I fully anticipate being one of those people who are all, "Okay, see you next week. :D" before going behind closed doors and bawling my eyes out. lol. I'll let you guys know how practicum goes, once it's time.

Mmm, Terra's birthday party is next weekend. Madness. It's early, but we have family in state that won't be come her actual birthday. D:

Oh how exciting ^__^ I love baby parties lol... Big kid parties are fun too... But they often have themes, at least so far, that I am not too terribly into...

We are starting to do stuff for our baby shower in October already my mom and best friend are hosting it... My mom wants to be in on it because she may not be able to make it to the shower itself.... She is due for a lot of surgeries in the next couple of months and they are talking about her second new knee in Oct or Nov... But today I finished putting together the blankets on the crib and we (by we I mean Dillon I suppose since I am just sitting here.... Supervising) are putting together the bassinet :D

Thanks Jazzy~ I'll get on that tonight so that you don't have to worry so much about diapers and can just concentrate on Ellie. (:

I liked 2 year old parties. The kids were so cute. For Kuras we just got her like $20 worth of helium balloons. She spent the entire party hoarding balloons from other people. It was totally awesome. And everyone thought she was just the cutest thing ever.

Chi- I think you'll be able to handle it. You seem to be a really strong person. <3

We'll see. :XD

For the party we're just inviting family and a couple friends. She doesn't have baby friends her age yet, so I figure we'll have one with more kids next year. There should be about 20 adults, give or take. I already baked Terra's test cake to make sure it was a good recipe. I'm making her a personal cake (over-sized cupcake mold), and then one or two cakes for the adults. I'm waiting to hear who for certain is coming!

I am terrible about kids at parties... Mikes had one friend this year at his and Sean still hasn't met friends of his own.... Mikes best friend had moved away so the kiddo I was GOING to invite wound up not being here so I let him invite the neighbor kid who brought his older sister (who is my sister's age-ish 15 and 19 are close enough right?).... I keep very much to myself and it is REALLY hard for me to let kids into my home that aren't mine... Even my nieces can challenge my ability to stay composed... By the end of a party night (usually consisting of like 10ish adults and between 2-3 kids not counting my own) I want to be alone... PURE alone... I want nothing to do with people... I am a terrible introvert, and I have a terrible extrovert for a child which makes things rough... Dillon is an introvert too probably worse then me but he never seems frazzled by company like I do.... I am unsure what Sean is just yet.... If his brother is around he is pretty extroverted... But if he is alone he seems introverted... I guess we will see as he grows...

Annnnyhoo... On subject of parties... I don't do well with them... I enjoy throwing them for some reason but once they are all there I am not so pleased with the idea anymore... Particularly with other people and kids I am not very closely familiar with....

Thanks again soooo much Mellie that is going to be a lot of help... More then I think I could explain!

I'm totally okay with opening my home to 10 random strangers kids for the duration of a 3 hour party. We have fun we play games we paint nails/play cars etc. It's fun. What I don't like about childrens parties are the parents that stay and just sit around staring at me. As if along with entertaining their children I should be entertaining them. Uh, hello, it's a 5 year olds birthday party...Imma be working with the kids. Parents...LEAVE or entertain yourselves...or heres a novel idea, ask what you can do to help!

See parents scare me too unless I know them... >.>;; In this town parents do one of two things, they drop off their kids for a 3 hour party (don't go in themselves despite not knowing the host from a fur tree) and LEAVE them there for 5+ hours like you are a free baby sitter.... <.< the other thing they do is call right before the party and say "little Joey can't come unless his 37 brothers and sisters come as well...." Then when you agree that brothers and sisters can come (I totally understand having to drag siblings with me to on of Mikes parties there are just times I can't do anything else.... :/ ) they drop all of them off and take off again! WTF.... Daycares make like $40 a day... Per child.... When you give me the money to care for your children... THEN I will... Otherwise bring your system abusing butt to the party and help keep an eye on your OWN kid... >.>;; Jazzy is a crankasaurus rex.... I don't like being stepped on... I think once Mikes got older I would be ok with it but right now I just don't think it is cool especially since NONE of the parents make ANY effort to get to know each other... Or the kids that aren't their own...

Mike had a few playdates this last year where he went by himself to his friends house but I was VERY mindful that his mom approached me and spoke with me SEVERAL times before it happened...

I don't mind kids, but I do mind parents who let their kids destroy items and property. I felt pinned to invite our friends, and I guess if they (again) let their 4 and 9 year old kids screw up the house that will be that. We're renting, and the carpeting is new...

