Home is Where the Heart Is

This is my second valuable lesson. It's day 14 since Heath has been gone and I think I've learned 2 valuable lessons. These lessons are great and wonderful but I'm totally fine with no more lessons and my husband just coming home! =)

Lesson #2: No matter where we live it will be wonderful as long as we're together. Of course you could have asked me that a year ago and I would have said the same thing. Everyone knows that right? But it has changed. I mean it more....a LOT more. When Heath left for this MO trip I was more of a big baby. I mean really the whole trip is so he can go find out what he thinks is best for our whole family, not because he just has a whim to move us all to MO. But I just kept thinking things like, "I like FL better than MO....I don't WANT to move to MO....wah wah wah wah wah..." But then I discovered that FL just stinks without Heath in it. I would gladly move to Alaska so we could all be together! Heath is making a very sacrificial trip so that he can make a wise and informed decision as to where our family needs to be. He will take all the facts into his decision making and I will trust his judgement and not be whiny...because wherever we make our home, it REALLY AND TRULY will be wonderful as long as we are healthy and together....and as long as we have the proper outlook and grateful hearts. :)

Joyfully at Home

Well, my new adventure hasn't been all bad. I miss my husband a ridiculous amount yes, but I have also learned some valuable lessons.

Lesson #1: Be content at home. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to be on the go. I like to go SOMEWHERE every day whether is is out to eat, or to the library, or to the park, to the beach, to see the horses or just whatever. Well, the first few days Heath was gone it was STORMING, for days and days and days. Relentless rain. I thought I would lose my mind the first two days. But by day three I had changed. (although the rain didn't stop until about day 5) I didn't feel the need to leave and I began to conciously focus on the joy of staying at home. We would light candles and do puzzles or read books. We would hop in the pool when there was a break in the clouds. (which would last about 20 minutes) I would reorganize a pantry, or closet or scrub some baseboards. And I learned to really like it! Now I'm not saying that I don't still love doing all the aforementioned things. I do. I just have also learned to REALLY LOVE being at home. I'm content. I'm happy. And that is a very valuable lesson.

These are a few of my favorite things

Here is a list of some of my favorite things in no particular order....well, the first on IS my favorite. :)

1. My husband
2. Hugs from my husband
3. When my kids say and do sweet things
4. My horses (riding them or just brushing and feeding)
5. scented candles
6. pretty dishes
7. cupcakes
8. air conditioning
9. swimming
10. pretty dresses
11. my house clean
12. rocking chairs
13. Christmas music
14. warm chocolate chip cookies
15. La Hacienda (the restaurant)
16. My birthday
17. Dolphins
18. Birds in my yard
19. Flowers in my yard
20. blankets and quilts
21. surprises from my husband
22. clean sheets
23. date night
24. Disney World
25. Vacations
26. painted toenails
27. Having my hair done
28. When my husband praises me
29. Baby goats
30. the beach
31. the smell of fresh hay
32. home grown tomatoes
33. Thanksgiving Dinner
34. reading blogs
35. Blueberry Pie

My house has been so spotless since Heath left. I pass all this extra time by cleaning and being productive! So that's good. I even do some kind of deep cleaning stuff EVERY DAY. Like cleaning my refrigerator, organizing my pantry, scrubbing windows, organizing my kitchen cabinets...that kind of thing. Actually this is day 9 and I'm running out of projects. (OK...since typing that sentence I have just thought of 4 more projects so I guess I'm not!) Well, last night the boys were playing war, because I suppose that's the kind of games little boys enjoy. And they made a HUGE mess...all over the house!!!!

I was irritated.

But I didn't show it. I just smiled and said, "You know you boys have to clean up all this mess." They said, "Okay, but can we finish playing first?" I said, "Sure, but you are going pick up every single thing you took out." Well, they kept playing and the mess kept growing. And then I finally said, "Okay, time to clean up." And to my amazement they cleaned up EVERY SINGLE THING. The house looked just like it did before they wrecked it. It was just like the Cat in the Hat except there was no cat and no amazing cleaning machine. I was so proud of them.

Ok, I HATE my new adventure. It stinks. I miss my husband! I didn't know how much my life revolved around Heath until he's gone!!! UGH!!!! I have a new compassion for all my military friends. It has been 7 days since he's been gone and I'm just now figuring out how to do this. I do MUCH better when I stay busy. It is VERY easy to keep the house clean. We are going to the library a lot, going to the park a lot, we were going to the beach a lot...until the oil got here. We have yet to go ride the horses because it has been raining soooooooo much! It will be very wet at Daddy's house. I'm so glad we have the pool. The kids always have something to do. On the bright side I can say that I now believe that absense really does make the heart grow fonder, and I didn't even know my heart could grow more fond! I talk to him on the phone several times a day and those times are wonderful. I CAN'T WAIT until he gets home!!

My new.....um....adventure????

In just a few days (five to be exact) Heath is going to go to Missouri for several weeks. We don't know how many but we are guessing anywhere from 4-12 weeks. The kids and I will be staying here. Doesn't that sound like fun? Sigh. I'm incredibly attached to him and I know it is going to be a difficult time for me. He is going up there because it seems like there is a lot of job opportunities up there. But we could be wrong. So before we just pack up and move he is going ahead to check it out. And if he needs to, blaze the trail. So I really have no idea what is going on with our lives. We may stay here for years or possibly move to MO. Nema of course is adamant that our lives would be miserable in MO. She has already told me that we could never get a house as nice as this one, and we would be WAY too cold, we would miss the beach and we would have no friends. Thanks Nema. But I have made up my mind to be very positive about this. Of course it's not ideal, I like Heath and want to be around him! That's why I married him! But I'm strong and capable and women do this all the time. (I'm thinking about all my military friends.) And who knows, this may be just the path God has for us! Hopefully we will find out soon! Anyway I just wanted to let you know what was going on with us!

Vacation

If you look you can see the fish Levi has just thrown and the sea lion is about to catch!

Levi NEVER gets tired of petting the stingrays....no matter how long we do it.

Ocean Comotion is Londyn's favorite ride.

My crew with the beautiful dolphins!!!!!! I heart dolphins.

These birds were awesome. They just kept landing on us! One landed on Londyns' head!

My favorite part of vacation! We all love feeding the dolphins!

We are now on day 10 of a 2 week vacation. It's wonderful of course. We have been spending our time at Sea World, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens. Sea World has emerged as the leading favorite followed by Busch Gardens and Aquatica is coming in last. At Aquatica we have to be split up the whole time, someone riding rides with Luke and someone else staying with Levi and Londyn. And being the family fanatics that we are, we just like to stick together. I think it's funny because during this vacation I have been able to see just how much that has rubbed off on my children. The people at the rides will say, you can ride this but you all can't ride on the same row, and they will always opt to wait for the next ride so they can. I think this is very cool. I also CAN'T BELIEVE how much we are learning! I told Heath that Luke has had a years worth of science in the past week. These are very educational parks! (well, not Aquatica)

So our daily routine is this: We wake up and I cook breakfast here at the condo, then we go to a theme park for about 3-4 hours. We eat our big meal after we leave. The food at the parks is ridiculously expensive. Then we come back to the condo and swim for about 2 hours. Night time swimming is great because the pools are almost empty. After we swim we eat sandwiches and then the kids watch a movie and eat chocolate chip cookies and popcorn. We are loving movie nights because we just have our little 24 inch TV and so we think movies on this big flat screen are fun. So yes...we are having a blast. I'll post pics soon.