Mad Photo Skillzz

Ok they certainly don't quite qualify as "mad" as the kids would say these days but can I just tell you that I lOVE this picture of Justin?


Check out his in the moment toothless smile!



Check out the sand coming off of his hand!



Check out how I was able to blur the half naked guy walking behind him so you couldn't see his butt crack!



Butt cracks aside, I love this camera but moreover I love this boy.

Things that Boys just don't Understand.

There are things. Things that boys just don't understand. There are the obvious things for sure. Why are we always messing with our hair. Why do we put paint all over our faces every morning. Why do we need a bra and why can't they have one too. But then there are other things that are equally unknown to our male brethern. This for instance

has caused much hub-bub in our home. Why can't we use that "chicken towel"? Why can't I wipe the mud off of my baseball with it? Why can't I use it to clean up my spilled cereal milk without you shrieking STOP! Don't use that towel! Why? Well, because it's DE-COR-A-TIVE!

And this:

Referred to in our home as the moldy barrell. Why do we need a moldy barrell? What does it do? Is it empty? Why is it empty? Are you going to put anything in it? No dear boy, it's just DECORATIVE!! Never mind it came from the Napa Valley...was once filled with wine that had aged for years....that it is my favorite souvenier from that area....it's decorative. No, no, never mind that. To them, it's the moldy barrell. Moldy Barrell?! Can a girl puhleese get a little estrogen up in here?

I've become one of them

I'm not sure when it happened. It was definitely a gradual occurance. In the beginning it would only happen every now and then....certainly not everyday. But now? Now I see that I am firmly in their club. I have crossed the fence. I have traveresed the bridge. I have leaped over the line of dignity. It was never something I ever set out to do. It just kinda...ya know....happened. Yes I, I am one of them....sigh....I am....I am the mother that drives her kids to school in her minivan....in her pajamas. There. I said it.
Question. Would it help if I just wore this instead?

or is it futile at this point? Have I started down a slippery slope that I can no longer climb out of? Is this next?


Or even this?
Please. Please say it isn't so.

Road Trip!

After driving 2,000 miles halfway across the country we arrived, got settled and then decided for old times sake to jump right back into the car and take a little weekend road trip. Not a hard choice to make when you have the Emerald Coast beckoning you from only a couple of hours a way. We laughed, we splashed, we ate, we got very sandy, we ate some more and slept. Repeat 2 times and that was our weekend.

The New House

Well, we did it. We took the plunge. After 11 years of base housing we did it. We moved to the dark side. We moved...gasp!....off base. It has it's benefits as pictured below:





It has it drawbacks as pictured by my now very empty wallet. Did you know that utilities cost money? Shock! Did you know you have to pay for things like trash pick up, gas, water and the ever bank breaking ELECTRIC BILL? Is America at large AWARE of this travesty?These boys have been raised in government housing. They have no ability to turn off a light. This. is. a. problem.
Are we happy? Yes. Good decision? No. GREAT decision? YES!! Did you know that 4 boys in 3,000 square feet is much more joyful than four boys in 1300 square feet? I can actually walk around in the house without bumping into anyone! People! I can carry my laundry basket through the hallway without having to preform aerobatic manuevers climbing up and over obstacles! It's bliss! Never mind we now cannot afford to feed them but that is another story. I'm just glad Dixie Electric is enjoying my $386 and $320 so far. I know all the pics are of the backyard but that is pretty much what our summer looked like.(For that matter we should have just signed a lease on the back of the house!) I would post more but I have go drop off my resume at Burger King. Dixie's gonna be calling again soon.

Did you hear?

We moved.


Yep, we moved like 4 months ago. Now in our 8th state in 11 years. Jason in his 4th school in 7 years. Jordan in his 4th school in 6 years. If we move after this year the twins will be in three different schools for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. 3 schools in 3 years. Ummm, that will be fine...right?...yes, that will be fine....errr, uhhhh yeah. I had some grand dillusions about bringing the laptop with me on the move and updating the blog with our various shannanagins along the way. And then life got in the way as it so often does. I do at one move or another however really want to do that. The purpose of this blog is for me to document our lives one crazy escapade at a time less I forget all that we have done. And I want to remember when I am old and gray what exactly it was like packing up four kids and a dog and moving them back and forth across the country. So maybe next move but for now here is a quick recap in pictures.

Here we are celebrating our arrival back into Cracker Barrell territory!

Jordan was so excited he had to bust out his air guitar.


Great Wolf Lodge was definitely a highlight. Always a good time. Though I learned that their version of a not scary waterslide and my version of a not scary waterslide are very, very different let me tell ya. I think I still have a wedgie from careening down a water slide at Mach 2. (Okay I really don't know how fast Mach 2 is....but I think it's fast....very fast.....like water slide fast. Plus I heard it on Top Gun so I think it very well describes the speed. Further, I'm not really sure how to spell Mach....mach?...mac?)
Many more pics of the move on my iphone that I will one day learn how to get off the phone and onto the computer but for now just know we are here(and if you didn't know that already we really need to talk more often) we are settled, and we had a great time trekking across the western United States!

