My Bug

On August 30, 2001 I became a Mom. She's our Bug. She was my companion during all of Clark's deployments on his first boat, just her and me. She is bright, stubborn, beautiful, sneaky, silly and compassionate. She loves to read and has been able to since her first week of Kindergarten...she just finished her first chapter book and can read better than any other 6 year olds I know. She can reason her way out of lots of trouble. She thinks outside the box, like me. She has green eyes just like her Dad. She has surprised me lots of times by bringing me breakfast in bed or just a snack when I wasn't expecting it. She loves being the biggest sister and usurps her power on request and on her own. I am so grateful for her and the irreplaceable role in our family. Happy Birthday Haley Bug.

Lost photos

So here are some of those pictures...

What can I say, we're family!

I have again returned to the world of blogging and laundry. My family has come and gone and left happy memories in their wake. Our house is again a lonely place...I mean, besides my own little family. It's sad to have such a visit behind us that we have been looking forward to for so long. So here's the long and short of it.
I had a birthday last week. I have to say, as a matured 29 year old, the day felt a tad like the one before it and the one after it. Some are just like that. I've got one more year to party with the 20-somethings. I got some fun gifts from my husband and girls...one was a whoopee cushion. Let me just say, hours of entertainment for an immature bunch of people. Needless to say, it is now hidden away until further notice.
The next day my little brother and his delightful wife came. We got lunch and took it to a favorite spot near the shore. My parents flew in that night and we stayed up chatting and visiting...I love these people.
Our list of activities included a trip to Historic Mystic Seaport where we toured one of the first American Whaling ships and its old town. That night my dear friends babysat for us while the adults went to the Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino for dinner and stroll through smoke/addict infested casino...which is amazing by the way. We ate at a scrumptious BBQ place that had hand-towels for napkins. The next day we went to church then enjoyed a delicious meal and family walk to our little hiding spots around base.
On Monday we went to Boston and spent the afternoon running around good old Medfield where we lived from 6 through 9th grade. We saw our house and schools, bought goods from the town department store/soda fountain, Lord's, and ran into an old history teacher, Mr. Desorger who made living in Medfield a historical delight in middle school. (PS Reeves and Oscarsons, he remembered us all!...) I now have a Medfield hoodie that proves I lived there once. Then we drove into Boston and walked through Public Gardens, patting the Make Way For Ducklings statues on our way. Then we picked up mounds of pasta from La Familia in the North End and headed home. Spencer and Sho decided that they had to get back to D.C. to jobs or something important, I guess. It was sad to say good-bye. I was tired that night and fell asleep right during Scrubs. The last day we slept in and just hung out enjoying each other's company. We visited the Nautilus, the first Nuclear Submarine just off base.
In the afternoon we visited a local favorite, Cows and Cones. It's a most pleasant little farm with cows, rabbits, a wandering yellow lab, pigs, chickens and a rooster that has an appetite for Mia's fingers. "Chicken, bite. Chicken, no no..." after lots of crying. In my defense, I told her not to stick her fingers through the fence. We ate yummy ice cream, Clark and Dad played horse-shoes and then we sat on the grassy hill and talked some more. On our way out we bought some of their most perfectly sun kissed and earthen flavored tomatoes, peppers and corn on the cob. After picking up some bread and cheese from the store we had the most heavenly meal ever...even the burps were delicious. I couldn't stop taking pictures because it was so pretty. My parents humored me that night by watching all of Da Vinci Code before I dropped them back at their car and said good-bye. There just simply isn't enough pictures to show how much we enjoyed having you. Thank you Mo and Papa for such a fun weekend where we were spoiled with good company, delicious food and a gift here and there. Thank you for coming!

Baaaaa.

