The Fisch Pond

Yesterday and Today

2012-01-26T16:50:00.000-05:00

One thing I LOVE about our house is that we live in a very quiet neighborhood with a sidewalk in front of our house. If the weather is even sort of nice, we are outside and girls are playing with our garage full of pink and purple colored outside toys. Or...like yesterday...doing homework on the front porch.

And then, just in case I ever give the impression that everything is absolutely horrible and sad when Paul is gone, let me tell you about "field food" or "deployment dinner." (Of course we would rather him home, but there is a silver lining to pretty much any cloud, no matter how big and heavy.)

In a word: wonderful.

I guess it is true of our family at least that I cook those square meals just for the daddy because the second he leaves we revert to monkey cheese with peas (I have a salad) and when we get tired of that, we make french bread pizza (last night), or we do a Mediterranean dinner...like tonight...and here is Carly giving her opinion. She's a fan of field food, too. We had the other half of the loaf of bread, three different 'flavors' of olive oil for dipping, olives, grapes, heirloom tomatoes and not shown is a big chunk of Romano cheese. Lovely! Tomorrow night the kids are having hummus and veggies with homemade naan and maybe orange slices if I'm feeling fancy. After a week or so of eating like this, their hair gets REALLY shiny. =)

And, just because it's been a couple weeks since I've blessed you with a picture of Bree's fashion fabulosity...here ya go! Pardon the chair cushion - they're getting steam cleaned tonight.

Cure for Cabin Fever

2012-01-25T09:37:00.000-05:00

I'm waiting for Bree to finish getting dressed and we are headed OUT. Yesterday was such a great reminder of all the things I like best about being a mom of small-to-medium-sized children. Snacks at the park, water bottles, running all around, starving kids at dinner and kids who actually NEED a bath because they are filthy from playing like wild animals all day long.

Does anyone else feel that way? I know it's not spring, and I know we will probably have a few more yucky days of gross, depressing weather, but for NOW, I'm just going to choose to ignore that fact. We're stocking up on park snacks (z-bars, those twisty fruit things, cheese sticks, Koala granola bars, etc) and getting the heck out of the house for as many hours per day as possible while we can. I'm hoping that all this activity will help us with staying healthy and will help distract my poor Bree from the fact that someone (me) stole all her Barbie books and replaced them with Caldecott books...

...which, btw, we already owned but she never read because Barbie books require no work on her part. She's not a fan of the change, but she'll come around.

Okay! We are READY! What are your plans for the day?

Three Things I Love

2012-01-24T18:31:00.001-05:00

1) When a fun, two hour Chick-Fil-A playdate (yes, another one) turns into another two hours playing at a nearby park because the weather decided to surprise us and turn sunny and beautiful and perfect.

2) When my girls play together like best friends.

3) When my husband calls at THIS moment and he sounds great, and he can hear the girls laughing, and I find out he's sleeping on a cot not the hood of his humvee, and it's so good to talk to him we'll all go to sleep happier. xoxo

Jumpies, Baking and Art...

2012-01-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure we went to the jumpy place last Monday. PRETTY sure, but I can't really guarantee it. Either way, the girls had a blast as usual. Bree was especially awesome once she mastered the obstacle course entrance by herself. Happy kid! If you look carefully, you will notice she is also a well-accessorized kid, with pretty rings on each hand. Just don't look too closely at her outfit - she chose it herself and hasn't mastered the art of matching just yet. =)

We met the Jiabias there...this is one of the only pictures I got of Carly and Sophia, mostly because this was one of the only times I saw them the whole time we were there. =)

Okay, then flash forward past all the illness and we come to Friday. I don't know why this picture is so dim, but we made playdough. At least I think this was Friday...I'm pretty sure it was Friday. The girls LOVED that project!

Then we made zucchini bread which the girls love as long as I make sure to tell them it's cinnnamon bread.

Bree still wanted to help cook even though I was finished, so I let her stir up a little flour and water. She lives in her dressups and wears them almost all the time when we're home.

Okay! Now I know for SURE what day this happened, because it was today! Yay! Today is Monday and Carly is healthy but has a couple of days off for teacher workdays. Carly had a sleepover last night and was really excited from it, so we did a little art project to help the girls calm down before naps. It worked awesome and they each slept three hours, which gave me exactly enough time to do all the collating and accounting and reporting and ordering for Girl Scout cookies. Wahoo!!!

Here we are beginning our cactus project. You can see the puff paint bottles in the background - the recipe is on pinterest, but it's just flour, water, salt and paint.

Bree, getting bored with cacti, had fun painting. This is a (super)girl who loves her paint.

So the end result! What I love about these directed art projects is that they give plenty of latitude for an older kid who is more interested in the product and a younger one who is still fully in process mode. Bree asked for help with the puffy outlines and she loved sticking in the little cactus thorns.

Then we played Sorry! which was totally boring to Bree, but Carly loved it. She wanted a photo taken. =)

So we survived a week. Goals for next week include: all of us staying healthy, finishing cleaning out what will be the baby's room and doing a Barbie-and-Disney-Princess detox of our family library. Wish us luck!

You Know He's In the Field When...

2012-01-20T09:35:00.001-05:00

Well, this has been a heck of a week.

Today we're working on a couple of fun projects so the pictures will be posted later. Thank goodness for Pinterest, right?

Also for phenergan (for me, post-food poisoning) and kickass antibiotics (for Carly, to kill strep). And awesome neighbors who send their homeschooled teenager to watch Bree while they drag my hallucinating, barfing, practically mummified carcass up to the hospital to get fixed up after what had to be the most disgusting night of my life. I don't remember getting out of the car or walking into the hospital and I guess I looked about as lovely as I felt because when I emerged from the treatment room six hours and three IV bags of fluid later, the guy at the triage desk was all "WHOA, well you look much better!" And I was all, "Um thanks, do I know you?" He was like, "yeah, you puked on my shoes." Awesome. I guess that's why nurses wear those solid white crocs...easy to hose off if necessary.

Anyway, they loaded me up with phenergan and sent me home with more which has been a big help in the hydration department. I'm doing a thousand percent better today. Carly is, too. Her throat started hurting Wednesday night and we got her in to see the doctor Thursday. First time anyone in our house has had strep but the antibiotics have seemed to knock it out pretty well and Bree seems to be okay for now! Thank goodness for Clorox wipes and a stash of new toothbrushes, too!

And now I'm going to peel my bug-eyed children away from Tom and Jerry and make them do something fun and creative for at least half an hour until this last dose of the magic phenergan pill makes me pass out.

Hi, Kelly!

2012-01-15T17:18:00.001-05:00

I'm all about multi-tasking today, so after the cute little Q&A I am shamelessly lifting off another military family's blog that linked up with Kelly last Friday for her Military Families linky party, you will see some spectacular shots of my dainty ladies enjoying their lunch.

*This would be a great place for an "irony font," but if you are one of the six or seven people who stop here regularly, the term "dainty ladies" in the same sentence as a meal probably tipped you off. =) Haha.*

I don't know if anyone will actually come visit from there, but if you did, hi! Sorry about the lack of a readable title. =)

So! Onto the questions...

How did you meet your husband?
I met Paul at this skeevy bar in Lawton, OK called...are you ready for this?...the Electric Cowboy. I know. They alternated between country and hard-core rap and had coin beer night a lot. I'd never been there before but I was visiting a friend from highschool and yada yada yada Paul and I ended up talking until the bar closed. He met me at church the next day, then we went to the local arts fair before I headed back to grad school in Waco and he headed back to artillery school in Lawton's neighboring Fort Sill. That was in May. We were married five and a half months later and the rest is history.

What is military life like?
It's just like I suspect most other people's married lives are like. You work, maybe raise kids, do taxes, buy a house, fix stuff, laugh about stuff, argue, make up, eat dinner, try to be better all the time...we just sometimes navigate those things over long distance and sometimes my husband's work takes place in unsafe locations (which, it should be noted, is also true of my friends and relatives who work on oil rigs, or are firemen or police officers, or who have jobs that require 100% travel, or who work 30on/30off schedules). We don't get the chance to take one another for granted, which is awesome, as are dress blues - can I get an AMEN?! - and those welcome-home-so-glad-you're-safe first kisses.

What does your husband do?
He blows stuff up in normal life, but right now his guys are doing different sorts of things.

Where have you been stationed?
Camp Pendleton - beautiful and perfect, can't wait to get back.
New Orleans - not nearly as fun to live there as you'd think, glad we only stayed six months.
Baton Rouge - loved it! Made lifelong friends there and loved being near my family.
Quantico - loved it!!! The DC area is SO FUN. There is no end of stuff to do and it's so pretty.
Camp Lejeune, NC - our current location and, well...we live near the beach which is great in the summer and I'll leave it at that. =)

Do you complain about military life?
No! Stop laughing, I'm serious. I complain about some things that are a direct result of our life (such as certain characteristics of our current area that I've resolved not to mention in 2012), but my husband loves his job and he is great at it, we are provided for and have amazing friends and opportunities that have been afforded to us due to my husband's job moving us from place to place. We aren't ready to trade it in for predictability and guaranteed reasonable access to a Whole Foods and an art museum....yet.

And that about covers it, I think! =)

So, as promised...photos...

First, one of Carly so you can see what she's wearing...she was making her 'awkward' face...hilarious because she's started say "ohhhh AWKWARD" at inappropriate times, like if I forget her juicebox in her lunch or something. She's six, so I'm thinking mastery of the art of irony is a couple of years away.

And then, Bree. God bless this sweet girl and keep her ever awesome.

In addition to randomly loving cole slaw today, Bree was really digging the raw onions I put out for Paul. Her breath is LOVELY this afternoon, let me tell you. And do you see her shirt? This is why we do two loads of laundry a day. =)

Adventures in Baking

2012-01-15T10:52:00.000-05:00

So, the college football national championship was LAST week, and yes, we've been doing stuff THIS week, but none of it got photographed. This lovely attempt at a king cake did win a moment of the spotlight though...even though it looks more like those little pillows they give hemorroid patients than an actual king cake. You're welcome for that mental image. =)

This was attempt 3...the first two didn't even rise, or rise evenly. So...I'll try again around the time of Mardi Gras and maybe we'll get something more cake-like and less medical-equipment like. =) ''

Haha, you're welcome again.

A Post As Scattered As I Am

2012-01-11T16:29:00.000-05:00

Consider this a bloggy onomatopoeia.

I got buried by my to-do list today. Most of it did get accomplished but I couldn't tell you how or when, and the sad thing is that it wasn't just calm Mommy stuff, it was madness and Bree and Carly moving around and talking (always talking) in the background did not help matters in the least.

That's not their fault; they're kids. It's my inability to focus on more than one thing at a time that's the problem.

So while I was mentally revising my list and listening to Bree screech at me about how her carseat buckle was too tight even after we adjusted it, I missed my turn and ended up thirty miles away from where I was supposed to be, thirty minutes before I was supposed to be at the dentist. So the sitter met us there, right after Bree had an accident, and I may or may not have jokingly begged the dentist to hit me with some baby-friendly laughing gas. It's probably not a good thing that the most relaxing part of my day was the twenty-minute block of time I was getting my teeth cleaned.

Here's to getting it together.

I really just need some SILENCE, decent cell service and a personal assistant for my oh-so-important and busy life. =)

It's Not February Yet...

2012-01-08T07:14:00.000-05:00

We got quite a few New Year's cards this year...and pretty much everyone who sent one those after-Christmas cards called or emailed to apologize for their being so late...and every time I said (because it's true) that if you just started a business/moved/had a baby within the last three years/are doing Christmas solo due to your husband's work obligations/are a normal human being with a busy life...you absolutely have until February to get those cards out. If it's before Valentine's Day, you're good.

So..with these photos, I'm doing something entirely out of character and extending to myself the same measure of grace I gave my busy friends. If you're not related to us, you probably don't really want to see a single more Christmas photo, and I don't blame you! Just consider yourself duly warned. =)

****

Let's start with the rest of Christmas Day at our house and our SUPER simple Christmas dinner. We had a lot of other stuff but realized that all anyone wanted was that amazing grilled ham and sweet potatoes, so that's exactly what we had. Maybe next year we'll do roasted brussels sprouts and green bean casserole.

Then some awesome gingerbread house destruction.

***

The next three days consisted of me studying for my personal finance test on the 28th and Paul and the girls being outside playing baseball, football, tennis, riding bikes and roller blades, jumping rope, running around and doing sports stuff for eight hours a day.

***

Before we left, I noticed this. We got some cool Santas and a creche from my Granny and someone set them up like this, on their way to visit the baby Jesus. Love!

***

Round One in Philadelphia the night we arrived! The girls were so excited about their wonderful gifts!

I don't know who that ten year old kid is, but she's wearing Carly's pajamas....and you can see a little bit of the aftermath! It was a tornado in there. =)

***

Round 2! Aunt Amanda and Uncle Pete came over the next day. The girls had SUCH a blast unwrapping everything!!! This Barbie head (one of my all time favorite toys as a kid!) was a big hit. This kind came with hair coloring AND makeup....when Bree heard that word, she whipped her head around, dropped what she had been playing with and joined the hair party. Bree also loves that big white horse you can see on the left - it came with a dozen tiny little animals that can ride on its back - Bree calls them her babies and tucks them into her bed every morning. =)

***

Round 3!!!

Uncle Pete came back over and we saw Aunt Diane and Uncle Mace after the girls and Paul got back from touring PopPop's work.

Reading her Ladybug Girl book with Aunt Diane - I hadn't ever read this book before but I love it! It is just right for Bree!

Hahaha - love this! Part of the girls' gift were these little clip in colorful hair extensions! Everyone tried one on, and the girls have been wearing them around the house.

***

Round 4 was at Aunt Louise's house on New Year's Eve...I'll have to put the pics from FB on here. Auntie Lisa gave Bree a bag FULL of old jewelry and Bree fell in love with it! The girls are actually right this second (7am Sunday) in a bath with the fancy bubble bath they got, and they enjoyed playing with their nearly-cousing Trevor for four hours. It's always a miracle to get three kids to play together for any length of time, but these three get along great; it's so nice to see!

***

Round 5...I know...was with Auntie K the next day! She and I went out to a fabulous brunch and, since we were the last customers and the bakery was closing for a week, they sent us home with lots of free goodies. Paul and the girls spent the day with Amanda and Pete in South Philly, watching the Mummers parade and eating lots of yummy goodies. At some point Carly called as asked me for $40 so she could play fantasy football...I'm sure that was totally her own idea, too.

***

And then, back to regular life. Carly working on homework from school and getting ready to dive into homework from home, and Bree (in fairy wings, an apron, a hula skirt and princess shoes) rotating between painting her nails and making art. =)

Photos Uploading Now! Yay!

2012-01-04T07:45:00.001-05:00

I think we probably could have used an extra day before our little trip and jumping back into the real world.

There are emails I need to send, packages I need to send, a certain cable company who needs to be reminded that yes actually I DID pay them last month here's the cancelled check to prove it, tennis to sign up for, cookie sales to manage, laundry to fold, baseboards to paint (because they look like garbage) and that weird smell to track down. Also four different things for Paul's work, two days of volunteering and a bunch of health appointments.

Item #1 on my "list" for 2012 is to not get overwhelmed by all that stuff! Haha, the truth is, I don't have resolutions for this year because the only thing I can think of is getting my family through this impending deployment in one piece. That's still four months away.

As is the, you know, birth of our third child. I did just buy that poor baby her carseat and I wonder if I'll regret not getting an infant carrier and opting instead of the top-safety-rated-yet-still-budget-friendly convertible one that will let her hang out facing backward until 40 pounds.

So anyway, I'm either doing it right, by focusing on just the two major things I need to accomplish this year, or I'm getting it completely wrong by being so wrapped up in two things I have zero control over that I'm letting all the minutia that I COULD control quite well get all piled up and crazy.

I'm going with right, just because this is my blog and it sounds better to start off the new year winning. =)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T18:21:00.000-05:00

In 2011....

Carly tried basketball, did swimming, dance, gymnastics and reads anything she can.
Bree just about taught herself to swim and started dance which she loves above all else.
Paul graduated from his school and picked up battery command.
Liz (finally!!!) finished all the requirements to be a financial counselor.
Spring was busy.
Summer was epic.
Fall was fun.
And winter has been so far, and thankfully, nonexistent weatherwise.

There has been lots of working, volunteering, house painting, Girl Scouting, glitter, driving and sand.

In 2012 (as far as we know)...

Carly will keep dancing, do tennis, swimming, weekend sleepover camp and probably art class during the summer.
Bree will definitely keep dancing, do swimming and probably art class in the summer. She's on schedule to read at the same age as Carly; the girl literally cannot wait to know what all those words say and she'll start preschool at the best place we could find.
Paul will train like crazy, deploy, and come home again.
Liz will keep volunteering, doing the Girl Scout thing and the taxi thing and, oh right, have a baby.
Spring will be crazy busy.
Summer will likely be rather sleepless.
Fall will take too long.
Winter will be joyful and amazing. Can't wait for THAT Christmas card. =)

I predict lots of working, care-packaging, Skyping, learning, glitter, poster paint, sand, diapers, monkey cheese for dinner, houseguests (please!!!), disco dance parties, happy and sad tears, adventures, less traveling for most of us and a significant increase in the sand quotient for one of us. It will be a good year - not easy, but good.

Merry and Bright!

2011-12-25T12:56:00.001-05:00

Santa came to our house!!! Those stockings were PACKED...we went a teensy bit overboard on stocking stuffers this year; it's a hazard of starting your Christmas shopping in September. Also - the "Oops" book is a flipping riot, but it's a funny cause-and-effect book, which is better for Carly's age - Bree was completely lost but she laughed when we laughed anyway. =)

Possibly Bree's favorite gift - four pairs of dress-up shoes from Carly. Bree has been wearing them all day.

Carly's favorite present - her Silly Hair Lalaloopsy!

Unpacking their cool art bag from Grammy! The book is a huuuuuge hit and the bag was full of supplies for making the projects - so easy to gather when we were already at the store and not forgetting one thing or another like I would do if we had waited to get them all together! I'm so excited to see what cool things these girls make.

Paul and his Kindle! He figured out how to work it and he likes it! I got spoiled totally, completely, absolutely rotten with a new set of pots, new knives (that CUT! Hallelujah!!!) and a very cute, VERY pink purse. I love it so much! And I had to laugh because I had this giant stack of huge boxes and bags and Paul had this eeeeeeety bitty Kindle. Poor guy! =)

Making our rounds of the Christmas presents, here the girls are coloring the roof of their cardboard gingerbread house they got from our cousins. Well, Carly is coloring. Bree is painting her nails for the tenth time this morning.

Santa also brought packages of stick-on moustaches for the girls and I personally think they are HYSTERICAL. Carly added a 'stache to her penguin. Awesome!!!!

And two collages...the first is Carly playing with her totally RAD Rory's Storycubes game...it's such a cool thing! You roll the dice and make up a story about what is on the dice. It gets her little brain going...this is MY favorite gift so far. =) The second collage is Bree, the fabulous. I love that kid and all her sparkle, even though she's upstairs right now crying pitifully because she can't have her lollipop yet. She hung her head and dragged her face all the way up there, but she'll be down in a few minutes, happy again. Yay!

Christmas Eve!

