Family.....

I know you have all been on pins and needles waiting for pictures...right? Actually, since Jer's parents and my dad and sister are arriving within the next week, I figured I better get these on here before they get in.

This is my sister, Pam, with Garrett.

Pamela and me, can you tell we are related? It's okay, me neither.

Seth got to have the first of what will be 2 birthday celebrations. This was very impromptu since we did not know Aunt Pam was coming, but she wanted to give Seth his birthday present while she was with him.

Garrett outside our gate, or in a cage, you decide. Depending on how well you know him will determine where you may think I could have put him. Don't fall for the angelic smile.

Seth can NEVER sit still.

A little play-doh fun with Aunt Pam.

And a game of chess for Vaughn and Aunt Pam.

I look fabulous, but, hey Amber what are you looking at? So, as I'm sure you gathered, that is Amber, she also happens to be Pam's daughter.

That is Bryan behind Pam and Amber. Funny thing about this picture is that they did not know he was behind them.

Ah, mommy and daughter.

Okay, that's all the pictures for now. We did get our HHG shipment off Tuesday. It was not too painful, just long. We are really hoping to find out our ticket dates soon. It would be nice to know. We had another critter encounter this week. The concensus is that it is a Great Basin Gopher snake. Nasty little thing. Quite aggressive. I will not lean over the bucket to take a picture, he is too nasty. But here's a picture from the web.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Everything lately can be related to this exclamation:
Yesterday: AHHHHHHHH the movers are coming tomorrow, hurry
Today: AHHHHHHHHHH the movers are here packing, I hope we got everything
Tomorrow: AHHHHHHHHH, it is over we can breathe for a couple days

JAPAN has arrived!

Liz and Michelle, you will love this.
We have spent the past few months telling Garrett that he is moving to Okinawa Japan, and since just Tuesday they packed some stuff and took it he has been very Japan obsessed. Especially after Conner told him he had gone to Japan before and it took five minutes.
So, Pam (the aforementioned sister) gets here, and Garrett calls her JAPAN! Aunt Pam=Japan. To a three year old they probably do sound the same. And he really has no clue that Japan is a place, not a person. It is so funny. "where did Japan go" "Japan, come here, I want to show you" "Japan, you gonna sleep at my house?"

SURPRISE!

My family is much more devious than I would have ever imagined. Standing outside today talking with a couple neighbors, a car pulls into my driveway. It was my sister! Talk about surprised. I had NO idea she was coming out. Tomorrow I will get to see my niece, and she will get to see her mom. They have been scheming behind my back; what a good scheme to pull off. I'll post some pictures we take over the next couple of days soon.

Critter Mania Continues

And I don't mean that in a good way....say hello to the little rattlesnake Lynn found on her driveway.

Monday night is when the cute, little, very dangerous invader showed up. After we were all looking at it, it decided the flower garden was a better place to be. Lynn was not happy. Jerry got it out of the flowers and it into a bucket that had a lid. It spent the night in the bucket until the game warden came to collect it Tuesday morning. Interesting overnight guest. We took these pictures as the game warden arrived. We happily waved goodbye.

Up, Up, and Away

The first shipment is G.O.N.E. It was way more than we had expected to be able to fit. One thousand pounds of HHG, no furniture, is actually a lot. While we waited for the packers to get here we weighed everything we had set aside, only 700 pounds. So, we added, and added until we got to 970. We wanted as much to go express as possible. What is in that shipment is all we will have for up to 3 months while we wait for the second shipment. Three months is a long time. A good majority of the kitchen is gone. Lots of clothes. Plenty of toys, skateboards, scooters, rollerblades, a computer, even one of Garrett's train tables went in the express. I think we actually did really well and we are happy with what we will have when we are first there. It was a very daunting task, I am glad step one is done. I owe a huge thank you to Jerry. He was more than on top of it. I had this amazing ability to wander off task repeatedly. He kept me on the straight and narrow. Thanks honey, I love you.

