Happy Easter!

Here's our day, in an "eggshell"...

We started off with an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard for all the boys, below is Loch in the back, and friend "T" who lives next door.  Last year I remember dressing them in winter coats at 6 am, today... shorts - it was 89º today!

Here's the boys with their bounty

There's been a lot of talk amongst my blogger friends this week about their Easter traditions and it made me think, and we don't really have any...

So I made one up - 

Below, prepping for the 1st Annual Peep Shoot!

I know some of you love the Peeps, but we hate 'em!  The only good Peep is a dead Peep as far as I'm concerned, so we set 'em up for a lovely Redneck Easter :)

As Chicken Mama told me earlier today, "that's sick & twisted" LOL - but that's how we roll :) - and I know if she was here she'd shoot Peeps, too!

The boys had a blast!  Above is Loch, always serious...

Below, Finn in his combat pose...  (check his outfit, he dressed himself)

Below, neighbor "T" getting some instruction on BB gun skills from hubby, for his 1st time he was a pretty good shot!

Poor Purple Peep...

  

After a lunch break, it was back out to hit the sprinklers, it was that hot!

Marley was a mess, I wasn't too keen on her getting this dirty, but she is a farm dog forced to live in the suburbs, and was having a huge amount of fun for such an old gal, how could I say no?

No Marley vs. sprinkler day is complete without a few neurotic dog videos (some of you may remember her obsession about hoses), so here you go:

In between all this, hubby and I managed to get a huge amount of work done in the yard.  My energy came back at least for today, and we did a lot of chores that have been on my list for a long time.  The kind that always get kicked to the bottom of the list:  a burn barrel going, cleaning the woodpile, raking up leaves and pinestraw from behind the sheds where no one goes, cleaning up random objects back there like broken patio umbrellas, trellises, PVC pipe... do any of you have these dumping grounds?  Not sure how I'll feel tomorrow, but today was very productive.

We finished it off with low-key burgers on the grill in the backyard with the neighbors, a really nice evening.  The kids played today until they were ragged, and I think they will sleep well.  Good thing, since Spring Break is over today and it's back to school tomorrow, YAY for me!

Below, Finn & T dining al fresco, about 82º at 5 pm, beautiful weather...

On this day we celebrate LIFE, and I hope you all had a great day in church, with family, friends, or just celebrating the life around you that Spring brings. Even though we are apart from extended family, we have hubby/daddy home with us this year and are very thankful for that.  Our thoughts are with those that are deployed and serving our country right now so hubby can take his turn with us!

From Redneck VA - Happy Easter to all y'all!

kids

I haven't posted much about what the kids have been up to lately - but they are keeping me busy as usual!  Last week was the school Book Fair that we always go to since the prices and selection are great.  Loch is such an avid reader we have to stock up when prices are good, he likes fiction that we can always get at the library too but he also likes to have a lot of non fiction reference type books that he reads and refers to all the time so I never mind spending money on those.  Finn is just beginning to learn to read, so this is the first book fair where he got to select books to read himself instead of me or Loch reading to him.  They always have a great selection of the beginning level readers.

We didn't purchase these, since my kids are pretty keenly aware of this stuff already living in a military family (their uncle is also boots on the ground in Iraq and has flown missions in Afghanistan), but I thought it a worthy comparison to what types of material kids read in other parts of the country... can you tell we live in a 90% military town LOL?!

What saddens me is that save for about 5 families the book fair was a ghost town.  Considering how large his school is, there were a few kids in there that happened to be in the after school care program, browsing, but where were all the parents and families interested in reading and their kids?  It is so important to us that hubby even fanagled his way home early from work so we can all go together.  It would be so sad to see events like this disappear due to lack of participation.  The kids sure seem to want to be there, but where are the parents?

Right after the book fair we had to hustle to Loch's classroom to get him dressed for his school program. The 2nd Graders did a program about Egypt, which is what they have been learning about.  

Loch is 2nd row down, all the way to the left.  Check out the "mummy" behind him LOL - poor kid was messing with that toilet paper the whole program, trying to see and/or breathe!  Apparently the other kids got to help with his costume :)

I asked him what the "lightbulbs" were on their heads, and he replied they are snakeheads, like cobras... really?!  LOL, they did make their own costumes though, so bravo!

Loch is the "narrator"...listen carefully, he's fast!

