Denver Zoo

It was free day at the Denver Zoo today, so we figured it was as good a time as any to head on up there and check it out.  Free in Killeen means that at least half of the population turns out.  In Denver, it means that 99% of the population turns out.

Gunner dropped us off at the front and went to find parking.  Of course we had driven an hour, so they were hungry famished.  We snacked while waiting for Gunner to find us.  Abs being Abs, she wanted to see every single animal at the zoo. 

Abs held Junior's hand and read every informational sign to him.  She would try to hoist him up to see.  A far cry from wanting to donate him to Science the night before when he bit her.

Just a random picture on one of the signs.  Abs thinks that he has heard about Obama's health care plan.

We have about 20 pictures of these two on the ape, but they are not looking at us in any of them.  Em was too busy texting.

We saw about 50% of the zoo before the crowds got to be too overwhelming for all of us.

Not before we saw these two recent additions to the zoo:

Good grief!  We saw this sign on the way home:

And what Texan couldn't stop for a small taste of home?

Once again, I was along for the ride, but in none of the shots.

The zoo was nice, but next time I won't be so cheap, and we'll pay for tickets so we don't have to fight the crowds. 

Cool Science at UCCS

I'm frugal (most of the time).  I'm always looking for something fun for the kids (the parent in me), and where they can also learn something (the teacher and parent in me). 

Saturday morning I told the kiddos we were going to go to UCCS and hit the Cool Science Day.  Abs wanted no part of that.  "It's going to be boring."  "Who wants to learn about Science anyway."  "I can have more fun playing legos all day in the basement."  "I have nothing to wear."  "Why do you do this to me???"

Regardless, I let her leave the house in mismatched clothing and we headed out.  When we got there, Abs was drawn in right away.  They had 36 booths setup through the building, and gave the students a passport so they could check off each one as they completed it.  Abs is a checklist girl. 

We started out by looking at sound waves, testing sound waves, and experimenting with sound. 

From there we moved to shadows, lasers, mirrors and working with light.

Simple motors...

 

Then it was on to simple machines, dinosaurs, and working with dry ice.

There was a whole section on space, stars, and making rockets.

They touches snakes and iguanas, flew space shuttle simulators, created hover aircraft out of balloons, worked with air, made worms, and tons more.

We acted like birds migrating, and played a game that had us running all over the rooftop trying to make it south for the winter.  I got tons of ideas for science classes, and all the materials to do the experiments.  Abs was enthralled with every station, asking questions and trying to soak up as much as possible which is her method of operation.  The poor little guy at the raisin and ginger ale booth didn't know what hit him.  Everyone came and looked, then moved on, while Abs sat there for 15 minutes quizzing him on everything about the raisins, why it worked, how it worked, and then re-explained it back to him to make sure she understood.  The workers were great, and I think were glad to have someone that was interested in the how and the why rather than flitting about from booth to booth.

When it was all said and done, and we had visited every single booth, we finally were able to drag Abs out of there.  As we walked to the car I asked her how she enjoyed it, and her response was "I guess it was okay".  I know she had a great time, regardless of her answers, and Em and Junior loved it. 

Gunner took the kids swimming at the Y while I finished up some school work since I am flying out this week to TEXAS!!!!  We're hoping to get some things done this morning so we can head out this afternoon to somewhere new.....

Carving Pumpkins

I can't believe we didn't get shots of Abs in her costume too. She wouldn't sit still and have any part of that, and she looked so cute! Em went with a friend, so she was back in regular clothes by the time she got home. Next year, I'll be on top of it. I'm thinking that because Gunner is usually gone I am a little more adamant about taking pictures.

Fort Hood & my Grandmother

Yesterday I was sitting here eating my leftover pho, and looking forward to going to SYTYCD with Em.

My neighbor, also Army (we live next to AF, Army, Navy, officers, and enlisted), came banging on my door to tell me to turn on the news.

My stomach dropped, and I couldn't even believe it.  After 6 1/2 years of living there the last time, and we were also stationed there when we started this Army trip, Fort Hood will always hold a special place in our heart.

I talked to friends.  I scoured the internet.  I was glued to the tv.  (BTW, kudos to Fox News)  My cell was going crazy with texts from the outlaws, friends, and fellow teachers.  I watched the president give "shout-outs" to his friends, and was digusted with his speech. 

My heart breaks when I think of the Soldiers and civilians that were killed and injured.  I never worried when I sent Gunner to the SRP to prepare to deploy.  I'm sure none of those families did either.  How can someone that is trained to help people, hurt them?  Obviously as they investigate everything they are coming up with all kinds of red flags.  It reminds me of a story of when Gunner was in Bosnia for a year.  One of the Soldiers was upset that he had to be there, wanted out, and wanted to go home.  He proceeded to write the CO's, XO's, and other Soldiers names on each bullet.  They pulled him from duty for 24 hours, and then he was back.  Nothing happened, he served his time, and then got out.  You never know....

