Moving Plans

Gosh we miss this guy!

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That right there is the biggest reason for my major push to get down to Texas ASAP.

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However now that it is fast approaching I'm starting to feel really nervous and anxious about this next leg in our life's journey.

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More than anything we just want to be back together as a little family, all this time apart is really not a good thing. I mean I guess distance DOES make the heart grow fonder. You realize all the amazing things that you probably were taking for granted before.

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Being back together is like the "honeymoon phase", because it's been so long you just want to do everything you possibly can to be nicer, better, kinder to each other. But besides that, it really isn't a good thing.

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So me and the girls - and my dad, a.k.a. my chauffeur/adult conversation - are heading off for the land of Wichita Falls, Texas on Wednesday. Don't worry if you haven't heard of it...from what I understand you're not missing much (no offense if you have heard of it and happen to like it).

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We will be splitting the L O N G trip in to three days instead of squishing it in to two as to hopefully avoid to much melting down from the children. My dad will then fly back to Utah on Saturday and then it's time for my little family to be together.

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Marty has Saturday, Sunday AND Monday (thanks to the holiday) off that we get to just spend time with each other.

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One of the things I'm most scared of - judge me if you must - is that I've never lived more than about 9 miles from home. That's right...never more than a quick drive to see my family. I spend all sorts of time just hanging out at my parent's house, playing with my sister, seeing family at any time I want. Where am I supposed to go just sit and spend time in Texas?? I'm sure it will be fine though as we adjust. Easy? No.

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So, back to moving plans. The movers can't come to our home in Utah until the 15th of September...so until that we're just going to be on a long vacation living out of suitcases at some temporary housing on base. Sounds like an adventure huh? Thankfully Marty's mom volunteered (a.k.a. was bribed by her son most likely) to be here on the 15th with the movers to make sure things get handled appropriately. Then we wait until they arrive in Texas with our house.

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Yes, we could have waited until after the 15th to head down so we arrived at the same time as our stuff. But I tell you I just don't have it in me. I can't go much longer without seeing Marty. And neither can my girls. We had planned a while back to try and go over labor day, so when we found out that the movers weren't going to be able to be scheduled that soon...I almost had a nervous breakdown. So we're going anyway.

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So that's that. I don't know how to say goodbye to family. I think I'll just pretend that everything is normal and slip out quietly. I don't want it to be harder than it already will be.

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We'll be without internet for a while as we get settled. So, goodbye people!

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Hopefully I will be back in touch with the outside world sooner than later!

Pocket Full of Sunshine

Sometimes a kid who is TOTALLY wearing on every last nerve of yours does something irresistibly funny or cute and totally redeems themselves for the hours of whining and crying and begging that had gone before.

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Enter Brielle - I know some people find it hard to believe that Brielle, of all children, could possibly be anything but sweet and happy. Normally I would agree and her recent attitude problem has been a shock to me as well.

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She REALLY misses her daddy and for the first time in all the time apart from him has really started acting out in every way possible. Crying over nothing, whining constantly about EVERYTHING.

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Today we were driving in the car.

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The end of the song "Pocket Full of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield happened to be on. You know the one? She repeats the same tune over and over singing these lyrics:

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Take me away: A secret place.
A sweet escape: Take me away.
Take me away to better days.
Take me away: A higher place

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I'm not a huge fan of the song, but for some reason just left it playing.

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After the song gets over Brielle asked me, "Does all she do is just yell in that song? Or does she start to sing?"

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I laughed and said "I guess she yells a little huh?"

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Then I hear from Brielle - yelling but still on tune - "Take me away, a secret way, take me away, take me away!"

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TOTALLY REDEEMED!

It's raining, it's pouring

Do you ever feel like when it rains it pours? Maybe you don't...but I sure do. Just when you think "it can't get harder or worse" you are hit with a big ol' slap in the face of harder or worse.

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This doesn't always happen...and I am nearing 6 months pregnant so maybe I'm just an irrational/emotional mess. I'm sure Marty would probably have to go with that reasoning.

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He keeps being like, "Don't fret so much, you're really stressing too much over these things." And I want to be all, "UH, HELLO! I'm stressing too much? I'm freaking trying to get a house all ready to move, keep two kids happy, grow a third child INSIDE my body, figure out preschool, health insurance, apartments, transportation etc. in a place I'VE NEVER BEEN!" And then he's like, "Just get here, things will be easier when you're here, it'll work out." And I actually do feel better...so maybe the irrational/emotional thing isn't that far off.
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Anyway, I got very side tracked there.

