Happy Spring

I was a little worried about the added jobs that the Spring would bring, but I have to admit...I actually enjoyed mowing the lawn yesterday. I may have only had to do the backyard because my neighbor was kind enough to mow the front while I was gone, (a mowed front yard is a great thing to come home to:) but I still don't think it will be such a horrible job.
I've never really minded yard work (light yard work anyway....not the awful kind I had to do during teens years at home ;) and yesterday's yard clean-up got me motivated to get some other things done. I want to build a large planter box and start a small vegetable garden, and make a small flower bed around the tree in the front yard. Hopefully I stay motivated...

I am really looking forward to the nice weather...and getting through the months of May and June- 2 months until Justin gets to "visit!"

The first and only blossom on our new little tree.

Hi-yaw....or whatever

Sydnee and Charlee had their first day of Tae Kwon Do today. I went back and forth on whether or not I would sign them up, but I think it will be worth the money...I hope so anyway ;).

One of the huge selling points for this program is the respect aspect...The instructors make a huge point about the kids doing their best in all aspects of life. The girls have been saying "Yes Mom!" for the past week when I ask them to do something...ever since their first visit to the class.

Here is a small example of what is expected of them: (any outside help with teaching my kids good habits and how to behave respectfully is welcomed by me :)

The girls have not yet received a belt...they have to recite this next time in order to earn their first belt:

There are lots of ways the kids are expected to bring what they learn into everyday life, and they get to earn stripes on their belts when they excel in school and help in the home.

I didn't get a lot of pics of Sydnee because her group was farther away and too many people were in the way.

Here is Char doing her bow at the beginning of class

It was so cute watching all the kids do their moves and yell out "Yes Ma'am!" and "Yes Sir!"

Charlee is so shy that it took a while for her to get brave enough to really say anything. She kept trying to make sure Sydnee was saying it before she dared say it, and her "Yes Ma'am!" always came out, "Es man!" She did a very good job of listening and paying attention. The funny thing was that the male instructor had a sling on his arm, so when he would try to show her how to do something, she would want to hold her same arm up like him...it was so funny to watch.

Syd is in the background of this next pic. She did really well too. She really got into it and it didn't look like it was her first day at all.
Here are the lean, mean, fightin machines...doing a couple moves they learned.

I loved watching every second of their class...I think I had a smile on my face the whole time. They loved it too and they can't wait to take their Dad to class. :)

Bedtime Stories with Daddy

Before Justin left, I videoed him reading stories to the girls. I finally finished the disc today and let the girls watch it tonight...I know, I am terrible for taking 6 months to do this, but maybe the girls got more joy out of it by waiting for it longer...? They seriously LOVED every min of it. They were all glued to it, and watched it 3 times before I told them to shut off their tv and go to bed. Justee saw a little bit of it on the computer while I was writing the disc...she cried and threw a fit when I shut it off. She was beyond thrilled and kept shrieking, "Daddy! It Daddy! Hi Daddy!" and of course she would throw in, "That me! That me, Mommy!"

Chuck's first reaction was to tell me that she wished Daddy was home... "RIGHT NOW, and that is because I miss him."

Sydnee laughed through a lot of it and said, "I am so glad we got to watch this tonight. Thank you mom."

Friday Flashback...Pets

We had a sad thing happen recently with one of our pets...Our cat, Cash, was let out by mistake and he never made it back home. I have kept my hopes up, thinking that he still might come back; but now that it has been over 2 weeks, I don't think it will happen. (The girls miss him very much. The other day a cat meowed on tv and Justee took off to the door all excited like she was going to let Cash in. She was very disappointed when he wasn't there.)

As I was thinking about Cash, and the fact that we haven't even had him a year yet, I started thinking about all of the pets Justin and I have owned since we were married.

Our first pet was our cat Blaise. She was a beautiful cat with tons of personality. She loved to play hide and seek with you, and she would play with cat toys all day. We got her just days after we got home from our honeymoon. She came from one of my parents' cats who had kittens. (The cat my parent's have now is Blaise's grandmother.)

The second pet we had was a Bluetick Hound that I rescued from the shelter. This is Tatum:
I warned Justin before we got married that I was going to own a Great Dane. Not long after we got Tate I took the opportunity to get one...I told Justin it would count as my birthday and Christmas present. (We weren't even married a year, and we were about to get our 3rd pet.) So we headed to St. Louis to pick up Dirkley. Luckily we were able to stop in Kansas at my sister's house for a break.This is the day after we got Dirk...He and Tate loved to play.It wasn't long before Dirk really outgrew Tate.

Tate became a huge pain in the butt. She was a hound dog and wanted to do what hounds do...we couldn't supply that kind of lifestyle for her, but we knew someone who could. She is currently living in Ten Sleep, WY and is the best coon dog her new owner has (last we heard.)Somewhere in the middle of the pet frenzy, we got two rabbits. Bronco was the grey one and Harley was the white one....they sure were cute, but what was I thinking? Harley died in child/bunny birth while we were out of town and we gave Bronco away to a family we knew.Then it was just Dirk and Blaise for a while.That lasted until we went into a pet store...just for fun. We had no intentions of getting another pet....then I saw this adorable face. I have no self-control. Mikko was our fluffy little Pomeranian.It was pretty funny to walk a Pom and a Great Dane at the same time. They were great friends though, and Mikko definitely ran the show. At one point we thought we lost Mikko...I had let him out to go potty and when I went to let him back in, I couldn't find him. We searched and searched the neighborhood. To make a long story short...Our neighbors stole him and were hiding him from us...said they were going to sell him. Nice huh?

