Honoring Our World War II Veterans

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 was a very special day for a large group of Oklahomans. Waking at about 4 AM was brutal but everyone was excited about the day-long trip to Washington, DC to honor our local World War II veterans.

Buddy and I skipped the trip to Midwest City for the police escorted bus trip to the airport in hopes of getting a few more minutes of sleep. We would need all the energy we could get. Once we arrived at the airport they let us slip through security without delay. All 103 veterans gatthered for a group photo and a brief send-off from the Lieutenant Governor, Todd Lamb.

We spent most of the day on an airplane or a bus traveling around Washington DC through traffic from one monument to the next. After an event-free trip we arrived first at the World War II Memorial. Representative James Lankford greeted us on the bus at this stop to welcome us to DC and to thank the veterans for their service. This monument was a highlight for me. Even after being in DC several times while we lived in Virginia I had not seen this one yet. We spent about an hour walking around the monument taking photos, looking at bronze reliefs, the fountain and even trying to find Kilroy (look it up if you dont know, "Kilroy was here"). All of the vets enjoyed this stop as the rain held off long enough for us to enjoy our time without getting wet or having to hurry.

Next, we did a very brief bus tour of some of the other monuments including the Korean War memorial, Jefferson memorial, and the new MLK monument. We arrived next at the Marine Memorial or otherwise the Iwo Jima memorial. This is my favorite staute/memorial in DC by far. I have always found the photo and statue of the flag raising to have a deep impact on me and the sacrifice our veterans have made. Most of the vets didn't get off the bus for this one as our time was limited and it was starting to rain again. I did snap some good pictures though.

Our next stop was Arlington National Cemetery. Now it was officially raining! Many of the veterans decided not to attend the changing of the guard due to the rain. After a bit of a discussion, Buddy and I did get off the bus and head over the tomb of the unknown soldier. We were both very glad we did despite the wet pant legs and shoes. There were 2 special ceremonies for other groups that were there with the playing of taps both times. It was a very moving experience with the gentle rain, the dark clouds, the somber music and the quiet crowd. Here is Buddy in his rain get-up...

Next, it was time to head back home. Fortunately for us the timing of this trip corresponded perfectly with afternoon traffic in DC. It took us a while to get back to BWI Airport but we were able to see the Capitol and the White House along the way. There were several Nancy Pelosi jokes which lightened the mood a little but it did not improve the traffic flow.

Overall, it was a great day. I was able to meet and talk to several real heroes. It was a long and tiring day but I enjoyed it thoroughly and would do it again in an instant. Another one of the memories with my grandpa I will remember forever!

My Birthday

I had a GREAT birthday!  I got to have dinner with Kelly, Elizabeth, Kari, Wendy, Anthony, and Scott.  It was honestly so fun and I laughed the entire time.  Scott got me a new camera which is awesome and here are some of the pics we took with it.  I told him I loved it but my favorite gift was the GIANT pencil that Kari got me!

Ellie Belly

I am finally ready to get back to the blog!  I have been a crazy person this last month and apparently I officially have too many children to keep up with all of my hobbies!  No, seriously, I have too many kids to even remember their names and continue to call Ben "Charben" which he responded to yesterday by asking "mom, why do you call me that?"  I just laughed and shrugged at him and then he said, "OK, Scottash!" 

What's new.....well...would anyone believe that in the last 6 weeks Ellie has become the crawl master!  She is good I tell you!  It all started at the beach with a military crawl in combo with a log roll to get her were she was wanting to go. Since then she has focused and really gotten to business with this "hands and knees crawling".  She is now a wonder woman, following me and the boys all over the house.   Oh, did I mention she is talking too!?!....No, I didn't because I haven't blogged in soooooo long!  She started at the beach with "momma" and  "dadda".  Now, she is stopping mid-crawl to throw her hand up in the air and say "HIIIIIII"!   She claps and waves frenetically saying "HI"!  I will attempt to get a video of this but in the meantime, here is a video of her just giggling and being cute!!!!

