Fourth of July, Buses and Feedom Fest OH MY!

Today we celebrate our nation's birthday. Of couse on an installation this is a huge deal and Ft. Hood didn't disappoint. We hit Freedom Fest this late afternoon/early evening. It had rained earlier in the afternoon (what's with this weather?) so we got a later start than anticipated. No worries about our tardy start we had a blast! I took quite a few pictures so I broke them up into several posts since blogger only lets me do 5 at a time.

Our day started with getting onto post and parking our car in one of the designated parking lots to catch the shuttle to the stadium. As luck would have it a bus was at the stop as we pulled in! Grace was so excited to get on the bus. She squealed and announced everything she saw. I think you can see from the pictures how delighted she was! Heck, if the bus thrilled her that much maybe we'd just stay on it all day!

Freedom Fest 2007

I know she's a cutie! After our adventure on the bus we got o Freedom Fest which was held at Ft. Hood stadium. My main reason for wanting to go was the Army "static display" now I wasn't sure but I thought that it would mean army toys for the kids to climb on and I was not disappointed. I took so many pictures I had to divide it between two posts. But those are little Miss Grace on a Bradley fighting vehicle and an Abrams tank (Neilson if I've screwed up the names let me know and I'll fix it!)
Let me tell you that girl was not shy at all. She climbed down in every hole and played around and had to be bribed out!! I asked the soldiers in charge of the displays to please get the shots of her in the driver's seat and other place (sorry Neil don't know what it's called) and they obliged. Grace also befriended those soldiers and asked them to pick her up and help her down. What can I say, the girl loves soldiers. She had a blast climbing on "Daddy's tank" and I think I know a certain soldier who will love these pictures!

More Pics

Hippity Hoppity

After spending some time at the Army's static display Grace was ready to play. There were many "moon walks" available for jumping and Grace made quick work hopping into a Dora the Explorer jumper and then a Cinderella jumper. I don't think she' ever been in one before. Though she was a bit timid at first eventually I had to drag her from them or bribe her with a grape snowcone --- thus explainin the purple tongue! ahhhhhhh carnivals

Parting Thoughts From Freedom Fest

After enjoying a snowcone, bouncing in the jumpers, perusing the arts and crafts and poking around the static display we made our way back to the bus. I had no intention of being in the stadium for the fireworks -- too many people and no way to make a quick getaway if needed.
We extited Freedom Fest from a different gate and ran across this historic firetruck/monster truck. Grace wanted to drive it but had to settle for sitting on the wheel. They also gave her a poster/picture as a keepsake.

We also stumbled across the Ft. Hood Fire Department "safety house". For those of you unfamiliar with safety house it is a camper trailer that has a kitchen, living room and bedrooom. Firefighters take the children through the house and teach them about home safety, dialing 911 and how to escape from a smoky room. Grace did a wonderful job and learned a bit about safety I hope!

We made it safely back to the bus stop and enjoyed a nice ride back to our car. Honestly I think Grace's favorite part of the whole day was the bus ride! When we got back to our car there were three helicopters (Neilson could tell you what kind) flying in circles right over our head. This got our little missy pretty fired up. She informed me that she was going to ride on a helicopter when she growed up. We had to snap a picture of this amazing sight before we loaded into the car and headed to get something to eat.

Boom Boom

It's so great to be crazy! Well I know that we must have been crazy to have gone out to see the Ft. Hood Fireworks. It had held off raining all evening and so Grace and I stopped and got a picnic dinner and headed off to an elementary school on post to watch the fireworks. We had our nice pinic dinner and then settled in to wait for the show. and then drum roll please........................... it rained. Yep. and that made it really cool so the picture of us was actually taken on July 4, 2007 in central Texas and those are jackets we are wearing because we are chilly! Man oh man we have odd weather here.

Grace sort of enjoyed the fireworks. She probably would have enjoyed the professional show more if there weren't rude people shooting off their own squeakers and poppers next to us but she did eventually settle in and enjoy the sights.

Oh about the other picture -- it is a rainbow we saw before the rain started. It was actually the second rainbow we saw today. The first was from the bus on our way back to our car -- lucky us to catch two rainbows in one day.

