Toothless

Luke is toothless! He finally lost the other tooth. It was hanging on by a thread, and I suggested he get a washcloth and try to pull it out. He said no, but he got one anyway. As he was walking in from wetting it, he said "MY TOOTH!" and sure enough his tooth was in his hand. This is the funnest picture I've seen of him in a while. I told him to smile for you, and so he did.

We love ya and miss ya!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a nice relaxing day today, although the only time I sat when I was at the computer talking to you (and my mom, and sister!). When I was up, I was picking up tiny wrapping paper pieces, picking up cups, forks, washing dishes, picking up towels, putting away presents, and calling for the kids to put away presents. The kids were constantly on me to help them with this or that gift, and one was always waiting in line while I was helping another. I have put toghter more puzzles today than in the last 3 years, I believe. Luckily, they did not get a lot of gifts this year, so there wasn't a lot of messing around and trash and putting together. Whew. You were very much needed today! We all missed you, and can't wait for you to be here celebrating with us, in person, next Christmas. Adam even asked if you were going to be here
the next Christmas." I have to send Luke's hockey set back. The posts that go together to make the netting are messed up. Some of the ends are smashed down into an oval, instead of being a circle and they wont fit together correctly. I had it mostly together, but I could not force the ends together. Some of the ones I was able to force together cracked under the pressure. I think it is just defective. I'd rather send it back - otherwise it cannot really be used correctly.

We had tilapia and spaghetti squash for dinner. It was delicious and the baby enjoyed too, because s/he is wiggling around so much right now. It's funny how traditional dinners are just not all that important to me since you're not here. I feel bad in one way, since I'm not teaching tradition to the children, but at the same time, they barely eat any of it anyway, so it just seems easier to make what we'll all eat.

I took pictures with my beautiful new camera today. I have some snow pictures. I meant to take a picture of the huge snow drift in the front yard, but I forgot...and now it is dark. I'll get it tomorrow.

We miss your faraway self, and we love it too. Merry Christmas.

I heard this song on the radio today, driving to Topeka. I have not heard this song in a very long time. The truth of the lyrics made me really emotional. Hmph, pregnancy. Anyway, it was a good reminder to keep on keepin' on, and I thought I'd try to send some inspiration your way.

Love you and miss you.

Busy, busy days.

Whew. Long week for us for some reason. I don't even remember all of what we did, but we were just so busy. Yesterday we had our homeschool potluck down the street at Malissa's house. It was nice - because it was so close to us, for once. We stayed until nearly 3pm. It was a lot of fun, and it was a relaxing atmosphere and a ton of good food. After that, we came back home, and picked up milk bottles and went and picked up our milk. Livea fell asleep on the way, so when we got home I turned the car off and told the kids "lets just all take a nap in the car and wait for Alexis to call." Alexis was calling for us to pick her up at another babysitting job she was at. Then she was going with us to Taekwondo and Target to help me help the kids Christmas shop. I seriously dozed in the front seat at Jenna quized me on her Pet Palz game. She was asking me questions every 12 seconds, and I was slurring answers out at her. At ten to 4 Alexis called. I finally got off my rear and put the milk in the house and then remembered I needed to wrap a gift for the Christmas party I was supposed to be going to...but wasn't. It was our coffee group party, but I had forgotten about the kids' Taekwondo lesson, and did not want to miss it the day before their belt test. I had already RSVPed that I'd go, and participate in the gift exchange so I had a "person" and all. I quickly wrapped the gift (a very pretty scarf for Brittany), grabbed some snacks and water for the kids and left to get Alexis in Forsythe housing on post. Then we headed over the Kelly's to drop the gift. Talked to Kelly for a few minutes, and then off we went to Taekwondo. We decided we needed to eat before shopping at Target, so we went to McDonald's, much to all the kids dismay; Alexis had a laugh about that one, saying she's never heard a kid complain about having to eat at McDonald's. I didn't really care for the choice either, but we were all starving, so it honestly wasn't that bad. Then Target. It was actually really fun, and very organized, and we all had a great time.

I told Alexis I'd keep each kid for 15 minutes, and then meet her back at a specific spot. I took Adam first. I asked him what he wanted to get the kids, and he knew exactly what he wanted to get everyone. He said he wanted to get Jenna Littlest Pet Shop; Luke Legos; and Livea he picked a paint by number in the $1 section - "because she loves to paint" - and she does. It took way less than 15 minutes for him to pick each item, and pay. It was amazing. I did not think that amazing would be repeated with any of the other kids.

I was completely wrong about that though.
I took Luke next, and he knew what he wanted to get everyone too. He said Livea likes Ni Hao Kay Lan (she does), and he wanted to get her that; Jenna, Littlest Pet Shop, and Adam he said something Transformer, but ended up getting him one of those metallic sounding microphones (that he wanted the other day when we were in another store), for like $1. It was fast, and easy.

Jenna was next - not so easy, but nearly as fast. She had no idea what she was going to get anyone, and her eyes wandered most of the time. She wasn't nearly as focused as the boys. They were excited to get gifts for the other kids, but Jenna had stars in her eyes looking at all the toys - I had to recenter her a few times by reminding her that we were here for others, not herself. She bought a puzzle for Livea, Legos for Luke and a Bakugan thing for Adam.

I gave the kids $15 each, and told them if they wanted to spend more, then they would have to use their own money. Jenna was the only one who went over, by $2 and some change, but not bad at all really.

I gave the kids $25 and told them they could go buy a gift for me with Alexis, and I took Livea to look for gifts for the kids. I did not really think that she would end up getting anything because she is just very little. The kids have all been doing puzzles lately though and when we got to the puzzles section, I couldn't pry her away and asked her if she wanted to get a puzzle for each of the kids. She picked (she really picked!) a LITTLEST PET SHOP for Jenna - surprise, surprise, so everyone knows Jenna likes LPS!!! Star wars for Adam, and an I Spy puzzle for Luke. She did very good. I am still shocked - and she stayed in budget without even knowing she had one, what a good little girl.

I bought a few little things for the boys' stockings, and we were done. It was so much fun, seriously - I get why people hire nanny's. It was just so easy, and so helpful, and nice. Even Alexis said she had fun (she tried to only take $5 from me when I paid her - and I owed her $20, saying it was so much fun, and she really didn't do much). She had made up a scavenger hunt for the kids the night before - a boy hunt and a girl hunt, so the kids just went around the store trying to find something "hello kitty," or a woman wearing brown shoes....... they had fun, and were occupied the entire time. I can't express how freeing it was to have her there, so I was able to take each child individually to pick gifts.

Adam fell asleep on the car ride home. We didn't get home until 10pm. Everyone brushed teeth, got undressed and went to sleep. I woke up at 8:45 this morning to a quiet house. Adam and Livea fast asleep in bed with me still. I think the day wore everyone out. Jenna and Luke woke up just minutes after I did, and Adam and Livea woke up a half an hour later.

