The Price of Freedom

My favorite picture of all time.

It was 2 years ago on February 23rd that Micheal gave his life for his country and our freedom.

He touched the lives of many...

and his students loved him.

Tears are shed every day...

in remembrance of an amazing man, husband, father, brother and son.

When a courageous man and husband dies...

He leaves behind a courageous woman and wife.

Let us always remember that all gave some...

and some gave all!

The 2 Year Mark

2 years ago on February 23rd, Micheal was killed in Iraq. Every year, we don't do your usual "mourning". We go out and do what Micheal would want us to do. Amy calls Micheal's death his "graduation".

Our contribution.

Amy and Susan put up a new flag in their yard that day.

Looks good, if you ask me.

Kai helped Susan fold up the old flag.

It is the yearly tradition to write letters to Micheal, put them in the balloons and send them off to him.

I know both Amy and Susan are going to kill me for this close up but I love this picture.

We went and ate at Pirate Island, as we did last year. The kids love it and the food is good, go figure that one out. Normally places that have arcade games (Chuck-E-Cheese) have gross food. The kids got lots of tokens and had a blast.

Josh has some competition.

That night we went to Trafalga. It has lots of stuff, miniature golf, rock climbing, rides, laser tag, you name it. This picture was inside the miniature golf area.

Yeah, we tried rock climbing. I am so out of shape, not that that is any new news to me though. Kai got all the way to the top multiple times. Yeah, we are not even going to talk about where I made it.

We had so much fun. It was an eventful and emotional day. Josh couldn't be with us because John Deere was in town and he HAS to be there when they are in town. He was missed. Thank you Amy and Susan for such a great time. I love you both!

Just A Regular Laundry Day

I was doing laundry the other day, Tuesday, of course. I was switching loads, moving clothes from the washer to the dryer, when I found this...

Yes, I washed a plastic tea cup. I don't even know how this could have happened. I separate all the clothes into whites, colors and darks, so surely I would have seen or felt this chunk of plastic. Somehow it made its way through the separation and from the basket into the washer without me seeing it. Unless... Halle snuck it in while I went to get a shirt that I was soaking out of the sink. I'm going to go with Halle, that's much less embarrassing for me!

From The Mouth of A Child

We were sitting at the table the other day writing thank you cards to people. Halle was drawing on her card when she suddenly started to giggle and then said this:

(Her giggling, giggle, smile)

Micheal Died

Heaven, Jesus

He Funny!!!

(giggle more)

WANTED: Moms... No Pay or Reward For 30 years!!!

A couple of nights ago Josh and I were getting ready to go to bed when I asked him, "Do you ever feel like you're a failure?" It broke out into a long conversation. He instantly asked me why I thought I was a failure. Saw right through that one, huh?

I told him that I feel like I'm nothing important and a failure because all I am is a mom. Now before anyone goes and writes "what a privilege, or honor or how it's the best job you could ever have", I will vomit all over you.

It seems as though the world has changed the view on being a stay at home mom. It's like you're a loser, you're pathetic and you're just not smart enough to have a "job" or "career". I know that I have a lot of friends who work and would give their right arm to stay home with their kids. Please don't take offense to this post. It has nothing to do with you. It's just my feelings.

When you are introduced to people and they ask you what you do and you tell them that you are a stay at home mom, they almost turn their nose up at you, like, "Oh, you're just a little housewife and you are so pathetic. I'm this or I'm that..." BLAH!!! It makes me angry that I let this get to me but I do feel like unless I started working, I wouldn't feel like I was really worth anything or that I'm not doing anything important.

As Josh and I got talking it got a little bit better. He pointed out something so very close to my heart. When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. There were 5 kids in our home and only my father worked. I knew that he didn't make a lot of money and at times a secondary income was needed. My mother would work from home for different companies. I remember her working for Seitec, she sewed shirts and lace for the company. Another was when she would work through the night doing 10-key entry for a company. Another job that was done from home. My mom always made a sacrifice for our family, as did my dad.

I never would have been as close to my mother if I had come home from school and she hadn't been there to listen to me. I was so close to my mom, I told her almost everything, when I did things that were bad, when I lied and so on. My mother was a sounding board and she was ALWAYS there. Even though for a good majority of my time growing up, she had mono and she was always fatigued, she always did anything and everything for her kids. A selfless person, indeed.

