Time is dragging - By Dan

I went for a walk today in Chinhae. I walked past this automated bike rental stand. I thought it was cool...there was a air pump at the end so you could fill up the tires if they were low.  I don't know how many of these there are...hopefully more than this one.  Also on a side note...McDonalds delivers here...so the question is "Would you order McDonalds for delivery?"

On a Whim

I've been known to trim hair a time or two. I remember a day when post pregnancy hormones were surging through my body and I had my mom hack at my hair. She was crazy for agreeing to it, but you don't say no to a sleep deprived mama who's wielding scissors. I held up sections of hair and said "cut."  It's funny now to think about it.  I was insane. There's only been one time that I've attacked my own hair with scissors. It was to correct a horrible hair cut and in the end, I had to pay a second person a lot of money to fix the 2 butchered cuts. Anyway, I say all that to say when someone says "will you cut my hair," my normal answer is "sure, why not?"  I don't know why I'm so lackadaisical about hair when I'm such a perfectionist about other things.

Tonight, Jaelyn asked me to cut bangs.  We worked so hard to grow her bangs out two years ago.  I offered to take her to have a professional cut it tomorrow, but she didn't want to wait (because here's a secret, Jaelyn thinks Mommy does EVERYTHING better than anyone else.  She's wrong of course, but it warms my heart that she thinks that).  I sectioned off her hair and she is now sporting side swept bangs.  She wanted them a little bit longer, but you don't get to be picky when you ask Mommy for help.  She actually said "they'll grow out to the length I want them." 

Remember What I Was Saying About the Spring Tease

It was 74 degrees on Friday and last night, it snowed.  Today was snow day number eight.  I took the kids to Ikea for breakfast and Smaland.  At this rate, we'll be lucky to get out of school before July.  We were forecasted to get 5-8" of snow.  Thankfully, we only got 3-4."

Tae Kwon Do

We love Tae Kwon Do.  Last night was Caden's 3rd class and the girls' 2nd class.  Caden is the model student.  He's focused and does exactly what Master Matthew tells him to do.  Allie is very enthusiastic, as she is in all things.  You should hear her screaming "haya."  Jaelyn is very timid.  She whispers.  She was paired with another little girl this week that was just as timid.  They were the perfect partners.  She's having fun, though, and that's what matters.  Matthew is also very positive.  He is continually talking to the kids about trying their hardest.  We are still figuring out what night will work best with our schedule.  I'm glad we can pick and choose the class.

Caden's Arsenal

Dan took this picture yesterday and I thought it was really funny, especially considering I am the person that said my children will NEVER play with toy guns.  Never say never!

And that's just what was in the basement.  Missing from the picture are 2 cowboy revolvers, a nerf revolver, 3 light sabers, a mutant ninja turle club and a second gun that connects to the camo gun pictured.

The Other Side of the World

Dan left this morning, well actually, he's probably sitting on an airplane in Baltimore.  He's headed to Korea for the annual war games.  Boo Hiss.  Would you pray for a good experience for him (he's doing a job he's never done before) and for me and the kids?  I know three weeks isn't as long as say a year deployment, but it's still a long time!

Perserverence Pays Off

I'm always telling Jaelyn she can do anything, all she has to do it try.  She proved me right tonight!

I think I can, I think I can

I know I can, I know I can

Caden's First Story

Caden brought home a fun story he'd written.  It's a perfect example to document how far his handwriting has come and how far it still needs to go.  Encase you can't read his writing, here's what he wrote:

"If I had $100, I would..." get golb frum the glg mine  I will be rich  I will hid my ggld at my sekr bas  I will not tell ineboteee it  I will be the richest in the h

And my translation:

"If I had $100, I would..." get gold from the gold mine.  I will be rich.  I will hide my gold at my secret base.  I will not tell anybody.  I will be the richest in the ...(he thinks the "h" at the end was the beginning of "whole world.")

My favorite word in the story has to be his stretch spelling of anybody - ineboteee!  Awesome job, little man!

A Tease of Spring

Every year there seems to be a few days in late February or early March that tease us.  Yesterday was one of those such days.

Keep in mind that there's a 50% chance of snow on Tuesday.  Crazy weather.  It was an added benefit that the kids had an early release day so we all packed up and headed to the park.  Everyone and their brother and sister was there.  It was crazy, but it also meant everyone had a school friend to play with.

