Tales from the week 10/10-10/16

As you know, last weekend our family visited Summer's Farm in Frederick, MD. Well, Monday of this week we carved two of the four pumpkins we picked up and even toasted some yummy pumpkin seeds in the oven. This is seriously one of my favorite holiday traditions.. next to picking out an actual living Christmas tree - which Justin won't do, so I have to wait until the boys are old enough for me to force them to help.

 I chose a witch design and Lukas chose dracula. I ended up carving both, but ended up messing up Luke's pumpkin :). Luke was very good at helping me sort through the pumpkin guts for acceptable seeds. By Friday they had all disappeared :D


Lighting the pumpkins when darkness falls has now become our fun thing to do before Lukas goes to bed. Justin isn't here much, so I try to have special things Luke and I do together.

 Justin is doing well in drill team training. They are still working 2pm-2am, but it is more like 1pm-3am as Justin has stuff to do before and after. He gets home and sleeps until around 11am. His hands were very swollen on Saturday and Sunday and he is having some shoulder/hand pain, but he says that he is far better off than alot of the guys. Their class that started at 13 people is now down to 9 and I see Justin getting all the way through training..

I am seriously looking forward to Thanksgiving, December and Christmas because Justin will be done with training and working a super light schedule until the Spring when drill team starts travelling. To me, it is one thing when Justin is out of town and I can do my own thing with the boys and not expect help from Justin, but quite another when Justin physically here, but too tired or hurting to help and yet I still have cook, clean and care for the kids and another adult. Frustrating. He has been doing as much as he can though, and that makes me feel better, as does listening to my pastor and reading this awesome book my awesome sister-in-law Becky sent about controlling emotions.



Other random news: I won a contest on the Paleo Comfort Foods website and received alot of free, funny stationary, wrapping paper and a reusable shopping bag. I was really hoping to win the Le Creuset enameled cast iron dutch oven, but this was a pleasant surprise. The couple that runs the blog are so friendly and their book is full of delicious things. Nom nom nom. I  have been catching up on Season 2 of the Vampire Diaries and was surprised to find after receiving the third disk that they added it to instant streaming. YAYYYY!! No more waiting for the mail. Luke threw up Friday morning and deceived me into thinking he was fine until Saturday afternoon when he vomited about 5 times in the course of a few hours. It was really sad, because we had just taken him to Cold Stone for some ice cream.. since I can no longer have it in the house (..my addiction..). He kept saying sad things to me like "Mommy, I just want to get better." and "I'm so sick mommy." He did not throw up all day Sunday, so good news. :) That's all for now!                 

Tales from the Week 10/3-10/9

This week started out pretty lazy (how I like it), with the boys perusing the local Toys 'R Us ad for potential Christmas list items. October is probably my favorite month out of the year - there's apple cider, pumpkins, pumpkin-tasting baked goods, doughnuts.. and the list goes on and on.

Lukas drinking apple cider through a cinnamon stick

 One of the highlights of this week was finishing the 1,000 piece puzzle that Justin bought. This happened Monday or Tuesday evening and it was cause for great celebration - at least by me :) Justin was sad that our puzzle-couple-bonding time was over, but this just means we'll have to find some new and different things to do together. It is a pretty fall scene, so I will probably frame this and hang it in my master bedroom or something.

Justin began drill team training on Wednesday of this week. It is usually an 8-week course, with the first 2 weeks or so being hellish physical training having absolutely nothing to do with twirling the rifle around. However, for whatever reason (maybe because there are so many old-fart NCO's like Justin in this class), the course will only be about 7 weeks long, with evaluations being right before Thanksgiving. This is lucky for them because the hellish two weeks is (I think) being cut down to only about a week.

Justin's typical day is 12-hours long. The first week they worked from 9am-9pm and starting this week they will go in from 4pm-4am. I'm not sure of all the details, but they should be doing some PT, working with the weapon, and a bunch of other super-secret initiation activities. Hooray. All to join the AF's cheerleading squad. Drill team has a rep around here for thinking highly of themselves, and I'll be right here to make sure that never happens to Justin ;) . Justin also attended an Airmen Leadership School graduation for one of his troops.. hard to believe it was almost three years ago that Justin was going through ALS. Time is flying!

