Random

I LOVE it when the kids are sweet to each other. It melts my heart. And I love it when Elizabeth just crawls up into the lap of one of her older brothers or sisters.

Three years old and dressing herself. Notice the fashionable tags-in-the-front-sticking-out look. And the sideways-crotch pants. That's my girl!

Grounded

Jordan was grounded the other day. About 1/2 way through the day I told him I would unground him if he cleaned all the window wells out of all the weeds and trash. I, personally, would have never agreed to something like this. They looked horrible. But, I guess he thought it was worth it, because he did it.

BEFORE

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AFTER

Water Park

The kids earned free passes to 7 Peaks Water Park by completing a reading program at school this last year. So I left Elizabeth with a friend and took the other 4 kids for a day of fun in the sun. Needless to say, they LOVED it! I took my old camera, so the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.

Jordan was so irritated that I was taking pictures of him. I embarrass him pretty easy lately, though. Aahhh, teenagers.

Haylee - They loved playing in the wave pool. I'd say they were probably in it about 80% of the time.

Zach

Lauren - No, she's not dead. =)

Lauren and her friend, Jackson. My friend Danielle came and brought her 2 kids.

Stung

Zach got stung by a wasp a few days ago. Right under his eye. The next morning it had swollen up til his eye could barely open. Poor kid. I had gotten stung on the foot by one just the day beore, so I really felt for him. Those things HURT. His eye is looking much better today! If you need something to take the pain away from stings and bites, use Benadryl Anti-Itch Gel. It works so well!

Happy Independence Day

Even with Chris gone, we were still able to have a happy 4th of July. We have so much to be thankful for in this country. Our freedom, especially. Here's to hoping that these freedoms last for many generations to come.

The Many Adventures of Jessica - Part 1

Many of you know that I went to Oklahoma last week to visit my hubby and see him graduate from National Guard Basic Training. I left Tuesday morning for my adventure. I got up early in order to give myself plenty of time to get ready and get to the airport. I'm not sure what happened but somehow I missed my flight. Those of you who know me know that I don't like to be late and rarely AM late. So how the heck I missed my flight, I'm not exactly sure. I DO know that I waited for the economy lot shuttle for at least 15 minutes, though. And then I got stuck behind some idiot in line at check-in. Yes, I check my baggage. It's more convenient. Except this time. So between a very slow shuttle and a couple of moron's I missed my flight. The VERY nice man behind the counter, though, found the most convenient flight for me, even though it was with another airline. And I didn't even have to pay anything extra! See, there ARE nice people. So instead of flying with United I flew with American Airlines. And, even better, I was scheduled to arrive only 30 minutes later than I would have if I would have made my original flight! I checked in with American Airlines and the lady told me I'd have to pay $40 to check my 2 bags. $40??? What??? You've GOT to be kidding me. So instead I checked only 1 and it was still $15. What a joke! Am I not already paying them enough to fly on their freakin airline? Apparently not. (Later I found out that most airlines charge to check baggage now. Lame.)

I made this flight. I flew into Dallas and waited what should have been about 30 minutes for my next flight. It ended up being almost 2 hours because they were having problems pressurizing the cabin of the plane. Better than mechanical issues, I guess. Oh, and did you know....American Airlines does not serve snacks on their flights? How ridiculous is that??? AND.....when I asked for the entire bottle of water the flight attendant said that wasn't possible. Are you serious??? Apparently they're really attached to their water bottles.

I finally made it into Oklahoma City. I got my rental car. It was pretty nice, although I was hoping for an Impala. A Saturn Aura is next best, right? I made the 1 1/2 hour drive down to Lawton. Driving through Oklahoma was very pretty. Until I reached Lawton. I'm sorry if anyone who reads my blog is offended, but Lawton, OK. is UGLY. No, I would NEVER move there. If Chris, for some WEIRD reason was FORCED to move there for the National Guard (which won't happen cause that's not how it works) we'd have to separate or get divorced (Sorry, Babe). It's ugly. Actually, ugly doesn't describe it, but we'll leave it at that.

I checked into my nice hotel, relieved after my long day to be there. I immediately went and got a manicure before the salons out there closed at 9. The lady did a horrible job. She was done with my french manicure in, seriously, 20 minutes. Then I desperately tried to find somewhere to eat. Somewhere with a drive thru. I was NOT getting out of the car. It was dark. It was scary. I drove and drove and finally found an Arby's. It was food. (I noticed the next day that on that same corner were 2 other fast food places with drive-thrus--I was tired and had had a long day, ok!) I went back to the hotel and collapsed. But not before realizing I had no idea where Family Day was or how to get there. Somehow I had left the paperwork with all that information on it at home. After frantically searching everywhere for it and calling Heather to look all over my office, I finally e-mailed Chris's captain for the information so that he could know just what a ditz PFC Batson was married to.

The next day...I got up early after not getting much sleep and got ready to go see my hubby for the first time in 10 weeks. It was then that I realized that I DID have the information for Family Day. I was tired last night! Give me a break. Family Day was great, it only lasted an hour and then I had Chris to myself til 8pm that night. 11 hours! All we did that day was lay around! It was awesome. Well, with the exception of going to get food. We had IHOP for breakfast/lunch. It was the ugliest IHOP I have EVER been to. It was hot and humid inside and flys all over the place. And small and cramped and busy and just ew. We went to Outback for dinner, my expectations were NOT high after IHOP. But it ended up being great. So clean and nice and cool inside. And delicious food. It was perfect.

It's finally Graduation Day! Luckily Chris's battery had a 10am graduation so we had most of the day together. I am so proud of him for his willingness to serve our country and to be away from his family for so long in order to do it (cause this part hasn't been easy for him). I'm proud of him for making it through basic training and doing the best he can. I'm proud to be a military wife.

Leaving him on base at 8pm that night was hard. He left for the airport that evening at 11:45pm. His plane for Maryland departed at 7am the next morning. From that time on I was in Oklahoma alone. Not that I had my nights with him anyway. But just knowing that I was there completely alone was hard. My flight to go home wasn't departing until almost 5pm that evening. I stayed at the hotel the next morning taking my time getting ready and packed. Check out time was 12noon. I checked out at 11:55am. This is only the beginning of a long trip home.

To be continued......