Too much change

Alison and I have been working for the last several months on a scrapbook of our trips over the last year.  As excited as I was to get the project done, it made me realize how much has changed since Ben deployed...and more will still change before he comes home...blech.  I don't want to be a mom who is always dwelling in the past, but too much has changed recently!

Grandma sent warm pj's and they both look older.

Apparently this is the coldest winter in over 10 years.

Eli decided it was time to start running one day; monkey see, monkey do.

"Just going for a quick run mom!  Gotta fill up my water bottle..."

My new philosophy of deployment, or maybe of life: if you can order it off Amazon, do it!  Prime Pantry rocks and it's SO nice to have everything dropped off at my door.  Now my time in an actual store has dropped significantly.

A house full of friends, watching Star Wars.
 Tolson asked to help me make popcorn and it cracked me up that he jumped on the counter just like my kids do.

 

Alison and I went on a special date.  It was a "my little girl is turning into a lady" kinda date.

Eli has been up at 7am on the dot pretty much his whole life, but now he's started asking me to double make sure I get up early too so we can snuggle.  I know these mornings will eventually come to an end or will involve drinking coffee together and not snuggling, so I want to soak them up as much as I can now.

Even the dog is changing.
She comes and digs her nose in my hand now when she wants to play.  She'll essentially turn my hand in circles until I get up and throw a ball for her.

P.S. Eli is "lightening man"

Colin's favorite game with Maya: lay on top of her ball and laugh hysterically.

Alison's learning about Ancient China so we worked on our chopstick skills after her test.  She's been wearing my North Face a lot and it always surprises me that it actually fits pretty well.

I dreaded this day.  I knew the day Eli lost his front teeth would be a leap in change as they've been his signature look.  They have been wiggly and lose teeth is something I just don't enjoy dealing with.  Eli decided to take matters into his own hands when his friends were over playing.  They built a hot roads track and Eli said, "Hey guys!  I'll put my mouth at the end of the track!"  The car zoomed down the track and Eli came running downstairs with a mouth full of blood.  I was so thankful my friend Laurel was here!  While I teared up, she jumped in and made it an exciting moment.  The second one will be out soon...

The moment the scrapbook was done, Alison wanted to break out the sewing machine.  Nana gave her a fun sewing project kit a long time ago and I confess we never got to it.  The cool thing about doing it now though, is she's old enough to do it all on her own.  The book is great and walks her step by step in learning the basics of the machine and how to stitch.  She practiced so diligently last night and was right at it again first thing this morning.  I love her initiative and desire to work at a hobby, but it also gets me that she's old enough to do it independently...cool and scary all at once.

I would say that I feel exactly the same, but Ben said I changed the most last deployment, so I'm curious what he says this time.  Change can be good and is inevitable, but what got me this week is that our normal has changed and that just gets me.  As much as I wanted everything to stay exactly the same until Ben gets home, I can't stop kids from growing.

Real patience=moving at Christmas time.

Moving at a time when everyone's life and activity schedules are off of the normal is challenging.  When we were ready to jump in and find our new normal, there wasn't a normal.  We started attending a local church, but even there, we found most families were traveling or had family visiting and were preoccupied with Christmas festivities to meet new people.

We sighed a big sigh of relief when the New Year finally arrived.

The first Sunday of the month, our church has a fellowship meal after the service.  We decided to be bold and attend the meal.  We were walking into the hall, when the couple that sat next to us in service, introduced me to Erin.  Colin whispered, "Mom!  She looks like you!"

Yes, Erin has long blonde hair as well.  If only I could play the piano like she does too.

She was carrying a sweet baby in her arms and we talked for a few minutes before I was whisked off to help our kids get food.  As we finished the line, Erin asked if her family could sit with ours.

My first thought was, "Wow.  What an amazingly kind person!  I pray that someday I will remember her kindness and extend the same to a new person."

I'm not always great about reaching out to someone new and tend to stay with the people I'm comfortable with.

We shared lunch together that day and found that we leave really close to one another.  She asked for my phone number and texted me later to ask if I'd like to get together that week.  I was even more surprised by how kind this stranger was being to me.

We met that week at the park in our neighborhood.  The kids played and we sat on the bench to watch, and I got to hold her baby.

It was only a matter of minutes before Erin teared up.  She apologized for crying and shared that she has been struggling with loneliness since having her baby and especially since the holidays are now over.  The transition from working full time to stay-at-home mom was tougher than she imagined and the life of being home with a baby who doesn't talk was starting to get to her.  She said that she was so encouraged meeting me and finding out we lived nearby and was excited at the possibility of fellowship.  

My jaw was on the ground.  Um, I should have been the one in tears saying how lonely I was and how encouraged I was to meet a friend.  But somehow I was the one helping her.  She even commented how amazing it was that I was happy to hold her baby, as most in her life are uncomfortable with it.  I was even more shocked that anyone would not want to hold her squishy, happy baby.

