The Haskins House

Valentines Slump

2012-02-12T20:10:00.000-06:00

So yes, Valentines is usually a fun holiday that we all want to spend with the one we love the mostest. I used to love Valentines Day when I was a teen. I always loved getting sweet precious gifts from the one that loved me. But today, seeing as to how I will be without my love AGAIN I am not super excited about this self proclaimed day of love. I can count on one hand how many Valentines Day's my husband has spent with me. Yes, We have been married 12 years so spending less than 5 together is pretty sad, don't you think. I guess that is just another sacrifice I make and my husband make for our great love of this nation. Do I like it, heck no. I despise everyday my husband has to be away from my family and quite frankly the past 7 years my husband has racked up HUGE numbers in the away from family time. Not something to be very proud of, if you ask me. I mean, we get married to share our lives with someone, not spend it apart. And we sure as heck do not have many children so that I could do everything myelf. Absolutely the furthest thing from my mind.

Anyways, I plan to make the day special for the children with or without their Dad. We shall a great day with or without presents from anyone else. I plan to make a special breakfast before school and then to do a fun dinner with the kids.

We will make the best of our day no matter how far away all of our family is, no matter how far Zeus is, no matter if there is 4 plus inches of snow on the ground, no matter if it is freezing outside. We will have a great day.

Happy Valentines Day to all the mIlitary spouses and family celebrating this holiday alone. We love you.

A Love of Mine

2012-01-28T16:16:00.000-06:00

I have a few loves, how about you?

Making Diaper cakes for all the babies is one of my favorite things to do.

Its amazingly fun to see it all come together. I just love looking at them.

I'd decorate my house with them if I could talk Zeus into it, no such luck yet!

So here's the latest one, for a precious little girl who's room is Butterflies.

It sure makes me smile and warms my heart when I hear a momma so excited to get one of these treasures, especially the Mommy's that never received one before.

Zeus asks, Twinkle delivers.

2012-01-23T14:42:00.000-06:00

Zeus is pretty quiet, which is no different than when I met him. So when he offers up advice or suggestions I do not mind listening. Some times I ignore the request because it might require much more of my time or energy, and we can't have that now can we.

Over the holidays Zeus asked me to change my hair. He actually asked if I would go blonde, yeah I almost choked to death. Are you kidding? No, he was serious. He said he never dated a blonde. Ummm, no since I'm the only one he's dated I guess that was an easy answer. I couldn't believe he was serious. I continued to listen. He asked if I would cut my hair too, short, really, really short. Are you kidding, I love my curls.

But he did have a point. My hair had gotten to be so long that it recently was getting caught in the car door. It was getting caught when I put my coat on, it was even getting pulled when I put my purse on my shoulder. I love it. Its beautiful. But one event takes the cake and well, however embarrassing it may be was the thing that made me finally decide to control this out of control head of hair.

So here's the story, one night I went to bed to play on my Ipad while Zeus worked in the office for a bit. I laid down and turned off the light and put my head on the pillow, too tied to do anything else. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving on the pillow. My first reaction was just what you would think if a girl or in my case a woman saw a mouse. Yea, I screamed and ran as fast as I could down the hall to the office, startling the sleeping babies the whole way. I told Zeus I saw a mouse on my pillow. So he comes in and says there is nothing. I was a nervous wreck and replayed the whole thing through my head. After a couple minutes, I realized that it was indeed my own hair that I saw move, that I thought was a mouse. Nope, no mouse, Just my massive amount of hair. At that very moment I told myself I needed to make a change. I can not continue running like a crazy woman from my own hair.

So in an effort to surprise Zeus I made a change. While he was gone this last week I got a crazy hair and walked into a salon. Then I walked out a completely new color, with highlights and 14 1/2 inches shorter. Just not blonde.

Now that the newness has worn off, here it is with me doing it. I like it curly and its natural so I do not see the need to fight it.

I think Zeus likes it. I can be that new woman for the 2 weeks he's home. Zeus asked so I delivered

Officially an Ice skater!!!

2012-01-14T22:13:00.001-06:00

Dreams do come true. Tonight I lived out a dream by performing in my first skating competition with a local Synchro team. I'm hooked. We had so much fun. All our hard work paid off.
We won 1st place. So fun. We have at least 4 more competitions to look forward to over the next 2 months. So glad I never let nay sayers tell me I was too old to become a skater. Follow your dreams no matter what the obstacles in front of you are. I achieved something tonight I have dreamed of for over 20 years

Old Man Winter

2012-01-13T12:06:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness is it cold here. Yesterday our high was 20 degrees and that was about 5 pm for 20 minutes, the rest of the day it stayed in the teens with serious winds bringing the windchill down to 4 degrees. Then throw in a nasty snow, ice and lazy road crews and you have what I call a disaster. The funny part is that we really did not get too much snow. I think we had about 3 inches at our house by bedtime, which is not much to write home about. I've seen worse, much worse. However with the lack of preparedness of road crews the roads turned to skating rinks quickly and then accidents were piling up on every roadway. We had hundreds of accidents in the area. It was downright dangerous. If that wasn't bad enough the schools decided to have the kids come in on time. That is absurd. Those buses were not doing well on the ice but thankfully none of the kids were injured to or from school in almost white out conditions.

In all of it though I had a little amusement. Because of the wind and blowing snow this little fella decided to find protection underneath my park bench on my front porch. He and his partner stayed and visited me for a few hours. However they did not stay still very long so I did not get a picture of both of them together.

Old man winter is back today with our high of 23 degrees. I do not think I would complain so much if it was not 53 degrees the day before this rolled in. This is so silly. I just wish Zeus were here with me so we could cuddle up and watch a movie together or hang out. But, the Air Force comes first in our lives so he must travel days, upon days. TDY is now a common word. Oh well, back to snuggling under my blanket and preparing for tomorrow's Ice Skating competition.

Reading Once Again

2012-01-06T20:26:00.000-06:00

After taking many years off from reading so that I could mother my children and go back to college I have finally picked up a couple books. Since the New year began I have now finished two books. I am a reader of true life stories, the ones where people overcome great obstacles. I feel these books give me the opportunity to learn something and take something away from the book. I do not read because it is enjoyable, Thanks to High school AP English. I read for knowledge or lessons, I guess.

The first book I was really excited to read and had it on the self for months. It was a book sent to me from a dear friend all the way from Ithaca, NY. The book was a terribly painful story of a husband and wife and the loss of the wife just 27 hours after the birth of their first child. I was interested in this book as the Husband/Father is a fellow blogger I have followed for a few years. I was anxious to read his feelings and how he managed to navigate life after such a tragedy. Matt Logelin, Two kisses for Maddy was an awesome book. I finished it on New Years day, another reason I was very teary that day.

My second book was also a tragic story with an amazing ending. The story strengthened my faith in the Lord and assured me that Heaven is waiting for my arrival. The Bible tells us what to do and how to get to Heaven but showed little proof of such a place. I have been a Christian since as far back as I can remember. This book written by a loving Father shares his amazing love of his son and the journey his once dieing son took to Heaven when battling appendicitis. It is gut wrenching and amazing all in one cover. Heaven is for Real, written by Todd Burpo about his son Colton's 3 minute journey to Heaven is breathtaking and calming. This story was perfect to restore my weary spirit as my family begins our many days with a long distance husband and Daddy.

Colton allowed me to feel calm and understand the true power of a simple prayer to God. I have never witnessed such a miracle but this story opened my eyes as wide as they have ever been.

Today, I look forward to completing more and more books about life lessons during the coming days. I am thankful to people writing their life stories so people like me get a chance to learn something new or gain a little strength from the inspiration shared through these wonderful stories. Thank you Matt and Todd.

New Year 2012, Isn't sounding very good

2012-01-01T10:53:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, so they say. I'm not in such a happy mood today as I look forward to the coming months I'm more sad than anything. 2012 has many nasty things in store for us.

It was awesome to have my parents here for the holidays. My children will remember that for many years, if not their lifetime. Christmas was special having Grammy and Grampy here. But today brings the New year and Grammy and Grampy had to go back home. Today also brings taking down the Christmas decorations as we prepare for Zeus to depart at the end of the week.

This year will not be fun as Zeus will be gone multiple times for a total of about 9 months time or more, Thank you Air Force. I am really anxious and somewhat sad knowing that all the kids birthdays, my birthday, Zeus's birthday, Valentines day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year will all be spent Zeusless. This makes me very sad.

He has a heavy travel schedule that entails him leaving the first few months of the year for two week intervals. This is the worst. Then he'll come home for a bit (a couple weeks) before taking that dreaded (LONG) tour overseas fighting for America and all the rights afforded to each of us.

So this new year makes me sad. I dread walking through each of these many months and weeks alone as a single parent and whats worse is my family and inlaws are many hundreds of miles away. With the kids in school I will have to stay out here with little to no travel back home for help or relief or even companionship. I must go it alone. The worst thing about TDY's and deployments is the dread of departure. Guess I better start looking for a reliable babysitter as well, with skating competitions quickly approaching. UGGGGGGGG.

Today I am sad.
Today I am scared.
Today I want 2013 to be here already.
Today I want this nightmare to go away.

Pray for me, Pray for my family, Pray for patience, safety and pray that I can find and build a support system fast. Pray that all the tears will run dry and that God will guide me step by step through this overgrown jungle of loneliness. Pray God gives me the words to comfort my four precious babies through their emotional roller coaster as well.

This New year is not a happy one for me. I guess this is just a pity post filled with my emotions as all the leaving begins and will continue through the last day of the year. YUCK!!!! Anyone want to trade?

I hope all of you have a Fantastic 2012 with many new blessings and wonderful events to look forward too.

Thanks for listening, errrr I mean, I guess reading. Being able to blog helps me deal with all the swirling emotions dive bombing me this new year.

Blessings to all and may God Bless Our Troops and bring them all home safe including my Zeus.

Christmas, oh wait, We have Birthdays first.

2011-12-19T10:56:00.000-06:00

2 Boys, 2 Birthday's, 2 weeks before Christmas, Zeus gone 2 weeks. What a busy yet amazing time of year.
This year my boys asked, OK maybe begged but what does that matter, for separate birthday parties at separate places. Being the loving and pleasing Momma that I am, the answer to that questioning was simple, yes. The boys are born on the same day in December, 4 years apart. Yeah, I must have been crazy to have 2 kids in December even crazier for the same day. I mean really there are 31 days in December and our Anniversary why not have them on the same day. My body does crazy things so this was not a complete surprise. Just makes our family more unique.

Omega asked to have his party at a skating rink, ice skating that is. I could never say no, because nobody loves ice skating more than I do. Sure, Ice skating with my son, Absolutely. Omega is a bit of a quiet boy so friends are not common for him. He hangs with his sisters and little brothers friends but has little, if any of his very own. So his party attendees would be friends of his siblings, which worked out great because we are fond of the friends that attended.

He loved skating around the rink, asking Momma tons of questions on how to skate, how to turn around, how to go backwards, how to spin and on and on and on. I loved showing him things and watching him try his hardest to figure them out, unsuccessfully.

We had a bit of a scare when Zero fell and Zeus tried to get her up and he eventually lost his footing and tumbled backwards slamming his head onto the ice. That is my worst nightmare. Thankfully there was no blood. He managed to rattle the ice underneath my feet more than 5 yards away. He lay there, holding his head as if he were just knocked out in a boxing match. It is not fun to see your love laying there like that, especially when he does not even enjoy Ice skating to begin with. After much commotion and help up he managed to move to a hockey box with a splitting headache. WHEW, that was a close one. No concussion or symptoms of one, much to my surprise. He assured me that would be his last time attempting to do something I love. I am sad.

Zero felt HORRIBLE, as she was the one that caused the fall to begin with. I managed to explain that no matter the experience of a skater, falls happen to the best of us, even Gold Medalist take some terrifying tumbles. She dried her eyes quickly and continued skating knowing I had it under control.

Enough Drama!

A sweet, neighbor whose husband is on his way home from Afghanistan stopped by to watch all of us for a bit too. Its always fun to reach out and love those around us.

Fantastic party, great fun and lots of wet pants from little ones slipping and sliding all over the ice. I think a lot of it was intentional though. Silly babies.

Bring on Party #2, Chuck E Cheese for Ziggy.

Ziggy, being the baby of the family has never really experienced the whole Chuck E Cheese thing. His request for a Chuck E Cheese birthday was right up his alley as much as Zeus despises the place. C.E.C it is. Ziggy had a few friends attend and was absolutely the happiest I have ever seen him. He loved being sung to. He danced with Chuck E. He clapped with the crew. He smiled. He laughed. But most of all he felt as special as he is. As a parent, it was AMAZING to watch him beaming with joy during his birthday celebration. He was crowned. He earned a medal. He even attacked the ticket blaster. Birthday's are special and these two precious boys are half of my wondrous world.

Absolutely a great day. Happy Birthday to my precious Omega and Ziggy. Momma loves you babies.

Look Who's Growing Up

2011-12-07T21:11:00.000-06:00

Yikes, thinking about my babies growing up is definitely hard to swallow. I love them being small, napping, needy and wanting to hang out at home with me. Those days are quickly coming to end. But as they grow they are given huge opportunities that make me super proud to be their Momma.

This week we had one of those moments. Zero, my oldest most precious of them all has worked exceptionally hard on her studies and this week she was rewarded of that hard work. She was invited to join the elite Jr. Beta Club. A club that recognizes and rewards high academic achievement and instills a since of community service in its members. This is awesome. I was never in a Beta Club but I was a member of the National Honor Society. So I know how proud she must feel as well as her wonderful friends.

Our family is extremely proud and quite amazed by little miss Zero's achievements. If you knew her, you know how hard she has to work for all the A's she brings home. Not one of those A's has come easy for her, countless hours of study and many tears later.

I am most excited that one of her dear friends is on the same journey as she, so she shall not go it alone.
Congratulations Mascoutah Middle School Jr. Beta Inductees.

Holiday Traditions

2011-11-30T11:14:00.000-06:00

Do you have any holiday traditions? I know growing up we had traditions passed down through the generations. Like Santa always leaving Apples, Oranges and nuts in our stockings as well as unwrapped gifts under our tree. We always opened Courtney family gifts on Christmas eve and Miller family gifts on Christmas morning. Christmas is one of my most cherished holidays. Its about family, that's why I love it so much.

Since marrying Zeus, we have made our own traditions. The most loved tradition our family has is to go to a tree farm and cut our very own tree. Over the years it seems to have gotten harder to find one because we have four little opinions added to our opinions as well. The kids look forward to tree hunting every year. This year was perfect because the weather cooperated with us. It was a beautiful sunny day in the mid 60's. Can't ask for a much better autumn day for tree hunting.

This year we hunted for about an hour or so and the best part was the babies all worked together to cut the tree down themselves. Zeus said he likes not having to do the cutting any more. Little does he know this tradition will continue when we have four adults, hahahaha.

Anyways this tree is a beautiful 7 foot white pine that has a very large girth. She is gorgeous.

We had a good time and enjoyed our little precious family moments and tradition.

Christmas just got a little brighter

2011-11-19T15:44:00.000-06:00

My kids were bummed that we would not be able to have any family here for Thanksgiving. Zero, was highly excited to my parents again. Little did she know they were not planning on coming.

So after the disappointment of Thanksgiving, they got this brilliant idea to write a poem and send it to my parents in hopes that they could convince to come out for Christmas. Zeus' parents just left last week so they have made their mark on St. Louis, but my parents have yet to make their way out here.

They promptly sent an email BEGGING them to come. The email comprised of Red and Green, huge, bold letters asking for their presence here in STL for Christmas. Quite clever of my daughter, I must say. The funny part of all this is I was completely in the dark about this email. Or this video.

So this is the poem being read by my children persuading their grandparents to come visit.

Zeus decides a picture is in order to sufficiently request a visit. Grammy and Grampy can't possibly say no to children without any shirts on in the freezing cold weather we are experiencing, or will they?

The kids then asked that their grandparents please answer them. This is what came back.

Then the kids were beyond excited that they had indeed sealed their Grandparents visit for Christmas. So what do they do? Oh yes, they write another diddy. This time a song. Who could say no to this precious angels?

Well, Grammy and Grampy had better prepare themselves this holiday season cause the St. Louis Haskins children are preparing with new songs, new choreography, plans, games, restaurants and all the many things they can fit into our schedule to share their new house, new city and new friends with their beloved Grandparents all the way from Ft. Worth, Texas. Giddy Up, cause Grammy and Grampy are coming to Town.

Halloween Fun

2011-11-02T09:53:00.000-05:00

Halloween is always a fun event at our house. I have rules for the children though.
The children are not allowed to be anything that resembles scary, dead, demonic or negative beings.
For me the holiday is about creativity, togetherness, community and pure innocent fun.
As a family we always choose a theme for Halloween. Since Day one, there has been a theme. Every costume must be a part of the theme. Weird, yeah maybe. But it is effective.
This year took much longer to decide what we would do. We dabbled at ideas for months. I like to have costumes purchased by late August early September to beat the rush. This year we were a bit late due to many outside factors. Finally I gave the kids a deadline to decide, the morning of the deadline the children woke up and were preparing for school but were so excited to share that the night before they had finally decided on a theme. ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Fantastic. Perfect. Easy. I was elated. So many characters to choose from that I knew I could find the costumes we needed. But this year was different, Daddy would be in town and the kids insisted that Mom and Dad dress up as well. I was a little hesitant but later decided we could pull it off.

The kids choose what they wanted to be but we had to tweak those ideas a bit, which they happily agreed. Daddy had to be persuaded, by a lot. Mommy had to do a few *cough* things to get him on board. Nevertheless, he agreed.

With a few minor set backs we dressed and headed out to trick or treat on base.

Here is the result. I think it worked, and funny how the costumes fit personalities as well.
Zeus: Tweedle Dum (original)
Ziggy: Tweedle Dee (original)
Zero: Alice (original)
Omega: Ace of Clubs, who paints the roses red. (original)
Zulu: Mad Hatter (Tim Burton)
Twinkle (Me): Red Queen of Hearts (Tim Burton)
What do you think? We enjoyed it a lot.

Are you a Soccer Mom?

2011-10-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

Are you a Soccer Mom?

I absolutely despise that question or term, actually I find it degrading, especially when used by politicians. I believe it places a stereotype on women, one in which I do not want. So NO, I am not a soccer mom but I am a Mom to many soccer players.

This year soccer season has been extremely eventful. We had a child playing in every league offered here on base, a 5/6, a 7/8, a 9/10 and a 11/14. Oh yes, each kid had their very own team. This meant 4 different practice schedules, 4 different game schedules, 4 different sets of teammates, and 4 different skill levels. The past 2 months have been terribly busy. We've spent 5 days a week on the soccer field and sometimes had 3 kids playing at one time or had 4 kids playing back to back. Exhausting. Exciting. Heart wrenching.

As a mom, if you know me, you know I can not see quietly on the sidelines. OH NO! Much to my children's despair, I was and still am the mom screaming, cheering, yelling and coaching in my non coaching chair. I was the one running up and down the sideline with camera in hand snapping once in a lifetime moments. Oh yes, my children pretty much hate that part. But that's OK, in the end they are all so happy I was there, so happy to see the pictures and videos and excited I got to be a part of it. That's the reason I will remain the happy, loud, obnoxious and loving mom that I am.

In the middle of the season Zulu was asked to step in on a 9/10 team to help them out after several season ending injuries. He was thrilled to do it. After 2 weeks it then became a permanent position. He was now playing for 2 teams, a 7/8 team and a 9/10 team. Of all my children, he is the one that could handle the extra stress to his body. He was the one that needed a bigger challenge. So then we had 5 different teams we were shuttling children to. The best part about the 5th team was that Zulu played Omega. Seeing your children play against each other in a sport they love and excel in was beyond incredible. I was a beaming Momma. I loved every minute of my babies on that field.

This year they all blossomed in their own little unique way. We saw all the boys score many goals. We watched Zero chase down the 6 foot tall kids and steal the ball. We saw Zulu become a stand out forward. We watched Omega grow into an unbeatable Fullback. We watched Ziggy tear up the competition as a top scorer. What a great year we had. Bring on the winter so we can get to more soccer next year.

My heart

2011-10-06T10:29:00.000-05:00

This morning after watching all the tributes to Steve Jobs my brain begin feverishly thinking, no its not a first. But really, seriously, I began to look at myself. What have I done? Have I followed my heart? Am I happy with my own job?

Those answers didn't come as a surprise. I feel I have followed my heart. The things I have done are small but I think they could and have made a larger impact on the lives of other people. My job is being a mother and a friend. I see and love on my kids everyday.

My friends, well, that's what I miss. I have friends all over the world and the U.S. I like that part. What I don't like is not being able to help them in whatever minuscule way I can. When I think about these folks I get giddy inside. So giddy, that I want to clap my hands like Grandma Klump "Hercules, Hercules, Hercules" did in the Nutty Professor. Picture me saying "I love my friends, I love my friends, I love my friends". Oh yes, I love my friends that much. The very thought of them brings a smile to my face, even when I'm cleaning Ziggy pee off the floor and trashcan, I can smile thinking of those beautiful faces. Am I weird, probably! Most likely, but that is OK with me. Do I love my friends, more than ever. That is why this morning I am missing their simple company. Tea, coffee, crying babies or planting flowers, whatever we did together I miss. No, they are not dead. Not that kinda missing. The kind were you want to go back for just one more hour and hug them one more time and let them know they will be remembered, thought of, cared for and loved.

