BOO! at the ZOO

Awwww...another Halloween has come and gone and all that is left is the Halloween Hangover. It's a combination of too little sleep and too much candy.
We decided to break from the traditional trick-or-treating this year and go to "Boo at the Zoo" instead. BOO! was definitely the order of the night. Ellie was so scared, at one point, she started crying hysterically(being the great mom that I am...I was more worried about her makeup running), Carter was screaming like a girl(which isn't hard at his age), and all poor Maggie could say was, "I'm scared". They got more than enough candy, though, and that seemed to make up for everything. In fact, they were laughing about it afterwards so I'm almost positive there won't be any lasting damage.

It's a sign of things to come

To the untrained eye, the black box - pictured above - seems ordinary and harmless. But for us(or any other Army family), the emotions this, seemingly harmless, black storage box envokes are strong and lasting. Its emergence means only one thing...a deployment is forthcoming. We've known that another deployment to Iraq was a likely possibility(I'm so grateful it's not Afghanistan)but the appearance of this black box turns the likely possibility into a painful reality.

We've come a long way, baby!

Kurtis and I just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary...well at least I celebrated it(Kurtis is still in California at the National Training Center - he's not due home for another week). To celebrate I threw myself a pity party(he missed last year's anniversary as well when he was deployed to Iraq - but I'm not bitter or anything). Feeling sorry for myself I dug out all the old photos and reminisced about all Kurtis and I have been through these last 10 years. When I started catogorizing our life I realized just how much we've experienced in such a short time. I'll share with you some of the highlights: We've lived in 7 different cities in 4 different states, experienced the miracle of birth 3 times over(one of which was very traumatic), 2 college graduations(one from BYU and the other from the University of Louisville), 2 officer comissioning ceremonies, 1 short deployment(and gearing up for another), and the many other great and not so great memories that come with living our every day life. Then I got to thinking that if I couldn't share my anniversary with my husband then I'd share it with all of you, which in some small way makes me feel better. So here goes. A brief photo timeline of our life together. Basically it's our life, thus far, summed up in 26 pictures. Just as a side note - My hair changes as often as the pictures. :)



After seeing it I think you'll agree; It has been a great 10 years and I'm so looking forward to the next 10 and the experiences that are waiting up ahead. Now if only I had my husband to share it with...

A Birthday with a Slumber Party

My Ellie just celebrated her 9th birthday. I can't believe it. I don't feel old enough to have a 9 year old(what does that say about me?). Since it was a party year( I don't do birthday parties every year because I really don't care for them but not wanting my kids to feel totally deprived we compromised on every other year) and since Kurtis isn't home to object, we decided to go all out and have a slumber party. My limit was 4 girls and Ellie agreed. All the girls came and had a blast. It started with American Idol karaoke for the Wii, T-shirts and fondue, and ended with a spontaneous Camp Rock disco party in the bedroom. They stayed up all night. I didn't last past 1am. Ellie had so much fun, in fact, I'm afraid she will rave about this party until her next one which, by the way, will be in 2010.

Rear-Ended by a Drunk Driver. Yikes!

Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what, if anything, to post on this blog. I thought I would share my latest crazy experience because I still can't believe it happened. It also seems that it will probably take up some space in my life for the near future.

Early(and I mean early - 12:30am) Saturday morning I was taking Kurtis to his company headquarters so he could fly out to Ft. Irwin and the NTC(National Training Center) for 4 weeks of training. As as I was waiting at the stop light to get on the freeway we were struck from behind by another vehicle. The force was strong enough to knock me into the car in front of me. OUCH! It woke the kids up and they all started crying. I put the car in park and got out of the car and started walking back toward the car that hit me. I was thinking about what I was going to say to the driver...it was something sarcastic along the lines of "didn't you see me" Apparently, the woman inside the car didn't see me(for reasons that became obvious a few seconds later) so I knocked on her window and as I was knocking on her window she started driving and hit my van again(I think she was trying to flee the scene). I started yelling, "Get out of the car, Get out of the car, NOW!" She finally seemed to hear me and see me because she stopped her car. As I watched her get out of her car, I knew at that moment that something was not quite right so I asked the woman if she'd been drinking. Of course she said, "NO, NO, NO!" I said "yeah right," and I immediately called police. Kurtis, by this time, was late for formation and getting pretty anxious. To make matter worse he forgot his cell phone back at the house so he didn't have the numbers to contact anyone in his chain of command. Kurtis and the girl in front of me(she was military as well) starting calling to try and find the numbers while I dealt with the drunk crazy lady that kept trying to tell me the accident was my fault and she didn't want to wait for the police. I tried to get her insurance information while we were waiting and she discovered that she has locked herself out of her RENTAL car(I'm thinking at this point I'll be lucky if she has insurance). It turned out to be a good thing though, because I didn't have to worry about her trying to leave the accident scene again. So the police finally showed up and I told him that I thought she was drunk and asked if he would find out for sure(he told me it was standard procedure). Since we were obviously in a hurry he just took our information and let us leave.
After I got home and put the kids back to bed(that took some doing because they were shook up and wide awake) I got a phone call from the officer who was at the scene. He told me the woman was arrested for a DWI and I would probably be called as a witness in that case. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep after that. I kept replaying the incident over and over in my mind. I finally gave up trying and I called our insurance company to report the accident and find out my options(Thank you GEICO...you are as great as your commercials say). The adjuster called me on Monday and arranged to have my car fixed on Friday. Hooray!
In the end, no one was hurt and the damage was relatively minor and for that I'll be forever thankful.

