One Week Down

We are at the one week mark, only two more to go! How did I ever survive without Jimmy? I feel like I am missing my right arm. I just hope he's dry and safe. I'm a little worried with this crazy weather headed our way. Hopefully we won't feel too much of it. You never know though, we're really not that far away!

Does your mind ever play tricks on you? Mine does! I hear noises in the night that I'm not even really sure are noises. This only happens when I'm home "alone." Needless to say I am not getting too much sleep while my hubby is gone. To show my point, today after church I let the dogs out back and went to sit on the couch and read...well an hour and a half later I woke up. My poor pups were standing at the back door dripping wet and it was pouring outside. Bad, bad mommy. I felt so bad but they didn't seem to mind. They love being all wet.

Today we went to church. Madeline was really good through the whole meeting. You know, she really is always good. I feel blessed because I really think she's an easy baby. I have no complaints! And she's the cutest little thing I have ever seen!

We had dinner with Curtis and Rusty Howell and Nate and Mindy Salisbury. Thanks for inviting us over! The food was fabulous! Which brings up another point, how do you cook for one? I have been eating the same casserole for four days now because I made so much of it.

It has been a pretty low key day. Not too much to report. Oh, our friend Curtis said he saw Jimmy on Thursday and he looked good...so I can stop worrying for the moment. I really can't wait for him to come home.

Here are my daily pictures....



My little jellybean. Oh I just love this girl!










She has started to grab onto things and everything of course goes into her mouth. Lately she loves to suck on her fists. Silly girl.


My attempt to take a picture of us....not too successful but you get the point.

Yes, I'm still counting down the days. I have even considered making a paper chain. Today was fun, we actually got out of the house and saw some friends. Me and Madeline went to lunch with Nathan and Mindy Salisbury, and Nikki and Joe Galbraith. It was a lot of fun! Thanks for letting me tag along guys!

Me and Mindy (of course Madeline too) went by the hospital to see Sara and Chaz and their oh so handsome little Marek. What a doll! He is so cute and tiny! It made me new newborn baby hungry. That's hillarious, don't you think? I do!

Other than that I haven't really done much today except eat more frappe and finish off a bag of redvines...yes I ate the whole bag all by myself! What's a girl to do??

Oh, I almost forgot...I sorted out all of my clothes into send now piles and keep for the suitcase piles. My house is a mess! I didn't touch any of my other projects. I think I'm projected out for the week. I'll save some for the next two.

Madeline is getting really good at holding her head up. She even doesn't mind being put on her belly. She still tries to laugh a lot and is still getting the hiccups everytime. Here are the daily pictures....








She was talking up a storm so I tried to get a video of it. I think it's super cute and I'm sure Jimmy will enjoy it too.



I may attempt to give the pups a walk tomorrow. I think they feel neglected. I'm really trying to give them my attention but I don't think they are satisfied. It's kind of breaking my heart. I want them to feel loved too. For some reason the past few nights Ashes will not stop crying when I put them in bed so I have been letting her sleep by me and Boo sleeps by the bedroom door and keeps guard. Probably not good habits to start but I'm torn! I love my pups!

Another day....

We have almost reached the week mark and it hasn't been terribly bad. We are managing, just missing our Jimmy so much.

Today I tried to stay really busy and it kind of worked. Me and Madeline went to the mall and returned the things I bought online. I did find some great buys. Just so you don't think I'm out spending money irresponsibly while Jimmy's gone, he told me I could spend a certain amount on clothes before we go to Hawaii (what a sweetie). So...that's what I am doing, but I'm done and I haven't spent my alloted amount...he'll be so happy.

I organized all of our files....that was a doozie!



Madeline got her daily bath...which she looooves! We definitely have a water baby on our hands. She is so happy in the water. Jimmy usually gives her a bath when he's home...so these pictures are for him.





I finished my trunks and my chairs...the chairs I may redo...we'll see.



I took pictures of Boo. He randmoly started barking at the desk where the camera was so I assumed he wanted his picture taken. What a pretty smile.



This was Madeline this morning. I love the mornings with her. She is always so smiley and happy. She loves the little mobile that goes around in her crib.







I mowed our gigantic back lawn. It was super hot and I got all sweaty so it felt good. I managed to do this while Madeline was taking a nap. I had to check on her every 5 rows or so but I did it! Boo kept attacking the lawn mower so that made it a little tricky. He's so silly sometimes. And the big tree branch in the yard, yeah...I know it's there. They love to play with it so it's staying. Oh the things we do for these pups.



