We're in the Army now

Friday night Scott finally went through his big black boxes that have been sitting untouched since he came back from Afghanistan.

The girls in some of Scott's old hats, gloves, and his OCS ascot.















Haley in a Captain's hat.















Haley showing Scott's Bronze Star















Haley showing one of Scott's ARCOMs















Little O

Quick funny story

Arden, who many of you know is Owen's girlfriend, has taken quite a liking to raisins lately. Eating a lot of raisins will make you toot, but I'm sure this is pretty common knowledge. Anyway, in the past day or so Arden has eaten almost 2 of the small boxes of raisins, which is quite a lot for someone just 15 months old. So tonight Amber put her in the tub and Arden tooted a couple of times and then all of a sudden 5 raisins shot out of her beehienie. Unfortunately (and when I say 'unfortunately' in this case I mean it with all my heart...) we have no photo evidence of this spectacular event, but it happened nonetheless. I was on the phone with Amber and heard the commotion and the hollering and the wailing, as Arden no doubt thought there were bugs in her bathwater about to get her.

Owen is also a raisin lover, though we have never experienced raisins exiting in the same form as they entered...but it did happen once with some sliced black olives!

Good try...

In an effort to keep Owen from marking everything within a 3 foot radius from his body before bathtime, Scott took off his diaper and immediately put him on the potty. After much cheering, nothing happened so we turned on the water in the bathtub. Again, nothing. Owen did not want to go pee in the potty, he wanted to get up and "fus" the potty. So Scott let him up, he rolled off half a roll of toilet paper, wiped his nose with it, dropped it in, flushed, clapped, and then peed.

My 200th Post

Congratulations to everyone who keeps up with our family via this blog, as you all have made it to post #200! Woo hoo! In honor of this blessed event, I thought I would spread some joy across the miles to each and every one of you by sharing some news: Every one of my kids is sick. I don't mean they have runny noses and coughs. I mean Sick with a capital S.

Ashlyn has bronchitis. I mentioned in an earlier post that she was susceptible to that. Haley has strep throat. When we got to the doctor's office today her temperature was 104.7. I had tried repeatedly to give her tylenol but she would throw it back up at me. She ended up having blood drawn twice, once from each arm, and she got a shot in the thigh of straight penicillin (which rates right up there with the experience of watching a doctor put stitches in her forehead). Owen has bronchitis, he has ear infections in both ears, and the doctor said she could hear wheezing in his chest so he has officially been put on two puffs of albuterol every 4 to 6 hours. He has a cute little spacer with a bear on it and he is quite dramatic with his breaths. We all laugh and encourage him and he will puff away without any problem.

We got so much medicine from the pharmacy today that I had to make a spreadsheet to keep up with who gets what and how much and when. And Scott leaves Monday for a whole week. YAY! Do you ever feel like you are at the end of the plank and instead of being scared you just want to do the best freaking swan dive that anyone ever saw? Well, look mom-NO SPLASH!

On a positive note, my southwest chicken in the crockpot thing was excellent and if anyone wants the recipe drop me an email-except for Pops, who of course will not try new things without a lot of griping and who also avoids chicken like the plague...FYI yes, I'm still bitter about the chicken and broccoli ring fiasco and the asian salad ordeal and the fish comment. Apparently Pops recognizes a good thing only if it has beef strapped to it.

So that's all the excitement I have to share in this post #200. I have put several links in the second paragraph for your extended reading enjoyment/education. It's a little more time consuming, yes, but my kids are all passed out on drugs so I have a little free time tonight.

Owen was so shocked when we gave him his laundry list of ailments that his hair turned almost white and stood up. But that is nothing compared to the number of heads we turned in the clinic when we came away from the pharmacy counter with an honest-to-gosh brown grocery bag filled to the top instead of the usual small brown lunch bag size.

Introducing:

Karin's web site!!

Karin has begun a blog about her family. Unfortunately, she really has no idea what she is doing and her posting sessions so far are unsuccessful and filled with profanity. So everyone join with me in "Karin watching" to see how long it takes her to actually become proficient at this...it should be loads of fun!!

And the award goes to...

TIGGER STARR!!--for most creative use of a bathroom sink. A smooth, cool bed! Genius, pure genius!! Who knew?

