Tie Onesies

Our friends in the ward adopted a little boy in December and recently had a baby shower. I wanted to make something fun and after having seen this cute idea on pinterest a million times I decided to make these tie onesies. I wish I had them when Jeffrey was little. They turned out really cute and may have to be my stand by present for boys from now on!

Kansas Day

 This week in preschool Jeffrey and I learned about Kansas because it was Kansas Day. (Kansas is 151 years old!) Jeffrey pronounces it "Candace" and I can't get him to change it for all the wheat in Candace! We talked about how the state insect is a bee and how wheat grows in the fields. Then the kids each got a turn to grind wheat into flour from which we made wheat muffins topped with honey. Jeffrey cracked the eggs all by himself, he's becoming quite the little helper in the kitchen!

While the muffins cooked the teacher for the day gave each kid a graham cracker so they could make the shape of Kansas with it. They all took one bite out of the corner of their crackers. I should have taken a picture it was so cute!

I wouldn't have ever picked Kansas as a place we wanted to live, but we are enjoying our time here and getting to know our neighbors making new friends!

Co-Op Preschool

So Jeffrey and I were asked to join the Co-Op preschool here that one of the girls in our ward started up. There are two age groups and each mom takes a turn "teaching" the group at their house. It's the perfect kind of Jeffrey who doesn't do well in situations where he has to go into a situation unknown. Once a month they have a field trip and the one today was to the local fire station.

Everything (or nearly everything in Manhattan) displays the Kansas State mascot, the wildcat. I haven't seen school spirit like this even amongst Utes or Cougars. EVERYONE going out on the weekend wears purple and there are even purple garbage cans. Guess what color my door is? Wildcat Purple!

This was when they were out by the trucks and the fire fighter put on all his gear. Jeffrey was ok with it until he put the mask and oxygen on then he told me he was just a little bit shy and had to hide behind me.

Then the highlight for most of the kiddos was being able to crawl inside the fire truck. Jeffrey wasn't afraid to do this alone. Though he told me that I needed to stay right where he could see me. So I wouldn't get lost.

We had a really good time and were glad that we were able to join the preschool!

Getting to know Manhattan!

 So this isn't exactly Manhattan but Topeka but last weekend we  visited the Combat Air Museum. Jeffrey had a really fun time and spent most of his visit in the pretend cockpit. He told us he wanted to be a pilot.

 I also get a full service visit when I go to the gas station. Jeffrey will get out while Cory gasses up and clean the windows. He doesn't do the greatest job, but it's the thought that counts.

For Christmas my mom and dad made Jeffrey this little fishing pole and creel with some felt fish, there's magnets on the bait on the reel and on each of the fish. It's seriously one of the cutest presents we have ever gotten! Last week we decided to go "fishing" on the back porch. It was so cold though that we had to be bundled up in coats in order to enjoy it. 

Minty Fresh Breath

So last year I faced my dental fears and had ALL my dental work taken care of in just a few months by some of my favorite dentists (See I'm not scared anymore!). Since then I've become more conscious about my dental care. When I had braces, flossing was a pain, but I got these platypus flossers from the dentist's office that were great. Cory suggested that I use mouthwash too since that's what he found helpful when he had braces as a teen.

Since then I've tried LOTS of different kinds of mouthwash. Some make my mouth feel like it's on fire while others taste like I'm drinking hydrogen peroxide or taint everything I taste for the next two hours. None of which are pleasant. But I finally went with a natural solution (which I should have done from the beginning) and tried some of the Tom's of Maine brand. Divine! It's so fresh tasting and doesn't burn my mouth like the other kinds.

So here's my commercial for Tom's of Maine. A good all-natural choice for minty fresh breath! I like the peppermint wave kind!

My Grown-Up House

I decided before we moved from Colorado that I would take my time setting up my house in Kansas and put some real thought into the decor.  So two months after we've moved in I can't say that any one room is completely finished. (Except the kitchen, it's small and there's not much to be done there.) But I am SUPER proud of what I have gotten put up in my house. First of all, my talented mum recovered my ancient couch and make it look AH-MAZING!

(The white pillows haven't been covered yet, I can't decide between all the amazing examples on pinterest...and Keep Calm and Carry On? Our family motto with a 4 year old in the house!)

This is a couch that originally started out with blue plaid several lifetimes ago and has evolved into this work of art. I owe it all to my mom, I did nothing but buy the fabric two years ago. I need her to come out again so we can tackle my two church lobby hand-me-down chairs.

But THIS pillow is all done! And it's made of ruffle goodness. I could just hug it all the time. I saw one of my favorite crafty people in the world making one and took her idea and tweaked it for my own pillow.

 Next is my room. I think displaying my jewelry collection helps me visualize my entire outfit when I'm getting ready in the morning. In prior houses it was all jammed into a plastic drawer pullout system and more often than not ended up in piles on top of my dresser when I decided against one particular necklace or bracelet. The tray hanger in the top right was from etsy.com along with the earring hanger on the left hand side.The frame is vintage (a hand-me-down from Cory's Grandma) and is waiting for the picture of us from the ball last year, if I can find where it got put after the move.

