Pink Cowboy Boots

Busted Nose, Fire Trucks, and Broken Hearts

So, it's been awhile since I have blogged. Busy doesn't even come close to whats been going on. The same time my hubby had his surgery and was supposed to be recuperating I ended up with a bad case of bronchitis (my own fault). Had a fever of 102.9 3 days running. I was miserable. The kids were bored and miserable. They were so bored that at some point in time they asked my girlfriend if they could live at her house until Mom and Dad got better! Out of the mouths of babes!

So after the recuperating process was over, I took the kids to the swimming pool. They had been begging for a week straight. In just one week from being away from the pool, Carly learned to float on her back, do a handstand in the water and flip underwater. All on her own! So then she wanted to show me how she could jump in the deep end. Arms out in the air I was ready to catch her and my son called my name. In the brief second I turned my head then turned it back Carly had jumped and smashed her mouth right into my nose. Worried about her, picked her up and ran to the aid station at the pool. Blood was running everywhere. She had already stopped crying when they began to check her out and found she had bit her lip. Luckily it was not bad. The lifeguard turned to look at me then noticed I was bleeding from the nose. She had not only smashed it with her little head, but bit it in the process. It took a week to heal, but we now have our own little memory of "accident" at the pool.

A week ago, I had just finished cooking barbecue chicken sandwiches for the family. I had some hamburger I needed to cook up before it went bad. I threw it in the skillet and threw on some taco seasoning for bell burgers the next day. I go outside to check on the girls while they are washing a neighbors van. I get crazy Mommy stalkerish and grab my camera from inside to take beaucoup pics. I am just having a blast watching them get wet, play in the bubbles, and pride themselves on a job well done. I go back to the house and sit on the porch looking at the pics on my camera. I hear smoke alarms. It sounds like it is coming from my neighbors house. I get up to check when all of a sudden Corbin comes crashing out the front door with black smoke rolling out behind him and he is coughing and choking. I call 911 and 3 fire trucks, an ambulance and 2 police cars show up. The house didn't burn down, Corbin was placed on oxygen for awhile and now no one in the neighborhood wants to come over for dinner anymore. Thank God for miracles. My brave son was upstairs playing Halo 2 when the alarms were going off. He came downstairs and instead of going straight out, he found the cause, turned off the burner, and ran. I am so thankful he is okay.

The Pink Cowboy Boots.
Carly spotted a pair of pink cowboy boots in Walmart. She tried them on just to dance around in them for a few. She fell in love. I couldn't afford them. She called Papa after asking us for them for 12 hours straight. Papa went to Walmart in Ohio. No pink cowboy boots. Decided to go ahead and break the budget to get them (after all...she must be spoiled:) The boots are gone. She is broken hearted. Now she has spotted a Pink Barbie Jeep......we are in trouble.

Curious Carly catching a fish

Carly is curious about her fish. She wants to catch it in her net. But not for obvious reasons. Our neighbor known to Carly as "Mr. Jeff" told our sweet little girl that when fish die you don't bury them in the ground. You flush them down the toilet instead. So this picture is after "Mr. Jeff" told her that you flush them down the toilet. She said she doesn't like her fish anymore and that she wants to flush it down the toilet. She is ready for action and thank God Mom and Dad were able to talk her out of it.

Talkative Tony

Caught in the middle of a typical conversation about something technical, or something having to do with electronics. I am so bored I had to take a picture to distract him to see if he would lose his train of thought. Not so... he just kept on talking. But of course, I still love him. These are the things you get to laugh about after being married for almost 10 years.

Mr. Finch

Our little friend that comes to visit us each morning. There actually two of them that come together, but I only caught a photo of one.

Latest News from Fayetteville, NC

It has definitely been a crazy few weeks around here. As if you all haven't already heard on the news, we have seen at least 3 murders in less than a month. All women, mothers, and wives. It is so sad to see these strong, young women, two of which were serving there country proudly, become victims to unnecessary horrid murders. It has kept us all praying continuously for their families and being especially watchful over ours.

In other new, Tony has been on convalescent leave for his second week now. He had to have surgery in a very painful area due to the extreme effort he put into the "boys" camping trip. He really out did himself, and for that I am proud of him. It's just too bad he had to be bit by a spider and suffer from unmentionable pain. Now of course while I should be taking care of him still, I come down with a crappy case of bronchitis. I've had a fever now for 3 days that shoots to 102.8, then I sleep for the rest of the day with the chills. So the poor kids have been extremely bored. Thank God for good neighbors and a local swimming pool. Without them, I am sure the kids would have gone bonkers by now.

