I wake up every day thinking of my Grandma. The time change has messed me up so I wake up anywhere between 5:30AM and 7AM. I wake up and have two thoughts running through my head at the same time “I should call Grandma, she’s the only one awake now” and “I can’t believe she won’t answer if I did call” ~ funny how you can think two things at once. It’s strange to have the overlap in my head.

On the way up to South Dakota for her funeral it rained most of the trip. The kids sat in the back of the mini van and played, read, and of course took naps. Alice has a small’ish teddy bear that she’s had since Chris’ first deployment and I’m not sure how (or why) it was with us in the car, but it was. I heard them talking about wearing the bear like you wear babies when they are little and heard Alice say something about her sweater having a zip so it was easy to turn it around. Jake was upset for a minute that his sweater didn’t have a zipper, but you can see it didn’t hold him back from anything.

They fell asleep with the bear in Alice’s hood. Jake got the bear once they woke up though.

The concert was a few weeks ago but - hands down these guys put on such an awesome show!!!

Let’s see - so I had tickets to the Houston concert which was on a Thursday - but no one to watch my son. A friend said she would, then it turned out there was a wives dinner that night as well, and I felt bad leaving Jake with just whoever I could. After not having anyone to watch him, and Chris working late that night, I didn’t go to the concert. I did go to the dinner, which was fun so at least that.

Friday Alice and I left for the San Antonio concert early’ish - I figured we would grab something to eat in San Antonio, plus I wasn’t sure how traffic would be heading that way. Except the car decided to take that moment and have a heart attack - the engine light started blinking right when we left town and after pulling over to read that this is a bad thing, turn around and go home. Jake was with a friend and Chris was to be off work about an hour from then. So Alice and I get Jake and come home, waiting for Chris so we can get out of town!

Chris gets home and we leave - from hearing about other concerts I figured they would be on stage about 8:30. The AT&T Center was really easy to find, thank goodness, and we got there about 8:40. I said okay we just missed maybe one song and them coming on stage. But I was wrong!

Natasha Bedingfield opened for them and she was still on when we got there. We found our seats, listened to the song she was doing and then walked out to get tshirts. I got one for each of us and also a charm bracelet - I know, I know. But hey, I never got to see them in concert back in the day so I treated myself.

After we sat back down, they came onstage in about a minute - perfect timing! They were so awesome! We had great seats, second row up from the floor and Alice stood on her seat which made her as tall as me. Toward the end they moved to a circular stage at the back of the floor - so directly in front of us. It spun around and had a piano on it, they did two or three songs from there and then when they ran back to the stage they ran right in front of us. When I realized they were coming our way, I grabbed Alice and put her in front of us to put her hand out, but I didn’t tell her what I was doing so she didn’t put her hand out, she was just confused. LOL Jon was the last to run by though.

When I got home I told Chris, I don’t have any regrets in life (and I don’t, I wouldn’t be who I am today without doing or seeing or saying or whatever everything I’ve done) - but I regret not going to NKOTB in Houston.  LOL

So great, loved it, awesome show! My camera is not good at all and I only tried taking a dozen pictures or so. The ones in the post are the only two that came out decent, and even they aren’t that great! I did get a video though so I’m happy about that.

This just means I need to buy a new camera.

It’s late, but oh so worth the wait!!!

jake the Boiled Egg and Alice the Fairy!

It was Jake’s idea to be an egg and he did go back and forth as to if he was going to be boiled or a hard egg. I figured making a hard egg would be easy, but as it turned out making a boiled egg was pretty easy too. I used chicken wire, batting, a white pillow case and a white dress shirt of Chris. The B is drawn on with a fabric marker. He also has on a white stocking hat and at various times would duck down so you couldn’t see him but just see the egg.

Alice’s fairy outfit is a black shirt of Chris’ cut up (cut on the arms and bottom like tinkerbell) with glitter on it, black tights, belt from a pair of jeans she bought, fairy wings from a neighbor (which I found on clearance the other day so now Alice has her own pair!). Oh and a wand and a feather barrette. I found the wings again on clearance so bought her a pair since the Halloween night ones were loaned to us.

That night Jake said he wants to be an egg again next year, so we’ll see how he feels when the time comes around. I think it would be fun to do a family costume! I’m not sure Chris would dress up, but I do have a year to talk him into it.

Electing Barack Obama as President makes me feel like my kids or my grandkids could be President. And it proves yet again that you don’t need to come from a rich, powerful family to do whatever you want to do, that hard work definitely pays off.

Lakotas say Mitakuye Oyasin - We are all related.

Saying that doesn’t mean we want a socialist government like some people think President Elect Obama saying ‘we are one’ means we do. It means whatever you do affects everyone else, that in our prayers we pray for all, leaving no one out, that everyone deserves respect.

