Never was there a tale of more woe...

Than that of Michelle and her dryer-o.

I have been blessed with craptastic dryers my entire life. We didn't have one as a kid. All the clothes went out on the line. Which was fine with me, I loved to play tents out in the clothes. Except in the middle of winter, when they mostly just froze, and we had to hang them in the bathroom to let them thaw and finish drying.

I was 6 when we got our first dryer. It was so warm and toasty. I would just sit in front of it, and feel the warmth. That was my last good experience with a dryer. Now granted, most of it is my own fault. I did my own laundry as a teenager, and managed to shrink almost all of my clothes. Then, going to college, I don't know how many bras got stolen out of the dryers at the laundromat. But again, my own fault for not staying with my clothes. After marrying Dave, we used to take our clothes to a little laundromat down the road from us. One that was popular with creepy dudes. You never knew what you were going to find when you took your clothes there.

So you can see why, when Dave finally commissioned, and we moved into our first real house, with our first real washer and dryer, we were ecstatic. Too bad it left blue streaks all over our clothes. Wah-wah-wahhhh. That was when I swore off dryers. I went back to the clothesline of my youth. But when we moved out of that how, we got a new dryer, and it's convenience beckoned once more. And we had a pretty good relationship, me and that dryer. Until we moved again, and the top got smashed in. It still worked, but now it was damaged goods. Our new house came with a wonderful dryer, which worked beautifully, for all of 2 weeks. Then we were back to using our damaged dryer, which in addition to being dented on the top, now had a malfunctioning timer. You had to set a kitchen timer, and go turn the dryer off when the time was up.

Now we are in another house. And in addition to the dented top, and malfunctioning timer, the dryer has taken to shocking me every time I touch it. Yes, that's right, before it was satisfied with merely being annoying, now it has resorted to outright hostility. Oh, and it only gets hot when it's cool outside. If it's hot outside, the dryer refuses to work. Sigh.

We have plans to get a new washer and dryer when we get to California. However, I don't have high hopes. I've been hung out to dry one to many times...

(That was corny. Sue me.)

Creepy? Um... yeah.

So, during my shower today I was thinking about how sad I was that my new neighbor had died before I got a chance to get to know her. My landlord told me that she had been sick for a while, and it wasn't unexpected. But it's still kind of sad. But then I started thinking about the neighbor at our other house here in Dayton that had died. And then about our neighbor on base in Cali that had died. Then our neighbor off base in Cali that died. And I came to a sick and horrifying conclusion. In the past 6 years, we have lived in 4 houses. And at every house, a neighbor has died. No joke.

-California City House-

We moved in, we saw an old lady out a couple times, and then she was gone. Come to find out, she died in the house, and her son found her 2 weeks later.

Death number 1.

-Edwards AFB House-

Everything was fine while we were there, then the day we moved out, a Marine 2 houses down shot his wife and himself. They had just moved in.

Death numbers 2 and 3.

-Beech Tree Ct House-

An old lady across the street, died in her sleep one night. She had been really healthy, but one night, she just died.

Death number 4.

-Tomberg St House-

The nice older lady just next door died of cancer, within months of us moving in.

Death number 5.

To quote the Bhagavad Gita, "Now, I am become Death."

Please don't be my neighbor.

Watson's win doesn't scare me

So, some people are all freaked out about Watson winning at Jeopardy. Not me. Here's some background, just in case you aren't a Jeopardy freak, like me. IBM wanted to see if they could build a computer that could beat the two best Jeopardy players ever. Ken Jennings (the man I crushed on through out most of college) and Brad Rutter (a bastard). They made a big deal about all the other uses for Watson, but really, I think they just wanted to see what they could do, just to do it. Anyway, so Watson won... by a lot.

Now the internet is all weepy about the end of humanity... blah... blah... blah...

I disagree. Here's why. It's not that Watson won. Computers are smarter than people. I figured that out in 1996. It's HOW he won. He won by being a computer. The final Jeopardy question was, "this city's largest airport is named after a WWII hero, and it's 2nd largest is named after a WWII battle". Well, obviously, the answer is Chicago. Ken got it right, Brad got it right, and Watson got it WRONG. Now, he had $33,000, Brad had $5000, and Ken had $2400. Watsone only risked $900. ONLY $900. Watson doesn't know how to play the game. And that's why I don't fear for humanity.

