exciting

this is really exciting. like i can't even say.

what on earth is even slightly exciting here???
well, let me share. it is b/c i was able to convert, adjust and save THIS photo....right on my LAPTOP!!!! YAY YAY YAY!!! through a couple hours of perseverance i have everything functioning on the laptop. oh exciting, exciting, exciting!!!!
i've only been able to edit pics on my ooooooold poor worn out work pc. the one i've blown up twice now. yeah that poor old thing. but, now i've got this one figured out, i can also fix it so i can use everything on my other much nicer newer desktop too. now that i know how. ;)
so i'm excited! this means, i'm pretty sure anyway....lots more pics on the ol' blog-a-roo now.

and...AWAY he goooooes!!!!

so, we are from west texas. meaning...we're not really used to the effects of super wet, salty water in the air. meaning...brand new bikes from the fall that were not properly stored are large lumps of rust with wheels. er...not THAT bad, but too bad to be seen on in public. ;)
not to mention oscar's ONLY bad dog evidence, which is from her first few days here, are the chewed off seats. ;)
anyway, i was NOT going to go spend all that money on new bikes again, much less new bikes that broke as much as the rust lumps did. kade is ALMOST, but just not quite, at the next size up. that means that so is cody. hence...we're not spending much on bikes for the next several months.
so i went in search of my favorite thing...a bargain!
so i went all over looking for used kid bikes. i took poor kade back and forth looking at bikes. of course he was mad that i chose the fitted size bike for co that happened to be co's fave color, BUT it had flames on it and is totally fast b/c of that flame job ;)
we finally found kade a bike. he said it was a bob the builder bike due to the color, it looks like Scoop.
Well, he'd had training wheels on his green bike all this time, I had decided he was old enough to learn to ride w/out them though so I had no intention of putting any on his bike this time.
When I took him to see this yellow bike, the man asked if he could ride and I said not w/out any trainers on it. So he's pushing Kade on the bike to see if it fits him well or not, and he then lets go of Kade, who I'm waiting to fall over and go kiss his knee. Apparently t hough, he'd been out taking bike lessons in the middle of the night or something because he did not fall over, he took off riding that bike like he'd been doing it for a year.
Seriously, it reminded me of Forest Gump when his braces fell off and he could " RUN! FOREST RUN!!!!".
He hasn't stopped riding ever since. I was absolutely amazed.
So...without further ado, here is Kade...his SECOND time riding a bike for real. :o)

Kamikaze Kade


Poor Co, has to still have the training wheels on his and he has more hell than anything I've ever seen. I know he's awfully young for it, but I think we're going to try him w/out them soon as well. If he can figure out balance, he can do it no doubt. Kade won't even try to use his hand brakes and Co uses his fine. Just seems that regular old training wheels are not tough enough for my big boy. We've gone through a few pair now...he's not used to not being able to keep up, so it's frustrating for everyone!
He kicks butt training wheels or not though...when he's not falling over that is. ;o)
After this video we took them out to the woods and rode all our new bikes and it was awesome. Kade did not fall once...Co on the other hand, well...he WOULDN'T have if his trainers could've kept up with him. :o) So much fun though, so we're in the market for a bike rack.
Also, just FYI, I guess you really DON'T forget how, b/c I didn't even fall ONCE! yeah I was probably more sure that I would fall, not the kids! ha!

Anyway, here's Kade, knowing how to do something all along, but not bothering to tell anyone.
xoxo

What I do NOT miss...

I feel it's only fair.... ;o)

Well, I certainly have things that I do not miss about West Texas. I mean...come on. If not for family and friends, West Texas would've just been something of the past a long time ago. I never keep it any secret how much I did not like the area. It's not BAD BAD, but it's so not my favorite either. However, my favorite PEOPLE are there...so that makes a big difference. ;O)

Anyway, West Texas does not get off Scott Free here...

