Hello June- Hello Typhoon Season

Hello June! The months are passing by as fast as ever. Can't believe we have been here in Okinawa for a little over three months now. On the other hand, nothing has been ordinary in our lives since we came here and every week has been an adventure in itself. The weekends have been spent exploring beautiful beaches and other fun stuff. There has been so much going on that my blog has been poorly active, and I do miss being a regular on here, posting every day, reading and responding to my favorites too. I just haven't had much time for it, and next to no free time/me time to sit by the blog. 

- Anyway, June is here, and so is now the official Typhoon season. June 1- November 1 is the season to be aware. A military page from one of the bases here on Okinawa writes lite this:

Okinawa sits in the Pacific region's "Typhoon Alley," an area in which typhoons, known as hurricanes when formed over the Atlantic Ocean, are likely to form under appropriate conditions. An average season will see as many as 26 storms, although typically less than five will pass close enough to Okinawa to affect island residents.

Typhoons are formed when warm surface water from the Pacific Ocean combines with the high humidity and low, cool winds in the region. They usually form near Guam before heading toward Okinawa and on to mainland Japan.

Fortunately, buildings on Okinawa are built with typhoons in mind, so residents who stay indoors during storms should be relatively safe. Also, the Kadena weather flight monitors tropical storms and keeps the public informed with up-to-date information.

Source

I don't know how accurate the above information is, people that have lived here a few seasons say that it's pretty busy during summer, beginning of fall, so we'll see. We did have the one "warm up" a few weeks ago, so atleast we got somewhat prepared for what shall come.

- Other than that, June means that Cassie is soon out of school!! Wohoo!! June 9th, is the end of the school year here in the Department of Defense Schools. She still has a few tests, reports and other extras to finish off before she can be ready for the grades. They are looking good so far, so hopefully she nails everything this week and she'll be good to go! Before school is out, they will have a school dance on Friday night, which she is looking forward to! Her first dance here in her new school.

- The pools are open! We haven't been to one of the pools here yet, but they opened on Memorial Weekend, just like many other places. We happened to check the pool out at the next door base here during the weekend, and we were happy to find out that the pools here on the bases are FREE!! Wohoo again! Since we lived in North Carolina, we haven't been on any pools on any bases, and then we had to pay to get in, so to see that it's free here was a happy surprise! Sure, why be happy about a pool one might think, but see, it's so much easier to work with the kids practicing swimming in a pool than in the ocean, where waves and building sand castles distract from the task! The one that we have here on our small base, isn't very special, but will for sure do it's task. No big play area, but still not just a lap pool. Cassie went with her friend on Saturday afternoon, but we have to still try it out.

- June is also a month which we have been dreading/looking forward to, as it will have important impact on our future and with my husband's work. I will not go into detail about it here until I know more, but lets just say, things have been and are very stressful right now! Lets just keep happy thoughts and fingers crossed!!

Hello February

Goodbye January, Hello February!

Normally, the month of February is associated with love and romance, and everything is focused around Valentine's Day coming up. This year, February is associated with something else for us- it's moving month! It's a constant countdown to leaving Yuma, leaving Arizona, leaving the United States of America and start a totally new chapter in our lives. 

It's scary to realize that it's February already!! Moving month!! There has been so much going on, we have been so busy with so much planning, and to now be coming closer to the actual date, is both terrifying and exciting!

We have most of the planning done now, even if there are many things here and there that needs adjusting, and confirmation, but for the most part, the pieces are coming together. Finally...

That doesn't mean that the stress is less, we still have all the packing, movers coming to pack up our different shipments and storage, but still, we're getting closer to the finish line, and it's easier to coop with all craziness, if you see that it's soon is going to be over!

Something that has slowly but surely become a reality, is that the closer we come to moving, the closer we come to saying goodbye to near and dear ones. Things we are planning to do for the last time, this and that that we need to do before leaving, things we need to go shopping for here that is easier to find stateside than over there..

Stressful, but exciting times ahead!! Crazy to think, that next time I write this post about Hello March, we will already be in Okinawa. Not in a home, still in a hotel, but still, we are going to be there! As before, there isn't much time to check in on my favorite blogs, but I hope to get back to everyone, after this month is over!!

Hello January!

Hello January - Hello 2015! 

