Maddy's Growing Up!!

Well it's official...my baby's growing up! This week held two life altering events for my five year old...first, she got glasses and second, she learned to blow a bubble with her bubble gum!! Yep, and both were just as exciting in Maddy's eyes!
A few weeks ago Maddy's teacher sent a note home saying she was having trouble seeing the board in class. Jeff and I are both near sighted so we weren't surprised that she would have trouble as well...we just didn't think it would be so soon! After an extensive exam the doctor found out that Maddy isn't near sighted, she is far sighted. She was struggling so hard to see up close while she was reading and writing etc. that when she would look up her eyes would spasm and cause her distance vision to blur as well. So basically she was having difficulty seeing almost all the time at school! Yikes!! Because she's so young it's likely she will grow out of the problem...we'll keep our fingers crossed! After our doctor's visit we marched right over to the PX to get some glasses. She picked out an adorable little pair that looked amazingly like mine! My little mini me! She doesn't love them, but she's dealing. She only has to wear them when she's reading, writing, coloring etc, so basically at school. That makes it much easier...let me tell you the minute she sets foot in the van those glasses are off and in their case! What can you expect really? She's five!! LOL

Now the second big event was bubble blowing...may not seem like much to you, but let me tell you that is a seriously big deal!! She's so proud of herself! She has been working on that trick for as long as I can remember and all of a sudden she just got it. She's proud as a little peacock walking around with a bubble hanging out of her mouth. Glasses...bubbles...it sure has been a big week for the oldest Pederson Girly!!

House hunting 101

Hey people Jeffy here!!!!

As Melissa has informed you all, the Pedersons do have a house in Oromocto, NB. Now she also mentioned that there were a couple dramas for me getting to Oromocto. For example I saw more of the Boston airport then I ever wanted to see due to the unpredictable weather in the Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada. I also found that hotels near the Boston airport tend to sell out quite quick when there is weather difficulties, but $210.00 later I had accomodations for the night, but without my suitcase of course. The next day my flight was scheduled for 8 pm so I was in no rush to get to the airport, but I had to check out of my hotel at noon so off I went back to wait for my flight. Of course the weather was no better and my flight was delayed again til 9 then til 10 and it was looking like another night in Bean Town. But finally they called my flight and I was off to Fredericton. And finally some luck my bag got there when I did!!!! But of course my luck was not all good. Since I got there a full day late my rental car was cancelled and I ended up taking a taxi to my hotel. My plan was to take another taxi back to the airport the next morning and get another rental car, but none were available in the entire city of Fredericton until Wednesday......great!!!!!! I took a taxi to Tim Hortons where I was supposed to meet Gwen our realestate agent and she volunteered to drive me around on my first two days of house hunting, Thanks Gwen!!!!!

So finally I got down to work looking for the house. I was armed with my listing of about 25 houses which Gwen quickly informed me 15 of which were sold or had accepted offers in on them. She had another 15 listing to take their place so I was not toooo concerned yet. We went house to house to house every 15 minutes and they were all starting to look the same. Some were almost immediate nonstarters and I was mentally weeding them out as we looked. By the end of the day Gwen and I sat down and had the list down to 5 possibles. Suprisingly enough, the one that was on the top of the list before I left Oklahoma was still on the list.

The next morning Gwen came and got me at the hotel and we went for second looks at the 5 possibles. After the second look I was down to 2 possibles. In fact it was one preferred and one back up. After a call to Melissa we decided to put an offer in on the preferred listing which just happened to be the number one on the list at the start of the trip. GO FIGURE!!!! So after a counter offer we had a deal, simple as that. This left me Friday and Saturday to sort out a Mortgage application and a house inspection. No problem!!!!

So after a whirlwind trip to Oromocto I had managed to pick out the house that Melissa wanted before I left home. Hey my Mom didn't raise no dummies. I do think we will be very happy in this new up and coming nieghborhood which just happens to be less than a full swing 6 iron from the majority of the other Instructors at the Artillery School. Here are some more pictures of the new Pederson house!!!!

Finally...another blog!!

