Things around our house are never dull. Between three kids, being a military family, and homeschooling there is always something going on. The kids and I went on a traveling adventure for the holidays. We left Washington where we are currently stationed and traveled to Connecticut just to go back to Ohio my home state. My parents were kind enough to come and pick us up. Unfortunately we were the only thing they picked up. At some point Cheyenne (my daughter) had gotten a 48hr flu bug, as you can imagine we all ended up getting it by the end of the first week. Thank goodness though we were all over it by Christmas. The kids and I were excited to be able to spend Christmas day with my Mom's side of the family. The highlight of that day for the kids wasn't the presents it was my Uncle's fish tank or should I say coral tank. Plus the "fish hospital" tank. They were so excited over it that they didn't even notice the presents under the tree.
We spent New Years Eve with my cousin Micheal and his family. That was a blast to say the least. My three and his three youngest all played the night away until either they dropped or the ball did. I was shocked that only one of them dropped before the ball. Once the ball dropped we all went out side and the kids got sparklers and we heard someone blow off a cannon across the river. Between Mike and I we blew off 12 shot gun rounds in honor of my husband who is currently away for work. That pretty much wrapped up the night and my trip to Ohio. We only had one more stop in Ohio before heading to North Carolina. The next day we went to see my Uncle Donnie and the kids had lots of questions about his amputated leg. They didn't believe me when I told them that it happened cause he was too fast for my Aunt so they had to slow him down some how.
The next day the kids and I loaded into the rental car and made the ten hour drive to North Carolina to see my Army Sister Wife Jackie and her kids. Jackie and I met while we were both stationed in Georgia. I was assigned to the same unit as her husband yes that's right I was in. I served nine years as a medic then decided to get out to raise our kids while my husband continued with his career. Now back to the trip, I got to spend an amazing two weeks with my friend and her family. While we were there we had lots of fun and I got to see some of Fort Bragg it's huge. Her and I got to spend time together with out our husbands cause her husband had to go away for training while I was there. I at least got to see him for a day or two. Our kids are the same ages for the most part the biggest gap is between my youngest and her third (cause she now has four) there is about 18 months there. With her and I you would never know that there were 7 kids in one house until you went up stairs to clean. That's when you realized that the toy boxes had "magically" exploded. Good news is most of ours are old enough to help clean up the mess. Which happened daily and some times more than one time in a day. I was sad when it was time for my trip to come to an end. I know that no matter where I am or she is we will always be close and only a phone call away but it still was hard none the less.
I boarded the plane in North Carolina not sure what I was coming home to. There had been a really bad snow and ice storm here in Washington that had taken out the power. It was out for at least 3 days already when I came home. Plus I had another friend and her four kids staying at my house cause I was helping her out. So I was a little worried what I was coming home to. Thank goodness much to my surprise her brother, another friend, and some church members had come to the rescue. They had brought over and Kerosene heater and had found the camp stove beside the grill out back to cook with. So we had heat and a way to eat the food we had in the house and freezer as it thawed out. So it wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been.
It is our crazy life and something happens everyday but I or my husband wouldn't have it any other way! It's full of love, laughter, tears, and trials but they all make us stronger as a couple and a family besides individually!
