BEN'S ADDRESS

Well we finally have an address for Ben, complete with a wish list if you are wanting to send care packages! He says they are drowning in sweets there so skip those as they will likely get wasted!

address is as follows;

Miller, Benjamin T SSG
A CO. STB 2-1 ID
Camp Liberty
APOAE 09344

Most of the items can be found at GNC.....

100% whey protein powder (not strawberry)
or Isopure Protein

Creatine

SARMS

Sports Multi Vitamins (Gnc brand)

Nitric Oxide

Muscle Mag Subscriptions....favorites are FLEX, muscle and fitness and Planet Fitness

If u do plan to send any of these items just let me know so we arent duplicating! Thanks for your support!!

New Pictures of Ben

Well Ben in trying to get settled into life in Iraq. Its still hard because he is still unsure of the specific job he will be doing and where he will be living. He is at Camp Slayer for the time being. Here are a couple of new pics of him in Iraq. We will update you all more as we are able. Hopefully we will have an address for him soon! CARE PACKAGES WELCOME! Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. Be sure to keep him in your prayers!

Monster Punch!

Well, Josh, who rarely gets exited about anything but his Nintendo DS, came home filled with exitement about a recipe book for kids that he got at the school library. He REALLY wanted to make two recipes...cheese straws (cheese breadsticks in fun shapes) and Monster Punch! I was so thrilled to see him interested in new things that we ran out and bought the ingredients for both! While we were at it we made halloween pictures. Ive attached some pics of the kids (note the ghost effect) and I making them and the finished product. If u want the recipe for the punch its really easy..just let me know. We were able to re-use the center ring so next time we are adding dry ice! We had so mich fun!

Updates on Ben

Ben was in Kuwait for a time before he went on to Iraq. He said it was really set up for "creature comforts", tents with movies running 24/7. Big screen tvs with comfy seating areas. A massive, fully loaded gym. All of this wonder, however, was in the middle of nowhere in the desert with tents and more sand than any one person can stand. He said even with goggles u still manage to get sand in your eyes. He flew to Camp Slayer in Iraq a few days ago. He is still getting settled in there. I have a few pics of him I will upload and as soon as I get an address I will post it here. In the meanwhile he does have access to a computer so you can email him!

Colorado is Beautiful!

I grew up in Utah...so mountains were part of my world every day. My kids don't remember (or in Olivia's case its actual) being around the mountains. As we were driving in toward Colorado all of the sudden I could see the shadows of the mountains in the distance. As I pointed them out to the kids they were soooooo amazed! Kellie could not believe you could have mountains right next to a big city! She has decided this is the perfect place to live. One of the first things we did was visit Red Rocks Park here in CO. Ben brought me here when we came to visit his parents before the kids so it was a nice memory for me as well. The kids were so amazed to see all the beautiful and amazing rock formations. We then took a big hike up the mountain to get to the Red Rocks stage where amazing artists have come to perform...like U-2 and Sting. We had a great time together. Here are some pics!

Our Road Trip To Colorado

Ben's dad and step mom offered to have us come and stay with them near Denver CO. It is a great opportunity for us to save money and for the kids to get to know these grandparents a little better. Along the way there isnt a lot to see. However the kids were amazed by the solar windmills.....just the sheer volume of them. They go on for miles and miles. We also stopped to see some horses and just clowned around on the way down. We bought a kids bop Halloween CD and had fun singing GHOSTBUSTERS, Addams Family, Witch Doctor and Purple People Eater to name a few! Here are some pics of us along the way!

Yes, He is Really Going!

Well I've been a bit behind as we have been really busy! We sent Ben off (rather unwillingly) a week and a half ago. It was really tough as they kept changing the date he would deploy. When we finally got official word it was 4 hours before he had to report! We took the kids out of school and we all went to lunch! We opted to not take the kids to the bus area as Ben was in charge of the soldiers in his unit that were deploying that day and we wanted to keep it as distraction free as possible. The kids said goodbye to Dad at the hotel. It was so sad...I don't think Olivia quite got how long a year really will feel like. Josh as usual held it in. Kellie wouldn't let him go. She just sat there and hugged him for the longest time. We all bawled like babies. I took him to the area where he would leave from....it was typical Army...hurry up and wait. I was grateful some of the soldiers needed me to pick up a few things from the PX before they left...it was a good distraction. First it was amazing to see the huge pile of bags waiting for the trucks. Then a big line of buses came and we knew he would be leaving soon. A kiss goodbye and he was off. WOW! This is going to be a long year! I've attached some pics of right before he left!