I'm very introverted, and love my privacy, but I shove it on the back burner and recharge when I can. I think this will be her smallest party. I'd love for her to have sleepovers when she's older. I loved mine. :3

Little rugrat threw my phone in a glass of water. It's dead. ;_; No insurance, sigh.

Don't you love it when they do that? Mine have tossed previous ones in the toilet before... /sigh.

I wouldn't have a problem with the parents if they did more than just sit around and stare at me/ignore the children. Kuras last party they all sat around talking about other mothers that weren't at the party and I was like...wtf? I didn't know any of them, and they didn't know me, but really? Is it that hard to talk to someone new? haha. I'm pretty balanced on my introverted/extroverted things. I keep my bedroom door closed at all times when other people are in the house. My bedroom is private. Always will be. (I HATED having the movers in there so much. ;-; ) But the rest of the house is open. Though, I guess I'd rather not have people in the laundry room either...lol. In any case I'm pretty comfortable around new people, but when I tried talking to the mothers they mostly ignored me and talked amongst themselves, when I invited them to join their children on the scavenger hunt they all declined and stared at me like there was more I should be doing at my daughters party...for THEM.
As much as they annoy me, I'll continue having parties for my kids, and I look forward to them having sleep overs later on as well. I never got to have parties growing up, my parents couldn't afford it... (even though I would have been happy with just inviting friends over for cake :/ ) I think they just didn't want to spend the time on it, but anyway, I want my kids to have that experience. It's one I wish I had.

I have insurance on my phone but not my husbands... Mostly because Dillon's phone he's managed to keep out of our children's hands for over 2 years now... while mine got destroyed last August or September because they would jack with it on the charger..... >.>; Naughty children... By the time my phone was just over it's "you get a new phone for being with us so long" period my phone wouldn't even turn on anymore >.>; So I got the insurance on the new one I got... >.> unfortunately it only covers a small portion of the cost if the phone gets water damaged :/

Yeah we aren't renting and carpeting isn't cheap... :( neither is much of anything that we do have in the house... We have an antique dining room table and chairs... A $400 TV in our living room an xbox 360 (which is broke for some reason my guess is boys... I let them be unsupervised in the livingroom too often... Which reminds me I need to call Gamestop and see if they will fix it...) a Wii and a PS2... A record-able VCR to DVD player which is about $500 and when kids are just allowed to run a muck and parents don't care it makes me sooooo nervous... It is hard enough knowing that my kids destroy things.... But knowing that others won't take responsibility for the destruction of my property doesn't help either.... / off topic... Michael is very much getting to the age where I need to curb my introverted tenancies... It is VERY hard for me... I love watching my kids play and I love them being happy to have kids their own age to have fun with, but I have trouble warming up to people even little ones... It took me a good 2-3 weeks to get use to all the kids in the daycare enough to sit on the floor and just play without restraint... So in short... For some people yeah it is hard to talk to someone new... But if you would have approached me I would have talked to you... I wouldn't have talked a TON. But I would have talked... Some mom's (me included sometimes depending on the subject) are just terrible gossipers... And that is what those mom's sound like... They have their little "clique" and no one else is invited....

And OMG Sean has discovered that his backpack has school supplies in it! He is getting into EVERYTHING! He is sooo excited to start school this month I hate that it is going to be such a chore to get him home from school and his brother as well.... :/ I hope they fix the problem SOON! Cause it would make my world 10000x's easier.... I think we are going to work on letters today Sean and I... He loves learning so much....

Had my baby appointment today.... No news of the glucose test yet.... And Ellie REALLY doesn't like the Doppler she kicked it like 15 times lol.... And we are officially IN with the Family Practice I've been trying to get in with for 3 or 4 years now! I am SOOOOO relieved!

@Mellie
My mom gave us an option of having a party or a trip out of town/overnight and $50 for our birthdays. Some years we chose the party, and other years we chose the alone time with Mom. :lol: If Terra ends up being social we'll probably do both for her. I anticipate we'll have more money for her than my mom did for us. She had to work three jobs just to support us. We'll see!

@Jaz
I'm glad you got into the place you wanted!

I just placed a co-op order for a case of gluten-free buns. We'll be having 27 people. I tallied everything. e_e Gonna be madness....

I figure grilled burgers and a couple sides. I'm going to call the grocery store tomorrow and ask how much a fruit platter costs. Then again it may be better just to buy two watermelons and cut everything. The only problem is I have to make two 9x12 cakes AND Terra's cake. All need to be refrigerated over night. Having something pre-made would be pretty helpful..

