Down in the Southland...

After four plane ridesv(and poor Jeremy having to carry way to many bags), we arrived in Columbia, South Carolina. Summer is in full swing here, and I'm loving it. We're staying in a hotel right now driving a rental car, which is an expensive way to live, so we're working hard to remedy that. I was quite worried that we didn't have much to go on as far as things lined up for a car and a house, but now I realize that Jeremy was right to just roll with things. It turns out we couldn't have found the options that we're now looking at, while still in Oregon. We just wouldn't have known about them until we reported to the base and went through their oreintation kind of stuff. Which is kind of frustrating that life is like that, but I'm definetly not disappointed in what the army is offering. That's the story of the army pretty much though... they have great things to offer but if you want them they come not on your terms or timing. Ah well, so we should be getting into a nice place to live pretty soon. In the meantime, not having to cook breakfast is a nice break.
The car situation on the other hand, is going to take a little mroe figuring out. We may have to hit the road a little bit to find something more in our price range.
Columbia itself, I think will be a lot of fun. It has a lot of the "southern beauty" going on I think. We drove to look at a house in the historic district. It was so fun to see these brick houses with tall coloumns in front, lots of rocking chairs on porches. The house was definetly a fixer-uper, so not what we're looking for right now. But would be a lot of fun, someday. The people here are very different and will take a little getting used to probably. I invisioned mostly black americans and caucasians, but I've seen a good melting pot of people from all over, so that's pretty cool. I feel like we're right in the middle of everything too. The coast is not too far. There's lots of nature trails and boating/lakes around. It will be really fun to explore.
Well, better get back to searching the web....

All On My Own

I'm all on my own this week, my "nanny" is on vacation. Grandma is out of town this week- in NY!- We miss Grandma! Wish I could have gone too, but we've been getting our kicks in. :P We dropped mom at the airport and went to hang out with our Portland cousins. The kids had tons of fun. We stayed the night as well (Worst night ever actually, Willie wanted to stay up forever, Lucy kept having bad dreams, and Hallee woke up every 2 hours. I didn't get any sleep.) That's okay. (Love the snuggled up kids watching a movie.) I had big plans to visit the Tulip Festival at Wooden Shoe Farm. We were set up for a really bad day because of the waether, but the sight of all those tulips in layers of colors, was unforgettable really. I'd never seen anything like it. But back to the experience as a whole, we were cold and to make matters worse, we were in the middle of the footpath to the fields when it started POURING! Cats and Dogs, soft hail even. It was awful. We had to run about 150 yards to the nearest tent. The baby was in my wrap and under my jacket covered up, but Lucy and Willie were drenched. All Willie wanted to do was cry. Cold is bad, but cold and wet, is nearly unbearable. We finally made it back to the car and stoked up some warmth. I was bummed because it cut our trip short. I wasn't able to buy any flowers or experience some of the other things there. Things did go from bad to worse, as I got lost coming out of Woodburn while driving in the rain. Boo! We got home to a beautiful, sunny day at home! We stayed outside and weeded the flower beds. The kids were happy to be such "great workers." We all took Sunday naps today and so I wasn't feeling in a hurry to put the kids to bed. So we spent the evening together not watching the time and just being together. We actually just ended up reading stories for probably an hour and half. I got downstairs after they were in bed and it was almost 9:30pm, which is late for us. As I tucked Lucy in bed, she says, Mom that was a great evening. Made me smile.

I've been promising pictures and videos for Daddy... I love this candid shot of Willie and his cousin Breanna. Breanna is so good with the kids- she's such a great cousin! D is for Donuts! The kids had fun making homemade donuts. I figured out a great frosting I like for donuts too, I decided- make a cream cheese frosting and then fold in cool whip. I think I like it better than a glaze or just a cookie frosting. The infamous boat. It's not infamous quite yet, but for being in our family such a short while it already has got a reputation. I got this boat from a sweet, nice man off of Freecycle. So yes, it was free. And it's not in beautiful condition, but it's not broken or anything, just could use new paint. So it's a great boat! I'm so excited, I wish I was going to be around long enough to use it more. Ok, I feel the need to tell the whole story. We were reading a book a while back and there was this story of a dog and a cat and they had cat's birthday cake while out on a boat. And Lucy and I were talking how it would be fun to do her birthday cake in a boat. So, I began to think how I could do it. I thought about taking her for a riverboat cruise or something. But I liked the idea of just having her birthday here at Grandma's pond, like Willie was able to have a big party at Grandma's barn. I thought I could just borrow one, but I wanted to dec it out and wasn't sure how that would sit with any owner if I had to use tacks/staples. So I set out to find one of my own,and came upon Gizmo on Freecycle. From communications from this man on phone and not actually seeing the boat, I thought it would fit in the back of our truck and that it was fairly light (for a boat). This is what the guy had suggested to me at least. Well, I convince my brother-in-law to go help me get it (after laboriously convincing my mom to let me go get it and watch the kids for me while I did). The boat was bigger than we thought, and definitely not light. The nice man let us borrow his trailer (told you he was sweet) to make the 40 minute trip to my house. It was kind of a crazy three hour process of going between his house and ours and trying to load and unload this big boat with just two of us. We pull up at my mom's house with the boat at which point my mom decided this was the worst idea ever. She hated the boat, hates orange, hated that it would be sitting by the pond, thought it was too dangerous. All these things. Oops, awh Grandma, all I can say is sorry. The kids have been good and understand all the rules about the boat. We had a fun afternoon cleaning it and have made one trip to find lifejackets, but still need some for the kids. So we haven't taken it into the water yet. I'm looking forward to Lucy's birthday and watching her blow out her candles while in her birthday boat. I think we'll do Lucy's party a couple weeks late because Jeremy thinks he might be able to come home for a couple weeks after his graduation from Officer School on May 20th. He'll be here for about two weeks and we'll do a party then.
...Sorry Dad the video is not uploading!

