SOME OF MY LITTLE GHOSTS & GOBLINS......

I had a fun Halloween (as usual) .... I helped Traci with the ER Party she was in charge of on Friday night and then because she worked on Halloween and because I had Jeff & Christa and Heather & Rowan here with me we asked Traci if we could pick up her kids (because she had to work) and take them with us to Melissa's. We got all but Sophia. She went to her friends house.
Here is Rowan in Caden's arms and Isabel and Andrew! Caden was Gilligan, Rowan was Incrediboy, Isabel was a pretty little Witch and Andrew was a little Monster!

We went to Melissa's neighborhood.

WOW, was it ever busy! The girls (Melissa & Deedra) couldn't contain their anxious little kids so were already out and about. We took off with our little brood and went down one side of the street and then crossed over (same street, saw Melissa & Deedra, talked for a few seconds) and made our way back to Melissa's. Becky was good enough to take our picture when we got back to the house.

Rowan was happy just to ride in his stroller and watch all the little goblins go by!

This was the "Scary Uncle Jeff" ......I love the look Rowan is giving him and Andrew was just anxious to get the show on the road~

This is the kids and their Halloween Escorts! It was a fun night.

DON'T HATE ME BECAUSE I'M BEAUTIFUL !!!

He, hee, he!!!

MY HUBBY'S BEING MOVED.....

I got a call from Tony this morning (Wednesday, 11Am my time and 8PM his time) and he is being moved from Baghdad to Mosul tomorrow. (Thursday morning) So while I'm sleeping, he'll be moving north in Iraq. He has heard that Mosul is really quite nice. Temperature right now is in the 80's. Sounds good to me as it has been pretty darn cold here in Idaho lately!
This is a picture of some old houses in Mosul on the banks of the Tigris River.

Mosul is 396 km north of Baghdad and is Iraq's 2nd largest city with approximately 570,000 inhabitants. It is a major center for tourist resorts, trade industry and communications in Northern Iraq. It is sometimes described as the Pearl of the North. Today's word muslin (fabric) is derived from the name of the city.
Tony is excited to finally get to a place where he can unpack his bags and feel settled. He was hoping to get to see Curtis before leaving. He sounds good and said he is healthy and well.
I sure do miss him!

THE TRANSFORMATION IS WORKING..........

I was elated to get on the scales this morning and see that I'm down 19 pounds so far!!
OH HAPPY DAY !!
I've been on a plateau for a while now and I was getting a bit frustrated but ALAS this morning I dropped 1 1/2 pounds.
Good eatin and THIslim are working miracles! LOL

Tony won't be able to keep his hand off me come February! LOL
ACTUALLY......
I know I could still be a Butterball and he would LOVE me no less!!

The real test of my weight loss will be when my boss actually notices and says something.

I await the day!

MY BELOVED TONY IS SAFE IN A WAR ZONE !!

I was sound asleep this morning when I shot out of bed at 3:30 am when I heard my cell ringing! It was Curtis calling (bless his heart) to tell me Tony had arrived safely.

YAY! I'm so happy all is well! Now I can't wait to hear from him personally! I sure hope he and Curtis will be in the same location. Curtis said he would be going to the same camp he was sent to when he 1st arrived for a couple of days of training and then who knows. Maybe they will be camp buddies! SURE HOPE SO!

OH GREAT....DID I SAY THAT ???

Tony called me this morning at 10:30 to say he would be flying out this evening at 6:30. He is going to London England, then to Dubai and then to Iraq. He should arrive sometime Tuesday morning. We will have one more opportunity to speak on the phone just before he boards the plane until he is settled and able to get to a computer etc. I await his call........ BUT, just to let you know what happened in Relief Society this morning.......
At the beginning of R.S. the sister conducting always asks if anyone has "good news". Well, I told them last week that Tony had work again and had flown out just hours before to Houston and then would be going to Iraq. Well, Mom Norton was in S.L.C. at the time so she didn't hear me tell them ....SO this morning when they asked she proceeded to tell them again. One of the sister's asked me "who is he working for and how long will he be gone"? I told her KBR and it is a year contract. I then said
"he can come home for 10 days every 4 months so he will be home the end of February or the 1st of March and then I'll be on him like a rat on a Cheeto"!

