For our Secret Santas...and one for my Mom!

Dear Secret Santas,
Than you for making it so much fun to get up! (Except for Bryan--did you see the photo in the previous post? Being 16 and getting up before noon just don't go together.) You all really make us wonder just who you are. We are having fun; I hope you are too.
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Did you see this cartoon in the paper today? "The Argyle Sweater" comic:

Mom, this one's for you: Do you remember the scarf and hat sets that Granddaddy and Mary sent Janet and me for Christmas one year? It was in Cheyenne. I was in sixth grade. Mine was blue, and Janet's was red, and they had HAPPY FACES on them! Then you spent the next six years trying to get me to stop using that scarf! It's been raining so much here that I got us all new umbrellas today--here's mine!

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

our true friend gave to us...

a magazine (I love Mary Engelbreit! this will be fun!) and snacks and oranges to enjoy on a cold, rainy day. Thank you, S.S.!
Doesn't Bryan look lovely? He just woke up.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas....

A calendar and address book (I need organization desperately! Thank you!), a magnet (Max Lucado's saying on it--"If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it!") and a panda bear, which Luci quickly appropriated for herself. Thank you, S.S.!!

And this just for fun, from three years ago...Luci's first Christmas with us. She still feels the same way about Santa Claus! The best part of this picture is Santa. Look at his expression!

I took a poll...

We've had some very nice friends ask us about Christmas Day, and would we like to spend part of it with them?
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So I asked the kids. This is our third Christmas with John on a military trip. It's not exactly new territory. The first Christmas we spent at home, doing all of our regular traditions. The second Christmas, we did things differently and we were miserable! So this year we are sticking with what we usually do with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and being homebodies.
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So, all of you incredibly good people are off the hook. :)

Here's the deal...

Over the last two years, JT has been on a mission to get a pet. An indoor pet. I have rebelled against the idea; our house is already a zoo with three primates. I did promise JT an indoor pet if Daddy gets called up for a military trip that's two months long or longer. At the time, John going on another trip seemed very unlikely.
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But here we are.
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I did talk him down from a dog (you gonna clean up after him?) or a cat (I'm allergic), and we settled on one of the following: Guinea pig, hamster or gerbil. I campaigned for the one with the shortest lifespan.
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JT figured out that these animals are nocturnal, and that means he'd have to listen to a squeaky exercise wheel all night. He came to me with a proposal:
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Can I trade the hamster for a video game instead?
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Sure, son! Sounds fair to me!
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We are both happy.

This animal? Don't let the photo fool you. This is one of those battery-operated toys from Cracker Barrel!

Secret Santa Continued...

On the Second Day of Christmas, my true friend gave to me (uh, us!) a Cranium game! This is so fun. Thank you, S.S. Not just for the game, but for the friendly way Bryan and JT played together...it's been a while since they've gotten along so well. Whomever you are (and I suspect you are more than one person), you certainly have brightened our days.The Fourth Day of Christmas said, "Do not open until Dec 16th!" Since that's tomorrow, we used our rusty logic to justify opening the Third Day of Christmas, too--which is a big, wonderful jar of cocoa mix (and it's very good, too! Must have the recipe, S.S.!) and 4 cute, cute Christmas mugs. The cocoa went very well with game #2 of Cranium. Luci was up from her nap, so she teamed up with Bryan. (They won, the stinkers. In the first game, it was me against both boys, and I won!) Luci has chocolate milk in her cup instead, she can't take the heat. We used up the last of our homemade marshmallows, so I'm up late tonight making some more (did you know that store bought ones have blue dye in them?!) so we can have them with cocoa in the morning.

This photo is just for fun. Luci is "pulling a JT." When JT was 4, he snuck all the candy out of his Advent calendar when I wasn't looking. Today Luci ate all but three of the remaining candies in her calendar. You can't see it very well here, but she has chocolate all over her face. I love how her eyes look--like little moons.

We are starting the First Day of Christmas puzzle tomorrow (a gorgeous manger scene).

Somebody Loves Us!

We got out to the van this morning and found presents! What a surprise! Someone, someone very sneaky, left us presents for each of the first 7 "Days of Christmas." A new treat every day for a week!

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The first inclination is to rip through everything, but we are being good! Can't wait til tomorrow to see what #2 holds.

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Thank you, whomever you are. You really made us feel loved and so special. Here's a treat for you: A Christmas Quiz It's harder than it looks!

