Mimi's Visit

Mimi came to visit us over President's Day weekend!! She had four shadows for the duration of her visit...Sunday night, a "big" snow storm dumped about 6 inches (!!) of snow on us, and the freezing temperatures that lasted afterwards cancelled her Tuesday flight until Thursday!! Dream come true!!

Cooking project! Nothing relaxing about cooking with four small children!

They made us a DELICIOUS chocolate cake to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary!

Snow Days

We had a whopping 8 snow days from school in February and the beginning of March!  People in other parts of the country would laugh at the conditions at cripple our town, but, we loved it!  We even got to keep Mimi here for a couple extra days!!  The kids were elated to play in the snow-particularly the twins!  

Emmy bumped her head and James came running to comfort her.  Be still me heart.

Our little snowbunny was DEVASTATED that she had to come back inside!

I am taking all the pictures I can of my happy place.

As the World Turns

The kids watching a show on my computer during a house showing.

So many workers to watch!

Strep and flu and ringworm...and wildlife...Oh my!

From January:

I seriously feel like someone is out to get me.  I cannot, CANNOT, catch a break these past two months.  It's curious that most all of the curve balls have happened when Nick is away.  We have been PUMMELED with sick bugs and infested with fungus and, now, wildlife.  I can't even make all this stuff up, and even if I could, I wouldn't even do that to my worst enemy.  But I am trying very hard to keep all of this in perspective (as in continual pep talks going on in my head.)  In the grand scheme of things, this all is temporary as there's never been a storm that didn't pass.

Once we finally finished 16 days of antibiotics for strep throat (because Emmy needed to complete a second round on a different medication after her allergic reaction on day 6 of Amoxicillin) and ten days of Tamiflu for the conventional flu,  James came down with the stomach flu.  For a week and a half.  In that time, Hannah, Emmy and Julia all took turns with similar GI upset.  In the last month, the kids and I have spent the large majority of it in isolation so as to not perpetuate any of these sick bugs.

I am also waging war against ringworm.  It has been the bain of my existence for the last month.  I never knew how pervasive that fungus is until now that I've viewed every document google has to offer on the subject.  Darla is patient zero, and Molly, Emmy, James and I all contracted it in that order.  Both Molly and Darla require frequent anti fungal baths followed by a lyme sulphur "dip" that makes our house smell like rotten eggs.  Because of how very highly contagious the fungus is, I have kept the dogs in quarantine and they are none-too-thrilled with the arrangement.  The frequent sterilization of every surface of our home and laundering of every stitch of fabric that touches our skin has commanded every bit of down time.  The dogs were contagious for three weeks after aggressive therapy was initiated.  The incubation period is 4 days to two weeks after exposure before the ringworm patch even shows up, which has made this a long term battle and we still have a couple of weeks before we have confirmation that it's behind us.  I feel like a crazy person trying to prevent the spread of this miserable slow-growing fungus. My house has never been so clean...so I thought.

As Nick was shaving before leaving for a week-long trip, and I was doing my best to put one foot in front of the other after a 5 am wake-up scream courtesy of Hannah, I saw a small dark creature jet across the floor of the kitchen.  I panicked and snapped into high gear and ran to Nick to please check  it out and make it go away.  He was in a big rush trying to get out the door, but, took a look under the oven and even vacuumed it out before he had to leave.  That sneaky mouse was still at large.  Through tears, I bid him goodbye, PETRIFIED to be left alone with the kids, the dogs and a mouse loose in the room I spend the most time in each day for the next 6 days.  I did my best to breathe through the fear and pulled together breakfast for the kids making sure I was standing away from the oven and baseboards when that rodent made a break for it back from whence it came.  I screamed and the kids started crying.  I told myself I HAD to keep it together, I was scaring the kids, so I told them a story that we were so lucky to have seen it come and go so now we know it's out of our home.  Of course now the kids were terrified, too, so I spent the majority of the day reliving the encounter and doing my best to fake reassurance to them that it was no big deal.

I was in perpetual fight-or-flight for two days anticipating another vermin ambush, when, as I was rounding out bedtime, I picked up on a skunk odor wafting through the air.  I hoped it would dissipate quickly and tried to move on with my duties without much more thought...Until I went outside and realized that it didn't smell like skunk outside of my house.  I had no energy to deal with it and convinced myself that it didn't smell so strong anymore.  It wasn't until I went into the master bathroom after serving the kids breakfast the next morning that the odor had become staggering.  I knelt down to the air vent to hear chirping sounds on the other side.  I sat down on the couch, and stared at the wall as I tried to think of what to do next and who to call for help.  Our neighbor, Mr. Richard, has offered so many times to help when Nick is away and my head kept going back to him.  Ten minutes after I texted him, at 730 in the morning, he was standing in front of my now open crawl space door with a game plan.  We would leave the door open for the skunk to hopefully come out on it's own and pray the the smell was just it's body odor and that it hadn't sprayed.  By the Grace of God, that creature found it's way out during the day as Richard, so very kindly confirmed when touring our crawl space with a flashlight after he got home from work that night.  How grateful I am for Richard's help and for that creature leaving our home and taking his miserable smell with him.