I finally tore myself away from the tv, and Em and I left for SYTYCD.  My brother called to let me know that my Grandmother had passed away.

It had been coming for a while, but following the events of the day, it drained me even more.  

Em and I had a good time at SYTYCD and I managed to only check email and FB a few times to make sure I wasn't missing anything. 

It took me an hour to decompress when I finally got home and tucked Em into bed. 

It was a day of tragedy, sadness, and loss both in my own family and my Army family. 

In a funk...

I don't know what my deal is these last couple of days, but I just can't seem to be motivated.

Three cups of coffee this morning, and I was down for a nap by 10.  When I woke up I needed some pho, so off I went.  I cleaned the kitchen today, but that's about all that I've done other than get the kids ready for school and walk the dog.

We found something really cool to go to this weekend, so I'll at least have something to blog about. 

Gunner took Halloween pictures with his phone since I didn't have mine, so I need to get them from him so I can post them.  Em went with friends, so we just had Junior and Abs--a dragon and a 50's girl.  They were adorable and we have about 20 lbs of candy.

We carved pumpkins and went to Focus on the Family on Saturday too.  The girls made another radio show, which is their favorite part of the whole place.

The girls started swimming lessons and they went well.  I was worried that Abs wouldn't be excited about it, but she hopped in and tried her best.

Got the referral for Visual Therapy, but I think it's for the wrong thing, so I have a call into the clinic to the insurance lady to sort it out.  Abs also qualified for PT, so we start that in a few weeks.  Luckily it's only 30 minutes once a week.  We go on Friday to see how often she will be on the schedule for OT.  That's going to be more intense, and then once we get the VT figured out, we'll add that to the mix.  Between therapies, Girl Scouts, and swim lessons we are booked.  It's really not that much, but we like our down time. 

I'm still plugging away in school, but I think I am only going to take one class next semester.  Two is taking up so much time, and with the kids, I just need to take a breather.  One class will be plenty for next semester.

I'm looking into possibly doing some volunteer work to teach ESL classes to adults.  I sent in the request, but haven't heard anything back. 

I'm visiting two PEO chapters this week to check them out, and Em and I are going to the So You Think You Can Dance tour on Thursday! 

We've almost gone half the basement cleaned out, so once that's done we can put down the flooring.  Gunner wants a rug, but I want cheap linoleum.  He thinks carpeting will be more comfortable but since the movers lost our vacuum, and the roomba has decided that it will only go backwards and quit after a few minutes, I can imagine the mess it would turn into.  Since we have hardwoods upstairs, the shark takes care of the parts I can't sweep.  Exciting times in the Gunner household.

Recommendation of the Day

I have an HP wireless printer that I love.  The problem is that everyone else has the same printer and loves it too.  Finding ink cartridges in the stores was impossible, so when the service message popped up, I clicked on shopping and ended up at hp.com. 

I've always had great luck with HP, and their customer service has always been great.  In college they took my two year old printer back because it broke, and sent me a brand new one, not even refurbished. 

Anyway, I found my ink, ordered it at 10:49 am yesterday and it arrived straight from Tennessee at 1:15 today.  Free shipping, same price as in the stores, and I didn't have to even venture out in the snow.

Today is payday at FHNB, so we are off to have dinner if we can drag Abs in from snow fort building with the neighbor. 

Last night...

we had spaghetti for dinner.

all the children took a warm bath and got into their warm pajamas.

 I convinced Abs to wear the super cute 50's costume that I found on clearance at an outlet store for the costume parade at school.  This was no easy task since she wanted to be a jogger with a dog--I can appreciate that, but she wanted me to brave the ice for a sweatsuit and she wanted me to send Sammy to school.

we served hot chocolate before bedtime. 

it finally stopped snowing.

Gunner made brownies for Abs to take to school today for her fall festival.

Abs got up sometime in the middle of the night and got into said brownies.  She picked out all of the colored chocolate chips so we have brownies with holes in them aka brownie mush.

the said brownies are no longer able to be sent to school.

the roads got even icier.

Gunner left at 4 this morning to get to work on time because of the icy roads.

the school district decided to delay the start of school by two hours.  Please don't let them cancel school for the third day!

the dishes I didn't want to do multiplied.

I slept like a baby with a sheet, a blanket, a comforter, a quilt, and the window unit on.  I love the noise from it.

This morning.....

I tried to get Abs back to bed.

I cleaned up dog poop because he doesn't like to stay in the snow too long.

