Once Upon a Marine Corps Wife

I love

2012-02-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day may have been a few days ago but today I'd like to share with you just a few things that I love. (they are in no particular order so no judging!)

My dear sweet adorkable husband
dryer sheets
a warm breeze on a cool morning
Okinawa sunsets
Caleb's demonic giggle
Peanut M&M's
orchids
fresh cut grass
a clean desk
my steam mop
flip flops
laughter
creative thoughts
homecoming memories
listening to Seth play is trumpet
holding hands with my children
driving on the right side of the road
dirty kids
fuzzy socks
a clean house
meaningful momentos
sea glass
singing to old music on the radio, it totally embarasses my kids
iPhones they allow me to text friends in the states
the sound of a babbling brook
the smell of woods after a fresh rain
Coke Icees
snuggling with my Junior
the color of Mark's eyes
old photographs
campfires
sunshine
clean bed sheets
ice cold water
my king size bed
my health
my wedding ring
the pitter patter of tiny feet
clean kids
bear hugs
pure silence
grace

What are some things you love?

ReEnlistment

2012-02-09T23:31:00.000-08:00

February 10, 1993 Mark enlisted into the Marines. Exactly 19 years later on February 10th, 2012 Mark reenlisted in the Marines for another 4 years.

This was his fourth reenlistment. I was at his first one and this one.

Sadly I missed the last two. His second reenlistment ceremony was on his second Med Float MEU deployment. His third reenlistment was at MARSOC (neither one of us can remember why I wasn't at that one!).

So many people have asked us why we (meaning Mark and not me) reenlisted for another 4 years. I'll be honest it was a very difficult decision. We spent the last three months praying about this ginormous life moment. We didn't enter into this lightly to say the least. We weighed all the pros and cons. Talked about it endlessly and sought advice from many people.

Most everyone pointed us in the direction of getting out... think about all the money and freedom you'll have in the civilian world. You'll live closer to family, you have more options. The list went on and on as to why to get out. The only thing people said about staying in was it was safe. Meaning you're making a good decision because it's scary out here with the state of the economy, and the unemployment rate is so high. After a lot of prayer and deep discussions with God we decided we'd allow Him to make the decision for us.

For years Mark has said as long as he's having fun (in the Marines) he's staying in. I said, when he decided to make a career out of it after his third enlistment, he wasn't 'allowed' to retire until he was a Master Guns. God reiterated three things to us... first of all Mark you're still having FUN! Secondly you need another rocker on that collar! and thirdly... "I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind!" (2 Timothy 1:7) You don't make decisions out of fear, you make them because of the Word living in you. So there you go... that's why WE (yes I said we because the kids and I are in this with him) reenlisted into the Marines for another 4 years, taking us to 23 years serving our great Corps and Country!

I had to put this picture on here... Mark's boot camp photo.

He looks just as mean now as he did then.

The Things Daughters Do...

2012-02-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

Basically we have the same routine every night, showers before bed. When one child is done they scream downstairs to alert the next kid to head on in. It's a easy system and it works for us.

Last night Katie bellows down for Caleb. A few minutes later I hear, "Mom, can you help me?" It was one of those voices that said come now but don't panic. So I left my enticing game of Words with Friends to check on my sweet sweet Junior.

What do you think I found when I got to the top of the steps? K80 standing wrapped in her bath towel next to her door holding a bobby pin. "I think I locked myself out of my room!"

A good mom response is, "Okay, no big deal. How did you do that?" (I must tell you I was a good mom and that WAS the question I asked, very politely with much curiosity!)

Her answer will amaze you.... "I wanted to test my lock picking skills, I guess I'm not very good at it!"

Running thru my head was, right now while you're standing there naked under a towel is when you decided to test your lock picking skills. All righty then!

I tried to pick it. Nope. Mark tried to pick it. Nope. We (meaning ME) went up and down the steps no less than 10 times trying to find anything that would allow us to open the door. After about 15 minutes we were in!

She cried, I tried not to laugh. It really wasn't a big deal but it makes me laugh at some of the stuff she tries to do.

Note to self... get a door key! (a bobby pin, credit card, 6 different screw drivers, a knife and an awe do not work so well!)... neither does kicking it, or Crying but that's another tale to tell!

Prices are on the RISE!

2012-02-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the commissary!

Prices are rising at a rapid rate and it's getting out of control!
One 3/4 gallon of milk (NOT A WHOLE GALLON) is $4.27!
2 Green Peppers Normal size cost me $4.00 ($2.00 EACH!)

One (1) stinkin' cucumber was $.75!

I'm so looking forward to FRESH veggies and inexpensive ones when we get to the states! Oh the variety we'll have!

I budget $250 for groceries every two weeks. Something inside me told me last night to add $50 to the budget when I was working on it. I didn't listen. Today, I spent $231.45 at the commissary. Aside from fresh produce this will last us til next payday. No need to worry about fresh produce cause we ain't ever eatin' it again!

Next payday I'll be sure to listen to my gut and up that budget for food!

Mark's MRI

2012-02-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

.My sweet always jovial happy go lucky Mr. Sexy Pants is hurting. He injured his shoulder almost 5 months ago and yesterday he finally had an MRI. This MRI included a huge dye filled needle that was stuck into his beautiful right shoulder. Oh the agony, his pain level afterwards and discomfort it caused was more than we had expected. Pray the pain goes away and that this procedure will reveal the necessary steps needed to bring him back into complete health.

Order of the Arrow

2012-01-29T00:48:00.001-08:00

Exciting News!

Both boys were "called out" Saturday at the Klondike Derby for the selection of the Order of the Arrow. It's a HUGE Deal in Scouting. Only 1/7 of all Boy Scouts are member of the OA. They have to go through an 'ordeal' to be inducted. If you'd like more info on what OA is click here!

I'm pretty stinkin' proud of those boys of mine!

Sorry Mom!

2012-01-29T00:28:00.000-08:00

Mom... I'm so very sorry for the incredible stink I brought into the house from camping, soccer and just playing outside. I am jealous that you had (have) a basement to send us smelly kids into to change and remove horrid smelling clothes. Please forgive me...!

Karma smells bad in my house today. The boys just got home from the Klondike Derby. The great news is their troop took first place. The bad news is... I have to clean up after it. It's piled high in my dining room (aka mudroom apparently!) Oh the Laundry!

4 loads of laundry from 2 boys on 36 hour camping trip. How is that possible you might ask? Everything must be washed, 2 pair of shoes, 6 pair of socks (I don't think they are all ours since Seth admitted he wore the same pair the entire weekend!), 2 shorts, 3 shirts, 5 troop sweatshirts (only 2 are ours!) 3 pairs of long pants, 2 rain jackets, 2 sets of Class A Scout Uniforms (covered in mud) and sadly I found no underwear in the mix. Apparently is was also commando weekend!

Praise God for Tide! Let the washings begin!

It's a beautiful day so now all 3 kids are outside getting smelly again...calgon take me away!

Best Advice Ever!

2012-01-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

For the past 7 months I've been blogging, okay lets face it COMPLAINING, about my hot flashes and night sweats! If you've paid close attention I've not written anything about that on here or on FaceBook for a couple of weeks. I've been testing a theory.

What theory you might ask? Well, my incredibly awesome and very sweet Aunt Kathe sent me an email with a lifesaving tip. Yep, I said lifesaving because my poor children were fast becoming Popsicles and Angry Little Birds! My VAPORS were over taking my world and I was getting more and more miserable. Still guessing what the tip was... she discovered by trial and error during her season of the vapors that whenever she ate carbs her hot flashes and night sweats increased dramatically. But when she wasn't eating them or ate them in extremely low quantities they just about disappeared.

I've done some research... I found very little info online and I did speak with my doctors. They had never heard of such a thing and told me I should NOT cut out an entire food group because it wasn't healthy. Well gosh darn, at this point menopause isn't healthy for me because I'm driving my family insane and soon we'll be have frequent flier miles at the mental health clinic!

So I've taken the challenge. I've reduced carbs to almost nada zip nothing for 10 days. I think I experienced the best sleep ever AND only had maybe one hot flash during the day that entire trial period. I kept going, I added in some carbs here and there. Wouldn'tcha know... "Oh My... I feel the Vapors coming on again!"

OPPS NOPE, not happening again. I've cut as many carbs out of my way of life (because it's not a diet) as humanly possible. Do I still enjoy a tiny piece of crumb top apple pie? You bet, but it's limited. Do I have a tasty double chocolate brownie... ummm yes! I'd rather have those ubber yummy carbs than some chips, popcorn or even bread. Don't get me wrong I love me some bread. But is that sandwich worth my misery. Absolutely NOT!

So Thank You Aunt Kathe for sharing your experience. It works wonders. It's my mission to share that tip with every vapor ridden women of the world!

BTW: I also quit ALL sleep-aides the day I returned from Hawaii in December. It's been over a month now since I've taken anything (twice I took Benadryl but I had an allergic reaction to something with hives from head to toe, but that was only twice!) So I'm sleeping on my own without any assistance. It feels GREAT!

BAHHAAHHAAA... I just noticed that the cartoon has the same name as my Aunt. Too Funny!

My First 5K

2012-01-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

Sunday I ran/walked in my first 5K. I thought about doing the couch to 5K program and then my friend told me to go big or go home. So I went big. Without training, just motivation I did it. And I had every reason to not get up in the am to do it. It was raining, it was cold. I was up past 11:30 the night before. I was having hot flashes, I was just plain TIRED. I told myself and the kids we were gonna do it.

And do it we did. The kids were less than thrilled with me, but hey if mama's gonna do it so are you! We had fun and even the boys will admit that. It was hard as heck, I was the last one across the finish line but I still beat my goal time by almost a 1 1/2 minutes.

Saturday was a GREAT day, Sunday was better and today... MONDAY I'm on my way out the door for another run!

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

Accents

2012-01-05T00:26:00.000-08:00

Only in a military home can you hear a Severe Southern accent, followed by a ESL Japanese Accent (English as a second language), Yankee Speak, and of course a favorite... a Boston accent ALL at one time. As I sit at the computer the kids have friends over who are on FaceTime with other friends right here on the island. Yes I said on the island, just down the street or across the base.

It amazes me the diversity we have in our lives. You have to really listen to people. Hear not only the words that they are saying but also their heart or you could be in a lot of trouble or deeply offended.

It's not just about ToMAYto or ToMAto, Water or WARTER, Naked or Nekid, or my favorite Wash or Warsh! Many words don't translate well, the kids (and I) over the years have really had to listen to others to hear their intended message.

For example take a look at these sales signs. (I'm sorry if this sign shocks you, but I had no other way to prove my point than to share this!) This didn't translate well. But it's ALL over Japan. It is in a large chain store advertising their New Year's Sale. Good thing my kids can read right! Try explaining that one. I'm truly not sure what word in the English language they were going for, but I do think they got their point across. The education of living overseas never ends.

The End.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

2011-12-25T06:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

2011-12-23T04:28:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling better and am slowly getting into the Christmas spirit. Today is Christmas Eve Eve! We celebrate it all around these parts! I am almost ready. Just a few gifts to wrap up, some more cookies to make (with the kiddos) for Santa of course, lots of laundy to finish up and then the festivities can begin.

I'm honestly looking forward to Christmas. I love celebrating the birth of our Savior, sharing the joy of Christmas with my kiddos and seeing their faces light up on Christmas morning.

As for right now... I'm exhausted. I am going to bed. Night Night America... Sleep Tight!

Struggles

2011-12-20T14:32:00.001-08:00

This year has been a difficult one. This past month has been an emotional struggle for me. I cannot pinpoint what the trigger is, let's just say it's been hard for me. This week in particular has been the hardest by far. I've don't ever recall a time in my life when I've not been in the Christmas spirit. I'm a huge kid at heart and love love love this time of the year. I love the shopping, the decorating, the baking, the parties, the wrapping of gifts. I love it all. This year it is not the same. I'm hurting and I don't know why. I've been doing my best to shove it deep down within me and put on the good Christian/mother/wife show. Honestly, my acting skills stink.

I've been praying a lot more than usual lately. Surrounding myself with positive encouraging women, and I'm still here in this funk. Then today cruising through Facebook I found this link.

My eyes already swollen with tears began to flow again. and again and again. I do not know this Marine family, but it really adds perspective on my life.

But I'm still in this funk, during this beautiful season of joy, Christ's birth, and I'm just here. My joy is hard to find to find right now. I've been Praising God through this storm and this season in my life. Though this entire year, I've been positive and held my head up. Pushed forward refusing to retreat or give once ounce of satisfaction to satan. I truly do have so very much to be thankful for, I do not doubt that one bit. I know the truth, I know my future, I know my God has me covered by His plans and purposes for me and my family. I truly rest on this knowledge.

Please pray that satan gets off my back, releases the grip he has on me and my joy is restored this Christmas season (and for the rest of my amazing life that is before me!)

December 7, 1941

2011-12-07T02:11:00.001-08:00

Words cannot describe the overwhelming sense of grief I felt as I visited Pearl Harbor. This was the place I needed to go for myself when I was in Hawaii in May.

Today is the 70th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I'm so very thankful for the men and women who sacrificed their lives, their families and their future for the freedom we have today. I will never forget and I will make sure my children's children's children will also never forget... Thank you. May you all rest in peace knowing that today and everyday we honor you.

White Elephant

2011-12-04T04:16:00.000-08:00

Youth Group Christmas Party 2011!

I still have a hard time with the fact that I have 3 children in the Youth Group. It truly isn't possible, is it? Moving forward. Tonight was the annual YG White Elephant Christmas Party. They had a blast, ate some yummy food, heard a great word and exchanged gifts. The kids left the house with an old TV, a Storm Trooper Voice Changer Helmet, and the Cheese Touch board game. They arrived home with a teddy bear, a computer Bible program, and last but not least a cell phone that appeared as though is was run over by a motor scooter and then backed over again by a little Japanese car! Merry Christmas!

I'll pay it forward... it's the year of the recycled gifts... whom shall I pass this fabulous phone on to... what name did I draw again in the Francis/Garvey gift exchange? I'll check my records and get back to you!

November 29, 2011

2011-11-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

The United States Marine Corps. That is a complete sentence as it stands. I am so very thankful for our military and especially the Marine Corps. This is our home, we belong here. For the past 6 years I've worn a necklace daily that has the core values of the Marines on it... Honor Courage Commitment. Mark and I have tried to pattern our lives after these values. They are not only true to the Corps but to our family life, our faith and each other.

I remember about 12 months ago being asked about my necklace. The woman was shocked and somewhat appalled that I would wear the values of the Corps around my neck when I in fact was not a Marine. She told me I was a wannabe. I didn't reply and almost felt ashamed that I had worn this. Later that day when I was still stewing about this conversation God reminded me that I bring honor to Him, my husband, my family and my Corps by wearing it. It's an outward daily reminder that we are the ambassadors of Christ. That my daily actions of loving my family and putting His will ahead of my own is a quiet witness.

