The end of an Era

The days of "easy" moving are now gone.  My entire married life as been wonderful.  It still is, but as the end of my time in Monterey draws near, I realize just how good I had it.  I have been blessed with being able to have my husband available to me for every move.  This move, even though he's here and not on the other side of the world, has been all me and less than pleasant.  I feel chaotic and disorganized and as if this day has come all too soon.  The packers come tomorrow and I know I am getting down to the wire.  Joe has been as helpful as he can but his thesis comes first right now.  I just want him to get it done.  I have amazing friends that want to help and I appreciate they are willing to do to help me.  But I am starting to feel the sadness creep in and the reality of leaving some of my dearest friends behind come to the forefront.  I love my friends here and I will miss them so much.  I think the older I get the harder it is to say good bye to these wonderful people that come into and bless my life.  I know it's difficult for my kids.  I sent kid #2 to school and his little heart was breaking because he is going to miss his friends.  Even the mentioning of cousins and fun adventures didn't cheer him up.  He love is teacher, and do I.  I wish I could just take everyone with me where ever I go.  But the Lord has need of me in other places.  As my family sets out on this next adventure, I will keep all these friends in my heart.  Thank you Monterey Bay for letting me in on all your beauty and thank you friends who love me and all my drama!  I will miss you.

Are We Ready?

Today was a good day like most other days.  We woke up and had a great breakfast then set off in search of prices of the things we will need if we become home owners.  So we started our research at non other than the Home Depot!  This is a dangerous store.  We walked in went straight for the ceiling fans.  We don't have any in this new home so we figured it might be good to help keep the cost of our utilities down.  We found a few we liked and other we thought were awful!  Good thing we aren't buying them now because they are a bit pricey.  (at least when you have to buy 5 of them)  Then we headed over to the lawn mowers.  Yes we will have to get a lawn mower or else pay some ridiculous price each month to have a "professional" come out and do what Joe and I can do.  Then we remembered there are no exterior lights on this new home so we mozied on over to the lighting to price those out.  Boy, our list seems to be growing and we have no idea what else we just might need.  After that Joe decided he wanted to "just look" at some tools.  No we didn't buy any but I have rarely seen my husbands eyes shine and widen with excitement as I did today while he looked and compared table miter saws and planers, dremmel's and router tables.  I now know what to buy him if I ever find myself having an extra 700-1,000 dollars laying around. :)  Then I convinced him we should go over the IKEA near by to look at beds for the boys.  We found that no matter what we liked, we needed to have the boys there to pick out their beds.  But we did find the perfect guest bedroom set for a really good price.  (I love IKEA)  After that we took a ride over toward the house and stopped in at Lowes to see if their fans are any different than Home Depot's and we found just what we wanted!  Let's home things don't change too much in the next few months... If we get the house that is.  We then went over to the housing office to see if we could sneak another peek at the house and our housing buddy, Bev, gave us the keys and said to take our time.  We also took a look at the surrounding homes to see what the typical saturday will look like.  The pool looked great and very inviting, too bad we don't have a key :(  But in the end we just relaxed and made phone calls to get quotes on how much internet, phone and cable would be.  We left the home and decided it was time to head out for dinner.  We chose Bucca Di Beppo's for dinner.  Boy oh boy!  I love that place.  We ate and raced out to the hotel so Joe could change his clothes for the Priesthood session of General Conference.  I know we should have listened to it today but since the first session doesn't start until noon, we figure we will have time to listen to it in the morning.  I am here at the church with him so he doesn't have to drive home alone.  I have tucked myself away into a classroom and thought now would be a good time to update the blog for the day.  I hope everyone has had a great day like we have.  One word of advice... Don't go to Home Depot or Lowe's while wearing high-healed sandals.  Your feet will hurt and they will swell.  Just in case you wanted to know.    :)

Oh the Warmth!