Yes, I have been a slacker!! My stress level seemed to be on extra high the past week and I just haven't calmed down enough to sit and blog! But a decision has been made and Jeff is back from Canada so everything should get back to normal shortly...okay, so nothings ever normal in the Pederson household, but more normal!! LOL
Jeff and I did decide on a house in New Brunswick. We had been looking on the net for the last couple of months and had narrowed our search down to about 20. Well once Jeff arrived our realtor informed him that at least half of those had sold. The reason the other half were still on the market became apparent as he visited them. Our very favorite had been bid on, but something had happened and the buyers couldn't go through with the purchase so it was back. On the net it looked gorgeous and it was when Jeff arrived, but the neighborhood is under construction. The street is gravel as is the driveway, but the thing that put Jeff off the most was the fact that there was no pathway leading up to the front step. It really bothered him that the front steps went into the grass. The inside, however, was perfect. After looking at 25 houses and finding flaws in all of them Jeff was completely frustrated!!
By the second day he had narrowed the search to four houses. One was lovely, but more than we wanted to spend and it had a two story palladium window with the family room lofted over the entry hall. Very striking, but all I could think of was Sarah making a two story fall on the ceramic tiled foyer. The second was a turret style house, which apparently there are tons of, with an ugly kitchen. Hunter green faux marble counter tops with green and white laminate flooring....Yikes!! The third was another turret style with a two car garage. It was great, but the people who were living there had allowed their dogs to urinate all over the carpeting. They were willing to give us $1000 allowance for carpet, but that would have only replaced the basement. They said their dogs only went in the basement. Sure! We wrote them off after that because they had owned this house for six years and were selling it for $209,900. Our realtor figures they would be making a $60,000 profit at least...and they wouldn't replace all the carpets, greedy!! And finally the construction zone house.
We decided on the construction zone house. The inside is absolutely gorgeous with ceramic tiled foyer, kitchen, and bathrooms. Hardwood dining room, living room, hallways and stairs. And beige carpet in the bedrooms. The paint colors are neutral and the kitchen is fabulous.

The construction of the neighborhood is in phases and should be done in two years. When it's completed our road will be a dead end about four houses from ours. That's always good, no through traffic! Then there will be a community park at the dead end with walking trails throughout the neighborhood. I'm very excited. All we have do is a little TLC to the landscaping, pour a driveway and wait out the completion of the neighborhood!! Not bad, plus the property taxes are lower because it's still new and the house itself is only six months old. Pretty exciting huh? Most of you know that returning to New Brunswick was most definitely not high on my list of things to do...but with the excitement of a new home and knowing some old friends are there waiting...I'm actually not dreading it!! And that says A LOT!!!!

Say A Little Prayer Please

My goodness...two posts from me in one day...who would have thought!! LOL Actually this is a quick one...a request really. I just heard from our good friends the Mostellars. Ann, John, Hopey and James. Anyhow, John is in Iraq. He was sent with what is called a MiTT team. They are smaller teams sent over to do various taskings throughout Iraq. The worst part about these taskings is the fact that these men are sent to another base for approximately three months extra training prior to setting foot in Iraq. Once they set foot in Iraq their year begins. So these families are without their loved ones for 15 or 16 months. Now with the new guidelines in effect these soldiers will be extended another 3 months in Iraq...totaling 18 months away from their family. Unthinkable. I am so hurt for Ann and for all the families...I just felt like they need all the extra support they can get. So if you don't mind, stop right now and say a prayer for strength for our wonderful friends and all of the families in this terrible position. I know they will appreciate it!

***For those interested Jeff still hasn't made it out of Boston...we are hoping for 9pm tonight!!!***

Not there yet...

****Quick note**** I was looking for a picture of Jeffy to add to this post, and I decided on this one of his Master's Graduation with his two buddies Jackson (middle) and Adam (left). Jackson is the British exchange who is now serving with the US in Iraq for four months and Adam was the previous Australian exchange officer. He and his lovely wife Jo have gone back to Australia. Sadly that just leaves Jeff here at Fort Sill...poor lonely Jeffy!! Anyway it was a cute picture...doesn't pertain to the topic at all, but cute!!


