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And Then She Said...Inner musings of blessing beyond measure August 26 Winding down.....or is it?So are you still with me loyal following? You know all one of you? You still around? Or have you given up on the wayward blog of me? I had forgotten about it, blame adult ADD or simply being busy, I'm not sure which is more th culprit. Oh the things that have happened. Nothing of huge importance but so many days that were heart full days. It's been a busy summer. We renewed our vows, were in newspapers all over the local area and had a blast plain and simple. I think the next big thing after that was our move. Oh wait, we went to six flags and the zoo in St. Louis with Gramma Crazy and my Nother Brother and his family. It was so much fun. We stayed at the same hotel and then did everything together. I must say it is something that needs to be repeated often I think everybody enjoyed themselves and honestly I can't think of a better way to experience a zoo than with a gaggle of children! Okay then we came back and moved....yep we moved 6 blocks and it wonked out our phone and internet for several weeks. But now all that is settled and we are comfy and snug in our new home. The house we lived in before was roughly 1100sqft and this new place is 2 stories and about 2200sqft so needless to say we have much more room!! Kunk stayed with us during our move and without him I surely would have lost my mind. He entertained children and prodded me on as I would be near giving up. It was great fun although terribly exhausting. We have an attached 2 1/2 car garage that is coming in handy for playing when it's raining out. We have a fenced in backyard that is slightly sloped and small but before we had nothing so we adore our slopey small yard muchly! The kids have a sandbox and their toys out back and they have been playing out when we've not been rained out....er in....er when it's not rainy outside :) how's that? Smarta is going to homeschool again this year and we purchased her curriculum last night. So this year will hold Spelling, Grammar, Science, History, Math and a Bible Study/Devotion Daily. I think we may integrate with the public school and see if she can attend music and art classes with them and then segue into mainstream schooling next year if that feels good to her. On another note she's found a series of books that she thoroughly enjoys. It's the Disney Fairys series and she's read 2 of them and is into her 3rd. I love to see the ferocity for reading (is that a word? lol it's late and i like it whether it's a real word or not so there!) that I used to have. She reads at least a chapter a day but often times will ask if she can read more, I love that she asks because she wants to make sure she wont "run out" of book! She is growing up so quickly.....I dont remember how she got this big, I adore the spirit of who she is. Albeit sometimes mouthy! She is gentle and thoughtful and just flat out nifty. Ballio is almost 3 THREE!! We are hedging out of the baby stage of parenting and into the growning up big kid stages. He is starting to potty train and it's completely self led, we are in no hurry and dont mind letting him take the lead. He's woken up several times in the middle of the night to come tell me he has to potty (oh the joy at 2 am) and during the day he starts to go and then realizes he needs the potty. So it's baby steps for my big guy! He is so strong and smart. He can ride his sisters bike (which bonks her knees because she's gotten so tall this summer!) and loves to play outside. He's not disturbed in the least to have dirty from stem to stern and delights in playing with his toys in his new big boy room. He even picks up his room at night, which is so cool! Both kids tidy and tickle their teeth w/little to no help. He is also sleeping on his own with out being rocked to sleep which is a huge step. He'd been rocked to sleep his entire life and we've transitioned into him doing story time and prayers and falling asleep on his own. *SIGH* My babeis are not babies any longer.....part of me enjoys the celebration of reaching new milestones and a small part of me longs for the midnight nursing and holding the entire sum of their being in the crook of my arm.........I guess that pretty much sums up motherhood huh? June 27 oxymoronCustomer service is an oxymoron...if it were indeed called what it actually was it would be "Customer Argument Facilitator" for that is indeed what they do. In December we gave Jeremy's parents a cell phone for christmas, we thought it'd be a nifty idea and give them some added security when they travel. In January we were told that since we had 4 phones on one account with Sprint and Jeremy was military then we'd qualify for a discount. So nice, so courteous they were offering us a way to save money with the same level of great service. Gee, what could possibly go wrong with that? Oh silly silly me for thinking it would be easy and quick. Fast forward SIX MONTHS and Jeremy mentions casually that he got a text message on his phone saying we had a billing issue that needed to be addressed. So tonight as we come home I grab his phone and dial up the argument facilitators expecting it was of course a minor error but NO it was that they'd