New Chapters

Adulthood has taught me something, life is a series of chapters. No matter what the chapter, there are positive and negative emotions as we turn the next page.

The last time I blogged I had just lost our precious Nehemiah. It was a dark time for all of us. A few months later I learned that I was pregnant with another sweet baby. After a few miscarriage scares that looked a lot like his brother's, we finally brought another sweet baby boy into this world. "Crash Helmet" (Crash, so nicknamed because of his apparent love for bouncing around with no regard to safety) was born in May of 2014 weighing in at 8lbs 8oz. He was my smallest baby so far thanks to eating the Trim Healthy Mama way!

 Shortly before Crash's birth Husband ran into some job problems. I won't elaborate because of the nature of the problems, the person responsible for the issues was untouchable at the time. Because of these problems, Husband and I had to make the decision to send him to Korea unaccompanied for 12 months in an effort to salvage his career. When Crash was 8 weeks old, Husband said goodbye to us and flew to Korea. 

That's how I found myself raising four kids by myself in Hawaii. As time went on the kids and I got into a routine. Husband came home for Christmas leave and left on January 1st, 2015. It was a sad time, we didn't know when he would come back again. 

Time marched on again and I found myself finishing up Tornado's 1st grade year. Her end of year tests came back above average on almost everything, even math. My 1st grade finisher tested in 3rd grade math!

That May Husband came back and took us to Korea with him. We had planned on one month, but we enjoyed it so much that we stayed three months! We had a wonderful time and now I can say that I have been to Asia. We really wish we had chosen accompanied orders.

When I left alone with the children we thought we had one month left before being reunited as a family. Due to government setbacks, we ended up a lot longer than that. During this time Husband found out that he did not get promoted and therefore would be separated from the Navy. This was a huge blow to us, but not a huge surprise as he had been stabbed in the back. It was a big dream death.

Thanks to budgeting, we knew he was going to have to get out and we had no idea when he would be able to get back to us. During this time my friends through the chapel community really stepped up. Even with the extra support and love from my friends, I started having serious anxiety attacks and breakdowns. At Thanksgiving, Husband took short notice leave so he could be there for me. It was a much needed visit. I was able to rest and get my head back in the game.

After that visit we still had no idea when we would be back together. Thankfully, it was not for long. We received orders December 1st and I ran with that. I had us out of the house by the 18th. We then waited for Husband. He flew into Honolulu at 9:45am on the 23rd of December. We flew out as a family at 6:40pm the same day! We arrived in Pensacola at 10am on Christmas Eve.

                                                             Last homecoming ever!


Christmas was extremely small. I got the kids a 20 pack of playdough and a tin of generic brand Lincoln Logs. We had a desktop tinsel Christmas tree. Husband and I did not exchange gifts. The kids thought it was a great Christmas, and we did get some rest. The kids were thrilled to go to IHOP for Christmas dinner.

                                                 "Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree..."

While all of the upheaval was happening with our family, we received some good news. Husband was given a really solid job offer that would support the lifestyle we were wanting. We decided that we would buy a fifth wheel RV and travel the country for a few years. We want to show the kids around our country and bond together as a family. Husband has been gone for a huge part of the past 5 years, we need to bond as a family while the kids are still small.

So meet our newest family member! We haven't named her yet, but we are so proud of her! She is a 41' fifth wheel with four bunks in the back and a nice master bedroom in the front. She is huge, but she will be home! The kids are really excited about our new home!

That just about covers it for now. Life should calm down again for a while, at least until March when Husband leaves active duty service. Who knows what we'll get up to after that!

Living for Christ while we are young...

Today was a terrible day. I won't go into why it was a terrible day, that isn't the point of this post. Lets just say that I am a married 25 year old mother of two in heaven and three on earth who had a TOUGH day.

