I See Me!

Vicki fell asleep at one of the boys early morning baseball games, i took a picture of her.  After downloading it on my computer i zoomed into her glasses and found me! 

Jewelry Box Treasures

My kids love to go thru my jewelry box.....Vicki for my jewelry, the boys- not so much for my jewelry, but for the things they find as they open different drawers and find hidden compartments.  The latest treasure of mine they brought me was this:

Ty's FBI Badge that he made while we were on Okinawa.  He even took a pencil and colored his finger with the lead and made his own fingerprint that he covered with a piece of tape so nobody could erase it!  Yep, a thief wouldn't be happy to open my jewelry box but i would be devestated to loose my treasures inside!

Mermaid's

I wonder sometimes if Vicki was born with my love for the water or if it was just brainwashed into her since she was born in Sunny Southern California and spent most of her life in San Diego and the Tropical Island of Okinawa with beautiful beaches minutes a way....This in turn makes me wonder if I was born with My Mother's love for the water or if it was just brainwashed into me since I was born in San Diego and spent my early years minutes away from warm water beaches in Sunny Southern California and the Tropical Republic of the Philippines...?  Or, maybe we are just decendents of a special breed of Mermaids.....



I can float for hours, literally!  I just close my eyes and fall asleep while ocean critters take up residence in my hair!



Ryan's Big Guns

Ryan is sooo cute!!!  He could care less what people think and will pose any way asked of him!  He didn't even think twice when Ed asked him to show us his "Big Guns" in front of this picture. 

For Jorden

Jorden is my Skater Dude.....he has had a board as long as i can remember!  I got my first skateboard when i think i was 8 and loved it!  I am just not as good as Jorden and i don't skateboard anymore.....but when i saw this giant skateboard i couldn't resist and had to send this picture to Jorden's phone!

Stop?

Sooooo, i wonder if someone watches this sign and trims it or if we just don't stop once it is covered...?

China Heard My Pleadings!

I have been looking for Bright Stripe Bedding for years!!!  I really did not think it was an odd request to want our bedding in our room to have a bright beachy look.....apparently it is not an odd request but more of a rare request!  I have googled bedding for years with no success and once we arrived Stateside went into every place i ever saw that sold bedding in search of Bright Stripes!  I even tried to get our LV Bedding i had made in Korea to atleast have the bright colored LV's, but they could only do in black and white or a brown/tan and white, so opted for the guy to make me the Black & White Louis Vuitton bedding set while i continued my Bright Stripe Bedding search.....years passed....nothing had been found.....if Ed and I shared a twin bed it would have been a piece of cake!  But finding a King size comforter was just NOT happening.....and than all of sudden, there it was!  A KING SIZE BRIGHT STRIPE COMFORTER!!!  I finally have my Bright Stripe Comforter!  Of course, i had just picked out all my beachy fabrics, i think there were like 12 different fabrics i chose for a custom made beach quilt.....but it will take a while to be made....so for now i am just happy that China heard my pleadings! 

To Sea!!

Ed is such a good sport when it comes to living with me....He really didn't want to do this.....but he loves me......so he did.....and i love him even more now!

Strawberry Picking 2011

I love going to the farms and picking my fruits and vegatables fresh! The kids grumble but i have them take turns going with me....this time it was Vicki's turn.....I picked most of the really yummy strawberries while Vixster complained and found a few as she wondered absantmindly up and down the rows and rows of delicious strawberries.....

It was a beautiful day and everything was sooo GREEN!!

She just sauntered up and down the rows...

Miss Grumbles!!!

My first of many yummy bowls of fresh strawberries!

Pack & Boots

I never EVER blog when he is leaving for all those short weeks here and there because i am a scaredy cat, so when i blog about him leaving on endless training that he already knows, probably better than the back of his hand, he is already home....but this is the site each night before he leaves on his fun Marine outings.  I tease him about how it isn't fair that he gets to go camping with all of his friends, and hike around, and drive cool vehicles, shoot awesome weapons, blow things up, and of course the ocean swims!  The dolphins always come when the tracks hit the waves!  Oh! AND they even wear super cool make up that hides all your flaws when they are out on these camp outs!  I am not jealous of the swamp swims though....it isn't so much the aligators, but the snakes!  My luck i know i would get the hello via fangs injecting toxins to kill me greeting!  He never takes pictures, so i ony have this image, the "Pack" that he begrudingly packs grumbling the entire time, his "Boots" and that cool "Vest" he gets to wear on their nature walks.....