Anyway, my eyes were opened that day.  I have felt like the awkward outsider, but have failed to see that people all around me, even ones who "have their place" can still feel like an outsider too.  It also taught me a great lesson that God uses us at all times.  Even when I feel like I am the one who needs help, He can still use me to help others.

Things I forgot

I was flipping through my phone pictures today and realized how much I forgot to post over the last few weeks!

This just made me smile one morning...she made herself a bagel and is just chillin' on the couch.  Mornings like this are my favorite.

While Christmas shopping, the boys begged to get mustaches.  Last deployment, Ben grew a mustache and one of the rare times we got to facetime him, the kids were so startled by his new look.  Ben and I will never forget Colin saying, "Daddy!  Why you got that nash-nash?".  We still laugh about it, so I basically bought them for my own humor.

Pre-Christmas music...practicing Jingle Bells.  They practiced well because they are still singing it!

I wish I could go back to this moment:

Summer sausage for Christmas is a Jen Shear thing, so I made sure to send some in Ben's Christmas box.  And then I got this picture with a story about how a company sent boxes and boxes and boxes of summer sausage and fancy cheeses for all the marines.  Face palm.  Ben set up a little party on Christmas Eve for the marines to eat all the goodies.

Eli got 3 big Lego sets for Christmas and would get up early in the morning to work on them.

 

I slept in the schoolroom when all our family was here for Christmas and it was the place I would find Eli building Lego's and Maya cuddled up in my bed.  Seriously, every single night this dog would sneak in my room and hide in my bed like "maybe she won't notice I'm here with all the chaos and let me stay all night."  She is pretty stinkin cute, but still got kicked out.

Rose is the cutest little 3 year old ever.  It took me a few days to get into her world, but she finally warmed up to aunt Jen.



Beth brought Pie Face with her.  We wondered if it would really be fun or just annoyingly messy.  Hearing the giggles come from the kids was an easy answer and then Maya cleaned up all the mess for us.

My mom requested we take my dad to Arizona Donuts.  Anyone who knows my dad, knows exactly what he is saying to the lady at the counter right now...thankfully we lucked out and got a lady who spoke pretty good English.  AND the were out of donuts AGAIN.  Second time this has happened when we've gone with family.  Maybe because of the holidays?

Good news: my dad loved it!

Final, hardest, Lego set was completed this week.

 

 We started school back up this week and I thought I would be musical and turned on Fantasia while we ate dinner.  Colin fell asleep promptly 2 minutes after I turned it on.

My handsome boys are looking older by the day.

Firzday!

A hair of a tale

I got my hair cut; the shortest it's been since Colin was born.

I wish I could type: the end.

Alison asked me not to post this, so I promised to just graze over it.  However, it's an event worth documenting.

Shortly after I got home from that haircut, I received the news (not from the hair place) that our house had been infested with lice.  I will fully admit that I freaked out.  I would not have said I have OCD before, but I definitely did a lot of OCD things this week.  First of all, I was horrified that I had just gone to get my hair cut!

Anyway, keeping it light.

My mom was still here and helped me jump into action, although she unfortunately, was also a victim.  We were up late on New Years, not on purpose or fun, but because we were so busy cleaning, sanitizing, treating hair and picking nits.

The boys got a haircut

Apparently fireworks are a big thing here for New Year's and the kids requested a few sparklers.

 

Our house started to look like an infirmary.  See?  A little OCD about little bugs in my house.  We watched a movie while the hair treatments sat.

We did sparklers the following night too with another round of treatments.

 

What I want to remember of this week, is the times that I laughed harder than ever.  My mom accidentally hosed me down while rinsing out Alison's hair one evening.  Then, while my mom was taking a picture of the kids doing fireworks, the sprinkler system went off.  Alison screamed,  "Grandma!  RUN!" and I will never forget seeing my mom scurry out of the spraying water.

I want to remember that way more than the tears.  Both boys cried when I cut their hair (I actually cut it twice), but it worked like a charm and were lice free once the hair was super short.

Grandma treated us to homemade caramel popcorn

This week has been pretty consumed with getting the lice epidemic out, but the kids have found ways to stay entertained.  They set up their own tea party, with for real tea this time (usually it's lemonade).

 

 

They have been playing outside a TON.  I love it that they can ride bikes together around our quiet street.  I didn't love the awkward moment when a police officer stopped Alison and asked where her helmet was.  Thankfully I was right there and told them that their helmets were in quarantine because they had lice.  He stepped away and smiled.  Oh, the reactions you get when you tell people you have lice. 

We've been reading more.  Alison's on her third book and I am almost done with the new book by Chip and Joanna Gaines!  Super good book, by the way.

 

Eli made his own sandwich and somehow always ends up on the counter when he makes things.

Alison worked on her "travel" scrapbook and Eli worked on his last Lego set from Christmas.

 

A week later and I can see the light.  But lice, my friends, is not for the weary...or people who like to be clean...or are freaked out my tiny bugs they can't see that crawl on your head and multiply at alarming rates.  I have apologized to my kids for freaking out and reminded them that they will never forget the New Year's that they got lice.