GOOOO LAPTOP!

Okay, so we are about a week away from Christmas, but we now have our Wal-mart special laptop, and I love it!  I'm sitting in the living room, with Daniel, in comfort, on my couch!  I had to make up a fabulous excuse about needing it early, and it worked to my favor.  It went something like, "I have to take it to the computer guy at work to transfer all my stuff over from my desktop, so it will be ready to use and so on and so on..." and then I had to leave the desktop with him to be cleaned out and refurbished, and its still being worked on (it had some issues). So we have been destitute without an Internet access source in the house.  Now don't get me wrong, Daniel didn't for a minute believe or give into my excuses.  He was lost without Internet too!

I wanted to get on here and tell you all about Aidens latest issue that totally tickled us.  If you know Aiden he sometimes doesn't think things through all the way before he says what he wants,  sometimes it comes out a bit backwards, or very literal context, or wrong words, etc.  He has in his short time alive, given us so many laughs, due to his interpretation of what he has heard or seen or thinks he understands.  He definitely is good for a million laughs.  Anyways, he started complaining Saturday night of his stomach hurting (a cramping, slightly nauseating, sharp pain) not necessarily a stomach virus, just inconsistent pain?  He wasn't going to go to school on Monday because it seemed to hurt most when he was up and about.  However, later in the morning he called me and asked me to take him to school because he felt the house was making him sick, thought he just needed to get out and occupy his mind.  After school he still feels OK, so he goes to his buddies down the street, but comes in crying after he has asked the parents to bring him home, as the pain has returned.  he proceeds to tell me that "Jordan's mom said they had this Bug but it only lasted about 12 hours" a minute later, between sobs, he says "man I must have just got bit too many times by that bug".
I wish I had archived all the great things that have come out of his mouth! 

We are actually ready for Christmas early this year.  We usually do all shopping the last payday before Christmas. This has made for many of cram shopping trips on Christmas eve in the past!  It feels nice to be done, considering the fiasco we barely skimmed through last year. 
It was Christmas eve and Daniel and I still had stocking stuff to buy.  Time slipped away from us and after wrapping all of the presents (way too many) we realized it was almost 1 am.  We rush out to the local Wal-mart super center (that is always open), just to find that it closes on Christmas eve?!?!?! Who knew? We panicked!! We drove all the way to Branson Mo, (about 35 miles away) to the Kmart that was barely still open. We didn't even consider the Walgreen's right down the street.  Oh well, we vowed not to do that again. We thought we had ruined Christmas.  Despite all the gifts, it always seems the stockings are our families favorite part. I think it must be because so much thought and personalization goes into the little things.  Wouldn't it be nice if the Christmas celebration went back to that simpleness.  Aside from the true reason for the season, I mean!

I truly love everything about this time of the year. The weather, the lights, the feelings, and especially the music.  I have acquired a few more Christmas albums this year. This is not new to me I always get at least 1 new album. However, this year I had to have more, as it seems the local radio stations have been very sparse on playing the seasonal stuff, and I'm finding that it really gets on my nerves to have to listen to regular music during this season.  I'm forced to listen to regular music the entire rest of the year, would it be too much to mix it up a bit, for a few months out of the year?  Although it is also not out of the ordinary for me, to pop in some Christmas music at any random time in the year, just for a little jingle jangle happy time.  So now I have a great stock, that is now a little better, to put on shuffle and get me through all my wearisome travels during the day. 

By the way, Aidens stomach issue has since resolved, with out any true diagnosis. As far as I can tell, Aiden may have accidentally eaten some foam from a Nerf dart he was innocently chewing it up, while Daniel and I were Christmas shopping.  He's not quite sure how much he may have eaten, but all the plumbing is working well and the pain is gone, so maybe a lesson was learned?

My sweet, loving funny little guy! Summer 2010

Catching up.

Well, so this blog of mine has actually turned into one of those, yearly updates that people send out in Christmas cards. It has been that long. We Took Holiday pictures today and I'm feeling particularly Festive so I decided to sit at this uncomfortable computer and finally write a little.  (have i mentioned that i am finally getting a laptop this Christmas?) I plan on writing alot more frequently!  I also decorated some photo albums to sent out to family with the kids pictures in them, they turned out quite well if i do say so, myself.  I may post some pictures if i can figure out how to put them in this text space?

Wow Could it be so simple??? 

I'm still working at the same place, same job, same people. It has gotten a bit better. It'll do for now.

