Our Soldier and Amazing Papa

I get home from work Monday and there's a package in my door from Fed-X. I,m on my cell phone with Becky, it's dark outside, my hands are full, I can't read what the package says, so I brought it into the house. I,m telling Becky, "It says it's from Shelly Allen at DFW Airport." My first thought, ~Shelly Allen, that name sounds familiar to me, or does it? Becky said, it doesn't to her.~, Second thought, ~Richie must have left something at the airport in Dallas and they mailed it to our house~ I was wrong on both thoughts. I opened the package and there's a pink blanket, 3 books, two DVD's that he has written "For My Girls, with the date 19, Feb 2009" and a letter from the USO Volunteers. Here's what this amazing husband of mine did... On his way back to Iraq he had a layover at DFW Airport from 9:am to 3:pm. He spent a lot of his time at the USO area because they feed them, make sure they have coffee, juice, tea, water etc..., give them a place to rest and they also provide cell phone's for the soldiers so they can call their families. Well, they (DFW Airport and USO) have an area or room set up called "United Through Reading". I guess they sell books for kids and some miscellaneous items. He bought a Pink Blanket for Sadie and books for Haylee (Horse Heroes-she loves horses), Madyson (Dance at Papa's-she loves to sing and dance) and Jamison (Mama, How Long Will You Love Me?-she's a mama's girl). He also wrote a little message to them in each of their books. Well anyway, they have this room set up with a rocking chair and decorated like a Kingdom with Castles. He sat in the rocking chair and read a little out of each book for the girls plus he had a little personal message to each one about how much he loved them. They recorded it on a DVD and mailed them to our house for the girls. The letter said, "Dear Hero, Today a very special person stopped by the USO at DFW Airport's United Through Reading Room. They picked out a brand new book and made a DVD of themselves reading the book to you." It goes on to say, "We are one of the selected USO sites that offers our service members and their families the wonderful opportunity to read to their 'little heroes'. It was a pleasure to help your special person get this gift to you. If you'd like, send us a picture of you watching the DVD and we'll add it to the bulletin boards that line the entrance of the USO/DFW Reading Room. (Why am I crying???) Amazing Papa isn't he!!!

He loves his "Girls".

The Hallway at Mimi's

The hallway in our house is one of the favorite places to play for the girls and apparently Papa. I guess because it has a wood floor and it's fairly long. They like to have races, they eat their snacks, they sit at the far end and play with their toys or read their books to each other, they get at opposite ends and throw the golf ball (it's loud) and when Papa was home on leave I believe there were some bowling games played. They love the loud noise their shoes make when they run. At times we have some boo-boos because they forget that without their shoes the floor is slick. Not to sound like I have no compassion but...I have laughed at some of the falls the girls have made and then pick them up to kiss a boo-boo and wipe away the tears. Nevertheless...the hallway is a fun place to be if we have to be inside.

Playing, Reading and Silly Faces for the camera.

Eating Crackers.

Setting up the bowling pins.

Bowling!!!

My Valentine's Day Gift

My Valentine's Day gift from Richie this year literally came from 8,000 miles away. It was by far the best gift I have ever received. Here's the story... Back in December I received an email forwarded from Richie that one of the guys from his Company sent him regarding his leave. It looked very official, very military and it said his leave was Mid-March. I have been planning for this leave since I received the email. You know me, I like to plan ahead and have everything in order. He has 10 days of leave and I wanted to celebrate all the Holiday's he missed with us since he's been in Iraq, our anniversary and his birthday. I was planning the meals I knew he would want, the gift's, which I already had two of them purchased and was making plan's to get the rest, and celebrate each one on a different day.

Now, here's my time line of events:

February 3: My boss passed away, our office is in shock and very upset.

February 4: Our office was visited by super nice individuals from our Regional Office to start the changes we had to make due to David's death.

February 5: Up early, left the house at 6:15 am to pick Little Bit up in Oologah, drove from there to Sapulpa to pick up Madyson. Played with the two of them all day. Was on Skype with Big Richie from 8:30 to 9:30. Told him I needed to get to bed because my tomorrow was gonna start early again and I was tired.

February 6: Up early again, had to be at the funeral home at 7:00 am to do David's hair for the family because I think it's important to make sure he looked like himself to them. Left there and went to Sapulpa to pick up Madyson. (Had a good cry for David on my way there). Richie Von came over late morning with Haylee and Little Bit and I played with the grandbabies all day. Haylee and Madyson spent the night and we went to bed around 9:30 because, Mimi was tired. Daisha forgot to leave me Bella...a big mistake. Here's my conversation with Madyson once we got to bed:

Madyson: Mimi, where's Bella

Me: Uh Oh, Well, I think mommy took her to your house.

