Live, Laugh, Love

anyhow....

2010-05-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

So here I am, desperately trying to finish up a school year before a big trip to COlorado for my littlle sister's hs graduation and then drive to my f.i.l. farm in Arkansas, I think we have something along the lines of senioritis, you know, where the last few weeks of school seem to drag on and on and on like there is no end in sight? I have made a few decisions about the kids schooling next year and hope it goes according to my plans, I think I may need to consult God before going ahead with these plans but as of right now, M will go to the local hs, D will go to a christian based private middle school, and I will homeschool the 3rd grader and kindergardener!
I am going to rely on God's strength, power, energy & whatnot to get me through another year in the homeschooling world...I do get a break tomorrow as all kids will be at preschool, middle school and STAR testing, I will try not to enjoy it too much as Saturday brings chaos and running around Monterey county doing soccer, baseball, and various other activities that require all of my focus and energy, and of course, Monday that brings me the usual run of the mill Monday activities!
Today is National Day of Prayer (May 6, 2010) and I am wondering where my God stands on many things, especially the chaos that is happening in our country/world....the hunger that people suffer from, is there an end for them? People who are homeless, will they have a home to go to each night some day? The nasty political wars that are going on and the fight to see who is more right than the other! I become physically sick when I hear about people and their troubles and I feel completely weak in what to do to help. I know my God has called me for such a time as this but really? I am not into politics, I am not in to world news or current events but I am feeling pulled to find out more about what is going on so I can have an educated conversation aobut it, not just dodging the talks because I find them all "stupid and stressful"....tha tis another thing, I have enough anxiety for an entire city and to get involved in these things brings on more stress so I really have to watch what I get myself into!
Here is my prayer for today...that my God stands firm w/ his believers and loves us through our triumphs and trials, that He guides the world, especially our country, through the nonsense that is going on that we have broiught on ourselves...I pray He is who He says He is, yesterday, today & tomorrow, that we are Christ folowers, stand up for what is right and what He believes in (not just an opinion on how it should be so we benefit) but what the bible says it should be! I pray for health & continued healing in the physical, spritual and mental relms...that He reveils Himslef to me more than I could ever imagine and He blesses me w/ more than enough!

new....

2010-04-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

All things are made new, according to scripture...long long ago, ok, not that long ago but over thirteen years ago, I gave my life to Christ, now to many of you, that means nothing and to some all it means is that I am "one of those hypicrytical people who finds the bad in others and puts themself above others". Well, no, I actually find more bad inside me than I could possibly point out in another! I have had trouble lately, well, for most of my life, trying to "figure out" where I fit in or figuring out "what I want to be when I grow up"...I ran across this website that had a great article about "trash-to-treasure miracles" and it really got me thinking, I need to get out what has happened to me in life and basically get over it, ok, some things you can't very well "get over" but I think talking about certain things helps speed up the healing process. I keep saying I want to write a book, I just do not have the time, in reality, I might have more time than some professional writers have! Being a SAHM does have its perks!
I have a long to-do list for the comig weeks, months & years and I am hoping it gives me a new perspective on things, stuff to plan, make goals, accomplish them hopefully. I know life happens and we all have hold-ups & hang-ups but I am trying my hardest to get past my past and move forward with my life!

UUUGGGG....

2010-03-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Yep, that is my start to this, "UGG"...I am just in a low low valley right now & waiting on the Lord to provide on many things! I am trying to excersize my patience in this period of waiting but have you ever waited on something you want so badly that it hurts? I deal with so many things on a daily basis that I can barely keep my head above water, or so it seems.
Medical issues that I have been diagnosed with but not finding a good doctor that can help me find relief, even take the edge off of my constant pain would be a step in the right direction but putting me on the max dose of two different meds (that are classified as antidepressants) that cause excessive weight gain & being numb to the world, NOT my kind of answer.
My marriage on the rocks, yes, twelve years of my life I feel like I have been following my husband around the country, like a lost puppy, for him to achieve his goals of becoming an officer and earning his master's....I feel as though, I have adjusted & adapted to every situation that we have been put in (or I have been alone to deal with during deployments) and what do I get, not much, do I get medals or awards or even a mere recognition from anyone? NOPE, I get four kids (yes, I chose to have them) in the next few years to teach them how to drive, send to high school, middle school and kindergarten BY MYSELF!!! It isn't fair, what did I do to deserve this life, I thought when I gave my life to the Lord that I would be walking through life in a bubble that protected me! Okay, that sounds a little ridiculous BUT I really did think my life would be easier...noone told me about trials, tribulation & hardships but boy have I learned that those things do exist and if I am not strong enough to fight through them, I will be torn down!
Right now my focus is ME, yes, it sounds a little selfish but hey, I am thirty and have do everything I have done for others, I need to figure out who & what I am and where my place is in this world! I am trying to take care of myself by seeing a counselor, taking myself off medicine that does not work (under dr. supervision), taking a cake decorating class and scuba diving classes after that!
Please pray for me & my family, these are trying times for everyone in this world and I do know there are so many out there that have it so much worse off than me but if you are reading this, I hope you care about me & my family and would care enough to pray for us, even if it is "Lord, give the Garner's a break, Amen" that would be fabulous.....until next time.....GOD BLESS!

hhhmmmm....

2010-02-20T10:14:00.000-08:00

I always think of titles for books or chapters of a book or Facebook posts but when it comes time to actually title these things, I got nothin'....anyhow, a few months ago, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia was bestowed upon me, I though "YAY, I can finally figure some stuff out, maybe have better luck losing weight now that we know what is going on and get some of the right meds to help me function better", well, that is what I thought & hoped for, this has not been the case, I have seen many doctors with varying opinions and prescriptions from a max dosage of not one but two antidepressants to a bottle of ninety vicodin. What has this brought me, strife in my marriage, anger towards this pain throughout my body, more depression, unreasonable stress on the family to pick up where I leave off and do things that I used to ba able to take care of but not am in too much pain to do!!!
So now that I have that off my chest, I am going to try a new thing, look at the bright side of things, love & honor the God that I believe will bring me relief from this pain and repair the damage done to anyone involved......I am trusting that He, my Lord & savior, is still on the throne and in charge of every living thing, is still going to be with me whether it is sunny & warm outside or raining and gloomy outside....I know that He is my source, relief, medicine, armor, healing, Father, & most of all, my strength for another day in this ugly world that has so much hurt & anger that it really does not need another hurting & angry person out there....until next time....<3 in His name!

plod on plod on plod on....

2009-09-27T13:32:00.000-07:00

After years of pain I finally have a diagnosis of fibromyalgia! This may sound weird but if you go undiagnosed for many years for some unexplained pains (usually debilitating) and numerous other issues that do not all fit together, you would go crazy! Yes, I went crazy a long time ago BUT now that I have a clear picture of what is and has been going on, I can move on.
I have paired up with several doctor's for my care, one of whom I am totally in love with, well, not literally but when I go see her, she works her amazing magic and gets to the exact problem area and literally fixes it? Now I am not sure that is even possible but the past two times I have seen her, I am pain free in a particular area that have been pretty painful for over a year & a half, and stay pain free for two days! She also keep bringing me more informational sheets that she has from books about treatment & triggers to share w/ my family. If you suffer from chronic pain, a physical therapist should be on your team of doctors to get you on the road to healing. I also have my regular dr. that is "so-so" in my treatment plan (I might have a few ideas for her tomorrow, like, do not hand over a month or so supply of narcotics to someone who needs more than that). There is the rheumatologist that diagnosed me, he is, umm, older & wiser, so I am hoping his wisdom gets me somewhere better than ripping a big hole in my stomache with 2400 mg. of motrin a day! My journey has just begun with this disease but God willing I will kick it in the butt and come out on the other end a better person. My goal is to not let it debilitate me and keep me from doing things that I have wanted to do for years and haven't because of pain.
Thank you all for reading and I will keep you posted about treatment & whatnot!

what now.....

2009-09-17T22:15:00.000-07:00

So I have once again venture into the world of homeschooling....w/ my boys, fifth & second grade! We decided to go with a virtual academy here in Cali, they provide all materials, including a computer & printer! We are slowly getting used to it all and we might be doing things wrong but will not know it until our advising teacher comes to visit in October. Who knows if this is the best thing for us all, but it is what I felt God was calling me to do especially since the public school system is not all that great here, I just jumped in feet first & started schooling them....
the k12 curriculum is fabulous and is so involved & so much teaching & learning that we literally can not get it all done in one day, yet, I am sure we will get into the groove of things and get it all
whipped out in a day...that is what I am hoping for anyhow!!! I am exausted at the end of the day and would love nothing more than to take naps every day and scrapbook since I have my stuff set up next to the boys but it is way too much schooling to do anything but school.
Anyhow, I am going through some medical issues right now and would love prayers for healing and a clear diagnosis...we can not treat things if there is no diagnosis! Well, that is about all right now, I miss my WA friends tons right now, I just have superficial friends right now and no one to
really have crying, all out there talks with...and I miss that! "Hang in there" is what I keep telling myself and "He will see my through" but some times, other peoples kind words go a long way in my life...I love & hope everyone in my path gets something from me, I hope my life is for more than this mundane stuff that is consuming me.....

