6/24 - Gone swimming and flying

It's been a busy past 1.5 weeks as we wrap up our time here in Prattville. Eli found one of the baby books we used to read all the time and has been holding it hostage for a few days now.
Below is Aiden using Perler Beads and making something for Mrs. Rusty. He did a great job and didn't get too frustrated using them. After he is done, we put wax paper over it and iron it for just a few seconds until the beads fuse together. It's great therapy and he has something to play with when he is done.


We finally made it out to the pool the other afternoon. It was Thursday because I found it so sad that Aiden's class at daycare had water play day in the morning and he sat on the steps in his swim trunks and shirt for 1.5 hrs and didn't go near the water. He then had lunch and then stayed really still on his cot for 2 hrs. Pure torcher for the boy. We asked the boys if they wanted to go on Thursday late afternoon and they said yes. Eli doesn't actually like to swim or go in the deep water. His ears are still REALLY sensitive to water. I'm not sure that will ever change and I'm even more unsure what to do about it. He holds his ears and screams in more pain than we he used to have ear infections.

Aiden played for a while in the waist deep water but he also wanted to go off in the deep water and swim with Brad. He is doing a great job of at least getting in the water and trying. It's tricky with Aiden though. Part of me wants to take his arm/chest floaty thing away but at least he's getting comfortable in the water. Baths are still a struggle. We told him that since he turned 5, he has to soap himself. Brad has taken over baths for the last few weeks because I've just run out of patience to be honest. Brad still has try and make it fun and a light atmosphere for Aiden to accomplish getting himself even partially clean. He doesn't like the poof because soap gets on his hand. He doesn't like the sponge because it "hurts his skin too much" and he doesn't like the washcloth because it's wet. I wonder if I can make him a scrub-free bath wash like the car wash places I see. There are times where Aiden doesn't want to make any decisions regarding his baths in hopes that we will just give up and make him not take one. It's a very slow and frustrating road that most people cannot relate to.

In preparing for our upcoming move, I've been selling some stuff on this cool FB page for the area we live in. It's like Craig's list on instant message and it makes things so much easier. I had a day last week where people were coming to pick-up stuff and I had it all ready by the door. Eli decided to sit in his old car seat and Aiden decided to sit on the potty.













They were taking turns seating on each. I was laughing because they were just entertaining themselves pretending they were choo-choo trains. 

During their playing, someone actually came to get the car seat. Aiden was sad his "train seat" was gone so he sat on the slide that I was selling as well.

We've tried to let the boys have a bit more free time at home lately since they won't get that this week. They've enjoyed playing light sabers and setting up obstacles courses around the living room and kitchen.

On Saturday, we went to Lowe's in the morning for some wood to make Aiden's ladder for the loft bed. Their saw was broken so we started to leave to go to Home Depot. First the boys got distracted by the floor cleaning machine so they followed that around for a bit. As we were leaving, we noticed they apparently had a kids workshop that morning and wanted to see if they had any left over kits because normally you have to register for their workshops. We got two kits and then ran outside to make them.

They are little treasure boxes for the new movie, Monsters University. Let me just say how much Eli hates putting stickers on his creations. He won't do it. We had fun and then quickly headed over to Home Depot so we could get lumber and get it cut.

The afternoon was filled with laziness at home. The picture to the right was taken just after rest time (which is why Eli is half naked) and they were playing Tell Tale. It was so cute to listen to them make up stories. Eli is much more creative and Aiden is so matter-of-fact with his stories. The differences are too precious.

Here are the boys playing cash register. This is what the do in the mornings if they wake up early and their bunny is not awake yet (which means they are not allowed out of the room).


On Saturday night we went to a Sunday School social/good-bye party for us. It was fun to just hang out. I think part of the problem with the age-group of our sunday school class is that everyone is so involved that they are working in other areas during sunday school and thus there is no one to really be there for sunday school because they are all working. It was a fun time and we enjoyed getting to socialize with everyone.