There is so much more to being human than fact recall, or being able to answer questions, it's being able to risk it all. Watson wasn't able to grasp that what makes Jeopardy so great is that in the end, you roll the dice and no matter how much you calculate, you still might be wrong. Watson doesn't feel the adrenaline, he doesn't feel the pressure, he plays the same game whether he's sitting in your living room or in the studio. He doesn't care. And until a computer can feel an emotion, I think humans will remain the dominant life form on this planet. Because when it's all on the line, a human will risk everything, even in the face of overwhelming odds, and you can't win big unless you're willing to risk it all.

A computer can calculate the odds, but if the payoff is worth it, a human doesn't care, and the human spirit can't be calculated.

Drug Induced Rambling

So. I broke my back. Well, I fractured a vertebra. Doesn't that sound fun? Yeah, it's not. I was coming down the stairs, lost my footing and fell flat on my back. And apparently, when the edge of a stair hits a vertebra, it can crack it, leaving the person in agony for 2 days until they figure out that it's probably more than a bruise and ought to seek medical attention. Of course by then, we were in the middle of icepacalypse, so I slid down the driveway, twice. With a broken back. Lots of fun. And before icepocalypse, I went to Kroger with 3 kids for grocery shopping, with a broken back. I was pretty miserable the entire time, but it's kind of funny what you can accomplish when you convince yourself that you're just being a pansy. And I have a long history of this, like getting strep and just taking Motrin for 3 weeks because, "it's just a cold, you pansy!". Until the bacteria spreads to your eyes and you can't see. Most people get sick, go to the doctor, and get better. I get sick, yell at myself for being a pansy, then either get better, or get so bad I have to be forcibly taken to the ER. And even when that happens, I still usually feel like a pansy. Although, I will give myself some credit this time. I tried to go to the Doctor. I even made an appointment, but I couldn't find childcare so I just told myself I was being a pansy. That's what I get for trying to be normal. But I do get a sexy back brace and a lot of good drugs.

This icepocalypse is cray-cray! We lost a tree, but thankfully, it didn't hit anyone's house. And luckily, we have buried power lines so we didn't lose power. I know some people have had some crazy stuff go down at their houses, so I'm especially grateful we're snug in our house. Even if we can't leave it. Although honestly, I think Heavenly Father knows that I couldn't handle any more being thrown at me right now. *She said as the power went out, and a tree crashed into the roof*. Dave has even worked from home for the past 2 days, which has been super nice. We love having Daddy home, especially when Momma is most comfortable laying in her bed.

In other news, Dave got into Test Pilot School! Yay! Now we're moving back to Edwards. Yay. That will be weird, moving back to a place we've already lived. I've moved 30+ times in my 28 years, and I've never moved back anywhere. I'm just glad this time it will be for TPS, so we don't have to worry about where to live. And since we already did our time there, we probably won't be staying past a year. Hopefully we'll be headed to Florida. But there's always the Cold Lake assignment. That would be like icepocalypse from October to April. No thank you. But TPS is 11 months away, which is stupid. I hate knowing a year in advance that you're going to move. Been there, done that, and it blows. That's just way to much time to think about things. Especially if you're me, and have to plan. The good news is that we'll probably be out of our house this summer, so that gives me something to plan for within a reasonable time frame. Now we just have to finish fixing up the house to get it ready to rent. But that's one more thing on hold until my crack heals.

I have a lot of thoughts, but most of them are fueled by the drugs, so they don't make much sense. Some people say that narcotics make them feel all fuzzy in the head. They make my mind race. It's like it go 150 mph, then crashes and I sleep for 3 hours. I'm getting close to the crash. Which is not good because it's almost dinner time. Falling asleep while cooking is not a good thing. I've done it before, and I don't recommend it. I'm sure I'll have more drug induced thoughts later, but I'm not much of a writer so we'll see what makes it onto the blog.

A new direction...

So... I've made a decision. One that, if you know me, you're going to be giving me that squinty-eyed "huh?" look.

I've decided that next year, I am going to home-school my children.

I'll give that a minute to sink in.

Better now? OK. I used to think this was a good representation of home-schoolers...

