Recapping 2013

Well, I managed to not blog at all during 2013 so here is a recap of our year.  Tobbie, my oldest, made the competition gymnastics team at her gym.  She compete's level 3 and is rocking steadily rocking it.  

Tristan turned 5 in December and he has become a miniature version of his daddy.  He loves going hunting, building anything with legos, and is your typical little boy.  I love him "way far much".

Darcy is the glue that keeps this family running.  She will be 4 next month.  She is sweet, sour, speaks her mind and will make you bust out laughing.  She is headstrong, opinionated, and loving.  She is following in her big sisters footsteps and is in gymnastics as well.

Michael and I are doing well.  We celebrated 10 years of marriage in Hawaii this year, he's home for a solid year (that can be good AND bad!), and we are anxiously awaiting our next duty assignment for summer 2014.

Stay tuned, more to come!

I'm so tired...

This is kind of a whiny post, so I'm sorry. 

I am so flipping tired!  Exhausted tired.  My neighbor, Jean, and I have been waking at the butt crack of dawn (well, 0430) to go running.  If we want to run outside, we have to get up and get it down before the men in our lives get up and leave for PT.  So, Jean and I have been hustling it every morning at 0430.  I'm loving it though (when I get to nap during the day, I love it more!) and it is making me super productive in the mornings and my days just run smoother.  Well, today my deary friend Teresa took me to do my very first crossfit workout.  I think I am going to die.  It was so dang blasting hard, but I felt amazing when it was over.  So, that's why I am so damn tired.

Army Sistas

I am so blessed with some of the best friends, better known as my Army sisters. I had an amazing day with four of my amazing Army sisters. Potter was traveling through townso we made the most of it. We drove an hour north and hung out at the Chateau Ste. Michele winery. We were educated and slightly inebriated by the end of our tour. Thank you ladies for a wonderful start to my week!

Lemonade, Come get your lemonade...

Our community held it's annual fall community wide garage sale.  My kids have been begging all summer long to have a lemonade stand, so I told them they could when it was garage sale day.  We purchased special cups and a banner and a sign.  They helped mix the lemonade and they even made cookies and cupcakes to sell.  While we were prepping their table, Tobbie, my oldest, suggested we do something nice with the money that was earned.  We started discussing the different things that could be done with it and we came to the conclusion that we should use the money to donate something.  After pondering this for a bit we chose to benefit the Fisher House. 
If you don't know what the Fisher House is, it kind of like a Ronald McDonald house, but for the military.  Fisher House's are for all military and their families that are inpatient and at least 40 miles away from their home.  There is no nightly fee to stay at the Fisher House.  It is funded directly through generous donations from individuals and organizations.  The one where we are has seven private rooms with baths, a shared kitchen, laundry room, a dining room and a living area complete with a library.
Our family greatly benefited from the Fisher House when Tobbie was born.  She was born at 24 weeks gestation and we had to medically evacuate her from Okinawa, Japan.  We were fortunate enough to snag a room at the Fisher House for a month.  It was so nice to not have to worry about a place to stay and the financial hardship it would have caused us to secure a hotel room for that length of time.

So, how much money did they raise????? Those kiddos raised $134.00!  This week we will go purchase 134 travel sized toiletry items and hand deliver them to the FT Lewis Army Fisher House.  I am so proud of my children and it makes me so happy to see them as kind individuals that are giving back to our community.

355 DAYS??? REALLY???!

Holy frijoles!  It has been 355 days (or was it a leap year?  IDK) since I last posted.  CrAzY!  Anyway, so much has happened and our lives are still crazy here in our household and I don't see it letting up for at least another 16 years (Darcy is only 2, so we have a ways to go). 

Things that have changed:  Tobbie started gymnastics last fall and is now a level 2 gymnast and wants to be an Olympian/small animal veterinarian when she grows up. Tobbie also completed kindergarten (half- day kindy really sucked! For me anyways), Tristan potty trained and Darcy, well Darcy is just Darcy.  :)   We survived another deployment of six months.  Michael got some more body ink while in the Philippines (he FINALLY had my initials tattooed on him- I had his done over 9 years ago!).  I picked running back up and lost 30 pounds but I re-found 20 of them after suffering a leg injury. Now healed by the amazing powers of dry needling, I am back to running.  AND, I started college courses in June.  Yes, I am a 35 year old college freshman.  AND I LOVE IT!!!  Well, I don't love the math.  I am attempting to study nutrition sciences.  I'll have my associates next summer then hopefully move into a nutrition program at K-State next fall. 

