Friendship

A great author once said "Friends are God's way of taking care of us -unknown." It wasn't until 2006 that I truly started to find out what this ment! In october of 2006 a Leah and Spencer invited us over to eat hamburgers and meet their neighbors that they swore we would like. We had spent all day in Perry at the GA national fair and were late coming to dinner. (No suprise if you know us) We met Sarah and Lance Clay that night and our 4 some friendship with Leah adn Spencer quickly grew into the 6 of us plus Ri-Lee and Sj (leah's son). We lived 2 blocks behind the house holding Sarh and Lance on 1 side and Leah and Spencer on teh other. We did a group game night pretty much twice a month adn then had a girls night and guys night any chance we got. That year was awesome espically for me who never really had that true group of close friends growing up. By no means was I a nerd I just dated Caylon all through highschool and never had a girl friend I was with alot cause well lets face it I was love struck and followed him around like a sappy highschool puppy! (it worked though I got my man. hehe ) A year later(2007) Leah and Spencer were given orders to Wyomming and packed up at Christmas and headed out.

Two months after that in January (2008) Sarah and Lance got notice they had to move from the 2 bedroom house on base to a 3 bedroom, we got the same notice we moved into 3 bedrooms houses on teh same street! We took turns moving each other and using a red trailor we barrowed from a friend atCaylon work. At this time Caylon and I ran home to oklahoma for my grandma's funeral in April not knowing that coming back would change our lives. In May sarah and I were in Macon taking down pictures from her AWESOME senior show at college and I kept telling her about how sick I would suddenly get, low and behold Sarah was righ tand I took a test on April 11 and she was the first person (after my sis) I called. Sadly she was in Flordia with the sickness and passing of her grandpa! I did birhgten the mood a bit by telling her I was pregnant and due in January 2009~! At this time we knew that we would be moving out of Ga and didn't feel like it was our time to go, so after lots of long talks with Lance Caylon and I decided to put in for a special duty assigemnt in the same squardron Lance was in. Caylon wanted his wings and so we put in and sure enough that July (2008) we got picked up for the assigement and signed a 4 year here once again!! Whoot Whoot! Caylon got into the training squardron and was in from October to December doing academic traing, while he was doing that Lance went out for what ended up being his Last deployement in the Jstars! (i think) For some reason during this deployemnt Lance decided that cross training was something he needed to do adn he and Sarah decided that being a Loadmaster (haha I know right) was the way they needed to go.

(2009)While he was gone and Caylon was in training I brought Kaden Jett into the world and Sarah was right there to seen us in teh room and have a hott Lasagna waiting for us when we got home. (This wasn't the first time she had taken care of us, like when Ri-Lee had tubes in 2007 they brought us checkers cause she was so sick we couldn't leave the house) She was there to take pictures adn give kisses to her adopted nephew and we even sent some to uncle Lance while he was gone. Lance came home and they announced that after talking Caylon and I into staying here in Ga the were putting in for the Laodmaster traing and leaving us (lol we weren't mad just like to be dramatic with them) How dare them!! :) In March my uncle Paul was getting married and 2 weeks before the wedding I call Sarah and say hey crazy idea want to drive 17 hours to Oklahoma with me and the kids to a wedding with peopl eyou don't know and she actually agreeded! We had the oddest weather snow in March in oklahoma, the craziest time (HUGE POT HOLES) and the best experience!!

(sarah)(Hey Lance gave me a knife for safety, (me)ok were is it, (sarah) in teh suitcase in your trunk, (me) okay so if someone comes to rob us we'll say hold on just a sec I need to get in the truck to get my knife to cut you with).