WHAT is that SMELL????

Ok moms....you have to admit this has happened to you at least once. All of the sudden this smell appears, seemingly from nowhere. You search high and low and can't seem to find the source. This time mine was a traveling smell. I would think I isolated it and then searched the entire area....to no avail! I finally got a call from school....it seems Joshua had been allowed to have a special drink on Friday for getting 100% on his spelling test...so his teacher sent his milk home with him! Well his backpack sat in my car for the entire HOT weekend. The teacher had tried to pinpoint a foul smell in her room on monday but couldn't find it either...UNTIL...Tuesday when his milk exploded in his backpack! UGGHHH!! No more mistake...I got a call from school saying they had taken his backpack outside of the building. As soon as we got there we threw it away in the dumpster. MYSTERY SOLVED! I had to laugh thinking about all the searching for that traveling smell....never would have thought to look there...just books and papers. AWWW the joys of motherhood!

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY??????

August is a busy month for us and Birthdays. Kellie, Josh and I all have birthdays this month. Joshua was born one day shy of Kellie's second Birthday. So, ever since her third Birthday, they have shared a party. Now, before you give me heck...I promise they get special attention on their ACTUAL birthday. Their party is always at a place of their choosing. They each get to invite their own friends, get their own cakes, have their own theme. So really they get to have a lot of attention that day too.

This year we had it at the local skating rink......at BOTH of their request. We did this a couple of years ago in PA and it didn't go well. Neither of them skate well....But, they pleaded and I figured they were a bit older and perhaps it would go better.

Josh wore his skates for about five minutes....fell every time he tried to stand up! Kellie fared a little better mostly because her friends egged her on. Then champion skater....three year old Olivia showed them both up. She refused to let us hold her hand. She did hold onto the side wall....and got back up on her own when she fell down. She is so stubborn (YES can you believe it...even more than Kellie and Josh) !

Anyway they still had a blast...we reserved the game room so Josh and his buddies played Nintendo, XBOX and Wii. Kellie honed her skating skills. Eventually Olivia took off her skates and then would unexpectedly dash on the rink in her tennis shoes, causing countless skaters to dodge to miss her and fall themselves.

It was really nice to have Ben there as the kids thought he would be in Iraq on their bdays. They were thrilled! I have pics I will get up as soon as I can figure out my new camera phone.
(It may be awhile) ;-)!!

In the Swing of things

We are finally settling in a bit, no longer living in temp housing. We decided to rent an apartment rather than a house as we wanted to have the pool for the summer. We will only be here til Ben leaves in October so its ok for a short time frame. Most of our belongings are still in military storage. We just got out the necessities to live for a few months.

Ben is enjoying his job, he is a natural leader so he is really taking to being one of the higher ranking soldiers here. He is known as the NCO who "gets stuff done". We have heard many rumors about where he will be serving and when they will be leaving....we are trying not to get too caught up in it. It has changed so often we figure we will believe it once he has orders in hand.

The kids are doing well. School starts really early here (mid August) so they are actually looking forward to school starting so they can make more friends. Meanwhile we have been regulars at the library story time and free summer movies. They all completed the summer reading program and earned a free kids meal at Applebees and a free ice cream.

We love and miss you all soooo much!

Pics of the Tornado

Welcome to Kansas

We arrived in Kansas on a Sunday night. On Wednesday we had a severe thunderstorm that really scared the kids....loud thunder, lots of lightning but that was about it. I explained to then that if it got bad the sirens would sound and we would go to the shelter. On Thursday we were hit with severe thunderstorms and then...the dreaded sirens indicating a tornado warning. Now for those of you who are not familiar with the terms..that is an indication that either a tornado has been spotted heading your way, or a storm that has produced tornadoes already in its path and is still indicating patterns of a tornado touching down is heading your way. Either way you are to immediately take shelter.

