Yesterday I was almost topless in the driveway

Yes, you read that right.  I was almost topless in the driveway yesterday.  Why?  Here's what happened.

So I was going about my business, washing clothes, hanging them out to dry on the line which happens to be in the driveway.  I don't care for the amount of spiderwebs that are lingering about each and every time I go out there to take clothes down or put them up.  I'm always watching for the next spider to creep up on me.  As I am taking down the previous load to hang up the freshly laundered load, I notice something fall down my shirt.  I take a peek and see nothing so I go about my business. A few seconds later, I notice a sharp pain down my shirt and freak out.  I take another peek and don't see anything but I know what I felt, it must have been a spider bite.  I had to reach down and find that thing and smash it, and I almost thought I would need to remove my tank top and sports bra to find it but it turned out......the cocklebur came out of hiding.....so yeah, the neighbors were lucky and so was I, because I didn't have a spider down my shirt.


So this was today's walk.  Not bad considering my ankles hurt from walking in my sandals yesterday.  

 Rajah sure enjoyed it.  We went on the trail I found the other day when I accidentally walked 9 miles.  I decided to take Rajah with me to see where that trail ended up and she had a great time exploring and getting lost with me.

We weren't sure where this would come out at but we could see the bridge so we knew we were headed in the right direction to get back to the beach.

This, this right here is a whole different story....This tupperware right here had me a little embarrassed.  So I started to smell something in the kitchen whenever I'd open up the drawer right below the oven.  I started thinking that the oven must be leaking propane....you know, the ELECTRIC oven must be leaking a gas that it doesn't use.  After telling my landlord what I thought and having him check it out, I started to investigate.  Pulled the fridge out again, swept and mopped behind and under it, looked behind everything and nothing. Took the cover off of the baseboard area and vacuumed under there searching for something that must have died and nothing. Started thinking, well that's it, I'm going to wash every single tupperware in these two drawers and figure out what the Hell that smell is.  This is what I found while pulling the tupperware out of the drawer.  It came out a little heavier than an empty one.  Turns out, it had a lone chicken breast in it.  The one that I had asked one of the boys (I can't remember and neither one will admit it was them) to put into the container and then put in the fridge.  Apparently the drawer looked like the fridge at that point and there you have it.  No dead rat, cat, snake, nothing but a dead piece of chicken breast that decided to decay in the drawer.  Needless to say I did NOT open that container, I just threw it out.  That was nice.

Here's Rajah at the dog park from a few days ago, I think it was Monday.  I knew she was silly but I never thought she'd chase this thing and actually return it to me...well she did. 

Here's the video to prove that.

That morning her collar wasn't working so well and she was not listening so we went for a shorter walk than I would have liked to take her on.  That was the accidental long walk.  While on that walk, I happened to find a full unbroken shell for Madison, a giant shell that was full of sand and not a crab thank goodness and a semi-transparent shell.  I decided to send her a picture asking her if I should toss them or keep them for her, she wanted me to keep them.  

So I did, I put them in my shoes while I walked barefoot because I needed to let my right shoe dry a little after my little mishap at the back of the beach.  There just so happened to be a little stream in my way which I figured, I can jump over because it's only like 2 feet wide.  Well as I stepped onto that not so sturdy lump of sand and went to leap, it slid right out from under my foot like a mudslide and caused me to land right in that damn stream.  Oh well, my feet got a good bit of exfoliating from all that walking in the sand.  

Here's the beginning of the trail that I had found while walking barefoot and couldn't go on since I happened to have a wet shoe.

Thank goodness I didn't decide to go because that was a long way.  

So I turned around and went back to this pretty view and walked back home.

Tomorrow I won't be able to walk since I have to take cupcakes in to Glenn's office for a bake sale and get to the school for a ceremony that Christopher may or may not attend but Alexander was almost guilted into attending because he's been chosen to read a quote by his teacher.  I think it's because she wanted to make sure everything went as planned since she's the one that planned it.  Either way, I'll be busy in the morning.  

Friday we're going to see what's up with Alexander and his braces.  Maybe it will be best if he doesn't get them on that day since he is having a birthday party on Saturday.  He just wanted a pool party so hopefully the pool will be clean again by that point.  I'm going to try to remember to head to the pool store with a water sample so they can tell me what I need to put in there to get it to where it should be.  

Other than that, Madison has a hair appointment on Monday so she's excited since it's been a while since she's gotten a trim.  Have a great day.

Clearly I'm not cut out to be a Blogger....

So we got to see Trace Adkins and that was pretty awesome.  Madison was right in front of him.  I was hoping he would sing Arlington but he sang the Marine song for all the marines out in the audience instead.  I was great.

I did tell Glenn not to be alarmed, but that I think he was checking me out....he said he could have been checking him out too though....

Rota Feria 2017

We were able to pawn all the kids off onto friends and Glenn and I were able to walk around alone.  

Christopher wanted to win a pellet gun, we thought these were cork guns but instead...

he had to shoot toothpicks with tiny little metal pellets.

