The Last Four Months

So, the last time I posted we were waiting on a date to leave Hawaii. Well we got that date approval to leave early. We could leave Feb 9th.  Next we needed orders, because in the military you can't do anything without "official" orders, even if you already know when and where you are supposed to be doing something.  Usually orders come last minute and you are left scrambling to get everything done on time.  However, we were blessed to get orders very quickly! So then we were busy with getting all the medical records in order, booking airline tickets, arranging to have Tony's car shipped, scheduling movers , etc. With Christmas and all that we were quite busy.

The movers came on Jan 21st. They packed and loaded our stuff for the next 2 days. Then we stayed in our mostly empty house with temporary loaner furniture until the end of the month.  The military has programs overseas where you can borrow the necessities like beds, table, and something resembling a couch while you are in the process of moving.  We were also able to borrow a box of very basic kitchen necessities.  It was very helpful.  At the end of the month, we were allowed to go stay in lodging for 10 days until we left the island.  We were so blessed to be able to get lodging on the pretty side of the island. We got to spend our last days in Hawaii on the very beautiful, tropical mountainous side.  It was absolutely wonderful, and the perfect way to end our time on the island.

During this time we were still looking to find housing in VA, and sell our van.  We had decided to sell our van instead of shipping it,  It had been on the island it's whole life, and as a result very much looked like an "island" van. (Quite a bit of rust)  The military will only pay to ship one car, so we would have been out a couple thousand dollars to ship it, plus it would sell for more in Hawaii.  It was a tough spot to be in though.  We needed to sell it before we left, but still needed it to get our family around.  Housing in VA was still looking pretty hopeless.  We couldn't afford to rent anything in a good area and the wait list for the Air Force housing was still super long.  So, we decided to check into housing on the Army base that is about 20 miles from the Air Force base. (It's actually a joint base with the Air Force, meaning that they function together under a lot of the same leadership, even though they are different branches.)  We really didn't want Tony to have to commute that far every day, but we were desperate for a house, especially with the baby coming.  Well Ft Eustis had a house available for us shortly after we would be arriving in VA!  We were so very relieved. We would be able to move in about 10 days after getting to VA. That sounded great to us, as we waited 60 days after arriving in Hawaii for a house. Meanwhile, we hadn't had anyone show interest in our van at all.  Tony got a power of attorney for a friend from work to be able to sell it on our behalf after we left the island.  We were still under a bit of a time crunch as we had to sell it before we arrived in VA and needed to buy another. Well...about 24 hours before we left the island a guy looked at it, loved it and bought it on the spot!  He lived on Kawaii, and was more than happy for us to keep it until we left the next day and then ship it to him whenever. God's timing was PERFECT!  We got almost as much as we paid for the van, and had Tony's friend ship it to the other island after we left.  So then we said goodbye to the special people that had truly been our ohana on the island for 3 years. That was the hardest part about leaving Hawaii...

We flew off the island at 10pm on Feb 9th.  We had about a 5 hour flight to LAX and then an 8 hour layover there. Thank God for USOs. We crashed there for the majority of our layover and took naps on couches. (We arrived at LAX at 3am Hawaii time) This mommy slept pretty much not at all on the plane. From LAX we flew to Colorado Springs. WE arrived in CO around 5pm (mountain time) to flurries outside of the airplane windows. The girls were super excited, but definitely not a fan of the cold! By the time we got our luggage and rented a van it was snowing heavily! The last time Natalie had seen snow was when she was 3, Gabbie was only 1, and of course Savannah had never seen snow, or experienced temperatures below 65.  So we were loading all our bags in the van and trying to get 3 car seats strapped in, all while getting snowed on.  The big girls were going crazy trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues and Savannah was SCREAMING, because she had NO idea what was going on!  I saw Savannah shiver for the first time!  It was both the saddest and cutest thing! We spent the night at a hotel in CO Springs and woke up the net morning to a few inches of beautiful snow!  The girls were still pretty excited about it, but only from somewhere that was warm inside.  The were COLD!  I couldn't believe that we got to see snow that soon after arriving back on the mainland.  We then drove the 8 hours to Amarillo.  The girls did great on the trip, aside from Savannah getting carsick once.  She had never been in the car for longer than an hour or so at a time. None of us were used to being in the car for long periods of time, but the trip was smooth and we left the snow (but not the cold) behind.

We arrived in Amarillo that evening, returned the rental van and got to see my family for the first time in about a year and a half.  It was so nice!  The big girls were so excited to see Mimi and Pawpaw!!  Even though Savannah had only really seen Mimi and Pawpaw on skype, she went right to them and acted like she had knows them her whole life!  Well, she had Mimi and Pawpaw backwards as to who was who, since she had only seen them together on skype.  ha ha!  It didn't take her long to get it straightened out though.  Mimi and Pawpaw were very quickly her favorite people for the next 3 weeks while we were there!

The day after arriving in Amarillo it snowed again.  Quite a bit this time and the girls were able to make their first snowman! We enjoyed our time in Texas.  My older sister was able to come up from Houston for almost 2 weeks while we were there and I was able to meet my niece for the first time! It was a bit of an adventure having 2 little girls under the age of 2 there at the same time.  We had lots of fun though, in spite of a virus making it's way around every adult in the house. It snowed one more time while we were there....this time a record breaking blizzard of 20 inches!!  Pretty much unheard of for Texas!  I don't think I've ever seen that much snow, and it left us with 6+ foot drifts.  CRAZY.  By this time, I was DONE with the snow.  I wanted to see a little snow once, but the snow had been hanging around us almost the whole time we had been on the mainland. The girls had fun climbing on the huge drifts and playing in the snow this time too, but they definitely had less enthusiasm for it than with the previous snows.

