My husband, the super hero...ammended

CW3 Gary Griesmyer

W01 Gary Griesmyer in Flight school

Gary Griesmyer, UGA police officer

Disclaimer: I hate blogger: it won't let you load your pics in the order you want them. UGH!!!

My husband has a very demanding job. I'm sure many people's husbands do but this is my blog so I'm gonna whine if I want to. Unfortunately, he never gets a sense of accomplishment. For those who do not know, Gary is the Special Agent in charge at the Fort Myer, VA CID office. That's Criminal investigation folks. Think CSI. OK, now that that's covered I'll back up. When Gary and I got married he was a police officer at UGA. Pretty cool gig but he had to put in a lot of overtimes (without pay!) and be at the beckon call of the unit. Then he/we decide to go fly helicopters for the Army-which led us to CID. It's a loooong story that I may blog about later but who really cares but me and him anyways? :) After CID school, we got stationed in Fort Hood, TX and were able to stay there 4 years. Gary was a case agent with over 25 cases on his desk at one time, got deployed to Iraq where he was lead investigator on one of the most HEINOUS crimes that were committed over there by one of our sworn, came back and went into EC-economic crimes, then CCC-computer crimes where he was able to get TONS of awesome training! He climbed quickly up the "ranks" in the 7 years that we've been in the Army. But with added rank comes added responsibility.

A year ago at this time, I was in my bishop's office crying my eyes out b/c I felt like Gary could not handle the stress of work, school, family, church, scouts, etc, etc. And honestly, I couldn't handle Gary not being able to cope and deal. I can handle all my stuff most of the time but when his stress starts creeping upon me---forget it!
I SWORE to Gary I would not have anymore children b/c he never helps and I end up empty. It's not because I felt overwhelmed as a mom, the kids were fine! Great! I felt that by the time I gave to everyone else, I was empty and needed a bit of refill myself and was looking to him to give that to me. He was empty too! So now what?!? Gary never makes it home for dinner. He barely makes it home in time to kiss the children before they have to go to bed. He wants to be home. He is a home body. If I gave him the choice of spending a week on the beach or at home, he'd pick home! (Ummm, not me!) Anyways, my bishop then gave me a book to read, one for Gary to read, gave me some nice advice and sent me on my way. The books helped us both and we were doing pretty good. Gary was managing his stress.

Here we are one year later. Guess what? I'm pregnant. It's already hard for me to carry my 20 month old in and out of stores as well as my ittybitty 14 week belly. (Can you imagine when I am 38 weeks?!) I'm not as young as I used to be. My house is not as clean, I am not as Wonderwomany-I know that's not a word but my friends will totally get what I'm saying. I'm starting to feel the emptiness again and the need for him to fill it. Do you think he has anything left when he gets home from a long day of meetings at the Pentagon, meetings with the US Attorney, meeting with people from all these stupid boards he has to sit in on and listen to cases about husbands and wives who smack each other around and lie and cheat and steal. Does he have anything left after comforting the mother of a young man who hung himself in his barracks room, or after gettting a confession from a P.O.S. that sexually assaulted his 14 yr old cousin?

It's a vicious cycle. Satan knows us every bit as well as Jesus does. He spent countless eternities with us too. He is real. He knows how to get us with guilt or pity-parties or the "I needs" or whatever the case may be. So, I guess I can handle carrying around my pregnant self and my 20 month old. I guess I can handle the enormous mess my 3 year ALWAYS seems to make everywhere he goes. I guess I can handle homework and piano practice and chores and teaching and training my children in the gospel. I guess I can cook a decent meal for us every now and then (I mean, let's not go crazy!) I guess I can handle my job as a Premier Designs Jewelry Lady, the finances, and anything else that may come up. My husband protects me, my children, and all of you from the nasty in the world. Well, he's trying-he's fighting the good fight. He puts the bad guys away. But his job never ends, he rarely gets to see the verdict come in, before he gets one out, 5 more cases come in.

