how rude!

Read that in a Stephani Tanner voice.

I get a lot of spam comments and usually they say random things in broken English about how great I am or an amazing new erectile dysfunction drug.  Now they are telling me how much I stink!  Pretty smart if you ask me, get me all worked up because I have typos then tempt me with your link...you wont catch me like that Mr. Spammer!  I wont be clicking on your link to God knows where!

Obviously I am running out of things to say at the moment.  Out life is in a happy-ish little stand still.  As it stands we will be returning home when he gets out, if the job description in Phoenix changes that might change (and that is a real possibility).  We are just living out our days business as usual, and it's weird.  We are both home all day.  That is pretty annoying, I love spending time together but not ALL the time.  Maybe that's a post...

TBI and how it made it's way into our bed...

I guess it makes sense, your brain controls everything, but it's still weird. 

Last night we decided that we need to get a king sized bed.  I never thought that we would ever need a bed that big, I liked having him close to me.  LikED.  Since being injured his sleep has been the most obvious change.  Some weeks he will only sleep a total of 15 hours, some times he will sleep 15 hours in a day.  And the sleep apnea which was a wonderful addition to his life. 

His sleeping body temperature is also different now, he is hot, like sweating through his clothes kid of hot.  When you add my furnace like body he just can't sleep so now we sleep with our own blankets.  I HATE this, hate hate hate it.  It feels like we are just a step away from full times twin beds, 50s sitcom style (knowing Doc it would be bunk beds like in Big). 

Now we need to buy more stuff, think we can get Tricare to cover a new bed, mattress, and bedding set?

Time to time I still have to talk myself out of hitting him really hard over the head.  When he was first hurt I keep having flashes of an old Mr. Ed episode where the horse has amnesia from a bump on the head and then cures it with another hit on the head...I really need to not get my scientific information from a show about a talking horse.

updating my style

I know many of you are still digging out of the last snow storm but I have 85º on my 10 day forecast!  It's time to talk summer clothes.

Last summer I was always wearing shorts and "wife beater" (God I hate that name...) type tank tops from Old Navy, I was nursing so most of my dresses were out of the question.  It's hot here and I was comfortable.  I hate wearing any sort of sleeves in the heat, even if I'm inside.  This year I decided to pick it up a notch, I needed to buy smaller shorts anyway so that gave me an excuse to get shorter cuter shorts.  (Doc laughed at the 5" length, he seems to like of the 3.5" much better).  I also wanted to update my tops, I am all for looking casual but not every day! 

The problem is that I live in Yuma and there isn't much variety when it comes to shopping.  My style of clothing isn't exactly the style of the majority of the people in this town.  I hate buying clothes online, it's so hard to judge fit when looking at clothes that have been tailored to a model's body. Yesterday Doc agreed to drive 90 minutes to the mall in El Centro, CA!  It's not a big mall or a nice mall but it had a few stores I like.  I ended up getting some tops from New York & Co, and with the sale and my $40 off coupon I think I did pretty well.

This is the start of my new summer wardrobe.  And they are loose enough to not feel self conscious if I have a big lunch.  I still need to get to a H&M and Forever 21 soon...they are only a 3 hour drive away.

So this is my style, any suggestions as to where I can buy reasonably priced clothes?

med board update

I've realized that I haven't shared any updates on Doc's medboard.  This is craziness since our futures hang in the balance.

We know nothing.

And for your pleasure a picture of my kids.

"Oh lets get them this train table" he said "163 pieces!".  

"Oh good 163 pieces for me to clean off the floor" said I.  

I was right.

end of my rope

I really wish I knew what we did to make this happen, TC is just so challenging.  She does not listen, ever.  It takes 4 or 5 times to be told to get anything done.  We've done time outs, sent her to her room, taken away toys, taken outings away...I just don't know what to do.

I am hoping that this is just a phase, I would hate for her to be one of "those kids", you know those kids.  You see them out and assume that their parents must let them get away with murder at home if they act a certain way in public.  I can tell you with 100% certainty, that isn't always the case. 

I want to spend more time playing and being happy with my daughter, not fighting with her for hours to put her blocks away.  She's not a bad kid, I am not saying that at all.  She is still a wonderful kid, I just don't know how to deal with these outbursts.  If we didn't love her so much we wouldn't care if she grew up acting like a spoiled, entitled child.  But we do so this attitude simply wont do.

I hate that we had to take this away from her for a few days.

It's is also a little scary.  The other evening Doc took TC out to ride her bike, he ran into a friend out with his daughters on their bikes and she was having fun playing with them, until she took off.  She was barreling towards the intersection and he kept yelling at her to stop, running down after her but she refused.  She ended up walking home while he carried her bike, crying "I want to ride my bicycle - my bike!" the whole time.  She wont be riding for a few more days, when she asks we remind her of what happened and tell her she needs to do a better job listening.

I hate being frustrated with her.  I just want it to be like a sitcom from the 50s, where I am not in yoga pants, my girls wear saddle shoes and no one acts like they hate me.

big excitement

Valentine's days was made very special here in the Random house.  It had nothing to do with roses or chocolates but Addie gave us quite the gift.  She took 2 steps!  We have been really working with her the past few months, it's time for her to be walking.  She is 14 months now which I know isn't that late for most babies but TC took her first steps before she was 9 months old!  Play time will me so much more fun for both girls once Addie is walking.  I am just so excited for this next phase.  

