The first s'more is the sweetest!

We don't usually offer dessert after dinner, but Nathan had a sweet tooth last night and since the girls both cleaned their plates completely, including finishing off all their squash and zucchini (not one of their "usual" foods), we used it as an excuse to have a special treat. None of the kids have ever had s'mores before! Brynn and Cale were too young last year and Layla has never been willing to try, she just always eats the marshmallows strait out of the bag, but she decided to be open-minded last night! I think it's safe to say they are all hooked now!

Rain Rain, GO AWAY!

NO NO NO.

Get out of here. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. You are not welcome. I do not want you here. I need sunshine. I need blue skies. You are seriously messing with my plan. You have NO idea. Peace out, rain.

Kindergarten, here we come!

Layla is officially registered for kindergarten!! This excitement and jolly goodness comes just one day after the single worst kindgergarten physcial experience you can ever possibly imagine... EVER.

Dr. Kastner somehow magically had an opening late yesterday afternoon, so instead of just swinging by to pick up a copy of her shot records, I thought we'd go ahead and get the whole physcial out of the way, get her kindergarten-required shots over with, be done with whole darn thing and ready for registration today. I did mention the shots to her, but of course, down-played, and turned it into something good. And while yes, it would hurt temporarily, it would make her one step closer to being ready for school, which she is so uber-excited about. She fretted for a moment, but admitted that if she could have ice cream afterward, she would be fine. Well played.

Our appointment was scheduled for 4:50 and I think we finally got to actually see the doctor about 6:20. Yeah... running a little behind. At this point, Layla was tired, cranky, and starving. Great combo. Because Dr.K is awesome, he managed to perk her right up, play "games" throughout her entire physical and she did wonderfully. She is very tall for her age, her eye-sight is perfect (thank goodness), her balance is extraordinary, she was cracking him up with her answers to all his questions... she was on her game. Then he asked if we had talked about what was next, we both said yes. She understood she had to get shots, even though she didn't like it. Thanks for everything and he left the room. He must have flipped some sort of switch when he did b/c my adorable, funny little girl INSTANTLY changed into this kicking, screaming, sobbing MONSTER. The nurse stepped into the room and recognized right away it was going to take more than just the two of us. It. was. awful.

It was BY FAR the most traumatic thing I have ever put my child through. SHOTS. Ridiculous. I have never in my life seen ANY child, much less MY child, behave like this, ESPECIALLY over vaccinations! She was thrashing in a way you cannot even imagine, I kid you not, screaming awful, terrible things! *I* had tears streaming down my face. I'm not sure if it was because it was breaking my heart to see her that scared or because I was embarrassed or shocked... And literally, when it was over, she just stopped. Seriously, never seen anything like this. Of course, the nurses told me kids do it all the time- but not mine!! I was so shaken!

With that nightmare over with, she was ready for registration this morning! She practically ran thru the front door of the school! She introduced herself to every teacher in there. She kept asking how much longer until school starts, when can she meet other kids, etc. She wanted to start TODAY. The teachers LOOOVED her. They were so excited to have someone so excited and personable!

I am way over feeling sad or weird about her starting school because she is SO ready. I know how good it will be for her. We were playing 'school' yesterday, and stuff that she struggled with a couple months ago, she is just flying through now. She is already reading/recognizing some words, doing simple addition/subtraction, writing all her upper and lower case letters and numbers, identifying the states on the map, speaking quite a bit of Spanish and some Chinese/Mandarin etc. I can't wait to see all the changes this is going to bring for her! She is going to learn and grow SO much. August seems so far away, but it will be here before we know it!!

Earth Day

Yesterday, for our Earth Day project, we decided we would walk around the neighborhood and pick up all the trash we could find. Nathan was going to have a pretty early day (yay!), so we decided to wait until afternoon so he could join us. It ended up being THE perfect spring afternoon for it! We loaded up the babies (how much longer can I get away with calling them that?!) in their wagon and Layla hopped on her scooter, grapped some bags, and headed out. We all got really into it, seeing who could spot trash first, with LP racing to pick it up and taking turns putting it in each bag. We actually didn't find all that much, which is a good thing! Although, Layla was pretty disappointed when it was over. She was upset that we only cleaned up part of the Earth, she wanted to do the whole thing!

