I guess Brent and I are officially lame parents. Next is CNN 24/7 and NPR in the car. Obivously we don't have big plans for the new year tonight, I think we are frankly exhausted from the past four months. I am really enjoying stressing about what to make for dinner versus are we going to have a place to live come December? Oh, much better!
Allison is in the throws of the terrible two's. I saw her pediatrician and he recommended 1,2,3 Magic. It's a book about discipline for kids 2-12. I have read most of it, and what a joke. She just looks at me (after I have said 1,2,3 naughty spot) and says 7,8,9 Mommy! I guess these things take time!
There is one new behavior of Allison's that is both maddening and highly entertaining. She has little schizo episodes. Please bear in mind that I am not making light of any mental illness, but my toddler has episodes! One moment it's rock Mommy a nano second later it's no rock Mommy. Then read the book Mommy pause no, don't read the book Mommy. Milk Mommy no milk Mommy only water. Pink pajamas no pink pajamas brown ones no brown ones pink mommy pink! All day long. After awhile, I just laugh, what else is there to do?!?
I am really looking forward to the New Year and all it's promise. I hope you have a wonderful, safe, and healthy 2009! Hi Samantha and thanks for reading my blog! :)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Merry Christmas 2008!
It's been a whirlwind but we had a lovely Christmas. Our celebrations started with Brent's Dad Carl. He came into town the weekend that we moved. We still managed to get a tree up and decorated. We did a make shift potluck with Steve and Misti bringing a ham and mac n cheese. This also was the first time that the nieces and nephews saw the house, they were in the basement most of the time.
Allison got a rocking horse from PePaw, she named it Giddy. Hilarious.
Next, it was off to Pennsylvania to celebrate with Aunt E, Aunt Sue, Uncle Russ, Samantha, Jamie, Stephanie and of course, Dave. Holla! ((Allison now says that by the way in public places!)) Aunt Sue put up my grandfather's trains. It is called the yard. My grandparents put up the trains every Christmas Eve so when my mom and Aunt came down the stairs it was all done. I can't imagine doing that. I thought it was funny that the toy yard was named "Plasticville". The yard is in good shape being that it's how old? Mom? :) Allison of course didn't sleep that night, so Brent and I played musical beds with her until 10:30 at night. We thought for sure she would sleep all the way home. Nope. Let's just say Allison is now aware of my DVD player in the car. I was saving that one, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if it was Barney.
For Christmas Eve, we went to Aunt Mary Ellen's house. Allison had a blast playing with Kaia, Tracy and Mike's daughter. They played hide and go seek non-stop. They kept going to the same hiding spots over and over and would just scream and laugh when they "found" each other. Dad's were recruited while they played in the bathroom. Allison talked about playing with Kaia ALL THE WAY home. She also did her usual sing along in the car. Some kids sleep in the car, Allison not so much.
Once we got home, we got out the milk and cookies for Santa and the reindeer food. We wrote Santa a note and left it for him on the fireplace with our stockings. Then Allison had a major meltdown about Santa coming. She was hysertically crying and was incoherent with what she was saying. I finally decipherd "No Santa, Mommy, no presents!" What an awful feeling. Long story short blog, we think Allison thought that Santa would be in the house when she woke up in the morning with her presents.To reassure her that he was "just dropping them off" , I called the North Pole and told Santa that Allison was grateful for the presents, but to please leave them outside. Mommy and Daddy would bring them in in the morning. That calmed her down so she could sleep. I felt awful. We didn't push the Santa thing AT ALL and didn't even go to the mall, so who knows what her little mind was thinking.
She panicked again at 5 AM but with some Mommy reassurance was back to sleep until 8 AM. Merry Christmas Mommy and Daddy--well more Daddy then Mommy but still. When she woke up she was fine and wasn't upset about Santa being in the house. We showed her where he ate her cookies and took the reindeer food and even moved the fireplace screen. Then it was off to the presents. Santa brought Allison a market for her to play store. She loves shopping with me at the real store, so it was appropriate. We opened presents slowly (I make all attempts to slow time down with Allison!) and had Christmas tree pancakes for breakfast. She didn't finish opening her presents until mid morning, which was fine by us!! She really liked opening one gift and then playing with it for awhile. The best thing that came with the market was the cash register. It has a credit card slider and she picked that up real quick! That could be a problem.....