After 3 weeks in Texas it was time to continue our journey.  We flew from Amarillo to VA on March 5th.  We arrived late at night to more cold weather and rain. We had lodging on the Air Force base reserved there for 10 days.  We planned to go look at a van that we had found online the next day, but were unable to go that day because of...MORE SNOW!  It wasn't bad where we were, but the van was about an hour away and the snow was bad there.  So we were stuck in the hotel in our new city unable to go do anything for that first day.  The next day we went and looked at the van. It was pretty much my dream van, and I'd been watching it online for a couple of weeks hoping that it wouldn't sell before we could get there. And hoping that it wasn't too good to be true.  It was about 4000k below the blue book price, and we would never be able to afford one with all those features if this particular one didn't work out.  We took it for a test drive, and decided that it was indeed a good deal! (As much as you can tell about any used car from just a test drive anyway.) Buying a used car in our price range is always nerve wracking!  You just never know. However, we only pay cash for cars, so we had to stay within our range.  Our last 2 used, cash vehicle purchases were great for us, so we are hoping that this one will be the same!  We got a 2008 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited.  It has leather, heated seats, sunroof, dvd player, built in GPS and backup camera...almost all the fancy extras. It was pretty high in miles at a little over 100k...but since it's a Toyota it should be good for at least 100k more.  And like I said, in our price range we are limited.  I believe that God had our name on this van! I love it.

After about 9 days in the hotel we got the keys to our house, and all of our stuff delivered.  We have been busy getting unpacked and trying to get organized ever since.  It takes me a little longer with 3 kids and a big belly that prevents me from lifting anything very heavy or moving very quickly most of the time.  We haven't gotten to do much exploring of the area yet, but that's ok.  We have time for that. We are still waiting on the military to pay us what they owe us for the move.  We had to pay for hotels and plane tickets ourselves and get reimbursed for it. That was a few thousand dollars.  Looks like we could be waiting another month or so at least.

 I finally get to go to the Dr tomorrow.  I haven't been for an OB checkup in 8 weeks.  I am now 35 1/2 weeks.  Because of the move, the pregnancy has really flown by!  I haven't had time to focus on it, or getting ready for baby.  Hopefully I can do that now. :o)

We had a few minor bumps in the road on our very long journey.  They were minor though. God's hand was on us the whole time and he provided just what we needed, at just the right time.  We were concerned about the transition for Savannah, as she has always slept in her own house and doesn't sleep if she's not in her own bed.  She had a few rough nights, but overall did GREAT! Gabbie doesn't adapt to change well, but she is doing much better now that we are finally unpacked in our house. Saying goodbye to all your friends, living out of a suitcase and being homeless for 2 months while moving about 5,000 across the country isn't easy for anyone.  My girls have been troopers, and I am so proud of them!

I tried to just give basic details so this post wouldn't be the length of a book.  Hopefully someone made it all the way to the end! Here are some pics now! (Sorry about the picture size and quality...I don't have the original files)

               Gabbie standing on a huge drift. She is standing next to a bench swing! Close to 6 ft high.

                                          Walking on a pile of snow as high as the fence.

                                         Pawpaw shoveled a walk way through the snow.

                                                            Savannah is a little unsure...

                                                         Daddy and Savannah on the drifts

                                                   Savannah was over the cold and snow...

                                                             The girls first snowman!

                                                                 Sliding down the drift.

                                                  Natalie on the drift that ate the swing

                                                                          Fun times!      

                                                                     Look at that drift!

                                                     Our house in VA! (the one on the end)

                                                    My van! (Such a pretty color :0) )

                                                             The inside of the van

It Is What It Is

Today has been a rough week. I don't really know why.  Nothing major, just a lot of those little frustrating things that add up. It has also been a very long week!  Today is the first day this week that hasn't started out like a Monday.  Thank goodness for that. However, I have yet to really get anything good accomplished either. It's also the first day this week that I don't have anywhere that I NEED to go.  Having too many days on the go is not something I enjoy.  I kinda need to go to Target...but it's not absolutely necessary to do it today.  So maybe I won't.  We'll see... 
I had high hopes for this week too.  So far it is letting me down.  I really hope that it finishes out the way that I want it to though!

Last Friday we finally got our assignment from the Air Force.  We are going to Langley AFB in Virginia next.  I was disappointed when I found out.  It was very last on our list.  Our last assignment was the one that was very last on our list too. (Hawaii was not our original assignment)  I'm thinking that next time we make our list we should put where we really want to go at the bottom!  We weren't really surprised that we got it though.  The work that he will be doing there is going to be a lot of the same stuff he is doing here.  We knew that the AF tries to match that first, when it comes to moving people.  So no surprise that he was selected to go there.   Langley is definitely better than some of the other places that we could have been sent to, so I continue to focus on that and be grateful. There are really a lot of positives about there.  It's a great area.  Rich in history.  Three hours from D.C, super close to Colonial Williamsburg, and really just a TON to do in the area.  Not that we will have the money to do many of these cool things...but it's there anyway. Ha Ha.   We will be only about 2 hours from Tony's parents.  I am excited about that. They are already talking about getting a bigger car so that all the girls will fit in it, and getting a swing set. ;o)   The rest of his family is along the East coast, so he will be semi close to them also.  In the last 9 years, he's seen most of them only a couple of times or so.  I know he is looking forward to seeing them more.  Knowing that we will be 1600 miles from my family still makes my heart hurt.  I was really hoping to be within a 10-12 hour drive from there.  I have to remind myself that 1600 is still a lot better than the 3700 miles away that we are now.  Even though a 3 day drive will be NEXT to impossible with 4 young children, at least it IS possible, since there isn't an ocean in between.  And hopefully flying will be a lot cheaper too.  Not to mention shorter.  An eight hour plane ride  is not very much fun!  Seeing my family at least once a year will be better than only once in a 3 year period. Trying to stay positive!

  I'm really looking forward to seasons, and Chick-Fil-A, and craft stores, and just being back on the mainland again. Being close to Tony's family will be awesome.  Especially around the holidays.  Three years in a row we haven't been able to see family for the holidays and it is really hard.  We have some great friends here, so I'm grateful for that, but it's still not the same.  Hopefully we will get to see my family at the holidays soon too! And I am pretty excited that we will still be near the beach.  Every time I leave my house I see the ocean or Pearl Harbor.  I've gotten used to seeing the water, and I think I would miss it if I couldn't see it.  My girls will also get to say that they have been in both the Pacific and Atlantic ocean. (well, the first 3 of my children)  How cool is that??  My first time to ever see the ocean was when I was 20...So I think it's pretty awesome.



