History

On the drive home from school today, Lukas says "History is just full of dead people.  And that's all.  It's all dead people, all the time."  Then a long silence.  Then "And pretty much every time I open a history book, I hear the souls of dead people."  I said "You don't really though, do you?" (I'm checking to see if my kid is crazy, or what? I don't know. lol).  He looks over  and laughs, "No, that was just a joke."

days of thanks

People are all over Facebook doing days of thankfulness type deal this month.  I kind of don't like to be all that cliche about it, and be like everyone else, you know, rebel-me and all, so I'm boycotting it, however, I still think it's nice to take time to reflect on being thankful - especially because I know I have so much to be thankful for.  So I started my own list, and then I thought I'd transfer it over here because at least you'd have something to read......

Thursday, November 1:  Totally thankful for coffee.  It's like God's gift to me some days.  You know what I miss though?  I miss sitting with you on the weekends having coffee together and doing our crosswords.  Thankful for coffee, and looking forward to our weekends of coffee again soon.

Friday, November 2:  I am so thankful for my comfortable bed.  Went on a field trip with Adam today to Pioneer Village.  I didn't work out this morning because I had too much to do, and thought I'd run later, but those kids wore me out!  One of the girls had to go potty.  She announced this to me during our picnic lunch.  I told her to wait a minute and we'd all go before we saw the reenactment.  Two seconds later she mumbles (way too loudly) "ohh, man, now I have to poo."  Oh. My. Gosh.  No thank you.  I now know that I would never want to be a teacher.  I told her to wait a couple minutes until the other little girl in my group was done eating so she could go too.  So we went.  And this little girl took forever.  Finally, I sent the second girl back to the table.  The way they announce the beginning of the reenactment is by sounding a cannon.  It was super loud.  As soon as it boomed, the little girl said "oohh, NOOO, I'm going to miss it!!"  I'm like "hurry up, Abby! Can you hurry?"  At this point it's been like ten minutes.  I wait another minute... I'm waiting outside because the door is open and I can see in, so no reason not to.  I step into the bathroom and say "Abby, what is taking so long?  Are you okay?"  She says "Yes, I'm okay, I'm just putting my pants back on now."  WHAT.  NO.  Can.not.be.happening.to.me.  I look down and see that she has no shoes on, NO SOCKS ON, and her pants are on the ground!!  What?  Are you kidding me?  What a nightmare.  "Okay, Abby, HURRY UP!"  I step back outside to just ponder, and wonder why in the world a kid would do this.  Also, I just really need to get away.  Call me a weirdo, but this one just threw me for a loop.  A second cannon booms, and I know we're going to miss half of the reenactment.  Thankfully, another mother took my group over to see it.  I have to make her wash her hands.  Finally, we're on our way to a reenactment of a Revolutionary War fight.  So, I can't help it.  I say "Abby.  Do you take your pants off at school too?"  "Yes, I do."  "Abby.  Don't take your pants off to go to the bathroom.  Just don't do that.  That takes too long."  "Only when I go poo."  "Abby, why did you take your socks off?"  "I had to take my shoes off."  "Okay, just don't do that anymore.  You don't need to do that."  Abby: "Whew.  I feel SO much better now."  This kid wore me out.  I love my bed tonight.  Best place ever.

Saturday, November 3:  Can I have 2 today?  I am thankful for my legs that carried me up the mountain this morning, and that completed 10 repeats at the top, in just barely over an hour.  So completely, hugely thankful for good health; I think it means so much more to me since I have had health issues, not even terribly bad ones....but still,so thankful to be healthy!  Also, I am thankful for spontaneous friends.  I decided I wanted to get out of the house, and Julie and Alan came along for the ride.  I love them peeps.

Sunday, November 4:  I am thankful for being able to be lazy some days.  Lazing around and reading, watching tv, short naps, not cleaning, not cooking, because the house is clean, and there's cold food aplenty - sometimes just helps keep a soul keepin' on.  I was pareeetty lazy today.  The kids were too, and no one complained a thing about it.

