My Pink Party

On Sunday afternoon I had one of the best few hours ever. I was surrounded by women who love me and support me in this life of motherhood to celebrate the coming arrival of Jane Dare and to be showered with wonderful gifts. Words can not begin to express how overwhelmed I was by all these women I am blessed enough to know and love. I know these days baby showers are a dime a dozen but I realized on Sunday how wonderful it is to celebrate EVERY baby and to never underestimate what it means to the mom-to-be to have the event celebrated. Its easy for me to get "too busy" to attend or honor these events but after the feelings I had on Sunday I will always remember . . . and try to do MY best to remember what it meant to me and what it might mean for this expectant mother.

As you can see from the pictures Troy went all out in making a truly beautiful shower for me. It was all pink and brown which I just adore and the theme was around a momma bird preparing her nest for a new baby. So the (GORGEOUS!!!) invitations, decor, petit four cakes and even the cookies all matched that theme. The food was delicious - I skipped lunch to ensure I would be hungry enough and it worked! When I'm nursing I can't eat dairy because it causes very unhappy babies so this shower's menu centered around all things cheese! It was a dream come true for this cheese lover.

And, of course, I left with so many wonderful things to welcome my new love bug. I came home and spent the evening putting away all sorts of special things I'd received including the most beautiful handmade diaper bag that my mom created for Jane Dare - I LOVE it.

To top it all of my dear friend Redonna drove all the way up to celebrate with us. Truly - it could not have been a better day.

Thank you to all the woman who showered me with love - most especially to Troy whose friendship I value more than words can express!

My Husband is Awesome

My husband is awesome. In fact, he is the best husband in the whole wide world. No other husband is as good. So there - I said it - watcha gonna do about it? Now, I hope that every married woman who reads this will vehemently disagree with me because I wish nothing but wonderful, happy marriages for all the couples I know - but don't post about your wonderful husband on my comments. Start your own blog and write it there, kay?

What has brought out all of these gooshy feelings for my other half? Well, its just little things that he does that reminds me how blessed I am to have him. One of those things is shopping for clothes for our kids. He loves to do this and he will go out all on his own and shop for them and bring home the most wonderful finds. Its not the stuff factor really that makes me love him - its that he gets as much joy out of doing things for our kids as I do - he is an amazing father - and this just illustrates that.

Last weekend Jake and he headed to the GAP because we'd both read about their new line of 1969 jeans that are supposed to be GAP's answer to Sevens, Joe's etc. In fact, Ryan told me more about how they hired away designers from these top labels, etc, and started fresh to make this new GAP brand. AND then we found out they were on sale for $20 off - so he simply had to go and get some jeans that would make his butt look even more fabulous (my words, not his). When he and Jake returned home a few hours later their shopping bag held 2 pairs of jeans for Ryan and a whole bunch of other stuff for our kids. I got to sit on the bed and watch excitedly as he showed off all his finds! And he got the most adorable stuff. I tried to put pictures in but it was too much trouble so if you are curious here are just a couple of examples!

http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=26043&vid=1&pid=665813 - for Ainsley

http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=42572&vid=1&pid=663100 - for Jane Dare

http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=42543&vid=1&pid=664063 - for Reid

http://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=26210&vid=1&pid=664998 - for Jake

What a guy!

I'm Hot

I'm hot and large and tired. There you go - that sums up the "how are you" portion of this post.

Today is the first Saturday since Ryan has been home that we haven't been packing, unpacking, frantically searching for housing, moving in to found housing or traveling. July is just like a big huge blur, in fact. But this weekend not only did we make minimal plans but Ryan also had a DONSA so we got to enjoy starting our weekend a day early. So far its been great. We both got quite a few things done yesterday, today has continued to be productive, and we have a great party to look forward to tonight with fun people and good food (if we can survive this heat). Last night we got to have Troy and her kiddos over and there are few things that we enjoy more. Its such a wonderful time even amongst the screaming (mostly the kids) and general chaos of 7 kids vs. 3 adults.