But after a lot of research, talking to home-schoolers, and most importantly, getting some experience in the public schools, I don't think that's the case anymore. I'm beginning to believe that homeschooling my children might better prepare them for the challenges of adulthood than letting them go to public school. Here's why...

1)Socialization. I know that's kind of a buzzword for home-schoolers. Everyone asks, "but how are your kids going to be socialized?" or "aren't you worried about socialization?". Well, let me tell you about our experience with socialization. There are 2 girls in my daughter's class that make her life miserable. They call her names, they tell her she can't play with anyone else. She gets off the bus so sad nearly everyday. She asked me the other day, "Mom can you talk to them? I just want them to stop calling me names." She's not emotionally mature enough to deal with this, and honestly, I don't want her to be. She is 5 years old, she should be running around, playing, learning about her world, not being beaten down and trying to figure out someone else's emotional problems. If that's "socialization", thanks, but no thanks. Am I sheltering her? Heck yeah. But that's not a bad thing. Yes, she will have to learn how the world works someday, I can't shelter her forever, but hopefully by then she'll have a bit more emotional maturity and be able to handle it better. And I'll say this, the older kids I've met, who are home-schooled, are some of the most self-confident, mature kids I've ever met. If home-schooling had anything to do with that, I'm willing to try it.

2) Academics. My kids are smart. Really smart. And I'm not just saying that, at 4 years old, Nora was doing 1st grade level work at her private school (it was a Montessori school where every child worked at their own pace). Now, in public school, she's back to learning ABC's and 123's. She's gotten in trouble a couple times because she finishes her work early and wants to talk to her table mates. Unfortunately, in a group, you have to go at the speed of the slowest person. I want my child to be challenged. I want to her think that learning is fun and not boring. That's not happening in her school.

3)The military thing. We're military. We move, a lot. In fact, we're moving in about 6 months. And I'm having the same issue with this move that I've had with all the others. How to I balance living close to the base with finding a good school? I don't know why, but for some reason, really good schools and Air Force Bases don't mix. And if they do, good luck finding a place on Captain salary. When we moved to Ohio, the question was, "where do we want to compromise?". Did we want to compromise school quality, or on distance from the base, or price. Finally we decided to compromise on school quality, we picked the best school district we could, close to the base and a house within our price limits. Why? Because it's been my experience that having Daddy close is worth more than just about anything else. At our next assignment, it's the same thing. Good schools within our price range? Hour commute. But if we homeschool, that's not a problem anymore. We can live close to the base, and not worry about the quality of the schools. Then there's the curriculum. I grew up military, and I remember moving to a base, and being completely lost for the first 6 months because I hadn't learned what they were teaching in my new school. Then we moved, and I was bored for the next 6 months because I had already learned what they were teaching. With homeschooling, that's not an issue for us.

4)Religious Instruction. I hate religion in public schools. I think religion is a private thing, and that everyone's religion is different, so to force one doctrine to be taught (or practiced, ala prayer) in a public school is wrong. But, in a homeschool setting, we can make religious instruction part of school. There are tons of LDS resources out there for homeschoolers. How great is that?!? It's like seminary for 5 year olds. I love that I will have that many more opportunities to teach my children about the gospel. Talk about building on the Rock.

Not that everything about this is all butterflies and rainbows, ribbons and pixie dust. I'm confident this will be the hardest thing I've ever done. And I don't like hard work. Here are my biggest concerns...

1)Am I organized enough to pull this off? I'm a pretty organized lady and, aside from some stroller issues, I do a pretty good job of keeping things running around here. But it comes in spurts. I'll spend 2 days cleaning, getting things all great looking, then lay around for 2 days. I can be MONUMENTALLY lazy. I was always better at the sprint than the marathon. This is definitely a marathon. Which is why we're going to start out with an online charter school. They provide the curriculum, I provide the space and the kids. My hope is, that will help me ease into it. Someone else does the work in the beginning, until I figure things out a bit. If we like it, we'll stick with it. If not, then I can make my own curriculum.

2) We want to have another baby. How do you homeschool with a newborn? And through a pregnancy? Not to mention that what if I get sick? Does school just stop because Mom is throwing up? I'm not sure how to deal with these issues. Is it really so flexible that we just don't have school those days and then work extra hard the next couple days? I don't know. Maybe it's just one of those things we will have to work out.

