Hello again

Here we are again and it has almost been a month since I posted. We have been keeping busy with everything. I have nothing really new or exciting to post, just pictures of what has been happening. Michael and I had our birthday dinner at Okinawa, it is a Hibachi restaurant. I think it is my favorite. It is soooo yummy. Good thing is it a little expensive, otherwise I would be eating there all the time and we KNOW the food there is not on Weight Watchers!!! It was good fun with friends and family and great food. Scary to think how old we are not though, I am less than a year out from the big 40 now.. YIKES

Now with Michael off doing his job, I am doing it alone and I hate that it is the best time of year. So many things to do as a family. Great fellowship with friends but maybe next year Honey!! Our Fall Festival at our church was great fun and a wonderful turnout. It is all free, games, huge blowup slides and mazes, food and Christian music. The kids play the little games to get their candy. I really enjoy doing this so much better than trick-or-treating. I don't have any pictures of Dylan. He worked one of the booths for a while and then I didn't see him until it was time to go.

After the Fall Festival, we drove out to Nana's house to stay the night there. We were all going up to Defuniak Springs on Saturday to enjoy Farm Day. This is held a a mans house and all you are asked to do is bring a dish, a side dish or dessert. Everything else is provided, there is so much for the kids to do and even the adults. It is a great day and we had a blast!! There was horseback riding, dancing, bobbing for apples, Home Depot was there with things for the kids to build, they were showing the kids now folks used to make arrowheads using old antlers and a piece of flint, zip lines, a hay ride, petting zoo, and food out the wazoo. There was more I am sure but I just can't remember it all right now. I really hope Michael can come next year though.

Then this weekend came the Awana Grand Prix. It was great fun and the boys did great on their cars. (thank you very much!! HEEHEE) But when it was all said and done, Dylan took home 3rd place and Dalton and Dawson didn't place. Dalton was a little upset, he had made it all the way to the semi finals and then got beat out, but he knows what we need to do next time. Dawson thought he should have received a trophy, he doesn't understand that you have to keep on winning till the end. Dawson did win his first 3 or 4 races though.
Well, that is about all for now. As you can see, no pictures of the progress of the house. I will try to get those posted in the next couple of days. We are getting the bathrooms done this week and then we should be finishing up on the roof. We will see but it is all coming together. Have a great day and thanks for looking.

more progress

Wow, we are really making some progress now. I am so excited. I was imagining what the house would look like when it was done but it was really hard for me. Now, we have done enough that it is easy for me to see it. It looks so awesome!!! I will enclose some pictures in a minute.

Dylan helping. Michael said he was a huge help this day!!

The new header for the new entrance

Me, I was pulling the nails out of the plywood so it could be removed.

The new entrance, Ken and I added the new side light and moved the front door. Man was it heavy!!!
We are all doing well, just busy as you can imagine. The boys are doing good in school, we just have to keep on Dylan, he is being really lazy and doesn't do as well as he can. We keep telling him that if he is doing this with no effort, think of what he could do with a little effort!!! BOYS!! It goes right in one ear and out the other, that is only when they are not so clogged up with wax that he doesn't hear a word we say! Dylan and Dalton are doing well in violin. I don't think as well as they were in England but it is a different method here, (they actually have to learn to read the music at this stage!) All 3 boys are doing great in Awana and we are having a great time. I am really enjoying being a leader for T n T. I do miss alot of my friends from England and for some reason, it is a little hard for us to get settled back into our church. Not sure why that is, all of the senior adults are happy to see us but I am at conflict with the reception I am getting from people in our Sunday School class and our age. Weird, I can't explain it but I just pray that we are where we are supposed to be and if not that God will lead us there.

I can hardly believe that October is nearly over. Michael is preparing to head east! He is ready to get this underway. Stinks that he will be gone for all the holidays but we have done it before and will deal with it. The 2 1/2 months will fly by I am sure. Then he plans to finish his Masters. He has it all mapped out which just means that something will happen to mess it all up right???

Well, I must run for now. I have errands to run before I go to Ironwood to work. Enjoy the pictures and have a great day. Love to you all!!

