Mommyhood

I hope all my mommy blogger friend's Mother's Days were all FAB-U-LOSO!

I know a few of you have deployed husbands, but hopefully, someone made you feel special (even if it was on facebook)!

My husband has missed a lot of Mother's Days since we've been married, but no matter where he's at, whether it be Afghanistan or Virginia, he's always found a way to remind me that it is Mother's Day.

And what girl doesn't love flowers?! I LOVE THEM!

 (Please let me brag about my wonderful husband for a minute here)

In all reality, my husband makes me feel like it's Mother's Day every single day!

He treats me like his Queen. 

When he's home, he does dishes, laundry, bathes our daughter, and cleans without me even asking (without complaint).

His weekly ritual is cooking our family a homemade, made from scratch (healthy) pancake breakfast every single Saturday.

Some women only get breakfast made for them on Mother's Day, but I get it every week!

I could go on and on about how I feel like it's Mother's Day everyday for me, but I'll bore ya to death. 

 But he really is pretty amazing!

I felt extremely blessed at church, Connect Community Church.

They really made a mama feel good by offering massages, manicures, and delicious treats!

As a former career woman that worked in a "not-so-average" line of work, I never realized what an under appreciated job being a SAHM was until I became one!

As a Marine, I was recognized for my hard work by medals on my chest, awards on my walls, and praise from supervisors.

I never realized just how little appreciation comes with the "mom" territory, which is why THIS Mother's Day had a different meaning to me. 

I think oftentimes, as mothers, we beat ourselves up about not being adequate enough for our children.

It doesn't help that we now have Pinterest to make us feel even more inadequate at times!

I also struggle throughout the day to make the hours till bedtime meaningful, thoughtful, fun, and educational for my daughter.

Some days, I feel like she is being babysat by the TV because I have chores to do around the house that simply can't wait!

But at the end of the day, when my daughter reminds me at dinner to say grace (when I forget), it makes me smile.

I know that I am raising a Jesus loving child of God to the best of my abilities....

I am extremely lucky that I was chosen to to be the mother of my children and entrusted with such amazing gifts from God.

I fall short of God's glory every single day, but he's always there to pick me up, dust me off, and He  gives me a new day to try again. 

That's all we can really ask for, right?

Can you see my heart melting while reading this?!

I can't believe there was a time in military life before Skype and Facetime!

Mother's Day date watching "The Croods" together.

The reason why I get to celebrate Mother's Day :-)

And of course, my mommy gets a shout out too!

I know we all look like sisters, but my mom is in the middle :-)

Deep In The Heart

I am so freaking excited to be going home to Texas in a few weeks!!!

If I could, I would have left earlier, but I had too many things on my "to do list" to cross off before vacating my home for that long.

All I can think about is Blue Bell ice cream, Shipley's donuts, kolaches, BBQ, my mom's Korean food, and even the humid Texas weather (which I'm sure I will complain about once I get there).

I think I'm most excited that going home will help the summer fly by a little faster since hubby is gone.

After he completes his orders in VA, he's flying down to Texas to meet us in July to celebrate Miss D's 4th Birthday party!

I'm excited for her to have a big party with all my family and with Nick.

And I have a BIG, Korean fam who loves a good party!

It's also crazy to me that by the time I see my hubby again, our baby will be due in just over a month! 

So much going on this summer!!!

I just hope May flies by!!!

The Rude Neighbor

Not going into details since it's not necessary...

Our neighbor was going to do Nick a favor when he left for Quantico.

They told Nick that they took a few days off work to help us out.

Nick told them that it was not necessary for them to do that, and that we would find someone else.

They insisted saying that they NEEDED to take some vacation days that were saved up.

Reluctantly, Nick agreed while not feeling great that they took days off of work to help us out.

I was totally out of the loop on this arrangement (I had no idea they were taking days off of work to help us nor did I know many details....this was between Nick and them....not me).

The night before Nick left (at 8 in the evening), a change of events made it not necessary for us to need our neighbor's help anymore.

Nick forgot to call our neighbors to let them know we would not need their assistance.

If you read this post, you would understand that he was extremely busy getting the house ready for me before he left, it was probably the last thing on his mind to call them.

Either way, Nick was in the wrong to not inform them.

WE ADMIT THAT!

