I figured out why I'm always so frustrated when I let more than a week go by without updating this blog. It's because everything is always changing. Seriously, I don't think we've had two weeks that have had similar schedules since we moved to Fort Rucker. As soon as I start to get comfortable with a routine - that's when something shifts.
The past few weeks have been no different. In some way's I feel like I've lived three separate lives in the past three weeks. Let's start with the middle of July.
The Busy Week
Somehow it seemed like every project or idea that I've committed to in the past few months all came to fruition in one week.
First up was a clothing swap that I put together and hosted on July 20th. . Last year I had to get school clothes together for three kids to start pre-k. It was a little daunting to make sure we were ready, but thanks to thrift stores, and donations from friends my kids ended up with more than enough clothes. In fact we had so many clothes that I didn't even need to buy any this year. But I still remembered how daunting it felt to try to get three kids ready to start school. I wanted to help out other people who were trying to get school clothes together. So I decided to put together a clothing swap.
I reserved a room at the community center and set up a facebook event. My friends invited their friends and word spread. On the day of the event I put all my extra clothes into the car and took them to the community center. My friend Carrie came and helped me set up the room so that there was a table for each size of clothing. About 7 other women came and brought their clothes and then we just went around and found what we needed for our families. It was great! People really did find clothes they needed. As an added bonus I made like 5 new friends through the event.
I even found a few things to take home. One was this long pink dress for Lydia. She was so excited to have one that matched Charlotte's.
It went so well that I decided to host another swap in August. (It will be the 10th if any of my local friends are reading this.)
On Thursday Brandon and I went to our Ward Missionary meeting. We both have a lot of ideas to contribute about how to create a missionary spirit in this new ward.
On Friday night I went to a painting night that my new friend Michelle had set up for a bunch of the LDS ladies on Fort Rucker. There were probably 15 women there and it was so fun to get to know people who are now in my ward. We had a lot of fun talking and painting. (Side note, I keep thinking that I'm my sister Lindsey in this picture.)
I was so happy with how my silhouette of the US turned out. I did it blue to match the blue colors in my dining room where all my other maps are. And I put little hearts on all the places where I've lived.
And then on Saturday I spent the morning helping out my friend Mary and her son paint numbers on the high school parking lot for his eagle project. Mary has been a little bit of a surrogate mother to me here in Fort Rucker. She watched the kids for me when we moved in. And she's been teaching a monthly emergency preparedness class. She's done so much for me that I was happy to have a chance to do something to help her. So I went to that.
On Sunday I taught my first Sunday school lesson to my 12-13 year olds. They are a talkative bunch which is way better than a quiet bunch. And we all love comic book movies. So I think we'll all get along just fine.
So it was a busy week, but a good week because I was doing things. And I should mention that Brandon was so great to do his part and watch the kids while I was off having fun.
Everyone else was busy with things too. I took a lot of pictures of the cute little things that the kids were doing.
Charlotte set up this cute little blanket store.
Brandon made me this shelf for all my doTerra oils. (And he made sure to leave lots of room because I want many more.)
Charlotte laid out all of her pictures on the floor.
One day it rained and all the kids put on their swimming suits and played in the rain.
I was watching them while doing dishes and Charlotte hopped up in the window to say hi.
And then Lydia did too.
I think the girls said this was a volcano.
Charlotte created this whole "house" on top of the guest bed in the toy room. She even slept on it that night.
Derrick re-discovered his love of bubbles. He likes to stand on the porch and watch the bubbles fly away.
Veronica is currently going through the hobo phase of childhood. She loves wearing a pajama shirt and no pants all day long.
I took this picture because I love how well my mother's day flowers have grown this year. I want real flowers every year from now on.
The Mourning Week
The next week wasn't so fun - at least at first. The brake line on the jeep decided to break on Monday. Brandon took a look at it, but decided that this was a job for the mechanic. I was so glad that we have savings, a good mechanic, towing included in our insurance, and a second car because those things all made the situation a lot less stressful. The jeep was in the shop for a few days and it felt like a minor annoyance rather than a huge disaster.
