Whew! That's over... for now.

The past three weeks have been a blur. I've completed my annual 2-week training for the national guard, along with my weekend drill and a 4-day Commanders' Conference in Taos. Beginning today, I'm back to my regularly scheduled life. Jared worked his normal schedule during that time too, but he also worked plenty of overtime. Thank goodness for Jessica, she watched the boys that whole time, and even stayed here for a few days while I was in Taos and Jared was in Albuquerque for his Coaching conference.

My first couple of days I spent a the armory. I changed everything around up there. My training NCO was on leave, I'd kinda like to be a fly on the wall when he gets back and sees that I've moved absolutely everything!

Then came 10 more days, spent at the National High School Finals Rodeo. We helped the Sherriff's department with security. It was pretty neat though because it wasn't just them. Here's the list: Besides the Sherriffs and the National Guard, there were Farmington Police, Aztec Police, Bloomfield Police, San Juan County Fire Volunteers, Farmington Fire Department, EMS, and Homeland Security. Nothing too major happened out there, just the kids playing pranks. They drove a golf cart into the river, spraypainted a horse pink, got in waterfights, and other general mischief. There were also a couple of injuries and a couple of heat injuries.

Finally, I spent 4 days in Taos. The rooms they set us up with were amazing... king size bed, fireplace, 2 bathrooms, balcony, living suite. The lectures were generally boring though.

Jessica did great with the boys... took them swimming, to the library, to the childrens museum, all kinds of cool things.

I'm glad to be back home and back to my normal routine. I think the kids are pretty glad about it too. No more National Guard stuff til the 8th.

Ride the Bull

The rodeo is in town, and we took the boys to see it. Last year at this time, we did the same thing. At the trade show last year, we tried to buy David a pair of cowboy boots. He would NOT try them on. He ran and screamed like we were trying to break his feet off. I told him that we didn't have to buy the boots if he didn't want them, but I just wanted to try them on to see what he looks like in them. Still, he ran and caused a scene. Once I calmed him down enough to talk to him through his tears, I found out that he thought that if he put on cowboy boots then he has to ride a bull!

This year, I got him to buy a pair of boots. He looks cute in them.

Each state competing brings a rodeo queen contestant. These are high school girls in sequined rodeo gear. They wear a little tiara fitted to their cowboy hat. They also carry around pictures of themselves in the same kind of getup, kinda like a senior picture, but they're all 8x10. David got a kick out of finding all of these queens and asking them for their pictures. They all signed the picture with a little note to David and David told each of them that she was the prettiest one. He's such a little Romeo.

Quotes by David... Chapter Four

I've been working security at the National High School Finals Rodeo lately. It's 105 degrees and I'm working 12 hours a day outside in my army uniform. Needless to say, I don't always smell like roses by time I get home. One day, I was taking off my socks with David sitting by my feet. He says:
"PeeYou Mom, you need another shower!"
I thought it was hilarious that he would say that. He interrupted my laughter with:
"No. Seriously Mom. You do."

Bike-cop

Jared finished his Bike-cop training on Friday. It wasn't pretty, but he passed. They gave him this cheesy little silver bicycle pin he can wear on his uniform. He's not wearing it, and I don't blame him. They rode courses 12-20 miles long, and he took a pretty good spill on Wednesday. He ended up with the kind of bruises that take a while to appear, but not almost his entire upper left leg is an ugly blackish-purple color. He's been showing it off like a badge of honor, which I guess it is.

Ol' Nan has been in the hospital for a bowel obstruction, but it looks like it's going to respond to medication and she'll be just fine.

Quotes by David... Chapter Three

I was cooking in the kitchen, David was playing with his Thomas Trains, and Braden was in his playpen. Braden began to get a little fussy, so David ran over and gave him a toy car. Braden played quietly with the car for several minutes, then became fussy again. David ran over and put the pacifier in Braden's mouth. Braden was quiet for several minutes and then began fussing again.
David put his hand on his hip, sighed, and said, "Braden, I just don't have time to take care of you right now!"

Story time

I took the boys to story time at the library yesterday. It's nice for David because he gets to sit in the middle of the room with other kids while us parents sit around the edges. The library staff did a really good job. They used different library staff for each of the different voices in the books, almost acting it out. They even had some kind of camera on the book that was broadcasting to a projector screen so all the kids could see the pictures in the book while the staff was reading. They read 3 books, sang some songs, and gave all the kids kazoos to play a little kazoo band song. The kids got to take the kazoos home with them when they were done. (Thanks a lot for the constant buzzing sound in my head now!) I may have been in luck though, because David couldn't figure out how to make it buzz... but of course I had to show him. I know I know... smart move huh? Anyhow, he's a one-kid-kazoo-band now and can play quite a few different songs. He's actually pretty good... well as good as you can be talking about a kazoo!

Family Pictures

Our family pictures (Jared's side anyhow) are now available. I just wanted to share a few.