Ninja UP!

Here's my ninja with his nunchucks.

Enjoy.

(make sure you pause the playlist at the bottom of my blog before you play the video)

this week on the island

This past week on the island has been a blur. It has gone by so quickly.

Last week the officer finished up getting our daughter's dirt bike ready. He was itching to take them riding. So Sunday night he loaded up the kids and took them to his parent's house. They spent Monday riding around on the little dirt bike track he made for them. Here is my daughter on her dirt bike. It's just like her brother's. It's a little Honda CRF 50. My son wanted her to put the number 24 on her dirt bike also so we could be the family of 24s. However, she decided on her soccer number, #6. Here she is on her new (to us) dirt bike.

They are ready to go.

There were a couple of bumps and one spill, but she's tough. She picked her dirt bike right up and hopped back on it.

My son is starting to get very comfortable on the dirt bike. He has moved all the way to third gear, which I am told means fast. This is the jump he likes to go over. He has gotten his front wheel off the ground going over this little jump.


The officer was able to get a little bit of video of my daughter riding. She's not going fast, which makes mommy happy.



While my kids were at their grandma's last week while the carpet was replaced, they had an Easter egg hunt. With the money they found in their eggs, my son purchased a small Lego set. My daughter decided she wanted to get her Bitty Twin some roller skates just like hers. I told her I would have to order them from the computer and that it would take a week or so for them to arrive. She was fine with it. She was patient at Target while brother shopped for his Lego set. She would occasionally ask me, "How many more days do you think until the roller skates get here mommy?" I told her by next Friday, they should have arrived.

They were on our doorstep today. Oh I forgot to mention that while I was ordering her roller skates for her Bitty Twin, I went ahead and ordered the wheelchair and crutches set and one more set of roller skates for her other Bitty Twin for her birthday to save on shipping. Of course, they arrived in a huge box. When we arrived home from her soccer game (which she did score one goal in but they lost) and dinner, we saw the box on our doorstep. She knew it was her roller skates, but asked why it was in such a big box. I just said, "I don't know!" and ran the box inside.

While she was bringing her soccer gear in, I quickly opened the box and got one roller skate box out for her. Here are a couple of pictures of her opening her roller skates and trying to teach her Bitty Twin to skate.

Seriously, are those skates not the cutest??? Her Bitty Twin is wearing a hockey helmet compliments of a Build-A-Bear outfit.

We had our last day of homeschool co-op this past Wednesday. It was a lot of fun for the kids. I enjoyed getting to know a couple of the ladies while I watched the Lego play area. We have one more soccer game to go before it's over. My daughter has loved it! So even though summer time is when most people get even busier because school is not in session that's not the case for us. We do school all year around and some of the things we had going on are ending. Things may start slowing down around here a bit. Nah, probably not. :)

The officer and I watched most of The Passion of the Christ last night on television. It was ..... well, it was a reminder of what Jesus had to endure for me and because of my sin. Powerful. Tomorrow we will celebrate the fact that He is Risen.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 28:6
He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

still going....

I added two more to the never-ending list.

She makes me smile..

every.

single.

day.

i remember that!

I didn't want to forget this:

The other day the kids and I were talking. We were reminiscing about when I was pregnant with my daughter.

I asked my son, "Son do you remember when you were about a 1 1/2 years old and I was pregnant with sister?"

"Um.... no, not really mom.", he replied.

"Well son when you were 1 1/2 years old and I was pregnant with sister, I would get tired. I would lay down on the (twin) bed and sit you against the wall with your toys. I would lay around you so it would block you way from getting off the bed. If you started to get off the bed, you would have to crawl over me and I would wake up. Most of the time you would just play there and let me take a little nap. If you did need something, you crawl over me and then get right back up in the bed.", I told him.

"Do you remember that son?", I asked him again.

My daughter pipes up, "I remember that Mommy!!!"

Really honey, you remember being in my belly????

She said, "Yep, I remember shaking all around!!!"

so have you heard?