Now you may be surprised to hear this....but I am TERRIFIED of tornadoes. We have lived in Alabama and Texas in the past so we are not strangers to these storms. However, now my kids are old enough to understand so I have to put the brave face on. So we were staying in temporary housing and their storm shelter was the laundry room which was partially underground. When the sirens started the storm didnt yet appear to be anything to worry about. In fact Ben, who had not been sleeping well was sleeping soundly as were the kids. So what to do? I didnt want to scare them unnecessarily if the storm shifted paths. I looked outside and discussed with the neighbors across the hall what they planned to do. At this point the sirens turned off. I decided to go back in and wait and see. About ten minutes later there was a knock at my door. To my surprise the sirens were back on and I hadn't even heard them. At any rate the neighbor informed me there was a tornado spotted heading straight for us (about 10-15 minutes away). I decide I must wake up Ben. He totally thought I was kidding. I explained to him that there was no way I would wake him knowing how hard of a time he had falling asleep if this were not real emergency. He listens to the radio and decides that we do need to head to the shelter. Waking the kids was no easy task. I realized then I could not wait til the last minute with three sleeping kids. Just as we got to the top of the stairs for the shelter a huge bolt of lighting hit close to us and the thunder clapped so loudly I literally caught air when I jumped. We all made it safely to the shelter along with many other families and their pets. It was so noisy inside we could barely hear the storm. We had a radio and were trying to listen to find out where the storm was. Most of the explanations seemed as if it was literally on the post. Turns out it just hit the neighboring towns. It hopped over us. It hit SW Manhattan which is about 5 minutes from where we were. It hit a new home subdivision and about 30 homes were destroyed and only foundations remaining. KSU in downtown Manhattan also received a lot of damage. We later learned that it almost completely wiped out the city of Chapman (60-80% of the town was destroyed). The next day we went out to see the damage and found that Ben's fraternity (his chapter was at Weber State) house had lost their roof. He volunteered to help remove their belongings in case it rained again that evening. He also helped clean up the grounds a bit. The pics I am posting are from Manhattan. It was amazing to see the destruction in person. Thank goodness there were no fatalities in Manhattan. In Chapman there was one death..the man was found outside his mobile home. I met two police officers from Chapman as I was searching for a home. They had just rented a townhouse. Both families were in their basements at the time of the storm. It did give me peace to hear that is something you can survive.

Along the Way

Well we made it to Fort Riley late Sunday night. We saw some interesting things along the way that I thought I would share with you. Our first days drive was pretty uneventful and even though we got off to a late start we met our goal of making it most the way through Ohio.

Day two was a different story. We hit some flash flooding in Indiana. You may have seen it on the news. It was incredible to be driving through it and see the havoc it caused. If you look at the first pic i took that from the interstate. I-70 actually got closed at parts due to flooding on the road so we took a detour Ben navigated for us. That picture is of a field of crops now mostly under water. We listened to the local station while driving through, one woman called to ask for assistance in saving her cattle, They had rescue HumVs out and there was a report that one of them got carried off in the rising water.

Next just by chance we came upon the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois. I had never heard of them but my history buff Husband has. They are ancient Indian homes and burial grounds that have been grown over through the years...so they just look like odd shaped hills. I included a pic of one and then another view where you can climb stairs to the top of it.

We then came upon the St.Louis arch and spent some time there along the Mississippi river. It was amazing how BIG and powerful that river is. The arch was beautiful....massive once you are right under it!

We stopped that night in Columbia Missouri as we wanted a good nights sleep and we promised the kids we would have a fun day to thank them for being so good in the car. We spent the day at Science City at Union Station in Kansas City Missouri. They had a blast...then we finished our drive out to Fort Riley. Just before we got there we hit one more bad storm complete with Hail. We had to pull off because it was hard to see. Ben finally got his Sirius radio installed and that sure came in handy for this storm as he learned it was pretty stationary and the only way to get out of it would be to drive out. So we went slow with our hazard lights on and within five minutes we were in the clear. Looking in our rear view mirrors we could see this horrible black cloud of a storm that we had just been in. It looked very intimidating and I was so glad to be going away from it!

Anyway We will update you more when we have more time...we have severe weather on the way here tonight so I am going to turn off the computer to save it from the lightning! Stay Safe everyone and know we miss you!

Gettin the FROG outta here.....

