Five Things by Jennifer Sauls

The Sauls Family said...

VICKIE:

1. Vickielicious
2. Hearty and tasty food at all times
3. Authentic English sweaters and wooly sheep
4. Papa Rich
5. Scrapbooking together

Vickie's response

1. you can't say or hear that without laughing or at the very least a smile
2. thank you, food is one of my favorite things to do, yes eat and make
3. am totally clueless as to what to say about this with the exception of I love England and brought home 2 of the sweetest little wooly sheep angels (?) from there a few years ago.
4.What can I say, he is the BEST, as a husband and Papa. I must say after being a single military man and then being throwed into this family he has done (survived) quite well, don't you think ?
5. What can I say ? I miss our scrapbooking times together, heck I miss scrapbbooking at all, I feel guilty each time I come into this room : computer/scrapbooking. Ok to let you know how bad I am the only book I actually completed is one for our animals...oh what kind of parent/grandparent am I ? While I am spilling my guts I haven't been working in my journal either-oh the shame of it all

4 , might as well say 3 days and counting

Well as you all know it is time for Helen to give us another GRANDchild. I keep calling and reminding her that she will be giving birth in a few short days, don't want her to forget or anything now do we ? We will be sharing the duties of keeping Nathan and Sam occupied while they are in the hospital. I think Papa is a bit nervous about that and I must say we are getting a bit older and don't have quite as much energy as we once did. It will be interesting trying to get the kids out the door and off to Nances and not be late to work at the same time. I wonder how I ever raised 2 boys ? I guess I made it from all the fabulous help I had from the bestest Mother & Father in law in the world. Hmmmm maybe that's what Papa and I are now ? Anyway keep us all in your prayers and please don't ignore your caller id if you see my name pop up next week I may be calling for some much needed help.

Cutest kids in the World !

I know there is some stiff competition out there but you have to admit they sure are cute !
These were taken this afternoon, I had Nathan to give his Mommy a much needed rest, anyone that has or has even been around a 3 yr old toddler/child KNOWS about much needed breaks. He and Ryan and Papa did a few "manly" projects around the house and then Helen and Sam came for a visit along with Rich's Mom, Juanita, the kids love her. I worry as Nathan will get a running start and fling himself onto her and she is 81 yrs old...but sure doesn't act like it or look like it for that matter, she can certainly out-go me. Anyway it was a good day .

How Avant Garde

The price of Thomas the Train undies, $5.00 a pack, swim goggles $1.00, the look on Abram's face-PRICELESS

Vacation revisited

Ok, when I last left you we were on our way to VACATION, or "cation" as Nathan calls it. We arrive at our destination-Destin no addition issues on the way, thank you. We check in and get into our new home for the next several days. Papa and I have a time share with Wyndham so we get to stay in some pretty nice places, this one was ok, not quite as nice as where we stayed in Edisto SC but still pretty comfy, we had our room and bath and the kids had theirs, a full kitchen and most importantly a washer/dryer, a must on a beach vacation. I hate to disappoint the masses but after the drive down the remainder of the vacation was just that, relaxing on the beach, enjoying the babies not enjoying the water so much, Nathan and Sam were both afraid of the ocean at first, heck I am not a big fan of it myself but they came around, well Sam did only after I had the thought of sitting in the sand and letting the water roll up over us, she didn't much care for it when the waves totally splashed over us but as long as she was close to one of us she played in it. They loved playing in the sand, Nathan wouldn't let us build a castle , as soon as one was started he would knock it over, laughing all the time. Sam just wanted to dump it on anyone she could get near. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pics on the beach, my camera doesn't do well in direct sunlight so we will have to rely on Helen to post the beach pics, which is scary as we were all in swimsuits and white as white folk can be , I suggest having some eye protection available when she posts on the vacation. We decided to do the whole "touristy" things mostly because the last time Papa and I went we saw tons and tons of dolphin and Nathan wanted to see some so we went on a dolphin cruise. It was fun and we did get to see dolphins but felt for a bit like we were on the Titanic-of course minus the ice, it looked like it might rain but the assured us they wouldn't go out in a storm. We did run into a small rain shower and got tossed around a bit but wasn't too bad for too long, poor Ryan had to stay near the side , he didn't quite get his sea legs. Papa was sure one of the kids was going over the edge, he is so funny and so paranoid when it comes to one of them getting hurt, he almost errors TOO much on the side of caution but we love him, bless his heart. Notice the tight grip he has on Sam in the pictures below. At one point all the kids on the boat got to go up and sit in the Capts seat and drive the boat for a few mins and get their picture taken, I stayed up top so I could get pictures from my view-again see pics below. All in all we had a good time.

