Pictures

A Long Journey

We finally made it to Georgia! We left Japan October 18th. Our plane left at around 11 am that Sunday morning, we flew to mainland Japan which took us 3 hours if I remember right. We had a small layover in Narita and then took off for Hawaii. That flight took us 8 hours, but with a time difference of 19 hours! Needless to say, we were tired. The funny thing was we landed at 7 am on that Sunday morning...before we left Japan :) We stayed in Hawaii for almost a week, vacationing there with my parents. The weather there was awesome, the hotel was nice and the food was great! We really enjoyed our time in Hawaii...but like all vacations it ended too soon. We left Hawaii, and my parents, on Friday morning...they had a later flight than us. Next we flew to Chicago, I think that flight took us around 8 hours also. Again, we were so tired b/c of another lovely time change. At least this time it was only 5 hours. We hung out at the Chicago airport for 2 or so hours and then finally boarded a small plane for St. Louis. By the way, our dog Chloe accompanied us through this whole trip. When we were sitting on this plane we realized we hadn't confirmed our dog being loaded. While waiting for the flight attendant to make her way back to us so we could ask her to check, Josiah yells out, "There's Chloe!!!" Sure enough, there was our dog, panicking in her crate as she is going up the conveyor belt onto the plane. :) Well, she wasn't really panicking, just pacing in place. Poor dog. She was probably wondering what was going on...while in Hawaii she was in quarantine the whole week. We finally take off for St. Louis, which was a wonderful short flight and there to meet us was Jeff's parents, such a nice sight to see when all the other airports you arrive at are full of people you don't know. We arrived in MO on Saturday morning. And again...needless to say, after all this flying and time change, our family was hit with jet lag. I took a nap that afternoon and that was the wrong thing to do. It was so hard to wake up, and napping made me feel much worse. I spent the rest of the day in a fog, just drifting around the house, trying to talk and be sociable....but praying for bed time to roll around. Amazingly, Josiah and Gaber did the best, they stayed awake all day and slept great that night. Kids are amazing creatures! I haven't mentioned Tara yet, she did great the whole way from Japan! She was an amazing flier, thanks to God answering my prayers!, and she did well with the time changes too. I don't think we ever had a hard time getting her to sleep, the boys as well, we just had a hard time getting them to wake up! I had to start setting my alarm for 9 am so that we could get on central time, we were all sleeping in to noon! Eventually we made it down to 8 am. We stayed in MO for 2 weeks, there we celebrated Gaber's 5th birthday at Bonkers and then had a delicious DQ cake at the Rybold's house. A couple days later we were all hit with a nasty plague! Jeff started it, then Gaber, then Siah, then Rose, me, Tom, Megann, and the ones who got it at the end of our trip was Mark and my mom. Not sure if Alicia and her other little ones got it or not. Boy was that not fun. Lets just say nothing would stay down and for some of the sickos nothing could keep them off the toilet! LOL
Enough about that, I don't like thinking about it...the next part of our journey took us to south MO to visit Jack, Cassie and their 4 kids. We spent 2-3 days there, eating and holding their precious new baby girl. After that visit we started our drive down to Georgia which took us 3 days to accomplish. We would have made it sooner if Jeff wouldn't have to stop so many times, I think he was drinking to much soda! :) The boys loved the drive, especially Josiah. He just stared out the windows, in awe of the landscape in the states. It looks so much different than Japan. The boys loved seeing the cows, trains, wide open fields and the beautiful trees. Jeff and I really enjoyed the view too, it had been too long since we've seen our country. Its so nice to be back after spending 6 years overseas. It was a great experience, one that I'm so thankful to God for letting us do, but I'm so happy to be back.
This Saturday we are taking off, again, for MO. We will stop there for a few days and then drive up to Wisconsin for Christmas. We are hoping for snow so the boys can experience building snowmen and sledding and snowball fights!
As soon as I find my wire for the camera I will post some pictures!

Last Blog from Okinawa

Tonight our computer will get boxed up for our move so I thought I would fit in a real quick blog. Today the movers came for our unaccompanied baggage. They got here early, thankfully, and were done w/in 30 minutes! We've had the rest of the day to prepare for tomorrows pack out, the big one. We are still preparing for it actually, probably will be until I go to bed. We have to pack our suitcases and get them put away so the movers won't box them up. So I gotta figure out the last things I would like to have with us in Hawaii and Missouri.

We will be so busy for the next week. We have to junk our car, pick up another car to drive for our last week, take care of the dog for the move, clean our house for inspection, Jeff has to final out at his squadron and then the base. We found out today that the TLF, "hotel", has us leaving on Saturday instead of Sunday...yeah. *sigh* So we may not get to stay in our room for our last night here. They may make us move to a different building and be in a one room instead of a two room. We're hoping there will be an opening for us to stay in the building that we will already be in.
We are so excited to move! I can't wait to get to Hawaii and then Missouri and lastly Georgia!
See you all soon!
Bye Okinawa, our home for the past 3 years! *sniff*

Almost There

Josiah this morning was so excited when he saw on the calendar that it is October 1st. He has had a countdown going, for when we move, for a long time. We are now down to 17 days!!! Yesterday we had our preinspection for our house. We have some light cleaning to do for the final inspection. It shouldn't be too hard. A guy from the moving company came yesterday too, to see how much stuff we have, so they know how many boxes to bring. We get packed out on the 8th and 9th! Just one week away! We are almost there!
It's been a busy week here. Jeff has been working on out processing and we've had a missions conference this week. The Chappell brothers were here to preach at it. We had a great conference, I heard some decisions were made for full time service, one saved and our church promised $210,000 this year for missions! Pretty awesome! I love conferences, revivals, all that stuff...but it sure does wear ya out! We didn't get home from church until closer to 9 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm sure looking forward to hanging out at home with my family tonight. Enjoying dinner together and family time!
Please keep us in prayer for this move. We sure would love a smooth move! Also keep praying about our new house in Georgia. We haven't heard yet if there are any available on base. If there isn't any, we'll have to look off base which can be difficult with having a dog.
Lastly, Tara finally cut another tooth! So now she has 3 little teethers! :)

A Busy Saturday

Saturday I went to the Chibana yard sale with a friend of mine. This was my first time going as a seller or buyer. I had heard that it can be chaotic, I didn't realize how true that was. We got there a little before 6 a.m. When we finally got there and parked, I had someone already looking in the back of my van! As soon as I opened it a guy bought two items from me! So they have vendor set up from 5:30 am to 6:30, vendor shopping from 6:30 to 7, then they open the gates for the Japanese to come in and shop from 7 to 10. When they opened the gates at 7, I was not ready for the flood of people who would come, and not only come...but run in! Seriously! As soon as they all started running towards us, I looked at Sarah and said, "What are we doing here!!??" I think at one time we had at least 10-15 people rummaging through our stuff. They don't just sort through it and look around, they tare through it! I ended up with a mountain of clothes, nothing was organized any more! And every time that Sarah and I would try to organize the mess, it would just get all jumbled up again so we gave up! Well, it was quite a morning. I made just about 200 dollars, not bad!
After the yard sale I had to run to the BX then off to a birthday party that Gaber was invited to. It was a lot of fun for him. It was a princess party...you are now wondering how that would be fun for a boy, right?...the girls all dressed as princesses and then they gave the boys swords, shields and crowns to wear. So all the boys were knights or kings. It was so cute! They also got to play putt putt and pin the tale on the donkey. And then, Gaber's favorite party of a birthday party, is the cake. It was made to look like a castle, and it did look pretty good! :)
So, we get home from the party at 3, I take an hour nap, then we had to go down south of the island to Arin Krin, aka The Garlic House, for a going away. Jeff loves this place, so do I actually. We don't go a lot b/c it takes a long time to get there because of traffic. So we had a delicious dinner and then we finally came home and I was finally done for the day!

