Happy Birthday Bryan!!

As stated in the Father's Day post, we celebrated Bryan's birthday early because Bryan works most weekends now. Neither he nor I like cake very much, and the last ice cream cake I got him wasn't that great--so here he is with an angel food cake topped with a few strawberries.


We served each slice with many more strawberries, topped with Cool Whip. It was fantastic! And here's Bryan opening some of his gifts. Note the beer at his side.



He might make a habit out of celebrating his birthday early, because he knows I just can't let his real birthday date go by without celebrating again. I hope the kids don't catch on to this idea...

So, what did Bryan get for his birthday? Well, since anything he wants, he goes online and buys for himself (always at a good price)--it was very hard to figure out something he needed that he didn't already have. Tyler came up with a great idea--break something of Daddy's so he can get a new one!! And what did Tyler decide to break?--Daddy's brand new car! You know, the one that just got out of the body shop from the little accident that happened a few weeks ago?

The body shop had to remove one of the rear doors to repaint the rear quarter panel. Apparently, when they reinstalled the door it was not properly aligned, making it hard to open. We did not know this until Tyler repeatedly jerked on the door handle so hard that it broke. And the door didn't open. Needless to say, Bryan was furious!!! Here is what the handle is supposed to look like:



Here is what it looks like now:


Doesn't look like much, but the door will not open at all and you can't even pop the inside panel off to try to fix it yourself at home. Luckily, the body shop is going to repair it for free because the root cause was misalignment of the door when they put it back on.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to the Man of My Dreams!

Blog Fart Friday!

Blog Farts – noun. Def: Crappy ideas that are too short to make a real blog post, but when combined, join forces to make one unified, albeit half assed, post.

This week's little farts:

• While swimming in the pool Sunday, Brandon kept getting in trouble and finally resorted to tears to get his way. He had swimming goggles on, so our neighbor told him he could get back into the pool after he filled his goggles up with tears. Brandon didn't think that was very funny.
• We went to Best Buy and there were no kids playing Guitar Hero on the PS3 demo, and the store was quiet, peaceful and calm. We must have been in another dimension.
• Tyler informed me the other day that he wanted a knuckle sandwich from the sandwich shop.
  
  

Summer is Here and So Is T-Ball

Hey, batter-batter-batter, sa-WING-batter...Brandon loves to play catcher so he can talk smak:



And here he is at bat:

Welcome to Our ool

Growing up, I used to go to Campfire camp near Sipapu, New Mexico. They had an indoor pool with this sign:

So while we were in the neighbor's pool this weekend, I was thinking of our rowdy little boys--wondering if the neighbors worried about them peeing in the pool. Lucky for me, the boys each decided to get out an announce they had to go to the bathroom. So instead of peeing in the neighbor's pool, they tracked wet feet and left a trail of water through the house to the bathroom. We may have some ornery little boys, but at least they don't pee in the pool!

Happy Father's Day!

We actually hosted a Father's Day/Bryan's Birthday celebration at our house a few weekends ago due to conflicting schedules. I was pretty proud of myself for actually making "real" appetizers, and for finding a great marinade recipe for chicken k-bobs. Oh, but this isn't supposed to be about me--this is supposed to be about Father's Day (I'll talk about Bryan's birthday when it's time).

Here's a picture of Pops and Brad laughing about the Father's Day card containing a magical gift of hair to cover bald spots (if you're a family member/close friend of our family, you'll get the joke):


Here are two pouting cousins--not sure what the problem was:



As for Bryan, I don't have any good Father's Day pictures this year. But I do want to say that his kids absolutely adore him and I think he makes a great Dad.

And for my own Dad--I want to thank him for always being there for me, even through all the dumb stuff I've done growing up (and even in adulthood).

The Backseat Driver Wins!

