Random Thoughts....

Scenes from Rhett's Silly Little Life

This kid makes me need to carry a notepad around at all times to write down his comments. But really I need like a lipstick camera or something too, just mounted to my head so you could see the expressions too. He is NOTHING if not expressive! Brent was pointing out to me the other day that Jack and Rhett (over the 4 of them) are the most...umm, I can't remember his exact word, but sort of dynamic! Jack is hilarious almost to the point that it's too much! His sense of humor is way older than he is. Of course that comes from having two older brothers that he considers himself equal to. But also, his delivery, I mean if you could just see and hear this kid in action...He's so deadpan, and his facial expressions kill me! I do find myself having to get onto him because of his mouth though, a LOT! Back talk is his latest vice!

Just tonight after supper I told him to take a shower and get his clothes out for tomorrow. It was a little after 7 and his bedtime is 8. It was already starting to get dark, so definitely it was time to call it a night. Yet he wanted to go back outside and ride his bike some more. He just just 30 more minutes? Nope. He dropped it to 10. Nope. 5? Nope and by this time I'm starting to get annoyed at having to repeat myself, but then I almost had to laugh in his face because he was like 4? 3? 2? Seriously Jack? If I'd said yes to 2 minutes like you would have just run out there and been thrilled to death for 120 seconds! LOL

This is supposed to be about Rhett though. I'm sad to say that many, many comments have slipped my mind. But last night at supper, he said he only wanted one piece of pizza. Of course this was because he wanted to hurry up and finish and get back outside. Yet, come 7:30 he'd be telling me how hungry he was. So, I told him, "Rhett, supper time is right now. You eat now and that's it, I don't want to hear how hungry you are in an hour because it'll be too late!" (Yes, I'm terribly mean and I never cave if they tell me they're hungry later! Please!) ;) And the look of shock that this boy gave me. Like I had accused him of something totally unfathomable. He said breathlessly, like he was soooo taken aback, "Mom, I would NEVER! No, I would NEVER do that! I know this is the time to eat." Ooooo.k. psycho kid! ;) LOL

Tonight was strawberries and whipped cream night for supper. Don't laugh...or scoff, it's actually really filling and it IS fresh fruit, so it could be worse. Anyway, I turn my head and what to my wondering eyes should appear but Rhett's delivering a fingerful of whipped cream to Giacomo's happy little mouth! Wish I could have gotten a picture of that!

Then a few minutes later while I was helping him with some last minute homework, he told me, "Mom, I would be sad if you were sick and didn't feel good. It would make me want to fix you hot chocolate." Awwww! Isn't he the sweetest!

Contradiction in Terms

So I've gone off and neglected my blog again. LOL Some days I feel bloggy, some days I don't. But tonight I feel sort of bloggy, so here I am. Lucky I remembered my password, huh? ;)

Lately I've been thinking how lonely I am. And when I say lonely I don't mean in a poor me kind of way. Actually I'm not even sure lonely is the word I want to describe how I feel. Because lonely has sort of a sad, pitiful connotation to me and I wouldn't say that's really how I feel. But anyway, for lack of another word I'll stick with lonely. I suppose it's probably normal for anyone to feel this way if their husband or wife is gone for an extended period of time. I more or less see myself as above all those feelings though. Whoa, that sounded a little snobby or arrogant, I'm not sure which, but again, not what I meant. It's just that I've been in this situation soooo many times before. Cute little piece of trivia here for you. Wayne's and my song (mine and Wayne's? Wayne's and mine? whatever) is "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marx. He chose it long before he was in the Army, so other than it being a sweet song with that nice piano bit at the beginning it really wasn't "saying" anything at the time. But I swear he couldn't have picked a more appropriate song! I mean seriously, how many times have I been in a "waiting" position for one thing or another?! I could write a small book on it probably!