I was taking a break after dinner while DH put the kids to bed. I decided that we needed Starbucks as a good end to a mutually terrible day. While I was driving, a song came up on my favorite radio station. The song talks about how the artists (who are teens) are going to live for Christ while they are young to avoid the heartache of bad decisions when they are older. At first blush, it sounds great, "awwww, youth who want to live for Christ". But this song has never been a comfortable one for me. I was thinking about it as I drove along and came up with a few reasons why a promise to "Live for Christ while you are young" bothers me.

Let me preface this with this, I am not bad mouthing youth ministers. I do not envy their jobs at all. They are pressured to fill youth group events to the satisfaction of the older church leadership in order to prove their "effectiveness". They also have to deal with the drama that surrounds teens, and demanding parents who expect the youth minister to fix the spiritual neglect of the parents. It can't be an easy job at all. Who I am talking about is everyone else who has grandiose ideas about the youth group being the last stand for the future generation of churchgoers.

Now, why does the phrase "living for Christ while we are young" bother me? It boils down to this. We feed teenagers the lie that their lives are at their hardest points. While a teen's life is probably the difficult part of their lives right now, the idea that living for Christ while they are young seems to promise them that the Christian walk gets easier and that they will have no regrets. HA! It sounds great to stand in a youth rally and pledge things like abstinence, no dating (for all those who were teens when Josh Harris was popular), no drugs, no parties, and no distractions. However, it feeds into the lie that once we are married, or in the right school, or in the right job that our Christian life will get easier because then we can have sex, or be old enough to drink responsibly, or finally have things finally figured out. There is very little discipleship going on, most of the emphasis is trying to get teens to NOT do stuff instead of focusing on the right things.

Service opportunities are still "fun things" like carwashes (where you get to see your crush possibly in a bathing suit), or volunteering for children's church (where you get to see how GREAT your crush is with kids while you dream of the day that his purity ring is replaced with your wedding ring). There is so much emphasis on making service fun that when a service opportunity comes along that isn't fun, they "leave it to the adults". Because, you know, you are only young once...

I remember many times where I stood in a group of teenagers making wild promises about how I would live my life righteously. Do you want to know what I found to be the cold, hard truth when I grew out of  my teen years?

1. The church is full of sinners. That's right! Teenaged drama isn't just a youth group thing. People are going to hurt you, and you will hurt other people. It doesn't get easier to deal with people in the church. You are going to see the same personality types in the church that you saw in youth group. This means that all those great, godly older people you put on pedastels will come crashing down when you start interacting as peers.

2. Marriage does not make life easier. It doesn't. While it is great to have my wonderful DH and I couldn't imagine life without him, I am still faced with many new challenges. We see each other's flaws, we argue, sometimes it isn't easy to be "loving" towards each other. There is no magic formula that makes marriage work, and yes even bedroom issues can come up! Wearing a wedding ring isn't the magic solution that people talk up to teenagers! Then you add kids, household chores, bills, job obligations, health  problems, losing a child etc and you've got a very tricky situation and no idea how to look for help within the church. The support that exists within the youth group is no longer there when you are a young married person with kids. You are supposed to "get it" by now, and you still have no idea what "it" is! Because the wedding ring on a fellow church goer's finger was supposed to teach you what "it" is!

3. Choosing to live for God doesn't get easier. It doesn't. You don't wake up one morning and realize that "hey! choosing a good attitude is easier now that I am an adult!". You find out how much you really don't know. People challenge your beliefs, and you find that if you can only say "well, pastor so and so said this..." your beliefs are not as fireproof as you think. Suddenly you realize that there are people that interpret Scripture differently than you were taught and THEY ARE RIGHT! Other times they are wrong, and you have to reconcile that with your own beliefs. This ties into point number one. One day you realize that someone you respected was wrong and if you don't know how to dig deep and stand your ground without the peer pressure of a group, then you will fall.

