Year in Review

I have one last end-of-year post to make before the ball drops tonight. Before I get into that I do have a good piece of Caulfield trivia for you: exactly 5 years ago tonight Ryan came home from his second deployment to Iraq. We were stationed in GA but I moved back to TN since I was getting ready to have Hannah.  I drove all night to be there when those awesome white buses finally came pulling into Cottrell Field at Fort Stewart. :) It was awesome!

Moving on...just a some tidbits of our life happenings for each month.  It's pretty crazy all that can happen within a year.

January - We just moved back to Clarksville after Ryan's medical retirement.  After submitting several applications and resumes, he finds a part-time job working at Lowe's.  Hannah starts PreK at St. B Nursery School.  She is thrilled to be back in school!

February - The kids and I begins our library routine of going at least every two weeks, checking out at least 20 books at a time. The ladies behind the circulation desk eventually come to know us and always inquire with Hannah about what earrings she is wearing. :)

March - I throw Ryan a Transformers birthday party, which he secretly loved but would never admit it. ;) Thanks to PreK, Hannah goes around the house constantly singing the various tunes she learned.  I got a good number of videos of her little performances. Her favorite song was about monkeys swinging in a tree and getting caught by an alligator. Not as morbid as it sounds.

April - Hannah turns 5, and we kick off her being a half decade old with a panda themed birthday party.  We make the official decision to homeschool our kids, and we wonder what took us so long to decide. :)

May - Hannah graduates from PreK, and I don't think many high school graduates make out as well as she did--complete with balloons and a graduation bear (which is currently in her bed).  I take Autumn to the doctor because we suspect she may have to get tubes in her ears, but come to find out she's perfectly fine. 

June - Summer gets into full swing with taking Hannah to vacation Bible school.  She has a blast and is beyond adorable singing with her class in church.  Ryan quits Lowe's to try out a sales job, working with a roofing and siding company.  Lots of door to door stuff.  We had a rather short hail storm that did a lot damage to roofs in the area, so signs for various contractors started popping up in front yards everywhere, including our house. Long story short, that job was eventually a bust.  :(

July - Hannah had been working on various worksheets we got from her prek class and from a workbook I already had.  It was such a great way for us to prepare for school! She also went to the summer reading program at the library.  Autumn was not so much into the toddler program since all she wants to do is just climb all over the seats. Ryan "gets back at me" by throwing me a Titanic-themed birthday and decorating the house with printing pics from the movie. Hannah has her dental check up and everything is sheer perfection (wish I could say the same for myself :-/)

August - We officially start homeschooling!! Even after the first couple weeks, I know it is going to such a blessing! We started going to Wednesday night church where Hannah went to Team Kid, Autumn to the play room, and I went to the homeschool support group (which I miss dearly!). We also go on a field trip to the fire station with other homeschoolers.

September - Autumn turns 2! Along with turning two she starts sitting in a booster instead of a high chair and sleeping in a big girl bed (well, it was just taking the side off her crib). Such a big girl!  My oldest friend, Jamie, and her husband and three boys came down from Indiana to visit us for Labor Day weekend.  We hadn't seen each other in five years! Our kids all really got along, which is always good. :) We all went to the Nashville Zoo.  I guess none of us really thought about how crowded it would be on a holiday weekend, but it was still fun.

October - Ryan and I celebrate 8 years of marriage! Ryan also accepted a job with Lockheed Martin, working with the Dept of the Navy, which meant we would be moving to Millington. Ryan left in the middle of the month and we would move with him closer to the Christmas once he found a place to live. The kids were both bears for Halloween (the most inexpensive costumes ever thanks to their Grendy! :-D).

November - I participate in what will my fifth Nanowrimo--writing a novel in a month. Great fun. I should also mention that I "won" which means I wrote the require 50,000 words. Both kids had their annual check ups (both late...ooops), and all is well.  We also get their flu shots which was fairly painless.  Ryan was able to come visit us every weekend from Millington, but in the mean time the kids and I are able to keep busy in his absense.

December - The kids and I move a little earlier than we expected, but it was definitely for the best since we were able to get used to the area and our new place before Christmas.  The kids constantly amazed me with how resilient they are.  We made it back to Clarksville for Christmas unscathed and all was well.