Today we went to church, like we always do, but then Tara ended up with a 101.7 fever at church so I had to come home early with her. Not sure what is going on with that baby. She has had a runny nose since the beginning of August. Not just runny...its pouring most of the time. We thought it was teething, then thought it was allergies. But now that she has a temp, I don't know. I guess I'll try calling the clinic, again, tomorrow and get her an appointment.

Lastly, the countdown is now to: 4 weeks until we PCS! :)

Here are a few pictures from this week:

Tara and I on Monday, preparing for the Packer game


Josiah


Jeff reading to Tara at half time

Orders!

We finally got our orders this week!!! Jeff shot Tuesday and we got our orders on Wednesday! So now, since we've gotten our orders, Jeff has scheduled almost everything. At the end of this month is our housing preinspection, on October 8th is our unaccompanied baggage (some of our stuff that will get shipped to the states quicker), on October 9th is our household goods (the rest of our stuff that may not make it so fast to Georgia), on October 15th is our housing inspection (they look all threw our house to make sure we are leaving it clean and undamaged, this part is always the stressful part. Some inspectors are so tough. In Washington the inspector pulled out a razor blade and had me scrape up a black speck out of our oven! And you can't leave, PCS, until they pass you...yeah, stressful.), and then on October 14th we can finally move into TLF which is like a hotel...military style. Yes, I say military style b/c in the past they haven't been fun to live in. Our last one we stayed in was infested with roaches. I think the hardest part though will be waiting until the 14th to move in to TLF. We have to stay in our empty house until then. I think we will try borrowing an air mattress from someone, a playpen for Tara, and luckily the boys' will still have their beds. But nothing else will be in the house, no cooking utensils, tv's, toys, nothing but what we keep back to pack in our suitcases. Yeah...not fun. Hopefully Tara and I can go hang out at someone's house during those days. All of this will be worth it though, we will soon be on our way to our Hawaiin vacation and then to Missouri to see our family/friends and then down to Georgia to start our life there!!! I can't wait!

Ummmmm....

I really don't have a main point for this blog. Just thought I would blog. Let's see...what has happened lately...
Jeff got to shoot yesterday...FINALLY. He did the best in his class, I think he's getting a ribbon or something for that. I am slowly getting the house prepared for our move. This Saturday my friend and I are going to the Chibana yard sale to hopefully sale all our not wanted nor needed stuff that has piled up threw the past 3 years. The boys are still doing good in school...well Josiah didn't score as well as we would have liked him to on some of his tests. His teacher says he is a great reader but needs to pay more attention in class. I know what she's talking about. He has such a hard time focusing. I joke around about him having ADD, but sometimes I wonder if he really does. Jeff says that Josiah gets it from him, not listening and focusing on what someone is saying. Tara, well, Tara has had a runny, snotty, yucky nose for over a month now. *sigh* I thought it was from teething, but I'm thinking its allergies now. It's really bad, I just feel bad for her too. I finally called the doctor. They are supposed to call me back...I'm still waiting. I'm afraid she's allergic to our dog, Chloe. Chloe is shedding a lot right now, more than she usually does. I have to vacuum every day to keep the dog hair cleaned up. Jeff doesn't want to go there...he wants to believe its teething. We shall see. Neither of us want to give our dog up, but I don't want Tara to have to take medicine all of the time either.

We are down to 4 weeks and 4 days until we PCS!!! I AM SO EXCITED! I can't believe its so close. It doesn't feel real, maybe it will when we have our orders and some dates for the movers and such.

That's it for now...that's all that's happening in the Rybold house. Hopefully soon I can post that we have our orders!

Prayer Answered!

My last post I talked about Jeff not getting orders until he shoots and they wouldn't let him shoot until the end of the month. I've been really praying about that, Jeff has too, and guess what, he gets to shoot this coming week! Wooohoooo! Not only did they have one opening next week, they had two! I guess the guy who was planning Jeff's shooting day wasn't doing that good of a job b/c Jeff decided to go over him and ask someone else. This other guy found him a day this week with no problem. So now it looks like we will get our orders by the end of this month which is so much better! We are both so thankful to God for answering our prayers. Its so neat to see God work these things out for us! Well, that's one less stress now, maybe everything else will go smoothly. :)
Jeff has to go to TMO today b/c our stuff in storage down in Mississippi is supposed to delivered by the 1st of November, I guess, so now we have to extend that until we get a house in Georgia. They better wait, where they gonna take it?!!! :)
I better get busy on cleaning, laundry, supper preparations and my lesson for tonight! Tara is napping so this is the best time to catch up around the house.

Still No Orders

We are already in September and still no orders. It shouldn't surprise me. That's the military for ya...they like to make you wait on important things to make ya sweat! *sigh* Jeff is fine...its just me. I would have liked to have them orders in hand 3 months ago...6 months ago!!!, I'm impatient like that. So maybe this is happening b/c God is teaching me patience? lol So we are waiting on Jeff to shoot his gun before they will give us his orders and they've decided to not let him shoot until the end of September which means we probably won't have orders in hand until a week or so before we leave. Crazy, huh! So of course this freaks me out...poor Jeff has to answer my 100 questions...the would ifs and what happens and so on. He says we will still leave on October 18th, they will get him his orders. He's so calm and easy going with this stuff, and I'm glad he is. I guess we will have a lot to do that last week before we leave with scheduling the movers and out processing and getting on the housing list. Well...I keep praying that maybe they will get him in earlier to shoot, but if not, I will try to be patient and not worry. Me, not worry, I don't think that will ever happen! :) But I will try.
So other than that, we are having a great weekend. Jeff had Friday off and is also getting tomorrow off! YaY! We have a church picnic tomorrow, for Labor day. It should be a lot of fun, they always are. Nothing much going on. Just counting down until we leave and see our family. We miss them so much! I can't wait to hug all of them and to show off our new little daughter, who will be almost 11 months old by then! The boys can't wait to see lolo, lola, mima and papa. They can't wait to play with their cousins. I can't wait to see them play with their cousins! Oh, its soooo close *daydreaming*. :)
Have a fab-tabulous weekend!!!

Random Thoughts

Ok, so these aren't my random thoughts, I got this in an email. But some of these were pretty funny b/c they are true. Enjoy :)

* Nothing is worse than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

* I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

* The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

* Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

* There is a great need for sarcasm font.

* Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

* How in the world are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

* I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in. (This is Jeff!!!!)

* The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

* Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

* I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

* How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

* I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent some guy from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

* What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

* While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

· MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

* I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

* I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

* Bad decisions make good story

* If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever had children, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

* Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem...

* You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

* Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

* There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

* I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

* "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

* I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

* While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

* I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

* Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

* It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

* Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

* Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my money everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time....

* My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How in the world do I respond to that?

* I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

* The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fatty before dinner.

Habu and a Suh-weet Sale!!!

Maybe you are asking, What is a Habu? Well its a poisonous snake here in Okinawa. They are everywhere, but over these past 3 years I've only seen them in captivity. Down in Okinawa World they do a crazy snake show. They show how a Cobra can only strike in certain ranges, like its blind to all movement behind him. The snake dude will put his hand behind the snake and hit the back of its head! Then they show the Habu...who has a 360 degree strike range...yeah. So if you are near one, you better watch out! So on Sunday we were at church, we were getting ready to leave when a little Okinawan boy runs by us saying they caught a Habu. Jeff, the boys, Tara and I run around the church building to see it...smart, aren't we? When we rounded the corner we see a small group of people back by our church playground. We get back there just as some guy had beheaded the snake. Some other guy was holding up its dead body. Yuk! My boys thought this was pretty cool...me, not so much, mainly b/c this snake was hanging out on the hill right by the playground, where my boys play at every day for recess. Scary,...YES. Well get this, a group of kids found the snake while they were playing on the hill with their ball. They saw it, and luckily ran and got a grown up. Eeesh. So that's the closest I've come to one of those darlings in the "wild". Hopefully no more will come 'round, especially around our kid's play area!

So, on to a Suh-weet sale! Sara and I walked to the BX today and they had a woman's dream come true...women's clothing on sale! lol An extra 50% off all sale items...Yes!!! So I got a cute black skirt for 6 bucks, a shirt for 4 bucks and another shirt for 7. Nice huh! :)
Well, Tara is sitting here squealing and picking at a string coming off of the carpet. I think she's about ready for a nap. Better get her down so I can get some cleaning done around here.
Have a Suh-Weet day! :)

Friday...Wooohoooo!

We are so glad its Friday! This week seemed unusually long. I'm sitting here, trying to think what happened this past week, but my mind draws a blank. hmmm. Well, lets see, the boys are doing great in school. Gaber did get moved to the "yellow light" though, he talked during lunch time. Not a serious offense, but one none the less. After Jeff and I talked to him about that, he has stayed on green light the rest of the week. Hopefully when he gets home today he will have good news for me. :) Josiah had homework yesterday, he wasn't too excited about it either. It was just a lot of writing, which takes awhile especially with Abeka because they practice perfect writing. Perfect slant, bubbles, curves, everything. He has good penmanship when he wants too, but many times his lazy side comes out. Tara is learning to move around on her feet more. She's up on them all the time now. She follows me around and as soon as I stop she pulls up on my legs. She's getting a little too attached to me I think...even now when daddy has her she'll fuss for me. I think its b/c now that the boys are gone, she has me all to herself, all day long, and so she's very comfortable with me. Hopefully she'll get over that soon. Jeff and I are still anxiously awaiting his orders. We need them to start scheduling the movers, housing in GA, everything for this move. Hopefully we will get them in early September.
Its been a great week here! Hope your all's was good too!

School and Schedules

The boys started school on Monday. They are doing great and loving it! Gaber has stayed on the green light all week, YaY!, and Josiah has been earning stickers on his chart which means they are both being good. :) Gaber has made some new friends too, he's very excited about going to school everyday to see them. Its fun watching them grow up and do new things. Its also hard watching them grow up and not need me as much. Well, that's life, right?
So everything has changed around here since they started back. I get up around 6:40 to get myself ready before I wake the boys us at 7:10. I try to keep them quiet as they brush teeth and make beds so that Tara can sleep a little longer. I have to be out the door by at least 8:10 so that we aren't rushing which means I need her up by 7:45 to nurse and get changed. I drop the boys off at school and then I'm off to Sarah's house to go on our morning walk. We've been getting in about an hour walk every morning, its been a lot of fun! We get to talk alot and get some exercise. She has a baby that just turned one and I just have Tara with me so we put the girls in the strollers and off we go. We've been walking everywhere. Today we walked to the BX and around the gym. Well, sometimes Tara ends up snoozin' a little near the end of the walk so her morning nap is being pushed back some. By the time I get home with her she wants to play a little and then lays down. Since that morning nap is pushed back her afternoon nap is pushed back too which then means her bedtime is pushed back. lol Its one vicious cycle! Just kidding, its not too bad. She has been a little grumpy, but I think that may be from teething or just being a baby. :) So, our schedule as we knew it is GONE! Out the window! Now its really a day by day thing, what ever happens, happens. Like today I didn't get home until 3 pm with her. Sarah and I ended up going threw coupons together and then made a trip to the thrift store. While at the thrift store Tara zonked out on my shoulder...she was out the whole time (her tongue sticking out and everything...Yes, she was OUT)! She missed a great shopping trip! ha ha (I got a pair of shorts and a dress for her for 2 bucks! Yeah baby!)
So maybe my title should read, "Schedule, What Schedule?"
Well, I'm way tired now. My body is just done and its only 4pm. I still have supper, visitation, kids playing, and then bedtime in hopefully the near future. :)

Some Firsts and A Last

We had a good week and Tara had a few firsts. She got her first tooth last Sunday, then on Monday she got her second tooth! On Tuesday she went to her first birthday party of a friend, how do you say that...her first friend's birthday party. :) Last night she got into her first fight with a friend...lol...while I was changing her diaper another baby came over and kept scratching her face, so then she started crying. This other baby kept going at her face that night for some reason. She had yogurt for her first time this week and loved it. Hmmm, that's all the firsts I can think of for this week. :)

Well, this is the last week of summer break for the boys. Monday they start school! I can't believe the summer is already over and its time to get back into the groove of school. No more sleeping in for me and the kiddos. *sigh* They are both excited though and so am I. I am excited because this is one step closer to moving back to the states! We've already began preparations for the move. We sold our dishes, I really want some new ones, and we are trying to sale our tv center. I'm also trying to sale my maternity clothes and some of Jeff's old clothing. Next I will go threw our closets to lighten our load for the move. I don't want to get to Georgia and unpack a lot of junk we don't need!

Jeff gets off early today. We are planning on going out this afternoon, maybe our last trip to the pool this summer. Then we have a parent/teacher meeting tonight and then Jeff is going to the teen activity. Don't worry, he doesn't think he's a teen...he may still act like one though :)...he likes to help out with the teen group at our church. I think tonight he is helping with games and then giving the devotion.

It was a great week! Not much going on but some fun firsts for the baby and a sad last for the boys. Ready for the fall to come and then our Hawaii vacation! Oh Yeah!

Here are some recent pictures:



"Huh"




playing in the wind from the typhoon, see the "parachute" up in the air?




May the Force be with you

More Editing :)

A couple more pics I did...





