Senior Pics - Michael, Class of 2014

I was very happy with how Michael's senior pics turned out.  I didn't go in with a lot of expectation and was pleasantly surprised.  I know there are many people who think that senior pics for boys aren't a big deal like they are for girls but I beg to differ.  Mothers of boys want the same memories.  I want to look at pictures and see my child, his personality and the things that matter to him.  I am so grateful that the photographer was able to capture that for me.  We got over 20 images and these are just a few of my absolute favorite!

TDT #34: The Best Night's Sleep in 7 Months!

One of the ways I have always done my countdowns when my  husband is away is by counting trash days.  Most of the time it isn't as daunting a number as the estimated number of days he'll be gone.  And it helps me remember to put the trash out, or rather encourage my boys to put the trash out since it's their job.  So this will be my new weekly post, and I'll just really post whatever, no real set theme.  Please feel free to join me on this adventure of counting down the time until your loved one comes home!

 

I love midtour leave!  We get 30 glorious days with our Soldier!  Since he's not assigned to a unit here, it will be a month of no interruption.  The week before he got here I was an emotional mess!  I was anxious and excited.  It had been 7 months since I've seen him, held him, looked straight in his face.  We've had three...yes three skype sessions in 7 months so I was so looking forward to just seeing his smiling face.  Pictures on Facebook just aren't enough to see for yourself that all is right with him.

It seemed like the weekend was the slowest EVER.  I just wanted it to be Monday already.  He would send me messages telling me he couldn't sleep either.  We were so ready to be a family together again.  I think if one more person asked me if I was excited, I might have had to hurt them.

Driving to the airport I was so excited.  The kids slept the entire way..so much for excited conversation to keep me going.  They were excited too, I love that my boys love their daddy so much.  As we waited for Kevin's plane to come in, I could tell they were all a little nervous too but didn't want to say anything.  As soon as they spotted him coming out of the gate, they all jumped up with the biggest smiles ever.  

I love that they let me me always have the first kiss and hug.  Then usually it's Daniel and then Michael and Neil get their turns.  I love how tightly they hugged their dad...no shame. 

  

 I can never get Neil to give me a real smile for pictures these days...as you can see, there is was no problem that day!

 Kevin was starving when he got home and it was late, so we found a Crackerbarrel and had our first meal together.  I loved how all the boys wanted to get 7 months of conversation in that first hour together.  I love the feeling of being complete. 

We finally got home way after midnight, but that did not stop our pups from being so excited to see Daddy too!  They love Kevin.  They were acting so crazy!

After finally getting settled and Kevin taking a shower, we all went to bed...at 3:30 in the morning!  The boys did not want to leave Kevin's side.  We did not get up until 11 a.m. and then laid around being lazy until noon.  It was so nice to feel rested and complete.  I rarely get to bed when Kevin's not home before 2 a.m. and then turn around and get up with the boys at 5 a.m.

I love how the girls didn't want to leave Kevin's side either, silly pups!

I am going to enjoy the next few weeks with my love. We are going to enjoy being together as a family.  We will cherish the moments and make memories.  Because Korea is a hardship tour and not a deployment, we had to pay for Kevin's ticket home and I will say it is worth every single penny!

Kev was surprised at how much all the boys had grown since he left.  Here is a picture from the day he left and the day he got home on leave.  Yup, the boys aren't holding back on their growth spurts! 

What's a Picture Really Worth?

You've heard that "a picture speaks a thousand words"?  I may take that a bit literal.  It's no secret to anyone who has known me but a few minutes that I love my camera.  I often get made fun of because I am always snapping pictures of nearly every aspect of our life.  I torture my family by getting family pictures done at least once a year.  I'm quite intense about it.  I have taken thousands upon thousands of pictures this year.  I would say the majority of them are pretty crappy.  I bought myself a new camera but I won't lie, I don't really know how to use it properly...but I'm learning.

So the question I get asked all the time is why...why do you take so many pictures?  Last night as I was trying to find a picture to show a friend of ours, I went through a few albums and came across one from Kevin's deployment to Iraq in 2005/2006.  I came across this picture:

Suddenly I was overwhelmed with emotion.  I was irritated a few days ago when someone made a snarky comment about not recognizing me without my camera at the boys wrestling practice.  While I paused and pondered over this image I realized why.

I have known for a long time why I am so attached to my camera and it has to do with that man in the picture, Bryant.  Bryant was killed a few weeks after that picture was taken by my husband.  I had sent a camera with Kevin and insisted that he take pictures.  I know he didn't like taking pictures but he loves me and was willing to do it for me.  Most of the Soldiers were happy to pose. The majority of the families left behind were grateful when I had a picture to share.

