Swiss Meet

Just a few from the last meet. He had a lot of fun and did pretty well. His scores were pretty consistent with last time, he stays around an 8 most of the time.

How I feel...

Everyone naturally asks how I am (and I do appreciate their concern :)) but, I really never know how to answer that question. I'm not sure how to answer that most of the time because I have not been able to put a finger on why this is so hard. The other day Mark sent some things in the mail for me and there was a decal in there that described exactly what makes deployment so difficult:

The best way to describe how it feels is that things are not "right". We have ups and downs, but overall things are just not how they are supposed to be. I know I have a long time to wait, but I cannot wait until things are they way they are supposed to be and you are at home with us again...

The 432nd in training

The link below shows the 432nd Civil Affairs Battlion during training excercises:

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/VIDEO0301/80126058

This is how he comes down for breakfast, in his army pajamas and hat that you gave him for Christmas :)

He was so excited to show you that he can write his name! We are using the shortened version of course! Click on it to see it larger.

Not the best pic of him, but it was all I could get out of him! Notice the army stickers he put around his name?

Some wonderful women!

As much as I miss you and do not enjoy this time with you away, I have to say that I am really enjoying getting to meet so many different people. So many people, all with different stories, but all with a tenderness of heart and a generous spirit. Our lives are blessed because of them!

The Republican women contine to come through for us, it means so much to have that meal on Sunday, I truly can make it a day of rest!

Thank yous go to Karen Albers for a wonderful meal with all of the details taken care of. She thought of everything and we loved it! Those oatmeal cookies lasted a week and went in the children's lunches, it was perfect!

Can you imagine coming home to the aroma of rosemary-lemon chicken with roast potatoes and carrots? Now picture two plates of homemade brownies sitting next to that and that is what we saw when we came home that Sunday! What a comfort that was! It was incredible, with lemons in the cavity and fresh rosemary, so, so yummy!! I am only sorry I missed you Shelly, thank you so much!

Vicky Ostry and I had a wonderful time together visiting and well, giving me a chance to have adult conversation! Thank you for taking the time Vicky, I enjoyed it so much!

Cathy Waller came by with a wonderful Italian meal today, unfortunately I missed her because of M's meet. It was perfect coming home to a meal ready made so I did not have to think about it, trust me I was exhausted! It was delicious and a meal the children really love, thank you Cathy!

We also had Doris Fons from J Westphal's group come this week. She brought over some tortilla soup (my favorite) and sides. I really enjoyed meeting her, she has some interesting history from WWII that she shared. I am learning so much from the people who come to visit! Thank you Doris for the wonderful meal and taking the time!

We also had our good friends Anne and Chris Wolfe stop by with a meal today, again I missed them because of the meet! Thank you for taking the time and for the yummy meal!

I know it may seem like a lot but trust me, every single meal is so appreciated! It is just one less thing I have to think about and trust me I can use that. I am definitely feeling the pressure of being the only parent, so instead of cooking I can be attentive to my other wonderful duties such as disciplining and loving and disciplining and loving and still more disciplining and loving!!!

She is so much fun!!

All done!!

Some of P...

Open gym

We had such a great time at open gym!

Later on in the week G had one of his good friend over, these two get along so well!

Busy week

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words and thank goodness, because I couldn't possible blog everything that we have done in the last week!! I will post pictures of some of the highlights. Please know that we are being taken care of by all of our generous friends and people who have extended themselves to our family!!

Remember L. Vacarro? She surprised me with a wonderful meal and a couple of days later her daughters made us a chocolate eclair cake! Oh my goodness, I think I ate about half of it myself! It gave me a chance to see our goddaughter Sophia, what a sweetheart! They have been checking up on us to see if there is anything we need.

On to J Westphal, she has been absolutely incredible, what an angel to have put in our lives at this time! I can't believe how much she has done for us and all the while being a very busy person herself. It amazes me when I hear of all that she does! She belongs on that elite list of supermoms!!

We met Joe Hennes (forgot the camera, will post picture later) a guidance counselor at Brookfield East, who also owns his own restaurant called Sloppy Joes. What a really nice guy! He is providing us a meal of wonderful Italian food from his restaurant once a week. Wow, wow, wow!! I told him when you come home that we will have to go and visit him at his restaurant! The generosity of the people towards our family is overwhelming!!

A huge thank you goes out to the Fergusons for helping with dropping off Mark from gymnastics!
E Schlosser came with one of my fav's for a meal the other day, Tortilla soup! I have been eating the left-overs for all of my snacks. Everyone enjoyed the meal very much. E came over on a day that I was having some difficulty with A. She knew just what to do, she is so intuitive! She took him on a walk, and he came back a different little man. I appreciate the time you gave E and the shoulder to cry on, thank you so much!