Monday, November 5:  Thankful for you men that seem to so easily wield: screwdrivers on curtain rod installs, drills to make holes for the curtain rod going up, hammers on nails for picture hanging, shovels into thousands of pounds of rocks to clear out for grass, paint paraphernalia that freshens walls,  technological wires/equipment on televisions, cable boxes, Wii's, DVD players, surround sound systems, etc., all the tools and motivation it takes to do oil changes. (Thursday: I'm adding toilet plunger-wielding men to this too)

Tuesday, November 6:  Today I am thankful for hot showers.  Can you imagine what it would be like to take cold water showers all the time??

Wednesday, November 7:  Thankful for beautiful, cool weather.

Thursday, November 8:  Thankful that there are people that do good for no other reason than just to do good.  I heard on the radio this morning a story that a man saw a truck parked near his house, and he kept noticing that the tires on the truck were all in awful condition.  He decided to help the person out, and went and put a note on the guys car that said something like: "You don't know me.  But I noticed that your tires need to be replaced.  Here is a receipt to a full set of tires that I purchased for you.  If you go to such and such tire shop, and ask for -name-of-some-guy, he will put the tires on your truck free of any charges.  If you ever feel lead, please do something nice for someone in the future."  Awesome.

Friday, November 9:  Today I am thankful for being able to spend time with my mom.  I spent the day at her house.  She helped me make books for Adam's classroom.  She provided me with coffee, and coffee cake, and conversation.  She drove me to Zales to get my wedding set repaired.  She spent time with the kids while I waited for the paperwork, and while the salesman called me "kiddo" way too many times for my liking - and tried to get me to upgrade my set to something much more beautiful (and way more expensive, don't forget).  She waited while a greek guy at a kiosk tried to sell me a perfect flat iron for my hair, that of course doesn't do any damage, and actually nourishes the hair, for only $150.

Saturday, November 10:  I am so thankful for friends and family and being near them.  I love them all from the tip top of my heart.  I am going to be sad and cry lots when we have to leave here.  But for now, I am very, very thankful to be here to spend time with them while I can.

Sunday, November 11:  Thankful for the courage of men.  Saying "Happy Veteran's Day" sounds kind of odd to me.  But I'm happy there are those with courage to be veterans, so happy day it is.  "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.  It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die."  - g.k. chesterson

Monday, November 12:  I am thankful for abundance.  I know I have so much more than so many people. Our washer broke last night.  Water is leaking everywhere, and I was starting to get really stressed about it.  But then I remembered that I don't have to wash in a pot of boiling water out in the backyard, with lye and a stick.  I don't have to scrub on a board, or use a wringer.  I don't have to wear dirty clothing for a week just because the wash only gets done once every two.  I have clean clothes to wear.  And most importantly, I really can buy a new washer (no matter that I don't want to).  I have so much!  In fact, I have so much stuff I should really have a yard sale.

Tuesday, November 13:  Thankful for early bedtime!!!!  I ran so hard this morning.  I am exhausted today.  I don't know why some days seem so much harder than others.  I am thankful that I am the mom and I can say it is bedtime whenever I wanna.  Early bedtime tonight, starting: NOW.

Wednesday, November 14:  I am so thankful for Trader Joe's!!!  I love that place so much.  I love how small it is.  I love that when (WHEN!) I forget something, it doesn't take ten minutes to walk to the other side to get it, or I don't just leave it completely because I'm too lazy to walk across a football-field length of store to grab it.  I am so thankful for organic food at a great price, especially their meats.  I am so thankful for their friendly staff.  I am so thankful they help push out my second cart.  I am so thankful that they have little carts for the kids to pile stuff in.  I am thankful for their free coffee.  I am thankful for everything about them.  I love them, and I think when we're back in Kansas we should petition for a Trader Joe's there because I can't live without my Trader Joe's!

Thursday, November 15: Thankful for the internet and phones.  I know I complain when we can't talk for 4 or 5 days, but honestly, I remember when you went to boot camp and we didn't talk for weeks.  I can't imagine having it be like it was for my grandparents - where they only had letters between them for so long....and I am sure they were thankful for that!

Friday, November 16:  I am thankful for health!  For mine, for my husbands', for my kids'.

Saturday, November 17:  I am thankful for friends that you can talk to about *anything* and *everything*.

