Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Monday, September 21, 2009

Ta Tas

My good friend is walking in a breast cancer walk. If you are so inclined, check out her blog and support her in honor of someone you love who has had breast cancer. This particular issue is close to my heart since all 3 of my grandmothers have had breast cancer. Please take a moment to just check out the blog. Dana is a preacher's wife and the thought of her wearing a T-shirt that states "I love my ta tas" is worth the read!

http://www.danaelaineellis.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Surprises

We have had a few surprises about moving to Japan.

Our apartment and apartment building are amazingly clean! The apartment was spotless when we moved in and so far the building appears to be close to spotless. Very well done!

The locals who work at the on-base food courts are hard and dedicated workers. I have yet to see a person standing around. They are always cleaning, cooking, serving, preparing. These people know how to take care of their businesses!

The island is not as pretty as I thought it would be. I had pictured the island of Oahu or the Big Island of Hawai'i. So far I have seen run down buildings in Okinawa. Lots of traffic. And tons of older people who walk everywhere. But no beaches, beautiful gardens or sun kissed skin. I am being told that the Northern part of the Island will more than fulfill my original expectations of moving back to an island, but due to our bundle baking I have not been up to being out and about.

The cross walks chirp at you. Is it like this in other parts of Japan? Each time I drive through a chirping intersection, I crack a smile. I think the chirping is for the blind people to know when and where to cross. It is an interesting concept and I am glad blind people are so well taken care of.

The storage we have in our apartment is astounding. Almost all of our things are put away. We only have about 5 more boxes to unpack of things that I actually need to put away. The boxes in our ginormous storage areas are our Christmas stuff, clothes I will not be able to wear while pregnant, clothes I will only be able to wear after delivery and clothes I hope to fit back into a few months post-baby-delivery. Then a few boxes of clothes L has outgrown and will grow into.

The speed at which JCPennys is able to ship and send things we can only order on-line. Though M and I have lived in 5 different homes, we have to buy curtains EVERY time we move! That is expensive!! Not one place has yet to be a place where we can reuse all of our curtains. But JCPennys had us covered! They had exactly what we needed, shipped it quickly and did not charge us crazy amounts to have it shipped! Thank you JCPennys! Walmart however SUCKS! They are saying it will take up to a month to get our order here and when I clicked an APO address, the shipping cost more than doubled. No more shopping on-line at Walmart!

The sense of community of base and in base housing. Do you know that a neighbor saw us moving in with our stuff. She came over to introduce herself. Me in all of my unshowered, pukey glory smiled and shook her hand. She asked if there was anything I needed. I said, "No, but thank you. Oh wait, do you happen to have tums?" I had been up the night before with the end of 1st trimester heartburn and was not wanting to deal with heartburn for the day. We only have one car and M was at work. The woman ran to her house brought out her bottle of 5-6 tums left and handed me the bottle. Later in the day, she rang the bell while I was showering. M, who had gotten home early and had stopped to get me Tums, answered the door. Do you know that my neighbor had gone to the store and bought Tums for me?!?!??!?!?!?!?! M thanked her and said he was actually able to get me some, but what a lady! Acts of kindness are a regular occurrence in the building. I am grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people.

These are just a few of my most recent thoughts. Have a great day!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Dedicated to Auntie M and Uncle M

So actually this is more in appreciation of my dad and stepmom. You see, as I am putting away all our stuff from our big move, I am realizing how much my (parents) little brother (2 years) and sister (6 years) have passed along to my baby girl. There are wash clothes, bibs, the bumbo, the baby swing, clothes, towels, socks, toys toys and more toys, books, bottles -- so much baby stuff that has saved us tons of money! So thank you Trents for passing along baby stuff. L appreciates it, we appreciate it and our bank account appreciates it!

We are getting settled into our new home. Getting - that is the frustrating part. I have been too sick and tiered to be of much use, so M comes home after working all day and works on the house. Then when I am trying to get things done during the day, L is there to "help". How will she learn things unless I let her help, but how do I get anything done because she is helping? I put books on the shelf, she pulls them off. I put toys in the bin, she pulls them out. I put packing materials in a box to be recycled, she pulls all the materials out all over the floor. So as much as I get done, I still end up getting nothing done because of my helper! I will steal a phrase from my dad and say to her. "L, quit acting like you are one!" But she is one, she is healthy and she is so far learning lots and her brain is working well. So I continue to try to remember to be thankful for healthy arms and legs, thankful that she is curious and figuring out the world around her, and thankful that because of her smarts she is trying to "help".

