Turkey

Sean had a Family Turkey Project......

He was sent home a turkey to decorate with the instructions of we needed to disguise him so he would "survive" Thanksgiving.

Here is a letter similar to what we got: http://mrsnelsonsclass.com/downloads/pdf/themeunits/thanksgiving/familyturkey_letter.pdf

And here is a pdf file of the turkey we used: http://www.mrsnelsonsclass.com/downloads/pdf/themeunits/thanksgiving/familyturkey_turkey.pdf

and here is what Sean came up with:

God Bless Somer Thompson

God Bless this poor baby and her family........

Sheriff Said Body Found Matches Somer Thompson Birthmark, Clothing - ABC News

HAWAII PEOPLE, Blood Drive 10.13 NEX 12-4PM

Come support Operation Popp... Only THREE out of every 100 AMERICANS donate blood... During your lifetime you'll need blood, or know someone that needs blood, so donate and make a difference! SPREAD THE WORD HAWAII"Christian received two bl...ood transfusions at Children's Hospital, and we are so grateful to the strangers who donated their life-saving blood to our baby. On October 13 at the Pearl Harbor NEX, the blood bank of Tripler Army Med Center is holding a blood drive and is using Christian's story to get the word out about the importance of donating blood. Please consider dropping by that day to meet Christian and donate your blood, or if you live elsewhere, please go to your local blood bank - Mahalo! :)" The Popp Family

Update....

It's been such a long time since I blogged.....alot has happened.

We shipped our vehicles and flew out of Hawaii on August 18th. We landed in LA on the morning of the 19th and picked up our dog and picked up our explorer and headed out........Aloha Hawaii......alot of people have asked if I was sad, but honestly I think by that point I had made my peace with moving away from Hawaii. This was a good time to move.....we were able to buy a house in a community that we want to raise our kids in and put them in a good school district. So while it was hard to say goodbye to Hawaii, there is such potential in our future that by not making this move we would have made a mistake.

So the drive cross county wasn't horrible......the kids were good, the dog slept the entire way. We only had one mishap where Jake misunderstood me and LOCKED the keys in our running explorer....of course at that point neither of us had our phones on us.....haha. We had to rely on the kindness of strangers and are so thankful that someone was nice enough to let us use their cell phone. So beyond that everything went smooth.......we stayed in La Quinta Inn's across the country.....they had free stay for pets......that was nice. We stopped in Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, Louisiana, NAS Pensacola and finally spent two nights in a hotel in Jacksonville before we moved into our new house.

I was SO glad to get here....my tush HURT after sitting in a car that long........I also think the kids just needed to get out of the car.....but they rarely complained and were great.

I didn't take really any pictures.......by the time I thought to get the camera out I just wanted to go to bed! In fact many nights ended with us getting take out to eat in the hotel and then finding a good kid show for the boys to watch while we went to bed.....I was TIRED!

We are here and pretty much unpacked and Jammie even painted......I'll take some pictures soon enough. I am feeling lazy and trying to sort out some routine. I like it here though....it is weird thinking that I can't just drive down to Kailua Beach or walk across the street to my grocery store......but the good definitely outweighs the bad and we are very happy!

So look for some posts soon with pictures.....I promise!!

Meanwhile here are the boys on the first day of school.......well not really, but like the 3rd and 6th day of school! haha....it was a whirlwind getting moved in and getting them ready to go......

update on hurricane felicia

Looks like it will weaken enough to be a tropical depression when it passes or maybe even a tropical storm, but regardless we're still paying attention to it. They call the area ahead of the storm the "cone of error"....meaning it can go north, south or whatever but they thing that coned in area is the track the storm will take.......another person called it the cone of terror so whenever I hear the weathercasters call it the cone of error I giggle a bit.

anyway....latest scenario:

last week in Hawaii

Okay well really the last 11 days, but close enough!

i can't believe we are really almost done.....I know I've said that a billion times, but it still seems so crazy. I remember when we lived in Nevada and got our first set of orders to Hawaii....we were so young and Jake was only 5 months old. Hawaii seemed like a world away and a place we'd never live. I remember we flew to visit Hawaii on a C5 Air Force Plane on a military hop to "house hunt"......when the door to that plane opened the smack of the warm Hawaiian breeze and humidity was so refreshing......then we went to our hotel the Hale Koa Resort in Waikiki. We were in such awe that this was a military hotel in Hawai we could afford. We immediately fell in love with the resort and took as much advantage of it as possible.

http://www.halekoa.com/

Then we moved into our first home in the islands.......it was a older single story style home in Ewa Beach. I won't lie it was fun having the name "beach" in your address! That house was located right in the mouth of Pearl Harbor so we would be able to sit in our backyard and watch Naval Ships pull in and out all the time. Jake used to love watching the ships. We were also (unfortunately) in the flight path of the Honolulu Airport and Hickam AFB. While i wasn't nuts about planes zooming overhead it was neat to see fighter jets screaming by close enough to wave at the kids.....as you can imagine Jake LOVED watching that....Jammie was stationed at nearby NAS Barbers Point Hawaii and we loved that little base.

