Last Thursday my brother and two of his friends came to Charleston for their annual Golf Holiday. They stayed at the Villa's here on base for two nights and golfed a few area golf courses- including the one on base.
   They stopped by to visit and the kids had a great time playing with them- it was like they had new best friends by the time they left! Gregs two friends are both teachers and coaches so they were able to handle little Joey and Sophie with ease.
    On Friday Greg and his friends picked up a VERY EXCITED Joey and took him golfing! Joey could hardly contain himself. When Joey got home later that evening he was so happy and excited.  He had a golf ball that his Uncle gave him to keep and he told me he was going to always keep it so he would "remember this day forever." Awwwwwww! Kids are so cute!

Today is a teacher workday and both Joey and Sophie have no school, SO, we will be able to go have some fun!  I plan on taking the kids to the Children's Museum this morning and then out to lunch- Its so fun going out to lunch with them now that Vangie is 2 and a half- it is getting SO MUCH EASIER!  And then we MAY swing through the aquarium since we will be in that part of town and we really don't have too much more time to go - Moving in 29 days!

Chris had a long work day yesterday- he has been awake 26 hours and just returned home from working all night. He is going to sleep all day while the kids and I are out. He only has 4 more full work days until he is qualified.

Today at Joey's School is the "Birthday Table" at Lunch time. All the March Birthdays get to sit at a special table and family is encouraged to come eat with them. The girls and I will be going- I haven't told Joey, I think he will be surprised when we show  up!

Also today Joey has an eye appoinmnet with the Eye Dr. He has never had his eyes checked and now that he is in school I will take him to make sure they are perfect. Joey had his 6 year check-up the other day. He is 48 inches tall and 41 pounds.  He is super healthy and perfect!

The housing office came and did a "Pre-move-out inspection" yesterday. All they  did was walk through and check that there is nothing wrong with our house- and of course there isn't! The next time they do a walk through we will be moved out! (On April 22nd) I have a huge cleaning list of things that need to be cleaned, that is always the NOT fun part about moving out!

Hi everyone! Last night I slept FANTASTIC! And after a few nights of insomnia it feels so great. Its amazing how important your sleep is! I have always struggled to sleep. My mom is the same way. Maybe it's genetic. I have trouble falling asleep- sometimes I lay in bed for hours. OR, I'll fall right asleep but then wake up 8 times a night.  So last nights full night of uninterrupted sleep was pure bliss. I was up at 6am ready to go!!

Today Sophie is bringing the snack for her pre-school class. All the kids take turns bringing the snack. The snack to day will be crackers and raisins. Not the most exciting, but I hope they like it. Last time I made the mistake of taking popcorn thinking What kid doesn't like popcorn? Wellll..... I forgot that popcorn is not allowed because it's a choking hazard! I felt so bad. The school has other "back-up" snacks so the kids were able to have something, but I still felt bad.  I also take in a thing of apple juice too.  Sophie is also staying for "Lunch Bunch" today- I pay $6 and she stays an exra hour after school and eats her lunch out of her lunch box (Very exciting to Sophie) and plays with the other Lunch Bunch kids on the playground. She has done this the last 2 Wednesday's and really likes it.

Yesterday Chris had the day off- He passed his Final Watchboard the night before (big deal and very difficult, yeah Chris!) So he was just so glad to be done with that. We got a lot done- we had to go get an Insurance Physical done. I turned 30 in March and decided we needed more life insurance- We went through Navy Mutual and I am glad we did it- My kids are everything to us and it is our responsibility to make sure they will always be well taken care of, no matter what.

After our physical we ate breakfast at the Mall, exchanged our cell phones- we recently upgraded to a new style and ended up not liking them like we thought we would. Verizon has a 30 day exchange/refund policy so we went to the Verizon Store. 

 Then we went to the outlet mall and Evangeline and Sophie got some nre spring/summer clothes. Sophie is really growing, a lot of her clothes are suddenly too small! And Evangeling is just hard to fit- she is so tiny everywhere but has a big belly... the girls LOVE clothes shopping so they were happy.