This week I spent a ton of time walking every day and running errands. I picked up a present for Justin for Christmas and returned a flashlight Luke stole from my brother a long long time ago. Devin's new night and day braces arrived at Bethesda, so I picked those up on Thursday. Luke has had fun in school, though he did get an accident report after falling off of a bike and needing a band-aid. I was told the same day he threw his first tantrum in class. This makes me feel bad, because these two sweet ladies have like 20 toddlers in this class - which is super-hard to begin with - and mine was making their day harder.

 The highlight of the week was by far our trip to Summer's Farm on Saturday. We went to a different farm last year, but decided to check this one out because it had a 'military appreciation weekend.' All active duty members get in free and families are half price. 3 and older are supposed to pay, but the nice girl there didn't charge me for him :) Admission that would normally be $30 cost us only $5 that weekend. SWEET!

Obligatory head-in-farm-animal-body photo

 The kids loved the hay, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the mini-mazes, checking out the farm animals, eating apple cider doughnuts, and going down the giant slide. Devin was pretty independent and went down the slide many times himself. I was impressed - and content to watch - as he climbed to the top by himself over and over.

Had to leave when Luke started throwing sand at me. PUNK!

 We took a hayride to the pumpkin patch and picked out four pumpkins. Justin was really helpful and surprisingly into it this year :) Luke wandered around for a REALLY LONG TIME looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Chasing the children through the mini-maze

This isn't Paleo. SHHHHhh!! :)

X-Treme slide fun

Luke found a worm - SHOCK!

Devin enjoyed hiding in the corn.

At the very end we went into the giant corn maze, which I was really unprepared for. Thinking this was going to be your normal hokey maze, I didn't bring any juice or hiking backpack. By the end, the kids were begging for 'attle'- juice/water/'molk.' After what I think was a couple of hours, we found our way out, hopped in the car and drove home with a gigantic bag of kettle corn. After picking up some pizza and carving a pumpkin, we watched Role Models on T.V. and called it a night! Perfect end to an awesome day :)



Justin, Katelyn & Will collecting clues to the puzzle sheet we got

Tales from the Week.. 9/25-10/2

I got back from my trip to NY last Saturday and we have been getting into the swing of things. Justin has been picking some activities for us to do together and his latest and greatest idea was a 1000 piece puzzle. Yea. It's still not done and we've been working on it for four days. It is oddly addicting, but I don't think we'll be making the choice to do one of these again :)

Pondering where the puzzle piece should go



Looking cute while doing a puzzle takes skill - skill that I've got.

Devin trying to put on the dog collar. He is obsessed with buckles.

More puzzle fun.





He's here to save the day, Fireman Luke!

As for the boys, Luke was happy to get back to school. His latest thing has been to rocket around the house pretending he is rescuing people like Fireman Sam. He has to use the ladder to help him climb up the stairs in our house too. It can get kind of aggravating!!! Especially when he runs into the bone in my ankle - you know the one I am talking about. OW. Luke is starting to talk back alot more now too. While he was throwing one of Justin's lacross balls around the house, I said to him "Stop Luke! Are you ready for a time out!? Because I'm ready to give you one." He looked at me, smiled and said "Well I'm ready to do it again." I almost bust up laughing, but he did take a time-out.
Devin has been a little ill the last few days, but he's taking it like a champ. He is obsessed with buckles and having his shoes on. Dev has started to try to express his ideas in sentences and he immitates random things that Luke or I do throughout the day and it's really charming. Melt my heart, I love him to pieces. OH! Except when he climbs out of his crib, opens his door and walks down the stairs at nap and bed time. That has been a new occurence this week and we are working on the transition to an actual bed now.. and locking the door.



I have tried now THREE times to get to the farmer's market. My first was the Sunday after I got home. The metro was going through unscheduled maintanence, so we decided to turn around and drive. At that time of day there was no parking to be had and we just went back home. Big waste of two hours. The second time I went alone, spent a good hour waiting on connections and finally finally got to the place and.......... no farmer's market! I went on Saturday and it is a Sunday only market.. Very sad, I hopped the metro home. The one good thing about this wasted trip was the entertainment on the way home. Six black men (all around 21 or so) hopped onto the metro and started swearing, talking about their gay friend and using language that was really offensive. The nice white lady sitting next to me buried her face in her Ikea catalog while we all tried to pretend that we couldn't hear these idiots. Finally an older black woman stepped up and lectured all these guys about how they are the future and on and on - they of course didn't listen to a word she said, but bravo lady for saying something. I kept my mouth shut because I didn't have the boys with me to protect or anything and I was enjoying the show. Thank you DC for making me smile.