My project for this weekend has been to tackle my van. I was motivated by the aforementioned Troy and some not so subtle comments from my parents :) I think its also a form of nesting in preparation for the new baby. Since we are in a rental that I don't like too much and have no intention of decorating I have to find new outlets for this stage of pregnancy. I think its a good thing because my van is a worthy project. I pulled out all the car seats and they are being scrubbed down and the covers washed. I scrubbed and vacuumed and rubbed and polish the interior. I washed and buffed the exterior. Now I just need to shampoo the interior rugs and order some new protective mats that I feel sure will do wonders for my sanity. And we are finally getting a couple of dents on the hood fixed this week SO my ride will feel brand new. Oh what a feeling :)

And finally I've been feeling kind of down just because I'm so not prepared for this baby. There are lots of things left to buy (contrary to popular belief you do not "have it all" by the 4th baby). Rather you have tons of worn out, over-used things that need to be replaced. I need to clean out the car seat and put new batteries in the bouncy chair and have at least a few special things that are just for her. All of this has fallen by the wayside in light of my other daily tasks. But then my dear Troy (I should have just titled this post "Have I Mentioned My Friend Troy?" informed me that she was throwing me a Pink Party & Baby Shower. Because in her opinion (and I couldn't agree more) EVERY baby is special and should be celebrated, whether it be number 1 or number 8. Who am I to argue with such wisdom. The thought of gathering with friends to celebrate this babies arrival has just done wonders for my spirit. I'm so excited for it and even got to put together a couple little registries. Nothing too big but just some of the basics I could use. What I really love about the registry is that even if I'm the only person to use it, its a very helpful list to help me keep my thoughts straight on what is left to do and get before Jane Dare comes into this world! Plus I got coupons :)

OK, my wonderful hubby is back from his trek to the trampoline with my kids. I love him so and I'd better sign off.

Flight Etiquette

Note: Last week I had the chance to fly to California to spend 3 1/2 wonderful days with my friends Megan and Nicki. It was a fantastic time to be with girlfriends and recharge my batteries. I wrote the following blog on my ipod touch while in flight from Nashville to Salt Lake City . . .

So here I sit on flight number 305 to Salt Lake City and wouldn't you know I'd end up next to an arm rest encroacher. No matter how much planning and preparation you do to ensure a pleasant flight for yourself there are certain things that you just can't avoid. I booked my flight well in advance allowing me to select my seat. I wisely chose a window seat knowing that at 32 weeks pregnant chances were good I'd need to potty early and often on this 3.5 hour flight.

When I got to my seat on the plan to discover a man already sitting in it I nicely explained he was in the wrong seat. He informed me that my seat, 26C was across the aisle (there were only 2 seats on the other side of the aisle and three on his side). So, I pointed to the chart right over his head that had a picture of a window and then the letters E, D, C clearly meant to be moving from window to aisle. Again, he argued with me that I was wrong and if anything C was the window or it was across the aisle. Losing my patience I pointed out seats A and B on the other side and restated that obviously seat C was next, and it was, in fact the aisle seat, but kept myself from saying "so get your butt out of it!!!". He finally agreed and they shift over to their rightful place.

I unapologetically plop myself into MY seat while the wife asks her husband loudly enough for all to hear if he'll be ok not being on the aisle. It was all I could do not to growl at her that if they had booked in advance as I had they too could have picked their own freakin' seats and he could be loving his aisle position. Then, referring to a comment I'd made during the seat assignment debacle about being pregnant and having to use the bathroom a lot, the wife looked and me and said "well, I'm glad you won't mind then when I have to get up and use the restroom a lot too". Um, excuse me, but what on earth makes you think this cranky, swollen, tired pregnant woman would be so gracious? Let me reiterate - YOU TOO had the opportunity for an aisle seat just like me. Your lack of planning does not require a gracious attitude on my part.