I've worn it every day since. It's battered, old and needs to be retired, but it's part of me. Of who I am, and I'm humbled by wearing it.

Stress Less with Stress Relief!

2011-11-28T04:32:00.000-08:00

I've taken nutritional supplements most of my adult life. I've slacked off for the past several years taking them here and there. Today I'm going back on them. This product will save my life, my sanity and the life of my dear sweet family. You've heard me complain for the past 6 months about the joys of surgical menopause. This product right here is seriously like crack cocaine to me. It levels me out, reduces stress and hot flashes. This also helps me sleep at night and above all keeps my family loving me!

Today I'm thankful for StressLess (aka StressRelief)!!

A beautiful man...

2011-11-27T02:24:00.000-08:00

Isn't he dreamy? A true thinker, or is it stinker... I'm not sure. But I do know I love him more than I ever dreamed possible. He's more than a best friend could ever be. I praise God daily for this man. Today, as I am every day, but today especially I am thankful for him. Today was a very rough day for me and he was there for me, as he always has been. Today, tomorrow and forever we'll be together! I love you! Thank you for being the man that you are, your incredible, and mine, and I'm so very very thankful.

Thankful for Family Photo Day

2011-11-26T03:52:00.000-08:00

Today is day 26 of 30!

Obviously with this photo I am very thankful for digital cameras, and being able to see the photos prior to printing them all. To say the least this photo is not printer worthy. Thankfully, we were blessed to have friends travel with us to take some family photos. We took about 130 photos of them on our camera and they took about 150 of us on our camera. Plus they had their camera, and who knows how many they took. Let's pray that at least 5 of the 200+ photos taken today of our family are worthy of actually seeing a printer! And possibly a Christmas Card or two!

I guess I should have also paid attention to see that Caleb wore black socks like Seth. Apparently I am not as observant as I used to be, and I'm much more chillaxed. In the past this would have sent me over the edge. Maybe just maybe menopause isn't gonna kill me, the kids or poor Mark! And don't even get me started on the eyes that Caleb is sharing with everyone!

2011-11-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

All my Christmas shopping is done for the family stateside. I've gotten all the packages wrapped up and ready to ship home. So today I'm thankful for mission accomplishment, and now I can sit back and relax! I've gotten some really neat gifts in all our adventures from Alaska to Hawaii to the crevasses of Okinawa. So family stateside... be on the lookout for Santa's sleigh!

If only we had free shipping!?!

The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Extravaganza Francis Style

2011-11-24T05:28:00.000-08:00

What a GREAT looking group of people... our family here in Okinawa. Believe it or not 7 people aren't pictured here in the photo that joined us. We had 39 amazing people share their Thanksgiving Day with us. We truly feel blessed!
Here's the spread of the delicious food. Sorry I didn't take any of the desert table. There were so many desert, and lemme tell ya they were superb! Hannah made my favorite pie... Pecan! I'm gonna beg her for another one for Christmas.

We played a little football. If you see there was 3 against 1. The reason... good odds huh!

We had lots of little peeps, like this one, my Sebastian. He's mine b/c he tells me no all the time. Just like my 3 and he's blond and fits right in with my crew!

Here's Mr. B, my other sweet little man. He's all smiles all the time, at least until I made him cry later that night. I'm such a mean Auntie! He loves me because I wear a necklace and he likes to chew on it. He loves me that's all the matters right!

Look at that little man sittin' on the table with is mama, Becca. She's a fantastic new mom and lil' Gabriel just loves to giggle. He's a whopping 11 weeks old. What a sweet potato pie he is! I could just eat him up!

A little chow time going on, the kids ate and ate and ate all day long. Come to think of it so did the adults. That's what Thanksgiving is all about right?

My sweet K80 havin' some ham, turkey, green bean casserole and of course her favorite STUFFING! (this is not a paid advertisement for Coca Cola, unless they want to send me money cuz I'll take it!)

We had a fantastic day. I really cannot describe how blessed we were with the company, the food and the wonderful fellowship. These peeps carried us through a really rough year, they stood in the gap for us, prayed for us, loved on us, watched our kids, took us to and fro the airports, cooked many meals for us and just loved us. I'm forever thankful for each of you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving 1992

2011-11-23T00:32:00.000-08:00

A week (or so) after Thanksgiving 1992 I was driving back home from college for a "Celebration of Life" party. My friend, Jason Sprague, pictured above with me in '88, had just passed away from a severe asthma attack. I am blessed to say he was (is) one of my best friends and brother in Christ. I was truly in shock for weeks over the events that had taken place. I couldn't believe he was gone, I needed another conversation, another bear hug, just one more moment with him. I needed advise about Mark. I was falling head over heals in love and it scared me. Seriously scared.

It was over a month later that I heard one of the songs that was playing at his 'party'. It was as if he was sending me a message, having another conversation with me. The song "Go West Young Man" by Michael W. Smith was playing across the hall. I knew that night that the direction I thought my life would take was going to change to a completely unexpected road with a beautiful view. A life with Mark. I was very thankful that night, talking to God, hearing His voice, hearing Jason's voice talking to me telling me it's okay to take a new direction. It was His direction, His will for my life. I'm so very happy I took this road. Thank you Jason for one last conversation.

Today I'm thankful for following the will of God, even when society said it wasn't the most sensible thing to do, I did it anyways. Go West Young Man!

Day 22 of Thankfulness

2011-11-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Clean bathrooms... last night all 3 boys (yes including the big one!) got sick within 20 minutes of each other. Thankfully I had cleaned the bathrooms that day so they were nice fresh and sanitized for the 7 hours of head hanging over the toilet bowl extravaganza.

All 3 are feeling much better, still very weak and tired but are resting comfortably in their beds.

I know it may not mean much but when you're sick a clean potty makes life a just little bit better.

(Not exactly sure what it was... probably a bug, but Katie and I never got sick... and we don't plan on it either, AMEN!)

Super Mom Me Really?

2011-11-21T02:06:00.000-08:00

Today I'm thankful that my kids see me as a positive role model and as a good mom. I don't always know what my kids think of me. They are in puberty; so your guess is as good as mine. But on this day (the day K80 drew this) I was a Super Hero in her eyes! And that my friends makes me feel pretty dang special.

My Caleb... oh how I love thee

2011-11-20T01:22:00.000-08:00

How could I not be thankful for Caleb. He makes me laugh, he's addicted to video games and he stands up for what is right and wonderful and beautiful in this world. What does he talk about most right now? Whether he should be a Chaplain or a Marine first. I love this kid. He has a pure heart and the the most adorable dimples. Today I'm thankful for Caleb.

a Season of Thanks

2011-11-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

Way back in the beginning of November I mentioned that I would create these scrapbook pages that would document our month of thankfulness. Well here it is... it's was a lot more time consuming to create than I first had thought. I hand cut each pocket and stamped everything. I attached the pages to a 16x24 piece of wall art canvas. I use canvas a lot around the house for various projects. It's adds a unique dimension and charm I think to Scrapbooking on the Walls! Each day has 3 tags in the pocket so we can all write on them. For now the kids are keeping a record on a sheet of paper on the fridge. If all goes according to plan and there isn't much rebelling they'll be written on these tags by Thanksgiving!

I was technically finished within 3 days of my "assignment"! I am ashamed to say it's taken me 16 days to take a picture of it and post it online.

So today, November 19, 2011, I am thankful for scrapbooking.

Creating releases stress, I'm the wife of a Marine and a mom to 3 middle schoolers... yep I've got stress!

So if you'll excuse me I've got to switch the laundry (only 6 loads to do today!), pop the tab on an ice cold Coke and get to creating... I've got to make some Christmas cards!

(are you on my list?... wanna be? make sure you send me your address)

Day 18... My Seth

2011-11-18T03:28:00.000-08:00

My Seth... I love this photo of him. Not because he talks a lot and we had to tape his mouth shut. Which isn't the case, he did this to himself. However, he definitely quivered a bit when he ripped off this duct tape in one quick rip. And I may or may not have seen a tiny tear well up in his eyes. It was at this moment he finally realized that the little bit of peach fuzz he had on his upper lip was now gone! I admit that I pointed and laughed at him. Luckily he laughed too!

So today I'm thankful for Seth, how he makes me smile and laughs with me when I laugh with him. I mean at him, nope I was right the first time... Yep, I laugh with him!

Next time I need to wax my lip, I think I'll borrow some duct tape from Seth!

17 of 30

2011-11-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

Thankful that Katie still adores her Daddy! Love that that they are best friends and still hold hands in pubic. I love the sweetness that surrounds them.

November 16, 2010

2011-11-16T04:37:00.000-08:00

No words can express the heart ache I have for this man and his family. I am thankful with the knowledge they will be reunited because of their faith in God and their relationship with Jesus Christ. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten, you will forever be in our prayers.

Amazingly Thankful

2011-11-15T01:49:00.000-08:00

I am forever thankful for having dreams. Without dreams we have no vision, without vision we perish! I cannot imagine living my life without dreams. I'm looking forward to my future it's filled with wonderful things, lots of memories and my husband.

Teachers Care

2011-11-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

Today is day 14 of 30! I am very thankful for teachers that care about their students. Another successful round of parent teacher conferences completed. We are so blessed with fantastic teachers again this year!

Thank you to all the teachers who put their heart and soul into their students... this mama recognizes it and I'm very grateful!

Thankful for Cheerleaders!

2011-11-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

These photos are in reverse order so just pretend that you are watching/reading in rewind.

Great photo of the entire D-Now Weekend Group, complete with high school, middle school and all of the fantastic volunteers. Amazing as it sounds this is only about half the size of the actual youth group at the church.One of the Youth Leaders flipping upside down on the final zipline. Crazy young thing!

Jordan performing his turkey dance for us on the zip line!The first youth to do tricks. Never thought Joshua had it in him. He surprised us all with his daredevil feats of craziness! Go Josh! This is a view of the obstacle course portion of Forest Adventure from ground level. Well sort of ground level, it's down in a small valley that is sitting just below us. Once you climb up to the first obstacle you can take two routes. An easy route (which really wasn't that easy) or you can take the challenging route. This sent you on the Tarzan swing... you landed on this net. That you then had to climb to get to the platform. Everyone did this route accept Mark and I and one youth! Yes, the two old people of the group and the youngest youth member with us. It's all good, we all finished it!

This is the view from the highest point on the obstacle course, the final Zip Line! I took these photos. The view was amazing. I tried to take a photo in each direction. This one is looking down at the 'easy' side of the course.
This was the view over my right shoulder. Love the landscape of Okinawa, it's beautiful.

This is the best view, you see some of the course as it over looks the ocean . Not a great picture I know, but if you know me I was very much slightly overwhelmingly skerd so I was shaking like a wicked earthquake taking these photos!
Still standing on the platform for the final zip, here's the view down. You can barely see Mark's blue jeans standing out in the plush green grasses. It's a long ride!

Another view of the obstacle course!

Here's Mark walking on one of the many bridges from zip to zip. The first part of the adventure (not the obstacle course) is a zip line course. This is one of the many bridges we crossed to get to the next zip line.

Another great photo of my Mark!

We are officially half way through the zip portion of the adventure. Here's a partial group shot at the resting tent. Ice cold soda... ohhh tasted so good!

Every trail we went on we saw these signs. It was very encouraging to me the girl who hates snakes! Youth leader, Andrew said is was worning the Habu to stay away from us!

Mark again on a rope bridge. Have you noticed that you haven't seen any staff. You don't you get a 5 minute orientation at the beginning then you don't see them again until the obstacle course. That would never happen stateside.

Just another zip line with a few youth.

A view from the starting line. Do you see all the zip lines crossing the photo and the ocean in the background. Breath taking, and shocking. It was far more than I was expecting and so much more awesome.

I admit it. I was scared and if it weren't for Youth Leader Jenn I'd be still sitting on the course somewhere. The first climb/zip one was emotionally the hardest; the rest were more physically challenging. Jenn was my cheerleader. Thank you Jenn. (If you are wondering where Mark was, he was a head of me. Hard to cheer from across the valley on the other side of the zip line!)

Today I'm thankful for the cheerleaders we have in life. We all have them, but so often we do not thank them enough. I've been blessed with many of them, this weekend it was Jenn. Thank you!

12 November 2011

2011-11-12T00:52:00.000-08:00

This is the before shot of the group that went to Forest Adventure.

They were all high school students with a few adult leaders tossed in for flavoring!

By far the most tremendous group of students ever. My heart swells when I think about them. More details on that later!

Here is the same group after the adventure. We have a lot more craziness going on, a ton of sweat and many bonding moments.

I am so very thankful that we agreed to be a host home for this fall's youth retreat. It blessed me in many ways. Working with youth is a lot of work, but just like parenting it provides even bigger rewards. I learned a lot about myself this weekend. I discovered somethings that I really don't like about myself and I'm going to work together with God to change those things. I want to lay down my own issues and see the world from His eyes. He has a far better view!

I am very thankful for this retreat.

11 November

2011-11-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

I'm thankful for all our veterans. Our freedom we have today is from the sacrifices you made yesterday, so from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you!

Thankful for these Men

2011-11-10T05:47:00.000-08:00

These men (5 high school boys and 2 youth leaders) are staying at our home this weekend as part of D-Now. They are such gentlemen, so polite. Thankful that God has placed them in our home for the next couple of days. Hope we can bless them as much as they have been blessing us. More pictures to follow!

(BTW... my house currently smells like feet, boy feet... gross!)

Clean the Turkey!

2011-11-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

I love this photo for many reasons...

My Mom is in this photo. She's like me, not many photos of us to be found. We'll regret that later in life. I regret not having more of her now!

My Junior is in this photo. Me love me some Junior!

It's Thanksgiving circa 2003-ish.

We lived in Virginia Beach.

In the background you can see the pass-thru window that my kids would through their sippy cups through in attempts to put them in the sink which is just below the window! We found them by the computer all the time.

My mom is helping Junior make yams from the can... that's how we do it!

I still have that can opener that is sitting on the kitchen table.

Now lets get to the real reason I posted this photo. Mom... I hope you remember this! This was the year that Katie begged us to help wash the turkey. And we wouldn't let her, she got mad and said in her Katie huffy little attitude voice ...

"I can't wait til I'm old enough to wash the turkey!"

And this memory is what I'm thankful for on day 9 of my 30 Days of Thankfulness.

Junior's old enough now, think she'll want to clean the turkey with me this year? Clean out the guts and reach in to grab the giblets bag? I'll keep you posted, but don't get your hopes up, I know I won't!

Choosy Moms Choose

2011-11-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

If you said Jif. You are correct. I grew up on Jif. My kids are growing up on Jif. At one point in our house it was the only thing my sweet darling children would eat. It is the best tasting peanut butter of all time! (If I was truly a smart mom I would have bought stock in Jif, I would be a millionaire right now just based on the amount of PB&J we eat in our house alone!)

