Updating 101

I know it has been forever since I last blogged and for a while there it was just too hard to do. Once we hit TX and Tim being gone, it felt like blogging was just one more chore. But I suddenly got the bug today to look and see what friends and family were doing and it was nice to read up on them. And the next step from there was to blog myself.
As many of you know, we have just recently moved back to Fort Leonardwood from Fort Hood, TX. I can't say that I will be missing TX but there were some great people that I met there that will be hard to get along without. This move has been less smooth than I would have liked but we are doing OK. Although we have been here for about a month now, I am STILL unpacking and getting our house to rights. Firstly, I have been doing a lot of procrastinating. Ack! What a horrible habit of mine....But it has also been quite the process of looking at what I have and then asking myself if I want to put it into this house. Downsizing is never fun and going from a larger home to a smaller home makes it a slower process. The boys think they have gone to hell since they have to share a room once again. I keep unpacking with the thought that I will (hopefully) have to repack it all soon enough when we finally sell this house.
In the meantime, to get to a point that we can sell it, we need to re-side the house and call in a mold specialist to get rid of the mold that we found under the house. Then after that we need to gravel the crawl space and put down a vapor barrier. Yes, we will have money hemorrhaging from our pockets and I will most likely be going back to work. Sigh. Oh the life of a homeowner......
Well, I will try to do better and keep this updated more. And hopefully next time I write I will have pictures and something funnier to say. But for now.....dinner is waiting for me to cook and serve.

The Last "Romantic" Outing

The last thing that Tim wanted to do before we left was to go overnight, just he and I, somewhere. Little did I know that he had alterior motives. He contacted a fishing guide somewhere in TX and booked a trip with him for us. We left one afternoon and got there that night. The motel that we stayed at was built for fishermen and location, not comfort and beauty. We got up at about 4:30 the next morning and were on the lake about an hour later. Anyone who knows me, knows that this was done totally out of love for my husband. I am so not a morning person. It wasn't the most exciting day that I have had with my husband but it wasn't horrible either. I had the first catch of the day AND the biggest catch of the day. Tim told me it was bigger than any bass he has ever caught. That'll teach him to take me fishing again. It was the first time I have ever been on a fishing boat with my husband and in an odd way, it helped to bring me closer to him. Below are pictures of Tim's first catch of the day, Tim wishing he were me and catching a big bass, my BIG bass catch, and the first bass of the day caught by me. :)

Playing Catch....My Summer Vacation

I hang my head in shame. I have been a bad blogger and haven't kept up so I thought that I would give you a quick update to what the Metcalf summer was like and then in the next few days fill in the blanks with pictures and more stories. We did a alot of driving(all of it done exclusively by lil' ole me.) But first, Tim came home right after school ended for his mid tour leave. It was such a wonderful time! We did some fun stuff like going to Sea World, but we also did a lot of just hanging at the house. And I have to say that I fell more in love with my husband during that time. It was just a rare time where time seemed to stop and we really got to enjoy being together again and really appreciate even the little things. When he left, the kids and I headed to Monterey, CA. We stopped off in Hesperia, CA first to say hello to my sister's family and my brother's family and I took the kids to a surprise trip to Disneyland. Boy, were they mad at me for waking them up so early UNTIL Connor read a street sign that said "Disneyland Blvd" and they figured out where we were going. Then it was a party to be sure. When we got to Monterey, we had fun with Grandmama and more family then we ever get to be around. Connor even got to build a robot with his Uncle Craig...a very cool sculpture that I need to get a picture of so that I can post it. We did the beach(A LOT), the Monterey Bay Aquarium, tide pooling, shopping, San Fransisco, and an adventure to Big Sur that ended up with us being stranded for a bit with a car that refused to start. Yikes. After our time in CA, we headed over to UT and saw more grandparents, more cousins, more aunts and uncles and did tons of fun, fun, fun things there too. My kids now think that I am made of money and I have to remind them that Summer is over and life is back to normal, budget and all. We ended our trip with more car problems, 2 new members of the family-kittens named Blossom and Roxas(yes, I lost my mind and drove from UT to TX with kittens), and we figured that we had drove through a total of 8 states this summer in all. Quite and Adventure and one my kids will not soon forget.

Another contest

Okay, in times like these finances are tight and finding advice is a good thing. Here's a good blog about it and they are running a contest right now where you could win a Wii or an ipod. I thought I would give it a chance and see if I can finally win one of these things. Check it out:
http://www.christianpf.com/wii/

My new neighbor

After repeatedly trying to discourage them from moving in, I finally gave up and let my new neighbors make themselves at home.....


mommy on nest


daddy watching near by



In the beginning, I kept knocking down their starter of a nest. Why, you may ask? They decided to build this nest right above my front door. Now, we are in for some bird bombadeering. Not the most pleasant experience to be pooped on while walking out the door...and I am hoping that they don't fly at us when the babies arrive. But, on the bright side of things, maybe I can squeeze a biology lesson from this. I know that these are not the best pictures. I will try to get better ones later. They are rather cute little birds, putting all annoyance aside and I think it is funny how they stare at me with an indignant look when we open the door.

Chop, Chop

So here is Laurel's latest self imposed hair cut. This time she only got her bangs. The scary thing is she is getting better at this. At least I know that someday she can have a career as a beautician. But I still hate the outcome of her dabbling.

BEFORE


I know that this isn't the best hair shot, but the point was to show you that her hair was long enough to catch in her ponytail.


AFTER


Like said, not the worse of her chop jobs.....

In other news, she busted out with a comment that floored me the other day. As we were watching TV she commented on how pretty she thought the girls on the TV were. Then adds:
"But I don't think I am pretty. If I was, Keven would like me."
WHAT?!
I thought these kind of self esteem issues and wanting boys to like you like a "girlfriend" didn't start for at least another 3 years or so. I explained that Keven did like her, but as a friend because boys this age don't like girls like that and that didn't mean she wasn't pretty(cause she is!) (SO biased here.)

Mother's Day Contest

Okay, I just found a fun blog that is written very witty and makes me laugh about mother hood. It is called The Meanest Mom. Right now they are having a REALLY cool mother's day contest. If you want to win some COOL loot go to this blog posting and follow that steps. Good luck to all!!

http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2009/04/mothers-day-giveaway.html