A day of relaxation....ahhh, I almost forgot what that is like. OK, not totally relaxation, I had to wake up EARLY on my Saturday morning to take Boy 1 to Saturday school. Yeah, you heard that right, Saturday school. It seems that if you forget your school ID more than three times you get to spend your Saturday hanging out with all the other hooligans in Saturday school (it was called detention back in my day). And if you are not old enough to drive then your Mom gets to wake up early on the only day she can sleep in to take you...oh, oh, AND if your dad is deployed, your mom gets to wake ALL your siblings early on that Saturday morning to take them with you. I'm not bitter. (Grrrr.....) HOWEVER, if I had not been loading all the kids in the car to take the boy to Saturday school I would have never seen this....
You see, it was yard sale day in the neighborhood...(I totally forgot - I've been a little crazed lately) and this thing was blown up right beside my car - the neighbors were selling this bad boy. At first I told them, "if it is still here when I get back I will buy it." I got in my car to drive off and thought there is no way that will still be there when I get back, so I bought it on the spot, and I am SO glad I did! The kids had so much fun with it this afternoon. I had kids (of all ages) rotating in and out of my backyard all day. I think the water ran for 3 hours straight, and it was kind of a cool day here!  He is so big he flew right off the thing!  If that isn't the face of sheer joy, I don't know what is!  These pictures just make me happy looking at them!  How can you not laugh? I didn't get on it today, but just give me time, give me time......
I've written about these pancakes before over at Six in Seoul. They are so good that I don't want anyone to miss out on them. I mean when my kids are asking for these pancakes on their birthday, the one day out of the year when you can eat ANYTHING you want for breakfast in our house (and I mean anything) - I think that in itself is worthy of a second post. (And it's not like they don't get these pancakes at least once a month!) These pancakes are so light and fluffy they practically melt in your mouth! 4 eggs ½ tsp salt ½ tsp baking soda ¾ cup flour 2 cups sour cream 3 TBL sugar Put eggs in a mixing bowl and stir until well blended. Add all ingredients & mix well. Heat griddle until it is nice and hot…I set mine at 400. I make these pancakes pretty small - (my kids like to 'dip' them in the syrup) dropping about 1/8th of a cup of pancake mix onto the griddle at a time. When a few bubbles appear on the top of the pancakes, turn them over and cook briefly.  See the little bubbles? They need just a few more little bubbles before you turn these bad boys over. Serve with warm maple syrup ~ YUM!
Have I mentioned that I have seasonal allergies (only when I live in Texas) and when I say seasonal, I mean YEAR ROUND. Well, I do and I have them BAD! Cedar and grass (the type in my yard) are not my friends. If fact both Cedar and grass dislike me so much that they make my eyes swell, run, turn bright red and itch. I also get allergy headaches, sneezing, and a runny nose. Sounds fun doesn't it? (You should see me when my allergies are acting up! I'm just beautiful!) I'm on 2 allergy meds at all time, and when I notice my allergies getting worse while on these 2 meds I add 2 more meds, making it a total of 4 allergy meds at a time - just so I don't get a sinus and ear infection. I also get steroid shots every 6 months. Now that CAN'T be good for me. And my doctor suggests that I have allergy shots regularly. I've complained on Facebook about this problem a couple of times and each time I have mentioned it someone different has mentioned that I should try local honey, so finally after my last outbreak (last week when I was out of commission for 2 days - literally, I didn't leave my house except to pick up the kids). I decided it was time to try this natural remedy and headed out (nose and eye dripping) to look for local honey. I found it at H E B. Honey from Llano, Texas. Natural, raw honey. The idea behind the honey theory is that honey is made when bees cultivate nectar from the same plants you might have allergies too. Because bees also collect pollen as a food source, the honey made in the hive will contain some pollen from these plants, as well. Ingesting local honey is believed to slowly acclimate your body to the allergens from these plants, creating a sort of immunity. This immunity lessons the body's reaction to pollen.
Now I must tell you that when I read how honey was made I was a little turned off when I realized that honey is made by bee’s regurgitating the pollen they collected. Yuck. Really? I really wish this was something I didn't know. I had never even considered thinking about it before. Well, at least bees are tiny and their barf taste good. (Gag - did I really just say that?) I am now on my 4th dose of local honey. 1 tablespoon full a day. I've been drinking it in my hot tea, and tomorrow I am going try it over my Cheerios. From what I understand it will take about a month to see improvements in my allergies. I let you know in about a month if I think it is working! If you have tried this natural remedy, please let me know how it has worked for you.
