ABC's Saturday

We just got back from a successful outlet mall trip. I exchanged some running shoes, and got some running gear,hubs got some running gear...he is running 8 miles at a time now (and looking fab), go hubs! Gap Kids is having a huge sale, so I got big Sis some school stuff, and every year I get them matching Gap hoodies. They were $15 bucks today! (Yes, Florida gets cold) Hubs also got some shorts, finally. He's all pissed because I accidentally washed his khakis with blue jeans, and now they are blue/khaki...my bad. Kids had some rainbow ice cream and we hit the road. Now I'm sitting here watching Hubs kill people on TV so I thought I would participate in the MilWives ABC game. Trust me...it's better than watching hubs blow shit up.



A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on: 76, right now...which feels freezing because it's currently 109 out.

B- My BEDROOM theme is: No theme really. Lot's of white. Giant white bed, white curtains and I have springy type flower accents around the room..pillows, frames, vased flowers. It's a GIANT room, so the white works.

C- The CAR in the driveway is: Hubs has a Mazda 3 and my car is in the garage...it's a Suzuki SUV

D- My DESK looks: I use the built in desk as a plant stand :) Ive kept them alive for over 2 years now!! Record!

E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is: 7:30

F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: My hair.

G- My GARAGE is filled with: My car, grill, kids bikes and a SHIT ton of sand toys. Lots of rubbermaid bins with xmas stuff, pest control stuff, lawn stuff...typical garage stuff. Recycle bins

H- My HOUSE is: Very Large, we are very lucky to live here.

I- If you peeked INSIDE my bedroom you'd see: It's clean, so just furniture. I think hubs threw his dirty clothes in the floor a minute ago though...

J- My favorite JUICE is: OJ!

K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: My 6 ft long island. Love it.

L- The LAST person who visited my home was: a solicitor. I didn't purchase his stuff so he asked me for some water. I gave him a juice box. Bottled water is expensive.

M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: An aquarium membership newsletter, Visa Bill, United Concordia letter saying they decided to not cover my dental work after I already had it done.

N- My NEIGHBORS think I'm: Young. It's annoying.

O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: 2 different kind of milk, juice boxes, water, steaks thawing, yogurt, apples, left over pulled pork, string cheese, stuff like that.

P- My last house PARTY was: Umm...Big Sis birthday party in March, lol. I had like 25 kids here, along with their parents. Fun day.

Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: Soup and Salad.

R- My favorite ROOM of the house is: I put so much effort into my entire house on a daily bases...I love all of it. Except that it's 2 stories.

S- The SHAMPOO brand I use: Pantene for Brunettes

T- My largest TELEVISION is: In the family room, Im not a huge TV fan....Hubs had to have it.

U- UNDER my bed you will find: maybe an empty water bottle.

V- The last time I VACUUMED was: yesterday. White carpet sucks.

W- Looking out my WINDOW I see: From the back..the backyard and my fence, from the front...the neighbors across the street.

X- I wish I had X-TRA: Time and Patience, Time because I feel like I am always rushing. Patience because I have NONE.

Y- My YARD is: Nice and neat. I cut the grass on Wednesdays.

Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: We head upstairs about 9:30.

This was fun!

This and That

Hello, Hello! This post might be a little everywhere...so here it goes. As you can see if in the first picture, Lil Sis was pouting about her fat lip. It looks awful today and everyone is asking me what happened. Poor kid. The second picture is hilarious to hubs and me. We went up to check on Big sis the other night and found that drawing on her magnadoodle. She TOTALLY drew an AWESOME picture of Tata. We left it on there for like 2 days. Be sure to check out the history of Tata. It's a good read.
Its funny...I know the girls love me but man...when they hear that garage door opening every evening they scream DADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! And run outside immediately. He doesn't even make it into the house before they both jump on him. So today I decided to capture the moment. And of course...Im a terrible photographer so that was the only good picture I got. Anyway...I thought it was adorable.
Last pics...First let me explain. We are SOOO lucky to live in our current house. We pay WELL under what the asking rent was (since I'm such an amazing negotiator, Mike calls it "being scary") and since we rent...we can't paint. Poo. Almost every wall in the house is white. And it's a big house. Its A LOT of white. Too much white. SO our entry way was seriously lacking. White walls, White curtains and some ugly rug Hubss probably picked out. I didn't want to spent much money and curtains are SO expensive. So I got one panel, cut it in half, sewed it back up to make two separate smaller panels and shortened them a bit. After an hour of arguing...I mean asking Hubs to hang the hardware. Here they are. I also got this matching rug for only $10. Looks much warmer and a lot more inviting, don't you think? What do you do to make your house feel homey when you can't paint??

