A New Nickname, and Stuff

You know my real name. I don't hide it. I just hide my family's names. Well, Hubby (with his scruffy look):

has decided to post a comment on my blog. In doing so he did not use his real name. He used a version of my nickname, KK. He is KK's Hubby for posting purposes. The KK came about when my cousin:

who is 10 years younger than me could not pronounce my name. So I was KK.

We think Buddy:

looks a lot like my cousin.

And just for your info, Hubby is really good at math too, but definitely not in the category of a math geek like me, at least in my opinion.

So just to review, if you see KK's Hubby in the comments, this is KK:

little ol' me, and this is my Hubby:

And if you want a review of the other nicknames, you can cheat and go here and here.

Feel free to leave sappy, gracious comments about how I can't possibly be as old as I've said, how I look so much younger than my wonderful Hubby, etc., etc., etc. And don't worry about him, when I'm happy, he's happy.

In Honor Of Randomness...

Since Know & Tell Friday was the Extreme Randomness Edition, and I have totally unrelated things to blog about and no way to segue from one to the other, I am choosing to honor the theme of randomness and tie up loose ends here. Thank you, Heather, for helping me out unknowingly.

1. On our "quick" trip to Detroit, we had to look for mugs of course. Pittsburgh was the big city on the way I didn't have. Got it! But you might see an odd mug in the picture below. We told our friend the reason we were a day longer in coming home (the one that had our other son) was that we swung down to Tampa because we had decided to winter there. Had her going for a minute. Well, her husband had gone to New Orleans a few weeks ago and I had him get me a mug while he was there, and he got her one too. She's hooked. So when we were in Detroit I had to get her a mug from there (Hubby already had gotten me one some time ago) and when I went in the store, they had three Tampa mugs. So I picked me up two, because I don't have Tampa either. Woo hoo!


2. I'm packing boxes upon boxes upon boxes. This is what our living room looks like right now:

3. This is what the boys' room looks like at the doorway right now. You can't even see the boxes in front of the window because the door is blocking everything.


4. Earlier this year we had the Awana Grand Prix races. When Hubby went up to the church on the Saturday when the commander had all his power tools available for use, he asked me, "Do you want a car?" I said casually, "No, not unless it's a flower." He came home with the kids' cars plus this, in it's unpainted form:

Here's what it looked like racing down the track:


Hubby painted it with the fuschia and orange because I love those two colors together. I won a second place trophy for design, but it wasn't a super speedy car. It didn't do horrible, but my girls' punchbuggies were too fast for me to keep up. I'll post those pictures another time. They are about half as long as my flower and cute as a bug, pun intended. We competed in the category for older clubbers and leaders.

5. Our two girls had three best friends in Illinois, two were sisters and moved to Texas right before we moved to Virginia, and one is still in Illinois (not a military family). When her parents asked her what she wanted to do for vacation this year, she said, "Go see the girls." So they are here right now. We've never had someone come just to visit us. We really feel special. She has an older sister who graduated from high school (homeschooled) and is on a trip to Italy right now, and two younger brothers that are nine and two and a half. Today the little guy was eating Cheetos when he was tired. You know what your fingers look like when you eat those, and then how a little boy rubs his hands all over his face when he's tired, and this is the outcome:

His ears were even orange! Isn't he cute!

6. We went to the Transportation Museum and had a picture taken of Hubby and me. He's scruffy now. Everyone who sees him comments on how he must be on leave, because you can't have facial hair like this in the military.

And here are the three girls. I'm actually putting two pictures, because if you look close in this first one, you'll see a naughty little Caboose putting a peace out sign in Sparky's armpit. I had told him no bunny ears, so that's what I got.

Here's a good one where they switched places and Sparky and Sassy sandwiched her between them:

7. We are having a nickname change. Now I don't plan to do this on a regular basis, or really ever again, because it could be very confusing, but it has become necessary in the youth of the blog. The boys are teasing a certain girl named Sassy, so we are going to change her blog nickname to Chatty, as in Chatty Cathy. We actually call her that in real life on a frequent basis, so it really makes more sense.

8. Menu planning is out the window for the next two weeks until I move. I'm just trying to get rid of the last few things in my freezer and cabinets, and then buy things that I will use before I move. And if you know how to add about 12 hours to every day, let me know. I could use them.

Have a blessed week!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Hubby! You're a great Dad! We were waiting to get seated for lunch at one of Hubby's favorite places to eat when I took this picture. We usually only go on Father's Day or his birthday, unless Buddy picks it for his birthday meal.

Pictured in order from left to right are Sassy, Sparky, Caboose, and Buddy. See my first post if you need explanations.

Pictured below is our cat. In the interest of not protecting his privacy I will not be giving him a nickname for the blog and will be calling him by his real name, but please don't tell him. It's Peka, short for Topeka, like in Kansas. This was his name when we adopted him from Petsmart, and at the time Caboose was only two years old and left off the first syllable. We liked it and it stuck.

So the reason for the picture on Father's Day of the cat is that Hubby is allergic to cats. Not bad, just a little. He just can't be right in the cat's face or lay his head where the cat has been. And the funny thing about that is Hubby is convinced that Peka is trying to kill him. And not just recently, but for the past five years! Peka likes to sleep on his side of the bed during the day, but not at the end, nice and snug up by his pillows. But really, Peka just loves him. He would have said Happy Father's Day too if he could have, so instead he curled up with Hubby and Caboose the other night on the bed and watched Monster Jam. He's a man's man, or man's cat, or you know, whatever.

That's Caboose's caboose.

Happy Father's Day from us all!

Ready, Set, Go!

It's somewhat daunting finally typing my first blog post. I've thought about it, dwelled on it, mulled it over, and I'm still not sure what it should be about.

So I guess I'll do a quick introduction of my family. In the interest of privacy I will not be calling them by their given names, including my husband of 23 years (well, in a little less than two weeks), hereafter referred to as "Hubby." He is in the Army, but within months will be retired and moving on to something new, which means our family will be moving again, very possibly out of state and halfway across the country. We currently live on the Virginia peninsula and expect this move to be a permanent one. Here's hoping!

We have twin 14 year old fraternal daughters who also happen to have completely different personalities. They are true miracles as they were born at 27 weeks following a ten-week complete bed rest stint on my part. The oldest, by seven minutes, will be referred to as "Sassy" and the youngest will be referred to as "Sparky." I don't really think Sassy needs much introduction or explanation. Sparky is short for Spark Plug - think 4 feet 10 and 1/2 inches of pure softball grit, playing catcher no less, and you can kind of envision that one.

Our next child is an 11 year old boy, who also happens to love baseball and plays catcher a lot too. Ever since he was little we have called him Buddy or Little Buddy, so he will be "Buddy" for blogging purposes.

Our youngest child is an eight year old boy who has so many nicknames I can't even remember them all. I came up with a brand new one today with the help of the kids, and since he is the youngest and final member of the family, he will be "Caboose" for the blog.

I homeschool and have ever since the girls started kindergarten, so we are just finishing up our ninth year since the girls are completing 8th grade. I've enjoyed watching them learn to read, do math, and just seeing their faces light up when things "click." We plan to homeschool through high school, so next year will bring new challenges for us in our planning.

Although I haven't alerted any family or friends yet about my blog, I hope I can use it to keep them updated about our family, especially since we live many states away. I look forward to making some new blog friends, and if you happen to find me, please leave a comment to let me know!