The Fun Continues

So after the official Hazard Family Reunion ended in Oklahoma (that's coming, I promise), Bennett and I got in our car and drove back to Texas...but we weren't alone. Because my mom, dad, Allison, and Courtney followed us/drove with us to continue the fun at our home!

Here is Waco from the car window. Courtney liked this city enough to take a picture of it I guess. We live about an hour from here, but with all the random back roads and getting lost we did, it felt like a lot longer. (P.S- If you will remember, it was only a few months ago that my GPS lead me astray into the inner city ghetto of Waco. Maggie is now in the garbage. I now hate Waco. However, we officially welcomed Garr, my new Garmin GPS, into the Hargrave family on this trip. He is awesome, although I still managed to get lost a few times. It wasn't his fault. There is only so much technology can do for somebody like me...)

We arrived at our home late Saturday night on July 30th. It was SO fun to finally get to show my family our house!! My dad and Courtney had visited last year, and my mom sort of saw it when Bennett was born, and Allison saw it when it was still in the drywall stage. But none of my family had seen our home how it is now (post-deployment re-do) and I was super excited to show them all the projects I have been working on for the last few months. They were an excellent audience and ooed and awed at all the right times.

Sunday morning we woke up and everybody got ready for church. We also had few extra visitors stop by that morning...

Bekah and Nathan came up from San Antonio to see my family and go to church with us! For those of you who don't remember, Bekah and Nathan (Matt's sister and her husband) are very close to my family due to the fact that they attended BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, where my family lives. Because of this, they spent a lot of time with my parents eating Sunday dinners and hanging out, and they couldn't pass up an opportunity to have another one with them in Texas. It was great to have them come. But that's not all who showed up...

After church Mary and Wayne came up to say a quick hello, too! Bennett is such a lucky boy to have two such wonderful sets of grandparents. And we are all very lucky to have so many people who love us!

Bennett and Uncle Nathan playing in Bennett's room. Notice how every toy is dumped out onto the floor? That is Bennett's new thing. Bennett is not going to have toys in his room for too much longer unless he can learn to kick this habit...or how to at least pick them back up...

Reunited and it feels so good.

Monday was a relax and unpack day. And my dad volunteered to do my entire yard for me! What a guy! I made good use of my free time by watching the Bachelorette, as Courtney is really into this show. As you can tell by the look on my face, I was not quite as into it as she was. I did, however, root for JP. Because there's nothing like finding true love on national television after cycling through 25 other guys. That's going to last forever.

We also did some shopping. I took them to Goodwill (my favorite hangout) and Lowe's (the store I have spent more time at in the last year than any other human being would care to admit.) Lowe's and I are very close...maybe a little too close...

That night we barbecued shiskabobs in the backyard. Bennett and Grandpa were the masters of the flame. Matt would have been proud.

Tuesday morning I took everybody to my gym with me. The girls did Zumba, my dad used the machines, and Bennett went to childcare and played with his trains. They almost didn't let us in though, because we forgot our ID's. Fortunately, they believed that we were all over the age of 12 and let us in anyway. It was close call for Allison however, who the lady scrutinized especially carefully.

Everybody Zumba!

After the workout. We all made it out alive, but just barely (mom) :)

Outside the gym...apparently Courtney thought we were going to pose...

When we got home, we realized that I had accidentally locked us out of our house with the alarm system set. So I got one more workout figuring that one out.

On Wednesday Matt called and said he was sending us a present in the mail. Matt does this frequently, and I love it. So does Bennett, who has coined the term, "Daddy Mail." Matt's presents are always fun and unexpected, and this one was no different.

A slip n' slide for Bennett and Grandpa! Jace got to play, too, since I still watched him all this week. Bennett loved this thing! Unfortunately, we only took a few pictures because we were too busy taking video. And I really don't want to deal with uploading a million videos right now. So just imagine the cutest little boy laugh you can, and that about sums it up :)

Grandpa was feeling it a little there at the end though. Actually I went down this a lot too, and I think you have to be a child with an underdeveloped nervous system to fully appreciate this kind of water toy. I have bruises. But we will do it again, I guarantee it.
Everyday we have Three-O'clock Ice Cream Time here. The title pretty much says it all. I love three o'clock.

Bennett and Jace in their shades. Jace is at that age right now where he can talk really well, but he doesn't censor his thoughts at all, so everything he says is hilarious. He loved hanging out with my family, and still asks where Grandma and Grandpa went.