EVERYONE burst out laughing and suddenly I felt my face go red hot!
As it turns out the lesson was on ..."FAMILY, THE SWEETEST UNION, FOR TIME AND FOR ETERNITY." The teacher talked about how the Prophet Joseph taught the men in the church to love and cherish their wives and to treat them as an equal and not a possession. One sister, Kalynn Miller who lost her husband to diabetes recently, stood and told us that she had gone for a walk this week and that she started to cry and be angry at her husband for leaving her. She said she missed reaching out to him at night to touch his face, she missed their talks, reading together etc. She said he must have known he was going to die because every time she would come in the room with him, he would tell her how much he loved her to the point she was sick of hearing it. Then she said to me
"LaVerne, Tony will be home in 4 months and YOU BE ON HIM LIKE A RAT ON A CHEETO!"
Suddenly, I wasn't embarrassed anymore and realized it was OK for me to tell the sisters how I feel about my husband whom I love with all my heart!

A BUSY SATURDAY....

I had a busy Saturday. I started by digging up the potatoes, carrots and onions that were left in the garden. I was pleased to get a 5 pound bucket full of Red, Russet and Yukon Gold spuds!
I didn't get quite as many carrots because we have a gopher who decided to eat the bottoms off of half of them! Dang critter's! After digging for about an hour and 1/2, I rested for about 10 minutes and then got out the rototiller and tilled the garden. I was pretty proud of myself.
Dad Norton and Chris came over and borrowed Tony's air compressor and went around to Deedra's, Stillman's and Chris and Tammy's and blew out their sprinkler systems and then came and did mine as well as Bob Haverfield's across the street.

I can do most everything I need to in Tony's absence but there are a few things I can't do and I sure appreciated these two stepping up and doing this for me.

Thar she blows!

UPDATE.......

Thought I'd post a bit about Tony.

1st and for most....... I sure miss him! His hearty laugh, his hugs and kisses, his listening ear, his logical advice, his enthusiastic game face, his warmth at night.....I could go on and on.

He is doing great in Houston. He's taken his physical, got a bunch of shots, done some testing, signed some contracts, learned how to fill out time difficult time cards, gone through several classes and will be doing alot of the same over the next couple of days. He was happy to be able to watch the 2nd half of the BSU/Tulsa game last night! He calls me twice a day, which I greatly appreciate! As of now it looks like he could fly out Sunday or Monday. We'll see.
He's a great man and I love him dearly!

PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW !!!

Well, today was the day! Tony left for Houston at 11:35 this morning and it was harder on me than I'd thought. Deedra was so strong when Curtis left and I was confident I could be the same way........NOT! It was very emotional!

I'm gonna miss this man like crazy! We had a going away party on Friday night which all of the kids here in the valley attended except Phillip but thankfully he was able to visit on Thursday and it made Tony's day. Some of them were able to make it to the airport to see him off. Thank you. We appreciate your support and love you all.

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS................

Just last Tuesday, the 29th of September, we found out that Tony would be going overseas to Iraq for work. We have been in a whirlwind, trying to get things prepared for his trip.

ie: paperwork out the wazoo for him to fill out, Dr. and Dentist appointments, shopping, packing, getting our pictures taken (thank you Michelle & Donna)....
Instructions for me on the checking account, weed eating, rototiller, lawn fertilizers, furnace filters, etc....you know, take your husband for granted kinds of things.....
Plan a get together so the kids can say goodbye and planning on getting together with Colby to buy a computer camera and getting it installed so we can skye each other occassionally and planning a "last date" for 4 months or so!
Wheeeeee!
The "last date" will be Saturday and that is only 2 days away and then he will fly out Sunday morning! The past week has gone so fast!! ! We are ready mentally but my heart is aching. We have grown so close. To the point of being able to finish each other's sentences. It will be hard to see him walk away at the airport but what a great blessing this will be for us to be able to pay off our home and put money in savings for retirement. I love my husband and the sacrifice he is making for us.
I will miss him.

