13 years and just 7 more to go

I can’t believe that I spaced Rodi’s anniversary date.  He enlisted in the Navy Jan. 4th 1996.  On Jan. 4th 2009 I was too busy watching Molly give birth to Faith that I completely forgot we were one year closer to Rodi’s RETIREMENT!!!!  Okay I know it is still seven years away but it’s ONLY SEVEN more years.

I long for that day.  I am proud of Rodi and the great job he does.  I am thankful for his service and the service of all our military members.  But I also can’t wait for this ride to be OVER.

I am looking forward to celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays with him in the same country as us.  This week he will be gone for JJ’s very first sectional gymnastics meet.  That was the two biggest events on the January calendar.  He will also miss Moe’s b-day, Nina’s b-day, My b-day, JJ’s b-day, His b-day (can you really miss your own b-day?), Bubba’s birthday next January, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years 2010, and possibly our anniversary this year and next.  I am sure there will be many other events he will miss along the way. 

Again I know this comes with the job, I am just ready for that part of our life to be done. 

I don’t mean to sound selfish, I guess I am just in a mood today.  I love him and the FANTASTIC job he does.  I even encouraged him to put in his paperwork to become a Supply Officer 9 years ago.  I think I knew then in the back of my head that we were in this for the long haul.  I know if he had stayed in the Nuclear field that he was in when he was enlisted  we would not still be doing this Navy thing. 

I am thankful for the opportunities we have had to travel across Europe and live in Germany those three wonderful years.  I have made long lasting, wonderful friendships along the way that I TREASURE.

I am thankful some of the things my children have been able to see and do because of our lifestyle.  I am also sad about some of the things they have had to endure.  I think I struggle with that part the most. 

Ahhh, okay, enough venting for the day.  Just came on to post about the fact that seven years from now Rodi will be able to retire….. now we just have to wait and see if he will actually do it.  That is an entirely different story!

Twelve

Today Bubs turns 12, this is a huge day in his life.  I hope he knows how much he means to me and how much joy he has brought into our world.

In 12 years he has:

Moved 10 times

Been enrolled in 5 public schools

Been taken out of public school and brought home for schooling

Been part of several soccer  and wrestling teams

Taken gymnastics classes

Learned to play the guitar

Taught himself  to draw beautifully

Made us laugh until our sides ache

Made us cry because we love him dearly

Fallen down and pulled himself back up again

Developed a love for photography

Enjoyed dressing up for Halloween

Dreaded dressing up for Halloween

Made it to 1st class rank in scouts

Driven a tractor

Rode on a mechanical bull

had his first crush

Learned how to cook

There are so many, many more things I could list as he is one busy little man.

We are looking forward to this year and all the experiences  that will come his way.  As he grows so do we.

Happy to dress up for Halloween

Not so thrilled to dress up for Halloween

Photo moment captured by Bubs

Brotherly Love

Waiting for Walter

My little sister is expecting child #2, a boy.  She isn’t naming him Walter but that is what I am calling him.  Sort of like Moe, he was Moe until the day he was born and to some out there he still is. 

Walter isn’t due to make his arrival until early February but like any expectant mamma she is READY to meet and greet the little fella NOW!  I feel for her and have been in her shoes 4 times over the years.  Funny how  now I can give advice on being patient.  I was NEVER patient.  I tried anything and everything to bring these little ones into the world on my terms and on my schedule.  Yet today I found myself  facebooking her telling her to give my niece E.C. some extra lovin’ today as it could be the last Sunday they have as a small family of  three.  E.C.”s world is going to be turned upside down before she knows it.  HA that is something I would have never advised myself when I was in her situation. 

Funny what looking on from the outside can do to your perspective of certain situations in life.

Walter, Hurry up or take your sweet time we will all love and adore you the same.

Charts and more Charts

About 3 years ago I bought a book called Accountable Kids.  I read it and then made my own charts for the kids.  It WORKED!  My household chores became less and less as the kids were actually taking care of a lot of the little things on their own. 

Then we moved….. and sort of got out of the habit. 

Two weeks ago I pulled the book back out, found the charts I had made, and printed off new tags and tickets for the kids.  I had made the charts out of wooden picture frames that I painted in a different color for each kid.  We have 2 hooks at the top of the chart, one for chores to do and one where the completed chores get turned over and placed on.  At the bottom there are 3 hooks, one for tickets received, one for tickets used and one for book points.  They get 30 minutes of electronics time for each ticket (tv, computer, Wii etc….)  If they get all 3 tickets (morning, afternoon, evening chores each = 1 ticket) they get a punch on their book points card.  When that card is full they get a trip to the bookstore to buy a new book.    Here is a picture of  their charts.  Ignore the faucet.  The only place I have to put these right now is on the window ledge in the kitchen.  It is VERY important that these charts are in a place where they are visible to all.