Properly Chastised

We all have been chastised by the "Sisters" and no not the missionary sisters but the "SISTERS", you know who you are. And rightfully so we all have gotten slack on our postings. I promise to try and do better. There have been lots of happenings of late that I have been too lazy to get on here and post . We'll start with our vacation. We decided to take Ryan and family to Destin for a few days of R&R, now one must ask how much R&R can one get with a 3 yr old and a 20 month old ? Not much really but we sure had alot of fun and a bit of aggravation ONLY because Papa and I are not used to sharing a home full time with another family. We started the vacation driving to Destin, Nathan wanted to ride with his Papa so he rode with us, it was quite fun actually, he chattered on and on about this and that, he sang for us and he napped. It was quite a pleasant drive until the "PHONE CALL" . This is where the blog deviates from our lovely vacation, bear with me. Rich's Mom was going to stay at the house and take care of our animals, should be fine right, only 7 kats, 2 dogs in a fenced yard, well when THE CALL came she said "there is a tan dog outside and it is covered in blood and crying" we didn't think much of it, being out in the country there are dogs and such coming and going. Rich told her not to worry about it and that it would prob go home soon and if it didn't we could call the Humane Society to come get it and they hung up. Almost immediately I felt the urge to call her back so I did and she said the dog had now gone under Rich's truck and was still crying (as much as an animal can cry) I asked her to make sure both our dogs were in the yard and of course she could only find one-Babee our black lab, our "brown" one Barkley was no where to be found, I asked her to walk the yard and to check under our shop, he spends alot of time there, nope can't find him, so I next asked her to call the dog Barkley and see if he would come to her, it did not. Ok that's not like him so am still thinking it is a "stray", I asked her to give me a better description of the dog under the truck, she describes Barkley to a T---uggghhhh, here we are 150 miles from home with a dog "covered" in blood OUTSIDE the fence which is most likely ours. I make a few calls and finally find a friend (Gene) to come over and see if it is in fact Barkley, he did and it was only it turns out "covered" in blood was 2 small spots and a little cut on his leg. We are still unsure about how he got out of the fence, they normally won't go out even when we leave the gates open. Gene is taking Mom home and he is going to stay and take care of the animals and house, ok vacation BACK ON.

More to follow.....

The "evils"of the Internet

It has been way too long since we posted, a friend talked me into (and you know it was so hard) joining Facebook and it is hard to keep up with both and not quit my job and sit in front of the compter all day/night to keep up with everyones blog and Facebook. I really must learn to manage my time better I suppose, yeah thats what we will blame it on.So lets see what has happened here in the Kathouse Klan since FEB ! hmmmmm ? I can't think of anything but that my MIL and SIL are moving to Ga which has kept some of the us hoppin and put a bit of stress on our family but it will all work out in the end.Ok how sad is it that we haven't posted since Feb and we have nothing to say !!! I guess I will just post some pictues of the most beautiful grandchildren in the world and be done with it for now.

Picture of Sam and Sam Nathan were done at Easter, the others were last week we took Nathan golfing, we are all convinced he is the next "Tiger" or "Phil" since he is a southpaw.

