1 Month Down

Wednesday will mark our 1 month anniversary of Daddy's departure.  Gosh, we miss him, but truthfully, it has flown by.  The Holiday's kind of helped with that :)

So, Daddy (and anyone else interested), here is what you missed...

House Projects

I have tried to do some house projects during the days, especially since we have not been doing school work...  

One morning, I drug the lawn-mow-mow and leaf picker upper (thanks for insisting we buy that thing) to gather the leaves under the dogwoods.  Of course, the kids thought this was great!

Mr. E accidentally broke the silverware drawer, which required an hour long trip to the hardware store, followed by a nutritious pizza meal while I tried to reassemble the drawer...

... followed by the admission that I merely bandaged the problem... Dear Hobbit Man, I saved all the pieces for you to fix correctly upon your return :)

But, for now, you can pull the drawer out and use it, just be gentle! P.S.  TW organized the drawer while putting dishes away... this is much better looking than when Smaug puts the dishes away ;)

I count it a major accomplishment to paint with the kids running around me.  Very often, I find myself either 1) shouting at people to stop running (I have to shout because, by the time anything passes my lips, the runners are two or three rooms away) 2) trying not to fall off my perch or 3) hissing under my breath (or, sometimes on top of my breath) because I just painted something I shouldn't have.

Here you can see "Beacon Yellow" in the kitchen.  

I covered up the blank phone plate with these little chalk thingys (they read "faith", "hope", "love").

After another trip to the store, I found a "hotel lock" for the door so Smaug has to work a bit harder to bust out!

And, I got the correct light switch and replaced it.  However, and I know this will drive you nuts, Dear Hobbit Man, (hmm, that's long, let's go with DHM) both switches are in the down position when the lights are on... so, there is another project for you!

It took about an hour and a half at Hobby Lobby with the kids, but we managed to find all the letters for this sign (we dropped the f somewhere and had to go back to the wood aisle).  Then I had a fight with the paint and didn't like the white I originally had, then I couldn't figure out how to get the letters on the wall without adding 9+ holes to my wall.  So, I repurposed one of the old cabinet rails with the last of my hot glue gun glue and only put 2 holes in the wall!!! Anyway, Berry proudly points at this and "reads" Fresh Eggs ;)

Oh, and Smaug picked this out... he likes to say "chicken, up there" while pointing!

Holiday Parties

We attended a book exchange party with our homeschool playgroup.  We also learned about Christmas celebration in other countries.  I think the kids had fun!

The very next day, we went to a cookie decorating shindig with DHM's work. 

I was seriously hoping that my kids did not break this hammock... fortunately, it started raining and we left, so the hammock was saved!

Christmas and A Surprise Visit

Well, DHM, you knew my parents were coming on a surprise visit (while keeping the details from me)... so, of course, we had to take them on a tour of our new home town.  We spent one day in St. Augustine.  We went into this really cool Presbyterian church... remind me to show it to you next time we go down together.  It was warm that day!

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Fort Clinch... it was not warm that day :)

They even had things decorated for a yummy Christmas dinner!

And, of course, we had to go see the ocean while we were there... we only brought home about 20 shells this time and no one was wet!

And, we celebrated Christmas!  DHM got to be here for this via Skype... the wonders of modern technology!

Other than that, we have been pretty unproductive :)  We love you DHM!!!

In Other News:  I was cutting back some honeysuckle today with my awesome new pruners (thanks G-Mac)... and guess what... I did NOT see a snake this time!!!  But, I did spend about 5 minutes of the hour I was out there looking for him just in case!  We did see a snake, one of those black non-venomous ones, but he was "high" tailing it away from us and he was no where near where I was working, so it's all good.

It's Long.

Grammy, I am so sorry that my computer skills have been lacking lately... I'm certainly not trying to ignore you (or any of my other faithful readers)!!!  I will try to remember what has happened since early August, when I last posted... has it really been that long???  I will start with all the house projects, well, at least the ones I took pictures of!

Our oven stopped working... turned out... blah, blah, blah, I honestly don't remember.  But, I do know that it was a common problem and that J just had to reconnect the wires in the back.  We pulled out too much of the stove to start with so it ended up being more work, but it's fixed now!