This made me LOL

That's Laugh Out Loud. Zits is often the "That-happened-here" comic strip.
Well phooey. I re-posted the comic, choosing the smallest setting for photo size and it still left off the last frame! Here it is on the web, if you must see the whole thing. But the third frame tells the story well enough!

Major Bummer!

Perhaps that should be Lieutenant Colonel Bummer! John's military computer won't let him view our blog...since it is considered a social networking site.
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So, we will continue to bore you all to tears, and I'll find some other way to share photos with John. Email works, but it's limited somewhat in the number of photos you can send. Kodak Easyshare works, but it isn't free, and you can't put videos on there. So we are testing with Photo Bucket and youtube, which are both free for the poster. If Photo Bucket works, then we don't need youtube.

What we did today

We went to Build a Bear Workshop and got a couple of bear-y cute outfits for the kids' bears with John's messages. Here's Luci with the mermaid Ariel. (Bryan wants everyone to know that his bear did NOT get an outfit.)


Luci is looking more like me everyday!

When we woke up this morning, the snow was still here! The temp got up over freezing, though, so now most of it's gone.
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JT took these shots this morning. This is my favorite. A view down the road.

The back yard.John! Look at your truck!

Got a Call from the Superintendent Today

I guess he didn't realize that we HOMESCHOOL. It cracked me up! It was one of those robo-calls informing the county school system parents that school would be closing today (Thursday) at 1 pm and re-opening at 10 am on Friday. Because it might snow. Might. The boys were thrilled--an official call stating that they did not have to do any school work after 1 pm! (As if I listen to the Superintendent anyway! We march to a different drummer, that's why we homeschool!)

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We did get some snow, but not until 6 pm, long after the early school dismissal. Some parts of the county roads will be icy in the morning, so the 10 am opening makes sense. This is the part of the country that freaks out when there's any hint of snow. I guess New Orleans and Houston really freaked out!

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We got 2 good inches here, the most since JT was 3. That's since 1999! So what did we do? We went out in the dark and played in it! the nature of snow in Alabama is that it will melt very soon, so we didn't want to take a chance and wait until morning. It might be all gone by then!

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These first two pictures aren't that good but they show the HUGE, ENORMOUS snowflakes we got and look at the shadows they cast!!

Camera set to the "night setting." So it's a bit blurry.

Look! The snowman's taller than Luci! Good, wet, sticky snow.

My angels making angels.

Resting in the "snow fort."

Did I mention that we played in the DARK?!

CoCoRaHS

CoCoRaHS is the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network, mentioned on this blog before. This map of rain and snow reports is from yesterday. Each dot is a reporting station, like us. We are one of the orange dots in NW Alabama, registering 3.70-5.54 inches of precipitation yesterday (we had 3.90 inches of rain! And today we might have SNOW!!!).

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Here's how to join CoCoRaHS--really good for adding to a homeschool day!

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In January, Idaho will be added to the network--Dad, I think you'd find this stuff interesting. Right up there with your nature studies with the bird feeder and squirrel feeder.

Crunching Numbers

12......Bryan's new shoe size
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7687.6......miles from home to Kabul (go NorthEast from here)
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12370.45......kilometers from home to Kabul (I'll stick with miles, it sounds closer)
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32.8......Luci's weight at 49 months
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3.90......inches of rain we got overnight
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5......more inches for JT to grow to be as tall as me
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0......nights in the past month that Luci slept all night
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6,000......number of Hot Wheel car track set parts on my living room floor right now
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7......number of times a dog stole our newspaper
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6.......number of times I complained to the newspaper carrier
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1......number of times I saw dog carrying said paper (and then called to apologize to said carrier)
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16......number of times I heard "It wasn't my fault" today
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1......great husband who loves his country
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7811 ft......altitude in Kabul
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616 ft......altitude at home
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3......kids who keep me plenty busy

Christmas Cards

I have John's Kabul address, if any of you would like to send him a Christmas card. It would be pretty neat for him to get letters from all around the world. If you'd like his address, please email me. Just click on the "View my complete profile" to the right--my email is listed in the profile under "contact." Please put BLOG in your subject line so I don't think you are spam!

Afghanistan Engineer District

Something new since John's first trip to Afghanistan...the Corps of Engineers' website now has the Afghanistan Engineer District on it. Lots of information there. Since I don't have a support group like many of the spouses whose soldiers and airmen are deployed, this is a very nice tool.

John was stationed there when it became an official district office of the CofE! Pretty neat. (John, I can't find the disc of Afghanistan pictures to post that pic of you with the cake--can you email me and tell me where it is, please?)

