Near and Far

Lately I have found myself looking into the future and wondering what life will hold for our family. We have many different factors that will make it an interesting ride for us. I (shamefully) find myself looking around the house we have lived in for 6 short months and thinking that we will be packing it up in roughly 15 months. That is ridiculous to me. We don't even have all our pictures on the walls and I am already subconsciously packing it up and moving it back to Oklahoma. Dumb. I caught myself thinking about pinning things on Pinterest for kid's school parties. Levi is 7 months old! He will not be in school for another 4 years (Yes, I know they will fly by. No need to remind me.) Let me be honest, I probably won't even remember Pinterst in 4 years. I will not pin those wonderful teacher gifts, snacks for class parties, or the other wonderful ideas. If I have to eat these words, I will be very happy though! Most recently I have been thinking about the ever-looming...

It's day 9 of Ross being in Louisiana for some classes. Day 9 of it being Levi, Juno, and I. Day 1, although, of my first experience of "Tropical Force" winds. Being an Oklahoma girl, I have had many windy days. Sing along with me, "...where the wind come sweeping down the plains!" I know wind. Wind is wind, until you are home alone and you do not like to be in a dark house alone. I am aware of how childish it is, but I am not ashamed to admit that I am afraid of the dark. So at the moment, I am terrified of the electricity going out. We are currently having 35+ mph winds with 40+ gusts. The Weather Channel continues to remind me that power outages are "likely". Fools are not calming my nerves, so I turned them off. I love having the power to change the channel. I posted a status on Facebook on Sunday that I would like to elaborate on a bit. I answered a phone call from two of my nephews. Ben was asking me questions about Levi, if he could crawl (he...

It's been close to two months since my last post. Things have been a little hectic since the last post and I'm greatly looking forward to having some calmness. Life with a six month old equals never having calmness EVER again. Ever, ever, ever again... First things first. LEVI'S TESTS CAME BACK NORMAL!!! We had his last blood test and evaluation with the specialist mid-August and everything came back normal. This is such a huge blessing. Unfortunately Levi didn't hear the phone call with the good news, because he didn't instantly understand that he doesn't need to eat every three hours anymore. We are still working on it, but the boy likes to eat! Think about us as our grocery bill is going to be insane in a few years :) Levi, Juno, and I made another trip to Oklahoma the last part of August and stayed through most of September. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision to go back that was made and we left all within a week. We made it back home just in t...

It's going to be a short one. We are preparing for Ross to leave for another month long training period. This training in California is specifically for his upcoming deployment. Deployment is something that has been lingering over us for quite some time now and it seems to be finally happening. But this isn't about Ross's deployment. The past month or so has been pretty rough for the West Point community. Ross has had several friends injured while in Afghanistan recently. They will forever wear the scars of their job/calling, but they will do so proudly I am sure. They will do it because they have lost friends, classmates, teammates, friends by association, in the past few weeks. The names are becoming too familiar. It is all we can do to pray for the injured and their families, mourn the loss of friends, and thank a soldier when you see one. Please keep Ross, his friends, coworkers, and all soldiers in your prayers. This is a hard job and they are doing it willingl...

Yesterday marked an anniversary that shocked, scared, intimidated, thrilled, and surprised us. It is odd how a tiny plastic stick has the power to do all those things in a 3 minute time frame. Crazy tiny stick. I had not been feeling well for a couple weeks, but I also thought it was just the being busy with a new job and summer running around. I had gotten sick a couple times which was very strange because I rarely get sick like that. Again, I didn't give it a ton of thought. It wasn't until late the night of July 31 that it came to me. Headache, dizziness, nausea, crying A LOT, throwing up after every meal, drink of water, cracker I ate, and so on...  Oh my gosh, I'm pregnant. I sat through my sex ed classes in school, I had the talk with my mom, I had friends who had either had babies or were pregnant. I knew where they came from and how to prevent them, but due to some medical issues I was no longer on birth control and God has a sense of humor. This was not our fir...