STAMPS, STAMPS & MORE STAMPS.....

2009-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

As a military wife, some of us, if not all, have ventured into some sort of home based business. I have tried both Stampin' Up! & Longaberger, not that either of them made me rich but I did enjoy meeting new people and sharing my craftiness. Here are a few leftovers from a "make room for the new sets" sale I had, there are tons and I missed the sale of an $85 kit so I now have to pay full price for the full starter set! Anyhow, I am excited to get started again and share their goodies. Contact me if you see anything you want, I will ship anywhere if you can help w/ shipping costs.....thanks everyone!

Birthday party-check, sanity-......

2009-08-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Chloe & Emilydecorating their Lego men cookies...

Here are more beautiful creations....

Look at that face, so adorable....

It is definitly more fun to sit on the jumpy castle than jump on it....

So I do not blog as often as I should or even as often as I think about it, but here I am, on my blog...YAY! I will sit for endless hours on Facebook playing stupid games like Farkle or Farmville but when I think of my blog, I think, "why bother" it is not like I am writing about politics or foreign policy or even religion but I am writing about my journey through life in the current day's issues, if it is Jon & Navy crap, kids not wanting to do school work or laundry that has taken over my house, this is me and my life with the view from where I sit........

Now that I have welcomed you back into my world (as tiny as it is), we had an eventful weekend, soccer assesments, a birthday party for two (Owen & Chloe) and a visit to the ER with what I thought could have been spinal meningitis....it wasn't THANK GOD, since we have been through that one before, and it is not fun!

We decided that it would be fun for the younger two kids to have a combined birthday party, so on Sunday we invited lots of friends over to celebrate their 7th & 4th birthday!!!!

It was great, Owen convinced Chloe to go with a Lego theme and of course I have all these great ideas on a cake and goodie bags and whatnot but end up doing whatever is cheapest or least time consuming or whatever, but I think all in all, everyone was happy and the kids loved sharing a birthday with their friends over! Thank you all for sharing our special day!

Still alive!

2009-05-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well, those who keep up with all that is going on at the Garner house, not much to report lately!

We moved here in January, we visited Colorado, I got very sick w/ a kidney infection and lost one month of my life because of it (or that is how I feel), we got a dog, went to Disney, Mariah turned 13!!!, the boys are in baseball, kids are almost out of school, and the kids and I are going to Colorado for my little sister's birthday...then what? I am always looking to the future for what is going to happen next, not really enjoying where I am right now, I am learning....that is what life is all about, take today for all it has to offer and learn from it and try to make tomorow even better. For some people, like myself, it is a constant thing, I get through one thing but have fifty other commitments to complete in the future (VBS, MOPS crafts, homeschooling my boys, three more summer birthdays to plan for)....it never ends, I always have something to do, and no, it is not always playing around on Facebook, I get quite bored pretty quickly with it lately. I will be thankful for today and all it has to offer and if nothing comes of it as I had planned, oh well, there's usually tomorow to make up for it!!!! Here's to summer in Cali!

National Scrapbook Day!!!!!

2009-05-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow is NSD and for many years I have gone to some huge event with challenges, prizes, drawings, food, soda, you get the idea but this year, the first in many, I am NOT going to even scrapbook. Ok, well, I may get a page or two done but not likely since our family is now at the point of being involved in organized sports, having friends over or needing a ride somewhere, so I am now busier than ever before or so it seems! If you think your life as a mother with smaller children is busy and there is no time for you, I'd say get used to it because it progressively becomes more about them than you'd ever hope....my family loves me (or so I hope) and are pretty good about giving me days "off" but not too many and not too often. BUT when I do go away, it is usually for a long period of time and FAR away (like to Mexico for a long weekend or to Colorado-it was to take care of my mom after surgery but it didn't pan out).....so anyhow, I am going to try and take care of me tomorrow and get some scrapping done but my mind wandered off to getting time away for yourself....so Happy National Scrapbook Day (tomorrow) and check out these sites for cool give-aways & challenges:
twopeasinabucket.com
studiocalico.com
jessicasprague.com (she is doing free online classes)
or just google "National Scrapbook Day" or "scrapbooking" for many fun websites & blogs

Yes, I have been able to scrapbook!

2009-04-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

So, between moving to Monterey, kidney infections-mine, potty training Chloe, getting a puppy, taking care of kids, Jon starting his back to school for his Masters & starting softball, the boys starting t-ball & baseball, watching Tytan & Lyla (that is fun though), and the normal cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning & running the house.....I found the time to squeeze out a few scrapbook pages.....they are not fabulous but I am trying to work outside of the box that I learned to "live in" with my crafts....I used to have everything monochromatic and lined up square, and now I am using multiple colored, different patterned paper, it has been fun getting tons more done when I am not feeling like there are only so many ways to line up photos and still look creative..... Jon took these pictures of Chloe and I at the character parade at California Adeventures back in March, I just had to do a page with them....the title is "I adore that baby face"

So we hid Easter baskets inside because by the time I remembered I had them (yes, I am a spaz) it was chilly outside so anyhow, Mariah could not find hers and it was so stinkin' funny because it was sitting in plain sight on the counter....the title is "I can't find it"

"Ants on a Log" is the title, Chloe absolutely loved telling us all how to make it (I will try to spell it how she said it, use your imagination)...."Hirst you get the celewee, den you put da peanu budder, den you put da yaisins, and den you ead it!" I need to find a voice recorder to put on the page quick before she learns to say it correctly :o)

This photos is from way back in November of 2007 and I have one framed but I love to do more with especially nice photos so what better way to show off their cute little faces than a scrapbook simple page where the focus is still on them! Title is "True love"

My dear Dusty....

2009-04-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

So looking at what pictures I posted on Easter, I think Dustin was in one of them :o( I don't know why, it is just one of those middle children things that the oldest and the youngest are always in pictures, or so it seems, so I found a few of him from this weekend......

I couldn't find the picture of his tongue coming out as he dipped the eggs, that was a funny one!

At the Monterey county egg hunt, there were something like 7,000 eggs hidden (or thrown out on the lawn-hee-hee) and hundreds of kids so he actually got the most out of my four kids, MJ only got three, Owen got four and Chloe got two.....he made up a very cute basket with some of these eggs for his neighbor friend who had an appendectomy last week and couldn't go to the egg hunt....and invited him (& his little sisters) to our backyard egg hunt, what a sweet boy I have!

more Easter fun!

2009-04-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

Owen was bored after dying like two eggs and wanted to play the racing game with an egg on a spoon (we usually do it at birthday parties)...hillarious!

Yes, Chloe dyed all of her eggs pink & purple, those are her favorite colors!!!!

I went a little overboard with buying eggs & candy so the kids invited their neighborhood friends over to hunt for over six dozen candy filled eggs!!!! We were so glad to share the sugar with our friends!

After finding the loot, she could not stop smiling...until it was bedtime and time to put away the sugar!

Owens loot filled bucket was on the fridge, very fitting since he is always eating.....

Easter with an almost 13 year old.....

2009-04-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

This was so funny, I hid the kids Easter baskets (that were actually buckets) in the house after all the excitement for the day died down.......and Mariah had spotted Dustins under the table, Owens on the fridge & Chloes behind the chair....

but kept yelling "MOM, WHERE IS MINE?"...it was so stinkin' funny becasue all I did was set it out in plain sight on the cupboard next to a vase of flowers......

and here she is feeling quite silly for looking everywhere for it but where it actually sat.....just goes to prove that when she is looking for something, it is usually sitting right out in the open and she just overlooks it!!!!! Kind of like when my mom used to say "if it were a snake, it would have bit you in the face"

Jedi Training Academy

2009-03-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Darth Maul & Darth Vader before the kids light saber fought them....

Dustin in a perfect stance to not be knocked down..........

Fear no evil.....Darth Maul kept poking at Mariah's Chewy backpack but we thought he wanted her to stop texting during the show, it was hillarious!

Owen became very serious when they were teaching them proper light saber etiquette but totally forgot it after they left the stage!

It was one of the best parts of the trip and getting the kids up on stage and taking it all very serious was just too precious. So my boys are now official "padawans"!

Disney....

2009-03-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

Here we are with all of the characters we got to meet. Most of my kids despise things in costume (even wher their mom dressed up as the Easter Bunny one year and they watched me get dressed, they were still afraid) anyhow, I did have luck with one child, my sweet Chloe decided she wanted to stand by her favorite all by herself!