I obviously have not nagged Bryan enough about his driving habits. He gets super annoyed with all my squeals, barks, and crazy looks as I ride next to him in his car. And then he loves to remind me that he was not the last person to be in a car wreck...I was. And then I shut up for a few minutes until I just can't help myself... So yeah, that brand new car the he bought at the end of January? I got the call late Tuesday night as he was on his way into work. Car wreck. The best part? It was his fault. I am still confused over what exactly happened, but he clearly admits it's his fault and no one was hurt, so the only thing left to worry about is the condition of his car. When he called, I was passed out on the couch and a little incoherent. He talks fast when he gets excited, so I was thinking the while side of his car was smashed. Here are a couple of pictures:


Can you see it? Just a few scratches--the body shop estimate was barely over our insurance deductible. The best part about this is that he can no longer hang my old car wreck over my head when I nag him about his driving habits. HA!

Blog Fart Friday

Blog Farts – noun. Def: Crappy ideas that are too short to make a real blog post, but when combined, join forces to make one unified, albeit half assed, post.

• Brandon's last day of first grade was today (Thursday). The woman in charge of our daycare said he stormed in, fresh off the bus, with his arms held high in the air celebrating the last day. She said "he probably feels like he's been paroled!" (Referring to the numerous times he's been in trouble at school this year.)
• Bryan found out last weekend that bad things happen when he puts a packet of Splenda in his beer. Go try it for yourself.
• Nick found out about thorns the hard way at Brandon's t-ball practice a few nights ago. He refused to listen to mommy's warnings, and when he finally figured out that mommy was right, he already had thorny bushes attached to his belly and thigh. They left superficial scratches, and he decided to steer clear of the bushes after that.
  
  

Preschool Graduation

Son #2 graduated from preschool Tuesday morning!

Here he his with Ms Lottie, who has been watching over him since he was 6-weeks old:

And here's a shot with his mommy & daddy--one of us was up all night working the midnight shift, and the other had just come from the shipyard with hat hair:

Batman!

As usual, turn off the music at the bottom of the blog before viewing!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I Got a New Dryer! Na-na-nee-boo-boo!

Contrary to popular belief, I did not sabotage my dryer just to get a new one. I even let Bryan totally disassemble it in an attempt to salvage it, but even my genious husband couldn't raise this thing from the dead. If you've ever been curious about what the inside of a dryer looks like, here it is without the drum:



I also found out, as I moved it from it's resting position, that he truly disassembled the entire thing--there is nothing holding the top or sides together (funny the pictures I take just to blog!)

So, our new washer and dryer came today. Yes. Washer and dryer. No, there wasn't anything wrong with our washer. Before you shake your head at me, the new washer wasn't my idea! That's right--point your fingers at Bryan. He's the one who couldn't have a mispatched washer & dryer. And since he's the one who wanted a matching set, we of course ended up with the ones with the most buttons and gadgets...

We actually bought a top-of-the-line LG washer as an "open item" from Best Buy at less than half price (!) and the dryers were extremely on sale, so we got a very good deal on the pair.

Practicing for His Own

Here's Tyler, who has been practicing every day for his upcoming preschool graduation:


And Brandon is practicing going back to preschool, since he got in an actual fight on the school bus yesterday, hid the note about it from us, then told the principle that he did give it to us and that we didn't sign it.

What is With That #@%& Alarm?!

I was awakened by a strange sound a few nights ago that made me get up to investigate. Bryan has been working the evening shift, and has a habit of coming home just to fall asleep on the couch watching TV. Did I mention that he's deaf, so he turns it up so loud that the neighbors can hear? Anyhow, I assumed the strange noise was coming from a TV show, but the minute I poked my head out of the room the sound was gone. So I went and got comfortable in bed.

Just as I drifted off, the sound started again. A beeping sound, like a travel alarm clock. What the ...? I sighed, rolled my eyes and started out of bed again. Then it stopped. Grrr...

I started thinking through my mind where the heck a travel alarm clock would be in our room. Did my little nephew hide one in our room a few weeks ago while he was visiting? Maybe his mom (my sister) put him up to it? It went off again, coming from the direction of our couch under the front window. I jumped up and started digging through the piles of blankets and pillows junked all over the couch. It stopped. Ok, WTF?

