I would love to say that I had time but the fact is......I don't, well WE don't. Right now Tim is studying and I am taking the first of my last two classes that will finsih my BS:) Want to really be excited but right now I just don't have the time.

More kid quotes

Facebook: "So I asked my daughter about the manners book I had bought her a few years back. I was curious if she had gotten very far with it. She said, Well I did read it but......that book didn't work very good!"

Facebook

Facebook: "Third born has begun a rock business. When asked, 'why pay for rocks when you can just find your own?' 6yr old boy replied, 'Well I thought it would just be easier for people.....you really have to work to dig up these rocks and it gets your hands really dirty.' Mom-'Did you get anybody to buy your rocks?' Boy says,'ALMOST':)"

Stinky Beach

We love this beach. Mack calls it stinky beach, others call it dog beach because they can exercise their four legged friends there. It is a place between Hickam and Pearl. The kids love it there cause they catch crabs and little minnows. As we were walking off the beach from our family photo shoot we were graced with a rainbow. I wonder what Tim is thinking here. It was the day before he left on deployment. Almost to the half way point.

My friend Jenn went through 2 brain surgeries this past week. She had her old shunt taken out and a new one to go in. She is now recovering and doing well. My friend Shane and I have been taking turns being by her side until her mother was able to be here. We were there for six days before mom came.

My kids were awesome and I have great friends who allowed me to do this. Some days the kids went to a friends and other days they stayed home occupying themselves. It is a true testimony to the life skills we have learned as a homeschool family. I told whoever came to sit with them that Sydney could run the house, she just needed someone over 18 to make it all legal.

I didn't have to leave instructions or tell where things were, it just got done. I am truly blessed and grateful to of had the opportunity to serve Jenn while her husband is down range. She is such a great patient and one of the most considerate people I know even under great amounts of pain.

Ashley Lind came to stay with me for a month. While she was here we greatly benefited from her talent in photography. One of my favorite places is a place we call stinky beach. It is a marshy area on Hickam where the kids see tons of sea life.

The Bits!!

The Bits is such a stinker. Today she found her very own hiding place in one of the kitchen cabinets. She really is growing but I hope that she will stay this sweet until her Daddy comes home!

Passover

Passover dinner on Saturday night. My neighbors, the Starr family and another family from church, the Lopez family joined us at our home for what has become an Easter season tradition. Passover Christian Style.

Cole and Ashley played the violin to the tune of "Take My Life and Let it be" as we sang Psalm 113. We ate Lamb chops and ribs, brisket and went through the motions of a traditional seder (as best we could). The children enjoy it, I think their favorite part is when they have to eat the horseradish.

We only took this one picture as we were too busy with guest and food:) Maybe Next Year!

Good Friday

The credit of these pictures goes to Ashley Lind who is staying with me for the next month. She is helping with the children and household duties. Added bonus...she likes to take pictures and needs practice. Such a hardship for me to lend my children. They seem to enjoy it.

Home Sweet Home

We bought one of these in October. I hope we can use it this year for hunting season. Cole is finally old enough that maybe he can go with. I still have Nora running around but last time I went camping with Tim I slept on snow and froze my rear off. This has prompted the purchase of this.

Everytime Tim takes me hunting it just gets more expensive. One year up in Salmon ID I toted my 7mm mauser around. Tim had asked me to help him out and hold his gun for a bit. His Kimber Montana weighed on 6lbs and it felt great. I could walk around in the hills all day with that. So I told him I better have one of those next year. That he supplied. Diamonds, Tim has never been a huge fan of but guns....take your pick.

So this next purchase is to keep me warm. My Hawaiin bones can't handle the chill of ID in early October. Bunks in the back to sleep 4 kids and still room 4 more if we needed it. I cannot wait to have the opportunity to use this. Just don't want to haul it.

I was kicking myself for buying such a long one. One day I was talking to Grandpa Kenneth and telling him I was afraid I had bought one so big that I didn't think I could drive it without Tim. He says, "Well maybe so but when its parked and you have four kids, your going to be happy you bought big!"