This morning was just about perfect. I was lounging in bed at 7:30 not wanting to get up when I heard it. My children were hard at work. I stayed perfectly still and just listened. I heard the light ticking of the toaster oven, there were a few whisper, someone let the dog out, and then I heard the big daddy of it all - a cup of coffee was being made! Thank you Jesus. Oh, and wait....is that the frother I hear as well? It was!! Breakfast was delivered to me in bed around 7:45 this morning. My favorite breakfast - an English Muffin open face with fresh mozzarella toasted to perfection (well, almost) and a skinny vanilla latte made just the way I like it, medium coffee, 3 pumps of vanilla with steamed skim milk. My kids ROCK! Girl told me that Boy 1 had to wake her up because he didn't know how to make my coffee and that she knew how to make it because she watches me make it every day. Gosh I love those kids! AND it didn't stop there. Boy 1 used his own money and his own cleaver way to get these flowers for me without me knowing anything about it! Girl made this silhouette at school for me and added the sweetest little note at the bottom. I remember making one of these for my mom when I was little; in fact it hung on our wall for years. I wonder whatever happened to it. (I bet my sister has it somewhere.) Boy 2 is so cute! He planted this flower for me, but then he felt really bad because the bloom fell off. I told him not to worry because I'm sure it would grow back, but then he went into some long thing about germinating.....I made sure the he knew I LOVE it exactly the way it is. He also put together this collage of words that remind him of me. So cute, I used to have a hard time spelling busy as well.... Boy 3 made this awesome flower/hand picture for me. On the inside there are fingerprints that you can't wipe off. He was pretty proud of that fact as he knows how dirty fingerprints all over the walls, windows, shirts, shorts, my hair, furniture (I could go on and on) make me C R A Z Y ! ! ;o) For the rest of the day the kids and I just hung out, played games, skyped with Hubby, watched TV, ate junk food and I got LOTS and LOTS of love today! It was almost a perfect day - the only thing that could have made it better is if Hubby were home.  Even Boy 1's friends came over and ask me to play a game of Balderdash with them. Balderdash is always a fun game, but playing with a bunch of teenage boys takes it to a new level.
I can't believe it has been 8 years since a beautiful little 6lb; 13oz baby boy joined our family! Time goes by WAY too fast! I remember being so scared when the nurses whisk him away from us in the delivery room and then there were all sorts of crazy jibber-jabber going on. I knew something was wrong. It wasn't long till the doctor informed us that our little man was having a hard time breathing and that needed to be transferred to a children's hospital - while I stayed put.
It was a rough start for this handsome young man, but that didn’t last long. Within no time started growing and developing just like the other kids. I am now proud to say that I am the mother of one of the sweetest boys with a tender heart; he has a love for life and family. He TRIES to be the comedian of the family, but he has a couple of rivals in this area - come to think of it, maybe this is just a boy trait. He loves his Momma. He is very dependable, and always tries to do his best. If I ever need anything done I know I can count on Boy 2. He is one of the smartest kids I know. He is my favorite Boy 2. ;o)
As many of you know when your birthday rolls around in our house you get to pick what you want for breakfast. Boy 2 picked Silver Dollar Pancakes, crispy bacon, an egg cooked over medium and Crystal Light Fruit Punch...really. He picked Crystal Light Fruit Punch OVER the chocolate milk I had bought special just for him. Go figure.
After breakfast we opened gifts! Not long after that it was party time! Boy 2 had a 'sports themed' birthday party!  Yeah, I made that.  As guest were arriving a balloon war broke out!  The kids made their own 'dogs'. After the kids filled their belly's we headed out to play a few games. The first game was 'PIG', you know the basketball game - followed by golfing (in grass, which was VERY hard), baseball pitch, soccer score, hula hooping and more....  Group shot!  Boy 2 not too sure about his 'sparlking' cake. A birthday party at our house is not complete with a piñata!
 Happy Birthday sweet boy! I love you more!
Life is so busy in our house that I must plan meals in advance and or start them early in the morning (in the crockpot) or rely on that nifty 'Kids Eat Free - or Cheap' list I made. This pasted Thursday I relyed on that list and we went to Fuddruckers! If you have never been to Fuddruckers it is worth a try. They claim to have to have the "World's Greatest Burgers". I would have to disagree, even though their burgers are good, I know of a few places that have rival their burgers, one of those places being Denton Independent Hamburger - but if you want that burger you will need to drive to Denton, Texas to pick one up. I also think Chili's has a pretty darn good hamburger.
The thing I do LOVE about Fuddruckers is that they use fresh, never frozen 100% all American beef that is raised humanely, their cattle are free roaming and eat nothing but a vegetarian diet with no additives or animal by-products. Their burgers come in 4 different sizes, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 and 1pound patties - grilled to order. Oh and I love that they have kids eat cheap on Thursday nights!
