A Bit about . . . Jase & Jennifer

Okay, time to include a bit of something about each family member. Where better to start then the nut heads that head this little clan?

This is Jase. I've always known him as Jason, but he prefers Jase . Actually, he was dubbed Crash by some friends long ago, and that one stuck pretty well. So, Whatever you call him, he's my best friend, my husband, and a great dad to our nutty bunch of kids. :o)

He's the 3rd of 6 kids, though now only stakes claim to his only sister and her family, and occasionally one of the brothers. It's a long story for a different day. Before we got together, Jase worked in restaurants in management as well as being a chef. Yup, it's good to marry a man that cooks (and I follow it up with dish duty.) He loves martial arts, although isn't currently involved unless he gets to thru work. He also has loved art (drawing, painting, etc.) for pretty much his entire life.

This is me...Jennifer. Most of my family call me Jen, and I also go by Jenny, have used JLynne, and Jase dubbed me Domino a very long time ago. So that's how we get the blog name. I'm the 5th of 8 kids, and 6 of those are brothers. I've always loved kids; "granny hobbies" like sewing, cross-stitch, knitting, etc; and helping others. I have spent most of my life identifying myself as someone's daughter, sister, or mother... and I think I've been most accepting of the label of "so & so's Mom." (though I'll always love my folks and siblings and being identified by them, on occasion, still).

Jase & I have been married for nearly 13 years (in December!!) and this is a second marriage for both of us. Jase lived in England for nearly 9 years, and after the end of his first marriage, and being denied access to his oldest 2 children for over a year, he was living in a very lonely state of hell. He came home to get a little family support, and little is what it was he got. He returned to the states determined to NEVER get married again NOR to have any more kids. Ha ha ha. Funny in hind sight.

Anyway, Jase decided to join the United States Marine Corps to calm his life down (and yes, this IS him calm...though lots of Marines don't want to believe me. ;o) When he was preparing to leave for bootcamp, he decided leaving me and my boys behind wasn't a thought he liked, so he proposed. Well, now Jase has been in the Corps for 13 years, he's adopted my oldest 2 sons (and looking at them and knowing them, you'd never guess they weren't 100% his.) We've had 3 more children, and we will never give up on the hope that someday we'll get to have face to face time with his oldest 2 kids.

Jase has served in the infantry as an anti-tank assault man, and then a range coach, teaching recruits in San Diego how to properly fire their weapons (-- yeah for Mr. Hat.). That was followed up with the last 9 years as a Combat Graphic Artist! In this job he has filled many positions. For a while he worked for the Recruit Depot, and got to design truck wraps, the buses for the Marine Corps Band, the Marine Corps Motorcycle, and even the Marine Corps Race Car one year. Lots of t-shirt and poster designs, tons of coins, and just lots of really neat stuff to be able to always let the kids know their daddy did. I absolutely LOVE driving down the road and seeing his stuff plastered all over the buses, or seeing Marines out in one of his shirt designs, or walking into a building and seeing one of his posters hanging on the wall. I just want to point and yell - MY husband did that :o)!!!!!

Jase has also served as a Photographer in this job, and was stationed in Iraq in '06-'07 with his primary job as photographer, and he still did his graphics work (assembling images and info into daily briefs for higher ups when THEY are briefed on what has happened here and there so they can decide where to go from there. Someone puts all that info together, and my husband is one of those behind the scenes guys.)

Moving on . . . I've enjoyed working, and not, and working, and not over all these years. I've been assistant managers at restaurants, and a movie store, and am currently totally enjoying NOT being management and the peace and comfort of getting to be "only" a sales associate (and the less stressful, more family friendly schedule that goes with it0). I'm at a fabric store, and love that each day, I get to help at least one person learn and know something to help THEM enjoy, just a little more, the sewing or crochet project they are trying to work on (or learn, or want to get UN-stuck on). I've gotten to spend ALOT more time sewing since living here, and it's been fun. I still long to only ( ha ha ha, only...) be a stay at home Wife and Mother, because then I can keep my focus where I like it. :o).

We have lived lots of places, and most recently lived in Okinawa Japan from '04 thru '07. We've been here in North Carolina for 13 months, and every last one of us would love to go back to Okinawa. This is the 11th place we have lived in the last 13 years, and I'm gonna bet we'll be moving again around Christmas time (that's when they think we'll be getting base housing.)

Currently Jason is being treated for PTSD. It is actually compound Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to more then Just Iraq putting strain on the brain. A whole lot has been going on there, but his treatment is preparing to change, so I hope the next 6 months will show healthy progress. His struggles take a toll on me, and we both hate our struggle with our weight, --hey, at least he gets workouts as part of his work day...I'm just an exhausted woman that's stuck in they cycle of 'too tired, although I know I'll feel better if I just... maybe tomorrow.' So, eventually I'll be thinner again -- let me get my husband a little more sane again so I can sleep fully thru the night, then we'll talk. Until then, I'll still get into photos and share them, because this is the me that I am today. However, I can appropriately share my favorite photos of our early days...

Jen & Jase, then Jase a few days before he left for bootcamp.

