News Articles About Brady's Deployment

Listed below are some links about the unit Brady will be attached to in Wisconsin. I know this isn't much of an update, but we still haven't heard much. These articles were found by family members so I thought I would post them in case any one was interested.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/arch_local/435054

http://dma.wi.gov/MediaPublicAffairs/news_print.asp?onid=592

So Now What?

When you watch any beauty queen pageant the notorious answer all contestants give to the question: "What do you want to achieve during your reign?" is WORLD PEACE. We all kind of laugh at the idea that a beauty queen couldn't solve the worlds problems, let alone bring peace to the world, but what if they could?

Right now, more than ever, I wish someone could figure out how to achieve world peace and stop the fighting that's going on around the globe. We received some disappointing news yesterday, Brady has been called by the Department of Defense to return to active duty. What does this mean? It means that on February 22nd Brady will leave and go to South Carolina for some training then be attached to a unit in Wisconsin that will be going to Iraq. Yep, this means a second tour of duty for Brady. The letter was very vague so I don't have too many details but the active duty status will last up to 400 days.

I will keep everyone posted as more information becomes available. In the mean time the Beckstead household is preparing to send off our wonderful husband and father to serve our country again. 

Brady, Isabelle and I love you so much. Even though this breaks our heart we will do everything in our power to stay connected to you while you are gone and will remain strong. We are proud of you and love you for all the sacrifices you are making for our family and our country.

Flood of Tears

I keep thinking that I should update our blog because it's been awhile. But I tell myself that nobody wants to hear about how insanely busy I am at work. I've been working 12 hour days, going in at 5 am and staying until 5 pm without any breaks, even to eat lunch. Believe it or not the days fly by. I then come home, play with Isabelle, and am ready for bed myself at 8:00 when I put her down.

This crazy schedule has finally caught up to me, Isabelle and I had a melt down together on Wednesday and we were both crying like newborn babies. Now that I look back on it, it was rather funny, but if you were to ask me on Wednesday it was the worst day ever.

I had to go to the doctor for a check up. Isabelle was being really good and very happy so I figured she would be a little angel during my exam. Because she was being so I good I didn't take her stroller in, big mistake. As I was filing out some paperwork and paying my co-pay at the receptionist desk Isabelle lost it. She was arching her back trying to get me to let go of her while screaming at the top of her lungs. I was completely embarrassed and I felt like everyone in the waiting room was staring at me wondering why I couldn't control my child. Finally I had to ask the nurse if I could go out to my car to get the stroller. She said yes so I ran out as quickly as I could.

As I was in the elevator with Isabelle, quietly sitting in her stroller, I got a call from Brady saying an agent was bringing their client to our house in one hour to walk through it. I was way excited to hear that someone was interested in our house but told him there was no way I could make it back in time to have the house cleaned and the dogs out of the house. Brady was okay with that and said he would leave work to come straighten things up and take the dogs out. Perfect I thought, now let's hope they will like it.

So I finally got called back to an exam room and was waiting in there to see the doctor. I suddenly get a text from Whitney at work saying one of our morning employees hasn't shown up yet to work, the phones are ringing non stop, our daily import hasn't come in yet and we've run out of envelopes so we can't send out any invoices. 

I then got a call from Natalie at work saying that we are going to be traveling next week for 5 days instead of 2 like we originally planned. I've never been away from Isabelle that long so the guilt started piling up in my mind. I told her okay because I had to do it, I need my job.

Next, not 30 seconds after I hang up the phone Brady calls me back saying he made it home but didn't have his keys to get into the house and the door was locked. He then proceeded to tell me this was all my fault and why do I have to lock the door when I leave. The potential home buyers were going to be there in less than a half hour and I haven't even seen the doctor yet.

Lastly, I hang up the phone and try to play with Isabelle to take my mind off everything that just happened. I was turning the pages in a Lion King book for her when all of a sudden she threw another tantrum and grabbed all her fruit snacks out of her bag and chucked them across the room. Right as that happened I get a knock on the door from my Doctor asking if it's alright if she comes in. Great, perfect timing.

Now here is when I lose it... She comes in sits down and asks how I'm doing, wrong question at the wrong time. I bust out into tears, I lost it! I told her as Isabelle is still crying that everything is falling apart. I just got into an argument with my husband, people at my work are flaky, my house won't sell, Isabelle won't stop crying and I have to leave my family.  

If you only get one thing out of my story please take note that it's a huge mistake to spill your guts about your awful day to your doctor. She then proceeded to ask me a series of questions about my eating habits, my thoughts, emotions and if I was depressed. She was really "concerned" about my emotional well being. I finally just said can't someone just have a really bad day?

The doctor finally realized this and took Isabelle out of the room and made one of the nurses watch her. She said let's have some peace and quiet during your exam, how embarrassing.

By 2:00 the day turned around. We were able to get the people to come look at our house later - it was cleaned. Isabelle was down for a nap, no more tantrums. Our morning help slept in on accident and was finally at work. We had envelopes, they were just not in the right place. Natalie called back and said it was now down to 2 days of travel, huge sigh of relief. And lastly Brady wasn't mad anymore (I went to Home Depot and had extra keys made.)

A 27 year old, mother, professional and wife crying like a 2 year old who's brother won't stop teasing her. What a melt down. Needless to say, I haven't cried that hard in a long time and don't plan on doing it anytime soon.

If you made it all the way to here thanks for sticking with it and reading my long post but do you know how to cure a 16 month olds tantrums?