What a Difference

It amazes me the difference in my friendships here compared to everywhere else. Since I left Shauna back in Vegas, I've had a single friend that put as much into our friendship as I did. Most of the time they were only my friend because I'm too nice, too trusting, to friendly...

The difference this time, is that I've met these people through church rather than meeting them because they're my neighbor, or work with Sabe. I can't even tell you what a difference that makes.

Marcus has been really sick the last few days with a high fever. Since we don't have insurance for another month, I didn't want to rush to take him to the Dr but it wasn't getting better. It was getting steadily worse and his fever was extremely persistent. After 3 days, I called one of my friends up to see if her husband would give Marcus a blessing. He came right over. Within an hour of the blessing, Marcus' temp went lower than it had been in days and he was acting like himself. I text her to thank her and do you what she said?

"I'm so glad I was able to help. Let me know if I can do anything else. In fact, can I bring dinner over for you guys tomorrow?" I was shocked. Most of the "friends" I've had in my 6ish years since I've graduated high school have never offered to help me like that. She had already helped me by being available and now she wants to make my family dinner too!

I honestly had a hard time accepting it. After a couple more texts between each other I sent her "thanks for being sweet" and she sent back "That's what friends are for."

That's what friends are for. It seems like I'm always on the giving side of that phrase, not on the receiving. Not to sound selfish or anything, but it feels really good to be on the receiving end for once.

So thank you, friend of mine, for taking time out in your day to make a woman who's been through more than you know feel loved and welcomed. It means more than realize.

Jamesen the Crappy Sleeper

may possibly... maybe... have taken a back seat in this family, giving way for Jamesen the Awesome Sleeper to come through. He's slept through the night 3 out of the last 4 nights and to top it off, on the same 3 nights, he's slept in too! He never sleeps in. He's usually up between 630 and 730 but the last few mornings he's gotten up after 8 with this morning making a record of getting up at 9! Sad for me, I've not been able to sleep in any of those mornings because of Marcus, but at least I don't have to sleep train Marcus. I just need to get him back into his groove of sleeping.

I can't even tell you how relieved I am that Jamesen finally sleeping. I thought it was bad when Marcus didn't sleep through the night until 15 months, but once we put him into his toddler bed, it was like he was instantly sleeping better. Jamesen has taken awhile with his first time sleeping through the night being right before 18 months. Better late than never!

I wish I had better news on the subject of church though. Having two kids transition to different classes at the exact same time is proving to be really really hard. Marcus doesn't want to go to Primary because he wants to be in Nursery with the toys rather than with the lesson. Jamesen doesn't mommy to leave so he's super stressed too.

Today wasn't fun to say the least. I took Marcus to Primary and had him sit with his teacher so that I could take Jamesen to nursery. I dropped J off and went back to M who was crying "Mommy?!" which broke my heart. Jamesen lasted maybe 15 minutes before he was brought to me, doing his hyperventilating cry which only has one fix, me. So then for the next 10 or so minutes I had two fussy clingy boys sitting on my lap. After a bit, J calmed down and wanted down so I decided to take him back to nursery. I sat with him for a few minutes and then slipped out to go back to Marcus who was screaming again.

Finally Marcus calmed down when the crayons were brought out so I went to go back and check on Jamesen but he wasn't there. Apparently they had taken him to my mother-in-law where he fell asleep. Marcus didn't make a peep when I left so I took J and went to class. It was so nice to be able to sit there and listen, even if I had a sleeping baby on me.

It wasn't fun to say the least. Though Marcus did really good for the last hourish so maybe I'll be able to drop him off here soon and not have to worry while I go help J get used to nursery. I just hope it gets better soon because today was really hard! At least I was rested :)

I'm having visions

of painting a boy's room. They'll probably both be sleeping in the same room, even if we have enough room for both... maybe not. Maybe I'll be painting two rooms. Anyways, J's half will be Lightning McQueen and M's half will be in Thomas. I'll split the walls into thirds horizontally. the top 2/3 will be white, the bottom blue with a red stripe splitting the two. Then I'll put some red and blue stripes on the white part of three walls and paint a picture of Thomas and Lightning together on the 4th wall.

