Wishing Everyone a....

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My Favorite Christmas Decoration

Well it's Friday again, so it's time for my favorite on Friday post. Since it is the last weekend before Christmas I decided to make it about my favorite Christmas decoration, which also happens to be my oldest decoration. No one knows for sure when he came to live with us but apparently he is older than I am, and he was on a Christmas present from my Great Aunt. When I was little I would always play with Elfie, I always made sure he was in the tree near a light, because I didn't want him to be scared :) I used to talk to him and tell him what I wanted for Christmas and he always made me happy with his cute little Elf smile. I also used to move him around in the tree so he didn't get bored and he had other friends he liked to be around on the tree. :) When I left home I "kidnapped" my little Elfie, because without him it just isn't Christmas!!! So we have been taking pictures of him in the tree, but normally he sits on a shelf with some of my angels (one of them is his best friend!!) I will have to make sure to get the perfect picture of him so we can frame it, so in case a day ever comes that something tragic happens to my little Elfie, he will always be with me for Christmas!!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!

The Colt's WON!!!! They are now guaranteed a playoff spot!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!! Now I am gonna be too excited to sleep!!! Way to go Colts!! :)

thankful thursday

No matter how my day has gone I always try to find at least one thing to be thankful for. Some days it is easier than others, especially with all the bad news these days with the economy and all that it affects. But there is definitely always SOMETHING to be thankful for. This week I think the thing I am very thankful for is my new digital camera, actually it's MY first digital camera!!! I am so excited that I don't have to wait to borrow one of the girls!! It's an early Christmas present from Santa Claus. It will be very nice for when Todd is in Korea and I am working on things at the house and I want to show him or get his opinion, it will make him more involved while he is away and I can send him lots of pics of family and friends. It's a nice fuji finepix S1000 fd. I have been reading the manual and playing with it off and on tonight when I get the chance. Dawn is thankful for her new Macbook and tissues, Chels is thankful for her Nintendo DS, Meg is thankful for rice shapers, and Todd is thankful we can watch the Colt's even if they are losing right now!! I hope everyone can always find something to be thankful for!!

Favorites on Friday

I decided to do a regular Friday posting titled "favorites on friday" or Friday favorites however it ends up :) Well I was going to start with my favorite Christmas decoration, well if you read my previous post you know my tree isn't up and that's where I want to take the picture of my favorite little guy. So we will go with my favorite breed of dog this week and she is also the only animal in the house who isn't irritating me!!

My favorite breed of doggies are American Eskimos, aka eskies. The first one I had the pleasure of having in my life was when I was in elementary school. She followed my cousins home and long story short she ended up living at our house, she let me put my doll clothes on her and she was very attached to my Daddy. Her name was Candy and she passed away in 1990 when Todd and I were living in Florida.

I had always wanted another eskie, so in June of 2000 I put a deposit on this sweet little girl who loved to lay on top of Hannah's kennel and look out the window. Her name was Jasmine and she was my baby girl, when I was sick or upset she never left my side, but that was the only time she was really willing to cuddle. She was attacked by a neighbors shar pei, and was never the same after that. She started to become very aggressive toward Hannah and the cats, then she decided it was ok to bite me. I talked to trainers and rescue groups and at the time didn't have any other option and we had to have my precious baby girl put to sleep.



Needless to say I am meant to have an eskie in my life. This is my sweet Lily Belle. I got her in May of 2006 and she is truly my heart dog. She is cuddly all the time and very loving and just a true gift. I can't imagine life without her.

