The Kees Family

What a crazy January!

2012-01-19T20:03:00.000-05:00

I kind of had a feeling when 2012 started that it was going to be a busy year - and January hasn't proved me wrong yet. We were busy with school and a laundry list of "problems" that Jack was having. We have had him tested and after a few too many calls to me decided that it was best to just with draw him for the time being to see if that helped with his "problems." We think that he is still trying to figure out how to be 4 and are hoping that by taking some huge expectations off of him it will help his behavior.

Jon has begun to travel again. Last weekend, he had to fly to Mississippi for a whole 26 hours. On Sunday, he leaves for Arkansas for 2 weeks of school. So he will miss the last week and a half of this month.

As for me, January has been busy with work and different events going on. Next Thursday starts Pastors' Conference so it is going to be a busy weekend. Mom to Mom has also started back and I have really needed the time with the girls in my group.

See you in February!

A Farewell to 2011...

2012-01-09T20:11:00.002-05:00

2011 was a great year. It was our first full year back together as a family. We took a couple of trips down to Orlando - Disney and IKEA were on the agenda. Pastors' Conference. A guinea pig. Passion Play - over 15,000 people watching in person. ISRAEL!!!!! A potty trained little boy. A 4 YEAR old little boy. Starting choir (Jack). Starting VPK. Starting Mom to Mom (me). Jon starting a new job - that is 15 minutes away from home. Jon travelling - A LOT. 4th knee surgery. 5 weeks later - a 2nd surgery for staph infection - thankfully not MRSA. Knee feeling 100% better - AMAZING doc. Pinterest. Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We are looking forward to 2012.

Merry Christmas from the Kees Family

2011-12-24T12:33:00.000-05:00

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!! I will post tomorrow with pictures of presents and baked goodness from today.

Being the mom of an only child

2011-10-28T11:15:00.000-04:00

Today, over at Kelly's Korner, she is doing a link of moms of only children. I do not know many parents of only children. We quite often get asked when we are going to have another child and have to explain WHY we are only having one. We were more than pleased that God allowed us to be the parents of this amazing little boy:

He has been such a joy these last 4 years. God has not impressed upon neither mine or my husband's heart to have anymore children right now. We feel that right now we love having the time to devote to him as well as to our marriage. Jon and I are in this until the end, through good times and bad we are in it together. Another reason why we are parents to our one and only sweet Jack is because we are a military family - a National Guard military family. I know you are probably thinking what is the difference. Well there is a huge difference. For the most part, the National Guard members live normal lives with normal jobs, except for Jon. He is an active Guard Reserve, which means he works full time for the National Guard for the State of Florida. He did a tour in Iraq and is now currently travelling 2 out of every 4 weeks of the month. It was hard enough to be a single parent to one the year he was gone and I can't imagine doing it with more than one. As people always say, God will not give you more than you can handle, and He hasn't.

Thanks for reading. Here is a picture of our family.

Look what I did!!!!

2011-10-11T21:46:00.000-04:00

OK so I joined Pinterest and have found some really neat craft ideas on there. I am not the most craftiest person but I try.

I found on there someone made a prayer pot out of a a clay flower pot and some tongue depressors. I thought it would be something that Jon and I could use to teach Jack the importance and power of prayer. Jon was all for the idea so yesterday I made my first venture out of the house since surgery last week. We went and got all of the supplies for this project and another project that we are working on. Here is our prayer pot:

The other thing that I did tonight was make a tutu for my best friend's little girl for her first birthday. I finished it tonight and it looks so cute. Here it is:

That's all for now.

Kim

What a past 5 weeks!

2011-10-05T23:21:00.000-04:00

These past 5 weeks have been interesting to say the least. 5 weeks ago today I had knee surgery to correct a problem that has been ongoing for the last 12 years. Everything went great with the knee except for a place down at the bottom of the incision. After keeping an eye on it and keeping it clean as I was told by the doc, he decided yesterday morning that it would be best to do surgery this morning. I do believe that if he could have gotten an operating room yesterday he would have done it then. He was very worried about it. I am now on an antibotic and a partial pain pill. The place that wouldn't heal looked gross but the wound now looks gross. I do believe that this will be TMI but you can see inside my leg. Yes I said that right - INSIDE my leg. Doc is letting it heal from the inside out. Should be interesting especially because I am having to change the dressing 3-4 times a day and it is awful. The first time I changed it I burst into tears - sobbing crying. Jon tried so hard to comfort me and it was so sweet but he had to leave the room because as he said "I'm a weenie." So needless to say I am having to change it out all by myself for the next week. Oh joy.

Next week is my 6 weeks post op appointment so I am praying the doc will allow me to take the brace off. I don't know if I could go even just another week with it on. I've also been "forbidden" to bend my knee and take a proper shower - that's almost as bad as having a gapping whole in my leg.

That is all for now.

Kim

First Day of School and an Announcement

2011-08-22T19:53:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of VPK for Jack. He was very excited about starting "big boy school." I know that we still have a year until kindergarten but it is still big. He had a wonderful day and made some new friends. No I didn't cry - I guess because he has been in daycare since he was 18 months old it's not really a big deal for us. Now next year will be a different story.

Next week I will have my 4th knee surgery to realign my knee cap and a couple of other things. To be completely honest, I am looking forward to having this surgery if for nothing more than the down time from work. Work has been monster crazy and I am finally going to get a few days off in a row. I am not looking forward to the cutting and what not but I will deal. The only other thing that I am not looking forward to is that Jon is leaving for at least a week on September 6th.

Last week, we received some news that we haven't shared with many people because we are just not sure what is going to happen in the upcoming weeks. NO, I am not pregnant. We found out that as of right now Jon might be deploying with his unit that leaves for mobilization at the first of September. He has a 50/50 chance of being deployed. We have no definite answers as to whether or not he is going but we have to begin packing everything that he might need for a deployment. I am not sure how to react to this because we were not expecting this when he got this new job. We will manage but we are adjusting to this new possibility.

Here is a picture of Jack today:

A Change

2011-07-24T18:36:00.001-04:00

Since I have returned from Israel I have seen the Lord moving in my life and in the life of our family. It has been hard for both Jon and I to completely turn everything over to Him and let Him show us where He wants us to go. It started when I answered His call to go to Israel. I didn't know where the money for the trip was going to come from. I knew that I just needed to trust God and He would provide and He did. As my trip was drawing near Jon told me about a new job that was opening closer to our house. We had been praying for God to show us the direction He wanted us to go with our car situation and my job situation. Many of you know that I work only part time for the church. We only have one car as that is what is feasable for our budget. Jon was having to drive back and forth to St. Augustine everyday for work and back and forth to Tallahassee for drill once a month.

When Jon began to tell me about this new job the first thing he told me was that this was a deployable job. By this point God had given me a peace about the job and the possibility of another deployment. I told him to apply for the job especially because it is only 15 minutes from our house. We were hoping that he would hear something before I left to go to Israel or even while I was gone. He didn't hear anything and began to worry. A few days after I returned home we learned that he DID get the job. Such a huge answer to prayers! He started on the 18th and he doesn't have to deploy with the unit at the end of August.

Another answer to prayers was that once I returned from Israel, we began to aggressively work on potty training Jack. Up until just recently he has shown NO interest what so ever to go to the potty like a big boy. It took about 2 weeks for him to be out of pull ups and into underwear and then another week or so for him to be completely in underwear and completely potty trained. I am so thankful for amazing teachers at the Junior Academy that didn't pressure him to be potty trained and that worked with Jon and I to accomplish this huge goal. I am also thankful for Shelly Taylor and Amie Shields and that they had the forethought to realize that every child is different and not making it a requirement for children to be potty trained by a certain age.

I have also been feeling a pull to go back to Israel. There is so much work to be done there and I don't feel that God is done with me there. The people that are working in country are amazing and we were able to form some amazing bonds with them. I was able to share with some coworkers and it even looks like some of them are wanting to go and that makes my heart happy. I throughly enjoyed my time there and can't wait to get back.

We are looking foward to going on a short trip to Orlando in a little over a week. Jon will be down there for a work conference for a week. Jack and I will be heading down on Thursday afternoon after work/school and staying until late Saturday afternoon. We are all excited to spend this time together since in the weeks following we are going to be super busy with school, choir and Mom to Mom starting.

For now,

Family Pictures and a 4th birthday

2011-07-12T22:09:00.001-04:00

The Saturday before the 4th we had our annual family pictures with the amazing Sarah Orgunov. We included our dog in them as well assome in Jack's room. Here are some for you to enjoy:

A certain little boy also had a FOURTH birthday on the 7th. I can't believe he is 4 years old. He had a really good birthday. We took cupcakes for his friends at school - in Iron Man colors. After school, my mom and step dad took us to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and for him to play games. We had such a good time. He got quite a bit of wooden parts for his wooden Thomas the Train set. He had his 4 year check up on Friday. He weighs 36 pounds and is 40 inches tall. He is growing like a weed. Next year I will have a kindergartner. It was just like yesterday that he was born. I love you James Alan!

Israel - A Wrap Up

2011-07-03T20:53:00.001-04:00

Well I have been home for almost a week now and to tell you the truth I am really missing the country, its lifestyle and the people. I had the MOST amazing time. Let me start at the beginning.

We left from Jacksonville and headed to Philadelphia. A very uneventful flight - no complaints from me. Once in Philadelphia we had to go from about the middle of the airport to the farthest end of the airport. Once we got to our gate we had to go through some extra security due to where we were flying to.
We had just enough time to get something quick to eat. When I say quick I mean get it, get in line and eat it. Once you were through security you couldn't go back out. We got through and got into where the gate was and boy were we cramped. The room was made for about 150 people and our plane seated almost 275. You see the problem. Once inside we were waiting and waiting only to find out why we were waiting - the flight crew was late. The ENTIRE flight crew was late. We finally got on the plane only to wait some more. Once in the air we got situated and begin to settle in for the night. Needless to say none of the 3 of us slept very much at all during that 11 hours. Once we finally landed in Tel Aviv we were anxious to get off the plane. We got off and proceeded to Border Control. That was a fairly easy process. Once we got through we went and got our bags and then went to meet our host families. After we left the airport, we went to this amazing restaurant.When we got done we went back to the houses and crashed for the night.

Full day 1 - We were able to meet with some wonderful people after we had a very filling breakfast. Once we were through with our meetings we hit the road. We went to visit the Baptist Village. What an amazing place. We were able to tour and see what needs they had there. From the BV we headed to Caesarea. It is where a wonderful port city was built. It was built right on the Mediterranean and at one point was a great port. We toured all of the ruins, ate a another wonderful restaurant, and just enjoyed the ocean and its breeze. I even got to experience my first sunset on the Mediterranean and it was breathtaking.

Full day 2 - We spent the morning in meetings once again. It is so encouraging to hear about all of the things that are taking place in the country. We then left and headed to the Sea of Galilee. We made a stop to see the beautiful Mount Ebal and then headed down to the Mount of Beatitudes. This is where they believe Christ gave His sermon on the beatitudes. We toured the grounds which are now run by Franciscan Nuns. We went into a beautiful church and then headed down to a spot on the mountainside where we just sat and prayed and enjoyed the quiet. It was wonderful. Once we got done at the Mount of Beatitudes, we went down to the Sea of Galilee. We went down to a tour center that has a water park next to it. We were able to take a ride onto the Sea and it was amazing. I could picture Jesus and His disciples living and working on that sea. From there we headed down to Peter's Primacy - where we were able to put our feet into the Sea. From there we headed up to Capernaum. What a neat place. They believe that Peter lived there and that is the place that Jesus went to the synagogue and taught. The ruins are beautiful. I know - how can I say that ruins are beautiful but when you think about the souls that were saved in that place during the time of Christ - it is the most beautiful place on earth.

Full Day 3 - This day we went to Nazareth. I think that we laughed all the way up into Nazareth. Let me just say this those people that live up there CAN NOT drive. If you think people drive bad where you live think again! It was scary and funny all at the same time. We went to see the work that is being done at the Nazareth Hospital. What a wonderful place. The people are so nice and open to the crazy Americans coming in to their hospital to see what they do there. We spent all day in the city of Nazareth and I will never forget that day.

