BOAF April Reveals

So much to share these days, but just don't have the heart to do it properly. So much good stuff happening in our world. So much to be thankful for. So many blessings in my life. But, so much to worry about, too. For everything there is a season...

On the bright side, April's Birds of a Feather kit was so much fun...

And Just Like That... She Was Back

Well, kinda.  I've been here all along, just swimming along trying to keep my head above water.  2012 was a tough one, a big one, but tough nonetheless.  All of my kids got older, I mean a lot older.  P.J. reached my height and then some.  He now towers over his boss momma by about 5-6 inches.  He entered middle school (gasp, I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy, let alone my pride and joy).  He played his seventh season of Pop Warner football and that culminated in a December trip to Disney to compete in the Super Bowl.  Can you say 5th in the nation, Baby!?!  Julia. Julia, Julia my biggest girl is growing into a beautiful young lady with an atitiude to match.  Look out all boys.  Still brilliant and pretty and funny, but the biggest pain in my tookis.  But, this one surprised me the most of all.  She watched her BFF lose her Daddy in Afganistan and was there every step of the way with her.  The pride I felt in my heart as I watched her hold up her friend in some of the most difficult of cicumstances even for a grownup.  I will never forget that.  And Reagan, he had a breakout year in football, as well.  That scrawny beanpole can play some ball!  He just won back to back chili cookoff titles.  Always the competitor is my middle.  The twins?!?  Thriving in KINDERGARTEN!  they love love all that that entails.  Add in cheer and basketball with the anticipation of baseball and football right around the corner, and they are all set.  Now me?  Not so much.

As for the hubby, he had a great year at work, did yet another deployment and flew back just in time to make the trip to FLA to watch his first born compete for the title.  We enjoyed him home for 6 weeks (mostly) and now he is off to Newport, RI for school for the year.  He is getting his Master's and going to skipper school, as Momma calls it.
 

 

And me?  It was a tough one.  No doubt.  As is evidenced by my lack of blogging.  There were simply too many days I just wanted to draw and keep the curtains shut for days on end.  I endured a couple of health scares, capped off by an actual health reality for my mom. I know a lot of my readers pray.  And so I ask you for prayers for my mom.  Who is sincerely the nicest, strongest, most kind, and caring human being to ever walk this earth.  I believe in miracles.  And I do believe she will get one.

Enough of all that.  I'll never get you caught up.  Just know we lived.  We lost and we loved.  And tomorrow is another day...

How bout some scrappy goodness to share?!?  Lots of newer Studio Calico kits mixed with my usual bits of stash.

 

 

 

It's nice to be back in my room.  I miss playing around with my paper and glue.  I pledge to do this more.  And I will also try to throw open those curtains more.  Both in and out.
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Thanks for coming back o faithful readers.  How is your world?

As If

As if I needed yet another reminder of my everyday life. As if Donk isn't already MONTHS into his pre-deployment workup schedule. As if our squadron family group hasn't already had it's last get together in anticipation of this summer's cruise. As if the investigators aren't still working their tails off in aVirginia Beach neighborhood just down the road from my own to find out what brought down that Navy F-18 just 60 seconds into its last flight. As if a friend returning on a MAC flight from an overseas visit with her hubby didn't just share a flight with a soldier who made THAT ultimate sacrifice. As if I wasn't reminded just yesterday on the tball field nonetheless, that the last two squadrons we have been attached to both suffered casualties. As if, when reading a favorite military wife's blog this morning, I got yet another reminder of just how perilious and REAL this all is. As if my kiddos aren't already naming and loving on their new stuffed animals graciously donated by the Comfort Crew and the USO.

As if my hubby, my kids' Daddy isn't leaving for war in a couple months. As if.

As if.


More Studio Calico and Dear Lizzy goodness. Thanks for sto

pping. Be back soon with a fun little award for me and maybe for some of you too.

Squishy is Good, Just Slightly Overrated

It feels like a million years ago, it REALLY does. Five weeks from tomorrow I finally went in for one of those dreaded yearly recommended mamograms. I suffered through the cluelessness that was I as I had never done THAT before, and moved on. Until I was standing on the playground at the twins' school a few days later when I noticed a voicemail on my phone. Uh oh. I called the breast center back as soon as I could wrangle the littles back to the car. I scribbled some notes as the nice lady spoke. Something about my left breast and another mamo and a set of double doors. Huh?!? WTF?!?

Fast forward to the second mamo and the dark room with the two giant computer screens of what I just could. not. believe. That was my breast. Some kind of atypical calcification. Something about a biopsy and me being fine. Huh?!? A hundred phone calls later, two appointments made and no referral, followed by an angel sent from God in a doctor's office in Suffolk, and I finally had an appointment. To see. a breast surgeon. Gulp. Huh?!?

Oh yea, did I mention Donk was gone for the first mamo and the second?!? I managed to see the breast surgeon while he was home for less than a week. And, the day before he left. I had a biopsy. Yep, me. The one with five kids. The one with the hubby who is never home. The one who is going to be gone for the better part of the next 2 years?!? Do you have ANY idea of the horrible things that filled my mind 7 hundred billion gazillion hours of each day? As I waited for the next step in this process. How could this happen to me?!? Who would take care of my kids?!? How ould I undergo treatment?!? How would they go on?!? How could I leave them?!? What would Patrick do with 5 kids all alone? How could my parents survive losing a child... AGAIN?!?

The day of my biopsy was here. It was excruciating. Not the procedure. The unknown. The waiting.

But I waited. I sent my husband off to the Ike. And I waited. Three to five days. I could start calling Friday.

And so I did. And another nice lady from my journey answered. Just like she said she would. Yes, my file was on her desk. She was going to call me.

And it was over. Just like that. Just like it had begun.

As I sat crouched behind a friend's garage (out of sight of the brood), the radiologist said the word we had all been praying for, the word I had been praying for, but never totally believing I would hear...

benign.

And now, with my new lease on life I enjoy days with Sullivan discovering a sport of his own...

my littles growing up to be Bigs on two wheels apiece...

memories made in small moments together (Shepherd's Pie for St. Patty's Day/Hubby's Birthday)...

silliness with my boys...

And getting these memories of ours down on paper...

Here's to many more years of squishy girls...

Keep Swimming... Keep Swimming

It's funny when you think about it. Not funny HaHa funny, but funny like ironic funny. Every time Daddy Donk goes away we seamlessly just transition into our new routines. I take over the groceries and the menus and the cooking. Brinner gets added to the weekly schedule. As does the ever popular Red Box & Pizza Fridays. We even quickly fall into our old roles when it's all six of us at the grocery. One of the Bigs mans the list, another chooses the produce and finds the staples. I go over our weekly schedules and plans and everyone is quick to fall into line like a well oiled machine. We even enjoyed a trip to the movie theater today which is a classic Momma & the Brood moment. We just gel. I'm proud of them. I know they miss their daddy, but they really handle this separation thing well. They are good people, they are my people.

More found pages I never shared in my crazy crafting December fog. I still love my Studio Calico kits. This one was Field Guide (October). Not exactly Jenny colors but so much fun to play with...

I am so absolutely in love with everything Amy Tangerine and AC have done...

Some more from Field Guide. Can you believe that is Sullivan?!?

How can u not love this goodness from Amy Tangerine?!?

Thanks for reading and come back this week for pictures of my December Daily...

His days & ours...