Thursday morning we got up, packed a cooler, and headed to a little water park in Killeen that I have always wanted to go to, but just never have--mostly because I wanted to do the big water slides that Bennett can't go on yet, and I didn't have a second person to watch him while I did. But with my family here there were plenty of people to play with Bennett and slide with me, so it was a win win all around.

A little section of the park. This place is pretty awesome, and it's only $7.00 for us to go. We just found our new summer hangout.

Grandma and Bennett and the little purple slide.

"The Sliders." Actually, my mom and Allison went on a few slides with us, too, but only my dad would do the big ones with me. Courtney was a good babysitter :)

Me coming out of the big purple slide.
(Good photography skills, Court.)

My dad coming out of the big purple slide.
"I can't believe I got both my arms ripped out of their sockets for a picture like that!"

Sisters.

P.S-That rock wall behind us was super hard. I only saw one person make it all the way across all day, and it was Allison. Impressive.

Bennett.

My dad doing his thing.

Look at that form! I am so proud of myself.

My mom and Allison watching the divers.

Going home after a great day.

(And just so you know, outside food of any kind is strictly prohibited here. I guess that's why we got so many glares as we blatantly ate our chicken salad pitas in front of everybody.)

When we got home we all took three hour naps. It felt so good. After our naps we got back in the car and went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Can I just say yum? I love Italian.

On our way home we veered off course and headed for Courtney Lane, a little road in Copperas Cove that Courtney saw on our way into town and decided she had to have a picture of it. So it was on this night that we were all finally sick of hearing Courtney telling us all to got that way, and we finally stopped so she could get her picture.

Courtney on Courtney Lane. It was even better than we hoped, with some ghetto shacks and a questionable party going on across the street. Way to live up to your name...

That's how we all felt about it, Bennett.

As it turns out, Courtney Lane is right next to our City Park. So we made one more detour on the way home to see where Bennett and I hang out, and to feed the ducks our leftover bread sticks from the Olive Garden. Bennett and I have seen the ducks before, and I knew there were some weird ones here, but nothing like what we saw on this night. Honestly, it was like there was a chemical spill in this pond or something. I have never seen so many misfit animals in all of my life--limp legs, no legs, broken wings, crazy growths, weird hanging things, anorexia, and obesity, to name a few. It was probably one of the most comically tragic thing I have seen. I could not stop laughing.

Courtney made friends with the little white duck. He was literally almost eating out of her hand. (If you look in the background you can see the duck with the weird hanging thing. What happened here?!)

Bennett and Courtney feeding the ducks. I guess Courtney asked Bennett if he could see the duck feathers, and this was Bennett's response (Courtney has feather extensions in her hair.)

Laughing at the poor ducks.

Of course Bennett couldn't be near mud and stay clean very long. I was a little worried about the effects of the pond water on his skin, but as of yet Bennett has no crazy growths or hanging things. *Sigh of relief*

On the way home from the park we detoured through a neighborhood that is known to have deer roaming the streets at night. They are like the people's pets. It's a little weird, but cool at the same time.

Friday was the last full day my family would spend with us, so we decided to get out of the house a little. I took them on base and I gave them what I like to call, "The Citizen's Tour." This is a tour that, opposed to showing military things (tanks, offices, award sites) shows what the average "Hey-I-married-into-the-Army-so-this-is-my-life-now" citizen sees on base. We drove through the neighborhoods, stopped by our big park, and saw my doctor's office. It was very educational. Then I took them to the parade field where our family will be reunited in just a few short weeks. It was exciting to sit in the bleachers and imagine the buses pulling up and Matt getting off one of them. It was also a little hard to imagine, since I haven't really let my mind go there too much.

This is where we will meet Matt very, very soon! I love this field.

Allison and Courtney in their matching outfits. Guess who's older. :)

The little memorial next to the field.

When "The Citizen's Tour" was complete, my dad offered to take us out to dinner. Matt had called before and suggested we go to Five Guys because their fries are made from Idaho potatoes (but mostly, I think, because he is really, really craving normal food) so we honored his wishes and ate delicious hamburgers and fries.

It was fun to see signs of Idaho in Texas.

Five Guys: "Not as good as Fat Guys, but better than anywhere else"

When we got home it was Bennett's bedtime, but since everybody was leaving at 4:00 the next morning, I let him stay up as long as his little body could hold out for. Grandma read to him, we all played with him, and it was sort of sad when he only lasted until 8:45pm. Bennett needs his sleep like his mom does. So he went to bed after everybody said goodnight and goodbye and we all cried a little.

