Mil Spouse Blog Hop

Joining the Mil Spouse Blog Hop by   Riding the Roller Coaster

My Bio:

Born and raised in CA.

We became an Air Force family in 1998

We have 2 children and 2 dogs

I love to read: Mitch Albom and Madeline Wickham/Sophia Kinsella are my favorite authors

I just started digital scrapbooking after paper scrapbooing for 7 years
I have lived in 6 states so far and hoping to move overseas for our next move

Welcome to the MilSpouse Blog Hop!

It's easy to join in on the fun:

* Post a brief bio on your blog introducing yourself. 

* If you want to help spread the word, link back to Riding the Roller Coaster in your post.

* Add your blog name and URL to the Linky on her site.  It's best to put a link to your post, not your home page.

* Follow any or all of the blogs on the list.

* For those you choose to follow, leave a comment letting them know you found them on the MilSpouse Blog Hop.  Include your blog link in the comment to make it easier for them to return the visit.

* According to blogging etiquette, you should follow everyone who follows you. But this doesn't always happen. So please try not to harbor any ill feelings if you follow someone and they don't follow you back.

* The Linky list will be up until next Thursday night so if you don't get around to everyone today, no worries.  Keep hopping throughout the next week!  (I'm new to Linky Tools, but I've heard that you can only add to the list today.  So get your link up today even if you don't have time to visit others.)

Happy hopping everyone!

Family BBQ's- Not for us

Our family in CA had a BBQ this past weekend. Lots of family and friends there.  But not us.  :-(   It is so hard to look at pictures of family having such a great time when you are not able to be there to enjoy it with them. I wish we could fly there this summer and visit. Airline fee's are RIDICULOUS right now and it just ain't happening.

I so miss summer BBQ's with family and that fun bond you make. My kids barely know there neices and nephews let alone uncles and aunts. The price you pay for being a military family.  It is the ONLY thing that really makes me sad is being so far from family. We used to be able to drive home every summer but now we live too far and we can't fly because buying plane tickets for 3 people plus luggage is not anywhere near my budget. Sure I could put it on a credit card but that really isn't an option.

I am planning a BBQ at our house with friends because since we can't have family here I can at least have a fun BBQ with friends. Gotta make the best of everything and be thankful.

My son on the other hand will be able to experience family BBQ's this summer. I ended up buying him a plane ticket home. He is SO excited and can't wait. he really wants to spend time with his cousins, Grandma's, Aunt's and Uncles. He is counting down the days to leave. I am excited for him.

My mom is visiting next week for a month!!!!  I AM EXCITED!!!  I really love having company come. Then when she leaves my brother and his daughter are coming. This will help my summer to go by quickly with family visiting and lots of softball.

Just a reminder- Armed Forces Day is coming up.

Many Blessings!

God has plans

We found out that they changed our move time AGAIN!  UGH   We originally were going to be here for 4 years. Last year they said we were moving this spring, then he got deployment orders so they moved it to this fall. Well, now we just found out they moved it to next spring.  I have been so eager to move and get order's that I just broke down when Hubby called to tell me. He had called to see what positions are going to be open so we could start picking our bases. Instead he found out that they changed our move time. I was so mad and cried. He knew I was going to be upset and was quite thankful that he was far away.  I cursed the Air Force and finished our talk. I then called my mom because that is always the first person I call after anything happens. We talked for a bit and I cried. She gave me her wonderful words of encouragement.

After those phone calls I just sat on my couch in disbelief. I have always loved the Air Force and have never complained but this was down right ridiculous. How could they keep changing their minds like that? So frustrating.

After a couple hours of depression and MANY tears I calmed down. It was time to press on and dry my tears. No time in my life ot be angry for a long period of time. I knew I needed to cheer myself up before I picked the kids up from school. After all- it is my attitude that affects the whole family. If I am in bad spirits and negative then  I know there will be a ton of it from them.

So I put my happy face on and became the good military wife again and said "No problem". I can make this work and will stay positive. I  know that nothing I do will change our move time. No need to get myself all worked up while he is gone and I already have enough on my mind.

I had already scheduled for a Realtor to come before this news hit me. I didn't want to cancel our appointment and figured I would try to sell the house anyways since we are eventually going to move. I really want to move back on base and have been stressed about selling the house since they day we signed the papers. So the Realtor came and we had a great conversation. We made plans to meet the following week to look at houses in my neighborhood to compare to and to go over numbers.

