Is that a hint?

This morning, Ethan comes into the kitchen ready for breakfast.
M- " OK little man, what do you want for breakfast?"
E -Huge sigh, " I guess waffles"
M-" What is the matter with waffles?"
E-" Well, I just had a dream that you FINALLY remembered to get me some more Cocoa Puffs."
So I made sure to grab him some from the commissary while I was there. I just couldn't let him be deprived like that. Poor totally spoiled child.

And speaking of depravation, the DVD player in our van hasn't been working. We just ignored it for a few months and than finally decided to go in and get it looked at. Long story short, we got it back yesterday. I usually do not let the kids watch a movie going to Harm & Ethan's school because it is literally 5 minutes away. But I let them today simply because we finally got it back. And what does Harmony say?
" Finally, we get some entertainment in the car again!" Poor, Poor deprived children. Someday I am going to say no DVDs, gameboys, any of their cd's and crank up good o' Sunny 910. And let them go places the way I used too. Listening to Dad's music with nothing to do except sleep or read. Good times!

help wanted

If you are looking for someone to sweep your house...I have the man for you. After coming down from a Triaminic high ( and a 4.5 hour nap!) Ivan was living every woman's dream. To have someone else do the cleaning. Unfortunatley, this phase doesn't last long AND he didn't actually clean anything!
But he is still pretty dang cute!

How many?

How many Turners does it take to go to Target to get Triaminic? That would be 5. Yeesh! On top of everything else this week, Ivan was up all night. He has a fever, coughing, runny nose...the works. He is miserable. Why is it that when kids aren't sick, you have tons of baby medicine? But when they are sick, you don't have any? Hmm it's a mystery. I feel bad because there is no way I am going to make it to church tomorrow with him. That was always a problem when Ben was in Afghanistan. If one kid is sick, the whole family has to stay home. I am also feeling bad because the 1st counselor in Primary, being very organized, called me Wed. night to see if I needed a sub. She was trying to find people early. And I told her, no I will be there no problem. Didn't quite happen that way. Long story short, we are all going to head to Target. I am going to drug him and put him back to bed. Poor kid. :( Hopefully we can have a nice, calm, relaxing day. We'll see!

"thank you for"

Connor: " Mommy, do you know what I am thank you for?
Me: " what?"
C- " the whole wide world"
M-" well I guess that pretty much covers it"
C-" and my Mommy and Daddy"
M- "that's sweet Connor. Anything else?"
C-"yeah the places we go"
M-" like where?"
C- " like Chuck E Cheese, McDonalds, Target, Burger King and to Wendy's. And BJ's."
M- " so you are basically thankful for fast food?"
C-"what is fast food?"

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A childs prayer

Tonight, said by Ethan:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Please help my boo-boo to get off. Please help Ivan to leave my castle alone. Make sure Daddy is a good boy at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Help us have a good night sleep. In the name of Jesus Christ amen."

4 am

What do you do when you have to get up at 4 am to take your Daddy to the airport? Lay around and watch tv. The kids were little troopers about getting up. But now, they don't really want to move from their "spots". Ivan is the only one that is "awake". I am sure they will crash hard. Which is fine with me because it is a very rainy and cold day. I am going to try to get some major house work done. The kids technically have school today but since they got up so early,they are not going to go. They would be cranky and I don't want to make the teachers deal with it. So thoughtful aren't I?