 I continue to be worried about the cost of living there, and how it will affect us.  We will be taking a $850 a month pay cut when we leave here, and I'll be honest and say I don't know where in our budget it will come from!!  We already live very frugally, with very little extra expenses.  If we can get in military housing that will help a LOT.  However, since it is a high cost area, housing usually has quite a bit of a wait list.  Because the baby is due soon after we move, we don't have a lot of time to wait.  I figure the latest that I want to wait on a house is April first.  Hopefully that will give me time to get unpacked and settled by my May 3rd due date.  Fortunately we are able to get on the wait list now, so hopefully in the next 4-5 months something will come open for us.  Please pray with us on that, will you?  It is a really big deal to me.  When we moved here we lived in a hotel for 2 full months.  It was unpleasant, but totally worth it.  However, stateside bases don't pay for you to live in lodging for that long.  They will pay for you to stay there for 10 days.  I figure that we will be able to pay for the rest of the month with the money that would normally go toward our rent.  After that...We don't know. Hopefully we won't have to find out!

We are still waiting to find out if the date change for our move has been approved.  Tony submitted the paperwork 2-3 weeks ago.  They told him that it would take about 2 weeks to know.  And about a week ago they told him the part that would take the longest was already done.  Hmmm....We're still waiting.  lol.  We know that it has been approved by his commander, but it has to go to 2 more commanders that are above him.  Tony has asked for a DEROS (Date of Estimated Return from Overseas) date of Feb 15th.  Which would mean that we would be leaving here by then, or possibly earlier in February.  We hope to spend a few weeks in Texas and get to VA the first or second week of March.  There are a lot of details to learn and figure out, so I hope we get our date approval soon!!!  The possibility that we have just started our last full 3 months here is crazy!!  It's very exciting, but like I said, LOTS to figure out in that short time and we are looking at the holidays coming up too.  That always slows things down a bit.  I'm already dreading the move.  It's such an ordeal.  Any move is a hassle, but with an overseas move it takes 6-8 weeks to get your car and all of you stuff to where you are going.  Since we are going all the way to the east coast I'm thinking it will take the full 8 weeks or more.  So you are homeless and living out of a suitcase for at least 2 months.  That is NOT easy with young children.   No address, so mail is on hold and everything. And that flight is long.  8-9 hours in the airplane just to get to Texas.   Then you add the time zone difference, and you get a bit of jet lag on top of going close to 24 hours with no sleep. I'm just ready to get it over with! :o)  But first...we need that date!  Come on Air Force!


Hopefully this week ending will bring the news that we are waiting for.  Also, Saturday we have an appointment for a sonogram to hopefully find out if we are having girl #4, or if everything in our house will be tipped upside down with a boy!  It's about the earliest that they can try to see gender, so I'm really trying not to get my hopes up in case the baby is still too small or uncooperative. If we can't tell, we will go back the following week.  With the way my week has been going, I would not be surprised if we are disappointed this week.  Ha Ha!  Trying to stay positive though, because surely something good has to happen this week!

`When Uncle Sam Calls The Shots

Well we are down to our last 6 or 7 months in Hawaii!!  We have mixed feelings about this, but mostly we are excited.  Very excited.  I love so many things about Hawaii, and will be forever grateful that we got this great opportunity to be here.  But it's time to go.  The beauty of the Island doesn't make up for the fact that we go over a year without seeing our families, and my niece will be over a year old before I even meet her. Yes, it's time to go...now. Yet, even though we have only a few months left before we put all of our belongings adrift in the ocean for several weeks...we have NO idea where we are going next!  I'll tell you, not knowing where you will be living in just a few months, yet knowing that it will for certain be somewhere different than you are now...well, it's not the best feeling. However, it's something that countless other military families identify with.
The other day I got an email from Tony while he was at work.  The conversation went something like this:
"How about Nebraska?"
Me:
Hahaha! NO!
(You see, a girl from Texas would never want to move to Nebraska.)

Then we see an article about Omaha being the top place to raise families. Interesting. Then we ask some military friends that have been stationed at Offutt AFB before about it.  All positive responses.  Hmmm...We do some more research on the base and area, and suddenly....This girl from Texas WANTS to go to Offutt!  What?!?  How?!  Suddenly, we both want to go to Offutt.
So Tony applied to be sent there as our next duty station. And now we wait....and wait, and then, we will wait some more.When Uncle Sam calls all the shots, you spend a lot of time stressing waiting. If he is accepted for the position he will have to extend his enlistment in order to take the job, so that's another confusion. My poor husband has been reading through hundreds of pages of Air Force rules to try to learn how it all works.  To add to that confusion...we just discovered that the earliest that we would be leaving the island will be in my 36th week.  The latest that I am allowed to fly.  Hmmm....Back to the rule books....  Aside from the fact that a 8-12 hour plane trip will be hugely uncomfortable at 36 weeks, that would likely mean that all of our belongings will be somewhere on the ocean when I'm 40 weeks!  Not good! So now we get to see how/if we can get our move bumped up a little earlier.  This could have me making that very long airplane trip across the ocean with 3 girls, and a large belly/small bladder all by myself!  My sweet hubby said that if anyone could do it, I could.  :o)  He's so sweet.
If he isn't accepted for the job in Nebraska, then in a little over a month a list will come out that has all of the places that have openings for someone is his job and rank.  We then put that list in order of preference, and then we wait... We can put up to 5 places on our list...provided the list of options is that long.  We have some friends that recently had their list come out, and it only had 1 option!  That made it easy for them. ha ha  While we wait, we will plan for the location that is at the bottom of our list to be where we will be assigned. ;o)   Cause let's face it...Uncle Sam doesn't care too much about what anyone wants.
Honestly, I'm not too worried about where we are going.  We know that God has it totally in control, and we will end up exactly where he wants us to be!  He has guided our steps and blessed us so clearly in our military adventure, and I know he will continue to do so!  The good thing about our first assignment being overseas, is it doesn't matter where on the mainland we end up, we will feel like it's close to family! :o) However...I just want to know where that place is!!  AND, I want to have a house and a bed for the new baby.
I have lots to do to keep me busy while I am waiting I guess...I have to try to make my house look like no one has lived here the last 3 years.  I should get on that...cause once we DO find out where we are going, all kinds of crazy is going to break loose. And even though 6 months sounds like a long time...I know it can fly by!