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The other night I got the kids to bed and was sitting down to relax. I heard a little bit of a yell/cry come from the girls room and was about to go in and check it out but it didn't continue. I figured it was some sort of bad dream or something and they were back asleep.

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When I decided to go to bed (MUCH later than I should have) I thought I should probably check on the girls before turning in. I switched Claire over to her toddler bed a few days ago - which has gone surprisingly well - and just thought checking on her was wise.

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I went in to their room and the light of the nightlight was just enough to kind of make out shapes. I saw Brielle laying the opposite way on her bed, and looked and could make out Claire's blanket. It looked as though she had scooted down in her bed and maybe covered herself up with the blanket.

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I was about to leave when I thought, you know, I really can't see her head or a leg or anything...maybe I'll look a little closer. I moved a little closer to her bed and still was having a hard time seeing her. I got closer and realized the blanket was pretty flat for supposedly having a child under it.

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I started to worry a little and moved closer. The closer I got the more I realized there wasn't a child in the bed.

WHAT?!

Where was Claire!!??

I frantically searched her bed (since toddler beds are so huge she could have been in there somewhere right?) and looked around the room. I checked on Brielle's bed, under Claire's bed, over by the closet...still nothing.

I knew I hadn't heard Claire come out of her bedroom and was really starting to worry. I flipped on their closet light to get a better view and again checked the same places I already had.

Just when my frantic-ness had just about reached it's peak I turned around towards Brielle's bed and noticed her clothes basket sitting there.

Something was different about the basket.

(Yes, once I found her I couldn't resist taking a picture)

There she was, sitting in the basket fast asleep...the funny thing is she had pulled some of the clothes up as though she thought she was pulling on a blanket.

I still have NO clue what she was doing in there. I don't know if she fell out of her bed, got disoriented and fell in to the basket and then in her tired state decided she couldn't muster up the energy to get out of the basket and gave up.

I don't know if she got out of her bed and tripped in to the basket hitting her head and knocking herself out...hey, you never know!

She was fine the next day...a little grumpy...but wouldn't you be too if you spent a good part of the night sleeping in a basket with a wooden bed post as your pillow?

I'm sorry to continue an already long post but I'm trying to do a little catch up on happenings before I go a while without internet...so bear with me here.

About a week ago (maybe longer, I really can't remember) we had a crazy hail storm here at our house. The girls were in awe at watching the little balls of ice hitting the ground. It was actually pretty big hail stones also. Once it stopped we went out to check out the hail for ourselves. Brielle couldn't believe that little balls of ice had come out of the sky!

They ran around in the rain and played for quite a while after that.

Seeing things through the eyes of a child has been one of the best things about being a parent. It's fun to remember the magic of weather again, as I remember thinking it was amazing when I was young as well.

So...now back to life and the countdown to Texas. I will not continue this post, I will save those details for another day...keep everyone in suspense (the one person who reads my blog that is).

*I discovered Blurb a while ago. I had no idea something so wonderful existed but thanks to it I uploaded my blog from 2007-2008 and have put it in to books! It's such a wonderful thing, I'd been wondering how to do that. But now because of it I find myself wanting to write more details and more often as to keep an even better record of our lives. Just an apology in advance if it seems that I am just rambling on and on about things.*

Texas bound...hopefully.

September 7th - a.k.a. Labor Day weekend - is starting to feel like it's a lifetime away...but at the same time it feels like I have no time at all before the day arrives. That is our tentative date to move to Texas. I say tentative because I have learned that if I act as though things are set in stone, something inevitably comes up and ruins all plans. So if things continue on the path they are now then yes, it will be when we head to Texas...if something comes up then we'll be flying by the seat of our pants...yet again.

I have been stressing myself out over the millions of details that go in to us moving to Texas...to the point that on Saturday I worked - admittedly - too hard to pack and clean and ended up having braxton hicks contractions every 2 minutes for a good few hours. It didn't make me stop what I was doing at first, because if I have the motivation and (some) energy then I can't stop.

Unfortunately this freaked Marty out...which I have to say may be more because he feels extremely horrible about not being here to help...causing him to basically beg me to call the doctor to ask about it. I waited until Monday, because I'm that kind of person, and they insisted on seeing me THAT DAY. I was all, "Um, I have an appointment next Friday, don't you think it can wait?" For some reason they didn't go for that. I spent a lot of Monday worrying that the doctor was going to limit my activity in some way or another and that I'd be even more stressed about everything.