"A" Honor Roll

Well with everything that has been going on,there are still good things. Isn't life like that? " You take the good, you take the bad, you take the m both and there you have the facts of life..." I enjoyed that show..Last year, Harmony worked so hard in school. Her teacher, who I really liked, just wouldn't give her an A in writing. Not in spelling, or the composing of stories but her actual handwriting. It was frustrating but at the same time I am thinking " this is 1st grade! Why am I so concerned that she gets a 4.0?" So we dropped the subject. Literally, we stopped talking about it and just concentrated on her doing her best. Well little Miss Harm is a very driven little girl. She was not satisfied. She wanted A honor roll. And this year, 1st quarter she made it. During the awards assembly, they usually go from 1st and then go up to 5th. Not this time though. They started with the upper grades and worked their way down. So they had finished all of the 5th,4th, 3rd and all of the 2nd grade except Harmony, and she was the first one with A honor roll!!! There were 3 more after her, but they were all in 1st grade. In their school, A honor roll can be all A's with one B. B honor roll is when you have a mix of A's and B's and then B average allows them to have a C. Her hard work really paid off. When they were calling her class, and they announced that Harmony recieved A honor roll, the whole crowd was clapping for her. She had so many "congratulations" from people she didn't even know. A friend of hers,Tiffany, her Mom gave Harm one of Tiffany's balloons since she was so impressed with her hard work. Her teacher from last year told me that she had heard so many great things about how well Harmony was doing from the gifted teacher. She said she thinks they are going to test her soon. I am very proud of my little girl! She is a hard worker, driven, smart. She knows what she wants! My girl...love her to death!

Life

Wow, life really doesn't turn out the way you expected it, does it? Yesterday I finished my Thanksgiving Day shopping. We had planned to participate in a program called "Operation Thanksgiving" where we host a military member,from the singles branch, who couldn't go home for the holiday. Everything was all set. Then life threw us a curve ball. Ben is leaving very early Wed. morning to go home to Oregon. A family emergency that is a very private matter. So I won't get to spend Thanksgiving with him. I am not upset. Not in the least. There is no doubt in my mind that he is where he should be. I will probably let the kids eat in the living room or something. That is there idea of a good time! :)

I wanted to say publicly, ( or somewhat publicly) how much I love Ben. He is so strong. He is amazing. He takes on so much and just handles everything so well. He is a good example to me because I can't handle anything!! I love him and support him and I know his family can make it through. Please keep them in your prayers.

For now, that is it. Have a good day!

fake turkey

After we got home from school, Ethan asked me a question about what I had been doing today. I told him I went to the store and got the stuff for our Thanksgiving dinner. A turkey, a ham etc.
Ethan looked at me wide eyed and this is the conversation that followed:

E- " Can I see the turkey?"
M-"uhm, ok if you want too. It's in the freezer."
E- confused look
M- "sweetie, it isn't like the turkey that you saw on the farm. This one isn't alive anymore."
E " You mean somebody killed it?"
M-"yeah" ( enter Connor)
C- " So we are going to have a real turkey?"
E- " No Connor, it is a FAKE turkey. It isn't alive and it doesn't say gobble gobble anymore so it is a fake one." ( he runs off)
C- "Mommy, did you and Ethan kill a turkey while you were on his field trip?"
M- exasperated sigh. Sometimes these conversations are so hard!

On a different note, I made Ethan go apologize to Ms McKnight. She said that he really had her going and she is going to read him "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". I told her what he told me was the reason why he did it. Which I realize I didn't share here...He told me that he had just had a bad day and that he really missed me. I was telling her this and she said, " he is so devoted to his Mama. He just talks about you all day long.I bet he really did miss you!" sweet. Anyway, off to make dinner!

Gobble, Gobble

Yesterday at preschool, Connor had a Thanksgiving concert. He was very excited to be a pilgrim and can tell you that pilgrims came over on the Mayflower. He admitted that he didn't know all the words to the songs but he definitley tried. He was taking his own sweet time eating his Thanksgiving "feast" ( chicken nuggets, tater tots, apple slices) so he decided to just take it home. Connor can truly be a little sweetheart. He is so quiet and just cute. I do love that kid a ton, even if he has the tendency to steal. He has let me know every day after school that, " don't worry Mom. I didn't steal anything today!" The kids are ready for Thanksgiving but more interested in decorating for Christmas. We have some fun and stressful times coming up. Hopefully I can get everything done that I want too.I have decided on a pretty simple design for my Christmas cards. So the next step is getting an appt. at Sears for the kids. Fun Fun! Anyway, I have major work to get done around the house so I better get on the ball!

