God created her, I carried her, now she is my happiness and my laughter.

Friday, July 29, 2011

A most special moment

Nana Karen arrived a couple days ago, and while that was a special moment, it is not the moment I speak of. Since she has been here Emma has been spending all her time with her. This is good because they don't get to see each other that often. But, I am starting to miss my little Tyke. Why, even this morning when she opened her bedroom door I started to call to her to come to my bed, but she heard Nana talking on the phone in the living room and went out to see her instead. I know these are special memories for Karen so I'm not too concerned.
However, I do soak in those special moments when Emma remembers I'm still here. Yesterday Jason and I were driving home from Mount Vernon and I told him that I was sort of missing Emma. It almost seemed like she was gone. I did not think my days were spent spending that much time with her. I always feel like I'm not giving her enough time. But, since I'm not the center of her attention anymore I can tell how much time we do spend together generally, and I do miss that time. I did not expect to become so attached when I got out of the Navy. I hope I don't turn into the kind of parent who can't let their children out of their sight because they will miss them. I do cherish every moment with Emma. She is so sweet.
Back to the story. When Jason and I got home I received a most adoring welcome. Emma saw me come through the door. Her eyes lit up. She opened her mouth wide in excitement. She said, "mama!" and ran to me with arms open. I picked her up and she squeezed her little arms around my neck in a quick 5-10 second hug. Then she wanted down. Those 10 seconds were so special for me, though and I will always remember them. That night I also spent some time playing tickle with her. She loves that game and it was good to spend some more time with her.
I am going to take advantage of Nana being here, however. I will take this time to bust out my screenplay and work on my school course. I do have plans to spend some time with Karen as well. I want to go Antique shopping and introduce her to a couple friends over coffee. It should turn out to be a relaxing vacation for all of us. I just know post vacation is going to be tough getting Emma back into the swing of things. But every moment with her far away grandparents is worth the extra work getting her back on schedule. This whole month is full of visitors so I might as well wait to worry about it until after the first week of September when my last visitor leaves. Then, I will start a pre pre school program for Emma and get her a jump start on that algebra.

Monday, July 25, 2011

"Oh, what a night" (To be sung like in Four Season's Lyrics)

Jason and I slapped ourselves down in bed around 1700 (5) after putting Emma down for her much needed nap after truck shopping all day. We had watched a couple episodes of Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman and some episodes of Robin Hood when Jason asked me if I wanted to wake Emma up since it was going on 2100 (9). I said, "Let's just let her sleep through the night as I'm sure she will with the trying day that she had." (Mistake #1)
Emma did not sleep through the night. At the early hour of 0100, she woke up crying. It was just a whimper, but shortly after I heard her coming out of her room. So, I went to her. I picked her up and figured I would sit with her in her room for a while because surely she was still very tired. As I started walking back towards her bed, Emma started frantically rambling off all the things she would rather do, "Princess movie? Book? Eat?" As I laid her down she could tell I would soon give in to something so she pulled out her most dangerous weapon of all: "Mommy's bed?" I couldn't resist. (Mistake #2)
When we first laid down in my bed she laid quiet and still and I thought we would both be able to go back to sleep. But then, as we were laying there Admiral had heard us and now he wanted to go outside to go potty. I reluctantly got up and told Emma to stay in bed and be quiet while I was gone. At this point, it is important that you know, from the time we got home from truck shopping until we turned in for the night, neither Jason nor I had seen Cooper (dog I'm pet sitting) go potty. We had let them out several times through out the evening and still nothing. He has figured out he can jump over our short fence and get to the street so we don't leave him out there too long.
SO, now it was 03:46 and Cooper ran around to the other side of the house instead of going for the fence so I hoped he was going potty, but I did not get off the porch to know for sure. Back inside I put Cooper in his kennel where he sleeps every night and where he had been since we turned in for the night.
Back in bed, Emma was getting antsy and she was not sleeping. (Which you might have just assumed since she was getting antsy) I told her if she could not lay still she would have to go back to her bed. I rolled in close to Jason and then let her try to find a comfortable position for her self. This included me having a diaper in my face twice, her feet on my shoulders, dropping her security pillow in the floor twice and asking me to get it for her, shoving her feet in my ribs and then kneading me like a cat, and being turned completely upside down so that her diaper was on my pillow. Every time I went to situate her back to a normal sleeping position she would ask for food or drink. Our house hold is out of easy snacks and I was not going to make something so she was out of luck with the food. I did have a glass of water by my bed, however, so I decided to let her have a drink of that. (Mistake #3) In the dark of the night, I tipped the cup too much and spilled water all over Emma's shirt, myself, and the bed. I quickly took action to keep Emma from crying as I knew from past experiences would be her reaction. (Although, I'm sure Jason was not able to sleep through all of this anyway, I was hopeful)
Finally at 0500 I took Emma back to her own bed as she was not settling down. She asked for the princess movie and then a drink. I went and got her a cuppy of juice, but by-passed the princess movie.
Back in bed, I thought surly I could catch a few Z's. (Mistake #4) Stupid dog, Cooper, started whining. His whines are low toned but at this stage in the game I would need complete quiet in order to fall back asleep. So I went out to his kennel and pounded on the walls of it which shut him up. I slept for an hour at which time Jason's alarm went off. I slept while he got ready for work until he woke me to say good-bye. Then I slept another hour until he called me and told me he was coming back because he forgot his ID card to get on base. He asked me to bring it out to him. I thought he was on our street or near by so I got the ID right away and stood outside in my robe feeling very drowsy. I probably only waited a minute or two but it felt like ten, so I decided to put the ID in a flower pot and the flower pot in the drive way so he could get it and I could go back to bed. (Mistake #5) As I came back in the house to call him and tell him it would be in the flower pot, I went to wipe my feet on the rug. But, much to my surprise, the rug was wet. I assumed it had to be pee from Cooper. I couldn't believe after all those times we put him out he decided to still do it in the house. So I walked on the side of my food, which was wet with pee to try and get to my phone. I took to long making the call though. When he answered he didn't say anything and then hung up. As soon as the phone was hung up I heard his foot steps in the house. I ran out into the hallway forgetting about my pee foot and shouting quietly, "In the flower pot. In the flower pot."
Back in bed (how many times have I said that?) I closed my eyes and thought to myself, "Wow, windows, how much light you bring in" (to be read like little Red Riding Hood's What big ears you have.) It was then that I decided I would never fall back asleep. I started to think of my busy day and that I had a test coming up already in my new school course. My eyes were so tired I didn't think I could keep them open, but my mind was not going to sleep. So, instead I wrote this blog, planned to get up and start cleaning house for my mother-in-law's arrival in a few days, and refrain from figuring out how many hours of sleep I actually got last night. This is a good plan I think as our morning chipmunk is out side the window making his morning calls and that would have kept me from going back to sleep for sure. (Non-mistake #1)
(I'll let you add in your own thoughts as to what I did with the pee foot.)