4. Even if you make every decision "right" according to church culture, you will have regrets. This is a biggie because this can challenge even the most seasoned Christian out there. Regrets are usually billed as the result of blatant choosing of sin, instead of the driving force behind maturity and wisdom. When you set up a young Christian with the idea that regrets are proof that you did wrong, you end up with discouraged people who don't see the point in continuing to strive for Christ. I try to raise my kids right. I have to make moral decisions every day, and you know what? I have regrets, tons! Some were a result of sin, some were a result of simply being naive. They don't have a single thing to do with my worth in God's eyes, but many times it can feel like they do. Also, "church culture" isn't always a magic formula. Find one verse in the Bible about dating vs courtship. I dare ya. Yet there are people whose faith can be destroyed because they did one or the other and ended up with regrets. Instead of focusing on the grace of God, the focus can be on the sin. When that happens it can be difficult for a teenager to feel like this faith thing is worth the effort. The "ideal Christian" doesn't have regrets, because they chose Jesus. That is the message that is given Christian youth of today. Guess what? Christians have regrets, and not all of them are sin related, part of growing up is learning to live with consequences. And sometimes, you have to deal with the consequences of other people's sins and develop regrets from them. And surprise, sometimes you end with regrets that you wouldn't necessarily change if you had the chance because you realize they made you into the person you are today.

So what do I think is the solution, now that I've outlined the problem? Discipleship. The church is failing our youth by counting on the "positive peer pressure" of a youth group situation, and then expecting the teen to become a productive adult the moment they graduate high school. Suddenly, they aren't supposed to care about the entertainment value of a church service, or an adult Sunday school lesson. They are supposed to start taking on "grown up" responsibilities with no incentive as to how much "fun" it will be.

As a youth who grew up with a hypocritical Christian household, an adult who was willing to take me on would have really changed my outlook at that time. As it was, I didn't fit in with my peers, I didn't fit in with my family, and the trite Sunday school answers just weren't reaching me. It wasn't until I left a legalistic college and met my future DH (who was raised with a lot of discipleship) that I finally felt like there was a solution to my need for human encouragement. If an older woman had taken me aside with a Titus 2 mentality, who knows how that would have matured me? I knew all the answers, but applying them beyond a rule following mentality was foreign to me.

There is a reason my generation is bailing out of the church, and throwing more money into youth rallies for the next generation isn't going to solve the problem. It is going to get worse. What we need, is a church that is focused on maturing the youth of the church, not just entertaining them so they keep coming back. We've already established that entertaining my generation didn't fix the problem, lets not keep doing the same things and hoping for a different outcome.

A year later...

I haven't gone back to this blog in a while. Life sure has been on fast forward this year. DH has been home since November. It was a wonderful time! Everyone was so happy to have him home!

Christmas was great. The kids got everything that their little hearts desired.

2013 started off quietly. No big issues, we were all still adjusting to having DH home.

I had my 25th birthday! I am now a quarter of a century old! I was surrounded by my DH and children. It was nice to feel so loved! We attempted a camping trip, but our neighbors in the campground were rowdy and drunk. We ended up only staying one night of the two planned nights. We still managed to have a good time though.

On May 9th, we found out that we were having another child! We were so excited! The baby was due in January, and we couldn't have been more pleased! We announced the pregnancy on Mother's Day. We Skyped with the kids' grandparents and told them the good news with a "Big Sister" shirt on Baby Bird. A few friends thought we are nuts, but we were expecting that.

However, a couple of weeks later our joy was smashed. I started spotting, and DH rushed me to the ER. We saw a little baby on the ultrasound, and saw a heartbeat. However, the ER doctor couldn't tell us much else. I went to OB/GYN a couple of days later for a follow up and we got the confirmation, our baby was no longer with us. All I have left is an ultrasound picture, and an ache in my heart.

As I walked out of the hospital, surrounded by pregnant mamas and newly minted mamas, my world crashed. I couldn't get a hold of DH, who had the children. I sat on a bench and cried. A woman stopped and asked if she could pray with me. She sat with me until DH got my message and came for me. It took a week for the entire process to be over. It was a heart rending week. Miss Tornado really took it hard. The concept of death is difficult for a 4 year old to grasp. She still talks about when God will put another baby in my tummy.

