There's a reason we call her "Angel-Leena"

The other day Landon was cranky, Leena was bored to death, and any idea that I had for an activity during the day, got vetoed.

The day strolled by with ease, at least while Landon took a nap. He's getting his top teethers in and can be rather a cranky pants.

Come dinner time, with my son awake, my daughter running around outside, yelling "mommy!!" every 2 seconds it seems, I was getting worn out. Then, I get teh "I'm on my way home, what's for dinner" call from Jeff. I start to scramble to make a nice dinner, and get it on the table by the time he's home. All the while, keeping my worn side, as well as flustered, to myself.

After diner was done, Landon had been fed, but this wasn't enough to not keep him from fussing. I was tending to him whie I cleaned up the kitchen while it seemed like my husband and daughter, had left the building. They came back in and could clearly tell how frustrated I was. I somewhat angrily blurted out "can someone please just stop and help clean up! I made dinner, it would be nice if someone else helped clean up besides me, I do it ALL day long!" I'm sure I didn't sound as it seems, but I was making a point that I definately wanted help for a few minutes.

Then, Leena comes up to my waist, looks me in the eye and she goes "How can I make you un-stressed mommy?" Magic to my ears!! She's such a doll! I found myself more tha pleased with what she had just asked. I said "can you clear your place please, and then I'll tell you what to do after?" and she cheerfully said "of course mommy!" she did exactly that, and then came up to me and again and said "ok momma, what else can I do to help you out?" Jeff did not tell her to do any of this. That is simply her nature. This is a child that WANTS to do chores, because she is bored.

Thank you Leena for being the best little girl, ever!

I'm feeling rather content that I have such an amazing and impressive child. She really is a rare gem, really.

Our house, in the middle of the street.

A couple weekends ago..ok, maybe 2 or so? I saw some weird ad online and thought "this can't be right"..and what did I do?

I clicked on it. Yup indeed, it was right. It was an ad for granite being solde at $10 a sq ft vs the $75 it's usually retailed for. I've seen it as "cheap" as $59ft before too. But, there had to be a catch...the address was up in Kent. So, I jotted it down, and showed Jeff, and told him I just wanted to see what was there. He agreed, and we got in the car and drove up to kent to see why the "granite" was so cheap. It was just a liquidation sale was all it was. It was almost like a warehouse lot full of everything from onyx, to marble, to granite, you name it. It was was there.

Now, our downstairs powder room, is a step or 4 above a jail cell. It has nice lighting in it, it came that way, but it's rather small. and it has NO cabinets or storage or anything like that. We found this amazingly cool piece of granite, and like the ad said, it was $10 a sq ft, which retailed basically to $1 per pound. We bough the whole slab, as that was part of the "fine print". It's a 26" x 66" piece of black granite with cool blue colors in it and stuff. We want the same stuff for our kitchen eventually. The whole slab, cost us, a whopping......ready? $160 bucks! You can't get it cheaper than that. So now, we're giving the measurements to get it fabricated and are in the midst of finding a vanity. That's been the tough part because the measurements are funky. our bathroom is 38.5"(back part) x 26"(sides) so needless to say, we pretty much need a custom cabinet for that. Which...is nice...but those cost more than they really should, espcially for such a small space. So, we've been doing our homework, and have come across a few potentials. I'm just really excited because we're going to take teh "tropical/ Hawaii" theme we have in our main entry room, and into the bathroom. It's going to be so neato! eek!

You'd think I'd be tired of decorating my house by now. Honestly, I totally am, but I've yet to do any of the bathrooms. I think by the time we sell this place, it'll be pretty sweet and get all of our investments back if not double. All the bathrooms will have granite, and the master shower will have been extended out. ooooooh. Expensive, but worth it all!

The Big 2-8, it's here already!

I turned 28 a couple days ago, on Friday to be precise. And last year, I didn't do anything, literally. It sucked because Jeff was out to sea, and I was pregnant with Landon, and it was mid-week, so none of my friends could com over.

I started off the day at 6am with an email from my dad, he was very sweet, thanks daddy! I wasn't sure what to do that day, really. But then, Jeff stayed past 8am, which indicated he was either running late, or not going in to work. Turns out he took the morning off, and just needed to be at work at 11:30am. He offered to make me breakfast, I just told him I wanted my blueberry waffles, in the freezer, ha. He assembled my breakfast and hung out with me and the kids for the morning as we went grocery shopping and at the end, he had to leave to go to work.