We also looked at the Luggage.... we need to buy some soon because we are getting ready to do some major traveling!!  THEN after we picked up Joey from school we gave the housing office our 30 day intent to vacate notice. After that we went to Pablanos ( a great little Mexican restaurant) and had dinner. So tasty and cheap- we all had a great dinner for $30! The only bummer was their ice-cream machine was on the fritz so no fried ice cream for us- that's okay, we ate ice cream cones when we got home!

It's official, the kids and I are moving to Michigan in 30 days! We gave the housing office our 30 day notice today. I also gave Sophie's Pre-school a 30 day notice and I will tell Joey's teacher tomorrow.  We will do our pack out hopefully on April 22nd and have our stuff shipped over to Hawaii. That way by the time we get there mid-July our stuff should be there and hopefully we will be able to move into base housing pretty quickly. We will also be shipping our van over straight from here.
   I am moving to Michigan to stay with Grandpa and Grandma Perkins while Chris is at Sub School in CT.  This is the easyest and best way for us to go about getting everything done for our move to Hawaii. Joey will finish out his last 6 weeks of Kindergarten in Michigan. 
   We will be going to Orlando to visit our family April 3-7th.

Last night I did not get to sleep until 3:30am. Sometimes this happens- my body is exhausted, but my brain just won't be quiet. So this morning I am a bit loopy. Hopefully once I drink this pot of coffee I will feel a little better.  I guess last night as I lay in bed for hours not sleeping I was thinking about our upcoming Hawaii move and all the things that will have to be done before then: I have already made our master list made- but really we don't have long to get everything done, so its good to start soon.

Yesterday the kids and I rode bikes to the base theatre and saw Marley and Me- a cute movie about the worlds worst dog. It made me appreciate Stella a lot more- in fact Stella is a LOT like Marley, except instead of 100lbs she only weighs 10lbs!! Thank God!!

I have decided to try to update and renovate the website a little bit. Chris got me a new phone with a good camera where I can upload pics on-line a lot easier. Plus with our exciting summer coming up I plan on updating the site daily if I can-  I have added an "All things Hawaii" page- check here for info about our exciting move!

Picture to the Right: A throw back from Sherry and Brian's wedding. Look how little the kids are! I can't beleive that was over a year ago!   Also, Congratulations Sherry and Brian about your SUPER EXCITING NEW NEWS!

Last night around 6pm Joey came inside- his right eye was really red and watering all over. "Mommy" he said, looking sad and in some pain "I stabbed my eyeball with a stick..." Yup, just what every mother wants to hear. I said " You WHAT?!?" to which he responded " I stabbed my eyeball....."
   "How did you do that?" I questioned as I cornered him and began peering into his eye- thankfully finding no obvious damage or foreign materials. " I was running with it and as I was pumping my arms I stabbed myself.... Are you MAD?"
     "No Joey, I am just concerned for your EYE, since you only have TWO of them, I don't really want you to lose one!" I gave him a bath and tried to flush it out. He said it was still stinging but felt better. I called the Nurse line just to be sure and they put me through to Joey's DR- who is awesome- and he said that I better take him in just to be safe. SO, I loaded the kids up and off we went to the Health First Urgent Care- which is only about 10 miles away, and a Christian business, and they are VERY fast and VERY friendly. I honestly do not mind going there and would rather go THERE than to base medical anyway! We were in and out in an hour.
   The DR. we saw at Health First put a special solution in Joey's eye and then held a black light up to it- we could see about 5 obvious scratches across his cornea. THANK GOD they were not that deep at all. He told me Joey should be fine in a day and just gave me some antibacterial eye drops.  We were home by 8:30pm- just enough time for Ice Cream before bed. Oh, and Joey now knows NO RUNNING WITH STICKS!

ALSO: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA TUY!

Its official, Chris found out today that the Schmitt Family is headed for the tropical beaches and the warm sands of... OAHU!!!

We are SO EXCITED! This is the ultimate adventure, even for Mommy Schmitt. We really don't know any specifics yet, but we should be there by August and we'll be there about 3 years. We'll try to live on base and Chris will be attached to a Submarine out of Pearl Harbor.