Levi and I have been here with our Oklahoma family for about a month now. We have been having so much fun with the family and friends! We (a term I use loosely since Levi doesn't understand anything) have also picked up a few things that I would like to share with you. Ben (age 6): Will Levi be a daddy when he grows up? Me: I hope so. Ben: I want to be a daddy when I grow up. Joe (age 4): I don't! Ben: Joe, you don't want to get married and have a baby like Ross and Kayla did?!?! Joe: Nope. Dad while watching "Days of Our Lives" "Is that girl related to those Kardashian things?" Me: How much do I love you? Ben: I know, I know... To the moon and back... Dad: Kayla, you should wean Levi and leave him here. You and Ross can make another one. Joe: Sorry Kwaya... Joe: Got your nose Wevi! A few things have happened that have been milestones for Little Man. He now giggles (one of my favorite noises ever) and this morning he finally rolled o...

Thanks to a bit of "bloggers block", I haven't been able to get a post together that I have been pleased with. I have started 3 posts over the past month, but I disliked them all. Sheesh... You would think I was being paid for these or something. Levi and I are in Oklahoma with the family. We arrived after a (thankfully!) non eventful car ride from New York on June 21. Thanks to my dad who flew into Buffalo, NY, we made excellent time and got to Oklahoma a day early. Levi did VERY well on the ride! We only had a couple melt downs that made me question the decision to drive 1,500 miles with a 3 month old. One in Springfield, MO made me understand those moms who freak out and yell at the gas station attendants who are working in a establishment without a changing station. I didn't yell or freak out, but I think the entire parking lot knew that Levi was EXTREMELY upset and that I was on the edge of screaming myself. Dad got us back on the road and we drove as quickly a...

We received the call last Thursday! Well to be technical, I called and discovered that our new house was ready for us. We viewed the house at 10 am Friday morning and we had keys by 11:15. Thanks to Ross' amazing friends, the majority of our household goods were in our new place by 7:30 that evening. I was thankful for all the help I had received throughout last week to get almost everything packed up and ready. It truly made the move so much easier. Levi did great with the move! He didn't even notice that he was sleeping in a different place, but the kid doesn't know if he is sleeping in his bed, his car seat, Target, or his precious ottoman. I think Levi's transition has been the easiest out of everyone. He has discovered something recently that I think people from the South take for granted. Ceiling fans. They are quite the luxury here in the North Country and I am thankful we have them in the new house. Levi loves them. He talks to them, laughs at them, an...

Ross and I decided that we would for sure accept the house that is being offered to us on post, so we have started preparing for move #3. I really thought that the first two moves were very difficult, but #3 is proving to top that list. Packing, cleaning, and organizing is SO SO much more difficult when you have a 7 week old in the mix. Especially a 7 week old who has been diagnosed with a possible metabolic disorder and we cannot let him sleep for any more than 3 hours. 3 hours goes by extremely fast when your 3 hours start from the beginning of the feeding and not the end. His metabolic disorder is not life threatening, but it is causing me to break the rule of "Never Wake a Sleeping Baby". We were blessed with a little guy who enjoys to sleep through the night, but we are having to wake Levi up every three hours. I was recently told by a friend that my circles under my eyes are growing... Guess it is time to find a good concealer! We are waiting for the phone cal...

Like most little girls, I had no use for boys growing up. Until, like most little girls, junior high came along, then it all changed. However boys(or boys that I wanted to) had no use for me for a long while after that. Then I met Ross during the summer of 2004 and I suppose I met the right boy. Now it seems as if my life is all about boys. Still very much centered around that "right" boy, but since along the way some others have joined who have changed my life.  I had my dad and my big brother from day one. Big bro Corey wasn't always the nicest, but I wasn't always the nicest to him either. I may have been 8 years younger and very very scrawny, but I could slap like I was being paid for it. It took several years for Corey and I to get to being friends, but he is by far one of my favorite people. Thanks to that boy, I have three of the most amazing boys in my life. We gained Terry, aka Baby Boy, when he was only 10 years old. I can remember when he came to my scho...

It has been pretty quiet around here lately. The past week or so has been full of Ross and I attempting to decide if we should move on post, getting summer plans (somewhat) in order, catching naps when able, and keeping Levi as happy as possible. Out of everything, Levi is still the easiest! We have returned to having the company of a friend of ours who recently returned home from a deployment. He stayed with us for about six weeks before he left last summer ("curse" of the married couple with a handful of single friends!) and we have happily fed him and allowed him to keep us company the past couple nights. Juno LOVES Greg and he keeps her entertained for the time he is here visiting. It doesn't matter the size of the blessing, it is the fact there are blessings everywhere. Levi and I are working on developing a nice schedule during the day. Ross and I have been blessed with a baby who may enjoy sleeping as much as we do! Except for a few colic-like days, Levi enjoys...

