wow, i am so behind!

These shots were taken on September 11-- the schools here on post participated in the Freedom Walk and as you can see, the kids were very into it!

OK, now I feel highly overwhelmed! I can't believe that I have let myself slip so behind. The culprit is Facebook. I seem to spend my free time there instead of here. I need to find a happy balance, right?

So here is Alanah in her first gymnastics class in last month-- Yeah, LAST MONTH people!

the new thing is

a new competition that a group of us are starting.

We are doing our version of The Biggest Loser in an effort to lose weight and get into better shape.

During our AFAP conferences I remembered my friend Teah's (from West Point)explanation about her neighborhood and her putting together a group with the same objective-- so as I sat there waiting in the group I turned to my friend Van and mentioned to her how it would be so cool if we did this and she was totally into it.

So Van and I have decided to put together the competition that will be pretty much the same as the show, with the prize being incredibly smaller of course. We will start next Monday and perhaps finish on the 31st of December. I don't know what the specifics will be yet until we vote on them this upcoming Thursday. But doesn't that sound like fun? I so want to be the biggest loser! lol

I will most definitely blog here short updates on how this thing develops.

Another new thing is my exposure to Facebook. Yeah people, I finally opened an account this morning! Hard to believe right?

No shots at this time again solely because I am too lazy this minute to run downstairs into our dungeon to the other lap top where I have my photo files-- so sorry... (sorry mom)

'nite y'all!

tgif

AFAP(Army Family Action Plan) conferences have kept me busy for the past 2 days. I should probably say busier since this house is jam-packed of busy bees! I made myself stop, sit, and blog while have a cup of joe this morning.

My highlight of the day this morning will be my visit to the spa. No, no don't start chanting "lucky her" I am not going in for a massage or facial-- people I am FINALLY going in to get my hair done! Oh my, I am so in need of a touch-up, trim, and my ever so glam foils! Yay! With the move and getting this house unpacked, getting in to the salon was way down on the priority list. So today is the day! I am trying a new place out: Jabez Salon and Day Spa it is an Aveda joint so I am hoping for the best.

Did I mention last week that I fell? I can't remember but last Friday Alexys had volley ball practice at 6:30am and while I was walking down the steps of my porch outside, I ate it big time! I fell and I messed up my ankle or the ligaments around it-- couldn't say for sure since I never went in to see the doc. Well, one leg is swollen still and the other has a 6-inch deep cut on my shin. Very attractive, right? Well, today Alexys had 6:30am practice again and I made Frank drive her! My neighbors are on me about going to the doc to get it checked out. I think I may end up going in since I have not gone on a run now for 7 days! I am gaining weight as I type this!

Which brings me to a perfect transition point to mention my new project-- it is in the development stages so I can't say much about it yet. All I can say is that a few of my friends and I are thinking about creating a contest here-- one that mimics the Biggest Loser sounds like fun right?

More to follow later...

book: thumbs up

I finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran last week and I am so glad I read it! This was my book club's September selection and we all gave it 2-thumbs-up. I am not too keen at writing long winded reviews mainly due to time constraints. I am always blogging in a hurry! Having said that, I do want to take a couple of minutes to encourage everyone to pick up this book and read it. It is a story told through the eyes of a child that lost his father on September 11. Okay, that is all I am saying. Read it.

oooh where do i begin...

Hello family and friends... I am so sorry I have been so bad about checking in here. Life in good ol' Kansas isn't as slow-paced as most of us would think. My girly girls are sure keeping me busy! Here is a brief synopsis on the happenings of our lil' clan:

1. Alexys is still very busy with volleyball and swimming. Last Saturday they (school team) had a tournament and they came in 2nd! That is a good thing. They are getting ready for this Saturday's tournament. She also has meet season starting in a couple of weeks so she is putting in many hours in the pool. She is very much settled into her new life. Fabulous.

2. Angelene is learning a lot in swim class. She was introduced to the butterfly this afternoon and she was excited about that! Soccer is also a big hit! She is naturally high-energy and this is very helpful in the sport...She is a little energizer bunny that keeps going and going and going... Fabulous.

3. Alanah going strong in gymnastics although she complaints all the time why she isn't doing soccer and swim lessons. Geesh-- I am only one person!

Frank tries to tag team and help out but he is limited on time as well. He is not only doing the school here but now he decided to earn yet another masters-- since having one isn't enough I guess... lol more power to him. We are all about learning and growing and this is great. I don't do well when people live life idling. So the poor guy has gigantic amounts of homework and reading on top of papers.

