School Stuff

Carter has had quite an eventful couple of weeks. Last Friday he had to do a presentation on someone in Black History and dress up for extra credit. He chose Isaac T. Hopper, the Father of the Underground Railroad. He did a super job researching and typing his paper, and then presenting to the class. Charles modified some clothes and made him look quite like the picture we had of Hopper.



Then today was the 2nd grade Literature Character Parade. It didn't occur to me to guide Carter towards a Quaker character of some sort so we could use the same costume (like Reverend Aldin from Little House). He chose Thimbletack, the house brownie from The Spiderwick Chronicles. I gathered supplies and worked the glue gun, while Charles worked his sewing magic and we came up with a fantastic rendition of Thimbletack. The pants used to be a ladies' sweater, which Charles transformed and it just amazes me. The hat, which is a spool of thread in the book, is 2 plastic buckets with felt covering it, complete with 3 stick pins (dowels painted gray with bouncy balls on top) and a sewing needle coming out of the top ( dowel painted gray with aluminum foil shaped for the eye). The feather duster was made from a badminton shuttlecock in the book, so we recreated that with a plastic bowl, feathers, and a dowel. The suspender was a ladies' belt, a perfect find since it was stretchy. Anyway, Carter won FIRST PLACE in the parade today. The Captain Underpants in the picture was awesome, too. He had on a body suit, just FYI! LOL

Monday after Myrtle Beach

We went to Myrtle Beach over the weekend for Charles' Annual Training Conference for recruiting. This is the first year we took the kids and we had a great time. They spent a good amount of time in childcare, but they loved it. And when we weren't in classes/childcare, we were on the beach. And when I say 'we', I mostly mean Charles and the boys because it was COLD!!! We had a great view of the beach AND the sunrise from our room. We watched it from our room Saturday morning and actually went down on the beach for it Sunday morning, although it was cloudy Sun. morning, so it wasn't quite as pretty. We also went to the beach Saturday night at MIDNIGHT because Charles had promised the boys.

We got there Friday around noon. We checked into the hotel and then went to classes. It was great because the battalion provided childcare anytime there were classes going on, except for Sunday morning. So, the kids are in the childcare room playing xBox 360 and watching movies, and I got to go to Friday's classes with Charles and listen to the CSM and LTC, which I do enjoy. They're pretty funny. After the classes I went upstairs to shower and read and Charles took the boys to the beach for a bit. It was very windy on Friday and I wanted no part of that. Then we had our Company party. The First Sergeant had a 3 bedroom condo so the 50 or so people in there wasn't as crowded as it could have been. Lots of food at the party, so that was nice. Then they showed the 'training video' that Charles and his station made. It was hilarious!! It was the right way and wrong way of dealing with future soldiers in different situations. The wrong ways he came up with were just too funny. If I can figure out a way to get it on the computer I'll let you know. This video was shown to the battalion on Saturday and was a huge hit. Everyone loved it and I'm very proud of Charles for putting it together. It saved the company from having to do a skit. (By the way, if you're confused, command structure goes: station -> company -> battalion -> brigade) I guess we stayed at the party until about 10 or so and then went back to the room.

Saturday we woke up early and realized the sun hadn't risen yet. I looked out the window and saw that we would have a perfect view of the sunrise, so I woke everyone up. The kids weren't quite as impressed as I was. :) Then we had classes from 9 - 2. The spouses broke off for about 3 of those hours and had our own classes. Then we got to go back with the recruiters and watch the skits. I love watching that stuff. We had about a 3 hour break Saturday afternoon. We went to Wal-Mart and Charles took the kids to the beach again. Saturday evening the kids went back to childcare while Charles and I went to the awards banquet. This is the part where we're all dressed up and uncomfortable. This year they got the 82nd Airborne Chorus to perform, which was a big deal, and they were awesome!! I just love watching cadences and military performances like that. Very cool. We had dinner, a speaker, awards, blah blah blah. After they retired the colors we got the kids, changed clothes, and then went back down to the ballroom for the dancing. Carter showed his moves a little bit (he is SO funny). Then, since Charles had promised the kids another night time beach experience, we went back to the beach at MIDNIGHT. It was pretty cool being out there at night. The waves are different at night, racing toward the pier 'like a jet ski' Chad said. So...late night Saturday night. But we had already decided that we wanted to go to the beach for the sunrise since it was so pretty Saturday morning, so...