We didn't ever have the best or the nicest of anything. I remember then, being embarrassed of the cars we drove, our house, because it wasn't big enough, not name brand clothes and so many other materialistic things that ran my life. My mom made a sacrifice to stay home, she could have gone to work and we could have had all of those things.

And now, here it is, not until I have children of my own, that I TRULY appreciate my mother. Not until I am walking in her shoes. It's not until now that I truly understand the sacrifice and am so grateful for her. I now call my mom and thank her for not killing me as a child. I tell my mom how much I am sorry for the hell that I put her through. I call her to cry about how hard it is to stay home and raise my children and tell her a simple, thank you. It's now, that I feel the way she felt, it's only now, 30 years later that she gets a "reward". The reward of hearing your children say, "Thank you for all you did for me and I'm so sorry for how I treated you."

Motherhood is not easy, working or not. I struggle every day with it. I guess it's just hard to know that I will not feel like what I'm doing NOW, will be worth anything or appreciated for 30 years. Obviously, there will be those little moments but motherhood really is a thankless job for a long time.

I look at my mom and I don't think of her as someone who did nothing special with her life or someone who is dumb because she didn't have a career. I know my mom is very smart, I know what she did before she decided to have kids, she's smarter than a lot of people I know with a degree. I know my mom has done amazing things with her life and I know that she did the right thing, many, many years ago, deciding to stay home with her kids. I guess looking at my mom, where she is and what she's accomplished... gives me hope.

Happy Birthday Halle

The Birthday Girl!!!

I can't believe that Halle turned 2 on Sunday, February 20th. I LOVE this picture of her.

At first, I was really bummed out that her bday fell on a Sunday, then Josh pointed out that it couldn't have been a better day for Halle. Her FAVORITE thing is to go to nursery. She asks for it all week. He was right. Also, it was great because Josh was actually able to be home. She wore this cute little dress Amy gave her for her birthday.

And of course, the dress is not complete without NEW shoes. Josh thinks she looks like Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz. Duh, her shoes aren't red.

She loved all of the attention.... understatement!

I made Halle an Elmo cake. She loves Elmo, well, she really loves the babies in Elmo. When she wants to watch one of the DVDs we have, she asks for "Baby Elmo". When she saw the cake, she screamed, "BABY ELMO". I was very pleased, at least she knew what it was.

My hands were stained purple from cleaning out the black frosting bag. The dye just covered my hands and it didn't go away for a few days.

Would a birthday really be complete without some rough housing with dad? I think not!

I told Halle when she was going down for her nap that when she woke up, she'd be able to open presents. She commented with, "Santa Claus come to my house?" Interesting that she associates presents with Santa. Christmas must still be on the brain.

She had so much fun opening her presents. It was fun to watch her, it was also fun to watch Chloee get so bent out of shape about the fact that Halle wasn't opening them fast enough.

Halle thinks she's a doctor.

Halle's new swimming suit. Compliments of Josh. He's been wanting one of these for the girls for forever. He's in love with the rash guard. Works for me, less sunscreen and sunburns that I have to worry about.

Anybody who knows Halle, knows that there are 2 things in the world that she LOVES:

Babies...

and bubbles. That baby crawls around on the floor. When it stopped, Halle couldn't get it to go again so she kicked it. Can we all say, RAGE ISSUES!

Singing Happy Birthday!!!

She blew out the candle, with a little help from Dad.

Yeah, she just dug her face right into it.

That is so a Halle face, through and through.

Why not put our faces in together?

Yeah, they look a bit scary with all that red frosting around their mouths. Yes, it did stain their faces.

Could that piece be any bigger? Yes, we unhinged her jaw to get it in.

One thing I hate about taking pictures is that you are NEVER in them. You are always behind the camera 99% of the time.

We call this the Koala/Monkey. She can wrap her legs and arms around you like some wild animal in the jungle in survival mode. One time she clung to my leg and had wrapped her arms and legs around me so tight that I could walk around with her on my thigh and she never fell off.

On Tuesday I was up at my mom's for an appt and she gave Halle her present then. She was very excited, as was Chloee.

It was a baby, with TONS of accessories along with this cute cradle / rocker thing that she just fell in love with. My mom also made her a blanket for her baby out of the material she made Halle's Christmas blanket out of. Hall loves that they have matching blankets.

On Monday, I went to Kathy's and they had balloons, cake, party decorations and so forth. Halle loved every minute of it. Josh's mom also took us all out to see Gnomeo and Juliet for Halle's birthday. We had a grand old time!