Baby's 1st Christmas

My head is swimming with everything that has happened since my last update 3 weeks ago.  How have 3 weeks passed so quickly?!?

Parker's first Christmas was wonderful.  For years I've wondered when we would get to celebrate "Baby's 1st Christmas".  Last Christmas was especially hard on the heals of the miscarriage.  This year was a dream.  I feel so blessed!  Justin had duty on Christmas day... let me rephrase that... Justin VOLUNTEERED for Christmas Day duty (24 hour duty).  He told me back in October, about 5 hours before we were leaving for the hospital to begin the induction.

(INSERT DRAMATIC PAUSE)

No, he didn't run it by me before he volunteered.  Fortunately for both of us, he told me at the car dealership while we were waiting for the van to be repaired.  Good for him because I couldn't hurt him... good for me because it forced me to control the emotions/hormones that I probably wouldn't have attempted to control had we been at home.  It took me 15 minutes to get over and I think I deserve a huge amount of applause for managing to get over this lapse in judgement so quickly considering I was 41 weeks pregnant and to say I was "hormonal" would be a massive understatement.  So Parker and I spent Christmas Day on base with him.  Our best friends prepared a Christmas dinner picnic basket for us that I picked up and took with me.  We watched movies and changed a steady stream of diapers before I headed home since the snow was starting to fall. By that night it looked like this

At 4am I woke up to feed Parker but wasn't feeling that great.  I managed to get him back down but I wasn't able to fall back asleep I was feeling so poorly.  By 6am the full wrath of the stomach flu struck. Over the next few hours I did a lot of praying for strength as I was alone with a baby he wanted to play and snuggle but I couldn't even sit up ... even having to stop nursing to run for the bathroom.  Outside it looked like this:

Our 4-6" of snow that was forecasted we had already exceeded.  Justin's relief finally made it to the base and praise God, Justin was able to get home (none of the side streets had been plowed of the 6"+ that had fallen and the highways were icy)... and he took over caring for Parker for the next 24 hours.  I slept all of the 26th and woke up on Tuesday the 27th feeling much better and to a true Winter Wonderland.

I think we had about 14" of snow at our house.  It was beautiful!  The locals said the last time it snowed like this was in the 1970s!

Justin wanted to go play in the snow so we headed to our best friend's house (we'll call them Mr. & Mrs. K).  The stores were all sold out of sleds... so Mr. K joked about taking the kayak sledding.  They also somehow decided that the kayak would fit inside the minivan.  It didn't and we now have a nice new windshield!  Mrs. K and I stayed behind at the house with the babies while our husbands (and their toddler) ventured out in the snow.  Justin suggested I call the insurance company about the windshield since "it's going to need to be replaced soon."

Insurance Agent: And how did this windshield damage occur?
Me: (as Mrs. K starts laughing and I try not to laugh)  Ummm... from what I was told, trying to fit something that was too big into the car.
Insurance Agent: And when did this damage occur?
Me: Today.
Insurance Agent: Oh wow.  You're sure quick to call in.
Me: From what I'm told, it's not something that can wait long.
Insurance Agent: Oh.  And is the crack bigger than a dollar bill?
Me: From what I was told, much bigger.

My husband so owes me a shoulder rub or something for making that call!  Ha ha.

My parents flew in later that day.  It was my dad's first time meeting Parker so it was a special day.  We finally celebrated Christmas on the 28th.  Parker got a new gym mat that he absolutely LOVES!  I'll have to post some video of him on it.  He'll lay there for hours happily talking, cooing, kicking and reaching for the toys.  I love watching him discover his surroundings!

Parker absolutely hates hats... so much so that if I position a blanket so that it's touching his head (like a hat), he'll start screaming.  We all found it so entertaining.  My mom had been chastising me for having him out in the 20 degree weather without a hat... but she now understands just how bad the temper tantrums become.  Gee I wonder who he gets that temper from...  