So yes, today I am thankful for Jif. The many laughs it has brought to us over the years. Like when the children were but wee ones and we'd give them Ritz smothered in Jif. And then try to get them to talk! Or when we'd put a glob on the end of Pudlee nose... how many licks does it take to clean it off? And then of course the famous Triple Decker PB&J brought to you by Mr. Ken Spraque and his son Jason from Koinonia Camp. That sandwich will bring an intense smile to your face. Slightly melted Jif layered with grape jelly on soft Wonder Bread. It's a match made in heaven.

Thank you Jif for wonderful memories, filled tummy's and years of future Jiffy Fun!

Friendship from the Psych Ward

2011-11-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Which brings me too day 7... I'm thankful for Stacia Roeth. She is not only a beautiful person but a life long friend. Our friendship has spanned decades (isn't that scary!) complete with summer camps, college pranks, many long distance phone calls, not enough visits and hundreds of great memories. I'm very thankful to God that 22 years ago we were placed across the hall from each other in the same psych ward, I mean the freshmen dungeon dorms. Love you Stacia!

I looked all over for a photo of us. Couldn't find one quickly, which means we'll have to take some when she comes to visit!

Anniversary

2011-11-06T03:28:00.000-08:00

November 6, 1993... 18 years ago I married my very best friend, and today he's still my BFF!

We spent a whomping $500 on our wedding from start to finish. It was quite the event, but a far cry from the $18 million a recent celebrity couple spent. Tragically, they are now divorcing after just 72 days of marital bliss.

It's hard to imagine that just 18 years ago he snuck away from Virginia Beach to marry me. It's crazy to remember the sheer panic in our hearts when we had a blizzard and feared we wouldn't be able to fly back to the school house. No it wasn't like the red school house on Little House on the Prairie, it was a huge brick building with NO Windows filled with Marines who barked A LOT and told me that...

"If Mark was supposed to have a wife the Marines would have issued him one in his sea bag!"

I know the Corps meant well, but little did they know that this bride was stickin' around for the long haul complete with deployments, moves, injuries and wars.

Today, we have 3 amazing children, live on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific and are still madly in-love. What more do young couples dream of... So today I'm thankful to Mark for making all my dreams come true.

5 of 30

2011-11-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

I am thankful that even when I look and feel like this my family still loves me and supports me. Today was a no good rotten horrible awfully terrible day. Floods of emotions, raging hot flashes mixed with some nausea and a dash of psycho and you have ME! In spite of the insaneness that envelopes me from time to time (too often I might add) my family still loves me, and for that I am very grateful.

Seth...

2011-11-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

Day 4 of 30...

I'm thankful for Seth. He put the dishes away last night and I didn't even ask him too. It was such a blessing to come home from the Marine Corps Ball last night to see the dishes all put away. Thank you Seth!

Thankful for My Military Family!

2011-11-02T16:03:00.001-07:00

I'm thankful I have amazing friends over here who have become like family... some a little crazy, some you hide from at the commissary and others you can't wait to spend time with. I truly love my military family, you enrich us and bless us in more ways than we could ever count!

2011-11-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of 30 Days of Thankfulness.

Today I am thankful for my AFN (American Forces Network, aka our TV). I know that sounds crazy, but I love my NCIS and NCIS LA. I am thankful that I am able to watch it just a few days later than the USA verses not watching them at all. This keep me slightly in touch with life in the states and for that I am very thankful.

Totally Fantabulous Family Idea...

2011-10-31T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today is November 1st. I am embarking a new journey. One I plan to drag my children and husband on... Oh I mean, a meaningful experience that will be embraced by all 5 of us growing and learning as a family. That sounds so much sweeter and hallmark movie like but the reality I may be dragging them. I too may be draggin' 15 to 20 days in (more like 5 but I'm trying to be positive here!).

So what is this new road that we are on... for the next 30 days I'm going to blog, and/or Facebook about something that I am thankful for. I'm also going to be asking my sweet babies and darling husband to do the same. Well not actually the same, you'll see what I mean below. The rule is we can repeat each other (not on the same day!), but we can not repeat ourselves. Then I'm going to be super ubber organized and have them write them down to scrapbook them.

{Insert random thought.... Maybe tonight I'll skip TV and create the scrapbook pages, then they just have to write them on the tags. This will be a great keepsake in 20 years of their penmanship and what was important to them in this stage of their lives.}

Now that it's on paper, er I mean written on the internet the world will hold me accountable. No going back now, unless I decide not to post this blog, then you wouldn't be reading it and then my accountability will be gone. Ummmm.... sounds promising. I digress...

This is a great family project and I will start now...

Day 1

I am so very thankful for the women on the MOPS leadership team. They lift me up, they push me to be a better mom, and they make me laugh. God perfectly placed each of them in my life and I truly am thankful.

From One Extreme to Another

2011-10-30T03:00:00.000-07:00

Mark and I have been together for 19 halloweens. In those 19 years we've never celebrated or participated in halloween events. We've never dressed up, we've never given out candy nor have we gone to any halloween parties. We have however participated in our church's alternative to fright night events. Those events are fantastic, they are super fun filled with tons of candy, lots of games and many many laughs.

My favorite memory was Hallelujah Night of 1998. I was pregnant with the boys, Mark was deployed and it was very chilly outside. I wore my orange fleece jacket. My Pastor called me the "Great Pumpkin". I didn't speak to him for a few days, he was seriously in the dog house!

The following year, the boys were about 8 months old. Again it was chilly outside, and many of the seasoned parents at church scolded me for not having shoes on my boys. They had two pairs of socks, but apparently that wasn't enough. The next day I found myself at Wal-Mart buying their first pair of shoes. Who knew that a kids needed shoes before they walked!

Last halloween the five us took shelter in the house with all the lights off watching a movie hiding from all the trick or treaters. In Okinawa there is no alternative. They even open up the bases to allow the local nationals to come on in for beggar's night. This year is a whole other story. About a month ago the kids approached Mark and I, Seth was the spokesman for the coup. He explained how they understood the meaning of halloween and that for one year they'd like to experience trick or treating. I asked why. The response was an overwhelming need to beg for candy! We agreed to allow them to trick or treat. I thought that was all we had given permission for...

A week later we found out that scouts were putting on a haunted house as a fund-raiser. Of course the boys needed to participate. (I supposed I could have pushed back with a religious justification as to why they couldn't, but I didn't.) I allowed the boys to make the call and determine their level of involvement. Below are photos of my sweet innocent 'religious' boys the night of the haunted house. As you can tell they went in to it with a "no hold's barred" attitude.

This picture is the "I can't tell you anything Mom!" photo.

Seth performed beautifully as the dead man in the graveyard.

He's so psycho... Caleb was the poor sap being executed in the electric chair!

You can't tell by the photo, but Caleb was screaming and moaning as if he's being shocked with 100,000 volts of electricity (actually they are Christmas bulbs!)

The tomb of the creepy kid... Seth's rather scary don'tcha think!

I don't think they have lost their faith. We've actually had some pretty fantastic conversations about this season and what it means to Christ, our faith and honoring Him. They will beg for candy tomorrow night, and I will inspect every piece before they eat any. No worries on gruesome costumes... Caleb is going as a Marine, Seth as a Greek god, and Katie as Morticia (from the Addam's Family).

First Middle School Dance 2011

2011-10-30T02:33:00.000-07:00

Junior had her first middle school dance this past Friday. Remember I announced on Facebook that I was chaperoning. She was less than thrilled when she found out, but was still embarrassed even when she saw many other parents there. It was loud and quite the learning experience for me. Middle schoolers are LOUD, very loud especially when there are 200+ of them in a tiny cafeteria. Overall it was a very fun evening, I think K80 had a great time (even with me there)!

To my relief there were NO slow dances, but many line dances and one very long limbo line! Will I chaperone again, you bet. There's no better way to keep an eye on my kiddos than to have my eye on my kiddos.

I bet you're wondering where the boys were during this awesome event... they had a Boy Scout camp out. Mark went too. Believe me if there were home they'd be dancin' fools too!

Got Guilt

2011-10-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

Another amazing day here on Okinawa and I vowed to work on some Christmas Presents. By 5 o'clock I was feeling rather guilty that K80 and I weren't outside at the beach somewhere. So what's a mom to do, order pizza and continue on my quest to get some of more Christmas presents finished.

Mark's got the boys at Scout Camp, K80's chillaxin' on the sofa. So excuse me while I complete this mission. The mission of Christmas!

Am I in over my head?

2011-10-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

This week has been Ubber Busy and 10,000 things going on at the same time.

Monday night I had a Battalion Christmas Party planning meeting (I'm the committee chair), and the boys had Scouts. Mark worked late. Not too bad of a day, kinda normal actually!

Tuesday, I had a conference call and did training for work (approx 6 hours during the day). That night I had a MOPS Steering Team meeting and Mark was supposed to go to the D-Now Host Home meeting (he worked late again, missed the meeting and got home at 9pm) What was I thinking?

Wednesday, I had fasting labs at the hospital by 8am and was on the podium teaching from 12:30-4pm. Raced home to shove leftovers into the kids to fly out the door by 5:15 for Youth Group. (Mark did get home early and helped the kids with homework... I love him!) What was I thinking... leftovers for dinner that will not qualify me for the MOTY Award ... mother of the year!

Thursday, I taught all day from 8-4. Got home to finish up homework when I realized that we are the Grub Masters for the Scout camp out this weekend. We jetted out the door where I made a gourmet meal at Subway, headed into the commissary at 6:30 with all three kiddos. What was I thinking? Hitting the commissary to purchase a weekends worth of food for 25 people 30 minutes before the commissary closes. It was pure chaos in there! (Dear Lord, please remind me to Gib-slap my boys if they volunteer again for Grub master on a week that I work! Amen) BTW: Mark's still at work, expected home around 10pm!

Tomorrow... Good Ol' Friday, I teach again from 8-4. The boys need to be at the Scout Hut (30 minutes away... 40 minutes on Friday night traffic) at 5pm with the 15 bags of food purchased for the camp out! What was I thinking? I will need to extend the wings on the Red Baron (my marvelous minivan) to spin around and return to home base 45 minutes later to get Junior to the dance that starts at 6:00... that I am also chaperoning! What was I thinking? The dance ends at 8, and guess what? I agreed to let K80 have a sleep over... Again... What was I thinking?

I may have also failed to mention the my class is meganormous with 49 Marines/Sailors in my there. That's a large class on a normal basis, it's super meganormous for my first class. And I'm supposed to give individual attention to each student... yeah right! What were THEY thinking?
I do love being in charge of the clicker. Yep, I have a PowerPoint clicker complete with a laser pointer. I feel so powerful, however my feet are quite angry with me. I have no less than 4 blisters on each foot. I tried to break in my dress shoes, they are flats afterall, but my my poor old feet can't handle them. They are screaming at me. I think I need a bucket of ice water. What was I thinking? I'm not cut out for career clothes and pretty shoes. I'm a jeans, t-shirt and flip flops kinda girl!

This week has surely challenged my choice to go back into the traditional workforce. It's been a hard week. I've asked myself about hundred times a day... "What was I thinking?"

Then I am reminded in my heart that God led me to this position. He opened the doors for me. He'll never give me more than I can handle, but I do sometimes think...
"What was God thinking? I'm not as strong as He thinks I am...!"

Really... Seriously... You're Joking Right?

2011-10-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

So Friday, with much running around I was able to change our PCM (Primary Care Manager aka our doctors). Since we moved it's just a lot easier to change doctors and not drive 40 minutes to our in one of the busiest offices on the island. So to Lester Family Practice here we come. (It's only 10 minutes from the new house, it's super convenient and it's next to the hospital!)

I fill out all our paperwork and then head over to the offices to make a follow up appointment for myself. As I look through the paperwork they gave me at the Tricare Service Center I see that we all have the same doctor. I think... Perfect... Continuity in Care. I love it. Upon making my appointment I discover that our family doctor is now an OB/GYN. And I think to myself... really my 12 year old boys need a girlie parts doctor? My 11 year old daughter needs a girlie part doctor. I think not... Shoot I don't really need a girlie part doctor b/c I don't have any girlie parts left. But I don't have time to change it today... my prayer is when we do ever get sick and actually need to see a doctor they will see the error of their ways, a girl can hope right!

Thankfully my NEW PCM wasn't available for my follow up appointment. So I'll just see another doctor... let's hope and pray it's not a Proctologist!

Another Day @ a Slide Park

2011-10-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

Random photos in no particular order that paint the picture of our half day of school last week. So sit back, open your heart and fall in love with the friends we have here in Okinawa (and my kiddos too!)

This is my boy, I call him Bubba, Mr. B, and of course his given name Bennett. He's my Michelin Man. You can't get enough of him I'm tellin' ya he'll melt your heart. His new thing is he snorts, and you'll seriously bust out laughin' if you get the chance to hear it. I could just squeeze him right now!
My Hannah and her Miki. You'd never know it but Miki really loves the slides. She didn't get her nap so she was almost asleep.

Caleb my man.... "That's how I roll mom!"

This is my Miki... She's so stinkin' cute. She's in her school uniform. She attends a Japanese Montisori school. Gosh I love this girl... she's like kin to me, one of my own.

Here she is again, you can see a glimpse of K80's hair. Miki adores K80. They are like two peas in a pod.

K80 and Katelynn. Yes, two Katie's. When you call at least they both answer.

Loves this... Miki's revving up the whale like a motorcycle. She's definitely a go getter!

The crew at the zoo, not really the zoo. But aren't they cute on the weiner dog!

Flowers for mommy, not Auntie. It was okay b/c I got the photo. Gotta love sweaty curls!

My Junior. She's such a heartbreaker. Don't tell her I said that, but boy howdy is she a cutie patootie!

That boy needs a haircut. Someone tell his lazy mom to take him to the barber! Love that smile, it reminds me of his dad's!

K80 and Katie again.

Seth took Miki down the roller slide. He's such a great kid! How many pre-teen boys do you know who are willing to ride a slide w/ a 3 year old. My boys do... Gosh I love 'em!

Caleb's waving reassuring Miki's mama that she's well taken care of. Did I mention I love them boys!

This is Mr. B and and Miki's mama. I know she's cute too, and has those amazing curls. No I'm not jealous, okay yes I am, but that's only because I'm stick straight hair lady!

(wondering why I'm not in any of these photos... someone has to be the photographer)

Junior's Birthday Party

2011-10-16T03:56:00.000-07:00

I know I know I know. Stop yelling at me. I WAY behind on my blogging. It's not for lack of desire, or stories to tell or even motivation. It's time. I'm running out of time. I suppose I could get up early to do it or stay up late to do it, but for the betterment of the world I will take my beauty rest. I'll do my darnedest to get more consistent in my blogging, pinkie promise!

K80 turns 11. Can you believe it our last little baby is 11 years old, a middle schooler and still adorable. She'd kill me if she knew I was writing this. Good thing she doesn't waste her time reading this blog! K80 being as unique as she is didn't want cake for her birthday party.

