I Tried Not To Laugh

We were at McDonalds today and me and little Eric were sitting at the table waiting for big Eric to bring the food to the table. A guy walked by us and this conversation took place.

Eric: Mommy he has a funny looking head
Me: What do you mean Eric?
Eric: Well he had a little head and big ears
Me: Eric you shouldn't say that; it is not nice

Unfortunately as I am telling him that we don;t say that kind of stuff I can't stop laughing. I'm not sure if I got the point across because I was laughing so hard. I guess that is a lesson I will have to teach at another time. :)

You Have To Do What You Have To Do

Since we are staying in the hotel room bed time for little Eric can be somewhat challenging. We want (and he needs) to go to bed at 7:30 but of course me and Eric are watching TV and still doing stuff. One night as Eric was complaining about the light big Eric found his mask and gave it to him. He only wore it for a couple nights and it worked. I think we need to go back to it because we are starting to have problems with bedtime again. Only about 2 more weeks and we should be in our house!!

I guess we were just spoiled!!

One of my main priorities since getting here was getting little Eric back in preschool. He was taken out when we moved to my mom's back in November and I know he misses it. I can tell that he is bored. He is even known to "play school". I figured that since we are going to be living on post I would start with Child Youth Services (CYS). Last week we went to go register him. Well here in Hawaii you have to have a current TB test before you can be registered. No big deal. We went and had that done and returned 2 days later to have his test read. Good news he doesn't have TB. After we left the doctor we headed straight over to CYS. Let's just say everything could have gone wrong. Me and Eric both felt that the lady was somewhat rude. To register you have to give 2 contacts that live here on the island that is neither me nor big Eric. Well when you first move to a new place you don't know anybody. Thankfully I do have a friend here so I put her name down. Well the lady said that we had to put another one down. We kept telling her that we didn't know anybody. Then she asked for Eric's 1st Sgt and Eric could give the lady his name but didn't know that number. Then the lady asked for his work number; well Eric didn't know that because he had only been at work the day before for like an hour.
Well then I inquire about preschool. Here though the price is based on your rank. She figured it out and said that 2 days a week from 8-12 would be $198, 3 days a week would be like $250 and 5 days a week would be over $500 a month. For preschool!?!?!?!?!? I have looked around off post at some churches and they are way more expensive. One church had preschool from 6-12 (yes that is right 6am; kids should still be sleeping not going to preschool. I think a lot of these are more like day cares; they just call them preschool) and that would have been about $550 a month. Another church didn't list the price but the application fee and comprehensive fee was $300 alone. I can't imagine what the price is.
Now the reason for the post title - I am used to paying $80 a month for 5 days of preschool that ran from 9-12. I thought that was a lot but I'm learning that it isn't.
They don't have pre-K at the schools and we make too much money to qualify for head start. I guess little Eric is going to have to get used to being at home all day with Mom because we would have to take out a 2nd mortgage on our house to afford this kind of stuff. :) What do you guys thing - was I just spoiled?? What are the prices where you live?

Back to the CYS thing. After we got over the shock of the price of preschool we inquired about baseball that was holding sign-ups. Well since Eric was diagnosed with asthma and I put it down on the registration form (just trying to honest) the nurse has to clear him to be able to do anything with CYS. Okay that is fine they had to do that at Ft. Benning too. Kind of doesn't make sense though because we had to be cleared to come here because of his asthma. But whatever - I was fine with it. Then the lady tells me that we should expect to hear from the nurse in 6-8 weeks but until then we can't do anything with CYS. Needless to say we were so disgusted!!
So until Eric starts kindergarten (in July I might add) I will work with him. I have bought him some books that help you work on your ABC's and last night I found a book that is made for kindergartners that I will work on his letters and numbers. We will start going to story time at the library and go to the park. Hopefully at church they will have some mom groups that get together so it gives us things to do. But until then I guess I will enjoy having my little man around me for a couple more months.

It's a good thing...

Since the military can't get us into a house until next month we are staying at the hotel here on post (which is privately owned so they charge more than regular army lodging). Every 10 days you have to go and fill out paperwork so finance will deposit the money into our bank account and then we will pay for our room. Well since today was our 11th day staying here Eric had to go and take care of things. He came back with the bill so we would know how much the hotel is taking out. The bill came to $1400. Yes that is right - one thousand four hundred. IT is so good that the army is paying for this because I know I wouldn't be able to afford it. :)

On another note - we went to register our car and get Hawaii plates and it only cost $5 because our registration and plates were still good in Alabama and the cost was prorated. Finally something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg here in Hawaii!!

