Counting blessings

Yesterday was our fourth anniversary and I was prepared to be maudlin or at least upset at some point about being "so far away" from each other. I had a fitting for my Maid of Honor Dress for A's wedding next month, and it was a perfect day to have been at a bridal shop and feeling nostalgic for four short years ago. Surrounded by all of the fluffy white dresses as I tried on my new pink dress that I will wear as my baby sister takes the same vows we did was the perfect way to spend some time on this day.

And about those four years; I cannot begin to fathom how differently our lives have progressed from that time to this. We've moved (twice) and changed jobs (uh, how many times?) and most importantly, we have two beautiful kiddos who are now running our lives in a manner we might never have imagined, and another who will be joining us soon.

We woke this morning to our first sunny day in OR, and that is just one more reason to be thankful.

Monotony can be good

Well, its been a quiet weekend here, which is nice. We did make an invasion, I mean trip, to IKEA which is one of my favorite places to window shop and explore. Of course the kids are like a herd of elephants in that place, and it is tough to keep them flowing in the direction of traffic and it was a busy day there so it was a bit crazier even than normal. We also went to Best Buy and got grandma a wireless router (meaning got me a wireless router) so now I can veg on the couch and write my blog and other "necessary" luxuries.

I also got some close toed shoes - not sure how I managed to leave the house without them in the first place, but somehow I did. We had planned on taking a trip on the local scenic railroad, but it really looked like rain and since it stops at a waterfall that is pretty nice to splash in, we decided to wait it out and see if we can make the trip on a sunny day. Next weekend is supposed to be pretty nice, and I think a trip to our zoo may be in the future. We've also decided to go ahead and do 'swim school' even though it will be 4 days a week, so starting June 2nd the kids will become more water mobile, I hope.

Aside from that, we are keeping busy with tons of toys, new, borrowed and brought with us, and the kids are having tons of fun. I've been able to nap almost every day, which is fantastic, and if I can ever get the kiddos back to napping at the same time, life will be about perfect!

Settling in

Well, we safely arrived and have been settling in. It's weird going back to a childhood home for a length of time, knowing that your children will be living where you once lived for a while. Of course H had taken to calling each friend's house or hotel room our "new house" so I don't know that he appreciates "home" as much as I had hoped. There are so many things I want to do while here in town, and places I want to go. Some of them are child friendly, but many are not, so I'll have to determine which are realistic to do in a six week time frame.

F finally got his much deserved promotion back to where he started in the Reserves, and he did so well on the test that he will (hopefully) get paid for it in the next month or so. He's not sure when he'll actually start "wearing" it, but I know that he's pretty excited to be back up with the "big kids" at the table, even if he's a relatively junior E6 now. (Pondering whether or not his previous time in rate as an E6 would count - surely not!)

We've been looking at swimming lessons for the kids while we were here, but the session that I swear I saw is no longer listed, and now they would have to do 4 mornings a week for 2 weeks, which might be okay, but I don't know if I want to commit to that frequency, if only for a short period. I really wish there was a different schedule, the one I swear that I saw originally, which was two mornings a week. (pout, pout, pout) Ah well, the kids have tons of toys to play with here, in addition to the ones that we brought from home, and I have a feeling they won't be "bored" even if we stay here the whole time and never set foot outside of the nearby vicinity.

Almost there!

Well, Day 3 was a pretty good day; a boring drive, but a good day. We crossed from Kansas into Colorado and just after crossing the border, no joke, tumbleweed rolled across the highway in front of us - kind of an indication of the kind of drive we faced on the eastern side of the state. We pulled into J&L’s place in Aurora and enjoyed a nice family dinner with L’s extended family that had gotten together for his brother’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Chad!).

J&L opened their home to us and let us join their family for dinner, then their beautiful daughter continued to play with the kids and they had a fantastic time, the three of them. H & K taught that poor girl all kinds of bad habits (running like banshees in the restaurant, jumping in her bed, etc.), but she is such a well behaved little sweetheart that I’m sure she’ll be able to “unlearn” many of them in quick order.

The following morning, when it was time to leave, the kids wanted to stay, or take Miss B with them or in some fashion extend our time together and I can’t say that I blame them, we all had so much fun. The drive that followed was the hardest day thus far – through the Rockies and down through all of the ski towns and into Utah. The ski towns are all in out-of-season repair and disarray, and I had a heck of a time finding a place for H to use the restroom, and he ended up having to use the side of the road again for lack of better options, poor monkey.

Since I had mis-remembered or simply goofed up where our next stop was, and M&T lived in a different part of the greater Salt Lake City area, I had to kind of “wing it” and drive off of my carefully outlined and Trip-tik’d route. It ended up being much smaller highways which were very pretty, but a little scary thinking of the “what-ifs” of breakdowns, flat tires or animals running in front of the vehicle and wiping out the car. Entering Utah was interesting, it got very rainy, hard, blowing rain and it was pretty ugly. Then, heading into Salt Lake, the weather was poopy or more specifically, it was wicked hazy and just ugh!

