It's beginning to look a lot like.....

Christmas! No, not really; or at least not in this house. We don't deck the halls until the 3rd or 4th Sunday of Advent. Seeing this pass Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent we won't decorate the house until Dec 11-18th. It however may end up being a bit later then that seeing the kids and I will be going to TX to visit my sister at Ft. Hood.

As many of my long time readers and friends know my sister was station in Iraq and during the course of her deployment her 3 (now 4 year old) son stayed with us part time. My nephew rotated homes on a 2 month rotation for the length of the deployment. 2 months here-2 months at my mom's house. My sister's deployment ended about month early due to an serious hand injury. In short 500lb fell unto her right hand causing serious damage -- damage that will take AT LEAST 1 year (if not more) to recover from.

She's been state side for little over a month now, perhaps 2 months. She was home for several weeks before my nephew was able to be transported down to TX to stay with her. My nephew has been in TX with his mom for about a month now. The kids are excited to be able to see Auntie and Little Man.

They are excited, but at the same time not thrilled with the idea of doing school work while in TX. My sister was not able to get block leave for when I'm going down; so she'll have to "work" Mon-Friday while I'm there. Seeing we will be on base the kids and I can't really do anything without her or my nephew with us; so I told them we'll do some school work while Auntie is working and Little Man is at school.

They aren't thrilled by it, but I had to reminded them that Daddy is taking nearly 2 week off over Christmas/New Years and we'll have NO School during that time. This is a first for us. Hubby has never had so much time off around Christmas/New Years. We have always done school minus the days that Hubby is home (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day; New Years Eve; New Years Day).

If I didn't make them do school while at Auntie's then it would mean they would have the whole month of December off and I couldn't just do that! I know many homeschooler do, but I can't do that. The more days off we have the harder it is for us to get into the grove again. So I really try to limit the number of days off.

Do you take days off during the month of December? Is your house beginning to look like Christmas? Do you celebrate Advent?

The end of March! Already?

Wow! Where has the month gone. Little Man has been with us all of March and will be with us all of April. At the end of April he will go back to my mom's for 2 months and then we'll get him back in July.

It's been good having him here, but it also has been an adjustment. I good adjustment, but at times trying. My sister calls (skype) nearly every day and that's AWESOME, but the times she can do that aren't always the best time for us. I have to roll with, because with her being in Iraq-Army it's not like she can just call us when it's best for us.

For example, yesterday, I'm working with the kids on their math. My sister calls on the phone. Minutes are very expensive so when she calls on the phone it's almost always to say "hey why aren't you on the computer". Seeing I figured that's why she is calling I ignored the call and went on helping the kids. The phone then rang again; it was her.  I ignored the call and went on helping the kids. The phone rings again. This time I ignore the call, went to the computer to tell her give me 10 minutes to finish helping the kids and I'll chat with her.  However she wasn't on the computer...OOPS! So when the phone rang again I took the call and apologized to her. Thankfully, she was NOT upset with me.

I told her right away I was helping the kids with their math and I figured you were calling to say get on the computer. So I just ignored it thinking I could get on the computer in about 5-10 minutes and you be there and it be all cool. That wasn't the case yesterday. The only way she could talk to her son yesterday was via phone. She said I figured you were busy and if I kept calling you would get it and answer.

Homeschooling is homeschooling. It's that time of year I think and we just plugging away with it. So there really isn't anything to report. Although I will say the kids are enjoying time at our homeschool group. They especially love the art class. My mom decided to come and teach art at the co-op. It's awesome and all the kids are enjoying it. (Especially all 3 of her grandchildren).

The only other note would be I want warm weather here to stay. We get a day or two w/temps in 60's only to then have several days in the 30s WITH snow! April is just days away and it sucks to have temps in the 30s. Although today is almost 50, but I doubt it will stay. (Yesterday it was in the 30s).

Snow, Blizzards, and Bunk Bed.

Tuesday Night we had a huge snow storm in our area. We awoke Wednesday morning with nearly a foot (or more) of snow and snow drifts that caused mini snow walls. Hubby stayed home from work so the kids and I took a snow day. We told the kids if Daddy stay home there will be no school, but if Daddy goes to work then we'll have school. Hubby did up working FROM home, but the kids still got to have a snow day. For the most part it was just a relaxing day, but a few times hubby dear had to tell us to quiet down seeing he was trying to work (he was making business calls here at home). I'm glad that hubby was able to work from home Wednesday seeing it was awful to go out, but I'm also glad that he GOES to work normally. It was hard to stay quiet all day for him. I'm thankful that is something that doesn't need to be done everyday. 

