I noticed the parish where we live has a school attached. I am assuming this is a good thing..lots of young famiies, scouting oppurtunities, etc. Any insight with this?

Thank you ladies!! When I started this thread I wasn't sure I would have any responses. I have written down your book/forum suggestions. I have taken note of your insight Asta as well. Sorry this is so short but I am being called away. Heidi

These responses have been very encouraging and heartwarming. Thank you for the book suggestions. I am anxiously awaiting my husbands arrival home so we may start this journey together. My husband has encouraged me to begin attending church. However, I feel a bit silly I don't have any Catholic friends here and I don't want to just show up at mass with six small children! So as I wait I continue to pray and learn. I am honestly very surprised by how strongly we feel led. I think with each PCS we have made we feel a bit lost searching for a church family. This tour has been particulary lonely. I have had several invites to wonderful churches in our area. However, I haven't felt at home. Praying and studying and learning more about the Catholic Church feels like going home. Sorry, I am rambling a bit. I hope this makes a little bit of sense.:001_smile: Thank you for your encouragement, Heidi

It looks like you have gotten a lot of great advice. I just wanted to tell you I can empathize with your situation. I went with Calvert this year. I thought it would be good with a very busy schedule, babies, and deployed husband. Now it hasn't been a bad year but waaay to much money. I feel obligated to finish it because I bought it (unless someone wants to by 4th, 3rd and 1st).;) I really miss the curricula I pulled together. Lesson learned albeit a pricey one.

:iagree:

As another poster mentioned these boards are great for asking questions you woudn't ask IRL...right away anyways...SO I won't get into all the details but after a lot of prayer and research my husband and I have felt led to the Catholic Church. I would like to hear experiences of those that converted to Catholicism as well. How did your children respond, extended family? FWIW, I was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran and my husband the United Church of Christ. Looking forward to your responses! I just wanted to add that I am not looking for a debate as to if this is right or not; if you would like to do that you can start a new thread.:) Thank you, Heidi

We tried this once....our son is 10yrs old. I just about spewed coffee all over the keyboard after reading the tags.:lol:

This was a fun surprise to see all the suggestions this morning. Thank you Hive!

Oh my goodness that was hilarious and amazing. Thank you for sharing.

:iagree: :iagree:

Okay, that actually would be perfect!

No, I didn't see the mom song...a bit afraid to find it.:tongue_smilie:

I need lots of ideas! I want to paint a quote on one of the walls in our schoolroom. So I need suggestions..it can be anything really..scripture, a quote from a book, saying, a thought, something with lots of humor. To give you an idea about my family..we are military, dh is currently deployed (home soon though, yeah!) we have six kids ages 10 mos to 10yrs. We are very noisy, loving, rough and tumble family. Not sure if that helps but bring on the suggestions please! Thank you in advance.

My son was very ill Saturday night..vomiting and diarrhea for 12 hours and than achiness for the next couple days. Monday myself and the other 5 children all became very ill. Vomiting, diarrhea for 12 hours and than low grade fevers, headaches and lots of achiness. I talked to the nurse and they are referring to this as swine flu. My older children and and baby are doing fine now. It is my 3 yr. old who has asthma and my 2 yr. old who started to throw up again that concerns me. Everyone has mentioned sore chests..myself included but the vomiting was pretty violent so I am thinking we may just be sore? Overall, they seem to be doing fine. Everyone is eating and drinking . I am a bit paranoid though. FWIW we are in Tennessee too. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I have a son who will be four in November. Just this summer he began to put 2 words together and began to call his siblings by name. He is the fourth child out of six children..his older siblings were extremely verbal from an early age. My son always made noises but mainly an ahh ahh sounds. One day when he was desperate to reach a toy he said "help" very clearly..my husband and I were floored he was 2 1/2. At the time we were living in Maryland and his Dr. (Johns Hopkins) thought he should begin speech therapy at around 15 mos. After discussing our options with our Dr. we declined. To be honest I feel it was a mother's intuition. I felt strongly against speech therapy for him. I am grateful our Dr. trusted me. As a side note NO our son is not autistic. We knew that. We had a very clever, athletic little boy that didn't miss a beat however, there were mabe 2-3 words he used on a regular basis. Communication has never been a problem though. He is very expressive with his face and hands. At times he has even acted out a scenario for us. He is a very strong willed, independent child and I learned very quickly that asking him to say anything or repeat would only set him back. He was very self-concious and would simply ignore us. At this time we were moving to Ft. Campbell. I also started to research online to see if I could find other children like my son. That is where I came across Natural Late Talkers (Einstein Syndrome)...and the Camaratas at Vanderbilt. I cried this was my son. We had decided to let Jack be Jack and just love him and provide him with a natural learning environment but nothing was forced. To make a long story short we were able to meet with the Camaratas at the beginning of this year. They evaluated him and gave us lots of ideas to help along his speech. For example when he is trying to tell us something simply summarize what he is saying back with one word. For example this summer he came up to me after playing in the sprinkler and was trying to tell me his swimming trunks were wet. I simply stated "wet"? Than proceeded to say "Yes your swimming trunks are wet". This is just one example of how we have helped him along. It was good to know that we did everything right by NOT putting him in speech therapy. In fact with children like Jack it can either set them backwards where they refuse to respond or makes no difference to the progression of their speech. His words are coming but it will take a lot of patience. Because he is not talking other areas of his development are more advanced. I am sorry for rambling a bit. This is simply our story. Mabe it can be of some help or encouragement to you. :)

