Counting Down........

Well, we're down to like 53-70 more days until Joe leaves to come home!! Granted, it's the military so they could decide to keep them a bit longer at the last second, but let's hope not! Two months.... I am SO excited! I don't care that he won't be home, home until September... as long as he's out of THERE!

I found my dress!!!

I went to David's Bridal on Friday with my mom and my aunt and grandma who were in town from Colorado. We were just going to look at picking out a color for the wedding... no plans to even try on dresses. After we had picked a color, my mom suggested that I try on a few dresses just for fun. I started looking through the dresses and the first one I saw was VERY poofy! My mom rolled her eyes and told me to go ahead and try it on... her expectations weren't very high. As soon as I walked out of the fitting room, everyone's jaws literally dropped... it was PERFECT!!! It fits me like a GLOVE! I won't have to have ANY alterations done to it at ALL! So before deciding for SURE that this was the one, we tried on a few other dresses... just to be sure. Every single dress was, "Nope... the first one was it." So after swooshing around in the dress and literally glowing, I finally decided that yes, I needed to put the deposit down on the dress. I just wasn't going to find anything that even compared to that one. AND the dress was only $449! A TON of the other ones that we were looking at were $700-$800! I couldn't believe how cheap it was for how detailed and GORGEOUS it was! And THEN I talked to Joe today and told him that I was just waiting for my tax money to come in so that I could pay the rest of it and take the dress home. Unfortunately, I wasn't 100% certain that my taxes would come in before I had to leave on Wednesday. So he gave the go-ahead to use his money to pay for the dress and put the money back as soon as my taxes came in! WOOHOO!!! So I'm going in with my mom tomorrow to try the dress on one final time and then take it home! I am SO excited! :) :) And to top it ALL off.... I put my first wedding dress on Craigs List just to see if there's any chance it would sell at all. Quite frankly, I just wanted to get rid of it... I didn't really care how much it sold for. And I got an e-mail from a lady saying that she will pay me $500 for the dress!! All I have to do is mail it to her in Texas!!! So basically.... she paid for my wedding dress! It all worked out so perfect... I couldn't even believe it. :) :)

Saying Goodbye....... again

Well, I had to take Joe to the airport today. Just thinking about it brings me to tears. He was so quiet the entire ride to the airport. I guess the reality of it all really hit him and he was really depressed. I am so worried about him. He encountered hostile fire just 2 weeks before he came home on leave and I'm so afraid that it's going to keep happening. Now that he's put a ring on my finger, I'm so worried that he'll never make it to the wedding. I know that I can't let myself think that way because it will just get me permanently depressed.... but it's still so hard. The kids took the goodbye a LOT better than I did.... I think it's because they don't understand that not only is he gone, but he's also not in a safe location. It's probably best that they don't know EVERYTHING. But since I obviously do, it just makes it so hard to let him go. When he woke up this morning and put on his uniform, I about cried right there. All I want in this life is for him to come home SAFE. Nothing else really matters at this point. So please keep him (and the kids and I too) in your prayers... we all really need it.

Enjoying my time........

Well, Joe has been home for 7 WHOLE days now. It has been wonderful. So wonderful that it feels just like it used to be.... it almost makes my mind think that he's home for good. I was so worried that he'd come home a different person, but not really. He's never really been the romantic/affectionate type, but he seems to be a little bit more that way.... and I stress "little". ;) I'm just so thankful that God has blessed me with such an amazing man. :)

I am SO frustrated!!!

