running ragged

Thankfully the sun came out today!!!!!!! Hip hip hurray! We did have a five minute blizzard earlier though. Freaky weather...

I went to the dentist this morning, and no cavities! I only have 2-3 anyway. Then I proceeded to drive to Quantico to do my grocery shopping. I took some photos along the way. I have this thing for old farms...and cows, but no photos of cows today.

the morning after

We ended up with NO SNOW, or ice for that matter, yesterday. I'm sure it iced up overnight in spots, and that led to the two hour delay for schools this morning. That's the way this area rolls....we do have tons of rural back roads that wind around heavily forested areas, so there is danger aplenty for when it is icey...or snowy.

You might be able to surmise that I'm not a big fan of either. I spent my high school years in Colorado and by the time I left for the Air Force I was sure it would wait to snow until after I left. Sure enough, that year I left December 4th, and it didn't snow until December 5th. That's some luck!

My first duty station was Iraklion Air Station, Crete, Greece. The worst weather we had there was the rainy winters. It did get hot during the summers, but with a beach at our disposal it was great!

It's there I met my husband. Soon after becoming engaged we both received orders for other assignments. I got Bergstrom AFB in Austin, TX, and he received orders to Minot AFB, ND. Well, we certainly couldn't let the width of the continent from North to South keep us apart. I set out to swap orders with another airman.

It took some strings being pulled. Thankfully we were on a small base where everyone knew us, and loved us so the plans pulled through.

No one could believe I actually wanted to go to Minot though. They had a good time teasing us about it!

Love is blind and it makes us do some crazy things.

I left a month ahead of Big B, so I was the first to arrive in the frozen tundra, in March. Some areas might be experiencing spring-like weather at that time of year, since it was the latter part of the month, soon to be April. That's not the case for North Dakota, no way, nuh uh! (Think Sarah Palin's accent, because it's the same in ND). Ever seen Fargo? Yah?

You get the picture.

Those ten foot high snow drifts that I spoke of yesterday are no joke in ND! We were snowed in many a Christmas while being stationed there.

In fact when Big B made is maiden journey out to the great white North he did in fact experience the great white blizzard...in April '92.

To think when I arrived, they handed me a parka and muckaluks I didn't think I'd be needing them! HA!

The best thing that came out of our torturous stay there was our firstborn puppy, kitten (DC) and child. Yep! ND is the state listed on LB's birth certificate!

Jack was our puppy, our first baby. He was a big, dark, Golden Retriever. He lived with us for nine glorious years. He's the reason I bawled during Marley and Me. If Marley was "the worst dog ever" than Jack had to have been the best dog ever. Everybody loved him. Although he was protective when strangers came to the house he was otherwise the sweetest, most gentle dog. He let the boys crawl over him, and would just lie there.

This would have been taken a short time after bringing him home.


Our first Christmas with our first baby




Brothers


Nature calls?


Our last picture with our brother~Jack O' Lantern (He first came home with us in October) August 1992-November 2001


Now that I'm depressed I'll move on...since I did steer off course a little!

I took AW and his girlfriend to see Twilight yesterday and I loved it! Can't wait for New Moon to come out as a movie!

It was too cute taking Alec's girlfriend along with us. He tends to be the child who becomes extremely embarrassed by his father or myself, so I was surprised that he wanted her to go along. She's a very nice girl, and cute too! They seem to be a perfect fit in their little emo way!

With her along I ended up solo. Oh well, I had a fun anyway!

Today I'm go to spend reading Eclipse. It's still raining out so it's the perfect thing to do, curl up by the fire with a good book!

later that same morning

Well...it's nearly 11 a.m. and still NO SNOW!

So I've decided to make lemonade out my lemons and take the boy(s) to go see Twilight. I've heard it follows the book pretty closely.

While on Facebook earlier I came across a friend who is also one of the boys' teachers and she was utterly disgusted with the closure. She lives at a bit of a distance from the school and has small children of her own. She has to get up early and get her kids ready to go, all to make it to work on time. Imagine her, and others like her, frustration.

Like I said earlier it was around 6:05 a.m. when I received the call. We live relatively close to the high school and the middle school, and my kids board their buses at around 6:50. Luckily for them one was still in bed, awaiting his turn in the shower (they're boys and they don't take very long to get ready) and the other was just about to step into the shower! Caught him just in time and told him he could go back to bed.