My heart is happy today, even as I wash the sheets and match all the unmatched socks. Those friends, don't make me name you, know who they are all around the world have made a lasting impression upon my life and today those memories are getting me through the lonely days and times I wish they were here. I really miss the silly jokes played on my family, Zeus in particular. I miss having a morning talk. I miss being asked Mommy questions. I miss doing crafts. Yeah, Its been a while since I made a pretty wreath or a diaper cake. I miss having my Christmas lights hung by standing on the back of a truck, yes we did that. Anyways, you get the point. Today my friends have taken on a new meaning. Thanks to Steve Jobs I am renewed in knowing that I am me and very happy to be me, whatever waist size, hair length or number of friends. I will continue to love no matter how "crazy" that sounds or looks like.

Friends, please know I love you all so deeply that you may never know the depth and enormity of those feelings. You are in my heart, you get me through the day and I love you.

Scarecrows and Corn and Hay Oh My!!!

2011-10-01T20:28:00.000-05:00

What's the outside of your house like today?

Do you decorate?

Well, I've been doing a fun little decor myself over the years and each year is unique and different.

This year, well, see for yourself.

These are for you Rach!!!!

Go Ravens!!!

2011-09-26T09:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a super fun day. Ziggy, who was born in Maryland, was excited to visit the Edwards Jones Dome here in St. Louis. We hung out at the Rams game watching them play the Ravens, or should I say get slaughtered by the Ravens.

We took the Metro, above ground subway system, to get to the stadium.

Once we arrived we enjoyed treats and watched the teams warm up.

Ziggy yelled and cheered loudly for his beloved Ravens.

We got looked at strangely. Yeah, Mommy sporting Rams attire and Ziggy sporting Ravens attire made us stand out and look rather odd.

Ziggy learned to use binoculars.

We had a blast.

I got to take him to his first NFL game

Mother and son time was absolutely needed and unbelievably special. Ziggy's phrase of the day, GO RAVENS!!!!

Zero's 11th Birthday party

2011-09-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

Since Zeus was out of the country on his first official deployment when Zero turned 11 we as a family decided to wait until Zeus came back to have her 11th birthday party. So it was in Sept rather than August. She was completely fine with the delay.

There is never a birthday in this family without a theme. This year Zero chose to do a baking theme.
I love to jump into these themes so here I made her invitation with my nifty cricut machine.

Of course there is not a birthday without a cake. So I made her a cake to her specifications. Yea, at this age they start asking or should I say demanding things. This was one of them. She insisted. What's a loving mom to do, well of course I obliged.

You can't have mini-cupcakes that don't match the invites. Never.

There was a definite cupcake theme happening so this savvy Mommy had to make the decorations as well. So here are a few. This is a cupcake liner streamer. We had 3 short vertical streamers

And we had one 8 foot long horizontal streamer that all 4 kids got to help make. It actually was not hard at all and looked super cute.

I got really crafty and made the inside of the cake rather bright as well. It was a unique and one of a kind cake and Zero loved it and loved showing all her friends.

Awww, my little girl is becoming a teenager one day at a time. She is now in middle school and I bet you can imagine what all these little girls were doing when they got here. It was one big gab session. She was thrilled to find out that 2 other girls were in her homeroom class.

I could not believe the topics that they covered. It was amazing and I had an extremely terrible time keeping up with them. They jumped subjects every 2 minutes. I loved being here and helping her make cupcakes, decorate aprons, ice cupcakes and have a great time.

We love you sweet Zero and Happy Birthday Beautiful Baby.

Love Momma

Again I must say

2011-08-14T23:25:00.000-05:00

Again I must say that today I am feeling a strong sadness and loneliness because I miss my friends deeply.I miss that silly girl who rang my doorbell daily and at some point just started coming in. I miss the Momma that was quiet but stopped over to chat and loved to chat after we dropped the kids off at school. I miss the wife that answered the door in her nighty and loved candy. I miss the most amazing Mexican cook, that always had a sample plate for me. I miss my buddy who picked the best steaks for me to cook most Sundays during football season. I miss the family that included us in the very beginning of our marriage. I miss my daughters first friends Momma. I miss the friend who always was there to watch my babies. I miss my friend who loved my babies.I miss the cricut woman and her awesome creative ways. I miss my weekly Starbucks date.

I love the military don't get me wrong, but it comes with many negative aspects. And today or should I say most days I miss my friends, most of them are fellow military spouses walking through similar waters as myself. The hard part is knowing that a fellow wife is lonely, like myself and I can't do anything about it. I am thankful to have email, Facebook and my trusty cell phone so that I can call, text or message each of these important pieces of my life. I know one day I will get to see them again in the meantime I will remember all the beautiful days we were able to have together before I moved or they moved. It is awesome that I was given the opportunity to meet these amazing people that are all over the world. I can thank the military for that. But I am saddened that our time with each other had to be so extremely short. I decided years ago that I would take with me a few friends from every assignment and add or etch those names into my "LifeBook". My lifebook is growing and those Lifefriends will remain with me close to my heart throughout my life.

These people are so encouraging. They love with all their hearts. They shared their stories. They asked for help. They smiled. They laughed. They listened. They never judged. No matter what their color, religion, background or lifestyle they became my friend and loved me and I loved them back. I trusted these people with everything I had.

So today I "air toast" to each of these men and women my love and support and I want them to know that I think of them daily. Even without time to call I still am reminded of their special personalities.

I'm so excited to hear they are all coming to surprise me for my birthday. OK, so I'm just dreaming about the visit but I love them all so much they'll never know just how much. Again I must say Blessings dear friends, you know who you are.

People these days

2011-08-11T19:05:00.000-05:00

Early today I commented on one of my friends Facebook Status. Her comment was "Just saw three kids in matching clothes at IKEA. Seriously, unless its a family picture, don't torture your kids people!!". This stuck me as odd. Because she does not have any children.

Now this is coming from a woman that does not have any children. Which is completely fine. Until I posted something like " there is a reason some people do that." Then someone else started commenting on my comments. This second woman obviously only had "ONE" child.

For me, there are a couple reasons in which I dress my children to match when we leave the house, not for general school or sports. The first and most important reason my children match is so that I can quickly locate them when we are out and about. This is for safety reasons. Stop, now think about what each of your kids was wearing today down to their shoes. Can you explain that to someone else? How about a policeman when you are in a shear panic? You probably couldn't if you have more than just a few babies. So this is why mine match. I can look at one of them and know EXACTLY what they are wearing in detail and it also gives that policeman a visual of what they are looking for. Also your eyes get attuned to the outfits and you can quickly spot them 100 yards away.

Now the second is more cosmetic, I like to take pictures everywhere I go so it is nice that they are complementing each other as well. No matter where we are, they look good together.

You might say what this girl said, " I'll never take my eye off my child". I find that really hard to believe. For instance, take them on the subway in New York during rush hour. Walk down a busy New York or Washington D.C street or take them to Disney World. If you never have your eyes off your child then right on, but if you are like me and have many children it becomes very difficult because you only have two hands. My children are my life. So for anyone to insinuate that I do not care or love them is absurd. I do this when we go to many different types of places. If you don't like it, then fine but don't chastise me or any of my counterparts for doing this. Just put yourself in that persons place for a change. How would they feel if their child went missing?

Then there is the case of the backpack leash. Now, I know there are a million people out there that think this is ridiculous. But stop and think about it for a second. There are another half million people that want to hurt your child. Let's face it, kidnapping is big business. If you have a newly walking or young toddler that insists on walking, they can get away from you faster than you can say "stop". Think about it, ever seen a mom chasing her child on a sidewalk, grocery store or entertainment venue. Yeah, it happens everyday because children this small do not understand consequences of bad people or things that hurt you like cars, trains, trucks and etc. They are so small they fit in places that we adults cannot,I.e. the legs of a stranger or fellow street walker. That backpack leash allows that child to walk on their own near you and you can still have control of them and they do not get too far away. And if someone tries to pick them up you can pull back. This allows plays as a deterrent to then child predators as well. Its ridiculous to pick on people, including myself that might have used one of these things. That mother that never used it but lost her kid at Disneyland might be wishing she would have had one.

So don't go judging people about how they dress their children or what methods they use to protect their children. We are all human and we are all different. That is the best thing about us. Just agree to disagree and don't make them inferior to yourself. It makes you look a little idiotic and small minded.

To all you moms out there, keep doing what you are doing and forget about these people that insist they are better than you or they can do it without help, cause one day they will need help in some form or another.
God Bless

What's happening!!

2011-07-17T12:06:00.000-05:00

So today I need to blog about what is happening to our country. Most of you know I am a news junkie, I read, tweet, watch and anything else you can do with news, I do. I like to know what is going on and why and maybe how I can change things.

This time in American history is extremely sad. Not in the death sense, but in a civility and community sense. Read the news. I dare you. This month the NFL is in a lockout. The NBA is in a lockout. The state of Minnesota has been shutdown. The United States Government is arguing about the Debt ceiling. Do you see anything in common here? I do, I do. How about MONEY!!! It's all about money and the sad part is, that the majority of these problems are not just money, its greed. Yes, Pure ole innocent greed. (yes that would be my attempt at sarcasm). The one thing that can ultimately bring down an entire country, Greed. That has got to be the most ridiculous thing any of us could have imagined. But I am pretty sure we had it coming. What do you think?

I mean, we let God disappear from our schools, our buildings and ultimately in our lives. The only time we ask him to show up is when we are severely injured or someone has died. That's probably too late to start asking. Well folks, if you have not figured it out yet, our current system is not working. I mean really, We have NFL teams making BILLIONS of dollars and that is not enough but miles down the road in Kentucky we have families that can't even graduate high school, lost all their teeth and everybody turns a blind eye. This sounds about right. The American Way. The gap between the poor and the rich is widening farther than ever before.

Lets turn to the Bible for a few thoughts:

Proverbs 29:4 reads By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down.
Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

The verse we should remember and strive to live by is this:

1 Peter 5:2 Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve;

I am sad to see us running faster and faster down this dreaded, dark alley. We must put the brakes on at some point but it takes multitudes of us to stand up and make a change, if this is gonna happen.

I hope you are willing to do what you can and help others, do good, stop the greed and show those elected officials and sports millionaires that there really is more to life than " who has the most money".
Blessings to all of you and I pray that Americans figure this out before it is too late. The clock is ticking and the bomb is set to explode unless we disarm it.

God Bless America and please, please show us how to get out of this mess.

Summer of Fun

2011-07-12T11:46:00.001-05:00

This summer our family is doing everything we can to spend time together. Zeus is deploying for 45 days in July and August. Yes, I know there are those people that say big deal, its only 45 days. But to us, just one day in the desert is too long. So my family is no different than the family that has a 12 month deployment. Zeus will deploy 2 times this year and then he gets the LONG one next year. For this reason we realize we will not have a summer family vacation next year as he will be gone many months that time. So, In my mind, we spare no expense. Let the traveling, fun and family time happen.

Zeus had a 2 week TDY to Georgia for his military job. Since the kids were out of school, I decided that the kids and I could tag along and at least see Zeus in the evenings. Then my brain started coming up with ideas for the kids and I to do while Zeus worked his long 12+ hour days. Since we were going to be so close to Florida I thought it would be perfect to take the kids to Disney World. Why not? Military prices would help the cost. As I was sharing this with my family my Mom decided that she and Gramps-a-lot would love to go too. This sounded great to me since I could use 4 extra arms with all these babies. Lucky for us, Shades of Green, the Disney military resort had rooms for us. We decided to go for 4 days and visit two of the many parks and do Magic Kingdom for 2 days to get it all done.

It was amazing. The resort was beautiful, comfortable and everything you'd imagine in a High Priced resort in central Florida. The military deserves it. The parks were so much fun. The vacation was magical.

While down in the south we decided to stop and hang out with some dear friends that are stationed at Maxwell AFB in AL. So we ended up going to their house on 3 separate occasions. It was wonderful to visit with them and let the kids spend time with their beloved Aunt R. She is special to our family and my children love her like no other.

Then after Zeus was completed with his assignment in Georgia we planned a week long family vacation, just the 6 of us, to Branson, MO. We knew little of the place but had everyday planned out and pre-purchased tickets before arriving. This week our accommodations were given to us by Zeus' parents as a gift. We were most thankful to them. So we arrived not knowing what to expect. We drove into the resort and were in love. We had a 2 bedroom stand alone cabin in the hills all to ourselves for an entire week. Perfect!!! We be-bopped around town and enjoyed magic shows, ventriloquist shows, musical performances, boat rides, jet-skiing, shopping, eating, swimming, exploring, roller coaster riding, getting wet, water sliding, picture taking and just loving each other. This vacation was a great recharger for each of us. We got to be together and that was the best part. Total travel was about 3500 miles and 50 car hours.

So for us the three weeks was much needed time to focus our attentions on what's important in life, that's each other. Really excited to see what the next trip brings as Zeus jet-sets and we head off to Texas to see all the friends and family.

"Scars heal or maybe they just fade"

2011-06-17T17:03:00.000-05:00

Do you know where I got this quote? I'll give you a minute to think about it. It's from a recent movie. It's from a kids movie. Got it yet? Well that's OK, its new. I'll give you a break this time. It's from Kung Fu Panda 2.
You are probably asking yourself why in the world is she blogging about this. Well I'll tell you.

While we were in Valdosta, tagging along with Zeus' TDY, I took the babies to the movies. Of course, I needed to take them to something they enjoy. So the choice was simple, Kung Fu Panda 2. This was a great movie. Great choice for kids but let me tell you why for teenagers and adults. The "message" of the movie was the biggest reason I believe people of all ages should go see this.

Po, the panda, has a history just like everyone in the world. We all have memories of childhood and sometimes those memories are not so pretty. That doesn't delete them from our memory though. The movie does an amazing job of creating this storyline of Po's past while keeping you entranced on what is about to happen in the future. The positive view and idea involves blended families basically through adoption. It is amazing how they take you through Po's inward struggle to find himself, his true self. Not knowing who he is or where he was from created problems for his daily life. It made him question himself. Po the Panda is lost. The movie takes you through this struggle to find inward peace, to accept who you are no matter where you came from.

I connected with this message from the very beginning. At one point the movie made me cry because I was so involved as if Po were me. I understood completely what Po was feeling almost the whole way through the movie. My childhood had missing pieces many unknowns that I continue to uncover through my adult life. I too, wandered what I was, who I was and what I can and will be. That is huge for someone with a murky, muddied history. Like Po, I knew who my family was until a MASSIVE revelation occurred. Then my world, like Po's, was turned upside down. I lost myself, just like him. I was confused. But like Po, I am working to find my inner peace. It's not easy, but understanding that my family whether blood or paper is my family will get me through the rough days ahead.

So if you are looking for a movie with amazing graphics, cinematography, storyline and fun for kids, Kung Fu Panda 2 is for you. I am glad I went and you will too.

Friends keep having babies!!!

2011-06-08T15:19:00.000-05:00

I Love Babies. Yes, its true. That's the greatest part of having friends. They give me a chance to love and care for more and more babies.

So I have a really good friend that now calls Ohio home. She will be welcoming baby #3 any day now and I am over the moon for her. I miss her smile, her company, her sweet girls, and her confidence. I miss you friend. So in Twinkle fashion I decided to continue my creativity.

This is what I made her a while back.

I also added some sweet baby boy clothes as well.

If I can't be there to share my love, then I must mail it. Right? Babycakes it is!!!

Love you girl and wish I could be there to love and support you when Sweet baby boy gets here.

Good Luck.

Big week

2011-05-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

This week brings great things for our family. This week is the last week that my oldest will walk the halls of the elementary world. That's right you are reading that clearly. My oldest moves into MIDDLE school next year. Ummm, I'm flipping a bit. She is still so little, so cute, so young, so naive, my little girl and I don't want her to walk those bigger, longer and confusing hallways of middle school. This is tough. Brings back the memories of my middle school days. Most of those days were wondrous. I made amazing friends. I found a love of volleyball. I found my true competitiveness. I feel in love with Tweety. I grew up. I learned to love school. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did.

For me, I am 10 days from completing my very first college degree. It is huge for me. This has been a very difficult and highly emotional journey but I see the light and it is shining so brightly and given the drive not to just walk to it but to run as fast as I can to it. I'm almost there.

Looking forward to a great week as we begin to enter into summer. We head off to our first Midwest mini-vacation this weekend in Chicago. Looking forward to visiting the windy city and watching Zeus run through the miles of mud sprinkled with obstacles. I think he is crazy. He thinks it will be fun. I will be sure to post the MUDDY pictures.

Blessings to all of you,
Haskins House

Long time "NO" see

2011-05-11T14:18:00.000-05:00

I have a very dear friend that my husband worked with when we were stationed in Georgia, 2000- mid 2005. He was a single guy "Longhorn" who grew up in the same state as I. I had an instant bond to that. Anyways he became a good friend and started hanging around pretty often. NFL Sundays became our traditional Steak dinner night with baked potatoes. He always brought the hand cut steaks and I cooked everything.

Anyways he just returned from duty overseas. He needed to come through St. Louis to receive his vehicle that was shipped from Germany. Longhorn decided he would take some extra time and swing by and see all of us. I missed him. Something about his character that makes me view him as a brother.

So he drove in on Thursday and him and I drove to the Airport and then to the car pickup place. The kids got home while I was out so I had them go to my sweet neighbors house until I could get back. When we arrived you could not believe the smiles and excitement on my little ones faces. They were elated to see Longhorn again. He was immediately recruited to play football.

The kids loved having him here.

We took him out to dinner for his birthday at Omega's favorite place, Japanese hibachi. We played lots of fun games outside.

We went to a few parks on base while the big kids were in school on Friday.

Then he took us out to dinner Saturday night as a thank you for the visit.We watched Tron and he and Zulu napped with each other in my big comfy recliner. It was so stinking cute.

Sunday he helped the kids make breakfast for me since it was Mother's Day and let Zeus sleep in.Now, that's sweet.

All in all we had a fantastic weekend with our friend. The kids really do like him a lot. One of them however, has a very special bond with Longhorn, I'll let you guess which one!! Maybe next time he won't wait 5 years to come visit.

Brother's & Sisters

2011-05-04T09:51:00.000-05:00

OH BOY, this morning while I was drinking my coffee trying to wake up I decided to watch a couple of my DVR'ed shows from the last few days. I have been watching Brother's and Sister's on ABC since it's birth. Today's show hit me like a ton of bricks. Actually it was really hard to watch without someone here with me over the age of 21, if you know what I mean.

I am a pretty emotional person to begin with before any shows. So if you haven't seen the show it is about a family a dead husband, wife and 5 kids. The kids are all grown adults and many of them parents themselves. The mom had an affair with her high school boyfriend and the oldest child ended up being the boyfriends and not the dead husbands. The show this week highlighted the DNA testing, daughter confronting the boyfriend and her reactions during her daily life as she planned her wedding.

So, many of you know my story from September 2008, if not here it is MY STORY . Recently I have been dealing with the emotional effects of losing friends, moving away from other friends, letting go of dreams and wishes, moving heartaches and all that junk.

As I watched the show this morning I identified with Sarah, the oldest daughter more than I have identified with someone in a long time. I felt the raw emotion that was flowing through her veins. I understood her loss of self. The tears in my eyes just starting flowing down my cheek as I watched how this shocking news. What's strange was here I was all alone again just like that night in September 2008. Except my kids are in school today instead of sleeping. I went back and reread my own story. Oh gracious, that was a bad idea. It brought everything back. The sadness, the anger, the heartbreak, the disappointment, the self-loathing "why me's" and tons and tons of tears.

Although it is several years later I'm not sure I have processed the feelings yet. I wonder if I will ever process those feelings. Today, I have gone numb. I want to love and be loved but I don't want to hurt anyone else. I am hurting. I am really not sure any of my family understands one ounce of the trauma and heartache that I am feeling. Brothers and Sisters opened the can again. It showed me that I am not OK with this situation. It showed me that there is still work to be done for me to begin to heal. It showed me that there are other people out their that quite possibly are walking through similar storms as me.

I never realized a television show could be as extremely emotional for people like ABC's Brothers and Sisters was for me today. I could go on and on but for now I must focus on my college research paper and preparing my house for a visit from a LONG TIME friend. Talking today is probably a terrible idea. I will try to avoid it at this point. Prayers are always welcomed as I continue to walk through this massive, life altering storm that does not seem to show signs of calm.

Blessings
Haskins House Out

HEADLINES

2011-05-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

OK, So all the headlines are basically the same today, Osama Bin Laden is Dead. So how do we feel?

Then I start digging and reading all over the internet and I am reading way more negative reaction towards this news than I ever thought existed. People freaking out about all the jubilance and so called immaturity. But then I stop to digest it all for a minute and realize Wait a minute, less than 2% of you will ever don a uniform and pledge allegiance to the United States in a military position. No wonder there is so much negativity. They are clueless.

I am really sad that people feel like bashing our Armed Forces or the Commander In Chief today. I am really sad that people can not be happy we accomplished a major feat today. I am really sad people cannot celebrate without stupid comments. The lunatic has been hunted for far too long. There must be consequences for our actions and the wrongful actions of others. We can not maintain a peaceful world if we let everyone do it the way they want to do it. Could you image no speed limit, no stop signs, no street lights and no driver training? Just a free for all on the roads. Talk about a war zone. We would have so many dead people from accidents we would not have enough burial ground for all of them. So yes, you decide to be a jerk and kill 3000 people you must face the consequences. Sorry.

Today I am grateful and over joyed for those 3000+ families including all the Gold Star families as they can sleep tonight knowing that justice was served. That their family member did not die in vain. I also can be excited for the future of our wars as one of the biggest hurdles in completing these wars was successfully jumped yesterday. I am a military wife. I am a veteran. I am a military friend. I am a military sister. So today all of my friends are one step closer to coming home. Today all of my friends can be proud of their efforts. Today our country defeated a major enemy. I understand most of you do not know what it is to not know if your loved ones will walk through the front door or if that dreadful black vehicle will arrive at your house with news. But I say this, today is the day to celebrate our military. Today is the day to support our Intel officials. If we didn't stop him, who was going to?

