In Case You Were Wondering ...

I have a dog. She is so cute and cuddly and I just love her. And she is not a SHIT TZU. She is a SHIH TZU.

This is from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Pronunciation:
\ˈshēd-ˈzü, ˈshēt-ˈsü\

Inflected Form(s):
plural shih tzus also shih tzu

any of an old Chinese breed of toy dogs that have a square short unwrinkled muzzle, short muscular legs, and a long dense flowing coat


(How's that? I didn't even mention your name or your email. But thanks for backing me up!)

Five Minutes of Fame

When we went to the boys' school's website and clicked on "Classrooms and Teachers" we saw our very own star in his classroom. His brother's reading teacher was the person taking the photo and he was waving to her. The girl in the orange t-shirt is "Grace, the evil one". The boy next to him (with the blonde hair) is Burke. Apparently he is "kinda talky" And the girl with the teal shirt whose back is to the camera is Meg. Oh Meg ... she is the prettiest girl in the whole school! We are in love with Meg. From our boy himself: The day before I left for a break Meg figuerd out I liked her. I lllllloooovvveee that girl!!!!!!!!!!!

The Challenge

Do you remember the challenge? The plan was to try to walk 100 miles between October 1st and December 31st. I walked my last two miles this morning! I made it :) At first I thought it was going to be fairly easy. I had 92 days to walk 100 miles. Then I was so busy with school that I'd sometimes go a week or ten days without going for a single walk. On December 1st I still had 40 miles to go. I told my hubby that I was worried I wouldn't make it. He is the reason I made it to 100 ... we have walked 2 or more miles a day every day of our vacation. And now I'm done a whole day early! Did you make it?

Family Tradition

Each year for Christmas the adults in my family exchange Christmas ornaments. It is a really special tradition because not only do we give gifts that are fun, meaningful, and holiday-centered, we also cut back on the number of flashlights/tube socks/{insert generic gift} that we receive!

(Sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy)

This ornament is from Toby & Lisa. It was handcrafted in Kenya by disadvantaged members of the Kamba tribe. It is unique and very interesting. We do not have one of those Christmas trees with every ornament matching and color coordinated. It is simply filled with love!

This ornament is from Shelley & Brandi. It is a "Li Bien" ornament. "Li Bien" is a Chinese phrase that means "inside." All of the painting on this ornament was done on the inside of the glass through the tiny opening in the top of the glass.

This ornament is from my mom. It is a picture of me when I was little. I think she gave my brothers pictures of themselves as toddlers too. That is so sweet and so special! I just love this ornament. It went right to the top of the tree.

This ornament is from Lisa. We usually give ornaments to the entire family, but once in a while we find something just right for one person. This is my first "teacher" ornament :)

This ornament is the one we chose for ourselves this year. We thought it was fitting, considering where we live! My dad got this same one and it has been added to the "top ten list of all time favorite Christmas gifts"

My friend Dwenette (from the college) doesn't know anything at all about our family tradition, but I loved the ornament she gave me so much that I made several like this to give as gifts:

All of these ornaments are on our tree, but there is one ornament that permanently hangs from the little ornament stand I used for these pictures. It is a Precious Moments ornament that my brother Toby gave me the Christmas that I was home on leave from the Army and he was about to go to Basic Training. It seems that our whole family has been shaped by life in the military. My dad was in Vietnam, I was in the Army for a couple of years, Brian has 15 years in, and Toby has 12 years in.

And last, but not least ... Shelley and Brandi broke the rules this year and bought a decoration for the house too. I really love it so I had to include it in my post:

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Happy Birthday Grammy!

The Big Birthday Party

The big birthday party was on the first day of Christmas break. We invited four of his friends to play at the house then go to the mall for indoor, glow-in-the-dark mini-golf. They had a great time and I only needed three drinks to recover at the end of the night.

Wordless Wednesday -- Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuz a Dog

Hef's in the House

Santa brought a bathrobe for Christmas. Even though they got lots of gifts that kept us outside most of the day, every time we were inside for more than 15 seconds he was back in his pajamas and robe. His dad says he is a mini-Hugh Hefner in training. That is scary and cute at the same time.

Merry Christmas!

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Poor Planning

When we planned the big birthday party we looked at the extended forecast and saw that today was supposed to be sunny and 70. So we decided that in addition to the 6-8pm glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing in the mall, we would invite the boys to come over and play some 4-6pm football in the yard.

Well, it is now 4:40 and I have six popsicles playing outside on the trampoline because it is 40 degrees with a 29 mph wind out of the north (that means it's freakin cold)

So much for my confidence in the weather man!

