Bring It...

Well.

This years Thanksgiving was new for everyone in our little tiny family. It was the first time that there are new loved ones on the arms of our littles parents, its the first time we aren't with the person we have been familiar with for years but more than all of that its the first and last Thanksgiving Day that we get to enjoy as our little {giant}family unit for a while. Sadly we will miss next years cycle of holidays so we took full advantage of this year.

We spent actual Turkey day at the Luoma Household and some may have viewed it as odd, but for us, it was just comfortable and easy. I am so glad that we all work as a little unit and that there aren't any odd moments. Except for maybe when farting in faces is discussed. Potty Talk. Love it. I didn't have all my littles, just the oldest, but it was still a great time. I baked my first apple pie and it even tasted alright so that's pretty awesome.

The day after Turkey Day we did the annual thing at my house. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember and all the cousins and brothers (uncles) and sisters (aunts) on my dads side all gather together with their families and its a giant pot luck and goes really well. We had a great turn out, it was my first time cooking a Turkey and well..it was also alright...and by alright I mean I didn't kill anyone so that's good! I am certain all of this with the new guy is a little different for my family but honestly, they were all accepting and they all were gracious and since he's  a bit quiet I think it all went as well as can be expected.

The highlight of all of these days was having my guy go play tennis with my dad. Honestly I have to say, that is a big step and the fact that he was willing to spare himself for the team was a giant moment for me. He did great and my dad I am sure is already itching to take him out again...good thing the guy leaves soon or else my dad might ask him to join his Tennis Team. ha!

To say that these last few days have been amazing is an understatement. I don't know many other couples this new to things that can say that the holidays were fun, easy and although stressful and sometimes intimidating...they were pretty much perfect so far. I understand my guy leaving for 15 months is not going to be the easiest, but having the ability to hit all these milestones before he leaves has only brought us even closer. My heart grows each day and much like the Grinch, my heart is growing in ways I never could have imagined. I am a lucky girl and to the challenges we face ahead...I say...BRING IT!

Now take a peek at our cute little {giant} family of 8!

Best. Day. Ever

Yesterday we received the greatest news in all the land. My guy will be back here for his Follow-On. So excited. I wish I could properly convey exactly how excited I am but this excitement in Homers face is about as good as it gets!!!

 

Love my guy and I am so so so happy we have one less obstacle to overcome!

What if...

Okay so this one is going to be short and sweet. On the 21st the guy applied for his follow-on to be here. That was nearly a month ago. This next week he is going to work day shift so he can get things going and hopefully he will hear back on all of that. It all hit me this morning as I was driving into work.

What if.

- What if he doesn't get to come back here after already being gone in Turkey for 15 months.
- What if I have to go the remainder of his time in the Air Force with him somewhere else and not with me and the littles.
- What if this is an even bigger test to what we mean to each other.
- What if we fall apart. Not likely but still it plagues my mind and heart.

What if...what if...what if...

I know that's all we have right now, a bunch of little what if's but I guess that's what's so scary. You just never know and maybe this is why I have always feared the unknown of military life.

I hope we get good news.

I hope it all works out.

Little Things...

 

 

This quote could not be any more true than in my current situation. Its no secret that we walked into this with not only our own 3 kids each but also 3 of each others kids as well. We walked in with full lives and even our fair share of baggage and such. The chance to get downtime together without kids, or even as a small family of 5 is no less than a small miracle. So far we have had one good weekend with just his kids and every Thursday so far we get time with my kids when he can make it down. We do our typical Chinese Thursday (we grub down on Chinese food EVERY Thursday...don't judge) and then we follow it up with homework and well, typical family type stuff, showers, complaining and bed time :)

 

Now last night, we were able to have something we don't get too often and that was our very first REAL date. It was so fun! Just to be around each other, no kids, to chill and talk and BS and act like we had not a care in the world. It's in these moments I have to remember to enjoy them, that even though they may seem small, they are actually huge. They are the moments that will be most missed. Sitting in a restaurant as the guy looks around for a place to put his gum (uhm at 31 who honestly still puts it under the table...him) and me waiting less than patiently for my girly grown up drink to show up. Man a lemon drop martini could not have tasted any better than it did last night!

 

We went to a movie, we ate ice cream during, we snuggled in the seats and we came home and well...hey...not EVERYTHING needs to get put into the blogosphere. As we laid on the bed though, facing each other, chatting about things it hit me that I'm going to miss those moments. The ones that I get to look at him and just see him looking back, the moments that I can reach over and hold his hand, or cuddle up so close its almost like we are one person. I am seriously going to have a rough time and I think to cure this at least the cuddling part, this lady is going to have to buy herself a body pillow. Haha. Funny right? But not really, cause I love my nights where I have him there, I also decided that some Skype convos will just have to be at my night time and I will just have to set the laptop on his pillow. Just like 'we used to' is what we will say and for that brief moment it will almost be as though he is right there.

