All in a day's work

These pictures are mainly for Ryan (who may not make it back to see the house before we move). Tonight Glenn and I worked furiously to get the kitchen walls done. In about 2 hours, we had the whole room painted...completed! Yay! And I must say, the pictures don't do it justice (I don't have Jon's talent there). The color is just a tiny shade darker than what we had primed it. It's BEAUTIFUL! No longer the pretty, but definitely bathroom looking color.







Now I just need to finish painting the ceiling in the other rooms and touch up the garage...then I'm done! Plant that lovely "for sale" sign in my front yard and I'm good to go.

Ring Around the Rosies (turn your volume way up!)

Wii Time

Ever since Santa dropped off the Wii player, our family has enjoyed playing it together. Since school has started, the kids have realized that it's an earned privilege to play it. They aren't allowed to have any card flips at school (any warnings or such from their teachers) or they can't play it. Jacob's had a hard couple of weeks. Today he finally stayed on GREEN (no card flips). That means Wii time! Even Marcus loves to watch and pretend to play...of course he'll also run off with a remote the moment we turn our heads too...

They're all playing bowling here...




Hi-five from Marcus! He's always so tickled watching his siblings play.

Prayer Rock

At school yesterday, in celebration of Earth Day, the kids at Julia and Jacob's elementary school made pet rocks. Julia, being the incredible young lady that she is, decided to instead make a prayer rock. She decorated it in a sparkly blue and keeps it on the shelf near her bed to help remind herself (and in turn then remind Evelyn) to have personal prayer before going to bed each night. This girl continues to amaze me at every turn. I am so proud of her!

It's time....

You know it's time to move when you see that your lawn needs to me mowed...but you're scared to go into the yard for fear your allergies will flare up again. Therefore you won't mow your lawn and wait for the awesome boy scout to come over and do it for you. :) Jared, you're the BEST!!!!!! (the son of one of my mom's good friends has volunteered to come over once a week and do the mowing and weed eating for me--bless him!)

Video Footage

Lookey what I found!

http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm57/echo501-08/Videos/

Here are some short videos of the water training that Ryan did (he's not in any of the videos) and then a short clip of the first aid.

Allergies Suck

So I decided to do something which I've never done before....do the weed eating. It really needed to be done and I'm the only one around here who can do it. So after much tinkering and some help from Tiff, I finally got the thing going on Saturday afternoon. Kimberlie was sweet enough to hang out at my house and watch the kids while I went around the house getting rid of weeds and extra grass growth that was trying to climb up the sides of my house. Gotta tell you, it feels so good to accomplish new things! Well...that was til my body started to feel pretty horrible that night. Very achy and my head hurt. All that night I tossed and turned with fever and then chills. No gooda. I got up at 6am to take some tylenol which took the edge off long enough for me to take the kids to sacrament. By Sunday night it hurt to move my head, couldn't stand any light whatsoever, and I couldn't breathe out of my nose. My accomplishment? Giving myself a sinus infection! Never had one before...never had allergies in April either! It's now Tuesday and I was finally able to venture out of the house today. My head still doesn't like quick movements and I wear sunglasses to help with light. Still can't breathe out of my nose, though my left nostril does like to run now. :P Guh-ross. I've been taking sudafed and tylenol. If this isn't cleared up in a couple of days then I'm buying zyrtec and claritin D and making myself a nice cocktail. The kicker? It rained today (and a bit yesterday) and I can tell the grass needs to be cut again....I HATE ALLERGIES!!!!!

P.S. I'm craving chocolate and indulged in the twix that I've had stashed in my purse...but my nose is so stuffy that I didn't get to taste it whatsoever. :( And I'm still craving chocolate....

For all Harry Potter freaks like me....:)

Come test your Harry Potter Special Valentine's Day Edition (random, I know):
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/challenge/valentines/

How about testing your Harry Potter Humor?
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/challenge/humor/

Come and check out the Felix Felicis Quiz!
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/challenge/luck/

Or how about the Ministry of Magic Entrance Exam?
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/challenge/leaders/

Lastly, there is Harry Potter by the Numbers...
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/challenge/numbers/

Film Is Not Dead

My brother is an amazing photographer (Jonathan Canlas) and is holding a workshop in November...and I'm including a link...
He hosted his first workshop just last month and it was a huge success. It also had rave reviews from all it's attendees. If that's not enough to motivate people to check it out, then how about this? Gourmet cooking by his awesome wife AND it's being held in HAWAII.
To see how the workshop in March went, see here:

http://filmisnotdead.blogspot.com/

This link also holds all the info for the next workshop which I can guarantee will be absolutely awesome!

