The Scheme and The Dream

Ok so I have been toying with this idea for a while now and finally I just have to do it. I want to create a website for the Coastie Wives!! Ok gotta give a little background....

One thing that Mike told me over and over agin at our first unit together was "It's all what you make of it." He was of course referring to my constant fear of being transferred ANYWHERE other than near family. I must admit I brushed these words off quite a bit until we received orders to MIAMI, FL!!! In my world, that is the end of the earth!! Not really but I haven't traveled much at all. We found a house, moved in and just had to put all of our trust in God that everything would work out alright as this was to be our first boat station as a family. Obviously we are doing great as we have made some wonderful friends. Unfortunately the same is not to be said of the rest of our unit.

Mike comes home almost every rotation telling me how so in so's wife hates it here. There's nothing here, it's too hot blah blah blah. We are all spread out over the area so it's not really feasable for us to mingle on a regular basis like back in NC (I miss you girls!!!). Basically from what I can see these women/families/men have not been put in touch with anything in the area that interests them and they feel alone and miserable. So much that one family is completely leaving the Coast Guard!!!

As there was no welcoming wagon for me either I can completely understand how daunting moving to a new area can be, which is why I want to start a website for all us Coasties to come together and leave positive info from different stations and mingle with others so that we all feel more comfortable when moving to a new area. This is what I want, but I am stumped on how to accomplish it. My ideas and wants WAY surpass my computer abilities so I am having to take it slow and figure it out. Any help would be appreciated!!!

Ha!! I FINALLY figured it out!!

So I finally figured out how to change my background after some blogstalking!! Now I just have to get a better pictue of me and my family!! Yay for midnight ramblings!!!

More Cake and a new Ju Jitsu Student

Ok Thursday was Jakob's Birthday and we really spent it doing nothing. Nice relaxing day, mainly because I had a slight case of insomnia the night before and I was spent. So Friday I made it up to Jakbo by making another cake. I still had strawberries from our organic co-op, so we went for a huge strawberry shortcake. It turned out great! I made it completely from scratch, even the whipped cream. After that we had a nice evening of eating cake and watching The Last Unicorn. Not a bad way to spend the night right?

Jakob got a new Gi for his birthday from Ganny and Papaw. His Sensai said it seemed to make him run faster! LOL Well as they were getting ready for testing Hazel decided to join the class. Sensai is really great about letting Hazel participate and she pretty much stuck with the excersises for a while. She can sort of count to ten in Japanese and loves to try and do the punches and kicks. Needless to say I think we are leaning towards becoming a total Ju Jitsu family!

My boy turned 7!!!

Last Sunday we had Jakob's Birthday party. It was a potluck party and I had a lot of kids there who had May Birthdays, so we took advantage of us all being together, and gave them their presents then as well. It worked out great because everyone was excited about getting something and I don't have to remember to get anymore presents this month!!! I had this great idea that i was going to make a dino cake for Jakob. It was suppose to be a stegasaurus. Hazel called it an alligator. I think it's cute. Jakob liked it, and that's all that mattered.

Jakob's Birthday Climb

Jakob had such a fun time climbing before we decided to take him back and let him have another go at it. This time he brought his friend George, and they both climbed their little hearts out for an hour! Mike took them this time since I was at home getting ready for the party and making Jakob's Birthday cake (pictures to come). But he came home telling me of how the belay commented on how Jakob was a natural, which of course makes you feel proud. I absolutely loved the last picture of them working together to figure it out!

George Getting a little help. This guy was amazing! He really worked with the kids.

Miami Goin Green Event

This was a festival dedicated to all things "Green". I say that but it was kinda interesting to see what a money making theme "Going Green" can be. Personally I like to take the simpler approach (ie: Borax cleans everything!!), but it was fun none the less. There was some fun things for the kids to do and it was a beautiful day, so why not right?

Jakob holding a snake at the Science exhibit.

Standing in front of a display for a water bottle filter (the ppl to the left were arranging water bottles to show how many would equal one filter in their special water bottle.

Awesome sculpture there at the park. And yes Jakob recognized that he was lying over a Manatee!

Homeschooling at it's finest

So I must admit I have become EXTREMELY relaxed when it comes to "teaching" Jakob. Sometimes I feel as though I am just being lazy and then days come like this one where I would have missed this wonderful opportunity to see his thought process progress and an ultimate lightbulb moment happen for him. Here's the story:

This was a Thursday and we had been going full blast all week long with playdates, bootcamp, Ju Jitsu, and miserably trying to keep the house up. I had officially declared this our "lazy day" which basically meant we were not going anywhere.

Since bathrooms are Jakob's chore I though I would make a game out of my tile in the shower being in desperate need of a scrub, so we talked about making our own volcanoes. We made one in a glass in the kitchen, which he thought was the coolest thing. Next I told him that he could make a volcano in the shower and use the bubbles to clean. I was shocked he went for it. He stayed in the shower for about 15 min scrubbing with a toothbrush and making little volcanoes everywhere (my shower is super clean now thanks to him!!).

After that we had a discussion about volcanoes and dinosaurs and why dinosaurs lived in dino land (which we re named as "Long before I was born time"). He was having a little trouble understanding the part about rocks getting so hot that they melted so I took him to the computer and showed him pictures and videos of volcanoes. We then visited documentaries on Pompeii and there he understood the process of fossilization when it comes to volcanoes.

Needless to say I was having a pretty proud mama moment. But it got better.

He then asked for some paper so that he could draw pictures to show Mike when he got home how he learned to make a volcano. He put them in chronological order and numbered them so Mike would understand. Afterwards he and Hazel went outside to let the puppy pee and I gave them some chalk to doodle with. Jakob proceeded to draw in detail everysingle type of volcano we had seen on the computer. He even drew pictures of the "mummies" of Pompeii!! I was so impressed. He finished off his explorations with his own photography seeion where he took pictures of his art with his camera.

Now all of this seems simple and I know he would learn relatively the same things in a classroom, but I felt so honored to not have to give up that moment. I feel like I missed so much when he was a baby and now I don't have to give up some of his firsts anymore.




Drawing the cloud blasts

Taking his own pictures

Posing next to his art.

I really wished I could have gotten some better pics of his drawings but everytime Hazel sees the camera she has a fit trying to get it. Ahh the joys of being Two I guess.