November 2007

The week is almosr over. Posted Thursday, November 29, 2007, 3:28 PM, CST by Hank This week is almost over. Alyssa has a cold so she is staying home today. Hank is working a day shift. Amiyah’s top tooth is finaly poking through. She has been in a better mood. We have been busy. Yesterday we had PWOC in the morning and AWANA in the evening. I am helping at AWANA for a few weeks. I had a good time. The kids are fun. Ashlyn likes when I am her teacher. Hank has started studying for MSgt. He will test in about 3 months. I feel so old. I remember living in Hawaii when Hank was an A1C and thinking it would be an eternity until he was a TSgt or MSgt. It seemed like everyone around was older and higher ranking. We are now the older ones. There is only one person that lives near us that is a higher rank than Hank. I don’t think we are moving to Snr NCO housing when he makes MSgt. We are pretty sure we are in as nice of a house as we can get. Anyway, he is studying everyday and we all know Hank is brilliant. I hope everyone is getting ready for the holidays. We miss everyone. Alyssa has her recital next week. Maybe Hank will post video of it. I have been working with the girls to memorize their songs for the Christmas program for church. I have to mention that when I took the girls to practice on Monday Ashlyn got so many complements. I have mentioned that Ashlyn is our little performer. When she done with singing practice several moms and the teacher told me how pretty her voice was and how she sang loud and that she knew all the words. She also helped another child who was less confadent learn the songs. Anyway that’s our Ashlyn. I am having to learn the second and third verses to seceral Christmas carols so I can help the girls learn them. Before I go I have to share the adorable thing Ashlyn asked me yesterday. She wanted to know if she could watch (The Chimp Who Stole Christmas?) I laughed and said do you mean the Grinch Who Stole Christmas? That is what she ment. Hank and I thought it was funny. Hank even came up some new lyrics.

Monday is here. Posted Sunday, November 25, 2007, 4:11 PM, CST by Hank It’s Monday! The kids had a four day weekend. I am happy to see them go back to school. We didn’t do a whole lot on Friday. We did a little Christmas shopping. There weren’t any big black Friday sales to get excited about. I did place a huge Amazon.com order. Hank worked an 8 hour night shift on Friday. Saturday was more of a down day. Amiyah is teething so I didn’t get a lot done on the house. The kids woke her up from both her naps so she was a force to be reckoned with. Sunday we did church and Sunday school. When we got home I got some house work done. Amiyah was in a better mood, so she didn’t spend all day on my hip. She took a really good afternoon nap. The girls played outside so her sleep was uninterrupted. While she slept we put up the Christmas tree and some other decorations. The girls put all the decorations on. They did a really good job. They were so excited. Ashlyn said it was the best day ever. Jordan came and helped them rearrange them a little at the end, but all and all they did a really nice job. Hank put on the star and turned on the lights, we all clapped. Amiyah was very intrigued when she woke up to a giant tree in her the house. She went right for it. The girls only put plastic ornaments that she can take off on the bottom. We also put plastic hooks on all the ornaments. We didn’t put any breakable ornaments on the tree at all in case she tips it or shakes it. We lit the candles in our little Christmas houses. Hank and the girls made fudge. It was a really nice evening. Today we don’t really have any plans. I have to take Alyssa for her allergy shot after school. The girls have Christmas program practice and that’s pretty much it. Hank is working on fixing a co-workers laptop. He already fixed a computer for someone over the weekend. He is soooooo smart. He’s also very handsome, what a package.