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth

ok so really i'm a little early but i'm feeling patriotic tonight. i've got a wonderful flag to display tomorrow. it is being flown in honor of neilson of course.

i talked to our fav. soldier and he is doing well. he is done being deployed -- can you blame him? as of today he has been in the sandbox 9 months 1 day. however we did have a great chat that left us both in good spirits.

while crusing my favorite scrapping board i ran across this patriotic quiz.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19552808/

i have to brag a bit and i scored a perfect 100%! yep that's me miss nerd. actually i just take multiple choice tests very well as i can eliminate wrong answers.

grace and i will be attempting to go to the fort hood freedom fest tomorrow. we will drive onto post and take the shuttle to the stadium so we don't have to fuss parking close. hopefully i'll get some good shots of our little firecracker.

God Bless America and the US Army!

Sleeping Beauty

She made a nest of pillows on the living room floor and took "a little rest mommy."

Exterior Shots

Today was spent beautifying the outside of our house. We scored a great deal on pots of geraniums to accent the little bed by the front door. I've also included some exterior shots of our house in general. As you can see we have some serious work to do -- but I'm working with housing on that. OH! and we found a beautiful American flag to display off our carport so we can be patriotic this fourth of July.

Madame Fifi's Beauty Parlor

Gracie had a good time fixing my hair today. As you can see she has a real knack for it. And her motto is more is more!

Jinx

I called my dad at noonish today and announced that we had not had rain in Texas for two whole days. And then it proceeded to get dark and yucky and rain like crazy this afternoon.

Despite the rain we did get a lot done today. I was able to clean up my kitchen and I have decided that my stove and dishwasher need to go. I'm going to talk to housing about the appliance issues I've been having and see what I can do.

I also hired someone to cut the grass! He's going to do my neighbors yard too and he'll come every two weeks --- grass doesn't grow so much in the summer in Texas. :) We got him to cut a deal since we're neighbors and he only has to come out once to do two jobs.

And I ran some errands and had dinner with my neighbor Kristen tonight. She is really sweet and I'm hoping we can become friends. It was nice to have adult conversation!

No pictures today yet but I'm planning on organizing my closet after the pooh goes to bed so you may get a peek at my bedroom and closet but I make no promises.

And I instant messaged with our fav. soldier today and he reports nothing new which is good. Continue to pray for peace and resolution to this mess so all our soldiers can come home.

Speaking of soldiers I'm going to end with a cool quote that I saw yesterday:

There are only two people who agreed to give up their lives for you. The first is Jesus Christ who died for your sins and to give you eternal live and the second is the American Soldier who is willing to die for your freedom here on earth.

Mom's New Career

I can't believe that I have waited so long to tell you of my mom's new career choice. Grace has taught her how to play the maracas and now she is looking for a regular gig with a mariachi band.

ok so maybe not but she could with as much as grace had her playing the maracas the week she was here. everytime she got in the car grace handed her one and told her to play along to the cds. hahahahaha

and if i do say so myself she's pretty good! :) so there you go, a fun fact about mom that you probably didn't know before.

The Bane of My Existence

Yes, a lawn mower. The number one reason why I watied soooooo long to buy a house. Why I lived in apartments surrounded by concrete. I hate to mow.

I never mowed growing up. That was Wade's domain along with mom and dad. I can count two times when I mowed while I lived at home. Once when I high school and we lived on 17th street in Leavenworth and I did part of the backyard. The second time the week after I graduated High School as a suprise for my parents.

After the constant rain the grass looked a little long so I decided that I should mow the grass. Keep in mind that my mower has sat empty of gas for two weeks and I'm not sure it had been run yet this year. (My neighbor in KS was mowing for me). So Grace and ran to the gas station to buy a new gas can and some gas. After 15 minutes of fighting it I finally got the mower running and 30 minutes after that I was done.

Yes 30 minutes. No we don't have a huge yard but it is bigger than our old one. And for the most part it's flatish. AND there are no terraces to contend with so that cut down the time. Can I say I'm glad I don't live in the other side of this house. They have a HUGE front yard, a comparable side yard, though it's not on a hill and an equal backyard to ours. AHHH a small blessing.

