Tik-Toc Ten on Tuesday

10.I watch the clock.

It moves SLOWLY.

Everyday, it seems to move even more slowly than the day before.

9. Every night for the past several days, I've spent my time reading "The Confessions of the Pioneer Woman" and it might or might not be as interesting as Twilight!

8. Sadly, I've also worn a self-made snuggie around the house because I got tired of being wrapped in a blanket when I could just wear it. (Hey, I've got no one to impress around here)

7. She's COMING! My sister arrives on Thursday and I could only be happier about ONE other arrival still a few weeks away.

6. Today, Mari and her family saved Jackson's sweet mouth from the wrath of being shut with duct tape. Man, I love that little talker but he NEVER STOPS talking!

5. At 10 months old, I still carry sweet Lincoln around in my Baby K'Tan carrier about 2-3 hours a day. It is the only way I can cook anything that resembles dinner in the evenings. Most days that's just mac and cheese but it still requires skills that the 4 year old doesn't yet possess. (Maybe I should get him a stool high enough to reach the microwave and then he could cook his own frozen dinners!)

4. Lincoln is also saying all the normal 10 month old baby things...He can wave haphazardly "Hi" and "Bye" and yell "Ma" and "Dada" but we're not sure he quite gets the latter just yet. Oh, and he definitely does it in the most southern accent possible. You know what they say... You can take the boy out of Alabama, but you'll never take the Alabama out of the boy!

3. We normally stay home on Monday's. I keep myself busy the rest of the days a week on purpose. I am a Stay at home Mom but I definitely DON'T stay home. Today got the best of me. Around 4pm, I got dressed and was about to make the terrible mistake of going to Walmart out of SHEER BOREDOM! Boy that would have cost Jason a pretty penny. Lucky for him, we got a txt invite for neighborhood playtime.

2. I admittedly started a blog out of pure peer pressure. Everyone else was doing it and I coveted their memories being kept in real time so last year almost exactly, I started one too. Now, I'm participating in "Ten on Tuesday" for the same peer pressure. I can admit, I'm not beneath it. I'm definitely a follower.

1. I long for the days when I have someone tugging me to go to bed at 930. To lay in bed and watch mindless TV. To have more noise in the house than the sounds of Roxy snoring on the couch. I can't wait for someone to beg me off this blame computer and talk to them instead. If my blog takes a hiatus in the month of April...you'll all know why!

Yes, I posted this near midnight on Monday but hey, that's close enough and I TOLD you I was bored!

Letter of the Day: "P"

Today we went to the PARK.
There is a new park in the military neighborhood across the street and I have had my eye on it for a fun outing.


We also had a PICNIC.
We ate with 4 mommies and 6 children in the grass with fancy picnic blankets and swanky market totes full of yummy picnic food. On the menu today was homemade guacamole and Italian chicken salad. The kids snacked on mostly chips, dried fruit and bread between playground fights.

Lincoln tried a PICKLE.
He loved it of course. He can occupy himself for hours eating. He also devoured a large piece of whole wheat naan that was supposed to be my sandwich.


And the final "P"...
Jackson may or may not have fled to the woods nearby to use as a makeshift potty. Oh the joys of boys!

J-E-L-L-O

We made jello jigglers last night and had them for breakfast! Yes, breakfast. I had never made jello for the boys before, I'm not a big fan but I knew they would love it. The boy in him of course wanted GREEN jello. We cut out circles and looked through it at how it turned everything green. Jackson wasn't the only one who enjoyed eating jello for breakfast. Sweet Lincoln needed a bath after squishing it between his tiny fingers.

What can you buy with $1.51?

Another win in coupon shopping this week. I got all these things for $1.51. I had pampers coupons, paper towel coupons and $6.00 in ECB from CVS. The food goods were on clearance becuase they were expiring in April. I'm pretty sure we can take care of these cookies and goldfish before that happens. Did I need the cookies? No, but they were certianly tasty with milk and 2 bedtime stories last night.

YELLOW

It's a sure sign of spring coming, those bright yellow, first of spring flowers. I've been waiting a whole year to see them blooming. Knowing that they would symbolize the end of a very long year for us. My Dad has been telling Jackson that his daddy would be home soon when he saw the buttercups blooming. Sadly, here in NC, they are not nearly as plentiful as they are in Northern AL. There, everyone has them and in every field, where an old home once stood, they seem to abound. When I was growing up and well into my college years, I can remember trekking home and going on a search for a place we would "legally" pick buttercups. (Also known as daffodils.) My dad would bring them home by the bunches and mom would arrange them into vases around the house. We would have fun finding all the different varieties. Some have orange and others a couple shades of YELLOW.

