Been a LONG time since I said "Hello!"

*I started writing this while back and never got it finished. I wanted to add so many more pictures, but things once again changed withe sites  I was using and got got crazy busy around here. This was/is my rough draft, but to just get it published and move on and get back to blogging,  here it is typos and all ;0) Sorry.

WOW!!!
I haven't blogged since April!!!
Life just got swept me up under a rug and now here I am again! I feel the need to get back to writing each day, it's such good therapy for me!!! LOL And boy do I feel like I need some lately! Things are happening at rapid speed in my life right now!

Well, ALOT has happened since April...Here's my quick run down so I don't get too all over the place here:

 We done alot of fun end of the school years stuff! We had a "book fair", went to the Science Center, alot of fun and learning outdoors, GI Joe came home for a week to visit!!! Had a deployment party for him, I tuned 35, Zach turned 19, Found out I was going to be a grandmother, we went to NC, GI Joe deployed, , went to the ocean, had a little vacation, had a HOT drought summer season, garden burned up and we lost 95% of it, got a food dehydrator and dehydrated everything in sight, read more about GMO's and every poison known to man, still educating about hemp and it's benefits for this planet, trying to eat more clean and healthy, exercising more, fought a horrible bout of depression, stalked FB for days /weeeks for some sign of movement or a green dot from my GI Joe (still do this), Lost a couple of dear friends/sisters friendships over something so stupid and egotistic, Gabe started pre k at public school, I got accepted into a nursing school a week before classes started and could not afford it, Nate turned 7 had a Ninjago party, Justin turned 12 had a Rock n Roll/air soft battle/Avenged Sevenfold  party, been 3 months since deployment, next I have our Annual Halloween Party next weekend I should be preparing for, instead I have this crazy notion I can try blogging again...well, we'll see how it goes. Welcome back and Hello to those of you who are new here. Welcome to my crazy life!

Public School and Home school ended with my all my guys doin' great, straight A's and ahead of  where they should be! Smart guys! I'm proud!!! Gabe done testing to attend public preschool in the fall.

GI Joe came home for a short visit in May. We had a huge party here on the farm for his deployment. Joe's band and several others played. It was a packed house.

 This is the ONLY decent pic we got of all the boys together, but hey we did manage to get one ;0)

While GI Joe and Courtney was here on leave they wanted to go to the Zoo. The day we picked to go to Forrest Park it was a mess! I think everyone had the same idea. After driving around for 30 mins just to find a place to park we decided to head across the highway and took the kids to the St. Louis Science Center instead.

There is always lots of fun activities and exhibits to see and do. We had lunch and went off to explore. We had been studying fossils and mummies so it was awesome to see exhibits!



 Joe had to head back to Ft. Bragg

 The end of June we packed up the ALL 5 of the boys and headed to North Carolina to see our oldest son GI Joe and his wife Courtney, Joe was soon to be deploying to Afghanistan.

I made up each of the boys a back pack filled with activities, toys, puzzles, and snacks. I also made each of them a binder filled with maps, books, games, coloring pages, and stickers. All I could think was I had to keep them fed, BUSY, and quiet for a 16 hour drive.
Car trouble, extreme heat, and nervousness all around. We made it there in about 20 hours. LONGEST car ride ever!! It was a good thing I was heavily medicated and slept most of the way there!  We lost a few days worth of time and planned activities. We made the best of the short time we had to spend with them.

We rented a large hotel room from a great place in town (closer to Joe and Court this time) with a pool and had it to ourselves most of the trip. It was awesome! It was a little pricey, but it was worth every penny spent. It was CLEAN, had night security, and everyone was helpful. There was even a nice sit down breakfast place on site we tried out the morning we left.  We will for sure stay here again if we go back to Fayetteville, NC in the future. For you other Army Parents/Spouces, I highly suggest staying here if your kids are stationed at Ft. Bragg.
With car troubles and money being tight, this was the perfect spot for us all to just hang out and play. And oh boy did they play! We hung out alot at the pool cuz it was 110  + almost everyday so we just swam, BBQ'd and enjoyed each others company.  It was so nice to watch all 6 of boys play and crack up like old times. My two eldest reverted back to 8 year olds LOL It was great to see all of them laughing, joking, and playing around. The whole time in the back my mind, I knew it was going to be a long while before we all could be togther like this again. So I soaked it all in and cherish every single second of it. LOTS of great memories were made here! ;0)

 


We BBQ'd at Joe's for the 4th

Joe took us to the visit the Airborne Museum. Ahhhh nice and air conditioned! I think back and it was about 114 degree that day. It can be a little scary for lil' guys.  It was very entertaining to say the least. A lot of sound effects and some pretty mature scenes. We got split up once we got in. SOME of my children decided it was play time and ran off. Sped right through it and did not take it all in. I was taking the time to give the boys a good history lesson as we walked through, you just can't rush in a museum! So they were stuck out in the heat waiting on us for a while. Outside the lawn was adorned with row after row of American Flags. It was a very somber place to sit and reflect. So many lives lost for profit and greedy gain. I did find it to be a beautiful place for a photo op, but in the heat it was hard to get much cooperation out of my hot, hungry, stuburn children ;0)

(POST AIRBORNE COLLAGE)

Took everyone out to a fancy fun dinner at Chuckie Cheeze. Cheap fun and Air conditioned! My kind of place! So we ate and played hard. This year Jaxon wasn't afraid of everything and was runnin' amuck with all of the other boys.

