Tag Team With Jasper

With the couch gone and lots of open space Ty and Ryan had a ton of fun play fighting in the living room!  Ed was gone on some 8 country training thingy, so it was going to be a bit before we went and bought the chair the family had voted on.  I had fun taking pictures of the boys playing while begging for us to put a boxing ring in the living room instead!  Jasper even got in on the action!  Ty would tell him to get Ryan, and HE DID!  Bummer the pictures are a bit blurry, but this one shows exactly what these guys had going on!  I had to guess on what to put in Jasper's bubble, but i think i am pretty right on!

Tucked In With A Fur Coat!

I guess you know it has been a little chilly when you find your cat with his own fur coat on tucked under the covers in your bed!

We've Been Robbed!

We decided to sell our Sectional......i actually teared up at the thought of not having it and Ed even changed his mind....but that is another blog.....The Sectional is just too big for our house and it can't go back upstairs to the gameroom because we bought the hideabed for company. Sooooo we posted it on Lejeune Yardsales, and BAM!  Sold!  Ty was hillarious!  When he walked in the door and saw how empty the living room was he hollered, "Hey, i think we've been robbed!!!"   


I said, "Yes Ty, and Jasper is a horrible guard dog!!!"



Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

If you look closely, you will see what this little blog is about.... 

I love the Christmas Trees that have their branches all spread out so you can actually see the decorations hanging from the branches.  Ed was brought up with a different kind of Christmas Tree….but I won and got to pick out our Christmas Trees over the years until we arrived on Okinawa.  We had to buy a fake one our first year over there due to the real trees arriving from the States had some sort of horrible beetle and they had to burn all the trees.  So, we have had a fake one ever since because we just can’t see buying one when we already have a beautiful one in the garage!  After all these years Ed still teases me on my taste in Christmas Trees.  He refers to my “perfect” Christmas Tree as a Charlie Brown tree and still thinks it was a huge waste of money that we forked over for what he thinks is a hideous looking tree.  So, when he was in the Desert one year over Christmas he went crazy when he saw this little Charlie Brown box!  He set it up and he said it felt just like being home for Christmas with his Charlie Brown (“Julia Tree”)!  Every year he gets to tell a new story now about me and my horrible taste in Christmas Trees!


This all came in a box and made Christmas in the Desert feel just like home for Ed




Ed insists my trees are really this ugly!



Locked Out

The Front Porch When They Are All Locked Out And Waiting For Me!

Before i had even left work my phone was a buzzing!  Ty had left his key in the house and the spare key we keep at a neighbors was used the previous day when Ty had again forgotten his key!  Vicki had no clue where her key was, so needless to say my phone was blowing up with "Where are you?!!!" "When are you getting home?"  They were a little irked when i reminded my forgetful peeps that i worked on Camp Lejeune and was also stopping at the Commissary for groceries before i began my drive home.  They were hilarious when i pulled up.  They couldn't blame the other one fast enough on why they were thirsty, starving, and locked out!  Ryan just sat there listening and than piped in with, "Mom, just start putting a key in my book bag.  Than they can sit and wait for me to get home and unlock the door because i am the last one home and i am the most responsible one.  I won't forget to put my key back in my book bag like they always do!!"  Just might do that!  

Sometimes Being A Wife STINKS, LITERALLY!!

When i hear "Honey, don't hate me...." coming from my husband, I know that i am about to hear, see, or smell something i probably don't wanna hear, see, or smell!  Tonight while i was doing dishes i heard my guy hollering that out to me from the hallway.  I had joked and finished his sentence with "because you are beautiful?"   He laughed and said, "um, nooooooo..."  The last time he had said that and it was bad was the swamp swim he does every year with the place he is at now.  That was horrid, and even worse because he had forgotten about the swamp clothes and they were tied up in a plastic bag AND it was summertime!  Well, tonight, was not see or hear, but smell!!!  He had dug out a Tupperware that had contained a meat and pasta dish from LAST week!!!  I wish it had been another container so i could just toss it, but it was one of my favorites...soooo, i went in search of the gas mask!  Ryan beat me to it and already had it on!  Sooo, i grabbed one of the field scarves Ed brought back from Afghanistan and layered it around my face and ran the water until it was as hot as it was gonna get!  I took the lid off fast and began spraying it with HOT water and sudssing it up with soap!  I could smell the sourness of it through the material, it was bad!  But after several different soaps, cleaners, and some bleach the smell was gone and nobody passed out!  Gotta remember to pack his lunch in containers that i don't like!!!  Don't wanna smell that smell again!


