Friday, January 04, 2008

I Forgot to say Goodbye to my Lover....

Yesterday was another bittersweet day for our family. BITTER to say goodbye to the girls once again as they head back to WA and Master's Commission. SWEET as we know that they love God wholeheartedly and are following the path He has set for them.

No matter how slowly you walk eventually you enter the airport. LOL
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Zander refused to look up
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We circled up, prayed, and it was time for them to go.
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I took the kids to breakfast at McDonald's - a RARE event in our household...but loved by the littles.
During the fun play Zander came up to me and sadly stated, "I forgot to say goodbye to my lover!" I was glad we had the new phones. We text messaged the girls and he was able to say goodbye. I saved their sweet reply messages for instant replay whenever needed.
The big boys went out with friends.
The youngers, Mom and I went to check out the BIG Walmart on the other side of town. Stacia needed to upgrade from a 3T - 4T wardrobe (Yes, she is barely 2 years old), all needed jackets or coats. Arielle bought some pants besides sweats to wear. They really liked the PLAY ROOM at this Walmart....hmmmm...it may be worth it to drive across town from now on.
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Mike suggested Dairy Queen in the evening.
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Meanwhile, the girls had a longer than expected wait in Dallas. I think, if I have it right,  an airplane in Denver had problems and never made it to Dallas. They were put in a hotel over night, given meal vouchers and flew out early this a.m.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

The Last Day....

The girls leave tomorrow. I was determined not to waste this day with errands, cooking, laundry, nor shopping.

We went to the mall and signed up for a new family cell phone plan. We have had tracfones. Which worked great for emergencies but cost MORE than a family plan when you have FAMILY that live out of the house. We shopped around and Sprint is the best deal for us...and THEN they gave us a 15% military discount after we'd decided they were the best deal. Sweet. This will make it easier to keep in contact with the girls. Josiah and I were looking at a local plan but Sprint will give us two phones here and two phones in WA.
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Krista put together airplanes with the younger boys.
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Stacia asked Jared, "Jer, shall we dance?" And they did.
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Mom and Dad gave us a beautiful memorial to our lost babies. It's gorgeous and I'll have to write more about it soon; not tonight.

We went geocaching.
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Bre says, "I HOPE I just found the cache!"
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Yes, she had.
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Then we went to dinner....
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Stacia loves dessert bars
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I gave everyone one last Christmas gift....maybe the last. ::snort::
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Back at home we played Outburst Jr. and Charades.
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G'pa read
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Jared as the Berlin Wall (the girls had a great idea for making a large family friendly Twister...we'll try to do that before the next Friday game night)
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Mike as a volcano
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He blew!
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Jamin as a nun
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Bre as a blow fish
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Krista as a body boarder
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De'Etta as "the Fonz"
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Nolan - can't remember
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Mike as Barbara Streisand (you had to be here)
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Saying goodbye is hard and we'd appreciate your prayers as God leads tomorrow.

This little boy has been insisting ALL day that Bre and Krista are NOT leaving.
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This mom is....
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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

New Year's Day

The most shocking discovery of the day was that someone had gone into my My Space and changed the photo, added photos, and changed the background to bright pink and BARBIE!!!! Yes, that someone is one of my beloved children. They taught me a lesson about internet security. I'm used to blogger and such. When I close a window - I'm logged off. Evidently on Myspace....when you close a window you are still logged on unless you have signed off....so someone just went to HER myspace and found my space there - and couldn't resist. WELL....the culprit then had to give me a nice new background. ::snort:: And....I'll remember to sign off from here on out.

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While I was taking care of the grevious attack on my identity, Mike finished reading Jamin's book.

Mike and I took the girls out to lunch. They'll be leaving shortly and we wanted time to chat with them. They'd never had Chick Fil A and knew they wanted a shake...the boys were working....so we went.

I sat in the mall and tried to take these without embarassing Jamin...but Tim O - the boss noticed me and made Cy wave at his mom...
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PhotobucketJamin was forced to stand still so I could take a photo. Unfortunately, the little camera doesn't do well with focus when zoomed in to 12....ah well.

We've been debating family phone plans so stopped at Sprint to see what they have to offer. Verizon doesn't service our area but there is coverage here. Huh???

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingI should write a sepearte apron post but the pictures are here so I'll talk about it here. ::snort::I love  my apron which I purchased from Bread Beckers. It's made of thick material. You can't tell from the photo but it is ADJUSTABLE...the ties are long and you pull them up or down to adjust how high up the front of the apron will be. This is important for me because most adult aprons like this have the top down at my waist...and the children's ones strangle me. The apron is $19.95. Krista said we could make one. On a trip to walmart we picked up what we thought we would need for 2 aprons. It turns out we'll get 4 aprons made.....at less than $4 a piece. Ours doesn't slide as well as theirs, but we know why and can do it differently on the other 3 if we want to. Ours also has the frayed look on the tie, but Krista tells me that fringe is coming back.....and I'm a trendsetter.

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One down, three to go - Krista says she'll take this one home with her.
 
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Arielle made oven friend chicken (with just a bit of help from Krista and I - we are a big group) for dinner.

We began a phase 10 game at 8:00 p.m. At 10:00 p.m. I opted to go watch a Jerry Lewis movie with Stacia and Krista. I fell asleep within 5 minutes. I think the game finally broke up at
midnight. I have no idea who won.
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PhotobucketJosiah and Jamin got home and played some slapping game next to us.














 
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Mom demonstrated why it takes her longer than Dad to read a book. ::snort::

I've lived in cultures where New Year's Day is incredibly important. It is felt that what you do the first day of the year will determine how your time is spent the rest of the year. We spent the day with family, played games, and ate nutritious food - that's a good start. LOL
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Happy New Year!!!

A bit of Blog Trivia:

I have written 1017 posts in 2007. 200 posts less than 2006, but Mike wasn't deployed for 1/2 of this year. ::snort:: I've written a total of 2356 posts in the process of this blog adventure.

I've written 57 book reviews - though I've read more books than that.

The last two months I've posted (not photos taken but actually PUBLISHED) about 300 photos a month - so I think we can safely say that I've published over 3,000 photos on the blog this year - no wonder I NEVER get those albums caught up! ::snort::

Though I'm sure there is a way, I can't tell how many visitors I've had this year - since my counter began in 2006.

I've participated in at least eight blog challenges. I've hosted two challenges.

Blogging - certainly not the most important thing that happened in 2007 - but a defining part of the year.

My purpose for blogging is to keep family and friends up to date on our lives. We've succeeded. Along the way, I've had fun, met new friends, built a sort of community, shared opinions....but over all - I've kept a family journal for another year and had fun doing it. Thanks, Jodi, for encouraging me to try this "blog thing".
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2008 Countdown Tickers

Jamin's 17th Birthday

Arielle's 11th Birthday



BreAnne's 23rd Birthday


Krista's 21st Birthday




Stacia's 3rd Birthday





Mike's Birthday



Thanksgiving

Girl's Home for Christmas

Christmas

2009 Countdown Tickers

De'Etta's 45th Birthday

Jared's 15th Birthday

Nolan's 10'th Birthday

Josiah's 20th Birthday

Zander's 7th Birthday

25 Years of Marriage