The following day, Emmy and I heard rustling sounds in the fireplace area, and upon closer inspection, I found a bunch of mouse droppings.  With heart racing, I taped up the vent holes, covered the front of the fireplace with a diaper box in addition to the plexiglass already there for childproofing, placed a bunch of traps and sterilized the floors with bleach, again.  I am counting down the minutes until Nick gets home so he can check all of the traps I've set because I cannot bring myself to look.  A silver lining of this debacle is that I have the kids scared silly about walking around with food and leaving crumbs for mice.  Small victories.

With our future decision made, we are on the clock to get our home on the market and sold.  Leaving this house will gut me (although the wildlife situation as of late is making it slightly easier.)  Last weekend, the focus was on decluttering the house before Nick left for the week, so that I could deep clean it and we could have a pre-emptive home inspection prior to putting it on the market.  This week has been filled with very, very long days and nights, but I can't remember the last time it was so neat and clean.  If it weren't for the critters in and under my home, I would be a zen mama in my clutter-free surroundings!  Now keeping it clean with my crew is going to have the opposite effect on my mental well-being, I'm afraid.  We had the home inspection on Thursday and it went well despite a leak from the humidifier under the house rendering the insulation in that area dripping wet.  After two visits from the HVAC people and one from a plumber, I think we've got the issue ironed out.  Now to pick and agent, knock out the list of repairs and touch-ups and get this place listed...But that's for next week, for now, Mama's tired.

Hannah's 3!!

It seems like it was just over night that Hannah went from two years old to a "three-nager."  She is so full of personality and sass.  Hannah plays so well independently, particularly with her dolls or Barbies where she acts out different princess scenes.  She spends a large percentage of her day dressing and redressing herself.  Her current look usually involves some combination of tights and a shirt, her fashion forward outfit preference is, apparently, well beyond her years.  It is a chore to get her to wear what most people consider pants (not tights.)  Thankfully, I only have to fight that battle on the days she goes to Mom's Day Out and church, otherwise I don't bother.  She is now potty-trained during the day (woohoo!!) I can honestly say that she was potty trained the week before her third birthday, and I'm not proud to admit that I broke her off cold turkey from drinking milk from bottles in that same time frame. :-/ SO RELIEVED to have that behind us, it was most unpleasant there for a couple of weeks!  Just two nights ago we transitioned her to her toddler bed after she began climbing out of her crib with ease a month ago.  So many changes all at the same time!

Hannah is such a dynamic little person.  She is a whistle blower and doesn't back down in a fight.  She is careful and conscientious.  She is patient and thoughtful with the most acute memory.  She is expressive and quite dramatic.

She prefers to eat her meals early in the day.  Her favorite meals for breakfast are cinnamon chex cereal, pancakes, waffles and scrambled eggs with ham or the white part of hard boiled eggs.  She DESPISES egg yolk.  For Lunch she likes to make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich with pirates booty and applesauce.  She doesn't eat dinner most nights even though it's right in front of her, but has been on a salad kick lately.  Shocking and welcomed!

As for sleep, she usually wakes up between 615 and 645 and then takes a nap around 1:00 until about 3:00 or 3:30.  Lately, there have been some days where she choses not to nap at all, so I reluctantly accept that she'll drop that nap in the not-to-distant future.  It will be a sad, sad day when that happens.  Bedtime is usually around 7:30PM, but on occasion, she'll read or sing to herself in her bed until a little after 8:00.

Hannah keeps us laughing with some her hilarious observations and comments.  Each night when we pray, we ask Emmy and Hannah to add their prayer intentions.  Every single night, without fail, Hannah prayers for "De carwashes and de tunnels and de yellow (as in egg yolks.)"  She prays for all the things she dislikes the most, I laugh (in my head) every night, but am secretly impressed with the concept of praying for the things we like the least!  If I could be so faithful as to take the same approach.

The night before Hannah's big day, Emmy insisted on staying up late to help me decorate so that it looked just right.

What is I'm?

Three fingers is too hard, let's just go for a thumb's up!

Hannah has wanted a Lalaloopsy surprise since she saw a commercial on Dora for one months ago.  I laughed at this toy (that soils diapers) years ago and honestly never thought I'd be seen in a checkout line with one.