Full Day 4 - We spent the morning driving down to the Negev Desert to meet with some personnel that are working down there. What amazing work being done there. We spent the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon there and then headed over to Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, we got settled into the Baptist House and prepared for the next day.

Full Day 5 & 6 - We spent all day Friday in the city of Jerusalem. We met with a couple that is doing work in the city and they allowed us to walk a neighborhood with them - praying as we went. When we finished, we walked down to the Old City. The only thing I can say about the Old City is WOW!!! We went everywhere and saw everything. We went in at the Damascus Gate, did a little shopping and then headed over to the Zion Gate. From there we headed toward the Western Wall, aka Wailing Wall. It was so neat to see all of the work that archeaologists have done. The height of the streets now were not the height of the streets all those years ago. We saw the large menorah that was built for the third temple. We had an amazing view of the Temple Mount as well as the Mount of Olives. We saw the cornerstone of Solomon's Temple and made our way down to the Wailing Wall. Wow what a place. We were there just a few short hours before Shabbot so many of the Jews were preparing for it as well as many were already at the wall praying. I was able to go to the women's side of the wall and pray for the Jewish people and that their eyes would be opened to the Amazing Grace of Jesus Christ alone. From the wailing wall we went and walked the Via Dolorosa. Let's just say that I cried most of the way down it. I know that it is very possible that that is not the actual road but it is ok. We went to a place believed to be where Christ was beaten and given His cross to carry. We then went through an Ethopian Church and into the Church of the Holy Sepluchar. There were many things in that latter church that many people believe are things of Christ. Many of the people in the church were kissing a slab that they think Jesus laid on or going into an ornate tomb that these people believe it is where Christ was buried. That ended our Friday. On Saturday, we had the privilege of going to the Prayer Center. This is the place that God fully revealed Himself to me and broke me. I cried and grew closer to Him there. Once we were done at the Prayer Center we walked to the Garden Tomb. This is the place that most people believe was the garden of Joseph of Arimethea. There is much evidence to show that a very wealthy man that owned this property. We saw Golgotha - what irony there was at this place. The very likely place that Christ was crucified for our sins, now stands a Muslim bus station and on top of the hill is a Muslim cemetary. From Golgotha we walked to the tomb. There is a wooden sign on what is now the door of the tomb that says "He is Not Here For He is RISEN".

Well that is pretty much my entire trip. It was once in a lifetime trip and I look forward to going back. They are in desparate need of teams of people to come and work. There is much work and there is many different things to do.

For now.

I Promise...I Promise

2011-06-21T21:32:00.000-04:00

I promise, I promise, I am working on a post about my trip to Israel. It has been a full week full of work since I have been back. I hope to have it up by the weekend.

For now -

2011 Passion Play

2011-04-02T20:25:00.001-04:00

Yes it is that time of year again! The first of 2 weeks of rehearsals began today. It is going to be an amazing program this year. I am here to plug it. If you are in or around Jacksonville, you must come and see this play. If you are not near Jacksonville, then on Sunday April 17th log on to http://www.fbcjax.tv/ and watch it. We will be streaming it live and even though you can't be there to see it in person, you can at least watch it.

Here is the important information:
Performance times are Friday April 15th at 7pm, Saturday April 16th at 2pm, and Sunday April 17th at 6pm.

Some Pictures

2011-03-27T13:36:00.000-04:00

Here is some of what has been going on in the past month.

Jack got a new pet - a guinea pig. Her name is Winnie. Here she is:

The best of friends.

For now.

A Quick Vacation and an update

2011-03-02T19:52:00.000-05:00

Well 2 Thursday nights ago we took a quick trip down to Orlando. We decided at the last minute to pick a day that Jon was off to take Jack to Disney. We really needed a weekend away and were looking forward to going. We told Jack that we were going on vacation and didn't tell him where we were exactly going until Thursday night when we got there. Friday morning, Jack got up especially early. He was very excited about going. Around 7:25 am we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. What an exciting day we had! Jack was excited to see all of the characters and even ride some of the rides. Here are some pictures from that day:

We had a blast and are looking forward to going back again before I go to Israel.

We are all doing well. I am busier than ever at work. There have been many changes happening and many responisibilities have been added to my plate. We have also been having some problems with Jack's behavior at school and because I am the one that is the closest to the school I am the one that has to deal with them everyday. Needless to say I am getting worn out very quickly. The Lord is good and He will not give me more than I can handle. It is just figuring out to handle all that He does give me.

100th entry

2011-02-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

Ok. So I just realized that this is my 100th entry on my blog. I guess it should be some profound post about the things that have been going on in our lives or some annoucement of some sort but I'm not. This post is going to be complete randomness.

First - I have apparently become a History tutor. If any of you are going to school and need help in any of your classes just let me know.

Second - We are taking a quickly planned family vacation next weekend to Orlando and Disney. Jack thinks that we are going once he is potty trained but we have decided to go early. He doesn't know and we won't tell him until we get up to leave for the park. Also on the agenda is a trip to IKEA!!!!!

Third - We are preparing for our first season of Tball in the fall. We have a glove, a tee and a soft bat. Practice will begin after we return from Orlando. He is excited.

Fourth - Jack got some hockey sticks. Apparently he wants to play hockey too.

See complete randomness.

My Funny Boy

2011-01-09T13:40:00.000-05:00

So this 3 1/2 year old little boy that lives in my house is absolutely hysterical. Here are some of the things that he has said today:

We pull up to the ATM and he yells out "money, please." Well at least he used his manners.

While driving home from church today, he and my mom are playing in the back seat and he gets the hiccups. He then takes a drink of coke and proceeds to burp. His hiccups go away and he gets really mad. My mom asks him what is wrong and he says "I WANT MY HICCUPS BACK!"

We got home from church and I told him that he had to take a nap. He told me that he couldn't take a nap because it was morning time. I told him that it was afternoon and he said "uh-uh mommy. The moon is down so it is morning time."

I am beyond blessed to have such a happy, funny little boy.

Here's to 2011

2011-01-04T21:40:00.000-05:00

2011 is going to be a great year! Jon is away right now for 2 weeks for AT with his unit. This week is going to be a busy one for me at work. Jack has a pre-op appointment on Friday afternoon for his surgery next week. Also on Friday is PJs, Pigs and Pancakes at his school. It is going to be so cute. Friday night Jack and I are heading to Gainesville to watch the Gators battle Nebraska in their first gymnastics meet for the season. We are so excited.

For now -

A Look Back at 2010...

2011-01-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

2010 was a busy but amazing year for the Kees Family.

January - this month started with just 4 months left on a year long deployment. Jack was getting excited about his dad finally coming home. I think that he was more excited about going to Disney World. A new book shelf and toy clean out. January went by so fast.

February - Pastors' Conference 2010 - I didn't have to work much this year. I spent lots of time with Jack and Jess and Will. There were trips to Savannah and Gainesville. 15 years since my uncle donated one of his kidneys to my dad. The Vancouver Winter Olympics and Jack being in love with all of the winter sports. Flowers from Iraq for Valentine's Day. A new TV. And a fabulous cupcake from Luli's.

March - A VERY busy month. To start the month off, someone abducted a little boy from a family down the street in my neighborhood. You can read my thoughts here. 2010 Passion Play - one of the best so far. I got to hold a little lamb! A trip to the zoo. New Chucks for Jack and a trip to MOSH.

April - 1 month!!! Jack's countdown chain. Easter - Christ the Risen Savior! Will's 2nd birthday! School pictures. Getting everything ready for Jon to come home and his welcome home party and my grandmother's surprise birthday party!

May - my 27th birthday, Mother's Day and our 5th anniversary. A surprise trip to Ft. Stewart to see Jon when he got off of the plane from Iraq. Eating our first meal (McDonald's). HE FINALLY CAME HOME!!!! Waiting patiently for him to be released - Jack telling the governor to "hurry up." A hug I will remember for the rest of my life. Going home as a whole family. A welcome home from our church family for a hero. A SURPRISE birthday party for my grandmother and Jon's welcome home party.

June - Family vacation to Disney: some one on one time with Mickey for a VERY excited little boy. Learning to ride his bike (with training wheels). Back to church as a whole family. A refurbished table for our munchkin.

July - Jack's THIRD birthday! Fourth of July celebration. Fireworks with great friends. Amazing family pictures by a sweet friend.

August - time at the lake with family. Jack starting FBC Junior Academy and LOVING it! Playing soccer!

September - More soccer. Spending lots of quality time with dad! Lots of quality time as a family! New IKEA catalog! Jon going back to school.

October - Air show - Blue Angels. JSO visit to Jack's school. Grandparent's day at school. Pumpkin patch with Will. Jess's baby shower for Reagan! Katie and Aaron's wedding!

November - Jacksonville Fair. Thanksgiving luncheon at school. 10 years since my dad passed away. Trip to Savannah - eating at the Lady and Sons! Thanksgiving with family.

December - Christmas parties. A sick little boy. A sick mommy. Reagan Hailey Braig born on December 10. Candlelight Christmas Eve service. Christmas! Lots of toys, food and fun!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

Here is a look at our Christmas:

Jack and I at the Christmas Eve service - he almost made it through the whole thing (no nap for him that day).

Santa made a stop at our house - for Jack and for...

Stogey. Here is Jack's first look at all of his presents:

He was very excited about his bike. Here he is taking a test ride in the living room:

Jack had a great Christmas. We were really excited about Jon being home this year to celebrate with us. He cooked everyone breakfast. My mom, step-dad, sister and brother-in-law came over to open gifts with us. Here are some more pictures of the morning:

We are looking forward to what 2011 has in store for us.

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-12-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

This Christmas, we are so thankful for the Savior's birth and that our soldier is here with us to celebrate this holiday with us this year. So Merry Christmas from the Kees Family!

A Rant on the Current Congress

2010-12-16T17:57:00.001-05:00

Here is my rant for the year- I am sure that you have all heard about this Omnibus bill that Congress has been trying to pass in 3 days. If they do not pass it the entire federal government will shut down. Why am I writing about this? I am writing about this because Jon is a Federal Technician for the Florida Army National Guard. They were told today at work that if it wasn't passed by the end of Sunday that they were not to come to work. From next week until they pass the bill, Jon and all of the Federal workers will be out of work, not getting paid because some genius in Congress felt the need to wait until the last possible minute to bring this almost 2000 page bill to the floor of the House and Senate and expect it to pass in 3 days! Jon and his coworkers were told that they would be back paid for the time that is missed but it all depends on when those wonderful people that we elected decide to pass this unnecessary bill. What makes it even worse is that it is happening the week of Christmas! If this does happen, it is going to put us (not only us but many people) in a HUGE financial situation. The only thing that I know for sure during all of this is that the Lord provides not only in the good times but also in the bad. That is all for now.

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T09:55:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was an amazing day! Our best friend and her little boy came over yesterday morning to play. After they left Jon and I began to start cooking. We headed over to my Aunt Shirley's house. I officially ate way too much but it was soooo good. It was good to be around most of our family yesterday. The only problem was that it was almost 80 degrees on Thanksgiving. I usually don't complain about the weather but I am ready for some cooler weather. After we ate we all hung out and watched football and Mary Poppins. Around 5:30 Jon, Jack and I left to head home because I was going shopping with Jess at the outlet malls at 9:30pm. About 10 minutes away from our house Jack crashed in the car and stayed asleep even when he was put in his bed and slept until 6am this morning. I took a nap and then headed to St. Augustine for some girl fun. We had a blast and got home around 3 this morning. We got everything wrapped and then we crashed on the couch. I got up around 7 and headed home. Now it is time for me to get a nap for whatever is up for the rest of the day.

I love FREE stuff!!!!

2010-11-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

Free – why yes thank you! I saw this on another blog and thought I could definitely use 50 free Holiday cards. I am so excited to do our cards this year because we have our Soldier home from the desert for Christmas this year! I have been looking for a good card design for this year since there will be 3 people in the picture instead of 2. I have looked everywhere but I finally decided on Shutterfly because of their different layouts and their many different designs. We use Shutterfly for their picture share site as well as picture prints. This will be the first time that we are using them for a picture card and I am so happy that I don’t have to do all of the printing and writing and finding envelopes. It will make this Christmas time much easier and allow me to get these cards out before Christmas. You should most definitely check out their card designs here. Be ready to look - you can sort them by color and number of pictures. Pretty awesome!

