First Amendment

Freedom of Speech!

I come from a family of open minded, speak at will individuals but I've learned to filter what I say to not hurt any one's feelings. I use my blog to respectfully say what I have to say and vent when needed.

Everyone knows if your in one of my pictures or with me on a day where something happens that I feel is blog worthy then I do just that.

I do not apologize for who I am or for what I stand for. This trip has taught me a lot about my family and how thankful I am that we are the type of people we are. I have truly learned that there is a reason for everything and I'm very happy and content with my life in San Diego and grateful for a husband who busts his ass at work so I'm able to go to school full time and take care of the children.

When it comes to family and military life there is a bond between other military families that fills the void and I couldn't have better friends to help me through the tough and happy times.

Point in being I'm ever so thankful that MY husband fights for MY right to freedom of everything!

Christmas 2008

As I've said before we came to Texas this Christmas and were able to spend it with Brandon's side of the family. His kid sister Alli had Christmas dinner over at her house and along with the Miles' she also had her in-laws over bringing the total to 23 I believe.

I being sick didn't take my normal amount of pictures but did mange to get a few. Here is what I got...

Here is the opening of gifts



Here is the fried turkey (they had already cut up the smoked and baked)



Here is Alli's nativity set. Brandon says tell me whats wrong (those of you who know him know what he means ;-))


I didn't really get any other ones, sorry. I did however get some of Christmas morning but that is another post to come.

Thank you for Smoking

We are on vacation in Texas for the holidays and yesterday we went out to lunch with Brandon's Grandma Darlene, mom Cindy, sister Alli and her family. We went to a Mexican restaurant and I saw smoke rising and I figured it was from the fajitas, but Amya asks me why are they smoking? I tell her there is noway anyone is smoking INSIDE right where we are eating, but sure enough she was right!

Come to find out it is still legal here in no mans land Corsicana, Texas to smoke inside! I find it absolutely disgusting! Who wants to eat their meal in a room filled with smoke? Also what got me was that they only sit large parties on the smoking side since it is the only area large enough. When its a large party chances are there will be children in the group, why sit them in that crap?

I try my best to not complain about others smoking since I walk away or I try to avoid it at all cost, but lately it seems to be everywhere I am! I have lost at least a couple years off my life due to second hand smoke, so Thank you for smoking...NOT!

This was the table right next to this little man...


cousin Adian


yes Aunt Alli and Uncle Jimmy submitted to the freezing weather and smoked inside

Fall semester 2008

This past semester was a test of my dedication to my education! I have been through the ringer and back with my English teacher and he had to go and run his mouth even on my last paper. He had the balls to tell me that online classes are not for me, little does he know that I've been doing online for the past 4 semester and have been on honor roll every semesters! There are not any clean kind words I can say about this man so I'm taking my C and I'm never going to think about him again!

Luckily I pulled an A in math so my overall GPA is still a 3.5! I'm a bit worried having gone through what I have and I'm about to go into a semester of 16 credits, it's only 4 classes, but math is no joke, biology and chemistry not my cup of tea, and sociology I actually think will be interesting.

I'm so glad that I have a 4 week break and then back to the good ole' books, also this will be my last semester with Milie since she will be transferring to WA, at least that is their plan (they haven't gotten orders) and I don't want them too ;-)! I have come up with a better study plan and have higher goals for this next semester, wish me luck!

Magic socks

Most know that the Milner hang out is in their garage where not only is there a pool table, dart board, TV and music but we sit around and hang out. It's a good time. I need to take a picture before they move, I see it as the parents "bar" :-) Good fun while the kids are inside playing.

The only down fall is it gets cold, especially lately with winter finally coming to San Diego. You have to plan going over there, Angie has mastered it by bringing a blanket every time now.

The other night Brandon was so smart and wore flip flops. Chris had to run over to the boat for something so Brandon had him grab his shoes. In need of socks Chris returned with these wonders...





Brandon rocking the socks

As he says, don't be jealous

English Nightmare!

Not to toot my own horn, but I have been on honor roll since I started school over a year ago and this semester I have met my match with my English teacher. Those close to me know what I'm talking about. This is the sugar coated quick version...

