Notification Officer

This has already been a hard week and it is only Tuesday. Early Monday morning, Ron received a phone call from his command telling him to report for duty as a Notification Officer. My military friends should immediately know what this means, and it isn't good. On Sunday 2 helicopters crashed in Iraq and 4 men died, all from Ft. Drum. Ron was called in to be on one of the 4 teams that had to go and inform the spouses that their husbands had been killed in action. The family that Ron was assigned to had 3 children, 2 twin boys age 7, an 18 month old and she was pregnant with #4. Ron was dressed in his Class A uniform and in the early hours of the morning, knocked on her door and gave her the horrible news. While he was there the twins woke up and wanted to know what was going on. The mom was understandably a wreck and didn't know how to tell her boys, so Ron offered to tell them for her. When Ron came home that morning and told me what he had done, I just cried. As a military spouse that is your worst nightmare. We all know that if we see an officer in full dress uniform standing at our front door that the news isn't good. To make the situation worse, today we learned that one of the men killed was in our ward at Church. His name is Benjamin Todd, his wife is Shelly Todd and they have 1 little girl that is around 9 months old. Shelly went to live with family for the deployment so she isn't here in New York right now. All of our thoughts and prayers are with her and her precious little girl. Shelly was both our boys Cub Scout Den Leader and Ben would come and help her alot, especially once she had the baby.

I suppose that I get into a state of denial when we have gone so long without casualties. I start to think that maybe it isn't dangerous for our men anymore and I take it for granted that they will all come home safe and sound. I wish that I could stay that nieve and that the world wouldn't have to shatter my happy bubble and prove me wrong. Shelly my prayers are with you as well as the other 3 families. I pray that Heavenly Fathers love and comfort will surround you in this difficult time.

OUR FAMILY MIRACLE IS HERE!!!!

My family has been praying for a miracle for several years now, and yesterday SHE CAME!! My brother Macc and his wife Lisa welcomed their beautiful healthy little girl Ella into their family. Their journey to have children has been a long and difficult one, and full of lots of heartache. Over 2 years ago Lisa gave birth to triplets who only lived a few short hours and then returned home to their Heavenly Father. When Lisa became pregnant again, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine, we all cried and said many prayers of thanks for their chance to add another precious spirit to their family. Every step of the pregnancy we waited and prayed that everything would continue to go well and the baby would continue to grow and be healthy and strong. The joy on the faces of my brother and sister in law were contagious and we all celebrated their upcoming addition to their family. Yesterday morning Lisa's water broke and around 2 p.m. Ella Madalyn (I don't know how they are spelling Madalyn) Vaughan was born - healthy and strong and perfect. When Macc called me to tell me the news I just sat there and cried. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father answered our many prayers and has blessed Macc and Lisa with this precious little girl. Ella is our family miracle. Welcome to the family Ella!!

Stuck in a Hotel

Ron started his renovations/demolition of the house. The walls are all plaster and nasty, so he wanted to tear them all down and put up drywall. In the process he would replace the old electrical, add more outlets (they were few and far between) and remodel BOTH (yes both) bathrooms. So needless to say it is a very messy and dirty job to tear down all of the walls and ceiling in the down stairs, so the kids and I were banished to a hotel for a week. We are 3 days into our stay and the mystique of staying in a hotel is slowly wearing off. Today could be the ultimate test - school was canceled!! So now I am stuck in a hotel room with 5 kids (I think the 2 year old should count as 2 kids because of all the extra work she requires to keep happy) and I may very well LOOSE MY MIND!!! I needed those school hours to recharge my SANITY batteries!! I realize that a cyber scream doesn't have the full effect that a real scream does, but here is my cyber scream anyway - AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am taking the 3 older kids to see a movie this afternoon - that is if the weather cooperates, but I just might loose my mind before then. If you never read another post from me you will know that my mind did not survive this week :-( :-(

Blog Header

Okay, so I keep having issues with my Blog Header. I had to change it again, because I can't stand that picture of me (the rest of the family looks fine, just not me!). So bear with me while I play with it and find one that I love. Any suggestions?

Goodbye Jacque!! Safe travels!

I just got back from a very quick trip to D.C. (there and back in 36 hours). I went to help my WONDERFUL, FABULOUS, and BRILLIANT sister Jacque pack up her apartment and spend some last minute time with her before she leaves. Leaves for where you might ask? Well, Jacque gets the grand opportunity to live overseas for her job for 6 months - lucky, I know. So while she is gone she moved out of her very (and I mean very) small apartment and put everything in storage to save money on rent and get a bigger place when she comes back. It was a wonderful trip because I got to spend some quality, uninterrupted time with my sister (no children in sight!!), and I got to scare the heck out of her because she didn't know I was coming (man I wish I had a camera to capture her facial expression when I showed up!!). So a quick thank you to Jenna for spilling the beans that Jacque needed help and for coming up from Norfolk to help, and a HUGE thank you to my husband for supporting me in my quick trip and watching the kids. And to my sweet sister Jacque, I love you, stay safe, and always think of me when you watch "Mama Mia"!!

(this is an old picture of Jacque but it's one of my favorites of her)