Jackson Hole

Today I decided to take the boys and Mom for a drive to Swan Valley, Palasaides resivoir to see all the beautiful foliage, we got up there and it was spectacluar! I took about 50 pictures in all. The boys loved it, and Matthew really thought the trees and water was amazing. We pulled off a few times and had little photo ops, and then went on,,....and on...and on...and finaly we realized we were practicaly in Jackson Hole, so we just kept on going. The boys thought the Antler arches at the park were cool, and Mom was a lot of fun. She got down in the leaves and let them cover her from head to toe and then did each boy in turn. We had to get some dinner since we weren't going to get home before 9pm and with school tomorrow we ate at Village Inn. EW! For being in a WESTERN town I only had non English speaking help, a Bosnian Host, Russian Waiter, and a cook that somehow got lost in the translation..lol...becuase our food was ...interesting and the service was funny. The poor waiter was really trying hard to understand the order, he finaly ALMOST got it right but I decided just to smile and nod and leave it be. Good news, Cody FINALLY learned how to tie his shoes! THANKS AUNT MANDA! Jon and I have been trying for years to get him motivated to do it without being forced to sit and try, and finally Manda got him to do it! We tried the two different methods multiple times and he just didn't want to do it, it just seemed an insurmountable task, but today he just ploped on down, tied it and was all smiles, it wasn't perfect, and didn't stay, but he was willing to retie them over and over and over! WOHOOO!

We headed on home and the drive back in the dark with three tired kids was not as fun as the way up but We loved it. Jon I wish you could have been there! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Finally moved in

So the last blog I wrote was about us MOVING tooooo Idaho..well, here we are. We have successfully moved into a rental house in the new edition of Cloverdale. We got here and scared Mom, Amy, Ross, Dave, and Melissa to death. We were hideing up the stairs in the dark at the church where Dan and Manda were have Jaxen blessed. Dan had them all wait at the bottom and said there was a surprise. Mikey and Cody went bounding down the stairs and Mom was shaking, it was fun. No one had a clue we were coming at all.
Mom has been such a trooper with helping us out with babysitting every other night almost. Between errand running, setting up house, and trying to get in a few dates here and there. She watched all three boys and Jupiter over the weekend so Jon and I could escape and go to the destinations inn for two nights, this time while NOT barfing..lol. As we did last time in December. At $200.00 a night, that was the most expensive toilet I have ever soiled. But it was a wonderful weekend. We had chinese take out and walked around downtown shopping, skipping off to movies whenever we wanted too and purchased a dvd camcorder so we can make home movies to send to Jon when he is in Iraq.

The next few days were a frenzy of unpacking, decorating and whirlwind shopping trips to outfit a home yet again, it is amazing how many things you had that may have worked in a previous house that either don't work or the movers have broken or stolen. Which is why there are no pictures, sorry folks.
Jon was amazing~!!! I had that man running ragged helping me get a home ready so I wouldn't have to do it on my own after he left. He is really such an amazing husband and Father. He took each boy out on two Father son nights seperatly. The boys loved having one on one time with him.
We had only two days out of almost three weeks when we were home without someone there visting or playing games, so much fun.

Well today was the day. We've been dreading it for weeks now . The boys and I kept bursting into tears on and off all week. Last night we went on our last date for a few months. If we are lucky he will get leave for 4 days in October or November so that will be awesome!
He packed his things and we snuggled and fell asleep holding hands. We spent the morning just trying to hold it together and then spent an hour and a half at the IF airport waiting for hi flight. I did really well right until the last second..lol...typical. The boys each broken down and were clawing at him, which tore him apart and so then he and I were gonners. We came home and fortunatly have had plenty to occupy our minds. Danny and Manda are moving into the basement for a while to help take care of me ( well, more to put Jon's mind at ease) and to save a little money, hey man why not we have the room and we get along really well! So I cleaned house and did laundry until there wasn't anything left to do and luckily they called to say they were moving in stuff today so PHEW! something to do! I am so gratefull that Jon is able to call me, so in between each layover, Just knowing I can hear his voice is What I need.
Well it's dinner time and I better get cracking!