Every assignment is wrong, he wants it done one way so I take the bad grade and the next time around I change my format to the new way he says he wants it done and I get the comments back "why don't you follow directions?" WHATEVER I bite my tongue and try to do exactly what he wants each assignment but it is never right. I'm barley passing this class; actually I'm not at this point. When it comes to his grading he doesn't just grade the assignment he goes on to tell me that I'll never make it in school and I'm not college level and the latest is why do I even bother going to college and that I'm closed minded!

I don't know what to do, almost 75% of the people in the class has dropped it, if that doesn't tell him something I don't know what will. For Thanksgiving he sent out an email saying he has nothing to be thankful for in this class because it hasn't turned out the way he planned and that it saddens him that we don't participate as much as he would like. He does these post and he states his opinion and gives us the option to comment back- none of us do because he just writes back and tears your opinion apart. He required us to read an awful book that I didn't like and when it came time to reviewing it I wrote exactly how I felt and he judged my opinion and that's when he said I was closed minded and why even bother going to college and trying to learn!

I have held back all semester but I finally wrote him back (actually I wrote him back after he called me schizophic) this time I didn't play nice I told him how I felt and I called and asked for an appointment with a conculer with him. I just hope they can get me in before Wednesday of next week cause that is the end of the semester and when we leave for Texas.

Oh I CAN NOT wait to write my review on him and his class!!!!

Night of hell

Once again I procrastinated to the last minute. I had a paper due last night and around 9pm I thought I should finally start working on it. After an hour all I needed was to add a reference and turn it in, but this is when the drama started! My Internet went out! I tired to reset the modem and router, no good! I tired to call Time Warner, busy! I text Milie to see if she was up around 10:30 cause I was willing to drive all the way out to Chula Vista to turn this assignment in. I need the points to pull off a decent grade. She doesn't respond and I continue trying to fix the problem, but nothing is working.

Here is where it gets "fun" I drive over to Starbucks, closed! I tired to log on from outside hoping they left their connection on, no go! Barnes and Noble, closed same thing, no connection. It's almost 11:30pm now and I have 29 minutes to turn this in or I lose a whole letter grade! I call Brandon and ask for his opinion cause I am thinking of driving out to Milie's anyways and just sitting outside her house and logging on that way. I know I'm able to log on to her wireless cause I've done it before. Brandon says I'm crazy for being willing to drive that far just to turn it in, so I head back over by my house and drive through the neighborhood trying to log onto some one's wireless connection. Finally a few blocks from my house I'm able to do so, but there isn't anywhere to park and I feel like a freak just sitting in the middle of the road trying to do homework in my car! I drive back over by my house and try to log on again and my own connection says it's available.

I have about 12 minutes to get it turned in at this point so I try to log on and it again says no connection! I finally plug the land line in and hope that it works and it does! I turn in the unfinished assignment with 3 minutes to spare and then add the reference and email my teacher a b/s story that I forgot to save and here is the link with all the saved parts (meaning the FINISHED assignment). I've been having issues with my router and I guess I'm in need of getting a better one. If anyone knows which brand to buy please give me the heads up cause my cheap netgear isn't doing it's job!

Black Friday and then some

After getting home from Thanksgiving dinner I got online to get a few ideas of what to shop for and noticed that Kohl's opened at 4am not 5 like Milie and I thought. Also some of the stores offered the deals online so I went ahead and order a few things so I wouldn't have to go to those stores (Best Buy mainly, that would have been CRAZY) I finally laid down around 1:30am and knew if I went to sleep I wouldn't get up so I tried to watch TV and did the dosing in and out. Finally around 3 I walked the house to wake myself up and I text Milie shortly after to tell her that I was coming earlier than planned. Thank goodness she was game cause I would have for sure passed out if I would have had to wait any longer. I get to her place a little after 4 and we head to Kohl's.

The line to check out is already starting to form and we head straight for the sheets cause online I saw that they had 800 thread count on sale for $59.99 from $159.99, once I get up there and actually feel them I realize that I like the 600 thread count better and they are only $39.99! I almost bought some cheap sheets a few weeks back because Brandon and I are in grave need of new ones! We also found a great deal on gifts for the grandparents (at least that who I bought them for). We weren't in line too long, nothing like the year I went with my mom!

