Care Package # 5: Welcome to Afghanistan

Here is the 5th care package I have made for this deployment. I made this one shortly after they got to Afghanistan and it mostly consisted of snacks and things he had forgotten. This one isn't very cute but it was last minute & late at night & we were in the middle of a move. So all in all I'm sure he was just happy to get a box. :)

This box had a "Welcome to Afghanistan" Theme & here's what was in it:

• Tums
• Chapstick
• A variety of meds found in the 88 cent bin at good ol' Wally World
• Crackers
• Beef Jerky
• Pop Tarts
• Hand Warmers. It was January and he had said it was SUPER cold. 
• Candy
• Suckers with a "Deployments Suck" sign

Care Package # 4: Christmas

Jeeze! I am SUCH a slacker! I just now realized that I am beyond behind on blogging about the care packages. So... without further ado here is Care Package # 4. This was his second Christmas Care Package.

This care package had:

• Caramel Thumbprint cookies. The recipe can be found on the back of caramel kisses bag. Although I omitted the nuts. 
• A sausage and cheese gift set
• Gummy wreaths
• Candy canes
• Mint sticks & sugar cookies.
• And Christmas cards to his platoon that my kids classes made. :)

We got to see him for Christmas so I didn't really include any gifts in any of his Christmas care packages. 

Fuck This Fat... I'M DONE!!!!

Done Done Done I'm DONE!!! With being a big fuckin fatty that is. I am soo freakin pissed at myself right now. I keep on losing then waisting all that time and hard work, throwin it all away and gainin that shit right back. Plus more!!!! UGH!!!

Ya know, I was all set to lose this weight. For me & for the hubs. I'm really tired of bein the fat wife. I know I'm a good wife and I know I'm not ugly, but honestly Dick can't be proud to say "yep THIS is my wife." And I REALLY want that for him. But know what the FINAL straw was? Today at dinner I was talkin to the boys about me losing weight and I told them I wanted them to answer HONESTLY and not worry bout hurting my feelings. I asked them if they were embarrassed that their mom was fat. Harley said "No. You're not fat Mom." Gee thanks bud, but I am. You're too sweet like your Daddy. Nathan sadly and quietly admitted that yes he was embarrassed. "Cuz all his friend's moms are skinny."

So thats fuckin IT. I'M DONE!!! It's one thing to hate myself for it and to hate how I look. It's one thing to not have my hubs be super proud to show me off. He doesn't hide me away in a closet and I know he still loves me. But I will NOT be an embarrassment to my children. So this time. This is it. I'm doing it and I'm sticking with it and I WILL be the woman I wanna be. The wife I wanna be. And most importantly the MOM I wanna be. And I can't do that if I'm a big huge fatty who embarrasses her children.

Some may say "Oh don't say that... BLAH BLAH BLAH." But maybe, just maybe, this is the slap in the face I need to wake the hell up and get with the freaking program. So tomorrow, it starts. I'm doing this. For me. For Dick. And MOST importantly for Harley & Nathan.


*And No I don't really wanna hear the "don't say that" crap. I'm saying it. That's what I use this blog for. To vent, to share how I feel and what I think. And this might not be "right" but today, it's how I feel.

The Lucky Ones

Ya know. I've been thinkin. As much as deployments suck and as much as they make us sad, we are actually the lucky ones. We are the ones that get to know our love can face any obstacle and come out even stronger for it. We are the ones that get to enjoy the butterflies that come with new love all over again. We are the ones that know just how strong we are and that although it is tough we can and will make it through anything that we face. We are the ones that truly understand how important the little moments are and not to take a single one for granted. We are the ones that would go anywhere and wait however long it takes for our love. And that truly is what its all about.

3 Months Down!!!!

Well today marks the 3 months mark. We are now 25% done.
 I got to talk to Richard this morning and one of the things we talked about what that this deployment is alot easier for both of us than the last one was. I don't really know what is causing it whether it is that we are older, that we are busy, been together longer, used to being apart, I'm here with family. What? So many things have changed since the last deployment we can't really pin point WHY it's easier. It just is. And for that I am VERY thankful. We both pray to God for peace and patience and his safety every day so I'd like to think that has a lot to do with it too. I prayed some last time but not like I do this time. And the boys pray every day and thank God for keeping their Daddy safe. Makes my heart melt every time I hear it.

