Winter Wonderland - NOT!

Well here I sit snowed in because Seattle is seeing the worst winter storm in 18 years!!! Of course this would have to happen right before we leave. We have had constant snow since last Sunday - 8 days in a place where it rarely drops below freezing. Don't get me wrong, it does get cold here but the high temps during the winter are usually not in the freezing zone and if they are it is a very short period of time. We are going on 3 weeks of freezing weather. Of course the kids love it. Tyler was out of school 2 days last week and went late the other 3. We went out on Saturday for my birthday because we were under a blizzard watch - I repeat a BLIZZARD watch. If you haven't caught on - I hate the snow, cold, ice and anything that has to do with it (other than the holidays). We went to Walmart Saturday and there was a traffic jam like I have never seen before. Lines of cars in every direction just sitting at a stand still because nobody could move. I don't know if it was Xmas shoppers or people buying supplies for the storm but it was insane. According to weather reports this type of weather is suppose to last until at least the New Year. I certainly hope we thaw before we have to head out to Alabama!


This was taken this morning....it is hard to tell but there is about a foot of snow on the ground and a few inches of ice below that. Poor Lily has been using the bathroom on our back porch because the snow is so deep that she sinks!

I Got Tagged!

Apparently I am supposed to follow the trend of "tagging" so here it goes.....

8 TV shows I watch:

1. American Idol
2. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Making the Team
3. QVC
4. Anything on the Food Network
5. Sex and the City Reruns
6. House Hunters
7. Fox News - now that hubby is home
8. Young and the Restless

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Olive Garden
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Famous Daves BBQ
4. Ruby Tuesday
5. Anything Mexican
6. Farrelli's Pizza
7. Sonic
8. Quiznos

8 Things that happened today:

1. Took Tyler to school
2. Had a snowball fight with the kids and dad before taking tyler to school
3. Dressed Savannah's barbies
4. Brushed the dogs
5. Did lots of homework
6. Laundry
7. Looked for houses on the internet
8. Learned how to use the 4 wheel drive function on the Navigator

8 Things I look forward to:

1. Donnie not deploying for the next few years
2. Being completely packed for our move
3. Spending Christmas with friends
4. Donnie's cooking for Christmas
5. Making cookies for Santa on Xmas eve
6. Tyler's winter break
7. Moving to a place where there is no snow.
8. Seeing my parents when we move next month

8 Things I wish for:

1. Happy and healthy family
2. To pass my midterm, finals and First year law students exam
3. For Tyler to find something he is really interested in and go with it
4. For my brother to be able to live on his own
5. To finally finding our dream house
6. For Donnie to enjoy his new assignment
7. To eventually pass the Bar Exam after law school
8. To getting an awesome job that I have worked so hard for.

Tagged:

I don't know of anyone to tag because everyone I know that reads this blog has already been tagged. I guess I need to find some new takers!

ER Outing

Tonight Vanna decided that we needed a little excitement so she thought breaking her nose would do the trick! We were at the PX for Tyler's Yugio tournament and we were walking around the store and all of a sudden she started screaming and ran to me with a huge bloody nose and a big red mark between her eyes. I asked her what she ran into and she said she tripped and fell on her nose on the carpet - so I am assumming the red mark is a carpet burn? Anyway the store was packed so I managed to get to the Clinique counter and interrupted the employee and a shopper and asked for some kleenex so we could make it to the bathroom. I managed to get her nose to stop bleeding and with the exception of the red mark she looked ok...for a minute. I was going to make an appt in the morning to get her checked out just in case since it was not swollen or bruised. Unfortunately I thought too soon. Within about 20 minutes she developed this bruise that made a line from the top of her nose to the bottom. I could not believe it. I grabbed Tyler from his tournament (he came in 2nd by the way) and we headed to the ER. The Dr. looked at her and said it is straight and not out of alignment (phew!!) but that it may be cracked though. So off to xrays. They took 3 different shots of her and luckily it is not broken, but we have been referred to a nose specialists in case it is cracked but it is hard to tell because of the swelling. So I have to call in the morning and make an appt. with the specialist. So not only does my baby look silly because of her bangs, she now has a broken nose to go along with it and just in time for Xmas pictures!

Meet and Greet

Saturday the kids and I ventured to the PX to see the Tennessee Titan cheerleaders (Tyler's favorite NFL team) and Scooby Doo. They were there making appearences and taking pictures for the holidays. There were so many people there it was hard to move - definately not my scene. I guess as the years go by the luster of huge crowds at Xmas time has lost its appeal to me because at this point I can't stand crowds. But lucky us - the Grinch happened to appear as well!

Tyler hanging with the babes!



This was the main event for Vanna - Scooby even danced to the xmas music.

Vanna was not too fond of the grinch and kept her distance.

Charlie Brown Tree

Since we are moving we are not putting up any xmas decorations this year because they are already packed (which is really depressing since xmas is my favorite time of year). But we did put up a small tabletop tree the kids picked out today. It is fiber-optic and I guess they thought it was pretty cool b/c now I have a 3 foot fiber-optic xmas tree in what is left of my living room. We bought some ornaments for it and they like it, but I have to admit I feel kind of like I am giving charlie brown's tree a run for its money (for those of you that have no idea what I am talking about just watch the xmas episode of Charlie Brown which I am sure will be on TV in the next few weeks). We told the kids that we are not doing alot for xmas this year and Santa knows we are leaving so he is not bringing as much stuff as he did last year (which is probably good since they got way too much crap last year....that darn Santa! The kids thought that by putting a small tree up will let Santa know that they only want small stuff this year that they can take in the car with them.....how cute is that. Of course right after that conversation, a boy at school told Tyler there was no such thing as Santa so I had to come forth with the lie I had been telling my kid for the last 11 years. Of course it definately takes the xmas pressure off since now the boy knows xmas comes from the bank of mom/dad and "santa" can modify the gift list at any given time without warning.

On another note - my laptop that Donnie took on his trip with him has crashed....it will not boot up or do anything. This is a bit ironic since we just bought a new laptop a few days before he left that way I had a new one for school and he could take my old one with him for his school. Alot of good that did.....anyway the point is that unless we can get the laptop fixed and the geek squad can recover the hard drive, I have lost every picture we have taken since about 2005. I have to say I am a LITTLE pissed to say the least. So the moral of the story is to back you stuff up. The funny thing is I was just watching a Sex and the City episode where Carrie's computer crashed and she lost everything b/c she didn't "back up". I thought it was amuzing because it is something I have never thought about.....guess the joke is on me. So for the mean time I have no pictures of the dress for those of you who are waiting and no pictures of my life for the last 3 1/2 years. Lesson learned!

A few pics that I have left on my camera.

The crazy child... I wonder where she gets this stuff from :) Jenny - lets not bring up the ninja turtle episode in my parents room with the laundry basket if you remember it...my dad loves to whip out that tape when we come home to visit to show Donnie how "brilliant" his wife is. (By the way it was about 60 degrees out this day).



Our little tree in the dark.....the fiber optics makes it look like it is going to explode!

The kids and our "charlie brown" tree... (notice Vanna's new do - love the bangs don't cha, it almost looks like the beetle hair Katie and I sported at Duff).

Scissors - Round 2 (or 3 or 4?)

Today my dear sweet child decided to cut her hair again! I don't know what her obsession is with cutting her hair but she has done this so many times I have lost track. I got her some movies at the library to watch today while I worked on some homework. Not even 10 min into my reading and this happens. I have to say I lost my temper and she got spanked good. Her bangs are sooooo short. She also cut little chuncks out of the sides of her hair. Her hair was very long - more than half way down her back. I had not cut it since June when we had the other hair cutting incident. So I told her if she wanted her hair cut I was going to cut it off! Of course she got all upset and said she was sorry but I put her little butt into the car and took her to the hair salon and cut off most of her hair! I am going to donate it to locks of love so at least some good can come out of this. I can not even begin to describe how angry I was. So in addition I grounded her and cancelled all her playdates and parties this week and weekend - which again came tears.

