Wow, how 2 lines can make such a difference

Those lines are so beautiful to me, I keep checking my test, like the lines are gonna evaporate or something, lol. I am so excited, and just can not believe it, wow, we get to do this again, wow, amazes me still! Now as excited and happy as I am, I am also scared, scared silly.
:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Woooohooooo Blessing #16 is on the way!!

I am so so so happy to say, that our 16th blessing is on the way!
Wooohoooooo #16 due 9-2-2010.

I now have to finish up Christmas stuff up, oh and the virus we got it, we think, lol ;)

Merry Merry Christmas to all!!!!!

With Love,
Christi Mommy to 15, #16 on the way, woooooohooooooooooooo!

No, really, it's true

Just a quick post to say that we will be posting as soon as possible with some pics and more details about what we've been up to. Although it's not the reason that I've put off posting for so long, yesterday our computer got sick so we're going to be down for a bit until we can cure the virus. It may require a full reload and we may lose our pics so I may have promised a bit hastily, but I'll try. I am doing this little bit from work in the meantime. Trust me, we've got lots of catching up to do. In the meantime, we hope that you all have a Merry Christmas (no lame PC Happy Holidays crap here!) and a very happy and prosperous new year.

God Bless us, one and all.

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!!

Ok, Ok...we've been bad, bad bloggers, I know. You can't see it now, but Christi is slapping herself on the wrist. Actually she's sleeping, but you get my point. We've been remiss in our blogging duties and this is our mea culpa. It seems that our daily running around and our current battle with the stomach flu has crimped our blogging. That and we keep procrastinating on offloading the pics we've been taking for the blog and then tellling ourselves, "We'll do it later and then write that post we've been meaning to". Then later comes and goes and no post and...well that's how it goes.

But, here is an update, without the pictures and we'll get to those when we get one of these:

I had a friend in the service who carried one of these in his pocket and he'd bring it out whenever I'd make an excuse for something. Always good for a laugh.

As some of you may know, we've been doing the paperwork shuffle trying to get pre-approved for a home loan and after many, many phone calls and delivery of a thick stack of paper that spells out our entire value to the material world, we have finally gotten the go-ahead. We can now begin searching for a house in earnest. We actually had found one and looked at it informally the day it hit the market, and it was nearly perfect for us, but within 12 hours it had multiple offers stacking up. That is going to be one of the main problems we face in this search as the market pricing is so attractive and the supply of houses is short. That coupled with the ridiculous "special assessments" on homes in many of the areas we want to live (you'd be amazed) which drive the tax payments on these things sky-high. That is going to put a pinch on how much home we can buy or where we can buy. We'll keep you posted on how this goes.

Last Saturday the our band geeks marched in the Lake Elsinore "Unity in the Community" parade. We have pictures for that too, but the picture above applies to them also. It was fun to see them do their thing and they looked so good in their uniforms. Really cool.

This year we had planned to have Thanksgiving at our house, with a few friends and family, but those plans were interuppted by a wicked bout of the stomach flu. Christi and all of the little ones, from Austin down have been suffering the effects and as of this posting, we've still got little ones doing the "technicolor yawn" and Christi herself is still feeling quite ill. We're going to have to scale back dinner to whatever everyone is feeling up to eating.

So that's what we're up to. We plan to get to those pics this weekend, but that remains to be seen. We hope that everyone out there has a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the family and friends and the good times and whatever makes you thankful. Despite our bout with the flu, we're going to rejoice in the love of our kids and the time we spend together and we'll get through the yuckies as a family. We'll be keeping more up to date with the blog as we do have those pics and we'll have house hunting updates and if we're lucky...maybe we'll even have another special announcement.

God bless you and all that you hold dear.

Things that make me go hmmm as a Mom, Random Thoughts...

This is Christi and these are my RANDOM thoughts about items and kids, lol.

#1 Kids and the things they do, item, permanent markers, and how they can pick the ONE permanent marker out of 20 washable markers, makes me wonder WHY, and how dumb am I to own such an item. So they take said item and mark their siblings, ok not so bad, then the walls, ok, can fix that, then the bed, and do it all in less than a minute, hmm, I need a lock box and I "Think" have no proof but think my kids can move at the speed of light.

#2 Kids again and item scissors, I am not even sure I need to say anything else, maybe they think they are saving me haircut money, maybe, or learning a new trade.

#3 Anything sticky, they can smell sticky, their sticky sense is amazing. They have ex-ray eyes and see things that get sticky, make sticky messes, through any object, like in a drawer, or in your purse, and they don't seem to mind being sticky either! I think when I buy things, I go hmmm, what is the sticky factor, is it worth it. Also when they find, smell, get sticky, they must get their siblings involved in the sticky gooey whatever. Just the other night my 3 year old Morgan broke eggs on my floor, like 5 eggs, now this has the sticky, icky, and smell factor, eggs smell. I won't even tell you about maple syrup, YUCK.Finally when they are at their stickiest that is when they want me, ohhh they want to touch my face and hair, they know , I can't prove it but they know, I am going eeew ick ick ick ewww on the inside.

Well I need to end it here for now, call of the wild needs me.

Christi Mommy to 15 or will this be changing soon ;)
Now you'll have to come back and see......... ha ha ha ha muwahaha :)

On her way home!!

Just spoke to Christi, she is on her way home with her sister in the car (black Mustang convertible!) and she seems to have had a great time. I missed her a lot but am glad she had fun. She deserved a good time. It's funny how you know intellectually what a person deals with, but you don't really KNOW until you spend a weekend in their shoes. This is the first time that I have ever spent an entire weekend without her, except for one business trip I took, but that was about 11 kids ago. In point of fact, I really only got a partial taste because I didn't have any budgeting or scheduling work to deal with while trying to keep the kids fed, clean and safe. Plus I did have Jessica to help on the night I got called into work. But I definitely have a deeper appreciation for how she buzzes around keeping things nice and the kids fed and happy so that when I get home, things are nice for me. Hopefully she has some good pics to share and a tale or two about which to write a good post.