Happy Thanksgiving and a lot of other words. Comments (1167) Posted Thursday, November 22, 2007, 6:26 AM, CST by Hank Happy Thanksgiving! We are all done with our turkey day. We went to (Top of the Mar) over by Navy Hospital. It is the Navy’s club. It was really good. Hank and I both think it is some of the best food we have had since moving here. It was a buffet so we stayed for about 2 hours. The kids had a nice time. Amiyah ate a lot. She had yams, stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. She ate little bites of each thing of coarse, but for her it was a lot. She also drank some water from her sippy cup. We looked around outside for a little bit after we ate. We had an incredible view of the ocean. We also saw a ton of beautiful bamboo trees on the drive up and back. Yesterday was crazy. I had PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel). We do a Bible study on Tuesday mornings. I am doing the child care. I usually have between 6 and 12 kids ranging in age from infant to about 5 years. I am there for about 2 ½ hours. So after PWOC I had to go to Alyssa’s Thanksgiving get together at her school. After school I took the girls to see the B2 bomber that was on display. We were going to take the shuttle bus but we barely missed it, so we decided walking would be faster than waiting for the next one and it was over at 5pm so we had to hurry. We got there before it was over. Alyssa was very happy she got to see a B2 up close. Ashlyn was very happy we caught the shuttle back. We got home and ate sandwiches for dinner. Hank was working a swing shift so I didn’t have to go all out. We went to the Thanksgiving Eve service at 7pm. Church was fallowed by a pie social. I had been smart enough to pick up a pie when I had gone to the commissary to pick up food for Alyssa’s class earlier in the day. Anyway, it was yummy. Needless to say I was really tired by the time I put the girls to bed. Today was better we were pretty lazy after we got back from (Top O the Mar). Amiyah turned 9 months on the 21st . She is getting so big. She is still working on her other top tooth. She was in a really good mood at Thanksgiving. Hank is working a mid shift tonight so he will basically work all night and come home and sleep. Of coarse the kids are home for a four day weekend so keeping them quiet ought to be fun. I may venture out to the BX for black Friday. I am doing most of my Christmas shopping on lime though. Go Amazon.com I am off to bed now. I have to get the house in order tomorrow so I can put up the tree this weekend.

Manic Monday Posted Monday, November 19, 2007, 4:30 PM, CST by Hank Monday was a long day. It rained all day. Amiyah got hurt because Ashlyn was pulling on her while she was holding onto the bench that goes to our table. She pulled it over on herself. All she got was a couple of light bruises on her shins. Ashlyn got in trouble because she was not supposed to play with Amiyah around the bench and she is not supposed pick her up or pull her around. In the afternoon I had to take Alyssa to get her allergy shot. We did some homework while we waited the 20 minutes after the shot, (the nurse makes her wait there in case of an allergic reaction.) We had to call Hank to rescue us from the clinic because it was pouring out again. Hank came and got us and drove us to the Christmas performance practice. Ashlyn and Alyssa will be doing this every Monday until Christmas The girls had a good time and brought lyrics home to practice. Ashlyn’s group is singing, Away in a Manger, Silent Night and Joy to the World. Alyssa’s group is singing, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Joy to the World, and Come All Ye Faithful. Practice lasted until almost 5pm. I then went home and made sloppy joes for dinner. I also had to throw together a salad for the women’s fellowship. At about 10 til 6pm I walked Alyssa to Girl Scouts. After I dropped her off I went over to the woman’s fellowship, it was in the same building. Amiyah and I enjoyed the get together. The food was good and I got to hang out with my peeps. I picked Alyssa up at 8pm and we went home. I came home to clean kitchen courtesy of Hank and Jordan. I had a headache by now so Hank put the girls to bed and Jordan finished picking up the house. I have a wonderful family. They dealt with my irritable mood just right. Today I just have to take Ashlyn to gymnastics. Well my coffee is ready. Hank made me coffee in the coffee press.

Mopping robots are great, I need one that does laundry Posted Saturday, November 17, 2007, 11:33 PM, CST by Hank We went to church and Sunday school this morning. Hank is working a day shift today so he wasn’t able to go with us. Amiyah actually let me get through most of it. She is teething and her top front two are almost through. She is in a pretty good mood considering. She had a lot harder time with the bottom front. She copy’s what we say sometimes. She tries to say uh oh, Yay and bye bye. I am pretty sure it is indiscriminant. She is also using her pointer finger. I don’t think she understands what pointing is but she likes doing it. I think she developed the ability to point soon after she figured out the pincer grasp. We have used our mopping robot two nights in a row. We did the kitchen and the dinning area. I LOVE IT! My days of scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees are over. It does a much better job than any of us ever would. I think after Christmas I will get the Roomba to keep the living area swept and vacuumed. I have to say aside from my cappuccino machine, my Scuba mopping robot is my favorite finds this year. My wonderful husband likes to keep us in the now with technology. We finally got some Ghirardelli’s Cocoa. The commissary had some when we went grocery shopping yesterday. I think it was a one time thing for the holiday season. I have never seen it before there. I bought 4 cans. Hank is now a mocha addict. Thank you UE for telling us how to make them. Thanks for posting comments UE. I told Jordan he can email you, maybe he will. He can be forgetful. The girls actually cleaned their room last night. I will clean Hamtaro’s cage later this afternoon. (Hamtaro is Alyssa’s hamster.) I have a lot of laundry to do so I hope everyone is well and I hope UE gets over his jet lag. We miss you too UE. I am going to go attack "Mt. Washmore" now. See ya later.

