Well I've decided to try something new, and a little scary, but super exciting. I'm going to home school our preschooler. The preschools here are just way too expensive to be able to send him to one. It's like the price of a car payment, and I just can't see paying that when I can easily teach him at home the same things he'll learn 2 days a week at a preschool for 2 hours that's run more like a daycare. Why would I pay for daycare for my kids while I'm home anyways. So starting Monday this living room will be a classroom during the baby's nap. I'm really excited about it. I feel like it will bring me and my preschooler closer together and he'll have a lot of fun.

Priceless....

Watching your baby take his first steps.... Your kids giving you a hug or kiss for no reason..... Watching their faces light up on Christmas morning when they noticed Santa came..... Watching your kids play when they don't know your watching... Watching a movie with your family and laughing the whole time.... Eating a hot meal with your husband when all the kids are in bed..... Sleeping through the night....... A hot shower...........(uninterrupted!) Getting a call from a friend you haven't talked to in a while...... Hearing your husband say I love you..... Your baby saying mamma and reaching for you...... These are some of my favorite things.....and they are all priceless.....and they are all about my family. The best things in life are right in this house with me and they make every day a great day for me. Every day I get to be my kids mom, and my husband's wife is a great day. I thank god for my kids. They have shown me that simple things are the best things in life.....you don't have to be rich, or famous, when your kids are your biggest fans. You're their hero if you want to be and they'll always look up to you. Friends and family are my world and all the little things aren't important. So just let the bad things go and enjoy your kids while you can.

Being away from home for the last 6 years now has been really hard on me. I am a really family oriented person and I always have been. I love my family, all of them, and I love spending time with all of them. With the military and all of our moves you learn that "your friends are your family, and your family is your friends." In some cases that was true. You see your friends way more, you celebrate with them, you cry with them, you watch their kids grow....at least until one of you moves away. You gain some lifelong friendships and another name to add to your Christmas card list every year. But to me friends will never replace my family, but they will be added to my family. It's hard when you go to see your family and your kids don't recognize any of them, they don't know their names, or really who they are at all. But friends are like "aunts" and "uncles" and "cousins". We've been away from home for so long now and deep down it kills me. I hate that I only get to see my mom like twice a year. I hate that every time we go home our kids have doubled in size since the last time everyone saw them. I do have the most amazing friends here and I know I would miss them terribly if we left, or if any of them left. With the military though you learn that goodbyes just mean new hello's. I think that's why I have a hard time getting close to people because I always feel like as soon as we get close one of us has to say goodbye. It would be nice to settle down somewhere for a while and actually send our kids to the same school for more than one year, and let them make friends and keep them. I wish I could just move everyone I loved into the same little town somewhere so I could see all of them as often as I wanted to. But that's not life. Life is all about the people you love so hold on to them when you can, and miss them when they are gone, and pray that you'll have the time to spend with them. Love your friends like family, and treasure your family....even when they drive you crazy. Life wouldn't be life without them.

Holey Shoes......

I was looking at my shoes the other day, and let me tell you they've seen better days. But I know I'm cheap and I hate to spend money on myself. We just bought the kids brand new shoes for school that I swear cost more money than 3 of my shoes total. (They like name brand already at 3 and 5 years old). We have the money, I could go out and buy myself a pair of shoes and it wouldn't be a big deal. So I've been trying to figure out why I haven't done it. I go to look for shoes, but I usually end up seeing something for my kids and I get that instead. Even when I had a bit extra money and I said I would spend it on me, I spent 90% of it on my kids. They always come first....even when I don't try to put them first. I go to look for clothes and I come out with a whole new wardrobe for them when I'm still wearing clothes from high school (only 6 years ago). I just think it's so interesting how I always put the kids first. It's like when you finally get a date with your husband and you go out to dinner, you spend the entire time talking about your kids. It's your only time away from them and yet it's like they are right there with you. Life revolves around your kids. They drive you crazy, eat all the food in the house, spend all your money, and yet you can't get enough of making them happy. So you go without things just so your kids can have more of what they want. Even if you don't have to go without you still do because instead of thinking about yourself at the store, you think about your kids. I don't understand why some people don't put their kids first. I would rather walk around with holey shoes and watch my kids face light up when they get to wear their new shoes and get that toy they wanted, or take them to the baseball game. Besides.....my feet are the same size they were years ago so I can wear my shoes out. My kids outgrow shoes faster than we can buy them new ones. I think that's why I want them to have everything since they are only little once.