Prayer Please....

Silly request, I know... but please pray for me to find my camera!! We can't afford to buy another one and I can't find the one I have... with my husband coming home in a week or two after being gone over a year and some change, I really want to take pics of him and Amelia! I'm starting to get really upset!

"I 'mart, Mommy"

Amelia was poking me in the chest at the dinner table as I bent over to untie her bib, asking me "What dis, mommy?"

Since my dad and nephew were at the table, I tried to be generic and said, "That's my chest, honey". And she said, very loudly, 'NO it NOT! Dat your BREASTS!!!"

Um. Yeah. Once I stopped laughing I remembered her asking me that same question a few weeks earlier and giving her a more detailed answer. Apparently she remembered. :)

"OH NO HE DINT!!!"

What kind of husband (who has been gone for over a year) sends his wife an email that says, "I will be home VERY SOON" and then....


nothing else.

Not a call.

Not another email.

Not a clue.

How soon??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I wish...

I could find my camera. argh.

Amelia in the bluebonnets

Playdate Luncheon

I had 3 friends over today for a long playdate, and since they were here I fixed us all lunch. Two of the girls "helped" by sprinkling salt on the cucumbers that were for cucumber salad. They couldn't keep their hands out of the cucumbers, and at first I was pretty excited, thinking they liked cucumbers. Until they started shaking salt into their hands and licking it; and I realized it was the salt they liked and not the cucumber!

Today's menu:

Baked Garlic Pepper Chicken Breast
Shaved Cucumber Salad
Feta, Grape Tomato, and Kalamata Olive salad (with fresh chives, basil, oregano and thyme from my garden)
Toasted Couscous
Watermelon Agua Fresca

I used a recipe for the Watermelon Agua Fresca out of Eating Well online... just changed the club soda to ginger ale. It was AMAZINGLY easy. And yummy.

Stop Sign Mean STOP!

I don't remember exactly when I had a conversation with my 2 year old about what Stop signs mean, but I know it's been a while. Ever since then she hasn't hesitated to remind me that, "Top sign mean TOP!! Mommy!!!" She's so specific about what a full, complete stop is, you'd think she was a police officer. (All I know is that it's a good thing she isn't riding with my sister. And that's all I'm going to say about that!!)

Today we were headed to the commissary and right before we got to the stop sign on base, she told me she was going to sing me "very pretty song 'bout top sign topping". And it was very cute, in a happy voice, about stop signs meaning stop and mommy driving and birds singing on a sunny day and more stop signs and more stopping.

I wonder if she's trying to tell me something?? I will admit that my stops have improved a great deal since the stop sign nazi started riding in my back seat!!

The Countdown Begins!

We're working on painting lots of pages to make our paper rings for the countdown chain again. We're in a 30-45 day window now!! I won't know when he's coming home for sure until about a week prior, and even that is a best estimate. We'll be heading to Jacksonville to stay in the BOQ for a while and then finally... HOME.

It's going to be so weird to have Rafe living at home full time. For a year. The longest we've ever lived together without him going on a deployment, workup, TAD, MOS school, specialized training, out in the field, you name it. We already have plans to give each other a bit of space with no questions asked when or if we need it.

And if he is home every night at the same time for dinner... I may very well pass out from joy.

I make a face, mommy!

Earlier this year, Amelia kept asking me for pen and paper so she could write. She wrote a lot of pretend letters. Mostly H, I, M, and A's seemed to be her favorite. I would ooh and ahh over the scribbles that she would bring to me.

In early April, she told me, "I make a face, Mommy!" and wanted me to take pictures of her drawings to show Daddy. She pointed out a C, H, A and T. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I took a closer look at her "scribbles" to see that she really WAS writing letters!! AND a smiley face!