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November 10 Been AwhileI have been so busy this last couple months I haven't had time to get on here. Gina and I are both healthy again. But in the middle of us being sick child protective services showed up at my door. Someone had called on me with a long list of lies. I was so upset I almost had a breakdown. They were saying things like I let Gina play in the litter box and eat it the litter. She can't even possibly get to the litter box! There were many more lies but I rather not get into all of them. The situation is over and I still have Gina. I just wish I knew who called. I geuss someone doesnt like me. The day after they showed up my mom called me to tell me she had uterine cancer and had to have surgery. I packed up Gina and my 2 dogs and went to Montana to take care of her for the month recovery she had. They dont have internet there so by the time I got back here my inbox was overfilling. I made it back in time to get the house ready and to make a welcome home sighn for Adam. He made it home for good! It has been so great having him here. Now we are deciding what to do for his carreer, whether to stay in or get out and start a new one. Anyway Gina is getting ready to walk and just had her first birthday. I cried when she turned 1. My baby is turning into a little girl!! At her 1 year checkup the Dr told us she is advanced in speech and her dextarity. She said Gina needs to be stimulated more mentaly and we need to buy her things for older kids. She also said with inteligence come temper tantrums. Well Gina definitly has those. lol She can throw a fit something terrble. She is also in the 97th percentile in her height and 40th percentile in weight. The Dr predicts she will be between 5'8" and 5'10". Anway I hope everyone is doing well. I will try and get around to everyone blogs. Have a great weekend. September 08 We're sickSo Gina and I are both sick. All I have is a chest cold but poor little Gina. She was having diarrhea for 2 weeks and a cough on top of that. I took her in to see the army Drs 3 times in a week and they just kept sending me home. I finally went to my insurance company and demanded to be seen by a civilian Dr. I had an appt 2 days later and Gina had to be put on a nebulizer for all the congestion in her chest. They ran tests on her and found she had e coli. I am sooo angry with the Drs on post for just blowing her off. She is getting better now and I have filed complaints against all 3 Drs. I need to go and take care of Gina. I hope everyone has a great weekend. August 26 I'm back!So I know I have been mia for quite a while but my comp was down for awhile then hubby came home on R&R so I didn't have any time then to get online. We had such a great time! When he go off the plane and I handed him Gina she gave him hugs and kisses. It was so sweet. He has been gone for about 3 days now and Gina is still looking for him. I wish I could explain to her where he went but she is too little to understand. Anyway I will tell more stories later, but will leave you with the pic I took of baby and daddy at the airport. July 10 TodayI was watching tv tonight and some cheesey commercial came on with a couple where the man surprised the women and then they kissed and were all happy. I am not a crier, I never let myself cry, but for some unknown reason this one got me going. I think I am just missing my hubby so much and so excited to finally see him that it just got to me. I can't wait to see him. I have been cleaning the house like crazy and doing things to it I know he won't notice but I want him to come home to a nice house and be able to relax. Well it is midnight and I should get to bed because Gina does not let me sleep in. I hope everyone's week goes well. July 07 Ran awayGina and I ran away too Montana for aout a week. We had so much fun and we went swimming, she loved it! I took her to the fireworks but she slept through those. She is getting so big. Trying to walk and is getting into everything. My husband will be coming home for R&R in a few weeks and I can't wait for him to see Gina. Just wanted to give a quick update that we are doing good. Gotta go chase Gina. I hope everyone has a good weekend. June 27 TiredI am so tired of doing all this by myself. I really would like some help already. The house is a disaster and no matter how hard I try it just never seems to get caught up. Gina gets more active everyday so I spend more energy on her which means less for everything else I have to do. Where are all these people that told my hubby and I they would be here to help me out while he was gone? When I do ask them for help they are either too busy or just never show up. I am tired and have lost so much weight that my preprego clothes are falling off of me. I need a break! I have no one here to help! I am going on 7 months now doing this alone. Its not fun anymore I don't want to play this game anymore. I want to be 16 again and have the biggest worry of my day be if I used enough hair spray and if my eye liner is on thick enough. Being an adult sucks! Mortgage payments, bills, cleaning, cooking, maintenance, and taking care of a baby is all I do every day all day long. I don't even remember the last time I went and did something where I wasn't doing the budget in my head to be sure I wasn't over spending or worrying about Gina. I just want to relax and get some decent sleep. On top of everything else I have to deal with I have wives calling me all the time because this is their first deployment and they call freaking out wanting to know what is going on. I tell them that I let them know everything I know but they never listen, they always think I might know something new. CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!! lol June 22 Just shut up!!!I am so sick of people ripping on our government for all of the problems they are having. They say that unemployment is high, well I know every business I go to usually has a help wanted sign in the window. Are these people unemployed because they can't find a job or is it because they are too lazy to go look and just want everything handed to them. The classified ads in my city are 6 pages long. Now I know that not every job is glamorous but if you need the money then do what you have to do and go get a job! My parents own a restaurant and are so short handed they had to join a program where college