Week #7 - Dep/Mar Project

Well, we're almost there. For those of you counting this is week number seven of Chris' six weeks. It's the military. I expected it, didn't you?

Because I expected up to eight weeks, I was prepared with another letter for our project that would cover any "extra" time he might be spending deployed.

So, now it's tell time. How did this week go for those of you out there? Mine was quite the week. Excellence was a wonderful topic and I learned a lot. One of those lessons was that excellence is a process not an event. I can't say, "today I achieved excellence." But I will be able to say, "my life has been one in the pursuit of excellence." I learned from the companion article that excellence isn't going above and beyond by leaps and bounds in everything you do. Excellence is spending those extra few minutes to listen to a loved one or friend. It's planning and carrying through with a project even when you don't want to do it anymore. It's being patient just a bit longer than you had hoped. It's saying that extra prayer, doing a small act of service only you will notice, reading an extra chapter in your scriptures, saying yes to helping someone when you really want to say no. Excellence isn't a giant step, it's a lot of little ones that make up "going that extra mile". Not one person who talks about the extra mile ever gives a time limit on how long that mile might take. It might take a few minutes; it might take a few months. It might take your whole life to go that one extra mile. It's not how far you go or how long it takes you to get there, it's did you strive to do a little more every day.

Now, I won't say that I did this every day. I did keep it in my thoughts, and I worked hard to keep my steps small. I tend to only do things really big and then I'm too exhausted to do any more the rest of the time. So this challenged me. That's what it's supposed to do right? Doing things in moderation or a little a time are not my strengths, but that's what was asked of me this week. So, for example, I read in my scriptures until I felt like putting it down - allowed it to be as long as I wanted and didn't focus on being obedient to my goal, but to really just enjoy what I was reading. I flew through Alma and Helaman this week! I desired to read quite a bit more than my five chapters a night. The story was so good and the people's experiences so fascinating. I'm so glad that I didn't limit myself by specific constraints. I ended up reading over 15 chapters one night. That sounds great doesn't it? But what you don't understand is that because I allowed myself to just read until I was done instead of limiting myself, I didn't do any chores or projects that night. I allowed myself to strive for excellence in reading my scriptures, but it did have a price.

Staying to talk to a friend might mean we're excellent friends, but it might make us miss other things. It's important to keep things in a balance. Excellence doesn't require us to forgo our responsibilities or our other goals. It just asks us to squeeze in a little "extra". I don't regret that night I was excellent in the scriptures - it set my whole week off on a great footing. I was blessed later in the week to finish what I would have done earlier. I was blessed.

Well, I hope you learned some good lessons too!

Letter:

Well hello, I’m super excited to talk to you my amazing husband.

Bet you didn’t think you’d hear from me again, did you? Thought you were done, huh? Not quite!

Well here I am; ready and prepared. You know me, it’s not hard to imagine. So I looked at the calendar when I got your deployment date for leaving and I noticed that if we counted exactly 45 days it left us in the middle of the week. I also know that if the military actually sent you home the 46^th day, I would be very surprised. So, this letter covers the last topic or section of our project. We may get to do it, we may not. Either way, I am prepared and excited for this letter even though you may never read it during the deployment. If however, they keep you another week to two weeks you will still be joining me in our project uninterrupted.

Ponder

“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” – Proverbs 4:26

“Wherefore you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ponder upon the things which you have received.” - D&C 30:3

As the bolded word indicates week 7/8 is to ponder. This is the time when we look back on what we’ve learned, studied, experienced, and how we’ve changed. This is one of those moments that are so rare in this world. You seem to be able to do it, but I need the practice. Some of the best lessons learned have not been when the teacher was talking or the student was writing, but when that student took it home and thought about it a bit, turning it around in his/her head until all sides had been observed and investigated. Not many students have the inclination nor the time and attention such pondering takes. We are going to be among those rare few for this one. During the next week – next two weeks – we will be those students who re-read, pray again, search again, and remember what has been during this adventure. I know that we will be blessed for taking the time and making the effort to follow through all the way to the end of this study. Sometimes the most important knowledge is just waiting in the details that are so easily overlooked. That’s why the scriptures need to be read again and again – we miss things all the time. Let’s not miss anything if we can help it!

