Merry Sickness

It's not the holidays until someone spikes a fever, and another one has a sinus infection (John, it's a good thing it's not me :) if I were out of commission and John were in charge of packing for our trip, we'd all be in pj's, dirty socks and there wouldn't be a diaper to be found). We are getting on a flight tomorrow at noon, and I'm hoping for a healthy family as an early Christmas gift.

Perfect technique

Thus far, my kids eat almost anything put in front of them (finds nearest piece of wood and knocks on it). Curry...yup...wasabi peas....check, gyoza's....yes.....

 

 I don't think it's something particular that I've done or not done, but man alive am I grateful!

 

Here's Bram chowing down on some edamame at dinner tonight. Initially I was popping them out of the pod and into his mouth, but Mr. Independent wanted to do it himself, so I'd open the pod, and he'd take care of the rest. Ambrose is an edamame pro, and between the two of them they downed half a bag tonight at dinner.  

 

 

Random ramblings

At what age to kids gain control over their own snot? Apparently for Bram, it is most certainly NOT 20 months old. He currently always has a torrent of snot streaming from his nostrils, and while that awful sucking up snot sound is disgusting, it doesn't hold a candle to seeing snot streaming out the nose, over the paci and onto his chin. For the sake of those who read this blog and come over for play dates or dinner dates, I'll refrain from going into too much detail, but lets just say the snot doesn't always stay perfectly draped on his face either. I mean, have you seen what happens when a child sneezes AND has a snotty nose. I've affectionately called it a snotsplosion.

Speaking of Bram, he is a toddler now. A fun toddler. But also, unpredictable, all hands on deck, on the go and never in idle kind of toddler. He still sports facial injuries regularly and is just a rough and tumble kid with a will of total steel. And then, in what seems like a completely different kid  he can be so cuddly and loving, wanting to be held or carried around. Even after I get tired of holding him and try and put him down he still keeps his arms and legs wrapped around me trying with all this might to stay attached. This last year has been crazy hard for me, but man alive if we aren't in a completely amazing place with this little boy!!!

I haven't gotten back into running since my half, I've been taking some cardio and weight lifting classes that I really really like. However, nothing gets rid of the many cookies I snarf on a regular basis quite like running. However, I don't really like running ( those of you that enjoy running, does your spit not turn to a white pasty glue 3 minutes into your run!?). People often talk about a runners high and how it's a form of therapy and yada yada yada. Whatever, I  run because I like to eat food, and don't want to end up having to wear clothes with an elastic band for the rest of my adult life, end of story. The scale doesn't lie and it's time that the jogging stroller and I meet again because my classes aren't cutting it anymore.

John is about as amazing as they come, and while I know that, I want others to recognize and know that as well. A couples of months ago, he received public recognition for all his hard work at his job. After a competitive application process we found out that he was selected to attend Weapons School ( I tried to think of a short concise way of telling you what it is, but all I can come up with is that it's a special school for pilots to learn how to teach other pilots....it's a terrible explanation, but if I ask John for help he's going to ask me not to say anything on the blog, so there ya go. Sorry. if you're super interested you can always google it, but "special pilot school" sums it up) I am over the top excited and proud of him. Like everything, you take the "good with the bad", and the awesome school opportunity means that we'll be spending another 5+ months apart from one another.  We plan on making some visits out to see John as well as visits home to help pass the time, but keep us in your prayers all the same.

School program

Ambrose recently had his school program, and due to many conversations with him,  I had pretty low expectations of his performance. After asking repeatedly if  he was practicing any songs, shaking any bells, or singing on a stage at school,  he was always adamant that he was doing nothing of the sort. I knew that his class was doing all of the above, but clearly, my kid wasn't participating because he was clueless about it all.


Knowing that singing wasn't really his thing, I made sure to dress him cute so that he had at least something going for him up there.


As I suspected, there wasn't a ton of singing done on his part, but he made sure that he was front and center. Boy was I glad that I dressed him well :)

Here's the video. I had good intentions of going up to the front when Ambrose sang, but the minute I tried to leave my seat (or take Bram with me) he screamed blue murder, and totally turned me into that mom with  that kid, so I stayed in my seat, three rows from the back. p.s, Bram was "helping" me film, so take a heavy dose of Dramamine before you watch.

how I saved myself $700.00

I have been eyeing this mirror since we moved into this house. We have a large mantel above our fire place, and I went looking for something to hang above it. I found this mirror from Pottery Barn and totally fell in love, however, the size I needed was 700 dollars! YEEEIIIIKES! That doesn't even include the 70 dollar shipping and 60 dollar deliver surcharge. It goes without saying, that mirror was never going to hang in my house.

Fast forward to August, when I was searching for the end of Pinterest I found a DIY option for that beloved mirror. I looked at the instruction and it didn't seem all that hard, so I talked it over with my dad and he seemed to think it was totally doable ( this was when john was gone, so I'd be going it alone). Talking with my dad was as far as I made it. A few weeks passed and I came across the mirror on my friends blog. She had DIY'd it and it turned out fantastic. Around that time I also found out that my mom would be coming out for a visit. If you know my mom, you know she is the queen of all things DIY. She can literally do it all. She sews and quilts like nobodies business, she can make pottery, stained glass and lay tile. She can now add basic wood working and frame making to her list of skills because she did this entire project on her own. I wish she had a blog, because she's the one that really needs to be showing this puppy off. Any who, here it is. It measures about 45inches X 45 inches and is the perfect fit for my mantel. I absolutely LOVE it! Thanks mom for all your help and hard work. *you can't really tell in the pic, but each mirror has bevelled edges just like the pottery barn*

Hopefully I'll make it back with a better picture and the mantel decorated a bit for Christmas, but for now, this pic with a  bad crop job, the topiary off kilter and the sad fall pendent will have to do.  

Look (great) Grandma!

The jingle bell hat has been passed down (normally he doesn't wear sideways, but John put it on him) :)

 The other night one of our friends had the squadron over and we sat around the fire pit. It sounded nice and dare I say relaxing, until we got there. The fire pit was in the front yard ( I use the term "yard" very loosely because it was rocks and cactus, like all NM front yards) which was near the street. So, it meant that John or I spent the entire night saving Bram from falling into or diving into the fire, blocking him from bolting into the street or steering him clear of all the cactus waiting to skewer him. It was a great time, with great company, but after an hour my nerves and patience were shot.

Go grab a cup of coffee

and sit down, because this is going to be a long one ;)

Most importantly, after 130ish days, our family is whole again!

 Soccer season ended a while back, and whew, glad that's over! The season initially got off to a  slow start, and getting Ambrose on the field require a whole lot of threatening and bribing, which made me rethink my choice of enrolling him in soccer for another season. However, as the season went on, he did improve, and by the last game, he required no threatening and only the bribery of a medal and cupcake. Successful season indeed ;)

 While John is gone, life takes on a real life Groundhogs day like quality. I did the same thing over and over and my sole focus is to get out on the other side of the deployment with my sanity in tact and my two beautiful boys happy and healthy. So, for me, it's key to find some kind of structure to our day and ways to fill the time outside of our home (because while inside, we all go stir crazy).  So, we were outside a lot!

Here are a couple pics of our Halloween. Ambrose was an astronaut and Bram was a scarecrow.

Well, that's it for now, because my Internet is taking 20 minutes to upload each picture, and for Pete's sake, I can't sit here any longer.