He is Risen!

Yesterday morning (Easter Sunday), EP and I went to the chapel's sunrise service (mr. waaz went to half of it...the other half was spent getting jackets for us all b/c the chaplain decided to take the service outside. two minutes after mr. waaz returned, we moved inside. Thanks anyway, hon. There was a potluck breakfast and then the normal service. K&K and LOM (little old man) Brayden came over for pics afterward, and then we brought broccoli salad and pizza fixin's over to their house for dinner. There was supposed to be a hockey game on (and their tv is bigger), but it was rescheduled or something so we watched part of Blood Diamond instead...until the menfolk remembered that they had to get up at 4 the next morning.








Captions:
Our new buds, Kevin and Kaylee (sp?) and their cutie-patootie Brayden, who was kind enough to model my newest t-shirt diaper AND put up with monster baby, a.k.a. EP's binky swiping
experimental pinching excited screeching friendly advances with the suave demeanor only a little old man could pull off.

We clean up nicely, yeah?










He is Risen Indeed. Happy Easter, everyone :)

I have a new job!!

on the hockey team that is, and no, mom, I didn't get a raise either. Equipment manager? you say. Again, no, my new job is much more, hmm... important. People that I have talked to regularly (about the hockey team) know that one of our biggest problems was finding a goalie. Well it would appear that I have found us one, me. Ugh. It's hot, there are a ton of pads to wear, and by the time we actually get around to playing in actual tournaments I will have the most cut up legs (muscularly toned) ever. I don't know how I got this position but I can assure you that after practice today and a scrimmage against Catania on Wednesday we'll have plenty of pictures.
(mira took pics at practice today...slideshow below)
(mira will also be bringing the camera to the game so look for more to be added later)
XY (who will also [hopefully] be known as "the brick wall')

BUT! the calendar says it's SPRING!

On Tuesday I dug the front flower gardens and thought how pleasant it was the my skin was getting "some color". By evening the first daffodils had bloomed and about 200 more were ready to open.
On Wednesday it rained. Very cold rain.
On Thursday it snowed. And froze the daffs.
On Friday it iced. Some (drooped, crackling) daffodils now had an inch of ice on them.
Okay, maybe that is spring, now that I think of it.
(Easter forecast? Cold and Snowy.)

thrift score

all this for $3.50. Title inspiration from this book (turns out my family isn't the only one with the disease)












quilt not included...it's one I pieced and Granny quilted years ago =)
















and for those of you that are, shall we say, less than interested in thrifty goodness, here's what we ate for dinner a few nights ago. Steak kabobs with crostini (basically, you top french bread slices with market fresh ingredients--I used olive oil, provolone, diced cherry tomatoes and onions, minced garlic--s & p, and fresh chopped herbs from the garden. 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything looks just a bit crispy).

Your Uncle, the thief

Dear Baby Boo,
I found this t-shirt for you today. I was thinking it would make a dandy diaper. Your Uncle thought it would make a dandy t-shirt. He thinks he might get (another) girlfriend if he has another interesting t-shirt. Or, something like that. Lately, the only tricks he does involve that thing attached to his ear, so I don't know who is going to be impressed. See the stars? They were part of a good intention. I made one for your dad, one for your mom, and started one for you. Then I got sidetracked by Christmas. Perhaps you can have them next Christmas. Or, perhaps I will keep them so that I am already decorated for next Christmas.
love,
Granny Boo

If you only knew the right search words. . .

This is supposed to illustrate the previous post :) Can you guess which came from the Navy Safety and Security "don't" file?

Day 1 of a 3 day set*.....

or, Two reasons why I think people are stupid.