Yesterday, while playing outside with D, the neighbor asked me about the arrangements, and with a puzzled look on my face, I told him that their assistance was not needed anymore since we had a change of plans.

I figured Nick and told him.

He came back outside raising his voice at me and rudely told me how him and his wife had taken days off of work to help us and how they were losing money because of it.

He proceeded to say that they had been nothing but good neighbors to us, and that the least we could have done was call him.

(First off, they were friendly neighbors to us. They didn't do anything significant for us. They let us borrow their snow blower this winter, but Nick shoveled AND snow blowed their driveway for them...they invited us on a puppy play date in the park once...but as far as doing our family any favors or anything...I can't think of anything!)

All in front of my happy 3 year old who kept telling Mr. So and So "hello!"

I was in complete shock and speechless because...

1. I have never been talked to like that by a man (unless I was getting a good old fashioned Marine Corps @$$ chewing).

2. I seriously had no idea what he was talking about.

3. My innocent 3 year old was RIGHT THERE. You don't talk like that in front of a child.

The fact that he has a thick Boston accent made it sound even meaner and ruder.

I managed to blurt out an, "I'm soo sooooo soooooooo sorry."

Even though I had no idea what he was talking about.

He kept ranting and just hopped in his truck and took off.

Now I regret apologizing to him.

I was already having a pretty crappy day yesterday with Nick leaving...AGAIN.

If I wanted to be talked to like that by a man, I would have stayed my butt in the Marine Corps!

I did not spend 10 years busting my butt and being talked to like that on a daily basis to get out and be talked to like that by a "nasty civilian" who had NO idea what I was going through.

I called Nick (hysterically crying) when he had landed to tell him what had happened.

I did not appreciate being talked to like that, and I did not appreciate him taking up his beef with Nick with me!

Nick freely admitted that he was wrong for forgetting to tell him, and explained to me all the details (of which I still didn't know about up until this point).

At the same time, my "knight in shining armor" was furious that another man had talked to his Queen like that!

I calmed him down, because he was about to go off on this guy!
After all, it was Nick's fault any of this even went down....although it still didn't give him any right to talk to ME like that.

 I did not need bad relations with people we lived across the street from.

 Nick called him and apologized and explained everything to him.

I guess he wasn't very receptive.

We all make mistakes.

We are all human.

Heck...we even admitted we were in the wrong and apologized a gazillion times!

Either way...

I know Nick would never talk to another woman like that.

Most of the men in my life wouldn't.

Now I feel all awkward going outside to take the trash out or play with D.

I don't want to make eye contact with him or see him.

ugh. 

Is It Worth It?

When God blessed me with such an amazing husband, I am convinced that he put in some rough stipulations for me (in a take it or leave it kind of fashion).

These are the things that he put into my life in exchange for such a wonderful, loving, hardworking, humble, and selfless man.

1. In exchange for this awesome husband, I have to share him with the Marine Corps. Most of the time, it will not be 50/50. In fact, most of the time, it will be 75/25 (Uncle Sam getting the better end of the bargain on that one).

2. He's going to deploy to far off and unsafe lands, and be gone for days, weeks, or months at a time for training/schools for a thankless job that no one understands (except for those who have been in his shoes).

3. When he's gone, he's going to miss out on important milestones, birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays with me.

4. There are times when he will pick the Marine Corps over his family out of sheer necessity. 

I sometimes want to yell at God and tell him the deal is off.

This life is not worth the man he gave me...

And for those of you judging me for thinking that way, you're obviously not a military spouse, because I can speak on behalf of most of them when I say that this thought has crossed my mind.

 

It's usually at times when I am feeling most lonely, when I just need an extra set of hands at home, when I want a day to myself without a needy toddler, when I just want to lay in bed at night with my husband, or when I see "normal" families all around me.

**To me, a "normal" family life is ANY family life where there are no such thing as deployments, extended periods of separation, and constant moving every 2-3 years**

My husband leaves today for three months for Quantico, VA for work.

I was starting to have those feelings of, "This life is not worth it." and emotionally wanted to shut down.

But yesterday, God really showed me, "It is worth it."

My husband knew exactly how I was feeling, even though I hadn't muttered a word.

He knew I was stressing out about our house, the trash, the garage, the dog, the lawn...everything.