Just as I think my anger is subsiding, she strikes again. For some reason I could not get my email on my laptop so I went to the kitchen to use our desktop computer and I could not get the mouse to work. I grabbed the cord and she had cut the cord in half with the scissors! Once again rage struck. When I asked her why she did it she just shrugged her shoulders (more rage) and then said she was out of control. That pushed me over the edge. She got spanked again and put to bed. I told her all her friends were going to make fun of her bangs but she really doesn't seem to care - she said "mom they will grow back". To add to my day, the toilet backed up and I spent almost 4 hours at the PX (post exchange - which is like a walmart w/out the grocery part on the base) because Tyler enters Yugio card tournaments on Sundays. So we sat in the food court and browsed the PX for a really long time and it was so packed with people that you could barely move....not exactly what I was in the mood for. Oh the joys of motherhood!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I hope ya'll have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

Also a big Happy Birthday to Jacob who will be turning 1 on turkey day! Hard to believe all the babies are hitting that milestone already.

We don't have huge plans for tomorrow. The kids and I are going to my friend Rachel's house to eat dinner, drink beer and watch the Cowboys! We are deep frying a turkey and I am bringing ham, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce and a huge carrot cake from Schwann's. They will have the rest of the fixins. Donnie is visiting his grandma in Pensicola, Fl for the holiday since it is only about 2 hrs away from Ft. Rucker where he is at school.

Today I went to a spinning class to burn some extra calories...the instructor about killed us. Typically in one class you burn between 500-700 calories but today she said she was shooting for about 800 so we could all stuff ourselves on beer and turkey tomorrow.....hopefully I will appreciate it tomorrow, but today I am a bit stiff to say the least. Anyway I am meeting another friend at spin class on Friday morning at 8:30am to burn off the rest of the Thanksgiving treats. I guess we will see how ambitious I am feeling come Friday morning.

Birthday Girl!

Today Savannah is 5 years old! Hard to believe that at this time 5 years ago she was born....actually this time 5 years ago I was at work running around like crazy - I did not even go to the hospital until about 2pm and she arrived at 5pm on the nose. I actually prefer the short version of labor - short, sweet and quick (of course that does not take into account that I started dialating 2 months earlier and was actually 5 cm when I arrived at the hospital, but that is another story). Anyway she is a big girl today. Since the kids did not have school yesterday we went to see Madagascar 2 and out to lunch. Vanna also smuggled 2 more barbies out of me after the 2 she got for her birthday. She told me "mom, I'm a collector of barbies." Well excuse me then. I spent a good majority of last night dressing her barbies/kens to her specifications - I will mention that they were all naked because she was keeping them warm in her socks! Anyway today will be simple, especially since dad is gone. She has a few more presents to open today and maybe some cupcakes or something. Here are a few pics I snapped yesterday of them.

Tyler and Vanna before we went to the movies - this would have been a great picture but I had all the lights on and it got a bit overexposed.

Vanna and Lily - who looks like a hot mess by the way....definately in need of a haircut.

The BARBIES! Need I say more

12 Weeks and Counting

It is official that we are leaving in February. Our actual report date is Feb 10 so we will be leaving in mid-late January for our final (hopefully) cross country trip. We were going to take a trip down in December but we found out from the army that if we move prior to getting offical orders then the military will not pay us to move so needless to say we have decided to wait for those orders. We began packing up the house prior to finding that out so we are actually doing good now. All of the rooms are packed except the kitchen and laundry room. Of course since we still have a few months left we still have some things out, but basically we are ahead of the game. Since we are only taking 1 trip now I sold my car today actually because we have 3 vehicles and only 2 drivers - of course Tyler would probably like to take his chances behind the wheel. So we have a Chevy 3500 which will pull our 24 foot trailer with all of our stuff in it and I will drive the Lincoln Navigator with the 8 foot trailer behind that and we will be good to go. I am actually relieved that we sold the car because we had reserved a Penske truck with a car hauler on it and I really did not want to have to take that over the mountains in February. Hopefully after we get settled in AL I will buy another car so Donnie can have his Lincoln back - mustang here I come!! I have to say I can't wait to go. Donnie left today to go there for school so hopefully by the time he comes back next month he will have a house set up for us and be familiar with the area. Since we are back in the south I really must make my way back to Dallas to see everybody. I told Donnie that Vanna and I were going to take a girls weekend to TX and him and Tyler can do man's stuff.

By the way I want to tell Katie Happy Birthday since her bday is tomorrow - sorry there is no card, obviously I have been a bit behind the 8 ball lately but there is always hope for xmas!

Trip Down Memory Lane

We are trying to pack as much as we can before Donnie leaves next week and I came across this picture which I had to share....it is a bit fuzzy since I had to take a picture of it with the digital camera. This is Jenny and I right before our 9th grade football/volleyball banquet I think. Don't we look stylin? We even got our hair done for the event. I think I went with Jason Phillips - who got kicked off the football team by the way and Jenny went with Mike ? maybe. Anyway I thought ya'll would get a kick out of this.

A New Adventure Awaits!

We got our orders so we are officially moving to Alabama! Our report date is in February as of right now but we are trying to push it back to May so Tyler can finish school. Either way this will be my last winter in the wet Northwest! I have to say I am excited to get back down south and so are the kids. Donnie has mixed feelings....career wise it is a great thing to leave but he truly loves his unit and will definately miss it. But he will be home and not deployed for the next 3 years so I don't think he can argue with that.

The upcoming move got me looking around my house and even though we just moved here 2 years ago we have tons of crap and I am not quite sure why. When we left TN I thought we got rid of stuff but apparently we have re-collected it. We are going to move ourselves since we have a 24 ft. trailer so I will be a good-willing and yard sale having fool so I can lighten our load. As of right now we are planning on making 2 trips - one hopefully in December since Tyler is out of school and then when we actually move. Should be pretty crazy with 2 trailers, 2 kids and 2 dogs all along for the ride. It will be like the Griswold's going cross country I am sure.

By the way the formal was fun....we got some pictures taken there and then my friend has some pics of the dress. Since I seem to have a camera curse on me, I only have a few pics on my camera because my batteries went dead.

The BRA

Tonight is the big night - the formal. Of course I should be getting ready now but I figured this was worth mentioning to set the stage in the event I have a wardrobe malfunction tonight. So if you remember from my last post, the dress is backless and pretty low cut so the saleslady gave me these sticky things to keep my boobs in place. Well luckily I decided to try everything on last weekend and came to realize the sticky things are probably for people with smaller boobs than I have or maybe I still had some lotion on or something - whatever the reason it did not work at all. So I reached for the duct tape (can you tell I was desperate?) That would have worked except you could see the tape thru my dress. Next stop - PANIC MODE! So I get online and look at Victoria Secret and Fredericks for some kind of apparatus that will work for my dress. Mind you this is 5 days before the formal and time is of the essense. I found some more sticky things on Fredericks that looked a bit more substantial but still made me nervous. Victoria Secret has this nifty bra called the 100 way bra and it apparently can do whatever including backless - SOLD! So the bra is $58 and then to express ship it to me was almost $30. So there I am at the checkout about to spend $100 on a bra that may not even work for me. Luckily I decided to check EBAY before I bought it and low and behold they had the same bra, brand new for $36. I did spend $20 extra to ship it to me but I still made out cheaper than the price of the bra on VS.

