I have begun the planning (okay finished the planning) of the Homecoming party! Of course, I'm a planner so it was a rough sketch plan for the last 3 or so months already and the concept was done before he left. Either way the only thing left to do is wait for the ability to release the date to the family and friends! *sigh* It is wonderful having even a small clue of how close this is to being done. We miss having our Papa in the house with us to rough house, cuddle, tease and read bedtime stories...I miss watching movies with him and the simple fact that he is the main cook in our family (well, of edible non-box food anyways).
I had grand plans all mapped out on Pinterest of ideas and then realized, it is more than enough to just have him home. I definitely make more effort on the send off party but I also have extra hands during the prep. His homecoming is spaced to give him a breather before the masses descend upon us so he will likely have seen many people before the party itself making all the cutesy things a little less important and thus can be saved for a backyard bash later this summer I suppose.
By-the-way, if you need any parties planned, I probably have it done already on some of my Pinterest boards so let me know and I'll sort through them for ya (baby showers, weddings, bridal showers, kids' birthdays, holidays, etc.).
If you haven't had the reason for a RedWhiteBlue party yet (such as military deployments often are), consider stocking up on items after the 4th of July merch goes clearance. It will save you a ton of money to get these things then and save them for future use. Many of the picnic items are great because they can be used all summer and at these events whenever they may fall. Serious people, parties are expensive so think of ways to theme and clearance well in advance! Valentines Day clearance: pinks and reds make great girl accessories to parties. Halloween: find the fall type instead of the spooky stuff and you've got a jump start on Thanksgiving cornucopias. Christmas: Red and Green--valentines day and st patty's day aren't too far off! New Years: Gold, Silver and Black--these are great neutrals that work with graduations or truly just about any party theme you want.
We are ready to party around here! I hope y'all have many parties to throw or attend this year and that they all go off without a hitch. Wish us luck that our timeline for this particular party doesn't change...curse of the planner attached to the military lifestyle! Eeep!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Loving Spring
This time of year the FM area is usually running around in organized chaos fighting the river or prepping for it at the very least. Sandbagging is usually covered on every media outlet from radio to TV to our various Facebook accounts. We have made national news too often for our flood fights and as such we all brace ourselves for spring thaw. This year, we are having the most bizarre weather I have personally ever witnessed for our area and I must say, I don't mind one bit. Though some think it might be a hint at the whole 2012 world ending thing...
We have had unseasonably warm winter weather and now the same for spring. This means we had a brown Christmas and usually our snow hits around Halloween and sticks. Blizzards and spring rains usually put us into emergency preparedness and dividing into sandbagging teams at locations across the cities including the Fargodome. (That link will show you a timelapse of 20 minutes worth of sandbagging in 2009. Keep in mind we were at it round the clock that year.)
So imagine all us families in the region with little to no sandbagging on the horizon. We aren't entirely sure what to think of it other than YAY! This week's forecast looks like there will be many chances at walks and a few trips to the parks (if we can find dry playgrounds! --it still rains in the spring silly people).
Enjoy your chances for some outdoor playtime and cross your fingers for it to last a while for us too! I kind of like this whole, not sandbagging this time of year....We might even get to go biking along the river this spring and summer!! Seriously, I never looked at that ruler graphic on that last link before and just look where 'flood stage' is and where we peaked in 2009...Damn but we did more amazing of a job than I ever comprehended.
We have had unseasonably warm winter weather and now the same for spring. This means we had a brown Christmas and usually our snow hits around Halloween and sticks. Blizzards and spring rains usually put us into emergency preparedness and dividing into sandbagging teams at locations across the cities including the Fargodome. (That link will show you a timelapse of 20 minutes worth of sandbagging in 2009. Keep in mind we were at it round the clock that year.)
So imagine all us families in the region with little to no sandbagging on the horizon. We aren't entirely sure what to think of it other than YAY! This week's forecast looks like there will be many chances at walks and a few trips to the parks (if we can find dry playgrounds! --it still rains in the spring silly people).