Here is Lil Sis after her fat lip episode. Raffy is her new toy of choice, Drags him around everywhere.

Big Sis drew a nice picture of Tata, Perfect replica for all those who know Tata. If you dont...check her out here

Lil Sis greeting Daddy after work, as always.

Entry way Before

Entry Way After....It's impossible to take a picture of the entry way because the stairs are in the way...sorry!

Speech, Warrior Walk, and Weekend plans

I'm definitely not posting as often as I used to....between speech therapy twice a week, gymnastics, getting ready to go back to school, zumba, and the gym every morning...Im just too tired. But anyway, here I am. Big Sis had a major break through at speech this week. She can finally pronounce the letter C. She used to say it with a T instead. So instead of Cat, she would say Tat. She and Miss April (her therapist) came busting out of the room yelling "she did it!" "I did it!". It was great. We are super proud of her. I was skeptical of the speech therapy at first but to see how far she has come in the past 2 months is awesome.
This weekend should be nice...Tomorrow I am FINALLYYYYYYYY going to Sams (or Costco) to get a membership. It's ridiculous that I've lived in the States for over 2 years now and dont have one. Saturday morning there is a really important run going on a few towns over. It's the Warrior Walk 2010 in Lakeland. It's to honor all those KIA in OIF and OEF. If anyone is in the area and would like more info, let me know! We arent sure if we are going because big Sis has gymnastics. Sunday we are...what else? Going to the BEACH! Man I love it. Either way...I will have some good pics. I keep forgetting to bring my camera to gymnastics!! Im off to Zumba :)

P.S. Lil Sis latest injury...fell off the couch and hit the corner of her mouth on the coffee table. Huge busted lip, but she's ok. When she grows up, she's going to be a cage fighter..Im sure of it.

Life's a Beach.

Hello everyone! We had a pretty nice weekend. Big sis had gymnastics Saturday morning and did the high bar for the first time. Super cool. Then we came home and did house stuff all day. Lots of little annoying things...fixing a toilet, re caulking the bathtubs and sinks, fixing stuff here and there. Not very much fun.We headed to Clearwater Beach this morning. FUN!! It is one of my favorite places...I went for my first time when I was like 14, and fell in love. I even got Hubs loving the beach (huge shocker). Here are some pics. Big Sis took a bunch with her underwater camera, but I have to have those put on to a CD at the store tomorrow so stay tuned!

Blog Awards

I have to appolagize to my fellow Military Wife bloggers. I know I have gotten several awards and never post them. Sorry!! I will be good from now on :) I got one today from Mrs Rea at The Mrs Blog , Go check out her blog!



The rules of the award are as follows:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award to 9 fellow bloggers who inspire you.
4. Let them know about the award.


7 things about myself:
1. I love to cook, every day, several times a day.
2. I have a tremendous fear of the dentist.
3. I have 3 tattoos.
4. I'm a huge fan of anything fitness related.
5. I think my husband is ridiculously good looking.
6. I am the worst photographer I know, I can't take a good picture to save my life.
7. I think finding 7 things about myself is really hard.


Bloggers who inspire me:
Rachel, from A little pink, In A World Of Camo
Marissa, from Living The Life of an Infantrymans's wife
Breanna, from Forever Your, Semper Fi
Amber, from Goodnight Moon
The Mrs., from Mr, Mrs, & Little Miss
Dawn, from Our Life as an Air Force Family

Ok, I only chose 6. I've never been a great rule follower.

