Summertime

We went to Boise in July for Kaitlynn's birthday and for the Miller family reunion. I have some pictures of Kaitlynn's birthday and just everyday life. Some are boring but some are funny.
This kid can eat!

Jeremy and I took Kaitlynn out to Chick FilA for dinner. She got her face painted and then we went to see Toys Story 3. It was a fun night for all of us. (Except Cody who was sick with the babysitter.) Kaitlynn's birthday at home:

We left for Boise the day after this.

I made that "Barbie skirt" cake but the barbie was too tall to fit in it. It was too late to figure anything else out so it was a pink on pink cake but she loved it.

Fun times:

At the reunion:

At Fairy Tale Land in Sacramento:

To take the slide...or not?

Cody's birthday. Jeremy had an unexpected new job come up so he had to go away for 2 weeks at the last minute. This means he missed Cody's 2nd birthday. We celebrated anyway and here is how it went down. Cody got to spend the evening with his best buddy Brielle. They had a great time, as you will see:

His cake: (close enough, given the circumstances)

Good times. Happy number 2, buddy. As a side note, someone must have told Cody that he turned 2 because he has taken on the crazy "terrible twos" in the last 2 weeks. Out-of-control crazy child.

Since daddy was gone we went to San Francisco with some friends whose daddy is also gone. We went to a museum right under the Golden Gate Bridge. It wasn't the coolest museum but we had a fun time with our friends. Here are some pics:

We walked Pier 39, ate cotton candy, In-n-out burgers, crepes (chocolate filled), watched the sea lions lay around (they stink, literally). It was fun.

Kaitlynn's funny things lately:

1. Mom, there is something in the playroom. It is either a mouse...or an alligator.

2. Mom, I don't want to take a bath or a shower. Can't you just wash me down with a big rag?

3. She was very upset that I wouldn't let her pet the dead mouse that I was throwing over the fence. I blame Cinderella...all those friendly mice.

So Kaitlynn is about to start school...and so am I. I am super excited. I was also elected to be the President of a non-profit organization so I have been busy with all that entails. Jeremy just got tasked to be the Readiness officer for Civil Engineering which...I don't know much about but it is a high visibility job but will be higher stress. After 2 days at training he said, "This isn't fun anymore". I'm sure he can handle it. 

So that was our summer... Hope yours was great!

Unexpected trip

It is hard to live far away from family especially when you get the call that says, "Grandpa is dying. Come say goodbye." So I left the kids with some good friends while Jeremy is working and flew across the US. I was pretty happy because he remembered who I was despite the hair color change and the weight loss. He told me that he was proud of me and that was really precious because I really have no idea what he was thinking about or talking about. But I was happy that I was told that he can't remember my brother's name. Ha ha Mike. (He deserves this because he thinks he is the chosen child.) Anyway, he seems to be getting better since we have been here. He is the most resilient man I have ever met. He has cancer everywhere, is coughing up blood, and is skin and bones but I told him he was too weak to take a shower without help and he about came off the couch at me. It's that crazy Italian blood. He might outlive my mom at this rate. Lol. He is wearing her down. Crotchity old guy. Love it.
The first tornado warning siren I have ever heard blared last night. Beautiful storm but that lightning and thunder was intense.
Cody has had a fever ever since I left but my friends, Alyssa and Theresa, have been wonderful and of course, Jeremy. I love that guy. Thanks to all of you.

Hawaii trip

Hawaii!!!