Enjoy your chances for some outdoor playtime and cross your fingers for it to last a while for us too! I kind of like this whole, not sandbagging this time of year....We might even get to go biking along the river this spring and summer!! Seriously, I never looked at that ruler graphic on that last link before and just look where 'flood stage' is and where we peaked in 2009...Damn but we did more amazing of a job than I ever comprehended.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Climb or Fall out of Bed
So there are days that you just don't want to leave your bed. You think that the world could keep spinning if you slept through just one 24 hour period. Well, you'd be right...but then there are those things that wouldn't get done if you didn't drag your butt from under your covers and brave the world that you have no interest in facing. I mean, there are the pets to feed, meals to cook, diapers to change, hugs to give and books and toys to use-abuse-and clean up after. There are owies to kiss, noses to wipe, hair to brush and baths to prepare. We can't forget of course the myriad of basic housekeeping chores such as dishes, floors, laundry, tables, beds, etc. While some of those things can easily be put on the back burner (and I encourage this be done when you need to), it can't be that way every day. It's a good thing that my daughter gets me to drag my butt out of bed every single day. She makes me smile even mere seconds after she has me ripping at my hair in not-as-silent-as-I-wish frustration. She brings me a book to read to her and then runs off for another one only 3 pages in. She takes every.single.toy out to play with before going back to the first couple options for the remainder of the messy day. Then she throws a fit that resembles a 'you stole my favorite snack and I'll never have another one!' epicness whenever a commercial interrupts a beloved cartoon (Max and Ruby, Kai Lan, Bubble Guppies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). She offers me a seat on the couch to watch a movie with her and even cleans her toys away to make room. She snuggles in and throws herself across my lap fondly smiling and declaring 'Momma!' because I might have forgotten who I am in the last couple minutes.
She is a great reason to leave the warm covers of my bed behind on cold winter days when you just don't want to face the dishes (clean or dirty!) or the mountain of laundry needing to be washed, dried and *grrr* folded.... She is a great reason to smile through the day even if you are screaming in your head that you can't give one more lecture on not pulling the cats' hair off their stomachs or that a commercial just means that the show will come back in 2 minutes! (Remind me often of that last one please...every 10 minutes or so...)
Just because we have those days, and most everyone does, doesn't mean we can't enjoy the day outside of our bed. I might have to work a little harder to do so, but Morning Hugs and a beautiful 'you're my hero' smile make it a lot easier.
So those days you just don't want to face the world, climb out of bed--or fall if you need to. Paste a fake smile on and find that reason to exchange the fake smile for a real one. You don't need a great day, just don't let it be horrible either. And when you get to that breaking point (I have, I admit) where even falling out of bed doesn't do it, pick a day, get some help with your responsibilities and stay in bed. Take that day off that you need. Close your eyes when you pass the sink full of dishes or the basket of laundry. Good luck to us all on those days that start so tough. I hope you have a great reason to get out of bed.
She is a great reason to leave the warm covers of my bed behind on cold winter days when you just don't want to face the dishes (clean or dirty!) or the mountain of laundry needing to be washed, dried and *grrr* folded.... She is a great reason to smile through the day even if you are screaming in your head that you can't give one more lecture on not pulling the cats' hair off their stomachs or that a commercial just means that the show will come back in 2 minutes! (Remind me often of that last one please...every 10 minutes or so...)
Just because we have those days, and most everyone does, doesn't mean we can't enjoy the day outside of our bed. I might have to work a little harder to do so, but Morning Hugs and a beautiful 'you're my hero' smile make it a lot easier.
So those days you just don't want to face the world, climb out of bed--or fall if you need to. Paste a fake smile on and find that reason to exchange the fake smile for a real one. You don't need a great day, just don't let it be horrible either. And when you get to that breaking point (I have, I admit) where even falling out of bed doesn't do it, pick a day, get some help with your responsibilities and stay in bed. Take that day off that you need. Close your eyes when you pass the sink full of dishes or the basket of laundry. Good luck to us all on those days that start so tough. I hope you have a great reason to get out of bed.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Social Media: The blank face.
We all have seen it...someone posts something that is TMI. Someone posts something that is rude. Someone posts derogatory messages, jokes, comments, etc. Social medias have been used and abused and made it that much easier to hurt other people. Bullying has been taken to the extreme by leaving the school hallways or the workplace breakroom. We now encounter it web-wide. We probably have been guilty of some mild form at the very least ourselves at some point.
