Love me some Army Wife Bling!

One of the great things I love about working with kids is that the hospital gives us a little more leniency on our dress code.  All nurses are to wear any combination of Royal Blue and White, but since I work in the Peds ED we are allowed to wear printed tops as long as the main colors are white or royal blue.  We also have the freedom to wear whatever closed-toe shoes we want.  Not all hospitals are this lenient, so I consider myself lucky.  Another way we can show our individuality is on our badge reels.  Many of the nurses have animals that make noise, Disney princesses and school mascots.  I desperately wanted one that said Army Wife.  While not every Army Wife wants to parade it around, I'm proud of my husband and the opportunities the Army has afforded us.

So, I started searching for the perfect badge reel, and was immediately overwhelmed by how many people make them.  I didn't seen exactly what I wanted, so I decided to contact 7 or 8 sellers and see if they could come up with something that would work.  A few responded right away, which is always appreciated, but only one really impressed me with what she had posted AND her prices.

Her prices were so great (and she doesn't overcharge on shipping) that I went ahead and ordered one for my fellow nurse AND Army wife, Lora, and an Army Mom for my mother.  Here's how it turned out:

I LOVE it and was so excited to wear it!  I've already had co-workers and patient mother's comment on it.

So check her out!!  Laura doesn't just do badge reels, and just shoot her a message if you have a special request. 

And the Mother of the Year award goes to...

Anyone but me!

That being said, I think I deserve something for maintaining my sanity after four days of driving and three days with all my family!

To be honest, I was almost dreading my family reunion. I hadn't seen some of my siblings in YEARS, and all of us (to include our families) under one roof for three days, I was preparing for the worst. I am eternally grateful that the hubby's unit gave him leave so soon after signing into this new unit, because without him there I probably would have checked myself into a psych ward after a few hours in the car with the boys. Things did go better than expected. The hubby planned the route, which hotels we stayed at, and graciously bore the task of keeping the boys happy while I drove. For several years I've been battling pretty severe back, neck and shoulder pain, so continually reaching into the back seat to pass out sippy's or crackers is something that I knew I couldn't do. The hubby did a great job and thanks to my Kick-A nanny, we had the Mini packed the day before and were able to leave on time.

We got into a great groove, stopped when we needed to, and as you can see, the boys enjoyed helping with the bags

The boys enjoyed riding on the luggage carts, and Cart-baby slept with the hubby, while Cooper slept with me.

We arrived in Dallas with enough time to visit the hubby's Grandmother, Aunt, and cousins who had never met the boys. They played at the park and we all had dinner at Braum's.

Then we finally headed to Smithville, TX were all reunited and had a great time doing pretty much nothing. The house had enough room that we weren't all tripping over each other, and a large in ground pool that was utilized abundantly by the kids. We watched Disney Jr with the little ones (there were four 2yr old little boys that were always entertaining), played Dance Central on the Kinect, beat my older brother repeatedly in Spades, had great food and even better company.

It was great to see everyone and there were a few tears as we packed up our last day. But, as most of you know, I must go out with a bang...but Carter stole my thunder!!

As we were packing up, he was running out to me and tripped in the hallway, and hit a dresser handle, giving him an INSTANT black eye. Go Big or Go Home, right!

If the black eye wasn't bad enough, Eric and I had to adapt a strategy for wrangling the boys at rest stops. They would be standing next to you one moment, then take off running. I could usually catch up in time, but sometimes I would literally have to push them over, as they are running away, as a means to stop them before they got in the road. This only happened a few times, but on the way home I got a SERIOUS stink eye from a lady when I had to do this to Cooper...which probably didn't look that great since Cart-baby already had a black eye.

What have you done to your/others kids that some people have disagreed with??