Pills...

These are all the pills that are expired in my house. We are either very healthy or very sick. At least we didn't ingest all this...
See I told you I'd post every day. Aren't you glad I did?

We should have gone out of town!!!!!

This week in Washington is Spring Break and we are one of the very few lame families that did not plan a trip. We are still waiting to hear back from the Navy about getting out so I don't want to be like "Hey we just spent $800 bucks on a week long vacation but now we have to look for a house!" My brain doesn't work that way!!
So, here we are on this drizzly, cloudy morning and I am trying to think of what to do this week!
I will be blogging EVERY day for those who are not on said faraway family adventure.
We are having family blanket drive for our neighborhood for FHE and I will blog that.
I will run a 10K each day (that's like 34 miles by Friday)so I don't remain the 'chunky friend' and can someday be known just as 'volumptious'!
Jax and I will watch the entire Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings each night-till we grow hair on our own feet and start to carry around a whip when we leave the house.(I'm a nerd! I know! I LOVE those movies and he's never seen them)
We will go to the library, Bainbridge Island Aquatics, the Painting Brush (paint your own pottery) and I will again blog about those as well!
I am going to steam clean our house and attempt to create super-amazing-testimony building Easter lesson for my Young Women.
I knew when I was a kid I hated that my family never went anywhere and I swore to myself that I would be a fun mom- fast forward 20 years and here I am! Perhaps not at Disney Land but WE WILL HAVE FUN! MY KIDS ARE GOING TO HAVE GOOD MEMORIES OF SPRING BREAK AND I will get to sleep in my own comfy bed!!

HELL IS a little FROZEN OVER.

Last weekend our family went to Jaxons parents house who have a wonderland of things I've never been exposed to until I married into them. They live on a few acres in Vancouver Washington and have created a super awesome outdoor classroom for my kids just by doing what they've done for decades. They have a HUGE garden (of which we reap the benefits much more than we help!) they have a most amazing deck that we can sit in the hot tub at night and soak my (well Jaxon's) sore muscles. They also have a barn and a chicken coop.
If anyone knows me now or even worse; knew me growing up I HATE being icky. I don't mind hard work. I don't mind sweat- but I very much mind being dirty or even coming close to a animal if it doesn't have a weekly trip to the groomers. So, I would like to think that after almost six years of marriage to my Jaxon I have loosened up a tiny bit. I still don't like to be icky but now if I'm prepared for it...Ill do fine. I wear grungy clothes to their house and always put on work boots when I go out in the yard.
Enough of that....
What we did this weekend was get some baby layers (small just hatched chicks that we wont be killing-thus the name 'layers') Mom ordered a dozen but they were still cozy in their shells so we bought five more so that Korbin and Miss. Allie could still be involved and see the babies. Now we make it clear from the start that these are a food source but when they are this cute its hard not to cuddle them and name them and be in the barn all day. (they are in the barn- not the chicken coop because we have warm lights and baby food so they stay happy) SO WE DID! The one Korbin's holding is named 'Blue Yoda' because he will grow up to either lay blue eggs or have blue feathers- I don't remember!! Mine is going to be this darling black and silver specked bird so I named him (her- if its a layer its a 'lady') Armani. We had a really nice time there learning about things I would never be able to teach my children about. Its a whole different world than I know. We love going there. Next time we see those chicks they will be full grown (about 8 weeks) and might be laying us yummy eggs!!!

Picture Tag

Here is Tricia Clark's picture tag!! Its the fifth folder and the seventh picture.
This was taken at a place called Cyprus Gardens in Charleston South Carolina. Its where they filmed The Patriot and North and South and my favorite movie ever - The Notebook scene where Noah takes Allie on the boat and they see all the ducks and it starts to rain. BTW those ducks are not there in real life. They were brought in for the movie.
Anyway, that is a baby Crocodile that my dear crazy husband tried to wrangle. They got close (they: meaning him and Korbin who was only TWO) enough to pet him but he then slithered away into the black abyss of the waters. We loved that place and had a yearly pass. It had a little aquarium and reptile zoo. When we took this picture we were on a little flat bottomed paddle boat that you could take out yourself or a guided tour. There were some pretty amazing natural 'features' about Cyprus Gardens such as why the water is black. Its is from the roots of the trees that dye's the water such as tea steeps in your mug. There are a abundance of crocks who are so used to the boats sometimes they swim right along and you might never notice and in the middle of the lake thing was this huge burnt down church that looked as if it was from before the Revolutionary War. Well- It was and it wasn't. What people are actually looking at is a Styrofoam and plywood set from movie The Patriot. When the militia goes in hiding and Mel Gibson's character is melting down his son's toy soldiers for bullets. Well they are supposed to be in the remains of a actual old church that was nearby but now its private property. So they got permission to build it there. It was such a tourist attraction that the Cyprus Gardens Manager convinced them to leave it. It has fallen down since but it still gave a bit of historical romance and reverence to the dark water and bright blue sky's. I miss going there. I think it was one of the happiest times in my life.