But, when all was said and done, we arrived safely, and it was a nice visit, if again too short. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with them in forever, since we all left NH, but as with many things, life just gets in the way and you do what you can to keep in touch.

We left M&T's place bright and early, and headed toward Mountain Home AFB in Idaho, but since we arrived nearby super early, we kept going and ended up making it nearly to central OR. We holed up in a hotel that has an indoor pool and once I'm done updating here, we're heading to swim and wear ourselves out there.

We should be to my mom's early tomorrow afternoon (just 200+change miles to go), and this portion of our road trip over. It was a rough few days, and I probably should have broken it up more and seen the sights, but to be honest, the kids were traveling so well that I hated the thought of stopping for much of anything!

2 weeks or 2 days?

Well, F has been gone for 2 weeks, and we have been gone for two days, sorry to worry anyone who looked yesterday to see where we were and saw... nothing. We were having so much fun at our friends' house that I didn't get on-line at all.

We left Saturday morning by 8:30, which was particularly good because my goal was 9. I had been up since about 5:30, restless and knowing there were still last-minute things to pack before heading out. I prepped almost everything that was left, then K woke up and started helping me unpack my handiwork, until H woke up and then it was just time to get going. Whatever I forgot (like our Power of Attorney), I hope I don't need while I'm gone! If I do need it, I left a key with our neighbor, and I'm sure she can overnight anything I need or whatever. Not too concerned at this point, I just wanted to hit the road.

The audio Backyardigan's CD we got just before leaving was a HUGE hit before we got the DVD player in Hattiesburg (good old reliable Target). After each song was ending, K would say "more songs, more songs, more Pablo, more Tynone, more Niqua." It makes me laugh when she says their names, because they are almost, but not quite right and its pretty adorable.

We made really good time, and H did a fantastic job letting me know when he needed to use the restroom and all. The only time we got caught short on Day 1, was just across the AR border from LA, and I pulled over on this backwoods highway and he peed out the passenger side slider of the van onto the shoulder and thought he was the coolest thing ever. (Day 2 we also did this twice and he thought it was hillarious to knock the feathery seeds from a dandilion with his urine; he laughed so hard he cried.)

But H's favorite part of Day 1, other than arriving at our friends' place, was this truck we saw driving in AR. It was a Fish & Game truck, pulling a trailer that had huge catfish in a tank on the back, so it was like a little mini-aquarium, and H thought it was the best. We actually saw it twice because K dropped her milk and had a meltdown, so I pulled over to grab it and the truck passed us, then we passed it again later and he thought it was another one. The rest of the day he kept asking for more fish trucks.

The lowlight of the day was probably almost hitting a snake in the road. It was HUGE to me, but my friend who is a native Arkansan (?) said what I was supposed to do was hit it, reverse and run over it again to make sure it was dead. Personally, I was more worried about hurting my car - it seemed enormous to me.

So, nine and a half hours after leaving home, we arrived at R&E's house, and were welcomed by a storm of pink toys that the kids had a blast playing with - from a huge Dora tent and Princess tunnel to a giggle vaccuum, the kids were in HEAVEN. We all had so much fun and it really was hard to leave, I felt so spoiled by their hospitality and they were so generous to open their home to us and feed us and let us relax and play for a while. H kept asking is we were going back to their house tonight.

Instead, we made it past our target stop of McConnel AFB (since there was no room at the inn) and on to a little crossroads town in KS that had plenty of hotels and places to stop. We found a nice place with a pool thanks to Grandma H's online shopping and stopped to get a little R&R and swim. I, of course, simply HAD to get online and share our trip thus far. Today was not as much fun, likely because yesterday we had the anticipation of R&E's place, and their kids and the fun I knew our kids would have there.

Today I knew it would be a hotel and strangers, but at least we did find an indoor pool, which we barely had time to extract ourselves from the car and the kids were chomping at the bit to get into. It was a great pool because it was only 4 1/2' deep, so I wasn't too overwhelmed with both monkeys. H had his floaties and he splashed and so forth in the 2 1/2' end while I'd take K swimming to the other end, then she sat on the steps while H got to make the rounds.

Its late, and tomorrow is another day driving, but I wanted to let those who are following us know that we are safe and sound for the night and all-in-all I am blessed that these kids are such resilient monkeys and great travellers. I know there is a ton of detail that I am forgetting that I had intended to include, but I guess it will have to wait for another day. Tomorrow we are hoping to make it to another set of friends, J&L, who also have a monkey H's age. It will be fun and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Best of intentions

So, I had planned to take photos of the car all loaded up and ready to travel, but instead I was feeling lucky to simply get it loaded down and ready for travel. I was also able to get rid of a ladder that we listed on Craigslist a few weeks ago. Someone finally asked for it, and unfortunately I had to strap it onto the top of the van and take it out there (Orange Grove for those who know the area). I am not quite as good at that as F is, and half way down the major road that you take to get there, the ladder about blew off of the van, just sideways, but scared the poop out of me.