Be afraid!  Be VERY afraid!




The Little Guy is always one step ahead of me!



Loved The Lighting!

Who would believe that there was this in the middle of the DESERT?!!!

We had been hiking all morning in the desert and ended at the Oasis of Palm Trees in the middle of nowhere.  Well, actually not really in the middle of nowhere....i did see a sign that said 29 Palms was just down the road...but anyways, after hiking everyone was ready for lunch!  So we pulled out all the lunch stuff from our ice chests and made sandwiches for 17 hungry people who had just wandered the desert...on a horse with no name....ooops, wrong story, again, silly no named horse!  After lunch we opened up a ton of bubbles and had fun blowing bubbles everywhere!  Much better than last reunion where we had marshmellow wars with our super cool guns!  I mean the marshmellow war was more fun, but than we saw the sign after we had dispersed about 40 bags of mini marshmellows in our epic battles that read, please pack out everything you brought with you.  We decided to be more planet friendly this year and not give the wild life cavities or bring down their immune system with an onslaught of sugar!  After the bubble blowing tag i saw Ty and Carissa sitting on one of the palm trees.  I loved how the ligh was reflecting all over the place and hoped my camera could capture some of the beauty!  I took one without them knowing and than i had them pose for me and Ryan jumped in right when i went "click", but i love it and think it is hillarious, even if my camera didn't quite capture all the sparkles the sun light was bouncing all over the place!


Had fun brushing the outer part of the picture black and white




Love how Ryan jumped underneath it!  Just wish my camera could have captured all the sparkles, well, probably just dust particles in the air!



Girls Night Out...no more....

It's been in many kichens....most recently in NC

I have had my Girls Night Out Jar for like atleast the last 6 duty stations.  Ed probably puts the most coins in it.  And yes, i have gone to the movies with my girlfriends and paid in all nickels, dimes, pennies, and quarters!  I usually have a twenty at the bottom under all the coins for my emergency stash for last minute out with my friends when i will need more than the normal couple of dollars needed for the base movies.  Well, Ed took all my coins and cashed them in, much to my dismay.....He ended up with a little over $36 after he poured all my coins in.  I had snagged my twenty out when he began throwing out guesses as to how much was in MY jar.  He is NEVER a guy of just talk!  When he starts throwing things out there i know i don't have much time before the throwing out there turns into the actual doing!  He has now hijacked my jar and has thrown out there that he is going to duct tape over my "girls night out jar" and have it say "Ed's Silverado Jar".  Usually when we go anywhere and have to buy something he always hands me the change and i drop it into my purse.  Not anymore, now he starts to hand it to me and then remembers and pulls his hand with the coins back and drops them in his pocket saying, "sorry, Silverado, babe" and dumps the change into MY jar when he gets home reminding ME that it is 'The Silverado Jar" now!!  I am already feeling the pinch!  Just this morning at work when i went to grab 50 cents out of my purse i realized i didn't have 50 cents!!!  No oreo's for breakfast for me today! Yep, he has decided he wants a Silverado and he is going to aquire it by one coin at a time....meanwhile the vending machine at work will miss me....and i suppose it is a good thing that i have no friends this duty station to have girls night out with anyways...

