It finally happened

Why are all these pictures so blurry? No, it's not because I am a terrible photographer (well that's not the only reason). It's because this little bugger is finally walking! Everytime I tried to get a shot of her standing in a cute way she would turn around and chase me down which meant I didn't have enough time to focus the lense. She is painfully slow still but for the most part has ditched her crawling days. Welcome to toddlerhood baby girl!

While I have a minute

Time again to do a drive by blog. I've been busy and tired. I am currently busy and tired but oh well the blog needs some attention. Let's begin.
Adam-back at school. He also is currently busy and tired. While I type he is working on an assignment that needs to be complete in 3.5 hours. He has also gone on three business trips in the last two months. He gets to leave again next week to warm sunny Florida. I am jealous. (correction, he is going to NY and since that place is further north it will be colder than the already freezing weather we are in. I am not so jealous anymore!)
Madelyn-can now do a back walkover and pretty good hand stands. I talked her into playing basketball; that starts in a few weeks, I think. She also was required to do a project for the science fair. We played around with many ideas and last minute changed it to-Do different liquids grow sugar crystals the same? Water did the best, oil the worst, and vinegar just turned to goo.


I think she did really good, unfortunately so did the other 10+ sugar crystal projects.
Billy-MADE HIS FIRST TACKLE! Proud does not even touch how I or he felt. Hands down he is the best wide (no not wide receiver, they don't do pass plays) the team has. They switched him out with some of the trophy boys (this is the name we have given to the coaches pets). And to put it nicely-they sucked at blocking. If it seems like I have a bug up my butt it's because I do. It is very obvious to all that our coach plays favorites and could careless about teaching the boys how to play. I'll end by saying at a parent meeting (by the way Adam was out of town for) I blew up in front of all the parents and ripped into the coach. It felt good. I shocked myself. I yelled. For a couple days it seemed like what I said made a difference but as soon as a new kid got the chance to carry the ball and fumbled the coach went back to his old ways which include his kid carrying the ball. Shall I mention the four fumbles he made? I'm letting it go though, really. (no not really) Soon the football drama will end, then he starts basketball.
Billy also did a science fair project. DIY Blubber, for which he got the idea from a book.


And he won 1st place, and will go to a district competition Dec. 10, thank goodness it is at his school.
Hannah-Did her first back walkover today. I gave her an ultimatum-do one or no more tumbling. It worked!
She did a project also. We came up with the idea on one of our road trips this summer-Can you bypass photosynthesis? The answer is no, at least not if you use sucrose, the make up is a larger molecule. She got 3rd place.

Basketball is in her near future as well.
Zac-Loves school.

He is starting to read phonetically, actually that was his birthday present to himself.

Lauren-Got chicken pox a few days before the kids went back to school.

Adam was out of town, it was terrible. And anybody that says this childhood illness is not bad, or just an inconvenience can bite me. Lauren had a high fever for three days, moaned in her sleep but she only slept after crying for hours every night and waking every hour begging for medicine. Let us not forget the 9 or so scars she has on her face either.
Paisley-Two weeks after Lauren, P got the pox. Luckily her scarring is minor but she missed out on her first birthday.We still let her have cake though and how better to eat it than with feet!

After about 20 days she was clear.

And ready to officially celebrate turning 1!


Paisley has also decided that standing is kind of neat
(yes she claps each time she stands up!)




but is nowhere near walking. She is so much like Madelyn.
Me-I like to sew:blankets, hats,
dolls

purses, whateva'.
I like to bake lately too. Today Isaac and I made chocolate butterscotch cookies. I made french bread. I make a lot of bread lately, it is yummy.
And some photo extras
Billy pulled a tooth using the doorknob trick.

Adam rocking out
High school football game (notice Hannah is missing a few teeth too!)

Ciao'ing down at the Italian Festival. (I'm so clever)


Billy and Adam at a Bengals game (a first for both!)
JONAS BROTHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't let 'em screw you up too much!

School started today.
Madelyn is a fourth grader,

Billy a third grader,
and Hannah a second grader.

I sent them off with good food in their tummies and a hug and kiss. The house seems quiet with them gone and I will miss them while they are away. I spent the first two hours of the school day filling out paperwork. It was so boring. The same info over and over again-name, parents, home, cell, work phone numbers, address, the date, signatures. I seriously thought I would fall asleep. Can someone explain to me why I have to fill out the same stuff five times for each kid? All the papers are kept in the main office, why can't the nurse look on the same card as the principal or teacher? Why? Why can't they keep some of this stuff from last year? Can I request that? Hmmm.
Tomorrow Zac goes for his kindergarten placement testing because just like his other siblings he has an advanced brain. I took him for early entrance testing about two weeks ago and the ladies had no doubt he was ready to begin. The principal was all for it too since he missed the cutoff by only one day. I didn't tell them he was born five weeks early. Even though he did 2+ hours of testing then he still has to go with the regular kindergarteners for testing tomorrow. I think I see a pattern of waste going on here.....We get to meet his teacher next Monady and then Tuesday, well, on Turesday I'll be a blubbering mess when he gets on the bus.

Hannah

It's the summer of change for this kid. Here she is at field day during the last week of school.
Here she is three weeks ago
She wanted her hair cut so I let her. She wanted her sort of loose tooth to fall out so Lauren kicked it out.
And here she is as of now.Ears are pierced per her request and another tooth is gone. This one came out with some help of Billy slamming a door in her face (she had it coming) and daddy "just wiggling" it. I'm hoping the permanent teeth come in straight and with all the enamel. For now I'm going to enjoy her totally adorable toothlessness.

