The Summer is almost over.....

*Sigh*
I am usually looking foward to the end of summer. The girls go back to school, I get biggwrl all to myself. I get some quiet time. But this year... it seems like the summer has rushed past this year. We started out with Middlest's birthday and ran straight into our big family visiting trip,  then Eldest went on her big trip to Virgina, Big Daddy got laid off, we went on vacation, Pookieboo had knee replacment surgery, Mommy and Me camp, and Aunt Oregon visiting.. and here we are at the end of the summer.
Doesn't seem like so much now.
We only visited 13 states
an ocean
the Nations Capitol
Tom Sawyers house
Lincolns tomb
Met TONS of family
got to see what live chickens look like
did a TON of hiking
we had so much fun at Sumatanga
Went swimming at the river
saw soo much stuff
Its been a great summer. I cant wait to see what we can squeeze in this last week.

nightmares

Middlest and I had a full day today. FULL. Aunt Oregon is visiting right now and is spending time with each girl before she has to go back. Since Eldest was at her mothers that meant Middlest and I had the WHOLE day to ourselves. We had Hot Dogs for lunch, then vegged out and then went window shopping. So much fun! Anyways the poor baby has been having nightmares all night tonight. I blame the crappy hotdog restraunt. The first one was about a shark swimming on the beach and eatting her and then she had another one about being trapped in quicksand and mommy wasn't able to save her. :(( poor little girl :(( So after the second nightmare. We went and took a bath in mommy's tub ( which is sooo big so it's special) and we "washed those dreams right out of our hair" MAN am i a good mommy or what? First of all I thought to do it and Second I remebered all the words and managed to switch them to dreams. Oh and she also remembered the song! So HOPEFULLY singing a special song will help her to block out the bad dreams. She asked what Gramma would do for us but I couldn't remember.. i felt so bad. So I had to explain its been a long time since I was a little girl. Luckily she bought it.

The nightmare song

I'm gonna wash those dreams right outta my hair x3
If those dreams dont understand you..
If you fly on seprate beams...
waste a time make a change
Ride those dreams right off our range..
rub them out of your roll call
and drum them out of your dreams...
woah hoah woah hoah
i'm gonna wash those dreams right outta my hair x3

30 days of popcicles day 5

Today was Verners float pops.
We mixed Verners Gingersoda and Vanilla yogurt. ( We used yogurt instead of Ice cream)
It tasted a little like the melted leftovers from your float.. you know when the Ice Cream and soda are melted together? But it had that distinct yogurt tang to it. It was good Eldest really seemed to enjoy it I however didn't care to much for it. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either. Just not my cup of tea.
I could tell Biggrl didn't care much for it either because she didn't say it was the bestest pock cicle in the whole world. Gotta love the transparancy of children.

Whale Wars

Do any of you watch Whale Wars? I LOVEit!! It's a love hate relationship. I know why these people are doing what they do and I respect thier dedication. I think Paul Watson is a little off. But thats my opinon.
This weeks episode one of the Shonan Maru ships rammed the Ady Gil a boat new to this season. Holy cow if you watch the show you know how much smack is traded back and forth in the media and such.
The Whaling fleet says one thing
the Sea Shepard says another.
this time it's no exception

This is a repersentation of the Shonan Maru 2

a "research" ship in the whaling fleet.

This is the Ady Gill.

One is a lot bigger than the other.

The Shonan Maru 2 and the Ady Gil were involved in an altercation.

They (AG) were supposed to be annoying the Shonan Maru. The Shonan Maru hit them as in BROKE THE BOAT.

The Whaling fleet says the AG tried to ram them. I mean seriously come on. I know there are two sides to every story but look at the two boats. No one in their right might would do that! Freaking Crazy!

I cant wait for next weeks episode. no matter how dumb :P

30 days of popcicles day 4

We made vitiman water Ice pops last night for our popcicles today. This was eldests choice for the pops this week. They were good. Great flavor. We thought that they needed somthing else perhaps berries.
tonight is Middlests turn for what to make for tomorrows pops... be afraid be VERY afraid.

Ps. Todays popcicles are Verners float pops

30 days of popcicles day 3

We in the Crazy house are always looking for crazy ways to incorperate diffrent skills info every day things. Our latest project is 30 days of popcicles (it will not be everyday) just 30 diffrent types of homemade creative diffrent kinds of pops. Our goal is to show that desserts can be fun, inexpensive, and YUMMY.

Coconut cream pie pops.

