CATCH UP

It has been pretty rough since RJ left for deployment. I have been so busy doing a lot of things here helping with dad when mom needs helping with laundry taking care of my own kids...and also dealing with other people who really shouldn't be here...yet are. I am trying to deal with all of what I know now...and all that I know is yet to come, with not just my own little family unit but my parents and the rest of my family as well. After Marcus' birthday party at our friends house in August, RJ had to leave on deployment. It was rough having him go, but I didn't cry as much this time as I did last time because I had to focus on what was needing to be accomplished. I am trying to focus on the goals we have, getting to the end of this battalion time without to much damage and finishing our career in the Navy hopefully without having to do this deployment crap again! Not long before RJ was deploy we had made the decision that we were going to pack all of our things into a storage unit and myself and the kids would go to Utah to stay with family until his return. We are going to deal with the separation even after he comes back as best we can, gotta make do with what we have been given...he was supposed to be home a year after this deployment but now they have shortened that by a month, so technically we are going to be able to be together for only 8 months...it's disappointing but I guess I'm used to it, I get flustered and frustrated and then I deal with it cuz there isn't anything I can do anyway...I hate that we have to be apart at all! Anyways...I got off track, I was trying to catch you up..... We stayed at our friends Jennifer and Steve Maldonado's until RJ had to leave...it was nice to be able to spend time with good friends just before RJ had to go too....it is a lot easier having support of friends to go back to also after he left...I think back on that and want to break down into tears...I can't tell how much it means to me that they were there for us and so strong...staying with people for over a month whom didn't have to open their home to us, but they did...I am forever grateful to them for that! A couple of days after RJ left, I packed up what little belongings the kids and I had with us at our friends house and drove back to Utah...my niece Nicole came to help with the kids...it was a fun trip, and we made it back in one piece. From the time we go there til now, it has been such a whirlwind of things happening....mom had surgery on her toe it was much needed...when she had that done I got the full brunt of what she has to do day to day for my father..it is no easy task, and to be perfectly honest, she is incredible to be doing what she does with how little her body wants to cooperate with her. It seemed like the healing process for mom and her toe took quite a bit longer than anticipate, in fact, she was kind of a tough case, the doctor seemed somewhat dumbfounded after a while...but we have it all figured out now...it's just mom's body being FREAKY...LOL. We have been able to get Marcus on a pretty good schedule here, the boys are doing fantastic in school..yes...yes...even Bryen is doing wonderfully....I always had the thought that perhaps this move to Utah might be a good one...and it has turned out that it has really led to some great things put in place for Bryen. My prayer is that we don't go back to California and have them start trying to tell us the same things they were before...the school here had debunked EVERYTHING the schools in Cali said...so I am prepared to fight for my son! I can't tell you how much that means to me to have had this opportunity to have Bryen in such a an awesome school, I believe it will make all the difference! Keeping in touch with RJ...has been far better than the last deployment when I was pregnant with Marcus. Skype works wonderfully and it is incredible to be able to keep in touch with him via Skype and video chat sometimes more than once a day. I am ready to have my own home again, nothing against my parents...but things are just FAR FAR to complicated around here for my liking...and I will be happy to have my own home with my own little family unit once again. I do miss my friends terribly as well....friends are so important...I do have friends here, girls I went to school with, and my siblings....(when I see them)but those military friends are irreplaceable and they understand far better than anyone else what you need and what you're going through :) We have been able to go see RJ's family twice since we came here to Utah. That is a HUGE blessing...listen to me...saying it's a blessing to see the in laws...I can not tell you how good it is for the boys to be able to spend time with both sets of their grandparents...that precious time is irreplaceable and it is something that I know they will remember forever! I am happy for this as well, if we weren't here in Utah, that would not have been possible either...so many good points. There are so many GOOD points to coming here to Utah...there are also a few bad ones. I won't get into those. Anyhow, life is good, we are taking care of some debt...at the same time as getting an opportunity to say that we have lived in Utah...I feel like my spirits are FAR more lifted than they were a year ago at this time. Marcus is doing impeccably well...Bryen is doing well...Kyle is doing well...(just starting to get some attitude) and RJ is doing fine on deployment and since we will be re united soon...everything is going to be great! I am excited for February....I do want to say Happy New Year...2012 will prove interesting I am sure. I know it will be better than 2011 for sure! Love To You All