Yes, I think I'm addicted. I am getting other things done, I promise! lol

Update on typhoon, it looks like it won't hit us now! Yesterday was a very windy day, the typhoon was near but its path had changed. We had some strong winds for the boys to play in. I made them some toy parachutes, taped their power ranger toy to a grocery bag (that one was for Josiah) and I taped a plane to a grocery bag for Gaber. Josiah's flew high up into the air and took off. It landed in the top of a neighbor's tree, 2 buildings down! Gaber decided he would bring his in after that. Last night was very windy. I had a hard time going to sleep b/c our window was shaking and our patio cover was flopping. Luckily the kids all slept fine, their side of the house didn't have the wind. Today it has been raining off and on, but nothing compared to what it would have been if the typhoon hit. Well, poor Jeff. He was really hoping to go threw one before we moved. :)

some picnik pics

I've been playing around with this free online photo editor. It's a lot of fun, I'm still trying to learn it all, here are some photos I did.

Picnik

Ok, so I'm playing around with this free photo shop thing instead of doing the many things that I should be doing...but hey, this is fun! :c) Be prepared to see a lot of new Our Rybold 5 Header pictures, or whatever its called, b/c I will probably be experimenting a lot with it.

Typhoon Coming

So a typhoon is supposed to hit us, or come close to hitting us, on Friday. I guess to most people this would be scary, but here in Okinawa its like a snow day for those who work or to the kids if they are in school. Everyone will be sent home until it passes. Its not so bad here like it is in the states b/c most buildings and homes are built out of concrete...yeah, so we aren't going anywhere. Our house is even on top of a small hill so that really helps with flooding. The only part that won't be fun is if our air and power goes off. Then we will be hot and have no power to keep our food cold.
This morning I went to the commissary to do my regular grocery shopping, not thinking of the hundreds who would come to stock up before the typhoon...yeah...I forgot, but was quickly reminded when I pulled into the parking lot and almost all spots were taken. Eeeeshhh! As I'm shopping I notice the L-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong line for check-out. *sigh* So I quickly finish up my shopping and go stand in line. When I finally start to approach the area where the checkers are one of the commissary staff let me in the express lane, I was a little shocked, I thought maybe he had miscounted all the stuff in my cart. Maybe he didn't see the basket of baby food under my cart that would obviously take me over the limit of 20. So I asked him if he was sure? He said, "Yes, You have baby!" Wow! What a blessing! I would have had at least another 30 minute wait. I did feel bad for all the others who had to wait, but hey...I'm not gonna argue! So luckily I got outta there fast!
Well, we are ready for this typhoon to hit. Hopefully we won't lose our air/power and we can have fun hanging out together. Hopefully no flooding in the house and hopefully no major damage or anyone injured.
Oh, and today is Tara's 8 month birthday! Happy Birthday sweetie!

August Already!?

I can't believe its August! Where did the time go? I had big plans for this summer and not many of them were accomplished! The boys will be starting school in just two short weeks from now. No more sleeping in for us, no more lazy mornings, no more taking my time! Josiah and Gabriel are getting excited about going to school. I think Gaber is mainly excited about having a new backpack! Josiah is excited about being in a school again with his friends, last year I home schooled him...he liked that but is just happy about being with friends every day again. I will just have Tara at home with me...I can't imagine just me and her every day. I hope to get a lot done but knowing me, I will, somehow, fall behind. :c) My only problem I had with the boys going to school was picking them up after school. The buses from church don't come here and I really didn't want to wake Tara up from her nap. I've been praying about it and trying to think of someone I could do a carpool with. Sunday night at church I talked to Christina and she said that her mom, who is a teacher there, could bring the boys home! What a blessing! So in return I will help them out with babysitting their 3 year old little girl when ever they need it. Well, the boys will only be in school here for 2 months until we leave. I hope the next school they are in will have bus service to where we live or I'll be at square one again!
We have our last appointments made for the boys, Chloe and I before we PCS. Now we are just waiting for our orders so we can start scheduling movers and all that stuff. I can't believe its almost here! See y'all soon! :c)

Tackling and Hiccups

Jeff took Josiah to see Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs tonight. Gaber didn't want to go, he's not a movie theater person. He doesn't like how loud it gets, I don't blame him, I think its too loud too. But he hates it! He will sit with his hands over his ears through the whole movie! He told us that he would wait for the movie to come to the shopette (movie rental place/convenience store on base). So tonight it was just Gaber, Tara and I. We had a lot of fun too. Gaber wanted to play the game where I tackle him...well, just pull him onto my lap, he says it's tackling, and then Tara crawls over and pulls up on him while I tickle him. For some reason he loves this game. This time though, Tara not only pulled up on him, she pulled his hair and used his face as a drum. Gaber thought this was quite comical though. He couldn't stop laughing and so then he got the hiccups! He asked how to get rid of them so I said that I would have to scare him...lol...he looked at me, not sure of what to think and then I grabbed him and screamed (not that loud...more like a squeal) and he jumped! Well, that didn't work. So he asked what else would work, so I said, you have to hold your breath. He was so cute trying to hold his breath...well that didn't work. So I said, You have to do 10 jumping jacks. Well, that was pretty comical for me! A 4 year old and jumping jacks don't go together! So, that didn't work and so I said to sing a song, that didn't work so I said he had to kiss me on both cheeks, that didn't work ( but I got some sweet kisses!) so I said, touch your toes to your nose. By now he is cracking up, Tara is bouncing and squealing (she has no clue what is going on but loving the entertainment), and I am getting quite a kick out of Gaber doing all these things to get rid of his hiccups. Well, I can't even remember what all he did, but something worked...somehow, and now its almost 2 hours later, Tara is in bed and Gaber is hanging out with momma waiting for dad and siah to get home. We had a fun, simple night together. I'm sure dad and siah are having fun too. Our kids are so much fun and they are also good entertainment! ha ha
One last thing, Tara is already trying to pull up to her feet! She's been pulling up, just to her knees, but these past few days she will get up to her feet when using something low to the floor. I know before long she will be standing up at the table and walking! Man its going TOO fast, but so awesome to watch her learn and grow!

About Me

1. What time did you get up this morning?
8 am

2. How do you like your steak?
well done

3. What was the last film you saw at a cinema?
Monsters vs Aliens

4. What is your favorite TV show?
I like home makeover shows and 18 Kids and Counting

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
the States....preferably close to Missouri.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Golden Puffs with skim milk

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
i loved fried chicken, fried potatos, and green beans...that kind of meal is awesome, oh and biscuits!