Valentine's Day: He Knows Me So Well

Dan and I don't often exchange gifts.  Over the years we've learned to just buy ourselves what we want when we want it (well, truth be told, Dan is much better at this than I am).  I wasn't expecting anything for Valentine's Day and I didn't get him anything.  Dan surprised me though.  He knows me so well.  He's learned it's the little things that mean the most to me. 

When he is TDY, I need cokes and chocolate.  They are my stress relief.  I know, I know, bad choice of stress relief, but when it's 3 against 1, it's all about survival for me.  I have forgotten to stock my chocolate stash before his last few TDYs so he did it for me this time.  He's been in Ft. Dix this week and will leave again on Monday for Korea for three weeks.  I haven't actually "needed" to get into my newly filled stash, but isn't it awesome! 

Report Cards

Report cards came home on Friday and overall, I am very proud of how hard my kids are working.

This was Jaelyn's first report card with real grades.  Prior to 3rd grade, the teachers give checks for either consistently evident, developing, not evident or not introduced.  Jaelyn got Bs in writing, spelling and math and Cs in reading and science.  Jaelyn was not happy with her grades, but I was happy with them.  I keep telling her all she has to do is try her best.  I know school is hard for her.  We meet back with the evaluation team on March 1st to discuss Jaelyn's progress.  I have a letter from her pediatrician to back up my request for testing.

Allie is trucking along just like last year.  Her checks were split about 50/50 between consistently evident and developing.  Allie's reading teacher said "Allie is a role model student.  She is an active participant and enjoys our literature discussions."  Her homeroom teacher wrote "She is such an enthusiastic student and willingly gets involved in all of our activities."  She even got an award at the Goods News Assembly for "good work habits."  When I think back to her first week of kindergarten and remember the day Miss B called to tell me Allie had ripped up her paper, thrown it over her shoulder and loudly stated "I'm not doing this," well, she's come a long way!

Caden's report card was good as well...except 1 area.  He had almost all consistently evident except anything that has to do with handwriting.  The boy has never been interested in learning to write and it's consistently evident now.  He's trying and can make most of his letter correctly.  He'll fill a page up with writing, but good luck trying to read and make sense of it.  Caden's teacher wrote "It is a delight to have Caden in my class.  He is a sweet boy who is very cooperative."  That's my boy, sweet and cooperative : ).

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandpop!

My Grandpa turned 90 on Thursday and we celebrated with everyone on Saturday in Pensacola.  It was a whirlwind trip.  We got to Pensacola at 9:00 Friday night and we were back at the airport Sunday morning about 10:30.  Grandpa's party was awesome.  Every nut from the family tree was there (I say that lovingly of course).  In total, my Grandpa has 2 children, 4 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. Many of my Dad's cousins and my Grandpa's long time friends were there. What a weekend! 

Mt. Neverrest Lives

Kung Fu Caden

Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?!  Dan took him last night and after a few initial tears, Caden had a blast.  He's excited to work hard and earn his white belt.  We debated whether or not to sign the girls up and decided to go for it.  They will start with Caden next week!

Jaelyn's Update

After meeting with the school staff the beginning of February, I made her a pediatric appointment to talk with Dr. K about her focus issues.  Her teachers filled out evaluation forms and they all said the same thing.  Jaelyn has trouble focusing, paying attention and staying on task.  Dr. K gave us the official ADHD diagnosis that I've been asking teachers about since she was in Kindergarten.  Always before, I've gotten the "she's just social" or "she's just a little bit immature" responses.  It's so nice to finally have teachers tell me that they see what I see and it is becoming a problem.  We started Jaelyn on medicine Tuesday.  It was a rough morning.  Jaelyn doesn't take medicine well and it wasn't pretty trying to get the capsule or the sprinkles, after I cut it open, in her.  It was frustrating because Jaelyn could swallow pills.  A couple of years ago, I did some reading online and you might remember my jello and tic tac method to learn to swallow pills.  I went to the store Tuesday afternoon and armed myself with supplies.

Between the three kids, they swallowed half a container of tic tacs and 3 cups of jello.  Jaelyn worked very hard and I was so proud of her for trying.  She can do anything.  I truly believe she can, but she's scared of failure and refuses to try. 

