Nope, this dog is not spoiled at all!

This is where Nutmeg was while I was on the computer today, so I thought I'd share this picture! Nooooooooooooo she's not spoiled!!!!

The Bandages are Gone

Noah got his bandages taken off yesterday. He was very happy to go and have the doctor remove them. However, he didn't like seeing the stitches. There are 4 stitches in each thumb. It upset him to see them. I think he thought that we would take the bandages off and everything would be normal underneath. I guess I should have prepared him better for what to expect. The stitches will fall out on their own within this next week. Until that happens, Noah's decided to cover the stitches with bandaids. He doesn't take the bandaids off very often at all. The good news, though, his thumbs work perfectly now. Even he was impressed that he could straighten them. The doctor told us that they looked great and that he even expected them to be a little stiff and they weren't. So, two surgeries down with great results from both! I'm glad they're done!!

A New Toy

Nutmeg found herself a new toy today. My kids are having a hard time understand that whatever they leave on the floor Nutmeg will chew on or eat. We've literally had to "baby" proof our house!

Nutmeg

About 3 years ago we had a dog, named Lily. She was a mix and we never were quite sure what exactly she was a mix of, just that they were big dogs. We were excited to have a dog again, but as she got bigger and bigger, she got meaner and we we didn't fee like we could trust her with the kids. We had to give her away. We were sad not to have a dog. We told ourselves that we just weren't ment to have one and we might have even started to believe it. We would talk about getting another one, every once in awhile, but never got serious about it and always agreed that we wouldn't get another one for a long time. We agreed that the next dog, whenever he/she came, would be a small dog, but that's about all we ever said about it.................

And then, we just happen to stumble on some puppies and everything we said about not wanting a dog, disappeared.....................we told ourselves, "No way" and walked away. BUT we just couldn't get them out of our heads. We thought on it for quite awhile. We went back and forth about it, we listed all the pros and cons over and over again, we reminded ourselves about why we weren't going to get another dog...................and if you haven't guessed yet, in the end we went back to look at them. We held 3 different puppies and one little girl just wrapped us around her little paw........................we were hooked and there was no going back after that. We could have walked away from all the other puppies (there was 7 I think) but not this one. So here's our newest addition.........

NUTMEG

I'm holding her in this picture, so you can see how little she is. She's a Sheltie/Bassest Hound mix. That's a little odd, but she's mostly Sheltie. She loves to cuddle, too. We love that.
Getting a little sun..........
She's very playful and a lot of fun. She likes shoelaces. She's getting ready to attack my laces here.

Chad told her she's my Christmas present and I'm good with that!

Christmas Get to Know You............

Welcome to the 2006 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends!
You know the drill.Don't be a scrooge!!!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Neither

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrap

3. Colored lights or white lights on the tree/house? both

4. Do you hang mistletoe? yes

5. When do you put your decorations up? after Dec 1st

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Pumpkin Pie

7. What is your favorite Holiday memory as a child? I don't know

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was 8, I don't remember exactly how, though

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? never when I was growing up, but my kids do and it's ALWAYS pajamas

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? with lots of ornaments, lights, and a star on top.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? love it, I miss having a white Christmas

12. Can you ice skate? I used to be able to when I was much much younger

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? no

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Jesus, Family, friends and the true meaning of Christmas

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pumpkin Pie

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Decorating sugar cookies with my family

17. What tops your tree? It used to be an angel that my mother in law made for me. I loved that angel, but it was ruined when we were in Florida, so now, it's a star

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night

20. Candy Canes! It wouldn't be Christmas without candy canes!!!

4 Things......

My friend emailed me these next two questionaires, so I thought I'd put them on my blog. Feel free to answer them on yours, too!

Four things you may not have known about me.....

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. car hop
2. Receptionist at an orthopedic clinic
3. maid
4. temp

4 movies I have watched over and over:
1. American President
2. Pure Country
3. Runaway Bride
4. Robin Hood (Disney's animated)

Four places I have lived:
1. Powell, WY
2. Post Falls, ID
3. Winter Harbor, ME
4. Pensacola, FL

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. The Unit
2. Numbers
3. America's Next Top Model (Myshel and I watch it together)
4. CSI's

4 Places I've been on Vacation:
1. Portland, ME
2. New Orleans, LA
3. Cody, WY
4. Washinton DC

4 favorite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Shrimp Alfredo Pasta
3. Pistachio Ice Cream
4. Pumpkin Pie

Four people who might respond:
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

A Little Catch Up..............

