Even Big Boys Have Mile Stones.

Well today was a very emotional day for me.

My oldest son graduated from Boot Camp this morning and is a very proud member of the US Navy.

Missing his Boot Camp Graduation was so sad. But with kids in school I just couldn't be there. I was thankful that my husband and my father were both there with him today. He was very happy that they were there even though he would have loved for all of us to be there he understood why we couldn't.

FCC Lunsford and our son FN Lunsford (aka..Jamie and D.J.)

My husband was proud to be there with our son. He hasn't seen him since he left for deployment in January. Our son left for boot camp a week before his dad returned. It broke my heart that they were missing eachother and that his dad would possibly miss his graduation due to his underway schedule and Chiefs Pinning Ceremony that he felt he also needed to be there for his fellow Chiefs/Brothers. Thankfully after talking with his CMC they felt it was just as important for him not to miss our sons Graduation.

While they are in Great Lakes, I was in Norfolk celebrating with friends as our friend M.S. was pinned Chief this morning. I was really greatful to be a part of such a joyious occasion. It really was moving and I love being there especially since I missed my husband's pinning because he was underway.

Afterwords I went to my husbands old ship...USS Bulkeley. I had to deliver some bulbs to a freinds husband. I am happy to say I was able to see a few great friends there as well. I needed that. It made me happy especially since I was missing my son.

One thing I love about the military is that we meet so many wonderful people. And even better is that we can go years without seeing eachother (duty station moves) and when we see eachother it's like we pick up where we left off. Our friends are truely great people and I do treasure them because they are our family. I know that my son will meet great people and have great experiences in his journey's. 

Reality TV...Seriously??

Ok, so for the longest time I was dead set against "Reality TV".  I know, I heard everyone go on about their love for Big Brother and Survivor.. Whatever was all I could think. I couldn't even get through an episode because it was so NOT reality.

Then they began their own version of  Reality TV on The Food Network. This I totally got into because it was cooking. I didn't like take it serious I took it as a contest with free recipes. I was happy.

After or around the same time I then became aware of the shows with the big families. The Duggers, I love! John and Kate plus 8, now by the looks of how the marriage sunk, there was no Reality except that the good christian family were just good at lieing and exploiting their kids. Don't get me wrong, I did watch that show cause I thought the kids were adorable and I still do think they are but to put yourself up there like you could do no wrong and call it Reality....It was obviously just for show. If you want to document your family then get a video recorder like the rest of us.

Then in the recent like, oh 2 yrs I became a fan of The Real Housewives Of NJ.. Now I have seen the other so called Real Housewives shows but I just liked this one best.

Ok so what makes a Real Housewife??? Why are all these so called house wives wealthy? I'm not saying that the wealthy can't be real housewives. But last I checked Nanny's are not on the average housewife's pay roll. And what the hell? You can't put your own make-up on or do your own hair for a party?  It's the same style, layered hair spray! The majority of events I have seen have been catered. I could never do that for one of my kids birthday party's. It may help with not having to do anything except write the check but it takes away from the whole day. Well that must be nice to not have to cook for your family and friends. Now I have seen a couple of them cook but not a lot.I see more drama among the adults that have NOTHING to do with being a housewife but everything to do with having no self control what so ever. I haven't seen a real housewife yet.

You  wanna see a real house wife? Go look in the mirror. Look at your neighbor. We are surrounded by real housewives yet we all prefer to look at the ones on TV. What am I missing? Maybe the fact that we can judge them (even though it's not right) and not worry about hurting ones feelings? Because seriously if you didn't want to be judged then why would you do that to yourself?

I have had people tell me I should have my own TV show because we have a larger than normal family. I often thought no way, but then thought that would be cool. But really, would it be worth putting my family through all of that? I wonder how the Duggers do it...I think I should just leave reality to the here and now.

Nobody Did It!

In a house full of children I often hear the phrase, "I Didn't Do It!"

I say to myself  "with 8 kids, surely someone had to do it." But no, Nobody did it.

I buy a certain amount of snacks for school and home and when they have run out before the next shopping trip I demand to know who ate the last of it.... NOBODY DID IT!!!

The wash was left on hot water and not put to cold... NOBODY DID IT!

Someone launches a toy and it hits someone......NOBODY DID IT!

Someone was stomping up stairs and again..... NOBODY DID IT!

Where are you NOBODY???

Why do you choose to hide from me???

I can remember my dad having this same problem when I was growing up. I remember him saying "When I find Nobody, he's gonna get one hell of an ass whipping." I use to laugh, a lot. Now... I feel his pain and I want Nobody over my knee!

Letting Go.....

There comes a time in every mothers life where she just has to let go...

