Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve was celebrated at our house by opening the traditional one gift and baking cookies for Santa. On Christmas morning, the children woke up really excited to find an abundance of gifts left by Santa and proof that he was here, the cookies we left out, were almost all eaten. We were once again, blessed beyond measure, to see so much love in one room. Our family is healthy and happy so the gifts were just icing on the cake. We hope you enjoy the pics from Christmas at the Simpkins' house. Have a very happy and safe New Year. God Bless!

visit with Santa 2008

we had a great time visiting with Santa. christian asked Santa for a "fire cruck" yes that would be fire truck to those of us older than two. we really weren't sure if he would take to Santa since he cried last year. we hope you enjoy the pics from our visit.

our 2008 Christmas card

busy week and weekend ahead of us

we finished up freddie's football season this past weekend and are very proud of his accompishments as the quarterback of a championship team. now we are looking ahead to next year. it's official, we will be moving to VA in May so we are making a trip there this weekend to visit five prospective high schools as well as see many homes on the market. our Christmas cards went out today, thank goodness. they are beautiful and i am so happy with the design choice. i will post a copy of one this weekend after we return from our trip to VA. this is going to be a short post because we are packing for our trip and i am sure the post after our trip will be full of new things to tell. have a great rest of the week.

my husband did it again.............all A's

fred just finished his second semester of the anesthesia program and did so with flair. he has straight A's. i always smile inside when people ask him, "how do you do it?" because the answer is very simple, he is smart and he STUDIES very hard EVERY day. what most people don't know is that he studies in our garage so his need to study so much doesn't cause the rest of us to walk on egg shells trying to be quiet in our house. now, you might say, so what is the big deal about studying in the garage. well, i will tell you that during the summer when we were enjoying the air conditioner, he was in the garage with no cool air and it reached 100 degrees many times here in MD. not only that, when it was in the 20's here the last couple of weeks, he was in the garage with no heat. he is my hero for many reasons but the sacrifices he makes for me and our family continue to amaze me everyday. he has one semester to go and then we will move to VA for him to complete the hospital training portion that will last 18 months. for those of you that have and continue to hold him and our family up in prayer, THANK YOU. we are truly blessed each day with what God has done and continues to do for us. we are all looking forward to fred's long break and we will make the best of his time off. stay tuned for our posts.

christian is 22 months old today

we love you son!

ready for Christmas

my heart has been touched

i just found out that one of my distant cousins and life-long friend, LaVisa, is naming her little girl, due in January, after my mother that is deceased. she will be called Ada Grace. for those of you that do not know, my mother's name is Grace and i am just so proud that she wants her little girl to carry my mother's name. what an amazing tribute, not only to my mother's legacy but also to the impact my mother had on LaVisa's life. I know my mother will always watch over little Ada Grace and LaVisa as well. she will be a wondeful mother. i couldn't be happier for her and her family.

picking out the perfect tree and decorating for Christmas

it is our family tradition to decorate our tree and house for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving so friday, we enjoyed going to a Christmas tree farm and searching for the perfect tree. christian had so much fun running around in the field hiding from us behind the trees. after we picked the one we liked, fred cut it down and we headed home to decorate. i think we spent more time keeping christian from getting into everything and pulling the ornaments off the tree than we did actually decorating but that is ok, he enjoyed himself so much. freddie, being the teenager he is, chose to stay over at the twin's house to go hiking instead of decorating the tree. we are so thankful to be back in America this year and for being able to cut our own tree. we promise never to take the luxury of being in America for granted. we hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and enjoy getting ready for Christmas.

Thanksgiving with friends and family

Thanksgiving day was filled with visits to fred's aunt renee and uncle bernie's house (aunt renee is fred's dad's sister) that is about a hour away but still in maryland. the food was wonderful and so was seeing everybody. this visit was for lunch and unfortunately it was a quick one because we had another engagement scheduled that evening. for dinner, we traveled back to our hometown and enjoyed Thanksgiving with friends from freddie's football team. freddie has become really good friends with twin boys from his football team and we have become good friends with their father as well. he is a single dad that truly worships his boys and we are so thankful not only for his friendship but also for our son's friendship with his lovely boys. they are budding musicians, as well, so fred and christian took a turn at entertaining everyone. we also enjoyed the company of another of freddie's friends, carlo, and his family. we ate so much food that i really can't remember what all was there. i do know that the food and fellowship was amazing and even though we didn't cook at our house this year, i feel it was a great Thanksgiving.