It was funny how someone in the crowd would see a character and people would just flood over and form a line and boy you better know what you're doing and have the camera & autograph book ready to go, there is no messing around with those people at Disney!

Not Disney photos but a very cool event for us......

2009-03-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

Owen picked up a glove and had a ball (ha-ha) playing catch with some neighborhood boys (and dads) to warm up for the upcoming t-ball season (and baseball for Dustin). They were pretty good, a little rusty but I am sure after a few practices with other boys their age, they will be great! I am a little worried about Owen getting sidetracked, as you can see in the pictures but again, I am hoping a few pratices and a good coach, he'll do great!

As soon as I get my house back in order and laundry caught up, I will post Disney pictures, I may just do a flicker or post them on snapfish, we will see what works best and takes the least amount of time!

Owen takes off on two wheels...FINALLY! We have asked him for years if he wants to learn to ride with no training wheels and for the longest time he would just say "no thanks". So he finally decided to just get on one day and learn to ride! It didn't even take an hour and he was off, on his own! YEA OWEN!

2009-03-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

So we are heading to Disney, yes Disney, I have been to Disney once in my life, ONCE! I think everyone should go at least once but when you are five or six (and have a horrible selective memory like I do) chances are, you will not remember it.....so anyhow, we are heading to Anaheim, California tomorrow to visit the big eared mouse and his girlfriend/wife, whatever she is and we will be happy to meet any other characters we run into!
Here are the things I need to get done by tomorrow afternoon....it is not a long list but I do live for lists!
-finish laundry & fold it
-pack clothes for questionable weather for 6 people
-pack toiletries
-get food/snacks together, again, for 6 people
-make sure "go bags" are current with things for each person to do on the drive
-clean house up a bit
-clean out truck
-get all camera batteries charged & memory cards emptied
-take Dustin to ortho appt.
I will try to remember that by the time we get there and rest up for a while that we are making memories that will last a life time with the kids and try not to stress about everything too much!
I will share our "memories" when we get back next week (or during the trip if I am not tired)!

My new baby (& aquarium)......

2009-02-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

Chloe & Tytan were very cute at the aquarium, they would run after each other and Chloe kept petting his head, he had a fresh "high & tight" haircut so we think she liked the feel of it, super cute!

She kept saying "why they so squishy?"

Oh, this is fun!

Here is Chloe and Tytan (new new BFF) at the awesome aquarium they have on Cannery Row, they ran all over for two and a half hours....

No, we are NOT pregnant, again, I repeat, NOT PREGERS......we found an awesome deal on digital SLR cameras at Costco so we had budgeted the EXACT amount it was on sale for!
The amazing thing is, it came with a camera bag, a memory card, and an extra lens, I am talking

way good deal here.

Not at a peaceful place....

2009-02-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I always want more meaning in life, more depth, more sustinance.....not just talks about the weather or ANOTHER Hollywood story....I believe God has created us for more than that, don't you? Life is tough, life is not for wimps, it is for the strongest of strong to make it through life on top. Now the world makes the meaning "on top" to be something it is not, it means money (or illusion of), success, college degrees, the illusion of a "happy family" which let me tell you is even hard to fake now days! Well, I am here to talk about wanting more, no, not more stuff, not more friends, not even more money, just more from Him. I believe we are here on this earth for a reason and if you have found yours, please tell me how you did it, I am dying to know, I just go through each days (a lot lately) wondering what am I doing here? Is this "as good as it gets?" I want to become a doctor (or midwife) and go serve in Africa, or be a surogate mother to an infertile family, or something that FEELS meaningful because let me tell you something, doing laundry every single day does not feel meaningful, feeding kids who are usually picky eaters breaks my heart when there are kids who do not even get one meal a day in our own country, driving to the beach and walking to and from places, when some people are home bound.......I am just at a place in my life where I really need things to count, I need friends who will call me out when I am behaving poorly (which I am moody a lot lately) & correct it, I am at a place where when my kids leave for school, I pray for their safe return having had a challenge at school academically or spiritually, because half the time I feel like we are all just walking through life, going through the motions just to get things done.....
I love my family, I praise God for my husbands job & our health and that we have clothes, food, housing, but why, why am I here and what is next, what wonderful thing has He created me for because this can not be it, raising four kids in this world is more than a full time job, especially as a military family, you have to explain things a little a differently, they know more about wars and that some daddys do not come home.....but more Lord, I need more, I need a goal and a way to work at it, a way to accomplish something in this lifetime.
There is so much on my heart right now and this is just the begining, He is doing something in me and I have to let it out or it will end up bottled up like other things in the past......Thank you for being part of my journey, I cherish every one of you who reads this & thank God we had a chance to cross paths & hope we can again!

Driving, driving & more driving!

2009-01-23T20:42:00.000-08:00

RARE occasion but this was me after we got to California and recieved a five bedroom house!

Traveling down the coast has been a whirlwind ride for the Garners, starting the first night their house was packed up, going to IHOP and they were out of pancake mix, yes, the International House of PANCAKES was out of pancake mix, who knew that this would only be the begining. After having their house packed up and saying good-bye to dear friends, they started their drive to see the Redwoods in California. The first night they stopped at Grants Pass after maneuvering through fog as thick as mud, safely arriving just in time for the kids to take a dip in the pool, well, only long enough before Owen threw up in the pool and they had to shut it down for the night :o(
(SORRY! La Quinta Inn).
Next, the journey to drive through the Redwoods continued. We finally arrive at the “Drive thru tree” that you literally drive your can through…done. The kids were not thrilled but I did get a few pictures of them and they are going into the scrapbooks titled “My little Tree Huggers”
Then we make our way to see how Jelly Belly (jelly beans) are made in California, but I lock my keys in the car so by the time a locksmith makes his way to the Starbucks we were sitting at, it was late and we were all irritated with the way the night was going so we checked into a hotel across the parking lot and Jon took the three little ones swimming with a frog (there was a frog who had gotten in the pool to take a swim and wanted to swim with the kids, only they did not think it was so funny and got out screaming), & Chloe was done in fifteen minutes, the boys stayed in an hour or so.
Jon caught us up on laundry while I got kids to sleep. We ended up canceling our trip to the Jelly Belly factory for when guests come to visit, we will take someone there, so be the first ones to make it out here get that tour (hint, hint)!

FINALLY we make it to Monterey, California and get a five bedroom house in housing on an old Army base. It will be nice to be right down the street from Kristen & Adam (he was on the Louisiana w/ Jon)…again. The kids already found trees to climb and we met a few people that have kids so they will have plenty to do here. Did I mention that it was actually HOT here yesterday. Over 70 degrees and very sunny and beautiful ocean right down the road (more like across the highway but still, very close).I may have to dig out my flip flops when I get back.
We rarely sit still at our house so we packed up the trailer with clean clothes (and dirty to do laundry at my moms house-HI mom) and headed to Colorado/New Mexico…so we have been in hotels since Tuesday, January 13th and may not be home until after February 1st…holy cow, God is getting us through this as He does anything we attempt to do!

Saying "GOOD-BYE" is hard to do....

2009-01-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

It really is all in the title, there are no easy ways to say good-bye, you can avoid it, not do it, ball your eyes out while hugging one of your best friends saying good-bye, wave while they drive away, pull away from their friendship....I have either done or have had done to me, face it, in life we have to say good-bye, to loved ones who die, to friends who are in the military and they have to move every 2-3 years (that's us), family who needs a job and they need to move three days drive away rather than a three hour drive....it happens, it sucks and it is just one of those things in life that never "gets easier" nor "get used to" (and I have had both of those told to me about military life).
I will forever remember the friends and family we have made here and absolutely love for them to visit us wherever we are on our journey....from the wonderful scrapbooking crew we had going to church family, to incredible next door neighbors, you all were very gracious in accepting the WHOLE Garner family into your lives and homes and there are no words to describe my gratitude for that. My children have balled their eyes out numerous times since we found out we were heading down the coast, and the tears come more frequent the closer it gets to leaving, they love all their friends here and can never replace them....thank you all, we love you and here is a funny email I got about the northwest, I call it "ODE TO WESTERNERS"
The Pacific Northwest According To Jeff Foxworthy
1. You know the state flower (Mildew)
2. You feel totally guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
3. You use the statement 'sun break' and know what it means.
4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
5. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant (or to the symphony!).
7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the 'WALK' signal.
8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it's not a real mountain.
9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best, and Tully's.
10. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon.
11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima and Willamette .
12. You consider swimming an indoor sport.
13. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
14. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark while only working eight-hour days.
15. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.
16. You are not fazed by 'Today's forecast: showers followed by rain,' and 'Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers.'
17. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
18. You know that Boring is a town in Oregon & Washington and not just a state of mind.
19. You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover.
20. You notice, 'The mountain is out' when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it.
21. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking boots and a parka.
22. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 60, but keep the socks on.
23. You have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
24. You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
25. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you cannot find the old ones after such a long time.
26. You measure distance in hours.
27. You often switch from 'heat' to 'a/c' in the same day.
28. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat.
29. You know all the important seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Raining, and Road Construction
30. You actually understood these jokes and will probably forward them.

