Due March 2011

Brady is Home!

I can't tell you what a difference it makes to have him home. My girls have been plastered to him all weekend and I couldn't be happier!

Brady graduated, after passing his tests, on Thursday. He was a favorite of his instructors (this doesn't surprise me) and he also was awarded Top Graduate (I think I got that right I will have to double check) which is an optional award. He also has lots of letters saying nice things about how awesome he is in his file. :o) There is nothing better than knowing that we made the right decision. Joining the Air Force was a tough sell for me and it took a lot of praying and comfort from the Lord for me to agree that it was the right thing to do. Getting Brady in was a long and rough process and part of me felt that maybe we were wrong, but the Lord kept saying we were in the right place. In the end Brady got the job he wanted and has been soaring through training and tech school. I can see how much he loves what he has learned. He is in the right place and will have a job that he enjoys. The Lord has truly blessed us and we are so grateful that his steady guidance got us here.

Now we are gearing up for our move. I already have a plan, because I can't not have a plan, but I am making myself wait to start packing. Mostly because once I start I will pack everything and then we will have to unpack stuff just to make it through the next two weeks. :o)

I'm not sure that I will get much up on the blog before we move. I will promise that once we are settled and we have internet again that I will post pictures of our new house and tell you all about the fun we had getting to our new house!

We will miss everyone here! There is a big part of me that is in denial about moving away from my home. I have never lived anywhere else and I know it will be hard for me, but I also know that so long as we are together as a family we will be fine where ever we go. I am looking forward to meeting new people and learning a new city, but I know that I am going to miss everyone here very much. I am really going to miss my family being so close. I am sure that my girls will adapt well to life without both grandma's, but I'm not sure how well I am going to adapt.

Anyway, enough of the mushy. We are hoping that you all will keep in touch! I know I will be blog stalking most of you so I can see everyone's kids growing up and where life takes you!

The good news...

I am finally feeling like myself again!

The bad news?

We are moving in little over a month. :o(

Don't get me wrong. I do want to move. I am really looking forward to having my husband back and living like a family again and having a new adventure with my three favorite people. I really am!

But the closer our move date gets the more I realize what I am leaving behind and how much I am going to miss all you wonderful people here in Vegas. We will visit of course, but it isn't the same.

I'm really going to miss you all.

Where did we go?

I realize that I have been a slacker blog wise. I don't really have an excuse (well other than being a temporary single mom, three college classes, and preparing for our move half way across the country). I know plenty of other mom's who are just as busy as I am, if not more so, and so I am really trying not to complain about anything. But the truth is that I am tired. Really, really tired. I try not to show it much. I am usually one of those people that likes to go out and be busy and do things. Lately I don't even want to go outside when it is nice. I don't want to go room to room and make a list of things that we are taking or selling. I don't want to go grocery shopping. I don't even want to watch TV.

The odd thing is I'm not depressed about it. I just don't want to do anything. I suppose that is justifiable, but it is very not me. In defense I have only been feeling like this for about two weeks. Pretty much once we all finally got better after being sick for a month.

I'm starting to pull out of it a bit. Making lists again and getting the girls out of the house when it isn't nasty outside. But I still feel guilty. Like the last two weeks have been some kind of failure on my part. I know they were no such thing. It's not like I didn't do all the necessary things.

Everyone deserves to do nothing every now and then, right?

I hope so.

I think I will feel better after my little weekend trip to visit Brady in a couple of weeks. :o)

And I will have pictures of the girls in my next post. There is a lot to catch up on and I am determined to get things back to normal around here...

Good News

I'm sure that most of you already know this already, but we found out where we will be moving in June! Omaha, Nebraska! I'm still not sure how I feel about this but I do know that we are excited to be able to live together as a family again! Only 2.5 more months!! :o)

Today...

I was thinking about my hubby. I think about him everyday really. Today though, someone asked me how I knew he was THE ONE. I didn't know what to say at first other than, "I don't know. I just knew." But that wasn't really true. And for you to understand I should probably tell a bit of the story...

