the Gardner's

The big homecoming!

2009-09-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

Last night Beau got home, FINALLY!!!! He was traveling for over 24 hours, had a 7 hour lay-over in Baltimore and had a small delay in Dallas. I think they got here at like 9:45 last night, pretty late!

Zoey was so unbelievable excited to see him. She kept hugging him and would NOT let go, it was soooo sweet! She knew him right away and yelled Daddy and ran right up to him. It was really cute.

A lot of people showed up, his supervisor Greg, the Chief, and a few others. It was really nice to see everybody and Beau said he was shocked to see everybody there.

Zoey had a lot of fun helping him get his bags off the luggage thing. She kept telling him that he was sooo strong because he was lifting the heavy bags off of it.

We visited for a little while and then came home. He's in-processing right now and then he's gonna work on his car, it's so nice he's back to take care of these things!!!!! He finds out how much time off he'll get, it's gonna be nice to have a little time to get things done. Next week I get my wisdom teeth out, ugh, so I'm glad he'll be off for that!

Here's us waiting for Daddy to come... Zoey kept saying she was done and she wanted to go home, it was past her bedtime! She was dancing and telling me a story while we waited.

A couple days ago I made Zoey a shirt to wear to pick him up, it turned out better than I thought it would. The front is the green one and the yellow picture is on the back of it. She was excited to wear it!

We made a sign too, I can't believe I gave her glitter glue, she finger-painted over the letters with it... Oh well, she had fun! She would only put purple stars on it and she really wanted to keep the rhinestones to herself... It was fun to make though!

Well, I'm making pork chops and potato salad for supper tonight, it'll be nice for things to get back to normal!! Beau is like in awe of everything... he couldn't wait to go outside this morning to see the grass and trees. He said the sun sets at 6:00 in the evening and rises at 4:30 in the morning in Iraq so it was weird for the sun not to be up at 7:00. He seems glad to be back, and we are sure glad he's home!!!!

Yay for the Zoo!

2009-08-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Zoey and I joined the whole Miller bunch for a quick breakfast, then a trip to the zoo! We had a really good time and got to see the new white tiger and the ocelots. The ocelots are a little bigger than a domestic cat and have colorings like a leopard. Their handler was in the place with them and they were running around and playing and being just super adorable. It was kinda rainy and then got super humid but the animals seemed to be out a little bit and the male lion even roared a little for us! That was exciting!

Here's Zoey looking at the "Mingos"...

I curled her hair in spongies again, she asks me almost every night to put them in for her!

When we got to the monkeys, I don't remember which ones, there was one sitting right by the glass and was like "talking" and rubbing his nose on the glass with the kids. It was really cool!

After the zoo we went to Nicole's house and the kids layed down for a nap and I went to get my nails done. Priscilla ended up meeting me and I got a pedicure too! It felt soooo good. Beau's worried I'm going to start getting them all the time too, haha...

It was Nicole's dad's birthday so they went to some fancy place in Buffalo Gap and I watched Jackson. We had a good time playing and I had them go camping in the living room and they watched Peter Pan. It was fun and Zoey always likes it when she has a friend over to play.

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend, I work early tomorrow, I have a consult appointment for my wisdom teeth... I'm so nervous!!!

Luau!

2009-08-21T20:42:00.001-07:00

Today was the end of the summer bash, the Luau at the CDC. I took Zoey in early and her class made her a t-shirt to wear. We got out of the car and she saw all the decorations up and heard the music and said, "Oh mama, look, it's a surprise party for me!" I said no it's the Luau, she kept telling me no, it's her birthday party! She's a silly girl...

They had fun stuff, face painting, snacks, a ball toss, fishing, and some Hula Dancers that came last year. They're pretty entertaining.

She had a good time and I liked being there for one of the events, usually I'm working so I don't get down her way to see what they're doing. The flower barrette in her hair is actually one of the ones I wore at my wedding, and she absolutely loved her flower!

Zoey and a couple other kids wanted to swing on the tire swing so Priscilla was pushing them. Oh my goodness, that thing makes me so nervous! I just kept hoping she held on really tight and didn't let go! It made me realize how big she's getting... That kid has no fear!

Wow I sound really bossy on that video!

I made sloppy joes, mashed potatoes, and watermelon for supper tonight. I can't remember the last time I made home-made mashed potatoes and for some reason the ones I made tonight totally hit the spot, they were soooo good! I made Chocolate Malt Cookies for a lunch at work today and they turned out pretty good. I found them on the Betty Crocker website and it was my first time making them. I think the glaze made them a little too sweet but the cookie part was really good. Nothing can beat those sinful cookie bars of Tanna's though!!!

Spongies and sickies...

2009-08-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Monday night after bath I asked the Zomeister if she would sleep in spongies, as I spent half my childhood sleeping in spongies, I figured it's never too soon to start! She agreed, she's such a priss, I think she would do anything for beauty. I told her she had to sleep in them alllll night and not take them out, last time I put them in I checked on her 15 mins after I put her in bed and they were all in a pile on the floor. Needless to say, she kept them in all night and her hair actually stayed really curly! She looked at it in the mirror and said, "Oh mama, I look like Andrew!" I told her yeah, she kinda did.

I messed around with picnik.com and edited one of her pics. It's kinda fun!

At work yesterday I wasn't needed in my regular room so I was different parts of the building and I ended up helping at lunch in the 2 year old room across the hall from Zoey's room. She was throwing a wild-eyed fit, I had to go over there twice to calm her down and try to get her to lay on her mat. She wouldn't lay down, wouldn't listen, was like sobbing all over the place, it wasn't good. She wasn't acting right and she never did take a nap so I was getting pretty worried about her. At 3:15 my boss let me go ahead and leave and take her to the Dr. I took her to the Walk-In Clinic and her O2 stat was 86%!!!! The poor thing couldn't breathe! She has an upper respitory infection and they gave her an antibiotic and a decongestant. They didn't even seem concerned about her O2 and didn't tell me to give her a breathing treatment or anything! I gave her one anyway and ordered pizza and she said she felt much better.

