Military Life

Veteran spouses of soldiers have learned somewhere along the way that deep friendships at your current duty station are not necessarily a good thing. While I took to the Army life quite well in my opinion, I don't take to leaving friends behind too well. In Colorado, I learned that it is nice to have a close circle of friends, some wives will talk behind my back, some wives never seem to have a good day, and too many people post too much about their lives on Facebook and are then surprised when something is taken the wrong way. Since moving to Georgia, I have learned who my true friends were and are. And I was right about most, if not all, of them. While I miss a lot of the wives I had grown to love while our husbands were deployed, there are a select few that I find myself constantly thinking about and wondering if they are ok and where their lives are going to take them. Even with the heartache that comes with leaving some very good friends behind, I wouldn't change any of it. After all, the more people I know, the more places I get to visit :).

It's soooooo not happening...

I've failed again at blogging daily but such is life. If that's the worst thing I fail at than I am doing just fine.

Over the Christmas break, we all headed down to PC for some family time with my folks. And I got to meet Caitlyn for the first time. She was only 4 days old. I gotta say, my bro and sis-in-law make some really, REALLY cute babies! We hung out at the house, played, visited some friends, enjoyed no one having the stomach flu this year, and even took time for some extra activities, such as fishing and going to the park. We did make it over to Ft Walton for a few hours to visit there too. Nothing too exciting happened, which is just the way we like it. And for those who were wondering, I could've worn shorts on Christmas Day :)!

Buck and I went to a friend's friend's house (because that's what we do in the South) for the FSU bowl game against Notre Dame. Though we were all worried at first, all I have to say is "Go NOLES!"

We also went to a "family-friendly" New Year's Eve party. Bucky was the only kiddo to survive until midnight - what a champ! The kids roasted marshmallows, did sparklers, and played Wii most of the night while the adults watched football and just had a great time. Thanks Trey!

And then we headed home...

The Struggles of Life

I am posting this shortly after reading a friend's blog about her precious little bundle. The bundle is still preparing to come into this world and already his parents are faced with a struggle. His big brother has SMA, a rare degenerative genetic disorder that affects the spinal cord and nerves, resulting in muscle wasting and weakness. In layman's terms, he will not be able to walk, run, or participate in many of the activities we outsiders consider "normal." In order for a child to have SMA both parents must carry the gene. If they do, they have a one in four chance of their child having it. Recently the parents had their current bundle tested so they know what to expect. Unfortunately he has tested positive for the disorder as well. Please pray for them as they make the adjustments to bring another child with SMA into their loving home. While I don't think there are two more faithful and capable parents in the world, it is still a struggle for them. Even though these parents are more than able to care for their new little precious one, they are still deserving of prayers. Thanks.

Update on the Kiddo

After a few days of up and down fever but no more throwing up, he seems to be much better. Since his temp was fine one minute and shot up to 103 suddenly a couple of times, I am still keeping a pretty close eye on him but he is definitely acting more like himself now. So yay for that!

In other news, we got the garage cleaned yesterday...we can now fit one car into our two car garage. At least it's progress :). We know what we need to do to organize it but it's gonna cost money for all the shelving or storage units so we'll have to get them one at a time. We also have some boxes for recycling and stuff for Goodwill so that will empty some space too. The rest just needs to be sorted and organized. Definitely a step in the right direction!

I'm Trying

I am going to give a really good effort this year to blog daily. It may only contain one or two words that happened to pop into my head but it is what it is. I missed the first few days so owe an additional one after this to "catch up" but after that, I'll keep up...that's my New Year's promise. (and we all know how much people stick to those). I still have some previous events to blog about but just don't feel like it tonight.

Today started off ok but rapidly went down, up, down. It was a normal school day so I took Bucky to school this morning, which was not quite as cold as it was yesterday AM. I got a call about 1100 telling me that my kiddo had just thrown up "all over" the bathroom. I said, "I'll be there in a few", hung up my phone, grabbed my keys and went to get him. He looked pitiful. It was obvious that this was not a random event. When I got him home, I took his temp, a whopping 101.6, gave him some tylenol and let him watch cartoons on the couch. He fell asleep and woke up feeling better. He even ate a little. I didn't give him any more Tylenol since he was acting like himself. During his nap, my purse arrived...oh, did I forget to mention that I left it in Florida when we were visiting over the holidays?? Of all the things I could have forgotten, I forgot my purse...but my wonderful parents FedEx'd it to me and I got it today. I felt lost without it.

When we sat down for dinner, Bucky was starting to act tired and sickly again. He didn't eat much at all and barely ate the ice cream his daddy got for him so we knew something was not right. I took his temp again...now at 103.6. More tylenol and a warm bath while he was screaming. He just didn't feel good. After the bath, his temp was still around 103 but he went right to bed. I have been periodically checking his temp and it seems to be slowly going down but we have the alarm set for his next dose of meds. Poor little guy...

Happy Halloween!!

After we made it through the rest of our trip, including the never-ending state, and seeing a few more sites from the road, we made it to Panama City for Halloween festivities. Bucky decided to be Luigi this year...saved me money since I had purchased it for $2 the prior year after Halloween. We went to the mall for him to go store to store. He really enjoyed it and then he got to ride some ride and play in the balloons. I carved him a jack-o-lantern since it was so much fun last year (not really) but I knew he would like it.

Grand Canyon

Our next touristy stop was the Grand Canyon. A very good friend of mine had suggested that we go to sunrise at the canyon. We didn't get to a hotel until late the night before and there are not many things I will get up early for but I thought this might be worth it. It was about 35 degrees the next morning when we headed out but still we went ahead with it. When we got there, we were quickly reminded of the stereotypical vacation when you are surrounded by Asian folks talking 90mph and clicking away. We both started laughing when we turned around and saw nothing but that because three or four tour buses had just pulled up. We waited it out and let me tell you it was definitely a wonderfully splendid view! I didn't think we were going to make it the whole time because the kiddo was very cold and almost miserable but he hung in there like a champ. We even got to see some deer on the pathway right in front of us as we headed back to the car.

After sunrise we went back to the hotel for breakfast and some more sleep before viewing the canyon during the day and heading out for another day of travel.

Four Corners

On October 26, we headed out from Colorado towards Georgia during the day of the first snow and boy was it a rough day of travelling! We only had a couple of hours behind us from the first day of travelling because we left late but decided that we did want to start the trip no matter what. When we woke up the following morning, our car was covered with snow. We knew snow was expected but had no idea that it was going to be that crazy. Buck did a great job driving up and down and around the mountains but I think I held my breath the whole time.

That afternoon we arrived at our first touristy stopping point, Four Corners. This is a very unique area in that Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona all meet at this one location and join together at the same spot. You can actually jump from one state to another to another to another without taking any steps in between. It is quite amazing!