I've been tagged

I think I've been tagged around 10 times and I've finally decided to do it because of Melinda's insistence nudges. Here are 5 things you may or may not know about me (and may wish you never knew...)


1. Although I am 6 feet tall I have never been on a basketball or volleyball team (this is the most frequent question I am asked by strangers and new acquaintances although now this is rivaled by "where did he get the red hair?").

2. I have a freakish ability to remember faces of people I've met years ago for just a few minutes and celebrities from TV or movies. It may take a few minutes, hours, and (rarely) days to identify where I've seen them before but I can always do it.

3. If it's been awhile since I've been running, the next time I go I get crazy itchy legs. It's very distracting and it gets so bad that sometimes I just have to stop and scratch like crazy and that just makes it worse. Jeremy thought I was super weird until he researched it on a runners forum online and discovered that there are other people out there that get itchy legs. It's not an allergic thing--I think it's a circulation thing but it goes away after a couple of faithful days of running.

4. When I was little, my older brother used to chase me around the yard with a passionflower. For some reason it scared me. To this day I can never get close to one. Just look at it--isn't it a bizarre flower?



5. I taught myself how to play piano. I can actually play some of the easier hymns (not from the simplified hymn book) without mistakes which has come in useful in my current ward where musical talent is in short supply. I have even played for sacrament meeting once, accompanied my talented singing husband on numerous occasions in sacrament meetings, played at baptisms, and I occasionally play backup for primary when our chorister isn't there. I'm not the best but at least I know I can fill in if necessary.

I tag Alisha, Daniel, Amy, Stephanie, and Dallin

A Series of Unfortunate Events...

It seemed as though fate was against us while we were trying to have a family vacation in Florida. The first week after we arrived I ended up with a nasty cold. That weekend the kids developed fevers and Matthew was throwing up. This was very unfortunate since the weather on that Saturday was perfect: sunny skies, high in the 80's--a definite beach day or Gulf World Day to swim with dolphins. But alas, we were stuck inside watching cartoons (If I never watch another cartoon again I wouldn't cry.) Then Jeremy caught whatever we had. The next weekend we were at least all healthy but a nasty storm blew in and it rained all weekend. We at least made it to Gulf World but we weren't allowed to swim with the dolphins due to the inclement weather. The next weekend it was time to drive back to Virginia.



We left Friday after lunch and everything was going well. The kids were behaving, the weather was beautiful, the cars were running. We spent that night with some friends in Kings Bay, Georgia. Saturday morning we headed out and everything was still going well for about 2 hours. Then Jeremy gets a call from his friend who is driving Jeremy's VW Passat behind us. "The car's dead and won't start." So we pull to the side of the freeway and Jeremy runs back to the Passat. Apparently the radiator hose had come loose and was rubbing up against the fan belt and developed a hole. So, off we drove to a auto parts store to buy supplies for a makeshift hose repair. I dropped Jeremy and his friend off at the car and drove to a Walmart to kill time with the kids. (Unfortunately all this happened right during naptime.) Jeremy calls about an hour later:

Jeremy: "You want a new car?"

Carrie: "What are you talking about?"

J: "The car's busted. You want a new one?"
C: "Are you serious? What's the matter with it?"

J: "The radiator fluid leaked out, the engine overheated, and there's a crack in the engine block. You want a new car?"

So I pick them up and we look at the nearest car dealership which happens to be a Ford dealership. We are not thrilled about Ford cars and look around the lot dejected and disappointed. We decide that we can't justify buying any of these cars and decide to get the Passat towed into Charleston, SC which is just an hour away and check out some dealerships there.



We have enjoyed our Hyundais that we've owned and so we decided to check out their cars and we end up falling in love with the Entourage and all of its bells and whistles but not with the price. We hang out on the lot until closing while Jeremy haggles prices with the salesmen because it's hard to just buy something that expensive on a whim. We leave empty-handed and spend the night at an old friend's house and decide around 1 am that this is just too big of a decision to make so quickly. After church on Sunday in our old ward (the only bright side of the unexpected detour) we packed up our stuff and headed out the door. Just as Jeremy closed the door I asked him if he had the key to the Passat (since we had stuff in there to bring back home) and he said no. So we had to wait for our friend to come back from church to open up the house and retrieve the key. We rented a Hyundai Elantra and started out.



As we started driving I began to nod off while Jeremy was making phone calls regarding the Passat. A little while later he asks me if we've passed the I-95 turn off. How would I know? I was asleep! So he calls his brother who mapquests our location and sure enough, we passed it 30 miles ago. So he finds us a detour which prolonged our trip by about an hour. By this time we were getting very frustrated and depressed. We finally arrived home tired, worn out, and relieved around 10 pm. We were so thankful to be home! Now we just have to worry about moving in 3 weeks!