I've Been Busy...

As usual it's been longer than I would like since I last blogged. However, this time I feel like I have a good excuse. I've been busy. Here's an overview of what has been keeping me from spending more than a few minutes at a time on the computer.

On July 6th, Baby girl #3 joined our family. Savannah Juliet was born at 3:59 AM, and was 6lbs, 8oz. 19in long. I was induced with both of the other girls, and really wanted to experience what it was like to go into labor on my own. I was about to give up on that, as I was told at my 39 week check up that I still wasn't really making any progress in that direction. I was very disappointed, as I was more than ready for her to be here. However I was also measuring smaller than I did at my previous appt, so after a quick sonogram, they discovered that my fluid was low. The Dr came in and said
"Congratulations, you're having a baby tonight!"
Me: "uuhhh, ok. Can I go home and get my husband and bag?"
Dr. "No. You have to go be admitted right away."
I think I had a dazed look on my face, because the Doctors and nurses kept asking me if I was ok. Ha ha!
Induced again. I'm totally convinced that my body does not know how to go into labor on it's own.

Everything went fine, and about 12 hours later Savannah was here. I did learn one thing...you can go from only being dilated to a 5, to holding your baby in your arms in less than 30 min. Surprise! :o) Savannah was over 1lb smaller than her sisters were at birth, so it was so fun to have such a tiny newborn!
She is a super good, happy baby. She is 9 weeks old now, and has been sleeping through the night since she was about 4 or 5 weeks old. Her big sisters adore her, and are huge helps to me.

Since she is the 3rd baby, and 3rd girl, things have been pretty easy for me. I am however using cloth diapers for her. That has been a new adventure, and one that I am finding is more fun than I thought it would be! I wish I had started doing it 2 babies ago...but I didn't. I'm loving how much money we are saving! I had decided to CD before she was born, but all the diapers that I had bought were WAY too big for a tiny newborn. So I used disposable for the first 3 weeks until I got smaller diapers. We used $100 in diapers in just 3 weeks. YIKES! That made me feel good about our decision to CD, and made me feel better about the initial investment of buying the cloth. More on this adventure later. :o)

Natalie is officially in Kindergarten! We decided to home school her this year. Hawaii schools are not so good, and she was already way ahead of what she would be learning at school. So that has been keeping me busy as well. We have recently joined a local home school group and will be doing a co-op twice a month. Fun!

Natalie and Gabbie have been taking swimming lessons all summer. Two weeks every month from June-Sept we walk down to the pool in our neighborhood for lessons. They are having a blast and learning a LOT. They have one session left for this summer. Then hopefully Savannah will be big enough that I can keep taking them to the pool so they can practice and keep up the skills that they have learned.

AWANA has started back up. I now have one in Cubbies and one in Sparks! How am I old enough to have one in Sparks??! I am helping out with the high school group again also. That keeps my Sundays full.

Tony's mom was able to come and visit right before, and right after Savannah was born. We always enjoy her visits! We are planning a trip back home to Texas to visit my family at the end of September. We are super excited! At that point it will be a year and a half since seeing any of my family, or being off this beautiful little rock in the middle of the ocean. I am not looking forward to the 8 hour flight (12+ hours of travel time, AND 5 hours time difference) with a baby and 2 little ones...but it will be worth it. :o)

Well, this is a small overview of what I have been up to these last couple of months. Trust me, it feels crazier than it sounds. My days are filled with laundry, dishes, nursing, feeding the other girls, cleaning up messes, cooking, cleaning again and more laundry. I have such a glamorous exciting life, don't I ? :0)


Her very first bath...she wasn't a fan!
My 3 girls.

Savannah on Left, Natalie on right. I feel like I am repeating myself...

It's been...wow

I know that most of you are probably thinking that I have disappeared by now. I haven't. I have just been busy. And stressed. And had more pressing things to do than update my blog. And every time I set down at the computer I have 2 toddlers crawling all over me. Which makes updating a little hard. But here I am. To spare you the very long post of what's been going on the last 3 or so months, I will just hit the highlights for you.

Tony's mom came to visit. We had a blast. Went shopping, and did some new things on the island. She bought me a sewing machine! I love it, and have been trying to find some time to make some simple clothes for the girls. While she was here the girls got sick. Then Tony and I got sick at the end of her visit. The combination of being sick and Gramma visiting made Gabbie regress in her potty training. BAD. We were back to day 1. Aaannnd, it took us over a month to get trained again! Ugh. (That's one of the things that has been keeping me busy, and kept me from blogging)

Tony and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! Sine we were apart for our last anniversary we had a lot of fun celebrating this year. We went to a luau on the beach. It was a wonderful evening. The Air Force ball was in September. It is to celebrate the Air Force's birthday. It also happens to mark Tony's anniversary in the Air Force! He has been in for a whole year now! I can't believe it!! The time is flying! We had a lot of fun getting dressed up and going to the ball. It was nice to have a kid free night! :o) We have also hit the 6 month mark of being in Hawaii! We REALLY can't believe that one. The time has really been going by so quickly! We still love it here, and haven't even done a fraction of all there is to do on the island.

One night the smoke detector in Gabbie's room started "chirping" You know, the occasional beep like when the batteries are getting low? Only ours are wired into the electricity...so no clue why it was doing this in the middle of the night. Well it scared Gabbie. BAD. She was afraid to be alone, especially in her room. Wouldn't sleep in her room. Naps and nighttime involved me sitting in her room for an hour or more until she fell asleep. Then she would wake up in the middle of the night and I would be outside of her room for 3-4 hours trying to get her back to sleep. It was AWFUL! A very long, sleep deprived month. She is mostly better now. We still have to stay outside her room for a little bit when we put her to bed at night, and she still wakes up in the middle of the night. Every night. BUT, I finally made her a pallet on the floor of our room, and so now she just wakes up and comes in our room to lay down and sleep more. So at least I'm getting sleep. We are still dealing with her separation anxiety though. Not sure if us trying a new church set it off, or if it's just one of those normal stages of life. It's annoying. She won't let us leave her in her class at church now, and she does not sit still and quiet to go to church with us. She even gets upset when I leave her with her daddy! I have to sneak out of the house so that she won't have a meltdown. It's really frustrating! I'm hoping that she will grow out of this phase soon as well.

