Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! The holidays sure make you miss home and friends and family that you're away from, but we're lucky that we got to spend our Easter with our "military family".

Jason and I got up early this morning so I could cook for our dinner with friends this evening and he worked on cleaning up the yard. The boys got up this morning cranky, but changed their moods once they saw that the Easter bunny had visited.

Riley went straight for the peeps and cadbury eggs and James went straight to Riley's toys. James was refusing his peeps, which should have been my red flag. He also didn't eat his breakfast. He came in the kitchen while I was cooking and threw up everywhere! I don't know what is going on with his stomach, but this is the second weekend in a row he's gotten sick. Guess it wouldn't be a holiday if someone didn't throw up! It was short-lived at least, and he was feeling better after some pedialyte.

This evening we went over to our friend Jenn's and made a big Easter dinner and the kids played and colored eggs.

The camo one in the back was James's! Can you tell he's an army brat?

Here's our feast! Lots of wonderful food. We left stuffed and sleepy.

The kids had a picnic on the floor. Riley was too tired to sit up and eat after all the excitement!

James said he wasn't tired at all on the way home, but his eyes say otherwise...

Riley fell asleep shortly after this was taken.

Even though we're exhausted, it's going to be a long night. We pick up the truck tomorrow! I can't believe it's here already. We only have 3-ish days left in this house and a week from today we'll actually be arriving at our new house in Georgia!

Twinkle Twinkle Yittle Star

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone! It's a beautiful day up here, all sunshine. Everyone is out playing and gardening and just enjoying Mother Earth. The boys and I got dressed after breakfast and I packed a picnic lunch in James's scooby doo lunchbox (what he calls his "suitcase"). We loaded Riley up in the stroller and went for a nice walk around the neighborhood over to the community center. The kids played on the playground and I chased after them. James announced to everyone that his name was not "James" it was "Red Power Ranger" and Riley was not "Riley" but "Green Power Ranger". He also refused to call me mommy, because I was "Pink Power Ranger". It worked since I was wearing my pink windbreaker. We also talked about Earth Day and picked up some trash (don't worry, Mom! I brought hand sanitizer and wipes!!)

After some playtime, we broke out the lunchbox and had a little picnic in the shade.

Future football player?

Precious James enjoying his heart-shaped PB&J, cheezits and apple slices. He's been carrying around this duck-baby-toy all day calling it his "peep".

After lunch it was more playtime. When they got bored with the playground (or distracted, rather) they dug holes in the giant sand pit. EVERYTHING is covered in sand, now.

We took the scenic trail home and met a bunch of squirrels.

We brought some left over bread slices (the end pieces and some stale ones that would otherwise go in the trash) and broke them up for the birds. We didn't get to see the birds eat it, but we heard them singing in the trees above us.

I love Earth Day and I'm so excited to be celebrating it in small, happy ways with my boys, especially while they are really participating and learning. James is learning the differences in putting trash in the trash can and recycling in the recycling bins. Both boys love playing in the dirt and growing flowers and food. They love animals. I'm finding that as long as we keep our earth-friendly good habits up everyday they really pick up on it and even enjoy it. Maybe we'll even make some vegan cupcakes :)

It's not all bad

Since we're down to a little over a week before we peel out of here, I thought I'd share some of my accomplishments of the past three years of our life here in upstate New York.


1. Moved 3 times--by ourselves--and survived! Each time to a better house. Now we're moving a 4th time!!

2. Learned how to navigate Post. Probably know my way around it better than my soldier!

3. Cooked an entire Thanksgiving Dinner. Twice!

4. Shovelled 3-4 feet of snow at a time.

5. Hosted a playgroup.

6. Made several really great friends, several of whom I still keep in touch with.

7. Did online classes (for a couple years at least).

8. Managed all our money, saved us enough to buy a new family car.

9. Learned about and started recycling and composting.

10. Incorporated more eco-friendly lifestyle changes like cloth diapering, growing our own veggies and fruits, sewing, donating, cooking more vegetarian meals, making my own baby food, etc.

