Mmmmmmmmmm...... Strawberries!!

Having checked the strawberries a few days ago, James and I decided that the first round would be ready to pick today. We debated what we would make with our harvest.

Should we slice them and put sugar on them?

Should we make strawberry shortcake?

What about smoothies? A smoothie sounds good!

We still hadn't decided by the time to pick the berries, so we thought we'd see how many we got and go from there.


Look at all these, Mom!!




This big one looks REALLY good!!




I picked this one for you!




NINE whole strawberries!! Don't these look luscious?? Are you drooling yet?




What should we do with them?? I know!! Let's just EAT them!!




Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... Strawberries!!





We stood in the kitchen and ate the strawberries right out of the bowl (after rinsing them of course! lol) I can't tell you how good and sweet our organically homegrown, pesticide free, chucked the dried out horse manure in the bottom of the hole before we planted them in our home made planter, sun-ripened strawberries tasted.... sooooooooooooooo MUCH better than store-bought ones!

Worthy Cause, Help our Soldiers!

This is one of those "hidden needs" that often go overlooked in the larger picture of war. Most Soldiers do not wake in a war zone thinking, "Today is the day that I'm going to be wounded." The reality is that more than 4,924 Americans have died in the wars, but that is only part of the story. Reports vary, but estimates say more than 31,000 American service members have been wounded since 9/11. These brave men and women need us as much as we need them. Please click below and find out how you can help give our Wounded Warriors comfort and dignity in their time of need.


http://www.operationundergarment.com/

From the website:

When soldiers are injured or sick they are taken to field hospitals in Iraq and are given the best medical care. Quite often their clothes are cut off, burned or soiled and they are disposed of leaving the soldiers in a hospital gown or briefs and just a blanket. These soldiers are sometimes flown to a hospital in Germany wearing only underwear and wrapped in a blanket.

Others are transported in just hospital gowns. Likewise in Germany they do not have much in the way of clothing while in the hospital. The Department of Defense has a great program in place to provide soldiers with clothing once they are released from the hospital in Germany. During their stay in the hospital system they lack the creature comforts we feel they deserve.

We are collecting NEW AND UNUSED underwear, t-shirts, socks, slippers, sweat pants and pajamas to be issued at the hospitals to the injured soldiers. This is a problem we can solve very quickly. Please join us in supporting our wounded and sick soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen by starting a collection box. The soldiers receive excellent medical care and their basic needs are met. Let us come together and help them with comfort.

Have you Hugged a Teacher today?

Today was James's last day of 3 Day preschool. We really love his teachers. Ms. Brigitta, Ms. Mary, Ms. Sara, and Ms. Marty (who already left while we were gone on vacation) have been his teachers for the past 2 years of pre-school. He will be in a different class next fall, but will see them for Pre-school Day Camp this summer and I wanted to get them a nice (inexpensive) gift to show them how much we have appreciated having them in our lives.

After I dealt with some things @ James's school, went to the grocery store, and ran some unavoidable errands, I had 1 1/2 hours to go out and get the gifts (I know, I know... I should have gotten these earlier... but, HEY, I've been BUSY!!). I had a $15 Bath & Bodyworks gift card and and a plan. The plan was to get them all a small hand care kit and a gift card to the bookstore.

So I took a little time to make a card to go on the front of the gift bags that said, "I've got to hand it to you... You're a great teacher in my book" (Corny, I know), thinking I was just going to run in and out of the strip mall (since I knew EXACTLY what I wanted) and be able to make it back for the ice cream party. This, unfortunately, meant that I didn't leave the house until after 12 (party was at 1 and the strip mall is 15 mins away). No problem, right?

WRONG!

I got to the strip mall ran in the front door and over to B&BW.... except..... there is NO BB&W THERE!! Whaaaaa?? So, I'm like.... Ok... I'll just get them a bigger gift card to the bookstore.... no problem, right?

WRONG!

I run over to the bookstore.... except..... there is NO BOOKSTORE THERE!!

CRAP!!

I dash back to the car and make an emergency call to my friend Tracy (who is the goddess of cheap gifts that don't seem to be), hoping for some inspiration.... but discover that she's already left to go to the Dr's office.

DOUBLE CRAP!!

Ok.... I take a few deep breaths and "dukes of hazzard" it over to Walmart in desperation. And they must have released all the slow, old people out of the doors for some perverted geriatric race as I got there, because I had to sit and wait by the front doors for all of them to get the heck out of my way.

