Texas and Oklahoma City (Stuck for 2 weeks)

I have been gone for so long, that now I am here and have a moment, as we are stuck in the hospital waiting out the typhoon (all pregnant women past 37 weeks have to spend the typhoon in the hospital as they close all the roads...but that is another post) and I wanted to talk about the TDY that just wouldn't end. It was supposed to be over the weekend and then took two weeks.

They augmented our crew, giving us a 24 hour crew duty day, allowing us to fly from Okinawa to Oklahoma straight (that's a 14 hour plus flight). The craziest thing was we went so far north that even though we were going east, this is the darkest it got over Alaska.

We went to Chevy's in Austin on our drive back to Tinker. We flew into OK, spent the night, then flew to San Antonio and drove up to Dallas. We spent the night in Dallas then drove up to OKC. There we sat for two weeks as the jet we were supposed to pick up was still not crew ready.

My good friend and member of the posse Joe, came and picked me up, since he's stationed in Enid, and I got to see him and his beautiful family.

It would have been one thing is they had slipped us for two weeks at the start, but we would get up every morning and find that we had slipped another 24 hours. My stubble started to become a beard, so I had to document it. I finally got to come home, spend 4 days, and then I left for Talisman Sabre in Darwin Australia.

Summer Fun

Our summer has been filled with baby preparations, class and school registrations and saying lots of goodbyes and welcome homes to dad. However, we make sure to squeeze in the fun. Here are just a few photos capturing some of our happier summer moments so far.

Our diva is going through a fabulous phase of wearing gloves, curtsying and addressing us as "your highness". Our son not to be outdone insists on his full Sunday best, requesting tie, vest and all (this includes cologne, of which he has his own).

Swim lessons have definitely been one of the great highlights of the summer. Our daughter was fearless in the ocean but a little more timid in the swimming pool. This all changed after two weeks. Now she is just fearless, swimming pool or ocean.

Our daughter still isn't sure how she feels about floating on her back, but she is no quitter.

That is our daughter under the water. Jumping in was terrifying for her, now that is all she wants to do. She concurred the diving board and with every trip to the swimming pool begs to jump off the diving platform. It has been amazing that the more fearless she becomes in the water, the more fearless she becomes in other parts of her life. Although I have yet to capture it on film our son took one look and our daughters leap into the swimming pool and has decided not to be out done. One of these days I will capture his grand leaps into the water. Although the bellowing growl he lets out before he jump is really the best part.

Of course our boys favorite spot is the beach, he isn't much different from his mom. Of course the water is as warm and clear as the swimming pool.

As great as a swimming pool is, it just doesn't have sand and our son definitely goes for the sand. He only runs in the water when he just can't stand the heat any more. I am convinced that if we left him on the beach for an entire day there wouldn't be a spot left with out some kind of sand structure on it or something buried in it.

The club here has a children's disco night with a dinner buffet once a month. My husband takes our children and they love it. My favorite part is watching my cute husband dancing with our children.

These are the two coolest boys on the dance floor and they are both mine.

Oh Cookie!

So we had a experience not too long ago that I thought was worth mentioning. I would have posted it earlier, but I wanted to wait until I could add the photo documentation. A couple of weeks ago we decided that for family night we were going to take some time to teach our children about being kind to others. So the children and I spent the day baking what seemed like a years supply of cookies to take around to the many people we have been thinking about but haven't had a lot of time to get to know. On this same day was the birthday of a friend of mine. I thought I would attempt to surprise her with a cake. I knew with the time crunch and the heat this was not going to be easy. However I made it work, I made room so we could put each layer of cake in the freezer before and after frosting so the heat wouldn't melt my project. That evening as soon as my husband walked through the door we loaded up the cookies and the cake and set out on our planned adventure but of course the adventure did not go as planned. The children were at first so excited to surprise new friends with goodies, so much so they fought over who got to walk to the door with dad to deliver them. Unfortunately very few people were home, including my friend who I had baked the cake for. After hours of attempted and failed visits, my family (who was trying to convince me they were going die of starvation at any moment if they didn't eat dinner) pleaded for me to give up and go home. I remained determined to teach my children the joy of doing something nice for someone else, especially after spending all day baking. When my determination had officially sucked the joy out of the evening and it was well past my children's bed time, we returned home with the cake and an endless supply of cookies. While my husband got the children ready for bed, I gave my self a little pep talk while fixing supper. I tried to convince myself that the children and I would have the time and energy to try and deliver all the goodies again the next day. It was only seconds after my son had his bath that I heard his sweet little voice begging and pleading for yet another cookie to stifle his starvation. I reassured him that as soon as his father and sister joined us we would eat dinner and I expressed my confidence in his ability to endure until then. He was undeterred, and only more persistently pleaded his cause. It was then that I made the mistake of taking my eyes off him. I turned to put the cookies away completely forgetting about the cake that was sitting of the counter. I had delicately covered my creation with plastic wrap in an attempt to preserve it until the next day, but alas that was not to be its fate. Almost in slow motion I heard those horrible words slip through my sons lips in an almost lustful manner, " Oh Cookie". There before him was what he thought was the biggest cookie he had ever seen and he was sure it would satisfy his hunger. I turned, also in what felt like slow motion, in just enough time to see his tiny little hands diving into the three layer lemon blueberry cake. Then shocked by the plastic wrap he pulled his hands back, but it was too late, the cake was destroyed. It was then that my son was distracted from his hunger by the strange yet appealing feeling of squishing cake wrapped in plastic wrap through his fingers. All at once he came to his senses and gave me a look I have never seen on his face. A look of, I'm sorry mother, I don't know what came over me I must have been suffering from temporary insanity. He had actually shocked himself with what he had done. The whole experience left me speechless, with bits of laughter when I look back on the moment. However, I did take pictures, so feel free to laugh along with us or at us, what ever the case may be.

