Boy do we have alot to catch up on!! My 40th birthday has come and gone and I have to say I am like fine wine...I get better with age! hahaha....

My actual birthday was spent ferrying kids from school and back and around and over and up and down...Mark was on duty so dinner was simple and uneventful....and I quietly turned 40 without much hoopla...but little did I know that was about to change!

Saturday the 23rd of September was Ben's actual birthday, but we were having his party the following day (Sunday afternoon), so that found us having to run errands on Saturday. Mark had been on duty on Friday and came home bright and early Saturday morning and made me get out of bed and rush around to get ready. He was being rather persistant and really started to bug me! We had four stops to make, and Mark was rushing me at each stop...and kept looking at his watch and telling me to 'come on..lets get going!'. At one point, I looked at him and said "I don't know what crawled up your butt and died but you are starting to really bug me!"...hehehe...(at this point, I was still unaware that he had a master plan in the works). We arrived home with all our errands run (pick up Bens birthday cake, Costco, a new winter coat for Paige, crickets for the lizard) and Mark was still rushing me! UGH! I walked into a house full of balloons and people and food! What a surprise!! No wonder Mark was rushing me! I had a party to get to! It was such fun. Our very dear, wonderful, glorious friends from Whidbey Island came up for the weekend (they just LOVE me! )....along with all my other wonderful friends (I have surrounded myself with a group of true blue, tried and true people!)....Mark had chicken and Brats for the grill (Brats are a kind of sausage, not bad kids for all you Non-Wisconsinites!)....a pasta salad had been donated to the cause and Lumpia (read a previous post to find out what those are!) was cooked and ready to eat..I was truly spoiled...I received many wonderful gifts and cards and so a big huge THANK YOU to everyone who remembered me as I turned 40!! You are all awesome and all are greatly loved....I don't know what I would do without any one of you....you are each unique and bring something wonderful into my life....True friends are hard to find but I have been blessed to find a whole group! YAY for me!!

Hugs and love
Mark,Jaye and Gang

With my 40th (yup...you read that right...40th!!) birthday just around the corner (the 18th in case you want to send me a card! haha), Mark gave me my present early...and WHAT a present it is too! I am using it right now to do this blog! As you can see, I have alot of things to figure out on how to use this wonderful gift...I hate to admit it (and my brother hates it EVEN more so!) but I am so technologically challenged that it isn't even funny. My brother Aaron got all the 'computer brains' and I got what was left...and yes, Dad, before you even say it, 'that doesn't leave much'! Funny guy!

So while Mark heads up into the mountains to go hunting again, I will be spending a good part of the weekend at home figuring out how all the bells and whistles work on this thing!

The kids and I are going to see a double feature tonight...Barnyard and The Ant Bully. Should be good. Other than that (and figuring out this new laptop) it should be a pretty relaxing weekend!

Hugs and love,
Mark,Jaye and Gang

Where were you? Like the day that JFK was assasinated, we can all say exactly where we were and what we were doing when the events of September 11 unfolded five years ago.

Mark and I had only been in Bremerton five months. I was VERY pregnant with Ben, and was up early that morning getting the kids ready for school. Paige and Sam were watching cartoons, so I was unaware as to what was going on. Mark was still in bed. Mom phoned and asked if I was watching the news...and I said no...cartoons are on. She said 'you need to turn on the TV'....we hung up and I did. It was at that time that the smoke was billowing from the first tower hit and the second plane had just hit. I knew instantly that I had to get Mark up. He came out and took one look at the TV and started making phone calls. He knew he had to get in touch with his command and get on base. He was told that the base had been closed and the subs were all already heading out to sea. He was to not even try to get on base, but to keep in touch throughout the day.

I could tell that Mark felt 'powerless'. He felt he should be on that boat....some of his shipmates were headed out to sea and no-one knew for how long they would stay out there. He was getting antsy. So I suggested we go and try to watch the subs leave through the Hood Canal bridge. By this time, Katie and Sam were already at school. We felt they needed to keep a routine, at least for right now. So Mark and Paige and I headed to the waterfront. We couldn't get NEAR the bridge so took a road along the waterfront. We stopped and asked a man out in his yard if there was public beach access anywhere as we wanted to watch Marks sub leave. He graciously let us tramp across his yard and sit on the beach in front of his house. We watched the boat leave and silently said a prayer for their safety and safe return.

I have a picture on my entertainment center that I will never take down. It is a picture of Paige, playing with rocks on the beach...the wind gently blowing her head of golden curls...the date stamped on the bottom right corner is 9/11/01. It is a picture of gleeful innocence taken during the very minutes that the country she is living in was being forever changed.


After the beach, we headed into town to the Red Cross. They couldn't take my blood (being pregnant) and merely took down Marks name and blood type on a roster. Why? Because the town we live in is a military town right to the core and so The Red Cross had so many people lined up in front of their building, and down the block, and around the corner, that they didn't need anymore donors at that time. By days end, the American Flag was flying from anyplace possible, homes, cars, businesses.....and our town pulled together and hunkered down for the long haul.

