Happy Easter Birthday, CJ!

Happy birthday, Connie!  How long has it been since you had your birthday on Easter?  Hope you enjoy this gorgeous day and the beginning of your 67th year of life!!  I do have to get more photos of you!  You are a role model for all of us, missy!!  Love you!

Updates!!!!

Well, I guess it would only really be "update" since there is only one of me. But that is besides the point. I know it has been a while since I have posted on the blog, so I just thought that I would stop in to say hi :) I hope this finds everyone doing well. I know that we have various family members scattered throughout the US and the world, and so just know that I am keeping all of you in my prayers as we face our separate challenges! I am also really excited for August when I will hopefully get to see most of you!!! I have been fortunate enough to be on Guam for over 2 years now (wow, time sure does fly!) and I am getting ready to move on to another challenge. At the end of June I will be moving to Mayport, FL to take up defense work for about 3 years. I am excited about the change, but it will definitely be bittersweet. I have had such an amazing time on this island, and I would not talk down about it at all!! This is definitely the Navy's best kept secret in terms of duty stations! I only wish I could stay longer. I have seen and done some amazing things, from diving to hiking to sporting events.  Crazy that I should mention sporting events......one of those activities that I am currently involved in is tackle football. Yes, tackle football. Guam has a women's tackle football league (fully equipped with commissioner and everything) and we have started up the season. I play for the Island Stunnerz. I am having a blast!!! I never knew that hitting someone would feel so good :)  Anyway, I have included a photograph from our first game (which we lost) and a video from You Tube. The video is kind of long, so I don't really blame you if you fast forward and what not, but it was still a blast and I am just glad that I have something to share with you guys. I am #34 and I play safety on defense and fullback on offense.  This definitely is one of those things that I never would have thought about doing, but of course while I am here I just tend to seize the day!

Here's the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNhiZkIpeqI&feature=youtu.be

I hope everyone enjoys the Easter Weekend and hopefully Spring is starting to turn its head wherever you may be. Since the weather never really changes here, I am looking forward to more sunshine and warmth :) I am heading to Rota (not Spain, but part of the Federated States of Micronesia) for a weekend trip. I will do a couple of dives and just check out what this small island has to offer. I will post some pictures of that adventure as well.

Love to all and a very Blessed Easter holiday!

Love always
Jen

Bittersweet Weekend...

Hello amazing family!  I hope this finds you all enjoying Spring wherever you are~  it is a beautiful day in the Falls for sure.
The Wingerters had an amazing weekend!  We were all, minus Nick, in San Antonio seeing Sam graduate from AIT.  The army has over 300 brand new combat medics as of last Friday.  Wingy was one of the last to be called, but he did it!!

 

On a more bummerish note, Nick and his company left Helena Saturday on their way to Ft. Hood Texas for pre deployment exercises.  Since we were in Texas, Marc, John and Ryan went to see him off.  He will be in Texas for a month or two and then they are off to Kuwait until next February.  It was really hard to say good bye knowing I wasn't going to have one of Nick's awesome bear hugs for a year.  But they are prepared and ready to go, so now I just pray for their safety and success of their mission.

Please keep these two soldiers in your prayers as they move on to their next adventures!

Love you all~

Mary

 



Update

Hey family!! I am so excited to hopefully see almost all of you this summer at Joey & Erin's wedding/family picnic!! It's going to be so much fun! I just wanted to post a couple pictures from our St. Paddy's Day weekend in Chicago and update you all on our happenings. We hung out with our really good friends Paige and Mark. We all had to pick a spirit animal when we posed for a picture. Shane is a dragon, I'm a T-Rex (notice we're both powerful figures) and Paige is a rabbit and Mark is a mole. Don't ask. And then of course we had to get a picture with the green river. It was a chilly, but fun day! Things here are moving along. I am definitely ready for some spring weather and we've been having some exciting things happen for us. First off, Shane got accepted into grad school!!! YAY!!! He will be attending Dominican University here in Chicago to get his Masters in Library and Information Science and hopes to one day be an archivist on a college campus. So it's really exciting that he is starting that journey. He will begin summer classes in May. I'm really proud of him. As for me, I'm still working at the planetarium but I did just get a job offer to start as an assistant teaching artist with a children's theatre here. I'm really stoked about that!! It's just a few hours each week but it's a great way to get my feet wet and really see if children's theatre is my calling. Hopefully by the fall I'll be teaching my own classes! So that's the exciting news on our end. I also wanted to add that I just finished Bri's 7-week "Get It" course and it was SO AWESOME!! Honestly, I am so impressed by her and so proud of her. It really was a great class and she offered it to me at a time when I really needed it. I just can't say enough how much I love this family!!! I hope you all are doing well and I hope you have a great Easter! I love you all and hope to see you soon!! All my love, Molly

So Carter had his big day of turning 11 yesterday! He had to wait until 8:00 at night when everyone was home from sports and and work and play practice to open his present - it was pretty painfully suspenseful for the poor guy. Carter is a great kid who lives for sports. He just started up baseball again and is on two teams this spring. He is a fun and funny kid too. This year at school he had another Carter in his class and instead of being called "Carter P.", he told his teacher that she could just call him Reggie. No real reason behind the name except for that in his football plays, his position was "Reggie". So yes, at school, he is now known as Reggie. His teacher told me later that Carter had been so casual about it, she really thought it was his nickname at home. I hope it doesn't stick past fifth grade! Love that kid and feel lucky to call him ours! Dancin' Machine! Snow cave fun!

Happy 3rd Birthday to the Princess

This is a little early, but we want to wish our little sweetie a Happy Birthday on Friday, March 15th.  She celebrated with a princess party last Saturday with family since her dad has guard this weekend.  She was quite the princess!  The last picture is Charlie and her Noni with the cake that she made for Charlie!  She is amazing!  We had great fun in the new house with all of the room and celebrated this special occasion!  We love you, Charlie girl!!  Grampa and Gramma