Happy Birthday Nick!!!

Today (June 1st) is Nick's 31st Birthday (well, in Afghanistan time)
Let's see how many moto mail birthday wishes we can send him!!!!

Ugly.Mail@bastion.afghan.usmc.mil
Subject: CAPTAIN NICHOLAS TURNER

He's been sick with a cold/congestion, so he's been a little down in the dumps, so let's lift his spirits a little on his special day!

Happy Birthday Nick!!!!

Weekend at the Pool

The weather this past week has been HOT HOT HOT and MUGGY MUGGY MUGGY, but there has been NO sun! Until yesterday. The sun came out, and I was so sick of our oven baked house, that we had to get out and go somewhere with water! So yesterday Trevor and Addison and I went to the Officer's Club pool on base. We were the only ones for a while, but only 3 other small families showed up... so the pool was nice and relaxing!

Today, we all loaded up again and went back around noon. McKenzie brought Tiani along, and a few of my friends met us there as well. It was so much fun.

Addison is really comfortable in the water (as long as I'M the one holding her...thanks for trying Gina) I even got her to blow bubbles and kick kick kick.....

Here is Kenzie trying to take pics of her blowing bubbles... but Addison just laughed at me making bubbles instead.

Addison, Me & Robin Payton

Trevor and Helen in the kiddie pool.

McKenzie & Tiani

"Mom, take a picture of us jumping in the pool.. 1, 2...WAIT!"
Whoops Tiani!

1,2,3 GO!

30+ Weeks & A Welcome Baby Party

Last night the kids and I went to a Surprise Baby Welcoming Party at a fellow spouses house! I had Trevor take a quick picture of me at 30+ weeks. Aaghhhh, just a little over 9 weeks to go!

Here we all are taking a quick group picture!

Emily Hughes, Me & Addison
The gorgeous mommy, Manila (of 3 girls now) & Me with the cake I made.

As soon as new baby Sianna arrived, Addison was at her side, oohing and talking to the baby. She would point to all her parts and say "Baby, Baby, Baby"... I thought we were having a breakthrough. She kept a close eye on the baby all evening, when someone took her out of the carseat, she would look all over the room to see where she went. I had to be careful because she wanted to ROCK the baby in the seat too... but she wasn't very gentle.

I stayed away from baby until the end of the night. Addison was sitting next to the carseat looking at her, so I made my move. I sat next to her, talked about the baby, and made Addison the center of attention, talking to HER as I slowly lifted Sianna out of her carseat, telling Addison, "Oooh, should we take a look at the baby?" I set the baby on my lap facing Addison so she could see her..... Thinking if Addison was right there, she wouldn't mind. BUT...... This attempt failed.
So Mommy had to put the babyback. Poo.

Shades

It was a rainy day today, but the kids and I had fun inside anyways. Trevor dressed himself this morning, and I have to say I was impressed with his outfit. Complete with shoes and shades. Then of course, he had to go find Addison some sunglasses as well.... and from there, it turned into a silly photo shoot! (I tried to post these earlier as a slideshow, but it didn't work out)
Enjoy!

So you think you had a bad day...

In an email from Nick tonight...

Holy [poop] I wish I could send you a pic of what today was like. Two of our tents blew over from this freak dust storm. I am typing you right know on a computer that has dust all over it. Imagine Addison taking my foot powder and dumping it on your keyboard. I have a scarf wrapped around my face to keep from breathing in all this [poop]. Good news though we did get a huge industrial reefer (think big [butt] fridge). It doesn’t freeze the water but it makes ice crystals in it so it is nice. We have close to 4 pallets of water in it so that will be nice to get cold water.... Today is a very crappy day, you cant even go outside and see anything unless you have goggles on that suction to your face. Other than that all is well. I am battling a little cold so feeling kind of crappy today.

I like the phrase "other than that all is well" so at least he is in pretty good spirits!!! Your tents can blow over, you can't breathe, and have to type home to your wife on a "powder" covered keyboard, but other than that.....

He'd just say "It doesn't do any good to get mad about it"

Just a little insight on Nick's day so far!

Pictures from Afghanistan

As I mentioned in a previous post, here are the 2 of Nick that were part of the slideshow at the Afghanistan Brief.

This first one you'll recognize the handsome devil in the left seat... sorry, I don't know who is in the right seat?! Anyone wanna help me out?
And I can't quite tell what Nick is doing in this picture, but as you can see, he is working very hard at whatever it is.... Look at that concentration!

And just to show you some proof of how much people really care about our Uglies! Here are 20 some care packages that were generously collected and mailed off by our fabulous FROman! (with the help from his lovely assistant, and daughter, Dulce)

Help the Uglies Beat the Heat

After talking to Nick the last couple times, I have been trying to find out what I can send him to make his life a little easier out in Afghanistan! He doesn't complain much, as he understands he's 'at war'... but he always comments on how they just can't get any relief from the heat.

So of course, I think personal fans.... ice.... cold.....ICE PACKS!! But for some crazy reason, the military doesn't have deep freezers in their budget.... so I was thinking there HAD to be something out there that didn't require a freezer....

My mom had mentioned seeing a product on the Today Show a while back but couldn't remember what they were called. I googled and searched, and even emailed the Today Show, but came up with nothing....

My super fabulous amazing sister in law, Julie, found an organization that has a product called "HUGS" cooling ties! They are filled with cooling crystals and just need a few drops of water to activate them!!! They can be placed around the neck, head, wherever and help cool down our Marines!!!! She made a phone call to the founder and got some details on how we can send these to our Uglies. Read her blog post and all the details HERE!

The Hugs Project: http://www.thehugsproject.com/index.html

Long story short, today, The Hugs Project is mailing out 200 cooling ties to the Ugly Angels!!! But, as a non-profit organization, they depend on donations to help cover the costs of supplies and shipping. Amazingly, she said $200 (that's only $1/cooling tie) would be a good start. We've got half covered, so if you are wondering what you can do to help our Uglies out in the blistering heat of Afghanistan, which, very soon will be topping the charts at 120+ degrees F., you can donate to The Hugs Project and help keep an Ugly Angel cool!!!

If you'd like to help out, you can mail donations to:

The Hugs Project

PO Box 6761

Edmond, OK 73083-6761

You can even include your name and address for them to put on the mailing slip so the recipients know who to thank!

They also accept payments through paypal if that is more convenient for you!

Thank you for all of you who have already sent packages and items to Nick and his squadron! They thank you with all their hearts! When they receive these "Hugs"... I'm sure they will be even more grateful!

Thank you to my mom for getting the ball rolling, and to Julie for finding this fabulous organization and making the phone call!!! You both rock!

Wilson Auction Service Ad Campaign

Addison has been wearing Trevor's Wilson Auction Service hat around a lot lately. It's a bit big, but she just runs to me and has me put it back on whenever it falls off. I had a little fun with this picture!

More from Memorial Day...

Here are a few more pics my friend Cat took, and a quick video from our Memorial Day get together.

Not bad for a big group picture with so many kids, eh?

Me in the kitchen setting up all the food! Looks like 'someone' needs to step AWAY from the kitchen! Check out that belly!Addison enjoying the wide selection of fruit!

Addison, Wyatt & Abigail dancing to the kids' radio in the kitchen! (Mom, Trevor and Addison play this radio ALL THE TIME and LOVE it!)