Anyway though, it's not really ever bothered me that much. Definitely it can become boring and it can be stressful at times but it's never really struck me as being a lonely thing. And now, of all times! We live in a great neighborhood, tons of kids, lots of friends (both the kids and mine), I am or can be around people pretty much anytime I want. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the good parts in Alabama. I loved our neighborhood there for a long time and what I loved about it was how social it was and how I could sit out front with my girlfriends all day long tanning my legs and drinking Dr. Pepper. Such good times! I'll just block out the bad times, who needs them anyway! ;) And here, we have sort of a similar situation. I think I should feel extremely lucky and happy to be in a set up like this. And near the beach, HELLO Laura, could you ask for anything else on your wish list really?! Seriously put me on the sand in the sun and I'm pretty much a happy girl!! But I still can't shake this sort of lonely feeling. I guess because I've been a little bit spoiled, (I know you're all shocked and amazed at this revelation!!) for a while now. Maybe so much of my long-suffering ;) and waiting finally paid off and it's sort of annoying to have the reward taken away even if it is temporary! I can't believe I'm saying it because I'm certainly not one to wish time away, but I actually enjoy that some of the boys are older and are able to babysit each other. Wayne and I were never ones to get a babysitter, I don't know about for him, but for me I felt irresponsible getting someone else to take care of my kids while I went out for dinner or a movie or whatever. So if we went somewhere we always went as a family. And that was fine, I enjoyed it and never thought twice about it. I guess it's sort of like you can't miss what you never had. Know what I mean? We never really had the "date night" thing so we couldn't really know what we were missing out on. Now I know though!! And I'm missing out on it!! LOL Yeah, go ahead, call me spoiled. I don't mind. I don't mind be called spoiled, or for people to know that I like to get my way or even that Wayne likes to give me my way. As far as I'm concerned that's just the way it should be. !!!!!!!! What a shock I'm sure THAT sounds like to some people. Whatever, walk a mile in my shoes...

But anyway, I don't really mean to go off on that tangent again. I just think that maybe that's why I'm feeling this way when I never really felt that way during any other deployments or TDYs. Certainly it's not that big of a deal. Especially in the scheme of things. And there are definitely things I like about being on my own. I freaking LOVE that it's the Laura show ALL THE TIME!! Of course I would since I like to have my way so much, right?! ;) I like that I can take my morning drives in the sunshine to get my diet Coke or tan or whatever. And I like that the kids can have an easy supper of blueberry muffins and scrambled eggs sometimes (not to mention our strawberry nights!) that just would not fly if Wayne was here. But I guess all that can be sort of blah sometimes when you just want somebody to go do something with. Wayne and I have had a daily lunch date since before Jack was born. I even remember commenting when Jack was a newborn that I was glad we could still have those lunch dates because I kind of worried that was he was born we wouldn't anymore. And here we are 8 years later still doing the daily lunch thing. I know that's one thing we both miss during these deployments.

Ugh, I'm starting to sound down and that's not what I was going for, so let me sign off from here and go see why my son (Jack) is dancing in the street! This should be good! :)

Mamba Jamba

This week has been flying by pretty quickly! Just when I get sort of a routine down with the Spring Break deal it's almost over and it'll be time to restart the school routine which I know will throw me for a few days. But it's good. School will probably help the time to fly by faster. Oh just wish your life away Laura! LOL Not really!

