If You Give a Pig a Pancake ... Breakfast

another MOMC activity this morning. A read-aloud pancake breakfast. We even "won" a door-prize (technically, we got to bring home an unclaimed doorprize, Wilson did not get the satisfaction of hearing his number called... but he was happy anyway!)

We met Nicole & Gavin. It was quite fun.

Walker brought the balloons along on a couple errands, he was so cute at the hospital (pharmacy) that I had to snap his picture... which he didn't like... Made me think about writing a book, "If You Give a Boy a Balloon..." It could work ;)

MOMC Activity

MOMC? you ask... Month of the Military Child. April. Dedicated to the military child. Filled with activities to celebrate these little guys (and gals) that go through SO much just because of the job their parent(s) chose. Growing up away from grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... Moving every few years... Being away from one (or both) parents for extended periods of time... Yeah, I think they deserve to be celebrated. But I am a little partial.

Today we got to go to a Disney Magical Dreams Brunch. We had to choose a character to sit with when we picked up our tickets last month and for some reason Walker chose Peter Pan...
And I must admit, they looked pretty cute in their Peter Pan hats...

There were a couple ladies from PWOC with their kids at my table and it took the boys all of five seconds to decide to use those feathers as swords...

We ALL got in the spirit...
And the boys with Mr. Pan himself... I was pretty surprised that they were willing to pose with him

Toward the end, Walker had to show Peter Pan his goodie bag. And he also tapped him on the arm and said, "I watch you on TV." And Peter Pan - bless his heart- knelt down and said, "I wondered if anyone watched my show." (We did watch Peter Pan last week for Saturday pizza & movie night.)

Here is a picture of the centerpiece and all the goodie bags. I think there were 8 characters altogether throughout the room. (Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Tinkerbell, Jack Sparrow, Buzz Lightyear, and Mr. Incredible.... still surprised Walker picked Peter Pan... each character's tables had different goodie bags with all kinds of fun stuff!)

We had a great time. The boys had fun with their friends, and it was very well done. I was glad that we were able to participate and thankful that the military is honoring these special little kiddos! (They have events all month for all age groups, this just happens to be the first thing that we have done.)

the long and winding post...

FOR REAL.

You may want to get yourself comfy if you plan on making it to the end of this here post.

Ok, as you might remember, last Tuesday was a day of fun in OKC. A long day of fun. Wednesday was a down day of laundry and return to normalcy. Thursday I had a dentist appt (ewww) then some errands, while squeezing in lunch at Chick-Fil-A, followed by a massage (ahhh!). And then, Thursday after dinner. My whole body ached and my throat and ears started hurting. Friday I HAD to go buy some groceries after I took Wil to school and then I slept off and on between taking motrin and actifed. I met Wilson on the front porch wearing PJ pants and my robe. Classy. We chatted about walking across the street to the 'neighborhood' Easter egg hunt. I took off the robe, put on some jeans, tried to make some sort of sense of the mess upon my head that is commonly referred to as hair. And off we went. I am glad we did too. We made a decision to never-again attend a free-for-all-eggs-laying-in-the-grass-in-plain-sight-egg-hunt. Never. Again. Ever. Here is Wilson before the fiasco... Walker didn't even want his picture taken, I blame my poor instincts on the fact that I was feeling pretty blah at this point. Otherwise, I might've known better. Saturday morning we were supposed to have brunch with the Easter bunny. We were 3 of the first 250 people to get the tickets for this brunch. I promised my boys we would go. And with daddy gone, promises are even more important. So we had a lazy morning and I prayed, Wilson prayed that I would feel better, but after his prayer he told me to go take medicine. He obviously believes that faith takes action, and I was glad to have learned that about him this weekend. So I did take some motrin and actifed. I told him it was time to get dressed and that I needed him to do it without fighting with Walker.... because seriously, the screaming, it really hurt my ears. And if I had to raise my voice... it really hurt my ears AND my throat. Wilson said he would rather have a PJ saturday and I made sure he was fine with it. And then I thanked God for this little guy!

So we took advantage of my window of 'feeling decent' and colored our eggs. I read them the Easter story from Wilson's bible during the wait. This worked out awesomely, and we may have stumbled upon a new tradition. Our eggs were some sort of squirting version... their faces while squirting the paint on the dyed eggs were priceless...

Next up, we made tomb rolls. Mom had sent me this recipe weeks ago and I remembered to pick up Grands on Friday. We used bunny marshmallows instead of regular ones, and because they are sort of small, we used two per 'tomb.' So, yes, two bunnies represented the body of Jesus in our tomb rolls. (don't judge me)

And as you can see, "He is not here, He is risen!" When I told Wilson to say that for the picture he said, "He is not here, He is .... long pause...puzzled face... in prison?" Maybe we should read that story again... Anyway, these were actually pretty tasty, and sort-of-melty which helped ease them down my throat.

