The King

The kids were watching a show tonight and Patrick had been running around and playing. I hadn't heard or seen him in a couple minutes so I asked Megan where he was and she said, "right here, he is the king!". Sure enough, she had made him a little throne in the prime TV watching location. I apologize to his future wife right now.

Of course they shut this down...

Fort Baker used to be an Army base located at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. If I knew how to attach photos from the internet I would do so and you would be impressed. Many home magazines are showcasing the renovations and new sustainable luxury resort built there and trust me, it looks nothing like Ft. Bliss where we actually lived on post for one (roach filled) year. The list of Army posts where we don't want to move is long and we are lucky to have found one that is near a college town. Our tolerance level for strip clubs, tattoo parlors, and cash advance "businesses" is low, so that rules out many, many other locations. Sean also refuses to work at a teaching hospital, so really, we are here for the long haul (8 years). If Ft Baker was still open we may have been tempted though...

Okay, I found a photo on the official website and I stole it. Will they hunt me down?

Destructo Boy

This is how we spend a lot of our day, building things for the boy to destroy. It keeps the TV off at least.

40 Years

Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad! Yeah, I know, other families throw anniversary parties and such, but we're just going to stick with the blog post this year. Maybe for the 50th... I trust you found your way out to a nice dinner at least. And it is probably warm there, so enjoy!

Anything to get a shot

Yep, go right ahead and eat some rocks, delicious! I do make sure they are too big to swallow at least.

Okay, way better shot of said eyelashes

natural light helps

It's a Thursday

Now that Lost has started, I think Thursdays will be a little groggy because who can sleep after all that stress?? We forgot to save How I Met Your Mother to watch afterwards and relax. Seeing how it is 67 right now, whoops, make that 68, I have broken out the iced tea to perk up. I think it is going to be back down to 2 this weekend, so we are taking advantage while we can and I just took Patrick for a walk/nap to see all the development going on to the west of us. It is mostly a lot of roads at this point, which at least means no one is going to need to build roads out behind our house for the time being.

I made a few more attempts to get a shot of Patrick's eyelashes and one is decent, the other is just one with Anna and her messy hair.

Things are different with the third

When Patrick spilled a box of cereal on the floor this morning I figured he may as well snack on it for a while before I swept it up. Once the dancing started I had to get the broom though.

Our Thanks to Dennis (and Bridget too!)

Seeing all our nation's leaders, past and present, gathered this morning made me slightly uneasy, what a target that was. I have such respect for the Secret Service for all they do to make events like this safe for all. Monica reports that Dennis is in the President's motorcade, all day and night, hours that I suspect are not that unusual. Surely this is a stressful situation for many, even on a day of celebration. Much like the military, these agents make many sacrifices, as do their families and for that they deserve our thanks.

No doubt many more long days ahead for them, but hopefully there will be a break for the military families. We have been fortunate to not endure what so many others have been through, some gone 3 of the past 5 years. No telling what the future will hold for Sean's career but when the time comes we will be ready. In the meantime, we will celebrate Bridget's homecoming next month.... 15 months is long and cruel; she has already made the sacrifices that President Obama talked about today. This year needs to be a good one for her and for so many others and today is a good day to start.

Just a cute sweater

No real reason for posting this photo other than I love his sweater.

Serious wisher

Megan had to ponder for quite a while about what to wish for on her birthday. I think when your birthday is so soon after Christmas there isn't much left that you still want, although she might disagree.

Downside to working at home

Occasionally Sean has to call a doc with an emergent finding from a study and I try my best to keep the kids to a dull roar whenever he is working, but I'm not that successful. Fortunately most shifts are when the kids are sleeping, but not tonight. I can only imagine what the doc on the other end of the line is thinking when Anna's Barbie is blaring "I feel connected", followed by Anna joining in with the rest of that really catchy Barbie tune. I hope he doesn't have to call anyone for a while now because Patrick is yelling "N, N, N" from his crib instead of going to sleep.