Apparently it rained on base last night. I was not aware of this. Our base has a small problem with drainage of said rain water, so the other housing unit, Marinai, (as in the one I don't live in) had what amounted to a small lake in front of it. Since this road is the primary path to get onto base, many people traverse it. Not today. When I got to work at 5 a.m., I was informed that instead of sitting in a nice warm unit all day, I would be standing at one end of said road in a blaze orange vest with a flashlight (as it is still dark out when I start work) and inform commuters (some of which either did not see me or did not question why a police officer would be standing in the middle of the road wearing bright orange and waving at them and simply kept driving. Fine by me but I am sure not calling you a tow truck to pull your car out of the ditch that you can't see because it's covered with water!!!) that they should take the alternate route to work. Reason one that I think people are deficient in their mental capacities is the following conversations that I had with some particular people today:

Me: Good morning, SP-105 is closed due to flooding, you will need to take the alternate route to work today.
Them: Well, how bad is it?
Me: Bad enough for me to be standing out here telling you not to go that way. (duh)
...
Me: Good morning, this road is closed because of flooding in front of housing.
Them: I work in Marinai, can I get there?
Me: in front of housing

***
The second reason is more comical, to me anyway...

Part of my duties today, aside from telling people where not to go was to check on the progress of the lake drainage project. I.E. drive through it and see if it had gone down at all. I was on just such a mission in the late morning, right before we decided that the lake/puddle was now receded enough to allow a normal flow of traffic. In front of me was a small Opel Corsa, (read Ford Pinto only French) making its way through the water. In the opposite lane was, of all things, a guy on a Harley Sportster. (This is dumb, who drives a motorcycle through a lake?) Anyway the Opel is not going particularly fast but is still creating quite a wake, he is driving through at least three inches of standing water. The Harley guy sees this impending wave coming for him and makes rapid gestures toward the driver of the Opel to slow down. The Opel driver of course does not slow down and soaks the Harley guy. The Harley guy's gestures quickly take a more obscene turn as he is obviously quite upset. Harley guy then points at me in my police unit and then viciously at the Opel guy, as if I should give him a ticket for splashing people. Eh, that's what you get for driving a motorcycle through a lake.

*I hope I survive.

Prego

a package arrived yesterday from the Blue Star Families Military Support Group, and aside from the pastel colored cavity creators (a.k.a. jelly beans and peeps), Waaz received jerky from "the crew" at Wilson Beef Farms, and cards from kids in various WNY elementary schools. Excerpts follow:

Dear Soilder Solider Soldier,
...
Roses are red, Violets are blue, I am brave, Just like you. Thank you for fighting for the USA
...
Thank you for saving are lifes. You are everyones heros. We just got done doing tests.
...
Today is Nathional Peanut Butter lovers day, believe it or not! It's also mom's birthday...I love to read, go on the computer, and eat Peanut Butter. What do you like to do. We'll Happy PB and J Day!
...
I hope you do Carfell in the war. My theacer D.A. was in the war to.
...
our weather here is realy cold, and there is lots of snow. I want all the snow to go away... Some questions are how long do you stay away at a time? Another question is do you have fun where you are? Do you like your Job? Come back soon!
...
Happy Easter I hope you survive.

Sincerly Sncerely Love,

xxxxx xxxxxxx

ps: whrite back.

awww! thanks kids, you made our day. and prego.

baby booty

mom's handiwork:
















my handiwork:
red flannel wrap (can you tell what he's doing?) for me,
green flannel sling for a friend...needs to be taken in some,


and the newest receiving blanket diaper and scavenged toy:



























OH! and I almost forgot this one that i finally finished :) (mom-the outfit is from your neighbor, you can tell her thanks again!)





stay tuned!

Introducing: Toby

remember that girl that I alluded to that just had a baby? Well, her neighbor just left on deployment for a few months, and his wife and kid went home, so they asked K to feed the cat for the duration. Why you would ask an imminently pregnant first-time mom to feed your cat is beyond me, but then again so is leaving for 4+ months and not cleaning one's house first. But I digress. K asked me to feed the cat (Toby) while she was in the hospital, and I ended up taking the neighbor's key so she wouldn't feel like she ever had to do it again. After seeing the state of the house, I brought the cat (probably still a kitten? little anyway) up to our house. The dog is in love, but the boy is not so sure. We are amused either way.