Sunday, November 18:  Today, I am thankful for happy, cheerful kids, that love to smile, laugh, work and play.  The kids helped me clean the garage up today and they were so helpful.  Luke kept coming and saying "what can I do now, Mommy?"  I am thankful I didn't have to clean it alone, and that the kids were a joy to be with to get it back to clean.

Monday, November 19:  So thankful I have a sister that I can talk to, share with, and laugh and laugh and laugh with.  So thankful we like each other, because we didn't always.  So thankful that she is in my life and that we are together right now.  Love her.

Tuesday, November 20:  I'm thankful for music.  It can soothe the soul.

Wednesday, November 21:  I am thankful for disappointment, because it is a reminder of what matters to me the most.

Thursday, November 22:  I am thankful for family and friends.  I am thankful for our children, all of them.  I am thankful for a husband that works hard for his wife, children and himself.  I am thankful that I breathe, sleep, eat, talk, walk, run, laugh, cry, scowl; for fear, pain, sadness and tears - because it means I am alive.

Friday, November 23:  I am thankful for low days, because it means that I have high ones too.  Today was a low day for me, but they are few and far between, and I am also thankful for that!

Saturday, November 24:  I am thankful for my brothers and sisters and for their children, my nieces and nephews.  Julie, Stevan, David, Misty, and I went and watched Nick's band play tonight.  It was amazing to sit there and watch him playing.  He is an adult.  He is grown.  Time has blown by so quickly.  I am so thankful that I was able to go and see him playing.

Sunday, November 25:  I am thankful for the time that our children can spend with their grandparents.

Monday, November 26:  I am thankful for mistakes in life, because they help us grow and become better people.

Tuesday, November 27:  I am thankful for awesome acts of nature.  This morning as I was driving to go work out I saw the most amazing meteor.  It was, well, I don't know how close it was, but I saw it for about two seconds and then I could see individual sparks as it went out, and I could see the leftover rock, unlit, as it flew through the air.  It was very close.  So cool.

Wednesday, November 28:  I am thankful for my senses.  I am thankful that I can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.

Thursday, November 29:  So thankful for writers - and books.  It is so nice to get lost in a story.

Friday, November 30:  I am thankful for love; and being loved!  I miss my husband and LOVE him!  I can't wait til I can see him in front of my face!

Go Dirty Chicas

So, honestly.  I mean, honestly - I really was kind of scared worried about the mud run.  I thought for sure it was too hard, and too cold, and definitely, definitely, too muddy.  I was worried about what to wear.  I was worried I was going to be too cold.  I was worried I was going to fall off a wall and die a painful and untimely death while my husband was 8000 miles away.  At the same time, I really knew that it wasn't going to be scary, or horrible and that it'd most likely be...uhhh...what...?  Fun.  And:  It was totally fun.

Stayed up way too late Friday night, for no reason.  Got up early, made kids awesome breakfast, made myself coffee.  Ate a bite or two of eggs, just cause.  Drank all my coffee.  Drank some water.  Got dressed.  Braided some hair.  Sprayed it pink.  Drove, and drove.  Waited some.  Checked in.  Got a shirt, and necklace.  Checked backpack.  Potty breaked in one of the ten gazillion portapots: beautiful.  Pretty soon we were taking pictures and standing around, and then we hear the DJ/event guy calling us out, asking where we're at.  Uh, oops.  We head over, and wait.  They're playing music at the start line, and the waves are every 15 minutes.  We get some pictures taken again and we wait a few minutes, and.....we're off..........

Had the funnest time ever doing it as a group.  I don't think I'd ever want to do a mud run alone.  But I didn't just love it.  I super loved it.  It was not too challenging, in fact, I think there could have been a few obstacles that were more challenging.  Although, they did have tall fences, and shorter ones (hey, I picked the tall ones).  There was definitely a lot of mud, but after you slog through a few trenches, after you were full of mud, it was much the same and it didn't really matter much.  Still waiting for photos from the professionals that were hired for the event - they said maybe by Friday they'd be up.  A one of the girls took pictures, so here are some to make fun of enjoy.

Dirty Chicas at the Start Line!