Our front lights didn't work and this one was hanging by it's wires :(

So, we replaced them.  Yes, Mom (because I know you'll notice), this is actually the light on the other side of the door... sorry I wasn't consistent in my picture taking... we did replace both sides!

So, J removed the box from around these lights in the kitchen when we first moved it.  But, while he was off for two weeks, he replaced the old fluorescents with....

Six, canned lights, a new island light (not pictured), and...

... a new, over-the-sink light.  He also painted the ceiling and...

...the bathroom walls and ceiling!!!

Mid September, I painted the brown accent walls and the other walls in a creamish color, and found out I was pregnant again! That is really the main reason I have not updated a thing... I spent a lot of time either napping or laying on the couch because I was tired and didn't feel good... lets just say everyone was fed, bathed, clothed and beyond that...

At some point, TW shot his first squirrel (we had him eat it for dinner)... this is in the house category because...

... he mounted this to his bedroom wall (boys).

Last month we took a trip to Iowa and returned with our friend, Mr. Deerhead.

Okay, out of the house category, and back to August... somebody had their 2nd birthday!

And J's mom visited (so did his brother and sister-in-law)... we were visiting Fort Caroline in this picture!

And now a school picture (sorry these are so... random).  We (the triplets) learned the letter B, which, of course, involves making butter.  We tried shaping it, we failed, but they didn't care.

One afternoon, the kids decided to enlarge the holes Mamie has been digging.  Just a note, TW is sitting, not standing, in the hole.

They were filthy.

I don't think this was right after the digging episode, but, the boys decided, for some reason, to water the cement around the pool.  Mom, that's the pool net.

And, with amazing speed, we have caught up to the last month!  Mid November, the girls and Smaug got an "icky cold".  Smaug ended up with pneumonia.  Fortunately, paranoid Mama took him to the ER in time to catch the ickiness in it's early stages, and he did not need to stay in the hospital, unlike his older sister.

The very next week, I had my first doctors appointment.  Not surprisingly (don't read that wrong, we were praying for a different outcome, but after our history, we are no longer astonished beyond belief), our little baby had no heartbeat.  This time, however, we caught it just a day or so later, rather than weeks.  I was 10 weeks along at that point.  That night, J called his dad with the news.  He had news of his own... both J's step mom and J's grandpa had been taken to the ER (separately) and ended up in adjoining ER rooms.  Grandpa was admitted to the hospital.  

Next morning (Friday), I had surgery.  Given two failed attempts using medication, I opted for this route.  Sunday, we got a call that Grandpa had passed away.  Monday, we headed to Iowa.

Funerals are not always happy occasions, there were a lot of tears, and for me the tears were coming for all different reasons all at the same time.  But, despite the sadness, the kids found some time to tackle their grandpa.

And hang out with their uncles and extended cousins.

And pose with their first cousins, on J's mom's side...

... and J's dad's side.

The memorial was in Iowa, but the burial was in Missouri, so we had a seven hour journey south, some of the kids took naps, in their crooked hats (reminds me of my dad) ;)

The weather during the funeral temperatures were not optimal.  Uncle D made the speech short, and sweet :)

And, since we were a mere 4 hours from Little Rock, we had to visit our friends :)

Upon our return, we had one week to get ready for daddy's deployment and celebrate Thanksgiving.  I can't remember what we were making here, but TW wanted to take a picture!

Sunday after Thanksgiving came, and it was time to take Daddy to the airport to fly away for a really long time :(

So, the rest of these pictures show what we have done in the past week... we had some friends over to decorate gingerbread houses...

... and went to our co-op Christmas party...

... and Daddy's work party.  They had shaved ice there from the day before... the kids thought it was great... it was 80 degrees.

Today, we went to the post office and grocery store (woo hoo)...

So, now you are all up to snuff.  I'm sorry we didn't stop to see you Grammy, we didn't even drive through a corner of Alabama either direction :(  J will be back in the summer, so maybe... Love you!

In Other News:  J... Mr. E broke the silverware drawer (that do-hickey in the back that holds the bar up that it slides along) this morning when he was emptying the dishwasher... it needs to be J-rigged.  Also, Smaug has figured out that he can unlock the front door (and open it) whenever he feels like it.  This was helpful when I wanted to him let Bing in, but, I may need to put in one of those hotel latches there too... and then bolt all chairs and stools to the floor permanently!