It's seemed fitting that Dad has been visiting for the last 8 days now and we have witnessed several small patches of our favorite spring flower. Most of them have been in locations we were not able to pick them but we did discover some on the Cape Fear River Trail recently and brought those babies home. Jackson also thinks he is finding them by picking me EVERY dandelion on the entire trail and placing it in the stroller. He also does this in the yard and it's quite endearing.

Today on the highway, I noticed a patch of great buttercups about 1/2 mile from our neighborhood where they are building a new subdivision. These are sure to be plowed next year so I stopped tonight and picked them all. It's funny that I've lived here in this house more than 5 years now and I've never noticed that patch until today. Regardless, I don't think I've ever been so happy to see them blooming, simply for what their season represents....A HAPPY HOMECOMING...Another reason for a bit of yellow! Break out those yellow ribbons!

The last mile is the hardest

Sure, we're almost there. Yeah, what's another few weeks, it's already been a year. Yes, SO excited. (Can you hear the sarcasm?) Of course we're excited, but it's hard to understand unless you are smack at the end of this deployment and the end of your rope. That a month might as well be another year. The last 4 weeks will DRAG on for days on days that never end. Tomorrow, nighttime will officially NEVER come and I'll be ready to put my kids to bed at 5pm. So, excited yes, exhausted yes....
I often think back to this blog my friend Mari wrote about the last mile her marathon deployment and I'm beginning to relate in a bittersweet way. Why is it that the last mile is the hardest? Thankfully, my dad is here to absorb some of the extra time that has been added to our days. I'm still holding out hope for a sister visit before the final push as well. I know, for me anyway, the worst is yet to come in the waiting game. That final week I will celebrate homecomings of MANY others before I finally see my day come. I'm always happy to see them come home but alas I wait, rather impatiently for my turn at this finish line.
The silver lining...this is officially the LAST homecoming of this kind I will EVER experience. And there is NOTHING bittersweet about that.

48 hour days

How do you spend days that must last 48 hours? While most people wish there were a few more hours in the day, I do not. No, I would like to see a few less hours each day. I'd be willing to cut them in half right now, keeping the sleeping half of course! In an attempt to stay sane, we've been engaging in some scientific experiments and various other activities to ward off the cabin fever of this COLD COLD winter. If success is measured by no crying or serious meltdowns, then we failed miserably but otherwise, it has been entertaining...at least for a moment.

Grow Sea Monkeys. This was a Christmas gift and our 1st attempt at rearing Sea Monkeys. We purified the water, hatched the eggs and it became quite a highlight in our house to check on the sea monkeys. The best part was turning the flashlight on them to see them well. While viewing the sea monkeys on about day 10, Jackson stood on his stool to seem them and lost balance. He toppled over and the sea monkey aquarium went over his head and onto my carpet. I stood in disbelief as he yelled in serious painful remorse..."Oh, no! My sea monkeys, MOM, save them!" Well, there was NO saving the sea monkeys from the depths of the carpet so I had to comfort him and explain that we would have to begin again. He asked me if they had gone to sea monkey heaven. I told him yes, of course they did and he then asked me if there were other sea monkeys there. Yes, yes, son there are millions of sea monkeys in sea monkey heaven! On to sea monkeys round 2.

Become a doughnut maker! Thank goodness this is only pretend! Mom's hips couldn't handle doughnuts on top of all the chocolate chip cookie dough she's been eating after kids go to bed.

Teach your 9 month old brother that there is only one football team that dad is going to find acceptable in this household. That would be Alabama football. Learn this early to be on dad's "best friend" team.

Grow a garden in a bag. Living in NC for the last 7 years has taught me a few things and one of them is just when you think Winter is over and there is no more frosts and Lowes has everyone around you convinced it's the perfect time to buy and plant things...DON'T DO IT! March is still cold here and April WILL inevitably end up with at least one frost. May is the appropriate time to plant things without old man winter going out with a bang. It took a few failed attempts but I learned my lesson. So, we planted nasturtium in a bag and discussed how the plant will daily turn it's leaves toward the sun. Did you know the flowers of this plant are actually edible?