Fort Leavenworth offers so much to do. Last night some friends and I went to a Mexican Cooking class hosted by the company that leases the homes to us. Blah blah blah-- long story but you know what I mean. It was pretty cool. They demonstrated the proper techniques to prepare salsa, rice, mole, and tamales. Yes my people, the real McCoy! They also had pan dulce and great margaritas! We had a blast!

So much to say and so little time... Life is calling me off the PC again so come back tomorrow--

HEY BTW people... I really would like to add some of you to my favorite blogs to visit... BUT first you must start one! So c'mon people, give it a try!Tata for now!

soccer in the mud

super-- just great! Yeah, the continual rainfall finally seized this afternoon to a drizzle here and there and soccer practice was not cancelled. Today was Angelene's first soccer practice for the season. Let me just say, this kiddo loves soccer! She was very disappointed by the mere hour that the practice lasted. She said she wanted more hours!

I am very glad and feel very blessed that all three girls are doing activities they enjoy. Alexys apparently likes volleyball after all to her surprise-- of course she also loves swimming. Alanah is loving gymnastics and wishes she could go more often. She is asking for pool time as well. Angelene is doing soccer and swimming and so far so good. Life here here is now on a true roll.

Today I was able to enjoy fellowship at a WOSI meeting; watch Angelene play soccer; and attend a spouses' brief on nutrition. Of course with all of the fillers in between. It was a full day... it was a good day.

game 1

The 9th grade volleyball team had their first game last night. It didn't go as they hoped and I hear that the biggest complaint was playing in a no-A/C gym! The nerve of the school... Keep in mind that Alexys' school has not one, but TWO gyms and well, overall the school is very high-tech and up-to-date. I wont go into a rant about how the kiddos are spoiled by their school's aesthetics because let me tell you-- Alexys' last school had one of those small non-A/C gyms and overall small and old everything! BUT--and a BIG BUT: She loved and loves that little school!

It has been pouring here all day today-- this morning some loud, very loud sirens went off all over post... Was it a tornado watch alert maybe? or was it a flash flood warning? I don't know! I haven't really been around in such weather in a long time! The last time we lived in KS (over 14 years ago) and we heard sirens go off during a storm, we happily opened the door and enjoyed the rain. How were we to know that those loud shrills were a warning to take cover-- tornado watch in effect! Remember people, both Frank and I are Californians-- So.Cali to be exact! No such thing as an earthquake watch/warning siren!

a guilty pleasure

Okay people, we all have them. I already told you all about the show Army Wives but I figured I would share yet another.

So a few months before we left West Point my good friend Lavonne (oooh miss her sooo much!) introduced me to this guilty pleasure. She knows I simply LOVE the whole Anne and king Henry era-- who doesn't right? Well, she told me about a series on Showtime called The Tudors and well, from the very first episode, I was hooked! Oh my is this a good show! So I watched the first season on "on demand" while still in NY.

So last week while going through the channels-- which by the way my hubby insisted on the premium package with all of those channels with movies and such-- well, I discovered that season 2 was already on Showtime's "on demand" and yes, I did-- I admit it, I watched all 20 episodes in 7 days! Last weekend Frank was gone so from 9 to 3am I crammed more than half! Yep-- I sacrificed much needed rest for that darn series. Am I a die-hard fan? Probably not, but I sure love me some Tudors!

in case you were wondering...

what the student housing looks like here, I decided I would post some shots that I took the day that we were waiting for the moving truck to bring our household goods. These shots are from 4 August--

Now keep in mind that these houses were tagged and ready for demolition-- that is until some shortages and housing issues arose and of course the best thing and the easiest thing to do was to put us in these very dated and old houses-- some of which don't have a dishwasher! We do, thank heavens! But we are all paying a whole lot of

money-- and well that is all I am going to say about that.

That swing that Alexys is on is by the house-- as you can see, we have tons and tons of beautiful mature trees. They are simply breathtaking! That playground that Frank and the girls are at is one of many that are near. We have one to our left, one to our right, and yet another behind us. The pool is at the end of the block-- seriously, just feet away!

All in all, we are thankful for our home and our family. We always make the best of everything and we have a good time! The kids all like the schools and they are always busy either with friends or with activities.

As soon as we are done clearing up the patio from boxes, I will take more shots of the kids playing outdoors. With all the boxes and junk laying around, I don't really get motivated to get the camera out! Soon to change, though!

Ta-ta for now!

note to self...

Always, ALWAYS, pack all furniture hardware in one box and travel with mentioned box.

JEESH! What an ordeal it has been with a whole lot of hardware missing. Most of the missing stuff was replaced by frequent visits to Home Depot, but when it comes to the girls' bedroom set, what an ordeal!

Their bunk beds use fancy-looking bolts and screws. They can't easily be found-- as a matter of fact, they can NOT be found! The manufacturer (PJ KIDS) is no longer in business and well, it has been a headache. Being that I have quite the intelligent and resourceful husband, he figured out how to fix the situation. Hence, the girls are now finally sleeping in their own bed!