Capitol Beltway League Champions!!

We are so extremely proud of our son and his team for bringing home the trophy! Freddie played so unbelievably well that there is no way I could ever put it into words-thank goodness we filmed it. He completed a 41 yard pass that lead to the first touchdown after which he kicked the extra point. The next touchdown, he ran through 4 defenders to score and once again kicked the extra point. Don't ask me how he became the kicker as well as the quarterback but whatever works, right?!? I must confess that after these two touchdowns, I can't remember anything except I looked up, the scoreboard was 29-0 and the crowd was out of control cheering because we were now the Champions! After the game, we were taken to another part of the stadium fo the tropy presentation. I almost cried when Freddie was awarded the Most Valuable Player not because that's what moms do when their childen do well, but because he was absolutely the most deserving player, hands down! He was always early to practice and gave 150% regardless of how tired, hot or cold he was. All of this was done while still maintaining his honor roll status as an 8th grader taking high school courses. Thank you all for your support and prayers and please continue to do so as the season is not over. We have a week off then we play in the first round of the Maryland Youth Football State Championship. They will play two games before heading to the Baltimore Ravens Stadium for the State Championship game on December 20th. We truly are blessed parents!

first trip to the dentist

christian and dr. orlando

today was christian's first trip to the dentist which was only for a checkup. he is not old enough for a cleaning or anything but his pediatrician likes for her patients to have their first checkup before they are two so off we went. he was a complete angel or should i say big boy. dr. orlando asked if i wanted to hold him in my lap so it may go over easier but before i could answer him, christian had already climbed up in the seat by himself and shook the doctor's hand. he has perfect teeth and dr. orlando was very pleased that brushing at our house is already a normal thing for christian. he was even impressed that christian lets us brush his teeth despite the fact that he is cutting eight, yes, i said eight teeth at one time. just wanted to let you all in on another one of christian's milestones. enjoy the pictures from his visit.

mommy see.....mommy do!!

this is what happens when your children watch what you do on a daily basis! they don't miss a thing! in case you are wondering, he is pretending to wash his face like mommy does....aren't children a joy!

us naval academy bound.....

ok, freddie's youth football team is now 10-0 and headed to the championship game that will be played this sunday at the us naval academy in annapolis, md. we are so proud of him. his game this weekend was played in a monsoon but he stilled managed to showcase such great skill-running for one touchdown and passing for the other. we were approached again by another school in the dc metro area wanting him to play high school football for them. the school is gonzaga college high school in washington dc. it is an all boys private jesuit school of great tradition. please feel free to check out the school's web site to see the amazing facility, www.gonzaga.org . freddie said to us last night that he finally realized just how big of a deal it is that people from such prestigious, academically challenging and athletically superb schools are coming to watch him play at such a young age and are willing to pay for him to attend high school. he also said it made him want to work harder. i really wish we were able to stay here for him to attend these schools but unless the navy changes it's mind, we are virginia bound. keep us in your prayers that freddie will be afforded the same opportunities in virginia as he would be if we were able to stay in maryland. also, please say a prayer that freddie and his team will not be overwhelmed this weekend while playing in such a large stadium, i mean they are ages 11-13 and let's face it, college players get overwhelmed sometimes when they play in such a big arena for the first time. montgomery village chiefs, let's bring home the trophy and don't stop until you reach the baltimore ravens stadium for the maryland state championships. check out the naval academy stadium that freddie will play in below. have a great week!

another fun weekend at the Simpkins' house!

as you can see from the pics below, we are always up to something at our house. whether it's christian and his daddy "horsing" around, christian wearing my plastic bowls on his head or him using a ritz cracker box as a chair (until it broke). christian even insisted on giving the "horse" some water after his ride. he was trying to mimic the bull riders he saw on tv the other day. it was hilarious watching him throw his arm in the air as he swayed back and forth. i guess that means he wasn't sure if he wanted daddy to be a horse or a bull, either way, he was thoroughly entertained.

