I'm being Kidnapped...

Todd had planned to take his boys camping this weekend, give me a free weekend and them some good bonding time...but no, instead we are all going to spend the weekend bonding with the dinosaurs. I'm not sure where or why, just that we are. It should be a great photo opportunity and lots of fun for the boys! There's also an Oktoberfest this weekend that we'll have to make an appearance at...it should be fun! I'm a bit of a homebody, so we all know where I'd rather be...but I will pack up some cute outfits and spend as much time as possible getting cute pics of my family....they're getting so big so fast...it won't be long before they will be embarrassed to be seen with us! After all we are a third of the way to driving! So at least maybe I can get a little schnokered at Oktoberfest! tehehe! shhh, don't tell DH! He'll never see it coming!

The Good Ole Days

Germany was great, I did a lot of traveling while I was there...we went to Switzerland during the fall and the first day they gave us a wake board and sent us down the rapids, it was fun and dangerous and I'd do it again in a heart beat! The next day we went canyoning (we were jumping off water falls into the pools at the bottom) it was so great! We got about 1 mile into the 2 mile course, and someone (just playing around) pretended to push me off the waterfall...except I actually fell and broke my ankle, the waterfall was about 12 ft tall so I was pretty lucky that it was just my ankle, the guide offered to have me medi-vaced out...but I didn't have a pass to be in Switzerland, so if they found out I was in Switzerland when this happened I would get into trouble, so instead we took off my wet suit shoes and put my foot in the water to slow the swelling, then we finished the course by lowering me down the water falls on a rope seat, thank God we had three really strong guys with us! Then at the end we had to climb a HUGE hill 89 degrees (I swear) so the female guide told me to start climbing on my hands and knees and no matter what, don't stop, I got a few feet up and she put her shoulder against my hip and seriously pushed me up this hill, I was trying to help but I'm sure I was completely helpless and she has just carrying me, it was hysterical, she was so tiny and there were lots of men she could have had help but she just did it! It was awesome, I ended up breaking my ankle pretty bad...that was in late August 2001, I walked in my brothers wedding September 3, 2001 and on September 12 I had to have the cast removed so that I could help pull guard duty, the doctors shot my ankle full of steriods and pain killers, gave me a gun and put me to work, my unit was the only unit on the installation and we were a detachment, we had a total of 35 people in our unit, take out the Commander, Chief and 1st SGT, the pregnant females and crazy or profile males and what you're left with are slim pickings, we didn't get relieved until November and even then they didn't send enough soldiers to cover us! We had General Meigs in Heidelberg, and they found out our Class 6 girl (very good friend to everyone on post) and our barber (nice enough guy) were terrorists...Class 6 even had letters of Osama Bin Laden in her apartment and pics and supplies to bomb the installation, very scary stuff! But because of having the cast taken off so soon, my ankle never healed right, so now my ankle hitches when I run, walk, squat, do stairs, it doesn't hurt that bad, just hitches...Did 9/11 directly affect you?

Our five year anniversary...

Last year was our five year anniversary...we forgot. Oops. But we did have this pic taken...I think it's at a friends wedding...it's the most recent picture of me...that's sad. For our five year we were going to get new wedding sets...we want each of our children to have a set, each set will have a different meaning...my engagement ring was bought in Germany on Todd's way home from Iraq...yes we were already married when I finally got a diamond...what can I say, we had twins. Anyways, my parents never remembered their anniversary, so the fact that we even got the pic is pretty good, so I thought, since I had it loaded up anyway, I would share...

Walk For a Cure

This weekend we Walked for a Cure! It was a good weekend, and we really enjoyed it, Lane loved seeing other kids with diabetes and Ethan loved being on the go the whole time! They had a wonderful time, and I need to thank Captain Rebecca the Great for heading up our team and raising money, Aunt Landa for walking and raising money, my Captain Cousin Kellei for heading up our team on Sunday and raising money, Aunt Theresa for walking and raising money, my Mom who came in spirit but was too sick to walk (she donated and bought us lunch) and Todd Lane and Ethan for walking with us, the boys were really well behaved and never caused a fuss! It was a great weekend and brings hope that someday Lane will be cured! Although if you ask him he'll tell you "but I love my diabetes"

Getting Life in Order...

