What Do You Think?

I talked to my little sister today. She got my Christmas card from us today and wanted to let me know how much she liked it. But she leaked it to me that some of our other family members were a little less impressed with the photo I chose.

If you've ever been to my blog before you know we are goofing off bunch of people in this house. We are silly and love to laugh. So when I downloaded this picture back in June I knew it had to be our Christmas card for this year. It is truly "us".

(The caption reads "Our Family at it's Best is wishing yours the very best this holiday season! Love the Best Family")

What do you think? Not fancy enough for Christmas?

My little sister did remind that family member of my teenage mooning phase and how lucky they were that I was sticking out my tongue and not mooning them! Thanks Sabrina for standing up for me! Love ya Sis!

I Really Do That

I'm a crazy mom. I do strange things. In fact many of my posts begin with "we do strange things in this house". But I think I need a little help, some support to help stop one of my newest and worst habbits of all time.

I've always been a worrier. When I go to bed every night since the boys were born I make sure and check in on them. I always have touch them to make sure they are breathing. I put my hand on their little chest and wait to feel that comforting rise and fall of as they dream their little dreams.

Well now the boys have loft beds. They love their loft beds and so do I....most of the time. Except when I need to check on them at night. I can't reach them most of the time because they end up at the farthest corner of their full sized beds.

That means either I assume their sleeping or I crawl up into their beds just to make sure they're breathing. Well I'm way too creative for that. My latest method of checking on them is to throw toys at them until I get a reaction so I know they're alive! Yep I sure do. I toss stuffed animals at them as they sleep until the roll over, swat away a toy that's landed on them, groan or eventually one day they'll wake up and whip it back at my head and tell me to leave them alone.

Until then.........DUCK!!

My First WW....Un-Freakin-Believable

I've never done the whole "Wordful Wednesday" hosted by Angie at



And I certainly am not capable of a "wordless Wednesday". When I was downloading pictures from my memory card today and I found this. Wait wait wait let me explain first.



We are dog and bunny sitting for Amber because she is out of town enjoying her R&R with her soldier (if you know what I mean)! So I have her chocolate lab and her gigantic bunny. The boys are having fun with the dog and could care less about the rabbit. They love my camera and ran around taking pictures of the dog.

Instead of yelling or trying to solve this problem they took a picture!




Thanks boys! Way to help out!



They did tell me right after she peed on the floor that she had done it, at least they did that! Darn dog! Darn kids! Darn messy laundry room!

Lack of Self Control

Today I was going out of my mind trying to keep myself from letting the boys open a present. The problem is that we got one off of eBay and then we won another one. The first one came a couple days ago and I've been fiddling with it but you really have to have two to get the full effect of this little machine. Let me just show you what I'm talking about. But you must not tell the children! Got it? Ok I trust you.

The screen can turn and fold flat and it has buttons so it can be used for games and stuff just like a hand held video game system.

As the second one arrived today I was bursting at the seams to let them have their XO's to start learning to use them and access the gazillion trillion oodles of information available to their little minds through using this little tiny laptop. It's totally kid safe and runs off the Linux operating system. I've successfully checked my email and signed onto two of the educational websites we use.

I knew I had no self control. I decided to reach out to my support group so I tweeted my little heart out. Many of my twitter friends tried to help keep me from giving them the best gifts this year early. But one friend, DamamaT went above and beyond and sent me this:



Here is my response:




I was good, I didn't let them have them....yet. And in my defense this isn't my fault. My parents were horrible about waiting until Christmas morning. They would let us open one here and there before Christmas and then on Christmas morning they'd wake us up at ungodly hours of the night (sometimes with cups of cold water tossed on our heads) such as 2am just to open gifts. Therefore, its their fault not mine so blame them....he he! Love ya mom and dad!

What A Weekend!

Riding in the car with my kids is freakin fantastic. Every time I clean out the car I get mad and I swear there will be no more eating in the car! I lie. Every time I lie. I don't want to let them eat in the car but with our lifestyle and my impulsive personality we often end up jumping in the car and headed off on some ridiculous mission for no reason other than to satisfy my need for spazzy chaos.

Friday Brandy and I decided to head on up to Rolla to finish up our Christmas shopping. Amber's husband is home for his 2 weeks of R&R so she'll be preoccupied for a while (if you know what I mean) which leaves Brandy and I at the mercy of one another without the friend that keeps us living in reality and from doing anything to outrageous.

I loaded up the little blond boys and headed off to Brandy's after picking up her mail from Amber. You see Brandy is living off post and apparently the mail route stops two or three houses up the road from her because her house is new. It's stupid. So anyhow, we pick up a million packages and 59 letters and go to Brandy's. I left the naughty little blond boys in the car while I carried in two of the four boxes and then went back out to grab the others. I told them to stay in the car and stay buckled because they were riding with us to Rolla.

They stayed in the car.....for a minute. We can blame Brandy for this because she wanted to open her packages real quick before we left. In those few minutes I saw one little blond boy in the driver seat, the keys were not in the ignition I had tossed them up onto the dashboard like any irresponsible impulsive crazy idiot mom would do. Then I saw one brown girl in the passenger seat and I yelled out for them to all get out of the car and wait for us.

Tayton decided he should play the adult and they jumped out so he quickly locked the doors.