This morning she was still pretty wheezy so I kept her home with me and she's been doing ok. She fought her nap pretty hard, but other than that hasn't been too mean or anything. I don't know why she gets so angry when she gets sick!!!! Hopefully she'll be a little nicer in school now. Well, I'm off to eat some Jell-O Beans and hang out, I think she's going to make me watch some Barbie movie, I can't wait haha!

Good times in Kansas

2009-08-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

Zoey and I made it safe and sound back to good 'ol Texas! The trip wasn't too bad and I'm glad I got to visit with everyone! Hopefully I'll get time off in September and Beau will be able to go visit too.

We had such a good time at the Fair. Here's a pic from the top of the Ferris Wheel, which I hate!!! That thing makes me so nervous, but Zoey and the rest of the kids loved it!

The first couple of nights Zoey had fun riding the "kiddie" rides and then we took her on the Tilt-O-Whirl and she looooooved it!!!! She had so much fun and wanted to ride anything that was big or went fast... that girl has no fear!

This is my mom telling Zoey that she absolutely cannot get out of the boats or mess around! She made me nervous on that even! She liked them though...

On Saturday we had the Parade and it made me really miss Beau... last year Zoey and I got to ride with him in the Fire Truck during the parade and it was really special... There's always next year! Zoey had too much fun getting candy while GrannyC helped corral everybody. She made out with quite a bit!

We got all the kids to line up and then of course Meemaw, Nana Kriss, and GrannyC wanted to pose too!

Here's one with Grandpa Von, he handled all the commotion pretty well. Zoey is doing her "Princess" pose, too funny!

And finally one of my favorite pictures of the trip! She's growing up so fast!!!!!

Only a couple more weeks to go before Beau gets home, we are so stinking excited! I can't wait for everything to back to normal again... well, as normal as we ever were I guess!

I'm off to watch The Closer, I love love love that show, she's such a spit-fire...

Parks and Pigs, what fun!

2009-07-30T12:38:00.001-07:00

Tuesday evening we had a get together at the South Park for my mom's birthday. It was a lot of fun, everyone came, a friend of my Aunt Cyndee's and a couple of family friends that grew up out by my grandparent's farm. It was so much fun chatting with Heidi and John. Heidi used to be a Fotopoulos and they lived just down the road from my Grandma and Grandpa's farm. I have good memories of her mom Lilly and I found out they all live in Dallas now! We definitely have to get to Dallas and visit everybody, they sure are nice people!

Heidi showed the kids some gymnastic moves, Zoey did a couple somersaults, it really impressed her!

Last night Zoey, Ellie, and Andrew had a slumber party with Cyndee and Dewey. Cyndee has this HUGE pig Susie that we rescued at a gas station in Goodland like 3 years ago. I was pregnant at the time, she was a little tiny baby pig, we think she fell off a pig truck. Well, Cyndee and Dewey kept her and made her a pen and now she is absolutely huge, and soooo cute! She seems to smile, it's weird, and we fed her lots of weeds, she loved them! Zoey didn't know what to think of Susie and she wouldn't get too close. I think she's big, I can't imagine how big she looked from Zoey's point of view!

Tonight's the first night of the Fair. We're excited, Zoey's taking a good nap right now and we'll be ready for lot's of fun! Hope everyone has had a wonderful week!

Kansas fun!

2009-07-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Kansas!!!! We had a super trip, we only stopped twice and made it in 8 hours and 5 minutes... Zoey and Cupid took the trip pretty well. Haha!

Zoey's having tons of fun with Nana and Papa, plus all of her cousins, Jessie, Chisum, Andrew, Ellie and Savannah! We went out and looked at Tanna's new house and Zoey helped Tanna measure her bathroom for something. Today they did a lot of the electrical work and put the stairs in. It's really an amazing process, I told Tanna she needs to be a master at this so in 20 years when Beau and I want to build a house they can be our mentors!

I lined the kids up, oldest to youngest. This is actually in Tanna's soon to be pantry off of her kitchen!

The girls went with Becky to a wedding so Andrew came over to play and we went to the new South Park. They have added some awesome equipment and put in a frisbee golf course too. I can't believe how nice it is, the whole community has done a lot of work!

Mom's eye is doing pretty good, she had her surgery on Wednesday. She had a Dacryocystorinostomy. Impressive, huh? They created a new tear drain, hers has been blocked for like 10 years. It's black and blue and she said every time she bends over her face might fall off, but not too bad!

She braided my hair the other day, I miss her doing my hair!!! I always had my hair in curlers or braids or something. It was just nice to have her brush it and mess with it... Zoey got some perm rods put in too, she took them out too soon so it didn't curl too much, but it did a little.

Today we got all gussied up for Sunday School and Church. It was really fun, Zoey had a blast singing songs and the sermon was really good. I think it's something we need to continue, we had a good time!

Well, I better go see what Zoey and Papa are up to, Mom just came in and said she was on the floor with the dogs and barking at Papa and he was feeding her chips! Really nice Papa!

Big G's

2009-07-11T09:31:00.001-07:00

Last night Priscilla and Landon, Nicole and Jackson, and Zoey and I headed to Tuscola, TX, population 714, to eat the most amazing hamburgers ever! When Nicole was telling us about Big G's she said that when we got there we couldn't look around too much and we would forget how it looked when we got our food. Needless to say, I think Priscilla and I were like what the heck kind of place is this! It was packed, with a couple of window air conditioners to cool the place and we got a table waaaay in the back corner. Next thing we knew, the people sitting next to us started smoking!!!! I think this is like the last place in the United States that you can still smoke indoors! It was really hot and the smoke was getting bad so when I took Zoey to the potty I saw there was a big table up front out of the smoke, I asked the waitress if we could move and they said sure! It was sooo much better after that and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Jackson and I had to take a picture because we had matching shirts!

We had burgers and some really good pie, they looked so good I wanted to take them all home!

Here's a link from a newspaper article they did on it, it's a really cute place! I recommend it if anyone is in our neck of the woods!

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/nov/25/thats-good-eatin-1/

There was a shark hanging from the ceiling with a hand in it's mouth and Zoey wasn't really to sure what to think of it. She told me this morning that the shark shouldn't have had a hand in it's mouth it was mean... it's so funny what she remembers sometimes!