Back to school

It's Official! Another school year has begun. We now have a 3rd grader(who also gets to start taking those wonderful state mandated tests) and a 1st grader. The grades may have changed but I'm afraid that is the only thing that has. This first school morning left off exactly where last year's mornings ended. Ellie was super anxious. She was up earlier than needed even though she was up half the night. She was so worried about being late that she spouted off the time every 5 minutes and barely let me take any pictures, or even get dressed. I know what your thinking...this is perfectly normal for the first day of school. I would, of course, agree with you if she hadn't acted this way every day last year. I think some anti-anxiety medication might be in her future. Carter, however, could hardly get out of bed despite going to bed at 7:30pm. He took his time eating which aggravated Ellie to no end, and even went so far as to say his "belly hurt". Oh "Serenity Now"!

As I drove to pick up the kids from school, I wondered that since the mornings hadn't changed then maybe our afternoons would stay the same as well. I'm happy to say they are. I picked up my smiling kids from their first day of school and listened to their cheerful chatter all the way home. Ahhh...it was like summer never was.

It's Crazy and Boring. It's My Life.

My life is bi-polar. Not me...my life. I have periods of complete and utter boredom followed by days and weeks of complete pandamonium. I was realizing this on Saturday as the chaos(quarterly primary activity, back to school shopping, sharing time lesson, activity day girls activities, ballet lessons, dentist appointments, etc.)that has been my life as of late, was coming to a close. Goodness, was I looking forward to the nothing that was to come. And even though the beginning of my down time came in the form of an illness, you won't find me complaining. Boredom definitely has it's own perks. I can finish reading that book I started but didn't finish, get to all that laundry I have been neglecting, and watch all those movies that come right to my door(Hooray for Netflix). The longer the boredom, or chaos(depending on which part of the cycle I'm in at the moment) goes on, I find myself anxiously awaiting its end and the beginning of its polar opposite. It reminds me of the line in that once popular song by Semisonic "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." I'm not entirely sure this is normal but hey, who knows what normal is anyway? I'm starting to think I may not be as normal as I once thought. Oh well, I guess what I'm trying to say is...even though it might not be normal and I may not be normal...I love my bi-poloar life.

Clarification

The pictures below don't convey the true size of this insect. It's body was over 3 inches and with its wings it reached almost 5 inches long. I would have measured for exact numbers but I wasn't getting any closer to it than was necessary.

Everthing IS bigger in Texas, including the BUGS!

I was cleaning the pool this morning when I saw this...um...bug(is that even the right word?) on the window screen. Yuck! The kids were so intrigued - I wish I could share the same sentiment - they decided, without my knowledge, to catch it in a drinking glass. Well, I discovered their scheme at the very last moment and managed to save the poor thing...for the time being.
However, being the kids that they are; they remained undeterred, so not wanting to have to throw away a perfectly good glass (I couldn't imagine drinking out if it after this even after repeated washings) I reluctantly, gave them a mason jar. They immediately put in a handful of grass and poked holes in the lid. The stealth and cunning they used to catch him surprised me, and before I realized what was actually happening...they were screwing the lid on the mason jar with the thing inside. Does anyone know what the survival rate is for bugs in jars? I'm guessing it can't be too long in the Texas heat. With that in mind, I'm hoping the kids will forget about their new catch and I'll be able to break him out before he becomes another bug-in-jar statistic.

Another trip...This time to the ER

Being the mother of a rough and tumble six year-old boy, I've seen the inside of the emergency room more times than I can count. Even though I don't like it, I've grown accustomed to Carter having stitches and other minor injuries. I've accepted it as a certain part of life. Last night, however, it wasn't Carter who, as usual, would be making yet another trip to the ER. It was my baby, Maggie. When I realized it was her, I actually came unglued. (I know you'll find this hard to believe but I'm not one to let cooler heads prevail in an emergency...that is what my husband is for, well, when he is home, which he wasn't last night. ) It was utter chaos. I'm holding Maggie, who is squirming and crying with blood running down her chin(she wouldn't let me look at it, let alone touch it), and yelling so loud at the kids, I'm sure the neighbors could hear, to get their shoes on and get in the car(I felt bad about that later). I drove like a NASCAR driver at Daytona(you can thank Kurtis for the analogy..It's his new thing) to the hospital, where we began the usual waiting game. Thankfully, it wasn't busy and it only took us an hour to see the doctor. Maggie bit clear through her lip in two places but, in the end, she only needed the glue to hold it together(if only the doc could have used it on me - to put my nerves back together).

What a day! I can't quite figure out why I was such a complete mess. Like I said, I've experienced it all before. Is it because Maggie is my baby...or a girl? Or maybe because this was her first time in the ER? Well, whatever the reason...I guess I'm going to have to make myself accustomed to the idea of taking more trips to the ER now with Maggie. I think I might find it harder to accept, though.