8. What foods do you dislike?
eggs, noodles, and some cheese

9. Favorite place to eat?
Right now, Four Seasons

10. Favorite dressing?
a japanese dressing, its so good!

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive?
a red Bluebird and a gray Townhouse van

12. What are your favorite clothes?
anything comfy and cute

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
Egypt

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
1/2 full...most of the time

15. Where would you want to retire?
not sure, maybe Missouri

16. Favorite time of day?
bedtime!

17. What is your favorite sport to watch?
football...Packers of course!

18. Bird watcher?
nope

19. Are you a morning person or a night person?
neither

20. Pets?
1 Oki-mix dog named Chloe

21. What did you want to be when you were little?
a vet, like most kids, and a mommy

22. What is you best childhood memory?
camping with my family

23. Are you a cat or dog person?
dog, i like cats but Jeff doesn't so we don't have any

24. Are you married?
yes

25. Always wear your seatbelt?
yep

26. Been in a car accident?
yes, on our way to Missouri from Washington

27. Any pet peeves?
cabinet doors being left open, no trash bag in the can, empty bottles/boxes left in fridge/pantry

28. Favorite pizza toppings?
pepperoni, green peppers, italian sausage, pineapple

29. Favorite flower?
i love them all

30. Favorite ice cream?
um...that's hard....i love so many

31. Favorite fast food or restaurant?
Sonic...I miss it!

32. How many times did you fail your drivers test?
none

33. From who did you get your last email?
mom

34. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
Maurices

35. Do anything spontaneous lately?
nope

36. like your job?
love it!

37. Broccoli?
with butter, Parmesan and pepper

38. What is your favorite vacation?
Hawaii...it hasn't happened yet but I think it will be the best!

39. Last person you went out to dinner with?
Jeff

40. What are you listening to right now?
the Wii

41. What is your favorite color?
blue...i guess, i haven't really thought about my favorite color in a while...maybe purple

42. How many tatoos do you have?
none

43. Coffee drinker?
frappucino and cappuccino mainly

Random Facts

1. Tara has pulled up to the table, just to her knees
2. I got a pedicure :c)
3. The boys painted some pretty pictures
4. Handed out tracks to the Japanese on Thursday
5. Went for a run, first time in a lo-o-o-ong time!
6. Gaber wiped himself for the first time, its about time! No help from me!!!
   
7. Gaber was not happy about doing it by himself
8. Did way to much laundry and still have more to do.
9. Went grocery shopping with the kids
10. Tara's cousin won the "1st tooth" race LOL
11. Needed miamama to skype-sit LOL
12. While at church I noticed I had some weird white stuff caked all over my wedding ring
13. Daydreamed about our vacation coming up :c)
14. Been eating kiddie cereal all week YUM
15. Craving a Coke right now
    

6 month well baby check up for a 7 month old

Yeah, I'm a little behind on her well baby appointments! Tara is 7 1/2 mo old and I just got her in for her 6 month check up! Well, at least we went, right? :c) Looks like she is a healthy little girl. She is now 17 lb 15 oz and 27 1/2 inches long. She's in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height. The height one shocked me, my boys were never in the 75th. I think Gaber was actually below the 50th for his height! Poor kid! ha ha I talked to the doctor about her spitting up, he said as long as she's gaining weight and sleeping good at night then she is fine. Well, she's gaining weight and sleeping great at night so I guess she's A-OK!
I'm very thankful for such a healthy baby girl, I realize how blessed I am more now than I did with my first baby. I've read around 3 blogs of women with unhealthy babies or even those that have lost their babies. I realized how precious life is, how blessed Jeff and I really are. So every doctor visit just makes me realize even more how blessed we are to see that she is growing healthy and doing so well. I pray that all 3 of our children and all my nieces and nephews continue to be so healthy and keep thriving!
Tara also got her shots today....BLaH! I really dread those appointments. But she did fantastic! She stopped crying before I even sat her up, she's a tough little girl!
So, almost done with our appointments before we PCS. Our last ones will be dental appointments, which we really need to get in since they are free here.
A little less than 3 months now until we move!!! YaY!

Cocok's - CocoIchibanya - Starbucks :

A Girl's Night Out

Tonight I got to go out with a new friend of mine, Sarah, and her cousin who is visiting, Megan. We had so much fun! First we went to Cocok's for pedicures...the best pedicures ever! (I've only been to 3 places to have pedicures though) After we were done there we drove back to my house so I could nurse Tara and get her into bed. By the way, Jeff is babysitting 4 kids, our 3 and Sarah's 11 month old...thanks a bunch honey! After I got her into bed we 3 girls take of to CocoIchibanya for some super yummy curry, the best ever! On our way out of there we decide to go get some Starbucks on the way home, I call Jeff first to make sure Sarah's daughter is doing ok for him since it was getting late. She is fine, except that my phone call just woke her up...oops, so we have some delicous frappucino's before coming back home. I had so much fun. I can't tell you the last time I went out for a girl's night out AND got to stay out so late! I'm a mommy to 3 (wonderful kids) so I usually am home by 7 every night! So tonight was so much fun and so needed!
Again, I'm so thankful to him, he is such a great husband! He babysat to help out our friend, but mainly for me so I could go out and enjoy myself with some other women. He is such a thoughtful husband who mainly wants to put me first, what a guy! Not many ladies can say their hubby's would babysit 4 kids, 2 of which are babies, so that his wife can go spend money on her toes and eat at his favorite place and he not get to go!
I don't have any pictures of my night out, but I do have some of Jeff's night in with the kids. Here are a few:

Cassidy and Tara playing...see the yellow phone...Jeff said Tara did not like sharing that with Cassidy...maybe she was waiting for a call? :c) Oh, and this is Tara's first time to have a friend over! :c)

Tara playing in Chloe's kennel. Jeff said that Cassidy had shut the door on her once...lol. This is the first time she's ever gotten in there!
So the night went pretty well for Jeff. He said that Tara squealed once loudly, which she does often, and scared Cassidy so Cassidy started crying which scared Tara and got Tara crying. I guess this went on for about 15 minutes. As soon as one would start to calm down the other one would get her going again! He finally had to put Tara in her crib so that they could calm down and then he was able to bring Tara down to play some more. I think that was the only problem he had.
Well, it was a fun night, I'm still up from the frappucino I got...to much caffeine for me! So its 12:20 am and I'm wide awake! That's ok though b/c I've gotten all 153 photos uploaded to my computer, put some on my picasa site, done some facebook and now blogged! Notice I didn't use my time wisely by like cleaning...that would just be crazy! ha ha
Well, thats it, had a great time out this evening!

A Hot Fun Friday

Today I took the kids to a park that is off base with a friend of mine from church. I was a little hesitant about going b/c of the heat but I decided the boys would have fun and they needed to get out. In my opinion, Japanese parks are so much more fun than American parks! They have so much more design and uniqueness, instead of the old "plastic parks" that we all know of. The one we went to today is in the design of a dolphin. It had bridges, roller slides, spiral slides and much more! The boys had so much fun, even in the heat! Yes, the faces were red and sweet was rolling down those cute cheeks of theirs, but I don't think they cared. I sat in the nice shaded area with Sara and our babies just chatting and sipping on some yummy Japanese sports drink. :c) Oh, and another opinion of mine, the Japanese vending machines, which can be found every 50 feet or less, are a collection of strange but sometimes delicious drinks, cold or hot, and sometimes a kit-kat bar thrown in there with the drinks. :c) It really is fun just trying to decide what drink to buy...which one will earn your 110 Yen, which one will you dare take a chance on!? Oh believe me, it is a chance...you never know what you will get. Sara said once her drink had little grapes in it! Mine once had weird little yogurt balls in it...strange it was. But they are strangely so much fun and usually pretty good! Ok, so that was our fun hot Friday, now we are sitting inside our nicely cooled base house, which is ugly...but I am thankful for it (the house, not the ugliness!), and we are waiting for daddy to get home.
I hope all of you have a fun, hopefully not hot, Friday too!

