The Pettys in real life...

How many times do you see the actual truth on social media? I mean the real truth. Everything looks perfect when scrolling through Facebook. School pictures, smiling faces, fun activities, "Elf on a Shelf" (gag), cute videos and the list goes on. Well my post today will not include ALL that perfect stuff.


It is time for a little feature I like to call


The Pettys in real life...


Pinkie Day was yesterday. We took Pinkie Day on the road to see Daddy in Richmond. George had to work yesterday so I took it easy all day with the children and we headed out last night around five. It was a rainy and dreary evening. The children stayed up too late. Emmett and Carmen stayed up til 11:30 watching Star Wars Rebels with Daddy. I was bored and was too excited about blogging to enforce a bedtime.

So you can imagine that today was a bit rough because we were all so tired! Even my dear niece, who is finishing up her first semester in college, stayed up too late last night! She joined us for mass today and our Costco trip.

Let's start with mass...

I was disappointed to find out that a priest that I love is not even at that parish anymore.
Then mass started and John realized that he didn't have a drink. So all you heard echo through church was, "driiink, driiink" (in a whining, crying type voice) Then Carmen starts. She won't stand up when she is supposed to. She whines along with John in a highly audible and disgusted voice, "why do I have to stand up?" ugh. Then John starts messing with her dress and kicking her. Now I am thinking how the heck do I take them both out at the same time? That's a first.

I think at one point I was flailing around in exasperation in the pew waving my arms back and forth and huffing and puffing in distress all the while thinking no one noticed and that it was all happening in my head. It wasn't. At that moment, 6 pair of eyes from a very well behaved family simultaneously peered around at us from a couple of pews ahead. 

Well, George ended up taking John out. I gave him the silent look so he knew what to do. :) A few minutes later, it was adorable! The two of them walked back into the pew and had a wonderful time together the rest of the mass. They actually had to come to the pew in front of us because while they were gone, two ladies filled the pew. It was fun watching George and John in front of us, though. George was helping him and pointing things out on the altar. He was reminding him to put his hands together in prayer, it was so cute. John read books and was such a good little boy. Carmen got herself together mostly and it all ended up pretty good.

On to Krispy Kreme for donuts and coffee. The employees at that Krispy Kreme store are rude and grumpy. I don't want to go there anymore because of that . You are serving donuts and giving away free hats and balloons to children, people! Can you please crack a smile at least once? I don't mean to get all squeaky and overly happy like some zealous Chik Fil A employees I know, but a SLIGHT smile is not asking too much.


Next, it is time for Costco. Now my plantar fasciitis is acting up so much that I am not even looking forward to the free samples.


Say no more..


That was it. We just had to get my niece back to her dorm and get our stuff from the condo and go. We did just that and now I am home with my feet up and enjoying a roaring fire.

Here is real life. It was a bad couple of days. I wish I could have seen my husband more. I wish he could be home with us. I wish I enforced an earlier bedtime last night. However, a few minutes ago, my dear friend who has been in prison for the past 9 years called me like he normally does once a week. I found out that he has not been outside in the light of day and feel fresh air for three months now. Three months!


So the Pettys in real life may not have been that impressive or at their best this weekend.

But, you know what?

Life is good. Life is full. Life is a gift.   

Here are a few reasons why...

Carmen and John having a fun time in Costco

George made me my favorite bread from his sourdough reperotoire.  Cinnamon raisin.  And this particular loaf was special because it looks like a fish.  See it? 

The cover of a book Carmen made for Daddy and me when we got home. She put it in a box and came up to me with a proud and happy look on her face and said, "Merry Christmas, Mommy"

So that's that.  The Pettys in real life.  It could be worse.  Imagine not seeing the light of day for three months.  It could always be worse.  

Now if someone could teach the Krispy Kreme employees that so I could get a smile with my donut.

A Pinkie Day Thanksgiving

Forget Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, we had a Pinkie Day Thanksgiving!

Yes, we are still celebrating Pinkie Day, even though I have not posted since August.  The children lost interest in doing their videos simply because we never found any Pinkie Day Pals.  So they caught on and got to be like, "who are we talking to, anyway?"  I don't blame them.  :)

I realized in order to get your blog out there, you really have to pay to have it listed somewhere.  I have not done that yet.  So, in the meantime, we continue to celebrate Pinkie Day and hope friends and family will share this blog.  Someday we may meet other's who can benefit from the Pinkie Day idea.

