Short lived....

We are all saying goodbye again to Daddy-O for a few more weeks...  *sigh* 

On a brighter note...  the sun is actually shining these days...despite a little rain.

Thats about all I can muster up tonight.

He's home!

After nearly 6 weeks away he came home...and we just couldn't get enough of him...

Under the Sea...

Definition:  8 year old birthday party: 
Thinking its a good idea to bring lots of children into your house and load them up with sugar while attempting to entertain them with endless games...

Ok...so maybe thats a better definition of exhausted. 

We had Maddie's 8th birthday party yesterday with some of her girlfriends from school.  So, while we had one no-show we ended up with 5 little girls that are FULL of energy and had a fabulous party day.

We started off the morning with my two best girls getting ready for the party...

I had spent the night before getting all the decorations up and blowing up balloons and setting up the tables.  We had streamers and under the sea decor and pin the fish in the shark's mouth...

I had also made Maddie's cake the day before.  She wanted a sandcastle cake.  Aiya!  I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.  Its just a plain white cake and I used crushed graham cracker for the sand.

When John first saw the photo of it his comment was, "Oh, look...the waves got to it a little."  ha ha ha  you think you are so funny. 

Maddie was sosososososososososososososososso excited.  She waited in anticipation near the door for the first friend to show up.  It wasn't long before we had a whole pile of girls in the house and it was time to get started with games!

We played chubby bunny with strawberry marshmallows. 

Is anyone surprised that Maddie won this game with the biggest mouth?  She fit three whole marshmallows in her mouth and was still able to muster a chubby bunny.  She chose the beautiful dolphin statue that I got at a German 1 euro store.  I forgot to remove the price tag and when she saw it she was AMAZED that it was such a precious piece that cost sooo much.  I suppose if you check out the exchange rate she's not all that far off.  ha ha ha

We played jungle knot...They got bored with that really fast...

So we moved on to the balloon race with your noses...

Our poor small living room had never seen so much action in one day.   Even Bella got in on the action, but all the little girls demanded that she couldn't win because she didn't play right.  Poor bella...doesn't she look like she's miserable for not playing right?

We finished the games off with TWISTER....

And we all know how twister ends up...

The main activity of the day was decorating t-shirts.  They each got their very own high-label brand PBX basics (standard PX clothing...ha ha ha) white t-shirt and went to town decorating.  Our "right hand" assistant Miss Jennie was a wonderful helper and sat in the middle to ensure that nobody decorated the carpet or themselves with the markers.

The girls looked absolutely adorable in their shirts.  We had to have a photo.  I'll print one up for each of them and have Maddie deliver them at school next week...

Everyone is ready to EAT at this point...so we put the pizza in the oven and had Maddie open her presents.  She loved what she received...the funniest gift was a $20 bill from one of her friends...I think soldier dad didn't have time to get a gift so a $20 bill it was.  She also got a make your own doll kit, art supplies, new earrings and a necklace, lipgloss, and the Princess and the Frog DVD.

We sang Happy Birthday to Maddie - most of the girls told her she looked like a monkey and smelled like on too.  I used to think that version was sooooo dang funny.  I'm glad its still funny to 7/8 year olds.  Maddie blew out her candles and we cut the cake...

  Bella went into sugar shock.

So we sent everyone outside to play while we waited for parents to show up and cart their sugar infused children home...

It was a great day...afterward mama and Bella took a 3 hour nap and Maddie read.  Ahhhh...a great finish to a great day...

2 teeth in one week

What a smile!

The tooth fairy left quite the tower of coins at our house this week.  Two teeth in one week.  Now that is quite the cash haul...

Political stuff that makes me laugh...

I have an announcement.  I am not excited about Obama's new health plan.  I think it STINKS and yes...I actually started to read the 900 pages of it and probably got farther along than congress did before it all started swirling in my head.

That being said...I recently received some politically charged emails that made me laugh and I had to just share...because really, when it comes down to it....you have to laugh or we'd all be unibombers. 

Maxine's view of the healthcare plan...

Now, let me get this straight......we're trying to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also is exempt from it and hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.

Whats the problem?

And then I got a second one with a series of photos from a rally in Chicago with some very clever sign makers...