He is the love of my life and my super hero.

What do I need to learn? The thing I have blogged about for about 3 years now and still don't seem to get it. Trust in the Lord. He will bring me strength. He is the only one who can fill my cup. He's waiting for me. He wants to help me. So why do I not run to Him? Because for some reason I think I am WonderWoman and can conquer the world-so not true. So my one and only goal this year: Trust in the Lord more fully. Come to Him. Reach out to Him.

I bet my life will be easier. What do you think?

I should...

Blog.

The house is quiet, the snow is falling, and I am bored. I should blog. Unfortunately, I have nothing to say. :(

Zechariah's baptism

Zechariah was baptized on Sunday after Christmas Day, December 26th, 2010 by his Daddy, Gary Griesmyer

Our beautiful family on this very special day!

Can you see the tears in my eyes? He's my baby! I was SO pleased and choked up that I couldn't even smile right!

We had a lot of family and friends there to support him on this big decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His program was beautiful. His uncle Ken Griesmyer played the piano. Nanner Griesmyer gave the opening prayer. Grandma Hardin (Johnson) conducted the music, Uncle Scott Johnson gave a talk on baptism. His cousin Hannah Griesmyer and I sang a duet, "A Child's Prayer", his 2 grandfathers were the witnesses as he was baptized by his dad, his uncle Will Griesmyer gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and his PaPaw Johnson gave the closing prayer. All the present family members who carried the priesthood plus our bishop, Farrel Martin, stood in the circle to confirm him a member of the church. The spirit was so strong. The outpouring of love from our friends and family members was amazing to behold. The shear volume of our family there on both sides and their participation in the baptismal program was truly a blessing. I was amazed and overwhelmed by the power that our 2 families possessed. We are a united force! We are one in purpose, goals, dreams, aspirations. We were there to help bring another soul unto Christ and into His kingdom. Isn't that amazing? I was in awe the whole time. I felt the love of Christ, of family, of friends, and of community stronger that day than I have in a very long time. I am so happy for my little man. I know this may sound funny and you may not believe it but he is different. He is calmer. He is more patient. He is more responsible. (I'll blog more about that later)

The Holy Ghost is real. Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer.

Merry Christmas

I will post more soon but let me just say:
God is good.
Families are Forever.
Faith is real and can bring immense strength.
Angels are everywhere.
And Life is Good!


Merry Christmas!


My eldest is being baptized today. :)
My heart is so full!

Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts

• I have had a great time getting ready for Christmas and doing all my shopping, until I ran out of money. CRAP!
• I'm going to have 29 people in and through my house b/w Christmas Eve and Zech's baptism on Sunday. That's alot of people. Do I have enough food? Do I have enough room/ Do I have enough energy? graciousness? patience? (insert prayer here)
• I have contacted all 29 of these people with plans for the weekend which included food assignments, room assignments, festivities and their times. Do you think they have contacted me to let me know Yay or Nay? Thank you Cortnie Johnson for being the ONLY one!!! Ever. To be on top of your game!
• I love Corntie JOhnson. She is OCD like me :) Thank goodness she decided to give Scott a 20th chance (it was about that many right?)
• My house is not ready to house these people yet. It usually is by now. But I have been cleaning my SIL's house, helping watch her kids, working my job, keeping up with my laundry and house and kids, taking meals to people, decorating, entertaining, etc, etc.
• I am in the ugly stage of pregnancy. You know the is-that-a-FLUB-hanging-over-her-pants- or-is-she-preggo? stage. UGH! I am now wearing my "fat" pants. The ones I wear after I have the baby. My belly isn't nice and round yet but I am too big to fit into my nice size 2's I just babrely bought since I was so dang tiny. (Sigh)
• I hate the Wii. Seriously, I HATE the Wii!!! "Why Rebekah? Why do you hate the Wii?" Because even as I type, the darling children are downstairs playing it. After hours of begging to play it on this snow day (the rule is Friday night and Sat only) and having their mean mom say no, I finally broke down and said OK. Now? They are yelling at each other. It never fails. It doesn't matter what game it is. Zech and Gabe yell, Audrey and William whine. I don't know which is worse. Of course the whining gets more on my nerves b/c I'm not used to it and the shear high pitchness of whining drives me insane!!! But no, yelling and whining are both equally as bad. Now I get to be the bad guy and turn it off due to their behavior. See why I hate it now? There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. There might even be a Wii controller thrown by my dear eldest son who has a terrible difficulty controlling his temper. In the which, I will get to ground him from the Wii for the whole weekend which will bring more weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. If it were up to me, I'd throw it in the trash!
• There are about a million other things rolling through my head. The most important of them though is the fact that my dear sweet husband is at work puking his guts out. He can't get home and due to the snow and road conditions, I can't go get him. I have to go figure out what to do. Until I decide to blog again....