"all gave some....some gave all"

"It's the Soldier, not the reporter,

who has given us freedom of the press.



It's the Soldier, not the poet,

who has given us freedom of speech.



It's the Soldier, not the campus organizer,

who has given us freedom to demonstrate.



It's the Soldier, not the lawyer,

who has given us the right to a fair trial.



And it's the Soldier who salutes the flag,

who serves the flag,

whose coffin is draped in the flag,

that allows the protester to burn the flag"

Let's remember those who have served, currently serve, and will volunteer to serve our great nation in defense of our freedom! Most of all, let's be grateful and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for an often ungrateful and forgetful people!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!



"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.

The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which

thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight,

nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a

miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and

kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

~John Stuart Mill - from On Liberty circa 1859

Leaving us....



To my wonderful husband that continues to serve our country in the most selfless and patriotic way I have ever seen, I love you, and I am so proud to be your wife. The feeling of watching you walk away from me as you headed off to war is a feeling that I pray to never have to repeat but here me when I say this, I will gladly repeat it again if it is necessary for you to protect this country from harm. The most beautiful thing about it all is that YOU have never complained for one second about going to this war or any of the other past conflicts over your 17 year military career. You are a true hero and this world is a better place for you CHOOSING to put on that uniform and fight for our freedom everyday!

Your most recent homecoming...God's grace is abundant and we are so very thankful!




May God continue to bless America! And, may He watch over those who serve and protect her as well...

~Your Proud Military Wife

cornbread dressing, here we come!

freddie played the first round of his football playoffs and came out successful. they won 18-6 and advanced to the next round. if they continue to win, they will play for the capitol beltway league championship at the us naval academy and then on to play in the baltimore ravens stadium for the maryland state championship. we'll keep you informed as the games go on. most of my weekend has been spent not feeling too well. i rarely get sick but i have been dealing with a sore throat. hopefully, it will pass because as we all know, if mom goes down, so does the house...:) i did enjoy watching the lsu game with the family. even though i am an ole miss grad, i love watching all sec games, especially nail biters. christian has learned a new touchdown dance so i will have to get that on video for you all to see. thanksgiving is right around the corner and i am so excited to cook my mamaw's dressing again this year. i must admit, it will be a lot easier cooking it this year than in recent years.....finding ingredients for a southern cornbread dressing in japan was not easy. i hope to do her proud again. she always loved hearing about how much my family enjoyed eating it so here's to you mamaw. i miss you terribly!

happy halloween!

we had a blast tonight trick or treating with the kids! christian wanted to be curious george or "george the monkey" as he calls him. freddie went as a football player and decided he will never be too old to trick or treat. our neighbors are the best. they had great decorations and really enjoyed entertaining the kids. we are so proud of christian. he said trick or treat and thank you at every house. the neighbors were amazed he did this at his age. this was his first time to actually walk up to the house since he was just a baby last year. we hope you enjoy the slideshow of pics....we took a lot! we hope you all had a happy halloween have a great weekend!

bragging time

i usually only post to our blog once a week but i am so proud of christian's accomplishments that i have to brag a little. he is 20 months old and has been humming the abc song since he was 11 months old, in it's entirety. we thought that was cool and his doctor was amazed. now, we are even more amazed that he can recite the whole alphabet and sing the abc song all the way through. he knows his vowels, hundreds of vocabulary words, some of which are in spanish as well and he is making complete sentences when talking to us. ok, i am sure he is not the only child that is at this developmental level for this age but after seeing his doctor for a check up yesterday, she informed me and validated my beliefs that he is way ahead developmentally for his age. having said all of that, i want to say that spending time with your children on a daily basis teaching them new things, pays off!! i am very thankful to my husband for affording me the opportunity to rear my children 24/7. because of this, our children are reaping the benefits and that has been proven at a very early age with christian.

get ready....we will post halloween pics of christian after trick or treating tomorrow night. he is so excited about his costume that i have had to hide it because he wants to wear it all the time.