So I *finally* get into the store and am racing around to find *some* sort of hand cream/care kit and photobook to go with the cute bags I wasted time on earlier. I couldn't find anything I liked, so I ended picking up a foot care thing.... which of course meant I couldn't use my bags.... and I think, WHAT am I going to do now? I decided to head over to the accessory dept to see if they had any cheap, reuseable bags I could throw this stuff in, because, seriously, what teacher doesn't need another bag, right?

When I got over there I found the CUTEST big canvas totes with an american flag in the shape of the USA on them and red or navy bottoms/straps! For $3 each!!!! PERFECTION!! Plan B (or is it Plan W by now??) has gone into effect! I drop the footcare stuff, snag 3 bags and run over to the summer dept to look for some sort of water bottle. They had 3 metal reuseable water bottles for $4 each... add a $1.97 spool of ribbon to it and I was out of there (with *green* gifts... are you proud of me Sandy?? lol) for $28 for 3 teachers. Not bad.... not great... but not bad. So folded the bags, rolled them around the water bottles (with the flag showing), and tied it all off with the red/white/blue ribbon and called it a day.

I made it to class at 1:08. lol

*whew*

Teacher Appreciation is not supposed to be this hard!!

Random Stuff that I didn't get to blog about this week

As you know, this has been one heck of a week for our little family, as a result, the little things that I would have blogged about in a normal week got pushed to the side. So here are a few tidbits that I'd like to share.

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I surprised Hubby with his "coming home" present a year early, since a friend of mine was selling it and I wanted to make sure it was exactly what he wanted. It was and he was THRILLED beyond belief. I wish I could have truly surprised him with it when he got home, but, eh... you do what you've gotta do, right??





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The 3 days of Spring we get here in Kansas have come and gone, lol... but look what they left behind!

My lovely rose shrub and hosta plant by the front door:



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AND our Strawberries!! WOW!

James and Daddy checking out the Strawberries they planted last year in the planter they made:




Wow, Dad! Look at all the berries!!






Here's one *almost* ready to eat!




Let's not forget the carrots:




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This is first time I've EVER seen James draw a pic of a recognizable person

James: "That's ME! With a lot of HAIR! Ha Ha Ha Ha!"

He kept turning the drawing pad upside down and saying "Look I'm frowning!!" and then right side up and saying "Now I'm smiling!" What a card!:




The 2nd time I've ever seen him draw a recognizable person and the FIRST time he's ever drawn a picture of our family (the "faces" don't have heads around them.... it's just dots for the eyes and nose and a curved line for the smile. The bodies come directly out of the smiles):




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That, plus a whole lot of packing and running around, was our week. Busy, busy, busy.


p.s. We did get to speak with Hubby tonight. He's having a lot of briefings, ect right now, but he made it fine to Ft. Benning and will be flying out by the end of the week.

Well... that's it....

He's gone.

We got up this morning at 4:30am and took Hubby to the airport. He's flying to Ft. Benning, Ga today for a week of training and will be "boots on the ground" in Iraq by June 1.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Countdown Clock

Make your own Countdown Clocks

Operational Deletion.....

APPROVED!!

Yeah... I meant to mention this on Monday afternoon... but we've been a little busy around here! lol

On one hand.... YAY!! We don't have to move!

On the other..... Booooooooooo. Hubby is leaving. His plane takes off in 31 hours and 10 minutes.

That's a deal?

James to Daddy, as heard from the living room:


Let's make a deal. You sit on the furniture, and I'll climb on you!

The Saga Continues....

Well, dear readers.... here we are, 5 days before Hubby is supposed to ship out to Iraq.... and we STILL don't know whether he's going on Saturday OR if we are going to have to pack up the house and move! ~insert MONDO eyeroll here~

For those of you who haven't been following along, Hubby was given orders to Fort Bliss about a month and a half ago, where he would join a BCT and deploy, necessitating us to move to Texas. THEN he was told that he was hand picked, BY NAME, to join a MTT team and deploy, but we (James and I) could stay here, where we have friends, a home and James's school. For Hubby to be part of this MTT team, his orders to Bliss needed to be deleted, and we've been told for the last 3 or so weeks that this would not be a problem, since he had everything done, all we needed was the General to sign off on the Order Deletion.

