Mona Kids Jungle

Mona Kids Jungle= Kid Heaven

It is an indoor playplace that is...actually....downright....CLEAN!! (my germaphobe fears did not rear its ugly head even once! Yay!)

They could fly...

play drums...

and even lounge in a ball pit (without getting stuck by hypodermic needles, eaten by scary creatures, or attacked by some unknown virus).

Easter

Better late than never right?

We enjoyed a fun Easter with our dear friends, the Deavers. What will my kids (and me!) do without them when we leave?

After much convincing (of Josh) we did finally get a picture with the Easter bunny. Josh is so ready to bolt and not happy to have the creature touching him in any way. Good thing Logan has a nice strangle hold on him to keep him steady. :)


After a delicious dinner, we enjoyed an evening Easter egg hunt. I love seeing the East China Sea in the background here!

Logan and his almost full basket!

Andrew and his best friend Lucy.

It was serious business for Josh. He was not wasting any time getting to the "goods" laying wait inside the egg. He loves his chocolate!

The kids searching for the last of the eggs.

Finally Done

I have finally finished the last of my quilt squares! I am glad that I didn't know how much time overall that doing these squares would take because that would have really made me hesitate. But, I am happy with the finished product. All in all, I made 20 of the sanshin square, 5 (and thank heavens ONLY 5) of the Shisa square and 2 of the sugar cane and rice hat. Overall, I will have 25 different squares (from the others in my groups) for a wonderful memory quilt.

Now to find some nice quilting lady that would like to piece together all of these squares for me. There is NO WAY I am going to learn to piece a quilt on something that has this much "sweat equity" put into it.

I am trying not to panic...

But, I only have 1 week left in my house! Here I am thinking I am getting all prepared in plenty of time and then it hits me- YOU HAVE 1 WEEK TO GET YOUR LIFE IN ORDER, ack! I gotta tell ya, there is nothing like an organizational kick in the pants than trying to move your life across the planet (again).

On another note, my kids have said and done a few things that have been so cute and sweet that I knew I would need to "blog" about them before they are lost from my mind forever.

I'll start with Andrew:
Andrew is my scientist at heart. If he isn't learning about anatomy then it is natural/earth sciences. If it isn't either of those, it is astronomy or marine biology; and if those aren't floating his boat at the moment it is chemistry. And right now, we are talking a LOT about chemistry in this house. Andrew's favorite evening pastime is to go onto youtube (WITH mom and dad of course) and watch chemisty experiments (how would I have even guessed that I would be trying to explain the periodic chart of elements with my 8 year old?). His favorite experiment at the moment, is one of a college professor putting some sulfur into water and watching the "explosive" reaction...good times I tell ya. Anyway he is always asking how old he has to be until he can go into THAT college class and talk to THAT professor about chemistry. Love it. He said to me the other day as I was driving the boys to school "Mom, when I am in college and you come and help in my class (I help out in his class a lot) I will get to show you all of MY experiments." Ahh, it makes a moms' heart melt to hear that my son wants his mommy to come to his college class to see his work. I know it will pass but I will relish it for the moment.

Next is my Logan. He is my creative little one that craves learning and projects. He is such a little Dana in the fact that he is a perfectionist and just seems to intuitively "get" how things work. He is so loving and loves to project his love in works of art. If I am gone for even just a little bit and he is home with Dad, I always find a picture taped to the door that Logan has made for me. Of course, I save every one and have quite a stack built up now; such sweetness.

Another little habit he has picked up is that he meticulously folds his pjs each morning and gently places them into his drawer before getting dressed. I really need to get this on tape. He lays the shirt down on the bed, smooths out the wrinkles, folds in the sleeves and then folds the shirts in to thirds. Then, the same routine with the pants. EVERYDAY. Where did he get this? Should I be worried?! I am more of a stuff and grab kind of a girl and even Dana isn't that concerned about his folding (though admittedly, more than I am).

My third and final cute memory is something Joshy (my wild card) said to me this week. He is SURE that I need another baby in my tummy (I don't). In fact, we were standing in line at the military post-office on base together in a LONG line of quietly patiently waiting soldiers. Out of the blue, Joshy says in his much too loud at that moment voice, "Mom, you gotta get a baby in there!" as he pats my tummy...ya, thanks kid. That wasn't embarrassing even one little bit.

Then, the next day as we are driving in the car, once again the subject comes up about babies in the tummy (you would think I have a daughter...where is my little rough and tumble son getting all this?) and that babies grow bigger while they are in there. Well of course Josh says to me, "Mom, I gotta get back in there right now!" Confused I say, "In where, my tummy?!" "Yes" Josh says, "I need to get back in there so I can get bigger and stronger now!" Ha! I had a good laugh outta that one.

Home Sweet Home

I had a busy week last week. Well, let me back up a little. Dana was in Thailand for 3 weeks. It was long and crazy all rolled in together. Then, one week later, I was on a plane to come back to the States to try and find a home at our new assignment; and I did!

We did our homework and I flew out with 20 homes that I really wanted to look at with the agent that was waiting to give me the grand tour. At the start of that first day, a whopping 3 were left of the 20; they had all been sold. The buyers market was quickly being gobbled up by investors. After a frustrating first day of looking at overpriced very dirty and or stripped houses I was feeling a bit discouraged to say the least.

On the second day (I only had a week planned for my trip) this lovely little gem of a home fell into my lap. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time (or an even better view would be divine intervention).

We are looking forward to actually being able to live in our own house for 4 years! That is the longest we will have lived in any one place in our 11 years of marriage, yay!

(Oh, and Dana just walked in the room and said,"What? Are you blogging?" A sure sign of being REALLY behind in doing something that I love.)

F-22 Raptor

Ok, so I am a bad blogger. I have not posted for such a long time! I would like to think
that I will get better...but that is a hard promise to make; so maybe.

Anyway, a couple of months ago we were able to go down to the flight line and see
up close and personal an F-22 Raptor. I know zero about fighter jets but
apparently, this one is awesome! Dana and the boys were very excited to see it.