Lent

Lent is coming up and it has me thinking. Although I know what Lent is, I really didn't know all the "rules". Growing up, we did not eat meat on Fridays during Lent but that's all I remember about it. We stopped going to church when I was in the 6th grade. Now that I'm an adult and going to church regularly, I really want to try to observe Lent as I should. Last year I learned a few things and I abstained from meat on Fridays but I didn't fast. I really didn't know what that meant last year. The minimum the Catholic Church expects is fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and abstinence on the Fridays of Lent. Ash Wednesday is next week so I really have to mentally prepare for this.

I know most people try to give up something for Lent. This sounds horrible, but I'm really having a hard time coming up with something. I feel it needs to be something difficult. I've thought about computer time but I use the computer for other things besides entertainment...like paying bills, etc. I would like to give up washing dishes, does that count? LOL. Seriously though, at the top of my list is t.v. but I'm really having a hard time giving that up. I guess it's supposed to be hard or I wouldn't really be making a sacrifice. Decisions, decisions, at least I have one more week to figure it out.

Some people make additions during Lent and I really like this idea. Being Catholic, I would say that I'm a bit Bible challenged. We always had a Bible in the house but it was never a habit to read from it each night. I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I haven't gotten much better. Being part of the MOMS sharing group at church has helped a little. If the book we are currently reading references a particular passage, I will go and look it up. I also listen to Spirit FM in the morning and they have a scripture reading each day. Anyway, for Lent I'm going to make the addition of reading scripture every day/or night. I've already signed up for an online course called "The Story In The Bible" There was a little blurb in our church bulletin about it and since it is Free for all St. Stephen's parishioners, I had nothing to loose.

Changing the subject now, we took the top bunk off the bunk beds this morning to prevent Joshua from climbing up there. Shawn was a little distraught about the whole thing. He doesn't do well with change. I bought him the biggest night light I could find and he seemed pretty happy about that. Tonight is the first night in about a year that he's sleeping with the light off. This should help save on our electricity bill, lol. With both beds on the floor, there is not much room left. We need a serious storage overhaul. The only space left is against the wall by the foot of Shawn's bed. Right now there is a small computer cart but we are going to have to replace it because we really need the space right there. Here's my idea of what to replace it with: this shelving unit from the Container Store That way we can use the vertical space for extra toy storage and still have a place for the computer and we can also utilize the space underneath. I'm not sure how long it will be before we move Joshua into the room with Shawn but that is my goal. I really like the idea of having their toys separated into different bins that they can't reach, lol. That way, they have to clean up all the toys before I'll bring down another bin. Don is trying to find a cheaper way to do with the same results so we'll see if we actually end up with that unit or not.

Something in the air

There must have been something in the air at the clothing swap because now Joshua and I are both sick. Joshua has been a miserable little boy with congestion and cutting teeth at the same time.

Yesterday at church was absolutely horrible! Joshua is so loud. He was constantly saying Mommy really loud. It was one thing that he was loud but if I try to get him to do something he doesn't want to he throws a temper tantrum...more loudness. Shawn wasn't quite as bad but he wasn't the perfect little angel either. He was arguing with me about a book I told him to put down. Oh the joys of training kids to behave in church (NOT!!!). I know that consistency is the key and Joshua will get it eventually. Lord help me in the mean time. Oh, and whoever is my Secret Sister, please pray for me on Saturday night that the kids will behave in church for me on Sunday, lol.

I've Been Tagged!

10 Things I've done that others likely have not:

1. Installed a Storm Scope on Harrison Fords Cessna.
2. Landed on an Aircraft Carrier.
3. Taken a Cat Shot off of an aircraft carrier.
4. Escorted through the Tel Aviv airport by gunpoint.
5. Driven up Mount Etna.
6. Flew in a helicopter around St. Lucia.
7. Was in Cuba for 5 months (Navy Base).
8. Been to the Hard Rock Cafe in Tel Aviv.
9. Stopped on a road in Sicily to wait for a herd of goats to pass.
10. Stepped into the Dead Sea.