Goins on an comins too

We had another exciting week or two that left us with cool experience facial lines, bruised backbones, and scratching our heads in wonder at why impatitience drives us to do things that would be much easier if we'd taken the time to explore more options for accomplishing our mission.
A primary example is our newest piano. Vic's friend Sherry gave her a new (ok, somewhat older) upright piano (which weighs at least a ton, maybe two). All we had to do is pick it up at a house in the country, just a few miles from our house, bring it home and pop it right into our living room. As usual, since I don't have any friends of my own, I begged Donald for help (actually, you don't have to beg, he's a pretty laid back guy....now he's a laid OUT guy moving yet another piano). Still, Donald, David, and Jed all volunteered to help me move the cumbersome cat crib from one locale to another. We arrived, reviewed plans for how to best remove the item from the house (without looking like piano burgulars), and set into motion. Only then did we attempt to heave this honky tonking hulk. Then, we attempted again. With maximum physical effort and maximum resistance of natural forces (gravity), we used previously unused muscles, two piano mover dollys, and finally accomplished our task. If we had taken more time to make up our mind on how to proceed, we could have simply followed the new administration's policy and gone with energy conservation....I know, this is a terrible thing for me to say....but in this case, energy conservation makes much more sense than any thing Al Gore or Barak Obama have said. We should have simply conserved our energy and opted out of the piano.

Time to post something

As you can see from the title not much happening in the Cox household thought we'd better post something since it has been awhile. We haven't taken Jen up on her "one word" challenge, not sure why guess I can't come up with just ONE . I am now part of the Primary Pres, being second counselor to Sister Dorsett and Sister Tucker (aunt susie) I used to wonder why I had never been called to Primary but now having been in there going on 2 yrs .... I enjoy it don't get me wrong but sometimes I feel so inadequate, I am not sure why they are kids for goodness sakes. I suppose it is like this in all callings at times we don't feel like we measure up. I certainly am learning alot though, not that I haven't in all the other callings I have had but with this one I have to be on my toes, it's not easy getting corrected by a 4 year old :) which by the way happened today..thanks Kalan. No really I am loving the calling and dearly love working with all our leadership and teachers, they are great and I am thankful each and every young child or youth in our primary. I think I have turned this post into a Fast and Testimony meeting--sorry.
Lets see what else is happening in Brookfield, Rich has been putting around in his shop, I haven't dared venture out there in awhile , it scares me when I think he might be turning on power tools and such but I am learning to let him go and do and learn, that is not one of his strong suites and I tease him about it but he knows it is done in love. I shall stop rambling now the kids should be down for a visit soon. I need to go secure the rest of the house from Sam.

Christmas at the Compound

We had a very nice Christmas with the Seaman,Cattel,Sauls, clan this year, as usual. We are thankful to be part of a large loving family. We did miss a few this year and that is sad but everyone was there in heart. Poor Rich, he still isn't used to all the "noise" that the family produces, don't get me wrong he dearly loves everyone but I can look at him and know when it is time to take him home and give his ears a rest. I guess it is a good thing we met and married later in life, he might not have survived small children or even teens in the house 24/7 , I remember once Helen and Sarah were at my house and I made a comment that my ears hurt from all the "chatter" they promptly told me thats what girls do. Anyway I digress. Back to Christmas, we listened to g-daddy read the Christmas story and ate like there was never going to be anymore food ever and opened presents. Of course there is one we won't get until July which I just found out about that night... no ones fault but my own , it seems I am not quick when it comes to subtle hints, I can hardly wait to see what this one comes out looking like, how much cuter can a child get than the ones we already have ? Enjoy a few photo's

Troop Recall?

Makes me just a little bit nervous, but Eric, who was just hired last week to do my old job in personnel was recalled to active duty effective 4 Jan 09. He got to work 2 weeks. He is a retiree with 22 years of active duty and has been retired for 9 years. This just doesn't make any sense. That's 31 years including retired reserve service. I did 20 years and have been retired for 13....wonder if Donald and I are on their radar too?
By the way...he's not going to the middle east. They are sending him to Ft. Sill, OK to work in Military Personnel. THAT is even crazier!