Well, we have another $60 in travel money for my efforts, although the deductible if I had smashed anyone's car would have been far greater, I'm sure. And now we have further space in the garage for more crap. Or at least more space in the garage.

The van is packed, except for the cooler and snacks and a few last minute doodads that I'm sure I'll add. I need to get H's Leap Pad in the car, the potty and my meds and such. (Hopefully my body pillow and regular pillow - I love those!) There is actually still a little room left as a path from front seat to rear seat so I can work with car seat buckles and such. I also have a load of laundry in that I swear I will forget and leave soaking wet (ugh!) I stopped the cycle with it full because the kids had some spills on their clothes - go figure. I do still need to find a DVD player while we're on the road. Can't believe nobody in the whole town carries dual screen DVD players in their stores in this whole town.

I did remember to go to the housing office and sign out for our trip, but I didn't get in touch with the cable co. to turn off service or the post office to forward the mail - ugh! Oh well, one can only remember so many things at a time. Have to get the keys to the neighbor and that's about all I can do. I'll try to call the cable co. from the road, I guess since it seems silly to pay $120 a month for cable/internet/etc when we're not here. Grrrr can't believe I forgot that one!

So, the kids are wired, and I think we might be in for quite the night. I'd better start trying to get them down for the night so we can get up and hit the road bright and early. Wish us all luck!

Anxious to get going

Well, today was a productive day - got the kids stuff packed and into the car and got my stuff packed and into the car. I also assembled the questionable seat for H and it seems to work for him, so I will keep it - there was a padded liner that I removed and it made a world of difference in how he fit. Also, the shoulders are padded rather than fitted, so he can rest on a pillow-like seat, rather than the harder shell I feared was squishing him. He absolutely loves it, and I think it was a good move, even though he did have about an inch of room left to grow in his torso in the old seat. But, this seat has a cup holder and that makes all the difference in the world!

I also got the garage cleaned out and parked Frank's beast in there. That was a nice task, but I'm proud to say I backed that thing in there "all by self" as Miss K would say, and I didn't run over anything or break anything or even hit anything. (Okay, confession, there is a rubber-like seal around the garage door and I whispered it with the mirror, but that doesn't count AND that mirror was already broken.)

We also managed a nice brunch at Laura's house, which was a break I surely needed, although I'm sure the kids would have rather been playing somewhere with other kids or something, but since it was a darn monsoon this morning, they'd have been cooped up at home anyway. Besides, this gave them an excuse to wear their new rain boots!

I'm chomping at the bit to leave, and have thought seriously about taking off tomorrow, but I do realize I still have more to do before I go, and the kids can use another trip to the playground before I shove them into a car for a week (even in a new car seat!). I still haven't found a DVD player that I am happy with, so I will have to see how far we get without one on Saturday. If nothing else, I can try and pick one up at Target in Hattiesburg, which is only an hour+ away.

Tomorrow, other than the playground, I will be packing up the last minute stuff, tossing perishable foods from the fridge and cabinets and generally doing some last minute organization. I'm surprised at how little space I have used in the van thus far. I'll have to take pictures when its all packed because you know you never get things back in as organized as you start, and there will always be more stuff you accumulate along the way.

Progress? 1 step forward, 1 back

Okay, so my plan is all out of order, and the kids needed some attention and love today so we hit the children's museum today and played all morning until lunch time. K had to rest after, so we came home, even though H said he didn't want to go home. He cracks me up. Their LeapPad stuff had come in just as we were leaving, so he was pretty jazzed about checking out his new toy when we got home. So much so that he woke up K getting out of the car and they were both chomping at the bit to play their new "video games." Unfortunately, we had no batteries and they came without batteries, so we had to go to the store before playing. UGH!

We also found another game for H for his, so now he has Cars and Dora and she has Dora and Pooh. And we have batteries. I was a little worried that K wouldn't get it, but she seems to enjoy it so far and pushes the right button for the most part to get the "story" to read. (Oh, don't we know she's good at pushing buttons!)

While at the store, I saw a DVD player and picked it up thinking I'd simply throw the old 2nd screen up with it and we'd be golden, but alas, when we got home, I look and the 2nd screen was somehow shattered while hanging in the car, mounted for viewing. Don't know how that happened, but UGH! So we take the new one back because we definitely need 2 screens so that Katherine can go back to her normal seat, from the far back, so we can pack the van better. GRRR!

