No camera of course

On Sunday night I was talking to Ken and Reba was playing with the garbage. She was standing up and holding on to the side of the garbage can. I told her no and she let go of the garbage can. She was standing all by herself! I couldn't believe it! I couldn't get to my camera and Ken was on the phone so I couldn't use that camera so I was out of luck. I was frustrated but at least Ken was on the phone and got to hear my reaction when his daughter stood for the first time by herself. I know I need to get some pictures on here but that will have to wait for another day. Sorry. By the way, in case you don't know Reba and I get to go to Mississippi and visit with Ken for about 36 hours this week. She is the only kid that I don't have to pay for a plane ticket for and Chloe has school anyway. Chloe and Jared are going to stay at my friend Sharon's house. They are really excited. I am so glad to have her near to help me out. I hope that I don't take too much advatage of it. Also, Reba is walking along the furniture and she runs all over in her walker. Literally runs. Chloe is doing really well in school and Jared is having fun with Mommy and Reba. He misses Chloe while she is at school. Luckily Sharon has a two year old daughter that Jared loves to play with. That's all for now. I hope you are all doing well.

Family Goodbyes

I just wanted to share our pictures that we took in Monroe before Ken's departure ceremony. Chloe especially loved taking pictures. Jared's are the ones of the grass and the ones of Reba were when Chloe was playing with the zoom but they are so cute.

We get to do this all over again when he actually has to leave us. We are grateful that he is staying with us for a little longer but now we have to prepare all over again. Oh well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One last time.................. in Durham(for me)

I just thought that I would let ya all know that this will be the last time that I put a blog message up while I'm in Durham. Yep that's right I'm moving again. Only this time Lisa and the kids don't get to go with. So that means that I am getting deployed with the NC National Guard to go over to Iraq for a year or so. We leave around the January 2 to do some trainning in Mississippi and California and then off to the big dessert. This is a little faster than we had planned on but knew it was coming when we moved out here. We were hoping to go with a different unit but things fell through and I got stationed with this one and bam off I go. Please get often for updates and for those who have her number call Lisa and check up on her.

We would also like to wish everyone a happy New Year and to remind you to say that you love each other often you never know how so your love will be gone. Lucky for us it is only temporary and we can talk inbetween or visits. Thank you technology. What a wounderful thing cell phones and internet are. Just think of the distances that are covered by such devices so that we can see and hear each other so quickly. It such a waste that people use it for other distructing, mind numbing things. Anyways thanks for all your love and support. See ya soon.

Mac

Friends

I have not cried about moving until today. I had to say good-bye to my best friend. I have had two best friends in my life. I have a lot of friends but only two best friends. When I was growing up Sharon Drowns was my best friend. Sharon is everything I wish that I could be: athletic, outgoing, everyone loves her and she is beautiful. She is just a wonderful person. I missed her and her influence after I left North Carolina. Even after I got married and had kids we didn't have best friends. I think I have kept myself from getting too close to people because we were always moving. While we were in Cedar City we met Rick and Holly in SUU's ROTC. We really liked Rick and Holly but we never really had the chance to get too close to them in Cedar. Then Rick and Ken went to Oklahoma for OBC at the same time. They rode together and the kids and I followed. Holly decided to stay in UT. She came to visit and we got closer while she was there. It didn't hurt that Rick was always at our house studying, eating, playing with our kids, watching football, and taking home leftovers. :) When we came back here we were close enough to where they lived that we saw each other quite a bit. Our kids love them and we love their daughter Katie too. When we decided to move I was sad about not seeing them all the time. They might move back east too but not for a while and it will still not be in NC. We saw Holly and Katie for the last time today while we were packing. Suddenly I realized that I was going to cry so I got out of there. Ken laughed at me and sent texts to Holly teasing her. Evidently she was crying too. Holly is not like Sharon. Holly seems to be more like me. That is not a bad thing. I still wish that I was all the things that Sharon is but I have realized that I like who I am too. I can sit with Holly and admire her for the qualities that we share and just for the joy of spending time with her.

The point of telling all of you this is to say how much I appreciate their friendship and all that they have done for us and with us. I can't tell you how much their friendship has meant to us. We love you and your family and we hope to reunite with you soon. By the way Holly, I agree with you. It was like saying good-bye to a sister. Write often and call too.

