Total Blog Negligence!

So first and foremost, I have to apologize to the 4 people who actually read this blog..lol I know my Mom, my Mother in law, my Husband and my Cousin were all terribly neglected by me not blogging about all the things I thoroughly inundate you with on facebook, on my blog..HA! I plead for forgiveness! I blame the camera!

As previously blogged about...Murphey (and her laws) are a bitch! Since Matt left illness has plagued this house! I have often had times since November where I seriously believed that friends/the CDC would at any moment quarantine this house, board us up and pull a move straight out of E. T. with plastic tunnels and hazmat suits! Ok so maybe not THAT severe but bless muh soul I truly had visions like that!

Aidan has a case of mystery flu/fever/ear infections galore. Poor little monkey had multiple ER/Dr visits, I do believe around 8 regular office visits, and 3 E.R. OOOOOHHH the fun! Pretty much had every form of normal illness I could diagnose (because I am totaly a doctor and should diagnose your children as well!) and then some, we dealt with inept, decrepit pyshician who long ago should have been put out to pasture (this is based not only apon his bedside manner, and skill level, but the massive amounts of Peter Cottontail esq. ear fur he was rocking) and young buck doctors who would rather toss another antibiotic at him, pat me on the head like a brand new first time Mommy and send me home like the hyperactive Mother I surely am. We seem to have hit the tail end of all this or are in a lovely little lull, but either way, I am happy to say things have "simma'd down" for now.

During the mystery illness phase we also had some really fun stuff happen (which the 4 of you blog readers likely already know about, since I have no delusions of grandeur....ok normally I do, just not tonight..lol) and this is where the catching up get's very......picture heavy. 1st off.......Thanksgiving......

SUCKKEEEEEEDDDD.........suckatular, suckarific, lame-a-roo all over. Not to say that the company I had around the actual meal time wasn't lovely....it was (thank you so much Nicole for letting Aidan and I poach your family and food for the day!!) This was the 1st time in over a decade that I have not cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about weird, but.....helpful, seeing as this is when Aidan and I got the sickies. I wasn't up for cooking. This was Jon's holiday, leaving me not only missing my hubby (missed you so much Lover!) but my 3 older bebe's. HATE SHARING! (Chanting, it's best for the kids, it's best for the kids----oooohhhhmmmmmm). Alas, alone we were, and Nicole's fantastic family had us along for some fun. There was a trip to Natichtoches which we all know I love, love, love at all times of the year but Christmas time is soooo adorable also the perfect opportunity to dress Aidan in a Santa outfit as every great Mother should do!What a doll baby! This was also right around when he turned 9 months old! He started eating table foods for the first time on Thanksgiving and went to town! Eppp....weaning begins! He went to town on pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, mashed potatoes and pickles of all things..lol Loves pickles. What an odd duck!

I was hoping that the way Thanksgiving holiday went off, wasn't a precursor to the remainder of the holiday season. Thankfully my big sister Amy came for Christmas~!!! Can we say yippee? Yep! Now Amy and I haven't been close over the last few years, just between distance, work, kids and life in general we (both of us) have sort of just gotten by on the obligatory "It's your birthdayyyyyy I love you"/"Merry Christmas" phone calls. This has defiantly take our relationship in leaps and bounds back to being actual sisters. Goofy inside jokes/ late night texting sisters. LOVE it!

Since Amy's sons Dave and Bob were coming for the holiday but at intermittent intervals we had a lot of travel back and forth to New Orleans, and why not take advantage of those (long ass, hate it) drives? Amy funded my 1st ever trip to New Orleans. AWESOME city

.......I will not, however, return without male protection in the way of a Husband, large Brother or hired body guard. The amount of homeless and people loitering menacingly in doorways and alleys was a tad foreboding. Thus why we toured the graveyards (which were AMAZING!!! Love me some history) right behind two paid tour guided groups (becuase we are far too cheap to pay someone to tell us things..lol), as to avoid being mugged. Seeing as the graveyards are smack i the middle of the ghetto.....there was literally a used old fire hose on the ground outside it with a random woman's shoe right outside the entrance.

The city had places that were so beautiful and so full of history and then one block down an area where windows were rolled up, doors locked, and eyes straight ahead. lol. All in all a wonderful, if not slightly scary/crowded trip! I would love to go back with my Hubby though, and do all the grown up things you really don't get to do with 6 kids in tow.





Below is a picture of Aidan talking to Daddy on the phone. Matt happened to call as we were walking through the graveyard. Aidan was talking up a storm behind that pacifier. I love moments like this! Thank you modern technology!


The 9th Ward was defiantly a sobering 30 minutes in the car. I was really impressed with all of the children, who sat quietly and took it all in.

Maybe we went on an off day, or perhaps in December all the good street performer's are off wearing Santa suits, but the entertainers there could learn a thing or two from those in San Francisco! This fella, literally just stood there. Oh well, the kids really thought he was cool.



This is what I meant by "crowded" trip. Ya, 6 kids squashed in the mini van on a 4+ hour drive. AWESOME!