I’m not sure when it started but I remember it being around for a while now. It’s the group that passes out “I’m Indian and I voted” buttons (or maybe the button says “I’m Indian and I Vote”? Alice won’t give me the button cause it’s hers LOL) (Indian being Native American or American Indian). My Mom got one during the primaries and gave it to Alice so she could have it. We’ve talked about the election since the kids are old enough to sort of understand it. I know they don’t understand the importance of voting though, how you need to be informed and make a good decision.

I voted a couple of weeks ago, via absentee ballot. Since we vote absentee I didn’t know a lot about the local things being decided on so I read the booklet that came with the ballot and got online to do some research. Voting absentee isn’t as exciting as being able to go in and show my kids voting, but we talked about it and I showed them how you vote for so many things and people all at once.

I thought about my Grandma, who as far as I know was a lifelong Republican (I’m sure someone in my family will know if I just ask), and who wanted Barack Obama to win. She died in August. Barack Obama’s Grandma died yesterday. I know they are watching to see what decision is made and I hope that they are able to see this country’s first black president. I can’t imagine the joy they would feel!

I voted for freedom, I voted for life, I voted for morality, I voted for the economy, I voted for my kids, I voted for my friends, I voted for my family, I voted for the military. I voted for so many things!

I voted against fear tactics. I voted for more then one reason. I voted for more then one idea.

~ The kids have friends who come knocking on the door. That makes me so happy! I don’t even know why. But they come to see if the kids can play outside and are so cute.

~ Funny how a trip to get an oil change and to stop at the craft store to spend a gift card can turn into oil change, craft store, toy store, eating out, and three other stores. We didn’t get home until just after 10 last night. I stayed up to fold more laundry though. LOL We did find a couple of stocking stuffer gifts for the kids and I got resin at the craft store. I’m going to try making some jewelry later today, hopefully it will work!

~ Happy Birthday to one of my best pals Michelle! I’m not even sure she reads my blog, I’m going to email her so she will see my shoutout.

~ NKOTB in five days!!

~ This week is going to fly by because I have so much to do next weekend: Thursday night is the NKOTB concert, Friday night we are having people over, Saturday is the SpouseBuzz Live event in San Antonio (still not 100% sure I’m going to be able to go!), Saturday and Sunday are also Maker Faire in Austin (also not sure I can go!). I hate being so close and not being able to attend either of these events! There was a chance I would buy tickets to the NKOTB concert on Friday night, rescheduling our Friday night get together, but I can’t get good seats for that night and I already have good ones for Thursday. And I have friends lined up to watch Jake for me too, Alice is going to the concert with me and we are staying overnight. Oh I need to make our hotel reservation!

~ In a perfect world I would have Friday night tickets, stay overnight in San Antonio for SBL, and then go home that night. Sunday wake up and take the kids to Maker Faire. I’d then spend the next week resting from running all over in a short time. LOL

~ I have a lot going on and have been loving my todoodlist. I’m surprised at that because I figured just writing a list was good enough - just a slight change makes it work a little better. I was keeping lists all over the place - my tasks list and memos on the blackberry (which I still love and am so happy to have!), a notebook I carry with me, I even found a couple in the voice recorder (also on the bb) that I totally forgot about.

~ I hesitate to complain about Chris’ work stuff but dang we haven’t been getting paid right for months! It’s getting frustrating and I can only hope it gets fixed soon. We’ve never had pay issues before, though know a lot who have, and I can finally understand why they are so upset when they talk about it. What seems like it should be an easy fix just never is! I just read over on the spouse buzz blog a quote that made me feel so much better! I’m going to think that from now on - “Somehow, never in history, has anyone moved from enlisted to officer” “Somehow, never in history, has someone traveled for their job” - check out the blog for the context. It does make me feel better.

The past couple of weeks have been flat out awesome for us. I am chalking it up to the massive amounts of fresh air and sunlight.

Photo by: jonl

hey, this is close to where we live

We’ve been spending the afternoons outside - the kids made fast friends with the neighbor kids and I met another neighbor. The kids and the neighbor boys are so cute together! Jake and one of them are the same age - the little boy has come over every day after he gets out of school to see if the kids can come outside, we are either already out or on our way. They ride scooters up and down the street or play tag. Last night we met another neighbor, the family has daughters, one the same age as Alice. So it seems they are sort of, kind of good here. I mean we all need friends right - and though the kids get along so great, I’m starting to be happier being here.

Not that my craft room is finished - or when I wanted to paint tshirts yesterday we had everything - and it stinks that Chris gets a one day weekend when, since it’s a holiday, so many others have a three day weekend. We are heading over to get an oil change later today and a quick stop at the craft store. I want to make jewelry for the NKOTB concert Alice and I are going to in just a few days. (YAY!!!)