A Favorite Christmas Song

I'm Not Ghetto!!!

My day started with Tae Bo and weights in the garage, 10 miles on the trail that Jasper TOTALLY loved and than abs back at home on the floor with both dogs competing on who can cover my face with the most kisses! Totally gross, but love my furry kids! That was priceless!  We had Vicki's football game tonight. I had zipped over to the commissary and picked up a few non refrigerated items, one being a box of the new Chocolate Special K cereal. I brought the box with me out of the car and was eating it out of the box sitting in my chair. Ed looks over at me and is telling me he has NEVER seen anyone eat cereal right out of the box...AND that i am TOTALLY ghetto for eating cereal this was! I don't find this ghetto at all!!! During half time i am given this sheet of paper with the snack schedule on it. It shows that i have end of game drinks, TONIGHT!!!  At 3rd quarter i am off for a drink dash for 17 football players!!! Like who does that?!!! I've made these kinds of lists dozens of times! Whoever is making the list should do the first game if they can't get the lists created in time and given to the parents at one of the practices  Hope they liked the low cal orange Gatorade's  since that was the ONLY choice on what was open and ALREADY cold!!! But since Vicki's team won i don't think they cared too much what the after game drink was!!!

Just Too Busy!

I do promise to come back to Blogger World someday, just not today, tomorrow, or who knows how many days after that! We are having fun with our North Carolina adventures but I can only keep up with my journal and photo books these days! Hoping to be able to read all of your blogs sometime in the near future, i am sooo far behind in your guys's lives and i miss you all!!! But, it is summer and summer is full of fun, travels, beach, pool, and kick back evenings on the porch in my rocker with a great book or fabulous company! Soooooo, probably won't be back to my blog until things slow down in the fall or when Ed leaves again in the dead of winter! Yes, he is back from his Afghanistan adventures and only came home with a broken nose and cracked rib! Those dang IED's need to just go away! But, that is another blog for another time! LOL Hope your lives are all as full as ours are and that i can catch up on you guys someday! Love and miss all you blogging friends of mine!!! But..... is there anything better than giant pieces of chocolate cake and jumping in a giant room filled with trampolines.....? Well, other than family and friends of course, oh and the deep blue sea, and roller coasters, and......yes, i guess those will just be future blogs someday.....

Name That Tune

Starting in the middle so it isn't sooo easy to guess!!

Video clip to Ed for our "Name That Tune" game we play accross the ocean...

Free or Kept....?

We have 3 vehicles….Jorden drives the micromachine, well it is actually a Jeep Cherokee Sport, but we affectionately call it the micromachine, it is small and you can park it anywhere! Ed drives his truck and his fat boy. I drive the Commander….I’m not complaining about my wheels, I do like it, so don’t get me wrong…..but when I am driving the Commander I feel like I need to have make up on, hair in place, no windows down, a manicure with nails done, and of course a designer outfit with matching shoes and jewelry! That chick is NOT me!!! BUT, when I drive Ed’s truck I can be ME and I love it!!! I am the girl with the super messy ponytail, flip flops-sometimes not matching- or sperrys, always capris, either denim or cargos, totally casual shirt, designer NOTHING, no manicure although toe nails will always be cute, and fun jewelry, nothing a thief would waste time on! (Well, maybe my necklace Ed brought me back from Iraq that I wear my half of my heart on) I can also take Jasper with me in the truck!!! Needless to say, I would rather be the free chickie than the kept one and I will drive the truck as much as I can before Ed comes home and takes claim of his wheels again!!! AAWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Then I will go back to being the misplaced free chickie driving a kept chickies wheels! LOL

Clean Up On Aisle 9

Clean Up On Aisle 9
It happens every time my Marine goes away, no matter what the time frame of his absence is, there is that one day where I crack, just fall apart………….this time it happened on day 147, just 5 days shy of the 6 month mark ………….the day had started fine……..we had a fabulous time at the beach, we all came home the same color as when we left-that is success-enjoyed the rest of the day, went to the movies, yes, that was a disappointment, don’t go see The Back Up Plan, I left before it finished, they made sure to use every single flippin’ word, scene, etc, they could get away with and keep it PG-13. Sooo glad I didn’t take Vicki with me. I decided to do some grocery shopping on the way home. I was also starving!! I had made a lasagna on Tuesday and just had no desire to have it 5 nights in a row!! Anyways, I am walking aimlessly up and down the aisles of the grocery store and there is not one single thing that sounds good!! I picked up an egg sandwich in the Deli, blah, uhg, put it away. The cut up fruit looked sad, made my way over to the freezer section, of course the ice cream I wanted was on the top shelf. This requires me to actually climb up into the freezer and up the first shelf, yes people stared but I didn’t care and than the flavor I wanted wasn’t even up there, so I was just freezing. I kept thinking Jusco or a Family Mart would just be soooo perfect to have nearby, but since I am an ocean away from there I was trying to make do with the Walmart Super Center. UHG! I found nothing and just wanted to cry, but then I figured if I started crying and someone asked me what was wrong and I told them I was hungry they would think I was weird, 1. I am fat and 2. I was at the grocery store!! I was scrolling thru my phone and reading facebook posts and Leilani was there!!! So, I was texting back and forth with my super cool friend thru my melt down and of course she had me laughing and gave a virtual slap and so there ended up being no need for a clean up on aisle 9 from the lady bawling uncontrollably!!!