Now to address two awesome people who were a big part of my childhood. Aunt Rinda and Mary Kay. Thanks for the comments on my page. Mary Kay you have every reason to be proud of Tom and Jim. I can't believe how much Tom changed already since retiring from the Army. It's really good to see family get together like that again. It's been a long hard road with Corbin and each and every day there seems to be a new trial, but he is so worth it. I have no doubt he will be a spectacular, accomplished individual when he reaches adulthood.
Aunt Rinda: I have my same yahoo address. sweetymommyof4@yahoo.com Could you please send me yours again? I don't recall getting anything from you there. Congratulations on Linda's marriage. She looked so beautiful and happy in the pictures. You look really great yourself. I really like your new hairstyle. I am glad that this site will help all keep in touch better. I will post more pics with this post. Love all of you, and thank you so much for your comments. Take care.

Corbin's busy weekend

So Corbin offered his help this weekend to a nearby family whose Grandfather is moving. He was responsible, and set his alarm for o'dark thirty in the morning. He was there on time, and worked his bottom off. Needless to say I am very proud of him. He is making some really big strides this summer. He has a great math tutor who is working wonders with him. I couldn't have done it because 1. I suck at math and 2. I'm his mom and as you all very well know...we tend to set each other off quite frequently.

So he was working hard, physically and mentally this weekend. Then he went swimming for three hours and skated on his board for two. I love it that he is one of the few kids left out there that can have fun without video games. Of course this didn't come easy. It took Hitler Mom to ban all games for the summer, and only two hours on a weekend to play if he does well in his tutoring. It makes it all the more worth while. Great job Corbin!

A Glimpse of the Past

Scattered thunderstorms were predicted last night. That was an understatement. The winds tore through Harnett County. Trees in our back yard were doing back bends, and our new tree out front looked as if it were only moments away from being uprooted. My beautiful potted plants went blowing off my front porch, and I chased them regardless of the pouring rain and threatening lightening. My girls were over at their friend's house three houses down so I ran over there to make sure they were o.k. and not terrified out of their minds. I get back to the house and no sooner did I walk in the door, the power went out in the whole neighborhood. It was pitch black. It took about ten minutes to get used to, but then I reminded myself that people lived like this for many years before electricity. So we went back in time and decided to make the most of it. We lit candles everywhere. There were at least 3 candles in every room in the house. My house never smelled so lovely. With Apple Pie, Vanilla Icing, Melon Pear, and many other different fragrances, the house smelled like a bakery. So we each took out our book and found a comfy place by the candlelight and read. We opened the windows and could hear nothing but the frogs, crickets, and rain outside. It was awesome. We goofed around for a while talking and watching the bright display of lightening. It was time for bed and we laid our heads on our pillows with no background noise of air condition, television, music, or a noisy dishwasher. Just the awesome sound of Mother Nature lulling us to sleep.

So summer has been pretty nice so far. We sleep in until around 8 am and go through the morning routine of chores, showers and breakfast. Usually around lunchtime we head up to our beautiful neighborhood center the military has provided us in our new neighborhood, and I work out on the treadmill for about 45 minutes while the kids play in the playroom with their friends. We head back home for lunch, eat and play outside til around two o'clock. Then it's off too the pool again. The kids love this. Everyday we swim for about three hours and they are yet tired of it. As you can tell by their tans, they inherited the Swedish side of the gene pool.

This week however, has been completely thrown off schedule. Tony had surgery (yes again) last week and will take three whole weeks to recover. Carly has a really yucky sinus infection and can't stand the taste of her medicine, so it's a major battle when it comes time to give it to her. The only ones having loads of fun are Sam and Kate. They set up a lemonade stand yesterday and at 25 cents per cup made a total of $12.50. Not bad for only being set up for 2 hours. They had a blast and were quite the little entrapreneurs.

Love the Blogspot idea Ryan...

So this is our first blog as the "Strid Bunch" (like the Brady Bunch). We have so enjoyed reading the blogspot of the Lauchards that we have also decided to do this to keep the family updated on life here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We all know gas prices are so high it is nearly impossible to make a trip home to Ohio to see everyone, so hopefully as Ryan and Lacey have done, this will enable us to keep up on what's going on in each others lives.
So just wanted to say we are excited to share this spot with everyone in our family and hope that you all will enjoy sharing in our adventures from a distance.