Many people do not feel they were personally attacked so they do not feel that deep sense of loss or hurt that so many families have been dealing with the better part of 15+ years. Be happy for those families today.

We aim for prevention. You spray your house to prevent bugs. You mow your yard to prevent snakes. You wear a bike helmet to prevent head injury. You wear a seat belt to prevent major injury. Today we sprayed a bug, a big, ugly, hairy, intrusive, venom filled bug. Agree or disagree with me. That's your call. But today you have been given a gift from the "United States Military", what you chose to do with it is up to you. Until you don that uniform and walk into battle your opinion is just that, an opinion.

Today I stand with all those serving, those who served, those who have given all and all the 9/11 survivors. You are amazing. Today I hope you run and jump with joy in the streets. Today I hope you smile from ear to ear. Today I hope you feel a little more relieved. Today is a GLORIOUS DAY in American history. Ignore all those people that have no clue what you feel or have endured.

To all my brothers and sisters still fighting the battle, keep up the good work. Persistence has proven itself today and you have an army of people loving and supporting your cause and your efforts. Go Forth young soldiers.

HOOOOAH!!!!!

Haskins House Out!!

Thinking, Thinking, Thinking.

2011-04-28T23:40:00.000-05:00

I know you probably have realized this about me by now and I should too, yet I still do it. Today I got to thinking when I watering my beautiful blooming flowers about how people react to other people, namely me.
Do you ever wonder if you made a positive impact on someones life? There are days I ask myself this question. Why?

Well, I look at life today through many people's eyes. Then I like to look at life back in the 1980's, when I was growing up. Yes, I know I should keep today in today, but it is worth a look.

I personally think that people today have gotten so selfish and caught up in the "things" that they forget about the lives and souls that they could touch. I try to remind myself of this daily. My dear bloggie buddy MckMama, over at MyCharmingKids.net reminds me ever so often of this thought as well as my father in law. My father in law, a veterinarian, takes a mission sponsored trip every Feb. to countries like Haiti, Kenya, Brazil and others to help teach people how to care for their animals ( Goats, Cows, Pigs and such) so that their families will have milk, cheese, meat and other things. He encourages them to chose the right animals for their families as well as how to keep them healthy. When he returned to an area previously visited and was remembered. He made a positive impact on someones, many someones lives in Kenya. Mckmama has done the same when she too traveled to Kenya to help bring water to a community and shoes to children. When she goes back she will be remembered, she will have made a difference, a positive impact on someone Else's life.

I try to do this without traveling to other countries. With an active duty husband who goes TDY seemingly all the time, I do not have the opportunity to travel to these areas to make a difference. I feel my calling is to make a difference here at home, in my community, on our base and in the states we visit and live.

I get frustrated with those people, you know the kind I'm talking about, that are in it for themselves. I try to pray for those people that God will bring them a situation they can't resist and allow them to reach out instead of take in. I know people that think children get in the way. I know people that would rather text on their phones than carry on a conversation with those around them. I know people that would rather ignore their neighbors than to reach out and be kind. I know people that cannot accept people with flaws. I know people that show up to volleyball games and walk out if they can't play the entire game or if they don't start the game. I know people that complain about the offense that is run on the court. I know people that own four cars and only need one. I know people that want a bigger house just so it can be bigger than their brothers. I know people that refuse to help out a distressed driver on the road. I know people who chastise others for living sinful lives.

Enough is enough. Look at all the thousands and I do mean thousands of people that no longer have a home because some random tornado decided it wanted the house more. Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Georgia and others each were devastated by massive, destructive tornadoes just this week. Be thankful you still have a home. Now, put down your dang phone and talk to those around you. Walk across the street and say hello to your snotty neighbor. Stop your car and help the woman put the tire on her car. Call a friend who might need a babysitter and help them out. These are the simple things each of us can do to make a positive impact on another person's life.

So today I ask myself and you, are you making a difference? Are you engraving yourself into someones mind? I hope somewhere along the way I have made someone feel special. I hope I encouraged someone. I hope I helped them pick up something on a bad day. Today I sit here and hope that when I leave this earth that I was able to touch just one life. No car, computer, phone, flowers, house, vacation or clothes will make that happen any better or easier, if at all.

So ask yourself are you in it for you or are you in it for all?

I won't throw out all the religious scripture and teachings at you as I am not the bible pusher. I just believe we can each make a lasting impact on a life around us, if we just try.

Join me again soon here at the Haskins House. Blessings

A mother's love along with a wife's love

2011-04-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

Today as I watched my husband play and interact with our children I begin to think about the day when they are all five foot something and have their own kids to play with. Someone reminded me that the day that happens will be amazingly beautiful. But until then I think about something near and dear to my heart. What is the difference from a mother's love of her son and a wife's love of her husband who just happens to be the same man.

I think about my husbands love for his mother and her love for him and I shed tears. My mother in law is a true blessing. She loves her son. She loves her grand babies. She loves me. She is an amazing part of who he is today. I owe her a lifetime of thanks for raising a man that is my everything. She is so kind and loving. A mother's love is endless and a wife must be sure to understand this extreme love. The mother gave birth to this man. A mother raised this man. She will be connected to him for life. She was his first love.

A wife is bonded to her husband through marriage. She promises to love him. She promises to take care of him. She bears and raises his children. She is connected to her husband. But she must remember that a mother must not and can not be replaced. A wife and a mother should be on the same level. The man would not be here without the mother and the mother grateful that the wife cares and loves her son.

This relationship is not an easy road to traverse. A mother may not think the best things of the future daughter. She may have concerns. She may worry if he is picking the right girl. She may think he is making a huge mistake. She may fear for his heart. She may not agree at all. But she has but one choice, to continuing loving her son and make room for his wife. She is HIS MOTHER for a lifetime and even when she passes. He will always love, cherish and put his mother on a pedestal. But that pedestal just grew by two feet because he added his wife to it. Mom must be happy to make room as wife should smile that she has gained a new position.

A wife will struggle to share her husbands love with another woman but she must always remember that neither woman will replace the other. They both are important with separate yet equal roles in the man's life. Both women must work to make the relationship work for the man in their lives.

Arguing is unacceptable.
Giving him an ultimatum is a death sentence.
Bashing the other is shameful.
Refusing to get along only causes stress.
Agree to love.
Agree to share.
Agree that he is God's son.

I am most grateful that my husbands mother has chosen love. She accepted me. She made room on the pedestal for me. She intrusted me with her precious blood. Today my mother in law has become my second mother. I love her, I trust her, I can talk to her, I can lean on her and she doesn't judge me. She gives good advice that I don't always follow. She supports our decisions however bad they are. She loves my children no matter how many I create. She loves her son more than anything. She supports her son in everything. And she hangs our family picture on her wall for all to admire.

Today, I hope that you wives and you mothers will search your hearts to make your husbands and sons lives complete by loving and accepting each other and understanding that you will not replace the other but both of you are just as important as the other and neither is any better for him than the other. Agree to love equally and agree to understand that you are both in love with a man who is the same person.

Once you are the mother of a son you will soon understand the role you will take and you will hope your future daughter will accept you.

Blessings on a loving life as a mother and a wife.

Thank you L, I appreciate your acceptance and love of me as a new part of your family when Zeus chose me. I accept you and gladly and proudly share this pedestal with you as we love a very special Man.

Happy Haskins House

Government Shutdown

2011-04-07T11:35:00.001-05:00

Today I was sitting and thinking about all the latest news and outrage or lack there of, of this impending Government shutdown. Have you read about it? Do you understand what it entails? Will this affect you?

Well let me give my opinion, thoughts and some facts on this situation.

OK, Let me get this straight we are going to shutdown certain portions of the government and let other portions remain. How is this even logical? First, we can't agree on a budget for Fiscal year 2011 which is already half over. Yes the government runs October to September. That's the official calendar. So we have been running on borrowed time for half the year why not do it the whole time? I do not know the answer to that question. But I sure would like to know. But what I don't understand is the Congress and the President along with his administration will receive a paycheck! They do not worry about shutdowns. What is wrong with this picture? They get paid but the United States Military at all levels will not get a paycheck. Hmmmmm. What kind of message is this sending to the American people. All National Parks will close. Sorry, no recreation for your families either. Medicare and Social security will be paid, no worry there. I'm wondering who decides who gets pay and who doesn't?

You send our troops into foreign lands without their families and in very hostile situations and then you tell them that their family back home will not have money to buy groceries, pay the bills or buy gas to get where they need to go. So here you have a young serviceman who has not had the time or money to build a nest egg and you tell him hey keep doing what your doing but do it for FREE. Good gracious, nobody I know would work in those conditions for FREE. I tell you what, it doesn't matter how long the government shutdown lasts one minute or one month it will have a lasting affect on all Americans. More lives are at risk as many families will not be eating properly because they will not be able to afford the food, the serviceman overseas will be stressed about their family not having what they need. He will be fed as he eats at a dining facility. But his wife, children may go hungry for who knows how long. Then he worries about what happens when he can not pay the bills. This is a snowball effect. Then he has to go before his commander because his bills are not being paid. Does it stop? No, it goes on and on. Then when the pay is finally reinstated they have overdraft fees to pay, late charges on rent and all the other issues for not paying on time. OH, Credit Score hits that took years to build will suddenly crash no fault of your own. What gives? I was not old enough to really understand the last government shutdown. So I do not have anything to go by there. However, I do understand being a military family and knowing that my husband will continue to bust his hiney for freedom and protection and he will not be paid because of a stinkin disagreement. ABSURD!!!!

Look, USDA would be partially open but those of you who need farm loans are out of luck. The education department will close but the Highway administration will be open. Bureau of Engraving and printing including tours will remain open but the National Park Service will close. Meaning you will not and can not visit Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Alcatraz, Independence Hall, Washington Monument, and Mount Rushmore. Your vacation will have to wait because the State department will not be issuing passports either. So if you think this shutdown does not effect you or your family because you do not work for the government you are wrong. I urge you to call your congress official and complain. The more calls and emails the more they listen. We have the duty to help solve this problem. Make and effort, I'm calling on you!

I just do not understand how congress can let this happen. I realize they want to stabilize spending and yada, yada, yada. But I bet you that if their money was on the line they would be fighting a heck of a lot harder than they are now. They would be more willing to stay later and work until a deal could be reached.

We have become so greedy that even the Billionaire Football team owners want more money. GREED
God Bless America.
Start praying!!!

In the Army now

2011-03-20T11:23:00.000-05:00

Today, now that I am home and can process the last 4 days I am feeling better. The last few days were spent in Lawton, Oklahoma for my little brothers Army Basic training graduation. I was really looking forward to it. I have felt guilty for many years since I was in Air Force training when he walked across the stage for high school graduation. I managed to make it to his wedding a few years ago so I had it in my head nothing was going to stop me from being there this time. Many people do not understand the love in my heart for my brother. Because of the way we grew up, him and I became bonded. Most will never understand this relationship and I'm not going to try to explain it. He is one of the most important people in my life. My brother, J, means as much to me as my husband and my children. So being there to show him my love and support was my top priority.

We were able to see him march in his ACU's during the family day events chronicling the time he spent at basic. I was right there snapping photos of him.

We followed them, his battalion back to their dorms and waited while they all went up and changed their clothes in their Class B's. After they came down and formed up waiting to be released they spoke, OK maybe yelled, the soldiers creed. The second he said those words " I am a Soldier", the tears were flowing in my eyes. Here I sit as the flow some more. I was proud of him. I was so glad he had made this life changing decision. I was filled with love, joy and extreme happiness to see my bratty, mean and annoying "little" brother out there who had become a man. He stood tall. He was poised. He was confident. He had become an American Soldier and he had become my American Soldier.

Having been in the military and married to an Airman, I had a clue and deep understanding of what he was going to go through during training. I knew just how deep within himself he had to dig to find the strength to get through that very next moment. I knew how badly he had missed the real world and his family. I knew the obstacles, yelling, feeling of walking on eggshells as to avoid being "smoked" or "reamed".

I was so very proud of him and this amazing accomplishment. This is a huge deal for my brother. A great achievement most people did not think he was capable of. I knew he had it in him from the day I walked across the field. He started questioning me and my decision. I knew then he was curious. I knew he could and would do it someday. He has proven all the nay-sayers wrong.

I will never be able to put into words the pride, joy, love and happiness in my heart and soul for this incredible man. For 18 years, it was he and I against the world. For a while and somewhat today I viewed him as my first child. I am protective of him like a Momma bear. I feel all those things most mothers feel for their sons, except that he is my brother. The reasons why shall remain private amongst him and I and our family. Just know that this boy really relied on me and I really took care of him, protected him and loved him through all the adversity. After I was married and moved away he started growing distance as his life decisions were not in line with mine. However as he got older, wiser, smarter and calmer he began to mimic my life and I knew I had not lost him. I knew he still needed me just like I still needed him.

NO, I am not his wife. NO, I am not his mother. But, I am his OLDER, BIGGER Sister and I will always cherish every moment and emotion with him. And I hope he does with me too. I am his biggest supporter!!

I love you little brother and I am more proud of you than anyone will ever know.
My brother is in the Army now!

10 years later it finally happened

2011-03-12T23:18:00.000-06:00

Most of you know that I have been a mom for 10 years now but some may not so now you know. HAHAHA

A couple weeks ago Zulu and Zeus were outside playing football. Ziggy noticed so he wanted to play too. Zeus' first throw to Ziggy ends in injury. Ziggy is screaming. Zeus doesn't think much of it. Twinkle works hard to figure out if he is OK or needs to see the Dr. Thankfully we have a pediatrician and her flight Dr. husband who live across the street from us so a quick text message to them and she came over a bit later to look at his hand. It was not a terrible injury just a strain. Good, I do not need injuries. So fast forward to yesterday. All 3 big kids at school and Zeus at work, just Twinkle and Ziggy here at the house. Twinkle had Loads and Loads of homework so I sat in front of the computer for upwards of 14 hours. While I did homework Ziggy played and moved from room to room doing different activities. While he was in the play room that was down the hall from the den I heard a loud, blood curdling scream. He came running yelling I re-injured my finger, I re-injured my finger. Great, is all I was thinking. I looked at his finger and it was way swollen, turning darker purple by the minute. I was frustrated. I called the Dr. on base and they surprisingly did not have any appt.s for the day. Yep, just my luck. She asks me some questions and then proceeds to tell me this is a serious injury and we need to proceed directly to the ER. It just gets better by the minute around here. Luckily Zeus was about to leave work for the day so I phoned him and asked in my sweetest, most loving of voices if he would mind taking Ziggy up to the ER since I still had a whole other math assignment to start and finish by midnight. He was nice and smart and decided it was best he take Ziggy in. Zeus is such a loving husband he texted me throughout the visit keeping me up to date on each event as it occurred, and for that I am grateful. X-rays were needed to rule out a break. Which lucky for me he just happened to have that very first break I was telling you about. Yep, we are now the parents of a child with a broken bone. Lucky for me it took 10 years for that to happen. Now we are off to Children's hospital on Monday to see the Ortho to determine if the finger needs surgery, cast or some other medical treatment. It is splinted now but man, this little boy is having a hard time with it. He brushes it and screams. The pain meds are helping but with an active child with this much energy we are bound to have other issues. So tonight while he was sleeping he woke up screaming again. OH boy, Lord just give me the strength and patience. I love this little guy and I despise seeing him in this kind of pain. He never really woke completely up. twinkle just scooped him up and cuddled him while unwrapping the splint to re wrap it a little bit looser.

These days almost nothing surprises me. This baby along with his older siblings have had so many medical issues that I just about could become a nurse by experience alone. Just kidding, but you know what I mean here. Its absurd. But here we are in the middle of hockey season and Ziggy has been sidelined by the first "official" Haskins broken bone.

Happy Broken Bone Day Everyone

Haskins House Injured

Empty plate? Never

2011-03-08T22:52:00.000-06:00

I just have to laugh when I read the title, because it fits this post to a T. I am the kind of person that loves to have things to do. Fun things. When I look back at my grade school years, I remember being over scheduled as far back as my memory goes. I worked hard to do everything I could fit in. I loved being a part of so many different groups and activities.

So when I look at myself today, I am not surprised by what I see. I am a mother. But I did not stop at one. No, I had to fill my plate so I had 4. Yep, it was spilling over at that point. Same goes with my relationships. I couldn't stop at being a friend to one person, I needed to make sure I was spilling over with friends. Not to mention the activities. Sure I decided to go to college this past summer, but why not through in there, a family move, kids sports, team parent, Coach of Zeus' unit volleyball team, Ice skating student, unit key spouse (unit go to person for help and information). Today just like every other day of my life has a full plate.

I love it and I think I manage it all very well because when I start something I am going to throw everything I got at it. 100% effort goes into everything I do. The best part is I am touching others lives and sharing my love of life and helpfulness. I'm not a bible pusher but I believe in the Lord and his word. I try to pass that along in other ways to many other people in all walks of life. One big reason I love to do so many different things.

So tonight I go to bed with a plate that is dripping all over the floor and a smile on my face that the opportunities continue to arrive. My plate is never empty.
Blessings to you and yours.
Happy Haskins House.

I love my blessings, funny stuff

2011-02-25T19:55:00.000-06:00

Yesterday the babies and I were working hard to get the house in tip top shape for when Zeus returns. Everyone was doing there jobs diligently while we played a fun little cleaning game. Twinkle vs. the babies. Each chore that was complete earned that team or player, in my case a point. The team with the most points at the end of 30 minutes won. So we worked hard and very fast. I got an early lead. 8-1, Go Mommy. Then the kids figured it out if they split up and all did different jobs they could earn more points faster. That is what did it. At the end of 30 minutes, all household chores were complete and the babies beat Twinkle 39-34.

While we were working I politely asked Ziggy to go get the clothes out of the dryer. He grabbed the basket and headed for the Laundry room. No questions asked. I continued working and he seemed to be gone for quite a while. Maybe 10 minutes or so. I was beginning to wonder what was going on in there. Nevertheless, I left him alone and continued vacuuming. I turn around to hear him grunting as he is dragging the basket towards the living room. It looked painful really. He was huffing and puffing and panting and I asked, "did you get them out of the dryer". He said yes Mommy, I said thank you and off he went. I looked in the basket and sure enough the clothes were all still wet. Oh my goodness, these clothes did not come from the dryer. They came from the WASHER. OH goodness Ziggy. He must have had to climb up and down the washer grabbing clothes and putting them into the basket. No wonder it took him so long. OH poor little guy. At least he tried. But I was crying it was so funny.

I love my life.

Haskins House is soon to be complete in T-30 minutes.

Why are we here?

2011-02-10T18:06:00.000-06:00

Have you ever asked yourself this question, Why are you here? I know I have multiple times. Like years ago after becoming a stay at home mom. I was soul searching desperately to find an answer to this question. I even bought the book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I worked daily to read, study and research the questions and verses left for me in the book. After reading it I thought I knew why I was here. That was a young, underdeveloped answer.

So last night while in my lonely, puppy filled bed I got to thinking about this question again. Prayed about it and went to sleep. Then today while in the shower the funniest thing happened. That silly question came back to me. Ok, Ok, I get it. I am suppose to let everyone know the answer. I know the answer. I figured it out a while back when I was going through some difficult life changes. It hit me like a 90 mph fast ball to the head. BAM!!! Woah I thought. Seriously is that how answers are found or discovered. I guess so.

So after reading some blogs, tweets and facebook posts this week I am sure there is a reason I am writing this. So many people are struggling with this same question. I am with you, all of you. I have been there and I promise it was not an easy journey but one that was worth every mile walked.

So do you wanna know what I discovered. Ok, here you go.

Life, your life, my life are all about relationships and memories. That's it. That's all of it. Relationships and memories. To me, this may be morbid and all but it is how I see it and how the answer got my attention. One day I woke up to a vision of my own funeral. Except It was a TV split into 4 screens, you know that picture in picture thingy. Yeah, it was like Zeus watching 4 games at once. Only, Mine had my funeral in all four pictures except each one was different but they were all happening at the same time. In one box there I was laying in a coffin in a church with my children, remarried ex husband and a minister. No pictures, no friends and no smiling faces.Scary and sad all at the same time. The next box, same scenario with a few people I did not recognize again with a remarried ex husband. This is just depressing.
I was getting sick as I moved my head to see the third box. This time there were a few more people and some flowers. I could recognize a few people in this one but there were still no smiles or even any photos. And nobody seemed to know each other. By the time I got to the fourth box I thought I would hurl. I was shaking, trembling at the thought of another bitter funeral. But this one was different. Very different. The church floor was beautiful green grass. Flowers and pictures filled the stage where I laid, everywhere.It seemed to go on into the horizon, loads of photos of people laughing, eating and creating. In the church pews were hundreds of smiling faces. People hugging each other. Lots and lots of laughter as people reminisced about old times together. My husband was smiling and loving on my children. These people were wearing bright colors and the room was beaming with happiness. It was like a wedding. The people were mingling with everyone else. It was awesome. This immediately changed my view. Yes, this is it. This is what I want. This is why I am here. Its the people and the times I had with those people. From that day, or night, I have always understood that family does not have to be strictly blood relatives. It includes many people you met along your life's journey. So my answer to this difficult answer is simple. I am here to love and care for those around me wherever I am. No color, nationality, no hairstyle or song choice will exclude you. I want to be the one that you remember being kind, helpful and loving for no other reason than just because.

