Author: Nicole

So after almost a month of living in an empty condo our stuff finally arrived last Saturday!!!! Hurray!! 😀 Now our condo looks like a hurricane hit it. :S LoL. Yesterday when Bob got into work they told him that he was headed up to Yorktown, VA for 2 weeks for a training class and he had to report by 10 that night. You’d think I’d be getting used to this by now but it still catches me off guard sometimes, lol. So my Coastie took off leaving me to unpack and try to entertain a toddler all by my lonesome. Oh well, what can you do right? Guess I might as well get used to it because looks like this is going to be my life for the next 16 years or so! As my Aunt put it “Suck it up, buttercup!” LoL! 😀

Thanks to my Mom and my Grandma Middlemas’s genes I’m a “FlyLady“. (www.flylady.net) Which basically means that I keep stuff even when I shouldn’t. Kinda like a pack rat. These last few moves I’ve been getting a lot better at “flinging” stuff as we’re going through everything. It’s one thing to decide you’d like to keep something and stick it in a box in your basement and not see it again for 20 years, it’s quite another to look at something and ask yourself, “Now do I really want to pack and unpack this item every couple of years for the next 20 years?!” I’ve found that when you look at it that way, there’s a lot of pointless stuff I’ve been keeping!! One of these things I ran across that I have no idea why I’ve held onto is my first pair of flares that I ever bought when I was probably 14-15 years old. They’re a very little size 7(if you know what I mean by that..you know how you can buy one size in one brand and it fits you completely different than the same size in a different brand?) The last time I fit into them was when I was probably at my skinniest the summer I was 18/19) For some reason I got the urge to try them on and guess what? They FIT!!! Granted, they’re quite snug and I sure don’t look the same in them as I did before, but I got those puppies on without even jumping!! LoL!! That made me feel GOOD! I’ve been losing weight ever since Amber was born but that was the moment that I was like–Hey, for having a baby a year ago I think I could actually be considered skinny! LoL. I’m still bound and determined to fix my eating habits and start an exercise routine once we get settled in here, but that made me feel good!!! 🙂

Phew…..well we’re finally all done with the move and pretty much settled in. The Coast Guard called us at the last minute and let us know that they WERE going to pay to move our stuff after all–Praise the Lord!!!!!!! We still had to pack it all up and move it into storage but just yesterday the moving company picked up our stuff in Laramie and we should be getting it around next Tuesday–Woo Hoo 🙂 So for right now we’re just hanging out in a barren condo, lol. We spent two days once we got here looking all over for a place to live and ended up–right back in our old place!!!!!!! LoL, talk about ironic!! It was really the only nice place that was available in our price range and they had actually dropped the price $75 a month since they had obviously had a hard time getting someone in it after we left. So that was awesome for us 🙂 They also re-painted the yellow walls to a sea foam green….lol. Definitely an improvement but still uber beachy!! They also installed a new dishwasher (the old one died right before we left) so that’s great too 🙂 At first I was a little disappointed but I’m just thankful we’re able to get this place back and not have to take something more expensive that wasn’t as nice.

The trip out was quite the adventure. Amber pretty much cried the whole way :S So that made things quite rough!!!!! Now I know that she was getting a molar in at the time–yowch! But at the time I just thought she was really not liking the trip so the poor baby only got medicine one night for it. 🙁 🙁 🙁 Oh well….live and learn I suppose. We all survived so that’s the important thing 🙂

It’s been nice to be able to spend time with Nate and Lara again and another nice thing about moving back is I know where everything is!! LoL. We’re not sure how long we’ll be here for…could be anywhere from a few months to a year…..but we’ll just see how it goes!

Amber got her 1 year old appointment this Monday. She’s 26 lbs and 2’7″ tall. Which puts her in the 95th percentile in both categories–she’s just a big girl!! 🙂 She did really well but had to get 5 shots–poor thing!!!! She’s starting to stand up on her own a lot more often and says “Uh-Oh” and “Woof woof” for dogs and anything that resembles a dog–way too cute!!!

Well that’s a quick update on us…now that we have Internet again (HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!) I will try to be a little more regular with my updates! 😉

Amber’s one year old pictures are here!!! I decided to get them taken early because I won a $25 gift certificate at MOPs from the lady who did Bob and my wedding pictures. I think they turned out adorable 🙂 Now the hard part will be deciding which ones to order!!!!! 🙂 Enter the password “Family” and scroll down through the pictures on the right till you see the one with my name. Click the “view images” on the left or you’ll just see the one. 🙂 Enjoy!!