My husband was training at Fort Leanard Wood for the summer. We were living off post in this little trailer park right off the main drag. We only had 2 children at the time...a 2 1/2 yr. old ds and 11 month old dd. We didn't have any television and a neighbor whose husband was at OBC called me to tell me what happened. I remember walking to her home with the kids still in pajamas to watch the news. Both of our husbands couldn't leave post for 3 days. I remember leaving to get groceries and my husband calling me to get home and stay put. I remember being glued to our little radio. Later that fall we both PCSed to Germany where our husbands deployed. As a side note...A Confederacy of Dunces is one of my favorite books..and my husband has been deployed since April.

My husband just left about a month ago and before he left he set up an email account for the kids. This way the kids can easily send him an email about their day and generally he can reply within the next day or so. They really enjoy "checking" their email and it keeps it personal. I have noticed my older children ds10 (dh deployed on his bday) and dd8 have been able to better express themselves through email than short broken conversations on the phone. This also was a good thing because it turned out my dh doesn't have access to skype and facebook/myspace chat places are blocked. :grouphug:

Absolutely.:001_smile:

First I have read your response several times and you are an amazing person. I don't know how to eloquently put my thoughts into words so thank you. I absolutely need to sit down and do "worst case scenario". I have always credited myself on being a pull your bootstraps type of person. This tour is different for a few reasons and just feels different. Yes we have done 12+ month tours before but dh is helping to stand up a new unit. Many of the wives have never been through a deployment before. In the past I have always had a mentor and very close friends to lean on. This time is different my dh and I are considered the "old" married couple:tongue_smilie:. Lately, I have been chatting with many of the wives and listening to their concerns. Not only that but at the moment I am being "trained on how to handle such situations". I think it may have brought all of my own fears to the surface. The ones I normally stomp on ( for lack of better words) as I continue to change diapers, teach little ones and switch numerous loads of laundry. From past experience this pre-deployment stage is well awful. I just want him to "get gone" as we say so he can "get home". I know the days after he leaves I do feel I have a weight lifted because now I can start counting the days to his return. I know that may sound bizarre but their is so much tension these last few days before they fly out. I did call an old friend who has weathered 5 deployments and she did feel stonger anxiety with each one. It was helpful to talk with her. I will take your advice on the book also. I do rest easier knowing I have a plan.

Prague or Barcelona or Oslo would be my top 3 choices. I think Prague may be often overlooked but it is such a beautiful city with so much to offer.

My father was very supportive....my poor mother spent that six weeks on her knees in prayer. No, I didn't really have a game plan except I read every travel book I could get my hands on. By chance, I meant some amazing people on my trip and we ended up traveling together. Gotta love those Aussies!!

Your words are such a comfort. Thank you.

Okay I had to laugh when I read this. This is so very true. Why is it when your dh leaves you have to deal with the craziest things? I chatted with some wives that have never been through a deployment and I am not sure they believed me when I shared my own experiences!!

I do. I grew up in rural Iowa and had never been anywhere, not even flown. When I was 14 I decided I was going to travel across Europe when I graduated. That is exactly what I did too. I spent the next four years working and saving money. A few months before my graduation I bought my plane ticket to London. I remember reading the words Heathrow Airport and it made me giddy with excitement. I spent six weeks absorbing the people, the cultures, the history, everything around me. I still remember how the Mediteranean was as warm as bath water when we swam at night. I probably could still find my favorite gelato shop in Rome!! I survived on their hazelnut gelato. I remember laying in bed one evening. I was in Spain and music was pouring in through the balcony from the street. My room was stifling hot but it didn't matter I was so happy and content. I had done what I set out to do 4 years earlier.

Thank you for all the support. I know their are so many other wives in my same position. I think tonight it just really struck me. That we are doing it again.