Unbelievable!

After having a bam, bam, bam from Ethan this past hour, Katheryn has just informed me that he fell asleep on the living room couch after watching a movie. I am totally praying that he is out for the night so I can get some cleaning done. Everyone....pray with me!

Double Whammy!

OMG!! Here we go again....double whammy today all within 30 minutes of each other. It has been a very long day. Last night we took the kids to the town carnival because it was family night. $10 to ride all night long which is a great deal for our family. Matt and the kids each got wrist bands and they basically rode the rides until closing. We got home around 11pm and I finally got to sleep by 1am. This morning I was back up at 5am. I enjoyed the quiet morning and the time to myself but once 7am came, I had to wake up the kids to get them out the door to Brian's speech appointment at 8:30am. From there, we went to WalMart. I never get the boys' hair cut there but for a one shop stop, I caved in and got them each into a chair. They were on opposite sides of the salon but we managed it. After their cuts, by the way I won't go to WalMart again for cuts, we picked up a box of hair dye. I told Katheryn I would highlight her hair. She wanted to dye her hair red but I told her blonde highlights that were suttle would look much better. She didn't agree with me so I pulled the mommy card. I told her that I was the one with the money and that if she wanted highlights, she would do the blonde. :) We finally get home and I start to prep the sink area in the kitchen to start the process. After washing her hair, Katheryn thought I had dyed it. It was so funny. I then mixed the dye and we started. I decided to go all over her head and not just the top part like they do in the salon. I wanted it to look like they were her natural highlights. As we were at the end and drying her hair, I walked into the kitchen and there was Ethan with the spatula coating his head with this blonde dye!!! OMG!!!! I quickly grabbed him and whipped his head toward the sink. I quickly rinsed his hair out and thankfully there wasn't any damage. LOL! I couldn't imagine a blonde haired Ethan. Finally Katheryn's hair was dry and she ran next door to see what the neighbors thought. I got great compliments and the whole natural look was accomplished. I then decided to try making a bold mark on Brian's hair just in the front but because he has dirty blonde hair, the dye really didn't do much but lighten his baby fine hair so you really can't tell. So, the double whammy kicks in here. As I'm cleaning up the dye, Katheryn comes downstairs and says, "you aren't going to like what you see upstairs." She then proceeds to tell me that Ethan grabbed the tub of vaseline and smeared it on the walls and carpet. How do I get that out of the carpet???!! Ugh! OH NO! I sit here writing this blog and Brian is at the front door telling me that Ethan has just picked my flowers in the front. I checked it out and he took all the beautiful pink geranium blooms and destroyed the plant. The pink petals are now all over my front porch. Someone please please please take Ethan for a few weeks...please. LOL! Off to clean I go.

A Mommy No-No

There comes a point in parenthood when a mommy will learn something of such value that she needs to share it with other mommies so that they may either prevent or encourage such an event. Today I would like to share a lesson I learned while grocery shopping with my three wonderful children. :) Mommy No-No #1: Never EVER randomly ask "who wants a watermelon?" while grocery shopping with 3 children. If you do, be prepared to have 3 watermelons presented to you as being the best watermelon and make sure to look at your youngest's watermelon first or else it just may end up being dropped on your foot. Your foot will of course cushion the watermelon's fall so it doesn't bust open all over the place which was nice of your youngest to drop it on your foot. Great thinking on their part....he must have known if it didn't land on my foot that there would be a great mess to clean up. I hope other mommies out there will learn from my experience and take my advice. :) Stay tuned for more Mommy No-No's in the future. :)