A week later she came and this is when I learned why God changed our move.  My neighbor had sold her house-cheap. Other houses in the neighborhood were not going for much either. I could sell but my out of pocket expenses would be above $6K at closing. We do not have $6K sitting in an account waiting to be used.  I then knew that is why our move was changed. It wasn't the right time to sell our house.

God didn't want that stress on me while Hubby was gone. He wanted us to wait for a better time.

I'm the worst mom.........

when I don't get sleep!

My daughter plays softball and it was the night before her first tournament play with a new team. I had a very exhausting week and could not seem to catch some good zzzzz's no matter what night it was. After 6 nights of bad sleep I am almost useless. My mind is not working and the headaches are plentiful. Now is the night before the big game and my daughter can't sleep.  I keep giving her hugs and talking her through it. No worries, hug your bears, say your prayers and try to relax. At 1230 am she is still awake and my mind is going bazerk. I am so tired it is painful to have my eyes open. At this point I am not being very caring and loving anymore and the demon mom has come out. I just want to go to sleep so bad and hubby is not here to give her his special hugs and encouragement. I finally angrily go to the couch to sleep just to get away. She is now sad that she has kept me awake but still can't sleep because she is so nervous. Good Golly!!  I keep telling her PLEASE go to sleep!  She finally does fall asleep and I head back to bed. We need to be at the field at 815am so that means we need to be up no later than 7. The clock says 1245. OK- time to get some sleep.

NOT

I of course wake up so many times it is pitiful. Then when she wakes up in the morning of course I feel like crap for treating her the way I did. Nothing I did seemed to help. I felt so useless and way too tired. So, I had a chat with her and told her I was sorry. I don't think I could have said enough how sorry I was. She said she was sorry too but I still felt like crap. I am glad we talked about it and hopefully she will remember that part.

I really was mad that I didn't handle it better. I don't want her memories to be of her mom being psycho at night.  Lesson learned.

She did great at the games. They won 2 games and lost 2. Not bad for their first time playing together.

Bark Collar

We have 2 annoying wonderful dogs. One of our dogs is a pain sweet little 3 pound yorkie. Our other dog is a LARGE quiet rott/lab mix. I do love our dogs but it is a love/hate relationship. Our big dog keeps me feeling like we are safe and secure while hubby is away. There is no doubt in my mind that he can do some serious damage. He provides great company for me while the kids are at school. He is so fabulous to talk to- I can tell him everything and his opinions are always spot on.  :-)

So- to the annoying part about him. Our neighbor has 4 dogs and 1 is a large male great dane that my dog loves to fight with through the fence. They would bark and run along the fence so much it drove me CRAZY!

Our big dog was my husbands idea. He wanted a big dog and we went to the humane society one day on the way home from running errands. BAD IDEA! We weren't thinking about all the work it takes to have a big dog. We have a small yorkie and all she does is leep all day and the sun shrivels up her little poo. LOW maintenance. So the kids and hubby picked a dog out- Lab/Rott mix. Oh boy was I in for a life change. Of course my husband is gone frequesntly and the kids go to school so that leaves me with the brunt of all things to do with this dog. I never pick up the poo though. That will NEVER happen.

Back to the barking. Hubby built a pen in our backyard to keep him away from the fence therefore alleviating the barking with the other dogs. BUT added him barking because he was in the pen. Never ending barking except when he was in the house. In the winter he spends most of his time in the house but in the summer it is outside time. We also needed to keep him away from the fence because we no longer have sod there now we have a dirt track. With me wanting to sell the house I needed our yard to look fabulous not with dirt tracks all over.

So I find this bark collar at Petco.com and thought I would check it out. It says it is best to start them young with it but for only $40 I thought I would give it a try. The BEST $40 I have spent in a long time. I put that thing on him and send him in his pen. After 2 barks he whined and looked around trying to figure out what just zapped him. He tried to bark again and got the same result. That was the last bark from him in his pen.  :-)  Now I just put the collar on him and send him to his pen. He knows that when the collar is on he can't bark. I take it off while he is inside the house but put it back on when he is outside. Oh the peacefullness of it is so wonderful. With the collar on it is not as fun for him to argue with the neighbor dogs anymore either. 

Sanity is  mine!

Hmmm now if I could find a shock collar for digging!

Deployment Mind Games

I absolutely love and adore my husband.  I believe that a happy marriage is successful when you do all that you can to ensure each other are happy. I am not saying I need to be his servant and bow down to him but I do want to make sure that he is happy in all areas that I have control in. Being a women that I am I like romantic stuff. I like writing him love letters and always professing my love to him. I go out of my way to make sure I can make his time over there asd pleasant as possible with weekly packages.

