Mail from the White House

Last year the President came to visit the USS Ronald Reagan. I have a picture of Steve shaking the President's hand. I sent a copy of the picture to the White House, along with some nice patriotic (and photo safe) paper. I enclosed a letter, explaining how my husband is assigned to the Reagan and here was a picture to show the President shaking his hand. I asked if I could have an autograph on the photo safe paper, not the photo itself, because the acids in the ink would eat through the picture. Nothing like a little scrapbooking education for the leader of the free world, huh?

I also enclosed a self addressed, postage paid photo mailer so the photo and signature paper could be sent back to me with no addition to our budget deficit. I'm such a good citizen.

Well yesterday I got a response! I was so excited that when I tore into the envelope I almost tore up the White House's return address & postmark! Inside was a letter on watermarked, embossed and letterheaded paper. From a secretary.

The letter thanked me for my letter, and Steve for his service to the country, and said the President was unable to fulfil my request.
I thought, hmmm.

He isn't in the White House much, so I expected a computerized signature. I wasn't too picky because I wanted it for my scrapbook, not for Ebay.

I finish reading the letter that was sent, and it says they have enclosed something that they hope will make up for it. It is an 8x10 of the President, and underneath his head it says "To Stephen McConnell, God Bless America" and what is after that? A computerized signature!

Part of me says, why couldn't they just print that signature out on my photo safe paper? The other part of me says who cares? This photo is personalized to Steve, and signed! Yay!

I sent this in late November or early December, meaning for it to be a birthday present for Steve. It's a little late, but oh well! I am putting it in his USS Ronald Reagan scrapbook. Now, onto acquiring a unique Father's Day gift...

Steve got his package!

Yay! He said that the "vultures" were circling when he opened it, wanting goodies, and that the homemade candy didn't melt, so yay! I am already compiling a list and rounding up treats to go in the next box, to be sent out on the first.

It has been 11 days since I last posted. Not much going on here at our end. The kids go to school, I volunteer at the school, then come home and wage war on the dirty house, the kids come home and mess it up again, and so on. We still keep to the routine, but field trip Saturday has been sorely lacking since I don't drive the interstate. There aren't a lot of places to go here on Coronado.

Anyway, the ship pulled into Australia, they had a good time, and pulled back out. Steve had duty while in port and Australia was expensive so he didn't do much, but it was still nice to eat a nice meal and get off the ship. He also was able to get ahold of a phone and phonecard, and call home. That was the highlight for us! We have missed hearing his voice.

Hopefully we will get to hear his voice again when he hits the next port: Singapore!

Golden Shellback!

Here is a picture of Steve! He is now a Golden Shellback! Polliwogs are those who have never crossed the Equator before, and Shellbacks are those who have. Normally when a ship crosses the Equator, the Polliwogs become Shellbacks. But when a ship crosses the International Date Line and the Equator at the same time, they become Golden Shellbacks.

Steve is dressed as a pirate, complete with a pretend sword, parrot and eye patch. In the days before (and the day of) the crossing, there is a little friendly competition between the 'Backs and the 'Wogs, since the 'Wogs are impertinent and have to be shown who's boss.

Steve sent me this picture today, but since he crossed the IDL, it is already tomorrow for him. Confusing, huh?

I made a "Daddy Time" clock with a photo collage of Steve on it, and numbers too, of course, so we know what time it is wherever Daddy is.

Today is Tuesday, I can't believe it has been a full week since I last posted. Not much happened. I sent off Steve's first care package today, full of cookies and homemade candy, which I am hoping doesn't melt before it arrives onboard ship. Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

At night, the dog has taken to sleeping on my legs, atop the covers, facing the bedroom door, as if keeping watch over me. Thank goodness he is just a mini dachshund and not a St. Bernard!

Katie is currently painting a ceramic tea set, which I will "fire" in the oven to set the paint. Jonathan is munching on some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans that came in the mail today from my mom. Today we went to the farmer's market for a few strawberries, oranges and flowers. And tonight's dinner will be tacos. Woohoo!

That's about all that is new in our neck of the woods. More later.

It has been a week

...since Steve left. I remember last Tuesday night he put the trash out for Wednesday morning collection because I would have forgotten. I was a little more concerned with squeezing in a few more minutes of Steve time than taking out the silly trash.

By this time last week, liberty had expired and me & the kids were killing time in Audra's van. There were people manning the rails of the ship.