It's not like she's now up and walking, she hasn't taken more steps since. I was so proud of her, I was coaching her like crazy and when she finally did it I was like Bela Karolyi at the 1996 Olympics, so happy and tearful and proud.

Here is my little lady practicing the other day.

And because she is just too damn cute!

No place like home?

I am going to attempt tondo a blog post from the iPad, I'm sorry if I miss so crazy auto corrects or the format is wonky. I need to clean the red bull out from under some of the keys on my MacBook before I can use that again.

Last week wasn't an easy week for either doc or me (individually, together we are actually doing really well).  I was having my extra emotional week of the month and everything seemed like it existed just torture me, even wonderful things.  My cousin, a navy wife stationed in Hawaii, took her new baby girl back to MA to meet the family. When I saw the airport pictures on Facebook in broke down, Doc asked what was wrong and all I could get out was "I want to go home."  He looked at me and simply said "me too".

The storm on the east coast was Doc's major problem of the week, he worries about his grandparents. They are in their 80s and still maintain their house and so much other stuff.  Hs grandfather, the Major, is always prepared when things like this are forecasted (even when they aren't) but it is still worrisome. They raised Doc & his sisters and I know Doc wants to return the favor by taking care of them.

We are here and we want to be there.

What does this mean for our post army plans?  I have no idea.  We are still waiting on the final word on the job here in Arizona. If that is officially 100% on the table (it's about 95% right now) we will really have to talk about it.  I think I am still in the Lets Try It Out For A Year camp but I don't know for sure.  I have a hard time making these decisions until all of the information is right in from of me.

Craziness

There has been so much that I want to get off of my chest and share with you all but it is just one of those weeks.  Addie went from happy and healthy to being rushed to the ER for breathing treatments for croup in a matter of 8 hours.  She'll be fine but croup is exhausting for everyone involved.

Then this morning Addie must have thought that my MacBook needed a boost so she baptized it with red bull.  Ugh, hopefully it will be fine but who knows.  So that is the short story of it.  I will leave you with a picture that sums up the last few days.

 

TC is 3!

One of the hard things about blogging about my husband's TBI is when he has bad days I am stretched so thin with the kids and the house and him that I can't even think about blogging.  Thems the breaks I guess.

TC turned 3 on Tuesday - I don't care if it's cliche` I'll say it - I can't believe she's 3!  We didn't do a party because we are bigger fans of trips over parties right now but that doesn't mean that she didn't have a special day.  She woke up to streamers on her door and loved it.  I made overnight french toast for a special breakfast.  Basically it was whatever she wanted (within reason).  She just loved it, she kept saying "happy birthday!"

 

We were so excited to give her her gift, she has been asking for a bike for months and last spring she picked up a balance bike (bike with no pedals) and took off.  Well, she was super excited to see the helmet, and knew that her bike was coming....then it came!  She hopped on and she started telling us that it was broken and was frantically looking for the pedals.  The poor thing, she wanted to love it but she was so disappointed.  I was heart broken.  We took her outside and tried to get her excited but it didn't work.  And she tried, she really did.  3 year olds aren't the best at hiding disappointment.  She was a great sport about it but she wanted a real bike.  We, her parents, are suckers and off to the toy store we went yesterday and she came home with her brand new Buzz Lightyear bike with training wheels and pedals.

Not the face of an excited birthday girl.

Even with the bust of a gift as I put her to bed I asked her if she had a good birthday and she told me that she had "the best birthday ever".  3 is already proving to be challenging but I don't think I am screwing her up too much. 

our latest trip

We returned home from San Diego on Friday, super early.  Though we rented a little beach house it was still just a one bedroom which isn't great when traveling with kids.  The place was great, right on the beach, Del Mar Beach Resort at Camp Pendleton.  This was right outside of our back door.

I was going to do a real post about the trip but I am just not in the mood.  We had a great time though, a little time away from Yuma is always good.  Here are some highlights then a bunch of pictures.

• Balboa Navel Hospital is crazy, it wasn't designed to be as expansive as it is and Doc got a little crazy in the parking lot and with all his turns and jerking us around TC threw up (like really got sick) for the first time in her life.  Mommy instincts had me rip my shirt off to clean her up from the front seat.  Thank God I had a tank top on underneath!  I got to look like a slob at the hospital wearing Doc's massive hoodie.
• Doc didn't get the injections this time, he has to wait until the beginning of March but he is a fan of this doctor so that's comforting. 
• TC is at that age where she notices if someone is different, she didn't even bat an eye at the wounded warriers in wheelchairs missing one or both of their legs, not a head scratch at the many different prosthetic, and no staring at scarred faces.  I am so proud of her.
• Like most soldiers Doc made as many Marine jokes as he could while we stayed at Camp Pendleton - mostly trying to get a reaction out of me because my brother was a Marine.  Silly boys and their branch rivalries.
• The zoo is so much better when you aren't 30 weeks pregnant.
• TC loved all of the animals, Addie didn't care, she was happy to be outside.

Now for some pictures of my beautiful family.