I was at a meeting at work today when I got a call from Joe. So I slipped out of the meeting to take his call. I was talking to him when my boss came in and said, "Hey! I need to talk to him!" So I left the restroom so that she could talk to him about dates, etc. without me overhearing. Then she came out and handed the phone to me and Joe said, "That is CRAP!!!" Joe called my boss back in like February to ask off of work for me and I guess they have only okayed me to have ONE day off of work!!!! ONE day!!! Tell me, how much good does that do me?! I can understand that they might not be able to give me the full 15 days off, but I was expecting at LEAST half of it!!!! So I went and talked to Donna (my immediate boss who is ALSO a former military wife). She said that she understands how important it is and that she's doing all she can to get me more days. But it just kills me that they will okay people to take a week or so off of work for a CRUISE but when my boyfriend comes home from Afghanistan, they only want to give me a DAY! Joe said that he's going to call and talk to the head boss and speak his mind. What frustrates me is that if Joe and I were MARRIED, they would be required by LAW to give me that time off!! So I think Joe is finally realizing that I was right in saying that being married while he's deployed would DEFINATELY have its benefits. So yes.... I am just extremely frustrated right now. Please keep this situation in your prayers..... that's about all that's going to work at this point.

Counting Down.....

Well, Joe should be home sometime in the next 10-14 days! He still won't tell me exactly, and even so, if he were to get held over in Kuwait for a day or two, that would delay his return date. But I am SO excited!!! Ten to fourteen DAYS is a number that I can deal with! His fifteen days at home will definately fly by way too fast, but it will be SO good to have him home! At least my gutters will finally get cleaned out and the garage door will get fixed. ;)

Nevermind....

Well, pretty much ignore the last post. I received a VERY harsh e-mail from Joe (although 100% honest) basically stating that he doesn't want to even consider marriage. He also said that he's afraid of us splitting up, but only because Jillian is attached to me. I refuse to stay in a relationship that's only being maintained because we have a house together and because our kids are attached. I deserve better than that. So I don't know. I sent him an e-mail pretty much laying the facts out and letting him know that if he's only in this for the kids, then I will start paperwork to split up the house tomorrow. I can't take this right now. I've cried for about 2 hours already. Hopefully he didn't mean it how it came out, but I don't know how it could be taken any other way. I want someone to love me for ME... not just for my child rearing abilities.

I need help with colors!!!

Okay, I need your help. Joe and I were talking about things we would want at our wedding (when & IF) it ever happens, and I got a little stumped on colors. Joe wants him and all his guys to wear their dress blues (aka: navy blue) and I'm trying to figure out what colors would look good with that. The first thought is obviously red, but red was the primary color in my first wedding and I do NOT want that! Then I was talking to Joe's sister-in-law and she suggested champagne with red roses (champagne is like a really muted gold - think of the color on some of those Honda and Toyotas). I like that, but it's almost like just having blue and tan... pretty, but kinda boring. Joe's sister-in-law (the one I was consulting) did bright yellow with their dress blues, but I kinda got the feeling that she doesn't want me doing the same color scheme that they did. So do you guys have any other suggestions?

Surprises

Well, as most of you know, Joe has his 2 weeks of leave set, but he's not telling me!!! It's just not fair! All he is telling me is that it's in April, he won't be home for Easter, and that's about it. He even went to the extent to call my BOSS to ask off of work for me!! On one hand, it's all very sweet and romantic..... on the other hand, it's a royal pain in the butt! I just told him that since I have absolutely no idea when he'll be home, if he walks in the door and the house is a wreck, and I haven't showered, he will only have himself to blame. :) He agreed and said that was fair... I guess it will have to be! I even tried to pry the information out of his sister... it didn't work. Pretty much everyone in his family knows (and he has a VERY big family). Some of my friends have said that maybe he has something "big" up his sleeve..... I wish. I would pass out on the floor if he walked through my door and dropped to one knee. The thing is, I know that won't happen. Joe is FAR (and I mean F-A-R) from ready to make it legal. I guess I'll just have to be patient and do my best not to get my hopes set on some big, romantic hoop-la. He'll come home when I least expect it, and he may not propose, but he'll be out of harm's way for almost 3 weeks (once you consider all the travel time) and that's definately something I can live with. :)

Muesli

I found this recipe and it is SOOOOOO good!!! It's extremely simple to put together and also fairly low on calories.