Yikes! So much to think about! So much to do!!  Everyone out there better be saving to come and visit and stay at Chatue Schmitt.

First of all I need to thank our wonderful family who drove all the way here from Orlando. Thank you Grandma Tuy and Grandpa Bob! Thank you Aunt Sherry and Uncle Brian!!! You guys really made this weekend very, very special for Joey- and our whole family. We will all remember this weekend forever. Thank you for the great gifts. Joey LOVES his new shoes and his new Lego Toys.

Also, THANK YOU Nana and Grandpa for sending up your gifts. You were with us in our Hearts! Joey loves the M&M Toy-  And so do the girls. Okay, I admit it, so do I! Its awesome!  We wish you could have been here to eat some pirate cake, but we will see you soon. (The end of April).

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Perkins for the videos and books- We watched the Veggie Tales last night and the kids love it. We miss all our Michigan family and can't wait to see you all on April 5th!  Thank you Aunt Diana for the Card!

We are so blessed to have such a great family and friends! We love you all!

Joey doesn't officially turn 6 until Thursday, but we celebrated on Saturday- As you can tell by the pictures. I got Joey a ENORMOUS pirate cake from publix-  it would feed 56 people! It was very, very huge and cool with a whole pirate ship made our of cake! We ate about 1/8 th of it and then I took the rest to Joey's school on Monday to share with his class.  All the kids loved it. It had tiny toy pirates on it with little boats and a little alligator. SOOO CUTE!

I also want to thank everyone for all the cards I received. Sunday was my 30th birthday. Its the beginning of a new decade and I feel so blessed to be where I am right now. I am totally in love and married to my soul mate- a wonderful man who loves me , I have three wonderful children who are my whole world and we are all on the verge of setting out on a new adventure- where too? We don't know yet, we should find out any day!

There are more pary pics on the NEW PICS page.

We are finally all over our illness here at the Schmitt House. I am sure glad that last week is behind us!

This weekend was a lot of fun. Chris got home early around 4pm on Friday and he also had Saturday and Sunday off. Friday night we all went to a Japanese Steakhouse to celebrate my birthday. We kids really got a kick of of the chef shopping the vegetables and lighting the grill on fire. Vangie was a little scared and had to hang onto her Daddy's arm, it was cute. 
 
Sunday the weather was beautiful- Sunny and around 80 degrees. After church we rode our bikes to a park about 3 miles away. There is a large empty field there so we were able to launch Joey's rocket! We had 3 successful launches and recoveries. We took Stella with us and let her off her leash so she could run around.  She is finally obeying our commands and coming back to us when we call her name.  For the longest time she just wanted to run away so we could never take her off her leash.

It is nice that it is staying light a lot longer outside- the kids love to play outside now that the weather is warming up.

Yesterday Joey was able to go to school. Sophie, However, was very Ill all day. She basically sat in the chair ALL DAY with her puke pail close by (which she used a couple of times.) She would sleep for a bit and then wake up and watch some TV and then sleep some more. Evangeline seemed to be fine yesterday but around 1 in the afternoon she began crying that her belly hurt and puked all over me.
    They ALL went to bed very early last night. Joey ended up puking in his bed again and sleeping on a blanket on the floor. This morning Joey still said his belly hurt. Thenhe puked grape-juice all over the floor. SOOO, Joey is home from school today yet again and in his room fast asleep... He has already missed 11 days of school this year  so I hope the police do not come and arrest me- we already received one letter from the school warning us  about his absences, supposedly you are really only allowed to miss 10 days. ...but what can I do?
     Sophie seems better today- she is still keeping her puke bucket close by but she is talking to me and even ate breakfast- yesterday all she ate was a couple ritz crackers.   Vangie may be over the worst of it- she is playing with some toys and drinking and eating.
   I have been doing a lot of laundry and cleaning the floor. I bought a Carpet Steam Cleaner that is JUST THE THING for cleaning up bodily fluids. I am praying that tomorrow we will all be better!!