I am now about 3, almost 4 weeks out from that and life is starting to become more normal. I'm not as sad as I was, although I will always miss my baby. This was our second miscarriage, we now have two babies waiting for us in heaven. Right after the ultrasound, a name kept bouncing around in my head. It wasn't a name we had on our baby names list, and I had no idea where it came from. DH and I were talking about naming the baby and I told him the name I was thinking of. So we named the baby Nehemiah. The next day, when I told a friend about the name, she asked me what it meant. I looked it up, and found that it means "God is comfort". I received such a sense of peace when I saw that. God knows what we are going through, and this name was His way of telling us that our baby is ok. Knowing that my child is in the arms of his Creator relieves SOME of the pain.

We hope the Lord chooses to bless us again in the future.

Tomorrow is my dear Man-Puppy's third birthday. I'll update on how that goes soon. :-)

It's been a while...

My loving DH, who is still toiling away in Afghanistan, kindly reminded me that it has been a while since I updated my blog. I looked at where I left off and holy toledo has it been a while! Since my last entry several big things have happened!

1. Man Puppy turned TWO! This little guy was our deployment baby, born a month after his daddy shipped off on his first deployment. His birth was a challenge and quite the empowering experience. He was also our first homebirth and after Miss Tornado's hospital birth we were glad to have a complication free birth. :-)

I threw a construction themed party for him. Being a two-year old he thought it was awesome! Here are some pics!

I make some awesome cakes. ;-)

The day of his birthday. We went to Farrells for lunch! They gave him a sticker!

 He got to ride the train at the mall for the first time!

 Happy boy did better than Mommy expected!

 The day of his party!

 The backyard

 Happy birthday boy!

 

2. I had a minor car accident. Someone sideswiped me with his boat trailer when I was getting out of the way for a firetruck. He honestly didn't see me, and he got a green light when I was inching into his lane to get out of the way for the firetruck. However, he proved to be a jerk, trying to drill me for information about my husband's rank and job because I had a blue military sticker. He also told me that I should have let the firetruck hit me because having to wait for the police was making him late for his fishing excursion. The police showed up and weren't much better. The cop showed up and told us that he wasn't there to take statements, just make sure that we exchanged information and also told us that unless the cars are undriveable, his presence at the scene was a "courtesy". Nice to know that I could have been breaking every law out there, but as long as the cars could drive away, I wouldn't get in trouble. *gag face*

 



3. We flew to San Diego! Space A travel is not for the fainthearted, especially when you have three kids by yourself! We did pretty well though. The flight crew is almost always very accomodating, several times I've been told not to worry about the kids' noise because it makes them miss their own kids. It was so sweet of them to say that. It is nice to know that there are some guys who actually look forward to getting home from flights, like Steve always was.

My Sit and Stand stroller is a workhorse. That is a baby in a carseat, a pack and play, a duffle bag with clothes for an adult and three children, a diaper bag and at times the computer back WITH the other carseats were on there. 50lbs per seat my rear! lol 

 Breakfast before we left. Thanks to a miscommunication between the flight crew and the terminal there were no meals available on the flight. This was to be our only meal for 24 hours.

 Big sister helping keep track of little brother, whether he likes it or not. lol

 We got to see some dear friends at 29 Palms

 We found a Creationism/Dinosaur museum. I just HAD to stop for a learning/fun experience!

 My "hatchlings"

 A stop to see another dear friend and his girlfriend.

 We then stopped at Lemoore to see some dear friends that we knew in Pensacola and then Whidbey. Baby Bird wasn't so sure about swimming underwater... lol

 Miss Tornadolearned to swim with floaties this summer. She is now fearless in the water!

 Me and Man-Puppy

 After leaving Lemoore we went to Travis AFB, but to say Space A there was backed up would be an understatement. They hadn't moved our category out in three weeks. So after a week of waiting we made the 9 hour trek back to San Diego in one day. The kids are troopers on car trips!

