He Made It!!!

Refreshed.

When you finally get to sleep after 41 hours of not sleeping, you feel so refreshed when you wake up in the morning! It's glorious.

I woke up to a text from Alex letting me know that he'd made it to Germany and that he had converted a little bit of money for the kids so that he can mail them some foreign money to add to their collection from the last deployment. This is always such a big hit when it comes in the mail. I'm keeping it a surprise until it arrives, but I'm excited at the thought of the look on their faces.

Also, the day before Alex left, we received a beautiful gift in the mail for the kids. I saved it and let the kids open it today. My dear friend Erin, that I've known since I was in 4th grade I believe, sent my kids the sweetest, most thoughtful care package. She wrote them a card and sent them some fun gift cards to Chuck-E-Cheese, Regal Cinemas, and Barns & Noble. She said that this was to help pass the time and to cheer them up. I'm truly touched by this gesture and blown away by the generosity. Thank you so much Erin. The kids and I are already planning for when we can go and let them use their fun gift cards.

As we started our day we filled our diffuser with Family and Valor to help support our emotions. Everyone has been good so far, but there has been a tad more bickering than usual between the kids and I know it's the stress and emotion of the transition, even if they don't recognize it, so I am doing what I can to aid in this process. These two oils are amazing and really help the mood and release the tension. I thought the best part was that my little monkey came up to me after smelling the diffuser and he was able to identify these two oils with his little sniffer.

The kids have really been wanting to watch the original Beauty and the Beast, so we took some time to watch this movie today. We had a picnic on the floor while we watched it. I really love this movie. The new live Beauty and the Beast is beautifully done, but there is just something nostalgic about watching the Disney Cartoon version!

After lunch, I had the privilege of teaching a Back to School class on line. It was so much fun! People were active today and had a lot of questions. I love when people engage during the online classes and I get to help them there on the spot.  Here is the Class if you're interested in taking a peak at the Back to School tips I shared (bit.ly/BacktoSchoolClass)

....we're just about done with summer over here. We find out who the kids' teachers are next week and then start school on the 24th.

As promised yesterday, I'm going to share with you the amazing gift Alex bought me for our Anniversary. I have never seen anything like this, but it's just the sweetest. So, he found these lamps that are called Filimin. These lamps are WiFi based and you program them so that each lamp (we each have one) knows your color (I chose the purple spectrum and Alex chose the bluish/green spectrum). When I touch the lamp it will change BOTH lamps to Purple and when Alex touches the lamp it will change BOTH lamps to the bluish/green color. This will allow us to know when the other person is thinking of us and help us know when Alex is in his room and able to talk. I'm posting a little video below to show you how they work.


Filimin: A Wi-Fi enabled touch light that gives you a beautiful, unobtrusive way to connect with the people you love. from Filimin on Vimeo.

Earlier this evening, my parents came over and we had a fun visit with an old friend that I haven't seen in ages, Dorothy! She is just the sweetest and it was so wonderful catching up with her. Right after she left I realized I forgot to get a picture with her, but just know she's the sweetest and I've known her practically my whole life.

Before bedtime we had the opportunity to FaceTime with Alex. He was able to borrow some WiFi from someone already there, since he won't have his own WiFi until Monday. He's officially in Kuwait and all checked in. Please keep praying that he adjusts to the time difference quickly and doesn't get sick in the process. He has his first staff meeting in a couple of hours. Below I've included a picture Alex took from the plane as they were flying into Kuwait and then there is our first FaceTime picture!

      

After the kids went to bed I took my first bath at our new house. The tub is amazing and I made homemade bath salts (I used Epsom Salt and Ylang-Ylang). I also added a Stress Away Bath Bomb...my skin feels so soft and like all of moisture is back in it. It was so nice to relax and read one of my books.