For the Dads--that's a good site to bookmark in your favorites list!

Standard Operating Procedure

My S-O-P when John's on these trips is, No News Is Good News. Because if something does go wrong, God forbid, they will find me and let me know. So, when John is traveling, I try to not worry too much. (I don't always succeed.) When John left US soil last night, we knew he'd probably be out of touch until he got to his duty station in Afghanistan. What a nice surprise when John called during our lunch today! He was in Kuwait, awaiting transport to Bagram.
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John has, in the past, been able to call nearly every day and send emails just as often. I know we've been fortunate; some soldiers don't have that ability because they are out in the field, or perhaps the communications set-up isn't complete for their unit.
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Another S-O-P is Don't Ask, Don't Tell. But for us it doesn't mean what you think it means! It means, "Don't ask John about the bad stuff because you really don't want to know."

What John's Doing Now

Well, ok, he's not really cleaning base laundromats. But this was funny, and the title got your attention!
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We got a phone call from John today as he was passing through Kuwait. They are flying to Bagram and will be there early Monday morning, their time.

Christmas Mini-Study

We have not gotten back into our Weaver studies yet. We'll dive back into that in January. During the holidays, it is nice to ease up and study Christmas, make holiday gifts and cookies, all that sort of thing. Today the kids and I worked on a little-bitty unit study on Christmas Symbols. It was a mixture of history and language arts, with some drawing thrown in. Here's the site I used for information: Christmas Symbols.

As usual, Luci spent her time un-doing things. She has taken everything off the lower shelf of her closet and it is a total wreck!

Tomorrow John flies out from Georgia, headed to Kuwait (commercial flight) and then Afghanistan (lovely military transport). Prayers for his safety are appreciated.

Phthbhpth!

Is that how you spell a raspberry?
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We went to church to help with the toy and coat giveaway, setting out tons and tons of toys for the expected 300+ families who will come on Saturday. Bryan, JT and even Luci worked hard, and were such *angels* the entire time. I thought we'd work for an hour, then come home for lunch. We stayed for 3 hours! Bryan and JT worked the entire time, and Luci was a helper and "toy-tester." Everyone was impressed with our kids. John--be proud, too! They were great!
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Then comes the lunch, which Mark paid for, from Chik-Fil-A. Yummy, and so nice because we didn't expect any kind of payment--but nothing from Chik-Fil-A is Feingold-diet safe. The potatoes have a form of corn syrup, and probably the buns, too. Then, I was so stupid! I took the kids to Arby's after working to get a Mint Chocolate Swirl shake. So stupid! That thing is loaded with fake colors and corn syrup.
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So now my little angel who must avoid corn syrup is a major devil! I craved that milkshake (gotta admit, it was really good--sorry, Feingold friends!) and now I'm paying for it.

Boot Camp

No, John's not at boot camp--he's at a mobilization station. The boot camp is for the boys today! We needed a bit more discipline with getting up times, doing chores and lessons. So they were woken up by a drill sergeant (me!) and had to get in line for chow after getting dressed and making their beds.
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Oh, you shoulda heard the complaining! Push-ups were given out, ten at a time, for those who talked back to the sergeant, or made not-so-nice comments to other troops. One certain red-head did 40 push-ups total before breakfast was over. The red-head complained that he was not happy. Sergeant told him that "Boot camp continues until Mama's happy."
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It was a success this morning. Schoolwork is done, and the house is tidier, and we are off to work at the church for our give-away day coming up on Saturday.
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Some of you have asked what John's job is with the military. He's an electrical engineer, with a specialty in lighting. Here's his Christmas uniform: John called this morning to report that he passed all of his training, and told me the secret to his success, and I quote him: "They have it set up so you can't fail this stuff." I guess when they get you that close to actually going, they don't want to send anyone home.
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Luci's all ready ready for John to come home. She has a pile of drawings (she calls it her email) "to show Daddy when he gets home tonight." John wants me to set up my computer to use the video-cam that's built into it. I don't really want to because that means I have to have my hair and make-up on all the time! But for Luci's sake, I guess we'll do it.

Qualifies as almost a Miracle

Luci had some suspicious spots on her teeth...at least the dentist thought so last July when Luci wouldn't cooperate and just screamed at the dentist...they could only look in when she was yelling. So today we had a consult visit at a dentist that specializes in children. Luci did fantastically! Once I got her out of the van, anyway. It was hilarious trying to drag her out of the van. She was horizontal, holding onto the seat belt in the back seat, and I was pulling on legs, trying to not pull off her pants. Looked like a cartoon.

