Things will be different!

WELL DUH!
I am so thankful for a phone call today from my best friend Bim. She said that she wanted to call me because she knew that I would be taking some much needed family time away from the rest of the world. I had a conversation with one of my other friends the other day, I hope you don't mind me talking about this, and she was telling me that a friend of hers was mad because she knew things would be different between them once my friend's husband came home. HELLO! Of course things will be different. Our husbands will be home. We will have our best friend and other half back. No, we probably won't talk as much and we probably won't see each other as often, but sheesh, what do you expect. I feel so lucky that my best friend knows that I will be off in my own world for a little while. And I didn't have to say a single word to her about it. That is why she is more than my best friend. Bim, you really are my sister.
I am so thankful for such wonderful friends, the ones that I have met this year, and the ones that I have know since preschool.
So, for those people that are friends with someone that has a deployed spouse or other family member...don't expect things to be exactly the same when the deployed person returns. Remember, the family has spent almost a year without that person in their lives. Wouldn't you want so extra alone time if it was your family member? Don't be hard on the person, just let them be. Send a text or a short email letting them know that you are still there for them and that whenever they are ready you'd love to hang out or talk. Don't get upset if they don't respond back right away. (More than likely I will be turning off my phone completely for a few days, maybe other people will be doing this too) They really do appreciate everything you have done for them while their family member was away. Just remember how you might feel if you were in their shoes.

Can we say ANXIETY???

The past few weeks have been rough. Our son decided that he didn't need to sleep through the night anymore. Granted, I know that I am one of very few parents that is lucky enough to have a baby that has been sleeping 10+ uninterrupted hours each night since he was 2 months old, but it makes those few nights so hard! He was waking up between 1:30 and 4 every morning. Until 2 nights ago. Let me tell you, he must know that I already have enough anxiety for the both of us. 4am and I have been pretty good friends for a little while now (Seems like the time that I am up every morning). But last night 4am and I did not meet up. I was SO excited when I woke up and my clock said 5:53!
I ran around like crazy yesterday. And today has been a pretty quiet day. Got my hair done this morning (I have to do those last minute touch ups to look my best for my hubby). I've been lucky for the last 6 months because without doing much, if any, exercising I have been able to get down to 15 pounds BELOW prepregnancy weight. Thank you to my son that eats like an entire football team. I am excited for my hubby to see me because he hasn't seen me like this since we first met.
I have to wash the dog today, finish washing clothes and dog bedding, then wash my bedding since our wonderful little boy decided to spit up all over it. I finished the poster this afternoon and soon the rest of the yellow ribbons will be up (my sweet sister will be coming over tomorrow to help me with those). All of my neighbors have been asking when he is coming home. I can't believe what wonderful people I have met down here. My hair stylist even got teary eyed today while giving me a hug bye and told me to have a "romantic" Christmas. I might say that a "romantic" moment is MUCH needed in this part of the world.
I am really started to get excited now. We still don't have a concrete date or time for him to return but I know that it will be soon. And believe me, soon is not soon enough.
I hope that everyone is getting ready for a wonderful holiday season and those that have their families home with them, please remember that somewhere there is a wife or husband waking up with their children on Christmas morning missing the other parent. Even though my husband is in the states I continue to think about my friends and those strangers that can't be with their whole family.

He's Here! He's Here! Well...almost

Saturday morning at 1:30 I got that long awaited phone call. The one that stops your heart, "I'm in the states." Best phone call I have gotten since he called while our son was being born. While he was in transit he took his IPod and downloaded some app that he could text me as long as he had access to wireless internet. So for 2 days I could text him. After going for 15 days without hearing his voice those text messages were a huge suprise. He is now at his DeMob site and will hopefully be finding out today when he gets to come home to us. I feel very lucky because he got to come back about 3 days before the rest of the unit since he is Advon. I had no idea that he would be earlier than everyone so that was a nice little surprise as well. The rest of the unit got in last night. I know that the rest of the families are pretty happy about that too.
People keep asking me if I am excited. Its weird, I'm not yet. I think that I still have the mentality that it isn't true until I see him. Well, for me, when I hear him say that he is on his flight down here, that's when I will be excited. The more and more I think about it the more I get butterflies in my stomach. As of today we have been apart for 351 days. I can't believe that it has been that long.
There are so many things I have to get done before he gets here. Get the car washed, pick up his Christmas present, put up yellow ribons, CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN, wash the dog, get my hair done. I already made Trace's shirt that he will wear to the airport. And I've got my outfit ready.
I had been looking for a place for us to stay for a few days once he gets home. But Florida at this time of year is a bit rediculous for prices. And most places you can't even rent unless you want to rent for a week (at least $1500 for a week). I figured we would suck it up and pay that ammount so it could just be the 3 of us for a little while. So I emailed about 20 people asking if they had a week available and asking how much it would cost. One lady offered us a place for a 10% discount. One person said, "Sure, it'll be $2800!" Then, I got an email back from a man, I only know him as Pete (at least that's how he signs his emails). He said that their house was open and he would love to give it to us for FREE. I could not believe that someone would give us such a wonderful gift. A total stranger. What an amazing man this must be. So, thank you Pete, whom ever you may be. We are very much looking forward to 7 days on the beach just the 3 of us. (I have a feeling that I'll be leaving for a bit to give daddy some alone time with his son)
I guess I should be getting my butt out of this bed and getting ready for a day full of running around. I hope that everyone has a great day!