On to the topic of the day...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with our little family in our home.  Just us.  Daddy has been home ALL weekend.  He came home with the turkey on Wednesday night and he is leaving to go back to work Monday morning.  We have had a great time together this week.  We are so happy that George can be home for this long weekend, as well as Christmas and New Year's long weekends.  Phew, it makes things much more bearable.

We watched the Macy's Day parade and always reminisce and tell the children that Mommy and Daddy's first year married, we went to NYC and saw the parade on Thanksgiving and ate dinner in the city and saw the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.  Great memories to share with our little offspring!

George also had a long weekend leading up to Veteran's Day and he took Carmen and John to Tennessee to see his family.  It was a great time.  Emmett and I hung around at home since we were just in TN in September when Emmett visited his grandfather for 2 weeks.

Last week one evening around 6pm, I drove by an elementary school with the children.  It was dark out already so we could see into the cafeteria.  There were still children in the school waiting for their parents to pick them up from the after care program.  I told my children about that and explained that they actually probably see their daddy (and even mommy) more than those children who are in school ALL day straight into the evening. It was quiet in the back seat as I explained, and I think they were counting their blessings as they thought of those children in school for such a long day away from home.

So we are all counting our blessings this Thanksgiving at the Petty homestead.  As for me, I am trying to stay positive and not wish the time away until I can live with my husband again full time.

The children are doing great in school.  We are healthy and happy.  That is saying a LOT in today's world.  We are an intact family in a world in which people, families and relationships are crumbling around us.  So we will stay strong and love every minute that we are together.

Ahhh, had to get a picture of John at the dinner table.

Emmett made the sweet potatoes this year.  He did a great job and was such a big help in the kitchen.  He takes after his father. :)

My view from my side of the table.  I like it!  George smoked the turkey in our fire brick oven and it was amazing!

Proud of my table.  Especially proud of my homemade dinner rolls, carrot pudding and egg nog mashed potatoes that everyone ate up fast.

HAHA I must include the photo that George took of me today because he thought my hair looked funny.  Here is the caption...
"You are going back to work MONDAY?  Get in time out, kids, NOW.  Mommy wants to eat in peace."

Pinkie Day Video Episode 13

Happy Pinkie Day!

Lots of hustle and bustle this weekend.  We are packing to leave for our trip to NY.  Unfortunately Daddy can't join us as he has to work, but he is home for the weekend.  In the video, you will not see the purple truck!  It broke down yesterday and thankfully, George's roommate was selling his Honda so we snatched it up.  Ah, what memories with the "purple truck", as it is so affectionately named.

George has had that truck since before we were married.  Every time I get in it, I remember being a newlywed in the Extended Stay America in New Jersey.  It is amazing how the sense of smell is such a strong memory trigger!  Either that or there is a pair of rotten, dirty socks in there that we haven't found yet.

Seriously though, we are all attached to that truck and sadly, its days are numbered.

Without further ado...here is Daddy's homecoming today!  So exciting that now John can actually say, "Daddy" now.  Have a great weekend with your families!!

Pinkie Day is for Moms, Too

Well, here it is one month since my last post.  I have been beating myself up about how long it has been since I have updated Pinkie Day, but one month isn't as bad as I thought!

Looking back, it was actually 4 days before my last post that our second foster daughter arrived.

So needless to say, I have been much busier than usual.  Everything is going so well with our family and we are happy to have our 2 teenaged foster daughters living with us.  The only down side is that I have less free time to spout off my wisdom on the computer!

Well, George is home this week for the whole week leading up to Carmen's birthday on Saturday.  I think Carmen may actually explode from excitement.  She doesn't even know that her grandpa is coming for a surprise visit!

Now about the title of my post.  I had a special Pinkie Day on Saturday.  Sometimes I forget how much I miss George because I am trying so hard to keep it together for the children and make sure they are ok.  I kind of just don't pay attention  to how I feel or I just put it on the back burner.  It is so important for spouses to focus on each other, as well.  Sometimes it seems the children always come first, rightly so.  However, it is not a bad thing to put your relationship with your spouse first sometimes, too!  After all, the relationship is what came first, even before the children. It is not just children that need nurturing.  The spousal relationship does, too.

So Saturday, I got a text from George stating something to the effect that a package was delivered to the garage door and to check it and let him know what I think.  Well, it so happened that at the same time we got a package at the front door so I told him it already came.  I decided to have Emmett check it anyway and Emmett came back and said nothing was there.  I then forced myself to get out of bed to go look just in case Emmett missed it.