Yep with my keys inside!

I heard my alarm going off when one of the kids tried to open a door. I ran outside because I knew the keys were in it and there they were looking at me from the dashboard with my phone laughing at me. Mocking my poor parenting!

I yelled a little, I was mad as can be. I put both boys on the stairs and made them sit there until the tow truck guy came to unlock my van. Instead of a tow truck, a taxi showed up. He crammed a block of wood into the door crack and then he stuck this inflatable little sack into it and blew it up. I told Brandy we could have just used her bra but she "says" she doesn't wear that kind.

He poked around inside my van for about ten minutes until I felt completely violated before he finally hit the unlock button and rescued my cell phone and keys. It cost me $45 of money I planned to use to shop for their naughty little lock-your-keys-in-the-car-butts!

By the end of the night I was ready to jump from the van as we were driving down the interstate because 5 kids in the van for a half hour and then trying to shop FOR my boys with them WITH me really sucked! Although it was super cute when Korbin said "oooo mom I need this monster truck, I'll pretend I didn't see it so you can sneak it in the cart". I'm pretty sure they're on to me.

Another contributor to my bad day was when I decided that yesterday was a good day to see what Korbin was like without his new ADHD meds that we had just started less than two weeks prior. Bad plan. I like my sweet, although emotional Korbin much better than the angry, frustrated, mean Korbin that has emerged since the incident at public school that led to my homeschooling the boys last month!

Today I had a friend who was brave enough to keep my boys so I could finish up the shopping without them. To my amazement even Tayton wanted to stay with her after we visited for about an hour. He never wants to stay with anyone so I was very happy! She will also begin homeschooling with us in January so he'd better get used to her now!

I finished shopping, I swear I'm done!

Tomorrow we're going to load the 5 kids and Brandy and I and head up to St Louis to drive through the Christmas lights at Jellystone park. That should be fun.....or something like that!

Nine Years Ago...

Nine years ago

I had just turned 20.

I woke up at my best friends house exploding with nerves and excitement.

I realized that I forgot to pick up my puffy thingy for under my dress from the dress shop! I freaked out and called the shop and my best friend had to go pick it up while I was getting my hair done.

I rushed to the reception hall to set up tables and decorate. My favorite was the no smoking signs that I decided to hang up even though the hall did allow smoking! Hehe tricked you dang it all!

My fiance showed up at the reception hall and everyone tried their best to keep us from seeing one another. I let them win.

I was about 40 pounds lighter than I am now. We'll blame the kids.

I got mad because they tried to scalp me to put the damn veil on.

My sister in law (newly my brothers girlfriend at the time) had to help me with my make-up at the church because the lady that did it thought I should look like a clown!

My brother gave me away. I know he tried to give me away my whole life to random strangers but this time was for real. I also think he tried to shove me to Kirke before the pastor asked him to.

My family and friends were all there.

His family flew from Texas to Michigan to be at the wedding. And although his brothers, their wives and his parents arrived the night before the wedding, his brothers and their wives missed the entire wedding because the one wife was a selfish...... and couldn't get ready in time!

Nine Years ago I married my best friend and love him more today than I ever thought I could love anyone.

Nine years ago I met my father in law, brother in laws, sister in laws, Kirke's grandmother and cousin and his nephew. The only person I had met prior was his mom two months earlier. I met my FIL after the ceremony when we were walking back down the aisle. Kirke said "Dad this is my wife". It was kinda funny.

We danced to our favorite songs, I got one bite of cake that was fed to me and I'm pretty sure I didn't have time to eat much else that night.

We left the reception to find our car trashed decorated inside and out depite my begging for them to please leave the inside free of trash decorations. We almost popped the balloons that were inside the car but were warned, by my brother I believe, that they should only be popped outside the vehicle because they filled them with glitter and confetti!

We had to go to Wal-Mart in our wedding attire because our clothes bag was locked in the best mans room and we didn't know where to find him. I need a jacket and some comfy clothes. People seriously looked at us and said "did you just get married?" "nope we missed halloween so we're celebrating late!" Geesh!

I knew I wanted babies someday. I never imagined that in 9 years we'd have a 7 year old and 5 year old. Back then I didn't realize they grew up I guess.

Nine years ago we had a plan. The plan involved Kirke getting out of the Army and us moving to Texas near his family 7 months after the wedding.

Nine years ago I had only lived in 2 states and had never been to Texas.

I never imagined having to spend special occasions away from my new husband because the Army was to be a thing of his past.

I also never thought that two of the years of our marriage would be spent across the globe trying to maintain a marriage and raise our children and worrying about his safety.

Fast forward 9 years, 2 kids, 3 states, 2 reenlistment's and we're at today.

I spend my 9th anniversary of our marriage with our 5 and 7 year old sons.

I didn't get to hear his voice today but we chatted online for a little while. He didn't know what day it was, he had no reason to know, his mission is much the same each day.

Today my heart aches for the year we stood in the card aisle and passed cards back and forth laughing because we didn't see the sense in actually buying them for one another. Today I would have loved one of those cards pushed in my direction.

I'm supposed to be getting ready for Christmas. I'm supposed to be filled with Christmas cheer. Instead I'm angry and sad. I want to be happy that we're almost to our decade together but instead I feel jipped of two years with my husband.