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After signing her in, Luci calmed down. That was surprising, to say the least. And when she was called back, she didn't even hold my hand! She followed the woman into the lair...

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and climbed up on the x-ray chair (helps to call it a princess throne) and had her first ever teeth x-rays. The area for tooth inspection didn't look anything like a dentist's office. It is charming! When have you ever heard a dentist's office described as charming?! I wish I could go to this dentist. Luci climbed right up on the table, and watched cartoons from a tv hanging from the ceiling. I would want to watch HGTV.

She was very brave! I am so proud of Luci, and so pleased with Dr. Lentz. Luci acted so calm but you could see the tension if you knew where to look. Both hands had fingers crossed like this:

We have to go back. That quick look the first dentist had was correct. Luci has small cavities in the last tooth on the top and bottom, on both sides. 4 teeth, 4 cavities. So we go back in January in two visits, and now I am not dreading the appointments ahead of time.

Christmas Party, Homeschool Style

Today we went to Creekside for their homeschool Christmas party. It was a lot of fun, and a great thing to look forward to after the emotion of the past week. Here are JT, Luci and Bryan in their Christmas t-shirts. Yes, they look sweet in that picture. But here's how we usually see Luci:The younger group had an ornament exchange. Luci did not want to give hers up! She did participate, though, and had a great time. I'm proud of her; she was the youngest in the group and did so well!

The older kids and grown-ups played "Dirty Santa" with $3 gifts. JT and I both ended up stealing gifts from the same boy...I'm sure he wished we hadn't come today. I stole a John Deere coffee mug for JT, and JT stole a dvd for Bryan. Bryan stole a Santa ornament from a young lady (a cutie named Amber) who didn't want the Santa, and she said Bryan was "Awesome!"

That made his whole day.

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After the party, we stuck around for the clean-up. I heard quite a few nice things about Bryan and JT and the work they did.

JT did this all by himself! He loved showing off his muscles.

Here's Luci "helping." She's the one on the right, trying to figure out how to get up there. If she'd made it, she would have been in big trouble!
And here's what they do when they think no one's looking!

Advent

This year our Advent study will begin on Mondays instead of the Advent Sunday that churches traditionally use. Nap-time for Luci takes precedence on Sundays. We light candles in our Advent wreath, sing songs, and have a Bible study. Today the kids got a little kooky when Bryan started his song (they all get to choose one from our little carol booklets--bought way back in 1997! I do goofy things like writing dates in the books I buy). Bryan got up to lead his song and JT and Luci decided it looked like too much fun to miss.
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John called...today was "shot day." Small pox and anthrax were just two of the inoculations. Sometimes you just don't wanna know the details.

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A chaplain also gave lectures to the troops. It was stuff like how to make sure the folks at home know you love them, and how to react when the wife calls and says there's trouble in the back yard with the septic tank. It was reassuring to know that we (John and I) are doing what the experts say we should do for each other and for the children. It was funny, too, because during John's first deployment the call was not about the septic tank and the backyard. It was about the septic tank backing up into the basement! (Every once in a while John will still ask where something is that got destroyed in "the flood." Since he missed it, he never did catch on to just how awful and devastating that was!)

It's a Happy Day!

And we praise God for the Weather!That was the song in our house this morning. What a nice surprise!

Here's the rest of the verse:

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It's a Happy Day!

and we're living it for our Lord!

It's a Happy Day

and things are gonna get better...

Just a-livin' each day

in the Promise of God's Word!

D is for Deployment

Today was the day. We took John to the airport this morning. The man at the ticket counter gave the kids and me a pass to get in to the gate area so we could wait with John. That was really nice--I didn't know that was allowed.
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JT helped carry John's pack. It was about a third of JT's weight. Whew!The boys got along most of the day--getting rid of corn syrup has been such a big key! (JT just told me that when I took this picture, he was hitting Bryan! Yikes! They look friendly.)

Awwww.

Guess who?

Waiting and watching the Weather Channel.

After John boarded the plane, the kids and I went to Cracker Barrel. It's become a tradition. We all did well today. I'm sure we'll have our moments of upset, but today was good. Luci is our shot of hilarity all the time. I'm sure the people in the boarding area were very happy to see that the 4-year-old Energizer Bunny was not getting on the plane! Ask her, and she'll tell you her Daddy is going to "Affana-affanistan."