We headed back to good ol Abilene, it's only like 10 minutes away from Tuscola, and stopped at Priscilla's house and let the kids play on the swing set for a while then we headed home. After I got home my neighbor Ashley and I sat on the porch and visited and had a great time!

The other day I got Zoey a cheap princess set at K-Mart, came with a crown, necklace, clip-on earrings, and a ring. She looooves it! She's been wearing it all the time when we are at home and just acts like such a princess! I accidentally stepped on her ring the other day and broke it and she got very very upset with me! She huffed and puffed around and frowned at me and kept telling me, "Mommy, I'm very mad at you!" Then she'd walk out of the room and come back and huff and say, "Oh look at my ring, it's broken!" She was pretty ticked and she still talks to me about how I broke her ring. After a while I convinced her it was an accident and she's not mad anymore, but it was so hard not to laugh at her, she was really mad!

Well, we're going to maybe go swimming with the Hopper's again this afternoon and I've been working on Farmtown, my new addiction! It's so dumb, but so fun to play! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well, we're coming to the end of our lovely 4-day weekend, it was a much needed break and we had lots of fun! Saturday we headed to some friends of Nicole's family, Amber and Ivan. They have a beautiful house with this awesome back porch and a huge yard for the kids to play in. They had make brisket that was out of this world and lots of other goodies. Zoey and Jackson had fun running around, playing with the horseshoes, and playing with the other kids.We all had matching shirts on, we didn't realize it untill we were headed to Nicole's house. Gotta love those Wal-Mart specials haha!

Nicole's dad got the kids some sparklers and Zoey did surprisingly well! I figured she wouldn't want to hold it or anything, but she had a lot of fun! She just wanted to keep lighting the ground on fire with it...

By the time the fireworks started, everyone was pretty wound up so getting them to sit still took a bit and then Zoey wanted nothing to do with them! She kept holding her hands over ears and telling me they were too loud. They were set off sporatically so they were big gaps between fireworks and she'd think it was safe and start to walk to go do something then another one would go off and she'd run as fast as her little legs could take her under the porch! It was so funny! She didn't really watch too many of them, just mostly sat on the porch and ate some cake... oh well, there's always next year!

Today Priscilla and Landon helped me take my car to the mechanics to get looked at. The first step in getting ready for our big trip to Kansas coming up, we're sooooo excited!! We dropped it off then went to K-Mart where of course they were having sales all over the store! I got Zoey a really cute dress for $4.00 and a couple other things. I wish K-Mart was closer to me I would go there all the time, I love that store! After that was Chinese that really hit the spot and then back home. Now I'm just waiting on a call back to see what they're going to do with the car, I've tried calling like 4 times and nobody has called me back. It's so frustrating!

I'm going to finish up some laundry and get everything ready to get back in the swing of things tomorrow. We should have 4-day weekends waaaaay more often! Happy 4th everyone!

Finally!

2009-07-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, it's been a while, I think I'm a little out of practice! Things have been going great here, I've been keeping super busy, all my friends have been keeping me on my toes, thanks guys!!! Almost every Saturday we go swimming with my neighbor Ashley and her baby Sarah, her blog is on my page, go check it out! We've been hanging out with my friend Nicole and her son Jackson quite a bit, she has a kiddie pool and the kids love it! I told her the other day I should just get one here for the house and she said I couldn't because I wouldn't come over any more!

They could not wait for the pool to fill up but they were both great listeners and didn't mess with the hose...

Zoey rode around on Jackson's back for a while then he took a turn on hers. It was funny she never said a word when he rode on her but he said she was heavy right off the bat. Nicole laughed and said, "Oh he's such a man, already complaining!" Made me laugh, they had such a good time.

She got a bigger pool and last weekend we let the kids play for a while then put them down for a nap and we hopped in! All we could really do was sit, but sit we did, it was soooo nice and cool.

The other day Zoey brought home her first piece of homework, crazy! Her teacher sent her home with a stuffed monkey, a journal, and the book 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. We kept him over the weekend and we had to write in the journal with a few pictures about what we did with the monkey. It was really fun thinking of things to do with him, we decided to write about how Mr. Monkey helped us... He helped us be safe...

He helped us share with friends...

He helped when we were sad...Helped us have fun on the trampoline...and helped us read the book!

I really enjoyed doing this with Zoey and she still talks about the monkey!

The other night while getting Zoey ready for bed I discovered her closet was full of water!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!! I kept hearing at work about when your husbands get deployed, whatever can go wrong, will. Oh I freaked out but I ran and got my neighbor Cody and he came to the rescue!!! Turns out the run-off for the Air Conditioner unit had some build-up and it was leaking underneath and then went into Zoey's closet. He blew it out with an over-sized turkey baster and everything came out fine... except the monster that was living underneath my air conditioner!!!!!

I was completely embarrassed to see how filthy it was under there! I had to take some pictures, we cleaned it all out I think it's better now, hopefully!

Blech, it was gross! Thanks sooooo much Cody and Ashley, you guys have helped me out more than you realize!!!!!

We hung out at Priscilla's a couple times too and swam in her shark pool, the kids always have so much fun when they get together! They're on vacation, lucky, so they've been busy this past week but we hung out and had a looooong overdue wine night! It's so nice to relax and chat and let the kids play!

Well, I wanted to get some pics up, I'll try to keep up with this thing since we've been doing so much lately. Beau's been doing ok, his computer broke so he was kinda bummed but he had another one ordered and on it's way and it has a webcam on it! We went and got a camera for our computer here yesterday and set up Skype so we can video chat, I'm so excited!!!! If anyone has Skype let me know we can chat!

I have a ton of ham roll-ups to make for a work pot luck tomorrow so I better get busy. After tomorrow we have a 4 day weekend, yay!!!! We are spending 4th of July with Nicole and her family, I'm excited! Hope everyone is well!

More to come...