In news that will disturb the San Antonio crowd, I have resorted to buying enchiladas from the deli at Ray's Apple Market here. A new low in my attempts to find decent Tex-Mex. I did discover today that the new one they just opened near us is practically deserted, which was a welcome relief from Dillons which always makes me wonder if they are predicting a hurricane. A bit unlikely due to the fact that you cannot get any farther away from the ocean (any ocean) if you tried.

Had to share this, sorry Sean!

Sean is new to facebook and a few high school friends have found him recently. Well, one of them he was a little confused about, the name was familiar but changed slightly and oh yeah, he has grown up into a woman. A woman who lives with her girlfriend according to her blog. So, this person thought he was a lesbian trapped in a man's body? We don't dare do research for this topic online, no telling where that would lead us. Sidenote: Sean thinks this is the same person he was told committed suicide during college. No, I did not steal this story from Ugly Betty. I think this high school story might just beat the story of how Sean and Brendan worked together for several weeks before they realized they not only went to high school together but they shared a car pool!!!

Favorite Baby

No one can resist him around here.

Eyelashes

Someone has inherited Daddy's freakishly long eyelashes. I will keep attempting to get better shots of this...

Civilian vs. Military

We just got a fancy invitation in the mail today to some hospital black tie event for some place Sean moonlights for in Houston. It appears that it is a doctor's appreciation event and it is just a fun (free) night out. What is that, they appreciate their doctors? Can't quite wrap my mind around that as Army sees doctors as just a drain on the budget. Some Army big wig did have a reception of some sort recently but Sean never got an invitation, just heard about it later. His department is frequently forgotten which is okay because those events aren't exactly a yee-haw time. Those are just my observations for today. 5.5 years to go. Thanks for the 4 day weekend Army, that we do appreciate.

Perfect day for making "lemonade"

Anna has been begging to make what she thinks is lemonade for a long time now. So today to keep her busy I finally let her squeeze a bunch of old lemons and then we poured it in a cup and she drank it. That's right, straight lemon juice, delicious!

Why cook?

This is what I found him doing after he threw his entire lunch on the floor. That's right, feet taste better than the food I make. The perfect excuse to go "grocery shopping" at Howdy's restaurant this afternoon, lots of little containers of good food for me to enjoy at least.

Birthday Dessert, I mean lunch

I think everyone can figure out why the girls demand Famous Dave's on every birthday. Megan just brought a special friend this year and I am still working on finding a night to go to the Great Wolf Lodge.

SEVEN

Okay, Megan is seven tomorrow but the school celebration was today. Notice the shirt from Grandma Sharon which she was thrilled to finally wear. This year I decided not to waste an entire evening making the cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery's recipe and bought a mix which took like 30 seconds to make. And then the key factor for children's desserts: add candy on top. Sean surprised Megan with them at the end of the school day and he said they were a big hit. Yes, sugar them up on their way out the door... thought we'd be kind to the teacher after a long first week after break.

Tomorrow Megan will just have Kira over for a special lunch out and later this month we will go to the Great Wolf Lodge. We give the girls the choice of having a big party or going to the GWL and they both passed on the parties this year. I'm not complaining and I'm certainly not telling them we were going to go to the GWL anyway! Now what can I get them to do to earn Disney.... since it is practically free for military this year I am running out of reasons to avoid it. Looking forward to seeing the relatives in Florida and also our dear friends the Benders who will be celebrating the end of a deployment!

Much Neglected Middle Child

She gets plenty of attention, don't worry, but it seems that I don't post that many photos of her. This is her favorite modeling pose. I think it looks like she slept wrong on her neck. Could be that she was using my pillow this morning after a nightmare. She may reconsider fleeing to our room next time as she informed me that the shadows in our room "were creeping her out".

World's Most Interesting Hobby

Megan brings home rocks from the playground and calls it a collection. She keeps it in a box that I keep moving to the garage and on occasion (every afternoon) she likes to get them all out and sort them. She prides herself on how many pretty ones there are (those are pieces of glass) and how big some are (those are pieces of concrete). She did buy one at the dinosaur restaurant (naturally, it's the perfect memento from a lunch out) and that is her pride and joy.

Love his "crack"

See, they all fit.

Boo!

