Itty bitty pity party

I'm having a tiny pity party tonight.

First off, let me say, that I really didn't have a bad day. I spent the morning and the evening in the company of one of my very best friends and she fed me breakfast and dinner (yea for no cooking!) I also got to talk to my husband and I even made reservations for our post deployment vacation and ended up saving about $300 on it! So, over all, it was a pretty nice day.

Tonight, however, I'm feeling frustrated and pitiful.

I have two broken feet. Well, technically, I have one broken foot and one hurt foot, but same difference. A few months back (yes, months, as in plural) I managed to step into one of those God-forsaken bead wire thingies and twisted and damaged the tendons on the bottom of my left foot. I was told that until I had 2-3 weeks of rest, I would be in pain and should be in a boot. This is hilarious, really, because my husband is deployed half way around the world and I have two small and precocious children. Rest, ha. Showering daily is a challenge, let's be realistic. I'll rest when I'm dead, for now, I'll just suffer the hurt foot.

As if that wasn't enough, I go and get my pinky toe broken, dislocated, and the adjoining bone fractured on my right foot. This is a good story. Duke did it. Yeah, my horse dog broke my darn foot. He was just jumping around being an excited puppy, (which he rarely does, actually) and his foot somehow caught my toe and it ended up all hanging off the side of my foot in a funky angle. This was on Christmas Eve. After the worlds fastest ER trip in history, I get saddled with ANOTHER boot and crutches. Yeah, right people. Crutches??? I'm a mom of a toddler and a preschooler with no husband around. Ha.

Today both my feet are so swollen that even socks kinda hurt. That's why I'm pitiful. I hate being injured and in pain and I hate that my house is a mess! So there it is. A very lamenting blog post because I needed to get it off my chest. Oh, and here is a picture of my pitiful feet. They were once skinny and pretty, now... not so much.

I suck at life, but I'm wicked cool

Okay, so that's a bit misleading. I don't suck at life (most of the time) but I do suck at blogging.

2011 was a bit of a crapshoot. Deployment really sucks the life out of me, and then add in two children (my precious little terrors), a new puppy (what was I thinking?), and a lot of illness and injury (mostly my own!) and you can see why I haven't written much.

It's a new year now. 2011 is history. 2012 is finally here. It hold the promise of greatness. I am ready.

It started off right, margaritas and homecoming sign making. Does it get much better? Well... technically, it totally does, but for me, it was a pretty good way to start. Minutes after the ball dropped I stepped outside to do something I shouldn't do, but while I was out there, I saw a shooting star. I felt like I was a little girl, but I made a wish. I know it will come true.

Deployment is almost over. {pause} HAPPY DANCE {un-pause} and with that, comes a whole lot of happiness.

My kids are flourishing, although I really don't know how being as I am barely keeping my head above water. I am lucky, I guess, that I have very intelligent and adaptable children. We got a dog, Duke, who is a 9 month old Scottish Deerhound. Basically, we now own a small horse. Not much else to say other than I'm going to write a bit every day now. I know I need to do something, for me, which is what this is. If anyone else reads it, then yea

Other big news is that I got a DSLR camera (being as this is supposed to be a "snapshot" blog...) so here's some of my favorite pictures from the last few months.

Abby Kate and Daddy doll at Asher's school play

Asher (in the middle) the cutest cow on Earth

So, I went a little overboard for Christmas...

Christmas morning, before we went downstairs

Asher in his safety goggles

Abby Kate testing out the baby doll's pack n play

Asher, modeling a new outfit

Asher and Duke (I told you, he's a horse...)

My boys

Possum grin!

Cutie pie

The play room/dining room, post Christmas haul

Duke Fergus Plunk

Me smooching my baby boy

"I was born Awesome"

Baby pedicure

Piggie Paint rocks!

Naked baby butt

My little trend setter

Aww, they love each other!

My Duke

Cutie pies

My little fashionista with her jammies and tutu look

Love this face

Aquarium

Checking out the fist

Turtle!

Shark!

Playing in the "submarine"

"Fire the Missiles!"

Touch tank

Coolest picture!

GEAUX SAINTS!

Love Abby Kate's face!

More sibling love

And there you have it, my first blog of the new year, and a new start on this blogging business... again.

A whirlwind week

The last week (well, officially the last 10 days...) has been absolutely insane.

On Friday the 13th, Bryan came home from an underway and started the final countdown to deployment. We enjoyed our last week together. We celebrated all of our birthdays (Mine and Asher's actually occured, but all of them happen close together) and our 7th wedding anniversary, which happens later this month. We even made a trip to Busch Gardens with some good friends and had a blast. Then it was D-day.

Bryan deployed on May 20th. It was a tough day. Watching him say goodbye to our babies and watching the boat sail away was something that I will never forget. It's so different each time they leave. The emotions run high, but it's always a different set of them. Logistically, I am not worried about the deployment, because I know I can do everything I need to do as a parent without help. It might not be easy, but I know I can do it. Emotionally, I am worried about surviving without him. I know he's still here for me, but it's different when you don't get to see or talk to each other every day.

It's really just hitting me that he's gone, mostly because I was preoccupied by the 1400 mile road trip I made with the kids... by myself. Yeah, you heard me, I'm insane. Right after the ship pulled out, I hit the road and drove 3 days to Texas with the babies to visit the family. It wasn't as bad as I had nightmares of it being, but it wasn't easy either. Day 2 nearly killed me, but I made it with most of my sanity intact. Now I just have a 7 month deployment to survive with my sanity intact!

I am sure I will have many a sad and poignant blog in the months ahead, but today's is just to get my mind emptied out of some of this and to share my beautiful pictures by BLP Photography.

Seriously, let me just take a minute to say, Brittany of BLP Photography is amazing. Not only does she have some serious talent, but she is a wonderful person to work with. She took a nightmare of a day and made us laugh and kept me from losing my mind. She captured some amazing pictures and I am so glad I decided to hire a photographer for D-day.

Oh, and we are famous, we made the news in the Hampton Roads area. It was pretty insane, but pretty cool too. Anyways, I am going to wrap up this rather mish-mashed blog with pictures and the video of our interview. Enjoy and get the tissues, you'll probably need them.


Here's the video of us on the news

And here are some of the pictures. Prepare to cry.