Camped Out on Mt. Never-Rest

It's all about the accessories!

2009-11-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

When Shelby first found this little purse, we thought it was sort of funny how she had to "wear" it around the house. Then she did it again when she got up the next day. And the next. And then Pete told me that I really should be taking pictures of her doing this...I'm sure when I get settled and get my scrap stuff out again, these pics are going to make an adorable scrapbook page highlighting her affinity for her little red purse. A girl's just gotta have a good bag!!! Stealing Daddy's coffee mug and snitching the last few drops...Ooh.....a new accessory--gotta be just like big sis and have a cell phone!I've forgotten...what is it that BOYS carry around???

What's up, doc?

2009-11-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

I am! It's almost twenty till midnight, and I'm wired...exhausted and wired all at the same time, how unfair is that? I feel like I could go two hundred miles a minute, but my body is SCREAMING at me. Must be the weather.

Simple Woman's Daybook, 11/9/09

2009-11-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

FOR TODAY, November 9, 2009...

Outside my window... It is cloudy, cool-ish, and not so pretty anymore now that the trees are past peak. The beauty of Fall just does not last long enough!

I am thinking... that this week is going to be anything BUT simple. I'm already about twenty steps behind the power curve with regard to this move; I'm buried in a sea of laundry, and I have far too much "stuff" to get either put or thrown away. I don't want to have to sift through two or three boxes of extraneous junk in the new house, thank you very much.

I am thankful for... how bountifully the Lord has blessed us in the last few years. Counting those blessings would be a task too numerous to take on. It boggles the mind how good God is. It would be far too easy for us to get caught up in thinking that we've had a rough run of things for so many years that we somehow "deserve" this "good luck" we've fallen into, but I'm not that faithless. I KNOW the Lord's hand when I see it!!!

I am wearing... a gray tee and white shorts. Too warm for jeans today, with all the moving around I'm doing!

I am remembering... that it doesn't have to be perfect. DONE, yes, but not perfectly done.

I am going... CRAZY!!!! Ok, maybe not really. Close to it, though! Alright, alright....back down to earth. I'm not going much of anywhere today, except maybe out to Kroger tonight after the girls are all in bed to pick up milk and juice so I don't have to do it tomorrow. I think an impromptu cheap working-date may be in order to Sonic for a mocha java chiller. I need chilling out already, and the day isn't even half over!

I am reading... Beautiful Girlhood by Karen Andreola. I'm ashamed to say that even after bringing one daughter to near adulthood, I still have no idea how to be "girly" and feminine. My tomboy roots run far too deep, and with five more little girls behind her, it's just way beyond time for me to do some learning in that regard. Hmm....I may want to call my mom and see if she hurt herself passing out after reading that...

I am hoping... that all the littles cooperate with me over the next couple of days. I am SOOO thankful that Pete is off on Wednesday (okay, SOME of the day....how silly is it that our soldiers have to show up in uniform on Veteran's Day to march in a mandatory parade?); I'm really hoping to have some time to get things put away without having to do it between bottles and diapers.

On my mind... is a mental to-do list. I fear I'm just way too mentally occupied with this stuff, it's beginning to border on compulsion!

From the learning rooms... While Kelsey won't be taking any time "off" from school, we are just going to pack up Morgan's and Jamie's schoolbooks along with everything else. They're kindergarteners; it really isn't going to hurt them to skip a couple of weeks. Lord willing, we'll have everything unpacked and in working order by the end of next week. In the meantime, they'll be helping us out with the putting away, cleaning (they've each got a magic eraser to hit those marked-up walls with...I'm hoping the work will deter them from putting pencil to plaster again).

Noticing that... Kasey is getting congested again. The news report a couple of weeks back mentioned that on average, people would get three colds this season. Morgan's got it, Dani has it, Shelby is starting to get a little snotty, and now Kasey. The current cold is round two for us.

Pondering these words... "Be still and know that I am God." It's that "be still" part I have trouble with!

From the kitchen... Steak and potatoes tonight. I do LOVE me some grilled steak!

Around the house... Oh boy....don't get me started.

One of my favorite things... Unpacking into a new house and getting things "just so". I am VERY excited to know that next week, we'll be doing just that. All this work will be well worth the effort!

A few plans for the week... Well, lessee....we already had the housing pre-inspection this morning, plus Pete is going to Huntsville Utilities to pay the utility deposit and set up our service to begin on Friday. Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, I'll be cleaning and organizing for the packers. Thursday, I have my annual doctor's appointment for all those lovely girlie tests. Ick. Pete will be handling the packer-watching by himself for a little while that day! Friday, we'll switch places while he goes to the closing and I am here while the packers load our stuff on the truck. Friday evening and Saturday we'll be cleaning THIS house and getting our mattresses over to the new house. Our fridge will be delivered Saturday. Wow...Saturday really seems like it's a month away!

From my picture journal... This picture was not taken recently; in fact, it was last November when the last of our household goods were delivered to us. However, I got this picture back out because this is what we are in for this week!

Many thanks to Peggy for hosting The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Girls' room ideas!

2009-11-06T14:06:00.001-08:00

Okay, my creative juices are now free-flowing, I just need to get this "written" down so I don't forget it before dinner...

Leafing through my Better Homes and Gardens mags (I've amassed quite a collection these last few weeks just browsing in the thrift shop--I'm MORE than happy to pay a quarter for magazines people are finished reading, and yep, I'll even pay a buck for the last three issues!), I found a really cute girls' bedroom, and it was even done up dormitory-style (ie., twin beds side by side) on a budget. I'm all for that, considering I've got five beds to outfit! The BHG article's picture showcased all of the beds made up with patterned sheets, a crisp, white coverlet, and had a really cute quilted throw folded neatly across the foot of the bed. The window treatments were done in the same pattern as the sheets. Super-easy, considering a sheet set provides an instant wealth of fabric!