Two Books To Treasuer

I bought two of the same books, What I Love About You, one went with Ed to Afghanistan and I have one for me. I told Ed that he doesn’t have to finish it this deployment, but I did tell him it would be the most incredible 20 year anniversary present! Sooo, that would give him 6 years to finish it since we celebrated our 14th anniversary February 3rd. It has been fun writing in his book! It has gone everywhere with me! I rotate back and forth during waiting times scrolling thru facebook on my phone or writing in his book. I recommend both during deployments! They both have kept me cracking up but the book has been sooo fun remembering all our silly times and being able to be creative with no limitations since this book will be for his reading eye balls ONLY!!!

Deployment Dinners

Yes, when my Marine is gone breakfast is very common for dinner. It is consumed quickly and nobody minds having this dinner the next morning. Traditional dinners seem to drag on night after night when the dude in cammies is gone. Pot Roast that might carry into the next day with my love home will drag for 5 days with the kids tapping out on day 3 and taking the bowl of cereal option , lasagna can take up residence in the fridge for a week before I throw away those last few servings, and grilling…..well, let’s just say the dogs love me!!! So, yes, we eat breakfast a lot around here when Mr. Hottie is gone.

Up-Grade Time

UHG is all I have to say! I think phones are purposefully made to last for just one year. The notice came in the mail letting me know it was time to get new phones. Like I am still learning how to operate this blackberry, now I have to start all over again!! UHG! But, I did need a new one, the hour glass spun forever and so I would miss tons of calls because by the time the phone rang and hour glass finished spinning the person was already leaving a message. The little ball would randomly freeze to and yield my phone basically unusable until it started working again. Jorden and Vicki were thrilled though!! Jorden’s turns off all the time, literally, and you have to hold the chord when you want it to charge, no joke, and not exactly sure what Vixs problems were, only that she was soooo looking forward to a new phone. The kids and Ed’s request were to have pretty much the same phone, pull out keyboard, camera, and still have internet, facebook, and texting. Easy, done. Me, I didn’t want a ball, no touch screen, a bigger screen, bigger keyboard-wanted each button to have its own letter, AND I wanted it to be the same size!!! Mine fit perfectly into my steering wheel so I could put whatever pix I wanted on my screen and see it while driving! Well, what do you know?!! Got it and it was free, life is good. I’m not a techo gadget queen and don’t need the latest thing out there, just basic phone functions, text-I prefer to text than talk, I know sad, my yahoo, and of course facebook for those moments when I am stuck waiting or extremely long red lights, corner of Western and Marine I can get completely caught up on all my friends stats if I miss it just right! So, after all was said and done, 2 phones, one blackberry, 2 car chargers, 2 covers, 2 wireless ear piece things, and 2 memory cards I walked outta Verizon $180 poorer and hopefully they last for a year!

Patio Furniture Assembled

There were many requests to see what the outcome was on my attempt to put a millions pieces together to assemble my 10 piece patio set……….well after cursing a billion times it finally all came together and two days later we were able to enjoy the backyard much better now that we have a place to sit!!! LOL

Little Leah, Not So Little

Leah is growing soo fast! I pick her up several times a day and hold her because I know soon she will be too big to hold and that makes me incredibly sad! I also buy her a new outfit every couple of weeks because that is how fast she outgrows them. I know soon she will be tooooo big for cute clothes, so taking full advantage of her puppy days!

IM Seureus

I came home to this posted by our front door. Apparently this friend had broken all the rules and Ryan felt the need to post a sign after he sent him home. He was seureus. Hopefully his spelling improves……

The Perfect Glass Of Milk

Ryan has informed me that this is the perfect glass of milk!

The Fin Is Officially Dead

I have had this fin from Hawaii on my key chain for years,since Dec 2003 when we were there on our way to Travis from Okinawa for christmas! It broke in half about 2 years ago, and today it officially broke off of my key ring! Now, the dilemma….what do I replace this with…..maybe I will post a few pixs on facebook and have my friends help me decide or maybe I will just randomly pick something myself…..but, I miss my fin…………

Spring Toes

I am really missing getting my toe nails done on Oki! They act all put out when i ask for the most simplest of designs! So, here are my spring toes after the guy was sooo annoyed at me for wanting a different color on each toe and polka dots on top of that! GRRRRR!!!

Phones Are Great!

I'm at the gym finishing up my work out and my phone rings. It is Jorden. He has just gotten home from school and says there was a snake on our front porch and he took care of it. Next, an image comes over my phone.....

Snake Season is Here!

I HATE snakes!! Especially anything that can bite you and kill you!! I've taught my kids to treat EVERY snake as an enemy combatant. We live in an area surrounded by forest. Several of our neighbors had close calls last summer and early fall. These ranged from snakes coiled in the backyards to sitting on freezers in garages. UHG! On each occassion the snakes were deadly, so that did little to lower my fear levels of this place that i have grumbled about since day one.....today Jorden came home to a 4 foot snake by our front door. He grabbed one of his hockey sticks and went for the head. First shot, perfect shot and snake died. Yay Jorden!! He cut off its head so it would stop wiggeling all over the place. It turned out to not be poisonous, but we beleive in killing all intruders first and ask questions later! Ty and Ryan had fun holding it and than proceeded to take it around the neighborhood and show all of thier friends! Needless to say, all the kids now know to be on the look out that snakes are now out and about!!! Later they threw the carcass out into the forest. I'm now gonna go out and buy that Snake Away stuff and make sure our perimiter is covered with it!!!

