For the Moms

Since I have officially reached the nesting stage of deployment and find myself cleaning and organizing more than normal, I thought I would share a photo from today. I decided to finally clean out my favorite red purse that I haven't used in 4 months and I came across a couple of crayons in the center pocket...


I laughed and thought that it's a darn good thing I've pretty much given up using my "fancy" Coach and Dooney & Burke purses.

Now it's time for a fun book recommendation for all moms, especially those who don't have a bunch of mommy friends. You have to read "I Was A Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids." Isn't that the best title? First person to send me an email (my maiden name @cox.net) will get my copy to read and pass on to another mommy friend. This book reminded me of my first MOPS meeting where I broke down in tears and realized I was not alone (on this crazy mommy train). Since then I've joined and started my own playgroup and have found many, many others more than happy to share their funny day-to-day tales from Mommyland. This book is filled with quotes quotes that will make you laugh from real moms from interviews conducted by the authors.

Most of my favorite quotes are not really appropriate for the blog. Oh, what the heck, I'm sharing them anyway! Maybe this will encourage some of you lurkers to post a comment so I know who you are...or maybe not. Here we go!

"Sometimes I think, I can't believe I gave up 9 months of drinking for this." (HA!!!!)

"Whenever my husband leaves his stuff lying around, I lock it in the closet." (Ryan, ignore that comment, I have NO idea where your work boots, Friday patch, hat, various uniform pins, etc., are.)

"A boner in the back is not foreplay." (Best. Quote. Ever. And totally the worst quote ever all at the same time. This book is too funny.)

It's Almost Over!

This ridiculous deployment is finally nearing it's end. The ship is on its (long) way home after much detour and delay. We've rather happily survived 160+ days apart...I don't keep track, but my friends do. In fact, I won't begin counting down until we're under a week because I never really believe it's real until the ship is in the open ocean, preferably halfway across said ocean. To "celebrate" I'm sharing some pictures of Ryan's adventures. My adventures are more of the cleaning and reorganizing variety (Ryan is probably going to want his dresser drawers back) and not worth photographing.

Ryan while flying. The boys love seeing pictures of daddy in his uniform and flight gear, however, they failed to recognize him in all this gear the last time he stood directly in front of them in the hanger. Kids are funny.


The Big E posted the following two pictures to their Facebook website. Don't know if you'll notice, but I'm 99% sure that Ryan is one of the two guys standing up in the green flight suit in the picture below. Only wives tend to notice things like this when flipping through tiny photos posted by strangers.


The ship while it transits the Suez Canal for the second time this deployment. Yay!!!!!!!


Beautiful Souda Bay, Crete. The ship was only in port long enough to load supplies and mail which leads us to...


Ryan showing me some love and appreciation for his most recent calendar square. These hang in the ready room (the squadron's office, so to speak) and he did not really appreciate pictures of us from middle school, high school and one in his dress whites back in 1999. Whatever. I thought it was fun. His sense of humor must have been left behind during his last port visit...70+ days or so ago???


Despite all the jokes and sarcasm, we love and miss Ryan very much and can't believe how lucky we are that he will finally be home soon (soon, in Navy wife terminology). Keep your chin up, Ryan, and keep enjoying the delicious coffee I send your way as it's the very least I can do for you to help get you through these last weeks!

First Dance Class

Here's a terrible, blurry picture of the boys after their first dance class tonight. The loved it!!!


I found a really great local deal for 8 weeks of dance class (only $40/child) and Ian was SO excited. Nathan wanted karate and we had to convince him to try dance and promised karate would come soon (found a great deal on that too). Well, on the way home from tonight's first hip hop class, Nathan said that he wants to go at least 12 more times. Yay! It's a 6-8 y/o class so he was the youngest of the bunch at only 5. I was worried he would be intimidated as he tends to be a bit more shy than Ian in regular day-to-day activities. I am so excited that they loved their dance class and rushed into the house to show me their moves. Hopefully they'll let me record some of the class and I'll figure out how to post video to the blog.

Dad, are you proud of your boys? They're so modern.

My Mother's Day Gift

The boys and I had pictures taken of just the three of us for Mother's Day this year. The idea was to also share these with Ryan as a sort of Father's Day gift since there isn't really much to share with him from 8,000 (or however many) miles away. Plus that "lucky" guy will be hitting up ports in the Med again come mid-June so he doesn't need anything from us. (Right, honey?)

Here are some of my favorites from our mini session beginning with my favorite picture of the three of us.