Thank God I'm still married to the man of my dreams who still steals my heart. What I'd give to have him home with me.....

This is my gift to all of you this year.

My husband is standing guard tonight so that you and I may sleep under a blanket of freedom. (author unknown)


Happy Anniversary Kirke! I love you so much!

Fuel Spill

Today is payday in the military world. We all rush around paying bills and of course going to the dreaded commissary. It really sucks that everyone gets paid on the same day on post. It's probably a little extra crazy with the holidays so near.



I went out to go grocery shopping and then I had to stop and try to make contact with the school liaison for the millionth time....again with no luck! When I parked my car I remembered I had no fuel. My low fuel light was on. It had been on for two days. Oops. I had 6 miles to empty according to the fuel gadget in the car.



I pulled into the gas station and had to wait in line. Lucky me I pulled in behind a real moron. He had a new Ford Fusion. It had the temp tags still on. This much have been the moron's first time filling up too. I sat in the car praying that my van wouldn't run out of gas while he finished filling up.



He must have traded in a car with a much bigger fuel tank because when the pump clicked off he decided to just "top it off" a little more. He must have been trying to squeeze in that extra 99 cents to make it an even dollar amount. MORON! The fuel starter pouring out of the car! And he kept the handle down! He didn't even look at the car he was so focused on rounding out his purchase.



Being the person I am I wanted to make him feel stupid I shouted out the window "hey its overflowing"! But he was too busy still trying to get that even amount of fuel into his tiny gas tank. Then he pulled the nozzle out and placed it in it's holder and turned around to put on the gas cap.



This is when he got really stupid! Instead of realizing he overflowed the tank, because the gas running down the side of the car wasn't enough of an indicator, he stooped down to look under the car as if he expected a leak on the underside of the fuel tank to cause the massive puddle of fuel under his car.



So again, being kind, I yelled "you over flowed the tank when you were filling it up!" He responded "I did?" In my very best you're not completely stupid voice I said "yeah it was pouring all over while you finished filling up!" Moron then said "oh okay thanks" and got in the car and drove away.



Luckily I had just enough fuel to roll forward into his spot so I could begin fueling my own vehicle. I had an urge to syphon up the fuel off the ground because I hated to see it go to waste but then I remembered it was only $1.50/gallon today not $4/gallon so it wasn't worth it for me to find a straw just to save a buck fifty!



Seriously how do you have that much fuel pouring on the ground at your feet and not notice?

If This Doesn't Make You Smile Nothing Will

Korbin LOVES his baby blanket....still. He even wore it as a scarf the other day! He took my camera and the 7 kids took pictures tonight but this was the only one that came out.

The boys took Kirke's cowboy hats down off my bedposts............don't ask! These pictures were too cute. Notice the teeny tiny top hat on Cadie's head!

Notice he's touching her! He put his arm around here then pulled her arm up around him!

I was supposed to blog pictures of the two dogs Amber and I rescued from animal control tonight to return to their owners but the pictures didn't turn out. Sorry. But I've saved a rabbit and two dogs in one week! I ROCK!

My 12 Days of Christmas

On the 12th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 12 muddy boots ("there were more clean ones so I just got new ones on!")

On the 11th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me......11 moldy dishes ("I found these under my bed mommy!")

On the 10th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me......10 broken windows ("oops, sorry! we didn't think they would ALL break!")

On the 9th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 9 Tension headaches ("Mommy why are you holding your head and neck?")

On the 8th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 8 Brand new dents ("can you not believe how strong I am!")

On the 7th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 7 sleepless nights

On the 6th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 6 ER visits

On the 5th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me......5 small house fires

On the 4th day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me......4 flat van tires (because they liked the sound it made when they push the little button)

On the 3rd day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 3 dead car batteries ("we just had to see how bright we can make the garage without turning on the light")

On the 2nd day of Christmas my Blond Boys gave to me...... 2 Big Strong Hugs

And 100 pounds of dirty Laundry!

Sing it, it's kinda catchy! Merry Christmas!

It's Your Turn! I'm Done!

Anyone who wants to try their hand at explaining to this kid that Daddy will be home again and we're all going to be okay can have it cause I feel like hugging my daddy bear and crying too!

His daddy bear is a build-a-bear with a voice recorder that says "Hey Tayton this is Daddy, be a good boy for Mommy, I love you". We all have one, even Kirke. His has 3 voice boxes in it. Tonight Tayton sits in his bed crying and rocking and repeatedly pushing the button. I'll spare you the video.

Proud Army Wife and Momma of 2: Bring Him Home Santa !!! IT WILL MAKE YOU CRY!!!

Go check out the video in this post of my good friend Amber, it's sweet!

Proud Army Wife and Momma of 2: Bring Him Home Santa !!!WILL MAKE YOU CRY!!!

Squatters? Murderers? Thiefs? Vegetarians?

Everyone knows my wonderful, brave husband is not home right now. It's probably not the smartest thing I ever did to advertise that online but it's not like I gave out my address and house number and best time to be broken into right? I even took down my service flag after finding out we have had a group of squatters living on post in the empty housing units. There have also been a number of break-in's as well.




