Spring has Sprung

Spring. It is just about my favorite season. I love seeing all the colors and lushness of things growing. I have always fantasized that one day I would be able to have a veggie garden and a lush flower garden too....kind of like an English cottage garden. Well, if you have ever lived in military quarters, you know the difficulties of doing that and that they all look the same and sterile pretty much. So I decided to spruce up the front walkway of my piece of military home. It was fun to go out and get the flowers. I told my mom about it and she asked me to take a picture of it before it all died. Either that was a commentary on my gardening skills or a commentary on the weather of TX and how inhospitable it can be. I would have done more but I ran out of money. Gardening can be pricey.





In other news, we just had our spring break. It didn't so much feel like a break as a quick breath of air. It zoomed by too quickly. The kids thought that if I wasn't doing something kid friendly every moment that I had failed, but we still managed to go bowling, see Escape to Witch Mountain, play in a park, eat out, go to the Ward camp out and go to the zoo. Not a bad list. Most of those things happened in 3 separate days. I am not a constant fun machine contrary to popular belief(my children's mainly). I wish that I had had more energy and money to make a trip with the kids somewhere, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. The Zoo was a highlight. It wasn't huge but had a good amount of things to see. They had these wood cut outs that you put your head on top to take pictures with. Fun for the kids. I especially liked the boys shot on the lady bugs. ha.






The ward camp out was fun too.....until we tried to sleep. I sit here and laugh because it was kind of a comedy of errors. The kids and I slept in a small 4 man tent. I blew up a queen mattress that filled most of the tent. You see, I had the brilliant idea that Gavin, Laurel and I could share that mattress and Connor could sleep next to use on some different cushioning. Connor complained about every noise. At one point, a baby awoke in the tent next to us and after listening to it for a moment, Connor whines to me that he can't stand it anymore and for me to do something. LOL. I told him to chill that the mom was taking care of it and he would have to just deal until the baby calmed down. We also heard a pack of canines of some sort howling and yipping. It wasn't scary but it did keep me up and listening to what was going on. In the midst of all this, Laurel flipped and flopped to find a comfortable (and warm) position until by the end of the night she was rolled up into a small ball almost on top of my head. And the tent inside was wet when we awoke.....something about warm bodies and heavy breathing versus cold air outside makes for a damp interior. I didn't get much sleep if you can't tell. I enjoyed the socializing with the members, but I learned what I would and wouldn't do next time I go camping. Yes, there will be a next time.
In the times that we weren't having massive amounts of "kid fun", I hung at the house and napped, read, and cleaned. It was nice not to have to get up morning at 5:30am. Tim is doing well himself also and we are already counting down the days until he comes home in June for R&R. Oh, and all my friends there in MO, if you know someone looking to rent a house, ours will be vacant at the end of April. I so hate owning a house right now.......sigh. Chin up, I tell myself. There are only 2 more months of school and then I can escape TX for the summer.

Twilight Contest

A friend of mine pointed out this blog so I thought I would try to win too. If you are a fan of Twilight go here:

http://frugalupstate.blogspot.com/2009/03/twilight-giveaway.html

and try to win this cool prize. And if you do win...let me know so I can live vicariously through you. :)

Gavin's Diorama of a Forest

So I was talking about this diorama to someone and told them I would post a picture. I thought it turned out pretty okay. Way to go Gavin......but can I just say that he tried to get me to spend about $40 making this thing???Crazy.....

A Jay Bird moment.....

Have you ever hear the phrase "naked as a jay bird"? If you haven't, now you have. Why do I bring that up? Well, it goes like this....Laurel has invited her friends over to play the other day. They are like the 3 musketeers. You don't much see one with out the other two. Very cute little girls, but can be your typical girls when together...squealing, giggling, the works. Anyhow, the time came when Kately was picked up by her mom and then we were waiting for Bailey's dad to come. Laurel and Bailey were having a good time playing upstairs so no worries that he was a little late. When he did come, I yelled up for Bailey with no answer. So I trudged up the stairs to get her. I could hear them giggling in Laurel's closet so I opened the door to find them both......completely nude. My first thought was "AHHHHHHHHH!!! what the heck??!!" and my second thought was "AHHHHH!!! what are you doing??!!" but instead I was calm and told them both sternly to get their clothes on quickley and come downstairs cause it was time for Bailey to leave. I went downstairs and continued idle chatter with Bailey's dad and waited. Once she left, I calmly pulled Laurel into a private room and told her that she was NEVER to do that again. We don't play nude and if someone even suggests it we say NO!! I never yelled or sounded upset. I know that it is a "normal" thing for kids to do....be curious about their bodies and others. I had to have a moment of relief that it wasn't a boy in the closet cause then I may have lost my cool. My question is this: would you say something to the mother of the other girl or let it go completely since I already addressed it with my own child?