So what has happened since then? We have kept to the schedule. We saw Chicken Little with Audra and her friend Briana, who has the cutest baby girl! We had ice cream on Sunday. I was out of bananas and all the fixin's but ice cream alone was fine. Katie and I did a craft on Monday, which the dog promptly chewed up. I told her not to leave it on the floor because foam is the dog's favorite snack of choice, but what do I know?

Jonathan got some modeling clay from the store but didn't want to sculpt it, and I didn't make him. Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to the farmer's market, which had a lot of things, but not what we usually buy. We got 3 pints of strawberries, but most things we like were out of season. Peaches, cherries, blueberries, and those tiny little grapes, all not there. They did have avocados, citrus, broccoli, apples, dates and other fruits & vegetables. Beets, ugh. And flowers for sale too. They had some really pretty roses and tulips. But I didn't get any, just strawberries this time.

Today is park day, so we will go to a park in town after school. There is one off of Second Street with public toilets in case we need to *go.* Features like this are important with 2 kids.

Katie will get a double dose of parks today, since it is early release day, we go to the little park by the school for the 30 minutes between her dismissal and her brother's.

Speaking of school, I need to get them off and running. TTYL.

The weekly schedule

So to pass the time and have a little bit of routine that we can count on, the kids and I are going to keep a schedule. It goes as follows:

Monday-Games or crafts day -play board games in the evening, or make a craft, on alternating weeks.

Tuesday-Farmers market day-go into town and shop at the farmer's market, and dip our toes into the water at the littl ebeach that is up there, too.

Wednesday-Go to the park. Coronado has 14 parks. Most have public bathrooms. We can visit the ones withthe bathrooms, anyway.

Thursday-Library day-guess where we go today?

Friday-Popcorn & movie night-make popcorn and pick a DVD or watch a movie on TV. It is a privilege to stay up late on Friday night!

Saturday-Field trip day-a trip to the zoo or other lengthy outing that takes too long to be enjoyed on a weekday afternoon.

Sunday-Sundae Sunday--banana splits all around, to mark the end of one week and the beginning of another.

We didn't do the park on Wednesday, I didn't feel like it, and the kids were tired from being up so early. Katie actually fell asleep on the living room floor in the afternoon.

On Thursday we went to the library and checked out books and some CDs to listen to in the car.

Tonight's Popcorn & a Movie selection was Bambi. I am hoping that the kids will sleep in a little from being up late. We'll see.

Tomorrow is Field Trip Saturday. We are not going anywhere special, just to a free movie on base--Chicken Little. But the kids haven't seen it and so I am sure they will enjoy it.

That's all for now. We are hanging in there.

12 hours...

It has been 12 hours since liberty expired & we put Steve on the ship. I wonder how far away they are. I wonder how many cookies (of the 14 dozen or so that I sent him off with) are left?

The pier was a sight this morning. There were lots of people there, sending off their Sailors. Little knots of people, hugging, kissing & crying. Sigh. The ship pulled out at 9. We sat in Audra's van for 3 hours until the ship pulled away, then we came home.

It has been a quiet day today because everyone knows that the ship left today. I put a sign on the door that said Do Not Disturb. We received packages from FedEx today. He didn't even ring the doorbell. For some reason this made me laugh hysterically.

I miss my Steve. I have been numb for weeks to the fact that the ship was leaving, but the numbness is wearing off because it is past dinnertime and I haven't cooked. That is a sign that the Steve is not home. Whether he is simply on overnight duty or underway for a while, the kids and I eat less formally. Last night's dinner was chicken parmesan over angel hair pasta. Tonight's dinner? Leftovers for me, and the kids want ramen noodles. That's ok though, since I don't really feel like cooking.

I complained in my last post that my latest posts were not showing up, and lo and behold, they did! Woohoo! Let's see how long it takes this one to load up...

21 hours...

...until Steve is gone. I am dreading it. My stomach is a knot. I am numb right now thought because I am busy doing guess what? Making cookies! Oatmeal walnut--thanks to Audra for that yummy combo! And plain chocolate chip, and chocolate cookies with tiny PB cups as chips, and also chocolate cookies with dark chocolate-covered-raspberry-filled morsels. Yum! I have a few minutes before the next dozen is done to update the ole blog. Hopefully this post, and the last one I wrote, will actually show up on the site because all I can see is the one marked Christmas Eve...where are my posts???

Yay, 2006!

