Life on a Military Post

Before I do the whole picture thing I will tell you about the weirdisms experienced on the post here. Oh, and, I DO have some pictures to post later because Aaron got me a late Easter present which happened to be a new camera! Eeeeee!

On this army post the morning starts at 6:00 a.m. with the bugle call. You know, that song that seems like the words should be, "It's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the mooooorning...." If that doesn't wake up your toddler you just roll over and go back to sleep. If that does wake up your toddler you do your best to get him back to sleep because 6:00 is WAY too early. If you disagree you are wrong. :)

When you do get up and get going you might decide a trip to the mall is necessary like I thought yesterday. So you load your child into the stroller and walk the two or three blocks to the Dugway Mall. There you have the option of going to the credit union, getting a haircut, visiting the post office or hitting up the thrift store. We went to the post office AND the thrift store, where I found a couple puzzles for a quarter. I do love me some puzzles. Oh, and when you go to the thrift store or the post office for the first time the people working there know that you are new since they haven't seen you around before. So they figure out who you are and where you live and expect to see you around some more. (Especially since one of them inevitably lives next door to you.)

On the walk home you might stop at one of the several playgrounds to let your good little two year old get out and play.

Throughout the day you will likely hear muffled announcements over the loud speaker. You have no idea what was said or if it was important.

About once a week, and inevitably during nap time, there is the emergency siren test. Over the loud speakers come first the warning, "This...is a test" followed by the wailing of the sirens. This is repeated several times. From his room, you will hear your toddler mimicking the sound of the siren since he doesn't nap at nap time anymore. This might make you giggle. And since you are new you don't know what you are supposed to do if you ever hear the siren and it ISN'T a test. In fact, you don't even know what type of emergency will set the sirens going in the first place.

Everyday at 5:00 in the evening those loud speakers are put to use again. This time Revelry is played over them. When you hear that song you are supposed to stop what you are doing, face the flag, and salute. If you are driving you are to stop the car, get out of it, and salute the flag. Failure to do this could result in a ticket. However, it is said that to avoid this tradition, one can turn up the radio loudly enough that you don't hear the song on the speakers.

At 5:30 your husband gets home. This is strange, but a great improvement from the 6:30-7:00 that he previously got home.

After dinner you might decide that a carton of icecream is necessary. Make sure to check your watch for the time. If it's not 7:00 yet you should be okay to run down to the commisary. (Remember to bring your base badge, otherwise you can't shop there.) After 7:00 you won't find it opened. Or anything else on base. So make sure to run all your errands before that time.

Finally, the day on base ends at 10:00. You know this because TAPS is played. Twice. Your husband might comment on how he feels like he's not supposed to be out of bed after hearing the song.

The next day is sure to start the same way at the same time, so be sure to get a lot of sleep.

We've moved!

Hello again! We are in our new house. I just spent WAY to much time catching up on all the blogs I follow and am still in my pajamas and have done nothing useful today, even though there is a TON to do. Oh, and we don't have the internet yet. Last night Aaron discovered that if you take the laptop to a certain corner of the house we can steal someone elses. :) So I've been holed up in the corner of our bedroom all morning.
A quick update, (pictures will come later) on Saturday we got the truck loaded and unloaded in the new place by 3:00 I want to say. We had lots of help of which we are grateful. Sunday we skipped church because we are wicked and it was stake conference and we would have to drive like, 45 minutes to get there, (which is CRAZY far in Utah) plus we didn't really know how to get to the stake center. But we did drive back out to Saratoga Springs to have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. We also picked up some straggling items at the house.
Monday Morgan and I made the trip back over the mountain to the old house, which caused Morgan to complain, "no, new house!" There I packed some more stuff into the Durango and proceeded to clean. I got the upstairs all done by 2:00 and headed back home to Dugway only to return to the townhouse the next morning. I tell you what, I don't know how Aaron travelled that road every work day for a year. It gets old fast! Yesterday I didn't finish nearly as early. It was a long, miserable day. I hate cleaning. It was exhausting. But the fridge is sparkling, floors are mopped, garage is swept out and nail holes are painted over and if we don't get our full deposit back I will be upset. We didn't leave until after 6:00 that evening, but my lovely husband had dinner ready for us when we got home, so that was nice.
Now I can start working on unpacking. Ugh.
More to come later.

