Giddy Girls!

Phillip Arthur is due home in 14 days and a wake up!  I'm not gonna lie, we are some Giddy Girls around here!  Ella clearly has no concept of time but she feeds off my excitement and I think from that she understands Daddy's return is very soon.  

I might be looking forward to this day more than our own wedding day. That may be sad but I think it's true.  I love that boy more than I did then and perhaps that's why or maybe it's just the fact I haven't seen him in almost 7 months.  I can't explain the excitement that is inside of me but my military spouse cohorts who have walked this road before me, you know what I'm talking about! 

Ella has a list of things to do once daddy gets home and it ain't a short one!  I wish I had a fraction of a penny for every time I've heard "I miss daddy" over the last 7 months and I'd probably be able to wipe out the US budget deficit!  No lie! 

I have my own list as I'm sure you could have guessed. 

Phillip made a comment the other day that he wishes he could have bottled his experiences in order to pull them out one by one for us to discuss, laugh about, etc.  I replied that I wished the same for my experiences as well.  I think the first one I'd pull out would be from Sunday...Mondays are garbage days so since Ella was consumed in some PBS Super Why and Josie was chowing on some Gerber puffs I decided to run down to the basement and grab the recycle containers and garbage cans.  As I rounded the corner of the house I was confused why there was a black water hose stretched across more than half my driveway and just as I nearly stepped on the thing I clued in that it wasn't a hose at all it was huge "mongoyed" black snake!  I don't do spiders, camel crickets, or house centipedes let alone SNAKES!  I ran to the neighbor's house to get help and this help turned into a more than hour affair of NO ONE wanting to rid this world of the snake now practically laying at my front door!  I called P in Iraq as if he could assist me through the phone, but for some reason I feel the need to tell the boy everything and it makes me feel better regardless.  So the long and short of it is the snake "moved on."  How poor Ella managed to not see the thing peering in our living room windows that run all the way to the floor is beyond me, but thank goodness she didn't.  So, yeah, I'm ready for P to be home and deal with all the things that creep and slither around here!  

In the meantime, we're still giddy!

Picture Time!

Josie passed out in her high chair after playing her heart out at an indoor play center.  Hysterical!  Ella was disturbed that I actually let the kiddo sleep there.  Josie doesn't nap so I'll take what I can get.

Ella was thrilled when I informed her I was cooking black eyed peas.  

If you know and love my husband then you know this picture says it all.  I found this shirt long before Josie was thought about but it was a must buy.  Rest assured Phillip has received many cases of Mello Yello since he left.

Ella B and her Uncle Micah on the carousel at the Knoxville Zoo.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig!

7632 miles later we're home.  The girls and I returned home last week with the help of Nana (my mom) and Uncle Scott (my brother).  Thanks to some wonderful neighbors and friends the house faired much better than I expected.  We worked like crazy though to get some area rugs down for JoJo, who is on the GoGo! ( The child NEVER STOPS MOVING!) We were able to get some much needed curtains hung as well as a trip to IKEA, which was a first for Mom and Scott.  I also was able to hire a regular sitter which I happen to think is an ABSOLUTE God Send!  She is wonderful and I look forward to my girls getting to know her better!  Now, if preschool would just hurry up and begin for Ella I'd be good to go!  

4 months down and 3 to go!  I will survive!  I am woman hear me ROAR...umm is it November yet?!?!? 

Fishin' with Papa

My dad (Papa) loves to fish. It's always been the one thing you can count on Dad really enjoying 

and always willing to go do. He was eager to get Ella her first fishing pole and take her out. A week or so ago he took her to Cabela's and purchased her a beautiful pink and purple Disney Princesses rod and reel. Ella can't seem to say "rod and reel" and it usually comes out "grod and greel." Anywho, he got her set up to practice casting in the backyard shortly after the purchase. 

However, she was more interested in trying to catch the crown casted out rather than casting or reeling.

On Sunday after church we headed to Riverfront Park which has a small lake loaded with little fish. Unfortunately, during the many rains last week I discovered Ella is petrified of earthworms which I knew would make fishing interesting. And it did! 

Dad was seated on the bank and when he opened that little container of worms Ella practically climbed all the way up his back and on top of his hat squealing like only a 3 year old can. HYSTERICAL to all of us. Then her Disney Princesses decided to malfunction and rendered itself useless. She didn't seem too terribly upset but Dad and I were. There were literally hundreds of small blue gills just sitting at the bank ready to bite any and everything.  It was ideal for her first fishing trip but needless to say the worms were a turn off. Then when she caught the first fish and I tried to get a picture of her and Papa with it, she ran all the way up the bank squealing and cowering. I couldn't get the picture quick enough.  And when Papa took him off the hook to release him she squealed louder with her arms up in the air and said "No, no, aren't we taking him home?"  I really think she thought we were gonna take the blue gill home and put him in a fish bowl like her goldfish Murphy.