He was thrilled. Lucky kids.

what did you say? you MUST be kidding!?

Just received a phone call, at about 6:05 a.m. notifying me that our school system would be closed today.

Someone please tell me where the inclement weather is???

I looked at the radar, and sure there is a huge pink splotch acrosss the area....but you look outside and ya get drizzly, cold rain.

It's not even freezing...

So, being the doubter that I am, in this case, of my hearing, I called the info line for the schools and sure enough...the recording says the schools are closed!



Do these people not understand that there are nursing students in the local area who cherish days of solitude, days where we don't have to do a darn thing at all, if we so choose???

If said nursing students have school aged children who are forced upon them, because of a "snow day" there better darn well be snow!

ten foot high drifts outside my window!

Well, I'll just have to go back to bed myself, and curl up with New Moon. I'm normally a fast reader, but it's taking me a little longer to read this book, as it did Twilight. The wording is sometimes very...off, shall we say? And there are sentence fragments. I find myself rereading certain sentences because they're awkward. I don't proclaim to be even a good writer, but I'm writing for fun...not profit, and you're not finding me on the New York Times #1 Bestseller List, now are ya?

I do find the subject material interesting, if not addicting. That's the only reason I'm sticking with it. A good friend is letting me borrow the last two books of the series. Thanks L!

Then later I guess I'll get up and make the boys french toast...

last week of freedom...

...at least for a few months!

The boys went back to school today and I go back next week. I'm actually kind of excited to get back into the swing of things! I was talking to one of my classmates and she said the same thing. Are we gluttons for punishment?

I have plenty to keep me busy over the next few days.

*grocery shop- This ends up being an all day event since I go to Quantico, and usually make stops along the way.
*I still need to get into AW's closet and pull out all of the clothes he will no longer wear. Basically if it's a shirt and not black, with some band or macabre scene on it, he wont wear it. Jeans have to be black. So all of the wonderful American Eagle, Aeropostale, etc. clothing that LB wore and could be handed down, can't be.Lovely.
*I'd like to do some scrapbooking.
*I'd like to finish the Twilight books. Just on New Moon and at the rate I'm going it's going to tak eme forever. Once I start reading I can't stop, it's stopping long enough to read that's a problem!
*Supposed to do lunch with a couple of friends.
*Big B and I are looking at having our current laminate countertops replaced with granite, or something similar. So we'll be searching for the best place to purchase it.
*I need to start exercising, like I said I would.




I've ordered my textbooks and all but one have come in. I'll probably start reading some of them, if they would ever post the syllabi online! Have I mentioned how much my current program irritates me?

Ahh well, I suppose it's time to start doing something constructive. Next week I don't want to end up wishing I had done something and didn't!

help...anybody?

I worked hard to come up with the design of both the background and the header, thanks to tips from The Cutest Blog on the Block.

As you can see the header is not centered. I've tried everything! I went to "edit html" and played with the margins and everything I could think of. I'm wondering if it may be my background, but I even tried messing around with it.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Please.

I'd leave it, but it's the whole "order"...anal retentive need to have things just so.

brotherly love and a disclaimer

As you may notice my blog's look is changing up a bit. I'm seriously considering having something custom designed, but I do get bored easily. Maybe if it was something I paid for it would stick for a while. That and I don't know if I want to stick with my current name. I've been mulling over some possible names, and haven't come up with the one. Any ideas?

Now on to the real reason for this post.

I have to share some recent photos.

Look at how close they're sitting!They're actually getting along!
Are they ill? Nope, they just really do love each other!

I couldn't pass this up! They must have been watching a movie together and AW fell asleep in LB's bed. If either of them knew I posted this they would kill me and then die too.
Melts my heart!

twilight and a new year

First I'd like to say I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve. We stayed home as we've done every year now since Y2K. Sometimes we've had friends over, sometimes just the kids have had friends over, and sometimes it's just been the four of us plus whatever furry, or scaley, critters we may reside with. Last night we had friends over. It was nice to be able to just hang out with good friends, ya know?

