My Baby is 3!

Well it happened a few weeks ago but we are busy getting ready to move and trying to offload this house to anyone who is willing to buy/rent/lease basically just pay the mortgage! But yes, in the middle of the chaos, Elijah turned 3 years old. I cry just thinking that my baby is 3 years old. He is such a joy and always adds entertainment to anything he is a part of. He lights up my life and fills my heart every single day with pride and laughter.

Elijah in pictures


All of that dark hair! I just couldn't believe it!

Then 1 year later, he's as blonde as can be!

His second birthday begins his love of Cowboy stuff.

And blossoms into ANYTHING pretend including "SCUBA GEAR"

Now he is 3 and Iron Man, goodness they grow up too fast.

End of this Chapter

So, my husband's "Fini Flight" is tomorrow. To the non-flying/non-military people, this means he will be flying his Final Flight with the squadron he is in. It means ultimately that we are really leaving. The kids and I are hanging around for a few more months while he does some training in Arkansas so I keep telling myself that this isn't goodbye for me yet. However, tomorrow will just be a glaring reminder that we are really done with this chapter in our lives. We have met some incredible people here and being close to my family has been such a tremendous blessing. My baby was born here and all of the big steps for a toddler happened here for Parker. I have tears in my eyes right now just thinking of all the memories made with all of the wonderful people we have come to know in MS. Ugh! I can't believe it has been 3 1/2 years already!

My heart is heavy because I know that this is going to be hard for our family. We are a close knit bunch. I once told my husband that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" reminded me of my family if only you replace the Greek part with Southern. We are just as close with his family but maybe a little more used to not seeing them as often. Being so close to my family has spoiled us for sure. I pray that the distance won't be too great for the heart. That skype and facebook will help to make the 20 hrs seem not so far. And that my children will realize how very blessed they are to have the family that God has placed them in.

I am excited for the adventures that are ahead of us, but very anxious/sad for the distance we are putting between us and the people we love the most.

These are my thoughts today, I hope it wasn't too much of a bummer for everyone to read.

Debbi aka Leigh

4 Years Already

If I tried to blog about how wonderful Parker has made these last 4 years for me, I think i'd just sit at this computer and cry for a good hour. I don't have time for that today as I am furiously cleaning and cooking for his birthday party tomorrow so I decided to give you Parker's 4 years in pictures.

2 Weeks old in Sanford, NC

4 Months Old San Antonio, TX

13 months old Richland, MS

2 years old, Columbus, MS




3 years old at Dee's House, Richland, MS

4 years old, Columbus, MS

6 years!

I was raised by two terrific parents who always tried to teach my two sisters and I what it meant to have a healthy marriage. My mom always praised my dad to us. I'm sure there were days when she was sick of him, because I am married and I know these days exist. I never knew this about them though. He is my hero in life because he was hers as well. On that same token, my dad was always the number one defender of my mom. "Don't raise your voice to my wife", I heard that phrase more times than I'd like to admit. They made it work. They went through terrible times together. Times of incredible stress and heartache came to their doorstep and they walked through them together.

When you live with parent's like this it is easy to want to be in love and have that kind of relationship with someone. Just ask my big sister!! She's been "in love" more times than I can count!!! (Terri, I love you don't yell at me) We all wanted that something special that my parents had. All three of us tried to make that fit with people who weren't right for us. The power of a praying parent is demonstrated in our lives with our spouses. We ended up with "the one". All three of us did. If you knew the "Brown Girls" you would know how much of a miracle this really is.

When I met Stephen, I saw so much of my dad in him and I knew that if I let myself, I would fall head over heels for this guy. I tried not too. I tried to "play the game" and act uninterested. I felt like a was a master at this. Yea, right, I was a complete failure. I did fall head over heels for him and quickly too. Of course, I couldn't let him know that because I am a demented female and we never say what we mean or feel. Stephen, always the logical one, laid it out for me. "I like you a lot, but this is my life". Sounds romantic doesn't it? Well, it was to me. He wanted me to know that he wanted me to be a part of his life but that it wasn't going to be easy. He was going to deploy and his job has to come first. That sounds like such a negative thing but aren't we all glad that there are people out there willing to let their job come first so we can live safely in our country? What Stephen didn't know was that this made me love him all the more. My father's job came first alot too. I mean his 9-5 job he was diligent with and did well with but I'm talking about as a pastor of a church. He took his calling to be a Shepherd of men very seriously and still does. He did this all the while never making the girls in his life feel left out or taken for granted.