Later that day, my Mom and Nick came over to exchange presents. Allison was really into the whole opening presents thing after that! She especially liked the new ironing board that she got from Papa Nick and of course is oh so stylish with all of the clothes that my mom bought her. She is asking me if I like her new shirt and if I think it's pretty. Too cute. Sometimes I just want to squeeze her she's so cute! Brent's Mom Connie was also there and then Brent left to pick up his grandmother from the airport. She flew in from Indiana. She's almost 90, that rocks.
The next day was the zoo with all of the nieces and nephews at Connie's house. The coolest thing was that we got Connie (not to toot our own horn, but toot!) a web cam and were able to see and talk to Mike while he was in Afghanistan. That was Mike's idea and Jen and us just ran with it! That was definitely cool! He showed us his closet, I mean room and we are still wondering about the pink thing on the bed.....
Allison greatly enjoyed spending time with "her cousins" . Especially Jessica. I can still hear, "Jessica, where are you??" in my head. She thinks she is just as old and big as them and they are so patient with her. They let her see their Nintendo DS's and their leapsters and even let her "join" their game of Life. Amazing. Sorry for the lack of pictures of the chaos, I left my camera at home. I borrowed my Mom's but haven't uploaded those pictures yet.
All in all we had a lovely time during Christmas and we are looking forward to painting and redecorating our new house for 2009!
Allison got a rocking horse from PePaw, she named it Giddy. Hilarious.
Next, it was off to Pennsylvania to celebrate with Aunt E, Aunt Sue, Uncle Russ, Samantha, Jamie, Stephanie and of course, Dave. Holla! ((Allison now says that by the way in public places!)) Aunt Sue put up my grandfather's trains. It is called the yard. My grandparents put up the trains every Christmas Eve so when my mom and Aunt came down the stairs it was all done. I can't imagine doing that. I thought it was funny that the toy yard was named "Plasticville". The yard is in good shape being that it's how old? Mom? :) Allison of course didn't sleep that night, so Brent and I played musical beds with her until 10:30 at night. We thought for sure she would sleep all the way home. Nope. Let's just say Allison is now aware of my DVD player in the car. I was saving that one, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if it was Barney.
For Christmas Eve, we went to Aunt Mary Ellen's house. Allison had a blast playing with Kaia, Tracy and Mike's daughter. They played hide and go seek non-stop. They kept going to the same hiding spots over and over and would just scream and laugh when they "found" each other. Dad's were recruited while they played in the bathroom. Allison talked about playing with Kaia ALL THE WAY home. She also did her usual sing along in the car. Some kids sleep in the car, Allison not so much.
Once we got home, we got out the milk and cookies for Santa and the reindeer food. We wrote Santa a note and left it for him on the fireplace with our stockings. Then Allison had a major meltdown about Santa coming. She was hysertically crying and was incoherent with what she was saying. I finally decipherd "No Santa, Mommy, no presents!" What an awful feeling. Long story short blog, we think Allison thought that Santa would be in the house when she woke up in the morning with her presents.To reassure her that he was "just dropping them off" , I called the North Pole and told Santa that Allison was grateful for the presents, but to please leave them outside. Mommy and Daddy would bring them in in the morning. That calmed her down so she could sleep. I felt awful. We didn't push the Santa thing AT ALL and didn't even go to the mall, so who knows what her little mind was thinking.
