More Fun at the Fire House!

Last month I posted about the Fire Safety Day thing the firemen on base put on. Well, today was another fun day at the fire house. Our Bible study group collected cookies and made platters to take to the 3 gates, as well as the police department and fire department. I delivered to one of the gates, and to the fire department, and boy am I glad I did.

I waited until after school to drop off the cookies, because of lunch and naps and what's it, but also so the boys could come with me as they love the firehouse. Can I just say, our firemen are great and we had the best time. 

After letting us in to deliver the cookies, two of the firemen on duty (we'll call C and E for their last names and to make it easier for me to type these stories) took it upon themselves to show us pretty much EVERYTHING. They started with a tour of the kitchen and dining area, then it was on to the trucks.

By this time C had learned Finn's name and was not shy about calling him back from wherever he shouldn't have been whenever he was in places he shouldn't have been. They put all of the boys in one of the trucks and showed them all the buttons and gear and stuff.

C thought it would be great to have E get fully dressed up so the boys could see what it looks like. E had the even "better" idea to dress ME up in all the gear.

Awesome. I know.

After I had finished disrobing, the guys showed the boys the bottom of the pole they slide down. C asked E to demonstrate and I said, "Don't you dare volunteer me for this too!" He didn't, because normal people aren't allowed to slide down the pole. Although, E did tell me that if I sent my husband back with a pie or two they'd let HIM slide down the pole. Funny guy.

C actually demonstrated though.

Once the pole demonstration was finished, I figured we were finished too, but no! The guys took us upstairs to see the sleeping quarters and laundry room, conference room and lazy-boy room (a room with a giant tv and 12 lazy-boy recliners just lined up). The lazy-boy room was also where the top of the pole is. It was a very cool and very extensive tour, taking us a little over an hour to do. At the end they gave the boys goody bags and off we went, a happy little group. 

Thank you Picatinny Arsenal Fire Department for being so cool!

Molly Pitcher Me

Back in June of 2013 I was presented with the Molly Pitcher Award at the All Saints Ball.  I don't know how to put this but, I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. (That's for you, babe. Bonus points to anyone else who recognizes the quote.) Anyway! Copied right from Wikipedia, "The Honorable Order of Molly Pitcher is bestowed by the U.S. Field Artillery Association (USFAA) and the Air Defense Artillery Association (ADAA) to recognize women who have voluntarily contributed in a significant way to the improvement of the U.S. Field Artillery or Air Defense Artillery communities. The award is named after Molly Pitcher who distinguished herself during the American Revolutionary War." Here's mine:

I was going to apologize for the size of that picture, but if I make it smaller you can't really see it that well. Not that this is ideal, but it is much better. However, it is a cool thing, I was excited to get it, and I'm not sure why it took me so long to blog about it, but here I am doing it now.

Here are some other pictures from the evening, like the two of us looking fancy:

Col. Turner presenting me with the award: 

Josh having a really hard time with the medal's clasp:

Eventually I Told him to just tie it in a knot so we could all move on. I think the colonel told Josh he needs to buy me more jewelry because clearly he needs practice. I like that man.

And here is me pretending to drink the field artillery punch because a)I don't drink and 2)it is nasty, potent stuff:

And there you have it. Way to go me!

Fire Safety Day

Today, the fire department on post had a Fire Safety Day thing. Since all 4 of my boys love firetrucks and the like, we decided to head over and check it out. We're so glad we did! They had this trailer that was set up like a house but with bleacher seating on the one end. 

We were briefed about fire safety in the home, specifically in the kitchen, and we watched a little fire safety video.  After the video was finished Josh and the boys went into the "bedroom" portion of the trailer to experience what it's like when the room fills with smoke, and to practice the proper way to climb out of a window. The thought is this will hopefully prevent them from freaking out if it ever happens in our  house, now that they've experienced it in a safe environment.  I went outside to take pictures and to help Josh get Finn out.

Just a portion of the smoke that had filled the room.

After that the firemen put on their gear and showed the boys what they'll look like when they show up to a fire, again to prevent them from freaking out if it ever happens. They also let the boys try on the helmet.

Once that portion was finished, the fun for Mommy and Daddy began. The firemen handed us a fire extinguisher, lit a fire, and let us put it out (one at a time).