Toes, Friends and Sunsets

One of my favorite treats since moving here is going with friends to get toes painted. It is not like the pedicure you get in the states, not even close, this is amazing. You get to sit in one of the most comfortable chairs invented and have your feet treated like a delicate work of art by what are in my opinion fabulous artists. After amazing messages and treatments and being pampered you then get a design and color of your choosing, (from a huge selection) delicately painted upon your toes. Here are some photos of the art work my friends and I had painted on our most recent venture.

Excuse my pregnant swollen feet. I normally stick with more traditional colors but in order of our baby boy soon to be born I went with blue.

I am amazed at the tiny scroll work they were able to do even on my tiny toe and the way they place small bits of glitter in precise spots. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the detail, not that any one wants to see the details on my feet.

These are the designs my friends had painted upon there little footsies.

We had the pleasure of getting to visit with our former neighbor and dear friend from North Dakota. We have all moved on to different bases so it was a treat to see him. Because he broke down in our neck of the woods we got to have a fun visit, but I'm sorry that breaking down caused him to get back to his family later than planned. We know what it is like anxiously waiting for dad to get home. These are just some beautiful sun set pictures that my sweet husband took from our house. I feel it is hard to feel forgotten by our Heavenly Father when he takes the time to bless us with such beautiful sunsets as these. In a world currently fill with such devastation, cruelty and mayhem it is nice to stop and look and the beauty that sits right in front of us.

Last but not least, this is currently our pet, well it was until we set him free, all tho I'm sure he will be back. This is the gecko that lives in the artificial greenery in our house.

So there you have it, our most recent tidbits. Maybe not the most exciting, but they are the little adventures that make up our days.

Operation Deny Anniversary

So my wife is letting me do a post here, since it is kind of a painful subject. A typhoon came through, and, as we hear is always the case, it was going to hit on the weekend. Instead of having our anniversary date, I had to typhoon evac to Guam.

And this is the horrible place I had to spend the long weekend.

Fellow travelers at the hotel.

Everyone did fine back home. The only damage we suffered was dents in the car door from the neighbors trash can. 120 knot winds did hit the island, and some people had windows blown out, roofs ripped off, and trampolines blown away. All the leaves were gone from the jungle, and the beautiful canopy that was full of flowers was completely stripped away, down to the bare branches. It's weird, looking like winter in summer.

Steak and Lobster

This past Saturday my sweet husband took me out for an amazing dinner. I had a list of things I couldn't leave with out doing while I was here and this was my second to last one. I got to try Kobe beef. The man of my dreams , he who literally has made it a habit of making my dreams come true no matter how big or small, took our family out for the most amazing cut of meat I have ever had in my life. If a cow and the Cadbury bunny had a baby that would be the steak I ate.

Our sweet girl had a feast in front of her that would put a smile on any child's face. However it couldn't compare with the fantastic cooking show going on right in front of her.

I didn't plan on taking any pictures of the evenings meal, but it was to spectacular not too. That and we ordered more than I thought we did. I thought we were ordering Kobe beef for two and getting a deal. We didn't realize we had also ordered pork, lobster, pasta, salad, soup desert and the list goes on. It was the best tasting ordering mistake we have ever made.

There is this amazing phenomenon that happens lately when ever my son eats ice cream. He starts by trying to fit in as much as his mouth can hold then he smiles at his accomplishment. It is only a matter of seconds before the tears and yelps of "it hurts it hurts" come from his trembling mouth. Then the process starts all over again. We have tried controlling the amount of ice cream that goes into his mouth in one bite, but it doesn't seem to matter. We finally got photo documentation of the fickle friend ice cream is to our son, one minute he is experiencing great joy and the next a torrential down poor of tears caused by a vicious ice cream headache.

Forgotten China pictures, Rainy Days and Jelly Beans

The Lost China Photos

We forgot our camera one day of our China trip so my husband took pictures with his phone, we just found them and thought a couple of them were cut so we through them on here.

The red fish is our tour group.

Rainy Days

After sitting inside all day for several days waiting for it to stop raining so we could go to the park, we finally decided to just roll with the weather. Here is my cute family enjoying some very warm rainy weather in our back yard.

Soaking up the freedom of getting to be outside.

Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly has nothing on my girl.

My daughter suddenly felt it her duty to keep her brother covered by her umbrella, that didn't last long.

My family never ceases to find ways to keep me entertained and keep me smiling.

The Easter Bunny visited our home leaving a bit of a mess. Our children happily cleaned it up. Our daughter used the bag she was given however, our son felt a bag would only get in his way and just shoved all his findings into his mouth.

Our boys mouth became so full in seconds that my husband had to stop inspect it to see if he had consumed any thing with a wrapper on it and of course he had. This meant that my husband would have to carry my son into the bathroom, make him spit every thing out and then my son would start the process over again.

Our cute girl actually stopped, sat down and took a moment to soak in the glorious candy filled moment.

Baskets full of candy can't help but put a smile on every body's face. Our cute boy happily went into sugar shock and then decided he needed a bit of a nap before church. However during church it was obvious the sugar was still pulsing through his veins as he would occasionally yell out random words and phrases with no reason. The most memorable was when he loudly exclaimed "chicken" in the middle of church.