R and R

Hello Blog Friends.

I'm very happy to be able to report to you now that after 252 days away, Matt is home with us for his R and R- leave.  There's a lot I could say about it really.  I could go on about the difficult decision we (he) made NOT to take leave in September for his brother's wedding, or in November for Thanksgiving, our 9th Wedding Anniversary and our daughter's 1st birthday so that we could be together as a family this Christmas.  I could talk about the difficult decision we (I) made to leave Washington and come back to California early so that (in part) we could be together alone as a family this Christmas.  I could even go on about how we (yes, we) abandoned many more elaborate and fanciful plans of taking a family vacation or cruise during his 15 days of leave, all so that we could be together, as a family, this Christmas.  But I won't.  I'll skip all the ugly, excruciating details about how we arrived here in favor of hurrying to get this post up so that I can go back and lay in my bed next to my softly snoring spouse for these few precious nights. 

Although, before I go, I'm willing to bet you're wondering about the homecoming.  Well, I'm sure after this time is over I'll come back in and write dozens of posts with far too many details and even more photos about everything that went on, but for now, I'll just leave you with a few quick shots from when we picked him up at the airport. 

Waiting...

Together again at last!

(This might be my new favorite photograph ever.)

More than likely, I won't be posting again until after his leave is up.

So for now, I wish all of you out there in blog land a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful start to the New Year.  I pray that whatever your Christmas wishes are, God grants them for you too, just as He has for us this year, however briefly this might last.

Baby Stats

We just got back from taking A.J. in for her one year old well baby check up.

I don't know why, but the fact that it's been a whole year since she was born absolutely hit home, smacked me in the face in fact, today when we did this doctor's office visit.  Perhaps it was the teeny new born cry I heard coming at me from the room next door to ours...?

Anyway, the doctor says that she seems to be doing awesome.  He found her to be very sociable, adorable and lots of fun.  This in spite of the fact that she untied his shoe laces at least 3 separate times while he and I were talking. He gave me a referral for a baseline EKG reading of her heart.  I can't remember whether or not this was something I ever blogged about, but we did one on Peter too when he was about 3 or 4 months old, as my brother had a fairly scary and severe heart condition diagnosed when he was a baby.  Additionally, heart disease has been found on both sides of my family , enough so, that I don't even worry about whether or not his is on Matt's side, because there is already enough to worry about.  Basically, I just want a preliminary check.  And also, so we will always have that reading too look at and compare with in the future if anything weird should come along. 

Anyway, her stats are just as interesting as ever.  She weighed in at 21 pounds, 15 ounces, which is 60th percentile.  She is exactly 30 inches tall (73rd percentile) but her head... oh her head.  Her giant head is well off the charts still, 50.5 cm.  It was the same way when she was at her 6 month check up, but again, her measurement was WAY above the curve.  The doctor made note of this, and wanted to know if this was a family thing.  I said I didn't really know.  Peter has a big head, but not off the charts so.  So I guess we'll see.  He seemed to feel that she's fine, but if it continues to be exponentially large, like in 3 months at her next check up, then maybe it is worth another discussion.

Peter, if you're wondering had another check up yesterday, to follow up with his doc about his diet and tummy troubles.  He's now weighing in at 33 pounds, and is probably a hundred feet tall.  Okay, not really, but he's wearing size 4T in pants and they're really only just a little too long.  (The 3Ts fit fine and verge on already being too short.)

Anyway, back to the girl, the poor thing was due for 5 shots including her flu vaccine.  The doc said that just seemed mean so we waited on the MMR for now in favor of the flu shot because we're new to the area and she's already so likely to catch all the germs whenever she's around children here.  Boy.  She was not happy about those shots.  She did that whole gasp... and then was silent and turned purple and made *that* face (you know the one... hurt, betrayal, SHOCK, horror!!) and then let out the absolute WAIL just as the nurse finished with the first 2 shots and went back to reload and then attack her other leg.

The poor dear.  If she was level 10 of 10 for upset after those first two shots, the second round sent her to some place else entirely. 

It took her a long time to calm down.

*sigh*

I'm sorry A.J. something about life just sucks.  Shots are one of them.

Anyway, I'm happy you're doing so well.  I mean, even without your Dad being around, you still seems to be doing just fine.... Gigantic head and all.  :)

Riding the Cheesy Mall Train

Yesterday Olivia came over in the afternoon and we took the kids to the mall.  I had a few items I wanted to pick up for myself so she took the boy to play while I shopped a bit with A.J. in the stroller.  After we dragged him out of the play area we walked the length of the mall trying to decide what to get for dinner when we came to the train.