2009-06-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

We've been keeping busy this week. Beau made it to his final destination safely, his living situation is a little better than he thought, but he just keeps telling me it's really really hot. I've been able to talk to him almost every day so that's been good, plus e-mail. He had his first fire today, the landfill on base was on fire, he said it took 2 hours and around 11,000 gallons of water to put it out. It was 120 degrees today so he said between that and wearing full gear, plus the fire it was scorching! He said he's never drank so much water in his life!

Right now I'm printing off our pay slips because one of the gals at the CDC accidentally shredded Zoey's file by mistake! Haha... I just have to get her shot record faxed over tomorrow and it will be ok.

Here's some pics of Beau leaving the other morning, it was so sad! It feels like a month has passed instead of a week.

We had a busy weekend with supper over at the Hopper's, thanks again guys! On Saturday Zo-Zo and I went shopping with Priscilla and Landon. We got a Children's Place in town, yay!, so we went and checked that out. I really like that store, they have good quality, cute clothes at pretty good prices. Zoey needed a pair of close-toes water shoes for their splash day at school so I got her a really cute pair. Priscilla got matching flip-flops for the kids, no more fighting over the shark shoes!!! Best idea ever!

After that we went to Jason's Deli for lunch, so good, the kids loved their pizza! We headed home for naps then went to Ashley's aunt and uncle's house to go swim!!!! First time of the summer! She has all the pictures on her camera so I will have to post those later. We had a blast and baby Sarah loved it! It was so much fun, we got invited to go back this Saturday so I'm hoping the weather works out!

Here's a pic of the Smith kids and Zoey at the Fire Station... we had such a great time and Zoey loves the card we got in the mail from them.

Well, it's raining and windy out right now so I better hop off and turn off the computer. I don't have to work till 7:30 tomorrow so we get an extra hour to sleep in! Yippee!

It's been a while...

2009-05-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, this week has been really crazy. Beau got his orders, his flight leaves at 8:25 tomorrow morning so Zoey and I will be dropping him off at around 7 to wish him off. I'm really really not looking forward to it, but it's not for too awful long and Zoey is here to keep me company. Beau was packing up all of his stuff and he got this HUGE bag to take and Zoey fit in it! I think she wants to go with Daddy! Yeah, that's not happening!

Beau had appointments all week and I went with him to a meeting at the Family Readiness Center and got lots of information about things that are available to me while he's gone. It's nice to know I have a pretty good support system if I ever need anything. He also asked me to come with him to get his shots, it was awful! He got his smallpox, anthrax, and typhoid. His smallpox one scares me, I won't let him take off his bandage in the house or touch it or anything. Blech, it's gross! You should google it, it's scary stuff!

The Smith's came into town on Thursday evening and had supper, played in the yard for a while, then we went to the base to look at the fire trucks. I can't believe I didn't take very many pictures but I'll be sure to post some more later when Tanna sends them to me! Thanks for coming, we had a great time!!! Zoey kept saying she wanted to go play with "the girls" and then Tanna would say, "and a boy!" It was really cute!

The girls had lots of fun dressing up and Andrew found a fire truck and a police car so he had some fun too! Of course they all loved the trampoline, that thing scares me to death!

Friday night we went to the drive-in and saw Up! It was a super cute movie, we all really enjoyed it! It started at 9:00 so about 20 minutes before it ended Zoey got a little fussy and then finally went to sleep. I loooove going to the drive-in, it makes me feel more comfortable if Zoey's going to have a melt-down or anything at least we won't bother anyone else. I recommend the movie though, it was really good!

Saturday morning we went to breakfast with the Miller's and then shopped for Beau's toiletries and things he needed to take on the flight. His supervisor Greg came over and gave Beau pointers on what he needed to take and how things were going to go. Thank you Greg! You eased my mind too a little bit and I know Beau appreciated it!

Last night Zoey went to the Teague's to play with Landon and Beau and I went to Buffalo Wild Wing's to have a couple going away drinks with the guys. It was really fun, quite a few people showed up! After that Vos, Williams, Tally and Beau and I went to Guitar's and Cadillacs to see what all the fuss was about but none of us realized it was a total country bar! Cow bells and everything. We stayed for about half and hour then Beau and I headed home. It was fun hanging out and we got to dance to one song, it's a really good memory to have right before he leaves! Thanks again Teague's for watching Zoey, even though she ruined Greg's game and wouldn't bring him the right pillow! Hahaha!

Vos is over right now and they are watching Terminator 2... yay... not my kind of movie! We need to go to Wal-Mart here in a bit and get Beau a shower bag to keep his toiletries in and sunscreen and I think that's all he'll need for now. I'm not sure what else he'll need for now but I'll be sure to let everyone know if he needs anything in the future. Thanks for all of the amazing support and I know this deployment will go smooth thanks to all my friends and family who are here, and far away, being there for us!

WHAT!?!??!

2009-05-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching American Idol and I'm absolutely shocked that Adam didn't win! After they announced it I just sat there and Beau kept saying what happened, is that who you wanted to win, you look shocked, what happened? I haven't liked Kris since the beginning, he should have been voted off looooong ago! Dangit, I thought Adam was going to win for sure, I'm in shock!

Off to other news, last night Zoey, my neighbor Ashley, and I went to the Celebration Singers program at the Paramount Theatre downtown, which is beautiful I must say! A lady I work with sings in the group and she invited me so we checked it out. We sat way up in the balcony and Zoey was really excited, she kept telling us to be quiet when the music came on since I had been telling her for like 3 hours priop that we were going to go listen to singers and she had to be very very quiet. She did really well the first 30 minutes or so, then got a little fidgety so we left after about 45 minutes. They sounded amazing and I'm really glad we went!
It's a little dark and blurry but this was inside the theatre on the sides, it was really pretty...
Since it was still early and we didn't know how to figure out the parking lot, haha, we decided to walk around downtown and window shop. We found this really pretty waterfall coming out of a building and it had some benches and stuff. Zoey was completely amazed and of course we had some good photo ops.
I love this one!