I am so ready for 2006. Oh wait...it already *is* 2006. January 2nd, to be exact. It is just past midnight and I am up, waiting for my cakes to cool so I can decorate them. I have made 2 round cakes, and then cut and shaped the 2 rounds into butterfly wings for my friend Trinice's daughter's birthday cake. They are celebrating early so her daddy won't miss the party, since her daddy, like Steve, is on the Reagan and leaving in 2 days. My stomach twists up in a huge knot when I think about it.

But we have had some good quality time with Steve lately. We had a nice quiet Christmas. The kids got lots of games and we spent the last week or so playing them with them. Disney Scene-It, Zingo, Green Gators, Audio Bingo, and so on.

I have been taking a lot of pictures so that I can make a "Daddy wall" for the kids. I am going to do the paper chain again, with one chain link per day, between now and when he comes home. Each night, the kids tear a link from the chain and we watch it get shorter. We did it the last time he was gone for a long period of time.

My friend Audra does this thing with her son, where there are Hershey kisses in a bowl, one for each day Daddy is gone, and each night before bed, the child gets to eat one. We all do what we can to mark the passage of time.

I have been feeding Steve up, so he can get home cooking before he has to exist on ship food. Thanks to Poppy for her chicken parmesan recipe! I am saving it for tomorrow night, the night before he leaves.

I tried to get all the things Steve will need for his out-to-sea time. Today I am making cookies, oh, pretty much all day long. That way I can send him off with a lot of cookies. Tomorrow night, after the kids go to sleep, we are breaking out the video camera and I am recording Steve reading various stories to interest both kids. So they can hear Daddy read a story whenever they want to, just by popping the tape in the VCR.

We are doing all kinds of leaving prep, as you all can see. I have a routine worked out for when he is gone as well, to have as much structure as possibel for the kids. We have an organized schedule for school days, everything set up the night before to make the mornings more laid back, etc. Well I am going to mark the passage of time by having Sundae Sundays and making a trip to the bookstore each payday to get a new book to read, and to mark the passage of time. One payday closer to Daddy being home, you know? Every Tuesday is farmer's market day, and we usually go to the library then since we are in town. Tuesdays are actually pretty full , since by the farmer's market there is a little beach where I let them run around utl they are exhausted! Then we hit the library and they each choose 3 books, then it is home, dinner, homework and bed.

I am sure there is more that I have planned. It is late and I am getting tired, though. We have zoo passes so I will probably find a friend wo also has passes and go a few times. We like the zoo.

As for me, I plan to clean the house. Stop laughing! I want to clean the house, top and bottom like I did back in October. It took me 10 days of non stop cleaning. I was constantly on my feet and cleaning, and Steve wondered why. I was throwing him a surpise party and I didn't want him embarrassed by our clutter hole of a house, so I took care of business. After the party I was exhausted for days. Before the party I would not allow myself to sit down because I knew I had to get it done, and I was so tired afterward!

Well this time around, I will go a little slower, but still, clean & maintain the house. I can do my maintenance cleaning while the kids are in school and then the afternoons are mine to do what I want, or vice versa. Then after I get the kids from school I don't have to worry about cleaning the house or anything, and I can focus on them and doing homework and stuff. Then I can relax in the evening and do my cross stitch or crochet.

Speaking of crochet, a great big Thank You to Mrs. Feher for sending me more yarn to work with!

Well my cakes should be cool now. I need to go decorate them so Iwill post again in a few days, probably after Steve leaves. If you all want his address on the ship so you can send him a card or a little care box, let me know and I will email you the address.

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve. We have done some festive things, like baking cookies for the neighbors and then piling in the car and driving around the neighborhood delivering them. I also wrote out all the Christmas cards, which I put off writing until it was too late. Now they will be New Year's cards.

We also attempted to bake sugar cookies for Santa. We used the coffee table, covered in wax paper, as a work surface. In the midst of rolling, cutting and baking the cookie dough, the bad little weenie dog put his head in the bowl of dough and started eating. He is now banished to his bed and will not get to open a present for Christmas Eve. Bad dog!

So we only made about 1/3 of the cookies we should have made. But that's ok. Right now, homemade pizza is in the oven, affording me a few minutes to update the blog.

After dinner we will decorate Santa's cookies, have popcorn & cocoa, read both "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and the Christmas Story from the Bible.

The kids will be allowed to open one gift each, and then it is bedtime! That's about what we do, every Christmas Eve. Pizza's ready...Merry Christmas, all!

It's been a couple days

I could use the excuse that it is the holidays and I have been so caught up with doing Christmas stuff that I have been too busy to post, but nah, I am just lazy.