So I get the bra and it is pretty cool - about 50 different slits to put the straps wherever you need them and the strap between the cups is clear - exactly what I needed. So I attach the backless converter to the bra and put on the dress.....I think we have found a winner. Of course the backless strap wraps around your stomach and attaches in the back so I will be squeezed to death all night, but at least my boobs will stay in place. A small price to pay for the sake of fashion! I will post pics when I get them if they came out good :-) !

The Dress!

Amazingly enough it hasn't been that long since I last blogged....so to speak. As you may know from my last entry outside of being soccer mom, law student, wife, cleaning lady and dog walker, I was on the hunt for the "dress". My friend Rachel and I took off in search of the perfect dress on Sunday and what a fiasco that turned out to be. We started at Ross and Marshalls because all of our other friends got their dresses there for around $30 so we went out on a limb thinking the stars might align, but not so much. So off to Kohl's next. They don't carry formal dresses but the sales lady told us about a store going out of business at the mall in Olympia so off to the capital city we went. We stopped a JC Penny's first because they DID have homecoming dresses a few weeks ago but hardly anything left by the time we got there. We did try on about 3 dresses each without luck. Frankly I did not even pay much attention to the sizes so luckily we shared a dressing room so when we got stuck in them help was close by. I did find one dress that was OK - size medium but still a few issues with the boobage, however it could be workable so I carefully hid the dress behind some others and off we went to the going out of business sale.....

OK so we get to this raggedy store with tons of formal dresses filled with high school girls size sub zero. All the dresses were pretty well picked over but we managed to find some sizes larger than a 1/2 and off to the dressing room we went. Again a few were OK but not the dress and we got stuck in some as well. The one I liked best was still $80 on sale and I could not return it if I found another one. We were getting pretty nervous at this point. We stopped in Charlotte Russo and asked the lady if they knew of any where that sold dresses and they advised us to go to a store downtown called Daria's. Off we went again. We get there and walk in and it is wall to wall dresses that were packed so tightly you could barely move. My first thoughts were "crap a boutique.....$$$$" but we stayed anyway.

So here is where it gets good.....we start to pick out some dresses. The dresses look like they run a bit small so I decided to grab larges as did my friend. After we have a handful of dresses on our arms, the sales lady gets to Rachel first and asks what function we are going to etc and then takes her dresses and says "oh honey lets get some in your size". I managed to grab one dress away from her cuz it looked cute and frankly I was thinking the lady is on crack because she started grabbing 2XL and 3XL and my friend is no where near that size. So after that humiliation was over she stated she was going to put our dresses into the room. I asked if we could have the same room and then she hit us with it...."sweetie - we have a community dressing room so you will have to change in front of everyone!" Now this took me back a bit as I felt like I had entered the twilight zone: first you think we need to wear a size 2X (I should have informed her that we just ran a marathon a few months ago) and now you want us to strip down infront of the entire store. At this point I was thinking that the bar sounded pretty good right about now. But being troopers and in a time crunch for a dress we let her lead us into the community room - a room about the size of a decent sized square bathroom with mirrors everywhere!!! And it was full of more sub zero girls going to homecoming who looked like they had eating disorders.

I was really not feeling this experience but needed a dress so being the diplomat that I am, I apologized to the girls for the sight they were about to see and preceeded to strip down. The sales lady asked us what kind of dress we were looking for so I replied to her that it did not matter - just don't make us look like a house! She seemed to like us for some odd reason and even offered to give us a military discount - Yes the first good news all day! I put on the dress that I snatched from her prior to entering the room and kinda liked it except that it was backless and deep cut - a plus for my husband but a con for my boobs. Still it was the favorite up to that point. Then I tried on a black dress with a jeweled halter top neckline and I was in love - until she said it was $258! I started stripping down right there - boobs hanging out and everything. She was like "honey it looked so good on you" - yeah it did until you mentioned the price. I told her to take all her stuff out and bring me something under $150 (okay so I am cheap - I spend $ on purses, not dresses that I will only wear once). So there I was - no clothes except for the thong I decided I needed to wear, maginified in the plethera of mirrors in the dressing room. When she got to the dress that I took from her earlier that I tried on she said that it was on sale for $94! SOLD!!! I was like we will make this work and sent her to get me something to hold up my boobs since I have to go braless (a first for me by the way). She came back with some sticky things that will hopefully work and a $86 black dress that fit Rachel like a glove. Exhausted by our ordeal we paid the lady and headed home to drink.

So after all that drama and embarrassment we did find the dress - add a pair of spanx and some heels and we should be good to go .... hopefully :)

Been Awhile!

Oh my has it been a while since I have blogged....it is amazing how fast time flies when your life changes. So I guess in my last post Tyler had just started school and Vanna finally had a place for preschool. Oh yeah and I had not started law school yet! So in the past month my life has been completely turned upside down with this law school thing. It has ultimately consumed every free minute (not like there are that many free minutes when you have kids) of my day. In addition to that we have soccer 5 nights a week, Tyler has lots of homework and oh yeah....he has decided to play the flute, which I must say is alot harder than it looks - Jenny you totally rocked the flute when we were little by the way! I would also like to point out that our parents really put up with alot for those of us that thought we had musical talents.....Mallie, Katie, Holly and Jenny. I cringe when Tyler practices his flute so I can only imagine how horrible we all sounded when we started orchestra at good old Duff Elementary! Anyway my boring life that I used to blog about so frequently has turned into a tornado and I dont know if I am coming or going.

Our typical day begins with getting the boy off to school at 7:30am and on Tuesdays/Thurs I take Vanna to school. Then off to the gym because I am running another marathon next year and figure if I want to do better I should train more, not to mention I have recruited some new blood for the next race. After picking Vanna up from school, we run any errands that are needed and head home for lunch. After lunch she kindly plays in her room and I hit the books til about 4pm when Tyler gets home. We eat a quick dinner and then off to soccer until after 6pm. Then we come home and help with homework, flute, reading etc - get the kids a bath and ready for the next day and hopefully they are in bed between 8:30-9pm. At that point I have a choice - more studying or do the dishes, laundry etc. Most of the time bed wins out I must say. I realize I am whining a bit and I am sure this is an adjustment period and will get better - my fingers are crossed :). I just honestly did not expect this much drama. Law school is hard, really hard. I knew it would be challenging but holy crap it is crazy. I have joined the student bar association and we have a support group and everyone feels the same way, there are even some paralegals in the class who are completely overwhelmed and they deal with the stuff everyday. I am sure it will all work out. I have volunteered to write for the university paper - about what I am not sure but it might be cool....I can probably fit that in somewhere....haha. OK I will stop whining!

I am sure I have pictures somewhere but for the life of me I don't even remember what I have done with my camera. Donnie is home until Katies BDay so we have him here for a bit longer. He is on leave for 2 weeks which I really enjoy but I have to say has messed up my schedule a bit. We have a military formal coming up in a few weeks so hopefully I will have some picts to share - that is if I can find a darn dress. My friend and I are going dress shopping this weekend. I was at the mall last week and found some really nice dresses in the junior department for homecoming. I tried on several and I could not get them to fit in the boobs!! Now I am average boobage - and those puppies were squished like you would not believe. It led me to believe that in this appearence crazed world where a size 6 is fat these days, that apparently teenagers do not have boobs which is why none of the dresses have boobie room. So the search continues.

So I will try to do better to keep this updated. I enjoyed catching up on everyone else's life - especially the stroller skating....and yes those skates looked like the skates we used at the rink across from kroger when we were in elementary school! If it makes you feel any better I took the kids skating about a month ago here and they have the same skates....uber dorky!

We got thru!!

