Random Questions

So while I was perusing the net today and looking at an abundance of blogs, I came across a blog in which,weekly, the blogger answered random questions about herself. I thought that was a cool idea. I love it when I get to read those kind of tid bits about my friends and family so I thought, Hey, I would give it a try. So I am stealing the questions that I read from her blog today and using them for my own. Next time, if you have a good question/questions, email me and I will answer those. So here goes:

What where you doing 10 years ago?
Okay, that is hard for me since I have a bad memory for a lot of things...should have been a blond in some ways.....ummmm, We lived in Fountain, CO and I had given birth to Gavin that year in Feb. I also got to go on my first vacation by myself since getting married to Tim to see my friend, Robin, get married and went to my first ever bar with her for her bachelorette party.

5 snacks I enjoy:
1.chocolate
2.chocolate
3.chocolate....no I am kidding, sort of. I do love chocolate.
4.really fresh strawberries
5.home gorwn tomatoes with just a little salt

5 things on my To-Do list:
1. finish unpacking
2.get rid of all excess trash and misc. items no longer needed/wanted
3.buy a new phone(my land line phones don't work and I have a land line number I am not using currently)
4.Go to Connor's school and introduce myself and Connor to the staff....let them know that they will see A LOT of me this year. Ha.
5.get in contact with all important bill people and give out new address....make out new address card to friends too.

If I suddenly became a Billionaire, I would:
Give a million to each of my siblings, parents, inlaws, and Tim's siblings, and to my close friends. Pay off all my debts....car, boat, house, credit cards(then upgrade them all). Ask Tim to retire. Travel to a lot of places that my father has been to and taken really cool pictures and see them all first hand. Find specialists in the area of Autism(school wise) and enroll Connor in their programs(Either that or pay Clara to school him continually.HA.my personal autism whisperer) I would also donate a lot to the Cure Autism Now charity. I would also hire a chef to make all my dinners for me forever after and a personal trainer to help me lose and keep weight off. And(before this list gets too long) hone my skills as a photographer and do that as a living just for the heck of it.

5 jobs that I have had:
1. balloon decorator(where I decorated with balloons and sometimes dressed up in the costumes of Belle or Jasmine for parties)
2. Asst. Manager at Wilson's Suede and Leather....loved that leather mini's that I couldn't where after getting married. Sigh.
3. Manager of a card shop....loved the creativeness of being able to creative the window displays
4. Mother's helper...kind of a version of nanny for a CNM in TX the first time we lived here
5. sales assoc. at Express Limited

5 things that you may not know about me:
I think I am a pretty open book so this will take some mind stretching.....
1. I would love to be a professional photographer of children and pregnant women
2. I really want to learn how to scuba dive
3. I want to learn how to ballroom dance
4. I hate bananas...the taste is fine, but the texture creeps me out
5. I can still do the splits

Hope you have as much fun reading these tid bits and I did writing them.

Metcalf funny

Today, while sitting with Gavin in the living room, Laurel came to me and asked for a snack. I told her no because she has JUST eaten a banana and I figured she should wait a while longer before eating more. Gavin said to her "man, Laurel, you are nothing but a bottomless pit". "Nah uh", she said, turned around and pointed to her own bottom and continued "I got a bottom right here". I died laughing!

House of boxes

So we are in our house on post and they delivered all our stuff to us about a week ago, but we are STILL unpacking boxes. Most of that is due to the fact that I keep developing a case of adult ADD(LOL)and things like school registration and the last book in the Twilight series has popped up. It is so hard to stay on task when all I want to do is read all day until I am finished and I get to know how the whole series will end up. I am more than half way done and wish that I knew someone around here so that I could discuss it. Oh well.... Back to our house, it isn't so bad. All the kids have their own rooms and the boys are way jazzed about that since it is the first time ever. The common living spaces are a little strange but anything is doable when it isn't for forever. If you want to see a layout of our house, go here: https://onestop.army.mil/_hqd/BaseHousing_show.asp?base=67&planid=14&rid=1&k=0
That's what it looks like but flipped the opposite way.
As I said before I got the kids all signed up for school. I don't know what I will do with myself once school starts since Laurel will be in an all day preschool program. So much free time on the horizon, whatever will I do with myself. I plan on going to the gym a lot. I am planning on hitting my goal weight this year. Tim is so busy with all the pre-deployment stuff going on that we don't see a lot of him. At least I still get to cuddle up to him at night right now. Our new ward here is a little strange. They didn't even ask the visitors to introduce themselves. SO I fugure one sunday, I'll just raise my hand to answer some question and then launch into "hi, my name is Alice......." Ha. Just kidding. I am not passing judgement yet, but thought it was strange. Anyhow, here are a few pictures of what we did this summer:

Laurel found a snake in the back yard of a relatives house in CO and had a blast playing with it.