After Kohl's we went to Target, when I was driving into the parking lot we noticed the line that was starting to wrap around the building! Milie jumped out and I went off to find a parking place. I saw a lone shopping cart and parked next to it and jumped out to claim my great find! Once I find Milie in line the gal behind us started talking up a storm. I've never been that person who can just start up a conversation with anyone, but luckily she wasn't too bad. Her boyfriend actually came in handy later. Milie and him wanted the same toy so once we got in they took off and he cleared the path for Milie to get what she needed. He also pointed out to us where another toy was that we thought was already gone.

We again found some awesome deals and check out at Target was on point! They had it set up and everything was going smoothly! I also love that on their receipt it said how much you saved and I save almost $100 bucks! Love that!

After Target we went to Game Stop, that little store had the WORST line of all! It took FOREVER and by that point my tiredness was falling upon me and Milie and I were hungry!!!! Once we finally get to the front of the line I realize that I was supposed to pick a free game so I had to get out of line to pick one and I kinda felt bad that I got to cut in line once I had it (okay I didn't feel bad at all, I had waited for a life time before hand). Once we got out of there we had to eat so we went to I hop, the same I hop we went to last week before Twilight. It was just as good this time around again. After breakfast we decided to try KB Toys and we head off to the unknown. I'm not from Chula Vista and Milie doesn't cross the other side of 805 (inside joke) I look up the address on my phone and realize it isn't too far way and we brace ourselves to cross over.

Once we finally find it Milie is at the point of laughing uncontrollably due to lack of sleep and we laugh our way to the store. KB Toys isn't what I remember it to be. I only found a toy each for the boys but we did find Cinnabon. They were offering a sale too; 6 or 4 for $10! Why would you choose 4 instead of 6 I don't get, we asked and they didn't have a good answer. The guy was a bit off! We got our 6 to take home to the families and we go to Macy's there I find Brandon a gift and by that time we both feel the bed calling our names. We stop at Starbucks so that I can make the drive home and pick up lunch for Milie and her family.

On the way home I planned to pick up lunch for my family too, but Brandon wanted me to come pick them up and we would go eat lunch and then go see Bolt. I come home and end up passing out on the floor! He let me sleep and by dinner time woke me up to see if I planned on getting up at all. I hadn't at that point but thought I should at least feed them. After dinner we all pass out! Thankfully staying up and sleeping all day didn't mess with my schedule!

Saturday morning I wake up to not being able to move at all! I had done something to my back awhile ago and I just deal with it, but it was throbbing! Brandon's friend calls and asks him to meet him for lunch, so Brandon and the kids go to do that and I head off to get a message! Since Brandon wasn't game for rubbing it for the 1000th time I take advantage of one of those first time deals. After the message she says to ice my back nightly and that it is really jacked up. So last night that is exactly what I did, I iced till it melted!

All in all I had a great 4 day weekend, Thanksgiving at Angie's, black Friday shopping with Milie, message and finished up Christmas shopping (while Brandon took the boys to see Bolt) and today we are relaxing!

Thanksgiving

I know I've been slacking on the posts, but I finally had time off of school and took full advantage of it! For Thanksgiving this year we went to Angie's again and they smoked the turkey again! We actually had plans to stop by the Miliner's also, but Chris ended up really sick and couldn't even work. In the Military missing work cause of being sick is a big deal! To put it in prospective Brandon has been in 10 years and has never had a sick day. The only time he has gotten off was when he had his molars pulled and a few months back when he has surgery. Since it's the holiday season and I have finals coming up we didn't want to chance getting sick so we ended up only going to Angie's.

Milie is from Washington and Angie is from Oregon so watching the Cowboys beat the Seahawks was Brandon's high light! Thank goodness the "Badhawks" are playing like crap this year cause Brandon isn't a fun guy to be around when the Cowboys aren't playing well. We ended up eating after the game, and after the feast us girls played phase 10 while the guys watched tv and relaxed. After helping cleaning up we got home about 11pm! It was a great night which lead to me staying up all night so that Milie and I could go "Black Friday" shopping. But that is the next post.