Nathan-sitting and other eventful issues

Well, one thing is for sure...Nathan-sitting has it's own brand of excitement. While Helen and Vic were at church last night, Nathan and I spent some quality time together....In the ditch in front of our house!

After our dinner of chili-dogs, he begged to go see the Christmas lights next door and I'm just not able to say no too often....YET. I did make him take one more bite of his dinner before we headed out the door and into the ditch..

Honestly, I know better, but he loves to sit on my lap as we go through the Christmas lights, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem as it's only another couple hundred yards with him sitting there. He sat on my knee as we began backing the truck. I was checking to make sure there was no traffic when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him toying with the mirror (among with other knobs and buttons) and glanced to see what he was doing....without stopping! It was a very slow decent into a very slick ditch. After finally giving up and calling AAA, we waited on "Mater," talked about the stars, and had half a dozen offers to help pull it out (I'd already called for "Mater and didn't want unnecessary vehicle damage). When I got into the truck this morning, my mirror was upside down and, the fan was blowing on high with defroster set...not to mention right side is completely covered in mud.

One other thing of note, I got a notice at work that a new intern position is coming up soon (the interviews are Jan 14). Requirements are firm ....30% disabled vet, BA, and at least 24 hours in Finance or Accounting. I'm really excited about it because they have a very small qualifying group and the starting pay grade is well above what I make now. After completeing the internship, the salary significantly increases. Oh...I forgot to mention, the position is in Contracting....which I've been trying to get into even before I started working on my degree. I've already informed my boss and though I really enjoy the position in personnel, she had to agree that this is a great opporunity and I shouldn't ignore it for the sake of job loyalty.

A hunting we will go

We went on our annual tree killing adventure today with Helen and the kids, hunting for the perfect tree. Helen found her's but alas I could not. You could either see thru them or they were some weird color, they actually looked like they spray painted some of them. Others were very pretty but the type of tree they were they don't hold the ornaments very well. We had a great time running after the kids . Papa, Nathan and even Sam were able to chop down and bring home the perfect tree for them . I found ours at a "lot", it is alot smaller than we have ever had, not quite a "charlie brown" tree but maybe this year the cats will stay out of it. In case anyone is wondering Sam's shirt say's "who needs Santa when you have grandparents" hmmm wonder where that came from ?

Who does this look like

Nathan loves getting my glasses and putting them on, this one cracks me up. Who do ya'll think he looks like in this photo ?

Thanksgiving and Other stuff

We had a very laid back and quiet (mostly) Thanksgiving this year. I was able to NOT spend the whole day in the kitchen which as wives/moms and grandmoms you know how hard that can be. We did and do have lots of things to be thankful for. I am just glad we don't only take one day out a year to acknowledge that but sure am grateful I only have to cook a big ole meal for it once a year ! We ate and were back to the couch in no time. We WII'd and waited patiently for darkthirty so we could go see the Missmuss (Christmas lights) at Uncle Horace's, sorry but last year Nathan couldn't say Christmas, it came out Missmuss and is one of those things I don't want to let go of yet. So at darkthirty the Seaman/Sauls/Vicars/Cox/Cattell clan met at our place and we all piled in the vans,pickups and/or cars with our blankets and quilts to make the annual trek thru the lights. It is so fun to watch the kids (big&little) ooohh and awww over the lights, Sam was even watching them this year, I am sure Gretchen enjoyed them to but she was in another truck, it was a bit cold so the little little ones mostly stayed inside the vehicles, of course we have to go thru twice as you can't see it all in one trip, we got to go three times this year since RJ and Gene were a bit late in making the first drive thru. Oh I almost forgot the "lighting" ceremony at Helen and Ryans, she was most excited as she put the lights up herself. We are sorry that Ryan missed out on it but he was on his great adventure to Wy. I am sure there will be blogging on that trip when he gets home. Well thats about all I have for now, have been a bit lazy in posting so wanted to share something . Again I want to say Rich and I have alot to be thankful for and if you are reading this you are one of them