Took the kids home, and just hung out with them for a while. Then, come 3:45pm, we had to pack up and take Leena up to Kent, which is about 30 min N of me, to meet up with Leenas dad so he could have her until today, Jeff will go get her at 11:30. I came home from dropping off Leena and it took forever, the south end is notorious for traffic. I spend a couple hours in it a week, and I don't even go that far! Came home, put Landon down for a nap, as he was screaming for the last 15-20 min of the drive, it was awful. And we had a dinner party, with a couple of Jeffs friends, I have crappy friends when it comes to RSVP'ing, it really irkes me, but to each their own. I will ALWAYS RSVP to people! And we played games, it was alot of fun. They played monopoly as I cooked dinner, (which was a hit, woo!) and as dinner was done, we played "the game of things", which by the end, people were in tears they were crying so hard, it was that funny! I would highly reccomend it! I think the only place you can find it as target, and it's well worth the money cause it's so funny!

Believe it or not, due to a dead camera, there we NO pictures taken! Yikes! Oops, I'll have to be sure to charge it.

Jeff got me a new jewelry box, you should see my current one. it's totally packed cause there is no room. I've taken a liking to bracelts...ha.

Overall, it was nice and honestly, a bit better than I anticipated. Jeffs birthday is coming up, so this should be fun!

Only in dreams....literally.

I wish I could refer to the weezer song "only in dreams", but that wouldn't make too much sense by the time I'm done.

I tend to have the most far out, fairly unusualy, and flat out just messed up dreams, one can have. Yet, I'm by far, the most normal person. I will admit, my dream bothered me.

So, here goes nothing. In short, my dream took place at a place where all of Jeffs district of the Navy people were taking group photos, and having a full dinner with the RD (recruiting district). So, you'd assume I was sitting next to Jeff, having dinner. Nope. After somehow going to this dinner, via belgium, (i'm not kidding) I have a guy I dated off and on for a while sitting in front of me, his son to the left, the girl that I didn't ever like (because she heckled me in a way, constantly, in real life) to my left, and my ex husband to my right...WHAT THE?! And Leenas dad was there because we were doing a Leena swap, yet, no Leena. And there was a hispanic lady with a newborn little girl, that I have never seen before in my life, I have no idea who she is. And she ended up picking up Leena for me, and I watched her daughter. So weird. The ending was tragic in a sense. What had happened at the end was totally, just, off. All these people in a house, had died. But they died because they'd been exposed to a very low soundwave, but over time, it took a toll on their body. And it killed them. Some were my extended family members. WEIRD! One person died because the sound wave severed a main artery in his ear, and caused kidney failure. ODD!

We could sit back an analuze every last bit of this, but we'd be here all day. Just had to share because the kidney failure part, woke me up at 6am. The one time Landon sleeps past 5:59am, I'm awake. Just my luck.

Healthy babies

I was watching Oprah today, I usually forget she's even on the air. But today, I'm pretty sure it was a re-run, but I'm VERY glad I watched it. They had kids on there that I was amazed by, I'm glad Oprah does shows like this, it shows that not everyone's perfect,a nd some things, really do need other peoples attention. With that being said, the last segment of the show, was about a little baby boy, named Eliot. He was supposed to be born dead, due to a severe birth defect. Or multiple, rather.

Here is the video



I was crying my eyes out at the end, and so was Oprah and Celine Dion. I think it helped that the parents were so positive about all of it, and felt very strongly, they'd see their son again. I sat here on the couch, my squirmy Landon on my lap, he saw my tears, and just cuddled up with me for 5 minutes. He's so precious like that. I will never take his health for granted, I'm so blessed to have healthy kids.

Hawaiian Vacation '09

(outside the rental, it was across the street from the beach, about a 6 second walk)

About a month ago, 2 of my friends were going to the Hawaiian islands. Different islands, bt they had both told me, go out there when we're there go, go, go! So, Jeff and I looked up airfare, and it was ridiculously cheap. We couldn't go at the same time as my friends, but we decided, the end of May is probably a good idea. So, we booked our airfare, car rental, vacation rental and packed up and went to Hawaii! We went to the North Shore of Oahu, that's our favorite place. Get away from all the touristy stuff of Honolulu and Waikiki. Which, are good one day things, but only one day. It's almost mayhem.

Jeff had still a partially injured ankle from his car accident last month, but so long as he came home each night, and iced it and wrapped it up, he was free to play as he liked, the next day.

We did the one afternoon in Waikiki thing. Jeffs old ship he was on, the Stennis, happened to be in port while we were there. And, there was a leak on the ship, so they were delayed and we saw people we usually wouldn't see during and probably after deployment.

As I;m trying to write this out, I'm oddly drawing a blank after only being home from the vacation, 2-3 days. Either way, we baked in the heat and the sun, got sunburned, but loved it!


We saw this, and it was a homeless persons tropical, oceanfront shelter. You can see their stuff off to the right. I didn't want to climb in it..