Curacao

When I was in the Navy, we went on deployment to Curacao. Nice, huh? Here are some of the things I remembered about this deployment...

Drinking lots of alcohol. The hotel we stayed at was the same hotel that the crew from KLM airlines stayed in. KLM was the primary airline so there were always lots of crewmen there. The bartenders would cater to them and we were left standing there for quite a while to get served except for one bartender. He always served us and we became good friends with him. I asked him one particular sunny day to make me a drink. He asked me what kind of drink I wanted. I didn't know but saw a tall skinny green bottle named Pisang Adoe and asked him what kind of liquor is that. He told me it was banana liquor and I told him to make me a drink with that in it. The drink he made me was the best tasting mixed drink I have ever had in my entire life! I let all my friends taste it and they went up and asked him to make the same drink for them. He ended up calling it the Steel Jaws drink. Steel Jaws was our call sign.

The other bartender I remember was Dino. He was a bartender at some hole in the ground. I don't remember how we found this bar but it soon became a favorite. Dino was originally from Netherlands. Curacao is owned by the Dutch. He had a great way to keep us there longer then we intended. If there were three or four of us there and we need to leave, he would give a free drink to the person who already finished their drink and waiting for the rest of us to finish. Well since that person got a free drink, we now had to wait until he was finished so we would order another round. He was pretty sneaky like that. He offered me a job. I told him that I had always wanted to be a bartender and he said when I get out of the Navy, to come here and he would give me a job, lol. Sorry, but I'm not that much of a risk taker. The night before we were leaving to go back to Puerto Rico, we went to Dino's bar. This was a very bad idea, lol. Every one drank way too much and me and another guy got left behind. Instead of calling for a cab, Dino said he would drive us back to the hotel after he cleaned up. I feared for my life driving home with Dino. I was in the front seat with him and was very surprised we made it to the hotel alive. He put on some Techno music and started driving really fast on the wrong side of the road. When a car came in the opposite direction, he would just move over like it wasn't a big deal, lol. When we got back to the hotel, I found my roommate sleeping on a bench in the hallway. When I tried to wake her up (she had been drinking also) she said to just leave her there. She didn't have her key and couldn't get inside the room. Me and the guy that was still at the bar with me had to carry her inside. We all fell asleep and I don't know what time it was but I know it was after 3am. We did not wake up when the alarm went off in the morning. We woke up when someone knocked on our door. I shot up like a rocket...it was 7:30am and we had to be downstairs with all our bags at 8am. Neither of us had even packed yet. I never packed so fast in my entire life. I did not get a shower but I did brush my teeth. I don't think it did much good though I could smell the alcohol oozing from my body, lol. Ahh, those were the days, lol.

Ok, enough drinking stories. Curacao was beautiful and I really enjoyed being there. Snorkeling was great and it was the first time I came face to face with a barracuda. I was having problems with my mask leaking and I was trying to fix it. My friends swam ahead and I saw them up ahead above the water and not moving. Once I got closer, this fish with lots of teeth appeared right in front of my face, I came up and asked what kind of fish it was and when my friend said a barracuda, I swam away and turned around and the barracuda was right there in front of my face again. I was freaking out. I didn't know much about barracudas but in my mind, they were in the same category as sharks. Finally, my friend charged him and when he did, I just swam to the shore and didn't look back until I got there. We were really far away from the beach too. I was so tired when I finally got there.

Ok, one more alcohol related story...the island is named Curacao, Hello! We went on a tour where we got to taste several different flavors of Curacao. I bet you didn't know there were other kinds besides the Blue, did you? Well, I fell in love with the Chocolate Curacao and bought two bottles to take home with me. I had a lot of good Hot Chocolate that winter, lol.

One thing about Curacao is the size of this island is very small. You could drive around the entire island in about an hour. One day we rented a jeep and went all over the island. This was the same day I met the barracuda. We also visited some caves/caverns. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I don't have any pictures because they wouldn't let you use a flash and if you didn't use a flash, the picture wouldn't turn out. This is before digital cameras by the way.