split our accounts into 2 different bills and then as if that weren't enough they poured some salt into the wound and said we were BEHIND in this doubled bill to the tune of $209.53. I spent literally TWO HOURS on the phone arguing w/these buffoons. HOURS spent saying I didnt authorize this or even know about it. I paid the bill online dont get paper copies and they were portioning out my payments and using them for part of this bill and part of that one. It made me crazy w/all the "i'm sorry" of it all. I have the bill whittled down to $65 that they now say I owe and it's promised that it's once again taken care of but I dont quite believe them somehow. I'm waiting for the lady to call me back tomorrow to see what else she's unearthed in the payment history and we'll go from there but OH MY WORD sprint made my eye twitch tonight!!! June 26 A Cape and a message........beep!My life has been super busy we've had so much going on that I've not even had time to blog! *gasp* How could that be?! We've won a prize from six flags called "thrilled ever after" we are renewing our vows there on 7/7/07 so it's been CRAZY trying to get all of that together *and* we are leaving on thursday to go to St. Louis with Nother Brother and his family and Gramma Crazy and the second batch for the weekend. We'll get back on Sunday evening and then my sweet boy has to work 3rds on wednesday night into thursday morning so that'll throw off our week, toss in the 4th of July and then we have a down day on the 5th if you count getting the house ready for TWENTY guests on the 6th a down day! So we've been running around crazy trying to get things together. I am wearing an adorable white ballcap studded w/rhinestones in the shape of the superman shield and I'm attaching a veil to it for the ceremony. Jeremy is wearing a regular shirt and a black bowtie *and* a superman cape from six flags....here is the story of the cape.
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84* outside hot and sweaty and we're traipsing through six flags..no shock right? But today, today we have a mission! We are searching for a superman cape for my hero to wear for our renewal. We looked in a few of the stores and finally found a cape...but wait...what's this? an ADULT size cape?! who'da thought! How amazing right? WRONG I show it to dh who turns up his superhero snob nose and says "it's not the right shade of red." I asked if he was serious, since he IS colorblind and he reconsidered long enough to try it on to see how it'd fit. Now, I should say that it was my idea to do the superhero homage to superheroes since my husband is a major fan and it sorta makes it themey and you all know how I love a good theme. I knew he was on board but until this moment I didnt know *how* on board he was. Okay, so he takes the cape from me and with a flick of his wrists he whips it around and lays it across his shoulders. Then carefully and decidedly he smooths the cape over his shoulders and I see him grow taller....broader.....dare I say stronger in the span of 2 seconds. I being the supportive caring wife I am say "did you seriously just puff your chest out?!" and giggle to which he doesnt deflate oh no he stands even taller (is that possible?) and says "yes, yes you did" but then decides that the color is too off and he wants a better cape so we're off to search the park some more. We went to the Superman ride thinking they might have something there that would better serve our needs, looking high and low we see nothing. And then he says "like that one! that's the one I want" and I look over and he's not pointing to a shelf he's pointing to a person! A 20 something hispanic man who's with several friends, that's all I needed was a direction. The boy found the cape of his dreams and by golly I'm getting it. I walk up to the gent and ask where he got the cape. He tells me and it's the complete opposite side of the park and I really dont want to walk alllllll the way over there. I offer him money, yes that's right I offered him money and the strangest thing happened. I saw this glimmer of sadness in his face at the thought of giving up his cape. I could see he was torn and had I continued on with my story of woe he would have given up the cape just because he seemed to be a nice guy but I couldn't be part of de-caping a man. I told him thanks and walked off and I daresay he adjusted his cape and wore it even more proudly! I remembered this game you could play to win a cape near the superman we found it, Jeremy played it and he WON! It was muy exciting! He loves the color of the cape and put it on straight away once we got it. It fit and looked nice and I asked him if he wanted to put it in the bag and he looked at me as if I'd grown 2 heads. He scoffed and said "no! do you know how long I've wanted one of these?" He strutted his stuff the whole way outta the park and I kid you not at least one guy even said "hey guy, nice cape" what is it with boys and capes?! I put it into the van as he put the wagon away and we secured the children in car seats. He then said he probably shouldn't wear it again until we have the ceremony....ya know keep it special! Major gigglefest on my part, if I wasn't so confident in myself I might be a skoosh jealous of this cape he so obviously adores.