My dad let me know that I was worth it! Having someone who cherished me wasn't just a bonus, it was a must. That is something I think is so important for a father to teach his daughter. He told me this of course but more than anything he cherished my mom. I knew what it looked like for a woman to be cherished by her husband. I saw it everyday.

Six years ago I married the perfect person for me. I love our life and our little family. I love his passion, integrity, and diligence, all those things I love and admire about my dad. I love that we move every 3 years as I am a "free-spirit" at heart and this fulfills my needs to explore things and learn about different kinds of people. I am so blessed to be a part of two outstanding families. Stephen's family are a group of extraordinary people. They are all very individual and different from my family but very loving and welcoming all the same. I am forever grateful to our parents for teaching us how to grind our heels in and have long marriages and raise happy, healthy children. I hope our children look back on their families with the same pride as we do. I pray that they find a spouse who adores them the way I do their daddy.

~Leigh, aka Debbi~
"You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; MY CUP OVERFLOWS"
Psalm 23:5

The Pumpkin Patch

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged and MUCH has happened. One of the biggest things I have to report is that we found out that our little family is moving to the Wild Wild West. Wyoming here we come! We are now in the middle of the holidays and trying to get our house ready to sale. I am a little nervous, pretty excited, and a tad bit sad. Twenty hours from my mama is kind of a long way but I know that we will work it out. I have confidence that God is in control and He knows what is ultimately best for my family. I know that Wyoming will be full of adventures and hopefully some lessons for life........

I hope, oh how I hope that one of these lessons will be learned by my oldest child. We have had another pottying in public incident. It all started a few weeks ago when we came home from a wonderful family vacation to the Smoky Mountains to find water and black mold in a closet downstairs. How does this relate to Parker relieving himself in public? Stick with me, you will see.

So, my brother-in-law Wes who is AWESOME and can fix or build anything (he is pretty much Bob The Builder only his name is Wes) said he could come fix my bathroom but only on this one weekend. Well, that weekend just HAPPENED to be the last weekend of the pumpkin patch. Needless to say that while my super handy brother-in-law and his sidekick, my adorable husband were working on the bathroom (and watching football), my sister and I decided to get our 4 kids out from under their feet and to the pumpkin patch.

Parker and Olivia playing in the corn....




Well it was a lovely day and while they had already taken down a few of the things that kids love to do, our kids just loved hanging out and running free. The pumpkin patch people had plowed down their little cotton field and my adorable niece was busy picking up what they left behind. Parker was trailing her as they are inseparable and they were being so sweet. I turned my head to watch my oh so cute nephew and my little one playing. I was feeling a little sad because I knew this was going to be rare from Wyoming but don't worry, those sad feelings were replaced with HORROR as I turned back to Olivia and Parker only to find my ALMOST FOUR year old with his pants heading quickly to his ankles......I started running, I would like to tell you that I was running AWAY from the scene and pretending not to know this child but no, I was running toward him because who else is going to tell this boy that he is not to expose himself in public.

As I was running I was trying to get his attention without actually screaming to him to pull up his pants. I figured he probably had plenty of viewers and was trying not to gain more! I said very sternly "Parker , NO"! He looked up and realized that uh oh, this was probably a bad decision! He quickly pulled up his pants and we went to the restroom. If only he had happened as smoothly as it seems when I type it out here. It was totally embarrassing and reminded me that kids often teach us tiny lessons on pride.

Oh, did I mention that there were not one, but TWO birthday parties at the pumpkin patch that day? Did I also mention that there were probably 20-30 kids there for EACH?! Oh yea, that's right! Look out Wyoming, HERE WE COME!

My adorable nephew Evan....how I love this kid....

Until next time,
~Leigh or Debbi~ if you need to know about this read my first blog.

