Doing well.....

I feel so very productive! It isn't even 9am yet, and I was able to get the kids to school, do a load of laundry that is now drying, fertilize the yard, adjust all the sprinklers, weed the flower beds, kill fire ants, load the dishwasher, and sort clean laundry.......I feel like my mom!
But I don't have the bathrooms done yet....apparently (according to my mom) cleaning bathrooms is an extremely freeing activity. She does that instead of Yoga. I think I will just save them for my mom so that she can feel "free" when she comes to visit.

Hmmmmm

Should I be offended, concerned, or just impressed that after watching a Proactiv face wash commercial my 4 year old daughter asked me if I wanted to buy "some of that" for the "little owies" on my face?
Well maybe I shouldn't feel bad because she then informed me that "Grandma already uses it!"

So Hard

I am so very thankful that I am not God. It would be incredibly difficult to have to make the decision to allow North Carolina to loose....especially to a team who has a turtle for their mascott!

Choices and Decisions

I have so many things on my plate to make decisions about. I wish it were as easy as which shoes to wear. (cause we all know it would be flip flops, rain, snow, sleet, or hail) I feel like my decision-making confidence is kind of low because of all the times I have messed up. I don't want to make another bad choice.

On another note, we have reached another Friday! That means another week is behind us. We only have about 36% left to go before R&R!!!! We are also down to 15 million seconds until he will be home for good..... well at least until this deloyment will be considered a past event.

A random scrapbooking thought....have any of you sat down and looked at your pictures and realized that you have so many that you don't even know where to start? This is the obstacle I face each time I attempt to start......any ideas on how to get over that little bump in the road?

Much Better

So far, we are doing much better today. No one peed the bed last night! Denaiza only had a small temper tantrum this morning! My headache is gone! Plus, another week is almost done!
Thanks for all your kind words.

update to Wednesday

and the day goes on.....
can't sleep, head pounds and cuts, sweating, chills, throw up, more medicine, doesn't work, sleep, phone call from Dimitri's teacher, he has peed in his pants twice today and peed all over their bathroom, I need to go pick him up, get up, clean up, get clothes, arrive at school, change Dimitri, collect 2 pee soaked outfits, get Denaiza, get in car, can't see staright, head is going to burst, go home, get home, turn on cartoons, put two towels under Dimitiri so he doesn't pee on the sofa, cry......cry some more......don't think I can keep this up much longer.

Synopsis of my morning

2:30am still awake, 3:15 am still awake, finally asleep, nightmare, wake up startled, 6:45am, head pounding, another lovely headahce, great, slept through alarm, great, jump out of bed, already late, kids up, Dimitri peed in the bed, Dimitri in bath tub, Dimitri dressed, Denaiza temper tantrum, kicking the wall, Dimitri crying while I brush his teeth, Dimitri done, brush Denaiza's teeth, she spits on my sleeve, Denaiza done, walk downstairs, Dimitri shoes on, Denaiza screaming, Deaniza kicking wall, coats on, Dimitri in car, my head feels like it is being sliced by a knife, Denaiza won't get in the car, temper tantrum in garage, start car, Denaiza in car, music about repentance and forgiveness on, Denaiza kicking the seat in the car, smell pee smell in car, figure out that Denaiza peed in her bed, too late for a bath, Denaiza lies about peeing in her bed, car pulls in front of me while I am going speed limit of 55, slam on brakes, get to school, kids out of car, Denaiza refuses to cross street with me, cross parking lot with Dimitri, Denaiza yelling, get "the look" by school employees when Denaiza finally walks across crosswalk alone, enter school, sign in, kids to class, hug Dimitri, Denaiza ignores me, walk back out of school, take deep breath of humid sticky air, getting sick to my stomach, get in car, blinding sun in my eyes, driving home, pull over, throw up, back in car, arrive home, sheets from 2 beds with pee into washing machine, take medicine for head, check email in hopes of reading a kind word from my husband, junk email, head pounding.....
All this and it isn't even 8am yet. I am going to lay down to pray that this headache will go away before I have to pick up the kids. Hopefully the day will reset so that when I wake up again this will have all been a bad dream and not reality.

"morning by morning new mercies I see"

My prayer today: Lord although I do not deserve it, please show me Your mercy this morning.

