Flamingos and Football!!

Football season is upon us again but this year both boys are playing. Hunter has made a huge improvement from last year. He has his game face on and is ready to go every play. He was able to play most of the game at various positions and had fun. It is great to watch him out there. You can tell he knows the game and is able to figure out what to do when a play doesn't go as planned. He is able to find and open player or get open himself. Today, he was fortunate enough to get the ball a lot and was able to score 3 TD's.




Brody is also playing this year for the first time. I really thought he would be the one on the sideline, playing with the water jug or picking blades of grass. I couldn't have been more wrong. He is a competitor. He listens to the coach and does exactly what he is told. If someone is in his way, he pushes them out of the way and keeps going. The boys played at the same time today so I was having to bounce between fields. I was very lucky in that when I got to Bordy's field (close enough to take pics) he got the ball and ended up running for a touchdown!! He even spiked the ball when he was done (no penalty, thank goodness!!) Of course, he was excited the team won but was really more concerned with what was brought for snack! I guess the competitive edge doesn't last forever!






Finally, Flamingos!! I was flocked!! I woke up Tuesday morning to find 10 flamingos aligning my front walkway. The local church youth group was doing a fundraiser and my neighbor paid money for them to place the flamingos in my yard. The boys were excited to see them but mad that they were only staying for 24 hours. How come when I was in youth group, we never did things like that?!

Brody's Birthday

Pinata at the party

Cupcake soccer ball

Well, I survived another birthday party and let me tell you, I am done with parties. They are too much work, especially around the holidays. Brody had a good time and was very excited about the entire day. He ended up having everyone come, including some siblings, which I had no idea were coming until they got to the door!! Of course, it rained and all the games were going to be played outside! So, we had an indoor crab soccer game with a beach ball and pin the ball in the goal. It finally cleared enough to have the pinata outside, only to have one of the kids take a swing before Joe could get it set up. Let's just say, the boy sat in a "time out" during the hitting of the pinata. The cake was cupcakes and the extra ones I made into a soccer ball. I think Brody enjoyed his day and I am glad it is over!!

Brody making his wish.
Gift from Uncle Mike and Aunt Christie

Christmas was very mellow for us. We stayed inside all day (it rained all day too) and played with all the new toys the boys got! Nothing too exciting to report on Christmas day, just some good ole' family time.
Playing with gift from Nana and Opa (Gretchen's parents)

For New Year's Eve, Joe and I (kids too) had a progressive dinner with some friends. Thank goodness I have a condemned ceiling because no one wanted to come to our house in case it did fall (actually, we live the farthest away from all the houses so we didn't have to host.) It was fun. The evening ended with a movie in the driveway of one of the houses (he brought a projector home and hung up a sheet and we watched a movie under the stars!) Of course, if you talk to my kids, the highlight of the day was not the progressive dinner, it was mom getting pulled over by PMO (military police)that afternoon. Apparently, he said I was going 52km in a 35km. Now here is my problem, I was in Joe's car. I don't think it can even go that fast, second I was going up a big hill, third I had just turned onto the street! So when he comes to my window, he says "Ma'am, you were going 52 in a 35!" I really wanted to tell him that "That's crap" but I refrained. I told him his gun was wrong and there was no way I was going that fast. He took my ID and driver's license and came back to the car and said he was just going to give me a warning! Now, I don't know if it had anything to do with Hunter, who was crying in the backseat saying "We're going to jail, I know it, we are going to jail" or Brody yelling "Look at the police lights, I think he is going to pull someone over". Once we were free to go, everyone calmed down in the car. The car wasn't even stopped at the house when the boys jump out to let their dad know what just happened!! Lesson learned, if you are going to get pulled over, have one crying kid in the back and another one clueless as to what is actually happening! Happy New Year to all!!

Housing Update!!

Well,he is the situation. Joe and I went into the housing office to talk with the "Relocation Counselor". Joe told me to let him do the talking because he would remain calm. I didn't say a word. I sat and listened to what Joe was telling her and listened to what she was telling us. But, when she started to apologize for the timing of the letter (one week before Christmas)I could hold my tongue any longer. She states "I'm sorry the letter came out when it did" and I reply "Yeah, that's crap!" I got the look from Joe but continued on about the ceiling. I remained very calm and was able to tell the entire story of the ceiling to her. She gets on her phone and talks to Tim and says "The occupants are describing a drop ceiling to me, could you go over and check to make sure this is correct". We drive home and have Tim look at the house and he said that there is no reason for us to move, our ceilings are fine!! I didn't want to tell him that I wasn't going any where!! So a half way happy ending, we do not have to move but Joe is still deploying!!

Merry Christmas from the Air Force

The house in question!!

Yes, you read the title correctly! The Air Force has given us an early (unwanted) Christmas present. Dec. 16th as I sit on the floor folding laundry, the doorbell rings. As I am opening the door, Kinjo (works with housing maintenance) is about to tape something to my door. He hands me the letter, that has my housing address on it, and says "they (housing) are going to have to move you, your ceiling unsafe." Now, he could have just handed me the letter and let me read it on my own but he tells me that we will have to move and if I have any questions, call the number on the paper. QUESTIONS! YES, I HAVE QUESTIONS!! Apparently, there are about 15 houses that have a wool cement ceiling that needs to be fix and they can't do it while we are living in the house. SO, they want to move everyone, within the next 3 months, to the towers (apartments) on Kinser (20 minutes away).

