Some (Old) Pictures on a Thursday

Happy Thursday!

Let's see, Chet made it home last Thursday night (late). We attended our homeschool group Friday mooning (only two more meetings until the end of the year!). I cannot for the life of me remember what we did this weekend; it was just nice to have Chet home. On Monday apparently we and all the neighbors forgot what day it was and let the kids run around playing until about 9:30 p.m. while we chatted in the driveway, which was very fun, but resulted in us body-slamming the kids into bed (figuratively, of course) and dragging them out of their beds Tuesday morning. I'll miss this neighborhood.

The past couple of weeks I've been going through thousands of pictures on my phone (I wish I were kidding), deleting duplicates/triplicates/twenty-plicates/pictures of the floor/unflattering selfies of the children. I've come across some gems:

So random, but fun to re-discover.

Today at noon is the second portion of Sydney's end-of-year oral exam -- please pray for her if you have a moment (thank you!). She is more than ready, and I'm not nervous for her, but at the same time I'm finding it hard to accomplish anything until it's over.

Bye, friends!

Chugging Along

(Some of these pictures will NOT center, and it's driving me crazy. Just FYI.)

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here, chugging along. Chet is out of town again; three days in San Diego. He returns tomorrow night, and I'll say again that this is good practice for the very near future when we will be in deployment mode.

The end of the school year with our homeschool community is barreling toward us like a freight train (April 5th). Sydney is practicing for her oral exam (the first part is next Thursday, March 28th) and is doing a stellar job. Even though it's school work, it's been a joy to spend more one-on-one time with her these past several weeks.

I still need to do a post for Ruthie's birthday (March 6th). I'm 80% certain I'll get that done before we move (ha!).

Our across-the-street neighbors had a baby February 1st, and all the kids in the neighborhood have taken turns loving on her:

Lorelei and Ruthie got a hold of my phone:

Ruthie had her 3-year old check-up (Ford accompanied us):

When Chet is gone, I usually serve "kid dinners." For example: chicken nuggets with blueberries. If the weather is nice, they eat outside. If children are over playing, they eat too. (Ford was eating across the street.) 

That's all for now; I'm going to attempt to do something productive before throwing in the towel for the day. (Speaking of, I forgot to put the towels in the dryer -- thanks for the reminder!) Happy Wednesday, friends!

A Strangely Good Day

Happy Tuesday, but, more importantly, happy birthday to Papa Greg (Chet's dad)! (AND happy 77th birthday to the Seabees!)

The reason today has been strangely good is because the morning began with Sydney throwing up a few times (gross, but true). My original plan for this Tuesday was to hit the ground running, ordering everyone to complete task after task like a drill sergeant. But Sydney's condition made me cancel everything, and we've had a slow (rainy) day instead. Here's what the living room currently looks like:

Please notice the piles of books/puzzles/toys under the piano.

The reason I was planning on having such a militaristic Tuesday is because we took a quick, fun Sunday/Monday trip to Monterey, CA (and now I'm off-kilter, schedule-wise).

I'll post some more about Monterey this week, but there's a picture to tide you over. (It just crossed my mind that Ruthie may have very understandably been mistaken for a long-haired little boy at the aquarium, what with her striped shirt, Nikes, and no hair tie.)

Speaking of Ruthie -- it's her last day as a 2-year old! 

She turns the big "3" tomorrow! It's a busy week, so tomorrow she'll open presents, but we'll do a little more celebrating and have a cake this weekend.

Happy strangely-good-Tuesday, friends!