3) This sounds lame but, my exercise routine. I finally found something that works for me. I go to the gym everyday (almost). It works soooo well. I'm nervous that homeschooling is just going to screw it all up. The problem is, going to the gym is pretty vital for me. I love it. I hate the way I feel when I don't go. If there was one thing that could make me change my mind about homeschooling, this is it. I'm very nervous.

All in all, I think it will be a good thing. A HARD good thing, but still a good thing. Of course, ask me again 3 months into it. :)

Blogs are so 2007. Twitter is where it's at. www.twitter.com/michellek25

On the road again...

Still traveling. And I'm about sick of it. Who thought of this 3 week interlude between duty-stations?? Well, whoever she is, she's an idiot. Good news, we bought a house! Check out Dave's facebook to see the pics. I would post them but I'm tired and lazy. I promise a juicy post once we get settled. Until then, keep up with me on the fayboo.

Wow. Just wow.

If you didn't have enough reason to seriously question the sanity of these people... there's this. Someday I might write a post on how idiotic it is to believe 9/11 was an "inside job", but now is not that time. But seriously, if Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag believe it, then that should give you an indication of how stupid it is.

I'm just sayin'.

Can I relax?? Really?

So... great news today. And no, not about Michael Jackson. Although I do think the world is a better place with one fewer child molesters in it. No! The great news is that the cleaning lady is free for the week of our move!!! When we booked her, she only had one day available, and since it takes two days to clean a house, we could only get her for the kitchen. But her other job cancelled, so she's free to do our house!!!!! Bad news? (Because nothing can just be perfectly good) we have to be out a day early. But it's OK. I called the moving company and they are going to drop the truck off sooner, without an extra charge!, and pick it up sooner. So, yay! I feel much less stressed knowing that I don't have to clean. Cause I was seriously begining to lose it. That's why I haven't been updating the blog, because with everything going on, I just couldn't put it all into words.

I'm just ready to get out of here.

So, on the nickname front, Dave doesn't like Jonty. Go fig. He like's JJ, which I think is lame. So we've come to a standoff. I call the boy Jonty and he calls him JJ. And we'll see which on sticks. Since I'm home all day, smart money's on Jonty. And I don't care if others think it's retarded, I like it. ;) He'll probably end up calling himself Scooter or something like that. Scooter would be a cool nickname, except for the whole outing a CIA agent thing. I'm much to liberal to call my son after a member of the Bush Administration. I'm just sayin'.

So... I found an IKEA in Cinncinatti. WOOT. This is great news. I heart IKEA. And it's not even the big stuff I heart, it's the little things. Like cups. I heart IKEA cups. And any store that has day-care is alright by me. Seriously. I could live at IKEA. Like this guy. That's pretty awesome. And not only is there an IKEA in Ohio, they also have Aldi. I'm a sucker for European stores that come to the US. Between Aldi and IKEA, I might never shop anywhere else again. If they combined, it'd be like Buy-n-Large. The one thing California has on Ohio is In-n-Out. Which might just be the best burger I've EVER had. But they do have 5 Guys. Which is just about as good. Almost. It'll have to do until we come back for TPS.

Well, I may not be around much for the next few months as the truck gets delivered NEXT FRIDAY (*insert PANIC here*), but I'll try to give updates as I can!

Ohio awaits!!

Nickname for Jonathyn

What do you all think of Jonty as a nickname for the boy? I kind of like it...

Only at Edwards

I went land sailing today. And it was just about the best thing ever. I highly recommend it. It's one of those things that you can only do at Edwards. I am all banged up and bruised, and my foot hurts like nothing else (I didn't wear my boot, shut up) but it was certainly fun. I'm really glad we did it before we left. I need to put together a list of things to do for people who get sent to Edwards. I'll call it my "Only at Edwards" list. There are things that make living out here fun, you just have to find them!