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Lists

Christmas wish lists, in no particular order because I suck at blogging. :)

1) I do not think the Griesmyer boys will ever be done with Star Wars. This is all Ammon can talk about. Here in lies the problem: what new Star Wars items do I and you get the little guy? We can always use new lightsabers (they get used out very fast with all the intense lightsaber duels we have here) Ammon LOVES Galactic Hero Star Wars figurines but they are hard to find. PaPaw sent Ammie a $20 gift card for his birthday and guess what he picked out? a $7 Star Wars Lego shirt. That's all. Well, at least we know Ammon is not greedy and that he is happy with very little. I do so love that little man!

2)
There is a reason why this is a pic of Lego Land. Are you kidding me? A trip to Lego Land would be the ultimate to my crew but I think they will be happy with just new Lego packs.
Here are what's hot right now:
Hero Factory (guys and vehicles)
Castles and Knights
Atlantis
Power Miners (the new Lava Fort)
Technics
Since Zech is almost 8, I will be putting him in a Lego Robotics club. He will need a Lego Mindstorm for this. They are very expensive. I will need some help (hint, hint)

3)
My baby boy, Elijah loves balls. I do not think you understand, he LOVES balls!!! I bought him this super cute Lighting McQueen ball pit for his 1st birthday and it was popped within 2 days by a little person living with us. I want a ball pit that is NOT inflatable so it will not pop! I bought this awesome tent thing one year at a yard sale way back when I lived in Fort Rucker, AL. We used the heck out of that thing. I finally had to trash it before we moved from TX b/c it had so many tears in it. It is a great toy for all ages!

4)

Gabriel wants one of these. Well each of the boys would be happy as clams to get one of their one. Gabriel also wants Bakugan and Bey Blades. Gabriel likes to play. He does not fixate on any one thing but he tends to like trends. I personally do not get any of these things or their attraction but he is my little angel and whatever makes him happy, I am ok with.

I was about to finish the post but I forgot about me! I want Want, WANT:

size 6 Dansko brown clogs

size 6 Dansko black clogs

It's cold here and I don't have any close toed shoes without heels that don't kill my back.

Gary wants a vacation. He needs a vacation. We were supposed to go on a cruise for our 10 yr anniversary back in April but he was in GA for training. Money and shear work load has prevented me from being able to book anything for us to escape. I hope to send us at least for an overnight excursion for his birthday on Jan 1st. But if you want to buy him something you could get him some LDS CDs to listen to to and from work (he has a long commute) We love book on tape and CD's. It helps put him in a relaxed mood which is very helpful after a very stressful day.

That's about all. I love you all!