Squad Olympics and Leadership Obstacle Course

Ryan said that this was a lot of hard work but so much fun. If you go to the link below, you'll be able to get a better idea (from all 249 pictures there) of what was going on. I posted just the ones which I was able to spy Ryan in...who knows though, I may have missed him in some others (everyone looks alike!).

http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm57/echo501-08/Squad%20Olympics/





I think Ryan is the one lying on the ground on the bottom right...but don't take my word for it.


Again Ryan is on the far right...




Here's the link for the Leadership Obstacle Course which he went through just a couple of days ago. I'm still not quite sure of everything that it involved. What I do know is that the past couple days whenever I've been webcaming with Ryan, his boots have been air drying in the window of his room cause of whatever went on in the course.
http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm57/echo501-08/Leadership%20Obstacle%20Course/

Water Training

A while ago I emailed family and told them that Ryan was going to start some underwater training. The pictures have finally been posted on the company link. Here's some that I chose to share and, after some help from Ryan, I'll be able to explain what the soldiers were doing.

First off, get hosed down to get rid of the dirt, dust, ect so that the pool doesn't get too dirty from everyone jumping in(fully clothed).



Get everyone inside and let's get started!


The first thing they had to do was to put on what Ryan referred to as LBE. It's this little black vest...or you could even say they were just straps or suspenders. The soldiers had their canteens and weapons on themselves too.



After they got their gear on, they had to stand with their back to the pool, jump in, and then swim 35 meters. Jumping in and swimming that distance didn't sound too bad to me til I remembered that they were fully clothed and had gear....no thanks!


Now comes the fun part....climb the 3 meter diving board and jump off while blindfolded! Can you say freaky? You don't know where the edge is, when you're going to fall off, or when you're going to hit the water! That last point is the part that would get to me the most. Oh yeah, they still had their weapons to hold on to too.





Coming up after doing the high dive....


The last thing the soldiers had to do was to stand on the edge of the pool again, jump in and go down far enough to strip off their weapon and LBE before coming back up. This was the part that Ryan didn't quite make it on. He jumped, touched the bottom and did what our instinct tells us to do--push off to the top. His head bobbed up (not all the way out of the water) but he managed to keep the rest of his body below the surface while he completed the task. They took off 5 pts since the back of his head broke the surface. Oh well, he still got 45/50! I think this is him in this picture....



There were plenty of life guards in the pool and ready in case a soldier needed help. Thank goodness! I can't imagine how heavy all the gear, uniforms, and shoes were in the water!


If you want to check out more pictures of the water event, here's the link:

http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm57/echo501-08/CWST/?start=all

April flowers

April showers typically bring May flowers...but Ryan made sure that our house was brightened up with these pretty things:




Random, but nice, picture of Jacob sporting his new window.


Marcus is officially not a baby anymore...not when he knows what a TV is. I caught all three of these guys glued to the screen watching Mulan the other day.

My Prince...ess?

Who needs dolls when you have a baby brother? Apparently the girls prefer Marcus over their dolls.





This will be coming to an abrupt halt when Ryan comes home. :)

Appreciation, not ignorance, please

So as I was driving to pick up Julia and Jacob from school, I passed a bunch of picketers. Driving past them I was able to glimpse their signs: "honk to end the war", "the IRS is of the devil", "banking is evil", "it costs 4k per family to support the war", ect. The biggest sign was how much the war costs. It was annoying and made me upset to see people do this. I understand a bit (about the war part...the other concepts were beyond me). I understand that people protest the war. Well, I don't like it, but I support it. The war on terror will probably never end. There are too many terrorists out there--knock one down and 3 more pop up it seems. But at least we're doing something about it. Not just being a bunch of sitting ducks turning the other way while otrocities happen around us.

Back to the picketers....

Behind them, a few feet away, stood a lone soldier holding up a sign which said "thank you for supporting me". I glowed with pride seeing him standing alone...not asking for anything--just to say thank you. It really touched me...seeing him standing there next to people who have nothing better to do than to complain about our government and the people who defend it and our country. Honestly, like a bunch of honking is really going to solve our countries issues. I soooo wish I had my camera at the time.

My nephew witnessed what was going on during the drive home. I explained what the signs were all about and pointed out the soldier and his sign. Nathan got quiet as he contemplated the scene. I told him why some people don't support the war--it's dangerous, it costs families some money, people die...but then we also discussed the positive notes....we help protect our families from more 9/11s...help protect others in their own oppressive countries...protect freedom. Then I posed a question to him: Is it worth war? Is freedom (and all other positives) worth war and all the negatives that come with it? He pondered that for a minute or two and then said with firm conviction "yes". He's only 10 but he knows that we can't let the bad guys run around taking over countries. He wants our defended. He knows that people are being killed. He talked about being worried that the bad guys are killing children also. I wish the picketers could have listened to our talk...the soldier too. I know my nephew learned a lesson or two from that scene...and I gained a greater appreciation for our soldiers.