So teh Coast guard is screwing with us again, but you both already know about that. So I'm going to tell you about Melody instead.
They were horsing around upstairs. I'd told them to stop multiple times and even put them in time out. I went down stairs to watch a movie and about 5 minutes into it I hear a crash. I call up asking what happened and I get silence and then they run out of my sisters room. So I'm like k....then I hear a scream. A loud soul shattering scream. And no one else says anything then I hear more running and I'm like WHAT HAPPENED, Melody comes down the stairs blood dripping heavily off of her foot. There's blood all over the hall way upstairs, the stairs and my bedroom. I grab a rag and wrap her foot and try to get some of the mess on the tile at the bottom of the stairs cleaned up. While my mom starts yelling at me for there being blood on her carpet (yeah as if that's my main concern at the moment). I start cleaning her up, it's just a small puncture that bleeds a hell of a lot. I found the glass shard that punctured her foot. It looks like it went in a little over a quarter of an inch (ouch!) But once I got it bandaged and set her lying down on the couch she was fine. And I spent the next two hours cleaning up blood with my mom giving me annoyed grumbles the entire time she "helped" :roll:
And after this I get a call from Scott letting me know that the Command guy that said he needed to approve our financial paper is now telling him he needs to put in a chit (request to the command) paper to start the approval process for us all over again. So we'll probably need to get medical/dental check ups AGAIN to prove that we're still healthy enough to go to Kodiak, I might need another mental screening to prove that I'm not insane. And it's just...one thing after another.
So I've been sitting here crying for just over an hour now and decided to get it out best I can. I'm feeling so defeated right now. there's nothing I can do but sit around and wait. I need to be strong for the kids, I need to have perfect (non bleeding) children for my mother and I need to keep a smiling face on for Scott and it's just...becoming to much for me to do right now. It's now over 7 weeks with out Scott and I just...I need him. Turns out a plane ticket from there to here is over $800. Which sadly isn't money that I have at the moment.

Oh honey... ;_; I wish I could make it better. It sounds absolutely disheartening over there...

Can you call the doctors and dentists you saw previously and request the forms... I mean it not much of that stuff is going to change in a matter of a month and a half.... Cavities and such need time to grow lol... I wish there was something I could do to help more Mellie... :( *sends love and good juju*

Everything will have to be redated so nope. Gotta find new doctors/dentists and make new appointments and spend more time here with out my husband.
I'm really ticked off and unhappy right now so I'm going to be wearing wahpants. At least until tomorrow when I've gotten some sleep and can see the sunlight again.

My sunburn also started peeling today. I've got a mustache of peeling skin. lulz. Thank you God. I get the message. I suck. Can you pick on someone else for a bit?

Hey fellow 'rents :) I've got a question! Sooo my daughter's first birthday is coming up (September 4th) and I'm having a pool party since she loves being in the pool, and we live in hot a** Texas... anyway, I think I'd like to write on the invitations "Gifts Optional". How do you guys feel about that? Would/have you done it? I just know what it feels like to be so broke I can't even pay all of my bills in the month, much less buy someone a gift... and I'd rather people just come and have a fun day with Riley, celebrating her first year of life, than not come at all because they can't afford to buy her more junk you know? But my mom is totally against it, saying I'm basically telling people not to bring gifts. But I feel like most people will anyway, and it's not like she will die if she doesn't get 7657576 toys.... I don't know. What do you guys think?

It's her first birthday right? Gifts optional is totally okay. My kids liked the gift packaging more than the toys in the boxes anyway, so I felt like even the gifts I bought her were a waste of money. I felt bad that other people saw her toss side the presents they got her and just play with the paper they wrapped it in. >.> But hey, at that age, they like what they like. And it's more important to have people there that care about her/want to have a good time than to build up the amount of stuff you're going to donate to charity in a few months when she forgets it exists...or just leave it to clutter up the house. I'd prefer all parties to be gift optional actually...lol. How do you know what a child has or doesn't have, you always feel bad getting them doubles...

