Back from Dr.'s office

SO, before I forget everything or am too tired after Chemistry class... baby J weighed in at 12 lbs 8 oz. lower than I assumed she would be and lower than they would like her at this point. She has this really BIG grey area for everything because technically she is only 4 months even though she is 6 months. Over all they said she is continually progressing and they are happy with what they see. Her umbilical hernia is going away slowly but surely! She got 5 shots today, they gave her 2 before she realized what was going on and screamed till she turned purple and I thought she would never catch her breath. She is now fast asleep and will probably stay that way most of the day. She reacts well to shots thank goodness. To help with the weight they now would like us to mix in rice cereal with her bottles and in a month try spoon feeding her the rice cereal along with starting her on baby food, veggies first. She is growing up soooo fast and its sad that Shawn (well and her mom I suppose) are missing out on all these exciting mile stones. As long as she is with us, she is safe and healthy and we are blessed to have this opportunity of witnessing a miracle really. She was born 2 months early weighing in at only 2 lbs, at 2 months when we brought her home she only weighed 5 lbs. so she has come along way! Thats all I have for now, going to finish up my Chemistry homework while J is taking her nap.
On a side note: LOVING this cloudy AZ rainy weather the past 2 days. I have lived in so many places but AZ has the most amazing rain storms around!!

Friends and Family, check out...

Hey guys, be sure to check out Project Nursery OR The Tomkat Studio (both blogs that I follow, and both I am fans of on Facebook) They are promoting Operation Shower. A 3rd blog that I follow is the one who helps put this event on... a giant baby shower for deployed soldiers spouses who are expecting! What a great thing! You can download free printables from The Tomkat Studio with the intent of hosting a party of some kind and raising money to donate to Operation Shower. OFCOURSE the second I saw this I knew I had to take part. I know what you are all thinking... "Your plate is so full already" If hundreds of thousands of soldiers can leave there families for 365 days to possibly give there lives for complete strangers... than I can give a couple days to plan a party and 1 day for a party for a good cause. I have been planning on giving a Pampered Chef party as a house warming party once we get the new house, well now I have been inspired to bump it up a notch. So for those of you who live out of state check out these sights and donate to Operation Shower if you can, other wise locals stay tuned for party details.

In other news I spent my whole day doing laundry and homework... B-O-O! I dont know why I torture myself with school. Well, I do have a newer motivation... to set an example for our 8 year old in hopes she will reach for the starts and go to college and go out in the world and make something of herself!! But I do so dislike homework. I am REALLY looking forward to the Holiday semester off from school, I dont think you could even remotely feel the excitement I feel. I just have to focus a little bit longer. Oct 28th I can throw my Chemistry book out the window!! (not really just a figure of speech)

On the kid front. J had a really great day, shes so alert and VERY squirmy. I put her on the floor to make a bottle on her tummy mat and she flipped and rolled her way halfway across the living room... soon we will have to baby proof the house. She has her 6 month Dr apt tomorrow so I promise to update every one! A on the other hand, had a rough day. She just struggled to make good decisions, she started and ended her day in timeout. But, she is learning so quickly and is truly going to blossom into an amazing girl. She is fast learning you do the crime you do the time, sometimes more humbly that most 8 yr olds other times not so much... she is a character and keeps me on my toes. Maybe that is what I need over this next year of single parent hood.

Ok, well sadly my Chemistry homework will not do its self (darn it) and neither will the laundry. So, I must go wrap them up so that I can fall into bed utterly exhausted to wake up in a few hours for J's nightly feeding and then a few hours later to get A off to school. Then more homework, to then sit in Chemistry class for 4 hours (only one class left after tomorrow) then it will be time for bed again... One day at a time.

One day at a time.