~ hummingbird sized mosquitoes (AT ALL) i get swarmed. always.
~ wind. not that there is not wind here, no there is plenty. however, we don't have to breathe in half of New Mexico when it does blow here. It's just damn cold.
~ 107 degrees in the shade. Yeah I loathe baking when I step out the front door for 5 whole seconds.
~ Swarms. You know how every couple of years we have a swarm of something? The crickets are the worst IMO. *shudder* but the grasshoppers, the beetles, the crickets...
~ june bugs. potato bugs. whatever you call them. i hate, hate, hate them. thanks to my Uncle Tommy and cousin Philip. I'm still scarred by them chasing me and throwing them in my hair.
~ fences. that's the WAY cool thing here. there are thousands and thousands of acres here that have no fences. meaning...if i had a HORSE here i could ride for days and not make a circle. you can go exploring anywhere on foot, on bike, on horse...it's awesome. there are hardly any fences here. i dig.
~ brown grass
~ this one is a given...fire ants
~ having to watch for poisonous snakes
~ having to watch for poisonous spiders
~ having to watch out for poisonous everything.
~ um, just having to worry about everything possibly being killer bugs or reptiles or animals or...whatever it may be.
~ wasp nests.
~ the barren landscape
~ water rationing
~ the feeling like the world drops off at the edge of town. ;0) haha

I was reading some nature books with the boys the other day, I've bought a load of old books at thrift stores about nature, animals etc...  SO we got to rattlesnakes and that, of course, led to the conversation how they are poisonous and all over the place in Texas. Then we got into all the snakes and spiders and scorpions etc... Well, as much as Kade always tells me that we HAVE to go back to Texas tomorrow, he suddenly changed his tune. He seriously had fear in his eyes and said, "Mom, we can't ever go back to Texas. It's DANGEROUS!"
Whoops! ha! Well, I suppose it will seem that way. Where as I grew up knowing to watch for snakes, not play with spiders and always check the covers before getting in bed, never slipping my feet in a shoe w/out shaking it out first so on and so forth. They are missing out on that schooling living here, so I guess when it's not just the way things are, it's freaky. Just as I did NOT believe or trust our neighbors when we first got here and I asked them what would kill me, after their "OMG that American is mad" expression, they said nothing. Well, I thought it had to be some sort of conspiracy. I mean, not having rabies here was trippy enough, but seriously?!?!?! No killer insects? Not even one teeny tiny innocent looking ladybug turned fire-breathing beast? Unheard of! So I did hear later there is one snake to watch out for here, but it's very rare. Regardless, I jog through the woods with wild abandon.
Needless to say, when we move back to Texas I will surely get bit by a rattler within a month. I should start taking bets now.
While it's not killer, the stinkin nettle is nearly as bad though. OUCH!!!! It might LOOK like the making of strawberries growing wild...it's surely not. Don't find out the hardway like I did. More of that ignorant American I guess. In my flip flops and shorts walking up to a huuuuge patch, "Hey Mike! Look! Wild strawberries EVERYWHEeeeee......OUCH SHIT! OWowowowowowow!!!! *&(*&^^&%^&@@$!&#*J".
Yeah, good thing no one else was around to see that one...

P.S.

i also miss milk by the GALLON and garbage pick up twice a week, gosh...even ONCE a week would be killer.

*sigh*

okay but that's all. i remembered those too. haha

here i am...

as if anyone reads this anymore? i know, i know... everybody gave up on me. well, i do have a sort of reason for not having posted on here in awhile. i've tried to explain but man oh man...can you just imagine how LONG winded i might have gotten? far too much.
so the short of it is, i am going to go on and do my "thang" and i'll finish up my rant about nothing really probably someday maybe. i dunno. at any rate, i'm not going to withhold randomness b/c i haven't had my say yet.
blah...

anyhoo, i am going to try to catch up on all the pointless crap that i've felt compelled to share but have not for the last month or so. somehow, someway.
at the moment, since i'm sooooooo seriously annoyed i feel like sharing a list of....i miss.
so PEOPLE aside, for that is a given, a list of things i miss from home. the things we take for granted in the states and i mean honestly it's not like i'm in some 3rd world country  here so it's really petty stuff. actually, seeing as it's earth day i should really just shut the hell up and not complain about anything. be glad i have food, water, a roof, clothing so on so forth.
um, alas, the petty list.

i miss:

