SURPRISE!!

Oh. my. word.  I have been had.  In the most amazing way possible.

A little background...

About a month ago, one of the ladies in my FRG, Holly, sent me an e-mail asking me if I was free on February 5th.  When I wrote back with an affirmative, she told me to save the date and more information would follow.  Two weeks later, she wrote to tell me that my babysitter, Ericka would be at my house at 1:30.  Then just a couple days prior to the date, she wrote to tell me someone would be at my house to pick me up shortly after Ericka arrived.  To say that my interest was peaked, would be putting it mildly, but I had no other information from which to draw conclusions.

I had no choice but to be patient.

1:30 on February 5th, finally arrived and so did my babysitter.  At 1:45, my friend Angie knocked on my door.  We started driving, and soon passed the turn off to Holly's house, now I was really confused.  I soon realized that we were headed towards Fort Campbell.  Through the gate we went to the Family Readiness Center.  We walked up to the front door, and my friend, Julie, was waiting for us.  They led me into the dining room where there was a big group of ladies from my FRG waiting!  Stunned, I scanned the room to see who all was there, and, at the end of the line, was my Kris.  Barely a nanosecond later, I was reduced to sobs.  They had thrown me a surprise thank you party!

Holly had gone out of her way to contact both Nick and Kris to learn all of my favorites, down to the color motif in our home and my favorite flavor of tea. Holly and the Lancer crew had been plotting for weeks and had gathered donations to spoil Nick and I with the most unbelievably thoughtful gifts!  Each and every present was something that I love.  They showered us with baskets filled with bottles of wine, my favorite tea, chocolates, a large canvas of my favorite family picture, a gorgeous glass pitcher filled with white roses, a gift certificate to spafinder.com, a gift certificate to Ruth's Chris (Nick and my FAVORITE dinner out) and money for a babysitter for a date night.  There was a big spread of food and my favorite homemade chocolate cake.  I felt as though I needed to pinch myself because it felt like a dream, especially having my Kris there.  After a really tough week, gosh, a really tough deployment, they made me feel like a million bucks.

Kris and I arrived home to a very happy Emmy.  After staying up chatting like old times, we retreated to bed.  I had trouble sleeping, though, I just couldn't stop thinking about my incredible surprise.  I only wish I could throw a party just like it for each and every one of those ladies, working their fingers to the bone to hold down the fort in their soldiers' absence.

my Kris!

A hot mess.

We saw each other two weeks ago, but you would've though It's been months, man I miss that girl. :-P

 Baby Mason, born the day Nick came home for R&R!

Holly successfully pulled off the impossible.  She deserves a medal! :)

Just Three Words...

IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!

Last night, Emmy and I attended the first of the six homecoming ceremonies for our redeploying Lancers!!  We had three soldiers from our company on that plane, who came home first to make way for the masses!  I get goosebumps knowing that our turn is just around the corner!!!!

 Waiting for the plane with two other Lancer wives, Rease and Paige, and Matt Wagstaff's widow, Tiffany (wearing the hat).  Tiffany believes that Matt would have been arriving home on that plane, and felt the need to be there.  She's a very strong lady.

Landed on American soil!  Praise Jesus! One down, five to go!

Fast Times at 4064 Challis

Snow Day(s)!

It seems like the children of Tennessee have had more snow days than school days this month.  While some parents have cursed the local government for their lack of road clearing resources, I have been basking in the excuse to stay home with my girl.  We have had great fun reading lots of stories, finger pudding painting and laundry basket sledding in the 3 inches of snow accumulation.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get some more snow days in March so that we can be snowbound with Dada! Come on March!! :)

 I swear I didn't set her up!

 Molly and Darla chased us around the yard. They are the most unassuming snow dogs, but they LOVE it!

  I don't think we own enough pink...

Emmy's kind of painting!

Dress Up Drama

My girls and I celebrated MLK weekend in Indy with Kris and the kiddos while JP joined his army buddies in Vegas!  Unlike every other trip to Indy in the last several months, our only agenda item was to have fun together!  Fun was most definitely had by all.  It's incredible how Emmy's little personality brightens in the presence of her cousins.  Child-like love is the most pure form there is.  Small children tell eachother exactly what they think of them.  They tell eachother to "go away" if they are annoyed, they bark in eachother's faces if they don't feel like sharing, they invite eachother to join in their bathtime, and they cheer eachother on when they finish all of their dinner.  Emmy was so excited to join her cousins when she woke up each morning that it took an extra firm grip to contain her flailing extremities, and her happy squeals could be heard throughout the house. :)

One of the many games we played was dress-up.  Emmy was already decked out in the only butterfly costume when Clairey entered the living room.  It was, of course, the ONLY costume that Clairey wanted to wear.  A drama fit for daytime television ensued shortly thereafter.  In the end, all was well (kind of) with Emmy as a butterfly, Andy as an astronaut and Clairey as a Construction Cowgirl.

Clairey enters the room and gives Emmy a once over...

She sneaks up when Emmy least expects it...

Goes in for the kill...

Clairey is highly disappointed by her alternate costume.

Maybe this is a better choice?  A Construction Reindeer?

Emptying the dress up bin looking for just the right ensemble for Clairey...

Andy loves space, in fact, it's his favorite.  He'll tell you so.

Our baby butterfly

Much better.