In spite of the crazy weather yesterday, today is beautiful!  Warm and sunny, just the way I like it.  We got up "early" and got ourselves ready and we headed out for the beautiful Orlando temple.  We have made it a few temples in our eleven years of marriage and this one did not disappoint.  The workers were kind and happy to be there and I don't blame them one bit!  I hope that someday I can work at the temple.  It's so peaceful and so inspiring.  It was great to be there and not have to worry about rushing back to make sure the kids had not tied up the sitter or drove them crazy.  It was just what we needed to make sure the decisions we are making are the right ones.  Our Realtor is under the weather at the moment so we have the day to ourselves and we plan on making the rounds to get familiar with the communities around here.  Last night we went to a little bistro called NoHo Bistro.  I have decided that Bistro's are the best!  They are quiet and usually not too crowded.  The waiter was funny, the owner very nice, and the chef was spectacular! We started out with black pepper and cheddar biscuit with homemade apricot butter, YUM!  Next was the salsa and tortilla chips, Three kinds of salsas that were do die for! One regular fresh salsa, one orange and pepper salsa and our favorite, a Thai Peanut salsa!  then we were treated to a salad with greens, candied walnuts, apple bacon and a cheddar vinaigrette.  Our Entree's:   Joe ate Scallops and Shrimp pasta while I had the Mushroom Ravioli with fresh peas and a tasty white sauce.  Then came dessert!  A Key Lime Raspberry trifle with Coconut bread!  Oh I was in heaven!!!  I could have died a very happy woman last night.  But then I would have missed out on attending the temple today so it was a good thing I didn't die!  Any who, of course I took pics on my phone but alas I still haven't figured out how to get them on my computer yet.  As soon as I can, I will get them uploaded!  Off for more adventures!

Tornado!!!

So while Joe and I are in Tampa trying to get our future housing taken care of, we stopped in to the BX on MacDill to get Joe some sandals (his had a mold infestation that we can't quite explain since he never uses them ... or maybe that's why?)  then we decided to eat some lunch while there.  In the midst of eating my "Archer" sandwhich from the almost Subway shop called Robin Hood Sandwiches, the lovely Aussie that was speaking over the loud speaker announced that the base was under a tornado warning and to please gather our things and move to the back of the store to Customer service.  We kind of laughed and gather our stuff and moved back to where the crowd was being herded.  After a short while, they announced we would be stuck there for about 30 minutes.  So we made ourselves as comfortable as we could on the hard linoleum tiled floor right in front of the very new and impressive Sony 3D TV to watch the ending of a little film called AVATAR.  I do have to say it was very impressive to watch that movie on a 3D screen.  I was almost entertained!  But my fun couldn't last as long as that movie.  After just 15 minutes the storm passed and we were cleared to go.  As we exited and got in the car, we noticed it had dropped a lot of rain, but not too much damage to the immediate area.  So we set off on our adventure of finding my dream home.  We got the Nav. all set up to tell us where to go and we left the base.  But after about a mile we saw just how much damage was done.  There were tree's down and roads washed out.  We had to turn around and find an alternate route to our location.  I wish I had thought of taking pictures of the guard rail that was torn up and in the middle of the road, but I was not so quick.  But we did get a picture of the road that we drove on that was flooded. :)  I will add it to my post when I can figure out how to get it off my phone.  Yes once again I forgot to bring my camera.  :(   As our adventures continue on our quest to finding our dream home I will keep you updated and I am sure we will have plenty to share with all of you!

When is a month too long?

I'm going to back up even longer than a month because that's when everything started.  We got a phone call in mid October letting us know that Joe's Grandma Beth passed away.  This came as a shock at first but it was a relief as well since she suffered from Alzheimer disease.  We decided we needed to be there.  See Grandma Beth was very special and a wonderful woman.  I want to be the kind of grandma she was.  But then we looked at just how much it will cost for us to go to the funeral then turn around and come home just to turn back and go to my family's place for Thanksgiving.  So we decided we would take the kids out of school for the month and take our time visiting our loved ones.


