Retreat

After we left school yesterday we sat down on a bench right outside of the double doors so I could look over some papers that Ab's teacher had given me. While we were sitting there people were streaming out of the building and then it turned 5 o'clock--hopefully everyone knows what that means! The loud speakers went off and Retreat started to play. Immediately the girls and I jumped up and turned towards where the flag is. I was thinking about Chris and I glanced around and noticed every single person outside of those double doors had stopped and was standing there quietly. There were probably about 75-100 people and not one child was complaining, screaming or talking. There were no babies crying. There was nothing but respect.

This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity,
our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than
that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It
floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether
in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us — speaks to us of
the past, or the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote
upon it.

President Woodrow Wilson

Meet the Teacher

Anyone who knows me knows that I wrestled with pulling Em from private school last year and putting her in public. It worked out well and so this year I pulled Abs from Montessori and put her in public school. Let's hope for the best on that one!

We met their teachers tonight and they were wonderful. I think both of them are going to do well and hopefully learn a lot this year. I talked to Ab's teacher and she said that she had some ideas and was willing to work with me, so hopefully that will be a productive year for her.

The books in Em's room sure looked thick, but they are planning on writing a book this year (right up Em's alley). I signed the girls up for lunches and put money in their account and breakfast starts at 7:20 monday morning. That's a good thing since I can't manage to find them anything to eat every other morning so now they can pick and choose there.

I'm excited about the girls starting school on Monday. I'm excited about getting Junior enrolled in hourly care and scheduling a massage in the next couple of weeks and maybe DH and I can meet for lunch one day with no kids. I wonder what we would talk about since he won't eat with his fingers, use his arm for a napkin, chew with his mouth open, eat too much bread and not eat his meal or drink too much soda......

Wordless Wednesday

This is DH holding Junior right after he was born. He looks small but he was 10 lbs 1 oz. My husband was home on R&R from Iraq and Junior was born two days after he arrived. DH returned to Iraq when Junior was 13 days old until he was just over 5 months old.


Wordless Wednesday

BPA in bottles

If anyone watches the news these days you know about how they are saying not to use bottles that contain BPA because of the risks involved. My sister sent me an article about it today and so I took the time to read it and of course the bottles that I have used for the last two kiddos and still use on Junior are the ones to avoid. Great.

So I dig through my bag full of bottles to see if I can find the glass bottles that I have and some nipples. I wash everything again and prepare a bottle for Junior right before we head out the door to the gym. On the nipples that fit these small bottles are little air vent holes or something like that--I'm sure there is a technical term.

It took Junior all of about 5 sips before he realized he could blow into the nipple and milk would squirt out the hole. He looked like a whale! It was incredibly funny and so typical of this little guy. Of course there was a huge mess with milk everywhere as the girls and I were sitting there watching him do this and not really sure what was going on.

Tonight I found a nipple with no hole on the side. I'm sticking with those.

Waste of Money

When we were stationed at Fort Lewis, our Honda Accord finally died and we needed a new car quickly. We didn't spent the years I spent researching the Toyota and we had heard good things about Saturn, so we bought a Saturn LW 300. It has been nothing but a headache. While the car had less than 10K miles on it the tires started splitting. Then one thing after another went out. It was supposed to not need major servicing till after 100K but they changed that to 60K. Of course our warranty was out at 60K and the repairs found were in the thousands. I called Saturn and they picked up half of the tab because I was furious. Since then it is still causing problems and we are just holding it together till it dies. DH drives it back and forth to work and occasionally I run it to the gym or something. This hunk of junk now has over 116K miles on it--I NEVER thought it would make it this far. I took it in today to get my oil changed (which I used to do every 3K miles religiously until I hit 60K and had all those repairs). I also needed a state inspection so I had them do that as well. Of course the service guy comes in with a list of things that I need to have repaired.

The radiator leaks and that would be almost $1K. I told him it had been leaking for almost 20K miles and I wasn't going to fix it because I could just keep on adding water to it. Then he said the air conditioner fan was broken and when you idle it would not blow cold air only when you were moving and that was almost $1K. I told him I wouldn't slow down long enough to idle at all and that I spent over $2K repairing the entire ac system about 2 years ago or so. I'm not making anymore major investments in this car. If I didn't need a state inspection and an oil change (that's the other clincher you have to take it to the Saturn dealer for an oil change because they have a star shaped wrench to remove the oil filter and none of the other places have it) I wouldn't have taken it in at all. It makes me sick to think of all the money we have invested in this car, but DH and I consider it an expensive lesson. Oh well, it will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

One More Week

The summer has flown by eve3n though it has been two weeks longer than last year. I think Em is excited and Abs opinion on going to a regular school is mixed sometimes. I think she will do fine though. I hope.

Abs has been performing her play every day since Thursday. They are doing Aladdin Jr. and it is really cute. I'm glad that she managed to stay out of trouble for these three weeks so she could participate in the production.

Em has been with my mom since her friend was there visiting her Grandma next door. Em has been sewing and designed a purse and is working on a quilt. She makes clothing too, but not anything yet that I will let her wear outside of the house as too much skin is showing!

Junior plugs along and goes with the flow. He has been staying with my MIL and playing with the puppies while I take Abbie to her performances and volunteer backstage.

The puppies are getting huge! It looks like there father was a black lab and the mom is part lab part mutt. I think the puppies will be bigger than their mother. I am sure they will once they are old enough to partake in the leg of lamb dinners with the other two dogs. I wonder if she will start cooking multiple legs just to keep everyone happy?? Crazy I tell you.

I've been missing the cycling classes at the gym due to Ab's schedule at the theatre so I have taken up running again. I love to run, but my knees do not. Once the girls are back in school I am going to have to go back to the doctor and figure out what we can do to make life easier for my knees.

DH is out in the box so I haven't heard anything for the past two days. He absolutely loves to go to the field when they are out there training and not just sitting around. I'm sure he is roasting, poor guy. He'll be home before we know it.....remind me of that next week when all the children are home and we have no concrete plans. I sure hope Hurricane Dean doesn't show up and keep us in the house because of the rain!