You should also know I have two very huge, mean dogs who love to attack and protect me, the boys and their food bowls. I also have two killer chinchillas who have a secret code we use to launch their attack on unwanted visitors and people who stay too long.



So anyhow here I am sitting in my living room minding my own business. When I heard my dogs acting strange out back. I went to let them in and they wouldn't come at first then Scrappy came in, he's a good listener, then I stepped out the door and that's when I heard the fence rattling and Allie wasn't anywhere near it.




I freaked out so I did what any logical person would do and locked the door came inside and IM'd Amber. SO what if she lives blocks away! Then I got a little more brainy and text messaged my next door neighbor to see if she was awake. That was another brilliant idea! As though she was asleep I wouldn't bother her with my possible murderers trying to break into my house. I mean really why would I want to interrupt her sleep! I'm an idiot sometimes!




So my wonderful neighbor Taryn woke her hubby up, made him get dressed and sent him out to the back of our houses. He came to my front door laughing and said well do you want to see what I found? I told him no. He laughed. And then he said no really come on. I didn't agree till I knew what it was first.

He took me outside and this is what he found:


This poor little rabbit! He was stuck with his hind quarters in the fence. Matt shined his light on it and it was all bloody and gross and his legs were broken. And then he went to touch it and try to free it and I told him no way! I'd call the MP's and make them work instead.

I called the station because I was not calling 911 for a rabbit stuck in the fence! They showed up and the guy had on rubber gloves but no flashlight! Which was super but ummm I'm pretty sure they won't help if he tries to bite! Geesh! Neither of the two had flashlights and of course I don't cause the boys just steal them and run them dead. I need the shaking kind! We used to have a plug in one that was cool....wonder where that went? Ok back to my story!

MP guy asked for wire cutters because the wire from the fence was stuck somewhere within the rabbits broken legs. Meanwhile the other guy was doing the paperwork. He asked for my ID card and then asked for Kirke's info. I told him Kirkes birth date and he said oh wow you're a year and 6 days apart. I was a little impressed with his math! Then a few minutes later he said ok so what's your husbands age? 41? LMAO!! I almost died. So much for his math skills! He was a PVT so he was probably 18-19ish. Kirke just turned 30! He apologized. I told him he should be sorry! I'm sensitive to other peoples feelings and mistakes and hate to make them feel dumb ya know!

Ok so rabbit guy freed the rabbit and of course I told him to bring him around front because I needed a picture for my blog.



This is where I tell you that whoever was in charge said to let the rabbit go. He has two broken legs and doesn't stand a chance. All I am going to say is that we're gonna give him a fighting chance. We had very humane MP's with us who didn't feel tossing the coyote an easy meal was very fair to the sweet little rabbit who had already played the role of dog toy to my two dogs for too long!

I'm Turning into a Man

I realize often that the things I do are not typical jobs for a mom to have to do. I don't mind mowing the lawn or taking out the trash. I don't mind carrying in all the groceries by myself and I don't mind doing a lot of other things. OK I really do mind doing those things but not as much as I mind some other things.

One thing that I really don't love was the time I had to change the tire on the old beater Kirke calls his car, just to find out that the stupid spare went flat as soon as I took the car off the jack. Way to make sure we had things taken care of honey! I don't love having to jump cars which seems to be quite frequent since her, her and I have been husbandless! I don't love having to climb on roofs to hang up lights but I don't completely hate that as much as I hate the cold. I don't love moving heavy furniture or flipping mattresses by myself at 2am and I don't love having to take apart things and fix things and I don't love feeling like I'm man with all the things I'm doing that HE should be home to do!

Last night my two little blond boys and their friends trashed their rooms so bad that I nearly put them and all their toys on the curb! Instead I took the TV! OH NO not the TV! OH YEAH I picked that heavy ass TV and carried it right into my bedroom! So there! Take that! It's mine now you ungrateful..........eerrr sorry. Where was I? Right man jobs!

Today I decided I'd sure like to be able to watch TV in my room so I went out back to the little control room where all the wires come into the house and hunted for the one that would wire the satellite into my bedroom instead of the little blond boys room. I hooked up one and went to check if it worked. Nope. There was only one other cable that wasn't labeled (thanks Kirke for labeling the others it is great!!) so I hooked it up. I ran upstairs expecting to be proud of my accomplishment only to find static.

I then remembered that my house is an incomplete piece of sh*t work. They put these houses up so fast that a lot of things didn't get done. So I called the boys to go get my new tool kit:that I got last month for my birthday. They lugged it up the stairs and I took off the cable outlet and found exactly what I expected to find. Those lazy bast...err umm...over worked contractors did not bother to finish the connection by hooking the wire to the outlet. So then I had to go on a hunt for a connector to attach to the incomplete wire to hook to the back side of the wall plate. Stupid people! I stripped the wire ran the cord in and fastened the connector to the wire and then to the wall plate. We turned on the TV and guess what? It worked. I was very proud and also certain I am producing way more testosterone than ever before and I don't like it!

Well I was proud until the oldest little boys says "Mom if dad were here he would have already been done with this last night".

GRRRR!

