You know it's really bad when you put off procrastinating..

Where to begin?

My last post was in November, about half way through the last patrol, so I'll start there.

Dave made it home before Christmas, which was a hoped for but unexpected blessing. I was seriously lacking the Christmas spirit & didn't even have a tree. It didn't seem like a big deal until Christmas Eve, & then I decided to draw a Christmas tree on the wall with chalk, but Dave put a stop to that very quickly. Lesson learned. Christmas just isn't Christmas without a tree. We even lucked out & Dave didn't have duty on Christmas Eve or Christmas, which was a first.

Right after Christmas Dave got to go with me to a prenatal appointment, which was the first one he'd gone to. My doctor is the best & gave us a freebie ultrasound just so Dave could see the little one since he'd missed my first couple ultrasounds. I'd just hit the second trimester the week he came home, so we finally felt comfortable enough to start telling people that we're expecting. He was a bit nervous about the whole MTHFR situation (I'll explain that later), but that's to be expected. I think he was secretly relieved to have missed the morning sickness phase (or so he thought). I had my first appointment at the perinatologist in Jacksonville at the end of January. Dave went with me, & we found out that we're expecting another little boy! The boys will be 22-23 months apart. Lord help us. We haven't decided on a name just yet, so we've nicknamed him Baby 'Zilla, because I'm sure he'll be just as rambunctious as Chop (a.k.a. Chopzilla). That was also the visit when they decided I needed to be on blood thinners (related to the MTHFR that I'll explain later). I'm on Lovenox injections once a day until 36 weeks, when they'll change it to Heparin injections twice a day. This pregnancy has been one thing after another, but we're no less thankful.

Baby Zilla at 17 weeks

Frontal shot of his face

Zilla sucking his thumb

I see my OB every four weeks & the perinatologist every three to four weeks. They are keeping a very close eye on me & Zilla. I'm lucky to see the most awesome doctors ever, so that helps put my mind at ease. Plus we get to see Zilla way more often than someone with a "normal" pregnancy would.

Zilla at 21ish weeks

Yes, that is just his foot!

Showing us he's still a boy

Thumb sucker

Another picture of his face - Skeletor looking thing, isn't he?

He's a big boy! He weighed in at a hefty pound at 17 weeks.

Me & Zilla at 24 weeks

I don't know why I looked so grumpy in this one

Shelbye is doing great, as usual. She's made A/B Honor Roll on every report card. She's still struggling a little in math, but we're working on it. She had the Friday before & Monday of President's Day off & Dave was still on stand down, so we made a trip to Atlanta, which she was stoked about. She saw snow for the very first time & of course took the golden opportunity to throw a snowball at Dave. Her birthday is coming up pretty soon & she's really excited to be turning "double digits". We gave her her big present early - the Band Hero bundle for the Wii that included the game, the drums, the microphone, & the guitar. Even though it's Shelbye's birthday present, the whole family has had a blast playing it. I'm really glad we finally found a game that we can all play together & it entertains all of us. Even Chop gets in on the action & loves playing the drums. She was hoping we would get to spend Spring Break & her birthday in Atlanta with the family, but it seems that Dave's parents have other plans for that week that include coming here.

(Turtle's been a little camera shy lately, so I don't have any new photos of her. Hopefully she gets out of this stage soon.)

Chop started walking shortly before Dave came home. He was a bit wobbly at first, but he caught on quickly. It's awesome how they go from barely being able to walk to running at the speed of light within days! I can hardly keep up with him. His favorite thing to do is play outside while Dave is doing yard stuff. We're going to get him a slide/swing/climb on thing for the yard pretty soon. His vocabulary is growing by the hour it seems, although people that aren't around him constantly sometimes have no clue what he's saying. He's almost thirty pounds & a little over two feet tall.

Oh the trouble that usually follow that mischievous smile!

Dave reenlisted while he was underway. This leaves him in the Navy until '14 & on the boat until March of '12. A few weeks ago we thought we might have the opportunity to PCS to Guam, but it doesn't seem to be panning out. We were stoked about possibly going & are more than a little bummed that it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. 

