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Monday, December 31, 2012

Here Comes Another New Year!

Well, our vacation to see family over the holidays was a whirlwind, but totally worth it! Monkey got to meet his other Great-Grandfather for the first time, which was wonderful! We drove up to Carson City, NV to see "Mimi" (aka Ben's mom), Ben's Great-Aunt and Grandfather. Spent 2 nights and then had to be on the road. But, Monkey got to play in snow for the first time!

 Little guy wouldn't keep his hat on!
And got to go sledding, which was hilarious.

Then off to Portland! We went to see Santa, which Finn (Monkey) still isn't too sure about. He REALLY didn't like the Easter Bunny last year, and this year Santa got the same reaction as he did the first time around...confusion. I don't have pictures uploaded of the Santa visit yet, but trust me, it wasn't super happy smiles. 

The thing about Portland that Ben and I *conveniently* forget is that it rains. A LOT. Especially in December. So a lot of our plans went bust. We really need to make a trip in the summer, when we have a better chance of staying dry. We got COMPLETELY soaked at Zoo Lights in the Oregon Zoo, and no one was very happy. 

Monkey cried the entire time we were on the train. You try to do something nice, and that's the reaction :)

After a few days there, up to Washington to see my family...Nana, Papa, and Honey (my grandmother) were all excited to see us. Finn wasn't too upset either. He's spent more time there than at Ben's parents' house, so it's a little more comfortable for him. AND he slept in Auntie Rawr's (my sister) queen sized bed...which had me nervous but he did great!

This was the first year he's kind of gotten the idea of unwrapping presents, so it was more fun than last year. The big hits were his train, his Rody, and my dad's new tripod.

This thing is great...a truly classic "Santa toy"

He still can't really bounce on Rody without falling over, but he's getting close!

And he had no idea what to make of the tripod

All in all, it was a successful trip, even if my big pregnant butt, back and hips were KILLING me every time we got out of the car! Finn did great on our 8 and 10 hour days (and that was just the driving part), so what more can you ask for? Now to get baby preparations seriously under way so that when boy #2 decides to make his appearance, we'll be ready!


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Saturday, December 8, 2012

I am horrible at Elf on the Shelf

The elf is supposed to move every night. The fun for most of us is thinking of fun little things for him to be doing, and in theory it's all fun and easy, and a way for us to get the whimsy back into our houses. Except for in those houses where we SUCK at Elf on the Shelf.

This is funny and creative. This is not our house.

Our elf's name is Rosco.  He has been in the Christmas tree for 3 days now, mainly because I forget to move him and Monkey doesn't really understand to look for him yet. I figure I'm OK...until next year.

I really wish I could get good at this. I want to make the holidays fun for my kids (and for the adults, it's never a bad thing to bring some of the magic back!). So why am I having such a hard time with this?

I think it would help if Ben were more into it, but he doesn't seem to be. OK, fine. Maybe if I could get my head in the game he would see the fun in it. But I'm in a funk...and I'm horrible at Elf on the Shelf. Maybe next year, when Monkey understands the concept more, I'll get better? One can only hope.
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Friday, November 16, 2012

It's Thanksgiving Already?

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is in a week. We have so much to be thankful for this year, and so much to look forward to.


I am thankful for my husband and son. They may drive me crazy sometimes, and there are times I may not like them so much (even though I love them to death) and that's OK. They are still my family, they still bring joy to my days, and I would not be who I am without them.

I am thankful for our life. I mean, there are so many people out there who don't have nearly as much as we do...a home, food, steady income, ability to afford new clothes and the feeling of safety and security. We take it for granted way too much that we have all of these things, and that we come by them honestly.

Believe it or not, I am thankful for my 2 dogs. They taught me how to care for another living being long before Monkey ever showed up. Although they may not get the level of attention they used to, they are still my first babies, and without them our household would not feel complete.

I am thankful that this pregnancy (although a bit of a surprise) happened easily and has thus far gone smoothly. After everything we went through to have Monkey, how horrible I felt most of the time, all the Doctor's appointments, needles, and monitoring, it is truly amazing that this one seems like any other normal pregnancy. I'm so happy I get to experience that side of it.

On the flip side, I'm thankful that I had a hard, high-risk pregnancy with Monkey. It made me so much more empathetic to women and families who struggle with infertility and difficult pregnancies. That only makes me a better person.