I helped all the kids wrap their presents so they could put them under the tree, and no one has told anyone else what they bought them - yet. I thought for sure Livea would be the first to blurt "Here is your puzzle I got you Jenna!" But she hasn't said a word - I explained it to her that she had to keep it a secret at one point when she said "This is Jenna's puzzle???" I told her she had to not say that and just tell Jenna "this is your present Jenna" - because this is a surprise until Christmas, etc. So I think it sunk in.

Taekwondo testing was....long. Tiny Tigers tested at 2pm - Advanced class tested at 4pm. We were there for 3 hours. The boys' class tests in 20 minutes and they are done. Well, Jenna's class has black belts and red/black, and the red/black belt form is ALL 9 forms put together. I think it took them nearly 10 minutes to do their entire form....it just went on and on and on, and ON. I can't believe what they have to remember. Then there is sparring. Then there is weapons. Then there is board breaking. There is a LOT to Advanced testing.

Adam has been super squirmy lately. I warned him that he needed to sit still, like a black belt, all that....no talking at the wall, etc. What did it do? He talked with his neighbor at the wall, sat on his knees instead of cross-legged, wiggled and squirmed. I guess Jeremiah was sick on Thursday/Friday. D.C. taught the class yesterday. But she wasn't at the belt test. Jeremiah's teacher from MacPherson was there. 5th Degree Black Belt. Jeremiah said he gave D.C. his stomach bug, and she was at home sick. 5th-degree-black-belt-guy had to tell Adam to turn around and stop talking when he was trying to talk to them after their testing. He was sitting on his knees too. I don't know what his problem is - but he has just been annoyingly mischievous lately, and I am ready to put him in the next flat-rate box I send to you. :o)

The kids did good though, and we now have 2 camo belts, and a green belt. The boys have their sparring gear (uhh, cha-ching $$), and are excited to try it on. Jenna is dying to beat them up, uh, I mean spar "on them" as she puts it. ha. I think they're going to kick her butt. But don't tell her I said so.

I took the kids to Cracker Barrel for a celebratory dinner of breakfast. Now they are watching The Secret of Roan Inish. Liv fell alseep on the way home, it was nearly 7pm, I'm hoping she'll sleep all night, but I am not convinced really.

Do you even have time to read this much?

Here are pictures of the New Belts:



Love you and miss you!

20 Weeks

20 Weeks (yesterday) down, 20 more to go.

Well, technically 20 more to go anyway. I can't believe how basketballish-high looking my belly is. Has it always been like that? I need to go back and look at other pictures. I think it has been, but I don't quite remember, all my other pregnancies seem so long ago.

I had to shovel snow for an hour the other day, and I only did half the driveway. It was a great workout, and my forearms are sore from it. But a horrible reminder of how inactive I've been this pregnancy in comparison to most of the others.

I feel like March 12 is going to come to me so fast now. It seems like these 20 weeks have flown by already, and I can't believe it's just 20 more and I'm done with being pregnant and I'll be holding our baby in my arms. Does it seem fast to you too, or is time moving slow for you away from us? Are you taking pictures still? Are you writing in your journal still? I always forget to ask you when we talk on the phone.

So I've been writing lists to try to get ready for March, because to me it seems like it's just around the corner, and it is going to sneak up on me. First the lists were mental, and then as they became too great, I just had to start writing it all down to get it all out of my head and leave room for other information coming in. I can't find that same fishy pool we've always used during births. There is a slightly bigger one for quite a bit more money that I'll probably buy instead, but I am surprised they don't have that smaller one available anymore. Maybe I can wait until I am in Phoenix and just visit Toys R Us and see what they have in stock instead of paying more and shipping on top. If I do it right away I should have time if I still need to order online. Everything else is easy to get once I'm in Phoenix, for the most part.

Today I was sitting on the couch folding clothes while the kids were doing their workbooks. Suddenly I heard Lukas, in huge happy voice, say "I love Handwriting Without Tears so much that I'm going to cry!!" It was the funniest thing I have heard in days, I just sat on the couch and laughed with my laundry for a minute. What a joker. He cracks me up.

Well, it is getting later, and I have to go pick up milk, and get the kids to Taekwondo. We're going to look at Target and see if they have any sleds left too while we're in Manhattan. I hadn't been able to get a hold of anyone at Hildebrand Farms all week - the phone just rang and rang. So on my way home from Art class yesterday I drove over there. They were open. Their phone lines went down when the snow came in this week, and they hadn't been able to get them back up yet. I asked them if they had any extra raw milk, so they checked. Well I hadn't brought my bottles, because, well I guess I just wasn't being very prepared. SO I told them I'd go home and get them and bring them back. I didn't have cash either, or a checkbook, their only two forms of acceptable payment. So we went home, and I packed up the kids' uniforms, unloaded groceries, grabbed milk bottles, and headed back. I pulled into their parking lot and remembered I forgot cash. Arg. So I have to go get milk this morning, we are out. Their milk is the best. Better than JaKo, Inc. milk by FAR, Josh. You would even like it I think. I can sit there and drink a glass of milk for no reason except because it's good and refreshing. Anyway. That's my story. Oh, and then we had to drive back home because I forgot Jenna's sparring gear - and then they didn't even use it. Nice. Did I tell you all this on the phone already??? Everything is a blur yesterday.

We love you and miss you in this freezing cold weather!

hackjob

Adam and Livea decided Livea needed a new haircut. I was reading to Jenna and Luke (school stuff) and the little ones went upstairs. They do this often, so it isn't something I worry about. They play together really well. Well................................!! Adam hacked the heck outta her hair. Livea helped somewhat, but Adam did most of it. I could not even bring myself to take a picture of her hair. The image burned into my memory is bad enough. I was really anxious the entire day about it. Christina's has a friend that does hair in her home, and I called her up and she let me come over at 4:15. Her hair doesn't look so bad in this picture - it's pretty cute actually, but this morning when she woke up, all the too-short hairs were standing straight up on the top of her head. Aye! There really isn't anything I can do with her hair now, I have tried ponies, and clips....it is just going to have to grow for a while. I was very upset with them. Poor Livea - she just cried and cried. Adam cried because I spanked him. Livea cried just because I was so upset with her. Later I asked her what she thought Daddy would think when she told him Adam cut her hair, and she said "Daddy will love it! Daddy will say he loves my new haircut when he comes home from Iwack!" So here it is. We wuv you and miss you vewwy much. ;o)

From Drop Box

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
I guess it was yesterday for you, at this point, but I forgot.
We had Thanksgiving dinner twice last week. Once at church and then at the "Turkey Night" at the battalion. So, I am not making a thanksgiving dinner at home tonight. I am going to make some deviled eggs, and some cream cheese/pineapple appetizers for us, but besides that we are not doing much. I told the kids this morning that we are going to show God we are thankful for our house by cleaning it up. They want to watch a VeggieTales netflix movie we have (that they watched a million times in a row yesterday), and The Secret of Roan Inish, which is a really cute movie that the Zwetchke's made us borrow. So we'll have some movies, and some food. But we are thankful for many things without having a specific dinner tonight. Here are the things we are thankful for:

Jenna: "I am thankful for my house, the whole world, all my toys and the food I eat and my family."

Lukas: "I am thankful for my family, and my toys, and the whole world and my mom and dad."

