Tired

I did not sleep well last night. So today my emotions are truly up and down. Where honesty is involved its been ups and downs for the last week or so. The closer it comes to Mitchell leaving for his field op...then home for a couple weeks..then deploy the harder its been emotionally on me. It really feels like trying to keep an independent teenager in the nest. You want them to stay but it feels like they can't leave fast enough. Mitchell's in no hurry to deploy by no means but his mind frame is the sooner he leaves the sooner he gets back. For all honesty sake I'm ready for this to be over too. During this process of waiting for the time to come emotions seem to be running high..not just for us but for KalieAnn..she knows something big is coming up. In fact I think she's starting to understand that Daddy's leaving for a little while. We've been talking to her about it since Hero's Summer Christmas but what I think helped it really click for her was watching two shows with me; Army Wives episode where their husband leave on deployment and Sesame Street Deployment Video. She's starting to hang out with her Daddy more. When she watched the Sesame Street one it looked like she was going to cry. She's been acting up herself lately and the more I am sitting at the this computer thinking about it the more I'm realizing what might be the underlying issue...I know a lot of this is pre deployment stress but to be honest again..It sucks! I remember the last time he deployed I was a mess for a few months before I got myself so busy that the time flew by. I didn't have kids then...now I will be doing it with three and I'm extremely happy about that. When he is home they keep me pretty busy and I am depending on them to keep it even more true while he's gone.
Well besides the emotional roller coaster that comes with that stuff I will also be busy with two other things..family...and friends. Our friend that has been living with us till the Marine Corps finally medically discharged him which turned out to be yesterday will be leaving tomorrow and coming back with his daughter in time for school. He and his wife enrolled their daughter in school out here so hat she could start Kinder garden and then Arizona schools would then take her as a transfer due to birthday and cut off dates. The family part? I will be blessed with my Cousin and her hunny coming out for ten days. Hopefully all will be gone by the time Mitchell's gets back from his training op. Think I'm becoming possessive of his time now with us? lol Just wait till he gets back.
Another Positive note he graduated Sergeants Course! And with that positive note I am going to leave it there I am exhausted.

Family Time

Living out here in California I get to see My Mom and Family an Awful Lot!!! Its been great! But moving out here I have had to learn to say No on events and things. For the first two months or so of living here we were off doing things every weekend. If not going out to do things people have been over. Our first weekend here as just our family was Fathers Day weekend in June. At the end of June Mitchell started Sergeants Course here on Camp Pendleton. Once he graduates that in August he'll heading to training for a few weeks...home for a couple of weeks...then he's set to deploy in the beginning of October for 6-12 months. So our time as a family right now is more special than normal...just knowing that soon we won't have his wonderful company around. I'll have to admit though that I am very happy about living out here. The deployment isn't going to be easy they never are..no matter how many times you've been through but I've just learned Life itself isn't easy.
This year we get the Privilege of being apart of Hero's Summer Christmas(aka Christmas in July). Impacting Military Families and our church South Shores have partnered up this year on it. I tried explaining to KalieAnn that we will be celebrating Christmas at the beach this year and I get "We can't have Christmas at the Beach Mom!"..
curious I asked "Why Not?"...
"Cause there's no snow at the Beach!!"
So I explained to her again that here in California where we are at we won't get snow even during the Holiday season unless we go up to the mountains. So now she's excited! I'm kinda excited!! The only reason I'm kinda not is cause it just turns out to be the day my older Brother, James is having surgery that day.
For those that don't know my Brother was injured during a Training Exercise. The trauma to his knee was so bad that it caused RSD. So he's having a temporary Nuero Transmitter(hope I spelled that right) put in his back.If this works it will greatly reduce his pain level so that he could possibly start living life the way he wants to..independantly...For me I just don't want to see him in pain. So if everyone can please keep him your prayers. Well that's all to really update on. Looking forward to the day at my Moms house one Saturday! God Bless!

Impacting Military Families Baby Shower

My Mom and a great group of Ladies got together 6 years ago to help Military Families expecting babies. They've been holding Baby Showers at our home church South Shores Baptist. Now they've turned it around into a Non profit Organization called Impacting Military Families(IMF). They do more than just Baby Showers. They also do Hero's Summer Christmas.




Heroes summer Christmas is for Military families that husbands are going to be deployed over Christmas. They in turn do a Christmas Celebration in July. They have us as one of the Families this year. Not sure If I came on and gave an update but Mitchell will be deploying in the fall for 6-12 months.




So why am I posting this? We got the joy of being volunteer's at this years Military Baby Shower. What made this years so exciting is that its the first time IMF has thrown a Baby Shower as IMF. It was great to see and be there to experience that! So proud of this group of people! Here are some Pictures!
Debbie, Josh(Soon to be Dad X2) and Anne(My Mom)

Josh was the winner of the speed diaper game.

Mitchell and Amanda

Mitchell announced the winners of the Baby Food Game and Dirty Diaper Game.

One of the Mom's opening her Gifts! :)

Once again it was a blast to be there! Here's their website! www.impactingmilitaryfamilies.org Just in case you're interested in Donating!!