Three words : OH MY GOSH!
 Ingredients: Coconut Cream Pie pudding, Toasted coconut, and Grahm cracker crust

There is no picture because well we ate them to fast.

even Eldest who hates coconut liked the popsicles.
Ohhhhhh soooooooooo yummy. Sooooooooo good.
Order of layers... toasted coconut, pudding, crust, coconut, pudding, then crust then bang to settle and mix everything down
Now next time we make these and there will be a next time.. i'll put pudding on the bottom of the mold instead of coconut.. though it did make it easier for them to come out... hmmmmm

30 days of popcicles day 2

We in the Crazy house are always looking for crazy ways to incorperate diffrent skills info every day things. Our latest project is 30 days of popcicles (it will not be everyday) just 30 diffrent types of homemade creative diffrent kinds of pops. Our goal is to show that desserts can be fun, inexpensive, and YUMMY.

 Day 2

We have a ton of sugarfree stuff so we all agreed we would try a few so that Bigdaddy can have some fun too.  We decided to make Chocolate pudding pops with Marshmellows!!!  Once again we made the pudding according to directions ( we always use 1/4cup of milk LESS than directions say if you make a double pkg it's 1/4cup PER same with jello) while it was setting we smooshed mini marshmellos into the pop molds then layered pudding and marshmellows again ( it only takes 3 to 6 mini marshmellow)
Then freeze during the day.

The chocolate pudding expanded around the marshmellows. the Verdict:

The frozen pudding was creamy and yummy.. the marshmellows were a wierd texture though.. but still yummy.

Tomorrows: Coconut Cream Pie Pops

30 days of popcicles day 1

We in the Crazy house are always looking for crazy ways to incorperate diffrent skills info every day things. Our latest project is 30 days of popcicles (it will not be everyday) just 30 diffrent types of homemade creative diffrent kinds of pops.  Our goal is to show that desserts can be fun, inexpensive, and YUMMY.

To start our we went pantry raiding. We found diffrent kinds of jello, pudding, food colorings, and other fun stuff.
our first popsicle day we voted on Peach Jello with drained and rinsed fruit coctail.
we made the jello as instructed and filled the popcicle mold 1/2 then dropped pieces of fruit coctail into the mold until full. We added the sticks and froze them all day.

the Reviews : overwhelming YUMMY.. the frozen fruit was really good.

                                                             

Censorship vs. Education

hold on while I pull my soapbox out and climb on top....
*squeee*
ah there we go.
Now everyone knows I am a walking contridiction. I have liberal views on a lot of things and conservitave views on others (just dont tell Bigdaddy).
One of the things I feel very strongly about is censorship. I DO NOT belive we should censor a lot things from our kids. I do because I love my husband and he is the head of our household and I respect that.
I belive we should educate them about why certian things are or are not allowed or acceptiable.
BigDaddy does not approve of some of the music I let the kids listen to. I RESPECT that. However I DO NOT LIKE IT. I think that we have and are teaching our children why certin things are not appropriate behavior. We discuss sex, clothing, ect. I try to be a no holds barred mom. There is NOTHING I dont talk to my kids about. Especially eldest. Heck I make her watch 16 and preg so she can understand why having sex before marriage is a bad thing. I just dont think we should censor them.
BigDaddy censored a song that the girls and I like... I admit I did throw a bit (tiny bit) of a temperfit. I turned on the CD player in the car. Luckily it was a mixed CD that I made.. he LOVES this CD. The first song was...Wicked games..skip said very loudly KINKY..Wonderful tonight..skip CHEATING...Queen ..skip they're gay... ect. through most of the CD. His responce I love you baby. haha I'm glad. I think I am a good enough mom to explain why certian things are not right.. but in the mean time i'll respect the MANS censorship.. cause he's my man and i love him. Thank you for listening to my rant.

mud fight

I had started the previous post to write about the girls day andd it ended up being about how we all deal with being sick... i guess thats the way things go in the blogsphere.
anyways We all felt SUPER today so we stripped the beds and cleaned the house.
Then after our noon storm/ nap we bathed our poor stinky baby. The girls have NEVER given the dog a bath without mine or bigdaddys help before

Poor Indiana. She looks like why mommy why would you do this to me.

I would have saved her but.. she smelled and now she is pretty and you can tell she is has white areas.

Then the girls discovered it was muddy outside.

Mud... Mommy are there... mud puddles outside... suddenly the other two turn around...mud puddles??

Can we go outside?

Can we play in the mud?

Can we?

Can we?

PUH-LEAZE

*sigh*

go.

get muddy.

just hose off before you come inside.

PUH-LEAZE

this was no lie 3 min after they went outside.

3 min.

Mud EVERYWHERE. Needless to say as the neighbors drove past we got some pretty

odd looks. Is that mom crazy? That family is odd.