I forgot my camera, I know I NEVER leave home without it but I took it out to charge it and forgot to put it back, so I took a few pictures with Angie's and now I'm playing the waiting game to see when I actually get them from her ;-) I'll post them once I get them...I don't know why I say that cause I never do, does anyone? A month or 2 later post pictures that were left out and now are completely random? ;-)

The Mormon's are coming

I am always asked questions about being Mormon and this Saturday at 3:30pm you can either come to my house to ask your own questions since I never have the right answers or tell me your questions and I will be taking notes so I can finally put a rest to the interragations ;-)

OPEN INVITE TO ALL WHO HAVE QUESTIONS FOR THE MISSIONARY'S!

Twilight

We all know that I have been counting down the days till Twilight and I was even thinking of going to the midnight showing, but 1. Milie wouldn't go with me and she even threatened to not go see it with me if I had already seen it ;-) 2. I finally am back on normal sleeping hours and didn't want to chance messing that up. So Friday morning after dropping off the kids at school I headed out to Chula Vista and went to pick up Milie. We had planned on going to breakfast and then the 10:15am showing. Norma called and said she didn't have to work so she wanted to join us. We tell her to meet up at i hop and head off to buy the tickets just in case.

Norma ended up going the wrong way and we had to box up her breakfast to go so we wouldn't be late. Once we get to the theater it is in one of the smaller ones. I was kinda shocked but oh well. I went into the movie trying not to think about all the reviews that I had heard such as something was just missing to it is today's youth version of Titanic. I thought over all it was good, not great like the Titanic, but then again it didn't have the same kind of budget. I also wasn't all for the casting, the Cullen's didn't fit and I didn't like how they made them foster couples. But because I love the series as much as I do I hope that they make the rest and that they are given a better budget.

Oh can we talk about the piggy back ride up the hill. Milie's reaction was to die for and I could not stop laughing! I became one of those people that are laughing at nothing and won't stop. I had to think of other thoughts and keep taking deep breaths! Come on, they could have came up with something better. Even though it was hallirious!

Getting there

Everyone knows I am a night owl but for the past 4+ weeks I have had a HORRIABLE case of insomnia. It went from going to bed at 2 to 4 then 5 then 6 to staying up to take the kids to school coming home and doing a few things and going to sleep around 8 then 9 to 10am and waking up when I needed to pick the kids up from school! On weekend I would go to bed once the kids were just waking up. I tired all my tricks I had up my sleeve to get back on schedule like skipping a night of sleep and staying up the next day to sleep that night. I ended up sleeping that night and then the next day as well to make up for lost time I guess. It completely backfired on me cause I was sleeping every other day and it was not only taking it's toll on my family life but my health and my well being.

The other night I did it again and the next day Milie called me at 8pm and it woke me up. I had enough! I tired to stay up till the following evening time, but didn't last and fell asleep around dinner time and woke up a little after midnight. I decided to stay awake till the next night (last night). Last night I fell asleep around 9pm and slept till 3:30am. I've been awake since then and I hope that tonight I will go to bed around 10 and sleep till 5. I know that isn't the best of schedule, but if I can sleep those hours it would make such a difference in my life right now. Wish me luck so I can be normal again! ;-)

It's A New Day

Will.i.am

What can you say

A couple weeks ago I ordered some movies online for the kids as stocking stuffers and yesterday I got a package that I had no idea what it was. I always grab the mail on the way home from picking up the kids since it's not right in front of the house it is actually good distance around the corner and down the road. Back to the story, the kids were in the car when I opened the package and it ended up being the movies so my plan was ruined.

Tonight they asked to watch


and I said it was fine, I actually sat down and watched it with them cause I've never seen it myself. I've listened to the CD more times than I ever wanted too and Amya can sign every song without missing a single word. After it was over I put the kids to bed and guess what I did?

I posted myself up on the couch and watched



ALL BY MYSELF! I even caught myself tapping my foot to the beat in one of the songs! I don't even know what to say, I'm just going to end it there...