Later in the day, we went to the Evil Empire (Wal-Mart) and picked up H's new big boy car seat, a Graco Nautilus. Unfortunately, I think that is going back tomorrow too. It seems too narrow and uncomfortable in the shoulder area and it is supposed to be a seat that will last him until it converts to a booster seat a few years down the road. No thanks. So that means, a little big more expensive seat, but one that will fit him better. And I think I'll wait until after we get back, as the new seat is a Britax (Frontier), like his current seat, and they go on semi-annual sale each September, so we'll perhaps try again then.

I did manage to get the kids extra clothes packed into tubs, as well as my extras. I have most of the travel bags packed, but have a bit more laundry to do. I want to clean all of the sheets and leave the beds unmade when I leave with all sheets in the linen closet, except, perhaps the ones on my bed. The guest room is next, I think. In any case, I feel good about the packing. I also got the first layer of bugs off the car at the base car wash, but I need to hit one in town because the one here didn't have a brush or anything, just the pressure wash hose.

Tomorrow, I hope to get rid of our extension ladder. Someone has asked for it from craig's list, so hopefully it will also be gone tomorrow. We've done okay with the craig's list here in MS. More travelling cash, especially when added to our stimulus package check which is set to deposit tomorrow for availability on Friday. Wooo Hoooo!

The "last straw"

So, I've decided we're leaving here Saturday, with or without doctors appts or whatever else the world may throw at us. I found something in our upstairs bathroom that cinched the deal. I don't know for sure, but I am convinced it was a ROACH! I can't swear that it was, because I don't know exactly what they look like, but whether it was, or whether it wasn't, it now resides in the bowels of the shopvac. I carried our huge shopvac upstairs to suck it up with because I knew I wasn't touching it, and I don't think our mini-sweeper would pick it up.

I have been preparing for the trip anyway. H has been helping put toys together in zipper bags in like groups (pirates are all together, cars together, etc). We're packing movies into an overhead visor storage case. The Leap Pad toys I ordered for the kids are due to arrive tomorrow, and we still need to get a new DVD player for the car, but we have plenty of books and some new CD's to listen to and the toys are all organized.

Tomorrow will be dedicated to preparing up the van with a tire rotation and clean-up inside and out. Plus, packing the "travel bag" of clothes for the road trip and generally packing the rest of the clothes we'll need over the summer. Thursday I plan to look for a DVD player, and hopefully get the kids to the children's museum for some play time. I also need to clean up the backyard and garage (to put Frank's beast inside). Friday will be packing up the van and heading out.

I have a pretty ambitious plan in mind, but I also have flexibility built in, with hotels along the way if we need to go that route. I am really hoping to stay on military bases or with/near friends whenever possible so that we are safer and can relax a bit. Best laid plans will, I am sure, be debunked here over the next week or two of blogs. As long as we have no roaches where we stay, I think I'll be content!

Just realized a week has passed

Is it possible that it has "only" been a week? Okay, eight days, but it seems like a lifetime already in some ways, but in others it seems like he just left. Like when the kids were playing under the bed in the guestroom and found his dirty socks and a pair of sweats that needed to be put in the laundry. Guess I need to check under the beds more often, huh?

We all had a tough time getting moving this morning, but once we did, we hit the local mall, which has a fantastic toy store with a train table that the kids LOVE. K got her hands on a Kitty purse (pink, of course) and would not let go if her life depended on it, I swear. Needless to say, it came home with us, along with a hair bow and a set of animals for H that have holes and laces for him to work on lacing. I am not sure why he needs to practice lacing, but its something that they are "supposed" to do at some point.

Yesterday I bought them each scissors, kiddy scissors, but still. Now, there are paper bags cut up all over the house and I spend more time "helping" them cut (a.k.a. "Mommy cut this for me") than pretty much anything else. Again, not that they need to cut anything so much as they are "supposed" to do so eventually, right? H got monkey scissors and K has tiger ones. They do love them. Now I'm just waiting for the hair to start going and the clothes and the furniture and all of the other things that safety scissors are not supposed to be able to cut.

F's parents sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day. They are yellow and sunny and bright and cheery and they really did make my day. I didn't get a chance to call to thank them tonight (we had a "high maintenance" evening), but it really did mean a ton to me. K says they are her flowers though, and she is convinced they're from Daddy for her. Hey - I guess that makes two of us that are happy with them, so who am I to argue? (Plus, have you ever tried arguing with a nearly 2 year old? Kind of pointless!)

Thanksgiving day

No, I'm not a whack job and no, I don't think it's November. I just realized (again) today how very much I have to be thankful for. Sure, life isn't perfect, but wow, I have a lot to be thankful for this Mother's Day.

K and H both slept through the night last night, until K woke at 6, but she went back to sleep until 8:30! Basically, I was able to sleep from 12:30 when I got offline with Frank, until 8:30, which even with the short break to get K back to sleep is an eight hour night in my book. Frank wished me Happy Mother's Day just after midnight our time, and the day has been perfect ever since.

