My son just walked over to me wearing The Mister’s running reflector (strip of reflective material required when running on base) and said… wait for it… “Look, I’m like Daddy. Only shorter.”

That one? He’s got jokes. LOL.

I have these… moments. Days. Periods of time varying in length when all I want is to be surrounded by all things dark.

No bubbly make-you-dance-in-your-seat music. No sunshine and puffy white clouds.

I long to be enveloped in dark textures. I listen to nothing but dark music. I read nothing but dark stories. I crave overcast skies and gloom. I even change my desktop to something darker.

I feel busted. Broken. Inside out.

And it doesn’t bother me. I embrace it. I revel in it.

Because I know, at some point, I’ll want all that light back. At some point, the darkness will feel overpowering and I’ll need a breather from it.

But, I revel in it while it’s here because I know it’s necessary for me.

I have my dark days and I need them.

the best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who’s brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree. - Anonymous

One of my biggest responsibilities as a mother is to make sure my children, especially my daughter, know their worth. I hope I do that job well.

The Mister graduated from his course/school on Thursday and is on leave for 17 days, so while I am around, I’m not. Once his leave is up, he’s off to North Carolina for more schooling, so we’re all trying to spend as much time together as we can.

Or until one of us becomes so irritated with the other that we retreat to our own corners of the apartment.

In any case, I’ll be scarce. Thankfully for y’all who do still read, that isn’t new so adjusting shouldn’t be too difficult. heh. Have a great long weekend!

Four. The number of books I just finished reading.

Four. The number of days it took me to finish reading them.

Six. The number of books I plan to read within the next week.

What’s worse is I am still adding more titles to my ever growing list of “must read”.

That tattoo I’ve mentioned? Totally fitting, right? Heh.

The Mister has Mess Night and won’t be home until late, if at all. Crockpot chili anyone? Heh.

Seriously. Seriously.

At 27 years of age, it is absolutely wrong that I am breaking out like I’m 16 all over again. I mean, come on! If I’m going to have pimples all over my forehead and chin like a teenager, shouldn’t I get my 16-year-old body back, too? At least that way, my body would distract from the breakouts, you know? Heh.

I’ve been using Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple since December, but haven’t noticed an improvement and am about to finish my last bottle, so about a week ago I picked up Neutrogena’s Fresh Foaming Cleanser, what with it being Dermatologist recommended and all. Umm… still no change.

It’s frustrating to see my face covered in blemishes when I know that I barely wear make-up as it is (no concealer, no foundation - only powder), wash my face twice daily (once during my morning shower and again before bed), drink at least 56oz of water a day, and generally get enough rest each night. Ugh.

Do you still breakout even though you’re a grown ass woman? And if so, what do you to banish the blemishes and achieve that smooth, firm appearance that came easier when we were too young to vote?

At 6:57pm this evening, The Mister called it a night since he has to be up at 3am. It was still daylight outside, people! I thought for sure I could turn in with him, but judging by the new layout here, you can see how that went. I’m one of those people who can’t sleep during the day (no naps for me, nah uh!) and I can’t sleep in once the sun is out, either, so Daylight Saving Time really sucks for me. Especially on weekends when normal people are sleeping in. Though, those normal people don’t include my children who are like roosters and are up as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon.

Good thing I’m a morning person, right?

I know I’m supposed to blog more, but what about? Do you want to hear about Miss J’s recent field trip to a local Chinese restaurant? Okay. So, the second grade is/was studying China for their Social Studies unit and to further the education, the children were brought to the local Chinese restaurant where they ate (likely Americanized) Chinese food, learned about Chinese inventions, and were taught about Chinese calligraphy. While I found the trip a little odd (a restaurant?), Miss J attended it all. on. her. own! On her own, folks. That has, like, never happened. Ever. She was totally and completely excited to go and I’m so proud of her. I mean, if you remember, she has had separation anxiety issues in the past since The Mister deployed in 2006, so this was a HUGE step for her. I think what made it even better for her was that she got to sit with her best friend, G, on the bus and during the lunch. Too cool for my little miss.

As for E… well, he is all about flash cards, dancing to the tunes on Nick Jr. dot com, dinosaurs, Ben10: Alien Force (though, I have to admit, the four of us watch it together), and Iron Man. We took the kids to see “Iron Man” on Saturday and you know that E had to bring his Iron Man action figure along — it was too cute. Someone remind me to get a photo of him carrying it, it’s like a third his size. Heh. Anyway, he was in complete awe almost the entire time we were in the theater. Every few minutes, The Mister would “psst” me so I would look at E and I’d find our little man staring wide-eyed at the screen in total superhero-worship heaven. It’s a great movie, by the way, so if you’re thinking of seeing it, just do it. Even if there are parts that are eh, it’s worth watching. So, where was I? Oh, yeah, we’re talking about E. E, my little handsome man, who right now finds his purpose in life is to a) be a superhero (he knows all the Ben10 aliens as well as villians plus all about the Marvel type superheroes) and b) annoy the ever loving daylights out of his sister. I know she can be a butt of a sister, but I’ve caught him many a time running over to her out of nowhere just to squish her or kiss her (she loathes that! heh) while she is distracted. Of course you know that when she is mean to him, she gets reprimanded and typically, we miss the annoying little deed he did to deserve her wrath, but we’re learning to just put them both in timeout because if one is getting into trouble, it’s quite likely that the other one caused it or was in on it. We like to cover our bases that way.

Speaking of us. The Mister. Oh, my Mister. He’s a doll, you know. He’ll be in classes or out in the field running exercises all day long and still come home and set aside time to spend with the kids. His school is almost over, though, and then he’ll receive 17 days of leave, so we have plans to finally explore D.C. and all that it has to offer. A little late, you say? I know, I know, but I didn’t want to take the kids without him since none of us have ever been and lately his weekends are spent writing orders with an occasional four or five hour break to eat or take us out of the house before we annoy each other more than normal.

I think that’s it, y’all. I mean, as far as what’s going on in the Sea household right now. Seriously, our lives are just so normal and mundane that even I’m not sure why I just wrote about it. We’ll just say it’s for posterity’s sake, okay? Cool. heh.

Ok, she didn’t really threaten me with bodily harm if I didn’t update, but I’m sure she thought it. Not that her pregnant self could do much… especially all the way over there in California, but she is my “public” and never let it be said that I didn’t love my public. Heh.

Really, though, our lives, my life, as of late has just been… mundane? Blissfully normal? Not entirely without stress, but nothing to complain about? Yeah, all of the above.

While The Mister has spent quite a few days/weeks in the field trying to avoid ticks and shooting off live rounds, the children and I have been attending storytime, running errands, baking brownies, and just doing the general hanging out that one does when everything else one has to do has been done.

Oh, and I’ve been working out daily (ok, at least four days a week) and working on my photo processing skills and style. And reading. There has been a lot of reading done. A lot. And I know I’ve said it before, but my heart aches at the thought of devouring every title my local library has to offer (that interests me), so to help allay that fear, E and I located the base library so I now have two libraries to borrow from. Which, of course, you know I love.

And when I’m not being Mom (does that ever happen? No, I think not.) or reading, I’m on here chatting with my “public” about reading and being Mom.

Hmm… maybe if I spent less time chatting with Lin and more time blogging about the stuff I chat about with her I’d have more blog material to blog about. See what you did, Lin? YOU are the reason I don’t blog anymore. heh.

But you know I luff ya!

Because I’m around, but have nothing to say.