The life and chaos of the Byrds

Blog Hop

2011-02-17T09:15:00.000-08:00

First time trying this. Lets see if I can get it to work. :)

Hug-A-Hero

2011-02-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

This is something I want to do!

Hug-a-Hero is not what you are thinking. I hug my husband and kids often (ha ha).

Being part of a military community I see a lot of what a deployment does to each part of a family. Not just my own family but other people I know. It affects the spouse, the parent and beyond. I want to help and I know that I can only help in a small way.

I've seen a few dads leave the last few months where the little ones are so little they don't know what is going on. Grandmas are coming down to "visit" for months and daddy is going away. Or there routines are changing because mom now has to handle everything on her own and she is making do with the time she has. This is true of every deployment. Thankfully the boys handle deployments as well as can be expected. Maddie has only been through one and she was small enough she really didn't know what was going on. This time she will be two and will definitely know what is going on. She's the one I know I am most worried about.

I want to start ordering Hug-A-Hero dolls for kids who are in need of support and whose family may not have the knowledge of the doll or may not be able to afford one.
Wait a minute?! What's a Hug-A-Hero doll you ask. :)

Basically, you take a photo of the family member and it gets put on the front. The back is a design either their uniform or a solid color.

These come in many sizes. But to keep the uniformity of it all I think I would stick with one size.
There are 12" 17" and 3 Feet. I believe that 12" would be the right size. It could fit inside of a backpack if needed. The cost is $23.95 plus $5.35 in shipping for each doll. I would love to do everyone all by myself but I couldn't.

I'm debating on doing this a few different ways.

1. Setting up an email address for this alone. Trying to figure out what that email address should be.

2. Setting up a paypal account for this based off of that email address. Depending on how fruitful this idea is a bank account all of its own so everything can be easily traced.

3. My most difficult area would be setting up an application for each order. I know that I can't order on a first come first serve basis because of limited funds. I would need to have a way to decide who is more in need of this items. Whether it be their first deployment, their 8th deployment, they are in trouble at school etc. Any suggestions would be awesome!

So - What started this thought process? There are two little boys at the daycare my kids go to. They are four and one. Dad left right before Christmas. They were being taken out of daycare because mom's schedule was different daily and her mom came down to help. Well these boys have been in daycare since they were born. Now they are at home with grandma. Which is great! But not only did their dad leave, but so did their routine and their friends. I felt bad. I discussed this idea with girls at daycare and they all wanted to chip in to buy these two boys a doll. So became the idea.

I would love to have all the thoughts and feedback that anyone could offer. I want to make this happen I just need to know that I am on the right path.

Thanks so much for reading this far!!

Welcome Back Me!

2011-02-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

From here on out I am going to post more. I promise.

Obviously life is chaos just like the title of our blog. lol

I've got a few ideas forming in my head.

How many of you made New Years resolutions?

I did and I didn't. I didn't promise to lose weight or stop smoking or not drink as much Mt. Dew (I wouldn't have been able to do the Mt. Dew one at all!!).

My resolutions were more personal growth:

Run at least one 5K ---- Getting ready to do that one March 5th. And looking toward my second one.

Help others more often ---- This is something I am going to post more about next and want your ideas and maybe your help with.

Get myself organized ---- I'm working on this one. I've thrown a lot of paper out and I've gotten rid of some stuff. Still a long way to go.

Jeff has a possible deployment coming up and I think that with him gone that I will possibly get this one accomplished before he gets back.

I also want to learn more about my camera, cook more (learn new recipes) and I need to redesign my blog page.

Latest picture of all three kids! :)

Wordless Wednesday - Copy Cat

2010-06-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

My Maddie Blog

2010-05-17T08:53:00.001-07:00

Don't forget to check out Maddie's blog too. I don't keep it up as frequently as I like but I always add pictures in the very least.

www.madelynnbyrd.blogspot.com

Something new around the corner?

2010-05-17T08:47:00.001-07:00

I have been kind of bored with my blog lately and not updating it as faithfully as I would like. Therefore I think that I am going to turn a corner and have a purpose with the way I write. I am going to write more about military life and how things work out but more importantly I am going to address a creative side of myself.

I am always looking for ways to invent my creative side. I am a Jack (or Jill) of all trades and master of none. Therefore, I am going to make myself a master. Master in the kitchen.

I am going to explore recipes that I haven't made before and even my old favorites. I'm going to let you know how they turn out. Good or bad. I will probably even have help in the kitchen in the way of a precocious four-year old.