Anyways getting off track. The last month has been SUPER busy and has flown by. We moved, went out of town, met great new friends, spent time with old friends, packed, cleaned, unpacked, cleaned some more, sent out lots of care packages and letters, watched movies and shows, ate out far more than we should have but that happens during moves, and all in all had a good month.
Now we are onto the 4th month. February. Although I had been kind of dreading this month since its Valentine's day & he's not here, I am glad its finally here. It means we are one month closer to him being home. And in all honesty me & Dick don't really do it up big for V-day. We usually just go out on a date and maybe some candy. So this year I'm spending it with the other 2 loves of my life. My boys. We've decided to order pizza and rent a movie. Sounds exciting right? For us it sure does and it means we don't have to try and beat the crowds at an restaurants or movie theaters.

So here's to another month down and another month closer to being back with my husband.

Weeks 10-13

Well I have DEFINITELY gotten behind. But moves will do that to ya!
The last 4 weeks I have:

• Packed like a CRAZY person.
• Moved from one house to another. In the freezing rain might I add. Do I have AWESOME family or what?
• Unpacked a LOT. Still not done but hoping to get there this week.
• FINALLY got internet set up.
• Sent out 4 care packages.
• Went to a Yellow Ribbon ceremony in Arkansas. It was actually a lot of fun. Got a lot of really good info and got to meet some AWESOME ladies. And only wanted to stab someone once. But I resisted. So that's awesome too.
• Spent lots of time with my AWESOME sister. Honestly don't know what I would do without her.
• Dealt with stupid drama. Spent way too much time worrying about it and focusing on it until I realized that it really didn't matter and neither did the people involved.
• Lost a "friend". I say "friend" because if they were a true friend what ended the friendship would have NEVER happened.
• Realized I don't have the time or patience for fake friends and I'm not gonna put up with it. Ive said it before & I'll say it again. I'd rather have no friends than fake friends.
• Found a new show I LOVE. The following on Fox is beyond amazing. Creepy but amazing. If you haven't checked it out you SOO should. Love it!
• Finished all the 50 shades books. Really dunno WHEN i finished them but I'm pretty sure it was within the last 4 weeks.
• Started Baby Proof. So far its a pretty good book. Don't have a ton of time to read but I do read every day Monday-Friday when I'm waiting on the boys after school.
• Talked to my hubs a few times. Not a whole lot but I am okay with that. He's not much of a talker and I'd love to talk to him all day every day. So we compromise. Makes us both happy and knowing hes relatively happy makes me happy. Plus he talks to me as much as he can... I think. But talks to me plenty to keep my satisfied. Gah that sounds dirty. ANYWAYS. I'm tired. Don't judge me. :)
• Took the boys to the dentist. I don't think I like the dentist they saw last time. Long story short: she wanted to pull out a tooth that ended up having nothing wrong with it just cuz it looked funny on the x-ray. But nope. Didn't happen. THANK GOODNESS.

All in all its been a pretty good 4 weeks. And its flown by. Now just hoping the next few weeks fly by just as fast. :)

And as always, pictures of our week. Or weeks in this case.

 

 

 

 

February

Well January was a CRAZY month. Lots of moving and no internet for 2 weeks. Just got it back up and running today. So here are my January updates and my goals for February

Read 2 books... Umm I dunno WHEN I thought I would have the time for THIS but I've ready about half of ONE book.

Lose 5 pounds... Gained a freakin pound. Not having dishes and eating out will do that to ya. UGH. Just gotta add that in to this months goals

Get moved & completely unpacked in the new house...Moved yes. Unpacked, not so much. Its gettin there but not completely done yet.

Send 2 care packages. ... Sent 4 care packages so I ROCKED this one. :)

Blog each week. ... I'd say I did this one too since I blogged when I had internet. Hell I just got it back up today & I'm already back at it. :)

Now onto February Goals!!!

• Finish book I'm on & read another book.
• Lose 10 pounds... One can hope right?
• Finish unpacking and get the house decorated.
• Blog each week.
• Send 4 care packages
• Workout 5 times a week.
• Relax and be more patient!!!

Hoping February is a better month in the goals department than January was! Only time will tell!!!

Week 9!

Another week down. Another week closer to having Dick home! This has been an emotional week for us. It was the first week back home after saying goodbye to him for a second time. He also FINALLY made it to Afghanistan so now on top of missing him, I am worrying about him. But the sooner he got there the sooner he gets to leave. Always a silver lining. :)

This week I:

• Had Christmas at my mom's house with her, my twin, brother, sis-in-law, & nephews! Lots of fun!
• Did Christmas with my Dad.
• Packed, packed and packed some more!!!
• Went & saw the new house. Got an idea of where I want stuff, and fell in love with it even more.
• Got all the utilities changed into our names. EEESH. That was kinda painful. :/ Really sucks when past mistakes catch up to you. But we got it fixed and are on the right track now. :)
• Played 3 games of Trouble with the boys. SO much fun!
• Rang in the New Years with the boys. Neither one made it to midnight so I rang it on the couch watching House Hunters. We watched that with Dick in TX so it made me think of him.
• Watched a House Hunters in Little Rock Arkansas. They were staying at the Peabody which is where we stayed with Dick when we went to the first Yellow Ribbon Ceremony so that was really cool. :)
• Took down all my Christmas decor. That was a MAJOR chore in itself.