Kids have their Facebooks plastered with hateful, hurtful posts from that ex-friend or life-long enemy who is jealous or hurt or plainly likes to inflict pain. Adults have to watch for a wrong step in political opinions or lifestyle choices. Twitter, Facebook, Blog networks and all these other instant medias have brought the social consequences and reach much broader.
Within the last month alone I have seen personal attacks over political stances, moral stances, religious stances, military affiliations, personal opinions, etc. People forget so quickly that when they are typing on their computer, there is a face with a heart that can bruise who reads it.
The military community rose up recently against a woman who expressed her opinion in a very public way (her personal blog with public settings). She expressed an opinion that quite frankly pissed most of us off. Her post was done in frustration and came off not only judgmental but condescending to a whole group of military wives. It took less than 36hrs before her husband's Chain of Command was brought into the situation and her husband had to have meetings where he was most certainly lectured heavily over his actions and hers online. It took even less time to have a nation's worth of military families know who she is, who her husband is, and much of her recent life and that she was now a target of disdain, bullying, and fuming balls of anger expressed in a range of insults, derogatory blogs/facebook posts/tweets/etc., and a very small handful of supportive or at least compassionately worded rebuffs.
Now, that specific instance, I was full of anger and downright ready to verbally draw and quarter her. Thankfully I wasn't able to because she disabled her comments and so all I could do to join the fray was follow blogs across the military communities and FB updates to people. I never resorted to hurling insults on her character but saw many and that was depressing to me. Her opinion did not reflect that she was a cheating military spouse in any way and to have the slurs directly saying that was as out of line as her opinion was against the NG and their spouses.
The internet is dangerous. We forget that there are people on the other side of that computer screen. We forget that we have obligations to respect people AS people. We forget too quickly that feelings hurt and that lasts almost as long as the things put out into the world via the internet. They say it never truly gets deleted and for her, it's true. Her posts in both original and edited forms can be found on other blogs copied and pasted for the world to peruse even after she deleted her blog.
This is an unfortunate example of the internet's potential danger to not only others but to yourself. There are more horrifying examples of bullying across the web that ended in suicide even. I'd just like people to take a minute before posting and find a better outlet for frustrations, for anger, or for excited rantings. Make sure that what you say is what you should say and not just what you want to say at that precise moment because just like saying something to someone's face, once the words are out there, you can't pull them back.
Kids have their Facebooks plastered with hateful, hurtful posts from that ex-friend or life-long enemy who is jealous or hurt or plainly likes to inflict pain. Adults have to watch for a wrong step in political opinions or lifestyle choices. Twitter, Facebook, Blog networks and all these other instant medias have brought the social consequences and reach much broader.
Within the last month alone I have seen personal attacks over political stances, moral stances, religious stances, military affiliations, personal opinions, etc. People forget so quickly that when they are typing on their computer, there is a face with a heart that can bruise who reads it.
The military community rose up recently against a woman who expressed her opinion in a very public way (her personal blog with public settings). She expressed an opinion that quite frankly pissed most of us off. Her post was done in frustration and came off not only judgmental but condescending to a whole group of military wives. It took less than 36hrs before her husband's Chain of Command was brought into the situation and her husband had to have meetings where he was most certainly lectured heavily over his actions and hers online. It took even less time to have a nation's worth of military families know who she is, who her husband is, and much of her recent life and that she was now a target of disdain, bullying, and fuming balls of anger expressed in a range of insults, derogatory blogs/facebook posts/tweets/etc., and a very small handful of supportive or at least compassionately worded rebuffs.
Now, that specific instance, I was full of anger and downright ready to verbally draw and quarter her. Thankfully I wasn't able to because she disabled her comments and so all I could do to join the fray was follow blogs across the military communities and FB updates to people. I never resorted to hurling insults on her character but saw many and that was depressing to me. Her opinion did not reflect that she was a cheating military spouse in any way and to have the slurs directly saying that was as out of line as her opinion was against the NG and their spouses.
The internet is dangerous. We forget that there are people on the other side of that computer screen. We forget that we have obligations to respect people AS people. We forget too quickly that feelings hurt and that lasts almost as long as the things put out into the world via the internet. They say it never truly gets deleted and for her, it's true. Her posts in both original and edited forms can be found on other blogs copied and pasted for the world to peruse even after she deleted her blog.
