Life As An Army Wife

So here I am, my first FULL deployment as an Army wife that is not in the military myself.  During this deployment I decided to keep myself busy, so I am finishing up my Bachelor's Degree, became a member of my MOPS Steering Committee, signed up for jiu jitsu, volunteered for a Key Caller in my FRG, joined a softball team, and set up home projects for each month!  This is all on top of all of my kiddos playdates, sports, etc.  It's actually quite nice to have all of these things to do, especially when I hear about the wives who pretty much sit around waiting for their husbands to call.  Don't get me wrong, I love hearing from my husband and the fact that he is busy in a combat zone but will try his hardest to at least give me a quick hello via email or phone is more than I could ask for!  I remember going a few days without being able to call my family or my son during deployments, and how I think I was more affected by the lack of communication than they were!

Something cool that happened for me this weekend was that Daughtry came to Fort Riley & I won VIP passes to it!  Now, I'm not the biggest Daughtry fan but I happened to win the tickets & figured I needed a break from the kids anyway!  My friend & fellow TS consultant came with me & she & I had a blast.  We even got to keep our chairs!!  Free t-shirts & free chairs & a free concert...what more could a Mom ask for?!  The guys were awesome too!

Daddy is missing quite a few firsts with our youngest, Squiggs, who is one.  She took her first steps when he was here, but now she is full out walking.  Squiggs Walking!  She's also started to kiss on command, which I've gotta say is the cutest thing ever.  Squiggs Kisses!

I just love it when they bite your face!  Our girls have been outstanding during this deployment, which makes it easier to handle the days.  There are always things that go down in our house though, kids are just crazy.  Just today, here's the list of things that happened...

1. Peanut (our 2 year old) sneaks into our 7 year old's room daily to give the fish legos to play with.
2. Peanut is potty training & so she walks around bottomless...usually before 10am she ends up just full out naked.
3. Shanks (our 5 month old lab) decided he didn't like one of the girl's books & so he chewed it up.
4. Peanut decided to go upstairs while I was starting dinner & squirt a cleaner (yay for all natural stuff) ALL OVER our upstairs bathroom.  Yup, one task off of my to-do list!
5. Peanut (yes, I believe two year olds should be able to be caged!) decided she wanted to try & fit her HUGE head through a railing in our house.  She got stuck, nude, and after 10 min of struggling I had to send my oldest over to our next door neighbor's to have him help get her out!
6. Shanks & Kiara (both dogs) decided they wanted to run laps around the house RIGHT after the girls went down...so yes, they were back up & I had to re-do bedtime.
7.  Peanut will get ahold of any writing utensil & give herself tattoos.  Nude Peanut = LOTS of tattoos!

How do I keep my house clean you ask?
 (Disclaimer: No children were actually crated & left alone in there!)

There were probably more events but they all start to blend!  It's all good though, these kids are a blast & they definitely help pass the time when he's gone.  Our oldest has definitely stepped up to be the man of the house...he helps me water our yard, clean up after the girls go down & is there to give me love when he thinks I need it.  The best thing was yesterday at church he was going to Sunday School & stopped, turned around & ran & gave me the biggest hug & kiss!  Yes, my 7 year old loves me & isn't afraid to show it <3  What makes me especially happy about that is I was called a crappy mother by two childless individuals when I was a single mom in the Army.  I'm not sure if they said it because of my parenting style, or just because they are very judgmental, but either way it hurt.  It hurt a lot, I still have those words resonate within me but when I see how well behaved my children are in public & I get compliments on how great they are I just can't believe that I was a crappy mom.  These individuals used a word that wasn't crappy, but nonetheless, they still judged me pretty  harshly.  I will never call someone a crappy mom.  I will disagree with parenting styles & say something but usually someone has something else going on in their life & they just don't see what they're doing to their children yet...until someone else shows them!

These kids look miserable ;)  I love my munchkins!

Whelp, it is now 8:30pm, the house is cleaned, lawn is watered, everyone is fed & ready for bed...which means this Momma is going to get some homework done, crunch some numbers for bills due & get some sleep!  Early morning workout tomorrow...still stuck at 8 pounds to go!!!