Yum.

Simple.

Combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/4 c sugar and 1/4 tspsalt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in beaten egg and optional raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Oh the things you smell...

When your nose is magnitizing every smell 10 times over!

For days I was smelling something chemically. Did one of the paints spill in my room? Did a kid pee on the floor in the middle of the night? Were Kevin's cami's/boots THAT stinky?

I cleaned everything!

And then last night a little after midnight, (and a little while after crawling around on my hands and knees sniffing the new carpet), I finally discovered the culprit.

Kevin bought a new pair of rubber flip-flops last weekend and as soon as I got close to them I about threw up. How can something possibly smell that bad??? I have no idea. He only wore them once, maybe, and it wasn't stinky foot smell. It was rubber/chemical. They are making their home outside now. The smell still lingers a little, but its nothing some open windows and Fabreeze can't fix!

The guys might appreciate this....They have a bottle opener on the bottom. How guy-ish, eh?

In the quiet of the morning.

Up before dawn to get Kevin back to the range this week. I contemplated crawling back in bed for an hour or so before my appointment this morning, but it was such a pretty morning. It was much more inviting outside, where I could look around and appreciate what I have a little before the craziness of the day begins.

I'm so excited about the fruit trees bearing fruit. I can't wait to make a pie!

Do you see that? Can you see it?
Yes, it is a pretty garden box that my brother helped me with. But look! Look!


My first tomato. It's turning red! That it is still on the vine is an accomplishment all in itself for us. If you recall, Annie loves to pick things that look bulbish. We lost a couple of apples before she started to understand that if she leaves them be they will grow into something yummy.


The weeds even looked pretty this morning...

This I'm not so sure about...Is it a weed? Or is it an actual domesticated vine? It looks familiar, but I don't know what it is. If you know what it is, do tell!

On a happier note...

I'm going to be bringing back my little shop! I've got a whole bunch of different projects going at once so everything is taking a bit longer to get together than I anticipated. However, I've almost got it all together and will be debuting very soon. Very excited because I really do love making things and sharing them with other people. Can't wait to show you!

I said something...

....And I think I shocked everyone a little. Myself included.

Tomorrow I will be 20 weeks along with this baby. I've had Thomas, our baby in heaven, on my mind a lot the last couple of days because he passed away at about this time in the pregnancy. Tomorrow I have a check up and ultrasound, and as I was telling the kids that their Uncle would be watching them for a couple hours I accidentally said that they were going to use their fancy machine to take pictures of Thomas. Everyone just stopped eating and looked at me. And then I realized what I said. I kept apologizing, I didn't know what else to do. It's was sort of horrible. I felt horrible. I've just had him on my mind so much that it just slipped out without my even thinking about it.

Foot in mouth syndrome.

From 4th of July

We had fun yesterday with some friends of Kevin's from 5th ANGLICO, and their wives and friends. We drove out to Morehead City, which is about 30-40 minutes away from where we are. I have to admit it felt more like home than it does here in Jacksonville. Being right near the water, and the feel of the town was more of what I was used to living out in California. But I wouldn't trade. I like my house.

Though it was still pretty hot and muggy, there was a nice breeze off the water which made it bearable to be outside. Once the sun set, it was really nice. We got to watch about 6 different firework shows along the coast while we sat on the waters edge along the inter coastal waterway.

We BBQ'd and did sparklers and played with friends dogs and had an overall lovely time.

I'm here...just sitting about.

My belly is hurting quite a bit lately so I've been looking for lots of things I can do while sitting. Monday night Kevin I were in the ER because I was having really really painful cramping type things in my abdomen and I wanted to make sure everything was ok. They decided it was only ligament pain as all the test results came back ok, and the ultrasound was ok as well. Baby was moving away. Tuesday I have another ultrasound to check him out some more. The hospital said he measure a couple weeks smaller than my dates...I think all my kids measured small though. Anthony was only 6lbs 10 oz, and Annie was only 7lbs 2 oz. Not so big.

Get this...they told me to rest my pelvis. Right? Ok. It's all that belly dancing I've been doing. For sure.

So anyway...I've been trying to plan out some more of the yards garden areas on paper, while I sit around resting my pelvis. Everyday for about 10 minutes I go out and move some wood chips and lava rock around and pull up ancient garden fabric so I can plant pretty things. I think it would go faster if it were not so hot as well. It's ok. It'll happen a little at a time. I'd like to plant something near the back deck for shade. Perhaps build a pergola and put some climbing vines of some sort. Plan big, right? I have this idea of an English type garden in my head. Kevin keeps warning me not to dig up his grass. I think it's his therapy-- he spends hours on the weekend mowing. There's a LOT of grass out there. I don't mind the grass, but I do mind the 80's style "gardening". I'm trying to bring in some character, that's all! :)