Just keep running.  Just keep running,.  Running, running, running. What do we do, we run, run.  I'm actually in this picture, you can see like 1/4 of my face if you're looking really good and hard.

Giant wall-a-bounce-thing.  It was definitely easiest to just sorta bounce up this, as well as down.  I'm in this picture too. It's like Where's Waldo? - Can ya find meh?

Climbing up.....

.....and DONE.

Last splash through gunk, err, FUN.  Yah, FUN.  Actually, it was loads of fun.  And some event woman at the end told us to go back through and get dirtier.  So uh, we did................................................................................

.......and.......Bleh.  Mud in teeth.  Mud on gums.  Mud in ears. Mud in eyes.  Mud in nose.  Mud in all the places covered by clothing, too.  Lovely, muddy, mud, mud.  It's not delicious.  In case you wondered.  Now you know.

We love mud though, see?  Happy smiles!

More happy.

And more happy.  So happy I'm biting my bottom lip off.  Yah, not sure. Lisa and Carisa look super cute though, so I had to add this retard one of me in.  Lips still attached to me, so it's okay....

Awesome, fun, lovely mud.  You know what is pretty sweet about mud?  Totally washes off.

We Are the Champions

Gotta be doing something right when you hear this conversation from afar:
(Adam finished his homework and I told him he could play video games)
Adam: No, don't come in here.
Luke: Mumbling-stuff-I-can't-quite-hear.
Adam:  No, you can't come in here until you finish your homework.  It's not allowed.
Luke: Okay, I'll go and finish my homework.

True story - just happened.

Saturday was the boys' football tournament.  The girls did not want to go so Julie took them for the day.  I had fun hangin' with my boys.  Ethan super-loved football day.  He kept asking, "when is my game?" and he says "when I grow up, I'm gonna be a football star."

So we got up and got the girls over to Julie's place by 7:30am.  I was going to try to stop at the grocery and get something decent for breakfast, but Jack in the Box it was.  It was delicious at the time, but then after we ate McDonald's for lunch, I just felt sick for the rest of the afternoon.  Adam's team lost their games right off, and didn't get to even play for the bronze medal.  He got to be quarterback quite a few times, and pulled many a flag.  He was super upset that they lost.  He is very competitive.  I was totally thinking that Luke's team would follow suit and we'd have an early departure.  Boy was I ever wrong.  Luke's team did spectacular.  His games were very exciting, and he had a great time.  The Gold Medal game was really good.  They played against Archway Trivium, which is the school in Goodyear.  That team was very good, and the game was a close one.  It was very exciting for them to win, it being their first year playing together as a team.  They all are very excited that they won the Trophy that will be displayed at their school.  The boys will also get gold medals with their school name on it.

Go North Phoenix Argonauts, #28 and #70!

Adam in action!

The Champs!

I tried for action shots of Luke, but every time I took pictures he went behind someone, or someone got in my way.  My amazing Nikon, I think, might be out of commission.  I have pictures on there to look at so maybe I have some action shots of him.  I have some of Ethan too.  I might just need a new lens.  Every time I would zoom in everything would blur up.  It was working fine on Adam's birthday so I'm not sure what is going on with it.

They really missed you on their day, and said several times that they wished you were there.  I told them we'd get the pictures up right away for you.  And voila, I actually did it. ;o)  Love you much.

unfun days of the military spouse

I don't complain too much.  That's my my abjuration, as weak sounding as it may be.  So on to it:

When you don't call me it drives me crazy!  At least send me an email to say you can't call!  It's like sitting on pins and needles over here wondering what the heck.....  Knowing you're traveling back and forth, and going off-FOB for meetings, etc.....  UGH.  Enough to make me take some valium.  Prettypleasewithsugarontop.

Livea's Letter

Dear Daddy,

Hi Daddy, I am going to tell you about Adam's birthday party.  Um, we did lots of games. They were really fun.  My favorite one was the last one.  And you had to put some tight things on your head and there was a ball in it and um, you had to put it on your head and there was water bottles and so you had to swing it and you had to get that water bottles knocked down.  All of them.  I knocked down all of them but two.  Adam just ran into them to knock them down when time was up, to help me.