Daniel is still working at the same place for now. However he has just signed a contract for the Navy. We have decided by Unanimous vote that we prefer military life and are going back in for the long haul. Daniel will be joining the Special Operations of the Navy in accompaniment to the Navy SEALS. He will go through training, to be a SWCC or Special Warfare Watercraft Combatant Crewman. (Basically he will ride a boat and shoot a very large gun. :-) This makes him very Happy. This whole military thing has been a long drawn out process, and we feel very fortunate and confident that this is the path God has chosen for us. As there was a large number of reasons that this shouldn't have worked out. Daniel is scheduled to leave march 7 2011 for approximately 3 weeks at Great Lakes Naval Base, then approximately 28 more weeks of training in San Diego Ca.. somewhere in the middle of all this the kids and I will get to move out to San Diego as well.  After training we will get to choose our duty station. San Diego, Virginia or somewhere in Mississippi....  We are all looking forward to the changes!

Camille has had some difficulty in school the last couple years, so we have decided that she is of age to be trusted to do school from home.  She will have a Christian based  curriculum that is done on CD ROM.  She is not too thrilled about this but is warming up to the idea, she was home schooled the second half of last year also.  She more dislikes the idea of missing out on the social life that young people her age call Junior High.  i vaguely remember being there and i think it was something like what HELL must be!  And its only gotten worse over time :-(  Oh yeah Camille is now 14 years old, taller than me, and still very beautiful!


Aiden is 8.  He is very active, funny and lovable.  He started TaeKwonDo 2 months ago and has already taken his first test to receive his yellow belt.  the instructors have been raving about how advanced and natural he is at this.  (As if we thought he wouldn't be...Hes been fighting silverware at the dinner table, and imaginary battles in his mind for years!)  ooh i have a video of his pattern he learned that isn't even a requirement yet, he just did it for extra credit!  i should mention that he doesn't know if he passed his testing yet, they make the students wait, to learn Patience. he will find out at their convenience :)

 So Lilli-Kate, our ornery little PRINCESS, is almost 16 months old.  All I've got to say is its a good thing she is so darn cute! Do you know what i did today, how retarded could a mother be?  so, i have been cutting Aiden and Daniels hair for quite a long time, usually turns out Fine.  Well something possessed me this morning to try cutting Lillis. Oh Man, i have to take her to the beauty shop tomorrow and see if they can fix it a little!! I'm not really freaking out because its just hair, it will grow back.  But i am a bit sad that it was her very first haircut and i chopped it to pieces.  I didn't even save any.  but I've always wondered what people want with a lock of hair.  I just cant believe i did it, and on picture day too.  However if you notice she is wearing a strategically placed headband and hair bow, that i made.  How can i feel so crafty, and make truly pretty things but be so inept at a little haircut?

I guess that just about sums it all up?  Since the possibility of moving a great distance has arisen we have been contemplating the fact that we must downsize our animal situation, along with everything else we have acquired over the last 10 years of marriage, that we do not need.  So Xena our female great Dane went to a wonderful new home down in Cabot Ar.  they have raised great Danes for a long time and are very excited to have her and are making her one very happy dog.  Moppit also went to a new home. a young family with one other dog and kids for him to play with. he gets to stay inside all the time and sleep with his new best buddy Fred, on the huge ottoman right in the middle of the living room in front of the huge picture window!
(we still have Pixie, Magnus and Cat) Yes her name is Cat, we are fresh out of originality, or not used to naming cats?
Sorry no time for editing.

Too long gone

So it has been a very long time! I have no real explanation other than I have a hard time keeping up with all the stuff I do on the computer and I get tired of sitting in this chair. Maybe if I had a wonderful laptop I could sit in the recliner and this would be so much more Comfy. since my last blog the most important change in my life has been that we got pregnant! I am currently 22 weeks along and we are expecting a baby girl in early Sept. We have a few names that we like but are currently accepting suggestions. Warning... we have a tendancy to change our minds at the last minute so we are not giving out any clues, as we dont want alot of confusion after the delivery.

We had a pleasent Thanksgiving with my side of the family at my parents house all of us girls and all the grandkids. My parents just eat that up! We Dont get together like that often enough.

We had an eventful Christmas at our house with some of Daniels family.

Daniel had to switch to the evening shift after the Shop he was working at shut down and he had to find a new job. The evening shift is hard on us due to past experiences, however we are grateful that he faound another job. We are praying that he will be able to switch to days soon as it was only supposed to be a temporay shift when he was hired.

We also got news shorlty after christmas that we had to move from the house we were hopefully going to be able to buy, due to the owners changing circumstances. so we rushed and found a decent place that would alow our herd of dogs. Grateful for that as well.

So here we are, we have found a church that all of us seem to enjoy and feel comfortable in. It is rather large so we havent met or bonded with any families yet but are hopeful. i did just finish up a Wednesday night bible study for mothers, which i enjoyed greatly!

I suppose thats all for now, I need to go start dinner for my crew.
Laurie