So Many Things to Write About……..

I’ll start with the flood

People often ask me why (and sometimes, how) I get up at 4:15 am. I always give a rundown of what my morning consists of; checking the computer, answering emails, blogging, writing the Morning Memo, making the coffee, starting a load of laundry, making the school lunches and taking a shower. All of these things being done before the family is up, make for an easier and smoother day. But, from time to time, I cut myself some slack and I hit the alarm and give myself a little extra time in bed. Yesterday was one of those, rare, days. Because of my snooze time, I didn’t have time to shower until after the kids had gone off to school and the little ones were settled with breakfast and a movie. When I came out of the shower and went to check on things, I was instantly reminded of why getting up at 4:15 is necessary! Gabi and Luke-Xavier had decided to have a tea party while I was busy. This meant dragging out the plastic tea set, pulling a chair into the kitchen, filling the cups and tea pot with water and carrying them to the front room. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow they aimed the faucet in such a way that the whole kitchen floor was covered in water. All I could really do was sigh and grab some towels. The floor was in need of a washing anyway. So there you have it, a really good example of why 4:15 am and I are friends.
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The kids have begun their trek home for Christmas. Kateri arrived Wednesday night and will be here for a month. JJ gets in next Friday. Even though there are more bodies in this little space, it’s more peaceful when everyone is together. Kateri does a really good job of picking up the balls that fall as I juggle. I suppose it’s because she’s the oldest and watched as I did everything, so she has a kind of intuitiveness about how it should all be done. No matter what it is, I’m happy for this time!
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A full calendar can sometimes equal an empty brain!

I’ve had events every night for several nights. It’s the time of year when everyone is having parties and wanting to gather people together. I live by my calendar and if things aren’t written down, they simply don’t happen. BUT on the flip side, if they ARE written down, you better believe I’ll be there. Even if I wrote down an event that I have nothing to do with!

That’s right, the other night I got dressed, grabbed the gift I had purchased and wrapped and left for a military spouse function. When I arrived, I recognized a few faces, but quickly realized that something, just wasn’t right. Clay is in the flight community and I had (somehow) written down an event for the surface community. Ugh! At least I had a gift! I spent a few minutes saying hello to the people I knew, meeting a couple of new people and then slipping out the back door. I’ll be double-checking my calendar from now on!
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Speaking of the calendar and events-

Each month I set up a coffee for the Naval Officers Spouse Club (NOSC) in the coastal area. This gives me a large area and many coffee shops to choose from. I usually pick some place close to the water because it’s beautiful and I have a particular love for the way the ocean smells and feels and if I can set up a social event that has anything to do with being near the water, I’m going with it! So, we usually meet at little coffee shops that have the ocean in the background. But this month I took the opportunity to have everyone taste some amazing gelato, have some coffee and meet some great people. Chuao is a local chocolatier who presents fresh and interesting flavor combinations in their chocolates and their gelato flavors are just as interesting and intriguing. I set up a tasting for the NOSC and we were not disappointed! We learned a little about how gelato and sorbet are created and about how the flavors were put together. It was great to be able to try each of the flavors but my favorite remains the cambur chip. Yum!
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Today is the squadron’s Children’s Christmas Party. For the last few years, Clay has flown to the North Pole to pick Santa up and deliver him to the party. The kids always get so excited when that helicopter flies in and they know that Santa is going to step off. There’s nothing like the excitement of little ones!

This year we have a couple of other things going on at the same time, so all of our kids won’t be with us, but the little ones will still enjoy the event. As these kids grown, the dynamic keeps changing.

Tristan has his first kayak race today. Kateri will be taking him to cheer him on and help out and Maddi would rather watch Tristan than see Santa come in on the helicopter. I’m glad they will be there for him! He’s really having a great time being on the water!
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Well, that’s it, for now, from here. It’s been a whirlwind of being busy and not being diligent enough to sit here and write about it. Sorry! I haven’t even been able to get a show out because I had gotten sick and didn’t have the voice for the show. It would have been raspy talking interspersed with coughing. So, now that I’m getting better I’m looking forward to talking about getting ready for Christmas and the whole holiday season and the traditions and stories that get passed on to the kids.

Have a great day~

This entry was posted on December 13, 2008 at 9:46 am and is filed under Christmas, children, family life, helicopter, kids, military, miltary spouse, mom, sharing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.