Merry Christmas

Hello everyone,

Here are a few pictures from the last fews days. The one in front of the fireplace is at Bill's Aunt and Uncle's and the one in the sled is from when we went to Gatlinburg, TN. Sorry about the red eye but I don't have the program to fix them right now.

It has been a very busy time and I don't have regular access to the internet. So I will try to give everyone a quick update on what is going on. We had a great time at Disney World it only rained on one day and not for very long but then it got cold. At least cold for Florida, it was in the lower 50's. Then when we got to North Carolina and it was warm, upper 60's. I am surprised that we all haven't gotten sick with all the weather up and downs. We are still in North Carolina and will be leaving here on Dec. 29th and we fly out at 8:45am Jan. 1 to Hawaii. Then we will not have to really worry about weather. Not much else going on, just doing some Christmas shopping and spending time with Bill's family. In case I don't get back on here to update more I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year.

Love,

Barbara

Kyle's 2008 Football Picture

So here he is our very own football player, Kyle Refenes. It is not a very good picture. I could of taken better pictures with my Kodak digital. In the team picture you can barely see the top row because of the glare which made them blurry and they placed some of the boys right in front of another and you can't even some of there faces. I would be even more upset if I couldn't see my child. If we wouldn't of paid so much for the pictures it wouldn't be a big deal but $40 for these two pictures and eight wallets is way to much for the poor quality. We are is the process of trying to get refunded for the group photos since you can't see half the team.

They did pretty good for being in the 125lb American League. They placed third and lost the play-offs for the championships. The American League is made up of teams that have been together since the Anklebiter weight class (75lbs). This year they didn't have enough teams in the American division so Fairfax county picked us to be in it since Fort Belvoir teams usually do well. But with only 1/2 of the 22 boys on the team have ever playing organized football and only 5 of them had played together before this year including Kyle, I would say they did great. The coaches were excellent in every way. They were great with teaching them how to play and also with everyday life, even being involved in the boys schools talking to the teachers and principles if there were problems. They could go to the coaches with anything and that is how it should be, life is not all about winning. Even though it does make life better but you have to take the good with the bad.

As for everything else that is going on. We took my car to Baltimore on Monday and it will be in Hawaii around December 22, so it will be waiting for us. We had to drive around for almost an hour to get the gas under 1/4 of a tank. I guess my car really gets good gas mileage. It was just a bit above the 1/4 mark and they said they couldn't take it so off we went and it took us an hour to get it down. So now I am car less and we all know how much I love to drive the truck.

We got our plane itinerary and we leave out of Reagan on January 1 at 8:45am and we get to Hawaii at 5:20pm. So no News Years celebrating for us we have to be at the airport at 6:45am, just in time to hit DC traffic.

Well that is about all for now, I have to get the stuff together for unaccompanied baggage tomorrow. And get the clothes washed to pack our suitcases. I just have to make it through til Thanksgiving and then it will all be over. That is what I keep telling myself anyways. Love to all.

Our 14th Anniversary

I really should of posted this before Halloween, but late is better than never. So our 14th anniversary was on October 23. We celebrated on October 22 because Kyle had football practice on the 23rd and so he couldn't watch his brothers. This is a picture of us at dinner at Mount Vernon (or George's house as Zack calls it). We live literally right down the street from George's house and have never been so we decide that for our anniversary we would go. We got up in the morning and got there around 9:30 am. Zack went with us because the boys were in school and he was very excited. We told him we were going where George Washington used to live and as we walked the grounds and went on the National Treasure tour (there is not really a tunnel from the Potomac River into the house) he kept asking when we were going to George's house, like he was just a friend of the family. We hadn't planned on taking him into George's house, we were going to do that after we took him home to Kyle when he got home of school at 3pm. But we just had to take him because he seemed so excited about it. As we are standing in line he starts saying we are going in to see George now, so we tell him we can't see George he isn't here. He is then very persistent as to why he isn't here and why we can't see him. We tell him that George is dead and he gets a little worried and asks what happened. We explain that George lived here a long time ago and he just got old and it was his time to go. He was happy with that explanation and as we are going through the house he had to tell all the tour guides that are in all the rooms that George isn't here because he is dead and that is why he can't see him. Then for like a week after he tells everyone that we went to George's house and George is dead. Everyone is then asking us who is George and what happen.

So at 3 pm we took Zack home to Kyle and went back to George's house. We walked around the grounds some more went to George's tomb and then at 6pm we went to dinner at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant. We were sitting in a back corner and after about 45 minutes we practically had that whole part of the restaurant to ourselves. The food and wine were great and we had a quiet romantic dinner.