Our countdown has officially begun. With everything that is going on right now, it feels almost like a dream thinking about that next month, we will already be in Japan!! We would have left all this behind. We are leaving Yuma, leaving AZ. Leaving pretty much everything that the twins know. Our  house, our friends, the children's schools, our neighbors. Everything! Like I have said before, there are so many unsure things floating around in the air still, and it's very stressful for all of us. Not being able to be more precise to the kids, not being able to find any comfort in knowing how, where, when...with other words, it's a busy and very stressful time right now - both physically and emotionally.

It's hard to keep calm. It's hard to be flexible and relaxed. Take on the change, "go with the flow". I try so hard to keep everything positive, keep everything exciting and interesting for the kids. Looking up playgrounds, Disney on Ice in Japan, the Aquarium that is one of the largest aquariums in the world that is located on Okinawa. Looking up beaches and making plans on where to go, to have things to look forward to. Finding any information for the kids that they want to hear. Anything that can keep them happy and enthusiastic! Ben can start playing soccer, as there is a team on base. They have several different ballet or gymnastic classes for Isabella if she can make up her mind, or why not try out both. There is hopefully volleyball for Cassie, not confirmed yet etc etc.

In all this, there is very little time for me to sit down and daydream and look forward to everything. For myself, it's more survival mode here, coping with the unknown. There is much going on at my husband's work too, so not much time to spend together to really plan and look forward to this together. I miss that, dreaming about this, talking about this, looking forward to this together. We are now in totally different chapters of this journey. He has thousands of things to take care of at work, not just his new work, but paperwork related to the move, screenings, school and classes that needs to be taken before he leaves. Yes, he will leave for a week here in January for a school. Just like that..Sure, only a week, but at this stage, it's a long time! So he has so much other things to "worry" about, that he doesn't get "my worries" and concerns. Instead of being able to have deep conversations about all, it's more: "it's going to work out", "well, not much we can do about it now", "we'll see when we are there", or mostly on my thousand questions, "I don't know!".

I'm hoping to be able to reconnect when we get closer to the move, and it gets down to business with travel, booking of movers etc, as then he will be done with a lot of "his worries".

Wow, I didn't really mean to get in to all that here in this post, but so be it. Some days are better than others, let's just leave it at that! I have gotten some comments from people here in town like, wow that's so exciting and that they too, would love to get a "paid vacation" like this for three years. So if anyone is thinking that, well now you know. It's not just worry free "the military takes care of it all" when it comes to these things - at least not for our branch and not for the moves that we have been through. It's a lot of stress, and it's not just happy faces around here now.

What a lot of people tend to forget when it comes to PCS'ing is that we did NOT choose this - we didn't have any say in when or where..To not have yours or your family's future and fate in your own hands is one of the most stressful things with living the military lifestyle. For me, I should say. That's the truth. Sigh. But when it feels like I'm just slipping on my way up this big mountain, instead of being able to see the top, and enjoy the more beautiful way down on the other side- I try to tell myself, hold on and cope, sooner than you think, we will be there.

And then the REAL adventure will begin!

Hello December!

 

Another month gone - What happened? To me, it seems like the fall has just flown by, but maybe that's just because we've been so busy? I don't feel stressed about that we now officially have started the Christmas month, but what stresses me more is that we only have two more months left
before our move.

Still, this weekend, I have tried not to think about that, but to spend time with the family. On Friday, I did actually go out shopping in the afternoon, not because of Black Friday as much as of that Chris was home and I could get out on my own without any kids. And if I could catch a deal it would be a bonus.Well, not that many deals on the things that I was looking for, but it still feels good to have most of the Christmas shopping done! Now I just have to make sure that I start early to wrap the gifts up, as that's normally something that takes time and that I drag out and to sit up late into the nights before Christmas to wrap up gifts, no thank you, I rather start early. On the other hand, I still have to hide them before Christmas. We don't put any gifts under the tree until Santa himself has been there, and that means that the kids can't see the gifts from us either until then. I know that some people put their gifts under the tree as soon as they are bought and wrapped, but no, not here!

Last year's Christmas tree, after Santa and the gifts from mommy&daddy 

had been put under the tree.

Where many people were putting up their Christmas trees during the weekend, we didn't. As we always go for a real tree, they don't tend to stay good all the way to Christmas in this climate. Maybe in the colder parts of the country, but here, they dry up fast, even with much fresh water, sugar cubes, and all kind of tricks that you read about..I wish that we would have the tree up already, and it's nice to be "done", but we normally wait until around "Lucia", before we put it up. Then we still have some time to enjoy it, and it's still looking good in the pictures from Christmas!