Look who won his pellet gun.  We made sure to put this in my purse because there had just been an "incident" the previous night that was all over the military Facebook page.  The incident was basically someone pulling out a pellet gun (which I will admit, looks real) but drama comes a little to easily to some military spouses.

The passage of terror haunted house that I refused to go in. No thank you.

Just look at this guy!  Doesn't he look freaky??  

So pretty with all the lights.

I'm not sure I would have wanted to see that electric bill.

This little guy lives at the place I got horseback riding lessons from.  His name.....

is Bacon.  

Rajah and I walked to the beach again with her frisbee.  When it gets dirty I tell her to go rinse it off and she takes it to the water and then shakes it.

Our pool finally got cleaned and took a week to refill.  I think it was more fun for Rajah when she could get in there and play.

Rajah and I went a different direction this time.  We went to the bridge instead.  Rajah wasn't as impressed as she is with the beach.

We had to take a touristy picture of her though. :)

So that's pretty much it for pictures.  Unless you want to see pictures of the kids doing homework or playing their phone/ipod/laptops, you get pictures of Rajah.  This summer isn't going to be as electronic as they think it is.  They only have 3 1/2 days of school left.  I actually don't know if you can call 3 hours of school a half day.  

We've got to plan a party this week for Saturday because Alexander is turning 12....our youngest child is going to be a tween...what the heck.  

So I had to quit horseback riding lessons for this month because Madison's car decided to crap out and ended up costing the amount of 2 1/2 months of lessons. *insert my very very sad face* But, I know how to be a responsible adult (at times) and I'm doing the responsible thing here even though the lessons were so much fun.  

I've got to make cupcakes on Wednesday evening for Glenn's office bake sale and then head right to the end of year award ceremony for the boys and Christopher's promotion ceremony to 9th grade.  

I started volunteering with the Red Cross here and have been taking pictures at a few of the events and I've also been transcribing a few of the interviews for the Veterans History Project.  Other than that, not much is going on.  I think I'm going to try to find a floatie today but that's about it.  Tough day, I know.  Everyone have a great day!

The rest of 2016

These last few months of the year seem to have flown by, Madison and Christopher were both participating in golf with the school.

Unfortunately, Christopher wasn't allowed to travel or compete because he is still in middle school (it makes absolutely no sense to me) but Madison was able to make it to Europeans.  

She went to the Homecoming dance.

She put in a lot of practice time and during one of the tournaments, she got her first birdie.

I figured I'd make a few things with the pallets I'd been stocking up on.  Christopher had sanded down a bunch of the wood for me so I made this little guy,

This cute sign,

And this little guy.

Madison and I also made this treat toy for Rajah after I'd seen it on YouTube.  Rajah was only a fan of the treats, she got pretty upset that she had to work for them.  She decided to find a new way to get them out.

Some friends asked us if we'd like to go to the beach with them.  Rajah was invited too, so we all headed down there and she remembered once again how much she loved running around in the sand and the water.

Rajah's buddy Petey came over to stay for a few days.  She finally has another dog to play tug with!  She's kind of a bully though, she takes his toys from him and gets upset when he tries to get them back.  We're working on those sharing skills.

The kids and I decided to play a little bit of Mario, which is always a funny and sometimes maddening experience, especially when it's a multiplayer game.

I made some cut out props for a photo booth at the kids Christmas party at Glenn's command that ended up not happening because there wasn't enough participation.  So, these will stay in the craft box until next year and maybe we'll have a photo booth themed Christmas card, you know, since I'm so awesome at sending out Christmas cards. :) 

Rajah is still a lap dog, she likes to look you deep in the eyes to remind you of that.

Madison got invited to a concert by one of her friends that had an extra ticket.  I think she was kind of excited.

We're waiting in a line, a very very long line, so they can get into the concert.  I didn't realize how cold I was until later that night.

While we were in line, Justin Bieber decided to make an appearance in the building and I think Madison's friend almost passed out.  There were girls crying and screaming, it was pretty hilarious.

Apparently I can't put pictures in order anymore, but here's Petey just hanging out with Madison during his visit.  He loves to cuddle and he's such a sweetie!

When he's not cuddling, he liked trying out Rajah's bed, which she was fine with and he was obviously fine with too.

Rajah loves being next to the kids, he had some reading to do for school and he decided to multitask. 

Guess who made the A honor roll again!  Yep, Alexander.

Glenn and I went to his command Christmas party and the food was pretty good along with the company.

Rajah sure loves her Daddy and makes sure she lays with him any chance she gets.

I blew up my mixer motor while making cookies.  It was a sad day because I had just gotten this one for Christmas.

Glenn and I went with some friends to an olive farm and made olive oil!

For the grand finale of the year, we ended up making an impromptu trip to the states for Christmas since there were so many seats not being used on the flights.  Free trip?  Why not?!

I can't help but put her giant smile on here.  This might be one of the only times she grabbed that toy the right way and didn't drop it the second I picked up my phone to take a picture.

Enjoy your day everyone!