Today's my brother's birthday! Anyway, it's been a while since I wrote because it seems everything I touch has broken...lol! Our van has some sort of electrical problem and it won't start. Then, about three days later, we got rear-ended in the Jeep. The dog jumped on the laptop and broke it by bending the monitor all the way back, and then the heat pump went out in the house. Who knew we could rack up about $2K of repairs in less than two weeks?

Anyway, I'm trying to stay positive. We've got plenty of space heaters, so until the heat pump's fixed we can stay warm. The Jeep still runs, so until the van is fixed we still have transportation. The laptop is still functional, I just have to plug it via VGA into the desktop monitor, which of course makes it lack the portability of a laptop but hey, I didn't lose all my photos and data and buying another laptop isn't entirely necessary at this time. So as long as we're all healthy, I'm happy. (Knocking hard on wood).

So Logan got to come home for about four days and then went straight back out to sea. I hate it. But at least he will be home for the holidays this year!! I'm so excited! He's going to be here for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, AND New Year's (an unprecedented lineup thus far in his Navy career!). I think we're sticking around the area during the holidays except maybe a long weekend up to NYC to ice-skate at Rockafeller Center. Logan's never been, which I think is a crying shame and I insisted we go before we move out to the MidWest and never again see civilization....er, you know what I mean. I know my parents are coming up for Thanksgiving and we may go down there for a few days right around Christmas.

OK, so is anyone sick to death of hearing about the election, already? If I hear one more ad about either candidate I'll scream. We're turning our cable off and attempting to live sans TV for a while...everyone I know who's done it has never gone back! So hopefully when I'm not leaving news channels on all day to watch while I do laundry, vaccuum, etc, it won't bug me so bad! Our local newspaper has done a great job of covering other news so my morning read isn't ruined. :)

I'm afraid I've got no new photos today...somehow I ruined my Bluetooth connection so I can't upload the photos from my phone. At least my 2 yr upgrade is coming up in a few weeks so I'll be getting a new phone that works ALL the time! Yay! Logan's tried to get me to buy a new phone before now, since mine is shorting out, losing power quickly, and now the Bluetooth is messed up....but there's a certain satsifaction in holding on to something until you get rewarded with a uber-cool new one for free or really, really cheap. So I'll hold out the three additional weeks, keep my phone plugged in 24/7, and just stockpile these photos until I do get a new, uber-cool phone! Until then...I'll just post here...

Logan's Home!!

I'm so happy Logan's home! When he walked through the gate, Callie's eyes got big and she got really quiet and then she got this ridiculously big goofy smile on her face. And it stayed there for about an hour. She was speechless, and he picked her up and held her and she smiled and kissed him and smiled and kissed him, over and over. It's so hard for him to leave, but the moments when he gets home are so magical.

I made him a home-cooked meal...a pork roast I'd been brining since yesterday morning, and it was so yummy and he was so thankful to eat something other than ship food. He loves the small things; real food, and his own bed. He just ran to the store to get a Coke, so I thought I'd jot a note really quick.

Facebook is wonderful!

So a friend of mine emailed me a few days ago with an invitation to Facebook. I had heard of this Facebook, even signed up for an account that never went anywhere...I think I logged in twice. So I decided to respond to her invitation and take a look at my profile. I added some photos, filled in the profile, and suddenly it was like a high school reunion! As soon as I entered my high school, the tool bar on the right filled with old familiar faces...hundreds of them! I began adding friends, and while I was adding, I began going through profiles.

That song by Garth Brooks (I think) came to mind as I was looking...the one where he saw his high school flame at a football game and realized how amazing his wife was and how glad things did not work out the way he wanted back then. The people from my high school were unique...I knew that from way back when. But the things they've done and accomplished at this point are truly staggering. They have beautiful families, awesome careers, and are just about the best-looking group of people ever *wink*. But as I roamed through dozens and dozens of profiles, I found that I had not one regret about where I was in life.

Recently, I began getting down because I haven't finished my degree and got married and had children before I finished college. But as I've been talking to my old schoolmates, I've seen that everyone is in a different stage of life. Some have finished college, some haven't. Some have married, some haven't. Some have children, some don't. I realized that what defined the norms for our parents' generation is not what defines us. As my husband pointed out, not everyone completed four years in the military, either, so why feel down on myself for not finishing college yet when I had completed an honorable tour in the military?