A sign of the times:  Finn kept calling the mummies "zombies"!  Zombies sure are everywhere these days.

The photo below shows what I have resorted to at home to keep them occupied while I ransack their room, redecorating.  Yep, I got my kids owl poop to dig through LOL!

In all seriousness, this is pretty cool and right up their alley as far as science goes.  It is a "synthetic owl pellet" in a little package containing the skeleton of a starling, which is something that would normally be found in an owl pellet.  They dig through it all, pulling out the tiny bones, and glue together the skeleton of the little bird.  They got as far as retrieving all the bones, the rest will wait until daddy can help them this weekend.  (Little boys and super glue tubes don't mix well unsupervised!)

Finn above, checking out the bones.  Below is the owl "pellet".

For the furry kids, last night was bath night!  Poor Sprocket the Outback Jack looks like a drowned rat, although she loves it.

Marley doesn't care for it much but she puts up with it since she's "the good dog".

I finished the jammie pants for Loch.  Notice the lack of jammie shirt?  Yeah, I'm done with those LOL. From now on, jammie pants for everyone and we'll just use white tshirts or something, those sewn ones are a pain, I'm definitely not ready for v-necks, although with a few more mitered quilt bindings' worth of experience, I may be ready to try the v-neck again someday.  Poor Loch, I went to the fabric store to look for something he'd like, namely chess pieces or math equations - of course there was none of that, so I ended up with dinosaurs.   "Dinos?  Really, Mom?"!  But he is my kind and patient one, happy with whatever he gets, I wish some of that would rub off on Finnegan.

With that miscellaneous update, I now have to do a speed clean of my floors and bathroom and get outside!  With temps scheduled to hit 66 today and 80 tomorrow, I need to put everything indoors on hold and get out in the garden, there's still so many prep chores to be done.  Sunday looks to be cold and rainy so that will be our kitchen painting day hopefully.

note to self?

Spotted today while cleaning the kids' room...

Apparently Loch made himself a "Notes" board, below

There was one note taped on it...

p.s.  hey Loch, I bet Finn doesn't like you, either!  

(I might add that they share a room LOL!)

Calling all country music songwriters!

In need of some material? We're living it right now. The kids came home Wednesday night to start their 4 day weekend, and I thought we would be able to carve some fun time in somewhere, but the deployment fairy "Jody" has gained entrance into our lives yet again, and it looks like no fun will be had. Up until a few minutes ago I thought it was Sunday already thankfully, but nooooo, it's only Friday. Yep, it's been a long 24 hours.

Yesterday started out well. After starting a pair of socks with some on-farm spun alpaca, I decided it was the most fantastic thing since heirloom tomatoes, and I just MUST go back and buy it all (there were 2 more skeins of that particular hand dyed batch), I have a lot of Christmas gifts to knit! So off we went to the yarn store, and I couldn't believe it - the kids were good! I prefer NOT to take them unless it's a "fiber emergency". One of the gals at the store let them wind the balls and they couldn't stop talking about it!

Finn getting to spin the "thingamajig"

Loch had a "oopsies!" moment and had to untangle

They are pretty familiar with where yarn comes from and even know the difference between synthetics and natural fiber, probably thanks to me being somewhat of a fiber snob.

They did however, want to know what an alpaca was. Loch even asked if it was "like a llama", which impressed me. I told him that it was similar to a llama and showed them a photo.

They liked this one because it looked like Sprocket!

I told them about the reason alpaca wool is superior to other wools, that alpacas are "new" to our country, and also filled them in on the differences between them and llamas, and they were pretty interested to learn that llamas are fierce guard "dogs"! I wish we lived somewhere they could experience them first hand, someday...

Speaking of Sprocket...

this is what happens to a herding dog with no JOB - worthless!

After that, it was all downhill. We had a dinner date with BFF and her kids last night after music lessons. While at lessons, Finn started complaining he was hungry and didn't look too good. We left there and just as we got out of the car at the restaurant I heard the characteristic belch and whipped a bag in front of his face just in time - sick! I have never had to deal with a child vomiting anywhere outside our own home, and I guess my lucky streak is over, and my friends who have are probably laughing at me now. I am prepared, though - every time I have been to the hospital for surgery (which is actually many times!) I snag every one of those blue sick bags and stash them. I've got a stash in my purse and in the car LOL. He actually had to use it yet again on the way home, another first for my car. I am however, very proud of him in that he never missed in the car or the house! When we got home he was so cute, he got the "sick chair" (beanbag) out of the closet, set it up in the bathroom with some books and his little stuffed penguin. He was sick about every 20 minutes from 6 pm until 12:50 pm - I remember the time since I didn't go to sleep until about 3 am for fear that I wouldn't hear him if he needed me, even though he was in bed next to me.