I grabbed Nath's ancient point and shoot as we were walking out the door. It takes pretty craptastic pictures, but it's better than nothing I guess!




These are their "thumbs up" signs, lol...


We found a few other unexpected discoveries too...
Brynn was the only one who would let the caterpillar crawl on her, no surprise there!


P.S. We totally recycle our plastic bags. Just FYI. =)

Things just got real.

Nathan has a flight date.

August 2.

That could change (of course), but right now, that's what we are being told. The good news that means he will get to come home for a couple of weeks between Texas and Germany, which is nice and he will get to be my date for Cala and Craig's wedding, which was really important to me for some reason. I just really wanted him there with me.

The bad news is that I doubt either of us will really enjoy that wedding knowing that he will be leaving the very next morning and not returning for at least six months. And what about our kids? They aren't going to the wedding so he is going to spend his last night here away from his kids?! Our own wedding reception was August 2, six years ago. I guess just having the date makes my mind race about so many things. He was excited I think, but after he told me I went to get in the tanning bed and cried the whole time.

The closer it gets, the harder we are BOTH taking it. The whole time, we have both had the attitude of "We've done this before (sort of). We've had a 6 month military separation, we know we can do it." But we are starting to realize that it's way different this time. When he left for Texas two years ago, we were in a TOTALLY different place. A lot of you who read this blog didn't know us then or didn't know us well enough to know. We had *just* brought Brynn & Cale home and because of work and other circumstances, even when Nathan was home, he wasn't. Physically, he was here, but spiritually/emotionally/mentally... he was completely absent. So half-way across town or half-way across the country didn't really make a whole lot of difference at that point.

But now... NOW... he is SO VERY PRESENT in every sense of the word that I can't stand the idea of him not being here. Because of that, yes, we will still be connected when he is on the other side of the world, but not having him here to lean on when I've had a bad day (or a good one!), to share both tears of joy and sadness over Layla's first day of kindergarten, to help me shop for Christmas presents for the kids and see their faces Christmas morning, and just not having him here for the ins-and-outs of everyday life: eating dinner, sleeping in the same bed, watching tv on the couch.... I'm not okay.
I KNOW it's just temporary. I KNOW he will come home to me safe and sound and we will do all those things together again, but the idea of him missing any of it or me/us doing it without him makes me sad. The upside to that is that we have already learned not to take any of those little things for granted. We truly appreciate the time we do have together. We are SO grateful that right now, he does get to come home at the end of the day, that I can text him when I am having a bad day, that we get to eat dinner together or watch tv side-by-side; and I am so so so so so glad to have him HERE. I am trying not to think about it, but every once in a while a dark cloud of dread creeps in and I am just... sad.

Anyway,
here's what we think the schedule looks like for now:
June 16ish- activates, begins working at the base for about 2 weeks (we think)?
July 1ish- leaves for TX for a couple of weeks(we think)?
Aug 2- leaves for Germany and goes from there to Kyrgyzstan (right now, that is still the plan... but could still change. Afghanistan still a possibility).

Helpful, huh? Yeah. I'm sure I will end up doing the going away party now between Tx and Germany, just would feel better getting exact dates before I set it for sure. I'll let you know!

TORN!

Well, to those of you who are leaving comments on the blog, on Facebook, and emailing me...

IT'S WORKING!

I am so completely torn now! But I am starting to actually think I might could pull this thing off. I have gotten a TON of feedback today, all (mostly) saying that the last few weeks before the marathon are the hardest to stay motivated and that once I get there, the rush of excitement of all those people cheering you on and the adrenaline of everything going on around you just pushes you through and before you know it... you've done it!! It makes me all excited and giggly again like I was in the first few weeks of training! In a "this is crazy" sort of way...

And I know I will pout and feel like junk all day Saturday if I quit.

We shall see, my friends. We. shall. see.

I'm a quitting quitter.

I am so mad at myself. There is no way I can run this marathon Saturday. I had already decided to drop down to the half marathon and was fine with that for my first try, but even that's not going to happen at this point. There are a million excuses why- Nathan not being home to watch the kids so I can run or getting home to late, the weather, these stupid migraines coming and going whenever they please, just plain busy-ness, blah blah blah. But they are what they- excuses. And it sucks. I suck.