The bedroom is still a work-in-progress. That gosh darned wallpaper is kicking my butt! We gave in and bought paint and primer though. The first wall I peeled has been primed and has it's first coat of a suede type paint. I. LOVE. IT. It sounds odd but it looks a lot like a concrete wall, with the slightly varying shades and texture. So neat. Can't wait to finish the whole room. Our only issues with this darn room is that it's so much smaller than the other houses master bedroom. The closet is miniscule. And we don't even have a dresser for Kevin. Mine barely fits. It's made me reassess our furniture issue. As in, we started out with none at the last house, and now we have too much for this house. Isn't that the way it goes though? I might have to sell my vanity/night stand and matching chair. I might also have to sell my desk that I've had forever, with a matching mirror. It's heart breaking, but we need the space more than we need the extra stuff.
~~~

La di da....Enjoy a sweet song while I do some embroidering.

Lets chalk it up to hormones.

Kevin pointed out to me that I say "I'm going to run away..." a lot. I was trying to analyze why I say this so much, and here's what I came up with.....


I GET FRUSTRATED. And I feel like I have no release sometimes.

Just one time I'd like to feel ok just going off on a frustrated yelling tangent without one of my kids patting some part of me and telling me "It's ok. Caaaaaaalm down. Calm down." Most of the time I'm frustrated with them for doing something wrong. I'm really good at not smacking them when they pat me though. But recently I've come up with "Don't TOUCH ME!" because I'm not feeling well physically. Sorry kids. I love you. Really.

I keep having to remind myself I married a man who likes to argue for the sake of arguing also. He's even admitted it. He just likes to argue. He doesn't have to be right, but he'll sure argue with you until you feel like he should be right even though you know %200 that he is wrong. I get soooo frustrated with that sometimes because I could be totally justified in feeling really upset and frustrated about something...but he'll argue with me that somehow my being upset is totally unreasonable. Most of the time I don't bother to share, but sometimes I just get so gosh darned frustrated...rather than even saying why I'm mad or frustrated "ARG I'm going to run away!" comes flying out of my mouth instead. Sometimes I add "...and join the circus" but sometimes joining the circus doesn't sound that much better than whatever situation I might be in.

Now I'm frustrated because I've calmed down about something that was upsetting me and I'd like to talk reasonably about it with my husband. But he's gone again. For some reason work thinks it's better that he spend the week staying in the barracks while they are firing their weapons this week. I don't know why. I'm trying not to be frustrated by that now though.

I'd fetal-position cry, but I can't curl up like that anymore.

Picture day:)

Yesterday we had some weird freaky weather so I made a diaper in the wet stormy time. Gotta try it out on a fake tooshy since we are lacking the real thing just now:)
A little drama from the Annie-front...


Had ya going huh?

My brother has been sneaking pictures while I've been looking the other way...Gotta say..I love being out there. Even if it is for only five minutes at a time.

And here's little man minus his toofies. He's just so darned cute with that gummy grin.

Mister man and his dental anxiety.

Today was Anthony's oral surgery.

Everything was fine until we got to the hospital. Then he started to get a little anxious and scared. It started when he teared up when the nurse went to take his blood pressure. "Are there needles?!" he kept asking. Poor boy. And the questions started to pop into his head. "Are they gonna give me shots? Are they gonna pull my teeth out? Are they gonna hurt me?" Once we got down to the pre-op room it got even worse. The whole room of doctors was trying their best to lighten the mood for him. They even turned on Sponge Bob for him.

Our first visitor was the anesthesiologist. He sensed Anthony's anxiety right away when Anthony pulled away from his hand for a hand shake. We decided he might need a little something to take the edge off right then, but when he came back with the medicine in a syringe Anthony just about lost it. He sat straight up in the bed and started scooting away with his arms out in front of him. He didn't believe that there wasn't a needle even when I touched it. So I suggested putting it in a cup. Went down much smoother. Shortly thereafter the dentist came in to go over things. Before he even got close Anthony started to cry. The med's hadn't started to work yet. It was enough to make you laugh and cry all at the same time. He's a great guy, very kind and knew already what to expect from the last experience with Anthony in the dentist office. Thankfully the med's started to work and Anthony got a little loopy and calmed down.

They tell me he cried a little before he went to sleep, but he doesn't remember.

When it was all over he woke up crying. And then he realized they took his two front teeth out. Which he had been working at wiggling out on his own. And which he wanted to pull himself. But they were so loose that they were afraid with the breathing tube they would get knocked out, so they just pulled them. And then he moved his arms to touch his mouth and saw the IV they put in his hand and freaked out and wet himself. And then cried because he wet himself. That's how upsetting needles are to him! They didn't believe me! And he was still loopy so he couldn't really do anything but cry. I just wanted to hug him and make it all better. I made them take the IV out and leave so I could change him. Luckily I thought ahead and brought an extra change of clothes in case of anything.

We put him on my lap in a wheel chair and went to a post-op room and let him watch cartoons and make a mess of a popsicle. (His lips were still numb so I think more of it ended down his front, but who cares-- it made him feel better.) They gave him some tylenol with codiene to help with the pain of the root canal he had and the teeth they pulled and things just got more interesting. He started hillucinating. He was shaking his head and covering his eyes and asking "Did you SEE THAT?" and then he's shake his head some more. Now we know how he reacts to pain killers on top of anesthesia that hasn't worn off completely.

All is well with the world now though. He's feeling better, his lips aren't numb, and he knows the tooth fairy is coming tonight. And he's very proud of his mouth "bling". He has a couple silver caps that sparkle when he opens wide. As well as a toothless smile. Ain't life grand? :)

The nurses kept walking by telling me, "You look so calm!"

"I practiced in front of the mirror last night so I could remain calm while he freaked out. When we get home I'll cry." They just laughed and walked away.

To the little old lady at church...

(almost 18 weeks)

Dear Little Old Lady,
Yes I am fat, thanks for pointing that out. But there is someone growing in there too. Thanks for pointing out my weight though.
Yours Truly,
The fatty with the two noisy kids and the pot belly
P.S. You didn't have to poke the pot belly to get your point across.