Another sad thing that happened on Monday was that we received a more accurate idea of when we will be leaving Fort Rucker - and it's sooner than we expected. Somehow we didn't realize that we've been saying, "we'll be here for 6 months to a year" since May. We were completely oblivious to the fact that 3 months have gone by during that time.
Everything regarding our move is still up in the air, so I'll save the specifics for a future post.
I went through a period of mourning when I realized we'd actually be moving away from Fort Rucker. It's no secret that I have LOVED everything about this post and I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to all the wonderful people and programs here. Many tears were shed, and there are more to come.
But I pulled myself together and got on with the rest of the week. And I channeled a lot of that sadness into the big blog post that I was working on for my travel blog.
I walked by one day to see Veronica doing this. She's decided that it's her job to vacuum everything.
Brandon was there helping of course, but Veronica was very much in control. (As she always is)
And then I turned around and discovered that Charlotte was moving laundry for me. My kids are growing up and getting more helpful. THANK GOODNESS.
Charlotte loves to build things. Here is a pirate ship.
One night I checked on the girls and discovered they'd erected a tent on their bed.
I also found Derrick and Veronica asleep by their door.
Derrick loves Veronica so much. I often find his pillow and blanket on the floor next to her bed. I just know he wakes up in the middle of the night and moves over to be near her.
Charlotte put together this cute outfit.
I spent a lot of the week finishing up a blog post that I've been working on for a month. I had a goal to finish the post before our next vacation. I got it done on Thursday evening which was just in time because we were going camping on Friday.
The Beach Vacation
Brandon had to wait until 1:00 to sign out for the weekend. He took care of getting the car top carrier on top of the Honda before he went to work. Then I took care of packing the rest of the car. Over all packing was really easy because this was only going to be an over night trip. I pretty much just had to throw some food and some clothes in the car and we were ready to go.
Our destination was St Joseph State Park on a little peninsula in Florida three hours south of Fort Rucker. I found out about this place from one of the Missionaries assigned to our ward. His first area was in this part of Florida and he told me that St Joseph State Park was the prettiest beach in Florida.
The drive down to St Joe seemed to go by a lot faster than our drive to Gulf Shores two weeks ago. There wasn't nearly so much traffic this time and so that really helped.
We arrived in Port St Joe and we could see our final destination for the day out on the horizon.
After circling around to the south to get onto the peninsula we soon arrived at the State Park. I checked in with the office and we went to our campsite. We got the tent set up pretty quickly.
It was WAY too hot to worry about dinner so we just ate crackers and then hurried to change into our swimming suits. Then we drove a short distance to one of the day use areas. We crossed over the sand dunes on a boardwalk and were greeted by a vision of paradise.
I was on awe of how beautiful this place was. I decided that we needed to add a line to that "Ask the Missionaries- they will help you talk. It would be, "Need advise about where to go on a great vacation? Ask the missionaries - they will help you."
The board walk turned into a staircase that circled around itself and then let us out onto the beach.
It seems like everything I looked at could have been a vacation advertisement.
The beach was virtually deserted which was pretty cool for a Friday evening.
Brandon set up our beach umbrella and then we all hit the water.
Derrick and Veronica immediately went back to their sitting in the water game.
Check out my adventurous little girl.
I love this one of Lydia riding a wave onto shore. Brandon would hold the boogie board and wait for a wave. When the wave came he would let go and Charlotte or Lydia would ride the wave.
Here is Charlotte searching for sea life.
Brandon and I trying to take a selfie together but the sun was too bright for a good picture.
Charlotte getting ready to play in the water.
Me attempting to be a model.
Watching the sunset with Lydia.
My turn on the boogie board.
Derrick surprised me by wanting to play in the water. He would wade out into waist deep water and play in the waves along with the rest of us. Lately he's learned how to put his head under water at our neighborhood pool so he didn't mind when big waves hit him in the face. He'd just laugh and keep playing.
Brandon and Charlotte went out far into the water and ended up getting stung by a bunch of microscopic things. Brandon came back onto the shore and spent a while itching his legs. I think he'd run into a bunch of jellyfish larva (sea lice). We all got a few more bites throughout the rest of our stay, but that was the worst run in we had with the sea lice.
Brandon didn't feel like going in the water again, and the sun was almost set, so we started packing up to go back to the car.
