Happy Anniversary - late

TJ and I celebrated - well, not really, our 11th anniversary on May 10. My Grandpa's funeral was on May 10, so we weren't even in the same town on our anniversary. That's ok. I am married to a wonderful guy if you don't know already. I know 11 years isn't too long in the grand scheme of things, and to us it really seems like it has flown by. This is the first year we weren't together on our anniversary. All the NAVY deployments never interfered with it for some reason (unlike birthdays and Christmas!). I love him so much and I still can't believe at the age of 14 I knew he was one special guy - pimples and all :) I wish I had some pictures to post - I am still in Colorado. So I will have lots of pictures to upload when I get home next week - and hopefully we can celebrate our Anniversary then. Just a little reminiscing now... I know some of you have heard this, but for those of you who haven't here's the story. I saw TJ for the first time right after 8th grade ended - we were watching our sisters play in an all-star little league game against each other. He was sitting in the bleachers in front of me with his parents. I told my friend I was going to marry that kid although I'd never seen him before. I never saw him again that summer, until school started and we ended up at the same High School. We have been together ever since. Fast forward to April, 1996 - TJ calls me and tells me he's joined the NAVY - I say "what's that?" Colorado isn't a very NAVY town! I now know all too well what the NAVY is - and I LOVE it!! I know it was the best thing that could have ever happened to us and I am so grateful to the NAVY and all the opportunities it has given us. TJ can retire from the NAVY in 8 years! Although I am hoping we end up staying in for longer than the 20 years required for retirement. So TJ went to boot camp in Great Lakes, IL in October, 1996. He came back on May 9, 1997, for us to get married on the 10th, then left again on May 11, to go back to IL. He was gone for like a week and he came back to get me and we drove off to San Diego, where he was stationed for the next 10 years. But, when we got to San Diego in May 1997, he left for 6 months in August 1997. He came back in February 1998, and left AGAIN for 6 months in June 1999, and returned in December 1999. I like to tease him that he hasn't done a real day's work since sometime in 2000, and he hates it when I say that! But, since starting flight school, he has definitely been putting in his time. I love you so much honey! I'll see you next week - do you think you can pick us up at the airport??? And, I think I need a little vacation from our wonderful children when I get back from this vacation with them!

Grandpa Whiting

Last Monday I got a call from my family. My Grandpa Whiting had passed away in his sleep sometime early Monday morning. This is my first grandparent to pass away and it was really, really hard on me. I grew up with my grandparents all around me. We were with my grandparents a lot. They live on a great ranch and it was so fun to go out there and play. The last time I got to see my Grandpa was last August when I was here visiting. I am so sad and I am still having a hard time believing he is gone. It just doesn't seem fair he was only 75 years old, we should have had more time with him here. I had to do lots of juggling to get my flights changed so I could make it to the funeral, but it was worth it. We had the funeral on Saturday and that was the hardest thing I have ever done. I loved my Grandpa very, very much. I know that I will see him again, but being without him now is what's hard. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of families being forever, but it still hurts. I am the 4th oldest of the 38 grandchildren (I thought there were more of us than that!!). He was very active in church and politics. The local paper did a story on him, but so did the Denver Post! We all thought Grandpa would get a chuckle out of that. All of my pictures of him are at home on my computer, so I will have to add more pictures of him when I get back. Here are the stories if you want to read them:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_9219598
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/05/05/050608_1b_Whiting_obit.html

Before and After

I still can't believe I did it. It feels WONDERFUL. I think I love it, but I have only had it done for a few hours now. I have been wanting to post, but I haven't been able to do so lately. I will write more on that later. But, I figured I had to post these pics. Please be kind in your comments :) I donated all that hair to locks of love, it's the 4th time I have done that. I was trying to take these pictures by myself today because TJ wasn't around to do it, so the pictures are a little weird, I think.

100th post!