I am thankful that we are going to be able to visit family for a longer period of time over the holidays. Although I really wanted to be working full time, that would not have allowed me to take 3 weeks for visiting, and we really need that. Especially since Ben has not been back to our parents' houses since February.

Last but not least, I'm thankful that I do NOT have to cook a whole Thanksgiving Dinner next Thursday!Last year I cooked the full deal for the 3 of us, and it was a LOT of work for VERY little getting eaten. I think we threw most of the leftovers away. So, this year, we are doing Boeuf Bourguignon, Homemade Artisan Bread, and some form of dessert. Nothing big (OK, it's still a lot of work, but hey, it's Thanksgiving), something everyone will eat (mostly, Monkey's going through a picky phase) and we are comfortable at home without feeling the need to entertain.

Now...off to try to convince Monkey to eat something other than bread and cheese.
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Monday, November 5, 2012

So glad tomorrow is election day.

Because then it will be over and Television, radio, internet, facebook, ETC will stop being FLOODED with political blah blah. It's not that I don't care about the election and the state of the country. I do. But there comes a point where enough is enough. It's like the little girl who cried because of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney...

She's about 5 and even she's heard enough (my thinking is most 5 year olds don't really pay enough attention to get upset about things like politics).

Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, or if you're on the fence...I just want life to go back to normal, where a politician does something dumb or something great, we hear about it, laugh about it, and move on. I am over being completely bombarded with it. Well...until 2016 at least.
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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Wow, it's been a month!

I don't update this like a good little blogger...but then again, I never pretended to be a good little blogger, did I? In the past month, I have finished trainings for my new job, gotten passed over for full time at said job (not super happy about that, but that's how the dice fell), and .............drumroll please.....................we found out that

In case your screen is weird, as my dad's is, the cheesecake is blue. We're having another boy. The big dilemma now is a name. We fell in love with Monkey's name after MONTHS of searching online and in books. Now I'm just having difficulty finding another name that is as unique (but not weird) and that I love as much. Ugh. At least we have a little over 4 months (give or take) to think about it.

I'm also working on Halloween Costumes. Mine is easy...a little bit of bleaching/dying clothes, sew a quick sash, and I'm done. Monkey's is more involved, but if I would just get my butt to work I could have it done tonight. It's Ben's that has me nervous. It's involved, it's a lot of fabric, and, well...kind of ugly. Our whole family is themed, so they all go together and will make sense when they are put that way, but for now it just looks like a big mess in my dining/craft room. Yay for me.
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

So much happening!

Well, folks, we have a climber. Monkey is on the verge of being able to climb out of his crib. It's a little scary, because I know he's not ready for a toddler bed quite yet, but I don't want him to hurt himself either!

In the past few weeks, I have found him on top of the dining room table, on the coffee table, trying to climb out of his crib, and on the back of the couch. Oh, and did I mention that through all of that, he has also developed a taste for coloring on the walls? Luckily the crayons are washable and wipe right off. Although we've received lots of suggestions, such as giving him chalk or designating a "space" on the wall where it's OK to color, ultimately we don't want him doing it. For a 19 month old I think that designating times/places where it's OK and others where it is not is just confusing. So, he's not allowed to do it, and when he does there are consequences, such as...

...time outs. We were hoping to wait until he was a bit more verbal, but he's just not taking us seriously when we tell him no, so something had to be done. He's still getting the hang of staying where we put him, so a 1-minute time out usually takes about 20-30 minutes to complete, and by the end we have a tearful child who won't so much as look at us. Oh well. He also has to clean the wall where he colored, if that was the offense.

Now for the biggest news...


#2 is on the way! Due 10 days after Monkey was born, so there is a chance they could share a birthday. I didn't really love the thought of having kids with the same birth month, but that's what happened. We're thrilled, and we *think* we're ready. Of course, that means nothing at all...

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Sunday, July 8, 2012

The Sound of Quiet

I never fully appreciated the sound of quiet until I became a mother. Now if it's not the baby, it's the dogs, the laundry, the dishwasher, the phone, or my husband disturbing the piece.

It's funny, quiet used to drive me CRAZY. I had to have some form of noise...TV, Music, anything. Now if I can get a few minutes of NO SOUND I am in heaven! I don't know if it's that Monkey is so active, or me getting older, or some random shift in my hearing ability since having him, but I hear EVERYTHING! Right now I can hear the dogs breathing, the air conditioner going, electronics humming, and Ben's computer upstairs. This is as quiet as it gets.

