only fair

Ooops! I neglected to do this for Harmony. I did it for the boys, so it is only fair. Or so she tells me! :)

Harmony is running out of time to sell Girl Scout Cookies. ( All totals have to be in on Sunday). Money is not due until cookies are in, so if you would like to order some, please do! If you are not interested in the cookies but would just like to donate $$ to go towards her troop, that is great too. Just let me know how much and we can do it in your name.

If you are local, let me know and we will bring the form to church, or by your house. Thanks for your support!

So very thankful

Today I am feeling more thankful than ever.

So thankful for them.

So thankful for him.

Thankful for the new life that is growing inside of me.

Thankful to be a new Aunt! ( Jensen family we love you and are so happy!)

Thankful to have friends and family.

Thankful to have a home, food to eat, clothes to wear.

Thankful for the Gospel.

Thankful for the life I lead.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Drive for five

hungry all the time + nausea all day + feeling insanely tired +mood swings =

Relaxing....

Whew! After some PRETTY busy times, this week has slowed considerably. Yay! We have a bbq tonight, Thursday well duh, and Friday, I will be at the nex around 5am. That is it. That is all that is on our schedule. So today, I was so excited to just relax. Nothing pressing to do. I fell alseep on the couch for 2 hours while Ivan played his video games. And let me tell you, it was delightful!

I have a ton of photos to upload, and lots of other stuff. But first I wanted to share Ethan's homework assignment with you. He had to list 20 things he is thankful for that do not need a cord or batteries to operate. So here is his list...

Astro
legos
the world
My Mom
God
My teachers
my familia (Yes he did write it like that)
friends
the school
the ocean
the soler system
land
fish
America
food
water
rain
books
pencils
trees

I am not sure if this is in any random order but I am not sure how I feel coming in after Astro and legos....

stop the madness!!!

Agenda for today...

Hurry my bum up and get down to the scout store to buy my son his scout shirt. Why didn't I buy it YESTERDAY when I was already there? Oh because I thought I bought it weeks ago. Not so much.

Hurry to the commissary to buy food, to make dinner, for a friend who got out of surgery. While there also pick up food to make lunches for boys and Mom for tomorrow ( cub scout day camp).

Hurry to the NEX, or AAFES(Air Force exchange like store) see if I can print off cub scout pictures. Kodak kiosk at our nex broken. If they do not have one, hurry to K-Mart to use theirs. Also picking up extra sunscreen and a first aid kit to have on hand for tomorrow.

Come home and drop 2 scout shirts off at my friends house so that she can put all patches on.

Hurry home and do a mad cleaning dash of our home.

Bake cookies to take to friends home.

Go pick up friends kids from school and take them home with me, until their Mom/Dad get off work.

Make Harmony and friend do my cub scout poster using pictures, adhesive runners, and markers.

Babysitter comes at 5 for Ivan. Give him instructions and leave the house with...
**dinner for friends family
**canned good for Salvation Army canned food drive
**fishing stuff to donate for Operation Christmas drop
**den flag
**bird house
**poster
**2 cub scout jokes for Ethan
** 2 boys so excited to be decked out in their uniforms

Drop dinner off. Do not stay and talk. Wish well and leave.

Go to community center. Set up the "Wolves Den" table.

Sit with my den and make sure that they behave. Hand out awards.

Help clean up and go home.

Try to get some sleep, because I have to be at day camp from 8:30-3:30 the next day. 6 scouts, all day in the sun, shooting bb guns and bow and arrows.

My boys will appreciate it some day right?

a break

(Grrr, I tried flipping this photo the right way about 10 times. You are just stuck with it this way, sorry!


What a life we lead. Busy, busy, busy. Constantly going. This Saturday I left my military ID at a store about 30 minutes away. 4 trips later, I had it back, and had also wasted about 2 hours of my busy day. Today I was given checks so that I can place an order for cookbooks. As I was gathering up my book order stuff, I thought I had everything and left. I get home and empty my pockets....book order forms, cell phone, keys....hmmm no checks. I cry. I freak out. I hurry back to the school. I ask at the front office. I check the hall and go back into the PTO room. While in there, I realized I had put them in my BACK pocket. I had them the whole time. Harmony is having a hard time right now. I am not exactly sure of what all is happening but I know that I need to take care of it/her. We decided to have a journal that we share. Where she lets me know what is going on and I write back. So what do all of these ramblings lead too? I am taking a "media break". I won't be blogging,or facebooking, for awhile. I will only be answering emails that I HAVE to respond too. Limiting myself to 30 min. in the morning ( when the kids are not awake) and 30 in the evening ( when the kids are in bed). I know I will be missed but I owe it to my family and to myself. Much love

Oh and before I take this break, I need to make a shout out! Happy 1 year anniversary (of her 29th birthday) to my wonderful friend Beth. She has been such a good friend to me. She is funny, patient, kind, just a wonderful person. If you don't know her, you are missing out. I can say that I am one of the lucky ones who calls her my friend! So HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BETH!

