Flashback Friday: Separation

I am participating in another Flashback Friday this week.  If you would like to participate or visit the host of this awesome weekly event, please go on over to Christopher and Tia. :)

Since Tia posted a Flashback Friday about being apart from her husband after they were first married and he went off to Basic, I figured I'd do a post associated with my husband being away too.  (However, ours is only for a weekend and I wasn't pregnant, so nowhere near as hard as what Tia and Christopher went through!!) :)

John and I were married in July 2006 and we have been away from each other overnight all of three weekends throughout this almost four years.  We had never been apart overnight for the first year of our marriage; it wasn't until after Johnny came along.  The first time we were apart was when Johnny was only three months old (late Oct. 2007) and I went away to be a chaperone for our church's youth group at a Youth Conference.  I was gone for the weekend and while it was fun to be able to participate in the conference, it was really really hard to be away from my husband for the first time and from my baby boy for the first time too.  I ended up missing out on my son rolling over for the first time while I was gone and that was hard to deal with when I got back.  That was the only time I've ever been away from my son overnight since he was born.  

The next time we were away from each other overnight was when John went away on a Boy Scout camping trip as an assistant leader, which I will be talking about in a moment.  The only other time that we have been apart was shortly after the Boy Scout trip, when Johnny was nine months old when Johnny and I went to Montana with my parents for a graduation party/family reunion.  John had to stay home because it was very last minute and he couldn't get time off from work.  We were gone for only one night, but it was also hard to be away from John that time too.  We got back on my first Mother's Day. :)

Now, for the picture above.  That picture was taken by my grandma (I love you & miss you!) right after my husband got back from a Boy Scout camping trip as an assistant leader.  This was in the spring of 2008...March or April.  My husband is an Eagle Scout and had been volunteering as an assistant Scoutmaster with the same troop each week, so he was going along on a camping trip with the troop.  It was the first time that he had gone away from me or our son overnight (the only other time we had ever been away from each other overnight at this point was when I went to the youth conference as a chaperone).  They went away for the weekend and because it was in a remote area, they weren't in cell range either.  They had a fun trip, but I was lonely and missing him at home with our seven month old little boy.  He ended up getting back home that Monday while I was at school and my grandma was watching Johnny for me.  She took this picture and I love it because they both just "pop" in this picture with all of the neon and bright colors. :)  I'm excited for the time when Johnny is old enough for Cub Scouts and then old enough for Boy Scouts and can go on camping trips like that with his daddy too!

It seems pretty pathetic that John and I have only ever been away from each other overnight three times in our entire marriage, but that is just how it has worked out.  I'm such a wimp, because those three times were difficult.  A sane military wife, I would not make.  I'm sure as we get older, there will be plenty of times when we have to be away from each other for work or field trips or camping or whatever.  I'm not exactly looking forward to them, because I already know that I don't sleep well when John isn't there.  Even when he annoys me to no end during the day and I want to just ship him off to the other side of the world, I'll still want him there when I go to sleep at night.  I don't have to be happy with him per se...I just need him to be there. ;)  I have a lot of respect for wives out there that have to be away from their husbands frequently, especially military wives.  Military wives have to deal with raising children while worrying about the spouse who is away frequently and often for long periods of time, and in the present time - at war.  I don't know how they do it, but they have my respect.  :)

Thank you Tia for posting your story about how you braved a few months away from your husband while pregnant - you are a lot stronger than me!  :)  It was nice to actually think about the times I've been apart from my husband and it has helped me to gain an appreciative perspective on how lucky we have been to not have to go through that very frequently.  Happy Friday everyone!  