He knew I was freaking out inside about being pregnant and alone with a toddler for the entire summer.

He knew how much I was already missing him even though he hadn't left yet.

So yesterday, my husband spent the entire day making sure I would be reassured.

Here's how God showed me that this life WAS worth it...

1. Hubby drove me all the way to Hanscom Air force base to make sure I got my new dependent military ID card because he knew mine was expiring at the end of this month. He knows I hate driving outside of our little suburb :-)

2. He took us all to the Franklin Park Zoo because he knew I had been wanting to take D there. He also knew how important it was that we did something fun together as a family before he left. 

3. I can always tell that hubby feels guilty about leaving us every time because he wants to buy us all kinds of things. He wanted to get D a special "going away" present. He got her a Razor scooter, and got to enjoy a few hours in the late afternoon yesterday teaching her to ride it.

4. He knew I was stressing about only having a month when he got back to get everything ready for the baby and the nursery. He spent a lot of time on leave painting the nursery, putting the crib and some shelving together, and getting it somewhat "baby ready".

 Can ya tell what the nursery colors are?! I'll have another post on the nursery soon!

5. We have a large yard with a lot of landscaping and upkeep that needs to be done on it. He didn't want my prego butt to be out there doing it, so he got with our neighbors and made sure that our grass would be cut, and he made sure he cut it one final time himself. He also spent the entire weekend laying down 24 giant bags of mulch down.

6. The dog. I decided to fly home for a month and half from June-July to be with my folks, and I was stressing out about what we would do with Dozer. Low and behold...he took care of that too! (He also gave the dog one last bath)

 

7. Our garage was a disaster, and I had mentioned a month ago that I needed to pull the Jeep out and sweep it. Of course, I never got around to it. Not only did he sweet the garage for me, he rearranged everything to make it neater, and made space in it so that we could park both vehicles in it.

8. On top of ALL OF THAT, he did the million loads of laundry that I had been putting off for me last night, did the dishes that had been piling up in our sink, and he cooked our family one last pancake, eggs, and bacon breakfast this morning.

Did I mention, he hasn't even begun packing for himself?!?!?!

God really showed me that this life WAS worth it.

I realized just how lucky I was.

I know there are many struggling marriages out in the world, and they don't even have to deal with military life on top of typical marriage probs. 

We have normal daily struggles as a couple, just like any other marriage, but I realized what makes our marriage so extraordinary is the unique circumstances that God put on us.

With this life, I've become more independent, I've learned how to do basic plumbing, I have learned the art of multitasking, I've learned how to play "mommy AND daddy", I've had no choice but to rely solely on God, and I've become a "prayer warrior".

This life is worth it...

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Some fun stuff we did last week (since blogger was being a poop).

Lunch with daddy on campus at Boston U.

Hanging out with daddy in his office. Excuse the redsox sticker...it was there before he took over the office...puke.

D got her first ever ice cream truck experience.

 Just some funny pics of Dozer sleeping in the car.

#Marinewifeprobs

 Is anyone else having issues with uploading pics onto blogger?

ANYWAY...guess you won't get any cool pics from me today.

Hubby's on leave (yay!).

Then he'll leave us in a week (boo) for the majority of the summer to go to Quantico, VA.

I used to wish ALL THE TIME (when I was active duty) that I could go home to my parent's house in Texas when hubby was gone for long stretches of time.

It really sucked being a full time Marine AND raising a child on my own.

I used to be envious of my Marine wife friends who got to pick up their lives and go back home every time the Marine Corps took their hubbies away.

I felt stuck because of my obligation to the Corps, and I hated it.

I became really good at "single working mom" mode every time the hubby deployed, went to the field, or was just plain gone.

So NOW....

I have the opportunity to go home for the majority of the summer.

I'm having a few concerns though.

The main issue...

I've never spent more than 2 weeks with my parents since high school (almost 11 years ago!).

I'm just hoping and praying that my grand idea to go home for almost 2 months won't backfire on me.

By backfire, I mean that I hope that my parents don't drive me insane :-) (Love you, mom and dad!)

I have a TON of family in Houston (where my parents now reside), and I'll be excited to hang out and spend time with all of them.

What do other milso's normally do when hubby's gonna be gone for a while?