This Week

Well, we haven't really done anything very exciting. Most of the time has been spent running around and doing all the last minute prep for Glen's deployment. Since this is his first desert trip, he has lots of little stuff to get finished. Plus he has been on a mission to finish up all the little odds and ends of things that he has been meaning to do around the house. He made sure all of the light bulbs were changed, trimmed the kids nails (I don't do that one because I end up cutting their fingers), and making sure things around the house are as ready as they can be. I thought it was awfully nice of him to think about the little things like that even though he has more important "military" things to get done as well. This weekend we took a picture of each of the kids with their Dad, so that when he leaves they will each have one of their own. The current plan is to get them printed up for them and in a frame, so that he can wrap them and leave them for the kids as a little present when he leaves. I think the kids will be very excited to get them. Well that pretty much covers all the excitement for this week. P.S. Mom that Prosciutto Wrapped Cod was excellent!!!!!

Elly's Birthday

This weekend we had Elly's birthday party. She turns 4 on Wednesday. I can't believe how old my kids are getting. I don't feel like I am old enough to have kids as old as I do, but I am. Of course when I say that my mom likes to remind me that she doesn't think she is old enough to have a kid that is 30 (obviously me). That just always seems to make me feel so much better (not really). So, anyway, Elly is such a girly girl. She picked out strawberry cake, strawberry icing, and cherry chocolate chip ice cream. Her favorite color is actually purple, but she just couldn't seem to find a purple cake at the commissary last week. She was pretty excited about her birthday. She decided she wanted to go to the zoo. It seemed like a great idea at the time considering that it was 65 degrees that day. Of course when we actually went it was more like 40 and overcast. It really doesn't matter, there are so many indoor exhibits at this zoo, that we found plenty to do. Elly also got to touch a monkey, though I'm pretty sure she wasn't supposed to, but I guess that is what happens when monkey's roam freely and there is a 4 year old near by. She absolutely loves monkey's, and was so excited to actually get to touch a real one. Elly was just happy that her Grandma Ellura came to visit her. Of course Grandma, she now thinks that you are going to come to her birthday every year now, so keep that in mind. We had lots of fun with my mom visiting though. Not only did we go to the zoo, but we took her to the range and taught her how to shoot. After the first shot I thought she was just going to hand me the gun back (preferably pointed down range), but she shot off two clips and hit the target all but two or three times. She did have a ginormous target. I'm still not entirely sure what made us decide that taking an almost blind lady shooting was a good idea, but she did better than I did my first time. I know she loves this picture, she deleted it off of her computer, but since it was taken on Glen's camera, I still have a copy of it. We also took her to see the Missouri river, since it is like 4 miles away. Out of all the times that she has come to visit, this is the first time she has actually made it to the river. Its a fairly decent size river. Not the best picture ever, but pretty good considering that it was cold and windy. The girls were extremely excited. Grandma let them each pick out a cookie recipe and than helped each girl make it. Elly got to make hers while the kids were in school, and Ashleigh got to make hers Saturday night. They definitely picked out kid cookies, so the adults also got to pick out a cookie. I should let the kids help cook more often, they absolutely love it, but I just hate cleaning up the mess, plus it takes so much more time, because they just aren't fast (because I never let them help), so I just get frustrated and tell them no. I'm just a mean Mom I guess. I don't like them to clean the house either (except their rooms). It is just more work for me, trying to explain to them, why even though the middle of the room is clean, the room isn't actually clean. I'd rather just do it myself and have it done right without all the extra drama. The conclusion I have drawn is that I am just lazy. Oh well, I guess that is what happens when you have 5 kids. I always have so many cute pictures and never really that much to say. We had our first tornado of the year this week, and than of course tomorrow it is supposed to snow. You just have to love Spring in Nebraska. I can tell that my kids are used to living in places with tornado's. They hear the sirens going off, and what ever time, day or night, they all pile into the hall (that is our only inside room). They used to get really scared and not be able to go back to sleep, but now it is nothing exciting. Well that is about it for our week.

In Grandma Schaaf fashion, a picture of the 3 Ellura's.

