Organized Chaos

Cherished Saturday Mornings

Every Saturday morning the kids make their own breakfast and then snuggle up on the loveseat to watch cartoons.  Greg and I get to sleep in while the kids are downstairs.  There are two other places to sit in the living room, a big sofa and a huge comfy chair, and yet I usually find them together on the loveseat.

  The kids are currently 12, 10 and 7.  Strangely, they almost never fight.  They build legos together, play jailbreak together, do Tae Kwon Do together, watch movies together.  Perhaps it is the nature of military brats to realize their siblings will be their most constant friends.  Perhaps it is because Thea, the ring leader and oldest, seems to be infinitely patient and therefore serves as a good example for the other two.  Perhaps it is because Georgie is the perkiest kid I have ever met and therefore sends her optimism to the other two.  Perhaps it is because Sam adores his older sisters and would do ANYTHING they ask of him. 

I know that these times will not last much longer.   In 5 months I will have my first teenager in the house.  Once everyone is in High School life will get busy and they will be in different activities.  There will not be so much shared times.  I don't understand the chemistry between those three right now, but I am loving watching my kids love each other.  My dearest hope is that these strong relationships continue when they are adults. 

Quilts and family

 There is something magical about a quilt.  A quilt made just for you by someone important in your life.    Quilts are handed down through generations.  Just looking at the quilt you can see the hours of hard work, dedication and love that went into creating a work of art that happens to be really useful, warm and comforting.  I have a beautiful new quilt which is a reminder of my mom and her love.  It makes being stationed far away a little easier when I get to go to see this amazing quilt my mom made for us.

   

The truth revealed...

Now I know what my college students are doing.

Karahalis Christmas 2011

We spent another Christmas stationed far from home.  Colorado was snowy and white, which delighted the kids.  We haven't had many white Christmases.  This year Christmas was filled with lots of Legos and DS games. 

It was also filled with lots and lots of baking.  I made cookies for the 3SOPS airmen living in the dorms, cookies for the Crews working 24 Ops, and cookies for folks in the neighborhood.  Greg made homemade pizza for the 3SOPS crews working on Christmas Eve and he took ham and sandwich fixings for the crews working with him on Christmas day.

Here are some pictures of the from Christmas eve and Christmas day:

I hope your Christmas was delightful!

The Black Belt Ceremony

Today was the official Black Belt ceremony where the girls received their World Tae Kwon Do Federation belts.  The section in Korean states that the belts came from Master Chulho Kim.

The girls' names are so long that we wondered if their entire name would be on each belt.  Much to their delight the girls whole names are there!

Master Kim put on each belt and then congratulated each student.

Thanking and honoring your parents is part of the Korean tradition.  The girls performed a bow to the ground to each parent.  It was quite touching to be honored this way.

Many new belts were also awarded tonight.  Sam and I did not test tonight.  We should be ready by next month to test for red belt, which is the last belt before Jr Black Belt.

Grandma sent beautiful roses to congratulate the girls on their amazing accomplishment.  The girls were thrilled to each get their own bouquet.

Here are my brand new Black Belts!  Greg and I are so proud of them!

The Black Belt Test

On Saturday, December 10th Georgie and Thea, after almost 4 years of training, took their Black Belt test.  It consisted of writing 10 essays, fasting for three days, carrying and protecting an egg for 10 days, push ups, sit ups, jump roping, 11 Taeguek forms, 10 one step sparring combinations, 3 rounds of sparring, two board breaks (one hand and one foot technique), and 30 minutes of mediation.  There were only 8 others testing that day, 6 for their 1st Dan and 2 for their 2nd Dan. 

Thea said that I would make her nervous if I stayed and watched, so I left for the 3 hours of the test.  When I returned after several hours the test was still going on.  I quietly took a few pictures, while trying to stay out of sight.

Here are the girls doing their last test, the 30 minutes of meditation:

 

Here is a picture from Greg's phone of the girls as no belts on their very first day at Capitol Martial Arts in Virginia.  This was almost 4 years ago:

And here are the newest Black Belts at Iron Horse Tae Kwon Do Academy in  Colorado Springs!

Congratulations girls!  I am so proud of all your hard work!

All I want for Christmas is .... a Lamborghini Diablo!

On Sunday we traveled north to the mall for an early Santa visit.  We had a successful visit with Santa with all three kids sharing their desire for lots of Legos.  Among the requests were the Lego Diagon Alley (for Sam), a Lego Millieum Falcon (for Georgie) and an architecture Lego set of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House (for Thea).  Here is everyone waiting in line for Santa.

And then we stumbled upon the guy selling John Wayne Beef Jerkey.  Yes, you read the correctly, John Wayne Beef Jerkey.  If you bought some jerkey then you could sit in his car, a Lamborghini Diablo!  I think Sam was more excited about the Lamborghini than he was about seeing Santa.  We had a great time climbing all over this amazing car.

Football, Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Season

We had a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving this year.  Some of Greg's friends from High School in Lousiana now live in northern Colorado.  They came down early Thursday morning in order to be here in time for the old guys football game on Base.  I think the Lt Cols and Cols all had lots of fun and only required small amounts of Advil and ice later in the day.

Greg cooked the entire Thanksgiving dinner--Turkey, saffron rice, spinach, Greek salad, and sweet potatoes.  I contributed a few pies, peach, pumpkin and pecan, for dessert. :)

M and R spent Friday cooking up amazing Turkey and Sausage gumbo for dinner.  They did lots of reminiscing about Lousiana and we watched LSU beat Arkansas.  We had so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. :)

Today Greg went into town, got inspired and brought home a real Christmas tree.  We have not had a real tree since around 1998 when  our beagle, Sophia, decided to eat the tree and then threw up all over the house.  Potter had assured us that he will not eat the tree.

We are looking forward to a wonderful holiday season filled with carols, gifts, candy canes and Black Belt Tests!

How is your month going?

Here is how the last month has been at our house...  Hoping to be healthy soon.

A Harry Potter Halloween

I was wickedly sick on Halloween night, so there are no trick or treating pictures.  Luckily, I did take picture before the costume party in our neighborhood on Base on Saturday night.

Sam is Harry Potter playing Quidditch.  Georgie is Luna Lovegood.  Thea is a dragon trainer; she said she is a long lost Weasley cousin, Charlotte Weasley, who is working with Charlie in Romania.

Greg is a muggle. :)

I dressed as Professor McGonagall, but there are no great picture of me in my robe and hat.

At the costume party we won the award for Best Dressed Family. :)

Happy Halloween!