Daddy, once for school we were on Apple and we made cheese and apples and made it an apple sandwich.  And it was really good.  Daddy, would you like that?

Daddy, we went to Halloween and I got so much candy and my bag is really heavy.  And we went to tons of doors.  And Mommy got me a witch costume.  It was black and really long.  And Mommy painted my face green with her green eyeshadow.  We put some lipgloss on and we put sparkly green eyeshadow on my lips and it was really fun.  And Mommy put mascara on me.  We are going to send you candy because we have too much.  Mommy says it's too much, but I think I got a lot, but I'm giving some to you.

At Adam's birthday party we put helium in balloons and put a string on it.  I liked that, it was really fun.  And we even got to suck up some helium that was left in the big bottle.

I miss you, Daddy.  I love you a lot.  I want you to come home.  I love you.
liv

(so cute! she typed her own name!)

Jokester Jenna

Jenna tells me a joke:


Two scientists walk into a restaurant and sit down.
The first scientist says to the waitress, "I'll take some H2O."
The second scientist says to the waitress, "I'll take some H2O, too,"
The scientists get their drinks and the second one dies.

ba-dum-DUM!


I laughed and laughed.  The boys were like "I don't get it, Mommy, what does that mean? Why would he die?"

hardy-har-har

Hope your day is better than the second scientists.  ba-dum-TSH!  I know, I'm a horrible jokester.  I'll let the kids stick to the jokes.  And you.  Love you!

Ethan the Terrible

true story:

Ethan, with a charger for the DS in hand: I took this plug away from Vee-uh.
Me: You did? Why? Livea loves you. Go give it back.
Ethan: Because. That plug is beautiful.
A boy and his electronic stuff starts early I think.
I asked him if he gave her the charger cord back and he said "No, I'm too high, I can't reach it." I asked him where it was and he looked over at the headboard on the bed.  I said "Oh, you're too LITTLE? It's behind the bed?" "Yah, it's behind that."  Little stink.

Because you need some comic relief:

Jenna's Golf Match Pictures

Can you see the flag?  No? Me neither.  They were so far away.  This was the first hole.  She didn't do too well until about the fourth hole, then she got her game on!

Can you see the flag this time?  No?  Me neither.  They are SO FAR!!

Okay, I didn't take enough pictures, the others were kind of bad, and it was actually pretty bright out and I couldn't see the pictures I was taking.  She had a lot of fun though, and I had fun with her.  Maybe she'll make us, errr, herself rich someday. ;o)

Oh, boys.

Me, to Ethan: Ethan, are you a big boy or a baby?

Ethan: I'm a big baby.

Picture catch up!

So, I figure since I have been so bad at updating you here I will just give you another pile of pictures to look at.  I DO take pictures for you often, but I forget to sit down and put them up.  So here I go..............

I make lots of lunches.  I am getting very creative.  Sometimes they get dinosaur or heart shaped sandwiches.  Sometimes they get flower shaped cheese.  Sometimes they get fruit and nuts, or cheese and meat rollups.  And some days I'm super lazy and pretzels and cream cheese is just how I roll....

I can't remember if I ever sent this to you or if I...errr..."forgot."  I think I may have emailed it -but I meant to put it up here for you too.  This was Waterworld day, uh, yah, it's called something else now, and I can't for the life of me remember.......

Oh, and this is what goes on when your sons spend the night at your sister's house:

This is Jenna's "Cave Art" drawing from school.  I think she did a pretty good job.

 Jenna, at golf practice.  Her first game is tomorrow.  She is nervous that she doesn't have practice today because there is an early game.

Jeanette, Thomas and Michael came to one of Jenna's golf practices and this is how the boys do golf practice:

This is Julie's birthday:

And this is how we do night time.  Lukas was on the floor reading a book.  Jenna is usually reading too but was exhausted this night and I think we was actually asleep already.

Love you so much, and miss you tons.  Wish you were here to crowd into that bed with us tonight.  Hurry up and get here.

Happy Birthday!

Happy, Happy Birthday to YOU!  I love you and miss you and can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you when you come back home.

Thinking of you:

Time to Mow

Adam mowed Grandpa's lawn for $5.  He had the chance to mow the front and back, $5 each but said he got too tired after the backyard was done.