A Souper kind of season

Ahhh Fall. I adore you. I adore your brightly covered leaves, I adore the cool crispness in the air, I adore that you allow me to wear my jeans to hide my cellulite covered legs. Yes fall, you are my favorite. It's time to break out the other side of the wardrobe in the closet, and the other side of dishes in the kitchen. My favorite fall accessory?

This. She is my friend. She is my fall season friend. She cooks for me. A little love in the morning and she will reward with a huge pot of homemade soupy goodness in the evening. Sigh, I get excited just thinking about her. So in honor of her
I am going to share one of our family's favorites, duelly named "Chip Soup" (Which may or may not have been named that in order to convince a then 5 year old picky Jason to try a bite. I have discovered in my -ahem- parenting wisdom; that if you attach a title to a food and add one ingredient that they love they just may give it a try)

1 pound of ground hamburger or ground turkey(on a side note, I switched to ground turkey about two years ago, delish! We use it in everything. Healthier and we really can't taste the diff! Costco sells it in four packs(1 1/2 pds each pack) for about $13)
1 packet of Chili Seasoning
1 bag of frozen corn
1 chopped green pepper
1 large can of diced tomatoes with the juice
1 box and 1 can of chicken broth

Throw it all in here:


and about 8 hours later Waa-La! Yumminess abounds. We top it with sour cream, crushed fritos and shredded cheddar cheese. (This is the part where "healthy" flies right out the open window but delishnesses comes sailing right in) Enjoy! I hope your family enjoys it as much as ours does!

The Quandry of the evil VIDEO GAME

Did something drastic last week. I mean D-R-A-S-T-I-C. I got a wild hair in my head that we needed to be done with video games. Like done, done. Like done for months and I don't know if they are ever coming back done. Those innocent looking console's have a way (I have discovered) of rising up and turning into little family time sucking, brother fighting machines.


It's not pretty folks. So Friday evening after I had talked to John about it the boys came downstairs and we made THE announcement. That we were going to take a break from video games. We braced ourselves. Though outwardly we were calm and firm, inwardly we awaited the backlash....(these boys do outnumber us two to one people, they could sooo take us down) Their reaction? "Ok mom" Yep. Ok mom???!! What?!! So the next morning I come downstairs and find this at 7am:



Four boys. Playing Risk. Nicely, calmly, non-electronically. Bestill my heart! We have been on a family board game playing, scooter riding, football outside playing roll ever since! Maybe TV will be next......uhhhh, errrrrr, hmmmmmm maybe not. I do love me some SpongeBob after all.

Wifey Daycare

Ever since our arrival here I have been plunked down in the middle of a whole host of activities. Some ACSC related. Some OSC related. Book club, Bible study, Bunko, Knitting, Scrapbooking, Trips and Tours, Wine tasting, Sewing, Walking, Running, Tennis, Eating...oh wait, that is just my dream club. You name it; they have a group for it. Some have been great. Some have not. But one thing struck me as I was playing Bunko yesterday morning. And that something is this: I go to daycare. Wife daycare. The husband goes to work. The kids go to school. This Air Force Wife? She goes to Daycare. There I was, amongst a group of other women my age. I had my $5 from my husband in order to get my prize at the end. We had snacktime. We played games and I played nicely and fairly with the other wives. We didn't nap but I'm sure if given the opportunity some of us would have grabbed our nap mat eagerly. I half expected to recieve a gold star on my sticker chart at the end of the day. Fun daycare? Absolutely. But daycare nonetheless. Thus I am considering submitting a new slogan for ACSC, perhaps a little sumethin like this:

Daycare. It's not just for children.

Dances with Wolves

I was talking to a friend last week and somehow during the conversation I found myself quoting from the movie Dances with Wolves....stupid I know, but I can promise you that within the context of the conversation it made perfect sense to quote things like, "Me Ta-tonka" or when Stands with a Fist says, "My place is with you, I go where you go." or who can forget the scene where Wind in His Hair says, "Dances with Wolves, I am Wind in His Hair. Do you see that I am your friend? Do you see that I will always be your friend?" Really, you will just have to take my word for it, it was quite applicable to the conversation...ahem

Then I came home, came up the front walk and was met with this:

Which got me thinking that we could all use a good Indian name every now and then; just like Dances with Wolves. It would be very handy to address others in that native tonque. For example, this child:

could be named, "Leavingsocksallaround"

or this one could be

"Towelsonthefloor"

I'm telling you, even John could get in on the action with something like, "Ireadlotsabooks" or "Flysbigplanes."

As far as my Indian name goes I think it would be ever changing with the season of life. When the twins were newborns I think, "Ineedanap" would have been very fitting. Now however I believe it would read, "IgotocommissaryIspendlotsamoneythere" or even, "Allkidsareinschoolhoneyletshaveanotherbaby" but I may have to convice the husband on that one because even Dances with Wolves had to go to some tribal summit to get his name approved. So for now I will stick with their current names, but fear not! I am not giving up on this Indian renaming thing just yet!

Sincerely,
Needstoblogmore