Matty thought that cousin Bob was the greatest thing since sliced bread (yes I totally just used that oldie but goodie) they were inseparable...rather Matty was like a fungus on poor Bob. He He, Bob did all he could to resist the urge to spatula Matty off his hip for the few days he spent at my house.
Well, it seems I have lost my motivation to blog for the rest of the trip due to the hype from my evil Jillian Michael's work out finally wearing off. I will blog again another day, likely tomorrow,seeing as I can not stand knowing I blogged half a trip and am leaving the remainder of my billion pictures not blogged about..lol Coming soon.....The remainder of this trip(Natchitoches and the plantations), Christmas, update on Matt, Social studies fair, some crafting (because you know how I like to let you all stroke my ego....he's my little pet..you love him..he's furry) and all sorts of other randomness I am most certainly forgetting about right now.

Chili Fest Cook-off and Vetren's Day Program

Oh my, my, my! I should never be allowed to go to a Veteran's Day program for my kids alone again! Especially right after Matt deploys... oi! That was a tough one. Those sweet little voices singing so proudly, seeing the parents stand who were Veteran's past and present and then seeing Cody cry when he said he was heart broken that his Dad (Matt) couldn't be there. It was very poignant.




Cody's video had a very silly little boy in the front row who either can't sing or chose to sing off key on purpose..lol funny.




Also on the last few weeks our Apache wives (the family readiness group for Matt's unit, we call our selves Apache Wives for those of you who are civilian) entered the Fall Fest Chili Cook-Off. It was sooooo fun! It was windy, rainy and F-F-F-REEEZING batman! Despite all that it was a blast and OMGRACIOUS the chili was good! We had some awesome women show up to help pass it out, decorate the booth and chop, stir and cook it with us. We even won "People Choice Best Tasting Chili" Which we all thought we deserved of course..lol We were lucky ANYONE showed up with the pouring rain we had that day. Fall Fest was a bit of a bust but I already can't wait for next year!

Halloween

Matt tried on Michael's halloween costume.

At the pumpkin patch with Aidan

Miss Caite, Michae and Cody about to meet Billy the Exterminator from tv. Excited much?

Figured I would hop in there for a picture too.

Just a cute pic of Matt and I after one of the kids football games

Matt was a LITTLE excited.........ya..just a smidge.

Michael the washing machine

Matty was Peter Pan

Aidan was going to be a sock money but my sewing skills aren't as great as I hoped and he got Harry Potter instead.

Cody wanted to be a bank robber.

And these are curtosey of my Mother in law who told me Matt was Peter Pan for his 1st halloween....BBWWHAHAHAHA

OK so as we can all tell, I am VERY behind on posting. We've had a lot of football, frg functions, and school projects taking up a good bit of my time, thus blog posting comes in last! There are som MUCH MUCH MUCH better ones coming when I finally post our amazing photo session from seraphinos photography, but for now, this was our lame family shoot we did before halloween with Matt.

9 Months Old!

Teeth, teeth, teeth. I feel like this entire month has been about teeth! Aidan cut in his 1st bottom tooth not long ago and this in the three weeks since Matt left has cut in two more and the fourth not far behind. As you would assume, this three weeks has not been a fun three weeks..lol.
The crawling has FINALLY happened. It's more of a belly scoot, then lean back and sit up, then repeat..lol but, it's movement. He just hasn't been interested in being mobile and frankly I haven't minded too much. It means more Mommy cuddle time and less exploring! Soon enough he will be off like a little rocket in every which direction, so I will soak up all of the "I need Momma" time I can get. Besides, all the hugs and cuddles help with the pain of missing my love.
"Da, Da" there has been a lot of "Da, da, da, da,da" going on, we aren't sure if he really knows that it means "DADA" or if it's more of a sound he enjoys, he does however seem to do it most when Matt gets on the web camera and talks to him. He has actually been nursing while I was on web cam with Matt (yes, I do that on camera. Any face time we get together we take and if that happens to fall into his feeding schedule so be it) and Aidan will hear Matt's voice and pull off, turn to the computer, say "Da, dadadada" and wave his little hand at the screen and grin. It MELTS ME!!!! I am loving that he knows who to look at when I say"where's Momma?" or "Where's Mikey?" .


Pulling up~ YES!! finally there too! He may not be a speed crawler but he is finally interested in grabbing a hold and hauling himself up. He does it to me mostly, but once there standing he wants to be turned and allowed to hold onto the couch looking back at his brothers who tend to play with him a lot. It's too cute.
Also...note the video Daddy, of him feeding himself fruit puffs! Yay!!


I am a bit behind on posts so next up, Halloween, and soon to follow the MOST AMAZING FAMILY PICTURES EVER!!!!!!!!!!
I heart Seraphino's photography! Amy Smith is just amazingly talented!