Oh that darn train.

It drives around the mall and is actually kind of cute, except for the part where it's a money making racket.

Peter has seen it (or ones like it) a few times before and always begs to ride.

He's been having a perticularly bad couple of days. 

He's not eating.  His tummy is bothering him.  He seems not to be sleeping well.  He's cranky and whiney a lot of the time.  This makes me irritable and impatient.

I'm sure these things are related and they combine and compound the problems.

So I caved and bought us a couple of tickets.

Figured doing something nice just the two of us for a minute might be nice.

The child was simply... thrilled.

Sorry the photos are blurry, I took them on my phone as the little train was rattling along and it was hard to get a clear shot.

I'm pretty sure Peter was in heaven for those 5 minutes or so as we rode around the mall.  That silly train seriously seemed to rival anything we'd done at Disneyland.  (I'll have to keep this in mind next time and be sure we ride the trains there next time.)

Somewhere along the way, he randomly started waving at everybody.  Sometimes I swear he's going to end up in politics one day.

Afterward, I tried to get a shot of him with the little engine, but he was so enamored with it that I couldn't get him to look at me for the picture.

I shot a little video to capture his excitement while we were riding.  I think it's pretty cute.

As much as I hated to spend the 6 dollars for our two tickets, in the end, it did seem to be worth it.

Safe

I just got off Skype with Matt. 

After just about 2 days of travelling, he is safely out of Iraq.  Yes, now he's in Qatar, which, aside from his upcoming R and R (time off) is where he should be spending the duration of this deployment. 

"SHOULD" being the key word, since, obviously, we've heard that before.

Anyway, the main office for the contracting cell he works for his located on one of the bases in Qatar, so that is where he is assigned now. 

In the off chance that you don't know, it's pronounced "Cutter" contrary to what everybody stateside seems to believe.  I only bring this up because it wasn't too terribly long ago that I too would have argued with you on the pronunciation too. 

And if you don't know, it's a little country located south of Iraq and Kuwait, sticking out of the side of Saudi Arabia along the shores of the Persian Gulf.  If it helps, here's a map:



(You should be able to double click the map to enlarge.)  So here you see Iraq is in pink, next to the big green Iran.  Kuwait is just below Iraq in an olive green color and Saudi Arabia is the large tan colored country below that.  QATAR is that little brown thing sticking up out of Saudi Arabia, just above the orange, which is the U.A.E.



Neat huh?  I bet you were all looking forward to a little geography lesson today.  Especially one on how to find a country that you've probably never even heard of... Awesome!!

(I wonder how many people are going to email me asking what the U.A.E is?)

Anyway, as I understand it (which is to say, really, not at all) Qatar has been a big leave destination over there for awhile.  Matt's ship pulled in there in 2008 (the last time he deployed to the Middle East) but he actually didn't get to go because he had herniated a disk in his neck and was stuck in Bahrain (the little island speck on the map above Qatar) for a few weeks of physical therapy. 

So I guess there are several bases there, and one of these has the Contracting office where he's going to be working now.  Additionally, it's going to be quite an adjustment for him.  To begin with, it's considered a LOT safer.  Like, he will no longer have to carry a weapon with him at times.  (He told me today his leg feels very weird without it strapped there) and he will actually be allowed off the base... into the regular country if he wants.  He can wear civilian clothes (not that he has any with him) and there are bars which... are you ready for this?  Actually serve alcohol which he's even allowed to drink in his free time!

Wow!

If you're keeping track:  We're now 2 days shy of 8 months since he left.  After he left us in Washington he spent about a week in San Diego.  Then he spent a few weeks in South Carolina for training.  From there he went to Kuwait for a few days until he was able to get over to Camp Liberty in Baghdad.  Shortly before his office at Liberty shut down, he was transferred across town to the Embassy Complex where he's been since September.  And now, he's left Iraq behind him completely and is in Qatar.  He's been in the Middle East now for just shy of 7 months and my only hope is that in his remaining 5 months they don't decide to transfer him AGAIN.... unless, of course they decide to just transfer him HOME.  (Obviously I'd be more than okay with that.)

So, that's where things stand now.  He's out of Iraq, so I guess, our President is not as misleading as I originally accused him of being.  My husband did get pulled out of Iraq as I was promised (though there are still many service members there,) he just didn't actually get sent home.  At least he's now in a much safer location.

This morning he sent me the following photos of his farewells at the Embassy:

Here he is with the Lieutenant Colonel he reported, to receiving his "Thanks for Coming" Award. 
It's supposed to look like one of the concrete barriers they have around everything over there to protect them from explosions. 