We are still looking for a church that is "home" for us. We have found a couple that we like, but just don't feel that connection yet. Hopefully soon. We haven't been able to attend the new one very much lately because of Gabbie though. We started going to that church because it has AWANA's that starts at Cubbies. The chapels on base have AWANA's, but they don't start until kindergarten. Natalie has been going to Cubbies. She loves it and is doing very well.

We have been meeting more great people here. We are very thankful for that. I have a small group of moms (and 1 dad) that get together every week most weeks. Three of us live in the same neighborhood, so that's nice. We like to go to the beach, or the splash park, or just have a play date where the kids can play and the adults can have some time with other adults. Ha ha. I'm finding that to be very important.

Tony finally has a set schedule. He works 12 hour shifts. 3 days on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 3 days off. It's confusing, and has been hard for me to get used to! I never know what day of the week it is. I have to write everything down on a calendar. It's hard but he has about 1/2 the time off, which is nice. He works every-other weekend, which I don't like, but he has some weekdays off which is nice. We like to avoid the crowds when we do stuff around the island. He got Airman of the Quarter, which is a very good thing. It will look good when promotion time comes, and hopefully it will help him get promoted 6 months early!

We have been fighting sickness around our house! We have all taken our turns. Yes, multiple. lol The girls have had stomach bugs, and colds. Tony and I have been passing colds back and forth. I even had a fever with one of my rounds, so not sure what it was. We are starting to all get cleared up, and I hope it stays that way!

While the rest of the country is enjoying fall, things here aren't much different. I planted some new herbs and flowers the other day. I didn't think I would mind warm weather all year, but I am missing Fall! "Winter"is the rainy time of year here on the island, so we have been having a little more clouds and rain than we have been. That helps it to be a little cooler, but not much.
It's hard for me to believe that the holidays are upon us...I still think it's summer! This is strange to me for sure. All the stores have winter clothes like on the mainland though! Are you kidding me?! We don't need fleece, sweaters, coats, and boots! Even gloves and hats! I didn't know this would happen, or I would have bought the girls shoes while summer stuff was still out. It's going to be an interesting "winter".

Speaking of holidays...they are almost here! Yikes! This will be the first holidays that we won't be spending with my side of the family. That will be really hard. However, we are looking forward to starting our own traditions for our little family here. :o) Although...if nothing changes with Tony's schedule, he will be working on Thanksgiving. I'm having a hard time with that. It will be an interesting Thanksgiving...

And another thing that's been keeping me busy...I have started selling Scentsy! If you aren't familiar with the products you should get acquainted! I LOVE it! I've only been doing it a little over 2 months now, but I'm already making a profit. :o) I'm not getting rich yet... ;o) but it's nice to have a little extra spending money.

Well that's probably enough stuff to make you bored. If you are still reading hopefully you can see why it's been so long since my last post and forgive me for it. It won't be that long before my next one, hopefully!

Another Day in (not so) Paradise...

It is hard for me to believe that in 2 days we will have been on the island for a month already! We are still living in a hotel waiting on a house. I have good days and bad days. ha ha Today is a not so good day.

• The fire alarms went off at 7:00 this morning, waking the girls up. We hurry down the 3 flights of stairs and wait around outside for awhile. A guy from down the hall told me that it was his toaster that set it off. And he "hoped he didn't wake anybody up" Uhhh, just some children. Finally the Fire Dept comes and turns the alarm off so we can go back inside.
• We discover that there is no hot water for showers...again. This happens frequently.
  
• We discover that the money that the AF owes us is not going to be on the next paycheck like it is supposed to be. We have already paid almost $2000 out of our own pocket for lodging since we have been here. We need to pay $1000 more in Sunday. We don't have it. The AF is taking their time paying us the almost $7000 they owe us so far.

• We are supposed to move this Sunday into different lodging as they are out of room for us here. Tony was told that we are moving somewhere other than where we were planning to go. Which is fine, except that they only have room for us for a week. After that...we move again? Not sure.

Now I want to make it clear that I'm not really complaining...more like venting. At least that is the intention of my heart. I am grateful to God for the miracle that we have been living in Hawaii for a month, paying our own hotel bills and eating out every day without the extra money that we should be getting to cover these expenses. I have NO idea how that has been possible! Only because of GOD. Now for some more good things-

• Tony has been busy this morning trying to get stuff worked out. He has a great 1st SGT that is helping him out. It's complicated and a headache, but we are being taken care of. He is in a great shop. We will be ok.
  
• We are living in Hawaii! So many people would love this opportunity. So many people in the Military try their whole careers to get stationed here and never do. So many have to do a year long remote tour away from their families in order to get here. We got it as our first station! Basically handed to us. God must have a plan for us, you think?!
• My husband has a stable job. That's always something to be thankful for! While there are a lot of headaches involved with being in the military, it has a lot of perks too.
• I have a housekeeper! lol I may be living in a hotel, but I haven't had to vacuum, wash towels, clean the bathroom or make a bed for over a month. I'll focus on that part, instead of the homeless part. :o)
  
• EVENTUALLY...we will have a very nice house! Once we tough it out through all this, it will be worth it.
  
• I have met some great wives this week! Slowly but surely we are starting to make some connections and take some steps toward making some friends.
• I have a "girls night" planned for tomorrow night with a few of these ladies. For mother's day our hubbies are keeping the kids and letting us have some girl time to ourselves! We are excited!

• We think that we have found a church that we like.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. I feel a little better now. :o) I hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy mother's day to all you moms out there! To all my friends that want to be mother, and God has not blessed you in that way yet- My prayers are with you. May he comfort you in your tough times and fulfill your dreams.

So much Happening

You may have noticed that I changed the name of my blog. I wasn't really liking the old one anymore, and I think with all the stuff that is going on with us it may not apply as well anymore also. I'm going to give this new title a chance, and see how I like it. Now we are not in Hawaii yet, but the movers come in a little less than 3 weeks, and I may not have time to make any changes to my blog between now and then.

