We are coming home!

We bought our plane tickets today! We are now officially broke but we had to go home. We will be in Colorado from May 22-May 29. We will get to see Aunt Kathy graduate from Pharmacy school! We also get to go to a Build-A-Bear so Sami can make her very own animal.

We will be in West Virginia from May 29-June 17. We need a ride from the Pittsburgh airport on May 29 (hint hint anyone). I am sooooo excited to go to Target, Olive Garden, Barnes and Noble, Super Walmart, Old Navy, and any shoe store. I am also is desperate need of a chiropractic adjustment. My appointment calendar is getting booked so please email me to schedule a visit. ;)

Goofy Girl!

One of Samantha's favorite things is to bounce in her bouncy. It has well been worth the $30 it cost. The bouncy has little rings along the sides to play with. Samantha decided she would try them all on at once.

St. Patty's Day

The first picture is Samantha on St. Patrick's Day.

The second picture is Sami and I with our first and best friends in Okinawa. We had to take the picture because we were all in our matching Old Navy shirts. Tiffany is holding her daugher Eva and I am holding Tiffany's other daugher Charley. We are at our friend Maggie's 4th birthday party.

Yes, I am in a better mood. I would still rather be in the states though. BUT.....Home is where the Marine Corps sends you, so I guess I have to deal. Thanks for all the words of encouragement.

Love ya all, Aimee

Gripe session #1

I hate it here and I want to go home! I have only been here 9 months and I am so done with this place. I have not figured out why anyone likes it here. People always say you can save so much money here. I haven't figured that out either. Considering I am spending all my COLA money on shipping or plane tickets.

I am tired of never finding what I want at the commissary. I want the new Plumsmart juice to help Sami poop. They don't have it. I want whole grain Goldfish crackers, they don't have them. When they actually have kids yogurt in stock, it is the Trix kind with tons of artificial colors and flavors. Why can't we just get nice YoBaby yogurt with the banana and vanilla flavors. Cotton candy flavored blue and pink yogurt can not be healthy. The milk here sucks. It is so ultra pasteurized it will survive a nuclear holocaust with all the roaches.

I am still waiting to see the new season of ER. I have watched every episode for the last 10 years. It started in the states in September and they have yet to even schedule it on AFN.

I miss my friends and my family. We want to come home this summer but I don't even know if we can afford to. It will cost over $3000 just for airfare. Samantha missed GiGi. She wants to go to GiGi's house and she wants GiGi to come to her house. Demi turned into a teenager, Tina has a new baby, Shawn is going to have a baby, the last time I saw baby Wade he was still laying in a bed with tubes everywhere. I haven't been able to help my longest friend Laura during the hardest year of her life! Those are just the WV friends. I left my dear friends Teri and Jenny in SC right before they had new babies. I feel so dissconnected with my friends.

I know that was alot of complaining. There are lots of positives in our life too. Everyone is healthy. Sami is super cute and smart but basically the most temperamental, emotional, stubborn (almost) 3 year old ever! We have some really good friends here (of course most of them are leaving this summer). We can go to beach to look for shells whenever we want. I also have 3 Starbucks across the street. I started going to a MOPS group. All the ladies there are super nice. Samantha is doing well with the childcare at MOPS too. She doesn't cry anymore when I take her!

Let me see if I can find a cute picture to close out gripe session #1 on a positive note. Here is Samantha eating the above mentioned blue cotton candy yogurt.

Monakids Jungle

We went to Monakids Jungle for playgroup on Thursday. For those not familiar, Monakids is a huge indoor play area. Think Burger King play area times five. It has tunnels, ballpits, slides, etc. There are 2 problems with Monakids though. One, it can get very crowded and two, Sami won't do anything without me or her best friend, Maggie. The last time we went, I crawled through everything with her until she decided she would do it with Maggie. I was so sore the next day I could barely more.

This time we were lucky enough to go on a day with two Japaneses school trips. So there were about 40 little Japanese kids going crazy. Also Maggie did not go. That means, I got to climb through everything with her. Even though it was crowded and crazy, she had fun and wants to go again. I hope to never have to go back without Sean or Maggie.

Later, Aimee

The Price of Children

My friend Jenny in SC sent me this and I wanted to share it. It reminds me of how lucky I am even on a day when Sami tried to drive me nuts!

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 to be $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year, or
* $741.38 a month, or
* $171.08 a week.
* That's a mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is "if you want to be 'rich', don't have children." Actually, it is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:
* finger-paint, * carve pumpkins, * play hide-and-seek, * catch lightning bugs, and * never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to: * keep reading "The Adventures of Piglet and Pooh" , * watch Saturday morning cartoons, * go to Disney movies, and * wish upon a star.
You also get to: * frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets, and collect: * spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, * hand prints set in clay or Mother's Day, and * cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no bigger bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for: * retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, * taking the training wheels off a bike, * removing a splinter, * filling a wading pool, * coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and * coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to witness history: * her first step, * his first word, * her first bra, * his first date, and * their first time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs called grandchildren and great grandchildren in your obituary. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have the power to: * heal a boo-boo, * scare away the monsters under the bed, * patch a broken heart, * police a slumber party, * ground them forever, and * love them without limits...so that one day they, like you, will love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!

Aimee

More pictures

I love this blog! Now I don't have to nag Sean about updating the website.

The first picture is Saki with her shades. The second is Samantha with Shadow. The third picture is the gorgeous sunset from our front yard.

The saga of the sand table

We decided that Samantha needs a sandtable for her birthday so she will stop digging in the dirt (more like mud) in our yard. Sean went to the PX and they had one left. He didn't buy it because it wasn't the one we had decided on. He want back first thing the next morning and guess what? The stupid thing was gone. Before we decided to get her one, the PX had several to chose from. We broke PX rule #1. If they have it and you want it, buy it. It won't be there tomorrow. He asked if they would get more in and of course they had no idea.

I found the sandtable online at aafes (the PX website) and Walmart. I finally went to order it from Walmart and they won't ship it here. I went to the aafes website to order it and they had pulled it from the catalog. Aafes could special order it for me but it would take 4-5 months to get here. Apparently they were going to put in on a row boat and row it across the ocean. Anyway, I finally found someplace online with free shipping. I could get them to ship it to my apobox account and then apobox would charge me $30 to ship it over here. When I go to order the sandtable, I can't use my credit card because the drop down menu for state didn't have AP in it. I tried to use California but then they said my address wasn't correct. Well no sh*t! I had to use my Mom's credit card to order it.

It doesn't end there. I just got an email from apobox that my package was there and ready to send out but when they tried to charge my credit card for the $30 shipping, it was declined. I called Visa and there had been a security hold put on my card because a $375 charge had been made in Italy! I would love to be in Italy but unfortunately I am not. They closed my account and issued me a new card. Luckily I don't have to pay for that charge!

I went back to my apobox account and gave them a new credit card number. Now hopefully they will ship the @#$% sandtable! I think if I go to the PX and they have sandtables in stock, I will scream.

Thanks for listening,
Aimee

Practice

If this actually works, I will be so excited. This is Samantha standing on the "big rock" outside of Starbucks.

I have finally done it!

OK, I swore I was never going to make a blog but that is until I read Tiffany's. So here it is. I have not one clue as to what I am doing though.