Adam: "I am thankful for my dad and my eyeballs because I can see, and I'm thankful for my medal, and I'm thankful for my nose, cuz of smelling [he has a cold right now too so that is funny]. And I'm really thankful for my toys, and even my shirts [and he has only sweatpants on right now as well]."

Livea: "Daddy."

Last night when we were going to sleep I told Livea I loved her, and she didn't say anything. I told her "Daddy loves you too," and she said "But my daddy is in Iraq," I said "he loves you all the way from Iraq though," she said "is my daddy ever coming home?" I assured her you were going to come home. But it was so sad, that she even said such a thing! I said "do you miss your daddy?" She said "yes, I miss my daddy."


I am thankful for:
An amazing husband that: fixes broken screens; is a good hard-worker; takes the trash out every Wednesday in the wintertime so I never have to freeze my feet off because I'm too lazy to put shoes on for 2 minutes; checks all the scary noises in the middle of the night, even though nothing is every wrong; cleans up kid-vomit without question when the problem arises (which has not happened as of yet, thank goodness!!!); plays with the annoying dog so that I don't have to; cooks and cleans and takes care of our children; bravely sacrifices so much and serves our country and world as well as our family through the United States Army; I have a husband that has a heart for God, isn't afraid to say "I'm sorry," forgives, makes mistakes and learns from them.

I am thankful for all of our family, our 5 children, our God, our struggles, our triumphs, our path in this world together. I am thankful for being alive, and being able to wait every day for you to come home.

We all miss you and love you very much, and we are thankful that you are who you are to us.

I want this.

I love this house. It's in Clay Center. For sale. I love, love, love it. So I had to show you. With a USAA loan it would be about $1600/month. It's about 3500 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms too many (3.5!!!) and an unfinished basement! Perfect for our blossoming family. Not too shabby, eh??? Ahhh, a girl can dream, can't she?? Love you and miss you!!!!!!!


I'm not sure who would cut the grass during deployments....



Because I would probably never leave the house!!!


I never realized I had a thing for rustic farmhouse style, but I so DO. I love this kitchen! Although, I am not sure a white/cream colored rug would ever be in our kitchen, ummm, no.


It even has a pool?????? In Kansas!!!


I think I would just stay in Kansas forever........................!!!!




Yes, that is a 4-car garage!!! Ummm, one for our car, and one for our future riding lawn mower, and the rest is precious storage space!!!!


And I am still trying to figure out what those ring thingies are.... Decorative yes, but why..??

16 weeks

16 weeks!!!

Seems way too fast already right?
I've been taking pictures, but I've been bad about getting them here for you. It feels like it's midnight right now and it's only 8:30. Since I am 16 weeks, I was motivated to actually take a picture. I figure maybe if I start now, I'll actually take one every 4 weeks. We've never been good at taking preggo pics, but since you're not here, I have more reason to.

We have been so busy the last few weeks. It seems like it anyway. Just running around, and school and homeschool-group...

All the spouses are telling me that Skype isn't worth the money. That they just sit there in front of their husbands and are like "uhh, hey...ummm, hi...uhh, yah bye" - maybe they talk often, and don't know what to say. It'd probably be different for spouses that Skype once a week or every other. A new lady to our homeschool-group said save your money, if you talk on the phone, it's just as good. So now I don't. Maybe it would be nice for once a week or so....just for us to see eachother, and good for the kids too. But that is a lot of money for once a week. You should just give someone $5 and say hey let me use your Skype today. lol. Okay, I don't know. It's up to you.

I invited Christina to come over for dinner tomorrow night again and stay over with the kids. She's not liking her weekends alone too much right now. It's funny because I don't really feel alone - with the kids around. I think if we didn't have kids, and the weekend came and I was just sitting in the house without you, I'd feel really alone, but the kids are always here, there is always shopping or cleaning to do, and I just feel busy and not alone. But she does, so I invited them over.

Well I am tired and ready to retreat to my bed and book, and probably your phone call soon after.
Love ya and miss ya, so much.

Adam's Black Belt Birthday Party

Ben has uploaded some of Adam's party. He recorded more, but it takes a while to upload, so I think there is more coming. I'll post them in this same entry when they come. Love you and miss you too!!

Adam's 5th Birthday

Well, Adam had a good birthday yesterday. Here he is at lunch with his requested meal. He wanted peanut butter & jelly, banana sandwiches. He saw it on TV, and told me exactly how to make them, and so we did!
He's actually posing here - he said "take a picture of me eating!" but he was just sitting there like that waiting for me to take the picture.

I forgot to take a picture of him opening his present with my camera on my phone, so I can't put any of those pics on here. I did tell him that it was your idea to buy them the automatic baseball pitcher - that he calls the "batter-batter-baseballer", and I am not sure why. But the kids went and out and played for quite some time yesterday and good thing because it began storming in the middle of the night and is supposed to rain all day today too. Everything is completely soaked out there. Jenna batted and hit me in the jaw with a ball, and then not 5 minutes later she hit Adam in the head with the bat (it's plastic). I told her she had to have a break because she wanted being careful....but in all honesty, her hitting me in the face with the ball (IT HURT) wasn't really her fault. I was standing there staring at her and it was a really good hit, and I didn't duck or try to catch it or anything. I must have been spacing it. It was probably funny if you weren't me... just to see me starving right at it and it hitting me square in the jaw. Ouch. Anyway, they had tons of fun with it. I hope it stays warm and stops raining so they can go play with it again.

Adam wanted "baby" burgers and macaroni and cheese for dinner. I know this is horrible, but I did not feel like making mac n cheese, so I just bought some Kraft! LOL. You know how often that happens, so I don't feel bad (except that it was his birthday, I should have been more up to making it homemade). I also didn't make the baby burgers -and bought frozen ones - just not a cooking sort of day for me. No one cared, and the burgers seriously tasted exactly like McDonald's cheeseburgers so the kids liked them.
I was feeling pretty lazy lately I think. I didn't clean the kitchen at all last night. I left everything on the counter, and just LEFT it. How often do I do that too??? I just didn't want to!! So I didn't. I felt much more positive about it this morning, and got it all done. The kids are upstairs cleaning right now. It's almost lunchtime and we haven't even started school yet today. But they have been getting everything done super fast lately.

So last night my sister called me and while I am blabbing away on the phone the kids were playing in the school room and I could hear them, they were coloring and cuttting and having fun. Welll..............this is what happens when you're not paying close enough attention to your 2.5 year old:
Uhhhh, oops. She had put almost an entire bottle of glue on that red paper at the back of the table and then dumped glitter all over it. It was very messy. She was covered in glue and glitter - and she had already taken a bath. The glitter somehow was bleeding it's green color from being wet with glue and she had green smears and glitter on her face, and legs, and her hands were completely covered in glitter.

So.....it was a long day of catering to Adam, but it was a good day. At one point when I was on the phone with my sister, Adam came in crying saying "it's my birthday and no one will even play with me!!!" :o( It was almost bedtime and he was tired, but it was cute and sad.