So.....I have noticed just today that the Blue Jean Teddy crib bedding that I'll be putting on both Danica's and Shelby's toddler beds has both a fair amount of blue plus really nice accents of rosey pink and sage green. Instant inspiration! Would you believe I had totally forgotten the almost 15 yards of quilting fabric I'd bought YEARS ago to "someday" made a queen-sized quilt that just so happened to be in gorgeous blue/rose/sage prints??? Yay!!! Now all I needed to do was find a way to stretch the fabric to make five quilted throws....not to mention find a quilt pattern that wouldn't take me FOREVER.....I mean, yes, I only have to outfit two of the five twin-sized beds right now, and then I'll add another next year and another the year after that, then the next year....so I've got time, but um, I really don't have SPARE time, ya know? I love the look of rag quilts and I especially love how no-fuss they are for kids. No worries about intricate quilting, no worrying about the edges coming loose (because they're supposed to!), and the more they're washed, the better they get! However, the plain-jane square rag quilt just didn't do it for me. I wanted something cuter, with more personality. Here's what I found (ignore the colors, just check out the pattern and the overall look of the quilt):

I do want to alter it a bit more, maybe making the bottom two smaller squares a single rectangle? I'm SURE I could find both flannel to go with it (backing and "batting", the flannel frays better!) and coordinating sheets that I could not only work into the quilt but also make window treatments with! Hmm....I wonder if I could work a patch of recycled blue jeans into the quilt...using old blue jean accents around the room would be so cute, I've got tons of patterns for old jean recycling!

At first, that blue carpet was just a thorn in my creative side. Now...well, now it's a means for using up a lot of fabric that has been needing love for far too long!

OH, and I just absolutely LOOOOOVE an idea I found of making rag-quilt letters while I was searching for pictures of rag quilts for inspiration. I think it would be SOOOOO cute to hang the girls' names over their beds, using rag quilted letters maybe even hung from a clothesline kind of like Jessica had on her blog post. I'm loving this!!!!

Ideas, anyone?

2009-11-06T09:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, here's the deal...we're putting all of the little girls in one room when we move--our converted-garage "bonus" room. Problem is...they're girls, and the carpet is BLUE. I've obviously been buried in a sea of pink for just way too long, because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to decorate this room with blue carpet. If you had five girls, how would YOU decorate this room?

Change is not a bad thing!

2009-11-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

Change is something a military family comes to accept as a way of life. Things are constantly in motion. Our family has moved thirteen times in Pete's twenty-year career. The temporal nature of life is the only thing that really seems permanent. Ironic, no?

Standing in the threshhold of a new way of life, Pete and I (but especially Pete, who was also the son of a career soldier) are having a bit of a rough time adjusting our brains to think bigger than a three-year assignment. It's not easy to make the transition from the "dictated" way life has been lived for the last two decades to thinking that WE will be making the decisions from here on out. Where we live, when we take vacation time, our school schedule, all of it has been determined by the military for so long. You just tend to forget how that gets done when someone isn't telling you how to do it! Just the simple thought that this house we'll close on next week could actually be our HOME for the next.....well, till it's paid off.....that's not as easy to wrap our minds around as you'd think! We're learning fast, though!

The change in our children....that's another story altogether. What's funny is that every now and then, we run across someone at a homeschool or church function who remembers us from the very first time we lived here, nineteen years ago. They'll say something about how they remember that REALLY young couple with the little baby boy who loved to bounce on Mama's lap, and how MUCH things have changed now that the little boy is an adult and we're toting around his six little sisters. Believe me, we're reminded all too often of how quickly kids grow up. We'll have one of our girls talking about being a bride for Halloween while another is actually older than I was when I wore a wedding dress for real! We're all too aware that it seems like just yesterday that the child who is now preparing to deploy to Afghanistan was laying on the couch learning how to get his hands into his mouth to chew on. And we know it won't be long till our little stairstep girls are all the same height. Maybe that's another "side effect" of having such a large separation between our olders and youngers--we can actually SEE how quickly they go from babies to adults!

I'm reminded daily that I just have to be more diligent in taking GOOD pictures of the kids--and that they really do need to be labeled, because oh MY....our girls have a bad habit of looking just way too much alike at different phases of life! We took an impromptu trip over to the Botanical Gardens last weekend and got some pretty good pics; now I just need a few of their brother (that don't show the horrid tattoos he's defiled himself with) and the time to actually do some scrapbooking so I can freeze at least one moment in time.

Kelsey, age 17, and a senior in high school. She's sporting the "Kate" hairdo that her beau Chris has finally convinced her to grow out. YAY!!!Morgan, 5 and a half years old (that half matters!) and old enough to know how to work scissors....notice the inch-long bangs that Mom had to camouflage by pulling what was left up in a hair bow?Jamie, at four (and a half...again, that half is oh-so-important!), is just absolutely beside herself that she doesn't have any loose teeth yet like big sis Morgan. Slow down, short stuff....all in time! Jamie will probably also be the one to be the most freaked-out by the actual tooth-pulling process!I can't tell you how hard it was to get a good picture of Danica that didn't involve a goofy smirk, closed eyes, a stuck-out tongue, or some other oddity. I know, she's three....it comes with the territory!Something tells me Shelby will be our "model". NO, we aren't putting any of our kids into the modeling business, BITE YOUR TONGUE! I simply mean she's going to be the most photogenic child, the one most comfortable in front of a camera. And that SMILE.....she's got her daddy's killer smile. Be still, my heart.Yep, Kasey's me made over. Down to the unwillingness to be photographed smiling. Already. At three months, she already detests the camera. I feel ya, kiddo! I don't want to close my eyes. If I do, they'll be grown up and gone! No fair...

