My Favorite Part of the Week…
January 31, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 14 Comments
If Daniel and I had the ability to go out on a date every week (wouldn’t that be Heaven!!) I would definitely choose it to be Friday night. Now, if choosing what to do and where to go could be just as easy! Doggone, but if we don’t have the hardest time with that!
What is your favorite day of the week?
It Nearly Broke My Heart
January 31, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 13 Comments
I’m so not dramatic or anything…
Eliza checked out her crib for the first time yesterday. And Mama didn’t like it one bit.
She just looks horribly uncomfortable to me. Wouldn’t you agree?
Oh, you think, from the looks of it anyways, that she doesn’t seem to like it at all and should never be laid down in the crib again. She should always sleep right next to her mama?
Yup, that what I thought too.
Home
January 30, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 22 Comments
There are times I wish Daniel and I could just pack it all up and head home. But, I have to make myself let that wish go. We’ve chosen a different path for our life; one path I certainly didn’t see myself taking. Growing up I never really gave any thought to moving from home. Yet at this point, the prospect of ever settling back into a life lived in that town is very slim. While I am happy in our deliberately chosen way, at times I deeply long for home and the comfort it affords me.
We were home-ish this weekend, staying with my grandparents who live about two hours from my hometown. I spent the early part of my life in those small towns around my grandparents house, and when combined with the time from the many visits we made, it is as familiar to me as my hometown. Huge amounts of memories washed over me as we drove the hills and roads that I lived my life around for twenty years. My heart ached as I remembered burying my twin brothers. I was just a tiny girl but I remember kneeling on the grass in the front yard looking at the tiny wooden boxes their remains rested in.
It was amazing to me what I could remember just from looking at a house, or driving past a certain road. There is so much of my life built into those little towns tucked in the hills of New York.
I wonder if my children will ever wish they had that type of life, the kind that is fully steeped in memories of a life lived in one place, rather than the nomadic type we are living in the military.
But here we are, promised to the Air Force for four more years with the intention of staying in as long as they will let us, because this life we are living is good with so much to offer. We have great, amazing benefits, our life will never be dull by any means, and we can take part in opportunities that we could never afford for our family should we not be a part of the Air Force.
Yet, even in knowing all this, my heart longs for the friends I have known for all of my life, the church I grew up in, a house where we can live out our days as a family, driving the roads I know like the back of my hand, having established relationships that I won’t have to say good-bye to.
Will we ever wish that we had chosen a different way – the stable, live in one house forever way? The kind where we can have our kids grow up with their grandparents close by, and have friends we call Aunt and Uncle because our families are that close? Will we ever regret this life lived first for our country, second for our family?
How I wish I had all the answers sometimes.
Like Water off a Duck’s Back
January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 11 Comments
So I’m walking around the track at the gym tonight. I’ve got Eliza strapped to my chest in the Moby wrap and I’m bee-boppin’ along. I’m not walking too slow, I’m keeping a good pace when I hear someone coming up from behind. No big deal because I’m walking on the inside lane and there is a passing lane to my left. A man slowly passes me, also walking. But then, get this…. he literally cuts me off. Like I had to slow down. In a hurry. Otherwise I would’ve stepped on his heels.
Uh huh.
No, I am not joking.
I actually didn’t know you could cut someone off while walking around the track at the gym. I understand people cut other people off while driving, but walking?! I was flabbergasted. And it wasn’t like there was anyone coming up behind him in the passing lane. He simply cut me off.
Hmmmmph.
It just wasn’t right. Laughable, yes. But not right.
Now that I’ve written this to you all, I can let it go. Like water off a duck’s back, baby.
99 years holding 5 weeks
January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 18 Comments
This weekend Daniel and I took the kids to my Grammie Chips and Poppie’s house for Eliza’s dedication, our yearly family get-together, celebration for GrandDaddy’s birthday, as well as celebrating my Great-Grandma Vera and GrandDaddy’s anniversary.