Here are some highlights of what has been going on since my last post.

We got our tax refund (yay!)and bought our first grill! We are excited that we will be able to use it so much once we move! There will be lots of great grilling weather. We are using it a lot now, even though it's kinda cold still. We are trying to use up the bottle of gas before we move, as the movers won't move that.

We took a quick trip to Houston to see Clint and Kaleena and we took Molly to her new home. Kaleena works with a lady that wanted to adopt her when she heard that we couldn't take her to Hawaii with us. It would cost us around $1000 to get her there, and we just couldn't spend that on a dog. Molly has a GREAT new home, and even has a "brother" (they already had a dachshund) to play with. She took to her new family right away and is getting spoiled beyond belief! We keep in touch with her her family and she is still doing great! The girls hardly even noticed that she was gone, which is a huge relief. I didn't want them to miss her too bad.

Tony's grandmother from Rhode Island came to visit us last weekend. We had fun seeing her again.

We have been busy trying to get all the details lined up for our move. There are so many details too! Then the military lost some of the paperwork, so we had to repeat a step. They messed up a couple of things the first time, so we had to repeat those steps also. When they reserved the flight they only got a ticket for Tony, so he had to go back and get them to fix that too. We finally got everything that we needed to get official orders. Yay! After we got orders then we had to set up the date for the movers to come, a time to drop off the car that the military is shipping in Dallas. We are shipping our other car ourselves, so we had to set that up also. There was so many things we had to do, and we didn't have much time to do it in! I think it is all done now though!

The movers come for our main shipment of stuff on the 29th, and then our unaccompanied baggage ships out on the 30th. The unaccompanied baggage is stuff that we will need before our other shipment gets to us. (like more clothes, some toys etc.) It will take a little over a month for our household stuff to get to us. Since we are going overseas we are allowed this other shipment. They ship it quicker, so we will get it not long after we get there. That will help so much! I was wondering how I was going to fit everything in the suitcases! Tony's car will be picked up on the 18th, and it should be waiting for us on the island when we get there! It will be interesting seeing the 4 of us crammed into the tiny 2 door car, but it is better than having to rent one for a few weeks. Better money-wise anyway.

Well that's some of the main stuff that has been keeping us busy. Of course we have all the daily stuff that doesn't stop to allow time for all the extra stuff we have to do! I have 2 weeks to have the house spotless, and deep cleaned and ready for housing to look it over. It would be sooo nice if the messes could stop for a bit to allow me to do this extra cleaning, but that's not how it works with 2 toddlers! I'm going to have to work super hard!

Tony has his last day of classroom instruction today! Yay! Next he has about a week of mock deployment work to do. He will be doing hands on stuff like he would doing on a deployment. He will get to put to use (on a pretend scenario) some of this stuff that he has been learning the last 6 months! He graduates Tech school on March 18th! FINALLY! He has to take an additional class before we move. It starts on the 22nd, and runs through the 6th of April. April 7th he will have final paperwork and out-processing to do and then we will drive to Dallas that evening. We drop the car off for shipment the next day, and then fly out on the 9th!

As you can see, we have lots to do in the next 4 weeks! I don't know if I will be able to check back in and update before the move or not. I will try, but no promises.

Happy Spring everybody! I for one am very glad to see the weather getting warmer. Spring is my favorite season! (Now I better get back to that To Do list.)

Too young to be a tooth fairy!

Sometimes being a parent is no fun at all. Don't get me wrong, I love my babies and I can't imagine my life with out them.

Before we got to the story behind the title, you need a little background information.

Because our upcoming move is considered an Overseas location, we have to be medically cleared to move. The Military wants to make sure that you don't have any conditions, or need to see any specialists that may not be available to you at your next location. It's not a big deal, especially for Hawaii. There is pretty much any kind of Dr. one would need over there, but regardless there is a lot of paperwork and hassle that you have to do anyway. Fun, fun. So this month I have been busy getting the medical clearance paperwork together for the three of us girls. This involves trips to the dentist and the clinic for checkups. After that we have to meet with some medical people and a "mental health" specialist so they can finish clearing us. I have been busy and exhausted, but I am almost done with my part! After this it is up to the military, and we are back to waiting. (The story of my life lately) We are hoping for orders soon, so we will have a date for our move. The next few weeks are big ones for us as far as moving plans go.

When I took Natalie to the dentist for her check-up they discovered that she has something known as External Resorption in her two front top teeth. Basically the roots and teeth are being resorbed. Like dissolved or eaten away. Anyway...this could have been caused from a trama to her teeth sometime in the past, like if she fell and hit them pretty bad. The dentist said that if we didn't have her teeth pulled, then it would spread to her other teeth and even damage her permanent teeth. Yipes!
So sitting in the dentist office I was in shock, and to clarify I asked,

"So you want to take those two teeth out?"

Yes

"And leave a HOLE in her mouth for a year or two??"

Yes

"And it's ok to do this??"

Yes

I had to come home and talk to Tony about it, do some research on our own, and make myself be ok with doing this. For some reason I had the hardest time making the decision to do it! How could I take the front teeth out of my baby's head way before it was time?? She would have trouble eating, and talking, and lets face it I was concerned with how she would look. I know kids are cute with missing teeth, but teeth that are missing for 2 years?! I was devastated. However the thought of damaging her permanent teeth, just to save these for a couple more years was stupid.

So we decided to have it done. Today I took my beautiful little girl to the dentist and had her teeth pulled. She's probably young enough that she doesn't know to care about how she looks with missing teeth. (Although the first thing she said to me when she got done was that she wanted to see in the mirror) :o) I think because her mouth was so numb she had no idea what had happened to her! She had to see that she was ok. She says that her mouth is "dizzy".

I got to thinking about how awful this was for me-and I realized that it really wasn't awful at all. So many parents are told so many things that are so much worse! What they wouldn't give to only have to have their kids teeth pulled instead of surgery, or chemo, or whatever other truly terrible thing their child is faced with.

It's not even as bad as when she was 2 days old and the Dr. told me there was a hole in her tiny heart....