This is just a quick note for those you who know Jeffy is on his way to New Brunswick...he hasn't made it yet!! He left yesterday morning out of Lawton. He made it safe, sound and on time to Dallas...that's where his luck ended! His flight out of Dallas was late. Upon arrival he sprinted, what he says was, three miles, to the gate where his Canada flight was taking off...only to find it was delayed until 9pm. Yikes!! That would have been bad, but certainly better than what actually happened...the flight was cancelled and the next available flight isn't until 8pm tonight. He then had to find a hotel, the only thing available was over $200 a night and then he had to wait in the cold, with no jacket because they lost his bag, for a shuttle to the hotel. Last I heard he was warming up in the hotel's restaurant and thinking about how nice it would have been if he'd have put his shaving kit in his carry on!! By the way, for those traveling, the airlines no longer give shaving kits to people who have had flights canceled overnight...figures if they can't afford meals anymore, they sure can't afford toothpaste!!
So that's the news...Jeffy should arrive tomorrow evening and that will give him Wed, Thurs, and Friday to find a house, get a contract, and secure a mortgage...no problem!! LOL I'll keep you updated!!

Wild Hogs

Our weekend excitement was pretty much the same as every Pederson weekend. Family night last night...we all watched Aquamarine. A cute little movie that made Maddy decide she wanted to become a mermaid. (too bad she swims like a brick!!) Mommy went yard saleing early Saturday morning...we headed out to Sam's to feast on samples...then home for the rest of the afternoon.
But then this evening we moved away from the ordinary and actually went on a date night!! The girls stayed with our neighbors (bless them!!) and Jeff and I went out to dinner with some friends and then to see Wild Hogs! I have to say I wasn't convinced going in that I would enjoy it, but I loved it!! It was one of those nice surprises. It reminds me a lot of my love for Legally Blonde.
On our first anniversary Jeff and I headed to Moncton for some "big city" shopping. I happened to be eight months pregnant and it was the warmest summer in years in New Brunswick. After a trip around the mall I was done!! Jeff suggested a movie and I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than sit in an air conditioned movie theater. There wasn't anything on that looked good, so we chose Legally Blonde...I seriously could have cared less about the movie, I just wanted the cool room to take a nap. I did no sleeping...I was engrossed in the silly little comedy that has since become one of my very most favorite movies. That's how Wild Hogs happened...it was the movie playing on base and it only costs $2.50 to get in. We were going with two other couples so no matter what was playing we knew we would have a nice time...and then the movie started and I laughed myself silly! What a great little happy surprise!! For anyone else who needs a little giggle I highly recommend you head out to see the Hogs!!

Blame it on the cyst....

First...you recognize my two angels on the left, but let me introduce my absolutely adorable little nephew Westin. I said in my very first blog that I would put a picture of him in whenever I found one...and I just did!! Isn't he too much...look at those cheeks!! He's being held by his lovely Mom Sheena, for those of you who haven't met my brother's wife! The picture of my angels was taken at Maddy's Christmas pageant. She was an angel (obviously) and Sarah was the baby Jesus. She laid in the manger through the whole pageant just kicking her feet and cooing! The worst part of the whole thing was trying to find an article of clothing in her wardrobe that wasn't pink!! LOL

Well today we finally got in to see Dr. Lovins about Sarah's cyst. In case any of you haven't heard the story...when Sarah fell of the couch at Gigi and Pa's house she hit her head and gave herself a concussion. The hospital ran two CT scans. There was no fractures or bleeding but they did find an arachnoid cyst. I was told that it's nothing to worry about, but she would need a follow up MRI when we returned home. Okay, yeah right, tell a Mom not worry about something in your child's brain! I immediately consulted the Allied Doctor on call...Anne Docherty. She is the British exchange officers wife and she happens to be a General Practitioner. She fields all of our medical questions/concerns and never once complains...God bless her! (Maddy thinks that she can fix anything...if a toy breaks or she falls off her bike, we have to call "Ms. Anne Docherty" because she's a doctor and she'll fix it...no matter what it is!) Anyhow Anne looked it up on the Internet and let me know that 4 percent of the population have an arachnoid cyst, but most will never know it. Of those 4 percent only 20 percent will ever become symptomatic. And because of where in her brain Sarah's is, it's unlikely she'll ever show symptoms. So back to Dr. Lovins. He is a great doctor and he really thinks along the same lines as I do. He felt that until he read the results of the CT scan nothing really needed to be done...and he felt that unless the CT scan showed that the cyst could be something other than arachnoid he didn't recommend doing anything. He said putting her under for an MRI would be a last result. The side effects of putting an infant to sleep would most likely be far worse than the cyst will ever be. So as of now it looks like Mommy can breathe a little easier. I'll keep you updated, but hopefully this will be the last of the cyst worries!! Dr. Lovins did however say the up side of all of this is that now I have something to blame all of Sarah's issues on..."Sarah bit another child a preschool today." She has a cyst in her brain. "Sarah isn't paying attention in class." She has a cyst in her brain. "Sarah won't eat peas." She has a cyst in her brain. You get the idea. I suppose every cloud has a silver lining! LOL

