Pose For Jorden

We were walking in the old historical downtown part of Wilmington in the beginning of summer when we came accross a giant skatebaord! I tried to get one of the boys to stand on it to send a picture to Jorden but they were all afraid of people looking at them!!!  Seriously? Like usual, Mom has to do everything!!!  I gave Ed my phone and had him take a picture of me on it....yeah, peeps were watching, but like am i really going to see any of them again?  Does it really matter that i am pretending to ride a skateboard that is really a bench?!!!  Silly boys.  And after i got off the "bench" other peeps started getting on it and doing poses too.....anyways, sent the pix to Jorden and he laughed, loved it, and knew exactly where i was!

Football Evaluations

The boys had football evaluations tonight.  The Air Station does this to kind of insure that the teams are equally distributed of talent.  Both boys went thru the various drills and did quite well for just showing up in whatever.  I told them to put on comfortable shorts to run in and cleats, but Ty was in jeans and both boys just in tennis shoes.  Which is better than one year where Ryan showed up for soccer evaluations in flip flops!  He still scored some goals, but c'mon kiddo!  Seriously?  So, no complaints from Mom this year.  Both boys are still upset for Ed and I having them take this year off of soccer for football, but i think they will get over it once the season gets underway.  They have been playing soccer since 2005 and are both really good.  Ty is fast and an awesome Forward, that kid can take a ball down a field and he knows where his team mates are at all times to pass it for the goal shot or take it himself.  He can also steal it from basically anyone.  Ryan doesn't have the speed or endurance that Ty has, but he can defend like there is no tomorrow and is incredible in the net.  The kid has no fear and will charge someone trying to score on him.  I don't think anyone has ever scored on him.... Sooo, we will see how it goes with a sport they only play in fun at school during recess and with friends in the neighborhood.  They were calling out the times and Ty is definitely the fastest runner of these kids.  That boy can run like a deer!  Ty and Ryan recognized some friends from baseball and left evaluations a little bit happier about playing football.  YAY!! 


Ryan running in his slip ons....and laughing....




Ty, the fastest one there in full jeans and his favorite high tops with his toes poking thru and the heels flapping and about to fall off!



Getting Their Armor!

Aug 20^th

Took the boys to New River to get sized for their football helmet and uniform and got all their pads.  They are just a bit excited to play tackle football

Ty is still not sure about trading in his soccer jersey for a football uniform...



Ryan was having fun....




Came home and tried on everything!  Yeah, he likes it!



Ty is still not sure of this new sport....

Conditioning

The boys have spent the last 2 weeks doing conditioning.  Two grueling hours four nights a week in the hot, humid, bug infested land of the Air Station, well it is like that everywhere in this area.  I have covered them in mosquito repellant and loaded them up with ice water.  They have come out of every practice completly exhausted and soaked in sweat.  At the mere mention of "Bear Crawls" and Ryan comes close to a breakdown.  Meanwhile i have the flightline to myself doing my cardio and taking a random break to let an airplane cross my path.  They informed me after practice that i should NOT have the windows up with the AC on as i might die from their stench!

First REAL Football Practice

The boys got to wear their pads tonight for practice!  They were excited to finally be putting on their "ARMOR" as Ryan refers to it.  We arrived at their practice field and it was sooo cute to see them turn into these little giants as they walked accross the parking lot to the grass.  They were sooo cute to watch!  Much to Ryan's dismay, they still did the dreaded "Bear Crawls"!  He wasn't sure if it was harder with or without pads, but they were still "harrible" (that is how Ryan says horrible) all the same.  They were SUPER sweaty tonight and filthy, but non stop chatter boxes the whole way home about this new world of 'Tackle Football' they have entered. 


Ready to head out to their first practice all suited up!




My Little Giants




Ty, still not sure about this....



Ryan said he was a dead man walking, Ty refused to have his photo taken



First Football Game

First Football Game this morning!  The boys were excited and nervous.  It was too cute!  But atleast they have had enough practices that they know what they are doing!

Go Panthers!!!



Heading in for the weigh in, won't be any problems for them...Ryan made the age cut literally by his birthday!  Cut off for Ty's division was on Ryan's birthday.  No worries for Ty as Ryan out weighs him by 1 1/2 pounds and Vicki can even play in this division with the weight limits!  She is just too old..... 




Both playing on the line




One on each end!




Both feeling pretty good about their new sport!




The chit chat with Dad heading out to the car





Vicki & Her Happy Dance

Vicki came out of her room all excited doing the Happy Dance!  She got her itunes account on to her phone and so now she has her music with her 24/7!  She is a happy girl this morning!

