Some Down Time... Kind Of

Yesterday was the first Saturday since winter we had absolutely nothing to do. We took some well needed down time and didn't even leave the house. Talk about reducing your carbon footprint! I love that we always have something to do, but with everything going on lately, having a day to just relax and hang out felt so good. I even made muffins!
Part of why this day of rest felt so good was due to some news we got on Friday. It was not surprising news. I'd venture to say I even somewhat expected it. It's not really anything I can post up here, but it involves details on when we can expect to have to be apart. Because of this news we've now moved into a new stage of trying to decide whether we'll be even listing the house to try and sell it this year or having the boys and I stay here until next Spring. Please be praying for us as we make this really important decision and all the plans that ultimately will follow. We really need God's guidance and peace through all this!

In the last couple days we've had some good things happen for Phil and myself. We found out with all the credits Phil can count for college from his professional experience (they have a special program for this for Navy people) he's only 5 classes away from an associates degree! He'll start working on those classes next month. We're so excited he'll be able to accomplish something that has been helped along so much by his experience!
I started teaching Wilton Course 1 last night. I had 5 students total. They seemed to have a good time and laughed with me and seemed pretty relaxed overall considering it was my first time doing it (I didn't tell them that, of course). The first week seems to be pretty much the hardest for the teacher, so the hardest part is behind me, yay!

More Berries

Today was the last day Thompson Strawberry Farm in Bristol, WI was open, so we took advantage while we could! $6.75 and an hour later, we have a huge amount of locally grown strawberries to indulge in for days to come. They are so much sweeter then the store ones for some reason. I think I might have had more fun then the boys on this trip because I have a sort of strawberry obsession. I blame my grandma for having a big strawberry patch in her yard every year. I'm pretty sure Jeremiah ate his weight in berries in the field today. Hope everyone else is enjoying this warmer weather as much as we are!

Fruits of the Season

Andy and Misty Kuhn were nice enough to let us raid the berries in their backyard today. The boys loved picking the little blackberries off the bushes. Seemed like a perfect thing to do on a hot summer day. Thanks, guys!

Surrogate Family

With all that said yesterday about the loneliness of military life, today was quite full with friends and good times. Church was this morning which is always a great time for us to connect with friends. We usually end up leaving service a little late since we're enjoying time at the cafe' chatting. Then it was off to the parents house of our friend Eric about an hour north into Wisconsin. Navy friends and their family have a way of making us feel more at home even though we're not actually related. They understand we're far away from our biological family so they take us in as one of their own for a day. We had the pleasure of enjoying good company, dealing with, count them. THREE poop explosions in one day, and Josh even learned to swim a little! He was jumping off the diving board into the deep end only an hour or so after very tentatively walking around the shallow end. He said he wants to do it again tomorrow. He also made sure everyone knew how much he liked the pool. Maybe he will learn how to swim after all!
A little something that made us both kinda laugh on the way home...

Oh! And here is a before/after shot of the painting I was able to finish in the basement last night while Phil had duty. Just about done with walls now and still have the rest of the ceiling to go... one step at a time, right??

"Adventures" of a Military Wife

It's funny this life we've chosen to live. Hours and hours away from even the closest part of our family. We only get to see family a few times a year. I get so irritated when wives sit and gripe about any particular part of military life like it's some unfair burden cast upon them that they are completely unable to control. It's not that way at all. Phil and I have decided to stay in the military even though we could get out. We have our reasons for staying in, of course. So let's keep it clear that my belly aching today is not me being a victim by any means. It is just a way of helping pass along the understanding of the things we have to live with because we decided to stay in the military. It seems there is a general misunderstanding of military families among those who aren't military, so I thought it would help to specify that.
This weekend Phillipp's Aunt Verna came for a very brief visit. We really loved having a bit of time together but it was so sad to part again. As I was sitting feeling sorry for myself, my feelings were suddenly amplified by the realization that this is not going to get any better in the near future. Soon we'll be moving to Virginia where we will not only still be far away from our family but will probably be spending quite a bit of time far away from Phil as well!
There is quite a bit of loneliness that goes along with being a military wife. Loneliness when the house is so dreadfully quite because the boys have gone to bed and Phil is on duty or working or just gone altogether because he's out to sea and there are so many long hours to pass before the boys wake up again. There is loneliness when a big holiday is coming up and all our friends have plans with extended family but ours is too far away. Loneliness comes with every move we make since we have never really had a lot of friends awaiting us at our destination. Loneliness also comes with a move when we leave all our friends that have taken us so long to find behind us. Loneliness sometimes creeps up slowly when you're waiting for a big deployment or suddenly like today shortly after Verna left.
I know this is where civilians say, "I don't know how you can do that." You just do, I guess. There's no magic to it. No special gift. It's not because I don't love my husband (thus not having a hard time when he goes away). This the life we've chosen and this is what goes along with it, so we do what we need to do. You find things that help you along the way. Sometimes it's keeping busy with things to do, sometimes it's cleaning incessantly, sometimes it's watching a whole lot of old Baywatch re-runs... and sometimes it's freshly baked peanut butter cookies... a lot of them... oh, who's kidding?! It was the cookie dough. In a minute it's also going to be going outside to pull weeds because for some reason that always makes me feel better.
So, before I go do that and take the last batch of cookies out of the oven (yes, some dough actually did make it in to the oven), here are some pictures from the tremendously fun couple of days we had with Auntie Verna and Randy.

Catching fireflies with Josh

He was very interested to watch one that was on the ground.

Yes, I have seen this look on Josh before...

This is us with Auntie Verna this morning before she left. Yes, those are my high school gym shorts if you must ask.

Jeremiah was promoted to a new kind of bed today! We changed around his crib to a toddler bed that he seems to be enjoying quite a bit!

General Notes

Lyndsay and Adam's shower went great on Sunday despite my sickness. We all had a nice time and Lyndsay got some new boy clothes for the baby.
Just a general picture I liked from this week of the boys. They posed this way on their own! They're starting to get this whole brother thing down.

In another note, Joshua is starting a website design business. He drew this sketch today and informed us it was a website. If you are interested in contracting out, he will build your website for a mere $2,000. Hey, he has to pay for college somehow!