Haiku For Two.

Happy, Happy but

Missing You - Lucky 13

To You, To me. Us. 

Because it is so much better when we're together...

Chicken pox.

Oh joy.  It was fun.  But we're done.  Almost anyway.  Poor man had them all over.

Toothless

Adam is toothless on top as of last night.  He lost the first one a few days ago, and last night the second one came out.  We had to take a picture to show you his toothless self.

Reason #4,692 Why I love Our Kids:

Kids: We're SO hungry!

Me: You are? Want a fiber bar?

Kids: A fiber bar?!?! .....  YES!!!!

Love them.

First Day of School

First Day.

Happy enough looking, right?

Picture Catch-up Time.

In order of no certain importance............

Littles playing at the last swim lesson of the season.  They put holes in the hose so our awesome dive students wouldn't burn their toes waiting in line to dive.  I finally got smart the last week and let Ethan wear his suit to play in it.

 

 

 

 

I don't remember what day this was, I think a Sunday.  But this is my story and I"m sticking to it: I accidentally forgot to run the very full dishwasher.  I was feeling extremely behind, and tired, and also probably a teensy bit lazy too, and so I also had a sink-full of dishes as well as a full dishwasher.  I woke up in the morning very hungry, with starving kids biting my legs.  I went to make some delicious eggs, and coffee, and the works, and the dishes were all dirty - everywhere.  I felt like pouting, and called up my mom and sister and begged them to go to Cracker Barrel with us.  That way I didn't feel ultra guilty, or something.  They both lovingly obliged, and here is the photo of kids rockin' on our way out.

I had to make a Target run, for something or another, and made Jenna try these cute glasses on.

....and Ethan had to try them on too, of course.  He also had the matching shirt on already.

Haircuts for everyone.  Jenna and Liv went to a salon, a door down from Great Clips.  Great Clips had a $7.99 promotion.  The next day I saw a commercial for free haircuts at JC Penney.  Nice.  I cut Ethan's.  I kept walking back and forth between Great Clips and Salon to make sure kids were okay everywhere.  The people probably thought I was crazy.  Also, the salon smelled horribly and constantly of fake nail perfume.  I think we all have lung cancer.  Sorry about that.

The long awaited Swim and Dive Videos.

Trek into the dust storm.

I forgot to post my pictures from when Julie and I went out to watch UFC last weekend.  We started out going to some place called FuNuGyz (pronounced Foo-noo-geez), but they charged a $5 cover, and we were feeling cheapish.  We called Padres Murphy's and they said there was plenty of seats available still.  So we went there instead.  On our drive over we got slammed by the dust storm that everyone likes to call a "Haboob" now.  I don't love that, so I just still call it a dust storm.  I was trying to make Julie post the first picture to Facebook as we're driving and she was having a cow because she doesn't know how to use a smart-phone.  She kept calling it a dumb phone and I had to keep helping her, and then she was yelling at me that I was going to crash us.  Really, she is just jealous because she wants a smart-phone.

Amazing.  And we were headed straight into it.

So pretty though!

We hit a patch of dirt RIGHT when Julie was posting this picture, so she was looking down - we were passing ASU West and I saw it coming and squeaked.  Of course, right after I squeaked I said "oh no!" and right after I said "oh no!". Julie looked up, and the giant clod of dirt hit us so that we could see absolutely nothing but brown for about ten seconds.  It was quite exciting, in my opinion, but she was asking for the nearest bathroom (ha, she'd kill me if she ever read this, and really she never asked for a bathroom, but she was not laughing, like I was)!

We finally turned north.  The wind was blowing NNW, and Julie took another photo - it looks better than it was, in the picture.  It was very dark, and dirty (no pun intended of course) - the picture doesn't do it justice.

Maybe it does look pretty bad.

Sunday, Jeanette and the boys came over and we made nachos and went hiking.

They were all just standing here like this.  I couldn't help but take a picture!

We are planning to hike again this weekend.  Love ya.

Liv Leigh has shingles.

