A few months ago word of the Iraq deployment extensions leaked to the media. Most of the family members found out about the extensions via CNN. Soldiers in Iraq found out from spouses because the command over there had yet to announce the extension. Of course, this was spun as a GOOD thing for Soldiers. They would be GUARANTEED 12 months at home. It would provide predictability and stability for the families. Oh, and they would get THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Woo-hoo! Three thousand dollar...

My problem:  Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Mozilla Firefox gets hung and will not respond/open pages.  I am not able to click on anything as the mouse-thingie is an hourglass. I have looked for a troubleshooting FAQ, but I haven't found anything helpful yet.  I am not sure I understand the problem and I am too scared/unskilled to do anything beyond rebooting without some confirmation that I am doing the right thing.   

I am having a bit of a body crisis right now. I have lost all my pregnancy weight. In fact, I weigh about 30 lbs. less now than I did pre-pregnancy. I haven't worked hard to lose this weight. It's all due to breastfeeding. However, I have apparently lost all I'm going to lose without effort on my part. I am still about 8 lbs overweight, but I could lose plenty more and not waste away. Somehow I had managed to convince myself that it was ok for me to look the way I do. Not that I ha...

Izzy is now officially walking. She has been taking a single step and then standing still or plopping down for some time, but last night she got brave and began taking several consecutive steps. Below is a short clip of her walking. She took much longer "walks" but this is best video I got. Mommy is not quick enough with the camera. She is 8 months, 6 days old. Isn't she amazing? undefined Izzy Walking 8/4 Add to My Profile | More Videos

I'm going to tell you a tale of flowers and money and ruined surprises... It was a dark and stormy night. Err...it was a couple of days ago and my phone rang and it said FTD on the caller ID. The lady on the line asked for Adrian and I told her he wasn't home at that moment. She was about to hang up when I decided, hey, this lady from FTD is probably not going to come stalk me and kill me, so I told her he was deployed. She then apologized because she had ruined a surprise. Adria...

I finally got Izzy in her for her...umm...6 month pictures. Ok, so she's 8 months now. She was smiling and happy until (and after) she went into the photo room. She was pretty somber, but the pics still turned out precious. There were some other great pics that are not on my CD for some reason, so I will share them when the photos come in. Here she is: Hopefully her next pictures will have her daddy in them!

Isabella is a bit young for them yet, but I have found the most wonderful dolls ever. They are Mini Mamas nursing dolls. These dolls can be customized to look like mommy and baby (or toddler) and daddies are available too. The mommies come with a sling for the baby. Mommy and baby have complementary magnets to "latch" the baby on to nurse. I am really excited about these toys, although I wish there were more similar items available. Baby dolls always come with bottles. Baby clip ...

The boys started back to school today and the baby is asleep and my house is so quiet. I have lots of work to do, but I don't want to wake the baby so obviously the only thing I *can* do is play online and eat leftover cheesy bread. Obviously. I am hoping this year will be a good one for the boys. Xavier's teacher seemed really nice and I told him so and I told him that he should try to make a great first impression. I am hoping he will get his year off to a pleasant, productive start so ...

School starts back up for my boys on Wednesday, and I am determined to not make the same mistakes I did last school year. I want to be more consistent with my expectations of my children, more involved in their education, and more structured so that they succeed. I feel that I have passed some lazy habits and attitudes toward school to my children, and I want to correct that while they are still young. It's not that I have not tried to encourage them or be involved or set boundaries previou...

Here's me: Adrian: Xavier: Orian: Izzy: Try it out, (www.simpsonizeme.com) and don't forget to share!

As promised, here are the pics from our trip to the Kwik-E-Mart in Dallas. I was disappointed to discover that Duff beer was not one of the items available for purchase, but it will still really cool.

I am so exhausted. It might be jet lag or it could just be life. Although I kinda think it's probably jet lag. We flew back to Hawaii on Wednesday. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone. My family has some issues and it was hard to leave knowing those issues were not resolved. I had so much fun in Texas, though. I spent most of the time staying with my brother and his wife. We hadn't seen each other in years, and it was nice to reconnect and get to know them again. I really enjoyed t...

Yesterday I got to meet my second JoeUser. Locamama and her brood and me and my brood met up at the Fort Worth Science and History museum to check out the Star Wars exhibit. The place was paaaaaacked. I didn't know if I would be able to find Amy because I had never seen a photo of her before. And neither have any of you...until now! So I stood in the entrance looking squinty and stupid, trying to sleuth out someone both loca and a mama. The line for tickets twisted, turned, and then...

One of my mommy friends that I met online lives not too far from where I am visiting family. She has a baby boy the same age as Izzy (ok, a couple weeks older), and we met up at a beautiful park on the lake to talk and let the kids play. It is always nerve-wracking meeting someone IRL for the first time. You never know if you will get along with them the same way, and you never know if how they look in pictures is a good reflection of how they look in 3-D, moving and talking. My friend ...