May?! Are You Kidding me?!

Wow, last post was in MAY!! That's an indicator of the pace of our lives. I'm hoping things slow down a little - they just have to! I am entering my 3rd trimester this week! The pregnancy hasn't been without its complications, but all is going well now. I'm reducing my hours at work after Thanksgiving, which I am very much looking forward to. We're having a boy who is due around Valentines Day. We are VERY excited! Haley and Jake talk about him and to him all the time.

So - summer. What did we do? Lots of work. Once Ryan graduated, he had 2 weeks off, then immediately started work as a TAC Officer. That's basically a mentor for a company of cadets here at the Academy. In the summers they have training programs for the cadets (Beast and Buckner) that is like them being out in the field and doing ranges. There are also competitions (Sandhurst, etc.) between the cadet companies. Ryan was very busy and I'm pleased to mention that his company won Sandhurst and other awards for the summer activities. The kids and I were busy, too. I was working and Haley and Jake were having a ball at the CDC/SAS summer camps. They took lots of day trips to see the sights around here. I still can't get over how beautiful it is. Our big trip during Ryan's summer leave was to TX to see my folks. We all headed down to Galveston to spend a few days at the beach. It was heaven! Ryan got some fishing time in with his Dad in OK, too. Oh, and I went to visit my best good friend in Germany before our TX trip. That was much fun! But it did give me some closure on leaving Europe when we did. Things seem so different in Graf/Vil now. And the dollar to euro rate - OUCH!! Plus, my BFF is now here at WP, too, so I'm good with not living there for a while. Doesn't stop the occasional itch to visit.

We have had a beautiful, unseasonably warm Fall here. It's breathtaking when the leaves change! Haley is in 3rd grade and is doing very well. She seems to be enjoying her schoolwork more and more, especially reading. She is continuing Gymnastics and has taken up piano, too. Jake is going to a full-day Pre-K program at the Catholic School in town. He loves it and so do we!! The academics is very good and it's so cute that he comes home wanting to say his own prayers at the table. Love what all he's learning. Wish money grew on trees. I'd send both kids to that school next year. Jake just ended his football season. To see him in full pads was adorable! He was in the Mighty Mites league for the Junior Black Knights. They played against other Mites in the surrounding towns. It was fun to visit these places for his games and get to see more of the area. We're only an hour from the Big Apple, but it's very rural around here. Gorgeous. The league had their championship game, The Mighty Bowl, here at Michie Stadium where the big Black Knights play. Our Jr. BK's won the championship!!! It was VERY exciting!

What else? We have explored the local farms, doing some apple picking, getting pumpkins, sampling the cider and fresh produce. We enjoyed "Blaze" this year, which is an annual display of thousands of ornate Jack-o-lanterns. Words don't do it justice. If you're curious, check it out on www.hudsonvalley.org. They do it where the Legend of Sleepy Hollow originated. It was really neat! Ryan had his 10-yr USMA reunion, which was all kinds of fun! He got to see alot of his buddies and it was fun for me to meet some folks I've heard stories of. Suz and Jud stayed with us that weekend, which was great. We won a very exciting football game in OT that weekend, too! There were lots of class reunions going on that weekend, so we got to see the Todds, who were here for their 20th. JP and Bullocks from Germany were also here for the festivities. So fun to see everybody! We're excited for JP - his girlfriend is wonderful (and very pretty)!

Ryan took me to Broadway to see Wicked for my bday. Can't leave out the dinner at Ruth Christ's prior to the show. Both were amazing!

Ryan's company won the Brigade Sprint Football Championship last week. They also made it to the Championship game for Frisbee Football, but didn't clench it. Very heavy theme of football this time of year for the Keatings.

I'll have to come back and edit this post to include a slideshow of all this. Out of time for now. I won't bother to guess when I'll be able to post again. ;-)

Hope all is well for all of you!

T-Bone!

Jake's Pre-K teacher uses Clifford the Big Red Dog in her classroom as a teaching tool. For example, when the kids are good and listening, they get to give Clifford a bone. At the end of the day they count the bones together. Clifford's sidekick, T-Bone, gets to visit a child's home each weekend. T-Bone is at the Keating's this weekend. Jake shared some Triple Chocolate Cherry cake Mommy baked with him. I snapped a pic for T-Bone's journal and thought I'd share here. The chocolate face and the shirt make it too cute not to!