2011-12-25T11:51:00.000-05:00

We went to mass at 5:30 Christmas Eve instead of trying to rush out the door this morning. It was a beautiful service and our priest read a letter from Santa, which I thought was incredibly sweet. Here's my pretty girl on the way to church. Napless Bree fell asleep on the way, but it was one of those magic ten minute naps that helped her make it through the service and some marginally successful Christmas-light hunting afterward.

This is pretty typical. I believe we saw this exact scenario at Halloween. What's funny here is that Carly is directing her dad on how to light the fireplace. =)

Then Paul saw Bree and told her Santa doesn't bring presents to pouty girls...and MAGICALLY Bree was happy again. It's a Christmas miracle!

Snuggling with Daddy before bed. We laid out cookies and milk and an apple for the reindeer. Just so you know, Rudolph has retired from flying and is now a reindeer teacher. That fact arose during a conversation about how old the Rudolph movie is and whether or not Rudolph is, in fact, real. Paul had some quick thinking, and fortunately our logical girl thought his explanation made perfect sense.

We did have our traditional Feast of a Bunch of Fishes, but we didn't make it through all seven courses this year. We had smoked salmon tea sandwiches on pumpernickel, fried calamari, linguine with clam sauce cooked with anchovies and crab cakes...we didn't make it to the shrimp or the flounder this year. Does that still count? Maybe? Haha - either way we got our National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation watching in and it was fabulous. We found it much more difficult to go to sleep because of excitement than the girls did...I will hold to my theory that Christmas as a parent is EVEN better than Christmas as a kid. =)

It's Peanut Buttah Jelly Time

2011-12-25T11:31:00.000-05:00

As I predicted, we've had PBJ's pretty much every day this week. The girls are getting pretty good at making them, too! Granted, we've gone through peanut butter like there's no tomorrow because Bree puts about half a cup on her sandwiches, but we figured since our pb only has peanuts, we're okay. They do run around like crazy people for a couple of hours afterward, but again, thanks to the nice weather we're good there, too.

nom nom nom

Orange smiles!!!

And the inspiration? The video that follows is one of our favorite YouTube videos...it's just so funny! I know I've posted it before, but it's been a while. =)

Cookie Decorating!

2011-12-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

We had friends over this morning to decorate those cookies we baked this morning! Our friends brought all kinds of fun toppings and we did a bunch of icing and let the kids go nuts. Once they figured out heart cookies make awesome funny faces, it got really creative. =)

Baking, Etc. aka How to NOT Decorate Ice Cream Cone Trees =)

2011-12-23T09:08:00.000-05:00

This is one of the pictures Blogger wouldn't load from the Christmas tree stand. I love it! Carly's hair is five inches shorter now, though! =)

The next day...this is what happens if I send Bree upstairs to get dressed and I don't do a gate check on her way out. That is a hula skirt as a crown! She's so funny - here she's having a sad moment because she wasn't allowed to do something, probably climb the tree or jump on Frosty. =)

Tuesday or so, we got some of the decorations ready for our gingerbread houses. It's gingerbread HOUSE now, because I made one's walls too thin and it's all fallen down now. So here's what I learned, aside from how to roll dough to the correct thickness...cheap melting chocolate does NOT work if you put gel food coloring in it! It got all gloppy and thick and so, much to my children's delight, had to be applied to the ice cream cone "trees" by hand. Holy mess, Batman...or, rather, Supergirl. =)

Despite the mess, I think they turned out really cool.

Carly requested a ninja gingerbread man in the yard of her house. How could I say no? =)

Then, this morning, our lovely children woke us up at 5:45 screaming at one another about whether or not Bree flushed the toiled (she did) when she came downstairs to go potty. Poor kids have to come all the way down here because the upstairs toilet overflows at the slightest provocation even though the maintenance man swears there's nothing wrong with it. File that under WHATEVER. Haha! So we were up EARLY to have a discussion about whether Bree's toileting habits are any of Carly's business (they aren't). That was fun. I was determined not to let it ruin our day so we redirected to cookies. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it was supposed to make melt in your mouth cookies...I think b/c I used unbleached flour they turned out a little more dense, but who cares! They're cute and fluffy and will be iced later on this morning. Yay!

Baby!

2011-12-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

It's a girl!

Or as Carly says...another SISTER *facepalm*

And she looks perfect. We saw her cute little face and she was kicking and going nuts in there, which was pretty entertaining to watch AND feel at the same time, even though it made things a little challenging for our sonographer. =)

Poor Paul. I've gotten a lot of texts and facebook comments about how we're living *pick a friend and put her husband's name here* worst nightmare. Haha! He really is the sweetest daddy to his girls, so in my opinion this is perfect.

Besides all that...I mean...if you thought matching TWO girls was cute...three is going to be awesome.

Happy Halfway!

2011-12-20T22:37:00.000-05:00

According to my doctor's office, I'm officially 20 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe this pregnancy is at it's halfway mark! It has flown by....well, after week 13 it flew by. Before then it dragged by with agonizing slowness, day by nauseated day. Honestly, the first trimester is no joke.

But now, here we are! We 'find out' on Thursday, so technically this post could have waited until then.

The quickness with which this pregnancy is passing is bittersweet. On the one hand, I cannot wait to meet this little one, but this is our last baby and the last time I'll get to feel these little kicks, and the last time in my life I'll be able to not worry about what my abs look like. It's a little bit brutal that Baby's arrival and Paul's deployment are so close; I just watched a friend go through this last month and it, like the first trimester, is no joke. Fortunately, I know six different people who have had babies while their husbands are away and they and their children all seemed to come through it okay, so I'm sure we'll be fine.

Anyway, how is everything going? Great! I copied this list from a blog somewhere that I've forgotten (sorry!!!) but I thought it was cute and pretty thorough:

Cravings: not as much now that my stomach has settled down. Mostly it's just stuff I liked before, like fruits and vegetables, popsicles, cinnamon anything, etc. Nothing gender-obvious like meat or citrus, I still don't love roasted vegetables or grilled meat, I probably won't ever eat broccoli again in my life ever, and too many sweets make me feel yucky. Oh right - sweets. The thing about sugar lasted maybe a week. My willpower sucks. See below.

Weeks: 20!

Clothes: Um, maternity stuff since about 11 weeks. See below again:

Sleep: when I can breathe, it's great. Crazy vivid dreams where I usually end up fighting someone over my children. Last night, for example, I got into a knife fight with a playground referee (it was a dream, so apparently playgrounds have officials) who didn't let Bree have her turn on the swings. I'm not normally a violent or even very confrontational person, so this was hilarious when I woke up. A knife fight? Really?! I should probably take up kickboxing before this apparently large strain of latent violence finds its way out during carpool or something.

Symptoms: Not too much. A few little twangs from the round ligaments but otherwise, I'm fat and happy (see above). I'm luckily escaping the acne that I had before and so far I'm not dealing with the horrible awful pelvic dysplasia.

Movement: LOTS and I love it. This is my favorite part of pregnancy other than the end result of course. Baby gets crazy after breakfast, which is fun and adorable.

Gender/Names: I'll tell ya Thursday and we haven't really talked about names. Don't be offended or shocked, but it's not unlikely that we'll keep the name situation under wraps until the birth certificate has been signed. We'll see. Paul has been prewarned that I'm not going to be super willing to give my kiddo a name that super duper common.

Okay speaking of sleep...we were, right? I need some. =)

Hippie Detergent Verdict

2011-12-19T21:32:00.000-05:00

Because I know you care! =)

It works great. Thanks to using vinegar as a fabric softener...I know, believe me, I know...we've avoided basically all the chemicals in our laundry process.

The detergent smells like industrial floor cleaner. It's atrocious. I guess for people who like the smell of Pine-Sol it wouldn't be so repugnant, but for those of us who prefer less astringent scents, it's pretty bad! Fortunately the smell doesn't linger in our clothing - there's actually no leftover smell at all, which is something I need to remedy. I like new laundry to smell NICE, not simply "un-funky."

The girls love to help scoop it out and get delightedly grossed out because it's so gloppy. Not slimy so much as a thick gel...really not something I'd recommend for a pregnant lady in her first trimester.

So that's that. I won't bore you with many further details, but at the end of the day, my laundry is costing me a little less than a cent per load. ONE CENT. My Tide costs 20 cents a load at regular price. So...you know...I can hold my nose. =)

Oh Christmas Tree

2011-12-18T12:46:00.000-05:00

It's hard to take a picture of a decorated Christmas tree, isn't it? Anyway, here it is! You can tell the places where curious little hands have done their own redecorating, but I still think it's cute. We don't really have a 'show' tree; it's just this big, awesome masterpiece. Haha! Paul is going to put the topper on today, but since he has to get the ladder in from the garage, it hasn't been done yet. My gosh, I stinking love this tree.

This is what Carly and Paul did during the tree decorating process: watch Elf and lie on the couch.

And this is what Bree did. She unpacked our snowman kit and she was playing with it behind the ottoman, so we really didn't see her until she stood up like THIS. I was on the stepladder and almost fell off. My favorite is how she's got the carrot actually IN her nose.

Church today was beautiful. Nobody does Advent like the Catholics.

The girls wanted to make their own lunch...I see lots of PBJ in our future during Christmas break.

And guess what we're doing this afternoon! It's GINGERBREAD HOUSE time!!!! Yay!!!

I decided to stop trying to get all our extra baking stuff in my already-overstuffed (and completely disorganized) baking cabinet and just throw it in this basket. This way, everything stays together and it's a great reminder of the fun stuff we have coming up on our Rad Christmas List.

Time-Ins and Disney as a Teaching Tool

2011-12-18T12:22:00.000-05:00

Sorry for this completely random post in the middle of Christmas.

So, after reading THIS ARTICLE on Simple Mom less than a week after I not-so-proudly told y'all about my running away to the front porch while Bree was freaking out for the hundredth time in a day, I decided it was time to try something new. It's called a time-in...have you heard of that? It's literally the opposite of what I want to do when my kids are being jerks, so like so many things that are difficult in parenting, it has turned out to be exactly the right thing for us. Due to the relatively small sample size of this experiment, I can't guarantee a time-in's efficacy on children over the age of 6.5, and believe me, I have LEARNED that it's pointless to try and tell others how things work with a kid who is as much as ten minutes older than your own. Pretty much anyone with kid experience or a parent with a child over maybe 9 or 10 months will testify to that. Anyway, here's how it worked (for us, this week):

Situation: Kid is being a jerk. Crying, refusing to cooperate, throwing stuff, stomping around. This usually occurs when dinner is on the stove and about to burn, you the parent are in the shower, or you're about to be running late for somewhere really important (like, say...school).

What I Want To Do: start yelling and removing privileges. Basically meet the child on his or her level of jerkiness. Obviously this is not the acceptable choice, and it's a little embarrassing to realize that by yelling and freaking out, there's essentially no difference in the grownup's behavior and the child's. Way to set an example, Mom! Yikes.

Result: further distance and stress. Kiddo figures out that the parent's convenience is more important than their own feelings. Again...yikes.

What A Time-In Does: stop talking (or...ahem, yelling up the stairs). Go find child - very easy due to the fact that they are likely making lots of unhappy noises. Hug child - very difficult because unless your house is significantly larger than mine (admittedly not unlikely) you've probably not had enough time to get un-annoyed yet. Sit down and let child sit with/on/near you. Take really deep breaths and keep saying "it's okay" over and over.

Result: You will feel, absolutely, like a rockstar parent. Truly. It's sort of like running a marathon (or how I'd imagine running a marathon would be because you know MY fat butt is not doing that craziness any time soon). But more importantly, your kid is calm again and he or she can trust that you aren't going to bail at the first sign of distress. As a mom of girls, I like to think this is very, very important for later.

Likely Additional Result: If you're like me, it's possible that you're still REALLY annoyed. You're late for whatever, frustrated and just worn the heck out. I don't have a solution for this that doesn't involve online shopping, stress eating, or pacing around the yard ripping weeds out, but I promise I'll share one if I come up with it. =)

Okay, moving on.

Carly has reached the stage (PLEASE let it be a stage...) where pretty much anything I ask her to do is met with a big sigh and an ugly face like I've just put her out. This includes going outside to play, which she loves. So, enter Wall-E. She wanted to know why all the people on the space ship couldn't walk and they were all squishy and I told her that's what happens if you don't exercise. You're muscles atrophy (whoop for vocabulary development!) and you lose the ability to do awesome things. *big eyes* So...guess who is outside right this very minute doing somersaults and jumping jacks in the grass? That's RIGHT! I'm sure this is messing her up in an entirely different way, but I figure it's alright because the focus is on what her body can do, not what it looks like. =)

Right?!

Super Saturday

2011-12-17T14:45:00.001-05:00

Our battalion had a Christmas party this morning at a beautiful venue on base. The kids had a GREAT time! And I was excited for them to finally get to wear these dresses I found on Zulily in August. =)

Carly and her sweet friend Kristlyn...such pretty girls!

This is Bree, sweetly asking for a pink sword. Hilarious!

The second Gunny Claus walked in, Bree glued herself to his side. It was so funny! We were a little doubtful about how she'd be, but um...clearly it was not a problem. And how cool is this guy?! He gave the kids ornaments that say "MCB North Pole." Love that! So clever!!!

This is is point where Carly is asking for a REAL unicorn, not a TOY unicorn.

While Bree broke it down, saber style in the line.

Bree's rad gingerbread guy.

They had four different craft stations as well as a candy bar...all that was in addition to breakfast, a card-making station for while the guys are in training in January and Gunny Claus. It was a great event!

Then...we finally got our tree! Paul wanted to wait this year because we're going out of town. We did find out at the tree lot that most trees at big retailers are cut in September or early October, and these were all cut the week before Thanksgiving. So, as it turns out, we really didn't need to wait to get a fresher tree...BUT...since it's the week before Christmas, we got a giant tree for $25. The original price was $85 which is still below what we had planned to spend...sweet! I love a good deal, especially when I end up with exactly what I wanted. The girls had such a fun time running around the tree lot, too!

When we got home, no one was hungry for lunch because of our big breakfast, so the girls went up for a nap and I made laundry detergent. I know...the greeny-ness is about to kill me, but I thought we'd give it a try. You can find a million recipes on Pinterest, but basically all you need is a bar of laundry soap (I used Fels-Naptha this time, but I think I'll switch to Kirk's Castile next time b/c of the scent), washing powder, borax and big bucket. I'm also using lavendar oil again b/c I don't just love the way Fels-Naptha smells. It made TWO GALLONS of soap! Oh my gosh! I'll let you know how it works. Oh and you grate the soap - that's what this next picture is. =)

Our TREE!!! See what I mean about giant? And this is right after we untied it so it hadn't relaxed to its Griswold-worthy girth. I'm stoooooked. We're going to have to use a ladder to get our topper on! Tonight, while we're watching Elf and eating popcorn. Yay, Christmas!

Carly's Homework

2011-12-14T22:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, quickly because it's awesome.

Backstory: Carly does extra work at home because when all she does is the work at her school, her 'spark' fades a little; she's less curious, less excited about learning new things, less engaged. It's sad but we won't get into it, mostly because we've found a solution, which is to provide her in-depth and challenging work at home after school.

Story-Story: One of her VERY favorite homework books and the one we save for last as a kind of dessert is her critical thinking book. Her worksheet today had her thinking about the differences between grownups and kids. And...

Funny Part: According to Carly, the hardest thing about being a grownup would be "working all the time and cleaning up after everybody a million times a day" and the best part about being a grownup would be "wearing shoes with high heels and nobody tells you when to go to bed."

Shoes with high heels! Who knew?
Love her.

Let There Be....

2011-12-13T20:03:00.000-05:00

LIGHT, love, fanciness....this is officially the first picture I've ever taken with a real camera. =)

All you pros out there will probably notice right away probably six hundred things (what's up with the graininess?) that I could have done better and I can tell you that I'm BEYOND excited to get to learn all about them. I've pinned the Stanford photo course and will begin it after the New Year. As for today...I took over 300 pictures. And hey! Because I know you've been SO deprived, I will share a few of them.

I can feel your enthusiasm from here. =)

Waiting for Carly's ballet class has just gotten SO much more interesting. =)

Okay, so I think I've made it clear enough that I'm at best ambivalent about where we live during any season other than the summer, so I'm going to get a jump on another one of my New Year's Resolutions and stop complaining about it ALL the time. You're welcome. As part of that, I'm going to show you the things I like about our house. Here's the outside, which I don't think I've ever shown before. To be fair, it really is most sincerely charming and cottagey with all the peaks and cute decoration.

This is another good part - Paul's man-cave. It put to great use our Ugly Couch, our dusty rug and finally gave his Marine Corps stuff a nice home. He refuses to hang that stuff actually inside our house, but he's happy to have it out there. I guess garages are more manly than living rooms. It hasn't been ALL that cold here, but I've found him out there on 40 degree weekends bundled up in a couple of blankets playing Playstation until he can't feel his fingers. =)

Moving inside, I like the way our furniture fits in this house. I love the tan that I had the entire interior of our house painted when we first moved here and I cannot wait until I get a bench pillow for our trunk. The girls love kneeling on it to look out the window for visitors.

The island! As you can CLEARLY see, this is command central for our afternoons. We've got Pandora, preschool art, big kid art, prepped lunch ready for tomorrow, neighbor gifts, flowers....I love it. This is our life, right here, including the horrendous wallpaper. Oh shoot, I did it again. ;)

But my all time favorite part about this house and this place? The people I share it with. Sickly feverish Paul, Carly explaining her German tannenbaum drawing and Bree interjecting with stories about elves, her friends, and how you shouldn't sneak cookies during naptime because Mommy gets REALLY MAD.

Tell Me You've Been There

2011-12-13T15:44:00.000-05:00

Bree has been whining nonstop since she woke up, and not woke up from her nap, woke up this morning at 6am. It's been meltdown after meltdown about everything under the sun. I'm about to losemyfreakingmind.

So...I'm writing this from the front porch because I literally cannot take it any more. Should I go upstairs (again) and try to comfort her (again) and try to get her to come downstairs to where the food is (because she's huuuuuungry) or where the bandaids are (because her legs, elbows, clavicle and knuckles all mysteriously hurt)? Probably. A "good" mother probably would swallow the frustration monster and make it all better.

I, however, am absolutely human and two more seconds of that incessant crying will probably send me over the edge and flying out a window. So I'm out here enjoying the sunshine and waiting for the tornado to pass inside.

THEN we will go to the post office and retrieve my lovely new-to-me camera.

The Blog About Nothing

2011-12-08T17:05:00.000-05:00

This time of year, I get impatient for Paul to come home. I know I signed up for these 9pm nights but gosh, it would be nice if he were here for dinner once in a while.

Enough whining for one day! Our produce guy dropped off a big box of loveliness today. We got a bunch of tomatoes, apples, oranges, tangerines, a huge bag of spinach, some onions and a couple dozen free range eggs. This past week, he lost his black lab, Molly, and Carly made him a card with a drawing of the dog as an angel with wings and a halo. I didn't intend that he would have to read it in front of us, but we just so happened to be outside when he arrived and Carly couldn't wait for him to see it, then Bree tried to give him one of our stuffed dogs 'to hug if you get too sad.' Well, the combined sweetness of these two kids just about did the poor man in; he got all choked up and had to leave really fast.