At first this seemed like a great idea.  Then we actually had to do it.  Taking the kids out of school for that amount of time required a lot of work on the teachers and the principal.  They worked miracles and let us do it.  Then came the hard part... Independent Study.  I do not suggest doing this if you are not willing to be hard nosed with your kids.  My kids don't like me trying to be their teacher when I am helping them with homework, so I.S. was less than super fun.  But we made it through and they got all their hard work done.  While we visited family we were able to help redecorate my niece's bedroom, play in the snow, have three bouts of the stomach flu and still make it back!

  The worst part was the stomach flu on Thanksgiving.  I don't suggest this method of weight management to anyone.  ;)  We did have fun and by the time we got back home we were ready to get back to our normal lives. 

 The boys are back in school and they LOVE their teachers.  I was informed that I am not as good or nice of a teacher as their teachers are.  I am glad they love their teachers and I am glad I am no longer in charge of teaching them things I, myself, am not very proficient in

Tragedy while at Walmart

So today Ian and I ran to wally-world for a few odds and ends for our camping trip tonight.  I thought it would be fun to get the small cans of A&W root beer for the boys along with stuff to make s'mores and just general goodies to munch on.  While I was in the camping isle looking for a charcoal chimney, Ian discovered how to open a can of soda by popping the lid using his teeth!  So exciting... I know.  So after we had that discovery, he discovered just how wet you can get by pouring soda on yourself!  Isn't this fascinating?  So being the good mom that I am I decided to strap him in, take away the soda and head to the checkout line.  I spotted the perfect line: One lady checking out and no one else there yet.  So I dashed to the line and piled my treasure up on the conveyor belt and all the while Ian is intent with trying to escape.  The checker was doing a wonderful job at getting our stuff scanned and taken care of, but she wasn't quite fast enough, Ian figured out how to get himself unbuckled.  Oh the horror.  Oh the tragedy.  Now I have no way to keep my child securely fastened in the cart.  What am I to do?  Any suggestions would be helpful!

ooops!

So my hubby is a pretty good handy man and even a decent computer dude, but I believe he found his match today.  Here is the story from the beginning:


A few weeks ago my wonderful hubby was able to go on a trip to Portugal for a conference.  Lucky I know.  He took my camera to take pictures for me and they are amazing!  When I get the chance I will post some of them.  Anywho, he tried to download some pictures on to his computer by utilizing it's card reader not realizing he needed to have the little adapter card reader with my card because it's smaller than others.  So needless to say, it got stuck inside the computer.  Well, tonight he dared to open the laptop up and get the card out.  The down side to this?  Now he can't get his laptop to start up.  Hmmm.... what to do in this time of crisis.  Three things come to mind: 1) We could take it to a real computer dude to get it fixed.  2) We could go buy a new one.  3) My wonderful hubby could attempt to fix it again.  The out come to all of the above, I am afraid, will result in a new laptop.  But alas we shall see.  Only time and a few hours of silent reflection on my part will bring this dilemma to an end.  Good luck MWH.  I love you and hopefully you will come out of this unscathed. 

New Hair Style

My youngest is such a cutie.  He has these fabulous curls that just about anyone would love.  He reminded me of a little Hobbit.

After his birthday I realized I have never cut his hair.  I have fought with the tangles and snarls only to realize it was time for a trim.  So here is the evidence of how my baby turned into a little man.

Breakfast?

Friday morning was eventful.  We were out of milk so I made pancakes only to find we were out of syrup.  But that didn't stop my kids from loving it.  We had a partial traditional breakfast.  Usually we have pancakes, sour cream, mashed frozen strawberries, with syrup, we didn't have most of these... in fact we only could come up with two of the items, pancakes and sour cream.  So that is what we had. 

Hard to say "No" to this goodness! 

Glitter Hands

So as we were trying to get the boys homework done the glitter hand bandit struck.  If any one of you have ever had this mennis attack, you know the chaos that can ensue.  But in the end, the glitter bug fled the scene of the crime only to have a trail of glitter and we caught him.  Here is what we found...

I love my kids... :)