About forcing myself out of bed...

See, the hard thing for me on Pinkie Day is literally getting out of bed.  Before you call a therapist, let me explain.  I feel like I got through the whole week and did the best I could do with the children.  I feel like I held it together, got everything done that needed to get done and got to all the appointments on time.  So by the time Pinkie Day comes, I just kind of shut down and can't really wait another minute for George to get home.

I guess you could say that I go on strike.

I have a sit in.

I organize a protest.

Whatever you call it, I just want him to come home!

This past Pinkie Day was no different.  I hung out with the children in bed and they were playing in my room while I was trying to muster up energy to get up and do laundry and make breakfast.  I didn't expect George home until later in the day.

However, when I went out to check on the package in the garage, much to my surprise, there was my very own husband in the driveway, just walking around and looking at the flowers.  Ah!  What a relief.  And what a treat for me.  I got to see him all by myself.  No videoing, no pictures, no "Look! Daddy is coming!" No standing back and watching him hug the children first.  Just me losing it because I was so happy and relieved to see him.  :)  With the way I acted, he may want to just greet the children first from now on!  haha

I do LOVE seeing the children greet Daddy after a long time away.  It brings joy to my heart to see the love overflowing in their hearts as they see his little purple truck reach the summit of Summit Drive.

But I must never forget that Pinkie Day is for me, too.

With that said, enjoy Pinkie Day Episode 12!  After I greeted George in the driveway, we came inside and I got this sweet and tender video of the children seeing their daddy.

A Father's Day Interview

It's Father's Day year round for us!

Happy Pinkie Day AND Happy Father's Day!!! 

Well, the cake below is not for Father's Day.  It is for my birthday, which was this past Monday. :) Lest you doubt that I have forgotten that it is, in fact, all about ME!!  Our friend, Nancy, made it for me and brought it over and everyone sang.  AND I actually got to eat off of our special plate! It is a tradition established by George when we were first married.  He bought the plate and said we should all eat our birthday cake off of it.  However, me being the mom who makes all the cakes, I don't usually participate in this tradition!  I boycotted making myself a birthday cake this year.  

ANYWAY....

After the birthday fun in the morning, it was time for George to go back to work. :(  I hated him leaving on my birthday but was glad he would at least be there for some of it.  I captured these adorable pictures of John saying goodbye to him.  

We spent the whole weekend with no van so we had to go to mass in shifts and we hung around at home.  It was great to have an excuse to actually not go anywhere. The weekend before was SO busy with parties and such that it was nice to stay home.  

Now to today...

I did a little Father's Day interview with Emmett and Carmen.  It is quite adorable to get these candid, honest, and heartfelt thoughts from children!   

You will notice in Emmett's that he answers "Daddy makes me feel..... sort of happy."  Don't be alarmed!  He explained that he was thinking about doing work with Daddy in the yard and he ends up looking like a "sweat bomb" and he only sort of likes doing work in the yard.  Oh my, too cute.  If there is one thing George teaches them, it is the value of hard work and industriousness.  By the way, I just looked up "industriousness", and it is actually a word.  Phew.  It is also cute that Emmett thinks he works at the UVA hospital instead of VA hospital.  

So happy Father's Day to all you father's out there.  Hope you get some time this weekend to enjoy your children and appreciate all the blessings life has to offer through the eyes of children.  

A WHOLE Hand!!

"Is Daddy staying a whole hand?" Carmen asks with excitement.  I answer, "YES! Plus 2!"  Carmen responds, "He's staying a whole week!"

OK, that was adorable.  In our language, this makes perfect sense to us, since this is the life of our family.  We count the days until we will see Daddy on our fingers.  Pinkie Day is TODAY!!  Pinkie Day is the best.  Well, Carmen suspected that Daddy would be home for a week and so she held up her hand to ask.  She knows on her fingers the days of the week and when Pinkie Day is.  It is adorable.  It is a simple thing but it provides the children with such security, joy and anticipation.

And now it is Friday of Pinkie Day Week.  George is still home and won't be going back to Richmond until Monday morning.  One of the great things about his job is that he is able to take more time off.  Every four or five months, he gets a week off.  This started me thinking about how much time families actually spend together when the dad or mom is living at home and working 9 to 5 jobs.

