Oh where, oh where, has my camera cable gone?

Oh where, oh where could it be?????

This could be a problem VERY soon. Not only is our computer still perched atop a box in a remote corner of our bedroom, UPSTAIRS, because that's the only room with a dedicated internet cable connection (we simply MUST get that fixed, the purdy new computer desk looks rather lonely downstairs in the "hobby" room), meaning that any access to a scanner is not quite possible, BUT......the digital camera is FULL. The memory card is full, its internal hard drive is full. And it's the only way we have of sharing pictures of our new life here in Alabama! EEK!

My blog is now officially boring. No pictures anywhere to be found except that silly little (teeny) self-portrait in my profile. Ick. PETE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whaddaya doin???????

Why oh WHY is my hubby playing around on a full-sized locomotive engine today? Why? Does he not realize the sheer gravity of the situation here? Does he not understand that if this baby is born with no way to take or share pictures, the earth will simply fall off of its axis????? HOW ON EARTH SHALL I SCRAPBOOK?????

My heart cannot take it. I'm becoming faint.

And I've apparently been around my drama-queen daughter far too much lately, she's rubbing off!

One more week?

WELL now....let's scratch that whole "so far there aren't any of the typical pre-eclampsia symptoms like swelling, headaches, spotted vision.....", they're here! The only one left is the doozy--protein in the urine. That one indicates that the elevated blood pressure is messing with kidney function. So far, no protein. But considering how HIGH those BP readings are, even the doctor is convinced it won't be long before it's there. Hmm.....seems this little one may be "interfering" with Daddy's plans to pick up his toy Porsche (relax, folks, it's an oldie he picked up in an even trade for his motorcycle in Germany) next Friday since my next OB appointment is Thursday! If that nice little protein problem arises, it'll be straight to Labor and Delivery for us! Thankfully, they don't mess around with "let's try this" here. They have a NICU and they're not afraid to use it, unlike the hospital in Heidelberg where Danica was born.

I'm swelling as I'm sitting, so this isn't going to be a long, drawn-out blog entry. Just the facts, ma'am. House is *almost* in order. Just about a dozen boxes left IN ALL, thank goodness, and we'll be DONE!

What day is it?

It's been a while since I've had a calendar on my wall. Shoot, it's been a while since I've had ANYTHING on my wall! But anyway....I cannot believe I actually had to pick up my DayRunner today and purposely count out what day it was just to know what on earth I'm supposed to be doing this week! Moving makes your brain turn to mush, and late pregnancy tends to exacerbate the problem, that's for sure. But for heaven's sake, don't try to PLAN anything during weeks like this!

Jon is more than halfway through basic training, and from the sound of his letters, he's got this military thing down to a "t" already...upset that the doofuses are put in charge when the hard-chargers and uber-motivated soldiers have to stand back and just take orders like good little boys. Welcome to real life, my boy! I must hear things like that at least once a month from his dad, and I've heard it for YEARS from all the enlisted guys we've ever known. At any rate, though, Jon is doing well, he's just homesick and in need of a shower, air conditioning (he wasn't quite prepared for an Oklahoma summer in full "battle rattle"!), and some home cooking. All the typical stuff. We got the graduation announcement newsletter from his Commander today, and while it would be wonderful to be able to plan a trip out West to see him graduate, the whole works hinges on someone who isn't but a hair over five pounds right now. Amazing how someone so SMALL who hasn't even taken a single breath can control so much of the immediate universe!

Stefani is due on the 31st of August, but we will meet her MUCH sooner than that. I finally got in to see an OB on Monday after being hem-hawed around with at the base clinic (they didn't quite grasp the, um, pressing NEED I had to see a doctor as soon as we got here, so I got "the first appointment we have"), and as I suspected, my blood pressure is elevated. A week ahead of what is normal for me. Usually, I start seeing elevated BP's around 34 weeks, but this time it reared its ugly head at 33 weeks; no doubt thanks to some of the added stress and strain of moving. After almost two hours of trying to decipher my German OB records (THAT was a laugh...thankfully the doctor and nurses found humor in it too) and redoing most of the paperwork and "intake" stuff that is done in the first trimester, my new OB decided a very thorough ultrasound was in order.

All's well with the wee one. Not so with me, but I already saw that coming. Thankfully, now there aren't any of the classic pre-eclampsia symptoms like swelling, frequent headaches, spotted vision, and protein in the urine, but I know it's all on its way in short order. Especially considering that I can't truly "slow down" and do full bedrest like I would normally be able to do at this stage of the game. But the doctor knows that, he is understanding, and is taking into account all that is going on in life right now. Thank GOD for good doctors, they don't realize how much they can de-fuse a stressful situation!