Thank You Build-A-Bear!

I want to send a great big THANK-YOU to the Himes family and Build-A-Bear. A few days ago I sent my friend Samantha (whose husband manages a Build-A-Bear in Charlotte, NC) an email saying something like "Sammy, We have a little girl in our battalion family who has recently lost her brother and I was wondering if you have any good deals for me at Build-A-Bear ... you know free shipping, or anything like that?"
She wrote back right away and said she was going to send my email to her husband and see if there was anything he could do. Within hours I had an email from Scott at Build-A-Bear saying that he and his district manager were going to donate any bear, any clothes, any shoes, any sound to this little girl -- free, free, free! All we had to do was tell him which bear and where to ship it. On Monday he sent me an email with a tracking number and said we should expect our bear on Wednesday. We got it Tuesday and it is just absolutely adorable and better than perfect.
My kids have always been big Build-A-Bear fans, but this just makes me love the company even more. So here is my little plug for the company ... if you are looking for a good Christmas gift for someone please remember Build-A-Bear and the kindness that they have shown to us during this time. If you have a store nearby, go visit. They are tons of fun. And if you think it's too late ... well, it's not! You can send a Bear Bucks E-Gift Card!

Thank you so much Sam, Scott, and Build-A-Bear!

Wordless Wednesday -- Almost as big as Santa!

Sleepy Sunday

He went to two birthday parties on Saturday. First he went bowling from 3:00 to 5:00. Then at 6:30 we met up with the second birthday party (already in progress). He went to the movies, for a limo ride along the Concho River to see the city's Christmas lights, and then had a sleepover. I picked him up at 10:00 am on Sunday. He said that he slept one hour the night before. I wondered if he might have been exaggerating, but then he was asleep on the sofa by 10:15:

Here he is at 11:15:

And 12:15:

1:15:

2:15:

And then when I finally decided to let his brother wake him up at 3:15:

I am thinking he was right about only sleeping one hour on Saturday night. I have a feeling he would have slept several more hours if I had not let his brother wake him!

That's What I'm Talking About!!!!!!!!!

ECH 3335.010
Play Dynamics Research
A 4.000

ECH 3337.010
Creative Development in Early Childhood
A 4.000

ECO 2300.010
Economic Analysis
A 4.000

ED 2323.010
Introduction to Computer Technology
A 4.000

PS 3311.010
Physical Science Concepts
A 4.000

RDG 2307.010
Language Development and Literacy
A 4.000

Clarification

There has been a little confusion about our new cat so I want to clarify a little. Josie doesn't really belong to Amber. She just looks a lot like Amber's cat. I don't think I even knew Amber when she lived here so I don't know how close she lived to us. She is a close friend of Jennifer's and we met at her house a couple of times. Now she lives in Italy with her husband Joe and their daughter Arden. We mostly know each other through our blogs and through our mutual amusement at Jennifer's crazy life. If you want to see Amber's cat look in my last posting and click on Amber's name. Then you'll understand better.

Good News

This cat showed up in our garage about a week ago. She was cold, wet, hungry and pregnant! Because I am a sucker for animals I took her in. My dear husband doesn't know this yet. He still thinks we are just letting her visit. He doesn't know we've named her (Josie) and I've made an appointment to take her to the vet on Monday to get checked out.

But now, none of that matters any more. Apparently Amber left her here when she moved to Italy. Or Josie somehow snuck into a package that she sent Jennifer. Or she hopped through a ripple in the time-space continuum. It doesn't really matter how she got here ... she is going back. She's going to be on the next plane to Italy so that Amber can take care of the dozen baby kittens she is surely carrying inside her ever-expanding belly.

Home for the Holidays

Yesterday was my last day of finals. I was done at 8:08 AM. My plan was to sell back my books and use my fat cash to go Christmas shopping. Instead we went to the doctor's office to have my baby boy diagnosed with strep throat. He is home again today. So the first two days of my holiday break are going to be spent watching Scooby-Doo and SpongeBob instead of getting my Christmas shopping done. The Christmas shopping that I have not even started yet! On the bright side ... at least he waited until my finals were done to get sick. I don't know what I would have done if this had happened last week. I guess I shouldn't complain too much!

Wordless Wednesday -- DONE!