Its getting to be "That time"

Last year at this time my hubby was still at training and I was home trying to finish packing stuff up to move to Florida. I was sitting alone in our house wondering what it was going to be like in a year. Well, here I am a year later and its NOTHING like I thought it would be. At this very moment our son is taking his morning nap (almost always 2 hours). I would never have imagined that our son would be probably the easiest baby in the world. A year ago I was still the "nervous nancy". I got anxious about most things, I had to have a plan for EVERYTHING at least 2 weeks in advance, and I couldn't just go with the flow. Now, I have learned that I can't control everything. Hell, I can't control 98% of stuff. About Christmas last year I finally had the feeling that I needed to just let things be and everything would work out the way it is supposed to. Thank goodness for that feeling. It really has gotten me through this year. There have been some days that I just want to snap, mostly because I haven't heard from my husband in 12 days, and then I try to tell myself, "No news is good news." It doesn't always work, but sometimes it does.
Our little guy is getting so big. He's got to weigh almost 20lbs now. But he's not a fat kid at all. I love when people stare at him and comment on his shoes (I'm a shoe freak, what can I say). He has his fussy moments but all in all he is just the most amazing human being I have ever been around. He is sitting up on his own for long periods of time now. He moves forward in his walker. And he bounces like a maniac in his jump-a-roo. He has even scooted backwards a few times. I can't wait to see the look on my husband's face when he sees how big our son has gotten.
Pretty soon my husband should be coming home. We still don't know a date, or even a range of dates yet, but we know it will be soon. Of all of the things I have learned since meeting my husband, the one that I stick with the most is, "No getting excited about ANYTHING until its the DAY its supposed to happen." The Army's motto of "Hurry up and wait" is there for a reason. They could tell us one date then the day before they can change it. So I'm not getting excited just yet. I have started to prepare for it though. I ordered a banner from www.buildasign/troops.com . They do a free banner (you pay shipping). Its a 3 foot by 6 foot banner. THE THING IS HUGE! I have started to make 2 signs for us to hold at the airport too. (Thankfully he will be able to fly straight here instead of having to go with the unit). Once we find out that he is bank in the states we are going to put up yellow ribbons all around. I've started to clean, and I've even cleared out a drawer and put some of his clothes into it. I have started the not sleeping through the night routine again. I know that when he gets home I won't be sleeping through the night either, pretty sure I'll be staring at him.
Its so close, but not yet close enough.
I

Small Army World

A friend of mine invited me to a craft fair and told me that a girlfriend of hers was going to be there with her son. My friend said that she wanted me to meet her other friend because she was pregnant and her husband had just deployed. I thought, "YESSSSSS, finally someone close that will know how I am feeling!" We met up at the craft fair and Kathryn and I got along great. She told me about her husband and I told her about mine. We got each other's phone numbers and decided we would get together soon. In this time of Facebook of course we friended each other. As I was looking at her pictures I thought her husband looked like someone I had met at Ft. McCoy in October of 2010. So I asked her if he had been up there. She checked and he had been. I met her husband while I was visiting mine while he was in a class. My husband and another guy in his unit had to go up there for a movement class and the other guy in his unit saw his other friend so they started all hanging out. When I went to visit we all decided to go out in town. My hubby's friend and this other guy decided they wanted to ride a mechanical bull. It turned out to be one of the funniest things I had ever seen. This guy sat and talked to me while the other two went out to smoke. He told me about his wife and his son and that they lived in Florida. Of course I had to ask where, and he told me. I thought that it was great that he lived just about an hour away from my family. He said that we should come visit so I could meet his wife.
Well...only a year later, and I met his wife. We have hung out a few times and it has been great! I am so thankful to have someone close that knows what is going on and what I have been going through.