Friday, July 15, 2011

It's like a new adventure

Well, Jason had his first day at my old command, Naval Ocean Processing Facility couple days ago. It's been a new experience for Jason. He went from being a trusted leader and highly qualified to being the new guy with no quals that meet the requirements of his new command. He has had a happy spirit about his new job so I think he's enjoying it. I tried to prepare him as best as possible. It is a little weird for him. He gets "Oh, THAT Lee." a lot when people find out he is my husband. And people I didn't know I knew like to talk about our great relationship to him ha ha. I am talked about often because I am the common knowledge between everyone there and Jason so that is probably weird for Jason. But after Jason has been through the meet and greet, checking in process it should go very smoothly. Master Chief has predicted that he'll be Tactical Coordinator by December and he has already been told he'll be deploying late October. He starts his first class to get qualified next week. I'm very excited for him to be there! It's stress free for all of us and it's close to home. He comes home for lunch. We give each other a break from our days by being together in the afternoon.
This is a new experience for me as well. The first day Jason went into work, I wasn't left alone more than 30 minutes and two dogs decided that would be the moment they would escape the yard and run down to an unfriendly neighbor. It was a great reminder at how helpful Jason is when he's home. After chasing down the dogs and trying to keep the neighbors from calling animal security, I decided to take advantage of my time alone to start back working on my screen play. But an hour later Jason ended up being home for the day. (And I hadn't even logged out of facebook yet)
Now that it's Tuesday, I have a little better schedule in place. I'm trying to get up with Jason so I have 3 or 4 hours to myself before Emma gets up. This morning, my time to myself was spent creating a personalized contract for my new business that I'm trying to get up and running.
You may or may not be aware that I have been pet sitting for a few months now. I really enjoy it. It's easy and right up my alley. I've started getting a lot of jobs and clients. I decided it's time to look into expanding my business into something I can really make money at. My landlord is looking into letting me start up on the property I'm renting. I will be expanding to dog walking, dog training and pet consulting as well. I am also enrolled to begin animal behavioral college in a few weeks. This sort of came up suddenly, but I'm really excited about it. I feel God is working here and opening doors for me. I feel like I fit in my civilian life better now.
Jason is so supportive. He has been helping me organize myself on the computer. I really could use a better desk to feel really professional. But I am happy to use what I have. I am really looking forward to where this business will take me and to go through this school.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