Everybody loves Whataburger

We were a little early going to pick up Haley from school today so Owen and I drove through Whataburger to get some fries. The are delicious...better than McDonalds. I know you are thinking 'Better than McDonalds? How can that be?' But it's the truth, they are really better. So anyway, we got them and he ate some, then shared some with Haley, then shared some with Max and Tigger. Max wasn't much interested at first, but when Tigger came over Max grabbed his fry and took off. Tigger was more than happy to eat his. And for those of you who've never seen a cat each french fries, let me tell you that Tigger will eat any type of food he can get to. Frosty will only eat cat food, but Tigger has actually chewed through baggies to get to cornbread and muffins, so french fries thrown on the ground in front of his face aren't really that much of a stretch for him.

Give me a buzz

This morning I took Owen to get his hair cut again. The last time we got it cut it was the beginning of January, so it had gotten pretty long. Amber and Arden went along for the show. Owen was again upset at first, but he calmed down relatively quickly. I think it was either because he was getting a steady stream of sweet tarts or because Arden was watching and Owen didn't want to appear to be too much of a baby in front of her. Before we left the stylist put some gel on Owen's head and mussed it up. It was just too cute--so cute that I am going to buy some gel...

Heaven is a Cadbury Creme Egg

We are fast approaching that special time of year known as "Jennifer's birthday". This is nice for two reasons. Firstly, because I get to look back and fully realize how much wisdom I have gained with another year of life (yeah, right), and secondly because it means that Easter is coming. And Easter brings us Cadbury Creme Eggs. These are not to be confused with Cadbury Caramel Eggs or Cadbury Chocolate Creme Eggs. Today as I strolled through the commissary I had to resist the overwhelming urge to put the entire display into my buggy. My goal is to eat one of these little treasures every day. Sadly, the day after Easter they will all magically disappear and I will be left with an empty hole in my life until they return next year. A good plan would be to buy in bulk so they will last into the summer, but I cannot do it alone. So, everyone who can, Buy! Buy! Buy! these eggs and then take the necessary steps to get them to me. I feel that some people may be hesitant about mailing chocolate to Texas. This is completely understandable. If you fall into that category, simply send money. Rest assured that your money will benefit not one, but two extremely good causes...it will not only be used to purchase lots and lots of Cadbury Creme Eggs, but also to replenish my Lasik fund, which was depleted earlier this week by this purchase. I also understand that some people (Amber Casey) feel that these little darlings are just about the grossest things in the world and merely talking about them can bring on violent shudders. Ha!-This attitude only leaves MORE for me!
And by the way, I am currently working on a list of the top 10 things I have learned since my last birthday...the whole with age comes wisdom thing. Right now the first (and most important) thing that comes to mind that I have learned is that if Owen is naked and anywhere remotely near a bathtub, he will pee on the closest person.

Arden will have to wait...

Owen loves Arden. She is his girlfriend. Everytime we see her Owen showers her with love, affection and lots and lots of kisses! Amber and I have already decided that one day they are going to get married. The proposal will have to wait a while, though, until Owen gets bigger and the ring box actually fits in his pocket!

My newest pride and joy

Ashlyn has asthma. She is also extremely susceptible to bronchitis. This may or may not have something to do with her being sick when she was born. Anyway, with both cats and a dog we have a lot of hair and dander in the house. I vacuum every other day, but it just never seems clean here. After researching vacuum cleaners on the internet for some time, we went out Sunday to Sears and bought a Dyson DC 14 Animal. They are quite pricey, but they are supposed to be one of the best, and you have to ask yourself...do I really need Lasik, or do my kids need to breathe? It has a lifetime hepa filter and is recommended by the allergy people and all that. We brought it home and Scott put it together while I first vacuumed with our current vacuum cleaner, which is a Hoover. Then I used the Dyson (it's PURPLE!!). In the second picture you can see just how much extra nastiness the Dyson picked up that my vacuum missed. I was absolutely shocked and disgusted. It's no wonder Ashlyn has a hard time breathing! After we took Haley to school this morning we came home and Owen and I vacuumed all the furniture and the baseboards. I am also going to buy an attachment that will do our mattresses. Hopefully this will help everyone, not just Ashlyn, breathe healthier!




















I cannot believe my vacuum missed all this!!!

You explain it to her!

Haley is inquisitive. It's odd the way her mind works.

"Mommy, why does Tigger lick his bottom?"

"That's how cats take a bath."

"Well...where does he keep the soap?"

"He doesn't use soap."

"I have to use soap."

"You're a person, not a cat."

"How does he get clean if he doesn't use soap?"

"He has a special tongue that cleans his hair."

"But if he doesn't use soap then he will stink."

"I don't think cats sweat, so they don't stink."

"Well...when he licks off the dirt where does it go?"

-This is where I totally lost interest in the conversation...probably because I didn't really know the answers-

"I guess it goes in his body and then it comes out when he goes to the bathroom."