I can't wait to get them in the mail!

10 years

2010-11-05T13:43:00.000-04:00

Wow, I can't believe it has been 10 years. 10 years ago today I had just come home from the Billy Graham Crusade that was in town. 10 years ago today when I pulled up in my yard and saw all the cars I thought of only good things. 10 years ago today I was a naive child. 10 years ago today my life was drastically changed by the look on a face. 10 years ago today I received the worse news of my entire life.

In February, I did this post about my dad and my uncle and the 15 year anniversary of the kidney transplant. I knew that November 5 was rapidly approaching and I was just in denial that it would actually get here. I will never forget that Sunday night when I got home from the Billy Graham crusade. My Sunday School teacher (at the time) drove me home. When we pulled up in the driveway I saw cars everywhere and I got excited. My dad had been in the hospital for about 2 months so I thought that he was finally home. Boy was I ever wrong. My mom and one of my good childhood friends came out the door and I knew something was VERY wrong. My mom came to the side of the car that I was in and opened the door and told me the words I never wanted to hear - "Kimberly, Daddy is gone." I just sat there. I didn't cry (at first) and I couldn't move. When I did start to cry and tried to get out of the car my legs wouldn't hold me. My friend had to physically pick me up and carry me into my house. The next 3 days went by in a blur and I don't remember much but I do remember all of my family there and many of our family friends. I won't go into all of the details but I will say that when he passed away I became very angry at God. In the past 10 years I have found my way back to Him with a passion. I miss my dad terribly and I think of all of the things that he has missed but I know that he is with God.

I still grieve but I am doing good.

I miss you Daddy - always and forever.

Things Planned for the Weekend

2010-10-19T21:07:00.000-04:00

Well since Jon is out of town, Jack and I have a full weekend planned (not that we wouldn't if he was here). Saturday morning, Jack has a soccer game. I had one too but it got postponed. Then after his game, Jess, Jack and I are going to the Southern Women's Show. Later that afternoon Jack, my mom and I are going to the Jacksonville Air Show - especially to see the BLUE ANGELS fly!

I told Jack today as we were going on the base that we would come back and see a lot of airplanes and he asked me if you could fly one. I told him that I didn't know and would have to check for him.

He has really turned into something else. Some of the stuff he says absolutely cracks me up and I wonder where he got it from. This morning he told me that he needed to dress up like DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba. He also told me that he needed the box - the one that the characters come out of.

For now.

I've been slacking

2010-10-12T19:50:00.000-04:00

I feel bad that I haven't been blogging lately. We have been so busy with soccer and school. Jon is going to school to get his Bachelor's and then Jack is in full swing with his school. Soccer is half way done and Jack is having a ton of fun. I have some pictures from the past few weeks. I will upload them soon.

For now~

Fall is here....well sort of

2010-09-25T13:19:00.000-04:00

So I changed my background because it is officially fall. On the calendar it says that it is fall but outside it says that it is still summer. I have begun to get out my fall decorations - I need to get some new ones as well. Most places already have them on sale so that is a good thing. Soccer is in full swing. I am having a good time and so is Jack. That is it for right now.

VERY first soccer game

2010-09-13T11:29:00.000-04:00

So this past Saturday was Jack's first soccer game. It was also close to 102 degrees by the time his game started. I had to be at the park at 9am for my game and it was VERY hot already at that time. My game started late so I missed a little bit of Jack's game but thankfully my amazing mom and step-dad were able to be there to watch. Jon had drill and was very upset about missing his first game. My friend Sarah and her husband Paul came to watch. She told me that she just had to bring her camera because it was bound to be a sight to see. My mom said that Jack scored a goal...... for the other team. Jack's team won like 9-1 (the 1 being Jack's goal). My step-dad said that when Jack scored it was like he was scoring the winning goal in the World Cup. There was about 10 minutes left in his game and he had had enough. He was super hot and very tired - it was pushing close to his nap time. He had a great time and I am so happy that he is enjoying himself. Here are some of the pictures that Sarah got:

Please excuse how I look.

First soccer practice

2010-09-11T14:25:00.000-04:00

Jack's first soccer practice from Kim Kees on Vimeo.

OH HAPPY DAY!!!!

2010-09-09T17:05:00.000-04:00

Look what was in my mailbox this afternoon:

I am very excited to look over every single page and make my shopping list for the next trip to IKEA!!!!

My Little Soccer Player

2010-09-03T09:46:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Opening Day at the soccer park.

Getting ready.

all ready - just has to get his uniform shirt

with his momo and papa

Jack's first soccer team

His first game is next week and we are so excited about it!

What a Great Week!!!!

2010-08-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

Well today marked the end of Jack's first week at his new school. I really feel like this is more of a school environment than a day care and I can tell that Jack knows the difference. He has had the best week. I asked him yesterday what he had been learning about all week (hoping he would tell me the letter that they had been learning) and he looked at me and said "Jesus, Mommy." Oh melt my heart. I know that he is learning a lot but I am so happy that he knows that learning about Jesus is the most important thing. Thank you Dr. Brunson, Shelly Taylor and Amie Shields for allowing my son to be excited about getting up every morning and going to school and excited about learning about Jesus. What an amazing start to a school year and to the beginning of his school career!

First Day of School

2010-08-25T22:00:00.000-04:00

Well Monday was a very exciting day in our house but it was also one of much nervousness. I was worried that Jack would have the same problems that he did at his other daycare. Here he is all ready to leave the house:

He was so excited in the car the entire way down to the church. When we got there he said to me "No Mommy. Not to church, go to school." We are still working on separating the fact that school is during the week and church is on Sunday. Here is Jon and Jack going into the crosswalk to go to his class:

He was so excited when we got to his class. He helped me put his bag into his cubby. He then went running into his classroom. He had a friend in there and one of his teachers brought in a beta fish for the class. Jack and his friend were looking at the fish with a magnifying glass. It was so cute to watch them.

Jon and I left and went and had breakfast and then went home to clean a little and to just hang out. When we came in the door our dog (a 80lb black lab) was sitting at the top of the stairs and when we were all of the way up, he began looking for Jack. Stogey looked like he had lost his best friend. I sat down on the couch and he jumped up there and sat with me. Here he is looking sad:

We went back around 3:45 to pick Jack up and both of his teachers said that he had a very good first day. The past 2 days have been that way also. He is excited every morning about going to school and seeing his friends and learning about Jesus. The Lord has answered a huge prayer that I have had for the past couple of months.

For now.

End of Summer is here!

2010-08-20T21:26:00.000-04:00

Well the end of summer is here (technically) - it is still 100 degrees outside. School starts on Monday. Jack is starting at FBC Junior Academy on Monday and he is sooooooo excited. I am excited too but I can't believe that my little boy is one year away from VPK. He is growing up way too fast. Also, in 3 weeks he will be starting U4 soccer. It is going to possibly be the funniest thing but all of his little equipment is adorable. We got him cleats, shinguards and socks - his socks are an XS kids sock and the only company that makes them is Adidas (at least they match his cleats). I will do a post on Monday and let you all know if I cry - I'm going with no but others are saying I will.

Have a great weekend.

My munchkin is 3!!!!!

2010-07-23T13:16:00.000-04:00

I can not believe that my little boy is 3 years old. He is growing up entirely too fast! He will have his 3 year old check up on Monday morning so I will post his stats then. Here are some things about him:

He LOVES to talk.
He has become opionated.
He is HYSTERICAL!!!
He can eat - and eat he does. He eats everything but no cookies, cake or candy.
He has a best friend and his name is Will.
He wears mostly 4T shirts but can wear some 5T shirts.
He still wears 2T shorts - he has a skinny wasit but legs for days so we have to buy 3T or 4T shorts/pants just for the length (with the adjustable waistband).
He LOVES to play.
He has a great imagination. I love listening to him play in his room by himself.
He talks in paragraphs now and loves to tell stories.

He is so much fun and LOVES having his daddy home.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Jack and his best friend.

In his Woody outfit from his Aunt Jess and Uncle Kyle.

Something New

2010-07-10T21:05:00.000-04:00

I decided that since we are entering a new year with an amazing little boy that I would change the background of my blog. I really like the flowers so I chose this one.

Family Pictures

2010-07-09T09:17:00.000-04:00

Here are some of our AMAZING family pictures from last week.

A Preview

2010-07-02T16:30:00.000-04:00

Today, we participated in a yearly tradition - family pictures for Jack's birthday. My baby boy will be 3 on Wednesday - I can't believe it. Here is a sneak peek of the pictures that were taken.

Vacation, Soccer and Toy Story

2010-06-18T10:19:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a relatively short post.

We took our first vacation as a family the first part of June. We went to Disney and Sea World. I will do a much longer post with lots of pictures later today. We had the best time but were ready to come home at the end of the week.

Jack is fully enjoying spending so much time with Jon. Tuesday we decided that we were pulling him out of his daycare. We have had many problems with them and they always seem like they didn't know how to handle him. He will be starting the Junior Academy on August 23 so until then he will be staying at home with dad and then when Jon goes back to work he will be with my sister.

World Cup 2010 is here!!!! The US is kind of sucking but I will still support them until they don't move on anymore. Also, we signed Jack up for 3 year old soccer for the fall. We are so excited about this - hopefully it will help run off some of his energy. Also, I will start back coaching in the fall.

We are taking Jack to see Toy Story 3 today. Should be interesting.

For now.

Home FINALLY

2010-05-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

He is FINALLY home!!!!! Here are pictures from the day.

Jack and his sign.

Patiently waiting for the buses to arrive.

Jack getting interviewed by one of the local TV stations.

Jon's bus

A hug to remember for a lifetime.

Our first meal together.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. Jack is so happy that is daddy is home. One of the best parts of the day was when we were waiting for the commander to release the unit, the governor was talking to them and right in the middle of his speech Jack said "hurry up." I almost peed in my pants, i was laughing so hard at him. He was ready to find his daddy and this man he didn't know just kept talking and talking.

Home....well sort of

2010-05-19T20:49:00.000-04:00

Today is one of the days that we have been waiting for almost a year. Jon returned home to the United States.

I decided Monday night-Tuesday morning that I was going to drive up to Ft. Stewart (which is just outside of Savannah) and surprise him. We had planned for me not to go to Ft. Stewart but I felt bad that he wouldn't have anyone there for him. So I got up at 3:15 this morning and got ready and headed out the door at 4 am. I arrived in Ft. Stewart around 6:25 am. Shortly after I arrived, those families that had gathered received word that the buses were on their way to Ft. Stewart from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. All the families got into the cars and drove to the parade field and patiently waited the arrival of the buses carrying our soldiers.

Here is the parade field and a beautiful sunrise.

Here are the families waiting.

The buses arriving!

Once the buses arrived, they dropped the soldiers off and then they marched in from the back of the parade field. As soon as I saw them I started crying. I wasn't the only one - I could here small sniffles all around me. Once the soldiers got up to where we were, the national anthem was played and then the Adjutant General spoke. Let me just say that when they told us that the General was speaking the only thing I could think of was that we were going to be sitting there for hours. BOY was I wrong. He maybe spoke 5 minutes. Once he was done the unit sang the Army song. **Sidenote** Before they arrived, the announcer gave us a rundown of the schedule. He told us that when he said "this now concludes our ceremony" for everyone to rush and find their soldier before they could be dismissed. Once they are dismissed than you are in trouble because it is like playing Marco Polo in the dark. They all look exactly the same in their uniforms. Once the song was done the magic words were said. During the short speech, I found Jon in his company and realized that I was on the wrong side. I quickly got to the right side and waited for the magic words. Once they were said and I saw the kids running to their dads I took off. I ran right to Jon and hit him with every fiber in my body. I hit him so hard that I almost knocked him over and the soldiers around him flinched when I did it.

He was so shocked to see me there that his first words to me were "what are you doing here?" It was amazing to have him in my arms - I didn't want to let him go. I was able to spend about 3 hours with him before I had to head back to Jacksonville. I did take him to get something to eat and he ate it like someone was going to steal it - I guess that is what happens when you only have 20 minutes to eat.