So during our weekend, I did start to decorate the house, but the afternoons were spent outside in the park with the kids. On Saturday afternoon, the whole family came along, and we spent almost five hours at the playground, playing, the kids had their bikes with them, we were playing volleyball, soccer and just enjoying the warm weather. Yes, we were having temperatures in the 80's/close to 30C. No signs of snow here...

It's good that we can build the Christmas feeling with decorations inside, as outside here in the desert doesn't have much to offer in regard to winter and holiday feelings! I'll take some pictures of our home when I have it all decked out, but right now I can only wish that it looked like the pictures above that I borrowed from the internet. Love everything about that picture! Well, except the curtains, ottomans and sofa!! But, as you all understand, I'm talking about the feeling here, not the choice of fabric..:)

Wishing you all a wonderful start of this month! May it be filled with magic!!

Hello November!

Goodbye October and Hello November!! Wow, did October go by really fast! Or was it because we were busy with so much fun things and the weeks just flew by, or was it because we were so busy planning and organizing our move? Nevertheless, it's not just one more month down this year, not just a few weeks away from Thanksgiving and another month closer to Christmas, it's also another month closer to our move!!! Countdown to move - leaving in about 4 months in the beginning of February. Time to get busy!!

What has changed though here just in time for November to start, the weather is getting cooler! Finally!! We have had temperatures in the 80's and today even in the 70's. That's right, only around 26-28C and today only 72F/23C at the moment! Yes, we are enjoying it, and let me tell you, it feels COLD with the wind with 23 degrees Celsius if you are used to the temperatures to be over the double!!

It does really feels like October flew by and we were still in a waiting mood, waiting for November to come and there is so much to do. A lot of work for everyone. For my husband as normal, for me here at home getting organized, and for Cassie in school as there are a lot of tests and assignments coming up before Thanksgiving break. She also has to get moving on her Science Project. Normally this is a HUGE project that takes up a lot of work and it gets turned in around Spring break. It takes up a really big portion of the year's Grade in Science, and Cassie has done exceptionally well on the last ones, and especially the very last one last year, where she actually won the whole Science Fair, so she doesn't really want to miss out on this big project, as it would mean a very low Grade.

Due to the move, she will not be here when they are turned in, and coming to Okinawa, she will also miss out of some work and maybe the deadline of their Science Projects etc. And coming to the island, it might take a month or so before we have her into the right school, as it takes some time to get housing, and before we know where we will get housing, we can't enroll her or her siblings into a school..

Therefore, we have asked the Science teacher if Cassie can do her Science Project early, to be able to get it graded before we leave and the teacher approved this. She would then get a recommendation letter sent with it, with hopefully a good Grade, which will help her if she misses their deadline in Okinawa. It's not easy to change school in the middle of the year, and this move will for sure be a bit extreme in many ways. She hasn't been too motivated to do this now, as none of her friends have even started thinking about it, it has been a lot of volleyball going on with 2-3 times/week, and that's a lot with the daily homework too. So, this weekend I've told her she needs to have a plan, she needs to have some good ideas, which we then can go over and see what would work and what would be a good project for a 7th Grader. It's time to get started, because none of us wants to sit around over Christmas break with this!!!

Hello October!

Goodbye September, Welcome October!! Over the years I lived in the desert now, I think I can say for sure that the season I miss the most is Fall! I'm totally a Fall person, that totally loves everything about this season and October is normally a favorite month. Unfortunately, there is so much with Fall that we can't enjoy living here in the south west desert of Arizona. There are no big maple leaves turning color here on the trees, no other trees either for that matter that change color...It's the never ending sand/beige color of everything as always...

The leaves on the trees, the leaves on the ground, the decorations, the pumpkins, the apples, nuts and spices. The hot chocolates, pies, and baking cookies with the kids. The clothes! Jeans, thick cardigans, scarves and BOOTS! Love - Love - Love boots! I love all this!!

Think of following two scenarios:

1. You are outside with the kids in the backyard raking leaves, throwing leaves around, playing with the kids and the wind is making your cheeks cold and red. While the kids are playing, you finish up the decorations on the front steps, planting the new flowers for the pots, brightly red and orange and decorate with pumpkins and scarecrows around them. When you are getting too cold, you kick off  your boots, go inside, make some cookies, make some hot chocolate and crawl up under a blanket and read stories on the sofa about Halloween with the kids. Before doing so, you light a few candles that fills the air in the house with scents of pumpkins, vanilla and apple/cinnamon..