Muesli - makes 2 servings - 285 calories per serving

• 1 cup rolled oats (same thing as "old fashioned oats" in the cereal aisle)
• 1 tbsp chopped dates
• 1 tbsp chopped almonds
• 4 tbsp plain yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt and added more like 5 tbsp)
• 4 tbsp fresh (I used frozen) berries (I used blueberries and raspberries, but you can use whatever sounds good)

Combine all ingredients and then pour low-fat milk over it (probably only about 1/8 to 1/4 cup)

ENJOY!!! :)

More Deaths

Well, there have been a total of 6 Illinois National Guard deaths in just the past 3 weeks. That's 2 per week.... not statistics that I'm comfortable with. And the 4 that were killed just a few days ago died in the very same location that Joe is at. I am so worried. I pray at least twice a day for his safety, but the fact remains that not even prayer can guarantee his safety over there. I try so hard not to focus on the negative, but how can you not when you're getting an e-mail every couple of weeks telling you about another injury or death that we've had! And then our FRG leader had the nerve to say in the e-mail, "We just need to focus on the fact that our soldiers will be home soon." In what twisted sense of reality is 7 months "soon"?! I am so tired of being worried sick every second of every day and not being able to do a thing about it. I just want him home.

Tyler read me a book!!

Tyler picked out Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess this afternoon and read it to me!! The video file is too big to upload on here, but if you go to http://www.vimeo.com/3367798 you can view the video. :)

Tyler's Awesome Math Skills........

For quite awhile now Tyler has been able to add numbers. We'll be driving down the road and he'll be in the back seat saying, "Two plus two is four.... three plus one is four...." etc., etc. So a few days ago, out of curiousity, I wrote down 2+2 on a piece of paper and showed him how you line the columns up and add it. So then I gave him double and triple digit equations and he added them without ANY hesitation!! So today I took a video of him adding and I thought I would share it with you. :)

Lonely

Well, my mom & brothers just left. They came up Saturday morning and were able to stay until 4:00 pm today. It was so good to have the company. But now that they're gone, I realize how horribly lonely my reality is. The most contact I have with people over the age of 5 is through the internet & phone calls.... how sad is that? My life sucks.... I guess that's the moral of my story.

Roses from Afghanistan

Joe sent me roses today!!! I don't know how he managed to order them without me noticing the charge on his account, but he did somehow! I was SO surprised! And then when I read the note, I couldn't stop crying. The note read, "With Love from Afghanistan. I miss you and the kids. Love, Joe." Yup.... I think I found a keeper. ;)

Crazy Tuesday.....

Well, this past Tuesday was quite interesting. I was on my afternoon route and I almost hit a kid with my bus! I was driving down this main road, and right as the car coming from the other direction passed me, I saw 3 kids on scooters. Two of them saw me and stopped... the other one ran right out in front of me! I honked my horn, slammed on my brakes, and swerved. I felt something hit my bus and then I couldn't see the kid anymore. I really & truely thought I had ran him over! I was freaking out! Then the monitor that was on my bus saw him get up, grab his scooter, and walk out of the road. The stupid kid then proceeded to give ME a dirty look!! I am SO glad that I had a mouthy monitor on my bus that day! She got off the bus and went over and CHEWED that kid out!! My monitor called my boss to report the incident and he was asking if I needed to have someone take over my route... I thought I was fine. I drove a couple of blocks and had to pull over. My face and hands were numb, I was shaking, I had trouble breathing.... I think I was basically going through shock. So my monitor called my boss back and had another driver take over my route. It scared the living daylights out of me!! Then yesterday my boss pulled me into his office. He told me that my monitor had said that the kid had landed right beside my driver's side wheel. My boss told me that had I simply slammed on my brakes and not swerved, that kid would have been UNDER my wheel... not beside it. The crazy thing is that it all happened so fast that I don't even remember swerving! God was really looking out for both of us that day!

Plumber problems...

