Randy Pausch on Oprah

Definitely worth watching. Let me know what you think.

The Haul

The girls had a great time last night. Junior was so busy looking at everyone and everything he didn't have time to nap or do much of anything else. We met up with our friends and their daughter went and got one of the neighbor girls to go along with us and we waited for her parents to come too. Out walks the mom who is the pilates and boot camp instructor at the gym we go to. Of course I was shoving a piece of candy in my mouth and I had skipped her class that morning. She asked me if I would be at boot camp this morning, but that is the class that always kills my feet. I am going to the gym though. That has to count for something.

My husband went to the doctor again about his back and they are finally going to do an MRI. They told him exactly where the problem is and hopefully after the MRI they can fix it.

I got an external hard drive since my other one was almost full and my husband said that he moved over half my hard drive when he transferred just the pictures. Guess I need to get some printed up. I wish they made it easier than uploading them just a few at a time.

DH is off tomorrow so I am hoping to sleep in. We have a ton of stuff that we need to get done and on Saturday the girls and I are going to see Cats with my mom, sister and nephews. I can't wait! I have no idea what it is about, but I have heard about it over the years and have always wanted to see it. DH will stay home with Junior since he isn't too big into musicals. He did go to three of them while we were in NYC.

Speaking of NYC, we went there back in 2005, before DH deployed to Iraq the second time. My friend Peggy lived directly across from the Empire State Building in New Jersey. She opened her home to us and we had a great time! Not knowing anything about the area, when I booked our tickets I had us fly into La Guardia during rush hour. Being the good friend that she is (I've known her for 23 years or more) she drove there during rush hour and picked us up. My first introduction to NYC was scary! We had the cars coming at us at all angles and even got nudged from behind by a cabby. Another huge car got so close to us that I opened the window to ask what he was doing and Peggy let him over. We finally made it to the NJ side and we circled around trying to get to a grocery store. We finally get there in one piece and without me having a heart attack. While shopping, my friend who was keeping Em the first weekend in order to take her to a Girl Scout camping trip called to tell me Em was throwing up. Got everything taken care of and managed to enjoy the rest of our trip. (Did anyone see us on the Live Times Square camera?) My friend Marcie who is the world's funniest and one of the best friends I could ask for came down from McGuire AFB for the day. It was so good to see her and I am hoping to see her over Christmas too! Anyway, if you go to the USO in NYC you can get tickets to Broadway and off Broadway shows for $3 a piece. (The $3 is considered a donation)

I'm home from the gym (I did run 3.25 miles) and I have an interview next week for part of my plan. Just have to choose the program I want and hopefully get into it!

Happy Halloween

I am waiting for my husband to get redressed for me in the costume he ran PT in this morning, then I can post some pictures. It was funny, I wish I could have seen everyone elses costumes. The battalion did a run and his entire company was dressed up in the 70's. They had some more elaborate costumes too. One group dressed up as matadors with white tshirts and red bandannas around their necks. Behind them the mule was dressed up as a bull. Another group was firefighters, their mule was dressed up as a fire engine and their were hoses running up to the front of the formation for the guys to run with.

Some companies wore masks, some wore the trash bags designed like pumpkins that you stuff with leaves. There were other groups that dressed up as pirates and so much more. I could have taken some great shots, but the thought of getting all three kids up and dressed on a school day for that didn't sound appealing. We had enough problems getting to school on time this morning!

Tonight we are going over to trick-or-treat with a friend of mine and her two children. We've done it for the last few years and the girls really enjoy it. We still need to carve pumpkins today too. Check out my this blog, she's got a great story about Halloween up and cute pictures of my Abs.

Wordless Wednesday...A Year ago and now...

Good thing he still fits in it!

Tueday Ramblings

I worked today and tried to help my mom clean out some stuff. We didn't get very far, and I left her with specific instructions to get rid of an entire drawer of "dickies" and old socks. I should have taken them with me because I am sure I will see her start wearing them now that she "found" them.



I got a bluetooth in the mail--just a cheap version off of newegg.com that got great ratings. Now I won't be driving illegally since you aren't supposed to drive on post without a hands free device.



My husband has to dress up in a 70's costume tomorrow for a PT battalion run. I'll be sure and get pics. He might be my WW if we get our act together.



A week and a half till we are in Hawaii!



Report cards came out today and the girls did great! Em made A's with a few B's, and Abbie made straight A's. So proud of both of them.



