Family Pictures at the beach

This is a picture of all of us in a Banyon Tree.  There are banyons all over the island, just loved this one

The Family at Ferry Lnading Beach, I have hair that is a throw back to the 80's punk rock movement, but there isn't much I can do with the little amount I have.   And it is still falling out.  Aren't we perfect?

Our angels being all sweet, we have pics of them splashing each other later

My husband and I looking all romatic

You can't tell, but this skirt is about five sizes too big for me and I had to pin it on the other side. 

And one last pic at the banyon tree.  The tree itself had a ton of termites crawling all over it, but here at the tire swing all is well.  Adam had gotten to the breaking point and was done.  Poor kid got yelled at by momma..

Okay that is all for now, uploading these took two hours, love our connections.  I send you all my love

Christmas Week

So much to tell you all and I have no idea where to begin or what to tell you.  So I will just begin by telling you some things, and pardon me if I lose you in all my ramblings.

First, just a quick update.  I have had a horrible week here as far as eating and pain are concerned.  I have either overeaten or ate the wrong things all week.  My body is on protest and I am now rationing myself to soups for the next few days so that I can "cleanse" my system.  I really think making cookies, pies, potatoes, caramel rolls....all those things got me.  I don't know how to cook without tasting it, so i over did it.  I thought I was doing okay, not too too bad, but then last night I went over the edge.   We were invited to a post Christmas party at the Bosts and can I just say, I should have known better.  Chris, God bless her had cranberry margaritas.  CRANBERRY MARGARITAS!!!!  I can't drink much mind you.  I shouldn't drink at all, seeing as that one sip usually results in instant drunkeness and the shakes from my metabolism turning the alcohol into sugar.  At any rate I had about half a cup.  So not only did I drink far more than I usually do, but I drank something that had sugar, three different alcohols and well, DANG IT is was so good....Then Bryan, God bless him.  He made brisket, smoked brisket and smoked pork shoulder.  My mouth is watering again just thinking about it.  The brisket didn't sit well with me, but the pig, YUMMO...Alas I stood up to leave my merry friends, and a good time we were having too, when the a headache set in and my stomachs started yelling.  BOTH OF THEM....So I fought off a migrane all night last night and today my "old" large stomach is not very happy.  Needless to say, SOUP!!

Oh and so for the update.  I am down to 215lbs.  When I first started this whole process, I was 344lbs.  So for all those who are not math wizards, that is 129lbs.  If you got a chance to see our Christmas wishes on tv, I weighed a good twenty pounds more.  My top is so flippin' small that I fit in XL fitted shirts and L knit shirts.  And just the other day I wore a pair of L sweat pants.. I don't think I am quite a 16 pants yet, but I haven't tried any pants on as I am a skirt wearing hippie now a days...

Okay now for kid info. No wait, I am going to fill you in on my hadsome husband Alan.  Right now is chaos at work for him.  His CO (commanding officer) who just got here in Sept. is leaving.  His wife, who battled breast cancer almost five years ago was rediagnosed with it.  It has spread all over her body.  I got a chance to spend time with her, before we found out about the new cancer, and she is a wonderful person.  Keep her in your prayers if you are so inclined.  At any rate, the island here can not support her medical needs, so they are PCSing(moving) at the end of the month.  So a new CO is on board and that alone entails lots of changes of course.  Add to that, Joint Commision is coming.  JaCo for short.  JaCo is the governing force for military hospitals, sort of like having Medicare coming in.  They will be here the week of Jan 11.  This means that the hospital staff is in uproar.  Everyone who works at our itty bitty hospital is being run ragged and doing their jobs and cleaning the hospital and well it is nuts.  So Alan is a busy beaver.  Add to that JTF what that equals is Alan at work non-stop.

So that takes care of me and Alan, now for the kids.  First Maegan.  She is a mess.  She is in the middle of huge growth sprut, complete with eating non-stop and the cranks.  She has a ton of clothes she could fit in just last week, that now won't even come close to fitting her.  She is so cranky and frustrated poor girl.  Christmas was rough on her.  She tried to be patient while we took turns opening presents, but after doing that for about an hour she had had it.  So with the family's blessing she opened all her gifts.  It bit her in the butt.  SHe was convinced that Madie had more presents than she did. She went so far as to tell me that Madie had a "Crap Load".  Yea, good language...That Alan....hahaha.  She did have a great Christmas Eve though.  She played an angel in the Nativity Play the kids did for the children's mass.  She was adorable sitting up in the sancurary.  She spent time up there shaking her finger at the other kids and waving to me and Alan.  She was cute as a bug.  The pictures I took with my camera, well lets just say, they blew.  So there are none as of now.  I have a mom who promised to get me a copy, but who knows if that will happen.