The flag was suppose to be a gift for Justin but the tags got mixed up and I got it.  I'm seriously considering installing a flag pole inside so on the tough days, I can fly it :)  Or maybe I'll fly it outside on the bad days so Justin knows what he's walking into when he comes home!  Ha ha.

Hotel Living in Pt. Hueneme

We survived another packout!  Yay!  This move was by far the worst one yet... and I'm just praying we don't end up with a massive damage claim like I'm expecting.  By the second day of the packout I was ready to have not nice words with the packers.  Sigh. At least it's over. 

The cats didn't seem to enjoy the car ride to Palm Springs.  We had them in a dog kennel together... that lasted about 1 mile.  They were quite literally cage fighting.  Blue had Angel cornered and was up on her back legs "popping" Angel left and right while hissing.  About the 5th attack in a mile (complete with fur flying through the air) and we detoured to the vet clinic to get a sedative (for them :) and to seperate them.  Who would have guessed the sedative would have a 6 hour delay!  Oh yes, our cats persisted to meow and protest for 6 of the 9.5 hour drive to Palm Springs.  Sometime in the 6th hour the sedative kicked in... either that or they had put their heads down in defeat.  We survived rush hour in Los Angeles (those drivers are crazy!) and spent the weekend in Palm Springs visiting with Justin's mom.

The kitties have been pawned off to Justin's parents and are in Phoenix until the end of the month.  Justin has 5 weeks of EDO (Engineering Duty Officer) Basic School in Port Hueneme (aka- Port Who Needs Me) and so the grand kitties are with the grand parents.  From what we've been told, they've taken over the house and are training their new servants.  Ha ha. 

The week of graduation we found out that there was no BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarter) availability in Pt. Hueneme and we were being put up in a hotel out in town.  My research indicated that none of the rooms at this hotel had a kitchenette so I came prepared to cook on the top of dressers and wash dishes in the bath tub.  It's not ideal but I've done it before.  Let me say I was so amazed at the room the Lord provided!  We have a Suite, complete with kitchenette AND a fireplace!  Wow!  Of 26 students, Justin was the only one assigned to a Suite.  Praise God for his provision!

There's not much for me to do here... but then again, there wasn't much for me to do in Monterey.  Our internet is SOOOO slow at the hotel that we've resorted to trips to Starbucks in the evening for internet access.  The problem came in getting a signal long enough that we could look up the closest Starbucks.  Yes, it really is that bad.  The terrible internet connection is part of the reason for my lack of blogging lately but hopefully that will change now.

I have discovered a few perks to hotel living.

1.) The towels and linens get changed and washed magically.
2.) Fairies make the bed each morning.
3.) No cleaning necessary.  In fact, if there are any dishes in the sink, house keeping washes them!  Ok, so that's slightly embarrassing...
4.) Free hot breakfast!  Did I mention that there are no breakfast dishes!
5.) Manager's Reception... a fancy way of saying Free Drinks each evening!  LOL.  Too bad I can't take more advantage of that!
6.) No taking the trash out.
7.) We never run out of toilet paper.  This is a biggie for me :) Ha.

So let me conclude this post with a tour of where we're now living...

We're loving the King size bed.  I'm not sleeping very well (due to a lot of back pain)... so this bed is big enough that Justin can roll to the other side and remain relatively undisturbed by my tossing and turning.

Not very impressive... but I've managed to cook dinner and lunch in this little kitchenette. 

The desk... where I spend way too much time waiting for pages to load.

Main room...

The fireplace!  I love that the air conditioner is right next to it... to cool the room back down :)

Recent Ramblings

Please excuse the lack of fluid thought... these are the random thoughts flooding my mind lately. 

My hubby brought me beautiful flowers that are still cheering my kitchen.  I have no idea what kind they are... but aren't they pretty?

I'm sick again.  What a month it's been.  Now I've got a sinus infection with a touch of the flu (which my hubby passed back to me).  Yuck!   I keep telling him that sharing isn't caring.  I can't remember ever having the shakes as badly as last night.  My poor husband didn't get much sleep because I was in tears the better part of the wee hours of the morning due to every joint in my spine hurting so much.  My loving husband kept rubbing my back and was about ready to drive to the emergency room at 3am it was so bad.  Hooray for Tylenol and thank you Lord that Z-Packs can be taken during pregnancy! 