One last time.....................in Utah

Today we would like to thank everyone for there love and support that they have given us especially over the last few months. Thanks to Mike and Elayne for letting stay with them when we had no where else to go on such short notice. Thanks a bunch to Matt and Kara for allowing us to invade their home for three months and putting up with the additional stress of a whole extra family in the house. We truely appreciate and love ya all for doing this. We never would have made it through these tough times with out the support of family. I am so glad that we are a close family and have the ability to help each other out in times of stress and need. We are also thankful for Gramama (Brona) for letting us come and stay at her house to start our next stage in life out in North Carolina. We are so excited about this move and step in our life. We are sure that everybody back east is excited too. They will finally be able to see little Reba in person and get love and cuddle her along with her brother and sister. The kids are way excited about going to Gramama's house and having a dog to play with again along with new cousins to play with. The worst part about this whole thing is leaving behind family and friends that we have grown close to and love. If we could move everybody out with us that would be great. Doesn't that sound like a good idea? Everyone could just move to North Carolina! Anyway, to top things off both of the units back east that I have talked about transferring to for guard are both being deployed to Iraq in the next few months. I am going to miss so much while I am gone but we have been waiting for this time to come and feel comfortable with the decision to go with either unit and get the experience over with while the kids are young. It will also help us out with the whole money situation and get us back on our feet. Hope all is well with everyone and hope to see ya soon.

WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO????

I have started working until 2:00 am lately. It is normally pretty boring. I watch the door and ring up the employees that come through my line on their breaks. There are a few customers that don't work there but not too many. Anyway, tonight was the opposite of boring. It all started out normal and then this guy came through my line and he wanted to buy some phone cards, a shopping card and some gift cards and also a drink. On our registers if the total is over $100 it prompts us to check their ID. I have noticed a lot of employees skip this prompt but I never do. I have had check ID on my cards before and people don't check it. It is very frustrating. Soooo... since I am such a great employee I asked for his ID and his card. He then told me that it was his fiancee's and asked me if that was ok. I told him that I could not allow him to use her card. He told me that she lived right down the street so he would just go and get her but he would still buy the drink. When we have to check IDs it is already going to go onto the credit card. There is no way to back out of it. So I had to call another associate that also works in Customer Service. He called a CSM and by that time the guy said that he would just get it all when he came back with his fiancee. He had another bag that he bought in electronics that my co worker checked his receipt for. He had a receipt but he couldn't find it for a minute and he got really jittery. I know that most of you know where this is going but I am standing there just thinking that all is well and he really does have a fiancee that he is going to get. Silly, naive Lisa, huh? Even after my co-worker said that he wasn't coming back I still had the hope that he would be proven wrong. i just didn't want my rose colored glasses to be taken off. I finally gave it up when two minutes later another register needed the CSM's help with a credit card and the guy had the same story about the girl living down the street. The CSM looked directly at me and started walking over to ask me if it was the same guy (it wasn't) and the guy walked out. Of course we had to get the manager on duty and he had to call the cops. The guy in electronics checked this guys ID but he forgot to compare the names. Funny thing is that with all the people that dealt with these two guys and two separate cards, I was the only one who had to write a statement. The naive, willingly sheltered girl that wanted to believe that there was still good people who really did tell the truth when they said they would be back with their fiancee.

On my way home I was thinking about how I wanted to write about this and I just wanted to add that when I think about this world that my beautiful children are going to grow up in I am scared about how much worse it is going to get. That being said I also want to say how proud I am that I was brought up to see the best in people whether they deserve it or not. I am grateful to my parents for how I was raised. I also want to say that I am grateful and humbled to know that I have the channce to continue that legacy with my own children and I just hope that they can see the good in people too. I don't want them to be gullible or anything but I want them the be able to let things go and give others a second chance even when they are told that people don't change.

Now it is time to let this go and get some sleep. Just be aware this Christmas season that you watch out for people that may try to steal. This lady had come and bought groceries earlier today. I am not sure how these guys got her cards. I just don't want this to happen to any of you.

same old same old

I know that we haven't written in a while but nothing has really changed. We are all still doing the same things that we were doing the last time that we wrote. Reba and Jared do have pink eye. It started with Reba. It went from one eye to Jared's one eye and now they both have it in both eyes. We're not sure where Reba got it but now it is going through all of them. So far Chloe has escaped it but I am waiting for it.
Ken is still looking for another job. He applied at Wal-Mart. That could be good or bad. Good because we can work more hours and just trade off and bad because... ok there really isn't any bad except that we will not see each other but that is going to happen anyway with both of us having full time jobs.

Halloween was another same old, same old. The kids wore the same costumes as last year. I took them to the park and they got candy from the local businesses. Ken took them out later around the neighborhood. They had fun with their cousins and they got a lot of candy. At the park we saw Captain Jack Sparrow complete with his pirate ship. If you don't remember Jared was a pirate. He went straight up to him to get candy. Chloe was scared She clug to my hand and wouldn't let me push her up to him. The second time we saw him Chloe reluctantly went up to him by herself. It was kind of funny.

We are still trying to make it out to North Carolina. We are hoping that we can get out there fairly soon. We just need to save up some moolah. That seems to be the crux in our plan. We will get there. We believe that we are supposed to be there now but we need to be able to get there.

Anyway, we just wanted to keep you updated with us. Let us know how you are doing. By the way, I know that we are horrible at commenting on the blogs that we read but we have been wondering lately if it is even being read. Let us know that you are there and interested. We would love to hear from you.