The next morning everybody woke up at 4:30 and got out the door. From our house my family was heading to the Grand Canyon, and then on to California to attend the extended Hazard Family Reunion with my Grandma and Grandpa. It was sad to see them go, but it was such a fun fun two weeks we got to spend with them, I feel very lucky.

We love you all! Thanks for visiting us!

Still Here

Well its getting closer to that magical Re~Deployment date!! Cant really give you any specifics but can't wait to be done with this place. Had breakfast this morning with a COL Mohammad ( I know real original ) but it is pretty nice to eat in the officers mess on the Iraqi base. Just a little reminder for those that haven't been following our family blog, my Battalion is currently located in Northern Iraq in partnership with the 2nd Iraqi Army. These guys are basically the equivalent to our special forces. (dont get too excited these guys still have a long way to go, but they're trying). For the past year we have been living on a little base located near them so as one of the perks we get to occasionally head over that way and visit. So during breakfast we were chit chatting about this and that and how the Iraqi's had recently rolled up this one terrorist cell that has really helped in calming things down. I wish I could give all the juicy details but cant right now but once I get home I got all sorts of stories. Anyway, enjoy the few pictures.

We try to relax in the evening time by hanging out, playing a few card games, and just trying to imagine we are somewhere else besides here!


This is SFC Klibert, he works in the S-2 shop (military intelligence) so he is already a little bit paranoid. I was beating him pretty bad at cards so he came to the conclusion I was reading his mind through his eye's! Sooooo...he decided to try to remedy the situation...it didn't help though...I took the rest of his chips on the next move!


So this is actually our bus and we actually parked next to the "No Parking" sign. I mean come on people this is a war zone...who is going to obey some random sign, in Iraq, when there are absolutely no consequences. I mean it looks like it was put together in someones garage...It makes me laugh!

...and of course everybody really enjoying a little BBQ!

Oh, where to start...?

Sometimes I really hate this blog. Seriously, I think I am all caught up, and then all of a sudden it is four weeks since the last decent post, and I find myself laying awake in the middle of the night thinking about all of the stuff that has happened that I have yet to blog about. So to relieve myself from this ridiculous anxiety, I am going to sit down and spend way too long making an entry about things that happened way too long ago.

Hang in there with me, or feel free to skip right over this whole thing. I don't really care. This is purely for me and my obsessive compulsive sanity.

Oh, where to start...? Here is a quick rundown of our basic week.

Monday I have Jace. The mornings are for Story Time, and Monday nights we have FHE with our FHE group, which I organized. Tuesday mornings I go to Zumba, because I joined a gym in June. It is approximately three minutes from my house, has fantastic child care, and makes me feel like I can still have some muscle tone even though I am a mom. Joining this gym also motivated me to finally throw away my gross high school cross country clothes and buy myself some "grown up" work out clothes and a yoga mat. I feel very adult when I go work out. Wednesday I have Jace and we have playgroup, which I organized. Sometimes we all go to the $1.00 movie with the rest of the toddlers in Copperas Cove. Thursdays are combat class (watch out, I can now take down a fully grown man in a dark ally without breaking a sweat. Stay on my good side.) And in the afternoons we will sometimes go to shows at the library. Like reptile shows, where Bennett has small fits of excitement and dramatic reenactments of the "nakes" and the "yizzards." Fridays I have Jace and Step class. Saturdays we do the yard. All. Day. Long. Sundays we cling to our sanity and go to church.

Also, every single morning I wake up to Bennett's face three inches from my own, telling me it is not nighttime anymore because now it is "rocket ship time"...except he puts a T at the end of the word "ship", which sort of makes me smile. So every single morning (except Sundays) we are joined for breakfast by the Little Einsteins. I have DVRd these episodes, so I know that we have watched approximately 81 episodes of this highly educational television show. Ugh. But Bennett loves it, and I get my hair done, so it works. Plus, Bennett can now tell me the difference between adagio, moderato, allegro, and presto, and he has developed a deep love of violins and trumpets. These are crucial skills in today's modern world.

So besides the basic, everyday stuff, there is the extra curricular, too.

In June, Bennett took swimming lessons every day for two weeks. He excelled at jumping in the water, going down the big slide, and kick-kick-kicking. Other than that, he still has no idea how to swim. If you ask him though, he will tell you he is just like the Alligator on Little Einsteins, and he doesn't need any help from Mommy (a direct quote from my confidant two-year-old). I am practicing my life-saving techniques...

...as did his swimming instructors.