Love and Marriage

Today is a normal crazy day in our house. We had a great play date this morning where I realized that play dates are a MUST in stay at home mom's lives. Why do I not do these more often? We then went to Lunch Bunch which is a group of us mom's and our kids get together once a month to have lunch and let the kids get to know each other. It is always a great and sometimes stressful time but we are all in it together with the screaming, spilling of drinks, and just overall noisiness of it all. Then I had to pick my husband up and go get my military id renewed because the Air Force won't let me do it by myself. This process usually takes FOREVER but today we were in and out and I felt oh so very lucky. Then in my effort to not give the kids a nap since it was 2:30 by the time we were leaving base, I decided to bake with them. As I drove to Kroger I looked into the backseat and realized that both my 2 and 3 year old munchkins were sleeping soundly. I turned the car around and put them in bed and am now relishing in the quiet until I have to wake them up so they will go to bed at a decent hour.

I tell you all of this because I want to relay to you that this is an ordinary day in our house and yet I find myself thinking of things that made me want to write a blog to begin with. I am inspired, and it actually came at a time when I have a few minutes to sit down and type out my thoughts! YAY!

Today the topic is marriage. I have been married a very short 5 1/2 years. I realize that this is nothing...its like 5 minutes to lots of you and yet to me, its forever. I can hardly remember the us we used to be. Our lives now center around the kids, the house, the bills, the dogs, the Air Force which is more like a family member than a career. Sometimes I miss those tingly feelings I used to get when I knew Stephen was coming to town. I was anxious, and always counting down the minutes until he arrived, or if I was going to see him, those last 30 miles just seemed to take FOREVER to cover. Now, it seems that we pass each other in the hallway between dinner and bedtime and absolutely NEVER go to bed at the same time. (We need to work on that last one) Today I found myself in a rare moment as we were sitting in the car waiting the 12 minutes it takes Parker to chose a toy out of the floorboard and then buckle himself in the car seat, in that moment, I saw the young guy I feel in love with. The one who I tried so desperately not to fall in love with and failed miserably. Then, I felt this longing for those feelings, I missed him, I missed us, I drove halfway to Kroger and back thinking of how I missed the feelings that used to come from the very thought of being near him. It kind of made me sad like, is that gone forever? That totally stinks. It came to me though, that I miss it because we don't have the time to put into our relationship that we used to. I miss the alone time and the conversations without interruptions. I know now that its when you DON'T miss it that you have something to worry about. I know that we will have our time when the kids are older and we aren't as busy to do the things we used to love. And in the meantime, I feel overcome with thankfulness, at the blessings that God has given me. I am still completely in love with my husband and still find him extremely adorable. I have the most adorable kids in the entire world and the problems that I see in our lives are pretty much just issues I need to fix within myself.

I hope this resonates with some of my followers! Thanks for reading, stop by again for some more tales of peeing in public and saying inappropriate things at the complete wrong time. Those happen more than these moments of deep inspiring thought!

Ciao,
Debbi/Leigh
(So, i've been watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey and they've been in Paris, I find myself saying "Ciao" and wanting pasta)

The Land of the Free....

Nothing says America like....


A tractor..


Some cotton....


And an old truck....

As I clean my house and pack up to drive the 2 1/2 hours to my family for the 4th of July festivities I am a little.....nostalgic. It seems that today and by "today" I mean 2010, we are bombarded with the negativity of our nation. When you turn on the news all you hear is propaganda and horror stories. I can't help but wonder, does anyone realize how awesome of a country we are anymore? Do they still get it? Maybe I am a little more senstitive on the subject since I am married to a soldier. I will blog someday about the mind of a soldier, i've always found it fascinating how my husband and his comrades think when it comes to their job.

I am feeling very proud right now of my nation. A place of blessings beyond measure and incomprehensible beauty. The very nation that people run to for opportunity and acceptance. Do we do everything right? No, of course not! However, we are ahead of the game. I hope this weekend we can look past the politics and frustrations of our nation and see the beauty in the freedom it provides.

At the heart of America is people who work hard, play hard, and take pride in teaching their children about baseball, barbeque, pies, and the simple enjoyment of a land that was fought for, and preserved, by a very respectable group of people. Americans know that freedom isn't free, and respect the flag of our nation, not for the beauty of the pattern but for the blood that was lost to keep it flying. My heart aches this weekend for all of the families out there who's cookouts will be missing someone special so that we can celebrate in peace.

God Bless America, land that I love....