Labor Day weekend

Chris is down in Pensacola for a school so he can learn how to do his new job. It's a really short 3 week school, but after him being deployed for about 4 months these 3 extra weeks really suck! He got 4 days off for Labor Day so he decided to come home. Great plan right?! Yea it is if everything goes smoothly and he can make the 7 hour drive without issue. He decided to leave Thursday after work and drive in that night to surprise the kids on Friday morning. He made it to about 65 miles from Memphis where he made one last stop at a rest area before finishing off. After returning to the car after the stop Chris finds a car that refuses to start. The battery isn't dead but something is not right. He tried to figure it out for an hour or so to no avail so he called me and asked me to come and bring a different car key, thinking maybe it was the chip in the key, at 11:30pm. So I loaded up myself and 3 kids and drove an hour and a half to the rest area where my hubby is waiting. After trying lots of different things we realize we aren't getting anywhere and I'm stupid tired so we called a tow truck to come and get the car. After waiting an hour or so and the hook up of the tow, then the drive all the way back to Memphis to the Volvo dealer, we drop the car off at 5:30am only to get the car to start as Chris brings it off the dang tow truck! I could scream I was so mad! We just paid $220 to have someone bring a car that does indeed start up to the dealer. We left it to get fixed and another $200 later we have a fixed sensor or some sort in the ignition of that darn car.
I was so tired!!
We went with some great friends to the lake for the weekend. They have a lake house and a boat and they are awesome enough to invite us to spend some time with them out there some weekends. We boated, ate, hung out and tried to knee board. I say tried because I tried to do it for the first time and I sucked at it really bad. I love anything that includes water and outdoor sports but this one was alot harder than I thought. I did eventually get up on the board but I didn't stay up there very long, and today I'm super sore from the workout my muscles got. :) The kids love being on the boat. And they love being in the woods at our friends house. It's like one big sleepover for the whole weekend.
After a rough start to the weekend, we ended up having a great time. I got to spend some time with my husband who I've missed so much and with some good friends. So it was a success I think.

I'm back!

Chania, Crete Greece

The view from our room in Chania.

Our new house in Tennessee

I'm back I think. I'm alive and well! It's been a really super stupid long time since I've done an update, but I really do have a good excuse. Well I think it's a really good one. I've moved! I've traveled to Greece! I've made it through Chris' last deployment on the wonderful USS Georgia! Woo hoo!

Life has been moving in super speed this entire summer and has just now slowed down to a manageable pace. Honestly I'm downright bored as it is now. With everything going on I've forgotten how to just be. Chris is off the Georgia, but he's TDY to Pensacola right now for some schooling and he'll be back in just a couple of weeks. We are moved into a great house in Arlington TN. (that's just outside of Memphis) I'm so looking forward to shore duty. This past sea tour was a rough one so I'm ready to see my husband for a little while before we go and do it all again.

Kenneth is in Kindergarted! OMG I know! The last time we were in this area Kenneth was born, and now he's going to school. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Adrianna is in 5th grade. Again OMG! And ms. Lilly bug is in a local preschool 3 half days per week and she loves it. (so do I!)

Now that I'm back to the blogger world I'll hopefully update occasionally for anyone who possibly checks me out anymore. I've got some pictures to share and a few stories I'm sure will pop up. In the Smith house it's still crazy!

I so needed this...

Tonight I had a few ladies over to the house for pizza and while the kids played. We put together a rocking chair. We got it together without any major incidents. Just one small misstep about arms or the chair. Those aren't important anyway right? I so needed this tonight. I forget how much I love having people over. I get so hung up on how my house isn't as nice as I would like or on how the kids have messed it up, or it's too small; and I don't get to enjoy having this house that really is a nice place and the kids always have a blast. I'm really especially thankful to these women who came over and gave me something to do and someone to talk to when I really needed a friend. Thanks girls!
Kenneth finished Pre K today so now school is officially out for summer! Yay! I get to sleep in in the morning. I'm so excited!

random ramblings

I've gotten so far behind on here that I don't even know anymore what to say or post. So here are some random facts. Ready?!

Adrianna is now a 5th grader! Oh my, where did the time go?

Lilly will be 3 in 2 weeks! Again, time...where'd it go?

Kenneth has his last day of school tomorrow and then he's a kindergartner! Wow.