I love the white fluff, even when it is all over my clothes and floor, I love the eskie smile, I love that they love snow just as much as I do, and I love the way their tails curl over their backs, and I love how sweet they are!!!

interesting week

Well this was one of those weird weeks that we have every so often. But I guess for the most part it was a good week. The paperwork we were waiting on to withdraw Meg and I from an Army program was FINALLY finished today, we needed that taken care of so they could put Todd on assignment to Korea. It was only supposed to take at the most 3 weeks and it was turned in on 4 November! But when you have a Major who doesn't seem to know how to do her job and she contradicts herself and changes her story every time she opens her mouth, and she is the one in charge of things...well let's just say it takes a little longer, oh and she lost my packet of paperwork too. But it is done now so I feel better.
It has been a bad behavioral week for 3 of the animals in our little zoo here. Hannah has decided she doesn't have to listen to anybody about anything, Holly finds it fun to climb on everything and torment the other animals as well as the people, and Reggie is stressed and has taken to pooping right beside the litterbox. Right now Lily and the fish are the only good ones!!! I'm sure it will all pass eventually, but not soon enough :)
I still don't have all of my Christmas decorating done. The tree is in the house at least, but it's still in the box...maybe tomorrow?? Once I get that up there will be some new pics on here and some regular posting that I wanted to start this week, but well it didn't work out either!!
As you can tell this week had some things that worked out and some that didn't. But the best part of the week was the time Todd and I got to spend together reconnecting and working some things out and having some much needed alone time. I think I love him more and I didn't even know that was possible!!!
I hope everyone else had a semi-normal week, whatever that is, and has a wonderful weekend!!

what day is it??

Ok, I really do know what day it is, but with the way things are going I thought we might be having an extra Monday! First of all my head cold is much better :) Yesterday morning Meg woke me up and said she was really tired and her stomach hurt, she had actually been awake from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., so she stayed home. This morning Todd had a P.T. test and had to leave shortly after 6. Well Meg comes in our room BEFORE 6 (when I am still pretty much dead to the world) and tells me that Chels has a really bad stomach ache. So I get up check on Buggie probably about 5 times between then and when Meg leaves for school around 6:50ish. I had just gone back to sleep (since Buggies tummy was a little better) and at 7:06 the house phone rings, scares me half to death, and Todd says his First Sgt. heard there were firetrucks all around the high school and that the school was closed. I called Miss Meg's phone and she says no we are all out here waiting to get in like usual, but she heard that a gas line broke over by the elementary school. Of course I call Todd back and say no, not the high school. I try to go back to sleep, the phone rings again and Meg says yes it's us too. Of course the high school has 2 main entrances, one on the civilian side and one on the military side, and most of the time the military side doesn't know what is going on. So needless to say they were sent home because of the gas line break and no heat. Now of course since I was up way to early for me and just general lack of brain function lately, I didn't even think about the gas main affecting us!!! :) Now our housing area is between the elementary school and the high school (both were closed as well as the middle school by the high school), DUH CHRISTY!!!!! So when I did make it downstairs, my brain kicked in when I heard the furnace trying to kick on and it couldn't!!! So Chels is in bed sleeping, Meg is working on a school project, and I sit here wondering how long it will be until the gas line is fixed, and wondering if my brain will function the rest of the day or not. Thank goodness we are up to 41 now, much warmer than yesterday. Oh and by the way Todd did pass his P.T. test and he has lost some more weight. With a few other minor things thrown in, this will be an interesting week to say the least!!! I hope everyone has heat and that their brains are doing better than mine this lovely Mon, no Tuesday morning!! :)

Stupid Head Colds...

I did manage to get some things changed on here, but I sure haven't felt like taking any pictures. My head cold decided to take over way to early this morning around 4:00! I woke up couldn't breath and felt just horrible, I was up until after 6:30, by that time Todd was up and getting ready to go in to the Brigade for staff duty, YUCK!! I did go back to sleep and slept until around 11ish. Todd was so sweet and took a lunch break to get me some cold medicine and Sierra Mist. Meg and I watched Elf early this evening, ok she watched it all and slept through half of it :) I am feeling better, but Miss Lily Belle isn't helping much because we have some snow on the ground, which is her favorite thing to play in, and wants me to go out and play with her about every 15 minutes or so!!! Needless to say I didn't do anything I really needed to do today, like laundry and some other cleaning so we can decorate for Christmas, maybe tomorrow....we shall see. Anyway I hope everyone is feeling better than me, I have some different pics on the side and I will be changing more when I feel better :)

stuff :)

I know, I know, I still haven't been posting on here like I said I would. Shame on me!! :) I do have some plans for this boring blog of mine though. I will be taking some pictures of various things and creatures starting today, and also scanning in some older pics over the weekend, so that by Sunday (hopefully) my blog will have a new look and a partial schedule of regular posting!! So keep checking in and see how it's going. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!!!

