A Letter to a Veteran, Clothing Drive - January 17, 2017

Avary's school raised funds for Honor Flight, to send veterans to DC to see their war memorials. She wrote this letter to be given to one of the veterans.

Her school also had a clothing drive, and I used it as an opportunity to give away a lot of our extra clothes. I keep most of the boys clothes since there is always another one coming up to grow into them, but since we don't have any other little girls growing into Avary's old clothes, I have to part with them. I keep a few of my very favorites, but it just doesn't make sense to keep the rest. I have to admit, it is really sad for me to part with her old clothes. Sad because my baby girl is growing up so fast, and sad that the baby girl who was going to grow into them does not need them. But, it makes me happy to think that they are going to another little girl in the community who can use them.

And I wanted to get a pick of the Taekwondo uniform from UMA before I got rid of it too.

Pictureless Rambling

We are STILL waiting for our new computer, but I figure there's no reason why I can't post an update anyway. We haven't had any extremely exciting or hilarious things happen recently, so I hestitate to do a post without pictures of the kids, but I'll ramble away anyway:). Tonight, Mike and I were sitting by the computer and he mentioned something that he just read on CNN. Earlier, after the kids went to bed, I had eaten dinner while watching TV. I said, "Oh yeah, I saw that on Good Morning America while I was eating dinner." Right after I said it, I realized how funny that sounded. One of those, 'we're not in Kansas anymore' moments.

As for our summer in Korea, it has been a busy one. We have done some fun things since my last post, and I have a lot of pictures. Once I can work with my pictures again, I'll make sure to get them up here. Avary did swimming lessons for six weeks and loved it. My parents came to visit, which was great! My dad stayed for a week and my mom got to stay for two. Earlier this summer we had tons of rain. Way more than last year. I heard that it was the most rain they've had here in 19 years. We had a couple of trees fall down in our neighborhood because the soil just got so wet. Now I understand the meaning of monsoon season. We even had some thunderstorms. I didn't think they really had thunderstorms here because I think I only heard a little thunder rumble once or twice last year. But, this year there were some BIG thunderstorms. A tree on post even got struck by lightening. Those are just a few of the things that have been going on this summer. When I am able to get my pictures posted, I'll have more to report of our activites this summer.

Other than that, I have been doing a lot of research on homeschooling. I've been thinking about homeschooling for several years, but was just putting off actually making the decision until Avary was closer to starting Kindergarten. But, one day this summer I was talking to a lady in the neighborhood and found out that she homeschools her kids, so we talked about it. One of the reasons I was hesitant about homeschooling was that I wasn't sure I would be able to do a good job working with the school-age kids while also trying to take care of babies and/or toddlers. But this lady has 5 kids under the age of 8, and they all seem like very happy, confident kids. Her 4 year-old is already reading, and would be starting kindergarten this year based on his age, but she will be starting first grade stuff with him because that's what he's ready for. So, apparently it is possible to successfully homeschool even with a lot of children of varying ages. Anyway, talking with her made me realize there was no need to wait to make a decision. So, I started thinking about it and doing lot of research. It's been fun to learn about all the different philosophies and methods, and I've decided that I want to homeschool. There are a lot of benefits to it. It works well with the military lifestyle of moving around a lot (sometimes in the middle of the school year), and not always living in a location where you have many choices of schools to send your children to.

Speaking of moving, Mike and I have also been doing plenty of research regarding possibilties for our next location. When we got to Korea, Mike was planning on becoming a Physician Assistant, and was really looking forward to starting school when we were finished with our tour here. But, last summer he hurt his back. His leg started hurting, and after several weeks, many physical therapy sessions, and an MRI, the docs finally figured out that the problem was compressed vertebrae and a herniated disc. Anyway, to make a long story short, the nature of the problem means that he is unable to qualify for the Army's P.A. program, and therefore couldn't apply like had was planning on. So, plans changed and he is now on the path to getting his MBA and MHA or MPA. We just found out this week that he will be able to do an internship after we leave Korea, and then go to school to get his degree. Kind of a backward way of doing things, but that's the Army. So now, our mission for this week is to choose our top two picks for where to go to do the internship. For a long time, we thought it was very likely that we would be in San Antonio, first because that is where the P.A. program is, and then because that is where the MHA/MBA program is. But, since he is doing the internship first, and the hospital there is full of interns right now, we will most likely not be going to San Antonio (although Mike will be there for a few months right after we leave Korea for training). So our possibilities now are these:

