Back to work for Kari

This week I went back to work. I had a GLC (grade level chair) meeting on Tuesday morning and then my first "real" day back to work was Thursday. It felt good to get back to my classroom and get things reorganized. I met the 3 new teachers on my gradelevel. We have 6 2nd grade teachers in all, 3 of which are new to our school. Actually they are all first year teachers. They all seem nice and ready to dig in. Students start back on Wednesday so we still have Monday and Tuesday for getting ourselves ready.

On Saturday we went bowling here on base. The bowling alley here is nice. It has tons of lanes and it also serves food, drinks, etc. We have gone bowling every summer with Caleb. It was a good family night. After bowling we went our for supper at the sports bar/restaurant on base. We seem to always go there. It's close and the food is very good. Tyler likes to look for snails out in the grassy area. We always manage to come home with at least a few shells.

Today, Sunday, we haven't done much. We went grocery shopping this morning and now Tyler is napping while Tom and Caleb was the cars. I think when Tyler gets up we are going to go to the beach. We don't have many days left with Caleb here so we are trying to squeeze as much in as we can.

Tomorrow Tom an Caleb are going to Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park. Caleb has wanted to go all summer but we didn't get to do that until now. I have to work but those two will have fun. Caleb and Tom leave Tuesday night to take Caleb back to Georgia. Tom will stay over one night and then fly back.

We just sent out the invitations to Tyler's 2nd birthday party. We are having a pizza party at our house. I just can't believe that he'll be 2~ where has the time gone!!!

Well, not much new this week!! Hope you all had a relaxing weekend and may the week fly by for all of you!! :)

Love~The Brouses

Wow....it's been a busy summer!!!

Hi Everyone from Hawaii~It's sure been a crazy few weeks! We had most of the month of June by ourselves and then we have had company for about the last month or so. First, our friends Dale and Patti Thormodsgard from Utah came. They were here for almost 2 weeks. During the time they were here we went to the Honolulu Zoo for the Military Appreciation Day. It was Tyler's first time at the zoo. He was pretty exited to see some of the animals but wasn't AS excited as we thought he might be. Caleb has been there before but it was a great day with friends and family.

While Dale and Patti were here we also stay a week at Bellows Resort on the east side of the island. We usually stay there at least once during the summer. They have cabins and the resort is right on the ocean. The cabins have 2 bedrooms, showers, refridgerators, stoves, microwaves and tvs. They are super nice and cozy. They are perfect for a getaway. We spent lots of time at the beach and of course more time just relaxing! Tyler ended up getting sick while we were there. He had an almost 103 degree temperature with one throw up. It was kind of weird but must have been just some little bug. The only thing the cabins don't have is air conditioning so keeping him cool with his fever was a little tricky. At night it's really not bad with the windows open and the breeze blowing in but the daytime was a little rough for him. Overall though the week was great! Oh yeah, how could I forget the shark sightings 2 days in a row. We have been to Bellows SO many times and never had sightings and this year they had to days with sightings. They had to close the water/beaches for a few hours while helicopters flew over looking and the lifeguards looked over the waters on jet skis. Pretty crazy!! We are in the water so much and never really think about being so close to creatures like that...that is until they have sightings!! :)

Tom's aunt Connie was our next visitor. Dale and Patti and Connie overlapped each other by a day so we were pretty full in our place! Connie lives in Minneapolis/St.Paul area. She is 67 years old and came over here by herself. She is Tom's dads sister. We went to a few beaches and spent lots of time at the pool. She really wanted a hawaiian tan before she left. And she did end up with one! She just left yesterday so we have an empty nest it feels like.

Today we just hung out and cleaned the house. Tyler wanted to get outside today but of all days to rain it did it a lot of the day today. He did spend some time with his neighbor friends before supper. There is a little boy and one girl on our block that are both just 2 years old. They all have so much fun together. Whenever one hears another outside you'd better be ready to go too! They play so well together.

Tyler and Caleb got a little mustang car from Dale and Patti. It's battery operated and goes 2 1/2 miles per hour on low and 5 miles per hour on high. It holds 130 pounds and is too cute. It even has a little radio that plays music. Tyler is learning to drive it and all his little friend loves to drive it too!

I start back to work on Thursday. I am not excited to go back but it will get us back into our routine and I work so much better with routines! Caleb will go back to Georgia on July 29th with Tom. We just can't believe how fast the summer goes by with him. It's like he just got here! Well, I can say I will be able to keep up with the blog much better when things slow down a little! Thanks for reading!! Have a wonderful week!!

The Brouses!!! :)

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted anything. I don't have any "good" excuses except that we have been super busy! Caleb has already been here 3 weeks! I just can't believe how fast time flies! AND I've been done with school for 2 weeks! How crazy! We've had lots of fun together and have lots planned for the next month or so.

After Pop Pop left Caleb, Tyler and I spent the next week just kind of hanging around the house and playing outside. We have spent lots of time at the park and at the beach here on base. We have also made some very cool forts inside the house. Lots of blankets and chairs! The boys just LOVE this. They will literally play forever inside the thing! I remember making forts when I was little and I've had a chance to get in these and.....it is fun!!!

We had the boys' pictures taken at Sear's last weekend. We had a family one taken and then the boys were supposed to take some together and then separate ones. Well, as we got to the end and Tyler was supposed to take some by himself it didn't go so well. Lots of coaxing and we didn't end up getting any good ones of him by himself. The lady had to take a good one of the boys together and cut Caleb out to get a good one of Tyler by himself. He's just at the age where if he's not wanting to do something....he's just not going to do it! :) Overall the pictures turned out very nice!!

