For the moment

Well... Kris is home now, after a long 7 month deployment..He was able to spend two weeks at home after the ship came in on leave, which was nice, it sucked that he had to go back to work. I am starting to wonder if it isn't better to take second leave, cause the guys that had to work when the ship first came back only had to go in on their duty days... and it definitely isn't that way for Kris now.
Mcleod got his braces on today which means he is hurting, but you really can't tell.. I am glad that we are able to get him braces now so that he never has to experience what i went through as a teenager being made fun of for having crooked teeth... children are evil little creatures... we have to teach them to be good and some people don't know how to teach their children any better...it is a sad thing, the world these days..
On a side note with Mcleod, he is currently failing the 4th grade, as he has pretty much skimmed by every grade before this. I don't think that he is going to pass this year.. but we shall see. The school year is almost done and he came in with his last report card from florida and had an F in math... his penmanship is awful, and sentence structure is that of a second grader. Personally I think he should repeat 4th grade, as i thought he should have repeated kindergarten, but Kris refused and wanted him to move on. I still think that he would be much better off right now if he had repeated kindergarten... I think a lot of what bothers me about this situation is that he could do the work if he wanted to or remotely cared about it... but alas that is not the case.. there are more fun things to do than school work, like staring at the wall .. or fiddling with his backpack... of course he is already about a foot taller than all the other kids his age... so I think that makes things a bit more complex .. especially in Kris' eyes, cause if he fails, then he will be REALLY tall compared to all the kids that are a year younger than him.. my guess is by the time he hits 7th grade he will be getting close to if not surpassing 6 ft tall. One thing Mcleod is really good at is being a big brother, he is excellent with Alora, and very helpful in that dept. If only he took as much interest in school he would be making straight A's! He is pretty good with Tristan too, for the most part, but as brothers do they like to aggravate each other and argue at times..
On to the other children,
Tristan is as ornery as ever, he complains about everything and throws fits frequently, mostly cause we give him something to eat that he doesn't want. That can mean anything that isn't chicken nuggets at this point, so obviously we hear him complain A LOT! He has gotten a little better but still has a lot of room for improvement... on the other hand he is very smart.. i still need to help him learn his alphabet but he is doing well with other things.. he shows me frequently that he knows things that i wasn't aware he knew..lol..
Tristan turned 4 in Jan. which means that when we get to WA he will be starting school after the summer there. It will be really cool that Tristan will be going to school in the same state that his dad attended kindergarten. :) I would put him in preschool but I really don't think CA schools are a good place for him to be...
On to Miss Alora, she is growing like a weed! Alora is now 19 months old and I really don't know where all the time went.. she is the smartest kid I have ever met and amazes me everyday with how much she knows and the extent of her vocabulary.. she learns new words on a daily basis and I think it is wonderful.. she is a very loving child and loves to kiss and cuddle you. I am hoping to start working with her soon on shapes and colors along with letters too. I think that she will pick these things up quickly.

All in all things are good, it is nice being a family again, it is just like Kris never left, and the greatest thing of all is that a two month underway that was supposed to take place before our move to WA has now been canceled! I am very happy that we don't have to lose him for so long again! I am also hoping that after we leave WA we will be stationed in Jax so that we can buy a house.. originally we wanted to buy one in Pensacola, but if we buy in jax during a shore duty there is more chance that we can also get jax during a sea command.. and there is no chance of that in pensacola, as there are no ships! lol..