May Days

We had a few big events in May. I'm struggling to find good pics to post, b/c we're breaking in a new camera. I'll add more later. First big May day was Haley's 1st Communion. She has been to religious education all year to learn about reconciliation and the eucharist. She was very nervous about sipping the wine, but did it like a pro when the time came (uh, oh). It was a special day and again, fun to have her participate when going up as a family on Sunday. Ryan's folks, her godparents, were in town. We celebrated with Spidey 3 and dinner at Schlesinger's (outstanding). Another big day for Haley-girl was her performance in the number "Steam Heat" in the annual Broadway Revue at school. She had great rhthym and looked very comfortable onstage. Dance lessons may be in her future.

Ryan graduated from his Master's program mid-May. So proud of my Ivy League man! He is officially a master of Organizational Psychology. It has been a GREAT year for him and the family. His folks were here to attend graduation. We left the kids at home and spent the night in the city. There were soooo many people attending and his folks and I were about as far up in the balconies as you could get, but I managed to find him in the crowd. It wasn't hard, b/c it was the Teacher's College graduation, so I just had to scan for the group of non-metrosexual guys in the midst of all the gals, etc. I leaned over the balcony and waved and he actually spotted me. The weather was gorgeous and we went to the outdoor reception afterwards for a bit and met some of his professors. His folks treated us to Tavern on the Green for dinner after. It was amazing (and so was the bill - yikes)!

Mother's Day was the weekend prior to graduation, so Sandy and I got to go shop together at the outlets - always fun! We also had brunch at the Thayer Hotel. No shortage of dining out during their visit! My Mom's Day gift was over the top, this year! I got a trip to Germany to visit my Jenna! She is PCSing HERE in June and we wanted a last few girl's days in our old stomping grounds before she moves. It was a short trip (one day shorter than original itinerary - "what do you mean my passport expired?!"), but a fun one! We had our fave Greek meal at Athens in Grafenwoehr, went shopping in Regensburg, I had lunch with my old boss and dinner with our 2-2 Bn Cmdr's wife, my other fave redhead. FUN! More about that trip on my blog. More trip posts coming...

Easter

Easter was a neat weekend for the Keatings! For one thing, we have been sponsoring 4 cadets and we had the pleasure of having one of their girlfriends stay wih us for the weekend. Haley gladly gave up her room and princess pillow from "Aunt" Jenna. I cooked up an early Easter dinner Saturday afternoon. 3 of our cadets, 2 of which were football players, joined us along with a mom, brother and sister who were in town. I can't remember the last time I cooked so much food! Something that was special to me was using my Grandma's china that my Grandpa had bought her while stationed in Germany. I also used her silver for the first time. My Aunt passed it along to me when we moved back to the states last year. I remember admiring the china and silver when I was little. It was a treat for us kids to ever get to use it.

Easter vigil was that night. I did my 1st Eucharist and Confirmation. I had never been to a Catholic Easter Service. It was really beautiful! We "candidates" gathered around a firepit outside. Father Hurley said a few words and some prayers. The congregation waited outside the chapel for us to enter first. We had candles and lit them as we entered. The chapel was still dark. The pulpit was the only dim light, and there were scriptures and readings following the story of Christ's crucifixion. At the point where he was resurrected, the lights came on and you could see the multitude of flowers and the beautiful baptismal fountain. It has been a gradual, deliberate process for me to join this faith. It felt good and right, especially when we went up as a family on Sunday to take Eucharist together. We are blessed!!

Our Nation's Capitol

We took a trip to DC for a few days over Spring Break. It was such a great family trip! The weather wasn't perfect, but it was better than the snowstorm they got here in NY that weekend! We stayed with the Deans, who live in a beautiful neighborhood in Annandale. He was Ryan's old roommate and close friend in the Springs who has gotten out of the Army and until next week worked for Exxon. I met them in CS while dating Ryan. They now have 2 little girls. We had a great time with them each day while recuperating from all the sightseeing! Our first day was gorgeous, so we went to the DC Zoo. It was a nice-sized one to go to with kids in tow. Not too big, not too small. The next several day was rainy and cold, so we headed indoors to the Smithsonian. We hit the Museum of Natural History and the Air & Space Museum. At our kids age, they were more impressed with the dinosaurs than the airplanes. We had a hard time trying to hook up with Ryan's former Bn XO from Germany, but found a window in the traffic Saturday afternoon after seeing Mt. Vernon. THAT was my favorite sight we saw! The tour was nice, the mansion and grounds and view over the Potomac were really pretty and the museum there is really well done! Of course, the whole thing is owned and operated by a ladies auxilliary. Go, girls! They have really neat displays, a whole room for kids to dress up like that time, play games from then, read books, etc. and several mini-theaters, including one that has seats that vibrate along with the movie. We hit the Mall quickly on the last day. It was sunny, though windy and cold. We didn't get to go to everything b/c of weather and time and energy, but saw more than enough to be satisfied! There are more friends of ours in the area that we couldn't begin to coordinate a hook-up with, but we are close enough to go back or import them to NY. Great, great trip!