flight of the bumblebee

that's the song that hasn't left my head all day! Talk about a whirlwind day. For those of you who don't already know, Jon will be deploying AGAIN..lol..In September some time. Yes, I know you are all thinking, "But he just got back!". And you would be right. He did just get back, not to mention we just moved exactly 44 days ago and literally unpacked our last few boxes a week or so ago, and yet we are gone! We found out only last week that Jon is selected to deploy again. In light of his speedy with drawl he has decided that we should move back to Idaho for the deployment in case my health declines again. This is a secret to my family at least, and seeing as only Danny knows we are coming ( well, we had to have someone go look at rental houses for us now didn't we?!?!?) and Kristy, but she is now in South Carolina and sworn to secrecy. Amy and David and Mom (obviously) never read our blog so ha....Danny set it up so that he is having his son Jaxen blessed on Saturday at Mom's Ward and we are going to show up and surprise them, hopefully not so much so as to make Mom have a heart attack.
So all day today has been packing the boys clothes, doing all the laundry over and over again ( I have three boys and husband in the Army who literally has to wear three outfits a day not including the swim trunks for the pool and the towels that go with that), cleaning out toy bins, dusting everything in sight, taking paintings off walls and stacking all the pots, pans and dishes as to make it faster for the packers tomorrow morning. Making last minute stops to the store to get road necessities and not to mention all the hullabaloo it takes to get signed out off post and signing your kids out of school on short notice. And since this is all jammed together and probably disease ridden with my grammatical mistakes you will have likely guessed that YES I AM ALL WARM AND FUZZY with "Le Percocett" ( ah thank you Dr. Llundell) my back is constantly giving me grieve and the meds near bed time ease my suffering just enough to get me off the sleep.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...back to the song....haha "flight of the bumblebee" That is a nutshell has been my day, discombobulated and loco! Oh goodie we are off to Idaho! I'll post pictures of the house we are renting in a later blog but for now Jon and I are sneaking off for our last moonlight swim! Nightie Night!

Jumping on the band wagon

Well, we have finally decided to jump on the band wagon and make a blog that everyone has access too. As many of you know we do both have "blog spots" on Myspace, but some other people don't have it, and you can't read anything on there without an account, so to be nice....

Many of my sister in laws and friends have blogs and frankly with as often as we move and have new information, we find this the easiest way to disperse it.

As most of you know we have just moved to Mexico. Well...as good as...lol... we are literally 15 minutes from the border and as far as the way the buildings and surrounding landscape and locals, we might as well be in Mexico, but we have moved back to Sierra Vista, Arizona. YUCK! The area just sucks! There is no grass, except at the local park, which is all fine and dandy except it's infested with fire ants, harvester ants, and scorpions. With the crazy heat the park equipment tends to be so hot your kids don't even want to play unless it's really early in the morning or really late at night, needless to say we don't go often. We do have a really cool wave pool with an island theme and two wicked water slides, so when we want a change from the pool at the house we go there, and the kids LOVE it...that includes the biggest kid of them all.... JON..hehe.

Jon is still on leave which has been so nice having him home to move us in and help unpack and just have " AT HOME" vacation time. Every time we have vacation someone in our family is having some activity that requires our attendance, so our vacations tend to be 6 day road trips and sleeping on couches and air mattresses. Obviously not my favorite way to spend a "vacation". So this is the first time we have just spent a few weeks at home as just "us". It has been wonderful.

We have spent the last few weeks going to the library almost every other day. Cody has discovered a GREAT set of books that anyone with kids 5th grade and down to about 3 will love. "Horace Splattley and the Cup Caked Crusader" . There are at least 6 of them. So far we have read "Horace Splattley the Cup Caked Crusader and the Invasion of the Shag Carpet Creature" and have moved on to "Horace Splattley the Cup Caked Crusader and the Pink DoDo Bird Balloons" by Lawrence David. They are so funny! My whole family has been rolling at the hilarious characters and the colorful writing. I have been able to sit and read "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Seabold, SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOODDDD!!! Of course "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" LOVED IT, and am currently working on "The Nanny Diaries" by Emma Mclaughlin & Nicola Kraus, yet again. I have read it a few times before but since the movie will be coming out next month (starring Scarlett Johanson whom I love!) I am reading it again. I loved this book the first time I read it and love it again and again. Other than reading and swimming we have a pretty boring existence right now, but I am loving all this down time. We have met a nice family just two houses down, which around here is two football fields away, who have two children, a boy and a girl the general ages of our boys and they have already had a play date! THANK HEAVENS for lovely neighbors who give you the first break from your kids in a month! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Jon's school starts on the 5th and school for Mikey and Cody start on the 8th, so within two weeks the house will quiet down and Matthew and I will be back to our normal schedule. Keeping a house up is 10x easier during the school year than during the summer! Or maybe it just seems that way because you get to see it remain clean for at least 6 hours while they are at school before they come home and set off a nuclear blast throughout the house.

Well, it's off to do the never ending cycle of laundry, put the little imp down for a nap, and call the pool guys to come and take care of the chemical levels in this bad boy, because there is no way we are messing with it! Too much of this and not enough of that can make kids really sick and I don't want that! Welcome to our blog! Hooah! It's an Army thing. *wink*

Rachael