He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me!

Yesterday was a bad day for me. I have been overstressed, getting over being sick, had a pinch in my back, started back working out yesterday .. just overall, over it :-)

Anyhow, Mike called and I was less than cordial as I was trying to tend to the kids and find time to study for a big exam I have tomorrow! He seemed like he wanted to ask or say something, but wasn't .. so we said our goodbyes and I went back to my busy day. A couple hours later, someone knocks on the door and there is a random lady standing there with a bouquet of flowers. Could it be, they are for me? Who would send me flowers? It isn't my birthday, my anniversary, I am not recovering from surgery, hmmmm. As I am opening the card, Mike walks through the door and was shocked they were just now arriving. I said, that is why you called earlier and sounded as though you were waiting for news of some sort :-)

It was a very sweet, much needed gesture! It made the rest of my day MUCH better. Only your best friend knows JUST when you need a pick me up! And then we proceeded to make the worse dinner we have ever ate together and we all ended up eating cereal for dinner @ 7pm!

The Family Scare!

Ok, so I have to admit, Mike and I overestimated the power of a vasectomy! Apparently we thought that he would have the procedure and all would be good ... not so much! Thank God I chose to stay on my birth control, at least for a while longer. Mike had his count done (3 months after the procedure mind you) and he still has sperm swimming around. I thought for sure we were going to have an "Oops" baby. Yesterday I was feeling nauseous at lunch and the past 3 days I have had horrible heart burn and I am 2 days late for my cycle .. blah blah blah, so Mike bought me a test this morning and it was a big fat Negative! Thank you God for not thinking highly enough of me and knowing that 2 is all this momma can handle :-) I love my babies, but a newborn with a 1 year old and a 4 year old .. not exactly my idea of a good time!

To all of you irresponsible teenagers out there, I now know how you feel! I had my first "scare" (being that I planned my pregnancies).

One Gorgeous Baby

Who would have thought I would be a wife and mother. Even more so to 3 wonderful human beings!? I am truly blessed! My son tells me he loves me more in one day than I could count on two hands, my daughter truly loves her brother and is a total mommys girl, and I have a husband who tells me he loves me .. unprovoked, unrehearsed and just because he really does love me. He is an amazing man and a wonderful provider. I see such a beautiful person when I look at him and could not ask for anything more. Anyhow, sometimes I just have to get it off my chest of how grateful I am to have this family of mine! I don't know what I did, but I am going to keep on doing it! :-)

Here are some gorgeous pictures of Kaeli that I had taken in VA.

Date Night

Dinner at the Broker Restaurant
On the front porch
Our own private entry/swing

So, I am rejuvenated! I surprised Mike with a romantic getaway to a bed & breakfast in downtown Denver. It was fabulous from beginning to end! He had no clue, just knew that he had to dress up and be okay with leaving the kids with our friends Jim and Crystal. We drove to downtown and I started freaking out (he later told me he could tell by the look on my face) because we were driving through homeless people laying every 5 ft! It was very sad, but also very scary. Anyhow, we got through the "bad" side of town and there it was, this cute little quaint bed and breakfast surrounded by beautiful greenery and a cute wrought iron fence. Mike was pretty excited when he figured out what we were doing. Our room was a private one in the back of the house with a private entry and a porch with a porch swing. We relaxed outside with a bottle of wine and talked for 2 HOURS! It was amazing ... even more so that we had enough to talk about for 2 hours :-) The next surprise, a town car to pick us up and take us to this super fancy restaurant called The Broker. It is an old bank vault they turned into a restaurant, complete with a huge wine cellar you can rent out for private parties. We enjoyed one of the best meals either of us ever had, another bottle of wine and another 2 hours of great conversation and quiet time. The town car came and picked us up and took us back to the bed and breakfast where we turned in for the night. The next day we enjoyed an incredible eggs benedict with fresh fruit, coffee and juice for breakfast. The whole event could not have turned out better .. it was just what we needed to rejuvenate ourselves and reconnect after being so long since we had our last "date". Thanks to Jim and Crystal for taking such good care of our babies and being such wonderful friends (and family). We love them dearly and enjoy our weekends up in Denver with them.

Daddy's Home!

We are so excited and could not wait to get him from the airport this morning. He has only been gone for 1 week, but being that were were gone for 3 came home and 2 days later daddy left, we have been missing him pretty bad! We went out to lunch at Golden Corral and Ethan was his shadow .. would not let him out of his sight!

I have a romantic weekend planned. We are going up to Denver tomorrow to play cards with friends and stay over and then Saturday I am surprising Mike with an overnight stay at a gorgeous bed and breakfast in the city, a town car to take us to dinner (included in the B&B package) and I am so looking forward to it! Hopefully Ethan does not have a melt down with us leaving him at Crystal and Jim's house! He loves it there, but being that Mike has been gone so long, we may have issues.

Kaeli had a first yesterday and today. Yesterday she sat in the grocery cart without her carseat and was so pleased with herself. She giggled at Ethan the whole time and had a good old time driving the rocket ship. Then today at lunch we had her sitting in the high chair .. it is going by too fast!