Now for Aders.  He is growing into such a kidder.  He loves jokes and playing pranks.  He also loves dirt, running, playing and right now he is so into science it is bordering wierd....He got a microscope from Santa and a science lab from Alan and me.  He has been playing all day with it, and now is asking for a telescope for his birthday.  He got to play a lamb in the church play and can I just say, my son is destined to be a priest.  He sat up on that altar with a sweet little face and never talked to anyone and in general was excellent.  The boy didn't even wiggle.  Chruching is serious to my boy....

And Madie.  She got a potters wheel for her birthday and today we finally had a chance to get to it.  She made five different things and I think she may be a little artist in the making.  She was so happy out there shaping her clay, she was singing and just in hog heaven...As for the christmas play, she got to play Mary.  I must clarify here real quick.  the kids just acted the parts, there were no lines to say.  That said, of course Madie was the best darn Mary in the world.  She was so cute.  She did tell me she was nervous though right before we got to church, I think that went away quickly though.  I think it must be hard to be nervous when everyone in the audience are the people you interact with day in and out.  For Christmas Madie got a Whoopsie Poopsie Baby Alive from Santa.  The child went ape ^&%$ crazy when she torn into it.  She was so happy and now I have a DOLL pooping all over.  Arg....

So that sums up Christmas and Christmas Eve.  This week Alan is supposed to have half days at the office, but I think he will be working late everyday getting things ready for JaCo.  The kids get to go to work with me tomorrow and Wed, but now that they have things to take up there we should be doing good.  There are no New Years plans as of now, but we are going to go play Family Kickball on Wed afternoon and then having some friends over for games that night...Social Butterflies are we.....

So my friends, know that I thought of you and prayed for you this week and I send you all my love

Lost Tooth

My beautiful son has finally lost his front tooth.  After four years of struggling to keep the tooth in his head, I pulled it out today.  For those who don't know, Adam was tripped viciously by my yogroundngest sister Llaurel when he was a mere two years old.  She threw him down on the ground at my parents home.  If that wasn't enough, Mom was renovating the house and had pulled all the carpet up, so when my small little toddler was tripped and thrown onto the ground his face met concrete.  He had a huge gapping hole in his lip, we could see the fatty tissue and his tounge was a mess.  There was a rush to the ER and we were told to go home, not any thing they could do for mouth wounds.  Three months later we had an emergancy visit to the dentist who promptly removed his front right tooth.  He had developed an abcess. 

It gets better, a week later he tripped himself coming down the stairs and smacked his face once more, this time on the tile of our kitchen floor.  Again we had the bloody pulpy mess of a mouth and his left tooth was hanging by a thread.  I promptly shoved that tooth back into his head and again we rushed to the dentist.  They gave antibiotics and we prayed for the best.  The tooth got firm again and we saved his tooth!!!  It took work though.  Numerous times that dang tooth has gotten loose and he has stopped messing with it and it has firmed back up.  Last year at the dentist when they took his exrays, we discovered that he had no root to the tooth and only tissue was holding it firmly in place.

Now four years have past since we lost his baby tooth to the concrete...it was a bittersweet loss.  He messed and messed with the darn thing, and I was once again asked by my child to help pull the tooth.  Now this is the cool part.  We got the tooth out and upon inspection discovered that it was hollow.  Very cool.  And Ader's mouth, there is a pretty prominent piece of gum tissue hanging down.  It is the tissue that had grown into the tooth to keep it in place.  Now my son is toothless, but he has a weird gum thing hanging down where a tooth should be.  

*Incidently, Llaurel swears Adam tripped over his too big boots, but we all know what really happend.....

Just a quickie.  Got Cheer banquet tonight, making decorations for Santa and Pizza tomorrow as well as hosting our cooking and book club holiday party at the house.  Then decorating the gym for Santa and pizza and then attending on Wed.  Thurs Adam's holiday party.  Fri is Madie's holiday party and finally Saturday I have yet another cookie exchange.  Whew.  After that, I will finally be done with these weeks of activity...So, until Saturday I am out my friends, but after that I promise to post the pics I promised last week.  Much love to you all

parades and things

Okay so this weekend and week have been quiet the Christmas Extravaganza....First we had our first Gtmo Parade...It was so much like Pioneer Reunion in the fact that everyone can be in the parade.  So there was a great veriety of people.  However, here in Gtmo we have the Electric Light Parade...Yes my friends, Pioneer Reunion at night with lights...Imagine.  There were golf carts and mules all decked out with tinsel and lights, trucks and even boats.  Yep BOATS.  We had all our fire trucks out as well.  And the best part, all the "floats" came complete with music and people chunking candy at us.  I got pletted in the head at least twice.  We even had a gaggle of nutty ladies, ours were the Latinio Club, dancing and singing.  Made me miss Mrs.Graves.

