Wahoo, another baby!

Okay, I know this is my fourth post today but I just got some exciting news. My oldest brother and wife are expecting their first baby (she has two from her first marriage.) They are due in April. So my two brothers, Ray's cousin, and my cousin are all going to have babies from December-April. Two are going to be boys.

Ray's Birthday Daytrip

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ugh, Gustav! Go away!

Gustav is not supposed to come anywhere near us. We will probably get winds and rain comparable to what we got from Fay, but a lot more storm surge. I know I should not complain. At least I don't live in New Orleans but this storm has turned my world upside down and has made me madder than a wet hen.

He is the reason I went to church by myself and it keeps getting worse by the hour. Ray was supposed to have a four day holiday weekend. Wednesday he found out it wasn't going to be a 4 day weekend any more. He had to work Friday. The new commander has never been through a storm and was completely freaking out. We had a huge weekend planned (thankfully no plans on Friday.) Then Friday he calls me and drops the bomb. He would not have any days off until who know when and he would be working 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day until further notice. We had rented a convertible for Ray's birthday and had a day trip planned. I cried and raged for over an hour. It didn't help that I have been having migraines almost every day and was so exhausted.

He called me a few hours later to let me know someone volunteered to work for him on Saturday so our plans wouldn't be ruined. Thank You! We had a fun day (next post.) Well, I go off to church today thinking that when I got home my husband would be home 2 hours later and I could finally get a nap.

He calls me about an hour before I expect him home. And drops another bomb on me. He won't be home until 6. They have decided to go to 24 hours (until no more hurricanes threaten the Gulf, which may be November 30 when Hurricane Season ends.) He is now working 12 hour days. The only good news is that he will have Thursday and Friday off. I hope I can go that long with out losing it with my migraines. Luckily I was able to snooze while my daughter colored and my son napped. I think Advil will be my best friend for the next few days or weeks.

Oh, and an ironic side note is that about two weeks ago they had a meeting on being undermanned and how that is causing stress on a lot of families and that they were going to try to ease up on them somewhat. If this is easing up than I rather go back to the stressful time before.

The longest 70 minutes of my life

It was a little sad but I was released from the Primary today. I had been in it for just over a year. That is how long I have been in my last 3 callings and the one before those three was only about 3 months. I am ready to get a calling and stay in a calling.

I had to take the children to church by myself today. (More about why in my next post.) It could have been worse. I use to go by myself or with She only before my husband changed jobs in the military and got a stable schedule. I really feel for my mom now because she use to take all five of us by herself.

As I said it could have been worse. T-man tried to bite She three different times during Sacrament meeting. I grabbed him just in time each time. T started screaming at the top of his lungs during one of the talks and She started up too. They fought over toys. T wanted to wander in the aisle. It was blazing hot in the chapel and I think that made T more wrestless and I was sweating bullets. All the talks seemed to go on for ever and the prayers.... Anyone who has children probably appreciates short prayers. The 70 minutes of sacrament meeting seemed to have lasted all day.

Luckily, T went to nursery no problem. I took She to sunbeams (now she isn't supposed to be in there yet but she refuses to go to nursery now that her brother is in there.) But she won't go to Sunbeams by herself. I finally snuck out the last 30 minutes and was able to attend Relief Society for a few minutes. But that went over so I left that because I had to get both my children by myself. I sure hope my husband can go next week. I admire those who have to take their children to church by themselves on a regular basis.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. When I'm sick I'm a complete baby. I want my mommy and I want to stay in bed.

2. When I take a walk, I think about my life plans. When I was in college before I met Ray when I would walk home from class I would say to myself. "I'm going to get married." I found positive thinking does help to acomplish those goals. After we got married I would say to myself "I'm going to have a baby." Now Ray and I walk together usually and we will talk about our future plans: having more children, doing things around the house, getting a promotion and moving out west and what kind of house we would like to get next.

3. Money can't buy happiness but it can get you into trouble. Keeping up with the Jones will pretty much ruin any family. My husband's coworkers are amazed how we live on one income. The thing they don't realize is that we don't NEED the toys: the boat, the luxury car, the big house with all the upgrades, the coolest electronics, the most expensive cell phones, the poshest vacations. Ray and I found contentment with the income we have and the Lord continues to bless us.

4. Cotton makes me comfortable and leather makes me sweaty. Not all leather but some of the leather jackets I have worn does.