Christmas list

I was driving with the kids the other day, when I brought up the subject of what they wanted to get their Dad for Christmas. This is how it went...

E: "How about black socks?"
Me:" Well he actually has a lot of black socks."
E: "OK, how about white ones then?"
Me:" Hmmmm, well socks aren't that exciting. Can you think of something that isn't socks?
E: "How about an I Love Guam shirt."
me:" I am not sure Daddy loves Guam."
C:" How about an xbox 360?"
me: "Well he already has a PS3, a psp, and an ipod. So I don't think he needs another video game system."
E:" Well what if all those go out at the same time?"
Me:" they won't."
E:" Well what if they do?"
Me:" They won't."
C:" OK how about a guitar?"
Me:" You mean like guitar hero?"
C:" No just a regular guitar."
Me: " Ok well your Dad doesn't actually know how to play a guitar."
C: " That's ok he can just learn."
Me:" You know what, we will just worry about it later."

So many good ideas, it's hard to choose! :)

Veterans Day

To all those who went before


To all of those who serve today


THANK YOU

Where do I even begin?

(the end result, isn't that a nice face)

(about to get all cleaned up)

(car ride to the hospital, look at his gash!)



(Harmony's GS troop before Hairspray started)

(whee!)

( standing very still!)

(Maries cute little Wolf den)

Whew. I just realized it had been awhile since I uploaded my pictures. I guess it is because I have had a busy week. So here is the rundown...(btw sorry the pics are in the wrong order)

On only one try, Harmony learned how to ride her bike! We are very excited for her!
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Last Thursday, Ben helped me do cub scouts. The boys had to participate in an outdoor flag ceremony. It was cute to watch these boys stand still and really show respect to the flag. They stood still for the whole thing. This is my den with a couple of extra siblings in there!

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Friday night Harmony and I headed out to see Hairspray. From what I understand, the actors were from the surrounding high schools. We went with Harmony's GS troop. I was wondering what kind of performance it would be, seeing that we were on Guam. It was fabulous! They did a great job! Harmony loved watching it. We asked the girls how they liked it and they said, " Link Larkin was soooo cute." (In the movie, he is the character played by Zac Efron). Harmony has been talking about it ever since though! We are going to buy the whole soundtrack now!

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And that leads us today. It is non-stop action at the Turner home let me tell you! We had our 2nd annual Fall Festival with Ben's command today. As Ben and I were chit-chatting with people, the kids were busy climbing on rocks. A little bit later, Ben brings me a bleeding Ivan. He had blood on his hands but at first didn't see where the actual cut was. Then he lifted his chin. A huge( in Mom's eyes)jagged gash on his chin. It was still bleeding. I wasn't sure whether to take him up to the ER or not. Luckily we have women in the spouse club who have medical training and they encouraged me to take him up. So we dropped the older kids off at home with a babysitter, and headed out to the ER. Ivan did pretty well! They cleaned him off and at first decided to put a stitch in. After it was all clean, they said that it would not be easy to give him the numbing shot, so it was up to us whether or not we wanted it. We decided to just go with the butterfly bandages. What are they called again? Anyway, he ended up with a nice big bandage on his chin and a box of legos from Dad for being so brave.

What can I say? There is never a dull moment around here!

potty mouth

There is something about potty training that makes me feel like an idiot. Or at least sound like an idiot. I constantly find myself making comments like this...

" Oh what a big boy you are, Ivan!"

" That is such a good job to go poopy on the potty"

" You can't poopy in your underwear!"

" A baby wears diapers, but a big boy gets to wear Thomas underwear"

" You kept your underwear dry, oh you are sooo good Ivan"

You get the picture. He is so close to being done. The occasional accident here and there but almost done. And that is good because I am tired of talking like that!