Then the boys were given some goody bags and back home we went, super pumped over our super fun morning.

Second Week of June Recap

June's going to get a week by week recap this year. I'm trying something new. It might just be how I do the whole summer if I like it. I guess we'll see. Except for things that deserve/require/just straight up need their own individual posts. So, without further adieu, the first week of June!

I've already covered the first few days while Josh was gone, and I wrote about Deacon's cafeteria saga, so we'll start with the 7th (it's when I have pictures for) and go through the 14th (excluding the 10th), covering the rest of the first week and all of the second week!

The 7th was the first Saturday of the month, which meant we were at The Home Depot for their kids crafting day thing.

We also went fishing that afternoon. I caught a little something:

and Josh caught a bit bigger something, breaking Finn's fishing pole in the process:

Nice.

Since it was super warm that day, we made our way to Frog Falls after dinner, and NO ONE was more excited about it than this kid:

The 8th saw Deacon going to his first NASCAR race with Daddy, Tante, and Pappy! It was at the Pocono Raceway, and he had a pretty good time.

On the 12th, Finn had a playdate with is girlfriend, Charlotte:

They're so stinkin cute together!

Finally, on the 14th, Josh and I went to the All Saint's Ball. Aren't we a handsome couple? 

So, there you have it. Tune in next week for this coming week's recap!

I Hope You Had Fun in France!

Josh has been in France for the past 10 days, Paris and Lyon for those wondering.  Tough life, right? Now that he's home, I thought I would post what the boys and I did here in lovely New Jersey while he was gone. Now, most days went like normal, nothing out of the ordinary. After all, the boys are still in school and things like that keep us on a pretty normal schedule. However, there was a holiday in there and a full weekend, and the boys and I did have a pretty good time. So, without further adieu, how we spent our time in NJ while Daddy was in France:

Sunday the 25th. Josh left the day before, so this was our first full day without him. It went pretty much like a normal Sunday. Chapel, lunch, naps, play, dinner, etc.

Finn raising his hands in praise

Daddy would probably not approve.

Monday the 26th. Memorial Day 2014. To celebrate the day I took the boys to Denville for their Memorial Day parade.We bought some poppies and enjoyed the cheering for our veterans.

After the parade I filled up our little pool which the boys swam in all afternoon. It was a very fun day.

And they had ice pops. We can't forget

about the ice pops.

Tuesday the 27th. A normal Tuesday. The boys went back to school, Finn and I did a ton of food shopping (we hit ShopRite AND the commissary that morning). Speaking of the commissary, I saw this guy there:

 Josh asked me how I was able to acquire a 

baby picture of Mothra.

What?! We also started doing this with Deacon's hair during dinner since it keeps falling into his face while he tries to eat:

It might have actually been Wednesday, but one of the nights he was wearing this bow, Zeke said, "You look like a girl! You and Mom are girls and Finn and me are boys!" To which Finn said, "No, I'm a girl too!" Then Finn straightened himself up, and while sort of sashaying in his seat said in a falsetto voice, "Hi. I'm a girl." It really was quite funny, probably because it was so unexpected coming from him. One of the older 2, sure, but Finn? We all got a kick out of it. (When I told Josh about it he said he was going to bring us all back gift certificate for therapy sessions.)

Wednesday the 28th. I pulled out Zeke's tooth! Josh has been hogging all of that fun, pulling every tooth either boy has lost so far, but this night it was my turn. Boom! I pulled it out while the boys were getting ready for bed. After the younger 2 were in bed, Zeke wrote the sweetest note to the Tooth Fairy:

"Please give me a book. Please. Love Zeke"

Side bar: For some reason, my kids totally believe in the Tooth Fairy. Santa? No. He was a real man who lived a long time ago, but he doesn't come to houses delivering presents nowadays. Easter Bunny? Pfft. Like that's even a thing. The Tooth Fairy? Like Linda said, she is LEGIT. I have no idea why, but there it is.

