Merry Christmas!

Wow! It's almost Christmas. I can't believe it. We've had a wild month here. D had an emergency appendectomy early in the month. He really wasn't really hurting that bad, but by the time he got in, his appendix was on the verge of rupturing. They took him into emergency surgery at 5:00 am, and at 5:45 am, the doctor came out and said everything was fine! I think it's so amazing what modern medicine can do these days.

As some of you know, we are finishing our basement. As it turns out, it's taking a little longer than it should. One night, we had really high winds, and our fence blew down, hitting the outside hose hookup, breaking the line, causing a flood in our basement. The water was 2 - 3 inches before we realized it. We were all asleep, and oblivious to the fact that our basement was turning into a giant swimming pool. Luckily, our amazing basement guy did the framing in steel, and we weren't to the drywall point yet, so there was no damage! Amazing!

So, we had a temporary little fence thingy put up, because the ground is too frozen to put the real fence back up properly, and apparently some misguided deer tripped into it, knocking it down. When we let the dog out in the morning, not knowing that, she was gone. She really doesn't run away, she just saw some people walking down the street with their two dogs, and decided, hey, that looks fun, maybe I'll go. When we realized she was gone, I jumped in the car, and just then a neighbor drove up with Brandee in the back seat. I was nearly in tears, and I apologized repeatedly for being so emotional, but come on, that's my dog! So, another amazing moment! She said her husband said, hey, when I was out running, it looked like our neighbor's dog was following a couple with two dogs taking a walk. So, she went out to get her for us! If she wouldn't have, I'm just not sure what would have happened!

The boys had their orchestra and band concerts this week, and I was so proud! Theron plays the voilin, and Shane plays the guitar in orchestra. It's funny, because when people find out they're brothers, they're shocked, since they look nothing alike. Then, the next two nights we had Theron playing percussion in band, and Shane playing the trombone. I was such a proud mom!

Now, they're off school, and we're going to make our traditional cut out cookies tomorrow. Maybe I'll take some pictures and post them.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and a safe and Happy New Year!

Great Song!

With Christmas coming up, I feel compelled to post this video. It is a song loaded with things we need to hear.

Snapshot of Military Life

You know your child is a military kid when...

It was wear your school t-shirt backwards day. We're waiting at the bus stop. I glance around, and Collin has on a different shirt than anybody else. I didn't even notice when he was getting dressed!!!!! I say, um, Collin, I think you have the wrong shirt on. He TRIES to look at his back to see what's on it, but can't! Then it hits him, oh yea, I don't go to that school anymore.

We run back home, and I drive him to school, receiving a tardy. But, it was worth it. Wearing the wrong shirt...that's just bad community relations!

She thinks she's human!!!

I'm just glad that's D's side, not mine! The blue pillow is a long story...

The Axe has fallen...

Yesterday, I spent $35 at the grocery store for varioius Axe self grooming products for two teenage boys. I mean, seriously, what happened? Just months ago, they hated girls, and never wanted to get married. Did some light switch go on? Because those were the good ole' days my friends. They have to smell good now. The shower gel matches the deoderant, which in turn has to match the body spray. I seriously hope that the teenage girls don't have allergy induced asthma people, because if they do, we might be in some serious trouble!

Fall

I just love fall. I'll say this every year if I have to. I love getting out and seeing the fall colors and taking my pictures. I got to do a little of this last weekend. It was great.

Having grown up in the area I did, we just didn't have fall. It just turned from summer to spring really. The trees just didn't change colors as much as they do in other parts of the country. I don't know if that's why I love fall so much, but I do. We can just be driving down the road, and I'll say, look boys, fall, and point to a tree. They laugh.

In unrelated news, I had a mouse in my mini van! Yes, people, you heard me correct, a mouse. How did he get in? I don't know!!!! How did he get out? I don't know!!!! He left evidence of his existance there, though. We found the hole that he's coming through in the garage, and put bait right in front of it. Later that night, D went out to the garage, and turned on the light, and there he was, chomping on the bait, just looking back at D. If he wouldn't have gotten into my mini van and had a fun little night, I'd almost feel sorry for him. I mean honestly ya'll, how did he get in there? I am possibly quite a neurotic person about things being clean. I mean, I get behind in my housework from time to time, but I like things to be clean. After work that day, I spent 4 hours cleaning out my van. I vacuumed, I wiped down every surface and sanitized it. I shampooed the entirety of the carpet. I shampooed every seat. I really want a new van now, but D says just a mouse in the van once is not a reason to buy a new one. Sniff...sniff. He's so unreasonable.

So, the very next day, I was going on base to get blood work done. Nothing wrong, just getting old, and they want to check everything. Obviously I'm on my way out and everything seeing as I'm so old. Anyway, back on track, I get to the base, and I whip out my trusty military ID card, and the guy at the gate says, "Um...ma'am (geez, enough with the old references) I'm going to have to "confiscate" your ID, it's expired. First of all, confiscate? That sounds like I'm a criminal! And second, do you really have to do that, I've been fasting for 12 hours, and I need to go get my blood taken out so that I can go pop open a Diet Dr Pepper and get on with my day! So, he tells me he has to take it, and to go get a new one. So, I go to the ID place, I get called back, sit down, and tell the nice young man that I need a new ID, and he asks me if my husband is there, because he needs to sign a whatcha ma gigger form, blah blah blah. So, I get up, say, no, he's not here, he's gone. As I'm walking away, he says gone like in deployed? No, I say over my shoulder, just at a conference. Luckily enough, they had pity on my starving soul and took my blood without my ID. That my friends was the highlight of my week.

Post Fireproof

D and I went out for our date night to go see Fireproof. We both really liked the movie. We enjoyed seeing a movie that we knew didn't have anything bad in it. We enjoyed seeing a movie with humor (it's quite funny at times), action (it has firefighting scenes), and a positive message.

When the movie finished, the entire theatre enthusiastically applauded!

Go see it. Do it. Then come back here and tell me what you thought.