Summer Coming To An End

This summer has been a whirlwind, with Jason leaving, 2 trips, and getting ready for school, I can honestly say we have been busy. Jason left the first week of June, and since then, I have tried to keep myself and the boys very busy. The first 2 weeks of summer Jay attended summer camp. I can't say that this was a success, but it was an experience I'm glad he had. We weren't too pleased on how the camp was ran, but now I know he needs a more structured environment. Jack and Jacob went to MDO once a week this summer too and loved it. Once camp was over with, we made our way to North Caroline for a trip that has been planned since January. NC is a 16 hour drive for us, but we couldn't wait to get there and see family. Jason's brother and his family live there, and we were meeting Jason's dad, step mom, and his younger brother and sister. We stopped in Atlanta and spent 2 nights with my sister so we could break the drive up. We then met Jason's dad in ATL, so we could drive the rest of the way up together. We spent a whole week in NC and had so much fun. The boys enjoyed being with their cousins and family. We hadn't seen our NC people in over a year! Liz, my sister in law, and I are so close, and talk just about everyday, so it was so nice to spend time with her and my mother in law. Once we got back from NC, we had a couple of weeks of being home. My dad then flew to Memphis and rode with us to Blue Ridge, GA, where we met my mom, Granny, sister and brother in law. I am SO grateful that my dad was with me because on the way up there, one of my tires lost the tread! I knew I needed new tires, and planned on getting new ones when I got back. Yah, didn't happen. Scared the crap out of me when it happened and I am so glad that the tire didn't actually blow! We were about an hour from Chattanooga and in the middle of nowhere. We had drive about 20 minutes backwards to a Wal Mart. I got 4 new tires put on, and we were on our way again! We finally made it to our cabin in Blue Ridge, and it was BEAUTIFUL! Our cabin sat on the Taccoa River and it was so peaceful. We spent times fishing, mining for gems, and exploring the downtown area. I was sad for it to end, but knew that we only had 2 more weeks left before I had to go back to work. Well, those 2 weeks are up, and I start back on Monday. Next week will be full of meetings and getting everything ready for the students to arrive on August 5. The 2 school systems in Memphis have recently merged, and there is so much change and chaos going on right now. I am looking forward to getting back in the classroom and getting a more structured routine down for us. I will be teaching 10th grade English again, and I'll be co-teaching with one of my favorite people! Ami and I co-taught together for a couple of years before I left for my hiatus 3 years ago. We are a great team, and she is one of my best friends. For anyone who doesn't know, co-teaching is when there are 2 teachers in the classroom, a regular ed teacher (me) and a special ed teacher (Ami). This is different than inclusion, and we are thrown challenges everyday, but I love co-teaching, especially when I have such a great partner. I have been co-teaching since I started in Shelby County in 2006, and I have been lucky enough to have great partners through those years! Jason is doing good. He's staying busy and we get to Facetime everyday, which has been wonderful. Jay is having the hardest time out of the boys dealing with him being gone. I knew he would, but we are doing our best to assure him that everything is OK and giving him things to look forward to. I will be going to El Paso in September and I can't wait. I will spend 4 days with my love and we have so much planned already! He wants to take me hiking, dinner, manicures, movies, you name it, we want to do it! I wish the boys could come, but just 1 plane ticket cost almost $1000! Jason will be trying to get home for Thanksgiving to go back to Blue Ridge with us. He will for sure be home for Christmas, which will be great because Jay and I will be off of school the whole time he is home. We miss him like crazy, and some days are worst than others. We are both dealing with our own issues being apart, but because we have such a great relationship we talk about them and try our hardest to make one another feel better. He has sent the boys letters and they love them! Jay will be starting 1st grade in a week, and Jack and Jake will start back at MDO after Labor Day. Our week days will jammed pack with school, work, dinner, HW, and CrossFit. I am hoping with such a tight and structured schedule, we will be in such a routine, the days will not seem so long. Continue to pray for us as we continue on this journey of being separated. I am hoping with school starting, it will be a good distraction for the boys and myself. We have a countdown and change the numbers daily; it's so great to see the numbers decrease! We miss our Daddy!