Believe it or not we made it back alive and a week later Sarah announced she was expecting their first child (Cole Allen Clay) due in November!! I knew the whole time we were in OKalhoma! It was awesome! She got to see my town adn my home I grew up in! She even met some family of mine!! Sorry about that sarah ;) Later that summer (2009) Caylon deployed and put on Staff and Lance watched over us while he was gone and Sarah and I pretty much just kept being us! :) Soon after Lance tested adn found out he made staff. Whoot Whoot!! In September Leah moved back while Spencer went to training and we tried to pick up were we left off. Things were fun but not the saem. With Leah having another child Jordi (such a doll) and me having Kaden things got harder to do together. We got to hang out a few times and Leah helped me and Sarah's family give Sarah an awesome shower for Cole. We made penis cookies so Leah's idea I just baked them :) We knew as Cole's birth got closer it ment 2 things, things were changin big. They were a family of 3 adn they were moving sometime in 2010. This was something that was not talked about alot cause the unknown wasn't worth bringin up. We didn't get to welcome Cole into the worl on at the hoispital on November 23 because of the H1N1 the hospitals in our area made a rule only parents of the new parents were allowed at the hospital. So Leah adn I decorated the house in blue, I mean lots of blue. I made lasagna for them cause they did for us and took it over. Two days later they celebrate Thanksgiving with us and it was so cool. It wasn't anything big but it was the best Thanksgiving ever. We had so much to be thankful for. Both the guys were in the states this time and we had 2 new additions to our families in 2009 Cole being added just days prior. Our small group had grown from 6 adults and 2 kids at the start to 6 adults and 5 kids just since 2006! Wow! I feel so grown up!! Leah and Spencer moved to Utah and I wish them the best and all the happines they can imagaine there. I really think they found there place. I am not sure though, busy days have not allowed us to talk, I check up on them through their family, and did recieve some wonderful text messages from her a few weeks ago. Sorry can't disclose info!! As much as I love my Leah I have grown a special bond with Sarah. She knows the good the bad and def the UGLY! ABOUT ME, MY FAMILY AND MY MARRIAGE. She has become the person I call with random question like is housing open on fridays and the person I call crying cause I don't know what to do about this move or this house! Lance watches out for us while Caylon is gone yet again and he and caylon e-mail and even talk on the computer they are worse then Sarah and I most of the time. They call even on the way home from work. :)

Anyway, the point of this blog was to tell Sarah how much her friendship means to me. They announced today that they are going to be moving to Oklahoma in June for a bit and then to Califorina. That is clear acrossed the country from us. The other coast. So not driving distance! 4 hours time differance so calling will be fun for a while until we learn the time zones! I am so truly happy for them because Lance is getting to work with the airframe he was hoping for and they are really excited. to be going, and being a military wife I knew I wouldn't have the same neighbors forever. I mean I am moving off base in 3 weeks so they wouldn't of been just down the street anymore anyway but they would of still been in the same town. As sad as I am to not being running to Ross's or target together or even tackling the commisary with all 3 kids while the hubbys are gone for training or something. I am so happy that they are getting to see the other side of the country since they were both born adn raised in Ga. They were looking forward to getting out. If this were a peice of paper you could see the wet spots from the tears I have while summing up the last 3 1/2 years we have been blessed to share with these wonderful people. I remind myself that this isn't the end to a close friendship it is still just the begning cause I know I will still give her random phone calls, like what kind of cake should Imake for Ri-Lee's 5th birthday and those important calls, like Caylon is gone and the yard needs mowed and Ican't get it done who in the squardron do I call, and I know the guys will still have there calls, dude there was a 10pt buck just standing int eh back yard by teh swingset last night but I couldn't get my bow in time!! :)

I could go on and on about the things we have experienced with our best friends but this blog would be so long noone would ever read it. So I will close with another quote

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival." - C. S. Lewis

The last 4 years of my life!

March 22, 2006 7:06 pm

After 39 long weeks, and 24 long hours of labor Caylon and I welcomed RI-LEE CHICAGO KIMBALL into the world. Wow! In the last 39 weeks, I had found out I was pregnant, gotten engaged, flown to Georgia gotten married, finished school and had a baby. It was my own version of 16 and Pregnant only I wasn't 16. Things seemed to drag on but at the same time fly by so quiclky. After staying in the hospital for 3 days, we load Ri-Lee up and take her to my grandma's house were we were staying since, Caylon already had a house in Georgia for us. Caylon only got to spend 2 weeks with us before having to go back to Georgia( did I mention he flew in at noon on the day she was born). Once Ri-Lee hit 1 month it was time to pack up and hit the road with mom and dad (gaw gaw and pa pa) and drive a huge horse trailor full of furniture to Georgia so we could start our life. We started out in what to us was this amazing 2 bedroom house on base overlooking the lake with the ducks in our front yard. What an awesome place for Ri-Lee to play. Arriving in Georgia on Easter weekend April 16 and 17 Ri-Lee and I moved in and settled in for our life, not expecting to be relocated to Oklahoma in just a few weeks. Caylon out deployement orders, he was leaving June 1 for 3 months and we were being shipped back to mom's since I knew noone not to mention how to get around this town. By the time Caylon came home from his Deployement we had been married over 9 months and we had only lived together 5 weeks out of those 9 months, what a way to kick off your first year of marriage. Ri-Lee decided to crawl at 7 months cute teeth at 5 months and walk by 10 months and running pretty much came soon after!