~ drive thru's on the right side of the car
~ WAL-MART  (ooooh the convenience of having it all in one place!!!)
~ target just b/c target was SO fun to just peruse through for hours on end and sadly we only  had an old school convenience store sized target in abilene.
~ lowe's. man...how can i even explain how much i miss lowe's.
~ beds, mattresses, bedding that all fit each other. (hence my current foul mood. SO SICK OF IT!!!!)
~ walking into my fave stores and trying on my clothes first.
~ shopping in a friendly shopping environment. think ppl are rude in the states in stores??? oooooohh no way friends. not at ALL. i think ppl might not even think they are being rude here, but...when you grow up shopping in a country where you don't walk in front of ppl, you say "excuse me" etc... it's beyond effing rude here. i want to pummel ppl within about half an hour. i do NOT go shopping at ALL on the weekend. it's like black friday on crack. yeah...
~ properly sized clothing.
~ shoes. don't get me started on SHOES. if you gals with giganto feet like me think it's bad back home??? yeah, move to europe. piss. off. i thought it was exciting at first to realize that my shoe "size" would be like two sizes smaller...until hey guess what, NO ONE has that size either.
~ walking into a restaurant and KNOWING i WILL like something there, much less know what everything is on the menu.
~ margaritas
~ tanning (it's sickeningly expensive here)
~ going for pedi's with my girls
~ rosa's (okay i could not leave my girl rosa out... ;) ).
~ mrs. bairds
~ borden's milk
~ ice. ice in my drinks, ice at the stores. ice in the freezer. ice is a hot commodity here.
~ adult sized ovens.

and....LAST BUT NOT LEAST.
i miss INTERSTATES!!!! how, how awesome to get on I-20 or I-35 and go in a nearly straight line, fast. straight, solid, fast. getting somewhere in a reasonable time rather than getting stuck behind tractors and trucks and risking your life to pass them to only get caught by a train. 20 miles takes an hour, if you are lucky.


well, i could go on and on about the FOOD i miss and the THINGS i miss doing with the PEOPLE i miss. that would go on forever i'm sure though. it's spring and well, when the sun is out and it's sort of warm out, i tend to forget about a lot of the inconveniences and fall in love with england all over again. there are daffodils all over the roadsides growing wild in abundance. no more of that hoping for a good year and driving around for hours looking for the one good bluebonnet patch that is publicly accessible. cherry trees are covered in flowers, the green is absolutely unbelievable. sure it's green year round pretty much, it's overwhelming in the early summer. breathtaking really...

but for tonight. tonight i'm just PISSED about beds and bedding and the lies they feed you on the internet about things being the same size that are not.
don't ask, just know that i've spent 2 days working really hard and just realized it was for nothing and well, if i've not mentioned. i'm REALLY pissed about it.

so on that note, i'm taking my pissy self to get warm b/c i'm f-f-f-f-f-freeeeeeezing!

oh the irony of it all

ya know, i must enjoy the things most folks don't. i dunno. who needs to go out of their way for entertainment? i mean really.
between karma and irony...who needs anything else?
karma keeps me calm when people are hopeless. i can move on b/c i know everyone gets their come-uppance. irony, well i mean what else can you really do but laugh at it?
case in point, and what has prompted this pointless blog post at all;
we've not had outside water for almost a year. yeah rock on crappy ass landlord, rock on. :| jack ass. but anyway.... we finally got that situation recently. it took DRASTIC measures for something seriously as simple as we thought all along. um, anyway... mike has been dying to handwash the cars. they needed it pretty bad too. it's shit spreadin' time in norfolk! i.e. there's mud and crap everywhere and it reeks of muck and carcass all over the entire county. especially on awesome days like today when it's windy!

so obviously our cars are filthy and really really needed the wash. mike and the boys scrubbed both our cars, cleaned the wheels till they were sparkly and shiny. or..."squeaky clean" per cody's words. :)
so today i ran to base for a quick grocery run. about 10 minutes into the trek i had to call mike b/c i couldn't stop laughing at one of the most disgusting things to happen to one of my vehicles ever. twice as funny that it was funny to me if you knew how i was about meat... oh yeah it's going THERE.
so there's a big truck, and then a bmw SUV in front of me....
then there was this road kill.