Right Now

Right now I am ignoring Tara crying in her crib

Right now I sent Josiah upstairs to give her a passy

Right now I am so tired

Right now its only 11:23 a.m. so why am I so tired!?

Right now I'm hungry

Right now it is 12:49, I've been away for awhile.

Right now I"m eating a roast beef sandwich, chips and drinking some apple juice

Right now I've accomplished feeding Tara lunch and I've cleaned the boys' bathroom

Right now I miss my family

Right now I wonder if I'll take Tara to church tonight, she's really cranky.

Right now I am so thankful for my salvation

Right now I am so thankful for my friends!

Right now...mmm, took another bite of my sandwich :c)

Right now I wish Jeff could be home, he just left for work again

Right now I am wondering how many "right nows" I can come up with.

Right now I am listening to the secadas outside, those noisy bugs that come every so often.

Right now I'm wondering if Tara is teething...a possibility since she is so cranky!

Right now I'm wondering how many calories my lunch is...yikes!

Right now I wish I were 10 lbs lighter

Right now I'm overwhelmed by all the stuff to do around here.

Right now I miss Cindee and Katie! I wish we could hang out like the old days.

Right now I wish I could call Alicia, but I think she's in bed by now.

Right now I took my last bite of my sandwich

And...

Right now I'm done!

Shots

Jeff and I took the boys to get their shots today. I hate giving my kids shots, I really REALLY do! But we needed it done so we could get our orders to PCS. Poor Gabriel, he cried the whole way to the clinic. He was SO NOT a willing participant, unlike Josiah who thought this would be no big deal. While in the waiting room Jeff did a great job of distracting Gaber with a game of paper-rock-scissors...but then we were called in and Gaber's spirits dropped! Jeff almost had to drag the boy in! The tears started to flow as we lifted him to the table, and there right beside him laid 5 shots, YES I said FIVE shots!!! My eyes got huge, I couldn't believe he needed that many! Poor child! Jeff held his arms down and it started...I never knew Gaber could scream like that! I think he screamed more getting shots than when he broke both bones in his arm!!! Seriously! Next up, Josiah. He was calm, cool and collected. He hopped up there, pulled up his shirt and held up his arm. I was really starting to think that he would be a breeze. As soon as the needle touched Josiah's arm he leaped over and the look on his face was like, OH....NO, THIS IS NOT COOL!!! Luckily Josiah only needed two! He barely cried, thankfully, and off we were. All done for another 6 months. *sigh* Oh wait, Tara gets some in 2 weeks...OH MAN!!!
Shots...I hate 'em!

Our Spitter Upper

Tar-Bear is our spitter-upper! At 7 months old she still does it, A LOT. So, if any of you moms out there have had this problem with their baby let me know, I'm kinda concerned. Any advice, please share! I'm probably just worried over nothing but I know the boys were done with this by now. So it worries me when she is still spitting up a lot right after eating and even 2 hours after eating. She also spits up her baby food, green bean, peas, squash, apple sauce...anything that goes in will come out eventually. In two weeks at her well baby appointment I will be able to ask the doctor, which I'm sure he'll say she's fine. Its nice to hear from other mom's too!

Other than that, we've been doing good. Had a great day out with the kids. We had our WIC appointment today. Tara is up to 17 lbs, Gaber went down 1 lb and I lost another 6 lbs! Woohooo!
After the appointment we went to BK for a late lunch and then off to the always over crowded commissary for some much needed groceries.
Had to make some more appointments today so we can get our orders to PCS. We have to take the boys in for some shots and I gotta get Chloe into the vet to see what she needs...I'm behind on all of them! I think Jeff and I are the only ones good to go for this PCS! Only a little over 3 months until we move! :c)

The 4th

Well, we had a great 4th of July this year! The weather was nice, not to hot or humid and that evening there was a nice breeze. We took the kids to America Fest which was on Kadena A.B. We got there a little after 5pm, and it was already very crowded! I heard from someone that around 50,000 attended, maybe not all at once but you get the picture! So after finding a spot to park, on the runway, we took the kids to look at the firetrucks, planes, helicopters and all that military stuff. Next we went to the bouncy castle play land area, the part the boys really wanted to go for. They really like the one that is like a maze and it has a hill to climb and then a slide at the end, this one...



See Josiah climbing up? I think they did this one about a hundred times! Josiah and Gaber were usually together, but once Gaber didn't come out of the maze part, I stood looking and looking...getting a little nervous. Finally here he came, smiling ear to ear, and yelled, "I got squish-ED". :c) After all the bouncy stuff and sno-cones we headed over to a less crowded area to find a place to sit for the fireworks. The fireworks were awesome this year and the best part was Tara didn't freak out during them like I thought she may, especially since we forgot her passy. Well, the cost of so much fun was the trip home. We had to walk about 1-2 miles back to our car, sit in a line of cars for 40 minutes w/out moving an inch and taking 1 1/2 hours to get home! We finally had all 3 kids in bed by 11 pm, but it was worth it!
Here are a few more pictures from the day...

Things That Go Bump in the Night

Last night Jeff and I went to bed at about 10 pm, Jeff drifted off to sleep quickly and I lay there for a little bit when I hear some weird noise coming from our window. I really can't even explain what it sounded like, it wasn't just a bump noise...more like a clanking noise, that is the best way I can think to explain it. Maybe I can ask Jeff later how he would describe it then I'll let y'all know. So anyways, the noise was pretty loud and it did frighten me a little bit! I didn't know if a mouse was in our window or our vent so I woke up Jeff. Of course the noise stopped right after I woke him up, Jeff being a kind soul, got up and looked around our blinds and moved the curtains around a little bit and then came back to bed. He fell back to sleep and I finally drifted back to sleep when it happened again. This time Jeff heard it too! So he got up and stood on top of our desk and looked in the blinds and all around the window area. He opened the blinds, closed the blinds, wiggled them around to see if anything would fall out...but nothing happened. The noise had stopped again so he came back to bed. So we get all covered up again and we both drift off to sleep when the clanky noise wakes us again. I hear Jeff sigh and sit up. At this point I was happy that he is hearing it too so that I don't have to wake him up! So again he goes to the window, inspects everything he can think of but there is nothing there! So now we are thinking some kind of bug or gecko is in our blinds or window...somewhere. Again the noise stopped so we go back to bed and again, and drift off to sleep. So now it is around midnight when we are awoke again by this annoying strange sound. We sit up in bed and Jeff says that he might go sleep downstairs...uh...NO! NO WAY was I going to let him leave me alone with this creepy noise and be woke up all night. So Jeff had no other choice b/c I'm not letting him leave me alone, so he gets the ant/roach/spider spray. We turn on the lights, I scoot to the other side of the bed just in case whatever this thing is decides to make a dash for it when Jeff starts spraying. Jeff inspects the window and blinds again, not seeing anything but decides that whatever it is, is hiding out in the top part of the blinds. So he starts spraying in there as best as he could when out comes a HUGE SPIDER! Just kidding! No, out came a gecko, a fat one at that! I guess he had made a nice home for himself in our blinds. A huge sigh of relief, at last we had figured out what was behind all the creepy noises! Oh, and I can deal with geckos, I would much rather have a house full of geckos than spiders, ants, mice or roaches. So off ran the gecko and off to la-la land went Jeff and I. Thank God!