What a year. I guess I can say that about any year.  I'm definitely ready for a new one. I'm not going to go into a laundry list of resolutions, but I just hope that I can continue to better myself as a wife and mother following the Lord. 

Here's to an awesome 2011!

What a week!

We got our internet hooked up barely a half hour ago and here I am! LOL The kids are laying down so there's no better time! :-D

As I said in my previous post, the girls and I officially moved to Millington as of Monday, two weeks before we were originally planning to.  Now that we're here I'm really glad we didn't wait. I'm really enjoying our new house.  The kitchen has more cabinet space and we have hardwood floors!!! Only the bedrooms have carpets...that I can deal with! Ryan didn't have to go to work until Wednesday so we were able to take a couple days to explore and become familiar with the area.  Millington is a lot like Clarksville with a Navy base. :) Our house is a bit in the country so there are a lot of roads and turns to make before we hit a main road, but as of today I think I've got a pretty good handle on it.  GPS is my friend!

The kids have adjusted pretty well.  Hannah always seems excited for a new adventure, but she was none too thrilled when she realized her grandparents are more than 20 minutes away. At least we're only 3-4 hours away so we are all able to visit more often than when we lived in GA or KS.  Autumn is just going with the flow.  Thanksfully we've managed to get back into school with no problem.  Things felt so crazy for a few days that we took an unexpected break even though we just had a break for Thanksgiving!  The past two days Hannah has done a ton of math and geography so I don't think getting behind will be an issue.

This weekend we will be in Clarksville Sunday and Monday to pack up the very last of our stuff and get everything cleaned for our move out inspection, which isn't until December 27th.

I'll post pics later of the new house and a few of the kids from the week.

Emptier and Emptier

I dragged our mattress to the living room
so I could watch TV since Ryan took the
TV from our bedroom. The kids love it!

Since signing the lease to our new house Ryan has taken a truck load of stuff back with him each time he comes to visit for the weekend.  He's taken everything off the walls, the bookcase, entertainment center, our head and foot board, all but two pieces of the sectional, three kitchen chairs, the grill, and probably a lot more other things that I'm forgetting. :) He also setting up the house with what he has to so once the kids and I actually get down there there will be very little for us left to do. Hopefully I will like where Ryan put everything. :-p I think considering how hard he works I'll keep any criticisms to a bare minimum.

We are officially moving in about two weeks!  Originally we weren't planning on going until after Christmas but our move out inspection is the 27th.  Our whole marriage we've never had a Christmas morning at our own house! It's pretty crazy we'll have a chance to do it this year and at a new house no less.  So....we're going to have Christmas just the four of us in Millington, and then we'll drive back to Clarksville to be with our families.  We're also going to get a hotel since we need to stick around for the move out inspection. We just hope and pray with all this effort we get a good chunk of our security deposit back.  Fortunately Ryan is willing to fight to the death over it. LOL

Week in Review #11

Yep, I'm a little late in posting this. I guess this is more of a review of what's going with all of us rather than just what we're doing for homeschooling. For some reason, Blogger is being stupid about posting pictures so this post might seem a little bland. :-p

Last week for school consisted of a lot of review. It seemed we needed to stop with everything and just review, which was perfectly fine.  No sense in moving on to the next lesson when Hannah has yet to grasp what we just did. She read a lot of her little readers, did lots of addition problems, and wrote lots of spelling words. Hannah is reading her readers with words she supposedly hasn't learned yet, but she just sounds it out like she's been doing it her whole life. :) I'm so proud! We also made it to the library for the first time in two weeks. I don't think since early summer we went that long without going to the library. Pretty strange. It felt good to get out of the house and do something productive. The girls sure love those puzzles. I would want some for the house, but it would just be me keeping up with all the pieces and becoming totally OCD over it. :-p We'll just leave the puzzling for library time.

Ryan's new job is still going swimmingly. As always we are most anxious for the lease to be up and get moved! At least Ryan is able to come up here every weekend. That's always quite lovely. Monday morning he went to Fort Campbell for the review on his medical retirement to see if his condition has improved or stayed the same to determine what percentage we receive from the VA. There's a very very very slight chance they could even see him fit for duty and generate orders for active duty! I just leave it all in God's hands. What else can we do?