Today is our one year anniversary of living here in New York. I use the term "Yankee" lovingly for a friend of ours that we made while living in Lawton, OK. Colleen you are our favorite Yankee :) A year ago we had completed our 24 hour drive from Oklahoma with our luggage and my mom in tow. The day we arrived here in the North Country, it was cold and rainy. We soon found our temporary home at the Fort Drum Inn and Mom and I set out to locate the commissary to buy food and shampoo. Mom and I then got extremely lost on post because of a major geographical change, trees. Trees limit ones ability to see into the distance and know if you are approaching a turn. I was missing the Oklahoma plains. Another geographical change that I wasn't used to was roads built on a loop pattern. I had always lived in a "grid pattern" and for that reason, had always hated being in Tulsa on their looped roads. The next day we set out to begin the in processing procedures. Those of...

Today was Levi's first photo shoot. We failed at having newborn pictures take up until this point and I now know why they want them done before the baby is 2 weeks old... Levi took on a hard core attitude about posing and having anyone take his picture. His way of dealing with it was dirty and resulted in lots of laundry needing to be done. The very very nice photographer did very well with our little grump! He peed twice on the blanket he was  positioned on within the first 15 minutes of the shoot. He then let us work with him for about 30 minutes. Then peed on the photographer. Levi followed that by wanting to eat. We decided to leave the diaper on to be safe and then he spit up on the new blanket. He needed to be changed shortly after that and he pooped on the ottoman. Needless to say, the photographer received a tip for all her efforts. I hope that we were able to get some good pictures out of the two and a half hours of the bodily fluid circus. I have learned that babies a...

Growing up I loved weekends. It meant I could either hang out with friends, spend the night at a friends house, or stay with my Mamaw and Papaw. In high school, weekends were busy with basketball games, work, and hanging out with friends. In college weekends meant going to work on Saturday and hanging out. And now weekends have a different meaning. This last weekend was our first since Ross went back to work following his paternity leave. I was so excited to have him around for an entire day and be able to have a face to face conversation with a person who knows how to talk! We spent Friday night laying around catering to Levi's every need (fresh diapers, fresh change of clothes, and feeding) and watching tv. Two of Ross' coworkers came by to meet Levi Saturday afternoon and then we went to a friends "Going Away to Ranger School" party that evening. Sunday, Mr. Levi changed on us. It was his 3 week birthday and he decided to make it our first day to be parents to ...

Those of you who know me know that I do not like change. It takes me FOREVER to make a decision and once I have made one, I don't like for anything to change. There have been very few things that I have jumped right into, but what I have, I am still happy with. I did not hesitate when a guy asked me to marry him three years ago (in fact, I didn't even answer him for 9+ hours because I jumped so fast). I agreed very quickly to take a drive to pick up a puppy that Ross had committed us to. And lastly, I had no choice but to jump when a little stick(or four little sticks) read the word "PREGNANT".  I know those are three very different things, but I don't jump often! Now my days are full of changes. Diaper changes, outfit changes, blanket changes, position changes, volume changes, and whatever other changes this little 7 pound human demands. I am learning to deal with the changes on many levels. Ross' job is constantly telling us that things are going to change...

Here it is, my very first blog. I'm not sure what I will do with this or if anyone will read it other than me, but here it is. Ross and I have been very busy the past 17 days (plus 12 months). We have moved from Oklahoma to New York, lived in a hotel room for way too many days, discovered we are not apartment people, got our first pet, we both started new jobs, made new friends, and found out our family was expanding to 3(SURPRISE!), 2 trips back to Oklahoma, I quit my job, and a baby boy was born. 12 crazy months. I knew that having our baby would be completely crazy, emotionally overwhelming, painful, and some other things, but it has been so so much more. We were extremely lucky to have my mom be here with us for most of the month of March to help prepare and to be here with me while Ross was gone in the field. She helped us set up the extra room for the baby and did the chores that required bending over (our toilets and kitchen floor was quite disgusting!). It was a huge he...