Fabulous Army Life

I am fascinated by the way my brain protects me.  In true survival fashion, it completely forgets deployments about four months after Hubby returns.  Really.  Like childbirth ... you don't remember the pain so you can convince yourself to go through it again ... I think that happens with deployment for me, too ... although my memory of childbirth was pretty clear when I got ready to deliver my second child and I was equally terrified ... but I digress.  Hubby got home from his last deployment in June.  We're 9+ months into 'Dwell Time' and I can hardly remember the gut-wrenching pain of him being gone, and gone to combat zone to boot.  We're in our 'new' normal right now ... calling from work, planning lunch dates, attending kids events ... he's even coaching two sports teams for our kids right now.  My brain has completely erased the concept of deployment; or so I thought. Hubby was asked to speak about life in Iraq to a local DAR group next week....

If you're like me, you're already thinking about how to fill those long summer days with fun stuff for kids.  In this post, I want to share one of my all-time favorite things for my kids ... ever.  We call it Cousin Camp! For the past several summers, all of the cousins on my husband's side of the family have gotten together for a fun-filled "Cousin Camp."  Eight kids ranging in age from four to ten, all in one house for one week of super-crazy, mega-messy fun!  Hubby's sister teaches private swimming lessons so once we have all the kiddos signed up in their lesson slots, we start planning the fun! The last time we were all together we planned "Messy Week" ... five days of the craziest, messiest fun we could think of.  Here are some highlights: Color Me Happy At a cousin's baseball game, we let those in the audience draw on themselves -- and others -- with colored ink pens.  They had a blast drawing pictures, writing notes, and copying tatto...

Okay, I'm a moderate sports fan; not fanatical, not disinterested, but somewhere in between. I much prefer watching a game where I have some knowledge or interest in the team and/or players (unlike Hubby who really could watch any game of any sport and derive pleasure from the experience). Well, my alma mater is in the Elite Eight of "March Madness" and it's been great fun cheering them on. We'll gather around the television again tomorrow afternoon as the Baylor Bears take on the Blue Devils of Duke University.  If you're currently unaffiliated, please feel free to cheer on my Bears! For a quick run-down of how the season has gone for Baylor, here is a short article from the " Baylor Proud " website:   2010 Men’s hoops reaches Elite Eight Last year this time, we were writing about the Baylor men’s basketball team reaching the NIT Final Four and the excitement of playing at Madison Square Garden. Fast forward 12 months, and the Bears are one ...

Okay, okay.  I promise to stop posting about Texas so much ... it's just that with travelling for Spring Break, we kept finding cute signs and sayings along the way.  Here are a few more of my favorites! You know you're in Texas when ... It is the middle of winter and the AC is running. Mosquitos are biting at Christmas. Every other block there is either an adult novelty toy store, BBQ restaurant, dollar store, or church. Saying "Merry Christmas" is the standard greeting in December (not "Happy Holidays"). While driving along, every fifth sign or so has a Texas flag or "Texas" in the name of the store. You've gotten a sunburn while driving. You automatically wave at those you pass. A truck or combine has pulled to the right shoulder for you so you could pass. A building has three huge flag poles several stories high, with one USA flag and two Texas flags. It's bright, sunny, short sleeve weather one day, and it's snowing the ...

As a Mom, I've tried all the tricks to encourage my kids to choose healthy foods. A couple of things that I've discovered in the process are: ONE:  They are more enthusiastic when they take part in the planning and/or preparing process. TWO:  A little creativity goes a long way in making food fun to eat! Here are a couple of fun and easy breakfast ideas that my kids really enjoy. SMILEY FACE BREAKFAST This super-simple breakfast is a slice of turkey bacon as the smile, two small crescent rolls as eyes, and two gummy vitamins as pupils in the eyes. Variations in our house include a boiled egg or strawberry nose, blueberry 'pupils,'  and shredded cheddar hair. GREEN EGGS AND HAM This super-fun breakfast was inspired by Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham." This could be a simple way to introduce the book or, as we did, a really fun St. Patrick's Day breakfast! The breakfast consists of a slice of ham and scrambled eggs (both tinted green with food...

Spring has sprung in central Texas!  We're seeing bluebonnets sprout up all over our area and are enjoying the warmer weather ... biking, playing outside, walking with the puppies, and enjoying some fun nature crafts.  I wanted to share this fun activity we enjoy when the weather is nice outside.  We've taken this to the neighborhood park, on an outdoor hike, and to trips to the lake. Materials Needed: thick paper plates (we use Chinet) white school glue (we use Elmer's) We tell the kids they are making a "Nature Plate" to show off all of the wonderful parts of nature.  The only rules?  You have to gather and place one item at a time and you can only fill one plate.  Easy, right? We start by setting out their plates and filling it with white school glue.  Then the kids take off in to the great outdoors to collect the items they want to place on their Nature Plate. Because they can only choose one item at a time, they tend to use a littl...