Big Girl, Little Clothes

This cute little shirt Ava is wearing used to be a dress she wore when she was a baby; it's a size 3-6 month dress! I was saving because I couldn't bear to get rid of it; for some reason we decided to try it on her and, voila, it fit as a shirt!

Sadly, during crafts later that day, she got a hold of Cooper's "saftey" scissors, that are only supposed to cut paper, and managed to shred the front of the dress. So much for saving it... :-(

WelcomeBackVeterans.Org

Jhoon Ree Means Might for Right

Flash back to the eighties, for anyone in the DC area! No body bothers me, either!! ;-)

What is a MILITARY Wife?

A friend sent this to me, and thought it was worth sharing.

What is a MILITARY Wife?

They may look different and each is wonderfully unique
But this they have in common.
They have THIS IN COMMON!

lots of moving---
moving
moving
moving far from home
moving two cars, three kids and one dog----all riding with HER of course
moving sofas to basements because they won't go in THIS house
moving curtains that won't fit
moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours
moving away from friends moving toward new friends
moving her most important luggage; her trunk full of memories

often waiting-
waiting, waiting, waiting for housing; waiting for orders; waiting
for deployment; waiting for reunion; waiting for phones calls;
waiting for the new curtains to arrive; waiting for him to come home for dinner----AGAIN!

They call her 'military dependent', but she knows better
she can balance a checkbook
handle the yard work
fix a noisy toilet.
She is intimately familiar with drywall, anchors, and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes, sell a house, buy a car, or set up a move, --
--all with ONE Power of Attorney.

She welcomes neighbors that don't welcome her.
Reinvents her career with every PCS; locates a house in the desert,
the arctic, or the deep south and learns to call them all 'home'.
She MAKES them all home.

She is fiercely IN-dependent

Military Wives are somewhat hasty
They leap into decorating, leadership, volunteering, career alternatives,
churches and friendships.
They don't have 15 years to get to know people.
Their roots are short but flexible.
They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.

Military Wives quickly learn to value each other.They connect over coffee, rely on the spouse-network and accept offersof friendship and favors and record addresses in pencil.

Military Wives have a common bond. The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands. His commitment is unique. He doesn't have a job, he has a 'mission' he can't just decide to quit.
He's on-call for his country 24/7 but for you, he's the most...
Unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign: TDY, PCS, OPR, ACC, BDU
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long-distance link to keep them informed; the glue that holds them together.

Military Wife has her moments--
She wants to wring his neck, dye his uniform pink, and refuse to move to Siberia.
But she pulls herself together. Give her a few days, a travel brochure, along hot bath, a pledge to the flag, and a wedding picture.
And she goes.
She packs.
She moves.
She follows.

Why? What for? How come? You may think it is because she has lost her mind.
But actually it is because she has lost her heart.
It was stolen from her by a man
who puts duty first
who longs to deploy
who salutes the flag
and whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military husband,
She will remain his Military wife.

PROPS

PROPS go to Joey for being so FANTASTIC last week. He understood how hard it would be for me to get back to work, after being home with the kids for almost a year, not just mentally, but physically, too. I haven't been awake and out of the house at 6:15AM in almost a year!

My first day, I got up, showered, started to get ready (makeup, dress, etc.) and when I came out to tackle the kids, I'd discovered that Joey had woken and dressed them, packed their school bookbags and prepared they blankets and pillows (go to school each Monday and come home Fridays) and loaded it all in the car, and their shoes and a breakfast "snack" ready by the door for them for the car ride! For the cherry on top, Joey had packed a breakfast and lunch for ME, also ready to go. All we had to do was brush their hair and teeth, and we were out the door.

He also picked them up a couple times, allowing me to come home and start dinner, alone, or just relax for a bit.

Joey did this every day last week, without complaint. And while I sit inside doing not much more than blogging, pretty unmotivated today (sort of catching my breath from last week, not quite in the routine yet), Joey is outside, washing the car, working on the lawn, and doing general "house" stuff.

I should make Joey one of my cakes.

I tell you, what a guy!

First Week on the Job

My first week back to work is done, and it was a good one! I believe I'm going to really enjoy it there, and it's a very dynamic, supportive environment.