I did dishes.

I drank two cups of coffee.

I blogged.

I wondered if I was going to make it till bedtime.

Sledding

It's Thursday, another snow day for the kids, and so Gunner stopped on the way home from work to grab sleds.
Yep, I know he isn't wearing gloves. I am hoping that we will eventually find a pair that he will wear.

Just down the street we have a big hill next to the soccer fields. I love our housing area. Gunner did a lot of dragging Abs and Junior up the hill.  I still haven't found any snow pants for Abs yet, but she was happy wearing my old Baylor sailing team foul weather gear bottoms.  A little big, but they were warm and kept her dry.

I think in almost every picture Gunner has his tongue out. I think he had more fun than the kids!

Emily loved it too, but of course she has to be coordinated! I found her ski pants, brand new, with the tags still on them (Eddie Bauer) for $1.25. A buck twenty-five!!! How can you go wrong with that. Of course I found them in Texas before we even knew we were coming here.

Snow Day

Em broke off 6 of her brackets, so we had an appointment at 7 this morning to get them glued back on.  That means that I had to get up at 5:15, and have the kids up by 5:45 so we could be out the door by 6:15 to head to Junior's school to drop him off.  Add in snow and ice and the fact that no matter what the orthodontist doesn't close, and we were on our way.

First I had to clean up Sammy's accident.  Abs found it first, when she walked straight through the puddle, and walked around the house to find me and tell me that Sammy peed.  Cleaned up that 2 miles mess of wet footprints, and started getting Junior up.

After not having had to wake up early for the last few months, he refused to get out of bed because "It's not a brand new day, it's dark".  I managed to dress him while he slept since he disrobed during the night. 

We finally get the dog walked, kids bundled up, and headed out to the warm car.  (I love living in a place where I don't have to worry my car will get stolen!)

The roads weren't bad, so I dropped Junior off at school, and we headed to the orthodontist.  Abs decides to hole herself up in the bathroom at the ortho office, the only bathroom, while kids waited to brush their teeth.  They glued all of Em's brackets back on and then she told me that she had food stuck behind the wire, so she was jamming her toothbrush behind the wire and the brackets were popping off.  Are you kidding me?  I explained the finer points of dental floss, again, and reminded her that this did not match her story of them "mysteriously popping off for no reason while she was doing absolutely nothing". 

We head home, and at this point the two hour delay has turned into school being cancelled.  We were all hungry so we headed to Cracker Barrel.  Everyone was well-behaved, and everything was going smoothly till Abs proceeded to throw up all over the table.  Since I am not mother of the year, the first words out of my mouth were "Try to hit the plate" and "You better not be contagious!".  Typical.

We left after a very sincere apology.  The roads had gotten worse, so we are at home, with the girls quarantined in their rooms until it's time to go get Junior.  I've got tons of homework to do, and the snow is really coming down now.  It's starting to accumulate but is still little flakes.  I miss those big flakes that we had in Germany!

Off to hit the books....

Preparing for Deployment

You would think after 4 year long deployments, I would be an old pro at this, but every deployment is different, and so it's time to start thinking about this next one.

Gunner hasn't deployed to Afghanistan before, so I need to have plenty of time to read up on it, and learn about what is going on over there.  I am not totally oblivious to the situation, but I like to be informed.

We need to update the big white notebook that Gunner made for me last deployment.  During his first deployment to Iraq, I couldn't find POA's, and luckily he had given my mom one, so she was able to sign for housing for us.  His last deployment he made an organized notebook (since I am the most unorganized person around) that contained sections with anything and everything I could have needed--POA's for all the different possibilities, his will, daycare information, shot records, educational records, copies of deployment orders, all of our accounts organized with passwords and account numbers, emergency contact numbers, and tons of other information.  I carted that big white book around religiously, and always had anything and everything that I needed at my fingertips.  We still use it consistently, but it's time to start making sure it is updated with all of our new information, stuff about Colorado, and anything else we can think of that I might need.

Pictures.  I need to update the photo frames that each of the kids have with pictures of them with their dad.

We need to make sure that Gunner has an album with pictures of the kids to take with him, and this time, come hell or high water, I am scrapbooking a deployment countdown calendar for him to take with him and one for each of the kids.

I need to have plans in place in case one of the kids gets sick in the middle of the night, which means I need to get out and meet some people.  Ugh.  I'm not the most social person, and I seem to attract people with more issues and drama than any one person should have.  Can't I just meet some people that 1. Like their kids, 2.  Like to get out and do things, 3.  Value education, 4.  Knit, 5. Have financial sense, 6. Like to workout and do triathlons and 5 and 10 K's, 7. That are honest, and 8. Are independent?

