Daddy visit take two

Jason came home for his second visit this past weekend. He was able to have a three day weekend this time and it made all the difference. He flew in at midnight on Thursday night and of course, I stayed up because I was so excited. The kids came into our room the next day and jumped all over him. Life is just not quite right without Daddy home. He took the older two to school and came back to play with the the little ones. It was a beautiful day and we spent part of the morning outside.

Between the kids and the fact that he hadn't slept well due to homework at the training and travel, he ended up asleep on the couch for a while.

When we picked up Eva from preschool we went out for lunch. Most of the rest of Friday was spent at home playing and hanging out.

The next day we went to the Fort Bragg Fair. Its getting to be a tradition with us. We went to a dog trick show called Marvelous Mutts first. The kids loved it. I liked the frisbee dogs but the pooches who jumped into the water after the toys were their favorite. Brendan was by the tank and got splashed by a particularly far jumping dog.

The remainder of the time we went on all the kiddie rides.

We took Paige on some. She was unimpressed. Her face didn't change expression the whole time, even when I took her on the super slide (no picture of that, just video). Even I was a little surprised at how fast that was.

The other kids really liked the slide. And yes, that is Brendan standing right in front of the the end of the slide. I think he misjudged just how fast Daddy would come down it. He almost knocked him over.

After a fairly normal Sunday we had to take Jason back to the airport. His flight was delayed a bit so he missed the connection in Atlanta. There were no more flights to San Antonio so he had to spend the night in the Atlanta airport food court before taking off the next morning. Poor Daddy.

See you in three more weeks!!

The Many Faces of Paige

These were all taken in a five minute period one morning. She is a very expressive little gal.

Facebook Snippets

I was looking at my Facebook wall and finding these little gems. I realized that they were not on the blog and therefore not going in the blog book. That seemed a shame so here they are.

February 14, 2013
Eva: "Mom, you're a mess . . . But I still love you."

Um, thanks, I guess


June 17, 2012
When his Primary teacher said, "Blessed are the Peacemakers," Brendan replied with, "Jedi are peacemakers."


April 19, 2012
While Darby was in time out for biting her sister, she was looking at the picture of Christ on the wall. Then she screams from the other room, "Mom, I found Jesus!"


January 16, 2012
My husband has technically no middle name (long story with a birth certificate mishap). Brendan was talking about names this morning. When I told him that his daddy has no middle name he said, "Oh, so Daddy's name is like Jesus?"


November 8, 2011
Cuteness alert! Darby (21 months) just pointed to a picture of Jesus on the wall and said, "Jesus. He so happy." I love kids.


June 20, 2011
After waking up in the morning, I commented on Eva's hair. "Your hair is crazy," I said.
"No Mom, its just beautiful," she tells me.
And there you have it. :)


November 5, 2010
Went in after naps and couldn't find Eva. Started to worry and then saw something wiggle deep under the covers. Yep, she was napping UNDER the fitted sheet.

One Great Reader

Today Brendan received the award for getting the most AR points for the quarter. Accelerated Reader (AR) points are earned by reading books and taking comprehension tests about them. He not only got the most points in his class but had the most in all of first grade. He earned almost 101 points in 9 weeks! We are so proud of his hard work and great reading! Way to go Brendan!

Andersons

The Andersons officially moved in today! Jason has known Shawn Anderson since he first joined the Army and started coming back to church. Shawn is one of Jason's oldest friends and we never imagined that we would live in the same town as them. They moved into a neighborhood less than five minutes from our house. In fact, Parker, their oldest, goes to the same school as Brendan, and the boys get along very well too. They came to visit and house hunt in February and, after a long process, are finally moving in. Its going to be so fun having them so close!

Darby's eyes

Because Eva has an eye condition that runs in families, it was suggested that all our kids see an optometrist. Brendan had his appointment long ago and has perfect vision but I wanted to wait to take Darby until I thought that she'd cooperate with the doctor in order to get accurate results. Her appointment was last week.
She was the model patient for a three year old. I think she enjoyed the attention. She looked at the pictures, chatted it up with the nurses, sat up straight at the machine and let them put eye drops in to dilate. She didn't really like that part.
The optometrist is a family friend so it was nice to see him. He measured her again and got a different measurement than the other nurses. So she's right on the edge of normal and he wants to see her back in a few moths to test again. It's hard to get a good measurement on a wiggly toddler. That's okay. She loved the eye doctor and asks to go back. Maybe it's because they gave her such cool shades.

A Military Child's Perspective

Today after church I was busy cleaning up my lesson and so I asked a friend, Melissa, to go get Darby from nursery and bring her to me. When she brought Darbs back she pulled me aside to tell me something she had said. Melissa said, "I'm here to get you and bring you to your mommy."
Darby said, " I don't have a daddy."
Melissa replied, "Yes you do. He's in Texas right now."
"Nope," said Darby, "he's at the airport. He lives there now. He's not coming back."

Funny and sad all at the same time.

Captains Career Course

Jason here.