I never put "gift optional" on my kids party invites mostly because I invite people by word of mouth or on the computer instead :P I don't have anything against it. I just guess I don't think about it lol... I am too wrapped up in the moment of figuring out a day that will work for everyone family wise... and times that won't interfere with naps or whatever have you... That I just blank out on the gift things.... My baby shower will say gifts optional I think... Which is funny to say but it will Ellie is my third child and though she is a different gender then my other two I don't want people to think I am just asking for gifts... Our shower is to celebrate her coming into life.... Both her brothers had a shower (though Sean's was no where near as big he is also the first born into my husband's line so he was still well spoiled) so I feel it not right for her not to have one.... Baby's 1st birthday's are more for the family and friends of the baby honestly... It isn't something they will remember they will just see pictures of it and that will be it... Michael is 7 and has just started remembering his previous years birthday lol... And then he doesn't really remember a lot (mostly because he has two birthdays each year....) Sean just started acknowledging that a birthday comes and then goes... He doesn't yet grasp that it comes back around again lol... He thinks his birthdays are OVER now... lol... Anyhow back on subject... I've gotten invites that flat say "No Gifts Please" it just depends on the parents and the child. I'd say it was an ok thing to put on the invites. Even if no one brings her a gift... She will get plenty from mom and grandma and other family!

Mellie... It will get better we all just need to keep on pluggin'.... If that is what it calls for start making the calls to find all the doctors and appointments you can get today! Try to get them to schedule all the kids at once if possible. Or if separating them makes it faster do one at a time. Kick the damn coast guard in the teeth with how fast you can be at getting their crap done.... It sucks that it has to come to that but really there isn't a lot more you can do! *more hugs for you*

My daughter's first birthday is September 1st. Babies close in age! :boogie:

Anyway, I see no problem putting gifts optional. I don't even know if my family is getting Terra anything, come to think of it.

Mellie, hang in there!!

<3 I'm feeling better today. Thankfully sleep usually does that for me. I'm taking the kids down to their school today and showing them their classes, possibly meeting their teachers if they're in the room, so that should be nice. And then once i hear from Scott (because I don't have the papers necessary to give a pediatrician/dentist/doctor) I'll get started on making appointments. My new goal is to be up there by my birthday. >.> We've got just over a month and a half. Sounds totally do-able right?

Thanks Melody, Jaz and Chi! I guess I'm just a little nervous about her first birthday, mostly excited, but a little nervous. My mother is very judgemental and has to have everything done exactly the way she thinks it should be, and I'm having it at her house since she has a pool, so it just get's me all funky feeling I guess. Let me ask you this...

If YOU got an invitation in the mail for a first birthday that said "Gifts optional" What would you think? Would you think that they were basically saying not to bring gifts? Would you bring one anyway...?

And Melody, I don't know what's going on but everyone seems to be cheering you on, so I hope everything is well, and... Go Mel! I guess :sweat:

@Mellie
I would hope you'll be back together again in a month and a half. But, it also sounds like they yank you guys around an awful lot, unfairly, and just plain don't give a shit. Still, unless positivity is there, it won't happen, so I'm going to think happy thoughts and say it will come together. No doubts from here on out!
Sucks the kiddos will have to start one school and jump into another, though. >/

@Kya
If I got one that said gifts were optional, I'd actually feel more obligated to bring one. Maybe because I'd be worried the person wouldn't get anything? I dunno. :XD

Kya...It would depend on the person I got it from honestly.... If I know them well and we are close I'd buy a gift (pending our financial situation) if not I wouldn't..... Often if I feel obligated to buy a gift for someone who I feel like just invited me because they want a gift I plain won't go... I have an acquaintance who is notorious for it really... So I often will opt out of going all together...

Mellie you can do it! SCREW the coast guard if they are going to be *sshats.... >.>;;

I guess I'm the cheap one. xD If I got something saying gifts optional I wouldn't bring one. My take on it is the parents don't want extra stuff around the house that the child may or may not play with. But generally when I call and RSVP I ask what the child likes/wants and if the parent states again that they would prefer no presents then I don't bring one. If they do give me some options, generally cheap things:hot wheels, play make up etc I bring something small. but a gifts optional message generally means I'm not going to spend more than $5 That way if it just gets tossed later on neither the parent nor I feel bad about it. haha

RE: Coast Guard- Scotts been there for about a month now. At least things are now moving in the right direction. Even if we have to redo screening, there's only so many more hoops they can make him jump through before he can bring it up to someone in higher standing and show the number of obsticles they're giving him and that it's completely unfair since no one else has had to do this. Then things might get faster for us...but I can tell now that if he does that there will be consequences for him down the line as well. We'll see. Not giving up hope.

Unless the kid/person is family or close friend I never spend more the $5 on a birthday :P But part of that is because I only have like one close friend....