Patrick says something close to "BOO" now when he plays peek-a-boo with us. Kind of hard with a person in his mouth though...

I need to find out where these people live so I never go there

Gmail always comes up with weird headlines at the top of my page and the one yesterday had to do with "who gets a say in having a 3rd child?" Instead of starting more laundry, I clicked on it and it went to this debate board that started with this article a woman wrote about how having a 3rd child now is the new luxury item, like showing off that you can afford to support another one. Clearly this was not written in the midwest, where the public schools are good, you already own a mini-van or SUV because you drive everywhere on vacation, and you cook at home most nights... adding a 3rd child might make your life more difficult but it's not really all that more expensive. Time it right with them all in college together and you'll get a real break when it comes to financial aid too.

Well, this woman was shocked by all the responses she got having to do with how it is a huge sin against the environment to have more than 2 kids. Let's review the assumption made in that argument:
1. Having 2 kids is like just having replacements for you and your baby daddy.
a) Do you and baby daddy die when your 2 children are born? Or do you keep on living? So the population is actually growing still?
2. Does having only 2 kids automatically mean that you are more environmentally conscious?
a) Or is it possible that you still drive the same car you would if you had 3 kids? Is the family vegetarian when they have 2 kids but not 3? Is it that 3rd that really makes you crave a steak? I know the 3rd can make you crave wine.

Anyway, the whole thing is very short sighted, failing to note all the negative affects the 1 child law in China has had on society there. What happens when everyone has one boy and treats him like a prince?? A lot of interesting articles about that. Some people on there go as far as to suggest that abortion is a necessary means to saving the world. People also wonder how anyone with 3 kids can remember their names let alone all their likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. I don't know, how do people remember all the details about their favorite characters on TV shows or their stats for fantasy football??? So many stupid comments and I don't think they were kidding.

If people really wanted to reduce the population they would at the very least space out the generations. They think it's bad to have 3 kids by 35, try having 3 kids and 9 grandkids by 40!!! Happens a lot. Also if people didn't live so long they wouldn't be ruining the environment so long. Should everyone be given a bottle of sleeping pills and a bottle of vodka to wash it down on their 65th birthday? I'm afraid to be sarcastic and post that idea on there for fear people would start that movement.

Bottom line, it is easy for people to go online with their ideas to force people to comply with their ideas of how a family should be than to suggest changes that would be good for the environment but not so good for the economy- and not so fun for them. How about never buying new clothes again? Wear your current clothes until they rip, then patch them up. Then go buy used clothing from the vast amounts that everyone throws away or donates each year. Based on what I have heard about charities just throwing clothes away, I think we could last a long time...

Best Gift for the Buck

Fairy Godmother Melissa won the "best gift for the buck" award this year. A late entry which as far as the girls are concerned means extra points... just when they thought the gifts were over for yet another year, surprise! You could send them all the clutter from your desk in January and they would dance around with glee. Anyway, Mo's Bacon Bar: applewood smoked bacon, alder wood smoked salt, and deep milk chocolate. Sean gave me a small sliver to taste and is guarding the rest well- I don't even know where it is. If Anna found it we would be in big trouble! I am going to have to get online and try to order some more.

Plan isn't working

I thought I would let Patrick play with the kitchen decor so he would get bored with it and leave it alone, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon so I guess I will just move it....

Charades

Patrick has moved on a bit from his game of Capture the Flag, now it is just the usual OCD where he has to tell us everything that is wrong in the house. He makes sure every door is shut, every cupboard latched, every drawer pushed in. He doesn't want the temptation to be naughty apparently. He has a few more words but mostly it is a lot of pointing and grunting and when we figure out what he wants, he claps. Well done parents, well done, a round of applause for you. He seems to understand a lot of what we say, at least he knows to shake his head NO when I ask him if he wants to take a nap. Of course he has no idea what I mean when I tell him to leave the Christmas decorations alone. So as soon as I can get him down for a nap, those are all coming down. Happy New Year!

That is some good sugar

The scarecrow dancer needs energy.

Happy New Year Pimp?

They let this guy operate on real live people?