And, of course, the more I focus on it, the louder it seems to get (at least to my mommy-vulcan hearing that Ben says I now have). The other day Ben took Monkey for a bike ride in his new bike trailer, and I got 20 whole minutes of...nothing. It was delightful. Then the dog started having a sneezing fit, and life resumed it's normal, noisy pace.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The New Furniture Is Here!

So, for those of you who know me, you know that I have been bugging Ben for YEARS to get new furniture. I loved my old red couch when we bought it, but over the years it's started to look a little sad. Oh, and each time we move I feel more and more like it's taking over the living room...and not in a good way.

See? It's just a bit big. AND it blocked about 1/3 of one of the entrances to the living room...meaning you had to kind of sidle by it to get in from that entrance, and then walk around it to sit down. 

How was it looking sad? After dealing with Ben, 2 dogs, and Monkey, there was some definite wear (mostly in the corner in the back, where I usually sat and therefore where everyone came to me) and water marks from cleaning that I couldn't get out. On top of that, the wood detail on the bottom was chipped in more than one place, and I had re-stuffed the cushions with polyfill so many times I may as well have bought a new one already. Oh, and you couldn't take the bottom cushions off...nightmare for cleaning purposes. That couch ate several things that were never seen again.

So, after at least 2 years of convincing him that I needed a new seating set, he gave in. We sold the old one the DAY I put it up for sale, and we got THIS:


I LOVE this. It's not microfiber, but a soft, durable upholstery. It's in a great neutral grey color, so I can sew new pillow shams or make a colorful blanket to change the whole tone of the room without buying new furniture. And it's super comfy...like, I want to sleep on it all. the. time. YAY!!

Now I just have to find at least 1 end table (Ben is currently using a small folding table for his end table) and maybe a new coffee table. I'm thrifting for those, because I want them to be larger, have storage, and need some TLC so that I can revamp them and make them pretty again. I'm thinking beadboard on the sides and modern hardware on any drawers/cupboards. Then strip them down, prime and paint/stain them (probably not black, probably a rich mahogany color) and varnish them to make sure it's all sealed in properly. EXCITED!


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Monday, June 11, 2012

Why I Both Love and Hate Netflix

A few weeks ago Monkey was sick. As in: ear infection, teething (molars no less, which we *still* haven't seen), and a stomach virus. I was up to my elbows in vomit, diarrhea, and tears (both his and mine). Because he had all 3 at the same time, we didn't sleep much.
I don't do well on little sleep. He has spoiled me immensely since he was 3 months old by sleeping a full 12 hours at night, pretty much every night. Once in a blue moon he wakes up for an hour in the middle of the night, but I can count on both hands how many times that has happened in the past 13 months. Not bad.
However, sickness is a different animal all together. Sickness throws a wrench in your well-oiled machine, and decides that it needs to throw you a curve ball in the sleep department. It's like the girl in your group who likes nothing better than to cause problems just to have something entertaining to watch. You know what is apparently really entertaining? Taking a mama who has gotten a full night's sleep each night for over a year and saying "Hey, how about 1 hour of sleep for the next 48 hours. Sound fun? Let's do it!"
That's what sickness did to me. I went to sleep at 10, Monkey woke up at 11...screaming. Ben can't get up with him because he has, you know, a job or something and needs to sleep. Want to know when Monkey went back down? 5am. That means that I didn't go back to sleep at all...it was practically time for the day to start.
Back to Netflix. That night, I watched the entire 1st season of Dowton Abbey on Netflix Streaming. It was awesome. I LOVED it. So I (obviously) immediately put the second season on my Netflix Queue. You know what happened? the words Very Long Wait popped up next to it. NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
That was a few weeks ago. I have selectively been putting other movies at the top of the queue in the hopes that after I send that one back the next season will be ready. Now those evil words are gone, and I should be receiving the 1st DVD of the 2nd season tomorrow.

HOWEVER...my Netflix account claims that I still have the last movie they sent me. The one I sent back on Saturday. The one I held for a WEEK and never watched, so I Notflixed it....AKA I sent it back without even popping it in the DVD player.

Man oh man, I need a job. I'm way too invested in my Netflix...
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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Let's hear it for accurate record-keeping

So, as you may know, I have issues with fertility. Not the issues you hear about frequently (not that that makes them any easier to deal with), but things that you (and often times the Drs I see) have never heard of/dealt with/care to learn about. Because they are different. And difficult. And there is not a lot of research done on them, which means they can be hard to treat.