When I die or come to my last days on earth I want to be surrounded by people telling funny or stupid stories of things we did or said together. Remembering those fun times we had. I do not want cars, money, or jewelry to fill my room. I want the sound of laughter, the vision of glorious smiling faces and I want photos, lots and lots of photos for people to look through and talk to each other about.

Life is not simple. Well, lets just say we do not make life simple. Instead of fighting for your lane on the highway or struggling to have the bigger TV, faster car or bigger house we need to be making sure our friends, neighbors, and co-workers have what they need to get through life. Hugs! Shoulders! fellowship! Company! In the end isn't this what it is all about. Teamwork. Helping each other. Its not about money and all those other worldly things and stuff. Its people and memories.

I have determined this is what life is and means to me. My camera will be my extra brain as it captures all these loving caring moments.

I am here to love you, to care for you, to help you and to remind you that life is fun, special and above all things memorable.

People and Memories

Happy Haskins House

How cold are you?

2011-02-03T08:10:00.000-06:00

The last few weeks we have been freezing. We moved in December out of Biloxi but did not arrive here in Illinois until January. Talk about a jolt to the system. We have finally figured it out and have learned the layering system. It is quite a time getting everyone ready to go. Zeus seems to think that he can just push through the cold. Sometimes I wonder about him.

So the monster storm arrived and we got freezing rain at 10am on Monday morning. The rain, that eventually turned to ice continued until Tuesday afternoon when it turned to sleet. Then it sleeted until Tuesday late night when it then turned to snow. It snowed until Wednesday night. Well over 48 hours of precipitation. It was crazy. Thankfully our house and neighborhood has power lines buried so we will not be worried about no electricity, plus we live in the North so the grid is used to our excess use.

Anyways I do giggle when I hear my family whining and complaining about how cold it is down there. Wow, you guys have had days in the 60's in the last 2 weeks when we struggle to reach 40 for a mere day. Then after this terrible storm your kids are out 3 days and you are complaining still. Yet, by Saturday your temperatures will be back up in the mid 50's. Sometimes you should look at those around you and see what they deal with. For heavens sake a good friend of mine in Massachusetts has several feet of snow on the ground as more comes in daily and the temps are barely at freezing. Oh well, I guess you guys in the south can't handle this cold.

Enough about my lack of sympathy for the south. Here is a few fun pictures from our enjoyable storm here in Illinois. I love weather so this storm has been absolutely amazing to me. I have watched out the window every few minutes to see and notice the change. I enjoy these swings in the weather. It is so awesome.

I hope everyone stays warm and continues to enjoy what winter brings us. Oh and remember this day when you are complaining because its too dang hot. I'm just sayin.

Haskins House lovin Winter

Lost Dog

2011-01-21T15:40:00.000-06:00

Oh puppy!

On Sunday my daughter was a sweet girl and let the dogs out to go potty. A few minutes later she let Momma dog in but Puppy dog was not ready yet. We were really busy organizing rooms, closets and hanging pictures and shelves so she forgot about the puppy. A little while later we were in the boys room and the puppy was not in there with all 6 of us. She is always with someone. So I asked if someone had let her out. Zero immediately fessed up and ran to the back door. No puppy. She was not in the back yard. So she got her warm stuff on and walked around the street and open areas outside. Puppy was nowhere to be found. I was so upset. Zeus and I stopped what we were doing and developed a plan. I called the 2 neighbors that I know and asked if they had seen her and nope, nobody had seen her. So I drove around calling her name and did not find her. I was angry. I tried not to take it out on anyone but darn it my new puppy, which I got for my birthday was GONE.

She had not been to the vet on base yet, long story, so she did not yet have her microchip. I was sad. We have only been here 10 days so she is not real comfortable with the area either. Anyways we walked door to door asking everyone to keep an eye out. We called the Security Forces putting a notice that we lost a dog.

Zeus was very supportive and went out in the cold and begin staking in the Garden fencing we purchased to keep her in the yard since she is small enough to slide her way underneath the fence in multiple areas. He spent a couple hours pounding in the fencing until the entire yard was complete. It was great.

Then he came in and made a few signs for me to go post on mailboxes and housing entrances. I knew in my heart that someone had taken her. I was very sad. So after several hours of no puppy I went to post all my signs in hopes that someone would return her before the coyotes came out. We live in the middle of corn fields and farms, there are Owls, Hawks and Coyotes, all of which would love a little puppy. So off I go in the freezing cold temperatures. I get to the first mailbox to post the sign and this lady gets out of her car in her driveway and explains that she was house sitting a neighbors house. She asks If I was missing a puppy and I said sadly yes. She said that she had found her early that morning and had picked her up. She spent the day with my puppy. She had even renamed her "Lily". I was heartbroken when she said they were hoping to keep her since she is the most precious pup. I was thrown because I did not know whether to thank her or yell at her. Anyways, she handed over MY puppy. I was thrilled. I couldn't put her down for hours. She was a hip puppy the rest of the day. I was not letting her out of my sight.

I am so thankful for the two neighbors that were willing to walk the neighborhood looking for her with us. They were so sweet. She has since been to the vet, got her chip and can not get out of the yard. We might have to watch real closely though.

Happy ending, I have my puppy back!!!!

Happy Haskins House!!!

How do you let it go?

2011-01-12T16:12:00.000-06:00

Today as I was folding clothes in my quiet house while my puppies and child were sleeping I got to thinking. There is a person who shall remain nameless in my past that I just can not get out of my head. So here's the deal, I know God and for some reason I think he is trying to tell me something. Yet I can not put my finger on it. So I thought if I wrote this down and stopped keeping it in my head that maybe something will come of it. If not, oh well, at least it is no longer locked up.

A while ago, like a year and a half ago I had this friend. She was by all means my best friend. When I first met her, I thought she was quite rude. Its funny really. Over the course of meeting and getting to know each other she grew on me. We hung out all the time. We ate dinner together. She spent lots of time with my family. She went places with me. She leaned on me with issues and questions as I did with her. I helped her with her child. We called to check on each other almost daily. Most people knew we were buddies. We went most places together and I really liked it. She was different from my other friends and that is what made her so special to me. However I went through a rough patch, even opened up to some really negative things to her and in that instant she was gone. I trusted her and I opened up my vulnerability and insecurities to her and the second I did, it was over. Strange. Still to this day I think about her, her family and her silly husband and dogs. I miss having her around. I miss her hilarious laugh. I miss her husband picking on me. I miss his love of my dog. I miss her precious child. I do not know today what went wrong. I can not believe it was over that fast. I am hurt. I am sad. I have not learned how to dump this past in the garbage yet. For some odd reason I don't want to. I felt I had a relationship with her that couldn't be touched you know, kinda like the Titanic that would never sink. So I have some questions to ask you?

Have you ever had a friendship that went south and not had the chance to clear it up? or say goodbye?
Have you ever had a friend wash their hands of you and walk away without a blink of an eye?

I have been burned before by friends and even by boyfriends but I never let it stop me and it never stayed so fresh in my mind. I mean I did not seem to let if affect me like this. Its weird. I can still smell her house when I think about it. Maybe because I only went in it 2 times. Odd, oh yea. I have to shake my head sometimes just to check and make sure I'm still in reality. I know she's gone on and made new friends and became best buds with a mutual friend but I don't know.

Something that bothers me is that she still interacts with my husband online. Not as often as she had in the past but I know she is still facebook friends with him. Honestly If you didn't want to be a part of someones life wouldn't you choose to separate yourself from the entire family. I mean, I don't know I have never had this issue before. Help me out here. So I guess inside, my gut, I feel she didn't want to walk away, something still has her holding on if only by the string of my husband, she didn't completely let go.

If you have dealt with something like this before what do you suggest I do to let her go? contact her? apologize? If I were to apologize what would be the basis? Is writing a letter worth it?

From your experience how do you move on and get those smells, feelings and images out of your head? Or do I want to?
Should I do something about it? I live hundreds of miles away now and have moved 2 times but I can't forget her and I'm not sure I want to. I guess I'm just in need of closure of some sorts.

Do I sound crazy? If so its OK to let me know. I'm just in need of some outside views. I have asked other friends and family and I know what they think, most of them knew her that's why I thought I'd start here on my blog.

I love people. I love having lots of friends and being a part of lots of groups. I love having LOTS of people around and in my home. Losing this person made me feel like I lost a sibling.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.
Hello, from cold, cold Illinois!!!
Haskins House

30 Days later.....

2011-01-08T07:41:00.003-06:00

It all started 30 days ago when the movers showed up to pack up our house in Biloxi, MS.

We began our PCS, Permanent chang of station, from MS to IL.

We said goodbye to our house and friends

We drove 2 days to arrive in St. Louis just a few miles to our new home.

We signed to papers and left mere hours after arriving.

We traveled some more and enjoyed a few hotel stays and cringed at others.

We stopped and visited a dear family friend and celebrated 2 family birthdays

We drove through the snowy mountains

We arrived in Washington to celebrate the holidays with our family while we waited on our house to get move in ready

Zeus and I had a date to a play

Cousins met for the first time

We attended Christmas eve service

The kids rode Grandpa's horses

Grandpa took us to the Kangaroo farm in Washington

We celebrated our 11th Anniversary to Orcas Island to our first Bed and Breakfast

Then we drove through treachous roads over 8 states back east to move in

We dealt with minor issues along the way, like sand covered lights and dangling, loose taillight and mega amounts of ice and snow

We arrived in Illinois and signed for our house

And Now 30 days later we are over halfway done unpacking thanks to 5 new friends and co-workers for coming over and helping unpack and sort. What a blessing people are to us.

Kids are in school, internet is up, kitchen is put together, satellite is set up, phone is working, address is changed and we are officially residents of Illinois. We will love our new home.

Happy Birthday

2010-12-26T00:29:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Jesus

Today is Christmas otherwise known as the birth of Jesus, that day we call a birthday.
My children were excited about today as usual however this year was different.
We are currently in between houses, PCS, a military move, so we are spending some time with Zeus' family in Washington. The kids are not in their normal mode. Its odd but very fun to see the gears turning in their little heads. Zeus' mom is what I call a Bake-a-holic. She loves to bake and can be seen in her kitchen most hours of the day. So while, Nana, was baking this week Omega insisted they make cupcakes for Jesus. In our family as you know, you can not have a birthday without a cake. A cake is a must. No if, ands or buts. So he remembered that and down right insisted the cake or cakes be made. So all the grand kids help Nana, make and frost the birthday cup cakes.

After dinner we sang Jesus Happy Birthday as Omega insisted. Then we attempted to eat the cupcakes, but Omega had a fit because the top one was to be left for Jesus. One of his cousins, K, said he wasn't coming. Then he says yes he is, he is always here. There's no arguing with that, however he did not understand that the human Jesus would not be attending our birthday celebration for him. He really was upset that we were not planning to save to top cupcake. It was amazing to see the seriousness in which he took Jesus' birthday. He was all for Jesus. It was so stinkin cute but made me realize they are starting to understand what Dec. 25th is really all about. That made me proud and excited that I am and have been able to share the love of Jesus and real reason for the season with my children.

Merry Christmas to all and may your families experience the love of Jesus today and everyday.

Happy Birthday Jesus, we love you!!!

The Traveling Haskins House (soon to be St.Louis Haskins)

God is Good

2010-11-15T13:21:00.000-06:00

I am stunned, amazed and extremely grateful with Gods timing of things. Just when I needed it someone, who knows who she is, stepped in and made my day. Actually she made my month, my season, my year. She listened to God and his timing and absolutely stepped in at EXACTLY the right time.
Blessings to this beautiful, wonderful and special lady for answering the questions I most needed answered. I am not sure how things like this happen but I believe God has the absolute perfect timing.

I am a grateful woman today knowing that I am loved by the one and only father that will never leave me behind. Everywhere I move, every time I cry, every place I build and every season I experience he is with me every single step of the way. Sometimes I forget that he is still there, because I am wallowing in my own sorrow or relishing in my own pride, but that is when I need him the most.

This week I was reminded that he is still here. He is still listening and he will not abandon me.

What an awesome feeling! I am thankful today.

Blessings from the HaskinsHouse

Time is flying, and My brain is just sitting.

2010-11-10T09:51:00.000-06:00

Today as I look at the calendar and realize that my family is 30 days from completely relocating. I am stressed beyond belief. Zeus and I fill like we are handcuffed through this though. We have not received our official military orders yet nor have we received an official RIP, which is normally what is your first notification of an assignment. We are pleased to see that vMPF finally has our assignment loaded, so this is a step in the right direction. However, most bases and base organizations will not help you until you have one of these two pieces of paper. So we are kinda flying by the seat of our pants if you will. I have been overly friendly to the incoming housing office so that we get and stay on the housing list. I have been able to check off 3 things from our PCS list. I have procured hotels on both sides of the move with flexible dates. I have also gotten the babies seen at the dentist so that they can move into a new school system. And Zeus has completely dismantled the swing/play set. So we are making progress just not enough and definitely not fast enough for me.

But there are numerous other things on our list that are at a stand still and it is *killing* me. I do not like procrastination. It is one of my biggest peeves. I like to be ahead of the curve, and ahead of everyone around me. I can not stand being last. I can not help it. I am the mom who buys Halloween costumes in August and September. I have to be ahead of the pack. So when something is holding me us back, it drives me bonkers.

I grew up with a band director that said " to be early is to be on-time, to be on time is to be late." That stuck with me to this day and that is how I run my life and my family. So when I see 30 days left and I do not see a truck scheduled to pick up our stuff, or a housing appt to give back the keys, or out-processing going on I begin to panic.

Now, I have to deal with when are we ACTUALLY going to leave this place? What state will my birthday boys be celebrating their 9th and 5th birthdays? Will we have a house by Christmas? If not where will we celebrate Christmas? Will my children be heartbroken when they realize Christmas will be very different this year? I am nervous for the kids sake.

What I do know is that we are leaving here in 10 days for a much needed visit with my Texas family. The kids and I will be in Texas for a whole week. Zeus will be joining us mid-way through to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, which hasn't happened in WAY too many years. I am looking forward to this for a bit of re-fueling, preparing me and my family for a very chaotic holiday season.

This will pass and we WILL get through this like we always do. I am very excited for the new scenery, new state, new life, for my husbands first chance to lead as an Officer and for a new chance to make some friends.

Blessings to all as you begin your holiday shopping and family traditions.
Haskins House

Guilty as charged

2010-10-26T12:35:00.000-05:00

Today As I was driving my son to school and dropping the other two boys off at the turnstile, thoughts of our future came pouring in. They were not necessarily happy thoughts either. I am a mom, first and foremost and I need to provide the best for my kids. However, being a military family makes that just a little more difficult than your average mom.

In just a few short weeks my family will be on the move once again. This will be our 3rd state, 3rd house, and the kids 3rd school in one single calendar year. Yep, you read that right. In one years time we will have lived in 3 separate locations. So when I get to thinking about schools I start to feel myself panicking on the inside. My children are resilient, I know this. My children are exceptionally intelligent, I know this too. But what I don't know scares me.

You know, how will they be accepted in their new school? Will they be able to make as good of friends as they have here and D.C.? Will they be behind in school or certain subjects like when we arrived here? Is this fair to my children? Will they be mad at me in 10 years time when they are teenagers near or past high school graduation? All of this questions are running rampant in my little head today. I am not sure how to deal with them.

Last night we were sitting at the dinner table talking about all the countries Zeus has visited throughout his military career. It was rather amazing. But then we started talking about our roots. Like that question people ask you regularly, Where are you from? Omega asked mom, what do I tell them? Where am I from Mommy? My heart immediately sank and felt like it shattered into a million pieces on the dinner table. I felt terrible for him. I felt like a failure in that mere instant. What have we done to this beautiful precious babies? I gained my composure and told him of the story of the military child, also known as the military brat. The child that does not call any specific city or state home. The child that has friends in just about every state you can name. The child that knows more about Muslim countries and foreign lands than most adults. That child that depends on his or her parents for safety. That child who makes friends faster than you can unpack boxes.

I had to remind myself that these type of children are special, unique and well loved. My husband nor I were military brats. We did not understand military life until be became airmen ourselves. So neither of us understand even remotely what our own children might be feeling or experiencing. It is scary and sad all at the same time. Through all the preparations and planning for our move in 6 wks, I feel guilty. Guilty for the babies in not having a "home". Guilty for not being able to see their best friends often. Guilty for not being able to continue schooling in one system. Guilty for riping their hearts out every time we move. Guilty for all the nots that are out of my control. Guilty that they must suffer. Guilty that they do not know their extended family.

That's me Guilty as Charged.

The Lost Housewives

2010-10-21T15:56:00.000-05:00

Today I was down and out for the second day in a row from some ridiculous stomach bug. Nevertheless I have lost 3 pounds from all the upchucking. However, I am feeling much better at this point. While I was sick I turned on the daytime television. Bad idea. After watching a show I actually cared about these weird shows came on, they were all called The Housewives of OC, DC, New Jersey and Atlanta. The shows are ridiculous. Do we really need to show what 40 yr old women do and how much money they have. Come on now.

Why are we not showing the Housewives of Fort Hood, Bolling AFB, Quantico? Why do we not have shows that show the pure heart of this country. These are the people that need the money of the show more than all those millionaires. I am very disturbed by these shows and what they are doing. What is the point? You are rewarding all the cattiness and rude, stuck-up behavior. Why are you not showing the struggling single mom who works two jobs to pay the bills and lives on sandwiches to get by? There is so much drama and attention surrounding these shows and I can't understand why someone hasn't thought of going into the "REAL" America and try to portray the lives of those that just recently lost jobs, those returning from war, those struggling from other issues. Middle America needs more attention and more money.

I do not know about you but I am fed up with these shows and I only saw one episode of each of them.

Too bad producers have decided to put this garbage on TV.

ITS OFFICIAL

2010-10-13T09:31:00.000-05:00

Well Bloggy buddies, UCT's first official drop night has come and gone and we have been drafted for our new base. It was quite the nerve wracking evening, I'll say. The draft order was random, or so they say. We came in at pick Number 6. After playing a short video/slide show of the location and job you are held in suspense for a few.

We were chosen for Scott AFB, IL into the AFNIC.

This is going to be a fantastic job for my husband, Zeus. This job was on our dream sheet. So for that we are thankful.

The children's reaction was quite depressing. The oldest two cried, they tried to keep it together but just couldn't. Zulu was excited and Ziggy he was just sad because Zero and Omega were sad. Once we left and were able to get home, well actually at the Mexican restaurant we were able to show the kids on the map where it is and all the things the surrounding area has to offer. Zeus threw in there all the sports teams and he had Zulu hooked. It took a little more with Zero and Omega, but we have officially won them over.

Most people do not understand what moving does to a family. It sounds simple. Its not. If adults have fear, nervousness, feelings of overwhelmingness then children will suffer those same feelings but will be multiplied. For our children, we have to move them from their friends, their sports teams, their school, their house and all those things that make them feel comfortable and secure. So when a military family has to move, it is not just the military member that is affected. It is the ENTIRE family.

Let the fun, stress and planning begin. SCOTT AFB here come the Haskins

What are Octobers for?

2010-10-07T09:35:00.000-05:00

Today is October 7, 2010.

Today is my Daddy's birthday. I sure hope you have a great day Dad. We love you and miss you.

What does October bring to your family?

For us it starts with cool, crisp air. How wonderful to have beautiful colors and the sweet smell of the ocean breeze.

This October is very different from those in the past. Tomorrow night, yes it is already here, we are going to a military event called Drop Night. A celebration and presentation geared toward pilots but modified for the *new* Cyber Officers, to receive notification of their upcoming base assignment. It is very nerve wracking. We had to put in a list of 5 bases or geographical locations and 3 job listings. A group of instructors and chain of command got together Tuesday night to decide each of the 15 class members next duty location. It is rather scary. So tomorrow is the day however good or bad it is, we will finally be able to start planning for the move that is now 61 days away.

Then we will have a little time to relax.

We get to work in a 7th birthday party for my dear Zulu who is overly excited.

Then I get to be a real life babysitting Auntie for a week. My brother who leaves for the U.S. Army in 90 days is taking his wife on a short but fun vacation and they have chosen me to watch the baby. I am ridiculously excited about spending time with such a sweet little girl, for a whole week. Watch out J & S, Auntie is gonna spoil her rotten and she will get mega playtime with cousins. Woo hooooo!!!

Then there's Halloween. Awwwww, what a fun time that always is. We always choose a theme to go by each year. The theme can not be scary, wicked or perverse. It has to be fun and happy. The theme was chosen in the Spring and I purchased all the costumes online in late August and September so I beat the rush and did not have to panic with last minute changes if one of my costumes was not available. What about your family and Halloween? Will you celebrate the good things that come with Halloween? We do. Remember last year? We brought home 28 pounds of candy. Yes, that is for real. Lets go for 30 pounds this year. I'm totally kidding. 2 pounds would be good enough for us anyways.

During the month we are going to be very busy planning for the move and securing all those things required to move a big military family. You know get hotels lined up on both sides of the move. Research schools. Sort through our stuff and get rid of a few things. Organize the house. Get on a housing list. Get a TMO (movers) date scheduled. And this list goes on and on, those of you military will understand the stress, excitement and shear madness that goes along with PCSing and during the holidays at that.

Welcome October. Welcome Fall weather. Welcome school pictures. Welcome pregnancies galore. Welcome base assignments. Welcome family birthdays. Welcome Halloween. Welcome Fall festivals. Welcome to all the fun, happy and exciting things October brings to our family.

Blessings
Haskins House

Its a beautiful day in the Neighborhood

2010-09-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

What do all these have in common?

Tell me what you think!

