Happy Father's Day!

The boys are thrilled to have their daddy home for Father's Day. It was difficult to prevent them from storming the master bedroom door this morning. Ryan wanted to sleep in and they just wanted to scream, "Happy Father's Day" at him first thing in the morning...just before 6am. Just to make the day even more exciting, Nathan decided to begin to throw up in the van while I was trapped at a red light. Joy! He seems to feel a little better right now and I'm just glad that he hadn't eaten breakfast yet when he chose to get sick.


While Ryan was still out of town I hosted a Father's Day craft playdate at the house. Each child completed a coloring sheet, made a card with a little help and decorated a "tie" for their dad. Too cute! Nathan LOVES to craft and happily sat for all the activities. Ian needed to be bribed with the promise of more snacks if he finished a project. Typical.


Ian...eating. I had to give him three rounds of snacks in order to convince him to finish all three crafts.


Nathan is modeling the tie that he made for Ryan.

He survived!

The blog is back and open for business again now that Ryan's Navy nonsense is out of the way. He is on his way to the airport as we speak and will be very relieved to be back home where the only people who beat him up are 3 and 4-years-old. Thankfully, Ryan will also be able to take some leave until the end of the month. It's about time! Oh, we are all very grateful that Ryan safely made it through this round of training. If only we could post the details here...

Anyway, I think it has been 2 years since our last mini-vacation so I am looking forward to heading out of town next week. We are going to stay in Washington, DC for a night or two and explore some of the sights. Since it's so hot and the weather is so unpredictable this time of year, I don't want to plan an extended stay in DC for right now. We'll save that for the fall or spring!

Want to hear the most exciting news???? We are going to Pennsylvania! Why is this exciting at all? We get to see Dalene & "little" Melissa and meet their precious baby girls! I'd skip DC all together just to make sure this part of the vacation occurs. Dalene has never met my boys and I most certainly have never met her darling daughter. I cannot wait! We also hope to hit up Sesame Place if the weather is decent during our short visit. Soon the boys will be too old to care about Sesame characters...and Busch Gardens lets us military folk visit for FREE once a year. Score!

I Love My Vacuum

In fact, I might be in love with my new vacuum. A few weeks ago our trusty Kenmore that we purchased with money we received as a wedding gift died on us. I freaked out. I was not in the mood to spend $500 to buy a Dyson, especially since we already own a Roomba.

Our old vacuum was nice enough to give up on us just prior to Memorial Day weekend so I remained hopeful that we'd find some decent sales at Sears. After getting sidetracked by the shiny new grills (our almost new grill was blown over during a storm and is broken), we finally arrived at the vacuums. We walked in without any information hoping that the salespeople would attempt to do their job. Wrong! They were capable of pointing and reading the information on the sales tags, but that was it. Lovely. They want you to drop a few hundred dollars on an item and they can't even help convince you which one will work best for your house.

Taking things back into my own hands, we returned home and I headed over to check out Consumer Reports and the wonderful Sears comments. Have I mentioned how much I love the comments on individual items on the Sears website? They approve every comment, no matter how scathing and I know this from experience! I checked out the various Dyson models and a handful of Kenmore vacuums. After reading the hundreds of comments, I was completely sold on the Kenmore Progressive Upright Vacuum with Inteli-Clean System, Slate Blue. I was especially happy to be paying $219 for this $349 vacuum.

This smart vacuum tells YOU when your carpet is clean. My carpet looks brand new each time I vacuum. I can vacuum my entire staircase while leaving the vacuum at the bottom of the stairs. The gentle feature doesn't suck up the corners of my throw rugs while I vacuum. I love my vacuum!!!

Just had to share. I promise my next post will have pictures of the kids.

Temporarily Private

Sorry I had to make the blog private...it's only for 2 weeks. Ryan is off playing in the woods and we don't want any private information out there that we are able to control. If they are able to figure out my name, all bets are off. With a last name like Saarijarvi, I'm pretty sure they will be able to gather all the intelligence they want!

Outdoor Fun

I am so relieved that the weather has been mostly cooperating and allowing the boys to play outside. Nathan is content with craft activities and indoor play, but Ian NEEDS to be outside. Our typical tropical summer has not yet begun so we are taking advantage of the warm, sunny days right now. These are just a few pictures from a recent park play date.


See, Ian loves to be outside. If there's a hill to be found, Ian will be the one rolling down it.


How did he end up so photogenic? He certainly did not inherit this quality from me or Ryan.


Boys running around being boys. Thank goodness we have a ton of parks here in Virginia Beach!


A sweet friend of ours who is moving to Korea next month...boo hoo!!!!!!!


These three little guys get along so well. It's such a shame this other family has to transfer to a new duty station.

When not shuttling the boys from playgroup to playgroup, I have been spending ALL of my extra time working on my business. It's exhausting. I have yet to find the perfect e-commerce site and that's very frustrating to me. I want a template for my store that I can adjust to make it more unique, but I don't want anything too complicated because it needs to be easy to add items frequently, etc. Suggestions anyone? I've also been adding things to Etsy, updating my current site, trying to make Twitter work for me, blah, blah, blah. It's so bad that my kids now pretend to work on their own websites with big old calculators acting as their laptops. So crazy!

I also help organize three local Meetup groups and it has become a tad overwhelming in recent weeks. I am trying to spread out the responsibilities as much as possible so that it can truly remain FUN for all of the organizers, but this has proven difficult at times. I will always sacrifice my own time to try and make sure everyone is happy...this is something I need to work on.

I Miss My Friends

Bring on the whining. I'm just going to lay it all out. It stinks being a Navy wife. Moving to new places can be fun, but I'm tired of moving wherever and whenever the Navy says it's time. I am sick of meeting new people. I MISS MY FRIENDS!!!

We've lived here in Virginia for a little over a year now. Sure, I have met some really great people since moving here, but it still doesn't feel like home. I'm not convinced everyone I hang out with "gets me" just yet. I think a few are close, but I don't see them very often. No one knows us well enough to just show up at the door unannounced and if I'm balling my eyes out for whatever reason, I know that I'm going to call Ryan or some friend I've left behind in another state. I'm lonely.

What makes things worse is that when we do make friends, they move! It's not bad enough that we're always moving away, but so are our friends. I can't take it anymore!!! My boys are about to lose one of their first real friends, but I don't think they will really understand it for a few more years. A fellow military wife is moving to Korea and my boys love her son to pieces! He is on their short list of 3 boys that they always ask for at play dates and parties. Such a pity.

So, friends, move to Virginia. I'll do my best not to move away from you. Those of you without blogs, start one so I can feel like I'm still somewhat part of your everyday life. Oh, and don't be surprised when the phone rings and I'm complaining or crying on the other end of the line. I don't think Ryan wants to be my "girlfriend" anymore.

**Edit: Ryan read this (who knew he read this thing) and said that I made it sound like HE is the reason I'm crying and that he doesn't want to put up with me anymore. Sorry, that was not my intention. I am convinced that any girl who reads this will understand what I was trying to say.

Heart Health Advice

Because I have a million other things to do that do not include editing family photos, I'm sharing this perfect email from my friend, Jacqui. Enjoy!

Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?

A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it...don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?

A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?

A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?

A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?

A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?

A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! .... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?

A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?

A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?

A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?

A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape! Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:

'Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO, What a Ride' AND..... For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.