MudBug

We had the opportunity to fly out to Shreveport, Louisiana over the first weekend in November for a very special occasion. Joe's aunt and uncle are big fans of the local hockey team, the Lousiana MudBugs, in fact, Uncle Mike's CPA firm is a huge supporter of the team. McKay Consulting sponsors Military Appreciation night every year at the game, and Uncle Mike and Aunt Catherine called us and asked if we would like to come down. Joe would have the role of dropping the first puck of the game that night!! What a great honor!!! It was a great weekend. We didn't want to leave, in fact, we were grateful our flight was delayed coming home, because we had an extra night in Shreveport with family!! =] Aunt Catherine and Uncle Mike have always been so generous to our family, but we consider their love for us, their greatest gift!! We hope they know how much we love them and appreciate everything they do for us!!

So, it's been awhile =]

So, it's been awhile since I last blogged. Things have been somewhat crazy around the Power House in the recent months. Let me back up a few months and give a recap of what the Power Family has been up to the last few months. Let's see, our summer was filled with lots of ups and downs. Joe took command of his second battery here on Fort Bragg. This new command for Joe has been very exciting and overwhelming for us. Joe has a very busy schedule and even when he is home, it has felt that he isn't. His battery is gearing up to deploy at the end of December/ beginning of January time frame. So, needless to say, he has been extremely busy.

Joe's uncle (his Dad's brother) lost his battle with colon cancer in June. Uncle Brian was a great man, always seemed to be so lucky. One of my favorite memories of Uncle Brian is when we lived in Oklahoma in 2003, and Uncle Brian took us to an OU game! He was actually at a gas station, when someone noticed he had an OU sticker on his car, and offered him box seat tickets to a game. They weren't going to be able to make the game that week and had season tickets!! He won or was given things ALL the time!! He actually had a message on his cell phone after he had passed that he had won a free OU t-shirt from a local radio station!! =] Joe, the kids, and I traveled out to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the services. Whew, what a LONG trip that is!! *At least we will be somewhat prepared when we move back to Oklahoma in the summer of 2011*. Nathan's 5th birthday happened to fall during our trip to Tulsa, so we had a little party with family while we were there.

We spent a few weeks in July and August with Joe's parents in Maryland. My favorite part of our trip was our outing to the National Archives. It was a very humbling experience for me. I love history and having the chance to see the original documents, that are a core part of country's foundation, was huge for me. We took the kids to see Ice Age 3, which was really cute!! We all enjoyed the movie.. I think I laughed more than anyone else in the theatre!!! =] Joe, like always, used his free time to tear up the greens!! Golf Golf Golf!!! =] Although Joe thoroughly enjoyed his tee times, the highlight for Joe was taking his dad to the Sir Paul McCartney concert in DC. The Beatles are Joe's all time favorite band, and I think they rank up there with Joe's dad also, as he said after the concert that he had marked a line off his "bucket list". Among the celebrations, we marked our 6th wedding anniversary on August 3rd, as well as Noah's 2nd birthday on July 26th, while in Maryland. I just don't know where the time goes!! A few days after our return home from Maryland, Joe went out to the field for a few weeks, so I made a trip home to South Carolina for a week and a half. I so enjoyed having some quality time with my family (or should I say families) and friends.

Nathan started kindergarten at the beginning of September. I was a big ball of tears his first day. I am grateful that he was enrolled in Pre-K last year, or the transition this year would have been much harder for me. Nathan loves school and has a great teacher. Mrs. Hammond is a veteran teacher from Fort Jackson and has 20 years + under her belt. Of course you know we love her when she is a SC girl!!! =] Nathan is excelling in school and we are enjoying watching him grow and learn.