Someone's 11

Mike, Nana, Dalton, Dawson, Dylan, Zac, Kara

See I told you I would post again shortly!!! Well as you can see from the title, we had a birthday in the house!! I can't believe my Dylan is 11. He is getting so big. He is above my shoulders already. Well, for his birthday, he wanted dinner at Fudpuckers in Destin. They have alligators there so.... We invited Aunt Kara and Zac and Nana.It was a good time and the food was pretty good. Dylan got money and books for his birthday and who would think that someone would be so excited about books but by the pictures I will post, you can see that he was so excited. Michael and I got him the books of Ember. There are four in the series and he was over the moon excited about them. Yesterday the movie City of Ember came out in theatres so we all went to see it. It was pretty good but I am reading the book and Dylan already read it and it is quite a bit different than the movie. Oh well, the main plot is pretty much the same just the details are really different. Well, I will post the pictures from his birthday dinner and then I must get some things done around the house. For some reason, the laundry and cleaning does not just happen on its own!! (only in my dreams does it!!!) Have a great day.

Zac, Dylan and Dalton

Dawson
I told you he was excited to get these books!!!
Dylan and Mom

What?? October

Ok, I have been meaning to post on here for a week now but I honestly did not think it had been nearly a full month since I posted last. Wow!! As you all know, we have been busy so there is no need really to bore you will all I have been doing. The house is coming along finally and we are finally to the stage of Construction and not Destruction. I am very pleased about that. I have been at the house every day while the kids are in school (with the exception of Friday the 10th and I will tell you all about that in a bit!!) I am learning quite a bit and I love doing this kind of work. It is fun and rewarding to see what you have built. Ken (our builder) has gotten to the point now where he knows what I am capable of and will just assign me a task and leave me to it. All of the supplies were delivered yesterday for the new addition so that will be underway this weekend. Michael will be at the house all weekend I am sure since he only has 2 weeks left before he deploys. I will keep you posted with updated pictures and here are a few.

Ken finishing up the new concrete

The pantry

Ken mudding the master bath

The new pocket door going into the master bath

thanks for looking and I will be posting more here shortly. I have alot to post but I didn't want to make this post too long. There has been alot more done in the house since these pictures so I will try to take some more today.

Have a great day. Suse

where is the time going?

Wow, where does the time go??? Things are going by so fast, I can hardly believe it is the middle of September already. Well we have been very busy indeed so I am sorry for the lack of updates. Not that I think anyone really looks at this anyway!! HEEHEE Here is what has been going on with us. Michael has finally finished getting re qualified in the plane and he tested last week for Chief so there is no more studying for him right now. Which is good because we have so much else going on. Well, we finally agreed on some plans to renovate the house and we got the prints last Friday and I was able to get the building permit and notice of commencement Tuesday. So as you can imagine I have been at our house helping our builder doing what ever I can. I expect I will be there most days for a while. I think it will a month or two before we have it all completed. It will be awesome when it is done and we are so excited. One bad thing before all of this was able to take place was that we found a leak in the main water line that came into the house from the pipe straight off the main. I happened to go into the bathroom and I heard running water. Well since the only thing in the two bathrooms combined was one toilet, I knew something was wrong. Well, about a week and a lot of digging and busting of concrete later, we found the leak about 10 feet under the slab. We are lucky though, we only had to bust up part of the bathroom floor and a small hole, (only considered small if you take into account how big the side of the house is!) in the side of the house. We were able to run a new copper pipe in through a conduit we made of PVC that we had water jetted in around the old copper pipe. Well, sure enough we found the hole in the pipe. All the plumbing was finished yesterday and we have no more leaks. YEAH We even had to replace the PVC that ran from the meter to the house because there were 10, yes I said 10, different connections. When whoever put that together, they must have used all the leftover bits they could find. It was ridiculous!!! Well, now there is only the joint where it plugs into the meter, one in the middle, and the one where it is plugged into the house stuff!!





Not that you really care what is going on with my house, I really felt the need to explain all of that. I will now post a couple of pictures and leave the rest up to you since a picture is worth a thousand words right?? Thanks for looking and have a great day.

This is Mike looking from the master bath into the hall bath.

See? A hole in the front of my house!!

The hole in the hall bathroom floor. (and my toes!!)

The front yard dug up since we had to chase the leak for a while.

We are really still here!!