Jon had me bring one of his bags home and it happened to have his helmet in it. When I picked Jack up from my mom's tonight I gave him the helmet and he thought that he was so cool. Here are some pictures of him wearing it. He wore it all the way from my mom's to our house.

A Birthday & An Anniversary

2010-05-07T18:51:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was my 27th birthday. It was a quiet day - Jon sent me flowers, Jack "took" me out to lunch and two of my good friends came up with their children (and 1 husband). I was surprised at the flowers from Jon. He said that they were for my birthday, our anniversary, and Mother's Day. They are beautiful and they are still living.

Today is Jon and I's 5th wedding anniversary. I can't believe that we have been married for 5 years. I am more in love with him today than I was 5 years ago. I am sad that he is not here for our anniversary buthe will be home in 14 days!!!!!!!!

The Final Countdown

2010-04-23T17:55:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that we are 28 days away from Jon being back home with us. I am beside myself with excitment. Jack is also getting very excited as well. Every night before bed I have him take one of the links off of his countdown chain and every night he wants to take the one off that marks the day that we will go to Tallahassee and pick Jon up.

Jon is also getting very excited. They have been undergoing inspections and Customs has been there getting all of their stuff ready to head back home. They will be leaving Iraq in just a few weeks and the guys couldn't be more happier especially because it is beginning to get very hot.

Plans are coming together for a party for Jon and a surprise birthday party for my grandmother who will be 80. My entire family will be in town for all of the festivities - that means that my mom and her 6 brothers and sisters and all of my cousins, their spouses and their children will be here for both events. The week later we are taking our first family vacation in a year. We are going to Disney for a week and everyone is looking forward to time together and time away.

For now.

39 days and counting.....

2010-04-13T18:12:00.000-04:00

We have officially hit the 30 days mark. I know that the next 6 weeks will go bye so quickly. Yesterday, Jack and I made a paper chain to count down the days until we go get daddy. We hung it on our fireplace and I told him that once we got to the white chain we would be able to go pick up daddy and he got so excited. I told him almost 2 months ago that when daddy comes home we are going to see Mickey Mouse. So now he equates Jon coming home with being able to go see Mickey Mouse. We went right before Jon left but Jack wasn't quite 2 yet. He enjoyed it but I know that he will enjoy it so much more when we go in June.

Here is our countdown chain:

Jack was sick the week leading up to Easter and Easter weekend. He is back to normal which means eating me out of house and home.

That's all for right now.

March Photos

2010-03-31T18:58:00.000-04:00

This month has been a very busy one with Passion Play and the final countdown to Jon coming home (53 days BTW). Here are some pictures I got during this month.

sleeping in his tent

on the train at the zoo

two best buds looking out the window

When Jack woke up from his nap today at daycare, he woke up with a fever of 102. I took him to the doctor and he has tonsilitis. Good times at the Kees house.

2010 Passion Play

2010-03-19T17:43:00.000-04:00

One week from today will be the first performance of the 2010 Jacksonville Passion Play. We have had rehearsals all this week. We will have rehearsal everyday except for Wednesday starting tomorrow. This year's script is great and I am looking forward to dress rehearsals next week.

If you can't be there but would like to watch it, it will be streamed live on http://www.fbcjax.com/.

That's My Neighborhood

2010-03-04T21:05:00.001-05:00

That is what popped into my head when I heard the news like the rest of Jacksonville that a 3 week old baby boy was abducted from his parents on Tuesday evening. The family lives about a mile from my house. After that thought came into my head the next thing that I thought about was how did a family with 2 children let a stranger that claimed to be an employee take their 2nd born child. My reaction to hearing about the abduction was fear because this happened so close to my house. I began to pray for the sweet little boy and for his family and that the Lord would bring him home safely and quickly.

I began to think how deseperate a person would have to be to go up to someone's house and take a baby out of his own parents' arms. We found out on Wednesday morning that the baby was found safe and sound at the girl's house with the girl who abducted him. The police informed the city later in the day that it was a 19 year old girl that stalked the family at the hospital earlier that afternoon and then followed them as they ran a few errands and then went to their home and convinced the family that they MUST give her their baby.

The sweet family of this little boy is from Haiti and they don't speak much English. They have been in the country for 5 years. In Haiti the people are afraid of the police and the girl threatened to have the police come and take this baby from them. This family also does not know how DCF works so they fully believed everything that the girl was saying. I hope and pray that the family will get some help in learning how some of the many agencies in the state and the nation work.

Continue to pray for this family as they will have to relive the incident for the trial that is coming.

Wishing & Hoping

2010-02-27T22:22:00.000-05:00

So now that the Olympics are winding down I am going to write about them. We have done a lot of watching of all of the sports over the past 2 weeks. Jack has been absolutely entrhralled with every sport that we have watched - which worries me. For those of you who don't know, I HATE THE COLD WEATHER and I don't do the snow. Jon is from the north so it probably wouldn't bother him. I keep telling Jack that the only "winter" sport that he can like is hockey. Yes, we have hockey in Jacksonville. Which is a nice break from the 95 degree heat. But all of the other sports, like the snowboarding, skiing, figure skating, curling (whatever that sport is), speed skating, all of them, that involve actually living where it is cold on a regular basis with a good amount of snow on the ground, I don't think so. Hopefully, we can really get him into sports that are good Florida sports, you know the ones that are played pretty much year round here - soccer, golf, baseball, all of those.

Just thought that I would share.

Look who's gone all crafty

2010-02-23T22:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, I admit I am not crafty. Not remotely. Not like Angela and especially not like Rachel but I am trying. When I started planning Jon's welcome home party, I started looking for invitations. Ok, here's the deal he will be home the weekend before Memorial Day and the party is Memorial Day weekend. I thought oh no problem on finding patriotic things online right. WRONG! So I decided to make my own - with a little help of course. There is a lady that I work with at the church that should really open up her own business making cards, no not greeting cards, but personalized note cards, thank you cards and invitations. She is great and so creative. Anyway back to my story. So I enlisted Debbie's help and decided to make my own invitations. I went to Hobby Lobby, Michael's and AC Moore yesterday and practically bought them out of their patriotic scrapbook paper (all sizes).

What I did was took what Debbie made and printed it out on white cardstock and then cut it a little smaller than the scrapbook paper and attached it to the paper with the ever fantastic glue dots and ta-da homemade invitations. I only have a picture of one right now because that is all I have done is one because trying to do them with a two year old in the house is a lot easier said than done. "Jack help, Mommy." I have about 8 or 9 different kinds of scrapbook paper so many of them will be different. I promise to put up more pictures as I get them but I really wanted ya'll to see what Debbie did cuz it is so cute (please forgive my horrible English right there).

A Sweet Reward and A Future Gator

2010-02-19T23:30:00.000-05:00

This week started off really good with a day trip to Savannah with my best friend Jess. We had such a good time. Tuesday was when the fun began. When I arrived at work on Tuesday I was informed that our email was still down. It went down late Thursday afternoon. The best part was that they had no idea when it would be back up. The week went downhill from there. Wedenesday greeted me with an issue at Jack's daycare involving him biting a child and then a teacher (not his teacher or even the director of the center) told my mom that the next time that he bit a child that I would receive a call telling me to come and pick him up for the rest of the day and if the biting continued then "further actions would be taken." Let me just says this and I will be done with it, since he has been there I have never been notified of the biting policy so all of this information was new to me. Today I had to go to St. Augustine to pick up a form to renew our license plate (we get it free - thank you National Guard) so while I was there I wandered in my home away from home - the place that I lived for almost 6 years. On my way out I went and treated myself and my bestie Jess to an amazing cupcake from Luli's. Jess had to work so I dropped it off at her house and then when I talked to her tonight both her and her son have the flu. I brought my cupcake home and throughly enjoyed the red velvet goodness. Here is a picture of it.

So after I got home from St. Augustine I was trying to decide what Jack and I were going to do tonight. In case you don't know, I love all things Gators. Tonight down in Gainesville there was a softball tournament, a baseball game and a gymnastics meet. So away we went to Gainesville for the night and a good time was had by all. Jack was sure that we were going to watch "basketball" which in Jack translates to football but I had to break it to him that the Gators were not playing "basketball" and he wanted to take his ball and I had to assure him that they had plenty. I did however take him into Ben Hill Griffin and he was just astounded.

My Future Gator

Taking it all in

We had so much fun tonight. He wasn't so sure about all of the noise in the O'Connell Center tonight but he loved the band and he just sat and watched the gymnast flip and fly. I asked him if he had fun and he said "yeah mommy." He also told Jon "Gooo Gators" - I thought Jon was going to cry. :o)

94 days and counting...

2010-02-18T20:01:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that we are in double digit numbers and are 4 days away from being 3 months away from him coming home!!!! In some ways it has flown by but in many other ways it has dragged. I am slowly starting to prepare for him to come home. I am so excited and so ready for him to come home. Oh how I have missed him.

For now.

15 Years Ago

2010-02-09T22:18:00.001-05:00

When 2010 began I started to think back over the past 10 years. Mainly because this November marks 10 years since my dad passed away. But then I realized something even more amazing - 15 years ago a major change happened that forever changed my family.

My dad was diagnosed with Type 1, Juvenile Diabetes, at the age of 8. He had to learn how to give himself insulin shots and learned what he could and couldn't eat. I realized that my dad was different from all of the other dads when I was 8 or 9 because he had stop working because he was declared legally blind. I remember that it totally devestated my dad. He loved working, he loved coaching my ball team and he loved working on cars.

Around the time I was 11, my dad's kidneys started failing and therefore he had to start dialysis. This process really took its toll on my dad. It made him really sleepy all the time and he started missing a lot of things. A BIG side note - my mom was absolutely amazing during them time that my dad was sick. She was our family's rock and continued to love my dad unconditionally no matter how sick he got. My mom and dad had to start making trips to Gainesville to see about the possibility of a kidney transplant.

Well, when the organ that is being transplanted is one that can be done from living patient to living patient the hospital tends to look to the family first. Thank the Lord that my dad has 7 brothers and sisters. The University of Florida began the testing of all of the Jacobs clan and it came down to 2 siblings. My uncle Don was the one that was ultimately chosen to give my dad one of his kidneys.

In late August 1995, while most of my dad's brothers and sisters and my mom gathered in Gainesville to await the outcome of the surgery, my sister and I continued about our normal day-to-day life here in Jacksonville. I was 12 and my sister was 10 so we were old enough to understand the implications of what was happening and all of the outcomes that could occur. Well the surgery was a great success. My mom was able to come and pick up my sister and I so that we could go and see my dad and my uncle down in Gainesville.

My dad looked and felt great. My uncle on the other hand, not so much. Here's why - shortly after the surgery when the doctor and a nurse came in to check my uncle's incision they took his morphine button away and forgot to give it back. So basically he went off of morphine cold turkey. Let's just say there was some hallucinations going on and it was funny to all of us but him. And if you ask him if he would like some chicken or beef buillion cubes he is most likely to tell you NO (that is pretty much all he could eat for a week or so). I found out later that they had to take out a rib and a half of my unlce's - he is a very tall man. The one kidney that he gave to my dad took over for both of my dad's kidneys. My dad had one working kidney and one not so good kidney.

The reason for me writing this is for me to tell my uncle Don how much I appreciated what he did for my dad and for our family. I know that my dad, my sister, and my mom have told them time and time again what it meant to them but I never knew how to say what I wanted to say.

To my Uncle Don-

I am sorry that it has taken me 15 years to get around to telling you how much I appreciated what you did for my dad in giving him your kidney. It has been completely overwhelming everything that has happened in the past 15 years. In giving my dad your kidney, you gave him an extra 5 years to spend with us, to see us grow up. You also gave him an extra 5 years to have an opportunity to have a closer relationship with you. Thank you for being there for us whenever we needed you. Thank you for giving me an extra 5 years with my dad to experience things that I might not have gotten to experience otherwise. Just thank you. I love you.

This is my dad.

This is me and my Uncle Don

Sorry this was such a long post.

Complete Randomness

2010-02-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

So this post is going to be one of complete randomness. I have some new pictures to put up too.