On 28 April 2006, I received a phone call from a casualty notification officer telling me that LaNita was requesting my presence.  As much as I wanted to believe it wasn't the worst, I knew deep in my heart that it was.  As I spent the afternoon with her and the many days, weeks and months with her following that phone call, I felt blessed that she shared with me glimpses of her life with Bryant.  We spent hours poring over photo albums and we cried, we laughed and she even got mad when she saw a picture of him with a big wad of chew in his mouth.  She told me time and time again how grateful she was for those pictures.  Since then, every picture has become a treasure.

I realized that it had been a long time since had a family picture done.  I had very few pictures of Kevin and I together.  I had few pictures that I was even in.  I made a decision right then that I would change that.  Just a few weeks later Kevin came home and we had one of the most emotionally charged photo shoots ever.  Those pictures will always be some of my favorites because not only were they great, they were part of our healing process and part of our promise to move towards the future.

Since then I have made it my goal to try and capture moments.  I may take hundreds of pictures at a single event and most may come out bad but there is usually one that makes me smile or cry or just remember and I feel blessed by that.  I have no desire to be a professional photographer (way too much pressure) but I will always love snapping photos.  I want to always be able to be able to connect a tangible reminder to a wonderful moment in my life and the lives of those I care about.  With Kevin being gone this year I want to keep him as connected as possible and pictures and technology are a wonderful way to do that.

So when people ask me why I take so many pictures, my answer will be...because a picture is worth a thousand words and a tangible connection to precious and priceless moments in our lives.

Family Pictures 2012

Back in June we had our annual family pictures done. I will admit that I don't love these pics. I also admit I'm a tough person to please on pictures and if I don't go into a photo session with a complete vision in my head of how I want things, I'm often disappointed. I wasn't entirely happy with the choice of outfits we wore for family pictures so I think that had a lot to do with it. I love the photographer who did our pictures, she's a friend and talented so I don't want anyone to think I'm bashing her. Some of the pictures came out exactly like I imagined them and others I think were probably wonderful in my mind and so my expectation was higher than reality. Overall I'm happy with them and she did capture the essence of our family and that does make me smile.

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Photos Just To Make You Smile

I was looking at pictures that I took with my phone today and these four just made me smile.  The first couple are one I took of our dog Zoe.  I had gotten out of bed and was doing some stuff around the house when I noticed that I had not heard or seen Zoe in a while.  She usually follows me right out of the bed and then gets comfortable on her spot on the couch.  Well she wasn't there and she wasn't responding to me when I called out her name.  Finally I decided she was probably chilling somewhere and I'd find her before I had to leave the house.  When I went into our bedroom to get ready for the day I noticed that Zoe had never left the bed.  She had gotten quite comfortable in our comforter.  Here she is pulling her head out from under the comforter when I asked her what she was doing.

  When I told her that she needed to stop being lazy and get out out of bed, this was her response!

 

I ended up having to pick her up and carry her to her kennel when I left.  I guess she was extra tired today, silly dog!

The pictures below really made me smile.  The office I volunteer in is moving.  We have a lot of furniture and office paperwork/supplies that need to be moved.  One of our staff was able to get a detail of Marines to come help us out.  It was really fun watching them because they were very serious (most of the time).  After a while of them being there, one of my friends showed up.  She is a Drill Sergeant and works the night shift so she comes in to volunteer in the same building I do for a couple hours before going to work.  The Marines were doing okay most of the time but occasionally needed a little motivation.  Amanda didn't hesitate to do a little encouraging when it was needed.  It was really fun to watch the group interact with each other.  And as you can see I was a huge help by taking pictures, haha!

 This picture below is Amanda getting on the floor to pull a strip of rubber that had gotten caught during the moving of these turn-arounds.  The Marines had tried to do it but couldn't so finally she just laid on the floor to do it herself.  It really was a fun day in the office with the Marines and Amanda working together to get things done!  I really love my life and all the adventures I get to be a part of!

Basic Training Flashback

Back in November I facilitated a Drill Sergeant Spouse seminar and posted about it in this entry. This past week I received a CD with pictures on it from our "official" garrison command photographer. The pictures were AMAZING! There were over 266 pictures. The seminar was a two day event, one day being classroom instruction and the second day being a hands on "day in the life" kind of event. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I was really shocked at how emotional I was throughout the day remembering back to when I went to basic training. Looking at these pictures I had to laugh at myself and the reactions that the photographers captures. They aren't the best of pictures of me (reality check, remember!) but I am going to share them anyway.

Warning! There are quite a few more pictures than I would normally post!

Day 1 was the classroom environment, here I am teaching something.

The lovely cattle car that we traveled to each station in on day 2.

Me & Joy, one of our new instructors who helped me out with the seminar. (I knew I was going to be doing lots of physical stuff on a windy day so I did not dress up or worry about hair...obviously!)

At the range...getting ready to shoot the M-60...

I still had it...shot really well!

