Zero to Sixty.....

About a week ago, I was sitting in the living room and forcing the kids to watching an episode of "Little House on the Prairie". I get a call from a school district in MN requesting a phone interview for the following Monday. In shock, I throw the rest of my lunch into the garbage disposal, make a few phone calls and proceed to stare like a zombie at the TV. The kids actually end up liking little Laura Ingalls and seeing her get in trouble with her teacher. They continue to watch another episode. I'm still in shock but think oh well, nothing will come of it. The school year here has started and it's probably best that "nothing will come of it. "

Well, you see, God had other plans. I had that phone interview and then within a day the Commander and I were flying out to MN to have an on site interview. Within another two days I had accepted the position and three days later I'm packin'! It seems we'll be moving sooner than we thought- about a year sooner.

We'll be pulling up anchor here in 43 hours or so. Lots to do, people to see, places to go and phone calls to make. Stay tuned once we're settled for lots of missed moments and pictures in the last week! First day of school MD, a birthday, a butterfly rescue, meltdowns, goodbyes, oh- and first day of school MN! Signing off for now!

Band of Brothers

Dad had to rush off to run some errands and see the doctor but made time to stop and dig out some of his old military gear when he saw them playing war on a Saturday morning. Certainly kicked it up a notch! What an awesome dad I say!


These gotta be the best-lookin' soldiers on the street.

Momma's Back To Work

Sad, but true. It's only been two days and the flowers are in serious need of dead-heading, the laundry is piling up, the pantry is getting bare and the lifeguards are wondering where we've been. I think the kids however, are secretly happy mom is back to work. No more surprise ranting and raving to disturb their quest for the next level while playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii - "Who left this shoe in the living room?!!!! Somebody come get this shoe! Are you serious? No body's going to buy this house with a shoe on the living room floor! Come pick this up, NOW!"

We may be able to still squeeze in a few nights at the pool before it closes. It sure does help to wear them out and keep them off the TV. Of course, school will take care of that real soon.

She really got comfortable in the water this year. I kid you not, she literally spent her entire time doing this.

Of course the boys enjoyed being air born for most of their pool time.

Remember corn wars? http://countingseeds-cline.blogspot.com/2009/07/not-me-monday-corn-wars.html Well, here we are with pool wars. Funny how it's always the same two.

She was enjoying her time poolside, doing water experiments with a partially deflated beach ball.

Surprise!

She wasn't too thrilled with the interruption.

Yeah, look at that ornery grin.............he knows what he did.

Just like mom, she eats when she's frustrated. She must not have known though that mom was watching,

or she may not have stolen those cookies before getting to eat our lunches.

Yep, I'll sure miss these days. As crazy busy as this summer was with packing and getting the house ready to sell we were at least able to get some fun times in. God willing, this will actually be our last season at the pool. I suppose we'll be jumpin' in the lakes of Minnesota next summer!

"Wordless Wednesday"

Okay, so if you've hung around this blog long enough you know that I find it hard to go truly wordless. So what if I don't follow the rules? Anyhow, I feel the need to point out the effort I made into eliminating "red-eye" from each of the individuals having their milk and cookies at the dinner table. However, there was no option to eliminate "green-eye" from Gideon who was hoping to get the yucky milky mushy cookie crumb leftovers in the cups- those eyes were a happy accident that I happen to think turned out really cool. And if you couldn't tell, unlike my husband, I firmly believe that nothing should ever be dunked in milk, milk by itself is bad enough.

The Grandkids Minus One

The kids were blessed to have been able to spend time with their cousin from Illinois. As you can see they had a rockin' good time!!

"Not Me Monday"

It's been a while since the last "Not Me" Monday, but certainly enough time for me to rack up quite a few "not me" moments. For instance:

I do not allow my children to get what they want out of the kitchen cabinets all by themselves- no, not me. That would be dangerous.

I would not call this "lunch". Not me, not ever.

I do not allow my two boys to play with handcuffs. Because if I did, this might be their sister.

Here was the beginning of our day at Hershey Park to celebrate finally getting our house on the market. By the way, this is the last photograph of the Commanders blackberry. It was stolen at the park hours later.

Waiting for lunch at the "Boardwalk"

This is one of my favorite places in the whole world. I did not buy that $40 5 pound Hershey bar......again.

This is my sad little girl, depressed because she cannot go on the big roller coaster with her brothers. She was limited to only the Comet and Super Duper Looper roller coasters. This girl would enjoy being flung out of a plane with a parachute if we would allow it I think.

Our second prefers to find a ride he really enjoys and then ride it over and over and over and over.....

Another not me moment. They didn't know it, but while they stood in line in the misting rain for 40 minutes to ride this thing I stood under the skeeball tent and ate myself an order of fried cheese bites. Nope, that wasn't me.

I found my hidden talent during this trip. It's called "Whack-a-Mole". I found I won every time and was able to garner many cheap stuffed plush for my children. I did not continue to play and beat many strong dads and many weak small children in order to get a bear and a monkey in a different color for each of my three children.