Autumn has officially started potty training. I suppose it's going so-so. She's used her potty twice so far and peed on the floor about four times. I'm have serious deja vu from when I was potty training Hannah, mopping up the carpet and chasing her around the house when she's wearing underwear to make sure there are no massive accidents on the floor. Good news is that Autumn is all about sitting on her potty and is very excited about wearing pull ups and all that fun stuff. Hopefully it will take a little less than the 11 months it took with Hannah!

Week in Review #9



painting pumpkins--less messy than
carving :)

 This is our first week without Ryan and things have gone surprisingly well! I know I should have had more confidence in myself, but I didn't. Sue me. :-p Ryan is now home for the weekend and we are so thrilled!



playing musical hats

Monday - Fall festival with the homeschool group.  Hannah had a blast and Autumn just kind of stood around taking it all in. Afterward we visited my grandma and had lunch with her.  After we got home Hannah got a bit whiny while we were doing Geography so I told her that the new is that if she gets whiny it means she's tired.  I sent her back to bed where she slept for about an hour. During the day while Autumn is up I will have Hannah do school work she can easily do on her own with very little direction(addition problems, handwriting).  After Autumn goes to bed I can focus on the subjects that require more of my attention like reading and geography.  Around 4:30 my mom came over to stay with the girls while I went to the gym.  She's going to come over a couple times a week while Ryan is gone so I can go to the gym. Such a godsend!

Tuesday -  After nap/quiet time, I called my dad and he came over so I could go to the gym yet again. :-D The girls had a great time, especially since their beloved Papaw brought pizza rolls and chocolate milk! Once again, we did school work after Autumn went to bed and all went wonderfully! We started a new reading lesson (#6 out of 20) and Hannah did great! We're reading the different 'e' sounds like, "need" "meat" and "bee".  Also the sounds for 'l' and 'p' but those are easy. ;)



Hannah and Kracker Bear,
who is practically our 3rd child ;)

 Wednesday - A more lazy day today. No gym for me so I pulled the girls around in the wagon for my exercise, loving the cool fall weather! Fall is way to short if you ask me.  Autumn took a late nap so Hannah and I were able to get some school work done.  We did a lot of math since for right now it's tapered off and is just review for the time being. The kids kept picking at each other, so I was most looking forward to taking them to their respective classes at church and bidding them farewell for an hour. :)

Thursday - I was not really in the mood to do school, but we got three subjects done before I knew it. My mom came over to watch the kids while I went to the gym, and Hannah was most excited to read to her. The latest reader is about a crab who grabbed a ham...something to that effect. :-p


how I felt a good portion of the week--
reckon it just comes with motherhood :p


Friday - Today was particular stressful for me. I think after Ryan being away for almost a week I was feeling burnt out.  My fuse was a bit short, praise the Lord we made it through the day.  Hannah was amazing, because she started picking up the living room without me even telling her. "I"m picking up the toys fast!" she said.  She even stops what ever she's doing and asks to pray for me. What have I done to deserve such a child? 

Week in Review #8

It's hard to believe fall is officially upon us! This past week has been gorgeous with the colors of the trees and all the leaves falling! I could watch that forever! This is Ryan's last week here before he leaves for Millington to start his new job.  Lots of prayer! It's the beginning of something very new and exciting! I'm glad to say we spent a lot of time together as a family this week, aside from Ryan working his last few nights at Domino's (extra cash is always a good thing).  I think I'm really going to miss Ryan working mostly nights.  I love having him home during the day! :)  Then again, I'm going to miss him period since he'll be 3 hours away! Ugh.

This week is Fall Break for public school, so I like to think we are getting ahead. Maybe? :-p We've had unexpected days when we have gotten any school work done, but we've never had an extended amount of time when we've taken a complete break from school. I am certain it's inevitable.

Monday - Ryan was beyond fantastic this morning as he made breakfast, wrangled the kids, and even took them out to visit his mom in Ashland City so I could sleep in.  He worked a little with Hannah on her math..still coming along very nicely. :) I still counting his brownie points!  After I finally got up and around, we were able to do more school work.  Four subjects down minus the frustration. Oh yeah! Hannah did fantastic with Geography.  We were talking about borders on a map, and she had to do tasks like, "Color the three states blue that border California".  I would point to California and she figure out the rest from there.   She can also point out several states on the map.  :)

Churning the batter into butter! :P

Hannah also helped me make banana bread (even though she won't eat it).  She loves to help me cook, pouring in ingredients and stirring.  She loves making scrambled eggs and she's pretty good at it (with constant supervision of course).  Autumn lately loves throwing her utensils on the floor and eating with her hands, especially today.  The girls had spaghetti for lunch so that always makes for a lovely mess.