I am one of those citizens who has a quiet opinion. I don't like to talk politics, I don't like to debate...I don't even like watching the debates. But I feel passionately about some things, and defensive about some other things. My husband and I were flipping back and forth last night to a channel that had on a show about Conspiracy Theories of 9/11. Not only did the people sound like morons, but their theories bordered on ridiculous...the ridiculous side, not the almost ridiculous side. So it spurred a rare political conversation between my husband and me (he saves the rest of his "politically spurred" conversations for his Dad, brothers and Glenn Beck in the car.) He read me a portion of a speech given at a Naval Academy Graduation years ago that perfectly echoed how we both feel about certain issues. And since I don't care to use my own blog for political statements, go read his....it's really long but I think, really good and important....afterall, its our livelihood right now and we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't truly believe in it. We are undying patriots and proud to be so.
I have to admit that I can be fairly open minded and accepting of other's views and opinions. I have a talent for seeing where people are coming from even though I may not agree so feel free to disagree, I won't like you any less.

Без перевода!

We're all moving to Russia!
And eating less McDonalds...who knew it could be so dangerous for stupid people?

Ye olde whiny kids

Last Saturday we made the drive up to Plymouth, Massachusetts...home of Plymouth Rock, The Mayflower II and Plimouth Plantation (for some reason they see a need to spell their tourist site differently than the town it resides in...) Its much like Sturbridge Village but much older, much smaller, and just as neat. The people dressed in costume here actually play the part of the 1620's settlers. I recall a trip we took to the Mayflower and Plimouth Plantation with cousins back in the early 90's where we mercilessly teased and goaded the poor players with obnoxious questions like, "What kind of car do you drive? We have a new computer and wow, did you see that airplane?" The man finally got up and walked away from us saying something about his gratitude for being a bachelor.
For some reason this last Saturday our kids decided to act like uninterested kids. They played in the dry, dusty dirt and complained every time we walked into a house.
There are signs walking into the Native American Village that warn against using any kind of derogatory slang or stereotypes for Indians...you can imagine my paranoia as we toured through this part. The people in the Indian Village don't play the part of the time but they are dressed in costume as each is an actual person of Native American Heritage. We made it through without offending anyone but we did see a lot of male American Indian"thigh"...very tan.
We ditched the stroller too and traded kids whining about tired legs for not having to push 45 pounds through sandy dirt, uphill.
The views are amazing because of the village's proximity to the shore. Despite the kids that didn't really want to be there, I enjoyed myself and had fun...especially when the kids were called to weed the corn field.
This is Haley and Abby being amazed that they were looking at the actual Plymouth Rock!! Wow, how did they know exactly where the first Pilgrims stepped? And what a coincidence that the rock happened to say the precise year of their landing...it must have been fate.
(A funny side note is the small rock memorial up on the hill from "Plymouth Rock" from the tribe of Wampanoag Indians which displays a plaque explaining the moment of silence at noon on Thanksgiving: in memory of the loss of tribe and genocide of their people from the landing of the Pilgrims. I recall being taught in elementary school that Thanksgiving was a happy time.)