 

I have yet to share this blog with anyone because so far I have come to the realization that I am going to have a rough time of this, that still some people will judge me even committing to stay with him during his deployment, but mostly because I want to be able to say whatever I want and right now...just like a pouty little 2 year old I want to scream and shout...

 

"I don't want you to go, I want you to stay right here, I need you, boo hoo hoo"

 

Now that that is all out there this is me saying...remember the small things Andrea. Remember that you had all these moments and remember to make the most of them. Get out of your head and start being in the moment or else those moments are going to be ruined and you will have nothing good to hold onto.

 

I love this man with every fiber in my body and maybe that's why this is so scary. Time apart isn't so hard when you aren't fully devoted to the person leaving...but when you are...it seems to be the most impossible adventure you will ever go on.

 

 

XOXO,

G33KY Penguin

Remember...

Every day I am reminded that I am the girl of a US Air Force TechSGT. Every day I am humbled because it is without question that he has an extremely important job.

Yesterday on Veterans Day 2013 it was no different. Only it had me thinking...all weekend about that day, what it meant, who I knew that had given their lives, their family members lives, their time, hearts and souls for our freedom, our ability to live the lives we live in an amazing country, albeit not perfect.

I am proud to be a part of this mans life but I want to take a minute to say thank you. The lives we lead, have lead, the lives we are about to lead together won't be easy but they are worth it. I am proud of the man I have met, the man  he is, the job he does and the sacrifices that have been and will be given.

With that being said...

I am also thankful for my step dad, my grandfather, my uncles,  my cousins and my multiple friends who have also served their time in many different branches of the military. My sisters are military brats, they have lived on many bases and my brother has dual citizenship in Japan and the US. For all the time given I am reminded that not only is our freedom what they continue to fight for but it is what we need to learn to appreciate every day.

As we get closer...

My time to have to deal with being apart from the person who has become my heart and soul is coming quicker and quicker and I will have to remind myself that it is for a greater purpose, it isn't meant to tear us apart or cause us grief. I will remember to see the bigger picture and to cherish the time we get to speak, Skype and have a few moments to us. Our time difference will be huge, our lives won't just halt because he left, they will keep on moving and even with miles and miles and MILES of distance between us we have to remain close. In love.

Thank goodness I am certain for the first time in forever this won't be a problem.

I hope the world is ready for us to overcome this because when we come back together we are going to be even more unstoppable.

Happy (day after) Veterans Day. Thank you. For everything.

2 months

Yesterday was the day we hit the official 2 months of talking. We met on September 5, 2013 and it seems almost like it was FOREVER AGO. Doesn't feel like this person wasn't always in my life, in my thoughts and oddly...in my dreams. Who knew that with just one message (or three) that someone could win over my heart so completely.

Okay. Well. Enough mushy BS.

Lets get down to the nitty gritty. We had our first Halloween together. We had our FIRST HOLIDAY. To some that might seem silly, but lets be honest here. We will miss next years set of holidays so I am taking advantage of every holiday we have. Literally. Pictures will be taken, smiles will be on our faces and we will enjoy every minute if I have to fake my way through it. Cause the other reality is that with 6 kids...it gets a little hectic!

We had a blast. Hung out with friends, hung out with the kids and had a good time. I still think its funny how after only this long my guy calm my nerves so quickly in an otherwise chaotic situation. I mean we had 6 kids running around like crazy people and besides at the beginning and the end of trick or treating I am certain we only had our eyes on the two littlest at any given time. Good news. They were all returned in one piece and all with full bags of candy. Yay!

In only 2 months we have hit some serious milestones and maybe we are fast forwarding because we know we have soo much we will miss but really I think we are just enjoying each other to the fullest.

Things I don't want to forget....

- The first movie I took his littles to (Cloudy with a chance of meatballs)
- The first day he came to cuddle when I was getting over being sick (11/5/13)
- The first time we all hung out as a family (10/6/13)
- Our first I love You (9/11/13)
- The day I knew he was my forever (9/9/11)
- Our first kiss (9/9/11)
- The first weekend we had a sleepover with all the kids (10/11/13)

These are just a few of the sweet memories I never want to forget. Of course we had our first holidays, and pumpkin patch visits and such but its the sweet tiny things that mean oh so much to me. The details that you forget 20 years down the road.