We've been talking a lot lately about protecting one another's hearts. I know it sounds super cheesy, but I think the girls get it. This was a good opportunity to talk about how to take care of people we know when they are sad. I think most kids are born empathetic and giving them early opportunities to see what good things a little kindness can do helps encourage that natural caring. Now, to be fair, they have yet to really demonstrate that kind of thing toward one another, but I keep hoping one day it will happen. =) It doesn't help that I'm deathly allergic to conflict so 'normal' sibling arguing and negotiations sound like WW3 to me.

So, yeah. That's all. I played in the grass with Bree on Tuesday and my allergies are trying to turn into something else. I'm refusing to allow that because we have fun plans this weekend, so I've been drinking chamomile tea with lemon and honey like there is no tomorrow. Haha wish me luck.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2011-12-06T13:45:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh Albert the Elf. Trying to sneak away with some candy. =)
Pinterest has about six bajillion EotS ideas...we're using one tomorrow. But so far, our little guy hasn't caused too much mischief. He even helped me out with the indoor decorations!

AND THEN. Okay, this is Carly's second official Christmas list. She doesn't ask for much, just a LIVE UNICORN. This will probably charm me for the rest of my life. I don't know what the Pet Kitty Cat Movie is...likely she also wants a pet cat (um, no) and also a movie. Who knows?

And today we have a little free bonus. Do you ever mess up a recipe or a dinner idea and it turns out way better than your initial plan? No? Yeah, me either. Except last night. I was trying to make beef enchiladas for Paul and we had this meeting on base to go to, so I threw a pound of ground (happy, natch) beef, half a chopped up onion, a chopped up bell pepper, a couple tsp of cumin and oregano, half a tsp or so of ground garlic and a can of mild enchilada sauce in the crockpot and set it to high then ran out the door. When I came back about 2.5 hours later, I discovered that we don't have corn tortillas and the stuff in the crockpot was WAY too watery for that anyway. So I put the cp on warm, threw in a can of kidney beans and a handful of grated cheddar and boom - instant awesome chili-like soup substance. It was great. My produce guy brought us avocados this week, so we had those on top. I sprinkled it with ground chipotle chilis for the grownups and more cheese for Carly in her lunch. I don't think she'll actually eat it, but again, who knows?

Thanksgiving Pics...finally...

2011-12-06T11:54:00.000-05:00

AND SOME GREAT NEWS!!!!

You already know about the baby, so it's clearly not that. The great news is THIS: my friend Katherine is upgrading to a big awesome camera and sold me her less-big-but-still-awesome current camera for a ridiculously low price. I. Am. Stoked. I kept saving for my own new shiny camera but stuff kept happening, like our old computer exploding, brakes needing replacing, that stupid propane tank needing filling...I think the Universe was just telling me to hold the heck on. So anyway, my Christmas present is a hand me down fancy-cam and I'm beyond excited. You should be too, because it will mean the end of grainy, no-flash iphone pictures. YAY. I know I just made your week. =)

So just bear with me and The Blur for a couple more days.

For example, this dark but highly hilarious photo of all the Fischer boys making weird faces at something while we were out at Chickie and Pete's the night before Thanksgiving.

Pretty girl right before Thanksgiving dinner. Bree was having drama, so she was laying facedown on the porch at this moment. This tunic, BTW, actually fit carly more like a dress when we bought it. I swear her legs have grown two inches this fall.

Going through Uncle Pete and Aunt Amanda's wedding album with Aunt Diane and her friend Dawn who joined us for dinner. The girls loved pointing out all the people in the photos.

How we spent our DAT! Jumping on haystacks at the Woodmere. So fun!

Aunt Louise and Uncle Tony had a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night. This is their daughter Lisa's boyfriend's son - the nicest kid! He and the girls played really well together all night. They played "cars" and "guys" but Bree insisted that they were really playing "princesses" because she found the two princesses that are part of the Mario set...or something...either way they had a great time.

This is Paul's cousin Cate. She had very red MAC lipstick on, a fact that Bree noticed, and pointed out, the second Cate walked in the door. Bree walked right up to her and said "YOU have RED. LIPS." Later on, Bree got a mini makeover which was pretty much the best thing in her whole life to that point.

Bree and Auntie Lisa...Bree is looking sidelont at herself in the mirror, admiring her own RED. LIPS.

On the drive home we stopped at Zoe's which I think I've already told you, but I'm going to bring it up any way because my friend Michelle is worried about my dietary intake. So, y'all, forget I said Paleo. Just go with no sugars and no grains, because I'm eating tons of beans and those are anathema to caveman folks. This will make Christmas food a little annoying, but whatever. Y'all can eat all the gingerbread and eggnog cookies you want - until people start commenting on how big your butt is (had another old lady at the gym yesterday predict a boy based on the fact that there is as much in the back as there is in the front). THEN you can come with me to salad-and-chickpea land where we do lots and lots of squats and lunges.

It's fun here, promise. Fun. =)

Hungry.

2011-12-05T01:02:00.001-05:00

As in, I am. All the time.

We had these big fat Italian hoagies from the pizza place near our house and they were greasy and awesome. I'd been cleaning the house all day (more on that later) and Paul didn't feel like having leftovers, so we ordered in. We hardly ever do that but it was soooo good. And here I am, in the middle of the night, feeling like I haven't eaten all day, so hungry it almost hurts.

A banana and a handful of pecans later, and it feels better, and I'm going to try and talk myself out of admitting that I still want to EAT. See...the problem is, well, I'm pregnant. So that's one part of it. The second part of it is that Bree wakes up crying every single night between 10 and 11 and I can't go back to sleep for hours afterward. Meanwhile my baby is all, "oh we're up? Great, because I'm STARVING." These kids, I tell ya. =)

So the solution that seems about right to me right now is going back to a modified Paleo plan for the rest of this term. I say modified, because what I really mean is whatever you would call not eating grains or sugars. I still plan on eating dairy and tons of fruit like normal but I really have to give the fig newtons (and um, huge lovely greasebomb hoagies) a rest or I'll be huge myself, which would be unsat to the max. I've already been told by quite a few sources that my butt is getting big, so, we need to do something different, because Baby needs to EAT and I need to look somewhat like my normal self within a reasonable amount of time after meeting this ravenous child.

Okay, so about the house. I wrote out a whole thing, but it's stupid. Suffice it to say, 15 Minutes a Day is not enough. My floors get dirtier faster than any other floors ever, anywhere, in all of history, and we take our shoes off at the door. I'm thinking of requiring that everyone levitate, but I'm pretty sure that would mean extra fingreprints to try and get off the walls. AND speaking of that? If you're trying to go green in your home decorating, just know that the natural, no-fume paint in the eggshell finish that is supposed to be super easy to clean, isn't. =)

A Few Photos!

2011-11-30T00:10:00.001-05:00

We got the girls' photos done for our Christmas cards last week. Blogger is being ridiculous and will not upload any more than this, so here's what we have so far! I have a CD full of 25 shots of cuteness. I'm really happy with the pictures. We ordered our cards this morning and they're already on their way to us! THAT is exciting - practically instant gratification. =)

We went to old town Swansboro, on the White Oak River for our shoot. It's a lovely location and the weather was perfect. It's amazing to me how much the girls do look alike, but they have different eyes. Carly has my almond-shaped eyes and Bree has Paul's more rounded and deeper-set eyes. But below that, they're like clones of one another. I can't wait to see what Baby looks like...it's such a fun part about siblings. Anyway, on to the photographs!

I ordered a large print of this one because I love it so much. There's another photo I'll try to upload tomorrow that is so pretty of Bree, but in this one, Carly shines. That SWEET face with her big dimples!

Paul's in the field the first part of this week and of course it would be raining all day and then dipping down to the high 30's. It sounds like pure misery to me, but they are having a great time, especially since they are the only battery in the battalion to do this particular training. Paul's like a kid in a candy store with his training schedule - he's having a blast. Here at the house, we're just getting things reorganized and making plans for Albert the Elf who will be making his debut on Wednesday night. Hopefully when Paul returns he will show me where my phone charger is...until then we are photo-free, unfortunately.

There was something else I wanted to tell you but Bree is awake - this is not unusual - and she wants to know why I'm still awake. This is the point at night when she begins her usual campaign to sleep in my bed. Then Carly comes down and does the same thing. After being kicked in the ribs every night we were in Pihladelphia, I'm over it and have relegated nocturnally wandering children to pallets beside our bed. They aren't fans of this arrangement but apparently don't hate it enough to actually sleep in their own beds. So, they get whatever measure of comfort they need by being in the same room with us and I avoid very sharp elbows and kicky feet. I love the tiny kicks I get from the inside, but the BIG ones outside...not as cute.

Turkey =)

2011-11-26T08:29:00.000-05:00

I have pictures of the family and the bird and it was an awesome Thanksgiving!

I did zero shopping yesterday (yay me!) but am planning to hit up Gobblepalooza.com (Old Navy) today. The girls are having a MomMom and PopPop party day and I'm not invited. Paul will be going to South Philly to do beer pong and a bar crawl with his brothers and I'm not going. Hate to be a wet blanket, but tagging along after a bunch of tipsy people staring at their backs while they stand around a little bar table drinking just sounds like the opposite of fun to me. =)

So...I'm making banana bread, going shopping and going to see Breaking Dawn by myself. Then meeting up with the girls and my in-laws to head over to Aunt Louise's house for Thanksgiving Feast #2. All I know is that I get to see our cousin Lisa and meet her bf and his cute kiddo and there is a prosciutto-wrapped turkey tenderloin involved. Holla.

Re: The Post Below, and Some Other Stuff

2011-11-22T11:54:00.000-05:00

Okay, if you didn't notice that one piece of hair that refused to cooperate, don't go back and look. It is in every picture and it's so aggravating. Hahaha....it's a cowlick and no amount of hairspray can convince it to behave. Honestly. It's driving me nuts.

Moving on!

I had a five minute appointment with my awesome midwife today. I'm not planning a natural water birth or anything like that - I'm nowhere near brave enough for all that pain - but I really like midwives. So anyway, I got confirmation that my newfound love of food is doing my fat butt no favors. I also got the official a-okay for all the Pilates and box jumps I've been doing since I rejoined the human race a couple of weeks ago. Apparently ab work doesn't hurt the baby so I can do corkscrews and planks to my little heart's content. Yay! She said it would be ok if I didn't gain any weight this next month because I did "such a great job of it" this month. "It" being gaining a thousand pounds. Funny lady.

Carly's school Thanksgiving play is in two hours - I'm so excited. I'm going to take a video and post it when we get back from Philadelphia...where we're headed tonight. Paul is planning to drive us up there through the night after a battalion function. He got a Monster energy drink...and for a guy who doesn't eat that much sugar and rarely if ever has caffeine...well, he'll probably be awake until Christmas. =) I plan on popping a couple pregnancy-friendly car sickness pills and sleeping the whole way, and hoping both girls pass out and sleep well for us. We should arrive right very early in the morning if we don't end up stopping somewhere.

Either way, wish us luck and I hope your Thanksgiving is fantastic!

2/10 Ball!

2011-11-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

This was, by far, the MOST fun we have ever had at a ball. Ironically, the ceremony part was a mess, and the seating chart was insane. The guy in charge didn't keep track of who paid and who didn't so when we got there, the table that we had been assigned to was re-assigned and we had to finagle a table away from the floor and behind a pole. That was better than the 100 or so Marines and dates that didn't even HAVE a place to sit. What a mess! But after all of that...and after they ran out of food and made some more...and I apologized about four hundred times to our guests....the second part? Was AMAZING. So fun!!!

You will note a progression in the photos. Here we are, all nice and sedate, waiting for someone to do something and get this thing started. =) So cute.

Me with our guests, Sherri and Tim. They have a second home in our neighborhood but actually live in the town where the ball was held. They are terrific people - and always the life of the party. Paul calls Tim "Carolina Dad" because he and Paul's actual father have a lot in common. A quick story on Tim, during the National Anthem, he elbowed a girl standing next to him until she put her hand over her heart. I almost passed out from silent-laughing.

Me, with the lovely and wonderful Mrs. Smith. Our husbands work very closely and I'm SO GLAD that we will be doing this deployment together. She's been around the MC for 15 years, so she knows a thing or two about how it goes.

Da boys. From the left, Lt. Meador (just moved from being Paul's XO), Mr. Tim, Paul, Josh and his brother. Josh is the Mr. Smith, and he's Paul's 1st Sgt. which explains the difference in uniforms. Enlisted guys have red piping (and numerous other things that I'm not observant enough to notice) on their jackets.

THIS is the point where things really started cranking up. Clearly. Look at them!

The guest speaker was particularly bad...he didn't really say ANYTHING, but thankfully it was a short speech. He also happened to have these INSANE eyebrows, which none of us would have noticed had Tim not brought the poor man over to speak to us. This is after he left...it's so wrong and yet so funny. I feel that I can post this picture with limited karmic exposure because it is a well-known fact that my own eyebrows would scare small children and trap birds without regular grooming. So...it works out. =)

Before the cool music started...making faces. =)

You know that song, "I'm So Sexy"......the guys all seem to love it. Paul's guys made a dance circle and Paul got RIGHT in the middle of it for this dance. He's pantomiming the "I work out" part right here. And I'm making my standard dancing face. Hey - it's better than duckface. You will also notice the tiniest little bump and the fact that the Boobs of Doom are trying desperately to make their escape from my dress. =)

THEN! Oh my word...from about this point on, the stories just get funnier and funnier. It was actually really entertaining being the only sober person there. We are (thankfully) at the point where everyone is fun tipsy, so they were hilarious and awesome. I had such a fun time with them. Okay, so Paul took these from an Army guy that was at the ball. Said Army guy had been dancing since the first beat rolled out, so these borrowed suspenders were completely soaking wet. Ew! Um...and I took all the pins out of my hair, slept on it, and this morning it still looked JUST like that. =)

Winning Piranha Hour...Today

2011-11-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

We had a discussion about vegetables today and it made me think. I don't count white potatoes or sweet potatoes, beans, corn or peas as vegetables. Do you?

Michelle Flynn I know your answer. =)

My first thought was that veggies are the leaves of stuff. But then what about other roots, like carrots and beets? Totally veg in my mind. Even squash and tomatoes...completely count those as veggies even though your nearest bean-counting friend will point out w/in about 2.5 nanoseconds that those things are fruits because of the preceding flowers. Yes, thank you, I know that. But I don't cook fruit with garlic and olive oil...therefore, these things live in the veggie category.

Ugh, I think this is probably totally boring, but I thought it was interesting. Our meals are usually two or three brightly colored plants and maybe a starch (pasta, rice, sweet potatoes, beans, corn, etc) and some kind of animal product. Lately it's been lots of fish because the organic chicken is usually out of stock and nobody out here carries happy beef....but plants are so yummy! Hahaha lately, I've been answering "I'm so HUNGRY what can I have" with "Plants!" It's amazing how much less hungry kids magically become when they realize that there aren't any snacky processed or sweet foods in play.

Yeah, that's completely boring. Let's do some pictures!

So you remember the other day when I was going nuts trying to figure out a way to keep my kids entertained and relatively happy during that crazy time before dinner? Today it was the Kidz channel on cable and open access to paints. Here's Bree taking a dance break - Rapunzel couldn't hang.

For those of you with neat houses - my apologies for this next picture. I know it's going to stress you out. If it makes you feel any better, it took about a minute to clean up thanks to that grocery bag and the fact that these are the super-washable Crayola paints. The girls had a blast watching the colors go down the shower drain.

Sorry for the horrible picture quality. This is after dinner - we had blueberries, can you tell?! Haha. With homeless hair - these kids get completely wrecked by the end of each day, that's how we know they had a successful day. =)

Bree! Rocking out with a fingreless glove and hairbrush microphone. =)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bus Stop

2011-11-17T20:11:00.003-05:00

Tell me you've seen the movie this title references.

Anyway, the baby wanted enchiladas today. As in, I woke up thinking about salsa verde and couldn't STOP thinking about it. I ate half an avocado with lemon juice for breakfast (the kind with the green skin - I like them best!). Still...enchiladas on the brain all day.

I love Mexican food normally, but like most things in pregnancy, my likes are GREATLY ENHANCED. Things I used to like, now I obsess about, like pepperoncini peppers and muffaletta spread, fresh pineapples (um, I've only bought one every other day for the last two weeks), those lime all fruit popsicles....it's insane. If I'm in the mood for sushi, a California roll is happening. Lots of wasabi. You get the point. Luckily, now that I can handle more than cheese and crackers, I generally have much healthier cravings, but today? All I wanted in my whole life was a big fat cheesy chicken enchilada with green sauce and about a gallon of fresh salsa.

So, I picked up a freezing Carly from the bus, and somehow out of the corner of my eye, I saw the El Zarape sign across the street. Somehow this tiny bit of unconscious information was trasnmitted directly to the babes, via umbilical cord I'm sure and the kid was like, DRIVE, lady, and no one gets hurt. So we ate dinner at 3:30 and it was awesome. We came home and lay down on the couch and moaned and groaned about how we ate too much of that good food and then I remembered the weird folded up receipt the waiter handed me with our check.

Y'all. It was his phone number. What??? I was at the restaurant with this big fat belly (I swear it's big, even though it's still in the "is she???" stage), TWO wild children who called me Mommy and a wedding ring for crying out loud. We were talking about Paul the whole meal, and LOUD. So either this dude is extremely confident, completely unobservant, or he's into that whole reverse polygamy thing...so crazy. And totally awkward, even though those enchiladas were most sincerely yummy.

Fair and Balanced

2011-11-15T15:41:00.000-05:00

Here's another quick post about something entirely different. Just so nobody gets their nose out of joint that I brag too much or anything. Haha...not that I've EVER heard that before. ;)

Logical consequences look like this: if you wear tights without socks after being told to protect your tights, the tights get holes, they get thrown away, and you have no tights to wear to ballet.

Illogical consequences look like this: if you throw an EPIC freakout on the way home from school and throw your backpack into the road and yell and scream at your mom for five blocks, loud enough that people are looking out their windows to make sure you aren't being torn limb from limb by wild animals, you not only miss ballet, but you have to sit in your room until you have written "Don't Yell At Mommy" one hundred times. In your best handwriting.

Illogical consequences may not be perfect, but they're better than the wooden spoon. That's what I would have gotten, and Paul would have gotten a version of it. There are those who would say that had the wooden spoon been an active participant in my child's upbringing, we might have been able to avoid such horrible, atrocious meltdowns as the one that was witnessed today, but I doubt it. Stubbornness, tiredness and being-sixness probably have more to do with it than anything else.

UGH but it was aw-ful. Plus I need to go to the grocery store since our refrigerator still freezes everything and we have to buy produce on a day-to-day basis....

Report Card!

2011-11-14T15:33:00.002-05:00

In first grade it's more about development than performance, and I'm really happy with how Carly's doing. I'm going to credit the great schools she's been to so far and hope to see her continue. So proud of my little learner. =)

Our Weekend

2011-11-14T08:13:00.000-05:00

....was GREAT.

First, to address a question regarding the dishwasher situation. I said thank you several times and brought his lunch to him which I hardly ever do on the weekends. I also happened to get out of unloading the dishwasher every day this weekend, which may or may not be a direct result of that yummy grilled ham and cheese sandwich. =)

Moving on! Friday we went out, Saturday we had a great dinner with friends, Sunday we hung out and enjoyed the a-mazing weather and Carly and I had Girl Scouts. Great weekend! Poor Paul is on the range this week...it's an hour and a half away and he has to be there at 5. Boo!