Vacation Part 2

I guess I have BEEN uber busy lately and haven't had much time to blog. So here is the rest of our vacation.
We spent a few days with my dad and step-mom then went to my inlaws. While we were at my inlaws we went to get some professional pictures taken of myself and our son. AE Photography did an AMAZING job! They are part of Op: Love ReUnited. It is a program that allows deployed military families to get some pictures taken free of charge. The first time we went did not go well. Our butthead son decided he would NOT crack a smile. The photographer allowed us to come back another day. We left my inlaws and went to some of our best friend's house. We had a blast there. (I'm kinda guessing Karen and Chad enjoyed us there too!) We got pictures taken and finally our son decided he wanted to smile and laugh while we were there. We ended up with some GREAT pictures. Truth be told, one will be put on canvas and given to my husband for Christmas. We then went back to my dad's house. We went over to my friend's house in Chicago. We had so much fun. One of her daughters (she has twins) is IN LOVE with our son! Still to this day she says, "BABY!" when I call. Then my friend came back over to Iowa with me. My dad was having a wine tasting at his house and I knew that 95% of the people there were going to be military. And even though it was a house full of strangers for my friend I know that she felt so close to all of them. I'll never forget her coming up to me with watery eyes saying, "I never thought it would feel so good to hear someone else say, 'When my husband was deployed...'" I have been around most of these people before so it was great to see them again and show off our little boy. You can always tell which ones are the grandmas because they want to hold babies. Needless to say, our son got passed around quite a bit that night.
The rest of our trip was pretty quiet. After 3 weeks of being away from home I was ready to be back in nice warm weather. Our return flights were great. Our little boy is quite the traveler.

VACATION! part 1

Traveling always gives me a bit of anxiety. Traveling for the first time with Trace, alone, gives me MUCH more anxiety. At least, it did. Mom took us to the airport and once we got there, checked in, and got our bags checked we headed to the restaurant in the airport. This gave me a chance to eat and a last chance to feed Trace so he wouldn't be hungry on the flight. Got that all done then we started to go through security. I decided to put him in the front pack for the trip. Tip #1- DO NOT put your child in the front pack until AFTER you go through security. You will have to take them out of it so the front pack can go through the xray. My experience went like this...put my 2 bags on the belt, kick off my shoes, literally, take Trace out of the front pack (one handed so the other could hold onto him), walk through security, TRY to put on the front pack while not putting Trace down, put shoes back on (not flip flops either), then grab both bags. Apparently after doing all of this I had impressed the TSA people because 2 of them came up to me and thought that I had done it all before. HA!
We boarded the first flight to Atlanta. packed flight and OF COURSE Trace (my fat boy) got hungry about half way into the flight. I decided, as to not offend anyone, I would stand up in the back of the plane to feed him. Those of you that breast feed might understand the troubles of feeding while standing. Mind you, Trace really is a heavy kid already almost 15 lbs at that point. It worked out pretty well actually. The flight attendant was great. When she realized how much trouble I was having putting my boob pad back in she closed the rear curtain so I could let it all hang out. Trace was a happy camper the rest of the flight. Got to Atlanta, went straight to our gate, figured I'd feed him again before we boarded so he wouldn't want to eat again. HA! Got onto our flight, which was a small plane. I set Trace in the seat so I could put one of the bags up top. Trace proceeded to fall over (into the seat of course). The couple in front of me had a 7 month old boy, so the dad offered to hold Trace while I put the bag up. Took off and about 45 minutes later Trace decided that he was hungry AGAIN! I fed him in the seat this time (I was sitting by ONLY females so it wasn't so much of an issue this time). After eating he decided to let out some seriously smelly poop! So I had to change him. Tip #2- The bigger planes have a changing table in the rest room, find out which rest room has it! The smaller planes, DO NOT have a changing table. So, in the small bathroom I closed the toilet seat, wiped it off with good wipes, laid the changing pad down, and changed him. (You try doing that in a plane bathroom while there is turbulence!) I had to put everything back into the diaper bag, so I asked the woman sitting next to me (must have been in her mid to late 70's) to hold Trace for a second. I have never seen a stranger's eyes light up so much! Trace had a great time with this woman, he smiled and talked to her the ENTIRE time. She told me that we had just made her whole trip.
We got to Moline and I could breathe a wonderful sigh of relief because we just made it through out first plane ride together! Trace did not mind taking off or landing. And when strangers continued to tell me what a great baby he was I figured that it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.