Fort Lewis, WA
Fort Bliss, TX
Fort Bragg, NC,
Fort Gordon, GA
Walter Reed, DC
Fort Hood, TX
Germany
Hawaii

Wherever we go, it will be for at least one year, and possibly three years. If we go to Germany, it will be for three years. We researched all the locations, and while researching Germany, we found out there is a town near the base called Frankelbach. It is a village of about 300 poeple, and we decided we have to visit it someday. Based on it's name, and how small it is, we figure the entire population probably consists of Mike's long-lost relatives. :)
They want to know our top two choices this week, so next week they can tell all the interns where they will be going. That will be so great if we really know where we will be going as soon as next week! We're pretty sure about our top two picks, but will ponder it some more for another day. Then, we'll wait and see what happens. Maybe they'll send us to the last place we would have chosen, but we'll be happy no matter where we go. It's weird to think that we'll be leaving Korea in less than 6 months. It will be sad to leave, but exciting to move on to something new, and especially exciting to get to spend some time visiting our families!

Anyway, sorry for the long rambling post. If any of you readers actually made it this far, you deserve some kind of special award. I really, REALLY hope to have our new computer soon, so I can once again access my picture files. So sorry to the grandparents, aunts and uncles that haven't been able to see many pics of Will. I had great intentions of sending you all pictures and videos, but I guess it will have to wait.

A Nice Weekend

Mike got home from the field last week, and although he wasn't gone long, it's been so nice having him back. We always totally look forward to the weekends, and since we hadn't been able to spend one together for a few weeks, last weekend was particularly nice. We drove down to Osan, an airforce base to the south. The BX (base exchange) there is a lot bigger than our PX (post exchange) here, AND there is a Chili's on the base. So it was fun to go down and buy Avary some summer clothes and eat at Chili's. They also have a car wash down there, and our car really needed a scrub down. Anyway, the trip took a lot longer than we thought. We didn't leave as early as we meant to because as we were trying to leave the base, they closed the road that led to the gate because they were having a little parade. So we parked and watched the parade until the road opened up again. Traffic gets bad by early afternoon, so it took a long time to get back to Seoul. When we got home Avary and Mike made a birthday cake to celebrate my 27th birthday (Mike was gone on the day of), and later he took the kids to post while I stayed home and rested. I had not been feeling great for a few days, and Mike was so nice to keep the kids entertained and let me be lazy. They even came home with flowers for me. Thanks Mike! You're the best!

Ridin' to Osan

Mike insisted on putting 27 candles on the cake. I'm surprised we didn't burn the place down. Avary sure enjoyed it, though.

"I'm thankful for...

stools!" Ever since Avary and I made her Thanksgiving Turkey, when I asked her what she was thankful for, she has been asking, "Mommy, do you want to say what I'm thankful for?" (meaning do I want to ask her what she's thankful for). So I say, "Avary what are you thankful for?" over and over while she tells me one thing she is thankful for each time I ask the question (usually just whatever pops into her head at the time, or something she sees in the room). Well, the other day, one of her answers was "stools", and it dawned on me that she probably really is thankful for stools. From the time she was old enough to climb onto stools, they have been one of her best tools. Once she got strong enought to carry them around, she started using them to get anything out of reach. Avary has spent so much time standing on a stool next to me in the kitchen helping me cook, or carrying stools around the house trying to reach things without asking for my help, or trying to reach things that she asked ne for, but I told her she couldn't have. She started all of this while we were at my parent's house during Mike's deployment, and they had tall stools there. I remember walking into her room one day to find one of those stools on her bed! I think she may have been trying to reach a glow-in-the-dark star on the ceiling. At our house we just have a little piano bench, and a smaller stepping stool, but she uses them just like the stools at Grammy and Grandpa's house. Anyway, I realized that it would be a shame to not have any pictures of Avary on a stool, and I couldn't remember if I had any or not, so I took some.