Anyway. My house looks like a storage unit. Darn near everything is in boxes. Which is good, except that we're still 2 weeks out from truck delivery. We haven't packed up the computer and the TV yet so Dave and I aren't sitting around staring at each other after the kids are in bed, but we're close. And it's just going to get worse. We couldn't get into TLF (Temporary Living Facility, basically a fully furnished/stocked apartment for people moving in and out of the base, yeah, the military takes care of us) so we decided we're just going to camp for the week between when our truck gets delivered and when we actually leave. I think we're insane. We rented a travel trailer and are going to live at FamCamp (a campground on base) for a week. With three kids under 4. I really think we're insane. But we did hire someone to clean the kitchen. We would have hired her to do the entire house but since we only have one day, the kitchen it was. That is the hardest part, but we still have to clean everything else, with a broken foot and a nursing baby. fun.

Screw it. I'm just gonna torch the place.

It's great when you get to the part of moving where you hate everything you own and just want to take a match to the entire bloody business. And we chose this as our life? What were we thinking. Join the military, see the world!! Should be, join the military drag your stuff from one corner of nowhere to the other for 20 years just to get the healthcare!!

Mama is frustrated.

New topic. The baby is getting fat!! His cheeks are so chubby, it's so cute. That boy has got me wrapped around his finger! I could snuggle all day with him. And he smiles!! I love his smiles. It always amazes me how much you love your own babies. Someone you've only known for a few months and he totally has your heart. Gives me the warm fuzzies. I can't wait to get him out to ArKanHoma (Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma) so his extended family can see him. BTW- if anyone has a better way to combine those states into one word, I'm all for it, my attempt is admittedly lame. I would post pictures of the little guy, but blogspot is also being lame and I don't feel like dealing with it.

Anyway. It's bedtime. Maybe I'll be more positive in the morning. Or maybe I'll go buy some marshmellows. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sooo....

24 days until wheels up (the day we leave, for those not affliated with airplanes)
18 days until the truck is delivered
12 days until Dave is done with work :D

crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap.

Best day EVER. Period. The End.

Today was the best day EVER. If you couldn't tell by the blog title. My very good friend Angie took all three of my kids (!) all day. If you have kids, you know what a big deal this is. We had worked it out before I broke my foot, and while I thought about cancelling, I realized that this really is the last chance I have for a day off before we move. So I took advantage. I went to an art musuem. The Getty Museum in LA. If you have never been there, I HIGHLY encourage you to go. Not with kids, it's not really a kid friendly place, but just on your own. It was amazing. I love art, and I could have spent all day wandering around, but I do have a broken foot. I hoofed around as much as possible before having to leave due to pain. :(. Totally could have stayed all day.

Here are some pictures of the museum...

Irises by Van Gogh

Monet

I figured out at one point that I could take pictures of myself using the mirrors. Since I was on my own and had no one to take pictures of me... I took quite a few using this technique.

Cezanne (my personal favorite artist)

After the museum, I went to the airport to pick up Dave. He's been in San Francisco for a week and I was VERY happy to have him home. But before picking him up, I hung out in the cell phone waiting lot at LAX. And I was bored. So I took a bunch of pictures of myself. OK, so I know I sound really self-absorbed because I have so many pictures of myself from today, but seriously, I have entire scrapbooks where I appear ONCE. I wanted some pictures of myself. Anyway. Most of them are REALLY bad, but a few turned out kinda good. I will probably make one my new Facebook Profile pic. Remember the days when you had to scan pictures to get them online? Man, those days sucked. Anyway. Here are some of my favorites.

After a dinner of Thai food (another favorite!) we headed home. And all was wonderful in the world. Seriously, art, self-absorbtion, and Thai food? Definately the BEST DAY EVER.

And for my mom (and Ashley) here are some pictures of the kids. It's amazing how many more pictures of them I take now that I have a decent camera!!

Sorry it's not better... getting 3 kids to stand together can be a challenge!! And Layni is wearing underwear, you just can't see it. I always said I wasn't going to be "that" mom who let her kids run around half naked, but I totally am.

Is there a kiddo under that sauce?

Cutest kid ever. Period. The end.

Wait... maybe I spoke too soon. He's pretty cute too.

New Camera!

It came!! And the first picture...

Peanut smiling!! Seems like a good omen to me.

My new toy...