So he writes that note, and it was so sweet I wanted to go to Target right then and get him a book to put under his pillow. Sadly, I was the only adult in the house, so I couldn't. Good thing I found a "good idea hand grenade" and launched it at myself. I totally ordered a book on Amazon, printed out a picture of the book and wrote a note on the picture from the Tooth Fairy:

"Dear Ezekiel, Congratulations on losing another tooth, and thank you for the sweet note! I like that you asked for a book. Sadly, I don't carry books with me - they get too heavy. But what I did was give a book to the mailman to give to you. I asked him to give you this Amelia Bedelia book, and he said he will bring it to you on Friday! Remember to keep brushing your beautiful teeth! Love, the Tooth Fairy"

Zeke. was. pumped. Not only did the Tooth Fairy get him a book, but it was a book he had been reading in school. "It's like she knew what I was reading in circle and got it for me!" Way to go Tooth Fairy! Well played.

Thursday the 29th. Thursday we had a play date after school. When it's nice out I like to let the boys play at the school playground when they get out of school before we go home to do homework. Most days another little boy from one of the kindergarten classes plays with them. On this Thursday, this boy's mom invited us over to play and have dinner. The boys all had a blast, I had a nice time hanging out with her, and she made a delicious homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner (one of my favorites). Sadly, I don't have any pictures from this day, except for her kitchen, because I walked into it and sort of fell in love.  But it's not a great picture, so I'm not going to share it.

Friday the 30th. Friday Finn and I went to the playground by the front gate with his girlfriend, Charlotte (as well as her baby brother, Theo, and her mom, Christine, who is a good friend of mine). When I was telling Christine about the Tooth Fairy's note, she said I should have added "And here's the tracking number for your book" which I find hilarious. We have a good time together. While we were there we decided to take a little walk around. To keep the kids occupied on the walk, we picked them a bunch of little daises. Finn gave me his by doing this:

I took them home and did this:

They're still looking just as good as they did on Friday, which kind of impresses me.

Friday afternoon, I let the kids play at the playground for a full hour before whisking them away to get McDonald's for dinner. Good times. Oh! The kids also found a spider preparing a dragon fly for dinner. Yes.

Saturday the 31st. I spent 1 1/2 hours weeding and pruning the chapel garden. I had to make 3 trips to the dumpster, one of which was thwarted by a bear lumbering around near by. I scratched up my arm, and even though I was wearing gloves, I still managed to get 4 splinters in my fingers. And can you tell I did anything at all over there? No. Not really. While I gardened, the boys played, and they played hard.

That afternoon I got out the bubble blowing thing I bought Thursday (that morning Finn and I did some more shopping - Target and Costco). See, the boys were taking turns blowing bubbles for each other to pop. However, this led to problems as the the ones popping were standing right in the face of the ones blowing, and the ones blowing were getting tired of blowing, and of being occasionally slapped in the face. Hence, the new toy. The toy that the boys LOVED.

Sunday the 1st. Before I talk about Sunday, I should also mention that Tuesday was Project Jump day for the boys at school (a jump roping fund raiser thing they do), Wednesday was a band concert and art show, then Friday was Field Day - all of which made for a pretty spectacular week in and of themselves. Back to Sunday. Sunday we went to chapel and what's it as usual.  Then, Kirsten came up and we took the boys to the Denville Street Fair, where we all had a really good time.  We walked through it to start, then bought some tickets and went on some rides, then got dinner and desserts and went back home, tired and happy.

Their first ever zeppolies. YUM!

Last night I also started reading our first chapter book with the older 2. I had decided this past week it was time to start reading chapter books with Zeke after his brothers were in bed, but Deacon wanted so badly to read this book with us, that I agreed. After all, who am I to discourage reading, right? So, last night we read the first chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. We started off taking turns, but by the end the boys were happy to just have me read it. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to reading more tonight, and to having Josh there to read with us.

And that, as they say, is that, to those of you still reading this ridiculously long blog post. While we did miss Josh and it was sad not having him here for all the fun, we did have a bunch of fun. It's like Finn said to him one night on the phone when he called, "I love you Daddy, but I don't need you." 

So, Back in April...Part the Second

Do y'all remember a little over a year ago when THIS happened? Well, back in April, it happened again.  Wow. Almost one year to the day. Anyhoo.