I am sort of sad to see 2008 as history. It was a banner year for us. I got my first deer...with our family car. My kids turned 15 and 12, and as with every one of their birthdays we're blessed to have the happy and healthy children we have-even if they get into trouble, sometimes. Big B retired from the Air Force after 21 years and 21 days! He went straight to work, well after a week off, and is lucky to have the job he does. I started nursing school while simultaneously finishing my Bachelors in Psych. Those are just some of the highlights! My point is, I'm grateful that we had such a blissful year.

We stood by some friends who weren't so lucky. Many had loved ones who passed away.

We even have friends who lost their house to fire, not once, but several times. Actually it was all from the same incident, the fire just kept reigniting. It happens. The first day only the second story was damaged. The next morning the other neighbors and I awakened to a glowing early morning sky. The house was completely engulfed in flames. Evidently the power company is supposed to take the meter unit away from a property when it has caught fire, so that there isn't any chance of reignition from a live source. Even if the power in the house is shut off there is still power from the main source at the street, to the meter. Well good ole Dominion didn't do the job.

This happened in March and by September the family was back in their newly re-built home.

This year should be somewhat more tame than last, but will still behold a few milestones.

The first thing that comes to mind is LB will turn 16...and then get his driver's license three months later. In VA you turn 16 and three months (after having had your learner's permit for 9 months) and then you may go to coourt to receive your privilege.

AW will turn 13...leaving Big B and I living with two teenagers!

I guess it will be a banner year for milestone birthdays since Big B will turn 40.

I will finish my first year of nursing school, hoping that it will sum up to a first year if I do transfer. If not I may be looking at one extra semester.

Hopefully everyone, our loved ones especially, will remain healthy and we wont see anyone close to us depart this fine earth. In years prior to 2008 we lost someone pretty much every year since 2002.

Well enough about the past, present and future!

I guess that's not entirely accurate because I wanted to mention I have jumped on the bandwagon and have begun reading Twilight. I'm not usually one to follow trends, but just had to see what all the hoopla has been about. I'm hooked. It must be said that the book is definitely easy reading, and that's appreciated considering the material I've been reading lately. Sometimes Meyer's style is a little difficult to decipher what she means. I think it may come down to regional language differences. I'm loving it nonetheless and will have Twilight finished today and will move on to New Moon, and the other two books. Then it will be time to view the movie!

I couldn't even tell you if it's still in theatres or not. There will be some waiting involved if not, because I will be done with all four books in no time.

I did post a while back about some things that needed to be accomplished, at all i want to do and also at made some changes , and most has been accomplished. After I've finished the Meyer books, I will set out and read the nurse books I've got stacked up.


I also need to go through AW's closet still and do some scrapbooking!

The boys go back to school on Monday. So it looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy whilst being left all alone!

I forgot to mention: My 20 year high school reunion is this July!!!! We're going to party like it's 1989!

random in december

I was foolin' around with my Canon Powershot the other day and took a bunch of random photos.

This is the half moon window in my great room. Loved the view of the clouds.
Here we have DC. He's 14 y/o now and has hyperthyroidism. He doesn't let it get him down.



I thought this was interesting. It's just some decorative swirly stuff I have in a vase. Makes for an interesting, and abstract photo. Just the way I like them!

These are just a few of the close-ups I took of Irwin. I love how crisp they are.

rocked my world

Yesterday I ended up experiencing firsthand what it must feel like to be raped. OK, that may be a little dramatic, so maybe we'll downgrade the melodrama to a claim of emotional assault.

Our bank account was drained by a little over $300 without my consent. The assailant was my 12 year old music fiend. Originally I thought it was both the boys, but no it was just AW. BZ was cleared after checking his ITunes account.

AW racked up around $345 in charges for songs, videos, games and movies on ITunes.

I can see where this would not be hard to do.

He did redeem himself with the visible remorse you could see on his sweet face, and the attention he paid to doing things normally against his usual repertoire. For example he usually has to be begged to put his dinner dishes into the dishwasher. Not last night!

There wasn't much the poor boy could do, but hand over what he had left of his Christmas money. That was about $50.

It didn't look like ITunes was going to do anything to help the matter, until today when I checked and apparently they're refunding $295 of the charges!!

Now I feel a little better. And the boy may live. We were going to let him anyway. This just makes it easier.