We all love you and we missed you on Adam's special day!!

tonight

Here is a me picture for once! I just got home from Mo's coffee. It was nice. A ton of people didn't show this time, so it was more intimate, and it was very nice. I stuffed myself on tasty treats, and got a couple of good recipes (a lot of peeps didn't bring their recipes). Mo made a delicious meatball soup. On our way out, we all were leaving at the same time, there was a cop parked behind my car. As I walked up, he rolled down his window and asked if it was my car. I said yes. He told me I was parked on the wrong side of the street. I asked him if that was a state law. He said no, but there are signs all over the place. I said "Where?? I don't see any signs." He said "they're all over the place." I still didn't see any signs. I told him I had no idea, that my friends who I was visiting didn't tell any of us not to park on that side of the road. He said he wasn't going to write me a ticket since I was leaving, and that he doesn't patrol neighborhoods trying to give tickets out, but that a neighbor called the police about it. Niiice. So I told him I was just going to go inform my friend and be right back to move my car. I went back and told Mo, and she had no idea that we couldn't park on that side of the road. The cop came up because we were all discussing it and he said "there are signs all over the place", Mo said "Where, I don't see any signs", and he said "they're all over, there is one right there" and she said "where I still don't see it", then I saw it. But it wasn't facing me...so I couldn't read it. Kelly pulled up and asked if I got a ticket "too", I told her no but almost. The ticket ended up only being $10. Still though. Finally, I left, and as I'm driving, about 6 houses down, I see another sign "No Parking Any Time." Lovely. But the signs are seriously 20 feet in the air, and they aren't easy to see at all. And now you know the whole story, aren't you glad you asked.

I went to Target and they did have the MLB automatic batter thing, so I bought it up, bought some other gifts for the kids to give to Adam, and came home. Alexis is so nice. She did the dishes, handwashed, and loaded, and ran the dishwasher. All of their dinner stuff was cleaned up and put away. The kids (minus Livea) were all in bed. Livea told me she was hungry. I opened the fridge and she said, "no here, lemme show you," and proceeded to open the freezer. She started looking for something, and then she found frozen peas. She said "This. This is what I'm hungry for." I said "okay, we can have peas tomorrow," she said "no, I want to eat them right now," so I took them and told her lets cook them. She said "no, I like them cold," and she ate frozen peas from the bag for 10 minutes, nursed, and promptly fell asleep. The boys were sound asleep, Jenna was still awake but barely. It is so nice to have an awesome babysitter. Bunco night is at Mo's next Friday, and Alexis is watching the kids again then - and they are excited for her to come. Livea was going upstairs when I left. Maybe we'd have had babysitters more often when Jenna and Luke were little if we'd have had a good one! I am tired! I am gonna go lay down and flip channels until I can't find anything good and then read.

Love your, miss your far-away self!

you're caught/plans/schedule

I accidentally told on you about the Tyra-snake-incident. So expect retaliation. Sorry!! He didn't know who did it until I spilled the beans.

There is a coffee tonight at Mrs. Crossman's house. I'm making delicious Southwestern Eggrolls to bring and share the recipe also (which I still have to print out sometime today!!). It should be fun. I am going to try to sneak out early to get Adam his birthday present. I found a Major League pitching machine for him online, but it says it isn't available in the stores. Jenna has an ortho appointment in Topeka tomorrow, but I don't have time to go to Toys R Us because they have Taekwondo at 5:30; her appointment is at 3:20. Even if I did have time, I'd have Adam with me!! So anyway, I may just leave and try Target anyway.

So Taekwondo is now on Tuesday's and Friday's. Tiny Tigers beings at 5:30pm, and Advanced is from 6-6:45pm. It is only 15 minutes difference, but it seems like a lot to me. I still haven't sewn the boys' cheetah patches on, and will probably do it tomorrow just because I don't know if I'll have time today.

Ben brought a giant ham over that the hotel gave him for organizing the DMOR ball. Well, he brought half over. But it's a ton, and since we don't really even eat ham all that much, it is hard for me to figure out how to use. I am going to make scalloped potatoes with ham for dinner tonight for the kids and Alexis and Karsen. Luke won't be extraordinarily happy about that though, so I may just let him have some ham and salad. But I have to make that, and I have to make the eggrolls (I made the filling last night, but I have to fill, roll and fry still), I have to finish school (the kids are waiting for me on the couch right now), I have to clean up, get myself ready......... whew. Now I'm tired thinking of it all. ;o)

Well the kids are already hungry and we have about 45 minutes of work left to do before lunch so I better get to it.
Miss ya. Love ya.

The Record

For the record:
It isn't fun, or funny to tell me you are going off FOB but only for the afternoon, and then not call me for 2 days.

*sigh*
But I know you just could have been busy, or tired, or watching The Soprano's with your Medics.

Or you could be dead, I guess. I would hope that they'd have shown up already though, if that were the case.

But I would rather you watch The Soprano's any day, than be dead.

:o)
Love you and miss you much!

home is where my heart is

"I had cast my lot with a soldier and where he was, was home to me." Martha Summerhayes, Army Wife, 1866.


I read this quote somewhere today and I thought how true that is. Home is just wherever you are, and lately, it doesn't feel much like home here. I think that is why I've been so homesick for Phoenix and family - because you are gone.

Miss you and love you.

Sunday in Kansas

It seems like we have been so busy these past few weeks. I don't really know if we actually have been, but by the end of the day comes, I am exhausted and just want to fall into our warm bed, and not sit in the hard office chair and stare at the computer.

This weekend I got a million (300-something) pictures printed. So I am hoping to be able to put the bug zoo pics on here for you so you can see your kids touching yucky bugs.

We had a really fun day yesterday. We went to church even though I wasn't feelin' it. Sometimes you're just not feeling it though, and you just gotta push through, right? So we went, and it was nice, because the new church was all complete, and it's is very nice. They had coffee, and donuts, and OJ, and water all spread out on beautiful new huge countertops. They have a huge foyer, and separate classrooms for all of the children. Livea didn't want to go because she said "I don't want to go to my baby class because the baby's always cry and it's LOUD" but when we got there she had her very own 2-year-old classroom to go into, and they got to paint. She pouted while she was taken to her class, but she had fun, and she told me later "And I didn't EVEN CRY!!"