All in all it wasn't a very exciting week. It was fun and busy, but not super exciting.

And as always some pics to finish off the post. Also gonna include some of Dick's unit heading out even tho we weren't there, it affected our week. :)

TWO MONTHS DOWN!!!

ONLY 10 more to go!!!! These last 2 months have absolutely FLOWN by!!! We have been beyond busy in the Scroggins house. Between packing (to move & to visit dick), Christmas, New Years, and a week long trip to El Paso, this last month has felt like MAYBE 2 weeks worth. But that is a GREAT thing. Minus the week in El Paso only feeling like 2 days. :( But we keep saying, the sooner he leaves the sooner he gets home.

I'm sure January will fly by as well. With packing, moving, and unpacking how could it not? Its AFTER January that has me a bit uneasy. I'm just hoping that the 9 months after that will fly by as well. Although, it seems like since the boys started school, the years have been flying by. I can't believe it was a year ago that me, Dick & the boys were ringin in 2012 & playing Ninjago with the boys. But it was. Like I said FLOWN by. I'm hoping that once I start work that will help too. We shall see. But for now, I am just happy that we are officially 2 months down. So we are 2 months closer to him being home! Can't focus on how far we have left. Just focusing on how far we have come! And we are ALMOST 17% done! How crazy is that?

Weeks 7 & 8!!!

 

FINALLY getting caught up on the blog. Its been a CRAZY few weeks!
In week 7 I:

• Went for the first & LAST girls night OUT. It was CRAZY!!! Had some fun but it was WAY more fun to stay in. :)
• Packed up some in the house.
• Went to Nathan's Christmas Party for school.
• Mailed out the 4th Care Package.
• Went to the CVMA Christmas party. LOTS of fun but really weird being there without Dick. :/.
• Made Christmas "trees" with the boys out of Ice cream cones.
• Made thumbprint reindeer ornaments for the grandparents and ourselves with the twin & nephews!
• Packed up everything to go see the hubs.
• Wrapped LOTS of presents.
• Finished my shopping. :)
• Went to see Santa.

In week 8 I:

• Drove 15 hours to go see Richard. :)
• Got to spend 5 days with the hubs.
• Went out to eat ALOT.
• Got to see Ft. Bliss. MAN HAS IT CHANGED!!!
• Saw our old house. That was kinda weird.
• Watched the boys play a 2 hour game of chess.
• Went to the El Paso Zoo. That was pretty cool!
• Saw Rise of the Guardians.
• Looked at Christmas lights!
• Spent Christmas with my family.
• Hung out with some guy that Dick is deploying with.
• Went to a veteran's transition center.
• Ate IHOP for our Christmas dinner.
• Watched LOTS of HGTV and History channel.
• Went to Rudy's BBQ. Been wanting to go back for YEARS. They REALLY need one in Tulsa!
• Said goodbye to the hubs AGAIN. :(
• Spent a night ALONE in a hotel.
• Drove 15 hours home.

Even though we only got to see him for a short amount of time and drove a LONG ways to do so, it was BEYOND worth it. My boys got to have the one thing they really wanted for Christmas (to spend it with their Daddy). My family was whole again for a few days. And we got to see him one last time before he deployed.

All in all it was a GREAT 2 weeks. A major whirlwind. And time with Richard flew by WAY too fast. But we knew it would and we enjoyed the time we had with him.

And as always, pictures to finish off the post. LOTS of pictures. :)

 

 

 

 

January...

Well its a new year! Time to start fresh! I think in addition to having my deployment goals & doing my weekly blogging I am going to set Monthly goals each month. And at the beginning of each month I will see how I did the month before and make my new list. So here goes:
For January I want to:

• Read 2 books
• Lose 5 pounds
• Get moved & completely unpacked in the new house.
• Send 2 care packages.
• Blog each week.

Not a very BIG list for this month but with moving, I don't think I will be able to accomplish MUCH more. I am BEYOND excited about the new house. Just can't wait! I hope everyone has an AMAZING 2013!