Here he is a little bit bigger:Dirk and Mikko with Kyle, Journee, Mark, Karlee, and Jada:We were visiting my parents around Thanksgiving when Justin had to come inside and tell me he found Mikko dead on the road in front of my parents' house. They live on a dirt road out in the country...I'm still upset that someone would be driving fast enough to hit the poor little guy and then not come tell us.

After Dirk was without a playmate for a while...almost a year...Justin got the dog he always wanted...an English Bulldog. Dozer and Sydnee:

You'd think that having a dog stolen would only happen once, but it happened to us twice. In our second home in Laramie, we had some crazy college kids living next to us...They were always having parties and after a particularly wild party, we woke up to find Dozer missing from our yard. It took some time, some threats and a police report, but Dozer was returned to us.

Not long after moving here, we had to get Dirk put down. It was very hard for me, but he was struggling. He wasn't the same dog after we lived in Alabama...he had gotten severe heat stroke there, and his health and his mind were going. It was the right thing to do....hard, but necessary.

Next, after about 8 years of having Blaise, she just didn't come home one night...That was really hard for all of us too. The girls really missed her so...a few months later, we got Cash.

Now Dozer is the last of our pets (if you don't count the fish tank) and I'm sure he misses his buddy Cash, but I think we need to just take a break for a while...we have had 8 different pets in our almost 9 years of marriage. I wonder how much money we have spent on pets and all their needs over the years...more than I'd like to admit I'm sure, but I can't imagine not having them in my life or in my kids lives...I think kids learn valuable lessons from animals...(Plus I think kids who live in homes without pets get sick more often (that is if the house with pets is kept decently clean)..I have no real proof on that, but it is probably out there. ;) So that's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Phew...that post ended up being much longer than expected.

Ink

The Artwork:

AND...

The artist.

Showing My Maturity

This little incident happened a while back in the Wal-Mart parking lot...

I was walking back to my car with my cart and two little girls who insisted on walking and not riding. We must have been taking up a little too much of the road, because a lady pulled up behind us and honked. I was a little startled and I turned to look at who the idiot was....I mean seriously, she still could have fit around us. The lady didn't make eye contact as she flew by us...she just rolled her eyes and shook her head. Wow...I was amazed...but as she pulled into her parking spot, I was overcome with pure joy. Nice choice, I thought to myself.
Charlee must have noticed the excitement on my face, because she asked what I was smiling about. I just told her I was happy to get to the car...and I was.
We were all settled in our car as this very considerate woman had to walk right in front of us...
As she did...believe it...I honked. When she jumped and looked up at me, I just rolled my eyes and shook my head. She just huffed away...and I was proud of myself...I thought I was pretty funny, PLUS...I didn't show her my favorite finger. Now that is saying a lot.
I understand that this isn't Christ-like behavior, but sometimes a person has to let off a little steam. (Doesn't that sound like a good excuse?)

I would expect a young non-mother to be a little more impatient with kids in their way and all that, but this lady had a toddler with her. It isn't like I was trying to be in her way or that I didn't care, I thought she could have gotten around us. Oh well, at least it ended well. :)

Friday Flashback...HSI

UW Summer High School Institute...Good times.

This is dedicated to my dear friends Dana, Kalli and Chelsea. hehehe

The summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school, I went with Dana down to this fun little 2 week program at the University Of Wyoming. I met my roommate, Chelsea, and was very excited to see that we would be getting along great. It didn't take Kalli long to figure out who the "cool" kids were, and we quickly became a tight knit foursome.

We had the best time, and in the 2 weeks we spent together I don't remember ever having any fights or drama (at least not between us....drama involving boys was always lingering.)

Here are the fabulous 4 at a Rockies game: (Left to Right: Kalli, Chelsea, Dana, and I)

Why was Adam always hanging around? ;)

We were pretty big dorks...we all bought these velvety boxer shorts and had to show them off...I totally forgot about them until I saw this pic.
At one point Kalli came up with a plan for the talent show...We were going to lip sink to the Spice girls. We would each take on the identity of a Spice girl and put on a great show...I can still see your famous opening jump kick Kalli. It was breathtaking. :)

Too bad we didn't have the motivation to actually plan out our routine, so we never did get to become a Spice girl. :(

Of course I saved the best for last...the goodbye picture.

Dana, you and I never cried...do we not have hearts? Look how devastated Chelsea and Kalli were to be separated from us. ;)

And.... I came across this wonderful letter while looking through old pics. I just couldn't resist putting it on here. A little background on the letter: I worked up at a ranch with my sister in the summers; my summer had ended and I went back home while Vicki remained working at the ranch. I laughed my face off when I read it, and I know Vicki will too (no one else will appreciate it like we do.)

I think it is just magical.

Half Full...or Half Empty?

Today Justin has officially completed 6 months of his 1 year deployment. We are on the homeward stretch of this hard journey. It is nice to know that we are halfway, but at the same time...We are ONLY halfway?!

Day one hundred-eighty three...we are making progress.

There are definitely a lot of stars on this flag...but there is a lot of empty space too.

On a completely different note...Sydnee lost her first tooth on Tuesday (her bottom right.) Unfortunately, the Tooth Fairy was very busy that night and couldn't make it to our house...she had to come the next night (good thing Santa and the Easter Bunny aren't as forgetful as the Tooth Fairy.) Sydnee was worried that her tooth was too small for the Tooth Fairy to find. I assured her she would find it. When Sydnee found her dollar the next morning she said, "She must have only given me a dollar because my tooth was so small."

Jeez...how much did she expect? ;)

It was raining today and Sydnee was excited to use her umbrella to get to the bus stop.