 The bracelet hangers in this pic were a combination of something I saw on pinterest and taking the ever-so-helpful sister Pammy along with me shopping when I went looking. They're towel hangers from the bathroom section of Hobby Lobby. The one on the wall has shower curtain hooks to hold my rings and bracelets.

I am having a lot of fun putting together my grown-up home rather than the one filled with things I tossed together to try to make a house.

I love wall collages. A few of the picture here could do with updating, but it's fun and makes me feel all artsy-fartsy! The frame on the left is empty because I want one picture on the wall that shows off my pretty new smile and dark tresses!

Wamego, Kansas

Not to far from our new home of Manhattan (Kansas not New York) there's a cute little town called Wamego. It's tiny and quaint and we considered moving to a house there when we got here. But there's also the Wizard of Oz museum there.

 

So of course we went.  It was a fun little place. Apparently they have an Oztoberfest every year. I think we'll be going next year. (And when I say we I mean probably just me) but there's a munchkin lookalike contest. 

 

 

Angry Birds

Right. So this is December, but I thought I'd share pictures from Halloween. Jeffrey decided he wanted to be the black bomb angry bird for Halloween. So about a month and a half before I started thinking how I was going to make a costume for him. I found a great tutorial online (which I can't find right now) that showed me how to do most of it. I have to visualize things for a while before I start making the pattern so I pondered the arm and neck holes for a LONG time. Long enough that my mom had come by then and told me how to do it in like 3 seconds.

We moved on the 28th so we were able to go to Cory's work trunk-or-treat which was pretty fun. What's an angry bird without any pigs to squish? So we made shirts to go along with him and since Sugar was here to help us move, she got to wear one too! Cory was the king pig, I was the mustache pig, and Sugar got to be the regular pig.

(I've said it before and I'll say it again, my mom has amazing eyes!)

Jeffrey is making the angry bird noise in this picture. He totally embraced the character of the angry bird.

Here they are playing a real life version of the game. Have no idea what we're talking about? You should get the app from iTunes, very addicting launching birds at all those pigs!

I locked my pack out footlocker in the shipping container. This is a small footlocker of items that precede us in our road to deployment so that we may meet up with the items shortly after arrival. There is not much room in our bags we carry with us for personal stuff, so this is a chance to get ahead of the game by sending pillows, novels, DVD collection, or a guitar. I will hand carry my camera, but it was great to pack out a light stand and umbrella.  

Jeffrey gets upset when I come home from work and have to do homework instead of playing with him. I have made a commitment to myself to eat a quick breakfast and brown bag a lunch each day so that I can do homework at work. I would rather stay a little late at the office and arrive home ready to give him my full attention than to disappoint him even for a 20 minute use of the computer.

This 10 inch Toshiba notebook I picked up back in Oklahoma serves me well. It is easy to keep my planner, homework, and even Photoshop with me. Target had some small notebook cases just big enough for the computer, mouse, and plug. 

FT Riley has some great facilities, but the dining facilities are the worst. I took one bite of my pancakes this morning and put up my tray. I will need to look at a FT Riley map and find another place to spend my $2.30 in the morning. That is one thing I miss about FT Carson. Most of the dining facilities there were like restaurants.

A Broken Foot

So I was getting ready for the Oireachtas (regional Irish dance championships) and had driven to Colorado with my mom for a few extra practice sessions. Late on the 2nd night that I was in class, I fell pretty hard and landed on my right foot. I knew I had done something to it, but I prayed it wasn't serious. On the drive home it hurt to drive so I pulled over and asked my mom to drive and I took a look at my foot. It was swollen to about the size of my head and had started to throb with pain. I've had a broken foot before (same bone other foot) and knew what that felt like and was pretty sure it was the same thing this time, except that the pain was like 8 times worse.

We called my friend that we were staying with and explained that instead of coming to her house we were headed to the emergency room and not to wait up for us. She offered to come and pick up Jeffrey and take him back to her house. Fast forward an hour or so and this was the results we got from the radiologist:

• Fifth metatarsal has approximate 2.5 cm long vertical oblique lucency involving distal and mid shaft most compatible with acute fracture with some medial displacement and mild lateral angulation of distal end with greatest medial displacement involving medial cortex region of distal fracture fragment. 

Didn't understand that? Well I didn't either, they showed me a picture of the fracture and it was pretty messy, I had shattered the bone in a few places and then bowed it outwards in another. The ER doctors exact words? "You have a really interesting break." Well my motto is if you can't do something right don't do it halfway.

Holiday Wishes

I leave the house for work each morning at 0500. That gives me plenty of time to take the scenic route to FT Riley and arrive at the company well before physical training begins. I leave the buffer of time in there just in case the front gates back up or something else in the miles between home and work comes up. With my scriptures with me, I can make the best use of the 20 minutes before formation. Sometimes it is hard to find a significant, consistent, and quiet time to read the scriptures. I have found that if I am willing to read in less than ideal conditions there are many daily opportunities to read and refresh myself. Sitting on a generator at the back of the supply cages is good enough for me.

