SPT- Home Sweet Home

My ideal home has a lot of wonderful things- a mudroom, a wrap around porch, a big yard to call my own, a great neighborhood where my kids could find plenty of friends to run around with and play ghost in the grave yard like we did growing up until all hours. It would never have a swimming pool, though. I am too afraid of the kids drowning. I don't know that I will ever have that ideal house while my kids are still growing up, though, because I decided to marry a military man and now my home is wherever the military sends that man! My home sweet home is with him... forever!

Growth

We've had a lot of growth around here. Emma had her promotion on Thursday. She is moving from Elementary to the Middle school. Of course our little school goes to the 8th grade, so that means she just moves down the hall. At the ceremony she got recognized for a few things- being on Saftey Patrol, AB honor roll- her very first time. She has struggled with school, but she finally did it. We were so proud of her. She was recognized for her excellent conduct, being picked for the All County Choir and was voted by the whole 5th grade as the Most Athletic girl! I was ecstatic for her. She is a take charge, outgoing girl when she gets to know you, but shy at first (sort of like her parents!) When she ran for an office at the beginning of the year, no one voted for her and now the entire 5th grade voted for her!



And here is her latest trick- Ms. Jodi showed her how to do it. She can now tie cherrie stems with her tongue!



Here is something that Sam and Joseph have learned lately.


Today was Father's day and we made Rob a cute little bow tie. He would have never worn this to church, except for this year. He has really grown. Everyone commented on his nifty bowtie. He did comment that he wondered why on Mother's day that all the mothers got honored, but on Father's day they just make you feel goofy? I was very proud of him for wearing it all through church- what a guy. What a great Dad!

Here is our garden- growing like crazy! Yeah for tomatoes to come soon and Zucchini and maybe even the watermelon. They are doing well so far! And look at that Max. He is surely growing!

This weekend the marathon group ran 8 miles straight. Our goal was to get up to 10 miles without our 5 minute run, 1 minute walk and still at a decent pace. We did the 8 miles in just under 9 minute 30 seconds each.

There is lots of growth at our house. How about yours?