We came home, talked to you, and then went to the Munson Farms Pumpkin Patch. Since the Brigade sponsored it, it was totally free. I didn't know, but they had lunch for us there. Including some delicious homemade vanilla ice cream. Then we waited for the horses to come pick us up. They said they'd drop us off at the corn maze, and we'd walk to the pumpkin patch. Christina said "are you sure you want to do this??" I really wanted pumpkins, so I told her absolutely! I was really surprised she didn't want to go. Little did I know. Little did I know....
that she meant the CORN MAZE. I didn't realize that they could take us to the pumpkin patch directly, and we could bypass the corn maze altogether. So here we are 8 kids in tow, 2 of them whining and crying that they're hot and tired, and don't want to walk anymore, trekking through a poorly plowed corn maze (which was mostly just a winding path that we followed for what seemed f o r e v e r), and it went on and on, and ON. Finally, Christina said "do you still think this was a good idea??" I told her this was horrible, and why couldn't they just drop us at the pumpkin patch??? She said THEY COULD HAVE. I had no idea. lol. It really wasn't fun. We all kept tripping on corn stumps in the ground, and while it wasn't so bad for me, the kids kept actually falling on their faces. Finally, finally, we got to the pumpkin patch, and it was scant at best, nothing like last year......those darn squash bugs. It was hard to find good pumpkins, but we got some. I can't put the pictures on here yet, but I will update it later when I can and stick them in here, so keep checking. We were all tired out. It must have been a good 3/4 mile walk. I had Livea on my shoulders for half of it. It just wasn't that fun. But the horses were cool. They got a new Percheron horse. He was in the front stable right near the drive, and he (and we were sure it was a HE!) is the second biggest registered horse in the United States. He is huge. He is 6.5 feet at his shoulders. Beautiful, absolutely. He's younger than their others, 7 years, and not as wide as the others, but they said he may bulk up and out like the others. We stood there and watched him for a very long time because he is just amazing. He kept coming closer to us, and closer, and I kept saying I think he wants to come see us. And sure enough after about 20 minutes he just walked all the way up to us and let us pet him. His head was fully above and overtop of mine. I had to step back 4 feet away from the fence just to reach his head to pet him. He was so friendly. Adam picked some grass and he ate it from his hand right away. So all the kids starting picking grass and he just kept eating from everyone, and he left everyone pet him. He was so sweet and friendly. He stayed for maybe 10 minutes and just let us all give him some affection. He was just amazing, so huge, what a creation. I have pictures of him too.

Then we headed over to the fire and made some s'mores. By now, since our maze-hike took forever and a day, it was after 2pm, and it was open to the public and very crowded. When it was just Brigade, they had s'mores at the fire, but now the front trailer thing was open and people were paying and getting s'mores there. So I had to go over there and get our s'mores, while Christina tried to keep kids from falling into the fire pit. ;o) We ate s'mores, and sat next to a young couple, that Christian said he was sure was Christina's sister, and told her she should ask. So we struck up a conversation, and lo and behold, her husband is a medic fresh from AIT and in 1st Brigade. Come to find out, they are both from Phoenix, grew up there, she went to Central, I forget where he said. Also, the husband grew up in Hawaii, and really wanted (of course) his first station to be Hawaii - and they got Kansas, poor kids. But they were very nice, and it was neat to talk to them. He said he is thinking of putting his officer packet in, but of course people are telling him no. I told him to tell them to start paying him better, and then maybe he'll think about not. Christina and I both encouraged him to do it.

So, finally it was time to go. I was tired, thirsty, ready to get out of there. It was too crowded at this point, and keeping track of kids wasn't as easy. I asked Christina if she wanted to come take a breather at our house before going home. So we all went back to our house, and vegged for a while. I ended making some delicious potato cheese soup and breadsticks and we had dinner together too, and made a day and night of it. They finally left around 8 o'clock, and I promptly got kids to brush teeth, get in jammies, and get into bed. Exhausted again yesterday. I had bad dreams last night, but I woke up feeling refreshed at least.

I missed you much yesterday. Doing the pumpkin patch again this year, but without you, just seems wrong somehow. The husband of the 1st Brigade couple we met asked us (C & I) how it was going with our husbands gone. And I realized that it's finally hit me that you're gone. It took a while, but I'm finally feeling it. Could be a slight bit of hormones too, I suppose. =) But mostly, I just think the time has taken it's toll, and I'm ready for you to be done and home. And it has only been 2 months!! 2 months yesterday, in fact. I'm getting homesick now, I think because of the weather, and the holidays coming....I just want to be around family. I don't think it'd be so bad if you were here though. The other day I woke up and just wanted to crawl out of bed, get a cuppa and do the crossword with everyone.

Yes, we miss you and love you!!

lotta nothin'

It was so nice talking to you last night. Of course it always is, but I was just really glad to talk to you last night for some reason. I am so thankful that you take the time to call me, I really am. I know not everyone does that for their wives, and I feel very blessed that you wake up extra early some days just to call me. I can't say I'd do the same, you know how me and Sleep are best friends, so it means a lot to me.

We went to Target last night for invitations for Adam's birthday party. $177 later, we walked out without invitations. But the kids have warm clothes now!! I guess Walmart would have been good enough for invitations. Target was out of a lot.


Adam wanted to start school right away, so of course Livea did too. See their new long undies? Courtesy the Target trip. Adam said "Mommy, I used to be really good at school when I was in Hawaii!!" Hmmmmm.

Jenna is in our bed reading Mitch and Amy, one of her Beverly Cleary's that she's never read. I think she's reading it finally because she's read everything else. She finished that Percy Jackson series about a week ago. Luke is in front of the television eating some yogurt.

So last night the 2:00am alarm thing worked! I woke up and heard Adam's fighting voice. Only for a split second, and then nothing. I think I heard them getting back into bed. I really fought with myself not to go up there and check on them. Most parents probably would have not expected an almost-5 and almost-7-year-old to be responsible enough to wake up at 2:00am to an alarm clock, turn it off, go pee, and get back into bed for themselves. But they did it. And I stayed put - mostly thinking that if I get up this first night to help them, they'll expect me to always.

So this morning, I heard Luke in his drawers. Ugh. I thought for sure they just got up and turned the alarm off. Luke came downstairs dressed in his brand new long undies. So cute. I asked him if he peed in his bed, and he said "NO, I didn't!!" I asked him if they got up for their alarm and went pee. He said that they did, and that he and Adam both didn't pee in the bed. I asked him why he changed his clothing then, and he said "because I waned to wear my new clothes!" I believe him too. The reason he didn't wear the long undies to bed, he said, was because he didn't want to pee in them!! I am so proud of them for waking up and going to the bathroom. I am going to set the alarm for them every night for a while. Hopefully they won't ever get a hint to wake up and turn it off without going. I thought for sure that the alarm would just go off and they wouldn't get up, they'd just let it keep going, it's not a very loud alarm.

It's raining this morning. It must not be too cold though, since it's rain and not snow. It looks cold enough that I don't want to go out there though!!

Miss you. =( I am ready for winter to be over. It seems like that is the hurdle to get past, and then you'll be home soon.
Love you tons.

mousehouse

From Drop Box

So, here is the mousehouse in your shoe. Nice, eh?? I just saw a mouse while handwashing the dishes tonight after dinner. It ran out from under the stove. I chased it and kicked at the wall by the china cabinet, and it ran into the laundry room. I kicked at the washer, but wherever it went, it didn't try to come out. I met with the pest guys today and they aren't coming until tomorrow to set the traps and all. Actually, they aren't even traps. I am a little bummed out about that. It is actually poison that they eat, and it messing them up and they get all disoriented, and come out and die in the middle of my floor so I have to then clean them up. I am considering enlisting Luke for the job. Maybe have him use plastic bags, or gloves.. and pick 'em up by their tails and then toss, ugh. Fun!!!!

The guy to replace the hose for the dishwasher called this afternoon and says he can come tomorrow at 4:30pm. I am happy about that! I am thinking about if I should have some friends over or something. I mean...it seems strange to just let a perfect stranger into the house. The pest guys were one thing, but this is just some guy who put his name in the phone book as a handyman.

