two big updates

i guess there are two main things to update....

1 - Aaron got a job. YEAH! i'm so excited for that magical day when i can log in to our checking account and instead of crying, i can see money magically deposited. it's a special day, my favorite day - it's payday!! well, at the end of April it will be payday as they only pay once a month and it's a month out, but still... a payday on the horizon - what more could a girl ask for. :)

Aaron got a job in D.C., so once again we'll be working our way east. i waited to post about it untill he made it past his 8th day on the job. (the last company let him go on the 8th day) He's been gone now for 7 weeks, and while i'm terribly lonely, i'm just grateful he has a job. I'm staying behind to sell the house - which we're realizing we'll never get enough for it in this market - so we'll hopefully be able to rent it out. (if you know of anyone looking to rent - send them our way) Aaron will try to fly home once a month to help keep the children alive. i don't know what i'd do without his parents here to help out. seriously - kudos to all the single mom's and military mom's out there. you are amazing, strong women.

About three weeks after Aaron left, i had a HUGE melt down on Noah. his sassy streak had gone too far and patient momma was gone. it was getting late, he was getting ready for bed and i told him that before he could get in bed he needed to put all his clothes away...

me: Noah, before you go to bed, I need you to put these clothes away that i washed for you today.

noah: i don't think that's fair.

me: excuse me?

noah: well, you're the one that took them out of my room, so i think you should be the one to put them away.

(we've actually had this exact conversation before, so i was surprised he was going for it again)

me: are you kidding me? we've talked about this - i wash your clothes and you put them away. if you keep that train of thought up, then you will start washing your clothes and can then put them away and if you keep this up, you'll be cooking for yourself as well.

noah: that's not fair mom! i'm only 8 and 8-year-olds should have to wash their own clothes. i've been thinking about it and i do think it's fair that if you take something out of my room - then you should put it where it goes when you bring it back and i don't appreciate you getting mad at me and talking to me that way, it's mean!

anyway - at this point patient momma patted me on the back and wished me luck as she headed for the door. poor noah - he never stood a chance. eventually, after a rather loud conversation, we were able to come to terms on who puts the laundry away and what's an appropriate way to talk to mom and what will no longer be tolerated. man, it's tough being a kid AND having to be respectful. poor, poor noah.

Thankfully - we haven't had any more big problems since that talk. In fact, he's been a huge help and an absolute champ. I knew he had it in him!


update number 2 - noah turned 8!! he gets to have a birthday party (with friends) every other year and this year was that year. he wanted to have a Batman party, so i researched ideas online and found the perfect plan. thanks to a couple of friends who were able to talk me down off that overkill ledge, i was actually able to simplify it quite a bit. to give you a very Readers Digest version - it went something like this:

all the B.A.T. agents received an invitation telling them five criminals escaped the asylum and were going to ruin Noah's birthday.







the rest of the pages had "bio's" on the Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Harley Quinn.


once they arrived they all got Batman t-shirts, that i made, and batarangs for target practice (thank you Marshall for letting me use the laser cutter at your school! the batarangs would have never turned out right if i had to have cut them all by hand)

Once the kids were outfitted we went to Gotham museum where we met Madame Q, (thanks Anna!) the museum curator.

The museum had newly installed "laser beams" that protected noah's present from the escaped criminals. The walls were decorated with priceless art work. (earlier in the week i handed out coloring pages to the kids who were coming and then collected the colored pages and put them up in the room)

from there we went downstairs to the Batcave and the kids practiced going through the "laser beams"

After all the kids got a turn to make it through the "laser beams" and collect some candy, we went out to the garage to practice throwing the Batarangs. while in the garage we got a phone call from Batman telling us to meet him in the Batcave because he'd caught The Penguin (Thanks Kjerstin - my 6-year old neighbor).

so we all ran to the Batcave. a few minutes later Batman (thank you Rob!) came in carrying The Penguin. when he put her down he pulled out two big bags full of Penguin bombs that had to be destroyed. He then emptied the bags containing 30 white balloons that had bouncy balls in them. the kids popped all the balloons and put them in a bomb transporter container and followed Batman out to the garage to the Bomb Incinerator. Batman dumped the bombs in a large garbage can (the bomb incinerator) and the kids cheered as the bombs blew up. (Batman also dropped 4 mentos into a 2-liter of diet coke that was in the bomb incinerator and that exploded out of the can. the kids loved it)

Batman then left and a few minutes later an alarm went off (Thanks Emma, my side kick, for setting off the car alarm) and we all ran to the museum to find out that the present had been stolen and in it's place was a black box. One of the kids retrieved the box and we ran to the Batcave where we discovered a bomb and 14 paper bags inside...

each kid got a bag, which was a puzzle that spelled out a word...

after everyone had their words put together we unscrambled them to find a poem that helped us diffuse the bomb. the birthday boy got to cut the wire and save the day. As we were cheering we got another call from Batman who told us that the Gotham City Bank was going to be robbed. (thank you Cynthia for making such an awesome safe for my Gotham City Bank) ...





we ran upstairs and hid, waiting for the criminals to show up. Mr. Freeze (thanks Wade!) and the Riddler (thanks Jessie!) came around the corner and on my command we all attacked them with our Batarangs. In a short time they were all captured and tied up with The Penguin on the couch. While we were tying them up, Madame Q captured Agent M (Emma) and revealed herself to be Harley Quinn! while she held Agent M hostage The Joker (thanks Josh) came in with his liquid N2O (dry ice in a bucket he poured water over to make it smoke) and was going to destroy us all. Thankfully Batman showed up and after a dramatic Batman vs. Joker fight - Batman was able to save the day.

it turned out better then i could have ever hoped for thanks to all my friends who helped out with the characters and for Megan who followed us around and helped things go smoothly behind the scenes and for grandma Walker who helped make the bank so perfect. i wish i had pictures of the actually party, but i was too busy playing the part of Director Walker and leading the kids. Thankfully two of my nephews were freaking awesome and followed us around with video camera's and will make us a video of it. Thanks Marshall and Logan!!!!! The best part was that Aaron was able to fly home for that weekend and be here for the party.


well, that's the two big updates for now. noah's happy, reagan is as adorable as she could possibly be and if we only lived on the same side of the country as aaron does - things would be perfect.