I am SO aggrivated! I was having problems with the faucet in our front bathroom... neither the hot nor the cold side were working. I sent Joe's brother a text message asking him who he would recommend and he gave me a phone number, he said, "Call this guy and let him know that you know me and that Joe is deployed... he is a GREAT guy!" So the plumber stopped by this morning to look at the faucet. Dumb me.... it was just a clogged filter. He unscrewed it, tapped it on the counter to clean it, and screwed it back on. THEN he saw my leaky tub faucet. This thing has had a slight drip ever since we bought the house, but it's not a big deal and it doesn't even effect our water bill. Joe and I really had NO intention to mess with it until he got home. But he looked at it and said, "Well, while I'm here...." and just started messing with it!! Two hours, a hole in our wall (for an access panel), and a whole new faucet later, he hands me a $509 bill!!!! HOLY COW!!!! He didn't give me an estimate, NOTHING to prepare me for $509!! Had I known that it was going to cost over $200, I would have told him not to even mess with it! I am SOOO frustrated! And then I was stuck because since Joe's brother had recommended him, I didn't want to show my frustration, so I just paid him. Then I called Jay, Joe's brother. He was FURIOUS! He said that there is NO way that it should have cost THAT much money!!! He appologized several times for recommending him and he even said that he would have fixed it himself if he had known it would be that much. I just told Jay, "Hell... I wouldn't have even had HIM fix it if I knew it was going to be that much!!" So then Joe called and about had a heart attack when I told him about it. So Joe called Jay and now Jay is in the process of talking to the guy to try to get things worked out. I just hope that he's able to return the check that I wrote and lower the price. It's just rediculous! My parents had the EXACT same work done last year (access panel cut out and ALL) and their bill was only $210 plus the cost of the faucet. I told Jay that and said that it shouldn't have cost us THAT much of a difference! So now I'm just praying that Jay will be able to knock some sense into him. Stupid plumber.

Sugar Cookies

Joe's grandma died a few months back, and at her funeral, they distributed copies of her famous sugar cookie recipe. So for Joe & his brother, Ken's, Valentine's packages, I made up a batch and sent part of them off to them. So I don't know what they will taste like 7-9 days from now, but they better like them! And then after I mailed a dozen to each of them, I still had a TON of dough left! I was going to just freeze the dough, but I thought I'd go ahead and make them up and take them to Joe's sister's Super Bowl party tomorrow. Then I was looking through the box of 101 cookie cutters that Joe got me for my birthday, and I found helmet & football cookie cutters!! How perfect!! So I thought I'd take a picture of them and see what you think. The funny part is that the laces on the footballs are pink... I had bought supplies to do Valentine's cookies so we ended up with pink laces! lol

Baby Tag

1- Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant? In the bathroom at my parent's house
2- Who was with you? no one
3- How did you find out that you were pregnant? A Home pregnancy test.
4- What was your first reaction to finding out you were pregnant? scared to death
5- Your Husbands reaction? no husband... but he was shocked
6- Who was the first person you told? Nikki
7-Did you plan to get pregnant? absolutely not
8-Was everybody happy for you? eh..... eventually
9- Did you go out and celebrate? wasn't exactly a moment to "celebrate"
10- Did you want to find out the sex? absolutely
11- What was the sex? beautiful baby boy
12-Did anyone throw you a baby shower? Yes.
13- If yes, who? My friend, Nikki.
14- Did you get any outfits at the baby shower that you just knew you weren't going to put on your baby? lol - yes
15- How much weight did you gain? 36 pounds
16- Did you loose all of the weight that you gained? all but about 3-5 pounds
17- Did you get a lot of stretch marks? nope :D
18- What did you crave the most? CELERY!!!
19- Did you crave anything crazy? nope
20- Who or what got on your nerves the most? nobody.... I had an amazing pregnancy. No crazy hormones or anything
21- Were you married at the time? nope
22- Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? not during pregnancy. During labor the nurse forgot to turn Tyler (he was facing the wrong way) and they almost had to do a C-section
23- Where were you when you went into labor? at my mom's.... I didn't think I was really in labor. My mom had to talk me into going into the hospital.
26- Did you go early or late? yup.... 17 days early
27- Who was in the room with you when you gave birth? my mom, Nikki, Steven, the doctor, and a few nurses
28- Was it video taped? NO WAY!
29- Did you have any drugs for the pain? You bet!!! Epidurals are AMAZING!
30-Did you go Natural or have a c-section? Natural
31- What was your first reaction after giving birth? lol - Tyler's head was alien shaped due to the vacuum extraction they had to use and I looked at Steven and said, "Please tell me that's not my baby." He was UGLY!!! His head went back to normal within an hour though. :)
32- How big was the baby(s)? 7 pounds 4 oz.... I think
33- Did your Husband cry? no
34- What did you name the baby(s)? Tyler Christopher Rule
35-Did the name have any significance to you? absolutely. Christopher is my cousin's (and also one of my best friends) name
36-Does the baby's name fit? oh yes
37- Did the baby(s) have any complications? nope.... perfectly healthy :)
38- How old is your baby today? no longer a baby.... 5 years and almost 2 months
39- When is the next one coming? feels like never
40- If you could would you do it all over again? absolutely.... I LOVE being pregnant!