My Snow Bunnies

I have no pics of this, but wanted to tell about our 1st ski adventure of the season. We went skiing as a fam last weekend here at the West Point ski slope. It was Haley's second time (first time was in the Alps, poor girl) and Jake's first! Jake wasn't too sure about it before getting his skis on, but was a natural! The boy has got balance! I'm sure it helps that his center of gravity is so low to the ground. He got off to an amazing start, then burned out quickly - attention span. I took him and the sled over to an adjacent hill on the golf course to do some sledding. We, of course, had to go all the way to the top right to the treeline. We had 3 good rides before sledding got old. We went to the lodge for some hot cocoa and cheese sticks. His friend was in there watching Aladdin, so we thawed out for a while. Meanwhile on the slope, Haley had a slow start and was getting frustrated with all the falling and trying to navigate the tow rope. But by the time Jake and I headed back out for more skiing, she was whizzing up the hill and shooshing down like a pro! Mom and Dad switched off staying with the kids while going up on the lift for one run down. Lessons learned: don't buy lift tickets if you're going to spend the whole day on the bunny hill and buy used equipment instead of renting for 4 every time! We're looking forward to going again soon.

MAJOR Promotion

I had to add these pics I just got from Ryan's Dad. By the way, if you want to see what Ryan will look like in a few years, check these out - one of the many reasons I married him! Ryan's Dad has been able to pin him at every promotion so far and this was no exception. CSM Keating is the OK Nat'l Guard State CSM, and as we were visiting OK on 1 Jan., we got to have Ryan's ceremony there at his office. MG Wyatt officiated. It was so nice, b/c several family members were able to attend. I think Ryan cheated a bit, though, with the ACU's. That means velcro rank instead of actual pinning w/possiblity of drawing blood! I pinned his beret later at lunch, but he wasn't wearing it at the time, dang it!

Christmas at Granny's

Okay, bouncing around a bit with the dates, here, but have some time to catch up on my blogs. I HAVE to pay tribute to our trip to OK to Granny and Grandpa Keating's for Christmas. Sandy (Granny) goes Christmas crazy each year, especially if we come to visit. (Really I'm sure it's mostly for the grandkids, but Ryan and I love it, too!) To hit some highlights: we did some shopping, always a highlight for me, we went to Christmas mass together, had Christmas dinner at Granny's and got together with all the Aunts and Uncles and others at Patsy's on Christmas Day, visited the Morgans in Dallas and went to Build-A-Bear for Haley's 8th Bday, had another party at Granny's, I met Ryan's sister's fiancee, Brian, visited Ryan's grandmother in her new digs (nice!), played some Texas hold 'em, saw the Sutherlins, and had some of Granny's chocolate chip cookies!

Valentines Formal

These are a couple of pics from the EE&CS Winter Formal from the weekend. ELDP people don't look - will probably recycle this dress for the April BS&L formal! It felt like too long since going dancing with Ryan. We had a really great time. I think we set a record for how early we left, but it was only because of fatigue. They did a fun murder mystery to kick things off. The music was good, food was good and obviously, we're sitting at the cool kids' table! ~;-)

Flashback to Progressive Dinner Oct06

I never posted about this shindig - one of the many get-togethers we've had with the ELDP gang. We had a progressive dinner, going all together from one house to another (5 people hosted). Looking back at the pics, maybe there should have been a limit to how many stops included beverages! It was a fun evening and something we should do again! Looking forward to better weather, too, for another bbq and boat ride at Lake Poppolopen!

MAJOR PARTY!!

We joined forces with our friends, the Meerts and threw a "Major Holiday Party" in December for the ELDP cohort to celebrate Ryan and Robb's promotions to Major. It was much fun with lots of food, fun, drinks and karaoke! Jeff VanAntwerp kicked off the singing and many others followed suit. We have quite the number of crooners in our group! I expect to see Wyatt on Nashville Star someday. Ryan was a great D.J./M.C., treating us to a bonus couple of David Allen Coe songs. Haley and Katie Howell practiced for American Idol. Speaking of Idol, Lesley Hoyman was the proud winner of the American Idol Hits CD in our Dirty Santa game! I apologize to whoever wound up with the jingle bell boxers and not-so-matching redneck beer T-shirt. I did NOT pick that out! Jake was outnumbered by all the cute little girls to play with. A great time was had by all! Quote of the evening, "Those Keatings are just a party in a box!"