Here she is sleeping before swim class because I gave her Benadryl for her "rash."  We went to my mom's to have her look at it, and three minutes later here is Livea sleeping:

So Liv's ER experience was not so bad.  They are so nice at Mendy's Place.  I love them.  Here she is waiting for the doctor to come in (watching television!):

She enjoyed her hospital bracelet and gown.  She wanted to take the gown home.

The rash is actually hard to capture quite right on camera, and it is pretty mean looking today, and she had trouble sleeping last night because it was hurting her.  She took some Advil before bed.  All the kids wanted to sleep in my bedroom last night on blankets, but she moved into her own bed sometime during the night.  She said her back was hurting her.  She also is saying that her underarm on that side is burning - no rash there (yet), but maybe it will come? I don't know.

It starts at the center of her ribcage, and extends all the way around and stops just before her spine.

Kids have two more days of swim.  I have a pile of pictures and videos of them swimming and diving to post for you.  Hopefully, I'll get to it this weekend.  Miss you tons, and love you tons more.

Maybe you should call ME, baby?

Hey, baby. Sorry I haven't gotten up the videos of the kids diving yet.  Still working on it for you.  So here is something to sideline ya.

I have no idea if you even know this song since it's fairly, newly popular.  So if you don't, listen to this:

Call Me Maybe

There are a ton of remakes.  Julie, the kids and I stumbled upon them last weekend while on YouTube.  Here are our favorites, so I hope you have a few minutes.

Obama sings it

Cookie monster sings it

So, all this to say that today your cousin (Melanie) posted a remake that some guy did with the Marines that are currently in Afghanistan.  It's really not as good as Obama, or Cookie Monster (in my unprofessional opinion), but it is entertaining to me because the guys are deployed, and it had to have been pretty funny to take the time to do such a silly thing.  Miss you, love you more. <3

Marines sing it

4th

Tried getting good fireworks shots, but none turned out great.

We made tasty cookies.

Happy 4th!  I'm late about it, I know.  It was a happy 4th, as happy as it could be without you here of course.  Downtown fireworks were a.maz.ing, as usual.  Julie, Davis and I were together.  None of us had spouses with us.  Kind of funny.  Just us and our kids.  I made a giant amount of boy scout popcorn, with salt and plenty of artery-clogging butter.  I bought cupcakes too, but those didn't make it out of the house - we ate them before we left, and I decided that was a better idea when even I had to wash up after eating it.  The kids had swim lesson, and it rained during their entire lesson.  Lessons were never canceled, though.  It was beautiful, all day.  From hot as Hades, to almost chilly - and then today - back to hot.hot.hot.  Or maybe just hot.hot.  It wasn't as warm today as it has been.  Still yuck though.  I missed being with the Webers.  They missed us too.  They said to tell you to hurry up and be done.  No. Not really.

I tried taking pictures, but it was pretty dark.  I don't know why there aren't any pictures of Julie's kids.  I should have done a group shot with all of us.  I'm bad about pictures in my old age.  I figured out that my phone actually has a flash on it though, what a concept, eh.  Kind of causes problems when I'm trying to take a photo of myself since my arms are only so long - which is why that last picture is very bright looking.

He's making this face on purpose.

She probably won't want to know this picture is online, but I like.

I tried taking this picture three times.  This is the best one.  Livea had her eyes closed in all three.

This is the third or fourth I tried to take of us.  This was also the best one.  Adam kept making faces on purpose, and when Liv figured it out she decided to help.  I was laughing at them both.

I miss you when you can't skype me.  Stop making your wife lonely over here. ;o)  Love you.

bathing beauty

Liv after swim lessons - she lays out every day.  Who'da thunk.

lets get it started, in here

Do you think I should clean this up?  It is getting a little crowded.
Lamp. After sun lotion (Liv had a slight sunburn two weeks ago).  Blue lego.  Pencil. $20 bill. Pony tail (two). Remote. Wine bottle (working on finishing that tonight).  Glass of wine (working on that too).  Water (working on).  Les Mis (work in long progress).  Lavender oil.  Bracelet with earrings attached.  Pass the Pigs game.  Random Parchesi token.  The Abhorsen Trilogy (borrowed from Julie, but haven't even started it yet).  Did I miss anything?  This is too much stuff.  My phone is usually there too, but it's on the bed right now, with me.