Please send my way recipe links or names that you have always wanted to try and are afraid to try or something you like that is interesting. I want to try them all. I collect cookbooks so I will not have a shortage of ideas but I would like some challenges from you all as well.

Wish me luck!

Wordless Wednesday - Jeff's Bday Collage (3/13/10)

2010-05-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-17T20:42:00.001-07:00

Saturday Seven

2010-02-13T22:10:00.001-08:00

It's still Saturday somewhere in the U.S.

Seven things I did this week.

1. I worked one day this week due to ALL THE SNOW WE GOT

2. Watched the Saints beat the Colts (woohoo)!

3. Did a bit of homework.

4. Scanned all of Dillon and Maddie's art from this school year and Cory's grades into the computer.

5. Drove in the snow. Fun!

6. Went to a friend's house and had good food and good company.

7. Said goodbye to Jeff. He left again for four and a half months. My husband. My best friend. Can't wait until July when just you and I are going to go on a vacation. :)

Saturday

2009-11-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

Going to start listing on Saturday... Seven things I accomplished in the week.
It's something that I do with a great group of girls on another site. Figured I'd bring it over to this side of things.

1. Went to see New Moon (ha ha)
2. Went to Dillon's Thanksgiving feast at school.
3. Just hid Christmas presents in the attic.
4. I have all the kids shopping done this week. Just need to find a book for Cory and stocking stuffers.
5. Did lots of laundry
6. Going to go see Planet 51 (in half an hour)
7. Cleaned the living room. Got the clutter out.

And a pic from the last week!

I am going to get better!

2009-11-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

Jeff deployed at the beginning of the month. Ick. He'll be home sometime in February.

Cory is doing well in school. Good grades and keeping busy with Forensics and Quiz Bowl.

Dillon is really enjoying school. Being onry as ever and loved playing football.

Maddie is crawling around like crazy and pulling up. It's pretty erie.

Me, Back to school and working like crazy. Our lives are hectic but we have fun.

Now for some much needed pictures:

2009-10-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Geez!

2009-09-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Man I stink! It's been over a month since I posted anything!

School has started Dillon is in Pre-K, Cory is in eighth grade and Maddie is trying to crawl. I can't believe how fast time has gone and I am going to post a few pictures to summarize the last month and I swear I am going to get better. LOL

Fourth of July

2009-08-04T20:10:00.001-07:00

I guess now that it is the 4th of August I should probably post the July 4th pictures! LOL

We went to Memphis for the weekend. Went to the zoo, Children's Museum of Memphis and Graceland. It will be tough for me to pick out my favorite pictures so I may do some now and some sporadically throughout the rest of the year. By the way. Cory was in New Mexico when we went... that is why he isn't in any of the photos. I'll have to upload pictures of him at the lake in NM.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-08T20:19:00.001-07:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-17T09:47:00.001-07:00

Lucas at Walter Reed - Update

2009-06-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Posts made by Lucas on Myspace:

First Post made 6/3:

Subject: Lucky to be alive!!!

So heres the latest update, for those of you who dont know. Friday night my truck was struck with a huge IED, which caused my truck to flip. Needless to say im pretty damn lucky i woke up. Im not really sure what happened, one minute i was driving down the road the next i was waking up as a bird was pickin us up. My gunner klug suffered back injuries as well as cutin his face up. My TC broke his jaw in two places and was knocked out. I was knocked out for close to thrity minutes, I fractured parts of my spine cut up my mouth and have scrapes and bruises all over. Lets just say im just glad I can walk still. Alright, Im now in our nations capital, at Walter Reed med center. Im not sure how long ill be here for, just wanted to fill you all in so you know whats going on. Im doing alright so no one worrie about that, I'll hopefully see you all soon.
Terrance manning

6/5

Subject: Finally up and walking

Hey everyone just an update for all of you. Im no longer in ICU and can now walk on my own. The good news, my back is ok, doesnt require surgery. Bad news, I have a big torso brace thing that looks ridiculous. I will have to wear this thing for about three months and then do another cat scan. Its gonna take close to 9 months to a year to fully recover, and in about six months their going to check and make sure Im not suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury. lame. But since I was knocked out for so long its a possiblity. I want to assure everyone that im ok and totally not changed, other than the fact it hurts to stand or walk or move lol. But really im ok, if luck holds out I could be home in a few weeks or sooner. More likely sometime in July though. I appreciate all the support you guys have shown me, it really helps with whats going on. I will continue to update you all as things unfold. Hit me up and let me know how your all doing. Terrance Lucas Manning Jr.

Latest thing I know:
I called his private room on Friday in ICU. According to the above he moved and I haven't been able to get the new number. I hope to get it today... As soon as I get the latest and greatest I will post it here.

