Say it isn't so.  Boy 3 came to me about a week ago and said "I want to go bald".  "Bald?" I repeated.  "Yes cut it all off - I don't want hair any more". 
I thought this was a passing phase, I ignored him. 
The next day he came back to me and said the same thing. 
He continued to tell me this day after day. 
Fine.  After a week of him coming to me each day telling me he wants to be bald I took him in with tears in my eyes to have his hair cut off.  I couldn't imagine my baby without his long silky blonde hair hanging in his bright blue eyes. This was almost more than I could take, but I sucked it up, loaded the kids in the van and headed down to Sports Clips with camera in hand to capture the moment on film.
I was thankful for the moment just before he went in to get his hair cut 'BALD' that he decided he wanted a 'military cut' instead. (With no coaxing from me ~ I promise!)

Last week the Battalion FRG (Family Readiness Group) went on a family camp out.   However this was not your typical camp out, this was a Cav-tastic, Cavalicious, freaking Cav of a good time!  A few months before this deployment started the FRG leaders and I got together and planned out events for the entire year of deployment.  The idea was to have a big event at Battalion level each month of deployment to help the deployment go by a little faster and so families would have something to look forward to.  The 'camp out' started as just that - a camp out at a state park, but then an idea sparked.....  I had been to the Buddy Walk out at Reunion Ranch in Georgetown several months earlier and fell in love with the place.  Granted I had been to Reunion Ranch before, way back in the early days - back '93 (you know, the day of the BIG A$$ cell phones and you were super cool if you had one) when we lived at Hood for the first time and I worked in Austin.  (That was the time way back when Hubby said to me "Honey, don't worry about learning anything about the military. I'm serving my 4 years and I'm getting out.  No, you don't need to go to those coffee things, don't worry about FSG - ((NOPE, that is not a typo - I remember when it was called FSG))....blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.....") Any who...the company I worked for had our Christmas party out at Reunion Ranch back in '93 & that was my first meeting with Reunion Ranch.  After all these years, I'm glad Reunion Ranch has stayed on my radar because - let me tell you the families (our family included) of the HHBn benefited tremendously from this place!  Not only did the kids have fun, but moms were able to relax, talk with other mom's and just hang out.  Something that is MUCH needed 6+ weeks into deployment.  This is a time when the mom's start pulling their hair out and start needing a little 'adult' conversation.   We had 80+ people at the camp out, I was wishing for more, but the families that were there had so much fun I forgot about the number and just enjoyed the time and the families that were there. 

Some of the things we enjoyed were:  swimming, paddle boats, canoes, miniature golf, Cavalicious contest, basketball, tetherball, volleyball, horseshoes, washers, zip lines, team games, tug-o-war, dancing, movie under the stars, hanging on a 'beach', 3 HUGE play areas, sleeping under the stars and more!

Upon arrival, we set up tent city. 

Then we had the Cavalicous Contest!  Who do you think should have won? 

And everyone had a great time just hanging out at the ranch -

Yeah, I'm a little behind and I'm trying to play catch up....the last day of school was on June 2nd, two weeks ago....

 

If you click on the pictures below the captions will appear....

I've intentionally been VERY busy over the past 6.5  weeks. I've had FRG commitments, kids sleep overs, wine on the porch with neighbors, shopping, anything just to keep my mind off if.  Tonight was the first night - really, the first night in 6.5 weeks that I have had nothing to do. Nothing, nada, ZIP!  My friends are MIA. They must be sick of me asking them to hang.  They have all disappeared. The neighborhood is bare.  Even Boy 1's girlfriend is gone...that's weird, she is always here.  I was WAY excited when Boy 1 wanted to rearrange his room and I was TOTALLY on board, BUT THEN he told me he wanted to do it BY HIMSELF.  I thought I gave one of the best sales pitches of my life, telling him how good I was at it...."I've done this a million times, I can help, I'm REALLY good at this!"  He said to me...."I know you are Mom, but how am I ever going to learn if you always do it for me"?   REALLY.......he learns this lesson NOW, of all days, he learns it NOW?!?! 

Bah-humbug.....here I am sitting in my house alone....all the kid are asleep....I'm reconsidering bedtime, maybe they shouldn't go to be so early...... 

Boy 1 has been having Korean food withdrawal so this past week I went to O'mart and bought some of our favorite Korean dishes. They marinate the meats so all you have to do is come home and cook it.  I do know how to make these items, but I love that O'mart takes all the prep time away for me PLUS they make Korean food WAY better than I do!  The Bulgogi is awesome and their Galbi is pretty darn good too!  We also had kimchi, cucumber kimchi, bean sprout kimchi, odeng, kim & rice. (BTW, my mouth is watering)  Oh, and I can't forget the Aloe drink - I LOVE the Aloe drink, the kids not so much ~ that's ok though, more for me!!  I was going to get grape soda (not your normal USA grape soda - go head, click the link and check it out) for the kids but O'mart was out of it.  The only things missing were grape soda, kimchi jigae, and Hubby (not in that particular).  The kids and I enjoyed our night sitting around the table and reminiscing about our time in Korea and how we all missed it and how we would all go back in a heartbeat...

On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend we loaded up in the van and headed out to Georgetown to hang out with some friends from long ago.  My dear friend Betsy and her hubby Jay were having a Memorial Day party at their ranch.

On Monday we hung out with our neighbors that are getting ready to move....Boy 3's last friend on the Loop is moving...he is very sad, but was happy to have a fun day hanging with out with his buddy!

I ♥ fresh blueberries...

I ♥ fresh blueberries and I ♥ fresh muffins.....

I ♥ fresh blueberry muffins!!!

And you will to with this super easy blueberry muffin recipe!  I've shared it before (over at Six in Seoul), but really felt like you guys needed a reminder. ♥

For Muffins:
1 1/2 cups  flour
¾ cup  sugar
½ tsp  salt
2 tsp baking  powder
1/3 cup vegetable  oil
1 egg
1/3 cup  milk
1 cup fresh blueberries 

For Crumb Topping:
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup  flour
¼ cup butter  cubed
1 ½ tsp ground  cinnamon
Mix all together.

1. Preheat oven to  400.  Spray muffin pan with Pam.
2. Combine flour,sugar, salt and baking  powder.
3. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup  measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup.
4. Mix this with flour mixture.
5. Fold in blueberries.
6. Fill muffin cups right  to the top,(This will make about 9-10  muffins) 
7. Sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
8. Bake for 20-22  minutes.

So it really was cool....Girl started screaming at us..."Guess is molting RIGHT NOW, come see!!"  By the time we got there Guess was taking his last leg out of his skin.  Very cool. (No wonder he wasn't eating the crickets we were trying to feed him!)