5. The strangest person/character I've had lewd thoughts about was no one I can think of. I really try to forget any appropriate thoughts I have had and I don't think I have had any recently. But I have had some weird dreams about going back to school and being with my exes again and what would have happened if I had married one of them. They always decide they don't want to be married or have children and leave me with the one or two kids I have. I always wake up feeling thankful that I didn't marry them and that I married my husband who loves me and the children.

6. My favorite color these days is yellow because it reminds me of happiness and sunshine.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to picking up the convertible we rented for my husband and his birthday cake, tomorrow my plans include driving over to Destin for my husband's birthday with the top down on the convertible which I am sure the kids will love and playing on the beach and having lunch with his uncle and Sunday, I want to have a pleasant day at church (like that is going to happen)!

Little Mother

She use to play with care bears all the time and not her dolls but recently her carebears have been forgotten and the dolls have come out. She diapers her babies (usually they are naked), puts them to bed, and feeds them. Last week I found her reading to her baby and I just couldn't resist taking the picture.

Our 5th Anniversary

With Tropical Storm Fay looming in the near distance we didn't know how much of a wrench that would be thrown into our plans. We started off the day with Ray making breakfast for me. He usually cooks breakfast once a week and dinner twice. He's learned in the five years of our marriage that he can cook and that frozen dinners aren't that great.

After breakfast we got everything ready to go to the beach. It was a little overcast and windy but no rain. We had planned to go to the jetties at the State Park. It has a pool that doesn't get much waves and allows for littler kids to float and swim. I was unsure if we were going to be able to get in the water. If we had known that we couldn't we would have just gone to the beach on base again but we took our chances and headed to the state park.

When we arrived at the entrance we were pleasantly surprised by seeing a green flag at the gate. We commented about it to the lady taking our entrance fee. She said it was completely flat. We arrived at the beach to find only a few other families there and was able to claim a set of wooden lounge chairs they have their for use. Usually it is so crowded we don't get anywhere near the chairs.

It took us a little bit of time to convince the kids to go in the water. She took longer to get in than T-man. But they loved floating around in their floats. The water was very low. But we went out to about waist deep for us so the kids could float better.

After floating in the water we played in the sand for a little bit. Ray helped them build some sandcastles that they quickly demolished. The wind started picking up and started pelting us with sand. Little sand particles can sting pretty good when they start blowing around like that.
We headed in and rinsed the kids off in the outside showers. T-man was covered head to toe and She wasn't much better. Poor little T was shivering afterwards and we had to wrap him in a towel while daddy ran out to the van to get diapers so we could change them into their regular clothes. As we were leaving we noticed the flags had changed to double red. What good timing on our part.

We decided to have lunch at McDonalds for the kids. She loves it there but unfortunately it had started to sprinkle and we told her she couldn't play out there and the lady behind the counter said it was too dangerous so we thought it was closed. As we were leaving another family was going in and She didn't want to leave because she wanted to "play at McDonalds." I was explaining it was closed because of the rain. The little girl going in says, "It's not raining." We saw when we were leaving that the playground wasn't closed.

That night we got a sitter and went to dinner. It was our tradition to go to the Treasure Ship for dinner on our anniversary. It is shaped like a ship and right off the docks. When we passed it earlier in the day it was opened but when we arrived there it was closed because of Fay. It was getting late and we were starving. We didn't know where to go. We decided to check the restauarant next door. It is also a very nice restaurant and I had never been there since we can only afford to do this on our anniversary. They were open and the food was great. We enjoyed dinner and then went out for ice cream. So despite the storm we had a very good day and Fay didn't dampen our plans too much.

Hey, Fay went Away

...with not much rain our way. Some how we got in the eye and then the storm just moved around us and by the time it moved on all most all the the feeder bands have moved north of us. This morning we are in the smallest remnant of a feeder band and are getting more rain today than we got Friday or Saturday. Poor Tallahassee (a little over 100 miles to the East of us) got dumped on. Thank goodness the storm wasn't as bad as they forecasted or prepared for.

In the Eye of the Storm

I woke up this morning expecting howling wind and pouring rain but it was calm with just a light drizzle. I went to weather.com and found out why. We are now in the eye of the storm. They predicted it would be a tropical depression but it is still a tropical storm (higher wind speeds.) It looks like it will go back in the gulf to the south of us. The back half of the storm is coming and should be rainy and windy for the next two days. I have now officially been hit directly by a tropical storm. So far no damage and think it will be just one wet mess for awhile. Tropical Storm Fay will just not go away. All of Florida has been directly hit by her now.