O.k., I am having difficulty focusing on writing with the noises of the children so I will go on to posting...

Beer, brats, Harley Davidson and bowling!! That is how I have always described Milwaukee to people from out of town. We had a great time with the McMani clan at the local bowling alley and then on to their home for a wonderful turkey dinner! Thanks so much you guys for a really great time!


B and friends after seeing her score




I guess this score was not as great as the last one :)




M was having a really bad hair day, but a great time bowling!! He spent half of the game upside down trying to figure out how the balls were coming back up again through the machine.



Caught this picture right before the ball landed! Gotta love those boots!! I swear he is so silly when it comes to what clothes he will or will not wear.


Here he is again decked out in his army hat and no, I did not iron the children's t-shirts, they are lucky when it makes it into the drawer!!


Here is C with her great toss of the ball!


Watching it go, go, go!

My Grandfather's example

My grandfather served in WWII and is a great inspiration to Mark. He was a wonderful, virtuous man who believed in serving God and your country. While visiting my parents, Mark has spent time poring over my grandfather's letters to my grandmother, which were saved by my mother. My mother has since put them on a blog. My mother always remarks at how much Mark is like my grandfather and it is really true, I think if Grandpa could have met him they would have gotten along real well. The link to the blog is here:

http://dearestmarie.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

I have linked it to one of my favorite letters from my Grandpa under "A Beginning" at the very bottom of the page.

Mark and I

Thought I would share a couple pic's of Mark and I. Goodness, 11 years of marriage and it took a deployment for us to get a picture of us together! :) The first one is courtesy of a good friend Nicole Barnes (my photog. friend) who does awesome work, thank you so much Nicole, I will cherish this picture forever! The second is of Mark's departure.

Having a large family!

If you have a large family, you will want to take the time to listen to this to get a good laugh!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaD8xat6VDw&eurl

A fellow blogger Cathy H (the one who gave me the idea for the Christmas cards) sent me this and oh my goodness, could I relate!! I have heard every single one of these comments and I really appreciated this! I needed the pick me up today, thank you Cathy!!

Celebrating feeling better!

I had in mind so many things I wanted to say, but at this moment, I am completely out of energy! I will post some pictures from today...

He wears the hat you got him for Christmas, all of the time!!

C is feeling much better, thank goodness!

She also carries around the bear you got her for Christmas all of the time. Every night we set him up on the bedrail to watch over her while she sleeps.

And a couple of P, I know you are missing her, she looks so different doesn't she? She's a skinny little ragamuffin now that she is moving!! :)

God's goodness to us!

Do you remember the winter wonderland you left? It is completely gone!! Today was a gorgeous day and had the hintings of a very new spring, it definitely lifted my spirits! I hear that there is snow ( a lot of it of course) in the forecast for tomorrow and Friday, we will have to wait a long time before we really get spring!

I wanted to make sure I said some more thank yous that are definitely well-deserving out there! It is a great joy to say that your family has been wonderful to us, I know I can count on them! L picked up M for his class on Sat., which was a huge help while being sick and A came early Monday morning for our "false alarm" with M. A also ran over some soup and bread today, which is always a great comfort. Do you know what was so neat about A? When I told her not to come because of the sickness in the house, she said, "who cares, I'll be there anyways!". Completely selfless, that is what that is!

And what would life be without our wonderful Italian neighbor!! She is always there for me! She helped me out with some groceries this week, but even more she gives our G some get away time and me a big break when he stays at their house, it seems to work out well for all of us! Most importantly is how she never fails to make me laugh! I know you must be missing me telling you the funny things she says, to know her is to LOVE her!!

M Schmidt has helped our A so much this year by opening her home and giving of her time to him, and in turn that has helped me!! She was there for me on Monday, picking up A and keeping him for the day! When he came home you could tell his spirit was lifted, I appreciate that so much! And her help with M is beyond what she needs to do, but every little bit helps things not get too overwhelming , I can't tell you how much I appreciate her being the "boy's helper" this year!

Our good friend N is vigilant in checking up on us and making sure all is well. She is one of the most selfless people I know. From bringing over a meal, buying groceries for me, to constantly offering her time to give me a break, I appreciate her so much! She has been very flexible with my many schedule changes too! Thanks N, I can't wait until we have some time to talk about the fun stuff (cameras, lenses, great light....) :)

Last, but not least, a huge thank you goes out to my devoted mother. I have been so blessed with the relationship I have with her. While not physically able to be here with us she has gone to bat for us in prayer! She is fully with us in her heart and we can count on her prayers. She recently went through very difficult eye surgery and she offered all of her prayers and sufferings for us, this is no small thing, I believe in the power of prayer. Her surgery was scheduled the same day as Mark's departure, there are no coincidences with the Lord!