So, we went to San Francisco this weekend. And had a BLAST I might add. Good fun was had visiting with family. However, one thing was lacking. Good pictures. A little background. I have camera issues. I've never had a good camera. Except once. 3 years ago, my aunt gave me her old Canon SLR. And I fell in love. The pictures it took of Nora were (are!) amazing. The prints look great. But that's just the problem. It's 35mm. Which is not cool. Our scanner is great, but it doesn't matter, the scans look horrid. So I don't use it very often, especcially now that I'm all into digital scrapbooking. So I bought a digital camera on eBay for $35. It's been fine, but it's starting to go. There's a reason it was only $35. So, back to San Fran. We took the girls to this children's museum right on the bay. And we had the most AMAZING view of the Golden Gate Bridge. So I took some pictures. The prints from my SLR, they look so good. The pics from my $35 eBay camera, eh. Good, but not great. So I have this problem. And the solution is obvious, buy a digital SLR. But I'm cheap. And dSLRs are expensive. But after this weekend, when I missed out on capturing some of the best pictures I've EVER had the opportunity to take, I decided that enough is enough. So, when we got home, I researched what is a good dSLR for the not-so-serious photographer. Basically, what's going to take great pictures of my kids, and of my vacations. My choice?

The Nikon D40. I bought it for about $400. Which is alot for me to spend on ANYTHING. But I think I got a good deal. And I got it from Amazon, and because I have Amazon Prime, overnight shipping was just $4. So it'll be here on Wednesday!! And I'm selling my old SLR on Craigslist, which will hopefully offset the cost a little. We'll see. And I just want to say, I know it's not a "top-of-the-line" camera, but I trust Nikon to make a good camera, and I don't need a lot of bells and whistles that I honestly have no interest in learning how to use. I have a feeling this will be a good camera for me.

Most of all, I'm excited to use it on our trip across the country!! Finally! A decent camera!! Makes me so happy.

Oh, and I finished all my sewing projects tonight. Dave is TDY, and since I can't sleep well without him anyway, I always stay up wicked late. So, the only project I have left to complete before the move, is that stupid ugly scarf!! I will take pictures of my stupid ugly scarf with my wicked cool new camera!!

We be jammin'

So... there is more going on in my life than just moving. Hard to believe... I know. My very good friend Melissa came over yesterday and I showed her how to can jam and make butter. Just for future reference, when the recipe says it will yield 8 jars, they really mean 12!! We prepared for 8, and got surprised!! Since she's my visiting teaching companion, we decided to give these to our sisters, which makes me happy. And Dave wants me to make some for him to give the ladies in his office. So tomorrow I get to buy stuff to make more!! But I like that type of stuff, so it's all good! Doesn't it look pretty?

Gotta love it...

I love being a military wife. My life is an adventure. By the time I get tired of one place, it's time to move onto the next!! I know quite a few people who are very bothered by this. Not me! I think since my dad was military, I feel very comfortable in this lifestyle. Dave and I both are like that. The other day we were talking to some friends and one of them said they had lived in the same house their entire childhood. Dave and I were both shocked by that. What? That actually happens??? Totally wierded us out for a good three days. But I digress. I love being in the military, but I don't love it when things change out of nowhere. Dave came home yesterday and the conversation went a little like this...

"They named the new Dave 2.0 and Ken (his co-worker and BFF) 2.0 today."
"Well, that's good."
"Yeah, Ken 2.0 (I'm sure she has a name but I can't remember it) started today, and Dave 2.0 will start June 15th"
"Great! So you'll have three execs for over a month, maybe you won't have to work so much!"
"Yeah... about that..."
"What."
"They want me to be out of the job at the beginning of July."
"So that means what?"
"Um... how do you feel about being on the road by July 6th?"

Son-of-a.... After much negotiating, we decided on a July 11th wheels up. You see, I had a timeline. Dave is TDY June 1-5, so I was going to wait until after that to really start working on the move. Well, my timeline is a 6 week timeline. Which means, I'm already behind schedule. Dang. If I were a swearing person, now would be the time I'd be swearing. There is some good news. Dave's last day will be June 26th (2 weeks earlier than anticipated!) and he'll be home for a week to help me pack and finish things up. The other good news, we'll be Kansas for his 10 year HS reunion. He was really disappointed to miss that and now is really stoked he'll get to be there. I am just going to be a busy busy bee until then....