101 things about us

I can't believe it, but this is our 101 post and before I do any other posting, I have to do the traditional 100 things about us- but I added one, because it's our 101 st post, not just our 100th.
1. The most frequent thing you will hear said at our house is "hurry up, we're late!"
2. We believe in lickings and forkings for the kids. Lickings (Dad licks their face when there is ice cream or something like that on them to clean them up. Mom thinks that's gross!) Forkings (whenever one child is whining about something the other has done that really doesn't deserve real discipline, we let them fork the culprit. Mom and Dad have to monitor closely, but they just poke them with a fork lightly and it ends up everyone is laughing at the end.)
3. Ice cream is definitely a food group
4. We love a clean home, but hate to clean it. The love a clean house outways the hating to clean though, most of the time.
5. Soccer has become our sport
6. We like most sports- watching and playing, but playing is better.
7. I am an impulse buyer, but I have learned to keep it down to under $20 a thing.
8. Rob likes to buy only the best. If there is something better out there, it frustrates him.
9. We want a dog
10. We don't want a dog
11. We really don't want a cat
12. We wouldn't mind a fish
13. We really like salad
14. We really like chocolate
15. The swimming pool is our second home in the summer
16. My husband has had 4 careers in our married live. One of them was a full time seminary teacher. Now he's in the army
17. I met my husband in Germany when he was in the army
18. We are a fairly relaxed family, but a little loud and obnoxious at times
19. There are definitely a lot more obnoxious people out there
20. We are so happy our daughter is old enough to babysit, now.
21. We are fairly cheap.
22. I am not into labels and refuse to pay the price for American Eagle or Beneton or any of those other places.
23. We are a running family
24. I hated cross country, but I ran it in high school. I didn't mind the running part, just the racing part.
25. I lettered in 5 different sports in high school and got most valuable runner for track.
26. Rob was a big football player- Ok, big is relative
27. neither of us competed in college
28. We both have college degrees. Rob has a Master's. I have a bachelor's
29. I am a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department. I went straight out of nursing school into an Emergency Department. It was a really hard way to start out.
30. I want to teach Nursing school some day
31. Both Rob and I are shy, but we both work through it. I used to get told all the time that people thought I was a snob at first. Nope, just shy.
32. We like to read, but don't always put it as a priority. I usually have to renew books at the library 3 times before we can get through them.
33. I lived in Germany most of my life, until I got married.
34. We love to do new things
35. We loved the one cruise we went on. We would love to do it again when the kids get older. It was too hard on the little ones having us gone so long.
36. I am very afraid of one of us choking to death.
37. My kids like to wander and sometimes have their heads in the cloud. Of course Mom probably does also, 'cause she doesn't notice they aren't there for awhile.
38. I am ruled by guilt. If I am cleaning, I should be playing with the kids. If I am playing with the kids, I should be cleaning. If I am blogging, I'm just guilty.
39. My husband and I really like each other and like to do stuff together. I am not a big fan of GNO. When my husband is at home, I want to be with him. Going out with a bunch of couples is much more fun.
40. We are big fans of chips and salsa- does this list seem to have a lot of food on it?
41. Did I mention that I am chronically late? I was even late to my very first job interview. I am suprised I got the job.
42. There is so much out there that I want to learn, but just don't seem to find the time. It frustrates me.
43. My lack of time, frustrates my husband as well, but for different reasons.
44. Our house is full of white walls. My husband likes it that way. I am just too lazy to paint.
45. I love the color of my hair and have passed down a reddish tint to each of the children- that makes me happy.
46. I make a mess when I cook, but I enjoy cooking. I just hate the clean up at the end.
47. My husband hates the clean up at the end, too. He likes his house orderly and it is the first thing we have problems with when he comes home from TDY.
48. We've been married over 15 years.
49. Robert is a registered Democrat, but thinks like and often votes for Republicans. I am not a registered anything, but if I was it would be as an independant. I believe you have to look at each candidate individually.
50. We have owned 2 dogs- a beagle named Buster and a Schnauser named Jake. Both were given away to other homes for various reasons.
51. We have a trampoline set up in our garage.
52. Until just resently, the baby slept in our closet.
53. Family Home Evening means watching American Gladitor together and eating homemade ice cream to us.
54. We just got our very first DVR- very nice!
55. The girls in the family love a good bath and a good pedicure. Good thing there are only 2 of us.
56. We make goals as a family every year and post them on the fridge all year long.
57. Rob and I can't sing worth a darn, so we are really encouraging the children to pick it up.
58. I never practiced my piano like I was suppose to, so my parents stopped having me go to lessons. I can play a few of the hymns. Now I am teaching my children to play. It's like the blind leading the blind.
59. One of my favorite novels my Mom read to us growing up was The Great Brain series. Very fun!
60. I love the Anne of Green Gable's series and the Jane Austin books, just like most girls
61. Rob watches chick flick's with me, for the end results. Ocean's 11, 12 or 13 work, too.
62. We watch My name is Earl, Lost, Hero's and American Gladiator. We used to love Fear Factor, too.
63. I don't follow through with a lot of my plans. I dream too big.
64. We have moved 8 times in our 15 something years of marriage.
65. We have owned 5 homes and rented 2.
66. We own a Jeep, a truck, a motorcycle and a dirt bike. Only the motorcycle gets good gas mileage.
67. In our dream home, there is a library.
68. I don't do cold weather sports and since we have had kids, neither does Rob.
69. I sing a song to my babies every night. For Max it is " I love Maxwell, he loves me. We love daddy, yes siree. Emma and Samuel and Joseph love us and so you see. We are a happy family." Max likes to sing with me. It is so cute.
70. I had easy pregnancies and deliveries. The only time I had trouble was the two times I tried to have an epidural. Both times my blood pressure dropped so much that I almost passed out and stopped breathing.
71. Since then I have been terrified about medicine. I had my bottom wisdom teeth pulled with only a local.
72. I have a very long to do list.
73. I don't make lists. I should. Then I would stop forgetting stuff.
74. I am fairly forgettful
75. I love traditions
76. Pancakes, taco's and spaghetti are staples in our house. Ok, I think we are done talking about food.
77. We are not patient people- any of us. I am sure the fact that the parents aren't, has an effect on the children.
78. Joseph starts every sentence with, "Mom (replace with whoever he is talking to at the time) I want to tell you something." He usually asks you a guestion after that.
79. I have a cute paper and ribbon obsession.
80. Emma has a bag/purse obsession.
81. Sam has a pokemon obsession.
82. Joseph has a playstation obsession.
83. Max has a Cars obsession.
84. I have no idea what Rob's obsession is.
85. People who think it's cool to hate whatever is popular at the time, aka Miley Cirus, scrapbooking, minivans, soccer moms, etc. really bug me. It's their way of standing out in a crowd, I guess, but it's just annoying. Like what you like, don't like what you don't like, but don't be all crazy and obvious about it!
86. Crazy people hate me. I don't know why, but I will never make a good psych nurse. I hated psych nursing in nursing school, too!
87. Rob and I probably lack a little charity. I do feel bad for people that have it rough and have given out food and money to homeless people and stuff like that, but lazy and crazy people we have no patience for- that's probably why crazy people don't like me.
88. One of the reasons I hated psych nursing was that we had all these meetings where the other nursing students boohooed about how bad their lives had been and they got on me for not opening up. After being forced to speak from the professor with the threat of lowering my grade, I told them I had nothing to open up about. My childhood was great, my marriage was great and I was doing awesome in school. Then they all hated me. Go figure!
89. I love men in uniforms!
90. My husband wears a uniform to work every day. Lucky dog!
91. I am freaking out about my daughter maturing.
92. I am trying not to show her that I am freaking out.
93. I did not like maturing myself. I got mad when my mother told me I needed a bra and I cried the day I got my period. My daughter seems to be having no problem with it.
94. We all love to swing. I am so glad that Joseph has finally learned to pump.
95. We used to have spitting fights when we were younger on the swings. I am so glad my children have come up with a different swing game- it's Get Through the Gauntlet. Much less gross, but definitely a lot more dangerous.
96. We are not careful with our children and we don't baby them. Rob plays rough with them. When they fall down, we tell them to get up. It has made them tough cookies. I'm glad, because they won't get a lot of sympathy in the world.
97. The kids favorite games are all wrestling with Dad, but there are very specific names for them and they seem to know the difference. They are Catcher, Steam Roller and Papa Bear.
98. We didn't mean to do it at first, but the kids are all named for the Smith family, except Maxwell. We didn't like any other Smith boy names. I wasn't about to have a Don Carlos or a Hyrum. So he is named after Elder Maxwell, who died when I was pregnant and who was Rob's favorite apostle.
99. We both want a Mustang convertible when we retire.
100. I love being a soccer mom, a nurse and want to be a booster club mom and everything else- even if it is cliche. I don't care.
101. We love lots of friends, but really believe that we should be the best of friends to each other.