When George is home for a week at a time, we spend so much quality time together.  Also, our children are not even attending a traditional school, so when Daddy is home, they are home all day, as well.  I can adjust my school schedule to accommodate family time with him.  Families with both parents living at home (AND sometimes both parents working AND with children enrolled in a traditional school WITH after school activities) can be far less likely to have the amount of family time that we have.  It is interesting to think about.  I also reflect on this because so many family and friends have expressed care and concern to us over the almost 2 years since George has been traveling.

I guess I want everyone to know that no matter what the situation in your life, you can always make the most of it and make it even better than it may look from the outside looking in.

We are making memories this week.  George is watching John grow and reach milestones.  He is spending time with the children working in the yard.  He took them bowling last night.  George and I even had a "date" all afternoon.  We went to monthly foster care training and stopped at a friend's house on the way home.  We were actually in the van by ourselves!  That alone qualifies as a date to me!  Even if we just drove down the street and back.  :)  We had an amazing party at our home on Sunday evening.  We made pizzas for our guests in our homemade fire brick oven.  I rolled out pizza dough balls for over an hour!  George manned the oven and baked pizza after pizza.  It was great fun and a huge success!

For those of you not on FB, below is a picture of what I looked like while hosting that party.  I got very few pictures from that get together but managed to end up with this one.  I believe at the point this picture was taken, I was explaining to everyone that the pizza making table would work kind of like Subway.

We spent Tuesday together while we took George to a doctor's appointment in Charlotteville.  We went to the park and then to Spudnuts for yummy donuts.

During the week, George even joined us for story time to listen to a chapter of Peter Pan (although he drifted off to Neverland during the first page).  He also watched Star Wars Episode 1 with Emmett and Carmen (although he drifted off to Neverland in the first few minutes :)

Tonight we have friends coming over for pizza.  Tomorrow we are going to a homeschool picnic.  Sunday, Carmen and I are going to a bridal shower.  George took Emmett down to VMI to see some friends in the alumni office who are retiring.  Emmett came home so excited because he got ice cream, too.  When going out with Daddy, ice cream is usually in the picture somewhere.  :)  Come to think of it, there was ice cream after bowling, too.

What a blessing it is to have time with those we love.  Being separated so much allows for more creativity and expression in how we actually spend time together.  With us, there is no boring day- to-day.  There is always the anticipation of when our next adventure will be and who will come along for the ride.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  My computer is telling me to "plug in or find another source" so that is my signal to sign off and get outside and help with the firewood....

Til next Pinkie Day!!!  See you in June...

Pinkie Day weekend April 26

I have been learning how to use Blogger since I got my new phone in March.  It is so confusing! I think my pictures are in 20 places on the Internet now!  From Picasa to Google + to my regular storage on my phone and my laptop.  Just getting this collage in this blog post was quite a feat!  So please appreciate Carmen's Pinkie Day gifts to Daddy this week.  She has a book from the library that shows you how to draw Dora.  She did a great job!  

We had a wonderful Pinkie Day weekend.  We are enjoying the fire brick oven that George made a few weeks ago.  We have made pizzas in it every time he is home.  He makes the sourdough crust from his sourdough starter he has on hand.  He uses nice and healthy whole grains, as well.  Everyone LOVES it.  This past weekend, we had two of his college buddies over after the race in Waynesboro.  We had a great time visiting and relaxing all day and right on into the evening since Howard and Jenny came over, too!  

George made this chicken in the fire brick oven!  We also made a chocolate and marshmallow pizza. :)  

George, Rufus, and Doug

Emmett and Carmen made a mini golf course on the driveway!

We had such a great weekend at home.  The children played and played and spent time together.  We had nowhere to be and no activities to tie us down.  The children were able to have free play time and be creative while the adults visited!  It was a great time.  

We all waited for Emmett while he made a banner for his upcoming 1st Holy Communion Day.

This girl loves her daddy. 

Emmett is making his banner for Banner Day.  All the children in the diocese make a banner to remember this special day.

Emmett was so focused on doing it and so serious about it that he didn't want us to look until it was all done.  

So happy that spring has arrived at our house.  I LOVE our dogwood tree.  I just had to take a picture of it in full bloom.

Happy Pinkie Day!

Here is Pinkie Day Episode 11!  I am playing around with some music and editing.  This video is set to some rather dramatic and mood enhancing music.  Like we need any of that with the excitement of Daddy coming home, but it is fun!  The children are greeting Daddy.  John is really getting excited now! He is really getting the hang of this "Daddy" concept!  