our day at the pumpkin patch

we had a wonderful day at phillips farm in germantown, md this weekend. christian was able to see so many animals that he has only learned about through books. we went on a hayride, picked our pumpkins from the field, fed the animals, took a pony ride and made many lasting memories. it is always such a great time when we are able to spend the day together as a family. growing up on a farm playing on hay, feeding animals and being able to just roam free is something that i used to take for granted but now that i have children, watching them experience those things is just priceless. we hope you enjoy our slideshow from the farm below. freddie's football game was cancelled due to bad weather on saturday so no updates on that. it rained early saturday and then turned into a beautiful weekend so we are thankful for that. have a great week!

grandpa and grandma simpkins' visit

we really enjoyed having fred's parents here for a couple of days. they were able to spend time with christian and freddie as well as watch freddie play quarterback for the first time. freddie's team won and he played a great game. his team is now 7-0 with two more regular season games left before the playoffs start. we wish their trip could have lasted longer but we understand that all time is precious regardless of how short or long it may be. we are very sorry, however, that their trip ended with a sad note. great grandma margaret simpkins died while they were here visiting. she has been sick for a while and even though we knew it may happen any day, it is always sad to lose a loved one. our prayers and thoughts go out to all affected by her death. thank you God for wonderful and loving grandparents. our children are truly blessed. we hope you all have a great weekend.

#1 youth football team in maryland...and freddie is the quarterback!

we are so proud of our son and his team. they played a tough game on saturday trying to maintain their undefeated record....and maintain it they did! the montgomery village chiefs junior division is 6-0 and held their #1 ranking. freddie played amazingingly well. i wish i had the stats to give you but i don't. i did film it though to add to his highlight film. he threw two 40+ yard passes with one for a touchdown. he also ran for a touchdown as well. they have such great talent and can truly win the state championship if they keep their heads in the game and continue to play up to their ability. stay tuned for more updates as the season moves on. we are so happy to say that fred's parents will be here next week to watch freddie's game. they have never seen him play as a quarterback so they are almost as excited to see him play as freddie is for them to be there. just thought i would share the rankings below. this was put out before the game this weekend so now they are 6-0.

Maryland Youth Football State Rankings - Divsion I
Updated October 8, 2008
10-12

1. Montgomery Village 5-0 (CBL-AMERICAN)
2. Columbia Ravens 6-0 (MID MD - NATIONAL)
3. Perry Hall 4-0 (HB-NATIONAL)
4. Olney 5-0 (CBL-AMERICAN)
5. Bel Air 3-1 (HB-NATIONAL)
6. Western Howard Warhawks 4-1 (MID MD - NATIONAL)
7. Huntington Hornets 4-0 (CALVERT COUNTY)
8. A.F.E.C. Saints 6-0 (BNYFL)
9. Bowie 5-0 (CBL – AMERICAN)
10. Overlea 3-1 (HB-NATIONAL)
11. Forest Park Blackhawks 3-1 (MAYFL)
12. Westlake 4-1 (CHARLES COUNTY)

breakfast with Curious George!

christian is such a huge fan of Curious George....stay tuned for his halloween surprise!!!

our weekend.....2 0f 2

we enjoyed yet another wonderful church service at mclean bible church. we are so thankful to God for finding this church for us. after being in japan and having virtually no choices for a christ-based church, we are forever grateful for this church being brought into our lives. christian moved up to his new class, little hikers, and loved it. freddie is learning so much each sunday about how God works and can work in his life thanks to the Rock student ministry offered at mclean. if you have the opportunity, please visit the church's website at www.mcleanbible.org and if you ever find yourself at home on a sunday and not able to attend your own church, please join our internet church family. each service on sunday (9am,10:45 and 12:30) is broadcast over the internet via www.mcleanbible.org/internetcampus. it is very hard to find a church as well as a pastor that makes no apologies for teaching the word of God regardless of whose toes might get stepped on! we hope you check it out one day! our lives have been truly blessed by having this church family in our lives. have a great and blessed week

our weekend.... 1 0f 2

Headed to the game.....


we had a great weekend with the kids and Christian's lip is much better today. i promised that I would post the details of freddie's game as soon as possible for the family so here goes. i couldn't begin to recall all of the great things he did but i will try. forgive me if i sound like a proud mom but his dad and i have known for quite some time now that he was athletically talented but saturday night really reaffirmed our beliefs. it was homecoming for his league and so the crowd was huge. i wish i had pics but my job is to film all of his games and to be honest, i can't handle both cameras at one time so the filming won out. when his season is over, we hope to have cds made of his season highlights for all that want to see.

