Who says there is nothing to do in 29 Palms???

There is a Bingo Night every other month at the Officer’s Club. On the alternating months it’s Bunko. I go to play Bingo. I get some girlfriends to join me and we have a great time.

The cost is $10 for 10 games, plus you get some appetizers. The bar is open next door for your pleasure.

It starts at 7pm but come early! You’ll want to make sure you and your friends get a table together and have enough time to get something to drink and get some food. We arrived at 5:40 last time and there was already a line!

It ends about 9pm. The prizes are things from the exchange usually. Purses, jewelry, perfume sets, sometimes tickets to a fabulous Southern California place.

I got this recipe from Seattle Food Geek. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to try it. It was delicious!! The Recipe was easy to make. I doubled it up to feed all of us and I had just enough left for my lunch the next day. Let me know if you make it!

They’re 7 points each if using 2 point tortillas for those doing Weight Watchers.

Do you have any of their products? I love them! The books and the manipulatives.

We were given this set of My First Animal cards. Leah loves them. Here are some pictures of her loving the box. She’ll play with it for a long time. LOL

Here is the rabbit card. The cards are very strong cardboard. And on each animal there is a “feel” spot. I’ve been working on one animal at a time while she sits on my lap. This morning was cow and then I’d say moooo. She started saying moo too. She loves feeling the cards also. I love having easy items like this that encourage me to encourage learning in my little ones.

I was finally able to take pictures of Ocotillo Housing. I’m not sure what ranks are assigned to the some of the areas – mostly in the officer side. Hopefully though this will help those of you that might be living over there.

Ocotillo is the only housing that officer’s live in. A friend of mine that lives over there says it takes her 7 minutes to get to the commissary. There is a gate there so it’s quick to get out in town. There is also a small MCX there and a lot of playgrounds.

(Thank you to Samantha for taking the pictures while I drove slowly around the neighborhood.)

This first area is on the way to the golf course and the Ocotillo Community Center/pool. It’s a small area for NCO’s. The housing is very similar to some of the housing in Adobe Flats (also for NCO’s). However these streets were wider and just seemed more private and quieter. I talked to a spouse living here and she said they have been so pleased with it and while they wanted Adobe Flats at first they are thrilled that they ended up over here.

The Ocotillo housing office/community center. The pool is in the rear. And behind this area is where the base golf course is.

This is part of the officer housing. A friend whose husband is an O-4 lives in one of these duplexes and someone else I know that is O-5 lives in the single units. I don’t know for sure if that is how it is broken up though.

As you can see some of the duplexes appear smaller than others but I couldn’t tell if it made a difference in area.

The officer housing has backyards that you can fence if you’d like.

The following housing is from a street that I know is E-6 to E-9. There is another longer street that has the same type of housing that I thought was all E-6 to E-9 until I met an O-2 that lived in them also. So I’m not sure about those.

Ocotillo in general seems like a really nice area to live in. We were driving through around 10 in the morning and there were some children at the playgrounds, people out walking, and in general seemed real quiet.

The General’s house is also over here as well as the Command circle..houses.. I didn’t drive down that road.

Hope this helps those of you that will be living in Ocotillo Housing.

At the beginning of February my husband unexpectedly got PCA (permanent change of address) orders to a different unit here on 29 Palms. He was with 1st Tank Battalion previously (since we moved here last May) and is now with 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. Their communications chief was not going to be able to deploy with them and so they sent my husband over to do so for him. No hard feelings, I promise.

Roy loves his new unit..has had nothing but good things to say about it as a whole and about all the guys he’s working with. They left this past week for Iraq and will be gone approximately 7 months. I’ve heard from him a couple times already and he’s doing fine…still adjusting timewise.

In the meantime the kids and I have a full life to lead. School, sports, scouting…all sorts of things.

Another spouse and I have started a Yahoo group for the family members of 3rd LAR.

http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/3rdLAR

I’ll keep you updated on anything important happening with Roy.

When I was sitting outside the Sea Lion and Otter show, one of the sea lions was getting ready to make his appearance. First his trainer was telling him to stay put, and the trainer went back in the building, and the sea lion was looking for him. Then the sea lion noticed me and kept peering at me inquisitively. LOL And then they were off to go make their appearance at the front of the audience.

Samantha and Roy on the Atlantis ride.

A poisonous frog. If you see colorful frogs….I bet they’re poisonous!

If you’re in the military, you can get into Sea World for free! Sea World has been doing this promotion for a long time. Every year I think it will be the last, and every year they just keep on going.

http://www.herosalute.com/

We all had a great time. The shows the animals put on are amazing and fun. The kids loved going through the aquariums and seeing all the different sea life. The little ones were really good, even taking naps in the stroller.

It was hot/cold, hot/cold, all day long.

At the Tidepools

I was outside the stadium of this one – it was the Sea Lion and Otter show. Hilarious show. The baby’s were sleeping so I stayed out with the stroller and them. But I was able to find the rest in the stadium and kept laughing when they were laughing.

It’s so hard to believe that our baby has turned one! She was born March 5, 2008. Since then she has moved across the country and even flown several times. She is walking everywhere and talking non-stop. We all adore her and I’m so glad she is in our family.

Eating her cake:

A couple pictures taken at Sears 2 weeks before her birthday:

For Matthew’s 8th Birthday party he chose a Pirate theme. We ordered our things from BirthdayExpress.com. They have lots of wonderful things there! We decided to do sort of a scavenger hunt thing where they find the treasure at the end….the treasure being the pinata in the shape of a treasure trunk.

Upon arriving they got their goodie boxes which contained their bandana, eye patch, tattoo, and telescope. Then we used eyeliner to add beards to their faces. We also chose names and tried to use that name for the whole party. Matthew was Captain Blackbeard, Alex was Shark’s Rage, Sam was Anne Bonney. The other children chose their names from a selection on the table.

*I probably have these clues out of order but this is pretty much what they did. LOL

Their first clue led them outside to the “Big Rock.” From there they had to escape the bomb. This little plastic bomb makes nice. They played the game like Hot Potato…when the bomb “exploded” in their hands, they were out.

Then they had get inducted into the Pirate Hall of Fame by drinking Shark’s Blood (punch mix with hardly any water…very thick blood looking) but I took pity on them and added some Sprite to make it taste better. After this they received their swords.

Then back outside to sword fight. We had 2 bubble makers going and they fought off the bubbles with their swords. I have no picture of this! It was so fun. When the party ended they went back outside and did this for so long!

Their next clue led them to a pooper scooper box across the street, where they then had to “swab the decks.”

Then they traveled by ship around the houses to find their next clue. They had to walk the plank (boards on the ground) and then cross alligator swamp (pool w/ a little water and rocks to cross on). They then found their next clue which eventually led them to the treasure chest.

We hung up the pinata and let them take turns. It didn’t take long for it to open!

After that we came inside and Matthew opened his presents. He even got a Pirate puzzle!!

And lastly we had cake and ice cream. Matthew chose a white cake with chocolate frosting with raspberry filling. It was really yummy. We put “Treasures” on the top.

It was a fun party…most importantly Matthew loved it and he loved having a few friends and his siblings celebrate with him!