And so you see, we are sooo blessed! And as difficult as it can be to accept help sometimes (o.k., every time), it also makes me believe in the goodness in people, but most of all in the goodness of God! I am so grateful for the way that He takes care of us. I am so grateful for all of the good people we know who are willing to be His hands, His feet, His kind words, His kind actions!

She prays!!

Because of the nature of little ones and how much they change, you will hear a lot about P! She started praying at the dinner table tonight with us! She was so proud of herself she finished off the prayer with a little rocking back and forth dance! I wish you could have seen her little hands together in prayer, hey hon, she said that one for you!! She also has become a fast mover with a determination to go downstairs, so life is a little different having to make sure the doors are closed so P does not fall down the stairs. To my great relief she finally eats table food and does very well with it as long as it is not mushy! One more thing hon, I kissed her squishy soft belly 3 times today just for you! This is her 7 month picture so it is outdated, but I don't think you saw it yet, and with all of the sickness, I have not pulled out the camera much at all!

M meet

M did awesome at his second meet coming home with 5 medals and 1 trophy! He was so excited I wish you could have seen his face! A saw the medals and really wanted to be like his brother, so of course M gave him one to keep, he's still your good boy! As soon as he came home from school today he put on his uniform and started practicing! Thank you again Smreceks for making it possible for him to go!

An Update

Boring title I know, but that is what I feel this is, the update, and it's a looooong one! For those of you who didn't know Mark was able to come home for Christmas (still on orders) since he was still stateside (yeah!)! We were so grateful to have him home, it would have been very difficult without him. Well, as usual we did things the Gundrum way, that would mean sick the whole time! I don't know what is wrong with us this winter but we just keep on getting everything that is going around! To make it a little shorter I will number our events in the order that they happened:

1 Mark comes home!! YEAh we all rejoice!

2 Christmas day: Mark gets sick and faints in the bathroom hitting his face on the tub on the way down. Mary is quite frightened upon finding him unconscience on the floor. The children are sent to Grandmas for Christmas dinner without us and well Mark and I had a great time talking and spending time together, even with sickness.

3 We had a couple very uneventful days of staying in our PJs and playing boggle watching the beautiful snow come down.

4 We went to Organ Piper Pizza, because of the kindness of some friends, and had a great time until B informed us that she needed to throw up, well indeed she did. Cleaning up my own bathroom is one thing but, a public bathroom? YUCK!

5 The next day M informed us that it was his turn and Dad did a real good job holding the bucket!

6 Everybody seemed real good except J had some real red rings under her eyes and C had some strange spots on her face that we didn't think much of.

7 We went out to dinner without the children, thanks to the Shoepkes! We had such a wonderful time and then reality set in that it would be our last dinner together for a long time....

-Mark had said it was the most amazing days he had ever had with his family, even with the sickness, it didn't matter, he was so grateful for the time!

8 We dropped Mark off......... This was the saddest day of my married life and it was nothing short of traumatic, for all of us. I appreciate everyone's prayers. It was so hard to believe that this was the last time he would embrace us and look at us for a year. Well, I'm sure you can imagine. After we left, M through tears asked if we could visit Jesus, he just needed to talk to him! After visiting our Lord in church we went to Grandma's for some hot chocolate and cookies. It felt a little like a death coming home and seeing everything that is his.

9 That very same night my daughter J throws up from the top bunk, I will let your imagination fill in the rest of the details!

10 The next day P, C and J are not doing well so they are taken in to the doctors to find out that C has hand, foot and mouth disease, J has strep throat and P has an infected diaper rash that would not allow me to put her down. I am still trying to keep my patience at this point...

11 Later that evening I feel a fever coming on so I take some Ibruprofen and start disenfecting with some germicide that C gave me (thanks C!) By the next morning I am laid up (and I mean laid up) with a 103 temp. After two days of this fever I finally figured out it was strep and got the proper medicine, what a tremendous relief that was!! B was incredible! She basically ran the household, hardly even saw P except to feed her. I started to feel sorry for myself and then I saw in the news two more stories of soldiers who have died in Iraq. Right away I resolved that I would go through this a million times over if it means you will come home to us safe and sound. I pray for those suffering families...

I could not have made it through this last sickness without the help of the Smrecek's. T took M to his meet (which was 4 hours long, six with travel) and L helped out with the children and the Sunday meal. She then ran out to get my medicine for me. We have been so blessed by your friendship!N your offer to help (great ideas!) meant so much and were greatly appreciated!

Robin Moore from the Republicans women club came and brought a wonderful meal of pot roast, potatoes, apples and carrots! It was perfect timing for the children and I even had some once the medicine took effect! What a wonderful meal! Thank you so much!!

I am starting to tire out so I will be logging off soon , but after this hopefully it will be much lighter topics! If anyone has any tips as to how to get the sickness out of the house, please feel free to share!!