Pool Day....31....?

Just another fun day at the pool....love the sound of the different birds flying over head.....

Pirate Invasion!

Aug 13

We have been wanting to do this since we got here!  We didn’t notice it until it was too late our first year here summer of 2009.  Last year we had conflicting things on that same date.  This year we made sure our calander was open on August 13^th!  Vicki was quite bummed that we had decided to spend HER Birthday at Pirate Invasion, but I think she got over it by the end of the day!  We had fun watching all the demos and sword fights and walking thru a mock pirate town.  They do the re-enactment of Blackbeard in Beaufort every year and the people really get into it with their pirate dress and acting.  We toured the old jail that is only open during this time of year and the kids got to touch and learn about Ferrets that were very common on pirate ships for good reason!  We had fun taking pictures with various pirates and the boys loved holding the heavy swords!  It was a VERY hot day, but a lot of fun.  We ended the day by having dinner at Vicki’s choice, Red Robin.  She had been wearing her birthday crown all day and so the waitress  surprised her and brought out a hot fudge sundae and all the other servers came over and sang Happy Birthday to her!  It was another one of those fun, perfect days as a family!


We all experianced this....starting with the most guilty!!!





The invasion by sea



It was fun to watch them sword fight!



Vicki was happy at the end of the day, after all, one of her wishes has always been to meet Jack Sparrow!



Twins Photo Shoot

Vicki decided I was neglecting her because I did not answer my phone when she called me this morning…I tried to explain to her that it is just a tad difficult to answer my phone when it was locked in a locker with all my clothes while my twins were having their annual photo shoot! She has forgiven me.

What Are Brothers For?

I love watching and listening to Ty and Ryan.  They have been best friends from the moment they met.  Ty is the sweet one and Ryan the thuggy one.  Ryan has always won the fights, even when he was still crawling and Ty was able to run!  When they are rolled up together and twisted like kittens playing Ryan always wins.  One, because he somehow has always managed to outweigh his big brother and two, because Ty is afraid if he really goes all out on Ryan that he would hurt him!  Tonight the boys came walking in the house and Ty asked Ryan if they could play a new game.  (They had been on a roll and had been playing the same X-Box game on and off all day in between playing outside.) Ryan put his arm around Ty’s neck and said, “what are brothers for?”  Ty put his arm around Ryan’s neck and said “thanks Ryan!”  than they were grabbing and shoving each other as they ran up the stairs. 

We’re Brothers!

We had been at an event where Ty and Ryan were basically the only kids.  The adults had been watching them interact all evening.  When we were saying good bye one of the ladies asked the boys, “Are you best friends?”  They looked at her, smiled and said, “We’re BROTHERS!”  I couldn't help but smile as all these flash images came to mind of these two, they really couldn't be any closer! 


From grabbing Dad's covers as the garage is getting cleaned....



to sitting together on the couch....

...boxing in the ring....



...showing off their jerseys i had made for them in Korea



silly tickles after church....

...bubble bath fun....

..summer smiles....

...matching clothes.....

...professional shots....

.....young jedi shots.....

...tire spins....

...matching hat wearing days....

...birthdays have always been regarded as shared....

...to pirate days....



...too smashing heads days....

 They truly are brothers and the very bestest of friends!!!

40 Minutes Away

I have always hated tornados.  Maybe it was from the annual watching of The Wizard of Oz every year growing up….wherever my fear came from it has never gone away.  I did not know we had moved into tornado country, but apparently we did.  Unfortunately they do not build homes with basements or cellars to protect you from these lovely things Mother Nature whips up randomly for the excitement of the human population.  Tonight the warnings started showing up on the television.  The kids were a little bit afraid.  We gathered all the animals in and just randomly kept an eye on the tracker.  Lucky for us it decided to touch down 40 minutes from our house.....so far, the closest one to touch down by us since we moved here was 9 miles....     

Little Arm Pit Hairs!

Aug 14^th

Ty is laying on the couch looking at his arm pit…..yeah, I know, TOTALLY gross!!!  He says, “Yay!!! I have arm pit hairs, they are little arm pit hairs, but it is the first sign that I am turning into a man!!!”  I asked him if he wanted to have a party…I started singing out party themes about arm pits and hair and yeah, we were both cracking up and Ty declined on the party offer…..

A ‘REAL’ Flood Advisory

Aug 14^th and my weather alert on my phone gives me a little chirp.  It says “A real flood advisory" is in effect  in Richlands until 7 pm.  By 6:45 pm there hasn’t been a drop of rain to fall from the sky, nor did any rain fall from our beautiful blue skies by 7 pm.  Some time I wonder about our Weather Peeps….

