Flashback: Desert Storm

Okay, so I'm still looking for pictures and sighing a lot. R1 and R2 left for a midnight madness football game. I don't want to take Thing 5 and Thing 6 (they are being difficult right now, I've demoted them). So here I sit wishing The Marine was around. But look what I found! Pictures!

It's getting close to The Marine's Marine Corps birthday. This August he will have served 22 years. I'm proud to say the Corps and I have done a fabulous job! Okay, old joke and all kidding aside I wonder what this young CPL pictured below would have thought if he could see 22 years into the future.

I'll tell you one thing. He NEVER would have guessed he'd be the dad of a politically correct fire team with reserve. This picture was taken the night I took him to the airport to fly back to Camp Pendleton so he could deploy with his unit to Desert Storm.

I've always thought he looked like "I'm going where?" In actuality he was probably thinking "stop with the pictures and get out of the car!"

Check out the 1990 Hair do! I was 9 weeks post partum so no ugly comments. I've heard about sudden bouts of post partum depression just surprising you even years later. You wouldn't want to trigger that now would you? This fat baby is Recruit 1, the one I just bragged about growing so nicely a few days ago. I love this picture. The Marine was totally in love with her... Still is. He's a FABULOUS Daddy. Oh, and this may be the only picture in existence with me wearing a watch. The Marine won't buy me any. He says I'm irresponsible with watches. Missing him less now...

This was taken before we left for the airport. The Marine had moved me back home to my folk's place, "Monster Acres". I'm actually not kidding. I shall blog about it one day. I remember thinking I hoped this wouldn't be our only family photo together. Morbid I know, but it's what I was thinking.

Man! He was cute. Man! She was a chunk. R1 is only 9 weeks old here. I EARNED the nickname Dairy Queen! (Breastfeeding moms will get that.) Later on I upgraded to the Mobile Dairy Queen as I developed some skill!

That IS NOT a gas bubble smile. The Marine was gooing to her and she smiled up in her sleep at him. It was seconds later he handed her to me and we said goodbye. We had no idea how long it would be before we saw one another again. One man walking away from what meant the most to him to do what was required. That's what it means to be a Marine.

Somewhere in the Desert, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and yet he is totally cool looking! I must have carried this picture around with me. See the crease?

This is one of the most vivid, burned into my brain days. They were dismissed from formation and we attacked! R1 is now 11 months old! Yes, we are wearing matching jump suits. I was young.... No ugly comments, my mother made them! I loved them! In fact, I think the whole platoon should have matching jump suits this Christmas. Mom?

This was the BEST day EVER! And I remember thinking how grateful I was to have another family photo! I just love him...

Recruit 5 makes a mile stone!

I have always loved watching my kids play sports, perform dance, play music, or whatever. I love watching them work hard and being privileged to witness those moments of triumph. I have been blessed beyond any doubt and I am grateful!

With frequent deployments, teams and coaches have always been important in my arsenal of weapons when it comes to kids, deployment, frequent moves and staying sane.

So now Recruit 5 is old enough to join "the older kids" in activities. This season marks a mile stone for my sweet tiny guy.

For me this means a 'hole nuther' schedule to keep track of and games to work into my calendar. Not to mention the sport of choice for the fall season is Football!

Now you have to understand I LOVE football. Not watching it on TV, or playing it myself, but watching my little boys face their fears, learn discipline, and work as a team. AND BREAKING THROUGH A LINE. Sorry. I can't help it. When Recruit 1 started playing I was pregnant with R5 and R6 back to back football seasons. It just kind of stayed with me. It was those little boys I was knitting!

But Recruit 5... He is soooo sweet and tender. He's not a "break through the line" kinda guy. He is the diplomat, the intell guy, the lover - not a fighter. He is the one who only needs to be quietly reprimanded. He is crushed if harsh or unkind words are used. He randomly yells "love ya mom!" and will run in for a quick hug. How could I throw him into this beastly barbaric adrenaline rushing sport????