Now, the dining room table hinges... that's for another day...

Moving is not easy by any means. I am happy to report though that the basement is almost there. I have a feeling that by the weekend, it will be operable and habitable! lol

The patio is something I am dreading. It holds all the stuff that was in temporary storage in NY. It is packed! We plan on using the patio as an outdoor living room since it is closed in and screened all around. We will see...

last from the series

sniff...sniff... These shots will be the last ones I share from our last weekend in the city last month. I need to let go and move on... Deep breath.

It is hard to believe that life is back on track. The girls are in school and things are beginning to get into a groove. Grant it, we still have the basement a total disaster and the patio is still covered by the same 20-something boxes... This week hopefully we will do a little more. This past weekend we opened so many basement boxes that we filled our yard with empty, broken down boxes waiting for the garbage day. I just can't wait to be done! The basement is divided into 3 rooms. One will be the laundry room and an entertainment area for the girls. TV center, a table to craft and their kitchen. The other rooms will be an office/toy room and Frank's bike room. Yes, he actually gets one of those. While some guys long for a "dude" room, he asks for a bike room. I guess I can't blame him, he does have many many of them after all.

Alexys began volleyball practice today. We will see how this goes. She practices till 5 and at 6 she has swim practice till 8. Next month her swimming will double up to 5am practice sessions on top of the other. Busy busy girl! On top of this, she has to maintain her awesome grades-- as you can tell by her schedule, she will be one busy girl.

Alanah began gymnastics today as well. She had a blast. I would too if I had the chance to play on all the cool gymnastics equipment!

Angelene starts swim lessons and soccer shortly. She is asking and asking about doing Girl Scouts. I haven't decided on that. I just don't know... With the family's schedule and all... Oh I almost forgot to mention, Frank decided that he wants another Masters to add to the one he already has. So he will be busy with studying for that on top of studying for his regular load. I for one, contemplated getting a job at the kids' school but I just don't think I will be able to handle it with this family's schedule. If I can't have the evenings to tidy-up, then when will I? I have no choice but to have the day to do such activities. For those of you that know me well (most of you do) you know I can be pretty stubborn about house stuff (although I have backed off a bit because of the space issue--what can a girl do?).

I have been very bad about taking my camera out with me. I will definitely do a better job soon.

**NOTE: Blogger seems to be having issues, so I unable to upload shots today. I will try again tomorrow!

latest book

I just finished reading this book: green chic SAVING THE EARTH IN STYLE by Christie Matheson. It was okay--not great but okay. Do I recommend it? yes, especially for those that aren't too informed about living green. A lot of the info in the book is stuff most of us already are aware of, but it offers some savvy suggestions and alternatives. I like the no preaching style and the fact that the author is not advocating total extremist behaviour. If you want more info, look here.

wow, who knew...

That it rained so much here! Now, we lived in Ft. Riley, KS 15 years ago-- Alexys hails from there after all. But I really don't remember this much rain! And it isn't little droplets, it's gigantic showers! We were outside just now-- the girls with the neighborhood kids riding scooters and bikes while I organized my week's menu. I stepped into the house for one minute and when I came back outside, it was pouring! All the kids of course got drenched. No biggie. It is actually a good thing since now I can stay indoors and start tackling the basement boxes!

I have not downloaded any shots from my camera, so I am going to share some that we took the last weekend we were in NY-- our visit through Central Park... sniff sniff...

(BTW-the girls finally got to see Balto!)

quick update

Ok this has to be fast and short-- I am on a community library PC. My triple play with Time Warner finally got hooked up yesterday but Frank has yet to hook up the PCs and the wireless network is not up and running for me to use the laptop. I would have to use it in the basement standing up since there are about 100 boxes in there. We have yet to tackle the basement!

To make a long, LONG story short (I will give details later) I will just say that we are on day 3 of school-- girls and Frank-- and everything is going smooth. We are 90% done with the 1st and 2nd floor but still have the basement and covered patio to get to. UH!

It has been quite the move, I don't know why it is taking longer to unpack everything!

Today was the 1st day I could get a run in! Yay! This morning was the first day that I didn't have to wait at home all day waiting for some service or repair guy to show up-- how I hate the "9-12" thing!

I hope to be up and running by next week so I can add some photos!

I hope everyone is doing well!

in kansas

Meteor getting some love...





















This is Alanah's Gum-Gum that she loves so much!





















Oh what a trip! Where do I begin...?

