Over half way!

I realized this weekend that we are over halfway with this separation. I hope the next 3 months goes fast.


Happy Birthday Christina! I can't believe you're going into Young Women's now.

Yet another long week

Why is it so hard for me to ask for help? And when I finally do, feel like I get slapped in the face.

This week has been pretty hard. I guess I should start with Monday when I took the kids up to Hill AFB finally to get eye exams and order Daniel some new glasses. My sister had flown in from Colorado that day and came up and met us at the Hill Aerospace Museum. The kids all had a great time and really loved the airplanes. I'll have to post more about that later.

I then got my sister on base and we went to the BX (kind of like a mini mall/Walmart). They have a little food court there and the kids were starving so I splurged and we went to order something for them to eat. The kids were also very tired which made decision making even harder. As I was helping Daniel figure out what to order, the fire alarm went off. The guy behind the counter said a kid probably pulled it. I look over and there's the alarm pulled with Jonathan standing there. Whoops. The entire building had to be evacuated. We went outside and waited as the fire truck showed up to evaluate and turn off the alarm. Slightly embarrassing.

My dad had parked a trailer in front of our house and as I was going to drop the kids off at a friends house so I could paint the trim, I noticed it was hit. Interact with the police department that day. Three times I think. I'm done with our wonderful emergency personnel this week.

I'm struggling with missing Clay. Sometimes this single parent things is so much harder. This is one of those weeks. We got word that he won't be able to come home for the 4th so I bought tickets to go fly out to see him. I know this isn't the most fiscally responsible thing to do right now but I won't lie--I really need a break. I'm taking Samantha and my wonderful brother and sister in law are stepping in to take my place so I can be gone for about 6 days. I only get to see him for 4 of them and then 2 days of travel but I so need this right now.

Daniel's 8th birthday was yesterday. We had a family reunion we went to but I was able to fix his favorite breakfast and lunch. He was feeling bad that we didn't get him a cake so at 9:30 last night we all went to the grocery store to buy a cake. The woman working there was wonderful and fixed up a prepared cake for Daniel with a transformer tank. I was so grateful. I'm having a hard time pulling myself together for his and Christina's birthdays this year. Big years for both of them and their mom is so out of it. I'm so sorry kids. I hope you forgive me someday.

We came home, I went to change the baby and grandpa and grandma show up. Jonathan decides to be helpful and ends up dropping the cake on the floor. After a little drama, we pulled it together and were eating the fallen cake at 10:30 pm when cousins showed up. Great mom, huh?

We ended up having an extra 9 people at our house last night and spent another long day at the reunion. The kids did fairly well, I think. I let my mamma bear insticts come out when I reached my limit of people discussing my children's problems in front of me. I'm really trying to do this the best I can. I know my kids have issues, all kids do. I just don't need them brought out every time I turn around. I decided I need to work on complimenting positive things I see in other people's children more often. I really am trying to work on my kid's issues and my own too. I'm too tired and exhausted to do this again any time soon. I'm so looking forward to a break. I hope I can get the hotel/rental car stuff figured out soon so I know what I'm doing once I get there.

Happy Anniversary!

Today Clay and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary.

Alone.

This is the part of the army that stinks! Not to mention the fact that it's Father's Day too.

At least we were able to talk today and all the kids (those who can talk anyway) were able to spend time on the phone with their dad.

It's been a crazy week this last week. Friday was insane. I decided that Friday was "the day" to get some of the stuff done that I have been putting off. I started by priming and prepping our bathroom. I then painted the ceiling and decided as long as I had the paint out, I paint the ceilings in the two hallways too. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up painting our bathroom (ceiling and walls), painting the ceiling in both hallways, painting the walls in one hallway, replacing the toilet seat in our bathroom, installing a new light fixture in our bathroom, and mowing the grass in just over 6 hours. I was kind of exhausted by the end of the day. Christina was such a HUGE lifesaver helping me with the kids so I could get it all done. I only had to touch up the hallway twice from fingerprints. :)

Last night I painted the trim in our bathroom but I still need to do the trim in the front hallway. I also still need to paint our bedroom and closet. That's going to be loads of fun. The room in the house that really needs to be updated. I've been busy taking loads of stuff to DI as well. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate very quickly. Good to clean things out but SO much more to do.

I met with a real estate agent last week who gave me a lot of hope about selling our home. Hopefully we'll be able to make a good profit off of it. Luckily it's in a good location which helps a ton. I'm hoping to get everything to the point of putting it on the market in about a month. Pray I can get it all done. It's kind of overwhelming some days, more often than not lately. It's been interesting to be reminded over and over again that things are not in our timing or the way we thought things would be at this point in our lives. I'm grateful for the faith I have in a loving Father in Heaven who knows much more than I do what is best for our family. It would be nice to get a tiny glimpse into our future so I would know that everything would turn out okay. Even as I type this, I know that He is always there looking out for our family. We just are still learning to let things go and put it ALL into His hands, not just the parts that are most convenient.

