Today I am very sad for my friend Julie (Henke) Schultz. Ju and I have been friends since 7th grade! She met her husband, Jeff, in Houston when we were living there after college. He was from Pennsylvania so, after they got married they moved back there where he became a state trooper. Well, tomorrow is Jeff's funeral.
He has had a long, hard battle with a brain tumor and is finally now, at peace.
Please pray for strength and peace for Julie and their son Jake.
It's times like this that I really hate being so far away.
I would love nothing more than to go to the funeral today and give her a big hug.

William has been picking out the bookI Love You The Purpleist for his bedtime story lately. This morning I had on very pink (& white) work out clothes and, as I was washing his face he said, "Mommy, I love you the pinkist... and the whitest."

I'm going HERE tomorrow with 14 other wives from our squadron for a girls TDY and I'm really looking forward to it!

Yes - I DID go to the gym yesterday (and today!). With Missy leaving and summer happening it's been hard to get back into things but it's coming together. LeAnn is going to train us. She is a Cockette, and she runs the gym at camp shields. It's a small gym but has everything you need. The bonus is, her personal training services are free! I'm meeting with her on M/W/F. Holly is also re-committed and we're working on Marcy (if she reads this, she'll commit). The challenge will be getting my cardio in on T/Th/S... I did it today and all I can do is take it one day at a time, right?

I posted an album of pictures from the AF Ball. I borrowed a dress from my friend Sara because the dresses I ordered didn't make it in time. Looking back at the pictures, the dress was a little short but it worked.

I haven't talked to my sister or my dad (in The Woodlands and Conroe) or Amy or anyone else in the Houston area. It sounds like the electricity will be out for a few WEEKS. Ugh.
SINLAKU is stationary over Taiwan and still projected to come by us later this week, but only as a Tropical Storm. I'm supposed to leave on Friday for the weekend for a wives trip to IE island. If there's a Tropical Storm, we won't be going since we're travelling by ferry boat. Hopefully the typhoon will kick it into gear and pass by us prior to Thursday.
Today I'm going to the gym.... Today I'm going to the gym.... Today I'm going to the gym....

Well, Sinlaku changed course and we are just going to get the "outer bands" so no day off... no day to be a legally be a recluse... just life as usual, which means couples dinner tonight to celebrate Fidelma & Lianna's birthdays (we're going to Bistro Dugong, a French restaurant) then, tomorrow Joey will work all day and I'll hang out with the kiddos inside because it will be raining and windy.
Sidebar = When I told William there was a typhoon coming he asked if he could fly his kite. I said, "No, I have to get the house ready for the typhoon" and his reply was (remember he's 3 1/2) "Well, a typhoon is windy so you should let me fly my kite." Smart kid. Who, I might add is totally potty trained now. WHOOP!
Anyway, tomorrow night is Air Force Ball and my dress hasn't come in the mail so I have to scramble tomorrow. And, while Sinlaku spared Oki, it doesn't look like Ike is going to be as nice to my family and friends in Houston. My parents (mom & Bob) have a house in Port Lavaca and, since on CNN I saw a reporter reporting from there, I imagine it will get hit hard.

Well, we're getting ready for Typhoon Sinluka. It was supposed to hit Friday but now it's stalled out between here and Taiwan and gaining strength so, it might become a Super Typhoon (cat 5) and pass over our tiny little island. It will be o.k. as long as we don't lose electricity. I was all excited, thinking that AF Ball might get postponed or cancelled (because my dress isn't here yet) and, now, since Sinluka is stalled, it won't be here until Monday so AF Ball looks like a go. I wish it would wait until Tuesday so the little ones don't have to miss a day of preschool..... but as Teresa said, "Typhoon's aren't "made-to-order""

So, I've been wanting to get the Nike + ipod gadget for a while now. I bought one for Joey for something (maybe his Mission Commander upgrade... what a good wife I am) but didn't get one for myself. It's not really something you can share. I have a 30G video ipod.... it doesn't work on that model ipod. I found out (talking to the guys at Oura Wan a few weekends ago) that you are not supposed to run/work out with our video ipod because it is a hard drive with "moving parts". The nano, shuffle, and others do not have "moving parts" and are good for running. I guess that's why the nike + ipod thingy doesn't work with the video ipod. After learning this, I bought myself a new nano and picked up the last nike + ipod gadget on-base from the tennis pro shop. On W's first day of school (last Friday) I left myself 30 minutes to go for a walk/run to calibrate the gadget so it would be accurate for me. After about 20 minutes of walking around staring at my nano which kept saying "Walk around" I finally gave up. I walked around, jogged around, walked backwards, took it out of my shoe, held it in my hand, put it back in my shoe, walked around, stomped around, took it out of my shoe, put it back in my shoe...I WAS SO FRUSTRATED!!! IT DIDN'T WORK!!! After doing some googling, the only explanation is that the sensor that goes in my shoe must be out of battery. That's the only explanation I can come up with. So, I returned it and now I'm waiting for the next shipment to come in... supposedly "sometime this week". Funny side note, my friend went to the tennis shop yesterday to get a nike + ipod thing on my recommendation and they sold her the one I had returned. MORONS.

Last night we had our "Glow" naming. We wore black and had lots of glow in the dark fun things.
We named Lisa "Sniper" Jones, Brenda "COCO" Sukenik and Michelle "S*T*A*R" Ruiz.
We also had "Spirit Missions" assigned to our 3 teams.
Our team was supposed to "Steal A Bat" or "Streak through the Bat Passing"
Well, since we obviously weren't going to be streaking, we went to the Bat Passing and stole CUDA Fisher (a live bat) and took pictures of him in the zipper. He was a good sport.... and we called the base commander's wife and asked if we could come by and take some pictures of her, in her cockette shirt with the Boutwell's plaque. She was more than happy to oblige. In fact, she even called the OG's wife so they were both in the picture. Our team won for the best antics.
Today it's Annika's 3rd birthday party at Tori pool....
See, the fun NEVER ends.....

Well.... it's FINALLY here! William's first day of preschool (for this year)
Sarah has been in school for 2 weeks.... he's just starting today and we're all very excited!
Last night we went to the wine dinner at Jack's place and tonight is Okinapa and a Cock Party and tomorrow a Cockette naming. As usual, the fun never ends....
and I'm tired!