Round 3

When Hannah found out that little miss Hailey was coming along we came up with a game plan so that it wasn't going to be the end of the world. I registered her with fafsa, got her a pin, filled out the financial aid and applied to Clark on her behalf.


This little devil deserves a mommy with a good education, right?

Those eyes and curls makes me want to go home and steal her (know that I would NEVER break the law) but come on she's a cute baby!

Levi on the other hand decided to take a break after high school and work full time and save up some money. After a long overdue break and hearing mom and I repetitively ask when is he going to college he asked me to do the same for him. So once again I filled out fafsa, got him a pin, did the financial aid and applied to Clark on his behalf.


I felt the need to put up a cute one of him too!

Today, my older brother Jeremy calls me and he unfortunately has been dealt a hard blow thanks to the recession and was laid off! Knowing that is might happened he went out and got himself a second job and is still able to provide for his family. Not liking his options right now he has decided to go to school as well. So for the third time I got him a pin, applied for financial aid and to Clark on his behalf.

With all this education blogging I came across my graduation pictures and I'm not sure what to say. For a good laugh I decided t post them, have fun!


First of all, I could pass for a ghost and my goodness look at those nails!!!! (I was going through my Mary J Blige phase)


This is what happens when you have a mother that never teaches you how to apply makeup (didn't start wearing it till after high school!)

Now I'm going to go sit in the corner and ponder if my mother really loved me. What mother lets her child go out like that especially on their graduation!

I'm in for it

Tonight I set the boys up to do their homework as I was doing mine (first day and already swamped!) Ethan of course whines and says he doesn't want to do any and will do it at school. I tell him to deal with it and do what he's told and then I go to start dinner.

I come back to Ethan laughing and playing with his football. I ask him why isn't he doing his homework and he says it's getting done, I look over and GAVIN'S DOING IT for him!

First grade and already having someone else do his homework for him, ALREADY!!!!

It's that time again...

Tomorrow I'm back in school for another fun 16 weeks! This winter break flew by, with Brandon actually being in for Christmas and being able to go to Texas was a miracle in itself.

Reality has hit back hard; I have to go to campus this semester and I'm not really looking forward to it but I'm not willing to self teach myself Biology and Chemistry! Thankful I got into Math and Sociology online. Just those four class are 16 credits and of course Brandon is out to sea to miss in all the joys of the first week of class.

I'm not looking forward to the parking; my campus has been doing a remodel of the parking forever and they still are not finished! Let's just hope that tonight my sleeping pills actually do their job and I get a full nights of rest.

A day to remember

I have never been so proud to be an American then I was January 20th at 9:02am PST



Watching the inauguration was one of the greatest moments in my life. I sat in front of the TV from 6:30am till I finally passed out after the Neighborhood Ball. I am not an emotional person when it comes to crying but all day I had tears running down my face.





It was not only because we sworn in our first African American President, but I believe in change and I believe President Obama is the man that can lead us to that change.

We Are The Ones

After watching We Are One: the Obama Inaugural Celebration I am so excited for Tuesday!

Thank you Mimi

Dear Mimi,


Love, Ethan and Gavin

Mimi has come to the rescue and now the boys are going to be playing baseball this season! Thank you so much, they are so excited and we promise all the pictures you could ask for ;-)

Texas living!

Coming from a huge family and spending every free moment with cousins I have been playing with the idea of going to Texas for Brandon's next deployment!

In reality we will probally be doing a tour in Washington so we will be a 2 hour drive at most away from my family, but after spending time in Texas and realizing how much the boys want to be around family I think it will be worth it.

The only things we will have to question is the cost of moving back and forth verse staying put and my school. Brandon will be gone for the summer so the boys will be okay. We'll see what we can come up with! ;-)

So jealous!!!

While in Texas for Christmas we had Christmas dinner over at my sister-in-law's and I was helping peel the potatoes and cut them up when it came to the mashing she was able to put her new Christmas present to use...


KitchenAid 4.5-QT. Classic Stand Mixer

Once I saw it I instantly got jealous cause I've been asking Brandon forever for one, but I want one to match my kitchen but also I like the Artisan...


KitchenAid Artisan 5-Qt. Stand Mixer

The one in the in the background of the accessorises shows what color I want; Blue Willow



I also like this Martha Stewart one and she has other pieces to make my kitchen match, but will end up getting the one above so everything flows ;-) (I know I have issues about things like that)

Little League

Our first year here we moved half way into baseball season so they added Ethan to a team free of charge. The following year when we went to sign up the boys it was crazy expensive of almost $150 per child! I called my mom to ask if that was what it cost back at home for us to play and she said it keeps going up each year. That is ridiculous to me. Sadly the boys didn't end up playing last year.