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,

I know that I'm not always on my best behavior. I have a tendency to pick and tease my friends. I make jokes that are sometimes often at an inapropriate time now and then too. But you see these things aren't actually my fault. I have these two little boys, you know the ones, they're on your naughty list right under my name, and they do these things all the time that make me a little crazy. It's not my fault that I like to tell fibs to them just to see how much there little innocent minds will believe. I can't help it because sometimes I just need to laugh. I hope you'll realize my innocense in all the chaos in my life and bring me the things I need most.

First of all I'd like a limo window installed in my van. I'm so sick of having to hear the kids in the backseat and without a limo window I might be forced to wear ear plugs or those big headphones like they wear on the runway at the airport and we all know that's just not safe! So this gift isn't just for me it's also for the safety of all the other drivers on the roads too.

Second of all I want security cameras installed in the boys bedrooms and the hallway so that I can see what they are up to. This isn't just for my sakeeither. I will be able to see potential issues and stop them before they either destroy the room or kill each other. But it has to have an off switch so that I am not being recorded when I enter their rooms and yell like a maniac to redirect their behaviors to something positive.

Third I'm going to need a maid. You see, I just can't seem to keep up things around here because I'm lazy because I spend so much time with the boys and cleaning cuts into quality time.

Fourth I'm seriously in need of a door at the bottom or the top of the stairs. The noise that comes from these two boys is ridiculous. I'm certain that 20 other kids together in one room would be much quieter than these two alone.

Fifth I need a soundproof, see through, 6 foot tall by three foot wide and three feet deep box in my living room next to the tv. This will be used to place the two naughty blond boys into when they are arguing and being mean to one another. I will place them in the box and they will not be allowed out until I can see that they are being sweet to one another.

Santa my last request is not what some might be expecting. I'm not going to ask for my soldier to come home because you're santa not god (or the commanding general) and I get why he has to be gone. I'm going to ask for something much easier for you to provide I'm sure. I'm going to need you to loan me a couple elves for the year. I know that's not a typical request but I figure if I get two elves the boys will each have someone to watch them and play with and keep them in line so that I can spend more time blogging taking care of the important things around here. The elves will have to take care of the kids so that I can go grocery shopping, out to dinner and sleep whenever I want without the chaos that these two little boys can cause in a matter of minutes.

Thanks a ton,

Michelle

Oh P.S. The elves don't have to be put under the tree. I have way more respect for them than that. Please allow them to get comfy on the couch and rest until the boys wake up and make them miss the North Pole!

I Need A Little Help

As you all know we're a military family. This leads to feeling really disconnected to our families back home. My brother and I have always been super close and he has a beautiful, kind hearted wife and the cutest almost 3 year old I have ever seen. When I started my blog and got over being freaked out about people actually reading it, I gave out the address to my friends and family back home. I felt that they could use it to feel a connection to our family and feel like they know the boys a little better. It's been wonderful for those who actually take the time to read it.

So while blogging for me has helped my family/friends and husband feel like they are connected to us a little better from far away we still lack the connection to them. I've been trying to get my brother and his wife to blog so that I can feel a connection to their son who I have only met a couple times.

I think I've finally got her convinced to blog BUT now she says she needs a name for a blog. So I'm asking all 3 of my readers for some suggestions.

Here's a little bit about them to help you out:

They live in Michigan.
Their son's name is Carson.
He reminds us all of my own mohog wearing crazy acting Korbin! (God help them!)
David is ugly. (ok i'm just kidding.......sorta)
Elizabeth is a hairstylist and they have a salon in their home.
A second child is in the plans.
David was in the Army for 4 years.

And here is a video of the cutest version of Jesus Loves Me that I've ever seen!

I hope someone can inspire something or trigger something in them to find a name and get blogging!

The Wrong Damn One

I had been working on a gift for Kirke's birthday for about a month and planned to have it ordered to arrive while he was home on R&R. I was very excited when we got home after our trip to Branson and found out that his book had been delivered. I have no self control and demanded that he open it immediately.

He tore through the box and I could see through the foam it was wrapped in that something just wasn't right. Kirke got the thing all unwrapped. It was very strange looking. It was a black cover with tons of random pictures covering the book. I looked closer and didn't know any of the people in the pictures. I had hoped it was just a wrap they used to cover the actual book because I had ordered an image wrapped hard cover book. I wasn't that lucky. It's not my book.

Kirke was really confused at why I ordered him a book since he does not ever read books. Even though that one was all pictures and no words he still didn't look excited! So I had to explain to him why I was so upset and what I had actually ordered for him.

I don't remember where I found it but I came across this website http://www.blurb.com/. You get to have your own book printed with pictures and everything. It also has this super great feature that allows you to "slurp" your blog into a book. It even takes the pictures and links your referring sites that you have linked to in your blogs.

Anyhow instead we got this strange book of pictures. There are no words, no author/photographer listed. Just tons of pictures. It's called Holi Cow Tour 2008.

Here is what I saw when he opened the box.

Holi Cow Tour 2008 I guess they do this regularly? The pictures are really cool. Blurb told me to discard the book but I can't throw a book in the trash so maybe we'll study some of the pictures.


These look like two naughty little boys but they aren't MY naughty little blond boys! Although I'm sure the four of them together would create some major trouble!
I'm guessing the author/creator/photographer traveled with a humanitarian group to these countries and worked with these people.
I immediately emailed the customer support at Blurb and they emailed back right away and said they would send my book to the printer right away and I should have it in a few days.