Saturday night was a hard one. Bedtime did not go smoothly at all. I am extremely irritable when I am sick, I have been spoiled throughout our marriage with a husband that TOTALLY babies me when I am sick, so this was really, really hard. I mean, r-e-a-l-l-y hard. But I did get to IM with Brad for a bit right after I put the boys to bed, and the combination of Brad and the Holy Spirit kicked me out of my circle of self-pity. And also, really nailed my previous proclamation of arriving at contentment. That was much more the Holy Spirit than Brad. And yes, it was obvious and true. So I spent much of Saturday evening praying before bed. It was a sweet time. And then the rain came and the thunder and lightening lulled me to sleep.

I felt pretty decent Easter morning, though I hadn't slept that well. By now, I was taking 800mg of motrin every 6 hours. The morning went pretty smoothly, honestly, I don't remember getting the boys dressed... but I have evidence that I did...

After church, we went to a friend's house (Renee) who had her whole family over... I think there were at least 35 people there. And tons of kids. The boys had a blast!

Renee's brother is a children's pastor in a nearby town and he did a magic show for the kids... As soon as Wilson heard the mention of magic he picked his spot and sat right down.

The magic show held the attention so the eggs could be hidden (inside due to rain). This is the type of egg hunt that works for us... egg limits and all. Perfect. Fair. No stranger danger or golden eggs.

And to top it off, Renee's niece was turning two this week so they brought cupcakes for everyone. Love Wilson with the pink frosting on his lips.

And, you know, sometimes I give Walker a hard time for all his-on-the-go-ness. But he is obedient. When he picked out his chocolate cupcake with mounds of icing, I said, "Go sit with Mr. Curry and eat that..." And sure enough, he did. And I didn't hear any complaints from Mr. Curry either. (Renee invited a couple other military families from our SS class over that don't have extended family here to join her clan. Barbie and Curry were in that group too. Natch.)

After all that fun, we went home and changed into warm clothes. I sat and watched the boys play with their giant horseshoes that they got for Easter. From us. We have abandoned the Easter bunny this year. I LOVE Walker's face in this picture as he wonders what on earth these things are for...
Really, most of the day Sunday I was fine. But things got bad over night, and I knew I had to see a doctor on Monday. Of course its not that easy getting an appointment after a holiday weekend. But thankfully, if you mention that you think you have strep they will test you. I never actually thought I had strep until Monday. Brad told me Saturday morning that he thought that was what it sounded like. My fever wasn't ever very high, and I thought it should be. Anyway. He was right. I did have strep. So Barbie volunteered to watch the boys Monday night and Tuesday morning they came by for a short visit before school while Barbie went over to the hospital for some thyroid test-related stuff....

The boys blew dandelion seeds all over while we waited for their pick-up... She took Wilson to school and Walker with her, and left me The Travelling Pants (1 and 2) and orders to "DO NOTHING."

And this morning. After a long few days with a sick momma, Walker got dressed all by himself. Fleece sweats, and cowboy boots. I couldn't dare tell him that it was supposed to be 74 degrees today. He was so proud. And so was I. He told Wilson, and Wilson said, "Cool!" It was so cute.

So after all that, and even though they got all sorts of treats this weekend, I bought them Bomb Pops today. I wanted to reward their good behavior despite my irritability. You know, to let them know that I think they are... the Bomb.

And also these bubble batons that are awesome and only $1 at Wal-Mart. Of course, we refer to them as bubble swords in our yard, but that's allright. These boys are awesome!

Honestly, I am feeling a TON better. So thankful for that. And neither of the boys has any symptoms of strep, so I am continuing to hope and pray that it was just me with the lousy immune system.

Also, I am trying to decide if Barbie would be more thrilled with a Bomb-pop--thank-you or a bubble-sword-thank-you (she could call hers a baton). Not only did she watch the boys Monday night, and Walker all day Tuesday. She came over today and helped me clean my house! For real!

Not the Easter weekend I had anticipated, but God taught me some tremendous things about Himself through all of this. And He continues to, and I am so grateful once again.

real quick...

I have strep throat. PLEASE pray that the boys don't get it.

I will post about our Easter when I am feeling better. I have been sick since Friday, but thankfully God blessed me with a couple hours of feeling decent to do some fun, memorable things with the boys this weekend.

I had my strep swab today, so the boys are spending the night with Miss Barbie and Logan so I can rest. Praise God for my loving friends!

Thank you for praying!

good-bye...