I have been in this rut lately where I just feel like I am doing all this work to ensure that he is happy and taken care of while he is gone but not feeling like the same is being returned. I'm not asking him to spend any money or do anything fancy, gosh- I would just love a love letter every now and then. I know he's not the romantic, mushy gushy type. BUT- I am!! I was kind of feeling like I was doing all this work and for what.

That all changed today when I was able to have a video call with him. He always can make me laugh and feel good. I do know that he loves me. Sometimes I guess I just need to be reminded more than just saying "I Love You" at the end of our calls. I didn't even take in consideration the reasons why maybe he doesn't write me love letters. He assured me that he loves me dearly and the reason he doesn't write me love letters is because then it makes him think too much about missing me!  AWE- that was enough to make me smile big and feel all kinds of good. I totally understood what he meant. I know he tries to keep real busy so that time will go fast and when you are busy you don't have time to realize how much you miss home.

So- if your spouse is away and you are not feeling loved. Send me an email and I will tell you that you are loved. LOL  Sometimes we just need to reassure ourselves that everything is ok.

Deployments definitely play a lot of mind games on the military person and the spouse at home. Don't forget to be aware of that. Give yourself a moment to calm down and center yourself. I finally did!

Many Blessings,

Show your blog!!

I love having followers! I also love following.  :-)

I check when I have new followers but it doesn't always show me what your blog address is.

SO,

Please post in the comment form your Blog or website so I can follow you and some others as well.  :-)

The internet is my Demise

I LOVE the internet.  The amount of information out there is amazing. It never fails that any questions I have I can turn to the internet. I like when I watch a true story on TV then can look up factual information about it. but mostly I love how it keeps me in touch with family and friends.

Facebook for instance.

Good golly I don't want to think about how much of my life I have lost on Facebook.  I think it is so great to find old classmates and see what everyone is doing. I never was able to keep up with other military friends I had met and now we talk all the time.  It is so great that you don't have to Instant message people to have a conversation with them. You can leave comments or send them personal messages and know that you can later check up on it.


This Blog for another example.

I have always wanted to keep a journal of our military life but have terrible handwriting and just never really started one in a "Word" document. Now, I have this blog and it has been great. It is so wonderful to be able to weite my thoughts and read other peoples thoughts. Especially during this deployment I love reading about other wives going through the same thing, feeling the same thing. I go through my blog list every day and read everyones updates. i might not comment as much as I want but I AM reading it.  :-) 

Here are some funny pictures that I found that I thought I would share. They really make me laugh.  Jope they put a smile on your face. Do any of them resemble you???   LOL

Weekly Madness

Last week was a busy week as usual filled with lots of crazy madness that I have to laugh at. My teenage son just loves to keep my mind in constant awe of his choices. He watered the flowers in the front yard one day and forgot to turn the hose off. I noticed my sump pump running at 1030 at night and couldn't figure out why. We hadn't had rain in about a month so I was now thinking that we had a water leak somewhere. yes indeed- my son left the hose on for 6.5 hours and was flooding the front side of the house. That same night he turned the AC on in the house when the windows were all open adn he snuggled under his blanket. Obviously not THAT hot. Another day he decided he was going to trim our bushes- without telling me. Finally find out when my daughter starts calling me that I need to check out the front yard. Keep in mind that I am getting ready to put my house pn the market in 2 days! I go out there and my beautiful full bushes are now really small rectangles and are all uneven. GOD help me restrain myself. The fun is endless with the things he comes up with. Another token fun time was when he wanted to test our smoke detectors so he used a lighter and put it up there. No- don't notice the TEST BUTTON just go ahead and light the smoke detector on fire. There was burn marks all over it and he didn't know that ALL the alarms would go off in the house. Oh my!

So- yes I have to laugh at all the marvels my son has to offer. He really is a great kid with a great heart but he just doesn't always think.  He is definitely keeping me on my toes. I am constantly eyeing him to make sure I keep ahead of him a little.

Well, I am going to be putting the house on the market tomorrow. been doing LOTS of painting, packing, moving furniture and other household things.  Have a few more things to get done before I will be completly happy but am trying not to stress about it. Just taking one task at a time and go from there.  :-)


Many Blessings,

Don't forget the tissues

I always carry tissues with me nowadays.  It never fails that I am feeling great when the littlest thing will remind me that he's not here.