F is for failure

It has come to my attention this week that I am raising a bunch of thugs. I have earned an F in the mothering dept. This week has been so busy and I thought about how great I was doing, getting to be with the kids for field trips, taking them on play dates, going shopping with them. Just doing the total Mom thing. A busy week, but I thought in their little ways they might appreciate it. Or look back later when they have 4 little kids and say , " wow I really appreciate what she did." Don't get me wrong, I know it took me waaaaay to long to appreciate all that my Mom did/does. But today....This week.... OK let's take a look back at the beginning of the week: Monday - Connor steals from his teachers. Tues-the breaking up of numerous fights and threatening death while waiting in line at the commissar. Wed- go with Harmony on her field trip. She does pretty well but once I get the rest of the kids they fight over who sits where in the van. Thurs- Harm is upset about the whole honor roll thing. Starts me thinking that maybe this "school is so important that I have to get straight A's pressure is my fault. Today-I got home from Connor's Thanksgiving program. I check the answering machine and have a message from Ethan's teacher saying he doesn't feel well and has been lying down. I called her back and told her that I would be there to get him. I had just put Ivan down for a nap BUT I got him up and went to pick up Ethan, knowing full well that I would have to just come back to pick Harmony up in 2 hours. We get in to the car and Ethan, with a huge grin on his face, says " Guess what Mommy?I was just tricking!" Excuse me? What? The kid wanted to go home so he faked sick. He is 5 yrs old. and he is pulling this. I won't even go into all the stinky things Ivan has done today. And now I am faced with do I let Ethan go to Parents Night Out tonight, so Ben and I can have a break, because I can't reward him for that. I thought my 5000 lectures on " we do not tell fibs. We only tell what really happened" would have meant something. Apparently not. I used to pride myself on the fact that my kids were pretty good kids. I am not going to parade that fact around again. If I was better, they would be better. Right? Motherhood is not easy. In fact, today, it sucks. I just don't think I will even mention my kids again. I give up. What do you do so you make sure that your kids don't turn up on Super Nanny? With other Mom's watching on going yeah why does that lady let her kid act like that? I certainly don't have the answers!!!! My report card-F.

Oreo Ivan

Last night, the kids helped me make Oreo pudding for dessert. Kind of a cookies and cream. It was pretty good but I think Ivan enjoyed it the most!

Brookdale Farms (again)

Yep, I went back to the farm. I went with Ethan on the 2nd of this month and went back on Wed. This time I drove though and one of the other parents said that we were almost to the North Carolina border.It was that far out there. Harmony decided that she didn't want to ride on the bus. She wanted to ride with me where she could listen to her music and play Gameboy. Who can blame her? I wouldn't want to ride the bus. After a long wait, we broke into 3 groups and went around the farm. We learned a lot. Harmony, although she may not look like she is paying attention, just abosorbed the info. When I was questioning her that night she could answer everything I asked her! We had a great time but I was ready for a nap when I got home!

Speaking of Harmony, she had a great report card. 3 A's and a B. Her B was in math ( I am afraid that is probably my fault ...genetics or something). Her teacher just talked about how proud she was of Harmony and all of her hard work.I was proud too and thought she did a great job. Well yesterday she gets in the car after school and has this scowl on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she broke into tears. "Mom, I didn't get invited to the Honor Roll celebration because I got a B!" I asked her how she knew and she said that one of the kids was asked to pass out the invitations and she didn't get one. She was so upset so I told her I would go home and give her teacher a call. I called her teacher and explained that I had a crying child, because she didn't think she was invited. She apologized profusely and said she had just run out and she had sent a kid to the office to pick up more, but they had to print more off. She said "Harmony has earned it in every way!" So she will get her one today.I am glad at this age, her problems are so easily solved!

Today is Connor's Thanksgiving program and he is very excited about being a pilgrim. Should be cute! Then tonight we have parents night out! Yay! Date night! Then after we get the kids to bed, I have scrapbook night. I know what I am going to be doing on Sat. Taking a nice long nap!

M list address

Mom emailed and asked me for the address to my other blog. So here it is...enjoy! If my link doesn't work the address is http://the-m-list.blogspot.com .