Here he is at about 9 pm, I was thankful he fell asleep but it didn't last long.

I'm not much for coddling my kids, but I felt really bad for him, they don't get sick often, so it really surprises and worries me. Luckily he was better this morning and I was able to get all surfaces in the house sprayed and wiped down, but when I moved on to the laundry...

P.O.S.!!!!! After 5 years of nothing but problems, it's officially dead. I'll be damned if I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on "gotta order a part" for it to "not be fixed" yet again! This will have to wait for hubby to get back.

Which brings me to this...

The kids thought this was great fun... glad someone liked it. Earlier, I had Loch give me all his quarters and he made me write him and I.O.U., hahaha, but found that apparently laundromats have changed in the past 20 years LOL. Check out the above photo, see the card? Yep, it's a laundry "credit card". I had to swipe my credit card in a machine and it spits out a loaded prepaid "washing card". WTF?? I should consider myself lucky that we found a place in the "good side of da hood" to do our laundry. I had no idea where laundromats were even located at here until this, and lemme tell ya, it ain't good! It's not a college town here, either, so they are pretty much all located in "other parts of town". I guess I should consider myself lucky then that I don't have one in my neighborhood LOL.

So let's sum it up. As of today, we have one bad muffler on hubby's car - rendering it illegal for use, part of the backyard fence is broken, my car desperately needs new tires, washing machine is broken, sick kid, property taxes are due, and a partridge in a pear tree! But for some reason, I'm not freaking out. Last deployment I was beside myself with near panic attacks from all the stuff that broke down.

What's the difference this time? Knitting - and YOU! Seriously, I have been so busy knitting I'm just ignoring everything else, and last deployment, I wasn't blogging yet. I really feel you all have helped me stay connected in what otherwise is basically 7 months of being alone with 2 kids. Not going to get sappy, I'll save that for a post when I'm feeling sappy-ish... but thank you all for your blogging, commenting, and just being out there, it helps many more people than you think!

This time, I'm going to do what every irresponsible person would do: spend money on new tires, and get us home for the holidays for a much needed vacation. To hell with the rest for now!

My new outlook:

The washing machine is broken. So what? The world won't end, consider myself lucky there is such a thing as a laundromat, use it until hubby gets home and either fixes it or we find out how to buy another, cheaper, "old school" kind that actually works

The Forester's muffler is shot. Well, it's hubby's car, not mine. He's not even here right now.

The Outback needs tires - ok, I'll get them, I have over a month to do this, it'll work out.

Sick kid - yay! I'm thinking "better now than on vacation"!

Property taxes are due - yeah, whatever...

Don't feel bad for me, this is a breakthrough, I'm learning to cope! And before you think "what a string of bad luck...", it could be way worse, like last deployment when every major appliance in mine & my tenants house broke, my ceiling caved in (really!), and the siding and fence blew away in a hurricane. This stuff happens to every military spouse everywhere, everything always happens on deployment, I think it's a test of some kind. Well I'm going to pass it, damnit!

Come heck or high water (speaking of we are having tidal flooding LOL), we are going home for Christmas! When people ask "where are you going when you get through deployment?", instead of saying "Disneyworld!" like the commercials, we will reply "we're going to Minnesota!" - where "it could always be worse"... (probably only Minnesotans are going to get that LOL)

One coping strategy that is going to happen in 45 minutes: kids are going to bed early tonight!

So do I have the makings of a good ol' country sob song? :)

It's National Finnegan Day!

Finnegan was a Citizen of the Month at his school, today was the monthly award ceremony, and he was so proud! This is the first time he has been recognized "publicly" at school so I think he was pretty 'stoked!

Finn with his Vice Principal

Enjoying the ice cream reward! He also received a coupon for a free dinner at Baker's Crust, and the standard license plate frame for me to declare my kid superior to the world.... you know the ones! Haha that means I'll have to take off the one that says my dog is smarter than your kid!