Dillionism

2009-05-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Dillon's latest funny quote:

He was sitting watching Maddie and then he looked at me and said:

You can't put Maddie back in your belly.

Me: Why not?

Dillon: Because I love her and I'll know if you put her back because your belly will get big again and I'll be mad because you put her back.

At least I know he doesn't want me to put her back. Most kids would say take the baby back to the hospital. Not Dillon!

Because I need to...

2009-05-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

Because I need to update a bit. :)

We went to a Fish and Game Nature Center in Little Rock last weekend. Here are the three boys looking into one of the aquariums. I was a bit disappointed. Dillon loved it. He wants to fish so bad. We got him a pole yesterday to practice with. I wished it could have been bigger with the time it took us to drive down there and back. We probably spent more time in the car than we did at the center itself.

Robby sent this blanket to Maddie. His girlfriend's mom made it and I love it. Dillon wanted to be a ham and have his picture taken and I love how blue Maddie's eyes are. i hope they stay this blue!!

Check out http://www.madelynnbyrd.blogspot.com/ for more pictures

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Just Because

2009-05-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

Dillon picked this "outfit" out. Hee hee. A pink onesie and leg warmers.

Dillon wanted to be included in the comparison shots. He loves his sister. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

Now if I could only get Cory to come out of his room. :)

Week one with a new baby!!

2009-04-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a week! :)

All Madelynn and I do is sleep and eat. ha ha

Dillon was a bit jealous when she first came home. You could see that he finally realized what it meant when he got a new sister. He is doing great now though. He kisses and hugs her good night. He wants me to feed her with a bottle. He doesn't understand why she doesn't eat with a bottle. He reads to her and sings to her too.

Cory is a teenager and thinking, great another baby. We know though that once she is able to interact with Cory he'll be more interested. Cory will be inducted into the National Jr. Honor Society this weekend. I'm not sure if Jeff will go or if I will go but we will try to take pictures.

Madelynn had her one week well visit today. I updated that information here: http://madelynnbyrd.blogspot.com/. Be sure to check out how much she weighs and the doctor's information. She is still sleeping, eating and pooping. That's her update. LOL

Jeff has decided since he has some days off that he is going to build a pergola on our patio. I will take pictures tonight when he is finished and keep you up to date on how it's going.

As for me I am off to go get Dillon from daycare then come back and cook dinner. :)

Love you all!!

Madelynn

2009-04-18T16:17:00.001-07:00

April 16th at 6:17 am

8 pounds 3 ounces.... such a big girl. :)

Go to: http://www.madelynnbyrd.blogspot.com/ for more information on her delivery! :)

Official Eviction Notice!

2009-04-14T19:13:00.001-07:00

Well no news! :) I am dilated just 1/2 cm more. So I am 1 1/2 centimeters dilated and that is it!!

I asked what I should do come Monday if she's not here still and Dr. Chang said that we will induce on Tuesday the 21st.

If Madelynn decides not to come out on her own I will be induced on 4/21. So at the most I have one more week.

More Easter Pictures!!

2009-04-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone!

The advantages of being in an earlier time zone is that our Easter festivities are complete. I've attached some pictures of the boys. We had to do everything early as it was starting to rain and we heard thunder boomers coming and they are supposed to be strong.

I've got more but they are just Dillon running around. Cory was "too old" for it so Dillon got to find his eggs too. LOL!

Bed

2009-03-18T08:50:00.001-07:00

Dillon's bed will be here today. YAY! YAY! YAY!

Everything will start to fall into place now .....

Keep looking... pictures coming soon!

Something handmade from me

2009-02-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

I got this from my awesome friend Laura's blog...
I'm so excited to see what she makes for me, so always makes the cutest things!!

The deal:
The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me. To you! It will be my choice and made especially for you. Just so we’re on the same page, here are . . .

The details:
No guarantees you will feel absolute true love, but possibly happiness, fervor, or chocolate.What I create will be just for you.It will be done sometime this year.You have no clue what it will be… it may be a story. Maybe poetry. (Well, probably not either of those.) I may draw or paint something. Most likely I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you! That’s for sure.I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The fine print (which is actually the same size, but whatever):You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. When you get your lovely homemade goods from me, post a picture on your blog so I know my love arrived without a hitch.

Pockets

2009-02-07T08:21:00.001-08:00

Dillon just told me his underwear had pockets.
Too funny!
I just changed him out of his PJ's and left him in his underwear while I got ready and then I was going to come back to him.