And speaking of my husband...as I flicked through the photos of guys from high school, some I had crushes on, some I went on dates to prom or otherwise with, I realized just how incredibly lucky I am to have met my husband. Not to diss any guy I went to high school with, but they have beautiful wives or girlfriends, in every photo they're beaming with joy, and I realize that God had our paths laid for us before we even knew who we were. My husband is gorgeous, smart, compassionate, sweet, brave, loyal, and everything I ever looked for in a man. While I may have had high-school crushes on some of these men, I'm so very glad I let God lead me to the man I now call my husband and the father to my children.

I feel like Facebook, funny as it sounds, has led me to a sense of closure about certain things in life; allowed me to let go of a fleeting sense of "what might have been". What if I had graduated from USC and never enlisted in the Navy? {I'd probably be an overweight, unhappy band teacher.} What if I had married one of my high school boyfriends? {I'd probably be wishing I had dated more & seen more of the world before I married.} The people in those pages will always hold a special place in my heart, whether they ignored me in high school or were my best friends. Somehow, they all are a part of who I am today.

I'll forever be of the belief that the young men and women from South Carolina are some of the best in the world. We are smarter, more determined (who else could support the Gamecocks like we do?), and have the kind of old-South grace and sophistication that people around the world yearn for. I've seen this during my time in the military more than ever, as I met people from around the nation and the world. You can almost pick out a South Carolinian in a crowd by their beauty, their decorum and posture, and their big smile. I always smile when I see a palmetto tree sticker on the back of a car up here in VA (and, yes, I proudly sport one too!), and I can't wait for the day I can return and wiggle my toes in the sand in Charleston, sip sweet tea, and listen to some James Taylor. And feel confident that although I may have travelled the road less taken, I'm still a South Carolinian at heart and will always have this group to relate to and remember with.

Cheap dinner...

So I had someone ask me for the recipe to dinner tonight...LOL! It's just an easy casserole that's cheap, healthy, and fast. Here's dinner tonight:
1 package stuffing: ~$1
1 can mixed veggies: ~$0.69
1 can cream of mushroom soup: ~$0.99
4 chicken tenderloins: ~$2.00

Prepare the stuffing according to box directions. In small casserole dish, mix drained can of veggies, chicken (cut into 1"chunks), and cream of mushroom soup. Also, mix in half of stuffing. On top of this, spread remaining half of stuffing. Bake, covered, at 400 for 30 minutes. Uncover and broil on HI for about 5 more minutes, until stuffing on top is crispy and browned. Serves 4 or 5.

Now tell me how you can feed a family of four or five for about $5.00?

My dad made casseroles a lot, and now I know why! They're cheap, easy, and yummy! Callie loves them. Anyway, today was a great day...got my transcript so I'm ready to start @ ODU now....nervous, but ready.

Well I have to run...Callie's harassing the cat again.

Good morning

It's a nice, calm morning...for some reason the kids are all very chilled out today and not wild-n-crazy like they usually are. I'm so ready for Logan to be home...I'm tired of being worried all the time. Those in his chain of command were going to transfer him to the Flight Deck shop, and after the accident this weekend, I'd rather him work in the burn room for the trash than work on the flight deck. I don't want any chance of him getting hurt.

There seems to be a lot of deaths on the Eisenhower in the past couple of years. I'm not trying to say anything negative, it just seems strange and is very nerve-wracking for those of us who have a loved one on that ship!! I try to stay positive, but when something like this happens it's very difficult to not imagine the possibilities of danger. My husband works with bombs!! If that's not enough to worry about, now they want to put him on the flight deck + bombs. I think I'll have a nervous breakdown!