Hope you are all having a great spring weekend! We are so happy to have Daddy home again. Today, George and I took Emmett on a little "date" to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman in Charlottesville.  Emmett loved it.  How bittersweet to see that movie.  Emmett is 7 years old just like the character Sherman.  Part of the message of the movie was about letting go as your children grow up.  Awe.  We are so proud of Emmett.  He has really changed so much since he turned 7.  It is like his face is literally morphing into a young boy from one day to the next.  Oh wait, it IS!  sigh...

And Carmen is off at a birthday party by herself today.  She has been looking forward to it for weeks.  She is so grown up, as well.  She is doing a wonderful job with dance, she is reading and writing better each day, and she is so proud that she can count to over 100 now, just like her big brother.

George is so surprised at how John is changing.  Hard to believe that John will be 2 on May 14th. That also means that we are coming up on 2 years in July that George has been working in Richmond.  Wow.  John was very sick a few weeks ago and when he recovered from that, he just took off!  He is saying more words, running all over the place, saying goodbye to naps and he is about to be sleeping in a toddler bed.  Next up, potty training.  Well, not really.  I want to potty train him about as much as I want to have a root canal.  ugh...

Well, at the end of the movie today, I caught this picture of George and Emmett.  It is so sweet.  I love it when we can be together.  Other than the fact that my George looks like George Clooney with that gray hair, it is a very touching picture! heehee  Why does gray hair look so handsome on him and gray hair on me makes me look like I should be a character in the new movie, "How to Train Your Dragon"?

So on to the rest of the weekend.  We are excited to begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday and the procession to remember Jesus entering Jerusalem.  Have a blessed and fruitful Holy Week!

Myrtle Beach Photo Book

I just made a photo book for the children of our Myrtle Beach trip.  I am experimenting with how you can add the photo books to a blog.  So that is what this is!

Click here to view this photo book larger

A Memorable Weekend

What a Pinkie Day weekend!  Well, I have decided to start posting AFTER Pinkie Day since then I will have more to say about our weekend!  We had an amazing weekend together as a family.  George took Emmett to VMI for a basketball game.  They had a great time.  As reported by George, Emmett jumped up gave a good ole fist pump when he saw a slam dunk.  So cute!  Meanwhile, Carmen, John and Mommy met a friend at the green way downtown and enjoyed a nice spring walk before the weather got colder today.

And Saturday evening, Carmen had her little dance recital that she has been practicing for all year!  I told a few people that I can't share the actual video of her dance because there are SO many still pictures from the performance and the performance was so short!  I have no idea how we got so many pictures from such a short little dance but we did it!

Lest you wonder why a doting parent would take so many pictures of one single, short event, here are some reasons for all the pictures:

• Carmen is cute
• Carmen is adorable
• Carmen is happy
• Carmen is adorable
• Carmen is growing up fast
• Carmen :)

Here in the Pinkie Day post, you will be treated to the actual video of her performance.  Frankly, I am too tired to figure out how to get all the pictures on this blog post right now!  

After the recital, George and I actually went on a date.  It was such a lovely evening.  George went to VMI 2 times that day because we went back to see the play. However, plans changed when we realized we'd be late so we stopped in and visited his old friends and it worked out great because we were there at intermission.  We also stopped at Walmart first to pick up food for the cast.  When George was in VMI theatre way back when, he used to have turkey, bread, sunchips, cokes and squeezable mayo.  That was the fare that evening.  It was fun to do that for them.  Then we just made it in time to the movie theatre to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  It was an adorable movie!  

Sunday, our poor little John was very ill and running a high fever.  Although, I was not happy he was ill, I did enjoy cuddling with him at mass and getting some time to relax on the couch while he was sleeping.  So glad George was home to help care for him and to keep me from panicking about how high his fever was. 

Having a sick child in our house goes something like this:

GEORGE!!  JOHN'S FEVER IS 105!!!!  

(long pause)

Lorraine.  Take his temperature again.  Go to the store and buy some children's ibuprofen and some pedialyte.

(a bit calmer) ok

Happy to report that John is doing much better now.  He really slept it off.  Poor little guy.  Thank God for my husband and his medical background.  If we both reacted like I did at a fever, then our children may just be taking care of us instead!  

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you had a great weekend with your family or whoever is important to you in your life.  