I have not been motivated; I hate going alone. And I have hated knowing that I would be running alone on race day. I am VERY self-conscious when I am running and I tend to sort of panic when I am alone- case in point: a couple of weeks ago, I didn't realize that the timing of my run coincided with school dismissal from the elementary school down the street and I *literally* had a panic attack because all the parents waiting for their kids were watching me run by. Literally couldn't breathe and the crossing guard had to help me across the road. I came up our driveway in tears. Then I realized that not only would I be running with THOUSANDS of other people during the race, but another THOUSANDS of other people would be watching everybody run. Logically, I know none of these people give a toot about me running, but for some reason in my head, the whole thing just freaks me out. When I run with someone else, I talk a lot (SHOCKING, I know) but it distracts me so I don't focus on all that.

So... here I am. A quitting quitter. I have really mixed emotions. I'm disappointed because I was SO determined, to the point that I was going to show up and do it no matter what. But I'm pretty sure that if I just show up and run 13 miles on Saturday, I am going to pay for it BIG TIME. And I have too much going on right now to you know, not be able to walk for two weeks afterward. I'm still running though, I just feel like the pressure is off to run X amount of miles in X amount of time on X amount of days. I can just do it for me now. I can feel good and enjoy it and not stress over how much I suck for not doing what I'm "supposed" to.

But dang... I really am not happy about this. I think now that I know what it takes to train, I'll be ready for next year though. I mean, when I set out to do this, I had NO IDEA how much time I would have to invest in this. It just never occurred to me to do the math on how long it actually takes to run 10, 14, 20 miles at a time. And now that I know I *can* do it (I was doing REALLY well there for a while...!), I'll know how to better prepare next year I think.

But... Crap.

Just the two of us =)

Nathan and I had THE best weekend! Obviously, we missed our babies like crazy... well, maybe not at first... but by Sunday, it was aching! We are actually quite exhausted from our relaxing weekend together. We were on the go pretty much the whole time. I didn't get out to Opryland until about six o'clock Friday evening after taxi-ing all the kids (and Heidi) to their final destinations and we went strait to dinner and a wee bit of shopping. We were pretty worn out that night, so were were passed out by 9:30 cause we're old. Slept in a little Saturday, about 7:30 I think, took our time getting up and out, and then heading over to the mall for an early lunch, LOTS of shopping and an afternoon (grown-up) movie! Sweet Nath was such a trouper helping me pick out clothes and judging each and every outfit, lol. Thumbs up, thumbs down. That fits, that doesn't... what a guy. Trust me, watching him try on tennis shoes and watches was just as painful!

Saturday evening we had dinner reservations at Old Hickory- our favorite!! Best steaks EVER. The chef is a friend of our friend, Chef Laurie, so we were treated extra well with special tastings and special sauces and complimentary desserts... sooooo yummy. After dinner, we headed downtown to watch the UFC fight per Nathan's request.

We slept in a little later Sunday morning and went to brunch, then headed back downtown for tattoos :) We were there all afternoon before heading back home to get the kiddos and go to Nonie's birthday dinner.



It was sooo much fun and so nice to enjoy some time alone together before everything gets so crazy busy. All the kids did GREAT. Cale got in some boy-time with Isaac, Layla got some gardening done with Nonie and Pap, and Brynn spent her days at the gym watching Uncle Casey play hoops. She did, apparently ask for Cale over and over and cried for him the second we dropped him off, but it made for a VERY sweet reunion yesterday afternoon and all is well again! Thank you to EVERYONE who made this weekend possible!!!

Update on Operation Big Kids

After the death of the tent, God rest it's soul, we decided it was time to transition the twins into their "big kid" rooms.

We have now moved all of Brynn's things into Layla's room and it has become "The Girls' Room". Layla has top bunk, Brynn has bottom. Brynn has top rack of the closet, Layla has bottom. Brynn has left side of the dresser, Layla has right. I find it rather adorable for some reason. Maybe because I never had a sister and they seem so excited to be sharing a room together. Brynn is doing GREAT going to bed in a big girl bed. She stays in bed for the most part when we put her down, and tells me when she's ready for a nap.