Dad Is A Girl

Sunday mornings I usually make a large brunch, this way there is breakfast food all ready to eat for the first couple of days of the upcoming week.  Scrambled eggs, tortillas, breakfast casserole, bacon, cinnamon rolls, pancakes, and fruit.  Ryan was eating some grapes and Ed says, “Stop eating my grapes!”  Ryan and Ed begin arguing over whose grapes they REALLY are.  Ed is saying he paid for them and Ryan is asking if he planted them, grew them, and picked them…Ed says, “I am Mother Nature!”  Ryan says, “Huh? You are Mother Nature?!”  Ed says, “Yes!!”  Ryan starts giggling uncontrollably and says’ “Than YOU ARE A GIRL!!!”  His fit of giggles turns into his evil laugh as he says, “Bye Bye Mother Nature” and back to giggling his head off and talking about how Dad is a GIRRRRRRRLLLLLLL! 

Mr Poppers Penguins

The boys and i had a fun day at the pool and than we headed over to the base movie theater on New River Air Station where we had been swimming to see the highly anticipated movie, Mr. Poppers Penguins. Ed and Vicki were driving back from Quantico and were hoping to get out of there early enough to meet us at the movies...didn't happen.  But they were waiting for us when we got home!  It was great to see them again!  Oh, and the movie was really cute!

Vicki’s Vacation

July 19

Vicki had a great 2 week vacation with her Dad!  She saw some sites, hung out with Dad and she was able to see different friends of ours that she hadn’t seen since Okinawa.  She had a blast with the Hinkson’s!  Especially since they have season passes to Kings Dominion!  She is a roller coaster girl and so she was in heaven to be going 2 weeks in a row!  She had just gotten back from Beuch Gardens right before she left for Virginia!  It was a great 2 weeks for her! 

Ice Cream For Every Meal…Almost

July 18

Soooo, I started my day with a drumstick for breakfast.  Lunch rolled along and I had an ice cream sandwich.  By this time I was thinking of maybe having an all ice cream day and wrapping it up with dinner at my favorite ice cream place, Cold Stone!!!  But, by the time dinner came around ice cream actually sounded pretty awful so I gagged down leftover lasagna that might actually go bad before I finish it.    

Captain America

July 16 North Carolina

The early premier of Captain America is playing tonight at Camp Lejeune Theater.  The boys want to see this and so do I!  The afternoon show was the Judy Bloom, Not so Bummer Summer.  Since it was hot and humid I told the boys to go watch the Judy Bloom movie while I waited in line.  They almost didn’t go in insisting that they would just sit outside with me because they didn’t think it would be a good movie.  I told them to atleast go in and eat a hot dog, have some soda and their treat while they watched the beginning of the movie and if they didn’t like it after they finished their food then they could come out and sit in the humid heat with me.  Needless to say I did not see them until the movie was over.  They came out and told me how great it was and asked how I always know everything.  We were the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th peeps in line for Captain America so we had perfect seats and quick in and out at the snack bar line.  The movie was fabulous, one of the best Super Hero movies I have seen in a LONG time!  Loved it, loved it, LOVED IT is all I can say!  Ty and Ryan loved it as well.  Oh, and make sure you stay for the VERY VERY VERY end as there is a sneak preview for Avengers 2012.  That movie looks like it will be soooo good!  I love how they keep tying in all these characters together for the Avengers movie coming out in 2012! 

Micro Machine Died

July 16th  North Carolina

The boys and I were going to The Pioneer Celebration this morning, but when we got into the Micro Machine to leave, it wouldn’t start.  I turned the key and there was nothing, not even an inkling of something.  UHG.  Normally no big deal if one vehicle goes down, that is why we have 3!  But, the truck is getting a new transmission right now and Ed drove the Camry up to Virginia, so that left me with our Jeep.  I figured it must be the battery, but I had no vehicle in the drive way to jump it with and it is Saturday morning, so I am not going to knock on my neighbors doors.  I called the garage we get things done with the jeep and told them my predicament.  They said they would send someone over with a new battery and see if that is what the problem was.  Yay! After installing a new battery the jeep came back to life!  $115 later and the Micro Machine was up and running again! 

Evening Snack

July 15

One of the best parts of summer is all the fresh fruit!  I spend many evenings on the front porch in my rocker reading my latest book with a big plate of all my favorite fruits while the neighborhood kids are running around filling the air with chatter and giggles.