All the fun isn't on Ella I suppose. I love to fish and I can handle an earthworm no problem, except when Dad informed me in order to conserve worms I needed to "pinch" them in two. UH! NO!  I said, "Dad, I'll hook my worm all day long but I don't squish worms in two prior to hooking them." He laughed as you might imagine. Now it's with that story that my dear sweet husband (who in the 10 plus years we've been together has NEVER gone fishing) said while laughing at me "that is why you don't take a girl fishing!" I beg to differ, of course. Then when I informed him that Dad hardly got to fish between me asking him to half the worms and me having to get him to take the little boogers off the hook to release, he just dropped his head and shook it.  Nope, I don't take them off the hooks either. I am a girl! I can hook a worm and I can cast a rod with the best of them but I don't squish worms in two nor do I grab'em and unhook 'em. I just don't!

I apologized to dad repeatedly but he just laughed and assured me he loved it, he didn't care at all. He loved it so much he took me back out today! And he took Ella's Princess "grod and greel" back and replaced it with a Lighting McQueen instead. Perhaps McQueen will be able to cast better than the Princesses and perhaps Ella will be more open to the use of artificial bait than the real worms. We'll find out later in the week!

Catchin' Up

Nothing much new in the Land of Chockleys but we're busy passing the time while Phillip is gone. We've been in MT for 3 weeks now and having a blast. I had the opportunity to go with Mom and Dad to the Montana State University at Billings annual fundraiser which is a Wine and Food Fest. It's mostly about the wine! They have 2 nights of events. The first night is heavy hors d'oeuvres and wine tasting along with a silent auction and then the second night is a sit down dinner, more wine tasting, more silent auctions and a live auction. There wasn't a durn thing I could afford at the auction but it was fun to watch. After living in Italy I now find it amusing to see and try what caterers refer to as Italian antipasti. It's usually way too dressed up, overly marinated or a combination of the two. But for the most part the hors d'oeuvres were luscious!

Our friends Jay and Michelle headed out here with their two boys for a few days. Ella falls in between James (4) and John Michael (2) so it was a great time for all. We went Memorial Day over to Cody, Wyoming, home of Buffalo Bill. There is a large museum there honoring Native Americans, the life and times of Buffalo Bill and a large gun museum. While we were there Buffalo Bill made an appearance; Ella and the boys had their picture made with him. He really looked just like him. It was pretty neat. Ella informed him her daddy was in Iraq and that "he is brave." Buffalo Bill was taken back and said, "you're gonna make me cry!" He was so sweet about it and told her that her daddy IS very brave. He was wearing an Americana scarf and he explained to her that he wears it in honor of those that serve. He actually served during Vietnam. Ella has no idea what "brave" really means, but it's something Mommy has told her about Daddy since he left but to hear her little 3 year-old self declare, "my daddy's brave!" makes me melt every time. She told me a few weeks ago that she needed to go get Daddy some "green medicine." When I inquired why daddy needed "green medicine" she said because he wouldn't have to be "brave anymore." I think she thought if daddy took some "green medicine" (her favorite color) then he wouldn't need to be brave and therefore he could come home.

I could write a book about Ella and her sayings or philosophies on life. Sometimes they make me laugh so hard I could cry and sometimes they just make me cry. Kind of like Forest Gump and his box of chocolates, with Ella, you just never know what you're gonna get. I love sayings like "next behinds me", Ella speak for "will you sit beside me" she clearly mixed beside me and next to me together. She also says, "I want different else" again, a mixture of something else and something different. I've also learned that Ella has no concept of when we're in a public restroom that it's best to just not talk at all. I'm so thankful for stall walls between us and those next to us. I'm certain there were a few ladies that just about lost it as Ella declared to the entire bathroom that she and I had matching pink panties, and if I thought her Uncle Micah was wearing pink panties as well. Now, if I could just remember to keep my purse closed as it sits beside her in the grocery cart, I'd be good to go. That's a story for another day! I do praise the Lord that I've out grown my easily embarrassed phase as a result of my 3-year-old. I think the man behind me at the check out counter and the cashier were far more embarrassed than I could have been. Ahh, good times!

Josie has discovered Nash and of course she loves him. He didn't seem to mind the attention either. Bless his heart she got his hair pretty good a few times and he just looked at me like "Honestly, is that necessary?" SHE IS STRONG!

Well, until next time...