9 weeks down, 1 to go!

The last time I blogged was just a few weeks after Larry left and I really didn't know how I was going to make it through it. However, the time really has flown by quickly...it does seem like forever since I have seen him but in less than 1 week I will be in his arms.

Everyone who knows that he left always asks how he is doing or if they don't know they want to know why in the world he isn't with me...I usually smile and say "he turned 40 years old and decided to join the Army Reserves." Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive to me, the kids and Larry! It means alot to know you all care.

In the beginning of all this I was not for it. I was defiantly in shock, hurt, scared and a little mad. Why would he want to leave us? I thought wow, almost 4 years together and he already wants to leave us...but now I understand, it had nothing to do with us at all. There was something pulling him there, he needed to find himself and do something for himself to have the since of pride that he had succeeded in something...I fully understand since I feel the same myself at times that I have not accomplished anything important in my life except for being a mom (and sometimes I dont feel too accomplished in that one!) Through this I have realized too that he loves us very deeply...there has not been a day go by that he has not written me a letter and he makes sure I know how he feels about me, the kids and our family in everyone of them.

Im really in awe of how great he is doing in boot camp. He has been a squad leader, a platoon guide and now a squad leader again. He shot expert in the shooting drills and will earn special recognition at his graduation for that. He also has excelled in the physical training side also, running 2 miles in 13 min & 18 sec. He has had a Sargent Major (or whatever they are called) come up to him and shake his hand and tell him how much he admired him for joining at his age and doing so well. I know this has been alot harder than he thought it would be, but he hasn't let it get him down...no injuries and sometimes out lasting the younger men. The letter I got today (from last Saturday) said he was going on his last training 5 day camp in the woods and when they were done he would be a "Soldier". I can only imaging the sense of pride he is feeling for accomplishing this feat...I know Im about to burst with pride already, just wait til I see him! It will be impossible to fight back the tears of joy and pride for him!

He will have 6 more weeks after graduation in Texas for AIT, which will be training him for his specialty. By the first or second week of October he should be home with us!

Keep us all in your prayers as we travel up to Kentucky next Wednesday to see him and that we all have safe travel home. Im flying for my first time ever and a little terrified but I would run through a burning building, fly around the world and swim through alligators to see my husband so Im gonna make it!

Here is a picture of my Soldier! I will blog again when we return with pics from our trip!

Time For An Update

For starters I can not believe that time flies as fast as it does...June is quickly approaching and I feel like Christmas just got over and its almost time to do it again. However, I am so happy for summer, it is my favorite time of the year, Minus all the rain we have been having this week!

School is almost over thank goodness...this has been a very rough few months for me and the kids getting used to a new school. Lets just say they have not adjusted they way I thought they would. Im hoping for a more productive and smooth time for the upcoming school year. However I have been giving lots of thought to home schooling them... We will see how that works itself out.

The regular baseball season is over, but Allstars practice starts this week. So back to the ball field we go for another month. I don't mind, I do love to watch Brant play ball. Cheyenne is almost done with her dance lessons for this year and her recital is coming up soon! Im looking forward to seeing what she has learned this year.

We found out last week Larry is leaving June 10th for basic training for 10 weeks in Kentucky. The kids and I will be able to go see him graduate in August and then he will be off to Texas for another 6 weeks. I'm not happy that he is leaving, but I'm trying my best to stay strong and support his decision. I know why he is doing this and I admire him for being 40 years old and wanting to join the military...I just wish he didn't have to leave us for 4 months. He is my very best friend, the one I talk to several times a day during the day and we do almost everything together. We have only spent 3 nights apart and that was because he had surgery and he had to stay at the hospital. So this is going to be a huge adjustment for me to not have him here with me, but I know that as fast as time flies he will be home with us in no time...right?!!

While he is gone I plan to keep myself busy with my photography, which is going great so far. I have been having shoots almost every weekend, plus I did my first wedding last night! Talk about stressed out...but it was fun other than the torrential down pour that made them have the ceremony indoors. It will be a little while before I have the wedding pics on my photography website due to the extensive amount I took and editing...not to mention I have to spend lots of time now with my hubby! I also have a to-d0 list a mile long that I would like to get accomplished over the summer and I have lots of friends and family who will gladly let me sleep on their couch when I'm feeling lonely while the kids are gone to their dads. I actually looking forward to a sleep over at Rhonda's we haven't done that since we were in high school!

