Skip to main content

Uncle "Dip"

They know him by his Marine photo hanging on our wall. They know him from their Aunt Morgan's wedding photos. To them, he is Uncle "Dip". I'm talking about my brother Dylan who is currently stationed in Okinawa Japan. He left shortly after our daughters were born. And though we have FaceTime and text messaging, sometimes I wonder how they will react when they finally see him in person. Will they put two and two together? Will they be afraid as they usually are when someone new comes around? 

 We are thrilled that he is able to join us on our family trip to Florida this September and even more thrilled that he will be officially stationed back in the states later this year. Until that time comes we will continue to talk about Dylan with the girls. We will continue to look at those photos and let them point out who they like to refer to as "Dip". It makes us laugh as they say their own version of the word Dylan. 

 They say that time flies when you have children! And as much as I want time to slow down as my kids grow and change, I am thankful that time has flown by and Dylan will soon return to the states. We can't wait to say WELCOME HOME! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What I Learned from Frugal January

While I don't believe in new year resolutions, I do believe in goals, aspirations and dreams. As a society, we're made to feel that with each new year, we must make resolutions, which more often than not, fade by March or set us up for failure. The feeling of failure is never good for the spirit, so a couple of years ago, I decided to stop giving in to that societal pressure. I have found that self-reflection is an excellent place to begin a new year and set realistic goals. This year, I started by challenging myself to what I named Frugal January. It's exactly what it sounds like. I challenged myself to only spend on necessities. I gave up runs to the coffee shop and trips to TJ Maxx. I gave up frivolous, careless and impulse-based spending, no matter how big or small it was. I asked myself one question with every single purchase decision, "do I really need this?" If I could live without it, I declined it. Did this cause me physical pain at times? Yes! There were...
Post a Comment
Read more

2023 Taking Care of Me

For me, 2023 has been a year of conquering fears and making lifestyle changes. As parents, how often do we place ourselves on the back burner? It's so common and I am 100% guilty of it. This year, something inside of me clicked. Maybe it's the whole "wisdom with age" thing. Maybe it's finally getting the courage to go to therapy. Perhaps, it's a little bit of both. For me, it happened with a 3-step plan. It's a plan that terrified me, but I held myself accountable and put the plan into action.  Step 1: Medical Health January 2023, the 4th to be exact, started with a wellness visit to my primary care doctor. Was I even allowed to refer to her as that when I hadn't paid her a visit since 2018? Yes. 2018. Of course, we had the whole pandemic thing in the mix, but we can only use that excuse for so long. I hadn't had a women's well check since 2018. I was having all kinds of strange symptoms, that I told myself was just the downward spiral to 40 (n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Betty's Story

 Let me preface with this. The Zehnle family was not looking for a dog. For over a decade, I remained firm in my stance against getting a big dog. The commitment, costs, added responsibility to our already loaded plate, my need for clean, etc, were all reasons why I never thought that adding a big dog to our family would be a good idea. I also believe that sometimes four legged family members find you at the right time, when you are not even looking. I'll admit, hearing Michael's half of that phone call made my skin crawl at the idea. However, I saw his face. And in that moment, I knew it was happening. I can't be the villain forever and he was willing to step up and take care of her.  After that phone call, I had the next couple of weeks to wrap my head around the idea. Ready or not, Betty was coming to live with The Zehnles. I'll be honest, I lived in total denial for those couple of weeks and prayed that things would fall through. That Saturday morning arrived though...
Post a Comment
Read more