http://www.fotosbyjenni.com/galleries.htm

Bob’s been gone for over 2 months now and we still haven’t heard anything!!!!! He decided this week that he was sick and tired of them not doing anything and us continuing to be separated so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He went above his bosses heads and went to an officer and explained our situation. Once they saw what he was doing and found out that we have to be out of our Laramie apartment at the end of this month his bosses said that they would get on the ball and give us a “definite answer” by Tuesday or Wednesday at latest. Well, yesterday came and went and, surprise, surprise, no definite answer!!! 😛 Stupid heads anyways. That was kinda the last straw so no matter what Bob is flying out next Wednesday. We’re going to pack up all of our stuff, put it in a storage unit in Laramie, drive back to NC with the bare necessities, and rent a furnished apartment until either the Coast Guard quits being stupid or we can pay off the moving expenses and save up money to come back and move everything. Sigh. It’ll be so nice to be with my husband again but the situation is, needless to say, less than desirable. So please pray for us. Packing with a very active one year old should prove interesting to say the least, and so far we haven’t been able to find people to help Bob carry our furniture out of the apartment. Also, please pray that I will be good about everything and not act like a spoiled brat–haha! I’m so used to having nice things and living in nice places that I’m struggling with this, plus leaving Wyoming and my family for good is going to be extremely difficult for me. So just please pray for all of us LOTS and I will do my best to be a trooper and keep a smiley face.

Since it’s been awhile since I’ve actually given an “Amber Update” I’ll go ahead and list what she’s up to these days.

• She stood up for the first time on January 16th. Hannah was in unloading the dishwasher and we heard her yelling–Come look–she’s standing up!!!! Everyone rushed in and started exclaiming, which scared Amber and she promptly sat down and looked around like “What did I do wrong!!” LoL. Since then she’s trying to climb up and stand up using all sorts of things. She’ll be walking before I know it!!!

• In the meantime she gets everywhere fast enough. I will turn my back for a second and when I look around she’ll across the house–I can’t believe how fast she can crawl. She wants to get into everything too of course.

• She jabbers constantly and will repeat what you say fairly often. She says Momma for me pretty regularly and does say Da–da but obviously since Bob’s not here I don’t think it’s referring to him yet. I think her first words are “This” and “That” she’s always pointing at stuff say “Dis” and “Dat“.

• She’s always pointing at things and loves for you to pick her up and carry her around and show her everything and tell her what she’s pointing at. It’s nice to have 4 other sets of arms so I’m not constantly having to do it!!!

• She pretends to be shy around ppl when she first sees them but she smiles at them while she hides her face on my shoulder and within a few minutes she’s completely comfortable and will go to just about anyone.

• She loves to be the center of attention and if she’s not and there are a lot of ppl in the room talking and ignoring her she’ll shriek to make everyone look at her.

• She loves to “sing” along and dance to music. She’s wiggles back and forth, head bobs, waves her arms around, and claps to it.

• She waves bye-bye really well–but usually after the ppl are gone. LoL.

• She can do sign language for “More Please” usually she leaves off the “please” part though!

• She does a lot of other things too….but that’s probably enough for now 🙂 She’s is a little ham and constantly keeps us in stitches! 🙂

For those of you who don’t know me that well–the title is “grr-ish-ness” drawn out and loud. LoL. So the military is being stupid AGAIN!!! Go figure right?! Sigh. Well the Coast Guard worked it out so we wouldn’t have to pay for the NC move and we had it set up to move the 3rd and 4th of Feb. well now the ppl who actually pay for the move say it’s a no go…..and we’re back to square one. *Pulls hair out while screaming*

To top things off Bob found the perfect place for us to stay in NC. 3 bed 1 bath adorable brick house for $100 less a month than our 2 bed condo there was. We’re in the process of applying for it against another person who applied for us. It sounds like they’re going to give it to us…but if we can’t move out there till who knows when then I doubt they’ll just hold it indefinately for us and will probably end up giving it to the other person. 🙁 This is just so frusterating and I haven’t gotten to see my hubby for almost 7 weeks and really just want to be with him again and want all of this to be over. So please pray for us….that it’ll all work out and I won’t tear all of my hair out or go gray before this is all over!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I just need to trust God…but times like these when everything seems to be going all wrong–again!–it’s hard! It wouldn’t even be that bad if it wasn’t such a roller coaster ride, one minute horrible news, the next good and you think everything is fine and dandy, then you’re back to the even worse news…..sigh………

Well we got some very good news today!!! We’re moving back to where we were stationed before in NC and the government is paying for it!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!! Thanks SO much to everyone who prayed about it. We appreciate it more than you’ll know and are sending thanks to a Master Chief Yeoman somewhere who pulled the strings for us! 😀 Guess the CG isn’t so bad after all 😉 I’m still really sad about leaving Wyoming…..it’s my one and only true “home” and always will be. But the relief of not paying will help soften the blow I think. Now Bob just needs to go set up the move and I think we’re planning on having him fly back so he can drive me and Amber out so I don’t have to go cross country with a baby all by myself! So thanks again and we’re just praising the Lord for His goodness and this huge answer to prayer!!! 😀