"OOOHHH, so THAT'S what happens to the stink!"

February 23, 1999

Seven years ago today my water broke and Scott and I went to the hospital for the birth of our first child. 16 hours later Ashlyn was born at Bassett Army Community Hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska. She weighed 8 lb 10 oz. 2 hours later she was moved via ambulance to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital because the Army hospital did not have the facilities/equipment needed to keep her alive. She spent the next few days in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) suffering from meconium aspiration. On Thursday, two days after she was born, Scott and I got to hold her for the first time, and on Saturday, February 27th we got to bring her home. We approached her as if she were made of glass, and before anybody touched her we scrubbed ourselves like we were doctors preparing for surgery.
By the ripe old age of 4 weeks she was sleeping through the night. She was also an excellent eater. On her 9 month birthday she started walking. By the time she was 2 we were convinced she was the perfect child and without a doubt a genius. She is now in 1st grade, and she is doing things that are amazing. She can read extremely well, she writes stories, puts out great artwork, and can add and subtract fractions. She is pretty, witty, intelligent, and an excellent older sister. I see Haley constantly trying to immitate her and I think how lucky I am to have such a good role model for my two younger children. She helps cook and clean and she is just a good person in general. I watch her motherly instincts and see her making morally upstanding decisions and burst with pride as she tells me she wants to be exactly like me when she grows up. I think Wow, we did such a good job with her...she is so good to Haley and Owen...maybe we should have one more baby...
And then I look over at Owen, happily squeezing toothpaste into the toilet and I think There's not a snowball's chance in hell!

Quizgalaxy.com

I was reading Becky's website and saw where she looked up the meaning of her name and the names of everyone in her family. Since I am the master of stealing stuff off other people websites, I decided to look up our names too.
*actually, it's a random thing...you can put your name in repeatedly and you will get different answers, but I wrote the first thing that popped up for each name

Jennifer-A person who is a master of making ravioli (Food Network, here I come!)
Scott-Visually addictive (True, he's a major hottie!)
Ashlyn-A lewd street performer (WTF?)
Haley-Extremely extreme (Naturally)
Owen-Pretentiously academian (I don't know what this means, so I have nothing to say)
Max-Fuzzy to the touch (Correctamundo!)
Frosty-A master blogger (My secret is out, Frosty actually updates the blog...)
Tigger-Extremely flatulent (Gosh I feel bad...I've been blaming it on Scott!)

The cutest baby in the world!

Here is the latest picture of Mary Kate, stolen off her website. She is absolutely the cutest baby in the world. Females, let your ovaries commence exploding!

"Ish" comes to visit

Nana came to visit on Friday. She stayed until Tuesday and everyone had a great time. The whole time she was here we tried to get Owen to say "Nana". We would point to everyone and ask Who is this? and Owen would say everyone's name, including "puppy" and "kitty" but everytime we would point to Nana he would say "Ish". We would say No, it's Nana but he would always just say Ish. Arden, on the other hand, would say Nana with total abandon, further making Owen look bad. When Nana left yesterday we all promised to work with Owen so when she comes back with Pops in April he will be able to say Nana.

This morning when Owen got up he pointed to me and said Mommy, then pointed to himself and said O, then pointed to Haley and said Ayee. Suddenly he looked around like he was confused. He ran from room to room and came up to me, raised his hands to his shoulders and asked (as plain as day) "Nana?" I guess he knew all along but was just being a turd about saying it while she was here!

Deep in the heart of Texas...

IT ACTUALLY SNOWED!

No, I'm not lying, and here are the pictures to prove it.
note: The snow did not keep us from making our planned trip to WalMart. And Mr. Drives Crazy Just To Be Cute And In Doing So Reduces My Life Span Unnecessarily actually was extremely careful on the roads. Actually the roads weren't bad at all, but just for good measure the city dumped about 1 million pounds of sand on the bridge near our house which meant you had to actually speed to get over it or you would sink into it and be forever stuck.
















You don't even have to look closely to see it--ACCUMULATION! Eat your heart out April and Brandon-Alaska Shmalaska!

Starry Starry Night

Every day the girls make artwork. They put out such a high volume of it that I have gotten to the point where I really don't even look at it that closely. So Friday night when Ashlyn said she was going to make Nana a picture we said Okay, fine. When she got finished she brought it over to show us. I glanced up at it to say That's good Ashlyn, but instead I said Holy Crap, she just made Starry Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Both Nana and I just stared at it. Then we just started gushing about how great it was. Haley was less impressed. She looked it over and said Big deal...and who's Vincent van O?

