PICTURES FROM THE ZOO!!!

Here are our long overdue pictures from the Oklahoma city Zoo, we had such a fun day!!

the dinosaurs actually moved and roared, callen was a little scared of them.

She likes snakes..

Mmmmmm.. snow cones

she loved the fish because she could get so close to them

me: Callen what animal is that?

Callen: I don't know..

I don't remember what this one was called, but I thought it was really cute.

This case was full of cocroaches.. sooo gross

making the elephant noise and motion

Altus Update.....

SO, this is LONG overdue (and a very long update).

On our way to Altus we stopped in Austin to visit Dan's Aunt and Uncle, they are always so much fun to stay with! We went to the Austin fair and callen got to go to her first petting zoo, so much fun!

Here in Altus they had some kind of little Carnival that we stopped by. It was fun to walk through and see all the fun rides, Callen even ventured onto her first amusement park ride!

The Carousel


Of course the airplane was the actual first ride she went on, she was sith daddy and the guy let her go in for free while mommy was going to buy tickets, so I missed her first ride :( I made her go again so I could see and take pictures... daddy's just don't understand..

Easter!!!

Easter Egg Hunt with her playgroup friends, she had so much fun!

Playing with Cosmo, he is a really good sport sometimes!

Feeding the Ducks/geese

Feeding the ducks has become one of our favorite things to do, depending on the day and how hungry they are the geese come right up to you and eat out of your hand, they even tried to take Callen's binky the first day. As soon as we pull up to the lake Callen starts saying "quack, quack!"

National Wildlife Refuge


By Lawton there is a wildlife refuge, you drive through and get to see all the animals and there is a little visitors center as well. The prairie dogs were the most fun to see.

Mangum Rattlesnake Roundup

In a nearby town every year they have something called a rattlesnake roundup. It was really interesting! Once rattlesnake season starts people from all over start collecting the snakes and bring them to the roundup. They have a trailer with snakes outside to look at, and they had a little arena inside with hundreds of snakes you could look at. There was a man there telling all about rattlesnakes. I learned more than I ever need to, but it was quite interesting!

Callen was actually fascinated with the snakes!

She kept trying to climb over the railing into the arena with the snakes...yikes!!

a few too many snakes in one place!


Interesting Fact: The snakes only rattle when they feel threatened. The snake handler asked us all to be super quiet and hold really still. As we did, one by one every snake in the arena stopped rattling..it was pretty neat! As soon as we started talking and moving again they started rattling again. They were actually scared of us.

The Butcher Shop

They had a butcher shop there where this very animated man butchered the snake while we watched. When they cut the head off of the snake they first hold a baseball cap out to the snake and it bites onto it. Once the head is cut off the muscles contract and it continues to bite down on the hat. This is kinda graphic as well but he put the heart down on the counter and it continued to beat the whole time we were there (about 10 min.)

Fried RATTLESNAKE!!!!

And

Yes

We

Did

Eat

It....

Even Callen had a bite

It really does taste like chicken, but there are too many bones and not enough meat to be worth it.

Visit From Grandma and Grandpa!!

My parents came down to visit and of course what would a visit from Grandma and Grandpa be without presents!! They brought toys and.... BOOKS!! Callen absolutely loves books, she would let me read to her all day!

She was a little scared of this one for a while.

Callen and Grandma Price

Quarts Mountain National Park

We went up to the park and had a cookout, what a pretty place!

These pics are just from some little ghetto park we found here in Altus, still fun though!!

Wonderful Weekend in OKC

So Dan and Callen and I all took off to Oklahoma City this weekend, and it was GREAT!!! We drove up friday night, only to find out that all of the temporary housing hotels at the Base there were being renovated and since they don't allowe children in the normal hotel...well...we spent alot more money getting a hotel off base. However, since our Anniversary was just a week ago, dan surprised me and got a nice room. It had the biggest jacuzzi tub i have EVER seen, seriously, it was enormous! I forgot to take a picture though.

Today we went to the Zoo!!! So much fun! It was Callen's first experience at a zoo and she absolutely loved it!

On the way home we ate at my favorite place (Red Robin) Mmmmmm....Yummy!

We had such a fun trip! I promise to get pictures up soon!

The Rest of the Story..

Alright, so Kathryn you're not the only person to ask me to tell them what Callen was doing and now that i've cooled down I can write about it. The thing that gets me is that it is such a silly thing to have caused such a big ordeal.

SO... I was at a friend's house chatting while Callen played. My friend's husband happened to be eating a banana. He asked callen if she wanted a bite, he broke about 1/3 of the banana off and held it towards her. Naturally, she tried to take it when he jerked it back and said "NO, you don't take it, you take a bite" quite firmly. She got scared ran to the other side of the room and looked at him almost ready to cry. He then told her she could have a "bite." He called his daughter over to demonstrate the proper way to bite the banana while he held it. He again asked if she wanted some, she of course didn't want anything to do with him, and he said "fine, it's my way or the highway, you don't get any." This is when his wife tried to stop him and explain that she's only 19 months and that he scared her. But he went off on a tangent telling her that Callen isn't disciplined and she doesn't listen to adults and she needs to learn who's boss. He said she thinks she can walk all over people and somebody needed to teach her respect etc. etc.

I was just too mad to say anything so I politely excused myself from their house and came home.