So have you heard the news? We got new carpet. Just wanted to let you in on that in case you missed this and this. :)

We found out a couple of weeks ago that we were going to get new carpet. To say I was excited is an understatement. In case you don't remember, our carpet used to maroon. Yep, maroon. The kind of maroon that you have to vacuum every day when you have a sandbox out back and dead grass well...everywhere. Here's a picture of our front room before.

It looks nice when the carpet is all vacuumed. However, it just takes two people to walk through the front room and it can look like I haven't vacuumed in weeks.

I started planning the carpet replacement. I asked Grandma with the sunglasses and my sister-in-law, C, if they would watch the kids a couple of days. They said yes. They are great. The kids had a blast with them. I had previously gone through all the closets in the house. I had gotten rid of a lot of stuff when I did that. That was good. On Sunday night, I started moving stuff out of the closets. I moved stuff our the officer's and my closet first. I just shoved it all in the our bathroom.

The officer and I spent the rest of the evening getting all the stuff out of the kid's room and the living room. The officer took apart all the beds. We had basically everything moved out into the garage and in bathrooms by Monday night.

The carpet installers came Tuesday morning and I was soooooo excited to see them. They probably think I was a little strange. They got right to work and worked all day. Here's a picture of our carpet. It's called Chocolate Chip. It's beige with dark brown speckles.

The first room they finished installing the carpet in was our room. When they would finish up with something I would follow them around and take pictures.

When they were finished with my bedroom, I was able to take a picture of the old carpet next to the new carpet. I got this idea from my friend, Mrs. Troop, who recently had her carpet replaced too.

There's a little bit of difference there huh? Just in that picture you can see the little pieces of the new carpet on the maroon carpet, but not on the new one. Yes, the new carpet will work out just fine.

When the carpet installers pulled up the carpet and pad from the front room, there was a huge trail of sand. You could see where the kids would run in from the outside from playing in the sandbox and run to the bathroom. There was a trail from the back door to the bathroom and from the back door to the laundry room door. After they swept it all up, the officer used the shop vac to clean it up. It was a nice little pile. Now I know where all that sand from the sandbox disappeared to.

I asked the officer, "Do you think they care that I am taking pictures of them? Do you think they will care if I take a picture of them when they roll out the carpet in the front room?" The officer didn't think they cared and they didn't. So here's my picture of them rolling out the carpet in the front room.

Here's a picture of my front room complete with the new carpet. It needs a little color now. I think some new curtains, throw pillow and a little color thrown on the wall will do it.

Tuesday evening the officer and I decided to go out to eat. I purchased a daily deal to the Genghis Grill. It's a place where you pick out your meats, seasonings, veggies, sauce and if you want rice or pasta. I chose chicken, bean sprouts, broccoli, onions, carrots, and teriyaki sauce. The officer chose steak (surprise, surprise), onions, green peppers, and the 3G sauce. I did get a little wigged out because the meat is raw when you pick it (of course), but it was kind of gross (only to me I'm sure) picking out the chicken without the white pieces on them. They had little tasting spoons so you could taste all the different sauces. There were several good ones. There are a lot of different combinations I would love to try.

The food was amazing. They cook it on a big round hibachi table. I think that's what it's called. Then they bring you the food. They give you this medium size metal bowl and you can fill it however high you can get it. You pay by the bowl and not weight. I highly recommend Genghis Grill.

We also got dessert, but I couldn't finish mine. I think I ate three bites of it and then put it in a to-go container.

I may or may have not eaten it for breakfast the next day. What???? The kids were gone to grandparents so I had whatever I wanted for breakfast! :) Besides, I needed the pick me up because on Tuesday I painted my bedroom. It was in desperate need of a coat of paint. It was the only room in the house that had yet to be painted. I painted it "frozen vanilla". Boring right? Since we have new carpet now, we are going to put color up on on the walls, but I haven't decide what yet. We are thinking either blue, green, and yellow (not all together). The officer said I could do anything but red. He's tired of seeing red. He's obviously not an OU fan. :(

I have spent the past couple of days just trying to get the house back in order. It seems it's taking forever, but it will get done. So that's our week. What's new with you?

update...

