d-day at the whyte house.

the boy is officially active duty & away on orders.

the last few days have been very

chaotic for me, as my head just had not been

together.

no crying, just not remembering what i was

suppose to get done.

friday, our church had 'parent's night out',

so the kids went to play for 4 hours

while jus & i went to see 'the vow'.

emily helped us take photos before our date.

last night the kids had a pillow fight with daddy.
it was an extreme pillow fight, for sure. :)

and finally deployment day.

and for my super emotional sister, no, i didn't cry. 

justin's battle buddy, strunk, also deployed with him.
i'm grateful for him, since i know justin will be laughing a lot with him around. :)

see you soon, baby!

half of february.

i am incredibly behind in everything these days.

cleaning up valentine's day cards strewn about my house.

finishing up my ombudsman training.

finalizing things before the boy deploys.

i have so much information in my head,

but no idea what to do first.

here's some of our month of february so far.

our annual trip to st. joseph, mo was a little snowy.

the snow on the ground had melted, but they were still able to find some along the

house to have a snow ball fight with!

the last day of the beard for a whole year.

ice skating rink with the kids.  heidi had to sit that one out.  still wasn't cleared from surgery.

ja & jus had been up early for saturday morning basketball with the boys.
this was early evening naptime for them.

as we were getting ready to head home.

date night with daddy to see 'beauty & the beast' in the theater.
aiden went to a wsu basketball game w/him the night before, but em & i were out
dress shopping, so i didn't get any game photos.

justin received 'junior sailor of the year' for the 2nd year.

justin's deployment send off party.

two of high school friends drove in to town for it.

(photo courtesy of amber)

[we also had justin's youngest nephew's bday party,

but i have yet to edit those photos!

agh!]

aiden's valentine's day party.  he was the prayer helper.  the class prayed together,
but i could still hear him saying, "God'er Fa'der. God'er Fa'der, once again, once again, we have come to tank you, we have come to tank you, Ah-ha-men. Ah-ha-men."

the kids at emily's school party.  the boy fit right in there with all of her friends.

surgery done.

this was me last week.

now i'm missing 4 teeth; 3 wisdom and a molar.  i scared my daughter with the gauze hanging out of my mouth and ice pack around my head yesterday.  she ran in to see me after school, excited to see mom's "chickmunk cheeks". she didn't like that i didn't have swollen cheeks and had bloody gauze in my mouth.  she would not come and see me til i took the gauze out and ice pack off.  poor kid.  she took good care of me last night, coming in to my room every 10-15 mins to check on me.  she told me this morning that her brother was being bad when they went to bed last night, but she didn't come tell me 'cause she knew i needed to get some rest to feel better.  so sweet.

i now have a very small hole from my molar up front(they removed it because of how far it came out from the other teeth & because it can't be there when i get braces in). none of the removal areas hurt at all. each one has dissolvable stitches.  i like dissolvable.  we are good friends.

however, i am not friends with the hydrocodone med that they prescribed.  even with food, it makes me feel like i might hurl and i'm pretty drowsy with it.  drowsy and yet i can't sleep very well!  it's weird.   i was up at 3 am, watched a couple of episodes of 'one tree hill' on netflix and fell asleep on the couch...til aiden came running in at 6:30am.
ergh.

yesterday my cheeks were barely swollen.  today i woke up looking like this.  chipmunk cheeks are in full affect today!

the weirdest part is the cheek that is the most swollen only had one tooth removed on that side.

my cheeks hurt, as well as under my chin on my neck.

no visible bruising.

yet.

and no, there isn't any bruising around my eyes.

i just look that awesome all the time.

thanks to my husband for pointing that out.

rude.

:)

busy.

this weekend was jammed with things.

we kept busy!

i was asked to come out to drill on saturday

to mingle and be introduced to some of the navy

guys & girls at their chili feed.

drill.

without my husband.

borderline anxiety attack.

i showed up, super nervous, to find out

that the chief didn't let me know about a

change in schedule.

chili feed was moved to the next day.

he then threw me in a room where all the chief's

were in the middle of a meeting and introduced

me to them.

ha.

after 30 short minutes, i drove back to my in-laws and hung out with ja & heidi for most of the day.

heidi's doing well after surgery,

just moving slowly.

since i had to be at drill the next morning,

the kids and i went to saturday night service.

i hate saturday night service.

i hate sitting by myself.

i feel like i'm divorced/widowed.

i NEVER feel alone unless i'm at church by myself.

the kids and i rushed home after church,

ate dinner and went to bed.

sunday, we tried it again.

it was still very weird to be at drill without the boy,
but since i know so many of the guys already, it wasn't as bad as i thought it'd be.  especially since they didn't make me eat chili. :)  beans, blech!

after drill, i stopped by the amazing sarah shah's house and put in my photo order with her.  the kids will be handing out v-day photos to their friends this year.  super excited.
[saving my v-day card photo to post later.  em has a different outfit on in it. :))

this morning, the boy had western day at school & they made homemade bread.  crushed the wheat and all themselves.  i didn't stay to take photos, though.  i needed to get out to the base to workout, so i left my camera w mrs. mccalla and she took photos.  best idea ever! :)

my weigh in today said i'd lost 3 lbs over the last

10 days.

4 to go by feb 1st!

animals at school.

aiden's pre-k group had a special visit

from tanganyika today.

they brought in a prairie dog, a snake,

a hedgehog and an armadillo.

the kids were able to pet the armadillo and snake,

which always makes for fun photos. :)

[no mother, your grandson is not in this photo. stop looking for him. i'll tell you when.]

[nope. just ginger allison, mom.  no aiden. hold on.]

[this little girl isn't in his class, but her reaction was too good to not post.]

[he's in this one, mom!]

[hedgehog. he was cute.]

[he's in this one, too, mom!]

[and this is the photo evidence i got of him playing when he was suppose to be quiet.  busted, son.]

cousin playdate.

today my sister-in-law is having surgery

(probably finishing up as i type),

so i volunteered for chloe duty.

aiden was thrilled when i told him this morning

(AFTER i'd dropped emily off at school--she

would NOT have gone to school if i'd told her!)

that chloe was spending the day with him.

we ran a few errands this morning,

picked up some donuts for breakfast

(i didn't eat a single one, thankyouverymuch),

and went over to the exploration place.

the little hyped up pre-k'ers had some serious fun.  chloe even told me she was "pooped" afterwards.  :)

mission accomplished.

gifts.

the first post of the year and i don't have any

photos of the kids on it.

or any faces, for that matter.

instead, i have a photo of my new bag.

is that bad?

[he needs some new first class patches bad]

when the boy came home from his level 2 school

last week, he brought back the bag for me.

i don't usually get presents when he's gone.

i typically just tell him to pick up something for

the kids and we leave it at that.

so when he handed this to me,

i was indeed thrilled.

i've wanted to have one made through militaryhandbags.com

with his uniform,

but he hasn't had any that he's been able to get

rid of yet and i don't want a bag made

out of a uniform that he didn't wear.

so, that brings us back to my excitement.

with the bag came a pin.

his crossed anchors pin.

boatswains mate pin.

he mentioned on the phone how he'd

picked one up for his friend that just switched

his rate to boatswain mate and i was

quick to express that i wanted a pin, too.

oh, and a 'navy wife' decal for my truck.

[got one of those, too. :)]

there are so many times i have to be hush-hush

about navy related stuff,

when all i want to do is yell out how proud

i am to be a navy wife.

well, now i get to carry it around with me.

it's not loud, but it'll do.