This is my 100th post! I would do something special - but I'm not that creative - so let's just look at more pictures of my kids shall we? Yesterday Tyler decided to give himself a hair cut, so check out this great hair cut. I can laugh and take pictures because it wasn't Brena giving herself a hair cut. Had it been Brena I would still be crying today. But we will just go shave Tyler's head and all will be well.

We have tons of wild berries that grow around here, so last night the kids went berry picking and ate the berries, here is a big one that Tyler found. Last year I got so excited seeing all these berries, we went all over the neighborhood picking berries. I had plans to make a pie with them, but never did. So now I just let the kids eat them when the find them.

Chipmunks?

Have you seen the Chipmunk movie? Brena loves it and she imitates the part in there when the chipmunk throws something at Dave and he throws it back, but misses. Then the chipmunk says "chick-a-wa-wa, chick-a-wa-wa" she cracks us up and she does it all the time, so I tried to get her to do it for camera, it's not as cute as she normally does it, but it is still funny. Enjoy!

Also, I haven't been posting much lately - I have actually been very busy on a project and it is almost done! But, I can't share it with you because I don't want a certain lurker to see it yet :) I will post on it when I can - I am so excited to share it! Hopefully in a few weeks. On another note, I had my last piano lesson today :( I am leaving out of t0wn, and I know I won't be able to make lessons in the summer, so hopefully in the fall I will start up again. I have a wonderful piece almost ready to play in church - I think my teacher is putting me on the program for when I get back in town. I might try to record the song so I can post it for all to hear.

Colorado on my mind

Most of you know we are from Colorado. We lived in San Diego for 10 years, so that was home too, but we are originally from Colorado. The kids and I are taking a trip in a couple of weeks to go visit. Grandpa called a few weeks ago and couldn't stand not seeing the kids any longer, so we are going for a visit. I have been pretty good about not counting down the days yet, then it will seem like it will never come, but my dad emailed me some pictures last night and I am so excited to get home now! I had to share them. These are of my parents backyard and orchard. The orchard is one of our favorite places to just go eat whatever we want right off the tree (if it's in season). The last picture is one I took a few years ago and entered it into a photo contest, of course if didn't win, and I am not a professional photographer at all, but I think it's just gorgeous.

For the record...

For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered....
Some Mormon women sing...

Some Mormon women dance...
Some Mormon women write scary stories...

Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon women.

They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.

This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)
None of the Mormon women I know look like this...

None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and-- although some may joke about wanting a sister-wife (preferably one who is really fat & ugly, does bathrooms and changes diapers)--none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.


Furthermore...


Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...


Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...

Some Mormon guys make scary movies...

Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...

I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.


This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)


None of the Mormon men I know look like this...

The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble. And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.

Strawberry Pie as promised

I got a strawberry pie made Saturday night. It is now gone. In my defense, I have to say I only had one slice. TJ ate the rest. Apparently he doesn't worry about his butt being too big to fit into his flight suit - or the cockpit for that matter - I've seen that cockpit - it's really small. I on the other hand have to worry about things like my butt being too big to fit into my swimsuit - another thing he doesn't have to worry about - arrghhh! Ok, so here it is and my favorite part of this recipe is that you just dump the stuff for the crust into your pie plate and mix it up in there. Preheat your oven to 400.


Dump 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup oil, 2 TBS sugar, 2 TBS milk, 1/2 tsp salt into your pie plate (I don't grease the pie plate). Mix it all up and press up the sides of the pan like this:

Now, in a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 3 TBS corn starch, 2 TBS white karo syrup and 1 cup water. Heat to medium high stirring constantly. It will turn into a thicker, clear substance after it's been cooking, that's when you take it off the stove and add 3 TBS of strawberry jello to it. Let it cool completely.

After your pie crust has cooked for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven and let it cool completely.