1. I am completely loving the Beth Moore study that I am taking right now. I already feel a change occurring.

2. I have lost 3 pounds since Friday. I am taking 3 classes a week and they are totally kicking my butt.

3. On Feb 15, my bestie and I are taking a day trip to Savannah and I AM SO EXCITED. We are going to eat at the Lady and Sons and wonder around the town.

4. We are moving closer and closer to Jon coming home. A little over 3 1/2 months.

5. Tomorrow is the last day of Pastors' Conference and it will be the only day that I am working the Conference. It is the first time in 3 years that I haven't been there for the whole thing.

Now for the pictures....

His shirt says "Handsome Just like My Daddy"

4 MONTHS!!!!!!

2010-01-23T09:46:00.000-05:00

Today marks 4 months until Jon comes home!! I am beside myself excited. I am beginning to plan Jon's "Welcome Home" party for the weekend of Memorial Day which also happens to be the weekend my wonderful grandmother turns 80! This is going to be a short post but will put up some pictures. Happy Saturday to you all!

On the right is my grandmother at Jon's deployment ceremony in Tallahassee.

Jack and his best friend.

Loves it When....

2010-01-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

I love it when...

I get unsolicted comments on things that I say/type. Take for instance this afternoon I put as my Facebook status that I need a vacation. And someone decided to tell me that I was on a permanent vacation already - basically that I haven't done anything in the past 7 months since Jon left. Making it seem like I don't take care of Jack, the house, the bills, and the car and like I don't work (I know that it is only 4 days a week) but I am working and not just sitting at home,

Jack throws a fit in the middle of Publix because I won't let him push the cart. The fit lasted almost 10 minutes and I had this women stare at me the whole time like I couldn't handle my own son and his tantrum. I heard the best story ever from my best friend today. She went to get an oil change today and her son was getting antsy from being there for that amount of time. He is almost 2 years old. Once the car was ready, she put him up on the counter to sign for everything and he got ahold of her cell phone and then proceeded to throw it. She went to go get the phone and that is when he decided to practically leap off the counter. Thankfully she caught his half way down. There was a lady that was also waiting for her car and could tell that Jess was frustrated. The lady proceded to make a comment to Jess about Will and then said "This is why kids shouldn't have babies so young." Here is the best part Jess is two months younger than I am - she is 26. Jess nicely told the lady her age and walked out - good times.

That is all the "loves it when" that I have for right now.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T20:06:00.000-05:00

How did I get so lucky as to have a happy little boy? He got up at 5:30 this morning in the best mood and has been that way all day long.

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-10T22:26:00.002-05:00

So I have been thinking about these for quite some time now. I normally don't do resolutions because I know that I am prone not to keep them and most of the time they seem like petty things to do. I have only decided to resolve to do a few things.

1. To get back into going to church on Sunday nights and to take Jack with me.
It has been hard for me to do this especially since Jon has been gone. Tonight I started a Beth Moore bible study and stayed for the service. I usually will go for a class but not stay for service.

2. Get more into God's Word.
I want to get more intimate with the Word of God so that I can set a good example for Jack and for Jon. Jon did not come from a baptist family so I want him to get into a good bible study when he gets home.

3. Loose a resonable amount of weight.
I am still carrying some weight from when I had Jack and I want to loose it. I also want to get back into good shape and start eating healthier.

4. Start coaching soccer again as well as get my NSCAA Regional Coaching License.

5. Tell my son and my husband how much I love them every single day.

I know these might seem like they are petty things but to me they are important to me.

Congrats to my friend Dustin who was ordained as a Deacon tonight.

Hello 2010

2010-01-01T22:03:00.002-05:00

Wow, I can't believe that it is 2010. As of today, we have 4 months and 22 days until Jon comes home - not that we are counting. 2010 looks to hold many things for us. The first part of the year is going to be counting down the days until Jon comes home and then the first few months after he gets home it is goingto be a readjustment period for us all. Jon and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage in May - he will miss it but that is okay. My little boy will turn 3 in July - I can't believe that he is going to be 3.

Only the Lord knows for sure what is in our future and I look forward to finding out what He has in store for us.

For now-

A Look Back at 2009

2009-12-31T20:38:00.003-05:00

2009 has been an interesting year.

We started the year looking at 4 months until Jon left for his year long deployment to Iraq. We really had to think about what was ahead of us for the year. January also began the never ending pre-deployment drill weeks, weekends and eventually a month and a half. I guess you can say that this time was preparing us for the separation. January was a busy month for us.

February was an even busier month. Pastors' Conference was this month - I worked A LOT during this time. Jon was gone during the week of PC for drill (of course) so Jack spent a lot of time with my mom and sister. We moved one month closer to deployment day. We also started planning our vacation for right before Jon left.

March was even crazier than the first two months of the year. Jon had drill from March 15th until April 20th. It was a crazy busy month with work and trying to juggle everything with Jack. Jack started daycare at the first part of March.

April - one month until "D" day. Since Jon was gone during almost all of April it meant that he was not here for the Passion Play. I worked double the hours that I worked during Pastors' Conference. Sometimes I didn't leave until 2 am and was back the next day at 7 am. Once Jon got home we were getting ready for a much needed vacation. We took Jack to Sea World and Disney World for 5 days. It was the best time for the 3 of us. Jack really enjoyed everything.

Then there was the month of May, to start the month off I celebrated my 26th birthday and then Jon and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. After that we had to begin packing all of Jon's stuff so that it could be ready to go to Tallahassee with Jon when he went. It was getting harder and harder for us to be apart. The month went by too quickly - Jon had to be in Tallahassee on the 23rd. The state held a very nice ceremony for his unit at the State Capital with the Governor. The 23rd also began the countdown for when he comes home.

June - the first full month of the deployment but it was also when I got to go to Chicago to see Jon. I was so excited to go. Number 1 - I have always wanted to go to Chicago. Number 2 - I am a HUGE Cubs fan and found out that we would be able to take a tour of Wrigley Field. I wanted to go to a game - they were playing the White Sox at the new field of the White Sox but the series was sold out so I got the next best thing. Number 3 - I was going to get to spend the whole weekend with Jon!!!! Sadly it was the last weekend before he left to go overseas. We had a great time and I was sad to come home.

July - my little munchkin turned 2. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. Jon left to go overseas. He flew from Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin to Shannon, Ireland. From Shannon, Ireland to Kuwait. He spent a few weeks in Kuwait and then left for Iraq.

August - was a quiet month. Jon was in full swing in Iraq. We were able to talk to him on Skype and see how he looked. Jack thought that it was awesome to talk and see his dad on the computer.

September and October were quiet months as well. Jack and I finally settled into a groove of working together as a team. In October, I took Jack trick-or-treating for the first time. He LOVED it - he was Thomas the train.

November began the busy holiday season. It was a very happy time but it was also a very sad time because Jon was not here. Thanksgiving was fantastic and it was good to spend that time with my family.

December has been great. Christmas was fun - Jack was fun this year. He really liked opening his presents. Jon was able to call on Skype and watch Jack open his presents.

2010 is going to be a great year. Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T17:24:00.003-05:00

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas day. I know that we sure did. My mom, stepdad, sister and brother in law all showed up at my house at 6 am. We decided to open presents at that early of a time so that Jon could call and see Jack open his gifts. I hadn't talked to him in 3 days so I really was hoping that he would get to call and see Jack. Well he did call and it was so good to talk to him. Yesterday was a happy and sad day all in one.

I was a bad mom and didn't get any pictures because I was too busy trying to make sure that Jon could see and hear Jack open his presents. I wish that you all could see Jon's face while he was watching Jack. I could tell that he was happy to see him opening his gifts but he was also sad that he was not here to experience it firsthand. All I could think was that in 5 months he would be home and we could celebrate everything together.

For now~

Moving Closer to Coming Home

2009-12-24T10:13:00.003-05:00

Yesterday marked 5 months until Jon comes home. I am so excited!!!! I am also a little sad because he is not going to be home for Christmas. It is just not the same without him here.

On a happier note...

I don't know how many of you know that I currently hold a Class E license in the state of Florida for coaching soccer. I am also a member of the NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America). I was looking on their website last night and noticed that they are holding a State Goalkeeping Diploma program in Jacksonville in 2 weeks. I was a goalkeeper in high school and on my rec teams and that is where my heart lies. In th near future I hope to get my National Goalkeeping license.

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!!

Some new photos

2009-12-14T19:38:00.006-05:00

Here are some new photos of Jack (and I).

I found Jack like this during a nap. He is sleeping with one hand on his trains and the other around a doll that is in Army fatigues with a picture of Jon in it.

Jack is playing with his train that is under the Christmas tree.

This is our Christmas picture.

He Makes My Heart Smile

2009-12-05T20:38:00.002-05:00

This little boy right here

makes my heart smile everyday. I know that I have reasons to be sad, anxious, nervous, and any other feeling that goes along with a deployment but whenever I hear that little boy talking and taking in the world around him my heart just smiles as big as it can. When Jon left from Tallahassee they gave all the kids these dolls wearing the Army ACUs and there was a place on the face to put a picture of your soldier. Well tonight I FINALLY got a picture of Jon printed and put in Jack's doll. I called him up to the living room and showed it to him and he saw Jon's picture and said "Hi Daddy" and took him and ran to his room with it. When I tucked him into bed I asked him if he wanted his bear and he told me yes that he wanted the one from daddy and then he picked up his doll and kissed Jon's face and said "Night Night Daddy. Love you." He then laid him on his pillow right next his head.

Oh how I love that boy. I can't wait for Jon to get home to see how much he has changed since he left.

A New Black Friday Tradition

2009-11-28T16:27:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, I was not one of the crazy people out shopping at 4 in the morning. Yesterday, the only time that I went to the store was around 4 in the afternoon and that was for cat food and diapers. Yesterday, Jack and I started a new Black Friday tradition. We went to the zoo instead of shopping and frankly it was great. We got to the zoo about 5 minutes before it opened. It was a little chilly so we had jackets, hats and a blanket. The good thing about getting there first thing in the morning was that all of the animals were awake. Jack likes when the animals are up and moving around. All he could talk about was seeing the giraffes - he loves those guys.

He saw that the elephant was eating and said "Mommy he eating with his nose."

Of course when we get to the giraffes there were 4 of them standing right up at the fence. Jack kept saying "Hi giraffes" and then he saw a baby one and he kept telling me about the baby.

Jack thought these guys were funny. Can you guess which one is the baby and which one is the mom? I'll tell you at the end of the post. There was a keeper there and she told us that the baby is not a year old and almost bigger than his mom. She also said that he hasn't gone into the pond yet that is in their enclosure - he almost did yesterday but changed his mind.

We got about three quarters of the way through the zoo and Jack fell asleep. He ended up missing all of the monkeys. Here is a picture of him sleeping in his stroller.

So I think that the Kees Family now has a new Black Friday tradition that does not include shopping. The answer to the jaguar question is the one that is standing next to the fountain and the very tall grass is the baby and the one on top of the rocks in front of the bushes is the mom. She was keeping a very close watch on him the whole time we were there. Have a great week!

A Week of Thanks

2009-11-21T21:19:00.003-05:00

As this week of Thanksgiving is upon us, I have stopped to think about all of the things that I am thankful for. I tend not to do this everything Thanksgiving but this year I have so much to be thankful for. First off I am thankful for an amazing husband who is doing an amazing job in Iraq right now. I am also thankful for a great son - who if I may say so myself is a really good kid. I am very thankful for an amazing mom - she is my BEST FRIEND and a great help during this deployment. She is in need of much deserved vacation. I am also thankful for a great best friend who completely understands everything that I am going through and we get along so well. Thankful for a great church family who has been there for Jon, Jack and I during this deployment. Thankful for a job - especially one that I absolutely love, especially one with a great boss (who is understanding and loving), and especially one that has the amazing coworkers that I have.

