Who hearts Justin Beiber????

The picture of Abs is somewhat blurry, but she is less than impressed with the fact that Em got a JB cd and poster. Why you ask??? (Cause I know you are waiting with bated breath) Em showed Abs a video and while Gunner and I were Christmas shopping, and we got a frantic call from Em that Abs said she was going to marry JB. Apparently this wasn't fair, but we hear Abs in the background yelling "I called him first" and Em was trying to argue that JB was tooooo old for her and Em was trying to argue that there was no possible way for Abs to "call him first".

Please commit me before these two are teenagers.

What should we do???

My mom was over for a visit today, it was nice.

Abs returned home with her and apparently talked the entire way home--about a 40 minute drive. I can only imagine what Abs noticed along the way and the ideas she noted. I'll pick her up on Wednesday when I work.

Tomorrow Junior has daycare, so that leaves all day for me to spend with Em!!! I'm sure cleaning is not at the top of her list of things to do. Maybe a movie? I'd say a pedicure but with my feet taped up by the foot doctor, I would look pretty ridiculous.

Hmmmm....

It's started....

Em is 10. Since she is growing like a weed and needed new clothes I thought we would run by Ross and see if we could find anything that we agreed upon that was on clearance. I HATE paying full price for anything.

We searched through the racks and as I would pull out something that was cute, tasteful and within our price range, Em would turn her nose up at it. Em on the other hand would pull out something that was not. My daughter is not going to wear a shirt that says "baby girl". She is not going to wear something that shows her tummy. And the nerve of me, she is not going to wear anything that says anything about how looks are more important than smarts, about how you must be dumb, I am better looking than you, I am cool, the list goes on and on and on. We never even found anything for her to take to the dressing room.

Gone are the days where I can choose her clothing and she will be happy. I am apparently not cool and do not have a good sense of fashion according to my pre-teen daughter. Thankfully she knows better than to pull out anything that does not cover her body parts! We call it the arm test--they have to raise their hands above their head and I don't want to see any belly buttons. Is that too much to ask?

I used to love Gymboree because we could always find something tasteful there. She's too big now. We looked online last night and agreed on absolutely nothing at almost every store. Surely there is a store out there that sells clothing for girls that is made for girls and not sex symbols?

On a side note, I checked Em's tennis shoes last night and the 7.5 women's size is not going to fit by summer. I think I was in high school or college before my feet were that big!

Just because...

To go with yesterday's wordless wednesday pics. I wish I could see a little more of his baby blues, but I still love this shot.

Someone asked me if I wanted my son to be a Soldier too. I gave my usual response--he can do anything he wants AFTER college. Em wants to be a pop star but knows she has to go to college first and she wants to major in business so no one will try to take all of her money. Abs wants to be an inventer.

Speaking of Abs and inventing....I cleaned her room the other day. It's always an adventure to do that and this time was no different. Underneath her desk I found a pile of unwrapped pads stuck together in some kind of pattern. I shook my head and picked them up to throw them away. She screeched. I was throwing away something she invented. I was scared to ask what it was, but I did convince her that we could come up with a better medium for her to use on her creations.

We have school conferences today. I think Em is doing well, I don't hear anything too negative. She seems to be over her phase of doing nothing but reading during class time. She is in the middle of The Hobbit and is really enjoying that. Abs does well in school, but because her gross motor skills are delayed a bit her fine motor skills are not up to where they should be. That causes some hardship with handwriting, etc. Maybe they could let her spell out words using tampons?

Full moon & Flooded bathroom

My kids were crabby today. Junior cried all morning until he pointed to a Barney figure and said sing. I sang the Barney song over and over and he was happy. I needed to get things ready to walk out the door so I let the girls watch Barney with him for about 10-15 minutes and he actually sat still. Of course once Barney went off he was back to his crabby self. I took him to daycare and he cried because I wanted to take off his hat, he cried when I wanted to take off his jacket, but he didn't cry when I wanted his binky. Guess he chose his battle.

Abs flooded the bathroom. Last night she got out of the tub and there was no towel so she decided that the next best thing to dry herself off was toilet paper. She used almost an entire roll to dry herself off and then flushed. She was really quiet. Poor kiddo. She helped clean it up and now understands that you can only dry yourself off with towels, no toilet paper. I didn't know that I would have to make that a rule in our house.

Em went to the doctor and her foot is still not healed so she is still in the boot. That set her off to be as miserable as possible and make everyone elses life miserable too. I know the boot itches. I know the crutches hurt. I know it is boring. I don't think she will ever skip again. This morning when she was gimping around on her crutches she stubbed her good foot and is now walking with her gimpy foot and the toes of her other foot up in the air. She is convinced they are broken. We will tape them tomorrow to see if that helps some. She said that she *knows* they are broken, so I am kind of worried since she was right about her foot! I might definitely be out of mother of the year for next year too.