Is the Week Almost Over Yet?

Its been one of those weeks, although Monday night was nice...Jeff and I went out to dinner, alone....Yes I said ALONE! :c) It was so nice to sit and talk w/out children interrupting or trying to keep the baby entertained. But other than that, its been one of those weeks and I'm asking, "Is the week almost over!? Is it Saturday yet?" I've had a lot of laundry to do, messes to clean up, kids to discipline, diapers to change (Tara has been eating solid foods, so you moms out there know what that means!), and laundry...clean laundry to rewash and refold. Today at lunch Gaber spilled his juice, a full cup of juice, across the table and all over my freshly washed and folded laundry. He thought he could hold the cup with one hand, when daddy and I have told him many times, "Use two hands!" Well, maybe he learned this time that he's not ready to do it one handed. Its just been one of those weeks where I'm super tired, getting headaches and not very patient. I pray for help every morning and I know I'm only making it threw each day because of God's help!
On a different note...Tara is getting close to crawling on her hands and knees. She's been mobile for a while now, she does an inch worm crawl which is very cute, but I can't wait for her to crawl "normally" so that she's not scooting on her belly so much. She spits up a lot still and I think all the scooting on the belly isn't helping. I get nice little piles of spit up all over the floor.
Josiah and Gaber have been doing a great job on their chores. Every morning they have to get dressed, make their beds and brush their teeth. Josiah also has to bring down their hamper for me whenever it gets full and Gaber has to empty the bathroom trashcans. At the end of every night they have to clean their room together and its been looking nice. Jeff and I are so proud of them!
Our trip to Hawaii is almost all planned out which is SO exciting! I never thought I would take a vacation to Hawaii! Our tickets and hotel room are reserved! I can't wait to get there and enjoy some fun family time!
Only 4 more months until we PCS!!!

Happy Father's Day

To my wonderful husband, you are a wonderful dad to our children, I love you honey! (I actually forgot this morning that it was father's day, I was going to get up early and make Jeff a breakfast burrito...I forgot, instead Jeff got up and took care of all the kiddos so I could get ready for church! See, isn't he a great dad and husband!)



To my dad and Jeff's dad, you are both great dads...we love you both and miss you so much! Can't wait to see you all in October!

Random Facts

Here are some more random facts from this week, I did it last week and I think I may try to do this every week, so here it goes...

1. It has rained about 95% of the week
2. The kids and I have been cooped up in this house for about 90% of this week
3. Tara is getting around a little faster!
4. Josiah and Gaber have been fighting a lot more...probably b/c of #2
5. I have lost Tara twice this week (only for about 5 seconds, but still!)
6. Tara, Gaber and I have a cold
7. I just had to get Tara out of Chloe's water dish
8. my life is getting harder b/c of a certain crawler I won't name :c)
9. We ate at Chili's for our anniversary on Tuesday
10.I made pancakes for supper on Wednesday night and for lunch today (left over batter)
11.I am watching Tara as she crawls back towards Chloe's water dish
12.said good bye to some friends who are moving back to the states
13.will say goodbye to more friends this Sunday as they move back to the states
14.wished I could have left before all my friends so we are not the ones left behind
15.made pedicure appointments for Saturday...YaY!
16.talked to my mom on skype twice
17.have now gotten Tara out of the dog's water dish twice
18.had good services at church on Wednesday
19.went to a baby shower and brought a baby girl gift when the mommy to be is having a boy!
20.wiped Tara's nose too many times and had to use the nose sucker on her too many times!
21.have enjoyed the boys brushing their own teeth in the morning and picking out their own clothes...
22.teaching the boys how to match their clothes so when they do #21 they look nice :c)
23.laughed at how they make their beds, they line their animals up just so-so!
24.wondered when my 7 year old will stop crying and act older! yes really!
25.and now I have gotten Tara out of the water for the 3rd time...yiy yiy yiy!

Ok, I think that's it. I need to lay down a certain baby who likes our dog's water for a nap.
:c)

8th Anniversary!

Wow, I can't believe it has been 8 years since we said, "I do". Where did the time go? How in the world do we have 3 kids!!! How did we get to where we are!? Here is a quick recap of the past 8 years...
Got married, moved into our first home together in Oklahoma City, got prego with #1, Jeff joined the Air Force, Jeff leaves for boot camp, I have Josiah, we move to Fairchild AFB in Washington, Jeff goes threw SERE, he gets hurt, move to Keesler AFB in Mississippi, Josiah turns 1, move to Lajes Air Base in the Azores, get prego with #2, move to a new house when 9 mo prego, have Gabriel, Jeff deploys for 5-6 mo, move to Okinawa Japan, get prego with #3, have Tara...and here we are! whew! What a crazy 8 years it has been!

I was thinking last night, what were we doing 8 years ago today? Well, 8 years ago today, right now...I was done getting my hair do, Cindee and I had gone threw McD's to grab some food, I needed some french fries! We were at the church getting our dresses on and doing make-up. I think Jeff and the guys were with the photographer getting their shots done before the ceremony. Here in about an hour I was about ready to walk down the isle and say I do. I seriously can't believe it's already been 8 years. I'm happy that we've made it this long and sad to know that the first years of our marriage are already over.
8 years ago today I didn't know that in 8 years I would be spending my day, my anniversary, with 3 beautiful children, making corn dogs for lunch :c) and listening to the boys argue about Mario Kart. Tonight we will go out to dinner with the kids, we will probably have Chili's. (Our wedding night we ate out at Applebee's). I didn't know that I would be living in Japan or that we would be in the Air Force. I didn't know that I would already have a 7 yr old, a 4 yr old and a 6 mo old. I didn't know that I would be separated from my family for so long and become so dependent on Jeff. As a 19 year old girl I didn't know about how hard marriage would be but how wonderful it is! I've learned so much about marriage, I've learned a lot about Jeff and myself. I know we have both grown a lot and have most definitely grown closer together.
One last thing, I do this every year with Jeff, I like to name off what we've done every year for our anniversary...so here I go...

1st - in Washington, rode over the waterfalls in Spokane
2nd - in Mississippi, went to LA to Six Flags and stayed the night there, some friends of ours watched Josiah for us.
3rd - in Azores, went out to eat at a Italian rest. on the island
4th - in the States, not sure if we were in Florida for Nicole's wedding yet or in Fulton...I can't remember how we celebrated! yikes!
5th - in Azores again, Jeff just back from deployment, ate out somewhere? yikes!
6th - Jeff deployed, not together...celebrated early, went to Garlic house in Okinawa then to Macaroni Grill for desert mmm!
7th- in Okinawa, we were at Okuma with our boys and Jeff's parents
8th - in Okinawa, going to Chili's tonight. :c)

I think the most fun thing we did to celebrate was going to Louisianna by our selves. Maybe next year we can drop the kids off in Fulton and take off somewhere by ourselves again! That would be nice!
I can't wait to see where the next 8 years takes us! I love you Jeff!!!