Teppanyaki on Guam is overated. Posted Friday, November 16, 2007, 5:02 PM, CST by Dawn Last night we went to a get together with Hank’s co-workers at a restraint called Samurai. They serve Teppanyaki. This is a type of Japanese style food where they cook your meal at your table. We used to go in Okinawa all the time. The chiefs in Okinawa would put on a show, tossing and catching utensils and really putting on a performance. At the end of the cooking process the chief will pour liquor on the grill and light it. The kids really like that part. Anyway, we went to dinner last and paid twice as much as we did in Okinawa for half the show, and the food was not quite as good either. It was a nice dinner though and the girls loved it. We had lobster and steak. The lobster they brought Hank smelled awful. He sent it back. The waitress came back and said it was smelly because the brain was left in by mistake. Hank told me they are full of crap. He got another half of lobster and it was huge. He ate his and mine. I don’t like lobster a whole lot. It seems insectish to me.

Alyssa is doing great in school. Amiyah is figuring out food. Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007, 9:05 PM, CST by Dawn We went to Alyssa’s parent teacher conference today. She is doing really well. Her reading lexile score is almost twice the class average. Her teacher says she looks like she isn’t paying attention some of the time, but if you ask her what is going on she can tell you. We love going to her teacher conferences because we always get rave reviews. Amiyah is not really on solid food yet. She was eating baby food for about a month and then at just over 6 months of age she started teething. She lost interest soon after that. I would try from time to time to get her to eat some infant cereal or Gerber in a jar, with little success. She would take a few bites and then turn her head away in disinterest. We have found she likes some finger food, but even that is short lived most days. She will feed herself a few bites and then play with the rest; she is supposed to play in her food. So we started putting her in her highchair and giving her finger food so she can feed herself daily. I think after a while she will get used to it. We are also trying to get her to drink from a sippy cup. Our other 3 children were feeding themselves finger food and drinking from a sippy cup earlier than she has. I know every baby is different that is why we haven’t really stressed about it. I have done a little reading on line and found that solid food aversion is a common issue in breast fed babies. I think teething is the main cause. She has been teething for a few months non stop. She only gets one tooth at a time instead of two at a time like most babies. We say she has to be different from her siblings some how. She has also had two ear infections due to teething. She seems to be feeling better for the moment though her two top teeth are just under the gums. She may actually get two out of the way at the same time. I read that breast milk is more than sufficient until about 12 months of age, so she is good for now. I got my SCOOBA mopping robot today. I have to let it charge overnight before I use it. I will post on it’s effectiveness later. I have got to go run some errands. Type at you later.

Toys are my crack. Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007, 4:57 AM, CST by Dawn Fisher Price is my crack dealer, if toys were crack that is. You would think I would be over the whole spoiling the baby by now, Amiyah is #4. I enjoy spoiling her just as much, if not more than I enjoyed spoiling the other children. I think I do maintain some self control. The toy companies come up with all kinds of neat gadgets and big new fun looking whatsamahoozits. They add music, lights and movement. Hank and I have gotten better about sorting the real winners from the polished turds. We still stumble occasionally and buy on a whim, but we do pretty well. My downfall is the girls of coarse. I didn’t have much growing up. I catch myself buying stuff I would have liked as a little girl rather than getting what they would play with. Most of the time my dreams and their desires line up but sometimes I end up with stuff they don’t use. We had a pile of Care Bears no body really played with, but I got my Care bears. They ended up at Airman's Attic. So we went to Jordan’s school and talked to his teachers today. He is doing OK I guess. He is having trouble in Language Arts and US History. He needs to take better notes in History and try harder on his assignments in Language Arts. I was surprised Hank didn’t get as upset as he normally does. Hank said it was because Jordan owned up to doing poorly and was willing to work toward fixing the problem. In the past Jordan would get defensive and play the victim, which in our house never goes over well. This time he seemed more humbled. I think maybe this is a sign of him growing up. Hank and I figure either he really does feel bad or he has figured out how to manipulate us, either way it is a sign of maturity. We blew off gymnastics and went to lunch again and then went over to GPO to buy Jordan new shoes. Ashlyn has gymnastics twice a week so we skip sometimes. We saw they are building a Ruby Tuesday near GPO. We really need to go to the Commissary so we can eat at home. I guess tomorrow we will have to buckle down and get some stuff done. Being a grownup stinks sometimes. I saw that Uncle Frank posted. I just love when people do that. Thanks for thinking so much of us. It really makes us feel good about how we are doing in life when we receive kind words from our family. Alyssa has spent the evening writting her book report. She has to write about one a week. Hank is proof reading it right now. He put up the baby gate this evening.It took him about an hour. Now the baby can't get into the bedrooms and bathrooms. I am going to put Ashlyn to bed. The baby went down about an hour ago.

