Saint Barbara's Day Celebration

One thing I always look forward to in December is the Saint Barbara's Day celebration.  Saint Barbara is the patron saint of the Field Artillery.  If you would like to know more about her, go here.  When we were in an artillery battalion, the celebration was usually a formal ball, which was always really fun.  Here it is also a really nice formal event, complete with the Artillery Punch ceremony, many toasts, dinner, and remarks from a distinguished guest, just no dancing.

Jay was inducted into the Order of Saint Barbara when we were at Fort Riley.  That is the medal that he is wearing around his neck.  I am also wearing a medal.  I was awarded the Molly Pitcher award when Jay returned from the Gulf War.  If you want to learn about Molly Pitcher go here.

It was a great evening and we will look forward to next year!

When husbands think they're helping, a Thanksgiving story

I was having two families over for Thanksgiving dinner, about 13 people, including us.  Now, anyone that knows me knows that entertaining is not my strong suit.  I love to socialize, but being in charge of the get-together usually puts me in panic mode.  But, to me, Thanksgiving is one of those holidays where you need to surround yourself with loved ones.  Since our family was not nearby, then we needed to surround ourselves with our other loved ones, our best friends.

I had cleaned the house and the turkey was in the oven.  That's when it happened.  Jay looked up at the ceiling and took note of the stain from the water leak we had had earlier this year. The ceiling didn't look that bad to me, I didn't think anyone would really notice, but Jay decided he would paint it really fast before everyone got there.  (This was about one hour before everyone was to arrive).  I told him I didn't want the house to smell like paint, and it wasn't that noticeable.  But he insisted he could paint it really fast and it would look a lot better.

He has some cool ceiling paint that goes on pink so you can see where you've painted, and then it turns to white when it is dry.  So there he went, painted the area, and it was nice and pink.  I went on with my food preparations and at about 10 minutes to dinner time I noticed that the ceiling was still pink.  I asked Jay why it wasn't dry yet and he said it should be dry by then.  I looked closer and realized that the ceiling bore a strong resemblance to Julie's bedroom wall, which is a nice PINK color!

We then realized that in his haste to get the job done, Jay had grabbed the paint can with Julie's bedroom wall color.  It was nice and dry on the ceiling, and it was PINK!  (he said he just saw the pink color on the side of the can and grabbed it, but if he had thought it through, if it was the ceiling paint, the color on the side of the can should have been white, since it dries white!)

So, instead of a small water stain on the ceiling that I'm sure my guests would never have noticed, they were all quite impressed with the big pink circle on the ceiling!  This is why I don't entertain!  

Below is a picture of Jay fixing his masterpiece.  Enjoy!

A Magical Time at the Magic Kingdom

I love all things DISNEY.  I could go to Disneyland every year and never get tired of it.  I wish I could take my whole family there again, maybe someday.  I have discovered that if you can't get all your kids together to go to Disneyland, the next best thing is to go with your sisters.  It is a whole new experience, and it is a blast!  If our kids could have seen us they would have died of embarrassment.  But, there were no kids, no husbands, only three fun-loving women having a magical time.

We're off to a good start, Mickey is at the gate to greet us!

              And Pluto was there too!

  We had to take it easy after this ride, it was a little much for Lisa

Carol was on a mission to get up close and personal with Captain Jack.  I think she scared him a little bit.

            Two beautiful princesses

Thanks Mickey for a wonderful time!

A visit to the Jencks side of town

Carol came up with the idea.  She said she wanted to take mom to see her brother Harold, who she hadn't seen in many, many years.  I of course said "I want to go too."  Then we made Lisa go (against her will since we had to actually take a plane to get to California).

It was a fabulous trip... old people crying, pushing old people around in wheelchairs, eating at 4:00 (old people time), taking old people to visit even older people, and lots of talking about the good old days.

Now all kidding aside, it was a dream to see these people again, it had probably been 30 years ago that I last saw any of them.  My Aunt Kathe and Uncle Harold are like idols to me.  When I was with them it was like I was 7 years old again.  I was in awe of them growing up.  For me, going to their house was like going to a castle.  They lavished expensive presents on me and generally pampered me to no end.  I remember when I was young thinking that my Jencks cousins were the coolest people on the planet, and if truth be told, they still are.

I hope it is not another 30 years until I get to visit them again (because then I will be OLD).

              Brother and Sister

Aunt Kathe leaving to play bridge with friends.  Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen on three wheels?

Cousins

Lisa, Jane, Laurie, Lance, Melinda, Carol

Kathe, Harold, Unity

One last post on this subject

"It's the most insanely romantic film since 'The Notebook'," said Harry Medved, a spokesman for Fandango.com, who described Pattinson's Edward Cullen as "the ideal boyfriend...He's incredibly strong, superfast, impossibly handsome, plays the piano, and all he cares about is what's on her mind."

Now, this is all I will post on this subject.  I just wanted it noted again that Edward is PERFECT.   I will now resume posting about the holidays, my family, and other such not as interesting or gorgeous subjects (sorry family, you're cute, just not Edward gorgeous).

LOVED IT !!!

It's been many years (if ever) that I have been in a theater full of screaming girls and let me tell you, last night was quite the experience.  As soon as the previews ended and there was a lull before the movie started they screamed.  The first time Edward appeared on screen they screamed.  When he had his sunglasses on and he and Bella walked into school together they screamed.  And of course, when he and Bella finally kissed they screamed.  There was no screaming on my part.  Just yearning..... for Edward.  It doesn't get much better than this!