To catch some of you up, this is the same ceiling, one year ago, that we had replaced because we had cement pieces falling down. The entire living area was redone. They checked the rest of the house and said that those ceilings were fine. In August, I get home from vacation and find my kitchen ceiling sagging in the corner. Maintenance was called and after every engineer and architect looked at it, they said that it didn't need to be repaired. We have a year and a half left on this tour, I have been living in the house with a new ceiling for about a year and now you are telling me that I need to move because of the ceiling?!!

So, not only is Joe deploying on January 3rd, the kids and I are suppose to move from our support system and friends (that will be needed while he is away) so our house can sit vacant until they get around to fixing it. There are 2 houses down the street that need the ceiling repaired and nothing has been done to them since they moved the family out almost a year ago. Now don't get me wrong, if I hear the pieces of ceiling falling or my ceiling starts to sag again, I'll move but it has been fixed!!! The military is known to "hurry up and then wait"- they will move everyone out and then the houses will sit for a long time.

I am not the one handling the situation (I know you will be happy dad!!) Joe is. He seems to have a more level head and won't start crying to the people! But if his level headedness doesn't work, I am going in there with 2 crying kids and a hysterical mother and then we will see if they make us move. I might get committed to the mental ward but at least I tried. I will keep you all informed about the situation!!! Merry Christmas to all!!


The new ceiling we got about a year ago.

Holiday Hurrah Swim Meet

The last and finale swim meet of the year was on Saturday. Both Hunter and Joe competed while Brody and I cheered them on. This was the last time to get a qualifying time for the Tokyo swim meet. Hunter was able to qualify for the 25M breast stroke and 50M back stroke at this meet in addition to the 25M Free, 50M Free and 25M back that he had already qualified for. There was no rematch between Hunter and Joe in the 25M free- Hunter sat that one out. It was a beautiful day for a swim meet and was actually getting hot towards the end of the meet.


Brody had plenty to do at the meet but somehow managed to tell me that he was bored. There is always free ice cream at the end of the meets so I kept reminding him of that. He is now getting the itch to swim so Joe is going to start taking him to the pool on the weekends. You have to be 7 to be on the team but at least he can start practicing.

The money Hunter collected for the Distance Dare meet made him the 2nd place money winner. He won a nice Speedo backpack that is waterproof, Speedo goggles, and a Phelps8 (Michael Phelps) t-shirt. He was very surprised that he had collected so much. Thank you all who supported him in his quest for Tokyo.

We are now on to flag football and winter training camp (swim- Hunter). We are spending alot of time together this holiday season as we prepare for Joe's departure. No definite word on leave date yet will be sometime in March- April. He is hoping for a March date so he can return March 2011. April 2011 return date puts us very close to our pack out date,which is in June 2011

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Very Generous Brother!!

Brody and his buddy Marcus at the Kindergarten Pilgram Performance
A Family shot after the performance
The boys and I were talking the other day about Hunter's Distance Dare (the swimming he did for 2 hours). I was telling Hunter that I was very proud of him for one, swimming and completing the event and two, writing letters to get pledges. Brody wanted to know what the pledges were for. I explained to him that the money that Hunter collected was going to help pay his way to the Tokyo swim meet in March. Nothing more was said of it in the car. Later in the evening, Brody asked me if I could come to his room. He had a very serious look on his face and I thought something had happened at school. He wanted me to help him open his piggy bank up so he could get something out of it. I asked him what he wanted and he told me that he wanted to give something to Hunter. I helped him open the bank and he sat on the floor and sorted his money. He then pulled out a $20 and asked if he should give that to Hunter to help him swim. I told him that $20 was a very generous gift and if he would like to pledge Hunter that much, he could. He thought for a few minutes and changed the 20 to a dollar and walked into the kitchen and gave it to Hunter!! He was very happy that his name made the pledge sheet along with everyone else!!The cutest pilgram at the performance

Birthday Weekend at the Galvin"s

Hunter wearing an old football helmet

Brody's team (the team that didn't score as many points as the other team)

It was a busy weekend at the Galvin household last weekend. Hunter turned 8 on Saturday with a party with 12 boys. I now know why I do not give my children parties... too much work, with lots of complaining. I had some kids fill there plate with hot dogs and chips to turn around and throw it away! They tell me that they don't like hot dogs. THEN WHY DID YOU TAKE A PLATE FULL!!! Then the same kids take a cake (everyone got their individual football cake), decorate it and then lick the frosting and throw the cake away. Apparently, they only like frosting! I could have given them a tub of frosting to eat without wasting the cake. Some of the kids had no manners at times and I felt like I was babysitting. I hope that my kids don't act that way at someone else's party.


Overall, it was a good day. There were 12 kids plus Hunter and Brody that played flag football. Of course, my ultra-competitive son was getting mad because some kids were goofing off and not pulling flags. Joe kept reminding him that this was for fun and not everyone knows how to play football. Hunter's response was "Then we shouldn't have invited them!" No more parties for a while for us. He got alot of nice gifts and Brody seemed more excited than Hunter. Hunter would open a gift, Brody would see the corner of the package and Brody would get all excited!!
The winning team!

I didn't get many pictures of the game because my job was to start the grill. Now, when we were in CA, I did all the grilling but we had a gas grill. Here we have charcoal- not as easy to start! Of course, the boys are coming home, wanting to eat and I still have no flame in the grill. So I do what any other Galvin would do, I grab the lighter fluid and "wet" down the coals!! I about lost my eye lashes on that trick but I got a flame and was able to cook the hot dogs.

We stayed home on Sunday (my birthday)and just hung out. Brody kept asking when my party was. Later in the evening we went to a friends for dinner and came home and had German Chocolate Cake. I am the only one who eats it but it is a tradition. We get a month break from birthday's than we have Brody's (Dec. 30th) soccer partyGretchen, thankful she has eyelashes!!