Q & A

Thanks everyone for all your nice comments about my cupcakes. I am no where near making my own cakes like some people I know ( Angie, Becky, Tara, Cindy etc)! But I did like them. And thanks to my sister, I now know that if you post about food you have to include the recipe. So here goes....

1) You need a cute little boy to help you make cupcakes. If you do not have one you may borrow any/all of mine.

2) For these we used chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

3) Once they have been baked and frosted, you take some toothpicks and stick them into your desired peep.

4) Stick into cupcake and make a circle of colored candies. (These were Halloween colored M&M's)

5) The End. Seriously easy. I did have some other holiday ideas though...You could do a strawberry cupcake with vanilla frosting and add a Christmas tree peep. Use colored candies or sprinkles to decorate. For Valentines Day, make a red velvet cake, white frosting, heart peeps and pink and white sprinkles. 4th of July make a white cupcake, strawberry frosting ( maybe add some food coloring to turn it red) with a star peep on top. See totally easy and can be changed up for any occasion that they make peeps for.

OK so that was the answer part of this post. The question is HELP ME! I am feeling very overwhelmed with all the things that I have going on. I find myself doing everything last minute. I have always wanted to be more organized, but now I need it more than ever. Anyone have any ideas or tips? Sites that they like to look at to get ideas? If you have gone from not being organized but are now, do you have a secret? I literally need help. I was thinking about getting a palm pilot but seriously do not want to pay a ton of money for one. I was browsing last night and they had them up to $1000!Yikes, are you kidding me? I am tryin to decide if I want to do that or get a Franklin. I buy the cheap planners and they never have exactly what I want. These are the things I am trying to organize( besides general house organization)
**I am the primary secretary so church stuff
**cub scouts
**girl scouts
**volunteer stuff ( book fairs, bringing meals to things)
**Ben's schedule
**home visits for Ivan & his paperwork
** spouse club stuff
** choir practice(s)
**Achievment Days
**kids homework
** school stuff ( papers to sign, folders to sign, fundraisers sent home etc)

So come on all you organized people. Help a girl out. I need advice/ideas. Or a website or something! Help me before I drown in paperwork!

Choices and misunderstandings

(talking to her friend)

(Enjoying his cupcake after winning the very first round of the cake walk)

(the ghost that "followed" Ivan)

( I made these cupcakes for the trunk or treat and thought they turned out pretty cute!)

Whew. I have a mile long to do list but I also have been wanting to update on a few things.

In school and at home, we talk to Ivan a lot about making choices. That he is not a "bad boy" but he made a bad choice. Or he made a good choice. And I realized the other day that these lessons were really sinking in. How? Well, Astro had got a hold of Ivan's diaper and was attempting to chew it up. Ivan went up to him and said, " Astro you are going in your tunnel (kennel) because you made a bad choice." I cracked up. Then later he asked me if he could go to the park and I said not right now. He started crying and said, "Mommy you are making mean choices about me!" So cute.

*************************************************************************************The other day Harmony let me know that she was voting for John McCain. I asked why and she said I don't think Obama will be good for our country. I said ok and left it at that. Today when she got home from school, she saw the yahoo page where it said "voted the first black president." She started bawling. I mean hysterical. I was not prepared for that!! I didn't realize she had such strong political positions. I finally get her to calm down and asked her what the matter was. She said that she had a really bad day and began to tell me about it. Well, she had written on a paper that "Obama used to be a terrorist." Some girl got all mad and ripped it up. Harmony was bawling, " Mom I didn't know it wasn't the truth!" It turns out, she thought that Obama and Osama were the same person. So I explained it to her and she is going to talk to the girl tomorrow, and let her know that she just got confused. What a crazy time!

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The past couple weeks there have been an increase in phone calls around our home. However, they are not for Ben or I. They are for Miss Harm. She has never really been one to talk on the phone, to anyone, but she has been taking the phone into her room so that she can talk. What is next I ask yah?

And lost but not least I just had a few Halloween pictures from our Trunk or Treat that I thought it would post. I was cracking up because they had this floating ghost that scared Ivan half to death!

Photo tag

So I was tagged by the beautiful Becky Weaver!! This one is a little different, a photo tag! You have to go to your pictures folder and upload the 4th picture in the 4th folder and the 6th picture in the 6th folder. And funny enough, they were both Ivan. One is Ivan reading a Blues Clues book. The other is of him drawing a picture with his "lil pipsqueaks" markers. I now tag Eric, Alyson, Tiffany and Cindy! Have fun!