Hoppy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!! Hope everyone has had a great Easter weekend!! It's been a little chilly here, and sadly for Maddy, no snow...but all in all we've had a great one!
Yesterday we went to the base wide Easter Egg hunt. It was CRAZY!!! Free eggs?!?! You would think they were giving away gold the way people flocked on base!! It was held at the Polo Field and the whole field was completely full! I took the kids and luckily the 0-2 area was directly next to the 3-5 area and I could sit in the middle so both kids could hunt. Okay so Sarah didn't exactly hunt, but she did enjoy trying to crawl around and get her hands on all the little eggs. Oh yes and have her picture taken! Who knew it would be cold enough for Sarah to wear her pink bunny snow suit...but it was. She was all bundled up looking like the baby Easter bunny! A photographer from the Lawton Constitution picked her out of the crowd as soon as we got there and he followed us around the entire time. He literally took at least 100 pictures of her...he said he was going to make certain he got one good enough for the paper. Sure enough this morning our baby is a star!! Her grass covered little bunny face is on the front page!! My other baby collected tons of eggs and even found a prize egg!! She was the proud winner of a cute pink stuffed bunny! That made dealing with the fact that her sister had her own photographer much easier!
After the base egg hunt we headed home to leave for the battalion egg hunt! We arrived just in time for the hunt! Colonel Myers is a stickler for schedules and obviously a man decided that the egg hunt would begin precisely at 2:00pm...the function timing was 2:00pm until 4:00pm. I'm not certain whether the stars happened to be aligned just so, or possibly the Pederson side of our family is starting to come into play...but we were actually early! Yes, I said early! By the time the hunt was over at around 2:03pm both of our girls had plenty of eggs. When the Docherty clan arrived at 2:05pm all 2500 eggs were gone! Luckily Sarah was unaware that all of her eggs were used to seed the trees for the Docherty's four kids to hunt!! Sadly there were several families in the same boat, but not us because we were early!! Yep early!! After all the Easter festivities, I skipped out for a movie with the girls. We saw Music and Lyrics! What a cute movie...I love Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant is positively dreamy!!

Today was spent doing the Easter thing!! We went to a lunch at the neighbors with about 15 other families. It was really nice to visit and spend the holiday with friends! And there was yet another egg hunt for the girls...we are all hunted out! Thank goodness the Easter bunny was smart enough to fill his eggs with fruit snacks instead of candy! So that's our Easter...we've hunted and hunted and hunted...now it's time to rest! We will enjoy the rest of the evening quietly. (now that Maddy has crashed from her sugar high!)

For those who want to see the LAWTON CONSTITUTION staring Sarah here is the link!!!

http://www.lawton-constitution.com/ftpage/040807.pdf

At Least Someone's Happy....

Well it's been a sad day for the Pederson's...or at least one of them. Maddy's field trip to the Holy City of the Witchitas was cancelled. Let me tell you, cancelling a field trip, is equivalent to losing a limb when you are five years old!! The Holy City is a little man made biblical town on the Wildlife Refuge right outside of Lawton. It is home of the longest running Passion play in the United States. Jeff and I went and watched it last year and honestly, it was incredible! As I said the Holy City is in a wildlife refuge. It's miles of land where herds of buffalo and long horn cattle run free. So at any given time a buffalo may wander into the scene...and man oh man, you better watch where you walk!! The setting is on the side of a "mountain." (To those of you who have actually seen mountains, you would probably classify this as a rocky hill...but here in OK it's a mountain.) People come from everywhere to set up lawn chairs and watch this over 6 hour Passion play. There are real camels and horse drawn chariots. It starts about 5:00 in the afternoon and progresses through the evening...seeing the sunset over the Holy City was absolutely beautiful. Now...back to the field trip cancellation...it was cancelled due to cold weather. The high today was 40 degrees and it's suppose to snow overnight. I'm guessing the die hard Passion fans will be there, but I bet the crowd is smaller this year!! The teachers at Lawton Christian decided the kids just couldn't handle the cold and cancelled. That was one sad group of kids!!
Our day has really been colored by that cancellation...not even lunch at Taco Bell, or a cheer up call to Gigi helped. Now Sarah on the other hand seemed pleased as punch today. (as you can tell from the pictures!) Even the fact that for some unknown reason she was up from 4am to almost 6am didn't seem to damper her spirits!! Mommy on the other hand looked like the walking dead!! There was one thought that has helped Maddy push on...the fact that the battalion Easter egg hunt might be in the snow tomorrow!! We'll have to let you know!!
Mommy is off to bed...gotta rest up for some early morning, possibly snowy, yard sales!! Have a great Easter weekend!!