He rounded the corner and said, Cory, my underwear has pockets. Hilarious!!

Dillon's concerns for the baby

2009-01-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Dillon got a doctor's kit. It has a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, etc. He has gotten to where he'll come take my blood pressure and listen to the baby's heart and give her shots through my belly. It's sweet actually.
So today when he was doing this I asked his if he was going to be a good big brother and help me with his baby sister. He said yes. Then I asked if he was going to help me feed her. His response:
But she doesn't have any bottles to drink from... How can we feed her if we don't have any bottles.
I said, we have time she'll get bottles we just don't have them yet.
He said, she doesn't have a dolly either. She needs to have a dolly too.
The concern on his face and in his voice was too cute. It cracked me up.
So, he and I got on Target and looked at all the dolls they had. He picked out a doll that he thought she would like and we put it on the registry. I figured I'll go pick it up later but the fact that he got over his concern and he picked out the doll made him feel so much better. While we were searching for the doll he saw a cube where you can put pictures in it. He liked that too and said she has to have that too.
I haven't really gone to the store to "get" anything yet. I have a ton of nesting that I feel like I need to do but the first few steps I need to complete I need Jeff here first. I want to put some shelves up in Cory's room so that I can get all of Cory's stuff out of Dillon's room. Once that's done then I can start to reorganize Dillon and Maddie's room the way I want to set it up. We are going to get a loft bed for Dillon to sleep in and roll the crib under the huge space that's meant for another bed or desk area. Thank goodness Dillon's bed was convertible, we just convert it from the toddler bed back into the crib (Thanks Sunny and David!!). Once we have the bed set up we can start to restructure the rest of the room. Obviously though all the heavy lifting Jeff wants me to wait. So I'm really waiting on doing any major shopping until he gets home. Which by the way is in about 25 days or so!!!!
Once he gets home though I feel as though it'll be a huge whirlwind of stuff to get done. I keep putting this off but I think today I am determined to get started on all the stuff I want to put on ebay (finally)! I have a ton of old (not old old but books I won't be using old) books from previous semesters that I need to get rid of. I used 11 books alone last year. Dillon is actually wanting to take a nap today (he's not feeling to well) so while he is done I'll get as much as that done as I can.
Anyway! I came on originally to talk about Dillon's concern but this ended up being a novel!

Counting Down!

2009-01-16T18:23:00.000-08:00

So I am counting down a few things.

First and foremost.... Jeff gets home in like 5 weeks (ish).
I say ish because I think he'll be home that week but we never know the exact date until a few days before hand. So what I do is I count from the day he left (October 13, 2008) his 120 TDY status... then add a week or so. I know he won't be home exactly in 120 days (like that would ever happen) but soon after. I cannot wait for him to get home. Without him here the house seems so lonely and boring. Did I tell you I cannot wait!?!?! :)

Secondly we have (tomorrow) 13 more weeks until our baby girl is here. Jeff and I have discussed names via email and on the phone but since finding out the gender haven't really had a face to face conversation about her name. We have discussed the name Zoey and Madelynn. After a few weeks of knowing we were having a girl I would alternate between calling the baby bump Zoey and Madelynn or Maddie. Dillon started to call the bump Maddie. So I told Jeff what Dillon was doing even though I would say, What if it's a boy? Jeff says it looks like Dillon has named the baby. So tentatively until I actually get to see Jeff's reaction to the name it is:
Madelynn Marjorie Ellen Byrd. Marjorie Ellen was my mom's full name.

As I have dropped my external hard drive on the ground last week I have broken the connector to the dang thing. Thankfully we took the thing apart (an IT guy at work) and found out the hard drive is in tact but we tried to solder the usb connector thing back onto the board and it wouldn't work. So now I need to buy a new external hard drive and THANKFULLY everything on my old hard drive can be transferred to the new one. Needless to say I have an order in for two. One for my daily use and one for a weekly back up. Anyone who really knows me knows that I need the back up. This being said I do not have a picture to add to this post just yet. All of those pictures are on my hard drive. I am however taking a picture tonight at 26 weeks. I'll post that later.

Dillionisms

2009-01-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas Break:
Dillon and I were talking about the baby. He says:
The baby is going to crack you open
Me: Then what?
D: Then the baby is going to come out and daddy is going to put you back together again

I'm thinking ... What am I Humpty Dumpty??

I've got more... I can't think of the other one I wanted to share and this is the reason why I have this site is to share the things that come out of the mouths of babes... I will return. :)

New Year

2009-01-04T10:19:00.003-08:00

It's a new year so I'm going to try and post at least one day a week. Wish me luck on this resolution.

