4th of July

Well, Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope you all had a great holiday. We all had a long four day weekend and the weather was actually nice. We went to the pool one day, to the beach the next day, and we had a cookout with the neighbors on the 4th. Then we all went down to the park on base where they had little carnival rides, games, and food. After we stood in long lines for eveything we sat down and listened to the band play and then watched fireworks. The fireworks were great! It is truly a special thing to celebrate the 4th of July with only military people. There is so much emotion and so much pride. I had tears in my eyes several times between the tribute to those who are deployed and the patriotic songs that even the kids knew all the words to. I felt so proud to be standing among all of these wonderful people who do so much everyday to keep alive exactly what we were celebrating. Matt had class, so he had to miss most of this, but it was still a great night.

Ryan is doing well and he really enjoyed the fireworks. We are still having our usual battles for good behavior with him, but I am not so sure this will ever end. I took him to the tennis court on Monday and we had a great time. We staye dout the in the heat for almost two hours and he was begging to stay longer. He isn't that great at it yet, but with his knack for sprots I am sure he will have it soon.

Colin is doing okay, but is running on very little sleep these days. He has decided that he wants to sleep in our bed now, which for those of you who know us well, this is not an option. He wakes up everynight at least once and cries. I can't leave him in his bedroom to cry, because he will wake up Ryan. So I bring him into our room and put him in the portable crib. He then screams and throws everthing out of the crib. He can keep doing this for and hour or more, but as soon as I pick him up he is out on my shoulder or in my arms. Last night I finally got him to go back to sleep after more than an hour of cying, but he woke up and hour later. I was too sleep deprived to fight him anymore so I just layed him down in our bed and he was out like a light. If he only had his own room, this would be much easier. Hopefully this is just a phase, because I need more than 5 hours of sleep a night!

Matt is doing well and looking forward to his much needed time off of work when my parents come. He also can't wait for this terms classes to be over. This late night class that lasts until 11pm is killing him. He is taking not getting his promotion better than I expected although he is definately upset, he is not as mad as I thought he would be. Hopefully, they will offer some good classes next term and he can get on track with a new goal. I am trying to get him to play football with his squadron, but he doesn't want to because it is only flag football and wouldn't be as much fun. Whatever!

I am pretty busy with the daycare. I actually have kids all day everyday this week. I am also looking forward to the two weeks I am taking off when Mom and Mark come. I can only hope the weather stays as nice. I kind of fell off as far as my gym goal goes. I did well for the first two and a half weeks and now I have barely been going. I am just too tired most nights to even consider it. I am also looking into doing some volunteer work at the clinic or the hospital over here to keep up some of my nursing skills. I have my CNA right now, but if I don't do some work I will lose it. I am hoping to volunteer maybe one afternoon a week once the school year starts and then maybe every other saturday. I don't know yet, but I want to do something. Even though I am now doing this daycare and contributing to the income, I still feel stuck (if that makes any sense). Oh, and now I have another friend who just found out she is pregnant. That was my last person to workout or go out with. I have got to put up an ad or something that says, looking for friend who is not pregnant and who is not going to be pregnant in the near future.

Well, I should go. Colin just woke up from his nap and I should get him a snack. Sorry again for no pictures, my camera is still broken! Love you all.