There are Two Types of Goodbyes

This year will be our 6th as an Army family, and in that time we have done lots of goodbye-ing. I have found that there are two basic views on goodbyes in the military community. The first is the "Savor Every Last Moment" goodbye and the other is the "Get it Over With" goodbye.

I tend to believe that the "Savor Every Last Moment" goodbye is emotional and psychological torture perhaps on par with water boarding. Maybe that's an exaggeration. But it's awful!

The appeal of it is understandable. You're not going to see your spouse for months on end and you want to permanently stamp in your mind those last few seconds together. But uggh, to drag it out like that...and in the military, we're talking hours...it's torturous.

We prefer the short and sweet method. I already have plenty of memories engrained in my mind, I only need to hear "I love you" once, and I'd rather cry like a baby in the privacy of my own home, thank you very much.

Because I'm a cryer. And it's not pretty.

I'd rather give my soldier one last kiss and one tight hug and then get it over with and move on. I give myself a little time to be sad, and then I take a deep breath, find strength, and keep living.

R&R Highlights

Scott has been here! Six months into his deployment, he finally got to come home to us. We spent two marvelous weeks together, and he flew back to Iraq this morning, so today is what I like to call my recovery day. Basically, on recovery day, I allow myself to curl up in the fetal position and bawl, ignore the ridiculous amount of dirty dishes and eat ice cream for dinner. And lunch, if I so desire.

But...instead of dwelling on the sad idea that it's over, I'll think back to the fun things we did on mid-tour leave.

-a living room campout with a tent and fire for roasting marshmallows

-a little two-steppin' for mom and dad (it's been a loooong time)

-taking a drive to check out the acreage we are buying

-Children's Museum of Houston

-Lots of visiting with family

-Super exciting one: the kitchen was cleaned NOT BY ME!!!

*Sigh* It was a WONDERFUL time, and I would now like to publicly praise child thing #1. She has done SUCH a good job adapting to all these changes in her routine. She adores her daddy, and was beyond ecstatic when he came home, but she has taken his leaving again really well. On the drive to the airport this morning, she said several times, "I don't want Daddy to go back to Iraq." And she cried a little when we left, but mostly she has just been helping me. Apparently I'm more of a crybaby than she is.

As I said, this is my recovery day, so I am apt to randomly burst into tears. I really, really try to keep that under control in front of the kids because that just makes it worse for them. But, I was caught in the act once by child thing #1. When she saw my tears, she said, "I know what I'll do, Mommy." and ran out of the room. A few minutes later, she emerged with a hand-drawn family portrait.

"I made a picture of Thomas and me and you and Daddy," she held it up for me to see. "Any time you miss Daddy, you can just look at him in this picture."

And it was so sweet it almost got the waterworks going again...but she was trying SO hard to make me stop crying I was able to contain myself.

How blessed am I to have such a wonderful family?! And I'll be waiting for the day this summer when we are all together again!!

All I want for Christmas...

Isn't this the cutest?!

One Semester (Almost) Down

• In just a few days, our first semester of homeschooling will be over. I started this project with more than a few reservations, but most of my concerns have been eased by now. This girl has made some major strides since August...both in school and out.
• -She can read 3 and 4 letter words, and even short sentences!
• -She can write her name legibly on her own (though she has decided her name is too long to write over and over again and wants to be known as Kate from now on).
• She learned to set the table properly
• She was "promoted" to the advanced ballet/tap class
• She can now use scissors fairly well
• She can identify numbers up to 20 and can count to 29 :P
• She has memorized 10 Bible verses

She has really just blossomed this year and is doing fantastic in everything. So, as I said, most of my worries about homeschooling are gone, but there are two things I still mull over.

1. The baby: Right now we "do school" during his nap time. But he will be sleeping less, and we will be schooling more, and I just don't want to deprive him of attention.

2. Math: Yes, I am certain I am capable of teaching kindergarten-level math, but I just don't like numbers. It is not my passion, and it is certainly not my strength. So I can teach it, but I don't know if I can teach it with the same enthusiasm that I can other topics.

Concern #1 is definitely bigger than #2. What to do, what to do?

So the other day I was chatting with Scott online and told him how funny our daughter is. He asked me for examples, but I could only think of one story off the top of my head. Here it is:

After Halloween, the child thing acquired two very pretty princess dresses that had been marked down really low. She happened to be wearing one of them the other day when Grandmommy showed up to feed her horses, who live in the pasture behind our house. This girl LOVES to help with the horses, so she raced outside wearing her dress-up costume and everything.

She was only out there a minute or two before she astutely observed, "I think this dress is not a good thing to wear to feed the horses. I'm going to go change." So, she ran inside and emerged a few minutes later...wearing her other princess dress. He he he. And then she continued along with her business as usual.

Today I thought of another silly thing our girl did, so I figured I'd write about it for her Daddy. Alright here goes:

Once a week, we go to ballet class in the evenings, and on those days we usually either eat leftovers or pick something up on the way home for dinner. This week, the child thing requested Sonic (she likes it because I let her get a fruit slush for her drink), and I obliged. She wanted a corn dog kids meal with apple slices and caramel sauce for dipping...the apples, not the corn dog, of course. Just thought I'd clarify.

We get home, we sit down, we eat, then the baby holds up his cup and says, "ma! ma!" That means more, so I go to the kitchen to refill his sippy, and when I return, what in the world do you think is happening?

The child thing has removed her straw from her strawberry slush, has placed it into the little tub of caramel dip and is slurping it right up.

Oh my.

What do you do?

But really, deployments can be a very lonely time. Even if you're surrounded by good friends who know what you're going through, or with family who love and support you in any way they can, no one can replace your "other half." You can start to feel sad, lonely, incomplete, joyless. I'm so glad I have these two around to make me smile every single day.

The Last Soccer Game

Time flies, and this little soccer player's season came to an end this weekend. Though she was never totally enthusiastic about soccer ("It makes me tiiiiiiiired"), she definitely improved throughout the season. Her last game, she got the ball three or four times and dribbled it toward her goal. And for her first couple of games, I don't think she touched the ball at all. Here is a clip of our little soccer girl and a message from her to Daddy! Oops...sideways...I don't know how to fix that. Sorry.

Jump!

So Thomas is learning to jump, and it is SO CUTE! He squats down, gathering all his strength, then lunges upward with all the might in that little body. But his feet don't leave the ground. Sometimes, though, he'll lift one of them up at the end of his lunge. He seems to think he's jumping, though, and is quite proud of himself. I, for one, hope he doesn't perfect the jump for a while, because that means I will get to fawn over his adorable baby jumps for longer. :)