Constant Beginnings

Who would have ever thought Elmo could bring two grown people to tears?!! Chris went to a deployment readiness meeting yesterday and brought home a bunch of goodies including a Sesame Street DVD. The basis of the video was "Daddy is going away." It was great. Chris wanted Claire to watch it, but I can't say she was too interested beyond the singing. Chris and I, on the other hand, were crying like idiots. It was awful. I've been doing well mentally and emotionally preparing for this huge change. As long as no one talks directly about how I am feeling or asks about Thanksgiving, Christmas or if Chris will be back in time for the second kiddo's birth, I am okay. I can answer superficial questions or questions about when he leaves or where he goes, but I can't get personal. It has been a challenge with many of my friends as they dive right in and I cry everytime, which leaves them feeling badly. Honestly, the past three weeks have been awful. I have felt awful fr...

Our blog has taken a halt as I have been feeling a bit under the weather. I seemed to have caught a stomachbug on Thursday, which I just can't seem to get rid of. Claire caught it on Saturday with Chris a bit later on in the evening. It has a been a weekend of hanging out at home. After being cooped up all weekend, we decided to spend some time outside. We were busy cleaning out the flowerbeds and cutting everything back for our impending snow. It actually was a gorgeous day today. I wore a tee-shirt and pants--love that! Back to the reason for this post...I planted a garden again this year. Last year's was much more successful, but I think I was more dedicated to watering it, etc. Anyway, I gave growing pumpkins a try, thinking it would be fun for Claire to see the progress. Needless to say, there wasn't much progress to report. Our little pumpkin that could, only grew to the size of a small ball. We picked it today. I tried to have Claire sit on the steps next to the pump...

Yesterday was a big day at our house. Chris' to do list is long and the jobs are a bit overwhelming. One huge project for one person is the basement. He bought the sheet rock earlier this week with plans to work on it this weekend. However, his Dad called and said he'd like to come visit with Chris's Uncle Bobby. We, generally speaking, ask for little help from anyone, especially his family. I will always ask mine first, and they are exceptional at coming through for us. I encouraged Chris to ask his Dad to help with the basement project, knowing full well that it would take much less time for 2 or 3 to complete than 1. He did and they were more than happy to help. Thank goodness they did. It was a long job for such little work, but with a bit of prep work to do, trimming and alot of cutting, it took time. They worked diligently for nearly 6 hours, but finished 2 rooms plus 1 wall in our laundry room. They were lifesavers! I know Chris would have gotten the job done, but I...

I realized it has been awhile since I've posted on Claire's developmental changes. She is just over 15 months, but acts like such a little person. * Claire sleeps through the night, going to sleep around 8:00 and not waking until 6:00 am. She only fusses for about 5 seconds when we put her down. When she wakes up, she fusses again for 5 seconds to let us know she is awake, but immediately begins to say "Havey,Havey," to which Harvest takes his cue and goes in to see her. It is precious! * Claire has perfected the spoon. She actually mastered this a couple of months ago, but she has also realized that little baby spoons aren't the quickest tools available and improvizes with her hands. * Generally, Claire calls all crackers, chips and anything similiar--cookies. She hardly has cookies, but you'd think otherwise listening to her. * I have the Today show on right now. People in the plaza are waving and Claire is waving back as if they are waving to her. Such a li...

Growing up my family took a number of vacations. One I remember well is our trip to the East coast, which we took with my Aunt Pam and Uncle Rick. It was a great journey, stopping at some pretty awesome places along the way. One of those places was Quechee Gorge in Vermont. I decided Chris should see this place as well being we are so close, so we took a weekend trip up to Vermont. It was nice. We were out of the range for cell phones, didn't have a computer and were far away from civilization. There were only 5 buildings around our hotel, so we were pretty secluded. We went to the gorge where we walked on the trails and wandered onto the rocks near the rapids. Harvest was at the kennel for the weekend, but Claire missed him dearly. Every dog she saw regardless of size or color, Claire pointed and said "Havey, Havey." It was very cute. We also stopped at Cabot Creamery and enjoyed some awesome cheese as well. It was a perfect weekend for leaf peeping.

