Saturday, September 26, 2009

Military Families facing yet another crisis...

that our government holds at arm's length. Please read this blog:

http://continue-to-march.blogspot.com

Tracy Peterson & her family are in dire financial straits and are being forced into foreclosure and financial disaster. Please read her blog and contact your senators and representatives DEMANDING that the Homeowners' Assistance Program (http://hap.usace.army.mil/homepage.html), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, be fully funded and operational immediately.
It is bad enough that our country is in this financial mess, but when our servicemembers and their families are in a crisis that our government can resolve and should resolve, it makes my blood boil.

Funny, on my end, I spent most of yesterday morning on the phone arguing with a civilian and and a sergeant in the TMO office about our household goods weight entitlement. I KNOW what we rate, I KNOW we can resolve this issue and I KNOW that I cannot afford to have the government check my husband's pay for $2400 because they cannot manage to administer military moves in an effective manner. The red tape and hurdles that we have to jump through as military families are ridiculous. I have 4 children under 7, I have moved 5 times in 2 years, I was a Marine when that idiot sergeant was in diapers and I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SH*T.

I am beyond proud that I served my country as a Marine, that my husband continues to serve and that our family continually supports him. I love my life most of the time. But it's times like these that make me want to drive a tank up on capitol hill and force every one of the overpaid and underworked "representatives" of our american people to LISTEN to our military families. I tell you what, if you gave me, Tracy and Michelle 15 minutes on Capitol Hill, it might just make life a little easier for our military and a whole lot more real to those who have no idea what it's like to live this life.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Goodbye Eva, See you later!

chirps Charley, standing on the front porch, her hand waving like a pennant in the wind at the big yellow bus.

I'd freeze these moments, like frames in my mind's eye.
All of a sudden it feels like time is whipping by.
my sweet baby beans are shifting and changing
daily, my life, it is rearranging.
i don't want to wake with regret
that things they've done, i might forget.
lately i notice i don't hold my babies,
i don't stop what i'm doing, i'm constantly crazy.
what if tommorow comes way too fast
these precious times gone at last.
Lord, slow the clock and let it crawl
lest this mama miss it all.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

The total tiff transformation...

Change is in the air, I think. Must be the change of seasons, or the shock of life with 4 kids under 7, or well, just because I darn well feel like it!
So, for those of you who are aware of my attachment to long hair, this may shock you. So sit down or you'll fall down....
Before....


Middle...


After!




And I LOVE IT!!

Friday, September 11, 2009

in the blink of an eye...

your children grow up. they change in a skinny minute. So many days I want to slow time to a crawl and burn the image of each moment in my brain.

Eva running across the front yard with the grace of a young filly, her hair a golden ribbon in the wind, her laugh tinkling like the sweetest of bells.

Charley standing at the door, clad in pink overalls and cowboy boots, her hair curling softly at her shoulders, "I go wich you, Mommy?"

Mercy sound asleep, curled on her side with her little fingers cupping her cheek, softly snoring.

Max turning to look at me as he wakes, serious and focused, his sweet face slowly curling a grin that simply melts my heart, his eyes lighting up and his eyebrows lifted to the sky.

If you have ever doubted the existence of God, look into the eyes of a child. You will see He lives there. And he entrusted these souls to you. Love them, Laugh with them, Linger in life with them.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Funny, how things never turn out the way you think they will...

when you leave friends. or friends leave you. When you move as often as I do, you make friends fast and close. Your friends become your family. They keep your kids when you're in the hospital. They spend turkey day in your concrete dwelling, making one big family from so many little ones. They throw you surprise parties and baby showers. They dry your tears, laugh with you and at you. Drink too many bottles of wine and spill years old, painful secrets. They eat enough garlic to kill a horse with you at an all garlic restaurant, then head out to a club to play pool, sing karaoke and knock other drunks out with our smell. Their hubbies become your friends too, making sure you are so loopy getting ready to go into surgery that you have NO idea what embarrasing crap you spilled before they took a chunk out of your nose.
They love your kids like their own. They love you like a sister. And when it's time to go, you all swear you'll see each other every year. You'll talk often. You won't lose touch.
And you don't. at first. then everyone gets busy. the calls and the emails get fewer and farther apart. until you just don't even know what you'll say when you call or write. so you just don't. and then you really miss them.
you run into a friend from an old place, someone who knew everyone you did, but didn't "hang" with you. you get to talking and those old pangs of sadness just hit you like a brick. and you think about all the friends you've loved like family and wonder just how many of them you'll really ever see again.
and you wish you had more time (and a magic wand to make the world smaller...)
and you remember all the good times, the bad times and the in between times.
and you're thankful.
that you knew them, that you know them, that someday maybe you'll see them again. and you wish your phone had, like, 100 speed dial options...
So many friends, so many years, so many moves. such a wonderful family I've made with my friends. Just hope too many years don't pass by before we meet again. With love to each of you... you all know who you are.

tiffers

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Oh, the piles of crap...

I manage to accumulate. Add to that no purging for almost 2 years (since my life has been in chaos...) and it all equals saturday night spent sorting crap so I can walk through my future sewing/office/writing/scrapping room. Tack on a mini meltdown about moving and you have a perfect recipe for an empty bottle of wine and one tired mama.
I often wonder if we'll ever live somewhere long enough for me to really use the damn sewing/office/writing/scrapping room. I am really SO SICK of moving, packing, unpacking, sorting, painting, hanging, decorating, shopping. Yes, I said shopping. I think I am totally burnt out. To the point of considering never leaving North Carolina ever again. And for those of you who really know me... that is a shocker. Hope you were sitting down.
Off to collapse into a (hopefully) deep sleep.
Tiffers