She's taken the medicine like a champ since then.  She came home yesterday and told me she thought it helped her pay attention better.  We'll go back to Dr. K in a month and go from there.  I meet back with the school March 1st.

And Since Allie is Talking About Moving

Maybe I should talk about moving too.  A few things still have to happen for us to get orders to Misery Missouri.  Sorry, I've got to stop saying that.  It's becoming a habit.  I informed Dan if he does have to go there, I've decided the kids and I will move too.  You think I'm joking about that, but my wheels were spinning to figure out how we could get out of living in the middle of no where.  You all have to agree with me.  50 miles to Panera and Target, folks!  Anyway, I've found out we don't have to live in 65+ year old 1500 sq ft housing on the base for the kids to go to one of the two good schools in the area, that just happen to be on the base.  Now, I'm not sure where we have to live because no one from the school liason office will email me back, but we can live off base.  We can rent a 4 bedroom house with some land that'll allow pets.  We won't be able to be too picky because the picking are slim, but it'll be better than 65 year old 1500 sq ft base housing.  We did that for six months at Ft. Lee.  I could do six months...there's no way I could do two years.

There you have it!  I'm sure Dan was thrilled to hear he wouldn't have to go off to Misery all alone!  Feel free to chime in and speak for yourself, Dan! :)

A Poem By Allie

Encase you can't read around the misspelled words...

I don't want to move but I have to.
Because I've been living here for 4 months (it's actually 4 years).
And my Daddy has been working in the U.S. Army too.
So they told him that we had to move.
So Bye-Bye

I especially love me and the kids in the minivan following Daddy in the moving truck :).

Feeling Rather Proud of Myself

I'm handy and I like to fix things.  I'm also cheap.  I hate to pay someone to do something that I can do myself.  All that brings me to last night when, at 10:00 pm, Dan and I discovered our washing machine wasn't draining.  Dan pulled out the washer (with the dryer stacked on top - yea for Dan's muscles).  We pulled the drain hose off the back to make sure it was clear.  I might have gotten soaked and Dan might have had to run so I didn't return the favor.

Anyway, after reading online we determined it must be the drain hose inside the washer or the pump that was clogged up.  We decided I'd take the back off today and see if I could reach the drain hose and clean it out.  If that didn't work, I'd have to call a repairman.   It took a little trial and error this morning, but I finally got the back off the washer and got the inside hose loose.  I used a combination of a clothes hanger and a pipe cleaner.  EWWW is the only thing to describe what came out and double EWWWW describes how it smelled.  Ugh. Anyway, I ran a rinse cycle and it seems to be draining like a champ now.  I'm running a trial load and then I'll put it all back together feeling triumphant and proud that at least I can fix a washing machine, if nothing else in my life!

Our Newest Activity

Caden has been talking about taking T-ball and Tae Kwon Do for a while now.  I gave him the option of one or the other, but not both.  He picked Tae Kwon Do.  I spent this week calling around and discovered that Tae Kwon Do is expensive compared to the other sports/activities we have done.  Ouch.  I was toying with the idea of letting the girls participate too, but it's not gonna happen until gymnastics is over.  Anyway, Caden took his first trial lesson today.  It was a "get to know you, get to know us" private lesson.  He LOVED it and I loved watching him love it.  The instructor was wonderful.  Caden got to practice some kicks and hits.  He learned a couple of stances and at the end, he broke a board (okay, so the instructor might have helped a little).

He was so proud of himself.  The DoJo (is that right?) has a 4-6  and a 7-8 class.  They are putting Caden in the 7-8 class because he listened and followed directions so well.  I think it's going to be really good for him and in the future good for the girls.  I've read a lot about martial arts and ADHD lately.

A Big First...Sleep Over!

Jaelyn was invited to a birthday party last night and then was asked to stay and spend the night.  She really wanted to go and I've gotten to know the Mom and trust her.  Anyway, Jaelyn was so excited.  I dropped her off last night knowing she'd be fine, but I went to bed missing her.  I wondered if she was having trouble going to sleep or if she missed me. I know it's normal growing pains of letting your kids grow up, but I did not like her being away from me.

