Happy Birthday, convienience foods, we've got worms and more...

Just a few things have happened in recent days...I never blogged a happy 30th birthday to my dear husband, sorry Babe! There were kiddo baseball games on his birthday so we got his favorite Little Caesar's Pizza for dinner and the kids and I whipped up a chocolate cake with M&M's on top for dessert. A few days later we got to go on a date which was nice. It seems like we have lots to talk about these days...mostly about what's going to happen in the next year. So much to figure out! So over all I think it was a good birthday for my guy, but I guess it wasn't a very grandeous as far as 30th birthday celebrations go.
My new mantra for the grocery store is "convienience foods." It is all about what I can make fast, or what can be in the crock pot all day long. I have gotten good at browning ground beef as soon as I get home from the grocery store so that it will be ready to go on the night I need it. It makes Hamburger Helper EVEN FASTER when you have the meat already browned. And tacos are a cinch if the meat is cooked and taco season already added. Just heat and eat. Yes...heat and eat is a good way to describe our eating habits as of late.
So last Monday (Labor Day) Bob was downloading something from the net and we got a virus message (a worm to be exact). YIKES. We were both frantic at first...worried that we would lose everything on our hard drive, including our pictures! We just found out that my parents lost everything when their computer just died and we were telling ourselves that we should back up our pictures....but we didn't. Thankfully Bob knew enough to disconnect the internet right away and was able to get our files, including our pictures, off the computer and saved on the laptop. WHEW! After that he had to wipe everything off the computer and restore the computer. He ended up doing that a few times and there were some bumps along the way, internet not working and such. So anyway, that's why I haven't been blogging and emailing and such this past week...it's been on the fritz. That is also why this post has no pictures, I'm still not on our home computer.
So after all that maybe you need something to bring the smile back to your face. :)
The kids have been cracking us up lately just saying totally funny stuff...
Since college football has started again, Bob has been teaching the kids his favorite saying concerning Ohio State: "Oh how I hate Ohio State." So Josiah keeps talking about Ohio State but he calls it "Ohio Steak" instead, which makes us all laugh. As Bob says, "Stick a fork in them!"
Abigail really had me cracking up when we were talking about the Tigers playing the Minnesota Twins. Abigail said, "What is Minnesota?" and I said, "It's a state." And she said, "Oh, I thought it was a kind of pop..." And I thought that was so clever. Do you get it? Minne - soda. That is so hilarious!!!
Okay there was another funny thing that one of the kids said but now I can't think of it. Ah well, if I remember I'll get back to you. :)
On the baseball front things are going okay. We decided to pull Abigail off the softball team. She was playing with 12 year olds and it was just too much...on top of the fact that we were just over-committed and she wasn't really enjoying it all that much so it was the obvious thing to cut. Joshua is doing great. When I'm able to get back on our home computer I'll put up some pictures of him. Chloe's schedule is relaxed with only one game a week so that hasn't been too stressful.
Oh and I just remembered that I told you about Joshua scratching his eye again. We had a follow up eye exam and found out that he does have 2 scratches on his cornea, which is the bad news. But the good news is that at this point it is not affecting his vision. The doctor also discovered subtle RPE mottling of macula OU. I'm not actually sure what this is and I've tried looking it up with not much success. Anyone out there know what this means???
And now look at the time. I have to go to bed in 15 minutes so I can get up at 5 am. CRAZY. And that's not even so I can go for a run...running has gone by the wayside since school started. But at least my crazy schedule keeps me too busy to eat too much and I'm actually maintaining a lower weight with working than I was with running. Who knew!

Deja Vu

This looks familiar....today Joshua was climbing a tree and got poked in the eye. We took him to urgent care and sure enough he scratched his eye (the same eye) again. He's got a patch on until tomorrow. We'll do medicine this week and pray that his vision will be fine. I'm wondering if I should just make him wear safety glasses all the time??? What's a mommy to do???

Welcome to my new crazy life

The last two weeks have been super wacky for us! It started with the teacher work week at Temple. The kids were not feeling well and they had to go to the school with me. They were so tired and sick that it was just not good at all. One night Abigail asked to go to bed at 6:15 pm. By the end of the week they were all starting to feel better so that was good. Tuesday the 19th was the first day of school. Everyone was feeling great and excited. The two big kids have been great. They both like their teachers and I think they are going to have a great year in their respective classes. Chloe has done very well in her K4 classroom but has been crying when she has to go to after school care. I'm hoping that she'll get more comfortable as the days go on.

As for me, the actual teaching part has been good. I had forgotten what I liked about being a classroom teacher. It's busy but it's fun. I still like it! :) I have to get used to things like putting my lesson plans and grade book on the computer but those things will get easier with time. It's been hard because I've been putting a lot of extra time in trying to get things set up. Once I feel comfortable with how things work it should be much easier.

