what a good lil mama

tomorrow at this time tom will be back!
he's been in florida since tuesday so he missed most of hayley's birthday.
he did get to wish her a happy birthday though, we went out to breakfast before he left.
we aren't doing anything big for her birthday till next saturday though when we will be in VA for thanksgiving.

i've been looking over a lot of 'black friday' ads
christmas is going to have to be on a very tight budget
very tight
with us having to buy a new engine and compressor for my jeep and tow it back here
that leaves us with very little money for christmas shopping
tom and i will probably go giftless again this year
i don't think we have bought christmas gifts for each other in about 3 years
my birthday is 2 weeks from christmas, and i usually go giftless for that too
i'd rather save the money to get the kids gifts
thankfully we've been blessed once again by being accepted into the sears 'hero's at home' program for military families
we get a gift card to sears/kmart
they put money on it 3 times between Nov 24th and Jan 1st
last year we ended up with almost 300 dollars
they also gave us a special card with an extra 100 for decorations and gift wrap and such
im not sure how much we will get this year
frankly any little bit will help
we also saved up all our change from the year and that alone as given us a pretty good amount of money, if i can hit up good sales.
i've made each kid a list at toys r us
people had better follow them this year
i make a list every year but it hardly ever gets followed
jonas doesn't really need toys
but i still want him to have some gifts of course
what i guess i mean is he does not need toys with 'parts'
like lego play sets, tool kits, train tracks
pieces get lost and then the play set is pretty useless
certain members of the family are really bad about giving him gifts like that even though every year we ask them not to
last year one of these relatives gave him 50, yes 50 hot wheels cars, even after a phone call asking what he needed and what not to buy for him
he does not need anymore toys like that
books are good, movies are good, a few age appropriate few action figures maybe
and he really wants a bop it haha

thanksgiving will be in VA this year
never done a thanksgiving in VA
since we have been married tom and i have had thanksgiving in St Augustine Fl twice, once at our 'friends' house, and twice on our own.
St Augustine thanksgiving will always be my favorite, with the exception of last year when hayley was with us for her first thanksgiving :)
jonas' first thanksgiving was in St Augustine
i love thanksgivings with lots of people.
im not sure how this thanksgiving is working since it's not at my house
tom's mom (God love her) is not the best cook, she will be the first to tell you that haha
but her sister is coming down.
i also like to be in charge in the kitchen, so this could be a problem
unless people have assigned tasks, like my side of the family has had for the 20 thanksgiving i remember, i like to take charge
i do know im making the pies
at least i am assuming as much, tom told his mom i was...
as for the rest of the meal i don't know whats going on for now
we are having a party for hayley on saturday
not really sure whats going on for that as of now either
i feel like i've dropped the ball on her birthday
again its not at my house so im not sure how they want to handle it
for jonas we just a big bbq
i really should be in bed right now
jonas has school in the morning
sarah palin will be on Ft Bragg on monday
trying to decide if i want to go
well i do want to go, really really bad
but rumor has it that her book signing starts at noon, jonas gets out of school at 11 20 and it is at least a 40 minute drive to that side of the base
blah it probably won't happen

my baby girl is a whole year old!
i can't believe it!

a few pics from halloween
ok im lying they are from disney's trick or treat
but i haven't gotten the real halloween pics off tom's camera and i've been getting bugged to post pictures of the kids costumes
if you can't tell, hayley is a lady bug
haha better pictures on the camera still

playing catch up

BUSY last week
and i do mean busy

last sunday, jonas, hayley, tom, mark, and i all set out for sunny orlando florida
it was thankfully an uneventful drive, stopping once for breakfast at a denny's and at the state borders for bathroom breaks.
both kids did well, they slept most of the morning part of the drive so that was helpful
we got in around 5ish, checked out the time-share we were staying in then went off in search for dinner. tom spotted the ever elusive 'crab house' and since we couldn't find it, we settled for a joe's crab shack.
after dinner we did a walmart run for breakfast foods and such then headed back to the house for sleep.

Monday-Animal Kingdom
the park is nice, very shaded, the weather was great.
jonas tom and mark rode the african safari ride, hayley and i hung back
i wasn't aware she would be able to ride it, even though i had ridden it 5 years ago, i guess i remember it being a little rougher than it is.
but we walked on the 'hiking' trail and saw the monkey's and gorillas and hipppos
she seemed to enjoy that
after a mini meltdown from jonas at lunch time, mark and tom rode the everest rollercoaster, then all the boys rode the river rapids ride, then we watched the 3D bugs life movie
the park closed at 5 so after that it was time to head back to the car
an early evening was a good idea. tom went and got a new pair of sunglasses, and some pizza's for dinner and the kids conked out around 9.

Tuesday-EPCOT
we took it easy in the morning
3.99 breakfast buffet at the sizzler. that was a pretty good choice, jonas had ice cream and pancakes for breakfast.
hayley took a nap on spaceship earth
mark got sick after ridding the mission space ride.
italy makes some nasty soda
and jonas did the kim possible secret agent game around the world showcase. ok well he only did it in france. it was pretty neat little deal though. you go to KP station in the world of tomorrow, and they give you a ticket to meet an 'agent' at a country in the world showcase. they give you a verizion cell phone and you follow the clues that wade calls into you.
hayley got to meet princess jasmine and snow white. we missed belle :( not that hayley cared, i did though. she is my favorite princess, followed by jasmine, arielle, princess aurora, snow white, and cinderella.