Kids need an outlet, an activity to get them active and away from video games and a healthy environment! Then they go and try to break the bank! We really want the boys to play this year so we are depending on grandparent donations! The walk-in registration is this weekend, so I know its cutting it short, so be prepared for a phone call ;-) Thanks Mom and Dad (Miles' & Garcia's)

UPDATE: Due to Brandon being in the military and registering both boys we get extra discounts!!! $10 for having 2 children play and $20 off each child for our service to good ole' USA, sweet huh? That's a saving of $50 bucks! Guess we'll put that towards the equipment they will need. Now we just have to come up with $260 by tomorrow! ;-)

Clarification

When I posted the entry about the smoking inside restaurants it was not a stab at the town we were staying in, it was clearly at the action of grown adults choosing to smoke inside around children.

I want to make my point very clear that Branodn and I do not dislike Corsicana, Texas! Some people are made for country living Brandon and I are not. And regardless of whatever town we are in Brandon always makes jokes to calling Corsicana Redneck hell to calling San Diego communist California and even calling paradise Hawaii the armpit of the pacific! That's Brandon, everyone knows to not take him serious and the best response to it is to throw it right back at him. Milie has mastered this task and I can just sit there for however long it goes on and listen to them go back and forth.

My intentions where to never hurt anyone's feelings, but I strongly feel that it is disgusting that grown adults think about there urges over the well being of children. Southern hospitality is no joke in Texas, there are not many places one can go and respect is still a value upheld, my point was where is the value of well being?

I'm sorry if I came across of offending a town because of their laws, I did not mean to. Regardless if its in a small town, huge city, or someones personal car they should not be smoking in front of children! That's my point and I'm sticking to it ;-)

We're home

After 28 hours we finally made it home! This was the longest drive for me EVER! I've driven back and forth from San Diego to Dallas 5 or 6 times and from San Diego to Vancouver 6 or 7 times and have never taken as long as map quest has said it would take.

We left Texas later than planned due to the Cowboy game being pushed back to the later game. That was a horrible game and a waste of time to stay and watch, but we're not going to get into that. On top of leaving late we were also sick. I don't normally get sick and when I do it tends to wipe me out. Around 2am I wake Brandon up and tell him I cant drive anymore and he tires to take over, but we are coughing like crazy and poor Ethan sounds like he is about to puke every time he has a coughing attack, so we decided to pull over and rest for an hour or so, but this only leads to more drama cause we can't get comfortable and it was 30 degrees outside and it was useless. I call my mom to have her talk to me while I attempt to drive again and she says we sound like death and suggest that we get a hotel room.


We attempt to pull over again this time Brandon puts the car seats in the back and lays down with Ethan in the middle row and me and Gavin are huddled up in the passenger seat, after way too much tossing and turning and laughing so hard it caused all of us to cough so much it hurt we gave in and went to a hotel room. Thankfully mom was still up (it was 2am her time) she looked up what town we were about to go into and found us a hotel room. We passed out as soon as we got there and slept for a solid 5 hours!

With all the pulling over and the hotel stop we lost about 7 hours of driving, but it was very much needed. After 24 hours into the drive back home we thought we would call the folks and let them know we are still alive and driving and come to find out my mother-in-law has pneumonia and had to go to the hostipal that day! We continue on our way and whenever I needed an ounce of reality I would call Milie and get a good laugh in to push through the next couple hundred miles.

It should be told that when it comes to driving everyone knows I always drive, I'm a control freak when it comes to driving and I DO NOT make a good passenger and I tend to drive the whole way, but going to Texas I wanted to keep my schedule and not stay up all night so Brandon drove his fare share of about 40% on the way home with me being sick you would think he would have stepped up, but he was tired and had just dealt with the Cowboys so he drove maybe 150 miles total out of the 1400+ we had to do to get home! ;-) Him being such a gentleman asked if I wanted him to drive the last 45 minutes home, we just laughed!

By the time we got home we walked in not unloading anything and the boys feel asleep on the couches and I went straight to my bed and texted a few people that we made it and tired to go to sleep, but that was when I heard Brandon calling my name!

Not only was the internet turned off so was the TV! Our military housing comes with free internet service and while we were gone they switched companies and we hadn't gotten the password to the new one so we were locked out. About TV lets just say direct TV and I aren't friends right now! We got home Monday night and today is Friday and for the past 3 days I've spent a good 2+ hours on the phone with them daily! I'm actually waiting for them right now cause after all the b/s they had put us through the are giving us a free upgrade with HD! Brandon keeps reminding me to be thankful, but who wants to argue while they are sick? Not me.

All in all, it was a crazy experience to get home, but the trip was worth it. I will do another entry later about the trip.