He's enjoying this offcrew & has done loads of stuff around the house. We finally painted the bedroom! He also fixed the toilet that's been out of commission since a week after he left. Turns out Chop threw his alligator bath toy in it. Fixing it entailed taking the toilet outside & removing the toy with a screwdriver. It was a lot more difficult than it sounds, trust me.

I'm finally getting to work on my photography. I've been slacking for a while now, but no more. I ordered a nifty little Canon beauty the other night & have been ever so impatiently waiting its arrival ever since. I haven't done anything else with my sewing, but that's to be expected with Chop running around.  I'm just taking everything day by day & focusing on growing our Baby Zilla.

Long time, no see

I haven't updated either of our blogs in forever; since about halfway through last patrol, I think. Sooo much has happened since my last post, which means I have lots & lots to blog about! I'm going to try to get to it tonight, but if not, definitely by the end of the weekend.

Ta da!

Dave has been gone one month today. If you count a month as in from date to date rather than four weeks, which was actually a few days ago. Sunday, to be exact. Not that I'm counting or anything.. I still can't say when he'll be home of course, OPSEC & all. I think it's okay to say that our halfway night dinner is coming up. There are a lot of things you realize during a deployment, & the one that always hits me hardest is that even our worst day when we're together is better than my best day without him.


In happier news, I've gotten a few grades back. Call the dog tags chiche' if you will, but I'm telling you friend, they work! My math midterm was last Thursday. Chop had commandeered his daddy's tags & chain, so I found the single loose tag that's kept in my jewelry box & stashed it in the back pocket of my jeans. I was on the verge of hyperventilating the whole time I was taking the test. Math is not my strong suit. I kinda suck at it to be honest. I left knowing I'd completely bombed it. My professor emailed the class tonight to let us know he'd graded them & posted our scores. I thought I could check it out all by myself, but when the site pulled up, I seriously thought my heart might stop. I had to turn off the screen & call Jen to be "with" me. Because that makes total sense, rightttt? No. It turned out to be anxiety over nada - I got an 89! Whoo hoooo! Jen got so excited with me, both of us were screaming & I thought for sure she was about to go into labor. My research paper for philosophy almost drive me insane because I went back & forth over just the right topic for weeks & still ended up having to ask for an extension (although that was due to things unrelated to my procrastination) & wrote the entire thing the night before it was due. I got my grade back for that last night - 9 out of 10! I'm starting to see that I stress a lot over school stuff that I really shouldn't stress that much over. I spend too much time coming up with the perfect answer, or paper, or response, when yes, thought is required, but it's not something to completely wig out over.

My philosophy & psych classes will be over next weekend. So weird to think of how quickly the semester has passed & yet this patrol has gone by sooooo slow. I registered for next semester's classes this week. The next algebra, human biology, & medical terminology. I wish I could do more prereqs, but until I knock out the rest of my math prereqs, I can't take the other requirements - chemistry & such. Seems like this college gig may take a little longer than I'd thought..

We're making Thansgiving plans around here. It'll be our first Thanksgiving without Dave, but we're still doing it up. My dad has bought a smoker & we have BIG plans for it, involving a turkey & a ham. I've invited some fellow boat wives over so it should by a lively good time. Lotsss of food. Yum.

Happy Veterans Day

It's Veterans Day! Did you thank a vet today?

I come from a long line of military vets. My great grandfather came over from the Netherlands to fight for the US during WWII. My grandfather was in the Army, stationed in the Phillipines during the Korean war. My great uncle was on the USS Enterprise, & my uncle was in the Air Force. My dad was in the ANG during Vietnam. I'm the first female in my family to serve, which I did in the Coast Guard after 9/11, & I'm married to a Navy submariner. Yep.. That's a long line.