Madie did get to walk and cheer in the parade.  Mind you the route was a good two miles.  She was so flippin' cute, but a real crank after it was done.  Her feet hurt, her throat hurt and she was all sweaty hot.  I tell you she was a mess.  But after she cooled off and got a drink she was better.  I have pictures but as I am writing to you all on my hubby's laptop, I have yet to download the pics....So again you must wait.

This week has been Winter Wonderland week up at the school.  Winter Wonderland is a kids shopping area that was set up and stocked with stuff for the kids to buy their families.  I know we did it in FtWorth when I was a kid and I think I even got a few things from Llaurel and Jesse from their shopping at the school.  At any rate I volunteered to help on Tuesday.  Lots of fun. Nothing like helping kindergardners to shop.  Lots of interesting things were bought.  My favorite is that some of the kids bought their moms tools.  Reminds me of mom....

Tonight we have the school concert.  The kids are going to sing some more and there is an art show before the concert.  Can I just say, whew.  I am so tired, I have been making sure to take the B12 for energy.  My little ones don't seem very excited about the concert, so I am hoping it goes well. 

Then tomorrow, REST DAY.  Maegan and I actually will be home ALL day.  Nothing is planned for tomorrow.  I do have to make a gift for a party Alan and I are going to on Friday, but that is it.  YIPPEE.  Of course that means I will be doing laundry all day, but shoot I am all for vegging in front of the tv and doing laundry. 

Friday is date night.  At 4 Alan and I will be heading to a hospital party then we will be off to Rick's Lounge to drink and celebrate the holidays with the spouses club.  Lots to do, but we are having fun...At least I think we are

So there is the update. I hope to get the pictures from the parade and the concert tonight loaded tomorrow.  Know that I miss you all and I send you my love

Bummed

I'm so BLUE!!  This Christmas season has made me a real scrooge.  I am missing our families back in the states so much right now.  Apparently I am not the only one.  A lot of people have told me that Christmas is done up so much here to help counter act the sorrow we all suffer at being away from family and friends.

And I am telling you I am BLUE!

At any rate I am trying to suck it up, and get over it in my mom's famous words, but today I got a big old blow.

Madie got her package from her Nana and Papa for her birthday.  In it was this...

Just look at how beautiful and happy they all look.  Chy and her smile, Llaurel and her grin, my handsome little brother and that hair.  Not to mention my absolutely gorgeous parents.

Only thing missing is me.  I miss them so freakin' much.  And I know, Alan and I are the ones that

left, none of them said join the Navy you freaks, move thousands of miles away, lose all your money and never be able to visit us....Well POOP...

I opened the envelope and just started crying.  Then I started thinking about all my family, my mother and father-in-law, GG, Dad and Steph, Peyton and Chris, Tammie, George and Dan, Papa Jim and Grandma Carla, Patty and Dave.  The list is endless.  So just as a shout out to all of you that are reading, and well only my family and friends read this, so just know that I miss you all.  I send you my love

And now for the much awaited, long promised

PICTURES 

We begin with Madie's birthday Luau.  Like I told you all before, it was a huge success for Moo, a learning curve for us.  But even with the learning curve, we had a great time getting it ready and coming up with games for the party and the cake.  Alan is in charge of the cakes, everyone should know that right from the start.  I always try to manipulate my way into the cake design, Alan and I always get bent out of shape because he won't listen to me and I end up having to give up the control of ONE thing.  I don't take it well.  You would think eight years into this we would, okay I would get the picture and let the poor man have this one itty bitty thing.  NOPE.  This year same thing.  I just can't get over how much more I know than Alan....It is a shame I mean if he would just give me total control OVER ALL...I had to stop myself there, I felt an evil cackle coming on.

Now, this year was a huge turning point for us.  I really did just let Alan go with the cake.  He and Madie talked about the cake for a good two weeks and I left my opinion out of it.  They asked questions, I told them what I would do, and they ignored me only to ask the same blessed questions again.

So the week of Moo's party came and Alan still had no idea what to make.  He ended up making the famous strawberry cake he is famous for and he tried to make a coconut cake, but it never came cleanly out of the pan.  So he switched to a pineapple cake for the second tier.  Both were delicioso...He began the decorating process, covering teh bottom cake with blue to look like the ocean and the round coconut cake he iced and then covered with a brown sugar/graham cracker mixture that looked a lot like sand.  That was as far as he could go.  He was stumped this year.  Of course throw in there the fact that he has been swamped at work and getting time to plan decorating the cake was impossible.  Now I step in.  Here is where we both learned the terrific life of being perfectly suited.  He handed the cake over to me after we talked about what we could do.  He really was at a loss and I had some vague idea of some sort.  So he stepped back and started to clean the house while I was given free reign.  Did I mention that I love this man of mine. 

