Nirthday

What I want for its not March 1st yet so I'm not technically allowed to talk about it really but its the most important day in March that happens to fall on the 27th and rhymes with nirthday....

Just sayin'.

I want this.

Really bad.

Just look at all the things I can juice with it!

There are few things in my food life that I truly find pure joy ingesting more than fresh juice. Call me crazy. But, I mean...come on! Fresh watermelon or orange juice! Pomegranate strawberry surprise! Carrot and apple goodness! Even spinach and asparagus juice! The possibilities are endless.

I. Must. Have. One.

You can put whole fruit in them with ease. I know this because the infomercial said so. Cause let's be serious. If I've gotta be slicin' and dicin' to get the fruit in there in the first place, it won't make it in.

Well maybe I'd have to slice some things up, but shoot, I'll slice a pineapple to get some fresh pineapple juice.

I know most people might leave subtle hints for their husband or other family members...so...

This

Is

My

Subtle

Hint

And no there is no skimping to get the Target brand or some cheap one off Amazon. This is quiet and easy to clean and perfect. You can't mess with perfection. Maybe this should be my nirthday gift to myself this year. What do you think? Anyone have this and have commentary on it? Am I getting my hopes up?

Anyways, happy non-nirthday to you today my friends! 

Texas cont'd Part Two

Let me start by just saying, this post is picture overload. Enjoy.

Picking up after the Honor Grad/ Coin Ceremony, we had the Giant all afternoon to ourselves on base. Unfortunately though, as we did every day that we were together, we had to return him to his dorm by 7:30pm. Talk about ramped emotions. Try seeing your Love for the first time in 2 months, getting reacquainted as a family for a few hours trying not to think about what was coming, then having to say goodbye all over and send him back at night to sleep by yourselves FOUR times. Not easy. But those hours together as a family made it all worth it.

Friday was his graduation parade.

His parents and brother had flown in pretty much just for this day, so I had help with Peapod during the ceremony. She was such a good girl the entire time. She even let her Grandma hold her during it allowing me to take pictures and video finally. Good girl! Not a peep, even with the little girl next to us screaming her lungs out.

Her Daddy sure looked good as he marched by us, didn't he?

After the graduation, we again had to go "find" him.

Somewhere in there.

Chey got him first.

This was the first time his family had seen him.

I think they were just as surprised at his appearance as I had been, but at least they were warned ahead of time.

They congratulated my starving Hubs by taking us all to his favorite place, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Sorry for the horrible photo quality. It is a picture of a picture via phone. Best I can do on the fly.

Y.U.M.m.m.m.m! Oh I could just die for those delicious mushrooms! Salivating is an understatement right now. Anyways, off the food topic as my hips and arss can't handle the idea of any more food at this point. So, we ate (and ate and ate- mHmm)... and then...

We made it to the Alamo. If you haven't been to the Alamo, maybe you are like me in what you imagine it to be. You see the old John Wayne movies of the Alamo in the middle of the desert, open land, dusty, cowboys shooting at Indians wrong story somebody shooting at somebody else hiding behind a water truss. Well, nope, wrong. It is literally smack dab in the middle of downtown. Literally. Roads circle the outside walls, hotels towering over it. Its like this little mini fortressed lush island (no water surrounding it, but oh wait there is a creek that runs through it...) hidden by commercial properties. Very unusual. Davie Crockett is probably rolling over in his grave right about now.

By about half way through the Alamo, I was itching to get my Giant to myself again, to spend time just the 3 of us. Its been a lo-o-o-ong two months. So, as it was time for a little someone to eat and take a nap, my little family headed back to base to spend a few hours to ourselves before we said our nightly goodbye.

Let me say though, the time we spent with the Giant In-Laws was the best time we had spent all together for as long as I can remember. Probably ever actually. We just really enjoyed being together and I know the Giant was so pleased to have them there. I don't think I can thank them enough for making the long trip out. So, if you are reading this Giant In-Laws- Thank you!

On Saturday, I was able to go pick him up first thing in the morning and I had him for the entire day. We joined his family for lunch then said our goodbyes as they had a plane to catch.