students from OTHER countries come here to work. Why do we have so many illegal aliens working here? Hmmm could it be that so many of us think we are too good for the jobs out there or that we should get more money for what they want us to do. So I guess the best thing to do is not work out all and sit on your butt and do nothing in protest until "they" give you what you want. I mean come on, I have had some jobs where when I came home I smelled so bad the dog didn't want to come near me. But my bills were paid and I have never had government assistance. I have worked 2 or 3 jobs at a time to make sure I survived. Does this mean I am better than anyone? No, this just means I am not afraid to get dirty and not looking for a hand out. Oh and another thing, since the current government was put into effect the military benefits have increased and have received annual raises. I just love how people will get some info from some stupid forwarded email and assume its the truth. Do your research. In my opinion if you want to put the president down for the stupid things he did in his younger years than a lot of us should be put down. How many of us have not done stupid things, how many of us have not made mistakes or been wrong. I like our president and feel that the people bitching and complaining would have no matter who got elected. It is the cool thing to do you know. Stand up and protest for the latest cause, complain about everything and actually do nothing about it. Where the hell does protesting get you? No where! If you don't like how things are down do something. Start with a letter, a petition, try and start a bill. Oh wait that might require work and as I have already stated most people are scared of hard work. It is better to just complain about it until someone else does it for you. Grow up already! June 15 American flag
Did you know that at military funerals, the 21 gun salute stands for the sum of the numbers in the year 1776. Have you ever noticed how the honor guard pays meticulous attention to correctly folding the American flag 13 times? You probably thought it was to symbolize the original 13 colonies, but we learn something new every day! The 1st fold of our flag is a symbol of life. The 2nd fold is a symbol of our belief in eternal life. The 3rd fold is made in honor and remembrance of the veterans departing our ranks who gave a portion of their lives for the defense of our country to attain peace throughout the world. The 4th fold represents our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in time of war for His divine guidance. The 5th fold is a tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decaur, "Our Country", in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong. The 6th fold is for where our hearts lie. It is with our heart that We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. The 7th fold is a tribute to our Armed Forces, for it is through the Armed Forces that we protect our country and our flag against all her enemies, whether they be found within or without the boundaries of our republic. The 8th fold is a tribute to the one who entered into the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day. The 9th fold is a tribute to womanhood, and Mothers. For it has been through their faith, their love, loyalty and devotion that the character of the men and women who have made this country great has been molded. The 10th fold is a tribute to the father, for he, too, has given his sons and daughters for defense of our country since they were first born. The 11th fold represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon and glorifies in the Hebrews eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The 12th fold represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in the Christians eyes, God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. The 13th fold, or when the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost reminding us of our nations motto, "In God We Trust." After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, Ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington, and the Sailors and Marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones, who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for us the rights, privileges and freedoms we enjoy today. There are some traditions and ways of doing things that have deep meaning. In the future, youll see flags folded and now you will know why. Share this with the children you love and all others who love the symbol of "Liberty and Freedom." May 31 tough dayHaven't heard from my husband in awhile. Last time he got online to talk he got bumped off twice then never got back online. It is officially 6 month now since he left and I still have 2 or 3 months left before he comes home for his 2 weeks of leave. I pray all the time he comes home safe. I am so scared and have nightmares all the time that something will happen to him. If anything happened to him how would I ever be able to explain to Gina what a great father she had. Someone told me that even though I am raising my daughter right now like a single mom its not as hard as a real single mom because I have my husband's income. That really upset me. They obviously do not understand the stress of having the one you love so far away, or the fact that when you say goodbye on the phone that could be the last time you say goodbye. I don't think people understand the stress that comes with being apart of the military family. I had one women tell me that she understood not having any help because even though her husband was here he didn't do much to help. I would love to see people who think that go a year with no help and then maybe they would appreciate their loved ones more. That is one of the major problems in this word. No one appreciates each other and every one always has to out do the other person. Why can't people just let each other be ad live their lives. Why must everyone judge each other and focus so much on being better. having it tougher, or whatever it is they feel they have to compete with. My situation is tough but I know their are plenty of people out there that have it worse right now. I believe all of us deserve our 5 minutes just to vent or brag about what we want and have someone listen. Then when we are finished it is our turn to listen. usually though people are so into wanting to tell their story they do