*HELP*

HELP ME!! Jaxon and I are always trying to go on a fun date and it always ends up at Orgami Sushi and the movies. I feel like this town has a dead night life after say...5:30 pm! I can feel so ready to move its killing me- the Navy had better come through- I need to get out of here. There is just nothing here for me. Sure I've met some wonderful people but the bad far out weighs the good---anyways... Since we are praying to move I want to make sure I see/go/do some of the great things here. Yes- we've been to the Olympic Game Farm and the Coast and the Space Needle and Im running out of ideas. If you have a great idea for a date or family activity please help us! I have some amazing memories from our little outings and we need more so I can have more to scrapbook when we leave!!!

Invisible mother?

INVISIBLE MOTHER


It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the
way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and
ask to be taken to the store.

Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'

Obviously, not.

No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor,
or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at
all.

I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands,
nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a
clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer,'What
number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30,
please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the
eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude -
but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen
again. She's going; she's going; she is gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a
friend from England ..

Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on
and on about the hotel she stayed in.

I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so
well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself.

I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a
beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.'

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe ..

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her
inscription:

'To My Dear Friend, with admiration for the greatness of what you are
building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would
discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after
which I could pattern my work:

No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of
their names.

These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see
finished.

They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of
God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the
cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny
bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why
are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be
covered b y the roof? No one will ever see it.'

And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place.

It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the
sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act
of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcakeyou've
baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a
great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a
disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my
own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn
pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As
one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see
finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could
ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to
sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend
he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4
in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a
turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That
would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him
to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his
friend, to add, 'You're going to love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're
doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world
by the sacrifices of invisible women.

OK! YOUR READ THIS RIGHT??? MY TURN----

Who is this woman who allows her family to forget how amazing she is? Who are these women who don't look in the mirror and see that they are building Zion? I know that I don't think every minute of the day I'm the most stellar woman god graced with his children but I sure as heck don't go around letting my family take advantage of what I am doing for them. I just don't understand this- you teach people how to treat you. I sometimes clean the house in my pink satin high heels and tell Korbin that its Queen Mommy time and during that time I decided to help keep our house beautiful. I'd dare say that of all the people I respect MOTHER'S are my front runners! My mother- my husband's mother, and a great deal of women who I associate with all the time. These mothers are the ones who taught me un-conditional love, sacrifice, manners, respect, patience, endurance, and all other virtuous qualities that create a whole person- and they CAME FROM MOTHERS! Well, first from God but us moms are the ones who keep it going! I hope you other moms know that I think your amazing and we are building the kingdom of God and you are not invisible to me!!!

Not a lazy day person...

Today was stake conference and we are lazy parents who hate to take our kids to two hours of sacrament. Any one met Miss. Allie? We didn't go but attempted to read scriptures a bit and have little talks about Jesus or whatever came up along the day. That was the extent of our growth today.
I am still in my robe from this morning. Our kids bathed and put on new jammies and I think will have watched the entire Lord of the Rings on TNT. Yeah- Great kid movie huh? I am not a fan of this. I don't like me lazy. I don't like anyone lazy. Jax and I suck like this. We aren't fun or engaged with the kids we are just icky T.V. parents. If there are people who actually live like this everyday I'm glad I don't know them because I would go crazy. I hate how I feel not 'on-the-ball' in the slightest. You might think I am sick or upset but... nope-just plain lazy! Tomorrow I will have a busy productive day and will totally make up for today. You know the saying 'Live each day like its your last' I agree. I agree on every other day but today. Tomorrow Ill agree!
On a side note- We have a very real possibility of getting out of the Navy this coming summer and it would really work out well for our family. (we can't wait to leave this place) Say a prayer for us!! I'll let you know the very minute our contract with the Devil changes!!