Turkey Day

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Wishing everyone a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Various Updates

Let's see a lot has happened in the past month, besides homecoming....
Todd and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in October with a trip to Indiana to spend some time alone, visit family and paint at the house!!! We had a great time and got A LOT done. The house looks more like it belongs to us and it actually feels like home now and that is a terrific feeling!! I can't wait to go back again and finish painting Meg's room and work on a few other things. We will be having a good share of the yard behind the house fenced in in the spring so the doggies will have plenty of place to run and play.

The first week of November, Chelsea turned 18!!! I am not sure where the time has gone, but it has been a great adventure. I am having a hard time dealing with her being 18 and almost ready to graduate, partly because so many things will be changing next year. I have not always dealt real well with big changes, so next year should be one heck of a roller coaster ride for me!!

We have also been contemplating Todd's retirement. We have gone back and forth so many times. But with the all the economic problems going on and the uncertainty of it all and wondering when things will start to turn around we have decided that he will stay in for one more year to give us the chance to hopefully pay some things off/down and get the things done to and for the house that need to be done right away. We already know where he will be stationed for that year because he can't stay here after our stabilization paperwork expires in August. We still don't know if Chels will be coming home to stay with us for any amount of time or not, but I hope and pray daily that she will. But Meg and I will be back to live in Indiana full time next July. Todd will be home with us for about a month before he has to head to Korea for a year. Yes it sucks, but we have done this before and one way or another we can handle it one last time!! Yes I am trying to convince myself also :) I have so many emotions going through me right now that I can't even think straight, but I do have faith that everything will work out the way it is meant to.

homecoming pics...finally

Ok here are the homecoming pics, much later than I said, but hey, better late than never :) Chels ended up wearing Meg's favorite color and Meg ended up wearing Chels's favorite color, I am a little biased, but I think they looked beautiful!!!

Finally...

Let's see, I believe it was after 4 on Friday when we were FINALLY told we could come pick up the truck. They replaced all the hoses, the fuel filter and the engine air filter! So far (knock on lotsa wood) it is running fine and no check engine light. I pray that it stays that way, especially since we will be making a trip to Indiana soon.
The high school had their homecoming football game Friday night and got beat by one lousy point. The dance was last night, I will try to get pictures posted tomorrow, if the girls will put the rest of them on my computer. They looked gorgeous by the way ;)
We finished buying the paint for the house, plus new locks for the doors today. So now I have to start trying to pack everything that we need to take with us. The only thing we still need are curtains for the living room (the ones I really want are out of stock, so I am waiting), we also need curtains for Meg's room, but we will probably get those next summer when she is home to stay. We are still waiting to see if Chels decides to come back with us or not...which is a very difficult thing.
That's our update for now, I am going to finish up some laundry and enjoy the rest of the night and have a great day tomorrow with Todd, since he has a 3 day weekend!! Oh, and YAY the Colt's kicked the ravens butts today!!!!!!!! :)

The Equisnot Saga...

Well the saga continues...we couldn't pick the truck up yesterday because they had to order the parts from Lansing, MI. So the 3 hoses were sent over night and they received them this morning. So around noon Todd called to see how things were going and they were actually on the phone at that time with the people in Lansing, because one of the freakin hoses in the package was too darn short!!! So they will be sending the correct hose (hopefully) overnight and it should be there in the morning. Of course at this point I will believe it when I see that the damn thing is actually finished and we can drive it and the freakin check engine light doesn't come on yet again!!! Todd and I both have medical appointments tomorrow, and of course mine is to have my blood pressure checked, this should be fun, NOT :) Anyway I'll update again tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good night.

bad day

Well today was a sucky day. We ended up at our Chevy dealer for the 3rd time in 3 1/2 weeks with the check engine light on for the 3rd time. Needless to say it is still there and is supposed to be finished in the morning. First time they replaced the purge solenoid, second time they replaced the fuel tank vent pipe, now it's having 3 vacuum hoses replaced because they were open on one end when they made them so at least one spider got up into them and built nests and that restricted air flow...they are supposed to show us the parts tomorrow when we pick it up. Of course we did find a bulletin that said GM had to make a new part so that spiders couldn't crawl up in there and make nests. So HOPEFULLY this will end our problems with our Equinox for now. Of course we noticed some other discrepancies on our paperwork from them over the past several months. So Todd complained to the service manager about some of them yesterday. Well today the light came on, so when we got in there, I had my say with the service manager!! Boy was it fun to go off on them, in a decent way (no swear words, I was a good girl). Poor Todd hardly got so say anything cause I was ticked and boy was I on a roll. So needless to say after the day we had I didn't even think about setting anything up on here. So right now I am working on trying to find a good way to relax/deal with stress because all the stress is starting to do bad things to me. So off I go to listen to some music and turn off the freakin debate that is on my TV, now that is stressful!!!! Hope everyone had a better day than we did.

hmmm....

I really haven't done a very good job of keeping up with anything lately. There's a lot going on around here and a lot going through my mind on any given day. Some of it is good, some not so good. A lot of the blogs I read have certain days for posting about different topics, I may try to come up with some kind of schedule like that so maybe I can actually post here more often :) Since I logged in tonight and realized the last time I posted was August, I actually managed to miss the whole month of September, now that is talented or something like that. Not even sure I can remember a lot of September, but here are some highlights....Dawnee turned 21, I had my yearly female exam and everything is back to normal (thank God), Todd had another MRI for his back problems (follow up appt. on Nov. 17, yes that damn long), Todd also had a tumor of sorts removed from his upper left arm, and apparently we need to call them back to see what pathology said since they haven't called (big surprise), Hannah turned 6, my favorite Uncle turned 74, we picked out paint colors and some border to put in our house to make it look more like us and we planned a trip home for our 20th anniversary in October. I probably left some things out, but hey as Todd would say, I have slept several times since then!! Tomorrow I will let you know if I have figured out a "schedule" for posting on here, and update you on October's craziness. Ohhh and Happy Fall!!!!

just some pics from Indiana

What I did on my summer vacation :)

Meg and I (with the driving skills of my mother) got to Indiana on the 13th of July. We saw our house for the first time on the 14th and closed on the 15th!! We are now in debt forever and I couldn't be more excited!!! We celebrated with dinner at Applebees and some shopping. We did some more shopping while we were home, helped Mom do some things around her house, visited with my Daddy several times. We also decided what colors to paint the bedrooms, and the family room and how we want to arrange things. We went to my brothers a few times and my neice and nephew spent the night at Mom's with us. Todd, Chels and Lily Belle arrived in Indiana on the 3rd of August. We were VERY excited to see them. That evening Todd and Chels got to see our house for the first time, and they love it too. Although Chels had a bit of culture shock since she is not a country girl at all. :( Todd spent a very short time on his birthday renewing his drivers license, he finally has a picture on it again! We went shopping in Fort Wayne that week, the girls loved it partially because they also got to eat Chick-fil-a :) We went to Delt Church Park a few times where the girls had a great time playing in the water and gathering small shells. Todd and I spent a lot of time there as teens and also when the girls were little. On the 9th we went to my 20th class reunion, it was AWESOME!! We had a great time!!! We left Sunday night and got back to Fort Hades, Maryland around 7:30 Monday morning. I am glad to have all the family back together, animals included but...I really want to pack everything up and move back to our house on the 23rd when the wonderful lady we bought the house from moves on to the next chapter in her life. But I will TRY to wait patiently until Todd is able to retire and we will be together in our house next year. I will be doing some traveling back and forth over the next several months. I will probably be there for several months in a row during the winter, this maybe one winter I don't care for snow. I will be doing the painting and working on a few other things, plus I have stuff at both Dad's and Mom's that needs to be moved into the house. We will also be sending boxes home periodically. We are so excited!!!! I hope everyone is having a very wonderful summer. If I can get Chels to finally get the pics off of her camera I will post some later!!

Happy 4th

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July (or 5th depending on when your area is celebrating)!! We are supposed to have fireworks and festivities here on post today, but they keep raising our chance of rain and storms, so we shall see. Todd is on 24 hour staff duty, yet again, so he won't be home until tomorrow morning, so we will do our cookout tomorrow and enjoy the NASCAR race too. Have a great weekend!!!


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Happy Birthday

HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY MEGGIE!!! I love you!


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Busch Gardens Williamsburg

Last Saturday, Todd's Battalion offered transportation to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for the day. So the 5 of us got up way to early for a Saturday morning and met up with the other people going, and rode a bus for 3 hours to the park. Anheiser Busch does this wonderful Salute to the Heroes in all their parks that allows military members and their family members free admission for the day!! You can't beat that price!! Once we got there, the girls went off to find all the roller coasters and water rides, and we went on the skyride, the train, and the river cruise. We all had an awesome day. Of course my favorite parts were the animals. We got to pet the Clydesdale horses, they are so beautiful and BIG. They also had a few gray wolves, that were way too skinny as far as I was concerned. We saw some other birds, but Todd and I's favorite part was Eagle Ridge. They have several bald eagles who had all been injured that could no longer fly, reading their stories made me cry...but they were so beautiful, we stood watching them for quite a long time, actually more than once :) So here are some of my favorite eagle pictures that we took...

quick update

Todd came home this morning with a lovely contraption and some sleeping pills (to help him adjust and for a 30 day study) to help get this apnea under control. Supposedly the CPAP doesn't make much noise, guess I will find out tonight.
Onto the house loan...it would really help if there were people working for the VA who understand how in the heck the Army works!!! I know, I know that is too much to ask for. So we are now typing up a letter with our intentions and reasons for buying, among other things, to send to our loan officer to pass on to the underwriters who have to answer to VA. We also have to have a letter from his command explaining policies for retirement, housing allowance and a few other things. So I repeat, if you work for the VA you should know at least something about how the military works!!!!! Oh well, it is being done and hopefully finished today!! Updates to follow when I know what is going on.

Monday Blah's

I am sitting here tonight with about a million thoughts going through my head. Why do I have so much time to think tonight when normally my brain is on overload during the day?? Well, Todd is at Walter Reed for the 2nd part of his sleep study. I guess I didn't do the update after his first one... He does have mild sleep apnea and actually stops breathing for a very short time several times a night. We were sent paperwork with his diagnosis about a month after his first sleep study. The paperwork gave him 3 options, 1. CPAP mask/machine (I refer to it as a darth vader mask) which would blow oxygen into his airway to keep them open while he sleeps. 2. some kind of oral device 3. surgery. Well he called the clinic after we received this lovely info, and they said they were going with the CPAP option!! They wouldn't even schedule an appointment for him to discuss any of these options with a doctor!!! So they tell him he needs to do another sleep study so they can determine the oxygen flow rate to keep his airway open. Of course we don't know if he will be able to handle sleeping with this mask on, or if I will be able to handle the noise it makes, oh joy!! I've had enough nightmares with Darth, don't need to feel like he is in bed next to me! :) So he will probably be in pain tomorrow, because for the sleep study he needs to be sleeping on his back, and with all of his back problems that is not good for him. So anyway, since he isn't here to occupy my time, my brain doesn't want me to chill out at all. We are also still waiting for our loan to come out of underwriting, so we will know if everything is going to go ahead as planned. Of course we had to throw a monkey wrench into it by doing a VA loan and confusing them with him still being active duty!! They needed to know why we are not buying a house here and why we would want to buy one in Indiana. Ummm...because we want to!!!! We SHOULD hear the final word tomorrow, but I am not holding my breath. Meg and I did get to see something very pretty tonight though that just made us both very happy. We had a small storm go through and it finished up with the sun out...