2 months may seem like no time all to the very regular person who is just starting to date again. But I don't go in with doubt, I go in with the sureness that it will all work out and despite some of the little speed bumps that have already been handed to us, I still have 100% sureness that this is where we are supposed to be.

2 months. Wait till we hit 2 years and we realize we have only seen each other 8 months during that time! We got this...right?!?!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin

Military SO (Significant Other)

My Air Force guy and I have realized that in light of everything we are pretty badass and can most likely make it through even a difficult time such as what we will begin enduring in February. It doesn't come without question that we are insane after only 2 months to think we will last but hey...someone always has to defy the odds so why not be us this time!

With that being said I am starting to venture out into the blogosphere and also the support group area (yeah, that is not normally my thing) in order to speak to other military significant others and share experiences, rough patches etc. Who knows. It could help.

Well in my search I came across this awesome blog and as I stated in the very first sentence of this post...we're badass...so it seemed only oh so perfect to post this here...

*********************************

Definition of Military SO:

A Military SO is the girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband of an individual in any branch of any Military.

There is no higher civilian level of badassery.

To be a military SO (besides having a significant other in the military) you must:
-be able to survive a long distance relationship.
-be able to go for long periods of time without sexual intercourse.
-forgive any forgotten special dates.
-forgive lack of contact.
-have decent handwriting (for letters).
-have Skype (or any other video-chat service)
-have a charged phone on your person at all times (for unexpected calls or texts from your SO).
-be strong.
-be a badass.

"Don't mess with her, she's a military SO."
"Your point?"
"Her boyfriend can crush you with no effort."
"Oh..."

Makin' Memories

So it is without question that these days it seems the ONLY time my normal camera comes out of hiding is when the holidays have peeked there little heads into my vision and I all but squeal with delight at the memories to be made and captured on film...err...on a digital memory card. Ha.

This year of course with a new brood and many more faces to capture its caused my brain to melt slightly and you will never guess what I did. I have deleted all the memories from the very first Crazy 8 holiday. Deleted. Gone. Forever. Will never been seen. GAH! Sadness has been brought into my life with a vengeance. However, I cried and now I must suck it up, there are still many more memories to be made or so my sweet Air Force guy has reminded me. We still have ACTUAL Halloween right!?!

So for the sake of remembering these things here is what I can post. This weekend was a memorable one and not all just for the good stuff. All the kids are fully aware that the hunny will be leaving in February and all of them are none to happy, some more than others and really the youngers probably have no idea what is going to change and won't until it happens. Boo. We realized that multiple birthdays will be missed, that my littles are far more attached than originally thought and that I am sad sad sad and I almost don't even want to celebrate Thanksgiving for the simple fact that I don't want to hear the word...TURKEY. GASP! Its the new bad word in the house.

We went to the pumpkin patch a week ago and that was a blast. We did the corn maze and I met my guys momma and although it's never the comfiest of situations it went over well enough. So this weekend we decided to carve the pumpkins so the entire Crazy 8 was at my house and we gutted, and carved and painted and it was fabulous! The kids were in rare form, crazy and ornery and seemed to be extra whiney all weekend but that's okay we got through it! They each carved a pumpkin, and sweet Alyssa gutted about a billion (she loved that part) and then Sunday as the guy was sleeping (thank you night shift) me and all 6 littles went to another pumpkin patch and grabbed 6 tiny pumpkins for them to paint and that we can keep on our table as fall decorations. They had a blast and while they did that I was able to make breakfast for lunch with Carina, Tyler and well...when the guy wasn't trying to catch up on football he helped to :)

Real Talk. We made memories this weekend!!!!

Even with all the fun Halloween stuff, we also went to Aidan's final football game of the season. He won. Yep. We were there to witness the first win of the season. I'd say we brought the good luck but I'm sure it has more to do with the team they were playing having at least 3 players who I swear weren't taller than 3 feet. Little bobble heads walking around on the field. So cute. I met my guys dad and his wife and also the kids' mom. Again, not always the comfiest but by far some of the best moments of my life just being there watching our little (gigantic) family coming together to support one of the littles.

Pretty amazing weekend even with me deleting all the pics. We just have to make up for it this week by taking even more pics! Yay!

On a serious note, and more to keep in line with making sure I document the good and bad, this weekend was a rough one. Its setting in the length of time I and all of us won't see my sweet Air Force guy and although I am keeping my head up and know we will get through this, it doesn't change the fact that its sucky. With all that's going on, the meeting of families and the knowledge and preparation of the departure to come by brain was super emotional. This may or may not be also due to the hormones that are brought on by 'thisistheweekiturncrazyitis'.

We all know what that means.