So, Vegas was a BLAST! We had a ton of fun on our first official family vacation. "A" got to see and do so many things she has never done before and was such a great experience just seeing her face or hearing her comments the whole trip. We stayed at the Golden Nugget in a suit for 2 nights and played in there newly renovated pool that has a shark tank in the middle of it, we ate pancakes at midnight one night, saw Freemont Street at night, the strip at night, and a Cirque show on Saturday night! It was a busy line up but we had a great time. We discovered (by accident) just how great having Grandparents come along on vacation can be. The Air Force Inn that Shawn had a room at informed us no kids when we went to check in so we put my Mom, her husband and "A" up in a hotel across the street from the base.... BRILLIANT!! We got to spend the day with them and "A" and at night we got alone, silent adult time together. We are completely sold on the whole idea of Grandparents on vacation and having a Nanny, I have never been so spoiled in all my life... Hollywood has it good! Now if I could just find myself an assistant we would really be rocking and rolling!! "A" went home with my Mom on Sunday afternoon so that Shawn and I could have our last day together, I had to watch him say goodbye to her and I started tearing up. He gave her a gift bag with stationary in it and a cool pen and said she needed to write him. She didn't shed a tear but only because she's experienced so many adults coming in and out of her life or she has no concept of how long a year really is, time will tell. I said my goodbyes to Shawn on Monday after I took him into work, I cried again... mind you not blubbering crying cause I have done this enough times, its never easy to say goodbye, although I am getting used to it. I had a nice 6 hour drive home that should have only taken 5 but hit some construction on the Hoover Dam and a rain storm in Kingman. I finally made it home, nice and tired and climbed into a quick hot bath then bed. My sis was nice enough to take baby "J's" night feeding so I could sleep. Speaking of "J" I am gone only a couple days and she is growing up so fast... she was attempting to roll back to front before I left and was very close but is officially doing it now and is doing a modified Army low crawl. She will be crawling in no time at all. She will squeal for you if you tickle her but today I officially got a real laugh out of her!! She turned 6 months on Sunday... time really does fly.
Today I had every intention of doing some Chemistry homework from class on missed on Thur and for class this Thur... but I got sucked into a good book and a nice long nap. So, tomorrow is homework and laundry (I did manage 2 loads tonight) I cant wait to get through this Thur night cause then I only have one more Thur night class meet after that and then I am done..... for 3 whole months. I am taking a semester off so that I can enjoy the Holidays for once, especially with the kiddos and also to get us moved since we have practically grown out of our house over night. Anxiously awaiting any word on the house we have an offer on, I really hope I hear something soon. I am packed and ready to go and starting to go a little stir crazy.... hopefully very soon!! So I am a to bed on time person now and better call it a day. Its been more relaxing than I had planned but tomorrow its seriousness no down time. I have to take this next year one day at a time and I will be ok.

*to tired tonight, but will try before bed tomorrow night to post a couple Vegas pictures!*

2 weeks come & gone...

I can not believe Shawn has been home for 2 weeks already. My stomach starts to turn when I really think about it. I wish I could keep him to myself for just a little bit longer, but the soldier and the soldiers wife in me knows better. Its time to start saying goodbye.

It has been a great 2 weeks but a very busy 2 weeks too. We managed to celebrate Halloween and this past Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving. We had a total of 22 people over that I cooked a whole Thanksgiving meal for, family and some very close friends gathered around to send Shawn off with well wishes! It was "PERFECT" were the words Shawn used, as long as he liked it, it was a success then! We have had many appointments in the 2 weeks getting legal things in order for the just in case, as well as we met with an attorney and have officially started the adoption process for A becoming our legal daughter. Its all very exciting! Shawn is some how blessed with missing out on manual labor or any large extensive projects, he just signs his name on some paper and I can now adopt an 8 year old girl, as well as buy a 3,100 square foot house without him! This year I think will only be rougher in some aspects due to the fact that I have never been the one home... WITH KIDS. It is still so crazy to think that 6 months ago I only had a husband and 2 dogs to worry about. Sadly we lost Dinah and now it is just Fo, but I still have the hubby, plus a rabbit, some fish, a baby, an 8 year old, and a nanny... all we are missing now is the partridge in a pear tree.