I am so so ready to be out of Georgia. There's too much drama here that I'm just so ready to be done with.

We still have no orders. Bummer.

Chris is still able to call us and he is miserable. I hate knowing he's missing us as much as we are him.

I can't wait to do some traveling this summer!

I need to rent out my house, but I can't do that until I know when I'm leaving here.

The kids miss people. They ask to go to certain places or see people and it hurts me to have to tell them we can't. They have to miss their daddy. It really isn't fair for them to have to miss family and friends as well. Especially people that are here!

Lilly and Kenneth have been acting up a bit since Chris has left. Kenneth's is totally ignoring me when I ask him to do something and Lilly just has an attitude.

Adrianna is a champ at this sort of thing. She handles it well.

I miss my dad!

I am so thankful for the group of women that I have in my life while the guys are away. They really are my family here. The USS Georgia wives are the best!

I have a neighbor take care of my lawn. For $20 a week he mows, trims, edges, and will spread grass seed or fertilizer. It's a great deal!

I have painting that I need to do and I HATE painting.

Kenneth's soccer is over. I'm kind of sad about that.

I need my husband home now.

Mean people suck!

Totally random nonsense from me today ladies and gentlemen! Here's a cute picture or 2! :)

Superstar Lilly

My Lilly is a superstar in her own mind. :) She loves singing. This is the song that she was singing ALL day yesterday. It's really cute. I can't believe how big she has gotten.

Life goes on

Chris left one week ago. It was horribly sad working up to that day, but since then everyone has been okay. There have been a few issues with attitudes and stuff but thankfully no one is crying for Daddy for hours. I am just amazed at how the kids just adjust. This is their norm and they are okay with it. We miss him terribly, but life does continue on.

So since he's left I've had a few moments of excitement. I found a rattlesnake on our back porch, I squished my finger so hard I still think I might lose the nail, and last night my ADT alarm went off just after 2am! We are all sound asleep and the alarm starts screaming. It's so loud that if someone had been in the house it would have made their ears ring for quite awhile. My front door was partially open but I think that I didn't make sure that it was closed all the way before bed and it blew open just enough to set it off. It was so scary. I had no idea if it was just an accident or if someone had tried to break into the house. I checked every closet and under every bed before feeling okay enough to set the alarm again. I still didn't make it back to sleep until after 4 sometime because I was so scared. So that's enough excitement for one deployment for me. Hopefully the rest of the summer will fly by without incident.

I've been working really hard to get the house ready to have someone rent it. I've been painting and doing yardwork like crazy. I even cleaned all the carpets. I almost don't want to leave it after we've done so much work to it. I'm lookin forward to the move. I wish it would just happen already! We still don't have orders because of all the flooding in TN. Hopefully things will get settled up in Millington and we'll get orders.

I've been horrible with pictures lately. I have tons, but I just haven't done anything with them. Here's some just to tide you over a bit.

Outta here!

So the Navy has decided that it's time for us to move on. I'm really really excited. We found out we're going to Millington, TN. That's just outside of Memphis in case you didn't know. I've got great friends that still live there and so we are even more ready for the move because we know they're there! I've gotten Lilly in a preschool and I've been looking at many a house to find something for us there to live in. I've found quite a few that are "perfect" but I'm undecided on which perfect we want. Do I want to live in a house for just over 2 years that is smallish, like the one we have now, but it is cheaper and in the school area that I want. Or do I pay a bit more and get the house that I really want. I feel like I need more room than we have here, but I know it's not a need. It's a want so I need to decide what is really important. I would love to have a playroom and/or office as well as the 4 bedrooms. But that is a lot of space. Is it smarter to just stick with the 4 bedrooms and have the kids' toys all over their rooms? And what about guests? I would love to have a place for guests to stay. Too many decisions, and that's only about the house.
I'm going to go to school when we get there too. I've been wanting to go back to school for a long time now. Babies happened and I put my education on hold for a little while so that I could devote all of my time to the kids. Now the kids are getting older and everyone is in school a few days a week and I have a little bit of time. I'm going to do it! I want to have something outside of just being mommy. It's important to me and that's the only reason I'm doing it.
The next few months are going to bring lots of change for the Smith House. Chris will be gone, I'm moving (on my own!!), we'll be homeless for a little while, I'm leaving all of my really good friends behind. These women have kept me going these past 3 years when things were tough, I had them to turn to. Now I'm going to be kind of starting over, turning a page. I'm a strong woman, I know I can do this! But it scares the crap out of me honestly.