Happy Birthday to a special 2 year old!

Thought I would do a quick post before bed since I didnt post too much this week.
Tomorrow Target is having black friday online. Im OOOBer excited for that.
Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment that I might not live through. Not excited.
My best news is that my weight loss is going great, I feel great and my Zumba instructor even said how much of a change she has seen. Woohoo! I am thinking about picking up another Zumba class on Monday nights.
We had Big Sis VPK orientation the other night which went well. She got the teacher we were hoping for and her friends from pre school is in her class. Her back to school list is pretty ridiculous though...who needs 6 large glue sticks? She starts back up the last week in August. I forget If I posted about the yard sale? It went great, Made a bunch of money and got rid of a ton of stuff. Even though the Hubs said "I hope you know, you won't make than like 30 bucks"...IN YO FACE HUBS! It was so busy, one neighbor bitched about the traffic on my street. Woohoo!
Well, this day needs to end, Im beyond exhausted.

I almost forgot to mention...I dont have a son, and never will...so I pretend my best friend's son is, well...my son. And today is his 2nd birthday!!!!! Happy birthday little man! We love and miss you!!!!

Here is the little man sporting the cute outfit Lil Sis picked out for him. He wears it so perfectly!

Cpl Jonathon Porto Family Fund

The yard sale was a great success! We got rid of almost everything (which was a ton of stuff) and made some nice cash :) I didn't realize how hard it was to have a yard sale!! Props to you yard sale ladies. I am VERY happy to say we will be making our Disney trip in September. We went to base yesterday (ew) and our travel agent set everything up. Our kids are going to be sooooooooo excited. We also got Sophia some shots and I had another dentist appt, which went terrible, of course. Let's just say I have about 10,000 bucks worth of crap to get done (thats including braces and wisdom teeth) so its not TOO bad. After the yard sale, we drove down to a local park that sits right on a beach and had a picnic.

Which brings me to the main reason of this post. My upcoming race is at the same park....the race is in August 22nd. And I'm running in honor of Cpl Jonathon Porto, husband of Rachel from http://alittlepinkinaworldofcamo.blogspot.com/ You can check out on her blog to catch up (grab your tissues). I've followed her blog for a long time and her story really touches my heart. (Those of you who have followed my blog already know her story but I have to tell the newbies) Rachel's husband was killed on March 14th of this year while fighting in Afghanistan. Rachel had their daughter while he was deployed...so he never got a chance to meet his daughter. My husband and I have two girls...so I can't begin to tell you how that makes me feel. I feel like I know Rachel, and I really want to help her.

The race is "Run for the Fallen" and this is my second year running. All of my donations are going to Rachel and Jonathon's daughter, Ariana's trust fund. There is a link at the bottom of my blog to the PayPal donation page. Every dollar counts. Times are tight, I get it. But if you can spare some change...this is a GREAT spot to put it. So scroll on down on my blog...under Cpl Porto's picture is the donate button! Get clickin'! My race is August 22nd! Right around the corner!

(I know a lot of you donated to my last race, March Of Dimes, and I promise this is the last time I'm asking you for money this year!)

Another deployment?

Hubs calls yesterday and says "you're gonna kill me". I knew right away he was going back to Afghanistan. We knew he would be going back before we pcs in April...I just didnt expect it to be next month. He hasnt even been home a full month yet. It TOTALLY disrupts our Disney Vacation plans. Silly me for planning something in advance. Every military wife knows thats a big NO NO! Anyway...we will work around it and hope for the best.
I like to think I'm pretty positive about separations/deployments. But I honestly have no idea how we are going to tell the kids. Last time the Hubs left and we told Big Sis, it did not go well. It actually went terrible with her throwing her fork and yelling "why? Can I go too? If you stay home, ill be good" Yeah...saddest thing ever.
We've done this what seems like a 100 times...we can do it again.

