My 'Thing'

It seems, in this vast military lifestyle, that there are wives who come from every corner and lifestyle of the world. Some guys marry women they meet overseas in Korea or Japan or Great Britain. There's yanks and southern belles, and cowgirls, ski bunnies, Mormons, Catholics, and Wiccans.
 Some are stay at home moms who are as granola as a Kashi bar while others can't part from their iPhone or careers for 10 seconds.
Some watch FOX News, others MSNBC.
But everyone seems to have a...thing. Some of my friends are fantastic cooks. They can whip up meal plans, and serve what amount to gourmet meals every night. A few are exceptional gardeners, or crafters, or homeschoolers, or career women. Most had a career they enjoyed (at least most of the time) until they started having babies. Or, in the case of a few wife lawyers, teachers or nurses, they've moved around so much they're still trying to receive their license or certification from two states ago.
And this...this is what I'm lacking.

I don't have a 'thing'.

I'm a mediocre cook, at best. I have a black thumb. I don't chair a committee or a club. I can't sew a hem on a pair of pants (even though I own a sewing machine). I am extremely uncreative when it comes to home decor or organization. I have a really nice camera but lack any ounce of talent in using it.

I never had a career or even more than a part time job. I don't have any kind of college degree or certification or license.

And yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone can say, "But you have the most important job on the planet! You're raising 3 children!" yada, yada, yada. But you know darn well that every mom wants to at least be credited with the fact that she holds some sort of credential or skill other than wiping behinds and kissing scraped knees.

In the military, we make new friends constantly and when meeting new people, I have to dodge the question over and over of "What did you do before you had kids?" or "What did you go to school for?"
Ug.  So, over and over again I explain that..well, I didn't.
It's not just the lack of career or degree or just the lack of a hobby or talent, it's...kind of all four combined.

Add that to a husband who has 3 degrees and it leaves you feeling a bit... unfulfilled, or inadequate to say the least.

The thing is, most women developed these things before they had kids. Or even before they were married. Most wives were finished or almost finished with college before they married. Most cultivated their 'thing' while they had time, or over a long period of time as they were younger.
Nevermind the fact that I can't finish school because my credits are outdated and have to be within 5 years of entering a program (who and where that will be is anyone's guess). There are wait lists and we're never in one place long enough for me to enter and graduate from the program...but I don't feel like I have time to cultivate a 'skill' or hobby.

I want a thing, I want to be good at something and show others how to do it. I want to have a hobby I look forward to doing in my free time.

Maybe if I was already inclined to something in particular. But how do you start from scratch? How do you know if you'll be any good at it? And realistically, it's hard to motivate myself to try something completely new and unknown at 8pm after I'm so wiped out by the day's events.

So until I can actually hang this in a frame in the office:

You can find me surfing the "...For Dummies" section on Amazon.com

Literal

Carter and Clay have an issue with naming their 'buddies', as we call them, and it drives me crazy! These are all the buddies they sleep with in their beds. But first let me introduce them:

From L to R: Star Wars Alligator *, Moosey, Lotso, Seahorsey, Sharky, Quack, Monkey, Meme Bear* and Snakey





* These are more literal than you think. Star Wars Alligator plays the Star Wars Song when you press his foot and MeMeBear holds all of Clay's old pacifiers (Memes) when we weaned him off of them.


I've tried to offer other suggestions. I've tried to explain that you don't have to name the animal what it really is.
I mean, otherwise instead of Carter, Clayton and Vivian I'd have Uncontrollable, Unapproachable and Inconsolable. 

Vivian's First Doll

Vivi received her first American Doll for her first birthday. Nana got it for her (there's an American Girl Store in Chicago) and as you can see from the pictures, she loved it!

How do girls automatically know to hug a doll instead of trying to poke its' eyes out with pointy objects like boys do?

If you look close, you can see a tear by her left eye. That's because we took it away for a minute. You would have thought we told her no cell phone for a week.....

Wedding Pictures

Here are the pictures of our last minute outfits from JCPennys. Like I said, they're not all that horrible. But, not what I had picked out! I mean, I had us all color coordinated before the mishap! Sheesh!

The boys in their Jehovah's Witness attire

Vivi in her 'extra outift' from the bottom of my diaper bag after the 'event-that -shall-not-be-named'.

Family pictures are humanly impossible these days....

Regardless, the bride was beautiful, the location was beautiful and the reception was a blast. In fact, I'm betting Carter had more fun at the reception that the bride and groom.

Standard First Day of School Post

Carter's attending the same little Montessori school as last year. Two of the three teachers are the same and he's one of the oldest in his class now (finally!) He said he had a good time, the teachers said he helped all the new students with the rules and order of things, and he chose to take a ham sandwich  cut into a Star Wars spaceship as lunch. 

** My camera was all foggy because of the quick change of air conditioned to super hot, humid air..add that to we're pushing it on time and that equals above picture

Wardrobe MalFUNction

Cory, the kids and I all drove up to Indiana last week. We were originally coming for a very whirlwind weekend trip to attend a wedding in Western Illinois, but when Carter's school date pushed back almost 3 weeks, we had time to head up early. Cory's parents live in NW Indiana. We were going to take two days to get there, but made good time and no one was really whining so we decided to keep pushing. It was a long 16 hour drive, but we did it. The trick was pulling out of the driveway at 5am with kids still in pajamas. That's how we're traveling from now on. Out of all the traveling and driving we've ever done, this has been the best method.