Bennett with his class. He was much younger than everybody else by several years, since most two-year-olds stay with their moms in a Mommy 'n Me class. Bennett, on the other hand, was ready to assert his independence. Honestly, he could care less who has him in the water, just as long as he gets to get wet.

Jumping to Miss Kat.

Doing "windmill arms" with Miss Megan and Miss Kat. He really did learn a few things.

Standing in line for the water slide. There is actually a 42'' height limit on this slide, which Bennett in no way reached. But since he was in the class he got to do it anyway. This picture cracks me up because Bennett is so short next to everybody else.

Bennett in his ducky towel. (P.S- you know how some kids will develop an attachment to a special blanket? Bennett has that kind of special bond with towels...not just one towel, but ALL towels in general...)

A post-swimming-ice-cream-cone-interview for Daddy...apparently...

On to July.

Bennett got a bike! I found this baby at Goodwill for six bucks. When I went to Wal Mart to get training wheels for it (which I installed myself, thank you) I saw the same bike for $48.00. Gotta love that Goodwill.

So obviously the fourth of July was a big day. We traveled down to Mary and Wayne's for the holiday and the next day as well, and had a great time hanging out with family, eating good food, swimming, and riding our bikes. However, because we live where one stray spark could send the entire state up in smoke, there was a fireworks ban in effect and nothing was celebrated with matches. :(

Before we ever left to San Antonio, I put our own flag out in our front yard. Bennett was fascinated with this concept, so I started talking about the flag a little bit, and what it means, and how we should treat it. I didn't really think Bennett was listening, but the next day we were walking out our front door and Bennett stopped and put his right hand over his heart. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "My daddy flag. My daddy Iraq." It was one of those sweet, tender moments where your child teaches you more than you could ever teach them. I guess he really does listen to me...sometimes.

"My Daddy flag."

When we got to Maimie and Pop's house we were lucky enough to be present at the homecoming of Matt's brother, Joe, who had just graduated from Coast Guard boot camp. They are stationed in Florida now, and we can't wait to have family permanently on the coast to be able to visit! Yay Joe and Kim!

Grilling up some hamburgers and sausage

Sharing the ever popular corner of the kitchen. I was in charge of helping make the condiments tray...which is about as close to making a vegetable tray as you can get...which has been my job at almost every major event since I have married into this family. I am just that amazing at cutting vegetables. :)

We also celebrated Uncle Nathan's birthday, who was born in Boston on the Fourth of July. Can't get any more patriotic than that. Here is Bennett giving him his birthday card.

Bekah and the birthday boy.

After dinner we rode scooters and bikes

Bennett on Maimie's bike. He is a good bike-rider.

And we played on Pop's tractor. Just so you know, that is Bennett's microphone. He sings beautiful songs in that thing every time we come. I think when I took this picture he was singing a rendition of Justin Bieber's "Baby, Baby." Bennett sings a lot of cool songs like that, because he is with his mom a lot, who is also very cool.

And we ate fudgecicles

Something really bad must have been happening in this picture...

And we went swimming with Aunt Bea.

And we had a great time overall. The next day Mary and I went shopping for secret project number 72. Just so you know, my house is looking a-mazing right now. I love it. I really, really hope Matt loves it too, since I have done quite a bit to it since he has seen it last, and without his input. By the way, I repainted my kitchen from Caribbean blue to...you'll just have to wait and see. But it is NOT brown...and I LOVE this house!!

Just a video clip of Bennett and Jace being buds. I really can't tell you what they were doing here, but it was pretty cute watching them.

The most recent even in our lives here is that Bennett just got to spend his first few days with his Maimie and Pop alone. That's right, Mary and Wayne very wonderfully offered to take Bennett for a few days so I could have some time to myself. And I readily agreed, although I will admit that watching Bennett drive off without me was harder than I thought it would be and I may have shed a few tears...but I got over it fast. First, I did my toes. Then I switched into "project mode" and accomplished more in a two day period than I have ever accomplished before. I got at least seven projects completed that I had wanted to get done for awhile, but just couldn't do with our overly involved little boy being so overly involved. So while my break wasn't very relaxing, it was so, SO wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bennett loved it to, since when I picked him up he talked my ear off about what they did and what they played and what they ate and where they went and who was there...it was pretty cute. What a big boy we have!

OK, so there you go. That is a very basic run-down of our last month or so. There are a lot of little things I left out, and some things that I would have loved to expand on more but didn't for the sake of time. But that's about it in a nutshell. And I promise to try harder to not get so behind next time. But at least I can get some sleep now!

Whew! I feel so much better. Don't you?