Interestingly, the baby is measuring a full week ahead of what she *should* be in development, so the doctor is reassured that an early delivery won't be as problematic a few weeks (if we make it that far) early as it would if she were right on track gestationally or even a bit behind. She's actually measured a full week ahead for almost four full months now, but *my* measurements are still on track with my due date, so none of the dates are going to change. HOWEVER....I know pre-eclampsia doesn't reverse itself, and there is no "cure" other than delivery, so already at my first doctor's appointment, we were discussing delivery. This time around, thankfully, I have a doctor who doesn't want to toy with the idea of "trying" to have a normal delivery. He is taking my past experiences into account, paying attention to my concerns, and he's agreeing with me that this time around, a planned c-section is the safer choice. No dates yet, we're going to try to wait as long as possible, but he mentioned being surprised if we get another four weeks out of this pregnancy. Me too.

So yes, Jon, you will be beaten "home" by your newborn baby sister. By how much? We shall see. Maybe a week, maybe two, maybe just a couple of days!

I concede.

I'm tired. I'm worn out.

All of the beds are now up (including the crib, so hey, IF this little one were to, perchance, make a seriously early arrival, we're ready), the kitchen is done with the exception of a few odds and ends that I have yet to find a home for, and the phone, internet, and cable are up and running.

I believe Pete wins this time. It's about time to slow down.

Obsess much?

I know I don't have full-blown OCD....at least not that's officially diagnosed, anyway, LOL. However, moving (especially the moving IN part) really does bring out my obsessive tendencies, and while I'm trying hard not to drive my family nuts, this is one week when I'm not going to apologize for wanting things "just so" and not settling for half-done. Normally, (even my mom would attest to this, much to her horror) I will bend to lesser standards with my housekeeping and organizing to placate the rest of the family and keep things sane, but this week (as with last week and the week before that), I'm going to insist that things be done RIGHT--and by right, I mean, of course, MY WAY!

You know how the saying goes that a man's home is his castle? I personally think that's a bit off. There's another lesser-known saying among military families that even though the hubby may be the commander, it's his wife who's the first sergeant, and it's the mom who hands out the orders! Pete's name may be first on the change of address card, the "head of household" for tax purposes, and even spiritually...but he doesn't have a CLUE how to organize (or clean) a house. Just yesterday, we spent several hours doing something Pete didn't even think needed to be done. We cleaned a perfectly "clean" house. WHY?? Well, the wax buildup on the linoleum was about to drive me batty, and the last thing I could imagine doing was putting all my "stuff" in a house that wasn't clean when we started. So out came the ammonia and up came probably five years of wax and cigarette smoke from the prior occupants. YUCK! Kelsey and Pete just shook their heads at me, but you know what? That kitchen floor sparkles now, and there is not a spot on it that grabs my attention--a very good thing, in my book!

We were sitting at lunch today with three couples from church talking about moving around, having unpacked boxes (HORRORS!!!) living in the house for years, and the whole moving-in hassle. It appears I have become a bit of a joke to Pete--at least, my unpacking/obsessing over the moving-in aspect of our military transfers have. I'll admit it, I HAVE TO get things unpacked as soon as the moving truck has pulled away from the house. It's not in me to let boxes sit all over the house unpacked for weeks on end. Pete doesn't see them after a while. He forgets they're there, even if he's got to climb over them to get to something. Me? NO WAY. Cardboard boxes offend my sensibilities, quite frankly. They are ugly and they represent something that is not yet finished. We have so little time at the places we're normally stationed, if I let things sit in the house, we'd barely get moved in before we had to get things packed up again! So step aside and just stay out of the way, there's WORK to do!

I'm 32 weeks pregnant today. I'll probably get a LOT less done this time around than I usually do the day our household goods are delivered. But at the end of the day, I know I will be able to sleep on my OWN bed, on my own clean sheets, in my own bedroom, with all the children sleeping in their own beds on their own clean sheets surrounded by put-away clothing and toys that are put away, and I can plop my fatigued fanny down on my own couches to rest in between boxes! It's my "thing". I'll gladly own it!

Back on home turf!

I simply cannot BELEIVE how well that move went! Okay, yes I can. It was obvious that the hand of God was just all over it this time around--no doubt about it! The housing inspection was a breeze, the two days in the hotel went well, and the flight was so flawless that it was just eerie at times! We took off a half hour behind schedule but had such a strong tailwind (at one point, over 140mph!!) that we arrived in Atlanta when we were expected! One further surprise (okay, it was a surprise to me, and one more example of a lack of communication between us since it was NOT a surprise to Pete) was having his dad make a drive from Johnson City, TN to meet us at the airport and drive Pete over to the vehicle processing center to pick up our van! Yes, within an hour of arrival in Atlanta, we had our OWN wheels!