As we are driving home Smarta starts entertaining Ballio. She plays eye-spy with him and Jeremy and I are talking business of people coming and how to feed the masses and on and on and then I hear them start playing "wheeeere's Ballio? wheeeere's he at?" it always ends in an eruption of giggles, which always suprises me because I'd think that they were both too old for the game to be fun. Guess not as it entertained them for several minutes and then Ballio decided to try his hand at the game. So he starts in with "Where's Smarta? Where is smarta go?!" to which Smarta answered "here I am" and they would laugh. She played along for several stoplights and I could feel her interest starting to wane but she was being a good sport. Then I hear "where's smarta? smarta where are youuuuuuu?"
"Smarta's not here leave a message after the beep...................BEEP"
"oh otay smarta"
and the van fell silent
for at least 20 seconds that is. June 20 All a twitter....I can't sleep....it's 420 in the morning and here I am wide awake and sleep couldnt be further away. Why? because I am a silly child! I entered a contest a few weeks ago to get married or renew your vows on 7/7/07 I never do these sorts of things but figured it was a contest hosted by Kay Jewelers and Six flags how could *that* go badly right? Anyway, earlier this evening well i guess techinically it was yesterday anywho I got notified that I'd won. Not only won but also been selected to be interviewed by the local paper. And just as I do on christmas eve and the day before my childrens bdays (which needs to be posted about btw) I lay in bed and get excited. My husband, the grown up, does not. He laughs at me and lets me sleep late the next day or nap and goes on about his grown up life doing grown up things. Me? I am all a twitter......... June 13 Puzzle PiecesI can equate my life to a jigsaw puzzle, all the daily tasks and events are pieces and sometimes my puzzle has a mere dozen pieces and are easy to assemble and fit and viola the picture of my day is complete and crystal clear. Other days I have too many pieces, always a straggler hanging out on the edge trying to be fit in and no matter how I arrange them I still have too many pieces and not enough space. I say that it's summer time but in the winter it's because of the holidays. There is always something going on that just causes this chaos to occur. It's the balance between chaos and comfort that is difficult to find. Without the extra pieces though the puzzle would rarely change and I'd not enjoy that one bit. We'll have had company or an event going on since the last weekend in May and honestly if I gave it a minute I'm sure I could back that date up. I wouldn't change our plans for a minute but I am sure that I remember a time when we were not this busy.....but for the life of me I cannot fathom NOT doing what we do. And seriously we are not even the busiest people I know. Perhaps we are just poor planners or dont handle the dance of doing things well. We have company this weekend and did last and will for the one after this one and THEN we are leaving for the weekend the last weekend of this month. Oh and then it's fourth of July and that's another fest of fun that require a picnic and an event of some sort. I love the bustle of summer and honestly am not even stressed or overwhelmed by all the pieces trying to fit into my puzzle right now. I just wonder if anybody else feels like they are trying to fit so much fun into so little time? As far as problems go I guess this is probably the best one you can have! Birthday part ONENormal children have ONE party per birthday.....normal children invite friends and play and eat some cake and it's done....normal maybe the wrong word. Let's try typical. My children are Atypical. This is the beginning of birthdayfest for Smarta, she opened the first presents from her daddy's side of the family. She did indeed get a barbie, and clothes clothes clothes. It was so much fun watching her open her presents. She is the kind of kid who takes time to open each thing and ooh and ahh over it and then she moves on. Christmas morning takes hours at our house trust me! She squealed over each presents and gasped and whispered about a precious moments bank. It will continue into segments 2 and 3 for birthdaypalooza because she'll have my side of the family and then again for her actual birthday with just the four of us. She's decided she wants brownies not a cake for her birthday and I've decided I'm going to superduper them up w/some chocolate work that should make her eyes light up. She has another wiggling tooth and I dont know that it'll make it til her birthday. June 08 I love me some ikea!Ikea is a store wait...that does it no justice. It is a mecca of all things assembled with an allen wrench! Three floors of oooooh and aaaaaaaah and oh oh oh look! Well for me anyway, for my husband it's 3 floors of "no stop quit don't" with the children as I am in my happy place rendering me simply unable to deal with unruly children. Actually the kids did pretty well and enjoy the cafeteria and the milk and cookies (which are FREE btw everyday) for snack. We haven't been in over a year perhaps