We were infested with spiders.

Weird atmospheric phenomenon

Odd looking creatures started lurking about.

Happy 5th Birtday, Lillian!

My kids are upstairs playing by themselves. Together, but by themselves. I don't know what they are doing- if I go look it will all be over. I wish I could record the belly laughs that are coming down the stairs, though. I just wiped down the kitchen and swept the floors, folded a load of laundry and started dinner. I even had a brief telephone call. All without anyone attached to my leg or asking for anything. I think they are building.

My daughter is speaking so sweetly to Isaac. (Lillian is going to be 5 on SUNDAY! and Isaac is 20 months- FYI) She is using her sweet mommy voice that is usually reserved for the babies at church. Isaac is loving the attention and giggling away.

I feel torn, though. I want to go up there and join in the fun, but I know if I do I will also be ruining a bit of their fun. They need to be able to play together and if I go up there, the game will have to change. Also, I am enjoying this bit of apartness before my husband comes home. Oh, and the sound of their little voices are just so, so sweet.

Okay, times up! Chris just pulled into the driveway and so I give them 30 seconds after he walks through the door to come downstairs. I'll keep you posted!

My hairdryer quit this morning. I was in the middle of drying and a spark came out of the bottom followed by a flame. A FLAME! It was just for an instant but quite scary. Needless to say, I have not had a good hair day.

See, I try to keep things current and relevant here. I am very culturally aware and try to keep you up on what is important. Forget the state of the union. What is important is the state of my hair. I just need to keep my priorities in order, you know?

Okay, something else. Isaac has been talking so much lately. Here are a few of his favorite words. Doggie, Mi-e (Miley, our puppy) Mommy and Daddy. He says them daDDY with the emphasis on the end. so cute. Moo (moon), ball, belly, nose, peeeeesh (please). His favorite word is NO! followed by nonono. It has been so fun to hear him start to talk and remember things that I tell him. His favorite things to look at are animals of any kind and trying to make animal sounds. A few weeks ago anytime I asked him what an animal said he would growl. What does a horse say? ROAR What does a dog say? ROAR Now he knows dog and cat and sheep and (sometimes) cow. I love to hear him sound like a cat because he does it so sweet and soft.

New topic: My good friend is moving away. She is the friend I have had the longest since I have moved here. She has a daughter that my little girl loves to play with. (And get into trouble with) and we had our second babies together. Our due dates were two days apart so it was fun to have a friend to go through that with. That is the hardest thing about the military though (apart from long deployments). Every time you make a friend, they move away! At least we have all this technology so we can easily keep in touch. I'm not too worried though, they will be stationed here again soon. I don't doubt it!

Tonight as Chris and I were putting Lillian to bed and saying prayers, she told Chris to go first and "say something excellent." Then, when it was her turn she said "Thank you for me and Isaac and my family and please help Mommy be good." HA! funny. Can you tell what I am usually praying for her?

Okay, updates on my life:

~We have moved into our new house and are almost finished unpacking. It has just been under a week and we are loving, loving it!

We love having enough bedrooms, having a huge yard and mostly not having to show our I.D. at the gate on post to go home.

~A few weeks ago (man it has been a looong while since I updated this blog!) was my birthday. September 20. We went to a tourist-y place for window shopping and lunch. Here are a few pictures. Oh, I turned 28 in case you were wondering.

I am not very photogenic, but my daughter took this picture. She is quite the photographer. It just doesn't do justice to how beautiful it is there. I should have taken a picture of the sandwich that I had! Heaven on a plate!

~Who needs chairs? (this is at our old house, on post. The weird thing on the floor is a half-chewed dog bone. Yuck.)

~My husband got a promotion. Although it takes effect December 1, he had a ceremony a few weeks ago and gets to wear his new rank.

~I am in love with the movie The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was such a fun movie. We all watched it for our Friday night movie and the whole family loved it. I am going to have to get the book.

I guess that is the biggest things that have gone on here recently. I plan on posting some knitting posts soon. I will just end this with a funny thing Lillian said the other day:

Lillian: Can I go potty in your bedroom?

Chris: No, but you can go in our bathroom

Lillian: *giggles* Ya, that would be really rude!

I went to AWANA training all day today. I had to meet the other ladies at church this morning at 6:30 and I am really not used to being up at that time. The sun was just coming up when I left my house. It was really beautiful. Now, it is almost 8 and I am pretty much beat. Before I hit the sack I wanted to share something that I heard today.

The first is a story from one of the instructors. He is a college professor and teaches Christian Ethics so he gave a lecture today on teaching ethics to children. He is also a geologist and likes to explore caves with some of the college students. He said that one thing the students always like to do when they get into the cave is turn off the light to see what happens. What happens is very obvious- it gets very, very dark. There is absolutely no light.

One time, after they turned off the light he was waving his hand in front of his face and he could just barely see it. There was no light anywhere in the cave so he knew someone must have some light somewhere. They all searched through their bags and one student found a flashlight inside his bag that had a glow-in-the-dark sticker on it. That cave was so dark that the sticker gave off enough light inside the bag that they eventually could even make their way around the cave.

The darker the world gets and the more hopeless it seems, the less light it takes to make a difference. One little dim light can light up everything around you and make a huge difference. So, shine your light as bright as you can when the world seems dark. Even if you are only able to give off a little light, it will show the way to someone lost in the darkness.

In the front yard at our house lives a family of ponies. My daughter talks to them in the mornings while she is waiting for the school bus. They eat the little red berries that grow on the bushes. The smallest pony (Becky) likes Lillian to pick her up and she whispers in Lillians ear that she loves her and is hungry so Lillian shows her where the lowest bunch of berries are. There is also a baby pony named Jessica. The moms name is Miss Tina and is a unicorn. She is shy and likes to stay behind the tree. Every morning Lillian takes the time to pet them and speak very kindly to them and hold the smallest like a baby as long as she wants. They are very good and very quiet ponies and never make any messes. They aren't our pets (I don't think) but they are my favorite animals that we have.

We went to feed the ducks today. We had a nice time playing at the park and walking out to the duck pond. Isaac ate the bread instead of throwing it to the ducks. Lillian fell right on those sharp rocks and will probably have a bruised bum in the morning. Chris sat back and took care of Miley (the dog). We had a nice time and the best part was not thinking about the house we didn't get. The worse part (for me, anyway) was getting ate up by the bugs. Oh, and the walk all the way back to the car. That part is never fun, for some reason.