Pecan pies, take two. The first batch I tried to make in the mixer ended up splattered across nearly ever surface of my kitchen. This time I got smart...ish...we still lost a couple of eggs, but this was far preferable to scraping vanilla-scented goop off the fan blades.

Silly monkeys outside! Because we are horrible parents, we forced them to stay outside and play in the sunshine for three hours. Added benefit being that I also had to stay outside in that amazing weather instead of scrubbing baseboards. Aaaaand Mommy for the win! =)

How CUTE are they???? Our project for the week was to create an animal they thought would be "courageous and strong" using a bunch of different art supplies. Each tray had something different and the girls would switch every three minutes. They came up with some GREAT stuff!

Carly at the colored-pencil station. This was their first stop, and I learned that 21 minutes is just too long to expect them to stay focused on any one project, even if the materials were changing. I think, just based on yesterday, that 15 minutes is the max. Is that about right for six and seven year olds? It's about right for these girls, anyway. =)

Rotten!

2011-11-12T08:47:00.000-05:00

It doesn't take long! Every weekend I conveniently forget what it's like to do everything because my husband sort of takes over (at least) half of the stuff.

And it doesn't take long for me to forget that we live half a mile from the beach in a charming community. When the beach is 'closed' then I just remember the impossible-to-keep-clean white berber carpets, the toilet upstairs that overflows EVERY time our girls use it, the refrigerator that freezes produce and melts chicken and the janky master bedroom doorknob that occasionally locks us inside, forcing my poor husband to crawl out the window into 35-degree predawn freezingness. I know without a doubt that when I look back on this house, I will remember those things with head-shaking fondness as "quirks." I'll probably even miss them in a way...and maybe I'll write something here about it (hopefully while my laptop sits on granite countertops)...

Of course I'm forgetting my friend who just spent five months (!!!!) in a hotel in South America while her husband's job was trying to find a house for them there. Then they had to drop $11k of their own money to fix up said house, and even though they'll be reimbursed for that and the FIVE MONTHS of hotel costs...um. And I'm whining about wallpaper.

It's so easy to forget to say thank you, isn't it? To get used to being spoiled and having everything easy? Especially at this time of year, when we over here in our comfortable western world are gearing up to spend tons of money on one another...this is the place in the blog where most people would drop a bomb on you about how they're not buying Christmas presents this year or something. That's not what you're getting from me. I'm actually not even taking my Daisies to serve at the soup kitchen until March (when everyone has pretty much forgotten that poor people are still hungry)....I'm just remembering that I've got it pretty darn good, cracked tile countertops and all. =)

You Know What I'm Looking Forward To?

2011-11-10T18:58:00.000-05:00

I realize this question can be answered in multiple ways that would still be correct, from having dinner with good friends this weekend or spending Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, the next Twilight movie, Carly's Thanksgiving play at school, getting my nails done next week....the list is endless. I'm terribly easy to please and honestly I look forward to the most ordinary things - Starbucks Eggnog Latte, anyone??? - I think it makes life more interesting.

Today, however, I'm looking forward to something a tiny bit more significant. I'm looking forward to this time next year.I'm looking forward to it for two main reasons that are squished up into one big lovey-dovey, sparkly, string-music-in-the-background reason.

Would you like to know what it is? Of course you would!

Around this time next year, Paul will come home from you-know-where and he'll get to meet our youngest baby, who will be six months old. I'm looking forward to THAT moment.

=)

*in case you don't feel like doing math, we're fourteen weeks and officially into the lovely and wonderful second trimester.*

Bree's Day...and a Ninja

2011-11-08T21:33:00.000-05:00

Well...my dear little Leo started off her day by doing THIS to locate her leggings. They were on the bottom of the basket and I'm pretty sure (although I don't have proof because I was in the other room at the time) that she was tossing items of clothing over her shoulder as she looked. That kid.

We went to the gym which is always fun and then we checked out this new park. She was hilarious and awesome as usual....she was wearing her skirted leotard and those DARN LEGGINGS...dance is tomorrow. She wanted to be ready. =)

Breaking it down on the steps.

After tearing up the park, we went to storytime! So fun!

Listen! Genius idea!!! The kids painted acorns and then sprinkled cinnamon on the wet paint - so it smells nice! Such a smart idea - I would have never thought of it! We read a million books in the library afterward then had lunch and took nice fabulous naps. It's always a good day when I can get that girl to sleep!

Then - Carly's project for the week. So cute. The first graders at her school are helping these poor scared turkeys disguise themselves before Thanksgiving. According to Carly, there have been fairy turkeys and ballerine turkeys returned and she wanted to do something different...so we did a ninja. AWESOME. Up at the top it says "you saw nothing!" and the bottom she put "Ninja! HaiYA!" hahahahahaha so cool.

Crazy Daisy!

2011-11-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

Being a Daisy Girl Scout leader is pretty much the funnest thing ever. I get to plan amazing trips, do fun crafts, sing goofy songs and hike in the woods, like EVERY week with a bunch of super cool kids. Now, if I can somehow finagle my way out of being cookie mom...

Anyway, last weekend a couple of us moms took some of our girls a couple of hours away to a state park event. The girls had a blast. See below, my little goofball with a mouthful of lunch. =)

After we played some games outside, the girls came inside to create their own carniverous plants out of totally random recycled materials. It took us a few minutes to get started...I mean, what would YOU do if someone handed you a stack of plastic cups, a glue stick and some construction paper? We just stared at it for a minute and then the girls started putting things together. This is Carly's final product - she made the spiky things of a Venus Fly Trap out of pipe cleaners. Impressive, right? =) Paul and I are sitting here staring at these photos wondering why our LITTLE girl looks so BIG.

I got to spend about six hours on Sunday putting together our schedule until April. So fun! Also very eye-opening....teachers do this for EVERY DAY for MULTIPLE SUBJECTS. That's amazing. Speaking of teachers, our parent-teacher conference went well today. Bree whined basically the entire time, which was not so nice, but I did learn why Carly was placed in her particular reading group and how to help her progress. It's all about recall and retention, and her teacher gave me some great suggestions about questions to ask, about the main characters, how Carly thinks they're feeling, whether she would have changed the end of the story, etc. I guess it's a good thing our girl likes answering lots of questions. =)

Happy Family Tip #5

2011-11-06T14:21:00.001-05:00

*This is not a series. I never posted tips #1-4, but what I'm about to share with you just doesn't deserve the #1 spot, and 5 is my new favorite number. Please don't check back regularly for other tips because there honestly may or may not ever be any...I just thought this up while I was toothbrushing fossilized food particles out from the creases on our rad barstools and it's too long for a Facebook status. *

That being said...

If emptying the dishwasher is normally your responsibility and someone else, be it spouse, child or houseguest, does it for you, it is likely that a few (if not most) things will end up in the wrong spot. This almost always applies to anyone but your own mother who intuitively knows where stuff goes in your house because you probably set it up a whole lot like she did. Anyway, upon discovery of an empty dishwasher and oddly-placed clean dishes, or jumbled silverware, appropriate responses would be as follows:

1) Smile sweetly and say thank you.
2) Jump up and down and say thank you several times in a row while giving out fist pumps like a rock star.
3) Make said helper's favorite meal or dessert.
4) Leave a thank you note in said helper's lunch the next day or on their bed.
5) Throw a parade complete with marching bands and floats.

These things ensure that someone helping you unload the dishwasher MIGHT POTENTIALLY happen again. Which is what we all want, right? Unloading the dishwasher is the opposite of fun.

The following reactions are completely inappropriate:

1) Complaining, either to the helper, out loud to yourself within the helper's earshot, on Facebook later or in a text to your friends. Complaining EVER. To ANYONE. The Universe hears and will tell on you.
2) Correcting the helper. It takes far less energy to move the colander from the "mixing bowl place" to the "colander place" or to open a couple of cabinet doors to locate the measuring cups than it ever would to unload the whole freaking dishwasher. If you must fix it, do it when they can't see or hear you fix it.
3) Leaving the next load of dishes in the washer for three days and then obnoxiously telling your helper something along the lines of "well, you seemed to enjoy it SO MUCH last time, I just thought you'd like to continue rearranging my kitchen." I only write that because someone told me they actually said it to their husband. I know.

The above reactions are likely to guarantee that your helper never again helps you WITH ANYTHING. This is, clearly, not something any sane person would willingly choose.

Then again, if you don't want someone else to take care of this annoying little chore for you because it's your favorite part of the day, well...I don't understand you and I'm not sure we can be friends.

PROJECT!!!

2011-11-04T20:41:00.000-04:00

Y'all. I have really been off my mama game this fall. Like, for serious. We've done basically nothing awesome since summer ended, and we were all missing it. SO! Enter Simple Mom (and Pinterest), some food coloring and leftover paint and boom! I know my table was so happy to witness some little kid crafting, the girls were soooo into it and it was just relaxing and fun. Plus it was artist-inspired, so Carly got a little enrichment in the mix...just all around greatness.

Bree was concentrating SO HARD on cutting out her tree trunks. Can you see that concentration? Love it.

The finished product! We didn't have green food coloring, so we did red, yellow and blue and ended up with an awesome mix. We painted big lines and then cut out the trunks, used cotton squares to paint clouds and glued it all together. It was a great 30 minute project. (And, hi, this is Bree's hair. If it's not in two ponies, it looks just like THIS).

Carly's forest! I'm excited to see what we can find for next Friday..not that I already have fifteen things pinned and a bunch of random art supplies or anything... =)

Soccer is (finally!!!) Over

2011-11-04T20:30:00.000-04:00

Last part of the last lesson of the (positively neverENDING) soccer clinic. Bree was the youngest - and honestly after last year's basketball clinic debacle with Carly you would THINK that Paul and I would have learned our lesson...anyway, it was the opposite of her favorite. But now it's over and she got a cute t-shirt (below) and I got to chat with some of the other moms while we were out there torturing our children with soccer drills. Yay! Here's my girl guarding the goal -she's just so funny.

Sassy chick in her t-shirt swag.

Cloudy with a Chance of Dancing Moose

2011-11-04T20:26:00.000-04:00

Carly got her weather drawing in the paper!!! I didn't even notice the Bullwinkle until someone pointed it out to me on Facebook. And now it's all I see - SO precious. The paragraph below where the picture cuts off (for security's sake...the Internet doesn't need to know which school, classroom and grade my kiddo is in). I just think it's the cutest thing ever, especially because she put in her bow and made sure you know who's who. LOVE that kid!!!

Halloween!

2011-11-04T20:22:00.000-04:00

Sorry the pictures stink! I took them with my phone...which I am EVER so grateful for since I've been w/o a camera for, like...forever. Stupid propane. ;)

Here's Kitty Bree! I have to tell you who they are b/c you honestly can't tell with the mask on. =)

Kitty Carly with her sweet Halloween basket from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Pete! They had such a great time trick-or-treating with Daddy. =)

Classic. Carly sweetly smiling, Bree pouting because Daddy won't let her have more Candy. Random stuff on the stairs...totally my house.

November!!!

2011-11-01T20:22:00.000-04:00

So many exciting things coming up!

This week, I'm hanging out with the ladies from our battalion. We're trying out (breaking in) a new babysitter that night and I expect it will be a super fun time for everyone.

We're "planting" our Thankful Tree THIS WEEK. *It will happen, it will happen, it will happen* I like this particular design the best - what do you think? Just BIGGER and minus the snow. I love the tissue paper leaves! We already have double sticky tape and tons of black construction paper...perfect.

Next weekend I'm taking my Daisies down to the Carolina Beach State Park...fun times! It's a super long drive, but I think my girlies should have fun.

We have the ball a couple of weeks after THAT, which...well...my options are bowling ball or disco ball. =)

Then Thanksgiving in Philly! We are all so excited about that - we're super homesick and cannot wait.

And also? Something less fun, but still...um...educational:

I had all these plans for baked goods this year! For pumpkin muffins and cheesecakes and cookies, bread, stews, braised meals...but y'all! I just learned today that our cooking and water heating is not actually provided with our water service like I expected. Nevermind that I never really considered HOW they would go about piping gas to the island...over the bridge? Under the sound? Honestly, Liz. There is a huge (and almost empty) hundred gallon propane tank right outside the window...oddly enough they have a tank that big because it's not only for the fireplace (like I figured). So baked goods, and long cozy showers, and anything that requires hours of simmering on the stove, as well as baking anything less than a completely FULL oven...over and done. Nothing like paying up front (at 3.95 a gallon - barf) for power to make you use LOTS LESS OF IT. And we can just forget about using that tempting gas log fireplace. I will cut out construction paper flames and light a woodwick candle.

Winter, meet StickerShocked Liz. =/

Breather

2011-10-31T09:04:00.001-04:00

Over the past couple of months I've noticed something.

Going outside the house three days and two evenings a week to do non-Mommy-stuff is one thing when my girls are cared for a few miles from the house and Paul is home every night at 5. It's another thing altogether when I he's not home until 8 or 9 and leaves for weeks at a time. That other thing doesn't work for us.

Other people can do it - I've seen it over and over again, but I don't know how. The only thing I can figure is that some folks are fulfilled in the home and some folks aren't. No judgement at all, it's just like having brown or blond hair. I like what I do at pretend work and I'll keep doing it, just not as much.

Bree and I are home today, getting the house put back together after the weekend and getting ready for Halloween tonight. It's so nice to just BE here with her, and not rushing off to one place or another.

Pumpkins!!!

2011-10-30T18:58:00.000-04:00

We carved our pumpkins last night! Here's Bree (in her wedding dress and carrying her silver purse as always!) with her Ghostie. I did it freehand and thanks to my less-than-awesome carving skills it looks more like a tree trunk or a peanut, but hey she loves it so we're going with Ghostie. =)

Carly supervising Paul's spooky face. Personally I think her CRAZY hair is much, much scarier. =)

This is the design Carly chose for her pumpkin! One-eyed friendly smiling monster with pointy teeth. SO cute! My pumpkin (not shown) is just your traditional friendly Jack with triangle eyes.

Then, this afternoon we went to the fall festival at our church. It was really cute and the girls had a great time. The "toy in a haystack" booth was their absolute favorite - jumping in the hay was probably the best part. =)

Carly got a jump rope - rad - and proceeded to fall on her face about a hundred times. She'll get it!

This is what Bree found! And a quick plug for Zulily - how great is her shirt?! It makes me laugh every time.

I have a couple more cute photos from the rest of the day but Blogger is being annoying and won't let me do it....so maybe tomorrow! Our girls are super excited about Halloween and their costumes are so darn cute!

Bree Randoms

2011-10-29T13:40:00.000-04:00

There is a rain garden in front of the Emerald Isle rec center that has been populated with butterfly-friendly flowers and bushes. It is, no exaggeration, Bree's single favorite part about going to soccer clinic. I love this picture because she looks so prissy - and our girl is the opposite of prissy. =)

Carly and Paul disappeared to the man cave to play Tiger Woods golf on the PS2, so Bree and I took a walk. It's a chilly day, and was really overcast, so it was peaceful outside. The sun has decided to come out (after I cancelled the Girl Scouts hike for tonight - oops!). She's such a pretty girl, and getting SO big. Since we moved her in June, she has grown from 33.5 inches to 38 inches!

These bushes are ALL over our neighborhood. They're not particularly pretty, and every couple of weeks they send up these awful leggy things out of their tops - we have a couple in our backyard. I couldn't understand why everyone would have such impractical bushes until this week when they began blooming. Oh my word, they smell so pretty! Still not sure it completely makes up for their high-maintenance-ness, but it does make the walk to the schoolbus really pleasant. =)

I totally made pretzel rolls today! They're supposed to be pretzels, but they rose and baked up into big squishy balls, so I'm going with pretzel rolls. Who knew flour, water, yeast and a little honey could taste so yummy! They're nice and chewy, if not super pretzel-y. =)

Whoa Mama

2011-10-26T17:49:00.000-04:00

Hi!

I'm sitting down for what might be the first and last time in two weeks. =)

We're going up to Paul's office in about ten minutes to decorate for the Fall Festival. Most of the other Marines have decorated their offices already, but the spouses and I from Golf only got the go-ahead tonight. Do you notice something wonky about this picture? The other MARINES have done theirs? And yet it is SPOUSES doing ours?

That would by my fault.

You would think that by now I'd have learned that people (particularly males and children) will not do what they do not have to do. If something is going to be done for them, they will happily allow that to take place. So, when a do-er (for example, me) gets impatient and starts planning and organizing things, those non-do-ers sigh in relief and promptly forget about whatever it is that needed to be done. Then we end up with a situation like tonight, when I am driving 40 minutes one-way on a school night, meeting another mom who is coming straight from her kids' school Fall Festival, another mom who has two toddlers, two non-parent non-working spouses and potentially (hopefully!!!) another mom with two toddlers who was supposed to be painting the backdrop but hasn't returned my texts, phone calls or emails in two weeks.

Guess who is stressed out about it? Not the Marines, that's for DARN sure. This entire thing is technically for them and they do *not* care. Not any of the other spouses, especially the hundred or so who have never ever showed up to anything. I'm stressed out about it, which is totally pointless, I know, but I'm committed to it, and unfortunately, I'm so very much like a bull dog. I'm phsyically unable to just drop the ball already.

So...let's all just hope it goes well. Let's hope our artist friend comes through with her project. Let's hope the rest of the things I needed from Marine supply are in the office and that my wild children don't make me crazy. Let's hope the two different kinds of chili I made for the chili cookoff that we kind of got told to enter because there weren't enough cooks signed up stay warm and/or cool enough during the logisical gymnastics it's going to take to get them up there tomorrow and heated for judging. Let's hope I can gain some perspective and calm the heck down - it's really NOT all that bad. Or that hard. It's just crazy.

Also, I totally brought it on myself. =)

Funny! Four Photos =)

2011-10-23T17:57:00.000-04:00

So, Daisies. We meet at a local church twice a month, and on the non-meeting weeks, we go places. Last weekend, we went to Mike's Farm. Only two other girls came, but it was still fun. Hopefully as the year progresses, we'll have a little more involvement....but me planning fun things and then just a couple of people showing up seems to be the norm! Despite the low turnout, my girls had a blast. Here's Bree hugging some mums. =)

Okaaaay, y'all. this is why I don't post photos of myself. =)

Then, the next day, we met the battalion at a local jumpy place where Carly and Avery caused mayhem as usual. They're so funny together.

Carly's addition to our grocery list. Santa will definitely have to remember gummy bears for these two girls. AMAZING, isn't it, that Christmas is only nine weeks away???? So crazy.

Blog-Keeping and Books

2011-10-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

I'm Failing at my title, y'all. I just cannot get it to work...but...well to be honest, my blog title is just not on the top of my priority list. =)

I did, however, finally update the book list. I've read a ton of stuff since I did that, re-read, that is. Anyway, I put all the Hunger Games together because I read them in three days (like everyone else). They were so good, so interesting. Can't wait for the movie to come out.

What I won't recommend is reading Gamow after reading book fluff. My brain seriously feels like it's about to fall. out. of my head. You just can't go from colorful futuristic teen fiction to Einstein easily...at least I can't. Mr. Tompkins is from my Grandad's collection - he gave it to me so I can talk about it with Carly. This is theory-of-relativity stuff and although I can't really wrap my head around the bike shrinking and time slowing down, she still lives half in the world of unicorns and rainbows and she completely gets it. What I love most about this is (aside from my kid blowing my mind) is that THIS is one of the books my Grandad gave me for her. He gave her challenging stuff because he knows she can take it, that's probably the sweetest thing he could have ever done for me. It means a great deal when a person I respect so much values my child in this way.

