This is HUGE!!!

I know, I know, I already wrote a stupid meaningless blog post for today, but hear me out . . . So, we drove up to the hospital, about 45 minutes away, to see a friend and her baby. We had fun, chatting and retelling birth stories, and because it is the new "Mommy's" Birthday, we had cake. The kids were delighted! I held that sweet 9+ pound child for I don't know, maybe an hour . . . all the while realizing how perfect our family is. I no longer have the desire to carry another child for months on end inside me, and then again months on end outside of me. The miracle of a baby's birth will never become less mesmerizing to me, but I no longer desire for it to be a miracle that demands my personal participation. This is HUGE!!! (<-- just ask Karl!) I love babies, and I always imagined having a few . . . but once we started, I never imagined stopping. But now . . . . The baby itch is gone! I'm happy to move into to "auntie" stage of life where I hold them when they're happy, and return them to mom or dad when they are unhappy or messy! (Although I would contend that I am still completely adept at handling either of those situations even still.) So to all the newer mommies out there . . . I am officially into the baby holding stage! Yours, not mine! :)

Vacation

So we kicked off our vacation in style! We slept in! Then when we finally starting moving, we didn't stop! We are just under 24 hours until we depart the house for the airport and a couple flights out to Oregon. We are about 95% packed and organized already! We've had a great, but busy weekend . . . Saturday was spent getting things around the house in order for a couple weeks of neglect. So mowing (lots of it!), laundry, cleaning, weed whacking and the sort. Sunday was to church for the early service, then straight to the farm for a riding lesson for Katy (yes, in the 100 degree heat!), a four-wheeler ride and fishing for the boys and then berry picking . . . blackberries - yum! Today has been . . . up early, packing, more packing . . . a little more laundry, soaking Bacon's pen, watering the garden, dump run, packing and again, more packing! Now we are off to visit a friend, do some last minute snack shopping, and back home to try to relax and get the kids cleaned up before tomorrow and all it's excitement! Oregon . . . . HERE WE COME!

Finishing up!

Okay, don't worry you blogaholics . . . this is not a proclamation that I am finishing my new blog! It is just a statement summing up a to do list that has seemed never ending. We are heading to Oregon next week, in preparation for my sister's wedding July 10th, so we have had a miriad of things to accomplish before we leave our mini farm for a couple of weeks. Today, we made Bacon(our, not-so-much a pet, but dinner, pig) a new water trough . . . he had decided that the first draft was a suitable bathtub, so as you can imagine, the fresh water didn't stay fresh for long. So, we semi-covered the new trough in the hopes that he won't bathe in it . . . seems to be working so far. We then put up some wildlife netting around our garden . . . something had been eating our cabbage and broccoli, and we can't have that! On a side note, our tomatoes and cucumbers are growing like crazy! We can't even fit the tomatoes into the wire tomato stake things anymore! They are overflowing out and over! Our cherry tomatoes just started producing little bits of red yumminess, and the larger ones are coming up in just a couple weeks! Anyhow . . . we then got invited to the neighbors house to see the third of the triplet kids (goats) being born! Birth is such an amazing thing to witness. This was particularly fun, as when we return from Oregon, we will likely be picking out which goat we will be adding to our little farm! :) After all that drama, we headed to the horse farm we work at. It was our last day for a few weeks, and as much as we love it there, we were excited to not have that on the agenda for awhile. When we got home, we ran over to check on the baby goats. They're doing well. Dinner, feeding animals, watering the garden, Karl is mowing the back field, Hunter is mowing with the push mower (just enough to give Bacon and the chickens something to munch on), and I am here blogging. We got lots done today, but there is so much more to be done tomorrow. More mowing, cleaning, packing, laundry, more laundry and more packing, and maybe a little bit of relaxing! :) But for now . . . it's time to help in the yard and with the animals.

A Miracle!