I hope everyone is having a calm Monday evening/night. Tomorrow hopefully I will post about our Saturday trip to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg after I finish going through all the pics!!

Update

Here's the update, although it doesn't mean the Picerne people are breathing fresh air!! The office opened at 8 so Todd and I were up there just before. We walked in and a very nice lady, who I would soon find out is our latest manager, welcomed us in and asked what she could do to help us today. Dangerous question for me!!! So we sat down and I told her about the maintenance guys and their lack of professionalism and knowledge :), I mentioned my phone call on Monday to the assistant manager and she wrote everything down. Within 45 minutes to an hour the AC guys were here, found a big leak, cleaned everything up, repaired the leak, talked to us for a few minutes and left. Later the pest control man showed up to make sure we didn't have termites in the back wall again (had issues here before we lived in this house), he sprayed because there were other creepy crawly things trying to get in my back wall, but no termites thank God. So I started doing some cleaning that needed to be done since the house was cooling off. Of course while I was cleaning some things I ended up making more messes, oh well, I cleaned those too!! I looked up from my kitchen sink and saw 2 men coming to my front door. They asked about a leaking door and window. I showed them the patio door and told them what I had been doing with towels when it rained and where we had seen the water. So they look outside and see that the cement is cracked and just yucky where the track for the patio door is. The one guy says "Hey have they ever thought about caulking out here?" I started laughing, cause that had been my suggestion to the Picerne idiot!! Well they caulked it and said we'd see what happens next time it rains. Then I show them the back wall and tell them what we think maybe happening. They get on a ladder outside, look above my dining room window and see that where the losers put the new siding (3 years ago) around the window it didn't fit right, no caulk or anything, and the water was running down inside the wall when it would rain!!! Of course it was made worse by the fact that the gutters were clogged just above these windows. So they cleaned my gutters and fixed above the windows!!!!!!! All I can say today is, thank God for private contractors!!!! The only things I am waiting on know are the Picerne people to come out and fix our outside light out back, and see if they will (hahahaha) repair the inside drywall, yeah right. Anyway that is my update, off I go to clean some more!!!

Picerne Sucks...and our heat wave

This is going to be a rambling post filled with complaints, so read at your own risk!! Can't say I didn't warn ya!! Yesterday was day 4 of being under a heat advisory/excessive heat warning. We had been in the mid to upper 90's with heat index values over 100 (see we are at Fort Hades!) Anyway, Sunday we had issues with the A.C. unit again, it was putting out very little air and it was warm, then ice on the inside pipes. So I do what I am supposed to do and call the idiots at Picerne. Now mind you this happened about 3 weeks ago, they came out put more coolant in it, came out 2 weeks later, "cleaned" the entire unit inside and out, and told me we would be good to go for the rest of the summer!! Yeah right. Well the jerk that came out Sunday evening recharged the unit with more coolant and we asked when someone would be out Monday to check and make sure it was ok, he said nah, we don't need to do that, you are good to go, it'll keep running. Ok right, whatever you dumbass. Well it happened again Monday, just about 26 hours after the jerk was here Sunday. This guy, said we need to get you a private contractor out here to fix this thing right, I said "Well Duh!!" Well the contractors came out yesterday early afternoon, said well it is putting out cold air still and we have places that don't have any A.C. so we will be back later in the week. I know the other people are a priority, so I didn't argue. Well last night it went out AGAIN, a little over 26 hours again. Well if I had called Picerne they would have come out charged it and the whole thing would have started over again...and of course even though the contractors knew what they needed to check and do, they can't do ANYTHING without Picernes permission and money. Well the fun deal with that is Picerne has stopped so many contractors from doing their jobs properly, because they don't have the money to fix things right!!!!! We have heard a lot of things from several different contractors who have been in our house to "fix things". I woke up at 6:30 and with all the fans running, including the one that blows through the vents (with the A.C. turned off) it was almost 80 degrees in here. I opened up the rest of the windows, so now it is very humid and 78. The sad thing it is 69 outside. The office doesn't open until 8, and by that time I will be ready to rip someone a new...well you know :) I am also still waiting for other work orders to be taken care of that will stop our back wall from getting wet inside and my patio door from leaking. But hey I talked to the head of maintenance himself, and he was out here and I showed him what was going on. That was the 29th of May, and hey it has only rained about 4 times since then, and it is the 11th of June, no problem right????!!! Not to mention I talked to the assistant manager on Monday about all of this and she didn't seem to give a damn about any of it. Oh the joys of living in privatized Army housing!!!! I hope anyone who got through reading this is cooler than we are. Updates to follow whenever PICERNE pulls their heads out of their butts or I have to go over their heads yet again, oh wait I will probably do that anyway!!!