For now please keep our family in your prayers: that we will survive without him and that he will come safely home to us in October! I'm putting all my faith and trust in the Lord with this one that he will see us through!

Oh I almost forgot...I have a new niece Miss Layla Jo Hairston was born on May 21st and I was able to be in the delivery room to see her arrive! That was the most amazing thing to watch that little miracle come into the world...Im so happy Amy let me stay in the room during the birth! She is so beautiful and tiny...makes me wish I could have another one. Ill post pics soon, we will be doing her newborn shoot sometime in the next week!

It's Not Forever, Just For Now!

I have a friend that always used to tell anyone who was complaining about anything "It's Not Forever, Just For Now" . How right she is. I have to tell myself that one all the time and the kids too... Its one way to look at a situation you maybe in, it may seem like forever especially if its bad, but eventually it will fade away (usually) I know this is not the case in everything.

I tell my kids that when they dont want to do homework or go somewhere they dont like...If they will just grin and bare it for a little while it will soon be over! Im having to learn this myself with the financial situation we are in as a family and the whole USA! I know this strain can not last forever, it will get better eventually. Right now things look pretty dim for Americas, our economy and our government. I sometimes wonder if we will ever see the light at the end of the tunnel, but know in the back of my mind there will be but it may be a long time from now. I know more than ever we have to turn our eyes toward God and keep faith he will watch over us all and the good will come out of all this bad.


As it doesn't look like Im going to find a job anytime soon (I know I sound like a broken record "Its Not Forever Just For Now!"). Im going to have to be pretty creative for Christmas this year. We are going to give handmade crafts and for the kids be more selective in what we buy instead of buying the whole store. Its gonna be a shock this year for them, not that I have always been able to give them every expensive thing on their list but for the most part they got what they wanted plus some! However, Im excited that maybe this year they will actually understand what Christmas is all about, the birth of Jesus and feeling the joy of making & giving to others and not getting, getting, getting (all that extra stuff usually ends up in a yard sale anyway!) I think they will enjoy it more when they have a gift to give that they made themselves or at least I hope they do! They will get a few things they want, a few they need and a heart full of Love!


So last night I implemented something I had been thinking about doing...NO TV/COMPUTER/VIDEO GAMES NIGHT! You would have thought I told them I was gonna shot them when I mentioned it... but it was actually pleasant, we completed a few "to-dos" like o like their Christmas list, some 4-H paperwork for the fair, extra reading for AR points!!! Since it was rainy they were a little bored at first but during a few minute break we went for a quick bike ride/walk and ended up getting rained on before we got home...hehe... Brant sliced the potatoes for supper and then after dinner we sat down together to work on our No Sew Blankets we are making for Christmas and 4-H! Wow that was fun! It also gave me a chance to go through some of my craft supplies that Ive had forever, I found some cross stitching pieces that I havent finished so I may start working on them again...what the heck I need just one more thing to add to my to do list...LOL...Over all, the night went by pretty good without any total breakdowns. I will say Larry did watch a little news after Chey went to bed (but that's OK) then we all went to bed earlier than normal! Wow I may have to do that twice a week!

We are taking my nieces Katie & Savannah to find a pumpkin patch tomorrow (or at least I hope we find one) I cant wait to take pictures of them! If you haven't seen my gorgeous nieces wait til I post those pics! I will share next week!

One more little thing, I ask that you guys will remember us in prayer for Larry's job. With everything happening to the economy most companies are having cut backs and lay offs. We are hoping it will not effect us, but have been told no one is safe from a layoff...so with that said we are a little scared but keeping the Faith that God will watch over and keep us and if it happens we will deal with it keeping our eyes on him!

Hope you all have a wonderful Weekend!

Just A Little Walk

It's amazing how just a walk can do wonders for your mind, soul and body. I try to walk a few times a week for several reasons not only for exercise...however I do feel better after I walk physically.

The past few weeks I have only walked once or twice a week and boy do I feel it! We have had sickness in the house, then followed by too much stuff to do or just feeling lazy...So I need to get back on my routine... Funny how you can start a routine, any routine including something with the kids, eating healthier, exercising, going to bed earlier, getting the kids up earlier, and then something comes along and disrupts the whole house! Then your back to square one again, saying to yourself you need to get back in the routine you started! I have never quite figured out how to make a routine a habit...they don't last long enough to turn into a habit, not with kids...