As for Anne, well. I love her.

But I need some more suggestions! I'm re-reading a lot, which is never bad, but I know there is new stuff out there. Any ideas are welcome, but please, for the love of all things literary, do not suggest The Help. Okay, thanks! =)

The List!

2011-10-21T06:34:00.000-04:00

Yes, another one.

This time, it's a new thing sponsored (gah!) by a blog I read. Or, technically, by a blog the author of the blog I read reads. Confusing? Haha. Anyway, the grand prizes are amazing and I would super love to win one. Therefore...read on. Link's at the bottom.

15 things I'd like to do or see at some point. Note: Some of these have already been accomplished, but you could add "take my kids to" practically any one of them and boom, new list. Yay!

1) Float in the Dead Sea.
2) See the Nutcracker in NYC
3) Eat local food in each of the countries represented in my genetics. Going to add Paul's genetics, too, because Italy sounds yummy.
4) Sleep in a bungalow set over (NOT ON!!!) the water.
5) Hike to a glacier.
6) Take the kids to Yellowstone.
7) Take a summer road trip, stopping at each Nat'l Park we find along the way.
8) Learn to make a decent campfire.
9) And a decent loaf of bread.
10) Be able to lift my body weight over my head.
11) Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary.
12) Live in one (or two) of the places we haven't experienced yet: big city, mountains, Pacific Northwest, New England.
13) See the Northern Lights.
14) Do one of those rope things where you fly across a valley, what is the name of this...
15) Live overseas.

This is my entry in the Just Ask Bucket List Getaway Giveaway. Just Ask offers a breast and ovarian cancer screening and is encouraging people to share 15 things that I want to enjoy in my lifetime as a reminder to be aware of my health. Want to enter? Head over to TodaysMama.com to get the details.

Bedtime

2011-10-19T20:19:00.000-04:00

...is crazy time at our house. The closest I have come to making this a smooth and somewhat enjoyable time of day is starting in the afternoon and implementing our current multi-step routine aimed at wearing out and winding down a certain three year old who simply refuses to go to bed quietly. Most days it feels more like some kind of tactical battle plan and less like an afternoon, and even then we're working with about a 50% success rate. =)

We play outside when the weather is nice (which it has been lately, THANK GOODNESS) from whenever we get home from stuff until about 6, when we come inside and eat the dinner that either 1) has been prepared earlier in the day via crockpot or amazing planning 2) is leftovers or 3) takes less than 15 minutes to cook. Think monkey cheese and peas with hot dogs or minute rice with canned beans and steam-bag green beans.

After dinner we take baths. This takes approximately 10 minutes and more often than not involves the kids being hosed off in the shower because that is quicker and doesn't involve me getting splashed repeatedly by a certain three year old who I swear is part dolphin. We brush teeth in shifts to avoid the bickering that sends me right over the edge of sanity and reason.

Then we do stretches to peaceful music and deep breathing exercises. I must be present for this activity because if I leave for any amount of time, stretching turns into tumbling, and since neither one of our girls are particularly gifted gymnasts, someone inevitably takes a heel to the face and that's the end of peacefulness. This gives us a great chance to wind down. On the nights it works, it's amazing. The kids teach eachother the names for the stretches and we note how much progress they're making. I love the nights it works! It's calm and lovely and I don't end up questioning my parenting skills (quite as much).

Then books. A chapter of Carly's book (right now it's Heidi) and a book for Bree. Sometimes Carly wants to read a second chapter aloud to me and so we do that while Bree flips through her books. Then...

...the dreaded lights out. My stomach is in knots as I go downstairs, because this could go one way or the other.

One, our six hours of prep and careful maneuvering have resulted in relaxed and sleepy kids who go right to sleep and sleep through the night. Yay!!!

The Other: within ten minutes, someone is crying about something. Then Bree comes out with a thinly veiled request from Carly. They can't decide whether to have the hall door open or shut. Or how wide the closet door should be open. Or someone is hungry, or thirsty, or scared...or any of the other myriad excuses kids throughout the ages have thought up to get OUT of their beds. This week, everyone's belly is hurting and they want to sleep in my bed. (I knew that was a bad idea!) Also, they miss Daddy and want to know why I let him go away for two weeks. They finally pass out from exhaustion anywhere from one hour (tonight) to three hours (yesterday) past the time they went to bed. The books, or maybe it was SuperNanny, tell us to take the kid back to his or her room without talking or making eye contact and that will work. Let me tell you this - if you ever have the pleasure of trying to put my children to sleep and you DARE walk out of that room without giving both of them a kiss and a hug...well...I wouldn't recommend it. =)

I wrote this so I'll remember. Because one day, they won't be here driving me nuts at bedtime. They won't need an extra hug or kiss or just my presence to let them know it's okay to sleep. Bree will be tall enough so that more than her worried little eyebrows show above the bannister. It sounds crazy now, and I'm not sure I even believe it myself, but one day I'll miss this craziness.

Female with House Decorating Budget Seeks Craft Store That Carries Stuff I Want

2011-10-16T19:46:00.000-04:00

Every now and again, I need to shop. Psh, Liz, you say, "shopping is not a NEED, it's a WANT. And what did you buy anyway? Did you need that stuff?"

Answer: Yup. It's because I live in the middle of nowhere.

During the summertime, I live in Vacation Paradise, where the beach is an easy bike ride away, the traffic really isn't that bad and that beach breeze keeps things groovy. Where live bands play every week on an outside patio at three or four different bars, everyone is r-e-l-a-x-e-d and it's pretty much awesome, with all the conveniences of home because we, you know, LIVE here.

The rest of the year? It's only been a couple of months, but I'm getting claustrophobic.

Enter Pinterest! YAY!!! I was so super ridiculously excited to see all those PROJECTS! The jars with cool labels! The sweet sayings for the walls! The awesome wreaths, and framed calendars, and shelving ideas, and the upcycling ideas galore! All there for the making! All I needed was one big awesome frame, some carboard letters and whatever that compound is you use to make your own mercury glass and I'd be SET.

Um, except the part where I live here and all of those things exist Somewhere Else. I'm not giving up, I'm just looking for a day that I can get to Wilmington or Raleigh where people have cool stuff for me to turn into other cool stuff that will eventually end up right back at Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Not that the lack of Stuff I'm Looking For stopped us from hitting up Marshall's (exactly like Ross but with a better bath and body section and freaking AMAZING shoes), Ross (meh), the home decorating store, Target (angels singing) and Barnes and Noble all before we went to the jumpy place for a battalion event.

The girls were great, and although they don't know it, their prize was books. We found a great one about Sarah Hale (google it) and my favorite part of the whole day was when Carly read the repeated line about how Sarah Hale was "bold and brave and stubborn and smart" and Carly goes "hey that's just like me!" Hahaha, SO true. =)

Anniversary Dinner Menu!

2011-10-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

My pictures came out ALL funny...but here's what we're having. Three of Paul's favorite things and two of mine. He and I both love French onion soup just like that, he loves brussels sprouts for some unknown reason. His loves liver and onions, but y'all...that is simply NOT happening right now. I'm a good wife, but not THAT good. Maybe when he gets home from EMV in February. Then olive foccacia for him and tiramisu for me...the dessert is open to adjustment, but we'll see. And we need to add another veggie. I'm completely addicted to pinterest - you should SEE my grocery list right now. Ridiculous! =)

7 Things I've Learned in 7 Years of Marriage =)

2011-10-14T22:16:00.001-04:00

You will probably notice that one of the blogs I (sometimes) follow has this same exact title. I say sometimes because when I can tell it's a 'sponsored' post, I take a pass. This, however, is such an interesting idea and like most interesting ideas I come across, I'm going to just take it, tweak it and pretend it was mine all along. =)

That being said...we're celebrating our seventh anniversary next week. Thursday, to be exact, which also happens to be the day he gets home from being in the field for two weeks. We neither one of us are feeling the seven year itch, whatever that is, and I'm pretty sure it's because at this point you've either grown together or you haven't. And if a couple hasn't, the itch is probably just their need to feel that connectedness to someone...that's what I figure. Lucky us! =)
Anyway. Onto the list! (I love a list!)

1) Date Night is mandatory.
Paul's parents told us this from the start and they were SO right. Even when we were pinching pennies to send Carly to a good preschool and a good kindergarten, and going out to dinner every week was simply out of the question, we made Saturday nights about us. The books will tell you not to talk about work and not to talk about the kids, but that's a load of...well, a load. Talk about what is on your minds, and if it's kids and work, so be it. We sometimes see a movie, but never ONLY that. First we talk, and talk, and talk. See below.

2) Be friends.
For us this means knowing what is most important to the other and taking a real and vested interest in that. When we lived in Louisiana, I knew more about recruiting policies and procedures than most of the recruiters probably did - that's what was on Paul's mind all the time, so that's what we talked about. Lucky for him, what's most important to me right now is raising these kids to be amazing, independent, smart women, and he actually already has a pretty big stake in that operation...so he gets off easy. =) This also means hanging out together - quantity time, as much as you can get. Usually that means an hour or so a day during the week, but it's sacred. Friendships take effort, and it's important to maintain that most comforting bond. What this does not mean (for us) is sharing every single interest and character trait. If Paul and I were a ven diagram, that middle pointy-egg part contains our most important values, our ideas about family, and work, and home. Being friends means taking trips to the outside circles...he provides the up-high reaching power for my crafty projects and I wait at finish lines on race day.

3) Be his/her biggest fan.
Be supportive, it sounds so easy, right? At it's most basic, this means not complaining when his job or his passion (sometimes one and the same thing) inconveniences me. It just so happens that he is one of those terribly annoying people who are great at practically everything they do (aside from minor home repairs, but hey nobody's perfect), and he knows I think he's amazing. Shoot, everyone within facebooking distance knows I think that. This can occasionally be aggravating to others who aren't quite as effusive about their husband's awesomeness, sorry! And it goes both ways - while I might not have an actual job per se, and what I do would be what I would do even if I were bringing home some bacon =), he doesn't let me forget that he thinks I'm doing great. So yay!

4) A positive attitude changes EVERYTHING.
We've moved a lot in our marriage. I hate everything about the actual move itself. Absolutely everything. The chaos, the disorder, the living out of suitcases, the ridiculous expense of retrofitting the new place to hold all of our stuff...all of it. What I do like, however, is doing work that has a clear beginning and clear end. When a box is unpacked, broken down and stacked in the garage, it is DONE. I like that, and find great satisfaction in it. There may or may not be a little trash talking (well you're flat NOW, aren't ya? What's that? That's right - NOTHING) thrown in - I'm not ashamed to admit it. But the point here is, things can only be as bad as you let them be. The other blogger said that raising children can suck everything out of your marriage and that just seems like such a defeated and negative way to look at it. Yes, raising kids is a challenge - nobody will deny that! But, like moving, or tight finances, or long work hours, or difficult family decisions...it's only as bad as you let it be. You can focus on the tunnel or you can focus on the light, ya feel me?

5) Be in it for the long haul.
At this point, we're starting to settle in, which feels so nice, becase we certainly didn't have an easy start to our marriage. On the one hand, knowing someone for five months before you say 'I do' is plenty of time, especially considering the fact that we knew where this thing was headed two months in. But on the other hand? That's less than half a year of weekends-only. We were completely crazy, and we've never looked back. Even through rough times, we've always been headed in the same direction...it may sometimes have been more of an arms-crossed stomping than holding hands and skipping through wildflowers, but that commitment never changed.

6) No bean counting.
Just assume that the other person's daily work is infinitely more difficult, challenging and stressful than your own, then do what you need to do to make the rest of their life as easy and peaceful as possible. Paul does this by letting me sleep in most Saturdays and by making sure I have at least a few hours of free time on the weekends. I do this by making sure he has a calm, undusty house and a nice meal to come home to. It works for us this way, but each couple has to find their own balance.

7) Find mentors and LISTEN to them.
This could be anyone who has a marriage you want to emulate. Just like they say successful business people have a mentor, a spouse needs one, too. I have been SO fortunate to have stayed in touch with the amazing couple I worked for in college - I can think up seven things that I think are important for a good marriage, but what do I really know? I've been married for seven little years. They're going on 40 years together, and are still ridiculously in love, so I figure they probably know a thing or two about this marriage thing. =)

Okay! That's what I've got. I'm excited to see what more I can learn this year! =)

When It Rains...

2011-10-11T21:22:00.000-04:00

Hi, everyone! Well...I mean, basically me, because I'm pretty sure no one reads this any more.

Anyway, here's a few (19, to be exact) photos of what we've been up to lately. The quality isn't great because they're all iPhone photos, but still. Content is content. My kids are amazing and hilarious. You'll see one photo of where Carly's face had an unfortunate meeting with the corner of the wall (yellow dress). We took a trip to the pumpkin patch, had Girl Scouts, Bree brutalized the white boards at Paul's office today...yada yada. No captions today, just images. Yay!

Two Little Monkeys Reading In The Bed

2011-10-09T20:25:00.000-04:00

I've had this blog for SIX years and some change. That is a LONG time and wow - soooo much has changed.

For example, my kids are reading each other books right now. This is not an unusual thing, and really not all that blog-worthy, except they are in my bed. And they're going to stay there.

I KNOW, RIGHT?! The world must be coming to an end.

Except, okay, they both ended up in my bed on Friday night, the result of a number of nightmares and too much water at dinner. Bree got scared and crawled in and when Carly got up to go to the bathroom, she noticed her sister was missing *enter freakout* and well...she ended up on my left-hand side. It was so cozy! And they were remarkably well-behaved and sweet to one another on Saturday. And then today, the same thing. Snuggles with Mommy = happy, non-fighting kids. Who knew? =)

Obviously this sleeping situation has a shelf life of about ten more days until Daddy comes home, and I'm going to use those days to figure out how to manage my time with more efficiency so these poor attention deprived girls are getting what they need when the sun is up.

For now though? So cozy, and I'm loving every elbow-in-the-face moments of it.

Repetition is Good, Right?

2011-10-05T18:02:00.000-04:00

I remember doing one of these maybe four years ago, when Carly was tiny. It was all about how I spent most of my day speaking in three-word phrases, like "Walk forward, please" or "We don't hit" (that was during my nannying days) or "Use your words." There was this long list - that seems so long ago. I guess it WAS, but years have this weird way of all blending together as they speed by, so it really doesn't seem like all that much time has passed.

So now, we've got Bree on the back porch, absolutely filthy from our hike and her dinner. She's spinning in circles, singing a mash-up of Disney princess songs while wearing her wedding veil and some pink sunglasses. It's pretty awesome.

And Carly is doing her homework. It usually takes her about ten minutes to get through the easy, easy, easy books that always come home in the reading bag, two math sheets and writing sentences with spelling words. Tonight it's taking longer because her little sister is being a master of distraction...

...which brings me to my current list of phrases that seem to take up most of my spoken language. They are a little different than before, but are still perfectly indicative of where we are as a family.

1) It doesn't matter how smart you are - what matters is how hard you work.
2) CLOTHES BELONG IN THE HAMPER!!
3) Okay, shut the door and take off your shoes.
4) Crawl in your carseat and do the buckle.
5) Let's make bubble gloves!!!
6) Do you have your backpack?
7) Focus, Carly! FOCUS.
8) You'd be done by now if you were *insert practically any verb* instead of complaining about it.
9) Wow, you look like no one is taking care of you.
10) The above is usually followed by: I need a pony and a hairbrush. Go. =)
11) What a mess!!!
12) I don't understand whining. You'll need to speak in a normal voice.
13) The next meal is at *insert next mealtime* and you can eat then if you don't like what we're having now.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are many, many more. I do hope that some of them sink in, particularly #1, #2, and #7. Given the fact that their dad hasn't quiiiiiite gotten #2 yet, I'm not going to hold my breath on that one. =)

STARVING

2011-09-27T06:42:00.000-04:00

This whole raining-for-a-week thing is making me HUNGRY. Like, all the time.

You?

Sometimes You Feel Like a List

2011-09-26T06:25:00.000-04:00

Today I have an interview with my husband's boss, to be officially approved to do the volunteer work I'm already doing. I think it's a box he has to check off...Paul thinks it's going to take up my whole morning.
Today we also have gymnastics and an organizational meeting for Daisy Scouts. I'm the leader, exactly like I wanted, because no other parent really wanted to do it, a fact which I find persistently odd. I literally can't get over it - what do you MEAN you had the chance to be in charge and you didn't want to do it?! Baffling. =) The GS council didn't 'find' me in their system until the interested parents had met a couple of times with the area leader. But, it works out for me! I feel like it has taken entirely too long to get this ball rolling, but things will start up soon and I literally cannot wait.
Today it is also (still) rainy and dark. The girls are still asleep and I hate to wake them but I'll have to so we don't miss the bus. Five more minutes.
I successfully made kolaches yesterday! The heavens rejoiced and Paul ate five. =)
The rest of the week is pretty normal! Bree has storytime Tuesday morning, Carly has ballet Tuesday afternoon, Bree has soccer and ballet Wednesday and then we're done with extracurriculars for the week. Paul will be home at some point each night and I do regular volunteering Thursday and Friday.
Oh and we MIGHT get some sunshine Thursday! That will be nice. I'm not complaining about the rain but I would like to see the outside of my house more than the inside at some point.

Happy Monday!

Two Silly Sisters and One Great Saturday

2011-09-25T00:21:00.000-04:00

We're all healthy over here, thank goodness! It has been raining for the last several days and looks like it's going to keep it up for a while. I am still loving it because our house is cozy in the rain, plus Paul came home and it's just so nice to see him, I like the rain as a side effect. =)

I did find some pictures - yay! And was able to successfully email myself a few from our adventures today. These first two are from a couple of weeks ago when I took the kiddos into the doctor to see about their allergies. Carly was having some of the same allergy-related asthma issues as she was in Baton Rouge, so we got a little refill on her "dragon breath" (inhaler with a spacer!) and some Zyrtec...she's all better now, and thanks to the fact that my children are a riot, the wait was highly entertaining.

Observe:

FLAT LARRY!

So onto today!
Paul fell asleep almost immediately after he got home - that's what happens when you sleep on the hood of a humvee for a week, in the rain. Correction, when you TRY to sleep on the hood of a humvee for a week, in the rain. Then we all slept in and had a nice quiet morning.

After that, Carly and I went to her BFF's birthday party! It was at a jumpy place and lots of Sophia's girlfriends from school were there. That was a little weird for Carly, who is used to having Sophia's undivided attention, but it ended up working out okay. I let Carly pick out Sophia's present earlier this week, and Carly decided Sophia wanted a 'spa day.' In keeping with that adorable theme, Sophia got a bag full of yummy-smelling bath goodies including my favorite soap ever, Yardley's in pomegranate rose.

Paul and Bree had been spending the morning at the house and they were both ready to get out, so we met them at this bowling/arcade place nearby - they have mini-golf, go-carts and batting cages outside which we will have to try out when it's not so soggy. It's always a bit of an adventure to see what she's going to look like when I've had no say in her attire...today did not disappoint. See the leg sweaters? She loves them!