Tomorrow is the dreaded EFMP meeting for Abs. Wish me luck. Gunner is going to go along with me--probably to keep me from asking them stupid questions just to waste their time like they are wasting mine. Since I couldn't get an appointment till Friday for Junior in order to get his EFMP forms filled out, I'll have to have another one of these "meetings". Please.

Camp Purple dates came out and if Em and Abs get in, I think I will send both of them this year. It's free and Em had a great time last year!

I worked today and we had our weekly mexican food fix. We don't even order anything different every week, it is the same meal and it is always exceptional.

Predeployment briefings are coming fast and furious. I guess I'll have to go to one. So far the 1/2 days they were promised aren't materializing and we still haven't done our taxes or a few other legal things that we need to get done. I did get 8 hours of observation scheduled though, so that's one thing off my plate and five million more to go.

Today

Today I was a reading teacher. I loved it. Tomorrow it is first grade...wish my luck, lol. I am hoping since it is the 100th day of school that there will be plenty to keep them busy.

Em saw the ortho doctor today and she has to stay in her boot for the next month, on crutches for a while, and then she can walk more on it with very little pressure. I sure hope this heals and is not a problem for her big trip this summer with my mom!

Gunner took Em to the doctor and he said that the doctor was a jerk! He was really nice to Em and to him, but to his staff he was yelling and barking orders. One of the nurses came in and said "I hate mondays." The doctor told her to get a job at the hospital (he's in the clinics). Sad to think that people put up with this or have to. I had a horrible boss once and it made life miserable. Not to be confused with the great boss I have now. Hi Mom!

I went to body pump and body step tonight. I might not be able to move tomorrow. Maybe the class can count the 100 bones that creak when I try to move about the classroom.

Soldiers

Em wrote this for school:



Soldiers are brave, helpful, admirable, honorable, kind, true and loyal.

These heroes protect our country and keep the United States of America safe.

So we should appreciate what they do for us.

They let us have freedom to go to school and be proud of who we are and where we live, in the USA. These special people are only normal people who live in the world where they make a difference.



By: Em H.



Thinking back, I really had no clue about the military when I was her age. I remember I used to have nightmares about the Russians invading us and WWIII, but with everything that was going on, that's probably not too surprising. I remember when the first Gulf War started I was a freshman in college at Baylor. My best friend Catherine, whose dad was in the Army, called me to let me know that the war had begun. My roommate and I watched for a while and then went to dinner with my friend. I still remember how directly it affected her, but I couldn't even think of someone that I knew personally, that was serving at the time. Fast forward 18 years (geez, I am old) and I am about to send my husband off for the third time to Iraq. I have spent more time stationed in Texas than he has. Looking back I was so clueless about what was going on in the world even in college, and now I'm not.



When 9/11 happened (I found out because my friend Peggy called me and told me what was going on) we were stationed at Fort Lewis, WA. My husband was in the field and was on standby and not getting very much information about what was going on. I went on into work (groceries had to be bought, and there could be a nuclear war and my company at the time would have insisted that it was still okay to get in there and work). After I picked up the girls, I had to travel from North Fort on to Main Post and Em wasn't even phased about the new security system that they had in place. There were Soldiers everywhere with their weapons, and a plethora of other security features everywhere. Her military daycare had increased security as well and nothing seemed out of the ordinary to her. I had talked to Em about what was going on in 4 year old language and she said something to the effect of "my Daddy will go get those bad guys and make sure they don't hurt Americans". Her dad was and still is her Hero. Even then she knew that he had an important job and she was proud of him.


From that time, Em has grown in her understanding of what is going on in Iraq and other places throughout the world and why. I can't say that she would know or understand this much if she wasn't the daughter of an American Soldier, but I would like to think that I would have taught her. Abs is not far behind in her understanding of the War in Iraq and how she also plays a role in this because of her love for her dad.


Since Gunner is a lifer, and the girls are at an impressionable age, the choice he has made to serve in the Army will continue to have an effect on them and shape their thoughts and views of the world around them as they grow.

Bad Mom

Saturday I had class, so I left my children under the watchful eye of my mom while Gunner worked. I came home from lunch to find Em hobbling around. I didn't think much of it since she often hurts herself and usually hobbles around till she forgets about it or until it is bedtime when her injuries will suddenly start hurting again. She said she was skipping in her sister's room and she twisted her foot and heard a loud pop.

Anyway, she hobbled around Saturday, then Sunday and today after school I took her to the er. The er was packed so we put or names down and found a non-sick looking pair of people to sit next to. It turned out the mother had taken her 9 year old daughter in for the same loud pop in her right foot (and she later left in a boot with crutches with a broken foot). People were hacking away and I cringed with every sneeze and cough. Sanitizer was my best friend in there.