Don't worry mom, I still like my cat better; as far as I know he doesn't yowl 24/7 and is not needy.

first video is from the same day as the habanero vid, second is a couple of days ago.

when it rains, it hails.

we've had a pretty dry rainy season this spring (at least that's what they tell me), so 6 days of rain with hail in the middle was actually not the worst thing in the world according to the farmers around here. For the guys wanting to play hockey and the antsy puppy, however, it was a pretty long week. You wanna know what my first thought was? It looked like someone's washing machine exploded in my back yard. Took me several minutes to recognize that it was hail. Man, I've been away from WNY far too long!



































ps: i know, you're sick of pictures of the back yard. house tour was going to happen this week, but then life got in the way. 9 pounds, 8 ounces of life, to be exact. =D i'll post a pic or two as soon as i take more or the originals get emailed to me, whichever comes first.

Tim's Book Recommendation

Tim read this for school (Mrs. Z, for those of you who would know her) and says everyone should read it. Yes, everyone. I guess it is riveting. No, I haven't read it yet but it is on my list now.
And, you know the house rule. Don't even ask to see the movie (due later this year) if you haven't read the book.
from wikipedia:
The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003, it is the first novel published in English by an Afghan.

I'm so blue I don't know what to do

Hello. I'm 8 months old today.











hey, check out my new longies courtesy of my aunt via my mother! While you're admiring, I'll be going after that nalgene over there. if I could only figure out this locomotion business...




Well, these taggies are way more interesting anyway.









chewing is such hard work.










what a blanket hog. Oh well, at least she's soft.










you can have the blanket (and the nalgene), I've moved on to greener pastures.








tastier, too.














editor's note: of course the ONLY stripe that didn't line up perfectly is on prominent display in the above photos. I have got to remember not to get distracted by silly things like babies while I'm sewing!!

What the XY has been doing with his time

Playing hockey!!



of course I had to buy some equipment.

(the bench is now doubling as a febreeze/pad dry-out location)





I got the jersey used from ebay. It has some pilling on it, so I have a question for B. Can I cut the pills off or will that eventually make the whole jersey unravel? It is 100% polyester.









The wife models the helmet quite nicely eh?


I swear, she loves it when I take pictures of her, almost as much as the dog...

definitely doing this

not a big fan of coffee-table books, but THIS I would leave on my coffee table for bored guests or children to browse. Because of all the things that should be immortalized, my blather is most certainly one of them...if only so EP et. al. know exactly which embarrassing stories and pictures were shared with not only his loved ones but also with the internet world-at-large. Besides, it looks so much easier than scrapbooking (which still is in my to-do list, but pretty far down on said list). Good idea, yeah?!

just how busy

It was suggested to me recently that I am not busy enough, and that this blog's greedy constituents would be very "interested" in daily verbiage from me. Well, like I told her, not gonna happen. I do, however, feel that this past thursday is a great example of "just how busy" one baby, one puppy, only two arms and approximately 14 hours in the day can keep me. Get ready, this one's long.

preface: Thursdays are babysitting for the PWOC (protestant women of the chapel) while they have a breakfast and Bible study day, and since I'm on base anyway, Thursdays are also get-everything-you-can-possibly-get-done-on-base-done day. I've driven the last few times so that I can run errands and grocery shop in the afternoon. This thursday, however, I found a ride with one of the other babysitters, so mr. waaz informed his posse that he would be driving the carpool to work. Well, Wed. night my ride called to say that she was riding with someone else and so I was out of luck. hmm.... Fortunately, I remembered that one of my other friends often went to this particular PWOC event, and so I gave her a ring. She was going but had to take her son to an appointment in the early pm, so we wouldn't be going home right away. Perfect, I can visit the thrift store and look at every.single.rack. without mr. waaz poking me and jerking his chin towards the door every two minutes.