even two since last we descended on this glorious blue and yellow building and boy how things have changed. So many more lines of things from silverware to outdoor furniture, fabric to storage solutions. It is just so much fun. We bought dressers for our bedroom as ours were dying a very slow and painful death. After Jeremy had them put together and in our room I actually fought with my dejected dresser and got into the bottom drawer, it was almost like shopping--clothes i hadn't seen in months! We bought each of the children a storage contraption from the trofast line. It amazes me how simply it went together and how much we were able to organize the rooms. Smarta is turning 6 soon, and 6 is the barbie age in our house. Let me digress and tell the story of how barbie came to be delayed in our house. Smarta was 2 and asked for barbies....maybe even not quite 2 and we decided she was too little and could have them when she was older. We told her in a generic "when you are older" type of way to which she responded "how about when I'm 7?". Sounded good to us so 7 it was. She hasn't asked since and we've been simply waiting for 7 to be upon us. She got a barbie a couple holidays ago and the sweet baby opened it and looked at her and said "Thank you but this isn't appropriate for me right now but my mom will put it up until it is" all her all on her own not prompted by Jeremy or me. Since then we've decided she's mature enough to handle barbie a year early. Digression ended. Since barbie will be arriving within the next 2 wks, in bulk from the sounds of all the people who are up in arms over her delay, we needed to go to Ikea and get storage. This trofast thing is awesome they have small containers that will have space for all things itty bitty and barbie. And on the Ballio front they have large bins that all things chunky and super hero fit. Seriously check it out (www.ikea.com) search for trofast. Okay i'm rambling......but oh is it an excited ramble! I'll have to post some pictures later of the organization beauty before it's destroyed! June 05 MarketingI understand that marketing is supposed to move you, make you think and cause you to believe that while you may have existed prior to this moment without my product from this point on your life will be somehow lessened and lacking if you dont purchase it soon! and in triplicate! I am pretty good at ignoring most ads, actually we have tivo for both the tv's in the house so we rarely watch a commercial and the children watch commercial free programing about 80% of the time. Perhaps my lack of commercial and advertising is *not* a good thing though, I'm soft easily swayed by the ones that seep through because my tolerance is low. What if the lack of commercial viewing, the missing barrage of 'buy me' is actually causing my commercial callus to soften up. I actually find myself believing the few commercials that make it through the cracks. I have already said to anybody who'll listen when we move we're getting those hercules hooks for the pictures! Thank you late night tv guy who enthusiastically shares of their hanging goodness! The latest advertisement that has me thinking is one from Directv. We've had them for years and truly enjoy the service we get from them. I called them once about 6 months ago and told them I wanted to lower my monthly bill and we talked and figured out that without losing stations I liked (read: SCIFI for the husband!!) it was impossible. However just because I called they gave us $5 off for the next 6 billing cycles. Just 'cause. We've moved w/them and it's never been an issue we've dealt with their customer service for problems and they've always been courteous and helpful. Wait wait wait, I'm starting to sound like a commercial here....ahem....back to my original thought. So, anyway as I was saying. I checked the mail yesterday and got a flyer from Directv that said "Directv + K. S." on a beach drawn w/a stick in a heart. follow? It had the desired effect it made me feel special even though I know that John Doe down the road got "Directv + J. D." with the same scene. Inside were several offers for either discounts or a free dvr. It was all nice stuff but just the whole swellling of music and crashing of waves as I looked at the mailer made me like them even more, creating more consumer loyalty and making me post about them so now all 2 people who read my blog are going to have warm and fuzzy feelings about them as well!! Way to go Directv....way to market!  