18 Pounds Heavier

July 15 North Carolina

Jasper had his annual check- up today.   After sniffing and licking every surface available, (yes, no kisses from him for awhile), a couple of shots, being weighed, and examined, and a bill of $115.00 Jasper is pronounced a healthy canine!  He has gained 18 pounds in the last year, I think we have been on the same diet!

Mid-Life Crisis 1st Sgt?

July 15 Quantico

Vicki sent me a picture of her in Meghan’s clothes from the hotel she and Ed were staying in.  She looked to be about 20!  I called Ed and laughed and said, “Um babe, don’t be surprised if peeps are thinking you are going thru a mid-life crisis and are dating a MUCH younger girl!”  He laughed and said, “I know, just wondering if she is going to fall walking in those shoes!”  Needless to say, they had a great time.  They left early and drove by the Pentagon on their way up to Marine Barracks 8^th & I.  Vicki said the Evening Parade was awesome and she only tripped once.

Playing Dress Up In Meghan’s Closet

July 15

Part of the 1^st sgt Symposium is to attend the Evening Parade at Marine Barracks 8^th & I.  I was sooo looking forward to going to this until Ty told our neighbors he would watch their 2 dogs during the week we were going to go see Ed….i told Vicki that this would be quite the treat.  She kept saying how she didn’t want to go and the normal blah blah blah’s she gripes about.  I promised she would enjoy it and even made sure she had a few outfits that would be appropriate for her to wear to that event.  She had stayed the night at Meghan’s Thursday night and was doing a little grumbling about the Friday night event she had to go to.  Meghan told her she would love it, and I guess she trusts Meghan more than me because she became a little more excited.  Meghan decided to let Vicki be her real life Barbie doll and the two of them went thru Meghan’s closet and put together a really cute outfit for Vicki to wear, complete with some super high heels for her to borrow.  She was now a little bit more excited to attend this event…..

I’m At Costco, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

July 14

Vicki is spending quite a bit of time with the Hinkson’s while Ed is in class.  She is loving life with them and just running errands, going to Young Womens, etc with them.  Today she called me on my cell phone to say, “Guess where I am at?!”  I told her I had no idea but I bet her wherever it was I would want to be there too!  She laughed and said that I would and that she was at Costco and did her little ha ha ha ha ha ha sing song laugh!  Lucky girl!  I told her to have a Churro or one of those ice cream bars for me!  She had a churro….We used to eat lunch there atleast once a month all those years we were stationed at Camp Pendleton and on the Drill Field.  Than we moved to Okinawa for 6 years….and the closest one to where we live now in North Carolina is in Wilmington….a good hour away……have not been to a Costco is ages…..

Perfect Day

July 13

I love it when the stars are all in perfect alighnment for me…doesn’t happen often, but today it did….the day began with Ty and Ryan waking up happy and doing what they were supposed to do.  Next flowers arrived, followed by two dogs who were as good as I can expect them to be while I bathed them.  The boys and I went to the beach.  It was hot and we spent 4 hours in the water.  Two hours nonstop diving in the waves!  I think that is a new record for Ty and Ryan!  We hit The Cook Out drive thru on the way home, YUM!  And than!!!  Right before I went out to do the endless watering it began to rain!  It rained for 2 hours straight!!  I have atleast another day off from watering with what came down tonight!  It was a perfect day!

The Sand Lot Kids or The Gun Lot Kids

Ty and Ryan were running thru the house gathering up mits, bats and balls, soon there was a large congregation of kids on our front porch wearing baseball hats, gloves on their paws and throwing balls in the air and catching them, most of the time….i began to wonder where they were going to be taking this game…..well, they didn’t go far!  They began setting up bases in our front yard……I thought for a few seconds of how much damage boys ages 8-13 could do with a bat hitting a hard ball in our yard….yeah, I was instantly the MEANEST MOM IN THE WORLD when I went out front to tell them I could get some Mom’s and we could drive them all over to the baseball fields about a mile from our house.  They gave lots of grumbles and said no that they would just play “Old School Gangsta” instead.  Within seconds there was a huge pile of mits, bats, helmets, and balls on the front porch and they were busy calling off teams.  It was about 113 degrees but that didn’t stop them, although I ended up with a ton of cups on my kitchen island as drenched in sweat kids kept coming in about every 15 minutes to fill up their cups with ice cold water!   We have a great neighborhood with a large chunck of kids around Ty and Ryan’s age and they play together every day coming up with the most unusual of ideas!  Lately it has been all about baseball, any and everything.......i think i might start calling them The Sand Lot Kids..........or, um, maybe The Gun Lot Kids.....
July 11, 2011

Photography courtesy of Ty and Ryan