That 's about it for now, I hope I come back in a few days and post again.  I miss writing. 

And I'm back....

from outer space....

Not really outer space, but we are officially settled in the new house and done with moving for at least 2 years. 7 moves in 8 years. That's a lot of moving, but I'm going to miss it when the Mighty Major retires.

So, my sewing business has resumed and I've added custom embroidery to the mix. I'm going to get away from doing so many "crafty" things and stick to the real deal. I better, that machine cost Mr. Clause an arm and a leg! But, I LOVE my new machine. My regular sewing machine might get jealous over the attention that the new machine is getting, but I can't do everything with the new machine. I LOVE SEWING (that was totally ghey)!

If you haven't already, go check out Sweetie McSweets blog, I've got a giveaway going on over there. Be sure to read the rules correctly so you get all your entries in. And, if you have time, check out the website. Christmas is fast approaching and I'll have s plethora of gifts up for grabs. All personal and special, like all of you.

In other news, we feel like we are home here in the PNW. I'm a Southern girl at heart, but I love it here. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever lived (And that's a lot!). The kids are loving the weather here (wait till the rain starts!) and Tobbie has started kindergarten. And she rides the bus! I love it!

Ok, that's all for now, I gotta go sew!

This is the giveaway!

How often do you bathe your children?

I recently read a post on a "board" where a question was asked about how often do you bathe your children. I was stunned by some answers. I will warn you, if you don't think you are going to like what I am going to have to say, stop reading now. EYE MUFFS!

I tend to bathe my three hooligans every night. These are the ONLY circumstances where they wouldn't get a bath every night: We've been gone to a friends house for dinner and we get home past 10:00 PM (extremely rare), they had a bath the night before and they did absolutely nothing (insert bad mother comments here) and I am too lazy to give them one. If those events did not occur, their little biscuits are getting a "warsh" (that's how my hubby's grandmother says it, too cute).

I was STUNNED to read that some people only bathe their kids once a week. Really, do they only wash their ass only once a week too? Then I read where some have to have a calendar to "remind" them to bathe their kids. OMFG! How do you "forget" to bathe your child? Do they forget to feed them too?

It's called parenting people. Take care of your children. Love them, nurture them, make sure they are CLEAN. Smelly kids stink and they'll be made fun of for years, plus a bath will make them feel so much better and rest more peacefully.

Leave a nasty comment and I'll sic my 2 year old on you...he bites!

Dearly departed....

Well, we are no longer residents of Leavenworth,  KS.   After being on the road for a mere 15 minutes,  Tobbie states "this is taking too long, I'm ready to be in Georgia,  this is going to be very long ride ". Sweet baby Jesus help me!  And we've been on the road only 3 1/2 hours .....12 1/2 more to go......

I want to punch someone..........

OMG! I haven't had this much time on my hands in.... I don't know how long. So, I have spent majority of my day effing around on the computer while I sit on my fat ass and watch the slooooowest truck loaders on earth pack all our household goods (and my neighbor has had the kids for majority of the day.). These loaders have been here for almost 9 hours and still have a shit ton more to do. Ugh...I want to punch someone.

Moving again & I'm a slacker of all kinds

I noticed it has been six looooong months since I blogged. I've been so busy busy busy!
Our year long tour here in Leavenworth, Kansas will come to an end in less than two days. It's been such a nice place to live, minus the blizzard, negative temperatures and tornadoes and the freaking wind! I think I will mostly miss riding by the prison several times a week and explaining to my child that is where bad children go when they don't mind their mommy's! Nah, I'm just kidding, a little.
Leavenworth has been an adjustment year for our family too. We started this year off with Michael returning from a year long deployment to Iraq. We were able to officially begin our life as a family of five (Darcy was born while he was away) and it's the first time in our relationship that Michael and I have ever spent a solid year together without him deploying or going on TDY somewhere.

I'm going to miss this place and all the wonderful friends we have made, but I'm ready to get on with it and go to the beach, visit friends and family in Georgia and make the cross country journey with three kids in tow to the Pacific Northwest!