Country Living

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I miss Indiana and "country living", I hate having neighbors know EVERYTHING that goes on in and out of my little home here in Army housing. Well we found a house surrounded by farmland and not very many neighbors last week. Well things progressed nicely from there and our offer was accepted this weekend!! We have already started lots of paperwork and we have lots more to do! So as long as everything else progresses as smoothly (insert prayers and finger crossings here) we will be closing in July!! Here are a few pics that I have. Have an awesome Monday!!!!

What is Lil Man looking at??

Well for several weeks during the late afternoon this is where you would find Reggie at. He is looking out the dining room window into the backyard where our patio umbrella is. What is so fascinating?? Well, we had robins build a nest in top of the umbrella and they had 4 little baby birds!! They kept him entertained for hours at a time and a little frustrated, he really wanted to taste those sweet little baby birds! We saved them 2 different times when the wind blew the umbrella over. Mommy bird kicked them out of the nest last weekend and I think Reggie misses them, but I am glad they all survived and flew away. Now we need to find something else to entertain him!

Thank God it's the last day of May

Ok, so the month of May has pretty much sucked!! Lot's of stress from lots of things, but things are getting better and I think it is because May is FINALLY almost over!! YAY!!!!!! So for the last day of this month I will just end this with pretty pictures from my rose bush that is blooming!!

Way Too Long

Wow it's been a very long time since I have posted anything on here. Of course everyone who reads this knows what has been going on and why I haven't updated anything. There really hasn't been a lot going on lately. Todd ended up sick, either from something I brought back from Indiana with me or something he picked up while he was at Walter Reed for his sleep study, or possibly a combo of the two. He has staff duty tonight, as well as a fever of 101.5. I have been taking care of him when he is home and making him rest and take meds, as well as chicken noodle soup. When he gets done with duty in the morning he will be sleeping all day and will hopefully feel better soon. The weather is supposed to be really nice for the next 2 days so hopefully that will help him feel better too, and I hope to go out and get some pics to put on here and maybe start updating at least every other day. I hope everyone is having a good week and that you are all healthy!!

Meet Pebbles and Bamm Bamm...

The little budgies are Pebbles and Bamm Bamm, the newest additions to our zoo!! A coworker of Chelsea's decided they needed a better home than she could give them right now, so they came to live with us!! They are very entertaining already, they love to sing, and just adore eachother. Right now the cage they were brought to us in is a little small for 2, so we are off to do some shopping. Hopefully I can get some better pics tomorrow or this weekend. Everyone enjoy what is left of the week!!!

YAY...more snow for a few days...