SO... there's the rest of my silly story. This individual has a very specific way that they discipline their children and I think he just can't see past his own ideas to realize that other ways of parenting are not wrong, they're just different. In his eyes if i'm not as strict with my child as he is....i'm wrong. It just really got to me because there was nothing wrong with what Callen did. I have trained her to hold her own banana when she eats one because I want her to become independent and I honestly don't want to sit there and feed her every bite when she could be doing it herself. She tried to do what she has been taught to do and got yelled at for it. I really should have defended her, I guess my own ego was just too bruised to do anything.

Anyway, it's over. And Kathryn, i really will have to work on that swearing thing.. I mean.. that just isn't going to work. haha

Thanks to all you wonderful mom's who have commented/emailed me. Your kind words are very appreciated. I learn so much from all of you, even if i don't get to see you anymore, I love getting your words of wisdom through blogging. Thank you!!

Parenting

ok..so I know I havn't posted in awhile, our computer crashed. We just got our data back but are still waiting on the computer so I have alot of catching up to do now that I have all my pictures back but I just needed to vent tonight. I'm sitting at home alone while Dan is at work and nothing better to do than fume over a little thing that happened tonight.

I don't need to go into detail about what it was or who but, a comment was made about Callen that really upset me. This person did something and when Callen didn't react the way they thought she should, they spoke really firmly to her and she got scared and ran away. Their spouse tried to intervene to tell them to back off but they just went off about how she needs to learn who's boss and that she thinks she can walk all over adults and etc. etc. Of course i'm sitting right there while they are basically saying that someone needed to teach her because her parents obviously weren't doing it right.

I didn't know what to say, this is a person that you just really can't argue with (believe me, i've tried). Usually I just let everything he says roll off my back and write it off to weird opinions that I just don't agree with. But this time, I just got really offended. It was implied that I'm not being a good mother. I'm not looking for a pep talk here, I just needed to vent a little and Dan isn't here.

With mothers day a few days ago i've really had some time to reflect on myself as a mother. I often find myself out of energy, with a short temper, and simply at a loss for things to do to keep Callen entertained. Often I do spend too much time on the computer or with the tv on and I know I have so much room to improve. I just wish that people could put theirselves in someone else's shoes before they criticize like that, they have beautiful children and I think they're doing a great job of parenting, but we definitely have different styles. You just can't compare one family to the next. No 2 children are the same, nor can you expect them to need the same parenting. This family hasn't known us too long and doesn't know anything that we've been through or what experiences our family has had, and they havn't even talked with us about why we do certain things the way they do, they havn't tried to understand our views, what makes them think they know what's best for my child??? Uggghhh

I'm hard enough on myself wondering what sort of things i'm doing wrong and how I might be messing Callen up. I just don't need someone else pointing things out like that, especially when there was nothing wrong with what Callen did, she's just used to how I do things and when he expected different she didn't know what to do or why she was getting in trouble.

I don't even know why I let this upset me so much, I know I could be better, but Im doing my best and I think Callen is turning out pretty good so far, she never stops amazing me. Everyday she is learning something new or listening a little better, she's my sweet little angel.

For all of you mom's out there, keep up the good work and thanks for being such a great example to me, and all the other mom's around you. (and thanks for letting me get that out, I feel much better now)

KC-135 training

Hello all,
This is a rare treat for you, usually Crystal makes all the posts. Once in a while you are blessed to hear from me, to have your knowledge increased, and the mysteries of the world laid out plainly before you. Unfortunately, I uh...can't do any of that. At all.

Altus has been great, I'm really excited to be learning how to fly the KC-135. This phase of training is difficult. There is a lot to learn. The most challenging thing is that I am now the person in charge of my studies. There is no such thing as "formal release" or a convenient study flow for EPQ quizzes. It definitely is tough to make time for studying. Anyways, the sim is awesome! It's cool to be in a motion sim and feel the effects of your control inputs.

Crystal and Callen are doing great. We have found a new pasttime. Feeding the ducks!!! Actually the geese are very pushy, so we end up feeding them more, but the ducks look much more cute.

Anyways, it is very late and I bid you goodnight, until next time.

18 months

Ok, so I had a little photo shoot with Callen when she turned 18 months a couple weeks ago and I decided to get input on which one is the best (thanks for the idea Nicia!). Let me know which one you like!

Moving On

Currently Dan and Callen and I are living in Altus, Oklahoma. We moved up here last week from Del Rio. Dan will be in training learning how to fly the KC-135 and we will be here for the next 4 1/2 months. So far (other than the wind) I am really enjoying Altus, in fact I think I like it much better than Del Rio!! I have a group of friends that I already knew from Laughlin, so that is nice, and I one step closer to family so that is also nice! We are renting a little 2 bedroom furnished apartment while we are here, not quite the same as having a house, but it is also kinda nice to have much less clutter as we just brought the bare essentials. So far Dan's training is going well. He has had a few sims but won't actually fly the plane for quite awhile. Callen and I spend our days trying to not get blown away in the wind and... well.. doing what a toddler does best.... playing!! there is an awesome park here in Altus that we go to multiple times a week as well as a small playground here at our apartment complex. Callen adjusted just fine to the move, in fact she didn't seem upset at all! Pictures are soon to come, but life in Altus is so far so good!!

Hugs

Lately Callen has been testing my patience. She climbs on the couch and tries to get on a nearby table. She knows she's not suppose to do this and I tell her no every time. Finally, i've started trying time out and spanking... nothing... She continues to look at me, climb on and laugh. Only, today she seems to finally get that i'm upset at her, only instead of not climbing on the table she just gives me hugs after she gets in trouble. I guess she thinks that makes everything ok. It is so cute, I just can't help but not be mad anymore, she just wraps her little arms around me and squeezes. Hugs from your children have to be the best feeling in the world.