Good thing we love you Buzz!

We got up bright and early to start our trek to Tucson. We planned to pick up the dog at the kennel by 7:30. The owner convinced me that I should pay extra to have the dog bathed, teeth brushed, and nails clipped before the long drive. I pictured my nice, clean dog keeping me company in the passenger seat of the van all the way to Tucson.

We had to pick him up promptly at 7:30 if we wanted to make it to LA by 1 pm so Erin could have an hour at American Girl Place before driving to San Diego to spend the night. A friend warned me that if we didn't get out of LA around 2, we would get stuck in traffic forever.

So, our morning started out as planned. We pulled up to the kennel at 7:30 am. The owner was a few minutes late opening up. When he finally did open, he informed us that Buzz has had diarrhea for the past 3 days! He just had his latest episode in his truck on the way to the shop (he took him home to his house so he wouldn't be stuck in a small kennel.) Now, Buzz was a mess and needed another bath. If you know me well, you know I am a very scheduled person. I have a lot of anxiety if I get behind schedule. We had to wait for the owner to give the dog a quick bath. We spent that few minutes lining our van with plastic bags in case Buzz got sick again. Then we set off for our trip. Not even a half hour into our trip, the dog starts whining. Oh no, does that mean he needs to go potty? I was just imagining a huge mess in the back of my van. Even before Buzz started whining, Nathan started asking if we were almost there yet? Someone forgot to tell him we would be in the car until dinnertime.

Fortunately he was fine the entire trip and he got another bath at the hotel just in case the first one was not good enough. It is a good thing we love him like one of our kids. Poor Erin had only about 1/2 hour in the American Girl store. But she still managed to get the stuff she wanted. We made it out of LA just in time.

Hopefully Buzz will be completely better by tomorrow and will survive his kennel while we are at Legoland and SeaWorld.

Saying Goodbye

I have never liked saying goodbye.  I think Eric may take after me.  He recently commented that he wishes he didn't have to tell people that he was leaving.  They could just figure it out after he left.  I thought at first he was being a little mean, but the more I thought about it, he is probably just like me, he just doesn't like saying goodbye.

Monterey has been my least favorite military assignment so far.  But that doesn't mean it has been bad, the others were just so good.  Cocoa Beach (Patrick AFB) was our first assignment and it was close to family and I had so much fun hanging out with Eric and Erin in the beautiful sun everyday while talking to the neighbors.  

Guam (Andersen AFB) was our second assignment and we loved our time there.  Again, it was warm and since it was overseas, the base had fun activities for the kids to do almost everyday.  We loved exploring the island and all the beaches.  

Next came Hawaii (Hickam AFB).  Does that even need an explanation of why it was so great?!  That was like a 3 year vacation, except for the part of being pregnant with twins and gaining a zillion pounds.  We loved Hawaii, but who wouldn't!

O'Fallon, Illinois (Scott AFB) was our last assignment before Monterey.   Here we bought our first home and we loved it.  The house were big.  The kids loved the snow.  I didn't love the weather, but I loved the ward there and all my good friends.  I started a girls' night out there and we had so much fun.  It was hard to leave O'Fallon.  But what made it easier was that I knew Mario had the opportunity to go to school and hopefully do something he loves.

Now it is time to say goodbye to Monterey (Navel Post Graduate School).  There are some definite  good memories from here.  This is the first place all my kids were in school and Eric became old enough to babysit.  What life changing events these two things were!  I learned about the Barton tutoring system and tutored kids at home and then at the local elementary school.  I will miss all the wonderful kids I became very attached to.  But, I didn't like the weather, way too cold for me.  I didn't have many friends, probably due to my lack of trying to make some since I knew we would only be here 18 months. Also, I never had allergies until I moved here.  So for once, saying goodbye won't be too hard for me.  In fact, I think I may have only teared up once so far and that was saying goodbye to the twins kindergarten teacher.  I mean, I am going to really miss her, because now I am going to have the boys home with me full time until school starts again in mid July!   She will definitely be the one I miss most!  (the real reason I teared up while talking to her is because she was telling me about the boys last day of school and how they were so excited for the attention the class was giving them-I know that is not a reason to tear up, but I tear up at almost everything!)  Tonight I say goodbye to the family I was most attached to here-the Trawick family.  That will be the saddest part for me.  I have tutored their 12 year old twin daughters for almost a year now.  There little sister Jessie is the twins best friend and the mom and I have become good friends this past year.  I will miss their family.  But they are looking into new jobs and even some in Tucson, so maybe I won't have to say goodbye for long.