Nobody fall off their chairs now.....................I'm going to try harder to stay updated, ok. I'll try a little catch up now.

This is at Thanksgiving And this is after Thanksgiving

Myshel's Birthday

Myshel can make me crazy-crazy, but I can't imagine life without her. I love her so much. She turned 14 the end of November. It's hard to believe that it's been 14 years since she was born and I became a mom for the first time. She was born on Thanksgiving Day that year and we've been thankful for her ever since.

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas................................

I told Chad that I'd like to have a real tree this year and that I'd like it to be tall. We have vaulted ceilings in our house, which I love. This will be the last Christmas we spend in this house, so I really wanted to have a tall tree with my tall ceilings. Chad totally came through for me. We have a 9 1/2 foot tall tree. It has some thin spots and is a little odd shaped from certain angles. It has personality and I love it! I really do love it!

My Christmas village is out............. The stockings are hung, too! I think we're ready.....................

We even saw Santa..................

McKaylie

Noah

Myshel, McKaylie, Santa, Noah, and Vance (typical boy!)

And, the last update..........................Noah had his second surgery on Monday to fix his trigger thumbs. He did awesome, just like the first time. I got a picture of him at the hospital just after his surgery. Is he not just the sweetest looking little boy??? We showed him this picture and he couldn't remember being there at all. That's a good thing!!His hands are bandaged so that he can't move his thumbs at all and they have to stay that way for a week. I'm amazed at how well he adapts to not being able to use his thumbs. Some things are really hard for him to do and he gets a little frustrated, but all in all, he's doing great! I'm super proud of him!

I think that's about everything so far....................

Are you Wondering???

I'm sure there's a few of you out there that are wondering what happened to me. Wondering if I just drop off the face of the earth after Chad came home...........wondering, wondering, wondering. Well, I can't have that, so I'll break it down for you in a very quick, simple post. Chad came home...........................had duty 2 days later..............................we took Myshel to the doctor knowing she has strep (for the second time in a month) only to have the doctor tell us that her quick strep test came back negative and they'd send the more thorough one to the lab and call us on Friday if it's positive..........................we had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home, ate pie and dessert with friends, Chad's complaining that his throat is hurting...............................Doctor called Friday morning, Myshel has strep ( I already knew that!!!) Chad had duty that day.................went to medical, he has strep.............. I had a tickle in my throat...................................... Saturday Chad was on antiboitics, and I was in bed with strep and a fever, barely able to swallow my own spit because of the pain and amazed that absolutely every part of my body can hurt at the same time. By 2:30 AM we were at the hospital emergency room where we spent 3 hours for them to tell me what I already knew, that I have strep throat........................... Sunday, I'm finally on antibiotics, but not feeling better, Myshel and Chad are doing great..................................... Monday I wake up throwing up and feeling, it it's possible, feel worse than before. Chad calls my doctor.........medication and strep will do that, keep taking meds.............grrrrr...........Tuesday, still have an extremly sore throat, thinking of suing for malpractice................Wednesday, sore throat's getting better, FINALLY, have a migraine..................Thursday, sore throat's much better, but not gone, have an even bigger migraine!

I think that's about my week in a nutshell! Hope yours has been better!

The Big "E" Is Back!

As unbelievable as it seems, after 201 days, the USS Enterprise, aka, the Big E is BACK!

And I'm sure it's no surprise, I am so flippin' happy about it!