It doesn't help that we signed the 3 big kids up for Fall Ball and they are all playing on different teams. Abigail is playing girls softball, Joshua is playing machine pitch baseball and Chloe is on her first t-ball team! The other night we had 2 practices and a game all at the same time. Fortunately for us Abigail's practice and Joshua's game were at the same place so Bob could stay with both of them and I took Chloe and Josiah to Chloe's practice. Some days we will be going straight from school to piano practice to the ball field. YIKERS! Cooking dinner just went out the window. At least the Fall Ball only lasts until mid-October. And since the days are so full of activities they should fly by.

In light of all these things you can expect much less frequent blog entries. I'm going to try for once a week....but we shall see. It's even hard to answer my phone these days. Each minute is so precious that I have to choose what will be the best use of it.


Here's the video of Chloe's first official at bat...Classic! :) Pictures of the other kiddos playing will come soon!

Oh and I couldn't leave Josiah out of the first day of school excitement so here's a shot of me and my little buddy!

That's a lot of days!

3,285 days ago this picture was taken (that's 9 years for those of you without a calculator)! That's nine years of fun, laughs, moving, changing jobs, moving some more, babies, friends, tears, hugs & kisses, being separated, being reunited, arguing and making up and so much more. We just had no idea what we was in store for us when this picture was taken. But we're so thankful for each other and for the nine years we've had together. Lord willing there will be many more filled with much more adventure! :)

A picture's worth a thousand words

The Beeks Summer Road Trip 2008...Thanks for the memories

Reunited with old college buddies Andy, Beek, Key and Jason. Still chillin'!

Scherzer!!!

Our dear friends Barb and Dan

Bob and Chuck after an evening of manly bonding

Susie Barb and baby boy Bos! :)

The kiddos loved driving Grandpa's "tractor", especially Josiah

A great day at the beach...but Grandma forgot to put on sunscreen, ouch!

We could join the circus with this act, "The high flying Beeks"

Beeks with Great Grandma B.

Kids take the field at 5/3rd Field. The activities were fun and it was a good game!

The Little Man takes in the view of the field...it's in the blood.

Fun at the playground with Cousin Faith

We managed a date night at Comerica Park and met up with Paws.

Tearing down Tiger Stadium.
Josiah wanted to skip the baseball game and stay to watch the demo.

Kiddies day at the ball park. Free rides, face painting and run the bases!
A memorable day for sure!

Beeks take the field

Family Fun

We had to chase Paws down for a family shot and Josiah was totally scared.

Aunt Dana and Uncle Mikey

Bob and Jeremy squeezed in a mini baseball road trip to Pittsburgh to catch a Pirates game.

My Sweet Friend

Father and son trip down the river

Mad Hops

Joshua and Keith building castles...Joshua can't work without his tongue hanging out.

Abigail and Eve, our little flowers

I couldn't resist taking this picture!

The Mermaid Lagoon

Celebration after completing a Mario Bros level!

Funny Pants live on

A pit stop at my sisters house was too short but fun. Grilling, wiffle ball, ice cream and pancakes and bacon for breakfast! Cousin Aaron and Joshua had to show off their muscles!

There were hundreds of pictures to choose from....I hope you enjoyed these. They give just a little glimpse of how much fun we had!

Back to the new normal

We are back from our 2008 summer road trip. We are definitely feeling the double edged sword of vacation. It's that thing that happens when you are waiting so long to see people you love dearly and then the time comes and you have so much fun and then it's over too quickly and it's kind of depressing to think that you won't see them again for a whole year. And on top of that you have to go home and unpack, catch up on laundry, get your house back in order and go back to work. We are certainly thankful for the opportunity we had to see our friends and family, but it really felt way too short! So I had an idea, I'm going to try to convince Bob to start working on inventing the Star Trek Transporter so we can see our friends and family any time we want!!!

So Bob is back to work and I am gearing up for my job teaching 4th grade. I am pretty excited now that it's getting so close. But it will definitely take some getting used to for the entire family. I haven't worked outside the home since Abigail was a baby so we'll be trying to figure out how to keep the house running in an orderly fashion and juggle 3 different Little League teams and piano lessons. I'm guessing that it's going to be a circus for a few months but I suppose we'll get it figured out and get into a groove...I hope.

As soon as Bob gets the pictures from vacation on the computer I'll throw some up for your viewing pleasure. :)

Not good bye...just see you later!

Summer is a time filled with lots of fun activities but when you live on a military base it's also a time when the streets are filled with moving trucks. This summer is no exception. My good friend April and her family left recently and my friend Krystal is leaving in about a week. I have a special friendship with these women because our husbands were all deployed at the same time and it was such a blessing to have other women around who knew exactly how I felt. We had many play dates, dinners together with all the kiddos, girls nights out with no kiddos, babysitting swaps and much more...so it's hard to see these friends leave. However, I have learned that I'm not really saying good-bye...just see you later. One way to look at military life is that it provides you with friends across the country, or even the world. And when you've really become close with people you know that you'll make the effort to keep in touch. So here's to good friends, good times, and seeing each other again!

The pictures below were taken at the Botanical Garden. It was our last outing all together.