The little girl across the street came over and so I asked about her grades and she told me she made an F in math. I asked her why and she told me it wasn't a big deal because now the school had to provide her with tutoring. I would be really upset if my child made an F.



I absolutely hate going to the Killeen walmart any other time than first thing in the morning.

Temper Tantrums

Junior has learned to get mad.



He's done it a few other times, but today he had two tantrums with socks.



Abs was playing hubby's PSP on the couch and Junior wanted it and her attention. She ignored him and continued to play her game. Junior tried reaching for it. She moved over. He tried yelling, she told him to quiet down. He finally started grabbing socks (I keep all the socks that I hate to match in a wicker basket by the couch in the hopes that someone will match them up while watching tv--BTW, it doesn't work) and throwing them at her. He would yell, grab some socks, throw them and wait for a response. Abs continued to ignore him. So Junior grabbed more socks and threw them on her. She kept playing her game. Junior continued this until he wasn't waiting for a response from her anymore and was madly grabbing socks and throwing them at her as fast as possible. DH went over and stopped Junior and had him help pick up the socks and then got him started playing with something else.



I'll have to try and catch it on the digital camera, this little guy is hilarious!

School Pictures

The girls have school pictures on Monday next week. They both brought home the forms and I have to return them the day of with a check or money order for the package I want to purchase. Simple enough, so I look at the first package and it costs.......$57.00! You've got to be kidding me! In tiny print at the bottom I found a package that is 1-3x5 and 8 wallets that is still $11. To me that seems ridiculous!

I can choose from 5 colorful backgrounds, my children will be allowed to wear what they want (we are at a public school that requires uniforms, which I love) and some photographer will move through 800 students in one day and provide me a priceless picture that I will pay $57 for? And then I have two, so let's make it $114.

I know the girls will be disappointed, but I'll explain my reasoning. Maybe if we got to see the pictures beforehand I would be more inclined to buy them. They do allow retakes, but they usually rush through those as well. Oh well.....

A picture story.....when the girls both went to a Christian school they had a day setup to take spring pictures each year. I got the girls matching outfits, sent them off and they pulled Em out of class to take a picture with Abs. I got the picture and it was really cute of Em sitting down and Abs standing behind her. Abs had her hand on Em's shoulder and Em was not shrieking "she's touching me!". The only thing I could focus on though was that my daughter unknowingly had her middle finger sticking up and looked like she was smiling and flipping you off. Not anything I wanted to save!

Delayed

They have delayed my husband's return to the desert. He is still going, but it will just be at a different time. Is that vague enough? Hurry up and wait.

When we first got to Hood back in 2003, my husband was immediately assigned to 4th ID, given a unit, issued all of his gear and was packed, loaded, and ready to deploy at the end of the first week. Then because of Turkey not letting the troops enter through their country, he was delayed. Every day they would dismiss them and tell them that tomorrow was the day or definitely that Friday, 24 hours and they would be loaded up. Even though we treasured each additional day with him, 2 1/2 months later he finally left and it was almost a relief. The countdown could begin. I was still upset, miserable and scared, but the constant stress of wondering if today would be the last day and constantly putting things on hold was enough to drive anyone insane.

Before my husband deploys my parents always put on a big dinner for him with a lot of his favorite foods. I think we had about 8 of them before he finally left.

Until he leaves though, the kids and I will enjoy each day with him and make sure that they all count. (and secretly rejoice that he will be here to put up and take down all the decorations again this year!)

Wordless Wednesday

The Easter bunny thought it was a good idea to give hair pretties for Easter rather than candy.

More pictures here.

A Pair of Shoes

My children are friends with the little girl across the street from us. At one point she used to be here from dawn till dusk and no one ever came to check on her. Since we have become a lot busier, she is often only over in the afternoons and the girls play outside in the backyard. I noticed a few weeks ago that the little girl had a huge hole in the toe of her shoe. Her parents are never one to rush out and get the girl anything that fits properly or replace things that are worn. In the past I have given her clothes, a bike, sweaters, etc. Today when she came over she was still wearing the holey shoes so I asked her what size she wore. She told me that she wore a size 1 and I went searching through the house for the proper size. My girls usually wear out their shoes, but I did find a pair of size 4 tennis shoes that I had gotten at walmart as an extra pair of shoes (I think she probably wore them once or twice) when Em went to camp a few years ago. I had put them aside in the goodwill pile and dragged them out. I offered them to the little neighbor girl and her face lit up. I told her to try them on first and see if they fit. Her little feet swam in the big shoes, but she declared that they were "great because I still have room to grow!" I think she has about 3 inches to grow into them. She tightened them up and wore them the rest of the afternoon while the kids played. I wonder if she will wear them tomorrow to school.

