getting ready for Thanksgiving.

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Ruger eyeing the Big Turkey ( ME).

Chevy waiting patiently for the big day.

D waiting under the table making his spot known where he will be when we eat. He wants to make sure he will have the best seat for a dog in the house. He knows where the kids sit and kindly drop him lots of scrapes of food.

Our center piece that we made the other day.

Chevy saying don't ask me about my day.

See the very loving look that she is giving me.

We are having 2 Thanksgivings. One here on Wednessday with my friends.One on Thursday at Chris and Jeans I wish I could come home and see everyone.

I know that I've not been posting or calling a lot lately. Sorry. I've been busy with Leia's school,day care kids, and gasp going to the gym and working out. I'm finally getting back on track. I know what I posted several months ago and obviously it didn't happen(loosing weight) instead I gained. so I have a nutritionist on my side and she calls me every week to check in on my progress. In the last 2 weeks I've lost 7 pounds. Yeah ME.
Not much is happening around here other then that. We kind of lead boring lives. It's like gosh nobody wants to hear the mundane things that I do around here. We stay on base most of the time and I've blogged everything already that we repeatedly do. That can get boring.I did meet someone new at the gym who is possible going to be chosen for the biggest looser. She's gotten a call from them. She's already lost 50 pounds and has another 100 to go. So she was inspiring.I'm heading out to the gym momentarily and then going to church. After that Leia has a play date with her friend Hannah. SO that pretty much sums up my day for now. Love to you all.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!!! Leia was tired of being a peacock for 3 days in a row so on Halloween night she wanted to dress up as a Pirate with Micky Mouse glow stick ears.

We painted pumpkins this year. I didn't feel like disemboweling a pumpkin this year. Too much work.I think Leia had more fun with this anyway. This is Trunker Treat. It was a blast seeing how everyone decorated their cars and fun to see how they dressed up.

This is one of the girls from our Church. She's pregnant. Her costume is a deviled egg. I thought it was so cute and funny.

We were at the Boo Festival here at Shaw. It was O.K. They had a bouncy house and a few crafts. But the lines where so long. Leia only got to bounce in the bouncy house and we ate hot dogs. We also did Trunker Treat.Which I have never seen before. It's where people decorate up their cars and hand out candy. That was my favorite part of the Boo festival.

This is at the Library. Their craft was to make spider hats. These are the boys I watch. You can tell Leia is not amused.

Leia made this cake about 95% by herself. I was so proud of her. She's growing up so fast.

I told her if she did her work I'd let her make a cake. I don't think I've seen her work so fast.

Some Bunny to Love

Lost Bunny Found!!!!OH MY... What was I thinking. This bunny is so so so sweet and adorable and just huggable and sweet. Did I mention sweet. She is so darling and for a moment when I said I'd take her until the owner was found,but had said that I would keep her if nobody claimed her.( Taking that back now) .I had forgotten how stinky these guys were. But I did find some incredible litter for it to stay in which makes so much nicer to smell. There is organic litter that is made from corn. It absorbs the PEE smell so well. I love that stuff. I found it at the BX so surly it's at Wally World by now.Leia loves this bunny and never wants to put her down.She does know that it will be finding a new home soon.But for now she's enjoying playing with her. Man why are you so cute and adorable and look like the Cadberry Bunny.

Luckily I won't have her for too much longer. I have 2 people that really want her so I am giving this sweet little critter to a good home.(I'm even throwing in the new litter just so they don't return her in a day. HA HA HA!!!

Our 1st home school field trip

We went on our first field trip this year. It was to Kensington Mansion.It was an old plantation built in the late 1700's. It has it's fame due to a woman ran the plantation after her husband died and that was unusual back then.It had 40 slave houses,but only 1 remains.This house was one of the first ones in South Carolina to have indoor plumbing and an ice box as a refrigerator.It also had windows and some of them went all the way to the floor . They were hidden window doors at the end of the tour we exited out of one. It was so cool.What's also weird is at one point this mansion was so run down that they used it as a barn.I can't imagine it.

The group of Home school kids that we hang out with

Leia with Hanna and another little girl named Lillie.

This was their rocking chair. Some kind of bench made out of pine that is flexible and you bounce.The kids had fun on it.

Welcome Home From Iraq

We went to the Welcome Home Party. The military (actually our Key Spouse Leaders) out did themselves. There was free food, a movie for the kids, a station to make posters,free flags, free things for the kids, all kinds of nice things to do. It was definitely a nice homecoming. This is Leia's best friend Hanna. She's one of the home school kids.

Jen and Leia

They had a motorcycle brigade join in. They travelled from everywhere to come and see the men and women return home from Iraq. Leia's sign that she made for both Chris and Abram. It's the American Flag,South Korean Flag,and Iraq Flag.

This was cool. They announced that they would be landing in 10 minutes but we think the pilots put it in high gear because shortly after the announcement we were given a low flying buzz and then watched it land.

This is the line that was formed by the Motorcycle riders. The soldiers got to walk through the sea of flags. It was so touching.