Tuesday I did my first grocery shopping excursion without Wayne. A little weird for me. He and I are two TOTALLY different types of shoppers. Truth be told he's probably the more logical one. Logic is probably not my strong suit in life. I'm a feeler, I go by instinct and gut feelings and fluffy stuff like that. But I won't change it, it's served me well. Aaaaanyway, I'm an "oh, that has a pretty box", or "ooooh that smells good" type of shopper. Total sucker for the marketing geniuses out there I'm sure. I was thinking that while I was in Target the other day buying wrapping paper. I mean, doesn't Target have just THE BEST wrapping section? Everything is SO pretty and coordinated and just different from other places. So inspirational! I get on like a creative high when I go in there or Home Goods or that kind of place! But we were talking about grocery shopping. And yeah, the commissary isn't all decked out like Target, but I can still go a little nuts. For example I needed some shampoo for me. Now, for the boys I typically buy Suave green apple, it's inexpensive and it smells good. And they're not GIRLS, so it's fine. But for me, I am always sure that the next type of shampoo or conditioner I buy is going to be THE one that will turn me into a hair goddess! LOL, just kidding, but it's sort of that idea. I'm always very excited by new hair products or makeup. So I pick up this new kind of Pantene (or new to me over here, don't spoil it for me!) and I open it and smell it and the lady that happens to be there stocking shampoos and conditioners tells me in her Carribean accent, "oooh that one smells good!" So I start talking to her about how I buy my shampoos based on their scent, who cares what the bottle says! Funny thing about that, I used to be the shyest person you'd ever meet. Nowadays, I'll talk to practically anybody, anytime about almost anything. Hmmm, just an observation. So then she says, "well then you should smell these two new ones!" So we smelling all the new shampoos and just having a grand old time until I realize I don't need 3 new shampoos and I hear my little "Wayne on my shoulder" saying, "LAURA, would you COME ON!!!" So I thank her and tell her to have a good day and mosy down to the toothpaste, which I don't need any of at the moment so I kept going.

I was getting a little worried about halfway through this shopping trip that I might need two carts. It's totally not unheard of for me to need two, but the problem would have been that I didn't bring any of the boys with me, so I would have to steer them by myself. Fortunately, I avoided that problem. AND I came in $50 under what I estimated. I did have to get so much stuff though because with the boys being on spring break the last two weeks they've been eating us out of house and home!!

Today (Wednesday) was another disappointment in the weather department, so I thought the boys might like to get out for a little while. I mean really, when you live in Hawaii, where do you GO for Spring Break? So it's not like we've had grand plans or anything. I'd heard good things about Monsters vs. Aliens so I thought maybe they'd like to go see that. I knew it was a "good, motherly" thing to do to take them, but at the same time I cringed a little bit knowing that I was purposely subjecting myself to 1 1/2 to 2 hours trapped in a movie theater. I start feeling trapped and like I'm being forced to sit still and do something I might or might not want to do. Even if it's a movie I've really wanted to see I still get antsy and restless. Guess I'm just not much of a movie person. At home either, if I were to put in a DVD I'd turn it on, but no way would I sit there through the whole thing and I wouldn't pause it when I got up either. I figure I'd get the gist of it and if I really needed to I could go back. So as movie time approached I was already thinking of where I'd rather be. Way to live in the moment Laura! ;) It turned out to be a pretty good movie though. Not that I'd go see it again, once is plenty, but it was cute and the 3D was pretty good too. Here's the real downside though. We've already established that movies make me restless, so I pretty much HAVE to have a snack at them, something to keep me otherwise occupied. So what's my snack? Peanut m&m's. Yeah, I ate a ton. So I pretty much set myself up for a night on the treadmill. ((sigh)) A little self control Laura, PLEASE!! :) So that's coming up for me in a little bit. I'm just taking a break right now because after we got home I did something I'd been wanting/needing to do for a while now. I vacuumed out the van. And I did a GOOD job!!! Those secret compartments in the floor, for the stow 'n go seating thing, yeah, those are just places for more crumbs and candy wrappers and crap to go. And there was a good bit of sand from our recent trips to the beach too. All in all that little job took me about an hour and a half. Plus I mixed up some oxy clean and scrubbed the 2 center row seats. They could probably still use more scrubbing actually! I think it'll be very nice to drive in a nice, clean, fresh smelling van tomorrow!

And so that brings me to treadmill time. Such a love/hate thing I have going on with that. It's just getting started that kills me. Halfway into it I'm all good and I love it at the end when I'm all sweaty and feeling good. Can I just fast forward to that part please? Again with the time wishing away. What's with that theme? And I always sort of pride myself on being in the moment, so this is an strange observation for me to be making. Well, I guess it's now or never, let me go burn off some m&m's!!