I am so tired right now - it is just after 8pm. The kids are watching The Backyardigans, and then it is bedtime for all of us - since you interrupted my nap today! ;o) I am glad you called of course - I would rather miss sleep than not talk to you. I hope you have a safe next couple of days. You're in our prayers always, hope you don't see any dinosaurs! If you do, Livea's prayers have you covered.
Miss you, and love you very much.

long time no nothin'

I know I haven't been posting and I feel really bad. I imagine you checking every day when you have a minute, and I can feel your disappointment! I would be disappointed too if I were in your shoes. After us all being sick, it took a few days to get the house back in order, and I still have been slow to recover. I read today that sometimes it takes a few weeks to regain all your energy after a flu. WOW. I am feeling it. I thought I felt fine, but I am still coughing, and have to blow my nose a million times a day. The cough is more annoying NOW than it was before. Ready to be done! Livea still has her cough and snot-nose too.

I have pictures of the bug-zoo field trip to share with you. But I took them with my old crappy camera so I ordered a CD and didn't have money til today to get all the 300 pictures that were on the disk. LOL. It was expensive. I ordered them at Target so I will have to go sometime this week and pick them up and get those CD's so you can see the kids petting the tarantula, and the stick-bugs.

The weather is beautiful here. I miss you being here, and sharing it together with you. Some of the trees have leaves that are turning red now. Remember how desolate and sad it looks in the winter here? I am not looking forward to that. It seems like it just turned to Spring, and everything became bright and green, and now it all going to turn cold-gray and dismal. It seems way too fast! But our electricity bill will be nice to look at next month. I haven't been having to use the air at all. I think the high today was 79. It is really windy and the house stayed perfectly cool today. In fact, we had to close some windows because it was too chilly!

Roxie is my biggest enemy. She really bugs me. I hate not liking her, but she just bugs me so bad. She is so sweet, but she is a big oaf, and she hurts everyone, including me, and I can't imagine her surviving my dad for months in Phoenix. What am I going to do with her?! I wish she would just chill out and be like 10 years old already. Maybe I need to hire a dog walker. I wonder if I could find a dog-walker here. =)

Sorry we missed your phone call the other day. I forgot, but remembered in time, that we had to go to Topeka and get Jenna's broken and fixed retainer!! We were on our way back when you called, but I never got the call or message until the next morning. We must have been out of range when you dialed. Bummer too, because the kids would have had a lot to say since they were all buckled in and not going anywhere but where I led them!

We went grocery shopping today, and had a nice dinner, and I bought 2 half gallons of frozen yogurt that the kids are begging for right now. We haven't had ice cream in a while and I figured I'd better buy it now because I can't imagine it sounding too appetizing when it is 10 degrees outside.

We love you and miss you! I hope you got your box!!!! Maybe someone is pilfering it. =(

It's only Wednesday??

It's just Wednesday but it feels like the longest week in the history of time! I don't know why! I have been so tired this week, and busy. To top it off, Jenna had a headache all day yesterday, fell asleep in the car on the way home from Topeka (how often does that happen?) and when she woke up she had little to no voice and has been running a fever ever since. H1N1. Ha. I am obsessed aren't I?? =)


Jenna at her ortho appointment yesterday. She was being silly...posing more for me than being really mad about it. I cut her hair last weekend too, cute, huh..?

So, since Jenna was sick this morning (she has been on the couch almost all day), I had the dishwasher open this morning and was putting the dishes away, well, more like getting spoons out for breakfast, and plastic bowls for cereal... and around 10:00am when I finally got around to eating breakfast... I was standing there cooking eggs, and Livea showed up next to me and said "Sure! I will do the dishes for you Mommy! Sure!" I laughed, and turned around and she just started putting the dishes away. She put all of them away. The plates and bowls (glass!!), she asked "Now where does this go, Mommy??". It was so cute, and I told her she was the best 2 year old helper EVER. Her hair is kind of stringy looking because she took a shower with me, and I hadn't brushed it or anything yet.

I also had to take a picture of Livea's face drawing for you. She draws this face completely sideways - it is the strangest thing I have ever seen. Her arm was actually not at the bottom of this picture while she drew it, but on the pictures' left. She drew the entire picture that way, and does it every single time. I'll let her draw on the white board and the faces will all be sideways because that is how she draws them! It is so funny! She started drawing this all on her own, and she started drawing the ears and the legs on her own also. For a few weeks it was just the head, and eyes, and nose and mouth. No she draws circles all over it to indicate ears and legs. I am not sure why they need ears, but they aren't arms - they are ears, I asked.

I am making baby-burgers tonight for dinner, with spinach, pineapples (fresh!), and baked french fries - hopefully anyway - if I can get up and get it going, because it is after 5 already, and here I am settin'!! I wish you were here to eat baby-burgers with us - I'd probably even make you a big-daddy burger. ;o)
Love ya, miss ya.

a dream

I had a dream 2 mornings ago that I was sick, and dying. You were there, in our bedroom, next to me, in a chair, and I was crying, saying I was scared, that I didn't want to leave my life here. You asked me why I was scared, and I told you I was scared to die, because I wasn't good enough to go to heaven, I didn't want to face Jesus with the life I've lived here. It was one of those very emotional dreams, very real. You told me none of us are good enough to go to heaven, and thank God for His Grace. I kept thinking to myself, that I knew you were right, but that I just felt so undeserving, and I was so scared and not at all reassured, now that I knew death was imminent.

I woke up then, upset, and a song came into my head right away that I haven't heard in a very long time. It is called Grace Like Rain. I don't know why I remembered this song, but it was so appropriate for the dream. We used to sing it at Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor. Do you remember it? Well, today I was cleaning out my bible cover, and I found three sheets of music from when they changed locations and didn't have their projection equipment up yet. One of them had the words for Grace Like Rain. It is so odd that I found it. I did a search for the song, and found it on YouTube, here are the words and the song. I probably wouldn't have told any of this to you if I had not found the music in my bible, but I thought it was really neat, and it spoke to me, and I don't know what it means yet, but I wanted to share. Where is Joseph to interpret my dream, when I need him. I love you and miss you.

Grace Like Rain

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away,
Washed away

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away,
Washed away

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away,
Washed away

We picked a bunch of deliciousness from the garden tonight. When I turned around Livea had picked a bell pepper too. She said "I did a great job, haw Mommy?!" I laughed and told her she did a wonderful job. I have way too many jalapenos, I think I need to go give some away to our neighbors. I don't have any chips, but I plan on making salsa tomorrow. I guess we'll just have to go to the grocery again.

The kids are waiting for me to come kiss them in bed, and Livea and Adam are now yelling at eachother, so I have to get up there before they get too untired! I hope you are missing us just as much as you should ;o) We miss you tons, and love you more.

Memorization and a mess...

So the kids are learning Psalm 23 right now, and I am so impressed by what they can memorize. I didn't think Livea would understand memorization, and recitation, but she is doing so good. She is finally falling behind, but it took her 2 weeks to fall behind. She is doing amazing, and she loves being involved as much as she is.