Pictures of all the bikes.

Welcome Home!!!!

We all got chocked up. I was crying right along with Leia.We both miss Chris and wish he was the one on the plane.

My friends Jen,Abram,and Ethan. !!!!Welcome Home!!!!!

swan lake

We went to Swan Lake Saturday. It was such a nice day. A nice cool breeze and in the 80's.

A funny looking swan. A black head and all white body.

Pure innocence that I don't want to loose.

We had a good day yesterday. We first went to the base picnic. ( I forgot my camera, sorry no pictures of that) We ran into several people there and I even ran into one of my drop in parents(I've only watched their kids once) and she was like can you watch my kids This coming up Friday? Yep you bet I have all 4 slots open. Where are all these kids that they told me desperately needed watched especially at nights and weekends full time? Where??? Anyway I'll make a few extra bucks this Friday. YIPPEE. We ran into the home school family of 9. We're going to get together for a play date. I just have to set it up with their mom, who wasn't there because of an ankle injury.Leia is looking forward to that. Then because it was so so so hot in the 90's we went to the base pool. Now for it being so darn hot, why on earth did the pool feel like freezing mountain water. Yes once you got used to the shock and 10 minuets to get past your knees ,it warmed up to like -30. But we had fun. The pool closes next Friday so this will be our last trip for the season. She did a million trips down the slide and dove and did tons of handstands and flips. She is such a fish in the water. She also lounged on the noodle.
This is the only cantaloupe that I picked out of our garden. All of the others rotted. I'm not sure why. One day they were fine and 2 days later they were all brown caving in and it wasn't just them it was most of my other plant too. Like some phantom moved in and just killed everything. So I was excited to have at least on cantaloupe to share with Leia. It smelled like mint( mental note next year don't plant near the mint patch. it was surrounded by it) so I couldn't tell if it was ready by smell. I have to learn the thumping method. Trust me I thumped the crap out of it trying to figure if it was ready. I couldn't tell. So this was my logic. At the grocery store they are selling for a buck meaning they are in season because they are normally 3 dollars. So I figured the time was right. So out came the huge knife and at first stab,I knew it wasn't' going to be good. I opened it up and 90 percent of it was green. Dang it !!!!I thought Leia was going to be devastated. I was even planning on buying another one and hiding it in our garden for her to find and then we would eat that one. But I couldn't do it. I had to tell her the truth. She took it really well. Better then I thought. She was sad about it, then her logic little head said" mommy it's OK, they're only a dollar at the store". I thought she was more into the garden thing then that!!! Oh well, Hopefully my next garden will be better and she'll get more into it.


This is a picture of my daycare. One room of it anyway. This is the main playroom.

This is the same room just a different wall. I think it looks really nice. I get tons of compliments on how nice and homey it feels. I just wish I had some full time daycare kids to go with it.

To finish off my day yesterday we had dinner at Jens. She had another friend over so it was a nice dinner party. We then watched a few movies and just relaxed. It was a nice evening. Today is church and yard work. The forecast calls for rain so maybe nix the yard work. Yippee!!! I hope you all had a great weekend.Love to you all.

Yummy Potato's

YOU WILL GOBBLE THESE UP. I had to steal these from Laura. She posted about these smashed potato's and I was wanting to cook something different. Let's just say these are fabulous and so easy to make. I changed mine a tad from hers and they have now completely overtaken the baked potato's place. That's how yummy these are.

First You boil red potato's make a lot because you will devour them. Then when tender place them on a sprayed cookie sheet with PAM and drizzled a little olive oil on the bottom for flavor,Not much though. Then take the potato masher and slightly push down to crush them open. I bushed on a small amount of olive oil. Salt,Pepper, Garlic salt,and Italian seasoning. Bake on a cookie sheet. I had the oven temperature on like 400 and left them in there until crispy. 10 minuets or so. They might look weird but lets just say this is now a new favorite. It's full of so much flavor and NO butter.I know it has oil but not much. So if your feeling like you want to cook something different this should be it. Try it and let me know what you think. I know you'll love it. I see these even making it onto dare I say the Holiday menu.

Not much else is going on around here. The neighbors are all crazy and I'm staying out of it.Today the base is putting on a picnic so Leia and I are going there. Not much else planned for the day except the normal yard work and doing more paperwork for the daycare.

Thanks Laura for the yummy spud recipe. I loved that web site that you linked it too. She's a funny writer. I'd post it here,but not sure how to do it.

Take care. I love you all

OK I caved and she did school work in her PJ's I broke my own rule.Sometimes we just get started off better if I don't nick pick on her. And if you ask her about her outfit not matching she will reassure you that it does because theirs a tiny pink something or other on the pants.She has a style all of her own.School is still a struggle at times and other days she just whizzes through it.Sorry I haven't called anyone in a few days. I've been getting ready for inspection,her schooling and watching kids. I've also started going to the gym again. Hopefully I can stick to it some.I hope everyone had a great weekend.