After 4 years of living in Ewa Beach Jammie decided it was time to make a job change and applied for Flight Engineer School which took us to Jacksonville Florida. I remember being VERY sad to leave Hawaii......I mean this place has the best weather and beaches I have ever been exposed to. However as you know that separation wasn't very long.....after he finished his schooling in Florida we received orders BACK to Hawaii and to the base we live on now, Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. They closed our first base, NAS Barbers Point Hawaii and moved all the Navy Squadrons over to the Marine Corps Base. I was happy because I really enjoyed the Windward side of the island more than the Leeward Side. The Windward Side is lush and cooler and seems more like traditional Hawaii than the drier hotter Leeward Side.

Living on MCBH for two tours was amazing.....we didn't have the largest house or even central a/c, but we lived about 5 minutes from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and just really enjoyed the laid back aloha lifestyle that we were given the opportunity to live. We had Sean during our second tour (Jake was born in Nevada) and I think Sean will always enjoy being able to say "I was born in Hawaii." We've met some amazing people and were able to go to Maui, Kauai and the Big Island while living here.....I am so glad we did that.

We've lived in two houses on the Marine Corps Base. The first house was a tiny 2 bedroom one bath and the second house was a 3 bedroom 2 bath townhouse......it wasn't big, but it was ours and was enough. We were just lucky to live in Hawaii. I remember when we moved into our second house how excited we were! It was within walking distance of the schools and the store......and it felt big......now I sit here anxious to get out of it as I feel like I am bursting at the seams........i guess that is a sign to move forward.

Hawaii will always hold a special place in my heart......I looked and looked for the perfect souvenier to take back with me to remember how amazing this state truly is, but you can't bottle Hawaii. You can take a million pictures to try and capture the beauty, but unless you are in the picture with the warm tradewinds, sweet plumerias and salty ocean you can't truly understand how amazing Hawaii is. So we'll start a fund.....yes already a travel fund to hopefully get back to our island someday to sit at the Hale Koa with our lava flows......and remember how lucky we were to live Hawaii.....

seriously?????

Keep your fingers crossed that the low level winds and the cooler waters will slow this sucker down....honestly if it gets here that will be my LAST week in Hawaii. I don't want to spend my last week in Hawaii dodging a hurricane.......sigh.......

You can keep track of the hurricane here:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_ep3+shtml/202943.shtml?5-daynl

house update as of 7.30

Well we're really winding down in Hawaii now....we only have about 2.5 weeks left! I can't believe it's going so fast.......

Anyway we are moving foward and looking towards the future with much excitement......

Here are the latest pictures of the house. We now might not close until we get to Florida. We're worried we will be too busy the last couple of days here to sit down and actually do the work to close from here....so now it seems we might just close when we get there, which is fine with us. It is almost our house and everything is moving smoothly. Actually our house hold goods just arrived in Jacksonville Florida so we are READY to move!!! I miss my bed!!!

Okay the latest pictures.......

Looking into the backyard from our bedroom:

Looking toward the dining nook/kitchen/sliding door leading to the backyard....

Looking toward front door and kitchen.....and woot a fridge!

kitchen

kitchen again......

and the house...with GRASS! haha.....it really looks like a house now......

neat piece of family history

This appeared on June 25, 2009 in the Westmoreland Recorder 100 Year Items

William Harrington (of Lillis/Blaine) returned from Kansas City with a new automobile. The first one he was test driving broke down and had to be towed with a team of mules. While towing, the car got loose, and struck one of the mules, breaking it's leg, whereupon the mule struck out with the other leg, breaking the car's caarbide illuminator-sending it into the cornfield. Mr. Harrington brought home a 20 horse power Maxwell, and took Dr. Smithheistler out for a ride. The doctor was required to help push the car up the hill occasionally.

And then in the Recorder, Thurs July 9, 2009 100 year Items

""William Harrington of Blaine reported that his new auto was as good as a milking machine. Seems local boys were milking his cows in exchange for a ride.""

William Harrington is my Great Grandfather (the one sitting behind the wheel).....kind of neat! I guess he was one of the richest men in the county at the time obviously since he was the first man in the county to own a car. Apparently he lost everything in the Great Depression though.....

My dad sent this in an email to me and I really thought it was a neat piece of history.....

New House Pics as of 7.24.09

this is our bedroom......look we have carpet now!!!!!!!! I hope that a/c unit is quiet. I just noticed it was outside of our bedroom.

kitchen....nothing really new done in here since last time....
looking from the breakfast nook into the living room........

boys bathroom....

we figured out this is sean's bedroom. he was SO excited to see that!

entrance to the boys rooms......sean is on the left, jake is on the right....

dining room but we are 75% sure we are making this a tv room for the boys. eventually we plan on ripping up the carpet in the living room and this room and putting hardwood down. I hate the thought of this being the place you eat and it has carpet? who puts carpet in a dining room? I don't like that idea. I still hate this light fixture by the way.

front of the house........

so that is it. we don't have much left really to do in hawaii but clear out and ship our final shipment and Jammie's car. I hope the next set of pictures we get have appliances in them and mirrors!