Madeline sucks on her pacifier so hard sometimes that she gets the prints on her face. It makes me laugh. Ooooh, I'm so glad she's here.



Now I'm going to read Breaking Dawn...started it last night, so far pretty good.

The cute bag that I got...went back to the store too. I just couldn't justify having it when I know that the only bag I have been carrying around lately is my awesome diaper bag. So...no more cute bag...it was a fun thought though.

For any of you who love American Eagle jeans now is the time to buy them. I just went in there today and they are buy one get one 50% off plus most of them are already discounted...I'm talking about jeans for 20 bucks so two for 30! Awesome if you ask me.

Slow Day!

It has been a slow day! The days definitely drag when you're counting them down. Today I went to the dentist and got my front teeth smoothed out. One of them was a bit jagged on the bottom and it was just not flattering so the good ol' dentist fixed it for me. We were in and out so fast and Madeline just sat in the corner in her chair and jibber jabbered happily the whole time.

I started making a pile in my livingroom....



This whole packing but not packing is tricky. They will come and box everything up but I have to have it all ready to go and I'm just not sure how to go about it. Tricky.

I made frappe for the third time this month. It's so yummy and we just gobble it up. I'm sure I will have no problems eating it by myself. It's just so yummy! All you do is take a thing of pineapple sherbet, a bag of frozen raspberries, and two banannas cut into chunks and mix it all together put it back in the container and freeze it. Soooo good.



Boo and Ashes got the extreme zooms today. It was so funny to watch them chase each other around the yard today. They were running and bouncing all over the place. Boo got tired before Ashes and layed down in the grass and watched Ashes run back and forth with the neighbor dog Shelly.

I bought them some new toys yesterday and today they already had the batting torn out of the middle of one.....no wonder we rarely buy them toys! Little stinkers!



I have decided that shopping online for clothes really stinks. At least it's not for me. I got some stuff that I ordered today and all of it...yes all of it is going back...all except for a bag ( a really cute one) that I can't even wear....so sad. I'm pretty frustrated with it actually. Oh well. At least the bag is cute.



I just got done reading Madeline Mother Goose. Have you ever really paid attention to some of those rhymes? Kind of creepy, chopping mice tails off with a knife and stuff like that....hmmm....



And now she is asleep.....



Here she is this morning....such a cutie. Today we played stand up and jump, jump, jump...she laughed a lot....I enjoyed it.





Well, I still have a long time left in my slow day so I think I'll get back to it. Until tomorrow.
Oh, I don't want to forget to tell Jimmy this....we have really wonderful neighbors. This week Al has trimmed all of the edges around our lawn, sidewalk, and driveway, and when I looked out the window this morning I noticed that he had taken my trash out for me. I am so thankful. They have checked up on me a few times since Jimmy has been gone. What a blessing to have good neighbors.

What was I thinking???

It's fine to do one project here and there but what was I thinking when I decided to do all of this?? I'm thankful to have something to keep me busy, but come on people...why didn't someone call me crazy??? It has been funny trying to get this all done on Madeline's schedule. But I am having success and getting it done faster than I thought I would.

I am happy to say that today I have already lacquered my table, my cabinet, and stained the insides of my trunks.





All I have left to do now are the chairs, the outsides of the trunks, and some touch ups on my table. Yahoo! I think I may be able to finish it this week. That is if the weather cooperates with me!!

I was thinking last night and Jimmy does so many things around the house that I never even have to worry about. Like take out the trash, mow the lawn, kill the bugs for me, move my heavy furniture....so many things that I don't recognize and thank him enough for...so here's my reminder to thank him when he gets home....it makes a world of a difference for me!

Here is my daily picture of Madeline. She seriously is such a good baby.

For my Husband....

I decided that I didn't want Jimmy to miss out on all of the excitement around here so I'm going to post what I am up to along with daily pictures of Madeline. All of you lucky readers of our blog get to benefit from my boredom....you seriously are so lucky!

Today my house looks like it was hit by the hurricane! It is pretty torn apart. I am in the middle of trying to put things together that I want to send in our first shipment, refinishing furniture and doing a butt load of laundry. Oh I hate doing laundry!

