Ready, Set, GO!

After Sydnee's last day of school, we went out for ice cream...here she is waiting in the car. :) That was yesterday, now on to today....

It was a nice 73 degrees outside most of the day. Beautiful weather, but not nice enough for this:

The girls had a blast though and they proved me wrong when I said, "I am going to set this up and you will play in it for 5 mins until you get cold and have had enough." They played and played.

Before they got to play we had some errands to run...It was one of the worst shopping experiences I have had...They were great while they were getting new clothes, but when it came time to get flowers and stuff they were little monsters. Needless to say, I cut the shopping short. We did get some flowers and a cute little table and chair set for the front porch.
The girls picked most of the flowers...I had to give them something to do. I won't be taking kids flower shopping again...I like to browse and take my time; that didn't happen today and I didn't get everything that I wanted. Oh well, the front porch sure looks cute now. Believe it Justin, this was a worthwhile buy. ;) Putting it together sucked though.

Nippos

Charlee and Sydnee were rubbing Dozer's tummy yesterday.
"What is this widdle pink bump on Dodo, mommy?" Chuck asked.
I looked up from the spot on the couch where I'd spent most of my day (the rest of the time was in the bathroom.) I didn't have the energy to explain in a tasteful way, "It's a nipple."
"A nippo!" Char said as she laughed. Then she turned to Sydnee and said, "Sydnee, we have nippos too!" Then she pulled up her shirt and asked, "Aren't these nippos? Right here are nippos, huh?"
Then Sydnee asked me, "Why do dogs have nipples?"
"To feed their babies." I explained.
Upon further inspection Sydnee told me, "Dozer has four nipples mom! Why does he have so many? We only have 2."
"Dogs have lots of babies, so they need more."
This started a whole flood of questions, the kind that you don't feel like answering when you are sick.
"What comes out of dog's nippos?" -C
"Do all animals have nipples?" -S
"Do all animals have milk come out of their nipples?" -S
"I saw a baby horse on Zaboomafoo drinking food from his mom's tummy. Was it drinking milk?" -C
"What are mammals?" -S
"So birds don't have milk because they aren't mammals?" -S
etc. etc. etc.

I was happy when they were finally satisfied with the answers they had been given, and I could stop using even minimal energy.

Sick Day

Today was the first day Sydnee missed a day of 1st grade due to illness. The girls passed along a 24 hour bug from youngest to oldest. Sydnee started feeling much better around 2:30 this afternoon. What better way to celebrate feeling better than with an ice cream sandwich? Here is an update on our little garden...Lookin pretty good, eh Justin? Nothing is dieing...yet...and there are lots of green strawberries and a couple tomatoes starting to form.

I am looking forward to school getting out on Fri. It will be nice to have a schedule free summer....oh wait, we have T-ball for Chuck, coach pitch baseball for Syd, and karate for them both...we will be busy! (but we won't have to get up as early, that is nice. :)

Memorial Day

I couldn't let today go by without saying something about my Military Man.

I know I don't say it enough, but I want you to know that I appreciate all that you do for me and the girls, and your service to our country, Justin. Thank you.

WE LOVE YOU! We are on day 222.

I had a really good time at the Bolder Boulder today. The people I "ran" with (I use quotations because we all split up once we started) were a lot of fun. There were over 54,000 people running it and it was crazy. I did alright for my first 10K, but I definitely want to do better next year. I highly recommend this race to anyone who hasn't done it before...it really was pretty darn cool (even though mile 4 SUCKED.) :)

Six point Two

Tomorrow is the day. I will be there. Running. I hope I am ready cause if not....I might get trampled in the crowd.
It should be as fun as a 10K can get. :)

Justin Update

I thought it was time for another update on Justin...

He is doing well, but just like us, he is getting anxious to come home. Things have been picking up over there...a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it helps time go faster when staying busy, but bad because it means more people are getting hurt and Justin, and the others serving with him, are in danger more often. They have had several suicide bombers at and near Salerno recently, so things have definitely been a little hairier.

If you know Justin well at all, you know that he doesn't do well with blood and stuff (kind of a concern when he got into this whole medevac business.) I mean I have seen him turn white and have to lie down because of a small cut on a foot. Justin has seen some terrible things over there: serious head injuries, bullet wounds, limbs missing or barely attached, etc. and he has dealt with them very well. He said that it is hard not to look and it doesn't bother him too bad until after the mission is over. I guess that is because of the adrenaline and the responsibility to do your job.

Here are a couple pics from his promotion ceremony:

This pic was taken just after he got a cooler of water dumped on him.