Zoey was getting a little wheezy so after we came home I gave her a breathing treatment and she said she felt better and went to sleep. She woke up around 2 and needed another one so Beau made an appointmet for today and took her in. The doctor said it is likely a viral thing with asthmatic tendencies. They gave her a stronger medicine than Albuterol and something to clear up her nose and help with her cold. I'm glad the doctor gave us extra Albuterol last time so I could do something for her last night! She's doing much much better, except for not being able to sleep very well and being a little grouchy, but her breathing is all that matters! That's scary stuff, I hate it when she gets wheezy like that.

Beau had some appointments today and get lots of gear like shirts, goggles, and knee and elbow pads. They told him he needs to report in Iraq by June 4th so he'll be leaving either next Friday or Saturday. I'm glad he will get to visit with the Smith family a little bit before he goes! We are all excited you guys are coming!!!

Well, it's off to bed, tomorrow is my last day of work then we have a 4 day weekend... woo-hoo! We have lots of stuff to do this weekend, so I'm ready for a long weekend!

A crazy week...

2009-05-17T19:48:00.001-07:00

Well we found out on Thursday that Beau is getting prepped for immediate deployment within the week! I think I'm still kind of in shock or something, this will be our first deployment, and it's just some crazy news. Beau's friend overseas is having some issues with his family so they are sending him home and Beau is taking his place. He called Beau yesterday morning and chatted with him a little bit and said he hoped we weren't upset or anything that Beau has to go. Beau is actually really excited, it's an opportunity to save up some money, plus he'll see a completely different part of the world and culture. A couple guys at work told him you learn the most about your job when you are overseas and it makes you really proud to be in the Air Force and serve your country.

Anyway, he's getting ready for that, he has lots of appointments tomorrow and I guess they will tell him the date he's going to be going. It's weird knowing we have a week, maybe a week and a half, instead of the couple months you usually have to prepare yourself for this kind of thing. Priscilla told me she would rather have known a week ahead of time because then you don't dread it forever and you appreciate the last few days you have together.

Saturday was Zoolute at the Zoo, it was an event for military members and their families for the community to show their appreciation. It was really neat, they had tattoos, free food like Chick-Fil-A and Dominos, ice cream, hot dogs, a dunking tank, and the zookeepers were out walking around and talking about the animals. It was really fun! Of course we woke up and it was POURING rain, I think we got almost 3 inches but we needed it really bad. It cleared up right before we all left and it turned out perfect, it wasn't too hot, there wasn't tons and tons of people there, so we all had a good time. It was feeding day for the snakes, lovely, so they were a lot more active also. They had a milk snake out for people to touch and Zoey and Landon really liked it. I need to talk to her about never touching snakes, but it's hard to do that right after your parents are telling you to go pet the snake, so whatever. I need to do that!

After the Zoo, we came home for naps then Zoey went over to play with Landon and Scilla so Beau and I could go on a date. First we went to the shooting range to shoot the gun Beau got for us to keep in the house for protection. Don't worry it's in our closet waaaay out of reach, unloaded, but it's there just in case. I do feel better in a weird way, I thought for sure it would make me more nervous, but it's been ok. I really really liked shooting, it gave me this urge to run around and kick somebody's ass, haha! I kept telling Beau, ok I was done and he'd say are you sure, and I'd say oh ok just do like 3 or 4 more shells, and then I'd do it all again. I feel a lot more comfortable with it, and I was surprised how much kick it had! I'm glad I got to shoot it, I feel better prepared.

I'm really proud of myself, and I think I surprised Beau a little bit that I wasn't like a horrible shot! Beau told me at least you'd get him in the balls, plus look you shot him in the hand too! It was cute and a really fun thing we did together, just us. Now that he's leaving I feel like we should have done more but we'll work on that when he gets back!

After the shooting range we went to Outback Steakhouse for some really good food and I got some kind of a spiked lemonade drink, it was delicious! After that we went to the mall and walked around then hung out with Priscilla for a bit, then came home. Thank you so much Priscilla for watching the Zomeister for us! Beau had to work today, and I did a little housework, but I think I'm still recovering from yesterday! Tomorrow starts another work week but at least it's a 4 day week, we have a 4 day weekend coming up, yay!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies! I recieved some very beautiful flowers from Beau this morning and a really nice card and Zoey made me a Mother's Day card at school that is really really sweet. I pretty much caught up on laundry and had a normal weekend day today. We ordered those new pasta bowls from Dominos for supper and they turned out really good! I'm sooooo full now...

I got one of Zoey smelling the flowers, she said they smelled beautiful! She had a hard time accepting they were my flowers and not hers, she wanted so badly to carry them around and play with them. Friday at the Mommy and Me Tea Party the kids handed out a carnation to their mom for Mother's Day. Well, Zoey would NOT give me mine, it was her flower! Her teacher Barbara ended up giving me another one, so we each had one. She carried it around all evening on Friday and part of the day on Saturday. She loved it!

Here's the card she made, it's really sweet! I loooove the picture they did, her teachers layed black sheets down and took all the kid's pictures themselves! I saw a couple others, they were really nice!

Yesterday Zoey and I went with my friend Nicole, her mom Jeanie, and Jackson to breakfast at Golden Corral, which is amazing I must say, and then to the Western Heritage expo thing at the Taylor County Expo Center. It was really neat and of course I didn't take my camera! I really wish I would have. We saw the Budweiser horses, some really neat covered wagons, and tons of snazzy Texas decorations... You know pretty much anything you can make out of wood, cowhide, leather, and rhinestones!

Nicole got a fried Snickers that looked amazing and I got a huuuuge funnel cake, then we were off to take naps! We had a really good time, thought next time we will think to bring strollers! We always forget!

Well, I should be getting off to bed, gotta work early in the morning... I can't believe the weekends already over and we are about to start a new week! Where did my time go?!??!

Shelves and pretty gifts!

2009-05-06T18:04:00.001-07:00

I finally got Zoey's shelves the other day from Organize.com and got them all put together! I was sad to see, after I got the shelves alllll put together, that 2 of the bins were cracked and broken. I was really disappointed so I got online to see about returning the 2 bins and getting 2 new ones since we went to all the trouble of ordering it in the first place, I really wanted it to be right. The return policy was to return anything everything has to be intact in the original box, even the instructions! Plus you have to pay the return shipping! I was really ticked off and I wasn't about to pay $30 for 2 plastic bins, plus taking the whole dang thing apart that I spent 45 minutes putting together! I measured the bins, headed off to Wal-Mart, and found 2 regular old clear storage bins that are the exact same size, plus with lids, so now I can keep her play-doh and colors and coloring books in there and not have to worry about her getting them all over since the lids are on them! So in the end, it all worked out and I'm very pleased!