M list

OK, OK it has been forever since I posted on my 'M List blog." I think it is about time to get back to it. So here we go,and I will be back to doing it every day. Ecs. with Thanksgiving coming up,it feels wrong not too!

Life moves fast...

Is next week seriously Thanksgiving? How did that happen? We were listening to Radio Disney, and one of the dj's was asking a child what they were going to be doing. Ethan piped up, " Yay! After Thanksgiving is Christmas!" They have been singing JIngle Bells , Batman smells for a while now. We have been so busy it feels like I haven't even had a chance to think about Christmas! I usually try to have my Christmas cards made so that, on Thanksgiving, I can sit and address them and stuff them while Ben is watching football. Then once he falls asleep I change the channel, and then resume stuffing my family letter in. Which I am not sure if I need to send a family letter, since I have this blog. Hmmm...We will see!

This week has/is going to be a busy one. Monday, Harmony and Ethan didn't have school. Again. So Ben brought Connor down to school. It was so quiet in the house! Harm played on the computer, Ethan watched tv and Ivan followed me around. Seriously quiet and I got a lot done! Then we picked up Connor and headed to McD's for a play date. That was a busy place since there was no school. Let's just say tons of Mom's had the same idea! We came home, took some naps and relaxed and then headed to a b-day party. Came home and it was off to bed.

Yesterday, by 5:30 pm. I had spent 30 min. at home. Yep just 30. I brought the kids to school. Went and picked up Jonas for carpool. Dropped them off at preschool. Made Connor apologize. I will write about that later....went to the NEX ( Navy Exchange which is kind of like...I don't know a mall and a Target mixed up in one.) Met Ben there and got my ID renewed. Now I don't have to go back until 2009. However, when I go, I am going to have to take Harmony the very next month. Once the kids turn 10 they have to have a military ID also! Then we went and picked up some of the things Ben needs because HE MAKES LIEUTENANT! Today is the official day but his pinning on is next week sometime. So excited for that pay raise! Then Ben decided to take me out to Applebees for lunch. Took Ivan and Connor out to BJ's and got half of our grocery shopping done. Came home, put it away and it was 2:00. We pick the big kids up at 2:30. Sat around for a half an hour. Picked up the kids and went to the commissary. Took forever. Then drove to the Hostess outlet. Done. Came home. Did our nightly stuff.Phew long day.

What is on the books for today? Another field trip. Back to Brookdale Farms. This time with my girl.Who would rather ride with me than on the bus and who can blame her really. Makes me happy because we can go straight home and our drive won't take as long!

I'll post pictures later. I also noticed that Eric made a comment on myfamily that they have increased space. So I can post others there.

I have also been...well uhm...a tad obsessed with looking at my counter. This morning I was at 127 hits!!! Who would of thunk it? So seriously cool.

the naughty list

Not as innocent as he looks....
Connor has moved over from the nice list to the naughty list. Just yesterday, I was telling Ben how sweet Connor is. That he does stinky things sometimes but in general is just so sweet. Today he is one of my least favorite kids....

Connor loves legos. LOVES legos. Is obsessed with legos. Could spend hours looking at lego.com. Ok, so he used to have two lego guys and 2 girls. But he doesn't like the girls, because they are girls, and then lost the other guy. So if you do the math that leaves one lego guy left. So the other day he and Ethan were fighting over who got to have the lego guy. Mommy's solution? If you can't share, than nobody gets him, and was put high on a shelf. Well Connor keeps asking me and asking me about the guy. Well today, we went to McDonalds for a play date when Connor told me " guess what Mommy? I found a lego guy for Ethan" I said,"really where did you find it? In the play place?".
C-"no"
M-" Connor where did you find the Lego guy"
C won't look at me. Avoiding my eyes.
M- " Connor, where did you find them?"
C- " I don't know".
M " Did you take them from Ms. McCreedy's lego box at school?"
His eyes are glued to the floor.
M" Why did you take them?"
C " Because I only have one."