I am in the middle of completely redoing the computer room/school room. Right now, it is a huge mess, with everything in the middle of the room, and I am heading to Walmart now to get some storage bins, to finish. Not in the budget, but just completely necessary for my sanity at this point. The drawers I have all their supplies in are old, and do not open well, and they just aren't working for us. I intend on buying the kids their own plastic lidded tub for their books. I also moved the giant cupboard that was in the closet, OUT of the closet, and put it against the walls near the maps. It had half school supplies in it anyway, it is more useful for me there, and certainly looks better than the plastic drawer thingies. I put the desk on the wall that the closet door is on. No more tripping over cords, yay! The kids yellow table and the big-kids desks are sorta mish-mashed with a big pile o'mess right now. So, we're off to get supplies to finish. I am finishing tonight. Otherwise we'll be doing school on the living room floor tomorrow!

We love you and miss you! Be done soon!

Lazy-dazy Sunday

We didn't go to church today because Adam has a nasty cough. Luke had a cold-y sounding nose all last week, so I was not surprised to wake up to hear Adam coughing. I decided I just wasn't going to drag him there sick, and get other kids sick, not when the H1N1 is so "pandemic" (can you hear my sarcasm?) that the government is threatening to forcefully vaccinate our children for it, when it is really only barely worse than the regular flu. Not to get off on a tangent....!

So instead we stayed home, and lounged around. Lukas said "what is today Mommy?" I told him Sunday. He said "WE DIDN'T HAVE PANCAKES YESTERDAY!!" So I made pancakes and we didn't have enough chocolate chips, so I made peanut butter and jelly pancakes and they weren't as good, but they were quite tasty even still. The kids devoured them just like they were chocolate chip pancakes.

So after you called I decided to just rearrange furniture. That is always fun on a no-church Sunday, right?


Looks kinda strange, huh? There is just more room in here this way. It wouldn't work with you here at all since there are only 5 chairs at the table. But it's good for now.

I made chicken in a wine and cream sauce for dinner, with asparagus, onions, and mushrooms and noodles. You've had it. I have made it a few times. It was delish. The kids all ate it because they wanted strawberry shortcake afterwards. Adam threw the biggest fit, you can well imagine, because he didn't want to eat the asparagus, but I swear Josh, as soon as he resigns himself to it, he is just fine and he'll eat it. It just takes all of us listening to him whine and cry through 20 minutes of dinner before he gets to that point. Arg. So I let Jenna and Riley make the strawberries. They washed them, and cut them up, put sugar (stevia!) on them start to finish all on their own.
Dinner was so tasty. I stuffed myself (as you can well see by the amount of food on my plate, but the funny thing is I had more!) with delicious dinner and dessert. I almost drank a fly out of my cup tonight too. Very disgusting. I felt something and about swallowed thinking it nothing, and then I was like, uhhhhhhhh, and I spit it all over the counter and sure enough - FLY. Gag. I maybe could have thrown up then because the thought of you chomping on the fat fly in your v-8 popped into my head, and I just had to get rid of the fly before I really spit all over the counter. =)

I am going to get the kids in the house now, clean them up, and read another chapter in The Horse and His Boy, and then put them to bed. I am aiming for 7:55 so that I can listen to Pastor Mark tonight. I aimed 2x today at both service times, and missed both because of one kid-thing or another. It'll be nice to sit and listen without any interruptions, er, hopefully.

Oh, I almost forgot. Livea was telling Riley today that "Daddy is gone for a long time, and YAH, he is going to be GROUNDED when he gets home!" I have no idea where that came from! But it was funny. Silly little thing of her!

I love you, and miss you! I hope you're remembering to journal. I keep forgetting to ask you about that. I can't wait until R&R. I keep thinking that I can't wait until you're home, but R&R is sooner!!

finally, some pictures (from my phone)

How can you just not laugh when you see this cute little cheeky smile??? I can't!

Isn't she a cutie with bangs? Maybe her cheeks just are bigger..? I don't know, but they sure do look gigantic in this picture. She was saying "cheeeeeese" for you too. She doesn't know how to keep her eyes open when you tell her to smile.

We went to Dillons tonight to get water bottles filled. I lifted her up to put her empty bottle in the return cage, and she got to push it all the way in. Afterward, I set her on the ground, and she looked up at me with those giant cheeks and said "I did a good job, didn't I, Mommy??" So sweet!

After homeschool group yesterday Christina and I stayed and chatted it up for a while. The kids were all playing and having such a good time together. I should have taken pictures with all the kids playing together, but wasn't paying attention close enough, but got this one.

And this too:









Look how cute they are. You will have to show this to Brad, if you can. It is a better picture of Christian than it is of Adam. They played together so good all day. All of the kids did. It was a good time. I didn't take any pictures of Jenna or Luke, so they will have to get some pictures of them tomorrow for you.

I am going to give Adam and Liv a bath now, and get the kids in bed semi-early tonight. Not at bedtime, but earlier than 9, hopefully. I let Adam play on my computer a little bit ago. He tore of the C key comlpletely and the P key doesn't work that well now, I have to press really hard, and I am tempted to just glue the c back on with super glue, but I am scared what it might do. Still, I have to slow down to press C, and for example right now, I typed "Press", but only "ress" typed out actually because maybe he started to tear the P key off too. Little naughty.

We miss you so much, and we love you.

The best thing ever!

I forgot to tell you when we were on the phone today...!!
I remembered, but then we talked, and the kids, and it was loud, and we ran out of time....

This morning during bible study, I was reading to them, and this is part of what I read:

Jesus said to them, "You must go everywhere, into the whole world, and tell people about Me. When they believe in Me, you must baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."

I stopped here and asked them all if they knew what it meant to believe in Him, and I asked them if they knew what being baptized meant, and how it was done. They all said yes, but all had it sorta off, so I explained what it was to believe in Jesus, and I explained what baptism meant, and how it is done usually. Then Luke said "I believe in Jesus," and Adam said "Me too, I believe in Jesus!" So I asked them if they wanted to pray to ask Jesus to come into their heart and their life forever. Luke said "Yes, I do," right away, and after he did Adam said he wanted to too. But then Adam looked a little worried, so I asked him what was wrong and if he had any questions. He looked down at his shirt and asked "How does Jesus come into your heart?" I told him that God's spirit comes and fills you up so that you can be a good person and help you to do what Jesus would want you to do. He looked down at his shirt again, and sort of touched his heart and looked back up at me like he was scared. It was so adorable. I told him that it wouldn't hurt at all, and that all we would have to do is say a prayer and Jesus would be with him, and he would never die, he would live forever with God. He said "ohh, no, I don't want-" I interrupted him and said "I think that people that aren't Christian don't go to live with God. When they die, they go away from God forever, and all of their Christian family aren't there to be with them in Heaven." He seriously thought about it for another minute and then he said "Welll, Mommmyyy, will you be there?" I smiled and told him "of course." Then he said "Okay, then I want Jesus in my heart." I said "You know...Daddy has Jesus in his heart," and Lukas said (amazed!), "NO! I didn't know that!" I laughed out loud at that. Both the boys said they didn't think they wanted to be baptized though. Adam is serious about not being dunked under water...even for one second. Luke said he could handle it fine, and Jenna has declared she wants to be baptized now. So after all that, I helped them say a prayer, and they both said it and when we all opened our eyes, Luke and Adam looked up at me with the biggest smiling eyes and lips I have ever seen. It was so special and so sweet, and I nearly cried right then when I saw them smiling up at me like they really were changed. It was so cool. I wish you could have been here to be the one to pray with them. Livea prayed with the boys too, so Jenna insists she is a Christian too, but I am not so sure that counts. What do you think? :o) *sigh*