The kids found something strange on the sand. I'd seen a picture of one of these before and I knew they weren't harmful. I couldn't remember the exact name so I called them Beach Buttons. They are really called Blue Buttons and are a type of Jelly Fish. But they don't sting.
We also found many holes that Lydia hypothesized were crab holes.
We went back to our campsite and roasted hot dogs for dinner.
Then Brandon got to do something that he's been looking forward to doing for a long time - lay in the hammock. He was in there by himself for maybe 30 seconds before the kids took over.
At one point all four kids were laying with him.
We got the kids into pajamas and put them to bed. Then Brandon and I swung in the hammock and looked at the stars for a while. A little later - when we were sure the kids were sound asleep - we went for a walk to the beach that was right by our campground. The stars were so bright that we could see the milky way. It was amazing to look at all those stars go all the way down to the horizon. I've never seen that before.
When we came back to the tent we decided to take the rain fly off the top. One reason was because it was so dang hot we figured the air would circulate better without the top. And the other reason was so we could have a chance at seeing the Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower which was supposed to peak that evening (July 29)
The night ended up being pretty hot. Brandon couldn't sleep and so he moved outside to the hammock where he still couldn't sleep. Derrick moved onto the air mattress with me. Lydia said that she woke up in the middle of the night and was all alone so she snuggled with Veronica. She also said that she saw her very first shooting star. She was happy about that, and I was happy we left the rain fly off.
Derrick and Veronica woke up around 5:30. Lydia was up soon after then. We woke Charlotte up and then we all went out to walk on the beach via the access point near our campground.
It was so close that we'd been able to hear the waves from our tent.
Lydia's hypothesis about the crab holes was confirmed when we saw hundreds of little tracks leading into the holes.
Soon we spotted many crabs and it was fun to watch them dart into their little holes. They walked sideways and would enter their holes sideways too.
Derrick thought the crabs were so funny. He'd laugh when he saw one running. He kept pointing up ahead and would say, "this way, see more crabs."
The beach was so pretty that morning. We walked along the shore for a long time.
Here's proof that I was there.
We found this star fish washed up with all the shells. Derrick and Veronica love star fish so they were really excited to see this.
Sun rise over the sand dune.
Derrick and Veronica holding hands.
The beach was so pretty. (And eerily similar to the default desktop background for one of the versions of Windows) I liked that the beach was so small. We didn't have to go on a trek of death through miles of sand to get to the water's edge.
Eventually we made it back to our campsite. Brandon made egg mcmuffins for breakfast while I rolled up all the sleeping bags in the tent.
We decided that the best thing to do would be to take down the tent while it was still relatively cool and shady at our campsite. So Brandon and I did that while the kids goofed off. Here are Derrick and Veronica in the hammock. They would sit in it and then purposely make themselves fall out. They'd laugh super hard and then ask to get back in.
I found sunglasses that I'd been meaning to give to the girls since our first beach trip this summer. I finally remembered to let them have them. They were so excited.
Lydia made a pile out of all the shells she'd collected.
Charlotte and Lydia took a turn in the hammock. They had Lydia's camera and used that to take lots of silly pictures.
Like this one.
And this one.
And this one
And another
Brandon and I got the tent down and the girls preformed the time honored tradition of rolling on the tent to get the air out.
After the gear was all packed up we went to the bathhouse and changed into our swimming suits. And then it was back to the beach by the campground.
Brandon wanted to take this picture of me. He likes my beach dress.
I only sat on the shore for a second before I got in the nice warm water - where I was promptly pinched by a crab! It pinched me right on my middle toe. I screamed with surprise. It didn't hurt so much as it scared me. I felt a little violated by the ocean after that. I wanted to sit on the beach, but I didn't want to make the kids scared of the water so I stayed in the water. It certainly motivated me to work on my floating skills. I wasn't putting my feet down on the bottom for anything!
Later I did sit on the beach. Charlotte and Lydia and I had fun finding the little muscles that wash ashore and then burrow down into the sand. It's fun to hold them and feel them burrow down into next to your skin.
I tell you, I am going to miss the beach so much.
The sun went behind a cloud and the kids got a little cold. We solved that by burying them in the warm sand. I joked that this is how we should get them to hold still when we take family pictures.
