"SOMEBODY!!!"

Alright so I've got this husband that is Captain America. For many reasons actually. It was coined for him at his Co. last year and has seemed to have stuck. Either way he's been pretty invincible for years. Never and ailment and ready to try things at the drop of a hat. Like the first Triathlon with a weeks notice and sleeping in a broken zippered tent on the ground w/ no padding to come in the top ten of his age group with the wrong bike and a full body wet suit. Yeah I thought it was a fun thing to try at the time and have since learned that's a feat in itself. Sooo. HE'S Captain America. But yesterday I've discovered that I too have my own secret hero status. Similar to my sons powers they were discovered in a strange place and way too. Yes ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and secret blog-stalkers. I am not merely Mrs. Captain or Mrs. America. I am (dum dum duuuuuummmm) SOMEBODY.

What you say? You don't immediately see my super power possibilities? You lack the faith? Yes you do. You call on me daily. Let me tell you how I learned of my new powerful self.

I'm at church and a good friend of mine is coming down the hall with three kids from 4-ish to 7 mo.-ish. Wild and w/o naps. Husband gone on a ship/boat/sub/something that floats for months. When she says something like, "Somebody should just smack my butt." That's when I realized. I could be that somebody. SMACK! The pure joy that she felt from the shock and funny of it was all the trill I needed to know of my new calling. I could be the somebody people are always calling for.

"Somebody better help you out." You tell your three year old. Boom I'm there.
"Somebody help me!" always a classic. Boom I'm there.
"Somebody make this go away!" Boom I'm there.
"Somebody better get those dishes done." Boom I'm there.
"Somebody better get their homework/chores done." Boom I'm there.

You can see I'm going to easily be the busiest superhero of all time. I'm called on more than you think and I'm always needed. So the next time you think of somebody just remember I've got a good sized list I'm working on. I'll be there. As fast as my little cape can fly.

P.S. Jen can you make me a cape with a tear-a-way clasp so I don't die in a jet engine plane like the super that shall not be named from the Incredibles?

Dog Days of Summer

Well the Dog Days of Summer are here. What am I saying. They've been here for 365 days a year. I live in summer all year. Yup. Sucks to be me huh? Yeah. Now that you're done screaming/rolling your eyes/trowing your mouse/cursing me lets get back to the fun.

Okay so my boys need routine. Schedule. I hate it. Well that's what I used to say. But with Brenner I learned ... or eventually caved and admitted that Kemper was right and put him on a routine first and saw him just take off. Everything was so much more fun and easier. Then I did the dreaded schedule thing. I hated it at first and now love it. Beckett is a schedule baby too. Brian is for that matter too. I can tell what time of the day/night it is by what they're doing. For instance; the tired thing. Brenner gets louder and wilder to keep himself awake. He'll also suddenly start doing his and any one's chores to be so helpful you won't want to send him to bed. Actually it's almost 10 pm and I think I hear him cleaning the bathrooms. I can barely make it back out of the tub so I'll "let" that one slide. "just for tonight". ;) Beckett will start scratching the back of his head, his curls and looking from side to side. You've got about a 4 minute window here to get stuff ready before full on melt down and bodily injury will start. He'll get fully pissed that can't get to bed. But he'll never give up and fall asleep anywhere else. Wants the bed. Brian will start jiggling his knee and eating to stay awake. But if he sits. He's toast. He can and will fall asleep anywhere he sits. My favorite is when he asks me a question at the dinner table and is listening and I can see the glaze come in and the eyelids close and he's out. Still sitting up and kids all over. Also at night talking. He'll do the same thing. Come to think of it. Mostly it's my voice that'll put him right out. Now I thought I had an annoying and whiny voice. Must be either really soothing to him because he just loves me so much and I fulfill his heart or it's about the same as all the crazy languages he has to deal with at work. Whatever. I love the man and he works too hard.

Okay so back to my point. It's summer time right and schools out and all the fun of living on an undeserted island should have some perks right? Well they do. So I decided to make a goal and do it for the summer. I told Kemper so it would have to stick. I was going to make more home made meals. Cook from scratch. Try new recipes all the time. Freshen up things and clean all the time. Sit down and play with the boys more. I was going to be care free and go with the flow and do all kinds of fun and wild things. I wasn't going to not do things because of nap times and dinner times and bed times and activity times. I was going to go to the beach. I hate the beach. Because it all comes home with you. It's everywhere for days. It ruins your washing machine. Causes diaper rash from the outside and from the eating of it from the inside. It stays in your hair for three days. It's all over the floor. Beckett hates to be wet or sticky. That's the beach (sunblock) and ocean for ya. But I was going to do it. I've given way to just "seeing how things go". It has afforded us to do some really fun things this summer. And I'd like to tell you it wasn't so bad and we all had fun and it'll be the new me. but I can't because I would be a LIAR!!! It sucks. It's hard and I can't wait for school to start so I can go back to who I was and have my little house the way I want it. I mean some of the stuff I'll do but I really really like having the boys in bed and asleep by 7:30 EVERY night. I do chores for 30 minutes and then clock out. LOVE the clocking out part.