Homeward Bound

Today is our one-year anniversary here in Texas. I am going to use this occassion to explain what Homeward Bound means to me. I grew up in Oswego, NY. It was a great place to grow up and I had a great life there. When I was 20 I was working three jobs and only going to college part-time. I decided to join the Army and take a look around at what might be out there in the wide, wide world. I loved California and Germany, but not drill sergeants and PT. So two years, one hubby, and one baby-on-the-way later I was a civilian again. Since that time we have moved several times. We've lived in Texas (four times), Germany (three times), Maryland (twice), California (a second time around), and North Carolina. Now our little family is up to two kids, two dogs, four cats and a fish. We still enjoy moving and the adventures that await us in our new homes, but it is getting harder and harder to leave the places we love and the friends we know.

When we first moved to Fayetteville, NC we felt like we were "home" right away. We had family there and had been to Fayetteville several times to visit. We were on the east coast and it was easy to drive home to Oswego. We bought a house for the first time. We love that house. It was absolutely perfect for our family. We lived there for four years and enjoyed every day we were there. But the alure of a 1SG job and the idea of making CSM faster called to us and we packed up to move to Texas.

Selling a house alone in NC while my dear hubby bought a house alone in TX was not fun. Driving from NC to NY to AL to TX alone with the kids & pets was not fun either. Our trip was stressful and too eventful. The trip began with a tragedy and ended with our being robbed in Houston. We finally arrived here on a beautiful, warm, December day. It took months to adjust but we made it through. A lot has changed in the past year in my life and in the lives of the people I love. You know who you are. And I love you. Midway through our first year here we had a trip planned to visit our family. Although most of our vacation was very enjoyable, it too was touched by tragedy.

Now it is a year later. The boys are back in school and I am going to college. I started finals week today. I took two classes last summer and six this fall. I am taking seven in the spring so you can expect lots of complaining! I am working furiously towards my degree in teacher education...trying to get it done before the Army decides to move us again.

It has been a long year, but we are still moving forward. We are still homeward bound...

My friend Cherie has a blog and I just fell in love with being able to stay closer to her and her kids through it. The post that hooked me was a post about her son A.J. and his Halloween costume. A.J. was one of my students at the preschool where I taught in NC. If you know A.J. you would know that this post is so A.J. ... and so cute. She had convinced me to sign up for blogger a few months earlier, but I hadn't done anything with it except write comments on her blog.

As we were driving away from our friends I decided to start blogging for real. And as we were driving westward across the country I thought of the name Homeward Bound. It was so ironic that I wanted to be driving either north towards NY or at least east back to NC. And here I was, having just been robbed in Houston, driving west through Texas.

I feel like that is how my life has been for the last 13 years. We have packed up and moved so many times that it seems normal. We have lived in so many places that I have literally been driving to Wal-Mart and had to stop and think about which state I was in! (Yes, this has really happened to me and no, I am not taking any strange medications)

But always we are homeward bound. Always my heart is in the back yard at my parents' house on a warm summer day. The grass is so green it looks like a crayon. The air is clean, the sky is blue, and the lake is only a few blocks away. I am surrounded by my loved ones and blissfully happy just being there. There are no agendas, no schedules, no worries. Just my family and my home.

I don't know how many times we will move with the Army before we get there. But we'll get there. We'll get there eventually ... because we are always homeward bound.

Wordless Wednesday -- Friends

Otis

This is Otis. He is an 11-month old bulldog who is suffering from a treatable skin disease known as Demodicosis. His treatment is lengthy and very, very expensive. His mom is my mom's dog. Otis lives with his new family now, but my mom has been helping as much as she can. Those of you who know my mom know that means she is working her tail off to help pay for his treatment. My brother's girlfriend Brandi has started a couple of online fundraisers for him. If you would like to see the Custom Made suede/faux fur dog coat that they are auctioning on ebay click HERE. I know we all have a million things to spend our money on this month ... things that are not dog coats. But please pass this auction to everyone you know. Maybe there is someone out there who would love to buy a homemade dog coat for their dog and help out Otis at the same time. Otis is such a sweet guy. I should know ... we spent the weekend together once ... before he was sad and sick. (He's the one on my mom's right, his sister is in the middle, and his mom is on the left)

It's Just Like Riding a Bike

Ok, so it is riding a bike. My darling husband bought a bike for me last week. Specifically it is a Trek Equinox 9 Triathlon Road Bike. We went for a 10K bike ride this morning. It wasn't too windy but I still felt terribly slow! At one point my hubby said we were going about 20 mph, but it really didn't seem like it. I told him I felt like I was peddling under water. And maybe 20 mph isn't fast. Maybe he wasn't saying "We're going 20 mph, isn't this great?!?", but rather, "Come on, pick it up, we're only going 20 mph." I couldn't tell what his meaning was because I was so focused on deciding whether or not I could handle being a little bit fat. I was thinking exercise/sit on the couch ... skinny/fat ... bike riding/playing on my blog ... skinny/fat ... you get the idea.