The kids woke up and wanted waffles for breakfast, which was fine by me. We were nearly out of milk (a crisis in this house) and I barely had enough to finish the waffles, much less a second cup of milk for H with breakfast - oops! After breakfast, which was eaten at the dining room table with real silverware and such, rather than in front of the TV, we headed to the grocery store to ensure that no meltdowns occurred due to a lack of milk in the home. We also bought the little princess her first Princess Pull-ups and a few other necessities.

After the commissary (grocery) run, we piled back into the car with our beach blankets, towels and swim suits and headed to the "beach" here in town. I'm not going to lie - the water is pretty gross, and the beaches are pretty dirty here (maybe going east a bit would have helped - those beaches are a tad prettier), but it suited our needs for today. We played on the beach, digging and destroying sand castles, splashing in the water and throwing sand everywhere. Since K hadn't had a morning nap, we only spent about 45 minutes there, but it was good. Both kids fell asleep on the way home so I got them into the guest room bed (didn't want the sand in their beds) and I was able to take a long shower followed by a nap of my own! I had clean sheets on the bed and the entire bed to myself and it was fantastic.

Both kids woke up in good moods, and H decided he was starving when he woke up, and wanted to make hot dogs with bread, and he wanted to do it himself. I probably don't let him help me enough with things like this. He did a great job, getting out the pan, getting them out of the fridge, opening the package, counting them out for all of us and putting them in water on the stove (yeah, I turned it on and such - help is one thing, H using the stove, not so much). He was so proud of himself and I swear he ate that hot dog like it was the best food he'd ever had. I can't believe how grown up he is getting.

And the little Princess, she really wants to be potty trained, and done with it. I can tell that she's ready. If it weren't for the upcoming road trip, I think I'd be okay with it, but... I figure we'll do whatever and she'll either start or she won't and either way it will work out. She's a smart one, and I think she'll catch on pretty quickly. Again, though, she's growing up so fast.

Party time!

Today's highlight was TJ's birthday party. TJ is the neighbor across the street, and he turns five on Tuesday. TJ's dad is getting transferred soon, so it was hard to shop for something that he could either use before he leaves, or take with him to his new place. We ended up with Spiderman wall stickers to decorate his new room with.

TJ's parents have a huge bouncy house with a slide on one side, so the kids worked hard at wearing themselves out being crazy jumping monkeys (and not on the beds for once). Hot dogs, cake, ice cream and goodie bags filled with candy made for a scarce dinner (not that I did much better, when I gave them frozen pizza, yogurt and applesauce, but I tried).

The kids had a fantastic time, and it was nice to let them play while TJ's mom and I chatted - almost like normal adult interaction. It was a nice change of pace and we both agreed that the kids need to get together more for the next few weeks until we leave to head north for Auntie A's wedding.

I spent some time this morning making H a new Buzz Lightyear shirt. When we were at the fabric store the other evening, H saw that fabric and K found some "Pablo/Niqua" material, so I am making them outfits from their favorite "friends." H has been on a Buzz kick since our recent trip to DisneyWorld where he met the "real thing." It was fun, and he LOVES his new shirt.

One of the favors that was in the goodie bags was an airplane on a string that you can swing around to make it "fly." Both of the kids love them. Tonight, K was already asleep, and I gave H a piggy-back ride upstairs. He was carrying one of the airplanes. When I went to sit him down on the bed, I didn't get both feet standing on there, and dropped him straight down onto his face. He screamed and cried hysterically, and therefore, so did I. I couldn't tell if he was hurt of scared or both. I scooped him up and held him as we rocked on the bed, that stupid airplane string fell down onto his face, and the ring landed on his eyeball. All of the sudden he started laughing as hysterically as he had been crying, and we both disolved into tears from laughing instead of crying. He made it about another two minutes before he fell asleep, and I think that is a great way to end a day.

Kind of a poopy day

I woke up with K just after 7:30, which was great. But then, I logged on to the computer a few minutes later, just in time to see F logging off of Yahoo messenger. This morning we didn't do a whole lot, then this afternoon Mommy had a doctor's appointment. The kiddos slept for about 1/2 an hour on the way to the base hospital. I had brought the honking big double stroller thinking that both kids might sleep through my appointment, but instead they woke as I put them into the stroller, and both stayed awake through the appointment and beyond. My regular doctor was gone, a fact that I would have known had my cell phone not died while I wasn't looking.

Okay, so other than the start of missing F online and very short naps for the monkeys, the day itself wasn't so bad, so here is where the poopy part was. We're home and they are playing quietly upstairs, too quietly. I go up, and there is H bragging to me that he made big poops on the floor of his room, and sure enough he had. I look at the loving little sister who idolizes him, and don't you know she has removed her poopy diaper and dropped that onto the floor. Fantastic!

