I've found it.

I have found the house that I want, and it's in Brian's top three as well. It's in our price range. The current owners are leaving a shed in the HUGE back yard, and the hot tub. Yeaaaaah, baby, there's a hot tub. There's a HUGE beautiful kitchen, where I won't be tripping over everybody. (OK, so I'll trip over them, but only because they're leeches, not becuase there's not enough room in the kitchen.) It has two living areas, and the front living area also has a little niche that would make a great craft area. There's a three car garage, the master bedroom is plenty big enough for our massive furniture. The tile floors are actually the pretty ones, and not that cacky yellow shiny stuff. I think it's even got a gas oven! YAY!! HOORAY FOR COOKIN' WITH GAS!! There are lots of windows, so lots of light.

Yes. This is the house that I want. Now, as long as the owners are willing to pay closing costs and are ok with an August or so closing, we're good. Right?



It really can't be that easy, can it?

And a few more

And a few more

Artsy fartsy

At the beginning of March, Brian and I went on a deep sea fishing trip. We had a ball, caught a few fish, and I was mocked by the crew for taking "artsy fartsy pictures." Hilarity ensued.

Anyway, these are some of the best from that day.

The time has come...

to buy a home.

We've been married almost 9 years and have lived in military housing or apartments the entire time. We are READY for our own place. We need roots. We need stability. We need a place to come back to that will be home.

So tonight I'm starting our preapproval process. A perfect stranger is going to tell us just how much house we can afford. Then I'm going to rely on another stranger to help us find a home and pretty much purchase it, sight unseen. We have a few places bookmarked on realtor.com that we really like, but it all depends on how much we're approved for. These last hours tonight, waiting for it to be 9 AM in OKC, have been agonizing.

There are so many questions to be answered. Do we want to buy a home that's currently under construction, or a previously owned home? Exactly what features do we want? Just how big IS 1620 sq ft? Do we really want to live in that particular town, or should we move closer to base? Are there ANY homes in that area that have anything other than gas heating? If not, we'll be going through a lot of firewood.


I'm anxious. I just want to know how much we can get, so we can hurry up and find a house. August is coming fast, and I just want to be SETTLED.

Waiting sucks, dude.

Homeschool, Day 1

Wow. Juuuuuuuuuuust wow.

For the most part everything went really well. Matt was a stinker, go figure. But the girls did well with their work, and I never once lost patientce. Yay me.

A bit before lunch though, Bethany started complaining that her throat felt icky. In Bethspeak, that means that she'll be puking before long. It didn't click with me though, and I fed the kids macaroni and cheese with tuna for lunch. EW. She started throwing up around 1. She managed to finish her work though. LOL

So around 1:45, Matthew asked me to clean his ears. He loves having his ears cleaned, since he's got Brian's nasty ears. The cotton was long and tickled him just the wrong way and he started coughing so hard that HE threw up. Everything. All over me. Not a bit of it got on the sofa or the floor.

Did I mention that I'm a sympathetic puker?

So Matt's standing in the tub, covered in vomit, still throwing up, I'm hanging my head in the toilet and trying to take my vomit soaked clothes off at the same time. I finally managed to get all my clothes off, empty my own stomach, and get the clothes OUT of the bathroom, and Bethany came in to puke some more.

Some time in all of this I had managed to call Brian to tell him that it was a veritable puke fest here at home, and I had to leave a message. He managed to call back right when I was in the midst of trying to get into the shower wtih Matt and rub Bethany's back at the same time. He was mission planning, and couldn't get out until 4.

Once we were all finally cleaned up, Bethany said she felt better and I really needed to go run a few errands. So we went. Got done at the bank, went and got Matthew's hair cut (oh yeah, he climbed up on the bathroom counter while I was helping the girls with their morning work, and managed to start to give himself a haircut. ), and then went to the bookstore. Let the kids each pick out a book since we'd had a good but rough first day.

As we were heading to the checkout Bethany started weaving like she was drunk, and was white as a ghost. Her lips were grey. I asked her if she was going to throw up again, and told her to hurry up and go to the restroom, that I'd catch up to her in less than a minute. She's been to the restroom in that building plenty of times, so when she started heading for the managers office I knew she was bad. I dropped everything in the center of the store, grabbed her and held onto her neck at the pressure points to try to keep her from fainting, and steered her and half dragged Matthew out of the store. Poor Caitlin had no idea what was going on, and just followed. Bethany started stumbling and put her hand up to her face a few steps before we got to the exit door, and I started running. Still steering her and dragging Matt, and yelling "FAINTING GIRL COMING THROUGH!!!" We made it outside just in time, and managed to get to a corner next to a trash can and a water hose. The poor girl had nothing left to throw up.