Trip to NC

We recently drove to NC this weekend to check in on the house and to get some paperwork and repairs straightened out. We didn't tell any of Katheryn's friends we were coming and we didn't even tell Katheryn. I told her we were just going to go pick up Matt and stay at a hotel that had a waffle maker. She was excited about that. Friday we left here around 4:30 and reached Matt's work by 6:30pm. We were on the road by 7pm and on the way we stopped by a friend's home in VA to deliver a graduation gift to their daughter. It was great timing. The kids played outside and Brian was doing a great job with dribbling a basketball. I think I may look into signing him up to play. He was doing really well with it. We left there and made it to our hotel in NC by 2am. The beds were twin beds with a little bit extra and Matt had placed Ethan on one and Brian and Katheryn had crawled into the other one. Matt then joined Ethan as I was getting things put away for the morning and when I went to crawl into bed, there was no where for me to lay. So I curled up at the foot of Katheryn and Brian's bed and later hopped into bed with Ethan and Matt. I surely didn't get a good nights sleep after driving. The next morning we met with the realtor and went to the house. We checked out the repair list and most are minor. It turns out that the inspecting company couldn't find any major damage to the house so started to fill the paper up with minor things like spent light bulbs. Ridiculous. The best part was that the moment we drove into the neighborhood, Katheryn's excitement was bursting out of her. She jumped out of the van and immediately ran to the neighbors home. Apparently there was a lot of screaming going on down there and at pitches the human ear is just not accustomed to. We then took Katheryn and two of her friends to the Cumberland Dance Academy recital where her other friend Alanna was performing. Alanna had no idea we were coming. This is the dance studio Katheryn used to dance at while we lived in NC. Terry, Alanna's mom, took Katheryn backstage at intermission and Katheryn surprised Alanna. I wasn't back there but I heard the excitement was overwhelming. Later that evening, we spent our time with our friends. Our friends Diana and Warren had a BBQ and Percillia and Chuck came up too. It was so wonderful. It felt like home all over again. The hardest part of it all was sitting in Diana's kitchen where I could see our house. Brian really wanted to just go across the street and go home. He said he misses our old house. It breaks my heart. :( It really is a great home. We miss it.

Ethan posing for pictures at Diana's home

Brian at the hotel the morning we were leaving.

Katheryn and her friends after their sleepover...so hard to say goodbye

Katheryn and her friends after the dance recital

Katheryn after suprising Alanna backstage

Saturday night was a great night. Great food with great friends. Katheryn spent the night at Julieann's and I was so happy because that meant I could have a place to sleep that night. Brian wanted me to sleep with him so I did. Matt and Ethan slept together and Brian and I slept in the other bed. Before going home, we had brunch with Alanna and her parents at Cracker Barrel. It was a long trip home. We hit traffic right before Fredericksburg and also outside of Germantown. It was a long car ride home. We stopped at McDonald's in Stafford and Brian was so excited. He got out of the van and kept telling how great it was to be going here and that he wanted french fries. With his GFCF diet, we never ever eat out unless I bring his food with us. So this was a real treat for him. After 11 hours of being in the car, we finally made it home. Normally, this trip is 6.5 - 7 hrs. The kids were great though. They are truly great travellers.

Scholarship!

About two weeks ago, I was having a really hard day with the kids. I was constantly cleaning up messes and just not happy how the day had turned out. During the afternoon, I received a call from the YMCA offering a child care spot for Ethan. I asked that they keep him on the list for August when school started back and they said it would be fine. About a month or two before this, I had filled out a scholarship application with the Ft. Myer Spouses Club. Well, I checked the mail once Matt had gotten home and there was a letter addressed to me from the spouses club. I opened it and voila! I had won a $1000 scholarship! I was so excited that the neighbor ran home to make some strawberry daiquiris to celebrate. She used strawberries that we had picked a few days before. It was so yummy!! So everything is falling into place. I have money now to pay for two more classes and I only need two general classes in order to complete my associates degree. I'm so excited! I have a child care spot available for Ethan and Brian will be attending Kindergarten full time in the fall. There is no excuse for me not to pursue my associates now. It's just an exciting and wonderful feeling to finally have this part accomplished. Then in the spring I will apply for the nursing program and take microbiology. Then I will have two years to go before becoming an RN. Things are on track and looking good.

Then about a day later, I received a letter asking me to attend the award ceremony at the Army Chief of Staff's home at Ft. Myer. Matt was really excited about this. I on the other hand didn't think it was such a big deal but when Matt was excited, I figured that this must be a good thing. He told me that it would be bad for me to decline the invitation. So we got a babysitter and went. It was really nice. It was a really big deal apparently. There was so much food and there were congressmen and reporters. Altogether I believe there were 48 scholarships awarded that night and 2 spouse scholarships. I fell into the spouse category. Matt tried to take a couple of pictures but I think he had the camera on the wrong setting. They are a little blurry but you can still make it out. The Army Chief of Staff's wife is to my left.

Me accepting my scholarship

Me announcing my field of study

With our recent visit to NC speaking with friends, I'm really thinking that I'm moving into the wholistic medicine area of the medical field. I've done so much with Brian and Ethan just through diet that it amazes me how much a diet can heal our bodies. I'm really starting to believe that organic is the best way to go. I'm starting to read a book now called "The Hallelujah Diet" and it's basically two different approaches to the american diet from experience and a scientific standpoint and reaching similar conclusions. Something about eating a raw diet is best. We shall see. I'm sure it'll be helpful in our family and just maybe it'll heal Ethan's allergies as well.