 

Tuesday, April 23rd, was a not-so-great day.  Josh was off, traipsing across the globe, and I was having a bit of a rough day with the boys.  I lost my cool more than once, if I remember correctly. So, here we are, I finally get the boys in bed, I have about 10 minutes before my Bible study group shows up to get the house set up and ready, when my toilet overflows.  Oh yeah. It just kept coming out too so I had to stand on the toilet seat and turn the water to the toilet off, just to get it to stop so I could freak out clean up properly before the ladies started coming in.

 

I didn't really have time for that then, so I threw down a whole bunch of towels, turned on the fan (in my mind that helped somehow), then closed the door and put up a sign saying that that bathroom was out of commission for a bit. The ladies came, we got it all set up and we started study.

 

But then...I heard it.  I heard what sounded like a stream of water flowing coming from somewhere inside the house! Having a bad feeling about what was going on I rushed downstairs (excuse me for as second ladies) and saw water, water, everywhere.

 

Much like last time there were pouches of toilet water forming behind the paint on the wall (which is just plain gross, if you ask me), and, AND unlike last time, there was a pretty steady stream pouring out from from the center of the ceiling. I put a bucket under the stream and went back upstairs and finished leading Bible study.

As soon as the ladies left I called housing. They said they'd send someone right out (it's about 9pm now). While I waited for housing to show up I got to cleaning up the bathroom floor - wringing out the towels and "mopping" a little bit.  While I cleaned the floors I called Ryan. After I called Ryan I called Linda. I needed to vent I guess. Actually, I needed some prayer.  While I was talking to Linda, Matt (Ryan's husband) showed up with more towels. He then came up and turned the water back on and plunged the toilet for me and pretty much got it working again.  Isn't he the sweetest? Now it's like 9:30.

 

Having done all I could do at this point, I sat and waited until a little before 10, when one of the guys from housing showed up. He took a look at the toilet, plunged it again, shoved huge wads of toilet paper down it, and declared it "perfectly fine". Then he and I went downstairs and he was all, "Oh wow.  This isn't good." No, no it isn't. Now, I'm pretty much convinced that there is something like a crack or something in one of the pipes in the wall, because there was A LOT of water in our ground floor.  He said it was just coming down from the bathroom above, but 1) the water from the bathroom stayed in the bathroom and I know this because I had to clean it all up, and 2) the water coming from the center of the ceiling doesn't line up with the bathroom at all. It's probably a good 3 feet outside of where the bathroom lines up. But what do I know? So the housing guy spent the next half hour or so cutting away some of the wet stuff to make sure there weren't any more leaks.

 

The next day, Wednesday, he came back and made all of the holes bigger so that they could dry out over the weekend.

 

He told me to call Monday or Tuesday to make an appointment for them to come back and start the spackling process (2 or 3 coats of spackle, each a few days apart, then a few days later sanding and painting to finish).  So I called Monday the 29th and got an appointment for Wednesday, May 1st - two days away. which they never showed up to. Nor did they call to say they weren't coming. Yup. After running into the "boss man" on Thursday and ratting them out, one of the ladies from the housing office called to apologize, explaining that she had put our work order in for the wrong day and would Friday work since that's when they were planning on coming anyway.  Fine. May 3rd, the housing guy came back and did the first round of spackling.  This was also his last day working for housing, which meant from here on out a different guy would be taking care of this situation.

So I call again on Monday to set up the next round of spackling, get an appointment for Thursday, May 9th, which, once again, they didn't show up to and didn't call to say they weren't showing up. Now, I'm getting angry. I called the office and rather politely let them know they were supposed to be there that day and no one showed up or called. A few hours later the other lady from the housing office came to my house to apologize in person and explained how she was the one who messed up and didn't put it in their books and blah, blah, blah, let me take you out to lunch to make it up to you, blah, blah, blah and would tomorrow work? I did not take her up on her offer of going out to lunch, but to make her feel a little better I accepted her offer to bring us some pizza for lunch the next day.

 

Friday, May 10th, she showed up with pizza, but the guy did not show up because he had an emergency repair.  At least this time he called and explained and rescheduled for the following week. And that was fine - I totally understand about emergency repairs. It was hot that week and someone else's airconditioning takes precedence over my ceiling.

 

Eventually he made it back for the second round of spackling, and probably about a solid month after this all started, my laundry room ceiling was all patched up and painted.

 

Awesome. (You might have to squint a little to see the slap dash paint job - in the wrong color.)