AWANA rocks. Posted Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 4:29 PM, CST by Dawn Alyssa finally got her badge last night at AWANA. She is in the Truth in Training group. She memorized enough Bible verses to get her badge and the first bubble sticker that goes on the badge. She was really excited. Ashlyn is also in AWANA. She is in the youngest group called Cubbies. Last night Ashlyn colored a picture and it was about what she was thankful for. She said she was thankful for God. The teacher put her picture up on the bulletin board for everyone to see. Ashlyn’s was the only picture up there. Her teacher said she is leaving it up there for a couple of weeks. In case people reading this don’t know what AWANA is. It is a Christian Bible club. AWANA stands for: "Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed". (It's from a bible verse.) Kids go once a week and learn Bible verses, sing songs, play games and do a Bible lesson. They earn rewards for memorizing verses. Alyssa has been going since she was 4. Ashlyn is on her second year of Cubbies. Jordan is too old now. Alyssa and Ashlyn are also going to be in a Christmas program next month. The practices start on Monday. They are excited. While I was typing this, UE, Grandma and Aunt Jean called. What a treat. Uncle Ed, I forgot to mention the girls and I drank the last Dr. Pepper in honor of you. We miss you. Well Hank is home from PT so I am going to go love on him for a moment.

Uncle Ed is gone. We miss him. Posted Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 3:11 AM, CST by Dawn Uncle Ed left yesterday afternoon. We were all sad to see him go. We went on the glass bottom boat on Sunday. Hank and Jordan went snorkeling. Uncle Ed charmed the Japanese tourists on the boat. The girls and I watched the diver feed the tropical fish at the dive spot. Hank and Jordan swam underneath and waved at us several times. We sat up on top for the ride out to the dive site and back. The weather was nice for the boat ride. It wasn’t to hot and it didn’t rain. Monday was a down day. We stayed home and had Chinese food. UE and I watched our Monday night shows. Tuesday before UE left we went to the gift shop on base. He had a good time mingling with the sales ladies. He bought some gifts and mementos. We took UE to the airport and said goodbye. I was sad the rest of the day. He didn’t stay long enough for us to get sick of him. The kids and Hank miss him. Amiyah started bouncing to music this morning. She also will clap her hands when we say yaaaaay. She can wave bye bye also. She has become an efficient crawler overnight. She crawled over to the computer desk and pushed the restart button on the computer. She waited until UE left before she took it up a notch. I think she misses him and is using this new skill to fill the void in her little life, or she is just getting bigger one of the two. The kids only had a half day today so we took the girls to lunch and then we went and saw the Bee Movie. What I saw of it was cute. Amiyah made it about 40 minutes into the movie and decided to get cranky. Her and I went over to KB toys and did some Christmas shopping while Hank and the girls finished the movie. The girls liked it a lot. I hit a really good toy sale so everyone was happy. Regular life came back with a vengeance. I had to do children’s ministry today. And the girls had AWANA this evening. Tomorrow Ashlyn has gymnastics; We have a parent teacher conference for Jordan. We need to get Alyssa her allergy shot, and maybe flu shots for the rest of us. Hank has 4 days off so that’s really nice. I enjoyed a break from the whirl wind of life while UE was here. Hank is the only one still sick and he is on the mend. So all is going well here. Miss you Uncle Ed. Thanks for thinking of us and taking the time to visit. We enjoyed your visit very much . You made us all feel special. Well I gotta go baby Amiyah has rediscovered the computer.