While I was sleeping

Two afternoons ago I was suddenly hit with a nasty sore throat. Emma had a runny nose at the time so I figured I was just catching her head cold. The next morning I woke up feeling awful. I felt like I could have had a low grade fever and I was fighting off throwing up. So, I decided to take a day of rest.
Jason had been wanting to watch Harry Potter for the last couple days, but since I am not a fan of those movies we have not watched it. He took my being sick as a good opportunity to watch the show while I slept next to him on the couch.
Even in my deepest sleep (which is never really that deep) I've always been very in tune to what is going on around me. As I slept these are the memories I captured:
I noticed that Jason seemed to be getting up and down from the couch a lot. I heard him put the dogs out, heat up and eat Mac n Cheese, pour a drink for himself, and bring the dogs back in. A little while later I heard the crinkling of what my mind was perceiving to be Emma's little bag of forbidden (to daddy) fruit snacks. I sat up out of my sleep and saw Jason hunkering over the snack drawer trying to quietly stuff fruit snacks in his mouth. I said, "Get out of Emma's fruit snacks." And Jason shot a look at me like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He started laughing at himself and admitted that he knew I would hear him. He said, "If I knew you were really going to catch me eating the fruit snacks, I wouldn't have stuffed four in my mouth at the same time."
After the fruit snack incident, Jason started rambling off everything he had done while I was sleeping, and though I had already known everything he had done from hearing it in my sleep, it was more fun listening to him tell it. After a couple hours of being alone his "bachelor" survival sensors had strengthened. As he re-played his afternoon I couldn't help but wonder how he managed a bachelors life. I was reassured as Jason was making dinner for himself. He came into the living room with a bologna sandwich made out of a tortilla. We had very little food options in the house, but Jason was not opposed to trying new things like his bologna wrap, grilled mac n cheese sandwiches and even cereal with water (college days). We laughed about the afternoon for a while and tried to watch more of Harry Potter when I realized I just could not get comfortable on the couch anymore. I went to the bed where my stomach was getting more and more upset. I short while later we realized I had the flu and Jason took Emma to the store to get me some medicine. When Jason came home I was feeling extremely weak and I felt I could not even hold the little cup of medicine he brought in for me. So he poured it down my throat for me. I kept waving my hands in the air as if to say "too much, too much!" It tasted awful. I wondered why adult's liquid medicine has to taste so awful when children's medicine is tasty grape or bubble gum flavor. Adults would not abject to these flavors I'm sure.
After I finally downed the awful medicine I conked out on the bed. Again, I started my subconscience listening. I heard Jason put the dogs in and out of the house, let the rabbit out of the cage, stop Emma from coming in my room several times, and Emma singing loudly in the house followed by Jason telling her to quiet down because mommy was sick. Towards the end of the evening when it was near Emma's bed time, Jason was outside taking care of the dogs. Emma didn't want to go to bed so while he was gone, she snuck into the room. I heard her come in but was too exhausted to move at all. She crawled up on the other side of me, stroked my face, kissed my cheek and then laid her cheek on my lips. I gave it a little kiss and then she laid down next to me burrowing her cold feet in my side (which was a comfort to me as I was burning up.)
I heard Jason come back inside and call for Emma. She didn't move. I heard him turn on a few lights looking for her and then he realized she must be in my room. He came in quietly and said, "What are you doing, Silly?" and took her away. I listened to the two of them play with the bunny for a while and then he put Emma to bed.
Emma went to bed quietly, but after Jason was just about ready to get into bed she started whining. He went back into her room and asked her what was wrong. First she asked for her pillow, but Jason stated it was dirty. (I had missed that part in my sleep) So then she asked for a cuppy. Jason is such a good daddy. He got her a drink and sent her off to bed again like little cindy lou who.
I had fallen asleep on Jason's side of the bed so when Jason was finally settling down for the night he got onto my side of the bed. You might recall the previous post I wrote last time that happened. I had a feeling the night would be strange with us sleeping on each other's sides again.
Sure enough, it threw everything off. Neither of us could sleep comfortably. Jason didn't have his own pillow which is a huge factor for him sleeping well and the cats were even confused. Bagheera couldn't figure out why her side of the bed was moving around more. She kept jumping up and down from the bed trying to get comfortable and in the process of that she was creating a real ruckus going to the window above out head board, back down to the ground, eating food, scratching at the sliding door, jumping back up on the bed, trying to get comfortable again only to be knocked out of comfort again and start the whole process over again. I had not moved from my original sleeping position thus far. But, I could feel Jason tossing and turning next to me. Eventually, I woke up with the feeling that Jason was wide awake too. We both rolled over at the same time and laughed because we both knew the night was not going well. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back Jason had jumped over in his own spot again and re-claimed his own pillow. I settled back down on my side and Jason started telling me about the evening with Emma. Even though I had already heard it in my sleep, I did learn how the pillow got dirty. The rabbit was involved.
The next morning, Jason and I remarked at how much better we slept on our own sides of the bed and wondered why we kept trying to sleep on the wrong side. We re-capped how everything had happened yesterday while I was sleeping, we laughed, and we knew memories had been made. I enjoyed listening to my family's day as if I had been a fly on the wall. They don't think I'm listening, but I always am, even when I'm sleeping.