Castles and Super Glue

The girls and I ventured out today to East Haddam to Gillette Castle. It was built from 1914-1919 by William Gillette, an actor famous for his stage portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. It's a fascinating place, built by a somewhat eccentric bachelor. It's full of interesting features, including elaborately calculated and carved locks on each of the bedroom doors and bizarre light switches. He built the bedrooms in such a way "to make great entrances in the opportune moment". The castle was built on a huge hill overlooking the Connecticut River. It has amazing views. The self guided tour took me and the girls all of 13 minutes. It's unfortunate that they have so much of the castle rooms and floors blocked off to the public...though it leaves much to the imagination. The girls felt like princesses walking up and down the interior stone steps, though much of the interior is very "untraditionally castle-like"...meaning, its nothing like the castles on Twelve Dancing Princesses or Hogwarts. It's built in an area that was bought by Connecticut and made a State Park so it is surrounded by forest and trails. Following this particular picture, Haley took a nasty little spill coming down a path and landed her bony hip bone on a sharp Connecticut rock. I've never seen a cut like that before. I don't think that I will ever waiver on whether or not a cut around here needs stitches or not...I knew that she needed stitches. She finally calmed down enough for me to put a gauze patch over it and chilled for the ride home. We drove home, dropped Abby and Mia off with a neighbor and headed up the hill to the clinic for medical advice.
Once we got there and met Miriam, our really nice nurse in the Mickey Mouse scrubs, Haley got goofy (before the torture began, of course.) The nurse decided that we could probably get by with a good cleaning and tape or glue, instead of sending us to an ER out in town for stitches. That was a great relief to Haley, though you would have thought that the irrigation and glue were meticulously devised for her own individual torture. The girl was downright squirmy and defensive, swatting pour Miriam's hands away. We let her put on gloves to squeeze water, I put on gloves to squeeze water...we let her take pictures, gave her gum...all to no avail...she is a total 5 year old girl in the face of a medical procedure. The doctor was very patient with her and while Miriam laid on her legs and she gripped my torso in terror, he finished cleaning her out and glued her shut! This was after Miriram shared stories about her daughters dislocated knees and her son's staples in his head from skateboarding...oh, and I may have threatened her that if she wasn't calm for the doctor to clean it out we would have to amputate from the waist down...all in good humor, naturally. Good as new. I'm glad for a good excuse to tell her to take it easy for a few days...no playing on the playground, no wrestling, not even roughhousing, no bikes, no baths. She asked me every five minutes tonight if it was still glued shut. She is a good girl. This is a picture that she took of her doctor (remember, it was a sight-seeing day, we had the camera!)
Mia developed a 'come and go' mystery rash and we did an enjoyable family dinner on the patio at Panera, one of our favorite family spots. Then ended the night with scripture reading and an uncontrollable giggling fit during family prayer...the best part, I was the one praying.
It's good to have one of those great family days (minus the few hours in the middle). It revives me and reminds me how much I love my job.
This is Clark being enthusiastic about Haley's wound 'on the mend'.
I'd say between my lack of grace and Clark's wound record (8 broken bones before the age of 9) we're doing terrific with only one broken arm and one case of "stitches" thus far (unless you count my episiotomies and C section...and all the trips to the ER for stomach viruses and spinal taps on 2 week olds...and imperforate anuses, or is it an-i?...maybe we're not always in such great shape afterall...but look at how cute, we heal well, I can assure you.)

Regression...

Remember me talking about the golden sleeping child? The one, the only one, that slept through the night at 4 months and went down for naps and bedtime like an absolute dream? I used to walk into her room with her, we would pause at her bed, she would lay her head on my shoulder for 30 seconds then lean toward her pillow where I would lay her down, smooth her hair and say good night. Then she would roll over, cuddle her blanket and close her eyes. She has been in a toddler bed for a few months.... Moving has thrown all of the kids into one kind of upheaval or another. Abby is picking on her sisters. Haley is testing us on a whole new level....and Mia has given up sleeping and going to bed like an angel. She cries, she whines, she gets out of bed again and again and again. We've been here for over a month and still, no better. So we broke down and revived the crib. 'cringe' I mourn the lost progress and angelic bedtime routine. She cried for just a moment when I laid her down for a nap today but then slept for two and a half hours. Maybe regression isn't so bad after all.
On a happier note, I scoured my house and completed all laundry and dishes so that I could enjoy guilt free reading for the next 24 hours...and is something wrong with me? Everyone is saying how much they love Jacob but I am still all for Edward...we'll see how it ends tonight.

Old Friends, New Memories...

Our August just got a little more exciting. We met Jay and Susan during our first Naval School less than a year into our marriage. We were stationed in Charleston, South Carolina and shared a duplex with them. We were really lucky when we moved into base housing to be literally surrounded by other members of the church. Our neighbors right next to us, and the two directly across the street--two families of which we are still good friends. I'm actually surprised that Susan's family still likes us after finding out what geeks we are. I believe my first words to her were "Hey Neighbor!" through the screen of our window when we moved in...but the friendship began and she has been one of the greatest friends ever. Both of our families have grown since then. We lived near them again in Virginia where she continued to watch out for us

and be the mother hen that she always was. Haley and her daughter Sarah are just a couple of months apart. We were pregnant together with about 3 other girls. We used to hang out in her house all laying around sick and tired like a bunch of beached whales.