I am so grateful for Clay and for all he is doing for our family. He has sacrificed so much for us. He's such a great example for all of our children of learning to do the Lord's will and laying aside things of this world for something better. It hasn't been easy being separated but it's taught us both so much about appreciating what we do have. I can't wait until we can be together again. We still haven't heard if he'll be allowed to come home to baptized Daniel in less than 2 weeks. Hopefully his commander's heart will be softened and we'll hear something soon.

Happy Anniversary honey! I love you so much more than I ever thought possible when we began this journey together 13 years ago. I can't wait until we can be together as a family again. I love you.

Mormon Message on being a dad

Just saw this today and wanted to share. Happy Father's Day.

Cub Scouts

Daniel is official a cub scout. I signed his forms last week so he could go to day camp Monday and Tuesday of this week. He was SO excited. He woke himself up at 6 am both days, got dressed and tried to convince me to get up. He didn't have to be to his leader's house until 7:30 am and it's a five minute drive. I sent him back to bed the first day for a bit until I got up.

Here he is in his uniform. He wanted to show off the numbers. We got the book last Saturday and he spent most of the day reading it. He'll be passing things off and getting his Bobcat pretty fast. It's exciting (but makes me cry) to see him growing up.

Prayers please!/ new address

I've been without the internet for the past few days and it's working for a moment now so I'll put a quick note in.

Clay has told me that there is a slightly possibility that he might be able to come home for the July 4th weekend. Please pray for this to happen. If he is able to come home, we will be baptizing Daniel on Saturday, July 4th. We know that miracles can happen. It will be a crazy weekend but we're just waiting to hear from his commander. We'll let everyone know as soon as we do.

Clay's address at AIT is:

SPC Frank C. Stafford, Jr.
4th Platoon, F Co., 232nd Med. BN
2950 Koehler Road, Suite 1350
Ft. Sam Houston, TX 78234-6112

Coming home

Saturday, June 6th we spent the day driving back to Clay's mom/Leesa's house. The kids were glad to be back with cousins again and I got started on the laundry from the trip and start packing for home.

The next day we spent in church. Clay's aunt and her grandchildren came over for a bit too. I think we had 5 adults and 12 children for dinner (about half were mine :) ). Justin made some yummy ribs and mashed potatoes for dinner. I even snuck in a little nap while I tried to get the two youngest asleep. I think everyone but Christina ended up taking a nap.

Monday was the day to come home. Our flight didn't leave until 6:30 pm so I spent the morning doing laundry (again) and finished packing. We were ready to go by 11 am. We drove down to Clay's aunt Barbara's house again and she road with us to the airport to show Clay's mom the back roads. We were to the airport by 4:30 pm. Made it through security (that takes a LOT longer with 5 kids by myself) and then found our gate and waited. We lucked out again and got Samantha a seat for the flight. The kids were all so tired by this point and making a little noise so the nice lady at the gate came and got us first to load the plane. The flight to Houston was pretty uneventful after that. Once everyone got buckled in, they were content. That morning both Amanda and Jonathan said they were ready to go home. Good timing. I think that just getting on the plane helped the kids to know that we were actually going home.

Just before we landed, Amanda woke up and said her neck hurt. She'd been sleeping a little funny but also seemed really tired. As soon as they said that we could turn on our cell phones, I did, hoping that Clay would be calling. There was a message from Leesa saying Sarah had strep throat. Oh, no.

After we got to the next gate, I was able to get a call from Clay. We didn't have a long wait so we only got to talk about 20 minutes until it was time to board the plane. This flight was packed! The lady that was supposed to sit in the row with us changed seats so a very nice guy ended up sitting with us. Luckily we had the very last row on the plane, nearest the bathrooms.

I had Daniel sitting next to the window, Jonathan in the middle, and me with Samantha on my lap on the aisle. Amanda was sitting by the other window with Christina in the middle. It was crazy to try to get everything in. As soon as we were situated, Amanda said she felt like she was going to throw up. Oh, no.

We got a bag for her and Christina left to use the bathroom just as Amanda followed through with her promise. I quickly passed Samantha to Daniel and went across the aisle to help Amanda. Somehow Samantha hit Daniel on the mouth and he started bleeding. Samantha wasn't very happy I left her either so she was screaming. I think Jonathan was crying by this point to. I was happy that I kept it together and didn't join them. The flight attendant got Daniel a cup of ice and us some bags and napkins. Oh the things we do for love.