Garden #2

I slaved away planting my garden. Came out the next morning and Leah had not only destroyed my garden, but ate everything as well! Grrrrr! I worked really hard hauling in dirt and replanted garden #2. She stayed out for a couple of days, but she keeps jumping in and and i find different spots dug up. I re-burry what's been dugg up and i guess we will just see what ends up coming up!

Strawberry Picking

I decided to take Ty and Ryan strawberry picking at the farm by our house. They grumbled the whole way there but actually had fun once we got there and they began dropping yummy berries in thier buckets!

Patio Hell

I have been looking around for furniture for the backyard for like forever now! We left everything with our neighbors in Okinawa and now that Spring has arrived it is time to start getting the back yard in order. I had NO FRICKIN idea this would be sooooo flippin difficult!!! Have looked dozens of places, of course things that I see that I like our either outrageously expensive or have no price tag and absolutely nobody in shouting distance to let me know the cost. Seriously thought about just loading stuff into the truck and seeing if someone might bother to get off their, I won’t say potty word even though I thought it, behinds!!! But, I figured my luck they would just call the police and then I would have that headache to deal with…..anyways, finally saw an ad for a set on base and it was under my price range and had pretty much everything I wanted except for the umbrella, no biggie, those are everywhere!! So, I take the truck and head out to base. The set is there, the price is the same, and I like it. I ask the guy who works there if it will all fit in my truck in one trip since I live about 40 minutes away. He looks out at my truck and says yes while I am stacking the chairs to make sure they stack to fit in truck. I ask him some other questions about fitting the set into my truck and all is just dandy! I went ahead and paid for it and told them I would be back as we had a CLB 6 event to go to first. I come back a few hours later and he has me bring my truck around back to put the set in. Lovely, it comes in 2 boxes. I thought our conversation earlier was about fitting the assembled set into the truck! One box is obviously the table and the other box holds everything else! UHG! From the size of the box it is VERY obvious that I will NOT just be assembling it, I will be pretty much building it from scratch!! Seriously? Me, build this?! Oh, soooo triple uhging on this, but it is paid for and was sooo quickly put in my truck by these two guys that I just drove home thinking it just might sit in boxes until Ed gets home or I will call my handy man and see how much he will charge to put it together for me…..I get home and have to leave again and of course only the little boys are with me. There is no way I am going to be able to get this out of the truck by myself, remember, I can never get the tail gate down!!! NOOOOO way I will be able to lift box over and out of big truck. I did get table out without breaking, but there was just no way the other box was coming out by just me…..i decide to pull truck into garage, simple….NOT!! Truck is toooo frickin big!! I do finally get truck in garage with much cursing as it literally has front bumper touching front wall and back bumper just has a sliver between it and the garage door. We leave. Later back at the house I am cursing the truck still because now I have to climb thru the cab or thru the bed to get from one side of the garage to the other, UHG!!! I finally decide I am going to tackle this beast and do it! I get Jorden to lower tail gate and help me get box out to the back yard. It took me two nights, glad I have those big flood lights out there and two afternoons of working for hours straight, but it is all put together, big table, little table, two reclining chairs with foot stools and four regular chairs. There were a billion pieces, my thumb is beyond shredded from all the bolts, but it is done and I have cursed the Chinese far too many times in the last 48 hours to get into heaven now!!!

Mr. Hottie Was Your Dad!

It was a beautiful Saturday and we were on our way to Havelock. I was picking up the Kirwan version of Thing One and Thing Two and meeting Debbie with her gang at the movies on Cherry Point to see Tooth Fairy. We were at the light of Western and Freedom Way waiting to turn left heading towards Lejeune, Emerald Isle, Havelock. Jorden was sitting up front with me and we were laughing at all the trucks in front of us and beside us. They were all young Marines, you could easily tell by the typical Marine stickers on the car and than they were all quite red neck with their other stickers, confederate flags amongst others all on that southern Dixie theme. Anyways, light turns green and we begin to move forward and make the left turn and now we are alongside one of the trucks we had been laughing at. There is this cute young blonde Marine sitting in the passenger seat and he looks over and waves. I laugh and wave back and soon he is blowing kisses and I am just totally cracking up, like I am old enough to be his Mother!!! I’m driving my Commander, it has all the typical stickers that scream “Marine Wife”!! On the back I have the classic His Boots Hers Flops Perfect Pair and ½ My Heart Is In Afghanistan, and of course the dead give away of my decal on my front windshield. I floor it and get waaaay ahead of them and then forget about them while Vicki is still going on and on about how hot he was and that he is her future husband. LOL Before I know it, they have pulled up next to me and he is taking off a necklace and wanting to hand it to me thru the windows. I’m laughing thinking that it has been like FOREVER since I’ve played this game! I tell Vicki to roll down her window and let him give her his necklace. The exchange happens, Vicki is in heaven and she takes a picture of Mr. Hottie as well. We wave good bye and go different ways a little further down the road. I was laughing at how Vicki was just going on and on about this young Marine and I laughed and told her that she just met her Dad at the age I met him and that is how I will always see him, this young, blonde, wild, crazy, HOT MARINE!!!! Vicki was like, really? And I said, yes, like really!! That was your Dad almost 15 years ago.