We just had a blast in Atlanta for the short little stay we had; Jamie just MADE the weekend taking to her "Uncle" Chuck and having him wrapped around just about every little finger on her hand within....oh, half an hour! I had one teeny (probably not so teeny to the three bewildered folks trying to figure out what to do with me) glitch in the Mall of Georgia as a rather sudden blackout overtook me, but thankfully I was able to catch on and sit down before I went flat on my face right there outside Build-A-Bear! The trip from Atlanta to Florida went well, but the drive from Quincy to Huntsville was SOOOOOO long that we were just completely wiped out by the time we arrived last Wednesday afternoon. However, we had a house on base waiting on us when we arrived--and when we finally got to look at it, we realized that at that point, God was just showing off! It's PERFECT--couldn't have fit our family better if it had been engineered just for us, and the base is every bit as gorgeous as we remembered. Sunday was the first time in three years that we've had the opportunity to go to more than one church service, and it was a bit of an adjustment for us, but one that is long overdue, and we are SO thankful to be able to have a church family to fall right in with--you don't realize how much you miss it until you finally get it back!

Yesterday, I made the long drive back down to Quincy with Jamie and Dani to spend a few more days with my family and pick up Kelsey, Morgan, our ginormous "puppy" Jake, and the new little stray kitten that Kelsey has taken in and given an unfortunate name....Booger. I'm exhausted, but feeling incredibly blessed and more than ready to get going on this new phase of our lives. Next week, I'll have new OB appointments, WIC appointments, and even the arrival of our unaccompanied baggage (almost two weeks early!!) to occupy my time, but for now I'm still reeling at how wonderfully orchestrated this move was...and not on OUR part, that's for sure! God showed us at every turn that He was truly in this transition, and I'm sure the next few years hold something wonderful for us!

Last few days

Our time here in Germany is swiftly drawing to a close, and the days seem to be coming in rapid-fire succession lately! Pete shipped his "toy" Porsche last Friday, so we're down to just the one borrowed vehicle (thank goodness everyone seems to have two cars!) and that means there's just no more getting out as a family. Sunday was, um, interesting, to say the least. Jon and Kelsey had to spend the night with friends in Frankfurt so they'd have a ride to church, then they had to ride the train home!

Jon is doing his "official" (read: final) swearing-in today, meaning he is now official property of the US Army. He only has one more day left at home. I *should* be falling apart, but I'm still in one piece. For now. I got a small taste of what "good-bye" feels like on Sunday when we said our farewells to three of the families that are leaving to go back to the States....and Jon. As we sang "Blest Be the Tie", Pete had the most pronounced vibrato in his voice that I've ever heard coming from him, and that started a domino effect of tears, then giggling as we all (as in the WHOLE congregation) tried to stop sniveling. It was pretty pitiful.

Our final pack-up and shipment of the rest of our "stuff" is Friday. Then we have the weekend to prepare for our final housing inspection. There are moments when it still doesn't feel real, but I'm sure it WILL--like next Tuesday morning when we lug all of our baggage up to the hotel!

Hmm, I wonder if we'll have wireless internet access??

Icky, sticky, summer day

That pretty much sums it up for the day.

Yeah, RIGHT.

Seriously, though, it's 87 degrees in the shade, the breeze has totally died, the humidity is up to 73%, and there is NO AIR CONDITIONING in this country!!! I actually took the girls to the commissary today to hang out for a few minutes in what used to be our ice cream freezer. It's empty now, because the commissary is downsizing along with the rest of the base. But hey, it's still cold, which is more than I can say for the rest of Germany today!

On the upside, today I have a very shiny dining room floor! Go figure, pregnant bodies seem to be made to be on the floor scrubbing! Not so much the bending and mopping, but the being ON the floor. And it's interesting how well Mop & Glo mixes with sweat to make a really pretty finish on the floor!

Ah, yes, and Jon made a big step forward in his budding military career today; he passed a number of common task tests that his recruiter was to assess him on, and he will enter the Army next week (WOAH NELLY!!!) with real rank on his shoulder--a PV2 instead of a plain old Private! How quickly (or not) one forgets just how valuable those early promotions are!