The only thing that I am sad about this week is that Jon is not here to celebrate with us all. Jack is excited for Christmas. I took him to see Santa Claus today and he loved him. Here is his picture with Santa. (Sorry it is a little fuzzy - I took a picture of the actual picture)

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

To all my Friends

2009-11-12T13:50:00.002-05:00

To all my friends:

I am writing this as a public service announcement for a friend. I know that many of you have heard him sing. Jon and I just love Daniel Crews. Over the past year, I have had the great opportunity to work closely with him and become a friend. If you are on Facebook please find his fan page and become a fan. He has a new album coming out soon - it is a live album of songs that he has sung at FBC Atlanta and FBC Jax. He is a great guy and an amazing singer. Please also check out his website here. That is all for this announcement. :0)

Is there no end in sight

2009-11-10T20:47:00.002-05:00

Right now I am so sick. This is day 2 of this. Since I am the only one home with Jack I can't really take any good medicine. Anything that says that it might be slightly drowsy I can't take it because it knocks me out cold. Last night Jack didn't go to bed until 10 so it was entirely too late to take any meds. Tonight he is already sleeping so I was able to take some meds.

Also tonight while I was on the phone with my mom (while sitting on the couch), Jack wanted to sit with me so I let him. Well about 2 minutes into he proceeded to stand up on my right knee cap. If you don't know I have had a lot of problems with my right knee resulting in 3 surgeries. The problems encircled around my knee cap. So on top of the cold, I now have this horrific pain in my knee.

Pray. I am praying that I get through these next few days and feel a lot better.

Is it May yet!?

2009-11-07T20:04:00.001-05:00

I am tired. I am lonely. I am ready to have another body in this house. I am ready for help with things.

That is all.

Halloween and FL/GA

2009-11-02T18:35:00.004-05:00

This year I took Jack trick or treating. There were not many houses in our neighborhood giving out candy so we weren't out long - plus Jack doesn't eat candy AT ALL. Here he is on our way out and at his first house with my mom.

Also on Saturday, I took Jack downtown to the happenings of the FL/GA game. We were down there in time to see the Gator Walk. The fans line up and the Florida band and the team walk into the stadium to get ready for the game. It was fun but it was HOT! Jack loved it. I asked him if he wanted to go see the Gators and he kept saying "Yeah Gators" and then he would say Go Gators. It was a great weekend. My family from Pensacola came in and all of my mom's brothers and sisters spent Saturday together.

I can't believe that we are in November and that Thanksgiving is coming up. I am sad that Jon is going to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas but sadder for Jack b/c he has finally realized that his dad is not here.

Until next time.

My Little Thomas

2009-10-26T19:55:00.004-04:00

In case you didn't know, Jack LOVES Thomas the Train. He has almost every Thomas movie, train - it's all about Thomas. Even so much this is his Halloween costume:

This past Friday my mom, stepdad, sister and I took him to the Callahan fair and he loved it. As we were walking up he said "Wow lights." He loved all the animals and espically the man with the tractors. He got to sit on one and pitched a fit when we took him off of it.

We are gearing up for Florida - Georgia weekend. It is going to be great! My aunt and uncle are coming in from Pensacola for the weekend. Until later.

Like Father, Like Son

2009-10-19T19:14:00.002-04:00

Before Jon left he bought Jack a pair of Army PT shorts. They are exactly like Jon's only smaller. Jack absolutely loves them. I had to make a trip out to Camp Blanding a few weeks ago to get Jon a new patrol cap. I had been looking out at NAS Jacksonville but they had every size but the one I needed. So anyway, while I was out at Camp Blanding I picked up the matching T-shirt. He looks exactly like Jon with it on. Here is proof:

He is growing up so fast. Just thought that I would share.

I GOT IT!!!

2009-10-18T13:40:00.003-04:00

So after a much needed rest and a trip to Gainesville, I finally got the couch that I have been wanting. My best friend Jess and I went to IKEA yesterday and had a blast. I got the right mattress for Jack's bed (I need to take a picture of his bed) and some other things. Here are pictures of the couch and the side table that I got.

Isn't it awesome!!!!

I am now a happy girl.

It's Fall....well in a sense

2009-10-15T19:45:00.003-04:00

So if you live in Florida you know that this upcoming weekend is the first time in quite a while that it is going to be below 80 or 90. Last week, Jack and I went to the pumpkin patch with Winnie, Alan, Clara and the Dorminey's. We had a great time but it was SO hot. Jack helped me pick out some good pumpkins. Instead of carving them, I went and bought some paint and paint brushes and let him paint them. I also bought these things from Wal Mart that you just stick into the pumpkin and you can make different faces out of them. Here are some pictures of his pumpkins.

I am so excited to be heading to Gainesville tomorrow for a girls night out. After the night that I had last night I will be so happy to get some sleep tomorrow. Talk to everyone when I get back.

Change of Vacation Plans

2009-10-07T21:30:00.004-04:00

So I mentioned here of a much needed vacation for my best friend Jess and I. Jess couldn't get the day off from work so we aren't able to go on the cruise. Instead, we are going to:

Dana Carvey is the headlining comedian, O.A.R. is the headlining band and joining the two of them will be the JabbaWockeeZ. Gator Growl is so much fun and it is the biggest student run pep rally in the US. It is awesome! The next day the Gators will be playing Arkansas for Homecoming. Once Gator Growl is over, we will be making the journey down to Orlando to stay the night here:

That Saturday morning (or whenever we get out of the bed) we are going to IKEA!!!! We are both so excited to have the time away from our children and time for ourselves.

A New Occupation....Sort of

2009-10-04T20:14:00.008-04:00

No I haven't gotten another job - I LOVE working at the church. What has happened is that since Jon is gone I have become a handy man...of sorts. Friday, my grandmother and I made a day trip to IKEA!!!! We had so much fun. I went down to get Jack a new bed and some other things. Once I returned home I had to put his bed together and then I had to go get curtain rods to hang and put up my new curtains. I got Jack's bed put together before his bed time. When I say that I had to put it together I had to really put it together. Here is the proof.

Here is his bed - pre set up. It came in 2 boxes and then the slats for the bottom of the boat.

This is his room before.

This is his bed in the middle of putting it together.

And here is the finished product. I am so proud of myself - the only downfall is that his matress is not the right size but that is okay.

The other project this weekend was hanging up curtain rods and curtains. The curtains that I bought from IKEA are a certain length and they come with an iron on hem strip so you can make them any length that you want them. Here is what it looked like before the curtains.

Here is what it looks like with 3 of the 4 curtain rods and curtains up.

I think that I did pretty darn good. In 2 weeks I am getting a new couch and a new chair for the living room. Jon really dislikes the couch that I am getting and probably will not like the chair either. I told him yesterday that he can turn the office/middle bedroom into his man room. He was happy with that idea. Now that I feel like my arms are going to fall off I am going to get the maintence man here at the apartments to hang the final rod because I have been having problems with it.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend.

Missing his daddy

2009-09-26T13:54:00.005-04:00

Last night Jack wanted to listen to Jon read him a Dr. Suess book. Jon read him a book while he was in Kuwait at the USO building and they put in on a DVD and then sent it to us. I put in the DVD and I had to put in on repeat because when it stopped Jack got mad. He fell asleep last night listening to Jon read to him. Here are some pictures that I got.

An ER trip

2009-09-19T20:36:00.003-04:00

So today has been a very interesting day. We were scheduled to spend the day with my best friend and her son at the zoo. It started out that way. We went to the Original Pancake House for breakfast and then all loaded up in Jess' truck and headed to the zoo. As we were loading up the truck, I heard Jack say "uh-oh" and I looked and he had gotten sick. I just thought that he had gotten himself worked up in the restaurant and he was tired. I told him it was okay and put him in the truck and away we went. He eventually fell asleep. By the time we got to the zoo things had gotten worse. Jack was not himself. He didn't act like Jack. We were there about 45 minutes and decided that it was time to call the doctor and head to the emergency room. I carried him in and we were back to a room in about 15 minutes. He was dehydrated and had a temperature of 102.4. They came in and put an IV in his hand and gave him fluids. Here is a picture of him (in a much better mood once he got some fluids in him).

So we are both exhausted after those 3 hours in the Wolfson's ER. He is sleeping and I am on my way to bed.

A Boy and His Bananas

2009-09-16T20:37:00.003-04:00

This was Jack yesterday after a quick trip into Publix. I got a Publix sub for me for dinner and he saw the containers of fruit and wanted some. Then he saw the banana balloon and wanted those instead. So I got him 3 bananas and he held them in his arms like that through the entire store. The lady that was bagging put them in a bag for him and he kept them there until we got into the car. After I took this picture I had to peel one of them for him and he ate the whole thing before we even got home.

This boy makes me laugh everyday.

TV is back!!!!!

2009-09-09T23:06:00.007-04:00

So there are only a few things that I watch during the summer - Army Wives, Drop Dead Diva and Pysch. I am so excited that the fall season has begun!!!! Tonight was the first night of some of the shows that I watch.

So You Think You Can Dance is now on in the fall. I absolutely love this show. I became hooked on it during the first season and haven't stopped watching it since.

This is my new favorite show. I missed it back in the fall when the pilot aired but watched it 2 weeks ago and fell in love with it. It is so funny.

Next week my FAVORITE show returns!!!!

I loved David Boreanaz in Buffy and Angel and he is hilarious in Bones. I am so ready for it to come back.

Lastly, my other favorite show returns from a very suspenseful ending. Plus, I want to see if McGee and Abby get back together.

I love when 8 o'clock rolls around because Jack is usually in bed and I get a chance to sit on the couch by myself and watch TV.

A Much Needed Vacation

2009-09-07T19:54:00.004-04:00

So my best friend in the world had the most wonderful idea yesterday. We are going on a cruise. It is my Christmas present from Jon (via long distance). Jess' husband is a police officer and he is on the SWAT team so he is working all the time. She tells me it is just like he is deployed with Jon. They have a 1 year old son that has just as much energy as Jack. We are planning a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas in a little over a month and I can't wait to get on that boat and into the open seas. It is definitely a much needed vacation for the 2 of us. If it were up to me, we could just go and float in the Atlantic ocan for all I care.

On a completely unrelated note, a friend of mine is having her baby tomorrow. I grew up playing baseball with her brother and hanging out at their house all of the time. She is having a little girl and I know that everyone is excited. It is also getting really close to the time that some of my other friends have their babies.

That is all for now on this Labor Day. I talked to Jon today and their Iraqi interpreters had a cookout for the soldiers today. Jon said that the food was really good.

That's all for now.

A Trip Back to College and a Hair Cut

2009-09-03T15:23:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday, I spent most of the morning in St. Augustine helping the new freshman move into Flagler College. I remember the Saturday 8 years ago that I moved my stuff into the dorms at Flagler. For those of you who don’t know about Flagler College, the next time you are in St. Augustine I highly recommend taking the tour of the college. It was opened in 1888 as a magnificent hotel.

Henry Flagler began building it in 1885 and it opened in 1888 as the Hotel Ponce de Leon. What a great building it is. It was the first building to be made completely out of poured (or cast-in-place) concrete. It was the first building in St. Augustine to have electricity - thanks to Edison. It has two bell towers that were not used to house bells but it housed the water that the hotel and its guests used. Louis Comfort Tiffany was commissioned to do the interior design work in the hotel - which included putting his famous stained glass windows throughout the dining room. There are still 27 ORIGINAL Tiffany stained-glass in the building. Also in the hotel, there are 2 beautiful murals on the ceiling. It has the most beautiful hand carved wood-work in the rotunda as well as magnificent floors. The tiles in the floors were all hand laid. The beauty is not one that can be explained in words but one that must be seen in person.

Flagler College was established in 1968 and the hotel was gifted to the school. Ponce, as the hotel is known, now houses female residents and the dining room. The school was originally started as an all-girls college but started to allow boys in 1971 and got its accreditation in 1973. It is a small school but the education is one of the best in the nation. I thoroughly enjoyed my time while I was there and learned more than I ever thought I would. I learned to like things that I never thought I would. I got my degree in history and double-minored in sociology and Latin American studies. One subject that I got really good at and thankfully so was English. I loved the fact that all of my professors knew my name and if they saw me on campus they knew who I was. There were never any more than 30 students in any of my classes, even the freshmen classes.

Back to last Saturday, I helped parents carry stuff up to dorm rooms and answered any questions that they might have had concerning the school. I had so much fun and it brought back many memories of my time spent at Flagler. I really think that I am going to do it again next year. Here are a few pictures of my old room:

Last night, I took Jack to get a haircut and he was none to happy about it. His hair had gotten long and unruly. He hates having his hair washed so it was definitely time to get a hair cut. So my sister and I went to get it cut. Once he realized what was going on he absolutely refused to sit down and let the lady cut his hair. I had to sit in the chair with him so she could cut it. I told her to just shave it as short as she could. Now he basically has no hair. It looks good and I like it. He keeps saying “hair, all gone.” It is funny to watch him rub his hand on his head and then just go do something else. Now he really looks like his dad.

