Two Walls & A Beam

I love it when we can take our kids places where they can actually see and touch things to get a real idea and feel of what I am telling them about. We were able to take the kids to three places today right here in Jacksonville, North Carolina! It was perfect, especially for this time of year. September 11th has just passed and the bombing in Beirut happened 26 years ago this coming October. First stop was the Vietnam Memorial. It was beautiful! Right there in the middle of the trees. All the names were engraved on the walls going around the fountain. The kids were able to get a good idea at how many people we lost in that war. Their Grandpa Kenny, my Dad, fought and received his purple heart in that war, so it hits closer to home with them. Next stop was the steel beam from the World Trade Center. It was brought here and put in a memorial for the Firefighters and the Military. The kids could actually touch it and feel how strong and big it was to get an understanding of the type of building it was. Our last stop was the Beirut Memorial. It is interesting that this is right next to the 9/11 Memorial; as the one who orchestrated the Beirut bombing is believed to have inspired bin Laden. Terrorist attacks started long before 9/11. I remember when this happened. My Dad lost several friends in this attack. I will always remember his face when he told me what had happened. Here is just a little bit of history on Beirut….
The Beirut mission began as an effort to stabilize a fragile peace in this war-torn country. Lebanon had been a mess since the Palestine Liberation Organization, having been literally kicked out of Jordan, they took refuge there in the 1970s. In 1975, a group of Christian and Muslim militias, some backed by neighboring powers like Iran, Syria and Israel, turned what once was a Middle East oasis into a no-man's land of basic urban warfare.

Than, Israel invaded in 1982, hoping to just wipe out the PLO. In exchange for Israel to withdrawal, the U.N. sent in a peacekeeping force of troops from Great Britain, France, Italy and the United States.

U.S. forces set up camp right there at Beirut International Airport. This was not an easy spot to defend because like the airport was still open for business and then there were still warring factions that happened to control the strategic hillsides nearby.

The situation fell apart quickly. Militia leaders of course began to think the United States and its allies were favoring the Christian-led forces of the Lebanese government. A car-bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy in April 1983 that killed 63 people solidified that.
On Oct 23 1983 a suicide bomber steered a truck loaded with the equivalent of six tons of TNT down the airport road in Beirut, Lebanon. He plowed into the four-story barracks where more than 300 U.S. troops from a U.N. peacekeeping mission slept and detonated what the FBI called the largest non-nuclear bomb in history
A splinter group of the Iranian-and Syrian-supported Hezbollah organization carried out the attack, which allegedly was planned by a man who later inspired Osama bin Laden. Then a tiny guerrilla outfit, Hezbollah has grown into a political and military force in Lebanon.
The Marines' departure brought Beirut no peace. The civil war raged for seven more years until a settlement left Syria firmly in control of the country.

Experts believe Imad Mugniyah played a key role in the twin bombings in Beirut and went on to mastermind the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and a series of kidnappings of Americans in Lebanon. He is believed to have met with bin Laden in Sudan in 1996 and was assassinated in a car bombing in Damascus, Syria, in February. No one has claimed responsibility.
It was the largest single-day loss of life for Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.
Almost 26 years later and two wars with Iraq have dulled the public's memory of the Beirut attack. But, I won't ever forget my Dad's face that day.....pictures are on my facebook

Lost In A Corn Maze!

We are having fun discovering all the places to go and things to do here at our new duty station. Our destinations usually begin with Google, than venture over to mapquest, and then we find ourselves at another new place to discover. Today Ed found a corn maze on Google. Vicki wrote out directions from mapquest, and we made it to this cool farm. This nice guy, the owner of the farm, loaded us up into a wagon of hay and he pulled us with his tractor out to the maze. We divided into two teams, Ed took Thing One & Thing Two and I took Jorden and Vicki. As a team, we had to find 4 poker chips, one red, one white, one blue, and one green as well as find our way out with a perfectly undisturbed piece of corn. It was warm and Vicki was grumbling about the heat. I just kept hoping we wouldn’t run into a freaky scarecrow like from The Messengers movie, and Jorden was just being a good sport. We found three poker chips pretty quick….we also told Ed where we had found the chips. He didn’t let us know where the other chip was that they had found, so they won. They also had a better piece of corn than us. Vicki picked a midget corn. But we had fun and didn’t get terribly lost in the maze. We took the kids on something they had never done before, so mission was accomplished! The rest of the pictures are on my facebook in the album North Carolina

Mom Knows The "OLD" Rock Songs!