Simple Woman's Daybook, 11/2/2009

2009-11-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

FOR TODAY, November 2, 2009...
Outside my window... it is sunny, bright blue, and quite chilly! It's even colder than I expected inside, since I goofed last night and forgot to turn the heater back on...we woke up to a brisk 59 degrees INSIDE! Um, brrrr....
I am thinking... that there really is a TON of work to get done before we close on the house next Friday. I should be worried about the packing, but I'm not. Funny, but 20 years of moving around all over creation has taught me that it's not something to worry about.
I am thankful for... the fact that we get one last government-paid move! YAY!!! We don't have to do it ourselves!
From the kitchen... I'll be making something for our homeschool group's International Night. Hmm, methinks something German might be in order, but I'm not so sure I'm up to sauerbraten, rotkohl and kartoffelknodel. Maybe a brat and kraut casserole?
I am wearing... flannel jammies. Waiting for the dryer to finish so I can get some warm jeans out before my therapy appointment.
I am creating... a whole bunch of ideas in my head on how to decorate our new house to be the comfy home we want it to be. Can't do much more than plan at this point...eleven more days!
I am going... to physical therapy in a few minutes. Last appointment is Wednesday. There's been a lot of progress made toward repairing the tendon, but my therapist believes that I may have a stress fracture in my hand that is causing a lot of the "other" pain. Nice. We shall see how it acts once I'm back on my own. Hey, I'm just glad to be able to use a pair of scissors again.
I am reading... the newest issue of Real Simple magazine. It's my new favorite mag since Memory Makers decided to fold almost as soon as I got my subscription paid for! Big raspberries for them, that wasn't nice!
I am hoping... that the next few weeks goes smoothly; all systems are a "go" for a seamless closing, we're just hoping and praying that the transportation office will cooperate and we can get move dates that work well!
I am hearing... Dora and the dryer.
Around the house... are little things that need attention, but nothing major. Some things needing to go to the thrift shop this week so we don't have to move them AGAIN.
One of my favorite things... seeing God's hand in every aspect of our move here to Huntsville last year and our "settling" here now. It's very obvious that this is where He wants us, and it is just so neat to me to watch it all play out!
A few plans for the rest of the week: Physical therapy twice, Pete's repeat sleep study tomorrow night, homeschool International Night tonight, and trying to make appointments for the move. Got the fridge ordered, bedroom furniture next (our other bedrooms have been too small for us to even have furniture other than a bed...how sad is that?); plus we're keeping the latter part of the week free (ish?) so we can sort of be flexible when the call comes from the church office to do the mad dash to get the building put back together after the renovation is finished--it'll be really neat to see how good the building looks when it's all done, but I will say it has been pretty "cozy" worshipping all cramped up in the fellowship hall for the last several weeks!
Here is picture for thought I am sharing... Next Friday, I will be able to say this is my "new" kitchen! I'm so excited! It won't be the first time I've had a newly renovated kitchen, but certainly the first time I've had one that matched my tastes--including the red countertop! I thought it was a bit *MUCH* at first sight, but it's really grown on me...and now I'm not so sure I want to replace it anytime soon!

Many thanks to Peggy for hosting The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Birthdays....well-belated!

2009-10-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Over both blog breaks--one intentional, the other *forced*, I have managed to miss blogging about two birthdays (three, if you count Kasey's actual birth day!)....oh, the SHAME!!!! I shudder to think about how behind I am in actually getting memories hard-copied into my scrapbooks...but I know "eventually" I'll get the opportunity to catch up, right? There WILL come a day when I'm not swamped with diapers and phonics lessons and grading chemistry quizzes and laundry and dinners...all too soon, I imagine.

ANYway....our first "missed" birthday was Shelby's. Our little ham turned one back in August, just a week after her baby sister was born! We didn't have a huge party (not our style), but we did have a couple of close friends over from church to eat and celebrate and eat and play and eat some more. What is it about church-folk and eating? Seems we can't get together without food!? Oh well, Shelby didn't mind. She was a tad overwhelmed with the whole cake deal, only getting her little chubby hands slightly messy with icing. I think we finally had not too many gifts, too, because she wasn't buried in presents and she managed to enjoy every one of them! That's something we've struggled to do with each child--figure out how much is just flat-out TOO MUCH. It's not easy, because it's in our nature to just lavish the stuff on our kids, but we know in the end, it's really not good for them to just have everything heaped on them. Shelby still plays with every one of her birthday gifts (and there's a Toys 'R Us gift card we still haven't even used yet! Maybe this weekend?), so nothing got lost in the pile this time! Yay! I think we're going to stick with the limited "stuff" for Christmas and future birthdays too. It was nice to just enjoy the day!

Shelby is fourteen months old now, and she's just a little ray of sunshine in our family. I simply cannot imagine NOT having her and we are so thankful that God blessed us with this little character! She became pretty attached to Daddy during my recovery time from the c-section, but now that I'm back to "normal" she's gone right back to being very much a Mama's girl. Shelby is my second left hand--she's sitting right here "helping" me as I type, in fact. She just has to be doing whatever I'm doing, and she LOVES feeling like one of the big girls. Speaking of big, she's our largest baby, even now that she's been walking a few months and is thinning out. She's a chunker, and she's got the weight to go along with her fluff! She's also got plus-sized personality--Shelby is definitely a showgirl to the core! We can't wait to see how her little character develops as she grows and matures!
Our little glam gal...
The other birthday I missed blogging about was our three-year-old, Danica. Unfortunately, it's all too easy for one child to slip into the background, and if we weren't careful, Dani would do just that. She's a "background" kind of kid, the type who is happy to be doing something that no one else will ever see. She doesn't do well in big groups, so a family party was more than enough this year. We did have big brother Jon down from Fort Campbell for the weekend to help us celebrate, so that was an extra treat for Dani! This year, she chose to have her ears pierced for her birthday (mostly so she could be like Morgan and Jamie), and we were shocked when all she did in reaction to having been double-gunned was utter a mildly surprised "Ow!" This isn't a great pic, but you can see her little red heart earrings she's so proud of!

Dani was the first of our kids to have a store-bought cake that wasn't a Carvel ice cream cake, with the lone exception being Jonathan's first birthday, nineteen years ago! That's a LOT of cakes, y'all! Oh, and for the record, Target makes a really yummy chocolate sheet cake! I've never had such a moist store-bought cake!Our family is going to be having some major changes before our next "round" of birthdays, but we're hoping that one of the changes is having Dani figure out the whole potty thing. She CAN handle wearing panties, but most of the time she's just not interested. She doesn't seem to care about being wet (even when she's just saturated our brand new couch like this morning) and frankly, I've not got the wherewithall to get serious about potty training right now. All of our other kids have pretty much decided like overnight that they wanted to be out of diapers, so we don't have any experience truly "training" for pottying....I'm sure she'll be out of diapers by her next birthday but it sure would be nice to have just TWO in diapers, ya know?