It's Our Fifth Anniversary

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Tropical Storm Fay

Looks like we are going to get a little bit of Fay at least. Luckily, it will be probably Saturday and hopefully she will break up enough that it won't be much of a storm but they are projecting about 6-9 inches of rain in our area. I live right by the Early Sat AM line by the Gulf of Mexico if you are unsure. I just hope she stays on land and does not go into the Gulf since land will keep her from restrengthening but if she goes into the Gulf we most likely will have a worst storm surge situation not to mention the possiblility of her strengthening to more than a Tropical Storm.

Bowling did that?

My husband took me bowling for a date Saturday. I haven't been bowling in around 3 years. I have never been a great bowler. But Saturday I was horrible. My top score was a 79 and that was because they gave me a strike when I really didn't get a strike. That was the first game. We rented the lane for an hour and we got 3 games in. At the end of the 3rd game they gave us five extra minutes so we could finish our game. The second game was horrible. I rather not relive it. I had a hard time finding a ball that fit my hand that was the right weight. I finally gave up the search and just used the ball I had started with. During the second game I started to feel the strain. My thigh began to hurt and so did my hand. I was having a hard time controlling the ball.

The third game I was bowling fast and so I either did great or horrible and ended up with a 76. I was about done. My leg couldn't even support me any longer and I nearly fell a couple of times. I just never imagined bowling being a work out.

That was just the beginning. Yesterday I really felt it. From my rear to my knees, muscles ached. My forearm and wrist felt no better. Ray said he was sore too. Even today I am still having a hard time moving. I am just having a hard time believeing that bowling has caused me so much pain.

And even though Ray hasn't bowled in the same amount of time as me he was bowling like he had never had a break. At least he didn't rub it in and we had a lot of fun.

IT"S A BOY!!!

No, not me. I am not having another baby, yet. My brother and his wife just found out their third child will be their first boy. I am so excited for them. They really did want a boy since this may be their last child. They love their little girls and would have been happy to have another one but I am so glad that they are getting their boy.

More Golden Moments

I have felt the adrenaline rush, the excitement, the disappointment. I have jumped up and down, chanted "USA! USA!" and "Go! Go! Go!" My eyes have teared up and I will be sad to see the Olympics end in a week. But for now I want to relive some more golden moments. Rebecca Soni surprised many when she unexpectively won a silver medal in her first race. After seeing that performance I was excited to see her second race and she outswam them all to win the gold.
The gymnastics was on so late that I ended up going to bed after 2 rotations. I recorded the rest so I knew the outcome before I finished it. I went to bed disappointed thinking that our girls received lower scores than they deserved and thought there was clear favoritism going on (especially after seeing some of the team competition too.) When I learned that USA went gold and silver I was excited to see the rest of the competition. I admit I got a little choked up seeing Nastia Liukin become choked up when she was singing the national anthem. She looked like a bellerina on the beam and the floor. And Shawn Johnson was just as exceptional.
And who will ever forget this photo finish. I thought for sure he was going to get the silver. A half of a stroke that should have cost him the race instead won him the race by .01 seconds.
Two races will be talked about for years to come. The one in my previous blog and this one. I loved the reaction of his mother almost as much as his reaction. I hope this next week will be just as exciting with the events to come.

And the answer is a ghost

I have gone back and forth about what the children should be for Halloween this year since my daughter really hasn't shown a preference and my son is still two young. I usually try to make their costumes but this year we may not be around for much dressing up so we may go for store bought ones this year if we do end up dressing up. The question became what to make them. I received my answer yesterday. My son loves to put a blanket over his head and walk around. Last night my hubby and I laughed so hard as he came walking down the hall with a blanket completely over his head. He couldn't see a thing. He veered slightly to the right and headed straight for a wall. Ray dived to hinder him before the collussion could occur. However, my son was not too happy about his daddy's save. He put the blanket back over his head and immediately bumped into the door. Than he turned around and bumped into the wall. He thought that was great fun to run into walls and doors while he couldn't see. I turned to Ray and said, "I think he will be a ghost for Halloween." However, he will have eye holes in his costume.

Ouchy!!!