The first week of school has come and gone....Tyler just left for the bus. It was definately much better than I expected. We went to open house on Tuesday and he got to meet his teacher and see all of his old friends from his other school who will now be at Tyler's school. He has a great teacher from what I have heard about her so things look good so far. Of course it has only been 2 days and now they will be off for Labor Day weekend. Vanna will be starting school on September 16 so only a few weeks left to go. She is very excited...of course she may be singing a different tune when she has to get up so early - school starts at 7:45am for her.

This was also the first week of soccer for both kids. So we are back to soccer 4 nights a week plus Saturdays for games. This year they are playing at the same fields so at least I can be at 2 places at once if I need to since hubby is gone. Tyler is doing much better this year and hopefully will continue to improve. Vanna has really taken off. Her team is all boys with the exception of one other girl who is rather shy. She outruns all but one boy on her team and has really become rather good at dribbling for a 4 yr old. I think she has some natural athletic abilities.

I got my $800 worth of law school books in yesterday - 40lbs worth! I have 10 books and they don't look like fun books either. Each one is the size of an encyclopedia and has itty bitty tiny writing. I even got a free book that shows how to outline a subject - that book is called a roadmap and is 500 pages long. What have I gotten myself into?

Well I will post more as the days go on - the dogs are going crazy outside for whatever reason so I will close. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day Weekend and enjoy the BBQ and the weather - unfortunately it is supposed to be rainy, cold and lows in the upper 30's/low 40's so I guess our 3 week summer is officially over :(

Vanna is Headed to School

I finally got the call today.....Vanna will begin school in a few weeks. I am so relieved. We have been on a waiting list for over a year for preschool on post. We go register on Friday and then we will have an orientation at the school and she should start after Labor Day. Wow - having 2 kids in school is a bit frightening because it means time is flying by. What will I do with those few precious hours by myself? I'm sure with law school starting I will have no time for myself but it is okay to dream. Vanna is very excited - we have been working on her numbers and letters so I hope she will do well. I'm not sure if she will have a morning or afternoon class but I guess it doesn't really matter....after waiting so long I will take whatever they give me.

Orientation Awaits

So it has been a bit since my last post but I have been busy finishing up my summer pre-law program. There was not real timeline for it to get done so I pretty much put it off all summer since we were so busy and cracked down a few weeks ago. I finally finished on Friday. I begin a preliminary orientation this week and then a more in depth orientation closer to classes starting which is September 9. I have to say I am a bit nervous about starting law school. I have a feeling it will be more work than I have ever done in my life. I have 4 classes for my first year. I went online to order my books and they were $775 for the first year books and each year after that they go up! I about fainted. I am not the best time manager so hopefully I can get into a routine quickly to get it all done.

Tyler goes back to school next week. I have to say I am ready. The past few days we have been under a heat advisory with temps around 96 degrees. Now I know most of you have been in the hot TX heat but as I have mentioned in other posts WA does not install AC in the houses so needless to say it has been miserable. The poor dogs looked like they were going to hyperventilate from the heat. But since this is washington it did not last long. It is cold and rainy today - back to reality.

Vanna starts soccer next week. She is excited. Tyler is not playing soccer for fall because he did not have a physical prior to registration which changed since last year in which they gave you 30 days to bring in a copy of the physical. So he will wait and play basketball in October. I will probably bring him to the track to run with me so he at least is doing something.

I will post some pics in the next week or so. I haven't taken many since we got back from NY because we have not gone anywhere really. Gas is going down here though....today $3.86!

Words of Wisdom from the Flossing Fairy!

I have to say I feel like the worst mother in the world..... we went to the dentist today for all of us to get our cleanings and xrays and savannah has 2 cavities!!! One of them is really big and she was referred to a childrens dentist to fill it. I am quite upset about this revelation because Savannah is a very good brusher - she brushes faithfully 2x a day with her automatic Hello Kitty toothbrush and uses a kids flouride rinse and yet she still has cavities. I just wanted to cry in the office. My son on the other hand, which takes an act of God to get him to brush the fur off his teeth is perfectly fine. I have to say this irritated me, not because I want him to have cavities but because I struggle with him daily to brush his teeth and yet Savannah does it without being told and still winds up with cavities. I also am semi-careful about the sugar they eat. We buy sugar free soda, syrup, juice etc. If they make it in SF then that is what I usually buy. But the dentist told me it is from not flossing. Now I know I am not the best flosser in the world - in fact I pretty much suck at it. I stick with it for a while after visiting the dentist but it is just not a habit I have stuck with and neither have the kids. So because of that my baby needs a filling or 2. So a word to the wise..... if you don't floss - start and if you don't floss your kid's teeth - start now!

Back to Normal

Our summer fun is finally over and we are starting to get back to "normal" so to speak. Tyler goes back to school in 3 weeks and I am signing them up for fall soccer today. Hopefully Vanna will have a place in preschool by September. She has been on the waiting list for almost a year now. She needs to get out of the house for my sanity. She misses having kids to play with. It was evident when we were in NY because she has a 5 yr old cousin Erin and they played together so well. Erin even called her yesterday and they chit chatted on the cell phone....too cute.

Hard to believe the summer is gone already and this week has been the only week with summer weather - go figure. Donnie is gone as usual but on a purse hunt for me. He enjoys the thrill of wheeling and dealing overseas so who knows what he will come home with. The dogs are doing great together....Jazmine has not eaten Lily yet so I say we are on the right track. They both even jump on my bed during the night to lay in front of the fan. I don't mind but when Donnie comes back we will not have enough room so some of them will have to go.

My classes start on September 9th, so I have a few weeks left to finish my summer program. I need to get back into the swing of things because I definately think law school is going to be a challenge. My books alone for the 1st year are $800! But hopefully it will be worth it in a few years.

After being so busy in the last month I have not been running as much so this week I am getting that back on track as well. There are some races coming up in the fall that I want to run in so I need to get back in gear. I thought the time off would help my achilles tendon, but no such luck....still hurts. My neighbor asked me if I would walk with her at night so we have begun doing that. Last night was the first night. We did not go far, about 1 and a quarter miles. She has heart issues so whatever is good for her is fine. I definately don't want her falling out on one of the trails.

Not much else to report right now. Here are some pics I managed to get in the last couple of weeks. Not many of NY except the ones of the kids on horses since my camera broke.

Donnie with his girls!

This is the famous Pike's Place Fish Market where they throw the huge fish in the air. We actually saw it and it was pretty cool - I wasn't quick enough to get a pic of the fish though.

My nephew Paul after he got his "personal" sundae at Marie Callendar's restaurant. Everybody in the restaurant looked at us when they brought this huge thing to the table.

Vanna eating some roasted corn by the water at Pike's Place Market.

A view from the top of the Space Needle. If the day was clear you could see Mount Rainier in the distance.

Vanna riding on Donnie's sister's horse Razz who is a miniture horse - "Vannasize we call it"

The kids on top of a lesson horse named Monty. She was a bit impatient and would stomp her foot in the ground when she got bored.

Back from NY!

We are finally back from NY! We had a lot of fun but are glad to be home. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures because my camera that I got for xmas broke the first day we were there so I am relying on my family to send me some pics so I can post. We did fly our dog Jazmine back home which made hubby very happy. It was a bit stressful on all of us but she made it safe and sound. My nephew is here for the next week. He came in yesterday so this next week will be busy as well. I will post more later when I have some time but just wanted to check in.

Gone Batty!

Part 1

OK so yesterday we had the pleasure of being visited by 3 bats....yes I said BATS!! Now I have heard stories from my neighbor about how bats get into the houses up here and one of my neighbors even had a swarm in her upstairs attic - not exactly my cup of tea ya know. Anyway so yesterday Donnie and I were being completely lazy and unmotivated to do anything but watch the 100 best songs from the 80's on VH1, but somehow I forced myself to the kitchen to make some homemade tea and what greets me upon entering but a baby bat on the window screen. At first I thought it was a big moth and then a spider because I noticed it was furry, but then it opened its wings a bit and I swear I was waiting for Dracula to appear before my very eyes! Donnie managed to take the screen off the window and let the bat go outside....not sure if it made it because it was only a baby.