I didn't have to, it is now part of recruit training. Two have gone before, it's tradition. It is out of my hands.

But he is so gentle and kind.

I just made myself miss him. Hold on I have to go hug him real quick....

Okay - I'm back.

His first day of practice came and it was hotter than blue blazes. I stayed at home in bed where all self respecting people should be early a.m. on a hotter than blue blazes Saturday and The Marine excitedly took his son to dehydrate.

Two hours later they returned home... Dehydrated.He loved it! It was great! And that is ALL sweat! I had him give me a mean football face, but he looked retarded in it so I didn't post that one.

Since The Marine had to go work somewhere doing Marine stuff, I've been pulling football duty, which normally I love but the blazes around here are still blue and I don't dig the sweat.

Lucky for me a giant lighting bolt struck straight down somewhere on the other side of town, but we all saw it so that put the kabash (is that a real word?) on practice tonight. Little R5 beat serious cheeks to the jeep and jumped in all in one swift motion.

He didn't even take his helmet off before he leapt into the jeep.

He was freaked out by the lighting. He graced me with this photo, but then insisted I jump in and we get the heck out of there.

Okay I have to go hug him again and see if he'll let me rock him.

What do I do when The Marine is Gone?

I MISS HIM!

and look for ways to not clean the house like now, looking for pictures of him and sighing alot.

So I was thinking all these kind thoughts about my Marine and he's not here to frown at me and ruin my kind thoughts about him so I opened the giant file cabinet filled with pictures and found this one. It was EIGHT years ago.

This was before he got his eyes fixed. He was in a wedding of a buddy of his and I was his accessory. It was a lot of fun. We left the then, only four recruits with my Mom and Sister and headed OUT OF STATE, hence the giant toothy grin on my face.

Sigh... If he were here I'd fix him a nice big dinner and have the house all shiny and clean... Oh who am I kidding! I'd be pretending to do laundry instead of flat out ignoring it...

The sad/wonderful part is he knows exactly what I'm doing even from where he is. He's creepy that way. I'll get an email any minute now telling me to get off the computer and go introduce myself to the recruits. I however choose to think he thinks my lack of homemaking skills is endearing... I'm sure he does. He told me just the other day I was special! Come to think of it though, he then laughed to himself right after he said it as he walked off... Hmmmm....

LOOK WHAT I MADE!!

Okay well I didn't do it all by myself, The Marine helped and it was almost 18 years ago... I've just been watering, nurturing, adding the HEAT as necessary. I think she has turned out pretty good. Very hearty and strong.
Recruit 1 hasn't had a post up in a while and I haven't told her how beautiful she is or how much I love her lately or enough apparently. She told me just the other day...

I must say though The Marine and I did great work on this one! When DNA mingles correctly it's truly a beautiful sight.

I don't feel quite old enough to have an almost grown up for a daughter.

RECRUIT 1 I said ALMOST GROWN UP. I now forbid you to complete the process! I think I'm too late. Anyone else feel old?

The Things You Hear in My House

Recruit 1: Oh, R6, sing me your song... (she just oozed love for him in that sentence)

Recruit 6: (sings some mangled version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

Recruit 1: Oh, that was so good. (again love oozes and you can hear her thinking what a cute little guy)

Recruit 6: Smiles and swiftly pokes her in the forehead and runs away....

Recruit 1: Grabs head and laughs hysterically through the pain as the "cute little guy" runs off.

Fast forward ten minutes when R1 is tasked with getting R6 ready for football practice. (for R5)

Recruit 1: Why did you poke me in the forehead?

Recruit 6: (with angelic sweetness in his voice) "oooohhh I thought I poked you in the eye?!

Mom: rolling on floor in office

The Hotel and Traveling Home with Wounded Recruit 2

After a long shower and a good nights sleep in the hotel, (for Recruit 2 anyway, I was in a double with thing one and thing two) he is ready to head back to our home town. The tye-died shirt was the calmest one the gas station had. Only the sleeves are funky. I should have picked out the purple and yellow one, but he would have just been naked then.


