Monday, July 27, 2009

What a Day...

Last night, may have been the most awful night ever. I may have gotten three solid hours of sleep. All I could think about was: what if a roach crawls on my bed? what if they're IN my bed? I had an awful dream that there were three of them hiding under my pillow. I woke up and had to go to the bathroom. I held it for two hours, because I was terrified that if I went into the bathroom I'd turn on the light and a roach would scatter across the floor. So when 6:30am came, I was exhausted. Paul woke up with me and did a thorough search of the house to make sure that there was nothing that would make me lose control of my bladder.

He's such an amazing husband. I went to pick up my Ashley yesterday, who I hadn't seen in a MONTH, and while I was gone, Paul cleaned under both the couches, the stove and the washer and dryer. He only found two, and they were under the washer...thank God.

So I babysat Robin today for the first time. She's a 3 1/2 year old Dora the Explorer look alike. She acts like her too. She doesn't find much joy in doing creative thins like coloring, or making crafts. She loves to play cars and be outside with Jacob and the dog.

And after she left, and every ounce of energy I had was exhausted, I sat in front of the door and waited for the Orkin man to show up. His timeframe was between 1 and 5pm. It was 5:30. I was freaking out. "Please God don't make me have another night of no sleep." So I called, and THANK GOD I did, because they had forgotten about me. Nice save. I learned from Tony, my new best friend, that the roaches that are in our house are not the bad roaches. These ones are outside dwellers, they don't come in to eat our food, they just find their way in through cracks. He said they call them 'water bugs.' And since we're blessed with an inlet to the ocean behind our house, that's why they're here. Well, at least they're not the "German roaches." Those are the ones that swarm in your cupboards and you find them in your food.

Tony tells me that we've got a few places in our house need sealed off, and that we should definitely NOT move to base housing because,he said,they're even worse. Yay. So if I don't seal off my crawl space better the rats will get in in winter. Never in my life have I dealt with this kind of crap. Grr. Oh well, at least now we're golden. We might see a few, but it'll only be dead ones. *Whew!*

Well, time to make dinner. Still waiting for the husband to get home from work. Terriyaki chicken over rice for dinner. Talk to you soon!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Joy!

We woke up this morning to "Mama! Mama! Dad!" This is our routine weekend alarm clock, but the difference is, last night we stayed up to watch Revolutionary Road. We were up until 1:30, and let me tell you I about cried for an hour afterword. (This movie will suck any happiness you have out of your 2 hours.) Of course the dog woke up twice in the middle of the night, and Paul got up and let her out both times. He was running low on sleep and he was a BEAR this morning. So, I got up and walked into my toddler's bedroom, to find him pointing at something on the floor. "What's that momma?" I had a feeling what was to come. I saw a quick glimpse and forced myself not to scream as my husband quickly pulled me out of the doorway, barging into the room with his weapon of choice: toilet paper. He knew too. Yes, my friends, the Voltron of all cockroaches was laying on it's back in my baby boy's room.

Needless to say, we freaked out. We are very clean people. I vacuum every other day, and there is never a drop of food left out or where it's not supposed to be. The same issue occurred around the middle of June. We spotted a couple of dead ones. One on the wall in the bathroom and one in the spare room closet. Immediately we had the house sprayed, and we found a few dead ones after that, but apparently that's how it goes.

It's only about a month later and they're back. I have to tell you, there is nothing I fear more than a cockroach. I never saw one before now, and they're just as terrifying in person as they are on screen. They may be the only phobia I have.

We called Orkin, and they'll be here tomorrow morning, thank God, but it's still terrifying to think that they are in my house for another day.

So, after all that mess was taken care of, we got showered and ready for church. Paul cooked breakfast, and grumbled at the dog, the kid, and me. (Grump.) And we were off to church.

We've had a hard time up until now trying to decide on which church to stick with. Glad Tidings or Harvest? We loved specific things about both. The friends we made at Glad Tidings are awesome, and they have a Military Fellowship twice a month as well. But the pastor wasn't the MOST personable. Which is kind of understandable, I mean, it's a huge church, and it's hard to get into deep conversation with every new person that goes. We like the fact that GT is so organized. They have their small groups and they are AG, etc.

Then there's Harvest. Pastor Craig wears jeans and a button up for sunday service, the worship is AWESOME! It's concert style, which is what we're used to, and the sermons leave us feeling fed, and even FULL!

So, I left it up to hubby today. "What church are we gonna go to babe?"
"The one on the road."
"They're both on roads, babe."
"I forget the name! The one we went to last week," he growled. (It was along those lines."
"Ok. Why are you so grumpy?"
"I'm not grumpy! I'm just upset. The dog is driving me nuts, Jacob keeps throwing his food on the floor, Gidget eats it, he knows he's not allowed to throw it, and now we have COCKROACHES! I swear to you if we can't get rid of these cockroaches..."