After checking to make sure the contractions weren't doing anything - because they had stopped - I got the clean bill of health and was told that it was my body trying to tell me to SLOW DOWN or stop. The doctor told me to lay down and relax more if I feel any more contractions and stuff. I resisted the urge to laugh in his face at the thought of a mother of two small children who is about to move laying down to relax. But I just nodded.

Another bonus is I now have an extra excuse to not pack. Really I have an excuse not to do hardly anything! The other excuse for not having to pack is that the moving company the army hires will do the packing for me. I for some reason just felt weird about that though and was feeling like I needed to pack as much as I could before we have movers come. Now I am not going to....and I'm not going to feel weird or guilty about it. I will just work on organizing and de-cluttering so it's not a horrible mess for them.

Basically we THINK we have a place to live, but that could also fall through last minute. All I know is I am DONE - with a capital D - DONE being away from Marty. Technically we have been apart for almost 4 months. By the time we get down there it will have been 4 months. Yes there was the 2 days I got to go to Oklahoma to see him and the 6 days of leave in there that were fantastic, but besides that it's been very long and exhausting. I never really knew what tired was until now.

So, now we count down the days until Labor Day weekend. It will probably drag in some aspects, but as I pack (at least our clothes for the road trip) and clean and go through my things I'm sure I will feel like I don't possibly have enough time to do everything.

So, I guess ready or not, Texas here we come!

Oh the questions...

A sample in to the world of having a 4 year old, A.K.A incessant question asker:

Brielle: "Mom, why does everyone have boogers in their noses?"

At first I wasn't sure what to say, so I told her:

Me: "I don't know, we just do."

Then it dawned on me...why shouldn't I answer the question? So I went ahead full force with a much more informative answer.

Me: "Actually, I do know. We have boogers in our noses because they are sticky and help trap germs from getting all the way in to our noses so we don't get sick. It's one way our body can fight against germs."

I thought I was so brilliant that I was helping my daughter's brain expand and grow.

Brielle: "Do they not always stop the germs then, because I still get sick sometimes."

Me: "Uh......"

Brielle: "Why if we have boogers to trap our germs can we still get germs in us? I still get germs and get sick sometimes, were my boogers not sticky?"

Me: "Uh....well, no, germs can get in through your mouth also or other ways."

Brielle: "Why? I thought boogers trapped germs."

Me: "You know what, I don't know why we have boogers."

After examining an older person's nose she also wanted to know why old people have "spider webs" in their noses (nose hair).

Telling her "I don't know" used to work. But she now gets mad and says, "MOM! Just tell me the right answer!"

I hope we can all make it out of this phase with some sanity still in place.

Arizona Fun

Last Wednesday I packed up my van and my girls and at 6:30 a.m. I followed my sister and her family and drove off in to the sunrise headed for Arizona. Well, technically we were not driving in to the sunrise so much as had it blaring on our left sides for a while...only to be followed shortly by blaring on our right sides, but I only know that because of the geographical knowledge bestowed upon me by my father. He’ll be so proud.

Surprisingly the 13 hour trip down went quite well (10 hours driving, 3 hours of LONG stops for little bladders). I had every toy, game, movie, treat and snack imaginable on hand, as I knew I was going to be in the car with them alone and wouldn't have a back up person to help entertain. I may have suffered a bit of mental trauma from the jam packed kid filled hours...but I will recover.

We were able to spend the rest of the week at my grandparent's house with my family for a much needed vacation and reunion. There was walking down memory lane - not an actual road - Jeeping, playing, destruction - tearing down a barn can be surprisingly entertaining - and more fun.

The 13 hours home on Sunday went almost as smoothly as on the way down. Although I think we (me and the kiddos) were not quite as naïve about how quickly it would pass and all participated in a bit more whining and complaining.

Now that I've given you the extremely Reader's Digested version I will do a bit of a photo montage for my dear husband who may (or may not) check the blog if I tell him there are pictures. If you choose to forgo browsing the rest of this post, please leave quietly as to not disturb the other readers.

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Halfway there at our lunch break...some passengers were worn out.

Others...not so much.

Blowing bubbles at the park

Such a messy face for such a fancy diva

Running through sprinklers at the Grandparents abode

Some random hitchhikers I decided to pick up...although maybe against better judgment

(My mom, Claire, Cousin Eliana, Brielle, Cousin Cadence)

Standing on a stump...just because I'm sure Marty will flip out when he sees this picture as Claire is "too crazy for her own good" or something like that.

Brielle's turn on said stump

Jeeping Girls...although not much Jeeping was happening here, they were sitting in the back of the Jeep that was hooked up to an old barn with a tow strap and was being used as the muscle behind pulling the barn over.