My Life in 2009 According to Facebook!

I'm not expecting anyone to read this, it is primarily just for me. Loved how Facebook summed up an entire year for me so quickly and efficiently!

January

is uploading photos before we move accross the ocean!

is subbing Spanish all week!

is switching back over to the English language, for a break of Spanish before Monday rolls around....

is sad that nobody wants to drive up to Nago for the Cherry Blossom Festival....

is uploading photos, again....sooo boring!

February

is going to bed and HOPES the phone doesn't ring at 6 am!

is sad the phone rang...off to high school i go....

is going to watch a chick flick while Ed plays in the jungle with his makeup wearing, cammie dressed buddies!

is waiting for dinner to come out of the oven so she can go deliver it to the family she is taking it to. Hope they like it, HATE TO COOK FOR PEOPLE!

is getting paid to play floor hockey, ALL DAY!!!

is happy with her run time tonight!

is coloring Vicki's hair, brown....why why why???

is listening to the wind blow and hating the rain! It's gonna be a wet run! Uhhg!

is back from Gails Groovy Party! What a fun night! Peace!

is watching Breakfast Club while waiting for the shower

is hiding from the boys who are all wrestling....

is now adding some of her songs to Vicki's ipod! Soo funny when she wants some of MY music!

is making Taco Rice for dinner

is subbing algebra all day today! UUHHG! Math hurts the brain!

is subbing for chorus and guitar today....singing and strumming!

is back from swimming laps! Time to watch Moonlight!

March

is soo glad Jorden mowed the lawn! Its just been too busy for me to get to it!!!
hates being on Tornado Alert! UUHG!

is sooooo happy to be off work today!!! I need a catch up day!

does NOT have a pocketful of sunshine, more like a pocketfull of rain!

had a pocketfull of sunshine all day!!! Wow!

just woke the boys up w a screatchin guitar solo!

is off to Vicki's track meet! She made JV for Kubasaki High School!

is off to bed! I am tired!

Hummmmm, wondering if the phone will ring this morning....i think my head still hurts from Geometry and Japanese yesterday....off to shower, just in case..

did not get back from her run before the sky began to cry again! But, still had to swim laps at the pool, so all was good! LOL

Light rain & 100% humidity, my favorite weather! NOT!!! UHG!

is off to find the water restaurant! Gail thinks she can get us there! How fun! :)
April

is leaving for China in 2 hours and i need to take a shower and pack! The weather is showing 30 degrees and now i am tempted to stay home! I hate to be cold!!! 8 days of freezing? Wishing i was off to Africa instead!

has arrived at the Jade Palace Hotel in Beijing! I left my house at 1015 am and now it is midnight! Nothing like traveling all day and not really going very far! LOL! Off to bed!

Walked The Great Wall today……………no words!

Thinks she is on The Amazing Race……soooo much running! Why is everything at the top of a billion steps?

Could NOT eat my dinner of snake, scorpions, crickets, larve, seahorses, um, what else was there? Anyways, gave it away to a homeless man...

is back from an 8 day jam packed trip in China! It was soo fun!!!

Getting ready for my last Dining Out on Okinawa! Now i can officially pack away all of my formals! YIPPEEEE!!!!

Wow! Have not run in 2 weeks! It was a painful 4 miles! LOL That last hill from the chow hall to the shoppette kickss my butt everytime! I want to run it like Ed! He flies up that hill! Someday......

is putting the green chilli chicken enchiladas into the oven. YUM!

is reminding herself, cookies in oven, do not leave kitchen, cookies in oven do not leave kitchen, cookies in oven......!

Girls night out Tuesday, Foster 7 PM Confession of A shopaholic

wants to know who scared the sunshine away!!!

got our fly date! June 13th!!! I can't breathe when i think how close that really is!!!

now has no fly date as they messed up, IPAC never ceases to surprise us....what else is new...USMC ADMIN, need i say more?

Hey to my NC peeps! Do ya'll use dehumidifiers out that way? Need to know if i should bring my two or sell before we leave? Let me know...Kyla, Ashley, Kelli, any of you out in that neck of the woods?!

is like sooo scared for what she is about to do! You can start guessing and i will tell you if you are right if i live to tell the tale! LOL

survived her first night dive! Kept forgetting to breathe so my air lasted a long time! I actually came in w 750 left! Usually i have to snorkel in! LOL!

May

is wondering why it is sooo hard for ADMIN to get our flights right. We've had orders since Jan, a dog and a cat going with us....it is May, we leave in June, and they messed up our flights again! I just want to get all of our lodging reserved, housing stuff done, yadda yadda yadda

has made too much food for our Cinco De Mayo feast! Matt, Angus! Where are you? I miss my neighbors!!!

got our flight date! It is now June 8th and so i had to cancel our other reservations, everything is full for lodging, need to get a nonavailability so i can find a place out in town, change this and that, but we have a date and i can schedule the animals now!!!

is subbing chorus and guitar this week and next....just a singin' and a strummin'.....life is good! Of course there is a grand piano, drum set, and electric guitars to play with too!!!

can't wait to get her custom flip flops back! The artist that is making them is incredible!!! I'll post pixs when i get them!!!

just got back from Angels & Demons. Great movie, twists till the end!

Cried buckets of tears, my best friend has left our family to live with his new family. I miss my shadow......

We found the chairs out in town to replace the Government ones Bisquit chewed on! Yay, housing stuff is done till imspection!

