Mama On The Move

Impressive, isn't it?

Kerry was only on the island for six weeks before he deployed. We went to a few beaches and museums before he left, but most of our explorations and discoveries have taken place since then. With his joyful return to the island we set out to show him the beautiful beaches, majestic mountains, and rich cultural heritage of Hawaii. So, of course, our first stop was the water park . Hawaiian Waters was recently bought out by Wet 'N Wild. It's a small water park but has some truly fabulous rides. I hear they are planning to expand into the surrounding eight acres but haven't officially confirmed it, so don't quote me. One of the first things we tried was the FlowRider. It shoots out jets of water that you can surf or boogie board on. There are many, many people who clearly spend a large portion of their lives on this ride. We watched in awe as young men surfed back and forth across the waves, tilting their boards so that they zoomed from one side to the other, spraying all t...

We decided to play a round of Cranium one night since Kerry is home. Katie and I were on a team together and Kerry and Emily were on a team together. Katie had drawn a card which said she had to sculpt a molar out of playdoh. I had to guess what it was. The only clue I had was that it was a thing . We had done this same type of thing earlier in the game when Katie had to sculpt a pizza and I guessed it correctly. My clue that time had been food . So this time I at least knew that the thing would not be a food . So Katie pulled off a hunk of playdoh and starts molding it into a small blob. I couldn't tell what it was. It was small and oval-ish and she was making little points on top of it and I wasn't getting it. I started calling out random small round objects. "Pebble!" "Jelly Bean!" "BOOGER!" "No!" Emily yelled helpfully. "It's not a food!"

Dogs don't really have a sense of time. They don't know it's been over six months since they've seen him. They only know it's been a long time, and boy have they missed him!

Well...I finally made it home after 31 hours on a plane! The trip was long and exhausting...but I am finally here enjoying the Hawaii that I have been hearing so much about while I have been gone. (Remember...I was only here for 6 weeks before I deployed). I was scheduled to leave on a Saturday and a large group of us arrived for our briefing/flight information and were informed that our flight had been cancelled. Not delayed. Cancelled. Not a good thing to hear. Actually, the airman who told us asked us if we wanted to good news or the bad news first. We said the bad news and he told us that the flight was cancelled. He then smugly informed us that the good news was that there was always tomorrow. I would have chosen another method of delivery because this poor airman was almost mugged on the spot. We finally left our base and flew four hours to Kuwait. There we waited a total of 28 hours in a sweltering tent with no phones or Internet until we finally boarded a contracted airline for...

We've been counting the months, the weeks, the days and the hours and finally , R&R has arrived! It wasn't easy though. Soldiers do not just get on a plane and fly home for a two week vacation. They have to take a series of flights because they are coming from so far away and in some areas there are no operating airlines. They must rely on military aircraft part of the way. For security purposes, they are not told their flight schedule until the last possible minute. We had a rough idea of when he might be arriving, but nothing specific. And by "rough idea" I don't mean we weren't sure if he was arriving at 3:00 or 4:00. I mean we had a five day window in which we knew he should probably arrive. The first setback came when he called to say his first flight was cancelled. Not delayed. Cancelled . He was still at his home base and had to go on into work since he was there anyway. Then, hallelujah, he called a day later to say he was on his way and he knew e...

Ben is at the upper left in the white tee shirt. The moms were having a meeting and the kids just decided to make their own entertainment.

So, if you haven't read my previous post about re-decorating Ben's room while he was at camp, you need to go read it now or this post won't make as much sense. My friend Kim and I worked hard all week, making the girls rooms fit for habitation. This is Katie's room before the make over: Not the best picture, I know. When I took this picture, I wasn't intending to put it on the blog, I was just sending pictures to Kerry of what our house looks like with furniture in it. This is the same corner of her room as seen in the previous picture. I found an ocean themed play tent and made her an "ocean corner". New shelves gave her a LOT more storage space. A palm tree on one wall for some ambiance. She also got a new comforter and pillows, as well as the princess hanging over her bed which is draped with flowers which light up when plugged in. This isn't the comforter I wanted originally. I found one on line which was exactly what I wanted; it was $39.99 o...