I am officially 8 weeks pregnant with baby #2. I had a dream pregnancy with Claire, which is making this one seem like hell. I have experienced nausea like I never care to experience again. I don't vomit, I just feel like crap nearly all day, every day. Today, however, was fantastic. I was only nauseous on the way home and I am afraid that may have been due to my chauffer and not this poor kiddo. Although quite different from my first pregnancy, I've experienced some similarities as well. I am quite tired, I love water, I am craving Xtapa Cantina, and once again, I am quite tired. Last night I was in bed at 6:45--before my one year old daughter. Sad. One major difference is my food aversions. With Claire, I hated turkey. With this kiddo, it seems anything I eat one day is off limits the next. Right now, I can't stand the thought of Chinese food or anything fried or excessively fatty. Hopefully this will pass as I generally LOVE Chinese food. My hair looks awful, which is pr...

Life sucks. Plain and simple. As if my husband deploying to some forbidden land isn't bad enough, life had to throw another wrench in the mix. I was cruising to work on Tuesday, marveling at the beautiful foliage, singing to the radio when all of a sudden traffic slowed. I slowed too. All was well---for a microsecond. Suddenly, a 1988 Chevy pickup was macking on my once beautiful 2007 Pathfinder, which caused me to bump into the Toyota Tachoma truck ahead of me. Needless to say, the pretty Pathfinder isn't so pretty, my neck is stiff, we are stuck and life sucks. I went to the ER for my neck and to make sure the babe is okay. It is and I am. Thank God! Chris and I actually saw the little peanut on the ultrasound. Very exciting. That was definitely the silvery lining on this very black cloud. The Pathfinder is in the shop and will be appraised tomorrow. I am waiting to hear if the insurance company of the dork who hit me is going to give me a rental, which they had better becaus...

Jessica requested piggytails, so here they are. I think they are absolutely adorable even though her hair isn't quite long enough in the back to fit. The greatest challenge with Claire's hairdos thus far has been her willingness to keep them in. She actually takes them out, brings me the band and says, "oh oh." Mmmm hmmm. Oh oh. I don't think so. It seems the piggytails are more than she is able to control. She took out one side about five minutes after putting them in, but seemed unaware that there was still one left. If only the hairdo was cute with just one side. We'd be set!

MyHeritage : Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Vintage pics

We made our annual fall visit to our local pumpkin patch on Saturday. This little farm is a great place. You can take a walk through the patch in search of the perfect pumpkin or you can choose one that has already been picked. We always search for our own. Last year we found one large enough to hold Claire for the "pumpkin baby" photos. Secretly, I was hoping to do so again this year, knowing that Claire is still such a peanut. No luck, but she and Chris did find a great pumpkin. We also bought some Indian corn and corn stalks for our outdoor decorations. Chris and I went to an Oktoberfest at one of my friend's houses in the city. It was such a great idea, I thought I'd share. She assigned each couple a country and asked them to bring beer and a snack from that country. Some of the countries were: Germany, USA, Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic, Mexico. I can't seem to remember them all. Anyway, the snacks were great too--nachos, salads, brats & sauerkraut, buff...

I was shopping in August when I came across this cute little shirt for Claire. We love holidays at our house and we love to dress Claire up to represent the festivities. Our store was out of the pants in Claire's size, but Jessica came to the rescue. She even sent an additional adorable outfit (the one Claire was wearing apple picking). We love the outfit and are very excited that it is October, so we could show them off. Now we need to order her Halloween costume. I am not quite as on the ball as I was last year.

We just had some mind-numbing news...the call to duty has been made and Chris answered. I know, what a dumbass. Everyone knows you don't pick up the phone. However, he did, and now we are about to enter different kinds of hell. Chris will be deploying to some godforsaken place and I will be entering the hell of single motherhood. Although I constantly say during my week or two week stints that Claire is great, I have never done the single parenthood thing for a longer period of time or when I was pregnant. I am certain that God will safely return Chris to us, but I only hope that both Claire and I are here to greet him upon his arrival. Who knows!! I could reach my boiling point during one of her fits of independence, which are occuring more and more as of late or she could do me in when I'm too tired to get off my fat butt to play. Either way, 6 months of togetherness could be tough. My greatest fear is that I won't be able to pick up Claire in my later stages of pregnancy...