Saturday, September 15, 2012

I Actually Acted Like An Army Wife!

This is new for me.  I, ahem, did not embrace this life with open arms like some fantastic wives out there.  I pretty much do the minimal.  And then I complain about that.  Ok, actually, I'm being too hard on myself.  (See, I'm trying to get better about that!!)  Part of the problem is we have are coming up on our 5th move in 2.5 years and it is hard to for me emotionally transition between places and hard for me to get out there and meet people which means I never have a baby-sitter so that makes it even harder to attend things with Chris (sorry for the long, probably run-on sentence).  I am planning on jumping into life with both feet once we hit Oklahoma in a month or two.  We've lived there before so I think the transition will be easy on me.  I HOPE so at least ;)

Anyway, night before last we hosted 16 adults, 2 children, and 3 babies in my home.  I can safely say that it is first.  And it was pretty dang fun too :)  I have learned a few things about myself, some I pretty much already knew, but they were confirmed:

* I enjoy planning meals for groups of people and bringing it all together
*I enjoy cooking
* I enjoy hosting things in my home
*I enjoy serving people and being kind to them

*I do not enjoy cleaning my house.  Hate it, in fact
*I do not enjoy picking up after everyone has left
*I do not enjoy excessive cussing in my home (but that one comes with army territory)
*My son does not do well with others (I knew this to be true outside our home, but I thought he'd do better in his own environment. Wrong.)

I had it all planned out and we had done prep work the night before so everything would go smoothly.  My husband was getting off work at 4:30 to come home and help (i.e. watch the kids) while I finished everything up.

It was a good plan.
You know what's coming.

My husband had to take one of his soldiers to the military police station (30 minutes away) at 4 pm.  He got home at 7pm.  Yes, that's right.  He was the last one to arrive to his own little shin-dig.  I got one word for you: STRESS.  Ha!  I was sooooo stressed out! Mostly because of my little man.  Have I mentioned he likes to be attached to mommy A LOT??  Yes, I know I have so I'll spare you, but try taking lots of baked potatoes out of a 400 degree oven while a 9 month old is climbing your back and screaming bloody murder because you dare to put him down for 5 minutes.  Try making cornbread with a baby on your hip.  It can be done, but it ain't fun.

One of the soldiers that I already knew came a bit earlier to help me and praise the Lord for that man because help he did!  He set the table and wrapped the potatoes to keep them warm.  He handled anything that was hot since I had the baby.  He carried chairs out to the family room.  He tried (twice) to hold Caleb, to no avail of course, but he did try.

After dinner, Chris had bought all his soldiers hand blown pilsner glasses and had each soldier stand up so he could something that they do well and how proud he was of them.  Then, they, in turn (without instruction to do so) went around the room and said nice things about their peers and leaders.  It was so awesome!  These men were all in Afghanistan together so after dinner I heard stories about life over there that my husband hadn't shared so that was neat for me.

I was so proud of Chris.  He thought of this all on his own and helped me execute the planning.  Despite the chaos that happened right before everyone arrived, it was a lovely evening and I'm sure we'll do something similar in the future!

1 comment:

Mama said...

Gosh...I am so proud of you!