When we finally got back to a room all the hacking people were back there getting prescriptions for cough syrup and were balking at their diagnosis of a cold after being in there for 6+ hours. Come on people it's cold and flu season. After 6 1/2 hours of waiting and finally getting seen.....the doctor took one look and declared it broken. They did xrays to confirm it. They booted it and gave her crutches and we have to follow up with an orthopedic doctor to make sure that she doesn't need a cast. The girl never complained that it hurt. Even on the pain scale she didn't rate her pain very high, and she is not known for having a high tolerance or anything. I feel horrible.

Geez....guess I'm not in the running for "Mom of the Year" and it's only January.

Wordless Wednesday

I got my mother's hair! More pictures here.

Gas Leak

Yesterday I was having Starbucks with my friend and Gunner called to tell me that there were fire engines around the girls' school, but not to worry because he didn't see any smoke. We figured that the school was probably touring the fire engines or something. No big deal. Junior and I head out to a doctor's appointment in the neighboring town and Gunner calls to tell me that he finished up his PT appt and caught on the news that there was a gas leak at the school. Another Soldier watching said that the kids were evacuated to a gym on post. We finally manage to get a hold of someone at the gym and were told that we were supposed to come pick up our children. We never received a phone call or anything, and this was hours after the incident. If Gunner hadn't caught the tail end of the news, we would have never known since I wasn't home and even if I was, I would have been enjoying the peace and quiet. The children were safe though and that was what was most important. They had to take 12 children to the hospital and 5 teachers. Em's teacher passed out in the classroom in front of them. They were taken to the cafeteria where they were loaded on to buses--I think they said with staff and everything it was 21 buses, not sure on that. They got to the gym where they were given water bottles as they entered and later served pizza hut, milk and applesauce and waited until their parents went through a screening process to make sure that they were being picked up by the correct people. The news said that the school was filled with carbon monoxide. Thankfully no one was hurt, but they do need to work on their emergency notification system!

Em and Abs talked about it the rest of the day and Em wrote it down and told me to blog it. Her Grandma would be proud that she is documenting everything.

She wrote:

Today was the worst day of my life. The school was filled with carbon
monoxide. Mrs. M passed out on the floor and had to be rushed to the
hospital. It was so major that 2 fire trucks, 8 ambulances and 21 school
buses were there to take all the kids to the gym. But the good things are
Mrs. M is okay, there will be school tomorrow and everyone is still alive.

Mayborn Museum Pics

Cell Phones

Last night when I went to HEB with Em and Junior, I forgot my list. I thought about calling DH to see if we needed spaghetti sauce, but my phone was dead. On the way home I mentioned to Em that my cell phone was dead. She looked panicked.

Em: What if someone tries to call us?
Me: They'll have to call me at home.
Em: What if it is an emergency?
Me: It'll have to wait.
Em: Don't you have another charger?
Me: No, they only included one wall charger and no phone charger.
Em: But you can go buy a car charger.
Me: I could, but that would cost money and I don't really need it.
Em: (Panicked) But it would be better than missing a call or a text.
Me: We'll be okay, I'll grab the charger Wed.
Em: But what about till then?
Me: You know Em, they haven't always had cell phones.
Em: You're kidding right?

I explained to her how big cell phones used to be--the bag ones--and how as technology changes electronic devices get smaller. She was amazed.

I remember the old cable boxes that we had to get up and turn our tv on UHF or VHF or something like that and then we could press buttons on this box that was on top of our tv. Of course if you didn't have cable back then, you could still get the basic stations. We didn't get a microwave until I was in 8th grade. We also didn't get a VCR until I was in high school. With my Christmas money one year I bought a portable CD player. My dad told me that it was a waste of money and would never take off since after 8 tracks people were unhappy about upgrading to tapes, and they sure weren't going to upgrade to cd's.

I wonder the future holds.

Wordless Wednesday--sort of

So this won't be very wordless since this picture means a lot to me. This is a picture of Em when she was about 3 1/2 years old and my Dad. My dad passed away in April 2006 and I miss him a lot. Em had a really hard time with everything because she spent so much time with him and loved him so much. I do know that she has a lot of good memories of him and I hope that those will always be with her.

Check out more pictures here.

Where did the time go?

10 years ago today we became parents for the first time! Em was 8 lbs 6 1/2 oz and was born while we were stationed in Germany. (they say you come back with a schrank, a cuckoo clock or a baby--we came back with all three)
This is Em last Saturday with her dad.

Hard to imagine what the next 10 years will be like.

Happy Birthday!!