Adjusting is always hard. . .

I've heard many horror stories about how difficult it is to adjust to normal life post-deployment. Fortunately, things have been fine for Randy and me with adjustments, but the kids are having a rough time, especially Luke. He is getting up SOOOO early in the morning, then just being rotten to Randy. Poor Randy, it makes him sad. I'm really worried how he's going to do while we're on our cruise. Fortunately, he's seen lots of Grandma and Grandpa lately, that it won't be such a shock to him. Luke walks around the house sometimes saying, "say Grandpa" (obviously he's heard that from other people lots, "Luke, say Grandpa!"). I am looking forward to sleeping a TON on the cruise. I functioned quite well off of 4-6 hours of sleep most nights that Randy was gone. Now that he's home, I think my body is saying, okay you don't have to do it all yourself anymore. I am SOOOOO tired all the time!!! So hopefully I can recharge my batteries a bit on the cruise and get back to normal life once we're home.

Randy had to go in to work today to do some inprocessing and make sure he's cleared to leave the country. I hope so! We're off to College Station tomorrow, then Galveston on Sunday!!! We have some awesome friends here who have done this same cruise twice, so they're giving me the rundown on things. We're very excited. This will be my last post until we get back from the cruise. Bon Voyage!

A stranger among us. . .?

It is SO nice to have Randy home, yet odd! We moved into our house 10 days before he left, so he really hasn't ever had normal life with us in this house. We were unpacking, then packing him up to go. We have had so much fun just spending time together (the whole 13 hours he's been home. . .). Randy was the second deployed person off the plane, and we were the first ones in the crowd to get to see him. He called me right when they had landed so that we could line up. They kept us in this giant building until they escorted us out to the flightline to meet the jet. Since we were the first family to see our Dad, there were photographers ALL over the place. We had three or four reporters come up to us afterwards to get our information because they all gotten pictures of our reunion and needed caption information. We'll have to check the Shreveport Times website in a few days. One reporter told us he wants to write a story on us to be in the June 29th newspaper. I think the base newspaper is another one. . . we'll have to see where else we show up. I think another person said they were putting us on the Air Force website. Anyways, here are the pictures!


First off, here is Kate showing off her horse that she finished. She is SO proud of it. She came up with the idea all on her own that she was going to give it to Dad for Father's Day. He was thrilled.


Here's the jet as we were walking up to it.


We were anxiously waiting for them to open the jet up.


There were a couple of families who flew space-A on the plane, so they were let off first. Then Randy was the second guy off. Kate just couldn't stand it. She wanted to run to him SO badly, but he had to greet all of the squadron leadership first, then he was free.



How cute is this. She was so excited to see her Dad!


Our happy reunion-- you can see the photographers taking pictures of us. It seemed like there were several people with cameras in our faces right then.


Luke was a little unsure about what was going on



Our family, together again!

Kate had SO many things she wanted to tell Randy about. I love how much she talks with her hands. She's not related to me at all!!!

Home for some fun wrestling time with Dad. Everyone was having a great time!

He's in Hawaii!!

For those of you who have been watching, Randy is now in Hawaii, the halfway point between here and Guam. He said they may be delayed a little bit because they left Guam late, but at least he can use his cell phone now!!!!!!!!!! It was very nice to wake up this morning to his cell phone number on the caller ID. I've only seen it once in the last 4+ months, and that was when they had to divert to Hawaii and stay there over night. We're on the downhill slope!! I just hope that I can get everything done that I want to and not go crazy!

24 hours and 45 minutes, but who's counting. . .?

We are so anxious for Randy to come home. I'm trying to think of all sorts of fun things for Kate to do so that she doesn't have to think about it too much. I haven't talked about Randy coming home much today, just because I'm nervous about a delay or something. I'm not usually pessimistic, it just seems too good to be true, and I know the military!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been swimming, we're going to see a movie in the morning, making posters to hang on our house for Randy, etc. I've been trying to clean up a storm. Not that my house is normally that messy, but it's been a great reason to get rid of all of the residual clutter from our move. That is my least favorite part of moving: the clutter that never seems to end!!!!! My to do list is a mile long. I had better keep working while Luke is sleeping. Hopefully my next post will have lots of fun pictures of us WITH our Dad!!!

My awesome husband

On this Father's Day, although I'm celebrating it with a little loneliness, I'm remembering that my wonderful husband is on the other side of the world celebrating it by himself (although it's well into Monday there). I just want to brag about how wonderful my husband is. He takes more time than any other husband who is deployed over there to talk to my kids and me. The other morning, he wasn't upset when we called and woke him up because Kate wanted to talk to him so bad. She woke up and asked if he was home, then was very upset when I told her that he wasn't home yet. He wasn't grouchy about being woken up just to talk to her.

My husband is the kindest, most generous person I know. He doesn't ask for anything for himself. He hasn't gotten the least bit mad at me at my out of control spending habits since he's been gone :) I guess we'll see what he says when he gets home ;) He tries his best to take care of us from ten thousand miles away. . . He's the best, and I want everyone to know that he is!!!

Happy Father's Day Randy! We love you!!!