So, I'll give a quick overview of the events of Friday night and Saturday along with some pictures:

First of all, for the first time ever, I went to the night before party that the support group puts on. I wanted to see the 8 foot long cake decorated like a carrier. The cake was pretty cool, the ice sculpture was pretty cool, the rest was not so great! Besides the fact that the food was fair and they didn't have very much of it considering the number of people that were there, there wasn't enough places to sit! After about 30-40 minutes Vance wasn't feeling very good and I sat with him at one of the tables outside while my friend stood inside to see if we won any door prizes. And we actually did! Can you believe that! We won an hour long massage and a chocolate fondue for 2. We split it and if you know me, you know that I took the massage! (chocolate is icky!) Vance did manage to get an autographed hat from The Gravedigger, which was pretty cool for him. So, that was Friday's events! I spent the rest of my evening wondering whether I wanted to take Vance to the pier the next morning if he was going to be sick........... He decided around 8AM the next morning that he'd go.

We were told that the ship would be pierside at 10AM, so we planned on being on the base around 9AM so that we could watch it come through the bay. I got everybody ready, waited for Candy, aka, the camera-lady and another friend whose husband is also on the enterprise. We got to the base as planned and we were sitting at a traffic light, looking at the water and I thought, "huh, we really should be able to see the ship by now" and as I thought that I looked to the piers and there it was, the Big E, already pierside! They came in early and we missed it, but it was ok, because that ment Chad would be off that much sooner! It looked soooo good sitting there! It's always a thrill to see that ship after a deployment!

We parked, a little further away than I had planned, walked over to the ship and waited! It was cold, but nobody seemed to be complaining much. I felt so bad for the people manning the rails, they had to have been freezing up there. Chad called me from his office and told me that he was waiting to excort a guy from customs off the ship. (customs has to come and inspect the ship to make sure that they got rid of all their forgein foods. They can't bring them back into the US and after he was done he needs to have an escort off the ship)

Now, normaly I wouldn't be happy about this, because it would mean that I would have to wait even longer for Chad to get off, however, that was not the case here. In fact, the customs guy and Chad's officers were a wonderful blessing that day!

Because he had to escort this guy, Chad was one of the first ones off the ship. He got off even before the officers did! Yeehaw! In fact, by the time that all the other 2nd classes were getting off the ship, we were already home! You've got to love that!

Chad and the kids ripped up the deployment chart, Chad passed out all his "goodies" he'd brought us and we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying having him home. He's back at work today for duty, but he'll be back with us tomorrow morning. It just feels so good, 'cause

THE BIG E IS BACK!

Final Countdown..........................

Countdown: 12 Hours

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Wooooooooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooo!

They Just Make You Smile

I've been watching one of my friends little boys for her since she's gone back to work. He's a very laid back little boy and acts very shy (even though I know he's not at all that way at home) His name is Jared and he's almost 3 years old. Yesterday we were eating pizza for lunch. I let the boys, Noah and Jared, eat their pizza on a blanket on the floor while they watched the movie, Cars. Jared had a very messy face and so I asked him to wipe his mouth with his napkin, which was on the floor, too. He looked around, but didn't see it right away, so I asked Noah to hand him his napkin. Noah looked around and didn't see it right away either (strange, I think, since it was sitting on the floor between the two of them) Jared noticed it though and picked it up, said, "it's right here" and then put it back on the floor and waited for Noah to hand it to him.

Countdown: 2 days and a wake up hee hee hee

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

That about sums up my mood, my activities and my attitude. Blah, blah blah.

Yesterday was the longest day ever in history, I'm sure of it. It just went on and on and on, which I think is where my blah mood started. It's lingering into today, though, and that's not good. I think I have a list of about 100 things I'd like to get done before Chad comes home and if we're lucky 2 might get done. I had a friend tell me the other day, "my house wasn't clean when he left and it's not going to be clean when he comes back". I'm starting to think that's not such a bad philosophy. Blaaahhhhh

My kids are home from school today, too. And trust me, they really need to go back to school. Myshel is babysitting all day, so that is at least one less attitude in the house, but trust me all the other attitudes more than make up for it. Noah had a bad night. I think his throat was hurting (they told me that could/would happen around the 5-8 days after surgery) so today he's tired and grumpy and thinks the world, or at least this household, should revolve around him. Vance is in a "leave me alone, I don't care about anything" mood, which isn't good, because his mean mother expects him to help out today. McKaylie just doesn't want to do anything she doesn't want to do. And me, my attitude is blah, blah, blah, blah. All of these together make a very volatile combination. There could be casualties..................

