Cooling Off

I'm not sure what the rest of the world feels like, but out here in SoCal, it's pretty warm. By warm, I actually mean that it's hot. Really hot. I saw a friend of mine had posted this idea for her kids, and it seemed like something that might be fun to try. I filled a pot of water with toys and tossed it in the freezer. Once it was frozen I pulled it out and and let the kids chip away at the ice to get the toys out. It was fun - and I ended up doing most of the work!

Summer Fun

I'm loving making care packages to send to Lane. I've been searching for ideas since the day I found out he was leaving. I know they don't all have to be themed, and they don't all have to be decorated, but so far that's been part of the fun for me! I've already got one sent out the door, and I have 4 more in the works! The one I'm MOST excited about {as of now} isn't going to be sent for a few more months, but it'll be a good one! Not to say the one that just went out the door isn't good!

The box is supposed to look like a beach. I wanted the bottom to look like the kids were "walking" on the beach. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to, but that's ok. I think {or, I hope} it makes him smile to see the kids' feet!

"Summer lovin' had me a blast
Summer lovin' happened so fast
Met a girl crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be
well-a, well-a, well-a UH!
Tell me more, tell me more"
Who doesn't love a little Grease action?!

"Enjoy some fun in the sun and try to stay cool!

Some of the stuff in the box. Though it isn't all useful, it's mostly fun. At this point in deployment, I don't think he's in need of much. There's no need for re-stocking anything, and he's not been there long enough to know what he might need that he doens't have access to. I didn't want that to stop me from sending something. Since it's blazing hot I figured I'd send some things that could be fun. The balls that are in the bucket {on top of the leis} are water balls. Much like a water balloon, but reusable! I thought that in their down time they could play with water guns and water balls. I've heard that the water for a lot of deployment sites isn't the best tasting, so I sent some lemonade mix for them. 

White Walls

We are lucky that we get to talk to Lane every day. Even if I just get to send him text messages {which makes me feel like he's a lot closer than he really is} and let the kids know what he's up to, we get to talk to him every day. Because we get to talk to him every day, we've been able to see his room. Let me tell you. I've never seen a more bland, boring space in my entire life. White walls. Blah foot lockers/filing cabinets serving as closets. Boooooooooooor-ing!

Because everything is so boring where Lane is, we thought we'd spice up his life a little bit. I found a paint recipe online today that uses corn starch, water, and food coloring.  All in all, we had a good day making great art to add color to his life.

After we painted we made a quick trip to the post office and home for naps. After naps we went on an evening run with friends and had a picnic. The kids loved being outside and running around while avoiding eating their dinner. After they ran around enough and ate very little Eden wanted to color with her friends. We brought paper and crayons along with us for this very reason and it was not to be forgotten about.

Hopefully after all the drawing and painting we've done today Lane will have something to spice up his white walls.

Motherhood Is...{22}

This week I am blessed by crazy kids!

I'm not even kidding, they've driven me insane this week. Like, rip my hair out, lose my mind crazy! I mean, look at Hunter. He's stuck under the table because he just can't stop himself from climbing in the chairs. Keeping them pushed under the table isn't even helping me to keep him from climbing. Eden has been in one of her {not so}rare moods this week. She's had an attitude from the underworld and has spent a lot of time in timeout or up in her room alone.

So, how is this a blessing? I went to church this morning - all on my own with the kids. I knew I needed the alone time to reflect and just have me time and this was the perfect opportunity. Lane and I found a church that we like before he left, but it's been a while since we've gone. I set my alarm to get up and go to the early service, but then snoozed my alarm and decided that the kids would for sure be awake and that we'd make it to the middle service.

The kids woke up in time and we made it to church. I dropped the kids off and I went to the sanctuary...ALONE! I think it was just what we needed, time apart. I sang, I listened, I took communion, and I just reflected. Life was good. Life is good. I'm glad to get back into it and I'm glad that we're able to find a church home where we are - it's something that hasn't been easy at all of our duty stations.