2. You are outside with the kids in the backyard playing with the water table, filling up the pool, putting on more sunscreen, getting more towels and fixing water guns that are jammed. While the kids are playing, you water the little palm trees and bushes that are drying out even if you have the automatic water system going on every night. You wipe of the sand from toys, chairs and table, that the wind has blown into the patio during the last sandstorm. When you are getting too hot, you kick off your flip flops, go inside, make a plate with fresh fruits, make everyone a large cold drink. You read stories about Halloween on the sofa about Halloween with the kids. Before doing so, you take a trip to the A/C unit to push it down a few degrees so it kicks on again and you also make sure the ceiling fans are on. You also might turn the blinds a little bit more as the sun is too bright...

Easy to say that number one is my dream scenario, but a dream that we lived while we were living in Kansas. The fall there was beautiful, and as taken out of a book or a typical movie from an American neighborhood with every front yard decorated with Halloween decorations. The neighbors were out trying to gather "their" leaves before they were spread over the next door neighbor's front yard. It was windy, chilly and mostly sunny. Wonderful, like in so many places in the US during Fall. Just not here, where number two is my typical scenario and I MISS FALL!

BUT, I'm happy to have several blog friends that are/and will be giving me plenty of all this through their blogs and I'm grateful to be able to take some parts of that, while I'm sipping on my morning coffee!  Normally, I decorate a lot inside and try to make the most of it with decorations that won't go bad in the heat, but still, it's not the same thing at all....

Hello September!

August is over and done. Labor Day is here today, which also means for most Americans that it's end of Summer. Not here though. Today's high will be around 110F/44C...sigh..

I wish that I could spend the day with a good book, bring out the blankets, light some candles or why not a fire, drink some warm tea....or why not open up a bottle of of red wine with a friend..

 I just love these two outdoor fireplaces. One day maybe..

It's not really the same to welcome fall when the outside is still in the blasting heat of summer. I guess the tea and blankets will have to wait another couple of months.

I also realize that I'm way behind on the blog again. I really wanted to get into blogging now and catch up, but then I got sick and the kids got sick and then nothing got done around here. On Thursday I started to get a sore throat and then I got a headache worse than normal. Body ache, headache, sore throat and just so tired. Couldn't have come at a worse time, as this weekend would be the only weekend that my husband would be able to come home from his 7 week away training, as it's for the Marines is a 4 day weekend. BUT, as this training is almost worse than boot camp, as there is so much physical training, he just can't afford to take the risk of getting sick. There is no excuses for being sick and if you can't keep up, you get sent home..To get sent home and not finish this Staff academy class, this leadership course would be a dead sentence for any Marine. A Marine that can't finish his leadership, can't possibly lead his marines, and what use is he then for the Corps? So, as you understand, I highly recommended him to stay away, and he stood on stand by for Friday, Saturday to see if I would feel better, but Cassandra started to feel ill too, and the little ones have snotty noses, so there was no choice but to stay away for the whole weekend. He had a lot of work to do anyway, so he has been busy studying anyway.

Such a shame, but with no doubt the best decision. We had looked forward to see him again, and ofcourse the kids had looked forward to do some fun things this long weekend, instead we have been hanging around the house laying around on the sofa trying to rest..But, there will be other times.

Anyway, later on there is a lot of things that has happened that I need to write about, I just need to find the time. I hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend and I wish you a great first week of fall!

What a great space for a family dinner...

Hello June!

Goodbye May - Welcome June!!! Finally it's June! We really have been waiting for this month for a long while now! There is a lot going on as always here in this house, and the time is like always not always there to keep daily updates, but I'm trying to check in here and there.

The beginning of this month will be busy as well, as I'm getting ready for the trip to Sweden! TWO more weeks people! Two more weeks, and we are on a plane. Can't wait.

But before we are going there, we are planning to celebrate the beginning of Summer vacation with a trip to the beach this weekend/beginning of next week. Cassie needs to get a great kick off to her summer break, and as a reward of her wonderful grades, she deserves something special, so we have a surprise for her planned while in San Diego. It will also be nice to spend some quality time together the whole family, as we will be apart for six weeks, as my husband is staying here, and then for another 7 weeks when we come back, when he goes away for training out of State.