Murphey's Law

Ya, Murphey thinks he's got jokes for Rachael this week! You know the old saying "When it rains it pours"? Well I have never been more thankful for being raised with a positive outlook than I was this past two weeks.
Things that made these last two weeks suck~
~Matt deployed
~The older three boys attitudes went haywire (to be expected , however, not allowed)
~I lost the master copy of the snack list for football games thus I didn't remind the right parent and the team had no snack at Thursday's game making me feel like a heel!
~ Aidan is cutting 3 new teeth, making him an all night screamer/ never wants to be put down.
~Three day long migraine kicked my butt.
~Lice was going around and school and for a second I thought Cody had it, thus all 3 older kids got high and tight hair cuts to avoid this..lol after all I have over 2 feet of hair...I don't need lice in the house!
~Some tool stole Matt's debit card information and drained his bank account. Ya, this one was a doosie.
~I forgot where I put my Power of Attorney (SUPER stupid move and I was thoroughly upset with myself for not having filed it away correctly), which I needed to send into Matt's bank to take care of the stolen money issue ASAP. Yup......I'm AWESOME like that.
~Both Michael and Cody have a 3 page research paper due and my laptop power cord wouldn't work, thus leaving us with no computer with which to research or type up the paper.
~I needed to do a wire transfer and after 3 attempts from my bank account it wouldn't work, and since I had a brand new card and brand new pin number I couldn't remember it...lol Yep, again, another shining moment of Rachaelness.
~I shampooed my carpets only to later that night have Aidan have explosive diarrhea out the diaper. Michael swooped him up in a second when he saw it and then gagged, allowing Aidan's foot to step in it and smoosh it all over the carpets. I finally lost it then and there, sat down on the couch and laughed with the kids until we cried. AHHH laughter what it will do for your soul!

I found put on my big girl panties and dealt with life! The kids learned that deployment or not attitudes aren't acceptable, we missed Matt like crazy but it helps that we get to see him on web camera and watch videos we took of Matt reading bedtime stories (this helps a lot!). The kids got hair cuts. I bought a new charger cord hopeing this will last until we can afford a new laptop (tax season I can not wait for you!).
Tylenol is my friend, both for Aidan's teeth and my head. I found the P.O.A. and got the bank mess straightened out and the money back! YAY!!!! Got my pin number sent in the mail, and re shampooed the carpets all the while taking deep breaths, and finding a way to giggle through it. All because my Mother and Father raised me to not let things get you down, and because my kids are amazing and my husband gave me words of encouragement and made me smile. Telling me he had complete confidence in me. Murphey, I tip my hat to you and say "Well played sir, well played".

Saying Those Painful Goodbye's

Well, that time has come and gone and in odd way's we are grateful to get this started. The coming deployment has loomed over us like a dark storm cloud for a long time and to finally get the goodbye's done and start the counting down weeks means we can look for silver linings and get into a routine. ARG I hate deployments, and I know all my veteran deployment spouses are feelin me on that one. Blech- did I say how much they suck? Ya, I did, but they sure do make you appreciate the small moments all that much more. Like a 4 second long phone call of nothing but static from another country. Hours spent trying to connect to a messenger service to get a glimpse of your loved one. Or unexpected pictures. There is a wonderful group of Vets and families that show up at the airport our guys went through who stop and take pictures and post them for their families and that sure made our day. Seeing a random picture of him eating lunch, yep, we smiled and cried and smiled and cried some more. Ya, we're emo like that. It was more than chilly out the night we dropped him, and seeing as you can't sit in your personal vehical with your weapon that meant standing outside freezing....well,I wasn't cold...mmm butt warmers! Sorry sweet cheeks....Leave it to a Soldier to figure something out..lol he grabbed one of Aidan's baby blankets in the back and snuggled into it..he's so cute!

As for me smiling......ya I wasn't in a smiley mood, however remember that "inappropriate reaction to stress" I have? Ya...there it goes rearing it's obnoxious head. Grins when all I could think of was "don't cry, don't cry, not yet. Hold it in just a little longer". Those hugs will have to last until R&R, just don't be standing in my way when he gets off that plane..lol you will be trampled! You have been warned.

And here is Cody, looseing it, or just about too. This shot breaks my heart over and over. My sweet little Tank.

I was able to hold it together really well up until the good bye's to the kids, man those were tough, cody about killed me. He sat back on the couch and allowed the other boy's to have their goodbyes and his eyes welled up and he practically refused to say his goodbye. They hugged and he held those tears in...just about to pour over the rims of his eyes and I said "Cody it's ok to cry hunny, Daddy wants to cry too" and that did it, he lost it. We've had a few phone calls from school saying he's cried during class a few times so we are putting a lot of time into making packages and drawings and letter writing. Seeing him on the web camera had all 3 older boys running for the computer bawling! But what a wonderful release that was for them. A few tears turned into happy faces and jabbering about how they are going to win this game or that to make Dad/Coach Morris proud.

Matt and Cpt. Gilchrest in Afghanistan.

Well, now he's there, made it safely to his final destination and settling in, just as we are settling into a routine. Our new normal. Time to put on the big girl panties and the "everything is fine" smile and start some projects to keep myself sane!

~We miss you and love you Matthew. We are impatiently waiting for you to come home safely. Counting down the weeks (because there are just too many days to count!). Missing you with all that I am.................