So, I have decided that life must go on (even though I'm not sure my garden wholeheartedly agrees), even in the 100+ degree heat wave we've had this year. So when I heard that our old neighbor from Maine was going to be in D.C. for the week, I committed to spending part of a day with her and her son and all the kids in the city. Some of you may not realize, but I am not really a city girl, and I drive a really not city girl kind of vehicle. (A Suburban.) I went to bed last night thinking to myself . . . "Am I crazy? Why did I commit to this!?!?!?!?" But Katy and I had already prepared most of a backpack lunch (PB and homemade jam sandwiches, apples, cheetos, grapes, granola bars, celery, snack crackers, cheese sticks and water) to share with our friends, so we had to go. The trip there was going quite smoothly minus a bit of traffic for construction, until our exit . . . which isn't actually an exit anymore! I mean, it's there . . . well, part of it is! So "Sassy" (our GPS) had us "recalculating" our way all over downtown D.C., into VA, and everywhere, but she did eventually get us there. The temperature gauge on the Surburban read 99 when we entered the parking garage, at about 10:30am. We walked the 2/3 of a mile to the museum (Natural History) and enjoyed the wonderfully air conditioned chaos (including, but not limited to "the elephant", and the hall of mammals, the hope diamond, the giant squid, the little aquarium the dinosaurs and more dinosaurs and more dinosaurs), for a couple of hours until . . . it was time to go. We snapped some pictures, said our goodbyes, gave hugs and parted ways. (I miss them again, already.) Then came the fun part . . . as we walked back to the parking garage in the now 103 degree heat, I literally thought to myself "Sassy, don't fail me now." But, she did . . . she didn't even pick up a signal until we were almost to Waldorf! Good thing for my iPhone, and having grown up in an age where kids in school learned to read maps, and orient themselves with/on maps! We did drive through some of the (not-so) nicest parts of town to find our way, but we made it! I survived . . . without Karl, without any real help from the GPS, and with all four kids in tow! It's a miracle!

In other news for the day . . . we stopped at the Amish Market on our way home, and spent $18 of the last $20 cash I had for the day. We got eggplant, tomatoes, an onion, homemade noodles, chocolate shoe fly pie and triple treat cookies. We even had $2 to spare when we left! Oh what a meal we had! There is nothing as fantastic as fresh picked, still warm from the sun tomatoes! We had the noodles with alfredo sauce, the eggplant was sliced and stacked with parmesan cheese and a tomato slice, and the onion and more tomatoes were diced along with potatoes and a dinner sausage to be baked into pure yumminess! (Oh, and the Chocolate Shoe Fly Pie - AMAZING! . . . the triple treat cookies weren't terrible either - although Joe would say "Yeah they were . . . terrible good!" Tonight, we also have a friend's son with us . . . he's 2 and such a sweet kid. His mommy was having his baby brother tonight, so he's hanging out with us! Nothing tops off a great day, like a great home cooked meal, dessert, and great news from a good friend! Congrats to the Abbott Family on their newest addition! All 9 lbs 12 ounces of him!

Dreams and Goals?

So, as some of you might know, Karl and I recently celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We had a great date( see picture), that was relaxed and fun. (We did have a minor issue towards the end of the date, but that's a different story . . . ) We have a semi-tradition to share with each other our dreams and goals for the future. It's a fun way to stay on the same page with each other as we venture through another year together. I have been thinking about these dreams/goals every day since. We have had an interesting adult life together . . . spending lots of our time apart thanks to the Navy. I am not complaining, just stating the facts. I really truly feel like our time apart has made us better and helped us appreciate each other when we are together. When we have these talks about dreams, it's always hard for us to know what our dreams are . . . I don't have any "career" goals, and with only 6 years and 1 month (give or take a couple days) left in the Navy before retirement becomes an option, Karl still isn't sure what he wants to do "when he grows up". We can fully agree on dreams and goals like . . . do everything we can to raise our children to be people who love the Lord with all their hearts . . . get and stay debt free . . . buy a place with 20+ acres and a huge porch. Even where we'd like to live post-Navy. But what to do when we get there? We have no idea! We think we know what we'd like to do if money weren't an issue . . . but as we all know . . . money is always an issue. We trust and know that God has a plan . . . a divine one, more amazing than we could ever imagine or dream up. The desire of our hearts is to live out that plan. We are fixing to enter that last segment of our Navy career (Karl is set to re-enlist for the last time on July 11th), and your prayers for us would be greatly appreciated. There are only 6 years left for us to figure all this out! Seems like forever when you say it, but when I think about the fact that in the first six years of our marriage we had 3 children, owned 2 homes, had lived in 4 states, that really makes it seem like this time will fly by. I'm not sure I'm ready for it! But you can watch and see Karl and I trusting in and relying on God to be our guide as we try to navigate through uncharted waters.