Back to Mr. Gatti's

Friday night we went to Mr. Gatti's to celebrate Ashlyn's birthday. We took Nana and met Joe, Amber and Arden there. We ate first, and after Scott and Joe had about 35 pieced of pizza between them we were finally ready to try out the gameroom.

Owen proved that he is outgrowing his wussiness by riding in a moving spaceship and actually enjoying it without looking like he was scared to pieces.














The girls tried out the bumper cars. They had a blast crashing into each other, though I think Haley took it more seriously than Ashlyn.













































Nana bought them 50 tokens and they played all the games they could. They accumulated 277 tickets which we saved so we could add them to the tickets we get the next time and get better prizes.















The screen didn't show up on the camera, but Ashlyn was playing a cross country skiing game. Needless to say, she killed her man by running him into multiple fences and then off the side of a cliff.















Ashlyn is scary good at skee-ball. I was shocked. Pops has always been good at skee-ball, but I think when he comes in April Ashlyn is planning on challenging him. Pops had better bring his A-game! Ashlyn may have a career as a fast-pitch softball pitcher...

"R" is for Rodeo

Friday Haley's preschool had a rodeo. For those of you who remember, Haley was Jessie from Toy Story for Halloween, so she was excited when they said wear cowboy clothes. The kids were also supposed to bring a stick horse and it just so happens she got one this year from Santa, so she took that. Honestly, at the beginning of the rodeo I thought to myself Gee I wish Scott could have gotten off work to come see this. However by the end I was thinking Gee I'm glad Scott didn't get off work to see this. It was cute and at times hilarious, but that's about it. I must add that I have never seen that many pairs of Wrangler jeans in one place before except for that time we went to that bar in Knoxville and Chris Hennessee got on this stage and--on second thought, I'll save that story and put it on here the day after never.

All the kids paraded in riding their horses. Haley managed to pull her cowgirl hat as far down as she possibly could. Maybe subconsciously she was embarrassed...no, wait, maybe that was me...













































Haley's class did the costume race. Two children raced down and put on a hat, a neckerchief and some chaps and then raced back.






























Haley would have won, but as she was about halfway there her chaps suddenly slid down over her nonexistant hips and butt to her ankles, which slowed her down considerably.

Eat your heart out

Here is a picture of the cake Haley, Owen and I made today for Scott. It is two layers of strawberry cake mix, strawberry icing and red and white sugar sprinkles. I don't know how the cake will taste, but I ate all the leftover icing and that was pretty good (minus the terrible sugar headache I got shortly afterwards). Nana will be here Friday, but she will not get to eat any of the leftover cake because we will have to eat the entire thing tonight since apparently Scott has been using the top to my cake keeper as the soap bucket when he washes the cars.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone we know! We got a box in the mail from Nana and Pops with shirts and flip-flops for everyone. Here is a picture of everybody wearing their shirts. I am not in the picture because I did not get a shirt in the box....or anything else. I am not bitter about it, though, because I understand for the first 25 years of my life I was a beneficiary of all of my parents' love and devotion so I am patiently waiting for my kids to do something that will get them on the "bad list", effectively getting me back into the lap of luxery. Unfortunately for me, everyone seems to turn a blind eye to the crap my kids do on a daily basis and now I've got to worry about some Mary Kate person...
















Oh, and the cats were so excited when I told them today was Valentine's Day they fainted.

Fire Fighter P.T.

This morning Scott participated in Fire Fighter P.T. Someone took pictures. There were also some parts involving ladders and climbing ladders, pulling some type of sled with stuff on it and the jaws of life, but we have no pictures of that.

Scott wore his P.T.s and his boots. The blue vest weighs 50 pounds. He had to drag the fire hose around for one part.















Then he had to hit the tire off the table with a sledgehammer. I do not know how much the tired weighed, but Scott says it takes a few hits to do it.















Another part of it was dragging a dummy around. The dummy weighs 145 pounds.

"V" is for Valentine

Haley's preschool class had a Valentine's Day party on Monday. They had Little Caesar's Pizza and breadsticks, fruits, vegetables, cookies and small heart shaped cakes with frosting. Yum!

That is the back of Owen's head. Clockwise, the kids are Brooke, Jacob, Ellie, Analise, Emily, Haley and Madie-Claire.















This picture sort of shows the other table. Maddison has her back to Haley, then George, Miguel's mom, Miguel, and Camron (not pictured).






























Haley and Madie-Claire.















Haley and Maddison.















Haley and Emily.















Owen managed to score a cookie off someone's plate!















Haley and Alex (aka The Cowboy!)