Just before dinner time, K said she was hungry, then passed out sleeping. I make H dinner, then put him in front of the TV watching Cars where he passes out. So of course, K wakes up and I need to make her dinner. After that, I get H into his own bed for the first night since F left, and then get K fed and snuggled into bed with me for a while. Hopefully she'll go back to sleep soon. Right now, she's "helping" me type - by climbing in my lap in between the laptop and my line of sight, sitting on my arms so it is tough to type. She's looking pretty awake, and I might well be in for quite the night between the two of them!

Ups and Downs of the day

Yesterday was "one of those days" that things are just a bit off. Largely my fault for spending much of the night watching for F to pop onto Yahoo messenger so I could show him the webcam was up and running and see how that worked, all to no avail. K was up several times in the night and therefore I can't really call that sleep. Needless to say, I started the day with coffee, which I rarely do.

When he is home, F generally has to go work out each morning, then comes home for breakfast/coffee/shower, etc. before returning to work for the day. So when H came down and our very loud coffee pot was running, his face lit up and he asked, "Daddy's home?" It broke my heart to remind him that no, Daddy won't be home for lots of days and nights, just like Elmo's Daddy. His face fell a bit and then he moved on to whatever next captured his interest. My heart lingered on the moment all day, wondering how many more of those moments we'd experience over the coming months.

After naptime, we headed to the fabric store where we found Buzz Lightyear cloth for a Hawaiian style shirt for H, and Pablo/'Niqua (Backyardigans) cloth for an outfit for K. Not exactly what I was shopping for, but it made them happy, so why not? I also found material to make H a tie if I can't find one for Auntie A's wedding next month. I still can't believe its that close! (I also can't believe how unbelieveably difficult it is to find a children's tie in chocolate brown.)

I did get to talk to F on the phone from the terminal in Oki for about 10 minutes, and the kids got to say hello. H ratted me out for my many infractions, including "making" him leave the house without his brown sandals, and therefore making him wear his Buzz sandals, which were dirty with sand and he didn't want to wear them. This was delivered in one long run on sentence in H's less-than-clear speech pattern that left F asking, "huh?" It was cute that H wanted to pass along his story of the day to Daddy in his excited little voice, and worth the translation efforts on my part.

Lastly, great news in the extended family as Auntie S and Uncle M welcomed baby #4, named Elizabeth Rose yesterday afternoon. I don't have many details, but have heard she has a head full of dark hair. The kids are already smitten, and even T has accepted that he's got "another sister."

Another day down

So today was a more "normal" day. We hung out at home until it was time for a memorial service for one of the guys who was stationed with F, who died in a car accident last week. F played softball with him, and his girl friend was very nice to the kids in the stands - we called her H's girl friend. I didn't know them that well, but felt compelled to attend. She is apparently still in a coma or at least in hospital. They are/were so young, and it is so sad.

H played in the pool for a while this afternoon, while K took a nap. It was nice to see how creative he can be when he plays alone. Aside from drinking pool water (eeewwww!) he played really well, pretending to swim, pretending to float. When K woke up, we hit the post office to send out new baby gifts to the new niece that is due to arrive tomorrow. As soon as we hit the car, H passed out, which kind of messed up my plans for an early dinner at the local chinese joint. Instead, I picked up take out so I still got my fix.

There was a family readiness group meeting tonight that caused me to miss a valuable chat time with F tonight, which made me sad. The only thing I got out of it was a confirmation that he won't be home until January because, "what's a few more weeks?" Uh, dumb @$$ commander - a few more weeks is the difference between being here for baby's first Christmas and not being here for baby's first Christmas. Other than that, nope, no big deal. Jack @$$!

They also gave us the Seasame Street deployment kit for kids. It had a pretty cute video on Elmo's dad leaving for a long time for deployment and things to do to stay in touch and so on. It was pretty cute and we had to watch it twice (it is short). I noticed during the second showing that H was chatting to himself a bit and he said "Elmo's daddy had to go away for a long time. H's daddy had to go away for a long time. Then H's Mommy has to go away for a long time." It made me sad that this movie that was supposed to be helpful led to a conversation about leaving, and that Mommy would always be here for him and that I won't be going away. Perhaps it is a good thing, because it did lead to that conversation, but it was still heartbreaking to hear that he thinks all parents go away.

Really quick

We have success! The webcam is now working on the laptop! I was going to buy a new one, and looked at a really old one we had instead, and it works great! If you have Yahoo IM, you can watch the crazy monkeys while we chat. (I turn it away from myself - they're way more entertaining anyway!) Get in touch if you need my Yahoo ID.