Part 2

So after that episode we left the house to take Tyler to a Yugio tournament and when we got home Savannah wanted to watch a movie on her portable DVD player in the living room since her room is so hot so I made her a bed on the couch, turned off the lights, put the fan on in the window and started her movie. Donnie and I were in the next room watching Vantage Point when all of a sudden she started screaming that there was a bird in the room. So I jump up and turn on the lights and what do you know....mama bat has made her presence known. This bat flew so fast we could not catch her. Unfortunately for her the Red Rider BB Gun did. So out with that bat and back to the movies, but not before I googled how to catch a bat and found that most of the time bats get into the house and can't find their way back so either open a door or throw a towel over it and take it outside (no mention of the Red Rider BB Gun by the way). So about 15 min later Vanna starts yelling again that there is a bird in the house. So back out we go and sure enough I guess Daddy bat decided to join the fun. This time we threw a towel over it and took it outside. So needless to say the 90 min movie took us almost 3 hours to watch thanks to the bats and poor Savannah is tramatized for life I am sure.

Luckily today we have been bat free (knock on wood).

Updates

So it has been a while and I had a few minutes before my yoga class so I thought I would catch up. The 4th was relatively boring here....cold and rainy. The kids and I walked down to a park in our neighborhood where we could see the fireworks from the base. I have to say I am really quite thankful to live in the location we do because we get to avoid tons of traffic just being across the street from the base....it also doesn't hurt with gas being $4.31 a gallon, but thats another story. Anyway Saturday night we went to a friends house and grilled out and sang karaoke until 1am which was fun. And on Sunday the hubby came home, which was a surprise. Of course it will be short lived because unfortunately he will be leaving early for his next trip while we are in NY so we only have about 10 days with him. But it is better than nothing so I am definately not complaining.

Donnie and I are playing in the company golf tournament on Monday. Now for those of you that know me, I don't golf. The last time I picked up a golf club was with Katie in Andrews so many years ago and if I remember correctly, I was much better at driving the golf cart than actually hitting the ball....in fact I think one time I swung so hard I fell over! And I don't think my husband is much better, although he does own a set of clubs - go figure. So this tournament should be an adventure.... a full 18 holes of golf, but there is all you can eat food and beer so I guess that will keep us going. Regardless it should be alot of fun.

NY is coming up fast. We will be leaving next week. The kids are so excited. I think we are taking an overnight trip to Lake Placid and the Six Flags lodge and theme park while we are there. Can't wait. The day after we get back, Tyler's cousin (he's not really his cousin but we are like family and it is just easier to describe him that way) is coming to visit for 8 days. Tyler is thrilled because we have not seen them in over a year. So far this has been a very busy summer and before I know it it will be time to go back to school (thank goodness for my sanity). So I will post pics later on of our family adventures this week and update soon.

Heat Wave!!!

So after months of complaining about the cold, rain and clouds, mother nature has finally decided to bring summer up here to the northwest (at least I think). We have had record highs this weekend....in the 90's. Now for a southern girl like myself and most of you who read this blog, 90's don't really seem like that big of a deal and under normal "southern" circumstances I would agree.....however since we tend to have 9-10 months of winter here (I just turned off my heat 3 weeks ago and yes it is June) there are no air conditioners in the homes here. Which means that when it is 90 degrees outside, it is freakin hot in the houses. Savannah's room is upstairs and it is so hot she has not been in it in a few days. We have all the windows open and the curtains and blinds closed on those windows that don't open. We have fans going in every room and all the lights out but right now the inside temperature gauge on the thermostat is reading off the charts and it stops at 85 degrees. Tyler's room is downstairs in the finished basement and it is cooler there so we will be crashing with him I guess. I am definately not going to complain about the heat and sun since we have not seen it in ages, but it does present a whole other set of issues. I guess when Donnie comes home we will go looking for a portable air conditioner for the main floor and upstairs for Vanna. So I will enjoy the weather while it lasts because I am sure the heat will be on again sooner than later (last year it came on in September). All I need now is some good old fashion sweet tea which I will have to make myself because it does not exist up here.

Graduation

Well graduation was good - much better than I expected actually. The school did a great job keeping things moving and we were done in about an hour and a half for 516 graduates. They told us to prepare for 2-2.5 hrs and I was worried whether Savannah could be good and quiet for that amount of time, but she did great. After graduation we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and went to the mall to walk off our lunch. Overall it was a good day....the weather even behaved and even though we did not see sun, it was warm without a drop of rain.

My mom flew home today. We dropped her off at the airport at 6am this morning and she has made it back to KS. She called while her and my dad were at the grocery store because knowing my dad and brother there was no food in the house while my mom was gone. We had a good time this week - hard to believe she was here for 8 days, the time just flew. Hopefully we will see them at Xmas. We are trying to get tickets to the Miami Dolphin NFL game in Kansas City (my husband is a die-hard Dolphin fan). It is on my bday in December so if we can get tickets we will be flying to KS for a good old white xmas.

Next on the list is the trip to NY in 3 weeks. It should be alot of fun and I think we are taking an overnight trip to Lake Placid and the Six Flags lodge and theme park. Most importantly though we are bringing home our dog who has been living with Donnie's sister. Finally the family will be back together (for about a week or so anyway).

Here are a few pics that we took this week while my mom was here.

Tyler is feeding Lily his sandwich while we were at the beach.

Savannah in all her glory.

My mom living it up (and stuffing her face).

The kids and I after graduation.

The waiter took this picture while we were eating and Famous Dave's BBQ.

Vanna and I in a self portrait.

Shout Out to the Hubby!

So I just want to tell my husband that he is the most wonderful man I know. Even with him being so many thousands of miles away (most of the time) he still manages to be thoughtful and surprise me. As you know my mom is here this week and on Tuesday the Fed Ex man delivered 3 dozen colored roses - 1 for each of us - my mom, Savannah and myself. Each one included a card with a message from him. Completely Sweet! And if that was not nice enough, today when we came home from seeing Kung Fu Panda with the kids, there was another 3 dozen red roses for me since I graduate tomorrow and he won't be able to be there. And he hasn't forgot Tyler either....being the good dad that he is he did not send Tyler flowers....apparently he is bringing home a Playstation 3 for the boy (hopefully he does not read my blog!).

These are the roses I received today for graduation....3 dozen red roses!

These are the roses he sent to Vanna, my mom and I earlier this week.

5th Grade

Yesterday was Tyler's last day of school and he is now officially a 5th grader. It is hard to believe that time has flown by like this. I can remember being a Duff Mustang 5th grader and trying to accept the horrors of entering Mrs. Marshall's 6th grade class and wondering how I was going to survive - those of you who had the priviledge of sharing that pain with me know exactly what I mean. Anyway Tyler had an awesome report card, which is so exciting because he had so much trouble in the TN school system when we were there and his grades were not very good. He has worked very hard and is on grade level and doing great. Hopefully one more year here will prepare him for middle school without any problems. His teacher was wonderful and really played a huge role in his success. She has a son Tyler's age and a daughter Vanna's age so I think we will definately get together over the summer since both of our husbands are deployed. She even wants to run the marathon with me next year - hope she knows what she is in for!

So my mom is coming in tonight for my graduation. She lands at 11pm in Seattle. The kids are very excited. She is quite funny because she thinks she is some kind of jet setter (somehow I don't think flying from KS to WA and CT qualifies) but whatever floats her boat. I will post some pictures of our adventures this week. One of these days I might get my brother up here but he is such a putz that I highly doubt it. Hopefully the weather will be decent this week - I am not asking for much, just some sun. The sun has come out 2 days this week for a bit and it was truly exciting. We have literally not seen the sun since May. My distain for this place grows each and every day.



