There's No Place Like Home...

We will be going to my Mom's for Thanksgiving Day. James actually wanted to stay home. He is into his room and XBox 360. He never surfaces. Marin and Jon want to go see Grandma and my sister Bea. Jim wont be home. He will be eating turkey dinner Navy style. I am really hoping he got my care package and will have a little of home with him. We will drive back home on Thursday night. Marin has to babysit the nieghbors animals so we cant stay. Besides I need to be home by BLACK FRIDAY...I am going out and trying to get a big Jump start on the kids gifts, you know...Santa and I at work ;) I am hoping everyone has a beautiful holiday. Be thankful for all your blessings. Have a wonderful holiday and God Bless.

Operation Care Package

So...Its Operation Thanksgiving Day Box for Jimmy. I have sent him regular mail and a bubble envelope for Halloween. Along with some pictures of the kids for his bed (small wall) and office. Its amazing how the times have changed. 15 years ago Jim and I only had the post office. We would number our letters so we wouldnt get out of sequence and get confused if they came all out of order. I recall getting them and smelling the paper. Funny what you do...but I did., his letters smelled JUST LIKE HIM. I would read them over and over. Jim has always been so sweet when he writes. But now we have email. Email is great. We are so thankful for the technology of it all. I can email and not have to wait for days or months for a response. That helps alot when chaos is happening !! But it does take away from the personal part of the letters. I cant smell email. But it still warms my heart when I hear "YOU'VE GOT MAIL" I anxiously scan for the ones that say haffnerj :)  So Thanksgiving is around the corner. For Jim to get his box I need to have it ready by Mon. 11/16/2009. I had it ready and mailed it out on Saturday 11/14/2009. Didnt want to take any chances that this wouldnt arrive on time. Its the very least I could do, bring a "little bit of home" to him.

So...I broke the rules...what else is new ...LOL The post office has so many strict rules now. 911 changed alot of things for the worse too. I know chances cant be taken...but its ME. I am not a bomber and I have no intentions of harming anyone. So...I sent those chocolate chip cookies !! Sue me. I also sent Velvetta Cheese and Rotel for him to make his favorite dip. He asked for that. I thought that was funny. I enclosed some trail mix and dove chocolates. Dove is his favorite ;) I included some writings/coloring pages that Jon wanted to send him. James Jr. had an article published and I put that in too. Jon, James and Marin made the Honor Roll and well...that came out in the paper too. So off I clipped that and sent it. I sent him the t-shirt from the Autism Walk. along with the lapel pin I made. The greatest thing in that box was a small 10 inch Christmas tree, 25 battery operated multi colored lights, a star and some small baby ornaments. This is for the Office :)
Just because they will be gone for the holidays doesnt mean the holidays have to be GONE from SIGHT. Anything to spread a little cheer and joy. Thats a MUST. None of this is cheerfull for any of us. But we must take these lemons and make lemonade. I hope he likes his Thankgiving day box. A "care" package to show him we "care" We love him and miss him. The Postal Clerk at the post office made it tough to mail out that silly box. She had a huge form and wouldnt stop talking about how SAD this was...It is SAD and no one has to tell us. We are living it. But I have to live it with a happy heart. A heavy sad heart gets me no where but depressed and I cant do that. Because this is what he does...what he loves to do and what I support him doing. Regardless of the sacrifices made. So I am sending that Care Package off with a huge happy heart.

Autism Walk and a few steps forward...

Blogger has been weird and acting up. I was wanting to post for a few days but couldnt get logged in. Maybe its updating their site. Who knows...Anyway...here I am :) I wanted to post about the Autism Walk. My family came down ( Grandma and my niece Lily) Some friends, the Kline and Fluker Family and Sharon W. Even Marin's best friend Jennifer Portillo. We had a great start...nice weather. We made t-shirts and lapel pins for Autism Awareness. It was a nice experience. A bit different than when we walked at the ZOO. UNF was nice but the Zoo gave the kids something special to do after the walk. I was driving home feeling as if we needed to have some more time. So we took the kids to Egan's Point in Fernandina and let them all RUN ragged. When we were all really tired we did the good ol' McD's ice cream and headed home. We topped the day w/ a wonderful meal. Counrty Spare Ribs, Mashed potatoes, Broccoli and rolls. This is a cause close to our heart. We pray for research to shed some light on WHY so many young children are being affected by this disorder. Since Jon's been diagnosed it has risen incredibly fast. We started w/ 1-200 kids, then 1-150 and now its 1-94 !!! Something SOMETHING SOMETHING has to be affecting them. Its got to be enviromental...something we give them or they absorb somehow. Regardless we have to do our part. We did...raising over $600's for the walk. Small steps but positive ones...GO JONATHON'S TEAM....We <3 U SON.

                                                                                                    

Why do we PLAN things??

So....not sure why these things always seem to happen to us...BUT they do. You have to laugh your way thru it or cry. I tend to be positive and I try to laugh. It may take a few days to "find" humor in the life we experience but its there. There is always HUMOR. There has to be. I believe that...laugh and your heart feels happy. Well...no matter how hard we plan things. We try and we prepare but things always go crazy. I planned Jon's birthday party weeks ago. Went to walmart and ordered a cake. I was specific and filled the form out that was required. Double checked the dates and off I went. I went to Chick Fil A next. Explained that my son was wanting a party there. We set the same date and off I went. PLANNED & ORGANIZED, RIGHT??? Wrong...it all went wrong. Everything...I even went to Chick Fil A the day before to pre-pay for the meals and it still went WRONG. But we made the best of it. The baker at walmart put together a cake for me in 15 min. for my trouble she didnt charge us. While I was checking out a freind called to double check she was  in the right Chik Fil A...she was. They had forgotten about his party. 13 special needs 5-6 year olds coming and they were NOT ready !! I panicked. I wont lie...but I remained calm and expressed my dissatisfaction. The kids we thru into the play place and they seemed oblivious. SO thats what counts. Because right now they just had fun. We had chaos and stress but they had fun. No matter how hard I planned...why do we plan anyway? I am grateful for wonderful friends who came to my rescue and helped out.

