DC or bust...

Many of you know my husband's hobby/dream of running. He's been working really hard this year to hit a fast marathon time. Long story short, this goal has been put on the back burner. But his running fame is big here at Fort Jackson and he was put on the Army 10-miler team for Fort Jackson. The "Army 10-miler" is a HUGE race which takes place in Washington DC and brings in runners from around the world. One of the neat thing is militia from other countries will send their soliders to compete. It's a peace-making kind of thing. It's a really neat race because the runners get to pass many famous icons like Arlington Cemetary, Lincoln memorial, Washington memorial, many of the Simthsonian buildings, up past the US Capitol, the finish (and the start) was at the Pentagon. It was really neat granted, however, the runners aren't sight-seeing while trying to pound out the miles, :) thus we did go to visit many of those places aside from the race. I can't remember right now how Jeremy did exactly... I do know that it wasn't as well as he hoped, he had big blisters on both feet. I actually didn't even get to see him run!! I was so disappointed. I had to take 3 kids on the metro by myself to get to the race, so I opted to just go for the finish and somehow I didn't even see him pass us! Lucy said she saw him, so guess that counts for all of us. It was very fun to take a family trip though! The kids did great in the car, being the longest car ride they've done, I was happy with that. Hallee had the hardest time, but she made it through it. What Lucy does every spare moment she gets...and the reason why Lucy ALWAYS has to wear a skirt! She couldn't practice her spin if she didn't! This last pic is in front of the White House. This was the last place we stopped before hitting the road back home. We were walking around and this bicycle officer stopped to chat. He let us in on this secret he "wasn't supposed to tell people" and said that a certain chopper would be landing in about 15 minutes if we wanted to stick around to watch. Jeremy was as excited as a schoolboy and said he had to see the President's chopper. We waited more than 15 minutes, it was kind of cool to see, but by the time the chopper lands, you're so far away and the angle is such you can't even see anyone exit the chopper. Who knows if it really was the president or not...then again, who else would be flying by Air Force chopper to the White House, hmm?

Pumpkin Season is so fun. We talked a lot about pumpkins at Joy School and there were many activities involving pumpkins this year, so we've seen a lot of orange! We went down to an activity Silly Scarecrows at the historic Robert Mills house and garden in downtown. It was way fun and quite a bargain I thought. The kids loved picking a pumpkin from the garden, which they got to decorate, and we loved seeing all the silly scarecrows put up by different businesses- there were probaby 40 or so scarescrows.




I didn't realize the kids were going to get their own pumpkin from the Robert Mills house activity, and I had already planned a playgroup trip to a pumpkin patch that same week. Athough I ended up locking my keys in the car (and my wallet), it was a great place to play while we waited an hour for triple-A to come rescue us. We had fun with friends at storytime, exploring and taking pictures, but did not end up buying any pumpkins.

Myrtle Beach

We got a 3 day weekend and I just had to get out of town! There are a number of places I'd like to go visit around the area. We decided to go to Myrtle Beach while it was still warm outside. (The fall weather here has been practically summer-i. LOVE. it!) The drive seem to take forever, it made me sad not to be staying the night (we decided we didn't want to spend money on a hotel.) It was SOOOO nice to be at the beach! Nostalgic memories of kids playing in sand, listening to the ocean for hours. I love warm beaches! Nothing especially interesting to tell, and these aren't even the cute pictures, lol! But I got tired of waiting for blogger to load the pictures. So, this post will be short and sweet. Can't wait to go back next summer! (Assuming we get put at Fort Bragg...!)

Swampfest!

Ewh, swampfest!? Doesn't that just sound too cool to miss?! That's what I thought at least. And I wasn't disappointed! I've been wanting to visit Conagree National Park for alittle while, and since we started our Earth unit in preschool, I had it at the top of my list of fun things. Then, I found out there was the 8th annual Swampfest going on this weekend- perfect!
The kid-paced walk along the bayou boardwalk was enhanced by face painting from a naturalist group, fur skin display, bracelet making with the Cherokee Chief, and a visit with Kessie a slave-reenactor and black history educator. We ended up spending I think almost 3 hours at the park!
Then, there were special events goin on down the road too! We enjoyed the hayride fromthe park to Swampfest where there were vendors, music and entertainment, and some carnival rides for the kids. They had the coolest balloon artists making probably the best balloon creations I've ever seen. That was Willie's highlight. Lucy got to ride all the rides (it pays to be 3 inches taller). Another couple hours passed and we were almost late getting home for the second session of General conference.

