Get in my Garden

Carmen a few months back was trying to wrestle with Cy and Dad. She kept yelling "get in my garden" I did not know what she was talking about. Toby and Cy went back at it that I heard what she meant. When they were setting up Toby was telling him to get in his guard. She thought he was saying for him to get in his garden. How funny would that be if that is what it really was! ha ha

Trip to Japan-part one

I guess I need to get down in writing our adventure to even getting over to Japan, because it was (like anything the Tennysons do)crazy!

Friday August 31st we stayed at Fort Bliss Inn and hoped we had everything in order to head out of the country.

I ran around to see old friends that I didn't want to miss saying good-bye to (Annette you were not home) and repacked everything after doing my last load of laundry. I was so nervous.. we had no sponsor. I had met a lady that new one of the people from my moms ward and hoped that I could count on her.. but honestly I had no idea.


While sitting in the hotel, I looked at our itinerary one more time and found out that instead of having an hour and a half layover in tokyo, we had to take an hour bus ride to a different airport in a different part of tokyo...uh oh!

I had packed all our bags and had packed a couple hard cases to take some cooking supplies with me. I thought it would save us some money if I took my skillet and some cooking utinsels and things so we didn't have to go out every meal.

All in all, we were alloted 12 bags and 6 carry-ons. We maxed that out and then had two car seats that went as well. Can you imagine?
Let us recap- 4 kids, 2 adults, 12 bags, 6 carry-on bags! Who are you kidding, we were not going to be moving fast on transfers. Good thing I had hurcules with me!

So, side funny story, after I tell you all the luggage we had. You should now think it is funny that when we got to the hotel we found out that the elevator was out for a week! Just so happens it was the week the Tennyson's are there.. so our room was on the second floor. I can laugh now because I am so used to things like this happening to us.


We get up first thing in the morning to have breakfast and be at the airport by 8. We just ate at the continental breakfast and then got the shuttle to take Toby, Cy, Court and all our luggage over to the airport. She came back and got the little girls and I, and we said good-bye to Fort Bliss! Toby hated Fort Bliss, but I found some great friends there and enjoyed it.
" />


Once we get to the airport everything is as normal as if you were to travel with everyone to another country. Pretty uneventful. We were leaving in the morning on Aug. 1st and would get to Tokyo and on to Okinawa the night of Aug. 2nd. The only child I was worried about was Cera Jane and just cause I didn't know if the dvd players were going to last for very long.

We made it out of El Paso and headed to Salt Lake. The plan was to get off there and eat at this great sandwich place in the Salt Lake airport. When we got to Salt Lake we headed over to see that our plane was being boarded. UHHHH we were not going to have time to eat lunch. Bummer.. Good thing I packed everyone their own seperate food baggies in their carry-ons.

This ended up being the most frustrating part of the trip when the plane was delayed an hour. The reason being the plane would not take on gas! So I guess I would rather them figure out before hand. This was just frustating for Cera to sit for that long. I for sure didn't want to pull the DVD players out yet.

I made a phone call to my Dad and Mom and told them how much I loved them. My Dad was super sweet and remembered to tell me Happy Anniversary for Toby and I. I was of course crying. It hit me, that I didn't know when I would see them again.

The plane is going to take off and I am thinking alot of things about my great Country and not knowing what kind of life I was about to start to live.

Come to find out that each seat had its own control to the movies they offered, which made it awesome for Cera to watch different stuff and not run out the batteries on anything.

Some of my first happened on that plane. 1st- I had never taken a plane ride long enough that it necessitated me using the bathroom. Usually I could just wait a couple hours, but I found I had to be ok to go and I also had to take Cera to change her diaper. I am more of a person, not scared to fly but one that would rather be seat belted in.

Our plane ride from Salt Lake to Tokyo was 13 hours. It was light the whole time. My watch said midnight but it was afternoon where we were flying. Thankfully.. Cera took a couple naps!

During the flight.. Toby said "Happy Anniversary.. for your gift you get to go to Japan!" He is so thoughtful.

To be continued.........

Waiting for Orders to Japan

I was going to name this post Waiting for Orders but we have and will in the future wait for orders to move so I wanted to be specific. We had quite a fiasco surrounding the orders and timeline for Japan. In April, I did the kids and my paperwork to get us on Toby's orders. In May, Japan still thought we were coming in November so was not in a big hurry. Well, everyone was gone on vacation for that month. In June Toby goes back to work and there is no-one that really cares if we go to Japan or not. Call after call I try to track things down. It takes until July until we start freaking out that we are supposed to move in 3 weeks overseas. I get on the phone and start calling.. I would not suggest this to all wives, but for us his chain of command could have cared less so I did the footwork.

