trying to get down to the heart of the matter

I have been doing some soul searching lately. I had been completely let down with scrapbooking for reasons I am not going to disclose, but I stopped having fun with it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to quit or not. With my husband leaving and adjusting to the curves that life has thrown me, I packed everything up. For weeks all my scrapbook stuff sat in the bottom of my closet behind the closed door. Slowly little by little in the last 2 weeks, I have been bringing it back out. I have been falling in love with this hobby all over again. This time though my daughter is joining the ride. :) She is so sweet, she came out of her room yesterday and said " momma- it's scrapbooking time". So here is what I have produced with "scrapbooking time" :)

Taking things one day at a time

Need I say more :) I just wanted to pop in real quick and say we are doing ok. We made it through the 1st month of Michael being gone and I guess we sort of have a routine finally established. I will update more later...... :)

Amanda

Happy 4th of July

351 days and counting.....

You know that song, " I can see clearly now that the rain is gone" ? That is totally how I feel, like a fog has been lifted. We even went through 2 days of not hearing from Michael at all and I didn't even break a sweat. Which is unusual for me. I am a control freak, love to have things planned out. That is just how I am. So naturally I am going to have some rough moments with this separation. Even Emily is doing better, the tantrums are few and far between. Nothing major like last week. Believe me, I know we will have down days, but right now I am going to enjoy the good. I have spent a lot of time reading since Michael left and that has helped keep my mind off things. In fact I have read 3 books in the last 2 days. I feel bad though because my scrapping has been affected. I haven't scrapped in months and while Michael was home we packed everything up and put it in the closet. I just have lost the desire to scrap right now.

Well I have to run- gotta clean and get some laundry done :) Here are some recent pics-

Amanda

Adjusting

Adjusting to a deployment sucks. I am not going to sugar coat it. I have had some very bad days, but some pretty ok days too. Yesterday was one of those days. I have been through deployments before, but never where I was living on my own and having a child to raise. My daughter breaks my heart daily. The first day after he left, she laid in my bed half the day wrapped up watching cartoons, telling me that "I miss my daddy, I have tears". She has had major temper tantrums, the littlest thing sets her off. I am trying my hardest to give her the attention and reassurance that she needs. Trying to find a routine for us has been daunting. Everytime I leave my house, my husband manages to get online. So I have to rush back home to talk to him. My daughter seems to brighten up after talking to her daddy. Thank goodness we are never far from home! I will play this game until he is settled. We have a box already set aside to mail to my hubby, Emily has been coloring lots of pictures for her daddy. :)

Oh yea gotta LOVE thieves!! You would think being among soldiers you wouldnt have to worry about this, but NEWSFLASH they are just as bad. I hope the soldier that stole my husbands glasses enjoys them while he can, cause Karma is going to come back and bite you. The were $400 glasses, thank goodness we didnt pay that for them. Otherwise I would have had a heart attack. So I will be off to the store to fix my husbands broken pair that he never had fixed to mail to him.

He's home

For two weeks and all it has done since he has been home is rain. Guess what it did while I was in texas?? Yup it rained every day. UGH I was so looking forward to the beach with him and Busch Gardens. Oh well we will have to figure out other things to do. Can I say I didn't know it was going to be this hard having him home. I am totally being territorial and quick to be irritated with him. I swear if he touches my thermostat one more time or tracks dirt on the carpet again, I will just scream. I am trying to remember he is only here for 2 weeks then gone for a year, but sometimes he just grinds my gears. Comes in and thinks he is the man of the house and we have to go by his rules WTF~! Does he not understand that we have a routine that works for emily and I. That he needs to think about that before he gets his head up his butt. It was kind of sweet justice when he dropped his ipod in the toliet yesterday. Thats kind of mean isnt it. I love him I do. Just transitioning to this deployement has SUCKED. Not that it doesn't suck all the time, but this is the first one with Emily. Thanks for letting me rant over this nonsense. Sometimes you just need to let it out. :)

Gotta head to walmart oh joy.

Amanda

Home from Texas and Fernandina......

Sorry it's taken so long to post. I have been home for a week and it has taken that long for me to recover. Texas was good. Glad I got to see my hubby and my girl Christine :) Had some really yummy BBQ while there. I am still dreaming about the cream corn... Can that be overnighted?? LOL

Shrimp fest was awesome as always. I got to see alot of people I normally don't get to see. This year I spent alot of time with my cousins, which was nice.

Hmmm--- I have some good news. Michael is coming home next week for 2 weeks :) Then he will be gone for a year :( I am thankful he gets to come home before the big trip. So this week will be spent getting ready for him to come home and Emma is getting fixed on Wednesday, so busy busy....

I am going to scrap with pursejunkie tomorrow night (thats right be jealous!!)

Ok gotta run and get to cleaning-

AO