We do like our access to the river here, but that's nothing to compare with how we feel about the real beach! We LOVE the beach!! Not so much because of the sun and the heat - we have that more than enough here with a constant temperature now between 42-45C/105-110F. More than enough! We will be happy to go to the beach in San Diego, as it's normally much cooler by the west coast than here! I just looked at the forecast, they have mid 70's now/around 25C! Perfect weather!!

So this week is going to be busy, doctor's appointments every day more or less for checkups for the kids before the trip, other paper works that need to be taken care of, and then of course the packing! I'm not looking forward to that part..

Hello May

Here we don't have the typical spring flowers in the desert. All over social media, there is an overload of blooming trees, flowers and every step of green on the trees. Here, May looks like the other months, and most flowers that bloom are planted and will not survive more than a week or two in the heat..

Still, it's a beautiful month, and I enjoy watching the pictures of other places where May really shows off in it's best way. May will bring some exciting and special days for us and hopefully also a lot of fun!

• Cassie is going to the big County Science Fair tomorrow to compete with other students projects. This afternoon, I picked her up and together we brought  her poster board to the Arizona Western College, where the Science Fair is held. Exciting!!

• Mother's Day is coming up soon! A day to feel a little bit special and get sweet little cards from my little ones! Love it! Mother's Day in 2014 is on Sunday, the 11th of May. In the United States, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May.

• Today we start to count down for a double birthday here in the house! The twins are so excited and know that May 17th, it's their birthday. Benjamin & Isabella have been talking about their birthday since it was Christmas, so it's a big day for sure!

• We are actually trying to get in a few special family trips this month. The budget isn't the biggest as we now are saving up for our Sweden trip, but we hope to get out on a few adventures together anyway!! Maybe already this weekend, we still have to get to some more planning.

• The city pools and sprinkler parks will finally open! It's summer temperatures since a long time back, but still no pools open. Not enough people that would go I guess, before all the schools are out. Still, normally they open early on weekends at least, which will be nice!!

• And in the end of the month, Cassie will be out of school!! Wohoo, she will be done with 6th Grade, and a long Summer break will be extra special this summer as we are leaving in the middle of June to go to Sweden for 6 weeks. We all can't wait and try to plan the time as wisely as I can to be able to see and visit as many as possible, and in the best way possible. Not that easy, when not everyone is living in the same part of the country! 

So, there is a lot to look forward to this month for me/us, I hope that we can make the most out of it, especially now as the 7 week course will not take place that my husband was supposed to go to now after Easter. He will be at home, and hopefully take a few days off here and there. That was totally not in the plans, but we are happy to do the most of it. He will instead leave a week after we come back in August...

Hello April!

Time goes as always way too fast, and there is so much that I'm behind on, I'm as always playing the catch up game here on the blog..Well, better late then never I guess.

We have had busy weeks in the end of last Month, and these last couple of days have been filled with sick kids, Spring Break and of course a Birthday celebration! There will hopefully be a few more entries here on the blog to catch up, and I just have to try to give myself the time, as I do enjoy the blog way too much to not do it, and there is so many pictures that I've taken that I just want to document with the events that we've done.

I hope that you are still a few out there that are coming back reading, as I know it's not always fun to keep coming back to a blog and there is nothing new..I try to keep track of all my favorites, but it's so much easier to read a few minutes here and there throughout the day, than to actually sit down and comment and do your own entries with pictures. I'll try to get back on track!

I hope that you all have had a great start of April, for many of you the start of Spring. Here it's as always hard to think that way, as it's actually cooler temperatures now than from what we had in February, as we have had under normal for a week. Only around 75-80's, where we before were going on and over 90's. BUT, I'm not too worried, the heat will soon be back!!

Hello March

March, already?! Sure, February is a short month, but still, where does time go? To say that I'm looking forward to March because it's a spring month, would be strange, as we've had spring for a long time, or if you consider temperatures, we've had summer already for awhile. Summer will for sure be here to stay here in March, so the picture is accurate for my climate and the weather is beautiful, warm, some days hot, but not as bad as in the "true" summer months, June, July, August, and September. October is then beautiful as March again, where it's nicer to spend the days outside.
We've had a busy weekend, or the whole last week was busy to say the least. The normal stuff going on, but also I've been without computer as Cassie has been working hard on her presentation and final Science Report that was due on Monday. For you that don't really know about these Science Projects, it's a big deal, and the final grade depends on it a lot. The project I think is worth about 200 points, and there are many factors to consider and to keep in mind. It's a lot of work, and our printer has not been working were well, and now decided to not work at all, which added more stress as we had to go to the library and when we didn't finish in time to go there, we had to go to Staples and print it out on Sunday. More about her project in a separate post.

