Happy Hallowiener!!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday!! As I said before, Halloween is my all time FAVORITE holiday.
Halloween was always a big deal in my family growing up; and my daughter is already shaping up to be quite the little spooktacular lover!
The little goblin's birthday is October 20th. We were very happy to have a Halloween baby. Her first costume was a tootsie roll when she was 10 days old; and her first bday party was Halloween themed.
She loves everything about this ghoulish holiday! She's fearless and totally gets into it with me which is awesome!  When we went trick or treating; there was a house that had their garage door opened with strobe lights, a fog machine, creepy decorations and the works! A lot of kids were a bit taken a back; not mine!! She ran right up there; no fear, yelling TRICK OR TREAT the entire way up the driveway. Scary costumes, talking decorations....she laughs! "Mommy look he's cool".....god my kid is awesome hahaha.

This year the little one was Dorothy, and I was a fat cat :0). Her first choice was Jesse from Toy Story; but let me tell you, i searched two STATES of stores and every online site...there was not ONE child's Jesse costume ANYWHERE...and I started looking the first week of October!! I found the toddler size but that was it. I even checked Ebay....people were hocking this costume for over $100!!!....So after two days of harassing my sister (who is the manager at Spirit Costume Store) and trying on roughly 20 costumes...we settled on Dorothy...complete with faux basket trick or treat bag with Toto; and sparkly black slippers, (yes black not red....hey, Dorothy only wore the red shoes half the movie and these shoes can double as her x-mas shoes!! I'm frugal :0) )) I even did her makeup! Rosy rosy cheeks, blue eyeshadow and a touch of red lipstick! And of course; pig tail braids in her hair with blue ribbon bows at the end.

Now normally I go more all out on my own costume but being 7 months pregnant and a bit strapped for cash, i improvised! I wore black leggings and black and grey rollover boots with fuzzy tops that I already had. I got a long sleeve black shirt for $7 at Walmart (seriously....i somehow did not own a solid black shirt lol). I got a cat tail for $4 at a costume store. I pulled the top of my hair into little buns as "ears". And I drew a black nose and whiskers with eyeliner (don't try this at home...spring for the face paint!! lmao it was a BITCH to wash off) I did drastic "cat like" eyes with heavy makeup, and red lipstick just in the center of my lips to look like a small cat mouth :0) And, since I have not take my hunny's dog tags off since he deployed, I took blue ribbon to use as a "collar" and put one of his tags on it as my "kitty ID tag" :0)

Any holiday....big or small that you have to spend with half your heart missing is going to be hard. It was hard to get into the mood of decorating and what not when there was no one to share it with. But I think that's another one of the lessons you learn as time progresses in a military relationship.
Some people think woman in military lifestyles are extremely strong and will say "oh I could never do what you do". Then others think that your life is no different and no harder then their civilian world. The truth is...every couple has hardships, and struggle thru one thing or another. We are no better then them and they are no better then us. However, the lessons we learn in our lives, are different then theirs.
My latest lesson learned.....time doesn't stop for your pain. Everyone knows this intellectually, but to really absorb it is a different story. Holidays don't care that your not ready for them; or that you don't want them around...they'll still come.  My daughter's birthday came, AGAIN, even tho her Daddy wasn't here. Halloween came. And now they're both over. And we survived. What makes us strong is the ability to still play along, even if our whole heart isn't in it. My daughter still had a nice party with family, cake, presents, party favors and a pinata. I still decorated for Halloween, she and I both dressed up, we went trick or treating....because that's what you have to do. Time can be your enemy....but when you push thru it, and continue to do things as if he was home; that's when you win.

~*~ Military SOs are in the ranks rarely seen *~*