I was driving Jorden to Camp Geiger to meet one of his friends and he turned the radio to this Classic Rock station. He was laughing that I could sing along with all those “old” rock songs! When did Def Leppard, Scorpions, Van Halen, songs become old?!

I Can Only Hope....

I have an overactive imagination....i think i have always had this condition....I take Jasper for a run every morning on this trail that is really close to our house. I love it, but i am usually almost always the only one there running at that time in the morning. So, certain areas by the back woody area i run extra fast 'cause i've just seen too many CSI's and shows like that. LOL The other day there was this little old lady walking and Jasper wanted to eat her. I can only hope that he will be as ferocious to the creepy guy coming out of the woods in a hockey mask and a chain saw as he was to the little old lady on her morning walk!

Almost Ate A Spider!

I run my dog Jasper every day on this trail about a half mile from my house. I wish i had someone like the hulk and some super tall basketball player to run the trail first for me, but since i don't, i am at the mercy of where Jasper drags me and how fast i can react and dodge what is on the trail! Fortunately i came to a screeching halt before i almost ate this ugly fellow! Thank goodness Jasper decided it was time to drop some logs and so my nose came to a stop at about an inch away from leggy! I backed away very slowly but could only go so far since i run Jasper on a short leash, so i got to actually look at this creature. I couldn't stop laughing after he came into full view to my eyeballs! Looking at his belly, i could actually pretend to see a face, if you look at him he looks like he is standing there with his hands in the air and all upset looking! Well, i guess i would be upset if someone was taking a poo in front of my house! Do you see the yellow eyes, the little white gopher teeth, and silly mush mash?! I do and i couldn't stop laughing. Had to take a picture too!

It's Looking Like Home!

The kids, Ty especially, was thrilled to see the M&M jar has been found, unpacked, and filled! This cool jar is from the Phillipines and (trys to) stay full all year long with whatever color M&M's fit the season! Chocolate mint are our favorites!!! Can't wait for the fall colors to come out!!!


Past seasons....

School Has Begun!

My journal is up to date, however the blogger, waaay behind! I'm not sure why, but it takes forever to put pictures with it, so i get frustrated and avoid the blogger for awhile! LOL......Soo, here is a brief overview from my journal over the last couple of weeks of school for these guys at their new location.....

All four kids are settled into their new schools. They all ride the bus, so i don't have to drive anyone to school! Yay! Vicki's us comes at 6:05, it is nice and dark out, Jorden's comes at 6:35, still dark, but the sun is starting to make a peek, and Ty and Ryan are the last to leave, there bus comes at 7:20. They get to leave when it is nice and sunny!

Ty and Ryan were able to take the bus begining day one as almost our entire neighborhood is military brats in grade school, so it was easy to find out where the stop was and what time and stuff. I drove and picked up Jorden and Vicki the first couple of days until we knew what buses they rode and what time the pick up was.

First Day of School:

Jorden, how was your day? It was school, Mom....

Vicki, how was your first day of school? Uhg, i'm tired, i have a headache, i had to go to all my classes in one day. I miss Lester, i like DODDS schools better, i want to go back to Okinawa.....

Ty, how was your first day of school? I hated it. I want to go back to Okinawa. The kids are so loud,everyone is yelling, i had to run laps.

Ryan, how was your first day of school? Haaarible, just haaarible! I'm not going back!

It was looking bleak.....i made them the "back to school cookies" that they love and the school year began.....




Jorden still feels the same, school is school, not fun, just get thru it and be done with it. He reluctantly gives his jacket to girls who say they are cold and grumbels about how he froze in his classes again because someone wore his jacket all day. He gets invited to parties and such but has no desire to make new friends and is just whatever. I think this in turn makes him appear mysterious as the girls like him and it is a small town, so wherever we go there are the shy hellos and glances. He doesn't notice or ignores it, i don't know..... but he was nominated as Homecoming King which he found hillarious and hopes he doesn't win.