I knew this, I was ok with this and I told myself I would be ok.  Well that time is now and I know it needs to be done so that my son can grow and be a great adult but I am so sad. I just wanna freeze time and keep him a little longer. I know, nuts..haha. 

I was going to meet my son at the MEPS station in Fort Lee, VA. 30 minutes before I got there He was in the office picking his job. I was suppose to be there for that.He called me with his choices: Machinist Mate, Cook on a sub or Bosons Mate (ya I can't spell it-ha).  Well CS (cook) was out. He did not want on a sub. BM is out, he's never heard anything nice about that rate so he was left with MM. He doesn't know anything about this job except it's hot and a lot of work.
 He missed MA (Master at Arms) by a point. He would have rather had that job. He was devastated. He said to the lady "Are you serious? I can't fix a car and you want me to fix a ship?" I laughed when he told me that. He said the the lady told him his scores were really high when it came to fixing pieces and sorting and asked him if he worked on cars and he said "no, I played with Lego's"-hahaha!!He really wanted something in computers. So I asked him if he was ready to go in and he said yes. So he took the MM spot with plans of cross rating in the future. Well he goes to boot camp the 21st of this month.  I was shocked but I was ok with it. I told myself that as a good mother I had to let him grow and that he needed this, he was ready.
I was talking to his recruiter and it hit me...He won't be home for his dad's Homecoming. And his dad will  be underway when he graduates so he will not be here when our son graduates boot camp. I lost it and cried the rest of the way up to Fort Lee. I just balled my eyes out. With his dad not being home I may not get to see our son graduate from boot camp either. I have no clue what I am going to do. I guess I will wait and see what happens. If I can't go then I know my dad will go and at least my son won't be alone and my dad can take lots of pictures for me.
So his next dilemma...School. His last classes are the 26th and he leaves a week before. So he's off to talk to his teachers to see if they can accommodate him. I know they will work with him. He's always been a good student.
God has a plan for us all. Sometimes it takes a little more work than others but thankfully my sons wait is over for phase one of his adult life.

I know I can do this. I fully support my son. I just wish that he and his dad weren't missing each other for these big events. And that I could keep my little boy a little boy. But no, he had to grow up. I am very proud of my son and I know he will be a great Sailor.
So for now I will cry but I will also be happy for him. He made the decision he needed to make and now is off to a great start!

4th of July

Every 4th of July that I've had has been so memorable.

I can remember growing up a couple of our 4th's were with my Aunt's and Uncle's. I think the one time we were camping. I can remember being in the woods and my dad throwing potato chips in the river, and he had me, my sister and my cousins  fish for potato chip fish and rock fish. We so believed him-haha!! My dad and uncle's stood there with their beers laughing at us. I don't think that any of us had a clue till much later what was going on. Later that night it was fire work time. i can remember they were illegal-ha! Well we were in the middle of the woods and in Oregon of course it was against the law to possibly set the forest on fire-ha! Well we didn't. But I remember the one firework being nailed to the tree and spinning in circles. I loved that. We would twirl around with our sparklers. And there were a few that flew in the air-lol!

Another 4th I remember was also in Oregon.  It was a make shift family reunion. We (my husband and kids) were living in SanDiego. My parents flew out to visit and we all drove up to Oregon.  I think I was pregnant with Gabbi, ya I was. We spent the4th of July at Diamond Lake. It was actually pretty cool. My first thought was Oh My Damn! Some of the people were well... I'll leave it at that-ha! I was pregnant and tired and really didn't want to sit in the grass to watch fireworks and then have to get up to chase Kyle. But when they went off, I loved it and Kyle stopped to watch the fireworks too.

My first 4th without my hubby in SanDiego kinda..well....SUCKED! Fireworks are illegal in California. I couldn't find anything, anywhere.  I was really bummed. but we were able to see them from our house.

All of our 4th's in Dahlgren were so much fun. We had BIG BBQ's and since living on the base we never had to go far to see the fire in the sky. I really do love the 4th of July.

Since being here my hubby hasn't been home for a single 4th. I've had  BBQ every year. Last year my lovely neighbors bought a ton of fireworks and set them off on our street nd we were able to see them from our front yard. So it wasn't that bad.

This time I am preplanning with my neighbor for a big 4th of July bash for next year. I can't wait. I hope that everyone will have a blast.

I guess I just want my kids to have awesome memories like I did.

Deployment

Ya, Deployments are never fun. I choose not to whine about it. I have things to do, kids to take care of. Is it gonna help my kids if I am crying and depressed? No, it's not. So we get 24 hours to be sad then we get over it. It's his job. And a great job!