This is my GrandDaddy holding Eliza – he would have held her all night if she hadn’t started crying. It meant so much for Daniel and I to see her in the arms of her great-great grandfather. He has been deaf since he was a young boy but you know what, love doesn’t need to have ears that work to be felt or shown. GrandDaddy could not love our Eliza any more. And neither could we.Our Base List
January 25, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 15 Comments
Today was the day we had to have our list of the five bases we were given a choice of, in order of our preference. Daniel and I hashed and re-hashed this subject…. Did it really matter what order they were in, because honestly they are going to send us where they want to send us? How much effort should we put into investigating each place because four of the bases we won’t actually be going to? Hot vs. cold? What was more important – housing or location? On and on it went.
Yesterday late afternoon we sent in the final draft. It’s out of our hands now. Daniel thinks we are on the bottom of the pack for preferences since overseas returnee’s get first pick, then someone else (can’t remember who right now) and then us. We are both pretty terrified that the Air Force is going to send us to Minot. We drove through Minot on our way from Alaska to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Uggg. We’ve done the North Dakota thing. We went into Recruiting to get out of North Dakota! Daniel is pretty stressed out over the possibility of being sent back there. We really just want to go somewhere we’ve never been before. Is that too much to ask? I think not.
Here is our list in order of preference:
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho
Cannon AFB, New Mexico
Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota
McGuire AFB, New Jersey
Minot should be here, in last place, but Daniel wouldn’t even put it on our list. I support that decision wholeheartedly. Not that it’s non-existence in our list actually makes it non-existent in the computer they use. Shucks, huh.
So, there was a lot of thought put into this list. Lots of give and take. It’s amazing how you can test the maturity of a marriage by having to make a list like this. Our results would be stellar – there was only one teary conversation (by me, of course) but that was only because I was overwhelmed by all of life, and talking about North Dakota was just too much at that point. I got over it quick.
The Air Force will let us know on the 15th of February where they have decided to send us.
I hate the waiting game. It pretty much rots.
Okay, Okay. I’ll post more baby pictures. Stop twisting my arm, already.
January 24, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 15 Comments
Aren’t these shoes the cutest thing you ever seen?The baby in the background takes that title.
Eliza just doesn’t like Judah kisses. I am unable to understand why. I can’t get enough of them.
Daniel and I are hoping she responds to all boys attempts to kiss her in this manner until she’s at least 45 years old.
Because I love pictures of babies yawning. Especially my baby.
My Day So Far
January 24, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 11 Comments
Nuzzled awake by a still sleepy baby girl
Bask in the glow of Eliza’s smile
Crawl out of bed and immediately look for breakfast
Nurse Eliza while eating homemade bread with peanut butter
Swallow ten pills in one big gulp
Laugh at silly pictures from high school that a friend put up on Facebook
Wake up a happy four year old
Unwrap two “presents” given by Eve to me
Wake up a happy two year old boy
Throw open curtains – enjoy sun in my face
Lay the two children in diapers side by side, give them clean bums and clean clothes
Make waffles… realize that Wow! Everyone is excited for waffles!
Smoothie time
Look at clock, calculate how much time I have to get everyone out the door in time for preschool
Panic
Shift into high gear
Make a special snack for Eve to take to preschool
Lay baby down to sleep
Realize that I have one of “those” babies. The kind that only cries when she’s hungry or tired. Finally….. it’s my turn to have one.
Change my outfit three times. Give up
Nurse baby
Herd everyone to the van
Growl when I realize my cell phone is dead… way dead
Catch only one red light on the way to pre-school
Wave good-bye to an ecstatic girl who adores school
Walk down the aisles of the health food store smiling into familiar friendly faces
Stand in front of the rows of vegetables in the freezer section of the store, rack my brain to remember the ingredients in Brittany’s recipe
Veto going to the Salvation Army… just too tired
Smile into my husband’s face when we stop for an quick visit
Weigh myself and discover I’ve lost three pounds
Laugh at the “Rent a husband” truck I drive behind on the way home
Find happiness from a real letter in my mailbox
Lay children side by side again for a changing. Wish I was momentarily deaf as I listen to them cry in unison.
Tuck a very sleepy boy into bed for rest time
Kiss the soft head of Eliza as she sleeps in my arms
Eat lunch at three o’clock and realize why I’m ravenous
Sit and listen to sweet silence
A Silly Game
January 23, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 19 Comments
Eeeewww! Boys have cooties!!