In response I pulled out my headphones, grateful that at the last minute I took Ryan's Bose over the hear headphones so I could play deaf and avoid any further interaction. This is precisely when I discovered I was next to an arm rest encroacher. The husband plops his arm up on the armrest and it totally spills over into my personal seat space. Now, I firmly believe that the middle seat passenger is mostly entitled to both of his shared armrests since they are crammed in the middle seat. But what they are not entitled to is even 1 centimeter of my precious personal seat space. I don't want your arm rubbing mine while its sitting innocently on my lap. So now I have to start the subtle game of communicating arm space rules. This involves firmly pressing my arm against the side of the armrest and, if necessary, moving it vertically up and down to communicate my point and(hopefully) cause discomfort on the part of the encroacher. So far, its working ok but it looks like frequent reminders may be necessary.

Oh, and so far his wife has already made a trip to the potty and we are only 1/3 of the way through the flight. At this point I think the score is Lacey - 3 and Outdoorsy-wanna-be-upper-end-of-middle aged- couple (you know the kind with special hiking shorts, keens AND keen socks on) - 2. I feel confident that I will prevail.

Just another evening

So it was just another evening here in the house. We were still reeling in post-deployment bliss! Everyone was happy and all was good. It was a couple days after the 4th of July but fireworks had been happening forever in our neighborhood so loud noises were nothing new.

We had put all the kids to bed and Ryan was relaxing in our room downstairs while I was folding laundry nearby. All of the sudden I started to hear loud, weird noises. "Are those fireworks?" I asked Ryan. "Yes", he said. More loud, weird noises. Followed closely by my super-mom suspicions that had been well honed during his deployment (Ryan's super-dad sense may have atrophied some) so I walk over to the window in our bedroom that looks out on our deck and look up the the window in Jake and Ainsley's room. Just in time to see the screen pushed open and a Larry Boy go plunging to certain death on the wood below. Only he crashed into a pile of other toys that had taken the plunge before him which certainly saved his life. I turned around and said to Ryan, "No, that isn't fireworks, its your children throwing things out their window". And then I turned around and laid down on the bed to watch some TV while he went upstairs to deal with the situation. Ahhhh, more post-deployment bliss.

And in case you are wondering, NO - their windows were not open and YES - their windows were locked before this incident began. But clearly that is no match for our children!

Ryan comes Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a joyous reunion it was last Friday when the kids got their daddy back and I got my husband back. After three years of long seperations we are excited for a new chapter that will keep him in the US for a couple of years!

Finally - a contract!

So I guess you could say the past few days have been somewhat eventful . On Thursday evening I received a call from our real estate agent asking me how quickly I thought we could be out of the house. I honestly would have probably promised her anything at that point although I couldn't contact Ryan and the housing office at Ft. Campbell had just closed for a 4 day weekend. But what I said was "tell them to bring us an offer and we'll go from there". And they did. And it was a good offer and so when Ryan called the next morning I was able to tell him we had a very good offer on our house! We countered that evening and got a verbal acceptance right away and that was that. The inspector is here now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well but we have on our side that fact that these buyers are a little house desperate right now and hopefully that'll smooth over any wrinkles!
It had been a couple of weeks since our house had shown when I got this call from our realtor so I certainly wasn't expecting it. Turns out its a couple we had shown the house to three weeks prior. They came to look a couple of times but wanted to do a pool and were concerned about the orientation of our house and the direction it faced. So they made an offer on another house which got rejected when another all cash offer came in (yippee). And then they offered on another house and the inspection was bum ( yippee). So finally they decided to lower themselves to 240 Cullom Way and offer on our house. Hey, I'm not prideful, I don't care where we were on their list.
So, we have a closing date of 24 July. Lots to do before now and then. Post housing is not going to work out which means we had to find a place AND we have to move ourselves but so far all things are falling into place. We found a 4 bedroom house in a good location and we can get in now. And my parents are coming to help (WHEW!!!!) which is huge. And this house has a two car garage so we'll have some storage options.
Of course, just a couple weeks before I'd booked myself a flight to California on the 23rd so we need to be out of this house NLT the 21st so I can clean it out before I leave. Bring it on!
oh - and Ryan got home too - hee hee. I'll post pics soon. Its been an out of this world reunion time. We are all in heaven. I guess the more times you do this the less difficult it is to adjust!