We head for Vegas tomorrow for a small mini family vacation! Shawn, me and A, as well as my mom and her husband. We are going to enjoy the city, attend his going away ceremony for his unit and then the official goodbye for a year. Most soldiers get 2 weeks R & R in there tours but since he is the boss I keep in the back of my mind that it could not happen. So for 1 year I hold down the for while playing Mom and & Dad, being a soldier myself, attending college classes to get my Masters degree, run a non-profit organization and try very hard not to lose my mind. I say it over and over I am always up for a challenge, this may be the biggest one yet. So until November 2011 if I dont ever blog again it could be I have fallen off the face of the earth being over run with all that is my life. I know until November 2011 I wont fully feel like myself, Shawn and I complete each other, we are the only 2 people on the face of the earth that can stand each other... that means a lot!! (lol) So, friends and family if I forget to say it along the way I will say it now... THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE GOING TO DO THIS NEXT YEAR IN SUPPORT OF SHAWN AND I, WE APPRECIATE YOU!!!

*I am getting really excited for this adoption to be done so that we can share A with you all* (6 months max and the world will meet our daughter)

Happy Halloween!

You read correctly, Happy Halloween! As a soldier deployed it is highly likely you will be participating in what is called the holiday gauntlet. Oct-Halloween, Nov-Thanksgiving, Dec-Christmas, Jan-New Years, Feb-Valentines, Mar-St. Patty's... Shawn is going to be going through this gauntlet soon. No matter how many times you do it its never easy. So, this time around I thought it would be cool to celebrate a few early, with him, before he leaves. Today, we dusted off our Halloween decor and placed it around the bare house (I am still chugging away at packing) I am a cupcake fan but Shawn asked for a cake so I made one, we made Halloween cookies, we had candy corn. I decorated the table super festive, we had one of Shawn's favorite meals, Turkey and potatoes and cheesy asparagus. It turned out really well, my mom came over to celebrate with us and we sat and watched "Its a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Tomorrow we are going to carve a pumpkin. Not only did I think Shawn would enjoy celebrating Holidays early, but I thought it would be important to do this for A. This is the first Holidays with us and we have no way of knowing what her passed Holiday experiences were, so we want to give her a taste of our traditions and to re assure her of the family factor even though Shawn is leaving for a year.

This week is going to be insanely busy, we have several appointments for the girls. Many errands and appointments for Shawn to get him off for a year away from home with everything he needs and everything I may need without him here. Hopefully with my ability to juggle busy schedules and plan events as well as an obsession for ME time, we will have a good week... get everything accomplished, manage to relax and make some really great memories. This great weekend is a good sign that we can do this.

What a week.

Well first things first... Shawn came home last night!! He came in late so I got to go pick him up with no kids which was nice. We have been apart many times for all sorts of lengths the longest being 18 months, but this last 3 weeks felt like FOREVER. Its different with having kids this go round, Im running around like a chicken with my head cut off and sometimes just want to stand and scream throwing in the towel other times I want to be able to share the good stuff with someone who really understands me. He tried, bless his heart to do J's feeding last night but he's been out of the game for 3 weeks and a lot has changed with her. She has gained almost 3lbs AND... she's officially sleeping 7 hours only waking for one feeding now!! Its a great feeling and she was on and off with it for a while but this week solid shes falling asleep around 8ish or 9ish and sleeping 7 solid. Its soooooo wonderful!!

Shawn celebrated his 35th birthday on Monday (not the first away) but it always sucks being apart for things like that. This weekend we will celebrate! We are celebrating Halloween this weekend, early I know, buts its A's favorite holiday so were having our own little Halloween party. I will post pictures. We are also celebrating Thanksgiving early on October 10th. We going to have family and a few friends over and have a Thanksgiving meal together to say goodbye to Shawn. I fear these next 2 weeks will fly by, but we have a lot of fun things planned. I continued to pack this past week and house keeps looking more and more empty. The garage on the other hand is packed floor to ceiling with boxes. Crossing our fingers our offer gets excepted and that I can single handedly move this family from 1,900 square feet to 3,100 square feet. It will be pretty crazy but so worth all the hard work in the end.