3 Boys + 3 Trees = P x 3

Not much to say for this post.....only that i love my boys, and sometimes i am just a bit envious....just sometimes....

After......

Mothers Day From Texas!

Not sure why this is sideways...watching first baseball game

The GIANT card from Jorden

Yes, i am quite behind in my blogging and most will be out of order due to how annoying it is to attach pixs to my journal entries!  So, when i have a minute, i pull an entry from my journal, copy and paste to here, and than the uhg part of adding photos.....but today is another stay inside day due to the fires, so catching up on the Blogger....Mothers Day Weekend of this year, 2011, began with the mad dashing to baseball games!  No complaints here, can't think of anything more fun to do on a Saturday morning than watch my boys smack balls out to the outfield and cross home plate!  The surprise today was coming home between games and finding a giant envelope on our front porch!!!  It was from Jorden with a giant Mothers Day Card in it.  He has always remembered my Birthday, and Mothers Day, and of course Christmas.  Usually Mothers Day it has been a card that he has made and had his little siblings sign and a deluctable chocolate bar inside.  he knows where my passion lies!  Obviously he couldn't send me a chocolate bar from one hot state to another, but i love my card and it might be a permament fixture in front of the fireplace until the Fall!!! 

Body Surfing

Nobody grabbed the boogie boards this beach trip, so we only had our bodies to use in the waves.....we all still had a ton of fun as the waves were fast and crashing hard!



They are heading out boogie-board-less



Ed....i can think of several captions.....

Ryan & Ty

Ryan & Ty

Ty & Ryan

Ryan coming in

Ryan just hangin' out

I am not sure if Ed is aware of the two sea creatures that have attached themselves to him...

Tag On The Beach

Dad's IT!! Run ty, RUN!!!

Ty's IT!!!

Run Vicki, RUN!!!

Ty's Gonna Get you!!!

We love the beach!!!  Or actually, Ed might say "Julia loves the beach, and so everyone has been brain washed to be beach lovers..."  Any hoot, we love going to the beach.  This is the furthest i have lived from the beach in decades!  It takes about 40 minutes unless we go to the River, which is 20 minutes, but a river is just not the same!  Today the kids and Ed were playing tag and i had fun just jogging behind them taking pixs!

Ty's Car

We found a perfect car for Ty, well for today anyways, since it matches his shirt purrrrrrfectly!!!

Painting A Mural

We LOVE going to Beaufort NC!  It is North Carolina's 3rd oldest town....211 years old! Many of the original homes still standing.  We had fun painting a mural that should be up and hanging next time we come to town!

Purple?!!!

Ed wanted to check out the ECU Campus.....kinda to let Vicki get a feel for what colleges are in the area and to see exactly how far away it is for in the Fall to come watch some FOOTBALL GAMES!!!  Football camps were going on for various High Schools, so we had fun watching them scrimmaging and checking out the stadium.  We like the whole Pirate thing.......but why PURPLE?!!!

I Have A Walk....and toes....

I HAVE A WALK.....I didn't know I had a walk....I was signing in at one of the places i don't work at too often when my friend Kyla comes in behind me saying "I thought that was the 'Julia Walk'"  I laughed and said i didn't know i had a walk and asked if it was horrid....Kyla laughed and said it wasn't horrid, just a "Julia Walk".  Now i am self conciouse on my walk....not too long after a friend was asking me where i had gotten my toe nails done.  She said she wanted to go there and get "The Julia Toes"......Sooooo, now i guess i have a walk and toes....scared to say what i might hear next from my friends....but I SURE DO LOVE MY FRIENDS AND THE GIGGLES THEY BRING ME!!!!