Vicki loves school. Apparently not many new kids move here from a foreighn country and so she has been quite the novelty. I'm impressed that she hasn't let it go to her head. She already has a ton of friends and has had sleep overs her and over at other friends houses. She has made some fun friends that are really cute girls. She loves going to the football games, yes this middle school has a football team.

Ty is okay with school. I guess he has a rowdy class and the teacher punishes them all for the overall classroom behavior which i don't understand how that is going to work....Ty does not think it is fair because the rowdy kids are the bullies and so they don't care that the rest of the class is being punished and Ty said now he doesn't care if he behaves or not because it won't matter, he will still miss recess and run laps. Our bag of bones is skinny enough, i hate that he is now running extra laps at school, but all in all he is okay with our new place and has made alot of friends and is enjoying life. He does remind me everyday that Okinawa is the best place to live and he hopes we go back someday.

Ryan still comes home and tells me his day was haaarible, but he says it now with a grin. He likes his teacher and his class and is just all around fine with everything but misses Okinawa.

Ed walking Ty and Ryan to the bus stop while i drove Jorden & Vicki to school


The bus bringing the kids home on that first day...


Here comes the neighborhood!

Did I Read That Right?

I was organizing all of our Oki pixs and deleted a ton of no longer needed ones and found this one that made me laugh! I came home and found a note on our front door from housing telling me to clean up my front yard! Huuuuummmmmm….where should I begin?! Our yard was actually torn up as they were trying to figure out why i hadn't had basicaly no water pressure and no hot water for the last 2 1/2 years. They were not able to fix it, other than make a huge mess of my yard for a couple of months, but 3 years later they came and put in a hot water heater in my house! I had hot water for the first time in 5 years! It was wonderful to take a shower and not come out with an instant migraine!!! I no longer had to boil water to wash my dishes....life was good! But the notice to clean up my yard still brings a giggle!

My Gheto Dog

Yes, this is a picture of Jasper with a chewed off leash!!! Even our dog is ghetto! I had him on the leash in the kitchen with me while I was doing some dishes because he kept barking at the kids running around across the street. The door bell rang, it was Alicia and Abel and I went to grab Jasper close to me to put him in the back yard before I got the door and all I got was the leash! He had chewed thru it while I was doing dishes and all that time I thought he was just laying at my feet being a good boy! NOT!!! Atleast it was Tank’s leash…..we don’t need to use that one at the moment…

Do Not Slap The Bull!

Wild Hogs is one of our favorite movies. We always laugh really hard at the slap the bull part. Now I am not finding it very funny! There is a big hunkin bull hanging out in a field right by our house. I’ve had to have the serious conversation with the boys about NOT even thinking about slapping the bull by our home! They had been thinking about it, so had to nip that little thought outta their brains! When I was younger my cousins and I used to have fun with the bulls at my uncles ranch. We would dare each other to race across the pin without getting hit by the bull. We always made it, thank goodness! I ran really fast back than!!! So, I’ll have to be extra observant on the boys since I know how I was as a kid! YIKES!!!! Don’t like being the parent on these kinda things!!! LOL

They Got Us Locked In Ty!

Ryan has always totally scouted out any new area we ever go to. It is just instinctive to his nature. He sees everything and has a fascination with camera’s, the surveillance kind. He always tells me where they are in any store we go to. I’m not sure if this is a good sign or not….so, we are walking outta Ty and Ryan’s new school and Ryan leans over to Ty and says, “they’ve got us trapped” and motions up to the security camera posted on the side of the brick building. Of course, I never even noticed it until Ryan pointed it out to Ty

The Dog Wash

We found the coolest thing!! The car wash also has a dog wash! We were thrilled! We washed the jeep, a chore we are reluctnatly getting used to.....we never once washed a vehicle in Okinawa. The rain was so clean and it rained enough, that we NEVER had to wash the outside of our vehicles! 6 years later, we are now washing our cars and the dog, all in a one shot stop! Love it! Jasper was fine until it was time to blow dry him. He got just a little upset and spent the ride back to the house hiding under the beach towel, but he had been rinsed, scrubed, rinsed, flea and tick treated, rinsed, conditioned, rinsed, smell godd stuff put on, and one final spot free rinse! Okay, not so much a spot free....but he had been cleaned sooo good, he just might have been squeaky clean if he wasn't furry!