US Miltary Tribute

A Sr. Chief friend of ours sent this video to us. I loved it....with Jim gone right  now, and several friends deployed ...it hit home. Its worth the few minutes of anyones time. Wish I just could have posted the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyXYot6wHuE

Two wishes...

OK....So...I am READY for a long phone call. The ship pulled in and that means work for my guy. We have spoken for 5 minutes all month. I am ready to just hear you laugh and for you to make me laugh. Its been a LONG month. I have had nothing but issues arise and make me nuts. All I really want is a phone call. YUP...one call. The kids would love to hear from him as well. Jonathon is asking for his dad. Today he asked me to get in my car and go GET HIM OFF THE SHIP. We are all really missing Daddy. Not ashamed to say his wife is leading the pack. Trying to stay positve and just hope that the he calls soon.

The very next wish for me would be a HUGE $$ TREE....Silly huh?? Sounds so selfish and materielistic but DANG...this economy is killing us all. The state of this country is really seriously sad and concerning. Jim has a job, its steady, and he wont get fired or laid off. I am so grateful for that. His pay get us thru but as the kids get older, their wants and needs get more expensive. Its so expensive raising children and I have 3 !! Its hard to juggle all of it. To evenly balance the "budget" and everytime I work on the bills or get paid. The demands on us are more and more. The $$ stays the same and the demand is just increasing. I would love to plant one of these in my backyard and let it grow. I remember my mom saying "yeah...just go to the backyard and pick it off the $$$ tree" LOL...we all wish we could grow one huh??

HaLLo-ScReAm 2009

We were never really had huge  Halloween's....until we met the Devoe's. Dave and Carrie were truly our first friends in Florida. They were our nieghbors in government quarters and we hit it off. Sadly we had 6 great years together and they are now in Hawaii...but we still keep in touch and she calls me 2-3 times a week. Great people...wonderful friends. Now..Carrie's favorite time of the year is the fall. Her birthday is 10/29 and EVERY YEAR...I mean EVERY YEAR....they had a huge halloween party. It included all the food like eyeball punch, or catepillar meatballs. They spent weeks preparing for the HAUNTED house...They were a hit in housing. After a few years...everyone just KNEW where they would be going. They always did an amazing job. Just amazing. My kids adored the festivities. During this time of year...I think of them. We miss you Devoes...We hope you know Halloween w/o you guys is just not the same.

This is Jim's first holiday gone...First one down...many more to go. I am uploading pics quickly so he can view them as soon as possible. Missing you  SM !!!

Friday was busy. We had Jonathon's fall festival.  It started with a good character parade. Jon wanted the book SHAKE DEM HALLOWEEN BONES...So I got a bones tee from Walmart. We had lunch and then we had a relaxed day and a great afternoon full of more food. It was really neat....Jon of course didnt want to walk. Then he saw the other children wearing costumes and you know what happened. All of a sudden his bones tee- shirt totally was not cool. LOL...Oh well...

NOW....this is true in our house....WE CARVE SOME PUMPKINS !! Jim and I are very competitive about this and If I can say so myself....I am pretty darn good. Boy...I missed him this year. Marin did a great job carving the pumpkin. She is also getting pretty great doing it. James made funfetti cake and we carved. Well...Jonathon painted. He named his JACK !! How original...LOL...NOT !! But we had a blast doing this. James and Marin would have much preferred to not be home but they have no choice. I make them do it. I hope that in the end they have a nice time too.

Finally its Halloween !! This year Jonathon has worn out his costume. He just loved it. and wore it over and over again. I woke up on saturday to Jon's bumble-bee transformer mask in my face saying ITS HALLOWEEN !! Oh yeah..I did the hallo-SCREAM. He scared me to death. I wasnt expecting him in costume in my FACE. He really enjoyed this day. He looked forward to this for weeks. He was ready and knew exactly what to do. James stayed home to pass out the candy and did I have candy...take a look....

The commissary had the candy bags for .95 a BAG !! I jumped all over that and purchased $20's worth. Everybit of the candy went. EVERY BIT and that bowl is HUGE and DEEP. It was fun when we finally made it home to sit out front w/ some wine and wish these children a safe and wonderful halloween. I love to see thier faces shine. One girl came back and gave me a kiss. My heart burst. I loved that. This holiday is all about being a kid. Staying young at heart and never forget the kid inside.

So Jonathon was a transformer. James would be caught dead dressing up and Marin waited until last minute to dress up. She was a butterfly. She used and old ballet costume and we ran to walmart for wings. Jennifer her bff was a sparkly cat...and then she ran with us to buy a tail and ears. They were very cute. I put my hat on and transformed into a spider witch. Ahhhhahhhhhhhh....It was a ton of fun. Then we were out the door to TRICK O TREAT !! We had dinner with  the Klines and Charlotte and Pauline came up to get some candy. We were the witches of eastwick...they put there witchy hats on too. Well...WHY NOT. We just had to giggle. So when witches go riding and black cats are seen. The moon laughs and whispers and TIS HALLOWEEN. Hope you all had a fabulous time too.