This is just me personally, but I can't stand people that sit back and wait for their husband's call every single day, don't go do anything because their husbands want them to wait till they get home, or don't take the opportunity to make their lives better for the entire family.  It's a year people, get out and accomplish something for yourself!  Go back to school, learn something new, get in shape, explore the area you live in, and realize that the year is going to pass and you can either do something with it, or waste it away.  Em told me after last deployment, that she was glad that I took on something so huge (going back to school to become a teacher) when I had all of them to take care of, plus getting in shape, and taking care of everything else.  She told me I was a great example of how to handle deployments and life.  That made me feel good and made me realize what a great example it was to them on how to take a not-so-good situation and turn it into something that made all of us better.  Just my .02 worth.

So, I am making a list of things that need to be covered over the next 10 months before Gunner leaves.  I would rather that he stay here, but I am glad that he has such an important job to do.  Once he is gone, I will wallow in self pity for a few days, and then begin my list of everything that I want to accomplish before he returns.  I'm thinking a marathon, half ironman triathlon, and learning digital photography are going to be at the top of that list.  This time I want the kids to set some deployment goals for themselves and we will pursue those as well.  Maybe they want to learn to ice skate, snowboard, run a 5K themselves?  Maybe they want to dance or learn to cook (since they won't get that lesson at home!) or travel?  Deployments in our household are viewed as a time to make things happen, so that when Gunner comes back he sees that we survived, grew, and even thrived.  While he makes our family complete, I don't want my children to look back on deployments as a time of misery and hopelessness, but rather a time when they missed their dad terribly, were proud of what he was able to accomplish and also had great accomplishments of their own that made them, me, and Gunner proud.

Deployments come whether we like it or not, but take it by the horns, you won't be sorry you did.

Farish Recreation Center

Last weekend when Gunner took the kids to the Dinosaur Resource Center, he stumbled on Farish Recreation Center for the military. They have camping sites, cabins to rent, lakes to fish in, trails to hike, and tons of stuff to do. Of course it is in Colorado, but it is open to all military. We are going to plan a trip here in the near future. Gunner wants to do the camping part, but I am more about renting a cabin, especially since we don't have a tent big enough for the whole family, and his parents RV is back in Texas.

How could we pass up an opportunity to stay in a place this beautiful?

Gunner's Children

I was looking for something in picasa when I came across this messy face. I still love him, even if he sneezed buckets all over me this morning.

I made an appointment to get Sammy fixed. Abs got reading glasses, but it still doesn't correct her vision problem. The eye doctor said it was a severe problem, but that Tricare has only covered one case of VT. We're going to have to make it two cases since I don't have a thousand dollars a month to drop. I will still do it of course if it comes to that. She has a PT eval today, and follow ups next week. She's so cute with her glasses.

Em gets her braces on this Friday. She got spacers on Tuesday, and didn't do so well on that, so I can only imagine what it will be like with braces. This weekend we have a bunch of stuff going on, but more on that after the fact. 

After it snowing all day yesterday, I am looking forward to a little warmth.  Oh, and the pumpkin patch?  Well we went to Walmart afterwards to get non-rotten pumpkins.  They came home with 4.  Then we had the 2 from the pumpkin patch.  Tomorrow there is a community event where they will each get a pumpkin to decorate.  Junior has an event at school and will get another one.  That puts us at 10 pumpkins.  I love roasted pumpkin seeds though and we will save some to plant. 

Gunner and I have a running debate over pumpkin seeds.  I eat them just as they come out of the pumpkin (after being roasted of course).  He says that they are like sunflower seeds and I am supposed to break open the shell and eat what's inside?  Who's right?  He's the same guy who eats the skin of tangerines and kiwi, so what's a little pumpkin shell?

Wordless Wednesday (and unedited pics)

Pumpkin Patch

One little girl...

My Abs.

Things are ALWAYS interesting with her around. 

Gunner found my lost dental floss today--three packages.  They were undone and used to tie her closet together so that nothing would try and come out of there and get her.

She told us she could be trusted with a bottle of shampoo again.  She did really well for three weeks and didn't use the entire bottle all at once.  Tonight she said she just couldn't help herself anymore.  It's empty.

We had an OT evaluation yesterday and they determined that she had a visual perception and tracking problem.  She will need OT, VT (visual therapy), and probably PT again.  They were surprised she was able to compensate for her problem and read.  Apparently this problem is caught a lot sooner because the children are unable to read.  Abs is a great reader though.  I took her to the ophthalmologist, twice, for the problem I thought she had and it was dismissed.  I had never even heard of visual therapy, but they say that they have great results.

The shampoo issue doesn't seem like much anymore, when I look at the big picture and those big blue eyes.