On Monday afternoon, Brad took me flying for the first time ever. I was a little scared. I have never flown with him and never been in an aircraft that small. And let me tell you, it was teeny. I find out when we get there that the planes nickname is peanut. :) Brad showed me all around it as he did his pre-flight inspection and letting me know all the things he was looking for. The upper left picture is him testing the fuel to make sure there are no particles or anything and that it's clear. I had a good chuckle that the plane came equipped with a sun visor in the windshield. First of all, it's stored inside. Second, the windows were tiny. It was too funny for me. Brad gave me a lesson on what everything was in the cockpit. In the bottom right, he was writing down frequencies and stuff that the control tower were telling him. After lots of talk on the radio from the control tower, we took off and headed for Prattville (we left from the Montgomery airport) so we could fly over the daycare while the kids were still out. It was pretty cool. The bottom right picture is the daycare playground. Yes I am aware that it's a little blurry but that's because it's been cropped and magnified quit a bit. We did two circles over daycare and then headed off to see some more of Montgomery. I must say, I was impressed with Brad's flying and his ability to handle the radio and having to switch over to other frequencies and contact towers and stuff. It seemed pretty chaotic to me. I got a little nauseous from looking out over the side and finding daycare and then taking pictures of it. It was a little too much for my belly so we didn't get to fly around as long as I would like. It was neat though and so amazing to see everything from an ariel view.

Brad is supposed to take the boys flying today but I'm not sure if the weather is going to hold up for us. Today is also Aiden's last day of therapy so I'll be posting a final therapy blog in the next few days.

6/19 - God broke our swing set!!!

So I just found a FB site for the Prattville area that is like Craig's list. It's like a virtual yard sale all the time. It's awesome. I wish I would have found it months ago. Anyway, I'm trying to get rid of some of the baby stuff we have before we move. I was posting pictures of a few items I was selling and saw people posting ISO. I thought that was a brand name at first. :)  Apparently it stands for 'in search of' and just after one of my posts appeared on the page, there was a post that said, "Still ISO a swing set." Brad and I decided to sell our swing set even though we just got it because we are at a rental and it would probably break in the process of moving. That said, I just commented on her post and said, "I've got one I'm going to post tomorrow." She responded back right away so I sent her a picture of it and she said she wanted it. I could tell she was very excited. The plan was for her to pick it up the next night (Tuesday).

She came over on Tuesday, paid the $100 (we bought it for $300 and then Brad and his dad spent about 8 hrs building it all) which is a good deal. She had a friend come over with a truck and Brad helped disassemble the playset into 3 pieces. We got it into the mans truck and they left. It was really great talking with this woman who had her 1 yr daughter with her. They were both so sweet. Her daughter was loving playing on the swing set while we were waiting for her friend to come and help take it apart. She also mentioned how her daughter wasn't sleeping through the night and I told her about a great book that saved my life when Aiden was 9 months old. I went to the bedroom when she left and found the book I wanted on the bookshelf. I tried to run out to give it to her but they were already down the street. I was sad because I thought the book would really help her but assumed that God wanted me to meet up with at some other point before we left.

I got a FB message later that night. The playset never made it to her house. It fell off the truck mid-way to her house. My heart instantly broke when I read that. This single military mom just spent $100 for lumber parts. Brad and I instantly knew that we had to go to her place and try and help fix it. So here is my take on the situation: God broke the swingset. He let it fall off because He wanted to make sure we were able to visit again :)

We showed up today at 1:00pm to see what we could do. Brad was relieved that the 1x6 beam that held the swings and trapeze bar was still intact. We worked on it for 2.5 hrs and got it almost all put together!!!! The woman got a few pieces a lumber which Brad used for various parts of the playset. It was great to just chat with her and talk about kids and the problems that come along with them. She is such a sweet woman. Brad did a great job of re-using wood, making new holes, and reattaching parts. Overall, the Lord has created a soft spot in my heart for this woman. I can so relate to her and being a single mom (Brad was gone so much during the first 4 yrs) and then just the obstacles with kids (getting them to listen, sleeping through the night, eating, etc) and how to overcome them. We were even able to relate about my 'Prattville experience.'

There was one thing that we couldn't fix on the swing set so Brad is going to get the right-size bolt and we will go back and finish up the bench. It was such a blessing to be able to help this lovely woman and her little girl. We left and she was so grateful yet we were so happy too. It was a blessing to us that she was so grateful and excited. It was a great day. I was totally spent from being in the hot sun though so I picked up the boys and pretty much let them watch an hr of TV because I was too exhausted to do anything else.

God's timing is so .... amazing. I need to remember that.

6/17 - The Hoyt Family visits

The boys were so very excited for grandma Jo and grandpa Dave to come visit. Aiden would have played games with them 24 hrs a day if we let him. Grandma and grandpa were great sports and played quite a few games with him. Here is grandpa playing Spot It! with Aiden.