I never really dated anyone before Brady. I went on lots of dates. I even went on multiple dates with the same person. Every night I came home and would say a prayer. Something along the lines of, if this person is someone that I need to have in my life please tell me now. I don't really like wasting time or getting involved in something or with someone that I will have to, painfully, let go unless I am going to get something very important from it. I almost always got a very quick and firm NO. I don't bother doubting the Lord. He is always right, so why waste my time, and His, really. I was never rude to anyone about it. Er, well almost never. We all know there are some people that just can't take the graceful way out. I have had a couple of those...

Anyway, you get the general picture. I wasn't in a hurry. I knew that I wanted to get married one day and have a family, but I didn't want to do that with just anyone. I should also say that I am not really the type of person that falls madly and crazily in love either. That kind of thing makes me really uncomfortable. I'm not terribly dramatic about things. Blunt, yes. Sarcastic, yes. But rivers of drama day in and out are just not my thing. So after about three years of the dating and blind dating I was really tired of it. So I told the Lord I was tired of it. I probably told him just like that too. Blunt, like I mentioned. I also told him that if there was someone I was supposed to meet He was gonna have to bring him to me.

All I gotta say is be very careful what you tell the Lord. He is listening and He KNOWS you.

Five months later my cousin brings Brady over to my house. Well my parents house. It was my birthday. It was also my brothers farewell party. My first thought was that he was really cute. Really. Cute. Really cute guys don't usually go for me so I had already put him on a shelf labeled "Not Happening" and closed the door. But then we (me and a good friend) ended up hanging out with him and my cousin over New Years. Then again the next day. It was nice. He was nice. Then a few days later he called me and asked me out on a double date. I was not expecting this. I am 100% sure that I sounded like an idiot on the phone too. Brady is kind and says he was to nervous to notice. So we go out. Dinner at the Macaroni Grill and then out to the Bellagio to watch the water show. Where we talked about absolutely nothing until almost 1 am and I loved every minute of it. It was the best first date I had ever been on and for the first time in my life I was nervous to say my usual prayer that night before bed. So I didn't say it. Yeah. I'm a coward so I waited until the next morning. To my surprise I didn't get an answer at all. Nothing. So we went out again. And then again. On that third date Brady told me he loved me. Again I am sure I sounded like an idiot. I didn't know if I loved him. So I didn't want to say it. So...I kissed him instead. Yeah. Totally not me. TOTALLY NOT ME!!! Ugg. But it was a great kiss so in the end I guess it worked out.

So that got me to thinking about if I loved him. By our next date I knew. I came to a really important conclusion. When I wasn't with him I missed him terribly. When I was with him I never wanted to leave. Everything was better when he was there. And it has been that way since the first day I met him. I have never had a day where I didn't want him with me. I feel better, stronger, fuller when he is with me. And when he isn't with me I don't feel like my whole self, my best self. I feel like I can do anything with him standing beside me.

Once I realized that, I knew I loved him. And it wasn't crazy, or overwhelming. In fact, it brought me a lot of peace and comfort.

When I finished explaining this to the person who asked, they were looking at me like was crazy. I guess peace and comfort aren't words they would use to describe the love of their life. "What about fireworks and Angels Singing? What about not being able breath without them? What about knowing you would just DIE if they left you?"

Well to be honest I can't imagine that kind of love being enjoyable. Or lasting. Or good for your overall health.

In Brady's defense, I still get butterflies every time he kisses me.

;o)

What touches you?

The other day I was listening music on my iPhone while I pretended to jog on the treadmill. I had put a bunch of new music on and I was thoroughly enjoying most of it. Then a new song came on and my mood was completely changed. The words were beautiful and it was obviously a love song, but oddly enough the images that kept moving through my mind were of my girls. I had to stop my workout, because by the end I was in tears and I knew that I had to do something about it. So I came upstairs, sat down at my computer, and started something. It has taken me several days to pull it all together. It still makes me cry. I can almost never find the right words for what I am feeling most days, but this song...this song puts words to what I feel when I look at my children each day. All the feelings.

Anyway. I hope that you enjoy it. I'm gonna go get some tissues. I'm gonna need them. Again.