That's the mini snow wall that we awoke to in our back yard Wednesday morning. That metal box thing down at the end is the AC unit. As you can see the snow and mini wall goes all the way up to the top of the ac unit. Our back door is just a one step up. The step as you can see was completely cover the the snow was even higher then the foot of the door.

Besides having no school work the kids and I made snow cream and Hubby and I put together the bunk bed. The replacement piece arrived Monday Night we were going to finish the bed this coming Saturday, but took advantage of hubby being home on Wednesday and finished putting the bunk bed together in between business calls. :)

After we finish putting the bed together WP and SS spent the rest of the day from about 2:00 pm till bedtime really in the beds. NOT because I made them, but because they enjoyed them that much! We even let WP sleep on the bottom bunk Wednesday Night. Now the bed is ready for my nephew. Currently he is at my mom's house. However come the end of THIS month he'll be here full time until the end of March, then he goes back to my Mom's house full time. My sister for THIS deployment set it up so that my nephew is on a 2 month rotation between both homes until she returns about 12 months from now. My nephew has been here since before Christmas. My sister was here too, but return to Ft. Hood early Jan. She had to report back to duty then; she left her son here seeing deployment was just around the corner. She actually left for Iraq Feb 1st....

New Bunk bed - Waiting Longer

Well we bought a new bunk bed for SS room. The owner of the store delivered it personally last night, in his personal car, on his personal time so we could have it sooner. So hubby and I put the bottom bunk together and called it a night. Seeing the bed didn't arrive until about 8:30 pm last night.

We then went to put the top bed of the bunk bed together, this morning, only to see that the side rail was split.

-sad- We call the furniture store explained to them what's wrong. They asked us to email them pictures. We did! They called us back this evening to saying that it will be another 2 weeks before they can get the replacement part in. It's a bummer that the side rail had this defect, but we are getting a new one.

I would have like to have the bed already, seeing we'll need it for my nephew. (He's staying with us while my sister is serving our country in Iraq. Well 1/2 of the time the other 1/2 of the time he stays at my Mom's house). Speaking of nephew I figured that many of you would like to see a picture of "Little Man". (That one of the many nick names that my sister calls him. I thought it was fitting for a blog name). So the children in the house are my son Superstar, my daughter Web-Princess, and my nephew Little Man.

These pictures were taken right before my sister left for Iraq. :) We took the kids to an indoor play world and ice skating rink. She ice skated with my kids for while and I took Little Man into the play world. After they were done skating they joined us in the play world. The other one is at my house later that night.

Fort Hood: Why Mama?

I will admit I don't watch the news on TV. I get all of the news via the internet. I do this mainly so I can be aware of what's going on in the world with little to no exposure to the kids. I can read the latest on my computer screen and they are clueless. However, yesterday was different. As soon as I heard what was going on @ Ft. Hood, I had the TV on, the phone at my side, and the computer in my lap. I was extremaly tuned in to what was going on @ Ft. Hood.

Why? Well that is where my dear sister is station @ and that is where the kids and I went over the summer. We had been there @ Ft. Hood enjoy the site; we knew that my sister (Auntie) was there.

This is Auntie, Web-Princess, Little Man (Auntie's son) and Superstar @ Ft. Hood Aug 2009.

At first we didn't know if she was one of the ones injured or hurt, that was until her text message came over my phone.

yes there is a mass shooting here, yes we are in lock down, I am not hurt, on base, the boys at home.

This meant she was safe on base and her son and boyfriend where at their home off of base. I was thankful to have read that text. I knew then that one of the fallen was not my sister. Although, I still didn't understand fully what was going on.

As the day went on from watching the new, receiving text and phone calls from my sister, we learn that the shooter was a fellow soldier. This left my kids asking: Why Mama? Why would a soldier do that to a fellow soldier?

I simply told them I don't know know. Clearly he wasn't thinking properly. At the end of the day, I talked to my sister again, and I was telling her how her niece and nephew couldn't understand how a soldier would do this to another soldier, to one of their own.


My sister, a fellow soldier, of the Ft. Hood shooter, said to me "Tell them that war does crazy things to people minds. Tell them that sometimes they don't realize what they are doing, they aren't thinking straight. Your kids are smart they'll understand that."

Honestly, I don't know if my kids will understand that, but I felt her words being right in the mix was so important. They know how war messes up people. She knows having been in Afghanistan for 14 months. She knows what it's like having to be deployed, what it's like having to leave your family behind, what it's like being gone for over a year, and what she's going through being back. She knows how war can mess up your head!  My sister may understand it, but I know she doesn't excuse it!!!

I asked her where she was during the shooting. She said she was on base just 2 blocks away from it. So she really was in the mix of it. She could NOT share what she was doing at that time, but she was there and she was safe! Thank-God.