Cripple

Last Wednesday morning started like any other morning. Ammon came into my room around 6am because he needed to potty. After he did his business, he climbed into bed with me for about 15 mins of snuggles, then asked if he could go downstairs. I got up and went downstairs to feed him. Gabriel was the next one awake. Zechariah finally woke up around 7:00am. Elijah was still asleep. I got cereal out for everyone, said prayer with them, then went upstairs to take a shower. I took special time picking out my outfit that day. I felt good, I wanted to look cute. I had found out that a week before that I was pregnant and knew my skinny days were drawing to a swift close. So in honor of skinnyness, I picked out a pair of jeggings (yes, I have those-one pair!) I had found them on clearance at NY&Co while shopping with my SIL, Kimmy. They were brown and felt GREAT on me! I slid on my brown cowboy boots over them, put on a cute top, and completed the outfit with my Premier jewelry. I was hot! And ready to get the boys dressed and out the door for school. I heard Eli in his room. Finally! He was awake! I went to his room, scooped him up in my arms, gave him hugs and kisses, and started down the stairs. Then it happened....

The front on my boot slipped, my heel caught on the edge of the stair, I went down on my knees, and started falling down my stairs. There was nothing I could do. So many thoughts and solutions went through my head but the only one that prevailed was, "No! No! NO! NOT ELI!!!"
I held him to my chest and tried to throw my body back as I was falling so that I wouldn't roll head over on top of him and crush him. When I got the the end of the stairs, Zechariah came tearing around the corner. "Mom, MOM! Are you ok?" The only thing that I wanted was to check if Elijah was ok. He was screaming and I couldn't tell if he was hurt, there was just one problem: I didn't have the strength to get him and look him over.

"Go get Aunt Sarah", I said. Zech was gone in a flash. Sarah and Zech came back and I told her I'd fallen down the stairs with Eli, I couldn't move yet, and to please check him out. She felt his head, look him over, then turned her attention to me. She asked Zech to get the phone and dialed 911. I totally did not think it was bad enough to call an ambulance. I kept telling her No! I don't need an ambulance. Just call Gary. I figured he could take me to the Dr. if I needed to go. Sometime during all this I tried to move and grabbed my right knee because it was hurting worse than the rest of me. My hand came away covered in blood. I was shocked! I had no idea I was bleeding. Zech and Sarah took off my stupid boots (which are now in the trash) and helped me peel off my jeggings so that we could see the source of the blood. YIKES! There was a nasty tear on my knee that was gaping open and just plain gross. Sarah went upstairs and brought me down some different pants to wear that were going to be easier getting on and off. The paramedics showed up and strapped me and Eli to those awful back board things and took us to the hospital. Eli was madder than a hornet at being strapped down. Gary had made it home by then and was trying to comfort him. Gabriel is Elijah's buddy and protector and kept bringing him balls to play with and trying to sing and talk to him to calm him down. Finally we were ready to be carried to the ambulance and taken to the hospital. Once there, they checked out Eli who was discharged immediately. I mean, the kid was laughing and playing and trying to run around! Aunt Nancy had shown up to check on me and took Eli home. I then spent the day getting X-Rays, an ultrasound, 4 stitches in my knee, a immobilizing brace, and crutches.
Every day gets a little better. I can bend my knee a little now and put weight on it.

There are blessings in all things too:
. 1)This was the day before Veterans Day so Gary had a 4 day weekend where he could take care of me and the boys. I do not know what I would have done without him.
2)The ultrasound found a hemoraging cysts that I didn't know I had and will have to keep an eye on.
3)The 4 day weekend plus me being laid up provided a good opportunity for Gary to work on his school work and get one class finished (almost).
4) Not being able to do for myself gives others an opportunity to help. I am fiercely independent and try not to ask for help but have had to many times over the last week.
5) I am learning patience. I HATE to be slowed down, at the mercy of others or my own bodies inabilities.

In conclusion, I am a cripple and it is inconvenient and frustrating. But I am learning to chill out and take it easy and this is probably exactly what I needed. ~Plus my husband has been amazing! He has doted and cared for me in a way that he never has before. Not even when I've had my babies! But I am not a sickly, needed person and he has never had to or I have never let him. What does that say about me? What does that say about our men? They need to be needed. So I will take off my Wonderwoman cape for now, hang it up in the closet, and rely upon my big hunk of a man to care for me and love me. After all, I do not want to do this alone.