Favorite Commercial

I have had several people tell me that when they see this commercial they think of me. I had never seen it (I rarely ever actually watch TV) but enough people had mentioned it to me that I went online and searched for it. I just had to see it. Once seeing it I must admit, I can see why they think of me. At least I only have 3 boys and not 4, but I do have a dog and that counts for something too. I thought it was so funny and cute and found so much truth to it that I sat here and watched it over and over laughing every time. So I decided I just had to post it for those of you like me who haven't seen it. My two favorite parts are when the boys pull the drapes down and just as she is closing the door you can see a red ball bounce off her head-- love it!! Oh and I love the crash you hear after the door is closed too-- so I guess I have 3 favorite parts. She is truly the epitome of how I feel some days. But I do love my little boys!!!
(Keep in mind that I am in no way trying to endorse Progressive insurance-- I just love the commercial. Also, before you view it you will may want to scroll down and pause the music at the bottum so you can hear it).

Thanksgving in Afghanistan

Yes-- Derek did get to have Thanksgiving in Afghansitan. He said it was pretty much just a normal day just with a really big dinner. The head cook takes a lot of pride in his work and Derek says that it shows. So he says that the food was pretty good. There was a reporter there from the New York Times (the above picture came from his story). Here is a link to the story he wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/world/asia/23afghan.html?_r=2&ref=world&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Derek is not mentioned in the story but he ate dinner with the reporter and SSG White, the soldier it talks about at the end of the story, is one of Derek's Fire Supporters and is his right hand man right now. Also if you view the slideshow the soldier holding the tray in slide #9 is another one of the guys Derek works with.

The picture below was also taken by the reporter but not printed anywhere. It is some of the guys Derek works with and the French soldiers. (Derek is in the backrow, just off to the right of the middle. SSG White is the first US Soldier in the back row on the left). It was taken on the roof of their building. (And, YES-- that really is the way the French wear their barrets. Derek thought they were just joking when they first put them on. But they weren't).

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The boys and I enjoyed a nice little Thanksgiving dinner together, with just the four of us. I didn't cook a turkey because even the smallest ones would have been way too much for us. So we had a chicken instead. The boys didn't care. In fact they were excited to eat the chicken. It fell apart when I pulled it out of the crock pot-- thats why it looks funny on the plate. But it tasted wonderful-- it all did.

Here is Brian and Andrew showing off our dinner. We had chicken, rolls, corn, candied yams, stuffing, carrots, and pumpkin pie. One very special thing about this dinner is every dish is totally "Andrew Safe"-- no milk, eggs, or nuts in our Thanksgiving dinner, not even the pumpkin pie!

Here are the boys eating their dinner. They actually ate it really well.

Brian thought he needed to have his mouth open if it was a picture of him eating.

So then Andrew thought he had to open his mouth too. Silly boys!! (Notice his black eye. He fell and hit it on a display case at the store. He cut it open and it bled all over. What a shopping experience that was!!)

At least Timothy kept his mouth closed. I think he is the only one of the boys that polished off his whole plate. He loves food!

Brian's Program

Brian's class put on a Thanksgiving program. It was about the Pilgrams, Indains, and the first Thanksgiving. Brian was a pilgrim. He did a great job and said his part perfect. After the program they had a Thanksgiving feast.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to me!!! Today was my birthday. It was a just another normal day until three of my closest friends from church showed up with a cake. They sang Happy Birthday and we shared cake together. It was even a cake made special so Andrew could eat it too. :) They were only here for a short time but it was so nice and it really made my day. How lucky I am to have such great friends. I am so blessed!!

(No, thats not the right amount of candles but its all we had. Brian did make the comment though that we would need "a lot of candles." Silly kid!)

Thanksgiving Tree

Making a Thanksgiving Tree is a holiday tradition that we have for this time of year. We take turns writing the things that we are thankful for on a leaf and then placing them on a picture of a tree. Each thing can only be said once so everyone has to think of something different to say. Its fun and a great way to think about and remember your blessings. The boys have lots of fun putting the leaves on-- even Timothy.

I thought you might like to read the things that the boys said they were thankful for. Some of them really made me smile. Keep in mind that I didn't help Brian and Andrew at all-- they came up with these things all on their own.

Brian:
Daddy
Games (his playstation ones)
The number 5
Timothy
The letter F
My Best Friend Conner
Lightbulbs
Trees
Leaves
Ears

Andrew:
Puzzles (no surprise there)
Football
The Raiders (Daddy will be so proud!)
Brian
Scissors
Swords
The Jeep (the powerwheels)
Painting
Daddy's truck
Mommy's Hair (he's loves to play with it)

Timothy

Spiderman

Because of Halloween I didn't get these pictures posted until now. There was a grand opening of a new store at our Toy's R Us and Spiderman was there to help celebrate. Andrew loves Spiderman (although he doesn't really know anything about him) so we had to go see him. The boys thought it was cool but Andrew wasn't too sure what to think about Spiderman in real life. Thus no smiles in the pictures. Anyways, he was a very nice Spiderman and even game them autographed cards.

Trying this out

Well, Jodi says I can contriute to our blog simply by sending an email to it.  I guess we'll see how it works.

Things continue to grind on here in Afghanistan.  My body is telling me that it's time to get ready to go home, which would have been the case had we not been extended.  Instead we still have a good stretch to go.  As far as the country goes, I love Afghanistan.  It's very beautiful.  Too bad there are so many people that want to kill us.  Anyway, I'd better get to bed.  (5 hours of sleep is a good night.)  Hopefully these pictures come through.

Trick-or-Treating

The boys had lots of fun trick-or-treating. We only made it through maybe a third of our neighborhood before they got tired and wanted to go home. But thats okay we didn't need anymore candy than what we got. After we got home I hurried and pulled out all the candy with nuts that we can't have and gave it away to the trick-or-treaters that came to our house. So now we have no "bad candy" as Andrew calls it. Once again our pile of "Andrew safe" candy is slightly larger than our pile of non-safe candy.
The boys were very polite trick-or-treaters. Not only did they say "Trick-or-treat!" to everyone but they also said "Happy Halloween!" to everyone too. The people giving out the candy thought it was very cute, and it was!!
Oh and by the way in case you think you are doing a double-take-- yes, these are the same costumes that the boys wore last year. And yes, I did make the dinosaur ones.

Carving our Pumpkin

Well since I have such a great track record with using knives (I always cut myself) I wasn't sure if we should attempt to carve our pumpkin without Derek. But I got brave and we did it anyway and I am glad to report that we all came through with all of our fingers intact. The boys designed the face. Lucky for me it was something easy. Brian kept telling me throughout the whole process that he wasn't so sure if we could really do it without Daddy. I wasn't sure either but we seemed to make do. But it was definitely a time when we all noticed his absence. As I have mentioned before this is the first time since even before we were married that Derek and I have not gotten to carve pumpkins together. It was our first date so it is something that is very special to us.
Brian is my budding photographer. I was busy working on the pumpkin so he took several of the pictures for us. So you actually get to see me in some pictures for a change.