While Ben was gone to camp for two weeks, I decided to "spruce up" his room a bit. Poor Ben is stuck in what used to be the "maid's quarters". It is two 6x6 rooms with a shower in between them and no closet. We made one of the small rooms his actual bedroom, with a bed and a wardrobe so he would have a place to hang clothes. I giggle when say that because Ben doesn't put anything on a clothes hanger unless threatened. The other room is his "TV room". I knew he wouldn't like anything "girly" or (heaven forbid) pretty in his room, so I tried to stick to an ocean theme and didn't add anything Chuck Norris would be opposed to. I added a poster of a scuba diver and a poster of sharks. Very non-girly. I found these cool weathered looking letters at Pier 1. I was just going to spell out "Ben", but my friend Kim came up with the idea to spell "Surf". I so lack that kind of vision when it comes to decorating. I got ...

One of the best spelling resources I've found recently is a site called Spelling City. My kids each have a spelling and vocabulary list they have to work on each week. At www.spellingcity.com they can type in their list on Monday and then play games on the site using the words in their word list each day. By Friday, they've had enough practice spelling the words and are ready to test. One of the games is a fill-in-the-blank type chart. This helps with vocabulary as well as using the word in a sentence. Spelling City can also may a crossword puzzle, or a word search out of your spelling list. My favorite game is "Hang Mouse" which is a variation of the "Hangman" game we used to play when I was a kid. In this version you pick letters until you've figured out the spelling word. When you pick a correct letter, the mouse sneaks over and takes a piece of cheese. If you pick an incorrect letter, the cat wakes up a little more each time until he fina...

There is nothing, nothing , like taking a swig of your child's drink at the movies only to discover it is an equal parts combo of Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, lemonade, and fruit punch.

First, get him in the tub. OR........................ Take him to Petco and let them bathe him, trim his nails, and brush his teeth. They will even put a nifty little bow on his collar.

For week two, we would be teaching the kids under the supervision of supervisors (that's a mouthful). My group was supposed to be me, Matt, Travis, and Colby under the supervision of Brinton but one of the girls groups had their clubs canceled. So, we had a combined group of me, Matt, Colby, Travis, Karese, Dana, and Kayla, under the supervision of Brinton and Sarah. Yay! More helpers! Less work! Our group had the most interesting day club.... homeless children! The weird thing was, out of all the kids I taught this summer, these were the most well behaved of them all; the older kids even reminded the younger ones to behave. Awesome! I only had to teach a lesson once, since we had so many kids, but I was put in charge of games almost every day - fine with me! I think I was more of the "friend" than the "boss", because the kids called us Mr. Matt, Mr. Travis, Uncle Colby, Miss Karese, Mrs. Dana, Auntie Kayla, and.... Ben. We also had the largest group of kids; we...

Okay, you seriously have to wonder about a teenage boy when he puts on his pants Sunday morning and does not realize until after we are at church that he is wearing the jeans he fantastically ripped while jumping off a roof at summer camp. Thank goodness he had on a shirt long enough to cover it. Seriously.

Katie loves to be called "cute". She lives and breathes for someone to say how cute she is. She will often ask me to recall events such as, "Mama, remember that time we were in the store and a lady said I was the cutest thing she'd ever seen? Tell me that story." I'm often telling her I would much rather have someone tell me that she's kind, or smart, or polite than cute . This morning I told her to go brush her hair because we needed to leave for Bible study. Ten minutes later I can look at her and tell a brush has not even been waved in her direction. "But Mama," she tells me when I start to fuss, "I want people to notice my inner beauty , not my outer beauty!" Great. Now I've apparently given her an excuse to look like white trash.