Wednesday-Hollywood Studios
i was slightly disapointed by this day, we wanted to catch the night show at 9 so we got to the park around 2. only to learn that fantasmic was not playing that night and the park closed at 7.
it wasn't that big of a deal though. its a pretty small park so we got a lot done in the 5 hours we had there. the toy story midway mania ride/game was pretty freaking awesome. jonas was too short to ride the star wars ride though, so while tom and mark were doing that, we met mater and lightning mcqueen.
mark convinced tom to ride the tower of terror with him. and then i rode it with tom.
it was fun. im not the biggest fan of heights, but as tom put it 'you aren't up high for very long'
apparently during our ride (which was short) it started raining. so we ran over to the rockin roller coaster.
tom and mark rode, i opted not to since the park was almost closing and hayley was getting in one of her moods, knocking things of shelves, screaming, and all the sorts.
sleep was must since thursday was the big day.

Thursday-Magic Kingdon
knowing that we had privilege of staying in the park till midnight, we slept as late as the kids would let us. this time getting to the park at 2 wasn't a big deal.
space mountain and big thunder mountain were both closed :( so that was a bummer
but we had lots of fun anyway
jonas 'hated' the haunted mansion and 'hated' pirates of the caribbean
at 6 o'clock we got the kids in their costumes, jonas was snake eyes from G.I. Joe, and hayley was a lady bug in a tutu. then we rode the rides in tomorrow land till 7 when trick or treat started!
the trick or treating was fun. they had handed out maps when you got your 'not so scary halloween party' wrist band that showed all the trick or treat spots. we hit all the spots in tomorrowland, toontown, and in between. jonas got a whole pumpkin full of candy.
we met mickey at his house, he was the only character tom and mark were willing to stand in line for. so much to my saddness he was the only one we met that day. the halloween party focused on the disney villains so you could meet honest john from pinnochio and the evil step sisters from cinderella, jafar, cruella but of course you could meet mickey, minnie, donald, goofy, daisy, and all the good guys too, all dressed in their halloween best!
i really enjoyed the paraded, and im 100% convinced that it was johnny depp on the pirates float. ok, it probably wasn't, but it seriously looked just like him.
we ended up leaving around 10 the kids barely made it off the monorail.

Friday-Seaworld
we hit up the 3.99 buffet again! haha
tom was able to get free tickets to seaworld thanks to anheuser busch's heroes salute
i think we headed in around noonish? but its mainly a big aquarium so its easy to get everything in. tom and mark rode the manta while jonas, hayley, and i fed the sting rays. that was a weird experience. we played with the dolphins, jonas fed them again this time. they had he set up different than the last time when we were there. it was a lot better organized and a lot more fun this go. jonas won a 2 polar bears at one of the carnival games they have set up. he won a baby one for hayley, and a bigger one for him. tom one a little penguin in the same game. then jonas asked if he could bounce on the bungee trampoline they had set up. since the tickets where free, i didn't have problem paying the 8 bucks for it. hayley got her first pearl at the pearl diving place. she picked out her oyster and everything. im not sure how we will have it set for her, but we will have it done by her birthday. after a snack, and a pretty big jonas meltdown, we went into shamu stadium to see the shamu show 5. then jonas played in shamu's happy harbor till the park closed, i made him ride the shamu express, a kiddie coaster, he did not enjoy it, i laughed at him.
Saturday
me and mark were both sick. thus leaving tom with the 2 kids to entertain
i chalked mine up to food poisoning. but i've since changed my mind to stomach bug since tom picked it up sunday night/monday. it didn't help my tummy that tom and mark found the forementioned crab house and decided to do the all you can eat seafood buffet. i left and slept in the car.

we left sunday around 6 and after stops, including on at south of the boarder for fireworks. we got home around 4. im not sure what time mark got back to VA, but i know how tired we were with out the extra 4 hours of driving. mark must have been beat.

this week has been pretty quick.
tom was sick monday
jonas had his school halloween parade yesterday
and today/tonight tom has combat survivor training to teach till who know's what time friday morning. this means he does not have work friday, but we are leaving for VA (ugh) after we pick jonas up from school.
tom needs to give the jeep a one over, basically to make sure walmart did or didn't have anything to do with what happened. we are kinda hoping they did, maybe a wrong oil filter, or they put it on too tight so the oil couldn't get through enough.
then they can pay for a new engine.
ill post pictures of our trip as soon as i sort through all of them and figure out which ones i want to upload

our pumpkins this year :)

what a week!
tom is finally home! he has been for a week now haha, and he has all of next week off too. as much as i love having him home, it has been a bit of an adjustment having him back. being able to cook actual meals again with out having 3 days worth of left overs has been nice.
he wasn't too messed up by the time difference, since he worked nights it kinda kept him on the same time schedule as us. and sleeping the entire flight back help out too. but since he was working nights he did have to get used to being awake when the sun was up.
we haven't really done much this week and i'm not sure what is in store for next week.

jonas and hayley are of course loving having daddy back. hayley had to get used to tom. she still wont give him kisses, cuz he hasn't shaved since he's been home.

hayley's lady bug costume is almost done
i'm going to make her wings tonight



not really sure what's going on with the camera flash
but you get the idea
she really likes it so i'm going to get some pink, white, and purple tulle and make her another one. she keeps trying to take it out of the bag and put it on her head.

i don't think either tom's or my football teams are on tv tomorrow
which is odd cuz va tech is playing duke

this is our mojo
beemer the hokie
brutis the buckey
and pi pumpkin cat holding an art monk card
i need a browns bulldog
cuz that'll help
haha
right