Krispy Kreme donuts are a new favorite in our house. :-P

I found a cupcake tin for mini princess dresses at Hobby Lobby so the girls had a bunch of fun icing and decorating the cupcake gowns.

Facetime!

1. How old are you?  “What is I'm?” 

2. Who are your best friends? “Ashley." (Miss Ashley, her teacher) 

3. What is your favorite thing to do? “Nuffing." Emmy laughs. Hannah: "What's funny?"

4. What is your favorite color? “Purple." 

5. What is your favorite food? “Donuts” Emmy: And hot cocoa? Hannah nods, "and I like marshmallows."

6. What do you like to do with your family? “Nuffing."

7. What is your favorite toy? “Frozen.” 

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? “I'm gonna be a singer.” (Emmy prompts this one.)

9. What makes you happy? “Nuffing.” 

10. What makes you sad? “I'm don know” 

11. What is your favorite show to watch? “Callou.” 

12. What is your favorite book? “Snow White. I have Snow White at my school.”

13. What do you love to learn about? “I'm dunno.”

14. What was the best part of your birthday? “CAKE!"

15. Where do you like to go? “I get to go to Disney World!”

16. Who are your teachers? “I dunno.” 

17. What is your favorite treat? “CHOCOLATE!"

18. What do you think about before you go to sleep? (Shrug) “I'm dunno.” Emmy: "Frozen?" Sissy nods.

19. What is your favorite animal? “A Yion. And Monkey"

20. Who is your favorite singer? “I yike Shake Shake Shake." (Shake it Off by Taylor Swift)

21. What’s your favorite song? "Shake it off."

22. What’s your favorite game? "I like Frozen."

23.  What’s your favorite movie? "Frozen."

Change is Coming

After many months of open hearts and prayerful consideration, God is leading us in a new direction.  This summer, after Nick relinquishes his command, we are parting ways with the military and moving to California as Nick begins a one-year graduate program at Stanford University.  It feels so good to say that!

It all started years ago, when Nick completed his first command.  We had 10 years of military service behind us and faced the ominous question of what next.  We could stay in the military to finish out his 20 years for retirement or we get out.  I was 110% committed to getting out of the military while Nick straddled the fence.  To appease me, Nick studied for months and took the GMAT in December of 2011 and scored remarkably well (although he still believes that he could have done better...)  The following months came and went without any grad school applications submitted.  To say that we were stressed would be a gross understatement.   After many uncomfortable, passionate conversations, it was determined that Nick would stay in the Army so that he could achieve his next command.  I struggled mightily with this, but decided to give it to God (and our therapist) and focus on caring for the family, which was what I have been called to do.  If only I could just give my spring of 2012 self a hug and say, hang on tight, this is going to be a WILD ride, but it will all work out for good and be greater than you could have ever imagined.

Since moving into our new home in the country, I am in my element.  This time spent nurturing our family in such a beautiful place as this has fed my soul.  The deployments are hard, but after all these years and all of these babies, I've finally found my stride and life is otherwise so good.

Nick's command has been a busy one, we assumed that once his two years were up that we would have another year here at Fort Campbell while Nick completed an administrative job for his battalion.  This past summer, while he was deployed, Nick had a routine counseling session with his boss, and it didn't go favorably.  Nick had spent little time with his boss over the last year given his company's preoccupation with fielding their new aircraft, and that limited face time colored the review.  The take-home message was that the job we had anticipated Nick having after completing his command was no longer on the table.  This, rightfully, brought forth some intense soul searching and contemplation of the future.

After Nick returned from the deployment, he came to join the kids and I in California.  While he was there, both he and I, with open hearts, started conversing with so many family members and friends about our predicament.  Those conversations snowballed into others and come September, we made a decision that Nick would apply to grad school, with the GMAT score he had taken years before that had not quite expired yet.  This fall was consumed with applications and essays to Stanford for the conventional 2-year business school, the 1 year executive business school (with a focus on leadership for students with an average of 12 years work experience) and to Duke business school.  We knew that they were completely ambitious, but Nick had gathered from his many conversations that, at his age, the only way grad school would really be a wise investment (both in time and monetarily) is if he went for one of the top-ranked schools. Nick felt strongly that grad school would be the best transition from the military to the civilian business world, and that if he wasn't admitted, it was a clear sign that wasn't the route he was intended to take.