For those interested, I've been hired as the new Tactical Decision Center (TDC) Manager. The TDC provides simulated exercise training on tactical and logistics programs. To get a better idea of what the Center provides, click here to see a video, or click here to read more.

Museum of Natural Sciences

Cooper (and Ava, too, but especially Cooper the dinosaur lover) had fun at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. They even had a live butterfly exhibit, similar to the one at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History that they went to earlier this summer.

Walking Down Wilmington Street

Taking a leisurely stroll down Wilmington Street in Raleigh.

Dry Run

Last week, we put the kids in daycare two days, to give them a preview of what this week would be like. Surprisingly, Ava wasn't so upset about getting up early, but Cooper, wasn't enjoying it very much. His two standout comments:

"Could you please be quiet, I'm trying to sleep."

"What's the rush?"

New Unit

Well today I started at my deploying unit, 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU), 2d Marine Expeditionary Force. Please check out the link below.

22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force

Biggest Legos Ever!

At the Marbles Museum, the Rawson Four built a Lego house, out of the biggest legos we've ever played with! It took us a good long while, but it was lots of fun finding the pieces we needed!

Marbles Museum

Before starting Heidi's new job, we decided to take a few days for fun. We headed to Raleigh and went to the Marbles Kids Museum. It was a blast! Marbles Kids Museum "inspires imagination, discovery and learning through extraordinary adventures in play." They have dress up, role playing, water play, craft stations every where, kid size everything, and oversized everthing, interactive play, kid Olympics, you name it, they have it! We could have just made the circuit and started from the beginning again and the kids would have been happy to start all over again!

New Pillows for Our Babies

One thing Cooper and Ava are required to take to school with them each week, is a clean pillow and blanket. At the end of the week, they bring it home to be washed, and return on Monday with their fresh pillow and blanket. We had travel sized pillows for them, which is perfect, but I didn't like the boring white travel size pillow cases you can purchase. So, I purchased fabric I thought they'd like, and, with fingers crossed, set out to make them pillowcases they'd love. I broke out the sewing machine (thanks to Wendy's Mom, for the lesson!) and dove in. No pattern, just measure and sew, an hour later here is what they have, with love.

Age of Aquarium

We took the kids to the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. North Carolina Aquariums have three locations, and we went to the one closest to us, near Emerald Isle. The kids had a great time, and we'll go again, for sure. Hopefully, we'll get to take them to Baltimore, too.

Even though she was on the Bronze...

She was going for the Gold...

School for Mommies

This morning, Cooper and I were talking about school, and I told him how much fun he was going to be having in the coming days, and how I wished I could go to school, too! Cooper said:

"Mom, you can't go to school, you're a grown up. Maybe, when you get small enough, you can go to school with me and Ava."

"Mommy, I'll tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a Mommy at school. Mommy taked a nap, and she had a snack, and there was a big dinosaur that scared her away! But the dinosaur went away. The end."

Chick-A-Lik

Thanks to the heat, we weren't able to make it blueberry picking with the Kealey's on their trip down here; it was 102 degrees. So instead, we make a trip to Chick-Fil-A. Cooper calls it Chick-A-Lik, in homage to PopPop, who calls it Lik-A-Chick.

Bathing Beauty

Bear Island

We went to Hammocks State Beach/Bear Island, and it was beautiful. a 15 minute ferry ride, and a 1/2 mile walk to the beach, but it was a nice ride, and a beautiful, uncrowded beach. On the beach, there was a roped off area where the sea turtles had laid their eggs. The kids loved it. Since both mine had not enjoyed the pool the week before, I was surprised they enjoyed the ocean so much, but I was really glad! And Uncle Chad did double duty with Cooper!

CCA Visit

Last week we had Christy, Chad and Big Al come for a visit. It was a short visit, but it was fun. We went to Hammocks State Beach/Bear Island, and planned to go blueberry picking, but that day it was 102 degrees when we got into Jacksonville, so we played around in town, instead.
It was great to see them, and it was fun for the cousins to spend time together!

Behind

Hi, everyone! We're really behind on our posts, ut we've got TONS to get up here, so look out in the next day or so!!