On Monday night I called the Air Force base that goes to Hawaii. (It is 1.5 hours away). All of a sudden they had two flights listed for Tuesday morning. One at 6AM and one at 9:30AM. (I had been calling all day but there weren't any flights scheduled, so I called Monday night to see what flights they had for Wednesday - they only tell you 48 hours in advance.) I told Jeremy to get out of bed and get these bags packed. We left at 3:30AM the next morning. After some delays we got on a plane and took off at 1PM. We rode in a C5. You can look that plane up but it is a HUGE plane and we had to walk up 2 flights of stairs to get to the passenger seating area. We had regular airplane seats but they looked 20 years old. Then they close the door and there are no windows and it got really dark. We had the lights above our heads for reading like in a real plane but I had a slight panic attack. Mostly because I wasn't sure if I was in a plane or a submarine because it looked like it could have been either one. (I also began to wonder if they would ever have submarines that could take you somewhere.) Anyway, 5 hours later we arrived in sunny Hawaii where the air smelled sweet from the minute we got off the plane. We stayed on base for the first night and then went to the zoo:

This was a crazy tree outside the zoo. It was a miniature maze.

This zoo was super cool. We didn't have time for everything but they had elephants, rhinos, crocs, alligators, even the flowers and trees were worth seeing.

These turtles looked fake but they weren't. And there were plenty of animals mating, as demonstrated here. (I couldn't not take a picture.)

Giraffes.

So this is where we stayed on our second night. It was a house on the North side of the island. We were out in the country. But it was right on the ocean. We couldn't jump in it from the back, though. We just had a great view and the beaches were a five minute walk. We were right across from the Polynesian Cultural Center (No, we did not go the PCC. My kids and organized events don't mix.) and the temple. 

Cody loved hiding in this closet. I don't know why. There were geckos living everywhere in this house but the worst part were the cockroaches. Ugh. 

This is what we did most of the trip. Beach, Shower, eat, beach, shower...etc. There was one point where my cousins and I were doing a workout video and as we were jumping around one of the cousins had sand dumping on the floor from her swimming suit. 

Nana Colleen and Papa Randy!   Gotta get buried in the sand to have a real experience, right? This pic is seconds before a big wave comes and knocks her out of her hole. She didn't like that.

We didn't need a life vest for Cody. That kid wouldn't go near the water. He also hated the sand in his shoes and on his feet, so he played in the sand. He gave us lots of dirty looks when we tried to make him go swimming. He reminded me of my dad. "Leave me alone. Let me do my thing."

So we went to Pearl Harbor....My 3 year old HATED it. She cried almost the whole time. She was angry at everything. It sucked. Yes, I went to Pearl Harbor but I didn't really experience it. When we were leaving, finally, she cheered right up. GRRRR...KIDS!!!! Maybe she could see the dead soldiers. That is my way of making sense of something that made no sense and was frustrating.

Cody got a hold of the camera. Kinda cute.

Callie, Jeremy, Kevin...there are more pictures that everyone took but this is all I have. 

The only other event not mentioned is the wedding. We have a rehearsal dinner and went to a fancy hotel for a bridal shower on the night before the wedding. We had an amazing "virgin strawberry banana daiquiri in a huge pineapple". Yes, we got weird looks from the bartender but it was sooooo worth it. We ordered room service and had amazing views on both sides of the room. But that was just me and my cousins. 

We traveled back on Monday on a C-17 or an ABC9...or who the heck knows. It was a great trip and the plane rides were spontaneous but free! You can't beat that. I think we are going to like military life. 

One more week!

Jeremy left March 16. So the last few months have been "trying"... as in, I have been trying not to want to kill the emotional wreck of a 3 year old. I don't know if she is missing her dad and that is what is triggering the crying fits everyday. (I mean literally - EVERYDAY.) I've also been trying to combat Cody's croup or whatever he has. It is almost sounding like asthma. He has me worried because he gets these coughing spells where he can hardly breathe. Alas, this is my last lonely Saturday night for a time. Then I have an ally and partner and maybe even a comrade to take over...but all these issues will probably be resolved by the time he comes home. Magically Kaitlynn will snap out of it and Cody will have been to the doctor for the third time by then and maybe we will be on our way to recovery. Anyway, here is our life for the last 2 lonely months. I won't post pics of me mowing the lawn, driving for 10 hours one-way in sleet and hail, (getting pulled over - but flirting my way out of a ticket), cooking dinner while Cody lies on the floor and cries, or of the garbage being taken out each week on schedule as if nothing changed. But I digress, here are some happier highlights:

(In chronological order)

Kaitlynn has been in school each day and loves it. She has dance and gymnastics and it fills up our weeks. Cody has a sign language class but he really only likes the bubble machine and we have to wait until the end to play with that so I don't always make it. We spend time with friends and watching movies so it has been fun.