After some majorly down-to-the-wire revisions, his first Stanford application and essays were submitted for the 2 year conventional MBA program in the end of September while on a work trip.  Duke came next.  I will never forget him running into the twins' room while I was reading the kids a bedtime story, roughly 4 hours before his application was due, asking me to read his essays.  A similar scenario played out the night his Stanford MsX application was due.  My Dad had uncovered some incredible advice for a recommended approach to the most daunting of the essays: "What Matters Most To You and Why?" just a couple of days prior to the deadline.  Nick had agonized over whether to keep the essay he had tweaked from his first Stanford application even though it wasn't consistent with the advised approach, or scrap it and start over.  So, at 10 o'clock at night, 4 hours before the deadline (PRAISE JESUS FOR PACIFIC TIME) that essay was re-written.  It was an intense night with rapid-fire revisions.  Just after midnight, we got a text from Poppy telling us about a movie that he, Grammy and Grant had just finished watching.  The timing was impeccable, with the both of us bleary-eyed and knowing they were still awake, we gratefully sent the draft along to Grant for one final revision before Nick hit the submit button.

We waited weeks for a response from all the programs.  In that time, we learned that Nick's boss had actually slated him for the same job we had originally anticipated him having only for the other battalion.  An unexpected but appreciated decision, that definitely complicated our picture of the future.  He was offered interviews with both Duke and the Stanford MsX programs.  He traveled to Durham for his Duke interview and Skyped with the Associate Director of the Stanford MsX program in the end of November.  Both of the interviews went well, and we were left to wait some more.

In that waiting period, doubt certainly crept in.  Nick was convinced that he was going to get e-mails from all of the programs with a picture of a young kid clad in their school t-shirt flipping him the bird.  He deployed in December, and a little over a week later, we received word that he had been waitlisted for the conventional 2 year MBA at Stanford.  Then, we learned that he was accepted into Duke MBA and hours later came the news that he was also accepted into Stanford's 1 year Executive Business School (MsX.)  We can't help but wonder if the overhaul in the 11th hour on his main essay for Stanford MsX made the difference. We were both genuinely surprised and overwhelmed.  The decision to apply to grad school was a leap of faith and was made without deep consideration of the logistics.  Neither of us really thought it was going to pan out.  We were both deeply overwhelmed by the prospect of making such a radical life change, stepping out from the "stability" of the military into an abyss as Nick described it.  He doesn't have a clear picture of what he hopes to do after he completes school and knowing how much he loves what he does right now in the military (even though his job description will change in the very near future) really brought forth some legitimate concerns about what to do. That all on top of great concern that his replacement is arriving in the end of June and his ability to change command and out process from the army in time for the first day of school on July 6th seemed nearly impossible.

Stanford is where we want to be, both because of it's ranking and, most important, for the first time in too many years, we can live near both of our entire families.  Out of concern for the borderline impossible timeline, we requested to defer Nick's acceptance for a year.  Stanford will only entertain such requests for those making them on the grounds of compulsory military service, and therefore they agreed to look into our case.

In the week afterward, Nick's best friend, Derek, and his wife, my girlfriend, Mel, just-so-happened to come for a childless visit for work.  The timing was, once again, impeccable.  We spent numerous hours together and were able to talk all of this out with them, who have been invested in our lives since we all first started dating 15 years ago.  We started getting answers to our questions regarding Nick's medical board for his back and how that would impact his out processing timeline.  It's doable.  His replacement doesn't graduate from his school until June 19th, however, he identified a way that he could get his family moved to Tennessee prior to his finals and opt out of "walking" for graduation in order to come back to Fort Campbell immediately after finishing his finals to complete hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment inventory before their official change of command, which might happen around July 2nd.  So, it's possible, too.  I woke up Wednesday morning after learning the last of the information the night before and I couldn't stop thinking about Proverbs 3:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding

In all your ways acknowledge Him

and He will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord

and turn away from evil.

It occurred to me that God had already cleared the path for us, there were no longer any roadblocks besides our own fear of the unknown.  So, I felt a strong urge to call Nick and tell him my revelation.  I told him that I didn't want him to have to call me if he found himself in a conversation with his boss about our future plans (as was already scheduled to happen this week anyway.)  I trust that God is leading us to Stanford this summer.  He agreed.

We are excited, yet still guarded, being so used to the other shoe routinely dropping.  We are like deer in headlights beginning preparations for selling the house and moving the family to Stanford.  We are just now beginning to talk about the special moments that we will be able to share with all of our family and so many of our treasured friends in the bay area....It's all so novel.  Just the other day as I was driving, I was lost in a day dream envisioning myself driving the van across the California state line and I just felt the tears starts pouring out of my eyes.  I can't begin to fathom what life is even going to look like without the military and the deployments that come with it; and having an incredible abundance of loving arms from our family who can now walk through life with us after being away for so long gets me choked up at the thought.  This is such a tremendous blessing for each and every one of us.  God has been ALL OVER this from the very beginning and I know he will continue to guide us in the days, weeks, months and year ahead as we embark on our next great adventure.