~KY Jelly under car door handle
~Golf Balls in the Grill
~Newspaper covered windshield
~Zip tied steering wheel to door
~ 3 foot dinosaur on a porch multiple times
~Zip tied trash can to the fence
~Rubber banded sink sprayer
~Trash bags thrown over fences at midnight
~Golf balls in truck beds
~Golf balls on windshields
~Golf balls in planters
~Scarecrows in front windows

Did you figure it out?

If you guessed practical jokes then you guessed correctly. But all these practical jokes have happened on our street over the past few months. My husband is normally the instigator and often the perpetrator as well. But when he pulls something we are always expecting someone to "get us back". Thankfully, the neighbors have not figured out what I'm afraid of or How to catch me off guard. So, I'll just let em keep getting Zeus. It is always fun to see what happened overnight. What a fun way to show your love and care for someone. It just lets you know you are thought of and remembered!

What a fun neighborhood to live in! Today is a beautiful day to live in Bay Ridge Housing.

Blessings,
Haskins House

Disgusting

2010-09-20T21:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so today has really got me flustered with people, in general.

What in the world makes one think it is ok to just shoot someone?

I mean really. Did we lose the critical thinking in our education along the way?

Did we become so self absorbed that it doesn't matter what the consequences are for us or anyone else?

Come on Now!!!!! I am completely infuriated with those out there that think that is their right. Have they lost their minds? What is going on with Americans today? Did we lose an entire generation when "spankings" were banned and duel working parents became the norm? I'm not really sure what the real answer is here but I am sure tired of knowing that in the past year there has been 2 military base shootings with multiple injuries and deaths, dozens of workplace shootings and too many school gun run-ins. I am sure open for ideas here.

We as parents have got to start teaching our children how to deal with anger. We need to help them understand we are not always going to win and when we lose it is ok to hurt someone else. Teaching our children patience is a good first step. Humility is another thing we need. Heck why stop there, teach those babies that there are more important things in life than winning. They need to learn to love each other and help each other. Parents, to me is a good starting point. From there I am not sure what to do.

But I know I feel like those people that feel like owning a gun is a God given right, better think of the consequences. Make sure you lock that sucker up so that it is only used for your self DEFENSIVE. I am beginning to wonder if we have lost the real meaning of self-defense, in the first place. SO WHAT, you own a gun or bought a gun, that does not make you any more special than the person next to you. UGGGGGGG, I am beyond frustrated and can not believe that the Fort Bliss shooting today was on the back burner and hardly anyone I talked to had heard about it. But we all knew Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton were due in court.

Pray for America. Pray for our troops who are required to use the gun in battle. Pray for those lost along the way that patience and tolerance will get them before it is too late. Pray that more and more parents will make an impression in their children's minds to talk things out without physical violence. Pray for those family members of all those innocent lives lost. Pray for the soldiers of Fort Hood and Fort Bliss. Pray that America will stand together and help each other through life.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Its nice to help

2010-09-17T23:29:00.000-05:00

Lately things have been a little Chaotic at the Haskins House. Well, really when is it not hectic.

1. Zeus going through Technical School in which he is the first class and is dealing with misinformation, flaws and many setbacks and ridiculously confusing schedule
2. Twinkle in 2 college courses which are kicking her butt, Writing course and a Thinking course, can we say yuck. The homework here is absurd.
3. All three big kids in school with loads of homework daily.
4. Ziggy in school half a day requiring Twinkle to keep a tight schedule.
5. Stressing about and trying to make sure we turn in our "dream sheet" so that we set our selves up for a good move in less than 90 days.
6. Trying to maintain relationships while being hundreds and sometimes 1000's of miles away is unbelievably hard
7. Potty training new Puddin pup is not the funnest new job of our lives
8. Stressing over housework and meal planning and trying to get us healthy while quick at the same time
9. Health issue that does not want to go away and struggling to keep appts

10...... We have decided to put ourselves out there yet again and step up and help a very needy family while they go through a terribly traumatic situation. We have done this before and been burned ever so badly. This time we are taking a different approach. We have a sweet, beautiful 5th grade girl staying with us until her family gets to a place where she can return home. We love it. I think she loves it. I know my kids love it. But it can be a little scary making sure we make the right decisions for her and us and that me make her feel as if she was one of the kids. I think we have done that but it is tough to say. Anyways, she is wonderful to have around and I could not have asked for a better person to come stay with us. It will be hard to let her go.

So in the end we are thankful that God has put us in her life and hers in ours. We are grateful to help and honestly Zeus and I love to help others as best we know how, however minor they might be.So this was just second nature and did not require a second thought. This is what makes us a military community. Helping others is something we hope others would and will do in the future.

Another day, another night here in the Haskins House.
Blessings

Surprise, you're on Twinkles camera!

2010-08-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

Yep yep yep, I am a happy girl. Not only did Zeus throw the best surprise party ever on Thursday night. He purchased the camera I have been waiting for all these months and years.

I loved and cherished my trusty ole Sony DSC but it was outdated and would not allow for me to change the lens out for more Professional quality photos. It is a charming little camera that has taken literally thousands of photos and been through wind, rain, sand, snow and lots of drops on the floor. But it was time to upgrade.

Zeus was sure to push me off for a few more years and I had convinced myself I could manage a little while longer. But deep down I wanted a new camera to push me a little more in the photo world. I have been super envious of some many and their new cameras but I was patient.

Well Zeus delivered in the best way. During the surprise party he had enlisted a classmate who was good with camera's and really liked photography. Zeus bought the camera and took it and all its contents to his classmate, A, to put together. A was kind enough to take a few initial photos at the party. I was a little jealous of A's cool camera. He asked if I wanted to see it and of course, I jumped at the opportunity. He said I could have it. I was like what? He said yeah you can have it cause its not mine. OK, then whose is it if its not yours. He said why yours of course. I was definitely confused but he and Zeus assured me that this indeed was my very own camera. I was beside myself. I even did an embarrassing happy dance in the middle of the kitchen while 40 other people looked at me like a crazy woman. I did not care, I had my new camera in my little hands and I couldn't have been any happier.

From then on I was on a mission and that was to capture all those amazing, special people that came out to wish me a happy birthday. I think I managed to get just about everyone. There was a few little ones I did not capture. Never the less, I am now the happy owner of the wonderful, incredible Canon 2Ti. Oh Yeah, it is ROCKIN.

Amazing little camera for this simple little stay at home momma.

Its been a decade already

2010-08-12T12:53:00.000-05:00

I'm a little numb thinking that my first child has reached the benchmark of 10. Has that ever scared any of you? Thinking that your first child hit such a huge milestone. Zeus and I are sad to think she is past the halfway point of moving out. YIKES.

We enjoyed a fun American Girl birthday last week celebrating her milestone. Many of her friends came over to partake in the crafting and eating. They made purses, flowers and headbands. What fun was had by all.

Zero was very involved and very proud of her ideas and accomplishments.She was very excited to be the shining star for the day.

For her we hope that she continues to grow and mature and become the best writer she can. There is nothing she can not do and I will move mountains so that her dreams and goals are met.

Daddy loves her too, wink wink

Zero, Daddy and I love you and are so proud of the person you are today. Respectful, helpful, intelligent, crafty and loving. These qualities will take you great places in life.We enjoyed spending the day with you and your friends

Happy Birthday Miss Picky Pants( aka Zero)

UPDATE on LIVING CONDITIONS

2010-08-06T13:02:00.001-05:00

So here's an Update on a previous post on our not so NICE house.

Remember mold was discovered in the laundry room about 4 weeks ago. Yep, you see that number correctly. 4 weeks and counting now

For 4 long weeks now I have had housing maintenance in and out of my house almost daily. Doesn't sound to bad until you take into account that I am required to be here EVERY time they are here and for the duration of their visit. Talk about getting tired of being housebound. Add in the fact that the kids go to school next week, the temperature and heat index have been over 110 and you have a recipe for insanity.

Since the last time we talked the workers have decided to go ahead and cut a bigger hole in my laundry room. Pretty much the WHOLE ceiling is gone now. Its been like this for about 1 week now.

If that wasn't bad enough, there is now lots of drywall dust all over this laundry room. After this the workers thought it would be good to put plastic up to seal the ceiling up. Just as a temporary measure so it was not actively dripping all over everything. Good idea, NOT. After being up a few hours this is what happened due to the weight of the water it was keeping out.

The water was too heavy and caused it to fall spilling water all over this room. It was not a fun thing to find when I needed to try to do some laundry. If you know my family you know that I have to do over 20 loads of laundry a week to keep up and not drown in dirty clothes. I am unable to keep up with this construction zone of a laundry room.

The same day the workers still had not found the root cause of our moldy, leaky ceilings. I noticed mold in more than 7 rooms of our house by this day. Workers decided that they needed to go upstairs and cut a hole in our boys room to get some duct work there and seal it off as well. This meant that another hole was going to have to be cut. Only this time it was floor to ceiling on the wall, not the actual ceiling. Here's the result.

Lovely eh?

I'm really not to thrilled with how this is turning out. Can you blame me? Construction workers everyday? First sergeant threats? Housebound? Dirty, drywall dusty floors? Uunusable laundry rooms? Cluttered dining room? Nasty gnats on the moldy ceiling breeding who knows how fast?

It doesn't seem to be getting any better and actually it is getting worse. The kids noticed this morning that the AC vent in the living room has started to drip small water droplets. REALLY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

One worker came yesterday to replace the insulation surrounding the main duct work in the laundry room. The other workers sent him back out this morning to repeat what he did yesterday. Seems so strange to me. Housing doesn't seem to care or want to come see what I am living with daily. Not one single inspector or housing rep has been here to check on the progress of this or my satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the work being done.

Pray that this will get resolved soon. Pray for more patience for me. Pray that we will not have to move again before we move later this year. Pray that the mold does not make anyone sick. Keep our family in your thoughts this week please.

My Runaway

2010-07-26T16:38:00.000-05:00

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Today was a day that I never wanted to see come. I experienced days like this as a child and never thought that as a mom I would see them come. A shock to me for sure.

I do my best to be the best mom and to make the best decisions for my babies. I really do. So today was really no different. I had decided to try a new method of consequences that had not been attempted in our family thus far.

Zulu was busted, by me, for whacking his older brother across the face and the side of the head with a toy. Omega was in major pain and really upset. I called Zulu down, after repairing and consoling the injured, and made him stand at attention. You military know what I'm talking about. You know, feet together, hands fisted, thumbs touching the thigh, shoulders straight, head straight, still and quiet. Yeah, that attention. While I calmly discussed what had just happened. I demanded, very politely, that he answer with a yes ma'am or no ma'am. He did as I requested but as I was talking to him I could see the anger building in his face and eyes. He started clinching those teeth and glaring the evil eye and turning red all at the same time. I amazingly, remained calm and collective, which is rare for me. I had this extreme feeling of peace. When I started asking deeper questions to Zulu about the situation, the consequences and what would happen if this were to occur to another person or at other places he just went off. It was like a freaking bomb. BOOM!!! Zulu was crying and had this deep, deep voice I had never heard before. I was a little frightened but he remained at attention and this gave me hope. He said I was mean. I was the meanest mom in the world. He said that he did not like me any more. He said that he just wanted to runaway.

Of course, my stomach jumped into my throat. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. I never thought it would happen. I gathered myself with tears running down my cheeks and calmly and quietly mentioned to him the things I do and provide for him. I asked if anyone else would do that and he said no. That got him to thinking. I told him how much I missed him while he was away and that I would miss him even more not knowing where he was or if he was OK. We were both crying by this time, but he was still at attention. I told him how much I loved him and how God had given him to me to raise and teach life's miserable lessons. I shared with him that I was responsible for preparing him for life as an adult. He continued to stream the tears. He was mad and I could see it eating him alive. I told him we do not hit. End of story. We solve our problems with words but never through physical violence. I do not want him to be physical. Zeus and I talk things through and these babies will know how to do that when they leave my guidance filled house for the real, adult world.

So after a good jumping on the trampoline to release his anger he came back in and climbed into my arms like a sweet baby.We cuddled and hugged and I told him and showed him how much I love him and need him here with me. I told him it is not time for him to leave yet. When it is time I will help him pack and move on to new places.

I was glad God was with me during this turn of events. He gave me strength, wisdom,and peace to get through a very scary point.I am grateful to have him with me because if I was alone it would not have been such a happy ending. Glory be to God that my child will be here just one more day.

Blessings,
Gotta love the misadventures of the Haskins House

Racism, a class I'm taking

2010-07-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

Over the past 3 1/2 weeks I have been taking a class on Racism and ethnicity. I pictured this class to be absolutely miserable before I started. I hate the topic of racism. I hate the fact that people flip, twist and tangle your words to get something negative out of it. It's all just, well, stupid if you ask me. But the school says I'm required to take it so here I am taking this course. And actually learning something from it

This week we are focusing mainly on slavery and African American history in America. Which is fine, we all should study our history. It teaches us about how to change the future. But a few interesting things have come up, well, not necessarily come up, I mean I have just come across. They are out there for all to know. I just never read about them until this week.

We were asked an interesting question. How would you feel if the descendants of slaves were given a annual government stipend? Meaning a federal payment for their troubles.

This struck me as a very odd thing. My answer is no. Now let me explain why. Slavery was abolished more than 150 years ago. Today there are not any slaves alive. There have been several generations since then. I do not understand paying a family that never saw it, lived it or even understands it fully. I do understand that we all need to be aware of it so that it doesn't happen again. But I also think if you try to create these payments there are many others that should get some monetary payments as well. The Japanese descendants that were put into camps during the war, the German descendants that were interned, the Native American descendants that were robbed of land and moved and this list goes on and on. We need not to try to pay them off. We need to all join together.

I watched a YouTube video of Morgan Freeman yesterday that really impressed me. He was doing an interview with someone, I didn't recognize the dude, who was questioning him about his African American history. I was pleasantly surprised that Morgan Freeman does not like Black history month. Nor does he want to be called a Black man.

/Like myself I feel having a month set aside singles out that race. Maybe not intentionally, but it does. We do not celebrate Japanese history, German history, Dutch history, Native American history as a specified month. So why do we celebrate Black history so prominently? Why don't we just add that into our schools as part of American history. Because it is American history, like Morgan says. When a white child comes home from school during the month of Feb. and asks why doesn't he have a month, please tell me how to explain that to my child who is a descendant of Native Americans and Germans, who both suffered as well. I think if we all stop talking about someone being racist the issue will go away, in time. Lets stop trying to find the negative in someones words. We need to support each other. We need to love each other. Forget about the petty stuff. Please quit trying to break someone else down or get them fired. We all misspeak!!!

Most people are not racist and don't want to be and try not to be. But if you continue to throw things in their faces and belittle them and talk down to them they really are not going to like you even if you were blue. That's not racist it's a fact, they don't like you, no matter your hair color, skin color or eye color. There are so many races and ethnicity's in America, lets celebrate them all. Lets be Proud to be Americans. Be supportive of our Constitution. Love our Freedoms. Learn to speak English. Be willing to help each other. Be Proud of the American Flag. Celebrate the fact that you choose your own path.

I hope that many will read this and understand that the more we talk about racism the more it will grow. If we take the power away then it can not harm us any longer. This will take many years and it needs everyones support. We have made huge progress and have much more to make. Come on America, join together, and lets live a happy AMERICAN life.

I hope you will take this as my attempt at challenging others to think positive about our future for the children's sake. This is in no way meant to be a negative or hurtful commentary. Just my thoughts.

Blessings
Come back soon to the Haskins House for more on own lives.

it all gets wierd

2010-07-15T19:45:00.000-05:00

So this week is just that, weird. My 3 oldest babies left on Sunday morning headed for Texas. I proceeded to spend the day mostly in tears missing all my little hugs and kisses and silly conversations. I miss my little helpers and all the noise. I do still have my baby here and that has been nice. He is such a cuddle bug. It is super sweet. I also had to spend several hours working on another paper for school. Yes, I am attempting to go back to school.

Monday I slipped in the laundry room trying to turn off the water outside and noticed mold all over the ceiling.

Disgusting but it definitely made Zeus and I very curious. We started checking bathrooms and other rooms in the house looking for anything that might look suspicious. We found a 4 ft by 3 ft spot of ceiling mold in the garage. Then we found bubbling and discoloration of the ceiling in the kitchen. Ridiculous. Now, remember this house is only 6 months old. Brand new construction. I'm thinking the houses built in the 60's and 70's were built much for efficiently.

So yesterday Zeus and I were not getting along at all. I worked so hard to get my homework finished before he got home from school, so we could spend some time together without interruptions.Yea, that did not happen. It was all down hill from there.

Today all the maintenance workers were in and out of the house from 9 am til 2:30pm. More than 6 different people trying to find out why our ceiling was wet, moldy and dripping. After cutting through the wettest spot and buckets of water pouring on the floor, the workers managed to find the reason we have mold in 4 rooms. Zeus and I assumed the bathroom plumbing was leaking but much to our surprised the duct work was condensating causing massive amounts of sitting water. The main cause eluded the workers for a while until the 5th worker arrived, an HVAC contractor that immediately found the problem. When hurriedly building this house the builders managed to forget to enclose the attic allowing a large section open to the heat and cold outdoor temps and air. This hot air when coupled with cold water pipes created condensation which has over time starting rotting wood and destroying sheet rock ceilings. Workers had to cut an attic access in the garage which was suppose to be done when building, and get up in the attic and enclose the open area. Main problem is fixed. We are still left with a hole in the ceiling in the laundry room, brown ceiling spots, moldy ceilings and a duct dripping into my laundry room floor.

Workers are "hoping" that the ceiling and duct will dry by Monday so that all the repair work can be done.

Now doesn't that sound like a lot of fun.

During the day today I managed to have 4 other children here since a wife of one of Zeus classmates had some medical issues and needed a sitter. I was glad to watch them while I worked on yet another paper. Boy these papers are getting mighty old and I'm only done with 2 1/2 weeks of 3 years. WOW, this is going to really be old by week 100. The kids were very well behaved.

Tell me this, why in the world would you build a house that does not meet any state code or regulations. Why would you expect a poorly built house to last very long. The housing office here on base has a 2 year warranty on all these units but after that they are going to be financially responsible for the costs of all this damage. I should warn them now that they are in for a HUGE surprise. The upkeep on these homes is going to be astronomical. Now, don't get me wrong, I love having such a large home that is comfy and cozy and new but I am so thankful I do not have to pay the mortgage. And so thankful this is not a long assignment.

Overall it has been a very interesting week.

Freedom

2010-07-06T15:41:00.000-05:00

What does July 4th mean to you?

Does it mean party, boating, grilling and hanging out?

Or does it dig a little deeper to the real and true meaning of having a holiday weekend.

Well to me July 4th is huge. I am an Air Force vet and I am married to an active duty officer. So when July 4th rolls around I get goose bumps. It is a day to be grateful and thankful. I appreciate the true sacrifice of those families who have lost a military loved one. I feel that we as Americans do not pay tribute or honor those sacrifices like we should. Its not always about money though either. Its about helping those widows or widowers raise those children, love those children and help them by getting a break from all the stress of daily life.

July 4th is about appreciating those active duty military TODAY. Say thank you once in a while. It makes a huge difference. Stop and put your hand over your heart and stand still when you hear the National anthem played. Respect our nations flag. Understand the hardships of all those families that have a family member away whether it be in Iraq or 3 states away in Alabama. Support them in their efforts to better their lives and their children's.

July 4th is about celebrating something great and that is FREEDOM.
Freedom to drive, walk, swim, sing, talk, learn, work, worship, help, cook, and all those things we get to do because we are a free nation. This is not a right my friend. This is something that was earned by hundreds of thousands of military men and women and the sacrifices their families made to let go of them.
We are a blessed nation and we need not forget how we got here and how we continue to keep those freedoms and blessings

I hope you all had a great weekend. I hope as those fireworks were going up into the air you were thankful.
I know I was.

Zeus and I threw a CELEBRATE AMERICA party on Saturday evening. We invited many of my husbands classmates and their families, neighbors, friends and Zeus' OTS classmates. It was incredible. We ended up with 57 people here. Yes, all at the same time. Awesome. I've never thrown a party for that many before. I did not plan on having that many over when all this started but as we added names and families it just grew and grew. It was wonderful. I loved every minute of it.

We had hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, tater tots, mac n cheese, beans, chips and dip, homemade ice cream, pound cake, flag cake, cupcakes, key lime pie, brownies, fudge, fruit, ice cream cake and lots and lots of cokes.

It was so much fun. We played on the swing set, jumped on the trampoline, played Bola ball, and the crowd favorite, ROCKBAND. Rockband got played for over 4 1/2 hours straight.
It was great to see the many different people come together to celebrate and appreciate each other and the company we created. I sure hope everyone had a good time because we sure did.

It was a lot of people but we ended up fitting quite comfortably in and around our house. I was thrilled to know that the only thing that was broken, damaged or injured was the toilet seat. WOW, no little fingers, no arms, no heads, no glass knick-knacks or anything. Just the toilet. Fantastic. These families have well behaved and very respectful children. It was wonderful.

Thank you Chatfields, Burns, Rodriquez's, Powells, Pelkeys, Ponds, Morris, Sterlings, Kingerys, Cooks, Thorpes, Allens, Mayos, and Jegede. I enjoyed meeting and spending time with all the wives and getting a chance to chat with all the classmates and neighbors. What a joy it was.

and a BIG thank you to AMERICA'S MILITARY SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN PAST AND PRESENT!!!!