The graduate

It's taken me a while to edit pics and make sure Grandmas saw these first, but if I wait too much longer to post about this, I'll have another graduate to blog about! A week and a half ago at church, we had a luncheon to honor the two seniors in the congregation who were graduating and moving on to adult life. Jon was one of the two very embarrassed honorees. The other was a very sweet girl who will be attending Abilene Christian University this fall, and completely throwing her poor mother's life into upheaval by putting ALL THAT SPACE between them!



Jon is not one to relish the spotlight (unless it's self-imposed), so this little luncheon was not something he was looking forward to, but he managed to at least survive...and as with any other teenage (ahem...young adult) male, as long as there was food to be had, he was just fine. Besides, there were dorky hats to try on and have pictures taken with, and Jon is all about dorky fashion!

We had a slide show presentation for each of the grads, which turned out to be the most embarrassing part of the day for both Jon and Leeanna, but again, they survived. I may eventually figure out how to add Power Point presentations to my blog, but for now, Pete is just not available enough to be my hired geek and get it uploaded. The other embarrassing part for Jon and Lee were the picture boards that still sit in the foyer of the church building for all to ooh, ahh, and giggle over. I did my level best to keep Jon's as simple as possible, considering that when we take it down next week to do our final packing, it's all going to have to fit well into a suitcase and then transition to a scrapbook when I have all my tools and gadgets and materials (not to mention all those glorious craft stores!!) available to me once again on the other side of the Atlantic. This was by far my most difficult scrapbooking project to date, because I had to blend both the boy Jon was and the man he's become--that's not as easy as it sounds--and it all had to fit on a science-fair presentation board! Here's what the finished product looks like:


The far left side up close:




The middle up close:


The far right side up close:




And last but not least, the whole family--this is the last family picture we'll have taken before we have both a new member in the picture and another one wearing a uniform! I realized after having to resist the temptation to edit myself right out of this picture that I am truly "showing", and that this pregnancy is much like my pregnancy with Kelsey--I am spreading in all directions!!! Lovely...thank goodness the focus that day was on Jon and not his hot-air-blimp-looking mom!


Overall, it was a nice, fitting end to Jon's home school journey. Quiet, simple, to-the-point, and much like we tried to envision our "statement of purpose" for educating our children at home--keeping it all in perspective. Looking toward the future with a clear remembrance of all God has blessed us with in the past. Trying to see the future through His eyes. And no, those eyes were not full of tears--just dreams and hopes and prayers for a blessing on the new life of a new adult.

"Lovey" blanket overload

What does a nineteen-month-old do when all of the "things" she's been surrounded with all of her life suddenly disappear onto a big, loud truck? Well, this particular nineteen-month-old clings to the few things she holds dear in this world--her loveys. Danica would not, under any circumstances, allow these three blankets to be packed up with everything else. She made SURE they weren't packed, because the above picture shows how she walked around the entire time the movers were here. NO WAY was she gonna let those loveys get away! You'll notice that one of the loveys is so "well loved" that it's literally falling apart at the seams. Mom has some work to do when a sewing machine becomes available at Grandma's house!

Talk about simplification!

It's been two weeks since the movers took our household goods, and I can honestly say that the only thing I **REALLY** miss is my bed. Okay, maybe two things--my bed and my desk; leaning down to type on a coffee table is NOT comfy! I was loading a bunch of pics from Jon's grad luncheon the other day and found some of the mid-chaos pictures I took while the movers were doing their thing. This was the last we saw of our living room furniture:

Here's what it looks like now:

Looks like a decent amount of stuff, right? Well, sort of. We do have a room full of government loaner furniture, plus a Pete-made cardboard box maze for the girls to play in, a big bucket of Little People toys, and a play tent, but other than that, the "stuff" is gone! And you know what? I kind of like it this way! Look around....see anything missing that you'd usually find in a living room? That's right, NO TV!!!!! We've gone almost two full weeks with NO TV, and our kids are still alive!

We did shock the furniture delivery guys a bit by asking for a bed per person. The girls' bedroom is a TAD cramped, see?

Really makes it obvious how absolutely tiny just over 900 square feet truly is!

Full Circle

I began my married life as an Army wife. It's the only life I've known since I left the home I was raised in. Ten years ago, Pete and I withdrew our children from public school and began our homeschool journey. Today, that journey came to an end, and another circle has begun.

I am now not only an Army wife, but also an Army mom. As of about the 9th of June, our family will include a Retired Chief Warrant Officer, an active duty Staff Sergeant, and a Private.