SPT- The Twilights last gleaming

Twilight is the time before sunrise or after sunset when sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere and the surface of the Earth.

So I know that Twilight is traditionally considered sunset time, but it can also be sunrise according to that definition and since the Star Spangled Banner refers at first to the Dawn's early light- I went with that. Here is what our twilight's last gleaming looks like at our house. This is the littlests ones first night in the big room with his brothers. Before that he slept in our closet! We have 3 rooms up, upstairs and one room down, downstairs. I won't let any of them go that far away!

Of course the time hasn't changed, but it's a lot more like Dawn's early light than twilights last gleaming because of summer. My husband and I off to do PT (physical training). My husband is maxing (getting the maximum amount of points) his PT tests now, ever since he started training with me;)Down the street we go!

Car Buying Advice

I have fallen in love with the Mini Cooper car. It is crazy, but I really want one. A week ago our car got hit by a less than sober neighbor of ours while he was trying to park his huge SUV. This, of course, happened while Rob was out of town (surprised?) and about 12:45 am. I was about to call the cops, but realized, finally who was franticly ringing and re-ringing my doorbell at that hour. He was very upset to see me and not my husband and questioned his manhood. I had to calm him down and explain that Rob was out of town. The huge ding in my door and the subsequent talks I have had with friends has led me to really think about another car. Jeeps are not the greatest things to own in times like these- Especially 10 year old ones with nasty seats (years of food and milk and other things being spilled onto them), a timing belt that squeals so bad that you can't turn on the air conditioning, heater or defrost for miles (until supposedly it warms up) and now a smashed in door that doesn't open from the outside.

I really want a Mini Cooper, or a convertible Bug, but I have 4 children. Most of my running around is done with one to two of them, but every once in awhile I need to have a vehicle that seats 5 people. We have the truck that seats all of us. We were planning to buy a van next, but I am so mad at the van industry right now that I refuse. Did you know that they have vans out there that get 50 miles to the gallon? Yes, they do and guess who they are made by. Ford. That's right. An American company manufactures vans that get 5o miles to the gallon for other countries, but refuses to bring it to the United States. And why isn't there 1 hybrid van out there? Of all the people who need fuel economy, don't you think the soccer mom is #1! I am completely steamed. Therefore, I think I will stay with my gas guzzling truck to show them a lesson and buy German made!