Speaking of things she is doing...here is a run down for our family far away.

Using about 50 words
Used one 3 word sentence two different times
Used the potty a handful of times now
Following a ton of one step commands
Knows where the bathroom, our room and her room is in the house
She combines several two-word phrases "mama up" "dada down"
She is making requests through sign language and verbally
She is doing some pretend play -- feeds an animal or "talks" on the phone
She gives hugs and kisses galore
When she gets excited she stomps her two feet back and forth
She likes to read books and be read to

I am thankful that she is meeting her developmental milestones, and I repeat that to myself after I have heard "mama" for the 18 millionth time during the day. Some mommies never get to hear "mama". So pray for me that I can continue to appreciate the gift of my baby girl, especially when I am frustrated with picking up the books she has thrown on the floor for the 80th time.

We have our appointment on Sept. 29 to meet our little Baby Jay. We will have our first ultrasound and checks to make sure all is well. I am excited to see Baby Jay on the ultrasound screen. I will be 14 weeks along. At 15 weeks I could feel L moving, so I am hoping I get to feel Baby Jay in the next several weeks too. I like when you can just fee a flutter rather than a kick to the rib. The flutters feel magical to me. Oh -- great news -- it has been 2 1/2 days since I puked. Maybe I won't be sick this whole pregnancy!!!!! It would be incredible to me to have the nausea go away! However, I am already thankful that this pregnancy has had no complications. With L the multiple complications had already started. I had kept saying if I could deal with only being sick or only the complications, I would do so much better. So to have 2 1/2 days with no throwing up and no complications, I am grateful! Baby Jay seems to be growing well. I am in maternity clothes and my tummy is poking out. Though to look at me you would wonder if I was preggo or putting on weight.

I am headed to take a nap while L is down. Gotta take advantage of the quiet, because the unpacking can happen later. As long as it happens by the time Baby Jay arrives.

Have a wonderfully wonderful day!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Back to work

After having M home and with us for almost a month, he went back to work today. Here are the wonderful blessings we have enjoyed the last month:

Having the one other person on the planet who is 100% responsible for L around.

M would step up to take care of laundry, straightening up, and took most of the dirty diapers since they smell leads me towards gagging or worse.

M and L have SO enjoyed their time together! They reconnected and got reacquainted with one another which is priceless. M figured out her routine and her ways of communicating and L loved loving on her dada. If he is out of sight, she will shout "DADA" as loud as she can. This does not bode well for quiet Japan, so we are trying to work on whispering. But she's 1!

M was able to take L into another room or distract her when I was getting sick.

When I was tired, M would take L so I could rest.

Having M there to laugh with and joke with. To know that we could count on him! What a blessing.

We are joyful for being together again. We are joyful to find out that M won't be deployed nearly as frequently as we had first thought. And we are joyful to be moving into our apartment on Friday/Saturday if all goes well! Seven months of being homeless are enough!!!

Alright, now the blessings of the 6 months we had apart.


Living with my dad and stepmom was so good! I was able to hit Wal-mart or groceries after L went to bed. Got to go to quite a few movies after L was in bed too!

L LOVED being with her Uncle M and Auntie M. She absolutely adores them!

Got to teach Children's Church at m parents church, which helped with the teaching bug.

Got to make friends in SC -- Dana and Tara especially were friends who I have come to love!

Was able to loose some weight (though gaining it back with a baby cooking in the oven :) )

Was able to have my little sister announce to the family that Baby Jay is on the way. It was fun having a "Sister Secret"

The time with my family in SC was precious. I will always treasure that time, and when I am missing them over the next 3 years, I will get to think back to this 6 months.

We saved $$$$, which was great. So we are debt free with some savings. Thanks Dave Ramsey!

That is all for now! Can you tell I have not much to do in the hotel room with no car...the frequency of the posts will probably increase this week ;).

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Japan

Things I like so far about living in Japan...

Toilet seat warmers
Toilet butt spray -- you push a button and get sprayed in the butt to help clean you off
Toilet wipes -- you get a piece of toilet paper, place it under the sanitizer sprayer, and then wipe the seat
(Can you tell I spend lots of time over the toilet, throwing up and pregnant peeing)

Noodle restaurants

Pocky and other pretzel/chocolate snacks

The friendliness of the people, especially when you try to use Japanese. They seem to LOVE when we try to speak their language

Performing arts seems to be a HUGE thing in Japan. It seems everywhere we go we see people performing -- and they are very talented

Fireworks -- of the 10 nights we have been here, we have seen 3 firework shows from our hotel room

Things I find funny about living in Japan...