My EOD Tech

Everyone wants their picture taken with an EOD Tech. The movie "The Hurt Locker" may have made them known but it is not what makes them famous. They are famous for blowing stuff up and disarming IED's. Most of you all know that I married this man who does this crazy stuff and he is one of the best. The stripes on his shoulders are stacked a little too high and keeps him behind a desk a lot but if I know Tim, he weasels his way outside the wire when he can.

This is Tim's seventh tour. Some of those include Kosovo, Iraq, Jordan, Africa and now Afghanistan. We have always been proud of him and what he does. What is really cute is when the children yell "fire in the hole" from behind the couch when playing without giving it a second thought. They miss their father very much but knows that his job is very important and some body's got to do it.

Miss you Tim. See you when its hunting season.

Hawaii

Slow down Nora!

Nora loves the water. Most of my time is spent trying to keep her from getting blasted by a wave. I think by the time I can sit and enjoy a book on the ocean, Tim will have me so far away from an ocean it won't matter. I will have to settle for a babbling brook. That will be ok too:)

Normal

What is normal. I thought I was normal but am starting to think I am abnormal. Without airing dirty laundry I just want to say that my eyes are being opened to others lives. I don't want to know these things but they keep coming at me. How people live, what they think is good and bad/right and wrong. It is heartbreaking to know some of the turmoil people in the military deal with on regular basis on top the average stress that just naturally comes with military life.

I am thankful each day for my husband and family. No we are not perfect but believe that God keeps up from falling off the deep end. Do we screw up?....sure we do, however when we put our faith in Christ, we trust him to sustain us.

What ever happened to the people who stood by you, told you that you were stupid when you needed to hear it. Our beliefs have become so vast that we have no common ground with others so when things do happen that are bad in our eyes, we just say to ourselves "well they don't believe or hold that value so who I am to butt in their lives".

Number 7

This will make Tim's seventh deployment. Cole and I have endured all of them together. This is Nora's first, it is hard to see her wonder where her Daddy is and learn that the only place she can find him is on the phone or computer slide show.

We are into our second week of Tim's 7mth deployment. He has not yet reached his destination, he is still in training. These next few days he gets to sleep in a hotel instead of bunking in a shack with 8 other guys.

So far we are all alive but have been better health wise. It started with fevers and viruses the day after Tim had left and coughs and runny noses continue to linger. My car battery has died, and the computer monitor went out, so far these are the only disasters. I have several deployment theories. 1. It takes 2 weeks to get into a new groove. 2. Things will break when they leave. I don't know why, I just know it happens.

The good things are that we do have more time to do school, watch the Olympics, and read. The weeks that build up to a deployment are really stressful. We are cramming in all the "lasts". Last dinner with friends for a while, last phone calls, last sit down and explain how the bills go, last trips to the BX to pick up socks, underwear, etc....It can be exhausting but it must be.

Tim lost his camera and something else (I don't know what it is). Pray that he finds these. He was going to take a picture for Nora to have a daddy doll made but can't.

Nora asks everyday about her Daddy. She now has a laminated pic of him and her to tote around. Cole is his normal self who keeps his thoughts between him and him, Sydney has pitched in like she always does and is Nora's second mother.

Mack had the most emotions of all. It hit him the night before Tim left and he stayed close to Tim for the rest of the time. Mack even gave Tim every bit of money out of his piggy bank. Tim assured Mack that he didn't need any money and wanted him to keep it to buy an ice cream one day.

Now that the sickness is subsiding and the silence of Dad not coming through the door no longer seems strange we are trying to keep ourselves busy. I do have my college classes to keep me busy and I am grateful when Tim returns I will be down to 2 maybe 3 classes left in finishing my BS. Nora and Mack have a new sand/water table to play with and the older two are trying to raise tadpole for a science projects. I hope they don't die before they have a chance to grow legs!