Here I am talking to two other Veterans, it was fun reminiscing with others who had been there.

Cari and I getting ready to "report" to a drill sergeant...
Here we are at the Dining Facility. The Drill Sergeant was explaining that now there has to be an arm length between the Soldiers. When I went through, it was heel to toe (and I hated it!).

The reactions here are classic..this was us watching the trainees come in and the Drill Sergeant's all over them

If you read my previous entry, you know that those who were Veterans got rather choked up. This picture captured it perfectly.

Back in the cattle car...still processing our DFAC experience

Getting a tour of the barracks, this room was exactly like my room in AIT.

I wasn't going to post this picture because it's a really bad picture of me and that face! I was actually upset that they had trainees on display for us...there was a trainee next to the wall lockers I am looking at. I guess it's true that sometimes I wear my emotions on my sleeve.

At the simulation range (I still hate shooting in the prone position)

Getting instructions on our team building activity. We had to get our whole team across three poles with two wood planks, a rope and an ammo box.

I still can't believe I did it...I am much heavier than I was at basic and was super self-conscious about it, but these women were fabulous and so encouraging!

Group shot...I feel so lucky to have been able to spend a day with these Soldiers and Spouses!

Wrapping it all up

Christmas 2011

*Warning! - Long post ahead and picture overload!*

You can click on all of the collages and make them bigger if you want to see the pics clearer.

Yeah, it's two days after Christmas and I have been a total bum! I really have just enjoyed being lazy and doing nothing! Yesterday I pretty much laid in bed all day reading and I enjoyed every second of it! Well, I did go to the eye doctor in the morning and got new glasses and contacts ordered but aside from that I did nothing all day. Sometimes I think we just need to do that.

I finally decided to be somewhat productive today and actually got out of bed and uploaded pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We were truly blessed this holiday to be together and to be able to serve others at the same time. I guess our holiday started on Thursday when Santa came through housing and did a Candy Cane Toss. My boys enjoyed it just as much at the little kids! It was quite exciting when we walked out of the house to see Santa when we heard the sirens and my MIL let the door close behind us and managed to lock us out. Luckily, we had left the bathroom window open so we just shoved Daniel through and he saved the day! We then joined some friends and went caroling at the nursing home in one of the surrounding towns. It was a lot of fun. The kids performed The Nativity and we sang songs to go along with the story. I really enjoyed watching the men and women sing along with us. Afterwards, we went to our friend's house and enjoyed some wonderful goodies and lots of laughs. Kevin and our friend Dave put on some wigs and let me tell you, I don't think I have laughed so hard in a very long time. The kids didn't really know how to react to their dad's being so silly! They were HILARIOUS!

Friday we just relaxed at home and tried out the new steakhouse in town, had a great meal and then went and got the boys new socks and underwear...yeah they really were excited about it! Only my kids would be excited about new underclothing...haha

Christmas Eve we headed over to the USO to help serve a full Christmas dinner to the Soldiers who stayed behind. We had a blast! I love that our family can serve in so many ways and our boys truly enjoy being at the USO. We also got to witness a special homecoming of Soldiers returning from Afghanistan at the field house next door to the USO. It was a great Christmas present for all involved. I love homecomings!
That night we went over to some friend's house for a wonderful meal and just chatted throughout the evening. The kids put on The Nativity again and we got quite a chuckle out of it, they really were cute. We are so blessed with such great people in our lives to share special holidays with.
We came home and each of the boys got to open one gift. They each opened their 2011 ornament. Every year we get them a new ornament that represents something about them during the year. The boys all loved their ornaments! I know I will be sad the day they all move out and start their own families and take their ornaments with them!

Christmas Day was a fun yet simple day. We got up, got dressed and were all ready for church in record time! We told the boys if they thought they could open all their presents before we had to leave to be at church on time then they could! Well they managed to have them all open with about 6 minutes to spare, lol. I admit we spoiled our kids a bit this year and they pretty much all got everything they asked for. We just feel blessed to be where we are. Kevin and I were happy with our gifts and honestly just seeing our kids happy is such a joy!

I promise Daniel is happy, even if he doesn't look like it! lol

After church, we ventured over to the USO to help hand out gifts to the Soldiers. Daniel loves to do this, he did it last year and now wants to do it every year. It was a lot of fun seeing the Soldiers so excited about things like Slim Jim's and Kool-aid chapstick! Michael helped one of the USO volunteers who we have grown to love so much bake all the cookies they were going to serve the Soldiers. I feel so blessed to have such great examples of service for my kids to see.


We truly had a wonderful Christmas and feel so blessed. Through it all we remembered those who were far away from home, serving overseas while their families missed them this holiday season. We are truly grateful for the men and women who serve in the Military, sacrificing their own luxuries and freedoms to protect ours. Thank you is not enough!