We hopped in the car and I prayed, "Lord, PLEASE let him find his niche. He's not going to be really happy happy until he finds his niche."

Service was AMAZING. I'll post a link to the message as soon as it's up. It's a MUST hear. Pastor talked about how Christians have let the joy be sucked out of their life, by removing the simple things that God has created for joy. And the Bible says, "Joy is our strength."

He went on to talk about how he went to a Coldplay concert, and how everyone was so excited and everyone talked to everyone else and they were really joyful! And how when he goes to a Christian event, majority of the time, he feels like he has to be on his best behavior, and like he has to walk within a margin, sucking the joy out of it. He even said, "I know a lot of Christians would judge me for going to a Coldplay concert. Why? Why does there have to be "secular music and spiritual music?" This man was right on our level. And something within Paul was lifted. His eyes started shining, and you could LITERALLY SEE joy shooting through him. This pastor is us. And it was then we realized where we belong.

Everyone knows the part of service where you turn and greet eachoter and say hi and everything. The pastor walked from the pulpit and shook Paul's and my hands, and welcomed us. He said he saw us last week and didn't get to meet us. *gasp* There is no way for me to type an expression of how awesome this was to us! He personally invited us to their luncheon after service.

At the luncheon, he came over and sat with us. We explained to him how we used to be on worship team, and Paul noticed they don't have a bass player. I explained that I had spoken to one of the guys from the church on the phone and told him this, but he'd said we'd have to wait til after "Harvest 101," which is a class to make sure the church is the right fit for us, and we're the right fit for the church. Pastor said, "Ya, that'd be great if you could make it to that, but you be at practice Thursday at 6:30." !!!!!!!!! Paul's niche.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

D.R.A.M.A

So. My phone rang today. It was an old friend who needed advice. She was concerned because her live-in boyfriend has been texting and recieving texts from a girl that I'm "friends" with. She called me and asked me what she should think.

Seeing as this girl has had a history of being a tad two-faced, I called it like I saw it. I just wanted to help her out, and be honest.

All of a sudden my phone is blowing up, "Wow, you're THAT bad of a friend Shannon? I stole your boyfriend? We were 14."

I won't go into detail, but I've always had my guard up with this girl, and in my trying to look out for someone, now I'm being attacked.

So, today, I'm turning a new leaf. I'm not giving advice to anyone about anyone else, and I'm not re-friending someone who I have doubts about. Lesson learned. And with that said, I guess it's time to just let go of my PA people. I refuse to allow their drama follow me to VA, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to get out of PA anyway. Of course I won't let go of my family, but I haven't really had much of a positive experience with any of my old friends since I moved here.

O well...

Friday, July 24, 2009

Conformist Revolution


Well, I decided to cave. I am now...a blogger. Maybe now my family can read what's going on with us.

The big thing that's been on my mind lately is the up and coming deployment. I was looking through some military support sites today, and stumbled upon http://www.sesameplace.com/. Now, we recieved the deployment kit from http://www.militaryonesource.com/, but this site has a whole lot more resources to help children through their parent's deployment.

I, at first, was getting excited for the fun things they offer, but then, I got a bit nervous. I wonder how Jacob will act? I wonder if he'll be ok? I don't want him to be emotionally scarred from daddy being gone. I know that thousands of kids deal with this across the country and turn out just fine, but it doesn't make it any less scary for me. Jacob already went a year without a daddy. I also realize that just because Paul will be away doesn't mean he's out of Jacob's life. I'm just priming him with prayer. "Lord, please guard his heart from being wounded by this temporary time of being away. And please help them to manifest their relationship in the unorthodox ways that one must use when in two different countries."

Also, there is so much preparation that needs done. It's truly overwhelming. From taking care of the bills, to getting a job, to childcare, to planning what I'm going to send him for Christmas, Anniversary, Valentines Day, his birthday, Jacob's birthday, Easter...to how I'm going to get our taxes done. There are plenty of worksheets, and even classes on pre-deployment prep, but Paul and I suffer from avoidance behavior. We'd rather be relishing in the time we have than putting the blade to the stone and planning. I know, it probably seems childish or immature...or just foolish. We'll probably do it next month: take an entire day and just sit down with the worksheets and plan everything. However. Still scary.

I would be a little less anxious if the Ombudsman or FRG president would get in touch with me, even just to give me a sense of: Ok, we're gonna get through this together. But I've heard nothing.
On the same token, maybe it's not a bad thing that dealing with everything can be delayed. As a family, we just have to remember...God knows the beginning from the end, and He is always faithful.