Mike was in TX and brought back some real cool stuff for Ethan. He brought him a davy crocket hat and a whole thing of stick on mustaches since Ethan likes to play detective. It was pretty cute!

Naked Chef

Tonight I decided to make breakfast for dinner (I always am stumped when Mike it gone). I asked Ethan if he wanted to help me and he of course obliged. We go his apron on out of his cooking set and he was ready. He started cracking eggs like he was a professional chef! We poured the eggs in and he stirred them while they cooked, put the cheese in them, made the toast and set the table. Half way through he turned to me and said "I love you mom, thanks for letting me help you make dinner". It was the sweetest, most genuine comment. He truly was so excited to help ... and actually do it! I am so amazed at what a big boy he is now and how independent!

My Childish Moment

So, as most of you know, pretty much just as we got home from our 3 week trip and put our suit cases down, Mike was deployed (so to speak) down for hurrican relief. I exagerate, we had 2 days with him! Anyhow, he left with not much notice so it left a lot for me to do. Not complaining, but let me list just a few :-)

Unpack, "spring clean" and reorganize, swap out summer clothes for winter in the kids' room since it is in the high 50s here, change light bulbs, keep up with my school work, get kaeli her 6 month shots (we are 1 month behind because of the move), get Ethan ready to start school, attend stroller strides classes, mow the yard ... and the list goes on. Which brings me to mow the yard. I finally got a moment to do this, I get on my yard shoes, drag the lawn mower out back, choke it and yank the heck out of the pull cord .. NOTHING. Okay, so I try again. All the while, Ethan is standing on the back porch watching me attempt to start this 8 year old lawn mower that has never let me down through all of our deployments. Pull, nothing. Pull, nothing. Pull, nothing. After about 5 minutes of this my childish ... I'm fed up ... I need mike here ... I am exhausted ... I can't get this stupid thing working attitude comes out. Here is my supportive 4 year old son, "mommy, can I help you?" Poor thing was feeling pretty bad for me at this point. I must have growled at this lawn mower pretty loud because this random man whom I had never met before comes walking across the field from the culdesac behind us with his little son and asks if I need help. One of the reasons I Love Military Life! Camaraderie ... there is nothing like it! I blurt out, "I am so embarrassed! Yes, sir I would love some help thank you." It worked when my husband left, but isn't that how it goes? He starts it after about 6 pulls, I cannot believe it! So I made sure not to let that sucker go. I held that handle down and kicked all of our yard toys out of the way as I barreled through the yard mortified that I acted so childish, and had to actually accept someones help! I was not about to go through that again!

HOME

The kids and I are home in Colorado. On the airplane ride he would tell people, "I am going to see my daddy" It was awesome to see Ethan's reaction when he saw his daddy. He started running and yelled out this huge "DADDY!", gave him a big hug that lasted forever and then proceeded to start a game of tag in the airport ... it was sweet to see them together. Kaeli would not keep her eyes off him. She would smile her sweet smile and giggle at everything he said to her. Although, she would not let him put her to sleep! Mommy had to do it .. this better not be a trend that continues :-) I was exhausted, my body ached from the long plane rides and inability to maneuver much being that Kaeli was on my lap the entire time. Mike gave me some much needed rest laying on the couch and attempted to put Kaeli to bed for me (see previous sentence). He was so grateful to have us home .. you could tell he really missed us. It was wierd being the one "gone", usually it is him that leaves! I think the consensus is that I will no longer travel on a plane by myself with 2 kids unless a family emergency occurs (let's pray that does not happen). The kids were great, don't get me wrong, but it is just draining. Keeping my eye on Ethan in crowded airports, trying to pee with Kaeli in the front carrier, trying to unfold my huge, gigantic, enormous, awkward double jogger stroller while holding said baby in the front carrier and trying not to allow her head to bobble while doing so, entertaining an almost 4 year old for 2 2.5 hour plane rides a 1 hour layover, all the while again holding said baby in one arm either feeding, rocking, wrestling, balancing .. you name it! All in all, the trip was not THAT BAD. Both kids slept more this time than on our way out there (being that they did not sleep at all on the trip out to VA). On our layover I got Ethan McDonalds and after he ate, which he ate ALL of .. hungry boy, I let him run around the eating area. I am sure some people thought my child was undisciplined and a bit obnoxious but he had just been a huge helper with sissy and not to mention an awesome little boy on the airplane. I could not see not letting him exurt some energy in between flights. To think I get to do this all over again in 6 weeks when we return for my sister's wedding! haha

Anyhow, today has been a day of unpacking, cleaning, resting and being thankful to be home with my family. I love my parents and siblings, but my home is now here with Mike and the kids and I am so happy here. It is a beautiful late summer day with a cool breeze and that feeling that fall is one the way.

Thanks to everyone who allowed us to sleep at your houses, my girlfriends for a wonderful night out and great playdates, Meghan who took awesome pictures of Kaeli (which I will post when I get them), my wonderful grandma who allowed me to use her car for 3 weeks ... you guys were all so great! I am thankful for the time I got to spend with you all.