The crazier the hair=the better the nap!

Rise and shine Clairey-Beary!

She cleans up well!

Playing beauty parlor with Clairey's hair accessories. It was Clairey's idea.

Mini top hat!

Somebody needs a crazy-hair-kinda-nap!

Such a girl!

Just like her mama!

Master Class

While our babies sleep, Kris and I have been entranced watching "Master Class" on the new Oprah Winfrey Network.  Maya Angelou inspires me.  I want to commit every beautiful word she said to memory.

"You see, love liberates, it doesn't bind.
Love says 'I love you!'
I Love you if you are in China,
I love you if you're across town,
I love you if you're in Harlem,
I LOVE YOU!
I would like to be near you.
I would like to have your arms around me.
I would like to hear your voice in my ear;
but that's not possible now.
So, I love you.
Go."
-Maya Angelou

God has an incredible way of sending me the messages I need to hear.

13 months old, 10 months down & 6 weeks left!

Without fully thinking it through, I told myself that all I needed to do is get through the holidays, and then Nick would be home.  It didn't turn out to be a very helpful head game, considering we still have about six weeks to go.  This sprint to the finish line is beginning to drag.  Ugh!

As the deployment wears on, Emmy has been blossoming!  It seems that her personality and capabilities have become brighter and more impressive (to me) with each passing day. :)  These days, she is fascinated by stairs.  She climbs the first step at home and holds onto the rungs of the baby gate with a giant grin on her face.  I, absentmindedly, left the gate door open a couple of days ago, and in the ten seconds that I turned away from her, she was two steps away from the top.  She was glowing with pride over her accomplishment.  I am in trouble!  We have had "classes" on how to come down the stairs, but she is way too self-confident to be trusted to descend safely without my white-knuckle grip on her.  She, of course, LOVES getting into my pantry and emptying the lower shelf to the floor, which is the highlight of Molly and Darla's every day.  Emmy will be hugely disappointed once I install the flip lock that I've purchased to the door.

Her latest sound fascination is "uhoh."  She doesn't enunciate the letters quite yet, but she has the voice inflection down pat.  She loves saying it so much, that she will throw something to the floor, just to give herself a reason to break out her favorite phrase.  She always says it with a very concerned look on her face. :)

Lately, she has been resting her head on my shoulder and then, promptly, looking up at me with an eager smile to see my joyful response.  Such a people pleaser already. :)  I think she is starting to understand that her cuddles get a positive response.  Because they do.  It is pure bliss to cuddle with that girl, but given her busy-body nature, it rarely happens.  She also now pats my back when I'm holding her, another sweet gesture that always makes me smile.  To save the best for last, she has given me three kisses in the last week!  They are wet and given with a wide open mouth.  What makes them sweeter is that none of them have been reciprocal or requested. :)

Since New Year's, I have been focused on starting anew.  The schedule I have been keeping up since the summer finally wore me down, so for the last two weeks, I have left the house as little as possible.  Instead, the focus has been on spending quality time with my girl. :)  I have been committed to a few meetings, Marvin's Eagle Remembrance Ceremony, and planning the much anticipated welcome home party.  We've been talking the party up for the last 10 months, so we REALLY have to deliver to our tired Lancer soldiers and families.  It has definitely been a topic that has commanded most of our recent conversations and filled a lot of my down time (i.e. Emmy's naps) doing research and crunching numbers.  It'll be exciting to see these plans come to fruition!

Nick has been dealing with lots of difficult things lately.  He is working through counseling all of his soldiers, to see where they stand before redeployment and to identify potentially high risk situations.  I understand that there is just a seven day honeymoon period for reuniting families before pre-existing issues resurface (down from three months in the beginning of the war).  A very, very sad reality.  Hopefully all of the work that Nick is doing on the front end will help with soldier awareness and will prepare us for necessary interventions in the future.  He has continued to wade through the aftermath of SSG Dave Senft's death.  Dave's biological father has taken to grieving publicly, most recently to the New York Times.  It's definitely been a sad predicament for everyone involved.  Of course the army takes media speculation very seriously, as it should.  Nick responded to this situation, each and every step of it, in the ways that were expected of him, both as a caring and empathetic human being and as a commanding officer.  The hard part about free will, is that people can make their own choices, even if they are harmful ones.  I can only pray that, someday, the family finds peace.

Nick's been flying quite a bit lately and attending meetings galore.  He just placed the order for the garage Crossfit gym that he's been thinking about and researching for the duration of the deployment. (It's served as a welcome distraction during all of the heavy trials that he's faced.)  He is an active participant in the Mustache Manuary contest he initiated between all of our (male) Lancer soldiers. He tells me that he curses himself each morning when he looks in the mirror at the sight of his furry upper lip.  I can only imagine how, um, impressive it will be at the end of the month (considering it's only halfway over at this point.) :-P

Yesterday, as I was driving to the post office to mail Nick's care package, I, unexpectedly, started to tear up and was overcome with goosebumps.  January 15th was the cut off date for mailing packages to our Lancers.  It was the first tangible sign that this deployment is nearing an end.  If mailing a care package elicited such a joyful feeling, I can't imagine how amazing it will be to first lay eyes on my Nick, standing in formation, at the Fort Campbell hangar.  Only six more weeks (or so) and I get to find out! Praise, Jesus!