4am: pack car
5am: put sleeping kids directly from bed into car seats
7am: make first stop to pee and get breakfast as kids wake up
12pm: make mid-trip destination and decide to keep going
9pm: pull in to in laws driveway

On the drive up, Carter had a fever the whole time and Vivi went through 5 changes of clothes. WHY DOES MY LIFE HAVE TO BE DICTATED BY EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA???
After change #5 and only at our midway destination (Nashville), she was only allowed to wear a diaper and sit on a towel.
Despite the sickies, the trip wasn't a bad one.

We visited with everyone, went on the boat, swam at the pool and played in the sandbox.
Friday evening we drove from NW Indiana to W Illinois. We were happy, excited about the wedding we were to attend! Then..about 10 minutes from the exit we realized....

we left our wedding clothes hanging in the closet in Indiana...

Ohmygod. That's 3.5 hours away. That's the whole reason we came. We would have to turn around and make the 3.5 hour drive back to IN, then 3.5 more hours to get back to the wedding destination....some choice words were yelled very loudly, until they finally turned into hysteria..you know, that maniacal laughter that only comes after traveling over 1,000 miles with three small children, one of which can't seem to keep her poop inside the diaper....
We weighed our options:
On one hand, we had been planning this trip for months. We had hired a babysitter to go to town to get Cory a suit (that he desperately needed). The suit was expensive, and I had spent weeks picking out the right dress for the wedding. And, to buy clothes last minute isn't easy for either us. Let's just say we're not the target audience for buying clothes right off the rack.

On the other, do we really want to make that drive two more times? Once back to IN and once back again to the wedding?

By the time we had pulled into the hotel, we had decided we were dumping the kids with the grandparents and heading to the JCPennys across the street.

We will be the first to tell you there are slim pickins' at the JCPenny in the middle of nowhere, farm country, Illinois.

Luckily, the kids' clothes had made the journey. At least the kids' clothes made it! We can make do, but the kids will look so cute in their clothes I spent weeks picking out!
Unless, your daughter's name is Vivian Jane. Because if that happens to be the case, your daughter will very cutely wear her dress in the car on the way to the wedding. But will then swiftly and promptly make sure your day is ruined by having more EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA all over her wedding clothes before you ever make it to the wedding....
We barely slipped into the wedding before it started (you know after spending all our time in the parking lot wiping poop out of the crevices on the car seat and from in between her fingers and toes.)

Lucky us, the wedding was outside in the afternoon. When the ceremony was over and we opened the car door, we had a nice poop flavored aroma to ride back to the hotel.

Vivian 1 year

Dear Vivi,
I wanted to go ahead and post the pictures of your birthday party for the grandparents to enjoy. You had such a wonderful party with close, wonderful friends. It was perfect. However, I didn't have time to write a letter to you until today. Which, since today is your actual birthday anyway, no one can guilt me.
You are such a wonderful, sweet, silly girl. You are a great sleeper, a great crawler, and have one astonishing appetite. You have slept through the night since shortly after we moved here in January and I can count the number of times I've had to get up with you in the middle of the night on ONE HAND. Before you start congratulating yourself though, it wasn't your idea to sleep through the night. After we had some serious tough love at night time you are by far the bestest, best, best sleeper ever. This makes me a happy mommy, and makes me smile when I see you in the morning, rather than cringe. And we all know, that's a much better scenario.
You just started crawling on all fours this week, which is great, because now I can stop throwing your clothes away and save some of them. When you drag your belly around day in and day out, your clothes do not last long. I also feel comfortable letting you crawl around outside now too since you're a bit higher off the ground and aren't shoveling leaves and acorns in your mouth faster than I can get to them.
Speaking of shoveling things in your mouth, you have an insatiable appetite. I'm pretty sure you're the best eater out of all your siblings. You still nurse about 3 or 4 times a day but have really fallen in love with table food. In May on a trip to a restaurant, you ate 3 jars of baby food, a whole plate of a kids meal macaroni and about 3 crab legs. (We know you're not allergic to shellfish!)
You eat anything and everything, and can't seem to get it in your mouth fast enough. This includes bugs, spiders, grass, dirt, legos, marbles, money and dog hair. I'm so glad you love to 'explore your surroundings'. But less spiders and more macaroni, eh?
Even though you eat as if there's no tomorrow, you are a skinny little thing. I think you're getting some chunk on your thighs though now. If you can count 'one tiny dimple that might have just been a shadow' as chunk.
You like your brothers alright, you like them better from a distance. By that, I mean you like to watch them, you don't like for them to be bothering you. I DON'T BLAME YOU. They drive me nuts too.
Your true love is the dog. It's still the dog. Really, it's any dog. (Shh, I won't tell Bailey.) You loved chasing Barkley at Grandma's house and Coco at Aunt Sally's House. In fact, dog was your first word aside from Mama and Dada.
You say about 3 words (Mama, Dada and dog) and sign a few more (all done, more, come here) and gesture several others things (waving, blowing kisses, pointing, peek-a-boo).
You are not laid back, but a good baby. You would love to be held all day, but I am not good at doing things with zero hands, so I have to put you down. sorry!
You love, love love, your Dada. And when he comes home, or out of the shower, or just around the corner, your eyes light up like the 4th of July. Your whole body flails and you squawk like a baby bird until he picks you up. I'm so glad you love him. He's a pretty good guy.
You are wonderful, and snugly, and bald and toothless and 18 lbs of just precious. I can't wait to see what this 2nd year has for you.  I love you sweet pea.

Love, Mama