I also wonder if she has a winter coat.

Coffee & Saturday

I went to a coffee yesterday afternoon with some ladies that I know. I have never really had coffee except for a frappacino from Starbuck's, which according to my husband is just a milkshake. (love their pumpkin ones though!) I had a cup yesterday since I didn't want to be rude and I loved it! So while sitting here this morning and waiting on my German breakfast to be delivered, my husband (who has been known to put instant coffee in his mouth and drink cold water because we didn't have any coffee while on the road) brought me a huge cup of coffee fixed just how I discovered I like it.

The girls have soccer this morning and then we are headed to GT to have a cookout for my nephews' birthdays and pick pecans. I still need to get presents for them. Boys are so hard to buy for!

I want to go to the pumpkin patch next week, something we used to do in WA all the time. I told my husband that it was about an hour and a half away from here and he voted that we go to Walmart instead. Doesn't he understand we are going for the pictures???? I won and if everything goes as planned we will squeeze it in next weekend.

German Breakfast

When we were stationed in Germany, my mom and dad flew out to spend a few weeks with us in May 1998. Em was about 7 months old at the time and a big, chubby perfect little girl. We lived in Butzbach which was north of Frankfurt and a rather small town. Every morning my parents would load Em up on my dad's back and they would walk downtown and pick up a German breakfast for us to enjoy. They became such regular customers during their visit that when we went on a trip to Austria, the bakery owners told my parents to come around back before we left in order to pick up our morning order. (I do have pictures!)

My in laws used to live in California and they have a huge German store out there with a bakery, deli and restaurant. One of the things that DH's family does is go to German restaurants anytime we go somewhere. (There was a great one we went to in DC with his brother and his wife complete with a woman in a dirndl singing to us while playing her accordion) Anyway, when we would travel out to CA we would go to the German store and get brotchen, ham and bierschinken and some German butter and sit outside and have a picnic.

Now that my in laws live in town, they go to the local German bakery/deli and pick us up breakfast every Saturday morning. They deliver pastries, brotchen, lunch meat, cookies, bread and usually some German crackers or the like for Junior to enjoy. Recently DH told his mom that our waistlines couldn't take much more of eating all this good food on Saturdays. She understood and agreed not to bring any temptations over. Today was to be the first Saturday without our German breakfast.....until my husband called them. We put in our request since they were luckily still on their way out to the bakery. Maybe next Saturday we will be able to be strong and eat plain old cereal....

Three more weeks

And I will be hiking the trails on Oahu, kayaking, snorkeling, going parasailing and drinking something with a little umbrella sticking out the top. DH and I aren't much to lie on the beach and be bored and goodness knows I don't want to literally hang out of a bathing suit, so we will slather on the sunscreen and stay busy! He always says he needs a vacation after a vacation with me.

Okay, so I did make us get up one morning in NYC at 4:30, but that was only so we could get started and it was usually around 6 after that day. Besides, I was the one who was pregnant during that trip and if I had the energy then he should too!

I better start my list making today and get started on the flow chart, maps and everything else my mom needs to manage this crew for those 10 days. I'm sure there will be plenty to keep her busy....

All is well

Abs is back in fighting form. Thanks for all the well wishes and the emails.

I am hitting the gym tomorrow, no excuses. My feet still hurt, my knees still creak, but I have to get back in there to lower my stress level. Maybe I should do core pilates instead of run....

I made the front page...

I really need to get a life.

Click here.

Then you will see my family on the second button on the top I think. (The hot soldier with the three cute kids next to him) Click on that too.

That's all...not too exciting, but I appreciate it!

Nothing says I love you like a clean toilet...

Abs is sick.



The school called after I was already a half hour away at work. I didn't hear my cell so they called my MIL who dropped everything and ran to get her. She called FIL who then got a hold of DH who was headed to the field for the day and couldn't get away. DH got a hold of me, I left to go get Abs with Junior in tow. Got to MIL's house and apparently Abs had thrown up in her car. Poor kiddo. Of course MIL was not bothered by that (maybe 6 puppies prepared her for that?). I have to admit, my MIL would do almost anything for us and I really appreciate that.