It looks really awesome in my head. Wonder if it'll look that good on the walls... I also can't wait to actually decorate a house. The 4 years Sabe and I have been married, we've only stayed at one address for longer than a year and that was only by a few days. We've seriously moved so many times. The prospect of spending 3-4 years in one place sounds heavenly! I know that's kinda crazy. Most people can't imagine moving every 3 to 4 years but it would be a welcome change to stay in one place that long!

I'm going to want to paint, I already know I will. If we live on base, we'll have to paint it all white again before we move, but I think having paint for 3-4 years is worth it. I want a bright cheery kitchen, a black/red/white bedroom, a neutral living room and a playful play room. All of this of course depends on the house. I don't even know WHERE we're going, let alone what the house will look like or even if they'll have room for us on base or not.

So yes, I'm having visions of how I want my house and I'm drooling over the prospects of having a house that's ours (even if we won't be staying there forever). I think that's one thing that I really miss about Kentucky. Even though we were far away from most family, it was a house and it as ours. It was our first one. We'd been in apartments every other time. An apartment and a house are so different!

I'm gonna have to draw the boy's room out and see if actually looks good, haha!

Couple of firsts...

This last Sunday we had a few firsts. It was Jamesen's first day in nursery without me and Marcus' first day in Sunbeams. Jamesen's had a few days in nursery, but Marcus and I were always there. He would go and play a bit and then run back and cling to me for a few minutes and then go run and play again. I was trying to get him use to it before Marcus' first day in Sunbeams because I knew that one would be the harder one.

I was right. While Jamesen fussed a little bit, he did pretty well. Marcus on the other hand... I couldn't put him down. Any time I would try to sing along with the other little kids, he would throw himself off my lap and start crying. He's flail and kick if I tried to pick him up so I'd leave him there for a few seconds and then tell him to come here and he'd come sit in my lap again.

I had to stay with him the entire time. He warmed up the last 15ish minutes of class when the teacher brought out crayons and such but up until that point he was laying on the floor, hiding under the chairs the entire time.

Sunbeams also made me realize just how far behind he is with speech. The teacher was asking the other kids questions and they were all able to answer. Marcus wasn't. He wasn't paying even the slightest bit of attention, let alone responding. I was a bit embarrassed to be honest. I didn't think he was that far behind until the other kids started having full on conversations.

Marcus is talking so much more than he use to. When he finally did start talking he just exploded with speech. He's been really fast with everything physical wise, but man when it comes to speech, he is just so dang far behind! I can't help but worry a little.

Jamesen is following in his brothers foot steps. While he's not quite as far behind as Marcus was at his age, Jamesen is still behind. He does say new words here and there and is getting really good at saying the ones he already knows. Marcus at that age said maybe 5 or 6 words and never consistently.

Why isn't there a manual for kids? I would love to know exactly what Marcus needs to help him catch up! My only hope is that by the time he's in kindergarten, he's able to communicate properly.

Eating In

Sabe likes to eat out... I swear he would eat out every meal if he could! I guess that's what happens when you're a single military guy for as long as he was, only getting home cooked meals the few and far between times that he came home to his mom on leave.

When we got married, I would make dinner, but I always ended up making the exact same thing over and over. I was either pregnant or nursing for the first three years of our marriage. It goes without saying that cooking while pregnant can be a bit dicey, but pregnant while nursing is too. It always seemed the baby would want to eat the minute I got up to cook so the meals had to be quick and fast.

When in Kentucky, I never had a car to go grocery shopping so when I did (like once every two weeks) I had to buy stuff that wouldn't spoil before I got to it. The boys and I ended up eating a lot of boxed meals and also a lot of pizza hut since they delivered.

Since we've been back in Utah, I've been cooking a lot more. We were eating out a lot for while there but it was eating up our finances quicker than we could make money. I've started making menus of meals in two week increments and shopping for a weeks worth of food at a time. I'm amazed at how much money we're saving and how much easier it is for me to lose weight now that I'm eating a lot healthier. Makes me feel better that the boys are getting more of a variety as well.

Jamesen will eat anything if his mouth isn't hurting him. The kid makes it so easy. You put food in front of him and he snarfs it. He's got such a fast metabolism that he's constantly eating, I swear!