Ed brought home a one year old Golden Lab. Seriously? I named him Jasper after my favorite Vamp!

Fabulous beach day! Jasper loves the ocean! Can't imagine a better place to live than here, and than my eyes water when i realize our time in paradise is almost up!

While we were gone Jasper got out and just detroyed a bunch of my stuff! Apparently he doesn't like things from China and Thailand....must have a certain smell

thinks the little Okinawan upstairs is related to Samantha with the magic twinkle nose! He is soooo fast at packing!!! He said it was easy beacuse everything is already in rubber maids....but still! Amazing!

Decided it was NOT a good idea to go thru the drive thru at Burger King with Jasper! He must like hamburgers! He got on my lap and was trying to get out my window and into the drive thru window. I'm glad the little Okinawan was laughing at this giant dog trying to get a burger!

is in a pretty empty house and LOVING it!!! Nothing to put away or clean! LOL 8 crates and 8 hours of packing! The okinawan's are amazing!!!

wants it to be a beautiful sunny day!!!

just finished my last day at Kubasaki High School! Best job ever!!! Will really miss those kids and my friends that work there!!

and Ed Kretschmer have grounded the boys to the outside! Ty is at the door begging to come in because there are tooo many flies! AAAhahahahahaha!!!

had the last of our shipment picked up. The Okinawan's are just incredible! Express was packed in 20 minutes and they were driving away w/in 45 minutes! We go into TLF on Tuesday! Wow, time has flown!!!

wants it to be a beautiful sunny day!!!

June

Went into the Beach Tower tonight! This place is awesome! Loved the pools and the Dr Fish!

Dove with the Whale Sharks today! Incredible!!!

Tank had his last jungle fight. He picked a Mongoose. The noise was horrid, he now has a pierced ear! Just in time for his inspection to fly! He goes into the kennel today, he won't be happy!

had her last dive on Oki today. 2 boat dives, USS Emmons was incredible, no more, fly on Monday.....i'm dropping buckest of tears, again.....

says Sayonara to all my Oki friends! Will miss you all! 40 more minutes till we are in the air!!! YIKES!!! ぉヴぇとあ

Jasper did great on the trip, Tank, well NOT so great! Ohhhh, he was mad!!!

Saw Kirwans, picked up our Jeep and now at Kyla's! Miss Oki but fun to see friends!

Housesitting for the Rogers! Jasper loves their dog Sarah! Total buddies!

is catching up on her life!

counted 42 mosquito bites on the body! UHG! Sooo missing the truce i had with the Oki jungle blood suckers!!!

July

has just discovered that once again her DARLING, SWEET, CARING, okay lets get real, none of those words work, lets just say the HUSBAND has once again hacked into the WIFE'S facebook and took the retarded test! Soooo, the 91% actually goes on ED'S profile

is now $131 poorer after paying her fine for speeding on Highway 24! My last speeding ticket was in 1997 when i was going 32 in a 25, now this time i was actually driving fast, or atleast faster than what i have driven in a loooong time! I was going 64

is at the beach. time 2 put the phone away n hit the waves

is off on a bike ride with Jorden! 6 o'clock, dinner, dishes, and dessert is done, time to go play!!! Yipppppppeeeeeeeee!!!

is on the Rd heading to charelston sc 2 pick up r Van that has been in storage 4 6 yrs. yikes!! we r pulling it back. yay 4 a blackberry!!!

is leaving myrtle beach. what a cool place!!! back on the road again.

is thanking all my wonderful family & friends for all the birthday greetings!!! Thank you! Made turning 41 not soooooooo dreadful!!! LOL!

hasn't had internet for awhile, just when i get over to the library, not often, so i'm not ignoring any of my super cool friends and family! I just don't like texting lots on my blackberry! I gots fat fingers!!! UHG!

Have a i mentioned i don't like this whole building a house thing?

August

is missing her Saturday morning dives!!

Is walking Jasper, again!!!

is hoping the movie the Time Traveler's Wife is as good as the book!!!

Okinawa shipment gets here today! House will no longer echo!!

no longer lives in a looking glass! The blindman came and put up our blinds! The blindman.....hahahahaha!! That is funny! Are you still laughing Kyla?!!

is off to bed.....Ed has lost interest in the game....he was sooo excited to watch Monday night football on Monday nights, but stupid Brett had to be playing tonight! Retire dude!!

heading out to run the dog on our trail....soooo, if ya don't hear from me in awhile atleast my friends know where to start looking for me! I wish more people ran this trail! It scares me in the back when my imagination goes overboard! Tooo many CSI episodes.....LOL!

had dinner done, kitchen is cleaned up, peach cobbler is almost done....than the maddness of getting everyone to jacksonville to scouts, yw, etc....just as long as i get back in time to watch Criminal Minds!!! LOL!

if off to run Jasper. He brought me my socks and is crying, which is his way of saying he needs to run! UHG! Yay! It's Friday, Ed gets to run him tomorrow!!!

is in the truck w the family heading out 4 a fun day!! who knows exactly what we will do, but it is beautiful out!!

is just sittin in the rocker on the porch eating some yummy peach cobbler! Life is good! Got that song, ....."It's gonna be a good good night...." going thru my head!

is sitting on the porch waiting to see my dude in cammies to come rumbling down the road!!

is at the rodeo. 15 minutes till the bull riding begins! yee haw!!

