Addie and Daddy-O met up in Denver while Daddy-O was out in Colorado for work. Addie flew out there all BY HERSELF and met Daddy-O, Uncle Gus and Ella. They landed, and then that evening a nice little blizzard dumped about adozen inches of snow on Laramie and the surrounding areas. It was so much snow that the first day they tried to ski, it was TOO DEEP to ski!!!! They settled for playing in the deep snow for hours and then some ice skating. The next day they were able to hit the slopes and have a blast. Here's a photo of my big girl in her adorable outfit and SNOW BOOTS......love it!! Oh, and by the way, I am sooooooo jealous, still!! I love it out there and so wish we had some snow then instead of the not so romantic mud we were stuck with!!!

A military aviator friend of Oscar's who works for the company that hired Oscar invited us to be his guests at a New Orleans Mardi Gras ball. We had a great time. It was our first ball in New Orleans and was so beautiful!! We spent an evening at the ball and stayed overnight in a hotel. Oscar's mom was sweet to keep the kiddos for us!! Thought you would enjoy seeing us "all cleaned up," as they say here in the South!!!

Here's another topic to keep you scratching your heads!!! Today Oscar was home and we enjoyed time working on our homeschool lessons with the girls. We chose to move from the school room to the breakfast table so we could all four have seats. After a few subjects were completed, we noticed Ainslee jomp up and hurry to the bathroom. That's not uncommon. With her little strange tummy, we know that when the urge hits, she has to hit the urge soon!! So all's fine and normal and we continue to sit with Addie and help her as needed. In about 5 minutes Ainslee comes skopping (that's Ainslee skipping and hopping all at once) back to the table and announces in a very excited little girl voice, "My panties are made in TURKEY!!!!!" Oscar doubles over laughing, I have to put my head on the table and let myself lose control laughing, Addie is howling with laughter, and it was just one of the typical, random things Ainslee brings to our family time!!! Who knew??? So of course, being the freaky homeschoolers we are, we turn this into a geography lesson where we have the girls flip to their world maps in their school binders and Oscar gives them a lesson in geography.
Today was a good day. Got my Yukon's instrument panel and window repaired, Mom was here for the first full day of the trip, taught Pilates, and ended the night with some broiled Tuna...thanks for the great tips on cooking Tuna, Kirsten....and the first half of a great family movie we checked out from the local Baptist Church library.
Hope all is well in your nest tonight!!!!

One morning after Christmas, Grouch (Daddy-O's military call sign) was in his flight suit and jacket heading to work when the girls stopped him and asked to have their picture made with him. SO here is Grouch in his flight suit so our children can be free and safe in their pajamas!!!! And thanks to all of the men and women who wear THE uniform!!!

 

Oscar was invited to be the keynote speaker on Veterans Day 2009 in Plaquemine, Louisiana at the veteran's memorial. He shared a very fitting message of the real-life people whose names we know, and some we will never know, who have given their lives, survived battles and bloodshed, and those brave men and women who watch out for us even now as I type.....the nameless young soldier gripping his weapon with white knuckles as he stands lookout in Afghanistan. I will try to get the text from Oscar so I can post it here. It is insightful and moving, and I was so proud to have out family there to hear him. We are so proud of Daddy-O! He is our HERO!!!

Daddy-O retires from the military this coming fall, so the search has been on for a job that he will enjoy or a business to purchase or create. An excellent opportunity came up for Oscar to join a company called Check Six, Inc. He is in his first training session this week. Once his training is completed, he will be a consultant traveling to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, training offshore workers in operational safety and crew efficiency. The people who work offshore have much in common with the men and women of our military who have worked on ships, aircraft carriers and in aviation operations. The risks are great and similar, so training and constant attention to detail and safety precedures are of ismost importance.
Oscar is excited to join Check Six, not only as the company is the leader in this area, but also because he is reconnecting with friends he has met through his almost 20 years of active duty service in the United States Navy and Louisiana Air National Guard.
We know we are so blessed to have this employment opportunity. We continue to look to the western United States as a place we dream to homestead so we can afford land to ride on, grow hay on and just have privacy and safety. This new job affords is the freedom to live anywhere in the United States. Over the past year, we have struggled with patience and trust in the future. We LOVE to have everything planned out and know what's around the bend. Well, I think God has really worked on us in that area. Between our children's health issues but no diagnosis, last year's possible military job in Montana that didn't pan out, and then retirement coming up but no clear view as to our next step....business to begin, business to buy, jobs available. So here we are. God is good. We have grown and grown in the area of patience. This doesn't mean I am there by any means....I can always gain more patience!!!! Now, where to live.....hmmm....now that's a hard one, but much, much easier with a job after retirement!!
Hope you have a day filled with noticed and appreciated blessings and loads of patience!!!
CL