Slice as many strawberries as you want into your pie crust until there is enough strawberries in there for you - we like a lot of strawberries in our pie. Then dump your glaze over your strawberries. I set mine in the fridge for a while, to let it set up a little. Then we slice it and serve it with fresh whipped cream - yummy!! Enjoy :)

Strawberry Pie

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup oil

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS milk

1/2 tsp salt

Mix and press into pie pan. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Filling

1 cup sugar

3 TBS corn starch

2 TBS white karo syrup

1 cup water

cook over medium high heat stirring constantly until thick and clear. Remove from heat and add 3 TBS strawberry jello. Mix and let cool. Cut up berries and put into pie, pour syrup mixture over strawberries.

Beach!

Today was absolutely gorgeous! You couldn't ask for better beach weather. We took a picnic lunch, ate and had fun playing in the water. Of all the beaches I've been to, I truly believe that Pensacola beaches are the best anywhere. Blinding white sheets of quartz sand meet the clear emerald water of the Gulf of Mexico (I didn't make that up, I read it somewhere :) ). The white sand is just like sugar, and there's no yucky stuff floating in the water, you can see right where you are stepping at all times the water is so clear and blue. Hope everyone else is getting beautiful weather! Kim - I am sure it's snowing at your house right now - ha ha!!

Strawberries!!!! Yum-O!

We went to Alabama today to pick some strawberries. They were oh so big, red, juicy, sweet and YUMMY!!! We were all in strawberry heaven! We picked about 18 pounds - not as much as last year (didn't want them to go to waste if we move). It was such a gorgeous day, the kids ate way too many strawberries (at least we didn't have to stop for an emergency bathroom break on the way home!) The only bad part of the story and why we went today is TJ still hasn't been on the flight schedule. He is bummed, but they said either tomorrow or Sunday for sure he will be. And, I have the BEST strawberry pie recipe ever, ever, ever! I really want to share it, so I will share that in the next day or so after I make one. Now, of course you have to look at pictures of my adorable children :)

So busy!

I couldn't figure out why I have been so busy lately, not getting ANYTHING done! I figured it out, there are two reasons: 1 - I can't stop reading Stephenie Meyers' books! 2- I have to help TJ study ALL the time - I swear I know all the checklists, safety procedures and I can talk the lingo to the towers too! I could be qualified to be a NAVY pilot! TJ is upset because he was supposed to have his first flight of Primary on Tuesday, but he didn't get put on the schedule, same for today, he wasn't scheduled. So he is crossing his fingers for tomorrow and so am I! Monday night there was a wife meeting at the airfield where TJ works and we wives got to go hear from the CO/XO's, go in the planes, and go into the sims - it was AWESOME! I really enjoyed myself. TJ really wants to fly P3's - here's a picture:
I found out if he does get to fly the P3's we would move to Jacksonville, FL when he is done with Primary - in 8 weeks! Here is a website to learn what the P3's do and see more pictures of it http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=1100&tid=1400&ct=1 The sims were so cool, there is two sims there that cost just as much as a real plane! You walk in and there is a screen like an I-MAX and there is the cockpit in the middle of the room, the screen turns on and Google Earth is on the screen, so it really looks like you are flying. They let the wives fly too, but as soon as the screen turned on, I was getting motion sick and had to leave (I can't even swing too long on a swing, or I get sick - so I guess I really couldn't be a NAVY pilot!). It was neat hearing all the info they gave us and just meeting other wives in the same boat (plane) as me. Keep your fingers crossed for him to fly tomorrow!!

Milk

I am convinced more and more each day that there is really something wrong with my brain! Yesterday I had to go to the store to get a couple of things. Since TJ says I always find way to blame him for everything, let's go for that approach here (he knows I am just teasing him). I was out of milk and he has to go right by the commissary on the way home (NAVY grocery store). Milk is very cheap there at $3 a gallon, so I usually have him pick up the milk if I'm out of it. We have always drank (drunk?) fat-free milk, I don't like any other kind of milk. I can handle 1% if I have to, but I don't like anything but ff. So, he got milk and came home. I went to get the milk out of the fridge for some cereal and it was 2%!!! YUCK!!!!! And there were two gallons of it!!! I called him and said "what the heck did you buy 2% for?" He didn't know he had, he just grabbed some milk. I guess I can be grateful that it wasn't whole milk! Anyways that leads me back to my original story. I had to go to the store and get me a little bit of ff milk, I couldn't stand not having milk anymore. I got the milk and few other things and went home. I got home about 2pm. I was making dinner at 5pm and realized "oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!!" I forgot to bring in the groceries from the car - milk included!!!! So I went out to get the milk, it was just slightly cool - so would you still drink it? And that half gallon I had to get cost the same as an entire gallon at the commissary!