Life As We Know It

Will be totally different in about 6 weeks. Jason will be mobilizing to TX for a year, and the boys and I will stay in Memphis to hold down the fort. We only have 6 weeks to be as family and get a lot of things done. He will miss birthdays, holidays, vacations,baseball games, and our anniversary. A bit of background: Jason has been in the United States ARMY Reserves since 2002. He has been through 1 deployment already in 2004. He was gone for 15 months. At that time we were just dating, but preparing for our future together. 3 months after he came home from Iraq, he proposed to me. I guess I showed my faithfulness and loyalty during those trying months! When he left I was in my 3rd year of college, and I can remember sitting outside many of my classes writing him letters, and then actually getting up in a lecture class to take his phone calls from Iraq. I even had to reschedule a history test one time because the test coincided with the 2 weeks he came home for R&R. As a married couple, the ARMY has kept apart for bit and pieces of time. Whether its his 2 weeks, or a school he has to go to. The longest we have been apart as a family has been 3 months, and that was last year. 12 months seem like a life time compared to that. When Jason went to Iraq the first time he was in a transportation unit. He drove the huge tanker trucks all across Iraq to different bases; it was a very dangerous job, and luckily he and his unit all came home. Jason is now a Drill Sgt., so this mission will be a bit different; he will not go overseas, but he will train soldiers who are. We heard earlier this year that he may have to go to GA for this mission. We were not thrilled with this news, but the base they were going to be at was only 30 minutes from my sister and brother in law. I thought, "well, if he has to go, it's only 6 hours away and we could see each other at least once a month, and visit family." In March we got a phone call that he would not be going because he was on a temporary medical profile. Jason had knee surgery back in October,and because of the restrictions of exercise, his Orthopedic put him on a profile for both MPD and ARMY. There a sense of relief that he wouldn't have to go. However, just a month later, he hears that there's still a chance he has to go. Last week he went to KY with his unit to prepare for the mobilization, and he was told that since his profile ends at the end of May, he will be leaving in June. When I got that phone call, I will be honest, I was mad, pissed even. I took 2 days to pout and cry. I have a bit of anxiety, so things started to set in and I had a hard time wrapping my brain around it all. Being in Memphis, we are by ourselves, meaning, our families all still in Louisiana. We have wonderful and great friends here, don't get me wrong, but they all have their own families and lives. I realized that we should be thankful that he is staying state side, and that we will be able to come home a few times that year. I've always thought that Jason and I had a special relationship; he truly is my best friend and we have great communication. With this knowledge, I know we can get through this, but it's not going to be easy. My main concerns are the boys. Jay will totally understand what's happening. The other 2 will not know exactly what's going on, but when Jason is at work now, they say they miss him. I can only imagine how much their hearts will ache for him this coming year. All 3 of the boys are so close with their Daddy, so this year will be rough. I am just hoping that we can get a routine going, and that the time passes by fast. We are hoping he can come home every 4 months or so, so we will be looking at this in sections. I have ordered a countdown for us to use to help countdown the days he comes home. I have also realized that they ( and me ), will have to stay busy. He will miss Jackson's 4th birthday, Jacob's 3rd birthday,and Jason's 7th birthday. We won't be with him for his 31st, or my 31st. And he and I won't be able to celebrate our 8th anniversary together. It's weird because I acknowledge myself as a Police Wife, not an Army Wife. I have so much respect for military wives who's husbands are Active Duty. Jason's brother is active Marines and has been deploy multiple times, each time leaving his wife and kids. Liz is such a strong military wife, so I will be turning to her for advice on how not to go crazy. Jason and I are lucky that he will not be in a combat zone, and that our main problem is just being apart. But, for this year, I will embrace the role as a full time ARMY wife. This summer the boys and I will be going to NC for a family trip. Jason's Dad, step mom and step sisters will all be heading NC to Jimmy and Liz's house. We planned this months before Jason found out he could leave, but I will still be going. The boys are looking forward to seeing their cousins, and I haven't seen our NC people for over a year now. Also, my sister has been bugging me about coming to visit her. She and Justin have been in Atlanta for almost a year, and we have not made a trip down there. I am hoping we can get down there before school starts back up. Throughout the school year, Jason will work hard on trying to get home during our breaks. I would HATE if he came home for 10 days and I had to go to work. No Bueno! So, that's what's going on. Never a dull moment in this house. With 3 boys, a dog, and a husband who has a terrifying civilian job and military career,you never know what's going to happen next. I ask for prayers during this time, not for me; I've got this. But, for my boys. They will struggle with the fact that their Daddy, their best friend, their hero, is gone. Also, pray for Jason's safe travels. It will take him 18 hours to get to TX, and he will be driving it!! We have 6 more weeks with him, but for most of that we will both be working. We will be taking about 8 days off prior to leaving, which is great because that will be my first week off for the summer!!

Spring is here, right?