Just giving you a quick update on carpet 2011. The kids are with their Aunt and Grandparents. We finished clearing out the kid's rooms tonight. They have so much.... just so much stuff. It's ridiculous really. Well if I am honest, they aren't the only ones with so much.

I am very excited about getting the carpet tomorrow. We still have a lot of work ahead of us. I am thinking about painting my bedroom before we put all the furniture back in. Since I can't decide on a color I may just give it a fresh, clean coat of off white. It could really use it.

We have stuff piled high everywhere. In our garage. In our kitchen. In our bathroom. The kid's bathtub is filled with toys.

By the way, how often do you vacuum under your bed. Do you move your bed every year and vacuum under it for spring cleaning. There were some major dust bunnies under my bed. Picture the shame on my face. How often do you move your dresser to vacuum under it? I can see moving the couches and coffee table to vacuum under it. Just wondering.

This has made me realize how incredibly blessed I am. I am blessed by very generous people in my life. I am blessed with a great family that will take my children for a couple of days so we can do all this work a little easier. I am blessed because we have so much. I realize we still need to get rid of a lot of stuff too.

So.... that's it. That's my update. Just sitting here in my bare house waiting on the new carpet. In a little more than 12 hours it should be completely installed. See ya then!

EXCITED!

Four words.

New. Carpet. On. Tuesday.

This is a picture of our living room with our old carpet. Lovely maroon carpet.


Remember last month I had a vacuum breakdown? Well, this next week is going to be a lot of work getting everything out of the house and then back in, but I know it will be completely worth it.

Do you think the carpet installers will think it's weird that I am stand by giggling and clapping my hands? Do you think it's weird that I am going to take a picture of them installing the carpet? Because I am going to.

Anywho, that's about it for me. Just wanted to let you in on the excitement that will be going on this next week on the island. Next blog post will be about my "new" carpet. :)

See you on the flipside.

good to know

I spent some time with my son tonight. Last night I laid down with my daughter while the officer and my son were at cub scouts. Tonight I laid down with my son to chat with him. It was so much fun! One of those nights I will remember for a long time, partly because I'm going to document it here.

We talked for about an hour and a half about everything under the moon and literally about the stars. So here's snippets I can still remember:

1. He love the star constellation Orion.

2. He seriously wishes he could be a ninja.

3. He wants to stay with tae kwon do for a long time!

4. He wants to own his own dojo so he can teach his kids and his sister's kids tae kwon do.

5. His room is "like a rockstar room, messy and nothing matches. I just need some sunglasses and lemonade to sit back and enjoy it."

6. On the other hand, "You know mom, I really do like cleaning my room because then I get to change things around in my room.

7. After he said #6, I said, "Oh see you are just like me, I love to clean to relax!" He said, "Oh no I only like to clean my room, nothing else."

8. "Next time I go to the dentist it's going to be like pulling a hog's teeth with tweezers!"

9. "When I was a younglin - about 5 years old..."

10. He said, "In the olden days when i was six...." I asked, "Wait, "in the olden days?" He replied, "Yes mom, I'm 8 now!"

11. He remembered the bedding he had when he was two-three years old (police cars).

12. He wanted to know how skin was made.

13. He loves his pocketknife collection.

14. He keeps his collection of knives in a box in his dresser. I asked him what would he do if he had so many knives that he had to take the underwear out of the drawer so he could store all his knives!" He said, "Pants." I didn't think he heard me so I asked him again. Again, he just said, "Pants." Yes, I asked him again. Then he said, "The knives are in my pants drawer not my underwear drawer!" He couldn't not even answer my question until we clarified where the knives were stored. Detail oriented that boy!

15. He loves his sister. He loves playing Star Wars with her. "Well we play Star Wars and she uses her Polly Pockets." He admitted he likes to pester her as well. No surprise there.

16. He loves hanging out with the officer. He doesn't care what they are doing just so he gets to spend time with him.

17. He loves to draw and loved the art class he used to be in.

17. And last but not least these are the occupations he said he would love to do: comic/book store owner, zoo keeper, work at chick-fil-a, and be a ninja, and own a dojo.

18. He loved the one on one conversations with mom.

He wasn't the only one.