I LOVE this one! You can see the blue dancing across the top of the water. This is Shark's cove, across the street.





my new favorite picture of Jeff. He's half floating, half sinking.


We got an underwater camera, and we totally love it!


a fishy


This is at the tip top part of Oahu, it was all unpaved dirt roads, you don't get any higher up than this place! It was pretty cool up there.


Jeff and his friend Crystal. She's on the currently deployed Stennis. She worked with him the nuclear reactor dept.


In the warm water. Cold sand though!


Our old roomie, DanDan....or, just Dan. He's from Maui actually.


The Stennis, not a very good photo, but I'll be back to edit this more when I don't have so much to do!

All in all, the beaches were fabulous, we had a good time, we like the new color of our skin, but most of all, we were soooo happy to come home to excited little kiddies! I got really anxious towards the end of it, I just missed my baby, and girl. I think we'll take the kids next time :)

Meet "Silver Lightning"!

I don't know how many people know but let it be know, to everyone, that JEFF, totalled our last car. Not me! I'm going to sound like a bad wife for saying this, but, better him than me! I'd have my butt handed to me since I'm on "probation" (I can't get any moving violations) for the next 2 years. Per a mean judge's orders. ANd actually, Jeff agreed with me, he was happy it had happened to him, and not to me.

Long story short, Jeff and his Colleague, Sepencer (his last name, it's the Navy, we don't know first names, just last)were heading to an auto place. Jeff was following him. Spencer turned left at a yield. Jeff was off in la la land, watching a nice lady pick up trash on the street. Jeff out of the corner of his eye, saw his colleague turn, and he didn't check for traffic when he did. SLAMMED into a Dadoge Ram hauling down a main drag in Tacoma, and hit Jeff. OR, Jeff hit him. Whichever you prefer. The airbags went off,windshield busted, and the front end of it was destroyed. I'd show pictures, but I didn't like that car to begin with, so really, just trust me. and the only real damage Jeff's had, was his right ankle. It's all kinds of purple and nasty looking. The first day, he was in bad pain, he couldn't walk on it. We went to the army hospital, and come to find out, he'd only sprained it. Better than a break! Anyway, he's been going to a chiropractor a few days a week to help it out. (Jeff is big on chiropractors) Anyway, that put us down to one car when that wreck happened. Glory hallelujah though for this part. That day, of the accident, Jeff was going to take the Scion XB we are babysitting for a friend that's on deployment until end of summer. He ran out of time, and forgot to take that car. I'm glad he didn't take it, because that's not our car! (we're supposed to drive it on occaion so that battery doesn't die etc) That would've been horribly bad if he had totalled a car that's only a year old!

We decided, ok, let's get a new car. Should we get me my own car, or just let me drive Jeff's car? Jeff is so picky about the miles on the mazda. It's honestly a guys car because the suspension is rough, and meant for speed (hence the name mazdaspeed3) not for a around the town car really. And, it has 31K on it already, Jeff doesn't like that fact. Either way, we started loooking at new cars, with all the insane specials dealers are having trying to get people to buy, because the economy and the car industry are hurting. We'd eyed a 2009-2010 Ford Fusion. But, when push came to shove, we didn't want to pay 20 or 30K for a new ford vehicle. We just needed something that I could drive, that wasn't Jeffs car, but had all the specs I wanted.

We finally came across a 2002 (I think) VW Passat. In North Seattle. (that's a drive from here) It had low miles, and pretty much every bell and whistle I wanted, minus a navigation system because I lack ANY sense of direction. Nor do I stop to ask. (thank the craigslist killer for that, just kidding) Anyway, after about 2 hours at teh dealership, we were driving off with a second car for me, and new car for the kids. It's really roomy! While we were in the Seattle vicinity, we decided to go swing by my moms across teh water and see how she and Leena are doing. We showed Leena the car and holy smokes! You'd think she'd be able to play in it for hours. She probably could! Either way, we both really like it, and got a navigation system put in it yesterday. That was a chunk of change. But, Jeff was a doll and let me have what I wanted in it. Next thing we'll do in a while is, put the dvd system we have for the kids, in the back of the headrests. WOOHOO! Fun-mobile!

So, now my car is jokingly called "silver lightning" and Jeffs is "silver thunder". They're both silver.

We like it!


Interior

The voice activated phone, bluetooth, all that stuff. Just missing DVD, but I'm ok with that.

The backseat which comfortably sits 3. Considering hte value of it, we got a steal on it, no complaints here!
ANd, as I was typing this out, Jeff came down here with Landon, and Landonw as having a total blast on Jeffs shoulders. I grabbed the XD card out of the laptop, put it in the camera, just in time :)


My new favorite pictue!


My little explorer all rady for a day outside!


Lastly, 5 days til HAWAII!!! I need a break!