the big truck rolled over the road kill, then the bmw trudged it up off the road apparently and what else could it do but slop a huge hunk of animal carcass right on my hood? yes, i mean really...who the HELL does that happen to? so now i have this gross slimy, old rotting hunk of God only  knows what meaty furry something on my hood. just waving at me as i'm driving. i mean really, what the hell was i going to do about it anyway? so trying to not look at it so i don't barf or wreck, and then wouldn't ya know it??? another set of big trucks rolls the opposite way and sprays shit dirt all over my car, and kind of did a tarred and feathered number with the carcass chunks. yeah...awesome i say.
i'm not done...
so then the opportunity arose to pass the first offender, so as i'm flying by him guess what??? ooooh yes the blinding speed once again lifted the meat chunk and it flew from my hood right into my windshield and tangled all up in my wipers.
how awesome is that??? and again i ask...who the HELL does that happen to??
so of course, i had to call mike and laugh. all that time he spent making my car sprakle and squeak...to end up covered with guts, goo, fur, carcass, and shit-dirt.
ya know...i DID tell him that i wasn't going to bother washing the car until it was staining our clothes by getting near it or until about june when all the poop spreading was over. that's what he gets for being sweet and productive i guess....

so anyway. that's my monday in a nutshell. well, add in that my blackberry is still not back and i'm really not the least bit patient about it this time. i have full intentions of annoying the crap out of them until they either replace it or give me something else. as in....daily. i just don't care. okay and then i went to get groceries and the salad bar was out of cheese AND ranch. lame. and then i got a call to come get kade a few minutes early b/c he was not feeling well in his tummy. that's as far as i will go to remain sensitive to my boy. :( so yeah...but ya know? i'm STILL in a good mood. :)

i'm working HARD on my calorie counting again. gotta get this no smoking weight off. and i just cannot be in a yucky  mood when awesome hair is but a couple more days away. :)
i'm stoked!!!!

be glad that i do not have my blackberry b/c i'd have totally photographed my nasty car and plastered it all over facebook and here. b/c that's the sick sense of humor i have.

well, i need to get mario and luigi lined out here before WWIII breaks out in my living room. maybe if they keep messing with me i'll make them go clean my car........

stair climbing and cliff diving

yep, that's what we did this weekend. er...okay we did one and avoided the other one with our lives. literally...
well it's almost 2am and i do NOT function worth a crap keeping these hours anymore. however, i've just dosed a little boy with some motrin, so i wanted to wait a little bit to see if it makes any difference before i pass out. hopefully i'm not creating a second wind by blogging. that's all i need...to kick the insomnia back in again.

anyhoo. be thrilled, be ecstatic, be all that you can possibly be if you have nothing else on earth to do. we did something this weekend. can you believe it? yeah. well it was somewhat/mostly spontaneous and would've been more spontaneous than that had we made arrangements for the mutt and had passports on us. at any rate, we were going to go somewhere else, but... i read up on it some more and wasn't so pleased with the way its done. LAME.
so mike's been wanting to go to dover castle. sooo....why not? what else were we going to do? sit around here and do laundry? Oh! wait, no we could've gone to the base and wasted money in the BX and then maybe hit the bowling alley! (*YAWN*)

shockingly we got a bit of a late start (it wasn't my fault this time! woohoo!!!) but really, with a spontaneous trip, it just doesn't really matter much does it??? the only problem is that we're still on winter time (and rightfully so but it seems there MIGHT be hope yet now) so the castle was to close @ 4pm! eek! it was about a 3 hour drive and we still had to hit the base for some gas and lunch! we made it though, in perfect timing actually. the boys had tiny bladders for the trip, but hey it's better than in the seat, so whatever. traffic was minimal.
so off we go jamming out to patsy cline down the m20 around the edge of london on our way to dover. must make note of the oddities of life you know. ;)
we made a death defying race across the world's tallest bridge. okay so i don't know if it was the world's tallest, but it really seemed like it. while i don't particularly care for great heights, actually it's only getting back DOWN that i don't like, bridges don't ever bother me. this one...well it was actually a little bit on the freaky side. tina would have passed out. i have no doubt. i did not take a photo either. sorry.
(on the way back though, apparently no one finds it freaky b/c it was jam packed bumper to bumper from one end to the other with rush hour. i think i WOULD have been totally freaked to be stuck on it w/ no way out. remember i AM the statistic. so it's best not to be in my presence in the chance something statistical can happen....).
anyhoo.... we made it in plenty of time. got our potty breaks out of the way and hit the castle grounds. first thing was first, up to the look out to see france. crazy sometimes the things we do that you'd never have thought you'd really be doing. okay so there's all those world travellers out there and great for you. sure i was certain i'd do and see things when i was younger, invincible and "destined" to be famous. Um...okay but back to reality. so here i was standing on a platform at the edge of the english channel looking at france across the water. cuh-raaaazy!
the boys were so good, thank goodness! HOPEFULLY, hopefully, HOPE-FUL-LY we are getting "there". There being, that good place where we can FINALLY get beyond the reclusive stage and get out and do things! my big boys have a lot they need to see and do.
so we saw the english channel, france, ferries, teeny tiny trucks and cars way down below us and behind us....a big ass castle. i mean pretty cool for a couple of little boys with such cool parents. ;)