Moving Stages

I don't write down enough of what the kids are like at different times of their lives. And I love it, so I'm sur they would love to know about it! So, I feel the need to write it now. I was going to have the patience to add pics to this, but even the thought of it, well, I've already lost my patience. thus, this will be a pretty long and mostly likely a little boring of a post. :)
Right now, I feel like the kids are moving stages in life, it's so fun.
Hallee has graduated into the sitting up and "basically" crawling category. I didn't even know she could sit up, and then all of a sudden she was doing it. She also started doing some army crawling this week. True blue girl! ;) She also became a thumb sucker! My first. I remember the night when she seemed to just "figure it out." I was signing my lullabies to her, and she found her thumb and popped it in. It was like you could see the light bulb go on in her head. I could hear her unspoken words, "Hmm, this is great. I will do this every night from now on." It's incredibly hard to resist the cuteness of it all.
Willie is the love of my life right now. He makes me laugh so much! He is funny, not just a silly 2 year old kind of funny, but really a jokester. He's also switching from being a toddler to really a preschool kid. He's so smart! I smile every time I hear him pray, "thanks for my girl Lucy, and my other girl Hallee." He's so cute. It's fun to watch the mental development as a toddler leaves toddling age and becomes a preschooler.
I really click with Willie, more in a lot of ways than I have clicked with Lucy, which must mean he takes after me in personality or thought processes, because I know Lucy takes after Jeremy for sure. Jeremy and I were one of those oh so rare couples that, even though we were a match made in heaven, we found out how different we were after we got married. Not many couples out there like that right? ;) We have some polar opposites with respect to some things, and I've always felt Lucy has taken after Daddy in these kinds of things, she's opposite of me. Willie seems to be more like me and so I feel like I understand him and can relate to him more. This is important to me mostly because as I do home preschool, I have to remember their differences while I'm doing lessons.
It's also great to see Willie getting out of his toddler stage with respect to obedience and playtime/sharing. It is so fun to watch the two play together in their room. Right now, the kid's room is the only room we've spent money on for furniture. And it's a long story, I'm not totally thrilled with the furniture, but I won't go into that. But their room is set up like their own little world. Lucy's got a "doll house" bunk bed, which is a bunk bed that looks like a mini house. It practically puts a hole in the roof, it was an ordeal putting it up. And she kind of hates it. *Sigh*. Willie has a little tikes car bed. There is a table and chairs under the house, or "inside" their house. They have dishes for tea time and a tea cart, and lots of play food. And soon to be added (lest I forget, Willie will remind me everyday), a basketball hoop in the "driveway". The basketball hoop is Willie's potty present. He's been doing awesome on potty training really. He might be fully trained before Lucy is.
Though I said Lucy is so different, she is just as smart as 4 year olds come. She picks things up from friends so quick! She's also started to become mommy's little helper with the baby, which is nice to have. She asks everyday when "school starts". We're going to be doing a Joy School with two other kids in our ward, and Lucy and Willie. It should be fun. Lucy's great accomplishment this summer has been learning how to swim. I would officially say she can swim! I'll put a video up of her swimming. It's just so amazing to me how much she progressed this summer and a lot of it was by watching her friends.
We've been in Columbia for 2 months now, and we still don't have a bed, believe it or not. We finally had to give back our borrowed sleeping mats, so we bought a futon. Sold it again two days later because I thought it was junk basically, junk for sleeping on at least. So we're back to having nothing to sleep on. Tonight I think I'm sleeping with Lucy (whose expensive bed is also the nicest bed in the house) and Jeremy will sleep on the couch. We will be getting something soon.... :o

