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.

Kansas City//28 weeks

Well, Kansas City was a quick trip this time, but it was still fun anyway.  The kids all had a ton of fun.  Besides the mess of the house-alarm going off on the way out, and then yesterday morning, that was a tad distracting, it we all had a really good time.

Friday night we went out to a local pizza place which was quite tasty.  Then we went back and just hung out at Kurt and Heather's house, chatting it up 'til way too late.  Livea kept getting up on Kurt's lap, and he started scratching her back at one point and she just loved it.  She looked like his little pet up there getting scratched.  It was really funny.


The baby shower was very nice.  A ton of people, ton of food, ton of fun, ton of gifts.  It was a really  nice shower.

Jenna even won a game!

Click here to view these pictures larger

The boys had a ton of "man time' with Kurt, as Kurt put it.  They went glow-in-the-dark golfing, which they have been dying to do for some time as you know.  Kurt said it was 36 holes!!  They went the distance!  And I can't forget to mention that they got soda afterward.  They both mentioned this several times to me.  They thought that was really special evidently.

When they got home, they played with Legos, and Playmobile toys for a while.  After most of the guests cleared out Kurt put video games on for them again, and Adam is so dang cute - check it out!  I am not sure if he is just adorable and loving, or controlling and holding him there so he doesn't get away with the remote. ;o)


I have a cute picture of Heather and I that someone took, we're back to back with our belly's protruding.  I will have to ask Heather to send that picture to me so I can post it for you.

I can't wait to be in Kansas City with YOU.  Fourth of July, baby!  What a fun tradition!  I'm already so excited about going there for the Fourth.

Here is my 28 week picture, I was 28 weeks Friday.

My ankles were swollen for the first time yesterday - maybe the drive home, maybe not drinking enough water during the shower, maybe standing all day, maybe not drinking enough, standing all day and the drive home all together....  I hate the swollen ankle days, and I am hoping it was just a bad combination and I am not ready to have swollen ankles yet!

It's getting so close for you to come home (already? seriously???).  The middle part was so hard, and we're so close to the end....I just can't wait for you to be with us again.

I love you and miss you so much!!

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.

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!!