So I am in San Antonio, Texas for 9 weeks attending the Medical Officer Captains Career Course. Aside from being away from Christine and the kids for almost 2 months, its a pretty good time so far. We are into our third week of training and it has been good training. The instructors and course material is very interesting, not at all what I expected based on my experience a few years ago. Its not "death by powerpoint" at all.

I am in a group of 23 consisting of a couple dentists, PA's, nurses, Medical Service Corps officers (hospital adminstrators), and Vets. They are a good bunch with interesting things to say and are all pretty cool.



Classes almost always involve a minimum of powerpoint "sage on the stage" style learning and maximum class participation. Lots of practical exercises, cool videos, funny stuff, anecdotes, etc. One day we went to the USO in downtown San Antonio and had a leadership seminar where we watched a couple episodes of Band Of Brothers and talked about the leadership principles involved. There was not a powerpoint slide to be seen!

The other day for a media engagement class an actual camera crew came in and we interviewed each other and then watched and analyzed our performance.



We are encouraged to do things as a class out of class, so we go and break bread a few times a week. It's hard on the budget, but I am making some good pals here. Networking is highly encouraged in this setting because we are pretty much guaranteed to run into each other throughout our careers.

Here are some pictures of Gruene, Texas an amazing place near San Antonio where I went to eat. It has the most authentic Southwest feel of any place I have ever been. It has a social hall where country bands play and folks dance that has been in continuous operation for over a hundred years.





All in all I am having a fine time. If the family was here it would be amazing. San Antonio is a very nice town, a place I could almost see myself living in.

Location:Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio Texas

Eva's ear tubes, part 2

Jason here. Right before I left for the Captains Career Course in San Antonio I took Eva to the ENT to get some more tubes in her ears because she was having hearing issues. The procedure was really quick and Eva was super (as she usually is at the doctors). Here is a picture of Eva after they gave her oral sedation meds... she was super silly/loopy.




Procedure itself only took about 20 minutes. Thank goodness for insurance because the bill said it cost about 5 grand.

Then we drove home and got some chow. I am happy to report that Eva is hearing much better now.

The R177

This is Brendan. A box has been made into a fighter plane! Its name is R177. It has two guns (shown on the front and wings), sensors on the back, controls inside, a secret drawer that has two buttons, thrusters that make the R177 go and a helmet that you place on your head. The controls are a control panel with a screen, a firing button, a speed meter, and a on, off button. Here is a picture of Eva inside it.

Daddy Doll

Since Paige wasn't born yet when Jason last deployed, she never got a Daddy Doll. Now that he is gone for an extended period of time I decide she needed one. It arrived today. The look on her face when she recognized who it was on her doll was priceless.

Daddy's visit

Jason came home for the weekend. We are glad that he is in a training that allows him to have weekends off. The kids were elated when they woke up and saw that Daddy was home. Eva told him that she missed him and Darby asked to play hide n seek. They had a lot of fun with that. Here is Eva counting to 20.

Brendan played Legos with him and then we went for a family walk.

We ate out and later went to Monkey Joes. The night was capped off by family movie night with a pizza picnic. Paige loved being with Dad too. When Darby was her age Jason was deployed and it was really hard upon his return because she didn't remember him. We are so glad that Paigey doesn't have to go through that. In fact, she had trouble going to bed on Saturday night so I let her stay up with Jason and I a bit longer than usual.

Since Sunday was General Conference we spent most of the day in our pajamas playing. Jason played princesses, read books, talked about video games and was an all around fun dad. Don't worry, I got some time with him too.

The kids were pretty upset when he had to go the airport today. Darby asked if she could go with him and Eva started crying in the car. Brendan understands that we will see him again in about three weeks but the girls don't really get it. I already have a countdown going. :)

Children's Museum

Over Spring Break we went to the local children's museum. Its not very big but it was nice to get out and do something different. The girls really liked it. It was a bit too "little kid" for Brendan but once his friend Parker showed up, he was happy too.

Here is Judge Brendan. Looks right at home, eh?

Eva played dress up and made a new friend playing "Mystery Princesses". I'm not sure how you play the game but I know it involves dressing up pretty and sneaking around.

News anchor Darby

And Paige in the Tot Room, which I thought was pretty neat and where I spent most of the time.

Good Weather Coming

 This week has seen the beginning of springtime weather. The plants and trees know it. In our backyard the trees have been blossoming. Darby calls them "popcorn trees".

The other day the older kids went outside. Soon I heard, "Mom! Mom!" I looked out and they were all excited about a lizard. This was a pretty cool lizard. He had a split tail, like it had been cut and then both halves started to grow. The kids were highly entertained by him.

Brendan and Eva are excited to plant the garden when Daddy gets back.

Paige crawled out of the door while we were watching the lizard. I rarely let her outside without being held but I decided to give it a try. Paige was very curious about the grass on her hands. Then she found the basketball.

That was a fun toy for a while until it rolled into the rocks. As she went to get it, she discovered rocks. And how they taste. Sadly, I had to take her in because she kept eating rocks.  She was so sad.