MY FIRST DAY

2010-06-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

Well as you would imagine my first day had me feeling more like a freshmen walking into high school the first time. But I guess its kinda the same thing, my first time in college in 10 years. Just like I had been told by my friends and neighbors, I was completely overwhelmed. All these numbers swirling around my head (4 out 7, 2 attendance, 2 posts, 2 every other week, 10 classmates, 150 words, 300 words), and I was just stressed to figure out which number applies to what and how important each one means. The worst past is, I'm not even taking a math class yet. Oh boy

Now one of my classes is going great. I have a good handle of what is expected and when I need to complete assignments and such. The instructor is down to earth and answers questions quickly and has laid the instructions out completely. There is nothing to "figure out" on my own other than finishing my assignments. I am very pleased with the course.

But this second class is a NIGHTMARE, and I do mean nightmare. I am not real fond of the instructor and the instructions are obsolete half the time. Great way to get things started, then you throw in there classmates that write like they talk and do not follow instructions. Total disaster.

So my first assignment was to write a 300 word summary on the difference between race and ethnicity in my mind. Not very easy for me because I am highly opinionated and have some real concerns that race and ethnicity in America leave specific people out. I have friends and loved ones that are Hispanic and in this course Hispanics are not considered their own race. Stupid, I know. Now, I was on fire last night having a very heated conversation with Zeus about this because I feel Hispanics are not treated equal in this verbiage. Now, they have their own ethnicity but if you want to separate the two then there needs to be acknowledgement in their race. I do not consider myself a racist. I love all people who treat others with respect and with love, no matter your skin, hair or eye color. But this class is really gonna be tough for me because I do not agree with many ideas and feel for the people we have left out. Anyways, I submitted my summary last night and with a knotted stomach and against my own views I hid my extreme anger and followed the idea Zeus suggested. The next part of the class I despise of is the fact I have to write a paper, sometimes two every week. YUCK, its my first week back and I'm already writing papers. Looks like an A is out for this course. As long as I pass I will be satisfied.

I appreciate all the support from all my blog readers, FB friends, family and neighbors. The greatest part of this journey is listening to my children ask how my class is going. Asking if they can see my homework. They ask if I need more quiet time or if they are bothering me. They are truly concerned and excited about my attendance in college. Makes me more determined to succeed and show them it can be done.

FIRST DAY was a success, now unto day two. Wish me luck cause I definitely need every ounce I can get.
Blessings from the Haskins House and continue to check in on our adventures

Guess Who?

2010-06-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well the days have turned to weeks and the weeks have turned to months and the months have turned to years. Oh, you get me point.

For a long time now I have struggled with being just a "stay at home mom". I love it, don't get me wrong. It is absolutely amazing to raise my babies and not miss a moment. I love having stories about them that only I can tell because I was there to witness it. I love being the one they run to no matter what. I absolutely love the support and love they give me. They are just precious. But really, I look at life and understand that these 4 little beings will soon be 4 self sufficient adults that will spread their wings and leave the comfort of my nest. I am scared beyond belief at this point for those days. So I am being pro-active.

Zeus, as you all know has been going to school for years. He has an Associates, Bachelors, Masters and is currently working on another Masters soon followed by the PHD. I however have one semester of college and some military training. Not much to speak of next to all his education.

This was the sacrifice I gave for my family and these babies. Now that they are all coming up on being in school, Now is time for me to step out of my comfort zone. Zeus has been EXTREMELY supportive almost down right pushy on this new idea. He helped do the research I needed and he even brought me flowers.

I am stinking scared. I am nervous. I am worried. I am overwhelmed. But I am hopeful. I am excited and I am eager to get this new adventure started. You ask what adventure? I bet you have already figured it out but let me spell it out for you if you haven't.

I AM GOING BACK TO SCHOOL

Yep, you heard right here. Straight from the horses mouth. I have enrolled in The University of Phoenix online program for my AA degree. Remember I told you I am starting with almost nothing. Luckily the training I have had in the past does transfer me 30 college credits so I am halfway there already. WOO HOO!!
The program should last about 9 months until I have that degree in hand. Thankfully my service to the United States of America through the Air Force has given me a huge financial opportunity. The Montgomery GI Bill is going to fund my education. For this I am greatful. I could never afford $16,000 a year for school. Thank you Harry W. Colmery, Rep. John Gibson, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery for making my college dreams possible.

So watch and join me back here as this Military veteran, Air Force Officers wife, and stay at home mother of 4 makes her way through the doors of college education. I am sure I will have a rough go of it since school is extremely difficult for me. But check back often for crazy stories of stress, headache, and achievement as I head back to school for the first time in 10 years. Wish me luck because my first class starts next week.

Blessings to all of you
Come back soon to read more adventures from the Haskins House

It helps to know people

2010-06-21T08:54:00.000-05:00

This past week we got the privilege to do something we already did but this time the babies got to join us. Remember this picture?

This was last September while we were in D.C., just before my husband PCS'ed.

On Sunday Zeus called a friend after we heard Mr. President was coming to town to have meetings on this here Gulf Oil spill. We turned in a few names, ours plus our next door neighbors . It was so last minute we did not expect to hear anything. But low and behold a email came in with our approval. Yippee! Rope line here we come.

Now we were under the impression that we were just going to see AF one land and see him get out and into the motorcade and depart. To our surprise Mr. Obama wanted to talk with and meet the people of Mississippi. So our family was able to shake hands and stand and talk with him. He really had a conversation with our children about school and summer. I was impressed that he took the time to speak with them on their level and about things they cared about. I was extremely happy that they were given the opportunity to meet with him. That was one thing I was sadden with in D.C., was the fact they never got to meet with him. Worry no more, that box was checked on Monday. Zeus had done his job and made that happen.

I am blessed and very thankful, because I know there are many people that go through life without ever getting to meet a President. NO matter who it is, just the fact that they are the sitting President is truly special.

All in all it was a great day. Seeing all that goes into moving him from location to location always gives me the chills.

Thanks to all the guys and gals at WHCA that worked to get that done for us. Home cooked dinner is not nearly enough, but I hope all of you know how thankful we are.
Blessings to each of you.

The military never seems to let us down and for that I am grateful.

Blessings to all my readers.
Come back soon for more news from the Haskins House.

2010-06-13T16:10:00.000-05:00

WOW, I just looked at the date of my last blog and my chin hit the floor. Geez, I've really neglected you guys out there. So sorry. But then again we have had an extremely busy month. But I am back for my weekly Thursday night blog. Hang with me.

The kids have been playing in a Spring soccer league here in Biloxi. It has been quite the experience to say the least. Zeus and I have been coaching the 3 oldest which are all on the same team and rooting on Ziggy, our youngest.

We have had the honor of having a player quit because she wanted it to be more social and have more players her age. You see this is the first season back since the devastating events of Katrina. So our league is in its infancy. We, as is the Commissioner are learning and working through all the kinks that come with putting something together such as a sports league.

Our commissioner, bless her heart, had no clue about what soccer is or what is needed. Nevertheless she felt the calling to tackle this position.

We as coaches have had to deal with endless schedule changes, unpainted fields, unmowed fields, no official fields, no team benches, no equipment, slim rosters, endless afternoon thunderstorms, Black flag conditions, rule changes, bugs, ants, cancellations and forfeits. Are you thinking the same thing I am? Yea, it has been a mess to say the least. I have been discouraged at times but keep reminding myself there are greater reasons I am here and those are all these bright children that just want to play. I was reading Nehemiah this morning and came upon chapter 2 verse 20. It was PERFECT. It talks about discouragement and success. That was exactly what I needed to read in this final week of soccer. Especially after this completely frustrating weekend.

Friday I was told that we would be moving the games up an hour due to the current heat advisory. Now, this weekend we are starting the first round of the playoffs. One would think that everyone would want to put forward their best and finish strong. But that did not seem to be the case. 10pm Friday night I received another phone call from the commish telling me that our game was cancelled due to forfeiture by the other team unable to man a team. What? are you kidding me? Wow, the other team only had 2 available players. WOW, totally frustrating. Now I had to contact my team that was to meet me at 9:45am the next morning for game warm-up. Not a happy coach by this point. So I send my email hoping that my team parents will check it before leaving in the morning. We still have to get up and take Ziggy to his 9 am game. Rush, Rush, Rush Saturday morning to get chairs, water, children fed, Ziggy dressed and make sure camera is in hand. We get to the baseball fields, turned soccer fields to find that the timed sprinklers did not get turned off all night and the fields were now the local duck pond. Frustrating beyond belief to see those fields flooded and sprinklers going strong. Major panic ensues and relocation's have to be found. Thankfully we were able to find places for all 4 games to play. None of the games started on time due to Sprinkler spoilage. WOW, what a morning. Then we find out that the 3rd place team in our league has had to forfeit as well thus defaulting our team and the Knights team to the championship game next week. Not the way I was hoping to get to the championship game but I am happy our team who truly deserved to be there was going to get the opportunity.

This week we watch as the heat advisory remains in effect going on 10 days now and looking at more evening thunderstorms, I think I am going to be jumping for joy come Fathers day knowing soccer season is finally over

Here are a few pictures of Ziggy's final game. He scored several times.

Come Back soon and see what we at the Haskins House are up to

The Great Expectations

2010-05-10T13:34:00.000-05:00

As a little girl I would sit in my room and dream about and draw all the details of my wedding. Silly, yeah probably a little, but from what I hear most little girls do the same thing. They also dream of what Christmas is going to bring and how their 10, 13, 16, 18 and 21st birthdays are going to turn out. They plan for the perfect prom dress and ride. So as they get older they continue to dream about how many children they want, what type of career they need and where they will go to college. But with all this dreaming what we are not told is the heartbreak that comes along with the reality of the actual event. Dreaming is good, Expectations are far worse. Having expectations is simply setting yourself up for failure, at least in my eyes it is.

So when all the hype happens about New Years Eve, 10th Anniversaries, birthdays and Mothers Day its best to think of it as just another day. Then when something good does happen it will make you smile. That way those little wishes, hopes, dreams and plans do not get shattered and totally ruin the day.

I have to tell myself this all the time. It is so terribly hard not to get excited because of all the media hype of these occasions but I promise if you do, the moment and day will be far superior than you could have ever dreamed.

Like this weekend, when I had pictured all week what Mothers Day could or would be like. I pictured what gifts I really wanted. I pictured the pretty flowers, and beautiful smiles, yummy breakfast and happiness all day. But I decided on Saturday I was just going to let it be and whatever happened fine. If you know my husband or follow me here on the blog or through twitter or facebook you know he can be somewhat of a unique character. Sometimes even a scary character at that, nevertheless he is ZEUS and that's all I can expect him to be. So he is very un traditional. Not one ounce of romance in his body or even simple sweetness. NOPE not my Zeus.

So back to Saturday, I had just given up the idea of having a "normal" Mother's Day. I figured I would go in with little to no expectations and chances were that the day would turn out pretty good.

I was glad I did.

Sunday Morning I was waken to a dancing Zulu swinging a cloth napkin over his head like a pole dancer singing "wake Up Mommy, its Mothers Day! Wake up Mommy its Mothers Day". Upon waking up I got a glimpse of all of my babies one by one carrying something different headed right for me. Homemade heart shaped pancakes, scrambled eggs, Coffee and my utensils of course. Then they all disappeared. Yep, I ate breakfast in bed all by myself. It was peaceful I must admit.

After gathering myself and crawling out of bed I hear a little choir in my kitchen and the sounds of little hands clapping singing "Come on Down Mommy, its Mothers Day!" What a sweet and beautiful sound that was. All my beauties waiting patiently for me. They were so excited to see me open my gift. It was like Christmas for them. Super cute.

I opened the vinyl tablecloth they used as wrapping paper and was surprised to see a 4 pot flower planter with names on each pot corresponding to each of my babies. Each pot was filled by that child. I received Homemade cards, Homemade pencil erasers and pencils, my favorite candy bar, my favorite candy, bath salts, body wash, wine, a magazine, 4 packets of seeds and the best part a coupon book.

Yes the coupon book was the most prized thing in my pot. It was made by my husband and babies. One coupon for each year for each baby. 9 for Zero, 8 for Omega, 6 for Zulu and 4 for Ziggy and 4 group coupons for the total number of babies. They were pictures of them when they were each 6 months old. I slowly flipped through the pages reading their promised favors and tasks, shedding a tear or two or lots more if I have to be honest here. It was so special. Each child had come up with tasks to help me with. Clean the kitchen table, do dishes, do 2 loads of laundry, sweep the floor and etc. The best ones were the group ones with no expiration date and unlimited number of uses, cuddle time, movie time, family game time and hugs and kisses. What better gift could a mother ask for other than the children themselves.

This was definitely not in my dream but far exceeded my hopes for gifts.

Then we played games and hung out as a family. Later that afternoon Zeus chose a new restaurant and took us for seafood. On our way home we stopped by the beach to do some exploring and of course to give me some time to take some beloved pictures of my family. While at the beach Zeus found a shell that just so happened to have a hermit crab in it. The kids named him and he has become the latest member of our family, Kermit the hermit!

All in all it was a great day. I am so glad I let the expectations go and rolled with the tide because I gained so much more from it.

Thanks to my beautiful and wonderful family for making it a great day! Even if Zeus did get sick and give up a little early.

Blessings and I hope each of you can manage to take a step back. Relax the Expectations and go with the flow. You will find so much more joy and happiness.

Haskins House

Qualities....

2010-05-01T14:51:00.000-05:00

Over the past several weeks I have been on my own personal facebook campaign.
If you are one of my facebook friends you will have noticed simple words as my status for quite some time now.
Can anyone tell me what they think the purpose or meaning of those words are?

I bet you can come close but not exact so I'll share with you.

You see 47 days ago my husband left us again, Shocking, for another military TDY/ training. So for 7 weeks he has been hanging with the other LT's out at Maxwell. During that time I developed some serious emotional issues and stress issues with this new found long distance relationship. So I started thinking. I know, scary right, when I start doing that but sometimes I do think. This time I thought about marriage and what it means to me. How serious it is. How important it is. And what kept sticking its nose in the way were these simple little words. LOVE, HONESTY, INTERDEPENDENT, EMPATHY, FRIENDSHIP. I thought about these for days. So I just decided you know what, I'm gonna make those my facebook status until Zeus comes home. And that was that. 47 words later I had voiced and shared the most important qualities I felt every marriage needs to succeed.

Now these are just what I feel are important. They may not be what you think but definitely words that drive me.

COMPASSION PATIENCE COMMUNICATION ACCEPTANCE UNDERSTANDING

RESPECT FORGIVENESS SECURITY CONSIDERATE AFFECTION

PURE LOVE COMPANIONSHIP EMPATHY COMPROMISE FIDELITY

SUPPORT FRIENDSHIP APPRECIATION RESPONSIBILITY HONOR

DEVOTION COMMITMENT SACRIFICE COURAGEOUS LOYALTY

PARTNERSHIP GENUINE ENDURANCE ENCOURAGEMENT JOY

SUBMISSIVE TOLERANCE UNSELFISHNESS THOUGHTFULNESS HAPPINESS

ADMIRATION NURTURING TEAMWORK MUTUALITY

COMFORT REALISTIC EQUALITY KINDNESS

INTERDEPENDENT TREASURE OPTIMISM HONESTY

So look and read these, and pick up the dictionary if you have to because these will make or break you. I understand there are more than just these. I am learning the extreme significance everyday of these simple yet powerful little words. I hope you thought about them when they popped up on Facebook during the last month. I am trying everyday to improve upon these areas of my life and relationship. Maybe just maybe I can manage to keep him around a few more years. Until then, I just ponder the words and strive to do better. The rest just falls in place.

Blessings
Haskins House

The long year

2010-04-29T16:52:00.000-05:00

Did I tell you guys that I am a little excited. Not too much, only a little.
Zeus comes home tomorrow afternoon and will be home for at least 6 months. Can you believe it? No, neither can I. It has been a very long time since normal has happened at our house. I am just a little thrilled to see it coming our way. There are some really good days in life and today is and has been a great day.

Kids have cooperated perfectly today. What a blessing from Heaven that was. I was stressing last night that today was gonna be rough. See what Prayer does, it makes a difference.

So If you do not hear too much from me for a few days you will understand we will be trying to reintegrate our family again after a long absence of normalcy.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Blessings
Haskins House

Are you a CEO?

2010-04-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

Today I sit here thinking how terribly frustrated I am with my little world or company.

I think about some recent and not so recent decisions I made. Then I think "did I make the right choice? Is this REALLY what I signed up for? WOW, if it is I must be dumb, stupid or maybe just a little possessed"

I try my best to make sure everything I THINK I am in control of is spinning in just the right direction at just the right speed. But days like today and yesterday question my abilities to make it spin anyway at all.

Being a wife is definitely a tough task. Especially being a part time/ long distance wife. I do not get the physical moments most live-in wives get. I do not get a daily hug. I do not get the sweet touches or kisses that rejuvenate the soul. Those times where words are not needed just simple cuddling. PURE AFFECTION. You know that thing that makes you feel and think, OH I CAN do this. That feeling of relief and comfort. Yeah, not so much. This has proven a more challenging test then what I imagined.

Now throw in the MOM factor. Not to bad. But now multiply that times 4. Just got significantly harder. I know my job to teach, mold, shape and grow 4 little beings into what I believe is a productive, effective, and positive member of society sounds easy. Its not. And trying to do it alone is far exceeding my limits.

Now add a little Stay at Home action to that. Meaning my JOB is to run this place we all call a home. Only one problem, not one of the 5 other members likes or listens to how I plan or try to manage this place. NOPE, they each want to do it ALL there own way. Could you imagine a company running that way? Every employee trying to tell the CEO how to do this and what to do with that. Are you kidding me? You would be fired just like that. Seems I do not have the ability to fire any of the 5 employees that are under me. Like Mister Trump says, If I can not control my employees or motivate them I must be a lousy leader.I am definitely second guessing my desire to continue on this journey of being a CEO of so many. Why not fire myself and make my own company where I am the only employee.Sounds good huh?

This rings harsh to my psyche. I want to through my hands up and let the Assistant CEO take over. But the issue is that I would still be doing most of the CEO job just getting paid a mail room clerks salary and not receiving any of the credit I would be due. That asst. would take credit for it all and expect me to make it all go smoothly.

This is not how I pictured running my company/ life. I am not sure how to change it.
My asst. CEO is only a part time employee and does not see how I do things on an everyday basis. The asst. doesn't care of the current business plan. The asst. just comes in and takes over throwing all my ideas out the window, doing it their way. WHAT? A company will never survive this way. The employees will get confused on what rules and laws to follow. The method of packaging is completely different. The method of cleaning and scheduling is far worse. These little employees try their best to follow all the methods set in front of them but they are seriously contemplating going on strike. They want the asst. fired from their duties. The CEO is who they want to take charge. The CEO is who they support. The CEO is who they want to work for, not the asst.

How do you tell the asst. that his methods are about to bring the whole thing crashing down on him and the CEO. How do you take control out of the asst.'s hands and return it where it rightfully belongs, in the CEO's?

I have tried polling other CEO's on how they run their own similar yet different company. The answer they all have is disheartening to me. They say you hired the wrong asst. or you need to train them or send them to training. WHAT? I just shake my head. Where is this training? How in the world do you train a know-it-all assistant and make a difference?

How do you avoid a complete uprising from the employees? How do you manage to keep peaceful control? What do you do when one of the employees thinks they can do a better job than the asst and want to be promoted?

This is what my life has become. As hard as I try to do the dishes, laundry, disciplining, mothering, fathering and every other duty that has been placed in my lap. I have fallen short. I have faltered in my communication. I have created chaos and almost full blown rioting. I pray. Lord help me please. I obviously can not do this alone and by the looks of it my way is not working.

My managing is at risk of complete failure with the asst. setting up a covert coup. How do I avoid the unstoppable?

Are you a CEO? If so how do you motivate your assistant to only do certain tasks and without disrupting the other plan you have already implemented? I am looking deep for healthy, supportive yet problem solving answers and suggestions. Go ahead, SHOOT, because my gun is jammed!!!

HASKINS HOUSE

In Keeping with Tradition

2010-04-15T09:15:00.003-05:00

We reached another great milestone this week.

I know, these milestones are all happening way to fast. Before I know it I will have 3 daughters in law and a son in law. HOLY COW!!!

No really. Having moved to a new base, we are in for a few changes from our old base. IMAGINE THAT.

The kids love to play organized sports. They are very competitive as are Zeus and I . We encourage the kids to try everything a couple times and make friends through team sports.

Last time we coached was fall soccer in D.C. Zeus coached Zero and Omega and I coached Zulu. Ziggy had to sit on the sidelines and watch. After that season I realized Zulu needed a non-parent coach in the future. We just butted heads WAY. TO. MUCH. To the point of embarrassment. Anyways that was that.

So once we got here and checked the sport schedule much to our surprise the south has spring soccer. Yippee! This is my favorite sport to watch with youth . It is just too precious and quite funny, but we won't tell my babies that.

Anyways we signed the 3 big kids up and proceeded to eval day. Much to my surprise 3 and 4 yr olds could play at this base. WOW, that is super cool. So we watched as the big kids took there evaluation. The following day the phone rang. Zeus answered and was told Zulu is very advanced for his age, would we be ok with him moving up. First off, we knew the child has natural abilities. So yes absolutely especially if it benefits him. Once Zeus told me I was thrilled but freaking scared. WHY?

Because Zeus and I had committed to coaching Zero and Omega's team. Now Zulu would join the bunch. UH OH, were my first thoughts. I needed to talk to Zulu quickly and ask what he thought about being back on Mom and Dad's team. He was not to thrilled about the coachs but tuned that out as he realized he was only 6 and going to be playing with 9-12 yr olds. He did the boogy dance. Just a little on the happy side. Lets just hope the coaching issue is a minor set back.