WELL ON MY WAY TO BEING HALF THE WOMAN I AM NOW....lol

I am now down 15 and 1/2 pounds!!! YAY! My goal was 15 before Tony leaves and now I may be more than that! I'm confident I will be 30 pounds lighter when I see him in February, maybe more!
THIslim, I love you!

"DEPRESS THE RECESS" GARDEN ......

Remember my work program? We had the "Free Flea Market" for our temp's! The 2nd part of the program was to plant a garden at each office.

Well, I think the Nampa office did it's part!!! Take a look at our results................

HUGE PUMPKINS ! 30 POUNDS OR BETTER !!

These are 3 of the 8 pumpkins that grew! 2 of them must have got too wet because they rotted out but the other 6 are gigantic!!! We also raised the big squash called "Sweet Meat". We harvested 16 of them and they are very large as well!

The weather got cold and froze so we had to pick ALL of our tomatoes! As you can see, most are green........but they will ripen and we will give them away for a few more weeks still. We have been giving away cucumbers, zucchini squash and tomatoes for a while now.

We also picked 43 "Acorn Squash" ! Not bad for the small amount of land we had to grow our garden! Nancy and I were pretty proud of ourselves! It was a fun project and we'll be doing it again next year.

SO MUCH TO DO AND SO LITTTLE TIME.....

We have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off !! When KBR told Tony they were going to put him on the "FAST TRACK" they weren't kidding!! He has been madly trying to fill out all the paperwork they have sent him, and get it sent back. Some of it's quite comical! When ya have to list ALL of your children (step as well) and addresses etc AND then when ya have 12 !!! Yeah, I said (TWELVE) it's a lot of paperwork!!! Too funny! Wonder what KBR will think! LOL
Also, ya don't fully appreciate ALL your husband does until ya know that you'll be doing it ALONE! Yikes! I haven't been the bill payer in 5 years so tonight we will be paying bills and he will go over all of that with me. He made me a list of all the things that go on the lawn and when to put them on. I can handle the mowing, guess I'll handle the fertilizing etc too! I woke up on Tuesday night at 2AM and couldn't go back to sleep because I was thinking about all the things I'll need to do alone! Finally got back to sleep around 5AM and then had to get up at 7 to go to work. Kim called me and said the grapes were ready .......I worked on my Relief Society report (at work..... do what ya gotta do) ..... Tony called me around 5:30 to say he needed help scanning some documents to send to KBR. I told him I would help him as soon as I got home. When I did, he was leaving to go to a "Singles Meeting" and to give them all of the supplies we have had stored at the house. So I decided to go to the home of the Young Women's Secretary to get her attendance report so I could do some more on my R.S. report. I did and then came home and changed into my jeans and went to find my 5 gallon buckets so I could go pick the grapes. They weren't in the usual place and I didn't want to go looking for keys to get into the shed so I grabbed my Halloween Caldron's and the Apple dunking bucket and headed over to Kim's to pick grapes. She helped me pick and after we'd filled the 2 cauldron's and about 1/4 of the bucket I told her I had to get home and get started or I'd be up all night! I went home and Tony was there. He helped me get out the jars and the steamer and then I helped him scan his documents and then he went to the store to get me some lids while I started steaming grapes!
Wheeeeeeew !! By 10:45 I was exhausted and I still had grapes to do. I told Tony I would have to put them in the garage and finish them on Thursday when I got home from work. I cleaned up the mess and went up and showered and hit the sack by 11PM. This afternoon, I'll start all over again! I'm tired just thinking about it! One of my caldron's of grapes!

I got 13 quarts done and have a lot more to do!!!! It's great stuff to have though....we love it!

We are making lists of things I need to do or things I may not know how to do so Tony can give me some instructions before he leaves. I know there are things we'll both forget until he's gone and it comes up I'll panic and probably call on some of you! YIKES! I'm apologizing now, just be prepared! LOL