Is thinking I might have gotten bitten by a snake last night….?

is still in denial that she lives in a one stop light town!!!

is off 2 get lost in some corn fields! glad it's daytime! couldn't do this at night!

has lunches made, 2 kids out the door, 2 to go, and last batch of muffins almost done! It's not even 7 am!!! I soooo miss summer!!!

has dinner in the oven, rice is going, Vicki's South of the Border Lemon cake is done, YUM! Guess i will head off and fold that last load of laundry,than there will be no laundry...until everyone undresses tonight! LOL

dinner and dessert done, fhe done and I came in 3rd in Monopoly! my helo's weren't bringing me in enough dough! time to gather up laundry and wash a load before bed!

Found my pole dancing videos for Carry! They are hilarious!!!

is off 2 run w the cutest personal trainer EVER!

Loves Criminal Minds!

saw this and loved it! Misguided and lost people idolize those who are lost and misguided...vicious circle

October

has yummy halloween cookies out of the oven, kids should be walking thru the door any minute! Love Fridays!!! Yiippppppeeeeeee!

has found the remote for the big flat screen in the living room! I knew i should have checked the dive gear! Why would the Oki packers pack it anywhere else?!! Back out to the garage! UHG!!!

Made yummy apricot pies for breakfast! Wish I could make them as good as my Grandma’s!!!

needs a new waffle iron, apparently heart shaped waffles don't sit toooo well w the boys!

Never wants to move the roll top desk again, atleast by myself!!!

is off to take a ghost walk in Beaufort! Hope I don't run into Blackbeard!!

is wearing socks, boots, pants, and a sweater all at the same time! Beam me up Scotty! This place is too cold!!

is loving her elephants! Great interception!!

is wondering how many cookies this recipe is gonna make?! I want to be done already!!

Feeling bad Ed is out sleeping on the ground on our first freeze and I am gonna be snuggled in my bed!

Not liking scraping ice off the windows!

Hate stirring to the hard ball stage!

Getting ready to ride the Haunted Hay Ride with Kyla and her kids! Scary!!!

just wondering who will be paying the medical bills for the HIV positive travelers that Obama is now letting into America...?

November

Had that extra hour of sleep for the first time in 6 years!

just finished over 6 miles on the trail! Hope i wore out Jasper, i've got stuff to do!!!

was told by her darling, sweet, loving husband to check the lights on the back of my jeep. While I checked he backed up! When will I ever learn?!

Always loves the offical notification that my Marine has safely made it to his new destination!

starts to walk into Walmart during a bomb threat. I'm too oblivious to my suroundings!

is wondering if anyone has an updated link to the Copenhagen Treaty? Trying to see what has changed since June....

has begun the madness of cheer leading and basketball season! Just sitting in the bleachers with my phone and my cool FB friends!!

just got the call that the kids schools are on 2 hour delay due to the flooding. Vicki and I are going back to bed!!!!

is thankful there was no rain today! Now off to take a bubble bath in my giant tub that I am also thankful for!

is thankful that Vicki's fever finally broke! Rough night, 105, she was shaking, burning up, and blabbering all kinds of nonsence in her delirium! Not to mention the VOMIT, VOMIT, VOMIT!!!

is glad that the flu has ended, no vomit since last night, but bummed it has now turned into strep!!! So, today, i am thankful for ANTIBIOTICS!!!! Still hoping my kids don't pass this on to me!!!

Is thankful for Ryan's sweet voice! I was playing When Christmas Comes To Town on the piano and he came and sat next to me and sang along.

Going to town today and giggling that I say things like that now!

We are sitting in our seats waiting for New Moon to begin!!!

is just thanking my FB peeps for keeping me awake while i was getting these cookies made!! Now, to bed!!! Yay!!!!

is thankful for Ty who was born a decade ago today at Camp Pendleton. Same place i was born, it was sooooo cool to share my birth PLACE with the little guy!!!!!!

Thankful for a giant kitchen! Let the cooking begin!!!

Sorry Ed had to spend Thanksgiving in the field, but we had a great time with friends and my brother Dallas!!!

had no desire to shop with the crowds! Instead I got our tree up and the house decorated!!

is laughing at Ty and Ryan who are watching and loving Footloose, or as they call it, Loose Foot!

Has not heard gun shots in 24 hours! Are they done?!!!


December

is not liking this 32 degree morning!!! Burrrr!!

Not liking this tornado warning thing but loving the warm humid evening….my eyes are closed and I am Envisioning myself back on my island of no worries…..

is laughing at the kids! They are scared at all the gunshots going off. I keep reminding them we live next door to the deer trail....but i am hoping these hunters have some good night vision goggles on hunting in the dark!

In for a long day on the bleachers….4 games, none overlapping!

is happy to be out of tornado watch, thrilled the power is back on, and so lucky to have gotten home from the trail right before the rain came down!!

Waiting for the jeep doctor to tell me what is wrong with the micromachine!

wants to know the warning sighns of a transmission about to go on this big ole dodge ram truck and how to make the transmission break faster so I can Just get this over with!!!

is going to get all warm and cuddly under my covers! Will be 28 tomorrow without the wind chill, UHG! Wonder if Jasper will let me outta running him! Wonder if Ed will let me buy us a treadmill for when winter gets here! Glad there is no rain on the way!

is off to find Ed in a sea of cammies! wish me luck! Glad he is tall!!

is off to meet Ed at Lejeune and finish the rest of our shopping! I want to just bake, watch Christmas movies, go to the movies, and just hang with the family next week! No retail the week of Christmas!!! LOL

Just finished doing the hay ride at Mike's Farm! If you are in the area it is well worth the 7 dollars a person!!