You know when you have three kids... or two or four or five.... that when ONE gets sick.... well they usually ALL get sick. I was hoping this would not be the case and Evangeline's Puking Sickness would just stay with Evangeline.  Unfortunately this did not happen!

Last night Joey came to me at 1am "Mommy, I puked in my bed..." I got out of bed and went to his and he definitely puked A LOT in his bed. I tried to get his blankets wrapped up and put in the basket to put the basket somewhere because it STUNK. And I kept getting chunks of vomit on ME and on the floor..... very gross I know, but it IS reality. I finally got most of it wrapped up and made Joey a bed on the floor in my bedroom on a large comforter. I THOUGHT about putting him in bed with me and Chris but in the back of my brain I thought.... "What if he gets sick again?" Chris gets up at 4:30am and needs all the sleep he can get.  I am very Glad I did not put him in our bed because he got up four more times to vomit in the toilet.  Every time I would get up and rub his back and help him back to his little bed on the floor.

Around 2am Sophie came to me in bed. "Mommy, I puked in my bed..."  Now how is this even POSSIBLE that BOTH Joey and Sophie puke in their beds on the same night? Apparently its very possible because this is the second time it has happened over the last year. Thankfully Sophie managed to only puke on her sheet (Yeah Sophie!) I removed her sheet and she could still sleep in her bed- and thats a good thing, because where would I have put her? Sophie only woke up twice more to puke- both times in the toilet! Good job Sophie!

This morning I knew that NO ONE was going to school. I let them sleep and Joey slept until 9am- I then had the glorious opportunity to clean up a nights worth of vomit. I am still washing sheets and cleaning the carpet.

In OTHER news..... I posted Joeys Class picture above... He really enjoys school and can read really well! (he must get that from me!)

Last night was one of the more exciting nights that I can remember. It started off really normal. The kids were in bed by 7:45pm- I was planning on going to the early church service this morning so I wanted them well rested.  Chris and I were in bed by 9:30pm- Chris has still not fully recovered from his 14 day swing shift/midnight shift so he could not stay awake.

Around 1:30am Vangie walked into our room covered in puke. And dragging her blankie also covered in puke. I washed her off, took her clothes off and threw her blankie in the dirty clothes hamper. I checked in bed...yup, full of puke. I just put her in our bed and decided to worry about the mess in the morning. I didn't want to be too noisy in the bedroom and wake Joey up.
Vangie had to be rushed to the bathroom to puke about every 20min. Every time I was about to fall asleep I would here. "mommy...puke.....". Poor Vangie! She was a real trouper and even told me when she was going to get sick.

Around 2:30 I decided to bring her downstairs and give her some Zofran to hopefully stop her puking. Once I came down the stairs I immediately smelt it.... DOG POOP!!! Stella had pooped in her crate. The whole downstairs REEKED. I peeked into the crate- yup, she was covered, the crate was covered. Good Grief!  I gave Vangie a Zofran and laid her down on the couch. I then took the dog outside to potty- and gave her a bath. Then I took the foul smelling crate outside and hosed it down and washed it out with Lysol. The neighbors might have been wondering what I was doing outside 3am!

After the crate was washed out I scrubbed the tub out, and took a shower. I then unloaded the dishwasher since I was already up. I also got all of Vangies dirty bedding and threw them in the washing machine.  Then I laid with Vangie on the couch and we watched an old movie on TV. She had to be rushed to the bathroom two more times. Thankfully around 4am she fell alseep and I brought her back up to my bed. We both slept until 6:30am when she woke up and wanted her blankie.

She is doing much better this morning. She ate a little breakfast, drank some juice and water and has not vomited since. We of course never made it to the early service. She is napping now and if she wakes up feeling fine I will probably take the kids to the late service which starts at 11am. Joey and Sophie like to go and participate in "Children's Church". Vangie sits with me during the service and colors quietly. 

Chris will be done a little early today and should be home by 4pm- Its really raining out so we will probably just hang out and watch movies today. I am enjoying the rain. I was in the mood for a relaxing rainy Sunday!