Ok...I don't care what political party you support or how much you love or don't love the president and our ELECTED officials...(I had to capitalize that because we complain and yet keep sending back the SAME PEOPLE)  but those signs were dang funny.

No more crazy unibomber people.  Get your aggression out by making a funny sign. 

Just call him CHIEF!

John was promoted!  Whoooooohooooo! 

Other than the obvious benefit of more moolah Bella and I actually got to attend the promotion ceremony held at the training grounds. 

Yesterday morning I had us all packed up and ready to go.  We stopped by clothing sales to pick up a couple of pairs of boot socks and the new rank and then headed out the gate...

Oh wait...whats that grunting I hear?  Quick detour back home for a diaper change and NOW we're off! 

We had about an hour to drive and the road were pretty clear...for the first 15 miles and then Karen, our friendly GPS voice lady, directed me onto these back country roads that had big patches of 2 foot snowdrifts, winds and curves and sure enough...20 minutes out from the training grounds Bella barfs all over her jacket, dress, tights and shoes. 

AIYA!

Its about 10 degrees outside so I'm trying to clean her up as best I can without freezing her to death and she's crying and crying...so I finally make her a bottle and tuck her under my heavy coat and she immediately went to sleep...for the last 20 minutes.

I stopped at the PX to use their bathroom and to buy Bella a new shirt...(that will teach me to not pack a full array of extra clothes for her!)  She looked adorable...

When she saw John is was a little sad...she didn't recognize him because he was wearing his goggles...she immediately tried to take them off...but really - do you blame her?  It only took a few minutes for her to regroup and then she went into Daddy's arms and wrapped her little arms around his neck and gave him a big hug. It was wonderful to see.

The promotion ceremony was really nice.  John was pinned by one of his mentors from Ft. Huachuca who is at the same training he is at and will be deploying with their group.  The Colonel made some nice comments and everybody gave handshakes and congratulations.

At the end, someone said, "Hey Chief....you need to kiss someone...so its either the Colonel or your wife!"  And that let us have a great smooch at the end.

One of the soldiers was taking photos so she will send them to me when she gets a chance...low priority for their training exercise...and when I get them I'll post them.  But until then -

Congratulations CHIEF!  I am sooooo proud of you!

We thought spring was on the way...

While Maddie has been at school, Bella and I have been taking advantage of this fabulous weather.  Sunshine and warm enough for just a hoodie...not too much mud on the ground and no wind.  It was springtime and we were sooooo happy about it!

And so we planned a morning trip to the Hollohe Wildlife Park.  I thought it would be fun because Bella is at the age where feeding goats and seeing live animals would be exciting for her.

Wouldn't you know it...

Yup - it started snowing.  Now granted it was a nice light fluffy snow, but it was sooooo cold we had to cut our trip short to only 1.5 hours...  We did see a couple of fun animals and Bella still had fun running around...

NOT lovin' the (step)Mom gig...

So, Madeline is in detention for lunch/recess hours this week because she and two other little boys collaborated on a note that was very inappropriate and mean and they gave it to a little girl in their class. 

This is the same little girl Maddie and I had a big talk about on Saturday because her mom had told me she was having a hard time with kids being mean to her.  Maddie had assured me that she would be her "best friend" this week to help her feel better.

**where is that grumpy snarly icon when I need it?**

So, after a visit to the principal's office and detention for this whole week she's ALSO in hot water here at home...she's grounded until Monday.  Unfortunately this is the week we had a million great activities planned.  So now not only is SHE grumpy, but I'm grumpy.  But, learning this lesson is more important than the activities we had planned so I will suffer through the week...and pray for lots of sunshine so at the very least Bella and I can spend time outside in the yard playing while miss trouble is doing extra chores!

Lovin' the (step)MOM gig...

Oh yeah...you don't hear me say that often, but today was a stellar day.  Sunshine, rollerskates, a pink soccer ball and so much fun with my girls.

You know...funny enough I also got an email from a friend that happened to meet Cruella...apparently Cruella is singing my praises these days...

I guess that can't be helped...you can't very well continue to condemn a woman as abusive and neglectful when you want her to take care of you child for you so you can do...well, whatever it is you do now that she's not around.

But enough about her...lets go back to ME.  We had a great day, me and the girls.  I'm lovin' bein a mom these days.