My Shells

I love gathering shells when i go to the beach. I've kept my shells from different places I've lived and visited in different little treasure chests. These are my Okinawa shells. I write on my shells too, so when you go thru my treasure box you will see things written on my shells.....

Setteling In

I am slowly getting the house together....i just hate doing it at this time of year! I put up my summer stuff since we moved into our house in August, than September first, i put up my Fall things,


Oct first, Fall will be put away and Halloween will go up, Than Nov frist, Halloween will be put away and fall brought back out until Thanksgiving! UHG! In between the decorating the house is coming together....will be wonderful when out storage shipment gets here! That has Vicki's bedroom set, dining room set, the roll top desk-lots of storage in there!!! And of course, my piano! Oh, i will make life very uncomfortable for anyone who discloses the fact that i play the piano to anyone in North Carolina! LOL

Have You Ever Jumped Off A Dock?!

I'm jumping on three Mom! One, Twoooooo,

TTTHHHHRRREEEEE!!!!!!!!


I think I will do a cartwheel off the dock....?


I think i will just jump!!!

I Do NOT Carry My Bike NO MORE!!!

Jorden and I went bike riding. We had a great time until we came to this one part of the trail. It didn’t look good….there was a time, not tooooo long ago when I wouldn’t have even stopped for something like this, but I have reached an age where I no longer have any desire to CARRY my bike! I used to think it was fun running with a bike when the road was unrideable, but NOT anymore! I stopped and let Jorden go check it out. He disappeared in grass taller than him. He came back and said we had better turn around as I would have to carry my bike. For a quick second I almost decided to go for it, but I just kept thinking of all the alligator signs we had been riding by. It IS against the law to disturb them in North Carolina and so I figured I shouldn’t take the chance of carrying my bike thru there as I would probably end up stepping on an alligator, it was kinda marshy, and that would probably be considered DISTURBING them and then if it bit me, well it is against the law to FEED them and so I would be breaking TWO laws, so I decided to play it safe and not take the chance of DISTURBING & possibly FEEDING an alligator, as this is on a military base, so it would probably be a federal offense……I was also a little nervous about the snakes I might step on. I don’t think any of the poisonous ones are protected, but it would hurt really bad…….so we truned around and continued are bike ride with only attacks from blood sucking mosquitos!

I No Longer Beep!

I bought these cute capris somewhere….as usual, if I like something, I will buy about 3 of them in different colors. I loved these capris at either Old Navy or Penny’s, can’t remember which place, but I loved them and so I bought them. I took off the tags and began wearing them. Ed and I went to Barnes and Nobel and when we walked in the doors beeped like when you try to shoplift things. People were walking out, so they stopped and we kept going in. Later in the store when we left the book area and went to the video part of the place the beeper thing went off again. We had nothing so we just kept going. The store beeped later when we left. Again we had nothing and other people were walking out with bags so we didn’t stop, as it wasn’t us, we had nothing. Well, this happened several different times as we went to Barnes & Nobel and other stores during the week……we never paid attention, as we never had anything and others were coming and going at the same times with things they had bought. Well, I overhear a conversation one day at the mall of an employee telling another employee to just ignore her when she walks thru different areas of the store as she hadn’t removed the tag yet inside her pants…..my brain starts thinking about all the times I keep setting off the shoplifter sirens and not stopping as I NEVER had anything!!! I get home, check one of my 3 favorite new capris and wouldn’t ya know……? I’ve got one of those tags! Of course I keep forgetting to cut it out as I have no siscors near by when I get dresses and I just forget about it by the time I am in the kitchen….Ed was now completely annoyed everytime the beepers went off because now we know it is retarded me who can’t remember to cut out these tags that are sewn inside my pants. Ed has taken care of all my tags and I no longer beep! I can’t help but wonder if I ever got a shoplifter busted by them having to have their bags searched when they weren’t even the one beeping?!!! I guess I will never know……

I'm Walking To Alaska!