Necessary evil?

2009-10-27T15:17:00.001-07:00

Have you ever noticed that you never really thought you "needed" something till you had it for a while and then lost it? That's kind of how we've felt about the internet lately. For the last almost two weeks, we've had sketchy, intermittent internet access. Four tech support calls, two service calls and one new modem later, we *think* the problem is fixed. But WOW the timing couldn't have been worse!

During the last two weeks, we've really NEEDED our internet service. Going under contract on a house almost requires the use of email nowadays; our realtor has been emailing us things and we've needed to email them back to him, amended. Thank goodness Pete has reliable internet service at work!

We are going to have a very busy couple of months ahead of us, but we're used to that. I can't remember a time when we didn't have a busy couple of months ahead of us, actually! This couple of months, however, is going to be bringing with it some serious change. Pete has his first (I'm saying first, because...well, he's still got two and a half months before he can start a new job) interview this Thursday!!! We've had no doubt that right here is where God wants us--this move to Huntsville was definitely "swayed" by His hand, I'm sure. I also have no doubt in my mind that this is where He wants us to STAY. I'm not worried about the whole job thing. God has taken care of us in far more difficult trials in life than just a job change; I have every faith in His ability to take care of us now. Buying a house was really a total leap of faith, considering that Pete doesn't have a job yet. We're not "testing" God; we're trusting Him.

We did WHAT????

2009-10-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

If you'd have asked us just two weeks ago, we would have told you we weren't in the market for a house....yet today, we put in an offer on literally the first house we've looked at. Part of me is thinking "What on EARTH are you doing????" while the other, just as logical part knows why--it's going to cost us too much to live in this government subsidized military housing after Pete retires. They are charging us $1176 a month in rent (granted, for now we pay no water, gas, or electric) to live in military housing, and although retirees are allowed to stay, our rent for a 4-bedroom, 3-bath, 1400-ish square foot two-story duplex is just way more than we want to pay for something we can't call "ours".

The good thing about having lived in so many different places over the years is that we knew EXACTLY what we were looking for...and when it popped up on the computer screen, we KNEW it was the house we wanted to buy. Three big bedrooms, a bonus room (for the girls' bedroom!), a living room and family room (so I can have a schoolroom), nice kitchen, BIG ole backyard (an ACRE!!!), and a fence, plus it isn't too far out of town (like only 7 miles)! It's an older house with no major issues but plenty of TLC needed to satisfy our unquenching thirst for projects.

Offer's on the table, loan is approved, now the clock's just ticking away....hopefully soon we'll be able to play in our very big backyard...

Warning to newbie moms...

2009-10-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you assume that your 13-month-old is quiet because she's engaged in some constructive activity behind you underneath the table as you check your email. (Notice the shirt.)

She spends five minutes taste-testing her big sister's markers. This, my friends, is why ALL markers in a house with children should be washable. And non-toxic. This is also why we keep a very good stain-remover on hand. In bulk.Note to self.....remove the mute button (aka, pacifier) next time you check your email. Laundry, anyone?

Simple Woman's Daybook, 10/5/2009

2009-10-05T07:13:00.001-07:00

FOR TODAY, October 5th, 2009...
Outside my window... it is dreary and chilly. Our first true Autumn-y day.
I am thinking... that Kasey is two months old today--I really do need to schedule her well-baby checkup but I'm not thrilled that the clinic on base lumped the pediatric clinic in with the big folks. Now when I take my WELL baby in for her checkup, I'll have to sit in a waiting room with a whole bunch of grown sick people. Yuck. I'm not looking forward to that; it's precisely that type of exposure to germs that has sickened every one of the littles we've taken in for checkups. Every time. Do I HAVE to?
I am thankful for... the girls getting over this cold. It was not pleasant to sit at home yesterday. I believe I've had enough snot on my shoulder, thanksmuch!
From the learning rooms... finally we can say that this week brings just the average routine schooldays. Yay for average!
From the kitchen... I'm going to attempt to make some homemade flour tortilla chips for the girls to munch on so I'm not so worried about Shelby choking on the corn chips. She SO wants to be like the rest of us, dipping our chips into salsa!
I am wearing... my PJ's. Time to get dressed!
I am creating... scrapbook pages in my head. Now if I only had printed-out pictures, I'd be able to create them in real life!
I am going... to physical therapy in an hour. My hand is already cringing, but I'm looking forward to another electrostimulation treatment. It really does help!
I am reading... "Sheperding a Child's Heart" by Ted Tripp. Another book I wish I'd read 20 some-odd years ago.
I am hoping... to get started on some sewing projects this week; I need to get some fleece diaper covers made so I can put those expensive nighttime cloth diapers on the girls without fearing that the PUL covers won't hold overnight (and they don't).
I am hearing... the drone of the baby swing next to me. Thankfully, Kasey LOVES her swing--none of the other kids did so this is a new thing for me! It's wonderful to be able to get just fifteen minutes with both arms free to get things done!
Around the house... we have all bedrooms arranged and both girls' rooms are CLEAN! I need to hang curtains in Morgan and Jamie's room and look online for another valance to match the one I have (I need at least two!) for Dani and Shelby's room, but it's so much easier the way the rooms are arranged now and I'm LOVING the organization and the near-finished look that both rooms have!
One of my favorite things... Kasey's new blanket. Kelsey "dun-did-good" during her mall trip yesterday, finding Kasey a really NICE University of Alabama blanket made of 'minky' fleece with a satin trim. We are all so bored with pink, it's a wonderful change to have crimson on the baby! And oooooooh, so soft and fuzzy!
A few plans for the rest of the week: Pete has his sleep study this week; I have three physical therapy appointments; on Saturday, we are taking advantage of the military discount that Tate Farms is having and we're taking the girls to the pumpkin patch again! Pete didn't get to go with us last year, so the girls are excited to show Daddy the ropes!
Here is picture for thought I am sharing... I've got another bookworm on my hands--YAY!!!