Sometimes life is too much...there's too much to do, too much stuff and too much time. When my Dad passed in July, my Aunt Dina went through the house busying the 15 children with cleaning and helping...but then everyone went home, my brother went back to NY with his wife and 3 kids, my sister back to Urbana with her 4 kids, my other sister back to Lima with her 4, and there we were. My Mom and me...I went back to work/home, and she didn't. Mom never worked outside the home, she paints "hand-painted furniture" for her sisters shop in Wapak (ever in OH stop by Wapakoneta's Casa Chic - - cutest shop in Wapakoneta). But her sisters then wanted her to stay busy, so they brought her furniture to paint...and then the paint came out to paint the pieces, and then more furniture came out...and pretty soon she was in over her head, so I took off Thursday, Friday and Monday to help get things where they needed to go, and I have to say, we did a pretty damn good job! We got all of her living space back to living space, we got her furniture into storage space and the pieces she's working on, into her work space, we organized her paints and threw away the stuff she isn't keeping, took a load to Goodwill and got moving in the right direction. I also got to have a lot of good conversations about what she wants, where she can go from here and just in general good talking. We talked about whether she would date someday, and at first she wasn't really willing to discuss it...she thought I would be against it...I'm not at all! We talked about if she would move, where she would go, and when. We talked about classes she could/should take...computer and interior decorating, I think she would love it! And I got to tell her that I resent Lou for coming in and making this huge mess, going through and taking what he wanted and leaving the rest for us to deal with (that I don't resent) but do I resent that he then said that when Mom passes and I get everything, he's going to keep his thumb on me until I get it done...no he isn't because I refuse to be bullied into taking off time to get the house ready for sale when he's not here doing his part, I would lose vacation time doing it and only get equal shares from the house. So he will wait until I have it done...I will not be bullied by him...I was for a long time, I was bullied and guilt tripped and I refuse to ever be under his thumb again.

For Braden...

Courtesy of Antigone.
Directly from her site:October 15th is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States. More than 25,000 children are stillborn in the United States every year leaving mothers, entire families and communities devastated. Estimates of the rate of occurrence of stillbirth make it at least as common as autism.Stillbirth is not an intractable problem. Greater research would likely significantly reduce its incidence, but good research requires good data.
H.R. 5979: Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act is under consideration by Congress. This proposed bill would standardize stillbirth investigation and diagnosis, thus providing more data for the needed research. Better research means fewer children born still.On October 15th, remember the thousands of unfinished children lost and the families who remain to grieve them. Honor them by taking action. Let's help pass H.R. 5979.Action Steps:Step 1. Use Your Blog to Enlist Others-Copy the contents of this entire post and publish it on your blog immediately.GOAL: Enlist 10 of your readers to spread the wordStep 2. Use Your E-mail to Enlist Others-E-mail 5 bloggers and ask them (nicely and in an unspammy way) to publish these action steps on their blog. Consider contacting celebrity bloggers, political bloggers, medical bloggers, or bloggers who are not part of your reading community.GOAL: Enlist 3 bloggers outside of your normal blog sphere to spread the word in other online communities.Step 3. Help Pass the Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act-By October 15th, publish a post on your blog supporting H.R. 5979 Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act. For maximum impact, title your post: "Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act."GOAL: 1,000,000 Google results on October 15th when that term is searched for. Currently, Google only returns 20,400 pages - most of which have nothing to do with the bill.

Smart A$$!!

My kids are great...really they are. Most of the time. They're both witty in their own way, Lane Michael thinks before he speaks but not before he acts, Ethan doesn't think about anything in advance, All impulse all the time! So last night when I was telling the boys we were going to go to the Y before dinner it surprised me when Lane Michael threw caution to the wind and said "it'll be nice when you get back in shape" What?!?!? Did that really come out of my five year old!?!? I asked what he knew about getting in shape and he said I should run more and take better care of myself so that I can take care of him...I'd like to know who's been preaching at my child! Then he says to me "after you're done exercising, we need to go to the store, we're out of yeast and I want some bread for breakfast" WHAT!?!?! How does he know we're out of yeast? He looked before he left for school in the morning! My five year old is a culinery nerd! Ethan chimes in that while we're at the store he would like a soda please. NO!! If I have to take care of myself, you have to take care of yourself! So, since my children have now noticed that I need to take better care of me, I guess it's time to get back to the track! Besides, I'm getting a new wardrobe and I'd like to be one size smaller when we go shopping! I love shopping! I especially want to get new work clothes...I am 26 and work with mostly old men...90% of my clients are men (veterans - - WWII, Korea and Viet Nam) and a vast majority of them have a problem with a woman in my position, I'm ok with that but because of it, I have started to dress more masculine because they respond better to me that way...but I have now been in my position long enough that they know me, are used to me and will respond to me, maybe even request me. It's a good feeling but now I have to dress like I belong here. I also need some play clothes...my group of friends is rather diverse, some are t-shirts and others are "outfits" kinds of people (I'm somewhere in the middle)...I'd like to be an "outfit kind of girl"complete with accessories and cute shoes and purses. If we're going to have a little girl, I need to be able to model for her, what a girl dresses like and even for my boys I need to model for them what to look for in a wife...in my marriage I try to think about what we're teaching our children about marriage and partnership when dealing with any situation. I blame my Mom for my spending habits. She never spent money on her, my Dad however has a million toys, always did...she never (I mean that literally) told him no. He had more guns, tools and cars when he passed than any man should. I think I may have learned this from my Mom. My DH gets what he asks for...I may make him wait a few years but eventually he gets the 4-wheeler, he gets the Mustang, the 12 guns, the tools, the Ipod, the Blackberry (I don't even know if that's the word I want) but my point is I want to be a better model for my kids when it comes to financial decisions. Now, I have to say, I had the best childhood ever, we traveled about 3 times a year (my Dad traveled with work) and I never wanted for anything...there's only one thing I can think of that I wanted and didn't get...it was a stuffed dog, but if that's the only thing I was denied...I think I'm doing pretty good!

Wow, this post is all over the place - - sorry for the inconsistency!