True story! Can you believe they said they'd fix the problem and then they actually did! My real book arrived a couple of days later. Unfortunately the surprise was spoiled. It turned out good though. Now Kirke can take my crazy thoughts with him and read my blog from day one through Halloween this year. It was right around 210 pages. I was able to edit and delete some posts that I didn't find

Kirke liked the book and it's now in Iraq probably collecting dust.........or sand......But at least he has this book filled with pictures and stories of our life.

This One's For the Girls

I decided to join the fun of the writers workshop hosted by Mamakat each week when I read Brandy's post.



The prompt that caught my eye was #2:



2.) Are you still friends with you high school friends? Describe them.



I chose this one because I have friends that I have had since I was a little girl. First off there's my friends Melissa and Diane. They have been mine since I was 7 years old and despite moving frequently they lived on the other side of the block from my grandparents so I always knew where to find them!



Melissa is a couple years older than me, she graduated two years before me from high school. she was also my brother David's elementary school girlfriend until her brother tried to drown my brother in the public swimming pool. David is now married to an amazing girl with no brothers....imagine that!



Melissa got engaged on her birthday on September 14th to her boyfriend and are planning a September 19th wedding next year. I will be a bridesmaid for her! I'm excited!



Diane was in my grade and she and I were inseparable in high school at least until boys got in the way and started consuming time we once spent making fun of other people. We have lots of great moments when we laughed and laughed.



Diane also got engaged on her birthday November 1 and will hopefully be setting a date soon. Diane was my maid of honor in my wedding going on 9 years ago so I'm super happy to get to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. Maid of honor is too much responsibility for me in either of their weddings and since Diane and Melissa are sisters I'm certain they should each be each others maid of honors! Wow that sounded weird!



I also still talk to my good friend Amanda who I met in 8th grade. My fondest memory with Amanda was playing football with her and my family and I'm sure Diane and or Melissa was there too and these punk ass kids came over talking shit and she punched the kid in the stomach it was good fun. Where in the world is that Russell Toon these days? I wonder if he remembers getting "beat up" by girls!



I have more people that I still keep up with from high school on my myspace and facebook pages but those are the three that are actively a part of my life still today! Love you girls!



Being military families we move a ton so we make friends like mad. Some you keep while you're in a certain place, some you keep forever. I have made some incredible forever friends Wendy, Dana, Sarah and Lydia all from Alaska. And we've been here for a couple years now and I know my girls Brandy, Amber, Summer and there's more that have potential and I'm sure will be forever friends for me too!



I hope that lots of people have found me to be that forever friend too. There are a lot of people who mean so much to me but these girls stand out in my life as having a very important place in my past, present and future!



Here's a picture with a few of these important girls. Everyone in this picture came from Michigan to Relay with us in 2007. It was so great to have so many of my closest friends together for such a powerful event! I miss you guys!

The Pictures You've All Been Waiting For

The pictures you've all been waiting for!

Or at least that's what I'm going to pretend. I like to think people are waiting to hear what happens next or to see the pictures from our many adventures so I will.

We met Kirke in Springfield at the airport where I asked some stranger to take pictures of us when he came off the plane. I was hoping people on the plane would be kind and let the three soldiers on R&R exit the plane first but, well, it didn't happen that way. So we waited and waited and then we saw his bald little head and had to wait for the people in front of him to move so we could get to him. That hug was so needed and perfect! Then as we walked through the tiny airport with about 6 gates one lone man stood and clapped and thanked the three soldiers each as they walked by him. It was sweet.

Nope not that one!

Ahhh Finally!

I don't know why that guy had to walk in the way of the best hug ever!!

Kirke loves to have the boys do crazy things! Korbin doesn't have much fear!

Over and over and over again!

Tayton was not jumping but he loved playing with daddy!

Kirke was so proud when Korbin jumped without someone to catch him. I see many trips to the ER in our future! Thanks Kirke!

Tayton is a bit more fearful and needed lots of help from daddy!

Don't worry I got time with Kirke too!

Here is the water park in the hotel we stayed at in Branson.

Inspiration Tower! It was gorgeous and a beautiful day to enjoy the view!

Tayton loves when we hand him our camera!

I loved the shadow that Inspiration Tower created on the ground below near the chapel!

There was so much to see at Ripley's Believe it or Not but I was fascinated by this statue of the tallest man ever. I'm very very tall in real life (compared to 5 year olds!) and wow was all I could say! Duck!


We drove the trail of lights.....Kirke thought Korbin should practice driving....I didn't love it!



One of my favorite light displays. It's hard to see but the frogs jumped from the side onto the branches one by one it was cute! Here it is full.

The boys loved this volcano. All of the displays were in motion so the still pictures do no justice to the real thing!


We enjoyed our time together very much and can't wait until the second half of this deployment goes by super fast.....after my girls get their R&R that is!

Four Years And He's Done

My little Tayton just graduated from Speech Therapy! Woohoo!



He's been in speech since he was three. His speech was really rough up until about a year and a half ago. He really started to speak more clearly as he started to learn to read. And just over the past six months or so I have finally given up my habit of translating for him when he speaks to other people because they keep looking at me like I'm stupid since he's been easy to understand for some time now. He went from being barely intelligible to correcting other peoples speech! It's great!