June 03 The Plight of the Military Wife......I grew up a military brat, air force as a matter of fact. I adored the lifestyle of being military, all the kids were instant friends because we all knew what it was like to be the dreaded 'new kid'. There were of course still typical cliques but they were more based on hobbies or interests and not quite as elitist as those horrid civilian kids. When my Dad died in '89 we moved from a *very* progressive Las Vegas into the middle of absolute nowhere Illinois. It was culture shock for sure, I graduated 3 years later as the 'new kid' despite my best efforts to assimilate into their corn growing cow tipping society. Fast forward a couple years past graduation and you'll find me marrying this cute Navy boy and joining the ranks of not military brats but military wives. I thought it'd be the same gig, everybody embraces you because they know what it's like to be the 'new kid' blah blah blah. Well, not so much. I found myself outside yesterday playing w/the children when another mom came down w/her children and a spare. It was nice everybody played and we did the typical jabber of soccer woes and party plans. Nothing deep or thought provoking just enjoying a summer day and the sound of kids playing together. A while later the other childs mom came down to join us. I really like both the moms, but I just realize how different it is being a military wife. One of the moms went house by house and told me about the occupants and their children. It wasn't bad things really, it was just tidbits about the dwellers in each hovel. I was shocked that she knew everybody and their stats, and then I asked about our neighborhood street cred ;) and she said that nobody knows about us because we are never outside (rubbing hands together bwahahahaha) she said that we are the neighborhood "vampires" who only come out after dusk and never during the day to play. It sorta made me chuckle because I'm glad that we didnt made the news in our neighborhood. I'll happily be those wierd people who you can't dish dirt on, whether it be because we're boring or because they can't see our reflections in the mirror! Honestly this isn't an isolated sort of mentality, a friend of mine who lives in Virginia has told me about other people introducing themselves in her neighborhood with "So what rank is your husband?" not "Hi my name is...." while there might be a sense of community there is also a sense of entitlement to knowing your business. I wonder if since my experience is limited to the military I think it only exists within our ranks......maybe it's universal. Maybe it's another component of the never ending torture that is highschool revisted in our adulthood. I certainly hope it's a military thing for I'm looking forward to a civi life that doesnt include so many rumor weeds. May 30 A visit and a promotionI am exhausted and have come to realize I will probably continue to be tired for the remainder of the summer! Perhaps I should interject HAPPILY in there somewhere, because the reason I'm exhausted is because of all the fun we are having as a family. We spent the past 2 days enjoying visitors that have never been to our house before. After the kids got past the typical "oh oh oh watch me see me i have tricks!!" portion of their arrival we had a great visit. Smarta made sure she showed her company all the cool parts of 6 flags and finally Daddy had somebody to ride the rides with. The conversations turned political only momentarily before the reality that we just dont agree became apparent. Once our political commercial had passed we happily enjoyed each other with no qualms. The 3 amigos coasted their way through The Superman, The Batman (minus 1 amigo), The Loggers Run, Iron Wolf, American Eagle (minus an amigo), Raging Bull, Demon and we watched the Spy Girl show BUT the creme de la creme of the day was what Smarta referred to as the 'flying burrito' or Daredevil Drop for those of you who want to sound cooler than you really are! It was funny watching all three of said amigos wearing gigantic onsies that made them almost waddle as they waited for their turn to be dropped from an almost poop inspiring height. They take you up in a little basket and then you are 'tied' up top w/a ripcord. Once you release the cord you are flying through the air with the greatest of ease....and screaming like somebody stole your milk money! It was fun and funny to watch, each swing more woohooo!!!! and less ohdearGod!! was evident on each amigos face until finally they were posing as superman and other funtastic silliness. Between the group we also rode the Whizzer, the Carousel and froliced about in Wiggles World. After all the fun it just got better and we went to Olive Garden for dinner a very very late dinner that flowed perfectly with a server who was attentive and not intrusive and food that was delicious and quickly prepared. No major meltdowns involving kids or adults occurred which is always a possibility when ones rational behavior has been scrambled all day on roller coasters and such. We came home and went to bed which is a totally different concept than when Gramma Crazy comes and we stay up til all hours and then dont understand why we are so exhausted all the time! I didnt expect our company to stay all day today, I was sure they'd have to leave and get back to vacationing elsewhere but we were treated to an entire day of talking and remembering and wii'ing with our guests. It was fun fun fun fun! everybody concurs!
And a promotion! My brilliant husband has been promoted!! I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. I personally feel like it's a long time coming since I have been witness to his brilliance daily and they simply haven't been paying attention obviously!! So a big Bravo Zulu to my sailor on his latest accomplishment!!!
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