Monday, January 31, 2011

Day Four

Day 04 - A picture of your favorite night.

Late night drives through city lights

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day Three

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show.

The King of Queens

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Day Two

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

My brother, Zeb, and me

Friday, January 28, 2011

Bound for Houston

Jesse and I were fortunate to get both our state and federal tax returns today. With those, we threw a huge chunk of money towards our debts, including both credit cards and student loans. It's a wonderful feeling to see those numbers dwindle, for sure. We're taking a trip to Houston tomorrow, and staying just one night. We plan on taking Cori to the Houston Zoo and possibly the Houston Aquarium. She has been so into learning and repeating animal sounds lately that I can only imagine how much she'll love seeing them up close and personal at the zoo. We also plan to get quite a bit of shopping for Avery taken care, hopefully including the Sit 'N Stand double stroller we want to buy and his car seat. Other than that, we'll probably buy an ungodly amount of adorable baby boy clothes. :)

Cori boycotted her nap all day yesterday, spending a total of 2.5 hours (broken up into small time segments, of course) playing in her crib. She slept well last night though, and I thought she was planning another boycott today, but she finally fell asleep just as I was about to go rescue her from bed. While she naps, I need to tidy up a few things around the house and straighten my hair, which I've been telling myself I was going to do for several days now. I'm really going to do it today, swear!

Day One

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with 10 facts.

Photobucket

1. I have been with my husband for six years, and we have been married for nearly three years.

2. I've wanted to be a mother ever since I could say 'baby'.

3. I graduated with honors in the top 10 of my graduating class in high school.

4. I still don't know what I want to be when I "grow up".

5. Watching the show, 'King of Queens', is bound to put me in a great mood.

6. My husband is truly my best friend. He makes the bad in me good, and the good in me great.

7. I look up to my mom more than anyone else. I look forward to the day when we live near her because she's my hero, and she's a great grandma to my daughter.

8. As much as I dislike being an Army wife, I'm so grateful for the stability it has provided my family, and the lessons this adventure has taught us.

9. I'm determined to get my Bachelor's (or higher) degree one day.

10. I am so much more than "just" a mama and a wife.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Changes on the Horizon

Sometimes I can't believe how quickly time is passing before my very eyes, but when I stop and think about the little moments, I realize why things change the way they do. My beautiful girl isn't a newborn anymore, but a running, laughing, trouble-making little toddler. And she's got a big role to fill soon too, as big sister to a little baby boy. Our son, Avery James, is due in June, and Cori is already acting out her role as big sister amazingly. She rubs my belly, and doesn't like to go to sleep at night before she can give her baby brother a big hug. It warms my heart, and I can only imagine the love (and jealousy!) she'll feel toward him when he makes his appearance.

We were told just after the New Year that Jesse would be deploying to Afghanistan in August, but he has yet to be moved to the deploying unit and we have no idea when or if he's even going. You'd think we'd be excited about his battalion's lack of timeliness in moving him, but it's hard to make any sort of plan for the future when you have no idea whether your husband will be here, there, or somewhere else for the next year. If he deploys, we originally had planned on moving back to Greenville, SC where we are from. There's not much here at Fort Polk, and since Jesse will be ETSing (getting out of the service) just a month or so after his return, it seemed silly to hold down a house in a place we wouldn't be much longer anyway. Upon further thinking, I decided that if we do move back home, it won't be until a few months after Jesse leaves. Cori will be just shy of her 2nd birthday, which means she will be fully aware that Daddy is gone. I can't imagine the kind of mental turmoil that will put a Daddy-attached toddler into, and I can only guess that moving into a brand new house in a brand new place would be even more stress on her little kid mind. While it might be easier for me to have my family around for help and moral support throughout a deployment, uprooting my two children and taking them somewhere new when they've never lived without Daddy doesn't seem like the best answer.

The best scenario would be that they decide not to deploy Jesse at all, but if it happens, we'll pull ourselves up and make the best of a not-so-great situation.