Father's Day. . . but where's our Dad?!

Today was a sad Father's Day for me. We miss Randy so much, and it's sad that he just barely missed being here for Father's day. Oh well, only three more sleeps!!! Speaking of sleep, I'm planning on actually getting some tonight. I've only gotten 4 1/2 hours each night for the last two nights. I don't want to get sick just before my cruise. For the first time in my life, I was having a hard time staying awake during church-- Young Women's of all places!!!! My kids are in bed, and I'm off to go there myself. I fell asleep while I was rocking them tonight before bed. I had both kids on my lap and we were rocking in the dark and singing. I think all three of us fell asleep. Luke usually cries himself to sleep in nursery every Sunday, but today he didn't! So, he had NO nap today. Kate could have used one, too. We're all very tired. I hope Wednesday comes quickly!!!

Here are some cute pictures from the week:


Before church this morning (notice the domino in Luke's left hand-- he has my cell phone in his right hand. He was "talking" to Dad)

Kate is insistent that she is a cowgirl when she wears my red collapsible colander on her head. She thinks she's Jessie from Toy Story 2.

Kate thought we needed to take a picture of Randy while we were chatting online with him last night.



Luke always has to run up to the camera and say, "CHEESE!!!" as loud as he possibly can. It's frustrating when I'm trying to get some candid pictures. The second he sees the camera, it's Captain Cheese.


Kate has a horse she has been working on for almost two weeks now. It's one of those little bead ones that you melt with the iron once they're finished. It kept getting messed up last week, so this week she's actually almost done with it!


I'm summoned to come look at how well she's doing about every thirty seconds while she's working on it. It gets a little tiresome, but she's so proud of it!

We're on the countdown. . .

Kate is well rehearsed on how many sleeps are left until Dad gets home. We are very excited, can you tell?! Randy will be home on Wednesday afternoon. Saturday we're heading down to College Station, TX to drop off our kids with his parents, then Sunday we leave on a week long cruise from Galveston. I could definitely use the break!!!! I only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I'm try to finish all my projects on my house before Randy gets home, so tonight will be short.

I taught a class at Enrichment on healthy eating, so if anyone wants the packet I made up and handed out, let me know. I put together TONS of recipes. It'd be easiest to e-mail it to whoever wants it. I've had lots of people comment that they've already tried them and really like them. It's 14 pages long. . . so I won't post it on here.

I took the kids yesterday to have our pictures taken for Randy for Father's Day. That's all he asked for was a picture of the three of us. He also got a plasma TV, but that doesn't count yet because I've had it for a month, which he obviously hasn't seen it yet. I've sent him pictures of it. . . but still. So, I'll post the picture of us. I'm off to go do more sewing. I hope everyone has a great Father's Day for the men in their lives. I wish Randy was around for it. Only four more sleeps!!!!!!!!!

I'm not dead, I swear!

Alright, I've been getting in trouble with lots of people for not posting in FOREVER. I've been so busy!!!!!! Our week started out last week with Berta, Cat, and Sarah coming to visit us from Arizona. We drove to Dallas to pick them up. We had so much fun with them! We miss them tons!! They went home on Tuesday, so we got home late that night from taking them to the airport. Tonight I taught a class at Enrichment for our ward. I feel horrible. . . I was supposed to take 15-20 minutes. I didn't look at the clock when I started. Then I looked at my watch, and it was 8pm!! I had talked for probably an hour! People were asking questions, making comments, etc. But I feel so horrible. I'm sure they'll never ask me to do anything for Enrichment again!

We are anxiously counting down the days until Randy gets home. Six more sleeps!!!!!! Poor Kate. I've been telling her that Cat and Sarah were coming to visit, then they would go home, then a few days later Dad would be home. Sweet thing. . . she woke up from her nap yesterday and called to me from the top of the stairs, "Mom! I'm up! Is Dad here now?" She was VERY upset that he wasn't here yet. I just hope nothing gets delayed or pushed back with him coming home. She would be heartbroken, not to mention the fact that I would be, too!!!!

Randy and I are VERY excited for our upcoming cruise. I know I am going to have a hard time being away from my sweet little people for a whole week. . . but it will be SO much fun for Randy and I to get to spend some time together. I just hope that our cruise adventure is not QUITE as exciting as our adventures in Mexico on our honeymoon. We still laugh about those, six years later.

I'm off to bed. I need to get some rest. I severely twisted/sprained my ankle tonight. I hope it's not a true sprain. I hope it will just feel better in the morning. I need to keep running!!!

I'm off to bed. I need some rest before I hit the ground running this weekend! The countdown is on for me to finish my projects before Randy comes home!

Here are a couple of cute tidbits from the kids: Kate told Berta after church that they had a "blesson in nursery". I think she got a little confused between a blessing and the lesson.

Kate asked me today if the guys were still out mowing the mulawn. She's seen the movie Mulan only once, so it made me chuckle.

Luke is obsessed with a Dora domino set. He always has to have one with backpack and one with map at all times. If he doesn't have one, he's constantly asking me, "where's map? Where's backpack?" It's cute. Instead of a blanket, it's Dora dominoes.