These last few weeks have been one for the books. Joe has had a good amount of field time recently. Joe had been out in the field for a week, came home, and left for a pre deployment trip to Afghanistan. I used all the sweet talk I could muster and convinced Joe's mom (Mimi) to make the trip down for a few days while he was gone. It made sense to me, especially since Joe's dad was already in Afghanistan at the time. It just so happened that Noah's repeat hernia surgery was to be set a week out from when Mimi was planning to go home. I didn't have to do much begging and pleading for her to stay for the surgery, knowing that I would need a strong shoulder to lean on. The surgery was October 2, last Friday. The surgery itself went well. The urologist said there was no evidence of a recurring hernia, but that Noah's boy parts had not drained properly after the initial surgery in 2008. He had a couple of stitches on his boy parts where they had drained the fluid. We were hopeful, once we were home, that his recovery would go well. With things looking up, Mimi left for Maryland on Saturday morning. Late Saturday afternoon, Noah spiked a high fever. He was very swollen and bruised. Sunday came around, and he had gotten worse. He was inconsolable, in severe pain and hadn't moved from the couch for at least 24 hours. Joe finally made it home, after an extended stay in Afghanistan, at around 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning...just in time to wake up about 3 hours later and drive the 2 hours to UNC's Emergency Room. Just as we had expected, Noah had developed a severe infection from the surgery. We were admitted to the Pediatric Hospital at UNC on Monday morning and had a nice long stay until Friday. They tried several rounds of antibiotics for a couple of days, and to no avail, Noah hadn't shown any signs of improvement. By Wednesday, they had the Infectious Disease Department coming in to check on Noah and give their advice as to what antibiotics might attack his infection. Thursday morning, they took Noah back for surgery again, and to no one's surprise, there were 2 pockets of infection, that were drained and treated. They left a band in over night to allow the wounds to drain efficiently and removed it on Friday morning. We were finally released around noon on Friday!! Praise the Lord!!! =] Noah is still recuperating at home. He is on 2 different antibiotics for 30 days, and we go back on the 20th for a check up. He seems to be getting better, but we are keeping a close eye on his wounds, as they were not closed up and could run the risk of getting infected again from the outside.

So that is a recap of what has been going on with us. We are very much looking forward to the upcoming holiday season, although bitter sweet for us, as this means, we inch closer to the date that Joe deploys to Afghanistan for a year. We will be hosting Thanksgiving again at our house this year and look forward to the memories that will bring. We hope all of our family and friends have been doing well the last few months, and look forward to seeing all of you soon!! Love to you all!!!

Organizing Tip #2 "Mail Madness"

Okay, everyone ready for more organizing tips?? I know how overwhelming you can feel when things are cluttered and disorganized, especially when you are looking for something in particular, and much to your dismay, after you tore your house up looking for it, you still can't find it!! Sound familiar?? It is so easy to let things go in our homes. We get so busy with day to day activities that by Friday, you can't see the counter due to all the mail, receipts, notes, etc. I have several tips for avoiding the mail madness!! My first suggestion would be to not just walk in the door with your mail or school/business papers and set them down. If you just take a few minutes to look through them when you get home, it will save you from having huge piles at the end of the week, or more importantly, not losing something important.

My second tip would be to keep a shredder machine accessible in your house. When I go through my mail, I open each piece and sort it into piles: trash, shred, or file. We all know that we get what seems like thousands of unwanted credit card applications every week, and the best way to deal with them is to shred them when you get them, unless you plan on using it. Shredding them is also a way to safeguard yourself from identity theft!! Filing your papers/receipts is key to organizing your homes. You really can't afford not to file your important papers. It is the only way to protect them from getting lost or damaged. There are many different types of file organizers out there, and not all of them will cost you a fortune. If you can't afford a filing cabinet, there are fan file folders that work well also. If you are even more thrifty, shoe boxes work wonders for filing!!! You can also use envelopes to organize receipts, file them in a shoe box as well, so if you need to return something, you have the receipt handy!!

For those of you who have these overwhelming piles in your house, don't stress!! The first thing to do to get yourself started is to go ahead and either purchase a filing cabinet, file folder, or whatever you plan on using. Second thing, START TODAY!! When you get home, go through your mail/paperwork! You don't need to have organized your piles first; you can start with today's and begin your process of ending your mail madness!

Organizing Tip #1

Okay, for all of you out there that read my blogs and want to get organized this year, I am your new best friend! Being organized doesn't take a lot of time or money, and you don't have to be OCD about having a clean house to be organized either!! =] Being organized is really just about having a specific "home" for your belongings, instead of having piles of clutter. I suggest starting with smaller projects in your homes so you don't get overwhelmed. Maybe try starting with a small linen closet or a small coat closet. You can start organizing by grouping like things together; for instance, in your linen closet, group towels together, sheets together, etc. You don't have to take a lot of time to fold them perfectly, it is about utilizing your space and knowing exactly where things are located. Getting organized takes some time and sometimes means getting rid of things that are not being used and just taking up space. Gotta let go of those pack-rat tendencies in order to get organized!!

So I have been told that I am extremely organized, so every week I will blog about some small things you can do to become more organized. Being organized doesn't always take a lot of time or a lot of money!! So, get your notepads ready tomorrow for my tidbits of advice on being organized!!

