New Years Eve 2007

We still have a little over two hours before we officially ring in the new year way out here in Hawaii. New Year's is another holiday that just feels different here. We don't have the seasons like the mainland, leaves don't change color, time seems to lack definition.
Today was exciting because I finally got an address for Charlie and did our first mailing of the deployment. We have officially entered the land of priority mail, customs forms, and mile long post office lines, yea! Aidan and Rachel were excited to be able to pick their own cards for him and disappointed that we couldn't send Transformer or Dora toys.
We watched the ball drop at 7 p.m. here and then watched Surf's Up on pay per view.
Last year we took pictures of the kids by the television as the ball dropped. I guess I'm going to make it a tradition so I took one of Rachel this year too. Of course Aidan is way too cool for that, lol. I'm amazed at how much Rachel has changed.

Here she is ringing in 2008, cool and confident:


And in 2007:


And here we are lounging and looking like bums :)

It's Official: Charlie Is In Iraq

Charlie wrote me today to let me know he has made it to his FOB in Iraq. He said that the FOB is huge. Most of them have a lot of what we have like Starbucks, Taco Bell, etc. He saw Santa at the Baghdad airport, apparently Santa forgot to kidnap him and bring him home to fill my Christmas list!
At least the countdown is ticking ...


Here's Charlie with the section he deployed with after they came back from the field:


And here are a couple pictures I stole from his friend's myspace page from his first deployment to Iraq - I love technology!

Christmas 2007

Aidan woke me up at almost 8 this morning and was very excited to go downstairs and see if Santa came. Rachel was still sleeping so we had to wake her up. Once we got downstairs they opened gifts for a little while and had breakfast. After that we pretty much did nothing which was really nice. I cooked Christmas dinner and Kim, Keegan and SkyAnn and Jessica, Jason, Collin, and Caleb came to eat with us. We had the usual ham and sides, tons of Jessica's awesome Christmas cookies, cake and Peppermint ice cream (very good!). It was nice to have family and friends over. Overall, Christmas was definitely a success and not as emotional as the few days before it and I'm very thankful for that.
Christmas Pictures!

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve

Christmas eve marks two weeks since Charlie left for Iraq, only 62 weeks left til he gets home. This is the first year that I have spent Christmas away from home and away from Charlie. I can tell you that I will probably never do this again. It is much more difficult than I had imagined and I have been on a roller coaster of emotion the last few days.

Yesterday I was miserable. I felt sorry for myself, then got mad at myself for feeling that way because I'm sure someone else has it worse than me, then felt worse because Charlie has it worse than me, then repeated the whole cycle again. It was terrible. I am glad I don't have many days like that, they are exhausting. I'm also glad that I have great friends who help me to not have many days like that. I don't know what I would do without them.

Today was much better. Aidan and Rachel were very excited about Christmas coming soon and we tracked Santa throughout the day. Tonight we went to Jessica's house for Christmas Eve dinner and to exchange gifts with their family. I had a really great time eating, hanging out, and helping break in their new Scene It game. After we came home we tracked Santa one more time then put out milk and cookies for Santa and threw some reindeer food outside. Rachel was really funny and wanted to take her Santa hat upstairs because she didn't want Santa taking her stuff :)
Once the kids were in bed, I played Santa alone for the first time. It was sad not to have Charlie here to help or just talk to. I think tomorrow will be okay. There are lots of gifts to open and toys to play with and I am hosting Christmas dinner at our house so that will be a nice distraction.