Today was my last day of 14 days of Army training, I am so relieved it was really rough to work full time, parent and run a house all on my own. Thank goodness for the live in nanny to be able to watch J all day long. She was ready to bolt every day though when I got home to either go to work her self or go hand out with friends. I will be sleeping in tomorrow... maybe till noon :-)

A has officially been up for adoption for a while now. She finally got assigned an adoptions case worker who came over this week to start all the paper work with us. We will finish it all up while Shawn is home and then sit back and wait. They are saying it should be finalized in February right before A's birthday! We are all very excited! Today I caught myself crying on the way to work. I was listening to KLove and they were playing Cinderella, by Steven Curtis Chapman.... serious Dad and daughter song, (sappy already) but I kept thinking how we will now be doing prom and a wedding and some day an engagement.... not even some day.... in 8 more years A will be 19. It hit me that those things are all right around the corner for us, very scary, exciting and anxiety producing all at once. Its already bad enough that Tyler is graduating in a few short months. His mom and I joke were going to be 2 blubbering idiots that day. I cried when I let Tyler drive my truck for the first time cause I remember like it was yesterday when he was just 9 years old. Man time flies way to fast sometimes.

Then on other big news... I have an acquaintance through a friend of the family does this amazing non-profit thing in WA where we used to live. Its called Stand Out Prom (standoutprom.com) Its so awesome and I have been watching them grow over the last 2 years and have thought how fun something like that would be. Well I email the gal who started it all and asked her permission to start something similar here in AZ. She spoke with her board of directors and they gave me the green light, so I gathered several of my very talented friends and we had our first planning meeting last Friday. We decided to go for it. So, I am starting a non-profit, pinch me I still cant believe it. We having been hashing out our own name this last week and I am so excited to soon share with you what we decide. I am spending the weekend doing all the paper work to file and make us an official non-profit. So stay tuned for all the amazing things and the awesome journey that lies ahead with this new endeavor. I am super excited!!

Well, I think I covered it all for the last week. These next two weeks will be jam packed with fun so I will try to keep everyone up to date as best as I can. I look forward to spending time with Shawn and the girls tonight, sleeping in tomorrow and soaking up every last second over these next 2 weeks.

Hello Wednesday.

Half way through the week! Only one more week till Shawn is home, I am very excited! Mostly so I can have a break from the girls and get a little time to myself before he departs leaving me a single parent for a whole year. I am looking forward to sharing that journey with you all ;-)
I have been doing Army training this week and I am extremely exhausted when I get home but somehow I am finding the energy to jump right into the parent role before going into complete shut down bed time role. J is still waking up in the middle of the night for a feeding... last night she was so kind as to let me sleep a whole hour & a half before demanding to be fed. Then I will excitedly say she slept for 6 hours straight... whooo hooo!! I hope this is a habit forming here it may be my salvation. Tomorrow is dreaded Thursday, it means up early to work, work, back home to pick up A from school, and then off to school for me to sit in 4+ hours of Chemistry class, to then race back home to get the baby to bed and then fall into bed myself. Hurry up Saturday and get here already. This Saturday we are going to go see a house that we put an offer in on because we realized we are quickly growing out of this one. Just waiting for the bank to say ok to our offer and we will be moving then. I have the house about 50% packed already. In the past 7 days I have been packing a few boxes before I go to bed. I am praying for a miracle that we can move while Shawn is home for 2 weeks in October but I am not sure if it will happen. If thats the case I will be single handedly moving us into a new house. I always say I love a challenge but sometimes I think the challenges take me a little to seriously. Well, other than J growing at the speed of light and A becoming more and more bubbly by the minute, me working and going to school while prepping for a move there is not a whole lot going on in the Adams family household.... haha, I wish.