The Griswold's

We made it home yesterday from our journey to Georgia over the holidays. It took two whole days, but we made it. We discovered when we got home that something moved in to our home while we were away....
Andy the squirrel moved in to the garage. He must have slipped in while Michael was packing up his truck to leave. He had it made because in my craft bin, I had some reindeer food in little baggies that didn't sell and Michael had put our tree in the garage so the needles wouldn't fall off in the house and it even still had water in the bottom. So Andy had food, shelter and water. Also, do you know what happens when a squirrel eats oatmeal, bird seed and glitter mixed together? It poops glitter. I would take a photo of all the effing glitter poop, but it was too gross to look at. And to top it all off, the litter effer didn't want to leave the garage. It took over an hour to get him out. We officially feel like the Griswold's!

On the road again...

Ahh, today we make the dreaded long arse drive back home. Fun times I'd say. Our travels consist of 4 LARGE, very LARGE contico boxes full of toys (I'll post a pic later), three children (preschool, toddler and infant stages), two dogs (one 9 years old and one 50# puppy)and two exhausted and ready to be home parents. Not all in one vehicle of course. We each drove seperately. YAY me! Please pray we make it there still married.

babies=$$$

FYI: BABIES/CHILDREN COST MONEY!!!!

Go ahead and think I am a bitch, it's okay, lots of other people think I am and after this post you probably will too. But let's be real, having children cost money. With that said, how do you feel about families on government assistance? I am all for the services that are out there for the needy. But what I cannot stand are the lazy ass individuals that are out there milking the system for all it's worth.

I have read about/ seen many a families where both parents are in school and don't work or only one parent works part-time and they have one child and decide to have another. Now, I know it isn't any of my beeswax how other families work, but I find it totally irresponsible how a family like this operates. This family of three, soon to be four receives all kinds of assistance and can't pay their bills. Why on earth would you intentially bring another child into this world when you can't hardly afford the one you have or pay your bills or afford to put food on the table? It blows me away.

Once upon a time I felt sorry for people like this, but not anymore. My husband works his arse off to provide for our family. We but our chops off budgeting and saving for emergencies and our future. We struggle, but we make it work. We also know that our wallets (or our minds for that matter) cannot handle a fourth child.

Ok, I am done. I am just sick and tired of seeing people take advantage of the system.

December from H E double hockey sticks!

Oh my word. This December has been a month from hell. I mean pure hell for my small family of 5. To start things off, my beloved younger passed away, on my birthday. Two days later, my husbands grandmother passed away. The night before my cousins services, the baby ended up in the hospital after testing positive for RSV and was there for three nights with signs of pneumonia. Then, Christmas Eve, I fell down the stairs of my in-laws deck and broke a toe. Then I didn't hear my parents knocking on the door Christmas morning (they were coming to watch Santa's reveal). All this and we still haven't even made our trek back to Kansas. I hope and pray for a peaceful 2011.

long overdue..

Yes, I have abandoned my blogging for quite some time. But I must say that I am a busy woman. I have three children ages 4, 1 and 8 months. And yes, that is enough birth control to last me a lifetime. Anyway, I am able to sit here and blog with my eyes open because after a mini meltdown, my darling husband and I came up with a "In Charge of Children" schedule. And tonight is his night. I am going to love this, him, not so much.

I have been listening to the sounds of children splashing water in the tub with a daddy yelling, " Keep the water in!" and "Please don't spit toothpaste on me!" and " please let me put this diaper on you!", "yes, I will get the water for you in a second", "no, only one book", and so on and so on. And what is funny is, he still has the third kid to go! He is so hating life right now. But he is getting a dose of my life.

I do have to add that he is a great father, but our roles in the home have kind of been old-fashioned and I really needed a break from it. We now have an alternating schedule of being "in charge". I hope this brings us both something or another! Now, where did I set that wine glass of mine?

I LOVE IT HERE!

Okay Grammy, close your eyes. I LOVE IT HERE IN KANSAS! I know you don't want to hear that because you miss us and we miss you too, but I am really loving this area. It shouldn't be confused with the Mid-West (I thought it was but was corrected recently) because Kansas is in the Plains and Rockies region.

What I am loving the most is the hospitality of the people here. I have yet to come across anyone rude (minus that effing Lansing cop that was insistent on writing me a $130 speeding ticket for only going 51 in a 40). But I have to admit that my most favorite is the farmer's market. This isn't like any old farmer's market (especially the kind I grew up going to). Twice a week I have been loading up the kiddos and the stroller and heading down to Haymarket Square. Armed with my checkbook (yes, I said checkbook. I usually forget to take cash and those little ole farmers don't take a debit card) the kids and I load up on the freshest produce, meats and flowers. I usually spend about $35 each visit, but we eat a lot of produce and I would rather pay this price than paying for that rotten stuff I blogged about earlier.