Eli wanted to play Sneaky Squirrel so we did play that and I was excited Eli actually wanted to play a game. I guess I don't have to include that Eli quit playing after a game but at least he played a whole game. 

Here are grandma, Brad, and Aiden playing the Very Hungry Caterpillar game. He actually doesn't play that game very often and I was surprised he asked to play it.

We put up the tent in the living room sitting area and the boys enjoyed playing in that. They even got grandma to come and sit under the tent for a while.  The boys were awfully quite at one point so I checked on them and this is what I found (picture to the left). The little stinkers climbed up on the cat gym. Good thing grandma Jo and I built that so strong that it could withstand 2 toddlers on top of it.

Grandma and grandpa let open his birthday present and he was pretty excited about it. He loves the Mag-X magnet toys but was getting frustrated because he didn't have enough 'Xs' to build more stable structures. He got really frustrated though when we tried to help build something. He had an idea of what he wants to do and gets very frustrated if he can't do it just the way he wants on the first try.

Aiden had his true first friend move away. DJ moved to Missouri last week. It was sad because Aiden didn't really get a chance to play with him before he left. We tried to play with him on Tuesday afternoon but his grandma wouldn't let him play. We then tried to play on Wednesday afternoon but his mom wasn't home and his grandma wouldn't let him come over. He finally came over at 5:15pm and we were leaving for dinner. I was so sad for him but told DJ we would come by his house as soon as we finished dinner. Needless to say, when we came by less than an hr later, his grandma wouldn't let him come over again. DJ was sad and had been crying. I felt so bad for him and Aiden. They just wanted to play. You would think DJ's grandma wouldn't mind because she had been watching 3 kids all day long and DJ's mom had already given her permission to let DJ come over whenever. At 7:30pm we realized that DJ wouldn't be coming over again so we walked down to his house and dropped off a good-bye present and bag we had for him. We made him a mini scrapbook and put our new address in it. To the left is what Aiden drew in the book: I love you DJ. So sweet. We put snacks and a few fun things to play with in the bag to help with the long 12 hr drive he was going to have. It was a horrible way to say bye since he wasn't allowed to come over for 2 days to play because his grandma said no. Anyway, we are praying for him and hoping we can stay in contact with him.

To the right is a picture from our dinner at Chick-fil-a. They only have 1 6 person table there and the rest are 2 or 4 person tables. Brad and I got sent to the 2-person table because the boys wanted to sit by grandma and grandpa.

Here is Eli with a helmet on. This has to make the blog book. He is wearing a helmet voluntarily and without crying. That is a first. Although you can't call is a helmet; it's his motorcycle hat :)

Here is Aiden getting ready to open a second birthday present from grandma and grandpa. I didn't take any picture of him playing with it so I'll have to get on that. Below you can see Aiden opening his card. Grandma Jo made it and it was a colorful dragon. 

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The picture on the right is priceless. That look of Eli's ... TROUBLE!! He's so stinkin cute which is good because I think we will see this look from him quite often over the next 20 years.  

Brad's parents like to stay busy so we saved up some projects for them :) Actually we didn't originally plan on help but it was great to have help. My mission for Brad when we got to Jacksonville was to build Aiden a loft bed. We were going to have the boys share a room again but we have decided to put them in their own rooms instead. Aiden is reaching a point where when he breaks down and will not/cannot communicate, he needs his own space and we have a hard time telling Eli he either can't go in his bedroom or the toy room (depending on where Aiden is at) because his brother is having a complete breakdown and is being ridiculous. I wanted to do a loft bed so that he still has space in his room for toys and such. After much searching on the internet, I gathered a few pictures and showed Brad what I wanted. Essentially, I wanted a loft bed with lots of storage space on the ends. I originally wanted a desk built in but after he got the bed framed, I realized it was a tight fit to have a desk area and cubbies. I decided we'll just get a desk/table for Aiden's room instead. The key to this loft bed though is that I need it to be in three sections. With as much as we move, it wouldn't survive too many moves if we had to keep unscrewing things and putting it back together. I wanted two end pieces and the bed part. Brad and his dad sketched out some ideas, decided on what they needed and went off the the hardware store. They came back 2 hrs later with a ton of lumber and ready to build. Over the course of three days, Brad and his dad built the bed. Brad got a new drill and an impact wrench/drill too from his parents for graduation. That helped quite a bit to speed things up since they really needed 3 drills: one to make holes using a drill bit, one to use as a countersink, and one to use with screws. Brad learned about notches for the first time to make the shelves. He's got it down now I think. One of the really cool things they built is a little special tissue box compartment (3rd row, far left). The poor kid is always blowing his nose and sneezing at night so he has a tissue box with clean tissues and one for yucky tissues, and then he has a small box for his stuffed animals or toys. This compartment will make a huge difference when I change the bed because I don't have to take all that stuff off the bed. One end of the bed has 9 large cubbies and the other side has 6 small cubbies (that fit the standard fabric squares) and 3 large ones for some bigger toys. 