Ty came walking down the hall with his suitcase rolling behind him, his back pack slung over one shoulder, and his favorite little treasures in his arms and informed us he was walking to Alaska. He even had his bug catcher! He decided to stay…..

Jasper thought he was going to! Wonder how far Ty thought he was going to get with no shoes!!! LOL

It's A Big Boot!

Just had to take a picture at Kiss Coffee House next to the BIG boot!!!

Birthday 2009

I just had my first birthday in North Carolina! I tell myself i am 39, i feel like i am 15, but in true time it was actually my 41st birthday! UHG! Ed took me out to dinner and than we had a yummy cake! I couldn't gather enough gusto to make my cake this year, so bought one instead. I will make my favorite chocolate zucchini cake after we get settled into our home and my kitchen is unpacked! :) I am wondering how many more wrinkles i have this year than last year....maybe i will do an up close shot of my face each year....lol! I went and saw the totally funny movie The Proposal. Loved it! Jorden came with me so i didn't have to go to the movies on my birthday by myself! Thanks Jorden!!!

OOOps I Did It Again...

Waiting for my turn to go in....

Just leave me alone!!
It's been 12 years since my last one and now, i have done it again! I got another speeding ticket!!! Atleast this time it isn't as embarressing as the last time! In 1997 i got a speeding ticket going 32 in a 25, like how can you say you were speeding when you were only going 32 on a road with abandoned fields on both sides of it?! I was actually lost that time and had no idea i was speeding until the lights came on behind me! This time, i really do NOT think i was speeding! It was my first time to drive somewhere in America! I was in the slow lane, going slower than EVERYONE else in North Carolina on Highway 24!! Cars, well actually trucks, as i think i might have been the only car on the road, were flying by me! Vicki kept teasing me that we were going to get a ticket for going toooo slow! I was a little lost, i was looking for the obscure little turn off road called Hibbs Road, it is the short cut to get to Cherry Point. I see lights behind me as i am slowing down to a red light. I figure he is going around me, nooooo, he gets on his loud speaker and tells me by identifying my car to turn right at the light and stop. I figure he realized i must have been lost or something. He comes to the door, i have the window down and the car off. My brother is a Highway Patrol dude in California, i know all the do's and don'ts of highway patrol eticate! He asks me if i have any idea how fast i was going. I tell him no and that i am sorry if i was going too slow but i wasn't sure where my turn off was. He asks me if i just moved here. I said yes. He asks from where and when i arrived. I told him from Okinawa, Japan, 3 days ago. He asks how long i have lived on Okinawa and i tell him 6 years. He now informs n me i was speeding and takes my license to run it thru his little system. He comes back and says my record is clean. I ask him if he is sure i was speeding as i was the slowest one on the road as vehicles were zipping past me while i was trying to find this Hibbs Rd turn off. He begins apoligizing for having to give me a ticket and says that the road i am lookig for is about 2 miles down the road. He tells me to come to court on the date that is on the paper he gave me and that he will tell the judge that it was a clear day with very few cars on the road to see if the Judge can lower it or something.....that was in June....now July 16th rolls around and it is time to see the judge and pay the piper. I have to take the kids with me as from there we are going to Havelock to stay at Kelli's and Jorden is going to Cherry Point to Adrian's house to hang out. My ticket is at the Beaufort court house, an hour away from where we are at Lejeune. We leave at 715 am, get up there at 830 and begin the whole waiting game. The boys wait outside the court room on a bench. Jorden has my blackberry to play with and Ty and Ryan have their DS and PSP and i have nothing while i sit on a nice long hard bench waiting! Finally the Judge comes in and we now get to form a line where we plead guilty or not guilty and tell the Judge what happened on the day of the "event". There were about 25 people before me. The Judge was a really nice guy, YAY!! Just hoping his kind nature would last until it was my turn. It was finally my turn. I plead guilty, like can you really plead NOT guilty on something like that?! The highway patrol dude did not show up, jerk! I think he might have felt tooo guilty about what he did! LOL! The judge asked me when my last speeding ticket was, i told him it was 1997, he asked how fast i was going, i told him 32 mph, he chuckled and said well this time you were going much faster and i agreed with him. He asked how long i had lived in NC, i told him just over a month. He looked at the date of the ticket and asked me how long i had been in NC when i got the ticket and i told him we had arrived earlier that week. He asked from where, i told him Okinawa, Japan. He asked how long we had been there, i told him 6 years. He apoligized for my welcome to America and dropped my fine down to $10, so, after the $121 in court fees i am now $131 poorer. Apparently it is dangerous to be the slowest person on the road, so just drive 55 mph or be the fastest one on the road! LOL
All Done With Court