Third times the charm, I finally made it to the farmer's market with my lovely husband finding a spot and parking for me :) However, the warm, fuzzy, I'm-finally-here-oh-my-gosh feelings wouldn't last long.. My jaw dropped as soon as I saw the prices. HOLY HIGHWAY ROBBERY. To give you an example of just how insane the prices were, kale (which is normally $.99 for a bunch at a grocery store) was priced at around $4.00 a bunch. IT WASN'T EVEN ORGANIC. Sorry people, but I will take my veggies with a side of pesticide from the grocery store in order to keep paying my bills. I did pick up some peaches, beets, and apples. The beets were an ok price, but everything else at that farmer's market was mega overpriced. It was like a black hole for money.

Dev enjoyed the peaches from the market. I did too!!

My farmer's market haul



Wow, this puzzle is finally coming together!

Today I spent a good 2 hours cooking up food for the week which included "dirty cauliflower rice," the beets from the farmer's market, 2 chickens and turkish slider meatball things. Hopefully this will cut down on work for the week :)


Justin starts drill team training this week and from what I've heard he'll be working nights, 12-hour shifts, and will be very sore from the gun hitting his hands and arms. I've been told that your hands and the rest of your body just aches. I wonder how many times Justin will ask me where the motrin is. :) More on that to come!

Giving up Facebook..

Sometimes crappy things happen and force you to examine your life. I'm coming to realize this is part of getting older and that all things, as hard, unfair, stupid as they seem, have a purpose. They make you wonder what it means when God promises His highest and best for your life and what impact your choices have had on the life you are living. At least, for me they make me wonder.

Time is precious and so are the people that really care. So in my finite time on this earth, I'm focusing my time and energy on the three most important people in my life - my husband and sons. This blog will serve as a record for them.. and an online journal that will share with you the goings-on of our lives in a more in-depth way than a status update. The life we've chosen forces us far from family and I hope this helps bring us closer while we are all physically separated.

Love, Sarah.

Wish I updated this more.

This is probably going to be one of those "ohmygosh-it's-been-almost-a-year-since-I-updated" posts.

Life is good in Washington, D.C. Devin has finished 5 weeks of casting to correct his achilles contracture. This is awesome because it is dang hard to keep a cast (and the toes inside) clean with a super active 1 1/2 year old. WHOA he is 1 1/2!? I am looking forward to going to the splash park on base much much more - and not having him kick me with his boot, stomp his foot like a peg-leg, or step on my food with the sole of his little cast shoe (ouch!!).

Devin is saying alot of things these days. Favorites are most definitely any kind of truck and he will say "tow truck" and "dump truck," though he doesn't necessarily use them for the correct ones. He likes to say 'car,' 'mommy,' and 'daddy' quite a bit and speaks in this non-sense babble all the time. I don't remember Luke doing anything like that, but he had a much bigger vocabulary at this age. However, Luke was not quite as goofy or energetic as Devin is. It is amazing seeing the difference between two kids with the same parents. :) One awesome thing that Devin does is confuse his name with the word "jumping," so much of the time when I call his name he will climb up on my bed or the couch and start yelling "jumpin'" "jumpin'."

I am starting to go through a letter of the alphabet each day with Luke with coloring sheets. He knows most of the letters, but I would like him to try writing or maybe recognizing/spelling his name. Preschool registration starts soon and I am very excited to enroll him in the T/Th 3-year-old program. I don't think they are going to teach him much, but I am soooo looking forward to some time alone with Devin to play or do grocery shopping.

We have recently started going back to story time at the library, which has been made possible by Devin & Luke being older. It is not so easy to control 2 toddlers in a small environment with books all around just begging to be ripped from their shelves. Luke really does great and completes much of the activities by himself while I try to keep Devin from tearing up the library. Each week has a theme and a craft and most days we take the craft home because by then the boys are hungry, tired, or mad.