So now my baby is almost 7 1/2 and yesterday when I was finishing up everything to dis enroll them officially from public school they asked if we wanted to continue speech services so I asked to speak to the speech teacher because I didn't feel the service was needed any longer. She agreed! She said he has mastered all of the sounds and she hasn't been working with him on individual sounds just more on his anxiety levels as they escalate when he's speaking, but his pronunciation is great!

Woohoo Tayton!! Way to go little guy!

Korbin did two years of speech therapy and tested out last year so we are now a speech-therapy-free family for the first time in four years! Woohoo!



We are also now officially a homeschooling family and having a blast and learning so much! Even in our PJ's if we see fit!

I Should Know These Things

The boys frustrate me sometimes. They will ask me a question and wait for my answer. When I take the time to answer they'll say "Are you sure?" or "How do you know?" I get so frustrated and end up telling them not to bother asking if they aren't going to believe my answer! Or I will state something very clearly not even in response to one of their inquiries like now, I just said "you're as tall as your Christmas tree" to Korbin as he's standing next to it. His response "how do you know?" Because I'm not freakin blind alright!!! GRRR!



I used to be in control, or at least was led to believe I was in control of our day to day lives. But now it seems there has been a shift of power and the naughty little blond boys scooped it up and ran with it. I find my self asking their opinion about everything and then basing my decision off of their response. What happened to me saying "this is the way it's gonna be" and them smiling and going with it?



When I was a kid we didn't get choices. Mom and Dad said get in the car and we got in the car. They said don't ask for anything in the store and we didn't ask. They didn't ask what we wanted for dinner either. Nope they cooked whatever they cooked and we ate it and washed the dishes when we were finished!

I really set myself up for failure with these two because I know that they will always disagree with one another no matter what. Lately these battles have gotten even worse. They will argue over who has more noodles in the plate of spaghetti and of course when I intervene it just gets worse.

I'm going back to the way things were. My kids no longer have choices to make. I will decide and they will comply.

Yeah right that's gonna happen.

We can use shock collars on dogs that weigh 40 pounds so why can't we use them on kids?

I'm Sorry I Asked

Have you ever had to do something that you usually rely on someone else to do and wonder why they complain? Only to actually attempt the task yourself and realize why the they hate doing it?


Me either. But thanks for reading!



No really though, every single year I make Kirke do these things like hang Christmas lights in the dead of winter in Alaska. Now of course it's not twenty below but in my defense Kirke never had to actually get on the roof either. Here in Missouri I decorated last year on my own because Kirke kept procrastinating, but again I didn't get on the roof.



Amber just had knee surgery a couple weeks ago and has been threatening to get on her own roof to hang the lights if I wouldn't do it for her. She would have too but I didn't want to take responsibility for her falling unless I was actually the one pushing her.



She twittered about how dry and sunny it was so I knew she was itching to get her lights up. Don't mind that I just had survived my worst case of food poisoning ever. Oh right my only case of food poisoning that I can think of. I'm only assuming it was food poisoning because I'm the only one of our close group of friends/kids that got sick and I ate different food than everyone. The point is that I was very sick and weak and light headed but I didn't want her to injure her knee by climbing up there so I did it. I ran to her and climbed my ass up onto a plastic picnic table and began my climb up the very steady step stool being held in place so it didn't slide of course, by Amber.



I was so scared to climb up there trying to balance on that stupid little plastic table and then step on the top bar of the damn step stool and may I remind you please that there are no handles to grab a hold of on the roof to help steady yourself.



Here I am triumphant (and glad to be off that stupid little table)!


This is how enthused I was to be up there! I took a lot of pleasure in tossing things off the roof. The kids loved collecting the random plastic clips, twisty ties and pieces of cardboard, really they did!

This was just the carport, which by the way was very very very wobbly! Amber was tossing me up the next set of lights. She did not buy enough lights so I finished the carport with the three sets she bought and then had to get down from the beautiful sunny rooftop and then go back up when the sun was setting and it got cold!


This picture may look as though it was retouched and edited to be g-rated but that's not true! Nope it's not!

This one I just liked cause the sky is very blue and MISLEADING! But it looks pretty!

I want to let you all know that she made me go up in the freezing rain today to change fuses and take out the blinkers she insisted we put them in yesterday! I was so cold and I got soaked so I went home and then cooked dinner for her too. Gosh I'm the good friend.

You're Welcome!

So from now on I will not ask my husband to hang Christmas lights outside. Or so I say right now, ask me next year!

The Secret is in the Sauce: Merry SITSmas!

Those crazy SITS girls are at it again! And I'm loving it! Join me and see if you will win a prize! And meet lots of new bloggers along the way! We had a blast last time and a new prize every hour is so much fun!

The Secret is in the Sauce: Merry SITSmas!

MERRY SITSmas Everyone!

He Thinks I'm Dumb

I put the boys to bed at 10 tonight. I know I know I'm a bad mom blah blah blah, whatever! Here's my disclaimer: they were driving me nuts todaythey had both been sneezy and tired and blah so I gave them Benadryl today and that amounted to a very late afternoon nap from 5-7ish. Therefore an 8o'clock bedtime is out of the question.