Easter: We slept at my parents house and celebrated the Easter Bunny on Saturday so that the kids will know that Sunday is special. However, almost all my cousins came to town and by doing this, it pretty much screwed up all their Easter bunny celebrations as Kaitlynn is saying how her bunny came on Saturday. So I will do that at home next year. The kids got some cute clothes and "Barbies". (those rubber princess dolls) We dyed eggs and played and played and had a HUGE Easter Egg hunt at Grandma Linda's (Smith) house. The Easter Bunny brought Kaitlynn a Leapster2. Thank you "Easter Bunny" (you know who you are.) Then in mid-April, Jen came to visit us from Boston. We hung out for the week and went to the Jelly Bean factory near San Francisco, went swimming, and just did a lot of organizing. It was great to have her here and the kids loved being held by an extra set of hands. Thanks Jen! It was so nice to have you here.

I am super tired since no one has been sleeping lately and have taken to rambling, so here are some pics:

Cody and Jake on Grandpa's four-wheeler.
Gracie and Kaitlynn dying eggs with Grandma.

And this is why Kaitlynn is grounded from gum until she turns 4. Sunday morning she comes in the bathroom to ask if I can get the gum out of her hair. Apparently that means "I was trying to make a necklace out of the gum." However, it wan't just one piece of gum, it was two. One on each side. Nice necklace, huh?

And this is what happens when daddy is gone. "Where is the room for mommy', you ask? On the couch, of course.

One more week til daddy comes home. Hooray!

Wow. Has it been a month.

So Jeremy got home from Officer Training School but not before I got to go to Alabama and see him graduate. I have a couple pics here...

Also, many of you remember the crazy amount of snow Boise got dumped on in December. Here is some of the fun we had.

Getting ready for Christmas (the week before):

Here are Christmas morning pics:

And now we have traveled to our first station. Beale AFB in not-sunny Northern California. It is the "rainy season" and overcast everyday. It is making me depressed because we can't go play at the playground and we aren't in our house yet. Miserable.

So here is the story of how we chose our house. I talked to the housing office a wile back and they told me that they haven't "privatized" the housing yet (basically had a company come in and modernize and take over the management of military housing) so the houses are 1250 sq feet and have a 1 car garage if you are lucky. So yeah, I had no doubt that we would not be living on base. The housing allowance was a good amount and there were lots of nice houses online.

Well, we get here and start searching and found a couple we like but they would slip out from under us. One of them Jeremy really liked and we called an hour after viewing it and it was already rented to someone else. Same story for another one - just signed the night before. So these kept falling out from under us and I was getting really disheartened and frustrated. We were praying about it and praying to find somewhere that would be "fiscally responsible" and not have a huge commute. Jeremy asked me to call some of his co-workers wives and ask them what their opinion was. So I did. They said the housing on base sucks but there are some great benefits to living on base. If you can deal with the small house, the rest is good. So bam. Instantly felt a million times better and knew that this was where we are supposed to live. Unfortunately the housing is all wood and tile floors so the kids have been running through the empty house screaming and it echoes a ton so it drives us crazy. Our stuff comes on Monday so we will move in then and I hope that the noise will be lessened. The kids are going to share a room and the third bedroom will be a playroom, junk room, etc. So 3 or four years but it will save us a lot of money and enable us to come and see all of you more often. Crazy thing though. We move in the week another family moved out. The ward we are moving into has a lot of need and apparently is now wanting of a 2nd counselor in the bishopric and a new RS president. Yikes! Our records aren't here yet, but there is a lot of opportunities to serve.

Anyway.