Saturday Night Seizure

Ed and I were at the grocery store in town buying light bulbs when the frantic call came in from the kids.  They were hysterical and the only thing i could understand through the screaming garble was "Leah's dying!!!"  We were just setting the bulbs down to pay for them as i hung up the phone.  I told Ed i couldn't understand anything they were saying except that Leah was dying and for him to call the house while i paid for the bulbs.  Last time a tearful call came from Ty that Leah was dying she had eaten 1, ONE, cocoa puff that had fallen on the floor and Ty was a complete wreck asking if she was going to die, so i was hoping it was something along that line, but my gut said it was worse.  I wasn't even sure who i had even spoken to on the phone....they were all screaming!  Ed called, somehow got someone to speak clearly and determined that he thought Leah was having a seizure.  While we raced home i sent an urgent prayer request up and i called the after hours emergency number, it was Saturday night, and i got thru.  I explained the symptoms, asked their hours and location as our Vet was closed and told them i would call them back after we got home and physically assessed the situation.  Than i lost it and just started sobbing.  Leah is Ty's dog technically, but i was the one she was left with all day long while the kids were in school and Ed was in Afghanistan.  She was my little buddy.  I was the one constantly pulling her out of Jasper's mouth, he thought she was his new chew toy!  She slept with me, sat on my lap while i read, i bought all her cute outfits, potty trained her, everything! She was MY little fur ball of a friend while Ed was gone, my only friend....other than Jasper and Tank.....Than my stronger half reminded me that i had to pull it together before we got home, for the kids.  After one last great big giant sob, i did.  We came home to find Leah on the floor by the front door with the kids gathered around her crying their eye balls out.  They said they had been praying for her to get better.  I silently sent up another prayer for THEIR prayers to be answered!  Their panicked expressions showed their worst fears.  I managed not to fall apart and of course, Ed never does fall apart....i took Leah's head in my hands and her face and neck were all soaking wet and there was a bowl of water on the floor.  I asked if she had been drooling excessively....Vicki quickly explained that she had the boys bring her a bowl of water and every time she thought Leah was going to go unconscious she would splash water in her face to keep her awake.  Poor Leah.....she's having a seizure while being water boarded by Vicki!  BUT, in Vicki's defense we have always told her to not let the boys go unconscious if they hit their heads or something, so i understood the logic....and Vicki said she was NOT going to let Leah die on her watch!!!  Leah was now pulling out of the seizure and wanting to stand up and walk around.  She was beginning to act like herself again.  She had this look on her face that said "What just happened?!!"  We had a family prayer in thanks that Leah didn't die and asking for her to be all better.  Ed told Ryan to take her outside on the leash for a walk to see how she did and that she also might need to go to the bathroom or throw up.  We let Jasper out of my room.  He had been going crazy with his little girl apparently dying and was absolutely no help at the time of the crisis!  Stepping all over her and nudging her head with his snout was NOT what any Doctor would order and Vicki had screamed for the boys to lock him up!  I heard that when i was on the phone with them at the store!  Ryan brought her back in and with a shaky voice said, "she isn't right, she can't walk straight, I think she is going to die again."  I called the emergency vet and told them we were on our way.  Ed carried her out to the jeep while i jumped in the backseat where he put her on my lap.  Ryan jumped in the front seat and firmly stated while buckling up, "I'm going!"  It was in another town, not too far away.  Leah seemed to be doing well and was looking back and forth between out the window and to me while licking my hand.  I silently prayed the whole way there that the kids prayers would be answered and that they wouldn't loose their friend, and that i wouldn't loose her either.  She is very possessive of me and is my constant shadow.  I trip over her endlessly in the kitchen as she plops herself right next to my feet while i am cooking.  Every morning when Ed gets up, his alarm goes off at 4 mine at 4:45, she jumps right up on the bed, pins me down with her paws and licks my face before squishing herself onto my pillow and cuddling up with me until my phone starts dinging at 4:45.  She gets up with me and plops herself on the rug in front of the shower while i am in there.  She licks my feet while i dry off, which is good since she is on the rug!  She literally shadows my every move, except for when she is outside!  Than she is wild and free!  I was just not ready to loose her yet, but than, i don't think we are ever ready to say goodbye to anyone that we love!  We were the only ones at the vet, so she was able to go right in.  They did all kinds of labs.  The Vet asked Ryan what exactly happened.  I almost cried listening to him as his voice shook and bottom lip quivered while he gave her a play by play of what happened.  It was concurred that Ed was right, she had had a seizure.  Everything else was fine aside from her cholesterol, it was a little high!  I think it is because she is constantly eating rodents in the back yard!  Apparently seizures are common for Huskies, did not know that.....they told us she might have more and might never have another one again, we are hoping for the latter! We were given instructions on what to do if it happens again and that they would send all of her lab work to her Vet and to just monitor her for now.  Well, it is 12 days later and I couldn't be happier that she has been her normal crazy self!   

Giving Jasper his lovins...



In my face...




Running crazy all over the backyard...



glaring at me when she is mad...



Winking at me because she is silly like that....




grumbling at me....




Posing for me and my camera...




howling at me, she is always howling...!!!



back to her fighting/playing with Jasper.....



playing hard like nothing ever happened....

I just HOPE she didn't make a deal with the Devil in her darkest moments!!!