Then, this. Miss Thang.

They have millions of cool video games....sort of like a exponentially less disgusting Chuck E Cheese. (It's actually a major life goal to never go back to CEC again, btw.)

They loved this roller coaster ride!

The cutest! Both of them!!!

Meanwhile Bree and I were running around to all of the games you climb on...motorcycles, race cars, Panzer tanks...we lost spectacularly at that dancing game with the arrows, but it was fun!

Then we bowled a game! Carly beat me again - and this is her victory dance. =) It was pretty busy because there's not just a whole lot to do around here when it's raining outside, but the place is REALLY nice. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back. The place is called Mac Daddy's and the mini golf is called the Golfin' Dolphin. It was a great way to spend an afternoon!

Paul took the girls back home for naps (that they did not take) and I drove back into Jacksonville to attend a smell-good party. I scored four Christmas presents for under budget (wahoo!) and got to chat with some nice people. It was really fun, but since I apparently have zero stamina lately - I'm blaming the rain - I came home and managed to talk Carly into reading her Odysseus book to me. I was out before the first page was over! Haha - then she and Bree fell asleep watching Paul play his new PS2 hockey game. We're SO AWESOME. =)

Tried out a new restaurant and saw Moneyball for date night tonight! Coming home, the palm bugs were all over the boardwalk-like sidewalk area in front of the theater. I was jumping all around trying to avoid them and ended up busting my behind, cartoon style. Loving the weekends! It's different than summertime, but still so nice!

Is It Friday Yet?

2011-09-23T04:56:00.000-04:00

So Bree and I are watching ET!

It's 4:30 am and my poor little monkey has been sick sick sick all night. She was doing okay but I foolishly fell asleep at 2 and she got hold of my water, chugged half of it and, well...you know. Not cute. She just fell asleep and I'm hoping she can sleep for a good few hours and wake up feeling a little better.

We are SO excited for Paul to return from the field tomorrow! It has been a heck of a week, for us here AND for him. He's been rained on all week long, so I'm sure he smells *awesome* and he's sniffly and sneezy. We have enjoyed hearing the artillery go off - although I'm sure our neighbors aren't quite as impressed. =)

I'm sure he won't remember, in fact this is the first time I have remembered, that tomorrow is the anniversary of the day we arrived in good old Oceanside, CA. We had dinner at this dive (and not in a good way) bar with a rooftop cafe area and we stared at the ocean and couldn't get over how amazing it was that we were a) in CALIFORNIA and b) there together! I love thinking back to our first days and looking over everything we've been through together...and here we are, seven action-packed years later, staring at another ocean, with two beautiful children and much better taste in restaurants. Our life is busy and kind of crazy sometimes but it is SO good, even when I have to pull sick kid duty alone at 4:30am.

Oh, Liz

2011-09-19T20:53:00.000-04:00

There are some things that only I could do. One of those things would be syncing my phone to my computer, successfully copying all the photos and then losing them. You heard me. Lo-sing. I don't know where they went!

Another thing I don't know how to find would the the women in my husband's battery...I keep inviting them to stuff and they keep not showing up. Weird. At the end of the day, though, at the very least no one can say that we never do anything for the families, because we DO. It's just that none of the families ever go! We're planning the decorating for Halloween and I'm really, really hoping that we'll get a couple of new ladies in there and from there will be able to meet more...but we'll see.

I feel like this is totally boring - we've just been doing our normal stuff. Paul is in the field, and doing a great job here. He amazes me. Today after gymnastics and regular homework, Carly and I did her new Singapore Math and then we all watched a video about ancient Mycenae and read Odysseus and Bree's Bob Books at bedtime. I worked with the FRO reconciling data sheets for the bulk of the day, and served raw veggies and ranch dip for dinner because Paul's not here.....normal stuff. It's totally fun for me but I can't imagine anyone else would find it interesting.

Next week we're starting our ancient Greece activities....we're drawing triremes and setting up an agora and a million other things. We've been reading different Greek myths and book after book about ancient Greece and Rome. At first I was thinking it would never sink in and we were just wasting our time but oh my word! Tonight when we were watching our little Kids History Channel video, they had an image of the Trojan horse and Bree jumped up off the couch and said "there are mens in that horse and they put the WHOLE HOUSE TO FIRE." Score!

Suggestions Welcome!

2011-09-08T06:43:00.000-04:00

Sort of. =)

What? I'm being honest. You can't really tell me anything....a fact which has caused, I'm sure, unending frustration to people who love, and know better than, me.

I just ordered a sound machine to go outside the girls' door in hopes that they will actually stay in there past 5:32am when I'm down here trying to get a jump on the day. Our house is built in such a way that sounds from upstairs (other than Bree's lovely pteradactyl screaming when she's mad at Carly, frustrated with her clothes, bored, etc) don't really come downstairs but sounds from down here go straight up. And apparently there is some sort of alarm action where girls who would normally sleep a full hour longer are compelled to get down here and start making messes and asking questions.

We'll figure it out.

In other news, the battalion is planning for the Fall Festival and part of that is a decorating contest between batteries. We're supposed to have a theme - all the other batteries do - and a plan, but we don't. Paul was stuck for the LONGEST time on wanting to do a devil's den and finally I just had to say no. Not like I'm the boss or anything but it was kind of fun to say NO and have it actually work for once. Now we are theme-less, though, and we'll have to work on that. There is a ladies' night tonight - all of three wives (besides me, of course) are going. Normally these would be things I'd host here in my home, but we live REALLY far away from everyone, and that thing I said earlier about the noise would come into play a little bit. From what I understand, high attendance isn't really something I can expect from these functions unless there is information and/or free stuff involved....what can you do! It will still be fun. =)

Activities!!!

2011-09-07T16:03:00.000-04:00

My pretty girl! She was so excited about dance class and I was happy to get to take her w/o Bree for the first class. Since Paul was home, Bree didn't have to be corralled in the tiny little waiting room - thank goodness! ALSO - again with the terrible picture quality....yadda yadda yadda, we've talked about this before.

This is Carly's teacher! I was SO EXCITED to overhear this class. As some of you may remember, Carly's dance school last year was more dance competition-style dancing and not really technical or specific. It wasn't Paul or my favorite. This is Miss Kristy (sp) telling the girls that tendu means to STRETCH, not to FLOP their little feet. It should be noted here that the girls from last year's class answered correctly when Miss Kristy asked what tendu meant at the beginning of the class. Also, pique, plie, grand battment, pas de chat....I'm a huge nerd so you KNOW I was loving all of that. Carly didn't know WHAT to think at first! But Miss Kristy is patient and took the time to show Carly exactly what she expected then when Carly got it right, Miss Kristy high-fived her. My girl understands THAT, you can bet! The high-five is our main form of affirmation in this house. =)

The studio is new - it's an extension of the Swansboro Dance Studio, so we're still waiting on mirrors and barres. The girls did good floor work, though! By the end of the class, Miss Kristy had helped Carly settle down her scarecrow fingers. =)

Grande Battements! This was the first time Carly had been taught them - last year it was "big kicks." She was concentrating so hard!

If you've been to our house you recognize this intersection...I don't think any of the three people who read this have been here though...anyway, our neighborhood is right behind that white building (it's a hardware store). It's maybe five or six blocks back, an easy walk and usually pleasant when it's not rainforest hot and humid. =)

Worth turning your computer sideways - you probably saw this on facebook...but hilarious.

This morning it was Bree's turn for dance class!!! She was physically unable to stand still for a photo, so she just broke it down for a while before class. My girl - love her.

Bree met a sweet friend!

The teacher's assistant had all the little girls sit in a circle like butterflies and then she asked them what color the butterfly is...for the ones that understood, their answers were awesome. The first girl said "glitter" and there was a "stripes," an "ice cream" and Bree said "rainbow." So funny!

They lined up to do the limbo - and right after I snapped this photo, they turned on the music and Bree found it impossible to stand still. All the other girls joined in and Miss Kristy, even though she is a total badass about rules in class, had a really hard time getting them back in line. Understandable, though! That song is awesome!

We ran to the store then home for lunch and at 1pm (why in the world?!) we had soccer. Bree was exhausted, but we're going to keep trying and maybe she'll get it. She was the youngest in the class by about a year, but the coaches were really sweet and patient. We'll see! She is stinking cute though, right?!

Weekend Update

2011-09-05T08:57:00.001-04:00

So...to catch up!

After the beach on Saturday, the boys went to a sports bar and the girls and I hung out at home. Our sweet babysitter came over after the kiddos were in bed so the rest of us could go over to our neighbors' house for the East Carolina football game. The house was packed and loud and soooo fun. We met a million new neighbors and I've come to the conclusion that being fun must either be a requirement for living in our 'hood OR boring people just don't up and move to the beach.

Sunday we went out to breakfast at Mike's Place. Carly and I had gone ahead to get the table and by the time we were finally seated, homegirl and I were a sweaty mess! But the food was great as usual and our littlest princess ate like a field hand. That's always fun to watch haha - where does she put it all?!

The boys and Carly went to play mini golf and then came to pick up Bree for some pool time. We were heading to a bbq later, and I managed to score a break for myself by making lemon bars which served two purposes: 1) The break I just mentioned, and 2) They just couldn't go by boat to the soundside house where the bbq was being held; they must be driven there in the AC so they didn't melt.

Backstory: I get motion sickness and that fact, coupled with my pathological fear of barfing = I don't want to go anywhere near a motorboat, canoe, kayak, cruise ship, pontoon boat, sailboat, inner tube, life raft or any other seaworthy vehicle. It's just not happening. And our friends and neighbors keep inviting me and are so sweetly insistent about it, I'm starting to have to be really creative in getting out of what I'm very sure are incredibly fun boating adventures for those lucky individuals without my particular set of issues.

Hence the lemon bars. And it worked! Yay!

So anyway, I drove over to our other friends' rad soundside house with the big pier and huge deck - so fun. And then the kids, Paul and his brothers came over on the boat. Carly and Bree got to be towed behind the boat once they arrived - in a big slow circle within my field of vision at a couple of miles an hour (and you KNOW they were in their life vests!!!) and Uncle Pete with a hold on the tow rope. Carly LOVED it and Bree was a little unsure. I'm sure next summer she'll be water skiing barefoot, though! =) haha

The sound is AWESOME - just about four feet deep at high tide for a couple hundred yards from the shore. The girls (with their life jackets!!!) and I swam for HOURS...so fun. And the boys threw the football back and forth, our friends and some new friends just hung out there on the pier. So relaxing and the weather was painfully perfect. I literally could not think of anything more perfect.

After the bbq was ended, the boys were dropped off at the airport and my two tuckered out little mermaids were snoring away, we had our fabulous sitter come back over and Paul and I rode down to the Emerald Club to hear our favorite band play. They are SO good and their music is the kind that you literally cannot sit through - you MUST move your body! Paul even danced for five or six songs and if you know him - that is huge. We met some new friends (third set this weekend - I swear we've met 20 new people if we've met one) who kept buying us drinks because of Paul's job. After the first couple of very strong drinks magically appeared at my table, I had the waitress start bringing me water dressed up like a drink...and that one little trick I swear has made the difference in my overall quality of life today.

So anyway, this is super long. We're taking it easy today; getting the house ready for the week and just hanging out. The girls are down for a nap they both enthusiastically protested...which of course is only an indicator of how much they needed it! Paul's off to Morehead City to ge this oil changed and run to Harris Teeter for me and I'm here...doing this instead of laundry and cleaning bathrooms. =) I guess I should get back to work.

I hope y'all are having a good holiday weekend!

Beach Day!

2011-09-03T16:10:00.000-04:00

Beach day!!!

The weather was perfect, the water was beautiful and we had a fabulous time. After we'd been there for a while our friends joined us. Carly and Sophia had a blast and it was great to chat with Terra while the kids played. GREAT day! The tide had made this convenient little pool right close to our chairs and every now and then more water would come in. That was awesome because the kids played there safely and didn't go launching themselves into four foot waves! Haha!

See?! SO convenient! The girls were jumping on their behinds to make a splash - it looked sort of painful, but they were having a blast. =)

The boys played whiffle ball on the beach! I love seeing them all together. =)

Here's a sweet shot of Paul missing the ball...oops haha

What a wonderful 'end' to the summer! I know we'll have more beach days before it gets too cool, but this was really a nice sign-off. Love summer on the EI! =)

Curses! Foiled Again!

2011-09-01T07:01:00.000-04:00

Like any good, prepared mother, I set my alarm to wake up waaaay before my children so I could do some work I needed to do well before they woke up. Well, guess who was up at exactly 5:32am? I mean, I was literally setting the kettle down to boil water for my coffee when I heard the little Footsteps of Doom coming down the stairs.

Okay, not really. I'm not the mom who approaches her day with dread, counting down the minutes until she can get her kids away from her, either to school or to their own beds. But still. Two minutes? It is much better than having them at my bedside first thing asking my why I never feed them, though! They got the Mommy time they needed and are now happily playing upstairs while I enjoy my (reheated) coffee. =)

Paul's in the field again this week. He's sleeping on his truck and making sure his guys are really super good at blowing stuff up, safely, accurately, etc. I did get the opportunity to help a couple of the families problem solve at the beginning of the week. One lady in particular sticks in my mind - she had scheduled herself to work every evening this week and was trying really hard to keep her husband out of the field using her work (not important - it never is, even if she were highly educated and not a waitress at a pancake house). I called to give her some numbers for childcare options and she was all "He's in the field ALL the time. That is so annyoing! It's so much more work for me, and for what?! I have KIDS, don't they understand that? He's gone ALL the time and even when he is home, sometimes he doesn't even get home until almost 7."

In a moment of impressive self-control, I didn't say any of the things I wanted to say, I just acknowledged her frustration and gave her some phone numbers.

Nevermind that "they" is my husband, who happens to also be married with two children.
Or that I would throw a parade and do back handsprings down my street if he came home at 7pm.
Or that the reason they are in the field is so that when the real stuff happens, their responses will be purely muscle memory.
Or that my husband (aka "they") isn't trying to ruin her life; he's trying to protect her husband's.
Or that in a handful of months, she's going to have some plans in place for evening childcare anyway.
Or that tens of thousands of Marine families have figured this out already and without the drama.
Or that even if they weren't preparing for a deployment, being ready is her husband's JOB. Being self-sufficient, independent and flexible is HER job.

....etc, etc. As it turns out the pancake place is able to still be open without her working there and she's going to switch her hours to daytime hours while he's in the field. Yay. =)

A Series of Bad Photos

2011-08-31T17:14:00.000-04:00

I'm posting these anyway because they're hilarious. The girls and I went out to a park we haven't explored yet because it was less than 90 degrees after school today (yay!) and just so beautiful outside. Also, Bree has been having a little trouble getting to sleep, so after a day of friend school while I was at Navy Relief, I tried to wear her out even MORE. We'll see if it works. So...anyway...it was super bright and as I was emailing these to myself, I chose the funkiest ones totally by accident each time...in the future I'll wait until I'm at least in the car before sending photos to myself. =)

***
Exhibit A: the ten seconds of grouch-face in an otherwise adorable climbing photo. Also the sole of Bree's totally rad new running shoes.

Exhibit B: Upon Carly's request, I am posting a photo of my leg after I totally busted my a$$ at the bus stop. There are these big ropes strung up between posts and guess who didn't step high enough...lovely! AND I'm in a dress. I do NOT have a visible tan line on my foot, however. My word.

Exhibit C: like a nanosecond before this particular photographic gem was snapped, Bree was standing there with her hands on her hips...it was adorable.

Exhibit...what, 4? Anyway, you get the point. I won't even bother saying I'm going to send myself the good photos because I'll probably (almost definitely) forget and will have moved on to the next cool thing we're doing. =) Carly's fancy shoes got a lot of attention today, even though they don't really 'go' with a frilly dress, she has to wear athletic shoes every day. Lucky for us we found shiny silver beaded ones! A lady at the bus stop this morning asked Carly if she and Bree ever wore pants and Carly was like, "uh, NO." Love that kid!

All Good in the Hood

2011-08-28T17:57:00.000-04:00

So...it's all good.

Most of our family who have asked know that we are a-ok and home again (WITH power, THANK GOD). We had some twigs down and lots of leaves, but other than that, there aren't any problems here. We did lose all the shingles along the peaks and creases of our roof and there are big ruffly patches everywhere ...we're thinking that, much like a lot of things in our little casa, roof maintenance has been neglected for a while and it's probably due for a new one anyway. Not great news for our landlords, but what can you do? That's why they pay an arm and a leg for wind insurance.

We went out to the beach to look for shells, but didn't find too much. We did see a crusty barnacle-y deck chair, a couple of tires and a hilarious see-through crab that ran sideways and tried to snap Paul's toes.

And now we're back with some yummy steaks on the grill. We missed our normal weekend, but we're all good and what more could we ask for? The damage here, is just minimal, especially compared with what we saw in Louisiana. A couple of Paul's Marines had some damage to their houses from trees falling, and our shrimp shack was obliterated but honestly - it is FINE. I really hope our friends and family north of us will be able to say the same things!

In Between Bands

2011-08-26T16:42:00.000-04:00

I have to tell you - I'm REALLY not looking forward to being without power. But, what can you do? We don't have a generator. =)

What we do have is a great playground at our hotel. It's funny because every time the rain stops, twenty kids are swarming the playground...we're joined with all the other parents who understand that 24 hours without being able to be going outside will be b-r-u-t-a-l. Plus most of us have been holed up here for three hours already...anyway, it's FINE. Our room faces the interior courtyard and everything has been moved out. Also, dear Irene's wall has collapsed a little and she's just not the badass she could have been. =)

Okay, I'd love to say more, but I have a certain three year old who is bugging the DAYLIGHTS out of me to play Candyland. =)

First Day of School!

2011-08-25T09:41:00.000-04:00

Her sign says "This is my first day of 1st Grade!!!!!" and then the date. My pictures turned out really blurry today - I think it's because the air is very, very humid...or maybe because I'm using an iPhone when I should be using a camera...either or. =)

Bree needed to get in on the action, too. She drew a picture of our whole family....I told you she ALWAYS wears that veil, right? I was serious.

She would have been running if her backpack didn't weigh 20lbs. It's full of school supplies, a gigantic lunch and some paperwork we had to fill out for her teacher. It's the same b-pack as last year and holding up pretty well!

Cutie patootie in her first Zulily dress!

Large bow, large backpack. It's how we roll. =)

Bree refused to wear shoes, so she had to ride in the go-go-me. During the fit about the shoes she threw her veil actually AT me, so it had to go away for today. Fortunately she got over that trauma and held it together for a little while. =)

The bus was so late! Carly's poor hair had time to go from straight to THIS while we waited. It's going to be so crazy when she gets back from school this afternoon!

Those other three kids are older and have been riding this bus together for the whole time. After they and Carly stared at each other for ten minutes, Carly went to sit with them and they all started talking...after that point she wanted nothing to do with me. =) I guess that's how it's supposed to work, right? I still sort of would have liked a goodbye hug or a wave or something...but what can you do? And independent kid is a good thing. =)

We waited for about half an hour for the bus...this is Bree letting ALL of us know how she felt about that. Actually, she was super unhappy because she got buckled in after not listening when I told her to keep her bare feet off the dirty parking lot. Pardon the polka dot panties. =)

That's all I got of Carly and the bus. She was in such a hurry to get on and meet some new friends! I know she's having a great day and I cannot wait for her to get off that bus at 3:05 and tell me all about it.