Never thought I'd say this, but I HATE 5 day weekends in winter!!

Well, we were suppose to have a 3 day weekend (Monday being Martin Luther King Day) but then with the nasty wind chill, they canceled school Thursday and Friday. I have to tell you... I have never been so bored in my life!! Thursday Tyler and Jillian were sick, Friday Jillian was sick, and yesterday I was sick. I just want to go back to work! If it were the middle of summer, at least we could get out and do stuff! But no, it's the middle of January, it's FREEZING outside, so I'm suck inside with a 3 & 5 year old with NOTHING to do for FIVE WHOLE DAYS!!! Tomorrow is Monday.... my last day off. I honestly wish I could go back to work! I am so bored. I have cleaned, re-arranged, taken multiple showers just for something to do, read books, watched TV, baked..... I am bored stiff!!! I wish my family or friends lived closer. A 5 day weekend back in Missouri or up in Wyoming wouldn't be so bad... I have people I know that I could go do stuff with. But no.... I'm stuck here about to pull my hair out just wishing Joe were here to share my boredom with.

Revision to Almond Bark Pretzels.....

In the recipe I gave, I said to follow the melting directions on the back of the package..... don't. Unless you want to be staring at your microwave forever. Unless you have an ultra-powerful microwave, microwave the almond bark for about 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it though to make sure that it doesn't scald, but that should be about the right length of time. And the final product should look like the photo below.... enjoy! :)

Almond Bark pretzels

My mom makes these EVERY year for Christmas but I got so addicted to them that I now find myself making more and more batches of them way beyond Christmas. The greatest part is that they are SOOOO easy to make!!! So I thought I would share the recipe with you and laugh as you get addicted to them too. ;)

Ingredients: 1 package of vanilla flavored almond bark (photo below) & one 16 oz. bag of stick pretzels

• melt almond bark according to directions on back of package (be careful not to over cook it)
• stir in entire bag of pretzels making sure to get them all evenly coated
• drop by large spoonfuls onto wax paper (do this fairly quickly because the almond bark
  sets up fairly quickly)
• they will be set up and ready to eat in about 15-20 minutes or so..... ENJOY!!! :)

Finally some good to report.........

Well, Tyler has officially started to read and write! He can sound out and spell almost any fairly simple word I give him and he can read most 4-5 letter words without much trouble. And what makes it even cooler is that they don't actually start teaching them that until around the beginning of first grade! Which means that Tyler is about a year to a year and a half ahead of where most children his age are!! My kiddo is going to blow those teachers away when he goes in for his Kindergarten screening!!! :) :)

And then when I came home from visting my parents, my babysitters had a HUGE surprise for me...... they CLEANED my house!!! And I mean C L E A N E D!!! They scrubbed toilets, washed dishes, did my laundry, the whole 10 yards! They even went so far as to organize and sort through the kid's rooms to see what clothes they've outgrown and then they sorted out their toys and even put all our clothes away all nice and folded in our drawers!! I was amazed. They said that it took them almost 5 days to do it all. Yup, my house really was THAT messy! It was just so nice to come home to that. And now that it's all done, it'll be SOOOO much easier to keep it that way!! Wow.... what a blessing!