Ramblings

This post is going to be lots of me rambling on and on. I have had a few things on my mind lately and I couldn't sleep last night thinking of them all, so I figured it might help me if I write it all out, deep breath, here goes. I have finally decided I have a problem with commitment (no, not like marriage) but with things that have to be done. Let me explain - Tyler has Piano on Monday nights, I have piano on Tuesday nights, I have YW every Wednesday night, Thursday night is either: YW Camp meetings, visiting teaching, girls night out, or book club (not every Thursday, but between those things, every Thursday night is usually taken up). So that leaves me with a free Friday night and Saturday, and we usually get a babysitter and go on dates on either Friday or Saturday - so there really is never a free night. We also have had in the past Tyler's soccer and now I was going to start T-ball for Tyler. Ok, I had a little break-down, and yes, I realize I only have two children, one of whom is not even involved in any extracurricular activities yet. I don't know how moms of more than two do it with all of the children involved in something - aaaawwwww!!!!!!! SO, I don't know if this is a good thing or not, we will see. I stopped Tyler's piano lessons (it was like pulling teeth to get him to sit at the piano and I have been pulling his teeth since September of last year!) although I really, really didn't want to - I want him to love playing the piano - it runs in the genes, his Nana F. is a very good pianist, his Gigi is is great pianist (not to mention all of his Landes cousins are all music protégés), but I know he got it from me, I remember sitting at the piano and crying because I had to practice and go to lessons. Finally my mom let me quit and here I am again taking piano every week and paying for lessons so I can learn to play the piano...sigh... So that leaves Monday nights free - very good- right?? Well I still wanted more. So I am now paying a girl in my ward to watch Brena every Thursday morning so I can go to piano lessons while Tyler is at preschool and Brena is at playtime. So that freed up Tuesday evenings, I am feeling SO much better at this point! Wednesday nights are not going to change anytime soon, being the YW pres I HAVE to be there every Wed. night. Thursday nights are only changing a little - I need some time to myself to enjoy being by myself so I will keep the girls night out once a month on the schedule. I have no choice about the camp meetings or the v.t. either, but camp meetings will end after June when we go to camp. So I will have to can the book nights for a little while. I am feeling oh so much better! And, we are not playing T-ball. I can't tell you how much better I am feeling about everything. We can go to the library and I don't have to worry about hurrying home, we can go to the park and not worry about hurrying home. If you read through all of that, thanks for hearing me out :) I feel much better and I am so happy it is Tuesday night, nothing to do but sit and watch The Biggest Loser and eat ice cream!!!

Spring Break

We have been on Spring Break this week and today we went down the Naval Aviation Museum with some friends. The museum is great, the kids love it and it's free. We spend a lot of time down there in the summer because they keep it nice and cool in there. They have lots of cockpits you can climb up into and just fun things for the kids to see. Usually we also see the Blue Angles practicing when we go down there, but we didn't get to see them today.

The little girls couldn't make it home, they were just too tired after a fun day of running around!

Trying to be like Daddy

TJ got all of his flight gear today so he tried it on for us and to practice putting all of it on. That stuff is really heavy! He weighs about 200 lbs, but when he weighed himself with all that gear on the scale said 225! He has his g-suit, life preserver (where his parachute attaches to) and other things I don't know what they are. The kids wanted to try his helmet on. They look so funny, all of them!