I found the guy to talk to and he said to call him back in a couple days. When I called him back he said that he had just cut our orders for Japan and all of us were on there. We were so excited it was really going to happen. However, that was July 7th.. we were to leave in 3 weeks, and had alot to do.

We were on vacation at my moms when the orders came in, and decided to leave the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and get things done in El Paso.. ( thanks for keeping the kids for us.)

Why was it so hard to get orders you may be thinking? Well honestly it was all because of a couple people who did not care enough to do their jobs and they finally came in because of one guy who was very efficient at his. Thanks to Mr. Oneil at Fort Bliss for helping us out and doing his job..

SGT Board

So Toby went back to work and was pretty much forced to go to the Sgt testing boards. He didn't feel like he was ready but it was a good time for them to send him so he studied and studied. He knew most of the stuff, but there was not really anyone around to mentor him and let him know what it would be like. You are supposed to know a ton of stuff about the Army and your Unit and the Creed and things. He went to the pre-board and they pretty much told him he sucked and would not get promoted because he was such an idiot..( and no I am not exaggerating)

He was really upset and after 2 years in this stupid Unit I could almost see what Anger physically looked like. We thought once again they had set him up to fail.

He left and I kissed him good-bye. I went to help a friend that day and literally was so stressed out wondering if he would make it. He wanted this sooo bad and really it meant he was being recognized as being a really good soldier. He had only been in the Army 2 years and was going to the Sgt boards!

He calls and says he did it! I was so excited. So he earned promotable status and was waiting to see what points he earned at the boards. Not only did he pass, but he was the only one to get a perfect score that day!!!!!!!!!! So in your face all yous stupid idiots that are jealous of him because you have been in 10 years and are going nowhere. He is awesome and will be your Commander someday.

I am so proud of you Toby and just know that points will come out soon to push you up to the SGT status. You are the best babe!
(side note: after you get your points added at the boards you have to wait for a list to come out from the Army when they have openings for that position and then it will be automatic at that time. )

Redeployment is what they call it

So when the soldiers come home they call it redeployment. Who knows why, but who cares. So after Toby got home they got a day or so off and started back to work, working half days. It was nice, but we were just getting used to each other again and for my schedule it was definitley different. I added one extra person to the mix to give my time too, and I love him so much I just want to spend all my time with him. After a couple weeks of that Toby got the month of May off. We decided to just stay in El Paso and hang out becuase the kids were still in school and he was having a hard time adjusting back to the "real world" again.

We went on some dates together which were a blast and tried to spend some of the time to exercise, but mostly just hanging out together. When Toby got home they told him he was going to the testing board to be promoted to SGT so we spent a good amount of leave studying for that stressful test. We got some of our paperwork and things in order to be able to move to Japan. The kids finished school and the summer began.

Redeployment was pretty easy for me in some ways for him to be back home but it was a struggle for him.. He lived without kids around for almost 2 years, but did amazingly well for the circumstances. He is an awesome Dad and loves to be with the kids so that helped. The noises I could tell bothered him and actually still do, but we are working on it. Now that he has almost been home 6 months we are looking forward to making a normal life and really loving to be together as a family. How the time flies.

Welcome Home Dad

Getting ready for Toby's return is one of the funnest but slowest processes in this deployment. I had to keep my excitement under wraps or on a lower key that is. I had to wait until the sunday before to hang the sign and start getting the house clean. Toby wouldn't have cared either way but I turn into a freak about everything being perfect. The kids were definitly annoyed with me getting the outfits ironed and ready and the house staying clean. I made pulled pork in the crock pot to be ready when we brought him home. Toby knew he just wanted to come home whatever time he got in, so I didn't want to have to fuss over food.

I got the kids ready to go and house was clean when we found out that he might be coming early? Yikes.. get me ready and pack the bag to keep kids busy. Bag: my heels, to put on before we saw him.. wore my flip flops there.. (if you know anything about the military, you know you wait for everything, so wearing heels for hours on end was not a good idea, and chasing kids for those hours was not practical.) I got us all ready and looking AWESOME and wanted everything to be so perfect for his return that I had the kids stand outside and I vacuumed behind us so the house was clean as ever for his first steps in.