Library Overhaul

Today Johnny and I ran some errands while John was at work.  We had to run to Target, Safeway, and the local library.  Johnny was such a well-behaved boy the entire time too, even though it was his nap time and really windy out (but oddly hot).  He wanted to bring his stuffed monkey doll with him, so he carried that around in the Target and library, but he left it in the car for Safeway.  He was cute in the stores and wanted to walk by himself, and he did a very good job of listening to me when I told him to follow close by me or not to touch something.  He even smiled and was polite to people when they talked to him.  One worker in the Safeway was handing out sticker sheets to kids in the meat department and she gave Johnny one with outer space stickers and he said "thank you" in a soft little whisper.  I think it's cute that he is so shy when we're out and about, but talks up a storm when we're home. :)  We ended up getting a huge stack of books at the library before we headed home, which was crazy since we were only there for twenty minutes tops.  Now we both have a lot of reading to do! :)

Johnny when we were waiting for my Starbucks drink at Safeway:

Most of our library books (Johnny only let me include one of his books; he didn't want me to remove the other ones from his reading area...):

We hope that everyone else had a glorious day and perhaps even found some time to read a book or two. :)

Blackberry Cobbler

I know I posted on the blog only a few hours ago about our urban garden adventure, but I had some blackberries I got on sale last week that I needed to use up (I am a huge berry fan, but blackberries are the only ones I don't like to eat plain), and I made some delicious blackberry cobbler.  John had to work from nine until midnight, so after Johnny was in bed, I was all by myself.  So, I curled up on our new comfy couch with some oolong tea and watched Parenthood - I love that show! :)  Right before it started I mixed up the ingredients for a blackberry cobbler (I wrote down this recipe a couple of years ago on a notecard, and I have no idea where I got it or who to give credit to; if you do, please leave it in the comments) and threw it in the oven while I watched my show.  It was a super easy recipe and so very delicious.  It isn't the healthiest dessert, but a little bit goes a long way in making me happy. :)  Now I'm just waiting for my husband to get home so he can try some of the delicious cobbler and then we'll head to bed, because I'm tired.  The recipe is below, for those of you that would like to try it. Enjoy!

Blackberry Cobbler

3 cups fresh blackberries

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup flour 

1 cup sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/4 lb butter

First, wash the blackberries.

Melt butter in 8x8 pan or casserole dish.

Mix blackberries and 3/4 cup sugar.

Mix flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and milk.

Pour cake mixture into the melted butter and spread evenly. 

Pour berry mixture on top of the cake mixture.

Bake at 375*F for about 1 hour (mine was done a little less than an hour).

Cake should cover the berries and be golden brown when done.

 

Serve warm with ice cream or milk on top.  Or plain, as I like it. :)

The Verdict: easy & delicious! :)

 

Urban Garden

Earth Day was supposed to be the day we planted our urban garden on our patio, but because of thunderstorms and tornado warnings, it didn't happen.  This weekend fluctuated between good weather and bad weather, and John had work, so we never really had a chance to spend a couple of hours planting anything.  Today was a super warm sunny day and John didn't have to work until tonight, so we decided it would be a good day to plant our garden.

We packed up the Terrible Two (John told Johnny he was going to make him waffles this morning and Johnny started clapping and yelled "Yayyyyy, daddy!" - super adorable) and went to Home Depot to pick up some garden containers and organic potting soil.  We already had seeds and some other containers.  Johnny had a blast in the garden area of Home Depot - it was like a giant jungle! 

Unfortunately our patio railing is too wide on the top, so we were unable to find a window box railing that fit ours.  All of our planters are going to have to hang or be on the patio or table itself.  We are going to attempt to grow flowers, organic vegetables, and herbs on our patio.  We're all very excited about it!  :)  We spent a couple of hours out on our patio enjoying the warm weather and the breeze, and were able to plant a couple of containers before we ran out of organic soil.  One container had flowers in it and the other container has some of our herbs in it.  Tomorrow we'll get some more organic soil and then finish up the rest of the containers with vegetables and the last of the flowers.  Johnny had a blast getting dirty and digging in the dirt while we were planting in other containers.  We all just had a lot of fun together as a family planting our garden.  It will be nice to have an urban garden to look at through our patio doors every day.
 

At Home Depot

Planting our Urban Garden

I'm excited to finish up the rest of the garden and start to see things grow!!  I had a fun day with my two favorite guys.  I'm a little bummed that John has to work from nine to midnight again tonight, but hopefully the time will go by quickly.  Just have to remind ourselves that we should be grateful that he has a job. :)  I hope everyone else had a wonderful day and got to spend it with their families!  I'm off to use up some blackberries that I got on sale and make some blackberry cobbler, so I wish you all a good night! 