I was like ok that is it. Play date is over. We are going home. As we are walking out he asks me if he can have them to play with!!I think my look gave him his answer. This is our first time dealing with this. The older 2 never did that. So the punishment is going to be stiff as he is setting a precadent. First up for today, he is taking a nap, grounded from all electronics and will not be going to a birthday party. We will see what else happens.

I guess the thing that really gets to me is that he knew he did something wrong. It wasn't some innocent -I-stuck -it-in-my-pocket-and-forgot-about -it thing. He also just had this lesson in sunbeams a couple of weeks ago. And we watched Home Alone last night and he watched the robbers being carted off to jail. He knew it was not an ok thing to do.

Frustrating. Aggravated. Irritated. Dissapointed. My kid is a stink.

In Ethan's eyes...

Ethan is my photographer. The kid loves to take pictures. So this is Williamsburg through Ethan's eyes...

Williamsburg

OK, I am so glad that we got the do over! We had a great time. We left after Ivan woke up from his nap,a nd I think it helped to be there a little later. The kids were a lot more calm. We hopped on the bus and got into the town. The kids enjoyed looking at the animals, being on the jury in the courtroom, looking at the post office, looking at the cannons and other weapons. Our kids favorite part of any trip is the gift shop afterward. The kids picked out some great souveniers. Although Harmony dropped her snow globe when she got home and it cracked and broke. Some major drama over that one! We stayed until around 5:30 and then caught the bus to go back. A man on the bus, told Ethan how much he likes his hair cut. It was because he was sporting the same one! He told Ethan that it was a lucky haircut. I, however, got a nice rude comment from a total stranger. At one point while walking, I was pushing the stroller and had Connor on one side and Ethan on the other. A man saw me and said, " You need to stop having those.I think 4 is enough."I was shocked and appalled that someone would say that. At first I thought he was joking but he wasn't. It hurt. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

a do over

You know that scene in City Slickers, where Billy Crystal is telling his friend, that he gets to start over. That his life is a do over? Well that is a little of how I am feeling today. Or with our family and it's comedy of errors, maybe it is more like Groundhogs Day...

I had been excited to take the kids to Williamsburg. I thought they would really enjoy it. I thought Ben would like it too. Smile for pictures, or any of that nonsense? No, but he would enjoy it. It would be a nice day to spend as a family. And tickets for free that are usually somewhere around $50 a person? Fit well into our budget too. So what went wrong? Oh...

Ben stayed up too late ( like usual) and was tired and crabby. He is still taking painkillers for his back, and was feeling sleepy. The kids, were excited to go, and all woke up at around 5am. I mean they were excited but Christmas excited? I didn't think so. They all got up early though. Williamsburg, on the signs, is 37 miles away from Norfolk. However there is no sign that includes mileage with traffic. We sat in traffic until we hear " I need to go potty!" from Connor. Luckily, we were close. We made it to the visitors center and Ben grabbed Connor and ran to the bathroom. Just made it...Got our tickets and started the walk. It was 1/3 of a mile. But it was warm. Connor fell and scraped his knee and hand. Usually, Connor is all about Daddy and could care less what I was doing. BUT since he was hurt, he wanted to be right by me. Which, incidentally, is where Ethan always is. So they fought about who got to be with Mommy. We finally get to the town and are walking around. Ethan's listening skills were lets just say...not available...and everyone was complaining. I consoled myself with " at least I got some cute pictures." But...no. We stopped to look at the map and my camera screen, once again, read card error. Everything deleted. I felt...defeated. Yeah I know that rhymes.

We left shortly after and I felt pretty jipped. I started talking to Harmony and we decided to go back up today. So we were talking about it at dinner and the boys were talking about how they wanted to go back and see the rest of the town. I have a super saturday that I am going to today. Taking classes, helping a friend and doing a class. So I can't really skip. I wouldn't want to either,I love having Super Saturdays! :) So we are going to wait until Ivan wakes up from his nap and go again.

And I went last night and bought a new memory card. My old one was 256mb, and now I have one that is 1G. The difference was only $5 so...Now not only can I take my pictures over again...I can take 820! The kids and Ben are going to love that....