I made Curried Tomato and White Bean Soup for dinner tonight. I found the recipe in that Cooking mag I got, and I put it all in the crockpot instead of making it on the stove, and it turned out spectacular. Livea devoured 2 bowls, but you know how she is with soups and casseroles and anything mish-mashed together. Adam reluctantly finished his (amazing in and of itself, right, considering there were beans in it) when I told him that everyone that finished their soup all up could have Lucky Charms for breakfast in the morning....and I teased that since I had a giant bowl of soup, I could probably have a giant bowl of Lucky Charms. He seriously finished the soup in 2 minutes, and didn't even make faces or complain. And of course he asked if he was going to be able to have Lucky Charms in the morning. I think they are all pretty Lucky that I even bought Lucky charms, and I also think that I am pretty dumb for doing it because now they are going to ask for Lucky Charms every time we go to the store for the next year, no doubt.

I didn't buy a camera!! I am dying to, but I think I have figured out that the PX doesn't have a good selection. They have $100 cameras and $500 cameras. I need to look online at aafes.com and see what I can find.
Well, we miss you and love you and we pray for you every day! I wish more time was behind us than in front of us.

attack of the public schoolers

Last night I walked outside to check on the kids. The little girl Kyler was straddling her bike. Jenna was straddling Riley's bike, and Riley was playing with the dollhouse in the garage. The second I walked out there I could tell something was wrong, so I asked if there was a problem. Immediately Jenna said "YES!!, KYLER-" and then Kyler kept interrupting saying "Noooo!" every time Jenna began to speak. I finally told Kyler to be quiet. Jenna said that Kyler was telling her that she needed to go to real school because they have better rules and she can learn better. She told her it was wrong for her not to go to school, and that they have a zero-bully tolerance at their school, so it was better. Jenna was really upset by it. I sort of came unglued. Kyler is not a nice girl. I don't want her to stay away from Jenna, but I told Jenna that she is only allowed to play with her supervised from now on. There are always problems when she comes around. She is very bossy. I explained to Kyler that kids can learn at home just as well or better than they learn at school, and that Jenna follows her Mom's and Dad's rules, and Kyler doesn't know what is best for Jenna - that is why God gave her 2 incredibly intelligent parents. Poor Riley must have been in on it at some point because she looked scared to death at my lecture. She got really upset and started crying and saying how Kyler was mean to her at school and how she (Riley) got in trouble because of her, and all this. I told Kyler she didn't to go home for the day, but that she was certainly welcome back to our home again. I explained to her that when she played at our house she needed to follow our rules, and be respectful to everyone at our house no matter if it is her own brother, or Riley, or Jenna or the boys, or the neighbors dog. I told her again, that she was welcome back just so she maybe really does come back.

Then after she left I asked the girls if they felt better that she was gone, and they both nodded their heads and said yes, yes, yes. They talked about how bossy she always is, and all this. I told them that there were going to be many bossy girls as they grew up and that they had to start decided now, when they were little which girls were girls they should be friends with, and if they wanted to be a nice girl or a girl like Kyler is sometimes. They both said they didn't want to be like Kyler is. Riley looked so upset, and I asked her if she needed a hug, and she ran to me and hugged me. It was so sad!! I think she was scared that I was going to be upset with her because I think she had a part in the badgering of Jenna's schooling. Wow! I really never thought our kids would be bothered like this!! Leave it to girls, to be catty, right? No wonder you guys are glad to be Infantry and away from girls. I am afraid of what to say anymore because of the cattiness of spouses in FRG. I am just not made for FRG. I don't want to deal with cattiness, and high school games. Some people think they are really mature, and they are just as immature as the people they think they are so much more mature than. As much as it has been said that the spouses don't wear their husbands' rank - there is a dividing line among and within the ranks, so it really just is not true. There are coffee's and I saw Kelly post the other day that there is now a "commanders wives" group too. Talk about no-ranks, hmmmm...... maybe I am done with the military.

Anyway, we have a meeting today at CYS to get the kids enrolled for the Skies Taekwondo. So at least that will save some money for a while. I am considering going to the PX to get a camera but the idea is daunting because there are SO many!! I am mostly wanting to go to the PX for a Starbucks coffee. I have made coffee exactly once since you have been gone. I haven't gone to our favorite coffee shop at all, and I have been to Starbucks once also. Today coffee just sounds good though.

Well, Livea "wants breakfast right now" so I guess I better go. She is crying and asking me to "get up, come on, Mommy"....starving little monster.
We love you, and miss you!!!

Dinner without Daddy

Last night we were supposed to have spaghetti for dinner. Lukas was all excited about that, I'm sure you can imagine. So, we went up to the Arts & Crafts Center on post to drop the frames off for matting, and we had to go to the store for brown sugar, because we ran out during cookie-making. All of this took longer than I expected and it was 6:00pm when we got home. Without you coming home at 6 or 7 at night, we have been eating dinner by 5:30 at the latest. On Taekwondo nights, we eat at 4:00pm (and have a snack when we get home). So, I just did not feel like cooking spaghetti, and cleaning up a spaghetti kitchen! So guess what we ate for dinner? We had tortilla chips, with spinach and artichoke dip, and pizza rolls with ranch, and pretzel fish crackers, and mozzarella fish crackers, and cookies and milk for dinner. No one went to bed hungry last night!

Everyone woke up hungry though.
Last night in bed, Livea randomly said "there are bad guys, right Mommy?" I told her yes. She said, "yes, and we will run and run with our sticks." I said "why?" She said "when there are bad guys outside, we will run and run with our sticks." I said "ohhh." She said "some bad guys are bad, right Mommy?" "Yes Livea". She said "some good guys are bad, right Mommy?" I said, "well, yes, that's true." She said, "some bad guys are good, right Mommy?" I said "well, yes, I suppose so." She said "the bad guys will come in our house and we will get them with our sticks, right Mommy!!?" I told her that bad guys wouldn't get in our house because we are safe in our house. I asked her if she wanted to pray about bad guys and she said yes. So we prayed that the bad guys would be good guys, not bad guys.
Where did she come from??
She is so cute with her bangs cut. I am going to buy a new camera this week so I can upload pictures to my computer, so you can see us. I wasn't going to, but I think I resigned myself to it, because I have been wanting to post pictures on here for you to see, and I cannot because of my retard-o camera. She looks like Lukas with her short bangs - her cheeks look 5 times chubbier. It is so funny, and it makes me want to kiss them all day.

I have to go start school with the kids in 5 minutes, and I am not dressed, so I better go.
We love you, and we miss you!