Disney, Thanksgiving, etc..

I know everyone is eager to hear how Disney went. We had a blast! All the kids wanted to do everything, there was not one thing they were scared to ride. There were some things Cooper and/or Anastasia were too short for, but Cody was tall enough for everything. I'm a ride lover, especially roller coasters, and hubby is not, so I enjoyed having someone to go with. By fair the scariest ride was Tower of Terror, I still can't believe all the children went on it....twice. Anastasia sat next to me for that one and part of the ride was dark, but when there was light, the look of terror on that girls face, then she wanted to ride it again!
Anastasia was so excited to meet the Princesses, especially Cinderella, then the next day when we did a character dinner with Cinderella, her step sisters, step mother and Prince Charming, Cinderella had remembered her from the day before!! How cool is that.
The boys waited over an hour to do the Jedi training experience. They only take the first 15 kids in line, and they each get Jedi training, then they get to battle Darth Vader one by one up on stage. How cool is that. Cooper was all about it, Cody almost let his shyness get the best of him, but decided to go at the last minute.
We stayed on a very early schedule, we were in the bed by 9:30 almost every night, and I must say their behavior was great the entire trip.
We got to meet up with same great friends of ours for the day, we used to live by them in FL, and they just happened to be at Disney the same time as us. That was a added bonus to our trip!! It was really great to get to spend some time with them.

6 months

Tomorrow is the 6 month anniversary of our becoming Anastasia's legal parents. Our "Gotcha Day" is not until the 22nd, that is the day we took her from the orphanage it is a common adoption term. Man, I wouldn't take them back for the world, but that was one long 6 months!! The progess she has made is phenomenal, the work we have yet ahead of us is great also, but it is unbelievable to look at her and think 6 months ago she did not know English, couldn't write her name, etc...
We will be in Disney World by the end of this week, she has no idea what to expect but she knows it's exciting! Can you just imagine her face when she sees Magic Kingdom, I don't think she probably has ever dreamt of so much fun in her life.

Cats out of the Bag

We went ahead and told the kids about Gary's deployment. Although he's never deployed they have seen some of their close friends' Dads deploy and come back, so I think this helped greatly. These kids don't even like Daddy not being here when they go to bed at night, so this is going to be one long deployment, but we will keep busy, and we'll make it through just fine.
Anastasia didn't react the way I expected, I can usually predict her reactions. But this was an odd one. She found the whole thing kind of amusing I think, then she said, "when I get big, I'm going to break my life" I asked her what that meant, and she replied, "when I'm big and married, I'm going to take my baby and go to another house away from the Daddy" Not sure why this discussion came up, maybe she thinks Daddy is leaving us kind of??? I assured her that was not the case, and that it's really not a good idea to "break your life", that Daddy and I are never going to leave each other, we will be together forever, as long as both of us are alive, and that I will never take my children away from him, it's wrong, it would hurt a lot of people, etc...

I guess after 2 weeks I owe you something

Well, not really. So what has been going on lately. Well, first our renters moved out of the property we own, not something we expected, so we had to make some very quick decisions, after some prayer we both decided to list the house for sale. Easy enough right, except, the house was left with about 10 lbs of dog hair and a horrible dog odor. Not like dog urine, they didn't mistreat the house, but it stinks. 2 professional cleanings, about 7 hours of cleaning the carpets myself, many many carpet sniffings, we are still not resolved on the issue. The odor has clung to some rooms, and in the mean time, this makes the house unshowable. So 8 days into our double mortgage payment (well technically rent and mortgage) we have still not been able to show the house.
We made the decision to ask our renters to move out a month early becuase we realized the house was not showable with them in it. This was a good decision, because the lease was up DEc1 and Gary is due to deploy shortly after that, and I would have hated for his last days here to have been us dealing with this.
Speaking of his last days here, I was kind of keeping it hush hush, but really, I need to whine, he is due to leave very, VERY, soon after Christmas, so soon that we pray it does not turn into before Christmas. And he will be gone 6 months, it just really hit me several days ago. We haven't told the kids yet, we want to wait till after our Disney trip, the Disney trip that we don't have the heart to cancel even though we can't afford it since our house no longer has tenants in it. Our Wii is broken, we tried everything online that it said to do, to no avail. I got $168.00 speeding ticket, yes the officer said I was going 53 in a 35, Cooper was in the back seat screaming that he has to go to the bathroom, I guess that is why I did not notice how fast I was going. And by the time the leisurely officer wrote my ticket the child had pooped his pants, so in addition to a speeding ticket I had a poopy 5 year old. My boys behavior has been way out of sorts, not listening, hitting each other, just being mean. Obviously I'm doing something wrong, and my husband is about to deploy, so somehow I've got to think of a way to be a better parent, despite the fact that we are about to be down 50% on the parentage in this house. The kids are going to really stress out when they find out Gary is deploying. Anastasia and Cooper had a conversation out of nowhere the other morning, in which he said people who go to war to fight and die, and Anastasia said the people in Russia told her that the Mommies stay home while the Daddies go to fight. Great!!! We are blessed that my husband couldn't be in much more of a "safer" position over there, but really.
I'm sorry, that was a whine fest, but I got it out. The monetary stuff, is just that, only money, and I am grateful on a day that my biggest worry is a speeding ticket and not a sick loved one or something of that sort. But really sometimes a girl just needs to whine. I promise by the next time I post I will have gathered my senses and I will have something more useful to you than some whining.