Tuesday - Library storytime. Returned a ton of books.  I'm constantly paranoid that we've missed a book somewhere and we're going to have a huge fine eventually.  So far so good. Well...I think I've paid about $5 in fines for the year. :-p

Another great day for school work.  We did more addition review.  In Geography we learned about map grids.  It was one of those things we had to repeat over and over, but she did get a good handle on it.  Ryan always seems better at explaining map stuff better than me.



Autumn loves the library's puzzles!

 Tonight Ryan got word he got a place to stay when he gets to Memphis! He's staying with the brother of a man from his mom's church. Got that? :-p Apparently this brother is recently divorced and could use the extra help monetary wise.  All Ryan is paying for is the room since food and utilities will be included. 

Wednesday - Before I even finished my first cup of coffee, Hannah started piling library books on me asking to be read to.  How could I say no? :) This went on for about 45 minutes. In lieu of spending as much time with the kids as possible before leaving on Sunday, Ryan took over school this morning.  It seemed we were on a review portion of everything today--math, handwriting, geography.  At this age you can never review too much! Ryan also went over how to read a compass.  He just got the new Droid phone and was able to download a compass onto it! So cool!

No church tonight due to Fall Break. Why? I have no idea. I would assume it would be a great time for Wed. church since kids won't be all exhausted from being in school all day. Oh, well.  Autumn cranked out and went to bed a little early.  Hannah and I were able to do more school work this evening as well--reading, language and science.  We are up to the 5th science experiment (there are 25 all together).  Number five was regrowing roots.  The book suggested using a dandelion but goodness knows we have enough weeds along the walkway.  Hannah and I went outside (she was thrilled because she got to go outside in her jammies) and dug up a weed with the root attached.  Then I cut up the root into a few little pieces and put them on wet paper towels in a petri dish.  Her science book says it should take a week to see any growth. We shall see.

Thursday - Homeschool storytime was cancelled today, and I didn't know until I was on Facebook and saw the library's post.  Staff training and such.  Ryan still took the girls so they could at least play and get more books.  I'm at home because we are waiting for Ryan's welcome packet from Lockheed Martin, and someone has to be here to sign for it.  It never came today.  We're kind of on pins and needles over it since it's a 50-page thing Ryan has to have all filled out by the time he starts on Monday. :-/ Although this is minor considering how far the Lord has brought us.

My map grid creation :)

We reviewed map grids from Tuesday.  For a minute it seemed like everything Hannah learned flew right out of her head, but I made our own map grid using some old family pics (most taken about 5 years ago...we all look a tad different :-p).  Hannah loved it and was immediately on task. :) She also read her second reader all the way through without any help.  Each one she reads completely by herself she put a sticker on the inside.  The one she read was about a hot dog (as in 'woof woof') who gets lost on a log in the fog. LOL



Autumn is a real Southerner--loving her bbq! ;)

 Friday - We had a few errands to do today.  To save time (don't know why we felt the need to save time since we have very little going on) Hannah went with Ryan in his truck and Autumn went with me.  The only thing I had to do was go to Kroger for a few groceries.  Autumn had her puppy and her bear to keep her company, so her behavior was awesome! She was also stuck sitting in the cart so she didn't have much of a choice. ;)  As you can see by the pic she tried to help a little with the shopping.  I stepped about 10 feet away to decide what kind of cereal to get and she just started to help herself. What's funny is that we actually needed bbq sauce, but I opted for a cheaper brand.