A Star Wars Buddy

I should have posted this on Friday, but I didn't.  It has just been a long weekend.  On Friday Johnny and I were supposed to go to the zoo on a playdate with some other moms and their little ones here in Denver.  But it rained a whole bunch, so we canceled that plan and were instead invited over to Jenny's house to have the playdate there.  It was a lovely afternoon for both Johnny and me.  I had some wonderful adult conversation with Jenny, Kristen, and Konstance, and Johnny was able to play with a bunch of other kids.  Thanks again, Jenny, for a wonderful afternoon! :)  

Johnny was grumpy before we even left for the playdate because he didn't want to leave his daddy at the apartment.  So the first few pictures are of him crying.  It actually ended up being the perfect afternoon to have a playdate too, because John was waiting for a furniture delivery (we bought a couch on a major sale - pictures to come soon!) sometime in the afternoon and we didn't want Johnny getting in the way (we ended up getting home after they were supposed to get there, but they delivered late, so we were there anyway...).  Once I put on his frog boots he was a little happier, and when he got to go and play with new toys and other kids he was even happier.

Johnny ended up playing with Jenny's six year old son Lucas a lot at the playdate and Lucas was so patient with him, bless his little heart.  He let Johnny play with his Star Wars figurines and even put on one of the classic Star Wars movies to watch (they both were pretty mesmerized by it).  They played with light sabers together and Johnny kept chasing after Lucas giggling and having a blast.  Johnny was even deemed "Star Wars Buddy" by Lucas.  How cute!  (John is so proud; he's been trying to make Johnny into a Star Wars geek since he was in utero).  Johnny didn't want to leave the playdate in the end, and cried all the way out the door.  We're both looking forward to the next playdate! :)

Now for some playdate photos:
 

He was grumpy and I wasn't being sympathetic enough.

 The classic curl twirling + binky = calming effect.

Big brown eyes!

So handsome.

 Crying again because I tried to put on his coat.

 Frog boots.

The kids playing.

 Ooooh! Transformers!

 He was a little anti-social at first.

Johnny playing with a transformer and watching a movie.

 Adorable little Parker (Kristen's littlest boy.)

Johnny and Brayden (Kristen's oldest boy.)

Brayden & Parker - adorable brothers

Parker is so darn cute!

 My son hoarding the transformers.

 It was as if I wasn't even there - that's how focused he was on the toys.

 The kids eating snacks; also Jenny and Kristen

 He was taking care of the baby doll. :)

 Kristen with her two adorable little boys.

 Sweet little Lauren (Jenny's little girl) - she cracks me up!

Johnny following Lucas around

So serious.

 Star Wars buddies!

The rest of the photos are just random from the past couple of days:

Playing with his Melissa & Doug Joey magnetic dress-up doll 

Lots of fun!

 You have to include a gorilla, a Buzz Lightyear PEZ dispenser, & Chicken Elmo, naturally.

This kid has a fascination with vacuums.

Taking care of his baby panda (it cries, sleeps, makes mewing noises too!) - such a good daddy. :)

 He put his sunglasses on his Owl. It's rad.

Also we made a really yummy pizza!  It was inspired from this pizza post by CreatedbyDiane.  We made our own homemade pizza crust as usual, made a ranch-garlic sauce (ranch dressing with some garlic powder; there are many different recipes out there for this type of sauce), a blend of Italian cheeses (mozzarella, romano, parmesan, and asiago - you can buy a blend of these cheeses already shredded at the grocery store), baby spinach leaves, quartered artichoke hearts (only used half a can), bacon chunks (the original pizza post doesn't include bacon, but you could leave it without bacon, or add bacon, and if you did grilled chicken chunks it would be pretty similar to the chicken artichoke pizza at Papa Murphy's), and some oregano and pepper seasoning on top.  Bake it according to your pizza crust directions and enjoy!  It was delicious!  We are definitely going to make this Bacon Artichoke Pizza again! :)