Daddy vs. the NBA All-Stars..according to Dimitri

Valentine's Dinner

Growing up I remember my mom being so wonderful. She was the kind of mom that does all those things you only see in the commercials.....for example: the heart shaped sandwiches, the smiley faces on napkins, celbration dinners for special days, sewing special outfits for Christmas programs and 1st days of school. She always went all out for us, and I will always remember that.

Now, it is my turn to be a mom, and although I will never do as good of a job that she did, I try. My kids are a little different then my brothers and I were and I am a bit less energetic than my mom, but like I said, I try.

Tonight I decided to do a Valentine's dinner for the kids. Well.....actually I am not sure that it was really for the kids because I knew they would both complain about eating it (that seems to be the new, not so wonderful, trend around here.) On our menu was pink mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, green beans, and heart shaped jello. Below are pictures of our meal. I enjoyed it.....as for the kids, Dimitri had to be force fed and Denaiza threw up her food onto the table TWICE! Oh well......I tried. I guess next year they will just get macaroni and cheese.

Slam Dunk Contest- Liles Style

Well, you may know that Superman is one of Dimitri's favorite people these days (although he has never seen the cartoon or movie.) So, of course all the replays on last year's slam dunk contest, on tv tonight, were a big hit for Dimitri. He just HAD to go dress up and pretend like he was doing the same thing. Here are the pictures.....

1/2 Way Done!!!!

Well, in one hour and about 32 minutes we will be half way done with this deployment!!!!!!!!! That is the best Valentine's Day present ever!!!!
As Tony says, " it's all downhill from here on out!"

Happy Early Valentine's Day

The kids both had parties in their classes today to celebrate Valentine's Day. I was able to go and split the time between the two parties. Dimitri's teacher brought an ice cream cake and they had all kinds of candy and treats. The kids danced and sang. They had a blast.
Denaiza's class had fruit, chips, cupcakes, and candy. They watched Madagascar. They also had a great time.
Neither class took naps today, so the kids had to lay down when we got home. Even though they were on a sugar high, they both slept for awhile. When they woke up we went on a walk around the neighborhood. It was a nice day here today. It was in the high 70's with a few clouds in the sky.
We came home and then the kids played football and hide and seek in the front yard.
Now, dinner is a little late, but they should be ok.
We don't have any plans for tomorrow. I was thinking about going out to dinner, the three of us, but then decided against it. I think we will just stay at home. I might make a turkey roast and pink mashed potatoes. We will see how the day unfolds.
I hope that each of you has a love-filled day tomorrow. Give lots of hugs. We send some your way too.

Go Heels!!!!!

We are excited to see our boys whoop on that other team from NC......

something

Here mom.......I am posting "something about my darling family"
Satisfied? :)

One Year Anniversary

Yesterday made it one year......and it sure has been one heck of a year. However, we are thankful that God has blessed us so much over the past 365 days. What a testimony we will have for our grandkids one day.

These are the beautiful flowers my dear husband sent to me.

A little more fun...in my book anyways

Today I decided to do something a little more fun than dealing with a car. So, we made Valentine's Day cookies. The kids had fun decorating them.