not even hear what you just said. I have a very select few friends and when I need to cry and just whine and vent they listen. I am so thankful for them. They do not judge me and they know that when they need to I will be there to listen to them. OK so I think I have gone on long enough. I think I am at a point where I am just tired and need some sliver lining. I know it is there somewhere. Have a great rest of the week everyone. May 30 Prayer requestI have a very dear friend who just had a baby. Her little baby boy was born with prune belly syndrome, one kidney not working and the other barely working. He also has some other problems. He is on a feeding tube and dialisis. Her husband is currently in Iraq and she is going alone at this. If you could all pray for her it would be greatly appreciated. This is her first child. Thank you. May 24 GinaI bought Gina her first bikini. Her dad was not very happy about it but when he sees her pic he will get over it. She is doing so good and growing so fast. She is pulling herself up on the edge of the couch and walking back and forth. I am soooo hoping this does not mean she will be walking soon. I want her to wait until her daddy comes home. Anyway, here is a pic of her in her bikini. May 16 Gina's first ER visitSo Gina gave me quite the scare last night. She woke up about 2 a.m. just crying like crazy. I went in and got her and noticed her eues were red but figured it was from crying. When she calmed down her left eye was still very red and I then noticed how swollen it was. It actually looked like someone had hit her in the eye. Of course this was not possible but that is what it looked like. It was red all the way around from above her eyebrow to below her cheek bone. It was also swollen to the point it was only half open. She had a weird rash going up her forehead into her hair line. I freaked out and took her to the ER. I was there about an hour before I actually saw the Dr. By that time I started feeling a little silly because the redness was almost gone and the swelling had gone down alot and the rash had disapeared. I told the Dr. what it had looked like and maybe I overreacted and he said 'No you can never be too carefull, it could have been an allergy and if it had been bad enough it could have really made her sick." He said to him it looked like a bug had bit her and it was just a reaction. He then told me how his daughter will get bit by a mosquito and within seconds it will swell to the size of a half dollar. He said just be prepared for her to have reactions like that. He gave me some drops for her eyes to help with the itching, I thought great, this should be fun to put drops in her eyes. Well when I got home I put them in and she just blinked, shook her head then smiled at me. She did soooo good! I have such a sweet little girl. I am so blessed to have her. At this point though I can honestly say I have never been so scared in my life. Anyway I better get going, I need some sleep, I have a busy day ahead of me once again. May 08 Just say NO!!So in the last month I have been home maybe 2 or 3 hours a day besides to sleep. I have been running all over the place helping other people out and I am about burnt out. I understand that it is tough for alot of wives right now because our husbands are deployed but come on!!! We are all adults and are all capable of the same things. I swear some of these women do not even know how to write a check without thier husbands holding thier hand. We are almost halfway through the deployment and all ready I have had one of the wives freak out and go to the mental hospital for a few days. Why did she freak out? Well, it was beacause her husband was only leaving her an extra 200 bucks to spend each month AFTER all the bills were paid, after all the groeries were bought. What I do not get is tis women spends about 400 bucks a month on groceries. It is just her, a 5 yr old and a 6 month old. My question is what are they eating? Then I have these wives that call me because the Captain put out a news letter and thier husband's name was not mentioned in it and they are mad now. I'm sorry, I geuss the Captain did not realize that your husband was more important than the thousands of other soldiers and needs to be mentioned. Aside from the wives whose husbands are deployed and can not seem to function without a man I also have other people just calling me for help with things like babysitting, moving, housesitting, and many other little favors. I do not mind helping others but come on already! I am here by myself with a 6 month old baby. How much do people expect me to do? I haven't even had time to start on any of the projects I want to get done on my house. I need to do landscaping and I really wanted to get the master bedroom decorated before my husband came home. I geuss I should stop complaing and just learn to say no. If they decide the don't like me because I was not at thier beck and call then I geuss they are not real friends. Anyway i geuss I better go, I need to get caught up on house work. Sorry I went on and on, I geuss you can tell I am a little tired and stressed. Hope everyone has a great week. May 01 First toothJust a quick entry as it is late and I have a very busy week. I wanted to let you all know that Gina got her first tooth!!! I am so excited but feel a little silly about it. It's just a tooth right? LOL All well, I am still excited. Gotta get to bed. I have to be up at 6. Yuck April 27 Beautiful dayToday was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze to keep it cool. Gina and I went shopping at a greenhouse to pick out flowers for the garden we will do when we finish the rest of the land scaping. From being outside today I have slightly pink shoulders and face. Gina is fine because she had sunscreen and a hat on, I geuss I was so concerned with keeping her covered I forgot about myself. Lesson learned.
Gina is officially 6 months old today. I can not believe how fast she is growing. She is sitting on her own and crawling like crazy. It is so funny to see her chase my big cat every where. He is so fat that after awhile he gives up and just lets her crawl on him. She is also sleeping through the nights. This is great for me but it took me a bit to get used to. The first week in the middle of the night I would have to wake up and go check on her. I am finally over that and now mom is sleeping threw the night too.