But the best part of all of this is that fact that the littlest member of our Haskins House is going to play soccer. YEP, you heard it hear first. Ziggy is now officially a soccer star. Thrilling.Exciting.

OH Geez, what have I gotten myself into. All 4 are playing organized sports. YIKES. This is definitely going to be interesting. Thankfully Zeus will only miss the first 2 weeks. Then at least I will have a back up.

Wish me luck! I am definitely going to need it. Let the wheels turn on my soccer mobile cause this Soccer Mom is on the run.

I will leave you with a few shots of Ziggy's first practice.

Come back soon to watch and see more from the Haskins House Live in Mississippi

and the waiting is over

2010-04-07T20:21:00.003-05:00

This past week was a huge milestone not only to me but to my family as well. As a mother, not all, but most look forward to the day that their little birdie grows wings and learns to fly. I have always looked forward to this day. But I think it came more quickly than I imagined. Don't get me wrong here, OK. Here me out. I love all these beauties God loaned me. They are precious and I would not give them away for any amount of money.

I think as they get older and start to flourish it makes us thrilled and excited to see them learn more and do more. Kinda like the day when they crawl. walk. talk. You see its so thrilling. So as the day quickly approached, and I do mean quickly I begin to get excited.

Not for all the reasons many of you think. My little man is extremely intelligent and has been showing us signs for a LONG time. I have worked with him as have his older siblings. And because of this he is far ahead of where he should be, and that's great. But I had reached the point where I could not give him all the education needs in which he desired. So the time came to send him off to school. I was thrilled that he could make friends. I was ready for him to learn better writing skills. I was ready for him to be with others his own age. He was ready to go into a group setting. I was slightly looking forward to some time to myself. This was not my motivating factor at all. It truly was to get my baby the education he needs.

That day came on Tuesday when he attended his very first day of school. That was one of the first days he was not up and at em when the alarm went off. He really did not want to get out of bed at all. I was sad because I had to wake him. I was excited to see his face when he walked into that room with those other children. Once he was up he was GUNG HO for school.

He ate breakfast while explaining to me and the big kids what he was going to do that day at school. It was precious. He already had it planned out in his little mind. He got dressed all on his own, to my disappointment. I really did want to help him, my baby. Nope, He told me he did not need my help. OUCH!!! Then he promptly gathered his backpack and things and proceeded out the front door. One problem, we did not have to leave for 20 minutes. Yea, he was slightly excited. It was adorable. The best part of the morning was watching and listening to the big kids cheer him on and give him advice and ask him things. AWESOME. I was proud of the big kids for being so supportive and helpful. I was sad to. Because I knew this was it. No more baby. No more morning snuggles. No more hanging in our jammie's. No more excuses. All my babies have earned their wings. I was a little sad driving there. I was sure not to let him see it. I talked excitedly about what he would do. Then I walked him in and signed him in. Gave him a GIANT HUG AND KISS and away he went.

What a great day for him and super sad day for me.

Blessings to all of you! come back soon

What does it mean to you?

2010-03-30T22:26:00.003-05:00

Family?

What really does that word mean to you?

Does it mean your children?
Does it mean blood?
Does it mean lots?
Does it mean little?
Does it scare you?
Does it excite you?

To me the word has many meanings. Being military, family takes on a whole other concept. Because we are moved from place to place and typically live long distances from our blood kin. We do not have "family" to spend holidays or special days with. We do not have family to do cookouts or bike rides with. We can not go shopping with family like the average person can. You see we have to make a new family at every new home. This family is a collective group of special friends.This can be good and bad.

Good, because we have family in Texas, Washington, Idaho, Florida, Washington D.C., Germany, Oregon, Ohio, North Carolina and many other locations. Those wonderful people that became a huge part of our lives for a few short years that will always be on our hearts.

Bad, Because our real blood and financial family miss out on so many milestones. They don't experience the joys and excitement of our children. They miss out on sweet pictures and drawings. The miss out on ceremonies and picnics. They really do live through my photos.

This collective group of special friends, who I call military family are so very important to our lives. They step into our lives for a short period of time and help us through all those rough, easy, happy or sad days. But we leave them or they leave us physically but never emotionally or spiritually. A carved out place in our hearts is created just for them

What comes to mind when you hear this word?

What comes to my mind when I hear this word is the extreme complexity of a family. You see in my family alone, excluding in laws, we are an extremely diverse group. I have 3 sets of parents. Weird? Yeah a little odd. I have a Mother and a Step-father, a Dad, and a Father and Step-mother. My mom has a Dad but her father died at a very early age. So she has sisters that have no blood relation what-so-ever to me. My step-father has 4 children with grandchildren that have no blood relation to me either. Then there is the fact that I grew up with my Dad and his family. And come to find out I have no blood kin to any of them either. Throw in my real Father, whom I've only known for a little over a year now, and I have a few blood relatives that I do not know very well, if at all. So family is very mixed up for me. Never-the-less they are ALL my family whether they are blood related or not. I love them all dearly and would not trade any of them, even the ones I can not stand (yes there are some) or do not agree with (there are a few of these too). I still love them.

What would you do for your family?

I have thought of this one many, many times. I am nothing without my family. I did not get where I am today without them. I am who I am today because of them. I base my life decisions off of their life mistakes or achievements. I believe that we humans will never be where we are without a family. So I would bend over backwards to help them, to love them, to support them, even if they were making a terrible decision. I look at my family and think HOLY COW, I could write a book about how messed up we are. But are we really messed up? Is there really a perfect family? Most likely not. The branches on our tree are a tangled ball. But I like how messed up we are. We have gays, lesbians, un-wed mothers, jail-birds, perfect marriages, divorces, re-married, 3 siblings all with different fathers, uncle Daddies, high school drop outs, College grads, drug addicts and shopaholics, military, bar-tenders, Tattoo artists, Animal breeders, stay-at-home mothers, working mothers, dead beat dads and the list goes on. This does not change the way I love them. I may not like their lifestyle but I still love them and will hug their neck and tell them they are supported and prayed for. I could never pick my things up and walk away.

This week I have been here back at home, or shall I say where I grew up. The place where the majority of my family resides. I think of all the memories that have been made here. I think of all the family that have impacted my life here. I. miss. it. I miss being able to harass my Uncle. I miss being able to see my kids grow-up with their cousins. I miss helping Dad out with building or putting something together. I miss gardening with my grandma. I miss playing cards on the weekends. I miss going to my home church. Being home reminds me that life goes on. Our families continue on without us. They will go on with moving and marrying, divorcing and graduating whether we are here or not. But they will miss us. They will love us, most of the time. They will accept us and our decisions, even if they disagree. What makes a family is only described by one word!

LOVE, never ending, no expectations, just pure simple LOVE.

Not blood
Not marriage
Not memories
Not time
Not money
Not decisions

Just plain, simple LOVE

What do you think about family? Does it entail more or less than this? Is love enough? What would you do for your family?

To me, family is the all time greatest thing to have in life. I could NEVER live my life without a family. It would be boring, sad, uneventful, depressing and down right redundant.

So today as I look at having to leave so soon I am blessed to have all these interesting, yet amazing people around me to love and call my family.

Thank you all for accepting and loving me.

Blessings and come back soon to see what is happening at the HASKINS HOUSE

On a Whim

2010-03-23T21:41:00.004-05:00

Since I did not do any blogging in Feb while we were moving and celebrating I am going to try to catch you all up on a few things.

Rewind back to early Feb in Montgomery Alabama.

The kids and I drove down to spend a week with Zeus during his Final week at OTS and graduation events.

While we were there I planned a birthday dinner for Zeus to celebrate with him. The day of his birthday he decided on a whim that he wanted to throw together a semi baby shower during dinner for one of his fellow flightmates who's wife was expecting their first child. It is very exciting for us to hear of others starting their families. What made this special to us was that this couple got married on our 10 year anniversary. So being the giving people that we are we wanted to do something fun. Zeus wanted to do something simple but I don't do simple when it comes to babies. Oh no, I want the mommy to feel special and loved. So my brain kicked in and came up with an idea.
Lets just make her a Diaper Cake. They are fun. I enjoy making them. They are my signature.
So I ran to a couple of stores and picked up all the things I needed to make her a cake.
It turned out pretty cute even when I only had an hour or 2 to get it done.

What do you think?

I encourage you to come back and see what's new with The Haskins House

I just can't live without

2010-03-19T08:36:00.004-05:00

I must have them

They bring smiles to my face

I love them

I can feed them

I care for them

Others enjoy them

They bring beauty to life

They remind me of what God has created

They are each unique in their own way

I can use my imagination and showcase them in several ways

So even though my house is still not unpacked. There are boxes surrounding me most half unpacked. I couldn't handle it one more day. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. The air is warm and breezy. The only thing missing is:

MY FLOWERS

Things are a changing here at the Haskins House, Check back soon

TV life

2010-03-18T20:56:00.003-05:00

Cookouts

Porch conversations

Shopping excursions

Game playing

Poker nights

Afternoon Lunch

Morning coffee

Daily lawn talk

and the list goes on

What do you think all these things are?

These are a few of the activities that my street has been up to over the past 2 weeks.

Today is the first time I honestly felt like a Desperate Housewife or an Army Wife.

I never imagined I would actually live it.

I mean, I'll fess up and say this, I've really wanted a street like this for years.

Just thought it was another one of those ridiculous Hollywood fantasies.

The best part of it is we do not have all the dang drama.

Nobody is sleeping or imagining sleeping with someone elses spouse.

Nobody is ticked off with someone else, at least this week.

We have developed an amazing support group and for that I am thankful.

I will enjoy this surreal opportunity to be a part of something fun.

Blessings and come back soon to experience more from the Haskins House

LIfe in the South

2010-03-15T09:42:00.003-05:00

Snake Repellent

Bug spray

Mosquito bites

Ant hills

Wasp stings

Nat circles

Sun burns

These are all a few things we have experienced this past week.
I forgot about all these. But I am so glad to be back in the south even if for just 9 months.

The past 2 weeks has been so very busy.

Here is a little glimmer of whats happened around here.

( My absolutely nutso neighbor climbing out his bathroom window to save the screen he knocked out)( I truly was laughing hysterically watching this unfold)

(Ziggy at the furniture store. Zeus bought me and the family a new dining table, chairs, buffet and china cabinet. Happy graduation to us)

(Family bike ride around I-81, AKA flight line running path)( We even got to see our first airplane wash, just like a car wash just a little MORE water)

(Walked down to the docks here at the Marina on base, where I got stung by a wasp)

(The most precious people in my life spending the day with me in the sun and on the water)

I promise I will get back to my blogging now that we have Internet and a some what unpacked house.

Until then I hope all of you are enjoying this wonderful time of year called Spring.
Let the Planting begin!!!

Blessings and see you back soon at the Haskins House

What I wouldn't give

2010-01-29T17:43:00.003-06:00

Today I am beginning to feel very sad. Its not the sad that you would think. I mean, I miss my husband but I am not sad for him. I am sad because of what we as a family and what my children have to leave behind when we move in 3 weeks.

When we first got here we were nervous because we heard nothing good coming from our neighbors about D.C. public schools. I was very nervous about moving here the first week of August and only having 2 weeks to research, interview and select a school we felt fit our needs. Being very pregnant this was not going to be easy. Zeus and I pressed on and to our amazement both of school aged children were accepted into a school we thought sounded good.

Fast forward to today. We now have 3 children in this school and will never forget the memories we have made here.

Now, D.C.P.S have a terrible reputation and I am not sure why. We are in a public school on Capitol Hill and I could not be happier. These children have been able to experience history as they learn it.

What I wouldn't give to have been able to read about MLK, JR. and visit the place of his speech, much less perform the speech for hundreds at the very spot he gave it. AMAZING.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/01/15/VI2010011502225.html

What I wouldn't give to have my teacher come to my birthday party. Yes, Our teachers attend our birthday parties. Now that is love and commitment.

What I wouldn't give to have been able to go to one of the worlds greatest art museum after learning what art means to us.

What I wouldn't give to have visited Ford's Theatre and the house across the street when learning about President Lincoln.

What I wouldn't give to have been able to walk the halls of the U.S capitol after a government lesson.

What I wouldn't give to have stepped into the White House after learning its history and the history of the Presidency.

What I wouldn't give to have visited world class farms after our animal lessons.

What I wouldn't give to have experienced Inauguration as a child.

What I wouldn't give to have visited Arlington national cemetery EVERY single memorial day.

Life lessons coupled with field trips to engrave them into your mind.

What I wouldn't give to have been able to drive by the U.S. Capitol every.single.day I went to school.

What I wouldn't give to have professional actors come give acting lessons once a week.

What I wouldn't give to have a professional storyteller come tell me stories once a week.

What I wouldn't give to have all sorts of gardens around my school to start, cultivate, write about, eat and learn about.

These are the things that we are going to miss. The list goes on and on. Children going to school with Senators children, federal employees children, children of lost soldiers, Chinese adopted children, poor children, and rich children. I am more than pleased to have experienced the love of teachers, principals and administration.

D.C.P.S may get a bad rap but it is not going to come from me. I will walk away praising the work those people do because they use their hearts. My children are better children today after being a part of a great family here in D.C. I must thank the staff, teachers and administration of the Capitol Hill Cluster school to include Peabody and Watkins elementary schools. Thank you for your kindness, love and patience. Thank you for loving my children and caring for them much like I do. We leave this place with you all in our hearts. We had teachers from Pre-K all the way to fourth grade and everyone of them was incredible. Thank you so much.

This week my son had his last school assembly. I cried. If you know me it takes a lot to make me cry. I was sad because I know at our next place we will not be able to share Americas rich history as clearly and as memorably as we have here. Here he is singing about Rosa parks and Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbjLwT60lFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loIUDuQBdaM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMnmKOt7ssc

What I wouldn't give to make my children's lives the best they can be.

Blessings to all of you and I welcome you back here to read more about The Haskins House on the move.

What do you live for?

2010-01-26T11:27:00.004-06:00

These days as I wake up to a house that is in shambles I look around at empty walls and stacked picture frames, packed luggages and messes everywhere. I ask myself What am I doing?

It doesn't take long to remember why I push through these rough days. Why I step over the piles of clothes, books, toys to get to the bathroom. Why I run around like a lost chicken. Do you wanna know why? Well I'll give you 4 guesses.

This is why

I live for the smiles, hugs, kisses and I love you Mommy.

These 4 little beings are what give me the drive to carry on when all I want to do is hide in a corner and sleep it all away. They bring me joy and peace. If you know mine then you know they also bring a little chaos, stress and frustration but I try not to dwell on those moments. I try to remember the special ones like when my Omega stands in the office singing at the top of his lungs " Back of the Bus" or when Zero makes her own song on her piano and it actually sounds like an adult wrote it. Or when Ziggy hugs my neck first thing in the morning and says "I love you". Or when Zulu tries as hard as he can to beat me in the box game. These are why I press on.

I love that I can take them to places like Build a Bear for a belated birthday party.

I love that I can make them smile by buying them Cake Love cupcakes

I love that they are precious babies and want to be my children

So when I am having that rough day. Or when I am struggling to find the strength to tackle the next room. Or when I am feeling lonely, left out or just forgotten I look at them. I might even just scoop them up and put them in my bed so that I can snuggle them. You just thought they climbed in my bed all on their own but sometimes I can't leave them alone while they sleep.

My life is blessed with 4 gorgeous, intelligent and down right cute little babies.

I know Zeus is counting the days til he can hold each one of them in his arms. How many is it Zeus? Ok, I'll help you. 17 days!!! Yep that is 17 days until I am in the arms of my love and 4 beauties are in the arms of their Pop!

What a fantastic day that will be. Until then, I shall pack. I shall wash. I shall scrub. I shall pull. I shall organize. I shall prepare this place for our exit.

Blessings.

Come back soon and check out what is next in the Haskins House "on the move".

Perfect Storm

2010-01-17T20:06:00.004-06:00

Tonight as I stand changing the clothes from the washer to the dryer I started thinking.
No, don't say your little sarcastic comments. Uh oh shes thinking. No, I don't need anymore negative right now. I was thinking about the life I lead and the life my family leads.

I look at what is required of a military family. I look at what is required as a Stay at home mom. I look at what is required as a Single parent. I look at what is required as a part time wife.

Military family.
Most think we get all these special privileges. Not so much. As a military family we are subject to short term assignments, meaning moving to a place for a very short while only to move less than a year later. Is that easy? You tell me. Want my answer? No! heck no! Does it happen often? Sure it does. Not everyone experiences it, but it happens. Then you must start all over making friends, creating another support group, opening yourself up and figuring out who you can trust and who you can't. You have to run around like a chicken handing pieces of paper called "orders" to everyone on base to prove you have to move and set up a million appointments. Sometimes being a military family requires you to have short notice moves. Where they, The Gov't, hands you these so called "orders" and you have to move sometimes less than 30 days. Most people will never experience the life of a military family. Most people will not have pity for a military family. Most people choose to ignore the strife and struggles of a military family. Most people never listen or care to listen to a military families story.

Stay at home Moms!
Well this is the most thankless job you will ever experience. No seriously, you are on call 24/7/365 without extra pay.
You have to make sure kids are up and get ready for school or you have to get them ready for school. Then you shuttle to school or the bus. You wash clothes and sheets. You cook lunch and dinner. You have to do dishes 3 or more times a day. Your name is called 5 million times a day. You wipe butts. Clean toilets. Clean sinks that get dirty again hours later. You scrub carpets. You pay bills. You forget to shower. You organize cabinets and garages. You make beds and call your friends. You miss your shows and vacuum the carpets. You scrub the tile and wipe down the table. You hug and kiss the ouchies and boo boos. You worry. You wait. You lose yourself to become someones mom. You have to grocery shop. You do laundry and check the mail. You fill out homework sheets and pass out field trip money. You listen to 4 little ones days all at the same time. You help with homework while you haven't seen that in 20 years. You suggest problem solutions. You listen to arguments and settle fights. You discipline and coach the sports team. You do all this and more without a single THANK YOU. You do this without a paycheck. You do this without any promotion or reward. You do this to provide the best for your kids and give them have what you didn't. THE HARDEST MOST SELFLESS JOB IN THE WORLD

Single Parent!
Remember the above paragraph. Now throw in there a traveling, training, hardly at home father and your job just got 10 million times harder because now you have to do it all on your own without any physical support, mental support, or anyone to tell you they are with you and you can do it. Now you have to ask those people you barely know to help you. You have to juggle it all in 2 hands hoping nothing falls while you dance to the birthday parties, field trips, doctor appt's, luncheons, and God forbid hospitals all while dealing with a cranky baby, hungry siblings and poopy pants. FUN!!!

Part Time Wife!
You are never told or taught how to be this, part time wife. How to call or Text without being too nosy or overbearing. You are not taught how to be casual when you are fuming mad at the spouse on the other end of the phone. They don't tell you that you will not hear from your spouse for days sometimes weeks and not worry. You are never taught to be patient and loving when your spouse forgets about you and how your day went. You have to learn and figure out that your needs are never as important as the trips, traveling and training. You are not told about how stressful you make their day. You have to figure out how to be in his life without being there physically. You have to figure out how to stay positive when you feel less than and completely 2 inches tall. You have to figure out how to be the shining light 250 or 5000 miles away. You have to learn not to expect a Thank you. You have to learn how to deal with the sarcasm when all you needed or wanted was sympathy. You have to be ready for them to come home early. You have to be willing to cancel plans when they get called out early. You have to learn to wash their laundry with lightening speed when they are only home 18 hours. You have to squash any expectations for birthday's or Anniversaries because they are not THAT important. Being this PT wife has got to be one of the hardest things you will ever do.

All of these things are tough. But when you put all of these things together you just stepped in my life for a brief minute. Yes, I am a military family, stay at home mom, Single parent and part time wife. All of these things can be amazing. They can be humbling. All of these things can also combine to become the perfect storm.

I am grateful to be a wife and mother. I am grateful for having a husband that cares for his family and has a job. Don't get me wrong things could be a heck of a lot worse. But I think if they were worse I may not be here. What I am getting at is that today I am feeling powerless, helpless, unappreciated, nameless, and downright dumb.

I have come to the conclusion that I must surrender my hopes and dreams for myself. My children's hopes and dreams have to come first. My Husbands job will always determine where I live, what I live in, the kind of schools my kids go to and how much he sees us. It is never easy. I hope that one day I can come to gripes with this conclusion. I would like to accept it with open arms instead of it being shoved into my tightly crossed arms.

Lord help me release the Ice skating, counseling, photography and travel. Help me accept the snot, puke, dirty nails, and showerless days. Until then please keep this Perfect Storm from gathering steam and moving into the next low pressure area over my head.

A flash of what could've been

2010-01-13T21:34:00.003-06:00

Tonight I sit here in the quiet with all babies in bed, dog resting, missing Zeus and world going to sleep. Life is beautiful.

I love my life, albeit extremely stressful and difficult, I love it. I need to continue to remind myself of this especially when there is a trail of dog poop down the hall left from little shoes, or a sink piled high of pots and pans that can't go through the dishwasher, or slow to get dressed children at 7 am, or a cute sleepy little boy that does not want to go with me to the bus stop in the morning. I love my life

Tonight God gave me a little nudge. Well more like a shove. Nevertheless he got my attention.

The munchkins and I sat down to play the newest of new board game called Connect 4x4. Actually Zulu and I started playing and then Omega and Zero wanted to play too so I definitely welcomed them. After only winning one game out of 5 I noticed the clock hanging above the T.V. It said 7:55pm. Opps, missed bedtime. Oh well!