the team they played was supposed to be the most competition they would see this season so that always makes you worried that their undefeated record may be in jeopardy. wasted worry! they won 13-6. freddie scored one of the touchdowns and had great stats. once the game was over and the coach was finished talking to them, fred and i were starting to leave the field when we noticed all of these people starting to approach. i must confess, i wasn't sure what in the world was going on. i am sports savvy enough to know that they looked like they were representing different high schools. why were they approaching us? freddie is just starting his eighth grade year. well, i can tell you, nothing prepared us for this. they were there to recruit freddie for their schools. crazy! recruiting for high school?!? yes, in the area we live, there are many private (typically Catholic) schools that are allowed to recruit because they are private. let me just give you an idea of how good these schools are. two of them (Our Lady of Good Counsel and DeMatha) just played each other on ESPN last week. OLGC has the winningest head coach in the state of Maryland and one of their receivers is ranked as the #9 player in the country as well as already having over 65 college scholarship offers. unbelievable! ok, my brother played college ball on a scholarship so i am not completely naive to the process but he wasn't recruited in the 8th grade and we never had schools in our city that played on ESPN. you might say, that is great and it is, but as a mother, i am a little concerned that all of this hoopla is starting really early for freddie.

fred and i realized driving home from the game that it makes our job of raising a teenager even harder because now you have to make sure you keep his feet on the ground despite all the uncommon attention. we have always told him that our goal is to raise a good, productive man not an athlete. sports are a luxury in our house because without education, you have nothing to fall back on. don't get me wrong, we are very proud of him and are very proud that his talent is drawing such attention but just keep freddie and us in your prayers that we continue to make the choices that are best for him while keeping his feet grounded. Our Lady of Good Counsel's school page is www.olgchs.org and their football website is www.goodcounselfootball.com. now, on to the next part of our weekend recap!

christian's 1st ER visit

What started off being a wonderful "Mommy and Me" day with Christian ended up with us at the ER in Naval Medical Center Bethesda. Early yesterday morning, we had a pancake breakfast at IHOP (they have a great pancake for kids to decorate), played at the park, shopped for Christian a hat and mittens, had a great lunch, strolled around the mall and played at the children's play area. After such a great day, we came home to start dinner. While I was cooking dinner, Christian was entertaining himself, where I could see him, and he started doing the spin around game to make himself dizzy. I know we have all done that at one point in our lives! He got off balance and fell on his face or should I say his chin. His teeth went through his lower lip and I had enough blood in my house to donate. Being a trauma nurse, I knew to stop the bleeding, assess the severity and apply ice. Here is the tricky part. With an injury like that, it is a toss up as to whether the doc will suture or not but, at his age, he atleast needed antiobiotics because the mouth is a NASTY place. I mean so much for trying to get a 20 month old to gargle warm salt water, right??? So, off to the ER we go with Freddie applying pressure/ice to the lip. Fred met us there and the doc gave us the whole 50/50 suture decision and he opted not to suture, thank GOD! He gave us some Penicillin and we were out in less than 2 hours. Amazing! Christian is fine except for the FAT LIP as you can see from the pictures. I just hope that is my last ER visit for a long time and our weekend is less eventful.

Freddie has a football game this weekend and it is their "Homecoming". I am not sure what that means for a league like he plays for but I am sure it will be interesting. I will let you know Monday when I post my recap of the weekend. Have a great one!

family, football, and lots of fun.....also, a big thank you to our friends and family!

we had a great weekend full of family time, football and fun. freddie played the defending champions of his league and beat them at least 40-0 ( i stopped counting after 40). Freddie played amazingly well. he scored 3 of the touchdowns, a two point conversion and passed for the other touchdowns. One of his passes was for over 40 yards and another touchdown. this was all done in terrible conditions. we are experiencing lots of rain and wind from TS "Kyle" that is pounding the East Coast. i brought my video camera, like i always do, but was unable to film because of the rain. we are gathering video from each game to compose a highlight film for freddie to give to his new high school coach for next year. since we will be living in a different state, the coach needs to be able to see freddie's performance as an 8th grader to have a better understanding of his ability when he tries out for the new school. we are very proud of him both athletically and academically(he continues to make honor roll while taking HS courses).