Our neighbor just got rid of her SUV and bought a car, because of gas prices and she said they didn't get much for it. In fact she said, a lot of places won't even take the SUV's. They don't want them. So I am thinking we could just keep the 10 year old jeep and run around in the mini cooper unless I need the 5 seats. Of course that would mean we own 3 vehicles and 2 motorcylces for the 2 of us that drive. That's slightly excessive- especially if you have seen the parking situation around here- hence the ding in the side of my Jeep.

So what do you think? What car should we get- a Mini Cooper(up to 40 mpg, but only 4 seats), a Convertible Bug (only 30 mpg tops), a hybrid like the Prius (50 mpg, but ugly) or just be happy with what we've got?

Happy National Doughnut day!

I found out it is Doughnut day- who knew! Now why would there be such a thing as doughnut day? It has to do with World War one and the "lassies" who volunteered to go to France and serve Doughnuts and coffee to all the homesick soldiers fighting over there. Doughboy also used to be a term referring to the Infantry man, more specifically the American infantry man. So if you want to celebrate with the best of them Krispy Kreme is giving away free doughnuts today. Here is the link to find a store near you.

SPT- Emblem of the Land I Love

This week was to take a picture of "the emblem of the Land I Love." I must admit, I wasn't sure what to do, but then I stopped by this place on our way to pick up the kids from school, because I was starving and I thought it would work perfectly. True, McDonald's is all over the world, but it started here- true American Capitalism. Besides it typifies the fat American diet. Yep, I was there, getting a few more hundred calories myself! It also brings back memories of lazy, relaxing teen years and years working in a paper hat and nasty greasy clothes for minimum wage. Perfect American teenage years. There isn't many places like that in this world. McDonald's definitely is an emblem of the Land I Love even if they are yucky and have very high calorie food!

P.S. this picture was taken with my camera phone, because I didn't have anything else.

3 year old Birthday's are the Funnest!

Memorial Weekend was a lot of picnicing. It was very fun. I love this time of year when it is still a little cool and the evenings are still warm enough to enjoy outside. We went to our outdoor pool which opened on that Saturday. It was "Idaho cold" Emma informed us. Mom was smart and didn't even get into a swimming suit. After a 7 mile run on Memorial day we went to the pool again and got into the "Idaho cold" water. It had warmed up just enough for me to try and take a dip. I only stayed in for about 5 minutes each time I got in, though.
The rest of this week has been crazy. I finally finished Max's invitations for his party on Wednesday. The party was on Saturday. I didn't even deliver some of them, I just told people at the ward BBQ that very day. I am suprised we had anyone show up! Saturday we had to run (shortened version, because of all that was going on), 2 soccer games (uh, actually only one, because Mom read the schedule wrong and we missed Emma's game- oops!), the ward BBQ, and Max's birthday party. We had it at a park and had homemade ice cream, a big cookie and soda. We also did the traditional pinata. It was so fun to see all the little guys trying to swing at the pinata. This one came straight for me- aaaaahh! Another one hit it once and then dropped the bat. One swung the bat all the way back behind his head and then all the way to the ground in front of him. Wow, I am so glad no one got hurt! We had water guns and scented bubbles which were a big hit. The grape really did smell grapey!
Max was very good and woohooed and got very excited about all his gifts. I didn't even coach him on this one. I think it is because most people brought him stuff with Lightening McQueen on it- always a crowd pleaser in Max's world. The big kids kept speeding him through the gift giving process and so he didn't get to do much with any of the presents. As soon as we got home, he had to put all his Lightening McQueen clothes on at the same time! One of the presents he was sped through- a car that crashes and breaks and then you fix it with a push of a button, became the fought over toy as we got ready for bed. All the boys loved it. He went to bed with his new flashlight and then ran around all day today with all his other toys.
I didn't come up with any awesomely cute ideas for the party- not enough time this week- but it was still a fun night to just hang out and let the kids play. One of our friends came from a catered graduation party and they said people were all jealous there because they were coming to a 3 year old's birthday party. They said, "those are the most fun parties of all!"