Praying

we had a habit of praying together everynight. We would pray as a family and then he and I would pray as a couple. The couples prayer started when we first got married. We prayed at night so that we could always sleep in peace with each other. Some nights were harder than others. It was  hard to pray when we were upset. What was even harder was that we would pray in bed after the lights were turned off.

He has always taken his time with his night time routine, brushing teeth, washing face, setting out his uniform for the next day. I would lie in bed and read which has always made me tired. By the time he would come to bed I was about 3 seconds away from sleep.

It was my turn to pray I started and then while I was thinking about what to say next , I was in deep meditation… really really deep meditation. Then he  nudged me. Apparently I had fallen asleep and had started snoring. I started again and tried this time I was slurring my words. Ok… one last time, in the middle of my word I was out.  He decided to let me sleep since I looked so peaceful.

The land of the flying cockroaches

One beautiful night we had the glass doors open to the lanai and were enjoying the breeze. The kids and I were playing on the living room floor and he was watching TV. All of a sudden something flew in and parked itself on the wall. I looked and saw the biggest cockroach I had ever seen. I swear it was the size of a bird. Now I am deathly afraid of roaches. I find them gross and dirty and I have this unrealistic fear that they are going to nibble on my toes, fingers, or ear and then I will die. (yes I have actually thought this whole thing through)

So there's this huge bug on my wall and I start to scream, "kill it kill it kill it". I know that some people might think I was exaggerating but I truly felt like my life was in danger.He grabbed the raid and a shoe. I told him to wait until I brought the kids and I into a safe place. I went into the bedroom that was the furthest away from the action. I locked the door. Yes I actually thought that perhaps the cockroach would try to escape and in it's panic open the bedroom door and hide with us.

These's a knock at my bedroom door… Uh oh, what if it killed him and now it's come to eat us too.  I asked "Is it dead?"
Luckily my husbands voiced answered, "Yes I killed it and put it in the toilet."
"Did you flush?"
"No"
"then how do you know it won't come back to life while we are asleep and kills us?"
My husband being the great man that he is, appeased me and flushed… phew we were safe.

Sweet Bread

Here we were in hawaii. Our first order of business was to find a place to stay. we looked at some military housing and were not impressed. We were eligible for a four bedroom house. The first one we looked at was out in the boonies and the rooms weren't real rooms. They were partitioned with sliding accordion walls. Now He and I are not snobs by any means but this was just not gonna do for us. The next one we looked at was again a four bedroom but in brick quadplexes that very much reminded me of bunkers.

We decided to get put on a waiting list for a nice development. They told us the time frame we were looking at was about 2 years. We decided to wait. We ended up renting in the mean time a 3 bedroom apartment by the bread factory. ohhhh It was torture to have the window open at night, for that is when they baked and the sweet aroma of fresh bread filled the apartment of a hungry pregnant lady. I attempted to try baking bread because I craved it so much… unfortunately when I would let the dough rise I would always forget about it till the next day and I would sometimes find critters by it or was no  longer in the mood to bake

Home Sweet Home

Our plane was getting ready to land. I loved new beginnings and this was as new as they come. We had told all our friends and family we were moving to Hawaii. Many said they would come visit us. This was exciting. I couldn't wait to get settled in and take my kids to all the beaches. He on the other hand had this thing against water. He hated the ocean. He hated the way it smelled, how dirty the sand was, and that he was forced occasionally to board a floating or sinking vessel.

The first thing I noticed that kinda killed that ahhh allure was how hot and muggy  at 10 oclock at night. Being 5 months pregnant made it even worse. The kids were restless from a 5 hour plane ride. He being the great father that he was picked up both the girls, put one on his back and the on on his hip and went to find our luggage. I waddled behind him. this was home for the next 3 years. I had everyone I needed, my two daughters and my husband, home sweet home.

Little did I know all the trials that would happen on this island but to be fair I wasn't prepared for all the great things that happened either

Horror flick

We finally left Florida. we spent a couple of days in North Carolina and then we were suppose to go to see my Aunt in reno and then we would go to Cali to get the kids and then off to island. When we left North Carolina our destination was St. Louis. We got there and decided to start looking for a hotel. We passed the Airport because we wanted to stay on the outer part of the city. We saw a sign the said hotel next exit.

Awesome, it was about 11'oclock at night and we were getting tired. We saw another sign that said hotel 3 miles with an arrow pointing towards the right. We followed the road for about 10 miles, never found this hotel that was advertised, maybe we missed it. The road was pitch black, there were no street lights and I think we were in a forest. this all seemed like the makings of a horror flick!

 I was pregnant so I knew that the killer would get me first. All we needed was a flat tire and that would be the end of us. "Honey lets forget this hotel and go back to the freeway before something bad happens" I said. I saw the fear in his eyes too or maybe it was a condescending look. Doesn't matter, it's my story and I can make it what ever I want.

We made it back to the airport and found a place to settle there, safe from any mass murderers hiding in the forest.

Under the Fridge

We woke up after sleeping on the floor. stuffed the car with the few items we had left and did some tidying up and waited for the inspection so we could check out of housing. The lady came in and did a quick look around said we failed and said she would return in the next hour. We swept the floor again tried ot get every corner and I scrubbed the oven again and we borrowed a vacuum. We had waxed the floors the previous day so everything looked spiffy.

She came in and then moved the fridge and, of course the difference between under that and the kitchen floor would be noticeable. She told us that it needed to be waxed and that she would be back at noon and if we didn't pass that inspection we would have to wait til monday cause they did not work on the weekends. We did not have that type of time. we were already behind a couple hours. We were suppose to drive to North Carolina.