Daddy Kisses

I always knew that nights would get the best of me with deployment. When Lane left, I knew that the mornings wouldn't be too terrible for me. I mean, on normal days, when Lane is home, he's gone before I wake up with the kids. Lane kisses me and says goodbye, but that's about it when it comes to mornings.

Our evenings are where it counts. When he's able to come home for dinner he gets to play with the kids - relieve me for a bit. He gets to tell us about his day and we get to talk. Eden gets to tell him about her day and what she did. Without him here in the evenings he's certainly missed the most!

We miss him tons and Eden has started asking for Daddy kisses. We have a jar full of hershey kisses and they are her kisses from Daddy. Tonight she asked me for a "Daddy kiss" before she went to bed. Aaaahhhh, this is so much harder than I thought it would be. I'm so glad that there's a way to keep him in our every day lives. The kids love that they get candy once a day, but Eden never refers to it as candy. She will always ask me for a "Daddy kiss."

Busy, Busy, Busy

Eden, Hunter, and I have tried to stay busy in Lane's absence. It's been fun to be with friends and we've  done a good job of surviving as three. Life is adjusting nicely and we're getting used to our conversations being with Lane over video or text messages. I've cooked dinner a few times, which I didn't expect to do! We've also eaten out and eaten with friends quite a bit, which I did expect to do! We've almost got 2 weeks under our belts, and that's half way to our first month down! We've got this!!!!

Kids with Daddy at the airport.

At the squadron the morning that the rest of the deployment left.

Lane got to meet Kate Walsh when he was walking out of lunch! I love her!!!!

Hunter learned that he loves watermelon.

Memorial Day BBQ got the best of the kids. They were all tuckered out after chowing down on delicious food.

Bounce house, good food, no naps all make for tired kids.

Hunter sitting in my lap poking my belly button.

Can someone tell me again...why do I clean my house?!

I was putting dishes away and Hunter was getting them out. While Eden was getting all the paper out to color pictures for Daddy. What a mess!!!!!

Hunter loves hats, helmets, and obviously tiaras! 

I put the plastic table in the yard to keep the dogs away from my newly planted tomato and cucumber plants and Ginger thinks it's there to get her closer to the treats. The neighbor puts treats over the fence and Ginger doesn't get as many as Nugget because he's taller than her.

Another beach day with the kids and friends! Eden took my picture so we could show Daddy that I'm still alive too, ha ha. He gets all kinds of pictures of the kids, but seldom gets pictures of me.

Care Packages

I've been picking up on some tips and tricks for sending care packages overseas to deployed individuals. I'm no expert, and I'm not going to pretend that I am. This is my first go at it, so there's a bit of a learning curve. I think it took me 10 minutes to fill out my customs form last week at the post office, and I asked a million questions while I was doing it. I didn't want to do it wrong and then him not get his box! I would have been so mad!!!! I didn't put all that effort into buying, making, filling, shipping the box for it to be stuck somewhere - not in Lane's hands!

Here are some of the things I've learned:

ALWAYS ship priority mail - It should get to them within 10-14 days.

Use flat rate boxes! They're much cheaper and you can pack them full of all kinds of things because the weight of the box doesn't matter. It should only be just over $13 to send a large flat rate box

Take forms home with you. You can have them already filled out when you get to the post office. Supposedly you can also then pay online and they will pick it up off your doorstep and you don't have to step foot into the post office to ship it. {I don't like letting go of that much control. I'd rather hand the box over myself, but that's just me and my personality type - control freak!!!!!}

Order the flat rate boxes online. It's free and they will drop them off with your mail. You can pick to have it sent to you in bundles of either 10 or 25 I believe.

Address the box exactly as it was given to you. Supposedly if you don't include the - #### after the zip code the package won't be delivered

If you want to decorate the inside of the box, use the large flat rate box. The box is 12x12x5.5. If you use scrapbook paper to decorate, they make a 12x12 size and you don't even have to cut it {except in half as you put it on the flaps.}

Protect the stuff in the box. We shop on Amazon often {diapers come every month} so we have a lot of the packing air bags. After I stuff the boxes with goodies, I make sure to include some of those if I need to.