Branch Party

I think there are 5 or 6 families moving out of our Branch this summer.   Last Saturday (May 24) there was a Branch BBQ as sort of a farewell affair for those of us who are leaving.   We went, we ate, we visited, we had a good time.

The kids did not have a  nutritious meal.  Mostly it was chips and desserts.

Well, Marian discovered the chicken.  Note the earbuds.  She is still obsessed with her audiobooks and listens as much as she can.

Rylee is showing me her Dorito fingers.  Chips and desserts, oh yes, that's all she had. 

Rylee discovered someone had brought a cooler of soda. 

Dan was social too! 

Callie ran rampant.   

Joshua actually tried out some baseball! 

So did Callie. 

Rylee made a new friend.  She's on the right leg! 

 Some lovely neighbor hung up this tire swing on the giant tree in front of the chapel.  The girls were delighted to try it out!

So much fun, Rylee fell asleep on the way home!

Callie's Birthday Party!

Callie has been obsessed with having her birthday party at the local animal shelter.  It took a while to finally get it together.  I have to say, BEST party idea ever!  The only time the shelter could do it was 1:30 on Friday afternoon.  Thankfully it was a half day for the kids.  The kids all brought donations for the shelter, which was great for them, and great for me.  I so do NOT need any more toys in this house!

The original plan was that the girls would get a brief "training" on how to be a volunteer, and then they would do some work- cleaning windows and whatever other minor tasks they were capable of.  They were to end the activity with "socializing" with the cats.  However, the shelter manager was out sick, and apparently the other volunteers are much more laid back.  So the kids spent 90 minutes playing with the cats.  The cats were divided into 3 rooms.  One room for the little bitties, one room for the teenagers, and the biggest room held the grown up cats.  The kids could hang out in any of the rooms and they had a blast!  They all thought it was just great and were sad when the time was up.  The best part was that I didn't have to do anything!

After the shelter, we went to our house for some delicious ice cream cake.  The girls played for a bit and then all returned to their own homes.  I was surprised how easy it was and how happy the kids were with it.  Although Callie later complained that she wasn't permitted to play with the dogs.  I guess there's no pleasing some people!

Callie's favorite kitten. 

Playing with the little kitties. 

Loving the snuggles. 

Callie's new best friend. 

Callie and Dorothy, enjoying the babies. 

I wanted a group shot at the end, but they saw a lizard. 

And then they were just silly! 

I made the cake in a spring form pan and Callie asked for Cookies-n-Cream ice cream.  It was delicious!  

My happy birthday girl!

Band Awards

Joshua had his Band Award Ceremony this week.  The band is new to the school.  Last year was its first year and the program is being run by a retired Navy (I think!) band guy.  He has done a remarkable job and is pretty ambitious.  The kids seem to rise to the occasion and Joshua has really enjoyed playing his trumpet and marching in the band.

There were a ton of awards to hand out, but they went quickly.  The director's vision was to give the kids medals similar to what the military wears on their dress uniforms, and the kids would pin their medals on like that.  Joshua got a Second Year medal and he received the Outstanding Musician award.  He was pleased.  I tried to get a photo of him, but the nutty boy dashed up to the front, grabbed his award and bolted back to his seat. Both times.  All I got was a vague blur.  

I asked him to pose with his medals/awards for me, and he was..... well, you can see below.  I asked if that was what he wanted preserved for posterity and he thought he was hysterically funny and said yes.

The band director. 

First photo with his medals.  I asked for another shot. 

Not any better. What a loon!  I love this boy, and I am proud of him!

End of Preschool

This Tuesday was Rylee's last day of her preschool.  They had a cute program where each class sang a song, the director said a few words and then they handed out certificates and goody bags to the kids.  It was simple and short- my favorite things!  Then they showed a video of a compilation of photos from the year and gave everyone a copy.  It was great.

Rylee walked in with her class and was distressed that she couldn't see me.  This was her, just as she spotted me.  

Now she is happy and hamming it up.  Check out the adorable handprint shirt! 

She dashed right over to me after her class song.  Love this cutie pie! 

Receiving her certificate from her teacher.  (We love her teacher!)