She panicked again at 5 AM but with some Mommy reassurance was back to sleep until 8 AM. Merry Christmas Mommy and Daddy--well more Daddy then Mommy but still. When she woke up she was fine and wasn't upset about Santa being in the house. We showed her where he ate her cookies and took the reindeer food and even moved the fireplace screen. Then it was off to the presents. Santa brought Allison a market for her to play store. She loves shopping with me at the real store, so it was appropriate. We opened presents slowly (I make all attempts to slow time down with Allison!) and had Christmas tree pancakes for breakfast. She didn't finish opening her presents until mid morning, which was fine by us!! She really liked opening one gift and then playing with it for awhile. The best thing that came with the market was the cash register. It has a credit card slider and she picked that up real quick! That could be a problem.....
Later that day, my Mom and Nick came over to exchange presents. Allison was really into the whole opening presents thing after that! She especially liked the new ironing board that she got from Papa Nick and of course is oh so stylish with all of the clothes that my mom bought her. She is asking me if I like her new shirt and if I think it's pretty. Too cute. Sometimes I just want to squeeze her she's so cute! Brent's Mom Connie was also there and then Brent left to pick up his grandmother from the airport. She flew in from Indiana. She's almost 90, that rocks.
The next day was the zoo with all of the nieces and nephews at Connie's house. The coolest thing was that we got Connie (not to toot our own horn, but toot!) a web cam and were able to see and talk to Mike while he was in Afghanistan. That was Mike's idea and Jen and us just ran with it! That was definitely cool! He showed us his closet, I mean room and we are still wondering about the pink thing on the bed.....
Allison greatly enjoyed spending time with "her cousins" . Especially Jessica. I can still hear, "Jessica, where are you??" in my head. She thinks she is just as old and big as them and they are so patient with her. They let her see their Nintendo DS's and their leapsters and even let her "join" their game of Life. Amazing. Sorry for the lack of pictures of the chaos, I left my camera at home. I borrowed my Mom's but haven't uploaded those pictures yet.
All in all we had a lovely time during Christmas and we are looking forward to painting and redecorating our new house for 2009!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Major Michael is in Afghanistan
Mike is at his final FOB (I have no idea what that is, I feel like I should as the daughter of a Marine, but I haven't a clue!) in Afghanistan.
He recently sent us his email and mailing address. Here is a copy of his email:
I am done travelling and have finally settled in at my new home, it's called FOB Walton, and it is just a couple miles east of Kandahar. We are co-located with the headquarters of the Regional Afghan Police. My job is to serve as the G-1 for RPAC-S. In non-Army speak, that means I am the personnel officer for all American personnel serving in the Southern Region of the Regional Police Advisory Command. It's been a fairly interesting experience so far, nothing exciting yet, just settling into my new role and new quarters. The FOB is nice, very small with some nice amenities - my own room, a gym, a tv in my room, and wireless internet on the base. Hell, I don't even have wireless internet at home! I saw a donkey on the side of the road, and some camels yesterday, and I struck up a conversation with some Afghan police officers yesterday. I did take some Pashtu classes and actually held my own. I showed them a picture of John and Andrew and they almost fell over laughing, not the reaction a proud dad wants. When I asked why, they pointed to their hair. These people have never seen kids with blond hair before. Poverty is beyond description, there is no doubt whatsoever that our efforts here are warranted.
Everyone asks my address (which I have finally) and what I want. Truthfully, we have it made here. We go to Kandahar Airfield every couple days and I stock up on the toothpaste, soap, etc. I have my laptop and tv, we have about 200 DVD's here on the FOB, so I'm stuck as to what you could send if so inclined. The only thing I could think of if foodstuff. We don't have a dining hall, we have to cook for ourselves. Usually someone cooks a hot dinner for everyone, but some things for the guys are always nice. Cookies, crackers, pop-tarts, etc can be used by everyone. And of course everyone likes brownies, cookies, whatever. Not sure when I'll get out to meet the locals often, so no need to send anything yet to give to the Afghan kids, hopefully that day will come soon though, and that would be a wonderful thing to be able to do.
Address is:
MAJ Michael Booker
ARSIC-S
RPAC-S/FOB Walton
APO AE 09355
The calendar tells me it's almost Christmas (not many Santa Claus's or Christmas lights here) so have a Merry Christmas.
