Some odds and ends posted on yet another snow day

It wasn't a two-hour delay after all.  School is canceled today.  Sigh.

David and Mary are off playing with the neighbors, so I will take this opportunity to post some random pictures from the last two months with accompanying comments.

Sara and my mom look at a book in our Idaho hotel back in January.  Sara is so sweet and loving.   People love to be with her.  She has a special gift of bringing happiness to those around her.

Sara loves books.  She is much more genuinely interested in them than my other two kids were as babies.  Sara is truly excited to see what each new page will bring.  She also enjoys the act of carefully turning the pages one by one.  

These pictures were taken over a month ago.  I love spending my days with this sweet baby.

This little cutie still has no teeth, no words, and has taken no steps.  So it's hard to believe she will be 14 months old tomorrow.  But she is getting some of the toddler attitude and sense of humor.  She is curious, thoroughly exploring her surroundings.  And she watches her big brother and sister, joining in their fun.  My personal favorite is when I sit and do Mary's hair--Sara gets in the supplies and earnestly tries to put her hair in a pony tail.  It's so funny.

BFF Bailey came over for a sleep over on MLK weekend.  The boys worked hard on this Lego creation, which they named Fort Bavid.  What luck that David's best buddy lives just 2 hours away.

This is the Grand Canyon.  This was a Grand Crisis.  But it everything turned out fine.  By the way, it weighs two hundred pounds and takes up a lot of shelf space.  It's adorable, but, really, how long am I obligated to keep it?

This is the first grade at their music concert.

You can find Cousin Evan in this picture.  (Middle to the right, white button-down shirt.)

And the lovely Mary.  She was very nervous beforehand, but then thoroughly enjoyed performing.  That's Mary.  She gets nervous before performances, but she ends up LOVING it and totally gets a high from it!

Usually Mary takes a bath with Sara.  But this time it was David.

Sara loves her silly brother.

This is David and Brother Echols.  David's Pack had a father-son cake contest, and Brother Echols kindly filled in.  Brother Echols is super nice, and David had a great time.  Plus, they passed off a bunch of  Cub Scout electives while they were waiting for the cake to bake.  (By the way, Universe, enough with the father-child events!  We are blessed to have awesome, fun, loving people fill in--but these events still make my kids so, so sad. They can't help but be reminded that their dad is not here. )

This is David and their cake at the Blue and Gold Banquet.  (A HUGE thanks to Aunt Janell who was inspired to send cake pans for Valentines this year.  She thought it was totally random--but it was truly inspired.  It was a small but real mercy to have the storm trooper cake pan on hand for this project.  Thank you, thank you.)

The cake won an award!  (And it was yummy.)

The theme of the Blue and Gold Banquet was Invention Convention.  David did a presentation on George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, who made easy-to-use cameras that everyone could use.  David did an awesome job!  He is a smart kid and he know a lot of things.

One Saturday we went to the school's extravaganza.  I usually dread things like that.  But it was so fun!  It was a huge undertaking with carnival games, drawings, a silent auction, bouncy houses, tons of food, etc., but really well organized.  The kids had a blast--it was like a play date with the kids they never get to have play dates with.  Mary even won a prize!  Yay for a fun Saturday activity (that conveniently fell in between Sara's naps)!!  Also, now that you know where my kids go to school, please don't kidnap them.

This is a three-person Sunday morning play date.  Can you see the three?

David, Mary, and their dad.  They were busy playing when he was available to skype, so the brought him along.

This is so cute to me.  It's nice when they can skype.  The time difference has been killing us.  So far the kids have really only been able to skype with Greg once on the weekends because he is asleep when they are at school.  I realized that he's just going to need to start getting up in the middle of the night--especially to talk to David, who really needs to be able to talk to his dad during the week.  I usually talk to Greg on the phone every day at 11 for about 15 minutes.  Sometimes 30 minutes. I am old-fashioned, and we usually do not skype.