So when Ben and I decided that we *may* be ready to start thinking about #2, it means a lot of pushing to get what I want. Luckily, we have all of my records from my old fertility specialist, so we have a jumping off point.

Next step...the Dr. To get a referral. To another Dr. To see (hopefully) once and convince to put me on my old protocall. That's all I want. I want no tests, no unnecessary treatments, no weekly visits. I want a prescription. For what I know already works. OK...done. Referral was submitted, approved, ready to go. Then I call to make my appointment.

Want to know something fun? The Dr that they referred me to (besides being over 2 hours away, thankfully I can get reimbursed for gas) has RETIRED. How did they not figure this out sooner? Because apparently it happened a while ago. That's kind of a big thing to miss.

Now I have to wait for my primary care Dr. to give me a phone consult for another referral.

Hopefully they got the memo on that specialist's retirement. But I think probably not. I think they will just keep referring me until I either shut up or give up. Oh how little they know me!
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Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Search For Meaning

I was thinking today about how hard it is to make friends now that I am a little bit older. It used to be you ran into someone on the playground/in the hall/in the dorm/in class, you would talk for a bit, and then you were friends. Not anymore. Now it's an evaluation as to how much effort I want to put in, how much I want a new friend, and, generally, whether or not it will be worth it.

That sounds bad. I know. But ultimately, I have a son, a husband, 2 dogs, and a house to take care of. Plus looking for work, trying to maintain friendships with people who are spread around the world, and finding time for myself. There are barriers to pass, just as Leonard had to pass 3 barriers to become Sheldon's roommate.
So, we're picky. I like to cultivate my friendships. However, I don't want the scary clingy friend who calls/messages/texts constantly and can't get a hint that they are being a crazy person don't understand boundaries. Sometimes (OK, most of the time) it's just easier to say "screw it."

But, ultimately, I want some new friends. Mommy friends. Mommy friends that live in the same town, who's children are close in age to mine and who I have things in common with. That may be too much to ask. but I keep looking. In the meantime, while re-reading one of my favorite blogs, I came across. this post that helped me know I'm not completely crazy.
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Monday, May 21, 2012

Looks like this time is starting with even MORE frustration!

Because we are a military family, we are at the mercy of our providers to give us referrals to the "closest" specialists when those facilities are not available through the on-post military providers. In my case, seeing a true OBGYN is one of those specialists. I was fine with this, and told that I could see someone within an hour's drive of where we live. OK, fine. It's a little difficult with Monkey to make long drives for one day, but an hour each way I can do.

Lo and behold, today I get my authorization paperwork. The Dr. they are referring me to is 2 1/2 HOURS away from us. That mean either a) a day of screaming Monkey in the car or b) paying for a full day of childcare so that I can go to 1 appointment...at $4 an hour. Now Ben and I have to have a discussion as to whether we want to just accept what we have been given, or try to get someone closer. There are drawbacks either way. If we roll with what we have been given, we have to pay a lot more for Monkey's daycare while I'm gone and I have to rush there and back, not to mention time the appointment just right so that I can drop him off and pick him up on time.

If we try to get someone different, it could take quite a while. We could not get someone different at all...we could still end up with the person we have been given.

UGH...I wish the providers here would just give me the protocall they have on file from my reproductive specialist at our last duty station and not refer me out. Life would be a lot easier!

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Monday, May 7, 2012

Why does iTunes hate me?

I had all of my music on there. Not just on there, but sorted into playlists and duplicates erased. It was great. I go to add new music and what do I find? ALL OF MY MUSIC IS GONE!!! Why do you hate me iTunes? I didn't do anything to you. Granted, I don't use you a ton but I do want you to behave yourself when I need you. Now I'm sitting here waiting for all of my stuff to re-appear (aka, adding everything back onto iTunes). And thinking about all of the work it is to put the CD's back on you and then get rid of any duplicates. Fun.

Then I can look for new music...but let's face it. By that point I'll be fed up and not do it, and then later I'll be upset that I didn't do it and get frustrated at you all over again. Yay me.
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Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Haircut

I was content to cut Monkey's hair all the same length. 5 minutes, a quick once over to even it out, and a trim along the neck. That's it. Ben was not happy with this plan. He said he wanted his son's hair to have "personality." Fine. You asked for it, you got it, buddy. Today we tried to do a "high fade." You know, short on the sides and in the back, blended up to a longer length on top.

