Over a month...

I can't believe it's been that long since I've posted. Awful! We're not super busy here, so it's surprising that I haven't posted more, but there and again...not much to post.

Galina is learning to read, and resisting it with every bone in her body. I chose to use a computer program called Click-n-Kids and, of course, we read books a lot. The computer game works - she would just rather do something else, like watch The Little Mermaid, or fold laundry - seriously, anything other than her "letter game". She is learning though. She can read sentences like, 'A cat sat at a mat.' We've joined a homeschool group on the base here and Galina is attending their P.E. class on Friday mornings. She LOVES that. She came out this past Friday, soaking wet with sweat, and smiling ear to ear. Sometimes I wonder if homeschool is the way to go since she absolutely loves being in a class room setting. I'm still torn. I want to homeschool because I want her home, with us, under our influence. I want her to be able to see Brian whenever he's home, I want to be able to go and see family whenever we'd like, instead of having to work around a school schedule. We'll see... She's still such a sweetheart at Church. A very good girl. At home, not always the case. She has quite a little tongue.

Johnny is running now. He never stops moving. As soon as he wakes up in the morning, he goes. Climbs. Slaps. Yes, slaps. The boy hits and Heaven help me, I can't figure out how to make him stop. He doesn't really cry about pain. He whines when he wants things. Doesn't say any words other than Mama and Dada, and he doesn't really say those to us. They're more like his most accurate sounds. He does like airplanes, and when he hears one, he'll say "Uh! Uh!" and put his arm up over his head. For awhile he would roll his hands whenever we say, "Roll your hands, roll your hands, as quickly, as quickly, as quick can be..." Now, he kind of looks at us like, "That's a little old, don't you think?" He's super noisy in church and since I'm the Primary Chorister now, Brian gets to follow him for the second two hours of Church. Brian says Johnny never stops moving. He sure does crash as soon as we put him in the car seat to go home though! He's wearing Galina's Grover sneakers and I bought him his own pair of buster-brown squeaker shoes. I don't think he's as excited about the squeaky shoes as Galina was when we bought hers, but he likes them. He likes to choose things. I'll show him two pairs of socks, or t-shirts, or jammies and he'll point at one. He loves to eat off of a fork! At night, when Galina kneels down for her prayers, Johnny does the same thing. He loves to copy Galina and he loves to watch other kids.

Several weeks ago, I had been lying in bed, waiting for the kids to wake up and messing around with the Ipad. I looked up jogging, and starting jogging and found that Couch to 5k program. I had seen it before, Emily did it once I think. But there was an app, so I downloaded it and got out of bed. When Galina came downstairs, she said, "Mommy, I want to go jogging today." I have no idea why she said it, I don't think it was a sign from Heaven or anything, but I thought it was funny that, out of nowhere, she said exactly what I had been thinking. So, we went jogging, and we haven't looked back. Saturday morning I completed Week 8 Day 3. Brian and I ran 4.03 miles at 9:34 per mile. Bing and George did it too! After the run, Brian made me stop and do push-ups and back rows (I'd call them pull-ups) with his rings. Today, Sunday, I could not lift my arms above my head if I was desperate, and my abs hurt too. It's a good hurt though. The only negative to the running is that my knees have become incredibly INCREDIBLY stiff. No idea. Not really sore, but just stiff. I may go down to 3 days a week instead of 6 and see if that helps to relieve them a bit, or let them heal up.

I've had sinus problems since July 22nd and I finally have a doctors appointment this week. I'm hoping I don't get a brush-off, but since I'll have my two little ones with me, I'm not hoping for much.

Well...hopefully we'll start doing fun things again soon and I can get a new battery door for my camera, which is now a $1200 paper weight. Johnny pulled it off of the computer desk and crack went the battery door. At least it wasn't the lens! I'm grateful for that!

I guess we've done more than I thought recently :) Here we go!

 New Rapunzel dress for Galina

 Johnny loves to brush his teeth, just like his big sister!

Monster slippers making their way through cousins!

 We spent a few FREEZING hours at Crane Beach in Ipswich, MA. Galina was in Heaven. Johnny just enjoyed watching people...

 We left around sunset - it was a long Friday afternoon. I don't think we got home until 9ish. But, at least we went to the beach this summer!

A friend from Church gave us three tickets to the Middlesex 4-H Fair. Galina rode a pony, she petted a snake, we ate really expensive hot dogs, watched a woman judge two big rams (which was really awkward...) and then we drove home. It was a fun Saturday morning! 

 Yet another Saturday morning, but this one was spent at home, calmly painting with corn starch pain on the back porch. Johnny was averse to keeping the colors separated, so in order to keep the dramatics and hysterics welling up in Galina, at bay, we made it fun and just jumped into the paint...and then the pool. Clothes and all. It was fun!

Another Saturday morning - we drove to the Boston Temple. Well, we drove way WAY past the Boston Temple because I put Boston as the city into the GPS, but it was supposed to be something else. It should've been a 15 minute drive...yeah, an hour and a half. But the drive home was surprisingly short!

 I love these upside down trumpet flowers! 

Trying to get Johnny into a picture nowadays is difficult. He does not want to be told what to do!

But we had a nice trip - I guess we are keeping ourselves busy. I'll try to get better at posting! 

My Anniversary present from Brian (aka my "secret admirer" such a goof!)

They were delicious and didn't last the evening!