I Took The Tank

Ed finally went and bought his tank, well, actually it is a truck, I just refer to it as a tank since it is BIG! I've driven bigger....but i prefer easy things to park. I have given him a hard time that i don't want to drive his tank. I said the same thing in Okinawa about his Delica. I ONLY drove that out of pure necessity! It was a true beast, no power steering, no power ANYTHING! When it rained, you needed an umbrella INSIDE! It was crazy to drive and i only had to drive it only a few times. Thank goodness, for me and the tiny Okinawan people! So, i have just been giving him a hard time about his truck, but secretly i have no fear of it....i've parallel parked the douley in San Francisco on a hill, so i can drive or park anything, i just choose for easy driveable vehicles and i have always prefered a box to drive, the jeep is perfect for me. We were off to the beach and the boys wanted me to drive the tank, soooo, i took the tank to the beach and it was soooo much fun! I forgot how much i love driving a truck!

This was the Okinawa Delica

It was the perfect dive mobile, but see that center sun roof, well it leaked big time and it rains ALOT on Oki!!! We tried everything to seal it and nothing worked! When the JCI came due Ed reluctantly let me junk it and buy him his cool litle black jeep!

I Saw His First Wave!

Ed has been going thru bike withdrawls since he sold his sportster on Oki. He was hoping i would want it so he would have it for the rest of our tour and he could just pack it out with our household. But, i had no desire for my own bike, i like to hang on to the back of him!!! Soooo, with much despair, he was bikeless for a small window of time, but was somewhat consoled by the knowledge that he had a Fat Boy getting built for him in the states! We arrived in North Carolina and we went out to the Harley place to pick up his ride. He's a happy guy! I got to witness his first "wave"! There are lots of bikers here and when they pass each other they wave at each other. I think it is really cute and Ed tells me to shut up. LOL Anyways, since i had taken him to the dealer, i got to follow him home and so i saw his first wave!!!

4th of July 2009

As usual, i bought everyone their 4th of July shirts. On the morning of the 4th everyone but Jorden comes to breakfast wearing their shirts. I tell Jorden to go put on his flag shirt. He laughs and says he will for the picture. I tell him i don't know if there will be a "picture" but to wear it because of the DAY!!!! He grumbles and puts it on over his shirt that he wanted to wear. Late, late in the afternoon i decide to do a family picture at the park we had been at all day. I figure we should take a family pix of our first 4th of July stateside and who knows where Jorden will be next year....Jorden still keeps his shirt on even after the "picture" A little bit later (there had been some feuding between Vicki & Rebekah against Wade, what sibblings aren't feuding?) So, soda ends up in a squirt gun, soda is shot all over Vicki's white shirt, that now has root beer spots, and she is sticky and complaining. Jorden, the nice, kind, big brother that he is....hahahahahaha...whips off his flag shirt and tells Vicki she can wear his nice clean blue one, which she does, and now Jorden is happily wearing the shirt he put on this morning!

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….

Ticks, Ticks, Ticks, And More Ticks!

I am 40 years old and have NEVER had a tick or been in the general vicinity of someone who has a tick on them. So, I have absolutely NO experience in this department! Unfortunately we have moved to tick central!!! Ty, Ryan, and Tank have each had two ticks and Jorden and Jasper have each had one tick! UHG!!! Ed and I are still at zero!!!

