Chance makes our parents, but choice makes our friends

I called my dad the other day and asked him when he was going to come down because his honey do list was getting long. So the following Friday I had a conversation with my dad that went something like this

Me:Hey daddy what are you doing?

Dad: Just at work. I tried to talk your mom into coming down this weekend but she said no.

m:what? she did. Why didn't she want to come?

D:I don't know why don't you call her and ask.

Then I called my mom and the conversation went something like this:

Me: Dad said that he tried to talk you into coming down this weekend and you said no.

Mom: ahhh he said that we should and I said are you sure you want to? and then he said we better not.

Me: That figures.

To which I hung up her and called my dad

M: Dad mom just said that you were the one that didn't want to come.

D: I guess I did say that.

All of this happened while I was on my way to my Physical Therapy appointment (p.s. the last one I have graduated from PT. I am almost 100%. The Physical Therapist also confirmed what I knew all along. I don't have great balance even with 2 good legs) While I was in my PT I missed my dad's phone call so I called him back.

D:Hey are you busy this weekend

m: Not anything that I can't cancel

D: Okay we will be leaving here in about an hour.

Sure enough by 11:30 they were on their way to spend the weekend with us. It was a great way to get my mind off of things (my anniversary). My dad also spent many hours under my smelly kitchen sink and fixed a really bad leak that I had under there. So he checked off one thing on my honey do list for him. Tyler also helped him with the plumbing. It only took us 3 trips to the plumbing store here in town and a trip to Home Depot in Boise. But mission accomplished.

My mom hung out with the kids and she let Ella dress her up in her headband. Isn't my mom so lucky to be able to wear such a fashionable head band. Luckily she didn't have to go out in it. We also went to Donnie Mac's trailer park Cuisine. It was fun.

Knowing you will be with me in all my tomorrows, makes my today so wonderful.

Nate and I celebrate 13 wonderful years being together. I can't say that we didn't have tough time's but all of the tough times have made us stronger and happier. My love for you extends across oceans and land to be with you every night. I wish we could be together to celebrate our anniversary. I remember on the day that we were married the nervousness that I felt that was accompanied by my great joy to be married to such a great man. Three years later we were able to get sealed together in the Mesa, Arizona Temple for time and eternity. I am happily married to a man who is a hard worker, a loving father, and most importantly I know that I can tell my kids to "Follow their father" Because I know that he respects and holds the priesthood and with Our Heavenly Father's help he won't steer them wrong.

My heart aches for you every night but I know that you are doing the right thing by protecting our country. Be strong and know that you are loved. Babe, here's to eternity together.My wonderful husband got me this cute necklace. It has the degrees and minutes of the location that he is at. I now have him with me at all times.

It says N 35 degrees 30 '0" E 44 degrees 24'0" KOTX. With this necklace came a link to put my story on a google map so that everyone who bought a necklace to see everyone Else's story. Here is the link I had fun reading what other people wrote.

This is what I wrote:

My husband, Nate is deployed to Iraq for the next 6 months. He is going to miss many holidays and birthdays. He is also going to miss our thirteenth anniversary. He got me a necklace with the minutes and degrees on and now I have a little token of where he is and his love for his kids and me. I am so proud of my husband for defending his family and his country. I love you babe. You are my life. Jessica

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Today is my amazing husbands birthday. I am super bummed that I won't be spending the day with him. I love you Nate and miss you so much!

A week in the life of.... me oh and the kids

This has been such a great week. First I started it off with dinner at the Sayer's house. And I think she made the best pasta ever. Yummy. Nichole Spencer's husband planned a date night for her and I. We went to eat at GoodWood and then went to see "When in Rome." Hilarious might I add. Then I got to go to Anna's house and hang out. We set up the rock band and rocked out until the wee hours of the morning (okay it was until 9 p.m. and sometimes that feels like the wee hours of the morning). Unfortunately my great week was cute short because Ella got sick and still is BTW. With any luck she will start to feel better soon.Ella wanted to take pictures while we were at Anna's house and this is what I found on the camera after I trusted her with it. Such a funny little girl.Rockin out at the Rupp'sGirls night with Nikki DThe big girls had festival this weekend. I was supposed to go with them but with Ella being sick I wasn't able to go. I had the girls take pictures and video. Natalie got her picture done but Nichole only took video and it was too long to post on here.When I went to pick up Nichole Natalie played dress up Ella. Love it!And this little sweetheart of mine spent over 6 hours leaning over the table putting this puzzle together. I was so impressed with his patience and will power. I always give up on puzzles. He also made my bed and left me the most adorable little note on it. He is such a sweet boy.

Haunted house

My friend Beth is restoring the bottom level of a old hotel in town so that she can move her bookstore into it. The story goes that someone was murdered in here and maybe that is the ghost that haunts it. It also has a ghost up in the tower of the building that is not a good ghost and one named Arthur that likes to be said Hello to when you go inside. Beth gave me the grand tour of the place at 9:30 at night and it is super creepy. But it's not so bad during the day. I also drug all of my kids over so that I could help Beth with some of the remodeling. We were only there until 11 at night. We were exhausted. There was so much dust that got in our hair that Beth was able to make her hair stand on end without any hair products in it. It is a really cool building with some really neat original woodwork and stuff all around.

The kids had a blast running around the place while Beth, Nicole, and I did some work around the bottom level. We even put some of them to work. Not breaking too many child labor laws.

The Al Udeid Hotel

Above are the rows of bunk beds in each tent. They hold 50 people. Below is me standing outside of my tent. I was staying there for about 4 days.

Yuck Snow

As winter always goes just when you think it is over there is another snow storm. We got about 2 inches yesterday. The kids wanted nothing to do with it when they got home from school which is odd because normally they love playing in the snow. I did take some cute pictures of Ella though. She wanted to be able to send them to her daddy!

Last week with day before he leaves.

We had a great time with Nate before he left for Iraq. The Monday before was President's Day so Nate and the kids had the day off. We decided that we would have as much family time as we could and do an activity that everyone wanted to do. We first headed to Boise to get Nate some computer stuff. Then we went out to eat lunch. When we got back from Lunch we went over to the church and played basketball and a friendly game of horse (which Ella and I won might I add). After that the kids and Nate played Cat and Mouse, and Line tag. When we got home we played Pictureka and had a fun family night.

On Tuesday school resumed as usual for the kids and Nate and I ran even more errands. On Wednesday we let the kids stay home from school so that they could spend their last day with daddy. We went to the bank and started a savings account for each of the kids and then we picked up some lunch and watched movies together. Then we played a rowdy game of Old Maid. We had so much fun with Nate before he left.And as Tradition goes we took a picture of Nate with each one of the kids. I will get those developed and the kids will have a picture with Daddy to have in their rooms. Thursday morning we all got up at 4 am so that we could spend as much time with Daddy before he left. We cried and hugged and begged him not to go but he had to. We watched as he drove away at 4:45 and the kids and I promised that we would keep ourselves busy while Daddy's gone. We love him and miss him so much already. I must add that Skype has made things easier and we are able to see and talk to Nate almost everyday. I love you babe and can't wait for you to be back home with us again.