Marcus is a bit tougher. Since he's hit 3, his eating has slowed down a lot since his growing has slowed. You have to carefully time when you feed him in order to maximize his eating. If you let him snack at all between meals, he won't eat the meal at all and will end up barely eating anything. Even a tiny snack of a handful of peanuts will ruin his appetite for the next meal.

I have to say though... I'm getting to be a pretty dang good cook! Thanks mom for teaching me and better yet, thanks Sabe for always doing the dishes!

Oh the life of an Army Wife

I'm a planner. I always have the next few minutes, the next hour, the rest of the day, week, month, year, decade planned. Even if it's planning on doing nothing all day long, it's planned! I'm not terribly strict about it though. I use to be, but I can't really be anymore. Why you might ask?

The army cured me of it (sort of). I have no idea where I'm going to be in 6 months. I could be anywhere from California to Germany. Sabe will be going to training in March for a little over 2 months and then we'll move again. Where? No idea. Wish I knew! I'd love to plan the trip while I still have tons of time to plan it. I wish I could search for a preschool for Marcus, maybe a tumbling class. I wish I could look into the housing and/or look for a house near the base if on base housing isn't available.

I find myself struggling with not being able to plan how my not so distant future is going to roughly go. I'm forced to plan the distant part instead... like going back to school when we get to where we're going. Getting my photography known where ever we are. Maybe start making some money off of it.

Speaking of photography... I'm actually doing pretty good. I've had at least one shoot a month to post on my blog for the last 6 or so months (even if some of them were personal shoots). I've got a shoot lined up for tomorrow and one lined up for next week sometime, both paying jobs! Maybe I'll get a few shoots done in Vegas while I'm there too.

Yeah so anyways, hopefully we'll know where we're going by the time my birthday gets here. I'm crossing all crossables and praying my heart out that we get California. We'd be 3.5 hours away from Vegas and I've got a few online friends very near there that I would absolutely love to meet!

I guess that's the good thing about being in the military. You meet a ton of people you would never have met other wise. Like my friend Amanda. She will be a dear life long friend. The only one that I took from Kentucky.

Wish us luck!

I love Christmas

Man I have to tell you that Christmas is so much funner with a little kid. It's not been until this year that Marcus has made it REALLY fun. He's getting into all of it, loves putting the ornaments on the advent calendar and every morning races upstairs to turn the tree lights on. It's so cute!

I've been pretty lucky that the boys don't try to rip the presents open. They go over and act like they want to open them up but a "no, no!" does the trick. They rearrange the gifts and everything but they don't rip them open. They do, however, move the ornaments like their life depends on it. They even have started putting their toys up on the tree like ornaments. Their faves are their duplo lego blocks. They make perfect ornaments.

I'm happy to report that Marcus is starting to be a nicer brother. He was reallllly mean for a while there, no matter what I tried. I mostly tried giving him more attention when he wasn't acting mean and I guess it finally got through to him because he started being nicer. If he hurts Jamesen, he'll go up and give him a kiss and say "Ah debber" (all better) and hug him. At least it's something. Can't wait for them to be a bit older and be the best of friends. That'll be so cute.

Sabe and I got the idea to take the boys mini golfing. The picture in my head was so fun and awesome with lots of great pics of the boys golfing... yeah. Didn't happen. Jamesen didn't want to have anything to do with the club and decided that the hills and things were his own personal running course. I had to quickly stop him from picking up the ball of the golfer behind us who we would have let pass us if the boys hadn't been running through the place like nobody's business. It's a good thing it was free because it didn't last longer than 10 minutes and I couldn't get a single pic of Jamesen! That was disappointing.

We bought the boys some cute little winter Sunday outfits. The thing that sold me was that one of them had a penguin on it. Couldn't resist. The boys needed Sunday clothes anyways since they didn't really have anything other than plaid shirts. They look so cute in them! I just wanna eat them up :)

Well, that's our update. Sorry about being so scarce around here. I'm sure it'll pick back up a lot once we get to where we're going. We'll know where that is in a few months. We're crossing our fingers for Cali though!

Here's some pics from the month
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2411643&id=17817329&l=6d954ce692