So that said ... Fun was had. I can appreciate the extremes of both types of parenting. I think I"ll do a mixture of both. But going to the extreme did show me that my kids did not die because nap was later than usual or started in the car. Dinner will still get eaten and the house still got cleaned up and we all still had a great time. I think I'll keep the schedule during the week and then just play on the weekends. I want to implement it into daily life more though.

We did loads of fun things. And in no particular order other than it's what i could think of in the time given.

1. Free military Zoo Day
2. 4th of July Fun Run -(yup I did it)
3. Brian swim race (stay at beach for 4 hours at 0600 hrs)
4. Had kids and car packed for beach night on a Tuesday.
5. Got Beckett into the ocean
6. Ate sand. Well. Beckett mostly.
7. Family BB Q's
8. Swim lessons (walked 2 miles for 2 weeks)
9. Library day.
10. Kid outings all the time.
11. Wii day
12. Cartoon day
13. Impromptu lunches with dad. (notice was given 3 minutes prior to Beckett nap and we went.)
14. Week alone with Beckett.
15. Mani Pedi at VERY questionable "establishment" by creepy "maybe gay" Korean man???
16. Girls night out
17. Run errans sans children
18. Scrapbook almost every other night.
19. Start Christmas cards.
20. Take up stamping.
21. Be pregnant whole time
22. Change of commands - 2? 3?
23. Cub Scouts
24. Hang out with neighbors and get eaten by bugs and no complaints.
25. Dress up for Premier night of SITC. Heels and all.
26. See it again with the girls.
27. Celebrate "sneaker's" miracle (I'll post on that later)
28. School shopping
29. Discovery Center

I think that's about all I can think of now. I'll snag some more pics later and stick in here of all of the stuff we did in some "mini" blogs of the events but you get the gist of it. I came. I saw. I did. Oh and tomorrow it all begins again. OOOOOOOhh.

Father's Day

I've had some seriously great examples of fathers. Starting with my own. Fist I'd like to say that the one thing that I really learned from my father on this subject is that I know of the love of my Heavenly Father because of my own father here. He showed me what love was and then taught me that I was loved even more by my Heavenly Father. I truly understood what that would mean even before I had kids. That it was huge ... that it was all encompassing ... forever ... non-tolerant for wrong ... forgiving ... teaching ... and loving. With that said I then learned from him what value I had. All of these things reflect back to my Heavenly Father's love too.

I'm the only girl in my family. I'm lucky because I can truly feel the way Frenchy talked about dads in Grease. "The only man a girl can count on is her daddy." I know that's not true for everyone but it was for me. Because of that I have been able to have some pretty amazing experiences and to guide my life in a direction towards a great dad for my children. But even with dating. My dates were told and shown that I was special and important. He met everyone of them, baring my husband who got in the back door, with a shotgun and his ace of spades he shot bulls eye at 500 yards or something. He would then tell the boy that I'm his only daughter and that he knows what he looks like and isn't afraid to hunt him down like the dog he is. The next date he wasn't even at the door to answer. He would then tell the boy, who is stunned at this point at the complete 360 that is this date, that I'm still special and important but to just remember what last time was like. I was never late for dates because I knew what they would go through. But when I went to college my first date to pick me up at my dorm was weird. I just left. No one told this boy how important or loved or valued I was. No one even knew what he was wearing or looked like to "hunt down" later. I have to say I didn't like it.

Now girls. There's nothing sexier than a man in uniform right? Wrong. There is. Your man in uniform holding his baby. I love seeing it. Where they'll switch arms with the baby to salute and the other soldier just keeps on going. I know I might get in trouble with Kemper for this but this is my favorite shot of him showing love to our boy. It was AIT graduation in Goodfellow AFB, TX. He's getting pinned and at attention and not to move at all. Brenner is 20 months and wanted Daddy. Right after I took the shot he touched Brenner's head and Brenner just stood there for a second. He got his daddy and then he was okay.

And now that Beckett's here he's even better. I can't believe how much boys just love that their dads are their own personal jungle gym. They both beg to wrestle the second he comes through the door. I'm constantly having to say get off your dad or stop hurting him. And then he comes up growling and roaring like Arnold Swartzenegger in Kindergarten Cop. They just love him and I'm so lucky that he appreciates their adoration.

I think I love Dad's for the fact that it's their job to hold us and take care of us and teach us how to do it on our own. Mine didn't let me be a Daddy's Girl. Wouldn't even help me get my bike off the hook in the garage. "What would you do if I wasn't here?" "This is a mans world. You gotta fight just like them to get to the top. THEN you can change the rules. But the rules aren't going to change for you. You can do it." He knew who I was. Loved me because of it and in spite of it. But when I moved out to go to college it changed. He'd call more and want to help me more. It was new for me to see him want to help me. When I was packing up my little family to drive to TX from CA I had a miscarriage and was in the hospital. Brian was gone and Brenner was only 15 mo. Dad flew down and drove me the whole way. He was a constant in Brenner's life while Kemper was in Korea. Every day he saw & played with Brenner. He was so excited about being a Papa. He was a great Papa. Brenner still remembers him and his love for him. What a good Daddy. We still eat Papa Ideas.

But the one thing I wanted to hear from him the most is pretty similar to the scriptures about a good and faithful servant. But this was the gospel according to David. And I remember that the last Sunday I had with him he whispered in my ear. "Ya done good Em."

Thanks Dad.