Carly's Rad New Dress

2011-08-23T15:31:00.000-04:00

We felt the earthquake like everyone else. =) Everything is fine. There's a hurricane coming and we have a hotel room - we talked about this yesterday - we've got water and canned fruit. Also a new first aid kit. It's all fine.

Anyway, the weather was GORGEOUS this morning. Carly got her new awesome dinosaur dress in the mail yesterday and it's way too small, so she's wearing it like a tunic with cool rolled up leggings. She's such a pretty little girl...I'll be sad to have her gone all day starting Thursday, but SHE is excited to get to school.

Irene, Schoolbuses and How I Might Overract Sometimes

2011-08-22T23:31:00.001-04:00

This is kind of like the time when I was in high school and someone told me I was dramatic, and I acted like I was fainting with shock.

As it turns out, I just might have a tendency to overreact to certain (most?) situations. I'm only saying maybe, nothing definite, although lately the evidence has not really been working in my favor. =)

Anyway, there's a hurricane a brewin' off the coast of Florida. Maybe you heard? I hadn't, until this afternoon when I was sitting across the desk from Robin (our family readiness officer), waiting for this slooooow computer program to load so we could finish reconciling her contact sheets, and she got an email from her currently-deployed husband talking about hurricane Irene and how it might come this way.

Here's what I did in the three (I counted) minutes following her telling me about that email:

-Made reservations at the base hotel for Friday and Saturday night
-Emailed myself a list of disaster preparedness documents and items
-Started a list entitled "Important Things To Not Forget" that includes such necessary actions as "put Paul's TRI bike in the hallway" and "take the dollhouse out from in front of the window."
-Jotted down a quick list for the commissary, bottled water, first aid kid (!!!), trash bags (?), peanut butter

Nevermind that in the event of a hurricane, the rental people board up our windows, so the dollhouse thing isn't really going to do that much. The bike thing is actually kind of smart because the garage is a couple of feet lower than the hallway and it might flood, who knows. In my mind's eye, the storm surge is like thirty feet which might reach our house. Nevermind that the base hotel actually does have first aid supplies (also a very large hospital a couple of miles away...) and nobody in our family even likes peanut butter.

...I could go on...

Anyway, moving forward before this gets even longer, a friend of ours in Houston put her son on the bus and then he got on the right bus coming home, but missed his stop and....you get this. I couldn't understand why nobody on Facebook was hyperventilating like I was. Oh my GOSH!!! Fortunately I didn't make any lists or plans about that, but I did come up with sixty-four contingencies and just decided none of those would work and I would drive Carly to and from school every day forever.

Nevermind that this is Cape Carteret, North Carolina, not the fourth largest city in the country. Seriously! Emerald Isle has 1/1,000 the number of people. One-one thousandth. I can't even pronounce that. There are precisely THREE buses for Carly's school...and they each make like four stops. It's a slightly different situation but still - panic! I'm not completely claiming this one, because I'm going to just say my reaction was wholly empathy for a friend, and....well no ands. We're going to stick with that.

***

In other news (yay!) the girls are officially registered at their ballet school! I had thought it was in the shopping center directly next to my neighborhood but it's not. It's directly across the street from us, one tiny little office building away from El Zarape, Carly's favorite restaurant of all time. I'm very much looking forward to not driving.

Wednesday is meet the teacher night. Also find-out-what-time-the-bus-comes night...it would have been nice for planning purposes to know how my mornings were going to look (afternoons too!) but what can you do. Maybe if we had A THOUSAND TIMES more people (literally), we'd be a little more informed. =)

Bree's Birthday

2011-08-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

Oh, hi! I figured out how to get pictures from my phone to this blog...it takes fifteen million steps, but they come out great, so we're going with it. Yay!

***

Here is Bree napping on her dad at 3 weeks old.

At at three years...it's amazing. Just like every mom says on each birthday, I can't believe she's already three. Time is going by so fast. It seems like yesterday we were taking her home from the hospital. She's so big. All of it...our sweet, crazy girl.

So pretty on her actual birthday! That week, Paul had to qualify on the shooting range. It's pretty far from us and they start at 4:30am for some unknown reason, so Paul was getting up a little before 3am and was just too wiped out at the end of the day to give Bree's actual birthday the time and attention he wanted to. We pushed her celebration back to the following Sunday, which worked out FINE - we got a new fun birthday package in the mail each day that week and then got to do our family party.

Birthday party day!!! It was quiet and simple, but she kept saying "It's mine birthday party!!!" over and over and giggling and clapping her hands, so we figured it was a success. Your kid feeling SUPER special on her day is the most important thing, and we achieved that with ten feet of streamers and a cookie cake! Paul will love to remind me of that next year when we do the Big Bash thing again...but I'll selectively forget. =)

Opening her cool water bottle! It has her name, which she thinks is the best!

And a puzzle! She actually picked this one out when we were in Wilmington the other week, so she was super excited to actually see it in her house! Right after the party we went to the fun water park close to our house and spent the afternoon splashing around. It was a GREAT birthday party day!

Fun Times with Friends

2011-08-20T12:10:00.000-04:00

Our friends are moving to the area - we are actually getting THREE families moving here in the next few months. The two extra kiddos in this picture came to hang out with us while their mom and dad drove allllll over this area with a realtor looking for houses. We had a great day! This is the part where we were eating fruit popsicles and playing in the pool Carly looks like a GIANT. And the three short ones are actually 3.5, 3 and just 2. Someone asked me if they were triplets and because all of the kids were going nuts at that point, I said yes. Haha! =)

Bree had never tasted a milkshake before. I'm pretty sure she liked it.

You like the super healthy food I was giving them for lunch? There's this AMAZING hamburger place right by our house - we'd never tried it before and because I am a crazy person, I brought all four of these little people out to eat. They actually did great once the food (finally) arrived. Before that...well...let's not discuss it. It was mostly Bree being nuts.

See that huge bowl of green stuff? Our little guy visitor asked if they were french fries and they were french cut green beans so I was like, oh totally, they're GREEN french fries, isn't that cool? Then they demolished them. Sweet! In reading back over this post, I realize I wasn't really winning in the honesty department, but I'm justifying it all and I have zero guilt. Actually, when it comes to getting kids to eat healthy food I think the normal laws of truthfulness don't apply.

Hanging in a pike position. Yes, she's amazing.

August Randoms

2011-08-20T11:54:00.001-04:00

These pictures have no other homes...and I didn't want to overload you TOO much, seeing as how it's been a long, long time without photos....so....

We went to this cute little dance store in town for our ballet stuff this year and had a blast trying on different leotards; such a sweet time with my girls. This is the one Bree got - do the short sleeves and little skirt just kill you? I love it. Carly chose a different leotard, even though I was silently wishing she'd choose this one because the back is so cool. The one she chose has an empire waist chiffon skirt thing that opens in the front - she said it made her feel so beautiful, so of course that's the one we got. =) Dance class starts the first week of September and we are all SO excited! They opened a studio in the shopping center right by our house, so skipping the long drive and boring wait in the car is a BIG plus for this mama. =)

The aquarium has shark day every Thursday and they post shark trivia questions throughout the exhibits. If you answer all the questions right, you get a little coupon for a free ice cream! The girls were so excited! We love that our aquarium is so close to us.

This is Paul's office! It is off of a larger room that houses several desks where Marines do administrative stuff for the battery. His office opens onto a large room with a few desks for Marines to do computer stuff and several storage cabinets. They recently 'redecorated' that space, putting sand bags around the desks and camo netting up on the ceiling - I have no idea why they did that, but it's pretty cool. The whole space (with the exception of the sandbags...) it completely functional and smells like sweaty boots and dust. It's kind of gross. The First Sergeant's wife and I have plans to remedy that, but that's a post for another day.

Carly didn't believe me when I pointed out her dad's building...lucky for me, there's a huge SIGN out front with his name on it. I keep telling her that Mommy is right all the time and despite overwhelming evidence to that effect, she's still not convinced. HOLY CRAP I just noticed they misspelled his name. Wow. Maybe some other guy really IS in charge and Paul just sits in his office.

Lately Bree has been getting a lot of the awesome cred in our house, based on her sartorial creativity, but Carly is no slouch in the rad department. Take this picture, for example. We just got a book about Greek myths a couple of weeks ago and she was reading it during rest time...she got to the part about Odysseus and the Cyclops and drew THIS. I have lots of favorite parts about this, but the caption has got to be one of the greatest things ever. We're also reading Robin Hood at night, and I'm thinking I may have to cut down on the mixing media, because Carly drew Odysseus' "Merry Men" down there in blue. =) =)

Oh my word - okay, do any of you remember that stupid fad that was going around in the spring? Where people would do...basically this...in random places? It was for people much more fit than I, but it's hilarious because it's kind of a fitness thing and here I am, in a bar...fun times, fun times. This is our favorite Saturday night place - they have a huge patio with live music and everyone was out there, which left prime real estate for acting like idiots. =)

I warned you! This post is TOTALLY RANDOM. =)

And actually really funny that THIS picture follows THAT picture above. This is from the training I did to work with the family readiness office at Paul's work. I am the MODEL of a responsible and serious officer's wife, y'all. Clearly. Anyway, we were given a color and had to make a poster using a verb, our color, and a kind of produce. Our poster won, natch, even with my deformed grape leaves, and I had to post it because those little dancing grapes make me laugh. They're so happy!

And this is Bree, today. She got a bride dressup set - among a few other awesome things - from her Aunt Amanda and Uncle Pete and she insists on wearing this veil at all times when we're at home. She wears a tiara to the pool, but the veil is on, all the time. Even while bike riding. The purple chalk war-paint is another story. =)

Why Errands in Town Are A Good Thing. =)

2011-08-16T09:07:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who is having a hard time disciplining myself about kid's activities?

We do gymnastics, and we'll do dance. Then there's tennis, and swimming, and Girl Scouts, and piano. Oh and art class. And church stuff. PLUS seven hours of school each day and another hour or two of afterschool stuff so my girl can keep her edge. Yes, she's six and I'm talking about her keeping an edge. Talk to me when she's going to college for free. =) Anyway, we're not doing soccer, so maybe that's a win in the discipline arena? I don't know. There's just so MUCH to do and she loves it ALL...maybe a more rational person would let her do one or two things a semester and then pick, but Paul and I decided that we're going to do what we do and make cuts if they're necessary, but to us, that schedule sounds AWESOME and totally fun. It sounds that way to Carly, too. =)

There was a point to all of that...oh right! Cooking! There's a cooking class for kids here and my busy bee wants to take it! But instead of paying the fee, I decided to let her help cook at home, Lord help us. Thankfully, Bree and her inability to NOT be directly under my feet at all times has already effectively removed whatever zen was left in cooking, but I might have to increase my wine consumption...now that I think about it, this might not be too bad after all! Haha. Wooooooo!

I worked with the family readiness officer of Paul's battallion for a few hours yesterday - it was super fun! I me the chaplain, who is a Catholic priest and just a great guy. He was there for Paul when the battery went through some tough times in 29Palms and I'm really happy that he'll be deploying with the battallion if and when and wherever they may go. He also promised me a few videos of Paul joking around with his guys that I will happily share with you next week when I go back into the office. (The chaplain offered to send the DVD home with Paul, but um do you know my husband? I would never see that DVD!) I also met the battallion Sergeant Major and a bunch of other guys. I surprised the heck out of a friend of ours - the look of surprise on his face was priceless! I think I was literally the last person on earth he expected to see coming around the corner. Fun times! As far as actual work, I did a bunch of organizing administrative stuff - it's amazing how much I love and am good at those things when they occur outside of my actual closets and garage.

Okay, so we're going into town to get a few things done. The good news is that I will actually have cell service and will be able to *try* to email pictures to myself and get them loaded up here. I know from my own experience that no one actually cares about all these words. Just photos, please!

I hope your Tuesdays are going well! These crazy girls and I are enjoying the beautiful weather and will hopefully be back here in a few hours with pictorial proof! =)

Polyvore = AWESOME

2011-08-12T16:33:00.000-04:00

(I'm stealing this idea from a friend)

Except I'm not a new working mom!
I'm not new and I'm not working. =)
*Don't need the semantics stuff, y'all. Every mom works at home. I don't work anywhere else. That's the difference.*
I volunteer everywhere and still hold it down on the homefront, but I'm halfway in-between!

Therefore: the hand sanitizing wipes. Weird that polyvore doesn't have the little baggies of Goldfish - those are still necessary! =) I have a stash of dresses that go anywhere, and that zebra bag represents my (significantly less cool) gym bag that is ALWAYS in the car, on the off-chance that I can sqeeze in an extra workout on busy days. The watch, my word, because I'm always on the way to somewhere - I would love that one, instead of what I use now, which is the clock on my GPS or my cool phone.

I just now noticed my picture is all fuzzy....I'll try and figure it out. =)

Saturday Cartoons and School! =)

2011-08-06T07:59:00.000-04:00

It's SO hard to believe that school is in two and a half weeks!

We don't find out teacher assignments or the bus schedule (!) until the day before school, but it's okay - we'll be excited to know what our morning schedule will definitely look like and for now we're doing all the stuff at home to be ready to take off.

Carly's school supplies cost exactly 20% of the price I paid last year for ONE set of her school supplies. Awesome! Her backpack from last year is in good condition so I think we're good on that! And the girl has more clothes than clothes, thanks to Zulily and a 70% off sale at Lands End! I wish there were a bow store here! Then again...maybe it's for the best that I don't have access to that much grosgrain. =)

Our schedule is gradually coming together, too. Our weekdays have gone back to being TV-free much to the girls' disappointment. And, to be honest, my own, since we usually saved up those minutes for when Mommy needed a few minutes of peace to get dinner on the table. I've got a few ideas to manage that madness, and fortunately I have a few weeks to get it all figured out! Our mornings look more normal now, too, with everyone up and dressed and beds made within an hour or so of waking up. I loooooove our summer schedule (which is in full force today since it's Saturday) where we just hang out. Eat when we're hungry, get dressed when we need to leave, make up beds sometime before 10am...it's lovely!

Lovely, but not something you'd want to do forever. I repeat that to myself a LOT, so maybe one day I'll believe it! =)

We've also started increasing 'homework' time a few minutes each day and hitting the workbooks at what would be after school homework time and incorporating some more intentional reading in the evenings. We just got this great kids book about Greek myths and started reading it last night. You should hear Bree trying to pronounce some of those names! So stinking cute. I'm looking into getting the Saxon Phonics from Amazon but I want to wait until I find out if she's going to be getting it at school first....her reading grew by leaps and bounds last year and I swear it was partly due to the awesome phonics program her school used. Anyway, we'll see.

Today we're headed off to a birthday party and then a sandcastle building contest. I'm going to try and email iphone pictures to myself to post here until I can buy a new camera. The repair guy told me that they would be more expensive to repair than to replace (ouch) and although he was very gracious about my cheapo photographic equipment, he did steer me toward brands and places I could buy something comparable....which is not going to happen. I'm getting a rebel if it kills me...but I'll have to wait a little while. Good thing I have an iphone! =)

Friday!

2011-07-31T13:57:00.000-04:00

Friday we needed a break from the sunshine a little bit, so we stayed in. We played Animalopoly and Carly won BIG. This was okay with me and Amanda....Animalopoly isn't any quicker just because there are animals instead of properties and elements and habitats instead of houses and hotels. =)

Dinner was Carolina BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw, sweet potato fries and THIS blueberry pie. It was so yummy and made the house smell like a bakery. Well, a bakery that also makes pulled pork sandwiches...

I'm not sure exactly WHAT was going on in this photo, but it was hilarious. You will note Bree's cute little yellow outfit! Hello - Land's End 70% off!! HOLLA! It was fun to get a huge box of school clothes knowing I scored major deals on every stinking thing in there. You might ALSO note the giant hulking grill on the back deck and it's lovely swanky cover....Paul's Father's Day present. We love it!

My delicate flower.

Thursday Beach Day!!!

2011-07-31T13:43:00.000-04:00

We spent Thursday at the beach...like all day! We had such a fun time with the O'Day family and were out there from 10:30 to 3:30! After that we even went to the pool, but no pics. Fun times!

Bree and her buddy Nate hanging out in the surf.

Carly and Kristlyn gave themselves a break under the towel! Bree could NOT figure it out!

Bree and Trey!

LOVE!

Bree is not so good at following look-here directions after two pictures and five hours at the beach. =) =)

THEN Amanda and Carly found a jellyfish!!! Or parts of a jellyfish - it must have been HUGE because this was the size of my hand and only about a sixth. Whoa!

We found a giant hole - and filled it halfway in by climbing in and out - amazing what a hole in the sand can do!

After our FUN day, we went to Dairy Queen....it was so yummy!!!

Wednesday!

2011-07-31T13:20:00.000-04:00

Pretty girl and her new bug box! Carly did such a great job decorating her habitat - she put in sticks and flowers and leaves...and we found lots of rolly pollies. Then we learned that rolly pollies are actually crustaceans! So interesting. This is Carly's most favorite outfit from my most favorite website, Zulily. I just ordered Bree a purple one...Carly's actually wearing it again today. =)

We went to the pool....one day...I don't remember which day, but it was fun times!

Beeda brought COOKIES!!!

Beeda Is Here!

2011-07-30T10:55:00.000-04:00

I have access to a camera - yeehaw! We won't go over the usual lapsed-blogger apologies...we'll just jump right into a bunch of photos, okay? =)

So here's Bree! She is SUPER tan, really big, and totally rocking the linking necklace Amanda brought for her. Right now we're sitting outside in the shade where an ocean breeze makes it actually really nice =)

WE LOVE BEEDA!!!!!

Amanda brought those cool little foam animals that you can put into warm water and they grow. Emphasis on the word WARM, is in, NOT recently boiling water....

They decorated flip flops - such a fun idea - while I made dinner for us.

Lovely picture of me....it actually goes a long way toward explaining a certain beach photo that will NOT be posted. Haha - kidding. This was our yummy yummy banana pudding dessert - I'm pretty sure banana pudding with Nilla wafers is a universal favorite. =)

Checking In! =)

2011-07-05T09:09:00.001-04:00

Good morning everyone!

We had a great holiday yesterday. Highlights were:

The cable guy made Paul's DAY by stringing a really long cable around the outside of the house making the coveted man-cave possible.
We played an exciting game of Wild Animalopoly with Carly while Bree napped.
We had a fabulous dinner - hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled corn on the cob, baked beans, watermelon and apple-blueberry pie. It was so yummy!
Then fireworks in the street in front of our house - the girls were in awe!
THEN, finally, we rode our bikes down to the pier with half of North Carolina and watched a beautiful, hourlong fireworks show.

Now Paul is out in the garage setting up his mancave and questioning every single decision I made out there about storage and what we should keep. He has a huge stack of stuff that he wanted to throw away. I said no and he's all "sell it on Craigslist then." I just walked back in the house. It's going right back into the storage area when he goes to work tomorrow and I think he probably knows that. I do plan on getting rid of the fifty-eight bajillion extra curtain rods we have accumulated over the course of our many moves, though! They are driving me nuts! =)

My friend Katherine told me a cool way to work around my darn camera issue while I'm waiting for it to come back from the shop and as soon as I get to a place where I have enough service to download and app I will get that taken care of! I know words are so boring.