Of the boys wanted to help so this is their contribution. Aiden really did help move some boards. Eli tried out what the space would be like once the bed was lofted. It was very hot out the first two days the boys worked on it and the little boys were just sweating sitting in chairs watching the big boys work.  

I took the boys to the store to pick out paint for Aiden's new bed. The boys had fun picking out paint. The only problem is that I was just planning on painting Aiden's bed. I was going to stain it but then thought that since we can only rent right now (which means no painting walls), adding some color to the bed. Aiden picked out blue and green and said he wanted strips. Yikes. Eli then said he wanted his bed painted so I let him pick out a color. He chose orange and blue (no I didn't influence that choice). I will start painting Aiden's bed this week. The boys had a blast watching how the colors were made and the woman at the store was so nice to them.

On Friday night, we all went to Sweet Frogs for dessert. Aiden can't eat anything there because it's frozen yogurt and made with cow's milk so we take something for him to eat. The rest of us had some yummy dessert. Aiden got all done with his and then was doing this (see picture to the left) for a while. He finally put his arm down and told me he was still hungry. His lack of ability to tell me his needs and/or fear of telling me drives me nuts sometimes. This is an important skill he needs to figure out or he will allow himself to be in some miserable situations. I pray a lot for this little sweet boy. 

Eli's yogurt was melting because he had a hard time staying in his seat because he wanted to dance to the music. 

 On Saturday late morning, we went to IHOP for a good-bye breakfast/lunch with grandma and grandpa. After we ate, grandma and Aiden played  'go fish.' He just learned the game last week and loves it. I went to Wal-Mart and got him one of those card holder things and it's totally awesome.

Eli was playing puzzle games on the iPad next to me while Brad and grandpa talked about Brad and I's retirement career jobs. Haha. We have a cool idea and just need to find the perfect air strip (yes, for planes) to make it all happen. Let me know if you see anything for sale :)














It was time to say bye. We all hugged and then parted ways.

The boys were sad to see grandma and grandpa leave. It was a great visit with them.

On Saturday evening, we had family pictures. I can't wait to see the sneak peeks which should be out
in the next day or so. I even made super hero capes and masks for the boys. It was our first time doing photos not in a studio with multiple wardrobe changes and stuff. The location was pretty neat. I'll post some pictures when I get them.

6/16 - Brad's ACSC Graduation Ball & Ceremony

I finally got to wear a dress that I bought over a year ago to Brad's Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) graduation ball. I was glad that I didn't have to worry about finding a dress and jewelry but I must admit I was dreading going. I bought this dress a year ago when I was feeling much better and was not having medical conditions which prohibited me from exercising on a regular basis. That said, I felt like a stuffed sausage but at least it fit. :)

Brad has never had to wear this dress white uniform before. I got all the pieces he needed for it when I was in Jacksonville house hunting a few weeks ago. The only thing I didn't get is new medals; his medals are woefully not current but we can fix that when he can get all the stuff he needs when we move to Jacksonville again.

We actually had fun at the ball. We had good company at our table and the food was pretty good. We don't have many pictures because I couldn't take my camera. I didn't have anything to put my phone in except for a giant purse, diaper bag, or backpack. None of those things went with my outfit so I just left my phone in the van. Brad took his phone but his Droid Motorola takes not so great pictures.

Our ball was on Saturday night and Brad's parents drove in to town on Sunday evening. Graduation was Monday morning. There were about 480 graduates in Brad's school and we were in a 1,000 seat auditorium. The students were told they could have one guest. Haha. Needless to say, many people didn't have anyone come so we were okay with 4 people. There are lots of international students and many of them just traveled to the states by themselves since they were here for 11 months. There were also many other students who geo-bachelored it (came here without family). 

 I was super tired from a busy week before and caught a cold that was kicking in by Sunday night. I tried my best to stay awake during graduation.