Mike and I on the boat for the 4th of July Fireworks

The boys at Sea World
Wow, I know it has been a long time since my last post but I just never seem to have enough time to sit down with no distractions. Well, here it is 2:37am and while everyone else is sleeping, (since I can't seem to) I will update you. We have moved into Fort Walton Beach although not our house. We are living in Michael's Mom's house for the time being. We still have not had our household goods delivered so we are still sleeping on air mattresses (the kids) and Mike and I are on a mattress on the floor. It is really starting to get old but we do what we have to. I thought we had decided what to do about our house here in FWB but Michael has yet again changed his mind. So I think the plan now is to replace all the flooring, have the house repainted inside and then fix the other minor things and move in. Hopefully this can be done in a couple of weeks. I will be over there tomorrow to strip some wallpaper off and then start scraping the popcorn off the ceilings.

The kids start school in just over a week and I feel like a horrible mom when I say this but I can't wait!!! They are going stir crazy right now and need some social action with other kids and a break from me. We have had a good summer I think but a busy one. When we flew into the US, we stayed down south and visited relatives and visited Sea World, the zoo and went on an air boat ride to see alligators. We made it up north here to find our house looking like complete rubbish from the tenants. I am not cut out to be a landlord!!! I don't understand how people don't take care of things.... I won't bore you with the details.. We have been to the Zoo here, we go swimming all the time at our house and we have been to many movies trying to stay busy but man, I sure do miss the prices of the movies on base in England. The prices here are ridiculous!! I am not used to paying so much.

Michael has been busy studying to get re-qualified on the plane. He is done with that so now he is on to studying for Chief. He tests next month. One exciting thing for him is he finally got his Harley. He has wanted one for so long and for one reason or another has never done it. Well, on our last night in England, everything came together and he was able to order one. He is loving it!! He hasn't taken me or the kids out on it yet but he has his safety class next week and then he will have his Motorcycle endorsement on his drivers license and then he will take us for a ride. He needed to get used to it anyway, it has been a long time since he has ridden.

There is nothing else that has been really exciting here, we have only been to the ER once when Dalton tried to cut his thumb off with a brand new cross cut saw!! 7 stitches from that whew hoo!! He now has a really nice scar on his thumb. I think that is a record for us.. I should knock on wood, I know I will be off to the ER tomorrow if I don't. Dawson is not feeling too well himself. He had a 104.1 fever last night and that is probably why I can't sleep. He is in my bed and between worrying that his fever has spiked again and him kicking and laying on me I can't get to sleep.

On a note about me, by some miracle, I have only gained 5 pounds back since leaving England. It has been just over 2 months since I kept track of anything so the fact that it was only 5 pounds is amazing. I have however decided that losing 44 pounds was huge and I was not going to mess up what I worked so hard for. I found a Weight Watchers here in town and I have already lost 3 1/2 of my 5. So I am back on track and ready to get to my goal. I asked Mike when 5 lbs looks and feels like 20? He of course didn't know but my answer is: when you have lost 44 and gained 5 of it back. I will keep you posted on my accomplishments there. I know you are cheering for me Marybeth!!

Well, I will try to post a couple of pictures and then I really should try to go and lay down. It will be a long day tomorrow otherwise! Thanks for looking.

Susan

Contact me

Hello, I don't know what is going on with my email Rhonda, We are in town but we are staying in Santa Rosa Beach so it is a pain trying to get to FWB everyday, not to mention the gas prices..... I do have the kids in VBS this week and they are having a blast. Not sure we will make it on Sunday's for a while, we will cut down the trips in as much as we can, but we will be moving in (not sure where yet) hopefully pretty soon. Hope to see some of you soon, it was nice seeing some people, almost like we never left!!! Have a great day and I will post some pictures of our trip home soon. This computer doesn't always work!!! UGH God bless everyone and have a great day!

We made it!!

Ok, we finally made it across the big pond to Florida. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. We flew into Orlando and stayed with family there for nearly a week and then drove up to (Mike's) Mom's house on Monday. We went on Tuesday to look at our house in FWB and the tenants were not very nice to it.... We will be a little while moving into it but I think we may do some renovations before we move in. We haven't really decided yet. We have been having a great time on vacation but like all vacations, I am really starting to want to be on a schedule. We will probably be at the house everyday next week doing what needs to be done but there is no help for it. I will post more later along with some pictures from our trip. Until then, thanks for looking and keep in touch.. Susan

FUN

Mike rocking out.