I don't do well with sick kids. We came home and got Junior squared away with a bottle and put Abs in the shower. She was cleaned up, put in pj's and into bed with a glass of water and a barf bucket. She's asleep now, which is how I know she is really sick. Usually Abs will urp once if she has strep, but she rarely throws up more than that. She doesn't even sleep at night, so for her to take a nap during the day definitely means she is under the weather.



Luckily we are close to school so we called and Em is walking home and we have nothing else planned for the rest of the day.



I have scrubbed the toilets, washed the towels and blankets to make sure we had plenty, chicken soup is on the stove and DH who ended up not having to go to the field for the day is coming home with sprite during his lunch.



Maybe we can make it through this. I'm just glad DH is here and I don't have to do it alone.

Update: It's after 5 and Abs is still sick. Poor kiddo. My usually bouncing off the walls strong willed child has been lying in bed all day with no complaints and taken two naps. I've put us all on the sick diet just in case. Em hates it when I do this!

Wordless Wednesday

More pictures here.

Hate

After almost 5 years of living on post I remember why I didn't let the girls play with the other kids for the first 4.

There is a new family that moved in next door and the lady is a single mom with three kids by three different fathers. Her deadbeat brother lives with her and is a drunk and spends all his money at the bars and this is just what the kids told me!

Anyway, Em and Abs got in a fight with the middle kid over there about something--typical kid stuff. What came out of Tiana's mouth thought was not typical by any means and could only be learned at home. She told Em and Abs that they were stupid because they were white. She went on to make more comments but all of them ended up with her referring back to their skin color. I was livid. If my kids had said anything like that to her kids, I am sure that everyone would be up in arms. Em was devestated about it since she is not like that at all, and Abs was mad.

Yesterday I heard yelling and went outside and Tiana was throwing rocks at my kids (not the first time) and I guess it was too much for Em and Abs and they threw a rock back. Of course I immediately sent them inside and they were in trouble. I went over to Tiana's mom's house and realized after about 20 seconds that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The lady is totally ignorant. She basically said that my girls got what they deserved and what her daughter says is true about them being white and stupid. The neighbor across the street came over to tell me that he saw the girls throw a rock at her daughter and I told him I saw it too and they were going to be punished for it, but that they were attacked first by this little brat. He of course said that she was just a kid (same age as Abs) and she wasn't at fault for that reason even though he did see that little brat throw rocks several times at my kids.

I am still pissed. The girls are grounded for now but they won't be playing outside again unless we are away from this place. I am so ready to move away from this hell hole.

Strollers & Puppies

When we were stationed in Germany, we bought a really nice umbrella type stroller. Now 10 years later it has cratered and doesn't steer very well. I have spent the last several weeks reviewing strollers, searching the internet for the best deals and finally today made a decision about what to get. Hopefully it will serve it's purpose and now I can stop cornering moms outside of the schools to find out their opinions on their stroller--which they all loved to give!

Before the internet I would have gone to the store, tried out a couple and then made a quick decision. Now with the abundance of information I spend weeks even months trying to choose something. It took me over a year to pick a car.

On the puppy front, my inlaws have decided that they are going to keep 4 of the 6 puppies and their neighbors are going to take two. Looks like we won't be visiting them anytime soon! I am not a huge dog person, much less to go into a house that has 6 of them. These puppies are going to grow into big dogs and their house is only 1800 square feet. Perfect for a family of two and 2 dogs, but 6? They are already talking about having to replace the carpet and everything that the dogs have already ruined. My MIL mentioned possibly building an air conditioned dog run in the adjoining lot that they own. My FIL mentioned that they might open a dog rescue. I save coupons and donate old towels and pillows to the cause right now.

Wonder how many legs of lamb they will have to cook up each week to keep all those dogs in style?

Ear Infection & Soccer

After Junior screaming for several hours last night I got him an appointment in the weekend clinic (since I tried for two days in the regular clinic to no avail). One of his ears is full of green snotty gunk. Ewwwww......I don't handle sickness well. Junior is a trooper and started on antibiotics, but is worn down. He is nestled into bed and hasn't screamed yet so I am hopeful that a good night's sleep will result in a happier baby tomorrow.

The girls had their first soccer game today and had a great time! I took tons of pictures and have some opinions about parents being wayyyyyy tooooo involved in soccer games when their kids are 5 and 6 years old. We really lucked out on coaches though and they at least share the same opinions about how the games should be run that I do, so the girls will be fine.