Jeffy at the wheel!!!!

Well folks, Melissa decided to go to bed early tonight and guilted me into making an addition to the Pederson family blog. Up until last month I didn't even know what a blog was, now look at me. It is quite evident that my life in Fort Sill is not quite as exciting as the Pederson girls but I will do my best. Today started off strangely even for a Monday!! The girls were all sleeping like rocks which is quite strange for Sarah who is usually a very reliable alarm clock. I looked over and saw 7:30 on the clock which means we are very close to being late. So up we got quickly getting Maddy ready for school. As I was getting her dressed she asked me why it was so dark outside. As this question was processing through my head I decided to turn on the TV to verify the time......hmmmmm 6:20. Well in true Pederson fashion we decide to stop drop on the morning preparations and indulge ourselves in a full family snuggle for 45 more minutes. Good way to start off a Monday!!!! I do realize the picture to the left really has nothing to do with what I am writing, but don't those two girls look as cute as can be!!!


I did see a TV show last night on the Disney Cruise Line which was almost too much for me to handle. For those of you who don't know, we took a Disney Cruise in February and the show just brought back some of those wonderful memories. So since I really don't have anything else to write I will end my first ever Blog with a couple of those memories in picture form. As we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. Am I right????


Maddy and PA Partying with the Mayans!!!

Mommy and Maddy scary!!!!!!

Our Wild Weekend

Okay...so wild is an exaggeration, but we were busy! Fridays are always good days for us...it's coffee morning for Mommy and Mommy loves to spend the morning chatting over an asiago cheese bagel at ABC! It's cookie day for Maddy and that means she gets to wear jeans to school and pick out a cookie for a quarter...what more could a five year old ask for??? And finally Daddy...he had a "professional development" at the mess after work. That's code for having a few beers with the boys!! The whole day was ended with a "family night." That's a night we spend all together watching a movie or playing a game. This week it was a new Shrek DVD game that Maddy has anxiously been waiting to play since I purchased it in KY almost two weeks ago!!

Saturdays always start off with me out yard saling with the girls!! This week it was only Michelle and I because the rest of our crew were at home with husbands in the field. Not too many deals, but I got a great framed print and a pampered chef apple corer/peeler/slicer that I've been wanting forever!! It sure will make making baby food so much easier and my baby loves apples!! We made our weekly trip to Sam's for samples then we were off to the commissary and a birthday party. The party would have been fun if there hadn't been a giant blow up slide as the entertainment. See...Pa and I took Maddy to an indoor play land in KY called the Fun Dome...Maddy, for those who aren't aware, is not a hugely adventurous child. Well, there happened to be three giant blow up slides at the fun dome. Pa and I had a great time climbing up and sliding down, but Maddy screamed like someone was tearing out her tiny fingernails the one time I forced to her go down. Now she has a fear of blow up slides. So needless to say that wasn't her choice entertainment...oh well at least they had cupcakes!! We ended our Saturday with a trip to the movies. We saw Meet the Robinsons. It was great!! I highly recommend it to anyone!! But be aware there is an extra charge for the 3-D glasses. I nearly choked with the man said our total for the three of us (Sarah was free) was $25!! It was well worth the price and Sarah sat through it like an angel and let us all enjoy the whole thing!!
Today was an absolutely beautiful day!! It was sunny and about 80 degrees...perfect day for lawn work!! We really cleaned up that yard and Maddy loved being outside! I don't think she made it in for more than a potty break from 10am until 7pm...she sure conked out quickly!! Gotta love that!! I snuck away with my girlfriend for a pedicure! I hadn't had one since Mom and I went the day before Sarah was born! I think it was about time!! Maddy's jealous because I have a flower on my big toe...let me tell you my kid is a girly girl!!
So all in all it was a pretty good weekend for the Pederson's! Hope you all had just as much fun!! It's bedtime and I think I'll crash as quickly as Maddy!! Until later!!