Does Anybody Know....

Does anybody know what happened to the website The Cutest Blog on the Block (www.thecutestblogontheblock)? I love to get my backgrounds from them but I can't get it to load. The other day I tried to get on it and it said it was under construction but know I can't get to it at all. I don't know if it is the website or if my Internet connection just sucks. If anybody knows just let me know. Thanks!!

We Made It To Hawaii!!

Yeah we made it to Hawaii and we love it. The weather is sunny and warm and I am in heaven. The flight over was long (we flew nonstop from Atlanta - 9 hours later). Little Eric was perfect. He did so good on the flight. When we got here it was raining but it soon stopped. We got checked into the hotel and headed over to the commissary (the hotel room we are staying in has a microwave and mini fridge). When we were at the commissary, little Eric was pulling the cart behind him and slipped and fell. The cart hit him in the back of the head and cut his head. I knew that head wounds bleed alot but once we got the bleeding to stop it still looked kind of deep. I convinced Eric to go ahead and get him checked out. You can never be to safe. It turned out that it was deep enough for 2 stitches. The doc decided that since it was just 2 he wasn't going to numb him up. My little boy is a trooper!! Little Eric has been kind of bummed because he can't go swimming until he gets his stitches out. But he gets them out tomorrow so he will be excited to go to the beach. It is just our luck that something like that would happen to us on our 1st day here.
Sunday we went driving around and ended up down in Waikiki. We found a free parking lot so decided to park and walk down to the water. The water was WONDERFUL. I wish we had our suits so we could have gone in the water.
We have spent the majority of this week running around and getting stuff done. We signed into housing but can't get a house until about the 1st week of February. Living in this hotel room is going to get old real fast. :) Oh well - we aren't paying for it.
Yesterday we drove up to the North Shore. This week they are supposed to have up to 25 feet waves. (Although my friend told me today that they might be bigger than that). They hadn't gotten that big yesterday but it was still fun to go up there and see the surfers. I think Friday we are going to go up there and see if we can see the huge waves - don't worry I will get pictures.
We are so looking forward to being here and experience all that Hawaii has to offer Once we get a house feel free to come and visit!

at Waikiki

at Waikiki

testing out the water at Waikiki

at North Shore

at the North Shore (the specks in the water are surfers)

Once there was a snowman....

Just wanted to post a few pictures of my boys playing in the snow. Because of the snow wouldn't pack well, they weren't able to build the snowman until the last day we were there and it still wasn't an easy process. Big Eric should get the dad of the year award for being so patient and going out and doing most of the work so Eric could have his snowman. Little Eric loved the snow and every chance he got was throwing a snowball at his Daddy. Too bad we won't be seeing snow for a while! :)

Ice Skating

While we were home for Christmas we decided to go ice skating. It was alot of fun. Just thought I would post a few pictures. The video at the bottom is of me and Becca doing our "skating trick" Watch out Stars on Ice - here we come!! :)

our family

me and my love

my cute boys

me and Becca

our group - i think Brain is taking the picture and my mom is sitting upstairs with the younger kids watching

me, little Eric, and my dad

(L-R) little Marcus, Sarah, me, Becca, Deoina

Eric and Emily

Christmas 2008

Looking at my blog today I realized that I hadn't posted anything about Christmas. WE had a great Christmas - especially since Eric was home. He got home 2 days before Christmas so that was a great Christmas!! 2 of my sisters were home with their families so it was crazy but fun. We missed you Mark & Keyla!!!! This year I decided to make matching PJ's for our family. They turned out SO cute. I know this isn't the best picture but I had to post at least one picture.
Eric had a blast with his cousin and best friend Emily. My sister Elizabeth came from Arizona for Christmas. They had a blast and loved playing together. My mom made all the grandkids matching PJ's also and they turned out way cute. Overall it was a great Christmas and couldn't have asked for a better one.

us in our matching jammies

Eric and Emily having a good time

Eric, Emily, and Adam goofing off

me and my cute neice Leah

cute little Leah