Of work and play

Yesterday Morgan and I went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point with some friends. This was the only picture I got before my camera BROKE. :( It turns on and everything, and even pretends to take a picture with a flash and everything, but the screen is black. I thought that maybe the screen was just broken, so I tried taking other pictures, (they would've been cute too) but when I uploaded them they were all black too. Bummer. I've been wanting a new camera, but I would have rather got one on my terms, my time frame. Ah well. It just means that there won't be any pictures of our adventure this weekend.
We are moving. On Saturday. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! There. Sometimes you just gotta yell and scream. Sometimes it's the only thing to do. Noisy as a firetruck, you just got to open up and get the crowds attention turned to you. (100 points to whomever knows what I just quoted.) (Unless you're Stephanie or Mom.) (Sorry.)
So, yeah. We're moving to Dugway, the Army Post where Aaron works. We've known this for a little while now but not the exact date. Well, we knew that we had to be out of this place by the end of the month, (since we turned in our 30 day notice) but we didn't know when something would open up for us in Dugway. It opened up yesterday. I haven't seen the place yet, but I know it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, has a large yard, (though not fenced) and no carpet. All hardwood floors. And it was made in the 50's and, according to Aaron, is nothing to write home about. So don't expect any letters about this Mom! It's a step down from our current residence, (which is a step down from our previous residence) but from there Aaron can walk to work, and we will save mega $$ on rent and utilities and virtually everything. I'm looking forward to it.
It feels like I've packed a ton. Yet if you walk into my house it just looks messy. And it can only look messy if there are a lot of things NOT packed to clutter the place up. Oh, and we don't know if we will have anybody to help us move. *SIGH* I'm looking forward to this next week being over and done with.
I have so much to do. So why am I blogging?

Body Art

Impressions-literally

Let us continue our love story. This is taken directly from my journal. Sometimes I might not use the best descriptive words, but please don't take things out of context. You will know what I mean.

April 24, 2004
I know I just wrote yesterday and that I never write two days in a row, but tonight needs an entry! So, we had Aaron and Chanel over for ATV-ing today. We took them to the place by the canal. Aaron was either on the back of me, or I behind him. That was bliss. :) So, an interesting thing happened. Aaron was driving the little yellow ATV, and I was behind him. He decided to take a particularly steep slope up a hill. I have always been afraid of going p steep hills on those deals. But I wasn't going to say anything. We don't want Aaron thinking me chicken now. He was in 2nd gear and we were starting to get slow. So he down shifted. Then he applied gas. That 4 wheeler is only a 2 wheel drive. We were at the very steepest spot on the hill. The ATV flipped backwards. We rolled it! I remember everything so precisely as if they happened in slow motion. I went back landing hard on my back on the slope. Aaron came down on top of me, with the 4 wheeler on top of him. He managed to get it over on it's side before it really crushed us. Aaron was quick to get off of me. He asked if I was all right. I did a lightening speed inventory of my bones and all my parts and answered with a furtive, "yeah". I slowly got up, and then Aaron and I flipped the ATV back over and held it from rolling down the hill.
Soon Chris and Chanel came over and we pushed the machine p the hill and related to the new comers our horror story. We are so blessed that no one was hurt! The ATV even works fine. My back is a little marked up, but other than that, I'm unscathed! Aaron only has a bruised shin. We vowed never to tell Mom or Dad, and that's how it'll stay.
Well, that's not entirely true. We just told them this tale while we were on a big family 4 wheeling camping trip. The day after we confessed, Aaron, Chris and I went on another ride. And I flipped the ATV again. It was terribly stupid on my part, easily avoidable, but I ended up on the ground with the ATV upside down right next to me. We weren't able to keep that secret for nearly as long. :) Anyway, continuing.