Our group picture from Christmas Eve dinner with the Rosses

Update on Charlie

Charlie called this morning for the first time in a week. It was great to hear his voice, those 20 minutes really made my day. He's still in Kuwait doing some training.
The re-enlistment recruiter stopped by to see him and it looks like he will be re-enlisting as a MP (military police) for six years. He's hoping that he'll be able to join the MP version of the swat team as a sniper. This will also open up some job opportunities in civilian law enforcement when he gets out of the Army.
We aren't sure what our next duty station will be or when we will get there. We should get a few options to choose from. They need MPs everywhere so I'm hoping for somewhere in the southeast but Charlie wants Colorado. We are guessing his training will be sometime in 2009 after he returns from Iraq and depending on how long it is, I may stay in Hawaii with the kids while he trains.
We probably won't get any more information for a while because he can't re-enlist until they have class dates for MP AIT(training). I'll post more info as I get it.

Happy Birthday, SkyAnn

Today is my only neice's first birthday. I couldn't resist posting a picture of her enjoying the smash cake.

Football and Christmas Party

This morning Aidan played in what might be his last game as a Cowboy (we might play a make-up game next week). After the game we had our team party with pizza and trophies. It was an awesome season and we ended 6-1. Our coach was great, our parents were great, and the kids were great. I got the "golden football" as a gift for being team mom. The "golden football" was a really big deal for our team and went to a different player each practice and game (Aidan slept with it!) so it was really nice that the coach decided to give it to me. Yea me!

Here's a picture of Aidan and his trophy:


And here's the 2007 Cowboys and their coaches:


After the game, we went to a Christmas party hosted by Operation Homefront for families of deployed service members with our friends the Taylors. It was nice; they had food, crafts, and gifts for everyone. Santa came in on a fire truck and Aidan thought that was very cool. Rachel is still terrified of Santa so I had to get her gifts for her.

Here's Aidan with Santa:


And Rachel and Aidan outside with their gifts:

Véale Luego, Laura

Apuéstele no supo que sabía español, ah ah
Una cosa yo he aprendido mientras soy una esposa de Ejército es que usted no sólo tiene que mirar su hoja de marido y sus amigos de soldado salen pero a veces sus amigos salen también. Laura, uno de mis mejores amigos, dejó para volver hoy a Tejas. Será un ajuste grande no la teniendo unas pocas casas hacia abajo. Los tiempos quieren este estoy muy agradecido tener toda nuestra tecnología moderna tan nosotros podemos mantener en contacto. ¿Y cómo refresca es de poder escribir esto en español? Apuéstele no supo que podría hacer eso, lol.

And for all the non-Spanish speakers :)
One thing I've learned while being an Army wife is that you not only have to watch your husband leave and your soldier friends leave but sometimes your friends leave too. Laura, one of my best friends, left today to go back to Texas. It's going to be a big adjustment not having her a few houses down. Times like this I'm very grateful to have all our modern technology so we can keep in touch.

Here's our Whites. Can't wait til you guys both get back!

67 Hours Into Deployment Update

I wish I could say "Wow, 67 hours already? I hadn't even noticed." But I can't. It's been a rough, really rough, start.

Aidan is taking it the worst and you can tell by his behavior. He is very angry and takes his aggression out on me most of the time. So far he's stormed off from me in Wal Mart - I was about to put in a Code Adam because I thought someone snatched him, he's intentionally peed in a trash can and then told me he did it, has attempted to bite, kick, and punch me and has thrown countless tantrums. He hasn't been sleeping well the last few days and has to have me there with him to sleep at all. Last night he broke down and was sobbing (not crying, sobbing) and when I asked what was wrong he said "I'm so sad about Daddy". And he keeps asking "Is Daddy going to be okay in the desert?". I explained everything to him and tried to make him understand that misbehaving or being hateful to others is not going to get Daddy home any sooner and that we're going to need each other to get through this. He was better for a little while then it went down hill again. I'm not really sure what I can do any more, I've tried punishments (all of them), we saw a psychologist and psychiatrist for a while but they didn't really help. The psychiatrist told me he wasn't a candidate for medication which both relieved and worried me.

Rachel is doing okay, she's a little more moody than normal but I think once we get into a routine she'll be alright. She also had a breakdown yesterday. We were driving on post when she saw a soldier in uniform. She said "there's Daddy" and I had to tell her that it wasn't Daddy, that Daddy had to go away for a while. She started crying and saying "I want Daddy to come home now".