H's dear heart

So, after much stress and anxiety, I finally took H in to have his heart re-scanned. For those who don't remember, he had a mild VSD at birth. He had an echocardiogram and ultrasound of his heart at 8 days old, and we were told to have him re-scanned at a year to see if surgery might be needed at around his second birthday. Since Mommy was nervous and not willing to really allow any kind of surgery on her perfectly healthy child, and Daddy was deployed at the one year mark, the follow-up was avoided. At the two year mark, we were in the process of preparing for a move, and re-entry into the military. Therefore, as we neared the three year mark, and the new baby has shown to have the same defect pending, we finally agreed to get him in to see the Pediatric Cardiologist.

And so, early (for H) this morning, we loaded up into the van and headed to the hospital for the fateful exam - Mommy still nervous because Daddy is again deployed and the potential news could be too much to bear. K is happy to be out and about with new places to explore and H is hesitant about meeting the doctor and what will happen, since its been a while since he's seen a doctor and doesn't know what to expect. A little time in the waiting room to play with toys, a trip to a room filled with Spiderman stickers and wall hangings to be weighed (40.5 lbs) and measured (39") along with blood pressure from both arms and a leg and a cool check of the pulse on one finger that gave Mommy flashback's to H's first week in the hospital with his E.T. toe.

Finally, into the echocardiogram in the Spongebob room, which consisted of a number of "stickers" on H's chest, legs and arms which were then attached to probes, and he had to lie still for a few moments (tell that to an almost 3 year old!). Thank goodness for an experienced tech who has done this before with children and was smart enough to let him hold on to the cars he was playing with.

Finally, we met with the wonderful cardiologist who had done our fetal echo a few weeks ago. She got down on the floor with H while he played trucks and listened to his heart, then asked what kinds of movies he likes, so she could set up the TV in the Ultrasound room. Luckily, H has been in ultrasounds with me before, and has an idea of what happens when the belly gets gooped up and checked out, so he was okay with that part. Doc gave him a piggy flashlight to play with in the semi-darkness and got to work. All-in-all, he sat pretty quietly and with a few minor exceptions, he did well with her proddings.

The good news is, after all of that, there is no more pin hole in his heart, and Doc said that his heart is as healthy as someone who's VSD healed in utero and that unless someone got ahold of his old medical records, noone would ever know that he had ever had a hole, so this is a huge relief for Mommy, and Daddy.

As for Daddy, when we all got home, Mommy logged on and there he was, online on Yahoo messenger with his webcam enabled. Wooo hoooo! Internet access from the barracks was fantastic at 3 a.m. local time, and hopefully it will be constant during his "home port" time in Oki.

And a final bit of unrelated, but appreciated good news - we've been purging un-needed items, selling a few things on Craig's List and so on. We finally sold a wheelbarrow that was taking up space in the yard (as opposed to our storage unit which we finally cleared). $20 richer, we're off to Home Depot for a new bottle of water for the water cooler and a nap for the kiddies, thus time for Mommy to Blog here!

Silly concerns

Is it too early to be concerned or annoyed about stupid things? I was doing laundry today and there was some of F's stuff in there. Obviously he couldn't wear nothing the last day or so or take all of his dirty laundry with him, so there would be some dirty laundry that lingered after he left. I washed and dried it and put it away, along with other laundry that had been piled up on his dresser. So now, he's put away until he gets back.

He left a set of dogtags on the top of the mirror of his dresser. They jingle when you open and close the drawers or bump the dresser. They're the ones he wore to Kuwait, and there is a small picture of H etched onto one of them - his nine month photos. I also saw a medal in his bottom drawer that he carried with him last deployment. Why wouldn't he take these things with him? Why did he choose one set of dogtags over another? Silly, but this bugs me too. I think I'll try a set of dogtags etched for him with K & H either together or one of each of them, new ones, maybe with photos from H's 3rd birthday next month - have them snap one of K as well.

As for those crazy monkeys, well they are singing "no more monkeys" as they jump on K's bed. Then one will turn off the lights and say "night-night time" followed by the other doing the same after they collapse in giggles together. I'm hoping that I don't end up with either of them in the ER for some monkey related jumping today. And I'm hoping the jumping wears them out.

We did some shopping today at the outlets. Both kids had outgrown most of their PJ's, and are now happily wearing new jammies - H in Buzz Lightyear and K in Kitty jammies. One more thing they are happy about. All-in-all, they seem to be adjusting pretty well to Daddy being gone. K has mentioned a few times today doing things with Daddy, but I think she's just too young to understand the way H does that it will be a while before Daddy comes home.

H asked for pancakes for dinner, and I made them. I thought about actually cooking something else but since it was what he asked for, why not? He actually wanted blueberry ones, but we're out of blueberries, so he asked for strawberry pancakes. Never heard of them, but why not? Hope this attitude (mine, not his) is not a sign of the way this deployment will go, or they'll be (even more) spoiled rotten before F returns.

Day One down...