This happened sometime last year, but since I haven't shared it, I better now, before I forget!!
One morning we were home and my sweet Ainslee came up to me to offer unsolicited love......not super common, but very appreciated. SHe run up to me, throws her arms around me, then looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I love you as MUCH AS I CAN!!"
I am still a bit perplexed by this. How much is as much as I can? If she is capable of tons of love, then it is a HUGE amount, but what if she just isn't that capable of loving me, or what if she doesn't love me much at all but still loves me with all of that?
See what I mean?
No matter how it came out, I think she meant she loves me as much as she can.....possibly can, I like to believe! But maybe I am COMPLETELY wrong!! She is so smart and so sly sometimes!
Either way, we have adopted her love profession as our family's slogan. We use it all the time and always get a giggle out of it when we are all slap-happy at bedtime!
I hope you have a great day and I pray that you have someone who loves you "as much as they can!"

If you are not blusing or rolling your eyes after merely reading this blog title, let me share our latest story involvolving my curiously energetic, wonderful 7 year old Ainslee:
Last week, while other kids were in regular school, Addie, Ainslee made one of our weekly electives going to the local shopping mall to buy a wedding gift for Aunt Becca. We printed the registry and selected the romantic steak knives and headed to the line of 6-8 other women who were also purchasing housewares. When we were in the middle of the line of about 10 'Baton Rouge' women (If you are not from here, that's the 5' 0', slight frame lady dressed to the nines to go to the mall with her very trendy shoes and finely manicured nails and that hair, oh that hair....just right, and don't forget the latest in accessories that I can never even begin to care about keeping up with!!! Oh, and they have this certain way they carry themselves. It's almost red carpet strides, focused on something far ahead. Not something like the next store she will grace with her presence, but that look like she is headed across the mall to sue someone or maybe she is just looking ahead to the next Baron Rouge lady, checking out her duds but not wanting her to notice.... Don't get me wrong, they are not bad people, but they just have this look.....you may know someone like this who you can characterize like this and know where they are from!) SO anyway, we are in this line and CLEARLY not visibly fitting in!! I mean here I am in my modern Wrangler jeans, some hiking-looking Keen shoes, and my fleece pullover and oh, the way too small purse. Apparently they have to be larger than a small suitcase now..... and two little blonde girls with unkept hair and their jeans and sweaters and flip flops. Just in case you don't know, I think they check kids at the doors of this mall to be sure they pass the BOW TEST. If the little girls don't have bows in their hair at LEAST the size of their heads, then too bad, Mommy can't get into some places in the mall, no, wait, that's not it. I think if your child cannot pass the BOW TEST, you just get more of those stares....you know...."God love her. Can't afford the BOWS. Poor children!!" Sorry, back to the real story, but you really need the context to appreciate this in the end!! SO we are in this line with our knives and Ainslee is holding onto my arm fidgiting because, well, we aren't moving, and Ainslee's body just cannot be in that state. It isn't possible!!! I am trying to resolve a cuticle on my left hand ring finger that is irritated and needing to clipped. I don't have a large enough purse to add even fingernail clippers, and if I had that room, I would put chocolate there, so I use my right hand to pick at the cuticle to get it off. I am trying to fix this thing and Ainslee's tugging on my arm is causing me some pain as I jab my fingernails into my sore curicle. So I calmly and politely and quietly ( I haven't always handled Ainslee this way....God is working on me!!) lean down and tell Ainslee that I am trying to pick at this cuticle and that when she pulls my arm it hurts. I ask her to not touch me for just a minute while I get it picked off my very sore finger. She lets go and in a very loud, but normal Ainslee voice, she exclaims to the entire line of Baton Rouge women, "Mom, you shouldn't pick at your testicles like that. It isn't good for you!!" Have you ever been in a room when someone says something that takes the air out of the space??? Can hear a pin drop??? Pregnant pause? Well, it was that, but there was the sound of the very formed and sprayed hair on the Baton Rouge ladies cutting through the air as they about snapped their necks turning to me and my unkept-looling, no-BOW-wearing children. I looked over each shoulder where the ladies were standing and simply said, " I DO NOT HAVE TESTICLES." I then hear this snorting noise, and it is 9 year old Addie who is turning a rainbow of shades of red and is laughing her head off. SO this prompts Ainslee to ask in her still not quiet at all voice,"Mom, what are TESTICLES???" I explain it like this,"I do not have them. I have a sore cuticle. But testicles are those balls behind your little brother's penis, the things hanging under a stallion, and the things handing under a bull." Ainslee gives a short gasp of realization followed by uncontrollable giggly-laughter. I forgot about the ladies around us, the store, the whole world, and the three of us laughed and laughed and laughed more. I turned on the mental tape recorder and I caught the whole ordeal. It was beautiful, perfect, hilarious, and completely innocent and real. We left with a wrapped box of steak knives, the rumors of my testicles put to rest, and one of the best moments of our school year's elective classes so far this year!!!!