We are looking forward to this coming Pinkie Day when Daddy will be home for a whole week!  Ahhh....I like the sound of that.  

Goodnight to the Ocean...Hello Pinkie Day...

It is hard to believe that 2 weeks ago I told the children we were going to the beach for vacation. And now here I sit on our last night at Myrtle Beach.  We arrived last Saturday and we leave tomorrow for the condo in Richmond to see Daddy.  

I am watching the birds fly off into the ocean and the pink sky say goodnight for my final sunset here.  What a beautiful week this has been. Not a cloud in the sky or a breeze that we couldn't handle.  Every day a new field trip and a new adventure in our lives.  With every wave that crashed on the shore, a new memory was made.

. 

We missed Daddy the whole time, however, and we look forward to seeing him tomorrow on Pinkie Day in Richmond.  I have documented our trip to the beach as much as possible in order to share it all with him since he couldn't be here.  It is amazing how you can be in paradise and having a wonderful time, but if the right people aren't there, it is much less than it could be. 

Well, the moon is almost full,  and so are our tummies!  I think we ate enough junk food this week to feed an army.  It will be good to get back into the routine on Monday!  My jeans will thank me for it.  

I am still trying to figure out how I want to blog this trip.  So stick with us!  It is a work in progress.  

Happy night before Pinkie Day and have a wonderful weekend with your families!

Another Pinkie Day on the road!

Happy Pinkie Day! Well, even though we won't see Daddy today, Carmen is excited to share some news.  Here is her video from last night.  

Here they are in a traffic jam just blocks from the ocean!

We made it!  This is the view from the balcony.

Ahhhh...so happy to see the ocean.


A short Pinkie Day post as it is not actually Pinkie Day!  BUT, if you'd like to follow our adventures and field trips this week, feel free to follow us HERE!

A Pinkie Day Surprise

Happy Pinkie Day! 

Well, not really. We are actually NOT going to see Daddy this weekend.  He is busy working in Richmond and we are busy trying to not miss him too much.  We are distracting ourselves with adventures and fun news.  Are we in denial?? I think NOT!!  We are just doing what we gotta do!  

So this morning we started out at Chik Fil A celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday by eating breakfast and decorating a cookie in the theme of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. 

I read this story to them last night to get ready for Dr. Suess' birthday

Here they are decorating their cookie at Chik Fil A this morning.  John did a pretty good job, although he did start licking the icing right off the knife.

This afternoon we are going to the James Madison University Planetarium to see the Sesame Street family show.  JMU does great community outreach and I am so glad to have them as a resource for my young scientists!  You can like them on FB here.  Don't make the mistake I did and try to navigate the website.  They have more up to date information on their FB page.  

On a different note,  John is really getting used to Daddy coming and going now and it is very sweet to watch.  Right after John was born almost two years ago this May, George took the job in Richmond.  This is all John knows.  He knows Daddy coming and going.  

This past Monday, when George got his belongings ready to leave, John sat on his lap extra long and he interacted with him a little more right before he left.  George and I both commented that it was new of John to do this.  We could really see John starting to understand that when Daddy gets his backpack ready, that means he is going somewhere.  It was so sweet to watch!  John just sat on Daddy's lap and smiled as if to say, "I am going to spend as much time with this guy as possible before he goes."   Below, you can see two pictures of them together.  John asked to do Itsy Bitsy Spider and then there he is all smiles on Daddy's lap.  

And now to the Pinkie Day surprise.  Well, I decided to tell the children today that in one week, we will will be going to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week!  We have been invited by George's roommate to go to stay at his timeshare for the week.  We are going to have many adventures and wonderful learning experiences!  How neat is it that we have been observing the moon all of February and now we will see first hand how the moon affects the ocean tides!  This teacher is very excited for that!  

So this morning, I hid the three little sand toys you see in the picture.  I showed them the kids sunscreen and told them that I hid three things in the living room that go with the sunscreen.  They caught on fast!  Their faces were priceless when I told them.  

Have  great week, everyone! Thanks for stopping by.   Enjoy that family time no matter where you are!  

Daddy is Our Skyping Valentine

Daddy's home!!! Here is the video to prove it!! :)

Pinkie Day is here!  Hope you had a great Valentine's Day and have stayed safe and warm in the snow!  We had a great Valentine's Day and we are so happy that Daddy, OUR Valentine, is home for vacation.  After two long weeks, we are ready to have Daddy home for a whole week!  Poor Carmen has been counting the days on her fingers for two weeks.  She has been such a trooper.  No Pinkie Day last weekend because George had to to work and he was on call.  Occasionally this happens and boy is it tough.   

