Hey. It’s Maddie again. I have some random topics on this wonderful evening where it is about -110 degrees. Celsius. 

First up, I have some awesome cookies fresh out of the oven and they have chocolate, and mint, and sugar, and HIGH fat, and they are oh so good! I would even say they are finger-lickin-good! Don’tcha want em? Well. I’ll make you a deal. I eat all the cookies, and you make me som more. How does that sound? I’ll even give you the recipe! I created it myself so it is TOP SECRET!!!

Next, tricks or treats! I got treats. I got some tricks I like to play on unsuspecting peeps. Alyssa gotted tricked by Mr. Reaper. It was funny cuz she spun around and pointed at him and said, “You are creepy! You aren’t my friend any more!” Mr. Reaper just turned around and went and fixed his haunted house. I giggled.  : ) Cute!

Now for the marshmallow shooter. That would be cool….. so cool. I guess it would be kinda like a potato gun but much softer when you get shot….. cool!!!

Ok. I think I’m gonna go eat one of my delicious cookies, play tricks on peeps, and read my book called Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf.

Maddie

All week Maddie and her friend Alyssa (Not the one mentioned in the last post. This one’s name is actually pronounced the way it looks.) have been planning to trick-or-treat together in our neighborhood. So we picked up Alyssa about 5 o’clock and they spent the next hour getting dressed up and roasting pumpkin seeds.

After passing out candy for about 30 minutes, they headed out around 6:30. When Alyssa’s along, there is never a dull moment and tonight was no exception. She started off the evening by nearly doing a face-plant on the front walk of the first house they stopped at. Then topped off the night by…well….this will need a little more explanation.

There is this family a few streets down that always puts up scary decorations and likes to, shall we say, interact with the trick-or-treaters. When we got to their house tonight, we were a little disappointed because there were very few decorations. But the mom told the girls they had to go through the “haunted house” before they got candy. Then we noticed that they had hung some black plastic over the opening to their garage leaving a small door to go in on the right side and there was scary music coming from inside.

Well, Alyssa immediately said “No way.” But Maddie grabbed her arm and told her to “come on, it ‘ll be fun.” I watched them walk into the garage and then they turned to the left and  went out of sight. Not 10 seconds later I hear a scream and suddenly Alyssa bursts through the black plastic like a football player running through the homecoming banner! Right behind her was Maddie with the Grim Reaper hot on her heels.

Alyssa stumbled out onto the driveway and, after taking a few seconds to catch her breath, began apologizing for wrecking the haunted house. The mom told her not to worry about it, that Grimmy would just staple it back up. Sure enough, Grimmy pulled a staple gun out of his cloak (scaring Alyssa half to death again) and started stapling up the gaping hole in the plastic. I haven’t laughed that hard in a LONG time. Hell, I’m still laughing as I type this.

Poor Alyssa is still traumatized. Maddie is spending the night with her and they planned to watch horror movies all night. Betcha ten bucks they’re watching Barney instead.

Hey… sup? Its Maddie. So. Today I went to school. In art, I painted and was asked to tell my friend Alyssa (pronounced Alicia…. I have no idea why her name is spelled that way….) that JJ would sing for her if she paid him a dollar. In math, we did some more solve-n-graph equations. BORING!!!!! In english, I watched Nick interrupt Julie a lot on some weird expository writing video. In orchestra, I played my viola. In pe, I was counted 15 minutes late because Waldman didn’t tell us that we wern’t supposed to change clothes today so he stood in the gym and told peeps as they walked in not to change. Well I was already in the locker room when he went to tell everyone so I told him that and he said he wasn’t gonna count me late. In science, I started working on my scavenger hunt. In social studies…… Well I skipped that class. (SHHHHHHH!) I skipped because I had to go to Gifted. And in Cougar Time, I ran around the building (not literally) so I could find my social studies teacher Mrs. Salisbury to get the assignments I missed. Now I am getting ready for dance. I think I get to dance in my costume tonight….. Ok. I am done now. By the way- Rodney-do you get to pop out from behind stuff and go “BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!”? If so that is COOL!

Welcome to our new blog. Hopefully we will be more diligent about posting than we have been over the last month. I know, there’s no excuse. Well, Rodney will say he’s been too busy. And the girls will blame me because I haven’t shown them how to post. So I’ll just say I’ve been too busy too. No wait, he already used that excuse. I want one of my own. How about I just wasn’t feelin’ it. There, that works.