09-1995

then, the picture of Jase in bootcamp, only 4 weeks after....where'd my rebel go? Cleaned up good, don't ya think?!

Our wedding, a couple hours after bootcamp graduation. 12-1995

Our new little family --

...Since they were in England, it was a little tough to get Erica & Kyle into a photo with us. Here they were, way back then, the way cutie-pies that rounded out the numbers.

So, hopefully that's good basics to use for launching off. Kid intro's shall follow...eventually (sooner then later if I can keep my mind focused. Wish me luck.)

What to say, what to say???

Ever had one of those times where you just KNOW you need to call someone, or write to them, but when you sit down and hold that phone in your hand, or are staring at the paper, playing with the pen in your hand, (yes, some of us still use REAL mail :o), though not as often as I would like to.) . . . you just aren't really sure what the heck you're supose to say? 

So, I started 3 different letters, and 2 blog entries, and then packed it in for the weekend and just said screw it.  The only time anything thoughtful came to mind, was around 11:30pm, when I was attempting to ignore all the thoughts zipping thru my head, trying to get completely exhausted so I could sleep.

One thing I realized, is that I still need to properly introduce my family.  Jason and I chatted, and understanding that protecting the family is thee most important, and then weighing what info to actually include, we'll include all the kids names.  We've been thru nutty "safety experiences", like my ex harassing us and using his second wife's mother's money to try to threaten us and the boys...and that was all a bunch of crap.    We've experienced being in a foreign country where we, as a military family, were big targets - and we were followed by 3 middle-eastern Men, who turned in a fairly deserted part of a shopping plaza, to follow us --TAKING OUR PICTURES all the while!  We left, and went along the sidewalk, thru an alley, and into another store before they finally stopped with the cameras and went away.  THAT was freaky!!! (especially since this was October of '04...and we had been warned of recent threats to US military in our area at the time)...so it was a higher freak out factor for us.  But all was well, we soon thereafter learned to relax our safety measures back to a healthy level that allowed us to ENJOY our lives.

NOW, my goal is to remember our lives so I can share it with the kids down the road, while also sharing with our family and friends.  Knowing which kid I'm talking about, withOUT confusion, is pretty important.  Except for Zacky, I can't say "R" or "C" did this, since I've got R-C-R-C-Z. 

With that said, I will take a day or two to dwell on how the heck to pick up with us in the middle of an ongoing life with many, so you feel like you aren't completely Lost in the Sauce (though it's a really tasty place to be.)  Got any specific info you want me to be sure to include, just ask.  You'll either get an interesting answer, or a little "eh-hem, I choose not to answer" answer.  Either way, I'll try not to ignore anything specific.

------- Can I just toss out a disclaimer now that occasionally my spelling is crap (yeah for spell checker, which I seem to need more and more each year.)  Also -- if I ever seem to vanish, feel free to drop me a line to snatch me back to cyber space reality.  I need a slap-slap wake up call on occasion these days.

Soon to follow (I hope) -- Family intro... grease the gears so the brain is ticking.

Just a bit of a Video Test :o)

Okay, so when I replaced my camera AND my computer a year and a half ago (*sigh*...I hate damaged electronics - I lost my favorites), I never took the time to figure out how to get my video clips compatible with my Picasa albums.  So, I was kinda happy this morning when I noticed there was an msn site sorta like U-tube.  I'm not really ready to put up a U-tube anything of my kids, so I like this option --- lets see if it worked. . .

I took a little video clip of Zacky when he was "protecting" his ears from our noise when we were watching the Gold Medal match of the Women's Beach Volleyball. 

Here it is...

http://video.msn.com/?user=4088642633545475762

How do you all do it?

I absolutely love to hop around seeing what my friends and family have written on their blogs, yet I can't ever seem to manage to take or MAKE the time to write the things I want to on my OWN blog.  It's most certainly NOT for a lack of things going on around here.  No, quite the opposite.  There are plenty of funny or interesting or at least memory saving worthy things happening around here all the time.   

No, mostly it's a lack of brain cells.  I know I've got them, and I know they work for me when it matters, but for the most part, when I sit down at the computer I no longer have the ability to write and stay on point.  I run off on tangents, I start to vent without meaning to get SO emotional, or I'm just SO completely exhausted a large majority of the time that I can't put words together into a though anyone could Possibly follow, let alone actually get my fingers to cooperate to get those thoughts from my poor, sleepy little brain, out ON to the computer via this lovely keyboard in front of me. 

I've got lots to share, and I think what's hardest is when I really need to share something, but don't want it to top the blog for days (or weeks the way I'm keeping up on this), so I just don't write, and a million things carry on instead.  All unaccounted for a lost in the crazy chaos of my non-functioning mind.

I guess it's also hard because, even with adding the little tracker to my side bar to see if anyone besides the 3 I'm aware of actually stopping by to read this, I figured noone really WAS stopping by.  I warned friends that moving last year would cause me to disconnect for awhile, but didn't realize that meant all email communications would STOP unless largely initiated by me.  So, I rarely expect anything in my email these days, and we, as a family, in general, could care less if we stay where we are currently, so I just carry on thru each day forgetting I used to love journaling about each day.  My poor journal hasn't hardly been touched, to the point I actually wiped dust off of it - how sad.