This is Tyler and Vanna at Tyler's field day (pre-haircut by the way). He fought me on the haircut but I was not letting my mother see him like this. Notice the cloudy weather....the sun came out a while later and I actually ditched the rest of field day so I could mow my grass - how crazy is that? Oh and just in case you were wondering - yes we are in sweatshirts in June!!! Just goes to show that the weather and lack of sun makes people do strange things.

You can't really tell but this is after his haircut....I call this his official 5th grade picture for now.

Happy Best Friends Day!!

So June 8th is Best Friends Day, a day I have never heard of but is most definately welcome. So I would like to say Happy Best Friends Day to all of you, those whom I have not seen in a long time as well as those I see everyday. You all have truly impacted my life in countless ways and I appreciate each and every one of you. Pass the message on and enjoy the day!

NY - Here We Come!

So it is official....we will be heading off to NY next month. Not that it wasn't going to happen, but I have been searching the internet for decent priced plane tickets for a month now. I know that the sooner you buy them, the cheaper, but I just can't see spending almost $2000 on 3 plane tickets which is what I have been finding (unfortunately Donnie is unable to come with us). But yesterday the stars aligned and I as able to get our tickets for about $1200. I can't believe I am excited about spending that kind of money. The only thing that sucks is that our first flight is an overnight flight because that is all that was leaving during the timeframe we needed. I guess it won't be that bad because it is the longest flight - about 6 hours to Philly I think - so maybe the kids will sleep. Other than that we have good flight times and connection times. I have reserved our car thru priceline - which is you have never used it before is pretty cool. Of course I was getting mad at the "Priceline Negotiator" (William Shatner) because they kept rejecting my bids. I guess with gas prices the way they are, $15 a day for a car is a bit unrealistic. But I did end up getting a mid sized car for 7 days for under $200 which was alot cheaper than any internet special I found so I guess I did good.

Speaking of gas prices - they are $4.08 here! The national average is somewhere around $3.95 which means that there are a hell of alot more places paying lower prices than we are. I can't wait to get back to the south. I know Jenny blogged about the heat of TX, but I would trade places in a heartbeat. It is in the 40's - low 50's here and won't be changing much for the next few weeks. Not to mention the rain. It is June - we are supposed to be in shorts and sipping chilled drinks around the BBQ. We had one really warm weekend with record highs and so I thought that was the beginning of summer so I put all of our winter clothes away....not the smartest move. The weather truly sucks here and I hate it. My mom is coming is in 10 days and the weather is going to suck, not to mention that the kids are out of school next Friday and I need them to be able to play outside to preserve my sanity. Maybe the stars will align again and give us a break here.

What a Day!

So this weekend has been full of fun, kids and drama....it all began on Thursday when both of my kids stayed at a friend's house. So having the house to myself was a bit lonely so I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie (which I was not a fan of in case anyone was wondering). The next day I slept in until 9am, went to the gym for 2 hrs and off to my favorite store - Walmart! It is pretty sad that it takes so little to entertain me these days. Anyway the kids came home soon after and brought their friends with them to stay the night. They are the same ages as my kids give or take a few months so they get along good. On Saturday the weather was actually really good for a change so we walked to the park for a watergun fight. After that we headed down to the beach which is close to our house for a few hours. Apparently when the temp gets above 70 that is what people do here. So we packed a lunch and beach toys and headed to the water. The water was very cold, around 50 degrees, so I stayed nice and warm on the beach blanket with my book, but the kids ventured off and got their feet in, but that is about all. It was surprisingly warm and we all even got a bit of sun. From there it was off to a BBQ for a few hours before returning home to crash. But that is when things got a bit interesting.....

Savannah and her friend Caitlin decided to cut Savannah's hair sometime before I woke up. I thought I had the scissors put away in my filing cabinet where they could not get to them, but obviously I was wrong! Caitlin has a short bob with bangs so they decided to give Savannah bangs. She came down the stairs and I was on the phone with Donnie and I could not believe what I saw. Luckily Caitlin did the cutting - she is 5 (like that makes it any better) and at least kept them semi-straight and they only cut her bangs. So after we dropped the kids off at their house, we headed to the salon to get her bangs fixed. She does look kinda cute I will admit but her hair has been growing for 4 years with the exception of regular trims so I will admit I was devastated. But she thinks she is too cute so I guess it is OK, that is until the growing out phase begins.

The weather is pretty crappy today as usual so the kids and I are headed to Tyler's room to play Tomb Raider on the XBOX 360, which is one of my favorite games. We have had it since xmas so it is about time we give it a run. Speaking of running, I am very excited to be able to start running again this week. The dr. told me no running for 2-3 weeks and tomorrow makes 2 weeks so I figured I waited long enough. I have been at the gym everyday either on the elliptical machine or the bike, but it is not the same. Who would have thought the girl who hated to run would actually miss it once it is gone. I am looking for another race to run so maybe I have become a runner.....

Anyway here are a couple of pics of Vanna's new do....those of you with little girls beware.....this is in your future!

Doesn't it look like trouble??? She must get it from her dad :)

Dr. Drama

So Vanna and I went to the Dr. yesterday to go back on our allergy medicine. I really thought we had licked it since coming to Washington, but much to our dismay - they are back in full force. So we each got our monthly supply of Claratin and I also got some groovy cough medicine w/ codine in it!! While I was there, I had the Dr. look at my heel, which has been giving me trouble for about 3 months now. Turns out I have pulled my achilles tendon which explains the pain I have been in. I had to explain to him that I did not come to see him prior to the race because I knew he would tell me to stop running, which was definately not an option. Sure enough...he told me that achilles tendon injuries take a really, really long time to heal and I can't run for the next 2-3 weeks. I am also supposed to ice it at night and I have to wear an ankle brace (or hightops so I think I will stay with the ankle brace). I also have to take an anti-inflammatory pill for the next 2 months. It kinda sucks because although I had planned to take it easy for a bit, now that I can't run - I want to. So I am confined to the elliptical machine for the rest of the month. Could be worse I suppose. There is another marathon in August I am thinking about but I guess it depends on my heel. But I definately think I am going to re-run this race again next year to see how much better I do.

Here is a picture of of the flowering trees that line the streets of my neighborhood.

This might explain why we can't breathe!!!

Mother's Day/Marathon Weekend

So the big day came and went and I am still alive to talk about it so I guess that is a good sign. My friends and I completed our marathon adventure Saturday morning. It all began at about 4am when we rose to put on our oh so cute running attire and matching jackets then at about 5:30am we were packed in the car and on our way. For some odd reason, we parked about a mile or so away from the finish line to avoid traffic after the race, however we did not take into account that the city of Tacoma is a bit San Francisco like and the trek would be an uphill battle after running for so long....but what is a few more hills after running for 3 hrs - piece of cake. I have to say this was a very interesting experience and one that I will probably try again next year. The weather was cool and overcast with some rain (it is Washington after all) which I preferred since we would be running for so long. The first 10 miles were not bad - we ran thru the city and the parks and in spite of some short hills, it was a relatively smooth race. Then came the trip up over a bridge and along the water front. The hill was really big but it was a nice way down to a really, really, really long flat stretch of the course by the water which you would think was nice, but oh so boring. I was dealing fine until I realized that racers were coming back the other way and that led me to believe that all those hills I had just forced myself thru were going to revisit me in the opposite direction. And the worst part was that there was no way of getting around it. By the way, the training schedule has the farthest run prior to the marathon set at 10 miles - the actual half marathon is 13.1 miles. It doesn't sound like alot but those 3.1 miles were the hardest miles I have ever ran in my life.