Yard Sale

So I'm having my first ever yard sale on Saturday. In Okinawa...we werent allowed to do yard sales...only participate in the flee market. Which I did often, to sell baby clothes/stuff. So anyway...I spent the entire day preparing crap. I needed to clean out the spare bedroom because we have company coming too. That will take me a week or so. So in cleaning that out....I price stuff, sort stuff. UGH! I thought it would be a small yard sale with toys and books and dvd's. Omgggggggg there is so much stuff. The hardest part...I have NO idea what to price stuff at. I had to call my Mom and ask how much I should sell each item for. Thanks Mom. I had today and Friday to work on it because the other days are filled up with other plans. Have you ever had a yard sale? How cheap/expensive do you list stuff for? What time do you usually have it? Any other yard sale host advice?

P.S. Lil Sis fell ALL the way down the stairs again today. Second time. She's fine but scared the heck out of both of us. That kid is soooo daring!

Aquarium

I know I've posted pics of the aquarium a zillion times but we have annual passes so we go. A lot. They are really kid friendly and have a huge water splash zone. And when it's 100+ degreez..that sounds awesome. Kids had fun....despite Lil Sis' GIANT fit at lunch time. The Aquarium has every single character from Finding Nemo too.

My mouth is feeling much better today, thank GOD! Ugh...that sucked so bad. It's still a little sore but I can eat. If that stupid guard doesn't fit the first time, I'm NOT doing it again. It's 11:00 pm and that way past my bedtime...enjoy pics!!


Lil Sis smiling!!! It's a rare picture....nice job Dad.

Big Sis showing us some fish and turtles

Jach from Nemo

Me hanging with giant crab man

Enjoying some of Dads amazing pancakes.

Big sis with Mama Sting Ray

Leonard the Lobster (and dental pain)

I havent eaten any food in what feels like forever. I love to eat! My tongue started hurting pretty bad like 4 or 5 days ago. After not being able to eat for 2 full days, I went to the dentist to see what was up and he said I have been chewing on my tongue while sleeping. Fabulous. Not only that, but also grinding my teeth pretty badly. I won't begin to explain how I feel about the dentist. Ill just say this...It's so bad...that sometimes I throw up in the office, sometimes I leave before my appointment even starts. I dont know why...it's not the pain. Needles don't bother me. I just hate it. So Doc says I have to do impressions for a guard. Anxiety sets in and I think I might puke. (I forgot to mention I had both our kids with me....I thought the appt would be 10 min...not an hour and a half) After 5 try's and a ton of gagging later...the assistant finally gets them done. That gel hardens so much that they have to hold your head with one hand and pull with all their might with the other hand!!I leave the dentist with my gums all cut up from a metal mouth tray, gel all over me, my tongue still killing me and $600 guard bill. Who else thinks it's lame that military insurance doesnt cover dental? NOT to mention...I have to go back in two weeks to get it put in...all 4 impacted wisdom teeth pulled, a baby tooth pulled AND braces. (I havent decided if Im going to do the braces yet, just what dentist said) Anyway...my husband is SOOOOOO awesome because he brought home lobsters for dinner! (soft enough I could eat) ANDDDDDDDDDDDDD made a special trip to get me a frosty. Isn't he the BEST?! Food was amazing but my mouth still kills : ( I tore this big guy apart!

Who wants to make me a button?

long weekend

Did everyone have a good weekend? Ours seemed to be a little roller coaster ride. Saturday morning, big sis had gymnastics. We found out her little gymnastics buddy Rena (age 4) has advanced cancer. Within one day of finding the cancer, she was in surgery and chemo. Say a prayer for Rena please! It poured and poured pretty much all weekend so no fireworks. We hit the parade for about 20 min before being poured on. Chinese food in warm jammies at home sounded much better anyway :) Yesterday we went to the outlet mall (in the rain) and got some new running sneaks. That pretty much sums up our weekend. This is the only picture I got from the parade...