Painting, packing, purging, and ultimately MOVING......

2009-01-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, as sad as it is, we are moving from the great northwest to see sunny California. Courtesy of the United States Navy of course. It is the life we chose, or God chose for us, but that DOES NOT mean that we enjoy it, "get used to it", nor does it "get easier"! Those are some of the things I have heard in the past few months when I try to share my feelings about what I feeling.
I am overwhelmed, tired, panicy, high strung & irritable and those are just a few. I read somewhere a while back that moving is the second most stressful event in your life, first being dealing with a death......I am not trying to let that be true but it is SO STRESSFUL, I have to not only keep up with daily life of cooking, cleaning (I sort of gave up on that one), making sure the kids are fed, clothed, at school, have clean teeth, etc. etc. all the while, planning for two trips, one to drop off a car in CA and then on to visit family in CO. Jon has not been home in at least two years (since my dads funeral in '06) so we thought we'd take advantage of this little break from the Navy and go visit. We have to paint our walls back to BORING white, you have to do that in housing but there was no way I was going to live in another house with off white, correction "eggshell white" walls! So that is first on our list, so since I am sitting for a single dad on from the boat, we could not have someone come help seeing that it would be very hard to keep a two and a three year old out of the front room so Jon is doing it at night after the kids go to bed.......
and I sit there and watch since my shoulder is causing some serious pain.....I have "strained trapezius" they is of a pair of large triangular muscles extending over the back of the neck and shoulders and moving the head and shoulder blade.....pure pain, from my shoulder, to my neck and back down & around through my shoulder blade......muscle relaxers & naproxen 24/7 and I am still seemingly useless! Anyhow, stressed, that is all, and yes, after the movers come and pack EVERYTHING I have not set aside and posted a HUGE sign on saying "DON NOT PACK"
it will calm down, until we pack up our cars and head to Cali & CO....until then, many prayers, and thoughts out to families who do this and do not have the military's support to help them along, we have great resourses to take advantage and feel very blessed for that and thank God we do have them, there is not way I could do this without being pointed in the right direction.

MORE stinkin' SNOW?

2008-12-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

The girls getting ready to go sledding...or Chloe getting ready to get pulled in the sled!

Jon teaching Owen how to shovel and giving tips on how not to throw your back out!

Chloe took this photo of the snow, gives you a three year old perspective on it all!

So, by the time I am done blogging for December, I am pretty sure you will be sick of all the snow pictures, well, guess what, I am sick of it already......the only time I look forward to it is when I get to leave my house, which has NOT been a lot lately, it has forced me to finish up random projects I have started throughout the year and clean like mad since my mom and sister are supposed to fly out here Monday night, this is if the snow lets up for five damn minutes to let people travel to visit me......I have almost finished the scrapbook of my dad for my mom, almost caught up in the Christmas journal, a few days here and there are missing, Gotten lots of baking/cooking done lately since everyone is home, I have been cooking full meals for at least lunch and dinner, maybe a full breakfast here and there. I can not believe for a place that a bunch of people told us "it doesn't snow here" or maybe it didn't the three years they were stationed here but it has snowed so much, we stopped tracking it, I was taking pictures of it every few hours but gave up! Growing up in Colorado this kind of weather was not a big deal and the entire town did not shut down but here, noone has the capabilities (nor the knowledge) to deal with it. The town has all ut shut down most stores & when one is open (like Wal-Mart) my husband who ventured out with our neighbor friend out of sheer boredom today said the food isles were bare, I needed three things and they has none of them, no pretzels, no candy cane Hershey kisses & no Christmas colored M&Ms........

The kids have gone out at least twice a day since Thursday, we have lots of wet gloves, hats, coats, ski pants, it is all spread accross my front room drying out since the night they left it out-side, it froze to the lawn chairs! I am sure I can think of fife million things to write about now but I think I may go take a nice hot bath, everyone going out in it (except me) is making me cold!!!!

December 18, 2008

2008-12-18T16:51:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, you'd think we were in New York or something with the weather we are having. I woke up at 5:50 a.m. to the schools automated voice recording on the telephone of "due to inclimate weather, school will be delayed" so of course I could not go back to sleep and got up to check the news and internet postings to make sure it was for sure. So within and hour, schools were now closed and since TTF where Jon is working right now is follwing CK school closures, he did not have to go into work either! So it is Thursday but it feels like a Saturday!
The girls made chocolate spoons while the boys went sledding down a very large hill at a baseball field here on base, I thought the spoons were for gifts or to share with na-na and KT when they get here next week, nope, they have been munching on them all day.....oh well.

So with everyone here, I can not do anything, I can not clean, I can not scrapbook, I can only join in the completely ridiculous amount of time in front of the TV and on the internet for the day and cherish the time spent with family. I made the Zuppa Toscana soup from Olive Garden for Jon and the kids after they went sledding this morning, they loved it & it warmed them up, and bread sticks and hot cocoa, of course!
I did get three bags of Hershey kisses unwrapped today for peanut butter kiss cookies and another thing where you put a kiss on a pretzel and bake it for a few minutes and them smush an M&M on top to make these cute little snacky things.......so nothing made yet but step one is to unwrap the kisses so I got that far! Oh, I got set up to scrapbook at the kitchen table but then it was dinner time and I lost motivation and it still sits there on the table, all lonely!

We should have everything back up and running here on the base tomorrow, I pray at least. so everyone can get stuff done before traveling for Christmas and out-of-town visitors come in!

Anyways, my kids love the snow and know we will not see it every place we live, so they just get bundled up and head out in it and make the most of it!

Random

2008-12-13T21:27:00.000-08:00

Completely random and unrelated, just felt like posting tonight out of complete and utter boredom...we went and saw Madagascar and did not stay for the second movie becasue the kids are in a play tomorrow at church and they were told to get a good nights sleep so we had to wrap it up and come home instead of staying out late like we do once in a while!
So, the first picture is a card I made for my sister that is graduating with her masters degree in Math, yes, she is a complete nerd but as my husband tells me all the time "nerds are the one who make good money"!!!! True, very true! Anyhow, she graduates like next week or something so I made her this very cute card with some left over stuff from a "Sweet Spuds" kit.
The second thing is of my sweetie, at the time, singing a Christmas song, she picked it up recently and does not like for us to make a big deal about it so we are quite lucky we got even this much of a video! ENJOY! Only one week and two days and my mom and little sister are coming to visit us....that is a big deal, being a military family, we do not always get home as often as we'd like to and we know that it is just as expensive for someone to visit us as it is for us to visit them so needless to say, visiting is far & few between. So, I get very excited for someone to come to my house and be my guest so I can entertain and be hospitable to them, that is what I live for!

Productivity

2008-12-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

Do you eve3r sit back in the evenings and wonder, what did I actually get done today. You clean but it looks dirty by the end of the day, you cooked several times but the kids claim they are hungry (again), you prayed but everything is going wrong, you have devoted your life to something and it is not going quite as you though it would? All of these things have happened to me in the last day or so and I am feeling emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually drained. I know that God has a plan for my life but is this it. I know He created me for a specific purpose, but is this it. I know He has placed me where I am for such a time as this but is this really as good as it gets? My wonderfully made husband had a profound question the other night and it really got me thinking about my life, he said "what are we doing that will leave our mark on the world, what legacy are we leaving?" I really fought with that question and I think I am still strugling a bit with it. I do not know if raising four kids as a SAHM, being a military family, being married, being who I am is enough, and enough to get by just isn't cutting it any more.
I have always felt a pull towards the mission field, now that is open for debate because some people see our neighbors or our cities as our mission field but I feel I can do so much more than that, build houses for VERY, VERY poor people in Mexico, give children an education in the Congo, give medical attention to orphans in Zambia, what am I doing here and why do I feel so unproductive? I know the devil loves to make us feel inferior and useless and worthless and the list goes on and on but when does it stop, is there ever a time that we feel like we have arrived so to speak, that what we are doing is making a difference or changing the world? Is there an actual event that can change the way I feel about my life and how it is going, is there something I need to do to change they way things are going? I feel as though I am stuck in this pit of dispair and self loathing right now and I do not know what to do to change it, I am still overweight, still depressed, still hating the Navy life, tearing us away from friends and family yet again (although I am very thankful for all they have allowed us to do in the past ten years & provided a career and financial stability) but it is overwhelming to try to plan a life when you can only plan for the next two years and have to be open to things changing at the drop of a hat and going along with it because your husband signed his life away in exchange for a huge sum of money. Why Lord, why am I here in this place at this time of year, with a family to take care of and things to do, I do not have time to analyze life or all that it comes with right now, I have to mentally and physically prepare a family and a 22oo sq. foot home to move down the coast in a month and go visit family and pretend I am happy while doing it? I can't any more, I can not pretend that I am happy with the way my life is unfolding.........