Monday night we all headed over to some friends to help them move. While daddy was loading up the truck with all the other men, mommy watched the children with the other ladies. T-man and She enjoyed playing outside with the other kids (although the bugs ate up mommy and She's legs.) However, T-man came away with two bloody knees and a scrap on the head. He escaped from the back yard and when mommy went to fetch him he started running away and the walk was cracked and buckled in one spot. He stumbled over that trying to get away and biffed it pretty good. The scrap on the head was healed by the next day but the poor little knees were still pretty beat up.

I Go Bananas for Bananas

My kids love the IDEA of bananas. I say that because they both have to have one yet how much of them did they eat. My son actually ate maybe half while my daughter took a few microbites out of hers. Mom ended up eating the rest. Good thing I didn't get one for myself.

What a RACE!!!

Leaping off my couch and jumping up and down in silence (my children were asleep) my eyes glued to the TV. Jason Lezak was closing on the French guy. Did he have enough length left in the pool? Doubtful. But it was going to be close. The (stupid) commentators were all but giving it to the French. There was no way he would outswim the anchor of the French team being almost a full body length behind at the turn. But as the commentator made that prediction I noticed that Lezak was rapidly closing the gap. My leap. I started whispereing "Go! Go! Go!" Both swimmers reach for the wall and bam!bam!bam! up comes the placings, The USA is #1 by .08 of a seconds. The replays are magical watching Lezak touch just a hair before the French. My jumping intensified and even my husband was cheering from the computer chair. I liked what Lezak said afterwards, "I was tired of losing." Way to go, guys! It was sure a thrill to watch such an intense race.

Mondays are not my thing

I have recently realized that Mondays are not my thing. It seems that is the day of the week that I am more stressed out and my temper easily flares. My house is usually a mess from my children destroying it on the sabbath. I try not to clean on the sabbath and so I have to pay for that on Monday. So just trying to get everything in order after sometimes a hectic weekend is enough to put me over the edge.

Wahoo, the Olympics

I love the Olympics. When I was a kid (and they were every 4 years both summer and winter) I would rejoice on those years. There are certain sports I don't want to miss from either season but generally watch whatever is on all day long. I get a lot of crocheting and knitting done at those times. I remember great past Olympic moments like when Paul Wylie (I think that was his name) was an alternate for the USA men's figure skating and was not supposed to do very well. He took the silver but was denied the gold even though Victor Pentrenko (sorry if I misspell these names) fell (1992 I think). I remember Paul Hamm in Man's Gymnastics in 2004 fall and pretty much be counted out and then come back to take the gold and also the all around title. Just to have it contested a day later by another gymnast. Glad that held. Judging is not always technical.

So last night I was glued to the TV for the opening ceremonies. I was not disappointed. I loved the drums with the lights and then the moving printing blocks. Great precision and all powered by human beings and not computers. I tried to watch every country come in. I realized I need to study a globe again since some countries seem to have changed or formed since my school days.

Today I have watched as soon as I could. I watched the USA women's basketball team win their first match, the USA women's fencing team sweep the metals, the USA volleyball team win against Japan, the Australia beach volleyball win their first match and now rowing is on. I also watched bits of horse riding, weightlifting and cycling. Tonight I am excited to see the first swimming and gymnastics. I remember seeing Michael Phelps pretty much take the Athen games and hope to see him do it again.

When I was a little girl I wanted to be an Olympian, preferrably gymnastics or figure skating. That never happened but I still can watch the dreams of others be fulfilled. I root for USA or the underdog team. I love to see countries that have never metaled get a metal. I love to see those who come into the games the underdogs prove everyone wrong. This should be one time that we as fellow human beings should put aside our differences, show good sportmanship and celebrate with the athletes. Too bad we can't solve all the world issues with a good sporting match or if not that chess, or math, or spelling bees.

Deadly Lend Yum

http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html

My friend Holly had this on her blog. I typed in my first name with my maiden name and the title of this blog is one of the anagrams for my name. I had 816 for my first and maiden names. Here is one for my married name, Landlady Men We. Sounds like an Asian name. There were 2385 for my married name. More usuable vowels and constants. Plug in your name and see what they come up with.

