Happy Birthday to YOU....

On Tuesday, April 20th, our little man turned a whopping 8 years old!

Sarah goes to a daycare nearby on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Gabe thought I was coming to meet him for lunch at school, since I would have free time, but I decided that I would surprise him and check him out of school early so that he and I could spend time together (just the two of us). I took him to a movie (his choice, of course) and we did a little shopping...

Here he is, on the phone with his Daddy while he opens presents.

It seems like just yesterday, I was popping a couple of Tums every 20 minutes because of the awful heartburn that I had while I was pregnant for him.

Ahhh, where does the time go?

Notes and Bullets...and exclamation points.

There's lots going on in our household these days...

• Sarah has perfected the art of opening doors/turning door handles...Oh My!
• I hate the month of March here in Texas; too windy and my allergies are killing me. Darn you, cedar pollen!!! (I was so sick this past weekend. I thought I was going to get bronchitis, but I put up a fight and won!).
  
• We have about 6 weeks left to go and I hope we sell the house SOON!
• Keeping the house in "model condition" all the time is soooo not fun, but the feedback from realtors/prospective buyers is great....I just wish that someone would make an offer so that I can cut back on all the cleaning and straightening.
  
• The kids and I went to the lake yesterday after school. Spring, I think, is officially here. The weather is nice and each of us needed to get some sun on our pasty white skin. I broke out the shorts and flip-flops; soaking up the Vitamin D felt nice...real nice.
• Phillip has started another phase of his MTP Course. He's in class all day (instead of almost half a day) and is taking in lots of information.....his brain is fried by the time I talk to him in the evenings.
• Gabe gets his report card this afternoon....drum roll, please.
  
• Little Miss Sarah LOVES shoes and was in paradise yesterday when she saw that I got her a few new pairs (hey, I was at Target and couldn't help myself...she's "set" for the summer, I think).
• We miss Phillip and can't wait to have him home. Life is always more complete when he's around.
  
• Gabe continues to amaze and inspire me on a daily basis. He's almost 8 years old, and is really good company. He's maturing rapidly these days (Where is my "little" boy?). And I had to go shopping yesterday because he's hit a major growth spurt since Christmas! I look at him and see my brother's body (as I remember him as an adolescent, and since I didn't know Phillip as a young boy), sturdy, a bit stocky, and strong.
  
• I realize that, since we have about 6 weeks left in this area, I need to get my booty in gear; I need to make lists of things that need to be done before the move, during the move, and after the move. Since we haven't re-located in over 5 years, I'm kinda nervous. There's lots to be done!
• We're going back to Lafayette this weekend to celebrate Easter. It will be the last time for a long while that we are in that area. I'm sad about that.
  

When it comes to taking pictures...

...I'm like a Japanese tourist. I love taking pictures.

And I mean no offense whatsoever to tourists of any race, ethnicity, etc. (I think the ones from Japan are kinda cute).

Here's Gabe making the "sour lemon" face at Gulf World Marine in Panama City Beach.

Here's a picture of the kids having fun in an RV that we were checking out, but interested in because it's not a "pull behind".

And here's a picture of the inside one that I really liked (but it didn't have separate bunks for the kids to sleep in).

And here's a picture of Sarah, being the perfect little __________.

More pics from Sandestin (March 14, 2010)

Here are some more pictures from March 14, 2010 taken at Baytowne Wharf.

I have many pictures taken, over a long period of time, like the one above. I think that one day, I'll publish a coffee table book called "Walking". I'll sell it for $49.95 a book and...

Pictures from our trip to Sandestin, Florida (March 14, 2010)

We enjoyed our day at the beach, though the wind was quite chilly.

We've determined that if we ever get stationed at Fort Rucker again, we'll be spending lots more time at Sandestin, than in Panama City Beach (which, in our opinion, is a bit rundown), and it's really not that much further of a drive.

Just in time for Easter...

Gabe lost another tooth while visiting Dad. Just in time for Easter; he can now join the other bunnies as they hop down the bunny trail.

(He was quite excited that Alabama Tooth Fairies give $5 bills and shouted with glee "I need to lose more teeth out here!")

How did YOU sleep last night?

Like this?

Sarah was so exhausted after a long day of exploring while we were at Fort Rucker.

I wish I could sleep like this. Completely OUT with not a worry in the world.

A Trip Back in Time...Life Changes.

The kids and I are here at Fort Rucker, Alabama right now and have been here since Saturday night. I must admit, though it's great to be able to spend time with Phillip for our Spring Break, it's really weird being here.

The last time we were here, it was back in 2001; right after September 11th. We'd only been married for two years, and had found out that we were expecting a baby the Friday before the day that changed America. We were young, and like all new marriages, we were struggling to keep our heads above water. We didn't know quite what to expect in this new military way of life, and we were a bit scared. At least, I was. But we had faith, and we were following a dream. And everything always works out in the end.

It's been AWESOME so far, and besides deployments, I wouldn't change a thing. But I don't deal easily with change, and the time that we spent here was all about that. So much was packed into the two years that we spent at Fort Rucker.

It seems like forever ago that we lived here. We are on a much different level in our lives now. And so much has happened since we left this area; both with US and the area in general.

So far this week, I've recognized some of the old and taken in some of the new. We've explored Sandestin, Florida and joke that we've found the place that we'll spend the rest of our lives (Baytowne Wharf). On Monday, we found ourselves in nearby Dothan, looking through travel trailer after travel trailer, dreaming of buying one to take with us on the trip up to Alaska. Yesterday, we went up to Montgomery to tour the Rosa Parks museum and had a fantastic Italian meal at a place called Saza (the entire day was planned by Gabe, we paid for it). Phillip just got off of school for the day, and so I'm not quite sure what today will hold for us, but I'm sure we'll have fun doing it.