There we go again. We had to borrow a buffer and lay down the wax… I refused to strip it because it would be too much work. finally we got it to shine, but in actuality who was going to look under the fridge besides this anal lady! She got there and then said that she shouldn't pass us because it was not up to par but that she would and…. at this point we stopped listening because it didn't matter. We had passed, let us sign the release lady cause we're off to HAWAII!!!!

we're going back to cali

we decided that Hawaii was the best place to go to next. I had never lived in somewhere overtly cold and he had and did not want to do that again. I would be having a Hawaiian baby, I was excited but to go live on the island again. Before that though I had to go to cali for a wedding and a graduation.

I spent a month a cali. I brought the girls with me I then left the girls and with my mom and went back to florida to get everything ready for the move. As we were getting ready for the movers to come I found 3 boxes that never got unpacked.

I opened the boxes and found three boxes of toys. There are so many other toys that we just kinds forgot about these. I truly believe that if by now I hadn't opened them that I didn't need them. I Called up goodwill and had them pick up the toys. The schedule was movers came in on wednesday and we clean on thursday and inspection on friday and then leave on a cross country trip back to cali.

Man of Steel

It was 4 am and I hear "honey… can you tie my shoes?" Mr Broken arm was getting ready to go to work and he had "flight deck boots" that laces up to mid calf.  He broke his arm playing basketball and they had put a weighted cast to try to fix his bone.

"I can't button my pants, can you help me?"

This ordeal had made him helpless. I felt sorry for him to a point and felt more sorry for me. He left for work and I tried to get back to sleep. Then the baby woke up. It was still dark outside. I fed the baby and it was only 6 am so I put her back to sleep and I tried to get to sleep, right as I was about to fall asleep the toddler woke up and that was that for the day.

He went to the doctors and and he told him that the cast was not working. He would need to have surgery in his arm and they would meld his bone with a metal plate. He had become the superman I always knew he was, he became a man of steel.

With my finger

One of funniest stories we have about our oldest is something I have seen the rest of my kids do but just not so innocently and boldly. The oldest was obsessed with ketchup. Anything she ate she wanted ketchup on, green beans, rice, and of course french fries. One night we were having french fries and of course, she had her dollop of ketchup.  As she finished her fries she looked at her plate and said " More ketchup please."

we looked at her plate and I said " You don't have anymore fries, what are you gonna eat the ketchup with?"

"My finger."

Definitely one of the best stories we have about her

Carnivore

I have stated before how my husband is a carnivore, the man wants meat! This pregnancy was quite different for me. I had really bad morning, afternoon, and night sickness. I was having horrible heartburn even when I drank water. My nose became extra sensitive. I couldn't handle the smell of the trash in the house… Changing the baby became something I dreaded even more than usual. then the worse part of this came….I could not handle the smell of meat cooking.

I personally love pasta dinners with no meat but not so much him. I stopped cooking meat. He didn't really notice it at first, he just thought I was on a "kick" Then he asked one day for spaghetti with meat sauce. I bought some sauce with a meat, where you can barely tell it has any meat. He was not happy. He wanted meat and the little crumbs in the sauce would not do.

I could not handle it. Cooking it and the fat and just something about it would send me retching . The toddler wasn't big on meat either so we became vegetarians for a little bit, well at least the baby and I became vegetarians, I know that he went to McDonalds almost everyday for lunch

3 kids

This was such a great emotional ride, I was struggling with a Toddler, nursing a baby and pregnant. I cried over everything. I couldn't watch the news because  I would feel an over whelming sympathy for victims and the water works would start and I didn't know how to shut them off.

One day while I was at home there was a knock at the door. I answered it and it was a friend of ours. He said "I need to take you to the hospital and bring the kids my wife will take care of them."

I immediately became scared. "what's happened?"
"your husband has been hurt and he's at the hospital waiting for xrays. he's ok, he just fell. "

I went to the hospital and saw him. His arm was swollen, It was a clean break and they would try fix with a weighted cast.

So now I was struggling with a toddler and an infant, pregnant and caring for a broken husband who could not tie his own shoes or bathe himself, I swear I had 3 kids in the home

The girls

The baby was about 6 months old when and we were settled into our new home that in about 6 months would no longer be our home. we had two basic places we could be stationed, either in Connecticut or Hawaii. The choice was not to be made soon but eventually. we would of course discuss which would be better for our family but either way we were moving in 6 months.

Our little home gave us a perfect routine. We had a swing set in the back that the girls loved. I had just recently started to refer to them as one entity, the girls. I liked it, I felt like it gave them an exclusive club. The toddler had started to warm up to the baby. she liked to hold her on the couch. She would sit on the couch and ask for baby. For the most part they were good children.

I was happy and getting settled into this family. My parents had had 2 girls, I had two girls, I felt that perhaps this was perfect. Then it just happened… I was pregnant again.

A warm shower

I liked to entertain guest and one time we had this young couple come to our house. They had a young baby also and had brought her over. Our baby was sleeping. Their baby started to fuss a bit and they said they needed to feed her. They needed warm water and asked if they could warm the water in our microwave. We did not own a microwave.   we both felt we didn't need one, I cooked practically everyday and we both hated left overs and therefore never needed to warm anything up.

we told them we didn't have a microwave and that we could warm the water on the stove. They looked dumbfounded like we had just stated the most outrageous thing. The silence was odd. Then the guy spoke up, "how do warm up the baby's bottle?"

Without missing a beat my husband answers, "We send my wife to take a warm shower."