Mike
Send him some love and muffins! :)
He recently sent us his email and mailing address. Here is a copy of his email:
I am done travelling and have finally settled in at my new home, it's called FOB Walton, and it is just a couple miles east of Kandahar. We are co-located with the headquarters of the Regional Afghan Police. My job is to serve as the G-1 for RPAC-S. In non-Army speak, that means I am the personnel officer for all American personnel serving in the Southern Region of the Regional Police Advisory Command. It's been a fairly interesting experience so far, nothing exciting yet, just settling into my new role and new quarters. The FOB is nice, very small with some nice amenities - my own room, a gym, a tv in my room, and wireless internet on the base. Hell, I don't even have wireless internet at home! I saw a donkey on the side of the road, and some camels yesterday, and I struck up a conversation with some Afghan police officers yesterday. I did take some Pashtu classes and actually held my own. I showed them a picture of John and Andrew and they almost fell over laughing, not the reaction a proud dad wants. When I asked why, they pointed to their hair. These people have never seen kids with blond hair before. Poverty is beyond description, there is no doubt whatsoever that our efforts here are warranted.
Everyone asks my address (which I have finally) and what I want. Truthfully, we have it made here. We go to Kandahar Airfield every couple days and I stock up on the toothpaste, soap, etc. I have my laptop and tv, we have about 200 DVD's here on the FOB, so I'm stuck as to what you could send if so inclined. The only thing I could think of if foodstuff. We don't have a dining hall, we have to cook for ourselves. Usually someone cooks a hot dinner for everyone, but some things for the guys are always nice. Cookies, crackers, pop-tarts, etc can be used by everyone. And of course everyone likes brownies, cookies, whatever. Not sure when I'll get out to meet the locals often, so no need to send anything yet to give to the Afghan kids, hopefully that day will come soon though, and that would be a wonderful thing to be able to do.
Address is:
MAJ Michael Booker
ARSIC-S
RPAC-S/FOB Walton
APO AE 09355
The calendar tells me it's almost Christmas (not many Santa Claus's or Christmas lights here) so have a Merry Christmas.
Mike
Send him some love and muffins! :)
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The move to end ALL moves
We have moved, officially. ((I contacted DMV today, it's official!)) It wasn't a bad move but it wasn't exactly good. It was 100% exhausting. Brent's mom spent countless hours helping us pack boxes. I didn't think we were going to make it! The movers were there last Thursday for about 7 hours, then the cleaning people were there for about 9 hours. I guess to summarize we are dirty people with a lot of stuff!
Brent was a new level of tired. He was well beyond the "Allison hasn't stopped screaming and hasn't slept in 48 hours" tired and was running on fumes. During the old house settlement on Friday, I literally kept telling him to just focus on me and sign here/there, etc. Crazy. Then of course we go to Connie's house and Allison won't sleep. So, I ended up sleeping with her, or rather lying in bed with her. Kind of hard to sleep while getting kicked, pushed, hair pulled and rolled on. Why does she like to sleep on my head?
The saga with the our new house spilled over onto settlement day. Between the low-life realtor and his drama, he ended up short changing our realtor on commissions and not giving us garage door openers. Unbelievable.
The movers came on Saturday morning to unload us. This is when we discovered the two very large cracks on my black table. That table is just cursed. The movers were here for about 6 hours unloading the trucks. Yep, it was two big trucks. Brent's dad and my mom were instrumental in our unpacking success. Carl tackled the kitchen and my mom did my closet. I focused on Allison's room because I wanted to get that done before she got home from Connie's. She has transitioned well to the new house and really only wants a night-light to sleep now. I can handle that.
We also managed to get our Christmas tree up and decorated. Whew. It's starting to feel like home!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Allison's 2nd Birthday -- Cupcake Throwdown!