Only a Matter of Time

It was only a matter of time until Willie figured out how to get out of his crib. Today, that time has come. I'm actually surprised he hasn't done it sooner, being the crazy jumper/climber he is. He just didn't put it together. Anyway, I have no idea exactly how he gets out. Hope it's safe....as can be. So, now the dilemma, should I start having him use a toddler bed. I feel myself really hanging onto the crib as long as possible, dragging it out, playing mind games with him until he's totally figured out the battle that's at steak here. But should I really drive him to understand so much of what this situation entails. Eh, I'm sure he's figured it all out already anyway.
Jeremy was super sweet and had flowers delivered to me today. Yesterday on the phone he was so giddy and anxious saying 'What are you doing tomorrow?' 'Are you going to be home?' 'There might be a surprise for you tomorrow.' So he was very obvious in something going down, but didn't let up at what it was. I asked him, 'Did you spend money?' To which he replied No, so that really stumped me. I couldn't think what wouldn't cost money to have show up at my door. Then I thought, maybe he is showing up?? I honestly thought that might be it, although I knew there was no way it would be. I tried to not buy into my secret wish, but it was so alluring it was hard not to. I had to laugh inspite of myself when the flower van showed up. It was a lovely surprise, not to be downplayed by me thinking it was my hubby showing up. The flowers are beautiful- red roses with some smaller very pretty flower, in a cute square chunky vase, there's this long thin grass made intoa shape of a heart around it. That didn't sound beautiful the way I described it, but it raelly is. The card was very sweet, of course. ;)
falling asleep....got to go.........

Yet again

My computer is down, yet again. It's hanging on by a thread and we just keep pushing it to hang on longer. Not sure why it's not working right now, so don't know estimated time of repair. I hope soon....
We had such a fun Easter. It was one of those quiet, just our small family, special times, that don't happen frequent enough. Sometimes you make the holidays too big and get so busy working that you don't enjoy things. I often do at least. But this last weekend wasn't really like that. We did enough to make it special, but kept everything just simple enough too. We all LOVED the Lemon Torte Cake! Such a yummy treat for the holiday!
We had a special Ladies Night Out last night, Zumba! I arrived at the gym and it was packed! So I have no idea if any of "my ladies" were there. Kind of a bummer my night turned solo. But I had such a blast doing Zumba! It's totally my thing! I could do it all the time! I'm working on conning my mom or sister to go with me next time. I was very tempted to join the class, but since we're moving next month I decided not to bother.
Tomorrow is a big day for Jeremy. He has a test and then they will be branching out. That means getting their assignment or 'job'. It also means we'll be able to have a better idea what lies ahead in this journey as far as where we'll be living and for how long, etc. It will be so nice to have a plan and a little more specific goal of what we're doing. Jeremy's top pick is Medical services, working as an admin in a hospital or possibly doing social work. His next choice would be Military Intelligence. And if not those two, probably Infantry or Adjunct General. He has a high position on their ranking list so he should have a clear shot in choosing his desired position.
I haven't done too much updating about Jeremy since he got to Officer School. He is doing well. It's a much better situation than basic training. They are in rooms with more privacy, he does have two roommates though. He bought himself a little laptop and so he has internet access anytime he's in his room. He has time to call almost every night. He usually spends a lot of time on the phone or skyping on weekends as they have had every weekend off for personal time. So things have been nice. He complains a little bit about the monotony of the cafeteria, and repetitive busy work, and not too many good friends around. But this stage too is temporary. He'll be glad when he can say he's graduated.
The kids are doing great. Lucy has been doing really well with our little preschool and learning her letters. I hope we keep it up this time! :P Willie is such a great comic relief to ahve in the house. He's starting to potty train himself which is frustrating at times, but great for him. Hallee is getting to strong, it's so adorable. She's super talkative- I love it! I love listening to baby coos. All my kids have just jumped on language, it looks like she'll be no different. I wish someone would come turn my life into a TV series, just because I want it all recorded. I would love to remember so many more moments than I currently am right now. It's hard to keep up with it all- in memory or written down.
Well, this was a nice journal entry. I hope my computer gets better so I can post some recent pics, cause they're so cute. :)

3 month baby!

