What about those parents?

Where are the long lost faces of the blog- Ellen and Mason?  Those kiddos of ours are just the sweetest little boys, but how are those parents surviving?

Studying with a cute little pumpkin

I say I'm busy, but then really in comparison to other people I know, I'm really not busy.  I've gotten better at saying "no" to things and really choosing what activities I want to be involved in and really active with.  There are of course some things I'd like to do more of, but I also feel like I'm living a nice balanced life right now-although some more alone time with Mason would be great!  Stay at home mommy life agrees with me-there's no where else I'd rather be.  If we want to have a lazy pj day we can, or we can be busy and active.  I'm part of a Bunco group that plays once a month, which is a blast!  If you haven't played bunco before, I highly encourage you try it sometime.  I'm also involved with the Officer's Spouses' Club and am our squadron's social chair person.  I'd like to be even more involved with our squadron by hopefully being a key spouse again someday, but for now things on that front are good.  I am missing book club though!  No one joined to OSC book club this year, so I've been reading the books from the Barksdale OSC list, but I don't have anyone to discuss the books with.

hanging with the minis

I've been trying to be more active with the boys each day, taking walks, and playing outside while the weather is nice enough to do so.  We had our first snow that stuck on the grass last night, although it's melted now, so winter is on it's way.  I've also been trying to coordinate with Mason's work schedule so that I can swim a few times during the week after he gets home from work.  I've only been once so far, but am planning to go again soon!  I signed up for the 100 mile club, and my goal is to swim 100 miles before we PCS away from Minot.  I've also been trying to make some new recipes and expand our eating horizons, but I have to say I love the cheesy pasta dishes which don't do a lot of good for the midline-so it's a balance. 

Mason is busy at work, and doesn't have enough hours in the day to get all he needs and wants to get done.  He got home from Alabama (after 2 months away) to basically have a baby, and then life's been busy.  Theo talks a mile a minute, so I think Mason's brain space is constantly being invaded.  He's been walking to work lately which gives him a little extra quiet time before coming home to all of our commotion.  As of right now, he's still scheduled for Weapons School, so he'll be leaving here the end of January for five months.  He'll be at training in Louisiana with trips to Vegas from time to time.  This requires a lot of studying and work prior to attending, so he is ofter working at home and studying, although not as much as he would like.  It's always a struggle too between getting things done while the kiddos are sleeping, or taking naps ourselves.

Grocery Shopping!

He just told me that he got an award for Flight Commander of the quarter, which is really great!  He also got Instructor of the Quarter earlier in the year.  I'm really proud of all of his hard work.  It's hard to balance home life and the work tempo, but he does the best he can, despite the nagging from a certain loving wife.  I'm hoping next Fall I can persuade him and the Air Force to give him some time off to travel a little bit while we're up North.  In the meantime, this week he'll head into a big inspection up here at the base-so we'll be seeing him very limited hours until the beginning of November.

Visiting Dad at work for lunch