Like our picture? It’s one of the very few we have of all of us together. Actually, there are very few of just me and Rodney. No one ever wants to take family photos. I’m a photography junkie and I’m experiencing withdrawal. Especially since I dropped my camera about a month ago, trying to have a family photo session no less, and now it’s acting wonky. The flash won’t work half the time and you have to wait about a minute after each picture before it is ready to take another.

I’ve been scoping out new cameras and I think I’m about ready to buy. I just have to decide whether to go for an extended zoom or the full DSLR. I’m leaning toward the full DSLR. There is just something about being able to change lenses that screams “I’m a real photographer!” No matter how crappy your photos are.

Of course there is that HUGE learning curve I will have to overcome. I looked at a Canon DSLR over the weekend and felt very blonde afterward. First off, I kept trying to figure out how to turn on the LCD screen because it was completely black. No joke, it took me nearly 5 minutes to realize that I had to take the lens cap off. Doh! I’ve been shooting with a point-and-shoot for so long, I didn’t remember that there are cameras out there where the lens cap doesn’t just slide back out of the way when you hit the power button. If that wasn’t bad enough, my head was swimming after looking at all the controls and settings. Still, I want the camera!

Oh, one last thing. Subscribe to the RSS feed. That way you don’t waste your time coming back here to see if there are any new posts when we slack off again. Just a suggestion.

Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out, Melissa wrote this.

I took down the Pictures, On Duty, Off Duty, and General pages. I couldn’t figure out how to put new posts in there to update the pages so I removed them. Problem solved. So now I am going to post everything to this page and call it a day. My life made easier… I guess.

Rodney

Today, I woke up late not having to get up at the usual time to go to work. It felt pretty good to sleep in but I slept a little longer than I would have liked. I needed to go to the NOSC (Navy Operational Support Center) to try and complete as much of the deployment paperwork as I could and there is a lot of it. I made this appointment about a month or so ago and I had planned on being down there at about 0900 but I woke up around 0930. I finally got out of the house by 1030. So after about an hour or more drive there and back and about four or five hours of Page 2 updates, SGLI, medical and dental records review, security clearence check, etc… I was finally home.

Melissa wanted to go downtown and take some pictures of us and let the girls be the photographers. We couldn’t find anyplace downtown that we liked so we drove over to Oakdale Park and found plenty of nice places for photographs. We managed to get some good pictures after Melissa gave the girls instructions on what she wanted. I saw a few of them and they turned out pretty good. As Melissa was framing a picture gravity took over and she dropped her camera. The camera didn’t work to well after that so we were stuck using my camera and it isn’t the best. We did manage some pictures from my camera before the batteries died. Melissa is going to shop for a new camera but I know she already has the one she wants in mind.

 

Rodney

In about a week I will begin my deployment. I had been looking forward to going to the Middle East because I have missed being on active duty but, I am starting to get the butterflies in the stomach feeling about going. One of a few reasons I left active duty was to get married and start my life with Melissa. When I left, I felt a little relieved about not having to move every few years and dealing with the all the issues I had to put up with while serving in the Navy. However, I knew I would miss the camaraderie and friends I made while serving. The job I did in the military, when not mired with the stupidity I had to deal with, is a huge kick in the pants. I had fun and I missed that fun once I got out.

I have to admit that I was a bit excited about the idea of going back to the Middle East when I found out I was being recalled to active duty. I previously served in the Middle East during my enlistment and I enjoyed my time there but, now I am finding myself not really all that excited about going. I have fallen in love all over again with Melissa and everything about her in this past year of being home. She is more astonishing than I think she realizes or gives herself credit for. I know I am going to miss her and the girls deeply. I have become a better person with her and the girls in my life. I have noticed that I have become more tolerant of things than I used to. I know this is a direct influence of her and the girls and I want to thank them and let them know just how much I love them for it.

This is my last week at my “Civilian” jobs and I will be taking some time off to spend with my family and friends before I go. I will miss everyone greatly and appreciate what everyone has done for me while preparing for this deployment. I just hope the Navy can get me home in the time they say we will be over there.

Rodney