 

While we were in San Diego we stayed with some friends who had just PCSed there from Hawaii. They took us to the San Diego Zoo. That is one item off my bucket list that I can cross off!

 Standing on one leg like a flamingo!

 There was a flight out of San Diego that we managed to catch. Apparently a lot of the other women traveling Space A alone with their children found out about it too. We all saw each other at the terminal. We totally didn't plan that. But that meant that we had our "herd" to help keep the kids together. It reminded me of an elephant herd, how the females group with the offspring to take care of each other. It is easier to corral close to 20 kids with 10 mothers than it is to go at it alone. Those elephants have it right! :-D

 

Thank goodness for technology. The DVD player plus the V-Reader we bought Miss Tornado really paid off. They kept her busy for the 3 hour terminal wait and the 6 hour flight.

 

4. When we got home we all got SICK. On the flight home Miss Tornado's nose started running. By the time we got home she was in a full asthma attack mode. This only happens when she is really sick. I gave her her inhaler and then got everyone to bed. We all woke up with the flu. We had no groceries in the house, but I managed to ask a friend to bring me some groceries and we survived off of that.

5. Miss Tornado's birthday was right when we were getting over our flu. Poor thing, we didn't do much for her birthday because none of us felt very well. What I ended up doing was taking her to Starbucks and getting her a strawberry and cream frappachino and four cake pops. That's right, my firstborn is FOUR! She has grown up so fast! She is definately my greatest challenge, but also such a joy!

 

5. Just after her birthday I took Miss Tornado to the hospital for her appointment to find out the results of the screening they did on her. My heart started spinning and breaking all at the same time when they confirmed her diagnosis as High Functioning Autism. They said her prognosis is very good with therapy, which we will be starting soon. I'm still on the roller coaster of emotions, but it is nice to have the confirmation that her problems are not my fault as a parent. Certain people in my past always pointed the finger at me when it came to the struggles Miss Tornado faced and I accepted the blame because of certain parenting myths I was taught to believe. Although, as Man Puppy and now Baby Bird have come along and are growing up, I see that I am not a failure. Miss Tornado is definately very different from her siblings, not just in personality, but also in certain neurological challenges. She is smart as a whip (as many HF autistic people are), but she faces some sensory and social problems. I have great hope that with therapy she can avoid too many problems with bullies that she faces nowadays because of her social issues.

6. Man-Puppy started speech therapy, although I do think it was a bit premature. He has been exploding with new words everyday with very minimal therapy sessions. He surprises me everyday with some new words. He is very communicative, and thinking back to Miss Tornado as a 2 year old versus Man-Puppy as a 2 year old, I can see that the 2 year old phase is very true. With Miss Tornado there was no "2 year old phase". It started when she was 6 months old and lasted until just about 3 years old. With Man-Puppy there is a marked difference in his demeanor. The tantrums are no where near his older sister's tantrums, but they are still a challenge. I see him becoming a very empathetic and charming little boy and it makes me one proud mommy. <3 He is all boy, including findign him walking across my piano keyboard just because he could. He recently had very beautiful blonde curls... Which I will discuss in point 8.

7. Baby Bird turned ONE! That's right, my whirlwind baby that wouldn't wait on anyone to be ready for her birth is one year old! She is quite the fiesty little thing but is still a very easy child. She is going to give me a run for my money in the future though. I already spot her magnetic personality that makes people want to do anything for her. Including her siblings. I look at her playing with her siblings and think "yeah... she knows what she is doing". lol This girl will break hearts all over the place.