Wow, it's been awhile!

So time has sped by quicker than I realized. I can't believe it's been so long since my last post.

Chris got home in early February. We've been spending as much time together as a family as we can. We've taken a trip to Tennessee and visited with some of our best friends. We had Easter at my dad's house too. It was so nice to have some help on the drive. My drive at Christmas was just me and kids and it was kind of stressful. Chris and I took turns driving and it was nice.
My Kenneth had a birthday! He's 5! I really can't believe that.
We attended a friggin awesome ship's party. I had too much to drink, but I think a good time was had by all.
And we've figured out that we're moving. Kind of soon too. Come June or July I will be saying goodbye to sunny southern Georgia and Hello to Memphis TN! We are really excited about the move. I'm really happy to be nearer to family and we'll be in the same town with some great friends too! I will be taking care of the move by myself since Chris will be deployed during the entire summer. I'm kind of freaking out about that fact. I consider myself pretty good with this whole Navy thing most times, but this is one thing I've not had to deal with on my own before. I can do it, I know I can, but I do get a bit stressed about these kinds of things. I've found some great houses so far so I'm really excited about this move.
Well I got a new computer so I hope to do better keeping things up to date. I have a million and 51 pictures that I would like to share so I'll try to upload some soon.

These pictures are from Adrianna's birthday. I started this post but never got around to posting it. Oops! So Happy Birthday Adrianna. I know she had a great day. I can't believe she's 10 already!

Randoms because I'm lazy and am procrastinating

Things that make me happy:

• sweet children who just come and snuggle with me because they want to.
• emails from a husband who I haven't seen in nearly 4 months.
• good deals on awesome coffee pots, just when I need a pick me up
• pizza fridays with the best boat wives EVER!
• bowling with good friends just because we can.
• straight A report cards, again, from my girl!
• planning homecoming!!
• phone calls with the best dad ever. He always makes me smile just to hear from him.
• thoughts and plans on moving and starting new.
• jobs on the slate that make me happy
• snow!
• coffee with friends or out of my new coffee maker.
• a good night of sleep
• baked goods!
• friends

Things that make me unhappy:

• grumpy children. Especially ones who stay up way too late then get up way too early and are mean just because they think they can!
• a messy house that I just can't seem to find the time to clean.
• bickering or fighting of any sort.
• I hate drama!
• people that do way under the speed limit when I'm late and make me want to go road ragey on them.
• not being able to talk to Chris when I want to! It's hard.
• being mom and dad for so long.
• loneliness

Snow

Oh how I love the snow and miss it already! Michigan never disappoints this time of year, and as always we saw snow! The kids and I had a blast visiting with everyone and I wish I was back there now.

We've had insanely cold temps for our area as of the past few weeks and I don't like it. If it's going to be below freezing then we'd better atleast get to see some snow with it. But no such luck in southern Georgia.

Strangest snow man ever, but hey he's ours so we don't care. :o) Kenneth says he's a crying snowman.

Snow baby

Kenneth and Adrianna didn't want to ever come in out of the snow. I think they would have been content to just stay outside and sled for days.

I had to put her to work cleaning off some of the ice that was covering the windows. She didn't mind.

Christmas in Tennessee

Home

We have been gone out of town for a little while. We had a great trip! It was so very long but well worth it. We went from GA to TN to MI back to TN then finally back home to GA. I drove about 3000 miles within 2 weeks with 3 children and I'm happy that I did. I realized while I was gone that I really miss home. I live in GA but it doesn't feel like home to me. We're up for a move in about 8 months (OMG that's not long)! And I really want to get closer to all of our family. There's a job in Indiana that I think would be awesome, but as always with the Navy it's not our choice and we have to go where they send us. I have a great group of friends here in GA that are here for me and the kids and I love that. But being on the boat has brought about a different issue with friendships and I'm just ready to move on.
So 2010 has already been filled with disappointment and change but I'm sure it will get better. I should get Chris home at some point, but as of right now I have no idea when that will be. He will leave again for another really long deployment, we'll get orders to somewhere great, hopefully, and we'll have a move later in the year. I have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to. So here's to a New Year!