"Pretties"

I found this bracelet that Melinda helped me make awhile back and decided to put it on Corinne. I told her that is was her "pretties" to try and get her excited about it and she smiled. Then Matthew heard me and he wanted the "pretties" on him and was trying to grab the bracelet off Corinne so I told him we'd find him some "pretties." I looked around the house for ideas and found a random keychain that did the trick. He was happy to have his "pretties" and pointed to his and said "Matthew pretties" and pointed to Corinne's and said "Rinne's pretties."
It's nice that a simple random keychain could appease this 2 1/2 year old.

Dive School

So the real reason we went to Panama City, FL was because Jeremy was selected from his boat to go to scuba dive school. His submarine needs about 5 scuba divers in order to be able to go out to sea and his only had 3. Their main job is to inspect the boat prior to going out to sea and look for bombs or anything else suspicious on the boat. It's a 5 week school where the first 2 weeks consist mainly of class time where they learn about their equipment and the dangers of scuba diving. Week 3 is the most intense week of pool training. They learn how to use their equipment under water and are tested in severe situations such as having equipment malfunctions. They also have a proctor swimming with them that will randomly pull off their equipment, tie their hoses in knots, and push them around at the bottom of the pool. Every day that week Jeremy came home so tired, sunburned, and with scratches on his knees and elbows. Several guys dropped out that week and one guy came out of the pool crying. I guess it wasn't easy.
But Jeremy did graduate and was named class leader in the beginning of the class. The instructors said that Jeremy was the best class leader they've ever had go through dive school and always knew where all the guys were and kept everything organized and made the instructors' jobs a lot easier. That was nice to hear. Here are some of the cool diver outfits that the real navy divers wear. Jeremy is only scuba qualified and doesn't have to wear this stuff that's for the scavenger divers that look for bombs on the ocean floor. Now Jeremy has one more pin to put on his uniform. Congratulations Jeremy!

St. Andrew's Bay Park

We went to St. Andrew's Bay Park while we were in Florida. It had a Gator Lake where alligators swam around. We saw a large one that swam off before we could get a good picture of it.
As we were walking around some nature trails alongside of the Gator Lake a lady asked us what was keeping the alligators from coming up to where we were since there weren't any fences. We replied, "nothing" and kept on walking. She looked a little scared and I don't think that our response alleviated any of her fears. I guess we forgot to mention that alligators naturally tend to shy away from humans. Oops.
Near the boat dock there is a fish-gutting station where over a dozen large pelicans were gathered to eat the remains. Matthew loved the big birds and was disappointed that they flew away when he came close to them.

Gulf World

Panama City has this place called Gulf World that is trying to be like a ghetto Sea World. They have lots of animals, but not like Sea World. They don't have the whales and manatees and their animal exhibits are much smaller. They do sea lion shows and dolphin shows and do stage shows with reptiles and birds. Since the kids aren't quite at the age where they can sit through the shows, we only watched the sea lion show (with much resistance from Matthew) and the dolphin show.
Matthew actually put his head in the circle willingly so I had to get a picture.
They do have a wonderful macaw and bird aviary where you can walk around and see the birds and listen to them talk to you. Here's Corinne talking back to one of the macaws. We were watching a parrot and it looked at Corinne and said, "hello, pretty girl" (or was it talking to me?).

The Beach

The best part about visiting Jeremy in Panama City was the beach. Long stretches of the softest white sand I've ever been on. Matthew was in heaven playing in the sand and getting dirty like every little boy. He loved his shovel and bucket he got from Grandma Green as an Easter present. While he was off playing in the water, Corinne took over the sandcastle building and of course tipped it over. Check out her mischevious little grin below.
They actually played side by side for a few minutes which is rare so I had to take a picture. I think Matthew just wanted to see what it was like to crawl around on the beach on your belly like Corinne does. It must not have been too much fun because this was the first and last time he did it. But Corinne did actually start getting up onto her hands and knees to crawl around while we were there. She just dropped onto her tummy when she wanted to get somewhere fast!

Easter egg hunt

Well, we finally made it back home and back to the internet so I finally get to start posting about our trip. The day after I arrived in Panama City, FL with the kids, they had an Easter egg hunt on the base.

They had 3 or 4 sections of grass partitioned off for the different age groups. Matthew and Corinne both ended up in the same group of 0-3 which meant that Matthew was older and bigger than most kids and had the advantage so he found tons of eggs.
Here's Corinne so happy that we're with Daddy again and so excited that she found an egg!
Here's Matthew snatching the eggs as fast as he could. He was ecstatic to find out that there were little toys inside! Then he had to open all the eggs right then and there as fast as he could.
After the egg hunt they had 5 or 6 big blow-up toys set up for the kids. Matthew needed Daddy's help on some but the slide on the other side was the icing on the cake!
Here's Matthew in his favorite toy getting to do what he does best--jump!