Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Little gifts from God

Reposted blog entry from October 5, 2007

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On Friday I was telling a friend that the one thing I had wanted to do here in California that we hadn't done was go to the San Diego Zoo.

My husband was scheduled to work overnight shifts this past weekend but at the last minute was given the weekend off. So we hopped in the car and took off for San Diego.

On the way there I was telling my husband about another friend's story. She wanted something that was out of her price range but was there at just the right time when it was clearance and then 50% off. She said she felt like it was a little gift from God.

When we got to the zoo on Monday, we were surprised at the amount of people that were there. Turns out, it happened to be Founder's Day and admission for the zoo was free for the day! We saw the pandas and had a lot of fun. When we were done we took a break at the hotel and then headed over to Sea World. It was the season that they honor those serving in the military making our admission free! We got there just in time for a pet show (trained animals doing tricks) that the kids loved and then got to see the last Shamu show of the day. My husband won a giant dragon at the ring toss too.

It was such a wonderful trip. I told my husband that I felt blessed by it. Like we too had gotten little gifts from God.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Father's Day Post

When I met my husband in college, he was already teaching music in a little private school.  He continued to teach in various public and private schools until he joined the Air Force 7 years later.  He taught different grades at the different schools, and all grades at some of the schools.  He was good at working with kids of all ages and the kids loved him.  He was nominated for Who's Who Among American Teachers by a few different students during those years, and 11 years later many students still track him down to tell him how much they learned from him and how much he impacted their lives.

Obviously he was experienced working with kids.  He was not, however, experienced working with babies.  In the hospital after our first child was born, he was quite nervous about how to handle the seemingly fragile little bundle.  After I finished feeding the baby for the first time, I sat him up on my lap, put my hand firmly under his chin and leaned him forward to pat his back for a burp.  If you've had any experience with new babies, you know that their muscle tone is not well developed yet and his cheeks sagged over my hands.  If you haven't had any experience with babies, you might think what my husband gushed, "Oh my goodness!!  What are you doing??  You're choking him!!"  I laughed.  I did have experience with babies and tried to assure him that this was just one of many ways to burp a baby.  He was not buying it.  He only knew of one way, and if there were more ways, certainly they didn't involve my hand around the baby's neck.  A nurse came in to check our vitals.  My husband quickly pointed out to her what I was doing, sure that she would rush over and show me the proper way.  He was quite surprised when she assured him that it was a perfectly fine way to do the job.

I smile when I think about those first few days.  His protective nature as a father was evident right from the very start.  On the way home from the hospital, he kept making me check 'just to make sure' that the baby was breathing because he wasn't crying.  (He was sleeping!)  It was just a glimpse of what a great father he would be.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Blueberry picking

Reposted blog entry from August 20, 2007

We went blueberry picking on Friday. It was sooo much fun! They gave us little buckets for the berries and straw hats for our heads.
Asha loved getting to pick berries and put them in a bucket. Of course she also loved putting handfuls of dirt and twigs in the bucket too. Daniel picked about one berry from each bush while going from row to row calling us Farmer Mommy and Farmer Daddy. My husband enjoyed sampling all the different flavors -some tart, some sweet- and I loved the hunt for the biggest and bluest.  It was a very memorable family day and we got some nice photos to remember it by. I can't wait to go again!


Thursday, June 7, 2012

In Motion (Part 2)


In 4 weeks we are set to fly out of Osan Air Base, South Korea on a military flight (The Patriot Express) which will stop in Okinawa before arriving in Seattle.  From Seattle we were supposed to take a commercial flight through St. Louis and then Atlanta before arriving at our final destination in Montgomery, Alabama.  The 5 leg trip with 30 or so hours in flight + 3 high-energy, jet-lagged kids makes me stressed just thinking about it!  Since we were last stationed in Hawaii and only one vehicle is authorized here at Osan, our second car is still on Oahu.  The plan was to have it shipped to Alabama in time to be waiting for us when we got there; we would keep using our van here and ship it just before flying back.

About 3 weeks ago, I had what will probably turn out to be the worst idea I have ever had.  Why not have the van shipped to Seattle and drive from there to Alabama?  This is why not.  But I'm a glutton for punishment so we scrambled around frantically trying to get our van shipped ASAP.  We had to get a move on because it can take up to 55 days to go from Seoul, Korea to Seattle, WA and we were only 50 days out.  My poor husband.  For a man who always has a back up plan for his back up plan, trying to change plans that he had already made months ago for our flight and make new plans for driving and then back up plans for in case the van was delayed... If ever there was proof he loved me, this concession is it. :)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012