I've heard a lot of negative comments about Navy wives lately, and let me tell you, this is one of the hardest roles to play in life. Military wife, police officer or fireman's wife, all of us have to go about our daily lives and maintain a sense of normalcy for the sake of our children; we have to play Mommy and Daddy, do the cooking, cleaning, yardwork, mechanical maintenance on vehicles, clean the gutters, do it all and still smile and pretend we're not worried to death every moment of every day. And then something like this happens and our facades crack for just a moment and we allow ourselves to call the ship's careline, to email everyone we know, to find the name of that poor sailor and then guiltily breathe a sigh of relief when it's not our husband. Only to immediately be overwhelmed with sorrow for his wife, pregnant with their third child and left to be the permanent deployment wife: taking care of her children alone while her husband is forever lost to the seas.

When I served in the Navy, I frequently felt our isolation and the extent to which we were at the mercy of the sea. Should the winds shift, a plane's propellor catch a draft, an airman take a step forward when it should have been backwards... as we floated out there with no land in sight, a self-sustaining mechanical island with the capability of a small city, small airport, and full battalion, the leer of death was around every ocean swell and in every churning thunderhead. From time to time, Davy Jones rises to remind us all of the danger of our jobs in the Navy; even the most routine underway can turn into tragedy.


On to brighter news: John is cutting another tooth and has grown at least a couple of inches... he's going to be very tall, I think...he's all legs with a big head (like an orange on a toothpick...ten bucks to whomever can name that movie!). Callie's tall for her age, too...must be what I'm feeding them :). Well, now John's staring at me and intermittenly screaming and laughing, so I think he wants me to play.

Happy news and sad news...

So I guess I'll do the happy news first...Janet had a doc's appt yesterday and she came home with much more news than she expected! She's pregnant again! (Less than 48 hours of looking at my two saying, "I don't know if I could deal with two.") Here's a pic of her telling her husband (she had to tell him over the phone b/c he was on duty and she couldn't wait...we were at a Mexican restaurant):


And, as a new life joins us, one departs. Davy Jones claimed another soul on Saturday, from the deck of the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. A sailor on board Logan's ship was struck by a jet's propellor on the flight deck and lost his life. It serves to remind us that no period out to sea on a warship is a "routine" event...there are always life-threatening circumstances and that Navy ships are no pleasure cruises; they are still ships of battle even when temporarily harbored stateside. Let's also keep in mind the poor sailors who had to recover his remains from the flight deck as Logan said it was a gruesome scene, yet it was necessary to continue with flight operations. So pause today and remember the life of this sailor whose family lost a son and brother, and if you know someone serving in the military, reach out today and tell them you love them and appreciate them, as you never know the next time you will see them.
And now I'll leave you with this: a moment to remember a fallen brother in our service on the sea: farewell, shipmate....your tour is over and your watch stands relieved. Fair winds and following seas, and God speed.

Sunday, Sunday

I wanted to write this morning because I probably won't get a chance later today. We've got to get off to church at 1030, and then after church we're running home to change and then meeting Janet and Christian at the zoo. They're having military appreciation day, so all military families are FREE! I'm so excited! Callie loves it, and my favorite part is the big giraffe exhibit with the deck that takes you up to their head level...lol. Callie's favorite part is the hippo, or at least it was the last time we went.

I've gotten on Facebook after receiving the fourth email inviting me from somebody or other. So I finally signed up and now I'm talking to people I haven't talked to in almost a decade...it's pretty insane! I got a message from Marybeth Johnson this morning...crazy! I haven't seen her since high school. I'm trying to get my mom to join, because I'll post new pics of the kids all the time (like this one of Callie in her new puffy vest Daddy bought her last month that she's been dying to wear and it was finally cool enough).