Here they all are relaxing.
Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica all worked together on this sand castle.
There was a storm rolling in a few miles away and the winds were reaching us. Our umbrella blew away, but Brandon caught it before it got too far. We decided this was a good chance to go back to our campsite for lunch.
So we went back there and had hoagie sandwiches.
We wanted to take a break from the beach for a little while so we went for a walk that connected our campground to another one a little to the north.
We passed a pretty lake.
When we got to the other campground we went out onto the beach that was near there. We didn't have any of our beach stuff with us, but that almost made this beach more fun. For the first time ever we all went out into the water and played in the waves at the same time. (Well all of us except Veronica who refused to go very far in the water. She sat on the shore and watched us while the waves came up around her.) It was so fun to stand in the water, waiting for a wave with Brandon, Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick all around me. When a wave came we'd all jump up and feel the wave move us through the water. We did that over and over and over again.
We could have stayed at that beach for a long time, but we had to get back to our car and move it out of our campsite by 1:00. So we reluctantly left the beach and hurried back along the boardwalk to our campsite. We all got in the car and then drove back to the day use area we'd been at the evening before.
Brandon set up the beach umbrella, and then decided to take a nap under it. His sleepless night had caught up with him.
Derrick and I went back out into the water and had fun jumping through waves together. Charlotte and Lydia played with their boogie boards. Veronica sat on the shore and watched some people play Frisbee in the water. She would cheer for them each time they caught the Frisbee.
I was surprised by how not-crowded the beach was. This was the middle of the day on SATURDAY, and yet there was hardly anyone there.
I love how comfortable the girls are in the water. You can see Lydia upside down in the water behind Charlotte.
I can't remember exactly what happened, but Charlotte got sand all over her face and she wanted me to take a picture.
Veronica started getting really sleepy and she wanted me to bury her in the sand again. She called it her pillow and her blanket. Lydia and Derrick each got buried too. Brandon woke back up and swam in the water for a little bit.
I was trying to figure out if we should go or not when Charlotte ran back from the water saying she'd been pinched by a crab. Whether it was true or not - that effectively ended our time at the beach. Veronica was basically asleep in the sand, Derrick was heading that way too, and Charlotte was crying. So we went back to the car and got everyone changed into regular clothes. I put some lavender on Charlotte's pinch mark and that made it feel better.
We stopped off at the bathroom so the adults could change and then we started heading home.
Originally we'd planned to stay at the beach until dark, but this worked out better anyway. We grabbed dinner at Burger King drive through, and made it home before dark. We were able to get laundry started, put things away, and give the kids baths before it was too late.
Overall I wish we'd been able to stay there longer, but I was very happy with our 24 hours in paradise.
A happy surprise greeted me when we came back. Just before we left on Friday, I'd shared my post of
100 things to do within 100 miles of Fort Rucker on one of the Fort Rucker Wives pages. I've done this with other posts and got about 500 page views from doing that. I expected the same thing. Instead I got over 5,000 page views. Over the rest of the weekend the post got over 10,000 page views. In 6 days it became my second highest viewed post EVER. I think I'm a legitimate blogger now. I also think that people are really starved for things to do around here.
The school week
This week has been our school week. On Monday I took Charlotte and Lydia with me to buy school supplies. Today we all went to the Sneak-a-Peek event at the Primary School. We got to meet the girls' Kindergarten Teachers and see their room. They have different teachers, but they are in the same large classroom (it's called a pod). It was fun to find their desks and their cubbies.
We also went to Derrick's classroom. He's has the same teacher and room as last year, but he's more of an official Pre-K student this year. He was so excited to see his room again. He sat right down at his little table and said, "bye" to me. He wanted his teacher to get out the fish that he likes to work with. He was pretty mad when we all had to leave and he had to come with us.
Charlotte and Lydia have their first day of Kindergarten tomorrow. It feels really surreal that it's happening already. I don't know if that's because August 4th is super early to start school, or if it's because I can't believe they are that old.
Derrick will start school in two weeks. He is going to be so mad when he can't get on the bus tomorrow.
Well that pretty much sums up the past few weeks. I wonder how much will change in the next ones?