Here are some pics of the boys feeding Ellie.  Ben will do it if I beg but Charlie considers Ellie his personal responsibility and LOVES feeding her.  He feeds her food as well, which we are working on regulating.  I am a fan of him helping out but not a fan of her eating pizza yet!!

So, the bicycle helmet....I do not really have a good explanation for this, we were not riding bikes or anything like that, he just likes to dress up.....What can I say!!!!  In fact they have several new super-hero costumes and have been sporting them around.  I had to get some variety, that spider-man costume was starting to smell!

Today was absolutely beautiful!  We went to the park and Ellie is finally big enough to swing!

Tonight we read about the USA.  The boys love this book, which is strange, but they love learning about the different states, etc!  Tonight we learned about Texas and New York in honor of our favorite little girl in the WHOLE world...Carter and our new favorite "uncle"  Anthony, who just left this morning from spending the week with us! 

A Few Words about my Dad

The last few weeks have been full of ups and downs.  We have been to Florida with my family, to North Carolina with Scott's family, and suffered the loss of my Grandmother in between.  Today however marks the 10 year anniversary of my Dad's death and I really want to take the time to think about him.  I cannot believe that 10 years have gone by!  I think about my Dad every single day but rarely am I sad anymore.  I really just think about him and laugh often.  I have so many funny stories about him in my head.  I have been lucky enough in my life to meet quite a few of those people that you just cannot be in a bad mood around but my Dad was amazing in this way.  No matter how much you tried to be mad at him he had this ridiculous smile that filled his entire face up and once you saw it, you had to smile back!  I see that same thing in my brother Hank.  Again, no matter how much you want to be mad at him, he smiles and there you are....thinking how much you love him!  My Dad always grabbed you tight by the shoulders and said with a huge smile on his face "Guys, It doesn't get any better than this!"  I think he is most remembered for saying this.  He generally did enjoy just about everything!  A very positive force for sure!  Now he wasn't perfect!  He was a risk taker and rule breaker all the way!  Now myself,  I am a "by-the-rules" kind of girl and he used to do all kinds of crazy crap that drove me nuts!  He never stopped at a stop sign, he always snuck from one theater to another without paying for the second movie ( and made me do it too, which I had enormous anxiety about),  if a sign said "don't touch it" well then....he touched it!   He used to pick us up from ski-school and while in the car line he would ease up on the car in front of us and bump them.  He thought this was hilarious but some of the drivers flew out of their cars and got real mad!  He was always able to diffuse them.  As I HATE conflict, this made me a real wreck!  I could go on and on about this behavior because it literally defined him!  The rules either didn't apply to him or he just felt like they needed to be broken.  He really saw the opportunity for adventure in everything.  I think back on all the great stories of my Dad and me floating down a river, camping in a cave, sleeping on an uninhabited island, scuba diving, paragliding, bike riding across a jungle, etc.  It is a rare person with such a drive to explore the world.  His father was like this and maybe my brothers are too.  I hope I have some of this in me,  I hope I was not just along for the ride!  I do miss my Dad So much!  He was such a great person to just sit and talk to.  He knew so much about everything.  He always gave such great advice too.  All I know is that I loved being with him and looking back on all this makes me happy!  

Ok, so this is Ellodie in her hat. Don't judge, it is not done yet. It still has to be blocked and lined so that the ear flaps don't flip out like the flying nun!

Here is Ellie demonstrating two things....1) she has learned to sit up on her own but only for a few seconds and 2) her new quilt I made last weekend. I know I am going to quickly gain a reputation by posting my crafts as that strange mom that knits, quilts, and makes her kids eat organic food....but whatever! I also know that this is going to discredit my excuse of " I don't have time for.....fill in the blank".

Ooooops, she fell over.....thank gosh it was on her soft beautiful quilt to shield her head!