We played some more afer that. We came home and played foosball, then Outburst, ate dinner and had a failed fire breathing session. (Fire breathing=awesome. Basically you fill your mouth with powdered sugar and blow it out onto a flame. Powdered sugar is extremely flammable.) Then we went to Aaron's house and watched the movie "Whale Rider." Chanel and Chris took the loveseat, so I sat in a corner of the big couch. Aaron got the movie situated then came to the couch to sit. He sat in the middle. First though, he asked if it were alright. So we sat there with our arms making full contact. I was happy. Once again we had our arms by our sides. Aaron was kind of sitting on his hand, so I wasn't expecting it when he suddenly brought his hand to mind, even turning mine over....!!! Oh, my heart was racing, I wasn't paying much attention to the movie. Brad, (Aaron's roommate) and Chanel both noticed. We were doing the whole thing, with interdigitation. Oh, I miss him. He even did this wonderful caressing of my arm. Gosh, well I'm tired. I really gotta go.

Lost and Found

Today Morgan and I had a couple places to go and before leaving the house Morgan made sure he had his Lightening McQueen and Sally cars. When we got to our first stop Morgan threw the cars down in the backseat before getting out of the car. When we were finished there I opened the door for Morgan to climb back into the car. (He's been insistent on independently climbing into his carseat. I'm happy to report that he does allow me to buckle him in.) But before he started climbing up he had to retrieve something that he saw under the seat. Lucky for him, under the seat was his eye level. He pulled out his McQueen car and then happily started getting in his carseat. That's when I got a good look at the car. It was the new one. The one that had been lost the last few days. So now he had both Lightening McQueens at the same time for the first time. I found his other one and gave it to him and he was thrilled. He kept talking excitedly about "Two McQueen! McQueen, McQueen, two!" and such. Now he is playing with both of them.

Oh, the irony

If you watched my Easter video you will know that we got Morgan a replacement Lightening McQueen. Er, the Easter Bunny got Morgan a replacement Lightening McQueen. You will also know that he had already lost it. I looked everywhere for it on Monday. Then on Tuesday I looked everywhere again. I thought this time to look under the stove since there is a little space between it and the ground. So, laying flat on my stomach in the middle of the kitchen floor with my face pressed against the ground I peered into the darkness under the oven. And what did I see peering back? The eyes of Lightening McQueen. I had to use a butter knife to retrieve the toy, but retrieve it I did. When the toy came into the light I laughed outloud. It was the OLD one! Two days after buying Morgan a new car the old one shows up. (But the new one is still lost, so at least he has one.) Morgan was very excited to see his car, but after a bit closer examination he declared this one "yucky" because of all the paint chips. But that doesn't stop him from playing with it.

Also, I picked me a swimming suit. Some of my favorites weren't available in my size, and some Aaron helped rule out, so this is what we will go with. I like it because the front tie allows you to adjust how low it is. So there you go.

I won!

I just won a Modbe swimming suit top from the website Fabulously Frugal! Eek! I am having the hardest time deciding which top to get. Any advice? I like the brown paisley Bandeau. Check them out and give me some feedback. Oh, and thanks Alisha for blogging about this give away. :) I just hope I didn't change your chances for winning.

Quiet Time

These days Morgan doesn't always nap. But since he's afraid that he'll get in trouble if he comes out of his room during nap time, he usually stays in there. And that's okay with me. I still get my time. When he doesn't nap, I might find his bed looking like this.
We're glad he likes reading so much.

Easter

Continued

Okay, so here is the rest of the journal entry from last Sunday. Just word for word.