I'm going to assume he's saying his thanks and wishing everybody he was leaving behind well, and not, like, doing bicep curls with the thing (even though that is EXACTLY what it looks like he's doing.)

Here he is, um, pointing onward  (or something) as he "proudly" dons his body armor for trip..  I'm fairly certain this is only the 3rd or 4th time (at best) that he's worn the stuff since his training with it in the states, but he had to wear it in order to board the chopper to ride across town to the airport. 

 And finally:

He didn't explain this one so I'm guessing here, but... there he is with the LCL (his boss) again and I'm thinking a couple of the civilians he worked with.  He always referred to them as "the ladies" and often joked that if ever I emailed him pictures of the kids and he opened them at his desk, all work in his office would shut down for awhile so "the ladies" could come and absorb all the adorable that his children displayed.

So.... yeah.

That's where things stand for now.

Oh Christmas Tree....

(If you're wondering, that title is not me singing, it's me cursing.)

Having braved the weekend crowds at Costco and Home Depot this weekend in order to obtain some tree lights, ornaments and a tree skirt, there was only one thing left to do to get the holiday decorating officially underway at our house.

We needed to get a tree.

Now, I grew up in an artificial tree house.

As far as I know, I come from a long line of artificial tree people.

Say what you will, but artificial trees just end up being easier, and more affordable (in the long run.)  They are normally more symmetrical and therefore easier to decorate and, let's just be honest.... they make a lot less of a mess.

I know, I know, Bah Humbug to me too right?

Whatever.

My room mate and I had a real tree our sophomore year in college and it was nice enough.

Matt and I also got a real tree the first year we were in Japan and it was also nice, except it cost about a bazillion dollars and it was so very, very, dry (IE... DEAD) as it had  literally been shipped over on a boat from the states for sale on the US military bases long before it ever stood in my living room.

I mean, sure, occasionally, a real tree is nice.  They smell lovely and all. 

But they're a huge pain in the rear.

Not that we really had a choice this year.

So Monday after we we done Skyping with Matt, I loaded up the kids and we headed to one of the local tree lots.  Yes, I know the tree lots probably did NOT have the best prices, but I if I'm going to go for a "live" tree, well, I want the whole experience.  And yes, also, I do know that for the best "live"tree experience I should have gone to one of those "Cut Your Own Tree" farms.  Gee.  I would have loved to.  But if somebody on this planet could have told me how I could have managed the two kids, plus a SAW on a big old farm, let alone hauled the tree back to my car after I managed to hack the thing down... well, I would have loved to hear about it.

Anyway, where were we?

Right, the tree lot.

Since it was late Monday morning, the place was pretty empty and we had it almost to ourselves..

Peter led the way.  He headed straight for the back of the lot towards the trees that would never ever in a million years fit in my house. 

We wandered the lot for awhile.  It seemed they had several varieties, in about 4 size categories:  Weenie (2-3 feet,) small (4-5 feet,) big (6-8 feet) and HUMONGOUS (10 feet and up) in several different, um, species varieties.  At first I thought going for a moderate small tree would be ideal, but then I realized that without too much effort my children might easily be able to knock one of those down.  I needed something bigger, sturdier, with a bit more mass to it.  It also needed to fit in my house, so we narrowed it down to the couple of rows of big trees.

In the past whenever we did do a real tree we went for affordability which meant we had the shorter, longer needled variety.  I knew this was not exactly what I wanted this time around, because those longer needles seem to dry out faster, they're really really pokey and they do NOT readily sweep up in the vacuum cleaner.

So I narrowed it down to the Firs (Douglas or Noble or something like that) and these other ones that I've honestly never seen anything like before.  The Firs were fuller, and rounder... and also a bit more expensive. 

A.J. had no opinion what so ever.  She just seemed to be hungry and wanted a bottle and perhaps a nice nap.

Eventually, after debating with my two year old about how his choices would never in a million zillion years fit in our living room (not even on their sides) I settled on this little fellow, one of the Firs.

It was taller than me, by a bit, so I guess it to be about 6 feet tall, and it had a good width at the bottom so it seemed unlikely to topple over easily.

Except when the man pulled it out for us I discovered it had been leaning over quite a bit.... hiding at least a good foot or more of it's height. 

Whatever, I didn't feel like looking any more.  The sun was hot and the children were starting to whine and make me nuts.

Peter supervised while the men trimmed the trunk, and netted the thing up while I haggled with the lady about including a stand and giving me a military discount.



When it was safely tied to the top of of my van I started to have the most overwhelming urge to change my name to Griswold.  Especially since once it was up there I began to have serious doubts about my ability to get it down safely.  (You know, without killing myself in the process.)