Okay, the girls say hi - we're off to start our regular Tuesday with storytime and gym and a cool activity for Carly at the library this afternoon. It's so exciting to be on the island during the summer - such a cool, vacationy vibe. I have to admit that the scene down at the pier was not quite what I expected, but then again, we usually do beach time by the $5k a week rentals...that's a different set of folks than go down to the beach with a 24 pack of Natty Lite for the 4th. Just saying. =)

Photo Drama

2011-06-29T18:01:00.000-04:00

It all started in 2007 when Carly accidentally knocked my camera off the counter and shattered the lense and some stuff inside that the camera store couldn't fix. That was my first digital camera and I loved it with all my heart. It was arguably the best camera I have ever owned.

Then followed a series of crappy cheap cameras that stop working for NO REASON. And no, peanut butter smeared on the lens thing that goes in and out to focus by tiny little hands, or sand, or being dropped multiple times by people other than children (um, maybe me...) or being accidentally packed or...the list goes on.

Anyway, ALL of that is to say that here we are at a series of important occasions and I have no camera.

Thankfully I DO have an iPhone. Once I figure out how to upload those pics to this blog, it will be all good, but until that time...please check Facebook!!!

Right now, I'm making Carly's birthday 'cake.' I say 'cake' because it is made out of Rice Krispy Treats and the body is a thin layer of treats wrapped around two giant plastic cups. I 'glued' it on with peanut butter because for some weird reason, buttery krispies won't just stick to plastic. So bizarre, right? =)

Anyway, I really want to share our glowing standing rainbow unicorn cake here...maybe one day I will be able to....for now I'll just lean WAY out over our balcony so I can get more than one bar of cell phone service and photos will actually upload to Facebook. Haha.

In other news, our house feels like a home now. This is partly due to Paul stomping around leaving his sweaty gym clothes all over the floor and eating all the almond butter and its also partly due to my having put away most of the extra decorating stuff in our living room. Clutter drives me NUTS. I'm a much happier mama when everything is nice and neat. Believe it or not. =)

Where I'm From

2011-06-26T05:14:00.000-04:00

** I can't sleep, and I found this...so cool. Here is the link for the template - it's really interesting - you should do it!**

I am from a tiny dining room table, gray corn, Dial soap and Palmolive.

I am from the very pink room and the very small shared room, and then the one with the peeling bathroom floor.

I am from the old pecan tree with the magical brick path around it, and tangled squash vines and humidity.

I am from going camping and crazy eyebrows, from Walker, Bonnin and Carney.

I am from a sarcastic sense of humor, ferocious independence and giving back more than you ever got.

From stop putting Vaseline in your brother's hair, and architecture has too much math for you.

From Just As I Am and long, blue-carpeted aisles, VBS, memory verses and that big open pavilion at Falls Creek. The particular smell of a Baptist church, dust and crayons and old paper.

I am from Zachary, Louisiana, Scotland, England and France, from jambalaya and Honey-baked ham with black-eyed peas, and blueberry muffins and canned fruit cocktail for breakfast.

From the time they left a nail standing up in the middle of the road (we were so poor, how poor were we), from when they lived next door to that one segregationaist mayor during the Civil Rights Movement, and from hairsprayed backstage of the Nutcracker ballet every year for ten years.

I am from the albums and photos on a cedar porch, from framed kid art in a South Carolina basement, from the inside of cardboard boxes that have moved too many times.

So Boring!

2011-06-22T08:25:00.000-04:00

Still no photos because still no camera. =) Sorry! I'll unearth it eventually.

So, I hired a painter. THANK GOODNESS! He comes on Saturday, and we'll need to be out of the house for that.

And the maintenance people finally called me back about all the stuff that doesn't work. They're calling in an electrician because there's no power to my room or a few outlets in the main area, and a guy to look at the sprinkler system. THANK GOODNESS! The earliest either of them can be here is Saturday, so we'll be sure to be home for that.

And Paul is coming home! THANK GOODNESS! He'll be here Saturday.

So all my plans to have the house perfect and ready by the time Paul walks in the door look like they're maybe (definitely) NOT going to happen, but I'm so happy to have him home I don't care. He won't notice that we still need thirty bags of mulch and baseboards are still scuffy - and if we're being honest here, he wouldn't have noticed the dingy dusty white paint on the walls, filthy baseboards or mildewy siding either. There is Bass and a new enormous grill with the hickory wood chips he loves. The TV works and all of his girls are here and thrilled to see him - THAT is what matters to him. The rest was for me. =) And it will happen in time.

For now, the girls and I are going to the gym. I have a million things to do here, but I need some sanity that only throwing myself around in the gym can provide. Monday they start gymnastics. Ballet, GirlScouts, piano and other sports will wait until the fall. It's amazing how much more stuff costs when you're paying for two. It's not twice because Bree is still in little-kid mode, but yikes. =)

A List or Two

2011-06-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

Things I Have Accomplished:

-mostly finished painting the part of the downstairs that I can safely reach by either leaning over the bannister or standing, terrified, on our ladder. It should be noted that neither one of those things should be done while a certain intrepid 2 year old is watching. Cue heart attack!

-turned most of the crispity crunchity dying grass in our little yard into a hopeful-looking near-green. This may or may not have taken a shameful amount of watering.

-planted some really cute shasta daisies, big awesome yellow coreopsis and Mexican heather in the back, pulled out some really freaky looking vines from the trees and stared for several minutes in overwhelmed dismay at the tangled, neglected, overgrown mess that used to be landscaping behind my house. I have literally zero idea what to do with it all, but I'm sure it will come together. It probably just needs a nice healthy weeding and lots and lots (and LOTS) of mulch.

-powerwashed the house, ridding it of lots of green growing stuff and (oops) some paint here and there. My bad. It does look about a thousand times better but the pain peeling from the little swirly thing in the peak above the garage is giving me twitches.

- tried hard wood cleaner and a microfiber mop on the bamboo floors...was not impressed. Any ideas on this? The floors need refinishing, so they're a little rough, but something ought to work, right? I'm so thankful for our rad barstools because they are over TILE and I know how to clean that, at least. =)

Things I Have Not Accomplished:

-Doing a good job painting. Total fail - this will never be my day job.

-Potty training. Oh my word, can you say 'regression?' It has been horrible. Add to the accomplished list: cleaned carpet upstairs three times. In one day.

- The edges of my room. I'll probably do it tomorrow.

- Finding, planning, organizing, hanging curtains. I'm SO not even thinking about that. We'll get there eventually.

-Buying Carly's birthday present. I'll do that tonight - total deadbeat mom! Oh my word! I really can ONLY do one thing at a time.

-Finding my camera.

.....the list goes on.

But! The upside is, this craziness will be over, for good or bad, in about a week when Paul comes home. Then it will be another kind of crazy, the good kind. Cannot wait for him to get back home!

I Know, Wah, Right?

2011-06-14T22:32:00.000-04:00

My children will NOT go to sleep! They are going nuts! It's all my fault because I made them run and walk and ride bikes for two hours - so that they would sleep. But I went too far with it and now they're too sleepy to sleep.

Of course I'm a zombie and am trying to summon some kind of patience from somewhere. =)

It will be fine! I know better than to complain about what is actually really not so bad. Sleep would help. =)

Right This Second!

2011-06-13T16:15:00.000-04:00

The girls are eating - they've each had two baked sweet potatoes and are now eating these yummy restaurant-style corn chips PopPop bought for them at Whole Foods with smooshed up black bean dip and cheese. Bree pronounces it "chee-uz" which I love. This is after a peach and a plum (each) and applesauce. I sort of forgot about lunch today, can you tell? =)

The fighter jets are training - it's SO loud and just SO cool. I'm sure I'll be less impressed as time goes on, but right now, I'm loving it.

It's raining off and on...Carly thinks it's hysterical. She's telling the weather to make up its mind.

I'm procrastinating going back upstairs to do the other half of that GOSH AWFUL border in the girls' room. It is proportionately fugly and tenacious - I swear it is fused to the wall at the molecular level. Just know, because this is VERY important, that I had to personally scrape every single part of it. And it's taken a jug of vinegar and a jug of fabric softener, so that room smells really weird. Pickles and lavender...

The plan for the rest of the day is to just finish that stinking (literally) room. The girls will probably have to sleep in my bed because now I'm committed. I did call the painter to talk about doing the tops of the walls out here in the living room, and I keep reminding myself that it will only be another couple of weeks and it will all be DONE and we can enjoy our home.

One more funny thing - okay, so this house was for sale, right? That's why I dismissed it at first. Paul got the owners to agree to a two year lease with a third year where we'd make it available to be shown for sale. So when I moved in I expected the sign and the lockbox to be gone. WELL, it's been a week and those things are still here, so I just called the realtor (who happens to be on vacation) and she was like OKAY I KNOW ALREADY and I was like THEN TAKE CARE OF IT ALREADY...awesome conversation. Don't mess with Fleet Liz - she don't play. =)

New Normal...for now

2011-06-10T16:02:00.000-04:00

We got our bike fixed - they gave us a new inner tube and something else I forgot, but it should have fixed the problem. I'm really happy to have our wheels back...it's so fun to be able to ride my cute little bike anywhere I want to go. =)

6-12 I work and the girls play
12-2 naptime for everyone!
2-5 beach, playtime, more worktime for me and a movie for them, errands, etc.
5-7 dinner and mommy time, playing in the pool, taking a walk, etc, then baths and bedtime
7-12 painting!!!

And repeat each day! This is how you move in and repaint a house on our timeline. =)

Now today we did the errands first because I needed the girls to take late naps. It's Free Flick Friday here on the Island tonight, and it starts at 7! We all need to be awake and happy, so sleep was a necessity. Okay, I have stuff to do, see ya later!

What a Week!!!

2011-06-09T19:51:00.000-04:00

Okay, so the downstairs (not counting our little storage closet and the garage and the pictures that will be hung after the walls are painted) is box FREE! Glory hallelujah!!! The girls' room is done, too. All I really have to do still is the small room with the handy closet office and the play area and all that little organizing stuff that I consider to be fully nonessential. I mean, it will get done before Paul comes home but it's not driving me (as) nuts.

Paul has had a heck of a time on his field op. The good news is that the battery leadership seems to be coming together despite a couple of pretty significant setbacks. He's doing an amazing job, and at the risk of sounding like I'm bragging...I can't imagine anyone who could navigate these rocky waters better than him. I'm really proud of him every day, but especially now.

So okay, the rest of this week will involve the above nitpicky details I mentioned above as well as lots and lots of painting and a free movie on Friday night. If it's not appropriate for (my) kids, we'll go to the theater that's conveniently RIGHT at the entrance of our neighborhood and see that stupid Panda movie. The kids will love it. Once my crazy bike flat is fixed I plan to drive as LITTLE as possible. Anything on the island will be via bicycle, but if I have to go over the bridge, like for the library or the farm stand or any kind of lessons, we'll have to bring Kerbie into play.

Okay, sleeping in the same room is not going smoothly for my girls tonight so I must go. There are ten minutes until So You Think You Can Dance and that show plus a Yuengling Light are my prize for today. =)

La Casa Nueva

2011-06-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

Consider most of these to be before pictures. Our house is cute and roomier than I remembered; it's actually a nice house, but needs a little love. We do have a little bit of a yard as you can see...the side yard is just long enough to teach little girls how to pitch. =) This is around the corner to the back and the stairs to the deck.

As you can see, I was impatient to get RID of the awful white paint in my room. The light doesn't work in here, so I did it in the opposite order and will go back and pick up the edges when the maintenance people get here to fix my light. This is only slightly lighter than it is in person - looks like the ocean. I'm planning to use a grass green and tan in here...love it. That's the bathroom off to the right, it's a light yellow and we have a large-ish walk-in closet with built-in shelves on the other side.

I really do like this house and one of my favorite things are these big giant windows. The ceiling is vaulted so it's just all light and air in here. I LOVE that....not so much the white walls. All the main walls will be a warm tan called Vanilla Bourbon. Were this my house, I would do something a little more interesting, but I think the tan will be really pretty. At least it is not white!!!

There are no less than fifteen cans of paint in the garage which makes me think that each new renter or owner has gone to town on the color scheme. The latest was this brown color block situation. It's not too bad and might actually get to stay, but with a few touch-ups. There are drips near the fireplace - sloppy. =) Anyway, design ideas are welcome for what in the world to do with that big one up top. The bottom one was clearly designed to hold the TV...and back when this house was built, TVs were basically cube-shaped. Mine is not, so I put a couple of throw pillows and a basket of books in there for the girls. They love it!

This little walkway (with a pair of very cute little feet) is where the girls toys are going to go. The walls are high enough that nobody will fall off and it's a nice size. After I followed through with my threat to throw away any toy that got pitched over the edge (thankfully it was a cheapie parade stuffed animal from Mardi Gras three years ago), I'm fairly confident I don't have to wear a hardhat while walking through my house. =)

Looking down into the dining area, see the deck and kitchen counters and the rad copper patina light. Really, all the dated stuff isn't really bothering me that much, it's just funny.

VERY ORANGE BATHROOM UPSTAIRS. The color is washed out in this photo...it is crayon orange. INTENSE and must go with a quickness. The girls are getting a nice warm yellow to match the shower curtain Carly requested - the ones that look like a map of the world. I think at one point the whole house was this intense color scheme, judging by the closets (that I'm not going to repaint either)...wow.

Cute little office area in the closet off the small bedroom upstairs. The previous tenants had a little boy in there and they painted the room a really peaceful blue. That color will be allowed to stay, but the weird curtain rods with leaf finials....gots to go. =)

This big room will be the girls' room. It's a gosh-awful purply brown right now...so bad. And the border is weird, but it's all going to a nice friendly sky blue. Their bunk beds will stick out from the wall between those windows and there is plenty of room for both (sort of broken) dressers and their small round table. Their closet is nice and big with the same built-in shelves you saw above. There's attic access, too, but the door will remain locked. I don't want to walk out to the garage one day and see Bree's feet sticking through the ceiling.

Here's the kitchen! It's bigger than I remembered and that island with the super cool white and gold barstools (with peach cusions!) has been so great these last few days. The girls eat every meal there and they can sit and talk to me while I'm getting stuff ready...I love it. All the appliances except the fridge are originals - and you can tell they were top of the line when the house was built...back when watercolor brush strokes on microwave buttons was in style. Paul was worried that it might be dirty, but everything is fine. It all works great...it's just...vintage. =)

Closer view of the wallpaper in here. I swear to you, you could walk into the ladies room at any Baptist church in the south and see this exact pattern. It's actually not just so horrible I cringe every time I walk in here...it's just like all the other stuff, sort of cute and funny. I'll get it taken down and the kitchen will go a soft yellow called Belgian Waffle, but until then I'm going to enjoy these summer fruits in all their gaudy awesomeness.

So that's it for now! I'm absolutely exhausted, but I have to meet my boxes goal for today and mop the floors so our feet aren't so dirty. The girls have been so unbelievably good! The past couple of days, I've worked until 5 and then taken them out to play. We went to the pool yesterday and today we walked over to the beach. It's probably a little less than a mile? I'm guessing? I don't know. Takes about 20 minutes (with shoes). The tricky part is when your flip flops decide to come apart while you're AT the beach...lovely. Fortunately there was a little consignment store on the way home whose owner didn't mind me traipsing around with no shoes on. =)

Philadelphia!

2011-06-07T15:39:00.000-04:00

I put up photos of our adventures pretty much every day on fb, but here are a few that actually got the camera. This is a random picture, but I la-la-la-LOVE Chestnut Hill streets and I had to add it. The girls and I found this cute little playplace off Germantown and went there every time it rained. We still have a few punches on our card, so you can expect we'll make a visit the next time we're in Philly.

The next day (or so...) we went to visit Aunt Amanda at her work. She runs one of her family's daycare centers and on the roof, there is an outdoor play area. I think it's so cool that the kids can play with a view of the Philadelphia skyline...not that any of them are tall enough to actually see over the safety wall, but still.

Silly sisters waiting for our food at lunch w/ Aunt Amanda and Uncle Pink.

The ZOO!!! PopPop and MomMom got us a membership so we could go as often as we wanted (3 times in 3 weeks!) and park for free. This is also a place we will be visiting when we're back up there.

Caramel rice cakes with Nutella....it was the snack of the trip. We had them everywhere we went and it was always a gigantic mess. =)

Playing at the awesome park in Chestnut Hill. That's Bree running around like a crazy person....she loved it!

Then the Arboretum a couple miles from the Fischers' house. It was so pretty! These (terrifying) nets were about fifty feet above ground and the girls loved them. I couldn't bring myself to actually walk out on it, though.

We were all over the arboretum that day. This is part of our walk through the woods...later there's a picture of Bree climbing on some rocks that belongs right here. We had such a great time exploring.

Walking in the creek!

LOVE these flowers! They're called al a mode peonies...SO pretty and huge!

Every morning that we didn't go out on an adventure as soon as we woke up, the girls helped PopPop tend the flowers. Bree was especially good at the sprayer.

Carly was especially good at planting flags for our Memorial Day festivities.

SUCH sweet girls!!! The first week was pretty rough, I have to be honest. But after that and continuing on to our trip here and moving in, they have been so super happy and easy. They were getting ready to get in the pool that PopPop picked out for them...it was a great call. You can see him setting up the 'diving' board in the background.

Here's the rocks picture. At first Bree looked at that outcropping and said she couldn't do it, but I told her that I love climbing on rocks and since she's my girl, she loves climbing on rocks, too. After that she said, oh okay and just scrambled up. Such a cool kid. =)

More pool pics! SO fun!!!

On our last full day of adventuring, we went to the art museum and explored the Waterworks. I love all the history in "Daddy's City."

We had a GREAT time. We went to a million places, which is to be expected, but it was just a blast. I had a little car thing on our way to go visit Aunt Diane and Uncle Mace, but Matty came to the rescue. Other than that, it was a perfect trip. The girls did amazingly well on our trip down and now we're busy unpacking and trying to make our house look nice. I'll post a few pics next. =)

Auntie K's Graduation

2011-06-07T15:01:00.000-04:00

The movers loaded up our stuff while Carly was at school, then Paul and I went to her art class...I'll try to upload those ADORABLE photos from my phone, but no promises. Then we went to lunch with Paul before we all went our separate ways for a while. Paul stayed with friends that night and then came down to check in at his new job and the girls and I drove up to Penn State to see my baby sister graduate from college.
***

Carly's last day as a St. Francis kindergartener!!! She actually left a month before school but (because she's a genius, natch) her teacher wrote a letter saying she is more than ready for first grade. My sweet girl!

This is what Bree did during graduation. My Grandad had one of those handy blue passes, so we got to sit in a VIP box - AWESOME so that this kid could run all around and not scream and drive me crazy. She chose to play with my sister's roommates fabulous black lace heels. =)

All of the group grabbing a little snack and killing some time before our dinner reservations at this really great Italian restaurant close by. I think I managed to catch everyone either looking away or with their eyes closed...that takes skillz, y'all. =)

At the bar where my sister works! The Phyrst...she took me on a mini Paul Fischer tour. He, by the way, is never allowed to go to Penn State without adult supervision again.

I have no words.

Before we left State College for Philadelphia, we had to stop at the Berkey Creamery!!! The ice cream was SO yummy...and I had a salad which wasn't that bad.