Combat Spouse Badge Competition

The Confidence Climb

The big guns
The Island Hopper (weeee)

The Leadership Reaction Course

The Award Ceremony

The Grenade Assault Course

The Big Gun

MRE, vegetarian style, all heated up and ready to eat











The Leadership Reaction Course, I liked this one, I was the first one to the other side, and got to be in the shade!!

On this one, the soilder on the left was too busy watching us, and fell into the water, it was so funny! (he he)

(sing song) Climbing up high is fun to do..to do..to do..to do...

Low Crawl, it was fun to get down and dirty!

Hop...hop....hop

I'm getting closer

run, run, run (eight times around the track, I feel like a hamster in a hamster-wheel)

All the spouses and General Bromberg at the beginning of the day

my friend Cara and I

The pictures are backwards, so look at them from the bottom to the top.

The day started out really early, I had to wake the kids up at 5am and take them over to the childcare building, all of the kids basically slept while I dressed them and got them out to the car, except for Samuel, who as soon as I said his name, jumped out of his bed and said all bright and cheery " Where are we going, what are we doing?" After dropping the kids off, I drove to the track. This is a picture of my friend Cara and I, both of our husbands ran in a half-marathon in iraq about 9 hours earlier in 1 hour and 48 minutes (i think). This is a group shot of everyone with General Bromberg who came and encouraged us at the beginning of the day. After warming up and stretching we did the PT test, we did 2 minutes of push-ups (I suprised myself and did 30)I had to do them on my fists, since I have carpal tunnel, after that we did 2 minutes of sit-ups, I didn't do very well on those, I only got 27, I'm used to doing them with my hands crossed in front of me. Then we did the 2 mile run, and I ran with my friend Cara, and we did it in 18 min and 33 sec. After that we changed, ate an orange, and they drove us over to the obstacle course area, where we broke down into teams of 8, and started our obstacle courses. My team did the rope first, it was hard. I almost made it to the top, but just before I reached the top, my feet started slipping, and I didn't have the strength left to pull myself up the rest of the way to the top. Next we did the Island hopper (jumping across stumps to get to the other side) That was kind of fun, although I went to fast the first time, and had to try again, but once I slowed down a little I made it across just fine. After that we moved to the low crawl, that was fun, but I forgot to zip up my jacket and got dirt shoved into my shirt and pants. The confidence climb was our last obstacle, and I thought climbing up all those logs was pretty fun, although I was glad they had a safety guy at the top, to help us get over the top, so we didn't fall. After everyone completed the obstacle courses, we walked over to the leadership reaction course. We had four different scenarios to complete in 20 minutes. We were told to move all our people and equipment from one spot to another without touching the ground or water, or anything red, and we had to figure out how to accomplish our task and perform it in 20 minutes. If anthing or anyone touched anything red they had to jump in the water or ground, and return to the starting point. On our first one the soilder watching us was leaning to far to watch us cross the boards and he fell into the water, it was pretty funny. We finally acheived our mission on our very last scenario, it was fun. Next we moved to a park, and had MRE's to eat for lunch. They weren't bad, and was interesting to to heat them up, in there little bags. Next we tackled the disassembly and reassembly of the guns, we did three different ones, and I managed to get them all done and the guns passed there functions test so I was happy. After that we were tested on our drill and ceremony marching. A drill sargent marched us through a basketball ball, testing us on our marching and turns, and steps, but I made it. After that it was on to the grenade assault course. We had three targets to hit, and 5 grenades to hit them with. The first one was to through it in a circle, then into a bunker, and the last one was through a window. These were worth a ton of points, and I was pretty worried, since I have horrible aim. But, I managed to get my last grenade through the window, and I got them all. Finally our very last event, was to be tested on map reading. We had to plot points, identify terrain features, and measure line distance. I got all the questions right, and enjoyed doing it. By this time it was 5;20pm when we finally finished. They served us dinner catered by Fuddruckers, and then we had the awards ceremony. I was so happy to get the gold medal and awards, it felt good after all that hard work. Finally by 7:30pm I was able to go get the kids. By this time Samuel and Betsy were still in the place where I dropped them off, and Austin and Joseph were moved to the School Age building at 3pm. So I double checked at the front desk that Austin and Joseph had both been signed out and taken over to the School Age building at 3pm and they said they had. So I picked up Betsy and Samuel, and we walked over to the School Age Building and I found Joseph, but no Austin, we looked everywhere for her and she was nowhere to be found, and she had never been signed in. So we all walked back over to the first building and told them Austin wasn't over there, and they checked the computer again, and Austin had been signed out to School Age Building, so by this time I'm freaking out a little, so they went and checked all the rooms, and finally found Austin, she had been signed out, but had never been taken over to the School Age building. I was very relieved. We made it home, I put the kids in bed, and soaked in the bath...boy that felt good. I'm very sore, but it was worth it

The Carrot

We dug up all our carrots yesterday, and found this very interesting one. I didn't thin out my carrots like I was supposed to, so we had several that had fused together in the middle. This one was the biggest one. It has lots of different carrot tops, one middle, and lots of bottoms sticking out every which way. The kids thought this carrot was pretty awesome, and they are very excited to eat it. I made a carrot and zucchini soup with it that was pretty scrumptious. Here is the recipe if anyone wants it

Cream of Carrot Soup

6 carrots, sliced (I only needed my one big carrot)

1 zucchini, sliced

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tsp. curry (I didn't use it, becuase I don't like spicy)

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. celery salt

3 c. chicken broth

1 1/2 c. soy milk(you can use regular milk if you prefer)

1. In a medium sacuepan, heat a little oil, and add carrots and onions, cook 5 min. Add garlic, zucchini, curry, ginger, celery salt, and cook 1 more minute.

2. Add broth, and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat for 5 minutes, and then Puree using a blender.

3. Return soup to saucepan and add soy milk, and heat over low heat for 3 min.

Austin's 1st tooth

Austin lost her 1st baby tooth at school on Friday. She was so excited. She told me all about how it just came out, and she got to go to the nurse and the nurse put her tooth in a little box just for teeth. She was so happy, and put it right under her pillow, and was thrilled when she woke up Saturday morning to find $2 under her pillow that the tooth fairy had left her. My little Austin is growing up, and she already has another loose tooth that she has been working on wiggling.

Banquet

I went to a Banquet on Thursday night, and had a good night out without the kids, since I had to get all dressed up, I had to post my pictures so Travis could see them. I love you honey, and wish I had been getting dressed up to go out with you.

The zoo

Samuel and I went to the zoo for playgroup. We had a really good time, Samuel loved seeing all the animals and being around his friends. We got to watch the elephant eat, and lots of

the animals were out and about. We also saw a sea lion show that pretty neat.

a little fright

After I finished my last post, I was about to go to bed, and realized I forgot to turn the water off outside, so I ran into the living room to run outside and turn off the water, and when I reached the living room, I was scared half to death, before I realized the people I thought were in my living room, were just the puppets that the kids and I made, and that Betsy had strategically placed all four of them behind the couches to gaurd her and Austin while they were sleeping (I let them sleep on the couches tonight, since they have no school tommorow) I'll admit she did a pretty good job, she even has them in order, youngest to oldest. Although, it gave me quite a fright, now I think it was pretty cute.

Puppets

The kids and I started these puppets a couple of weeks ago, (actually my mom helped them get started) and today we finally finished them. They are pretty proud of these puppets that are supposed to look like themselves. They put on puppet shows for me this afternoon, and we had a good time playing with them. Here is a couple of the puppet show they put on.