Luke has started saying that anyone who doesn't immediately say "Hi" back to him and looks the slightest bit ethnic "doesn't speak English." He announces this loudly to me and always within earshot of the person he is referring to. It's a little embarrasing, but I laugh about it privately.

Justin is out in Arlington today, which I am happy for since it is the part of his job he loves the most. Yesterday there was a vicious storm in the afternoon and on an after-dinner walk with the children, Justin noticed that a flag had been knocked down from a home. This flag happened to be in front of the Chief's house. So he stopped and spent a good 5 minutes picking up, brushing off, and rearranging the flag. It was a moment that made me very proud, but also a little nervous to be standing in front of the Chief's house on the sidewalk. I kept expecting him to jump out and ask us what we were doing.

C'est la vie

With Justin's crazy schedule leaving me little time for downtime with the kids, it's difficult to find time to write blog posts. So, I suppose I will do the best that I can for now!

We are doing PT for Devin, Luke is fully into his terrible two's (woops - I mean "terrific"), and Justin is out from the break of dawn until just before the boys get to bed.

To make things easier for myself I have started to use the baby backpack ALOT more; This means that when we are on a walk and Luke throws a tantrum I have two free arms to carry him back. Usually he does this while we are walking the dogs - so I have two dog leashes in one hand, a baby on my back, and a toddler that I am carrying in a football hold. But we do have to get those dogs walked and also get out of the house.

I also usually refuse to go grocery shopping unless it is on the weekend. While it is busier, Luke will not be still/quiet/have ANYWHERE. Any thoughts of having a third child anytime soon while this far from the support structures of grandparents and aunts and uncles has been wiped from my mind. I tip my hat to those with small children and deployed spouses. My GOODNESS toddlers are.. a challenge?

Lukas has those wonderful spontaneous displays of affection and alot of cute things that he comes out with. To get him to eat broccoli I rip the heads into tiny "baby" broccoli's and Luke says they're going "WAH!WAH! They're crying." He turned to me today and said that "Trees are happy." He loves Thomas the Train, all things chocolate, and is smart as a whip. Though I am his biased mother.

I LOVE Trader Joe's

For those of you who don't know, Trader Joe's is a specialty grocery store similar to Whole Foods except alot better. I was going to Whole Foods for months to pick up special things that I am unable to find at the grocery store on base, but Trader Joe's is so awesome I will never be going back to Whole Foods. Here is why I love it there:

1. The food - including produce - is actually CHEAPER! than on base. I like to buy organic, but I had stopped for awhile because of the heavy hit it puts on my wallet.

2. They are committed to having tons of gluten-free stuff, and label everything prominently. I love their labels. No small font, but HUGE handwriting-looking stuff. At Whole Foods it's difficult to find "organic" on the labels and annoying when I'm in a hurry (which I am, always).

3. Their employees are SUPER friendly. They invite me over to the checkout, and actually help when they see me struggling with a two-year-old. SO so nice to a mom that is trying to get in and out quickly. The last time I went the checkout girl asked Luke if he wanted stickers, gave him a whole long string of them, then proceeded to ask me if I found everything on my list. I said that I didn't find the beef jerky and right away someone steps up beside her and says he'll go back. And he brought the beef jerky right up! After reading the labels to make sure that they were gluten-free.

4. Not only are the employees nice, but the people that shop there are too!!! Everyone smiles, chats, jokes with Luke. The first time we went, a gentleman came over and handed Luke a cookie from a sample table and said he loves to do that since he is diabetic and can't eat them himself. The second time, we were checking out and as I am bagging my groceries an elderly couple starts chatting with Luke about the choo-choo train he was carrying. It's AWESOME!

5. They have a huge selection of store brand stuff - delicious chicken sausage, nuts, different kinds of flour, pasta sauce - and it's good for you and cheap!


If there was one thing I could say I didn't like about Trader Joe's is that they aren't everywhere. It makes me sad that when we move from DC I probably won't be able to go to one.

Sorry about the excessive CAPS use, but I was just so excited to write this blog. I always leave Trader Joe's with a good feeling and don't think I'll be visiting my commissary for much anymore!