Big ol' mess

Okay, so it has begun....the whirlwind that we call organizing. Our house is a FANTASTIC mess. (that is for Lynn if she were to EVER read this blog) We have clothes for suitcases, clothes for express shipment, clothes for HHG (household goods) shipment. And, what is with my linens? I am sure I put them into the linen closet organized, but somehow when we are looking to pick out a full set, 4 twin sets, and some extra pillow cases, it is a supreme mess. Who does that? I think someone is messing with me. **edited for Jerry quote** "who is the c*****cker hiding all the f***ing tags on those things." Please forgive the language. It has been a long day. Although I will admit that elicited a huge laugh from me.
My wonderful friends helped me get through the kitchen stuff so I feel much better. I truly love you all. This move is just not going to go easily. I will be leaving A LOT behind. Mostly people whom I could never replace; I just have to hope I will be as lucky in Okinawa.

Synonym for Procrastination

Answer: Jessica. We have packers coming next week. As in, we have less than seven days to decide what are the things we need to live a fairly normal life, in a foreign country, for up to three months, while we wait for the other 25% of our things we decided we needed, to arrive. Does that make any sense? For some reason I find the entire process just too much to even start. Well, we did set aside a microwave, PS3, and Wii. We know we are sending a tv too, but it needs to get reboxed. That is as far as we have gotten. I am sure you can guess who gathered those items. The we should read Jerry since Jessica had no part in that process. I was home though, I will stick with we. Maybe if I could get past "do I need to send a colander" and "what if I want to make muffins" I could be constructive instead of spinning my wheels. Michelle, is any of this familiar? Or were you just too organized/busy/proactive/something to have suffered this inability?
This is not me, well, not normal me. When I had to move from Del Mar, even without Jerry, it took me two days to have everything unpacked and put away. Our stuff was in the new house Friday afternoon, by Monday I had only about 4 boxes in the house. That is me.

I know, would I like some cheese to go with my whine? Yes. Yes, I would. Thank you for asking. I'll leave my pity party now and go wash some sheets to put into the express shipment.

Time to get off the mountain....

Offender #1

Wire Mountain I that is. The critters are out to get me!! We have found 2 scorpions in less than 24 hours. Both in the front yard. Nice, huh? And the kicker was tonight as I was taking clothes out of the WASHER and found a centipede! So in one 24 hour span, 2 scorpions and a centipede. I am so ready to move. Luckily we just moved up our TMO dates, so that is in the works and right around the corner. I am starting to think it can't come soon enough. I really am a very level headed person, but this is too much. I am not a big fan of anything with more than 4 legs.

Offender #3

Offender #2

Just to prove I am not being a drama queen. Well, at least not in a factual sense.

Summer Synopsis

Here are some pictures to get you caught up after all my neglect. They are mostly chronological.

Vaughn won 3rd place in the Oceanside Unified Spelling Bee.

A car show we just happened upon.....yes, I'll take one.

Although Steven appreciated the high end cars along with myself, Vaughn and Garrett preferred the military displays.

Steven was in the Jefferson Middle School Brain Bowl. Doesn't the teacher look evil? Steven is the one at the far left. I know, not the best picture ever.

The annual Santa Margarita Dance Festival.
Seth was way into his dance, good job Seth.

Vaughn, not so much.

Seth finished his Awana Sparks class.

While Vaughn was "moving on" from 5th grade.

Tim reached double digits.....woo hooo!!

And he had a jumpy....always well received. What a bunch of hooligans.

Garrett brought me a "soda". If you know me very well, you know I do NOT drink beer. What Garrett wanted was for me to have a "soda" so he could snitch some from me. Try again little man....

The boys went to an honest to goodness YMCA summer camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, courtesy of Operation Purple.

Vaughn and Steven, don't they look thrilled??

Seth and Tim, at least they really were excited to be at camp.

Buzz came by for a visit.

Daddy was promoted and then took command the next day. We are very proud of him. We know the Marine Corps is lucky to have him, maybe they do too.

The Captain and his company, well the 2 platoons you can see, there are 2 more to the left.

There was A LOT of Guitar Hero played.

Another car show discovered.....gotta love SoCal.

Jerry's dream car, we agreed he could get one as a Captain, oh sh*t, now I'm screwed. My how time flies.

The boys had to get cleaned up to go to a wedding...

because Daddy was in the sword detail.

We found a lizard....well, Lynn found it in her house, she was more than happy to let Garrett take it away.

The boys attended another summer camp, but just a day camp this time. This was at the end of camp party for the families at Lake O'Neill.

Garrett and Kaybra became best friends. They are so cute. Unfortunately, Kaybra had to move just last week. Welcome to life in a Marine Corps family.

Goodbye to our friends, we will miss them.

So long summer......what a whirlwind.