Here's how it looked right out of the box:

Here's the finished product, it's so cute!

I got a nice surprise yesterday from Priscilla! She gave me this wonderful gift basket with wine, some extremely tasty chocolates, some really pretty suckers, and some candles. It was really pretty so I just had to take a picture of it before I tore in and got after them chocolates! Dang, they were good! She didn't have to do it, I would watch Landon any day, it was almost like having a break myself since he kept Zoey busy too! Thanks again Scilla!

I have a funny Zoey story too, I almost forgot! When Zoey goes to school she looooooves dress up and dramatic play. A while back her teachers told me she was the "baby" of the class that day and the other kids had lots of fun giving her a bottle, a pacifier, putting the baby clothes on her, which only came up to her shins, and just doing little baby stuff. They said she laid there for a long time and just let the other kids do all sorts of stuff!

Anyway, the other day she kept trying to take her clothes off to put on the dress up clothes and Priscilla told her that she needed to keep her clothes on and put the dress up clothes on top. Priscilla said she had to take another little girl's picture for something and in that time Zoey got buck naked, put on the little baby newborn diaper, tried to pull the baby pants up to her shins then peed in the diaper!!! She said she was being a baby and babies pee in their diapers!!!!! Oh my gosh, I was so embarrassed, but her teachers said it was really funny and that it was actually very clever of her to think of doing that. I don't know, I really don't want her peeing in play diapers, but that's just me! Haha, I hope I remember this, I can't wait to tell her when she gets older!

Having a Slumber Party!

2009-05-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's Priscilla and Greg's big anniversary get-away weekend, so Landon came over for a slumber party! They've been absolutely wonderful all day, we've stayed pretty busy too. I think Shark Tales has been played 3 or 4 times, Landon's favorite movie, they played with Zoey's grocery cart and made coffee quite a few times for each other. This was at nap time they were knocked out! They looked almost looked like twins, they were laying the same way and their hair color is a lot alike...

We were inside hanging out and I hear a plane go over, a little loud but nothing much. Then I hear super loud, almost breaking the sound barrier, windows rattling, F-16 fly over! I grab up the kids and of course Zoey is wearing Landon's shoes so he has on no shoes so I just scoop him up and we ran outside just in time to see it fly right over the house!!! I forgot they are having an air show at the airport close to my house today. He did 3 more loops and dippy-do's right over our house, it was soooo loud, the kids had their hands over their ears but they loved it!

Since we were outside we played lots and lots of bubbles and then Zoey ran into the table and got a boo-boo. Landon ran right over and kissed it for her, it was soooo sweet! They have played so well today! I kept teasing Greg that I was going to dress up Landon and paint his nails and put bows in his hair and he didn't really like the sound of it. Zoey got some clip-on earrings for her birthday and he brought them to me and said they were Zoey's ears. I tried to put them on him but he wouldn't dare let me! He kept saying "No not Landon's ears, Zoodie's ears, not for Landon he's a boy!" I guess Greg is rubbing off on him after all!

Beau made some ribs and I got lots of neat pictures from Priscilla on my phone of the baseball game. It looked really cool and lots of fun, even though it was pouring rain on them!

The other day Zoey walked around in daddy's boots for a while then she said they were way too heavy. Looked really cute though!

Well, I'm off to bed, the kids are asleep and I'm hoping to get to sleep in a little in the morning. Anything is better than getting up at 4:45! Plus I finally got Zoey's new shelves in that I ordered, hopefully get that put together and get her room straghtened out! Beau went to Lowe's today and got some house fix-up stuff. He replaced a few electrical sockets, the toilet seat, the fridge light, and the oven light! His honey-do list is a lot shorter now!

Soooo full....

2009-04-28T19:18:00.001-07:00

Around 4:30 this evening, at Wal-Mart, Beau decided he wanted to make ribs! First time we've ever made them, we got lots of pointers from Greg, the rib-master, and they turned out really really good!

We're on day 2 of wearing the Ariel night shirt around... thanks Gail... She is in love with this night gown. She really really wanted to wear it to Wal-Mart, I said no, she threw a huge fit, and I promised she could put it back on as soon as we got back. She finally agreed and nothing else was said so I thought she forgot all about it and we went on with our shopping. As soon as we got home she made a bee-line to her room telling me she had to take her clothes off for her Ariel shirt! She definitely didn't forget and she wore it the rest of the evening. I hope she lets me put it in the laundry sometime!

Last weekend was my friend Susan's daughter's B-Day party. They got a water slide bouncy thing from the same place we got ours. The slide was a little scary for Landon and Zoey but they had a lot of fun jumping in the puddles and squirting the big kids with the hose. If you look close in the second picture, Zoey's got a huge wedgie... she had one pretty much the whole time she ran around! I love her cute little butt!

And since I'm a sucker for butt pictures, here's one from a loooong time ago when we lived in Omaha. One of my very favorites and is definitely getting shown to her high school boyfriends!

So much stuff!

2009-04-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, it's been almost a week and a half since I blogged and I can't even believe how much has happened!!!

First things first: My parents made it into town on Friday afternoon, we headed to the base for the Month of the Military Child Parade that was at the CDC. Zoey had a lot of fun walking with Priscilla and the rest of the class, I was shocked that it was an actual parade! There was a Fire Truck, a marching band from one the high schools from around, cheerleaders, all the kids at the CDC, plus some Home Care kids. It was a lot of fun, plus I decorated the shirts and buggy for my class... I'm glad it's over to tell you the truth!

After that we went to Chili's, Beau's favorite place. It was fun, and anywhere Zoey can get some good chocolate milk is a hit with her!