So now you know – over preparing can be good sometimes! See, that’s why God gave us partners. You enjoy today, while I prepare for tomorrow. You need both to live the gospel and to live life happily. Aren’t we great together?!

Hugs, kisses, missing you every day! Kids say hi, of course and we are trying to be patient! See you soon.

USO

How we have come to love the USO as a family. It's not because of the inexpensive tickets to fun things that we can get, but the outright love and care they as a group have for military men and women and their families.

Recently, during Chris' deployment, the USO has given us a special gift. They gave us Chris. I know - what does that mean?

Well, on the way to Chris' deployment base, he was waiting in a USO sponsored area. These areas are so nice (I hear). They offer a comfy place to wait, often free or inexpensive food, play areas for kids in the larger ones, and entertainment areas. Well the one in Baltimore where Chris was waiting also had a special treat for families of servicemen. Chris surprised us with a pkg the week after he left and we've been reusing the gift every week since.

This package contained three children's books and a dvd. I had not one idea as to what it could be until I turned on the dvd. It was Chris and he was reading the books to the kids! He read a specific book for each child and the USO recorded it and sent it with the three books. So every Wednesday (that was the initial day it arrived) we read with daddy!

Lizzy got a book all about animal mothers. Joseph got a Dr. Seuss book which he loves. And Evie got a book all about a hard working spider. It was so cute. I only took pix of the first time, but we do this every single week. The kids adore it and often switch books. Chris, as most of you know, is a fantastic storyteller. Even the boring parts of a book are funny with his voices, facial expressions, and how excited he gets just reading it to the kids. I've always said that it's important to marry a man with at least a little boyishness inside. It is a wonderful help with the kids.

So every Wednesday we see my sweet husband being a great daddy. The kids adore it, I miss him terribly every time, and, now that Chris has seen the results (I sent him a dvd of pix and video), you can see some of it too.

One of my favorite part was seeing Lizzy's rapt attention on her daddy. Had no idea she was so aware of who he was, but each time she saw him on the screen or heard his voice, she got all excited and shook with emotion.

Another favorite part is when Joseph tried to "show" daddy that he was on the same page. It was totally cute and the longest I've ever seen his attention stay on the tv.

Evie was a whole other story. She knew daddy couldn't talk back, that it was a recording, but that didn't stop her from answering all his questions and laughing at all his jokes.

The military continues to be a great blessing for our family. The sacrifice can be measured, but the experiences we've all had just in our first year and a half can not. Never in my life have I been blessed so much by a job!

Catching Up 4

I know it's been forever, but here is one of the very last catch up times.

HALLOWEEN FOR THE FOSBURGS AT HOME

So, because it was only like the second week Chris was gone and, therefore, the kids were not quite up to par, I really outdid myself on this holiday. I like the holiday usually, but this year I went nuts with stuff to keep my kids from missing daddy too much. Thankfully, the busy week kept me from getting too unhappy too! It was a great idea and we all had so much fun!

October 25th, 2010 - October 31st, 2010

MONDAY: this was our first opportunity to really begin reaping the benefits of Chris' deployment. Chris has often been gone for military purposes, but this is his first official deployment over seas. We were therefore invited to the Deployed Spouse's Dinner that's held every month at the base. I was so nervous!

It was so much fun. From the moment I walked in with my three little ones in tow, someone was there to help and see to our needs. One kind woman helped me to a table and grabbed me a high chair. Another woman, Angie, came over and began to chat. She stayed the entire time with our family. She stayed with the kids while I entered the line for the food. Another kind woman helped me with the three plates of food so I could get to the table without dropping anything. Angie fed Elizabeth so I could eat hot food and take care of Evie and JC. They had hot dogs and lots of other good things kids like to eat. They even had a bouncy castle-like thing and games for the kids put on by the local high school ROTC. There were treats and deployment information, and free books, and dvd's - all for those of us who happen to be parenting alone for a while. Honestly, the Air Force takes almost as good care of us military families as the church does - and that's saying a lot!

