Whew! What a day!

So we WAY broke our "only one outing a day" rule today. But the truth is, we had to. JB is on call tomorrow so this was our only "weekend" day to get things done that needed to get done before our trip. We head out on Friday so today was our day to get all our ducks in a row.

So, a recap of our very busy (and very exhausting) Saturday.

Elijah got up at 5:30 but decided to have mercy on us and go back to sleep until 6:30. That was nice. At 6:30, I got up to feed Elijah, and JB decided to do some studying. He has a big "doctor" test on Friday and is trying to be diligent and study a certain number of pages in his study book each day.

While he was reading and I was getting some packing done and Elijah was playing by his feet and Isaac was still in bed and Scrubs was outside doing his business, JB heard a thud. A bird had flown into our front window and was lying on the pavement.

Have I mentioned that I love my husband's appreciation for nature? I give him a hard time sometimes, but he truly loves animals and plants and the outdoors in all ways. I think cockroaches and flies are the only animals that John does not find absolutely fascinating. So he was thrilled to be able to get up close and personal with, what he later told me, was an adult male yellow bellied sapsucker. Here's a few snaps of him and the bird:

JB spent awhile with the bird. He was really hoping that it was just stunned and not suffering from a broken back or neck. To his great relief, the bird suddenly got his strength back and flew off. The only sad thing was that Isaac was still asleep and didn't get to witness the really cool event. Elijah was there but didn't seem to think it was way cool at all.

Okay, so after that, Isaac woke up, and I fed both boys breakfast. Then we were off.

Our first stop was the mechanics with our van. The "check engine" light had come on during my drive home from Fort Lauderdale, and we wanted to get it checked before we did another long drive next week. We piled both boys into the Saturn (which is only possible by us pushing our seats WAY up so our knees are in our throats and removing the head rest from Elijah's seat) and headed to the post office. From the post office we headed to the Niceville church. Joia had told us about their "family day" on Saturday where there is a petting zoo and pumpkin patch. Bummer though. The zoo part didn't open until 11:00. We were an hour early. So we headed home instead.

So off to the BX. We had to get a new phone. Our dumb portable, despite changing the batteries, has been dying a very slow death. Every time we talk on it we get less and less time before the low-battery-beeping-symphony begins. If you leave it in the cradle all the time, you still only have about twenty minutes before your time is up. Good thing I am not a big phone talker! But it's soooo annoying. Anyways, time for a new phone and some other incidentals.

From the BX it was across the parking lot to the Commissary where the boys held on to the steering wheels in their car cart for dear life. Elijah has started to try and get Isaac's wheel which doesn't go over well at all, so we are learning how to use our own wheel. Or trying to learn anyways.

After the Commissary it was back home for lunch. I have fallen IN LOVE with Lil' Graduates from Gerber. Ordinarily, JB and I are really against "pre-packaged" food. However, I have had a heck of a time coming up with lunches and dinners for the boys lately. Elijah is eating nearly everything Isaac is now (just in smaller pieces) so the Lil' Graduates are FANTASTIC. It has a main dish and a vegetable. The boys split one and then I add a fruit baby food and some finger food (like cheese or cheerios or something fun) and WA-LA! I have a meal for them. I really want to expose them to a lot of foods, but it gets hard. Usually the boys eat dinner between 5:30 and 6:00. If JB is on an easy rotation, we eat dinner then, as a family, and we feed them some of what John has made. However, many times, JB doesn't get home until way after they eat dinner. I therefore am left to figure out a lunch and a dinner for them. These are really helping to fill in the gaps when I just don't want to give them more jelly sandwiches! Yipeee!

Anyways, so we had that for lunch, and the boys went down for naps, and then I played a little Frisbee with Scrubs. Then Scrubs and I took a nap in the bedroom while JB ran back out to make a stop at the library and the dry cleaner.

He came back again, Elijah was waking up, and we did some other little things to get ready for our trip before Isaac woke up and we headed back out again!

We made a quick stop back at the Pumpkin Patch and Petting Zoo again. We had a great time, and we got some fun pictures.

JB telling Isaac about the Boer goat.

After that, it was off to Philip & Joia's house. We dropped Isaac off to play with Keenan and the AWESOME KENDRA who agreed to watch the older boys while parents and babies went to a function at one of the staff doctor's houses. They were having a bit of a "hash" -- a time when the staff talked to the graduating residents about different bases that they have gone to.

As I think I have mentioned before, next month we have to finalize our "dream sheet." This is where we rank the 20 bases we would like to go to come June. We will be moving somewhere in June, but we won't find out until the spring which one of our dream sheet locations (or a location that the Air Force thought should be on our dream sheet) we are going to. This "hash" was designed to help us figure out how we should rank our locations.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures from the event, but I saw Joia's camera out a bunch so hopefully I can link to her blog come tomorrow and you can see that event as well.

After that it was off to pick up our van which had the light on simply because we were in need of a 60,000 mile check-up. Geeesh. All that for nothing. A quick stop at Burger King for some $1 double cheeseburgers and then back to the house for dinner, milk, and bed.

I told you this was a busy day.

It's 8:10, and I am ready for bed. Nite folks!

Here is Joia's link to the HASH with a couple of pics.