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

Yes We Can

Here it is Milie

My bucket list

For awhile now I have been writing down things I want to accomplish in my life and these are what I have came up with so far

• Travel (my list started off with each destination I wanted to travel to, but feel that it’s a general topic) I want to backpack Europe and Contiki offers an awesome deal that would take me to France, Spain, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium in transit! Now that would be the true definition of backpacking Europe in my opinion. I also want to travel to each of the 50 states, walk the Great Wall of China, scuba drive the Great Barrier Reef, take a romantic vacation to Bora Bora, take a family safari in Africa and have a girls getaway to New York City and see a show. There are many other places I would love to see, but you get the point.

• Earn my masters! I know that I started way late with the whole college degree since I went the family route first but it can be done! My goal is to get it before my oldest graduate’s high school so that gives me 8 years.

• My thrill goal is to sky dive. Most say I’m crazy especially since I have a family, but my take is just since I have children doesn’t mean I have to give up me. If it wasn’t safe I wouldn’t do it and I have a better chance getting in a car wreck then getting hurt jumping out of an airplane.

• Learn to play the piano. I don’t have to be Mozart, but I want to be able to play more than Chopsticks and Mary had a little lamb.

• Speak Spanish fluently. Being half Hispanic I feel it’s important to learn my heritage and even though my Caucasian mother speaks more Spanish than my Hispanic father I want to change that cycle where my father wasn’t raised to learn the language and I want my children to be able to speak, read and write in Spanish as well.

• I want to live overseas and put good use to my degree (that I will have earned by the time I move) and help; like a Peace core mission. I want to be able use my nursing degree in a disaster situation and make a difference.

I know that most of my goals are obtainable (actually all of them are) the traveling will cost some money, but that is why I’ll earn my masters to pay for it ;-) and living overseas won’t come until Brandon retires from the Navy (maybe we’ll have a chance to do it while he’s in and the military would actually pay for us to move how nice would that be) Really what it boils down to is how much of an effort am I willing to give! I’m already in school and working on the degree, I have a keyboard (I know not the same, but a start) downstairs that has a program to teach you to play, and come on how many self taught books are out there to teach yourself a language.

Writing it out and re-reading what I wrote has given me a new prospective on my list and points out if these goals aren’t accomplished it’s completely on me! Guess I should get to work.

The Choice

Last night I read



while I should had been re-reading



I had a paper (quick summary of part 1) due last Wednesday which I still haven't done. Thankfully my teacher allows late work up to 5 days late so I have till Monday to turn in.

Instead of re-reading I decided to ask my friends for some suggestions of a good read and on Friday while we met up to take the kids trick-or-treating Milie brought me The Choice and The Rest Falls Away. Sadly to sad I have never actually read a Nicholas Sparks book so I thought I would start there, especially since Angie gave me 2 other's of his to read.

Today when I was talking to Milie I told her that I read The Choice and she says, "All of it?" I tired to tell her I was going to go home and read it, but I don't think understood what I meant, cause when I say I'm going to read a book I do just that. I was up till 8am reading it all. As much as I love to read I have issues when it comes to putting a book down. I haven't mastered that option yet. I didn't start reading till almost midnight because I knew I wouldn't stop once I started and I actually tried to go to bed last night. After an hour of tossing and turning and shaking my foot (I have RFS) I decided to go ahead and start it.

For those of you who haven't read it yet, I won't spoil it for you. All I want to say is that I was seen A Walk to Remember and The Notebook and when I was coming to the end of the book I remembered how those stories ended and I was boo-hooing till the last page. I strongly suggest this as a read for those who need something passion in their lives (can you tell my hubby is out to sea) ;-)

It's now 2am and since I can't sleep I can either do math homework, start my re-reading (since I'm able to stop with books that don't interest me) or I can start reading



What do you think I'll be doing?

Did you sleep tight? cause I didn't!

It is now 6:45am and I haven't even thought of laying down yet. I have been up all night doing stupid math homework. That test that I blogged about on Tuesday or Monday (I'm too tired to remember) anyways its due tomorrow (actually tonight now) at midnight and I was trying my best to not wait till the last minute and I wanted to finish it asap, the only problem is that I haven't gotten the score I want on the pretest and so I keep taking it and retaking it to only improve by a single question!

I now have to stop and go wake the kids for school and I know that as soon as I get back I'm not going to want to log back on here and start this process all over, my bed will be calling my name.