Today I painted all things black...my table, chairs, a cabinet, and a trunk. I'm excited about the table, cabinet, and trunk but the chairs could have turned out better. I forgot that I didn't sand the white paint off before painting them black so when I went to distress them the white paint came through and the stain wouldn't cover it so...plain black chairs because there is no way I am sanding it all down. I tried to paint over the white but it didn't look that great...so they will stay the way they are. Now all I have left to do is put the lacquer on everything, oh and stain the insides of my three trunks. I have to do that outside so as soon as I am sure it won't rain or the wind won't blow all sorts of crud on my finish I will move it all outdoors and be done! Yahoo! Hopefully this week.




Looks like my to do list isn't that long after all! I have already added a few more things to it so hopefully it will keep me busy because as of right now I am missing my hubby oh so terribly.

Anyone up for a movie night? I will supply the treats...and the movie...and the house...and tv....dvd player...you name it....

And here's my beautiful Madeline.

Time

Since having Madeline, time seems so much more precious to me. Maybe I said that wrong because time has always been important to me but I think these days I pay more attention to it. Madeline seems to grow so quickly and change so much that time seems to be going too quickly. Jimmy is at SERE school for the next little while and I can't help but think that she will be a different baby when he gets back. I know she won't change that much, but still...she will. It kind of makes me sad because then I start to think about when he gets deployed how much of her he will "miss." Oh, I need to get off that box and not think about it right now.

We dropped Jimmy off just a few hours ago and I already miss him. I have saved myself a big long list of to do's while he is gone to keep me busy. Want to hear them? Here's just a few:

refinish my table & chairs
refinish my cabinet
refinish another chair
finish refinishing my boxes
start and finish a window/mirror project
sort through all of our junk in preparation for the move
get all of our stuff together that will be going in the first shipment
make some hair bows for madeline
whatever else I can think of....

Here are some pictures we took of Madeline today. We just absolutely love this little girl. She is such a little angel. We're so thankful to have her in our little family.

Fun Times

Our friend Lawrence came down from Fort Benning to spend the weekend with us. We had such a good time and it was wonderful to see him. We were able to get together with Steven and Jenny Khuni (who also know Lawrence) and go bowling.

Not to brag or anything but I creamed my husband. To be fair, he did beat me the second time around but it was nothing like the first game where I creamed him...really, I creamed him. He claims the first game was his warm-up...yeah, whatever....ha ha. It was so fun! We ate greasy chicken nuggets, french fries and hamburgers to top it off. We had such a great time!

Lots Happening

It seems like we have a lot of things going on at once around here. We found out that we don't have to be in Hawaii until November 21st, so that will give us some time to come to Utah. We're excited to come home and see family before we ship out. We're really excited for all of you to meet our little Madeline.

We found out that the pups will have to come to Hawaii about two months later than us. They have some really strict quarantine laws over there and we just don't have enough time before we leave to meet the requirements. Thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa. We're pretty sad about leaving them behind but feel good knowing they will be well taken care of.

We have to have some of our stuff ready to go by mid September and the rest the begining of October so that it will all be there when we get there or shortly after.

We looked online at places to live and talk about sticker shock! About $2000 a month for rent!! Thank goodness for housing allowance! We are just so super excited about moving to Hawaii! I know I never in my life imagined I would live there! As far as we know Jimmy's deployment date is set for sometime in Septmeber 2009. We're happy to at least have a little bit of time there before he has to go. That's about all we know at this point. We'll keep you updated and we really look forward to seeing most of you in October! yahoo!!

Madeline is getting so big! She will be three months tomorrow! We can't believe how quickly she changes. She is smiling a whole lot more and trying to laugh a lot too. (She gets the hiccups everytime she tries to laugh, which makes me laugh) She is gaining a little bit more control of her hands and legs. She will try to grab onto things and put things in her mouth. She jibber jabbers all the time. She doesn't cry when she needs something she now cries when she wants attention. She is such a happy little girl and she loooves her daddy. No one can make her smile like her daddy can. She's also trying really hard to sit up by herself. She will strain and strain to do it until she's all tuckered out. We help her sit and when we lay her back down she cries because she wants to sit up. How funny.

Here are the most recent pictures of her. Isn't she just so beautiful?? We think so!



Daddy & Madeline


She's getting really good at holding that head up!












The other babies.