Oh no, she wanted dirt complete with worms. It was super easy... and super yummy! Don't know what to say about this photo... but it's the Peeps from the Party. Only 4 girls, no drama and lots and lots of laughter. They had blast. Mark even had fun. I think he likes girls, he'll never admit it but he loved the giggles and all the fun stuff that comes with his K80.

K80 and Dana. Dana hand stitched this super sweet owl for K80 for her birthday. I always say...The most thoughtful gift is a handmade gift. I'm so impressed and K80 loves it. I tried to steal it, she swatted my hand. Where does she learn this stuff? (Oh yeah... her father!)

Happy Birthday my dear sweet K80. We are truly blessed and honored to have you part of our family. Please stay sweet, innocent and pure forever and ever. We love you!

It's that Time of the Year...

2011-09-29T23:33:00.001-07:00

Take a look at when Santa's coming to Okinawa...

Holy Cow, October 1st. You've got to be kidding.

We have 31 Days til Halloween,

55 Days til Thanksgiving

and 85 days til Christmas!

And Santa comes TOMORROW!

Joe the Caterpillar

2011-09-25T04:34:00.000-07:00

I'm certain you can see where this is going. The kids had a half day of school on Friday. My darling daughter and her friends "rescued" this caterpillar. You can hear the excitement in my voice can't you. You'll never guess who was nominated to babysit the said caterpillar over the weekend. Yep, K80... she had a hard time deciding on a name so she called me. And she wanted to know how to tell the sex of a caterpillar. I was out with my friend, Amy when she called. We could hardly contain ourselves, laughing so hard trying to describe how to check the sex of a caterpillar. I can't tell the head from the butt most of the time let a lone what sex it was. K80 had to give it a name, we still don't' know what sex it is ...so he is forever named... Joe the Caterpillar. (Josephine in case it was a girl!) Amy and I swung by the house to pick up the kids to go out for lunch. K80 didn't want Joe to go hungry so she gave him some lettuce and fresh leaves. Isn't she a good mommy?

I think I failed to mention that she left his door open, the lid to his shoebox aka... his mobile home. "I wanted Joe to have some fresh air!" When we arrived home much to our our surprise (not really more like hysterical panic) Joe had run away. He was gone. She looked over each blade of grass crying that Joe had run away. I was fuming that a fuzzy creature is roaming free in my home. His mobile home was parked on the kitchen counter and we looked and looked and looked. For what seemed like hours.

A short time later after all hope was gone K80 moved the laundry basket and low and behold there was Joe the Caterpillar! He had crawled out of his mobile home, down the kitchen cabinets, across the kitchen floor, through the dining room and on his way to the laundry room. Not sure what he had hoped to find there but he was rescued AGAIN! (which I am forever happy for I would have hated to pour a bowl of Lucky Charms and find a worm in my milk!)

K80 secured him for the evening (on the front porch!), and off to dream land we went.

In the morning he was fine, that evening he was fine. Sunday morning he was fine, Sunday night he was fine. Guess What .... on Monday morning he had a heart attack with the mere thought of returning to Middle School. Monday morning he was dead. K80 boooo-hoooed. Dad laughed and I did my best to console my lil' Doodle Bug who had witness the untimely death of her beloved Joe. I told her I would take care of him. She begged for a proper burial. Off to school she went on her bike having to face her friends and inform them of the death of poor fuzzy Joe.

I'm certain your wondering what I did with Joe. I didn't do what any good mom would do; have a short ceremony for poor Joe before flushing him! I did what any GREAT mom would do... I flung his dead arss in the yard, tossed the container in the recycling bin and came inside for a nice cup of hot cocoa!

P.S. I asked K80 when she got home from school how her friends handled the tragic death... she replied. They forgot all about poor Joe!

Seriously... you're going to test me TODAY!

2011-09-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday in our house is RECYCLING day! Yes. I know that is beyond the most thrilling information you've been told since you got up this morning, but there is a story that goes with this. So quit your complainin' and keep reading!

I woke the kids up, as usual at the 0'dark early hour of 6AM. It's more than plenty of time to get up, get yourself together, eat breakfast and head out the door by 6:45am. The first school bell doesn't ring until 7:20, but it takes 'them their lazy rear ends' 30 minutes to walk to school and chat with their friends. (Don't get me wrong I really like their friends!) BUTTTT...We have PLENTO Time in the morning for an added chore... like taking out the recycling. So today, I reminded them that they each needed to help.

Please not this is not forced hard labor, okay it's forced labor but it's not hard!

Take plastic bag out of small recycling bin and tie a knot in it.

Carry recycling bag to HUGE recycling can 30 feet away, and put inside.

Push HUGE recycling can 100 feet to the curb.

At 6:45 I find the boys in the living room playing on the ITouch (not ready to walk out the door). Just chillaxin'! K80 is leaving her mess on the counter in the bathroom for the fourth day this week!

I came unglued like a drill instructor seeing an irish pendant on a PFC's uniform. I admit I may have gone a bit overboard. HOWEVER! Don't tell me NOT to embarass you by going outside in the morning in my pppappa-jammas to say good-bye if YOU can't get your mess together on time! (By the way, my hair was looking a bit on the crazy wacked side today... it was perfect!)

So out the door I go bickering and barking. Hearing "We don't have time for recycling..." Oh yes you do! I just made time. It's amazing how much faster kids will move when their mom is outside in a bathrobe, actin' a fool!

Moments later Seth and K80 are off on their bikes racing to school. Caleb is running down the street. AND the recycling was taken out!

How did your morning start off?

It has been brought to my attention that TOMORROW is Recycling Day! CRAPTASTIC!... Do you think if I make brownies it will make up for my raging hormones of this morning?

What Month Is It?

2011-09-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

As I was reading through this month's "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine I discovered something new about this month, September, that I had never known before. September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

In 2011 an estimated 21,000 women will be diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. Tragically 15,000 women will die as a result of a OC. In my little world, I know 3 woman personally who are in the fight right now. OC is often overlooked, misdiagnosed and known as the silent killer. I certainly do not want to preach to you, you can find the facts on OC by clicking HERE! However, I would like to share a part of my story that has recently come into light.

For the past several years I've suffered horribly from severe abdominal cramping and frequent trips to the bathroom. Sometimes I couldn't even leave my house. It was crippling. I thought it was due to my chlorine allergy and tried to watch everything I ate and drank. Nothing seemed to help. Then today, it dawned on me that I've not had this issue since I had my surgery. Was this a whisper or screaming symptom that myself and my primary care doctor overlooked? Most certainly. One of the most frequent symptoms of OC is abdominal pain and bloating. Exactly what plagued my life for years.

Moral of the blog for today: If something isn't right, it probably isn't!

You know your body better than any doctor. If you think something is wrong, get it checked out. I'm glad I pushed my doctor for this surgery, it literally could have saved my life.

First Day of School (I mean Chaos) 2011

2011-08-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's tradition across the lands of this world to embarrass I mean take photos of your kids on the first day of school each and every school year. The tradition doesn't end when you hit middle school, high school and in some cases college. (I had a friend last year who made her sweet husband take first day of grad school photos, wish I had thought of that!) Today was that day for us... you'll see some super happy campers in these photos who just LOVED to get their photo taken. (I didn't care, I just kept snappin' pictures!)

Look at Junior, doesn't she look thrilled? Mark threatened her all weekend that we were gonna wear our bathrobes and hair curlers to take them to school. Not that we've ever done that but the horror of the prospects crippled my poor girl!
Nice sweatshirt huh!? It's like 3 years old, a handimedown from the boys. She loves it; I on the other hand could have died that she wanted to wear THAT to the first day of middle school. But then again I was reminded this morning... "Mom, you just don't know what cool is anymore!"

My grown up response.... "WHATEVER!"

This boy, Seth, is also wearing a old t-shirt to school the first day. New Shoes, new shorts, very old t-shirt. Why you might ask? Because he used his shirt sleeve as a napkin for breakfast and I made him change his clothes. So he picked this shirt... I just closed my eyes and prayed some more!

Don't get me started with this stud, Caleb, tryin' to look all cool and hardcore. He's so sweet and cuddly I like him just the way he is... when he smiles for me!

This one's not too bad. It's amazing how TALL my boys are. We have several friends who have high school kids, yep my boys are taller than them, their boys too! I won't be surprised if the boys are 6'4" and 6'3" with K80 topping out at 6' and weighing a whopping buck 10! (Which one do you think will be taller? or bigger overall?)

This one is just for fun. Mark snuck up behind Caleb and 'caught' him just as I was taken this picture. I love the natural smile and joy in his eyes. Where was this sweet boy when I was taken his school pictures 10 minutes later? Oh Yeah... he's in 7th grade... must look tough!

How did you first day of school photos turn out? Was it a blissful experience like mine?

Mega Water Park!

2011-08-27T15:13:00.001-07:00

Mark got out of the field (military training while sleeping in tents... aka....playing war!) Friday night. Since we haven't spent that much time together in the past 2 weeks as a family doing fun things we decided to head out to the water park here on Okinawa. It's definitely not a MEGA water park, but it's cute and we had a blast playing together. We've been spoiled with Great Wolf Lodge, Water Country USA, the Beach (in Ohio) and last but not least the Disney water parks. This... this is nothing like any of the above. It has... well let's look at the pictures. (click on any of the photos to enlarge them)

This is what you call a traditional cement slide in Okinawa with a great water feature. The kids loved it, adults went on it. I can honestly say Mark and I did not, but we loved people watching!

Here are the kiddos at the top of the cement slides. I must say I got some cute and TALL kiddos!

A picture of the artwork on one of the walls at the park. I love how Disney it looks!

Caleb just off the only tube slide they have, more on that later.

Seth with his elegant landing off the tube slide.

K80 exiting the pool... look at them ab muscles. Doggone she's so stinkin' cute. I {heart} her!

These two slides, one green and one yellow, are the only two large slides. They also have a lazy river that floats around the slides, the tube slide and the cement slide. Yep that's it. Not much but enough to keep us busy for most of the day!

It's really fun to watch people. The Japanese families that come don't sit on the sides. They actively play with their kids. There are no pool chairs, lounge chairs or spots to lay-out. You park your stuff on a bench and you go play. No one lays out in the sun, reads a book or sits on their cell phones. Which Mark and I absolutely love because we love being kids and playing with our's.

A few things about this photo. This is where you stand or rather sit in line for the slides. They only send 4 people up at a time. The rest of us sit and wait under a tent like this. It's so much nicer than standing in the blazing sun on the stairs waiting for your turn.

Now see the lady in the pink and black swimsuit. Yeah her looking for someone, she has 7 year old twin girls and she approached me and asked me if I was the mother of the twelve year old twin boys. I responded quizzically with "yes, is everything okay?" She proceeded to ask if they were identical, swearing that they were, demanding that I should get the test and lectured me on life with twins and gave me all the details of the "famous" twins in Hollywood. Needless to say I couldn't get away fast enough, and my sweet husband never came to my rescue. It was obvious she drove her husband nuts because I never saw them together until it was break time.

All in all we had a wonderful day, so relaxing filled with lots of laughs and a dead battery!

Yep when we left the park, the car wouldn't start. I had the courage to play charades with several Japanese to tell them we needed help. They graciously came to our rescue. I neglected to take pictures... Opps.

Moral of the story... Enjoy life to the fullest each and everyday and when your battery goes dead more than once go buy a new one!

Movin' on Up!

2011-08-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

This looks very similar to our old house, but it's not! It's VERY different. For starters we won't have 54 children living in our court. There are only 4 four bedrooms up on our hill. Just down our hill we have about 8 two bedroom apartments, but they are a bit down the way. AND here is the GREAT news it's renovated. So everything is new. Even the grass! It's an end unit so we'll have more yard to tend too but that's okay. That's what I had boys for. We've lost quite a bit of storage but we'll manage. We haven't accumulated that much stuff since we've arrived on island so we'll be good to go. We are going to try to give the boys their own room's. They've never been apart and they are fighting over who gets what room.
I'm so excited to do this move alone... can you tell?!

We also registered the kids for school. Yep, this means 3 schools in 3 years for all my kiddos. Stinks super big time. Pray they get the electives that they requested. They are also so very nervous to start another new school. They are only 1km from school so they get to walk. I'm happy about that... it means no bus drama. YEAH ME!

I'll post more soon, but I've got to jet and get ready for the last night of VBS!

If a Picture is worth....

2011-08-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words then this posting is worth a doctorate thesis paper!

What a breath taking view. Behind every turn in the RV were views like this. Pictures cannot even describe the beauty of Alaska. I look forward to returning one day to inhale more memories like these!

K80 at the Tolsona Wilderness Campground. This creek ran throughout all the sites. It's a beautiful place truly in the woods. My favorite campsite of the entire trip.

K80 met the REAL Santa Claus who lives at the North Pole (Alaska). She was mortified that I made her do this, but you can tell by the smile on her face... she desperately wants to still believe.

A view of a glacier from our RV. It was so far away and still so immensely huge.

Another picture of a glacier up a bit closer, with the lens that is. I love the colors.

My new favorite flower, the Fireweed. They grow all over Alaska. They look rather purple in this photo but they are really more pink. The color changes throughout the season. Fields and fields of these flowers grow wild. Lots of folklore about this blooming wonder.

More Fireweed!

I must have taken 1000 photos of just landscapes. Each one different and you can stand in the same spot all day take 100 photos and each one will be different by the way the sun shines, clouds roll in and out and the shadow from neighboring mountains. It's unbelievable.

This river is the Little Susitna. It's the river that flowed behind my brother's house when he lived in Alaska many years ago. No other sound is more peaceful than a babbling brook. Pure Bliss.

This is the view of Denali from my side mirror. Whenever I checked my mirrors I could see her, the majestic mountain. No wonder many people have made the pilgrimage here just to catch a glimpse of her beauty.

If you look close enough you can see that two rivers merge. One is a glacier river, see how pure blue it is, that is not the sun. That's the water and boy was it cold.

This was the last campground we stayed out, ummm I mean parking lot. Yeah we had a tree in between the spots but not much else. That's our RV and mom sitting by the campfire. If you click the picture you can see the bunt pan campfire ring they gave us. I'll explain more on that later!

Many of the rivers up here are called braided rivers. Which means the rivers often change their pattern but never fill the river bed. I've never seen any before and loved how they blend together so smoothly.

Mom, K80 and I at the Alaska Pipeline. So huge and powerful.

At the Gold Mine, we got to hold a gold nugget worth $60,000. Talk about WOW Factor!

This is the very last photo I took in Alaska. One last memory.... Thanks Mom for such a great vacation, I love you.

Meet the Typhoon!

2011-08-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

Click the image and it will appear bigger. If you see where I put the circle you can see how tiny Okinawa is in comparison to this storm. I can't really call this a Super Typhoon it's more like a Holy Craptastic Mega Gonna Getcha Typhoon! It will probably grow to a Category 4 before reaching us. We've battened down the hatches, now we wait. I pick up the kids early from Operation Purple Camp tomorrow. So sad that this storm has ruined their week of camp.

Japan cannot afford another major natural disaster... pray this rolls over us without any issues.