 When you have a parent that travels, you have to get used to a few different modes of communication.  Face-to-face contact becomes a luxury.  Here are things you may hear me saying on any given day:

Hold the phone to your ear

Wait for him to answer

Call Daddy and say goodnight

Speak up!  

Daddy can't hear you

Can you hear him? 

Did he hang up?

Look at Daddy on the screen

Mommy and Daddy love you no matter WHERE we are!

We have Skyped a lot and that is so great for the children. For Mom, not so much.  I am so self conscious I just keep checking myself in the camera.  I don't know where to look, don't know if he is looking at me and so on.  You get the point.  I'm a mess!! Actually, I do have to share that when I do see him on the screen, I just LOVE it!  I love to see his face!  That's a good thing.  I break out in silent song and channel Roberta Flack...The first tiiiiiiime, ever I saaaaaaaw your faaaaace.... 

John just LOVES seeing Daddy on the computer. It is really adorable.  Daddy sings "Ridin' On a Horsey" and John plays the game and falls down just as if Daddy was in the room.  

Emmett runs around the room and hides from the camera and giggles.  

Carmen starts to share everything she wants to share and it all begins like this..."Um, Daddy?"  It is cute.  

I like to watch George try to give them directions from the screen.  I wonder to myself, do they think they don't have to obey him because he is inside a computer program?  "Emmett, put that down.  This is Daddy, speaking from Skpye.  Don't make me come out of this screen!"  Sometimes I listen from out of the room and instigate a fight among the children to see how he would handle it. No, I am kidding about that.  Currently, I am working on an app that would allow him to change John's diaper from Skype.  Not having much success, though.  

Yes, communication has its challenges while one parent is away.  However, any communication is the KEY! I am so grateful to have such a supportive, communicative and loving husband.  It makes all the difference in the world.   

Speaking of communication, enough blogging and on to face-to-face time with my family!  Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by.  

Happy Valentine's Day!  Here the children are enjoying their Chik Fil A kid's meals for their Valentine's Day dinner. 

If this isn't a Chik Fil a ad for age 3 and under prizes, I don't what is.  John  loves Super Why on PBS.  When he saw he received a  Super Why board book in his meal, he was so happy!

OK, when John drinks chocolate milk, he is in this exact same position the until it is all gone.  Too cute!

This is the best picture I could get of John with the big heart sunglasses on. 

A good distraction while waiting for Pinkie Day was our 18 inches of snowfall the day before Valentine's Day!

All bundled up and ready to go outside and attack the snow!

This is what we saw upon opening our garage door on Thursday. :)

Goodbye January!

One housekeeping note before I begin...you can subscribe to our blog by email now.  Just type in your address over there on the right!  Hope to see you back here again.  Posts typically come out once a week on Saturday, which is Pinkie Day.

Another month down! We hope you all had a productive start to the new year and continue to be blessed in 2014.

We had some positive news about George's job last week.  We are thrilled to have some good news, anyway, even though it doesn't mean George will get to stop traveling.  We are just so happy that he has a good job and doesn't dread going to work every day.  Like I said last week, things can change so fast... for good or for bad.  Thankfully we had a change for the good this week.  Prayer played a huge roll in that so I will continue to hope!

What a fun time we had with Daddy last weekend.  We made the most of the one full day we had.  I love spending time with George and John while Emmett and Carmen are at religious education class.  It reminds me of when we had only Emmett and now Emmett will be 7 years old this month!

Daddy, Emmett and John bonded over watching Star Wars while the girls hauled firewood up to the garage.  Anything wrong with that picture?  Nope.  I got my exercise in and I am so glad George could relax and spend time with his boys.  I can't imagine how tired he must be working six days a week and then traveling home to be with family for one day.

Carmen did catch the end of Return of the Jedi and when Darth Vader removed his mask, she wasn't even grossed out. I, on the other hand, winced.  I was expecting to see James Earl Jones under there doing a Sprint commercial.

This Pinkie Day please enjoy Episode 7 where Carmen tells of our "baking" adventure for Daddy even though they are actually NO bake cookies. :)  I must add that Emmett helped, too.  He stirred.

 

Enjoy your family time this weekend and if you are really busy, then slow down and savor one or two of those moments you have together.

HAPPY PINKIE DAY!