I told him it wouldn't be easy. I told him that a 15-month-old will not sit still well enough to do a REALLY good job...it's nearly impossibly to get it even when the kid moves unexpectedly all the time. But he insisted. So I tried. At first, I knew that I hadn't cut the sides/back short enough. Now it looks like Monkey has no hair because it's a lovely color where one second it's there, the next it's not...it's a great optical illusion. His hair also still does the baby swirl right at the crown, so it splits in funny places.

Then Ben said I hadn't made the fade high enough. So I raised it. Then he said it wasn't even...I hadn't blended enough. Now he says that it makes Monkey look younger than he is. He's 15 months old...kind of hard to make him look younger with a haircut.

I think it looks OK...for a first go. Sure, the line isn't completely straight...but that was never going to happen. It's my blending I think I need to work on. It will look better in a week or so, when it's grown out a little. Apparently I now have visual representation of my learning curve...in the line of my son's hair. Until then...he'll wear hats.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I didn't realize this...

But I miss coffee. A really good cup of drip coffee with enough cream/skim milk/whatever to make it look like a latte and enough sugar/sweetener/whatever to make it taste like one. I miss it. Before Monkey came along, I went, oh, just over 2 years without caffeine (except on the occasions where I was so stressed/tired/PO'd that I broke down and had a diet coke or a mocha). Because, as *we* (we being the ladies who have to do a little more than think about sexy time to get pregnant) know that caffeine=bad for baby-making.

Then we found out Monkey was on his way...OK, no caffeine for 9 more months. Once he was here, for the first couple months I was too tired. Yep, that's right, too tired to remember to make coffee. On the days where I did remember to make a cup, by the time I got around to drinking it, it was ice cold. Not exactly what I was looking for.

After that stage, I was so excited to get sleep and feel rested that it was the "hey, I don't need it!" phase. And now I'm so used to rarely having it that it just doesn't really cross my mind. Until recently. Recently I've been craving coffee.

As I sit here, drinking a ridiculously good cup of coffee I just made, I thought "Oh buddy, how I have missed you. You are a friend." Coffee has been sadly neglected (by me, not by  Ben. He remembers every day...).

Then I think, "hey, if/when we want another baby, I'll have to give up caffeine again." I'd better not get too used to this. It will probably backfire and then I'll go into withdrawals...you know headaches, shaking, being so snarky that even I don't want to be around me. That's not fun. So I'll stick with missing coffee and having a cup once in a while just to remind myself that I do, in fact, like the stuff!
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Monday, April 23, 2012

Rent Vs Own...

We're settled in living in our new state. I can't help but start to wish we could buy a house...that it were a feasible option for us. It's just not. We move so frequently that I cannot imagine a) having to sell one house and buy another every time, especially when there is no guarantee that it would sell or b) becoming a landlord...no thanks!

So, we rent (or, in our case now, live in on-post housing because it's pretty much the only option). In the meantime, I dream about painting, replacing flooring, remodeling entire bathrooms and kitchens, and hiring decorators to help when I just can't get it quite right. And I thought about building a pro & con list of renting/owning. Here we go...


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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Thinking about a change...

I'm thinking about switching my blog over to WordPress. Not that I don't like blogger, I just think it's not as user-friendly as WordPress. Who knows. Maybe I just need a different venue...or to delete this blog altogether. I'm also not super sure what to blog about on my "personal" blog anymore. I don't do as much crafting as I used to, mainly because there isn't a craft store within an hour's drive of where we now live. That and I still don't have a job to financially support my crafting addiction. And, let's be honest, I'm not that good at it. I look at examples of other people's crafts online and I just don't think I'm up to par. Maybe I'm not cut out for blogging at all...I'm constantly trying to think of what to write about, so there's no concise theme. I don't do anything exceptionally well, so nothing ever looks all that great. I'm constantly second-guessing myself, from the title of the blog, to the title of the post, to whether or not my rants and raves are even interesting to anyone else. Maybe I'm just annoying and need to stop.

Then again...I have to release it all somehow. There are things that just feel better when you write them out, and I don't particularly want to "write" them out (my handwriting tends to get messy). I read blogs written by my friends and my first reaction is always "How great! They did an awesome job! I bet I could do that!" And then I realize that they took the idea and ran with it, and it would just be redundant for me to write about the same thing.