Ready but Not Ready...

2011-08-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Clothes bought for the kids that fit! (They all grew go figure!) Check!

New School Shoes! (You don't even want to know what sizes they wear now!) Check!

School Supplies Bought/Given/Gifted! (What a blessing!) Check Check!!

All ready for school to begin but definitely not ready for summer to be over! Looking forward to the next 4 weeks of summer filled with OPC Camp, DEFY camp, VBS, MOPS stuff and fun weekends filled with trips to the pool, beach and GeoCaching!

I love my Family and I love Summer!

What's going on here?

2011-07-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

I know many of you have questions about the flights, but I am not mentally prepared to discuss that right now. My blood pressure still skyrockets just thinking about it. So until I can process it all in my head you'll have to wait.

BUT..... What's going on here?

I am not a woman of fear. At least I like to think of myself that way. I am fairly strong and confident but something inside of me has changed not sure when, how or why but here goes.

Yesterday while out in Anchorage w/ my mom and K80 we went shopping. Seriously what's a group of girls gonna do when stuck somewhere with shops (lots of shops that don't exist within a few thousand miles of our home!)... We are wise though we're gonna get stuff we need. Not want, but need. Like new school shoes b/c we can't seem to find any decent one's for less than $150 in Okinawa. And shorts, remember I tried to shop online everyone is sold out. Not in Alaska, they had racks and racks and racks of shorts, exactly what we wanted on CLEARANCE!

Don't get me started at the Michaels I stepped into. So many new things to create and do... Mark if you are reading this no worries. I only bought a few things for the kids to make for their lockers. I didn't buy any other scrapbook or crafting items.... I promise. (If you don't know me that's a HUGE statement. I cannot go into a scrapbook/craft store and walk out w/o anything it's immoral, unethical and if it's a mom and pop shop it's un-American. I feel strongly that we need to support those shops more than the big box stores. (But that's a whole other blog post for another time far far away.) Bet you're wondering what this has to do w/ confidence. I'm getting there hold you horses.

We went into the Sportsmen’s store (it's like a BassPro but a lotta bit smaller!). When we walked in a man about 20+ stared at K80. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her. This immediately sent me into mama bear syndrome. Did you read the story about the grizzly who attacked the 7 boys in Alaska last weekend... yeah I was raging like her inside! We walked around but my left eye never lost sight of this man. Guess what happened next. Yep, K80 had to tinkle. I could see the bathroom so I sent her a head, walked behind her so she wouldn't see me. You see, I'm building confidence and independence in her. She can't know I don't trust her to go to the bathroom. But it was "him" that I didn't trust. And I certainly didn’t want to her to see my concern for this man, but I’m not naive either! She's usually a quick trip to the bathroom; she didn't come out right away. My stupid left eye lost contact w/ the creepy man so I charge toward the bathroom to swing open the door and in a sweet voice with a loud boom yelled "Junior, you okay!" To hear her sweet reply was overwhelmingly calming... "Yep Mom!" followed by the thunderous flushing sound. She popped out washed her hands and we went on our way. I didn't allow her to leave my side again. My left eye us was permanently glued to the weirdo and I noticed while leaving the store his eyes were still fixated on my K80. I prayed intently for our safety the rest of the day.

Fast forward many hours. Mom left for her flight. I assume she made it because she did NOT come back to the room like we did yesterday morning. K80 and I watched TV, nothing on but Disney. She was a happy camper since we don't have that in channel at home. I played on FaceBook, returned some emails and just relaxed. We even ate some pie. We got take home desert and danggum was it super yummy! As the evening progressed it was time for bed. I tucked Junior in and headed to my bed. I couldn't relax. I suddenly felt all alone, on the ground floor of this hotel (we stayed here before our RV trip alone and felt perfectly fine) we could hear lots of people and commotion. It was unsettling.

I honestly cannot say the emotion I was feeling was fear, “God hasn’t given me a spirit of fear but of power love and a sound mind. “ (2 Tim 1:7) It was uneasiness, not sure if it came from the afternoons events, but I began to cry and pray. Tears streaming down my face it hit me. I missed by boys, my Mark. I wasn’t scared for our safety (although I did pray a lot for that); I was lonely for my help-mate, my best friend. We’ve been apart a lot over these past several months (not to mention all his little trips and mini deployments here and there!) and I love having him around. I love living life WITH him by my side, he’s truly my best friend. He completes me. K80 couldn’t sleep, she climbed into my bed to find me crying and praying. We talked a bit, cuddled a lot and prayed together. We decided we missed our boys all 3 of ‘em. We can’t get home soon enough.

Today we are off to H20asis, an indoor waterpark here in Anchorage.

It was cheaper than anything else to do here and we shouldn’t go shopping anymore! The piggybank is let’s just say he’s….

Pix from the 49th State!

2011-07-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

K80 lost a set of antlers along the path, but boy isn't she a cutie. We'll keep her another year!

A mama and her baby. They were right and I mean right next to our campsite. They eventually walked through our site at Denali. It was so beautiful and sweet to watch them chomp on trees and bushes along their way.

There she is... McKinley... aka Denali. I prefer the name Denali. Yeah, McKinley's from Ohio but Denali... that just sounds so majestic. Fitting for a mountain like this "the high one". The tallest mountain in North America. And I got to see her! We are in the 30% club. Did you know that less than 30% of all people who go to Alaska actually see her! We saw her 3 different days, I do believe that puts us in the 5% club.

K80 found her one true love a new born puppy. We went to the Iditorod Headquarters in Wasilla. They had 4 four-week old pups (the other 6 were at home w/ mama). I can honestly say we couldn't put them down. K80 became an official puppy handler letting all of the visitors hug and love on them. I musta taken 100 shots of just the pups, Mark can we please have one? We so miss having a dog, but life in Okinawa doesn't make it easy to have one. One day, promise we'll have another pup... I vote for an miniature Alaskan malamute with bright blue eyes, but I guess I have to let Mark have an input too.

And we found this, the largest pure chocolate fountain in the world. Yep, we bought some and taste tested some more. Sorry we already ate it all. That's what happens when you buy it early in the 1400 mile trip. Sure was super delicious you'll have to come to Alaska to try your own, they only had like 20 different fudges and 100+ chocolate candies to choose from.

More photos to come but I'll leave you with this quote that I heard from a friend who heard it from Pastor Ron at church this past Sunday... (clear as mud right! that's not the quote silly goose!)

When you sow your "wild oats" don't expect a good harvest from bad seed!

It's a Bear!

2011-07-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

As you can see K80 and I got caught by a Big Brown Bear!

We'll return to regular programming as soon as we find better internet, until then enjoy this photo!

First REAL trip to a USO!

2011-07-11T15:52:00.001-07:00

This is pretty sad, but in 18 years of being a military wife I've never been in a Airport USO. I am amazed at these women who run this place. I imagine these retired women are either veterans themselves or spouses of veterans; either way they truly have a heart for our military and our military families.

You see, I'm in Seattle en route to our huge vacation in Alaska. We have a 7 hour layover and there is no place I'd rather spend it than in this USO. It's been nonstop busy since we arrived, several groups have moved in and out of here already but many are here for the long haul. Some 7+ hours like us, others 24 hours til their next flight goes out. There is a constant turnover.

As I sit and observe I can't help but notice how old I am to many of these kids. I can legally say kids because I am officially old enough to be their moms' I think some of these boys were at prom just 3-4 months ago and now they are off to war. Don't get me started on the girls here. As K80 sits next to me I am reminded that in 8 years this could be her or 6 years one of my boys. One of the girls is reading the magazine "Seventeen" sitting in their cammies, 17 and in cammies. Wow! Another young man is writing a letter, I would like to think he's writing to his mom but by the emotions on his face I am certain it's his girlfriend back home. A few are playing video games, a couple more are sleeping and one is chatting it up with one of the volunteers.

Then there are the 'crusty' guys. The guys who've obviously been in 15+ years loving what they do, but their tired. They've probably deployed way too many times to count on one hand or maybe even two and they are off again. You can tell their tired by the looks on their weathered leathery faces. They stand tall when they have to but normally slouch because it's just easier. I am grateful for these men and women; they take care of the babies in the room, the guide them, mold them and shape them into warriors. They vow to bring them all home and we all know that promise cannot be kept. You can see that each of these men and women have lost someone or many, too many. Their hearts ache and they continue to wear them on their sleeves.

Each of the men, women, and children who cross the threshold of this USO are changing the course of America and our world. Their daily sacrifice to serve our great nation without limits, without hesitation, and sadly often without the support of their fellow Americans is breath taking. I truly cannot say thank you enough, your service has not gone unnoticed in my family's life. We hold your service with the deepest of gratitude, the utmost respect and unwavering devotion. THANK YOU!

Now go call your mom and tell her you love her one more time and that you'll be safe because my Gunny, my Sarge, my Top, my Lieutenant, and my God's got my back!

Do it now!! .... (it's your turn to say "Yes Ma'am" and pick up your cell phone and start dialing!)

Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

2011-07-10T02:12:00.000-07:00

We're leavin' on a Jet Plane... Don't know when we'll be back again! Seriously we're leavin' and we aren't sad about it. You see, K80 and I are going with my mom on her dream vacation. Traveling for two weeks in an RV 1000+ miles in 49th state, Alaska! We are so excited we can't sleep.

The boys, Mark and Aunt Sue are headed slightly north also, but the other side. They are going to Canada to spend 7 days canoeing in the Canadian Wilderness. What an adventure!

Reality hasn't set in yet that either of us get to go on these amazing vacations. We've been planning them for 18 months and now... now it's time to fly fly away! Pray for safe travels and loads and loads of memories!

Be on the look out for some truly breathe taking photos. Maybe we'll play guess where this picture was taken!

Is it that time of the year?

2011-07-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

I know it's only the first few days of July, but around these parts you've got to start early before the well dries up. When I was in Hawaii the HUGE military exchange was having a mega back to school tent sale on June 15 (the day before we fly home and I didn't get to go). So here we are today...

A girl can dream of these deals, I long for the deals listed above. We have no Staples, we haven't an Office Max or Office Depot or Wal-Marts in these parts. We got nothing (except our tiny isle in the exchange with super overpriced goods!)! This weekend when we just happened to be on Kadena picking up some new pillows (which they were out of stock of... there were only two bed pillows left in the entire stinkin' store... do you feel bad for me yet? Well you should!) I saw the "school isle".

"Come Kids, let's get this done! Everyone pick out a zip up binder, and we'll grab some lined paper (10 packs to be exact)!"

That took all of 15 minutes to chose from 4 different binders (with only 3 colors each). Simplicity at it's finest but it's soooo UBBER BORING! I love bright fun office supplies and back to school notebooks and binders. You'll find NONE of that here, we only have dull dumb looking and not pretty at all supplies. But the shopping is done.

I also spent some time on the sofa looking for clothes.(in case your wondering I was online shopping!) I swear every child on this island and in the states wears the same size as my kiddos. Everything I liked at a decent price was sold out in our sizes. Seriously folks... make more! I was able to find some deals at TheChildrensPlace.com for K80 and Kohls.com for my boys. Thankfully they will not be naked on the first day of school! We have exactly 7.5 weeks til school starts. That's just enough time for the packages to get delivered. It can take up to 30 days for mail. That's another reason I have got to do this early!

Now don't get me started on shoes. This is a very delicate subject for me. Two weeks ago we went to buy cleats for my Mark. The closest place was "Sports Depot" in town. Do you know they don't stock shoes above size 28 (= to a 10.5 in USA sizing). Ummmm, Mark wears an 11. Needless to say she shoved his poor toes into a pair for the game that night because his 15 year old pair broke in half. (Just in case your interested, they won the first game and lost the second two in the tournament!)

What's a girl to do... I wear size 11 so needless to say-- Don't even bother looking at Sports Depot. However they store clerk did tell us they can order us some shoes. (I'll store that in my memory bank, they may take 3 months to arrive but I'll remember that!) This weekend I also looked for a pair of tennis shoes. Nothing fancy just super comfy for our trip to Alaska and beyond. I found 4 pair I loved at the exchange, and asked the kind clerk to fetch me a 10.5 and an 11 in each. What do you think happened next?

"Um, Ma'am we don't have any in stock."

"What are you talking about? You haven't even looked!"

"We don't carry shoes that large."

"Well... go back there and check. And get me any women's tennis shoe in size 10.5 or 11 that you might have!"

"Really ma'am?"

"Yes, please!"

He comes walking back with 2 boxes of shoes, both filled with the most ugly old lady lookin' shoes you could ever imagine. I think they dated back to 1984. It was ridiculous. In all seriousness I do NOT have overly large feet. I know of 5 women who wear size 11.5 or 12's on this island. Where do they buy shoes, cuz they ain't ever barefoot and always wear super cute shoes?!

So here we sit, shoeless. The boys are desperate for new shoes (they wear them out in 3 months, they've been wearing the same pair they have for 5-6 months now. And people wonder why my house smells!) I am obviously going to wear my croc flipflips in Alaska. K80's good. She's got her Chuck Taylors to carry her through (old fashion converse for anyone over the age 30!)

Mark, well he buys shoes 2-4 pair at a time because he's learned that you can't always depend on shoe availability and he needs good shoes to PT in everyday. (Wish I was that smart!)

So if you're out an about doing your back to school shopping and your getting frustrated because your kid won't make up his or her mind. Be thankful and say a little prayer for those of us across the pond who have to go shoeless with ugly dull super boring I got's nothing special school supplies.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

My 3 kiddos on the seawall. I still can't believe it's July 4th. Where did the last 2 months go?
My sweet man! After almost 18 years of marriage he still makes my heart flutter!

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a decent family photo with 3 clowns.

My Seth.

My K80!

K80 and her Daddy. A friendship forever.

Only Caleb can make a gun out of a tripod!

Caleb... don't ask! We didn't we were too afraid!

"Mom take our picture!" Okay!

WOW! It's Been too Long!

2011-07-02T05:02:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been too long since you've had a real update so here you go. Let's start from the beginning. Okay we won't go that far back but I'll give you a few photos that will help tell this crazy funny story of the life we've lived lately.

Let's start with the photo below. It was taken before my surgery when my girlfriend, Maureen, accompanied me to Hawaii. We had a lot of time to spend with not much money. Maureen spotted this revolving restaurant miles away on our way home from the hospital one day and decided we needed to eat there. So keeping our eyes in the sky (on the prize) we weaved our way through traffic and finally found this beautiful mecca of restaurants. Then we found out it was closed, but right next door was something even more majestic. It was Sam's Club. We had a blast; spent several hours wandering the isles drinking Coke Icee's and filling up that super-sized shopping cart. Below is the picture of our loot. We got a huge frying pan, a swim suit, several t-shirts, underwear, pop tarts, socks, magazines, and a couple totally rockin' 70's/80's disco music CD's! And YES, you see a Nordstroms and Macy's sign in the background but there's something about Sam's that makes the two of us smile!