I also met my "First Shirt" that night. This person, for those of you unfamiliar with the title, is like my military equivalent of a home teacher. Mine happens to be female, but the responsibility is the same. She answers questions, helps out in emergencies with the family, and will basically make sure I'm taken care of while my husband is gone. I've got double coverage! Anyway, the kids had a blast, we got home late, and I not only ate hot food, but had wonderful uplifting adult conversation while my kids played.

(By the way, so proud of JC this night! One of the ROTC young men wanted to make sure my little one knew where his mommy was. JC took the boy all the way to our table pointed at me and said, "mom". He then smiled and ran back to the bouncy castle with the young man trailing behind him.)

TUESDAY: well, it was late, but we finally decorated our house inside for the holiday. Not tons of stuff, but we had a little pumpkin patch on our mantle, a fun witch door hanging, some neat decals for the windows, etc. I let the kids pick what we put up and where everything went. They had fun. We also tried on our costumes. This was important for me because I wanted to find the Halloween bucket and make sure every costume had its parts. I also wanted to see what else I needed to buy. Then that evening, we made rice crispy treats. I know, what for? Well there was this very convincing commercial on tv (hulu) that showed a mom and her kids making shapes out of the treats. So I tried it. We had a lot of fun, mostly during the cooking part.

WEDNESDAY: we didn't do much this day except one thing. After dinner we all loaded into the van with our treats from the night before, and delivered them to my visiting teaching sisters. The kids did a great job watching us moms chat and give treats to our ladies. I even got to teach Evie a little about the principle of visiting teaching so it was a productive, if not a long, evening.

THURSDAY: oh my goodness what a day! This was Halloween party day at preschool and of course, the whole family went. Each mom had designed a craft/food to teach the girls and we had so much fun. There were lots of goodies, they all wore costumes (Evie a princess and Joe a pirate), they read books about Halloween, had a costume parade,

Eating a food craft!

and learned how to make a lot of fun things. Kudos to our preschool moms for a really fun Halloween lesson!

Evie, Emily, Katelyn - best friends

After some nice long naps (thank goodness) the kids watched a Halloween cartoon abt a girl who lives in a hotel and her adventures that Halloween night. Then after dinner we colored some Halloween pictures I printed from a parenting website I follow. They were great and we put them up on our windows to scare away the "bad guy." Have no idea where this "guy" came from, but every night during dinner now JC whispers that a bad guy is watching us eat! Silly children!

FRIDAY: by this time I was starting to wear out, but we still had plans, so I kept on. This was the afternoon we had costumed story time at the library on base. The kids donned their Thursday costumes (after a quick wash) and we headed over there. It was great. They listened to another two Halloween stories, but opted out of the craft for picking their own books. My kids love the library. Then they trick or treated at the check out desk, after getting their books, of course! It was a lot of fun.

Finally, we ate dinner at Ihop. Why Ihop you ask? Because all the kids got free "scary face" pancakes that night! These are pancakes you decorate with candies. So my kids ate for free, we did something Halloweeny, and I got to skip cooking that night! Great all around.

SATURDAY: finally the day had arrived! The kids could barely contain themselves! We got all dressed up quite early in our Halloween costumes.

Evie-a mermaid with purple hair (this was such a fun thing to do) and face paint

JC- a tractor driver (minus the 12pm shadow, he wouldn't let me do it)

Lizzy- baby bunny complete with tail

and me- mommy bunny complete with long white ears.

We headed to the church for the trunk or treat. I love this tradition in the church. My kids have fun, get dinner, and stay safe. We played the carnival games, ate the yummy food, and trunk or treated till our bags were way too full for little kids!

Such good aim, my mermaid

Evie wins a prize!

Oh my Goodness! A fire truck just for me!

Look who won at the cake walk!!!

It was a blast and one I was glad was finally come and gone! We were all so tired that night and the next day we had church!

Lizzy enjoying her prize!

After the big haul on the couch! Yummy!

SUNDAY: didn't think we forgot the actual day of Halloween did you? Nope. For a treat after dinner, I turned on "The Great Pumpkin" Charlie Brown cartoon. Kids loved it and it was a great way to end our very long and full Halloween week.