Posing with Ms. Melissa

Rylee cried all the way home because she was so sad preschool was over.  Then she watched her dvd and cried some more.  She cries whenever she remembers it is over, and she keeps watching the video and crying.  She is also very upset that she is done with school and the big kids still have a week to go! I'm just super sad that she misses the kindergarten cut off by 3 weeks and will be home with me again next year!

A Dream Come True!

Notice anything different about Delaney?!

  

Well, yes, she did finally lose that dangling eternally front tooth, but no, not that!

Check it out!  

Yep, I took Delaney in to get her ears pierced yesterday.

She'd been asking off and on for a bit, and chickening out about it.  Yesterday she asked and I said we could go right then. She had to think about it and then said yes.  She was adorable!  SO excited about it!  We went to the mall and she was very brave.  She had a moment, right before the first piercing when she got scared, but she went through with it and didn't even cry!  She said it wasn't even that bad, after the first one.  She said it was too tight, and I lied and told her I'd loosen it after the second one.  After the second one, I confessed that I couldn't loosen it because it wasn't too tight, it felt like that because we'd put a hole in her ear.

She has been awesome- no complaints at all.  She has told every single person about her new pierced ears, from the gal at the food court serving her a kids' meal, to the gate guard at the base, to every person in church today! I'm so happy that she's so happy.  I'm also glad that she was able to choose Hello Kitty earrings, which were a lot cheaper than the ones I probably would have gotten.

I love this kid!

A Suntan Party!

Delaney asked me 2 weeks ago if she could have "A Suntan Party". Then she clarifies, "In the shade". I was totally not paying attention to her and mumbled, "Sure."

An hour later, Delaney showed me the lovely invitations she had made for her friends, for a party that would start at 10:45 the next Saturday morning.  She ran around to all her friends and delivered her adorable invites.  I had 2 moms ask about the party and had the sudden realization that they were under the impression that this was a PARTY.  Oh shoot!

I sat down and talked to Delaney, who was very specific.  She needed towels for her party and they would be under the tree.  It was a Suntan Party in the Shade.  I found that very amusing. She said no swimsuits, they were just going to sit on towels in the shade.  Whew, I wasn't really required.

Saturday morning came, and several of Delaney's friends wandered over.  They were expecting a bit more, so one of them ran home and came back with a slip-n-slide.  They all got on swimsuits and the next 2 hours were a lot of fun for them.  Callie and Marian even joined in, but didn't go through the hassle of actually putting on a swimsuit.  They made me laugh.

I brought out snacks and ended up chatting with the other moms and it was quite the lovely day!

A Girl and her Dreams

Callie has been begging for a birthday party at the local animal shelter for the last year.  One of her friends did one about 18 months ago and it was great!  The kids got to go volunteer at the shelter and do work for a bit and then they got to help socialize the animals.  In lieu of gifts for the birthday girl, she asked for donations to the shelter.  It was such an awesome idea.  

However, our shelter has changed management and is incredibly overworked and understaffed.  I could not get a warm body on the phone and could not get anyone to speak to me.  Callie was getting distressed that I was breaking my promise that she could do this party.  Seriously, I called at least 5 different times on 5 different days.  I finally told her we could dive out there one Saturday afternoon.  She was elated.  So off we went.

And the shelter was closed that day.

Never fear, Callie was enthralled with cat-watching.  And there were some baby armadillos that apparently live by the front door, so we enjoyed spying on them.  Who knew they were so cute with their little Shrek-ears?!  Callie was consoled by the alternate activities, but still expects me to pull this party thing off.

Making friends with the cats and selecting her favorites. 

Check out that adorable little armadillo face!  Come on, those ears are too cute. 

He was digging a hole and was really fast at shoveling out the dirt. 

Like a mini-rhino, I thought 

Still do not want one for a pet, but I did think they were cute.

When good plans go bad

For most of you, this will be a recap, and you can just skip it since you already know the story.

We've had orders to Okinawa for what, 6 weeks or so.  I was super excited and we had movers scheduled and plans in motion and life was good.  Thursday, Dan forwarded a very short email from the monitor to me.  All it said was "We're shifting you over to become the MCAS Iwakuni SJA. The current SJA, just dropped retirement paperwork." 