I can't wait!!

Some pics, but not of a car.

We only got a chance to look at 2 cars this weekend and neither of them was suitable. The only upside to our driving 200 miles to see 2 P.O.S cars was that after the second, which was in Chula Vista, near where Christi grew up, we got to drive around her old stomping grounds a bit and see the house she grew up in. She is so excited to be going back there next Friday to her class reunion. I'm excited for her too, if not just a bit jealous. She's gonna have a really good time and she deserves it. I sure am going to miss her though. It's going to be a trying couple of days trying to imitate her juggling act, but I'll give it my best.

The kid's band events went well with Austin's band winning their competition and Bailey and Gage both having a successful parade. Gage being a 6th grader, can only participate in the marching "band" as a member of the flag squad, but he had a good time. Can't you tell?

Bailey hates getting her picture taken but there she is with her valve trombone. These photos were taken by Christi's best friend, Dana with her Blackberry. We just recently got our own camera fixed so Christi should have some great pics from her reunion to share next week.

A busy weekend, and maybe some luck thrown in

A busy weekend in store for Christi and I. We finally have to get it in gear with the search for a used car, the band kids have got events on Saturday and Christi still needs a couple of things for her reunion. This coupled with my having been unexpectedly moved to a different shift (not only am I now on the night shift for the foreseeable future, but I'm now on the opposite day schedule). All of this means that Christi is working her magic even harder now. She is constantly reminding me of the silver linings of this shift change, probably as much for her own benefit as mine. She always has that way of seeing all sides of things so that when life seems to throw us lemons, she can instantly point out that it's really oranges if you look at it the right way and who doesn't love a good orange? She doesn't really know how much she keeps me going. Aside from the obvious things like, keeping me on schedule for all the stuff we have to get done, her enthusiasm for stuff, like the way she looks forward to our weekend evenings, even when we have nothing more exciting to do than catch up on our favorite shows. The way she smiles and claps when some plan of hers comes together, or some unexpected bit of luck makes a bad day turn good. Plus the things she thinks I don't notice, like the little fist pump in the air she does when the checkbook balances perfectly (which it always does) or the way she high fives me when I put my hand up, even though she hates high-fiving. All those things and so much more are just a small part of why I love her so much.
So tomorrow we'll venture out in search of a used car, and she'll watch me do my manly thing as I check out each car and try to work a deal with the seller. With any luck, we'll come home with a decent commuter car that I can then drive to death with my 78 mile one way commute. With a little more luck, it will have a half-decent stereo so I can listen to my CDs and talk radio all the way to work. With even a bit more luck, we'll find a bargain car for Dalton too.
Then if all is well, in the evening we'll plop on the bed with most of the kids and watch our shows on the DVR and maybe have a little popcorn and whatnot to snack on.

That would be the perfect end to the day.

Life gets in the way

Sooo, we started off this blog with a bang, on Sept. 11th of all days. And then...? Well, life got in the way. Here in the Cason household, we've gone through a bout of the flu (Walker, Emma, Morgan, Laura, and Bailey have all had it to one degree or another, now it's Dad's turn). All the while, Christi and I have been shopping online for a used car to replace the one recently totalled. This on top of the normal daily routine of Christi getting 10 of the kids out the door every morning to 4 different schools (I help a bit, but Christi is a blur and makes me look like I'm standing still), laundry, feeding the 4 littles still left at home, and a myriad of stuff I try hard not to think about (it would make my eyes bleed to think about the finances she juggles). Christi is also planning to go to her 20-year high school renunion in San Diego, so she's busy plotting the getaway with her sister. I'm so happy for her because she deserves a break for a couple of days. She's been in touch with a few of her old school friends on Facebook and she's looking forward to it.
The kids are fully in the swing of school now, with 5 of them in one band program or another and just the usual to and fro. Chad is driving himself to class everyday and Dalton is chomping at the bit waiting for his Aunt to get a new car so he can buy her old one. Austin is doing double duty with both marching band and jazz band, he plays the Euphonium (Yeah, I'd never heard of it either until Dalton and Austin started playing them) in the former and the trumpet in the latter. Gage also plays the Euphonium in the middle school band while Bailey plays the valve trombone. Even Kaylee is in the swing having started the clarinet in the 5th grade band program. I guess they got their musical abilities from Christi's side somewhere, because it sure didn't come from MY genetics. When I was in the service, a friend tried bravely to teach me to play the guitar, but he soon pointed out that maybe I should keep my day job.
That's pretty much my excuse for not posting for a week. It's not much, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We remember.

On this night of September 11th, having watched the various memorials on the news and hearing about it all day on the radio, Christi and I sit here tonight and thank God for our blessings and all that he has given us. Not material things, but the love of our children and each other and the safety and security of living in this great nation. The men and women who work to keep us safe from harm, should always be remembered, but especially on this day when we remember the almost 3000 that were taken from us on that day eight years ago. The innocent folks who were just going about their business in the WTC and the Pentagon, the travelers who boarded those 4 planes on their way home, or on business trips or maybe even a vacation. The heroes who, after the planes hit, went rushing in to save anyone they could. As you remember those souls whose deaths came on that September day, spare a thought for the later victims. Those who dug out the remains of the trade center, all the while breathing in the toxic dust that was created by the burning of the Towers. Many of the workers who unearthed all those bodies are now facing their own deaths from a myriad of conditions all related to their work at ground zero. Include them in your prayers and remembrances along with the men and women who protect us still today, at home and abroad. God bless our troops, the victims, their families and most of all, God bless America!