The Best Picture of Papa Ever!

So we have decided that this is the best picture of Papa we have ever seen and so we decided to we had to post it. He is happy, healthy and full of life. We love you Papa. See you soon.

Our Halloween

Justin the Zombie, Zack the Gorilla, Kyle as Jack Sparrow
Here's our pumpkins

We had a great time on Halloween. We took the Zombie and Gorilla trick or treating where they raked in the candy and Jack Sparrow stayed home with a friend and gave out candy. I think Jack had way to much fun acting like he had to much rum. Daddy, I mean Jason, was walking real slow scaring people with his hockey mask on. (we didn't manage to get a picture of that) Then he got bored with the trick or treating and went back to the house and scared more people there. He would just stand by the bushes and then walk real out slow and follow real close behind them until they turned around. You could hear more than one teenage girl scream from three streets over. Then they would come back with friends for more. There were even a few guys he freaked out too.

Busy, busy, busy

It has been a bit since I have updated this blog, but with all the prep for moving and a little of just plain laziness I just haven't had time. You would think that since we don't have to pack anything or move it ourselves there wouldn't be much we have to do but because we have weight limits and like five separate shipments we have to go through and separate everything. Yes, that is right, I said five shipments. Some are more involved than others but they are all still there.
(Nov 17) First off we have my car to ship, sounds like a no brainer but we have to take everything except the spare tire out of it and it has to be cleaned inside and out and then we have to drive it up to Baltimore and when we drop it off it has to have less than 1/4 of a tank of gas in it. I don't know about all of you but I am not one for driving around in a city I don't know with almost no gas in my car. So we will probably be sitting in the parking lot with the car running after we get there to get the gas down where it needs to be.
(Nov 20) Second is our unaccompanied baggage which is 1000 lbs of stuff that will be shipped to be there before we arrive there. This consist of clothes, air mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillows, folding table and chairs, and other stuff that we might need when we get there before our regular shipment of household goods.
(Nov 20)Third is official military stuff which is uniforms, papers, books, awards and other thing job related. I guess we can't really call this one a shipment for this move because we are actually shipping most of this stuff in our unaccompanied or we are carrying it with us. But it still has to be separated. We could ship this stuff at no charge to our weight allowance but since we don't think we there is enough of it to put us over our weight allowance we are just including it with other shipments.
(By Nov 23)Fourth is our actual suitcases for our trips to North Carolina for Thanksgiving (Nov 26-30), back to Virginia for out processing (Dec 1-5), Florida for DisneyWorld (Dec 6-14), North Carolina for Christmas (Dec 15-28), back to Virginia to sell the truck to CarMax (Dec 29-31), then Washington DC airport for the trip to Hawaii (Jan 1-2). I guess this one really isn't a shipment either but we have to pack for a month into one suitcase and carry-on for each person. Since the airlines have now started charging for bags we are only reimbursed for so much. If necessary we can pay for more bags but I really don't want to and it is hard enough to get through the airport with 3 kids, 5 suitcases, and 5 carry-ons. Not to mention getting to and from the airports. This also has to be done before they come to pack all the rest of our stuff because they will literally pack anything that is not nailed down, in fact if there is trash in a trash can they will pack it with the trash in it. So anything that is not to be packed and shipped needs to be out of the house.
(Nov 24-26)So that brings us to our last shipment of everything else. Like I already said they will pack everything and they do it so fast you don't have time wipe any dust, through out the trash, or anything else. So basically you have to do a complete spring cleaning right before they come unless you want to unpack boxes with the dust and trash from your last house.

Update on Kyle's little finger

We went to the doctor today and she said that it does look like there is a crack in there, but it is hard to see because there is a vein that is right there that kinda blocks the view in the x-rays. They did not put a cast on it, they just taped the two fingers together and we go back in two weeks to take more x-rays. She said that if she sees there is new bone growth in the x-rays then she was right and it is fractured and she will see how it is healing then to see what to do next. So he can't play football, do any contact sports or lift anything with that hand.
As for the nurse at school, she said that she told Kyle to call me, but he said that if she did he didn't hear her. I am not real sure that she said it because Kyle would of called me. Her excuse to that was that alot of times kids just want her to call their parents because if an adult calls then they will come get them. I assured her that Kyle has no problems calling me if he needs or wants to be picked up. So then she also said that it was her job to make sure he did call and that she was sorry. Whatever, whats done is done, but I am sure that if he comes to her again for something she will remember his name and make sure that she pays attention to what is going on.