(POST CHUCKIE CHEESE COLLAGE)

 The hubby and I even got a SHORT date night!  The big boys said they'd watch the littles after getting everyone settled to bed and asleep. So we ventured out into the nightlife...thought we'd grab some wine and a bight to eat...a little too late I guess, because everything was closing up. So we decided we were old,tired, and just ready for bed. We headed back to the hotel and crashed. It was nice though having close to 45 mins to ourselves in peace and quiet, even if it was just driving around.

(POST datenight pic)

Just a week before deployment my son and his wife found out they were expecting, That's right! I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!!!)

The hardest part was deployment day...it was another scorching hot North Carolina summer day, emotions and stress levels were highly elevated. Just an all around strange feeling. not sure any other way of describing it. Here I was seeing my first born son off to war. I kept myself together pretty well until I stepped foot out of the car at the Army base. I lost it. I tried really hard to be strong and brave and not my little guys see me cry! It was a LONG wait as Big brother was getting himself, his bags checked in, and equipment assigned. It was HOTT! After about a 5 hour wait I'd had enough, the little boys were all tired and cranky. I felt the last few hours should be spent with him and his wife. They needed some time. So I hugged my baby, now a grown man going off to war and said our "see ys laters". The HARDEST thing I think I have EVER done!!! I am so proud of him! Stay Safe!

(POST COLLAGE PIC OF SEE YA LATER)

(PUT 2012 heart pic at ocean here)
We decided to stay a few extra days. We all really needed a vacation! We drove to Wilmington to take Zach to the ocean since he had never been. We hung out on the beach all day, enjoyed the fun in the sun.
PUT OCEAN COLLAGE HERE)

(POOL/HOTEL PICS)
We hung at the hotel another day and BBQ'd as we had the pool to ourselves again. I just chilled and reflected alot on all the changes that were takening place and where things were headed when fall hit.

(ADD MAYBERRY PIC)

On the way home we stopped in Mayberry. Everything was closed up due to the heat. I did mange to reek some havick in Andy's jail and we drove through town and had a look around.

 A week later Andy Griffith had died. RIP

It was a LONG ride home, traffic as usual in West Virgia.
(ADD TRAFFIC JAM PIC)

(add trip home highlights collage)

 We were glad to finally be home. There's lot's to be around here!

I'm excited! We started working on the house again. This time I picked my new bedroom! I ripped out the carpet in the old toy room.  We started building the closet and window seat. I didn't wait to finish either we've already moved our bedroom up there.

There are millions of tiny pin holes all over the walls it seems.

FINALLY a DOOR!

It's the little things that make a gal like me happy =0)

 The garden had burned up from the heat and lack of water. Weeds had over run it as well. so we cut our losses again this year. We did get a few cantaloupes, tomatoes, zucchini, jalapenos, green beans and a couple of football shaped water melon. The boys had already picked every strawberry and ate them right from the vine. Even while they were white. My boys LOVE strawberries.

I bought a food dehydrator a while back, got it out and started dehydrating. I dehydrated bananas, strawberries, zucchini, potatoes, tomatoes. Made some oatmeal and spagetti sauce. I ordered some new weeping willow trees to plant around the property too.

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL

Poppa Bear has been runnin' lil man here around after working long hours with little or no sleep all football season. This year one of his buddies played so we had some help when Dad was on afternoons. This year he actually played and showed improvement. I'm proud of the drive and ambition he has this year to be a good player.

Jaxon and Gabe helped big brother practice all season 

School time came and the decision was made for Gabe to attend a public preschool. I'm still indecisive whether or not we made the right choice. Right now I am just so overwhelmed and he wanted to go. Socially I hope it helps him. He really seems to like it! He has had a few bad days since starting and really makes a point of getting a "green day".

I can't believe Nate is a 1st grader and Justin a 6th grader

First day of school

Man it sure is ruff getting up early LOL

NATE'S FIRST SOAPBOX DERBY

He hit the hay bails 4 times on the way down.

We found out "Jelly Bean" is a girl!!!

Welcome Alexis Nicole <3 Nana can't wait to meet to meet ya baby girl <3

Nate turned 7

 I whipped him up a cake on his Birthday so he could make his wish.

He wanted a Lego Ninjago Party. So off to pinterest I went. I gathered up some neat ideas and this is what I came up with.

(INSERT Ninjago collage pic)

Justin turned 12

(INSERT PARTY PIC COLLAGE)

Working on our Annual Halloween Party for next weekend. There's so much to do and so little time!!!

I have spent the last 6 months since my eldest has to deployed sort of a mental mess. I wonder how they did back in other wars where there wasn't any technology to have contact. I couldn't imagine waiting months for letters and postcards. I stalk and troll Face Book throughout the day to see if there is any movement from him or a green dot signaling he is on chat. This is my new daily life.
 I got a call from GI Joe last night a little after midnight!!! It was so great to hear his voice.

STAY SAFE!!!

Now I think I'm all caught up on the gist of things around here. Winter is on it's way and staying warm is top priority on our list right now. So Poppa Bear went and bought a few infrared heaters. He got me the fireplace model for the kitchen! I love it so far!!!
Hopefully I can start making some time and blog a few times a week again. It's very refreshing ;0)

♥♪♫•.•°*°•.¸¸♥. PEACE and LOVE .•°*° ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ Wendy