Drive up the the place we pick him up and take the kids in... find out it will be a least an hour later.. no problem becuase I have old friends I want to catch up with before they come in and I don't see anyone anyway. The girls started getting bored so I went outside with them and we ran races against each other for about 20 minutes to keep them busy. They love running races, and just go back and forth. They had things set up for the kids and I get the jumpy things, but I had my girls in dresses and hair cute so then I get to fight the kids to not do anything fun. There was this Major there that (migrated) if that is the best word towards me. He just kept saying what a great wife and mother I was and asking about Toby. So then someone gives the call to go ouside and see them come in.. I put on my heels and got a wave of emotion! It had been 7 months since we had hugged and I definitly longed for him to hold my hand. Again, we waited outside for about 15 minutes to see the plane. It was AMAZING.. I remember just seeing this plane and knowing that he was HOME>>>

I was bawling my eyes out and then all the wives started and then we couldn't stop laughing at ourselves and hugging each other for making it to this point. The night started to drop and the plane comes taxiing its way I think as slow as it possibly could. They walk the flag out and open the plane and guys start coming out..


I could almost not contain myself and the news was there and getting us all on film screamin.. The guys start walking our way and they have their weapons, this is when we find out he can only wave at us until he has turned his weapon in. So there he walked we just screamed "Daddy" and I could tell he was so tired.

We get herded back inside to wait again for about 30 minutes. That same Major came and talked to me and told me he had gone and met Toby and just knew we were called to be in the military life and said that he felt like we both had a huge example to set other families. I told him about my book and he told me that he wished his wife could have been there to meet me and if I even need anything or Toby to come to his office and see him.. it was so random, but he said he felt drawn to me. I have that thing about me (just wish I knew what to do with it).. sorry that is a different post all together.

Here it comes.. the door opens, the smoke machine is on and they are formed up to make their arrival. Someone says something that I am sure was not very important and releases them to their families. (Toby and I had decided that I would stay put and he would find us instead of me pulling the kids everywhere in the craziness.... I couldn't WAIT...I left the kids in their spot and jumped on him.. gave him a huge hug and honestly.. it felt after two seconds like he had never left.


God has made our brains like that I think. I remember every kid thinking I would not go through that again and then I did anyway. From that point on it was all business.. making sure the kids got to be a part of all the excitement. Getting his bags and meeting a couple friends he had made. Going out to the car to go home. I could have just sat there in awe all night. We made it home and ate a bit of food and then he got to put the kids to bed. He loved that. Cera was not wanting a part of it, but we knew that would happen. Carmen was scared he would have to go back the next day and be gone. What an amazing experience. I definetly believe we both grew and got what we put into the deployment and am thankful for all the things I learned and mostly that Toby is home safe with me!!! I love you honey

No Promises

I am back but no promises on how much I will actually get blogged these next couple days. I have a list and notes for all my posts which include like 30 so there is alot to update. Toby went back to work full days today so now I have more time to use the computer. It has been like we were on vacation for about 6 weeks but actually were home. Kindof hard to adjust and time manage. I just wanted to hang out with him and the kids so the computer hardly got used in the last month. But, saying that, I have a ton of pictures and memories I want to get down before they are forgotten. Another note: I have different emotions on days and some of my posts may be a little eratic (sp?) but that may not be different from before so you may not notice a difference. I am doing good as well as Toby and the kids and we are loving being together as a family.

I did gain about 15 pounds since he came home but chalk that up to being in vacation mode. I did exercise about 4 times a week to maintain at that level, but we ate some good food and too much for that matter. We are gearing up to start training for our first 10k together in July and are excited about that. Since I am still at a 5k fitness level it is a push for me, but Toby has done a marathon in boots and carrying a pack so he is way ahead but willing to take me on as a fun adventure. I am bound and determined to run the Mountain by our house. It is a 5 mile round trip but straight up and straight down so I have a bit more to go. I made it up about a mile before I had to walk with the stroller and can run down it but the endurance is what I am trying to build up.

Last note before I start on my other posts: It is 95 degrees here and I LOVE IT! Toby hates el paso, but I love the weather and where we live it is quiet and we have a pool so it fits me perfectly. I could probably live in an apartment the rest of my life and be completly safisfies..maybe we will live in New York or something someday? (ok or not, I hate the cold.).. but my tan is awesome!! YAY for sun!

Thank you all for being patient in waiting for me to update..I have been busy having FUN!