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks!! It is officially spring, but the weather here in west TN is just not cooperating! The temperatures here have been in the 40s lately!! Jay has started spring soccer and t-ball and so I am waiting for the gorgeous weather to come in! Standing out in 40 degree weather for soccer practice is no fun!! We did go down to New Orleans last month and we had so much fun! Jason and I stayed downtown one night and celebrated our anniversary. It was a night that we needed; no kids and we could just do what we wanted! On Thursday we left the boys with my parents and granny and headed to the French Quarter. We spent the day just walking the Quarter and eating!! That night we dressed up and went to our anniversary dinner at Crescent City Brew House! The food was so good,and so was the beer! Our hotel was one block from Bourbon Street, so we went back to the room, got into Bourbon worthy clothes, and headed out! We had so much fun just walking up and down the street and turned in for the night at 10. Yeah, I know, we are such party animals!! The rest of the weekend was spent with our families and just getting in as much quality time as possible. I was very sad to leave because we truly had so much fun. The following week I finally had my LASIK procedure done. I am just 1.5 weeks out from the procedure and things have gone good. It's amazing that I have 20/20 vision now! I've had glasses/contacts for so long, so it's still weird to think I can see and there are no contacts on my eyes!! I had some major bruising to both of my eyes, so my students at school were very worried that something had gone wrong. Nice to know they were worried. Right now, we have a so much going on at our house. Jason is still working his crazy shift, but we are going with the flow and getting use to it more and more. We are almost ready to move Jay into his new room!! The painting is just about finished and our new furniture is in!! I hope that we can officially move him into his room within the next couple of weeks. We also decided to keep Jack on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds and move a toddler bed into the room for Jacob. They will probably stay this way for awhile. We only have 6 more weeks of school left, so things are getting hectic. My students are prepping for a very important state mandated test,which will take place in the beginning of May. Rachel and I are looking forward for the test to get here and for our students to do well. We have all confidence that they will. We have been preparing them for the test since the first week of school. Also, Jay's 6th birthday party preparation has started! For whatever reason, I feel the need to over do it when it comes to their parties. Jay's party theme is super heroes and will be at Andy B's Bowling Alley. He is so excited and can't wait. Also, I will be turning 30 in 3 weeks!! I'm looking forward to this birthday, and not sure why. I am not sad by any means that I will no longer be in my 20s; I am embracing my 30s!! Speaking of my 30th birthday, a few months ago I set a goal to try and reach my goal weight by the time I turn 30. Unfortunately, I have realized that the goal will not be met. I have struggled with weight lost since I started have babies! My weight fluctuates constantly and I have a hard time with being consistent, also, my love for food does not help. I have lost some weight and made so great strides towards my goal, but still feel like I am in a rut. Finding time to go to the gym has been difficult with our new schedule, but I am trying very hard to be dedicated and not to put too much pressure on myself. I will put so much pressure on myself and when I see no progress I get very emotional and feel horrible about myself. I am working on this and trying to stay positive. I want to be healthy for all the right reasons, but it is just so damn hard. I really need to embrace this new lifestyle and stick to it, but like I said before, consistency is not my strong point. So, a good friend of mine suggested CrossFit. This is a method of working out that I have heard of and have been afraid to try because the people that do CrossFit workouts are so hard core!! If you don't know anything about it, it's what Bob Harper does for the contestants on The Biggest Loser. Think flipping huge monster truck tires, pull ups, pull ups on rings, row machines, etc. We have a gym here in Bartlett called CrossFit Bartlett that is doing a bootcamp starting in a couple of weeks and Brooke and I have signed up to do it! I am so nervous about, so today I went to the gym to meet the trainers and to do a sample workout. Man, was it tough, but I actually did pull ups!! I could not believe my trainer got me up there had me do 10 pull ups. I was impressed with myself and loved every minute of it. I am really looking forward to the bootcamp starting and I can't wait to see the results! I will let yall know how it's going and my gains. I have also signed Jay up for summer camp at our gym that we are members of and I know he will have so much fun. Jackson and Jacob will also being going to Mother's Day Out once a week this summer, so they will be busy too. We are also planning a trip to NC at the end of June to have a family vacation with Jason's family. His older brother lives there with his family and I can't wait for the trip. Jimmy's family and our family are so close, and when they moved from LA last summer, we were sad because we knew we wouldn't see them as much. However, gives us a good excuse to go see them and go to the beach!! Oh, and our baby girl, Remington. She is getting so big!! She will be 10 months this month and is probably about 60lbs! The funny thing is, she thinks she weights 10! Whenever we sit on the floor, and she comes up to us, turns around, and sits right in our laps. She loves doing this because she knows she will get some love! She is such a great dog and she is so awesome with the boys. Jason is still training her for duck hunting, and she is still doing well. I can't wait to see how she does this winter! So, as usual, our life is crazy and hectic, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, except for some extra sleep, that would be nice. Just 6 more weeks of school though, then I can sleep in some!!

Spring Is Almost Here!!