December already?

2008-12-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

How does it happen, the years go by so quickly the older you get. I feel like we just moved in and got settled and now what are we doing, going through closets and dressers to move...AGAIN! I kind of get the itch once in a s=while to move but I jsut redecorate a bathroom or paint a wall or something to make a change but I would really like to know what it feels like (as an adult) to settle down and stay put in one town longer than two or three years and maybe buy a house or have the same friends and have our kids grow up together and graduate together. Maybe this is unrealistic, I know people who have gotten out of the military because they do not like the moving around and switching their kids from school to school and have moved more after they got out of the military than they did wgile there were in. Now we are not even going to go there, we are not getting out any time soon, we just re-upped four more years so right now, we will have fifteen years in by the end of that commitment between moves and schools that Jon will have to go to in between duty stations but anyhow, how does an entire year go by and I feel like I have done nothing but a few vacations and scrapbook pages about it?
I feel like time seriously speeds up this time of year as well. Once the kids are in school, the holidays sneak up on me and before I know it, it is time to change the calendar to a new year!
My kids are another year older, I have been married one more year, very proud of that one, married at age 18, had several kids and in the military, that is a HUGE one for me, and I have done what, said good-bye to a few friends who have moved away, and what, made a dent in the couch, that one is funny, I said something to Jon about having my spot back and he said "yeah, the spot with the dent in it"
Oh well, I am sure another year will go by and I will hopefully be saying something else at the end of next year!

Gettin' things done.....

2008-11-29T19:53:00.000-08:00

So I have been busy, in the midst of cleaning out closets, drawers, dressers, junk piles, garages full of who-knows-what for the upcoming move, we are also painting here and there, decorating for Christmas, hosting our first hail & farewell party for some good friends who are moving to Monterey, shopping great sales every chance I get and in between cleaning and making sure kids are alive, showered, fed and well, I am addresing Christmas cards, going to ornament exchanges, baking and hanging out with family & friends!
So mainly, I wanted to show y wonderful finds for my kids on Black Friday & Saturday "extended sales" at some stores, who knows, maybe they did not make what they needed to yesterday? We got Dustin a Rip Stick Razor for half of its regular price, Owen a scooter since one of ours was stolen this year, and various other clothing items for Chloe who is getting taller each day and one very expensive electronic music device for the eldest child who will soon have more expensive toys than mom & dad!
Anyhow, we enjoy lighting up the tree every afternoon around 3 or 4 and watching other neighborhood friends decorate their houses this weekend as we sit inside and enjoy ours already put up and lit-"great job" goes to my wondeful husband for getting them up while he had no work this past week!!!!! We look forward to seeing everyone in January after our move from WA to Cali and maybe some of you can come & see us in sunny Cali?

What a great Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

We were so blessed to have gotten invited to the Singers home for Thanksgiving dinner (although it was at 1 p.m. so we still had time left to vist, watch football-sorry Cowboys-eat dessert and play Phase 10)....anyhow, it was with great friends from church and their family, four of the five sisters, Jenefer, Heather, Dani & Beth and their 12 kids, and that was not even all of them (Rebekah, Glory, Colton, Zach, Ryan, Wyatt, Zeke, Sierra, Michael, Shirley, Lizzy & Abby) PLUS all of our kids and us of course, so add six onto that, plus the mom and dad, that one is funny because I have a great aunt and uncle whose names are Sandi & Ray and retired from the military, well that is the names of the wonderful people who hosted Thanksgiving at their house and graciously invited us along! Now their house is like I remember my childhood gatherings, loud, kind of stressful with all of the kids-by that is okay, it helps me learn how to deal with it and I am not perfect so I had to becon my husband for help a few times while he was napping, thanks to the triptofan in the turkey, when the kids were trying to crawl on my lap or reach for a peanut butter bar while I was in the middle of a hand of Phase 10.......I loved it and although I had a very good time with wonderful food and great friends, it does make me miss home all too much, I miss fights over stupid stuff and being able to work it out until we agree to disagree, I miss all of the cousins sitting outside talking about how their life at the time, I miss getting yelled at because you walked in front of the TV for too long during a football game.....anyhow, I miss home, Pueblo, Colorado will always be "home" to me, no matter how far away we move, I always say "Colorado" is home for me!

Heather also bought gingerbread men for the kids to decorate, it was so cute, the kids were decorating their cookies and once in a while you'd see a kid stick their little icing bag in their mouth for a bit of frosting, it was like they needed a little pick me up while decorating their cookie! FUNNY! I can not wait unitl Christmas when my mom and little sis get to come visit us, I am hoping it will be a memorable one for us all!

It's Christmas tree time!!!!!!

2008-11-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

SO, I know it is not quite time yet but who is to decide when the "right time" is to put up a Christmas tree? I love Christmas so stinckin' much that I would leave it up all year but it may lose its novelty.......we FINALLY put it up tonight and we will be working on getting up decorations & lights up outside and more inside for Hail & Farewell party we get to host the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend for some good friends who are moving to Monterey OR Annapolis......gotta love the military, you are moving but don't quite know which side of the counrty yet!
So anyways, the Christmas tree, my favorite part, well, sort of. The kids like to make it their big thing and take over the tree decorating and have this secret little contest to see how many ornaments they can fit in one cubic foot or maybe the secret contest is more like, let's see if we can make mom cry from how crazy we can make it look.......not really, I know they do not do it on purpose, to their little eyes and hearts, perfection does not exist, and maybe, just maybe, that is a good thing for now. They do not care what other people think of their tree, they do not care if it gets made fun of, it is theirs and they are totally okay with a completely mis-matched, funky ornaments on the tree. I think it started years ago when we used to do ornament exchanges with family across the country, well, with different money situations or whatever it was, we just do not do it any more, we hardly exchange gifts any more with family other than Jon and my parents, so since we did not exchange ornaments, the kids really liked getting a new one each year to repesent what they liked at that time, so one year, DB got a sports one because he had participated in sports that year or MJ got a sparkly bright blue one last year and that was (and oddly enough still is) her favorite color, so you get the idea. Well, each year, we bust open those ornament totes and out come the completely mis-matched decorations, they do not want to put up my nicely matched, monochromatic ornaments, not all of them anyways, maybe two of one color, three of another, a few Disney ornaments, maybe a few hand made ones.......so here I sit, just happily making Christmas cards and my beautiful fake tree sits all aglow with many, many mismatched ornaments, just like out family, none of us look a lot like the other, none of us like the same things, we dislike a few of the same things, have different tastes in food, we are all made as individuals and unique, and as irritating as it is sometimes, you just have to smile and give it time and maybe it will not irritate you as much tomorrow, or maybe people will work on their horrible habits, and maybe you just have to get over it and move on, I have to do this a lot living with four children and a husband who is male and is from Mars..........

thoughts.......

2008-11-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

I just need to vent....I am uber (sp?) stressed, like to the max I could every be. Moves do not get easier, we, as a military family do not "get used to it" as some people have claimed we do, people who maybe have moved to a new house in the same city, kept their same church, friends, job, etc. etc. What we have to do as military families is a HUGE sacrifice, we have to pack up our house, everything in our house, every corner of stuff packed in boxes, then relocate our whole life basically into some town we may have never been to and find a home, get kids enrolled in new schools, find a house (if base housing is not available, or built in the 1940's and is falling apart), get checked into medical, find new dentists, then, the daunting task of unpacking everything we just packed up a few weeks prior and find new homes for all of our "stuff"........
So a few days ago I claimed that "parenting is not for wimps" well my new motto is "the military life is not for wimps"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another revelation I have had is that it gets harder when your kids get older, they do not want to leave their friends, school, church, they have to learn to love and let go at a very early age and learn that you find out who your real friends are through a move. They also have to learn to "adjust & adapt" from an even earlier age. They may have their own room in one home but when there are no houses to accomidate your large family, they have to give up something like that.

I give props to families who have moved even more than we have in a shorter period of time, God bless you all for holding it together and getting the job done but I am standing here in the middle of a mental, spiritual & physical tornado that I do not see a way out......Lord help me to see what you have for me in all of this and what I can learn from you in these trying times and Lord, help me be a good example to my family during a move, being strong when I want to give up, keep my cool when I want to lay on the floor and throw a temper tantrum and Lord, help us be in the right place that you would have us, AMEN!

Oh, and yes, the picture is of where we will be moving, we will be suffering :o)

living in the now.....