Sunday we were up at 6:15 and on the beach by 6:40. The sunrise was nice, but not as pretty as Sat. morning, but it also wasn't as cold, so that's good. We beat the rush for the great breakfast at Embassy Suites and then we were back to classes for the morning. No childcare today, so I stayed out in the hall talking to another spouse and the LTC's wife while the kids played a bit. Then we all went in for the closing remarks. After we checked out of the hotel we went to Broadway on the Beach and had lunch at Johnny Rockets. When certain songs are played on the jukeboxes, all the servers take their places around the restaurant (to include on the windowsills) and dance. It was pretty cool. Reminded us of the Friends episodes where Monica works at that diner where she wore the big boobs and had to dance like that. After lunch we went to the Ripley's Aquarium and can I just tell you we LOVE LOVE LOVE Ripley's. They have the most spectacular military discount in the world. We got the combo ticket (5 attracations) for only $6.55!! This is normally $52 or something like that. Heck, even to just get in the aquarium is $18. I really need to write them a letter. I say that every time we have taken advantage of this awesome deal and I never have actually done it. So, the aquarium was nice (but I sure am glad I didn't pay full price) and the lady said we have a year to go to the other attractions since we didn't have time yesterday. We ended up getting home around 8:00I guess. Great weekend though! And we weren't out very much money since our room was paid for and Charles was authorized to drive a government vehicle (usually kids aren't allowed in the GOV, but there was an exception for ATC). So, as much as recruiting sucks most of the time and the hours are horrible and the respect is non-existent...this one weekend of the year it worked out in our favor. Yet we had a man at the hotel question why the Army would pay to have our conference there instead of at a barracks since we "have so many barracks". That offended me. Firstly, the hotel gave our battalion a huge discount, charging only $70 per night for the rooms(Thank you, Embassy Suites!!). Secondly, with all the sacrifices our military members make for our country, including recruiters, I think a weekend away with their families one weekend a year is reasonable and well deserved.




Sunrise as seen from our room

Sunrise shining on Carter's face

After breakfast Saturday morning

Charles showing the kids something cool

My man in uniform

Us before the banquet

Carter feeling the music

Chad feeling the music LOL

Sunrise Sunday morning...he was a little tired

Sunrise Sunday morning

Carter and the jellies

Story...in Charles' video, after each 'correct' way of handling the situation, they would turn to the camera, flash a cheesy grin, and give a thumb's up sign. Chad thought this was SO funny, so in all of our aquarium pictures he did this. LOL Big Scary shark

My Babies

Well, I haven't posted a blog entry in a while and I apologize for that. I guess life just gets busy sometimes. But as I was reading blogs last night, jumping from one to another, I came across this lady - http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/. I cried more than once reading her blog. She has a wonderful knack for writing, being funny yet poignant, and tugging at the heart strings just in the knick of time. So, the result of all this reading I did last night is that I am now sappy. My babies are growing up right before my eyes. No longer can I hold my sweet ones and marvel at the tinyness of their hands, because their hands are now almost as big as mine. It makes me want another baby...ALMOST. :) But my babies certainly are not babies anymore. Sure, they're still young and impressionable and I can still get hugs (no kisses for years now), but the time is flying. Chad is 8. In the amount of time it has taken for this to happen, he'll be 16. It seems only yesterday he was a baby. Can't time stand still for a while and let me enjoy them more? Sigh... Of course I went through all this last night in my head as well, and what happens this morning? The morning happened and life goes on and they still have to hurry hurry hurry to get ready for school. There is no time to stop and just snuggle them, not that they'd let me if I tried. I did make a feable attempt this morning to make ME feel better and I gave Chad a hug and told him I loved him (not that this is uncommon, but I, of course, was being sappy, not just mom), and he says, "I like you too, mom. I like you, but I don't love you. Love is icky." Sigh...I tried to convince him that he does indeed love me, but he wasn't having it, and then I decided to drop it as to not make a big deal of it and encourage the "I don't love you" to go on longer than it would otherwise. Because we all know that Chad loves to find a new way to push buttons. :) So, that's what's on my mind this morning. And to honor my 'babies', here is my new favorite picture of them.