We are still reminded every day of the events of Sept 11/01. When going on base now, we have to pass through a very tight security barrier that was erected after the attacks. There is an 'alert' status board when we go into the Commissary parking lot. And the Flag still flies, although not in such profussion, definately in more places than before the attacks. Living in a military town, we see reminders every day and we will never forget.

May those of you not faced with these daily reminders never forget either. May we always remember the solidarity that was shown that day. How strangers hugged...how people reached out to others....lets not let these actions be reserved for times of crisis. Lets always reach out to our fellow man. It is in this way that we show those cowards that America was not weakened by their acts.

Much love,
Mark, Jaye and Gang

Well it's official! I now have NO children at home in the mornings! Ben went for his first 'real' day of Kindergarden yesterday. He rode the bus with Paige in the morning (she looks thrilled doesn't she?) and did the full three hours at school. When I picked him up at 11:30 I asked him what his favorite part of Kindergarden was. In typical boy fashion he said "Recess".....better than zero percent! hahaha.....

So now I drop the kids off, come home and work out, shower and cram an hour and a half of homework into my brain before I go back to get him....

I must say it's awfully quiet around here in the mornings now...even Morpheus notices and follows me everywhere meowing! :)

So...off to start my day!

Hugs and Love,
Mark, Jaye and Gang

September 5th...the first day after the Labour Day long weekend can only mean one thing...school is back in! Sam started High school! Paige had her first day of grade two, and Ben started kindergarden! as you can see from the pictures (Sam wouldn't let me take one of him this morning!), Paige is MUCH more sophisticated about 'going back to school' than Ben is! :)

Ben only had an hour of school today and it was more of a 'parent orientation' than actual Kindergarden. The kids were taken to the library and had a story read to them whilst us parents learned the ropes of kindergarden (after four kids I could stand at the front of the room and tell them what it's all about! haha). So afterwards, I asked Ben how he liked Kindergarden so far. His answer? "Zero percent". I guess we can only go UP from here! Tomorrow will be his first 'real' day, which will consist of taking the bus with Paige in the morning (she's told him if he is late for school he has to go to the principals office. Gotta LOVE big sisters!), and the full two and a half hours in class. We'll see if we do better than 'zero percent' tomorrow!

It will be nice to get back into our regular routine, and after volunteering one morning a week in Paiges class, and one morning a week in Bens, I will still have three whole mornings a week to have uninterupted, quality HOMEWORK time as I want to finish my degree this year!

So here's to all of you parents who are wiping the sweat of your brows and are glad that school is back in!

Hugs and Love,
Mark,Jaye and Gang

What a fun Labour Day long weekend we had! We spent four days in Eastern Washington, in the middle of God Knows Where, just outside a little town called "Naches" (pronounced sorta like Na- cheese). Eastern Washington is very much like a desert climate. Dry, Dusty, Dry, Dusty, and more dry! :) So there we were, three women, three men, six kids, four dogs, no showers and no potties (ok, Bobbi and Stephanie are wimps and had motor homes/campers with toilets!)....the guys went out before first light every day and scouted and 'hunted' (I use the term loosely because Hunting actually implies seeing an animal that is huntable! hahaha), then came 'home' midday to have lunch and family time, then headed out before dusk to 'hunt' again. They did see quite a few does (it's deer season) but only three point bucks or better were 'huntable'. As you can see, the scenery was gorgeous....and Mark looks rather daper in his hunting garb! I was teasing the kids all weekend that I couldn't find daddy as he was in camoflauge! hahaha.....There was a creek by our campsite which we explored...and we managed to get up to the top of one of the peaks, after going over MAJOR rocks and bumps and getting whiplash I might add! :)....but the meadow at the top was worth the ride (not to mention the LUXERY of an outhouse! WAHOO....). The guys all plan on spending the next few weekends up there as Elk season opens (all the guys are bow hunting) on Friday....maybe our freezers will be filled up yet!

On the way home we had quite the adventure. All four vehicles in our convoy had trouble! Marks pick up blew the alternator (cheap fix that only took ten minutes thank heavens), another couples jeep over heated and wouldn't start for awhile, the other couples truck had the accelerator stick, and on the way down the mountain, after all was fixed and ok again, MY vans tire pressure light came on! Good Grief! I was saying that in the old days, women were not allowed aboard ships as it was considered bad luck.....I was wondering if the same was to be said for women on hunting trips after all our vehicle trouble!!

We stopped in Yakima on the way home and picked up 40 ears of corn (to be decobbed and frozen...and YES, Dad, decobbed is a word!)....a case of peaches....some hot peppers and a few zucchinis......yummers.

So now we are back home and are still getting all the hunting/camping stuff put away and organized. But still a wonderful way to end the summer.....and the weather is holding up and being quite glorious for this time of year!

Hugs and love
Mark,Jaye and Gang