#15

Yes! #15 was answered!
We had beautiful weather this weekend and so we took advantage of it and did a whole lot of stuff!

Saturday we drove down to the southern part of the island to find a park that I picked out of our Okinawan park book. Well, we could not find that particular park but found another one that was so much fun for all of us. Jeff and the boys had fun going down a huge roller slide that went over some water, Josiah played with some Okinawan kids on a boat that they could ride on from the end of the roller slide to the land on the other side, Gaber did a little of everything and I sat in the shade with Tara watching them all run around. In this park there is a man built stream like thing with a waterfall for the kids to play in to cool off with. So all of us took off our shoes and got in. Tara even seemed to enjoy the cool water, it was hot that day! We took a lot of pictures and videos of our fun day. But........sadly.......our camera was left sitting on the rocks by the stream......*sniff*......and so do all of our memories of our blessed day! We are guessing that is where we left it, that is the last place we remember having it. I can't believe we left it just sitting there. I'm sure someone that day got themselves a nice free camera loaded with pictures and videos of an Amercian family!

Well, moving on...

Sunday we had a great day at church and then right after morning church we took of to a beach that was near Torii beach. Jeff's coworkers had a weight loss competition and the loser of it had to host a bbq, and so that's where it was hosted.
The boys had fun playing in the ocean and at a nearby park, I took Tara down to the water for her first time and Jeff had fun jumping off the seawall with his coworkers. I heard this was a pretty high wall too and they were jumping where the boats come in! I guess one guy got in the way of an oncoming boat and got honked out...pretty smart, huh? This wall was pretty high and so I think most of them are hurting today from hitting the water so hard! Fun times! ha ha
Gaber and I also went seashell hunting and while out we saw this Okinawan guy cutting open sea urchins and getting the meat out from the inside. He would use some kind of weird tool to pull it out and then pull the dark stuff off...I'm trying not to be gross, but it was its guts or something?... of the meat and then put it in his container. It was quite interesting to watch! While standing there watching him, an eel swam by Gaber, but I didn't let him know...I didn't want to scare him! It was a fun day...I was smart and wore sunblock, Jeff on the other hand didn't...my husband who doesn't burn and so doesn't need sunblock, DID burn but is handling it well! :c)

Thought I would share our blessing of #15 being answered....if you are confused, look back at my previous post. :c)
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!
Oh, and obviously no pictures of Tara were taken on her first time at the beach b/c some lucky new owner is probably using it as I type! *I will not get frustrated* I keep saying this to myself, hopefully saying it will help it to come true...I'll let ya know.

Random Facts from this Week

So I don't have a lot to blog about right now, so I thought I would do some random facts from this week. I got this idea from Cindee's blog, she did this a while back.

1. I did 10 loads of laundry
2. We started a chore chart for the boys
3. The boys are excited about the chore chart...for now at least :c)
4. While checking out at the commissary I had to make the boys sit down on the isle floor for fighting
5. After sitting them down I had to separate them for fighting while sitting down
6. I nursed Tara about 25 times :c)
7. I started feeding Tara baby cereal at lunch and supper this week
8. I told Gaber he needs to learn how to wipe his own bottom, at least before school starts!
9. While at the bx I fought the urge to look at baby girl clothes (lol)
10. Told myself I would stop using "lol" so much
11. Didn't blow dry and straighten my hair the other day and now I'm regretting it, my hair looks awful.
12. Watched a little old japanese lady weed eat, I love the hats they wear when they work outside.
13. Wondered if my old navy order will get here soon
14. Took one nap this week, which was interrupted twice by Tara
15. Prayed for nice weather for this weekend, I really want to get out!
16. Went to a baby shower and had to much sugar! I had a headache afterward!
17. Missed my family in the states
18. Played the Wii with the boys
19. Vacuumed and wondered how so much dog hair could come off Chloe
20. Watched Tara try to crawl

Ok, I'm really having to dig for these so I think I will stop now. I think its sad that I really can't remember much of the events from this week! I think that's a mommy brain! *sigh* I need to work on my brain age I think! :c)
The skies are blue right now, maybe #15 will be answered!

Almost Arrested

Well, not really. :c) Just had the police called on Jeff, a missionary and some other guys from our church! Wondering what crime they committed? On Sunday Jeff was at the church acting in a commercial being made for the teen church camp. I'm not sure all they are doing in this commercial, but I know that Jeff is dressing up like he is in S.W.A.T. and they get to use guns...not real guns, but they do look real! So I guess they did some of the scenes in front of our church when some young Okinawan kids walked by and were frightened by what they saw so they ran to a near by neighbor, who I've heard has called the cops on our church before, and so she called the police! Jeff had already came home before anyone knew the cops were called and so when we arrived at church last night we were told that the japanese police came down to see what was going on. I guess they watched the video and just laughed. Thank God! Jeff didn't want his flack jacket (not sure that is what its called or if that's how it is spelled) confiscated nor did they want to be arrested! ha ha So we all got a good laugh out of all of this last night! Who knew making a commercial for our church camp would cause such panic!

School's Out!

My first year of homeschooling is over! Hurray! I am seriously so excited! I can't express how happy I am on here b/c I'm not that good of a writer. Just picture me smiling very big on Friday when Josiah finished his last class! Wow...it was a hard year. I'm thankful that we made it threw, Josiah learned and I learned too. This is what I learned from teaching my 7 year old:

1. I'm not as patient as I thought I was
2. Homeschooling is hard
3. Homeschooling may not be for everyone
4. How patient my 7 year old is with me
5. Relearned long and short vowels, I guess I learned that in 1st grade and just forgot it all! (Yes I know how to read, I just forgot all the rules)
6. How thankful I am for a forgiving child
7. How hard a teacher's job is
8. How frustrated I can get
9. How much I love watching Josiah learn something new and really getting it
10. How much I love summer break! :c)

I'm not saying homeschooling is not for me, its just not for me for a while. I am so excited about sending the boys back to school this year...not excited about the cost though. I think in the future, if I homeschool, I will try a different curriculum. The videos just didn't work for Josiah. I think our days would have went a lot smoother with out them. Many days I found myself reteaching what he just learned on the videos b/c he couldn't keep his attention on the t.v. I don't blame him either! Its hard for a 7 year old to do school on videos when he has a 4 year old brother running around and a baby sister banging toys and squealing! Those weren't his only distrations though, just having the blinds open and a tree in view was a distration for him! I told Jeff I think Josiah has ADD. lol He really doesn't!!
We'll see what the years to come brings!

So summer is here and the kids and I are looking forward to the pools and beaches! I can't wait to spend time with the kiddos...just playing with them and enjoying them!