Daniel and I like to play a game we call: “If I could eat anything right now it would be….”
The problem is Daniel left at the crack of dawn to go work out (regardless of the fact that last week while trying to get that 100th pull-up in, he fell five feet off a pull-up bar right onto his hip and killed it. ) which that means he’s not here to play our silly game with me.
But you are! Oh, lucky, lucky you.
So, what would you eat right now if you could eat anything?
I would eat a big hot fudge sundae with a gooey brownie plopped right in the middle of it. Extra fudge, please.
In alternate realities I’m not very health-minded, you know.
The Experience
January 22, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 17 Comments
I did it – it’s over – and I am so glad. What you ask? The post-pregnancy going to the store to buy jeans experience.
Yuck.
Can we collectively groan?
I just know everyone hates that experience as much as I do. And if you don’t because Whammo! you fit back into your pre-pregnancy clothes immediately, then ssshhhhh I don’t want to hear it. I might throw up a little.
I took myself to Plato’s closet, which is where I buy nearly all of my clothes. If you don’t have this store, I feel for you. It’s totally awesome. I have so much fun (usually) shopping when I go there.
There I stood, in front of the racks and racks of jeans and wondered… what size am I? I know I’m not even close to the size I was pre-pregnancy – I am realistic like that – so what the heck size am I? I have these wide hips that haven’t settled back into place and are throwing me way off.
Finally I guessed a size and dove into the hundreds of pairs of jeans trying to find a style I liked. The kind with sparkles, or studs, bleach or appropriately places tears was what I was looking for…. stop laughing! I like jeans with character and interest. Like everyone else I’m loving the dark wash trouser, but boooooring! And so grown up! I have nice normal jeans for the occasions that call for that, but for everyday… give me some sparkle!
I must add that normally I abhor any spandex in my jean – I loathe it with tremendous amounts of loathe. But in the post-pregnancy jean finding experience, it is a good, good thing. Give me a little bit of stretch, baby!
I don’t even know how many times I made the trek into the dressing room, but it was a whole lot. I did my best to not let myself get depressed. My highly scientific approach was making faces at myself in the mirror every time a pair didn’t fit. Doing that would make me giggle and I’d move on to the next pair. I kind of wish I had brought someone with me so we could’ve laughed together. Oh well, I was the crazy giggling woman in the big dressing room on the end.
I eventually, after arm loads and arm loads of jeans, found a pair. I’m positive the girls whose job it was to put the refused clothes away breathed a sigh of relief. I was keeping them busy! One pair of jeans was all I bought; a boring dark wash jean, but it felt like victory to me.
Next time, let’s hope there will be much less face making in the mirror.
That poor mirror. It will probably never be the same.
Our/My Diet
January 20, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 19 Comments
Okay, our diet… Some of you are going to think we are just plain crazy, some of you may think it sounds interesting. It’s different, it’s who we are, and it’s good – for us.
To fully explain my “nursing diet” I must tell you what our regular diet looks like because they are so closely tied. Our diet sounds simple when you say it out loud or read it, as you are doing here. It is basically this: we choose not to eat any refined sugar or MSG, and avoid foods with preservatives or nitrates/nitrites in them. We also do mostly organic everything. This is because we want to give our kids the best start we can afford to. Sounds simple, but it becomes tricky at times. It has become like a game to me now though.
I know some of you are going to have questions so here we go….
Okay, what’s refined sugar? Refined sugar is most commonly seen in the form of white table sugar. It is also known as (high fructose) corn syrup, organic sugar, cane sugar, evaporated cane sugar/syrup, and Florida crystals. Although I may have missed a few others. What we do eat is called Turbinado/Demerara sugar, also known as raw cane sugar. I can make pretty much anything anyone else can make with this sugar. I use it in the same ratio as white sugar. I think it has more flavor than white because of the molasses that has been left intact.