• On Sunday the 20th we went to the city for the last time before our departure the following day. We were not done with the final inspection preparations we were in the middle of-- but we said why not? We spent the day at the American Museum & Natural History, a walk through Central Park, and dinner with one of Frank's cycling buddies. We had a fabulous day even though we didn't pull up to the house until after midnight!



• The following morning we got up at 5am to weigh-in the vehicles at the scales, finish cleaning the house, mop, mow and clean the patio-- all before 10am when our inspection was scheduled for. Jeesh... We passed the inspection and we said farewell to our friends and off we went to our first stop in Virginia to visit good friends of ours and Frank's old boss from Ft. Hood during OIF#1's deployment. To make a long story short, all I will say is that 2 hours into the 7 hour trip the Land Rover got a flat!


• We had a wonderful 5 days in Virginia! But on Saturday we were off again to start the 1200 mile drive to Kansas. We decided to stop midpoint to get a room and sleep. The midpoint was Indianapolis, Indiana. OMG! What a mistake to choose this city-- this state! (on this particular weekend, at least). We got into Indianapolis around the midnight hour-- we could not find a room anywhere from Indianapolis and about 200 miles past this city! Apparently there was a huge Nascar event going on this weekend~! So we finally found a room in some random city somewhere in Illinois-- we arrived at 3:30am and left at 9am. Yuk.


• Sunday, we drove the last 500 miles and we finally arrived into Ft. Leavenworth. Tired, hungry and dirty we get a place in the post's lodging.


• Monday we were at the housing office at 7:30-- second in line! We got some keys to look over some homes and we finally agreed upon a home that is not currently available but it is vacant. We put a hold on it with the hopes that it will become available sometime this week. We already scheduled Transportation to deliver our household goods next Monday so let's hope for the best. I also attended all of the school orientations for the girls' schools.


• Tuesday we got a verbal confirmation that most likely the house will be cleared by Wednesday or Thursday-- I hope so because I have been putting down that address as our own, we own it dude! Alexys got enrolled into the 9Th grade. She got all her classes-- Geometry, Biology, the regular core, and her electives she hopes will be Journalism and Choir. She signed up for Volleyball and Track try-outs. That evening while she went to the pool to workout, the swim team coach was there and she got picked up for the team. Good! She doesn't have to go through the tryout next month! The season starts in September so she has 6 weeks to get into tip-top shape!


• Wednesday, today was consumed with the little girls' enrollment. Wow, talk about paperwork! Did I mention how impressive these schools are? At least the actual buildings are very nice-- I can't say much of anything about anything else since school hasn't started, but the actual buildings are very impressive.

empty house

So the house is empty of furniture and boxes. All that remains is our air mattresses and suitcases.

Yesterday was spent on painting the walls back to their original egg shell white-- yuk. We did a whole lot, but we still have the master bedroom and some touch-ups throughout the house. I am so glad we changed our minds about painting the basement as well 3 years ago!

I think that the girls and I may be coming down with a bug. It could simply be our allergies acting up with all the dust we have been around to or it could be exhaustion from the move this week.

Sorry, no time to take pictures and no time to load them here.

BTW, I think I am starting to dislike Subway... ;)

day 1 of move

Really, it is day 1 of packing. The packers arrived right before noon today. They worked very hard up until 6 this evening. They packed-up the basement stuff and some of the dining room items like stemware and such. Tomorrow morning will be an earlier day and hopefully they will get most of the other stuff into boxes. I doubt that they will be able to finish 100% with the packing tomorrow, but we will wait and see.

I realized today that I never photo journal the USMA Class of 2008 Graduation at all! So, I will be including some shots of the big day. It rained a little but it held off until the ceremony ended! Frank swore in several second lieutenants but I don't think I can find any shots of them without the name-- and I can't blur them at the moment since I am short on time. So I will only include random shots for now and maybe later on I can include some other more personal ones.

So now you know why we will miss this place! It is gorgeous, breathtaking-- and this even on a rainy day!

p.s.

I may not be posting much in the next week-- depending at how readily available my stuff is. In any case, just wanted to throw that out. Also, felt I should share this picture as well. This is also from Alexys' stash.

prepping for the move...

Alexys and Chelsie went to Bailey's old house and the new family was moving in already. As you can tell by the boxes...

I can't believe that tomorrow at this time the packers will be putting all of our belonging into boxes! The house is beginning to show the signs of a military family getting ready for the big day when huge moving trucks and people in matching T's come knockin' at our door...

This morning I starting taking down all of our curtains and started bringing all of the over-flow of kitchen items upstairs. I need to make sure that it all gets packed together.

The house is echoing a bit now with the windows being exposed... Tomorrow morning unfortunately the actual formal portion of the move begins. Along with that, one of the girls has a sport's physical tomorrow morning. I am expecting tomorrow to be a very long and draining day.