Deployment Week Two

This week, we went to the Imax and saw a documentary on Lewis and Clark. They always have tons of Lewis and Clark stuff around here, since they went up the Missouri River, and we just happen to live right up the road from it. I was a bit worried about how the younger kids would do during it, since it wasn't a cartoon, but it totally captivated them. It didn't hurt that I had some Hot Tamales either. It was actually pretty cool. Speaking of the Missouri River, that is what happens to be behind the kids in their pictures even though it just looks like a huge field. We had a hard time finding a spot to do the pictures because the river is so insanely high with all of the snow melting, it is way over the banks. Anyway, we also did the kids school pictures. Its a bit late in the year, but after Elly's hair cut disaster an than the fact that we have haven't seen the ground since right after Thanksgiving (and I like outside pictures) we had to wait. Of course all week it was a nice 55 degrees out, and so Saturday when we went to do pictures, it was 29 degrees out and snowing again. The kids are finally settling into a routine finally. It always takes a couple of weeks after Glen leaves for everything to settle down, and for life to get back to "normal". I have found that having something planned on Saturdays, really helps the kids. It seems to be easier for them to be able to break down the deployment into weeks, or maybe more specifically exciting activities than to have to look at it as a whole 3 and a half month chunk. That is a bit overwhelming for me and I am a grown up. We also found that Buffalo Wild Wings has kids night on Monday, which means 99 cent kid meals. I can feed all of us for $15 dollars which is fantastic. I don't have to cook one day during the week or do dishes. The kids absolutely love it, and it is a relaxing evening for me too. Well that is about it for this week.

Deployment Week One

When Glen is deployed, we do something fun and special every Saturday, so my goal for this deployment is to start updating my blog again. We will see how it goes. I have done a miserable job with it since he got back from his last deployment. I figure this way he will get to see from all of our exciting adventures and see the highlights of our outings. This past weekend we had movie night. That may not seem exciting to most people, but we don't do movie night all that often, plus the kids were excited about pizza and probably even more excited about eating in the living room, since normally that is a HUGE no-no. Oh and it is the only time they get soda. We watch Planet 51 this time, and surprisingly enough it was pretty good. I generally don't like cartoons, but this one pretty good. This week has been busy with Parent-Teacher conferences. It is always nice to talk to the teachers and see how the are progressing. I am very proud of how good they are doing in school. They are very smart kids. We also stopped by the book fair on our way out and the kids each got to pick out a book. They love buying books, but seriously their book case is soooooo over flowing. I think we might have to get another one. Anyway time to get the guys ready for bed, they have had a hard week with daylight savings.

Halloween

So I guess it has been 2 months since I have updated this stupid thing, I thought that once the kids were back in school, that I would finally have some time. No such luck though. Between dropping and picking up kids, I just don't really have a lot of spare time. With 2 different times to be back and forth, it takes up a lot of my day. The kids had a blast for Halloween. They were very excited that Grandma came out to visit them. I do love being part of a military community, there is always so much stuff available to do (and most of it is free).

Airshow

This weekend was the annual air show. Jeremiah was the happiest kid in the world. He was so excited to see all of the airplanes. The day before we got to watch the Blue Angels practice from our yard. The kids had a blast. They love touring the planes. We went and checked out the Air Force booth and to get the little prizes that they had, the kids had to do as many push ups as they were old. My kids of course thought it was no big deal. Aaric was like "I only have to do 7?" I thought that once the kids got back to school, that I would have some free time, but that hasn't happened yet. Well that is about all for this week.

Back to School

So, I have been a big slacker lately and haven't been updating this. But in my own defense it has been rather chaotic, trying to get the kids ready for school, get a schedule going and get everyone dropped off and find time for my workout. I am very excited that I am over halfway done with my half marathon training, although it takes up every free moment I have. This is of course taking up time I don't have, I guess dishes will have to wait. The kids got to go back to school this week. They are so excited to be able to see their friends again, and probably to get away from me for a little bit. They were starting to get a

little bored. Elly had her first day of Pre-School today. She was so excited. I was worried that she was going to be a little bit shy. When we went to her open house last night, she hid behind me the whole time and wouldn't talk to her teachers. Dropping her off went well though. She wasn't shy or nervous at all. Her teachers told her to stand against the wall in a line, and she would not leave her spot (even to give mommy and daddy hugs and kisses) until the teacher had the line start walking to class. Her baby brother was so upset to leave her. I think he had a harder time with it than Glen or I did. He doesn't know what to do without her around. I am sure he will figure it out though. They can be so sweet with each other, and sometimes, they can be so mean to each other. I guess that means that I get a few hours of peace in the afternoon, I'm not going to know

what to do with myself.

This Week

This week we really didn't do much. Just enjoyed being home and not having to go anywhere. We did take the kids to an Ice Cream Safari at the zoo, which they loved. They had all you can eat ice cream and then little stands that had different milk related things at them. One of them was fun with milk where they had a bunch of little recipes for milk. One of them was peanut butter and chocolate syrup added to milk, and Elly tried the orangutan punch (since if you know Elly she loves monkeys) it was orange jello and chocolate syrup (sounds really disgusting to me but she loved it). Then they had a milk mustache stand where they would

paint a milk moustache on you and take your picture. I'm sure I will post that when I get around to scanning it into my computer. We of course were too late and they ran out of the moustache paint, but they still got to get their picture taken. I found a few random pictures from Washington that Coreen took. I thought that they were pretty funny so I decided to post them. One day when the kids were bored they decided to put on Coreen and Tracy's life jackets, grabbed the oars and started jousting through the sprinkler with them. Surprisingly none of our emergency room visits were related to this, although I was sure there would be one. I also found one that Coreen took with the kids doing push ups. She thought that was the funniest thing ever. When the

kids get in trouble Glen has them do push ups as a punishment. Elly still has not mastered the proper way to do a push up although she is improving. I must say that with some of the days we have, I am going to have the strongest kids on the block (can you tell that we are a

military family). Anyway that is about it for this week.