We had a fantastic rest of the day together. Sunday too. We were able to go to church, the chapel he had been attending during basic. Once again, Peapod was wonderful the entire time. Something about church always intimidates me with her. She could scream bloody murder anywhere else and I'd handle it just fine. But, I stress so much about her being in the church service.  I don't really know why I do since every time we have been, she is so good and sleeps through the majority of it. She slept on her Daddy's lap the entire time. I think that made us all very happy.

After a very emotional few days, Sunday came with extra added emotion. No matter how happy we were spending time together, the end of the day came way too fast. We geared up all day for that night. It was our final goodbye for the trip. 5:30 came and so did the floods. I slowly drove him back to our dropoff location and held it together as best I could. Which was not very well at all. Those four days had flown by way too fast. It seemed like I had just seen him for the first time and then we had to say goodbye again, a real goodbye. This time for who knows how long. I won't or can't describe how I felt at this moment. Sad. Heartbroken. Ugh. Yeah those touch on it. You can imagine how the rest of it went, can't you? . As I watched him march down the 20 minute path to his dorm, farther and farther away from us, I felt myself losing it. After taking a few moments to get it together, it was just Peapod and me again to continue down this adventurous road.

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Wow, this was one very long post!

Thankful Thursday

What do I not have to be thankful for right now?

But starting this off, I've got to do it right. I'll go ahead and state I am very thankful for this.

And really I'm also thankful for this. (paci clip- bad picture of it)

And these.

And especially these.

These are 3 very vital things to a mother traveling alone with her wild baby child. I speak from experience. Yes, these things I am most thankful for.

We made it... to Texas and back that is

Peapod and I had a fantastic trip to San Antonio Texas to see the Giant who is now the Giant Airman! He made it through 8.5 weeks of hell and graduated with honors. He was awarded Honor Graduate while finishing in the top five percent of 700 airmen. Even bronchitis and a temperature of 102.5 that landed him in the ER his final week didn't slow him down.

I'm going to break our trip into a few different posts so it doesn't drag on. Here are our first days of the trip.

At 11pm the night before baby and I flew out, I got a collect call from him letting me know he had been admitted (and later discharged) from the base hospital with a fever and what we thought was the flu and strep turned out to be severe bronchitis. I knew he had been sick most of the time he'd been there with something or other as germs flew through the flight, but things had gotten much worse by our last phone call Sunday prior. Fast forward to this night of the phone call, 8 hours before I was boarding a plane to head his way... After being discharged by the hospital, he was put into the sick dorm 319th. After our 11pm phone call, I didn't hear from him again until right before his Thursday coin ceremony. Yeah, that was 2 days of being a mile away from him on base and not knowing how he was, where he was, or what was going on. Fun. But thankfully, after 48 hours of antibiotics, he was feeling well enough to return to his 321st flight and graduate along with the rest of them. I, in the mean time, had been staying in a temporary housing hotel on base. Baby and I took Tuesday and Wednesday to explore the base. Thursday, even though very cold and windy, was the most special day. It was the first day we were able to see him at the Honor Grad and Coin Ceremony. I wasn't able to get many pictures or video during the ceremony because I had to keep the baby bundled away from the wind.

But after the whole ceremony, we were told to "go find your airman." So, that's what we did. He wasn't allowed to move until I found him and touched him to "release" him. Finding him was the best feeling in the world. From that moment on, I don't think we let go of each other all weekend while we were together. I hardly recognized him to find him, my Giant is a skinny Giant now. Getting sick just prior didn't help him in this area. For the first time since middle school, he weighs under 200 pounds. Seriously. For you who don't know him personally, this is shocking. He was almost 300 pounds when we met in 2007. In November 2009 when decided to apply for the Air Force he weighed around 290. He had to drop 70 pounds to join. He did this by March. Maintained 225 until September. Was 213 the day he left for basic on November 23rd. And now weighs under 200.