I just wanna get some friggin' sleep!! I stood in front of that couch waiting for it to go off again, and just when I was about to give up--it started again. As I honed in on the source, I swore I heard it...outside?! I peeked through the blinds and sure enough, it was Bryan's car. What?! His car alarm is going off! I started yelling for him, yelled over the balcony, and ran downstairs (because he wasn't budging from the sleeping position). As he came to and realized what I was yelling about, he went outside to investigate. (The alarm was not on at this point).

Nothing. No break-in, no open doors. Bryan thought I was crazy. "If you missed me, just say so" as if the only reason I ran downstairs screaming at him to wake up is because I just needed some lovin'. Just then, the alarm started again. Coincidentally, so did his phone. Because his phone syncs with his car, I thought maybe his ringing phone was causing the horn to honk. As that great idea rolled off my tongue, Bryan looked at me as if I was a total idiot. Come on!--it's past 1 AM! I thought it was a darn good explanation for random horn honking... Well, he pulled the car into the garage and left it unlocked. The alarm never went off again (thank God, or I would have torn the battery out with my bare hands) and we never figured out what happened.

Our Link to the Maersk Alabama

As some of you know, I got my undergrad from Texas A&M at Galveston along with a Third Assistant Engineer's License to operate unlimited horsepower steam and motor driven merchant ships. During my time in school there, I met all kinds of people who I have kept in touch with. I recently received an e-mail chain from my sister, whose husband I also went to school with and who is the Captain of his own giant pirate ship somewhere (according to his 3 little nephews.) It contained some good details and lessons learned by the crew of the Maersk Alabama intended for fellow mariners. The e-mail originated from the First Assistant Engineer of the ship, and was sent to the First A/E of the Maersk Arkansas--who used to be his room-mate, and who I happened to go to school with at A&M! (and somehow I bet he knows someone who has a cousin who has a dog that was in a movie with Kevin Bacon...)

Well, this post isn't so much about the Maersk Alabama as it is about me being happy to find someone who I never thought I'd be able to track down. We all scattered around the globe on ships, oil rigs, etc. after school, so it's been hard getting back in touch. Crackbook has been great. (I love my computer because all my friends are in it!) And now I have this blog for everyone to refer to for my goings on, etc. (and for all you creepy people who like to stalk other families.)

Jen's New Weight Loss Plan

I have a new company-sponsored weight loss plan. They pay me to lose weight. They want me to lose weight so bad that they're pushing me to work overtime on it. It involves sweating my butt off while climbing through the sweltering bowels of a ship. It's hot, humid, and dirty. And the propulsion plant is not even up, and it's not even officially summer weather yet.

OK, so really my company really doesn't give a crap about what I weigh. What they have done is sent me down to a big, very old ship with the hopes that I can lend a big hand to help get it back up and going...and out of our shipyard. The real reason they sent me down there is to get more experience with the guys who are actually turning wrenches. Hello! I went to a maritime academy--I think I've done my time turning wrenches and bilge-diving in unbearable heat! This is a direct result of losing out on that cool promotion I was going for. A perceived lack of shipyard waterfront experience, due to my lack of marketing skills (I can only seem to toot my own bullhorn to an unknown audience over the internet.) I expressed my frustration to my chain of command, who agreed that these old-school yard birds are out of touch with what we do in my department and with what actually goes on down in the shipyard. Maybe that's why the yard hasn't delivered an aircraft carrier on schedule in a long, long time??? There has never been a schedule/quality issue with the out-of-yard work my department directly manages...hmmm. Don't get me wrong--the guy who beat me out is really good.

I digress. My background got the attention of two VPs (yeah..WOW!) So they decided to develop my skills further by sending me down to the unfixable ship, the USS Enterprise. I now spend my days down in the propulsion plant doing what I can to prioritize work for the tradespeople and showing them where the hard-to-find jobs are. So far it's okay--my body is just not used to being in that environment anymore. What's cool is that Bryan is also working on this ship, so we actually get to see each other at work now & then, and have something common to talk about. It's actually how we first met--working together on the USS Nimitz.