Last Sunday we went out to eat for Scott's birthday. We had a party the night before but I keep forgetting to get the pictures from Gena to post. At any rate, we went to eat at a local Hibachi grill because Scott loves it and we thought the boys would enjoy the knife throwing and fire. Well, Ben liked it alright but Chars was not sure. I really have to agree with Chars on this one...the guy came out with a huge scar from his mouth to his ear and he started throwing around these knives but he was dropping them all over the place which is not good at all! Then he started with the fire and I got really nervous thinking everyone I love is sitting right here and we are all 2 feet away from this guy who clearly has had some sort of serious "accident" with knives in the past and now he is going to light up the entire grill!! Well, he pulled it off! I really thought we were goners!

This is a summer of "firsts" for Ben. Of course, He learned to swim, which is wonderful but he hasn't stopped there! I came home on Thursday from work to find him sitting at the table eating grilled salmon and broccoli! Of all of his accomplishments so far, this was the most surprising to me! When Scott asked him what he wanted for dinner he responded with salmon and broccoli and.......he actually ate it, all of it!! I am a proud momma! Finally!! He has also stopped using a pull-up at night! HUGE deal!!! AND.......He has learned how to ride his bike!!! For some reason this blog will only let me put videos at the end, so there is a video of him riding his bike at the bottom.

Here is a picture of Me, Ellie, and Chars in his bed. I always fall asleep first! And in Chars true form, he has fallen asleep in skeleton sunglasses.

Chars was very sweet last night and wrote me a song. He sang it all the way home from the Birdwell's house after our swim party. I missed the first half because I was messing with my phone and was trying to be sneaky so he wouldn't know I was recording it. It is a song all about how everyone was born. By the time I started recording I missed how I was born and how Ellodie was born. He talks about Asher in the song too. He loves babies! It is the second video down at the bottom of the blog post. Or, the second "arrow" to the right of ben riding his bike.

I didn't really get to blog much last week because Scott was in Colorado fishing with his dad and brother. They had a great time and maybe he will post some pictures. It sounds like they did a lot of fishing, driving around taking pictures, and eating. At least this is what I gathered from my brief phone conversations with Scott. We on the other hand were out and about. We were very, very busy. As I had mentioned in my last post, I have too many wonderful friends to count and last week turned out to be one of our best weeks ever. We spent time with Gigi, Ma, Kari, Little, and Kelly!

For example, this is a picture of Charlie after he passed out in our bed. He had a particularly exhausting day after he realized there was a hole in his penis. He was sure it was broken and was so distraught about it. He begged me to fix it over and over. Ben was the only one who could get through to him! Finally after Ben showed Chars his, he realized it was totally normal and calmed down. Of course this all happened in the shower and here he is passed out in bed all worn out!



On Friday we did the typical trip to the Y and then we headed over to Kari's apartments to swim. The pool there is awesome and the guys did great. Ben didn't use his floaties at all and is really doing great. Chars is convinced he can swim. He refuses to wear floaties because Ben doesn't. He kept running down the edge of the pool toward the deep end and jumping in. I would swim as fast as I could to get to him and be yelling the whole time to come back toward me! He said I can do it, I don't need help and would just go for it! I really wish I had some more pictures of this day because we had so much fun. We went to Kari's apartment and she had all these "texadelphia" cups. She gave the boys a drink of water in the cups and then I ended up taking one home. Well, now every time Charlie sees that cup he gets very possessive saying that this is the cup that Kari gave him and I cannot use it. Poor Scott got home and had no idea, Charlie nearly assaulted him when he caught him using it. That is "me" cup that Kari gave me! Here are the boys at the pool.

This is Charlie the next morning eating cereal. I typically don't buy this stuff and this is why.....both he and Ben eat it like freakin animals! They won't use spoons nor do they want milk in it! They just eat it out of the bowl like little dogs!

Aaaaaand the fun continues.......after breakfast is cleaned up, which took a while, Hays, Kelly, Mattie, and Little came over Saturday morning to play. Mattie is just too sweet to be running around with these guys. She is so cute trying to sit at the table with us girls and talk! Meanwhile........

