Sweet Lindsay

Today Lindsay pulled Tyler's hair and kicked him. Naturally, I put her in time out for her behavior. When I went to get her out of time out, she was on her knees with her arms folded and acting like she was praying. I asked her what she was doing and she looked up at me and said (sobbing), "I am asking Heavenly Father to forgive me for my sins." It was so sweet. Now if only a little of that could rub off on Tyler!

Service

My home teachers came over the other day and gave me this cute coupon book! I thought it was so creative and so nice. The book is full of service coupons like free babysitting, lawn care, and house cleaning. I was truly touched by their generosity! What a creative idea!

No time to blog!

I made it through 1 week without a husband...only like 18 more to go (but who's counting?). The week seemed to go by REALLY slow, even though we were really busy with kids' activities, my church calling, and just everyday stuff around the house. In all the craziness, I have definitely neglected my blogging duties!

I have a lot of respect for all the single moms in the world who carry the work load of both a mother and a father. This past week has made me realize how much Jon actually does to help me. Just having someone to entertain and play with the kids gave me a lot of extra free time that I am now missing. Jon is also the one who puts all kids to bed, bathes them, reads them stories, etc. Bedtime wears me out! Maybe the fact that I'm 36 weeks pregnant has something to do with that, but by the time they are all in bed, I'm ready for bed!

A couple of Jon's other chores around the house are unloading the dishwasher and taking out the trash. Both things I HATE doing! I don't know why, but I don't mind loading the dishwasher, I just hate putting it away! Oh, and taking out the trash sucks...especially when you miss trash day on Monday and have twice as much to take out on Thursday.

However, I shouldn't complain because some things have been nice...for example, I get the whole (king size) bed to myself. No fighting over blankets and waking up cold because he stole my blanket and no kicking him in the night because his snoring woke me up. Some other luxuries have been less laundry, only one car to gas up, no fighting over the remote (not that we fought much anyway...I usually control it), and no "hairs" on my bar of soap in the shower...all you married people know exactly what I'm talking about and don't deny it!

I definitely think I am going to survive without Jon around, but I am glad that it is only temporary. I need someone to take out the trash, so the next 4 months and 1 week better go by fast!

Bye, Bye Daddy!

Well, yesterday was the big day...the day that Jon left for Iraq. It was pretty much a terrible day from the start. First of all, he had to meet the other deployers at 3:30 in the morning. We were allowed to meet him at the airport at 5:00am and then he flew out at 7:00am. So, I dragged all three kids out of bed at about 4:30 so we could go see him off. The one nice thing was that they let the family go through the security check point, so we were able to hang out with him until about 6:45am. I think because this is his first deployment, it was extra hard (I've heard it gets easier???). I was holding strong emotionally until it was actually time to get on the plane. I was really trying not to cry, but with the extra pregnancy hormones, that was near impossible. Lindsay saw me crying and she started bawling.

So Jon got on the plane and then we came home to go back to bed. It was already light outside, so the kids had a hard time going back to sleep and so did I. Tired mom + cranky, tired kids=a recipe for disaster. It was a long day and I couldn't wait for bedtime to come. I decided to go to church, even though we were so exhausted, but the kids actually were very well-behaved. The worst part of church was that everybody kept asking me how I was doing (which is nice that they are all so concerned), but everytime they would ask, I would get all emotional. It sucked.

We eventually made it through the day (thanks to some friends who invited us over for dinner). I am now trying to look on the bright side and trying to figure out how to be a single mom for the next 4 1/2 months and have baby #4 without a husband (any tips?). I know that I shouldn't complain because many husbands are gone for a lot longer than 4 1/2 months and there are so many people that are a lot worse off than me. I need to count my blessings. My hilarious cousin said to me, "What more could you want...a husband who is never around to drive you crazy, but he sends you lots of money??"

If any of you would like Jon's email/mailing address, let me know and I will get it to you. I am sure he would appreciate any extra support. Plus, making packages makes for great Family Home Evenings and service projects :)).

Little Ballerina

Soccer Time