A hearty thank-you to Peggy for hosting The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Twenty years ago today...

2009-10-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

I fought the tears (why, I'm not sure...they won) as I drove away from the recruiting office after dropping off my new hubby to leave for Army basic training. His 'actual' career wouldn't begin for another day, when he finally inprocessed at Fort Dix in New Jersey, but to me, that was the monumental day--the day, just ten days after becoming a wife, that Pete made me an Army wife. It would be another two and a half months before I saw him again, and a full eleven months before we could share a home as husband and wife.

Since his enlistment, Pete and I have shared 13 addresses, five deployments, countless field exercises and I've forgotten how many different month-long separations for one reason or another. Our children have faced things that most children never have to deal with, but they've also been blessed with opportunities that we never could have afforded them if we weren't a military family.

Life (and the military) has thrown so much at us these past 20 years...it would be easy to forget all the details, but good or bad, my memory is sharply reminiscent of just way too much! I still remember the day he left for basic training like it was yesterday--the fear of the unknown (the only knowledge I had of military life was of my uncle, whose Army career was one of those national secrets that we knew little more of than where he was stationed), the pain of knowing it would be at least two months before I could see him again--I remember vividly going to the mall with Pete's mother after we dropped him off and the song on the piped-in radio was Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting". OH MY how I had to fight to keep from falling apart!

Even though we've had some seriously hard times, the good has far outweighed the bad, and through it all, I'm so proud of this man I share my life with, and the good he's done has made me pleased to stand in the background on the rare occasion that he actually receives a pat on the back. When it comes down to it, Pete is a patriot at heart. Sometimes that scares me senseless, I'll have to admit! I've been befuddled by tears because he feels his duty in Iraq was not fulfilled and he wanted to go back, and I've sat in the van during a horrid thunderstorm as he pulled over into the median of a busy street during rush-hour traffic to restore the dignity of a fallen American flag by re-hanging it on its METAL pole with lightning flashing all around him. He may give me heart attack after heart attack, but I sure love this guy and I wouldn't trade him (or the last 20 years) for anything!

Happy Armyversary, sweetie--and HOOAH!!!

What's in a name?

2009-10-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

Some people name their children after a relative; some give their offspring names to honor a beloved friend; some carry on family names or even bestow names based on their meanings; some use Biblical characters' names to hopefully give their child some rich heritage to live up to. Us? Well, we "bless" our girls with names off of Daddy's t-shirt. Oy.At least our Kasey is cuter than her namesake! Daddy's hoping that she'll be faster around the track, too! Ironically, though...notice Kasey Kahne's number on Pete's shirt......our Kasey makes the ninth member of our family--born in '09! Our pathetic attempt at humor? No, just pathetic. Maybe one day I'll share with her the list of names MOM had for her...

You just can't help but smile!

2009-10-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Knowing that Kasey is our last baby (well, at least biologically! Heehee....) has made us really make and extra effort to savor every little moment. All of those wonderful baby smells (the GOOD ones, not the, um...not-so-savory ones), the little coos, the giggles in her sleep, and the SMILES!!! Oh, the smiles, they just melt the heart!

In the wrong pigpen?

2009-09-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

I think I must have been born in the wrong place and time. Upscale Palm Beach in 1973 might have provided a suitable start for my life, but I realized very early on in my childhood that I just didn't feel like I belonged. Now...well, now I KNOW I'm a fish out of water in modern city life. In fact, a lot of typical American life now befuddles me and makes me long for the stories of my great-grandmother and the books I clung to as a young girl--penned by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I just don't feel like I fit in "here".

I always wanted to be part of a big family and live on a farm. I grew up in a city not but a stone's throw from the beach, and our family gatherings during my childhood...well, they were boring. One brother, four cousins, my grandparents, and a few aunts and uncles were it. I listened to my great-grandmother tell me about her family of twelve siblings and was in awe. Her stories about living in a farming community in northern Alabama were just riveting to me.

I tell ya, piddling with FarmVille on Facebook is just not cutting it. Browsing the real estate brochures and finding a bunch of available farmland (some with some really nice houses!) and knowing I'll still have to wait a year, maybe two, before we can even seriously look for a home of our "own" is tormening me...so I just let Pete look and dream. For now, I'll read the blogs of those who are living that rural dream and live vicariously through their words and pictures.

Our family is *close* to what I always dreamed about as a child, although I do wish my kids had some cousins to play with and that their grandparents were closer to us (maybe in time?), but the dreams I had of just leaving the size of our family up to God's blessing has been brought to a screeching halt by my bad health. It is what it is as it is, and that's okay--it really has to be. I do hope that one day before the girls are too big that we can move to a place where they are safe to spread their wings and enjoy God's creation a bit more than in the teeny little postage stamp of a backyard they are confined to now. As odd as it sounds, I'd like for my girls to know how dirt feels between the fingers! I want them to be able to play in the mud and jump in puddles. And one of these days, I hope we have a huge dining room table and way too many grandchildren to fit around it!

For now, I guess I'll just fill notebooks with pictures cut out from magazines; I'll collect gardening tips, browse homesteading websites, and try not to look TOO longinginly at oil lamps and wood-burning stoves. There are plenty of simple luxuries to be found in the here and now, and plenty of blogs to read of folks who are living that wonderful dream of country simplicity. Maybe one day....

Simple Woman's Daybook, 9/28/2009

2009-09-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

FOR TODAY...September 28th

Outside my window... The grass that Pete finally got to mow yesterday is starting to brown. Two weeks of rain really made the lawn shoot up and the clumps of fresh-cut grass are covering the entire yard, it was just so long when he cut it! The first signs of Fall are peeking out of the green trees, and we're all looking forward to the cooler temperatures that the Weather Channel is promising us for later in the week.