Jaelyn did great and came home smiling (whether or not the rumbling volcano appears later from lack of sleep and lots of sweets is another story).  My big girl is growing up and that makes me a tad bit sad this morning.  On a happy note, she did report to missing me this morning and she said my waffles are better than Suzanne's.  Silly girl, it's not like I make them from scratch or anything.  They come out of a box mix!

Shamelessly Stolen from a Friend

There are several things I don't do. I don't read email forwards. All those silly, sappy, uplifting stories that people email endlessly, they stop at me. I don't open them, I don't read them, and I definitely don't forward them...EVER. I also don't watch live TV or commercials. I am addicted to my DVR. I hate hate hate being made to waste my time watching commercials. That said, every now and then there is a commercial worth watching and this is that commercial! Picture Caden under that Darth Vader mask and the commercial is even better!

The Bestest Cyber Babysitter EVER

My Chocolate Fix

I don't know why I keep doing this, but once again, I let Dan go out of town without stocking a chocolate stash.  On the days the kids drive me bonkers, I need chocolate.

Today, I went in hunt of a brownie recipe that had chocolate squares and that didn't have baking powder.

One Bowl Brownies were a hit!

Ingredients


4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

2. Microwave chocolate and butter or margarine in large bowl at HIGH for 2 minutes or until butter or margarine is melted.

3. Stir until chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and nuts.

4. Spread in greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake for 35 minutes (do not over bake).

I was slightly naughty when Allie and I made the brownies.  The kids don't like pecans....SO...I chopped up about 1/2 a cup and put them on half the brownies.  I staked my claim!  I guess you could compare that to my brother licking the tops of cupcakes so no own else would eat them when we were growing up, but I was much more sanitary.
 
The pan of brownies might be gone by tomorrow night if the kids have another day out of school.  I think today was day 7 and we are supposed to be getting an ice storm tonight.  Bleh!  I'm thankful for the day I had to myself on Monday because I don't think I'll have another one until Thursday.

Keeping It Real

Have I ever mentioned that I'm an obsessive compulsive neat freak?  I inherited it honestly from my Grandma Molly (who made her bed every day of her life) and there's probably a good bit of Grandpa Tommy thrown into the mix as well.  He was a perfectionist.  I like having a home for everything and everything in it's home.  Normally our house is neat and tidy.  It might not pass a germ swab test, but it looks good.  Last week threw me for quite a loop.  I gave up on all household duties in favor of staying in bed wallowing in self pity.  Dan did awesome trying to pick up the slack.  He even did the dishes several times, but it doesn't matter how many times you do the dishes.  They multiply faster than (I need a good clique here, but nothing is coming to me).  Anyway, you get the picture and in honor of keeping it real, I took pictures to show you what my house looked like before and after this weekend.

Jaelyn helped me and we cleaned our house from top to bottom.

Before...the sink was overflowing so that dirty pots, pans and dishes covered every surface of the kitchen.  Gross! 

It took 2 loads in the dishwasher and washing many by hand, but we got the kitchen pretty and clean!!!

The end of the kitchen counter is the dumping ground for anything and everything.  It drives me crazy as it spreads and seeps onto my working space.

Pretty clean counter...it makes me want to roll out cookies or knead dough or something.

There were piles of stuff in every corner of the living room.  We had bags, coats, boots, toys, books, JUNK!  Even my coat was in the middle of the floor.  You had to step over it to get to the door.  Craziness!

All picked up

That's just the tip of the laundry iceberg.  In all, I think we folded 8 loads of laundry.

So, that's just a little bit of my house.  The rest looked pretty much the same.  You could barely walk down the steps because of the toy obstacles.  The craft table was over flowing with art supplies.  Rooms were a wreck. A toy bomb exploded in the basement. 

It literally took about 6 hours of Jaelyn and I working together (she's such a good helper when she wants to be).  We cleaned the bathrooms, picked up, dusted, vacuumed and mopped, changed the sheets on beds, folded and put away laundry and sorted and put away toys.

It was not a "purging day," but Jaelyn is learning the joy of purging from me.  When she was done cleaning her stuff, she had a bag to donate.  I took 2 big boxes of books to a retirement home and a load of stuff to Goodwill yesterday.  I love the light feeling I get when I get rid of stuff.



So there you have it.  I double dog dare you to post pictures of your house (just as it is) on your blog.  Leave me a comment and let me know if you are up for the challenge!