Thanksgiving play

Landon does not want his picture taken!

Cheara had a small Thanksgiving play at school and then a huge feast. There was so much food there, I couldnt believe it. It was all so good. All of the first grade classes came together and sang a few songs and then each class sang their own song. They just stood on the floor with no risers so it was a little hard to see all the kids. Cheara was in the front though so no sweat off my back, I could see my kid. :-) The next day Corri had her feast with all of the sixth grade. More yummy food. Corri's was at the end of the day so I just checked her out about an hour early and let her go home with me.

Dustin had his Christmas concert for band last week. They made a CD of the concert, but it wont work in the car only in the house. They did a good job. I was pretty disappointed with the turnout though. Their was hardly anybody there. All of the parents couldnt have even been there. Afterwards Dustin told me that the mike they were using cost something like $4,000 and they bought two of them. I think they should have bought a stand for the drums he was trying to play. They had two chairs turned backwards with the quads sitting on them and Dustin is standing trying to play them. But they have a $4000 microphone!

Kokosai Street

This is one of the side streets, it is two stories high with some apartments up on top. Every so often there will be another side street with more shops. It is at least a block big, probably more and it is all covered so very easy to get turned around once you get in there.

We went to Kokosai Street and went walking around one day. It is just a long street, as far as you can see with tourist shops up one side and down the other. We didn't buy anything and had more fun when we went down the side street into all the little shops. We always have at least one person stop us when we are out because we have a big family. One time an older Japanese man told me I must make my husband happy, referring to having four kids. He asked if they were all mine and when I said yes, he went "oh husband happy" funny! There was a Tiffany's store down there. I didnt even see it, Corri pointed it out so I had to go in there, I have never been in a Tiffany's before. There was a jewelry store I went into also. Holy cow was their stuff expensive! I just went in there to get my ring cleaned and browsed a little while I waited. I could not believe how expensive it was. Now that I have been down there it is one more thing I can cross off the list. I dont know if I need to go back or not, maybe if I get a visitor we can go back.

Say what?

I took this outside of an arcade. We love some of the signs around here. This is the only one I have taken, but Kris put some good ones up a while back. I will try to remember my camera more often and put some more up.

Colts cheerleaders

Practicing their cheer
Performance time!
Group shot
Here is Cheara with one of the cheerleaders

The Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders were here for a tour. They went to some of the squadrons and had a cheer clinic for the girls on base. Cheara is cheering for youth football so she went to the clinic they had. They were there for about an hour and learned a couple of cheers and did the Cha Cha slide. The first thing they did when they started was call all of the girls out to the gym floor and did the cha cha with them, then broke them up into smaller groups according to age. In the groups they taught the kids 3 or 4 cheers then played duck, duck, goose. Each group performed their cheers for the parents, then they called everybody out to the floor. I just stayed on the bleachers because I thought they were going to have us do something stupid. What do you know? I was right, they now wanted all the parents to do the cha cha. No thank you, think I will pass! I just watched other people make idiots out of themselves, I really liked watching a couple people who thought they still had it! Jeff and Corri went out there and did it with her though. Me and several other parents were spectators on that one. So after that, they took a group shot of all the cheerleaders and girls and handed out group photos of the cheerleaders and did autographs. Cheara was so excited, she talked about all the way home and most of the day. While we were driving down the road she would put that picture up in the window and try to show the other people driving.

Old moment

Ok, so I just had an old moment. The big kids were all gone to school, Landon was still asleep and it hit me. Here I am with CMT on, laundry going, had figured out what we were going to have tonight for dinner (and it is only 8am) and I am crocheting!

Dear Santa

This is to cute not to share, and isnt it the truth? We are going to see Santa on Sunday, maybe I should take this letter with me.


Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned, and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt, in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years. Here are my Christmas wishes: I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have), and arms that don't flap in the breeze like the wattle on a turkey neck; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the fifth month of my last pregnancy. If you're hauling big ticket items this year, I'd like fingerprint resistant windows; a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone. On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight, and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools. I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog. If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same day, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container. Being able to sit down to eat also would be nice... If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It also would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family. Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip, and remember to leave your wet boots by the door, and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to the cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet. And don't spill your milk. Yours Always, MOM P.S. One more thing... you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa. (*Santa has asked that this gets passed on to all the mommies you know)

Happy Thanksgiving

I know, I know, this is a little late. A lot late, but better late than never right? We spent Thanksgiving at home, with just our family. Since Jeff was gone last year and we never know around here what next year holds for us, we spent a quiet day at home with just our family. Idid some cooking, cheated a little this year but that's ok. I bought a smoked turkey and all I had to do was pop it in the oven for a couple of hours and let that bad boy heat up. It was really good and I will buy one of those again, definatley better than getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning just to put a turkey in the oven. The commisarry was out of pie crusts, and I didnt feel like making one, so no pumkin pie for us, we had pumkin bars instead, they were so yummy. A couple of years ago I met a woman named Mrs Smith and she was so kind as to make us an apple pie. Later in the weekend we put up our Charlie Brown tree. I didnt bring any of our Christmas stuff with so I just have to get a little here and there. I bought a cute little bow to put on the top, now I have to listen to my wonderful children ask me over and over, why there is no star on the top of the tree. So I went and got presents off of layaway and started wrapping my little heart out!
The weekend before I took the kids to the beach and tried to get some pictures that I could use for Christmas cards. Landon was much more interested in playing in the sand, and by the time I got a shot that wasnt to bad, he had his shirt off.