We got here and met our one friend and went to New Years Eve at their house. Here are a couple pics for that. Jeremy and I met 10 years ago that night. Look where 10 years has taken us.

Since then we have been hanging out in temporary housing so last week we went to Sacramento. Across the street from the zoo there is a little park called Fairy Tale Land. We HAD to go there! Kaitlynn loved it. We went to Sherwood Forest. Drove Cinderella's coach. Slid down Owl's tree slide, Saw three blind mice, hugged Clifford, walked the Crooked Mile. It was cute. Here are the pictures. (And the milkshake afterwards.)

Here are our adventures in temporary housing, featuring the kids as well as the stray cat that sits at the back door.

We had an amazing Christmas and we are so grateful for the chance to say goodbye to you all. Thank you for being such good friends and family to us. We know where our home is and always will be.

So that is where we are at now. Monday we move into our new home. New adventures await us!

Hope your New Year and Christmas were great!

Funny story:
We went to see a house in Plumas Lake (30 minutes away). Here is the story:
The sister of the owner (Rachel) met us there (she lives next door. The brother lives 2 houses down.) So Rachel met us there and gave us the tour. It is a large house and way way way nice. The whole family looks very wealthy. So then she shows me everything and invited us to breakfast at her house because her sister (the owner of the house) was on her way. We ended up inside Rachel's house for a while visiting and everything was even more fancy over there (so I was nervous about the kids breaking something). I had kind of already made up my mind that it would save us a lot of money to live on base but I didn't want to be a jerk especially after meeting the whole family. So the sister (Rachel) is telling me that they will come down to $1300 for rent (they were asking $1500) but I am not sure the owner is 100% on board with that. Anyway, they were soooo nice to us and I could tell she really wanted to rent to us but I had my mind set on staying on base. So they are visiting with me and wanting us to stay and the kids are running around and getting rowdy so Jeremy goes outside to get the kids out of the lady's house and get away from it all. I finish talking with the sisters and finally make it outside. To my surprise Jeremy is talking to this old homeless looking lady. He glares at me and I walk over to him. The lady says she is their mother and wants our phone number in case we rent the house. (She is an old Asian woman) She tells us that we look like Angels. Jeremy just wants to get in the car and leave and I had to laugh to myself about the whole thing. I feel bad that we don't want to live out there even though she is willing to bend over backwards for us to rent from her.

So then after church on Sunday I have an urgent message on my cell. It is the toothless Asian mother who is very hard to understand. She is basically saying that she wanted us to move in and we will work out the payments later. "Call me back. Right away!"

Again, they were so nice and I felt like I was breaking up with a boyfriend when I called the lady back to say we weren't interested. Anyway, the old homeless looking Asian lady talking to Jeremy still cracks me up.

Car stories

This is the conversation that Kaitlynn and I had in the car on the way to California:

Kaitlynn: "Mommy."

Christina: "What?"

Kaitlynn: "I'm just saying your name."

a few minutes later...

Kaitlynn: "Mommy"

Christina: "Yeah?"

Kaitlynn: "I'm just saying your name."

After the fourth time...

Christina: Kaitlynn, Can you say a new name?

Kaitlynn: "Nope."

She must have been reading a book on how to drive mom crazy.

So we made it and this base is spread out for miles. It takes ten minutes to get from the entrance of the base to the housing area. This wouldn't be a big deal if there was something to see in between. But there is nothing. Hills, cows, and the speed limit that is strictly enforced. We are definitely not going to be living on base.

We were invited to a New Years party at a new friend's house. She had lots of yummy junk food treats and I ate them all. She invited a friend over so now I know 2 people. Yes, two. But we have only been here for a little over 24 hours so I am considering that successful.

Jeremy just informed that when he goes back to Alabama in March for 6 weeks of training it will take many days to drive there. Drive there? Really? Like, how many days will that take?

If we fly there we will have no car. Can't you rent a car for 6 weeks?

I am still weighing the options.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope Christmas was great too. The temperature here is close to 50 degrees each day. Christmas is officially over.