Since Kirke left last week the boys have been sleeping in my room on the floor. The first couple nights because they were sad so I let them sleep in my room and then because I was sad and then because I was sick and feared they would wake up puking from the loft beds and I just didn't want to deal with that mess. So back to the point of the story. Tonight I put them each in their own beds in their separate rooms.

Korbin made it very clear to me that he did not want to sleep by himself in his own bed and wanted to sleep with Tayton. Being the loving compassionate mom that I am, I told him to suck it up and go to sleep. I covered him up, which in a loft bed means I tossed a blanket in the air with hopes of it landing on him and offered hugs and kisses which he refused. I told him I loved him, turned on his blue lights and left.

I then went to Taytons room to again throw blankets in the air and I actually got hugs and kisses from him all the while listening to Korbin cry that he wanted his brother. Tayton didn't seem to share that desire to have a roommate tonight.

Now here I am sitting in my chair that backs against the stairway wall and I heard a little blond boy come down the stairs but then it stopped. Well I should say HE stopped. The little white dog came around the corner past me and along comes a piece of paper. HE TOSSED OUT A PIECE OF PAPER! Am I supposed to believe Allie the dog did it? So I ignored him and let him sit there waiting to see what his next move would be. The occasional arm waving around the corner was all that followed.

I heard him go back upstairs then I heard footsteps again. He came down the stairs but didn't stop at the bottom, he scrunched down and ran past me in a ball cap as fast as he could as if I wouldn't see him! I said nothing. I waited. I hear him playing the bathroom, singing washing his hands, or flooding the place as usual.

I sent him back to bed and now he's back down here trying to strike up a deal with me.

Lucky me.

What a Week!

Wow where to start? Well let's see here, Thanksgiving was fantastic! We had a great time alone with 22 other people in Amber's living room enjoying the massive amounts of food everyone contributed. There was only 6 moms in the bunch and one grandma and two stray men who didn't belong to any of the mom's or kids (they were friends of one of the moms). The other 14 bodies belonged to children. Many small children. I expected major chaos but it was actually peaceful, laid back, relaxing and overall a really great Thanksgiving.

Friday Amber, Brandy and I decided to join the mass number of lunatics in the country to be a door-buster-sales-seeking-idiot! Keep in mind that our guys aren't home to stay with the kids so Brandy and I (Amber's mom had her kids) had to drag our kids out of bed at 4am to hit the store. That's right, one store, we only have one around here and I'm sorry to say it but it's Wal-Mart. We'd much rather have been at Target but that's not an option here in the middle of no where MO.

We got to the store at 5:02. I laughed as I drove through the parking lot and there was no where to park. I considered parking at the Dollar Tree next door but decided to drop Amber off at the door because she's on crutches. I circled like a vulture along with half of the rest of the county waiting for someone to leave the store. I almost got killed for grabbing the spot I did but that was nothing compared to what I found inside. I laughed a lot because people are serious about this whole black Friday thing. The lines were enormous and people were spending an easy $1000 before the sun even began to come up! I loaded my cart with two sleepy blond boys and fought the crowds. About 45 minutes later we all left the store with nothing. Yep that's right! We got up at a time that is illegal in some states, fought for a parking space, weaved in and out of aisles and left empty handed.

After going home and getting the rest of our sleep we had interrupted we decided to go to the PX to see what was happening over there. We pulled into the parking lot and I spotted the blood mobile. I had Amber drop Tayton and I off so I could donate a pint of blood. I've been feeling a little over full of blood lately. Our usual crew of workers were happy to see me and quick to scold me for missing my last opportunity to donate. My favorite girl grabbed me up and claimed me as her own. She did my screening questions and as always I giggled when she asked "have you ever had sex with a man who's had sex with another man"? I don't know why that cracks me up but it does.

We laughed and made fun of people and then she said "uh oh". Those aren't the words you want to hear when someones sticking a needle in your arm. Then she said "I've never done this to anyone before, I'm so sorry!" I felt fine and had no clue what she was talking about until I looked down and saw the bubble on my arm. Another guy came over and helped her fix it and avoid having to switch arms.

My arm hurt like hell Friday and Saturday and the bruising was an understatement. I took pictures for you don't worry. Anyhow Saturday we went to Springfield to do a little shopping. Let me tell you how much of a pain in the butt it is to shop for kids when the kids are with you and a lot smarter than they were two years ago. These two are some serious peekers! Around dinner time we started hunting for a place to eat. Three moms and 7 kids don't find that easily. We can't do 30 minute waits in crowded fake waiting areas and try to avoid the fast food places when we go out together because we like a decent meal. We ended up at Shoneys. It was cheap, it was decent but I ended up sick as can be. It may have been the food or the flu I'm not sure but either way it was horrible!

The boys took good care of me yesterday. I overheard Tayton tell Korbin that "mom takes care of us when we are sick and we have to take care of her because she's sick". Amber delivered the boys meals since I could hardly move and they delivered me 7up as needed. Today I feel better but not great.

Both boys were sneezy today and I gave them both benadryl. They are sleeping now at only 5pm. I'm afraid of what the night will bring for us. I hope they are okay and its just a cold/allergies but I'm afraid that's not the way my luck goes.

Did you brave the stores on Friday? How many people gathered at your Thanksgiving Dinner Table?