So those of you reading this and know my phone number call me this afternoon to make sure I don't sleep my day away, Thanks for the help! ;-)

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I love to read, but I'm the type that if the first paragraph doesn't grab my attention I half read through the following pages and if that doesn't do the job then I put the book down- never to be picked up again. I know that's not fair to the book but the author should had known better and wrote an outstanding first chapter. (Like my justification?)

Anyways for English this semester we are reading



I am struggling to get through this, it's not a completely bad read, but it is dragging so far. (Part one is about corn and the journey it makes from growing in the fields in Iowa to being eaten in the car in California, enough said right there to make my point!) Maybe its cause last week I spent 2 solid days reading the Twilight series (I just have to say I am infatuated with the love between Edward and Bella) or maybe it's because I don't really want to know how my food got to my plate. Yup that's right, this book is about how 4 different meals and how they got to the dinner plate. I don't really want to know the process my meat took to become my meal. I'm already a border line vegetarian and having to read every detail just might do the job.

Am I rubbing off?

Milie and I both are in school together and at the start of the semester she was on top of her game; always doing homework ahead of when it was due, every time I called she was doing her reading. We are in the same math class and she would ask how I did on an assignment or test and I would have to tell her that I hadn't even started it yet.


We all know that I am the BIGGEST procrastinator there is and we had a test due yesterday. Granted this one was tough and come to find out it was tough for the all of the class, but I'll get to that in a minute. On Monday I finally start the pretest we have to do before the actual test and didn't do so hot. I called Milie to see if she has done the actual test yet and she says No. I then try to come up with an excuse to email the teacher to ask for an extension (I was only joking about this) but while I'm talking to her I get an email that out teacher is giving us an extension till Thursday (this is where the tough part comes in, everyone was having trouble with it). I thank God and tell Milie that means I'm done with homework for the day. She says she is going to go ahead and finish. The next day I call to see how she did and she says she didn't do it. Tonight I call her again to see how she did and again she says she hasn't done any of it. I'm not sure if my great study habits are rubbing off or if it's the fact that I kept her on the phone till 2am last night. We all know that I have insomnia and I thought I would have her entertain me last night.


Poor thing, Milie is the one that we know will be in bed by a descent time. Even though she might not be sleeping she is at least headed that way. Now she is up late trying to do homework. I'm a bad influence huh?

Look at what Milie got for me

When we meet up with Milie on Saturday for Gavin's birthday party she had a birthday gift for me...




After I opened it and thanked her she just says, "I read your blog I know what you wanted." So true, so true. Thanks Milie

There was also a coffee cup since I don't own any and every time she comes over and wants a cup of coffee she has to use a normal glass and there was a "re-gift" candle. You should know that she called me to tell me this and said she won't be hurt if I don't like it and she gave me permission to re-gift to someone other than her. ;-)

Blog browsing

While I was checking out other blogs I came across these cuties



Fiesta Head Chefs aren't they adorable! I love how they have suction cups on their feet. They would make a great stocking stuffer (hint hint Brandon)

Tell Me Why

I want to believe that this 11 year old gets what he is singing about and than I want to know why too!

(Declan Galbraith, 2002)

What a day (kinda long but full of pictures)

Today the guys were supposed to leave but good ole Topeka broke AGAIN! But we already had plans for the day, being Gavin's 5th birthday it was his party! Luckily for us we have great friends here and they told their hubby's they had plans and wouldn't be able to pick them up till after his party! I felt bad for the guys (not really) but was delighted that they wanted to stay for Gavin.

As I have said before Gavin is the quite one and into animals and art, so he picked his party at the pottery shop where we picked a piece and then painted it. It was actually really fun and I was glad that I didn't have to worry about having everything perfect at my house to entertain people. At the shop they set it all up and took care of everything for me.

Let me take a step back... around lunch time I called the girls and we planned to met up for lunch before the party, but this is when we were starting to get word that the guys may not be heading out today. Keith had forgotten a bag at home so Angie and I headed over to the base to drop it off and since Brandon had duty yesterday I wanted him to be able to actually see Gavin on his birthday. After a quick hello, happy birthday, love y'all, goodbye we headed off to meet Milie for lunch. This is after many "I'm hunger" texts and I felt awful. When Milie called to ask where we were I didn't want to tell her, but we got there shortly after and had lunch and then headed over to the shop for the party.

