Kendall and I are holed up in the house today taking a much needed day of rest. I got the first night's sleep last night that I have had in 4 nights. It was so great. We are getting geared up to celebrate Ben's 31st bday on Friday. It seems so crazy that last year I was going out of my mind for his surprise party and we were all getting ready to let the guys go back to Iraq again. Thank God we are not doing that this year!
Please keep my friend, Nancy, in your prayers today. After a very long battle with cancer and complications from it, Nancy's mom lost her battle this morning at 6:15. I still remember Mrs. Cader's dry sense of humor and how she would yell at us in band. I am sure that as much as what they wanted her suffering to end it is never easy to say good-bye.
We had a pretty low key weekend due to my cold but it was fun in what we did do!
- Friday was early to bed for some much needed R&R
- Ben got to play in a softball game on Saturday
- We had dinner with our friends, Ryan & Eleanor, on Saturday night. I wish that I could have tasted that Hakata!
- Ben finished his work bench today.
- Yummy pizza for dinner tonight
- I am starting to feel a little bit better :-)
Here is what yesterday consisted of for us.....
- Ben took Kendall to PMO & she walked in without a fuss!
- He came home to do some training while I got a shower.......
- I threw up and almost passed out in the shower while he was gone
- We went to Wilmington and finished out our errands there....
- I came home and promptly ran to the house to throw up again!
Pregnancy + Flu= unhappy Jamie! (I am praying that it is the flu making me throw up!)
Ben took today and tomorrow off of work (thanks to some extra leave that they are getting for their service in Iraq) for some extra things that we are doing here at the house so we brought him to kindermusik class today. I think that both he & Kendall enjoyed seeing each other in that class.
Ben also got to make it over to the wood shop and finally got his wood bench planed down so that he can get it attached and finish up some projects. I know that he enjoyed being over there and working on that stuff. I am hoping that we will be able to get him his heat gun so that he can work on the bed posts of our bed.
I have succumbed to the germs of Ben & Kendall's cold. I am hoping that is where my nausea is coming from....not the pregnancy. I was able to eat a cheesy gordita crunch for supper which is a HUGE improvement from the last 3 days.
I had the unique experience of getting ready for work today while Ben stayed at home. He is still off for their MLK leave. I think that he and Kendall had a good day together.
We were going to go to the aquarium yesterday but both Kendall and I were under the weather. Kendall has a little cold and unfortunately pregnancy nausea has set in just like when I was preggers with Kendall. We are going to try to take Kendall another weekend.
Benny has been taking good care of all of us and enjoying his time off. Poor thing he will be here through the whole pregnancy so it is a long road ahead of us :-)
- family naps on a rainy Saturday
- church & relaxation on Sunday
- having Ben home for a few days on their MLK leave.....woohoo!
- cheering on the Packers in my STEELERS sweatshirt!
Here it is Friday night and I am posting....why you ask? My poor Benny has duty tonight so I decided to do something useful like play on the computer :-) We just got home a bit ago from taking Ben some Quizno's for supper and I am trying not to go to bed yet!
My friend, Dana, inspired me with her diaper cakes so I decided to show you some of what I have been up to the last few weeks. I have had a love/hate relationship with these cute little items but now I have figured out how to do them better so the next one that I do will be much less stressful! (Of course I haven't decided if I am going to do a cake or wreath for Whitney so I need to debate that!) The pink cake was for Megan (a girl that I work with at OO) and the blue one is for Stef (my favorite "nanny" and great friend!) Hope you enjoy the pics from all the hard work that went into these guys.
One solid week of Kendall soley on whole milk without any formula! I am so excited to get her drinking it instead of that expensive formula!!! Small miracle for us :-)
- cute dog bowl holders that Ben made for our 4-leggers.
- getting unexpected compliments about your weight while preggers
- Greyson taking a few bottles by himself instead of through the feeding tube.
- a few emails and phone calls from old friends
- a big cuddle from Kendall bug without prompting her
Congratulations Stef and Cody! They had a beautiful baby boy, Greyson yesterday at 6:18 pm. He is 6 weeks early but weighed in at 5 lbs 8 oz and is 19.5 inches long. Here he is in the NICU please keep praying for them!