So I will put on my big girl panties, a brave smile, and keep telling my little girl that she is a beautiful princess. (Because she still is!) I will put on my tooth fairy hat tonight and remember this milestone in my child's life even if it did come too early! I am thankful that she is healthy and whole, and we caught this before it was too late!

Now I have to go wake up both of my princesses, so I can go get my check-up. After this I am turning in paperwork and we are back to more waiting. I am DONE with Dr visits for awhile I hope!

We Made It!

It has been a long time since I last posted. I haven't been all that busy really. I've just been focused on surviving! Tony being gone has definitely been the hardest thing I have ever done! I thought I was prepared for it, but I wasn't! There is no way you can prepare yourself for your husband to be gone with very little contact at all! It was like he didn't exist for those 2 months. I wrote him a letter everyday, but the most I heard from him was pretty much once a week. I went the last 15 days with no contact at all!

I met a great group of 4 other ladies online who's husbands were graduating the same day as Tony. God brought us together for sure! It was so much help to have someone going through the same thing at the same time! We knew exactly what the other one was going through and how we were feeling. They made these last 2 months so much better. We were able to help each other through the dark days of BMT.

It got a little easier at the end, but that's when everything started going wrong! It was the longest 2 months of my life so far! While he was gone I only got one real phone call, and 5 letters. I got a couple of other "official" calls where he was getting or giving me information, but we didn't get much time to talk on those calls. Not like we had a long time to talk on his 1 "real" call either....only 15 minutes! Well...

WE MADE IT!!!

Tony graduated BMT on September 18th! That is the Air Force's birthday, which was pretty neat. I am sooo proud of Tony! He graduated as an honor graduate! Only up to 10% of the 799 people graduating were handpicked for honor graduate! He also got a perfect score on his final exam! He did awesome, and I am so very proud of him.

I left here on the 10th of September and went to Wichita Falls to see my best friend. I left there the next morning and went to Houston to see my sister and her husband, and then my aunt and uncle. I left Houston on the 16th to go to San Antonio!

We had a blast in Houston, in spite of my car getting towed from the parking lot of my sister's apartment! My aunt took the girls and I to the Houston zoo, and the downtown aquarium. The girls had a blast and they got to ride a train at both places, which they thought was pretty neat. At the aquarium we rode the little train through a tunnel aquarium where dozens of sharks swim all around and above you. I thought that was pretty neat!

When I got to San Antonio I picked up a friend of mine from the airport. Her name is Jennifer, she is one from the group of ladies I met online. Her fiance was graduating the same day as Tony. We finally got to meet the day before graduation, and it felt as if we had always known each other! After we got to town we went and explored the base a little bit, and then we split a hotel room that night. We got up super early the next morning to be on the base by 7:00am.

Thursday was the Airman's run in the morning. It was so neat to see! I couldn't pick Tony out of his flight, so I was a little disappointed about that. Then after what seemed like a very LONG time of waiting it was time for the Coin Ceremony and Retreat. All of this waiting in the hot sun was not fun with two toddlers, let me tell you that!! It was so worth it though!! After the retreat they tell you to go and find your Airman!! They have to stay in formation on the grounds, and all the families get to go and find them. I had managed to finally pick Tony out of the crowd I thought during the ceremony. Well they told us to go find our Airman, so the girls and I took off to where I thought he was standing...but when I got there it wasn't him!! I thought "Oh no! Now what do I do? I don't know where to look!" Then I looked closer at the person that I thought was him...and I read his name tag...and it WAS him!!! I didn't recognize my own husband!! He had lost 20 pounds, which wasn't all that noticeable I don't think. He was so tan! And the way he stood and carried himself, and he had no hair. I guess all of it combined made him look so different. Let me tell you though...he looked goo-OOD!!! :o) (Check out the pictures on the side) We got to hug for the first time in two months! But only for a second. There are very strict rules about any kind of PDA while he is in uniform. Plus we had to hurry to get to the ceremony honoring the Honor Graduates. After all of that he finally got "released" to us. We had some lunch at the mini mall. Natalie would not leave her daddy alone!! She would not let me sit by him, or by her for that matter. That was "for my daddy to sit" We had such a good time being back together! I was able to stay at the hotel on base, so we were able to go back to the hotel and have some family time. I got to get a real hug and kiss! The kiss was better than our first! :o) The weekend went by way to fast though.

Monday morning at 3:30 Tony was on a bus to Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo(about 3 1/2 hours from San Antonio) Tx for more training. I met him there that evening to give him some of his personal things that he is now allowed to have. I left the next morning to come home, and left him there. Finally after 12 days and a little over 1400 miles, the girls and I were back home! We were all sick our first few days back. (Big surprise, huh?)

Because his school is so long, the Air Force is moving us to be with him! He will be at that base for 25 weeks. The movers will be here Friday! (Oct 2) I am so very, super excited! It could still be a couple of weeks before he is allowed to live with us, but we will be in the same town and be able to see each other every day starting this weekend! I'm happy with that for now! We have been able to talk everyday since he graduated which makes things a million times better than they were during BMT, but seeing each other everyday will be even better yet! I am working on patience for the next step- him being able to live with us! Each step is better, but I really want to be living in the same house again! Because of the no PDA rule, I am not allowed to even hold his hand in public when he is in uniform. So unless he is able to get permission to come to our house in his free time, there will still be no hugs and kisses for me for a couple of weeks! So will be able to see him everyday...but not touch him! So please pray for favor from his higher-ups, that they will grant him permission to come visit us at the house before he is able to live with us, and that the day that he is able to live with us is very soon!

I better run. Gotta get back to getting things ready for the movers to come pack it up! I don't know when we will have Internet after we move, but I will be in touch as much as possible. We should be finding out our orders for our next location any day! That is very exciting too! These next two weeks have a lot going on, and so much of it is unknown! That is the way my new life will be, so I am trying very hard to get used to it. I am so excited to take this next step! This week has been dragging!

Where Did June Go?!

Wow, this month has gone by so fast for me! I can't believe that it is July already. June seemed even busier than May was, and it definitely went by faster to me!

