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Creep

I took a bunch of pictures of the smoke creeping up through the trees. There is something calming about watching the lazy smoke twist and twirl in the wind. It's beautiful.

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True love! Happy Birthday Laurel!!!

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Nature

While doing yard work we found this cute little guy.  Miah begged to be able to keep him...

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Light post

One of Jay's suggestions...I'm not sure what he had in mind, but the other day while we were at the antique store I saw this oddity.  Do you see what the problem is?  It's the same way throughout the entire parking lot.  What were they thinking?

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What did you have for lunch?

Greek Pizza!  Sausage, feta cheese, onion, kalamata olives in pizza crust.  Yum!

Idle Wednesday

Laurel and her new beret.

Miah and Laurel went to Weight Watchers with me yesterday.  Miah dressed up her American Girl Doll, Megen, and dressed herself to match.  Both of them were wearing berets that I made, which garnered so many compliments that Laurel asked me to make her one as well.  So that's what I did last night while we were watching tv.
I love WW's.  And the people there.  Anita, the meeting leader, is awesome.  She made the girls and even Megen a name tag, just like everyone else.  She is the reason the girls love to go to the meetings so much.  I'm really going to miss this particular meeting when we leave Ga.

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Friendship

Jay, reading his new kindle (Greatest birthday present ever he says) and Dobby, taking advantage of Jay's reclined legs.  Like the Anti gravity chair?  Those are the new awesomeness for the back porch.  They are the best lawn chairs I've ever sat in.  Let's see if this demonstrates exactly what I mean.  When this chair isn't on the back porch, it has been camped out in the front room, in front of the tv.  Jay is obsessed with his new "recliner".  I think it's hysterical, but I get it.

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"Unexpected"

One of the pipes in our yard broke.  Thankfully it was the main water pipe, and not the one we are responsible for.  The poor kids missed all the excitement, so I took pictures for them.

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Permanent

What in the world makes someone love their state so much that they are willing to tattoo it's initial on their body?  Is this for the ball team?  I know I've been here for two years, but I still can't tell you what the name of the team is, or what sport they play.  I can tell you that people here make the Tennessee Titans fans, and the Kentucky Wildcats fans look tame.  I have never personally seen a "KY" tattoo.  Have you? 

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Last Day of School

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"What not to wear"

You'd think that the people right behind her would tell her she had an issue....but they didn't!  I would have, except it would have made a big scene to get up and say something. Yay for zoom, that's all I can say.  I know, I know, this is really tasteless, but I couldn't help myself.  Just this once.

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Something I wish I could do.

This chick was sitting on stage while a high school band played their music, and about a hundred people were watching her.  She acted as if it were just another day, and seemingly unselfconsciously painted away.

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Proud Daddy!  And Mama!

I Like the Signature on this Letter So Much More than on the Last!!

Laurel earned the President's Award for Educational Excellence, and the Advanced Math Award, and a certificate to acknowledge her GPA.  The band played after the ceremony and they sounded great.  Finally they got to play something interesting!  Journey! 
Laurel, we are so proud of you.  I dare you to top yourself in High School.  I can't wait to see what you will do!

Summertime, and the Kids are Getting Scheduled this Time!

They're raining on our parade! (BFE, Georgia)

It's official.  We are not getting a vacation this summer.  The Army has decided that Jay hasn't suffered enough...so ISP (The Funeral detail) is looking like a possibility.  I will refrain from being as rude about it as I'd like to.  For now.  This means that we will not be able to do any of the things we planned to do.  No coming home, no hanging out at Sheila's, no week long trip to Savannah.  @$(%&@()**!!!
What we are going to do instead...well, I'm not sure the kids like so much.  I have a week long plan to scrub the house from bottom to top, in great detail.  We will continue the spotlessness by revisiting every room for ten minutes each every day and doing quick cleanups.  It works, so now the kids are going to do it with me.  I've decided that we are going to all get up at the same time, eat breakfast together, get to cleaning (which after the first week will only take 40 minutes for the entire house, plus dishes and laundry) Then we will spend an hour reading (Miah's challenge) then an hour outside (Laurel's challenge) then we will eat lunch, and find some adventure.  We have some quick day trips planned, all of which are educational.  We are going to TRY to get Jay a four day weekend (Which he is owed from way back when he re-upped) and go to Gatlinburg to camp in the park.  We might also TRY to see Savannah, but probably not.  The kids are going to get to go to WW's every week, which they are happy about, and they are going to help me with the Idle Wednesday and 365 Days of Pictures posts.  Hopefully this idea of mine will keep us from rotting away inside the house all summer.  I hate the idea of wasting that much time. I'm hopeful that starting the summer off with the cleaning project will push them to keep with the schedule.  We'll see.

Idle Wednesday

This time, the whole family helped with this project. 

Miah kept sticking her tummy out.

With the tummy poking out, it looks like she has no booty. 

From the top.

The bottom, neck  and arm openings are finished with cardboard, after stuffing the whole thing with paper. Then the entire thing is wrapped in another layer of tape.

This is Miah's torso, made by wrapping duct tape around her (she was first covered with a trash bag so the tape wouldn't stick to her.) It was a lot of fun, all of us laughing and joking around, but Miah started to get a little over heated.  The poor kid was almost in a panic by the time I got it off of her. 
The idea being that now I can make shirts and dresses for Miah, without having to have her stand still while I fit them.  Miah is not very good at stillness.  The only reason we were able to do this at all was that she could spin in circles while we placed the tape.  I plan to collect enough Sunday funny papers so that I can decoupage Miah's figure. We all thought that would be a fitting finish.  If you happen to have some laying around, I'd love to take them off your hands.
Laurel wants to get one done of her too, but I have to get more tape! 