 Here the preparations to put the board together, before printing all the pictures.

If the weekend was stressful, then yesterday for sure didn't start any different. First I spent the most of the morning with cleaning away the leftovers from the science project here at home, as our kitchen looked much like a chemistry lab, and there were jars, solutions and material everywhere. The dining room was filled with paper scraps from cutting and taping the index cards etc onto the Presentation Board, so the house was a mess. Add the normal messes that comes after a weekend that you haven't had time to clean up all the time. Having two soon 4 year old's turning the house up side down everyday, doesn't help..

Cleaning away our chemistry lab..

Copper Sulfate solution made this glass into a blue sculpture. At the bottom of this glass a surprise was hiding! These two crystals had grown at the bottom without us knowing, as we had finished the experiment with this solution.

When Cassie came home in the afternoon, I had to take the girls into town for Cassie's allergy shot and thereafter straight to the dermatologist with them. This was all in the same area, so I was sure that we'd be able to get to both appointments without a problem. Well, it wouldn't have been, if the car didn't decide to give up on me! I have had no problems with my car at all, and as I know next to nothing about cars, I freaked out a bit wanting to turn the car on, and all I heard was a scratching sound and all red lights went on!! What?! Tried again, and again but nothing.. Called Chris, that luckily was off work and home with Ben, what it could be, and he thought that it's the battery for sure, which also would make all the other lamps turn on. He went to drop Ben off at our friends house, and then came to help me out. Meanwhile, I had to cancel the dermatology for the girls, and call the Honda Dealership in town to see if they were still able to help me out and get me a new battery, as we were close to 5pm at this time. Also called a towing truck that came to help jump start the car, which was needed to get to the dealership. Chris had meanwhile gotten there, and he drove the Honda and I took the VW to the dealer ship to get a new battery. Luckily they were able to give good help fast, and even if we were there 5 minutes before closingtime, he was still very helpful and fixed the battery. From there, Chris went home with the girls to pick Ben up, and I took the VW to go directly to my Citizenship class. I didn't have time to eat anything as I was just in time for the class, so I was pretty starving when I came home at 9.45pm.

Ben had a big meltdown, with too much happening in a short time with everything being stressful, and he was wanting me, and luckily he was alright and had stopped crying when I came home, and was sitting with Chris on the sofa reading a book when I came. After a little snuggle, he soon went to sleep, and Isabella as well.

I was pretty beat myself at this time, and after watching some news I soon was off to bed myself. So, now I hope that the rest of the week will go smoothly and with less stress!

Hello February

February is here. The month of love! Love should be in each and everyone's life on every day of every month, or that would at least be what we all would hope to have. Some of us have it, some of us might have had it and lost it, and some of us might still be looking for it. 

For all of us it's impossible to escape the fact that February is the month of love and that Valentine's Day is around the corner. As soon as the Christmas decorations were on sale or stored away in the stores, the hearts, the red and pink decorations and the chocolates and cards filled up the aisles. I must say, we don't have much decorations for this one day, but I'll have look around the house tomorrow to gather up a few things and I'm sure that I'll be able to decorate a little with love in mind.

So many things are happening this weekend, and I'll have to download pictures and sort them out, to be able to write about it, so that will have to wait. 

I do hope that you all look forward to this lovely month, and that you all have a lot of love in your life. If not with a partner, there are many other options to love and feel loved. To love children, family, friends and even animals and pets. I'm going to try to be a little more lovable this month, kiss my husband and kids more, tell them countless times a day that I love them, show them more affection and look them into their eyes. Smile at them as often as I can, be gentle and kind in my voice, try a little harder, a little more every day. Make an effort. And how does the saying go? "What goes around - comes around!" We'll see...

Life is so busy that sometimes the smallest things become big and unimportant things become important. Even if you have love in your life, it's never old to show the people you love that you do! A small change in one's attitude, might go a long way.

 Love is in the air! So hello February - be lovely!