As for me, I haven't had my really good breakdown yet. I thought it was going to be today but it never came, probably because I was too busy and there just wasn't time to cry - which is not a bad thing. I almost feel like I'm in denial, like Charlie will come home from work tomorrow or something. The hard part is that I don't have an FRG to update me on where he is so I have to wait to hear from him directly which can be days depending on the camp he's at or the line for the phone or any number of things. I hadn't heard from him since he landed in Alaska Monday night. Then when you add in trying to take care of the kids and make sure they're okay it's overwhelming. Thankfully Charlie did call this afternoon to tell me he made it to Kuwait. I cannot tell you how much a difference one twenty minute phone call can make.

On the brighter side, I learned to make real mexican rice. Laura is leaving to go to Texas tomorrow so I got a lesson tonight. The real test will be when I'm attempting it on my own but she assures me she'll be on call if needed. And I got to drive a convertible yesterday for the first time, a 2007 Mustang. Thanks go to Theresa for owning only stick shifts, Laura for not knowing how to drive them, and Enterprise for giving them a free upgrade. Me, Laura and Aidan (who was out of school with pink eye and an attitude) cruised down to Denny's for breakfast.
Don't we look good in it?

Let The Countdown Begin

At 3am this morning we dropped Charlie off so he could start his trek to Iraq. It's now 4am and I've got insomnia - either that or the liter of Mountain Dew is really working. Since he doesn't work on post, we dropped him off at the range so he could sign out his weapon and later they will drive back to Schofield to wait for the buses to take them to the airport. And wouldn't you know on our way off post I got pulled over by a MP who said I was speeding, 35 in a 25. Now normally I might do that, but at that time I was crying and going as slow as possible to delay the inevitable drop-off. Plus we had already passed one MP who pulled someone over and this MP had a car pulled over; both with the blue lights flashing. Even Charlie said he was watching the speedometer and saw it on 25. Anyway, it's a $55 fine but I'm going to go to court and fight it. The guy was a jerk though, I mean it was 2:15 in the morning, I'm crying, my husband is in uniform, our kids are in pajamas in the backseat, and an entire brigade is deploying right now - you would think he would've seen what was happening and cut me some slack.

We woke the kids up so they would see him leave and understand that he'll be gone for a while. Aidan is old enough to understand that Daddy is gone to the desert and he'll be gone for a long time but he doesn't know how long it really is. It was so heartbreaking to watch him say bye to them. They're fine though, playing and being too loud for 4am. Hopefully we'll be able to sleep for a little while before the sun comes up and the day really starts.

A little piece of good news is that I read an article saying there is a lot of pressure to reduce the tour length from 15 months back to 12 months. There should be a decision in 3-4 months. I'm very hopeful that he'll only have to do 12 but I'm prepared for 15.

This evening we took the kids down to Honolulu Hale to see Shaka Santa and the lights. We had a good time getting our mind off the deployment for a little bit.

Here we are in front of Shaka Santa & Mrs Clause


And here's Charlie and the kids

My Birthday

Today was my 27th birthday. The weather was sunny and really nice compared to the last week of rain and wind. Charlie managed to pull together a little suprise party for me and invited my friends over for some cake this afternoon. I got some much needed pina colada ingredients, a new Paula Deen cookbook, and some games. The kids picked out their own gifts for me for the first time and I got a porcelain doll from Rachel and a doll from Aidan.

The kids were all signed up for "night school" (after hours childcare they offer on post) so I got to have a kid free birthday dinner with Charlie, Laura, Jessica, and Jason at Outback. We had a good time and I got a free sundae with no singing.

I'm so thankful Charlie was able to be here for my birthday. We were pretty certain he was going to be on his way to Iraq by now but he got pushed back a few days. He will be leaving very soon and my heart is already aching but he's here now so I'm going to go enjoy it while I can.