Dawson Playing

Hello everyone, we are still just chilling out over in England. The phone company has decided to cut our phone off almost 3 weeks too early and they say the internet is going to be cut off any day now. We should still be online every once in a while, we will just have to take the computer to the library or the community center. We will make due for the next 2 weeks..... YES.... I said 2 weeks and we are out of here. I am really excited. Michael's replacement got here yesterday and I think he is really getting excited now too.



I went to the BX (the base store) yesterday with my friend and they had a Karaoke set up. If you sang a song, you could get a coupon and save up to a max of $100 on any one item. Dalton, Dawson and I sang 'I Had a Bad Day" and we got a coupon for 50% OFF any one thing. We decided to buy the Wii Guitar Hero III. It is sooooo much fun. We were having a blast last night. I am not sure who had more fun, the boys or Mike and I after they went to bed. Here are a few pictures of them rocking out. If you have a Wii and don't have this, I recommend it, if you don't have a Wii, well I can't believe it!! HEEHEE You can come to our house and we will share. (Just to let you know, I am kicking Mike's butt on the Guitar Hero!!!)

We will keep you posted on where we are and what is going on but until then, some of you have our cell or email us. Thanks for looking!!

We are still here!!!

Wow, we have been so busy, the time and events are flying by like mad. We have now been packed out and our goods are on their way to the good ol USA. Things have just blown by, it seems as if we were looking forward to them forever and then now we are looking back thinking, "wow, when did that happen?"

We went on our camp out to Normandy, France. It was amazing and very humbling. We were able to see a lot of the coast for the different beaches, Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno and Gold. The cliffs were daunting and to even imagine what the men were thinking as they were approaching in their boats, knowing they had to try to climb the cliffs and get shot at while doing so is an impossible task. So many lives lost..... The American cemetery there was done so beautifully and I am grateful for that, at least these men have a beautiful and Peaceful resting place. (I will attach some pictures)

Mike and the boys on the edge of a cliff near out campsite

Susan and Dalton on the bus

The Eternity pool at the American Cemetery

Dylan Crossing over to Boy Scout on Omaha Beach
A shot of the cliffs from the boat

A shot of Pointe Du Hoc, there were so many craters from the bombs and some bunkers.

A shot of the cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc

The American Cemetery

The Memorial statue, this represents Youth rising up out of the waves. It was beautiful.

The wall of the missing...... very sad to see so many names still missing

Other good news is that Michael finally graduated!!! And I am ever so sorry to say that my camera battery was dead so I didn't get a picture of it. I am hoping to get one from the news paper guy that was there. I got it on video though. If I ever figure out how to add that I will. I must be going for now. I hope all is going well and I will keep you all posted on our whereabouts. Thanks for looking.....

Birthday party

Mike, Dylan and Dalton, there in the middle

Mike and Dalton
Mike and Dawson

Dawson Coming out of the Flume

lunch after the swim
Dalton Coming out of the flume
They shared a cake, Power Rangers
Taking their bite out of the corner

Finally it was time for Dalton and Dawson's joint birthday party. We started the morning with french toast and then Dalton and Dawson got to open their gifts. Dawson got an omnitrix, (from Ben-10) and Dalton got a Spiderman puzzle ball. They were both so excited. By 9am, we were off to pick up the cake and get to the leisure centre. We decided to have it at the Breckland leisure centre nearby in Thetford, they have a really cool swimming pool there that creates waves and has a current that pulls you around. It was so much fun and we all had a blast. I think we will be going back there before we leave. We were all so tired after we were done though, whew!!

Things are moving quite quickly for us, we shipped the truck out today and the movers come to pack us out next week. It won't be long now. We are off to Normandy this weekend to go camping with the scouts. It should be fun but I am praying for dry, if not good weather!! I can deal with a little chilly but I am just afraid that it will rain and then our tent will be soaked and the movers will be here the next day after we get home, I don't want a moldy tent...

Well, I best run for now, there is so much that I should be doing other than sitting here at the computer. Enjoy the pictures and I will post some of the camping trip next week... I hope...