All of that means that Cale has his very own big boy room! Right now, he is in a toddler bed, but he has a double bed that's been in Nathan's family for quite a while, we just have to find a mattress for it. We still need to "boy it up", but it's cleaned out of all things girl and ready for trucks and trains and whatever else big boys need! He is doing GREAT in his own bed. I thought he would suffer a little separation anxiety, but he is ready and willing for bed at night and naptime, very posessive of his room and bed now and gladly shuts the door and turns out the lights!

I am very very impressed with my little (big!) ones. They are doing really well and growing up so fast! Last week at Walmart, they were not at all satisfied being pushed in the cart, I had to let each of them push a cart and help get the groceries off the shelf- SO BIG. Not only in maturity, but literally... they have apparently grown FOUR inches since their well-check in January and Cale has gained four pounds, HOSS.

Easter Pics

I, personally, thought our kids looked as adorabe as they ever had =) I loved the way their outfits all came together at the absolute last minute! They just looked so classic and Easter-y.

We had a really busy Easter, as usual, but it was a lot of fun! We had gotten to bed really late the night before- we had been gone all day Saturday, come home and had dinner, colored Easter eggs, had baths, done the twins hair, and started ironing clothes and such for Sunday. Brynn got up pretty early and decided to help herself to everyone's basket before I could hear her. I had put up a gate at our door so Heidi didn't eat the bunny trail leading to the baskets so I didn't hear a thing until Brynn was standing at our door! By then, she had taken everything out of all the baskets and was playing, lol. I took her back to bed and quickly put the baskets back together just in time for Layla to yell for me and ask if they could get up... shew! So we got Cale up and I sent Brynn in to wake up Nathan. Their baskets were pretty simple- each one got an outfit, a stuffed animal (poodle for Layla, cow for Brynn (her fav), and Spongebob for Cale (they aren't allowed to watch, but he just loves it!), 2 candies each, a Mickey Mouse car for Cale (he's obsessed with Mickey), Donald Duck for Brynn, and princess toothpaste for Layla (she asked).

We had a quick breakfast and rushed to get everyone ready and off to church. Uncle B and Angel came to our church with us, which we loved and they will be visiting again this week which we are REALLY excited about! We went strait from church to Meme and Earl's for a fun egg hunt with cousins and a few pics. From there, we left and went to Aunt Mary's Ann and Dr. George's house for lunch and another egg hunt! Deda, Poppy, and Cay-Cay made it in just in time to see the kids hunt for eggs before we headed out for Ge and Ba's house for another hunt and dinner/snacks! We were EXHAUSTED. We left there at bedtime! The kids really held up well (although slept most the day Monday!), the weather turned out nicely... what a beautiful day together!







I LOVE this picture! Cale kept saying "Stop it, Mama!"

A TREASURE hunt!

Saturday, the Mitchell's invited us out to Tammy's cabin in Bucksnort for a day packed FULL of festivities! It was SO. MUCH. FUN! We had kite-flying, off-roading, and a bbq and fried chicken picnic, followed by an egg drop relay race, three legged race, and a potato sack race, then an easter egg hunt, pie baking contest, war stories and rifle lesson, and then a real treasure hunt for the little ones! It was so neat and Leslie's aunt and uncle really put a LOT of work into it!

Layla was thrilled to pieces with this treasure hunt, I just cannot even tell you. It was divided up by age groups and the group leaders were dressed up in 1800s war clothes. They had treasure maps to follow and their course was marked by tiny flags to make sure they were on the right path. Once they found their X, they had to start digging... and digging... and digging! They had literally buried a little treasure box over a foot deep filled with all the right goodies. The little girls treasure was filled with necklaces, rings, lip gloss, silver dollars, etc. Even the toddlers had their own treasure to find filled with animals, books, balls... it was ADORABLE!

After the treasure hunt, we loaded up the kiddos and took a drive on the dirt roads down the waterfall. It was so beautiful back there in the mountains! We were all exhausted by the end of it all, but what a fun day!!

Games!



Cale wants to play with the big kids!







The egg hunt:



Layla's treasure hunt:



Just a little bit of cuteness from the day:





All tuckered out! I looked like this about 20 minutes later, luckily, Nathan didn't get a picture. ha.