Well, with the help of a few more kids videos than I would normally allow, and some seasonable weather, we survived day one. Both kids even took naps at the same time AND I got a hot bath. I should probably have cleaned up toys or prepped for our forthcoming road trip, but the bath was exactly what I needed. Right now, they are planted in front of Toy Story, which is the first thing they've agreed on all day, if I remember correctly!

We had a nice trip to the playground, and stayed just long enough to wear ourselves out, I hope. As we were talking about heading home, K said, "Go home, see Dadda," and it broke my heart to remind her that Daddy would be at work for a long time, and that we wouldn't see him. I guess I should ask someone how you're "supposed" to deal with this on a two year old level, but I don't know that I would want to do anything other than be honest, even if they have no concept of how long the time frame will be. As we left the airport this early morning, I tried to explain that we'd be going to see Grandma and Auntie A and everyone and that later we'd go see Gram/Gramp and Auntie S et al. All K had to say was that it was night-night time and that Grandma was still sleeping.

Perhaps we'll start tonight with trying to get both of them down to sleep at roughly the same time. Normally K passes out around 9:30, then H lingers until 11:00 or longer, but she also rises with the sun by 7:00 and H sleeps in, just like me, until 9:30 or later. I don't know that I can handle the less than 8 hours of sleep that this schedule entails alone, so hopefully we can make some adjustments, as we will for most everything else, I suppose.

All-in-all the day went okay. Daddy called from Dallas and we had a few last minute things to chat about, which was bittersweet. Hopefully we'll get onto Skype and able to chat online when he has access. Anyone who hasn't checked it out, should as it allows free phone call type conversations over the internet. I think F will be trying to get his account set up, so if anyone has access, make sure you send him your name so he can watch for you.

And So it begins

For months you know its coming. You dread it, but try not to focus on it, but before you know it, its here and you can't avoid it any longer. Although what has happened can't really be described as sleep, you wake at 3:00 a.m. and he's in the shower, getting ready to leave.

He loads his bags into the car, and you're already crying , though you said you wouldn't. You grab H, and snuggle him close before securing him into his car seat, still in the far back of the van left over from the big farewell trip to FL. Meanwhile, he loads the princess into her seat and buckles her tight. Your eyes meet his and he knows you have been crying again. You hope he understands that you aren't trying to make it harder on him. He knows you, so hopefully that's enough for now and he won't feel guilty about leaving - its not like he wants to go either.

The airport is hard. You knew it would be. H wants out of his seat, and once he's free, K has to chime in with requests for freedom too, which is okay because they need to be able to give Daddy big hugs and kisses before he leaves anyway. You both strap them back in two minutes later. All you want to do is stay as long as you can and prolong the inevitable, but you know none of the other wives are still hanging out, and the kids will be insane if left loose in their pajamas and slippers for too long and he's already asked you not to stay.

Driving away the tears fall again, and you console yourself talking to the kids and searching for the way out of the airport so that you can find your way home, hoping all along that the kids will go back to sleep easily, since its barely 4:00 a.m. The guards on the gate don't understand why you can't figure out which of the four of them standing around is checking I.D.'s and you can't be bothered to care too much, you just want to get home.

The kids stay awake, and act like they won't be going back down, but you bundle them into bed with you anyway and pray for the best as silent tears fall. K chatters along, babbling about nothing and everything and eventually drifts off to sleep snuggling her bunny-bear, on her pink princess pillow, which has been been squished in next to yours. H has drifted off after a short argument about whether or not Spidey needed to be put into night mode so he can snore (which also results in him talking each time he gets bumped in the night). Bunny-bear in one arm, a silenced Spidey in the other, H sleeps peacefully on his Cars pillow which is on the other side from K.

You know that being smashed in the middle of a nearly 3, and nearly 2 year old will not be the most comfy place, but its what you need to get your head on straight as you try to fall asleep too. Fox News in the background rehashes the Rev. Wright fallout and its affect on Obama's campaign for president for the thousandth time. Sick of hearing about it, you douse the volume and try to keep thoughts of any kind from crowding out your head.

A deep inhale of K's slightly stale milk breath reminds you that last night they brushed their teeth too early. Her feathery soft blonde hair falls over her face, and again you debate whether it would be trimmed at some point, but it's baby softness steels your resolve to leave it be for a while longer. A foot in the belly and a knee in the back remind you of the blessings that will help keep you sane over the next 8 months or so. From the inside, baby is apparently not thrilled with your middle of the night adventures, and decides to make his or her presence known as well.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, you drift off to sleep with a deep sense of loss, thinking of all of the things you wanted to do before he left, but knowing that it never really gets done - not all of it. His car isn't in the garage because you never finished clearing space for the beast. Those family photos never got taken, and as usual, you have pictures of you with the kids, and him with the kids, and none really with all four of you together - not since just before he left the last time, when K was only a week old.

And so, the cycle begins again, and just as before your little family will manage the separation and deal with everything that comes along the way somehow.