For her birthday we didn't do much. I baked a cake and we had it after dinner. She didn't care much for the cake, preferring her first slice of pizza over her first slice of cake. I don't blame her, I would rather have pizza than cake most of the time. ;-)

8. We went to the airshow! It was the kids' first time seeing the Blue Angels, and they couldn't have cared less. lol I had ordered cute ear muffs for hearing protection. They didn't like it, but mommy enforced it when the jets were flying. Two women walked up to me and one said "You are married to a Navy pilot aren't you?" I told her he has his NFO wings and she smiled knowingly and walked away. The second woman heard this exchange and asked if my husband was a Blue Angel. ROFLOL

It meant a lot to me to see the Blue Angels flying. It reminded me of some of the wonderful days in Pensacola. I remember driving to Steve's house or elsewhere and seeing the Blue Angels practicing. It was a beautiful sight and the memory makes my heart ache to go back to Pensacola. It also reminded me of my many good friends who were there for flight school (including my future husband) and the great times we had. Watching the Blue Angels fly in Hawaii really made me miss my "home" of Pensacola. We will never get to go back there to live, but I am holding out hope that we get to be stationed nearby so I can go visit.

Back to the airshow. Here are some great pictures!

Baby Bird was not amused.

 Man Puppy thought they were great for the first five minutes.

 My precious babies!

 Miss Tornado is getting pretty good at taking pictures.

 "Wat's that?"

 Dancing with a new friend that she met at the airshow.

 She had earplugs in, but she was mimicing the poor little girl who didn't have any hearing protection in.

 9. Man Puppys' hair is now cut. Miss Tornado got ahold of some safety scissors that her grandparents sent her and chopped away at Man Puppy's beautiful curls. I cried a lot, but then took them both in for a haircut.

Snip Snip goes the hair!

 Fixing sissy's haircut she gave him.

 Getting her own hair trimmed, cleaned up and new bangs!

 Handsome man!

 The kids and their new haircuts!

That pretty much wraps things up to the current timeframe. It has been quite an adventure around here lately. DH has been gone for almost 8 months now and is due home very soon! I'm nesting like crazy getting ready for his arrival. It is going to be awesome!

9 Months!

Baby bird is growing so fast! My baby girl has gone from big newborn to petite 9 month old who is beating her siblings in every milestone for this age! Here are her stats.

9 months
17lbs even
27 inches long
99th percentile head (that's my girl)
She is pushing up to sitting alone, getting onto her hands and feet, and very close to crawling forward! She has 4 teeth (older sibs didn't get theirs until 10 months) and have not had any of the problems her siblings had with diet or allergies. Everything about her is so advanced. Her siblings adore her and dote on her like nothing else. She is truly a "baby of the family". We'll have to keep an eye on that trait.... lol Once the next baby comes around she'll have to adjust to not being the baby anymore.
Next is ManPuppy's 2nd birthday! My little man is getting so big!

What a tough weekend!

Dang. These past 48 hours have been TOUGH! Father's Day without DH was a tough thing to get through. All weekend I was on a hair trigger for EVERYTHING. Saturday night DH was able to skype and I cried "on his shoulder" for a while telling him what was going on here and how I was feeling. He did a bit of crying too, I know he is hurting as much as I am. When I was going through the list of everything that was bothering me he thought he was anticipating my next comment when he mentioned "yeah, and then so-and-so's death had to be hard on you". The problem? I had not seen on facebook that "so-and-so", a dear friend of mine from Texas had died. She died of complications of cancer and leaves behind an Air Force husband and three small boys. My heart was ripped out of my chest when I realized this. I haven't been the same since. I haven't lost a friend to death since high school. The saying is that God won't give you more than you can handle, but the timing of finding out about my friend's death really pushed me to what felt like a breaking point. I had a minor anxiety attack and heart palpitations.

Sunday I didn't do much better. I didn't make it to church because of how frail I felt. Last Sunday I was no where near this frail and one friend asking me how I was doing led to my crying my make up off. If I had gone to church on Father's Day in my frame of mind it would not have been pretty. The kids and I hung out and watched movies while I took a break from "real life". We all needed the break. The kids were showing signs of feeling my stress and I just had to pull the "emergency brake" so to speak and rest. I'm not superwoman and I refuse to stress myself sick.