Rules of Engagement

I had an army friend of mine ask me how I was doing with accepting all this stuff called "army life". I told her I was probably at about 50%. Jeremy is still trying to get me to assimilate more into army ways. I think I must still be trying to live like I was in laie Hawaii, with no cares or worries. Army is much more rigid than that.
An example of my carelessness is this scare we had a few weeks back. It was in the first week or so that we moved and life was stressful and crazy, and the poor kids were getting the brunt of everything it seemed. I felt bad for them, and I tried to note small ways that we could help their day seem better- a little less big-kid like. So I thought it was way cute when they got so excited one time we gave thme a "ride" in the car, which means they get to hold on with no seat belts while we drive a short distance. And I mean a short distance. (I'm going to regret saying this aren't I? I'm going to have to explain my actions for years to come.)
Anyway, I didn't think it was a big deal, just 100 yards or less. We've pulled this kind of stunt at Grandma's house, course she had her own road and was not in the city technically. Anyway, Jeremy is dead set against this idea of mine, but I talked him into it one time. I had jumped in the back of the van with Willie and the baby and we were driving along when... ba baa bummmm! The sheriff drove past us! Jeremy turned white and said, Oh crap! We watched the sheriff and sure enough, the car turned around in the drive we just came out of and started heading our way. Jeremy was so upset at me! (I don't blame him.) Then, out of sheer luck, the sheriff turned down another way and we kept going. We were free for that night. Jeremy was repeating 'Never Again' over and over. He was saying how he saw his whole career flash before his eyes. Poor guy. I felt real bad. Needless to say, I've reevaluated my caution and respect to army strict adherence to laws of the land and I've repented. :)
It's amazing how much your "employer" can have ahold of your personal life. There's still many more ways I could be better at being in the army. Army families should have a high standard to show others. And I think that's important, I just got to get in gear I guess. From the wife's point of view- running the forgotten patch to the hubs, stopping in the middle of the street for trump or drill or whatever is going on, random vehicle weapons checks, etc. These little things that make me think, I'm not in the army, but... I am.
Yeah, so 50%, if that. I still don't have our insurance and benefits figured out. And I thought people were helping me learn that and learn what stuff was going to be available to me, the army wife, but after they talked to me- all I've figured out is there is a playgroup (which I haven't made it to yet) and they would love to have me volunteer if I can. (slight chuckle.) Yeah, so no "benefits" as of yet.

We got a dog!

...for a day. :)
Although the seed was planted in me long ago to get a dog, the overall premeditated period for this venture was pretty short. I grew up saying I wanted a dog and no kids. Now here I am, three kids and still wanting a dog...until now.
Brand new to the area, some new friends from our ward invited us to dinner where I found she was a big dog-lover and had trained her dog very well. I told her how I've always wanted a dog, but didn't know anything about them and needed to learn. She was excited to help me learn all I needed to know and gave me a book to read. Later that week, she let me know that a family in the ward had a black lab puppy they were trying to find a home for. We were quickly introduced and we liked the puppy but I just wasn't sure it was the right time for us to get a puppy. But here the little furry thing was. It was so cute. So wantable. I don't even have any furniture it could ruin, I don't care about the carpet we have right now, I have this great friend who is helping me learn all I need to know...all these thoughts made me think, maybe this wouldn't be a bad time to get a dog. And so I talked Jeremy into it.
We begun making all kind of preparations and, although I had already read quite a few chapters in the book, I began speed reading even faster. There was a lot to think about and I made three trips to the pet store in just a few days trying to get ready for her. We picked up the puppy on Wednesday evening. We hadn't technically got an approval from our leasing office though, but I assumed it would be okay- something you just kind of go down and sign the papers for. There were a ton of big dogs in the complex that walk around, it seems like.
It was kind of crazy night, our first full attempt at taking care of a dog. She was a great puppy! She even went potty on her pad a couple times, and just laid in her blocked off area, very mellow for a puppy, which means we could call ourselves lucky. All of this only made me feel worse about what I realized the next day, for it was all soon to end...
Jeremy went to the office the next morning and talked to them about the puppy. Even though it was still small, because our lease term was 13 months and the labs will be over the size limit by that time, they were giving us trouble about getting the puppy. You see, we kind of didn't tell them that we had already kind of got the puppy. So the puppy lived with me "illegally" for that day. We took her to the vet and got medicine for fleas and worms. We took her with us to pick dad up from work. This was all quite a bit of work doing a puppy and a 6 month old- not to mention two other kids- at the same time. Not that I can say i wasn't warned, in fact, there were many people that snickered and looked at me doubtingly when they heard we were getting a puppy- which was kind of hard to deal with in itself. But the basic fact was this- the office hadn't approved her yet, so we quickly took her back to our friends house who had been fostering her that night after work. We didn't want to be fined for having a dog. That night, I sat in my house, on break from this smell and everything that comes with the inclusion of an animal, and I realized... it's not right to have the dog here with us right now. The other kids, the close quarters, the neighbor downstairs that already thinks we're too loud, the fact that we're not sure where we're moving to in 6 months... it all kind of clouded over and I realized it was not a good thing- though the dog was a very good dog- it wasn't time to get a dog. It had been a costly decision in a way. I loved the crash course in dog care. I loved that cute little puppy face. But it wasn't the right time for us to get a dog.
Now, I'm looking back on that crazy week thrown in with the already crazy experiences that comes with moving to a new place. I have to be completely honest and say, I've started to have this inkling that I might not be a dog person after all. It was a heart breaking week for me, something I'm still trying to understand. I see others with dogs and I still feel a little 'jealous'. I still perk up when I see a sign or ad looking for a dog owner. I'm not sure what keeps driving that in me. But Jeremy has put his foot down and said No for now.