Ben and I found out this weekend that we are expecting our second child. We have been trying to get pregnant since the guys got home so we were exceedingly happy when I tested positive. Naval medicine requires you to go take a urine test for them as well which I did today. Obviously it tested positive as well! :-) Thank-you all for sticking by us and praying for us. It is a truly humbling experience!I am feeling great. The only 2 big signs were me being extra tired & craving bananas. (For those of you that know me well.....yeah I don't like bananas but then again I didn't like hot dogs & that is what started my pregnancy with Kendall!)
Also in baby news, please keep my friend Stef & her baby in your prayers. Her water broke early this morning and she is currently in Wilmington hospital. The baby is about a month and a half early so hopefully everything will go well for them!
So since the Steelers are not in the playoffs we were rooting on my #2 and #3 teams. #3 The packers cooperated and have moved on but #2 cowboys played horribly tonight and really disappointed Ben and I. Oh well guess I will have to ask Ben's Gma to send me the cheesehead!
Inevitably in our military world it happens....we are saying "see you soon" to some of our good friends. We had our farewell dinner with John, Jen, Katelyn, and Abby. Ben met John & Jen at Texas A&M where he did the sword arch for their engagement and was also in their wedding. I met them for the first time here in Jacksonville, NC. They are always so much fun to be around, very optimistic and always willing to help. I think it goes without saying that we will miss them very much. They are headed to Georgia for 6 months then onward to Hawaii where John will be leaving 3 weeks after getting there to go back to the sandbox. Please keep them in your prayers for safe journeys, birth, and obivously the deployment. We will miss ya'll!
Happy 21st Birthday Sarah! I hope that you enjoy your day and belated Congrats on WVU with their bowl game :-)
Kendall started learning about "pocket change" when Grandma and PaPa Beach gave the girls their change purses and change this past Thanksgiving. Ben and I have tried to carry on that tradition and knowledge by letting Kendall put our spare change in her piggy bank. She gets so excited and knows just where to find her bank, what to do with the change, and how to put it back. We hope that she can learn about saving ALOT of money this way!!
But a fun day! We had our mom's morning out today. It was nice to be able and sit with some other ladies & chat. It is always good to visit with old friends and make some new ones.
Ben forgot his lunch again (second time this week) so I am convinced he just wants to see me mid-day when I bring it over to him :-)
I have been trying to tackle the mountain of filing and magazines in the bonus room today. All part of my "get organized" phase of the new year. I am pretty proud of the work that I got done today. Not quite finished but with an extra set of helping hands....
My Aunt Diane did quite well with her surgery and sounded good (although not as chipper as usual understandably) Please pray that the doctor will be able to figure out what to do with her so that she will not have to go through this again.
Other than that we returned a toddler bed that we had bought for Kendall because mom & dad are going to get us a 3 in 1 at the end of the month so there was no point in having both. I feel that I wasted a beautiful day indoors but my thighs and knee are pretty sore from my jogging yesterday!
Thanks for the comments Bess and Melissa. If we did (or do I guess since we don't have orders for 467) move to SD it would be great to be with such wonderful friends again. What a blessing to have great friends on either coast to chose from :-) MISS YOU GIRLS!!!
Today was absolutely breathtaking weather wise. It was in the 70's here in NC. What a great day for an outdoor workout. I must say that my friend, Michelle, inspired me so I took the doggers and Kendall out for a jog/walk. I must not have been as challenging as Ben since the dogs didn't seem that winded when we got back! Of course I normally bike when Ben is running so the dogs keep pace with me so I am not taking it too hard on my run. I took Kendall to the park in our neighborhood where she enjoyed playing with a few new friends who shared their sand toys with her.
Other interesting things today....Kendall started back to kindermusik & we are going to try gymnastics next week. Kendall made a very funny sentence today....Ben was letting the dogs out this morning when he told them "Go potty." Our little bug said, "go potty. bye-bye." It was so very cute. She is just growing and saying things in leaps and bounds. For those of you that were asking, she is using signs for some things. I keep trying to positively reinforce her so that it continues.