2008-11-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the MomentWe live in the age of distraction. Yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present.
By: Jay Dixit

A friend was walking in the desert when he found the telephone to God. The setting was Burning Man, an electronic arts and music festival for which 50,000 people descend on Black Rock City, Nevada, for eight days of "radical self-expression"—dancing, socializing, meditating, and debauchery.
A phone booth in the middle of the desert with a sign that said "Talk to God" was a surreal sight even at Burning Man. The idea was that you picked up the phone, and God—or someone claiming to be God—would be at the other end to ease your pain.
So when God came on the line asking how he could help, my friend was ready. "How can I live more in the moment?" he asked. Too often, he felt, the beautiful moments of his life were drowned out by a cacophony of self-consciousness and anxiety. What could he do to hush the buzzing of his mind?
"Breathe," replied a soothing male voice.
My friend flinched at the tired new-age mantra, then reminded himself to keep an open mind. When God talks, you listen.
"Whenever you feel anxious about your future or your past, just breathe," continued God. "Try it with me a few times right now. Breathe in… breathe out." And despite himself, my friend began to relax.
You Are Not Your Thoughts
Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past. "We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence," says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace. We're always doing something, and we allow little time to practice stillness and calm.
When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our "monkey minds," as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree.
Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. "Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall," writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to "rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being."
We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV. Read the rest on......
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-4696.html&fromMod=emailed

Veterans Day around the corner

2008-11-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

Now that our country has settles down from the election, I would love to share a few thoughts on the upcoming holiday, one of the most important in my book, Veterans Day. Now are coming up on the eighth year of our prescence in the middle east fighting to keep the peace and keep our freedoms here in the USA, but how many years have we been fighting wars, oh, since about the begining of time......biblical times is the first times I can recall wars and battles to fight for what people believe in or to get a point across. There are many vets in my life I am going to teach my kids about this next week and about what they did and possibly why. They are people who need to be loved and honored for their sacrifice, pain & turmoil they have endured to ensure our freedom today!
On another note, they are literally thousands upon thousands of active duty troops serving our country right now, in Afganistan, Iraq, Africa, Korea and hundreds of other counrties in this world. They made a personal choice to protect and defend this counrties frredoms by doing what they are doing around the world, please, if at all possible, do something for one this year, if all you can afford is prayer, do it. If you can afford to send ten boxes of electric blankets to the troops, do it, just please do something for them, they are away from wives, newborn babies, the comforts of their own bed, homecooking, Thanksgiving dinner, they go without a lot so we can go where we want, when we want, with whom we'd like and never having to think twice about it! God bless you all and remember to hug a veteran on Tuesday!

http://www.cardsforheroes.org/

http://www.operationquietcomfort.com/index.jsp

http://anysoldier.com/

Dog sitting & carving pumpkins

2008-10-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have now done it all....DOG SAT! We loved our time with Lucy, while her owners went on their ten year anniversary trip to Hawaii, luck ducks! She had so much energy but would hang out on the couch and fall alseep at times!

Here is the final products of Mariah and Dustins artistic carving skills!

I really need to learn to use the flash on this camera, she really is not that pale.....

This kids took three hours to decide on what to carve in his pumpkin and was tolf by Mariah that he was such a girl for being so indecisive!

Owen sat there all cuddled up while big sister did all the work, what cute kids!

Mariah is infatuated with one of the Jonas brothers so she chose to carve her pumpkin in honor of him.
More to come about our Halloween night!

A road trip........

2008-10-20T18:33:00.001-07:00

ROLOFF FARMS is where our destination was for an overnight trip for the family. We left northwest Washington about 4 p.m. on Friday night and headed to a four start hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon! Four kids in tow and a tired mom and dad from homeschooling, scrapbooking, working until 3 p.m., packing, getting our house dog proof to dog-sit when we got back for Lucy the westie, and STILL potty training a three year old....and that is what we did from Friday morning until we left at 3 p.m...............now the fun part, driving with four kids, I don't get it, they have portable dvd platers, nintendo ds (the boys each have one), a leapster (for Chloe), a laptop (oh wait, that was for me!), a binder FULL of movies, I am talking like 200 movies, an IPOD (that MJ bought with her own hard earned money from babysitting four little boys for months-GO MJ) but the thing is, that does not keep them quiet, if it were me with all of that entertainment, I would not care who I sat by or which seat in the eight seat suv we drive, noooooooooooo, "I'm bored" half the time and fighting to sit by Chloe and in the middle row because that is where we are least likely to get car sick.............oh the road trip sagas! So, we got to our four start hotel and took a swim before bed, got showered and hit the hay so we could go meet the Roloff family at their pumpkin patch! Saturday morning we get up before 7 a.m. to get breakfast and get to the farm before huge crowds start lining up and boy did they ever, by the time we left at noon, there were at least 100 cars lined up, waiting to get in the farm and hopefully see one of the family of little people we adore watching on tv, Matt, Amy, Jeremy, Zach, Molly or Jacob....WE DID, patience and lots of pumping up about seeing them, since it was mostly mom and MJ who wanted to meet one of them, we got to meet Matt (the dad) riding his mule around the farm making sure everything was going how he'd like it to be, Sven (Matts right hand guy), Amy (the mom), she came out to sign autographs, Jeremy (one of the oldest twins) was driving one of the tour tractors, Molly & Jacob (the two youngest kids) were working at the western town and taking pictures with fans and helping load and unload the tour tractors, oh, we can't forget Hunny & Gpa, they were doing the same at the western town! It was really great to see them in person, they are a christian family trying to raise a family and make a living on a farm!

Jon doing Navy stuff........

2008-10-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Jon got to do a re-enlistment ceremony today.....what a handsome guy huh?
It was neat, the Navy personel re-enlisting decides where he want to do it and who he wants to do it for him and the guy (Jace) asked Jon to do his re-enlistment! It was neat to be part of and I took pictures for the guy and his fiance! I am so proud of Jon and I know for a fact that days like this make him proud to be part of the United State Navy!
Oh, I will post about our trip to the Roloff Farm soon so check back frequently!!!!!

Tijuana, Mexico, what a trip......

2008-10-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

I recently took a trip to Tijuana, Mexico to build a house with a team from our church with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), they take applications from families and have to meet certain requirements like owning their land, having several children and make less than $100 a week, well, there are hundreds, probably thousands in Mexico that meet those requirements but only a few get selected to be blessed with a house built my volunteers from all over the world. There are church groups that build, boy scouts, multi-million dollar corporations that send their employees for team building and tons of other groups, we just happen to be one of them who get to raise money (approximately $6,050) and fly down to San Deigo, have the YWAM students pick us up, take us to In & Out Burger and drive us down to the base in Tijuana, Mexico for a four day build that changes you & the family you build for, for generations and generations!
Come to find out, my father-in-law went to Austrailia a long, long time ago with YWAM, so I guess they have been around for quite some time doing amazing things for the world.......their new base in Tijuana is gorgeous, it has dorm type rooms, not twenty some three bed bunk beds like their current base. It is also ocean view and has everything from a cafeteria, to a football feild & gym, and tons and tons of rooms to house DTS (deciplship training student), the teams who come to build, and families who volunteer for YWAM.....God is amazing in what He is doing with the YWAM ministries, if you ever get a chance to do it, go for it, if Pastor Arnie & Joann can do it in their late 70's (I think, maybe 80's), then anyone can do it! Thank you Lord for allowing me to go with the people on the team from Faith Fellowship and meeting everyone I met, the whole thing from leaving Washington, to returning to Washington, it was all BLESSED, the whole thing! Now, just getting over whatever sickness I picked up along the way, I'll be great!

The world through a childs eyes......

2008-09-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

My dear dear Chloe, she is such a little sugar baby, I love to smooch on her and pinch her little butt, but lately, she has been sharing in my passion of photography. To see the world from a completely different pespective is so great, I can see things I had never thought to look at. Not to mention the height, it is so low to the ground, cute!

Mexico Mission Trip

2008-09-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Here is our "familia" in Tijuana, Mexico a small group of people from our church are going to build a home for! I am super excited to go, although not too excited to get a tetanus shot tomorrow.....I have had a heart to go on mission trips for so long but have never really had the opportunity to on one wether it was lack of finances or the kids were just too little to leave them & the country! Our family has two little boys (obviously), one is two years old and one is two months old, I am not sure when they posted the information so they may be a little older than that. The mom and dad are 25 and 22. It will be so amazing to go and bless them with a house with a concrete floor, I know, that sounds horrible to us but being that they usually have dirt floors and are always sick because of that. We will build a home the size of a garage, Again, sounds horrible but when their home they are living in now is basically the size of one of our walk in closets, it will be amazing for them! One thing I am hoping to do is play with the kids, I LOVE BABIES and I guess when the van from "Homes of Hope" rolls in, people show up from all over as well as kids, so we are going to take balloons to make balloon animals, candy, face painting, fun carnival things that kids in America don't appreciate any more (in my oppinion anyhow).......
Please be praying for our health as well as strength to get the home done in the three days we are there, strength to withstand the enemies attack, you know, the attacks that readily come when you are doing something for HIS glory, so prayers, prayers, prayers! I hope I can share some photos after I go (Oct. 2-5) & how much fun I had building a house.