It was a pretty solemn day around here. We watched the memorial for the victims of the Ft. Hood yesterday, & the families of those at Ft. Lewis weighed heavy on my heart today. I try to take holidays like this to help Shelbye understand everything that's going on. She gets that her dad is gone & that it's just part of life, but she doesn't understand the real reasons behind it. She doesn't get that there's a war raging, or how many Americans are involved in it or have been lost to it. She really doesn't understand the events at Ft. Hood. She couldn't get why I was crying over people I've never met. Part of me wants to help her understand, but the larger part thinks it's best that she doesn't get it. Her life is affected enough by it all by losing her dad for six months out of the year; she should be shielded from the worst of it for as long as possible. So today's conversation basically consisted of explaining that our freedoms are protected by people like Dave who leave their families behind & make sacrifices so that they can keep us safe. I told her that the military is like a big family, & if someone dies, it doesn't matter if we actually knew them, it's still losing a part of our big military family.

So thank you, to those who have served & are serving now. Thank you to the wives of those who are away, those who are holding their breath wishing their deployment wouldn't come, & those who won't be coming home

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." -- JFK

Ft. Hood

Please keep the families & those affected by the Fort Hood shooting yesterday in your thoughts & prayers. Another senseless act of violence. It saddens me to know that the soldiers were shot at the one place they could feel completely safe, & they will never feel safe again. Regardless of the shooter's motives, whether they were terror based or not, senseless is an understatement. There are so many other ways to make your political statement. Taking the lives of others, especially those you were trusted to protect, is incomprehensible.

Halloween

I can't believe it's November already! Maybe that's partly because it was in the upper 80's on Halloween & today all of a sudden it's in the 60's. Not that I'm complaining, hoodie weather is the best! So Halloween has come & gone, Shelbye has a big stash of candy, & Chop is glad I'm not making him wear that costume anymore. Shelbye was a batterina, & Chase was a spider. Ohhhh the spidey cuteness! Other than Georgia losing to Florida (& the ensuing trash talk that comes from living so close to Jax), it was an awesome day. We hung out at a friend's house & trick or treated with her & her boys. Good times.

My English final came back & the dog tags worked! My final grade for the class is an A. I couldn't be happier. One class down, three to go. For this semester anyway. My math midterm is this week, & my two other classes will be over by Thanksgiving.

Today starts a new week, a much better week. A week that isn't filled with being anxious & stressed over things I can do nothing about. A week that's filled with counting blessing & not focusing on the things that are difficult. A week full of Halloween candy, pumpkin stuff, & Chop kisses. Last week was much rougher than I'd like to admit, but it's a new week, & that means seven days to do things better than I did last week, & that we're seven days closer to my love coming home. It's going to be a good week.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart’” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

Ok, so it's been a little while..

but this house = full time crazy. I'd happily settle for part time crazy right now. I don't know how much blogging I'll be able to do in the near future. I have two massive papers due & a midterm next week, plus the everyday excitement of life without Dave. Add in the weekly blood work & lots of doctor's appointments, & I'll be lucky to finish all my homework & find time to sleep. Without going into great detail (because those of you that need to know the why already do), this is day two of progesterone therapy four times a day, plus a handful of extra vitamins, B6, B12, & tons of folic acid. For someone pumped full of vitamin B, I'm awfully tired. I fell asleep on the couch with Chop last night watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. If only dishes & laundry would take care of themselves, right? I need a straight IV of coffee.. Stat! Oh, & an email would be nice too. I know that's not going to be coming any time soon, but a girl can dream! Until then I guess I'll settle for a one sided conversation with him. Two weeks down, a million more to go, or so it seems. It's days like these that make me wish that he wasn't going to reenlist. If that were the case, this would be our last patrol. At the most, one more. At least then there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, no such light exists. Tomorrow pay day will hit & I'll remind myself how lucky we are as I'm using our BAH to pay our mortgage, but until then.. Navy, you stink! Today is just one of those days filled with a 9 year old girl that rolls her little eyes & a little boy who is crabby because he's on a nap strike. Bed time will come soon for the little ones & then I'll get to sit down & work on those dreaded papers that I've put off all week..