This Week

Okay, so anyone who knows me, knows that I am not an animal person. Coreen volunteered me for a cat (Cringer), that we have, and now we have a dog. This weekend, Glen decided that before he deploys we need a dog. He wants us to have something to help keep us safe while he is away. Although the dog we ended up with is so mellow that I'm pretty sure that he is not going to be much protection. He must not have much confidence in my shooting abilities. So anyway, we ended up spending most of the day Saturday at the Humane Society looking at dogs, and talking to an adoption counselor to find a dog that would be perfect for us (of course the dog that would be most perfect, would be not to have one). So, anyway we ended up with a 3 year old Chocolate lab named Logan (he came with the name). I said no to puppies because I can't handle housebreaking an animal, plus Jeremiah would probably try to carry a puppy around by its fur. Logan is housebroken, thankfully and crate trained (although a crate his size is going to be rather expensive) and knows the basics like sit and out. The kids absolutely love him, and they are the ones who take him outside and walk him around the neighborhood. I'm sure that will be short lived. We did all go for a walk on Saturday, Elly ran down a hill and through a puddle of mud and lost a flip flop. We looked for about 20 minutes, and never found it. She ended up having to walk the rest of the way home with only one flip flop. After they get used to having him, they won't be so excited about walking him. The weather has been so nice the past week, that I took Elly and Jeremiah to the zoo twice this week. Elly absolutely loves the zoo. Her favorite animals to go see are the Gorillas. Jeremiah love the petting zoo. He followed the little goats all over the place. This zoo is so big I could probably go there almost every day and still not look at the same things. Elly is very upset that she has to wait 3 days for Grandma to come visit. She is so excited that she is going to be here for her birthday. She thinks Grandma should take her home with her for a few days. This past week was pretty nice. Glen was back and forth between night and day shifts, so he was home a bit more during the week. He has started to out process for his deployment. He got to take a class because he is deploying to a combat zone. It had lots of cool stuff (for him) he got to learn some krav maga which is hand to hand or close combat mainly for threat neutralization. He of course absolutely loved it. Plus they get to go on a field trip to go shooting. Overall he thought it was a great class. He also had to go get his anthrax vaccinations (not something he thought was so great), he gets to wait until he is in the Desert before he has to get small pox. He can't get it here because the boys have eczema. So it is starting to get close to deployment time. The kids are getting a little anxious. He hasn't deployed since any of the kids can remember. The last time he was gone was when Ashleigh was 2 1/2 and Jayson was 18 months. This one will only be half the time as that one, so I guess that is good. We still have about 3 weeks before he leaves. Well I have a bunch of cute pictures, and not much to say, I was out of anything worth while to say a long time ago. So anyway, I guess I will go. Oh and I let Elly take a picture of Jeremiah and I. He was mad because he thought he should be able to play with the camera. I thought it was a funny picture. He has the funniest expressions.

Pinewood Derby

This week was much better than last week. We expected the rest of the kids to get sick, but so far no one has. Maybe they are just waiting for Grandma to come visit, so she can take care of them. Jayson had his first pine wood derby this weekend. He was very excited. His Dad helped him make a pretty cool looking car. He was pretty proud of it. Glen made sure we got there in plenty of time, so that they could add more weight if they needed to before the race started. There were 40 other boys and he ended up being 21st place, which isn't too bad. He was just happy that he wasn't last. Of course his goal for next year is to be one of the 3 boys that gets a trophy. All in all though for his first one it went pretty well. They had one of the old wooden tracks set up at the other end of the gym, so that the kids could race hot wheels down them. Aaric and Elly thought that was absolutely great. Even Ashleigh had fun with that, although if you ask her she is just too grown up and cool to have fun playing with such a not cool toy. Luckily it kept them entertained for a while because it took a little bit of time to get all the boys names entered into the computer. This was the most high tech pinewood derby I've ever been too. They had all of the race info on a projector so that at the end of every heat you could see who won that grouping and what the speed was. The boys thought that was awesome. Then they fed us lunch. The weather has been really nice, which has been nice for me. The kids have spent a lot of time at the park. It is great to have one so close. It gets them out from in front of the TV for at least a little bit during the day. Hopefully the weather stays nice for a little while. I am really tired of being cold. Oh and I finally got the pictures from one of Glen's promotion ceremonies. It has Glen and Jeremiah, Elly and me all in it. Of course you can't see Elly because she is hiding behind me. When she turned around and saw that a whole room full of people where staring at us, she got a little shy and hid right behind me. That is why the Chief is laughing. They could not get her to budge. She made sure that she couldn't see anyone and that they couldn't see her. It was pretty funny. Well I have way more pictures this week, than I have things to say, so I guess that is it. Oh and Glen took a picture of me shooting. Not really exciting I know, but I am getting lots better. So I guess that is a good thing.