Saturday, July 9, 2011





Sometimes I feel so organized, but then...

I woke up feeling discombobulated. So I should have known my "first thing Tuesday" list and having Jason get everything around for our errands, wasn't enough for the outing to go smoothly. Jason did not forget anything, but I just didn't feel as organized not having gone over the list myself that morning. Our first stop was supposed to be the bank. Jason knew this, but being much like my dad in just driving straight until otherwise guided, we ended up taking the "scenic" route to arrive there. This is funny if you know that it only takes 5 minutes to get anywhere and it took us 10 to get to the bank. After the bank, our first non-listed item reared itself. Emma started talking about being hungry. Since our list was called "first thing Tuesday" we had taken that very seriously and had not bothered to eat before we left. We also have a pact that states we can only spend $5 on fast food so we headed for McDonald's $1 menu. Jason and I ordered double cheese burgers, I ordered a 4 piece chicken nugget for Emma (a usual favorite), and we shared an ice tea for a little over $6. (oops). When we sat down with our food, Emma took a bite of her nugget, spit it out and said "gross." So I gave her my cheese burger which she ate happily and I "filled up" on 4 chicken nuggets. Needless to say I was hungry all afternoon, but I was happy Emma was eating a cheeseburger for the first time. After McDonalds our list told us to go to base to drop off dry cleaning and get myself an ID card. As we were heading that way, Jason spotted a cop sitting on a side road. He all of a sudden started freaking out and announced that he remembered our tags were expired on the car. So we turned around for our next "off list" errand. We went back to the bank because the DMV did not accept cards. When we got to the DMV we realized we had taken the car registration out of the car for something the other day and we would need that in order to get the tags. We couldn't get on base with out new tags. SO, we went back home for the registration. Of course, by the time we got back to the DMV the line was much longer. Emma and I played with an odd selection of toys set out for kids while Jason waited in line. Finally we replaced our tags and made it to base.
While we were at the ID place I realized I would have to get my picture taken. (Something I would have thought about if I had reviewed the list myself) So I wanted to take a picture of myself with my phone to see if my hair looked ok. Just as Jason was taking the picture I got an eye lash in my eye and the picture came out with one of my eyes closed and the other slightly open. I looked very odd like I had just been punched or something. Jason thought this was hilarious and as I was busy talking with the ID lady, he sent the picture to my family group on my phone. When I found out about this my mood was a little off set for the rest of our time on base. I spent the next 30 minutes explaining the situation to various family members who had texted me back about the picture.
Finally, we were done with our errands after what seemed like a much longer time than expected. We headed home at least feeling accomplished.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

4th of July

We had planned, all week long, to view the cities fireworks on the 4th. But, as evening neared, Jason couldn't help but wonder if Emma would like family fireworks better. We checked out the stands and found that we could get a few little fun fireworks for under $20 so we decided to forgo the city show and just have a family evening. It turned out we mostly got the fireworks for Jason's enjoyment. Emma and I cuddled in a sleeping bag in the near by grass. Jason would throw out flares or cracklers. The flares startled me which startled Emma so we mostly just hung out in the blanket. Not to mention, the first crackler we tried blew it's top off and it landed in our laps! That freaked me out as I was certain we would start on fire. We did get Emma to try a sparkler. The first one she tried was already almost out and she was cautious, but she held it and waved it around a little. The second one she tried she waved around but then it burst with more "fireworkness" all of a sudden. She freaked out and started taking off in the other direction screaming while holding it behind her. I kept yelling "drop it, drop it!" But she didn't hear me right away. Finally, I caught her and Jason grabbed the sparkler just as she was dropping it. She cried for her pillow after that and nuzzled back in the blankets with me until the end of the show. Jason did a few more flares which looked cool when more than one were thrown out at a time. They were my favorite. It was very windy out so Jason had a hard time keeping the flame of his candle going. The wind was also a factor in knocking over his grand finale, so we watched our "shoot up in the sky" grand finale, shoot into the drive way. It was pretty neat......
The city fireworks started going off by that time and we could actually see them from our living room so we turned on Lord of the Rings (we were in the middle of a marathon) and watched both shows and just had fun cuddling in the warmth of the house. It was an odd experience, and didn't go exactly according to plan, but it was fun and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. We made a memory.