Uncle Ed's visit so far. Posted Saturday, November 10, 2007, 6:12 AM, CST by Dawn We have been having such a good time with Uncle Ed. We went to a dinner show last night. It was a magic show done on ice. The dinner part was mediocre considering how much the tickets were. (The tickets were a bit on the spendy side but Uncle Ed helped out a lot with the cost of all our adventures.) Anyway the show more than made up for it. The kids were in awe, especially the girls. Ashlyn was so excited. About 5 minutes into the beautiful ice skating, magic and music she exclaimed “I want to do that!” We knew she would love it. I have been saying she will be on Broadway. Alyssa was excited to see tigers. They had an orange one and a white one. Amiyah stayed awake staring most of the show. She was amazed. Hank and Jordan loved the magic and optical illusions. Uncle Ed and I really liked the show but we also enjoyed the kid’s faces. I think seeing them light up in amazement was well worth the price of admission. Today we went to Tarza. We have mentioned this water park in previous posts. It was a very rainy day. We had to go because today was the last full day we had time to do anything without Hank having to work. We managed to have a really nice time in spite of the weather. The upside was it was still warm outside and we didn’t need sun block. There were also hardly any lines to wait in. We stayed about 5 hours. We were gonna go out to dinner afterwards but we were wet and nothing and no one had dried out yet. Uncle Ed suggested we pick up some pizza and head home. So we did. After our pizza dinner, Uncle Ed watched the kids while Hank and I saw a movie. A kid free movie is hard to come by lately. When we got back the house was picked up and the girls were in bed, even Amiyah. The baby usually cries when I am not around. She has taken a liking to UE. Tomorrow we are going on a glass bottom boat ride. Monday we may drive to the other end of the island. We have not been there yet. We heard the drive is very scenic. I would like to thank Aunt Jean for posting a comment. Also Thank her for taking such good care of Grandma this week. We have a wonderful family.

Uncle Eddy is here! Comments (1361) Posted Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 4:39 PM, CST by Dawn Hank picked him up about 1:30am this morning. The jetlag is crazy from there to here, so he's still sleeping. Everyone is excited. (The kids are ecstatic!) It's nice to have family visit.

Hugs and kisses to those who read this. Posted Monday, November 5, 2007, 4:38 PM, CST by Dawn Amiyah has become an export crawler. She made it all of the way to the kitchen last night. She is pulling herself into a standing position a lot more. Ahlyn and Alyssa have been drawing pictures for uncle Ed. There are some half days due to report cards, so we are going to let Alyssa and Jordan stay home from school so they can spend extra time with UE and do some family things with us. I have some ideas of what to do while he is here. I am waiting to see what Hanks schedule is going to change to before I make any definite plans. Well nothing much has been going on. Hank is working 8 hour day shift until Thursday. Ashlyn has gymnastics today. Housework is calling me. I have a mountain of laundry. I would like to give a shout out to Aunt Jean and Uncle Ed, I am happy someone reads my posts. Hank and I use this page as a family diary. I learned to type over the summer so it will have more posts than before. Please feel free to leave comments. You don’t have to sign in. Click comments which is at the top of the post. Leave the password part blank. Type up and submit your comment. Hank set this up so people could leave comments and communicate with us without a hassle.

Not even a cement barrier can keep Hank down. Posted Sunday, November 4, 2007, 4:37 AM, CST by Dawn Hank was in a hurry and backed into a cement barrier in the parking lot at work. The incident caused some damage to the vans bumper. It only damaged the plastic. Our van is currently a hoopty until we can get it repaired. Hank has not done anything like that since he was a teenager. He feels really bad. I told him he can do it every 15 years or so. Ashlyn was complaining of ear pain last night. I hope it was just fluid build up and not an ear infection. She seems better today. Amiyah woke me up a couple times in the night to eat. Alyssa was sick so I got up and gave her some medicine. Ashlyn had an ear ache so I got up with her and eventually after dosing her up, I put her in our bed to sleep. In the morning when I mentioned all of this to Hank, he said he didn’t hear any of it. I guess God created moms to wake up when their babies need them. Hank is putting the girls to bed. He is reading them some Little Critter books. He likes to change the story by changing the main idea. He has already read When I Get Giant, I Had To Pee So Bad, and I Just Farted. The girls think this is so funny. Hank did some baby proofing on his days off. He dropped down the baby’s crib mattress and put latches on some cupboards for me. I figured out that washing a new navy blue shirt in the same load as other clothes can turn things blue. Nothing of value was permanently ruined. I can say I didn’t back into any barriers though, so that’s good. Well I think I will try to watch a movie before I go to bed.