Trials and Tribulations

We as Americans are going through some great trials and tribulations right now as our economy suffers, many are left jobless, homeless. While I am very fortunate to have a roof over my head and a husband that has a steady income, I do have my own trials that I go through. I struggle with depression; I think I probably have always had a mild form of it, especially growing up in a broken home, but struggled more so after the birth of my boys. There are times when you are depressed that you just don't know if you will ever feel "normal" again. It seems like when you are down in the dumps, everything seems to hit you all at once. And almost always, you think, why is this happening to me? Why is God allowing these trials to continue in my life? You know, I have never believed the saying "God doesn't give us more than we can handle". I do believe there are things out of our control that happen to us, that are far more than we can bear as human beings. I believe that God allows us to endure hardships because He trusts us. He trusts that when those trials are far more than we can bear, that we will lay our burdens down at His feet. We as Christians are "to cast our cares on Him." We are too often too independent, thinking that we can figure a way out of our dilemma or situation. We scramble for solutions, thinking we can fix or solve whatever is going on in our lives. And the bottom line is, WE CAN'T! No matter how minute or small your circumstances, whether you struggle financially or emotionally or whether your health has declined, whatever is going on in your life, God knows your hurts and fears, and He is waiting on you to turn over those reigns, to lay those burdens at His feet. I relate this to the Footprints story. The story doesn't have two sets of footprints all the way to the end. Not to say that God doesn't walk with us on our journeys to the end, but when times get tough and we can't go any more, there's only one set of prints, because He carries us and our burdens. We as Christians we never meant to carry them alone! I believe in my heart, that God doesn't give us what we can handle; He helps us handle what we have been given!!

The Descent

As I was cleaning out the boys' closets and drawers today, ridding them of all of the clothes that they have outgrown and inevitably adding a huge stack of clothes to the already mountainous pile of things in my garage that I need to sell or give away, I had a few moments to look back on this year. It is hard to believe that another year has gone by, and it's even harder to a
admit how much my children have grown in a year. *blinks* I do have the clothes to prove it!! As I kept pulling their clothes off hangers and out of the drawers, I was flooded with memories from this past year, remembering where this year went and how we spent our time!

As I look back on 2008, through the joy and sadness, smiles and tears, there was always something to be thankful for. There have been some really proud moments throughout this year: In April, Joe took command of Headquarters Battery. We were so proud to watch Joe embrace his new role and witness just how far he has come in his career! Both of the boys celebrated their birthdays over the summer; Nathan turned 4 on June 22nd and we celebrated Noah's 1st birthday on July 26th. On August 3, Joe and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. As much as I look back on 2008 and think it flew past me, these last 5 years have gone by even faster! In September, Nathan started his first year of school at Devers Elementary here on Fort Bragg. I was so overwhelmed with emotions on his first day. I was sad because I knew Nathan's time at home with me had come to an end; yet on the other hand, I was extremely happy and excited for Nathan to learn new things and meet some new friends. Selfishly, I wanted him to stay home another year, but I am so glad that he has had the opportunity to go to school this year. He has learned so much already and is such a good little student!! My eyes still well up with tears every morning as my little man hops out of the car at the loop in front of the school, turns around, and gives me the biggest smile his face will allow! *pride, such pride*

2008 was a year of awakening for me. For some time I had been feeling like God had been telling me it was time to grow up. I didn't really understand what He meant until I started doing a Bible Study called "Wisdom for Mothers" by Denise Glenn. As long as I can remember, Sunday's were church days. We would have Sunday school, then church service, then it was out to eat with other church families! I "grew up" in the church, and I was very fortunate to have godly parents that instilled those virtues in me; yet God was still pushing me to "grow up". Through "Wisdom for Mothers", I began to realize that God was longing for me to shed all of the things I knew of Him as a child and to take on a more mature relationship with Him. It was time for me to grow up in Him. 2008 has been an emotional journey for me as I am discovering who I really am in Jesus and exposing the things in my life that aren't of Him.

As we turn the corner and make our descent into 2009, I am anticipating another year to fly by, but this next year, I am determined to not let it fly by me! I want to soak up every waking moment with my husband and my children. The old saying, "Time flies by faster, the older you get", is so true, but I also believe it is because we get so caught up in our daily routines that we forget to stop and enjoy life right where we are! I look forward to making new memories as we continue our journey as a family! I also look forward to growing in the Lord as an adult. I can't wait to see how He plans to use me in 2009. I pray I am always willing to go where He sends and that His vision and purpose will always be my mine!