When we lived in Virginia we would dress the girls the same when we went out just to see how many people would ask if they were twins. Our kids like to play and get along well...except for the time that Sarah pushed Haley off the trampoline and smashed her face in her pizza, that was a funny story.

Alex is adorable and sweet and smart. I mean, how much do you love an 11 year old boy who is sweet to babies and loves to read?

I somehow didn't get a picture of Spencer but we love him just as much. When he was little my favorite was his constant questioning of "but why" in the sweetest voice ever. Nathan we just met but he fits right in with his clan that we love so much. Jay has been in Iraq for the last year and they were just reunited last month. He is finishing a tour in Newport, Rhode Island so his family has joined him for the month of August before school starts again in Virginia. Newport is only an hour away so we have been taking full advantage of our fun friends.
Last Friday we drove up to amazing Newport and attended the Officer's Club on base. We decided that the kids probably wouldn't enjoy the fish fry so we did dinner somewhere else after playing on the rocky beach in front of the O Club...the most amazing view of the inlet and bridge. ( I can't for the life of me figure out why this is all underlined...)

Then Saturday their family met us down in Groton where we were able to see Clark's sub come in from a three week trip out. We watched it come in from the ocean and head up the river.
We are glad to have friends nearby for a while. For all the fun things we've gotten to do here, a familiar face can be the most treasured. For the first time in my life I am realizing the value of long time friends. I am grateful to have crossed paths with so many special people along my way. Sometime I may tell you in detail about hearing Jay and Susan through our shared wall in Charleston. We heard them up late giggling and when I teased her about it the next day she insisted that they were doing taxes....is that what they are calling it these days? The funniest thing is, they really were doing taxes. See how fun they are?

The Burning Questions of Life...

I receive e mails from my sister in law at least once a day. I love it. She makes me feel loved and like I have some wealth of knowledge or experience from which to impart. I was her age approximately 16 years ago. Well, that's got to qualify me for some kind of experience, right?
So the other day, dear Sades, who is way beyond her years in maturity wrote:

What am I good at?
What is my passion?
What is my hobby?
When i die, what will people know me for? can ya help a girl out?

I don't think she is depressed, she has simply hit her mid-life crisis 30 years early. But really, are these not the questions that we all ask from time to time?
So darling girl, here is my answer:
1. What we are good at changes form day to day. Some days we are not good at anything but getting clothes on and brushing our teeth and some days we do everything right, there is good rhythm and we accomplish a lot. We can be good at lots of different things. We used to tease my sister Amy growing up that she was "good with people". That would be the greatest thing to be good at, in my opinion. I would feel happy to be good with people, to make the people around me comfortable and happy. To end their day better than it started. That means my family and the lady I pass at the grocery store.
2. Our passions change from day to day as well. Sometimes I feel passionate about education and teaching other people things that would help them...sometimes I feel passionate about women looking beautiful and feeling really good about themselves. Sometimes I feel passionate simply about my kids having a healthy meal and sometimes I am more passionate that they just have a really fun, loving day with ice cream for lunch and popcorn for dinner. Do you see that sometimes our passions are contradictory? Some of our passions last forever and some last only a few hours. We are human and spirit. We are supposed to grow and develop and stretch...and sometimes that means what we loved yesterday is different than what we love today. And that is OK.
3. What is your hobby? You know what? This changes too. I remember all of the phases that I went through as a child. Did you know that I was a really good roller skater? At 7, my sister and I were choreographing longs songs of spins and little leaps. I could have gone professional but my hobby changed...and then I liked lip-syncing and pretending to be one of the Monkees with a tennis racket as my guitar. At one time I loved drawing, and once I did a lot of scrapbooking. You know, years later I still love to roller skate and draw and scrapbook. I don't always have the resource or time or drive to do any one thing. But I have my whole life to do whatever I want that makes me happy. Hobbies help us feel passion (refer to #2). Hobbies help us relax and feel happy. They help us feel talented or express ourselves. They can change or they can stay the same. Some of our hobbies we keep practicing and get really good at. And some we just let fade out when we are done with it. Just remember that your hobby is still good even if you never turn professional.
4. If we simply try to do what is right we will be remembered as a loving person. And you know what? If you are not perfect, as long as you were nice and tried hard, people will only say good things about you anyway. I try not to worry about what people will say at my funeral. I just hope that there is good food afterwards, that means lots of ham and potato casserole and maybe some rolls made with love by women of the Relief Society.
And Sades, I can read your blog or hang out with you and you would answer all of those questions about yourself. You might not know this, but you already had it all figured out all along, and you are only 12 (almost 13).
But thanks for reminding me to answer those questions about myself from time to time.
All the love little sis,
Em