When we got home I left the tree where it was and got the kids lunch.  Once they were both thoroughly involved in stuffing their faces, I went and cut the thing loose.

It was right around then that I realized just how much of an artificial tree person I really am.

Cut to 20 minutes or so later, I have semi-successfully managed to drag the needled beast up my driveway through my door and into the living room.  It seems HUMONGOUS.  And it's leaning a whole heck of a lot, like at any moment it still might topple over and kill my entire family.  Or in the very least one of the cats. 

Alright all you real tree enthusiasts... I've got a question for you!  How many of you, seriously, ever, have tried to balance one of these monsters in the stand to eliminate the lean BY YOURSELVES?!?!?!

I mean, in the past I always had Matt (or my room mate) to hold the tree upright while I set in the screws.

Can you even imagine the HELL I went through trying to fix the lean on my already fairly crooked tree BY MY FREAKING SELF?

It took me a good hour.  And at least 457 tries.  And by the end of it I was covered in tree sap and swearing far worse than the sailor I'm married to ever has in his 14 year career. 

*sigh*

This is as straight as I ever did get it.  I filled the canister of my Dyson TWICE with the needles I knocked off in the process of getting it upright.  And honestly, I was really starting to hate Christmas and I hadn't even begun to decorate it yet.

*****

I took a break.  I put the kids down for their afternoon naps.  I ate lunch.  I drank about 5 gallons of water.

I found myself some nice, comforting General Hospital to watch on television, and only then, did I get back to work.

*****

Something like, I don't know, 2 hours later this is where things stood.

(Seriously, things were still standing so that was a plus all on it's own!!)

Lights, Star, Ornaments, Skirt- Check, check, check and check!

Then I remembered my home made ornaments from the day before.  I strung about half of those with ribbons and hung them up to, just as the kids were stirring from their naps.

And then, my icy grumpy heart melted as the kids came out and saw the decorated tree and I saw the looks of wonder on their faces which were the physical embodiment of true wonder, fascination and awe.

It wasn't long before Peter laid down under the tree to look up at, just as I remember doing when I was a little girl

And like her brother before her, A.J. set to work trying to pull off all the ornaments.



Such a sweet moment.

 And it really does smell and look pretty wonderful, now that it's up.

I guess real trees aren't all bad.  (I'd just highly recommend NEVER attempting to do one by yourself if you can help it.)

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

This year I've been struggling a bit to wrap my mind around the holidays.  Normally I put up our decorations right after Thanksgiving.  But this year nearly all of our holiday things (and substantial amount of our non-holiday things) are still in storage (pending funding for Matt's next set of orders) as we were thinking we'd still be living in Washington.  The holidays only things I have are the kids stockings and their "Baby's First Christmas" frames and mini albums.

Obviously I realize that the decorations are just stuff... but there are a lot of traditions built into that stuff and it makes me sad not to have them.  The decorations help to create that warm, glowy feeling this time of year. 

Not to worry, because, I can get new stuff!  The trick of course being not to buy things we already have.... so that this years things don't become useless in the years to come. 

Hmmm...

So the first order of business this season is a tree.

Awesome.  We have nearly always had an artificial tree, but switching to a real model this year would be easy enough. (Or so I thought, but we'll get to that in a later post!)  But what about ornaments?  I picked up our normal yearly Hallmark Ornaments, plus we got a few from Disney, but this gave us a grand total of 6 ornaments.  Then I found a bulk set of the shatterproof ones at Home Depot, but while pretty enough, those just didn't seem personal.

Maybe we needed to make some.

I'd read on other people's blog posts in years past about making some from Cinnamon and Applesauce, that are supposed to smell wonderful, and be fairly easy, so these seemed like a nice place to start.

Sunday after we all had naps, we got to work. 

Ugh.  What a mess.

Meanwhile, the kids were just hell bent on getting in the way.

Literally, playing cars RIGHT under my feet.

 I kept asking Peter if he wanted to help.  Eventually, he got interested.

Probably because he thought we were making cookies.

A.J. was still more interested in her balloons.

Peter went on a cutting-out frenzy.  I think only 1 or 2 of this set ended up being ones we could use as all the shapes started over lapping each other and looked all mutated.

The longer he was at at, the more his sister finally seemed to take interest.

The recipe I used made a TON.  I think in the end I wound up with 4 dozen cut outs and even after that I threw a fairly large amount of dough away.  But before I did that I took some and divided it for each of the kids to play with for awhile.

When we were done, the cut outs went into the oven in 2 batches at a low temperature to begin drying out.

A.J. just wanted to see IN the oven.