At Fuddruckers you build your own burger - they have a great selection of fresh veggies to add to your burger - nice juicy red tomatoes, three types of lettuce, onions, banana peppers, salsa, pickles and much more!
Now this kid's meal was a little lacking and I TRIED to talk my kids out of getting the mozzarella sticks, but they really wanted them so I gave in. Next time I will not give in as this meal didn't even come close to filling up my little ones, but they did like them. My burger & fries were more than enough. I got the 1/3 pound Fudds deal with mushroom and Swiss. When I saw the fries, I wasn't too excited, as steak fries are my least favorite fry - however these were very good! I loved the seasoning they put on them. The deal: Buy one 'Fudd Deal' (a burger, fries and drink), get one kids meal for .99 cents. In my opinion the Fudd deals are a little pricy - the 1/3lb burger deal starting at $9.25, but then I added Swiss and mushroom and it cost another 1.50, bring my Fudd deal up to $10.75.
For the 5 of us, we bought 2 Fudd deals, got 2 kid meals for .99 cents each and paid regular price for a 3rd kids meal ($4.45) all for a grand total of $28.61.
All in all it was a pretty good meal, (with the exception of the kids needing a snack when we got home) and I didn't have to cook. I give it 3 thumbs up out of 5.
Here is a little something I have on hand at all times during a
deployment! I put this together a few months ago in preparation for this
deployment. There are a few places I still need to call and I will update as
time goes on and I find good deals in the area. But for now here is your "kids
eat free or cheap" for Killeen Texas! If you know of other places, please leave
it in the comments section!
Tuesday- Pluckers – all day kids eat free, 2 kids
per 1 adult meal 254-501-9464
Tuesday – Applebees – all day kids eat free, 1 kid
meal per 1 adult meal 254-526-9711
Tuesday – Hooters – all day kids eat free with the
purchase of one adult meal 254-501-4195
Tuesday – Chick-fil-a – 5-8PM kids eat free with
the purchase of a combo meal
Tuesday - Buffalo Wild Wings .50 cent traditional
wings all day (to stay or to go
Tuesday – Denny’s- 5-9PM kids eat free, 7 kids eat
free with purchase of each adult meal. 254.634.8616 – dine in only
Wednesday -Buffalo Wild Wings – kids each cheap!
1.99 kid meals all day 254-690-1523
Thursday - Buffalo Wild Wings .60 cent boneless
wings
Thursday - El Chico – Kids eat cheap! .99 cent kids
meals 1 per adult meal 254-634-0501
Thursday - Fuddruckers after 4PM Kids eat cheap!
.99 kids meal with the purchase of any adult “Fud” deal 254-699-7700
Saturday - Texas L&C kids 12 and under eat free
from 11AM- 4PM, dine in – 2 kids per adult 254-699-5500
Saturday- Sonic – all kids meals 1.99
I can't believe it has been almost a week since Hubby deployed. A whole 6 days - wow. I hope the whole deployment goes by this fast!
Many of my civilian friends have told me they can't imagine how we do it. Quite honestly I don't know how we do it either. Many of the young spouses or first time spouses with deploying soldiers that I have talked to over the past few weeks and month feel alone in their feelings. Once we have sat down, talked and shared how 'we' feel these first timers (and sometimes second timers) realize they are not alone – what they are experiencing is normal. So today I want to share with you my latest experience with the dreaded "D-day" (deployment day) in hopes that it will help some spouse out there struggling with what she/he is going through. On D-day, Hubby didn't actually leave post until 10:30PM - most of you would think this is a good thing. It was not.
Have you ever sat at a death bed and watched someone die a slow death? I have. I compare D-day to that day. (Hard analogy, I know!) Even though you are with that person, holding that persons hand, feeling that persons love, your heart is breaking the entire time because you know you only have a few hours left. You don't know what to say, you don't know what to do. You have said it all and now all you can do is hope and pray that you have said and done enough to let that person know how much you love and care for that person.
It started off as any normal day. My alarm went off. I started breakfast. Hubby got up with me (not so normal). I woke Boy 1 up early because he wanted to spend some time with his dad before he went to school - he had TAKS testing. (Nice huh- 9th grade - can't miss TAKS.) We let the little kids sleep in because we were going to let them go to school late. It was a rough morning for Boy 1, this young boy that is turning into a man right before our eyes. (Just the week before Hubby gave him his first driving lesson, as he will be a driver when Hubby returns next year.) Boy 1 had to go to school and take the most important test of the school year on this day, the day his father deployed. I don't know how Boy 1 did it. That morning seemed to drag on and on. We all sat staring at each other not knowing what to say. The little kids were awake and getting weepie. I turned on the Wii and ordered some fun in our house - DANCE COMPETITION!! Let's Dance people! ;o) This worked for a while, at least until it came time for Boy 1 to go to school. I won't go into details about the good-bye between father and son, just know I have tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat as I type this.