Justin flying over Salerno's runway: View of Salerno:

Some aerobatics:Making a hard left: Approach into Chimkani...the smoke tells them which way the wind is blowing. You can see the chopper just to the upper right of the smoke.The crew getting ready for takeoff after loading a patient at Chimkani:Takeoff:
Justin had a mission recently in a canyon. Here he is, watching as the patient is being brought to the air craft:

They had an audience of natives watching them...that usually causes some uneasiness. A mansion built into the canyon wall. ;)view of the Khowst Bowl:

Pillows

I made my mom some pillows for Mother's Day...They match the couch and chair that my sister Vicki and I refinished a couple of summers ago. click here to see the post about that adventure.

I thought they turned out okay, considering I don't really sew and I put "fancy" piping around the edge of them. I owe that little trick to Brenda R. She showed me how to do it when she helped us with the cushions. I can't believe I remembered how to do it (I probably didn't do it right and I know I have some mistakes all over, so don't look very close at them Brenda. ;)

Pomp and Circumstance

We survived the trip for Justin's brother Steven's HS graduation. It was a crazy few days with a missing dog and all, but I am so glad that we had the opportunity to go. I think Steven is a great kid and a ton of fun to be around. Definitely glad we could be there for this milestone in his life.

Congratulations Steve-o!!!

We love ya!

For the record...

I am not comfortable with a naked lady stopping me to talk, while in the gym locker room.

She was holding a towel...couldn't she at least use it to cover herself up during a brief conversation???

Well, we are headed North tomorrow to support my bro-in-law Steven at his graduation. Should be a fun little trip. The girls and I are looking forward to it. :)

Please...and Thank You

I just wanted to make a note of a couple things...

*Justee brought me my cell phone yesterday and said, "Peas mommy."
Me: "Please what?"
Justee: "Peas say el-whoa Daddy."
It is hard trying to explain to a 2 year old that I can't get her Daddy on the phone right now.

*Justee has been sick for the past few days. I finally took her to the doctor after 4 days of fever...turns out she had croup, but she seems to be better as of this morning (thanks to some meds)...hopefully she sleeps better tonight, because that means I get to sleep better too. ;)

Little Sprouts

So far so good...Our peas are starting to come up! :)

I'm Glad I'm Their Mom

...and I'm glad I have the mom I have....I Love you Mom!

Happy Mother's Day!

I think my girls were way more excited about Mother's Day than I. I woke up to 3 happy girls shoving presents in my face. Justee yelled out a very excited, "Happy birthday!" :)

Sydnee and Charlee went to the store yesterday and picked out some things for me. (Thank you Trish for taking them!) Sydnee was very concerned that she would not be able to get me something without Daddy home to help her.

Sydnee got me 2 bracelets and a necklace. Charlee picked out the flowers. I love that it is so much fun for them to be the givers. :)

Justin called me this morning and it was really nice to get to talk to him. He is at OE and we never have as much contact while he is there. He had this mother's ring sent to me for Mother's Day.

My birthstone is the yellow topaz, Sydnee's is the ruby, Charlee's is the diamond and Justee's is the amethyst.

Aside from the few outbursts that made me wish I had no children ;)....it was a nice Mother's Day.

911

It is never a good feeling when you hear your phone ring at 11:30 pm.

My phone rang last night at that time. When I answered it, I was greeted by a 911 operator. She wanted to know if there was an emergency at my home.....ooooh, so this is why Justee is covering her face with her hands and burying her head in the couch....I assured the operator that there was no emergency and apologized for my 2 year old playing with the phone. She said it was ok, but asked that I please let my daughter know that it isn't ok to dial 911.
Hmmm...Sure, I don't think she could identify a single number, but I'll let her know that those 3 are off limits (unless there is a real emergency of course. ;)

Friday Flashback...27 years ago

It's that time again.

I'm not feeling too creative, so I thought I'd just post this pic of my family.

It was taken in May of 1982. Front row is Vicki, Robert and Ashlee. I'm in my mom's arms and Mark wouldn't come along for another 7 years.

Shooting the Breeze over Mac and Cheese

My intention was to take one pic of Charlee during our little picnic...one turned into many: Justee was taking a nap, so I decided to spend some quality one-on-one time with Chuck. She really wanted mac and cheese so I made some and we headed outside.

This girl LOVES her mac and cheese.The strawberry was very cold...half frozen actually.Oops..got a leafChuck and I had a great time...good food, good company, good conversation, and good weather.

Char told me that is was her bestest picnic ever. She also told me, about halfway through, that she wished her Daddy was coming home today, so he could have a picnic too.

Char wanted me to stop taking pics of her and let her take some of me...I decided to compromise, and we set the timer. (a shower and some makeup wouldn't have hurt) Char loved taking these pics...we took over 30 (my cam was taking 7 continuous ones.) She kept saying, "One more time!"
I had to throw this last one in because Dozer was trying to sneak into the pic. You can see his ugly mug next to mine.