Thursday morning dawned a bit cloudy, but I changed and fed EP, started a load of diapers and dishes (not in the same machines), and made it out the door just as my ride was pulling up. we drove a new (to me) way to base and managed to avoid most of the caribineri potholes and I made it to the nursery only a few minutes late. The kids were great, and the thrift store was even better (three dozen prefolds, a stoneware bread pan, a glass container for my brown sugar, 2 juice glasses, a baby toy, summery clothes for me, etc.) I was VERY glad I'd remembered to pack my sling since EP got hungry while I was shopping and my hands were pretty full on my way to the hospital. Did I mention it was sprinkling by then?
I left my bags under N's tire well and went to the front desk at the hospital to see if I could locate her and her keys. Except I could only remember her first name and the approximate time of her son's appointments. When a search by the receptionist of each clinic's appointment list yielded no results, and she was not in either of the waiting rooms, it was suggested that "maybe you don't know your friend very well." Ah, italian wit. Not willing to wait around, I left a note under N's windshield wiper asking her not to run my bags over and went on to the MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) office to ask about a ticket for the chocolate factory tour. sold out, which means my other friend K, who's 9.5 months pregnant, had to go alone. oops.
Back to the Commissary (in the drizzle) to grab some chocolate covered almonds and raisins, share some zucchini bread and cream cheese with EP, change and feed him for real (bread just didn't cut it) in the NEX's oh-so-comfy living room furniture area, and then it was time to return to the hospital to meet up with N and go home wait some more. Approximately two hours later a freshly immunized and stickered 3 year old, his mother, my boy, and I headed back to the Commissary for one loaf of bread and some juice and to the NEX to inquire about new lenses for little D, and then to the food court to pick up the conciliatory burger and fries and head home in the rain. I think next time I'll take the bus.
I put the dog outside and left the house at 8:30 a.m., and as I opened the front door at 5:30 p.m., it hit me that I hadn't put the dog's crate out with her that morning. Poor Puzza was curled up on a chair watching the back yard turn into a swimming pool. Bad mom moment number 8 or so (seven was when the boy ended up his face on the tile in the middle of the night last week). About two minutes after I walked in the door, mr. waaz called. Turns out he hadn't thought I'd be gone all day either, and had begun to wonder when I didn't pick up the phone several times in a row. I informed him that he was on his own for dinner, he informed me he was stopping by the NEX to pick up a phone to replace his buddy's that went through our washing machine, and that a much awaited PACKAGE from my mother was in his possession. Hooray!! Just enough impetus to bake a loaf of zucchini bread for N who hadn't ever had any and turn over the laundry and look at the dishes in the dishwasher.
When it came time for Bible study two hours later, I left the dog inside but not in the dreaded crate, marveled at the state of my living room, and situated the boy in the sling yet again for the trip down to the community center/chapel. another two hours later, I walked back in the door and went straight to the little cardboard box that had eluded me for weeks on end. What a great way to end the day. Too bad I couldn't even appreciate everything until the next day because I had to find something to eat, change and feed the baby and read him one of his new books, kiss the H and go to sleep. phew.


Friday was much more relaxed. I washed my new wool (!), admired my presents, and found out some very interesting information to be shared at a later date (no I'm not pregnant), and had steak, salad, and potatoes with some spectacular wine for dinner. Have to celebrate 3 days with the H somehow :)

2 picture post

even though it looks like this outside















I am still doing this.

Look what I did

so our roller hockey goalie is moving, headed back to the states to be an instructor. This is sad because now we have no goalie, but the wife is happy because she got some stuff out of the deal:







namely rose bushes

















for free










and I planted them for her



(she did the cement bricks though, and eventually the ledge will go across the whole back)

The boy, Fiery Habaneros and the dog doing some tricks