The next day was the big party!!!! I think we counted 32 people, including kids, that

showed up! Mostly people from work, my friend Susan and her kids, my neighbor Ashley and her family, and us. Everyone had a super time, Zoey ended up with 7 Barbie's... thanks a lot guys, very funny! I mentioned at work that I didn't really do the Barbie thing with Zoey since I wasn't really into Barbie's growing up so, yeah, that's what they got her! She loves them, so they got it right! I can't even list what all she got, she got sooooo much stuff. I'm just so relieved that nobody got hurt in the bouncy castle and everyone had a good time!

The next day we went to the Zoo, had to take Nana and Papa to feed the giraffes! Zoey took most of the pictures including this one of Papa! You have to realize, my father NEVER smiles for pictures, but of course for Zoey he did. I love it! She also took this one of a leaf on the ground, I think we ended up with about a dozen pictures of either the ground or the back of my legs!

We had a really good visit and my parents left on Monday morning to head back to Kansas... Zoey was completely heart-broken! She was pretty teary for about an hour and then around supper time the dog and cat were playing around in the living room and made a noise. Zoey ran in there yelling, "Nana and Papa are here! They came back! Nana and Papa are here!" She was kinda upset when they weren't there, but she knows they went back to Kansas and we'll get to see them as soon as we can!

Yesterday Zoey took a nap in the morning (completely unlike her) and woke up and was having trouble breathing and was really wheezy. I took her to the Walk-In Clinic, waited for about an hour and a half, and they rushed us back, gave her a breathing treatment and some steriods. The Dr. lectured me a bit that I should've taken her to the ER but I didn't know! They were rude to me all around, I hope we never need to go back! They said she had Bronchiolitis which is like Bronchitis but it's caused by a virus, not an infection, and is in a different part of the lung. They thought she had pneumonia at first so I was thankful that it wasn't.

I brought her home and she was still a little wheezy and I left to get her prescriptions filled when Beau thought she was getting more wheezy and not acting right so he took her to the ER. I pulled the prescriptions, headed to the ER where we spent the next 4 1/2 hours of our day! They told us the same thing, she would be wheezy still the first day, gave her another breathing treatment and more steriods. Zoey was losing her mind, they said it's from all the meds, but she's been hitting, kicking, biting, screaming, trying to claw our faces, like seriously being a little demon child!

She couldn't go to school today so we stayed home and I got lots of work done around the house. She's still being crazy, I really feel sorry for her teachers tomorrow! Whew, I'm glad I got this blog done, I'm going to call my mom right now so she gets off my back!!!

Zoey's pictures are in!

2009-04-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy weekend, getting the house and yard all ready for Zoey's big party this weekend! We got a new mower, one with a bag on it, it really picked up a lot of grass... more than I thought! I got the bouncy castle all booked for Saturday, I hope the weather will be nice. I need to go to the Outdoor Rec place and see about renting some tables and chairs, I think quite a few people are coming! I'm getting really excited and whenever I ask Zoey what she wants to eat she has been saying Birthday Cake, so I think she's getting excited too!

Her pictures are in, I took a picture of the picture so it's a little glared... My friend Nicole is going to scan them in for me, but I wanted to get them up now! I'm really really pleased with them since we had some kinda crappy pictures the last couple times...

Zoey started Preschool this week in room 109! They reported she's doing really well, really likes the computer, and is adjusting quickly. They have this torso thing that's a model of the inside of the human body and Priscilla told me she was scared to death of it! She wouldn't lay down until they put it in the closet and they had to take her around and show her that they "threw it in the trash." Too funny, hopefully she gets used to it!

We had an Easter Egg Hunt at the CDC on Friday, Zoey got some good hugs! The first one is her and Landon and the other one is her and my friend Nicole's son Jackson. He calls her his special girl it's really cute. Monday he came home and told Nicole that Zoey's big now so he got to play with her outside! Zoey and him were together in the 2 year old room and he moved up a couple months ago so they're together again!

Our roses have started to bloom, I think we have 5 now! I complain about that rose bush until I walk outside and see these beautiful flowers...

That's it for now, I gotta see what I'm making for supper!

The Council-Woman!

2009-04-08T14:54:00.001-07:00

So I got a phone call today from my mom telling me she won the City Council position! I'm so proud of her and I'm glad she had the guts to do it! I've never known her to do anything like this, when she told me she was running I was kinda shocked to say the least, but I'm glad she did. Congrats Mom! We're proud of you!

I love this picture of Mom... it was at the Fair in 2007, we had a lot of fun that year!

This picture was taken when I was in the hospital, minutes away from being wheeled in to my C-Section with Zoey. I was sitting in the wheelchair, sobbing by the way, scared out of my mind, and my mom is taking pictures of me. Then she turns to me and says, "Hey take some of me in my scrubs!" So, I did, I mean she's my mom, what was I supposed to say? Too funny, looking back I think it's funny, but I was pretty ticked when it happened!

My cousins Tanna and Stuart have started building their house in the country near Sharon Springs. I'm so excited for them, I can't wait to see how beautiful I know their house will be! Here's some of their progress, the shed is being put up right now as I type this, the whole family is pitching in... It reminds me of when we built the barn up north from the house. The whole family was working on stuff, helping out, it makes me homesick... I wish I was there to pitch in and let Zoey play in the dirt!

We had a big dirt pile for a while behind the barn after it was built and I loved it! I always played on it and did whatever I did back then, I think I was like 8 or 9. Anyway, my cousin Tanner, who was like 16 or 17 at the time, was teasing me one day about it and then went and took a big ol pee on it! I was sooooooo mad I don't think I ever played on it again! Seeing the kids playing on the dirt pile reminded me of that! Hopefully nobody pees on their dirt mound!

Well, that's all for now, I'm trying to decide what to do for supper, but I better get something going quick!

Heart Pajamas!

2009-04-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today has been a relatively lazy Sunday, did some grocery shopping and a couple loads of laundry but nothing too exciting... I was getting Zoey ready for bed a little bit ago and the whole time before the bath, during the bath, brushing her teeth, and combing her hair she kept talking about heart pajamas. She kept telling me "I want my heart pajamas Mama! Can I wear the heart pajamas?" I assumed they were her monkey ones with the hearts on them but noooo... she wanted these!