Our first Christmas was awesome,My mom and sister (gaw gaw and Aunt Evie) came out to celebrate it with us!! We went to Savannah but never saw anything since it poured rain the whole time! The hotel was awesome though and Aunt Evie gave ri-ri her first piece of PIZZA!!! Yumm!! Ri-Lee had no clue what was going on being only 9 months old, but we got everything we could we thought she needed (F.Y.I she didn't really NEED any of it ) We started off 2007 by celebrating our 1 yr aiversay and started talking birthday parties. We went with a rubber ducky theme since that was her crib bedding! Leah and I spent abot 4 hours decorating a Duck cake it was the cutest cake I have ever made by far, the cute fuzzy white duck was holding a daisey! We had about 20 people come 2 of them actually being children! :) We did easter eggs handing from the ceiling and I cute out foam paper into the shapes of yeloow ducks and we hung them too! We did hot dogs and burgers and cake and ice cream too! What a freaking blast! We had a good amount of teeth by the time our birthday came and the teeth kept growning!

2007

end of the year didn't go like we really hoped, after going from ear infection to ear infection over the first year we had hoped for a better start but low and behold by 15 mts we couldn't medicate anymore, it was time for TUBES! My worste fear at this point! My mom flew out cause Lord know I was nervous, sure enough it sucked, I mean it wasn't the worste possible thing that could of plagued my child but for us it was a big deal. We took her in and all in all the surgery was 10 minutes, the problemwas that she was 5lbs to light to have the shot to relax her so they had to carry her back and hold her down to put the mask on to knock her out, Thank You dr.'s because of that whenever we approached her to give her pain meds or any meds over hte course of the next year she would get so upset we either made a huge mess or she would vomit cause she would gag herself from freaking out! It was a BLAST :). Once the tubes came in though we had a talking girl, she didn't say anything but dada before cause she had so much fluid she couldn't hear anything adn what she did hear was muffled and crazy sounding, once those got put in well, if your reading this you know ri-ri and you know what happened when she could hear and started to talk again,(she turned into me, she never stops) :D Christmas year 2 was pretty neat we were alone just us and Ri-Lee actually ripped the paper off her girfts she was of course more intrested in the paper then the girfts but I think every kid is for a while. We got close to march adn realized that her birthday fell on Easter this year and my family decided to come visit us for it. Dad mom and sis came out adn we did a small party at the house just us and then hunted Easter eggs all afternoon. It was a sweet family party with some delish food!

2008

Was pretty calm, we moved into a new house on base a 3 bedroom this time we only had to go 4 blocks! Things begin hard, in April Grandma Thompson (dad's mom) passed away so we flew to Oklahoma. May roles around and I get sick alot and often for about 5 weeks! Hmm low and behold Kaden is baking in the oven. We told ri-lee and from the get go she was tlaking to him and kissing my tummy. We enjoyed 1 last Halloween as a princess anad then our last family Christmas as 3! We welcome the new year in with Paw Paw coming to stay with Ri-Lee while mommmy and ddaddy went into the hospitla to welcome Kaden Jett. She was amazing the only time she got a little scared was when she saw all the things hooked up to me in my arm, she thought I was really sick. I thought so to! :) She wanted to hold him as soon as she saw him and her and paw paw enjoyed 3 day stogether while mommy and daddy stayed in the hospital. She has been a big helper from day 1 getting diapers, pacis, even just hugging him telling him it was ok. She didn't even regress whit her potty training when he was born, which everyone told me was going to happen! She is the best big sister!

2009

kicked off with us bring kaden into the world!! And finding out we were going to endure another deployement during the summer. This time we decided to stay in Georgia and go home for a few weeks at the end of the summer. We spent alot of the time at the lake enjoying the water. Ri-Lee is a water bug! For sure! She has no fear. The Jet Ski the Foskey's have is her favorite but she won't ride with me nope only Tony can take her around. We went to oklahoma in July and Aunt Evie had bout a jet ski and she was so excited to show Aunt Evie and Paw Paw how well she rode on it. It was a blast. We came home and welcomed in Daddy from overseas! She was so excited to see him again, but she cried as soon as he got close to her. It was after midnight and we were on the flight line and I think it really freaked her out! We enjoyed the rest of the year by starting PRESCHOOL at Houston County High School. It was awesome and she loves Mrs. Cheek we also finshed up with a TDY in October, Gaw Gaw coming out at the end of OCtober sowe all went to ride THOMAS THE TRAIN in Cordell and then did Halloween as Dorthy and Kaden was the Lion! After Gaw Gaw left we helped Welcome Baby Cole in to the world the clostest thing I have to a nephew right now (& hopefully for a while Stevie adn Leslie)! Ri-Lee was so cut ewith him, he had RSV the first few weeks of his life so Aunt Sarah and Uncle Lance became Germ-X lovers,(Sarah already was) so if anyone wanted to touch or hold him they asked you to wash your hands and Grem-x Since the are over basically everyday I bought this huge gallon germ-x and Ri-Lee still to this day Tells Sarah I Germ-xd I can touch Cole Now!! It is so cute cause she will tell other people to grem-x to, and if she sees another baby she wanted to touch she will get Germ-x and then touch the baby!

