Cowboy hats and more!

Well, as usual it has been awhile since I have written anything. The year is about to come to an end and today I just can't seem to get going on all the things that NEED to be done so I thought I would start with this...

Ryan's football season has ended and he finihed up by playing in the city allstar game where his team won. Now it is time for basketball which will start back up in the new year. Ryan has been doing well in school and has been working on higher level work once he finishes his regular class work which has helped to keep him challenged.

Colin has been busy in school as well and has been learning lots. He has little songs that he has memorized for most of the basic colors and can spell most of them. He is as sweet as always and is full of complements. If I want to hear how pretty I am all I have to do is hang out with him for a little while and he lets me know. Colin has started outgrowing his old toys like Thomas the Train and has started moving towards legos and football. It is fun to see him grow up a little but sad at the same time.

The boys are wearing cowboy hats that Matt brought back from Texas on his TDY trip there. They like them, but don't always take the best care of them. Matt is back to work today after the holiday break and will be busy working on outprocessing for his deployment. I have two weeks until school starts back up and I will be trying to organize myself in the meantime. As most of you know, we just got back from Virginia for the holidays and we are now trying to recover. I have tons of news and pictures from that trip, but it will have to wait until another day so that I can get busy unpacking!

Halloween, etc...

Well we had a decently fun Halloween even though we were not home to go Trick-or-Treating. We took the kids to haunt the zoo, where local businesses come to the zoo and hand out candy. We went there earlier in the week and then on Halloween day we took the kids out of school and headed to Kansas where Ryan had a football tournament. They won three of four games while in Kansas and all had a great time. Ryan won MVP of the first game and has been so proud of his trophy ever since. We were going to take the kids to the mall in Kansas to do some trick-or-treating, but they both voted to stay at the hotel and go swimming instead.

On the 15th we finished up Ryan's football season with a win in very cold weather, like 30 degrees, to our rivals who have been undefeated for the past 2 years. It was a great win that the boys really deserved. Unfortunately, I was a wimp and did not bring the camera because I didn't want to have to try to fumble with it in gloves and there was no way I was gonna take those things off! Colin cried most of the game because it was so cold, but we got through it.

I am finished with my clinicals for this semester and am looking forward to taking my final in two weeks and being done with my class! I hear that next semester is going to get way harder, so I am happy to get a break before I have to go back.

Matt has just returned from a 2 week trip to Texas for some training and will be trying to get some work done in the next two weeks so that we can get ourselves to Virginia for Christmas. We are so excited to go home and see everyone since it has been 4 years since we have been home for the holidays. Unfortunately, we have to leave the day after Christmas so that Matt can get back with his squadron, but we are gratefull for the time we are going to have.

In other breaking news....Matt and I have been attending a church here in town that we truely love. We have tried so many churches over the years and have never found one with such nice people. The first day we came people began opening thier hearts to us in a fashion that is truely genuine. Because of this, Matt and I really feel that God is trying to speak to us and have us open our hearts to him. In the past when we have prayed, it has been almost a necessity (like, "God, please let this person be alright"), but in the last couple of months we have been praying that he would just show us the way and come into our hearts. In response, Matt has decided to get baptized and become a member of the church here and I have decided to stand by him and get baptized into the Baptist church that we have been attending.

I will update more after Thankgiving.....

Long Overdue

Hello everyone!!! I know this is way overdue, but I guess it is better late than never. AOL closed down thier journals...I guess to save money so I had to transfer my blog over to this one. unfortunately I don't think it let me bring my pictures over. Hopefully, this new one will work fine for the few times of year that I do post!

We have all been super busy as usual. Ryan plays football and is the starting quarterback for a fairly competitive team. He gets 100s on everything he does in school and attends a special class once a week for kids who are a little ahead. He is still very smart and although that is a good thing, it can get him in trouble as well.

Colin was going to gymnastics but just stopped. He is doing well in school and is always getting commended on his kindness and hard work. His teacher says he is quiet, but takes everything in. He keeps busy wrestling with Daddy and improving his football skills in hopes of being like Ryan.

Matt has had an exercise at work every month almost since we have been here and spends a lot of time in the field and working long hours. In between all of that he has been playing on the squadron flag football team as well as being an assistant coach for Ryan's football team. He will be headed for Texas in a couple of weeks for some additional training and then will be off to the desert in January.

I have started back to nursing school and spend three days a week at school. I also waitress about 20 hours a week to bring in a little extra money. I spend any spare time I have at Ryan's football or doing a little around the house.

This weekend we head up to Kansas for an out of state tournament fot football. It should be fun...I just hope we do well and the boys have fun. This will be our last big tournament and then football will be almost over. In December we head home to Virginia for a Christmas home with family.

Finally making time to do this

Okay, so I cheated everyone on the last entry and have taken forever to update anything. Sorry! Hopefully, you are all still checking on this every once in a while and haven't completely lost faith in me.

Matt has started ALS or Airman Leadership School and will be very busy with that for the next 5 or 6 weeks. Once he is done with that he will officially be a Staff Sergeant and will start to have troops under him. So far he has been keeping a positive attitude and seems excited to start the next phase of his military career. He has seemed to find his place at work and as usual got right involved in the things that he enjoys such as the football team. He has quite a little jog to work every morning, but has been enjoying the quiet ride there.

Ryan played basketball when we first got here which turned out to be quite a bit more serious than we anticipated. He then played soccer in the smaller town that we live in which ended up being a bit to unorganized. We are working on finding a balance for him where he can still enjoy playing, but also develop his skills. He is only a week away from finishing the first grade. The school here is quite a bit easier than his old school and he is way ahead of his class. We had him tested for the gifted and talented program here and he qualified. He will be spending one day a week starting next year studying more challenging things which will hopefully keep him from getting bored. His summer will be packed full with activities and visits with family until the next school year begins.

Colin also played soccer this season and loved it. He is so fun to watch because you can tell he enjoys every minute of it, although he does say that "soccer is so hard!" He was the youngest on his team of 5 and 6 year olds so he had trouble getting to the ball before the other kids. Colin has a wonderful ability to pretend with anything and often times can play with his toys for an hour at time.He will probably go to a pre-K program next year, which should really help him get ready for kindergarten.

I have been busy working around the house and carting the kids from place to place. Just last week I also got a part time job as a waitress and I am still trying to get into a nursing school somewhere. I had ariginally applied at three schools but I got denied one, put on the wait list for another, and I haven't heard from the third yet. I guess if I don't get into a school this fall, I will just try again in the spring. I have also planted a small garden in the back yard and some flowers in the front that i have been trying to get to grow. I plan on working more on the garden this weekend since it is going to be nice.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we got a dog. A boxer named Roxy!

I hope this finds everyone happy and well...I will update sooner next time!

Well...We're here...

We finally recieved all of our stuff from Japan and as I unpack, I wonder why the heck we have so much stuff! Matt says that he always wonders that. As most of you know, we bought a house here that we are finally getting settled into. There is so much work that needs to be done that I sometimes wish we had a brand new house so that we wouldn't have to mess with any of it.