On my last visit, I loaded up on small okra pods, pickling cucumbers, apples, pears, green beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and some cinnamon rolls from Mama Gina's. I am going to make Michael some pickled okra and some pickles and last night I made the best pot of green beans with potatoes. I could have eaten the entire pot!

So Grammy, if you want some yummy fresh produce, come visit us!! We miss you!

I turned this:

into this!

Sir Beauregard

I have waited one LONG week to post about the newest addition to our family. Sunday before last, we loaded up the kiddos and drove to the other side of Kansas City and adopted the newest additon to our family. We rescued Sir Beauregard. We call him Beau or Bo-Bo, or "HOLY FREAKING COW DOG!, HOW MUCH DO YOU PEE?!"

He is a cutie patootie, but I forgot what it was like to housebreak a puppy. Beau is St. Bernard / Blue Tick Coonhound mix. Odd combination right? Well here is his story:

Beau's Mom, Dolly, belonged to a rancher and was basically taken advantage of by a St. Bernard. The rancher stopped feeding Dolly because he thought she was just getting fat. duh. Dolly ran off to the farm down the road and went into a horse stall and delivered all six of her pups, BY HERSELF! In case you don't know, there is a huge size difference between a Blue Tick Coonhound and a St. Bernard. Huge difference in size. The vet was amazed that Dolly delivered them without help because of the pups head size. Anyway, the pups were found and the owner of Dolly was called to come get her and the pups. He said sure, I'm just gonna drown the pups anyway. DROWN them?! Well, after that comment, the pups went straight to Erin's Midwest Animal Resq. The sad part is that the Momma dog, Dolly, is heartworm positive. She is such a sweet and good Momma. Long story short, all the pups and Momma have been rescued and will find wonderful homes such as ours.

Isn't he the cutest?

Rotten

I am so very grateful for the benefits we receive as a Military family. We are blessed with wonderful health, dental and vision insurance. We have an Exchange (PX) where we pay no tax on items (plus they take coupons!) and we have our commissaries. (And don't forget the FANTABULOUS Class 6)

Commissaries. Yep, the wonderful commissary where you do not pay tax but you do pay a small surcharge on your total to cover the costs of running it. The baggers there work for tips only and not only are majority of items 30% cheaper than your normal grocery store, they also accept coupons (majority of manufacturs publish coupons only for commissaries, plus, if you are stationed overseas, the commissaries will take a coupon six months past it's expiration date).

Why am I blogging about the commissary? Because I am tired of purchasing produce and getting it home and it rotting 2 days later. Seriously. I am tired of wasting my money on produce that is cheaper and it just rotting. This week, I have had my strawberries, carrots, a couple of oranges and a few apples rot. Oh, and my corn. I will no longer purchase my produce there. I will pay more moolah for better produce. I'm thinking of joining an organic co-op. I hope they don't send me any beets. YUCK!

Groupon

So yesterday I joined Groupon. Good thing I finally took the plunge because I scored a $50 GAP giftcard for a mere $25! Yep, I can't wait to go jeans shopping once I lose some more weight. I am down 8 pounds by the way. YAY me!

So, if you want some pretty suh-WEET deals in your area, check out Groupon!

Kissing.

Kissing is such an intimate thing to me. I reserve kisses for those nearest and dearest. Certain types of kisses are reserved for only my husband. The only people I kiss on the mouth are my husband and my children. I give my children pecks on the lips. I know one day they will make me stop, so I am getting all the smooches in I can. Other family members and friends I peck on the cheek. No harm in that. But when I say friends, I mean very, very close friends.

I once had a boyfriend that when we would kiss, he would always follow it with, "you kiss your momma like that?" He would tease me because I would peck her on the lips. He liked to joke and call me gay. He's now bald.

Anyway. I was once (kind, sorta still am. they all hate me because I am honest and don't worship the very ground they walk on. plus one chick thought I called her husband a terrorist because he's greek. she is your typical vegetarian that loves her crunchy ways, but then wants to barf over sweat pants. ok, that is for another post.) a member of a message board and the topic of kissing your children on the mouth came up. I cannot believe the mommas that do not kiss their babies on the mouth! I was astounded! I like to kiss my babies when their mouths are open and make a loud noise. They love it and squeal in delight.

Point being, do NOT kiss someone's kids on the mouth unless you are a relative (grandparents or parents). And please do NOT kiss my kids at all if you aren't a relative or have been friends with me for a year plus and we are super duper close.

my kissable babes