Being the good mommy that I am I have properly taught Gracie to respect/fear the mower so she stays on the driveway/patio/porch/deck whatever the case may be and yells at me the whole time to be careful!

Tomorrow I'm going to start looking for a lawn service for July and August. I can do this when it's cool but not in the triple digit heat.

Photos From Iraq

Here are a few pictures that our favorite soldier has sent me. the first one is him getting ready for a mission the second one is him and a bunch of other guys at a town meeting for the city they are in Mook-Dad-EE-Yah - well that's how it's pronounced anyway, I can't spell it.

Neilson is doing well and enjoying the pictures I've posted of his new house. Hopefully he'll be home in 2007 to see it!

101

yep, that's how many posts i have. i realized when i logged on today that the momentous 100th post was yesterday. darn, i really should have done something more dramatic.

anyways, i have some more home pictures for your viewing pleasure. these are the main bathroom aka gracie's bathroom aka the girl potty. gracie has decided that we have two bathrooms so one is a girl potty and the other is a boy potty. ha

the theme of this room is fish. our newest pet mermaid swims on the counter. and we have fish towels and my mom is making a quilt shower curtain that will have fish on it. --- super cute!

Home Pictures - Kitchen

These are pictures of my kitchen. Please notice the super cute curtains made by yours truely under the patient instructions of mom. I'd also like to point out the lovely "Rosie the Riveter" picture. Rosie has been in every house I've lived in since moving out of mom and dad's. To the right of that window is the very cute and very bright cross from the Foxy Flamingo in Belhaven.

WHEW

we made it. i will spare everyone the gory details but rest assured we are in our new huge house in texas and finally have internet access. hopefully tonight i'll post pics. :)

We Made It!!!

This is brought to you from Ft. Hood, TX. We rolled in about 9 ish and went to the new house. IT IS HUGE!!!
I don't think we have enough stuff to fill this place - seriously.

We didn't stay long, just enough to unload the car a bit and look around. I will post pics soon but I must warn you that the grass is looooonnnnngggggggg. Fort Hood Family Housing will be getting a call about that soon. :)

But we crashed in a hotel last night and possibly tonight depending on when my stuff arrives. But I wanted to update you all and tell you that we made it safe and sound.

GRRRRRRR

look at the date of this post --- June 15 2007. i am supposed to be driving to ft. hood today. instead i am sitting in my friend laura's kitchen waiting for the ubiquitous (sp) movers to call me and say they are on my way.

it's a very lonngggg story but the reader's digest version is that my stuff, my lovely crap is sitting in my house all boxed up and ready to go and there are no movers. they are supposedly in olathe (20 min from my house) but they have not called to say when they will be arriving.

and to top it all off i'm not a patient person. i hate waiting. i've been waiting for 8 months, 1 week and 6 days for neilson to come home. yes that is an exact number. i've been waiting for longer than that to move. i'm waiting for this next step to start. grrrrrr.

don't fret about grace, though, she is with papa and mama in manhattan. as soon as i unload my house of it's contents i will be jetting out there and we will be starting south. hopefully today. hopefully soon. hopefully we can hurry up and get this fun over with.

I AM WOMAN!!

oh yeah! i'm rockin' the world right now.

first off, two different wives from neilson's unit have called me this week :) the second call i got was from brandi. she lives in my village too. well.... she wondered why i only got a two bedroom? after much discussion with her i decided to call fort hood family housing and request a change of quarters.

oh yeah we got a three bedroom - oh yeah we got three bedrooms! and here's link to our new floorplan :

https://onestop.army.mil/_hqd/BaseHousing_show.asp?base=67&planid=25&rid=5&k=0

yeah that's our new pad. it seems as though you have to ask for what you want, not just count on them to give you the right house. thank you brandi for the heads up! yes i'm excited to have the extra bedroom but i'm really excited to have the extra bathroom!! two full bathrooms mind you! and the house is overall a little bigger.

and i got ahold of my movers and we have a date!! thrusday afternoon. so by friday night i'll be in my new digs.

oh and yeah, i sold my house. all by myself thank you very much. just keep praying that all the paperwork goes through.

and now i hear to boxes calling to pack to i'll sign off.