Near and Far

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 ...