After Boy 1 left for school we continued to TRY and have fun. It didn't work out so well. Every few minutes someone was crying over something silly - but we knew they were crying over something much more painful than not getting to pick the next song to dance to. After about an hour of trying to have fun Hubby and I realized the best thing to do was to send them to school to help get their minds off of the day’s events and just carry on with their 'normal' day. We had the kids start getting dressed. We took a few pictures - gave lots of hugs and kisses - and I took them to school. This will be the last time they see their daddy for a very long time. You can only imagine the tears going on in this house. I don't know how my husband did it. When we got to school I sat outside with the kids for a little while just giving them hugs and kisses and letting them know we were all going to be OK. I made sure they knew what was going to happen after school. They all had play dates and each were going home with different friends. When I left them only one was still crying - that's right, it was Girl. It is a good thing Girl has an amazing teacher -Mrs. L is the "Grandma" type who gave her lots of attention at first but then expected her to pull it together and get on with her day. (Army Strong.) To some of you this may seem harsh; to us it is the way we cope. Continue with your day as normal - get busy and get your mind off your sadness.
When I got back to the house there was a dead silence even though the radio was on. The air was so thick you could have sliced it with a knife. We cleaned up a little, made small talk, sat on the couch and held hands. Tears kept welling up in my eyes, but I would push them back - we still had a full day ahead of us, we should enjoy it. Right?!?! Hubby and I decided to get out of the house - we went to Lowe's and Home Depot - had lunch and saw a movie. Lunch seemed like it took HOURS and to boot we had a HORRIBLE waiter....it took him 15 minutes to even notice we were sitting at his table, another 5 to come back and take our drink order. I swear it felt like we were there for 3 hours. This was the never ending day. Typically when Hubby and I go out we talk, we laugh we have fun - when out to eat we always look at couples around us and try to figure out their story. I think someone looking us trying to figure out our story would think - blind date, not going well. After lunch we headed out to see the movie 'Hannah'. Not as good as we had hoped for and again, it seemed like the longest movie in history!! After the movie it was finally time to drop Hubby off at the battalion for bag drop. For those of you non-military folks, this is when we drop our soldier off say good-bye for a few hours while the soldier checks in, turns in his bags and draws his weapons (typically for us this is our final good-bye as I don't normally go to the pre-manifest site). Now granted it is only 4PM, his flight doesn't leave for another 6.5 hours. At 6PM families are able to meet up with their soldier at the pre-manifest sight. In our case it was a gym. After dropping hubby off, I checked on the kids (all doing great on their play dates), went shopping for a little while then headed over to the gym to do a little decorating and getting ready for our soldiers to arrive.
Hubby and I decided the best thing for our family was to say good-bye in the morning as it would be too hard to send the children to school and then to see them for only an hour after school. We never have and most likely never will take our children to the pre-manifest site. It is just too hard for our family. There are too many tears and too much pain at the pre-manifest sites, as I have witnessed over and over during this deployment season. I once had a chaplian sugguest against taking children to the pre-manifest site - he pointed out that this is the last image and memory your child will have of their soldier for a long time, and if you say goodbye from a happy place, (like home) other memories will overlap the 'last good-bye'. I am hoping that is the case and thing our children remember is that their dad rocks at 'Just Dance' on the Wii! ;o)
This time I wanted to go to the pre-manifest site. To date I had been to all the flights, I had seen off all the soldiers in the battalion and I didn’t want to not be there. I needed and wanted to shake hands, take pictures, and hug spouses or child in need of a hug. I needed and wanted to be there even though I wasn't sure how long I would be able to stay. I wanted to see my husband off.
The soldiers finally started arriving at the gym (a little late) at around 6:30PM. I did my thing. I took pictures, passed out candy, shook hands, hugged people, and kept one eye on my husband at all times. I occasionally went over to him for a quick hug and smooch. At 8:45 the announcement was made stating that our soldiers would be called into formation in 10 minutes & after this10 minute warning families would no longer have contact with your soldier. As soon as I heard this announcement I found Hubby, give him a few good hugs and kisses that will have to last a very long time and headed for the door. I couldn't stay for that final formation. As I walked out of that gym I bowed my head and walked out so no one could see the tears streaming down my face.
Army Family, Army Strong. That is how we do it.
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