I don't know why.... there didn't seem to be anything interesting.... unless, like her brother, she thought they were cookies.

If your wondering, at some point while my back was turned Peter did pop a bit of the dough into his mouth.

(Yuck!)

It quickly came back out.

And he got over his thinking that they were cookies.

Then he started calling them pancakes.

Aluminum Christmas Tree

Ever wonder how those American soldiers (as well as sailors, marines, airmen, reservists and an odd combination of civilian contractors) get into the Christmas spirit despite still being in Iraq?



 Apparently, if they're Civil Engineers in their regular lives, they start collecting empty soda cans (and ironically one heck of a lot of O'Douls cans too) and they build themselves a Christmas tree. :)

Okay, before you ask, Matt didn't have anything to do with this... aside from, perhaps, contributing a lot of those empty soda cans.  He just thought it was fun and sent me this picture earlier today.

I can't seem to stop looking at it.

He's supposed to be travelling today.  I don't know anything but the bare minimum of details, or even, really have any idea when I can expect to hear from him again.  This is managing to freak me out one, whole, heck of a lot.

When he told me not to worry this morning I reminded him that if a person could make a living from worrying we'd be millionaires. 

So, instead of freaking out.... imaging a whole list of silly things that might happen, I'm looking at this pictures and smiling to myself.

I love that man.

I miss him so much it aches.

Talk to you soon babe.  (But not nearly soon enough.)

Santa Claus

Alright, well, now that I've gotten all the posts concerning A.J.'s birthday up, I feel that I can finally move onto the next order of business:  Christmas.

I have a cousin who was supposed to have been born on Christmas Eve but instead made her surprise early appearance on Thanksgiving.  My Aunt once said that they try never to do anything for Christmas (decorations, etc) until after they've celebrated her birthday.  That seems like and awfully good rule to me.

The trouble of course is A.J. was born about a week later than my cousin, and let's face it, this time of year a week is a LOT of time.

Especially when trying to get ready for the holiday as a "single" parent with 2 little ones.

It takes about a hundred years to accomplish ANYTHING with them.

So while we did hold off on the tree and any decorating until after her birthday (which was hard, as I always try to put my tree up on black Friday and avoid shopping at all costs) I did make one exception:

We went to see Santa Clause the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Truth be told, I couldn't even believe he was available at the mall so early.  But when I went shopping to get the last peices of A.J.'s birthday outfit and their Christmas ensembles and I saw him there I decided the sooner I checked his visit off the list the better.  In southern California the malls get insane this time of year.  People circle the parking lots for hours without finding a spot.  And the line for the man in red has been known to go oooooooooooonnnnnnnn.....

I explained to the children that even though it was before Thanksgiving still, Santa was about to get very busy preparing for the holiday (just like us!) so it would be easier if we went to see him early.  I'm fairly certain neither of them had any idea what I was talking about anyway as I dressed them in one of their new special holiday outfits.

Peter spent the morning readiing Brown Bear, Brown Bear on Skype with his Daddy.

And A.J. just looked... ADORABLE.

The mall was viturally deserted as we arrived just as it opened.

I gave A.J. a moment alone with the bearded fellow.  Something she never got to do as the second born.  Speaking of her being born, remember last year when she was only 4 or 5 days old when we went to see Santa?

What a difference a year makes!  They're both so much bigger than last year.  I think we got a good photo though all things considered.  :)

Afterward, Peter tried some of his candy cane.

He didn't much care for it. 

Aw, the holiday season is officially upon us!  Here we go!!!!

Gramma and Grandpa's Gift

I know it often makes my in-laws sad that they are so far away and because of that they don't always get to  witness their grandchildren's special moments... like when they receive their birthday presents.

Obviously the next best thing is seeing the pictures.

So, the package for A.J. arrived just as I was getting the kids to bed on Tursday evening, which meant it was just going to have to wait until morning lest I have those two up even later than necessary with package excitement.

So first thing in the morning I presented my girl with her gifts.

Ooooh shiney!

Peter, the all knowing and wise older brother, stepped in to tell her what was to be done about the wrapping paper.

After his quick lesson, she got right to work.

I'm not sure, do you think they're excited?

And when the paper was removed she found MEGA BLOKS!

Obviously the paper was still pretty fun too though...

But just look at all those brightly colored blocks!

And for a moment it seemed that they were going to play happily together with their new treasure.

And for a moment they did.

I'll just go ahead and let you imagine what happened next, but I'll give you one clue, which is only to say that those blocks were spread ALL OVER my house, almost as if a hurricane had blown through. 

Or possible two....

(Two tiny little hurricanes wearing footie pajamas that is.)