brad took his phone but his Droid Motorola takes not so great pictures.

Our ball was on Saturday night and Brad's parents drove in to town on Sunday evening. Graduation was Monday morning. There were about 480 graduates in Brad's school and we were in a 1,000 seat auditorium. The students were told they could have one guest. Haha. Needless to say, many people didn't have anyone come so we were okay with 4 people. There are lots of international students and many of them just traveled to the states by themselves since they were here for 11 months. There were also many other students who geo-bachelored it (came here without family). 

 I was super tired from a busy week before and caught a cold that was kicking in by Sunday night. I tried my best to stay awake during graduation.

The picture to the right is just a very small part of Brad's graduating class. You can't see him in this picture although he was actually quite easy to find among the almost 500 students since just about 30 of them were in the Navy white uniform (most of them are Air Force).

Here is Brad looking cute in Aiden's graduation cap. Thankfully they didn't cal out all the students by name (that would have taken forever). One representative from each service branch went up to the stage to accept the degrees for that branch. After the ceremony, they all went to their classrooms and picked up their diplomas. Brad did a great job this year. It was a challenge for all of us to find a balance between his work (school) and enjoying family time. The first semester was very rough and Brad spent most of his evenings reading. The second half of the year was much better and we actually got to interact with Brad in the evening and on the weekend :)  Brad sacrificed for us quite a bit. He decided it was more benefit to the family for him to be okay with getting a few B's and being able to spend time with his family rather than get all A's. That's sacrifice. It might not sound like it but Brad was very capable of getting all A's and settled for a few B's for us, his family.