Totally loves the chocolate peppermint milk shakes at Chic Fil A!!!

running the trail w Jasper while the family is playing basketball! FUN!!!!

has just far toooo many calories in this kitchen! Where are my Kishaba neighbors to help eat all this?! Miss you guys!!!

loves Christmas Eve! Blue skies, sunshine, Christmas movies, goodies, giggles, done checking my mail, now to enjoy the day!!!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Or day to my Oki friends! Now, Gunny Clause, I've got a surprise For you!!!

is catching up w ya'll as we drive into town 2 go to the movies! A perfect day 2 spend a cold rainy Christmas afternoon!

has a 7 am flight to catch in the morning, i guess i should go throw some clothes in a suitcase real quick! Heading out to Cali!!! Family & sunshine! Perfect ombination!

sitting in the airport, flight overbooked, hum

is having space A flashback!! Can't get out today but this flight delay Just gave us 2250.00 dollars for showing up and not being able to fly!! So we are a day behind!! UGH!!! Oh and bags have aleady flown out! Merry Day After Christmas!!

its rock band time at our house! Later gaters!!!

Off to the airport to try this again! Easy since our luggage already flew out! Interesting getting ready When you have nothing to get ready with!

is finally in Southern California! The only place I know better then Oki!!!

is going hiking over at Joshua Tree. Beautiful day!! Later the marshmallow wars will begin!

is letting everyone know there is way more than 29 palms here!! I counted!!!

is back in cold NC getting ready to bring in 2010. Won't be anywhere near as fun as last years though!!!! Miss you guys in the hood!!!

is thinking i might need to head outside....the boys are setting off fire works early since it might rain tonight....dogs are barking....i see lots of smoke....yes, now the boys are hollering! Happy New Year a few hours early since i am logging off till next year!!!

Socks Found!

Don't ya just hate it when you are doing laundry and you are always missing socks?!! It happens all the time in this house and drives me flippin' crazy! I clean and vacume this house everyday so i KNOW i would find missing socks!! The weather finally warmed up and it was a beautiful 55 degrees out so we were all playing in the backyard. Well, guess what i find while i am out there chasing Jasper?! I found his secret stash! Guess what was part of his secret stash? SOCKS!!! I guess i'll just check the backyard from now on for my missing socks!

Winter Wonderland!

Friday night, February 12th, I took the kids to go see Avatar. It started at 7 PM. Around 8 PM Vicki's phone went crazy with all these incoming text messages! She was recieving intel from her friends from Havelock to Richlands that it was snowing! She leaned over and passed on the news to me. Avatar is a long movie, great movie, but long, so you can imagine how much snow was on the ground by the time we exited the movie! We were on a Marine base, so of course a full blown snow ball fight broke out in the parking lot! It was sooo much fun! Than the reality set in that i had to drive us home in this! UHG! Thank goodness we were in the Commander!! Much bigger than the jeep! We made it home without me crashing into anything!!! Amazing!! It snowed all night!!! Saturday morning we woke up to 6 inches of snow! It was beautiful!!! The kids had a ton of fun playing with their friends! Vicki made a snow angel, i made a snow man, Ty and Ryan had countless snowball wars with thier friends, Jasper had sooo much fun running thru it and digging for his tennis ball. Tank on the other hand......hated it!!! He would NOT go outside for anything! We finally carried him out and Jorden put him in a non snow grass area. But, nooooo, Tank did not want anyone to see him do his buisness, so he tried to walk back in the snow, sinking to his shoulders! He was NOT happy!!! Jorden went and got him and set up a litter box for him in the garage. Tank, the cat who refused to use a litter box in typhoons and would battle 150 mph winds to go potty outside would NOT go in the snow! Must be a tropical thing!

My First Snow Man!

I've never lived anywhere where there is more than just a light dusting of snow, so when we had 6 inches come down the night of February 12th, well i had some fun!! The kids had a great time throwing snowballs and playing with their friends, but i made a snow man! My first one EVER!!! However, I had no idea how to make one! Every show i had ever seen on TV showed people rolling snow! I tried rolling, and it wasn't happening! I did recall that all the shows i had seen with the making of snowmen were cartoons and so i was laughing at myself for being sooo dumb to think i could just copy a cartoon! DUH! Googling snowmen for dummies wasn't any help either! But i managed to make a creepy snowman for our yard!!! He was pretty scary, but he was mine!!!!