Well, it is really no wonder that she would rather sit and chat with us! Otherwise she is going to get karate chopped in the head! Here is Hayes, Ben, and me too dressed as iron man, spider man, and captain american girl (this is what chars calls him). Of course the dressing up is nothing new. They just love it but their new thing is talking about the super hero's duties. I cannot remember how it started but I said something about Ironman's duties and I thought Ben was going to pee his pants. Apparently I say doodies instead of duties and they absolutely love it. They don't get it at all! They keep asking me about what doodies they have to do today and laughing hysterically. Ben said, Ironman is really busy, he has two jobs, one with the super-hero squad and one with the avengers, He must have a lot of doodie and then he cracks up! OK, I digress, It was a great morning and the kids were great! Kelly looks beautiful as always! She is pregnant with another boy and I am so excited for her. Little is just Little, the best friend any one could ask for! She even came back over later that afternoon so I could go to the grocery without the kiddos.

Hmmmmm, what else did we do while Scott was gone????? Not much really! We just went to bed late and all slept in the same bed and watched too much TV and ate dessert every day!

Scott got home and we were so happy cause we were getting out of control with all of our rule breaking! We were in need of discipline! and a schedule! You gotta love my list makin, rule followin, budget creatin husband! He brought the boys home dream catchers for their rooms which was very sweet and Ben really took an interest in how it actually catches bad dreams and burns them up with fire! Very, very cool!

I ended up working this whole week so there wasn't much too exciting to share. Scott and I went on a date night which was so fun, I really love just hanging out with my husband. Today is Saturday and it was a relaxing one. We got up and Scott rushed off to give a talk to the "cast tech society" or something like that. I decided to knit Ellodie a hat for this winter. The boys wanted to help so I gave them their own needles and yarn. They did well I would say!

It's kind of like a big bowl of chinese noodles huh? They just kept tossing the yarn around.

I finished her hat tonight but she was already asleep, so I will have to post a picture next time.

After knitting we decided to bake Dad's birthday cake for his party tomorrow. It was really hilarious because I had Ellie on my chest in the baby carrier and the boys were cracking eggs left and right before I could stop them! Sometimes I am laughing so hard at them that I can't say "stop, stop"! So Charlie was trying to crack and egg and just kept smashing it as hard as he could on the counter! So funny. I am sure we used 6 eggs to make this cake. OK, well here they are making the cake and then of course afterward eating the batter out of the bowl.

It was pretty obvious as the day went on that the boys were exhausted. It was also pretty obvious that they were not going to take a nap! By dinner time Charlie was a disaster! I can honestly say that I have never seen him quite like he was tonight. Even Ellodie was laughing at him.....

His laughter soon turned to crying for no apparent reason. He was just so tired that he could not control his emotions! We were all just looking at him at dinner, like what chars, what, what can we do? He kept trying to tell me something but I just couldn't make out what he was saying because he was crying so hard. Blah, blag, glablah, goodoglab... What chars, what was that, I don't understand....FINALLY I understood....after 10 minutes.....wait for it....something was wrong with his sandwich I made him.....oh, what charlie....you want the mayonnaise on the outside of the sandwich? Oh, ok, I can do that. Yes, indeed, that was all he wanted. So I spread the mayo thick like icing all over the top and he was content. He ate it like a piece of pizza. Here it is.

And then he exploded again, freaking out....Oh NO, he had mayo on his hands...911 emergency...Help! He was so upset by this he threw himself back in his chair and completely flipped over. Well you know Sophie the vulture swooped in and ate that stupid sandwich! The whole family was laughing so hard at him that we couldn't swish her away. He literally stopped breathing when he saw she got the sandwich....

So Scott made him a new sandwich with the mayo on the outside and he sort of recovered before a VERY early bed time! Oh gosh, they are so funny! I never knew that you would laugh so much as a parent.