Don't even ask me about the house hunt. I've decided we're living in a van by the river and that's final. I can't wait until Dave is a Colonel and they just give us an address upon arrival. I have suggested purchasing a massive RV and just live in that so we'd never have to do this again. Dave said no when I suggested it, but now I get the feeling he's seriously considering it. If that gives you any idea how the house hunt is going.

Baby is good. He's getting fat. Which is what he's supposed to do. :/ He smiles now, which makes me happy. Girls are good too. Just being boogers. But what's new about that?

I think my head my explode. Srsly people. This move may kill me.

Only at Edwards...

There are certain things that only happen at Edwards AFB. This morning I was standing at my kitchen sink, washing breakfast dishes when I heard two sonic booms. By itself, not a big deal, but I looked up and out my kitchen window towards the flightline (I have a great view of the flightline from there) and the space shuttle was landing! That ain't gonna happen in Ohio! This is one of the mornings I really like living here.

Wakin' up is hard to do...

Why is the 5 am feeding so much harder than the others??? I have no issues getting up in the night at 11 and at 2, but for some reason that 5 am just kills me. With the others, I get up, we nurse and I go back to bed, no muss, no fuss. But first, I can never wake up at 5 am. Dave always has to nudge me and say, "The baby is crying" before I even figure out what's going on. Then I get there, latch him on, and promptly fall back asleep. And not the light sleep like the other 2 feedings, but really deeply. Then like half an hour later, I wake up enough to switch sides, then fall asleep again. And finally, in another half hour, I wake up, put him back in the crib, and go back to bed. So, what should have taken 15-20 minutes, takes over an hour. It's killing me!!! And it's going to get even worse in a couple weeks when I start running again. I won't be able to go back to bed!! Sigh.

So my little Peanut is a month old. He's growing up really fast. Kind of makes me sad, but kind of excited too. That's one thing I've liked about having kids, I like seeing then grow and develop and become who they are. Babies are fun because they are cuddly, but I just like watching the older ones. Take Layni, that kid is going to do something musical. I can almost guarantee it. She's always singing and dancing, and she plays the piano. Seriously, it's one of her favorite things. And she can almost pick out "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". And that's not just the mom in me talking, people who have heard her do it are always amazed. I'm not the mom who thinks my kids are the best and greatest at everything, but I do think Layni has some talent with music. And Nora is the same way with art. That kid would color or draw or paint all day long if she could. I really just love watching my kids develop and grow. It makes me feel good as a parent.

So, Dave has 2 months left on his job!!!!!! WHOO HOO!!!! I hate his job. The people he works with are nice, but dang, it's stressful. I just wish he wasn't so stressed out about everything all the time. It's really hard for him to leave work at work (and it doesn't help that he gets phone calls about it even when he's home) and I can just tell that it's wearing on him. It's been a great opportunity and I'm glad he has it on his military resume, but man, I'll be glad when it's over!! Then we'll get to see him again! July 2nd is his last full day, then he'll work half days until the 10th. Then he's mine until August 10th when he reports in for AFIT. That will be so nice. I can't wait.

The house hunt is... progressing. We've made a spreadsheet. Because we're dorks. Who like spreadsheets. That's jus' how we roll G. It's got tons of info about each house, so we can make an informed decision. Of course we'll get there, fall in love with a house and not even look at the spreadsheet again. But right now, we have it. There is one house that I LOVE from the pictures. It needs some work though. It needs a bathroom addition, and the basement needs to be finished. Luckily for us, it's cheap enough that we could roll the costs of the renovations into the loan and still be able to afford it. But we're not sure we want to live in a project. Haha. But if we did I could totally make jokes about living in the projects. Anyway, back on topic. But if we did, then we could make all the choices about the bathroom and the basement, and make them the way we want them. We're weighing our options. We haven't decided to buy just yet, but our Realtor is also a Property Manager, so he has rentals we can look at too. Just in case.

Well, I should go. I have mountains of laundry that need to be folded and my bathroom is getting pretty nasty. I probably ought to clean it today. Gross. I need a wife who will do those things for me.

Liars! All of you!!