We got to hear the baby's heartbeat yesterday.  That little one has attitude already!  We were listening to the nice whooshing and then there was a THUMP as they kicked the doppler.  Sigh.  I wonder who he/she gets that attitude from...

We scheduled the big anatomy ultrasound for June 1st!  We're super excited!  Our last ultrasound picture the baby looked like a blob... so that's what I've been calling them.  My mother has informed me that I can't keep calling it a blob... so we've renamed it The Bump.  A few more weeks and we'll be able to start working on a real name for them!

It's a woman thing wanting to see baby bumps, isn't it?  One of these days I'll get Justin to take a picture (seeing as he hasn't brought home the tripod yet)... but not until I clean up and get out of my pajamas!  There really isn't much of a bump yet.  Is that normal for 15 weeks? 

I'm getting a haircut next week!  I have struggled to getting a good haircut here.  Apparently they aren't use to cutting hair that goes curly in humidity but will stay straight on drier days :(  Hopefully next week will work out because I'm leaving for Texas in less than 3 weeks and there will be humidity there.  I would prefer having my hair look cute and curly than a poofed up poodle.

Justin is plowing away on his thesis.  Hopefully he'll get his green card before graduation day.  He claims he's getting carpal tunnel in his thumb due to excessive mouse usage... so we're now having to share ice packs (I've been icing my very unhappy sinuses). 

We're having pizza again for dinner.  Have I mentioned how much pizza we've been eating during this pregnancy?  A lot of pizza.  Tonight we're enjoying a veggie pizza.  Yum!

I finally cleaned my house... and it was so wonderful to come downstairs the following morning to a clean house.  I won't go into how long it's been since that happened last.  It's enough to make me consider cleaning it again this week.

I've been researching a lot of baby items lately.  We're considering cloth diapering.  Justin has always wanted to do this but it's taken a while to get me on board.  Has anyone used glass bottles?  I'm very intrigued and they have this silicone sleeves that keep it from breaking when dropped.  How cool is that?!  Now on to car seats.  Man, those things can get heavy!  I'm a small person, I can't be lugging a carseat that weighs 20lbs + and 20 lb (10 month old) baby!  That's almost 30% of my weight!  Yikes. 

Can I just say... I'm so sick of these stupid (and yes, I said stupid) media reporters.  I've seen at least two in the past day who were reporting on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico... point to a satelite picture but are incapable of telling the difference between the oil spill and the Mississippi River delta.  Seriously???

Mexico has issued a travel advisory for citizens traveling to Arizona.  Yeah... because Arizona is far more dangerous than... oh, I don't know... Cuidad Juarez.  They issued a travel advisory for Arizona.  Can I just say I love finding the irony in the news.

Back to twiddling my thumbs.  Less than 8 weeks until we move... I hope.  We still don't have movers lined up but I'm planning on being gone in 8 weeks.  Yippee!

Crab Bucket

And now for a completely random post...

We love playing games!  Games were a passion of Justin's before we got married and I quickly got on board... with one exception: Monopoly.  This is a game that is not a blessing on our marriage.  We played it on our honeymoon cruise and let me just say, that was not the best decision.  Of ALL the things we could have been doing, Monopoly shouldn't have been on that list.  Ha ha!  It wasn't my husband... it was me.  I didn't learn to play games properly as a kid... in our house it had a tendency of becoming personal and so that has tainted me.  Anyway, we've overcome that incident and found "marriage friendly" games.  Our favorite is Settler's of Catan.

An interesting thing happens everytime one person starts to dominant the game... everyone else tries to pull them down.  My husband calls this Crab Bucket.  "Crab bucket?" our friends ask.  Well yes.  Have you ever observed how crabs can never get out of a bucket?  If one gets too close to the top, the others pull it back down.  Same thing happens in games... hence the term Crab Bucket.