I have so many more memories of this deployment but I'm tired of writing so I'll save it for another day. Oh, and if your wondering why the navy would be on deployment to Curacao...my squadron was involved with drug ops. Curacao is off the coast of Venezuela and the airplanes that I worked on were Radar planes. They would fly high altitudes and track drug boats or other unmarked planes and give the coordinates to the chaser boat or plane.

The Terrible Two's

I'm treading on new water here. Shawn rarely threw a temper tantrum and when he did, I just ignored it and after he saw that it didn't have any affect, he would stop. Joshua has turned into a different little boy this past week and I'm not liking it one bit! He is cutting teeth right now. He only has 8 teeth right now and I've been feeling around and I can feel all 4 molars coming through. We've been having a problem with hitting, throwing toys, and falling over screaming and thrashing arms and legs about, lol. The other day I run into Shawn's room after I heard him screaming to find Shawn holding the top of his head and crying and Joshua standing next to him with a wooden train track. Can you guess what happened?

I think it's only natural to compare your kids when you have more than one. Now that I have a half way normal kid, I am really concerned about Shawn. Shawn has never been tested for Autism and it's not that I want him to have it but in the back of my mind I've always wondered about it. There is such a huge spectrum for Autism so it's hard to look at him and say "oh yeah, he's definitely autistic". One of Shawn's friends from his EELP class has been diagnosed as a highly functioning autistic. I would have never known he was autistic if his mom hadn't told me. Mikey socializes ok and that's what comes to mind when you think of Autism but there are many signs, including speech delay. When I think back when Shawn was a baby, I can pick out several signs of autism. When he was crawling around but not yet walking, I would try to play with him but he really didn't want anything to do with it. If I sat down next to him to play with him, he would crawl away and play with something else. He always seemed like he was in a world of his own...once he was focused on something, nothing else distracted him. Of course the whole speech delay is definitely a sign but another sign is sensitivities. Shawn has always had trouble eating and not just because he was picky but he has a very strong gag reflux. I had a very difficult time transitioning him from Stage 2 baby food to Stage 3 and other solid foods. It was like he didn't know how to chew or he didn't want to. He was about 15 months old before he stopped eating baby food. I had to cut up his food really small and give him things that would slide down easily if he didn't chew his food. He still has a problem with chewing. I strongly believe he must have some sort of sensitivity in his mouth. I don't know if it has to do with taste or texture but I watch him chew certain things, for an example: every once in a while I try to get Shawn to taste a fruit or something, this particular time it was an apple. It looked like he wasn't chomping down all the way and just gnawing it like he didn't have any teeth. Another sign is having to stick to a certain routine. The first thing I think of is Rain Man but Shawn does have a routine that he needs/wants to stick to. His morning routine has to be the same or he gets upset and it's the same thing for the evening routine. If you try to have him do something out of order, he won't have it and gets upset. Of course it's no where near as severe as the movie Rain Man but he still has his routines. Part of me feels guilty for thinking there is something wrong with him. He makes friends easily and so far he's doing well in school but if there is a problem, I just want to get him the help he needs before it starts to affect his school work. I'm a little disappointed in his speech progress this year. He still sounds like a 3 yr. old talking. He still says " I hungry" instead of "I'm hungry". He still gets him, his, she, and her mixed up. I just don't think his vocabulary has improved much even though we read every night and he's practically reading himself now. He just looks like he really has to think of what to say instead of just saying it. I need to make an appointment for his 6 yr. well check and I'm definitely going to talk to his doctor about it and see what he says.

Caught in the act

Joshua loves to slide the chairs around to get to what he wants. We have to keep anything we don't want him to have (like phones) either in the kitchen or our bedroom. Today I caught him playing with the thermostat so I decided to take a picture. After he saw the flash, he turned around and posed for me.

The Great Space Coaster

Reminiscing about The Great Space Coaster:







This one's for you Scarlett: