New Year/New Do

First the OLD hair cut...not bad, I kinda liked it! I thought she did too, look at her posing for the camera.

Taken earlier today.
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Yep, another one gets the scissors! Actually she had some help from her "experienced" sister.

Such a shame.
Such pretty curly tresses,
gone, gone, gone...for a long time.

Now I have a girl with a mullet! ----->>>

Not very Princessey!

I hope I can find someone open whose cutting hair on New Years Day.

I thought when Brianna cut her hair she had learned the scissor lesson, but I guess not since she was helping her sister with the parts she couldn't reach.

This time they cut part of the bang area to the scalp. That will take a little while before it's back! The length will take longer though.

Oh so sad, I cried this time! I'm thinking of having her wear a bandanna, or head band till it grows back.




Out with the OLD, in with the NEW ...seems to be our 2009 motto.

Twas the Night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, and all though the Porter house, all the children sat still (oh my gosh that's unbelievable!). For Daddy was reading from the scriptures the birth story of Christ. With hot-chocolate in hand and a warm bath just past, it wouldn't be long till all the kids would finally crash, Mamma proclaiming "at long Last!!"

Then out crept the Elves and got the tree and gifts ready for the next day's events. Just before 1 am the Elf's eyes started to close, not like the nights long ago when they stayed up to see Santa arrive. Soon the visions of Christmas will just be dreams in their heads, when they'll be hearing "wake up Mom, wake up Dad!"

We hope everyone has a joyous Christmas.

**A special shout out to those that made Christmas extra special this year! Thank you for your gifts! They are well received!

Reunited and it feels so good

Greg has finally been reunited with his luggage! :-)

It was a terrible mess of bags everywhere at the airport.*

We showed up a little early to try and sort out the luggage situation before Greg landed to speed up the process. They wouldn't let us go into the room where these bags (see picture above) were, but there were plenty of bags to check out around the carousel still unclaimed from earlier flights.

We spent a little time searching, but couldn't find his bags (because I forgot to make sure they stood out from the rest of the bags that look just like ours). Lots of "Black/Dark Blue" bags.

Wouldn't you know it, his bags were actually in the above pictured room we couldn't go into unless we had a baggage claim ticket. Not sure what the difference between those in the picture and the ones just lying around for the taking. Good to know Greg's bags were safe.

Still, it was the fastest pick-up at the airport where check-on bags were involved.

He ended up getting on an earlier flight than originally planned today. We weren't expecting him home until after 7 pm, but picked him up shortly after 3 pm. He didn't want to jinx it so he waited until the flight was taxiing from the gate to use the last little bit of charge on his phone.

"Flight 1475, leaving now, not sure when it lands in Vegas. Got to go. See you soon."
Good thing I knew the flight was at least three hours.

Everyone is glad to have Daddy home,
especially Mommy!
I think Greg is happiest to finally be home.

* Las Vegas Airport was closed to incoming and outgoing traffic from about 4 yesterday until sometime this morning. Many stranded fliers (some slept at airport), tons of unclaimed luggage. Crazy SNOW!!

Final drum roll please...

Greg's Medical Evaluation Board convened today and offered him 10% for his knee* with severance and separation from the Air Force. He accepted.** His next step is to go to the Veterans Administration Office locally and they rate him on all his current medical problems/disabilities occurring while in the service of the United States. This will determine how much he will get as a disabled Veteran from the VA. He had an appointment with them last month and they went over his medical history and came up with seven ratable items. His knee injury will carry over with 10%, Sleep Apnea brings in 50%, and then five other things that we don't know the rates yet. If the VA rates him at 100% then he is considered retired which is a good thing (not exactly sure how it all works out but I think it involves paying for additional schooling). HOWEVER, it takes the VA at least six months to get all the paper work done...so we will be glad for the severance package to help out during the upcoming months.

But it ain't over till the fat lady sings... they said not to be surprised if we are still in the Air Force until February because the paperwork from the ME Board still has one more stop to get an official stamp. If there is any one thing we have learned from all this: EVERYTHING in the military takes TIME. Hurry up and wait!! We just hope his commander will be kind enough to allow Greg to fill out the proper paperwork to allow him to work outside the military if a job comes up before he is "officially" separated.

Today has been a long day for both Greg and I, starting with a 4am phone call from him sharing some concerns before the board convened. Then after the decision was made he thought he would try his luck at getting back to Vegas earlier than planned. I'm not sure what lesson he is to learn from all this but his luck was not so good. He did get an earlier flight to Dallas but the connecting flight to Vegas was over booked with 30 people on standby. He got a ticket booked for the next flight which still would have been earlier than the original flight, but it got cancelled from the weather in Vegas***. Then the airport announced that all flights to Vegas had been cancelled until Thursday afternoon. The earliest they can get him home is 7 pm. But we have good news, his bags might have made it to Las Vegas!! Poor guy, what an ordeal.

* The military only rates the disability which causes separation from the military. Sleep Apnea no longer is a kickable disability, therefore there is no rate to offer the service man at separation.

** Greg is a gambling man, but sometimes a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush especially when those birds are already for flight and the mere glance from the hunter. Accepting is a better thing for our family at this time. It might have played out very badly for him if he re-enlisted and got separated without severance. I don't think I'd make it very far on "Deal or No Deal."

*** While we were enjoying the rarely seen beautiful snow falling we did not know it would delay the time we would see Daddy. No need to spoil all the fun!

Dreaming of a White Birthday

Today was Kaitlynn's third birthday. What a lucky girl, she got snow on her birthday! Although I've been hearing others talk of snow in Vegas we hadn't really seen any until today. As usual, it didn't stay around long at least where we live.

There must be something big expected because all of the flights Greg has attempted to get home have all been canceled. He is scheduled to be home tomorrow evening, cross our fingers it will happen then. There is news that they might be closing school tomorrow as well.

I love snow, how pretty it makes everything...not the cold, airport cancellations, or school cancellations (except when I was a kid and got out of school, now as an adult it is a whole new story!).

An angel among us

There are angels that live among us! I know because one lives down the street. I will not mention names, because sometimes she reads my blog. Not that I don't want her to know I know she is an angel, but because she would argue and say she is just an ordinary person like the rest of us.

This angel of mine (not that I can claim her as mine, for she is an angel of many) is very close to Heavenly Father and he whispers in her ear often. She listens and uses her hands to do his will. She goes above and beyond in her service of others.

I believe there are others, but this angel is on my mind right now and I want her to know I love her. She lets me know that Heavenly Father loves me enough to send her to me.

The attached song is for her.

Angels Among Us - Alabama

I almost got it.

There is a tradition in my ward where the Relief Society Women have a "white elephant gift" exchange, it is tons of fun. A sister, back in 2000, gifted 2 sconces that look like they came from the 70's or some era long forgotten. Every year the "lucky" recipient of these sconces is to put their family name on the back and make sure to bring them the next year. It has been fun to see the responses of the past recipients and over the past few years the sconces have even been stolen from the first person who opened it. So was the case this year. Only this year I was not just viewing the "fun" but actually picked the box that housed the sconces! I'm not sure if I looked happy or not. I think my first thought was "OH, LUCKY ME!!" sarcastically. I then was thinking that it might be a good thing to get it since this might be my last year to be able to put my name on the back and subsequently "live on" (even if only in name) in the ward. And just as I was resigned, no, excited to have the honor...my dear sweet ex-visiting teaching companion went and took it from me! Her family name had not been on the back either. My next gift got stolen as well. It was a fun night.

This following picture is Elizabeth who accompanied me to the RS Christmas party at the a fore mentioned sweet ex-visiting teaching companion/host's home. Her tree was absolutely beautiful, and Elizabeth could not help touching the reachable ornaments.

Don't ask

Here is a snack Brianna "cooked" up.
Ritz crackers and faux fruit loops.
I didn't try them, but I have to give her an A++ for presentation!

Mother(s) Nature

Last month I came across this sight,
my ARTIFICIAL tree had started losing it's leaves.

??!!??

Strange!

Until it occurred to me...
Three inquisitive girls + tree = Mother(s) Nature.
Like the potato commercial "you can't stop with just one!"

I had to take a picture to blog.
Then it happened again.
Poor tree!

The kids wonder why the Christmas tree hasn't been put up yet...