Perfect Fungus

Well, I don't really know what to write about today . . . nothing super major happened yesterday . . . I didn't have to work at the farm because our friend Peggy had a last minute hospital visit (she's expecting a baby any day now), and we got to watch their son Orrin (age 2) for the afternoon/evening. So that was kind of a nice surprise . . . both to have a toddler back in the house, and to not have to work. :) But I kinda missed the horses and Ms. Chris and Mr. Herb at the farm . . . Oh well, I'll see them on Friday. We had a nice little thunderstorm last night, which I always love. The guineas don't really care for the storms, but they get over it! :) I have so much to do today, that I don't know where to start . . . I have a list about a mile long to get done before we leave on vacation in less than a week! I'll get there . . . (through the list) eventually, because I have to. Oh! I almost forgot! We picked our first two cherry tomatoes yesterday! They were so yummy . . . straight out of the garden, still warm/hot from the sun. Perfect! On the flip side . . . there is a gross looking fungus growing in the cabbage area of our garden . . . I guess I should add googling to my list of things to do today. Must make the fungus go away!

Young vs. Old

So, it's official, I am old. I wasn't feeling particularly old on Sunday(Father's Day). In fact, I was feeling quite young. All Us Wards were at the base pool, and a little girl swam over to me and struck up a conversation with me. She was cute and sweet and not really annoying, besides the fact that she never really left my side after that, so I entertained the conversation. When I finally stood up out of the pool, she exclaimed that she had thought I was a kid! :) That made my day, and she became my best friend for a day. So, Sunday was a good day! Then came Monday . . . Just a normal Monday (if there is any such thing.) We had to make a quick trip to the base to get an updated ID card for me, and brand new ID cards for Katy and Hunter - they were so excited! I stress the word "were". After being there for about 70 minutes (they, meaning the two civilians who were working, had processed an amazing 4 people) one of the workers came into the waiting area to explain that one of their computers had "gone down" and so they had only one computer to use. So, now I'm late for work, the kids - who have been super fantastic up till now - are getting bored and a little crazy, everyone else in the waiting room is starting to breathe a little more heavily in the not really air-conditioned air, and the vending machine starts eating everyone's money. Ugh! All that and then I had to go to work! So, we got our new ID cards (after being there for over 2 hours) and I went screaming off to work . . . arriving 40 minutes late! I have never been so late to work . . . or maybe anywhere for that matter! So, back to why I am now feeling old. . . it's work. I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, in what have to be the worst shoes ever (but are the best I have) and then drive 20 minutes home. By the time I get home . . . my legs are swollen, my knees are sore and my right hip feels like it's going to pop out of socket! If that's not old . . . I don't want to know what is!

Hello.

So there I was . . . wandering around the blog world (or whatever you crazy bloggers call it), and I thought to myself . . . I could do this. So with much thought (about 2.5 seconds) I decided to give it a try, so . . . .here I go . . . it may not be nearly as interesting or cute or consistent as most "bloggers", but I'll give it a try. That's all I can do. Although I must warn you that consistency is not my forte. <--- and no, I don't know how to do the little slash thing above the "e".