Today was a nice day! We were at Grandpa Buddy's swimming when Ben and Charlie saw Buddy's office supplies and were curious. Buddy is as sweet as pie and taught them how to use the stapler. He just smiled while Ben stapled shut the news paper as well as stapling all of his mail together.



While I was watching this it reminded me of when I was little and I loved to do the same. I started telling Ben about how when I was his age my Grandma Barbara had a store and she would let me run around with her. She was not an ordinary grandma, she taught me so much! I told him about how she let me count all the money in the cash register at the end of the day and even how to make change for someone. She let me go to the office she kept upstairs above the store and while she did the books she let me type and staple and paper clip things together. She had a desk and I had a desk right behind her. I really did want to be just like her! I loved the calculator just because I saw her using it all the time and wanted to do it too. Maybe this is why I love to drink coke so much too, oh and eat popcorn. I remember she always had a coke and that we at microwave popcorn and peanut butter crackers in the back of the store all the time. I don't ever remember her getting mad at me or being short with me, she just let me be with her.
I really love my Grandma Barbara! No one has ever been so proud of me and because of that, I have confidence. I really should thank her more. Everyone always says how beautiful she is but that is not really what impresses me about her, it is how smart she is. She is the smartest person I know and I know a lot of people who think they are smart. She has read so many books, in fact, this is one of the pictures of her I have in my head......My grandma in the bathtub reading....for hours!!! She really always knows what to say to me to make me feel better about anything and that is because I trust her opinion so much. I LOVE YOU GRANDMA!

P.S. I am so frustrated that I cannot find a picture of her and me ( or is it her and I, have to make sure I get that right because she is the grammar nazi) to put up. I will keep looking and post it.

And on that sentimental note, another sweet Grandma story about Gigi...I have to say that I often feel unworthy to have so many wonderful people in my life. I try not to feel guilty about it but to just be grateful instead. Scott is on a 5 day fishing trip with his dad and brother. He just left last night and already I have had my mother offer to keep the boys on Saturday day, Elizabeth offer to keep them on Friday night, Kari offer to keep them on Saturday night, and Gigi offer to have us just stay with her for all 5 days. Gigi even came over at dinner time and picked up the boys. She wanted to keep them tonight. I promise I kept asking her if she was sure she wanted to and that we were fine it was not necessary, etc. You see she just had a procedure today at the doctor and she really wasn't suppose to be doing much. Well, she took the boys and I really can't believe how generous she is. Here she is feeling like crap and she is worried about me being alone! I love you GIGI! Really, why am I so blessed! If I had taken everyone up on their offers I could have been on a 5 day vacation myself. I really have to stop myself now because I could go on and on and on about how much I love my friends and family so......Good Night!

The week started off with a bang after Dad got a DVD player installed in the new car! Like any good mother, I insisted we do this ASAP! Here we are giving it a test run in the driveway while Scott cleaned out the BMW to have it detailed. I guess the sticky juice stains and old french fries bother him, what a priss! We are watching Madagascar and the air conditioning is blowing on high cause it is soooooo dang hot this summer.



Now we skip to Wednesday where Chars is ready to go to school in his "cowboy" attire.

Of course when we got to school we both realize he was the only one dressed up. Naturally "cowboy day" is next week, which is too bad because he was really excited. I figure he should just deal with the disappointment now of having a mother that never knows exactly what is going on. This will seem like small fries compared to when I miss his wedding! At least he won't be surprised after a lifetime of confusion!


Later that day after I picked up the gang we went to GIGI's to swim with Carter. Maggie decided to leave Carter behind for a few days with Gigi. I tried to warn her but she didn't listen and by the time I got to gigi's Carter was already spoiled! I will say that Carter is pretty much hilarious! I put a video at the end of the blog of her running in place. Maggie calls this "dancing", which maybe it is, who am I to judge? No matter what it is, I love it. I seriously was laughing so hard at her that I kept forgetting to push the record button on my phone and missed the best part of her running in place really hard. Gigi was singing "she's a maniac, maniac on the floor and she's dancing like she's never danced before"!

