Another Long Day, and I Wish I Had My Camera

We had an ice storm–the trees looked beautiful, and I am without my camera.  My husband took it with him, with permission to buy a new (nicer) one in a month or two.  But until then, I am at the mercy of my picture-taking friends and the snail-like speed of my cell phone camera.

Aside from the beauty of the trees and icicles, we were without power all day, along with about one million other New Englanders.  Once again, I thank God for good friends.  My best friend has a large house with an enormous finished basement, and had power most of the day.  So we packed up, being told to expect to be out of power overnight, and headed on over,  hungry, tired, yet kinda excited at the prospect of a sleepover!  We ate what we had this morning that didn’t require cooking, and after that, it was either go for fast food or cook at my friend’s.  By the time the ice was scraped off  of my windshield (it took an hour!), I had some pretty hungry and unhappy children.  We were told not to expect to have power at least until tomorrow, but probably a few days to a week, and would be informed where we could go for shelter if we needed it…again, thank the Lord for my friends.  And we had power before the day ended.

It is also my oldest’s 14th birthday today.  Since we couldn’t cook we decided to have her birthday cupcakes for breakfast and open her presents.  She wanted chocolate with whipped frosting.  The choices at Wal-Mart were Spongebob, Tinkerbell, and Christmas themes.  I went with Christmas.  It came with a problem I didn’t anticipate until we were all seated at the table happily eating (and some of us mushing) our cupcakes.  RED FROSTING.  What was  I thinking?  All of my littles looked like they were bleeding from somewhere in their heads since they managed to get it all over their faces.  And after they are cleaned up, they are stained red…don’t know how long that will stay, but again, wish I had my camera…

She will be having her official b-day sleepover next Friday, so her b-day wasn’t a total bust!  Plus, she has a friend sleeping over tonight.

Today is also one week since my husband left on deployment.  Things have been fine.  We are just still trying to work out our routine and adjust to not having him here.  Even though he misses Christmas with us, I believe this is a good time for him to have to leave because we always take December off of “official” school.  So we have time to just be together as a family without anything pressing our time, which really is a great comfort.  Although I miss my best friend, the children keep me from getting lonely.

Weather (and power) permitting, I will be doing some Christmas shopping tomorrow.  There are some stores I love to go into during this season because  they look so beautiful!

Looooong, Loooooong, Day

My husband left for his 6 month deployment at 4:45 this morning. The rest of the morning and afternoon was a blur of cleaning and preparing for the evening, which was Hannah’s 5th b-day party at Chuck E. Cheese’s. What was I thinking?…Oh, yeah, I was thinking that that would give the kids something to look forward to since their daddy left this morning. In the end, it turned out to be a fun, but crazy evening. We had two potty accidents, in which I just happened to have pants in just their sizes hidden in the back of the van for Christmas that I had to open up and let them wear. I had nine children with me in my van that I was responsible for. I thank God for my friends who were there to help, and also for the two of those children who are old enough to help with all the littles. But, I am EXHAUSTED!
Now I wait to hear from my husband for the next few days to let me know he’s arrived and settled. I have another birthday next Friday (my oldest is turning 14!), and the Friday after that is when she is having her b-day sleepover…I am sending two of my younger ones next door on that night in an attempt to try and curb some of the chaos in this little house…like I said, it’s an attempt.
Life is full; children keep me busy and from being lonely, and there is always something to laugh about–even if it’s not funny until later!