Last Sunday we brought out the slip and slide. Boy did they all have a good time. Tom even got out there and showed them how it was done. We have some funny pictures of that! I told Tom I wouldn't put those on here (I'd better keep that promise)!

Yesterday we went to the pool on base. It's a great pool. It has a baby pool with a huge sprinkler. Tyler loves the water but would really rather be in the big pool. They don't let toddlers who aren't yet potty trained into the big pool. It's too bad cuz he just loves to swim and kick around. The baby pool is only up to his knees (if that). Caleb loves the pool because it has a diving board and a slide. It's so much fun. I really like it because we don't come home full of sand like when we go to the beach.

Today we are just at home. Tyler is napping and Tom and Caleb are washing the cars. I hear them outside and I think Caleb is getting the neighbor with the hose! He's been waiting to do that since he got here! :)

I have been really trying the potty training thing with Tyler. Since we've spent most of the last couple weeks at home I thought this would be a good time to start. He seems to really know when he has to go potty because he'll most of the time go on his own. I've left him mostly without underwear when we're at home to let him get the hang of it. I do try and put diapers on him too sometimes so he knows that feeling too! He also knows when he has to poop but he then asks for a diaper or underwear. I hear that part takes awhile. Right?

Well, hope you all have nice week!!

The Brouses

Summer Fun

Yay!! I am finally done with school for the year. Friday was my last day. I don't go back until July 24th so I have just under 2 months or so off. We'll definitely be spending a lot of time at the beach and hanging out at the park.

Tom, Mike (pop pop), Caleb and Tyler spent last week together. They visited a few beaches, took a drive around the island and went to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. The kept busy and had such a good time together. The boys had the Keiki fishing tournament on Friday. Caleb caught 6 fish. He also won a new fishing pole.

Tyler's last day of daycare was Friday. I am hoping that while I am home for the summer, I can try to get him potty trained. He didn't get the opportunity to try at daycare so I'm going to try real hard at home. He will go on the potty whenever we ask him if he has to it's just that we've got to get him to wear training pants or underwear instead of the diaper.

We are going to go up to the hospital sometime this week to visit one of Tyler's daycare friends. His name is Kellen and he's just 7 months old. He was just diagnosed with leukemia this past week. It was a VERY sudden diagnosis. He had been a little fussy and had a fever off and on last week. His mom brought him in after a few days thinking it was probably related to teething or a possible ear infection. They ruled all the normal things out and continued to do testing on him until they found this. The dad is in Iraq right now but was finally reached and is on his way here to be with the family. The doctors are very optimistic about things but he will surely have a long road ahead!

We don't have any real plans this week. Just have fun being off of work and possibly get some scrapbooking done. I am WAY behind!! I've really had to start picking and choosing which things I REALLY want to scrapbook. I can't do it all like I used to!! :)

Hope everyone had a good week and is enjoying their summer so far!!!

The Brouses

Caleb is here!!!

Caleb is here for the summer! We have been waiting and waiting for him to get here. He flew in last night with his Pop Pop from Georgia. He is 8 years old and just finished 2nd grade. They didn't get in until 9pm on Saturday so it was a long day waiting to see him. We talked about it all day so Tyler was pretty pumped up when we finally saw him.

This morning Caleb and his Pop Pop were up early. They are still getting adjusted to the time difference here. Hawaii is 6 hours behind Georgia so when they arrived last night it was actually 3am for them. We went out for breakfast at a cafe right on Pearl Harbor. We go there quite often for breakfast. It's so beautiful eating outside by the ocean!

After breakfast we went to the harbor right there and feed the fish. We used our leftover pancakes and toast. We just scrunch them into little balls and throw them in the water. The tropical fish just come and eat. It's just awesome. Of course, the kids just loved it!

I think we'll just hang out most of the day today. Tom is off all this week so he'll be taking Caleb, Pop Pop and Tyler around. They will probably go to the beach, snorkeling, around the island and to Pearl Harbor Memorial. They are also going to a Keiki(kids) fishing tournament on Friday! Caleb was in that tournament 2 summers ago and won his age category so he's pretty excited about going again.

My last day of work isn't until Friday so I'll just be with them in the evenings! Mike (Pop Pop) leaves next Saturday and Caleb will be here until the end of July, when Tom flies with him back to Georgia.

We bought Caleb a new bike for the summer and Tyler just got a little Fisher-Price 3 wheeler bike so they had fun riding those around. Even though they've only been together a day...you can sure tell that Tyler wants to do everything his big brother does. :)

As you can see in the pictures, Caleb has let his hair grow out. He says he's wanting to do it and some of his friends are doing it. That's kind of the thing with some of my kids at school. I'm not sure how much he'll love it when he's HOT in the sun on the beach and sand but...we'll see!!

We had Tyler to the doctor on Friday for some rashes he's had for about a week. He's been breaking out with red rashes, some raised and most not. We are wondering if it's a food allergy so the doctor had lab tests done to see if it's peanut butter. We should have the results back early next week. I'm not convinced it's peanut butter since he broke out today and he hasn't had peanut butter since Friday. It doesn't seem to bother him though...like itching or something.

Well, I'm going to add some pictures and go hang out with the boys!! I'm really outnumbered here!!

Have a wonderful week!!!

The Brouses