Thought I would share the school hallways...

Tons of murals like the one below decorate the school... can you tell 90% of the students are military? Finn is literally greeted at the front door every day with a reminder of where daddy is!

I am proud to say that our school DOES say the Pledge of Allegiance every day... I think the all the military parents would stage a coup if it wasn't done.

Below is a photo of what happens on a weekly basis at our school, these are coats for kids in need.

I want to take a minute and tell you about some of the great things our elementary school does. Our school is HUGE to me, 10 kindergarten classes alone, very different than the small town I grew up in. It is one of dozens of elementary schools in our district, so I was very nervous about sending my kids to public school when the time came, but I have been so happy with our school! It was designated Title I awhile back, so I was nervous about that, but it can be a wonderful thing - our class sizes average only about 10 kids per class, and there are tons of tutors and extra teachers and labs for the kids. When I walk into this huge school, it somehow feels comfortable and small, and I have never once encountered a staff member who wasn't friendly and helpful, and on occasion I have watched even cafeteria workers and other staff with the students when they "didn't know" they were being watched, and it's probably the most respectful teaching & support staff I've ever seen, my "small town school" included! Our school does all this while meeting a huge challenge, we have the highest homeless population in the district. This is due to our close proximity to the oceanfront and the campgrounds, etc that are frequented and the climate that is a bit more hospitable than places north of here. Instead of ignoring this fact, our school has embraced these students and really taken big steps to help these kids stay in school. One of the things they do is a food program to help out these kids & families. For homeless kids, after they eat their school lunch on Friday, many might not eat again until Monday at school. Every Friday our school takes donated food and places it in school-type backpacks for qualifying children and they are simply able to pick it up discretely at the end of the day to bring home for the weekend. The backpacks are reused from week to week and I think is a huge improvement over the "food bags" done in other places which are often not used because they are easily identifiable and thus a cause for teasing. We don't have periodic food drives, they go all year long! Coats and things for kids can be donated and go directly to needy children based on teacher observations or parent request. I think we have such a large donation participation for the homeless because there are so many military families here, we often think "there but by the grace of God, go I...", we are used to moving often, not being able to form lasting friendships locally, and are completely dependent on the government for our "just adequate" income. One more thought on the homeless issue, we are home to the largest Naval Hospital in the world, so many of the homeless are here because they earned the right as a veteran to health care, and this is where it is located at, but no one ever guarantees a home for our returning injured and disabled veterans.

Another cool thing, our school has weekly deployment "support groups" for kids with a deployed parent, a place for them to talk to a counselor about any behavior issues, anger, sadness that they are feeling, and be with other kids going through the same. They get help with their homework too if they need it.

You think military spouses are strong? See the mom below in her cammies? 8 moms dressed like this in today's gathering, imagine being a mom and having to leave your kids for 7-12 months at a time... now that's strong! I am glad that I got out of the military before I had kids, because I'm not sure I could have juggled all of that stress!

Okay, thanks for letting me rant about our school! I've wanted to write about it for awhile, but it seemed boring to everyone else LOL. I just really feel the need to express thanks for all the school does and since hubby and the grandparents are 1200 miles and half a world away, I want them to know that we really aren't "sacrificing" being stationed here... the school is great!

One more FANTASTIC FIND at the thrift shop today!

I considered myself lucky if I could even find a cheap pair of crummy snowpants here in Virginia, since we have no need for them with no snow... but holy cow look at this for $6.99! Minnesota Christmas, here we come, you better have snow!

Must be another northern family like us that was transplanted here! I want to say "thanks" for donating these, whoever you are! I'll be sure to return the favor for another misplaced northern family once Loch & Finn grow out of them! We usually have them just freeze solid on the trip home and hit Fleet Farm as we roll into town LOL!

Since I was so proud of Finnegan today..... I decided to treat everyone to a round of flu shots! My poor kids, they got a raw deal - I am the polar opposite of a bleeding heart mommy, as I sat there grinning and saying things like "sweet, I can't wait to get a shot", and "shots are awesome!"....

Finn wasn't buying it, this was taken BEFORE the shot LOL

Loch's like me, he didn't care at all!

So there's our day, now we need to eat a rush dinner and head out to a meeting for our squadron's family support group, where we will be rationed information on a need-to-know basis LOL, gotta love being married to the government!