Ugh.
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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

My Kid Sleeps Through the Night, Why Can't I?

For the past few weeks there had been at least one night a week that I max out at a whopping 2 hours of sleep. I try everything I know...go to the bathroom, get something to drink, read...nothing that has worked in the past works to get me to drift back off. So here I am, 5am, and I've been up since 1am.

It usually starts by hearing Monkey cry out in his sleep...but he goes right back down, I don't even have to check on him. Then I start thinking of things that HAVE to get done...put the car seat back in my car if it was in Ben's, take Monkey to daycare so that I can go to the gym (and pray that he finally has a good day while he's there), plan out dinner, groom the dogs, etc. Then my brain is on, and no amount of coercion will convince it to turn off again and let me sleep.

The good news? Middle of the night is a great time to catch up on my DVR'd shows that Ben doesn't want to watch and that Monkey won't let me watch because I have to, you know, be an involved parent (or something like that). But now all of my DVR'd shows are over, other shows aren't on demand yet, and if I go to sleep now I'll be even more tired in 2 hours when Monkey wakes up. That would lead to me taking him to daycare and (instead of going to pilates) coming home and crashing...setting an alarm for when I have to go pick him up again.

So, aside from the gym, I'm thinking that today will not be all that productive. Just a hunch.
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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Update Time

New Year, New Look! I don't know about all of you, but after about a year (sometimes more, sometimes less) I start to get stir crazy with the look of my blogs and have to do something different. Hence the new background.

Anyway, on to life. I'm convinced Monkey has hit a growth spurt. He went from flat out refusing at least 2 meals and/or snacks per day to eating ALL DAMN DAY LONG! I'm happy that he seems to be more interested in food than in his bottle (or sippy cup, since the only actual bottle he gets now is at bed time), but it's really pushing me to think creatively. Especially because he tends to be a little bit of a picky eater. He likes veggies, but only when they're off of an adult's plate. He flat out refuses fruit unless it comes in pouch form.
These are buddy fruits. Monkey would not get fruit in him if it weren't for these.

Plus, I want him to have a well-rounded diet. Meat is a whole different animal. half the time it needs to be in a sauce, and even then he will suck the sauce off of the meat and then spit the meat out. Try try again, wash, rinse, repeat.

I'm starting to feel the boredom pull at me. I love being home with Monkey, I do...but I want to feel productive again. I haven't had a chance to really set up my sewing station yet, there's really nowhere to do it that I can leave it set up. Plus I need to get out of the house, and Monkey needs go get socialized and get used to not being with me all the time. I don't need the 4-year-old who has never left Mommy and then freaks out at school. Not fun.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

New House, New Place...New Kid?

Ben went back to work today. Well, not real work, but inprocessing. Inprocessing is much akin to going to the DMV, only you have to do it a bazillion times in one day. The lines, the rude people, the taking a million years to get any one thing done because, as the Ben puts it, "the enslave the elderly program is alive and well."

He says this for a reason...many of the people working for the places where inprocessing takes place are senior citizens. In my experience, most of the time they are incredibly pleasant, hardworking people. The problem is that, with how quickly modern technology changes AND the fact that rules/regulations/people's common sense changes all the time, it takes them a little while to get tasks accomplished. Benwas at one "checkpoint" as we call them for 2 hours today. He needed 1 piece of paperwork signed, to pick up about 4 pieces of gear, and there were only 2 people in front of him.

We get aggravated with this on several levels. 1: it just shouldn't take that long. Period. End of story. 2: while we understand that everyone has to make a living somehow, there are jobs on a post like this that should be going to military spouses who want to work (like myself) but can't get a job because all of the positions are taken by people who live an hour away. How on earth does that make sense? It doesn't.

So the Ben was in and out all day. That makes it hard on Monkey. He's become very attached to his daddy in the past 2 months, since Ben has been home most of the time. Now Monkey has to adjust not only to being in a new place, new house, slightly new routine, and a change in his eating (we're currently switching him off of formula to milk and more solid foods), but he also has to deal with daddy coming and going all the time. The  Ben's new job will mean that he is home periodically throughout the day, but then has to go back to work.