People on the street wear surgical masks -- all the time. I don't like it because I can't hear what people are saying to me. My brother tells me I wouldn't be able to hear the Japanese w/ or w/o the mask because they are taught to talk so quietly

The blind people side walks -- are there really so many blind people in Japan that every sidewalk needs a bumpy path down the middle to help the blind people walk? I think this is cool, I just didn't realize there would be so many blind people

The Japanese girls giggling when L waves at them -- L waves at EVERYONE! and the local girls think this is hilarious

Hope you enjoy.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Smart or lazy?

While out and about today, I caved and bought L some toys. Those of you who know me, know that I am anti-buying new baby toys. I think it is ridiculous to buy new toys for a baby who is going to outgrow the toy fairly quickly. However, the thought of being in a hotel room for one more week while M is a work, leaving me with no transportation...I caved and bought a few brand new toys.

So I bought a little tea set, a shape sorter and bouncing ball. She seems to love all the toys so hopefully that will help the week pass. I was showing L how to use the shape sorter, you know, place each shape in the proper whole. I left L to her own devices to play with the toy. She tried placing one or two shapes through the sorter lid, then pulled the lid off and proceeded to fill the box with the shapes. She decided to skip the whole sorting thing and finished her project in a faster way. So -- lazy or smart? I am not sure which way to go!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Okinawa Japan

Since I have been up from 2 am and it is 6 am, I thought I may as well make a post seeing that I am not going to sleep for awhile. The time change is a killer!

We have arrived. We made the 2 1/2 day journey around the world. My brother, who is stationed here, met us at the airport with baby food and diapers! He is a wonderful man! We found out that the on-base hotel was full, so we jumped right into Japanese culture and were able to stay in a hotel "out in town". Out in town refers to anything not on-base. That means with our Internet hook-up, 1/2 my screen in in Japanese. That also means that I am scared to start trying to use my Japanese already (what little I have) and mostly just smile and nod to the locals around us.

Back to our journey. On the second day of the trip, we all 3 woke up with colds that got worse as we travelled. M ended up with a fever, L snotted all over everywhere, and I couldn't stop with a runny nose and sneezing. We all were pretty yucky during the rest of the trip. Thankfully for L and M, my brother stopped at the PX (military exchange) on our first day here and got some meds for them. Thanks to keeping the health of the tiny baby growing in my uterus I will not partake of the meds and just hope the cold passes soon.

The prayers for nausea to subside while traveling were not answered the way that I had hoped. But the blessing was that each time I barfed, I was able to make it to the airplane toilet. Each time I would come out of the bathroom, the people sitting close would look at me as if I were spreading the plague. At one point a lady offered my Pepto after asking if I was still sick, I thanked her for the offer and explained I was pregnant. Her whole family sighed with relief (knowing they could "catch" what I had) and then she told me she hoped I felt better. Made me smile all the people giving me looks. But I was not about to walk around explaining that I am 8 1/2 weeks preggo and pregnancy does not agree with me. They can just give me looks and deal with it.

Our hotel is nice. Though we have jumped into island life. With a baby running around there is food all over. So the little cockroach who was so lucky to sense out the food joined us in our room yesterday morning. For those who have lived on an island, you get it. For those who have not, even at our $200/night hotel cost, we are going to have bugs. That is the way of life on a island. I am trying to do a better job of picking up L's food trail, but you know...she is one!

Another funny story, with all of my puking L had yet to hear it. M had done an excellent job of keeping L away when I would puke. Living in a hotel room while M is out picking up food, L is bound to hear me puke. So I am hurling in the toilet and L hears me. She starts crying out "Mama, mama, mama" as she runs across the room. She climbs into the bathroom still calling "mama, mama, mama". She grabs my arm and then tries to check on me by looking me in the face. But I am puking so she leans over the toilet trying to place her face between me and the toilet. While I was sick, I was also smiling inside thinking that she has no idea what she is about to get in her face if she doesn't move quickly. I was able to pull her away and onto my lap before the next episode. But it still cracks me up. She was so sweet to come check on me. I am grateful for a little girl who already has a beautiful heart!

We were able to go to a Flight Line Fair last night on one of the Camps. We got to see big planes, little planes, jets, and helicopters. Along with tons of other military equipment. We got to meet some of the guys my brother works with because EOD had a booth set up with their robots and cool things they use to blow things up. My brother has been super amazing at being willing to drive us around and help us figure out this new part of our life. We are so blessed to have him here!!! And to have him so willing to help!