Some birthday pics:

The Perfect Storm

For the past week beautiful Hawaii has been not so beautiful. We've had a ton of rain and strong winds. Our electricity was out from 3am Wednesday morning until 1130pm Friday night. Schofield was a disaster with trees uprooted and branches broken; school was closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and it might be closed Monday. We are supposed to have rain all the way until next Tuesday, hopefully it won't be as bad.
Since we were without power, we lost all the food in the fridge and freezer. The Army was handing out bags of ice, so we loaded up and filled Jessica's bathtub to try to salvage some of the food. Luckily the towns close to us and some other parts of post were able to get power so we could at least eat fast food. Housing opened up some vacant apartments and we were able to sign for it for 2 hours to take hot showers, do laundry and let the kids watch TV. Not exactly the best week of our lives but we survived and are no worse for the wear.
It wasn't the most ideal time to lose power for 3 days, Charlie deploys soon and instead of enjoying ourselves we had to rough it. It was nice to have him around to help though. Our friend Leo left for Iraq Thursday so Laura was roughing it alone, but she did a great job living like an Army wife of yester year, lol.
Some pictures of the damage:

Christmas Party!

We hosted a Christmas party last night at our house. Since we live in Hawaii and it's always warm, we turned the air down to 55 so we could all bundle up just a little bit. Everyone brought a $5 gift for the "white elephant" gift game and we had a good time with that. We had a good variety from games to ingredients for one Jager bomb to a giant remote control to an edible thong, lol. We played Christmas Taboo, took turns under the mistletoe and drank lots of hot chocolate. It was a great night but definitely bittersweet. It was our last party before Charlie and Leo deploy to Iraq and Laura takes off for Texas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a really great Thanksgiving. We all went to Jessica's house and had a ton of food and fun.
For appetizers we had a cheese tray, pickle tray, olive tray, and pumpkin dip w/crackers, and deviled eggs. Then for the actual meal we had turkey, dressing, mac & chz, green beans & potatoes, mashed potatoes & gravy, candied yams, brocolli casserole, collard greens, rolls and cranberry sauce. Then for dessert we had 2 jello molds, cheesecake rolls, 3 pies, a cake, ice cream, pretzel salad, and turkey cookies. It was a good thing we had so much because we had 10 adults & 11 kids to feed.
After we ate and cleaned, we hung out and played men vs women in Scene It. And of course the women won.
Cutest turkey cookies ever:

Our group: Justin, Lori, Linda, Kim & SkyAnn, Charlie, Me, Jason, Jessica, Laura, and Leo

The Kids: Aidan, Rachel, Kailyn, Megan, SkyAnn, Keegan, Caleb, Collin, Austin, Allison & Jonathan

Merry Early Christmas

Charlie isn't going to be here on Christmas so we decided to celebrate early. The kids opened gifts and we wore santa hats. Aidan got Transformers and Rachel got Dora stuff. Charlie tried to help Aidan with his new Transformers for what seemed like hours. It wasn't the same as real Christmas but we had a nice evening together. After presents we had an authentic and delicious mexican dinner that my friend Laura made us.

Aidan & his Transformers


Rachel & her Dora stuff


The Whole Family

Go Cowboys!

Aidan is on a flag football team, the Cowboys. We have a really awesome group of kids and parents and great coaches. Every game is exciting. So far we are undefeated. Aidan sometimes gets carried away and tries to fight with the other team, this time he was behind the play fighting with two opposing players! The coaches tell us he's just sticking up for himself so I guess that's okay. He is one of the younger and smaller players and sometimes the older kids think they can push our little guys around but I guess they just don't know what they're getting into with Aidan. He'll be great when it's okay to tackle.

My First Blog

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my blog. This is so exciting. There's so much going on right now with Charlie and the kids that this should be an easy way to keep everyone updated.

So check back often to keep tabs on me and my family!