And really, not much else is going on for me to write about. The kids are off school and rotting their brains with TV. But every day I turn off the TV and turn on the music and they hate it. "Aw Mom, not the music again!"

There is still background noise, but they have no celluloid images to stare at, and proclaim themselves bored. I tell them to go play outside, and they don't want to do that. So I tell them to go clean their rooms, and you can imagine how big that goes over. We are on day 3 of the room cleaning disaster. Are they clean? No.

Katie tells me that she doesn't want to clean her room by herself. I tell her I dont want to clean the whole house by myself, so she is doing her room to help me. She looks at me in disbelief.

I don't get it. These kids empty trash, Jonathan takes the trash out, they help put out the trash & recycling on Wednesdays, they clear dishes, they sort laundry, and they go on toy hunts, searching each room for toys that are supposed to stay in their rooms. Its not like they are without chores. But to tell them to clean their rooms leave them blank.

We have gone over what entails a room cleaning---toys in the box, books on the shelves, laundry in the hamper, trash in the can, etc. So it's not like they don't know what to do. You would think I was using them as slave labor.

I tell them I don't ask them to clean my room, so don't ask me to help them clean theirs. Again I get the hairy eyeball. I have tried the "Santa's watching" ploy, to no avail.

I am this close to going in there with trash bags, handing them to the kids and saying "fill them up."

On a positive note, I found my garage keys. Our garage is not attached to our house. It also has all the Christmas presents in it. So yes, finding the keys is a positive thing.

That's about it. I am going to do more baking for neighbors and try to set a good example to the kids by turning off the TV, turning on the music and cleaning house. Maybe Santa will be nice to me this year.

A grievous wound, a broken heater, and Christmas presents!

Yesterday, I went to pick up the kids from school after their parties. They were all sugared up, which was to be expected. I put some stuff in the trunk and tried to stand up straight and close the trunk at the same time. My skull met the trunk latch and I saw stars. I couldn't catch my breath and tears sprouted from my eyes. My scalp burned and I felt it gingerly to see how bad the damage was. My fingers were lightly stained with blood. I called a friend over to look at my head. She said it was scraped up but not bleeding badly. It has hardened into a little nasty blood-covered lump. It hurts to brush my hair.

Our heater is also broken. You think that not having a heater here in California wouldn't be such a problem. But we are right on the water and it gets cold! The air in the house is frigid.

I called for maintenance on the 15th, someone came out, tinkered with it, and the heater worked overnight. At dinnertime yesterday I noticed the heater was not working again, so I called maintenance, again, and they brought me a tiny little space heater for overnight.

They came out today to replace a broken part, but it still did not fix the heater, so who knows what is next? I probably need a new heater but you know that's not going to happen on a weekend. So we are all sitting huddled around a space heater the size of a box of cereal. And not a jumbo box either. One of those teeny boxes that still manage to cost $4.00.

Max enjoys the space heater. Being a weenie dog, he has no body fat, and has taken lately to hiding underneath blankets because he is cold. He enjoys sitting in front of the heater, letting the warm air wash over him.

Steve is home now, his ship pulled in, and he will be home now, with no more underway periods, until they deploy. I am still in denial about that, and am focused on making sure my kids have a nice, happy Christmas. They don't need a mom who is moping around, depressed because of the impending deployment.

Steve is currently sleeping on the couch, which has missed him in his absence. :-) The kids wrote their Santa letters today. They wrote a list of their top three wish list items, and Santa will pick one of the three to bring them.

A great big Thank You to Poppy, who sent us a box of Christmas presents yesterday, and said we didn't have to wait 8 more days! Jonathan got a K'Nex kit, which he immediately built and has not put down since. Katie got a marabou-trimmed, makeup-filled purse. She got little tubs of glitter lip gloss, little tubes of glitter lipstick, hair bows and clips, 2 glitter hair gels, a brush and mirrir, and 2 nail polishes. She has been sparkly for 2 days now and loves it!

Max could smell that his present was something yummy and tore the paper off his present himself! I took pictures of it because he was so determined to get it open and when he finally did he ran off to hide, and chew his present (a big rawhide bone) in privacy.

Steve opened his today, a pound of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, which we cannot get out here in CA and so enjoy when a friend takes pity on us, and a New England Patriots Santa Hat. He loves it!

As for me, I got my very most favorite yummy, milk chocolate covered honeycomb. It is unbelievably sweet! And so was Poppy for sending me a Michael's giftcard too! She knows how I love to make things! Woohoo, now I can go to the craft store!