I was reminded of you today when:

                                  I woke up and your spot in the bed was empty

  
                                                            I heard our wedding song on the radio

                   we went to the sporting goods store and I had to figure out the sports stuff for our daughter

the kids were fighting and I couldn't ask you to help out

                                                                               I did laundry and it seemed so little

         I drove your truck

                                                             our daughter called using your old cell phone number

I didn't cook dinner because you are my big eater

                                          I was watching TV and didn't have you to laugh with

I went to the grocery store and didn't need to buy your usual stuff

                                                                                      I wanted to tell you something but I couldn't just call

                           I went to your favorite lunch spot- Saigon- yummy

  I filled out the customs form for your box to ship
                                                                         
                                                                              I drove by your squadron on the way to the commissary
       I said my prayers

                                         and in my dreams!


Miss you babe!!
 
                                                    

It's Circus Time

I took the kids to the Circus that was here in town. The base had free tickets so of course I wasn;t going to pass that up. It was the Shriners Circus so a little different than the Ringling brothers.

We had a good time and went with another family. It will probably be our last Circus though. I think my kids are getting too old becasue they didn't seem to thrilled. My daughter liked seeing all the animals and such before the show but when it came time to the actuall show we weren't really awestruck. We just kind of sat there and waited for it to be over- which seemed like never!

It is weird when your kids start getting too old for things.


No more Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, play dates and now the Circus.

Day 40-- since you left

 
40 days since the last time I was able to get a hug and a kiss that makes me feel safe and secure.

40 days since our kids were able to hold you

40 days since our last meal together

40 days since I cried because you were leaving. Now I cry because you are not here

40 days sine I had a "good" nights sleep

40 days since ..........................................


Although you have been gone for 40 days I know I must be strong because there is more than 40 more to go. And even though it makes me sad that you are not here I am so thankful for ALL our blessings. For technology that allows you to call and sometimes video call. I am thankful that our children can be proud of their daddy knowing that he is a part of a big group of GREAT military people who protect us.

I miss you honey!!!!!  No time for tears though. I must put on a happy face for the kids and be strong. Sometimes I need to make it through the day, sometimes I just need to make it through the hour. But I do know that we will make it through.

The Realtors coming

Yay- I have a Realtor coming. We don't have orders yet but we are supposed to be moving this fall. With how the housing market is I want to make sure I am ahead of the game. Yes- it will be a huge pain with hubby gone but I AM A MILITARY WIFE therefore I CAN DO IT!  At least that is what I keep telling myself. Gotta get pumped up.

Hubby thinks I should wait because my mom will be coming to visit in a few weeks and be here for a month. I know he wants  me to realx while my mom is here but it causes me more stress knowing that people are looking at the houses around me and not ours.

Luckily we have a newer home so I don't have a lot of things to fix up. My biggest headache ahas been this dog that hubby wanted and now has done some damage in our yard. He likes to dig holes under our air conditioner unit amongst other things.

So the countdown is on to sell our house. I am hoping to get it sold before we gwt orders so that we can move on base. Otherwise, I will need to find an apartment and get a storage for our things.

Off to pray to the housing gods!!

Many Blessings

Hubby is trying to taunt me....

We are supposed to be getting orders this summer. Hubby knows that I am really ready to move. I am constantly asking him if he has found out his list of choices and to make sure we are still on the fall move list.

He sent m an email this morning saying he called and has good and bad news.....NOTHING ELSE

Are you kidding me?  AAAAHHHH

I can't just call him and get the info. I am at his mercy until he writes me another email or calls this afternoon. Luckily the Realtor is coming this afternoon so I will be seriously busy with housework but STILL- It is driving me nuts.

I can't find my followers-Help

I am so thankful for followers. I always make sure I check out their blogs and follow them as well. Not sure what I am doing wrong but when I click on some of my followers in dashboard it only shows me the blogs they follow and recent activity. It doesn't show what their website is. So I am sorry if I am not following you- it is simply because I can't find your site.    Hhmmmmm

I am guessing that some people have their blog set to private. Anyone know of any other reasons?

Print your Blog into a book

I saw this really cool website where you can print your blog into a book.  What a grat way to end my deployment with a journal of all the moments. The cost is actually not expensive and the books look awesome.  I am excited to get it printed when he returns to have a keepsake of that time.  

Check it out:

Blog 2 print

I do not reap any rewards by sharing the site. I just think it is cool and want to share.  :-)

Many Blessings,

Missed Spouse flight

BUMMER!!!

