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!

Puppet Show

Nathan and Zachary informed Eric and I that they were going to put on a puppet show for us. The puppet show was written and performed by Nate and Zach.  Notice how Nathan's has a happier ending!  lol  

Thanks to Eric for making it into an imovie for me.  He's a whiz at this computer stuff.  Sorry, I didn't use my good video camera  so the quality is terrible.  

Twins

Twins are so much fun.  I just enjoy watching them interact with each other.  I bet there will come a day when my twins wish they were identical.  I have always heard about identical twins switching classes in high school and the teacher never knows.

What should I do with my boys?  When one doesn't want to do his homework, the other will occasionally help out.  Zachary loves to draw so when Nathan doesn't know how to draw something for his book report, Zach offers to draw it for him.  Today, one didn't want to write his book report, so the other offered to write it for him.  My first inclination was to stop them, but I just had to walk away and chuckle.   I wish I had a twin that would pick up the slack for me sometimes.

I thought, it sure would be nice to always have my best friend with me. But then I realized, now that I am married, I guess I always do.

Cheese and Mac

I realize that some of you are probably totally bored by my blog entries. But my blogs are more for me to remember funny things (at least funny to me) that my kids have done.  I get a laugh from them when I read through them months later. 

It is a known fact in our home that Zach doesn't like mac and cheese.  But my other three kids love it and ask for it often.  Well, I forgot today and I served it to the four kids.  Zach immediately said, "I don't like mac and cheese."  Eric quickly responded, "This isn't mac and cheese, it is cheese and mac."  Zach looked at me with that serious face and asked me if this was true.  I said "yes, it is cheese and mac."  Well, turns out Zach likes cheese and mac.  Imagine that.

Mario and I couldn't hardly stop laughing during our lunch prayer.  We were thinking maybe he is not as smart as we thought!