I love the military and the adventure of moving to new places.  I am excited to be going somewhere warm again.  After visiting Tucson last month, I can honestly say, I think I am going to love it there, desert and all.

Poison Oak

It is a crazy week. It started Friday night when Eric went on his overnight wilderness survival campout. Eric came home with poison oak all over his face. I think his teacher said it best, "I hope you got a merit badge out of it." I am not sure it was worth it even for a merit badge. This is Eric's last week of school at La Mesa before we move, and he has been in school about 1 1/2 hours the last 3 days. He had to get a steroid shot in his bottom. I think maybe he purposely rolled in the poison oak so he could have this one on one time with me before our big move.

Mario defends the boy scout leaders' decisions to campout in a field of poison oak. He says that's what the whole wilderness survival merit badge is all about. I think that no one should have to endure what Eric has been through for the last several days. What do you think? Am I just being an overprotective mother?

The rest of the crazy week has been packing out our home. Fortunately for me, I have gotten out of a lot of the work because I need to take care of my sick Eric. The movers are so supposed to finish loading tomorrow by 4:30. We are scheduled for our final inspection for our house at 4:30. I think that is cutting it a little close!

Next week we are going to American Girl Store, Legoland, and Sea World on our way to Tucson. We still don't have a house, but maybe something will come available before next week.

Graduation

Yeah!  Mario did it.  He graduated with a Masters in National Security from NPS today.  We went to Wendy's (Erin's idea) to celebrate.  Now Mario and Eric are going on an overnight wilderness survival camp out with the Boy Scouts.  Eric can't use a tent or a sleeping bag.  He has to build his own shelter out of whatever he finds in the woods.  Fortunately for Mario, he gets to have a tent. What a good dad- spending his graduation night helping his son get a merit badge!

Tucson

My mom flew out to Monterey to watch the kids for us while Mario and I went house hunting in Tucson.  We really appreciate her flying across the country to watch our kids.  They love when grandma comes.  She and Zachary spent many hours walking at the beach.  She has so much energy, no one can keep up with her! 

I had been researching for a long time on the area we thought we wanted to live.  Mario and I found a great house within the first few hours.   It was in a nice area of town.   Then we went to see the kids' new schools.     Unfortunately they were in a bad section of town.  We didn't feel comfortable dropping off our kids everyday in a neighborhood known for lots of crime-drugs, violence, gangs, robberies, etc.  So all my research went out the window and we had to start from scratch.  I was really sick the entire time we were in Tucson, so that didn't help.

After praying about what to do next, I felt prompted to look in a different area-the Rita Ranch area.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to find a home with a pool yet.  We want to rent because we are worried about the dropping home prices.  We may have to settle for a community pool.  The neighborhood we are looking at has the elementary and middle schools within a couple blocks.   We feel blessed to at least know the area we want to live, even if we don't know what house yet.  At least we have reservations for a month in temporary lodging if we need it.  

I have always loved our time in the military, but I am even more appreciative of it now that economic times are bad.  So far, the military has been very good to our family.   I love moving and seeing new parts of the country or world.  I am not an overly adventurous person, so the military provides me many opportunities to break out of my shell and have new experiences.  I love it.   I will let you know if I still love it when Mario gets deployed!

Maybe I say no too often

Sorry for another blog about Zach.  I know, I need to put more stuff about the other 3.    But sometimes Zach just cracks me up.  Check out this book he wrote in school.  

For those of you that have trouble reading a 5 year old boy's spelling, here is the translation:

"It is my birthday.  My mom says I can't have friends over."

"Cats are so cute.  I want one but my mom would not let me."

"I got invited to a birthday party but my mom would not let me go."

The last page in his book (not shown) said:  "Mom, can I have a dog?"  He must have ran out of time to write my response, which I am sure from judging from the other pages, I would have definitely said "No!"  

Do you think I am a mean mom?  Apparently at least one of my kids thinks so!  I have a parent teacher conference with Nathan and Zach's teacher tomorrow.  Maybe she wants to  talk to me about being a nicer mom. :)

A dead cat

Out of all my kids, Zachary is the one that loves animals the most.  I often tell him he should be a veterinarian.   I was surprised when he wrote this for his school assignment.  Notice the cat under the car in the picture.  Poor cat!