Speaking of the guv'ment, funny thing I wanted to mention the other day, one of our local political candidates' slogans was "NO Means NO"... yeah, I don't get it either, suffice it to say he didn't win!

So raise a glass to National Finnegan Day! Doesn't that sound like a good Irish drinking holiday? If it's not yet, I bet it will be by the time he steps foot into college life!

Especially for Grandma, Grandpa & Daddy!

They just started working on these today!

I did it!

Thing 1's Halloween Costume!

Some of you may know that I am terrified of my sewing machine. I don't have the proper credentials to be let anywhere near it, yet I have been sleeping next to it for years, it being tucked away in the bowels of my closet. I have used it on limited occasions, ONLY for emergency sewing on of patches for my husband's uniform. The few times I have attempted to become friendly with this piece of machinery I have been left in tears and near complete psychotic breakdown.

Now let's talk about my mom, she can sew anything, and she has been doing it on the same machine since the late what - 60's, mom? I'm not positive but I think she made her lovely wedding dress when she was just out of high school. (Maybe my mom will come out of the woodwork and comment finally to set me straight!) I'm no dummy, but my mom is a genius - pretty much in every subject I can think of, but now that I'm older I realize sewing is ROCKET SCIENCE and she is the goddess of the rocket. Not quite sure how I didn't get any of her genes and am left cowering in the corner while my sewing machine laughs. Last time my mom came out to visit she took a look at the machine, kind of laughed when I said it had never been oiled or anything (it's now 19 years old!), said the tension was all hosed up and tried to fix it for me. I think honestly I may have an easier time with a nicer piece of crap machinery but I can't really justify buying a new one until I make at least something!

A couple of months ago I gave my machine a proper place out in the open, thinking that would inspire me. So for awhile I have been forced to become friendly with it every time I walk to the back door, giving it wide berth, of course. It's next to my computer, so I am used to glancing sideways at it by now, checking to see what it's doing. I can't do anything unless I am organized, so I spent last week gathering what supplies I had out of hubby's old tackle boxes (stop laughing at me!) and stole a rolling cart from the kids Lego stash, and put all my things together. At Apple Pie Gal's suggestion, I purchased a decent pair of scissors and hid them away from the others! I was the worst offender, though - my scissors are used on everything from meat to paper to tomato stems LOL, I'm really bad about that! APG, you really did motivate me to conquer my fear! As a side note, if any of you want to start sewing and don't quite know where to start, Apple Pie Gal did a couple of posts on the basics (each link is a different post), definitely worth a detour when you are done here!

I don't have a spare bedroom or closet for that matter, so here is my little setup, just to the right of my computer area, the lighting is kind of jacked in this photo. That is probably the most basic machine there is LOL!

But from that, drumroll please.... I made THIS! I'm so proud of myself I'm just giddy!  BUT, I free-formed this so I still have yet to read a pattern and make something "for real"!

After calling my mom and bombarding her with questions about reading patterns, tension stuff, "why do I have 3 presser feet?", and "what the hell is bias tape?" I am now ready to tackle my first real "project". I am going to make an apron! I know some of you rocket scientists are laughing now but hey, a girl's gotta start somewhere, right?! And Mama Pea, brace yourself for the barrage of questions soon coming your way LOL!

On to today - Military Appreciation Day at the Zoo! Free to all military and families, there was about 10,000 people there today!

How cool is this? Our kids ran ahead and jumped into this aviary/climbing area and L and I looked at each other and immediately thought the same thing - we need one of those, with a BIG padlock!

Below, the "pseudo-cousins"! They have all been together since birth so they are just like family.

The boys again.... yep, that's all we get - BOYS. No ponytails, dresses, dolls, girl-time... we get to have instead dirt, fights, potty-talk, legos and permanently skinned knees!

I thought tomato season was done but I found a red tomato in the one pot I left outside today! This is the first time I have had a tomato at the same time as greens this year! It was way too hot for lettuces this summer. So tonight was taco night with real stuff from the garden, yay!

Unrelated to anything, but I thought the marketing here was clever. I got an L.L. Bean Outerwear catalog yesterday and this was on the label:

I wonder if they do this everywhere? I can't imagine people in Minnesota and New York, etc need anyone reminding them of what winter temps can be, but maybe they are worried that I wouldn't remember that day it was 16º (I don't)! LOL....