That's about it for today.

Running around like a nut...

Well today I overslept, and we had to fly out the door to get to school on time. Today is the last day of school for the kids. Back when I was in school, we got out at half-day on the 23rd of December. My kids are getting out today, the 16th???

I always make homemade gifts for the kids' teachers, and this year was no exception. Katie is in a multiage class, and has 2 teachers. So I made something for each teacher, and one for Jonathan's teacher. Jonathan's teacher is getting a cake, a vanilla one with red and green sprinkles in the cake itself, iced green with holiday sprinkles on top.

I heard Katie's primary teacher say her favorite pie was apple, so I went to work. I made 2 apple pies, one with a real lattice top--thanks to Jordan for her cookbook with instructions on how to weave a real lattice top! The second pie was crumb-topped, with oats, brown sugar, butter and chopped walnuts. The 2 teachers can fight it out over who gets which one.

Both kids' class parties are this afternoon. Katie's class is making cocoa from scratch, and our contribution was powdered sugar to go in the pot.

Jonathan brought holiday candy for his party, and they are having chips and dip, and veggies and dip, and other munchies, so I am bringing in bean dip to go with the tortilla chips they will be having. I scooped it out of the can, put it on a plate, and shaped it like a star. Then I outlined the bean dip in squeezy cheese. It looks festive. Trinice tells me I am creative, but I don't know, I just didn't want to show up with a dinky can of bean dip.

What else have I done this morning? Oh yeah- I made a "new mommy" dinner for my friend Rachel, who had a beautiful baby girl 9 days ago. She is a little bundle of perfection, and it was such a pleasure to prepare a lasagna, toss a salad and get some garlic bread. I also made a cake, which is cooling now.

I have a pan in the shape of a Christmas tree, and I used it to make Rachel's dessert. When the cake is cool, I am going to ice and decorate it, with green sprinkles to make the tree green, and a yellow star on top and of course, bulbs and garland.

All that, and done before lunch. Tonight's dinner will be PB&J, because I don't feel like cooking any more!

Cookies, cookies, cookies!

This has been the week of the bake sale! The kids' school does a 2-night holiday program every year. Half of the classes perform each night. Before and after the program, there is a bake sale. I rounded up all the bakers and we had about 30 dozen treats per night to sell to the families. In addition to rounding up the treats & selling them, I also baked some yummies to add to the pile. I made chocolate chip cookies with M&Ms in them, cranberry orange mini loaves, and chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, with Santa-shaped chips in them too. Of course, I had to be there both nights, not just to sell things before & after, but also because I had one child performing per night! They couldn't both be on the same night, noooooo...

Well today is Thursday, and that is the traditional school bake sale day. Every Thursday, a different class takes turns hosting a bake sale, and the proceeds go into the class' special occasions fund. They buy special school supplies or party stuff with it.

So I baked yet again last night! This time it was cupcakes. This weekend I have a cookie exchange to go to, and I need 7 dozen cookies. That's not too bad, I guess. At least the cookie exchange isn't with 20 families or I would be baking all day!

Next I have to make trays of cookies for our friends in the neighborhood, as a holiday treat. Then the family will be making sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Finally, I will be making a care package of many, many cookies to send Steve off on deployment with, after the New Year.

I will wear holes in the kitchen floor from being in there so much!

A little bit about us

Hello family and friends! I am going to use this site to keep everyone updated on what is going on in our lives.

Steve will be home for Christmas, and will deploy in January for 6 months. Keep up-to-date with Steve's deployment news here. I will post updates as time passes.

Jonathan is 9 now and in 4th grade. He loves dinosaurs, football in general and the New England Patriots in particular, Legos and Harry Potter. His favorite color is green.

Katie is 5 and in Kindergarten. She loves pink! She loves Barbie, My Little Pony, Polly Pockets, and having her nails painted. She loves to draw, color and make cards for friends.

Max is our weenie dog, our red mini dachshund. He loves sleeping in the sunshine, and in keeping with the Christmas season, currently enjoys chewing the ornaments off the Christmas tree. His other hobbies include chewing the family's shoes and stealing food off our plates if our backs are turned.

And then there is me, Jenn. I am a SAHM. I like to cook, bake, knit, crochet (many thanks to Jessica for teaching me), cross stitch, scrapbook and make cards. (I have passed that on to Katie.) I hold down the fort while Steve is gone.