We've come a long way from what we were to what we are now. We have so much more experience under our belts when it comes to living as an Active Duty family. For example, I'm not longer afraid of deployments; I just dread them, because I now know what to expect. I feel like an Old Timer being here; I see the young couples just starting out, and the young flight students and I think "WOW, that was us not very long ago!".

And, Ha Ha, we now have the monetary means to go and explore much of what we didn't back then.

See ya later....

Janet

Road Trip

I'm in the process of cleaning the house right now, because I have to have it in perfect condition for if and when the house "shows" while we're gone.

The kids and I will be going to Fort Rucker, Alabama for Spring Break (which is next week), and although we are really excited about getting the chance to spend time with Phillip, I am not excited about packing for the trip.

I'll post when we get home, or maybe while we are there...

See ya then!

Janet

See ya later, Alligator!

We'll be saying "See ya later, Alligator!" to Texas in 66 days or less, and we'll be cruising the roads up to Fairbanks in Phillip's "new" truck. On March 1st, he bought this baby: a 2008 Ford F-150 Lariat 4x4. It was a Sa-Weet deal that he couldn't pass up, and we got 3x's more for the Taurus than we thought we would, so....we jumped on it.

He wasn't sure what he wanted, and so he's been spending the past few weekends test driving different vehicles. We've planned on this for a while, and we knew that we'd end getting something before we left for Alaska.

Congratulations, Baby! (I still think you should let me put our names on the back glass like Bud and Sissy did on Urban Cowboy...Yeeeeeehawwww!)



In other Lopez news:

• Gabe lost another tooth this past week.
• Phillip flew in from Ft. Rucker to spend this past weekend with us.
• We're still waiting for someone to buy our house!

Bullets and news...

Hello there!

Oooookay. Here we go.

I got a little put off on the whole blogging thing when I came to certain realizations; one being that it was too easy for some to come by and see what was up with us, and then they never bothered to use the phone for that human to human contact, and then there were the ones that complained that they didn't know much about us, but again were too busy to take a few seconds of their day to check the blog or...call. And there were other reasons, but....you're damned if ya do, you're damned if ya don't.

I realize that my attitude toward blogging lately is only hurting me, since as I've mentioned before, I use this as a journal for our family. I took a trip down memory lane yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and videos, etc. Our family is constantly changing and growing, and what better way to document it than this blog? I should have been keeping up with things; there is so much missing from the past months.

And by the Grace of God, lots of great things have been happening to us lately. I need to get busy on this little project! I also mean to document our travels up to Alaska when the time comes, and so again, what better way to do it?

So in the next few posts, I plan to take things back a bit.

For now, here's a little of what's going on in our lives:

• Did your hear that the Saints won the SUPERBOWL?!
• Phillip is at the Maintenance Test Pilot's course right now until the end of April. I'm so very happy for him that he is doing something that he really enjoys. He's a great husband and father, and By Golly, he deserves this!
  
• Though we miss him (his leaving a few weeks ago hit us really hard, but we survived and are pulling through), we are able to meet him halfway in Lafayette when we get the chance...
• we saw him last weekend for Mardi Gras (it was our first Mardi Gras since we left Louisiana in 2001 and it was so fun to see Gabe experience his first; Sarah stayed home with Pa-Paw and Ya-Ya while we enjoyed the festivities...she's not ready yet).
• We'll travel to Fort Rucker, Alabama on our Spring Break to spend the week with Phillip. I can't wait to see how things have changed, visit with some friends, and show Gabe the very first home that he lived in.
  
• We plan to be out of Texas by May 14, so that means that Gabe will be checking out of school a few weeks early with the approval of his Principal and the school board. Whether he leaves 2nd grade with promotional status to the 3rd grade is up to him...
• but I really don't think we need to worry, because he has been an A/B Honor Roll kid all year...
  
• it's his chattiness, among other things, that get him into trouble conduct-wise.
• Oh, and we plan to be out of Texas by mid-May because we plan to drive up to Fairbanks. There are a couple of different ways to get up there, at least, and we are trying to decide now on just how we'll do it....take the ferry or not take the ferry.
  
• Sarah's 2nd birthday was on February 2nd. (I just realized that it's her lucky year!)....
• she has this thing about shoes, and will change her shoes at least 3-4 times an hour. So if you're looking for gift ideas, shoes it is!
• Her vocabulary is expanding by a couple of words a day. She amazes me with her ability to communicate, if she doesn't know the words. She amazes me, period.
  
• The house went up for sale a few weeks ago. We've had some really great showings and are anxiously anticipating an offer. I love my little home, and I sure do hope that the next person who moves into it will respect it and love it like we have.

That's it for now, Ya'll. I'll get back to postin' and bloggin' soon.

In the meantime, Have a great day!

There is...

...a very faint pulse on here.

Thanks to some friends of ours that have their own blog and have just arrived at Fort Wainwright (I just checked out the AWESOME pictures and blog entries about their trip to Fairbanks), I decided to stop in for a visit on here.

Hmmmmm.....will I post again soon? Don't know.

Because we've been so darn busy with getting the house listed for sale. We listed last week. Photos still need to be taken for the MLS website, but we've held that off to buy time...to clean, and organize, etc. etc. etc. We start "showing" soon. And preparing for all this has been a royal pain in the arse! But the profit that we make from the actual sale should be nice. Real nice, in my opinion.

Phillip leaves this weekend for the MTP course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, but not before he signs himself out of 4 ID. If you listen really close, you just might hear the cannons of joy when that happens...

Later Ya'll!