Last days of summer...

Before I get all caught up in the new school year with Kristin, I think I'll finish writing about the rest of our summer - so I don't get all behind...again. ;)
So we really didn't do a whole lot the last month of our summer break. We might have done more if Jason wasn't always working or if we had some extra money, but what can you do? I'd love to have been able to visit Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim more, go camping, go to an Astros game and just spend some time with Jason. Alas - Jason had to work the night shift for two weeks, so he was no fun (because he was either at the hospital working through the night or here sleeping during the day). I hate the night shift!! Apparently he didn't have as horrible a time as I did because he and his colleague decided to make their 2 weeks of night float an interesting experience (or at least appear that way). Each night, they took a couple of pictures with Jason's iPhone and then Jason would then proceed to make a story about each night's pictures (turning it into a poster). So they had one poster for each night and Jason made sure to hang up all of their posters on a bulletin board in the residents' room just to make the other residents jealous of all the fun they had. Yep! That's my hubcap!

The girls and I had a chance to meet up with some friends of ours a couple of times - once at our favorite playground by the commissary and another time for tea at Mad-hatter's. It wasn't the most enjoyable experience - because we had all of our kids (my three and her three), but it was still fun!

Our final two weeks, Jason was back to his normal schedule, but we didn't have any money to do anything. Dang blast it! We always seem to use up our savings whenever we go to Virginia, so there wasn't a whole lot we could do!! We had no money to buy a tent or supplies, so we couldn't go camping. We couldn't go to Houston to take in a baseball game because we had no money for gas, tickets and a hotel. We actually could have made it to Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's house Labor Day weekend, but Jason's brother Mike already had plans to come down and visit us and a friend of his. Although we didn't get to do all that we'd like to have done - we still had fun doing the usual: driving around wasting gas (which gives Jason and I chance to talk while the kids are all strapped in and watching a movie on the DVD player, spending time with Mike when he came to town and enjoying an interesting evening of BBQ and karaoke with the next door neighbors for Labor Day!

I also spent a few days reading a book called Scheduling for Christian Home-Schooling Families that my wonderful friend Laura recommended to me! Thanks Laura-poo!! Then I spent the last couple of weeks trying to come up with the perfect schedule for us to use on the weekdays. It's coming along great! I definitely won't be scheduling our weekends though - that would be a bit much! I'd rather just keep the weekends open for adventures!!

This is how I was greeted at the hospital when the girls and I stopped by for a visit - by a very bald Jason. He and his colleague decided that it would be fun to shave each others heads with surgical clippers. It must have been a slow night at the hospital. Yikes!! ;)


At the commissary shopping for the Resident BBQ we hosted.


Jason and Caleb (my two bald boys) at our new favorite breakfast place - The Egg and I.


Jason and our little cutie-poo Caleb


Me and Kristin


Kristin and her friend Carol on their way to our tea party at Mad-hatter's


Kristin and Carol are ready for their tea!


Kristin and Nora


We also went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Jason being done with the night shift. He only has two more 1-week rotation of the night shift for the rest of the year! Hooray!

Katie and Kristin at the Cheesecake Factory


Later that night, Jason and I went out for our 2nd bowling date. Much to my amazement (and Jason's demise), I actually beat him!!! Woohoo!!!! It's the first time I've ever gotten over 120!!! Jason usually gets a much higher score, but unfortunately for him he lost the plug in his bowling ball and it threw off his game! But I still count that as a valid win for me - in my book! A couple paydays from now, Jason is going to buy me my own bowling ball, so I can work on bettering my bowling score (and start throwing more consistently)! Hooray! And I'm getting my own shoes too! Yay! No more rental shoe cooties for me!! ;)

145 to 142!! Woot woot! ;) Oh - and Jacob was Jason's new name for the day (I'm not sure what his thing is about not putting his own name on the board)... ;)



Caleb - a little over 6 months old


Aw! He's so cute!! :)



Out on our Bass Pro Shop excursion -


He's all dressed in his camo gear and reading to find some camping/hunting supplies! ;)


Cute little Kristin is always up for a photo op! ;)


About a week before we started school, my Mom decided (out of the blue) that I HAD to take the kids to Build-a-Bear and have each of the kids pick out their own bear, an outfit and shoes. There was some kind of special going on, so my Momroo deposited money in our account and forced me to go! What could I do? Even with a special, Build-a-bear is pretty overpriced...I think anyways!! The girls were overjoyed...and Caleb happily smiled at the wolf I picked out for him (just before he decided to gnaw away at the price tag until it was a useless lump of mush)!! ;) It's a good thing we went without Jason because we spent about 2 hours in there!!! I almost went crazy!! But it was still fun!

Okay - I have to jump in here for a second! I do not know what is going on with this ridiculous blog entry of mine, but for some reason I can't get any more titles on the rest of the pictures I've uploaded!! And it keeps leaving a huge gap between some of the photos! What the poo?! I've tried everything and nothing seems to be working! I'm too frustrated to keep messing with this, so I'm just going to publish it as is. Sorry! Maybe I'll be able to come back to it later and fix it.
The rest of the pictures are of Jason's brother Mike in town (while he was here visiting a friend of his from college). There are pictures of us when we went to a shooting range with Mike and a colleague of Jason's from the hospital. The last few pictures are of the kids and then of the Labor Day BBQ we had with our neighbors next door - a night full of food, drinks, cackling and Jason dominating the karaoke machine... It wasn't pretty folks... ;)

Kristin, Katie and Caleb with their unstuffed animals


Kristin getting her Hello Kitty stuffed


Kristin doing the honors (for some reason Katie was too afraid to push the pedal herself to help stuff her own bear).