I am thinking... That I simply must convince the girls that eating from the Cookie Crisp snack bags that they didn't touch yesterday does not constitute as breakfast, but logically I know that there is far more sugar in the blueberry waffles I just offered as an alternative...

I am thankful for... My sweet hubby (and the daughter and temporary "foster" son) who finally moved my computer downstairs so I now have the opportunity to steal a quiet moment to blog! YAY!!!

I am wearing... Ash gray warm-up pants and a light blue tee. I guess I should change before my PT session?

I am remembering... That I have to make this short so I can clean the school table of all of the stuff that was piled on it last night as we moved the desk and the computer so the girls have a workspace to do their schoolwork on.

I am going... To physical therapy at 10:30, then back home. It's our new policy to stay home during the week, and I plan on sticking with it! The only exception is to physical therapy appointments, plus using our day "off" to do grocery shopping and whatever other weekday errands need to be done.

I am reading... "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris. Amazing read. Very challenging even to my not-so-teen-anymore self!

I am hoping... To continue the trend of getting one room a day "done" so that in time we don't have clutter and chaos ruling the house.

I am hearing... Dora the Explorer, and three girls yelling "THE MAP!!!", as Shelby tries to keep up, saying "MAAA!!!!" along with them. Cute!

From the learning rooms... Our second week of school begins today. Kelsey will start the Physical Geography text that we dug out of the book box that Pete finally found, as well as getting her last class loaded up on Switched-On Schoolhouse (geometry)--she doesn't need the additional math credit, but even though she has geometry covered through Saxon's Algebra 1 and 2, she really just needs the additional math practice. One more credit won't hurt. She'll also start the German language program today as well. She learned enough while we lived over there to hold a basic conversation, ride the train by herself (much to Mom's chagrin), find a bathroom, order a meal, and answer the phone. That counts for something, right? No reason to require any other foreign language than the one she lived for three years!

Noticing that... Jamie seems to almost NEED to sing every waking minute of the day; it's as if the silence frustrates her. Right now, she's singing the names of the judges of Israel alternated with the apostle song. The kid can list more at the age of 4 than I can at 36, all from the songs she's learned. Wow.

A few plans for the week... Right now, the only things on the to-do list include physical therapy, grocery shopping, and schoolwork! I kind of like it that way. Pete does begin the preliminaries for his retirement physical and applying for a job that is opening this week. It just amazes me that after 20 long years, the time has finally come to face civilian life!

From the kitchen... Time to get back into the routine of making a meal plan each week! It's ironic that blogging actually helps to keep me MORE organized! Tonight, we'll have London broil, roasted potatoes, and field peas. Yummy!

Around the house... The refrigerator is still dribbling, so I think it's going to need replacing. Thankfully, living in military housing means that's someone else's problem, not ours! There are messes to clean up, of course, but we're really getting a handle on that problem in a hurry, and I'm thrilled that neatness is becoming a regular thing.

From my picture journal... the reason I can't seem to keep my pantry clean! Well, ONE of the several reasons, I should say.

Many thanks to Peggy for hosting The Simple Woman's Daybook!

Gettin' it together!

2009-09-25T07:19:00.001-07:00

It's taking a while, especially after taking almost a full month off from any of my own daily duties for that bear of a recovery from my c-section (and the, er....complications) but I think we're finally back in some semblance of a routine! I convinced Pete while he was home on paternity leave (thank you, US Army, for that wonderful little gift of ten days!) that we really NEED to weed through this mountain of stuff we've amassed and....gulp.....GET RID OF IT!!!! He was slow to come around to a lot of the things that he thinks we'll somehow need "eventually", but we're getting there. One huge dish-crate packing box and three garbage bags full of clothing went to a clothing swap earlier this month, and I don't know how many boxes of junk we've just thrown away, but it's getting less and less cramped in here by the minute!

My biggest organizational challenge this year was really finding what works for us and how to get the house arranged so I'm not spending valuable time backtracking all day. Probably the last issue is getting the computer downstairs. Yep, I am still typing in my bedroom while the girls play downstairs. I don't like it! Pete says the issue is getting the wireless thingie working again....I know it works, because his laptop has wireless access and it works just fine. It's THIS computer that seems to need to be hardwired. That stinks. Maybe this weekend?

Game day reflections

2009-09-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

For some reason, when you watch a markedly one-sided football game, you just have to feel for the underdogs...and especially those who play some of the not-so-glorious but ever-so-necessary positions. I got to empathizing with a poor little place kicker on Saturday, then wondered to myself why on earth I was drawn to HIM of all the players to feel sorry for. Well....after meditating on it a wee bit more that night whilst rocking a fussy baby to sleep, I realized I've played that position a time or two in life. Come with me to the playing field of my mind, will you?

It's the first play of the second half. My team is down by too many points to ever come back from; shoot, at this point we can barely save our dignity, we've been whooped up on so badly. Most of our starting players are already injured and the second and third strings are showing signs of exhaustion from the sheer mental torment of this horrid game. We just want to go home, but we have to get through another two quarters. Here I stand, staring down the field at the largest line of human beasts I've ever faced, all with one goal in mind--the ball I have to kick downfield. No big deal, right? Hey, I've been trained to kick this ball well. I've been doing this for several years already, and I'm pretty good at it. So why on earth am I so scared?

Where is my backup?? My special team....their job is to make sure that ball doesn't get returned to our end zone by these behemoths, they aren't in the business of protecting ME! But yet, here I stand behind this teed football, feeling very small and insignificant all of a sudden. Oh, get on with it already, feet....let's just kick this ball, get tackled by the stampede, and get off the field. That's my job, right?

Sometimes in life, trudging through the rough course of life side-by-side with people of like goal is encouraging...but sometimes, even having a whole line of people running right there with you in the same direction can leave you feeling isolated and vulnerable. Why? Well, because they aren't always there for your protection. Like the special team assigned to a kickoff, every player has his or her own job to do--and while the team as a whole works well together, that can leave one weak player open to attack while the others are off tackling their own giants. The game of life is not easy; God never promised Christians a quiet, calm, peaceable life free of turmoil. He never promised protection from the harms of this life. He DID, however, promise us that as long as we're "playing for the right team", even though we may be the underdogs at times, He's right there at the sidelines, coaching us on and offering guidance and the protection from spiritual harm.