I talked to my husband this morning, he is doing good. He is so very homesick though. He is ready to come home. He has been gone for 5 months now, we have about 4 more months to go before he gets to come home for his 2 weeks of leave. Then he will be gone again for about 3 more months and then finally home. I miss him so much. A year is really too long too be away from your family. I am so excited for the 2 weeks though. We are going to go to the zoo and the park. I hope Gina will appreciate the zoo, I think she will be too young still but you never know. Here are some of Gina's newest pics. Isn't she just getting big and just too darn cute? April 24 long weekendWell this weekend I babysat from friday morning until sunday afternoon for 4 kids. They are 7,6,4, and 3. I am beat now. My friend Dave is a single dad to those 4 kids and doesnt have any family around to help him out. Our church was having a men's retreat this weekend and I told him if he went then I would watch his kids. 53 hours later I am glad he had some time off but now I am so tired I dont even want to clean my house. All well I am sure I will bounce back. Also this weekend was my birthday. My friend Alisha came over on saturday and made me and the kids dinner and brought me cake. I had such a good time. I am just getting to close to 30 now. When I went to bed on saturday night I sat there and thought about where I was over the past few years and I feel so blessed as to where I am now. I have a stable home, a great husband I couldn't be more proud of, and a daughter that is just a miracle. Just 4 years ago I would have been going out to the bars on my birthday and waking up the next day trying to remember if I had a good time. I am so glad that part of my life is over. Anyway my uncle sent me this email and I just wanted to share it. It brought a tear to my eye, but then again I am a little softy. Hope you all have a great week!
At Morton's." (Morton's is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from artime.ound the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your Ben Stein's Last Column... ============================================ How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World? As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is "eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end. It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again. Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to. How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world. A real star is the US soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him. A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the US soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad. The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists. We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die. I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject. There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament...the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards. Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin...or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them. But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms. This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human. Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will. By Ben Stein Also: We truly take a lot for granted. Forget the Hollywood "stars" and the sports "heroes" .. and pass this on! April 17 The ThornI went to the New Life Church and watched a play called The Thorn. I almost didn't go because in my head I thought a play at church would probably not keep my attention long. You see I have a hard time paying attention to things for very long. I went because a friend had bought me a ticket, so I fealt I had to go. All I have to say about the play was "wow". I have never been so moved by anything in my life! It was about the crucifiction of Jesus. It fealt so real that I almost got up to help him when he was carrying the cross. They had him going up and down the aisles dragging the cross with him while the soldiers yelled and screamed at the audience things like "Is this your christ? Is this your savior? What do you think of him now?" I was crying and my friend was sobbing. I barely slept that night after the play. I layed in bed thinking of the sacrifice Jesus made for us and how he made that sacrifice with love in his heart for all of us. It made me sit there and think if I could do it if faced with something like that. All those people turned thier backs on him and he still loved and forgave them. I get mad at someone for cutting me off in traffic. It really makes me think about all the people in my life I need to forgive for things that hurt me. Anyway I also want to share a story that my dad told me years ago about the differance between believing and having faith. My dad is really big on analogies so when your done reading it give it some thought. I think it is a great story.
Do you believe or do you have faith?
A man is at niagra falls and he has pulled a tight wire across the falls. He is standing on the edge with a wheel barrow pushing it out on the wire an inch or two than pulling it back. As he is doing this an audience is growing in numbers. The man finally turns to the now very large audience and says "Who here believes I can push this wheelbarrow across this waterfall?"
The audience yells "We believe!"
The man yells louder "Who here truly believes in me?"
The audience getting more excited yells louder "We believe!"
"Who believes?"
The audience now buzzing with excitement screams "WE BELIEVE! WE BELIEVE!"
The man quiets the audience and says "Who will volunteer to get in the wheelbarrow?"
Are you ready to get in the wheelbarrow? April 10 still hereI'm still here, just been busy. I have been trying to get things ready to start decorating the house. We bought it about a year ago and now I need to start making it look like "us". Gina started crawling just about the time she turned 5 months old and so that meant I had to hurry and babyproof everything. Just when I thought it was all proffed and safe she would find something I missed. She is so much fun and sooooo sweet. She has started giving kisses. When I kiss her cheek she turns her head and "kisses" my cheek. Actually it is more like a slobery lick thing but she tries and it is cute. I talked to my husband today and he is so homesick. I just finished baking 150 chocolate chip cookies and sent them over to him and the guys. If I never see another cookie again it will be too soon. Now I am going to make cake in a jar to send to them. I found the recipe online and I know some wives who have made it and said it turned out great. I figure if I make 20 - 30 "cakes" that will be enough for the immediate team. I am also going to be putting Gina in swim lessons this summer, she just loves the water. Problem with that is I am scared of the water but I dont want her to be so I want to start her young. Ok well I gotta go, laundry, dishes, and the endless amounts of other chores I have are calling. Have a great week! |
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