On Thursday if finally looked and felt like winter again. This was only our 2nd snowfall that included any accumulation. I have always loved winter, not just the cold temps but the beauty of the snow and how it has the ability to make everything look so pretty. Normally with my eye issues too much white is not a good thing, and if we have snow on the ground and lots of sunshine it is not a good combo for me at all, but I still love it!! I know, some of you may still think I am insane for enjoying winter so much, and that's ok, I can deal with it :) Anyway here are some pics that we took on Thursday before we headed to the orthodontist to pick up Meg's retainers. The roads were HORRIBLE because no one had bothered to put anything on them, let alone plow them. But it was nice riding with Todd and Meg in the truck watching the snow basically pour from the sky and watching the transformation of the landscape as a normal 20-25 minute trip turned into about a 45 minute trip!! The first one is the center of the court we live in...

That is my kitchen window and my poor butterfly bush and bird feeders...This is the tree directly across from us that I love all year...

Most of the snow has melted now and we are having some really cold temps, but not as cold as back home, thank goodness. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!!!

my crazy girls...

The first pic is Meg with her braces...

It's Dawn on the loveseat with Holly over Christmas break. Dawn got a new, shorter hair style from Chels while she was here. She definitely uses less shampoo and conditioner now, which is important for a poor college student!! She looks adorable too :)

Chels and Meg together being crazy, but notice Meg's beautiful braceless smile!!!!

These last few are from tonight. Meg decided new year with no braces deserved a new look, so she had her sister do her hair. I was shocked by how much hair was on the floor, but I absolutely love her new look!!! One thing I have decided, I need to get some pics of them not acting quite so crazy and actually smiling for me!!!! They are just nuts with the cameras!!!! The next pics will prove that, and yes Meg is in the bathtub in the last one. Don't ask me, they are crazy teenage girls :)

Hope everyone enjoys the pics of my crazy girls! Meg and I are feeling much better by the way :) Hope everyone's week is going well.

quick update

Well dark and early Friday morning we headed to the orthodontist, and by 7:30 we were done, and Megan FINALLY had her braces off!!!! YAY!!!!!! We didn't have much of a celebration because Meg and I both have horrible colds. We are both a little better today. When we were leaving the ortho they handed her a bag full of candy that she wasn't allowed to have, and I said great, now I will owe the dentist extra money!! :) She was very excited to be able to chew gum. She will have her teeth cleaned this coming week and on the 14th she will get her retainers. If we feel much better this week I will post some pics of her beautiful, braceless smile!!! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

early return

Well it's only the 2nd and all of the girls had to go back to school today. Dawn because she decided to do her Jan. term this year otherwise she would have been home until the 27th. Chels and Meg had to go back because they basically got screwed out of a decent holiday vacation by the county. They had 11 days off, which just wasn't enough for them or me!! Almost every other county in the state and several other states that I know of, had until the 7th. So my girls were not happy about getting up early this morning and going back. Their break did seem to just fly by. Of course Todd also had to head back to work today, but only for a partial day since we had to take Dawn back up to school. Friday morning he also gets to miss some work, but it's for a very good thing. Hopefully after months and months of saying they will take them off next time, Megan should FINALLY be getting her braces off!!!!! They said it was a good possiblity last time, then decided she needed a few more weeks, plus rubberbands to help, but the orthodontist promised her that on the 4th she would definitely take them off. Unless they see something that isn't quite right, they better take them off or Meg and I both may cause someone some serious pain tomorrow. I know things have to be a certain way before they come off, but they have been getting her hopes up since June that it wouldn't be much longer and then it turned into by the end of the summer, then it was next time, and so on. It's just not nice to get her hopes up and then crush them. She has had them on since August of 2004 and boy is she sick of them, and so are the rest of us :) She can't wait to chew gum again and eat some popcorn!!! So hopefully Friday night we will be having a nice celebration without braces!!! But tomorrow I will be enjoying a day of peace and quiet. I will have the house to myself, well along with my mini zoo!!! I hope everyones new year is off to a great start!!