Make mom a fancy Lego car. Complete with all the girly accessories. This car sports all the flowers found in the Lego box. His Lego creations are getting quite elaborate these days. He's a man after my own heart either building helicopters or cruise ships!

Or fix mom's fancy Lego car, or whine about how the legos won't stay together, or throw a full on fit because you can't get it back together the right way leading to a break time from the legos.

We attempted to root a slimacado. Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like, there is a larger avocado type fruit grown in Florida that mimics the avocado with about 30% less fat. It taste just the same to me and so we thought we'd be crafty and try to root the seed. No luck on this one. All I got was alot of questions about why the seed was so big.


This was Round 2 in the sea monkey business. These have fared much better than their previous counterparts. They are lively and remind me of swimming millipedes. I'll admit, I have found them interesting to watch. I just try not to think about the ones swimming in the carpet!



Impress all the neighborhood girls with your newly built volcano kit! It was a neighborhood showing of the deFoor volcano on 116 Leggett. Eruption was right before dinner and no one was injured. But the kids were amazed. It has since erupted about every other day and some casualties have included, CPT Hook and batman but they were brave in their choice to take on the volcano.



GO Shopping! Coupon mom here has been bargain shopping again. This time I scored at CVS with a total bill of around $21 for all this! Notice the 2 large boxes of diapers which each retail for around $20 each.


Help arrives on Tuesday in the form of my daddy. We pick him up in Raleigh at 1125 and no, I'm not counting down the minutes...ok, I admit it...I totally am! I have lots of things planned while he's here. The first one begin RUN...I'm going to RUN away! And do a little running on my own. He'll be here 10 glorious days to play legos and volcanoes, cars and pirate ships. I'm hoping to catch a nap or two, after getting my hair and nails done of course!

Ten on Tuesday

1. If you were given an hour to use a $200 Amazon gift card, what would you buy?
Right now, I'm vacuum-less. My trusty Dyson that I scored years ago at a garage sale has finally bit the dust and if you have any idea how hairy my house is you would rest assured that I would be purchasing a new vacuum.

2. Are there any fairly common foods that you’ve never had?
Not that I can think of. I am not a picky eater and since being married to Jason and living here in the "melting pot USA" I have become quite diverse in my meals. I'm now a fanatic of Thai, Korean and SUSHI!!!

3. What was your favorite way to use your imagination as a kid?
Oh, easy, easy...I would pretend to be a Princess. (never would have guessed huh?) As kids, some cousins of ours had landscaping and trees in their yard and we would play inside the garden pretending to be Kings and Queens. This may have led to some of my high maintenance ways.

4. What’s your favorite state? Why?
Hmmm, I would have to say Florida. It has always been our vacation spot. It has lakes, rivers, and beaches. It also sports WARM weather which now days seems to be hard to come by. Plus, it's where DISNEY WORLD is!

5. If it was our culture to have our parents choose our spouses, do you think yours would make a good choice?
Yes, I think they would have. If asked 10 years ago, I would have had a different opinion. Although I'm not sure they would have chosen the one I married in the beginning(knowing his career would take us far away), I know now they have NO regrets and consider him the son they never had.

6. What’s your favorite herb?
Basil. We grow it every summer to use at home. FYI...it can withstand the NC summer heat!

7. If you could have dinner with one celebrity, who would you choose?
OK, she may not be a celebrity to most but right now, I'd say Beth Moore. She's a Christian author and speaker and she just seems like someone I'd like to be friends with!

8. What’s your favorite Disney movie?
Lady and the Tramp and the Little Mermaid (see above, I want to BE a princess)

9. If you had to listen to the same song over and over for 24 hours, what song would you choose?
I'm currently listening to my latest itunes purchase on repeat....Lady Gaga Bad Romance. I have a tendency to play my favorite songs until I can't stand to hear them anymore. My second choice would be a list of nearly any Christmas songs. Is it too early to get out my Christmas CD's again?

10. How do you order your steak?
Medium for me. It's widely knows they are juicier and tastier this way. But until I find them prepared in frozen meals or Jason gets home, there will be no steaks on my plate for dinner.

I was in a blogging mood and needed a kick start! Thanks Autumn, for letting me borrow your idea!