I made Wilson snap a picture of us girls at the airport this morning, because I realized that we didn't have one of the three of us from the visit. Walker thought maybe we were going with them... and anyone that has said 'good-bye' to this guy will recognize that look. Good-byes are getting harder for this little fellow. He had tears when we got in the car...

THANKFULLY... Brad's Aunt Hilda happened to be visiting her daughter, Cara, this week (who lives near OKC) so we got to meet up with them right after the airport. And Cara has a five-year-old son that was home and ready to play! We had to snap a quick picture of the boys on our way out...

You can see they had a good time =)

fun fun fun

We had a BEAUTIFUL, SUNNY Saturday with temps at the 80 degree mark. So we took advantage of the weather and headed outside... We planned on going to the "Prairie Dog Park" but detoured a bit around post...

We even discovered a brand new playground...with a really weird slide... Walker had some assistance on his solo trip...

And more assistance on his first trip down...

Wilson insisted that he could do it himself!

They all climbed up on whatever-this-thing-is so I had to take a picture...

Here they are on the steps of the old post guardhouse... Geronimo was held in a cell in this basement. After nearly three years here, I finally made it to some of the museums on post!

And we were some of the first visitors to the newly opened Native American Exhibit - it just opened Saturday. I am not sure that we learned that much because it was kind of hard to read while Walker was banging on the BRAND-NEW glass! (these are a little out of order, but you don't really mind, right?) Here are the boys attempting to ring the bell at Old Post Chapel...well, they are just posing here...

Walker recruited the big guns to finally get it to ring...

We finally headed over to the park with all the prairie dogs, Ari and Wilson bravely attempted to catch a few...

And we ended our evening (AFTER WATCHING THE STATE GAME) at the Wildlife Refuge where the longest running outdoor Easter Pageant took place... Its been here every year for 84 years! We were a bit surprised to see the funnel cake truck at the top of the hill...

Here we are all snuggled up for the show...

Here is a scene with John the Baptist... the pageant tells the ENTIRE story of Jesus' life. We didn't make it through the whole thing though...

Not sure what part this was... it kept getting colder and colder, and windier and windier (is windier a word???), and besides that the show wasn't supposed to end until 10:45, so we called it quits around 9:30.

Yesterday we observed the Sabbath and rested after church. No pictures.

company's coming!

the welcoming party... we were a little early - well, the plane was a little late - the boys were SO good while we waited...the OKC airport is big, but not busy so they tried some hop-scotch

waiting for them to appear beyond the security line...

Wilson spotted them!

and they made it!

(you can see Wilson got nervous and hid behind the stroller, but that didn't last long!)

stay tuned...more fun to come...

tremendously awesome

I finished the last of my sewing projects... at least until sometime after Linds & Ari leave. The boys were pretty happy to get their ACU crayon rolls. I made a practice one, back in December, and it turned out pretty well, and it was so simple, that I just made two of them then without actually cutting up one of Brad's old shirts (I used the flannel from PJ pants last year). Anyway, after Wilson saw the ACU crayon rolls I made for Colson and Jack, he decided he did want one after all! I had some sewing machine issues last night, but Mom sent me some great troubleshooting list and I got it sorted out... Yesterday, Walker and I met up with some of the ladies from our "Deployed Spouses Support Group" and drove up to Norman, OK to meet some ladies from a Bible study group in Owasso (by Tulsa, OK - and pronounced just like Owosso, MI), that have adopted us!

My friend Katie, decided to start the support group and we meet at our church every Sunday evening. It is not a church-thing its just at the church and they provide free childcare. Katie thought it would be good to have a place that we could get together and just chat about how things are going in our lives... Her husband is a chaplain and they keep connected with people via newsletter. One lady that they used to go to church with contacted Katie after reading about the support group and asked if her Bible study group could "adopt" each of us!

Here is Walker with Katie...


And here is my "special friend", Christy with her daughter Annaka. We have emailed a few times in the last month or so and she has also sent me a card. I was excited to meet her because I am not good at the 'pen pal' stuff. It was wonderful, we all had lunch together, I think there were over 20 of us altogether. What a blessing!

Ok, I do have a question for y'all. Can you think of something we can call one another besides "special friend," or "adopted friend." We even tried "secret friend," - that one sounds creepy! Their group is called "The Crossings" and ours has a really catchy name "Deployed Spouses Support Group." Any ideas??? Feel free to think about this off and on throughout the day and let me know all of your ideas. Maybe I can throw in a crayon cozy for a winning name - in a few weeks of course!

The ladies gave each of us a little spring goody bag too. It was a tremendously awesome day for us! Plus Walker was a champ in the car!

You will make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness and joy; in your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 16:11