 

Another chart we have been using is our Family Home Evening Chart (aka Family Night).  One day I was frustrated with the fact that we were not regularly having FHE and if we did no one knew what they were in charge of that night.  So I grabbed a plank of wood from the garage told Rodi to cut it about 16 inches long.  I then painted it blue.  When it dried I went to work with a paint pen (LOVE THESE THINGS) and some hooks.  Here is what the finished product looks like.  The lesson hook is really lesson/activity hook.  Oh and it does have a place on the wall but I painted in the kitchen and just haven’t gotten this hung back up.

 

 

Charts can be a fabulous thing when you use them.

Baby it’s cold outside….

Bubs has a cold weather campout tonight and cold it will be. I think it will drop down to about 16 degrees tonight. Laugh if you will I know there are much colder locations out there. Having grown up in Nebraska I know that 16 degrees can seem balmy at times. I even remember after a long winter one year thinking that 45 degrees felt like shorts weather. Okay I was in 6th grade but still, 45 degrees felt like a heat wave that winter.

Having moved away from that winter wonderland my body has gotten used to warmer weather and tonight I am sure I will have the wood stove going all night long to keep us toasty warm inside our house. Meanwhile my boys Rodi and Bubs will be freezing their noses off. Rodi will be standing watch on board the ship and Bubs will be sleeping under the stars, or at least trying to sleep.

Ahhh but I know I have nothing to complain about. Bubs is going to be out there with great cold weather gear and he will be having tons of fun with his fellow scouts.

Plus he will be lots warmer than our Zebu staying at my father-in-law’s here is the latest picture of Jasper and Whisper…..brrrrrrr!

Where did the sun go????

And I am ever thankful that if I were to step outside this morning my view would not look like the one my sister-in-law (also in Iowa) will be greeted by. Here is a picture of their house taken this week.

Just makes my back hurt thinking about all that work to clear the driveway....ouch!

Goal Setting

The New Year will soon be here and with that comes the evaluating of past goals and setting new ones.

There are the traditional ones like lose weight and keep it off. Be more organized. Be better about reading my scriptures daily. Watch less television etc……

Some of those (maybe all of those) will make my list this year as will the following:

1. Be more positive about cooking meals, so the kids don’t grow up dreading it.

2. Praise Moe when he accidentally wets his shirt, at least his underwear and pants are still dry. (Long story)

3. Replace the painted carpet upstairs. Read how it became painted here.

4. Spend more time with my “Martha” friends. Maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.

5. Come to grips with the fact that Rodi will never understand what being grounded really means. He will always find an excuse to play basketball.

6. Remind my gym clothes what the inside of the gym looks like. They might be surprised to see they were intended for more than lounging around the house.

I’d like to be able to post 10 goals but I think that may be a tad ambitious for 1 year. Wouldn’t want to look like an overachiever *grin*

Christmas Dinner at Denny’s

Yep that’s right no cooking for me this year.  Was dinner fabulous?  It was, only if you are talking about the fact that my entire family was together, including my mom.  The food was…..a means to fulfill a need.  It was 9pm on Christmas night and not a one of us had eaten since noon.  We left our house shortly after lunch yesterday and headed to Washington D.C. to attend the Festival of Lights at the LDS Temple visitor’s center. 

What a wondrous night it was.  When we arrived at 4:28pm, as Rodi had predicted to JJ earlier while driving on the beltway, it was still light outside and we were able to walk the grounds  and take some pictures.  My mom had never seen the DC temple before and she was amazed at how beautiful it was.  We have seen it many times and yet every time we see it we too are amazed at how beautiful it is.

While we were walking the grounds Bubs kept looking at his watch.  I couldn’t quite figure out why.  Shortly I figured it out.  JJ and Bubs were trying to do a countdown to the lighting of the grounds.  They had been told that they would be turning on the lights at 5pm.  Their countdown was just a bit off but it really was neat to be outside and see the lights all turn on.

Once we were done walking the grounds we headed back into the visitor’s center.  There was a beautiful photography show called “Reflections of Christ“.  What an amazing grouping of photos.  My favorite was a series of 3 pictures of Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus. 

We followed the photo’s with a viewing of  the movie The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd  I was glad I remembered to grab some tissue before the movie started.  I always cry near the end of this movie, no matter how many times I have seen it.  I must be my mother’s daughter though because she was in tears as well.

After the movie it was time to stand in line for the  musical performance in the auditorium.  The line was long but well worth the wait.  The music was spectacular.  There were 8 Sister Missionaries performing and they sounded like angels.