So the last 3 miles were almost completely uphill and not just a nice incline, but UPHILL. Now the website for the race said to train for hills, but there would be a nice, leisurely downhill stroll to the finish line, so I kept waiting to find the downhills. After every mile marker I passed from 10 miles on it seemed like nothing but another hill. We finally made it back to the city and I thought great almost done, but with every corner I turned was another hill and no finish line. The last hill was literally the steepest and the volunteers for the marathon showing the way I'm sure were cussed out a time or 2 when they directed runners up this hill at the very end of the race. At the top was another flat run down a street and then around the corner was the finish line which was downhill for about 100 feet (not exactly the leisurely stroll I had pictured). But we all crossed the finish line alive and still breathing. After the race there were booths set up to hand out water, fruit and other goodies but in order to get there we had to go down about 30 steps. We finished at 2 hrs and 45 minutes which equates to 12 minutes a mile - a far cry from the 8 minute miles I ran in high school. But considering the last 2 weeks have been filled with sickness, stress and an injured foot, I guess it is not so bad for the first race and for not feeling 100%. I will post the pics when I get them from my friends.

After the race I went home and took a hot bath and packed up the kids and the dog and went to stay at my friend's house who also ran the race with me since both of our husbands are gone. But my lovely husband did send me flowers which came while I was home and are beautiful. He is very sweet like that. We had plenty of intent to party once we got there, but our party turned out to be short-lived. We had maybe 2 drinks and watched a movie and were asleep by 9pm - PARTY ANIMALS!! We were pretty sore and stiff the next day so we went and got a spa pedicure which was fantastic and then vegged out for most of the day. After we got home it was back to bed to catch up on some much needed z's.

I feel much better today outside of the fact that allergy season hit last weekend so breathing has been a bit of a problem and OTC medicines don't seem to help. So back to the doctor tomorrow for some relief although I thought I had the allergy thing licked since moving to Washington, but because my neighborhood looks like an advertisement for a floral shop due to all the flowering trees, bushes and weeds, I'd say the odds are stacked against me.

Overall it was a really good weekend. The kids made me some home made gifts from school which were really nice and I even got a massage from Dr. Tyler and his nurse Savannah. I have to say I am glad the marathon is over because it was alot of hard training, but I definately will race again to try to improve my time but maybe I will choose an exotic location next time or even the Disney marathon which includes running thru Cinderella's castle...who knows.

Officially Done

So my grade for my last class posted today and after alot of stressing and hard work, I got an A in my final class which means I will graduate with a 4.0 for my masters degree. I am pretty excited about that. I missed graduating with honors for my bachelor's by a one hundreth of a point so I was determined not to repeat that.

I also found out today that we are allowed to run with music for the marathon. They have to post no mp3 players allowed for insurance purposes but they allow runners to wear them - completely cool!! So this has been a good day all around.

Last Day of School!

So today was my official last day of class....I have turned in all assignments and now I am just waiting for that A (hopefully). It has been a long time since I have had an extended break from school so I plan on enjoying every bit of it. I don't start law school until September 9 so I have about 4 months of time to fill. I'm sure once Tyler is out of school it will go quickly. It is a weird feeling to know that tomorrow I have nothing to do....Who am I kidding, I have a marathon this Saturday.

On that note: So as you know I have been sick with strep so I have not run in about 10 days. Well yesterday my friends and I went to the Nike outlet to get some cute outfits for the race - this would be so I look halfway decent when I get to the hospital :). So last night I took the kids to the school so they could play on the playground and I could run the track. I thought I was going to die after just 5 miles. Hopefully my body will remember what we have been training for over the last 4 months and not go into shock Saturday (in all honesty, I think it will be just fine but I just like to make jokes because this is so out of character for me). But I am feeling the stress of it though. We are leaving at 5:30am Sat morning and I am praying the weather holds up. I can deal with the cold, but the rain doesn't work for me. And on top of that we are not allowed to listen to music while we run! Apparently it is a law for safety issues which makes no sense to me because the traffic is being stopped for the race. So for a few short hours I will be hating life on Saturday, but I will be looking forward to celebrating Saturday night.

Tyler had to make a drum for school this weekend. He had to create a design, decide what supplies were needed and give that info to his music teacher ahead of time and then create the instrument based on his plan, so this weekend we made a drum. Here is a pic of him and his finished product. It is amazing what you can do with flower pots and orange duct tape.

Getting Tech Savvy!

If some of you have been to my myspace profile recently, you can see that I have been experimenting and I am quite excited about it. Now I am trying to incorporate my newly found skills on my blog. I will even admit that I started a blog under Donnie's name just so I can practice and not mess up my own blog - sad but oh so true. Now this may not seem like a huge accomplishment for most of you technically brilliant friends of mine but it is "One small step for mankind and one giant step for Shelle!"

I'M IN!!

So although the last few days have been completely stressful and crappy due to all of us being sick, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I got accepted to the law school I was hoping for which offered online classes so I will be an official law student this fall. With only one week left til my master's program is over, I was beginning to get a bit nervous at the thought of actually going back into the workforce to get a real job. But the stress of the last year of applying to schools is over. I have to say I am completely excited and a bit nervous too. This will be actual work as opposed to my master's program which consisted of writing papers every week. But it will be worth it when I can put J.D. at the end of my name.

Dr. Update

So it is official....Vanna has strep just like her mama. The poor child puked all over the lab when they did her throat culture. There were no appointments available when I called this morning (a typical problem with military hospitals, especially on a Monday) but they were nice enough to see us in the lab to do a test and if she had strep they would call in some medicine. Well since she puked all over their lab they decided to see us later this afternoon. She threw up 3 more times after that and once again when we got into the examination room at the doctor's office. So she has strep and for whatever reason can't keep anything down, which is not usually a side effect of strep. She has thrown up 3 more times since we got home to include her medicine. So after multiple washings and baths I am trying to get her to eat some plain toast in hopes that her stomach will settle enough to keep her medicine down because I sure do not want her to feel as bad as I do now.

By the way I finished my paper...lord knows how with all the trips to the doctor today. It was a struggle I have to say so who knows how well I did. So next stop is the bed for both of us surrounded by buckets and a date with Young and the Restless (gotta love nighttime soaps on soapnet which I can only indulge in when the old man is gone).

Superstitious Believer....

So I have never really been a superstitious person...I mean if a black cat crosses my path I will think about it or if we break a mirror then I will joke about having 7 yrs bad luck, but I am really not that superstitious. But apparently my feelings are changing. I think I have jinxed myself. First I will give you some background: I typically don't get sick with the exception of having strep throat. I will catch strep if someone is within 20 feet of me. I did not start getting strep until we moved to Ft. Campbell in TN, but once we got there it became my nemisis. Every year I would get strep at least 2-3 times and be out of work for a week minimum. And I would not just get the sore throat...along with it comes the high fever and the swollen throat, the white spots and pain that goes up my neck and into my head which makes it almost impossible to move....sounds lovely right? Well the last time I had strep in TN the Dr. told me the reason I got strep so much was because I had such bad allergies and if I fixed the allergies the strep would go away. Made sense to me and shortly after that we moved away from the allergies of TN. Since we have left TN I have not had any allergies or strep throat, espeically since we got to WA. So here's where the jinx comes in:

Right before Donnie left, we took a long walk with the dog and were talking about all the things we would miss about Washington after we left and my biggest one was that I would miss not having any allergies or strep throat since it had been 2 yrs since my last episode. Well unfortunately here I am sick as a dog with strep throat. It came on out of the blue this weekend while I was at a friend's birthday party. I left early and by the time I got home I was done. I was going to wait until Monday to go to the Dr. but when I woke up on Sunday morning, my throat was almost swollen shut and I had a 102 fever and could not swallow. So off to the ER I went with the kids and all. 5 hours later they confirmed what I told them to begin with....I had strep. They wanted to give me pills to take for 10 days but I have a marathon in 10 days so that is really not going to work for me. I told them I was a pro at strep and to give me a shot in the butt, which they so nicely obliged. So I still feel like crap, my throat hurts and I have a 2500 word paper due tonight which I have not started on. Oh and by the way, Savannah woke up this morning with a sore throat so back to the Dr. we are headed now.