Oh, if anyone has advice on AT&T Razr cell phones acting up, I'd appreciate it. My phone has been perfect for the past year, and suddenly it doesn't get signal...anywhere. My friends have been calling and just get a busy signal or as soon as I open the phone to answer it, the phone turns off and back on. In fact, here's a pic I took when I was attempting to connect to my Bluetooth to send Logan a pic of John (it's weird that a picture I took by accident turns out better than when I'm posing for a photo...): And here's the pic I was attempting to send...John was mad because I ran out of his diapers and had to put one two sizes too big for him and it was bunching up when I took this photo: Anyway, I've been meaning to post pics of our Saturday walk...every Saturday, we go downtown and walk...we have a route: we start at the coffeehouse (A Latte) where I'll get a frappe or a smoothie and Callie gets ice cream (and lately, a banana, because the owners have come to know her as "Monkey Girl" and give her a banana every trip!), then we walk down Freemason to the Market where Kelly has a wine tasting every Sat from 12-3 and we sample 2 or 3 new wines and she teaches us about them, then we stroll down to Town Point Park where there's usually a festival of some kind going on, then on to McArthur Center or perhaps the Gallery of artists, then home for a Saturday snooze while Logan cuts the grass. Of course, recently I've been going alone since Logan's out to sea, but it's a tradition so I just go alone with the kids. Thank goodness we have a double stroller! I was SO looking forward to my parents coming on our walk with us, but they had to cancel their trip here. Logan and I are extremely disappointed...we were looking forward to it so much, and we had already told the kids Grandmama and Grandaddy were coming. Logan gets the feeling that my parents will only come see us if they have absolutely nothing else to do that week, like visiting us is a last resort, but I've told him that Travis still works and he can't just not go to work so my parents still have to honor his work obligation. I do wish they could visit more often, though.

Well, it's off to get the kids and myself dressed and off to church!

Lazy Saturday

I love Saturday mornings...I'm still in my 'jammies and Callie fell asleep beside me on the couch watching cartoons. I'm just about done with my homework for the week, so I might be able to actually enjoy the zoo tomorrow without worrying about my schoolwork.

Janet and I went to Hunt Club Farms last night to the Haunted Hayride and all that. The hayride was alright b/c I just kept my eyes closed...LOL...I heard everybody else screaming but nothing jumped on the wagon next to me or touched me, so I was alright. Then in the Village of the Dead, they kept touching me so I was freaking out, like a little girl. :) Then I was just about done, but Janet made me go through the Field of Screams and she said it wasn't a big deal (she went last year)...she literallly said, "It's not like Children of the Corn or anything," and that's exactly what it was like!!! We had to literally walk through a cornfield and there were people in the corn, and then you came to this old barn and you had to walk through it in pitch black....yeah, by the time we got out of that field, I was DONE...lol! Janet said, "That corn field was NOT like that last year!" and I said, "The corn grew, Janet, it does that." So now I'm definitely in Halloween spirit.

We also went shopping for our Halloween costumes. I got a referee chick outfit, and Janet got her bride of frankenstein outfit. We had to try on tons of them to find something we could both agree on. At least I had an honest person with me..lol...Logan would have said they all looked alright.

Well John's waking up so I better run. Today we're going to find something to get into...I think there's a festival downtown that we'll go check out.

There's always a morning after

Well I stayed up too late watching the debate and the subsequent reviews on various news channels. And I still feel like I have no idea what to do. Basically, Fox News was busy saying Biden lied while CNN was busy saying Palin lied. They both had documented sources to back up their claims of candidate dishonesty. I don't like how Palin referred to average Americans as "Joe Six-Pack and hockey moms"...I think that's an unfair portrayal, especially for non-drinking men and career women, which make up a large part of the population. I understand she's trying desperately to appeal to the "average Joe" but demeaning us isn't exactly going to do the trick, in my book. I don't see how she can possibly relate to my family as her husband is working for an oil company and has worked there for quite a while and her family has quite a nice lifestyle. Of course, neither can any of the candidates. When you only have bred, Ivy-league candidates preened for the Presidency and associated offices, what can you expect?

This campaign has turned into one big filibuster that's delayed any action on the bailout and detracting attention from our troops in Iraq, who are still being injured and killed while we're watching the presidential-campaign circus. While we are glued to MSNBC and bickering about dirty ads and Wall Street, this man lost his life in Iraq fighting for our freedoms:

Spc. Christopher T. Fox, 21, of Memphis, Tenn., died Sept. 29 in Adhamiyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when he encountered small arms fire while on patrol. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/list.php

It's sad that this man will get little to no recognition for his sacrifice, and his family's grief will be shadowed by 24/7 pundit coverage of the campaing. Yes, the campaign is important, but we should never forget about the guys (and gals) in the Middle East struggling to stay alive while we figure out who their next commander-in-Chief will be.