At 1600 each day SSG R. and I put down our work and pick up books that will help us in our own professional development. There is a lot of work to accomplish to get ready for deployment, but we cannot forget about expanding our learning in our own diverse specialties. It is easy to become expert at the work of the day and out of touch with advancing fields in theory and practice.

Manifesto

In the coming months I will be back in Afghanistan again. In preparation for this deployment, Tricia and I have talked about the things we can do as a family now to get into good habits of communication. You are reading one of those ideas right now. We have neglected our family blog for a long time. Our commitment is to get back to it right now and make it a part of our daily routine no matter how busy we feel now. Making it a priority at this time will help to ensure we continue it when I have to leave. This will also keep our family and friends outside our home informed and up to speed on what we are doing. A natural consequence of writing a blog is increased interest in reading the blogs of other families and friends of ours. 

Tricia has also noted that in my zeal to make great photographs for my own journal on CoryMacNeil.com I neglect to take the needed family photographs of our every day and routine stuff. Point noted. Along with an increase in our use of the blog I will accordingly bring out my camera to illustrate. I will take my 30D to Afghanistan with me, so you can expect that I will have the tools needed to illustrates some of my adventures. Tricia will have the G10 back here for photographs and video of her own. 

My laptop has a built in camera that I will use to make a video for Jeffrey each day. I have already packed up my microphone to use in making stories for him as I did on last deployment, but I think video will help as well. Jeffrey is at the age now that I need to start focusing on teaching him about numbers, letters, and some of the basics he will need in preparation for school. The video will give me a chance to teach a short lesson in a visual way to get his full attention and make learning memorable.

As soon as the novelty of my arrival from Oklahoma wore off Jeffrey was ready to get out and set up his geo tracks. I took this picture to help me recall how to use all of the pieces as I did making up this track.

Jeffrey loves to play Angry Birds. Tricia is working on a design for an angry bird costume for him to use as Halloween. We will pack that on the top of the trunk when we move to Kansas.

Even on a 2 inch screen Jeffrey is entertained by Phineas and Ferb. 

This is the cleanest bike in the neighborhood. When I clean the cars Jeffrey asks for his own bucket of water to clean his bike. 

Though I am off from work for a few days I still need to keep fit. The Air Force Academy has a great trail to run on just outside of its gate.

I am back from Oklahoma! I made many good friends there while spending nine weeks learning about electronic warfare. This is a new, growing, and exciting field for the Army. The Navy, Air Force and Marines have had personnel in these fields for a long time. The Army is playing catch up to get on board with the need to control the electromagnetic spectrum in military operations.

I also made good friends while attending church in the Lawton ward. By the time I left I attended a pioneer celebration, ate at Adair home, taught a Sunday School class, and even gave a talk on the last Sunday present. If I stayed any longer I might have been called as an Elders Quorum counselor.

I took the scenic route getting home. A search with Google Maps let me know that I could either rush home in 10 hours seeing freeway most of the way or take my time in 12 and enjoy the country side. The extra two hours of travel was worth the time.

My second day of travel I arose at 0400 to leave the hotel. By 0830 I was home and called Jeffrey from the front yard. He came outside in his Batman underoos to greet me. All morning he kept telling me how much he loves me and missed me. I spent the rest of the day with Tricia catching up on the small details of around the house life. It is good to be home again.

The dino museum at Thanksgiving Point

 So all of the venues at Thanksgiving Point in Utah were $2 on Tuesdays in August. Sounds like a good idea right? Well, only if you want to be there with 8 million other people who want to take all their kids for $2. I don't love crowds (I get claustrophobic) and I don't like it when people take their kids and then just let them do whatever they want...while they talk and ignore the fact that their kids are being a little mean. Whatever, rant over...

Grandma Whittaker took the day off work and got our tickets for us earlier (thank goodness!) and so we walked through the museum. Last time we went Jeffrey was 2 and didn't have a lot of interest in anything. He was 4 this time and didn't have a lot of interest in the dinosaurs, but found other things that he liked. The tunnel with the stars was his favorite, I think he went though about 8 times. He would have kept going but Mommy got hungry and the museum got really crowded.

His other favorite game was to bury the bones rather than uncover them. He had a brush in both hands and would brush it away until he saw there was something there and then cover it back up with a huge pile of sand. It was so funny to watch him, no matter how many times we explained it to him he just kept doing it his way. That's my Jeffrey, independent and stubborn as all get out!

More man time with Uncle Scott

 When we were in Utah, we stayed with Paige for a little while (until baby came) and then went to stay with Uncle Scott. Jeffrey loved it, even though the dogs made him a little nervous he loves them. While we were there he got to do some yard work with Uncle Scott. I love the look of determination in his face on the picture below. He makes me laugh!

Jeffrey misses his daddy a LOT! Yesterday we sat on the bed and had a talk after one of his tantrums. He told me he wanted to go to Oklahoma to see daddy and that he missed him and that was was made him feel angry and sad. While my heart was breaking for my baby, I thought it was good progress. A year ago Jeffrey wouldn't talk about any of his feelings at all and I felt helpless when he would have a fit, now he can recognize his feelings and he's getting better about explaining how he feels.