I want to start by saying hello to my new followers! I now have someone other than family members following my blog, Yay! Now I just need to give them something interesting to read... Hang in there, not all my posts will be about my kids! :o)

We finally got the tubes put in Gabbie's ears. She is doing great.

My parents are in town for awhile, so we are enjoying spending time with them. The girls of course are getting lots of Mimi and Pawpaw time which they love!

Tony's parents came to visit for a few days as well. They lived in South Carolina and came to see us on their way to Japan! Tony's dad is a MGySgt (Master Gunnery Sergeant) in the Marine Corps and they are PCSing (moving) to Okinawa for awhile. It was great to see them. We haven't seen them since March of last year. Gabbie was just a tiny baby last time they saw her! Both girls took to them right away and had so much fun with them. It's hard to believe that Natalie may be 6, and Gabbie will be 4- older than Natalie is now, next time they see them!
Yesterday marked exactly 3 weeks until Tony leaves for BMT! I am only a little nervous so far, but if I think about it too much than I get a lot more nervous! I have plans to visit some of my family while he is gone to help keep me busy, so hopefully those 2 months will go by fast. Right now we are just trying to get everything taken care of that we need to before he leaves. We have a list of stuff we have to get done. Once he leaves, he will not be back here to live! I will be moving everything myself in the fall. That's where things get a little nerve racking!

It seems like I had something on my calender a few days out of every week in June. It was crazy! July so far is pretty empty! That is good though. It will give us a chance to get stuff done and have some family time before Tony leaves. We are leaving on Friday after Tony gets off work to go to Wichita Falls for the weekend. Our good friends moved there several weeks ago, and the guys have days off that line up, so we decided to go! It will be a short trip but I am looking forward to getting out of town. I told Natalie yesterday that we are going to see Katie, her best friend and she is super excited!

Have a happy Fourth of July everyone! Be safe and remember all the men and women that make sacrifices to make this the great country that it is! Thank you!

Long Overdue

Usually my lack of blogging is for lack of something to blog about. That is not the case this time! We have been so incredibly busy the month of May. From Natalie's birthday, and 2 weeks of company, to the garage sale I had this weekend I have stayed very busy. Now I am sick. Not a huge surprise there I guess. The house is a disaster, but I am on light housework(just laundry and dishes) restriction, until tomorrow when I hopefully will feel better. Hopefully I can tackle the disaster zone then.

Here are the highlights:

The 10th was Natalie's 3rd birthday and Mother's day! Her birthday being on Mother's day brought back memories of my FIRST Mother's day- I had been a mother for all of 3 1/2 days! It was defenatly a special mother's day that year, and this year too! Both years there was more focus on Natalie than Mother's day, but then I guess that's kinda what mother's day is all about. The children that make the mothers. Natalie's great-grandparent's from Dumas came over and Auntie Neena, Uncle Clint, and Mimi and Pawpaw all made a trip to visit for the special day. It was a lot of fun, and a very busy weekend. I will put pictures in a separate post.

The week after that I had overnight company for a week straight. For the first couple of days Tony's grandmother from Rhode Island came for a visit. It was her first time meeting Gabbie, and only her second time to see Natalie. Both girls took to her right away. We really enjoyed her time here. My grandparents from Oklahoma came literally 30 min after I dropped her off at the airport. They were here for 3 days, and then a couple of hours after they left our best friends came to visit. They just moved from here to Wichita Falls. It was really good to get to spend another day with them. Natalie and Kaitlyn, their little girl are best friends. They still talk about each other every day, even though they don't get to see each other any more.

In the midst of all this we had been getting out storage trailer cleaned out and ready for a garage sale. That took up most of our evenings off and pretty much all of Tony's days off. We finally got it done, and our part of the storage is almost empty! Which makes me wonder why we even moved and stored all that stuff in the first place!!? Mostly because at the time of our last move we didn't have time to go through it all I guess. I didn't to move it all again, especially twice in a year like we will be doing, so we got rid of it. I had the garage sale this Friday night and Saturday. Tony had to work so I did it ALL BY MYSELF!! Rebecca helped watch the girls, which made it possible for me. Friday I started coming down with something, and Saturday I felt REALLY bad, but I wasn't able to take a break until today...so I crashed hard! I haven't felt this bad in a long time! I am so glad to have it behind me though. I didn't do very well on the sale Saturday. but I have a friend that is having a sale in a couple of weeks. I am going to put what I had that didn't sell in her sale. That one should be a lot easier, and hopefully with that one all of our stuff will be gone!

Gabbie is still having trouble with her ears. We have an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor on the 9th to start the process of getting tubes put in. I can't wait! I am ready for her to be sleeping through the night again. She is WAY too old for me to be going through this again! I want her to be feeling better too, poor thing.
She sure does think she is big stuff. We have moved her out of the highchair to a booster seat at the table, AND she has moved out the the crib into a big bed! We weren't planning to move her into a big bed this early, but we got some bunk beds for the girls. The only bed that we owned for them was the crib, so obviously we needed some for when we move. We decided on bunk beds in case we only get a 2 bedroom house when we move to San Angelo and don't have much room for 2 separate beds. The beds will separate into two beds for when we get a 3 bedroom house though. We were keeping an eye out for one, and found a really good deal, so we went ahead and got it now. We decided to go ahead and put the girls in the new bed so they wouldn't have to adjust to a new house AND new beds when we move. Adjustment to a bunk bed is kinda a big change in and of itself I think. For Natalie sleeping on the top, and Gabbie going from a crib to a bed. Both girls adjusted really well! Gabbie had a little trouble settling down the first night, but she slept great once she did. Natalie of course thinks it is really neat that she gets to climb stairs to get to her bed! We haven't had a bit of trouble with either girl in the new bed. They are both getting so big! Gabbie has started telling me when she is going to the bathroom in her diaper, even when she just pees. So I guess in August when the girls and I get back from visiting some family we will work on potty training. If I can get her to tell me BEFORE she goes, not AS she is going then I think it will be pretty easy. :o) She already is showing more interest in it than Natalie did at the time that I potty trained her! Hopefully I can get it done in that window of time that Tony will be gone and I am not too busy. It will give me something to do to keep me busy!

That's most of the highlights for now I guess!