The picture to the right is just a very small part of Brad's graduating class. You can't see him in this picture although he was actually quite easy to find among the almost 500 students since just about 30 of them were in the Navy white uniform (most of them are Air Force).

Here is Brad looking cute in Aiden's graduation cap. Thankfully they didn't cal out all the students by name (that would have taken forever). One representative from each service branch went up to the stage to accept the degrees for that branch. After the ceremony, they all went to their classrooms and picked up their diplomas. Brad did a great job this year. It was a challenge for all of us to find a balance between his work (school) and enjoying family time. The first semester was very rough and Brad spent most of his evenings reading. The second half of the year was much better and we actually got to interact with Brad in the evening and on the weekend :)  Brad sacrificed for us quite a bit. He decided it was more benefit to the family for him to be okay with getting a few B's and being able to spend time with his family rather than get all A's. That's sacrifice. It might not sound like it but Brad was very capable of getting all A's and settled for a few B's for us, his family.

6/12 - Prattville, AL - Analysis Part 2

I had no idea that my 'Analysis of Prattville' blog would be so .... read. I can see the number of people who read our family blog posts (I can't see who has read my posts, just that it was read). My comment on our Prattville experience has been read about 5-6 times more than a typical blog post. I've had a few people message me and/or talk to me in person about my post. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone.  I was talking to a local realtor here the other day and he said the most perfect statement to describe what I've been feeling and have not been able to adequately put into words. The people in Prattville, AL are super nice and willing to help but they keep you at an "arm's length." That's it. That describes it most appropriately.

What a God moment. As I am typing this entry, I get a notification on my phone that someone has added something to a comment I made on a Facebook post of a friend. She had stated a few or so ago that she was sad that a good friend was moving away and I commented that people like me/us (who are forced to move quite often) are so thankful for people like her who take the risk to become friends. My friend commented on her original post and said "I vowed I would not make any new friends that would not be staying here permanently." I can relate to that statement and way of thinking so much. Here is the problem though, when you are the one that moves all the time, that means you end up having no close friends. You may have 1 or 2 people that you can easily catch up with because you were once good friends but the lack of frequent face-to-face friend interactions can take its toll. It can be so isolating and lonely. My friend ended her comment with "my new motto is to love each person for the amount of time that God places them in my path." I love it and that is something I need to embrace and work on.

I can remind myself every now and then that God has us moving to a place for a reason and He will put people in our paths for a reason. I have learned with this rotation that sometimes those experiences are for difficult lessons but I also know that we cannot grow without the lessons. I am still unsure why certain things have happened since I've been here but I have learned this:
1. It is so important to treat everyone with the same heart - a heart of love - regardless of if they want this and/or "deserve" it. God commands us to. It has taught me alot about love. If it were not for my boys watching all of this, I would never be able to change the way that I have. God may have used this as an example and also to teach me what it really means to still show love even when I feel I have fleshly reasons not to love.

So Prattville, will take the vow that my friend and I are both taking? Will you try and accept, embrace, and love each person for the amount of time God has brought them here? As my friend said, God blessed her for embracing that friendship. Please open up your inner circle and your heart and truly become a friend.

6/10 - Gathering of Eagles

Here are some pictures from the annual Gathering of Eagles which happens at the Air Command and Staff College that Brad has been attending. During the last week of school, a dozen service members (majority retired) who have made significant contributions/achievements are brought in they give their stories and meet with the students all week. Towards the end of the week, the college hosted a BBQ in the evening so that all the family members can also meet these wonderful individuals. They also bring in planes that are similar to the ones the pilots flew in wars which is pretty cool. This first picture is of the boys running out to a super huge plane (C130). We got to go up to the top of it and look out which was pretty cool. 

 Here are Aiden and Eli looking at the little side window in the cockpit.

Here is Aiden at the top of the plane waving hi to me on the ground.

And and here is Eli waving hi as well. 

Aiden really enjoyed this plane so I went back again with him and went up to the top and quickly snapped a picture.

This is the view to the hangar where the BBQ was at. That C130 was huge. 

This was a cool kind of plane that I had never seen before. It was a B-26. The boys had to get in it by climbing up through a hatch near the front and then they got to see the cockpit and then climb down through the center of plane. It was pretty neat.

                                                                   
Sgt. Wells - ball turret gunner in WWII & prisoner of war (to the right)

Below is Col Charles McGee. He was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.

We had a neat time seeing the aircraft and hearing Brad tell us about some of the Eagles that were there and sharing parts of their stories. Absolutely amazing people.