This picture is from the day we arrived in Hawaii. We went straight to Pearl Harbor. Every American needs to experience this sacred ground.
I Love Love Love this picture of my mom and I. This was taken 8 days post surgery. No, we didn't hike Diamond Head but we did watch a helicopter rescue mission from the peak. That was pretty neat, the girl was okay we suspect it was a heat related rescue but we have no proof.
This is by far my most favorite photo. It's me and my Marine. He arrived the last few days I was in Hawaii. He was there for a work related conference, but he managed to carve out a little bit of time for me. This photo was taken at the Luau at the Hale Koa. Scrumptious Dinner and great memories.

Now for the update that you are really interested in... Friday's doctor appointment. Dr. Coats' report... "you are healing as expected. The pain you still have is completely normal. It was a pretty intense surgery and it's gonna take longer to heal than you thought. You will probably experience pain for another 4 weeks but you can return to a 'normal' life as you feel you are ready!"

Translation... Alaska here I come!

That's our Update! Until next time... keep your chin up!

Unexpected Compliments!

2011-06-28T01:26:00.000-07:00

I've been getting out of the house a bit more... don't judge!

Believe it or not while I've been out I've received some pretty amazing compliments. My favorite is "you've lost some weight", "You look good, how much weight have you lost?"

Who knew that having cancer and major abdominal surgery would cause me to lose weight. I've wanted to lose some weight for years and now I am finally doing it. Pray this one side effect keeps going for a while. This is one side effect I'll glad keep around. I may never be able to do a sit-up again but at least I'll have a tinier tummy!

Ice House

2011-06-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

I've been home a week now and things are beginning to settle in. I'm completely off all high speed high flaootin' tootin' pain meds and solely rely on Motrin. For the most part it does the trick. I've also discovered something else in this transition; all of the wonderful side effects of surgically induced menopause. I had been experiencing hot flashes since my right ovary was removed in April, but suddenly they've hit a new plateau. Allow me to explain...

I have always been a cold person. I was always cold, I carried jackets, keep blankets close to me and was constantly cold. I love a good fire. I didn't sit by the fire, I sat in the fire to keep warm. It was how I rolled.

Not now, my life has forever changed. You see, when I was in the hospital I seriously kept my room at like 65 degrees or less. I lived in the hospital gown and a sheet and loved it. The nurses complained every time they came into my room and my mom pretty much wore winter clothes to spend time with me. When I got to the hotel room, not much changed except I couldn't keep the room quite that cold. I'm home now and we have 3 settings on our A/C: low, medium and high. Guess where I keep them all set? Yep, HIGH! The kids live in sweat pants and blankets, quickly change to shorts or a swim suit before they fly out the door.

In essence we live in an igloo. Does that help my hot flashes? Yes! But only when I stay inside and never leave my house. Remember we live in Okinawa, where the temp is in the 90+ the highest humidity ever imaginable. A huge trigger of the "flash" is extreme temperature changes... that is what my life is here; 24/7 FLASH! We swing from one extreme to another constantly.

Don't worry, I'll fill you in on all the other amazing life altering side effects of me in days to come. I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the next update. (I know I am!)

Promise there is more to come!

2011-06-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

I promise I'll get back on here in a few days to fill in the gaps, but I wanted to leave you with this lingering thought.

In Hawaii I never had the problem of someone leaving the seat up. Surprise, surprise, surprise... splish splash I was NOT takin' a bath, but I need one now!

I love my boys... I think I've yelled "Please go put the seat down" 200+ times since I've been home. I must retrain them now... uggghhh.

More to come I promise! Hugs to all and thanks for the prayers, keep 'em coming!

WHOOOOO HOOOO! PRAISE GOD!

2011-06-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

June 8, 2011 will be forever etched in my heart!

YES, it's TRUE! Shout it from the Mountain Tops! Dr.Whitcomb announced today that my pathology report came clean. NO MORE CANCER! I honestly cannot describe the weight lifted off my heart, my life, my being when I heard those words. I started to tear up and if I could I would have danced. I could have kissed the doctor but I chose not too!

That kiss is reserved for Mark! (Can't wait to see you Sunday!)

So what is next?... Every six months for the next 3 years I travel to see Dr. Whitcomb (in Hawaii... oh darn!) for a re-eval. Every three months in between I have to see Dr. Coats in Okinawa. After the first 3 years I will then see my ob/gyn, Dr. Coats, twice a year. If I am completely clean for 5 years I am FREE! 100% Cancer Free! Oh what a feelin'!

What a wonderful God we serve. Thank you Lord for your blessings and your provision! WOW!

Oh Yeah... I also got my staples out. Now I have super glue and steri strips... I am totally on the road to recovery now. Can't wait to see my kiddos and my amazing husband!

Test Results Come Tomorrow...

2011-06-07T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I have a followup appointment with my surgeons (surgical team). They will remove the 17+ staples on my belly and hopefully tell me the results from pathology. Am I nervous? Yes. Do I have faith? Yes. Is God in control? Yes. Am I still skerd? .... yes.

I am feeling much better. I am understandably still weak and sore and HOT. Yes, HOT. The flashes have begun and I am dripping with sweat. My mom complains the hotel room is cold, and the nurses at the hospital complained my room was cold. (Maybe Alaska will be a good duty station for me after all?!) I don't think it's cold at all...

As soon as I receive the results from the doctor I'll let everyone know. I cannot leave Hawaii until we have plan of action set in stone for continued care of me and this stupid little hiccup in my life. What they find or don't find at pathology will determine the next weeks, month, and years of my life. So we will wait and see until tomorrow continue to pray!

P.S. This surgery has by far been the most painful of all of my past surgeries, far worse than any pregnancy or delivery. It's not easy, it's not fun and to be completely honest... it sucks. Sorry for the harsh words but it's reality here right now. I am off to take some more pain meds and go to bed.... hotel's are NOT the ideal place to recover just in case you were wondering!

Preparing for Surgery!

2011-06-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

That's me with my crazy hair preparing for tomorrow's surgery!

Yep, tomorrow I will begin full time hot-flashes and mood swings. Yes, if you ask Mark he'll tell you I've had mood swings since we met but I beg to differ, I prefer to call them a woman's choice to change her mind! Tomorrow morning I arrive at Tripler and will come back to the Hale Koa on Sunday. I keep telling myself easy peasy lemon squeezy God's in control! Keep me in your prayers but even more so keep my mom in your prayers. She gets to take care of me and all my HOTNESS for the first couple of weeks! AND pray for Mark and the kids I know it's killing them to not be here loving me, taking care of me, and snuggling with me.

I miss them too; it's very hard to go through this without them.

I'll be back online as soon as I can. Mark will keep everyone posted the best he can... he rocks but doesn't post cute little pictures like me! Who knows maybe he'll post a great pictures of the kids... I miss them so much and I need a new picture of them (hint hint hint hint!, let's see if he gets the hint!)

What's happening in Waikiki!

2011-05-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

These past 10 days have been nothing short of amazing. In between all of the doctors appointments Maureen and I have been able to explore this beautiful island of Oahu. Since arriving here we've been able to experience or have learned many many things:

Sitting by the pool and completely relaxing is truly a gift.

We have laughed until tears have rolled down our cheeks, many many times! The Bible says laughter does good like a medicine! We've experiences some really good medicine. Seems we laugh all the time.

A stop sign is a stop sign; it will never turn green to tell you to go!

People honk their horns a lot.

Saw Diamond Head, it's the most well known landmark ya know! (we didn't know that!)

People are much nicer to you once they know you are medevac'd here for cancer!

We saw a sea turtle at the beach just a few feet away... so beautiful.

Almost peed our pants because of the thundering sound of the fireworks outside our hotel (which we didn't know was going to happen.)

Drove all around the island from the North shore, to the south shore, to the east and west. The sights are breathe taking. God you did good, it's majestic here.

Love love love that everything is open, doors, windows, walls of buildings... allowing the sweet fragrance of Hawaii to permeate every nook and cranny of our lives!

Military discounts abound here, we are taking full advantage. Thank you Mark!

We have eaten at some ... WOW... super delicious places: like Duke's, The Cheesecake Factory, PF Changs and McDonalds (love their fries nothing like them in Okinawa!)

Sea kayaking is so much fun, especially when we go outside the boundaries to ride the waves. The "safety police" came out to yell at us on his paddle board. But in our defense they never told us we had boundaries we just knew we had to be "home" in a hour!

Sea kayaking is very hard on the abs and back after surgery... I don't recommend it unless you don't want be able to sit, walk, sleep or lay down; the muscle cramping was unbearable.

Sam's club is the Mecca of Slurpee lovers... they come GIANT sized! Yep I got one!

Surfing is a beautiful art, one day I am going to take lessons and learn how do it. Just because I can!

A girl can get spoiled with valet parking!

The the humongous flying cockroach we saw in a parking garage scared us, then made us laugh and then made us thankful it was the only one we've seen.

The World's Largest Marshmallow is out there you just have to look for it, get out of your hotel and explore. We haven't found it yet, but have found some other pretty neat sights.

The GPS is your very best friend!

Old men in thongs should be outlawed, and big fat hairy men (of any age) in speedos is a close second.

But I love women comfortable enough in their own skin to try something new... like that group of ladies we saw learning to paddle board (they were all well over 55+).

Most people come to Hawaii to shop for clothes and jewelry. We bought a frying pan (a big one you can't get in Okinawa), some 80's music, poptarts, Slurpees (lots of them), underwear (can't find my favorite brand in Oki or online), and let's not forget some "over the shoulder pebble protectors" for the little girl in our lives.

Skype is a beautiful thing, it's the time difference that will drive you crazy.

I miss my scrapbook store boy oh boy do I miss my scrapbook store.

Now I am off to the shower to prepare for another day of finding more scrapbook stores, Slurpee sipping, followed by chillaxin' on the beach!

What a week for Mark!

2011-05-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

When I was diagnosed with cancer we (Mark and I) decided that life was going on as normal and things weren’t going to change around home, as much as humanly possible life was just going to keep on the same. We didn’t want this to adversely affect the kids’ lives. When I left for Hawaii I told them that things will keep going the same as always but Dad’s home and will take care of you. Apparently I painted the picture pretty blurry or I wasn’t specific enough as to what normal might look like without mom home! Here is a tiny glimpse into my sweet husband’s week since Monday (it’s only Wednesday night in Okinawa)!

Monday: Boys up @ 6 out the door by 6:30. K80 up at 6:30 and dropped off at a friend’s house by 7-7:30 so Dad can be to work by 8. Boys home at 2:30 (starving b/c the school lunches aren’t big enough for preteen boys). K80 flops in the door at 3. Homework all around and then a paper route to complete.

Tuesday: See above now add… 8:30 am Mark gets a call from the school nurse about Seth’s ear. “it’s swollen and I can’t see in it. He needs to see a doctor!” Mark now has to call the doctor, let’s just say the customer service was lacking and Mark almost pulled the rank and my wife has cancer and is at Tripler card on this poor corpsman! K80 is on a field trip and then has to stay late after school for the Asian Fest rehearsal. Mark has to pick K80 early from rehearsal (teacher is now mad) so they can get to the band concert for Seth at the middle school. Oh Crap the papers haven’t been delivered yet. I guess that happened after the band concert. The kids ate at the food court and had milkshakes (according to them “Dad Rocks and is the BEST!” (I lost that status, so sad!)

Wednesday: See Monday and now add… 8:30 doctor appointment with Seth (he has a serious outer ear infection and is on drops twice a day!) The kids had a normal day of school as far as I know . All of the kids arrive home at normal time. K80 announces to dad that she needs a bunch of “FRUIT KABOBS” tomorrow for the Asian Fest. That reminded Seth that he needs 2 dozen cupcakes for Friday; followed quickly by Caleb chiming in that he needs “DIRT” for Friday as well.

Mark almost lost it. He called asking where the “superwoman” cape was in the house b/c this is crazy. He asked the kids… “Do I look like Mommy? Do you suddenly think I can cook? K80 you’re somehow getting this fruit-on-a-stick stuff and boys you’re getting donut holes or something I don’t know what!” I love my husband. He always makes me laugh. I felt so bad for him. He’s having such a crazy week, and it’s ONLY Wednesday!

Oh Yeah I forgot to tell you… we (Okinawa) are getting a direct hit from a Typhoon this weekend. So he has to batten down the hatches, square away work plus make fruit kabobs, and buy donuts. I love my man in uniform… He’s not just a Marine, he’s SUPER DAD!!!!!!!!!!!

(I was too afraid to ask if the kids were taking baths, brushing their teeth or wearing clean clothes.What a mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her right!)

Not as planned...

2011-05-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

This week hasn't exactly gone as planned. If you would have spoken to me a month ago I wouldn't have even dreamed I'd be here. Shoot cancer wasn't in my vocabulary, neither was borderline tumor, another surgery or shoot Hawaii. I was excited to be part of the all the fabulous end of the year activities with my children. Choir concerts, band concerts, Asian Festivals, middle school tours, graduations, pool parties, birthday parties, good-bye parties and last but not least field day! I am truly blessed that I do not have to work outside of the home and I get to do all of these activities w/ my kids. I don’t HAVE to… I truly WANT to! ... (There’s a difference) I shouldn’t complain; I am here in tropical Hawaii with no humidity and a sweet summer breeze, but this wasn’t in my plan.

Tonight I should have been listening to the sounds of middle schools sharing their talents on their musical instruments at the end of the year band concert and awards ceremony. I cried only once today which is pretty good for me. This morning I called to chat w/ the kids and my sweet babboo. K80 was the last one on the phone, she can have the tenderest voice and the way she said “Mommy!” today broke my heart. I began to tear up and I realized how much I am really missing with this trip and it breaks my heart. I love my family; I truly don’t enjoy time away from them. I’d so much rather experience all of this with them. I said I wanted to fit my cancer around my life and NOT my life around my cancer. Look where I am, fitting my life around it. I ache because of it.

I thought a lot about what I tell my girl friends when things get rough… I decided to take my own advice and I put on my Big Girl Panties! Sadly they don’t make UnderRoos in my size believe me I’ve looked. But I am walking with my head held high and with a positive attitude. But please continue to keep me and my family in your prayers.

I had my cat scans today and won’t get the results until next week. I still taste the dye, nothing will get that gross taste out of my mouth. Not even that super YUMMY Coke Icee I got from Target today. The little joys in life… Target and a coke ice… just a few of my favorite things!

Update... In Hawaii

2011-05-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry not to get on here sooner! I've just gotten back to our room tonight, we left at 8am this morning. After several doctor appointments w/ multiple doctors (all which are AMAZING!), lots of lab work, CT scan scheduled and more followup appointments scheduled I have some news. They are going to do a open surgery on June 2. It's a little bit more extensive surgery than previously expected. I will have to remain here on island for 4 weeks. Unless something crazy creepy is discovered in the CT scan and during surgery I should NOT need Chemo! YEAH PRAISE GOD! I will have to be monitored every 3 months for the next year, every 6 months for the next 2 or 3 and then yearly until I am toooooo stinkin' old to count! I will be able to have some testing/monitoring on Okinawa and then maybe twice a year or yearly here at Tripler (Hawaii). This is fabulous news. I definitely wanted surgery a bit earlier in the week but they promise I'll be ready for my trip in July. I'll have 4 weeks from the time I leave Hawaii to prepare for Alaska! I have to be pretty healed to even leave here so I am beyond tickled. Not exactly my first choice of surgical operations but I can still get this all done. It's all in God's hands.