so on to the castle we went. now we've been in a few, obviously, since we got here, but DAMN none compared! this thing was ENORMOUS!! i'm sure we missed a couple of rooms. it was a maze! i'm undeniably certain i'd have NEVER wanted to be a princess. i knew i didn't, but there's certainly NO question about it now! how DEPRESSING can a castle be? yuck!!!! such poor lighting, dreary surroundings. yep...i'd have been much happier living in the stables or some peasant's dump in a field somewhere. absolutely. you know it's true too!

we went all through it and the boys thought it was pretty cool. they were doing some re-enactment and cody was absolutely not interested in watching it at all. it was the "king" up on his throne doing some king stuff. he left the room and said he did NOT want to see the king. i asked him why and he said, "because i don't LIKE the king!".
well fair enough i suppose, most of them weren't too likable anyway i'd say.
of course we had to hit the gift shop on the way out and hey guess who got two more wooden swords. this time their DAD bought them the biggest ones imaginable. *insert sour expression here*
from there we drove up to the white cliffs of dover and did a very quick walk out to see them. it's now after 4 in the afternoon, the boys were up at 5-ish and oddly did not nap a single wink all the way there. so as you can imagine they were getting a bit sleepy.
now imagine...steep cliffs, sleepy jumpy floppy whiny children. yeah, it was far too horrendous to take another step really. they were not being "bad" at all, but just...tired little kids. tired little kids on a sheer cliff side is not such a good mix, especially when you add in the other people walking by. beyond the terrifying idea of one of my kids falling off, i was also scared they might knock someone else off. so we stopped. we took a photo. we got back to a wider ledge. that was good enough for now!
at any rate, it was neat. it was just awesome to get out of the house! to see something new! for it not to be -35 degrees and windy and wet and icky! okay it's not THAT cold, but it's been damn cold and horribly dreary even for england. while the clouds were jerks and ruined the "sunny" part of the forecast, it still wasn't that bad. especially being on the water like that.
so we had a great time and we are all ready to go again somewhere new!!! now we've got it worked out with our neighbor and gotten them a spare key should we decide to stay over, they can come grab oscar for us! poor girl, she was so lonely!
we've got a friend staying over with us this coming weekend and if we don't go on the school trip the following weekend, i bet we're out of here again!!! :)
needless to say, the cabin fever is getting us all crazy and we're getting the hell out of here as much as possible!!!! (not to mention i really feel like we're quickly running out of time to see/do things b/c we ARE!!!).

at any rate, i'm feeling a bit more lively i guess. since we had a fairly uneventful long day out with the boys. that in itself is worth HUGE celebration. then i'm going to do something that is LONG LONG LONG overdue. i'm going to have a take care of aimee week! yep. gonna go get some of that waxing done to get rid of my harry henderson outfit, a pedi to get rid of my frodo feet, a cut and color so i can lose the amy winehouse hair and i'm even on the lookout for a somewhat conveniently located tanning salon so i can get a little color back on me. perhaps i will feel like myself again soon! this winter has done us ALL in and maybe all of that coupled with the 50 degrees i see on the useless forecast will have the wit and charm flowing right out of me. ;o)

until then....yep.
photos ;)