I had to read it a couple times.  You think something so monumental would have a bit more written about it, but I guess the essentials are there.  Lest you are unaware of military-speak, it says that the current law boss on the base located on the mainland of Japan had just put in for retirement and they were going to have Dan replace her.  This means, no Okinawa for us, but rather, Iwakuni, instead.  I felt like the gps when I make a turn it doesn't like.... "Recalculating, recalculating!" Sure, it is still Japan, but the difference and the implications are enormous.

So things have been a little crazy.  It takes a bit to enter paperwork into the system and that is required before Dan can get his orders.  So we know things are changing but we can't do a dadgummed thing about it because we have no orders!!  The lady at the travel office did do us a lovely favor and she was able to reserve the family and the dog on a flight to Iwakuni for the end of August, which is fabulous.  This means we can bring the dog.  Dan has a timeframe- they want him by 31 August, so that is good to know.  The only thing we do not have is orders to change our movers and we do not have medical clearance.

We can't take care of the movers until we have orders.  I fear that once we go in to the office, they will cancel our move and make us re-enter everything, which would push our time-frame back.  Dan was able to call the already-scheduled movers and ask them if they could do the new move and they thought they could, on the day they were already scheduled.  But that may not work out.  Bah, it is too stressful to think about.  We hope to have movers 2 weeks from today, but who knows?!

This is my excuse for not blogging.  And now I am going into denial and will catch up on blogging to avoid the insanity that my life has become.

The Great Huey P Long Bridge Race

I may have mentioned that there is a 3 bridge race series, where you can race over the 3 bridges that span the Mississippi River.  I ran the St Charles Bridge last month and really enjoyed the 10k.  This month was the Huey P. Long Bridge 5k.  I had wanted to run it, but none of my friends signed up for it and I didn't want to do it alone.  Plus, we had 2 extra kids hanging around and I felt guilt at the thought of asking Dan to handle things while I went racing.

At the last minute, some ladies in my running group decided to run it.  Dan encouraged me to join them.  Isn't he the best?!!  I paid my $35 and I was in!

Sadly, I have zero photos.  My lovely, easy-to-hold camera that I usually use in races is the self same camera that  got lost in the mud pit at the Warrior Dash.  So I was camera-less and sad about that.  There was a delightful couple we met in the parking lot and my friend Andie asked if they would take a photo.  It was dang funny.  The wife aid, "Only if I can be in it!" and she was serious!

The race started on the west bank and you ran just about a mile before you reached the on ramp.  Then it was a mile up, and a mile down.  Somehow, this uphill felt harder than the last bridge I ran!  And I could not get much speed on the downhill.  It was a little disappointing for me.  I was slower than I thought I would be, but not horribly so.

I clocked a time of 30:58 for 3.14 miles.  I was 439 out of 1228 total runners.  (The winner did it in 16:10).  I was 29th in my age category, but I don't know how many there were in the 35-40 age group. My friend Andie won the 40-45 ladies category, which was pretty cool!

This race had no medal.  The finisher's prize was a class.  I think they called it a lager glass?  you could take it and get it filled with beer.  The after party was smooshed in to an area way too small for all those people, and I had zero desire to wait in a lengthy line for jambalaya, and even less to wait for beer.  So I headed home.

It was a good race.  It was on my bucket list, and I'm glad I did it. It wasn't stellar in any way, other than it was a bridge across the MS River.  Would I do it again?  Only if I was trying to run all 3 bridges in the season, and if my friends were going.  I wouldn't do it just for myself, by myself.

(The third bridge in the series is the one I am saddest to miss again this year- the Crescent City Connection.  It is in June, after we move away.)

Hanging with the Nephews

I have had the pleasure of hanging out with 2 of my nephews for the past week.  Camden (4) and Ethan (2) have been staying with us while their parents are on a cruise.  I'll tell you, it has gone much better than I could have dreamed.  They are great kids!  

Plying in the back yard. Why umbrellas on a sunny day?  Who knows! 

Ethan wanted all the beads and then couldn't get them off.  He was sad and stuck. 

We spent one morning at the big park.  that was fun! 

Camden was impressed with himself. 

Rylee totally posed for this. 

These 2 had such a good time together! 

This kid is tough! 

Fun on the slide.