Now that we had everyone's attention, I quickly tried to clean up Amanda and traded seats with the guy so I could help Amanda. Then the plane finally took off.

The flight was interesting to say the least. Amanda continued to throw up off and on during the whole 3 hour flight. I felt so bad for her. I did have a change of clothes, some pajamas, but didn't dare change her in case she kept going, which she did. Luckily she was pretty good at making it in the large plastic bag they gave us after the first time. I felt so blessed to have so many people around us (including the flight attendants) who were very helpful and patient with us. Of course this would be the flight that was completely full.

We made it finally with a few other little issues like Jonathan hitting the guy next to him with his ear buds. Luckily the guy had a 20 month old and was extremely patient with Jonathan. I finally changed him into pajamas and then he gave it up and went to sleep. As the flight neared our destination, I began to think about how to get us all off. My plan of using the car seats like I had (attached to the carry-ons like strollers) was now out since Amanda had thrown up all over Jonathan's seat and I had 4 out of 5 children asleep. Thank goodness Christina was still awake. As we got close, I had several people around us asking me how I was going to do this. Luckily many of them helped to get us off the plane without too big of a problem.

One of my wonderful friends met us at the airport. We have one built in car seat in the car so I put Jonathan in that, his seat on the floor, got Samantha in, and went back to the baggage claim while my friend got the rest of the kids in the car. It felt so good to have it cooler here. We got home and we all were in bed by 12:30 am Tuesday morning. Samantha was so happy to be in her own crib again.

The next day we spent sleeping in a bit. I also forgot that after we are gone for a while, my kids like to stay home and play with their own toys so much! I took Amanda to the doctor to check for strep, which came back negative. She never did throw up again after we got off the plane. Weird. I'm just glad it wasn't anything serious.

We're home now and I'm so glad I get to talk to Clay a little more often. Only 15 weeks to go! At least while he's at Fort Sam Houston, we can go visit him. He can't spend the night but he can spend time with us during the day on the weekends if we go down. Now just to work out the summer schedules.

Saying goodbye, again

Friday, after graduation, Clay was able to get an off post pass. We went and checked out of the cabin and then headed over to the hotel where his sister was staying. His sister and her kids left from there and Clay's mom, the kids, and I stayed in that room that night. We were able to drive around Columbia, driving past the State Capital Building (long story) and went to dinner that night at Olive Garden (one of my favorite's because of memories). There was some sweet angel there who paid for Clay's dinner which we were grateful for.

We headed back to the hotel and it started to rain. Hard. It was dumping buckets. We were able to sit and talk for a bit and watch the kids play and then it was time to take him back to his barracks again for the night.

Here's Clay in his full ACUs.Clay saying good bye to his mom.

My cute hubby in his BCGs.I dropped him back off at his barracks in the pouring rain. There were roads that were flooded as I tried to drive him back. It was hard to say goodbye again. I was very pleased when he called that night at 9:30 pm to let me know he had gotten his cell phone back. YEAH!!!! Now at Advanced Training, he's allowed to use it during his personal time which is going to save a ton on phone cards. It's so nice to hear his voice more than once a week.

Clay left Saturday morning very early to head to the Atlanta airport where he flew out to San Antonio. The good thing is that we were able to talk for over an hour that day while we were driving back to Georgia. Talking is so nice.

Graduation from BCT

Friday, June 5 was graduation from BCT. It was held in the same place as family day. We actually left the cabin a little earlier but there were so many more people that day that I'm glad we showed up when we did to get a somewhat decent seat and parking place. They marched in a parade and the commander spoke again.It's pretty impressive when you consider how many soldiers there were (about 1000) and that they do this pretty much every week.
Luckily the ceremony was pretty short. And we could see each other again.Our family.
Clay with Daniel and Amanda. She didn't want to let go over her daddy's hand. I don't blame her but that's one of those things I'm not allowed to do with him in public.
Clay and his mom.

Hugs

After they did a little presentation and the commander talked, we were allowed to go down on the field and find our soldiers. They pulled A Company back from C Company (they had merged a couple of days before). When I got back there, a Drill Sergent was talking with them. I didn't want to get him in trouble so I waited until another Drill Sergent gave me permission to "go get my soldier." Clay was pretty emotional. I guess they had threatened the night before to not let them go because of some allegations of sexual misconduct from some of the other soldiers. It was so nice to hug him again. Since I was the one with the camera, I didn't get a picture of us but here's the kids first hugs with daddy.He looks pretty emotional still in this picture.Then we took him over to Weston Lake to the cabin we were renting. Jonathan didn't want to let his daddy go out of his sight. See his lovely BCGs (Birth Control Glasses).