Really, it wasn't that bad. The wind was only about 10 mph today, which is pretty good for a December day around here. And it was a fun way to spend a little time together. Of course, now he's gone for a 20K bike ride on his own since he didn't even break a sweat on our ride. But that's ok ... it gives me time to play on my blog!

It's Too Early For This!

It is not even 8:00 yet and this day sucks. We already lost power once. We have no water in the entire house. I have my first final today. (Finals week doesn't start until the 10th, but this class has TWO final exams...TWO!) My check engine light came on. I have to call the dentist to schedule a cleaning. And I have to call the clinic on post to schedule my yearly.

I'd like to think there's something to be happy about b/c Brian bought me a fancy new road bike so that we could go riding together, but the damn thing came without any pedals. I guess you don't get pedals when you spend $!!!! on a bicycle.

Yeah, it's going to be one of those days!

Wordless Wednesday -- My Sky

Yummy!

Yesterday the boys wanted belgian waffles for dinner. I obliged, but didn't feel like eating waffles and was too lazy to cook anything else. Instead I opened a bag of Blue Aztec Chips and made a dish of Fiesta Party Dip. I am telling you ... heaven on earth! You have got to try this. I promise this is not a shameless plug to help my sister-in-law Lisa get more business. This is a yummy, yummy treat that rivals a good margarita without the alcohol and it's side effects. So, head on over to Tastefully Simple and buy yourself an early Christmas gifts. It'll be worth it, I promise!

Sew, Cook, Clean, Sew

That was my Thanksgiving day. 12 hours of it anyway. We have a tablecloth that we only use on Thanksgiving. Each year after dinner we sign it with a fabric pen. Then I use embroidery floss to make the signatures permanent. Each year gets a different color and I sew the city, state, and year along the edge of the tablecloth in the matching color. Last year on Thanksgiving Day we were moving. We spent the entire day packing the truck. (Then we went to Fire Mountain for dinner.)

The next day hubby left for Texas and the boys and I were in an empty house just waiting for our closing date to approach. I sewed the tablecloth and packed it to go to NY to visit family. We decided to have another Thanksgiving dinner while we were in NY. My tablecloth was signed and packed just in time to make the long trip to Texas. (Thank goodness it wasn't in the car top carrier that was stolen in Houston!) I had plenty of time to sew the signatures from our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner, but I never did it. I thought about it several times over the last few weeks but I never actually did it. So on Thursday morning I sewed the signatures from 2006, washed it, dried it, put it on the table, we ate, signed it, and I sat down to sew it right away. Now I can't decide if I should do that again next year (sew it right after dinner), or give myself a year off and sew it on Thanksgiving morning 2009. Anyway, here are some pictures of our past years' signatures. This is probably my favorite holiday decoration of all time.

Topsey

On Wednesday we went to Tospey Exotic Ranch & Drive Thru Safari. We found this place when we were stationed at Fort Hood during the late 90's and it's been a favorite family outing ever since. It's not a bad drive (just a few hours) and is a fun way to spend the afternoon. They have a petting zoo and all kinds of animals that will stick their heads right into your car window for a handful of food.

I don't mind the horses, zebras, goats, llamas, rams, buffalo, deer, antelope, donkeys, or long horn cattle. It's the ostriches that scare the heck out of me. Oh, and the emus. There is just something creepy about the way they look at you with those huge eyes just before they stick their long neck all the way into your car to peck one morsel of food out of your hand at warp speed. When I see them coming I roll up my window. This time around I was brave enough to take a video of the rest of my family being tortured by the ostrich.

Albert the camel was always the most entertaining animal at the ranch. He would follow us around the entire route, eating at least 5 of the 10 bags of food we had. Sadly, he not with us any more.

RIP ALBERT

Puppy Fever

My mom and I share a weakness for cute little animals. If my hubby and I were settled in our forever home I'd probably bring home a puppy or kitten a couple of times a year. If you've been reading my mom's comments over the last couple of days you might be confused. They don't have anything to do with the postings. They are all about ...

These beautiful baby girls are from Penelope's breeder. They have the same mommy as PJ does and a different daddy. Here's their mom, Alison:

And here is their dad, Toby:

This is PJ's dad, Joshua:

Aren't they adorable? And oh-so-hard to resist? Mom wants the little liver colored one and I'd take the black one. That is, if anyone has an extra $1800 they want to spend on us for Christmas!