I guess I need to remind myself this morning, that I had decided I wanted to write this blog as a way to let friends and family IN on what's up, but more so I think I just want to make this a family journal of sorts that I can get printed for them to have for their memories a long time from now. 

May my children look back at all the things I take time to write about, and either remember in fondness, or learn from the pains our family has endured, and remember that we ALWAYS come thru EVERYTHING, every beautiful and ugly moment, TOGETHER!

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7 years ago this morning I had sent the 3 older kids off to school and Craigan was still sleeping, so I hopped back into bed to watch the "Today Show" on NBC.  (used to love to do that, so long ago.)  I was thinking about what I needed to get done that day to prepare.... you see, we lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia at the time, and Jason worked in Quantico.  He had won and art award or 2, and his unit was Actually sending him this time TO go and GET his awards when they were to be presented.  So Jason was due to head off to California, out of D.C., the very next morning.  (had you asked me 3 years ago I still could have told you time, airline, and flight #).

Next thing I know, on that beautiful day, the news breaks about an accident involving a plane crashing into one of the twin towers.  And we all know how the world changed forever for us all.  But how many of you NOT on the east coast, or who did not loose a loved one that day, honestly carry the events of that day, and all the days to follow, burned in your memories like it just happened yesterday?  I do.  I couldn't call my husband on base - the lines were all tied up, and being a military spouse for SO long, I knew not to try, but to wait till he called me.  Once the Pentagon was hit, I knew anything I had planned for our future or our childrens, would never be the same.

I worked at Movie Gallery at the time.  One of my co-workers was full time Military, and was IN the Pentagon at the time.  He was injured by a fireball, and watched friends and co-workers die.  I'm telling you now, although he looked liked he'd aged a decade, there was no greater sight for all of us at work, then the day he got to come in and tell us he was back and okay. 

My husband finally came home from base, a couple days later, and shortly thereafter headed up to the Naval Annex.  This building is up the hill from the side of the Pentagon that was hit, and we as a family had to drop him off and pick him up every weekend so he could be home with us.  I have to say, being a graphic artist in the Marine Corps has it's fun moments, but it also is filled with jobs none of us would like to be a part of.  He would take all the information gathered, and photos and what not, and assemble it together for the daily briefings to the military higher-ups.  Post terrorist attack info (and warzone as well) is filled with sights and such I wish I could erase from my husbands mind forever.  I was never allowed to know details - obviously - but I knew the days/weeks when Jason had had to work on projects that were pretty ugly.  And here's what people need to know -  He was THANKFUL to have the job he did.  He knew he could handle the info and the sights, and still come home and be a good husband and father.  He was thankful to do his part, and do a job he knew was keeping someone else from having to do.

I will never forget the day planes were able to fly out of the DC area again.  I will never forget it because we were driving on the beltway, and my children yelled out so scared their daddy was going to be hurt.

But I will forever be thankful that my children have had those memories washed from their minds.  Over this past year, as others were discussing this day in history, and I asked them what they remember - bracing myself to have to be strong, and they honestly had VERY little memories of that day.  They knew the facts and information, mostly from school. They actually started to reflect on the fact that they remembered more the lockdown at school from the sniper shootings in our area MORE then 9-11.  Yup, my lucky kids - we lived in the area, and shopped at the places, where Malvo went on his lovely shooting spree.

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One year later, I was VERY pregnant, knew that life moves on, and was thrilled for the future of my family.  Zacky was born 2 days later (we can't wait to celebrate his 6th birthday).  And I will forever want to wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all those who were born on September 11th of ANY year, for this event will NOT take away ALL the good of this day, all the wonderful, loving people in our lives.  Like one of my lovely Nieces :o).

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I love my family.  I love my husband more then anyone will ever understand.  I am thankful for our family's opportunity to be be a military family.  I am thankful for the fact that when I hear the national anthem, it MEANS something to me and I can't help but cry.  I am thankful that my children are aware of the importance of placing your hand on your heart when you see a flag and hear the national anthem. 

You look around...even military families and when you are on base...it is sad to see HOW many Americans do NOT place their hands on their heart.  We were at a parade, ON base, and the flag went by.  Although many stopped talking, and some stood at attention, or at least stood, in our section of observers, we and our children were the only ones to salute the flag until the children of those around us followed suit.  Sadly their parents, couldn't be bothered.

Salute your flags! 

Love your country! 

Love your families ALL you can! 

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I need to go to work soon, so I need to go put away my memories and carry on, back to my good mood.  I just want my children to know, I am truly thankful they currently do not have to carry with them the memories of that time in our lives.  I hope they read this and know that their Father is a truly wonderful man that has sacrificed SO much, willingly and lovingly, because he wants to fill a much needed place, so no one else's son or father has to do so.  I love him for ALL he his and ALL he does.  We are so lucky to have him in our lives.  Remember this always.