So I had signed up to go on a Spouse incentive flight. ( When they take the spouses on a flight  in the plane that the base has.) I was really excited but my only issue was that it was at 7am. I knew that my daugter would need to stay with a friend overnight since I needed to leave at 630am. 

She has been having some troubles sleeping at night and knew this wouold be tricky. Everything was going as planned until she started texting me at 11pm

I knew this was not going to be good. So we texted back and forth and I tried to giver her lots of encouragemtn and assurance.

At 1245 am I picked her up.  :-(

I was mad because I really wanted to go on the flight and I was mad at the fact that--- I was mad. LOL  I want her to know that she can count on me and I will always chose her first but was really bummed that she couldn't handle this.  We had a rough morning and then we moved on with our day and it was fabulous.

That afternoon I called one of the spouses to ask how it went. THEY NEVER WENT. I couldn't believe it. The plane broke-(who would have guessed)- so they never took off. They have rescheduled it and thank my lucky stars it is while my mom is here. My daughter was so excited that it didn't take off. She felt so relieved. She was tormenting herself that she ruined mommy's day. No worries!

It just goes to show that thinsg happen for a reason. I am so glad I picked her up and made her feel like she is number one. If I hadn't and then we never took off I would have felt just beyond horrible.

Many Blessings,

$2001 worth of Avon products??????????

I am kind of fanatical about our money and am constantly watching our accounts to make sure I am up to date and to the penny. I don't work so I need to make sure we stay on budget. This deployment we want to get our credit card paid off. I know we can do it before he gets back because we have less than $5 but it is still work.

So yesterday I go online to fabulous USAA and see that I have a charge for $2001 of Avon products. 

WHAT THE..............

Seriously- I NeVeR buy Avon.

Who could possibly use that much Avon?

I could not dial USAA fast enough. My stomach had the worst feeling and my mind was racing.

I get in touch with the fraud department and am told not to worry. I will not be charged for this amount. They could not tell me a lot about the charge because I caught it as a "pending" charge. I caught it before it even posted to our account. There was also a $15.39 charge from netflix-RANDOM. Apparently that one was already being reversed because the merchant made a keystroke mistake. HHMMM  So how is it possible to get 2 mistakes in one day??   I am baffled.  

What a pain. So now we have flags on our account and everything is being investigated. I called Avon and the call was sent to India. Lovely. and their products are made in China. LOL  Geesh I wonder why our economy sucks- anyway that's a whole different day and rant. So the Avon Indian guy says to me" Oh, this is top priority. We will be contacting you immediately. Please be waiting for our call". Oh really- well its the next day and I still haven't received a call from them.

So, now I am super paranoid and have to double check everything. I really want to know how this happened. 

USAA had to ask if it was possible that my husband was coming home early and was buying me gifts.

BAAAHHHAAAAAHHAAAAAHAAAAAA

Yeah right- NOT AVON. I would need a divorce if he bought me $2000 worth of Avon as a present. 

The worst part is that even though I knew we would not be charged and it would all be taken care of it still added so much stress to me. I just felt like yelling "COME ON!!!!".  So frustrating to add another thing to my plate. I feel like someone looked at my shoulders and said "oh wait- she doesn't enough wait on them yet. Lets try this doozy".
With God on my side he will help me get through!

Anyway, check your credit card!!!!  Make sure every charge is yours.

Many Blessings,

YAY for my first awards. :-)

Thank you Gaile @ Prego Times  For the Beautiful Blogger Award 

The rules state I need to say "THANK YOU" and to list 7 things about me.

Well:

I have 2 beautiful children

We have been an Air Force family for 11 years now

I love to scrapbook and just switched to all digital scrapbooking

I am originally from CA

I have lived in 6 states

I am old fashioned and believe one prent should stay home with the children. I believe this is attainable when people learn to live within their budget.  :-)

I have many months to go before my hubby comes home from overseas.

I would like to pass the award to:

Riding the Roller Coaster

A deployment diary  in Hawaii

Life as a Navy wife


Air Force. Wife. Life

Wife of a wounded Marine

Married to the Military

Goodnight Moon

__________________________________________________________________________________
                                  Thank you   Shamrocks and Shenanigans   for the Sunshine Award

So the rules state I need to pass this on to 12 blogs that I follow.  WOW- I follow and read a lot so this is hard but here are my 12:

Diamonds and Dog Tags

Requires Heavy Lifting

A look into the life of a Fire Fighters wife

Aging mommy

Air Force Recruiting: A wife's point of view

Raw adventures of an Army wife

Our military adventure

My sailors mistress

Now an Air Force wife

Punk Rock Momma

A little pink in a world of camo

Beyond Jennifer and Jason

   I really enjoying reading all these blogs.  :-)

Friday Follow-is it just a numbers game??