Either way, my guy reminds me. Its only 15 months at the very beginning of our forever and then that's it. He will get to see us half way through and the only thing that could make it any more sad is that we still aren't sure if he will be returning back here after he is done with his deployment. I still have my fingers crossed and I will still be as optimistic as possible either way, but that won't be without a few tears and quiet nights to myself to just think. I have 6 little bodies to worry about and their hearts are far more fragile than my own so onward and upward!

Random tidbit. We bought toothbrushes for all the kids this weekend (even mine got new toothbrushes) and we bought bath scrubbies for them and once they are all hung up in the shower and the toothbrushes are in the toothbrush holder we will officialloy be on our way to making our house...'OUR' house.

Gotta stick together people. Its the only way to survive!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin

Follow-On

So I am totally new to all this Air Force (Military) lingo and I will not even pretend that Google has not become my best friend. In fact. Google. I love you. You have answered all my questions, even those I didn't know I had. You are great.

Follow-On. Two days ago my guy applied for his Follow-On to have him stationed back at Travis AFB. Great. Right? Well. Maybe. Initially we thought it would take 120 days to find out, but apparently we could find out in possibly 3 weeks. This could quite possibly be the longest 3 weeks of my life. Follow-On is where he gets stationed AFTER his return from deployment.

Things to take into consideration if he does not get stationed here (in no particular order)...

- He wouldn't see his littles for EVEN longer
- Me and my littles wouldn't see him for EVEN longer
- The initial 15 months that seemed like a piece of cake would now be 5 years of distance
- Could get spendy trying to visit
- I may become a Skype aficionado during all this
- We may want to buy stock in the Postal Service as many care packages will be sent
- His family and friends would miss him
- He and I may have big decisions ahead of us
- This would mean many missed holidays and birthdays, not just 15 months worth

Final thing to take into consideration.

I WOULD MISS THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!

Seems to me that I could choose to be a pessimist right off the bat and get down about it, but truth is, we haven't done that so far so I am not going to start now. So we will wait it out and think only the best. If I have learned one thing in the duration of all of this its that it doesn't pay to worry and worrying doesn't help.

So since worrying doesn't help here are some other neat things that I have come across while researching where my sweet will be stationed.

Country: Turkey
City: Incirlik (5 miles east of Adana 5th largest city in Turkey)
Base: Incirlik (35 miles from the Mediterranean Sea)

There is not much to do in Incirlik but Adana seems promising. I have decided that my goal is to make sure that I visit at least once while he is out there and since I have made that goal I have also discovered that its a 22-26 hour flight, its a 10 hour time difference, there is a Hilton in Adana, The Turkish Lira is equivalent to .50 in US Dollars and its also the nicest Middle Eastern Country for a woman to visit. No need to worry about the clothes I wear while I am there which is nice since it seems to get extremely warm. I got in touch with my girlfriend Lauren and she has some family of really good friends that have two homes out there, one in Istanbul (10 hours from Adana) and a house on the coast. Just waiting to see which coast its on to see if either of those can be a 'visiting point'. I'd like to think that I can make the most of this and if it gives me an excuse to get a stamp on my passport, why not!

I guess this is where we start to hit the challenges, but for now we will just consider them speed bumps. No problem!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin

Penguins

They say that penguins meet their mate and once they do its that penguin forever. That no matter, time nor distance that comes between them it will be their one true love forever.

Humans aren't like penguins. They fall in love, out of love and some don't even know what love is. This doesn't mean we are incapable or undeserving of finding our very own penguin it just means sometimes it takes us more than one try.

I found mine. He found his. Second go round but hey...we are after all still just humans. Our penguins came to each of us unexpectedly and without really any work at all and although we could joke and say we met at Target and bumped into each other in the Dairy Aisle, we both know how we met. Online. Really. So new age and seemingly impersonal. We met, we emailed, we melted and then we meshed. We are truly perfection in a super cheesy romance story kind of way and I am more than okay with that.

We have obstacles, we have issues and we have an insane amount of kids that all cause pressure and chaos but we have yet to let that stop us. We are a forced to be reckoned with and despite the odds, we are sure to beat them.

My sweet love. My Air Force Guy. He has received deployment papers to go overseas for 15 months starting in February. This may have come as a shock to anyone looking in, heck it's only been...well...details details. My point is some may have walked and we did the opposite. We are choosing to stick it out and hoping for nothing but the best.

The biggest of challenges are still to come I am certain, but I wanted to make sure we had a place to document the tough spots, the easy spots and all the in-between moments that will all inevitably become 'Our Story'. So join us in "Our Cr8zy Life" and see how we fare on this insane rollercoaster of life!

XOXO
G33KY Penguin