Madyson: Let's go get Bella and come back to your house.

Me: Well, it's late honey, mommy and daddy are probably already in bed.

Madyson: (almost in tears) but I neeeeeed her.

Haylee: Mimi, let's go get Bella at Aunt Daisha's. Madyson needs her.

Mimi: Well, why don't you sleep with Pearl tonight.

Madyson: But, Bella needs me. She's my daughter.

Mimi: How 'bout this: Let's go call mommy first.

Mimi: Daisha, where's Bella?

Daisha: Uh Oh, (Which, I believe those were my first words) I think she's in my car. Is Madyson crying?

Mimi: Yep.

Madyson: Mimi, can we go get Bella.

Daisha: Let me talk to her.

Madyson: Mommy, I need Bella.

Daisha: Listen honey, mommy's tummy hurts and I need Bella to stay here with me so I will feel better. I'll bring Bella to Mimi's tomorrow, OK?

Madyson: OK, Love you, bye. (said very sadly)

Now that we have that ironed out, let's get some sleep. Mimi's tired.

February 7: Richie Von had drills, and had to go before the flight board early morning, Amy had classes, so I took care of Haylee and Little Bit. Madyson was here and Daisha soon arrived with Bella. (Thank God) Richie Von and Amy had a get together that night with all the guys and their wives that went before the flight board and they picked up the girls around 11:00 pm. Now I'm alone but ok with that because I am very tired.

February 8: Got up at 7:00 am to get ready for church, back hurts, house a mess, got a phone call early from Daisha saying she probably won't be at church today but Michael had to do something and she'll come over around 2:30 or 3:00. Richie Von called a little later and said that my Valentine's gift came to his house yesterday so they will be over at 2:30 or 3:00 to bring it to me. I thought, my back hurts, my house needs cleaning, they'll be over about the same time so I'll skip church (said a little prayer, "please forgive me Lord"), clean house and fix a dinner for the kids.

Did I mention that I am tired???

2:30 no one arrives, 3:00 still no one, 3:15 guess I'll sweep the back porch so the girls can play out there if they want, door bell rings, they're all there at the front door instead of coming in thru the garage like normal??? what's up with that???, Haylee walks thru the door saying (or at least what I thought she said), "we're not staying long Mimi" (found out later she said "I'm not saying anything to Mimi), Amy looks frustrated at her and escorts her to the back room, uh oh, she must be in trouble, Richie Von is still in his uniform because he had drills, and both Richie Von and Daisha keep questioning me about why I was going to the Rosary for David, I thought, how rude, why don't they want me to go to David's Rosary???, we're still standing in the kitchen and I told the kids to get them a plate and let's eat, Daisha and Amy tell Richie Von to go out to the car to get my Valentine's gift from their Dad, they said to turn away from the door because they don't want me to see it as he brings it in, I hear the door open and Richie Von says "OK, turn around mom, here's your gift from dad", I turn around and there stands two men in uniform, one Richie Von the other MESM (Richie). I cried, I hugged, I kissed, some more crying, I was so surprised. They've been planning this since last October. (still can't believe Richie Von kept the secret) I know he has to leave on the 19th but I will greet every one of these 10 days with a smile and thank God that I have them. Happy Valentine's Day to me. It was the best ever.

My Valentine's Day Gift

Richie Von saying, "we got you mom"!

Still can't believe it. The best surprise ever.

Oh no, Mom's here, that means work!

Sadie's bed arrived at Michael's work place week before last on a Tuesday. And you know me, I showed up at Daisha's the next night with no tools in hand waiting for Michael to arrive. (He has all the tools and I wasn't sure where Richie's were) Anyway, Michael walks in smiling at Daisha like "I knew your Mom would be here before I got home and I bet she won't let us eat before we get Sadie's Baby Bed put together." Yep, that's me!!! But in my defense, before Michael got there we had Madyson's bed moved to the other side of the room while Daisha's rolling her eyes at me saying "Mom, just wait till Michael gets home, that bed is too heavy" and I had the Baby Bed parts removed from the huge box and perfectly organized ready to start construction. Michael says, "OK, let's get started, where's the instructions?" Um, Uh, Ok...We looked everywhere, it came with NO instructions, none, nada, zilch. So, Daisha gets on the internet to see if she could find something to help us, again, nothing, zilch. A little anger starts to set in because I want to get this bed put together. Michael says, "we can do this without the instructions". Well, thanks to Madyson's help, our foreman of the job, and her knowledge of the proper use of tools we got the bed put together. She did take a few white donut breaks and didn't offer to share even one of them with us and, by the way, Mimi's the one that brought the donuts over to their house. But putting that aside, the bed is done, the mess is cleaned up, tools put away and we are starving. Now, let's order Rib Crib.