11. Juggled a house of 2 boys, 2 dogs, and an equally (unintentionally) destructive husband.

12. Survived our first deployment.

13. Had a baby (almost forgot that one!)

14. Got to see Niagara Falls.

15. Discovered some really great, helpful resources to get us through everything.

And there's so much more. I've learned so much about myself, and changed so much here. I've met some truly wonderful people, and some not so great. This has been our first real post that we've been involved in and it has been such an incredible learning experience. I'm very excited about our next adventures down in Georgia and wherever the Army takes us after that, but I can't help feeling nostalgic, and maybe a little sad about leaving where we've started off.

What??

Maybe this will be our LAST SNOW til next winter???! Ugh. Definitely over it. Here are some cute chow pictures of the boys!

Yes. More cake pops. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Wrestle-mania!!

Boys...will be boys :)

Week in review

Oh no! I can't find Riley anywhere!! . . .

Surprise! If there's one thing my boys have in common (besides those killer blue eyes) it's a love of all things fluffy and squishy. Doing laundry (something that is never in short supply in this house) the other day, I'd just washed a bunch of pillows. Riley went missing shortly after. James joined in and they had a make-shift bouncy house!

Yes, this is the dog's jacket (she never wears it, wonder why?). I tried packing it away (like the pillows) and Riley demanded I leave it out and let him wear it around. When he realized how awkward it was, he let me have it back. But he still had a nice go around the living room before then. After Jason left work yesterday we had to make a[nother] trip to Home Depot for more moving boxes. After our almost-weekly trips there, I think they're starting to recognize us. Apparently that doesn't make them anymore helpful though. The moving boxes weren't stocked on the lower shelves so we had to find someone to help get them down. It took 15 minutes+ to get someone over there to help! And it wasn't for shortage of employees--there was someone helping two or three other people in the aisles surrounding us--including one in our aisle! Jason tried to get his attention but he couldn't be bothered, so he ran around the store asking them to send someone. It wasn't until Jason found the high-lift-ladder-thingie and started rolling it toward the boxes aisle that someone came running over. Thanks, Home Depot. Boooo.

I'm so sick of packing and boxes and cardboard right now I could probably make an irrational decision--like say, throwing away EVERYTHING ELSE IN OUR HOUSE THAT HASN'T BEEN PACKED YET. Unwise. Especially since it's just the essentials.

After the adventures at HD we shopped around town and stopped at Friendly's for dinner.

James is in love with peeps now and they just happened to have a special peep sundae. He was in his element. And being the little perfectionist he is, he refused to eat the peep or the ice cream holding it up and just ate around it, careful to keep the peep balanced.

Today was James's last art class at the YMCA. I'm sooo sad! He was fantastic, cooperative, even did the pasting and decorated his "egg".

When he finished his egg, he drew a ghost. I'm glad it's a happy ghost, complete with curly hair.

When we got him up this morning, James was looking a little distressed. He refused breakfast so I was afraid he was getting sick. Even in art class his teacher (he calls her Miss Colors Teacher) was asking him if he was feeling okay or going to get sick. He insisted he was fine. He made it through the art class and we stopped at Starbucks to get some coffee to bring home to Daddy and he asked for one of their cake pops. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have given him a cake pop on an empty stomach, but I was thinking if he finally wasn't refusing to eat something at least he'd have some food on his stomach and he must feel well enough to eat. We went to Old Navy to look for some pants and he was so good. The whole time, he was patient and held my hand and let me try on pants in the fitting room without complaint. I didn't find anything, but we went to look at swimming trunks since they were 60% off today. I found a really cute pair of motorcycle ones and asked if he liked them--and he threw up! There was a sales associate standing on a ladder right above us so I'm so glad he has good aim. He didn't get any on his clothes or shoes or any of the store's clothes. Just the floor! The sales lady was suuuuper sweet and helpful and didn't yell at us or anything. She brought us some tissues (they were out of paper towels) and showed us where the bathroom was and grabbed the cleaning stuff. But she was totally sweet about the whole thing. We ducked out of there and got back in the car. He told me on the way out the door, "My tummy feels better after I throw up. I love you Mommy!" It was the sweetest, most pitiful thing in the world. We made it all the way home from the other side of town and he came in the door, got off of the carpet onto the tile floor and threw up again. Then he made it to the bathroom. Is he good aim or what?? But, it was rough! Thank goodness Jason was waiting for us with pedialyte and crackers and towels! After some pedialyte, power rangers on tv and a good long nap, he perked up a little. He's now climbing and wrestling (video to follow) and ate half a sandwich, so I think he'll be alright. I cancelled our date night we had planned, just in case though. A night in with some popcorn and movies on demand will work just fine.