Then I found these older pictures. Left January 11, 2007. Right March 27, 2007
(yes, those are oven mitts on her feet).


As a side note, we are now homeless. We moved out of our house this last week (and what a crazy week it was!), and we are now on our way to see our families before we are off to Korea. I'll post pics of our trip later.

Thanks for the Simple Things

We've had an exhausting week or so, with the kids being sick, and poor Mike getting his wisdom teeth yanked out. But now that things are sort of back to normal, I've been thinking about some of the simple things that have made life sweet this Fall.

It's been one of those weeks...

and it's only Wednesday! You know those days when you just don't feel like your a very good Mommy. I mean you know you are, but you just don't FEEL like you are. Well, I've been having a lot of those days lately. I can't seem to get anything done, which would be okay if I felt like I was spending a ton of quality time with the kids and they were having a great time. But lately I feel that despite spending a lot of time trying to get things done AND a lot of time trying to help the kids spend their days happily and productively, I'm not really accomplishing either. My house is mostly a mess, and the kids spend a lot of time fussing and I've been feeling irritated. Yesterday we were watching a ceremony and Sam fell off the first bleacher and bumped his head when I wasn't watching. And this morning we had a great start to the day with both kids crying and wanting to be held at the same time for about 15 minutes right after waking up. The kids have been a little bit sick off and on for the past few weeks, but not that bad, so I don't think that's the cause. Anyway, I guess I need to work on not feeling irritated even in the midst of chaos, and make time with the kids my priority. There are a lot of things that I try to put off doing until the kids are asleep, but there is just not enough time if I do that. So, I also need to work on being patient and letting the kids "help" while I try to get things done.

Here is Sam with his owie from yesterday. At least he's smiling :) You can also see part of one of my laundry piles on the floor behind him.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I'm just having one of those weeks that make me think, "what can I do better?". So that's a good thing. On the bright side, I did get all of the clean clothes folded yesterday. Now I just need to get them put away today.

Everyday Heroes

In a recent post I told about a man that I heard President Bush tell about who is an everyday hero. It makes me happy to hear about good things that people are doing. Negativity and disrespect are prevalent in our society today, and it is easy for me to get caught up in all of it as I'm pracitcally addicted to the news right now, with Mike being in Iraq. But there is so much good happening too, and I'd really like to talk about the good stuff. Here are just a couple of examples of everyday heroes that I have seen.

When I was growing up there was a boy in our ward with muscular dystrophy. He was older than I was, and when he was in high school I remember often seeing him riding around town in his wheelchair. He and his sister (who also had muscular dystrophy) were heroes in my eyes, as well as their family members. But, this story is about another hero. I noticed that this boy was often wearing a Letterman's jacket from his high school. I thought it was neat that he had one and because of how often he wore it, I think he must have felt good being able to show his school pride and be a part of that high school spirit, even though he was unable to physically participate in sports. I later found out that the jacket was given to him by somebody who had attended the high school years before and lettered in football.

The hero in this story? My Dad.

There is a boy in a local elementary school who is deaf and began kindergarten a few years ago with many challenges because he had been sick a lot as a child, and was developmentally behind other kids his age. Most of the adults in his life felt that he probably would not be able to ever catch up or learn as much as other kids. This boy is now in second grade and is a hero in my eyes because of the challenges he has worked through, but this story is about another hero. His interpreter struggled through that whole year with his difficult behavioral and academic issues. But, she stayed with it and is still working with him today. He has come leaps and bounds since kindergarten. Because of his interpreter he has learned how to read, and can keep up with his grade level in school. His behavior has also improved dramatically. This interpreter's work with these issues has gone above and beyond what many would say is within the realm of an interpreter's job.

The hero in this story? My Mom.

There are so many people that inspire me to do better. Who are some of your everyday heroes? I'd love to hear your stories.