The next night Scott and I got home from work to find Charlie cleaning the furniture with wipes. I have a feeling he picked this up from Carter as she has a sort of "cleaning" obsession!!

It was Ben's last day of Aquatic camp and he made a very tasteful seashell necklace. I was so excited and made such a big deal about how talented he was and everything only to have him stop me and say that it was for his DAD! Really this has never happened before and I was a little sad that I wasn't his favorite that day! I got over it fairly quickly when I saw Scott wearing it....seriously could not get enough of how good he looked in it!

.....and......meanwhile.....totally oblivious....STILL cleaning, Charlie!!

We had a good start to the night. The kids went to sleep and we watched "The Lincoln Lawyer" with Chris and Gena. We had all listened to the book on tape when we went to San Antonio and finally got together to watch it. After the movie, and I am happy he waited until it was over, Charlie started crying from his bed upstairs. Scott went up and then hollered for me to "hurry up". Chars was really sick with stomach something because he threw up lots! I mean LOTS!!! Here he is after we cleaned him up and put him in our bed.

He kept telling me a funny story that night about how he and pops and C.W. (uncle chris) were going to visit the moon in 30 minutes (everything is 30 minutes with him right now). He said they were taking red balloons to the moon but Ben wasn't coming because he was an attitude. "I'm not an attitude mom but Ben is an attitude".

Poor Charlie, he threw up all night every 15 minutes! Finally at 5 am he fell asleep on our floor and made it until 7:30 before he threw up again! This picture is after I washed his hair for the 100th time in the sink!

Fortunately for everyone he made a swift recovery and was all better by Friday night! I am happy to say that no one else has gotten sick....Well, I take that back Pops got it!!

Saturday morning was great. Ellodie and I got up and went down for coffee. I was on the ipad and she was playing with her computer.

Ben joined us shortly and for whatever reason decided to peruse the "Birds of Oklahoma" book that Scott had left out the night before. He LOVES looking at this book and tries to grill me on the type of bird he is pointing to. Of course my Dad is grinning from ear to ear about this! My Dad would have gone on and on with Ben telling him everything about all those birds and he even would have whistled the call for him. I on the other hand am not my father and have no earthly idea what bird he is pointing to. I felt it was too early for this intensity and just needed to finish at least one cup of coffee!

Ellie continued peacefully on her computer while I discussed birds with Ben.

Ben now getting frustrated with my lack of enthusiasm makes one final attempt to get me excited about the European Warbler, when he tries to turn the book around to show me the picture he looses his place in the book and gets upset!

Ellie gives me a big kiss at the end of breakfast!

Later that day it was quite time. They decided to watch the "avengers" cartoon. Ben insisted on laying across the couch cushion which was turned up on it's side. Somehow he got balanced up there and stayed perfectly still so he wouldn't fall off. At least I knew he was going to have to be still for an hour!

Later that afternoon we went up to gigi's to swim. I am really proud of the boys. Ben is seriously swimming like a fish. He is so amazing to go from floaties to swimming all by himself in an hour! He dives to the bottom to get things and jumps off the diving board by himself. Chars is not far behind him either! He is practicing with out floaties and nearly has it! On the way up to the grands I was lecturing the boys about something, like I usually do. I was not paying attention to what they were doing in the back but I was going on and on about not doing this or that or we would just go home instead of swim, blah, blah, blah. I finally stopped and turned around to look at them and Charlie was making the funniest face I have ever seen. I tried to get it in a picture but it was hard. It was like he was trying so hard to look really mad at me. It was sooooo over exaggerated and was a face you would nor could never make naturally. I knew he was working really hard at it!

You probably had to be there for that story but I tell you I will never forget that look!

Ben had eggs for lunch today and somehow he launched the plate off the table by pushing down on the opposite side of the place mat which was hanging just off the table, like a catapult! Here is the aftermath. Man, Sophie was thrilled!

Here is Carter doing her thang!