I am not exactly sure at this moment who is coming to stay here w/ me for the remainder of my 4 weeks. I'll figure this out come Monday when the offices on base open up,and Mark and I can talk in more detail and we make some big decisions.

Thank you for the prayers keep them coming. So blessed by these doctors and staff here. Tripler is amazing and so very very helpful. Keep Mark and the kids in your prayers too. I've got it easy. Mark's got all of the kids programs, school functions, scouts, sleepovers, laundry, cleaning, and cooking (okay burning eggs and charbroiling tomato soup!) PLUS going to work everyday. He's a wonderful wonderful man... I thank God for him daily! I love you Mark!!!

sands of the hourglass

2011-05-15T23:12:00.001-07:00

"Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives!"

"Time keeps on tickin' tickin' tickin' into the future..."

Which brings me write back to what I have posted on the header of my blog...

Be Happy for THIS moment... for THIS moment is your LIFE!

Truth be told some moments suck. Guess which moments I have more of right now. I know what you are thinking and you are wrong. At this very moment in my house Seth is upstairs playing the Marine Corps hymn, Caleb is doing his reading log and K80 just popped in the door dodging huge raindrops on her way home from school. It's a great moment, we are all here together (minus Mark he's still at work, some one's gotta pay for this cement doublewide and all our health benefits!). We are still here, we may not be 100% healthy but together we are. In this moment I have peace, if you'da called a few hours earlier I had moments without peace, I was filled with many emotions none of which promote peace. Those moments are in the past, this one is new, it's positive it's peaceful... it's mine!

2011-05-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've been up for several hours; can't sleep. As I've been praying throughout the night and researching on the computer I am reminded of a scripture talked about in yesterday's sermon. Now I am taking this scripture completely out of context from what the message was, but it fits me where I am right now. I'll explain why in a minute or two have patience it is after all 5:27am here!

"Take captive EVERY thought and make it obedient to Christ!" 2 Cor
10:5b

Random negative thoughts run through my head like cockroaches on a dirty kitchen floor in the south. You turn the light on and they scatter so fast you'll never catch all, you're lucky to catch one of them nasty beasts. When I turn the "light" on in my head those negative thoughts scatter, but the second I take my mind off of Him, they come running back for more. The more I focus on Christ the more at peace I am in the midst of all this. Is my life suddenly perfect? No. Am I cancer free? No. Do I suddenly love homework time? No. Is the laundry finished? No. Dinner on the table? No. Do I realize I can handle all of this? Yes. because ...

"God has not given me a spirit of fear (or cowardice) but He has given us a
Spirit of power and of love and of calm and a well-balanced mind and discipline
and self-control!" 2 Timothy 1:7

If I can conquer my mind, where all fear begins then I can conquer anything brought before me. Cockroaches begone... let the Peace begin!

Of course I lived in the south for many years and sometimes you need more than a light to get the cockroaches to scatter, a hammer will do, Terminx will often do the trick... and on the rare occasion I've resorted to SCREAMING! So what am I asking... for anyone and everyone who reads this to pray 2 Timothy1:7 over me and my family. My family is also forced to deal with this beast, they need peace of mind as well.

Sunday... Church Day!

2011-05-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

I admit I was a mess at church. Couldn't figure out why, then it dawned on me. When I close my eyes and Praise I cry. I can't help it. It's not fear, anger or anxiety... it's Praise. I am completely humbled by the grace and presence of the Most High. Many many years ago when I was going through life's struggles I cried every time I entered church. The presence of God was overwhelming. I was strong throughout the week but come Sunday morning I was a blubbering baby. Today was the same. I've been praying, not as much as I should I am certain of that, because one can never pray too much, but He is always on my mind. He brought me through the unspeakable storm 13+ years ago and He'll carry me through this one. Am I worried? I am not worried for me, I am scared for them... my Caleb, my Seth, my JR and my amazing husband Mark. Are we as a family ready for this challenge, this valley, this bump in the road on the way to our destiny? I say yes we are, wishing and praying all the while this detour be removed from our path. God, you know the plans and the purposes for our lives. You will never forsake us, You'll always be there carrying us when we need carried and pushing us when we need a push, and I cannot thank You enough.

On to a more positive note... K80 bought her IPod Touch Friday. She used the money she earned from her paper route. What a giddy school girl and a huge step for her to hand over that much money for something she's wanted for so long. I'm so proud of the young lady she's becoming.

Tonight the boys had Court of Honor for Boy Scouts. They were each awarded 7 merit badges, 3 were Eagle required and 1 was a heritage merit badge. They also pinned on their 2d Class Rank. They are well on their way to Eagle. Sadly I do not have great pictures of the event b/c in my absent mindedness I left my big camera at home and had to fall back on my little blue one I keep in my purse. I was able to get this one of the whole group, obviously my two boys are front and center. If you look closely at the photo you'll find 3 sets of twins in

the troop. Crazy huh...!

Trouble w/ Blogger

2011-05-13T20:51:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've had some trouble w/ Blogger. These next 3 postings down below this one are in reverse chronological order (meaning they are posted in the order they were written!) and they should have posted 2 days ago. Not sure why they didn't. These entries were written over the past two weeks when I started the process of having my first surgery. When we didn't think anything was actually wrong and goes until the day we heard the "Official News". It's a very real glimpse into my personal thoughts and what was happening in our lives. I chose to share it with you to share the whole story. Read with an open heart and full knowledge that some of the journal entries were while I was under the influence of pain-meds. Enough said... read on!

Pain Med Free!

2011-05-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Today I am free of all pain meds. Even motrin. I can't say I am painfree, but I don't need pain meds for it. I still twinge from time to time, I have an ache in my right side. I feel about 80% so things are looking up. I only cried once so far today. I am planning on jumping in the van in a bit to take some pictures. Mark and I have made some plans for my scrapbook space upstairs so I am excited to get started. Moving forward with reservations, but I am still moving forward. I am gaining ground watch out here I come. :)

Friday, May 6, 2011 3:51AM
I am awake, why am I awake? My head is aching big time. No reason why. I am tossing and turning in bed and I don't want to keep Mark up. I am ready to sleep, I am so tired. So why can't I? So many thoughts that flow thru my head revovle around the "C" word. It's a cuss word to me right now. I feel like I am using the most foul language ever when I think of the word. I want to wash my mouth out with soap. It angers me, depresses me and honestly makes me feel dirty. Stop consuming my thoughts, get out of my life, leave me alone. Damn cancer, get out, get out get out! This week is straining me so much. Why did the doctor have to tell me before he had more answers for me. It's a bad nightmare, I want to wake up and hear encouraging words. Come on Walter Reed move faster, my life is on hold because of this. I need sleep, I really need more sleep. Deep restful, encouraging, sound, life-giving sleep. Consume me sleep, consume me.

Ramblings after Surgery...

2011-05-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Monday 5/2/2011
Almost a week ago I had my fourth laparoscopy on my reproductive parts. Sounds funny when I type it out, but honestly how else do you say it. My first surgery was in 1994 which confirmed the diagnosis of endometriosis. My second was about a year after Katie was born to have my tubes tied. In November of 2007, I had a partial hysterectomy. And today I am recovering from the removal of my right ovary. What's left... yep only my left ovary. So does that make me 1/3 of a woman? Who cares. What matters is in the life I lead not the parts that make hold me together!

Tuesday 5/3/2011
I am recovering slower than I had expected from this surgery. It's been a week and I am still hurting. I become exhausted really quickly. Today was the first day I had the energy to actually shave my legs and "do my hair". I felt great afterwards too. As I sit and express the most intimate emotions I have it's hard not to cry. I ache, it hurts. My insides hurt. I can't describe it, I can't explain it, but it hurts. Sometimes it's shooting pain, other times dull pain, nuzzled in between a constant ache.

Yesterday the doctor called. He didn't have very good news for me. They did all sorts of blood tests prior to my surgery. Most notably they did multiple different kinds of tests for tumor markers. They all came back negative, accept one. One was very low and this test would also trip the numbers up a bit if you have endometriosis. The doctor said the numbers were so low not to worry at all since I've had such an extensive history of endometriosis. If he even suspected cancer he assured me he would not do the surgery and he'd send me stateside to a cancer treatment center b/c you get "One Shot" at this type of surgery.

Back to the phone call... "It doesn't look good Colleen. We always run tests after surgery, it's not a cyst. It's a tumor and it tested positive for cancer." Doc said "we're sending this to Walter Reed for extra testing. 30% of the time it does come back that we've made a mistake." Translation... 70% chance you've got cancer, but we want to confirm it. Wait what...

Wednesday, 5/4/2011
I forgot to add the best part of my Monday. See it was Monday here in Okinawa, which means it was Sunday night in the states. That morning the White House was announcing Osama bin Laden was dead. Mark had just left the house to pin a new SSgt at his promotion. I tried over and over and over to call Mark. He wouldn't pick up the phone. I was so frustrated. I knew he nor his Marines heard about this new "intel development" and I wanted to be the one to tell him. That's when my phone rang. It was my doctor. My doctor told me that he had called Mark and spoke to him prior to calling me. So while I was trying to call Mark and tell him the best news ever; that OBL was DEAD! Mark was on the phone with my doctor hearing the worst news ever, your wife has cancer. I was finally able to get a hold of Mark and I was the first person to tell him about OBL but my thunder was gone, the thrill had become numb and neither of us could respond. He did tell his team and he was the first to spread the news, but it wasn't the same. He came home about an hour later and I sobbed in his arms for what seemed like hours. He told me "No official news is good news, lets keep moving forward." I dried up my tears and my babies came home from school. Now we wait.

Today, Wednesday (5/4/2011) I actually spoke about this to someone other than Mark. Maureen came over to have lunch and to visit. I spilled my guts, cried again and swore her to secrecy. We don't want anyone to know until we have some real answers. No sense in stressing the family or friends out until we have an action plan. I can't express how thankful I am for her sitting on my sofa just listening. Allowing me to explode and offer such strong words of encouragement and love. Thank you Maureen.

Easy peasy Surgery... no big deal.

2011-05-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

April 26, 2011

Tomorrow I have surgery, another laparoscopy. The kids will go to school as usual, Mark will drive me to the hospital on Lester and my doctor will remove my right ovary. Not a big deal. Stupid ovary's been causing me some pain over the last year or so. It had a reasonable size cyst and doc said it's easiest and best for it to come out. So out it comes. By this time tomorrow I'll be home passed out on the sofa with pain meds, and well on my way to full feeling great and bouncing back to normal.

Official Notificiation...

2011-05-12T01:33:00.000-07:00

This is the official email I sent out to a few family members and friends.

"I am sorry that you have to find out this way, but I need to cut straight to the point. I had surgery 14 days ago to remove my right ovary. Today we found out it had a cancerous tissue on the tumor/ovary; it was 6cm. The doctor we had was amazing and by God’s wisdom he removed the tumor in a way that would not seed the cancerous cells. I will be traveling to Tripler Medical Center in Hawaii within the next several weeks to have my left ovary removed and a biopsy will be done on my lymph nodes. Because of the way our doctor performed the initial surgery
at this point I have Stage 1 Ovarian Cancer. Further treatment is dependent upon
the lab results from my next surgery. Honestly this is all the information we
have at this time. I am certain you have a thousand questions, and believe me we
do too. In time we’ll get the answers and as we find them out will pass the
information on to you.

Please check my blog often, I’ve posted the journey to this point and will continue to share information with everyone there. We appreciate everyone’s thoughts and prayers.
We are believing for 100% healing and that is the direction we are headed on
this journey of life. "

As I sat and typed this up I was numb, stoic, matter of fact. I still feel this way. I have to maintain composure. Mark and I haven't told the kids yet. By the time you read this we will have told them. We will have personally told our parents as well. We can't call everyone thus the reason for the above email being sent out to people. It's all out in the open now tell anyone you want, dang shout it from the mountain tops. I want to, I want to scream!

Screaming helps me vent. I learned this back in 1988 when I began working at Camp Koinonia. I was going through a really rough time. Mr. Ken spent a lot of time talking with me, mentoring me and one day I was so pent up with anger, frustration, fear and internal torment that I could not cry, he told me to scream. We were out in the woods working on something, heaven only knows (I lived for working in the woods that summer.) but he told me to just let it rip. To scream at the top of my lungs till I had no more air and energy left in me. With each scream all the fear, tension, anxiety, everything came pouring out. It was then that I was able to think clearly, find a solution and move forward with my life. I think I need a good scream now. Oh Where O' Where are the woods of my youth so that I may scream and no one will call the authorities!!

I digress... so sorry. Mark and I have talked a lot over the past week when we heard that cancer is a high probability. We decided we weren't hiding it behind a rock. We were going to talk about it and tell anyone who wants to know. We want our fight to be an open book, a main-stream training session if you will. I am a fighter, one hell of a fighter. It's only stage one, so our plan is one more surgery to remove the left ovary and biopsy the lymph nodes and then we are done. Monitoring for the next 5 years but other than that, we're done. The fight is over, the next few weeks will require a lot of prayer though. Being thrown into instant menopause is not going to be a picnic for my sweet family. So they are the ones that are gonna need the prayers! (sure hope I don't grow a beard and my voice deepen any lower than it already is!)

May 12, 2011 a day I would soon like to forget.

6:40pm... we just finished dinner and telling the kids. They are strong. They have lots of questions, we shed a few tears but we are strong. We are moving forward, not turning back and fighting the fight together. The Francis 5 will Prevail! (I think I shall change our name to ...
THE FRANCIS 6 +1 TEAM (Jesus is fighting this with us too!)

Seth's Last Visit....

2011-05-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

All my children recently went to the dentist. Finally, only 6 months late, but who's grateful they got seen! I am I am I am! This is the first time we've had military dental (actually go to a dentist office on base) treat the kids. Seth had a female doc who usually only sees Marines. Can you say "Excellent bedside manners, with a dash of meanness tossed in!" Katie and Caleb both saw this cute young blond doc who specializes in the kids on base. Katie sat all dreamy eyed in the chair, needless to say he was male. Funny part, Mark had to take the kids to the dentist. For the first time Mark saw Katie truly blush over a boy paying attention to her, he wasn't happy. I thought it was funny, Katie was just giddy. We're gonna have some interesting teenage years around these parts! In the doc's defense I've met him and he has a wonderful personality that puts kids at ease in a very un-child-friendly environment. So kudos to that doc!

Both boys had the last of their baby teeth pulled (those stinkers just wouldn't fall out). Seth had 3 done in one day all on the same side of his mouth pulled. Remember he had the "nice doc". It went fine, he was a trooper but the doc sure wasn't cool like our dentist back in the states! We sure loved him. Being this was our last visit with the Tooth Fairy he got a bit of extra money and another poem. Here it is....

