Darin's second & final deployment in Norfolk VA

Darin left on January 15th with the USS Nashville for a six month deployment to West Africa. The ship is on a humanitarian mission to bridge relationships between the US, European Nations and Africa. They have an international contingency on board which Darin finds very interesting. Some of the Countries they will visit include Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon. (this is all posted publicly on the internet because of the mission so I'm not giving out information that is classified) Darin will take part in a lot of the Community Relations projects in the Countries they visit so it will be exciting for him. I'm hoping he gets to visit some orphanages and love on the children there. Darin was in good spirits when he left, knowing that this will be his last deployment for some time. We expect to be moving to Singapore in July so they will be flying Darin home a few weeks early to prepare for the move overseas.
So we are left here in Chesapeake but we are in a good situation. Missing daddy of course. Bethany doesn't understand at all where Daddy has gone. Grace has some clue and Kyle takes it like a man!!!! The other day we were in my bedroom and the washing machine started running and both girls thought it was the garage door opener and ran to the door yelling "daddy's home." I was heartbroken and didn't share that piece of information with Darin since it would kill him. But they bounced back and were back to playing long before I got over it!
Please pray for our family during this time. We want the time away to be meaningful...not just get by, but thrive. We also pray Darin's presence will make a real difference on the ship for the Kingdom of God. That is the only reason we are able to tolerate the separation as a family....knowing we are following God's plan for our lives.
On a personal note, please pray as Darin will go before the promotion board this May for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. We pray that all of his hard work and dedication (and separation) will pay off. Ultimately we know God has his career in His hands!!! May it be as the Lord wills!!! Thanks for all of your prayers!!!

Our new puppy, Pumpkin!!!

So just when I thought my life was getting a little more organized, Bethany was sleeping a little better at night, Grace is finally potty trained, in comes our little Pumpkin! We were not really wanting to get a dog at this point but circumstances presented itself and here she is!!!! She's really adorable and the kids love her. Hopefully we'll have better luck with her than other previous dogs!!!!

Look what I found today!!!!

Fall is here!!!

I'm so glad that October has come. I love cool, crisp air, apple pie and pumpkin patches. Sweatshirt weather and football season is the best!!!! Of course I am reminded of how HOT I am going to be in Singapore!!!!!

We are in full swing with school and Fall activities. Kyle is loving school and doing very well in all of his classes. He has a very cool math teacher (his worst subject) who he loves. She talks to him about her love of snowboarding, skiing, etc and Kyle just loves that she has a nose ring. Hey whatever works, right? His math grade has greatly improved since joining her class!

Grace loves preschool and is learning a lot. The other day she was in her room counting to ten in spanish!!! I was pretty impressed. She loves to color, draw, and sort things. She is still so very sweet and is such a joy to be around!

Bethany hangs with me most days, although I have her in a mom's morning out on Friday's so those are the days I have all the kids in school at one time. I have to say, most Friday's I don't know what to do with myself. Bethany loves to play outside and mostly pick on her big sister!!! She may be smaller but she just loves to annoy and antagonize Grace.....stealing and hiding Grace's toys, shutting the tv off when Grace is watching something, drinking from Grace's sippy cup (why that is appealing I have no idea...both of the girls cups have the same exact juice in them, just different color cups.....I guess the forbidden does taste better). She's really very sweet but definitely has a mischievous side!

Darin will begin his workups for his new ship this Fall with a deployment looming ahead in January. We are hoping they allow him off the ship a few weeks early to return home to prepare for our summer departure for Singapore. We hope he will be able to come home in May as opposed to June to give us some time to prepare for an early July departure. We'll see if it works out! Please pray as we go into this deployment! It's Darin's fifth deployment in six years and he's tired of leaving the family! I am not to thrilled about the single parent thing either!!!! We know we are where God wants us to be but it's not always easy. In Him we find strength!

This is quite long so I'll stop for now!!! Love you all! Lori

First Day of School

Three years in a row
Yesterday was Kyle's first day of fifth grade. He has three different teachers and seems to like them all. He came home excited and did his homework right away!!! That's a good sign =) We have accomplished a huge feat in our family by staying in one place for three school years in a row! We are so happy Kyle gets to finish out elementary school in the same school he's been for the past two years!!!!

Grace tackles Preschool
Grace had her first day of preschool at a local church here in Chesapeake. I was a little worried because when talking about going to school she kept telling me not to leave her so I was prepared for the worst. But this morning she woke up and was very excited to fill her lunch box with goodies to take to school. Her good friend Benjamin is in her class so that helped ease her into a new environment.

While the Cats away
And so with brother and sister off to school, Bethany had the run of the house!!! Here you can see her enjoying her sister's coveted bicycle!!! She had a blast this morning having the house and mom all to herself!!!

My inexperience shines through

So I guess my last post shows my lack of experience in blogging. As you can see from the previous post, I can't seem to navigate this website to change symbols into letters. I have given up after an hour of trying to fix it....what I said in the post was not all that important anyway =) Just a summary of our summer.
I'll be posting pics of the kids first day of school tomorrow. Kyle's first day of 5th grade was today and he came home happy and excited for the new year. Grace has her first day of preschool tomorrow. I'm not sure who will cry more, her or myself! I'll let you know.

Summer Fun

We have had an eventful and full summer with lots of visits from family and friends. We started the summer with Darin heading off to Thailand for two weeks. He enjoyed the time he got to spend with his dad, brother and mom while in Bangkok. He even caught up with some high school friends while there. Later in the summer we had Vangie, Niccola and Mari come for a great visit. We did all kinds of things including touring Williamsburg, Yorktown (okay, to be honest Vangie took Kyle and Niccola and I vegged at home with the girls), Busch Gardens, VA Beach, museums, and the list goes on and on. After that, we went up to Pa for a quick visit and was able to see Erik and Darcie's new house (which was beautiful) and also got to see my sister and her family at Hershey Park for the day! All in all it was a lot of fun. Kind of a let down once all of our activities and visitors left!

We are now gearing up for the beginning of the school year. Kyle will be going into the fifth grade. He is finishing up with his ice hockey class just in time to start fall soccer. Grace will be going to three day a week preschool at a local church near our home. I think she is going to love it and learn a lot. Bethany, I think, is going to enjoy the run of the house while both siblings are at school. Not to mention all of mom's attention.

Darin will be deploying again sometime this winter. Please begin to pray for our family. He is really dreading another deployment and I don't know how to face another six months as a single parent. (we think his float will actually be only 4-5 months which will be a huge answer to prayer if it happens as they say it will) After he returns from his deployment it will be time for us to PCS again (move assignments for all non military readers) so we'll see what the Lord has in store. I'll post more on that later!!! (see the bottom of the blog for more pics of the kids summer outings)