Allison didn't just have a party, she had a weekend full of birthday celebrations and cupcakes! It all started at her school on Friday. Brent and I both bailed out of work early to be there to sing with her and celebrate with her classmates. If you notice, she was wearing a cupcake birthday shirt to school. I truly lucked out with all of this cupcake paraphernalia. Because of allergies, all food has to be store bought, being that we were in the process of packing and moving, I didn't think to request a certain type of cupcake and icing, so it was green icing for all. I'm sure that made for some interesting conversations later while parents picked up their children with green teeth! During her party, Santa made a special visit to the school. Allison was convinced that Santa was there for her birthday. She kept saying that she wanted to go sit on his lap and have her picture taken. Well, when the time came, nope, not doing it. But even now if you ask her about it, she definitely sat on Santa's lap and had her picture taken.
Monday, December 15, 2008
We have moved!
It's official....we are in our new house. I am feverishly working on unpacking boxes and putting things away but we are for the most part good to go. Even got the Christmas tree up and decorated! The move was fairly painless. The beloved black pedestal kitchen table that I wanted for a million years and then waited for a million years was damaged. Of course! Brent's dad is still in town, so I will post stories from her birthday party, the move, Booker's Christmas part 1, etc. later! Woo hoo, liking the new digs!
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Found the camera cord!
Yeah, I found the camera cord this AM. So, I am going to post some pictures from Thanksgiving. On the actual Turkey day, we went to my mom's house. It was just the four of us and Allison. It was so nice and relaxing. Friday was the crazy day with all of our nieces and nephews at Connie's House. It was also the last time that we would see Major Mike before he was deployed to Afghanistan. Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Random .......... Allison is having a little mini birthday party at school tomorrow. Santa is also going to her school tomorrow for a visit. When I picked her up this afternoon, she ran up to me telling me that Santa Claus is coming to her birthday party. It'll be hard to top that! :)
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Buh Bye House
We are busy packing up boxes and getting things ready to move. Calling utility companies is still painful!
Brent and I are really having a tough time leaving our current house. This is the first place we actually owned, worked for and maintained. It holds so many memories for us--the flooded basement, the blizzard, the birds, the attacks Bailey endured in the backyard. Not to mention bringing Allison home from the hospital here and having her spend her first two years with us, here! I can't imagine not living here but reality is on it's way and in eight days, I will walk out of here and not come back. I almost feel compelled to leave our initials somewhere in this house. This will always be my house, no matter who lives here. Brent and I have just outgrown it and the commute for Brent is much too much.
On a lighter moving note, I can't seem to find my cord to download photos from our camera. Brent was a little anxious in his packing, so I am assuming it's in some box, somewhere. He even packed my closet, um, hello? It's December, might need a sweater?? Won't go there. That in mind I will be a little delayed posting photos from Thanksgiving and consequently Allison's 2nd birthday party. I'll blog about it, but will post the photos later. On a cute turkey day note, I have a very cute picture of her sneaking cranberry sauce from the table when she thought no one was looking. Too funny and who would have thought that one of her favorite things would be cranberry sauce?!
We are excited to move and make new memories but it's bittersweet. We love this house and this will always be a special place for us.
Brent and I are really having a tough time leaving our current house. This is the first place we actually owned, worked for and maintained. It holds so many memories for us--the flooded basement, the blizzard, the birds, the attacks Bailey endured in the backyard. Not to mention bringing Allison home from the hospital here and having her spend her first two years with us, here! I can't imagine not living here but reality is on it's way and in eight days, I will walk out of here and not come back. I almost feel compelled to leave our initials somewhere in this house. This will always be my house, no matter who lives here. Brent and I have just outgrown it and the commute for Brent is much too much.
On a lighter moving note, I can't seem to find my cord to download photos from our camera. Brent was a little anxious in his packing, so I am assuming it's in some box, somewhere. He even packed my closet, um, hello? It's December, might need a sweater?? Won't go there. That in mind I will be a little delayed posting photos from Thanksgiving and consequently Allison's 2nd birthday party. I'll blog about it, but will post the photos later. On a cute turkey day note, I have a very cute picture of her sneaking cranberry sauce from the table when she thought no one was looking. Too funny and who would have thought that one of her favorite things would be cranberry sauce?!
We are excited to move and make new memories but it's bittersweet. We love this house and this will always be a special place for us.
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