Satan has some mighty big players on his team, but those of us wearing a jersey washed in the blood of Christ have a distinct advantage--we're playing a game that has already been won!

What a wonderful night!

2009-09-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

We have been having a wonderful revival meeting with the preacher whose feet I grew up at--Dan Jenkins baptized both me and Pete into Christ (me at the age of 11, Pete a few days before our wedding) and even officiated our wedding, so having him here in Huntsville has been like a bit of "home" in our new home...which, ironically, was Dan's childhood home! You know, ever since we moved back to Alabama last year, we've had a bunch of full-circle moments, and last night was yet another--one neither of us really saw coming!

Twenty years ago yesterday, Pete was immersed into Christ...and last night, following yet another amazing sermon, a guest of Kelsey's (a soldier here on the Arsenal) named Chris confessed Christ and asked to be baptized....by Pete! As thrilled as we all were to see a new Christian being born, it was just surreal that it all happened as it did. Neat, huh?

Houston, we have a problem...

2009-09-16T08:35:00.001-07:00

Shoe overload!!! With six girls in the house (of course, only five wear shoes), we are amassing a terrifying mountain of footwear. What's more, we can never seem to find even one pair of appropriate foot attire for every person that has an available match! Why? Well, I dunno...you look...
My intentions were good. I had a shelf, dedicated to shoes, right there in the closet. No such luck keeping things organized, though. Methinks we're going to have to break out the big guns for this organizational project!

Long time, no blog!

2009-09-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Oh my, what a busy, busy, BUSY couple of months I've had...and to think that most of it was spent sitting on my duff trying (in vain, I might add) to "relax". HA!

PIT STOP UPDATE!!!

I am attempting to convince hubby to move this puter downstairs into our schoolroom so on the rare occasion I *do* catch a free moment while little ones are sleeping, quiet, and working on seatwork or a project, well then maybe, just MAYBE I can catch up on my emailing or blogging!? He's not convinced. Why? Well, he likes the puter in our bedroom, and he doesn't have an issue in the slightest with finding free time for his own puter needs when he's buried in his CAVE....see?
Anyhoo....if I had the puter downstairs, I'd be much more likely to find the time to do even quickie blog entries, and I'm finding that with the life I've got now, I really NEED that few minutes of brain-downloading to regain my sanity. I guess it's just not a priority to SOME people to have Mom sane....

Okay, I know some of you are probably getting really tired of me not updating with our news, so here's the big announcement. Kasey Lee was born by c-section on August 5th--she weighed 8lbs, 7oz, and was 21 inches long. Our biggest yet! She also sported a full head of dark, dark brown hair--truly a shock to Mom, Dad, Grandmas, sisters, pretty much everyone! She sure does stand out in this family full of toeheaded girlies! Here's a three-ish week-old pic:

I've got a lot more pics to upload, a ton of stuff to blog about, and hundreds of other things...but right now, my five minutes of puter time is up, as I'm being summoned by a little squealing thing who is not so happy that Mom put her down! How dare I...

Is it time for winter yet?

2009-06-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, I really did forget just how hot and sticky Southern summers get! Hmm...and we're not even "technically" out of Spring yet!? Oh my...how thankful I am for air conditioning!

Well, it is official. Pete has submitted his retirement packet and we are now in the official countdown toward military retirement next March. Twenty LOOOOOOONG years, five deployments, twelve moves (not counting in-town moves from one address to another), and more headaches than we care to admit, and in nine months it will all be history. That's a big WOW to both of us, and the reality of civilian life looming on the horizon is both scary and incredibly exciting all at the same time. Could it be that we can actually plan to stay PUT for a while? Oh, how nice that will be. Paint on the walls (okay, COLORED paint), being able to buy address labels....oh, the simple pleasures!

I did have to giggle more than just a little bit at one of Pete's transition classes this week--dressing for success--the transition office had a rep from Men's Wearhouse to come out and teach the been-in-cammies-for-way-too-long soldiers how to dress (ie., how to MATCH your clothing). What was funny was that the whole week, Pete had to wear civilian attire instead of a uniform, and he was a bit at a loss for what to wear! I guess that class really was a necessity! Maybe I need to take a better look at his closet and plan for more than just Sundays now? YAY!!!

The nutshell, updated.

2009-06-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me recently as I was arranging and rearranging my scrapbooks that I've really not done a very good job of detailing the actual "growth" of my kids over the last couple of years--sure, the day-to-day things get scrapbooked and blogged about, but not their "real lives". Shame on me. I can hear my great-grandmother telling me I'll forget all this stuff someday, I'd best figure out how to keep it all chronicled without spending a fortune of TIME doing so. Till then, I guess blogging about it all is a fair substitute, right?

Soo.....here goes. I s'pose the "biggest" addition to our family as of late (since the kittens aren't kittens anymore and Shelby is most certainly big, but not the new-news) was Moby, our 15-pack Ford van. Gone are the days of mini-vans, we've now moved into maxi-van territory. It makes driving so much more......what is the word......TOLERABLE now that everyone has her own space back in the back. And while getting four littles strapped into car seats in this giant whale of a vehicle isn't what we'd call easy, it certainly is easier than climbing in and out of the back of the Sienna to do all that buckling and unbuckling! Even with Kelsey, Morgan (yes, she IS in a booster seat, I promise) and Shelby sharing a row, they're not shoulder-to-shoulder like they were before in the Toyota. See how roomy, even with the rear seat taken out for extra cargo space? I love it!