Jasper's New Chore! NOT!!!

I had grilled a variety of meats and made a couple different salads and had cut up a bunch of fruit so I wouldn’t have to cook for a few days, just replenish the fruits and veggies. I decided to cook up a pound of ground turkey on the last of the reheat up the leftovers night so it would be quick and easy for me to whip up the chilli I was going to make the following night. The meat was done, so I just left it in the pan on the stove to cool off before I put it away for tomorrow nights dinner……Later I came into the kitchen to put it away and found an empty pan on the stove. I asked Ed if he had put the meat away. Of course the answer was no, I knew that before I asked, but I knew Jorden, Ty, or Ryan would never put something like that away. I asked them anyways and I was right, they didn’t even know what I was talking about. I then knew exactly who had helped me in the kitchen! Jasper! Our one year old golden lab and graciously volunteered to put the meat away, in his tummy!!! The little, well not so little, bugger had licked the pan clean!!! UHG! I washed the pan and started all over again and this time when the meat was done I put it in the container to cool down waaaaaay back on the counter where he couldn’t get to it! I would give anything to have had a picture of him just standing up there at the stove on his hind legs eating a pound of ground turkey! Instead, I just have the picture of my empty pan.

.....Before Mom Freaks......

I was blow drying my hair the other morning....i turned off the dryer and heard these words....."get that outta here, if Mom sees that she will freak out!" I resumed blow drying my hair and just pretended i heard nothing. I have found it is best to just not ask when i hear those kinds of phrases. I can take what was said as face value (and that is truly valuable coming from Ed) and just not ask. I always find out eventually though………….i’ll blog it when I find out.

Cute Little Something

I was running the other morning and suddenly had a little companion next to me! It was this cute little furry thing swimming next to me! It was making all sorts of ruckus and splashing like crazy, even getting me wet! It was hot, so that was okay. I was watching it as I was jogging and it sounded like it was just a grumbling about something, kinda like a Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe kinda moment. It did really seem to be doing a whole lot of fussing while swimming and I told him it would be okay. It shook his head and made further big splashes. I was laughing at this silly little creature. Than my imagination started to get the best of me….doesn’t it always? Anyways, I quickly envisioned this thing coming outta the water and morphing into some sort of gremlin thingy with big sharp teeth and dragging me into the forest to do unspeakable things with a host of other creepy creatures! I started jogging just a little bit faster and didn’t look down anymore.

They Love Me or They Have Lousey Aim

Okay, so i am currently sitting on the couch in the family room....the four boys are having this major battle with the nerf guns. They have endless amo by the way...Jorden has decided to hide behind the couch and use my head to peek around to fire at Ed. Ed is on the side of the wall peeking around the corner firing at Jorden. I can feel the air as these flying nerf missiles are flying thru the air around my head. One just went right by my head, skimming me and if my hair wasn't in a pony tail it would have been stuck in the curls! Ed's reply to that was "Awesome" I am amazed that thru the entire battle i was not once hit directly in the head. This means one of two things, they love me or they have lousy aim....huuummmm

Ocean Views.....To.......Forest Views

I've been lucky to see the ocean daily on my runs over the last 6 years. I've been able to run along the beaches most of my life and still can, just not as convenient as what i have been spoiled with.....So, now i live on the coast, but the forest divides me from my ocean views unless i want to drive to where i want to run. Nope, not going to spend time driving to exercise! That makes absolutely NO sense! Soo, i am now running with views of giant trees, squirrel’s, raccoons, possums, and such. I also get to check out the newest dead snake in the road each day that met its fate by someone’s tires the night before. I'm getting used to it. The first day, well i came back with just a ton of mosquito bites! Apparently blood suckers have a thing against joggers and just come out in full force and take as much blood from you as they can while you jog. They do this without you even knowing they are on your body feasting! So, now i douse myself in insect repellent before i run and i don't get eaten while exercising! I miss my ocean views, but i guess i can handle running with this new view knowing the ocean is just a few minutes away by car if i need to see it while running!