It's still a shock to go from my cushy desk job overlooking the river in an all-glass building. I had a super-flexible 8-hour-a-day, 5-day-a-week job. Now I'm facing 12-hour days with weekends and rotating shiftwork. Been there, done that. Pre-family. I have 3 kids, t-ball games, and a husband who is already battling his own work conditions. We rely heavily on the stability and flexibility of my work schedule, which is now out the window.

Anyhow, the VPs are testing me and my capabilities--I have never failed at any job in this company, and I don't intend to start now. I have to survive until late fall...

Graduation Final Re-Cap--the Big Day/Night

Re-Cap #3 ended with "I'm fairly certain that we all ate our body weight that night." Thursday evening was a treat because some of our campus friends met up with us for dinner. Keep in mind that as distance students, we often team up with campus students for school projects but still have never met each other, other than voices over the phones or overheard during lectures. So two of our former campus team-mates came in, Jill and Michelle, and we ended up wandering the streets of DC until we came upon a posh little place to eat with some good outdoor tables. We chatted about school, kids, husbands--you know, the usual female-chatter. It was just so nice to finally meet them in person--made me feel more connected to the school, rather than an outsider looking in. I didn't have my camera with me, but Ms. Hoffman did--she owes me some pictures of all of us together.

Friday morning many of us checked out of the hotel. I mentioned in earlier posts the billing mess that started as a result of the unhelpful front desk guy--well it kept going from there. I'll just say that after the week-long fiasco and the final billing issues, I will never, ever stay at another Club Quarters nor will I let someone I don't know place room reservations for me (I was not the only person who had major problems). Since my family was en route to DC and we would be staying at another hotel, I dragged my bags with me to my final day of school and then onto the Metro to the new hotel. I learned when I went to Japan that negotiating subways and trains is much, much easier with little baggage...apparently I forgot learning that lesson and showed up at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel sweating, exhausted, and irritated from dragging all my friggin' bags everywhere!

Fortunately, this hotel was 180-degrees away from Club Quarters, and in a great location for sight-seeing. By the time we checked in, grabbed a late lunch, and cleaned up for graduation night, it was time to get to the ceremony. I was actually a few minutes late to line up, so I didn't get any pictures in my "regalia" with my classmates...then our crappy camera didn't focus well in the arena so I don't have any of the ceremony! I was able to get a few good ones with my family:

Blog Fart Friday

Yeah, I know I still haven't wrapped up the graduation re-cap... My work life has been turned upside-down (not in a bad way--just on a temporary assignment that I'll write about later.) Anyhow, today is my favorite: BLOG.FART.FRIDAY.

Blog Farts – noun. Def: Crappy ideas that are too short to make a real blog post, but when combined, join forces to make one unified, albeit half assed, post. Hosted by Jaci.

And because of my new work life, these will be short and probably a little lame:

• Tyler is the pre-school mob boss. He got a "bad note" from his preschool teacher yesterday because he told one of his friends to beat up another kid in class for him.


• Bryan and I have been watching NBC's new "reality" show 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here'. There's two spoiled brats on this show, Heidi & Spencer from a stupid show called "The Hills", who are the most selfish people on the planet but justify it by overly expressing their Christianity. Makes me sick when people use their "religion" to justify being a-holes. It's not just the Muslim extremists--it's a lot of Christians too!


• Our neighbors sunk a whole lotta money into a beautiful landscaped backyard with an in-ground pool, hot tub, and patio. They keep asking us why we don't come over more often--hey, I'm not going to invite myself over to someone's house to use their pool! If they invite us, that's great--we'll come. But I can't just use the "open-door" policy at a private house, even though we are good friends. Sure--we'd love to be in their backyard every night! But why do people say "Hey, come over anytime"? I feel like we'd be taking advantage of them. Really, I'm jealous...

Little Boys...

Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of tampons and proceeded to the checkout counter.

The pharmacist at the counter asked the older boy, 'Son, how old are you?'

'Eight', the boy replied.

The pharmacist continued, 'Do you know what these are used for?'

The boy replied, 'Not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother. He's four.. We saw on TV that if you use these, you would be able to swim, play tennis and ride a bike. Right now, he can't do none of those'.

I have three little boys...