Okay, now on to the actual members of the family...we don't have any new photos of our firstborn to blog about--pretty much the last time we saw him (other than the quickie trip down for Mother's Day....and to pick up the mis-mailed parts for his car) was when he graduated from training here in March and left for Fort Campbell. He's an adult now, doing his own thing and not including us--we have to check his Facebook to find out anything, and I'm not liking what independence is doing to him....but I'm his mom, it's my job to overanalyze and panic about everything, right? His news for us recently was not what we'd hoped to hear, but it was inevitable, and I'm glad I have time to process it before we actually have to DEAL with it--he's going to Afghanistan sometime next Spring. I'm not a happy mom...but I knew this was coming. In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

Pete is nearing the end of his Army career...and that end is approaching faster than we ever imagined it would. In fact, it may even be by the end of this year, considering it will be his best chance of securing a stable (and not DoD contracted) job with a future. Unfortunately, that future may mean that we have to end up leaving our beloved Huntsville in a couple of years when the missile maintenance school here transfers to Fort Lee, Virginia; but in this economy, we're thankful to have a good job prospect, whatever that means. We also know that Huntsville will still be here when we're ready to move back! Thankfully, though, Pete has had the Army pay for his shoulder to be completely repaired, and he's doing wonderfully under the care of a great orthopedic surgeon who handled his recovery with kid-gloves. What could have otherwise been a life-altering disability is now just an occasional ache, and that's something to be VERY grateful for! Kelsey turned 17 three months ago, and has gone through a TON of changes in that span of time. Hmm....she's gotten a driver's permit (we don't let our kids get their actual license till they're financially ready to take on their own insurance policy and the expenses of owning their own car), a job at Church's Chicken here on base, and has finished up her junior year of high school. She also, um....dismissed her beau for issues that her heart blinded her to in the past and has moved on to the getting-to-know-you phase of another young man who has been waiting in the wings for several months. We shall see....at any rate, Kelsey is indeed growing UP. It is actually getting easier to talk to her, and we're working on her reasoning skills, so things are improving relationally speaking. She's still a teenybopper, though, and when we go out as a family, she still wants to step aside and be seen as the martyred older sister, forced to tolerate the silliness of her younger sibs. Oh, the horrors.....can't you just read the disgust on her face while the rest of us were giggling and having a great time at the Botanical Gardens yesterday? How embarrassing is must be to have family enjoying things while there are so many reasons to be bored! At least Mom got a good picture out of it...Next in line is Morgan. Never the shy one, Morgan's very thin "shell" has become nearly nonexistent, and she's just come screaming out of the toddler phase straight into kid-dom. She never walks anywhere--she runs, skips, or twirls. She has NO inside voice (much to the chagrin of her father's poor ears), and relishes getting into every mess known to mankind. If there's a puddle, expect her to go swimming; if you give a Morgan a cookie....well, she's going to have chocolate smeared from one end to the other. Show the child a calm, bubbling fountain, and you get this:
Jamie continues to be our introverted thinker. She doesn't do all that well in "big" social situations, much like her mother (and father, even though he's a much better faker than I), and is more at ease by herself with a strange project of her own design than some sort of group activity. She tries to be cuddly like her sisters, but you can tell it makes her a bit uneasy (again, a lot like her mom) so we let Jamie dictate when she gets snuggled with. Her hyper toddler nature is ever-so-swiftly giving way to the gotta-do-it-all, can't-miss-a-thing, just-try-and-tell-me-I-can't four-year-old will of steel. It is so neat to see how quickly their little personalities develop! Jamie is also the only one of our girls with truly straight, golden-blonde hair. How'd THAT happen?Danica, now two and a half, is just chock full of spunk and individuality. She's not like any of our other kids, except that she's just as much a "ham" as all the others have been. Dani's speech is still lagging behind, but I'm not worried--she still gets her point across loud and clear (well, loud, anyway)! She's got to do everything her older sisters do, even if she's not quite got the motor skills to keep up, and woe be unto the crazy person who tries to offer Dani help when she is convinced she can do it "mylelp". She may have enough energy (and temper) to put the Tasmanian Devil to shame, but when she cools her guns and focuses....wow. I have gotten some of my best kid shots from just following behind Dani! Check out what I snapped yesterday as she followed behind Kelsey, who went through two rolls of 35mm film in just half an hour....

Shelby, our not-so-little almost-ten-month-old, is growing faster than Georgia Kudzu! She is crawling everywhere, picking up speed, and is standing and cruising along the furniture at a pretty fair clip too. Her fifth tooth just popped through yesterday (explaining the three-hour crying fit night before last), but the lack of chompers hasn't kept her from eating everything in sight. It should be....interesting....to see how she is going to react when her baby sister is born in several weeks, because even now, there's no substitute for Mama. Funny how much more clingy each successive little one is in our family! Shelby's little personality is starting to shine through, and it's becoming clear that she will be quite the performer. She's already learned the value of a goofy grin to woo her intended audience's affections. Oh my...

If there's one thing we look forward to with each additional child, it's finding out what their little character is going to be like. God never duplicates anyone, it seems, and He certainly has outdone Himself with our group of girls! Our house may be overrun with pink and purple and hair bows and frilly dresses, but our daughters are anything but a bunch of cookie-cutter girly-girls. We're already wondering what little 'Kasey' will be like!

Got something on your mind?

2009-05-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

I do....

Oh, wait...that's just a butterfly on my head. Drat, I thought it was something bigger.

Really, I've been quite busy scrapping. My poor desk is piled a mile high awaiting my next set of digi-prints from Walgreens to prove just how busy I've been! Believe it or not, I'm about five layouts shy of actually finishing a whole year's scrapping! Too bad it's last year and I've not even STARTED on this year yet. Sigh....

So why, you ask, am I blogging when I said I was gonna be blog-breaking to scrap? Hey, I've been sneezing my fool head off for two weeks, drowning my sorrows in Benadryl, nasal spray, and the awesome Cinnamon Spice tea Kelsey got me for Mother's Day...and I got bored. I needed some cyber-relief from sitting in front of a desk full of paper scraps. So I'm here, blogging about just about nothing just to say I didn't completely "skip" most of the month of May.

Oh, and Pete won the name game, by the way. He's not giving in this time around, so girl #6 shall be Kasey-something. Probably Kasey Dawn, but we're not totally dead-set on that one yet. I just like the way it sounds, and something that comes to you in a dream can't be all that bad, can it?