Anyway back to walking...I usually take Chance our puppy. He loves it when I come out with the leash he sits patiently waiting for me to latch it on his collar. I just recently started listening to Cheyenne's Hannah Montana MP3 player, which has a mixture of her favorite songs, but sometimes I like to walk in silence... I use the time to pray or think out a problem we are facing...If I'm stressed that little 15 minutes can make all the difference in the way the rest of my day will go...I come back feeling recharged and ready to go again. It reminds me of that song "Just A Little Talk With Jesus"...so true...its a great time to look at nature and see everything God has made for us and truly thank him for his blessings, rather it be the sun shinning down on you or the breeze that seems to wrap you up like a big hug, it all just feels so good!

Yesterday I put some songs by Chris Tomlin on her MP3 player and listened to it while I walked, it had to be the best walk Ive had in a long time...I really listened to the words and concentrated on how it made me feel like I was walking closer to God than I have in a lot of years, I have always prayed and believed, just not always been as close as I should have been.

We are trying so hard to "Keep the Faith", we tell each other daily to Have Faith, the Lord will take care of us. Sometimes its hard to see it through all the bad news about our failing economy & government. With so many people facing unemployment and foreclosures, we feel there is no relief in sight...however there is...we must all "Keep the Faith" that the Lord will see us all through this hard time! So take a few minutes and take a little walk with Jesus and tell him about all your troubles! He will listen and you will feel better I promise!

I Can Feel The Winds of Change Coming!

Not only is summer coming to a close (which makes me sad) because I so love summer time, Fall is defiantly in the air. I can feel it in the mornings when I take the kids to school and late evenings too! It almost makes me want to put out my Fall Decorations, but I'm gonna wait a little longer for that, gonna hang onto summer as long as I can.

It's not only the seasons that I feel are changing, the past week has been on heck of a whirlwind for me. I have had so many emotions. I started this week, feeling like I have hit the lowest of low in my life. I had no direction in which to turn. I honestly felt numb for lack of better terms... Recently we decided that we really needed to find a church and change our lives and the kids for the good... Although I knew all this time we needed too, we just didn't make it top priority ( I know shame on us). So we went to church on Sunday and It was nice. I liked everything about it, Larry & Cheyenne did too. But the strangest thing happened to me when it was over, I felt this total lack of control and I was running scared, not sure what in the world I was feeling, what I was going to do. I had no explanation but "I don't Know". Maybe it was Satan knowing that I was fixing to turn my life back to God and he was putting all of these thoughts in my head. Long story short, I spent the next 2 days, dazed & confused, running basically on auto pilot and then when confronted by Larry, I lost it... I cried until I looked like a I had a bad allergic reaction, I prayed, I talked to a great friend for hours, I went to the cemetery and prayed some more. I finally felt comforted by the words I had read in a devotional bible and my prayers... I decided that whatever is going on I need to "let go and let God". I realized that I had lost all Faith in the Lord and what he can do in not only my life but all of our lives. We all as a family need this not just me. So the rest of the week, I have spent trying to rebuild my faith and trust in the Lord, feeling more confident and blessed for what I do have and not being upset for what I don't. Most importantly trusting that he will reveal to us in his own time his will for our lives.

We also have some other things in the works that I need to leave for a later time until I know for sure, but we are going to take a "Leap of Faith" in the words of Jill (a great friend of mine) and see where it takes us.

One more little thing that came from all this and it took Jill to point it out to me. I also had apprehensions of going to church in a place where people knew me, knew my past and that I have not lived as I should. Which goes way beyond church, I generally didn't want to "run into" anyone who knew me or knew about me that could pass judgment about me, my family or my life... I know it sounds crazy to feel that way, but I did, I have nothing to be ashamed of really, maybe I haven't made all the right choices, Ive been divorced, I have 2 children with 2 different fathers and now I'm remarried to someone who is also divorced... but she told me "I don't see any of that in you, I just wish you could see what others see in you and who you are to others". She let me know that most people don't think of us as we think of ourselves and it made me realize I was passing judgement on myself before anyone else had the chance to think anything about me, good or bad. So I'm also working toward being me and loving me for who I am no matter what others may or not think... Having a low self-esteem is such a big thing to overcome, but I'm working on it!!!!

So there are lots of things changing around here and I will keep you informed as they all take place! I'm really looking forward to these changes in our life, I am confident they are all for the better!!!