Before hair cut

Post hair cut

On a completely unrelated note, I am getting my sofa at the beginning of next month. I am so excited. Jon is not because he doesn’t like the couch. Oh well too bad. I am buying it.

The Laugh of a Child

2009-08-28T13:39:00.005-04:00

Well, this week has been a long and stressful one. Between the car decided to needing to be fixed on Wednesday instead of next week to going to pick up Jack yesterday to find out that he has begun to hit the other kids in his class at daycare. Yesterday was the day that I got to a completely overwhelmed point. I cried quite a few times between Wednesday morning and yesterday afternoon.

Being a parent is the most rewarding and stressful job in the world but it has one of the best perks in the world. Jack has got to be the most happiest child I have ever met. He loves to laugh - all the time. I love to hear him laugh. His laugh can make the worst day 10 million times better. It can make my lonliness and sadness disappear.

Here is a video of his laugh. Hopefully if you are having a bad day it will help you to have a better one.

When It Rains It Pours - UPDATE

2009-08-26T14:34:00.001-04:00

Well got a call from the mechanic - the day got better. The guy with the shop said that it was something we already knew needed to be fixed. It just so happened that it didn't want to wait until next week when I was going to take it in. The even better part is that the mechanic is just going to add it to the bill for the work being done next week. Oh Happy Day!!!!

When It Rains It Pours

2009-08-26T10:20:00.002-04:00

I feel overwhelmed. Sometimes I feel like it is all crashing in on me. Today is one of those days and it is only 10:30 in the morning. When Jack woke up and then woke me up I kept thinking that today was going to be a great day. Jack was in a great mood and very helpful this morning. Things were going great until I got off of the interstate at the exit where Jack's daycare is. I got to the light and had to stop and all of a sudden the car started spitting and sputtering and acting like it was going to turn off. I freaked out because I had just taken it to the shop on Monday to get an estimate on a few things that I KNEW were wrong with it and needed to be fixed - well this wasn't one of those things. I had prepared myself yesterday for the mechanic's bill next week but not for this. I was less than a mile away from the auto shop and Jack's daycare (they are only a few blocks from each other). I had to stop a few more times because of stop lights and each time I would put the car in park and either turn it off or rev the engine. I finally made it to the garage - I had called my mom and asked her to come and pick Jack and I up. I also called my boss at the church - I absolutely love her - to let her know that I was having car trouble and wasn't sure when or if I would be in. My mom arrived, we got Jack to the daycare leaving the car at the shop to fix whatever is wrong with it. After we dropped Jack off, I took my mom to work and then headed to the church to talk to my boss. She is great and listened to me tell her everything that happened this morning. I asked her if I could work on Friday instead of today and she said yes to just go home and try to get everything figured out.

Before today, everday felt like it was raining on me but today it feels like it is pouring.

Because he thought he should tell me

2009-08-19T20:24:00.001-04:00

Yesterday while at work Jon called me on my cell. In the midst of our conversation he asked me what the message from me on Skype was about and I told him to just listen to it and call me back. I told him to give me 15 minutes to finish something I was doing at work. Well 15 minutes came and went and then another 15 minutes came and went and then he finally called me back. Do you know what the first thing he said to me was? He said “sorry I lost my connection because there was an explosion so close that it shook the whole building and I could hear it and feel it.” The first thing that came out of my mouth was DO NOT EVER TELL ME OF ANOTHER EXPLOSION WITHIN 100 MILES OF YOU. He was so nonchalant about it and it totally freaked me out. I told him that I didn’t want to talk about it. Ever. Why do men feel the need to share things like that with the women in their lives when they know that we are sitting back here in the states worrying about things like that every waking hour? After he talked about a bomb exploding he just moved into another topic of conversation like it was no big deal. Why is it that men say women are so frustrating and hard to understand?

On a much lighter subject….

On Monday, I put a package in the mail to Jon with a webcam in it. Well last night as I am pouring milk in my Lucky Charms (that I had for dinner - Jack had a lunchable and I have no shame for that dinner either) my skype is ringing. So I answer it as I normally do when Jon calls but when I look back at the screen I notice that a video screen is popping up. Jon borrowed someone’s webcam and called us using that. I wish you all could have heard Jack saying “Hi Daddy” I started crying. He stood and talked to Jon for 10 minutes and then never left the room. I am simply amazed at this 2 year old that is my son. He has taught me so much over the past 3 months and he doesn’t even know it. He is the reason that I get up every morning. He is the reason that I am still the caring and loving person that goes out of my way to take my best friend to the airport even when she lives in St. Augustine and the airport is in north Jacksonville and offers to drive to St. Augustine to take care of her 2 dogs while she is out of town. He shows me love everyday no matter how tired I am, no matter if the laundry is done, if the floor is vacuumed, if I look a mess or actually like I took 5 minutes to get ready. He loves me because I am his mom and for that I am forever grateful. I know that he misses his daddy but he is only 2 and doesn’t really realize that 3 months have passed. I could tell that last night by the way he stood in front of this computer and just talked and talked and then went and got his trains and showed Jon his trains because he knew that he hadn’t seen them and then when I wanted to talk to Jon Jack looked at me and said “no Mommy”. What a great way to end the day. Sorry for getting all emotional.

In Need of a Maid (or Rent-a-husband)

2009-08-18T17:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was tiring. Everyday is tiring. I really wish my husband was home to help me do these things. I wonder if hiring a maid would help. Probably not - wishful thinking. I woke up at 7 am yesterday morning with a day full of things to do - it was my day off. I wish I could say that I sat around the house and did nothing but that is not the case. Yes, Jack was already up and ready to go. I got him dressed then proceeded to get myself dressed. I had to get his stuff ready for daycare for the week. After I got all of that taken care of, I gathered up everything that was going in Jon’s package. All in all it only took me about 30 minutes to get everyone and everything ready and to the door. Let’s just say I had never been so happy to get into the car than I was that morning. After I dropped Jack off at daycare, I went to the post office. Has anyone noticed that it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get in and out of the post office? I had to mail Jon a webcam and it took me about 35 minutes to get it mailed out. My grandmother was giving me her bedroom furniture and her and my uncle were brought it over yesterday. They got there by 9:30 and we had to take down my bed, take my clothes out of my old dresser and mover my bookshelf - which by the way is full of books and I wasn’t taking them out. We had everything set up and all of the extra furniture taken out of the house and into the bed of my uncle’s truck by 11 am. After my uncle and grandmother left, I proceeded to do laundry, wash dishes, change the cat litter and vacuum - well try to. My vacuum died - I have a 90 pound black lab. With black hair. That is everywhere. I went non-stop all day yesterday. I wonder if I should invent a rent a husband business - that would be awesome. Only 9 more months.

If I just keep telling myself that - only 9 more months.

A Tribute for a Hero - Part 2

2009-08-17T14:48:00.005-04:00

So this past Friday was the homecoming and funeral for Navy Captain Scott Speicher. What an amazing sight to see all of the people of Jacksonville all over the city out lining the streets for a quick glance at the hearse. My sister and I went to Forrest - where Speicher went and graduated from (as did we). Here are some pictures from Forrest as well as some from just outside of the cemetery where he was finally laid to rest. It was simply amazing.

A Tribute for a Hero

2009-08-13T22:36:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, the city of Jacksonville will be paying tribute that has been waiting 18 years. Captain Scott Speicher was shot down the first night of the Gulf War and no one in the United States government or US military was quite sure what happened to him - if he was dead or alive. So for the past 18 years the military and the government have been looking for him and been changing his classification from Killed in Action to Missing in Action to Prisioner of War - everything. 11 days ago with help from some Iraqi people they found the remains of Scott and this afternoon he returned to Jacksonville soil. Tomorrow, they are going to be taking him around to the places that meant a lot to him - his church where he taught Sunday School, his high school where he graduated, the base where he served and his final resting place. They will also be going to our veterans memorial wall. His high school is also the high school that my mom, aunts, uncles, me and my sister graduated from. The base where he served is the base where my uncle served. His final resting place is a beautiful resting place home to many and home to a dear friend of my family.

Please keep his family in your prayers as the day that they have waited for is finally here.

Shopping is a Girl's Best Friend

2009-08-12T20:23:00.005-04:00

The title pretty much says it all. My laptop has officially died. I don't know what is wrong with and I have a good friend that works with computers everyday that can't even tell me what is wrong with it. So tomorrow I am buying this-

It is a mini laptop. It has a webcam so I can talk to Jon. I will get it in black. I am so excited about it.

In about a month I am going to be buying this from IKEA - my most favorite place in the whole world.

I LOVE THIS LOVESEAT!!!! Jon will hate it but it is completely me. He complains about some of the shorts that I buy. I will buy Jack this bed -

I of course will buy other things than those two things but I just wanted to share those. This weekend, my grandmother is giving me her dresser and bed that her and my grandfather bought 50 years ago. They are both made out of solid wood. The dresser is huge and has a beautiful mirror and the bed is a 4 poster bed. Once I get them all set up and everything arranged I will take some pictures and post them.

A Diagnosis

2009-08-06T14:15:00.003-04:00

So yesterday morning was full of doctor's appointments (see previous post for why). Report number 1 - Jack's ears are all clear. That is such good news. Report number 2 - I have been diagnosed with strees induced migraines. Hmm I wonder why?! My doctor put me on Topomax - which is a daily migraine prevention medicine. Side note - he got real serious when we were talking about this drug and he looked at me and said "Now there is one important side effect that I like to tell my patients about." I was sitting there thinking "Oh great he is going to tell me that if I take this that I am going to turn green" or something horrible like that. He then proceeds to tell me the side effect - (pause for dramatic effect) weight loss. I looked at him and told him that he would not be getting any complaints from this patient if I came down with that side effect. Back to report - he also gave me samples of 2 other meds to take for breakthrough pain. I am so happy to know what was causing the headaches and even happier that there is a medicine I can take for it.

This has nothing to do with all of that but I thought I would share anyway - my laptop has officially died. I have been putting off buying another one but it seems that I must now make that purchase. I am going to get a Dell mini.

Again this has nothing to do with either one of those things but tomorrow night my bestest friend Jess and I are taking a night off from our children. Her husband is a police officer in St. Johns County and works all the time so she is in the same boat as me (kind of). We are going to the Kenny Chesney concert tomorrow night and we are both so excited we can barely stand it.

That is all for now.

a quick prayer request

2009-08-04T20:18:00.002-04:00

I promise a longer post tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I have to take Jack to let the doctor look at his ears. A few weeks ago, he came down with a really high fever for no apparent reason. I know that many of you don't know this but around his first birthday, he was at the end of a cold and one day spiked a really high fever. I'm talking 101 and higher. That day both Jon and I stayed home with him and boy am I glad we did. I called his doctor to schedule an appointment for that day. We gave him the standard Tylenol and Motrin and waited out the morning until his appointment. We had lunch with my mom at her work before we went to the doctor. On our way to the doctor, he got real quiet in his car seat and I turned around and realized why. He was having a siezure - it was brought on by a sudden spike of his fever. We pulled over and called 911 - when the ambulance got there his fever was 104. Needless to say he had another that night and we spent 4 hours in the ER. He had what is called a febrial siezure. Dr. Chally can't tell us if he will ever have another one so anytime he gets a fever we immediately call the doctor and she usually works us in. Anyway I got him in to see the doctor when he came down with this last fever and he had the beginnings of an ear infection. 10 days worth of medicine and now a recheck. He keeps getting ear infections in this same ear. Pray for a good outcome.

Also, please pray for me. I am going to the doctor at 11:30 tomorrow morning. For the past few weeks I have been having migraines - really bad ones at that. I had one a week ago Saturday that had me curled up in the bathroom floor in tears. Pray that the doctor can figure out what is wrong.