HAPPY AUTUMN!!!!!!

2008-09-23T08:33:00.001-07:00

So Fall is in the air! Leaves are changing and I am already thinking about Christmas, okay, budgeting for Christmas! I once heard someone say that the key is to live in the moment, when you live in yesterday (or dwell on it) and focus about tomorrow (or the future, near or far) is the moment you miss all of what "right now" has for you! Really good huh? I am trying to focus on that and enjoy the "season" of life I am in, being a SAHM, homeschooling a seventh grader, potty training a three y.o. and being a wife to an amazing Navy career man.....

There was a challenge to see what everyone does to celebrate fall, either decorations, food, and such, I really do not decorate like I used to when I had less kids but the one thing I do is change the wreath on my front door, it is funny because once I do it, a lot of others on our block do it (someone did beat me to it this year though LOL)
Here is my fall wreath and HAPPY FALL Y'ALL, enjoy what today, this hour, this minute has to offer you and rejoice in all things He has created for you!!!!!

A Parents Job Description......

2008-09-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

I have often felt this way but the rewards are endless and the return on your dedication and love for your kids can never be priced at any cost!!!!! ENJOY!

This is hysterical. If it had been presented this way,

I don't believe any of us would have done it!!!!

POSITION :Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
Dad, Daddy, Pa, Papa

JOB DESCRIPTION :Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in anoften chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities ! Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES :The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION : None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :None required unfortunately.On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION :Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bon uses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS :While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth, unconditional love, and free hugs and kisses for life if you play your cards right.
AND A FOOTNOTE ?
THERE IS NO RETIREMENT -- EVER!!!
If you are fortunate enough you will become grandparents!

TV......

2008-09-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Not that my life revolves around the "boob tube" but there are a few shows I do love. And thank God I can just DVR them and watch whenever I can.......
http://www.tvguide.com/special/fall-preview-2008/fall-preview-a-z.aspx
House, wait, I am not seeing my fav show on the list, is it not coming back? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated. Army Wives, Desp. Housewives, and One Tree Hill.....Those are a few of my favs!

Warrenton SCRAPBOOK RETREAT!!!!!

2008-09-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, some grat friends of mine went on a little journey into Oregon and took a relaxing vacation on the beach.....YEAH RIGHT! We were getting our scrapbook pages done as quickly and beautifully done as we possibly could.......anyhow, we took a day to go visit a little nearby town that was jam packed with people because of the "Hood to Coast" run, it was amazing to see that many people walking/running that far and still alive :o)
Back to the scrapbooking retreat, here are a few pictures I took of us hangin' at the beach and one of our cars packed with seven womens things to preserve families heritages for decades to come! I really enjoy the time to get away regroup & refocus on life and enjoy the little things I do not get to do on an every day basis, like eating snack foods all day and sleeping in!
HAPPY CRAFTING!

NO WAY!

2008-09-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

You know how when your life seems to be settling down, getin' a little comfy and safe, just when you things can go no smoother, it is like a truck load of bricks get dumped on you. By who you ask, the enemy, Satan himself......we are taking a financial peace class through our church (yea God) and volunteering where God has us but you know, if you ever, I mean ever let your guard down, he will sneak his ugly little head in your door and then have a foothold on you or your family. With anything from sickness to fights between your kids or spouse (that is where I am tonight, fighting with the spouse) Oooohhhh, christians don't fight with their spouses, why yes, yes we do, just like every other Jane and Joe on the block, it is just that we are more aware of where the attack comes from and we can choose to nip it in the bud and say "be done here Satan, you have no place in my home" and claim the victory Jesus died ont he cross for us to have or we can let the strife go on and be consumed by the others faults...what are you going to do today? LOVE YOU!

I really don't believe in horiscopes but this is scary true!

2008-09-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

I love getting information that involves me (or can)......I am TOTALLY an Aquarius and always have been, I am also a huge believer in birth order & personality types, find out what you are on http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp and a very good explanation of birth order and the traits they usually hold http://www.birthorders.com/match.html
Enjoy the read!

This is the real Deal, try ignoring or changing it, and the first thing you'll notice is having a horrible day starting tomorrow morning - and it only gets Worse from there. Remember, if you are on the cusp of another sign you most likely will have features of both signs...which may lead you into total confusion......
CAPRICORN “ The Go-Getter" (Dec 22 - Jan 19) Patient and wise. Practical and rig id. Ambitious. Tends to be Good-looking. Humorous and funny. Can be a bit shy and reserved. Often pessimistic. Capricorns tend to act before they think and can be Unfriendly at times. Hold grudges. Like competition. Get what they Want. 20 years of bad luck if you do not forward. AQUARIUS “ The Sweetheart" (Jan 20 - Feb 18) Optimistic and honest. Sweet personality. Very independent. Inventive and intelligent. Friendly and loyal. Can seem unemotional. Can be a bit rebellious. Very stubborn, but original and unique. Attractive on the inside and out. Eccentric personality. 11 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
PISCES “ The Dreamer" (Feb 19 - Mar 20) Generous, kind, and thoughtful. Very creative and imaginative. May become secretive and vague. Sensitive. Don't like details. Dreamy and unrealistic. Sympathetic and loving. Kind. Unselfish. Good kisser. Beautiful. 8 years of bad luck if you do not forward .
ARIES “ The Daredevil " (Mar 21 - April 19) Energetic. Adventurous and spontaneous. Confident and en thusiastic. Fun. Loves a challenge. EXTREMELY impatient. Sometimes selfish. Short fuse. (Easily angered.) Lively, passionate, and sharp wit. Outgoing. Lose interest quickly - easily bored. Egotistical. Courageous and assertive. Tends to be=2 0physical and athletic. 16 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
TAURUS “ The Enduring One" (April 20 - May 20) Charming but aggressive. Can come off as boring, but they are not. Hard workers. Warm-hearted. Strong, has endurance. Solid beings that are stable and secure in their ways. Not looking for shortcuts. Take pride in their beauty. Patient and reliable. Make great friends and give good advice. Loving and kind. Loves hard - passionate. Express themselves emotionally. Prone to ferocious temper-tantrums. Determin ed. Indulge themselves of ten. Very generous. 12 years of bad Luck if you do not forward.
GEMINI “ The Chatterbox" (May 21 - June 20) Smart and witty. Outgoing, very chatty. Lively, energetic. Adap table But needs to express themselves. Argumentative and outspoken. Like change. Versatile. Busy, sometimes nervous and tense. Gossips. May seem superficial or inconsistent. Beautiful physically and mentally. 5 years of bad luck if you do not forward. CANCER “ The Protector" (June 21 - July 22) Moody, emotional. May be shy. Very loving and caring. Pretty /handsome. Excellent partners for life. Protective. Inventive and imaginative. Cautious. Touchy-feely kind of person. Needs love from others. Easily hurt, but sympathetic. 16 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
LEO “ The Boss" (July 23 -Aug 22) Very organized. Need order in their lives - like bei ng in control. Like boundaries. Tend to take over everything. Bossy. Like to help Others. Social and outgoing. Extroverted. Generous, warm-hearted. Sensitive. Creative energy. Full of themselves. Loving. Doing the right thing is important to Leos. Attractive. 13 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
VIRGO “ The Perfectionist" (Aug 23 - Sept 22) Dominant In relationships. Conservative. Always wants the last word. Argumentative. Worries. Very smart. Dislikes noise and chaos. Eager. Hardworking. Loyal. Beautiful. Easy to talk to. Hard to please. Harsh. Practical and very fussy. Often shy. Pessimistic. 7 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
LIBRA “ The Harmonizer" (Sept 23 - Oct 22) Nice to everyone they meet. Can't make up their mind. Have own unique appeal. Creative, energetic, and very social. Hates to be alone. Peaceful, generous. Very loving and beautiful. Flirtatious. Give in too easily. Procrastinators. Very gullible. 9 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
SCORPIO “ The Intense One" (Oct 23 - Nov 21) Very energetic. Intelligent. Can be jealous and/or possessive. Hardworking. Great kisser. Can become obsessive or secretive. Holds grudges. Attractive. Determined. Loves being in long Relationships. Talkative. Ro mantic. Can be self-centered at times. Passionate and Emotional. 4 years of bad luck=2 0if you do not forward. SAGITTARIUS “ The Happy-Go-Lucky One" (Nov 22 - Dec 21) Good-natured optimist. Doesn't want to grow up (Peter Pan Syndrome). Indulges self. Boastful. Likes luxuries and gambling. Social and outgoing. Doesn't like responsibilities. Often fantasizes. Impatient. Fun to be around. Having lots of friends. Flirtatious. Doesn't like rules. Sometimes hypocritical. Dislikes being confined - tight spaces or even tight clothes. Doesn't l ike being doubted. Beautiful inside and out. 14 years of bad luck if you do not forward.
Oh, this was sent via e-mail, so ignore the forwarding bit at the end of each snipit!!!!!!