It didn't help that it rained, no poured, the entire day yesterday. I mean, literally, it did not stop pouring rain all day. Yes, that definitely added to the blah effect.

You wouldn't think that the attitude of our house would be blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, considering we are so close to being done with this deployment, however, I think that that is a factor, too. The last few weeks are always hard, you're so close, yet not quite there yet. You can see the end, but you still have to get through the day to day stuff until "the" day is here. Blahhhhhh

I'm sure we'll get out of our blah funk, but it could be another very long, blah, blah day.

countdown: 4 days and a wake up

Home is Where the Navy Sends Us.................

It was brought to my attention this morning that I have not told everyone that we have our orders. Chad's transfer date in next June and we've been looking at orders for the last few months. There are several reasons that we have not told many people. First and foremost: We dont' have the written orders yet. I know that might not mean much to you non-navy folks, but I know that all you navy folk are nodding your heads and saying, "ahhh, yeah". It doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I've dealt with the navy long enough to know that things can change and not that they can't change after you have orders in hand, but they're less likely too. So, we usually wait until we have the written orders before we start announcing anything. Second: Against my better judgement, (things can and do change alot, sort of thing) I'm starting to get excited about these orders, and well, I don't want to jinx it, silly, I know, but that's the truth of it. However, I'm willing to take a leap of faith, and let you all know that our next duty station will be in Newport, Rhode Island. We're excited about it. Both Chad and I think that it will be a great place for our family, at least for the next three years.

Countdown: 6 days and a wake up.....................

Not My Smartest Moment..............

The kids and I were making a big sign to put on the garage door for when Chad comes home. We had it all laid out on the dining room floor and used a big fat marker. While all the kids were writing their own messages and pictures on it, Myshel asked, "what are you going to do if this bleeds through?" My first though, "oh crap", but I said, "oh, it wouldn't do that, would it?" Sure enough it did. Definitely not my smartest moment. I wished I'd thought that through first. So, if anyone knows how to get permanent marker off a vinyl floor, let me know!

Countdown

7 days and a wake up........................

The Definition of Swallow Is..............

My conversation with Noah while he was eating his lunch today................

N: "It hurts."
Me: "It hurts when you swallow?"
N: "No, it hurts when the food goes down."
Me: "Does it hurt when you drink your juice?"
N: "Only when it goes down."

School Pictures

I hardly ever buy school pictures. I think they're too expensive and they usually never turn out the way I'd like them to. McKaylie was set on getting pictures this year, though. So, I bought school pictures for her and crossed my fingers. We got them back today and I am very pleased. Yeah!!!

Is she not the cutest girl ever?????

One Down, One To Go.........

Noah had his first surgery on Monday. They removed his tonsils and adenoids. In a nutshell......... he did unbelievably, amazingly, exceptionally well! He cried about putting on the hospital pajamas (I knew that was coming) and he was very upset when they first brought him out of the anesthesia, which is very normal. That's it, though. He did really great in the recovery room, too. He didn't even complain or fuss. What a blessing! I know the Lord blessed him and watched over him through the whole day and even now at home while he's recovering (which is going really smoothly, too) We couldn't have asked for this surgery to go any better. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Noah, they were all answered and then some!

Not Quite a "Family" Picture

Have I ever mentioned that I love Lincoln Housing. Well, I do, for many different reasons. One of the big ones is because they have lots of give aways for their residents and they provide a lot of free activities. AND in October if you're one of the lucky ones to get registered first, they'll pay to have a family portrait taken for the Holidays. This is the second year in a row that Chad hasn't been here for the "family" portrait. It was ok last year, because we didn't quite make the "cut", but this year we did and as much as I like the pictures, it's not the same without Daddy in them. I had planned on only having the kids pictures taken, but they kind of tricked me into the pictures. These are the two I like the best..............if only Chad were in it, it would be a nice family picture. Thanks Lincoln Military Housing!