Me at Week 24!!

More Often

2008-12-09T21:13:00.001-08:00

So I need to blog more often. I guess that will be my New Year's resolution. Here is a "practice" picture of Dillon and Santa. This is a Santa we ran into at Walgreens. He is the youngest Santa I think I have ever seen. "Real" Santa is this Friday!! Woohoo!!

Love.

2008-10-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Dillon is into saying I love this or I don't love that for his likes and dislikes. So today we are driving down the road and he says I love firetrucks. I love trains, cars, trucks, trailers, bridges, candy, pumpkins, and on and on and on. Eventually because we were in the car he was just saying anything we passed along the street. clouds... signs... birds... too funny!

Walking

2008-10-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

I walked into Dillon's room this evening and heard him doing a beat box of sort. Jeff does it so he was imitating Jeff. So I walked back into the living room laughing. Dillon followed me so I said:
What were you just doing?
Dillon: Walking

Cracked us up! I meant What were you doing hoping he would repeat the beat box noise. Nope! Smart kid said exactly what he was doing... walking.

Dillon knows how to spell Red!
We sing a song that goes:
R-E-D, R-E-D
That spells red
That spells red
Firetrucks and ketchup
Firetrucks and ketchup
They are red
They are red

To the tune of 'Are you sleeping'.
Now he sings it at the top of his lungs and this song is in my head constantly!! :)

The Baby!

2008-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

I found out five weeks ago that I was pregnant. The due date they gave me I would be 18 weeks right now. I had a doctor’s appointment this week and the ultrasound said that I am only 10 weeks along. 10 WEEKS! So I thought that I have been out of the testy first trimester stage and we told Cory and Dillon all about the baby. They actually both want a sister.
Dillon was laying on the couch Monday with his head in my lap and my stomach started to gurgle.
Dillon: What was that!?!
Me: The baby is talking to you!
Dillon: The baby is talking to me?
Me: What she saying?
Dillon: You hear that? The baby is talking to me!
Me: What is he saying? (I switch between he and she for some reason)
Dillon: You hear that? The baby farted!!
This kid cracks me up. Lately his favorite word is farted/fart any derivate of it.
On a side note Dillon is finally taking to potty training! The only time he has gone in his pull up is during nap time and then during bed. I put him in underwear when we got home tonight and he didn’t have any accidents. He’s in the bath now and we’ll put him in a diaper for bed but it’s a start.
Cory had a cross country meet yesterday. He came in 33rd but he had fun. He has also joined the Science club at school and next week he’ll be starting the Junior National Honor Society. He’s having fun with school!
Jeff leaves for the desert in about two weeks. Pray for a safe journey home and for him to not be to overwhelmed over there. He will still be finishing his economics class when he gets over there so he’ll be busy studying at first.

Slowly but surely....

2008-09-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

I am posting photos on http://www.photobucket.com/ my user name is SMByrd_Photo. Either put the name into the search or click here for the link. http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/hh172/smbyrd_photo/

So far I've only got the first 3 months of 2008 in there but I want to name them all. All of my homework is hendering the process! Do I do homework or mess with photos.

Dad, Rachelle, Robby, Lucas, when I get a good chunk of all of our photos scanned I'll be adding those to that site as well. I think I am just going to name everything by year. No "special event" names unless I feel like it is deemed worthy enough to stick out. :-)

So please look at the photos. Let me know what you think. Also is anyone even reading this? Don't be afraid to leave a comment or two... geeze!
I know you will comment when you are ready.

Love you all!

Quarterback Vs. Razorback

2008-09-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I were talking about Quarterbacks this morning over diaper changing.

Dillon looks at us and says, "It's not Quarterback it's Razorback".

Jeff and I look at each other like where did he learn that word? Normally when we talk football it is either NFL, Notre Dame or Arkansas... we never really say Razorbacks.

So I looked at Dillon and asked him, "Where did you hear that word from"?
He said, "Ms. Tamela", his daycare teacher. Great! They are corrupting him. :)

On another note:
Dillon is at the age where he says funny stuff so...
Cory and him were cleaning his room the other day and Dillon says to Cory...
"Let's concentrate on this area over here".

What? Wait! He said concentrate... he is learning so much!!

I got Cory's cross country running schedule last night. Expect to see some pictures of Cory running on here pretty soon.

Cory is a giant!!

2008-08-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

So Dillon and I were talking the other day about little kids. I was saying that he was becoming a big boy and needed to use the potty more. I then said you are a big boy like Cory. He said, No Mommy Cory is a giant!! The things they think of....