Don't mess with me, I'm a soldier's wife

That's right. And I must admit that I had that attitude toward a certain online company today. I was going through and paying my bills online when a certain site wouldn't let me log in. After the allotted amount of tries passed I ended up having to call the lovely 1-800#. Well, the lady on the other end of the phone proceeded to tell me that since my name wasn't on the acct that they'd have to call my husband instead. I explained (kindly) that he's away for training in the army and that he couldn't take their call. She then told me that until they got ahold of him that there wasn't anything they could do. I then informed her that I have a power of attorney that covers everything...and I needed to just reset my darn password so I could pay the bill. It's when she told me that the poa wasn't worth anything in their eyes that I put my attitude on. Short of chewing her out, I told her again (not so kindly) that my husband is in the army and that for the rest of the time I live in this house he won't be here. That got her attention..."oh, hold on, let me talk to my boss..." Yeah right. Punk! I did start to give her a piece of my mind then. After quite a bit more attitude coming from my end (Joycelyn and Mom will know exactly what I'm talking about) she told me that she'd clear it up so that I could reset the thing. Darn right! Like I said before....don't mess with me--I'm a soldier's wife. :)

I'm officially listed as an authorized user on that acct now. :) On another note, I normally don't have such huge attitude with people, but seeing as I'm the only who could get this done and the only who could stick up for me...well, I did it.

Sunday pictures

I bought Julia a gorgeous dress while we were visiting Joycelyn. Julia's been dying to wear it ever since and yesterday was her first opportunity to do so. So of course I took pictures!

She begged for this dress cause she thinks it looks like some that I own. :) Well, since she was all dressed up I also curled her hair which we thought turned out to be very pretty.






Marcus is working on his bottom incisors coming in so he hasn't been feeling well at all. He most certainly didn't want his picture taken. I doped him up with some tylenol but he still didn't fall asleep til the last 30 minutes of church. He woke up briefly to go home and then went straight to bed as soon as we arrived at the house. FIVE HOURS LATER, he decided to join the living. He woke up with a fever and runny nose, but that was easily resolved with some more tylenol. He's doing better today...I'm hopeful that those teeth will be in soon!

Jacob can read!

He's only in kindergarten and loves to look for joining letters which he's learning at school (like -at, -wh, -ch, ect). Well, he now has book reports to do and tonight was the first time I caught him reading outloud. I can't express how proud I am of him! (and he's pretty pleased with himself too). Psst! Gotta really turn up the volume on your computer and then you can hear the slight lisp he has since he lost his latest tooth!

5 Mile Ruck March and First Aid

A week or so ago Ryan's OCS group went on a 5 mile ruck march. I'm guessing that they learned first aid while they were at it?

I'm assuming (guessing really) that these first two pictures are of them getting ready for the march.






Then it's onto first aid.

Say "Daddy!"

Cookies

Teeth

Jacob had an extra exciting time while on our vacation. He lost his first tooth while we were at the mall in Alexandria! It was no easy thing either! I had just had my nails done and could barely use them to get that sucker out. We were sitting outside Motherhood Maternity while Mom and Joycelyn were shopping. He was soooo good and just sat there while I wiggled his tooth. He started to cry at the thought of it hurting...so I promised him a cherry dutch ice from Auntie Anne's--and he wouldn't have to share it with anyone. Well, that sealed that deal! He opened his mouth right up and we played with the tooth til it came out. Of course he started crying at the sight of all that blood but was perfectly content once he received the promised (and well earned!) dutch ice! Oh, and btw, his lips are red here cause of his drink--not blood.



Well, today was round two with an especially tough little tooth. Yesterday Jacob told me he had a really wiggly tooth and it hurt to eat. Well, I know what that meant...time for it to come out. So we played and played with it...but it wouldn't come out without some serious yanking and I'm not about to do that! So I had him sleep on it and see how it was in the morning. Well, it wasn't any better today. He still couldn't eat very much without a lot of pain. So we went back to wiggling...I swear, this tooth had attitude! It took all evening long of twisting and turning (it was barely connected anywhere, but where it was connected--it wouldn't budge!). So after lots of tears, frustration, and courage...it finally came out. His reward this time? The very last bomb pop in the house. :)



To top this lovely experience off: he just informed me he has two more wiggly teeth. :0!