Have a wonderfully wonderful day, maybe I can get a little more sleep before L wakes up for the day.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Preggo

Warning...to men, this a gripe blog about being pregnant.

I did not like being pregnant last time and I am sharing the same opinion this time around. I am not a joyful pregnant lady. I am a grouchy pregnant lady. I have short patience and a mouth that does not hold back what I am thinking. I throw up frequently and if not actually sick, then nauseous most of the day. At least this time around I can still breathe through my nose and I don't have sore boobs.

It drives me crazy when people tell me they enjoyed pregnancy. I do not! Today I was too sick to go to Disney with my family for our last day in Orlando. Hubby was brave to take L alone, but I did not like missing out. At one point I showered trying to get ready to meet up with them and ended up over the toilet bowl hurling up my semi-lunch I had eaten earlier. For today, I have found that if I lie very still I can curb the nausea just long enough to not throw up.

Tomorrow we head out to go back to SC. We get to see my brother who is coming for a visit. He was in Iraq for just under a year and we get to see him finally!!! Then on Tuesday we head to Atlanta next Tuesday. We catch a flight on Wednesday from Atlanta to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle. Then Thursday morning we fly from Seattle to Japan. Please praying as we travel with a one year old and pregnant mama! We need lots of prayers!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Baby Jay

We are pregnant! We have learned about our little bundle who is due at the end of March. Lexi is going to be a big sister and we are excited. I am hoping that this pregnancy goes better as far as less sickness and fewer to no complications.

Baby Jay is what we are calling the baby until we have a name. You see, I am a Kansas Jayhawk fan and the little Jayhawk is called Baby Jay. So in honor of the Jayhawks, Baby Jay it is.
I cannot think of a catchy title for our blog post. I suppose welcome _______ Daddy would work. We cannot say welcome home daddy because we have no home. For a month and 1/2 Lexi and I have been traveling all over.

We drove to NJ to pack up our things to be shipped at the end of June. Did I tell you that we did the 13 hour drive up here. On the Monday before the Tuesday of the move, I was wondering why the movers hadn't called for an estimated time of arrival. Well, when I got on the phone with the people in charge of the move, they said the had no move scheduled for us. I was NOT happy! I explained that I had drive 13 hours with a one year old to be here for this move and something needed to happen please. As soon as I got off the phone, I burst into tears and called Matthew hysterically crying. NOTHING about this move as gone well or smoothly! It has been one disastrous headache after another. So I lost it.

Within an hour, the moving people at Fort Dix fixed whatever they had messed up and we were scheduled for a move on Wednesday. For the move to work out in an hour is seriously an act of GOD! So though nothing has been smooth, God has worked out everything last minute and usually better than originally planned. By the move being scheduled for Wed., I got to go to Pitman C of C and see all the ladies at Bible class. I was so grateful for that day with those girls. I really loved that church and I wish I could pack them up and take them with us. Also, because of the mess up, I was able to spend Monday afternoon with one particular mom of two twin boys who means the world to me.

Do you ever have a friend who is constantly trying to make life better for you! This mom of twins is that kind of friend. Truly, I do not understand why I have her for I certainly do not deserve her. She and her husband were there for me every time M was away. They were there for us with the complications from our last pregnancy. When we have been traveling all over, they will make a more than one hour drive (with twins) to see us if we are anywhere near close. This family is amazing! I have no idea how to show them we love them so much, and I hope that I have been at least somewhat of a friend for her!!!

Ok, so anyway we made our way to KS next for a dear friend's wedding. Oh my, her husband to be looking at Annie as she walked up the aisle is an expression I will hold in my memory for a long time. She was glowing....literally lighting up the room as she entered with her veiled face shining. So the wedding was amazing and the visit was great.

We were then able to go to Vermont with M's Godmother/Aunt. She invited us to Smuggler's Notch. If you are trying to find a place that supports family and is a fabulous place for family vacation. They have ptatoe sack races, water balloon fights with parents, Good Time Charley who leads the old fashioned camp fire, and pools galore...pools for the tiny kids to slides for the big ones. What a great week. I was even treated for a massage at the spa for my birthday and oh man, oh man!

Then yesterday we were reunited with M!!!! We will not be separated for a while!! L was so excited to see her daddy and I am thrilled. We have a going away party today for a chance to say good bye to the friends we've made and the family here in Jersey. More about that later, I just want to have fun and not say good bye right now.

Just a little about the latest goings on. Have a wonderfully wonderful day!