A repost

I get off work in an hour, want to get married?

And that was my proposal, if that counts. Adam had just left after stopping by for lunch at my sister's house. I made him an awesome sandwich that I had to beat Craig away from. Adam was at the start of missile maintenance training and his schedule was all screwy. When he found out they were getting off early marriage popped into his head. The JP only did marriages once a week at 4:30pm and this was the day so our window of opportunity was small.
I remember walking upstairs and asking Craig if they had plans for the afternoon. When I asked him to witness the event he jumped into action, and then we both stopped and laughed imagining Denise's response when she got home (she was at an ultrasound appointment). "What will the girls wear?" was our guess, and we were right! As soon as she pulled up we peeked outside and she just kept saying," WHAT?!" When she found out "what" her first comment was what would the girls wear. The next hour was spent picking the girls up from the montessori school, running to Sears to buy Adam a new white shirt, ironing my dress, and doing hair and makeup.
Adam showed up and changed and then off we all went, almost. Living on a military base means life sometimes (often in our case) gets interrupted. Apparently there was an exersice going on which had the entire base on lockdown. Translation-Airmen dressed in full battle gear with big gun and big dog telling us we cannot leave. Whaaaat! Luckily, as is the case everywhere in the world, no one is perfect or does a perfect job and the guys guarding the back gate on base had not gotten the memo to lockdown which meant we could leave.
Notable mentions from the JP-Theresa or Linda picking their nose and Judge Yogi nodding during the whole ceremony.
We got back to Denise's to find they had put a table in my room with candles and a lovely dinner ready for us. Craig gave us enough money for the deposit on an apartment, too. After dinner we bought a frozen coconut cake and some Martinelli's sparkling cider and showed up at Adam's best friend's door to break the news. He was miffed that he wasn't invited but got over it quickly, but then "accidentally" washed the roll of film from our special day. We do have a video Craig made though, and the legal documents, as proof we are married.
Our families were shocked to put it mildly as were friends and people we had just been dating two months before hand.
On our first anniversary, a friend, commented that she didn't think we would last. Thanks for the support! Now, though, nine years later, I'll admit our start was unconventional and really who would have thought we would have lasted a year? But then again, after 10 years we've proven unconventional can work-and work fabulously I might add!

• • 
    

Picture time

I have my computer so now I can post way too many pictures!
Let us begin with Adam's weekend last week. His car has been sick, so he healed it with alittle help from the boy (and a neighbor with a torch)

Yep, the the exhuast flex pipe was ill.
Here we have our fish children:




Hannah loves jumping in at the shallow end because she can stand up.

I told her to go do it in the deep end.

Get ready....
GO! And that there folks earned the family some ice cream!


The kid that was afraid of the water only last week!


This was even more fantastic than Hannah jumping in at the deep end. Why? Because it took weeks for him t0 build up the courage and many a false start. That time we went to ColdStone!

And this is just cute.

Summering

Going TDY with Adam and the kids wore me out! But now we are home and have had a nice break and I'm almost ready to get back into summer vacationing. The weather has been perfect-not too hot but warm enough to swim. Adam's allergies have hit him hard a few times but he doesn't seem as bothered as in years past.
How are the kids going to remember this summer? I ask myself that every year because I want them to have fun every year and not just piddle away the 9 or so weeks off they get. Yeah, they have the DC trip but I don't think that will be what they will write about in the infamous "what I did over summer break" essay. No, Madelyn, Billy, Hannah, and the three youngest would easily write about swimming and icecream. The children that screamed murder if we even mentioned water last year are now fish. Plain and simple. Madelyn began the change last year so we were ready for her to enjoy the pool again this year; the shocker came when Billy and Hannah(!) joined in the fun. At first they were still a bit scared but as the good parents that we are we just bribed them to get over their fears. The bribe of choice around here is ice cream. And my oh my it's a bribe that works! The three oldest kids now jump in the deep end, actually once they did it we couldn't get them back to the shallow end. Madelyn and Billy will "dive" in. Hannah floats like a starfish with her butt sticking upas high as she can get it. Let us not forget the younger group of kids; they are enjoying the pool just as much. Zac still hangs out on the stairs for the most part but for the most part he has his head submerged. Lauren likes us to take her fwimmin' and she'll let us dunk her but then will politely ask that we not do it again. Paisley loves the water and would probably grow fins and gills if I let her go.
Adam and I are now taking advantage of having older more capable kids and actually swimming laps and goofing around instead of just lifeguarding. We race each other, I would have tied with him on backstroke had I not run into the wall!
And as tradition we are participating in the summer reading program. I even signed up for the adult group this year. Madelyn and Billy are passed the 30 hour mark, Hannah is right about there, and Zac and Lo are closing in on 15 hours. Adults count items not hours and I have reached the first milestone of 10. yeah us! Too bad the governor is looking to pinch pennies like the rest of us and libraries is on his chopping block.
Finally, grilling is the other thing we do a lot. I grill, Adam cleans up. Life is good. Food in the summer is just better. We buy fresher healthier items and spend more time outdoors.
Picture time! Change that, I'm on Adam's computer which does not have pictures on it. Sorry !