Caitlin and Matthew were so good, and found a bench behind us and sat quietly the whole time I was taking care of Bethany.

So we started walking back to the van, but I had parked next to the bank so it was a bit of a walk. Bethany was still really pale, and I didn't think she could make the walk. Thankfully we ran into a friend, and Bethany was able to sit in front of Burger King with her so I could go get the van.

SO. Finally got all the kids home. Bethany went straight to bed to read, and Caitlin curled up on the sofa. I gave Matthew a snack and asked Catey if she wanted one.

No thank you.

She was holding her stomach. I asked her if she felt sick too, and she said her stomach really hurt. Like somebody had punched her. Which is CAITLIN's sign that she's going to throw up. Sure enough, about half an hour later she's hanging her head in the toilet.

As Catey's hanging her head in the toilet, Matthew came and tugged my hand and told me, "nigh-night." So I had to go dig his sheets out of the dryer, because of COURSE today would be the day that he wet the bed. Got him down for a nap, got Catey cleaned up, finally got all three kids settled down....

Thank God the house was quiet, I was finally able to take a nap. Because within an hour of them waking up, both girls were puking agian. Bethany didn't eat dinner at all, and hasn't kept down water. Caitlin tried eating some soup, and that came back up a short while later. I've now got both girls sleeping on the bottom bunk. I don't want Bethany waking up to throw up in the middle of the night and hurting her self trying to get down in time. There's a chum bucket next to the bed. Matthew's door is cracked, and I'm sure that he'll be next. I've got a raging headache, but I don't know if it's from stress or if I'm getting it. And Brian has a 10.5 hour flight tomorrow.

Yeah. We're skipping the field trip to the zoo tomorrow.

It's official

Today is the girls' last day of school. Starting Monday, we are a homeschooling family. I'm skeered. What am I getting us into? Am I really doing the right thing for my kids? Am I going to be able to give them the individualized education that they need, the whole reason I'm pulling them out of school to begin with? Are they going to make me so completely insane that I just crack? Am I going to destroy my kids by homeschooling them?

Doubt is a bad thing, and I'm drowning in it right now.

I am completely insane. That's the only conclusion I can draw from all this.

We're going to pull the girls out of the DoDDs school and homeschool them instead.


What am I thinking? We love their teachers! They have fun at school. It's just not enough though. B. is currently in a multiage class, 1-3 grades, and consistently chooses to work with the youngest age group. She's not learning as much as she could be, because she's choosing the path of least resistance. C. is bored out of her mind, so much so that she's deciding that "I can't dooooooo it." Ergh.

Brian is concerned about my mental state as we go through with it. He's afraid I'll end up angry all the time. I think I'll be OK though. A big reason I was getting so angry all the time was because the girls were so worn out with schoolwork that they didn't want to deal with homework when they got home. They just wanted to be KIDS. Which is understandable. Besides, their homework is just ridiculous, so it was frustrating to walk them through it. My thinking is that if we're just doing our schoolwork during the day, we're not going to have to deal with extra homework, and the stress level will already be reduced. On top of that, they'll finally have time to be involved in sports and other activities. And field trips! We can go on awesome field trips! Can you tell I'm getting excited? ;)

My kids' education is paramount. Right now I see them beginning to flounder, and it scares me. With the "No Child Left Behind" program, even more kids are being dragged in the flow of the education system, whether they're ready to move on or not. That's not fair to the individual child. So I do what I have to do to make sure that THEY do well.






I really am crazy, aren't I?

I love cats. They're so sweet and cuddly, yet arrogant and standoffish at the same time. And they can TALK. Animals that talk just rock.

Much like these awesome puddy tats.

Why I eyes ya all live long day!!!

I wish I were two years old.

Because then, if I were feeling frustrated and tired I could just pitch a fit, and people would understand that I'm frustrated and tired. Because, hey, I'm two. I could use the potty, and people would give me a high five for doing so. Because a two year old that uses the potty is AWESOME. I could put robots on choo choo trains and choo choo them around the house, and call them "choo choo bobots". I could attack tall people's knees with big hugs, and the big people would sit down and love on me for a bit.

Yeah. It would be great to be two again.