Gavin of course got a giraffe, Ethan and Michael got matching dragons (Ethan is a follower, sad but very true!) Bree got a penguin, Alex picked out a dog, Angie a pig (she LOVES pigs) spoon rest, Milie a star with a sailor hat on and I pick out a frog. Here is a few pictures from today...








After HOURS this is what Milie accomplished


Here is a group picture of what we all did, I'll take another once we get them back next week. (Before/After pictures)


After the party we headed to Point Loma to meet up with our other halves. Once Angie and I got to her place this is what we walked inside to find...


Oh so peaceful


Once we got home Brandon feel right back to sleep (he was up all night with the guys trying to get what was broke fixed) I took the boys and we headed to Target so Gavin could use his gift card from Papa Tom and Grandma Kathe. He would pick a few things and then change his mind and he did this a good 4 or 5 times before he finally got his loot


After we left Target it was dinner time so we headed home to ask Brandon if he wanted to join us. Gavin wanted Chili's so we drove over there and they sang him Happy Birthday and he tired to hide it was cute




as you can see Gavin and I don't like getting our pictures taken

As soon as we back home Brandon passed out again so I helped the kids put together Gavin's new toys and we played for awhile and once the fighting started I sent them to bed and now I'm here. What a day!

Ellen's Scary Web Video

Saw this on Ellen and it's too funny not to share with y'all, enjoy!!!!

Dependent Cruise

Last week I finally took Brandon up on the chance to see what his navy life is like. We (dependents) met the boat in the morning and headed out to sea. After a quick debriefing our sponsor (spouse/son/friend/who ever it was) was then to give us a tour of the boat. Brandon was on watch (working) so Keith took Angie and I around and had people explain what everything was so we could better understand. After awhile Brandon was finally relieved and was able to join us. We basically hung out in Keith's office area. Being on the boat is actually kinda boring I feel for Brandon and trying to entertain himself has a new meaning. No wonder he wants all the PS3 games he can get his hands on and now I appreciate his ipod more. There is only so much space on a sub and only so much one can actually do. Keith did find some neat things for us to check out; like in the control where we got to actually watch the dive down into the ocean and in the sonar room where we listened to whales and dolphins. After lunch we headed over to Brandon's department and Keith climbed into the torpedo tube to show us how long it really is.

Here is him doing so...


made it to the end


"Hi y'all"


This is Keith trying to turn around to get out and y'all should know Keith is no bigger than my kid brother and we all know that if you blow too hard Levi would fly away, well Keith is about the same size and he couldn't turn around it was great to watch ;-)


After being entertained by Keith they did some "angels and dangles" this is where they make the sub go up and down at 20 degrees and it allows you to stand while you look like your about to fall over, like in the fun house.

The highlight of the day was watching John (Milie's hubby) work. John is a small fella too 5'6" or so average in weight but this man had to fit into a hole no wider than the length of my shoe! I had to bust out the camera.

Here he is hard at work


Here is how he got down


Sucking in and a little wiggle was the magic touch


This is the picture you have in your mind when you think of a career in the Navy right?


After all that excitement (hehe) Brandon had to go back on watch and he wanted me to sit and watch him, but first I was able to climb to the took of the sub where they opened the hatch for us to look out

This is the view of us headed back to shore

Pretty huh?

Here is proof that I actually climbed up there


After the climb up I sat by Brandon and watched how the "Duty Chief" does his job. I did this till we pulled back into port. We ran a bit behind schedule and thankfully I had a plan set up with Milie that if she hadn't heard from me by 4:45 to head over and pick up the kids for me. Without that plan I would have been late cause I didn't get off the boat and onto the pier till almost 5:30 and there would have been no way I would had made it in traffic, so thanks Milie.

All in all is was a long day, but I now KNOW what Brandon is talking about when he says there is nothing to do underway. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed myself and had good company so it made the time go by faster. Could you imagine if your over all the people you've been stuck with in a tube for gosh knows how many days/weeks/months...drag!