I'm so proud of my little reader! :)

 After lunch Autumn went down for a nap so Hannah and I did some school work.  All was going fine until Hannah came to a math problem she got stuck on.  She tenses her shoulders and gets whiny whenever she gets stuck on something she can't figure out.  I totally understand the frustration of just not getting it when it comes to school work.  I'm hoping to help her push through the frustration and to have the attitude that she just need to keep trying.  It's hard sometimes but I'm trying not to get frustrated along with her.  We were able to move on to reading where she completed another one of her little readers.  This one was called "Rub-a-Dub Cub". It was about a bear so it was definitely a winner. :)

We also finally got that package from Lockheed Martin so that's one less thing to worry about. :D

Another Chapter

A title like this probably suited better for January 1st when you vow to make the coming year the best and most productive ever.  Good Lord willing, we are already expecting to start 2011 anew by moving to a new city.  Memphis to be exact.  On the 18th Ryan is going to be starting a new job as a weapons handler with Lockheed Martin, which is basically what Ryan did in the army as a combat engineer.  Ryan is so excited to have finally found a full time job! We are also only going to be a few hours away, which suits my family just fine, since previously we've lived 8-12 hours away.  Ryan will move down there ahead of us, and we will move after the new year once our lease is up.  The only thing is...Ryan needs a place to stay.  Of course we can't afford to pay rent on two different places, so we're hoping Ryan will be able to find just a room for rent for very little.  We've asked our church here to see if they have any connections with anyone in that area, and Ryan has even called FBC of Millington (which is where Lockheed Martin is actually located).  There are a few possibilities, but nothing solid as of yet.  We are doing our best to remain faithful the Lord will provide.  As far as we can tell, it is His will that Ryan has this job so I'm sure God will take care of temporary housing.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.    - Matthew 6:25-34

I suppose housing is a small worry compared to the wonder of what the Lord has planned for us in this new chapter about to come about in our lives.

It's All Good in the 'Hood

After our whopping 10-minute hail storm we had some months back, Ryan got offered a job with the company that fixed our roof.  Over the past few months, we have decided that the roofing gig was like beating a dead horse.  He got a few jobs, but we are all about a more reliable source of income. :) Seriously, these roofing companies are like roaches (lots aren't even local...they set up shop where there has been storm damage..pretty crazy) and a lot of homes with damaged roofs were snapped up pretty quick.  Anyway, while Ryan was a seasoned soldier he also become a seasoned pizza man. ;) It was always nice to have some loose cash on hand, so he's taken on a job with Domino's and is working his delivery magic.  He's currently in the application process with the Davidson County Sheriff's office (just recently passed the PT test and interview!), so while we are waiting on that we will just truck right along as usual.

On the homeschool front, Hannah and I read about North America and did the coordinating GeoPuzzle.  I feel like we should do a small unit about North America.  I mentioned what states we were all born and where we used to live, but I don't know anything about Canada.  I guess we'll look and see what we can find at the library tomorrow. :D Maybe I'll teach Hannah to sing "Oh Canada" and the "Star-Spangled Banner" Fun, fun stuff.

Need a new roof? Call my husband!

Ryan's current position at Lowe's is seasonal, and it's looking like time is about up for him there.  We knew that the temporary position could turn into something more permanent, but Ryan is really not feeling like the retail world is for him (isn't that true for us all? :P).  He recently got offered a position with a roofing and siding company, which seems like something he would be good at doing.  This particular company is fixing the roof on our house, which how this offer came about. This is a commission-only job, but yet from what he tells me it's not like going door to door selling vacuum cleaners. :) Ryan is great at talking to people (which I am always in awe of since I am not), so I think he would be good at it.  Bless his heart, he wants so badly to find his niche in the civilian world.

Four years ago (during our first attempt at civlian life), he had a short-lived career selling cars.  He just didn't feel right selling brand spanking new cars to young soldiers who most likely could not afford them.  But plenty of people need new roofs, and somehow I don't see it ever being an impulse purchase. :)

Right now he is in Illinois with his new boss seeing about getting him into a used truck, since a 1997 BMW won't cut it hauling around a 20 ft ladder. :) His boss is from IL and has a family member willing to sell a truck cheap and blah blah blah...so Ryan went with him to drive this truck back.  He should be home late tonight/early tomorrow.

Of course, we are praying that this is meant to be and if not then we pray that the Lord will provide another job opportunity.  Ryan has applied to so many jobs online and through the local career center.  He's a hard worker, and I am not just being biased.  Something needs to be done, and he is all over it. 

So if you need a new roof, call Ryan for an estimate! ;D 931-494-3823