So the moral of this story is I think I am a believer now, unless there is wood around to knock on!

You Gotta Love Mom!

So with the upcoming move having no definite dates, our living situation is a bit in limbo. We don't know when, where, how long...you get the point. So I have been trying to steamline the things we have going on at the moment, including my graduation ceremony. Originally, the kids and I were flying to Phoenix, AZ in July for my ceremony. Donnie will be deployed still so he will miss all the fun in the sun. But with the uncertainty of us moving at a moment's notice, I figured it would be better to save the money of the trip, especially since the kids and I are flying to New York this summer as well. I am now attending the ceremony here at the Washington campus, which is fine except I will not have the opportunity to meet the 2 girls who have been in my group since 2006....but hey that's what myspace is for right? Anyway, my mother has graciously decided to fly up to attend the ceremony with me. Of course it's not like I had to twist her arm, the weather here in June is a bit more comfortable than the heat of Kansas. So we are excited because it does get a wee bit lonely when the hubby is gone for so long and you spend the majority of your days talking about Dora and Yugio.

Just other stuff..... So we have a bye week for soccer this week, which I am kinda glad of. The weather has been so crappy here literally since October. I used to be a fan of rainy days, but since living here I don't care if I don't see another drop of rain for the rest of my life. I absolutely hate it. And the sad part is I am not exaggerating when I say it has been raining since October. We had one nice day about 2 weeks ago and back to rain...it even snowed this past weekend. And the forecast for the next 10 days - Surprise (LOL) RAIN!!! From what I hear, spring is almost 2 months late here - well that figures since we live here now. I can completely see why this city has the most depression in the country and why everyone is addicted to Starbucks... a habit I have not picked up, but maybe I should - it may make staring at the clouds more interesting.

OK - enough of the ranting about Washington. I am sure my feelings are mostly because I know we are leaving and I want nothing more than to get back to the south. We are looking for homes in TN right now that we can buy now since the housing market is slow and that way when our tour is done in Alabama we can just move home and never move again. House hunting has proven to be challenging because this is the house we want to retire in so we are being a bit picky. We want a big house with lots of acres for Donnie's toys (dirt bikes, motorcycles 4-wheelers) but it still needs to be close enough to the city so I can work. We have found some but its not the house yet.....So the house hunting continues.

Law School Bound!!!

Well I just received my first acceptance letter for law school, which I am completely excited about. I probably won't go to the school because it is in Michigan. The only reason I applied is because they sent me a brochure in the mail and there was no application fee to apply. I never thought I would get accepted so I did not really give it a 2nd thought after I applied, but I got accepted for the Jan 09 class. I have until October to reserve my spot so at least I know I have options now. I am really setting my hopes on Concord Law because they offer online classes which would be great since we will be moving in the near future. I aced the entrance exam and the interviews so they are just waiting on my transcripts. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hopefully by next month sometime I will know so I will keep you posted!

Just Ranting!

Wow I must be setting a record for blogging 2x in one day but I had to vent about this. Santa brought Savannah a Dora the Explorer Megahut playhouse for xmas which is made by Playhut. If you are not familiar with playhut it is the company that makes those groovy nylon playhouses which are "supposed" to fold down flat and fit nicely in their carrying case. Well this particular MEGAHOUSE is 5ft x 5ft - the thing is huge to say the least. Well about a month after xmas it started leaning forward and now it has completely fallen over. So I called QVC where Santa shops and they told me to send it back and I could get a new one. Sounds easy right? Ha!! This thing took us 2 days to get folded up and put back in its case. I lost the directions so I had to go to playhut.com to find the instructions to fold it down. Tyler and I wrestled with this thing for a while and then I gave up until last night when I realized that Donnie was going to be gone and I still had not gotten the darn thing folded yet. So Donnie, Tyler and I struggled to get the thing back in the case. If I had a video camera we would have looked like the crocodile hunter wrestling a croc....I'm sure it was a sight to see. However - we won and got the thing folded so now my next problem is finding a box to fit the thing because I did not think I would be returning it so now I am boxless. Hopefully the lovely people at the UPS store can hook me up. So as my ranting comes to a close - beware of the playhut trap....it is not as simple as 1-2-3...or of course it could just be user error :)

Actual News!!

Okay so I realize that I am always complaining that I have nothing to blog about - especially compared to the exciting lives of my friends in TX with their new babies (hopefully baby Gates will be here in a few hours). But we actually have some news now.... the family and I will be leaving the rain and cold of Washington state. We have got orders to re-locate either to Ft. Rucker, Alabama or Ft. Eustis, Virginia. We are not sure which one yet, but hubby should be able to choose between the two. We are leaning towards Alabama just because it is close to our families and back in the south. The base is actually only and 1hr and a half away from Donnie's grandmother who lives in Pensicola, FL and we have been trying to get back home because she has been sick with cancer and we are just too far away here. She is doing great now and the cancer is gone, but it will make us feel better just to be closer. So we don't have any time frames yet, but more than likely within the next 8-12 months. Seems like a long time but it will be here before we know it, especially since he will be gone most of the rest of the year.

Donnie is deployed again and will be home for a few weeks this summer and a few weeks in the fall and that is about it so I have the pleasure of getting the house ready for moving. We are pretty excited to be going back. We do like Washington - it is so beautiful and green and the weather is great from about June to September, but I can't deal with all the rain. It has literally been raining since October. I completely understand why everyone up here is addicted to coffee because it is truly depressing when you see that much rain. I used to think it rained alot in the spring in TN and TX but it is nothing compared to this. I have seen enough rain to last a lifetime.

So tonight is my last soccer game for the season. We are in 2nd place so we should be in good shape for the tournament depending on what happens tonight. Tomorrow I have to take an entrance exam for another law school so that will be another post.

It's been a while

OK so I know it has been awhile since I last posted, but honestly I was waiting for some things to blog about since not a whole lot goes on up here in the rain. But we are getting ready for dad to leave yet again. He will be gone a while on this one. But this has become a typical part of our lives so we will once again adjust and go about our daily business as usual.

We are in second place in my soccer league. We have one more season game left and then the tounament. It has been a blast. I have been playing goalie since our goalie is hurt but she actually played one half of goalie this week so that left me playing forward which was cool. I think after the season I am going to continue to play with the team on the indoor team.

Still training for the marathon. It will be here in a few short weeks. Donnie and I got fitted for running shoes at a place called Fleet Feet. It was quite an adventure. They put you on a treadmill and make you run barefoot while recording how your feet work. It was pretty weird seeing my feet on camera in slow motion. Anyway we both got shoes and arch supports and it actually helped. I ran today and did not have nearly as much problems as I usually do. But I guess after running 13 miles I should expect some pain. Next weekend is a 5K run to support a lady in our unit. Her son has a severe case of autism and she has organized the run to raise money for autism research. So the kids and I will be participating in that next weekend. Another think I am thinking about tackling is the 3 day walk for Breast Cancer research in September. My neighbor has put together a team and it is a 3 day walk of 60 miles to raise money for B.C. Each day is a set number of miles to walk and then we camp in tents at night. Sounds pretty interesting but I think each person has to raise like $2000 so I am not sure I am up to that. And I don't know if Donnie will be back to stay with the kids so I guess I will have to wait and see.