One phone call makes all the difference

2009-07-21T20:34:00.004-04:00

The past few weeks have been really tough for me. I am still adjusting to being home alone with Jack pretty much all of the time. My mom lives right down the street but it is not the same as having Jon here. Being a military wife is a solitary life - I know that most of you will say that I should have known what I was getting myself into when I married Jon. I will say that I did know what I was getting myself into when we got married but until you experience a deployment, especially one during war time, you don't fully understand what military wives and families go through.

The last time I spoke with Jon on the phone was 2 days before he left for Kuwait. He called to wish Jack a happy birthday and to talk to all of my family for the 4th of July. That was until Sunday morning. I was cooking breakfast and the house telephone rang. I looked at the caller id and it was the privacy director so I answered thinking it was my sister from work. To my surprise it was Jon telling me to answer the phone. He was able to get a good internet signal and he and his bunkmate are sharing the cost of Skype. I talked to him for almost 20 minutes before we both had to go for the fear of him losing his connection in the middle of our call. He said that the internet service in Kuwait is horrible - it comes and goes. It was so good to hear his voice and it made my day much better. I haven't heard from him since but that is okay.

In the past 2 months, my relationship with Christ has become a lot stronger. I am praying daily that He keep Jon and his unit safe and to bring them ALL home. I have also started reading the Word on an almost daily basis and the Lord shows me new things everyday. I can feel the Lord's hand over Jack and I during this time that Jon is away. I have just had this on my mind for the past few days.

Please pray for one of my closest friends, Jessica. Her grandfather passed away Thursday afternoon at age 86. He was a WWII pilot and a God-loving, God-fearing man. This has been really hard on her because her grandparents pratically raised her. She has moved to North Carolina to try and have a relationship with her mom. Her mom left when Jessica was just a baby. Things are not going well in North Carolina and she wants to come home. Pray that God will show her what direction He wants her life to go in. Pray that I will be a good friend and have the strength and courage to just be her friend and that God will give me the words to say to her.

Here are a few of the pictures we had taken for Jack's birthday. Enjoy!

A change

2009-07-12T13:53:00.002-04:00

So I made a few changes to my blog. Jon is finally in Kuwait. He said that it took them about 30 hours to get there. They had a 9 hour layover in Shannon, Ireland. He said it was beautiful. We miss him very much.

Chicago, 4th of July and a birthday

2009-07-09T19:53:00.002-04:00

OK so I had a whole post typed out about Chicago and Jack magically hit the delete button and the whole thing disappeared. This is going to be an all encompassing post about Chicago, the 4th and Jack's 2nd birthday.

Chicago -

We had such a great time and the weather was beautiful. As you read, I left at 5:25 Friday morning. I left my house around 2:30 in the morning so that I could park, get to the airport and check in. By the time I made it to the Delta terminal it was about 3:30 am and there were already people waiting to check in. The terminals for self check in didn't open until 4:10. So we sat and waited. Once I checked in I made my way to security and then to my gate. Of course the day before Michael Jackson died so that is all that was on the TVs - I proceeded to put my ipod in my ears and patiently wait to board the plane. The flight to Atlanta was short and uneventful. Once in Atlanta, I saw the sunrise, got some breakfast and watched an episode of Bones (still more Michael Jackson on the TVs). The flight to Chicago was longer - watched more Bones. Jon met me at the airport - we were so excited to see each other. He had to wear his uniform b/c he has no civilan clothes (they are all in Iraq). We took the train to downtown and then walked over the Michigan Avenue bridge and then to our hotel. When we checked into the hotel, the guy working the front desk upgraded our room b/c Jon was in his uniform. The room was great! Once we got into the room I took a nap (a much deserved nap). For the rest of the day we just walked around downtown Chicago and the Magnificant Mile. On Saturday, we got up and went to the Sears Tower, Shedd Aquarium and the Navy Pier. The only thing that Jon wanted to do the whole time we were there was to go see Transformers 2 - so we went. On Sunday, we went and took the tour of Wrigley Field. It is the second oldest field still being used today. It was built in 1914. I was like a kid in a candy store b/c I am a HUGE history nerd and I LOVE the Cubs. It was so neat to see everything - the bleachers, visitors club house, press box and especially the field. That night we went to have a last dinner together at Weber Grill - man was the food amazing! Monday we had to get up early so I could make it to the airport on time. I was doing great until we got to the airport and I got all checked in. I cried for like 10 minutes and so did Jon. It was the hardest thing that I ever had to do. Once I left Chicago I was anxious to get home so that I could see Jack. I really missed him the whole time I was gone.

Here are some pictures-

Atlanta Sunrise

View from our hotel - Sears Tower

The Field Museum and Soldier Field

Corner of Waveland and Sheffield - best place to catch homerun baseballs

Statue of Mr. Cub - Ernie Banks

The scoreboard - it is still operated by hand

The beautiful ivy on the outfield brick wall

The famous red Cubs marqee

4th of July -

We spent all of the past weekend with my family and had a great time. My aunt and uncle and cousins came over from Pensacola for the weekend. We spent almost 2 days in a swimming pool somewhere. We ate more food than people are supposed to eat at one time - let's just say we ate so much that I wasn't hungry again until dinner on Sunday.

Yesterday was Jack's second birthday. I can't believe that he is 2 already. On Friday morning I took him to have pictures taken for his birthday and so we could send Jon once he got overseas. Jon leaves late tonight for Kuwait. It's really real now. I hope that everyone had a great 4th and has a great rest of the week.

leaving on a jet plane

2009-06-25T21:48:00.002-04:00

Well tomorrow is the day. I am headed to Chicago and to Jon at 5:25 am tomorrow. I know that's really early - I didn't think about the time until I started to think about what time I would have to leave my house to get to the airport. I am so excited and so is Jon. This is a short post because I am going to bed. Here is a picture of a very cute boy with some awesome dimples (I guess you can say that I am biased because I am his mom). It is from about a month ago but still too cute.

Counting down the days

2009-06-16T21:53:00.002-04:00

I am a week and a half away from making my very first trip to Chicago. I am so excited especially because I get to spend it with my amazing husband. The only thing that will be missing is our little guy - who I am sure will not be missing me because he will be spending that time with his grandmother getting completely spoiled (thanks in advance mom). I am so excited to see that city and to hopefully get away from the scorching heat of Florida - if even for a few days. The downside to this trip is that I have to leave my house for the airport at 3:15 in the morning. Yes, you read that right. I have to leave that early so I can park my car, get on the shuttle to the airport, check my bag, pay Delta for my ONE bag, go through security and then patiently wait to leave for Atlanta. I will be making the trip from the westside of Jacksonville to JIA with a large Red Bull and something to eat from whatever restaurant is open at that time of morning. I don't think that I will be sleeping on the way to Atlanta - seeing how it is only an hour flight. I am forseeing a snooze in the Atlanta airport (layover 1 hour 25 min) of course that all depends if everyone and their brother is not at the Atlanta airport at 6 am next Friday. The flight to Midway is at least 2 hours so there will be napping on that plane. Random question - why do airlines like to fly the biggest planes on the shorter trips and the smaller planes on the longer trips?

Well I am off to bed. Tomorrow after I take Jack to daycare I am headed to the gym and then to work.

For now~

Pictures....and a wedding

2009-06-14T17:54:00.005-04:00

This is going to be mostly a post of pictures as I am on limited vision right now. Not an hour ago my loving 2 year old son decided that mommy needed her glasses just not in that state that he found them. He bent the left ear piece and it snapped off. Thankfully I still have Jon's great federal employee benefits and they will repair or replace my glasses at no charge. Praise the Lord!!!! Friday I went to the wedding of my friends and coworkers Paul & Sarah (now Orgunov). Their wedding was beautiful and simple - just like them. I had a great time out by myself. Jack spent the night at my mom's - so it was a relatively peaceful night. Here are some pictures from the wedding and some pictures of Jack and his new found love of hats. Yesterday it was pouring outside (go figure) and we went to Sam's. Jack would look out the window and then look at me and say hat. I guess because it was raining he thought he needed a hat. Once we got in the car or into Sam's the hat came off. He is so funny.

These are his sunglasses from the $1 bin at Target. He was wearing them in the bathtub.

Lonely.....and CHICAGO!!!!!

2009-06-04T17:57:00.003-04:00

Well it has been a week since Jon left and I can definitely say that it has been a long week. Jack has had a rough week which means that I had a rough week. For some strange reason he decided that he did not need his bottle/cup anymore at nap/bed time but this also meant that he had a harder time sleeping. - that lasted for a few days. Those few days felt lik I had been hiy by a bus. It is all better now. This past Friday night Jack stayed at my mom's. I didn't know what to do - I was all by myself for the night. I went to the mall and got dinner and then went to see a movie. I ended up seeing Night at the Museum 2. It was a really good movie. I then went home and watched the Gator softball game and then I went to bed. That night made me realize how lonely I really am. I am able to talk to Jon quite regularly but most times it is only for a minute or two because he has to go. It is just hard and I know that it will be even harder when he leaves for Iraq. It is going to take some time to get use to that's all.

On to happier news...

It is actually looking like the Army is going to stick by their leave dates for Jon and his unit. Those dates are Jue 26-29. And here is even better news - he will get to meet me in Chicago. I thought for sure that I was going to have to spend those 4 days at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin. Let's just say that I wasn't exactly thrilled to be going to the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin (again Google it). Now I can't wait for June 26th to get here - #1 because I want to see Jon and #2 because I have wanted to go to Chicago since I was like 7 and watched my first Cubs game on TV. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! We are going to stay in downtown Chicago and do all of the touristy things (I'm good at it because I went to college in St. Augustine). The only thing that we are not going to be able to do is go to a Cubs game. :( They are playing the White Sox at Cellular Field and the series is sold out. So we will be doing the next best thing - taking a tour of Wrigley Field!

Well I have to go b/c I have a very cranky boy that is in serious need of bed.

For now~

Tears and a goodbye

2009-05-27T17:54:00.004-04:00

Well as of about 7 pm eastern time yesterday, Jon is officially gone on deployment. Right now he and his unit are at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin (AKA the middle of no where - seriously google it). At 10 am yesterday morning, the city of Tallahassee held a departure ceremony for the nearly 200 men and women of the 779th engineering batallion. It was a very nice ceremony - the governor spoke as well as the lt. governor and the adjutant general of the Florida National Guard. We were able to spend time with Jon after the ceremony (about an hour) until they had to get on the buses to go to the airport. Let's just say that about 10 minutes after the ceremony ended the black looming clouds that had held off opened up. We even got to go to the airport to see them get on the planes. Jon was on the second plane that left around 3 pm so we said goodbye at the airport. I did very well and didn't cry as much as I thought I would. The hardest part of the day was when Jon went to tell Jack goodbye and Jack wouldn't let Jon put him down. I am posting some pictures from the ceremony, our time together and the airport (as well as one from the Tallahassee Democrat of Jon on the bus). If you go on youtube and type in 779th engineer batallion a video of the ceremony will come up. Jon is in it quite a bit.

A New Normal

2009-05-21T21:39:00.004-04:00

Well Saturday is the first day of a new normal for Jack and I - and Jon as well. For the next year Jon is going to be spending every waking hour with someone from the Army in a place that is not home. For the next year Jack and I are going to be spending that same time together in our home - without Jon. A new normal is in store for us all. For me, I am becoming a single parent for at least 365 days. I guess one of the hardest parts of this is that Jon is going to miss so much with Jack. When Jon gets home, Jack will almost be 3. By then he is going to be a completely different child. For Jack, he is going to be with his mommy all the time (with the occasional rescuing from grandma). For Jon, he is going to the desert to do Lord only knows what and will be missing out on things at home. I know that I can email him everyday and I can send him video messages but it is just not the same.

I am going to miss him more than words. For the past 2 days with every breath I take I ask the Lord to take care of him and to bring him home to me. In the past few months I have not tried to think about the dreaded elephant in the room. When it comes to a war, I guess everyone tries not to think about the unthinkable. We all want them to come home the exact way they left here. Now that thme is here for him to leave I seem to be thinking a lot more "what if". Every time those thoughts pop up I have to remind myself that Jon will take good care of himself and that he has the Great Protector with him at all times.

A new kind of normal - it is going to be hard to adjust but thankfully I have a lot of family and friends here. A new normal that is only temporary - if you can call 365 days temporary. A new normal....a new normal

Is anything really normal?