That order has been on his desk for 2 weeks and he still hasn't signed it.

We are sitting here, 5 days out and have no idea what's going to happen or where we are going to live this summer.

We found this out last week while we were on vacation (I'll blog about that later, it was sooooooooooooo much fun!), and thank goodness we did! At least, hubby was able to make some phone calls and alert some people to the fact that they might be short for the mission. If we hadn't found out until today (we got home last night late), it would have probably been a done deal that we would be moving.

I am so frustrated, I could scream! I haven't been looking into schools or places to live in Texas, because we thought this was a lock! We would have taken a trip to Texas this past week looking for houses and signing leases, instead of going to Branson, swimming, fishing, going to Silver Dollar City, ect and having fun.

Please keep your fingers crossed that whatever is best for our family, comes to pass (Hey, God.... Yeah... It's me, Sharon.... could you try to have that whole "best thing for the fam" stuff to happen here at Ft.Lv?? Kaithanx!).

Whoda thunk it?

Wow... 2 posts in one day... I'm on a roll! lol



I opened a notepad window and let James type in it (because he was bugging the CRAP out of me to let him type) and look what he wrote!

POP KID POP. HOP KID HOP. STOP KID STOP

Actually.... that is just a snippet.... his entire writing was this:

FTRE6TFVGMVRGVV GJB HGVJFXHB,FJLCB.K,LJKGJFGLTKKYUTTTTTTTTTT8IUIRUOI5RTGUROIROOOOOOOOOOOUYDF7YEU8RUOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
VXASGDDDDDDDRW,,,LLLLLLL;IKPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;OUDCRJEJRE;MOFOCEFOTETU9R5VR00TUM095 NVC VDZCGFDUYFEFFFFFFFYRFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFEUFGEYU1DCUDUXCHCXHKKCHK2IUCJNMNVNCCMFJJX
type TRY TOY TYPE RY7OEU JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ

UFHFDCHKDIOJTJKRFJK/. VNKCNKCV JCV CN N N N N N MNKMCVMKCVMC MNXCV ,CX NC C .POP

POP KID POP. HOP KID HOP. STOP KID STOP. IOJFVJFVJL NN,N ,CN,VNV ,XC NV VNBMV BVV V VNC V MN M M , JC MDK. NF CNBC, NCB
POPPOPPOPPOPPOPPOPPOPOPO[POPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPJJMNVB JV JMNVMPOPOPo[OPLPOLPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOPOU45R;PCUEPRUN;/TOHYRIJT JUTPGUJVP;/RF HGF V
KJFMNFC J MCV M,V VM,CV ,B , , M,

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUUIIOIUUIPOPA


So while an army of monkeys typing on typewriters may or may not be able to come up with the complete works of Shakespeare.... apparently, a four year old typing on a laptop CAN come up with some credible Dr. Seuss.

Happy Mother's Day Quiz

A friend of mine posted this quiz and I thought it would be interesting (and hilarious) to see how James would answer these questions. It took some fits and starts, and we had to have a discussion about how he was supposed to ANSWER the questions, not read them to me to answer! lol I'm thinking about giving him this quiz every year to see how (if) his answers change.

1. What is something mom always says to you? Don't jump up and down on the furniture

2. What makes mom happy? me sitting nice on her lap and me sitting really nicely at my house

3. What makes mom sad? hitting

4. How does your mom make you laugh? me jumping up and down

5. What was your mom like as a child? with a dress on

6. How old is your mom? fifty ten old

7. How tall is your mom? Six thirty tall

8. What is her favorite thing to do? eat

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? stays at my house

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? giving everybody presents

11. What is your mom really good at? talking and you give great hugs

12. What is your mom not very good at? eating

13. What does your mom do for her job? taking care of people and me

14. What is your mom's favorite food? broccoli

15. What makes you proud of your mom? when she turns on the tv

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Fireman Sam, because you have pretty shirts

17. What do you and your mom do together? put together a puzzle and ride in the car

18. How are you and your mom the same? when they have blue eyes

19. How are you and your mom different? I'm goofy and you're goofier

20. How do you know your mom loves you? she kiss me and hug me

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? home

Lol

James got himself caught in the back door when he was trying to get in to use the potty.

He's been sitting on Hubby's lap crying to beat the band.

Hubby said to James "Poor Buddy, I'll have to have a talk with that mean old door."

To which James replied "But doors don't talk!"