This is us. This is who we are right now.

I just thought this was a very sorry insight into our lives today...and isn't that what blogging is all about? :)

Friendship is a beautiful thing.

*Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. Please ignore the low quality of these pictures and focus on the message of this post. It's about the message, people. The message.*

When you're down for the count and nothing seems to be going your way...
When sadness seems to be all around and you feel all alone...
Your best friends bring you yellow daffodils.
And they make you chicken soup. From scratch.
They bring you chili-noodles, cupcakes and chicken casserole.
Your best friends come bearing Happy Meals, Sprite and Tylenol.
They offer goat (yes, goat) stew and Twinkies to help you keep up your strength.
They haul their 3 kids out into the dark, icy morning so that you don't have to.
And they even drop what they're doing to drive you to the doctor.
That's what best friends do...

I tried to depict the fact that little yellow flowers DO make the sun shine! It works!

This is Christie's pretty handwriting. It says: "Because some days you need little yellow flowers to remember the sun still shines.". So true.

I put them in another pot. I hope it will continue to bloom!

I am so fortunate and blessed to have so many wonderful friends in my life. These are the times I am so very aware of why we must live in Kodiak. :)

Here I go again on my own...

Cue the cheesy 80's rock ballad music...

Yes, folks, another patrol is upon us. I can only look at it like another check-mark on the list of patrols that we DON'T have looming in front of us. This is a good thing.

So, I know I haven't posted in a while, and the simple reason is that I've had a serious bad attitude the past few weeks. I like to chalk that up to what I call "Pre-Deployment Syndrome". Jake thinks this is a made-up condition so that people can get away with having a bad attitude about being deployed. Well, it's not made up, thank you very much, and it happens to be the leading cause of attitude problems in spouses during the weeks leading up to "D"-ployment day. Here are some symptoms I experienced:

Emotional flat-lining or "checking out early": Don't ask me what's for dinner a week before you leave for 3 months. I don't know. Did the kids eat? Not sure. What did you say? I'm really enjoying this game of online Scrabble I'm playing with Sarah right now. We'll figure out dinner later. Oh, it's 7:45? Oh, okay...

Lame squabbles about nothing: Why did you just carry those paper plates from the dining room table all the way into the kitchen and set them on the counter?? You just walked right by the garbage can. Are you going to deal with those now or are you just going to leave them sitting there? You know, you could have just thrown them out. What? You are going to scrape the leftover food into the sink? Why didn't you just throw the entire thing into the garbage can when YOU JUST WALKED BY IT?? Throwing food into the garbage can is NOT gross. Making the extra effort to carry it to the sink to scrape it into the garbage disposal is lame. Plus, I think I might remember being told by some people that these disposals are cheap and not capable of doing too much extra work. Putting that food down it will break it. No, food in the garbage can will not start stinking before you have a chance to take it out to the dumpster! AAAHHHH!!

Not doing things that need to be done: This will not postpone the deployment or get Spousy-poo out of the whole thing altogther. He will need clean socks and underpants while he's gone, and just because you don't do it doesn't mean he won't go.

Little emotional mini-outbursts in closets: This works great when you don't want him to know you're having issues about him leaving for 3 months. Oh, yeah, I'm strong. I can take it. You married Super Woman, don't you remember? I can do anything. Now, I'll be right back...I just need to go get something out of this closet over here...WAAAAHHHHH! Whoo...a splash of cold water and a little pressed powder and you're ready to get back into the thick of things again.

So, let this be a little insight into what people go through when they are suffering from "Pre-deployment syndrome", and just remember: it's real. It exists. It sucks.

Question of the day...

Here is a question for you to ponder today:

Why does it always snow on days that Jake has duty?

When you figure it out, let me know. Thank you.