(Brielle, Cousin Cadence, Claire)Outside the entrance to Ghost Town...as you can clearly read. Too bad it was $5 to ENTER Ghost Town and we are far too cheap to blow the big bucks on things like that.

So there you have it...our trip in a nutshell. Looking at these pictures makes me realize that even though I may have been super stressed out (you try traveling alone with two kids) the girls had a GREAT time and will have the same great memories of Arizona that I do.

Will I do another big road trip with the kids alone? Probably...I'm just un-teachable I guess.

Reunited Part II

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home..."

Can I just say that this is my very favorite picture!?

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Okay, now that I've said that let's get to the details!

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I came home from Oklahoma on a Saturday to my girls both being sick. Claire had thrown up twice at my in-law's while I was gone and Brielle threw up the next morning...4 times in 2 hours. Needless to say that added to my already feeling very sad and longing SO badly to be with Marty again.

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Thankfully a couple days later we found out Marty was going to be able to come home for 6 days of leave! It was all I needed to keep me going.

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Marty flew in on Thursday afternoon and stayed until the following Wednesday afternoon (missing my big ultrasound appointment by about 2 hours...bummer).

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Me and the girls were anxious all morning watching the clock, cleaning and decorating to keep us busy waiting for when we could go pick Marty up. When the time came we couldn't run to the car fast enough.

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We got there a couple minutes early (I couldn't wait any longer!) and were parked in the "park and wait" lot. Marty thinks he's funny (okay, usually he is) and decided to text me saying that there had been engine troubles and they were stuck in Denver. I almost started crying and was halfway through a text asking how long they were going to be and should I just go home etc. when he sent another simply saying "Just kidding". What a bum.

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When we pulled up to the curb I was SO glad to see him but obviously knew that this reunion was going to be mostly about the girls. I jumped out and hugged him and suggested he ride in the back of the car with the girls. We opened the door and both girls just burst in to laughing and screaming at the sight of their daddy. He climbed in and mauled them both with as much love as you can give to kids strapped in car seats. He sat in the back and the entire way home all I heard was laughing and screaming...even from Marty.

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We stopped at home to show him the wonderful poster Brielle had made for him (sorry, no picture) and the "presents" she had gotten - his favorite soda, some M&M's and some army balloons...I let her choose everything which she loved.

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Marty had told his mom that he was going to be coming in late at night rather than when we had originally planned thanks to some complications with getting the final signature on his leave papers...there really were complications and there really was a chance he was going to have to delay his flight, so it wasn't REALLY a full on lie. So we went up to his parent's and he snuck quietly on his hands and knees across the floor next to the couch she was on and popped up at her while me and the girls hid out of her sight. He was very proud of how much he surprised her, I don't think she could have reacted any better. :)

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After surprising his mom and visiting with some of his family for a little while we went back home to do some hanging out. Marty was gracious enough to bring home all his dirty laundry to do while he was home...so considerate. :) He started unpacking and the girls were instantly curious about his AWESOME army glasses, so they tried them on.

Pretty stylish huh?

For the 24th of July we participated in the annual Ridges 24th of July water party celebration, which is always a BLAST and was made even more fun by having Marty around.

The rest of the 6 days went far too fast and was over before we knew it. There was swimming, bbq's, playing games, laughing, eating, playing, relaxing etc. It was absolutely fantastic. The girls were in heaven with daddy being home, to the point that Claire would even cry if he went to the bathroom and was out of her sight for even a moment.

Brielle may have broken his heart the morning of his departure by telling him, "You can't leave! I don't want you to be a soldier anymore, you can't live in Texas, you have to live here with us, you're our daddy!" Claire overheard that and added in, "No, not Texas daddy, you're my daddy!" That's the first time either of them had begged him to stay...even army strong isn't strong enough to handle those kind of things.

After getting back in to his uniform and a very quiet morning (me and him both get quiet when we're anxious/sad/nervous) it was off to the airport to say goodbye again. The girls both said goodbye easily and only asked a couple times on the way back home why daddy was staying at the airport. I may not have taken it quite so well...but I did compose myself before we got all the way home.

This goodbye wasn't quite as painful as the last two because I KNOW that I can move to Texas when I want. It's in my hands now. The waiting list for military housing is about 9 months and with us being there only a year, it's not worth it. So now it's up to me to find somewhere to live, whether that be a little apartment or a little house I'm not sure. I'll be working on that and we hope to be reunited within a month.

We're excited, nervous, anxious and a little scared about the path ahead of us, but ready to get going with the rest of our lives!