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The Finished Product, which won first prize and a hundred dollars for the school's art program.

We spent seven hours in the sun, got sunburned, but it was worth it.

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Something Lost (Jay's suggestion)

At the Art Fair...Some poor kiddo!  My camera is so awesome, that you can actually read the label on the balloon, from a couple of hundred feet away.

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"Light"

I love the back corner of our backyard.  It's close to the creek, the vines grow like crazy, and there are a bunch of trees on that side.  If it were a little more closed in by plants on the neighbor's side, it could almost be a hideaway.
I like to go back there with my camera in the afternoon, when the sun is mid-sky.  The shadows of the leaves form beautiful patterns on the ground, and with the sound of flowing water, it's so peaceful.

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Neighbors, I have some!

This guy is the only other person I ever see in the neighborhood.  Even from this far away, he waves if he sees me.  That's nice.  That's about as much contact as I'd care for.  You never know who you might get stuck with if you try to make friends with the next door neighbors!  Now that he's finally out planting, I know I'm safe to do so myself.  This year I'm sticking to herbs though.  I'm done trying to make actual vegetables grow out of this awful soil.

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Violet

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Indigo-ish 

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Blue (Laurel)

Thursday's Thoughts

Not quite a revival of the weekly post, but I had to get the following off my chest:

Judge not lest ye be judged.

With all the hubbub lately about the upcoming repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, there have been a few discussions at work today about "GBLs" (Gays, Bisexuals, and Lesbians {this is the new "friendly" term}) in the military. I just could not sit on today's discussion without sharing it. When the subject turned to housing "GBLs" on post one person actual had the gall to ask about what I would say to the "good christian family" that was force to live next door to the gay couple. I told the speaker that I cared no more for the "good christian family" than I did for a "good muslim family," a "good wiccan family," or a "good athiest family." I feel the need to extend my point here for you all to argue about. Most importantly I don't expect you to live by my ethics and morals in your house so what makes you think that just because you have a rule written in Deuteronomy that I have to follow it weather I believe in it or not? But almost as importantly, just because someone doesn't choose to follow that one rule does not necessarily mean that they are not a "good christian." At least they aren't as likely to be running around casting the first stone. The real question here has to be, however, when did this become a christian army? Last I remember I swore to defend the constitution, not the bible.

Idle Wednesday

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Green

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The Best Mother's Day

Laurel's stone.

Miah's pearl.

Miah's new pool.  She's so excited!

Yesterday was a great day.  We got up early and Jay made pancakes, of course, because it was Sunday.  We watched "I love Lucy" which is Miah's new obsession.  I really wanted to get the back yard back to yard status, rather than jungle, so we mowed, raked, cleaned, and burnt leaves.  Miah and I cleaned out the-sand pit-once garden area.  Laurel didn't want to do the work, so she doesn't get to swim.  Miah REALLY wanted the pool, so she was on her knees plucking weeds out of the sand, and then later went to town with the rake.  She's so excited to get into the pool after school that she may explode in class.
After we cleaned up, we drove around town trying to find a restaurant that wasn't stuffed to the gills with crazy people.  It didn't occur to me that Sunday was an all around bad day to go out, but it was too late by then, so we braved the crowds.  We actually found a really nice Chinese place that was not very crowded.  We paused for a minute, wondering if the lack of crowd meant that the place was bad...but we took a chance because the place is off the beaten path a bit.  It turned out to be a good bet.  Minus the ass a table away who thought he had to yell into his blue tooth, it was nice.  We made a joke out of the jerk, Jay repeating everything he said out loud, and me staring a hole into the back of his head and making funny faces.  The guy turned around a couple of times, and it was hilarious.
After lunch we headed over to the theater, where we saw "Something Borrowed".  We loved it.  Laugh-out-loud funny.  We weren't very happy about the ending, but there is a sequel to the book (we haven't read the two books yet, but after seeing the movie we will be.  I already bought them on my kindle at half price) so we are hoping that things pan out the way we would like them to.
We stopped by Target to pick up a pool, and while we were driving Jay crazy by stopping every few minutes to ogle something on a shelf, he got ahead of us a bit in the shampoo aisle.  The girls and I thought it would be funny to evade him for a while.  This included sticking Miah's head out at the end of the aisle to spy, running like crazy to the next one, and giggling.  We almost ran into this older gentleman twice, making him giggle too.  He later saw Jay, took pity on him, and told on us.  Rotten luck!  It was hysterical though.  I had been peeking at Jay at the end of one aisle, and he was making funny gestures, looking around, and throwing his arms up in frustration.  Then when he wasn't looking we ran up behind him to ninja him, but he turned around.  It still makes me laugh.
After that we went home, set up the pool, read on the back porch for a while, watched Bones from this week, and went to bed.  Jay got to stay up a little bit and read because he got a break on going to PT this morning since he worked two doubles at the end of last week.  This means he got to sleep in till 6:30 this morning.  Three and a half extra hours of sleep!
I couldn't have had a better day.  Jay bought me two Pandora beads for my bracelet, one for Laurel, and one for Miah.  He was all excited about the Pandora store at the mall here, and insists that I must go see it.  Apparently it's full of beads and jewelry, and it's beautiful.  I told him that it would be hard for me to leave the store without something, and he said, "Just tell yourself you can only have one bead, and you'll be okay."  Is he nuts!?

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Orange