The Lazy Days of Summer

We tried to get creative the other day, until the kids got antsy and I got hot...we only made it out there for about 5 minutes but we'll think of more creative ones and try again because its just fun. And, I challenge all of my extremely talented photographer friends out there to do it and make it look good!

Too random for a title...oh wait...I guess not.

The weeks have become less exciting around here. We wake up, get dressed, watch cartoons, play outside, come inside, twiddle our thumbs, eat lunch, and so on and so forth until Dad gets home. We have managed to make it to the store or to a slightly more fun location once or twice. So here is a boring and uneventful recap of the last week or so.

*We continue on the hunt for the perfect beach. The girls and I visited New London's Town Beach and found it to our liking minus the $10 parking fee. It was not crowded, the sand was soft and plentiful. I sat on the towel for two hours and watched my three children play beautifully without having to chase any of them out of dangerous water, etc. I did have to shout to Mia a couple of times when she chased the seagulls too far away.
*Yesterday I was reaching for the Caramel/Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich in the freezer but stuck my hand in the Veggie Boca Burger box instead (don't look at me, I didn't buy them)
*Today we went to Harvey's Beach in Old Saybrook when Clark got home. Man, I wished I had had my camera. The photo ops were oozing from every minute. Small beach but shallow water out to several sand bars with warm water, perfect for little people to wade in...we discovered the lost land of hermit crabville...we loaded them in buckets and watched them fight until I couldn't stand it anymore. I tried to convince the girls that next time we come we could bring Susan (our pet hermit crab) and let her go free...she wouldn't last a second, those wild crabs are crazy! An abundance of marine life but not too much that its gross. We played long and hard, we'll go back (maybe with water socks...geeky but necessary for the muddy sand you walk through to get to the cool places.)
*Mia swallowed a hunk of salt water all at once then proceeded to spit it out them throw up a bit...gross...in the ocean...we moved away and watched the tiny fish feast...even grosser. I tried not to think about it.
*When we got home the girls were finishing an informal dinner at the table when Abby decided that the chaff-age of her swim suit was too much. So she took it off and finished her meal naked. Then, forgetting that she was naked (or just not caring) she jumped up and joined Clark and Haley in his work out routine. I took a picture but Clark objected to it being posted (unless you were one of the lucky ones on my e mail list, you won't be seeing this naked aerobic princess tonight...)
*Mia has taken to running everywhere these days. It's more like a trot, actually, and she moves her arms faster than her legs. It's funny.
*When Clark and I check on the girls before bed it's like walking in on a massacre. 5 out of 7 nights Abby and Mia fall out of bed without waking up so there are little bodies strewn about the floor. It's kind of funny and creepy at the same time.
*All the girls are in the same room. It has been...interesting.
*Our little four year old neighbor girl was bitten by a black widow spider this week in their house and taken to the hospital. I now glance about the rooms in a constant state of paranoia and will psychotically check their limbs for spider bites in the days to come. We're having our unit sprayed next week...as if that could kill a man eating arachnid.
*I'm feeling distracted now because The Office is on and Clark just got home with Outback Alice Springs Chicken. Gotta go, no explanation needed.

While I'm not on the subject...

I figured, "why not?" since I was already on the Internet taking bizarre quizzes about random things...this one is slightly more depressing than the last. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that my family won't be trying to sell off my dead body anytime soon.
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Come on...you know you're dying to know how much your dead body is worth...

Drug of Choice...

I suppose I wasn't really that surprised...this picture makes me thirsty for orange soda...out of a cup, not a syringe.
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