I tried my first Friday Follow last Friday and have to say that I am not impressed. For me I want followers who are interested in what I am writing and who are going to read what I am writing. I also follow sites that I like to read. Friday Follow did bring me new followers which I am thankful for but I was also asked to follow lots of sites that did not interest me. I hope people follow me because they want to and not because they feel obligated.

So- do I follow them just because they followed me?

It's seems like having followers is just a numbers game like facebook friends. People try to get as many as possible to just be the cool kid in school. That's pretty much what it feels like to me. Like in school when you want to have more friends then anyone now it has spilled over into the WWW.

I can understand follow Friday for businesses and people who are doing giveaways and such but for everyday bloggers I think it takes away from the authenticity of your blog.

When I find a new blog and enjoy it I will definitely follow. I like to read about other people and there daily happenings- especially military wives. 

Am I against Friday Follow? Of course not so please no haters. I just know that it's not for me and I will stick to just writing.

Many Blessings

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, after my posting I lost 2 followers.  :-(   I was not trying to hurt anyone's feelings or be rude.  Apparently it was taken personally by some and I am sorry.

Support Mrs. P (fallen Marines Wife)

Mrs P of "A Little Pink in a World of Camo" is taking part in the Run for Warriors event on May 15th in honor of her husband who recently passed while serving in Afghanistan. 

Lets show some Blog Love and spread the word. 

You can check out her blog here and see how you can donate. She is only asking for a dollar but if you can spare more thats great!

Friday Follow

I Always see Friday Follow but have never participated. So here is my first Friday Follow.  :-)

Here's how YOU can join the Friday Follow celebration:

--Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below. Only need to add on one blog to be seen on all the blog hops.

--Grab the Friday Follow button and include on your Friday Follow blog post.

--Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.

--Follow as many other blogs on the linky as you'd like.

--Take a moment to comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow.

--Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow.

This list is new each week. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. The list is only open to add your blog links on Fridays. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listed.

I've been nominated for the MilBloggies

Thanks Riding the Rollercoaster  for the nomination!! I did go to milblogging.com and nominate you as well.  :-)
Anyone can go to milblogging.com and nominate a military related website for this award. So if you are following some mil blogs that you enjoy then be sure to head over there and vote.

Today is Friday and I am happy. We have had several beautiful sun shinny days here. The wind is overbearing but it didn't take away the warmth of the sun.

I always feel like on a sunny day I can handle just about anything. The sun is my drug of choice. The sun makes me feel so motivated and good.We are set to get some rain and storms tomorrow so I will have to say goodbye probably for a day. Thankfully Spring is finally here! I am so ready to plant flowers and enjoy the spring colors.

Hope you all have a FABULOUS Friday!

Many blessings to you,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions

Thank you so much for the comments you leave. I really do love the comment love. We do have on order a hero doll for our daughter. She is 10 and I know she will love it.  I love all the ideas and will be trying them out.

Nights are hard

Some nights my poor daughter just can't get to sleep. It's so hard when you know the only thing to make her better is a hug from Daddy. She says she can't sleep and really misses her daddy. I have tried so many things to help her get to sleep but nothing seems to work. I told she is going to have to come up with some way to help her get to sleep. Her dad got her a build a bear and recorded his voice to help her but sometimes I wonder if it makes it worse. I giver her lots of hugs but they only help a little. Sometimes she ends up in my bed and sometimes she just ends up staying awake until real late. Hopefully with time it will get better for her. She seems to get restless at night because then she is not busy and has time to think about him being away.

I have had several of these nights as well. So restless and just can't seem to fall asleep no matter what. It is that empty feeling knowing that he is supposed to be right next to me. Last night I stayed awake until 230am. Today will be a long day. I thought about what I tell my daughter to help her and it didn't help me either. LOL I have a hard time I think because I watch TV before bed and then of course see all the couples on the shows and it makes me long for him. I hate to see them all happy, hugging and kissy face.  Obviously, I need to open my eyes and NOT watch TV before I go to bed. I will try to start reading nightly. My daughter does not watch TV before bed so this is not going to be the same thing that will help her.

So- my mission is to find ways to help my daughter and I get some much needed good sleep at night.

Any Ideas????