An Hour to Spare?!

Somehow.  I don't know how. I probably couldn't do it again if I tried.  I have an HOUR to spare before heading to church this morning!!!   Perhaps pigs are flying outside, I don't know.

So I wanted to take a few minutes and catch up on the blog a bit.  "Blog a bit."  I like that for some reason.

The last two weeks have not been the best.  The kids and I were visited by the stomach bug over a six day period.  There's nothing like being woken in the night to crying and walking into the kid's room to be hit with "that smell."  The smell of throw-ups.  Y.U.C.K.  And then comes the joyful task of cleaning up the child, cleaning up the sheets... what do you do with those dirty dirty sheets?  we don't have a utility sink that is handy for rinsing such business in this house.  Yuck.... then re-making the beds, getting a bucket for the next throw-ups, getting the child tucked back into bed, and finally getting yourself tucked back into bed.  Perhaps the best part of the whole night is getting back into bed (alone... since the hubby is somewhere on the other side of the world) and trying to get that smell out of your nose and THEN wondering if your stomach is swirling because you just cleaned up someone else's throw-ups or because you, yourself, are going to be having throw-ups.  Joy.   Luckily my mom was also visiting, luckili-er (I'm sure that's a word) she managed to leave WITHOUT suffering from the bug.  So the day that I was suffering, she had the kids downstairs or out of the house and I was able to rest.

Then last week, just after we were fully recovered and my mom was safely back in the Midwest, we all got a stuffy-nosed, sore-throated cold.  The kids are fully recovered after missing a few days of school... and a friend's birthday party (boo.).. and I am finally on the mend.  I have a red nose that would make Rudolph envious from all of my nose-blowing.  Speaking of nose-blowing... has anyone used the Kleenex Cool Touch tissues??  I picked them up by accident at the store and am totally amazed by these things.  When you pull them out of the box, they are COOL... to the touch.  I don't know how they make them cold, but they are!  So strange.  I do wish they had a little more soothiness when you use them, but the coolness is pretty nice.

So here we are... finally turning the corner towards health, I hope.  And we are also facing... drum roll please.... a TWO MONTH EXTENSION to the deployment.  Boo. With a capital "B."  Absolutely Boo.  The ironic part was that we found out about our 8-ish week extension when we had just completed 7 weeks.  So... the past 7 weeks have gotten us absolutely NO closer to our homecoming date.  I spent one day being mad and one day being very sad.  But now it has sunk in, my expectations for the next few months have adjusted... remember my Timeless Wonder post... this is the epitome of a Timeless Wonder.  I will blog more about my feelings of the extension another day. Stay tuned, I'm sure you're on the edge of your seats!

Despite the sicks, colds, and extension, things are still going pretty well.  I give a huge amount of credit to my church and the small group that I am part of.  We go to an awesome non-denominational Christian Church called Catalyst in Ventura.  They are the most down-to-earth group of people I have ever attended church with.  They are kind, welcoming, and caring... without being cheesy.  My small group is bringing me dinner once a week, they pray for me and the kids, they pray for Paul without me having to ask for it. Say what you want... those prayers really really work.  Every week when I go to church people ask how Paul is doing, other moms offer to help with the kids if I need it, I'm invited to play dates.   The church is sending Paul some thank-you notes, two or three months of weekly messages on a flash drive, the info for a financial study we are doing with our small group, and a phone card so he can call home. How cool is that?!  It's so nice to have other people acknowledge that Paul is away... and it's not just me thinking of him every day, others are too.  Today... in thirty minutes now... I get to say "Thank you" to our church by sharing a little bit of our deployment story and I'm grateful to have the chance to let them know I appreciate all they do!

Well, it's been thirty minutes with a few interruptions from the kiddos, so it's time to finish getting ready and pack up a diaper bag... and try to add a photo to this post.  It's been nice chatting with you and catching you up on the latest.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Here's a photographic representation of life today:

Kleenex Cool Touch, Clorox Wipes, Hand Sanitizer,
Theraflu (I swear by their nighttime one in particular),
Keurig Folgers French Vanilla coffee, and my Bible

Let the countdown begin!

(An old photo of USS Abe Lincoln)
See the funny propellor on the left side of the bridge? That's the E2-C

This morning at 7am we said our 'good byes' to Paul.  The morning was hands-down the most difficult morning I have ever had.  It is one thing for a husband and wife to say good bye and it is an entirely different thing for a dad and kids to say good bye.  The emotions for Paul and I were definitely running high; there was sadness and there was overwhelming love.  The kids handled it well since they didn't really understand what our good byes were for.  Matthew and Grace knew Mommy and Daddy were feeling sad, but Matthew just tried to be goofy (the people pleaser) and Grace was just quiet (the non-emotional one).  Sam just played football.  I'm sure in the next few weeks, particularly after Christmas, they will realize that Paul isn't home yet and perhaps that is when they will begin to understand what "deployment" means.

While we got ready for school, I vascilated between weepy and okay.  Grace's teacher gave me a hug and I turned to a pile of mush.  I got to the gym and forced myself to run a mile and started to feel a lot better.  Luckily today was a training day with Steph and she had planned a heavy workout.  For one hour I focused on making my body do what Steph told me I had to do.  There is such relief in spending time with my brain turned off and pushing my little muscles to do more than they want to do.  By the end of the hour, I felt pretty wiped out with not much more energy to give to weepiness.  But then, I talked to my mom, and then there were a few more tears.  Eventually, the kids were home from school, lunch had been eaten, Sam was down for a nap, and I could take a nice long shower.  I took a short nap  and woke up feeling like a million bucks.

Monday nights are Small Group nights, so fortunately I had a babysitter lined up and was able to take a few hours with some wonderful friends from church.  When you can't be with your hubby, it is pretty darn good to be with good friends.  We even blew off doing the Bible study and played board games!  When you can't be with your hubby, it is really darn good to be with good friends and board games! I tucked the kids into bed when I came home, emailed a "good night" to Paul (who did indeed make it safely onboard earlier today) and now have an hour or so to relax. Not a bad ending to a not-so-happy day.

I am feeling relatively confident in our family's ability to make it through this deployment with a minimal amount of tears and stress and frustration.  (Knock on wood.) Paul and I have done quite a bit of prep work in getting ourselves "set up for success" and our expectations managed.

Our Deployment Survival Kit:
X Arm pillow for Betsy (picture will be posted on Friday)
X Build-a-Bears with Daddy's voice message for each kiddo (thanks for the idea, Ash!)
X A t-shirt of Paul's for each kid to snuggle with at night
X Jar o'Kisses from Daddy for each kid each night
X Pictures of all of each of us with Paul (for us and for him)
X Digital photo frame loaded with photos for Paul
X Envelopes/paper and color-coded stickers so the kids will see the sticker and know it's a card from Daddy for them.
X Lots of videos of Daddy reading nighttime books to the kids
X New camera for Mommy to take video of kids for Daddy (Merry Christmas, me!)

Deployment Expectations:
We will email every day assuming the email is up and running on the ship.
We will Skype when Paul is in port.
We will get a handwritten note from Paul (hopefully once a month - Paul, are you reading this?!) hee hee.
We will send mail to Paul every week... hopefully the aircraft carrier made a weight allowance for lots of finger-paintings and such from the Meyer kids.

....only 142 days left!