Making Puppies

My friend Ashley called to say her Golden Lab, Sadie, was in heat and wondered if she could bring her over to hang out with Jasper. Needless to say, Sadie came over the next day and spent 5 days with us! Jasper was thrilled to see her and they have had a fabulous time together!!! They spend most of their time running in the backyard. They would race along the perimiter of the fence barking their heads off at whatever they heard on the other side. Ashley and I weren't sure exactly how to know if they were accomplishing anything. She was just told they would get stuck together. A little while later we looked out the window at them and like, wow! They were stuck together! It was tooo funny! They were looking at us with these pathetic expressions. They stayed stuck for like 20 minutes! Jasper had to walk backwards as I guess Sadie got to decide where they would walk! I have seen them stuck several times over the last 5 days! I would be shocked if Sadie does not leave here with puppies in the making!!! Jasper went a little billistic twice on her during her stay. Have no idea what triggered it, but had to put him in his kennel for a LONG time out!!! He hasn't had any meltdowns in the last two days! Yay! I finally let them sleep with me the last two nights! I couldn't take them crying for each other all night long! It's been a fun 5 days with these two Okinawa Golden Labs running around the house, well fun for everyone but Tank. He has spent the last 5 days living up high! He does NOT like Sadie at all! I thought he would remember her from Okinawa, maybe he does? I'll let you know if puppies come of this!

Words

I got this from my little sister Letha! Totally loved it!!!

I love words. Words are my precious little darlings that always behave and do what I ask them to. Words are always there for me; my darling little lights of intelligence and wisdom, when aligned and allied together become moving and powerful beyond their own ability to express. I love words -- and words love me.

Good Bye Space Mobile

I’m sooo stinkin’ mad I could spit nails right now! UHG, double UHG, triple UHG!!! We have this Ford Windstar completely paid for and in perfect condition! The downside is it has been in storage for 6 years while we were in Okinawa. We picked it up in South Carolina in early July this last summer when we got here. I have been corresponding with California DMV since July in trying to get a little sticker for the plate. Unfortunately…….they neeeeeeeed a copy of the title! I was never mailed a title when we paid it off a couple of years ago while we were in Okinawa. Thru all this back and forth correspondence we found out that the bank we had the loan thru was one of those banks that went under a few years back. We really didn’t pay too much attention to that bit of news as we had none of our mass amounts of dinero in any of the banks that were going bankrupt! So, now there is like nooooo way to get a copy of the title in a decent time frame. Correspondence with California DMV takes 8 weeks to THE FRICKIN’ DAY on hearing back from them on any correspondence! We have been going back and forth redundantly now for what feels like forever!! We came to the depressing conclusion that due to the DMV quota people that work in California, they would rather get paid to talk on their own cell phones all day and correspond with their facebook/myspace/twitter/etc friends than actually work for what the tax payers pay them to do! Yes, Quotas are sooooo similar to Politicians! Nothing gets done and they still collect a paycheck! Soooo, instead of continuing to pay insurance for a vehicle we might actually NEVER be able to drive we traded in our Ford Windstar. I almost started crying at the dealership. The guy actually asked if I was going to be okay and if I was going to have some separation anxiety on parting with our vehicle. Ed started laughing and reminded me that I had cursed that vehicle the first time I had seen it. True, I did back in 2001, but there are sooo many fun memories in that space mobile and IT IS PAID FOR!!!! So, Ed found me the perfect replacement mobile. He knows me so well! I like a box, well not like, I LOVE a box!!! I love our Jeep Cherokee, but it doesn’t hold all of us, so Ed found me another box that holds 7, the Jeep Commander! It is white and matches the Micro Machine, just a bigger edition. My dream car is a Hummer, but don’t want to be saddled with those fuel expenses, so this is the next best thing! I jokingly call it our ghetto hummer. Hahahaha! But I do really like it, just hate that NOW we have a car payment!!! I did cry, but I waited until the drive home. Ed drove while I bawled and he reminded me that I had never wanted to drive a van and I reminded him of all the images I had seen in my rear view mirror in my space mobile.

When Ed Does NOT know me!

I repeatedly embarrass my poor husband! I try not to, I really do, but my brain just thinks silly and my body responds to the visuals going thru my head, and whala! I continue to drive my Marine insane! This time it was at the Uniform Shop on Camp Lejeune! I love to climb inside different uniforms and just wait for him to walk by! My lines usually consist of, “Hey Marine, this coat comes with a wife!”



He walks away like he doesn’t know me, buuuuuutttttt, I do see the corners of his mouth just barely turned up suppressing a grin as he shakes his head walking away! Someday I hope he plays into my game and just wraps me up in his arms and says “Wow, this is my lucky day!!” Yeah, like that won’t happen, but now I have Vicki playing with me at the Uniform Shop! Coats now come with potty trained dependants



and it is such a fun place to play hide and go seek!!!





So, if you are ever at the Uniform Shop and items of gear start talking to you, no worries, it’s just me teasing Ed!

Good Bye, Again....

It’s that time again….deployment. Ed is already in Afghanistan. We said our good- byes on January 3rd. Ed left with Advance Party, so there weren’t a bunch of Marines leaving on this farewell. It was a beautiful day, but freezing!!! Well, 21 degrees, cold for me! We went to church in the morning and then we were off to the base. Ed had to be at his pick up place at 2 PM. By 5 PM the bus was rolling out and heading to Cherry Point to catch their plane from the East Coast to the Middle East. Does that mean he is half way to the West Coast? He arrived a week later after spending almost a week in an old part of Russia.

One of Ed's Best Friends Came To Say Good Bye











It was nice, Ed's friend helped carry the packs so i didn't have to pretend like i could carry one!






Ty and Ryan sitting on Ed's packs





He has his tag laced on his boot, he's ready to go



Last Family Picture




Time to load up the packs




Vicki tried sooo hard not to cry....but she fell apart at the final good bye




Last Kiss



The Last Hug





The Last Wave







Driving Away....




He gave me the wave from his heart before he climbed on the bus.....