2008-09-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

So, about my journey on the USS Louisiana......there were several people chosen to go on this dependents cruise, wives, parents and a few kids of the men serving on this submarine. We had to take an hour and a half bus ride to Sequim and the wait to take a boat ride out to the submarine (the thing I call a "boat") to board for our ride home with the NAVY guys! I am hoping to have a picture by the end of the week but the way these guys work, it will be months......I got to look through the parascope, look out theat Widbey Island, learned to play cribbage after steak and lobster in the wardroom and spend time with my husband in his territory! It was an amazing thing to see all those wonderful men at work to protect our country, people have no idea what these men go through and what they give up to give this country protection and security!!! They give up time raising a family, they give up their freedom to do what they want when they want, it is a huge honor to be a military family in today's world and still be going strong after ten years.Picture to come soon I hope!

Busy week!

2008-09-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh.....I have not have such an exciting and busy week in my life, friends came to visit from Widbey Island for a day, I got to ride home with my husband aboard the USS Lousiana (SSBN submarine) and now my kids are starting another school year! WOW, let me breathe it all in and get back to you on my "boat" experience!

I LOVE LISTS.................

2008-09-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

So anything in a list form is worth reading, right? I am so in to lists that sitting and writing the list is sometimes more important that getting the task done on the list!!!! So, here is a list of things to know (from a forwarded email, of course, how else do I get all my information, hee-hee)
ENJOY!
1. Money isn't made out of paper; it's made out of cotton.
2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
3. The dot over the letter I is called a "tittle".
4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up andDown continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.
6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
8. The 'spot' on 7 UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He wasalbino.
9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily.
10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ouncesWill kill a small sized dog.
12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark'sstomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
13. Most lipstick contains fish scales--eeww!!!
14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wearpants.
15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.
16. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' becauseIn the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters,The upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case thatStored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.
17. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the otherAt the same time, hence, multi-tasking was invented.
18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War IIWere made of wood.
19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never arecorded Wendy before!
21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange,purple, and silver
22 Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years toPaint Mona Lisa's lips.
23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go madAnd sting itself to death.
24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was aCaptain Kirk's mask painted white.
25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have$1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without beingAble to make change for a dollar (good to know.)26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sinkIn quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless).
27. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, whichstated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than yourthumb (now they tell me).
28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record playerFor automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was theVictrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a pieceOf celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same withapples!
30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
32. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book mostOften stolen from Public Libraries.
33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into spacebecause passing wind in a space suit damages it.

I will always consider Colorado my home!

2008-08-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some curious things you might not know about Colorado

Highest Climb. The highest vertical climb is not on a mountain but up the north side of the Black Canyon . Rising 1,700 feet, this sheer rock face is even higher than the famous Diamond on Longs Peak and was not conquered until 1969.

Deepest Snow. In 1899 Crested Butte recorded 254 inches of snow near the top of Kebler Pass. That year, snow buried a train near Leadville and left only stove pipes showing above cabins at many mountain towns. Usually, Wolf Creek Pass near Pagosa Springs gets the most snow in Colorado .

Oldest Hotel. The Peck House in the little town of Empire , near Berthoud Pass , is Colorado 's oldest hotel. It was built in 1859 by James Peck. Early guests included President Ulysses S. Grant and other famous people.

Highest Town. Leadville is the highest (10,200 feet) incorporated town in Colorado and the entire U.S. It has also had the highest rate of premature babies in the U.S. Researchers concluded that the altitude causes smaller babies.

Largest Nuggets. The biggest gold nugget in Colorado weighed 135 ounces and was found near Breckenridge in 1887 by miner Tom Broves. The biggest silver nugget weighed 1,840 pounds and was found at an Aspen mine in 1894.

Largest Elk Antlers. Measuring 52 inches at the widest point, the antlers of an elk: killed in 1899 near Crested Butte are still on display at that town's visitor center. In 1961, Boone and Crockett researchers declared it to be the largest elk: rack in history.

Toughest Climate. No crops are grown around the town of Silverton , north of Durango . At 9,318 feet elevation, Silverton's growing season between frosts is only two weeks. San Juan County here is reportedly the only county in the U.S. without a single acre of agricultural land.

Worst Drought. About every 40 years, Colorado experiences a drought, according to tree-ring researchers. The worst was in the 1200s. It lasted 25 years and may have driven the Indians from Mesa Verde. During the Dust Bowl on the eastern plains, one cloud of dust on April 4, 1935, gathered itself to 1,000 feet high and 200 miles wide. It traveled at 60 miles an hour, suffocated hundreds of animals and damaged many people's health.

Driest Town. Delta, south of Grand Junction , gets less rain per year than Tucson , Arizona .

Musical Dunes. Winds blowing around the Great Sand Dunes near Alamosa create sounds resembling music. That's how Music Pass above the dunes got its name.

Women's Rights. Colorado was the second state in the U.S. to give women the right to vote. Wyoming was the first. You would think the eastern states would have been more progressive, but it took the frontier adventure to make men realize how strong and intelligent women were.

ON THE MOVE AGAIN?

2008-08-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

So, it is time to put in our wishlist of places where we'd like to go in the world, yes, world......there is Italy, that I would love, Hawaii, Japan (not Yokosuka though), New York, D.C., Charleston, SC (AGAIN), San Diego, and some other random places! The key is to let go, turn in the list and let God direct where we go next, right? Wrong, my husband comes home and decides to sit on the list for almost two weeks now and put off turning in our wishlist. What in the world, we are going to get stuck with po-dunk, port-a-potty, middle-of-nowhere hicks-ville if he waits much longer, and who cares anyway, it is just for two years, we have made the best out of some bad places in the past ten years of traveling courtesy of the United States Navy!
Anyhow, we are gearing up for the boys to go back to school on September 3rd and MJ to start a vitual academy online for her seventh grade year!
God is good and will provide my strength, patience and calm heart to get through another time without my husband and get the kids started in another year of school and sitting & waiting to hear where we will move in the next year!

2008-07-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

SUMMER, SUMMER, SUMMER, boy am I going to have a lot to scrapbook at the 2008

Creating Keepsakes Convention this fall! Swim lessons for the boys, birthday parties with family and catching up with old friends......it is so much fun to do whatever in the summer time. Even though it is a break from the routine we follow during the nine months while school is in session, I am more exausted now than during the school year! And although we can not wait to get back into our beds at home (especially me since we just got a Sleep Number bed), we are thoughroughly enjoying our LONG vacation!

2008-07-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

So, Colorado isn't all that bad, is it? It has beautiful mountains, wonderful food, of course it is where my family resides....but wait, what is that, the thermometer says 98 and it is ten thirty at night and Sunday it is supposed to get to 104!!!!!! I do not remember it getting that hot in Albuquerque? Oh well, it is nice here, kids in swim lessons, going to the family's church.......nothing much else going on here.....

sad :o(

2008-06-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

So, our very good friends of only a few short years are on the move to Japan, yes, he works for DOD and has a new job there so God has them going there for three years. The thing that is hard for me is when they get back to Washington, we will more than likely be stationed somewhere else.

Not that it is any worse for me or sadder for me, it is just that, as military families (and only if you are one, you would understand or have experienced this) but you are not in one place for very long so people only get so close to you with the thought in the back of their minds that you will be leaving in a few short years, they usually keep their distance or only become friends on a "surface" level. I have learned to put myself out there and find a MOPS group, scrapbooking group or volunteer in the church to meet people and find friends so I am willing to be vonerable because I am the one who usually leaves and everyone we have left has each other......the thing about the Zimmers leaving is we are on the other end, the being left end, not the leaving end like usual.

I am hoping that our church will step up and be what the Zimmers have been to us but again, you have the barriers up, walls up because we are a military family and out stay here may be over shortly!

SURGERY!

2008-06-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would be up and at 'em by now but I overdid it yesterday when I was feeling a tad bit better and not I am paying for it, laying back down because every other position hurts!
I had a discectomy, where they replaced a disc with a new wire mesh artificial disc between C4 and C5. They also shaved off a bone spur on C4 (I think it was C4)!!!!!! The best thing is, they went in through the front so I have a HUGE slit in my throat. It looks like I was in a fight with a knife or something!
Well, I am off to watch MORE TV and surf more scrapbooking sites, any suggestions of good sites are welcome!
R

here we go......

2008-05-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

So, I am not sure this will work but I am goin got give it a shot because I love to type and some times I feel like I can write (type) things I can not say.