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And, side note, all my worrying prior to the trip about Cheyanne flying was a waste of time. I could not have a better baby! She is a fabulous flier. Not a single cry the entire day. She smiled so much that even the flight attendant picked her up and carried her around during the long flight. Although she didn't go far- Mommy didn't want her too close to all those germy people.

My good girl! She flew with Mommy all by herself and was perfect the entire way. Thank you God!

My Four Month Beauty

Yesterday, my baby turned four months. Sweet baby girl, you are changing so fast, its hard to keep up. You are doing something new all the time. Daddy's going to hardly recognize you on Thursday when we see him.

We love Mr. Bear.

We love to bite him.

We love to hug him.

And we love to use him as an armrest. He's pretty great all around.

But we love our Momma more.

So lets see what this lately lady is up to lately...

Weighing in at 14lbs11oz and is now 23 1/2 inches tall, she has gained a whole pound and a half in a month! She is in the 75th percentile in weight and between 25-50th percentile in height.

• She loves her Skipper and Papaw. I've never seen this child beam more than when one of these guys walks in the room. It took two months of seeing them on a daily basis, but she has more than warmed up to them both. Although, her Momma is still her favorite, these two are in the running.

• Her favorite game is kiss the feet or eat the hands. Meaning- Momma kisses feet or eats her hands and she cracks up. Its a fun game that we play. What I do to make this baby laugh :). Oh, of course there is her favorite game (not mine so much) of catch Momma's hair when its in arms length and hold on for dear life. Like I said, not my favorite game we play. But it too cracks her up. I wonder what she'll do with all that free time when I decide to chop it all off. Good thing for her, I won't be doing that any time soon, not until Daddy gets home at least and all other things are stable.
• Her favorite toys are the pink butterfly I've talked about before and the snow globe from Christmas. Yep, it is still out. Long after all other Christmas decorations have gone into hiding. It won't be going anywhere, she loves it too much. She pretty much loves anything that plays music and lights up. And if it blows snow around, well that's just even better.

• She still loves open mouth kisses and riding in the car. Its very rare for her to cry in the car, unless she is very hungry or very tired of being in her seat. 
• She fights sleep and doesn't like to miss a thing. Some call her nosy, but I say she's just observant and interested. Smiles buy her a few extra minutes- every time.
• She has rolled over about 5 or 6 times but still continues to have little interest in it. She seems to surprise herself every time she does. 
• If she can put it in her mouth, she will. Doesn't matter if its a ball, a hand, Momma's hair, you name it- she wants it. And if it belongs to you, I apologize for it being returned drool-soaked.
• She eats every 3 hours, except at night. We're down to no middle of the night feedings, but she still likes to wake up just in case she can get some grub. 
• Bath time is sometimes the only thing that gets us through the evenings. Boy does she love baths! My clean clean girl. 
• And Hush Little Baby calms pretty much any fit. Only if I knew the end of that song. So for now, we end in lalalalalalala. She seems to like it. I'm open to new song suggestions.

So, that's month four of Cheyanne. We leave tomorrow morning at 7am to fly to Texas. She and I are flying by ourselves. I'm nervous about her first flight, but I have researched and prepared as much as I can to make it the easiest trip imaginable. We have new toys, extra blankets, a front pack carrier for extra observant fun in the airports, books, and a little Kindle reading for me. Fingers are crossed that she sleeps. Ha. Yeah, I'll keep dreaming.

We see the Giant on Thursday!!! I'm so ready!

Packin Up

That's right. The time has finally come for me to start packing up for our trip to Texas. If you've been following me, you know just how excited I am right now about this fact. All that stands in my way from seeing my husband is 4 days and 6 hours of air traveling. I've spent the entire day getting ready for the big trip. I have packed, and repacked, and am still repacking. I never realized how much stuff a tiny little person requires for a week long trip away from home. We have outfits labeled by day. Then we have backup outfits also labeled. Then we have hairbands, socks, shoes, all accessories to go with these labeled outfits. We have blankets. We have bibs. We have all kinds of goodies packed away. Oh crap, where are my clothes going? Hmm back to packing I go.