This is an unfortunate example of the internet's potential danger to not only others but to yourself. There are more horrifying examples of bullying across the web that ended in suicide even. I'd just like people to take a minute before posting and find a better outlet for frustrations, for anger, or for excited rantings. Make sure that what you say is what you should say and not just what you want to say at that precise moment because just like saying something to someone's face, once the words are out there, you can't pull them back.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Looking Forward
So, in a military family, there are things that we just can't share with others. For safety of not only our soldier but for other families' loved ones. So dates, places, movements, etc. are just not allowed to be shared. It's called OPSEC (operation security). This doesn't mean that we don't follow the rumors at near rabid pace and gobble up the if's, and's, or's, and but's....
Army rumors are truly very unreliable and you learn rather quickly that you don't make plans based on them. Don't get your hopes up too high or the fall is just that much further. Don't start planning that Welcome Home party for the week after you 'heard' because it likely will change.
Change is inevitable and we learn to (frustratingly) roll with it. However, not all the change in plans are bad! Sometimes, SOMEtimes we get our soldiers back ahead of schedule. SOMEtimes we get a deployment postponed. SOMEtimes a training is cancelled and they stay home. SOMEtimes we get one more night or two or twenty. Those changes are not a change I will ever complain about because those are precious changes. They make the changes that we brace ourselves for just a tiny bit easier to handle.
Since dating my hubby through the record holding NG deployment of 22 months (that was a few changes in the wrong direction if you didn't guess), we have had trainings that changed, drills that changed, deployments change, and dates we never count on as hard-and-fast. So when I get rumors headed my way about changes that I'd like, well....I've learned to brace for the worst and prepare for the best. That said, 3 different rough-rumor dates have reached me via various rumor wheels and none of them are my hard-and-fast idea. I have one hard-and-fast and that is based on official orders (and those can change in a matter of minutes too). Hmmmm, maybe I should just throw out the 'hard-and-fast' phrase for the foreseeable future...
I look forward to throwing a Welcome Home party. I look forward to so many different things for our family. The thing that I look forward to the most though is that first embrace. Having that first hug off the plane/bus/whatever for our daughter and me is what I yearn for and I suspect will always be my favorite thing of a homecoming. Every day is bringing us closer to that moment and I get giddy each time I think about it. Time has flown by this deployment (though only when looking back on it). I'm grateful for that, but I'm ready to have my husband home! So let's go! Let's throw a big Welcome Home party and have all our troops home and safe soon for those first hugs...
Army rumors are truly very unreliable and you learn rather quickly that you don't make plans based on them. Don't get your hopes up too high or the fall is just that much further. Don't start planning that Welcome Home party for the week after you 'heard' because it likely will change.
Change is inevitable and we learn to (frustratingly) roll with it. However, not all the change in plans are bad! Sometimes, SOMEtimes we get our soldiers back ahead of schedule. SOMEtimes we get a deployment postponed. SOMEtimes a training is cancelled and they stay home. SOMEtimes we get one more night or two or twenty. Those changes are not a change I will ever complain about because those are precious changes. They make the changes that we brace ourselves for just a tiny bit easier to handle.
Since dating my hubby through the record holding NG deployment of 22 months (that was a few changes in the wrong direction if you didn't guess), we have had trainings that changed, drills that changed, deployments change, and dates we never count on as hard-and-fast. So when I get rumors headed my way about changes that I'd like, well....I've learned to brace for the worst and prepare for the best. That said, 3 different rough-rumor dates have reached me via various rumor wheels and none of them are my hard-and-fast idea. I have one hard-and-fast and that is based on official orders (and those can change in a matter of minutes too). Hmmmm, maybe I should just throw out the 'hard-and-fast' phrase for the foreseeable future...
I look forward to throwing a Welcome Home party. I look forward to so many different things for our family. The thing that I look forward to the most though is that first embrace. Having that first hug off the plane/bus/whatever for our daughter and me is what I yearn for and I suspect will always be my favorite thing of a homecoming. Every day is bringing us closer to that moment and I get giddy each time I think about it. Time has flown by this deployment (though only when looking back on it). I'm grateful for that, but I'm ready to have my husband home! So let's go! Let's throw a big Welcome Home party and have all our troops home and safe soon for those first hugs...
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