Mary and Sara are developing a very close relationship.  Mary takes very good care of Sara, walking her around the house, reading her books, and helping me clean up her messes.  She also likes to take care of Sara in the mornings, which I appreciate so much.  I have really begun to rely on Mary a lot.  She carries a lot of responsibility.  I have to remember she's only 6.  

Greg said it best:  Sara is a giver, not a taker.  She gives joy and energy and happiness.  She is gentle, and she will trust you to be gentle too.  And that trust, that sweet smile, fills your heart with gladness.  This is a special little girl.

David and Mary are back from sledding.  Gotta go...

More than one birthday

Sara loves her daddy.  He brings her peace and a sense of security.  She will miss him.

Sara wasn't the only one who's had a birthday lately!  Greg joined me at the ripe age of 36 on Saturday.  He celebrated by taking the kids to the COSI and dropping me off at the temple on the way.  But before we left, we celebrated with presents and apple pie.  You can see a picture here.  (Due to technical difficulties, I can't post it on my blog this exact second.)

I love Greg.  I am grateful every day, many times every day, that I married.  Best thing I ever did.

Worry

Sara sits on her dad's lap as he signs his updated will.

Greg leaves this Friday at 3:30 in the morning.  He is going first to El Paso for combat skills training.  The training is not structured in such a way for us to visit him there before he goes overseas.  We will say good-bye Thursday night, and that will be that.

After training in El Paso, he will be stationed at a base in Qatar.  From Qatar he will be traveling to Army bases throughout the region checking on various engineering projects.  Some people have asked if I will visit him in Qatar, and the answer is no.  Sure, Qatar is not a war zone.  We even have friends that live there.  (Hi, Tyler and Mary!)  But a deployment is a deployment.  It's military life and work 24-7, site-seeing with family certainly not included.  (His year in Honduras was technically not a deployment.  I used that term sometimes on my blog because it was easier to understand than "short-tour PCS.")  Even if I traveled all the way to Qatar, he would not necessarily have time/be allowed to see me, and he probably wouldn't even be in the country.

So we will say good-bye Thursday night, and that will be that.  Until sometime in August.

I know people wonder if I worry about what will happen.  I'm not always exactly sure what they mean by this questions, but I assume they wonder if I worry about what could happen to Greg.

I guess I do. I mean, since we updated our wills and powers of attorney and all that stuff, we talked a lot about worst-case scenarios.  So it's not like we haven't thought about the worst that could happen.  But our discussions all seemed pretty theoretical.  Though I will say that there is real peace that comes from knowing all of your affairs are in order, especially concerning your children.  I highly recommend this, whatever your situation is.

I wish Greg were going to be safe and sound on the base in Qatar the whole time.  The travel itself from base to base worries me, and I'm not too excited about some of the places he could travel to.  But, at least so far, I don't worry about it too much.

To be honest, I worry more about myself.  And my ability to handle things.  I'm not talking about if some big crisis happens.  Like most people, I can rise to the occasion in a crisis.  I'll deal with it when it comes.  I worry much more about small crises and mundane tasks.

Like,

1. Saturdays
2. Getting enough sleep
3. Remembering to collect and take out the garbage and recycling on Sunday nights
4. Dinnertime 
5. Losing my wallet
6. Losing my phone
7. How I will "catch up" on life if a sickness or something unexpected throws us out of our routine
8. Computer problems, even very minor ones
9. Snow
10. A billing problem with Tricare
11. Adjusting straps on strollers and car seats
12. The yard
13. Resetting the wireless router
14. Passwords
15. Clogged toilets
16. Church
17. Bugs

Worrying about Greg almost feels like a luxury, an emotional indulgence that I can't afford right now.  I am more concerned with my own survival and that of my children.  Maybe that is selfish.  Maybe it's a defense mechanism.  But it's the truth.

So if you ask if I am worried, the answer is yes.  

But it probably has more to do with my toilets than my husband.