One MAJOR hurdle passed

Woah. I feel like I've been run over by the moving truck that left yesterday with eleven crates full of our "stuff". Somehow, even though it wasn't us doing the packing and lifting and taping and boxing and stuffing, I'm worn out! But you know what? Even with next to nothing in our house, there is a huge sense of peace knowing that we're one GIGANTIC step closer to moving. Our next big hurdle is less than a week away--our preliminary housing inspection (always a source of stress because it seems that housing inspectors are trained by the same PR reps that train US Customs agents in the Dulles Airport--rude, impatient, condescending, and just plain not fun to deal with)--and although it's a huge pain in the neck, it's nothing compared to having your entire house ripped apart, stuffed into boxes, and loaded on a truck. It's nothing compared to trying to weed through everything you own and picking out what you think will be adequate clothing for seven people in two climates for two months. Yep, that housing inspection looks like a teeny little speedbump compared to the mountain that is now in our rearview mirror!

There were, of course, the inevitable miscommunication problems that led to several of the things we'd intended on keeping here getting packed and shipped, but nothing major. Jon is just going to have to make due without the ten dollar bill, the Zune charger, cell phone charger, and Chevy Nova books that he neglected to put in his "do not pack" closet. Pete may be getting a slight bum-chewing for having his dog tags unaccounted for today (OOPS!!!), and I may have to drink my coffee from a plastic cup for a few weeks, but otherwise there were no big problems.

Jon's ASVAB testing went well. He took the test alongside three other high school seniors, and out of the four of them, his score was the highest. His recruiter told him he still could have done better, had he done just a tad more studying, but overall he did wonderfully. He should be able to get whichever job in the Army he wants--hopefully the draw of Explosive Ordnance Disposal wears off in the next few days! It looks as if our new graduate (Pete and I signed his transcript and his diploma last week!) will be taking the oath of enlistment next Monday! He's not going to actually go to basic training till August, however, so he's got a little time left with us once we get back on US soil to finally take his driver's exam and spend some time working on that Nova that will be his once he is able to pay for the insurance! We're actually hoping he goes through with his plan of going into an MOS that will train at Redstone Arsenal after basic training so we're at least on the same base for a little while, even if he's living in the barracks. It will also mean that his basic training will be closer to us, and his granparents will be close enough to be there for his graduation from both basic and his Advanced Individual Training. That's IF he trains at Redstone. Another plus to that option (which, of course, we are NOT mentioning this to him) is that we will be available during his training to drive the boy to church! The Army frowns upon soldiers having a car while they're in training, and knowing how shy Jon is.....he would not likely be calling anyone to give him a ride to church if Mom and Dad weren't available!

Wow, life really is moving right along! Hmm....I suppose now that I have a few extra minutes, it's time to start working on Jon's picture board for the graduate luncheon at church in two weeks, and getting his graduation announcements addressed!

Found the glitch!

Overseas travel is never simple, but our airline just made it more than just a tad more difficult. Taken from Delta Airlines' site, here's the challenge du jour:

"Checked Baggage
Currently, you can check two bags per passenger free of charge. Starting May 5, 2008 this will be reduced to one free bag per passenger traveling in the U. S., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico."

Nice. So those of us who have lived overseas for three years and are traveling to a new home with only the things they can carry out of their household goods for two solid months....can only fill ONE bag. I'm glad I found this out today instead of Tuesday, AFTER the packers come. I guess I'm borrowing someone's car to go buy bigger suitcases for the girls!

Reality hits

Woah. It's real. It's really, really real. The recruiter stopped by today while bringing Jon back home to ask if I could send his diploma and high school transcript with him next week when Jon takes his ASVAB. The physical was a breeze--the boy is healthy--can't even be unhealthy when he tries! But WOAH. I wasn't quite prepared to hear "He'll need to inform whichever officer will do his enlistment that we'll need him probably either Wednesday or Thursday of next week".

Even Pete is in a bit of shock.

The folks at the troop medical clinic even started calling him "Private" today, just to get him used to it. Jon is all grins, ear to ear. His parents......are just in shock.

More reality hit half an hour after Jon came home. The movers came by to do a run-through of the house and take measurements of all the furniture so they'll be prepared when they get here next Monday. It wasn't until they got here that I realized exactly what a disaster area this house has turned into, trying to get ready for this. I'm sure the two overhwelmed guys who did the run-through are VERY afraid of what they're going to see next week!

I thought I was on top of all of this, but I'm INCREDIBLY behind. Another rather MAJOR to-do to add to my list occurred to me this afternoon, and I have to get it DONE this weekend--the scrapbook/picture board for the grad luncheon at church has to be done before our stuff ships, or I at least have to have all the pictures, embellishments, papers, and a seriously well-planned-out layout set aside so I can do it after everything's gone.

Eek. Suddenly I have heartburn.