 

Thoughts from a grandma

It was quite the day yesterday, the day my first grandchild was born.  Thank heaven for text messages and cell phones that take pictures.  I was at school teaching, but Jordan kept us updated throughout the day and into the evening.  Aubrey did wonderful and all went well.  He is beautiful and perfect.  My heart is full of love for this little guy.  I can only imagine our adventures to come with him, our Kaden.

Did you ?

Man, I miss these guys

I had no costumes to make.  No one had a hard time eating dinner because they were too excited to go out trick-or-treating.  I didn't cut out hundreds of bats to stick all over the house. There are no fake cobwebs anywhere.  We didn't carve a pumpkin.  There will be no piles of candy on the floor tonight with intense trading going on.  No one is going to say, "here Mom, you can have this Mr. Goodbar 'cause you love them."

I love the wonderful people that they have become, but man, I really miss the kids they were.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It was Heaven on Earth

War college was over.  Jay would soon be beginning a new job, a new DEMANDING job, and Julie was leaving soon for college.  It was the perfect time to get away before all the madness began.  I had always wanted to go on a cruise, but Jay swore that he'd never take me on one since the time he took me on a dinner cruise around Seattle and I spent the whole time in the bathroom violently ill.

My motion sickness is legendary.  Every family travel story from my childhood includes some mention of me throwing up somewhere on someone.  So I pretty much ruled out the possibility of ever taking a cruise.  Then Jessica went on a cruise for her honeymoon.  She inherited my motion sickness gene, but... she didn't get sick!  "The ship is big Mom, you never feel like you're moving."

I armed myself with this knowledge and started my plan of attack with Jay.  But, you know, he loves me (and he loves a good vacation), so all I had to do was mention (over and over for about a month) that it would be a great trip and he was on board!  I also promised that I wouldn't get sick.  And I didn't!  Our trip was perfect in every way, perfect weather, perfect food, perfect ship, sooooo romantic, and tons of fun!

Our first view of the ship in the Port of Miami

Set Sail party on deck

Our first day was spent at sea so Jay tried to master the FlowRider and learn to surf

Our first port was Labadee, Haiti.  Beautiful!

The water called to us

The daredevils wanted to go off on their own, and fast!

After dinner there's always a new friend waiting for us

Heaven part 2

Jamaica and Cozumel were both stops on the cruise.  While parts of Jamaica were beautiful, I would never want to go there again.  For the most part, Jamaica is run down and a mess.  The people are rude and the taxi drivers were pushy and dishonest!!! Steer clear of Jamaica if you have the chance.  Jake and Julie explored the rain forest by going on zip lines through the canopy while Jay and I tried to have a decent sight-seeing trip around the island.  But it did not turn out so well.  But we did not let it get to us and we still had fun the rest of the day doing some shopping on our own.  Cozumel was beautiful and restful, the people were friendly, and the taxi drivers were REGULATED!  It was $6 into town and $6 back to the ship.  All the same price.  That made it so much easier.  The kids had a blast with all the shopping there.  Jay and I found a nice beach to soak up the sun and do some snorkeling one last time.

Jamaica is beautiful from afar, just not close up!

Jake ready to take on the zip lines

Julie  is ready to go!

Heading back to the ship after another fun day

When we came back from breakfast one morning this was on our door

Jay had called ahead and told them it would be my birthday, so they decorated the room!

Beautiful bird in beautiful Cozumel

Our relaxing beach that we found

Another friend waiting for us

Heaven part 3

Our day on Grand Cayman Island was lots of fun.  The island is the total opposite of Jamaica.  Grand Cayman is clean, everything looks nice, and the people are really friendly.  The highlight of our day was going out to Stingray City.  We went on a boat for about 1/2 an hour straight out into the ocean.  Then we came to a natural sand barge where fisherman have been cleaning their fish for many years.  The place is full of stingrays who are used to being fed by the fishermen, so they just swim all around people.  Our guide described them like pet cats who just go all over you, and they did!  Up our backs, through our legs, around our waist, and up over our shoulders.  Julie and I just screamed and screamed at first.  I held on to her and she held on to Jake.  Jay was off the minute he hit the water with his snorkel gear looking at them.  We had a bucket of chopped up squid and you would put a piece in your hand and make a fist and they would come up and suck it out of your hand.  Definitely the most amazing experience I've had in a long time!

Our guide giving us instructions on the way out on how to act in the water, like Don't Panic!  (we panicked)

You want me to get out of the boat with those in the water?

                    Brave family

Then, just to add more torture, I mean fun, our guide said if you kiss a stingray you get good luck.  So we did.  Still waiting for the luck.

             Can you believe Julie did this??

                       Or me????

Jay, of course, didn't want to leave the water

 At the end of the day, a stingray waiting for us in our room

Heaven part 4 (or the end of heaven)

Things we LOVED on our cruise...

Breakfast on our balcony - beautiful!

The ice skating show, they were fantastic!

Carved fruit!  Fruit and ice sculptures!  It was crazy!

Shuffleboard.  We usually played after dinner.  It's quite fun.

  The belly flop contest.  Large people + alcohol = FUN

Jose (from Columbia) our waiter.  WE LOVED HIM

Sorrentos.  Pizza 24/7

Looking down in the elevator to see what day it was

 Ping pong.  Jay and Jake had a rousing game every night

Our cruise director, Richard, a hilarious Brit

Mini golf at night

THE END (please can I go back?)