a day at the beach...

this weekend we went to the beach.  nora wrote me a note in the sand.  it said, "i love you mom".  sweet girl!!!

my view on saturday morning.  

james was swimming in the ocean.  he never does that!  i really had to watch him!!

then, nora had a birthday party.  at the mini golf place!!!

yes, that's a club.  way too high!!

and yes, i should have worked on her swing more!  but, i had a baby and another boy to keep track of!  (i did manage to get her to put the putter facing the right way!!)  she wanted to play croquet with it!

and this one... would walk his ball up to the rim of the cup and just tap it in... tap, tap, tap it in!!! 

(name the movie...)  

my lioness!!

sweet boy, enjoying his cupcake!

playing with lowly worm...  yes, he smiles like his daddy.  no, i'm not sure what to do about it.  no, he is not always being tortured in pictures...  yes, he ASKED me to take this one!!

we are getting close.  and yet so far away.  my kids are starting to really feel it.  they are clingy and sad.  emotional.  i can't talk about daddy coming home, because they think it's going to be tomorrow.  their concept of soon and mine are totally different!!  soon to them is before this weekend.  (and that's SO not it!)

i laid with nora in bed tonight, because she had been crying for almost an hour.  

and james gets so sad anytime he's not with me.  he cried for the babysitter i had this weekend.  that he wanted mommy and daddy, several times.  

and then i think of the ship that just left for 10 months.  or the guys that are gone a year.  (and, as someone pointed out today... not to get all political on ya...  the less funding for the military, the worse it will get, cause there will be less to go.  that's how it's been for a lot so far.  a deployment a year...  okay, off my soap box!)

me, i'm doing okay so far.  i am not getting my hopes up yet.  getting ready, however!  (and i have spare jelly beans in case our countdown gets delayed!)  but i know how easily his ship can turn around.  for some threat that you and i will never know about!  it won't make the news.  but, he'll be there.  

and i am so thankful for david.  and what he does every day.  (and night, because, in addition to his "full time job", he is up through half the night two out of every four nights...  but doesn't get to sleep in to compensate.  he just gets up after minimal sleep and works.   hard.)  so thankful for the man i married and all that he does!

i am doing a study on marriage and communication with some wives.  we were discussing it today, and i commented on how it's so easy to ascribe meaning to david's thoughts and actions while he is deployed.  but, then, when i ACTUALLY remember that he lives in a metal box on a ship in the middle of a desert and their air conditioning was out for quite a bit of time this summer and it was 90* on a cool night and he sweat himself to sleep every night and works through the night two out of every four and works through the weekends and eats the same meals on rotation because that's what gets delivered to them by package drop and you pray the good food doesn't fall in to the ocean and he's missing every moment of 8 months with our children (first day of school, crawling, first tooth, bike rides, swimming, etc), and sleeps (when he gets to) on a mattress that is thinner than the desk i am using to type on, and has no privacy or place to stretch out...

and remember that he is not going out for mai tais on the beach, it's so much easier to think about how much better i have it.  and not "he dropped me here on this deserted isle in the middle of the pacific with three children".  (not REALLY my mentality, but you see my point!)  it's easy to realize that i have it easy.  i am surrounded by family and friends and an amazing ocean that i can go sink my feet in to any day.  i have a good life.  and i love it!  and i really pray hard for my husband on those days.  because i know that he is working so hard!  for me.  and for you.  and i am so proud.