At our old duty station, if Monkey saw Benin the morning, but then  Ben went to work, Monkey had a bad day. If Monkey didn't see the Ben until he was home from work for the day, then all was well and everything was sunshine and rainbows. Now Monkey has to adjust to "daddy's here right now but he's leaving for a couple of hours and then he'll be back again" blah blah blah.

So, this morning, Monkey woke up,  Ben  was gone, and we had the meltdown of all meltdowns. Screaming, arching the back, pick me up no put me down punch you punch myself eat not hungry I'M NOT HAPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY kind of meltdown. For an hour. Just as I got him calm, Ben came home. Then he left. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I fully expect this to last for at least a week. Because he's cutting 2 more teeth. And apparently hates me now. Loves daddy, hates me.
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Friday, February 17, 2012

Settling in

Well, we're here. It feels SO good to have everything unpacked and *pretty much* in place. You have to realize, with every move comes an adjustment...different number of bathrooms, different layout, different square footage. Did you know that, on a military move, the packers are not allowed to pack things like plungers? I get it, sanitary issues, blah blah blah...but when you're moving somewhere that the closest Wal-Mart is 30 minutes away and it's a GHETTO WM...well, it's something you notice.

Maybe we're picky. We don't like our plungers naked, out there for the world to see. We like them to come in a little house that is all their own, coming out only when they have a purpose. Somehow the thought of toilet water pooling onto the floor just isn't all that appealing to us...go figure.

Then there's the issue of dealing with other people packing our stuff...it seems that these people lack any sort of common sense. Otherwise the kitchen stuff would not be in the same box as oh, say, stuff that was in the garage or the baby's room...or all three rooms in one box. Yeah, 'cause that's so much fun to unpack. You know what else? You can totally tell when the packing crew (who is different from the moving crew) was starting to get tired. Barely anything is wrapped carefully near the end. It's all just a jumble. Which accounts for my missing snow globe that I LOVED that was a gift from my mother in law our first Christmas.

Wait, let me clarify...the entire snow globe was not missing. Just the globe part. The mechanical bottom? That's still there. As in, the very bottom plate with a few gears attached. I can't replace it, it's just gone. They tell you to file a claim for things that went missing and/or are damaged. How do you file a claim for PART of a $20 snow globe that had immense sentimental value? The answer is you don't. Now, the $100 shelving that the movers lost the bolts to? I'm still working on Ben to claim that. I want my garage in organized chaos, thank you.

And now we're 30 miles from the middle of nowhere. Our goal is to go to the middle of nowhere at least once every 2 weeks or so. Since we have Monkey, going the fun "overnight" places nearby (read, ADULTS ONLY nearby places) is kind of out of the question unless family offers to fly here and babysit. That's OK. As long as we're not stranded on our military island for too long without contact from the outside world. Plus, there are some "family friendly" things to do in the area for a long weekend...we'll focus on those for the time being

And getting new plungers...because who really wants to have that kind of emergency and not have a plunger on hand. Even worse...who wants to have that emergency and have a plunger, but not have a house to put it in when the situation is taken care of? Not us.
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Monday, January 9, 2012

The Move is ON!


Well, it's happening. The packers and pickup are scheduled, utilities are going to be turned off, keys turned in...and we're driving across the country with an almost 1 year old. I always get comments about how hard it's going to be now that we have Monkey. My response? It's going to be different, not difficult. We already have the 2 dogs that we had to stop every 2 hours for so that they could stretch and do their business. The biggest alterations with this trip are that a) there will be another being in my car making noise, b) we'll have to stop a bit more frequently, and c) we'll be able to cover less ground in a day than we have on previous moves.

We did a test run this past weekend, to a town about 2 hours away that has a decent zoo. Monkey loves the zoo. Plus he rocked his new "newsie" hat and big boy sunglasses! He did great. No major meltdowns except when we were getting him in and out of the car too frequently, and when he was tired. The good news is that when he's tired he turns into the Tasmanian devil for about 10 minutes and then sleeps for an hour, so it's not that bad. Other than that, he was very well behaved.
On this move we're going to rig up Ben's iPad or my Kindle Fire to let Monkey watch cartoons in the car. Plus we'll be stopping at almost every rest stop for him to run around and get some air. I'm excited; new place, new experiences, new friends (and old friends, we already know people there, and they are being kind enough to let us stay with them until we get housing!)

Best of all, we'll be closer to family, and there is a ton to do in the general area (within 2-4 hours) so we'll be doing some great weekend getaways!
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