These are like size 18-24 months and she even made the comment they were a little tight by her feet but she was sooooo happy to get to wear these pajamas! The thing is, she hasn't worn or even seen these pajamas in months! I can't remember the last time I put these on her, it's been a really long time... I'm curious to know what sparked her memory to them or how she even remembered them in the first place... too funny.

We got her this Princess story book yesterday for her birthday but of course with her being pukey yesterday I was all for giving it to her early. It made her so happy and she carried it around all day today. We had to read Cinderalla, again, before going to bed tonight and she knows just what's going on... We've never seen the movie so I don't know where she picked up on Cinderella so much, but hopefully I'll be able to find it before her birthday...

Well, that's all I know today, I have a super early morning tomorrow and the next few mornings! I'm going to the gym after work to try out my new shoes though, I'm excited! More to come later!

Early Easter

2009-04-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Today was the big Easter Egg Hunt at the Fire Station. They had a pancake feed, coloring, some baby bunnies to pet, dancing, and of course an egg hunt. The kids had a lot of fun! Sparky was there and for some reason Zoey was terrified of him, she's silly sometimes!

Here she's coloring with her friend Nicole...

The bunnies were so stinkin cute, I wanted to take one home!

They danced The Bunny Hop, The Chicken Dance, and did The Twist, the kids were so cute dancing!

We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Teague's, thanks Priscilla for bringing the matching Easter basket!

Afterwards Beau, Zoey, and I went to the BX to get Beau's hair cut and look around and Zoey got sick so we came home, she went straight down for a nap, and then she woke up and got sick again. She seems to be feeling better now, I'm thinking it's just that 24 hour thing that I had, I hope so anyway! All in all it was a prety good early Easter for the Gardner's!

Whew what a week!

2009-04-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a crazy week! I felt horrible yesterday, I think I had the 24 hour bug thing... Everyone at work was like "You're pregnant! You're pregnant!" I'm just sick, I don't understand why everyone assumes you're pregnant when you don't feel good? Anywho, no more closing for me! I'm so excited to have some afternoons to get some stuff done around here!

Today Zoey and Beau went to the Zoo and had a wonderful time! She got to feed the giraffes...

Beau said some older kid was there and was scared to death, but Zoey was a trooper! They have a bridge you stand on and the giraffes reach out and take it, it's amazing!

Beau also told me that Zoey saw another little girl there about her age and kept telling Beau, "She's my friend! That's my friend!" She wanted to hold her hand and hug her and stuff... Turns out all she wanted was the other little girls CheeZits! Beau said it was pretty funny...

Here's one Zoey took of Beau, she loves to take pictures!

All in all, I think they had a pretty good day, I wish I could've went!

Tomorrow we are going to a big Easter Egg Hunt at the Fire Station at about 9 in the morning, so I better get to bed. Priscilla's got matching Elmo Easter baskets for the kids, they're gonna be so stinkin cute tomorrow!

American Idol

2009-03-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we're having a pretty good Tuesday... I made this Italian chicken pasta dish that I got out of my Food and Family magazine. It turned out pretty good! Zoey and I went to the library after work, she loves going to the library. We are sitting here all snuggled up on the couch watching American Idol. I still love my Anoop even though he's not doing to well tonight, I hope he makes it through! I tell everyone I think I have a thing for nerds... they're my favorite! Maybe I just have a thing for big eyebrows... hee-hee!

Boy are Simon and Paula being weird this season or what? Last week she pulled crayons and a coloring book from "under her skirt" and then Simon drew a moustache on her. Like who would sit still that long and just let someone draw on them? Whatever, I like this season pretty well and have a couple front runners, I wonder what will happen!

gadget friendly

2009-03-30T17:11:00.002-07:00

Too bad I'm not that gadget friendly, but I try! I recently got an iPod and so far I have been using it way more than I thought I would. It does have Solitare on there and I'm a total sucker for Solitare! I'm having a hard time with the whole wheel thing, it either doesn't move or it zooms out of control. I'll figure it out!

I went to see what Zoey was doing and she was playing with the dog in her bedroom. They can be so silly sometimes! She loves her skirt she has on today she always tells me she's a ballerina. I really need to get to the party store so I can start getting the stuff for her ballerina party next month. A couple more days and it's April already! Time has really flown this year...

She's reading Llama Llama Red Pajama which we have read pretty much every night since we got it in the mail from my cousin Tanna. We both have the book pretty well memorized by now, the passages will pop into my head at random times throughout the day. It's a good book I highly recommend it!

That should be it for now, it was definitely a Monday at work today, the day seemed to drag on... Just 1 more week before the morning shifts start though! I'm excited to have my afternoons to not have to rush around whenever I get off work like it seems now. Hopefully I'll keep thinking this when the alarms go off before 5!

where to start?

2009-03-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, alright, I think I caught this blogging bug... After reading Priscilla's whole blog today I felt like I really wanted to do one too. With Zoey being 3 next month and looking through all of her pictures this morning I realized there is so much stuff I have already forgotten and I can barely remember how she was when she was a little baldy headed thing!

My goals are to try to write every day and to have something Zoey can maybe look at one day or I can go back and remember what all she was doing at the time... So here's today!

First off, we cleaned out the garage, finally!!! We had our old couch there for a while and like all of our Christmas and Halloween decorations so it is nice to be able to see the garage floor again! I walked in there a little bit ago and Beau had pulled his garage in... it has been so long since I have seen a car in the garage! Here's our progress:

Since I had the camera out of course I HAD to try out the 10 sec. timer so I got a good one of all 3 of us... it doesn't happen very often!

I talked to my mom this morning and got another lecture about not getting pictures, hence the new blog, and she reminded me she still hadn't got a good one of Zoey's new "ear's pierced" as she likes to call her earrings.

I think that's about all for now, I'm on my way to my knitting, crochet, and whatever group, I haven't been in a couple months now... I'm still getting used to how I use my spare time since I've started working. I've been feeling really guilty for not going though, I always have a lot of fun and I can't wait to see how everyone's doing!

Happy Sunday from the Gardner's...