One for the TOAD......(or should I say toads....6 in our case). We have a rentention pond in our back yard and with that pond means plenty of amphibians. It is very musical at night. One night Kellie was coming in and saw what she thought was a rock by our front door. Then the rock jumped and she realized it was a toad. She begged and pleaded and before we knew it we were heading to the pet store to buy supplies for our new pet, "Rocky". A few days later she coaxed the neighbor boy out of pet number two "Warts", before I knew it we had six in all.....we had to really put a stop to it or we may have had twenty. The others are Legs, Hopper, Jumper and Tiny. With no real way to transport them we decided to let the toads go in a nearby stream. The kids were troopers about it and I promised them we could get a new frog or toad once we get settled in our new place. I have attached pics of the kids with our pets who were thrilled to get away from them and into their new home. We could not put them back in the original pond as we have a neighbor kid who likes to catch and dissect them with his buddies. So we had to at least attempt to keep them safe! Right now it literally looks like a plague with all the toads and frogs around...the tadpoles just hatched and their are tiny frogs and toads everywhere! They look like little crickets they are so small and their are hundreds in our yard. Good thing we don't mind em too much....but it is getting ridiculous! It is so cute Olivia just runs over and picks them up. Last night we were getting ready to run an errand and she innocently looks up at me and says...."Mom, I don't have a frog in my hand." I notice her clenched fist and and find what I knew all along....she had a little friend she wanted to keep!

Packers are here today....Movers come tomorrow and we are off on Friday! Keep in touch!

Surprise Party!!!

Last night I threw a suprise going away party for Ben. The Army doesn't really do that sort of thing and I wanted to make sure he realized that he WILL be missed. The problem was, as usual, I planned it all VERY last minute so several of our friends already had plans. We had a great turn out though and had so much fun!

The funny part was that Ben was really getting upset with me because I was being such a control freak about what, where and when we were going to go out. He even started driving to a different restaraunt because the one we were supposed to go to (that I already had reservations for and guests waiting at) looked rather busy. I talked him into turning around and seeing what the wait time was. When we went it to the restaraunt I asked about the wait time and he suggested just waiting at the bar (as that was where the tvs were and all sporting events were being broadcasted at) finally I said "Well maybe we should just go back to the party room and see whats going on there".....to which he responded "You don't want to go to the bar and watch the boxing match?", I said "No, I think we should go and check out the Miller Party"...then I just started walking back there....finally he started to clue in. Its also funny to note that just prior to that we were dripping sweat helping his parents move. We had stopped at Wal-Mart and I picked up some deodorant and asked if he wanted to...his reply...."Who do I have to impress?" Poor Ben, he was really wishing he had not been THAT suprised! Still we had a great time! Thanks to those that came (and a special thanks to Heather and Christine for helping me to get the word out!). And to those that couldn't...you were missed...but we understand! XOXO

We'll miss our friends....this is really happening!!!

Hello again...thanks Heather and Jess for your help with the picture adding...we'll see if this works!

We officially have a pre-move inspection on Monday so that means the military was able to find a moving company to get our stuff there....so we don't have to YAY!!! It is starting to feel real that we are actually going! Lots to do and not enough time to do it in! The kids have address books and cameras to keep in touch with friends and have pics too. They are still freaked out about tornados....they have banned from the news lately! Now I have to put on my brave face for them!

I've at least attempted to add a pic of Olivia and her buddy Kasey! I love this pic of both of them...just two little tomboy girls having fun together!

FIGURING IT ALL OUT!

Well we are just trying to figure out all of the last minute details. Trying to get all my loose ends at work all tied up. Is transportation moving us...or are we moving ourselves (I HOPE NOT!!) , where are we moving to....etc. etc.

Not to mention I am terrible at this blogging thing.....took me a half hour just to figure out how to put up a new post....LOL!!! I will hopefully get better. If any of you can tell me in kindergarten terms how to post a pic with the post I would appreciate it (or at least how to add more pics!)

Thanks in advance!

New Adventures

Well, we recently found out that Ben has been reassigned to a new unit! This unit will be deploying to Iraq later this year! It has been tough news to hear. However we understand that we are in the military and it is part of the job! Originally the kids and I planned to stay behind while he travels to the new unit. We figured we would stay where we already had friends and a support network. We have recently decided to all move together. It was a difficult decision for many reasons but we feel it is the right one!

We love you and will keep you posted ....20 days till moving day!