He laid back and watched as I attempted to get Recruit 6 bathed and dressed. R6 was a little high maintenance this morning. Here is the evidence. He is LEAPING from spot to spot.

Here he is in the giant picture window facing the pool right after his bath in his underwear. I am sternly speaking to him at this moment.
See the fear and terror on his face? He was so afraid he immediatley did this.
Again I speak very sternly. It probably doesn't help since I have the camera snapping at the same time. I told him it was evidence to show Daddy.
He bounced off in a hurry. See Recruit 5 simply waiting his turn to get dressed?
Finally we get out of there and make our way to the camp to pick up Recruit 2's gear. This is the counselor that stayed with him the whole time. A good group of kids! Next was breakfast!

The mountain was truly beautiful, because Recruit 2 was in hospital bottoms and a tye-died shirt we ate breakfast in the parking lot, looked at this hill, and snapped pictures!

Recruit 2 says I agreed he didn't have to get a haircut until the end of summer. I think he dreamed that.
He did agree to shave, which he has.
Recruit 6 is locked in his car seat so he missed the moment. It was not by accident he was locked down. Recruit 5 was a little confused why he and Recruit 6 had matching shirts. Then I realized all three boys were dressed in blue shirts. It must have been subconscious. I used to do this all the time when I picked out everyone's clothes. My mood was their mood!

How would you feel locked out of the Temple?

The two little boys and I visited the Temple and the book store when we were in Raleigh. This was before Panera Bread and before THE CALL about my crazy boy and his even crazier injury.

When we arrived, the Temple was closed and the gate to the grounds was locked. It's a small Temple and I knew it might be. I thought it was worth the trip over there with the boys anyway. We could look at Moroni and the book store is down around the corner.

As we drove up Recruit 5 Said: "Oh this is the Temple I'm going to get married in!" I was a little taken aback by that but said "Oh that's great, after you serve a mission!"

In sharp contrast you see Recruit 6 here turning to me a little miffed the gates were locked. In fact I just missed him shaking the gate. He was actually upset.

Recruit 6: "I can't get in! Use your keys mom, you have keys! Why is it locked? We can't get in. I want to get in the Temple!"

I decided we should walk around front to the sign and take some pictures. We talked about Moroni on top of the temple, or at least Recruit 5 and I tried. I continued to deflect Recruit 6's ideas.

Some of which were, "let's just climb the fence" and "my legs can fit through those thingies we can just squeeze through" and the best one " How can we get on top of Moroni?" Hence the pointing finger below.

I tried again to explain, but I don't think he could get past the locked gates. I mean he sings about I love to see the Temple every Sunday in primary! How could he possibly be locked out??

I started to explain to him he couldn't go in the building even if we could go through the gate. However I figured it would just be a one sided conversation and at this point I was concerned that might actually cause damage to his psyche since I was a little surprised at his current frustration. We made it around to the front and Recruit 6 continued to trouble shoot the locked gate situation.
Notice Recruit 5, patiently standing for the pictures? He just waits while Recruit 6 continues to plot and try to convince me trespassing is a good idea.

I finally distracted him long enough to get a semi decent picture of them both looking in my general direction.
However it didn't last long and he was right back in the land of frustration. In reality it was only about 2 or 3 minutes in front and a total of 6 minutes at the Temple. Recruit 5 suggested we have a prayer at the Temple before we left and he led us to the shade of one of the Trees. I noticed during the prayer Recruit 6 slowly moved back into position to eyeball the fence and see if maybe he could try one more time to get me to let him squeeze through the rot iron fence.

I know my sweet boys were sent to be brothers here. They are a balance to one another and both will be wonderful missionaries one day. Recruit 5 will teach patiently and with love. Recruit 6 will try, get frustrated, and then put someone in a headlock. My work is cut out for me here don't you think?