On Wednesday he came bowling. Thurs. I though was going to be spent at home but no, Aaron called. This time he did ask me on a date!!!! He actually used the word date. "I was wondering if you would like to go on a date sometime..." was kind of how it went. I told him that I would love to. We set it up for next Friday night. I was so giddy that night. But while I was trying to calm myself enough to read, I received a text message. "Would you like to watch a video with Chanel and I later tonight?" Well, I was pretty sure it was Aaron, but I didn't have his cell #. So I replied, "Probably. Who are you?" We had some fun texting going on, and then Aaron called and we talked logistics. He ended up picking me up. We watched the movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy." It, apparently, is a Nelson family favorite. We watched it at Aaron's house. Chanel had the love seat, and Aaron and I took the big couch. 3 cushions right? Well, we both kind of sat on the lines between the cushions. We also had our hands at our sides. The hands by the other person that is, you know, so they would be available for the holding. Well, that was my reason anyway. Didn't happen... When he dropped me off he even walked me to the door. He is such a gentleman too. He's always opening doors for me and other girls. Tonight was a ward activity, Stake actually, and he came. I was glad. We did some conversing, cats cradle, and games. Then the cool group went to Denny's for ice cream. It was good. The company was great. I sat next to Aaron. :) When we had finished the food, we went to Joe's car and turned on his hoppin' stereo and just danced, sang, joked, visited and laughed. Sometimes Aaron and I would stand so that our arms were touching. Tomorrow the Nelsons are coming over for 4 wheeling. I'm excited. I will get to share a machine with Aaron. Wrap my arms around his waist, vice versa. Well, tomorrow is going to be major busy, and it is 2:18 A.M. and I have to wake up and work a lot. What I'm trying to say is, goodnight. :)

Boy of boy. I just really want it to be known that it was kind of a little joke to myself to say "hoppin'" as it isn't a word that I use seriously, especially in conjunction with "stereo." And yes. I noticed every time Aaron's arm touched mine as we stood in that circle of friends. And we were wearing jackets and everything. Oh, and when I say dancing, it's not like we held a dance in the parking lot, we just maybe did some very mild head banging in time with the beat. Anyway.
Stay tuned. Next entry will be all about that 4 wheeling.

Easter Egg Painting

Some of my favorite Easter time memories as a child are from coloring the eggs. I was looking forward to doing it with Morgan for this first time this year.

So I made all the preparations. (Except a covering of newspaper on the table. That turned out to be a big woops.)

The egg coloring kit was supposed to make them look tie-dyed, but they didn't.
I tried multiple times to get a good picture with Morgan and the finished eggs. But...

He put his head down at the last minute.

Or blinked.

Or just looked funny.

Or cringed like he was in pain. So I gave up.
Here's the woops. I now have a nice pink ring of dye soaked into my table. Any way I can get rid of that?

Fun at the park

Yesterday evening was still nice outside, left over from a beautiful day, so we took Morgan out to our little playground behind the house. He's recently learned how to climb up the rock wall all by himself. He does a great job.

I thought this was a cute picture.

Burn Out

Last night after putting Morgan in bed Aaron and I watched a movie. (Vitus is what we watched. A foreign film about a piano playing prodigy boy. It was pretty good.) During the movie we kept hearing the pitter patter of Morgans feet as he ran around upstairs. While upstairs to put him in bed again I also noted the space heater in his room was set to 75 degrees or something, so turned it down.
The space heater can heat to increments of five between 60 and 80. It also has a low and high fan that you can just turn on and it will just blow until you turn it off. I generally keep it at 65 or 70.
This morning Morgan came into our bedroom an hour earlier than usual. And he was beet red. He climbed into the bed by me, rasping for water, and he was very warm to the touch as was his empty sippy cup. Oh dear. So I get out of bed and walk down the hall towards Morgans bedroom. The temperature increased as I got closer to his room. Inside his room was like a sauna. I was only in there long enough to turn off the heater, which was just turned on to high, and open the window, but that was way too long. It was soooo hot!
Poor, silly, Morgan must have gotten out of bed long enough to turn the heater on to High before getting back in bed to go to sleep. And what a miserable night that must have been.
It's almost 6:00 now and he's been napping since around 2:30. Poor boy must have been tired.
This week is finally behaving like Spring. Perhaps it's time to remove that toddler operatable space heater from his bedroom.

