Lessons From A Six Year Old

 "Never, ever blow in a dog's face," says Joy.  Because if you do, even if it is a cute face like this one...

...this can happen.

It's just a tiny but deep slash above her lip.  But, I think it is a lesson learned for Joy.  The exact thing happened to Jack when he was three years old, messing with sleeping dog, Millie.  Except, Jack got nipped on the eye lid.  It could have been much worse. 

Look at those jowls.  They are amazingly large, don't you think?  You could hide things in there.

Sickness Time

We've had a run of sickness at our house.  It started off shortly before Thanksgiving with Joy getting a terrible cold.  Eva then became ill.  Thanksgiving night, I got a sore throat.  It made its rounds with everyone in our house.  Fortunately, Seth and Mike left on Sunday, but Mike came home Wednesday evening with the sickness.  Nine days later, we are all on the mend, although I am still sick.  I just don't feel as badly.  I'm hoarse, stuffy nosed, with a cough.  Eva told me I sound like Phyllis Diller.  If you know who she is, you know I'm in bad shape.  Actually, Eva didn't say Phyllis Diller.  She just told me I sounded like the Ant in A Bug's Life, who is the old lady.

So, we decided to tackle the Christmas decorations today.  It took us over 2 hours without Jordan's help this year.  I sure miss her!!!  Not only did I have to decorate the tree, I'll have to bake all those cookies!!  I'm sure there won't be as many, and they won't be as good.  Somehow they always taste better when someone else makes them.

The finished product, Christmas Tree 2012.

By the time Ivy and I finished decorating the tree, the rest of the decorators decided they needed a break.

Ivy and Jack were only hit slightly with the big sickness.  I heard only a couple days worth of sniffles and coughs from them.

My Life Lately

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind with Jordan and Seth in and out of our house.  I miss my daughter a lot.  I'm so thankful for I phones.  It was kind of fun watching her pack and get ready for her departure.

Gotta love the shine!  Who would have thought my girly girl would wear combat boots?

She has not been too busy in Hawaii lately because her first week there was Thanksgiving week.  She met some new friends has been out and about teasing me with pictures from her phone.

 Marine base.

Some ugly beach she went to....

Seth came home for Thanksgiving and gave Eva some camo face paint.  What an honor to actually have her face all smeared with green, black, and brown stuff.  She was quite happy about her new treasure.

My niece, Violet, got the first paint job by her big cousin, Seth.

Seth stayed busy with friends and family, and Mike took him back to base on Sunday.  He has to apply for an updated p@ssport.  It is funny to see how the boy has grown up in the last seven years.  He's still got that same militaristic look about him, doesn't he?  If you notice...he was wearing green then, as well as green now.

And this morning, I decided to torture Joy with a nutritious breakfast.  She was not too happy about it at all.  She managed to down 80% of her meal, though, which is great!

It's 9:23, and I need to get started with some school.  At the age of 6, it takes Joy an hour to brush her teeth, make up the bed, and get dressed.  The word "quickly" is not in her vocabulary.  I need to encourage her to get moving.  Have a great day!

Her Departure, His Arrival

Jordan's two weeks home flew by way too quickly.  It was so good to have her home, staying in her room, hearing her footsteps coming up the stairs, hearing her say "Mom" every single day.  We took her to the airport this morning.  Right now she is on her last leg of her destination.  She is looking forward to starting her new job, learning about a new place, meeting new people.  I can't wait to hear from her once she gets all settled in.

Last week, we dropped her car off so it can be shipped to Hawaii.  Then, we all headed to Seth's graduation from infantry training in North Carolina.  We were all together once again after six months.  It was so amazing to look inside our vehicle and see all six of our children.

The Christmas decorations were already up at the windy beach.

These were the scenes in our hotel room after we picked up Seth.  He had a few hours of liberty on Thursday evening before graduation the following morning.

 My son is somewhere in this crowd of Marines.

  Jordan and Seth after graduation.

This was Seth's home for the last two months.  He was very glad to be moving to a new place to learn his new job.  We found out that Seth will be home for Thanksgiving!  But, I'm sad I won't have my daughter home to share brussell sprouts with next week.

Eating Habits

She won't eat PBJ and apples for lunch....

...but for some reason Joy has no problem downing cooked cabbage for breakfast!  I love her.

Oops

I gave Jordan the job of cutting Jack's hair while I was vacuuming.  Jack likes his hair cut on #1 of the clippers.  She was doing fine, so she says, when she came and asked me to finish up around his ears.  So, I grabbed the clippers and started shaving his head.  Apparently, Jordan had already taken off the #1 and, it was not set with any attachments at all!  I thought something seemed amiss when I started cutting.

He wasn't too upset about my our mistake.  By Sunday his hair will have grown enough to not see his scalp.  I'm not a fan of the look, though.  Jack is not much into the latest hairstyles; it's a good thing considering we butchered him.

On another note...I found out tonight that Joy named her cat Lucifer.  It's a stuffed animal, but still.  Before you think we are demon worshipers around here, I figured out why she did that.  Any guesses?  Cinderella, of course.

We're talking about a new name for her stuffed cat.