The rest of our weekend consisted of watching more football on tv, friends over to watch the debate, and church. I am really blessed to have such a wonderful family. Thanks to my in-laws for continuing to lift my family up in prayer and for your amazing and uplifting support of our endeavors. fred has been blessed to have you both in his life since birth. i thank God for allowing you to be in the rest of my life. our children could not have been given better grandparents. to the rest of our friends and family that continue to support fred in his school, me in my responsibilities and our children in their endeavors, we are truly blessed to have people like you in our lives.

Bill O'Reilly Book Signing

We had an early day starting at 4 am to get in line for the Bill O'Reilly book signing. We had so much fun hanging out at the mall waiting to have our book signed. Mr. O'Reilly was very nice and showed great respect to Fred for his military service. He also asked how old "the little guy" was but, of course, Christian wouldn't look at the camera for the picture. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

first ice cream cone

christian enjoyed his first ice cream cone today at our neighborhood maggie moo's. it was a beautiful day so i pulled him in his radio flyer to the ice cream parlor. at first he wasn't sure about the ice cream but after a few licks, he was a pro. i love watching him explore new things and listen to his vocabulary grow. he loved the flowers, leaves, trees and airplanes that he got to see while we were out. now for a funny! a middle eastern man walked by while we were sitting outside maggie moo's and he had a turban on his head so christian says,"hat, hat, hat, mama". i almost exploded with laughter but didn't want the man to think i was laughing at him so i did my best to hold it in while saying, "yes, christian, that is a type of hat". the joys of having a toddler. i am sure there will be more to come. i hope you all have a great day.

we did it....

i promised that we would get in a run today and we did. we were supposed to run for 42 minutes but ran for 48 minutes instead and i feel great. fred was keeping time with the stopwatch and thought it would be cute to make me run longer than ever before witout telling me. it worked! tomorrow is my rest day and then we will run thursday and friday. it is so hard for me to believe that 8 weeks ago, i could barely run a minute without feeling like my lungs were going to collapse. you would think that i had been a couch potato my whole life but i haven't......thank God for muscle memory.

Brotherly Love

not off to a good start...running that is...determined to make it better!

husbands...what can i say? fred told me yesterday that we could run at 11am today since he would be out of school at that time but, no, he doesn't get out until 4pm. darn military! you might say, why don't you run without him? well, i would but who is going to watch christian and as much as i love my Bob, it is not my running friend yet so i have to wait until fred comes home. problem is, i am just about beat in the afternoons after chasing the little one all day.....no worries, i will survive and i will run TODAY! other than the running debacle, we are off to do some errands. I remember before we moved back to the states, complaining about how much i missed being able to shop at different stores because in japan, we lived by online shopping. now, i swear, i find myself complaining about having to drive around to run errands. i think i will reevaluate and start today off with a more thankful attitude. i hope all of you have a wonderful tuesday and are thankful for this great country we live in because take it from me, it could be worse, and you could be living in a foreign country without our modern conveniences. God bless you today and God bless our country!

Running 101

running for me has always been something that you do when the coach tells you to, not something you do for fun. well, that has all changed. about 2 months ago, i started a running program that allows you to be able to run a 5K in two months and here i am. i completed the program on time and i am truly amazed at myself. fred has been there with me for every single run including those God awful first runs that i thought would kill me. it is not that running three miles seemed impossible for me but i had been pregnant and/or breastfeeding for the last 21 months so regular exercise wasn't on my agenda let alone running as a hobby. i will have to say the initial motivation was to lose weight but it has now become something that i truly enjoy! now that i can complete the three miles, i am working on doing it faster. once i achieve a time that i feel is somewhat competitive, then i will sign up for my first race..

don't tell fred, but i have already started looking at the 10K program.....so that is my next goal.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

first day of our family blog

Welcome to the Simpkins' Family Blog!!!
ok, i guess i should say "my" blog because with fred in school, i will be doing most of the blogging. i am so new to this so you will have to forgive me for not being blogger savvy. i have never had time to start one of these and i guess i really don't now but, it seems to be the best way for our family and friends to keep up with us. thanks to the Navy, we move around a lot!