Help! I'm a Military Spouse

I received this book at one of our FRG meetings months ago and didn't start reading it until recently. Let me just say---I looooove this book!! It's packed full of insightful gems of information and motivation and personal testimonials of military spouses. In my four years as a military wife, I've fallen into the trap of the I-have-to-put-off-my-dreams-and-goals-til-my-husband-retires mindset. All the expectations I previously had for myself as an adult went out the window when I met my husband and committed myself to the life that the military assigned us. While it's great that I want to (and do!) support my husband and his career, I found myself feeling left out. My husband wants to do this? Great! We'll move! My children need this? Great! I'll do it. But after a while I wonder, what about me? Where do my needs and wants go? Do I just put my life on hold for the next 10+ years? The great thing about this book is it shows you how to move forward with your own personal goals while supporting your soldier (or sailor, marine, airman, etc.). No matter where you are stationed, there are opportunities, you just have to look for them! I had never thought about gaining work experience through volunteer work. In one spouse's story, the Red Cross offered a dental assisting certificate after so many hours of volunteer work with their dental program. I never realized these kinds of opportunities existed. After searching, myself, I found a similar program offered here at Fort Drum. Until reading "Help!" I didn't realize what I was missing out on! Now that we're two weeks away from our next adventure, I'm getting excited! With the help and insight from this book, I have dreams, I'm setting goals and I know how and where to look for ways to work on them. The book emphasizes the notion that the biggest kick out of having personal goals is not achieving them--it's while you're pursuing them. It's the journey, not the destination. I have met some very strong, admirable, ambitious women married to the military. I encourage all of you to get this book! Even better--get it FREE from MilitaryOneSource, log in or sign in if you haven't already (it's jam packed with great, FREE information and tools!! Use it!!) and order the book. They will even ship it to you for free! Can't beat that!

Another egg hunt

It was so nice out yesterday that after naps we took the boys to the playground. Everybody was outside enjoying it. As hard as the winters are up here, I love how everything comes back to life around April. It really makes you appreciate the sunshine and warmer weather after going through all that snow for so long.

Today was the egg hunt for Jason's Battalion. We had a lot of fun, but that many kids and candy during nap hours was a little crazy. Luckily we were right next to the playground so they got to wear a little energy off before we came home. Here's me with the kids, enjoying some of the refreshments.

Of course we had to get another Easter bunny shot. This was a little easier than yesterday. Riley seemed oblivious to him, and James fought a little but was compliant after EB gave him a lollipop!

Riley's first real outside egg hunt! He's getting so big!

We accidentally left his bag at home (the one he made yesterday at Spring Fling) in the craziness of getting out of the house, so he had to stuff a Wal-mart bag full of eggs and candy instead. He's such a smart little booger--Jason only had to help him at first and he got the concept immediately and started picking up everything around him and stuffing it in there.

James brought his bag he "made" yesterday that he's so proud of (even though most of the stickers have fallen off).

After all the egg hunting, playing, climbing and stuffing our faces with candy and desserts we had two very sleepy little boys. If the ride home had been longer than 5 minutes, they would have been out!