Working Out With Super Man

This is what happens when we get to our class early.....Ty runs around the room with his mat on his back like Superman! Than he and Vicki were laughing about how they weigh the same and Ty got in some pull ups but decided he had better stop since we do about 5-600 curls with squats with our weights in this class before we hit the floor for abs.....i do love going to the gym with my kids....

The Legend If Hercules

The boys and I went to the movies tonight to FINALLY see The Legend of Hercules. They have wanted to see it for awhile and it finally played on a night and time that worked for us! Yep, my eyes were closed for a chunk of it! It was definitely a movie to be seen with The Dude in Cammies!!!! He loves those movies too!!! He is always missed, but just a little bit more than normal tonight while I had my eyes buried in my scarf for all the fighting scenes.....Than we came home and I sent him funny pictures while I waited for Jasper to finish eating, Leah to bark to let me know she was ready to come in from out back, and Tank to meow at the front door to let me know he was ready to come in. He sent me back a picture of Nolan making dinner. Looks good!!!!!

Throw Back Thursday

It's a Throw Back Thursday! This is one of my favorite pictures of the boys.  Ty and Ryan were getting tired with all the walking we were doing and so Ed and Jorden each put one up on 

their shoulders so they could rest their tired legs.  The boys were VERY happy to be up high and off of their feetsers!!! This was a fun trip we took to the States from Okinawa back in 2007 and we did a LOT of walking when we were in Michigan seeing many sites all over the upper peninsula of Michigan and in Canada before heading to California.  

First Warm Sunny Day!

Finally!!! A warm day!!! Vicki and Bella are enjoying a nice warm sunny day! Vicki sent me this picture of them out on the deck!

Than she sent me this picture of them inside.  She said the sun wore Bella out and she crashed for a nap! I wish i wasn't trapped inside a classroom and could sit outside in the sunshine!!! Soooo done with winter!

After Ball Breakfast

We stopped at Dunkin Doughnuts and picked breakfast up for our kids.....yep, they will be happy campers in the morning! We had quite the looks at us when we went in in nice dresses and boots!!!  Good thing it is a Marine Base and these kind of things are just kinda the norm!

The kids will be thrilled to find breakfast tomorrow is doughnuts!

Clip On Ties...

The boys wore clip on ties today.  These clip ons are like little, Ryan can get away with it, but Ty, um....not so much.  Ryan always wears his clip on tie when Daddy is away.  He claims he has forgotten how to tie it and i am not going to fight this battle while The Dude in Cammies is gone.  Today when we got in the car to drive to church Ty realized he had forgotten his tie in the house.  He usually ties it while driving to church.  Ryan had forgotten one in the car from last week and it was still sitting there and he was wearing the other one that came from the other white shirt he had outgrown.  Sooo, Ryan joked with Ty about wearing the clip on while i was pulling back into the driveway for him to run in and get it.  Ty decided to wear the clip on.  They would not let me take a picture of them together in their matching ties!  So, this is all there is of a probably once in a lifetime moment of them wearing matching clip on ties at ages 12 & 13! They looked so cute at church in their matching ties, but they of course hated that they matched.... 

Ending Tradition

Getting our tags for the jeep every year is a pain!!!  It has California plates.  The tags are due in July.  I pay in July, EVERY year!  The check always clears in July. But, tags take forever to come.....This year they arrived in October. I happened to remember to put the tags on the jeep the day they arrived.  I usually forget this step and just put in the glove box and every year The Dude in Cammies gets pulled over for expired tags.  NOT this year!  That tradition has ended and tags are on the jeep!!!

Bonding With The Dude in Cammies

I bond with The Dude in Cammies almost everyday! I sit in the sauna after i swim laps. It is always in the 200 degree mark and i think about how The Dude in Cammies is wearing cammies and full battle gear while i am just sitting in a swimsuit and will jump into the shower as soon as i am done sweating! I guess i have the better end of our bonding time!

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!!!"



Viewing Pictures

Every once in awhile I am sometimes pleasantly surprised when i am downloading pictures the kids have taken, usually pictures i did not know they were taking!  Mostly they are the most random of shots, a shoe, Ty's trombone, and of course a LOT of their friends, but every once in awhile there are keepers for MY photo file!  Here are some from when we were in Virginia.  Ty and Ryan use Ed's deployment camera when he is home and i found these that made me smile....