So, my last post was back in January. I'm shocked that I'm updating just a month later!! We are in full swing with Jason's new schedule and we are loving dealing with it. In all honesty, we have started a new routine and it's going pretty well. Earlier this month Jacob had an appointment with an Endocrinologist, and let's just say we left there with NO answers. The doctor assured me he felt that everything was normal, but to keep doing what we have been doing, i.e., checking blood sugar in the AM, and if an episode happens, get him some juice and raise his sugar. He also told me that if his sugar ever drops below 50, we must call him and bring Jacob to the hospital to be admitted to do a 16 hour fasting. The lowest his sugar has ever been at home is 58. You may be asking, "An episode? What is an episode?" When Jake's sugar is low, he is very lethargic and dazed. I can tell he isn't able to focus and he doesn't talk much, which is not like him at all. In the mornings he is very bubbly and can't wait to get out of his crib to run around with his brothers. When his sugar is low, I normally give him some orange juice or make him a smoothie. His sugar rises and he then starts to act like himself again. And yes, I did say crib. Jacob is a little over 2 years, and he is still in his crib. The older 2 were out of their cribs at the age of 2 and transitioned into a "big boy" bed. We will be transitioning him soon! Jay will be moving upstairs to his own room very soon. We are starting that process this week. We have a bonus room upstairs and it always served its purpose as our office and guest room. But, with Jay getting older, we have started realizing that he needs his own space. We always thought about putting him up there, but really thought it wouldn't be until he was 8 or so. However, it's time. He has decided on a theme: Superman! We will be picking out his paint color for the walls on Thursday and painting this weekend. We have framed posters for his walls and a border, all Superman themed!! He is so excited!! Jackson and Jacob will then share a room and the bunk beds. I am a bit nervous about putting Jackson on the top bunk, but we will figure it out. Jacob's room will then serve as a guest room and a place for Jason to keep his work and military stuff. We are looking forward to the rearranging of the rooms and can't wait for it to happen. Jason has LASIK done last week and he is doing so well. I am so happy that he got it done and I'm very jealous. I am going in for my consultation in a couple of weeks and I pray that I am a candidate. We are also leaving to go to New Orleans soon. We are going down there for my Spring Break and to celebrate our anniversary. My granny will be coming in too and I am so excited!! My mom's birthday is also that weekend, so my mom, granny, and I will be going to dinner to celebrate. One of the nights there my parents will watch the boys, and Jason and I will stay in the French Quarter. We are so excited to be able to get out of Memphis for several days!!!

New Year, New Routine

This past Christmas was a great Christmas! My parents were able to be here and celebrate the holiday with us. The boys had so much fun with them in town and with all the gifts they received!! I hated to see them go, but Jason and I are hoping to make a trip NOLA in the upcoming months! We then got word that Jason's work schedule would be changing. BOO!! We have been blessed with him being on the day shift for over 2 years now. He graduated 2nd in his class from the academy, so he was able to pick any shift he wanted after he came off of his probationary period. Obviously, he picked the day shift. It worked out so well for us, but since the zones are changing for the precincts, some spots are being eliminated and some created. At his precinct, spots were eliminated, 7 to be exact. With the police department, everything is based on seniority. Jason was #7 on that seniority list. So, we had to go through all the thinking and bid process and decide what was best for our family. We picked a Delta shift; he is able to bring Jay to school, and stay home with Jack and Jake. We are looking into putting Jackson in a MDO, but we are waiting for things to settle down. We are saving a lot with not having the kids in daycare! The ONLY plus to this change. I have been picking Jay up from school everyday, and that is so fun! We live less than a mile from his school, so Remi and I have been walking there to get him. Jay thinks its great too!! So, with this new schedule comes times where I miss my husband. We don't see much of each other during the days he is working, but on his off days, the boys and I take full advantage of him being home!! Right now he is off on weekends, but his days off will start to rotate again. Jason is also in full hunting mode and has gone a few times this year, but due to his knee surgery back in October, he has been limited. We missed deer season bc Jason couldn't climb into a deer stand. So, all in all, a lot has happened in the last couple of months. We are learning to work with this new routine and be positive about it. It's crazy to think that it is 2013 already!! In March, Jason and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary, I will be turning 30 in May and Jay will be 6 that same month!! We are trying to plan a family vacation with Jason's dad and step mom this summer, Jack will be 4 and Jacob 3!! Oh, speaking of Jacob, we have an appointment with an Endocronologist in February to address is low blood sugar episodes. I am looking forward to this appointment. We have not had any episodes as bad as the one last February, but we have had some scares. Luckily, we have had an idea what it is, so I am prepared, but I want a diagnosis. I will keep everyone updated with that once it happens!!