Not An Exciting Week

Okay, so this was supposed to be a really cool picture. We were walking down a cordon (a bunch of guys holding swords) and we were given specific instructions that at the end of the cordon, we were supposed to stop and get a picture done. Well apparently the photographer did not get the message, so he was taking pictures when ever and of course when we stop for the picture, he doesn't take one. So, anyway, everyone is looking away, or their eyes are closed. I guess its okay, because the cordon didn't look quite as good as it should have. The swords were at different levels. This is from Glen's yearly award ceremony last week. He was nominated for Honor Guard NCO of the Year (he lost to the guy who does it for his job and not as an additional duty, go figure). So it was a big formal ceremony. We got to go out with out kids and everything. He also had his promotion ceremonies, which there are pictures of some where, but he's been a big slacker and hasn't gotten them, and I got tired of waiting for them (actually he has been sick, and in class so he hasn't had time). So when I do finally manage to get them I guess I will post them. This picture of Jeremiah pretty much sums up our week. He is sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office. I spent almost every day at the doctors office. Between Jeremiah's 18 month check up, he lost weight, but the doctor wasn't concerned, because he is so wiggly, 4 dental appointments, Aaric's check up, and mine, that took up most of my week. To top it all off, Glen, Jeremiah and I were sick (I'm sure the rest of the kids are next). So , that was our great week. Luckily most weeks are better than that. The kids haven't been sick all that much this year, so that has been good. Well that about covers it for this week.

Nothing Clever This Week

I know this is a terrible picture, I don't think that my kids are capable of being still long enough for my phone (with no flash) to take a picture that isn't blurry. Anyway, Jayson completed his Wolf requirements this year, and got his award at the pack meeting last week. He was pretty excited. He worked hard to make sure that he finished everything up on time. We had a busy week, but none of the pictures are back yet. When we do, I will post about that. Kids are so funny. Elly told me the other day, Mommy, your always nice to me (which of course I thought was quite sweet), of course she wasn't done though, she finished it off with except when I don't clean my room, than you yell at me. I just had to laugh. She comes up with some of the funniest things. The other day she was laying off the couch telling her little brother that she finally caught one, so I was like oh, you caught a cat (she was dangling Ashleigh's Webkinz cat off the edge of the couch by its tail). She told me No, Mommy, cats don't like water, but I caught a catfish. I thought that was pretty good. She is a funny kid. I just thought that I would mention that Ashleigh was tested and placed into a gifted program. She has been evaluated and recommended for gifted programs since she was in 1st grade, but we keep moving and so nothing has happened. Last year her teacher nominated her, and this year she was tested, she met the requirements and was placed in the program. She was pretty excited. She gets to stay in her regular class, with just a few hours out of class a month, they coordinate with her class room teacher and made her work a bit more challenging. When I was reading the things that differentiate between bright and gifted one of the things that was mentioned was that gifted kids tend to be a little messy. We got a good laugh out of that because she is our cluttery child. Her teachers always comment on what a mess her desk is. We like to give her a hard time about her messy room. So now that I bragged about her a little bit (you have to remember that this will become a scrap book for me one day, so I will have to bore everyone else with all of the things that a parent thinks is really exciting). Every time we go to get in the car or go in the house from the car, Jeremiah goes and climbs into the kids power wheel (which has been in the back of the garage because it is winter) and will not leave it with out a fight, so I decided that I was tired of fighting him, and so I brought the stupid thing into the living room and he was so excited about it. It kept him entertained for days. We ended up getting a couple of inches of snow and let him and Aaric and Elly take it out into the yard and drive it in the snow. They made sure to bring the shovel so that if they got stuck they could dig themselves out. I'm not sure how that turned out for them, I was inside. I hate snow. It is way too cold, I can't wait until spring. Well I have run out of things to say, which is pretty amazing in itself, I've done a lot of rambling. When I am writing these posts, I feel like if I have more pictures, I have to find more to say so that it isn't just 5 words and a bunch of pictures. The problem with that is that I never can really think of anything to say, so, I guess that is about it. Oh good news though if you saw my targets from last week, I went shooting again today, and I have improved quite a bit. I actually hit the target 50% of the time (yes I know that is still failing), which I was very proud of. I even loaded the magazine all by myself. Just thought I would throw that out there.