Before we had asked Ty to take a picture when we were at Mt Vernon




I remember this picture...



I don't think Mr. Hottie likes these kind of pixs to get out....



Had no idea the camera was clicking, the kids do say we kiss toooo much!!!




He always holds my hand because otherwise i wander off and he looses me...



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

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!!!

The White Folk Are Here

We had been here in Jacksonville for two days. We zipped over to Burger King to eat some dinner. I was waiting for the food and Ed went with Ty and Ryan out to the playground area. When they walked out there this man looked up at them and said to the other people that were there, “The white folk are here”. Food was ready, Ed came in with the boys and we sat down to eat. Ed told me what was said. He said he wasn’t sure how to take it, if it was just an observation or if this was a place we weren’t wanted at. We looked around and realized that we were the only white people there, employees included. We also realized that no whites came in while we were there and it was during a busy time……sooooo, not sure if we crossed some unknown boundary or if it was just an observation that white folk were there…..huuummmmm….

The Big 13!

Sooo, our 13th Anniversarry is like today, February 3rd. Wow! It amazes me that it has been that long and that I still have a husband! The last ones didn’t keep me very long. LOL! I think I just always picked someone waaaaaay out of my league and after they realized it, well then, the story just ended and they moved on to better pastures. I thought Ed was like totally super out of my league when I met him and was shocked he even wanted to talk to me! Even more surprised he wanted to see me the following night! He was really drunk the night I met him, so I didn’t really count on him even remembering my name. He actually didn’t remember my name the following morning but after asking his friends he found out and showed up at my friend’s birthday party that next evening and two weeks later asked me to marry him! He was 6 years younger than me, just a little Lance Criminal in the USMC. I said yes,and was terrified he would change his mind, so didn’t marry him right away…………just kept putting off a date. Finally one Saturday morning he said “marry me today or never!” Sooooo, we got in the car, drove to Nevada and got married. We had to keep pulling over ‘cause like I was throwing up the whole way there! Yeah, just a little nervous to be doing that again. That was 13 years ago, and here we are, still married. I got him a jersey for our anniversary. He is really hard to shop for as he always says there is nothing he wants. He did say he wanted his next jersey to be the Steelers #43, so I got him that and let him have it early, since Super Bowl was Feb 2nd. Ed got me the bride and groom kokeshi doll set. I love it! The kids were teasing me saying Dad had spent more on my gift then I had spent on his, this led to another conversation that I had forgotten about. Ed asked the kids if they knew what my first gift was from him. Of course, they didn’t know and so Ed told them it was a video camera for our first Christmas and that he always spends more on me then I spend on him…….uuuhhhggg! The kids of course asked Ed what his first gift from me was and he told them I had gotten him a birthday card with a glow in the dark star in it. Yeah, makes me look like the worst girlfriend EVER!!! But, I had to remind the kids I had only known their Dad for like not even 2 weeks when his birthday rolled around on November 16th …..i had these glow in the dark stars on my ceiling at my house and Ed had said he wanted the biggest one up there to put above his bed in the barracks so he could look at it and think of me……so when his birthday came along like after the maybe 4th time I had gone out with him I gave him my biggest star. Sooo, yes lame as far as dinero spent, but I am more a sentimental person and I really do have a hard time shopping for him!!! Of course Ed then tells the kids how he took me to Mackinah Island for my 39th birthday and the jewelry he’s bought me and stuff….uuhhg! Soo, yeah, I am like a total looser! !!! Sooo I remind the kids that I don’t ever ask for big gifts! Like he could tie a string around my wrist and it would stay there until it broke off, and even then I would still keep it in my jewelry box and love it just as much as the diamond things he has bought me over the years! But the kids are still telling me that I loose, Dad wins. He did get the Harley last year for his birthday and has a bigger one getting made in the States right now for him…so if ya really want to calculate dollars…? But then we told the kids it’s not the gifts, it’s the memories that go with the gifts! Yeah, can’t tell about some of those gifts! LOL Not sure what we are going to do….wanted to do a cool dive, but the waters have been too rough, I made reservations for a sunset dinner cruise….hopefully the weather holds out….. It’s kinda a tradition for me to plan a miserable evening for him. Hopefully this one will not be sooo bad for him…….i’m just lame…………oh well……I just keep kinda wondering when he is going to trade me in…but he does still have that star i gave him back in November of 1995.......