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

You have NO baby teeth

So the Tooth Fairy Owes you

Take this Yen

Buy something Fun

But always remember

Your Mom's #1!

xoxox the TF

P.S. Caleb was also treated very well by the TF. Katie is the only one left w/ baby teeth. (insert sad face b/c we have no more little ones around... no insert happy face b/c we get to keep all our space change now!)

PP.SS. Seth asked if the Tooth Fairy delivers for wisdom teeth! That boy I tell ya!

Dinner!

2011-05-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

MOMMY MATH!
Pork Roast
+ Sauerkraut
+ Mashed Taters
+ Super Sweet Corn-on-the-Cob
------------------------------
= Super Duper Yummy Dinner

KIDS MATH!
Pork Roast
+ Groddy-kraut
+ Messed-Up Taters
+ Corn
---------------------------
= "Do I have to eat this stringy stuff (kraut) it's really sour!" (these kids thrive on sour candy!)
+ "These potatoes make me gag, do I have to eat them?"
----------------------------------------------
= "Mom this dinner's Gross!"

Thank goodness Mother's Day was yesterday because with tonight's dinner you would have never guessed I was the GREATEST MOM in the WORLD today!

Holy Week

2011-04-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

I was talking with my mom the other day about this week, Holy Week. I was sharing how different it seems from when I was younger. I feel as though so many churches have forgotten the significance of what this week means for us as Christians. So much more "pomp and circumstance" over Christmas but not much for this week. The most important and world changing week in the history of the world and it just seems to be celebrated as a regular week.

I've been looking back a lot lately on my childhood. I've been richly blessed as a Christian. I have been fortunate to learn, see and experience the religious practices, ceremonies and customs of several different Christian and Catholic churches. I remember learning the Stations of the Cross at St. Joseph's, the Advent wreath at East Side, the invitation to become a Christian after each service at the Baptist camp. Each church, each denomination, every service I've ever attended has carried with me, has changed me and shaped me into my unwavering faith I have today. Has everything always made sense, no. But looking back and putting the pieces of the puzzle (my life) together I understand so much more. I have a broader richer understanding of who Christ is and my relationship with Him.

Tonight I took our 3 children, Mark was at work, to the Last Supper play at our church, Koza Baptist. This was by far the most interesting, informative and captivating portrayal of the Last Supper I've ever seen. After the service was over we were walking out almost to the outer doors of the church and Seth turns to me and says...

"I want that Mom."

I reply, "You want what Seth?"

"I want that peace, that everlasting life!" His eyes were all red; he was fighting back tears. He was nervously shaking.

Trying not to overwhelm him, we talked for a moment. I encouraged him to go talk to Pastor Tim (our music minister). So we did. Seth accepted Christ as his Savior tonight. He looked so grown up talking privately with Pastor Tim. His outward appearance changed tonight. Riding in the car home he had a sense of purpose, of strength I've never seen in him. I'm overwhelmed ... with joy.

Why am I sharing all of this with you. It was all about the play. The play stirred something inside Seth's soul. It spoke to him. He's heard about Christ and God his whole life. But tonight it was different, it was for him. I know that we are called by God, but someone has to share the information about Christ with you. Tonight's play spoke to Seth in a way that nothing else had. I'm blessed, God had a reason for us to be in church tonight. I knew all week there was a reason I wanted to share Maundy Thursday services with my children. I wasn't sure why, but I knew it was more important this year. Maybe because they are getting older and can really understand the significance of this week. Or maybe because I too am longing for more in my walk with Him. I want my children to have what I have, a personal relationship with my God in Heaven, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace. I'm so glad I was obedient to God and went to services. Thank you Lord for making me a vessel for you.

Twin talk... Real or Not?

2011-04-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

This video has swept through the internet and even made it on national TV. If you are the one in a million who hasn't seen it take a minute to watch this!

What you can hear in this video is called twin language. It's somewhat common amongst twins. This video could easily be of Caleb and Seth! I'd post my own videos of my boys if I had them here in Okinawa. We didn't bring our home videos with us so you'll have to just trust me that it's true! It's hard to believe and accept that the boys seen in this video actual understand each other. Just as we couldn't believe Caleb and Seth understood each other, but they did.

So sit back, watch the video again and take a glimpse into the homes all across the globe that raise beautiful beautiful twins. For let me tell you, it's a ride of a lifetime and each day gets better and better!

Hard to believe but it's true...

2011-04-17T22:46:00.001-07:00

So you're asking yourselves, what's 'The WOW Factor'? It's when you write something on your blog share it with others and they freak out. Yep, freak out, post crazy comments, one up you, belittle you, and are what we call UGLY in our house. I never intentionally set out to write anything worthy of the WOW factor on my blog or anywhere else, but it happened. And I am certain or at least hopeful that it will indeed happen again!

When it first happened I kept asking myself... What should I do? I must have asked Mark this question a dozen times. I did take his advice and I did nothing. I didn't write a rebuttal or comment on other's comments. I kept quiet; and you know what... other people defended my heart. People who don't know me, saw my heart and stood up for me.

For all of you out there who are willing to see the heart of others

and support them I thank you.

Anyone wonder which one of my blog posts caused such a ruckus?

I'd love to read your comments.

I want to hear what you have to say so don't give it to me soft give it to me straight! I can handle it and I always know someone out there's got my back!

A conversation worth sharing...

2011-04-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

Today was a wonderful day; it was raining all day! We spent it couped up in our home watching movies, eating popcorn and simply relaxing. I loved every minute of it. So here's a conversation Caleb and I had watching Tron. We are sitting on the sofa together cuddled close. I lean over and say...

Me: "Caleb, you're a really cute kid!"

Caleb replies: "I know!"

That was the end of our very special conversation. So happy he's got confidence.

Allergies Again!

2011-04-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Can babies be allergic to diapers? YES!!!! Most people didn't believe me when my sweet little babies were so tiny, but yes in deed you can be allergic to the materials made in diapers. So many honest caring people tried to convince me that it was just diaper rash. But it wasn't. It was a full blown allergic reaction to the brand of diapers I was using.I noticed my boys would scream and I don't mean a little whimper. I am talking BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM every time they'd pee. Once the Pampers diaper got the slightest bit wet they'd go bananas. I switched to Huggies and with the first tinkle they were content. Interestingly enough, when Katie was born I ran out and bought Huggies. I didn't want to put my little girl through the same thing. Low and behold... she was allergic to Huggies and could only wear Pampers! I thought maybe it was a boy/girl thing not sure, but have you ever noticed that they change the way the make diapers ALL the time. They are always coming out with a new absorbant diaper, less leaking, better comfort etc... Those slight changes can be major on your little one's bottoms. So if your baby's hiney hurts try another diaper for a while!

Now leap forward 12 years. This week we've experienced something rather odd in our home all over again. No one is back in diapers in our house; so get those thoughts out of your head. But we have discovered an allergy to toilet paper! I purchased Cottonelle a few weeks back when it was on sale, stupid coupon. I didn't think much about it until we started using it. I've gotten complaints ranging from it hurts to "pieces being left behind". Gotta love the commercial for Charmin with the cute bear family that literally spell it out for you! Sadly, this was no joke and was getting quite serious very quickly. Luckily for me I had a new 'case' of our normal brand of toilet paper, Charmin, upstairs. I switched out the rolls throughout the house and within days our bottoms are returning to normal.

After some research I discovered that Cottonelle brightens their toilet paper to a pure clean white with ... you guessed it CHLORINE. It's a nasty nasty chemical that can interrupt your life in very unexpected ways.

Another Giveaway at The Vintage Pearl!

2011-04-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

The Vintage Pearl is giving away another beautiful piece. My favorite is "Our Family Nest" and "Come Fly w/ Me". I truly cannot decide if I won which piece I would want to receive. So you tell me, which of these two would look best on me? Our Family Nest?

Come Fly w/ Me?

So tell me, which one...? This would make a beautiful Mother's Day gift for all you men out there who have no idea what to get your mom or the mother of your beautiful children!

(did you get the hint?)

Random happenings and thoughts...

2011-04-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry there are no pictures today. I've been working on a few blog posting but haven't finished any of them. I honestly can't say I am too busy, but I can honestly say I haven't had much time either. If you are a mom you get it if not .... moving onward. I am having a little problem and I am not sure how to handle it. You see every morning I pray for the kids before they leave the house for school. I've done this since they were wee little ones going to VBS, MOPPETS and even speech class. Lately I've been having trouble concentrating on my prayers for the kids. Usually we are at the door they are gathering up their items and as we are doing that I pray. It's never very long and it's always positive. I don't say things like...

Dear Lord, please help Caleb and Seth with their science test today. We forgot to study more last night and if you would whisper the answers to them I'd greatly appreciate it. Without your help they are prepared to bomb this test. Thank you Lord for your grace, in Jesus name... Amen

OR

Father in Heaven, thank you for K80. Thank you that she wears funky socks, loves to drive her mother insane and keeps a messy room because that is how she's bent. Father please help her remember today to clean up after her snack so her class can continue to have snacks this month. And one more thing, give her peace today as she speaks to the school and parents at the assembly. Help her to remember her speech, to speak slowly and keep her head up and shoulders tall. Thank you Jesus for this crazy girl we call K80. In Jesus Name, Amen.
I've been tempted to say these prayers and sometimes I admit under my breath and in my heart I say prayers like this, but never out loud or in ear shot of my wee little ones. It doesn't set the best example of the relationship I want my children to have with the King of kings and Lord of lords. So... I guess I pray a normal mom's prayer on their way out the door. I do make them personal about things happening in their lives and events about that day.

Here's my issue -- I get distracted very very distracted and interrupt my prayer to address it. I've learned lately that if I don't address it at that moment I'll forget it and it'll never happen. By the way, this all started the day I turned 40 (it's only been 54 days).

Allow me to preface this with I ask my children to wear their pants twice unless they are visually dirty. Pants can be worn twice right... and it sure saves me some laundry time.

Here is a prime example of my daily morning prayer time. This morning as I am praying I see Seth has blood stains on his pants. See yesterday he was trying to pull a tooth out and you know the best napkin is always your pants! Then I notice this; Caleb is wearing the same shirt Seth wore yesterday. Which doesn't shock me because we have lots of duplicate shirts. I knew for sure it was Seth's shirt from the day before because low and behold there were blood stains on the right sleeve from when Seth used his shirt to dab the blood from his lost tooth. So on our way out the door as I am praying for my sweet sweet young men I send them upstairs to change.

So I guess my big question is... Does God understand, embrace, accept and feel honored by the sporadic crazy prayers from a 40 year old mother of twin tween boys and a spunky 10 year old girl?

That was my morning...how was yours?

BTW: the Tooth Fairy forgot to come last night. Thank goodness he's okay with me handing him some cash!

Vintage Pearl Giveaway!

2011-04-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

Check out this super cute jewelry from Vintage Pearl!

I so love it. Click any of the words "Vintage Pearl"

and it will take you right to their website.

What is more AMAZING is that Vintage Pearl is giving away $100 to a lucky winner.

For your chance to win just click Vintage Pearl and sign up!

It's that Easy... Dontcha just luv Vintage Pearl!

April Fools Jokes...

2011-03-31T00:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is April Fools Day and it's 9 o'clock at night. So I had to get busy. I planned a few tricks for my kids. One caused an explosion of dye on my hand. My kids fight over the downstairs bathroom in the morning to brush their teeth and such. Mainly because they are too lazy to climb the stairs again! So I cut a sponge, soaked it in food coloring (red to look like blood!) and put the sponge inside the faucet aerator. So when they turn the water on in the morning all the water should come out red. You are supposed to use the egg coloring tabs but I didn't have any and there is no running to Wal-Mart or Walgreens here in Oki, so food coloring it is! I also pre-poured the kids milk for the morning, coloring their milk to look like juice. They usually get juice in a cup so this should mess with their oodle-oop! The third and most boring thing I did was switch the cereal boxes. Nothing fancy, but I am certain this will get them as well. Here's a picture of my hand. Hopefully I can play it off in the morning that I broke my ink pad while scrapbooking last night and they'll be none the wiser!

Happy April Fools' Day!

Dandelions?

2011-03-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

It's very interesting that most homes here on the island do not have yards. The only homes that have them are military housing or housing set aside off base for military/Americans

to live. The reason? It's quite simple, they have gardens. Okinawans are very very good

at utilizing every meter (haha inch) of space available. Each home uses whatever green

space they have for gardens: flower, herb, vegetable and fruit gardens. They rotate their crops so something is always in season. It's quite remarkable, very resourceful and

completely self-reliant. I'll explain more on that in a later post.

This being said parks are where the kids go to play, stretch their legs, run and go wild.
And it's spring time in Okinawa and the other weekend while out GeoCaching we discovered a common weed... Ummmm I mean flower? Yep the dandelion. Those pesky little weeds are over here. I was honestly surprised to see them. As I was verbally wondering how these little precious flowers have come to adorn the little bit of grasslands on the island...
my mom said "probably on the combat boots of the Marines invading during the
Battle of Okinawa during WWII". Think of it this way... we've given the children of Okinawa a gift!
I am certain they too pick these flowers and run them to their mama's and grandma's
with pure joy of the gift they bring. It's a beautiful thing no matter what country... a kitchen graced with a jar filled with dandelions given in love by the wee ones of our homes.

200th Post...

2011-03-13T23:59:00.001-07:00

I can't believe this is my 200th post, but it is!

Am I that old?

Does this blog make my butt look big? (don't answer that I honestly don't want to know!)

That being said, I bet you are wondering where I've been for the past couple of weeks. I've been enjoying a beautiful visit with my mom. She's flew here from Ohio almost 3 weeks ago and it's been nonstop since she arrived. Here's a brief recap of our visit thus far... with some pictures of course!

The kids and I took Dad and Grandma to their first roller park. This particular park was huge and down by the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters. Which we visited earlier that day... more pictures below!

This is a picture from Hedo Point the most northern tip of the island of Okinawa.

It's beautiful up there!

This is a sign outside the Underground Headquarters.

Inside the tunnels. Breathe taking, very humbling and sad. What a story it tells.

Mom and I went whale watching. That was AWESOME! The seas were a bit rough but such a great experience.

The kids and I took Grandma Geo Caching for the first time. Actually we've been several times, this is just one of the many caches we've found!

And today mom and I snuck off to the Renaissance Hotel and watched the dolphins. They had a total of 9. There were 3 babies in this area, they were so adorable. Wish we could have gotten closer but we were already pushing the boundaries. They were training and feeding them; sadly we had to leave early to pick up the boys from school. This is definitely a go back to place with the kids. They were sooooooo jealous! It was truly priceless.

Tomorrow we are off to the Harley Davidson dealership for fun, then to the antique shop,

and possibly hit a shrine on the way home.

Only a week left with my mom, gotta make it the best!