Amanda was pretty attached too.

He had an on post pass for the day so we spent the day at Fort Jackson. We took the kids to a water park they had on post called Palmetto Falls. They had a blast! I put Samantha on my stomach as I laid on a tube to go on the lazy river and she thought that was wonderful. We had to have Clay back to his barracks by 8:30 pm but it was so nice to spend the day together.

Going to see dad

Monday, June 1 I spent repacking, doing laundry, and getting ready for the 6 hour trip (plus stops) to South Carolina. We also went to see one of Clay's uncles who flew model planes for the kids. They really liked that and kept talking about uncle Jake flying planes. It's amazing what they remember sometimes.

Tuesday we left around 10:45 am and drove to the Atlanta where we ate lunch and drove over to the temple. We then finished the drive to South Carolina, arriving at Fort Jackson about 7:30 pm. We went to the commissary to get a few groceries, and then headed over to the other side of Fort Jackson to Weston Lake where we stayed in a cabin. I wish I would have taken a picture of the cabin. The kids had a ball with the cabin. It had a bedroom in the back, a small kitchen and bathroom with a shower, and a front room with a futon. There was also a sleeping loft where the 3 oldest kids slept that was over the kitchen. The kids had a ball sleeping in the loft. The trick is getting them to sleep.

Wednesday we spent the day driving around Fort Jackson and showing the kids all there was to do on post. I really wanted the kids to get a good idea of what it will be like living on post.

Thursday was the best day. We were able to all get up and out of the cabin just after 8 am, arriving at Hilton Field for Family Day by 8:30 pm. We found seat and waited for 30 minutes for it to start.

Here is Audree (in the purple hat), Daniel is on the row in front (Jonathan got a good hold on his glasses on the drive over and I didn't dare try to fix them myself), Christina holding Samantha, Sarah, and Jonathan. Clay's mom and sister. Ty is next to Daniel and Amanda and Jonathan are on the row between his mom and sister.
Still waiting. That was the longest 30 minutes I've had in a long time. We all were anxious.Across the field. If you look under the sign, you can see the soldiers. And then it started. They threw out grenades with different colors of smoke.
And finally, they came running out. Sorry it's blurry, I was having a hard time being still.


In formation. I have to admit I was a little worried about being able to spot him but it wasn't a problem. He's towards the back, second row from the back, about in the middle (9 rows from the left). His company had a lot of people not make it so they joined with C Company just days before. I think he said there were only about 15-20 out of 38. Tw0 guys got in trouble that morning and got caught sleeping on CQ duty so they weren't able to participate.

Flying solo

So here's the first of our many adventures over the past week and a half. We started out flying to Houston (a 3 hour flight). We lucked out and Samantha was able to have her own seat. I planned this leg of the flight so she would take her nap. She was so exhausted and I felt so blessed she had her own seat. She did so much better when she was in her own seat and so much better than I feared with an ear infection.I sat next to the two youngest. Jonathan became an expert as he studied the emergency card over and over again. At least one of us will know what to do. He kept telling me the pilots were going to start doing tricks since that's what the planes up at Hill AFB were doing last time we were there. No thank you.Christina, Daniel, and Amanda.


We then had a two hour layover and then caught the last leg of the flight, just over 2 hours to Atlanta. We got there about 10:30 pm EST where we were met by Clay's mom and aunt. We then took about an hour drive to Aunt Barbara's house where we crashed for the night. The kids were all pretty worn out at this point and had a hard time leaving each other alone. Great impressions but real life sometimes. I'm sure it didn't help that by this point, 3 of them were coughing. Samantha had a really hard time going to sleep with no bed so we were up until about 2:30 am when I got the inspiration to put the carry on parallel to the bed so she felt like she was in a crib. She finally gave it up thank goodness. Jonathan was up at 6:30 am ready to go for the day. Yeah for me.

We then made the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Clay's sister's/mom's house. The kids were relieved to finally be there and ready to go play with their 3 cousins.

Saturday the kids played. Sunday we went to church with his family and Jonathan started getting sicker. By Monday, I knew I needed to get Jonathan to a doctor. I had the fun of driving in Georgia with his mom giving me directions over the phone. For those who haven't ever driven in this part of the country, they don't really believe in straight roads. Jonathan said the roads are like fishes because they swerve back and forth. Pretty accurate, I think. The roads are usually referred to by their numbers and Clay usually does the driving. Another first. Me driving alone in Georgia. Thank goodness for cell phones. I had them look at Amanda too since she was coughing too. Another ear infection, Jonathan this time. I don't think we've ever had such sick kids. The doctor also gave me some cough medicine since 4 of the kids were coughing now.