Went bowling with cousins and Gavin got mad cause Laurel won:


Played way too many video games:



Went to my inlaws 50th wedding anniversary:



Connor Turned 13! and scored 3 rounds of present openings and 2 cakes:


Hiked up the canyon and had play time with lots of cousins:


Waterskiing in CO and Laurel started us all off by doing it herself(my dare devil child):



And Plenty of playtime at the Metcalf Farm with all the animals( Laurel was in Hog heaven):




Over all it was a fun summer and we loved seeing all of our family and friends. Hope TX treats us as well as MO did.

On our Way

Yea!!!! We are finally taking off tomorrow morning for TX. I never thought that I would be that excited to finally make it to TX but it will be a relief to be in my own space and with my husband. Clara and her family have been incredible and I am so thankful for their generosity and graciousness. It will take forever to repay the kindness of letting us hang at their house through this whole thing. Anyhow, I will be silent for a bit and then I will return and hopefully with a ton more pictures. Take care until then! I will miss everyone from MO that I got close to. In the Army, you never know who you will run into again so here's hoping I will see you again sometime in the future.

Clean Up

So we got through packers being in our home. I always wonder if it will all make it to my new home and in what kind of condition....We even had some people look at the house while they were packing us out. I had to laugh. Who in their right mind would get a good impression of a home that is in total disarray? Ha. Anyhow, I cleaned up when they were all gone and realized that it would look better and probably sell better if I painted the whole interior an off white. I weighed all the pros and cons and then decided that in the end it was worth it to have a pro do it. The blood, sweat, and tears that it would have caused me just wasn't really worth it. So they just got down this morning. It looks pretty good. I found another problem in the process though. There was a leak behind the fridge that has been there the whole time we have lived there and cause damage to the wall. The painters fixed the wall damage but now I have to buy a new part to fix the initial leak so that there won't be more damage done to the floor. I can't seem to win in this move. But I am keeping my chin up and figure, it is better to have found the damage now than when I had left. A blessing in disguise.....Tim has a home set up for us when we finally make it to TX. We will be living on post in Comanche Village II and it will be the first time EVER that my kids will all have their own rooms. Tim told me that it has really grown and changed since we last lived there. I hope all goes smoothly for us from this point on. But as of now, I am still in MO doing the last minute clean ups and fixes and praying that someone loves our home and buys it.

Family Vacation

So we are now heading back from our trip to UT. We had a fun time seeing family, hanging out and generally laughing and joking. It felt good to not deal with the stresses of everyday life(But always in the back of my head was the thought that I wish the house would sell). I have seen some pretty cool things while on our trip and wished that all of them would have translated as well on camera as they do in person, but alas not all will. In Kansas, we witnessed the vast neverending fields of grass.....they seemed to be a huge green ocean. The wind was blowing and it caused the grass to dance and sway. I don't know why but I found that beautiful and cool to watch. I was great to see the hugeness of the mountains of Colorado. They are not as lush with greenery as we see in MO but their sheer mass reminds me of how incredible all of the Lord's creations are. While in UT, we went to Bridal Veil Falls and I loved watching the waterfall there. I know that it isn't the most spetacular one out there but it was still nice to dip into on a hot day.
While in CO, we got a chance to stop in and see our old ward from Colo Springs. It was like coming home. As I drove in it felt like I had just come home from a really long vacation. It felt so good to see old friends. I got a few double and triple takes before they finally realized it was really me sitting in the chapel....I had a good chuckle. I wish that we could be going back there on a move since we have to move on again, but alas it is not meant to be at this time.
We saw A LOT of family and a mass of cousins. I loved watching my children interact with them and hope at some point I will be able to get some pictures uploaded here but that won't be for awhile longer since I have no internet access at our home. Oh well. At least you will hear from me from time to time until then. I wil feel good to be in my own bed soon, But it has been great to see family. I miss being able to live near them desperately. But the one thing I will not miss in all this driving around is the gas prices and the whining of the children as we drive. Why do they insist in driving me insane in the car......why is it when children are stuck in the car and bored that they tend to pick one of two activities....either they whine at me or fight with one another. At least it won't be much longer before we get home and then we will at least not have to drive again at least for another couple of weeks. Then begins our trek to TX.......

on our way

So we are traveling and I am writing to you from a hotel in CO, but I wanted to let everyone know that all is well and we are having a some fun moments here and there on our little adventure to UT for the 50th wedding anniversary of Tim's parents. I will post some of the funnies and other news when we finally get to a stopping place, but wanted to warn that from now until we actually get to TX posting will be sporadic at best. I am at the mercy of other's computers. I just hope to make it in one piece at this point. I was having potty emergencies the first 3 days of our trip and now I am throwing up with a massive headache. Gotta love being at the mercy of fast food. YUCK!!