Yeah I know.. heard it all before

I am the odd mom but I think they need these times to explore nature and bond with eachother with no rules.

except not in the face.

After they soaked up all the mud they hosed themselves off and filled totes with water and soaked their heads in the bucket. They wanted to see what thier mermaid hair would look like. Now who can arugh with that?

Once they got bored they all came in and showered off AND get this they put all thier clothes in the washing machine.. and started it! Without being told!! Can you belive that ? I mean seriously?! Now... they are all three playing "hairstyle" quietly in the little girls bedroom.

All three volunterarly playing together.

without killing each other!

This is a freaking great day!

except... middlest has picked up.. WHAT THE.. yeah.. Bad mommy yet again

our sick family

So we have been TRYING to get over this nasty tummy bug raceing through our house. It started last week with Big daddy then progressed to the little girls then Mommy got it over the weekend. No matter how hard we try to contain it EVERYONE gets sick.. EVERYONE. And we all have our sickky things we want or things we do... BigDaddy's is 1/2 gatroaide 1/2 water to drink... and lots of movies and sleep. ( he turns into a bear and hibernates) he also wants chicken and dumplings.. which I didn't make this time because he would not have kept it down. The girls want to snuggle and get sickky cups w/ special juice ( pedialight)and watch movies with mommy. If it's not a throwing up bug they want 'Tato soup. Randi never gets sick but she does she wants to either go to mommies house or lay on the couch and watch movies all day without her sisters bugging her. Mommy wants snuggles and loves because I feel like im dying, mashed potatos, and special girl movies and of course Potato soup.
               Its hard to cater to all of our wants when no one feels good, but we all try. I've discovered the hardest part is remembering that our wants and needs are diffrent. I tend to "mother" BigDaddy and he tends to be hands off to me which is the oppisite of what we really want. Even after *chokes* 7 years.. man our annivesary of when we started dating is THURSDAY...crap.. anyways We learn how much we still need to work on things. We love eachother and spoil eachother just not the way we always need. it's kinda sweet in a yucky kind of way.

Space Professionals

As some of you know BigDaddy had been working on a NASA contract and was laid off. Some of the "Space Professionals" have formed a Non profit to help laid off workers with finding LOCAL engineering jobs, networking ect. This is a great idea!! BigDaddy went to the first meeting to lend his support and do a little networking. He was interviewed my a local TV station about his thoughts and expericances. We were proud of him.
news clip
Check him and his snazzy outfit out :)

Hopefully these oppertunities will allow us to stay here. Instead of moving (which we have no problem doing). We are excited to see what God has in his plans for us!

cause im getting sleepy

I' just goint to cut this short and post the slideshow of our trip. Maybe tomorrow I will finish telling you about our trip.

OBX day2

Friday morning this is what I woke up to. Funnily enough this is only 9MPH winds. I was afraid to get out of the tent!!!

Then we went on the ferry so the girls could get to ride on a big boat!!!

They LOVED getting to ride the ferry! LOVED it !!

Then we went body surfing and had soo much fun!

  After surfing we went to go find some soft shell crabs for dinner. Poor Biggwrl fell asleep in the car and just couldnt wake up. She slept all through dinner.

Middlest on the other hand ate a palte full of softshells 2 baskets of hushpuppies AND a HUGE peice of chocolate cake.  She said surfing gived her a BIG appetite!!

Then it was on to bed. The next day we were headed toward DC via the chesapeke bay bridge tunnel

OBX here we come.... or gone as the case may be.

So I haben't wanted to say anything the past few weeks but with the cancelation on the AIRES project looming my husbands job was on the line. Well since eldest ( which is another this I could not mention) was on vaca and needed picking up we decided if BigDaddy lost his job we would go on vacation. Since there hasn't been any time this year for one. We wanted to go camping on the North Carolinaa coast then work our way up to Washington DC where eldest was. Just in time for the 4th of July celebrations. As soon as BigDaddy got laid off we got planning and made reservations at the Capitol KOA ( if you are a camper and going to DC look this place up freaking awesome).Anyways we had planned on leaving early in the AM to start on our 15 hour drive but FORTUNATLY we decided to leave at 11pm. We did not realize from Alabama to the outer banks was 15+ hours. Anyways we set off. The sunrise in the smokies was AMAZING. North Carolina was beautiful the Outer Banks (OBX) was breathtaking. We camped in Hatteras Island state park. It was just a few dunes away from the beach AND not as crowded as a normal beach. We got Shrimp, and Clams for a seafood dupper on the beach. There was nothing like this AT ALL. The stars that night were... breath taking. Its a bit of a let down to look up now and know there are so many more stars than what we can see.