I'm Flying!!!!

Okay, so I couldn't wait to share how cool today was!!! I learned the basics of how to fly the trapeze. I got there and they took me to a hanging bar that was near the ground and showed me what to do and how to do it and then went through the rules of making sure the I listened to them.....that is most of the work. Making sure that you do what you need to do when they tell you to do it. It was so fun!! My first time climbing the ladder, my heart was pounding. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting ready to do something that circus people do. I stood up there and got hooked up and then they told me where and how to stand. "Ready" means bends your knees a bit and then they say "hup" which means hop off and start to swing. I did it and then flubbed when it came time to pull my feet up in front of me, into a tucking type position and then move them onto and over the bar. I was bummed that I had failed. While still hanging there, they had me swing my feet front, then back, then front again and then touch me knees in a tucking position to fall onto the net below. Basically, that makes you do a back flip. SO COOL! I did that with ease. Next time I got up, they gave me more pointer and told me that I was just anticipating it too much and had starting to try to put my feet up before I was supposed to. I got into position and hopped when told and then waited......I got it this time(it was a struggle, but I refused to give up until my feet were over that bar and I was hanging upside down by my knees. Then I had to pull them back through and into a hang again and then do my flip dismount. It was such a cool feeling. My hands are swollen a little and I banged my toe on one of my last tries, but it was worth all of that. I can't wait to try it again. And next time, I am going to try to do the actual letting go and jumping into the arms of the guy who hangs there! Can't wait! BTW, most of the pictures taken were done by Gavin. Not too shabby of a job. Thanks Gavin and Thanks to Dana who asked me to come and have this adventure with her and took the first picture that you see on this blog.

SO Behind!

Okay, you know it's bad when you come to your own blog and see nothing......no old blogs....nothing. So, here I am writing a new one. I don't know that I will get everything caught up but I will at least give you and overview of how life has been for the last little bit.
Connor's homeschooling is going okay. I could be doing better but as someone pointed out to me the other day, why sweat it too much when he will never use about 90% of what he learns at school. Not that I am slacking in his teaching, but I just need to write a list out of what I still need to teach him and get more organized. Organization is the reaccuring theme in my life right now.
Gavin is doing okay for the most part. He just finished making a diorama of a forest habitat. It turned out very cool and I hope he gets his well deserved A for it. He did leave the whole thing until the last day.....poor kid picking up my procrastinating genes....He has a kid in the neighborhood that has decided to make his life a little more difficult. Bully's really suck. And it bites even more knowing that they used to be friends. Gavin just got sick of being the brunt of all of this kid's jokes and teasing all the time so he quit hanging out with him. I may have to step in soon and put an end to it if it goes much farther. If Gavin ignores him, he sees it as a challenge and ups the anty and if he reacts the kid tells him what a wuss he is. Can't win...
Laurel is her usual girly self. She thrives on going to school and having her 2 friends come over as much as possible. She is so going to miss them when they both move this summer. Speaking of missing things, she really is missing Tim. He sent a picture of himself with a 5 yr old Iraqi girl(he missed Laurel and she reminded him of her). When Laurel saw the picture, instead of being interested in it and excited to see another little girl, she got jealous. "He can't take that little girl homw with him, mommy!" was about the only thing she told me. I explained that that wasn't going to happen and she was happier after that.
In big news, I drove to CA and took pictures of my neice's wedding. It went pretty well. I liked some of what I got and I wish now that I had had more time to take even more pictures. Hindsight, you know, I now can think of a million more poses that I would love to shoot. The drive was crazy though. The last couple of hours on my way home all of the zoo decided to come out to see me. I had to drive on some back little highways. I almost ran over a bunny, opposum, skunk, and then hit a deer that was having a party in the road with all of his friends. He just took a running leap at me as soon as I passed him. I only side swiped it so no damamge to the car.....don't know if the deer survived. Also on my trip, I got to stay with my sister in law Kathy one night. It was a blast to hang out and see their neck of the woods. Other than that, I am hanging in there.....by threads somedays and other days are cake. I think my biggest problem is that I am just not sleeping and it is causing me to feel a little crazy at other times. I can't remember things well and just don't feel motivated a lot. I am not one who has ever let deployments get the best of me, but I think this one has. Talking to another woman in my ward about it, she told me that this wasn't uncommon. Our bodies react to the stress this way sometimes without our conscious brains telling it to. But on the bright side of things, I am making friends.....it's about time....and getting to do fun things sometimes. Today I am taking a class of flying the trapeze. I can't wait! I will have to update my blog to let you know how it went. Gotta go get ready. Next blog I will post pictures.......Miss you all.