Denny's

Just a bit full....

Ed knows i worked at Dennys while in college....it was the only place i could work that worked around my school hours! My shift was 3 am to 11 am, perfect since my classes started at noon and than i had my clinicals in the hospitals from 5 to 10 pm.  Not sure when i slept...but it was the perfect place to work, the food wasn't bad either! We have NOT lived near a Denny's since 2003! Ed was visiting one of his Marines at a hospital about an hour away from here and passed one! We had wondered why there are always these Denny's commercials on TV with no Dennys, now we know why....THERE IS ONE!!! One Saturday morning he got us up and said he was taking us out for breakfast....Denny's it was. Ty and Ryan were really excited about the "ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKES!!!" They ended up eating only one plate each, but that plate had FOUR SUPER HUGE PANCAKES!!!!  They practically rolled out of there!  We all had a fabulous breakfast and now we know there is a Denny's not so far away! 

Don't Let Ty See Mr. Gator!

Ed and I love to go kyaking and canoeing! The kids grumble but always end up having a LOT of fun once we arrive to the waters edge. Ty is our worrier. He knows the Bull Sharks can live in fresh water and that all of the water ways around us come from the Atlantic Ocean. He knows other sharks can survive for awhile in fresh water as well. He and Ryan have also read the book, I Survived The Shark Attacks of 1916. Ty also knows that the American Alligator is also present in our waters here. There are signs everywhere telling you they are protected and not to hurt them. Ty has asked many questions about the not hurting the alligators in numerous "what if" scenerios......and last but not least is the Water Moccasin. A lovely snake with deadly toxins.....these snakes are also aggressive and will chase you! Needless to say we are constantly putting Ty's fears to rest. The Alligator fear has not been easy to quelsh with Ty.....the beach was closed for us once because a big 10 foor alligator was sunning herself in the waves and there are pictures or a VERY large and not happy alligator on the docks of the Marina where we leave from on our water adventures. But, we have had him pretty convinced that they stay on certain parts of the water areas, not near where the regular traffic of water lovers play. He still is VERY observant in the waters as we paddle away, but he has relaxed a LOT from the first few times. We were at the New River Marina for Ty and Ryan's end of season baseball parties. We weren't going to be doing anything in the water except swimming if the boys wanted to. Ryan and some of his team mates were on the dock between where we camp and the roped in swimming area. They were all excited about something in the water. Ed and another Dad joked that maybe they were looking at an alligator.....sure enough, they were! AND throwing food to it!!! We told them to stop throwing food! Than we joined them and had fun watching this creature. He was actually quite cute since i was looking at him safely from above on the dock! I left the dock and went over on the grass to the waters edge to get some better pictures of him. He looked at me and began heading my way. He was kinda fast and Ed told me he wasn't going to come save me. Since i was wearing a dress i decided it wouldn't be very pretty for these kids to see me wrestle an alligator with my panties showing! So, i went back to the dock and the gator went back towards the dock. Ed took a nice size stick and threw it at Mr G.! He hit him right in the head! Hurtful! Total meanie!! I told him he better hope Mr, G. doesn't have a good memory since we like to paddle these waters! Later we went inside to eat and have the kids recieve their trophies. The Gator began swimming towards the camp ground we camped at on Mothers Day. Kyakers were coming in and i wondered if they would cross paths.....i also wondered what the girl tubing would do if Mr. G decided to swim next to her....or the Marines in the swimming area, well i think i know what would happen in the swimming area, 4 young slightly buzzed Marines and a 4 1/2 foot gator, i would feel sorry for the Gator. Later we went over to Ty's celebration and he was ready to come back to Ryan's. Unfortunately, Mr. G had come back to the docks. Ty enjoyed watching the alligator and i am glad he saw it, but now i am just not so sure Ed and I are going to be able to convince ANY of our kids to get in the waters with us again!!



He decided to come towards me at the waters edge...





I tried to get him eating something but he tended to dive underwater when he ate....this was as close as i could get





The kids had fun watching him




Yes, Ed and I were not dressed to wrestle an American Alligator!