I gently instructed the children to go brush those little "toofies" while I put the game away. Minutes after sending them off I hear Zero panicking in the midst of arguing little boys and she sounded BAD. I dropped the game and went running only to find Ziggy not breathing and blue with his mouth wide open. He was in hysterics to say the least. I excitedly sent Omega off to get ice while I figured out what happened and got Ziggy to come to. Yes, he was slightly unresponsive and kinda googly eyed. Zero and Zulu were my eye witnesses and explained exactly what happened very clearly.

Am I kidding? NO! Ziggy has had about 4 similar events in the last year. All the while Zeus has been away due to military travel. Yea, thanks. Every. Single. Time.

So what feels like hours is only mere minutes. I question him like he is a Guantanamo detainee. What is your name? How do you spell it? How old are you? Who is the girl standing beside me? What are we doing soon? Do you know where you are? I repeat these over and over thinking oh crap I am going to have to make THAT call. A quick prayer to God asking for help and bam he remembers every question I asked him and answered them all correctly. WHEW!!! Scared, Heck yea. Nothing compares to the fear that was pulsating through my veins. I was picturing all those TV movies and terrible news stories replacing those people with my son and I. Thankfully He is ok. There is a nasty cut and Bright Blue blood bubble on his hairline.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you what happened. Silly me. I get ahead of myself sometimes. Sorry bout that.

While trying to get his toothbrush he decided to stand on the lid of the toilet seat. When he reached over the lid slid dumping him directly on the floor head first. He ended up landing on the gold metal strip that holds down the carpet over the linoleum. NOT GOOD!!!

What a flash of what could've been. I am thankful for his safety. I am thankful for his life and I promise I will do better and I will slow down and relish the life of a mother with 4 beautiful, smart, talented and smiling young children.

Ziggy I love you my child and please please try to land on your feet just a little more.

Building one bra at a time!

2010-01-08T12:00:00.005-06:00

Hey Bloggy Buddies!

Yesterday after I began checking my facebook updates I was caught off guard, well maybe just concerned that a terrible virus had hit many of my facebook friends. I would see: silver, Black with white polka dots, white, nude, yellow, blue, brown, pink, black with purple polka dots, red, turquoise and so forth as several of my friends status. I was scared to even be on the FB site at that moment. Truly concerned for my friends I started messaging everyone with these random colors asking what, huh, and why. I really was lost. I think I was more concerned that our pages were hacked than anything. But a few minutes after making the first of my many posts went by and I had received 22 messages to my facebook inbox. The first thing in my mind was Holy moly it hit me too. But then I started reading these messages.

Someone was trying to be unique and obviously was trying to watch something unfold, which did, just like the flu. It caught on VERY quickly. Needless to say I did not participate because I am a little more conservative. But these messages were suppose to be in support of Breast cancer awareness. Which I believe is wonderful. We need to help ourselves and remind others to be aware and continue to self exam and report to doctors with ANY abnormal findings. So the colors that I stumbled upon all day yesterday were the colors of that woman's bra. Ok, so I see the point in the support but I am not sure I totally agree with posting the color of your underwear.

Nevertheless I support my friends and family and definitely love all the beautiful opinions and personalities that are all intertwined via Facebook.

So I totally made a fool of myself or felt like I had made a fool of myself for leaving the comment "one eyed one horn flying purple people eater" on one of my friends pages before I knew what her "black with purple polka dots" meant. Yea, I did say that. I was simply trying to be funny. But as I read the other comments on her page I made myself look like a donkey. Completely not the intent. I am going to go back and apologize to her because I am sure she was shocked but it was my plain ignorance.

Anyways I updated my status earlier in the day to say "Can anyone explain why 9 or more of my FB friends have random colors as their status? Totallyconfused now". The comments section on this post lit up like fireworks immediately. WOW, so many people were replying. Then 1, 2 and a third person got into a fairly heated argument via FB commenting on my page. At first I was perplexed. Hmmmm, is exactly what I was thinking. WOW we have some serious strong feelings. But I continued to watch it unfold. Amazingly enough the fight continued. In my twisted little head I really wanted to see these 3 in the town square having it out right there for all of us to see. It really was intriguing to read. But then something came to me.

What is amazing by all this is the fact that people from 3 different states could discuss something like Breast Cancer awareness granted, via facebook, was awesome to me. But the fact that it is a hot issue that is important to society is even better. We need more conversations like this. They kept their comments and accusations fairly clean and did not throw any expletives out there. I like that touchy topics such as this can be discussed. We need more of this. Don't you think for one minute that during the Continental Congress and writing of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights that there were not heated arguments like this. Um yea, just a few. I would love to find that book. This is America. This is how we create compromise. This is how we need to grow our country and this is exactly how we need to continue. Now, you must know that with opinions come disagreements but we need to be accepting of these disagreements and help find the middle of the road so that we ALL give a little to gain something great.

I hope you will not shy away from the abortion, health care, gun, and gay and lesbian debates. I hope you will step up and voice your opinion, since nobody is RIGHT, and help mold the future of our nation. Do it respectively! Do it with an open, loving heart and lets make this America remember US!!!! I sure would like to be thought of as the greatest generation that made it through some REALLY tough issues and laid a resurfaced foundation. Join with me and lets stop making HOT topics taboo. Bring them up but please do it respectfully. What a difference we could make!

Where's the closest water cooler? I'm there

Blessings and come back to The HASKINS HOUSE for more topics.

Reflection

2010-01-05T16:20:00.002-06:00

Today was a great day but, as I sit here thinking how relaxed I was It brings back the memories of 2009.

What a year! The year started out amazing with my husbands 30th birthday, our acceptance to AFOTS, a wonderful spring break, awesome summer trip and then well a few bumps were placed in the road.

I made some mistakes that I am not proud of, but that I accept. Those mistakes lead to some harsh consequences that I seem to think still do not fit the crime but none the less were handed down.

I lost a few good people in my life. Not by death. Not really sure exactly when or how but nevertheless they are gone and I will forever mourn those lost relationships. I have given it to God and that has given me peace. But it does not take all the pain and sadness away. I understand that it will fade over time but will leave a lasting scar to my heart.

I made a few amazing friends throughout this whole ordeal and I am most grateful for that today. I was also able to nurture a few other relationships thus sealing them as Gold.

There were great accomplishments this past year like weight loss, size reduction, optimism and beautiful growth in my marriage. I managed to learn more about my children and to be accepting of their little personalities, flaws and all. I was able to help others in tough times like providing childcare, helping paint, some times even mowing. I was given the great opportunity to grow a very young relationship with someone I might have never known. God is great.

I am most thankful to all those( you know who you are) who stepped up to help me. Who saw a need and said something. Those that made me important to them and their lives. Those who gave completely anonymously out of the goodness of their heart. Thank you each and everyone of you for your extreme kindness. Whether it was babysitting, chatting, monetary, and just plain thoughtfulness each something was well appreciated.

Life is quite an amazing journey. The year 2009 is now history and for that I am MOST grateful.

With 2010 here and alive and I looking forward to awesome things like a family move, a great pay raise, a new position as a wife and mother, and new hope that lost relationships will be replaced with bigger and better new ones. A new perspective of God my father and his hand in my life and my children's. I am renewed with his spirit and understand his love is undying. No twitter post, blog post, facebook update, phone call or misunderstanding will tear us apart. I have a friend til the end and that is all I need. He is here with me no matter if I have my morning face, happy face, sad face, or disgusted face on. At 3am when I am crying in deep desperation he is there holding my hand. Every once in a while I need a little reminder of that and I am grateful to wonderful facebook friends, tweeps and family for sending me those little reminders always at just the right time.

My hopes for this year include big things, fun places, peace, love and joy. I always say I have 2 things I love more than anything in life those are my family and my camera. HAHAHA, I sure do love taking photos.

Look for more photos on my blog, shorter more frequent blog posts and a deeper understanding of who I am.

I am going to try to be more transparent. There is nothing to hide. There is no reason to lie. I am me and I am learning to love me. Why don't you join me?

Welcome 2010 and all the adventures life will provide me and my family.

Blessings and Happy New Year to all of you.

The Best Yet

2010-01-01T11:39:00.009-06:00

This week was a very momentous occasion in our house. Its something you might dream of but not quite grasp until that day finally comes. That day came on Dec. 30, 2009.

Zeus and I managed to maintain and grow our love for each other for 10 years. WOW, I used to think people that continued to be married more than 5 years were crazy and then I opened my eyes and Zeus and I were past that point. Awesome.

10 years of marriage.

Definitely not easy. We had our times of turmoil, frustration, unhappiness but through all the negative days we pushed through knowing that DIVORCE was not an option. We were going to get through this together and love each other more in the end. The end has not come and I hope it lasts 70 more years like we have planned. But a big milestone was reached and Zeus and I celebrated it in a big way.

Zeus worked it out to have a babysitter, well babysitters, for 3 days. He had developed a plan and was going to surprise me. But I insisted on knowing the plan and being a part of the development stage. Thankfully he caved and shared his part. Leaving me to critique and fine tune.

We left early Tuesday morning headed for Ohio. Our first destination was Canton, Ohio. Anybody know whats there? Any sports fans out there? Football fans?

Ok, Ok, Canton Ohio is home to the Pro Football hall of fame. Now, do not freak out because we were going there for our 10th anniversary. I am a little bit of a football fan. I love the Dallas Cowboys and let me just tell you, there are just a few Dallas Cowboys inductees and records. We have been trying to get there for some time and just could not clear the calendar enough. So what better place to go, right?

We got to see some amazing artifacts and pieces of football history.

I even got to see and stand beside the Lombardi trophy, you know that big silver one that goes to the Super Bowl Champion. Yea, I saw it with my own 2 eyes and stood inches from it.

After exploring the HOF, which by the way was AWE to the SOME, we headed to check into the hotel a few miles away. We had to change clothes quickly and head to dinner.

Holy cow, Dinner was by far the most romantic, exquisite, and amazing place ever. We ate at the Blue Canyon kitchen and Tavern near Stow, Ohio. Absolutely breathtaking. It was like walking into a ski lodge or cabin. The entire theme and decor was rustic including antler chandeliers, antler sconces, hand painted murals, festive decorations and HUMONGOUS double sided fireplace. To top it off we sat in a corner by the window and mother nature wished us a Happy Anniversary by snowing. AWWWWWW. It truly was something out of a story book. No joke you guys. I was stunned and just took it all in. The food was to die for and the waitress knew it was our anniversary along with the rest of the staff since we booked our reservations through OPENTABLE.com so they made it super special. Really cool. Thanks BCK!!! This one will be a hard one to beat.

Then we rushed off to a local playhouse to see a musical called "Guys on Ice". The play was about 3 Green bay packer fans that go ice fishing. It was hysterical. Really funny and the guys all had great voices too. What a wonderful end to a picture perfect day.

Day 2 Wed. Dec 30, 2009.

We woke up early and checked out of fancy dancy hotel. Yea, it had a BIG honking jacuzzi tub right beside the bed. That was fun.

We headed down south to a place called Hocking Hills, OH. We had booked a secluded cabin in the mountains for that night. It was a 3 hour drive from Stow so we took our time and enjoyed the car ride together. Zeus kinda liked the long curvy country roads. You know the ones with hills that cause you to lose your stomach when you go over them. Uh huh, he had a little too much fun torturing me on those. We made it up in the snow no less. Got the keys picked out some movies and headed to cabin.

This place was UN freaking Believable. We were in the woods by ourselves with snow on the ground in a log cabin. I walked up to the door and there was a sweet message from the staff wishing us a happy anniversary. When I opened the door I felt me knees get weak. I think tears wanted to come out but it was just to cold. The room was lit with battery operated t-lites. There was a dozen roses on the dining table with a chocolate rose next to them. On all the tables, end tables dressers and what have you were scattered red and pink rose petals. The Bed had a big rose petal heart. The fire was lit. Soft music was playing. OH my. I was in extreme heaven at this point. WOW, that was all I could say. WOW! That was so stinking romantic. We hurried to get everything in and unpacked because we had a dual massage coming 30 minutes after arriving. And yes, we had side by side massages in out cabin. Thanks Blue valley Massage. The ladies were very good. Then we had some time to kill so after the most relaxing peaceful massages we decided it was time to take advantage of our own hot tub on the back porch. Zeus grabbed the wine and glasses and set up the Checkers. We drank Moscato and played checkers in the hot tub. Now remember there was snow on the ground, woods all around us and out of nowhere came a family of 5 deer. Oh boy, it just keeps getting better. We relaxed while playing checkers and watching the deer. Breathtaking is about the only word that can describe this place and setting. I really thought I was in a movie at one point. What better way to spend with your spouse than this. My Zeus hit it spot on this time. After that we needed to shower and head back to town which was a little over 75 minute drive to meet some long time friends for dinner.

Before that I wanted to stop and pick something up for the sitter so we went to a mall. We go in and are walking and all of the sudden Zeus pulls me by the back of my coat into a store. OH MY HEAVENS, its a jewelry store. I had been subtly hinting at wanting a new ring, you know a right hand anniversary ring. He got em. Can you believe it? He got my hints. When we walked in he told the lady and gentlemen whatever she wants. She wants a new ring, let her pick it out. It did not take me long because I had been shopping or searching for a ring for weeks. I knew exactly what I wanted. It did not take long and BAM, there it was. The ring I so longed for. Even in the right size! 20 minutes later we walked out with gift for sitter and BRAND NEW RING for me. Thank you my sweet Zeus, it is gorgeous.

Now we headed to Olive Garden to meet our friends.

Dinner was extremely nice because I had not seen them in over 7 years and Zeus just over 4. It was amazing. I knew I had missed them but it was like we picked up right where we left off. I am grateful to them for driving over an hour to meet us and so glad that we were able to have that opportunity. I just love the salad and bread sticks at O.G. too. The place brings back memories for us and really was great that we could share that with them. Thanks C and D!

Then we were off to walmart and the cabin. It was a SCARY drive back because it was snowing, the roads were not all that safe, it was nighttime and Zeus was having WAY too much fun slipping and sliding. Plus the deer were out in full force. We almost hit not one but 3 separate FAMILIES of deer. By the time we made it back I was beat. It was after 11 and we were going to have a long drive the next day.

Zeus out did himself for this one. He absolutely made it a dream. He says it was one of the top 10 we have ever had. HAHAHA, he is so funny. I say, it is the BEST YET.

Blessings on 10 more fabulous, fun and joyous years with the man of MY DREAMS.

My favorite Part

2009-12-17T19:32:00.006-06:00

As I sit here completely exhausted, mentally drained and ready to hang up my Mommy wings I think of the past two days and it reminds me of why I do what I do.

This time of year can be ridiculously busy. But I love it because this is the time of year that the children put on their Christmas/Season productions at school.

Yesterday was my 1st graders production. All the first grade classes either sang songs, performed poems or other group numbers. It was amazing that they managed to work in all the holidays, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, Eid, and New Years. My son's Class, Ms. Padilla, performed a Poem called I'm freezing. It was so precious. My little Zulu knew his lines and all the hand movements. He did not even turn his head to look at others. He knew exactly what he was suppose to do. And was so happy doing it. I was super proud of him. And I think he was super proud too

So tell me what do you think? Is he cute or what?

Today happened to me Zero's class performances. Her grade decided to do what they call an Art Explosion. It showcased individual talent and small groups. The kids sang, danced, performed martial arts, played guitar and some, like my daughter played Piano. Then we parents brought food and we had a winter feast. It really was a lot of fun and WOW, some of those kids will have a career in the arts some day.

Zero, my unbelievably shy and sensitive child really wanted to perform. I suggested her piano. So she practiced and practiced in her room every spare moment. She had planned to play Fur Elise. I was really excited because she sounded REALLY good in her room. But over the weekend she abandoned that idea and decided that she was not ready to showcase herself for fear of laughing and teasing. That moment gave me the opportunity to talk to her about life experiences. What a great tool our voices can be. After our discussion she decided maybe she could do it and she would try something not so ambitious. So she thought Ode to Joy would be more appropriate. I just supported her all the way, it didn't matter what I wanted her to play what mattered was that she was actually gonna do this.

Today came and well, I did not see her anywhere. I thought she made herself sick worrying and did not even come down the stairs from her floor. But after about 5 performances I spotted her in the back. Yes, she was all smiles. I did not know whether she had scratched herself or not. I was hoping not, but with her you just never know, the timidness seems to take control very quickly. So I sat patiently as they worked their way through the more than 30 performances. Low and behold around performance 20 I saw her make her way towards the stage and I thought WOW, she is gonna attempt this. Amazing. Then they announced her name and my heart was pounding. I was shaking and scared for her. I knew this was a HUGE hurdle for her mind. Putting herself out there was going to be tough but luckily she did it. Yes, she made mistakes, and started over but in the end my baby conquered her fear and performed her piano skills before more than 200 sets of eyes. It was awesome. I was so shocked that it made me cry. My heart was thrilled for her. I think our chats are making a difference in her self esteem and her pride is starting to shine and boy does it ever make my heart sing. My baby girl accomplished something I could never do as a child. WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Without further adieu, here is my Zero and her first public piano performance. Way to go ZERO!!!

What an amazing two days! Motherhood can be tiring, draining and downright frustrating but it also can be humbling and fulfilling and yes, today was one of those days. It will go down in Haskins history as a great milestone for Miss Zero and her accomplishments. And I will remember this day when I am old, wrinkled and grey. This story has been etched into my brain ans shall continue to be told for years to come.

Blessings to all of you and with God's help and mother natures retreat my husband, Zeus will be home in 45 hours.

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday

2009-12-15T18:06:00.005-06:00

Sunday was another birthday in our house but this one happens to be a day when 2 of them share the same day. Unlike twins they are 4 years apart but still have the same day. Pretty rare but hey we like it.

We always let the kids decide on where they want to go out to eat and this time we changed it up and went to birthday breakfast instead of Dinner since the Gparents would be leaving. It was so much fun and the boys got to eat whatever they wanted.

Then we were able to Skype with Zeus and we let them open their presents while skyping since Dad could not be here with us. Next best thing right? He at least got to see some of the reactions.

They loved all their gifts. Guns, Games, Clothes, and fun. What more could they ask for?

Then we sang to them and they got to have an unusual store bought Ice cream cake since Mommy took the year off.

It was a great day. The boys enjoyed hanging out with their family and Gparents and loved shooting Nerf darts at each other.

Cheers to my new 4 Year old Ziggy

Cheers to my new 8 year old Omega.

Happy Birthday to my sweet babies. My babies you will always be and my love you will always have. Blessings on another successful year and very eventful year at that.

I love you Ziggy and Omega

3 year absence

2009-12-14T16:59:00.004-06:00

This past week has been absolutely awesome. A little stressful to begin with but it worked itself out.

Wednesday evening my Mom(Pegster) and Stepdad(Sir Gramps-a-lot) flew in for a visit.

I packed our days with tons for sightseeing and events.

Thursday, We started out at Union Station and then we toured the Nations capitol and sat in to hear Congress and the House in session.

That was quite amazing to hear them debate this Healthcare bill, we even witnessed a spat between 2 Senators. It was funny to see that woman jump down that Man's throat. She was mad and he didn't seem to care.

Then we visited the Smithsonian of Natural History to see the beautiful Hope Diamond and other priceless jewels.

Next we were off to pick up the big kids from school.

This was the first time ever that Pegster and Sir Gramps-a-lot have ever ridden a subway/metro system. I think that got a kick out of it. I enjoyed showing them the place we have made a home for so long.

Friday, I was a sweet loving Mother and let the babies stay home to spend some time with their Grandparents. We showed them several memorials such as the Pentagon memorial, Air Force memorial and Iwo Jima ( US Marine memorial). We toured the Smithsonian American history Museum. Then we had Lunch at one of my families favorite restaurants, Chevy's Mexican.

Then we were off to see the National Christmas tree and Presidents park Santa.

Saturday was even better, We started the day out with a dear friend taking us to White House Communications kids Christmas party. It was great to share the day with her and show the parents a little of what we have done the past few years. Then Sir Gramps-a-lot and Pegster took us shopping for birthday's. It was so much fun. We all got new shoes and new outfits. Oh yea, Thanks Mom.

Sunday oh Sunday was my sweet little boys birthday. I will share this bit of info during my next post. Come back tomorrow to see what all the fuss was.

Until then Have a great day.

Oh and, Lets hope Gramps-a-lot and Pegster do not have another 3 year absence.

Blessings and yes he will be home in 4 more days

ANOTHER FAMILY BABY

2009-12-07T18:45:00.004-06:00

Yes folks that's right we are working on family baby number 3 in a matter of 2 months. My Brother, my cousin and now another cousin. I seem to be surrounded by pregnant friends, frienemies(my new word, Thanks Conan) , family members and acquaintances. It is just crazy.

I made a diaper cake for the Lightfoot baby, which is my cousin. He will be here within the month and we are so very excited.

His Daddy and I are 4 weeks apart and grew up together through are teen years. We have so many memories that I can never forget him, our time together or the love I have for him. It is difficult to express your love and thankfulness to someone like him though. He is a manly man! He holds a very special place in my heart and I am so happy and excited that he is about to join my world of parenthood. What a blessing it is.

So I, being the crafty one, decided to make him and his wife a diaper cake. I love to make these for special people in my life. They are not easy or simple. I put a lot of thought, shopping, research into these works of art. Each one is unique and I like it that way. No 2 are alike.

Baby Lightfoot is having a Nautical theme or sailboat themed room. It will be adorable so I decided that, that was the theme I wanted to follow. Boy, I thought it would not be hard but was I ever wrong. The shopping, Ohhhhh, the shopping. I never thought I was going to find just the thing for it. Finally I did and added a little quirkiness and hilarity to it as well, since Daddy is a nut job. He is down right hilarious, sarcastic and maybe a little rude but I still love him. So without further adieu!

Here it is the Lightfoot Diaper cake.