Happy Halloween

We went trick-or-treating through our housing. Just imagine hundreds of costumed children out searching for candy...........It was crazy. Fun, too, I guess. McKaylie said it was kind of fun. Noah was pooped after about the first 20 minutes and Myshel carried his bag for him the rest of the time. Two pirates (the little one still not in his full costume), an Ice princess (fitting isn't it???) and a dog

Enjoying the loot

Book Character Parade

McKaylie's school let the kids dress up in the afternoon on Halloween, but they had to dress up as a book character. Their book and costume also had to be approved by their teacher. Mcakylie still wanted to be a dog at school, so we found her a book about a dog, Biscuit. She wasn't the same color as Biscuit but she didn't care. It was fun to watch all the kids during their parade.

Taxidermy for Dummies

The other day I was driving in the car with McKaylie and Noah. We were listening to the radio and the DJ was talking about how she saw a stuffed beaver in the back of one of her neighbor's cars. She was talking about a real, mounted beaver, not stuffed as in stuffed animal, stuffed. As soon as I heard McKaylie say, "mom?", I knew we were in for an interesting conversation. This is pretty much how it went:

Mc: "Mom, what does she mean, stuffed?"
Me: Trying to decide quickly whether I could explain taxidermy to her without her thinking it's horrible and creepy and so that she could understand, I only got out a "welllllll"
Mc: "Is it just a stuffed animal?"
Me: I decided to give it a shot, "well, it's not exactly like a stuffed animal, because the beaver is real and a stuffed animal isn't"
Mc: "Then it's alive?"
Me: "No, it's not alive, it was a real beaver, but now it's not alive anymore. Do you remember at Grandpa's house? And he had the deer on his wall? (trying to give her something to relate this to......)
Mc: "Yes"
Me: "Well, it's like that deer. It used to be alive, but after it died, they fixed it's skin and fur and basicallly stuffed it so that it looks like a deer"
Mc: "Does it still have blood in it?"
Me: I knew I didn't want to get into this conversation..................."No, McKaylie, all the blood and stuff from inside the beaver and the deer is gone. It would be like Grandpa's deer."
Mc: "Is it just the beaver's head?"
Me: "No, it's probably the beaver's whole body"
Mc: "But is it alive then?"
Me: "No, McKaylie, it's not alive anymore. Grandpa's deer isn't alive, is it?"
Mc: very exasperated, "NO, it only has it's head, you can't live without your head!"
Me: "That's true, but the beaver still isn't alive even though it still has it's head."
Mc: "I don't get it"
Me: grumble, grumble, giving it one last shot, "It used to be alive and after it died, someone took out all it's blood and insides and fixed it's skin and fur and stuffed it so that it looks like a real beaver again."
Mc: "So, it's like a stuffed animal?"
Me: "In a way, yes"
Mc: "Why didn't you just say that?"
Me: "I don't know"

OK, OK

I've been informed by several people to update my blog! I've finally found a few extra seconds......it's been a very busy week at our house! (FYI: There are 7, yes, 7 posts from today!)

Pumpkin Carving............

We always carve pumpkins for Halloween. Chad and I even carved pumpkins before we had kids. It's something we look forward to every year. Myshel's not carving one this year, though. She did help Noah get his started, but she didn't carve her own pumpkin. We had all our pumpkins sitting outside for several weeks, there was 6, 4 big ones for the kids and 2 little ones that McKaylie and Noah got at the pumpkin patch on a school field trip. Friday night someone smashed one of the little ones and Saturday afternoon 3 little kids smashed the other little one and a big one! Can you believe that! I'm still trying to catch the parents at home to let them know! That is so bold and unbelievable to me. They did that in the middle of the day, right from the front of our house!!!! The big pumpkin that they smashed was Vance's, but Myshel offered him her pumpkin to carve, which is why she didn't have a pumpkin of her own to carve. I was very proud of her for thinking of him.

Halloween Boo at the Zoo

We went to Halloween Boo at the Zoo on Noah's birthday. They have tables set up throughout the zoo that the kids can trick-or-treat at and lots of other activies they can do. It was fun, but the birthday boy was, of course, was not completely into it. (do you notice a pattern here) I loved these pictures. It was like an archeology dig. The kids had to chip away at the rock and try and find animals or fossils. They had to wear safety glasses while they did it. They looked so cute. Vance and McKaylie both found dinosaurs.
Being a little silly....................once again, no Noah
McKaylie modeling her tatoos that she got at the zoo.