A Little Glimpse into My Life

What a day! Wow, don't ever say, "can it get any worse?" Cause it can!
So, I had several things on my "To Do" list today. One of those things was to put a new battery into Tony's car. You see, when I got home from Idaho in December, I went to move the car to get the Christmas decorations out, only to find that the battery was completely dead. At this point you may be doing the math in your head, and yes, that was a couple months ago. However, I was headed back to Idaho, and haven't had time to get it done since.
So....back to today. I decided that I would just get it done. I was really nervous about trying to change the battery, and I somehow convinced myself that I was going to electrocute myself doing it.
Oh wait, I forgot one of the most important parts to this story.....the car was parked in the garage, all the way to the left and all the way forward. That meant that the driver's side door couldn't be opened. I had to park it that way or it wouldn't fit in the garage. That is also why I didn't just jump it and take it in to get the new battery in.
Ok...back to today again. I climbed through the passenger side and popped the hood, climbed back over the middle console and squeezed around the front of the car to open the hood. I saw nuts and bolts and a metal bar hindering my ability to get the old battery out. So, I went and searched for a tool that looked like it would be the right size and shape. Out of the 12 that I chose, none of them worked. I was starting to sweat at this point.
I decided to see how heavy this SUV really was, and if I could push it enough to get enough room to jump it. I climbed back in the car and put it in nuetral and it didn't move....so far so good. I got out and went to the passenger side and barely nudged it, just to see if I could actually move it. It started to roll! I was happy because it stopped rolling too.
At this point I made a very stupid decision. I will blame it on the fact that I am a blonde woman alone because of a deployment who knows nothing about cars.
I decided I would just keep pushing the car out of the garage until it was far enough out that I could open the driver's side door and get in and push....cause then I would be able to put the brakes on when I needed to. So.....I pushed it. All was well for about 2 seconds when it was rolling really slowly. I was standing on the passenger side holding on by the open window, with entirely too much confidence in my upper body strength.
I am sure that you can see where this is headed.....did I mention that our driveway slopes down a bit? no....oh....well, I forgot about that part earlier too. So all of the sudden the car starts to go faster and faster and I am holding on for dear life, trying with all my strength to stop this car. Images start flashing in my mind of my car going through the neighbor's front door. I was in a complete panic. Then, out of the corner of my eye I see this little Honda racing down the street. All I could think was.. ."Oh Lord, please stop that car!" As I looked at the approaching car I felt an awkward pain in my foot, but I was in turmoil and couldn't focus on that.
Finally the TOny's car stopped. It hit the curb in front of the neighbor's house and stopped. I raced around to the driver's side and quickly put it in park. I have never shaken so much in my whole life. The approaching car had stopped by this point, and the silly driver rolled his window down and said, "are you ok?"
"Oh yeah, I am fine," I replied through tears.
Well, to make a long story even longer......I pushed the car back across the street, but couldn't get it up the curb, so there is sat blocking the street.
I called my loving and always supportive father. At first I was rather calm and collected. I asked him to please walk me through how to jump start a car. ( The was obviously my first time)He kindly told me the first steps....to which I responded....I can't take that cap off. I am going to die!!!!! THen I started weeping, went on some long sob story about what had happened, etc. etc. and looked down at my foot to see the black tire marks and realized that I had run over my foot!!!!! Which made me cry harder. My poor dad. He said, "calm down Brittanny, it will be ok." Just then another car pulls up and asks if I need help....Oh no, I am ok, I say, to which my father says, "well, it probably would have been ok to ask them for help." To which I say, "but I don't want to cause a problem for them."
So....I will edit the story here so that it doesn't turn into a novel. My dad walks me through jumping the car. It starts. I stop crying. I move it and park it in the street so that the next time I have to jump it, it will be easier.
I have calmed down a bit, but my foot still hurts and my hands are still shaking like nothing I have ever seen before.
I look at the clock and I still have a little bit of time before I need to go get the kids. I decide that I will take my car to get it washed. I drove to one of those self-wash places where you put the quarters in for a certain amount of time with the water and soap. Things are going good. I am thinking about how proud TOny would be of me for actually washing the car. The timer on the water starts beeping, meaning that my time is about up. I go and put the sprayer away and all of the sudden I hear this weird sound. In my head I was thinking that it was the sound of a pigeon, but what would it be doing in this car wash? Just as I am getting into my nice clean, shiny car it hits!!! YEP!!!! Two big drops of bird poop. I get out and look up and there are 4 pigeons sitting on the beam above where I washed the car!!!!
I didn't start crying....I just walked over to the water sprayer, that had like 5 seconds left on it. The logical thing would be to spray off the car right? NOPE, I sprayed those birds and gave them a shot of water that they will never forget!!!
I am sure that you are thinking this is where my bad luck ends.....but you are wrong. I get to the kids' school. I go to Dimitri's room first where I am greeted by his teacher who informs me that Dimitri was really very bad today and was really rude. I told Dimitri to sit in time out while I went to get his sister, to which he replied NO! I felt the tears coming, but couldn't let them out. I sat him down myself and went to get Denaiza. I was greeted at her room by her teacher who informed me that Denaiza got in a lot of trouble today because she decided to kick several of the other students...."not a little bit, but really hard." And apparently she then went on to have a temper tantrum outside at recess because no one wanted to play with her.....hmmmmmm.....I wonder why.
Well, I finally get the kids in the car, talk to them about their bad choices, and then turn up the music because by this point, I don't even know what to say or think.
I came home and called my always supportive and loving mother. As I began to tell her what happened she had the nerve to say.....
"Honey, do you see any humor in this, because I really think it is funny!"
Uhhhhhh, NO MOM, NOT FUNNY. :)
Well, at least not today it isn't. I am sure that in a few weeks or years, or lifetimes, I might be able to look back and laugh. But NOT tonight. My foot hurts too much to laugh.
Oh.....the joys......of my life........