Rest in peace, Spc. Fox. At 21 years old, this man's life was cut short before he had the joy of experiencing it. I do hope that your death will not be in vain, and we thank you and your family for your tremendous sacrifice.

My husband is currently off the coast of the US. While he is simply performing drills, we are never aware of the time and date our nation will again be attacked. He is on a floating target in the middle of a vast and deadly ocean. I never take for granted the time he is home, and I never sleep easy when he is out there.

Can we please take a moment to remember that, although we are in the midst of selecting a president in a pivotal time in American history, there are men and women in uniform worldwide who still need our support and attention. We cannot merely forget about the foreign conflicts and those fighting in them. This morning my daughter signed a letter to her daddy that I wrote, and she asked, "Daddy home day? (Daddy home today?)" I smiled and said, "No, baby, Daddy's out working to keep the bad guys away, but he loves you very much and he will be home soon." And thank God, unlike so many of our brothers and sisters, he will.

A peek into my life

This morning was typically typical, so I thought I'd share the events of my day before noon, or even, before nine:

Wake up at 4:30 and open the door for Austin and Jacob. They go immediately to the couch and fall back asleep, and I go back to bed for another hour and a half. Wake up at 6:00, make my bed, and take a shower, get dressed, etc. Wake up John and Callie, get them dressed. Wake up Austin and Jacob and give Austin Toaster Streudel while I load the kids (and their ridiculously oversized carseats) into the car. Get Austin in the car and off to school.

Get home from taking Austin to school around 7:45. Usually Lucas and his mom are waiting when we get home. Open the door and unload Jacob, Callie, and John into the house. Turn on PBS to entertain them until I cook breakfast. Pop John out of his carseat and into his walker. Start coffee brewing.

While pan for pancakes is heating up, move clothes from washer to dryer and take clothes from dryer and put them in hamper to fold later. Mix pancake batter and make dozens of tiny pancakes. In a separate pan, cook two eggs for myself and pop some wheat bread in the toaster for myself. Make my first cup of coffee while flipping pancakes. Call the kids in to the kitchen and get them seated while I put tiny pancakes on tiny cartoony plates, cut them up for Callie and Lucas, but not Jacob because he doesn't like them cut up. Drizzle on a tiny amount of syrup, enough for taste but not enough to end up in toddler hair, where it will later cement. Slice up an orange and divide the slices evenly among the plates. Give plates to kids. Put dirty pans in the dishwasher and feel guilty once again for not buying an EnergyStar washer.

Make a bottle for John and put him down for his morning nap. Run back to the kitchen in time to avoid a toddler food fight and take their dirty plates and put them in non-EnergyStar (*guilty*) dishwasher. Wipe their sticky hands with a warm, wet washcloth, NOT a baby wipe because a baby wipe does NOT remove syrup well but a washcloth does the trick. Herd the kids to Callie's room for them to play and put baby gate up so they don't run amuck in the house.

Sit down to eat my breakfast...now cold. Attempt to read at least the headlines and some of my incoming email before the first toddler fight. Finish my breakfast, take my dish to put in the dishwasher, and see the basket of unfolded laundry on kitchen table. Make second cup of coffee. Fold the laundry. After bending down to pick up a fallen sock, notice dirt on floor. Finish folding laundry, then sweep and mop entire kitchen, dining room, and living room. While waiting for floor to dry, decide to vacuum hall and bedrooms.

And now it's 9:51. I just thought I'd check my email quickly to see if Logan had written (which he hasn't yet...he can never write before noon, but I always check anyway). So there's a rundown of my day, all before 9:51. After this, I'll finish vacuuming, clean the bathroom, move the clothes from the washer to the dryer, fold the whites that are currently in the dryer, and put those items away. Then I'll cook and feed the kids lunch, get them down for their afternoon nap, and finally sit down and do my homework for my science class. Then Carrie will arrive at 1:30 and we'll chat and then I'll go pick up Austin from school and spend the afternoon making sure he doesn't singlehandedly destroy my home. And then I'll put my kiddos to bed, spend a little more time on my schoolwork, and hit the hay around 11. And arise again tomorrow to do it all over!