Busy Busy Busy

I wanted to post so everyone would know we are still here. Isn't it crazy how caught up in life we can get ? But who am I to fuss ? Look at Aunt Carol and Joe...packing up and moving away, Eileen with 3 kids, Hel with 2 little ones, Ryan with 2 jobs, Nance with her big family and teaching Seminary, the list is endless BUT I still seem to run out of time to sit here and post. I have been working at one of our DC's in Fla the past 2 weeks so feel very out of touch with everyone. I must admit it was kind of nice to go off sort of like a working vacation, I worked the evening shift, which means from 4:00 pm to when we were done which might be 1200a or as in a few mornings until 6:30 am, it wasn't as hard as I thought to stay awake all night the problem came with sleeping during the day. I usually managed a few hrs and then up and exploring Lake City, and to anyone who knows that area I was done in an hr or so !!! No really they had a great little downtown area with little shops and a couple quaint cafe's and of course I found several second hand stores. Although much to my disappointment their mall was just like ours--sucky but I still found some Christmas gifts. Rich and I are almost done with our shopping for the season. We are waiting breathlessly to see whose name we get from the annual "name drawing exchange " with the CMAN clan. Papa Rich is so funny about that, he thinks very hard and trys to get a great gift for whosever name he has and I bet if we asked any of the little ones they would agree he has done GREAT, makes me hope he draws my name this year. I don't have any new pictures to post now, but will be putting up the Halloween ones soon.
Last but certainly not least I will be posting some of the Wall, Kudos to Aunt Susie for an awesome job.

The Thomas Train Affair

A picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousand words. More to come later.

YUMO

We celebrated Sam's first birthday last Sat and these are just a sample of some of the fun that was had. I don't want to post any more until her Mommie and Daddy do. Just giving you a taste of what is to come !!

" Ten Hut "

We went to Shelly's graduation from basic training at Ft Jackson SC this past week. After a 6 hr trip with a 3 year old that hadn't seen his mommy in about 10 weeks was an adventure to say the least. In all fairness he did very well considering the trip and all. We finally arrived at the base but really had no clue as to where to go. I don't do well with maps so chose to be the driver , that means who ever is with me is the navigator or is supposed to be, my partner didn't do so well so by the time we got there and got on the base to say the least I was a bit stressed. Finally after driving until I was on restricted space I turned around and began to look for an MP to ask directions, was surprised they hadn't found me wondering around on a firing range or whatever restricted area I happened to drive us into. Finally we found one and he pointed us in the right direction...almost there....after driving for a bit more and still not finding what we needed I saw two soldiers standing at a bus stop, I pulled up and rolled down the two passenger windows and before I could even ask "where is Solomon Center please" RJ shouted TEN HUT !! we all fell out, not sure where he learned it or why he said it but it broke my tension and gave us all a good laugh. As it turned out we were AT the Solomon Center but the sign had a different name on it, government--go figure. We went in for a small ceremony and then were going to be able to spend the rest of the day with Shelly. The next day was the actual graduation, "family day" was first. All in all is was a good trip and a little boy that was missing his mommy got to spend two days with her so I suppose all the small little issues were nothing once I saw the look on their two faces once they were back together. The following pictures say it all.

Thank You.....

**DISCLAIMER** I don't know where/who did this originally but it's too funny not to post

I just want to thank everyone for the educational emails over the past year...
Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel.
I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the channels. I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed. I can't enjoy lemon slices in my tea or on my seafood anymore because lemon peels have been found to contain all kinds of nasty germs including feces . I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking your nose. Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years. I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program . I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St.Theresa's novena has granted my every wish. I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas. I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans. I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer. And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life. I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS. I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.. I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise. I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army. I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for or which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore and Uzbekistan . I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman-Marcus since I now have their recipe. Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt. And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a rapist waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.
If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician... Have a wonderful day...