Red Letter Entry

Here is my traditional Sunday post. A journal entry from my past.

Okay, for the next little bit I might just have to copy my whole journal entry down word for word since they start to be so completely consumed with Aaron. Which means the posts my be pretty long. I think I will break some of the entries in half because of length issues. But here we go.

April 23, 2004
This is definitely a red letter entry. However, I will use my purple pen. Okay, on Sunday Aaron and Chanel came over for food ad fun after church, and boy was it! They stayed till 11:30. The funny thing is, is that Aaron left our house around 10:15 cause we weren't really doing anything. Well, anyway he didn't get far. He came back for his forgotten phone. I said, "Well now that you're back, why don't you stay?" He said, "well if the party is still going..." and he stayed! We made No Baked cookies, the Nelson recipe and then played Taboo. That was the funnest part of the night. I'm so glad he came back. :) Then on Monday the Singles FHE was especially fun. We played midnight football, in which I acquired a large bruise, and we played Smear the Queer outside, followed by a rousing game of Red Rover. During Smear the Queer, I tackled Aaron twice. He got me once. During Red Rover I got tto hold Aaron's hand a few times. :) Then on Tuesday I was going to go to a bonfire at Johns house (a fun guy new to the group) and then I realized I couldn't because the truck, Honda, and Buick were all out of commission. So I resigned myself to an uneventful night at home, when I got a call on my cell. I didn't get to it in time and so I got a message. Guess who it was? Aaron! He has such a wonderfully rich, sexy voice. Anywho, I have that message saved. He asked me to call him back, so I did. He inquired if I was going to the bonfire, at which point I tole him my car situation. I asked him if he was going. He said, "well if you are, of course!" Then he offered to take me! I was so excited! I definitely accepted. I though it might have been a date. it wasn't, but I was majorly excited and I ran around the house frantically getting ready. Chanel came too. While there, we played Murder in the Dark. So I was able to hold his hand again. He he he...
That was my first call from a boy that I will count.


To be continued....

Just a little note to help you understand how nice it was for Aaron to pick me up. My parents live pretty far from the city. They are country dwellers on a hill overlooking a lake and the cities in the area. It takes a bit of time and gas to get out there, and so for Aaron to come pick me up kinda said a lot. Okay, this educational lesson is over.

Um, I'm going to spoil some of the upcoming goodness. The days that I am describing are an early part of a streak that Aaron and I had of seeing each other. We saw each other every day for a seriously long time. I don't know exactly when it started. If it didn't start the Sunday that I mention here, then it started a few days or even a week before. I wish I had a better record of it.

It's a chick!

I decided I would start being a good mom and do fun crafts and stuff with Morgan. But I couldn't think of much to do without construction paper. I've been wanting construction paper since we got married and have even had it on a few birthday and Christmas wish lists. So I finally buckled down and went and bought some. Nearly broke the bank too. Would you believe it if I told you I paid over ONE DOLLAR for it?? :)

So, with Easter approaching I thought we should do a nice spring animal. I did the cutting and some of the arranging, but Morgan did the gluing and facial arrangement.


When the eyes were glued in place I got out a crayon to color a pupil in. I did one eye and then let Morgan do the other.
He's very happy with his little chick. I hung it on our coat closet door and Morgan gets excited every time he sees it.
We've since done an paper Easter egg with colorful shapes glued all over it. Morgan is very proud of that creation too.

Snow and food

Do you see this? Horrible! This was, I think, Monday morning, but is, unfortunately, accurate for almost every day. It is snowing as I type this. I. Am. Sick. Of. It.But I'm not sick of Aaron's cooking. My wonderful husband cooks dinner every Sunday night. He's been trying new and delicious recipes. Here we have pork fried rice and sweet and sour pork. It was lovely, but not as lovely as the sesame chicken from a week or two before.

And here's what the kitchen looks like after Aaron cooks. :) But I'm just happy he takes a day of the week to cook. I'm liking the whole cooking-every-night thing less and less. So, thanks Aaron!