As you can see we already had the island in the water theme, but I went from there.  The rocks around the cake are fondant and that little purple thing in front is an octopus.  The bushes by the volcano are leaves from a pineapple and the leaves on the table, Banana leaves from the front yard.  The "waves," the white around the rocks really did look like crashing waves up close.  The best part?  Not that Alan and I finally got our act together and worked as a team.  No, the best part for me was seeing Madie's face.  She loved this cake.  She helped Alan bake it, helped me decorate it and she says it was exactly what she wanted...A success...

When each guest came into the house we greeted them with a lei.  The girls got grass skirts and a flowered braclet, the boys got a grass bracelet.  This is a picture of our friend Katie.  She went home and told her mom and dad that it was the best party she had ever been to.  GO TEAM C

This is a picture of our friends Gail and Lori.  Gail's daughter Rachel is Madie's closest friend, sort of her Alana here in Cuba, and Lori's girls love Maegan and Me.  Lori is our local photographer and you will be seeing her talent here soon.  She took our family portaits, both wonderful women.  Oh and the other part of this picture, the fruit.  We had the guests make fruit kabobs.  I saw some very interesting creations.  One little girl came walking in with a kabob that had pineapple, star fruit, chesse, and pepperoni.  Um Yumm I guess.

Maegers looking adorable.  See that shirt in the back ground.  Not Alan but close to what I made him wear.  We all had Hawaiian shirts on.  Alan shed his as soon as he could.  Weeny..

Moo getting ready to open gifts.  She had such a good time.  We truly are blessed here, well we have been blessed everywhere we have lived.  Thank you God for providing us with love...

Brownie Patch

I know I mentioned Madie getting an Emergancy Preparedness Patch, well now here are the pictures.  The entire troop, from Daisy's on up participated in an emergancy preparedness patch.  Apparently President Obama on Sept. 11 challenged all Girl/Boy Scouts to get involved in their communtiy by learning about being prepared for emergancies in memorium of our fallen.  So, our Girl Scout troop got on the ball and had our ducks in a row by the end of that week.  We are one of the first troops to get their patches, go Gtmo...

Each girl had to demonstrate her ability to be prepared.  Whether that meant having a disaster kit, an escape plan or what have you.  Then the girls presented their projects to the emergancy corrdinator here on base.  He, along with our Command Master Cheif then held this special ceremony for the girls.  Of course this is not a picture of Madie getting her patch, nope this is a picture of two proud parents loving their exceptional girl, she is just dealing with us...

Awww isn't she cute?  She is the only Brownie that has her full uniform and knows how to wear it.  Thank you Daisy's...

Madie shaking hands with Jan Chilson, the emergancy corrdinator on base.  GO MADIE,

Oh what's that, you want to know what her project was?  She made five contact cards- cards that we each have to carry in our backpacks or purses that tell us who to call in case of an emergancy and where to meet each other in case we get seperated during an emergancy.  She helped us come up with good meeting places, and even an evacuation plan for how to leave the house in an emergancy...

Tree Lighting and All That

The following pictures are the best I could do.  I told you I have a horrible camera, and well I am not that talented when it comes to picture taking.  So please bear with me.  I am still working on getting the Flip videos up loaded to the computer.  We have given up on my computer and are about to try Alan's laptop.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  At any rate...

This is the sign welcoming visitors to Holiday Hill.  I know you can't see it well, but under Seasons Greetings is the island of Cuba complete with saying Guantanamo Bay. And in the back ground is our brand new lighted tree.  It is huge and you can see it just about anywhere on base.  We love it...

No spirit fingers but she is still so tickled about being a cheerleader.

Madie's squad.  They are the GOLDEN SPIRITS....Whoo Hooo

Maegan lookin cute as a button

I swear this is the best picture I got of our boy singing.  He was too too cute, but I mean we all think he is adorable, my little bowling ball head..In case you have forgotten what the little man looks like he is third from the right

And you thought that picture of the lights was bad.  Madie is the tall one in back.  Yep, that is the only picture of her. 

I gave up trying to get pictures of him singing, but here is a great one of him up close, maybe too close

Birthday Gifts

And last but not least, a quick look at the kids enjoying the gifts.  We haven't baked yet, so none of those with Moo, only this one in an outfit Gamma got her along with a pompom pen.

And this is a picture of all three kids playing the Vtech games Dad has bought Maegan.  He bought her this Vtech last year I think.  She played it twice.  He got her another game for her birthday, the kids play it all the time. Go figure

And that my friends are the pictures for now.  As soon as Mom's box gets here we will pull out the camera and get pics of that.  Did we remember to take pics of her opening our gifts?  Nope....did we take pics of our Thanksgiving? Nope.  Ah well there is always next year.  I send you all my love