Week 6!!!

We are 6 weeks down! And officially 1 week away from seeing our soldier again! Today is also the 9 year anniversary of me & Dick's relationship. I can NOT believe that it has already been 9 years! Its been fun. Hard but fun. I wouldn't change it for the world. Looking back today I would have NEVER imagined that we would be where we are.

It is so hard to believe that we are already 6 weeks into this thing. The days have just been FLYING by!

This week has been by far the CRAZIEST week since Dick left. And what do you know? I have NO pictures from this week. I know I'm a failure. But I have a good excuse! This week Dick and I decided to move! We are going to be moving into his mom's rent house. Hopefully we will have it bought within 6 months! So like I said GOOD excuse. Anyone that has moved knows how time consuming that is. And if you have ever moved with your husband deployed. Well props to you! Its tough work. Plus with buying the house we are trying to get help from the Cherokees since Dick is a Wagon Burner. (I say that with much love.) So that means constantly playing phone tag with them and trying to jump through all their hoops.

This week Harley was also sick. Mostly just a low grade fever and sore throat. He threw up once but even that wasn't much. Very weird. Just glad it passed quickly. BUT that meant missing his Christmas program that he has been working so hard on for weeks. We were all completely bummed out by it.

This week I didn't get a care package out to Dick like I wanted either. Like I said... Failure. I will be making it tonight and sending it tomorrow tho. So he'll have it soon. But what I'm putting in it takes FOREVER so I just haven't been looking forward to making them. It will be well worth it tho. As always I'll be making a post about his care package and it will be included in next weeks blog.

I HAVE packed 35 boxes this week. So that's something to feel good about I guess. LoL. I REALLY wanna be completely packed and ready to go at least by the night before. Hopefully sooner. I'm hoping this move goes as smooth as possible. Next week is gonna be CRAZY busy. I am gonna try my best to blog next Friday like I do EVERY Friday but not sure what time I am gonna head out to see the hubs. I am BEYOND stoked so if I leave earlier then I'll just catch up on the blogging when I return! And I'm sure that will be one LONG and eventful post since it will include a road trip, Christmas & Time with all 3 of my guys!!!

As always I hope everyone had a great week! Stay safe during this holiday craziness!

Week 5!

We are five weeks into this deployment now. Things are still going by pretty quickly. This was actually a pretty busy week!!! We started our advent calendar and have been busy with activities all week long!

This we I:

• Went to Winter Wonderland @ the boys school. It was a lot of fun! We decorated paper snowmen and Christmas trees, had cookies and hot chocolate and watched Frosty the Snowman! It was for Harley's grade so all of his friends were there. It was a lot of fun watching him interact with his friends from school. He was a bit rowdier than I would have liked but most of the kids were so I let it be.
• Went to the drive in! It was the last showing of the season so we loaded up the boys in mom's suburban and went! We watched Breaking Dawn pt 2 and Wreck it Ralph. I love BD2 obviously since we went to the premiere but I also thought Wreck It Ralph was super cute. The boys like it too. Just wish they would have played it first!
• Read Snowmen at Night with the boys. It was Nathan's pick. SUPER cute book. And we all know I love me some Schneemann!!!
• Watched Naughty or Nice with my boys. Harley's pick on his choice of movie night. I recorded it off Hallmark Channel. A really cute movie. Good story that's not boring for adults but fun enough to keep the boys entertained.
• Made Dick's 3rd Care Package. Still no word on if he's gotten it yet. I'm kinda nervous since he's a scrooge. :)
• Took the boys to the dentist. Not as great of a report as I would have liked but not horrible either. But the dentist pissed me off. I think I may request a diff one next time.

Our elf has still been visiting us each day. :) But I have been as good about taking pics of him this week. But he brought the boys some coloring books. They were really excited about that. Hes also hung out in the kisses for Daddy jar, went for a walk on my treadmill, camped out in the tree, and looked through the advent calendar. The boys LOVE having the Elf. So if it makes them happy it makes me happy. I'm just glad I haven't forgotten to move him yet.
I have been doing okay on my workouts this week. I started a Holiday Squat-a-thon and have done it everyday. Plus been doing the treadmill and my daily workouts so I'm pretty pleased with it. But I didn't weigh in today like I usually do. Last night was a rough night. :/ I'm just gonna keep at it this week and see what I'm at next week. :)

That's about all that is new in our life. Its been a pretty busy week and is gonna be busy til Christmas at least. But that's okay. I get to see my husband this month and I could not be happier!
And as always, some pictures from our week. :