Today was a bit easier. I did cry about a mixup at the commissary, but I didn't have sobbing fits or feel like curling up in a ball, so I think I did pretty good. lol I'm sure the people at the gas station where I was fueling the van were wondering why the girl with the minivan had tears streaming down her face, but oh well...

Tonight a roach was crawling on the wall in the dining room (in Hawaii, it doesn't matter how clean you keep your house, you are going to have bugs... and geckos). I grabbed a flight boot and a flip flop and started my stalking. lol I actually tasted the adrenaline rush and noticed the sharpening effect it had on my vision and muscle tension. That was kinda cool. I did manage to kill the darn thing without it ending up flying into my hair (a common occurance) so I counted that as a "win". As I came down off the adrenaline high I remembered that I had forgotten to eat anything but a 6 inch Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub today, so I finally grabbed dinner at 9pm. It is easy to get so busy taking care of kids that I forget to eat!

Tomorrow I get to meet a friend's new baby at the hospital and then hit spin class! I've noticed that my heart palpitation from stress go away when I've been working out hard core, so I need to throw myself back into the fray. So far I have lost 13lbs since February, so I'm thrilled! 20 more to go!

This is how we roll...

Every time I take the kids to the commissary someone always says "your hands are full". They find it amazing that I can shop with three kids by myself. Well today I took a picture to show "how we roll". ;-)

Thank you commissar for these awesome "space ship" carts!

Three months

This is what three months looks like...

 

We aren't at the half-way point yet unfortunately. Hopefully this will be the longest deployment DH will ever do, although with the current state of the world who knows what his ship tour will look like.

This 3 month block has been very tough, much tougher than DH's last deployment, which was 6 months. Miss Tornado misses DH this time like crazy. Every night she asks to talk to DH, but we only get to talk to him once or twice a week. She brings it up with other people too, poor thing. She knows that Daddy is on a trip and she says that he visits in the computer.

Soon we will be starting our birthday blitz that the summer has become. Man-Puppy is next month, Miss Tornado is August and Baby Bird is in September and then DH's birthday is two days after Baby Bird's birthday. I think planning the kids' parties will keep time moving quickly.

Next month is going to be difficult. Miss Tornado has her child group study at the Army hospital here. We aren't quite sure what will happen as a result. She will be evaluated by a Speech Therapist, an Occupational Therapist and a few other people while she plays with other children. It means being at the hospital at 8am once a week for a month. Joy joy!

I've started working out more seriously. I've started spin classes twice a week and I do weight training two-three times a week. This week I've dropped 3lbs! If I can keep this up I will lose the weight in no time! I only have 19lbs to go!

Man-Puppy is doing great. He loves to run around and imitate his big sister. He has started trying to match wills with me, but he doesn't give me nearly the problems Miss Tornado gave me. Just two very different little people!

Baby Bird is starting to do baby pushups. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Crawling isn't too far away, a full 2 months ahead of her older siblings!!! She also pushs up onto her hands and toes in a full pushup position! What a strong Baby Bird!

DH is doing well. He misses us so much, but he has a good Bible study out there for some fellowship and we do get to Skype once or twice a week. He  has bought some awesome gifts for us and will buy a couple more soon. He says that the people at the bazaar on base sell old British guns from the days of colonialism, he wants to get one to hang on the wall. He bought me a blouse and Zion a traditional Afghan outfit. I can't wait to get it! I'm going to see if he can get me some fabric as well. He says the people who come onto the base to sell things are really friendly and one guy keeps trying to get him to buy a tailored suit. I keep telling him to go ahead and let the guy make it for him, who knows when a nice suit will come in handy? :-)

It has been such a long 3 months, but I am thankful that God is bringing us through the way only He can. 

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day is coming up and I came up with the perfect gift for DH! It is on it's way to him and since I"m pretty sure he doesn't read the blog I thought I would post it here. :-) I printed these as 5x7s and framed them so he can hang them on the wall or put them on his desk at work. I know he is going to LOVE them!