Now, what is MSG? MSG is monosodium glutamate. MSG is made from a glutamate (found in nearly every type of protein rich food) which is an amino acid. It is converted into a white, salty powder and added to foods to enhance the flavor. It hasn’t been proven that MSG has any long term effects on your body but have been linked to short term effects that include headaches, fatigue, nausea, and most recently thought to cause eye damage. There are more or less effects depending on who you talk with. Wikipedia has a fairly good, non-biased article on MSG. Basically, all in all, it is an additive we choose to avoid. MSG is also known as autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed protein, yeast extract, seasoning, flavorings along with others. But those are the most common.
The preservatives and nitrates/nitrites are found mainly in processed meats like deli meat, beef jerky, and hotdogs, and pickles. I am sure there are more but I am trying to give you the general idea here.
So, sounds easy enough right? It’s actually kind of tricky because an enormous amount of food in the grocery store – outside of the health food section – has something in it we choose not to eat. And I am totally okay with this. It is our choice; no one is making us eat this way. We happen to think it is a good way to live, and should it cost us a bit more money or perhaps some aggravation in eating out, then so be it. It is our choice and we understand the ramifications.
That is our overall diet – we try not to be too crazy but I guess to a lot of people we are. Normal is so overrated. (smile)
Now for my “nursing diet”…. As I mentioned in an earlier post this is where I remove dairy products, chocolate and coffee. I remove chocolate and regular coffee because of the caffeine element, and dairy because of colic issues, gas for the baby, and spitting up.
I usually remove the dairy for the first few months, or until the baby’s digestive system is a bit more mature. After about three to four months I slowly incorporate dairy back in, watching to see if their system can handle it or not. I have chosen not to give up butter this time because honestly, I love butter. My world is a much happier place when butter is in it!
I don’t have any huge secrets to give you with the non-dairy diet. The biggest thing I do is use non-sweetened soymilk to cook and bake with in place of regular milk. Doing this allows me to make and eat most foods that I would normally prepare for my family. I just eat something completely different if there is cheese involved because, quite frankly, there is no good substitute for cheese.
I wish I had more help for you. I (we)eat simply, with lots of protein, fresh vegetables and fruit.
And look forward with great anticipation to the day when I can eat copious amounts of chocolate.
Uggg, I didn’t want to write all of this. Our dietary decisions put some people on the defensive and I hate that. But, like I tell Eve all the time… everyone gets to make their own choices!
And aren’t we all glad for that.
Sunday Pictures
January 20, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 10 Comments
In the Wee Morning Hours…
January 19, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 6 Comments
I nursed Eliza and we cuddled. I enjoyed watching the sun slowly fill the room with it’s cheery freshness. But mostly I just enjoyed Eliza.
My Poor Baby
January 18, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 18 Comments
Who knew a three week old could get a cold. They can and Eliza did. Poor baby is feeling so out of it. All day she had watery eyes, a stuffy little nose, and she sneezed nearly a thousand times. She didn’t want to leave our arms. She needed to be held all day long. There could be worse things, right!
Eve and Judah have valiantly been fighting off a cold – and doing quite well, actually. Judah had one day of a slightly runny nose, Eve has had nothing but a couple of sneezes. But a couple of days ago Judah, in all of his sweetness, gave Eliza a kiss square on the mouth. Now, she has the cold. I’ve been pumping Eve and Judah with zinc religiously, so they are fine, but Daniel has it. Sharing is caring….
I informed Daniel today that I can not get sick. Period.
He said:
“Well, if you get sick then you get sick!”
But I said again:
“No, I can not get sick! I can’t take care of everybody and be sick as well. “
He thought about that for a moment and then responded:
“You do realize that means you can never get sick because you’re the mom!”
Exactly! Moms aren’t allowed to get sick. End of discussion. No, the world won’t stop spinning if the mom gets sick, it just turns into that crazy wobbly spin like that of a top towards the end of it’s magnificent twirling on your floor.
Basically, things get ugly.
So, to help prevent that ugliness I ate raw, chopped up garlic twice today because my mom said it would help keep me well. And I trust the woman – she raised us and rarely got sick. But, let me tell you… Eeeeewww! It had better be worth it!
Food
January 18, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 9 Comments
I’ve been eating a whole lot of these with an oil based salad dressing. I have other suggestions, but only one hand right now. When I have two hands free I will explain my diet.