My cute sweet daughter

We have been concerned about our 3 1/2 year old daughters communication skills for awhile now. We noticed that she didn't talk as well as the other children in the nursery and she seemed to fall more and more behind. We just had her screened for special programs for the school district and she did not pass her language and speech evaluations, she was "borderline" so they are going to have her more indepth evaluated and she may qualify to go to early preK this year. Anyway, we called them back in April or May to set up the screening. Since then I have finally discovered the time and channel Sesame Street comes on and she has watched that almost every day. Also her younger brother is starting to talk and is very good at picking up words and using them and also forming 2 word phrases. Both have greatly approved our daughter's comminication (probably why she was borderline and didn't score lower.) As many of you mother's probably know that they have a count dracula (or whatever his name is) who counts to the number of the day on his organ on Sesame Street. Yesterday they counted all the way to 16. Both of my children love Sesame Street, especially Elmo. My son still only watches about half of it before he gets bored but She-girl will be glued to the TV for most of the hour.

Last night she was supposed to be in bed. We have a loose bedtime. As a child I couldn't go to sleep right away so I usually stayed up until I couldn't read anymore and then would go to sleep. That is pretty much our philosphy. We have a bedtime for them but they can stay up in their rooms as long as they stay in their rooms and are not too nosy. Sheila usually climbs in bed when she is tired and sometimes (if she doesn't have a nap) it is right after we put her down and others it is 1-2 hours later. She is scared of the dark right now so we allow her to leave her light on and then when she is asleep we go in and shut off the overhead light and turn on her lamp.

Last night even though she did not have a nap during the day she was staying up. She has a counting toy that counts to 20. It makes a little noise and then says the number. It's sort of like the Count's organ. I heard her say 4 after the voice did. My husband and I continued to listen and she counted all the way to 20 with the machine. I could not believe it. I have only got her to count to 10 once and usually she skips 1 and some of the others she has a hard time saying. But even some of the ones she couldn't say correctly she attempted to say. I was all smiles.

Beachy Day

Our monthly beach day came this Saturday. She-girl, a week earlier, had actually told me she wanted to go to the beach and since we were busy that Saturday I promised her we would go the next Saturday. We went out to the base beach. From the parking lot we walk along about half of a mile board walk and then the beach is about a quarter of mile from the end of the board walk to the water. It had been stormy (from Tropical Storm Eduardo) and water had formed pools all over the beach. Double red flags were flying on the local beaches so no getting in the water for us but to wade in knee deep to rinse off sand. It was an overcast day and so not too hot although I still got burned through 45 sunblock.
The kids love to dig in the sand. Ray and I have tried to teach them how to build sand castles but they crush them as fast as we make them. I played in the sand with them and She-girl and I buried our feet.
We also went wading in some of the small pools. We looked for shells. There were small ones and broken large ones but not too many. The storm had either washed them away or someone had already gathered them up.
She-girl crushed this pile of sand. They had tons of fun.

We did walk along the surf where T-man and She-girl ran away from the waves as they came in. Double red flags are a serious thing and local beaches have had 5 drowning deaths in the last week. But you can have fun at the beach without getting in the water. They are the world's largest sand boxes.

Funny kids 2

Kids are so funny sometime. Here is She-girl pulling T-man down the hall so he will play with her in her room.
T-man just loves to rip up old magazines. I keep a box of them in with their books. He knows not to tear up the books (although sometimes he and his sister don't obey that rule.) Here he sits amongst one of his huge messes.

Ring around the Roses

The other day I taught my children some nursery rhymes and one we did was "Ring Around the Roses." They loved it. We had to do it again and again. Now, even days later, they will grab each others hands and start to say "Ring Roses, Ashes Ashes Fall Down."
T-man likes to randomly fall down though. He fall downs after roses and posies and ashes.

Is this really me? You decide.

You Are Bubblegum Flavored Gum

You are friendly, outgoing, and energetic. You love life, and you can always find some reason to smile. You are a bit hyper, and you're always looking for your next challenge. You love getting things done - and you are usually on the go. Your confidence and positive attitude makes you a very attractive person. You can be a little flaky at times, but people are able to overlook that - because you're so fun!

What Flavor Gum Are You?

My taste in Chocolate

What Your Taste in Chocolate Says About You

You are sweet, mellow, and easily satisfied. You don't like anything too intense and dramatic. Deep down, you're a kid at heart... and you're nostalgic for the past. You are a whimsical person prone to daydreaming. Artistic and creative, you're always in the middle of a project. While you are an inspiration to others, you can come off as flaky. You love to be the center of attention. You enjoy entertaining your friends. You feel lost when no one is interested in you... You're too interesting to be ignored.

The Chocolate Oracle