As we headed to the van for our return trip home we passed by the live Nativity scene where Joseph and Mary were with baby Jesus, and Moe said    “…I miss you Jesus”.   And yes, I cried.

It was a full afternoon and evening filled with the wondrous spirit of  the Gospel.  I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas.  The kids had their fun opening their gifts in the morning and then eating their traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.  But the magic of the day really happened when we were at the Temple and their focus of the day was Christ, the true gift of Christmas.

After a day like that a holiday dinner at Denny’s and it’s not so holiday feel, didn’t phase me at all.  I had just spent the most beautiful day with my family and we were blessed to find a place to sit and enjoy a dinner from some place other than an open 7/11. 

And I’d do it all over again.

You make me smile

JJ and I were on our way to the store when she told me this funny little story.

JJ: “Mom the other day at gymnastics Tami (not her real name) told me how lucky I was because she only gets $1 a week for allowance.  I told her I don’t get an allowance.  Then she said ‘Oh well, I do chores for my allowance’  Mom, I told her I do chores and don’t get an allowance.  It’s not like everyone gets an allowance.”

ME:  “That’s right.”

JJ: “Tami said that she has to watch her little brother for an hour a day to help out her mom.”

ME: (said in my head) I know you watch your little sister and brother all the time.

JJ: “Tami asked me how I get all my money then.  I told her.  I said I pull my teeth.”

ME: *Laughing really hard*

JJ:  “Then I told her I just wait for Birthday money or sometimes even some money at Christmas. But I have some more loose teeth”

ME: *Still laughing*

*** SIDE NOTE*** 2 weeks ago Carley lost THREE teeth in one night.  The tooth fairy had to borrow money that night.

Birthday Date Night

As previously mentioned, yesterday was Rodi’s birthday. He and I decided to fix a gourmet meal of Chicken tenders and fries for the kids. Oh you may laugh but these were tenders, not nuggets and the fries were waffle cut, no ordinary shoe string or crinkle cut fries for the Rodi crew LOL. After getting the kids all set at the dinner table we headed out for our date.
What a date it was. In true Rodi family fashion we took the truck and headed to the dump. Yep just me Rodi and the trash. No worries though we listened to the romantic comedy of Jeff Foxworthy on our drive … that is some serious hand holding comedy ya know. After the dump we headed to one of the two local Mexican restaurants. We were seated immediately which was very nice. However when they brought out the chips and salsa one dish was so cold there were ice chips in it. But did we complain nah…. we just stirred it up and dipped away. We sat and giggled at the small town talk around us. You could tell we were newbies to the area. Everyone seemed to know everyone and talked from table to table. We learned a lot about our community and the happenings in that hour. We even learned that it might be possible to come in sit a spell, order water, eat your complementary chips and frozen salsa and then leave without paying. Yep we saw it happen. Maybe it only applies if you were born in this county though.  I will tell you though, it really had Rodi thinking.
After dinner we headed out to wander around the stores and see if there were any last minute gifts we needed to pick up. Little did Rodi know we were actually going to get massages. They were amazing massages and FREE too. Wanna know where you can get one? Bed Bath and Beyond! They have these great chairs just sitting in the middle of an isle and they are all plugged in and just waiting for someone to sit in them. So we sat. He sat in one chair and I sat in the other chair. Yeah there were people walking by looking at us but I think they were just waiting for their turn.
We ended our shopping extravaganza strolling the isles of wal-mart (where else), bringing home romantic goodies like a screen tool and a box of fire starter. Ahhhh what a night.
Seriously though it was a great night and we did have a lot of fun. We had to leave Office Max because I was laughing so hard. There was a calendar there that said the funniest things for people to do at work. I am still trying to picture Rodi at work jumping on the table and yelling “the floor is lava, the floor is lava” Could you imagine??? What would you do if your co-worker did that? There were several of these ideas that just had me cracking up.
Maybe it is having 4 kids at home with me all day everyday, I don’t know, but I do know that this was a wonderful date. Probably the most fun we have had in while.

The Mock Meet

The girls gym held a Mock Meet where they had the head judges for our area come to the gym and score our grils on each of the events.  This was even better than a meet because after each girl completed their routine they were able to go to the judges table and get FEEDBACK!  This will never be the case at a meet, so it was truly a wonderful thing for the girls.  Now the girls know exactly what they need to improve on to get even better scores.

Here are a couple of Pictures of the girls on the beam warming up.  Mind you these are really grainy pictures, don’t ask how, but I forgot my camera and was stuck with my camera phone….ughhh

 

They had a great day.  JJ’s high score of the day came on beam where she received a 9.0

Nina’s high score was on the vault where she scored an 8.5

Way To Go Girls!!!!!

 

I am going to have a “photo shoot” later this week with the girls in their competition leos.  I will post those pics as soon as I can.