Veterens Day

Last night at dinner, we were talking to the kids about the trip that we are taking to Colonial Williamsburg today. I told them that since it was Veterans Day, military get in for free. Harmony asked me what a veteran is. So I started naming some people that are. I said, " Your Dad is one, your Uncle Steve is one, your Uncle Joe is one..." and she said,"Mommy is that why his name is on that wall?" I told her, "kind of, but that wall is designated for people who died in the Vietnam war." You could see her figuring it all out.

I used to just think of Veterans Day as one of those "Monday holidays". Things like Presidents Day or Columbus Day. Just another way to get out of school.

Now it is different. I look at the world differently. Before Ben joined the military, I thought everyone in the Navy was on a ship. Everyone in the Air Force flew planes. Everyone in the Army were the ones over fighting wars. I kind of lumped Marines in that same category. I also believed that those who went in to the military probably just couldn't hack it in college. Judgemental just a little huh?

To say that I have changed my views is an understatment! There are so many people, behind the scenes, that make this the greatest military in the world. When I meet new people, and ask what their husband does in the Navy, I usually have no idea what the job is. Unless it is something like a pilot, or something more obvious. There are just so many people working in different areas, making sure things run smoothly.

I am kind of rambling ( surprise, surprise) but I just love my country. I love being a military wife. I support my husband 100% as he and his peers try to make this world a better place to live. But they are not the "senior class". They are the freshman. So many more have gone before them. And the words thank you seem very inadequate.

trying something

real clay poker chips

and the winner is....

With the most recorded votes ever, for one contestant, I am now officially the "meanest Mom ever." Yep. I even have the look to go with it. Kids know "the look". Vale, while he was here, told me that I wasn't as scary as his Mom, because I didn't have the look. I looked at him and said, " Oh you mean this..." and well he got the look .I told him we learn that look in Mommy school. Right before they hand us our Mommy cards. So what pushed me past the other contestants?

1) Yesterday, my friend picked Connor up from school.I said I would just pick him up from her house as I was just getting out of the commissary. She had bought her son the movie Cars. Despite telling Connor many times, that I would be at their house when they arrived, he basically got it in his head that he was going to go in and watch the movie. Imagine his dissapointment when he sees me. Here come the tears. And he throws a fit. Now, for the record, I had planned to get him that movie. I just hadn't done it yet. I finally got him in the car but would he stop crying? Uhm that would be a big NO. So I told him since he would not stop, he was not going to get the movie that day. Yes, I made my son wait a whole day after the movie was relased to get it for him.

2) This morning, still in her pj's and wrapped in her blanket, Harmony asked me if I knew where the gameboy was. Which she actually likes to call "game girl" but whatever. I told her there was no way that she was going to play it because she needed to eat breakfast, get her hair done, get her uniform on etc. etc. Did she accept this news graciously? No, she threw her blanket down and stomped off into the kitchen. I told her if she kept that up she wouldn't be playing it at all today. " I wasn't stomping. I was tapping my foot kind of hard." Then she is trying to talk me into letting her play. Finally, the reigning mean queen said, " You know what? I already told you that you weren't going to play. Your question has been asked and answered. I will not talk about it anymore. You are not playing game boy today but may try again tomorrow." So yeah I got the fit all over again.

3) Ethan poked Connor in the eye. On "purfose". He is grounded from playstation, computer games and gameboy for 2 days.

I think Ivan still likes me. I bought him a cute little wooden car from the Target $1 section, so I think we are still friends....

The lesson I am trying to teach them? Throwing a fit will get you the exact OPPOSITE of what you want. Life is so unfair! Ecspecially when you have a mean Mom like theirs!

the whole enchilada

I was making enchiladas for dinner, when Connor pulled out the stool and came to help me. As he was putting the cheese on he told me, "Mom I am sooo easy at this." Which I believe translates to " this is sooo easy for me." BTW- in a much better mood, after counting my blessings. And I am counting this moment as well!