She happily took her stuffed bear from Kristin


Man it's a lot of hard work being the big sister!! ;) Kristin helps stuff Caleb's animal too!


He's very excited about Wolfy (the name Kristin gave Caleb's stuffed animal)!















Kristin dressing her Princess Kitty

Killing the kids' eyeballs as I try to get them smile for the camera with their new stuffed animals in the bright sun!

Mike and Fia waiting for another round of shooting

Caleb enjoying the thrills of the BX with his crazy sisters!

Blue eyes vs. Brown eyes 3:2

We're pretty sure that Caleb has turned to the dark side. Yes - it's true. He has betrayed me and his sisters and aligned himself with the likes of his Daddy! How you ask? We're beyond the 6-month mark and it appears as though Caleb has decided to go with brown eyes instead of blue! How dare he! Traitorous little milk hog!! ;) That's what I get I suppose. I told Jason that he'd never be able to beat out my blue-eyed genes. I thought that since everyone on both my sides of the family has blue eyes and since Jason's Mommy-poo and her family have blue eyes - that we'd beat out Jason and his Dad's brown eyes. Oh well. Lucky for Caleb, I actually like brown eyes! I just don't like losing... Well - at least I still have one up on Jason...I just hope the next baby takes my side!! If not, we'll be tied! ;) And no - that doesn't mean there's another bun in the oven...not yet anyways! ;)

Random Tidbits

I thought I'd get on here and write a little instead of waiting a whole month...or three! :)
So we weren't very busy in August after getting back from Virginia. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened - besides me trying to rid my house of junk, so I could get more organized before starting up 1st grade with Kristin. And Jason and I have taken up dating...with each other that is!! So far we've gone out about 3 Fridays in the last month! We've only made it as far as the bowling alley on base, but it has been so much fun! We love spending time with our little kiddie-poos, but I think it's important to spend a little one on one time with the ol' hubcap! Who wouldn't want to spend 3 solid hours with ME??!! I mean seriously!! ;) Oh! And Jason's Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn were in town for a little bit, so we spent a little time with them as well - which was of course a lot of fun!!

Having fun bowling with Jason - even though I knew I didn't stand a chance of winning! ;)


He doesn't understand why I'm taking pictures. Come on! This is our first date in a really long time! Seriously! This is a big deal!! ;)


Obviously I'm excited about losing...because I was doing horrible!!


Jason has to look away from the camera - apparently this is the only way he can keep himself from closing his eyes. You'd think someone with an M.D. could figure out to keep his eyes open for a picture!! ;)


Hmph!!! I won't go so easy on you next time Jason (a.k.a. Edward)!!! You'll see!!!


Aunt Lynn and Jonathan with the girls at Sea World


Some crazy woman diver feeding the sting rays...Eek!


Out for some Mexican food with Uncle Lou and Aunt Lynn


Aunt Lynn with the girls


Katie isn't too sure about Jonathan - he looks too much like Jason's brother Jake (who isn't very nice to the girls), so Katie didn't trust him - even though he was nothing but nice to her. Poor Jonathan...


Katie with Uncle Lou


Sometime in the middle of the month, my Momroo felt like spending a little too much money at Gymboree, so she could send the kids some new outfits! It makes me feel SO bad when she does this sort of thing (especially when it isn't for anything specific - like a birthday, Christmas or some other holiday)! The girls were ecstatic about getting something in the mail though!



Kristin is very excited about getting new clothes!


And so is her crazy sister Katie!!


Aw...my cute little nerd girls!! ;)


We hit the mother-load!!! ;) Seriously Mamoo - this was too much!!! I mean - doggies with plaid matching travel bags? Come on!! ;)


Even bald boy gets some of the spoils!!


He looks adorable in all of the outfits! Good job Mommy!!!


Aw! They look like nerdy little school girls!!! How cute!! :)


Jason's brother Mike was also in town on a TDY from Oklahoma, so he stayed with us while he was here. It was nice having someone at the house for a few days - especially since Jason was working the night shift for 2 weeks. I hate being in the house all alone at night!! But it stinks that Jason wasn't home to spend time with his brother!! Mike did have a chance to go to the hospital and pretend to be a doctor with Jason for a night though! I had him dress up in some of Jason's old scrubs, so he could look the part (well - sort of...the hat doesn't really go with scrubs). ;)

Mike taking a "family picture" to make Jason jealous that Mike was stealing his family time. ;)


I also took Kristin to swimming lessons for 2 weeks in August. It was a tad bit lame though. She already knew how to do everything the life guards were teaching, so they tried to tailor something just for her, but it still didn't seem like much of anything. The nice thing about it though - was that since I was taking her to swimming lessons at our gym, I was able to check Katie and Caleb into the kid watch thing while I sat and waited for Kristin. That gave me a chance to catch up on some reading - something I never seem to have time for!! It was SO relaxing not to have to chase or tend to anyone! It's nice to get a little break every now and then!! The fun part was watching Kristin after the class was over. I let her run around on the Splash Pad after every class. She ran around like crazy squealing with delight! It doesn't take too much to amuse her - she's a lot like her Mommy...I suppose. ;)

Kristin thoroughly enjoying the Splash Pad


She was crazy!! She was running all over the place, dancing, skipping and singing to herself.


My cute little spaz... ;)


Cute little turd!


Jason and I both came home from work and gymnastics to find Michael hard at work in our kitchen cooking us a feast of homemade meatballs and sauce with pasta! Mmmm...yummy!! Was my kitchen a disaster afterward?? Of course it was!!! But it was worth it! Any day where I don't have to make dinner is always worth it!! ;)


I must step away from the computer for the time being to tend to my animals (er...kids) and then get some much-needed sleep, but I'll be back soon... or so I think anyways!!! ;)