I have friends that do nothing but bitch and moan about it. Complain that the Navy has taken their spouse, like deployments and underways are for shits and giggles. It drives me nuts. I just wanna say "Grow up and get over it".

My kids do great. Better than most adults. I always hear about other peoples kids crying and not being able to cope.. Or they blame their kids behavior on the fact that mom/dad is deployed. How about this, your a lazy parent and need to pick up the slack. My kids do fine. Ya they miss their dad. But they know he's at work. It's not that he wants to be away from our family but his job requires him to be and my kids know this.

This has been the most active deployment we have ever had. Normally nothing ever happens. It's just boring and busy-haha! Not this time. I have been in and out of Doctors Offices/ER's/Dental Offices. It's been crazy. Not to mention the amount of money on gas-ugh! The car was in the shop twice and the dryer broke. Thankfully I was able to repair the dryer!

This deployment has blown by us here at home.  And because of all the stuff going on the extra money we were making went to all the crap that came up...aka, life.

They grow too fast

So here my kids are, not all of them are babies but they will always be my babies.

They are so busy these days. Summer just made it's mark and we are all happy to be able to sleep in a little longer.
With this last week of school I was kept extra busy with taking DJ to and from school, Awards Ceramonies, Promotion Ceramonies and Doctors appointments. I thought I would never get off the road Friday. It was crazy.
Well we had Marissa's 8th grade promotion Friday and she and another student Sang for us all as the other students played instruments. It was lovely. She has a pretty voice but she's shy and you can tell cause she holds back. She really likes to sing but needs to work through her fear if she's gonna be really good at it.

Kyle went to JROTC Leadership camp. He had so much fun and came home with no voice. I really hope he got a lot out of it. I can't believe how much my son has grown.

The little ones are all getting so big. I can't believe all of their milestones they have made it through. From Nate's 1st pulled tooth to Alli being the loveable princess that she is. Immanuel is just turning into a big boy! Gabbi and Torri are turning into little women. It's all so sad.

It's too fast. They grow just way too fast.
All this growing while their daddy is out to sea.

Well it's been a while-lol!

Yes life always takes that unexpected turn and then there goes all of your free time to write a blog-lol.

It's been a testy deployment for us. Normally our deployments are quiet but this deployment has been very eventful!

We had quite a few break ins in our neighborhood. It wasn't a comfy feeling being home with the kids and husband away. They did catch 1 of the crooks. Turned out to be our neighbors 12 yrs old son. I was blown away. I knew this kid was a pain in the ass but damn. He was responsible for I think they said 3 of the houses that were robbed. Last I heard they had a person of interest so who knows. But we haven't had any problems in the neighborhood.

Then across town there was a drive by shooting. Thankfully it was no where near us. But the next shooting was kind of just behind our neighborhood. They shut down everything around there. Then they had a suspect that they were searching for. Like crazy searching for. They set up road check points, checking everyones ID's. I know this cause one night I was picking DJ  from school. As I was coming up to the neighborhood I saw a bunch of cops in the road and I couldn't tell what was going on. I wasn't sure if something happened at the soccer field or in our neighborhood. So I slowed down to try and see what was going on. So there I am driving really slow....lol, as i slowly turn into the neighborhood I stop then go again. Then I kind of, ok I did turn around to see what was going on. I sat there at the sign and looked at what was going on and saw them checking the plates of cars and thought ok it's just a drunk check. So I turned back aroun into the neighborhood to go home..lol...Well I guess the cops saw me do this and chased me in, I had one cop behind me and another to myleft side. They like hauled ass on me too-lmao!!  The one cop stays behind me and the other comes up to me and asks me what I was doing.. I replied I was being nosey-lol! That I wanted to see if there was something going on in my neighborhood. He asked where I lived and I told him. the other cop asked what was going on and he says to him," she said she's being nosey". They laugh, then he says... "she says she lives here but she has a VA drivers liscence." I then tell him where Ilive and told him he could say hell to my 7 kids that were in the house-lol! I showed him my check book with my address and he looked at the other cop and laughed and said "she's fine-lol". DJ laughed his butt off at me! Ok it was really funny-lol!
A few nights later, again picking up DJ....another check point.lol. So there we are and I say hello and he asked how I was doing I said I wasn't driving suspiciously-lol. I began to tell him what happened and he busted out laughing....That was you??!!! Ya so everybody at the police dept. knows-lol!

So far we have celebrated 2 of the kids birthdays, Easter, Kyle's Confirmation and Vikktorria's First Holy communion. We still have Memorial Day, Missi's 8th grade promotion, Kyle's going to leadership camp, 4th of July.... Not to mention all the ins and outs and kids arguing over one thing or another. I am one tired mama..lol!