We finished out the year by going to the TEMPLE in Birimimgham Alabama! We were sealed for time and all eternity on December 19 2009! She was so funny, before going I told her to leave her shoes on while in the Anex room while Brittni and Carmen baby sat, I didn't realize that when the Temple worker would com eget her that she would argue and yell that she had to keep her shoes on cause MOMMY SAID. (wish she would listen like that on other things) The poor worker kept tryign to get her to walk with her and she wasn't having it cause she wanted Mommy or Tony. Finalyl they bring her in with eyes as big around as half dollars! She was a little scared of the temple worker so after the ceiling Tony walked her out so she would be more calm and QUITE! We finished the next weeks with Santa coming and just hangin gout with Daddy while he was on leave!

2010

We had a crazy few months so far, Daddy got his deployement cancelled for January so insterad he went TDY to Vegas for 2 weeks, just so he could come home and leave for a deployement in 2 weeks. It didn't go over well with Ri-Lee cause to her Daddy already left and came home! So by February we had become a tempoary family of 3. We did Valentine's day right before Daddy left and they had a big party at preschool!! On March 9 we ended up with our first ER visit, we fell adn hit the curtain rod that was sticking out over the edge of the bed (were moving so I had them taken down) it put a pretty good crater in her face and they ended up cuttin goff the dead skin and leaving it open to heal! It was a stressful day! The worste I have had, I am sure the ER visits will occur again I do have an adventureous daughter and a son coming up right behind her!So far she is loving school adn in a week or so I have to enroll her in PRE-K! HOLY COW

MARCH 22, 2010

Wow! 4 years ago today! I can't believe it! We have come so far! So here is what occured on Monday March 22, 2010. We wake up for preschool sick, then the phone rings and it was DADDY! He sand happy birthday and she told him she was sick and didn't wan tto go to school, but we still went cause we baked cupcakes for her pre-school birthday party! They were princess by the way!!! Soon after dropping her oof I get back tot eh base and within 10 minutes of being home the road is filled with fire trucks cause th neighbors house is on fire, after abotu 1 hour the clear out and I go on my way, I pick her up from preschool where they had and Awesome princess Preschool Party!! We drove home and she fell asleep on the couch about 30 minutes after sitting down. I call maitance cause it was 65 degrees int eh house adn I felt no air coming from the vents! Guess what not only was the heater and the ac running at the same time (not sure how) but the motor was burned up and the funky smell I had been smelling for the last week was it burning to a crisp in the garage closet! WONDERFUL! Oh but wait, the best part was that it was a special order part and it would be a few days before we had any heat or ac. So Aunt Sarah says we can camp out together in 1 room and calls it a birthday camp out! Ri-Lee loved the idea so tonight we are watching PRINCESS AND THE FROG, rosting marshmellow to make smores and camping out in mommy's room for her 4th Birthday!!

I am truly blessed to have the smart and amazing daughter I have. I may of started young but I have grown so much because of her, and I wouldn't change a thing!!! She is the best!

I'm need somewhere to vent

So. I read blogs from several people all the time and really enjoy them but have never thought of myself as a blogger. 1. cause I don't usually have the time to and 2. cause I can't type or spell for crap. However we are counceled to journal our days and go backa nd look at them so rather then write them privately and on paper I have to keep up with I thought why not on here maybe what I have to say will help someone, either by thinking I am crazy and trying to not be like me or to relate to what I am going through wether it be as a mom, a wife or just a women in today's world, maybe all 3! So here it goes just something short.

We are currently trying to move off base to a wonderful rent house some freinds lead us on to, Caylon was supposed to home now, but you know the military they aren't on your schedule you are on THERE'S. So he is gone and I am trying to hold things together and get us moved in April. This is the 3rd. time he has gone over and it has started to go by the fasted partyly because I am so darn busy all the time and partly because I have figured out what to expect while he is gone.
For example: expect at least 1 ER visit per deployement, (We acomplished this on the 9 of March when Ri-Lee fell into a curtain rod I had laying on the bed and put a crader in her face); next expect to get sick somehow everyone in the family, whether it be sinus infection (I have that covered) or the stomache bug (still waiting) it will happen the dr will get to know you very well while your alone. He will actually get to know your hubby deployement schudle based upon the times you come around! Expect things to hit the fan at least a few times (so far it has happened 3 times in 3 weeks, er, moving problems, and just that first meltdown). Use you friends and stay stong things improve and then hit the fan and then improve! The good news is there is an end to the madness, well maybe not but at least you will have him back to help with the madness! :)

We are moving in T-minus 3 1/2 weeks and so far I am out of boxes, out of tape and stressing on the timeframe I have to do it in. But that's the life of Hearts and Combat Boots!!