Tired out

On my way to bed one night, I found Matt in bed sleeping with his laptop on his chest. This was too funny and I couldn't resist posting this. He literally comes home from work, eats dinner and heads to bed exhausted from his day.

School's out! Dance Recital!

Well, school is out and the kids are enjoying their summer vacation so far. I on the other hand wish they were back in school. It definitely came too quick for me. I'm adjusting to the schedule though and we're back on track.

Katheryn and Brian had their dance recital June 7th. The kids did a great job. I was so proud of Brian for getting up on stage and doing his stuff. He loved being up there under the bright lights. Katheryn did a great job on her dances as well. She was in three dances; ballet, hip hop and jazz. Getting her hair done three different ways backstage was quite the challenge. The first hairdo was a bun, the second was two french braids down the back and the third was a pony tail. All in all, the kids had a great time however after seeing the quality of the dancers and their performances, I will be looking for a new dance studio for Katheryn to participate in. Katheryn was beyond the dancers in her age group and I thank the studio in NC for that. The difference is amazing between the studios.

Katheryn and Brian backstage

Katheryn backstage: Her jazz costume

Truffles for Katheryn's teacher

Katheryn's last day of school is today. Hooray for her...a little sad for me. This means that she will be in 5th grade once summer is over. Her last year of elementary school. Time surely flies. We went out yesterday to WalMart and Katheryn picked out some fabric to cover the box we planned on putting her teacher's truffles into. So while the kids were at school, I got to work with making more truffles and decorating the box.

The materials.

The box covered.

mmmmm....homemade truffles

The finished product.

It was so nice that I was able to fit 12 truffles into this box. I love the fabric that Katheryn chose too. She's so excited to be finished with school. Everything is coming to an end and soon summer pool days will be here. Whoo-hoo!!

The last stop for Pre-K

Here are pics of Brian's bus dropping him off home for the last time. He came home with oodles of gifts from the teachers and afternoon bus driver.

The bus turning into the development.

Ethan waiting for the bus to turn around.

You can see it...here it comes!

Brian giving Mr. Derrick a hug after giving him his truffles.

Mr. Derrick and Brian posing for a pic.

Sleeping comfortably

Just a couple of pics of Ethan at the dining room table fast asleep. I don't know how he was able to sleep in this position. We thought it was hillarious!

His feet aren't even touching the ground.

Thumb in mouth.

Last day of Pre-K

I just put Brian on the bus to Pre-K for the very last time. :( It's such an emotional feeling. It's joyous and sad all rolled in together. I don't think he quite understands the transition he'll be making. I sent him in with gift boxes we made filled with homemade truffles for his teachers and bus drivers. He has 3 bus drivers and 5 teachers!!!! That's a lot of thank you gifts to make so we went the cheap homemade gift route.

Brian had a lot of fun writing his name on top of the gift boxes. I however did not have so much fun staying up until 2:30am decoupaging the boxes for the bus drivers. Paper doesn't fold nicely over heart shaped boxes. The square boxes were fun. We took pre-K writing paper...the one with the dotted line in the center of the line....and wrapped it on the lid and then wrapped light blue paper on the bottom and tied it off with a red ribbon. They turned out nice. Each box holds 4 truffles and unfortunately the heart boxes only hold 3. I made peanut butter coated in cocoa, mint chocolate coated in coconut and semi-sweet coated in peanuts. Today I am making milk chocolate coated in milk chocolate sprinkles and semi sweet flavored with almond coated in nuts possibly to add to Katheryn's teacher's box. She only has one teacher so this teacher will get a bigger box. Katheryn picked out some fabric to wrap the box with so I'll be working on that today so she can take it with her tomorrow for her last day.

Aaaahhhhh!

Yesterday was a relaxing day for once....for the most part. I spent the day outside with Ethan and the neighbor's daughter teaching them how to play hopscotch. It was fun. The neighbor's daughter liked to call it rock scotch. We then drew pictures on the sidewalk with chalk and watered the flowers. It was nice just to sit and play. When Katheryn arrived home, I started to water the garden in the backyard and she helped with the bird bath. We decided to buy some flowers to go around the tree in the front yard so we loaded up and headed to Lowe's. I didn't see any flowers that I truly had to have but we managed to find some that we liked. I hate that they are annuals but the kids love them and had fun picking them out. We made it home with 20 border bricks, 2 large bags of soil and a variety of plants...mostly petunias with stripes. It looks great. I should have taken a before photo but didn't. As soon as I take one of the after, I'll post it. I've been really bad with posting pics.