Today matches my mood much more than yesterday. Yesterday we missed the beautiful sunny weather on the account of being sick! We did make it outside, but it was pretty short lived. Today's pouring down rain is much better. ;P

Actually, I want to dedicate this post to Hallee. She is so stinkin' cute! I've already mentioned how much she loves to be looking out in the world, and that's why she hates all these carriers I guess. It is adorable to watch her being so ingrossed in what's going on around her. She loves the kids getting up in her face and trying to make her laugh. She'll always give them a smile. She's started pulling at her hair while she's playing on her back. I don't remember the those kids doing that very much, but they probably did. Sorry I didn't feel like rotating the photo above.

Two Scoops!

The closest Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shop to us is about an hour away in Eugene. Of course I wasn't going to let that stop me from enjoying "Free Ice Cream Cone" day yesterday! I planned a day in Eugene and threw the kids in the car first thing in the morning. We went to the mall for a little shopping. I was looking for a certain bookstore and it wasn't there anymore actually, but we had fun in Borders. Then we had lunch in the car (feeding kids and getting fed upon- what I do the largest percentage of the day) while the day warmed up to be beautiful and sunny. Ben and Jerry's was no disappointment! Last time I went to one of these, we waited in line for close to an hour I think. So I got there 10 minutes before they even started, hping to get in the fron to fhe line. The kids were so excited to have their own ice cream cone. The line wasn't bad at all, which was nice. The kids steaked out their table and waited patiently while I stood in line. I got two chocolate ice cream cones and handed them to the kids. While I was getting my scoop, I looked back at the kids at the table just in time to see them yell, "Cheers!" and bump their ice cream cones together! Honestly! What a crew! The mom at the table next to us started cracking up. It took about an hour to eat the ice cream. Willie was so excited he just sat there talking about it for the first 10 minutes. Look how proud he is of his cone. Lucy gets the award for the messiest. They didn't have any napkins there (the owner was talking to me and saying how they don't put any effort into this day because it's so crazy, they just scoop. I guess I understand.)
Next stop was the Science Factory, which was fun but I was surprised to learn that it's actually quite a bit smaller than I imagined. We circled the exhibits probably three times and spent a large majority fot he time in the Tot Spot, this small little corner with a boat, crane, all pit, and some other ocean things. Baby Hallee made her first attempt at sitting in the stroller. She's probably still too young to sit up in it, but she loved being able to see out. She has not liked being strapped into anything, and she's hated all the carriers I have. She didn't mind the stroller too bad, but it had to be moving to keep her really content.

Happy 100th!

This is my 100th post on this blog. I will celebrate with (yet another) random rambling. No, honestly. This post will be the most random rambling I can get done in 15 minutes or less, because that's all the time I want to spend. :)

My Lucy has grown up this week. I'm talking radical change. Her speech, her thoughts, her interests. I'm scared. I wrote about the incident at the pizza place that happened just three days ago. Now, today, similar story, perhaps more serious. Or not since the boy seemed much more harmless, he was only 3 (not 5!), but they were married! We ventured to a park which was very happenin' in the mom scene. Lots of mamas there. Lucy was playing with some good friends of ours, who were also playing with some other good friends of theirs. So, the game was house again, and it developed into Prince and Princesses game. The play structure was the castle- we even caught the moment where Lucy was laying "dead" asleep (as in Sleeping Beauty) in the 'castle' while all the princes were scaling the walls to save her (there were two princes). Ultimately Lucy was to be "married" to Gabe, and Will to Sophia. Then, twist of events, Will decides he wants to marry Lucy. Lucy agreed, so they took each other's hands and started to walk off. Holding hands, people!! At 3 years old!! How did this happen?! (ummm, disney movies...duh) Well, it was too much for Sophia that her prince had left her, so she started a melt down and plopped herself down at the base of a nearby tree. Were talking a pretty big crying fit. All because my daughter is marrying both princes- the little fox! This is the point where the moms came in to round everyone up to go home and found out the whole storyline of their playtime. And this little three year old Will, repeatedly insisted that he and Lucy were going to get married. I tried to just ignore the little Romeo and get the kids out to the car. Turns out we were parked right next to these people, and on the way to his car, Will stopped by to make sure I knew I had to come back to 'this park' to play because he was married to Lucy. What a guy.
aye yai yai. I'm really being melodramatic if you couldn't tell. I don't hold anything against Will. He was a sweet boy and I'd totally love to have a playdate with those guys again. Just after I have a little talk with my girl. I still don't like that five year old though...

Ok, time's up. I'm going to throw a couple St. Patrick's day pics on here though. We went letterboxing downtown and had a lot of fun. Some friends came and we went to four businesses that had letterboxes hidden in the store. So fun. We made it into a treasure hunt, left by a leprechaun. It ended at American Dream pizza and we found the leprechaun's hat filled with treasure. Then we had lunch. I also made rainbow cupcakes for a dinner we had with my sister. She had made a corned beef brisket dinner. I brought these for dessert. They are quite fun because they're so colorful, but a little labor intensive. I'll try anything once though.