So, I was told the transisition from 1 kid to 2 kids was the hardest. And since that wasn't so bad, I was thinking, "I got this." Well, you all lied. I don't know if it's because I now have more children than hands, or if I just happened to time the little guys arrival with a whiney period for my girls, but I am about to beat the girls, and lock them in their room. The baby isn't so bad, it's Layni trying to push him off my lap when he nurses, and Nora screaming, "NO!" everytime I ask her to do something. It's driving me crazy!!! It all just reinforces to me that we are DONE. Finished. No more children.

Anywho... on to the birth story! So, April 2nd was really windy. I had an OSC Board meeting that morning, so I got a babysitter, and went to Starbucks for a Chai Latte (which was FABULOUS) and went to my meeting. My back had been hurting really bad all night, and during the meeting it just got to be horrible. So I figured I'd better call the doctor just to find out if he wanted me to come in or not. On the way home, I passed Dave running and flagged him to come to the house. Got home, sent the sitter home, called the doctor and the doctor said, No more monkeys.... wait... the doctor said, come in and get checked. Dave was like, "Whatever, you're fine, I'm going back to work." So, I found another sitter for the kids, and went to the doctor's office. This is at about 2 p.m. So, the doctor checks me, and I'm not dialated or anything, but he decides to keep me overnight to get this back pain under control, so they wheel me over to the hospital. When I get there, they hook me up to all the monitors and guess what! I'm having contractions! Like every 4 minutes. So about 5 p.m., they decide to go ahead and take the baby. I called Dave at work and was like, "GET HERE NOW." So, I wait, and wait, and he doesn't show. Then they start getting everything ready and he's still not there. They roll me to the operating room, AND HE'S STILL NOT THERE. They get me all prepped and ready to have the surgery, AND HE'S STILL NOT THERE. So, I'm panicking. Then they get the call, he's there. THANK YOU LORD. He made it, just barely. He ran from the Maternity Ward to the operating room, and got there just in time. After that, everything went fine, and Jonathyn was born at 8:22 p.m. The doc even played my favorite Eagle's song, which was cool. I find it very ironic that with the girls, I really wanted to have a normal birth, but never went into labor, and with the one planned c-section, I went into labor on my own. Oh well, he's here and we're all happy.

Things have been crazy since then. The girls are finally getting used it him being here. They just won't stop whining and fighting with each other. That's the part that's driving me crazy. But Peanut is a good baby. He doesn't cry very much at all, just when he's hungry, which isn't often. I make enough milk for about 3 babies, so there's plenty and since I nurse on demand, his little tummy is always full. He sleeps pretty well too. We just moved him out of our bed this weekend. I don't mind co-sleeping but Dave can only handle so much of my hippy-dippy parenting crap. But we're doing good. I'm working on getting into some sort of a routine. Hopefully that will help the girls and be good for him too. We've just got to do something about the girls misbehaving. I can't deal with this much longer.

Now that Peanut is here, we're focused on the move. We've talked to our Real Estate agent, and he sent us a bunch of listings. Most we aren't interested in, but there are a few that caught the eye. We'll see what happens. We're also keeping an eye on the rental market just to see what's available there. We're leaving July 18 and taking our sweet time getting to Arkansas. We're going to St. George, to see Dave's grandparents graves, we're going to the Grand Canyon, we're going to stop in Albuquerque and check things out there, and we're probably going to stop in Ada and see my Grandma. It'll be a long trip but it'll be good. And Dave will get to leave with me, Yay! We thought he'd have to stay, but things worked out right. And the best news? His last full day of work is July 2nd!! Which means, as of Saturday, he has 2 months left in this job!!! W00T. By the time he leaves, he'll have been up there for nearly 15 months, and it's a 12 month assignment. Let's just say, he's very ready to be done. So, the movers and the cleaners come the week of July 13th, and then we head out! (Provided we pass inspection). We're blessing Peanut in Tulsa on the 2nd of August, then spending a week in Kansas, then heading to Ohio for househunting. We're leaving the kids with Dave's dad for a week while we do that. That will be nice, a week without the big kids. We'll take Peanut with us, he's too little to be away from his mommy, and he's not hard to control like the big kids.

Anyway, Nora is banging on my piano, screaming about getting dressed, so I'd better take care of that. Kids, kids everywhere and not a paddle in sight.