I had a "Jessica" moment today when I called Aunt Diane to see how she was doing....oops her surgery isn't until tomorrow. Sleep well tonight and I will call you tomorrow to really check on you! :-)
Please keep my Aunt Diane, my friend Cybil (who should be home from the hospital now) and my friend Stef in your prayers!!
amazing statement I know but today I was thinking this very thing. I was at work today to find one spouse of a patient who passed away last year stopping by to check on "his girls." It never ceases to amaze me the generosity of the human spirit. I don't know if the situation were reversed and I lost Ben that I would be able to make myself go back to say hello. Tuesdays definately make me count my blessings twice and be grateful to be part of these brave people's lives.
I love the fact that Ben can drop the marine manly act and just be a goofball with me and Kendall. What a great quality! Not that I am biased or anything :-)
Anyway, just wanted to update ya'll about our current situation with Ben's job. He has told the XO that we want to stay here at the new squadron. (467) He really wanted to stay with 269 and go back with them to their next deployment in the fall but there are not enough slots. We are praying that this position in 467 works out because that will enable us to stay in our current house to build more equity in it. (But it will create a long commute time for Ben each day as he will be going to Cherry Point.) The monitor was really pushing for us to go back to San Diego but right now it just doesn't seem a good option for us. I would have loved to be close to Jess, Nikki, Bess, Liz, Melissa and Aimee though! Guess we will just have to visit again :-) I will keep you guys updated when we get final orders. Keep praying for us in our decision. Thanks guys!
Everyone had them.....just a crappy day where you feel like nothing can go right well that has mostly been my day.
- My beloved Steelers played horribly last night and eliminated themselves from the playoffs. (ESPN was not my favorite channel this morning.)
- This was our first service today without our pastor. (He felt the call to go to another church so after 15 years at First Baptist he had to make the change.) I began going there March 2005 and he has had so many sermons that have touched me deeply so when we find a new pastor he has very large shoes to fill.
- I have come to the conclusion that as much as I want to be a bridesmaid in my friend, Dana's, wedding that I am not going to be able to due to all the what if's of military life. All I can do is hope & pray that we can at least go to the wedding in November.
- This is the week that my Aunt Diane gets her surgery again....please keep her in your prayers.
- We had to get the rear tires on the burb so we spent much more money than I wanted to!
So I have been a little bummy today but we did have a few fun things to cheer me up....we went for a family jog and got a lot of yard work done that was much over due. I always feel better when we get things checked off our to-do list.
Today we went for a birthday party for Anna. She had a gymnastics party. It was great for all the kiddos. They all really seemed to enjoy themselves on all of the gym equipment. I have to admit it brought back a lot of fun memories for me too. Kendall really took to exploring everything so I think that I might take her for the free Mommy & me class to see how she does with a little more structure. We are waiting now for the
Steeler game to come on.......all our prayers are going to that for the next few hours to keep the Super Bowl hope alive!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ANNA!!
Well we had a minor break through with potty training today....Kendall started pooping in her diaper when Ben asked her if she was going & if she needed to go on her potty she started for the stairs then her potty chair. Now it was too late by the time that they got there but I was very excited to hear the whole story & process. Guess we need to keep the positive reinforcement going! Believe it or not she likes to get rice cakes for sitting on her potty....nice healthy reward :-)
We are going to shop for a toddler bed for her and start transitioning to her big girl bed. I am pretty nervous about that as she is soooooooo very active so the crib bars provide some sense of security for me. Guess we will need to lock the gate during bed and nap time for safety. Any advice on either of these baby topics??? Let us know :-)
Kendall did very good this visit. She and I both liked this docotor. It was the first time that we had seen him so.....she didn't scream at all & actually giggled when he was looking in her ears. (What can I say she inheirted my ticklishness!)
24 pounds and 4 ounces
32 inches tall
Just a few stories about her today. She decided to use her potty chair for a rather unconvential use.....she pulled it over to the tub & used it to climb up in the tub. Ben said at least she seems to be good about problem solving :-)
She is getting very good at naming all body parts which we were working on some more today. She loves for you to smile so that she can point at your teeth which sounds so cute when she says it!
Today was our last official day of Ben's leave. It has been so nice to do household projects, relax, play with Kendall, and visit with friends & family. I guess that one of us needs to bring in an income though :-) We went shopping today where I was excited to spend a lot of my gift certificates but Ben is trying to save up for some tools so he just window shopped! Kendall is feeling much better but thanks for all the well wishes :-) Tomorrow is her 18 month check-up so hopefully there will be no shots.
Happy New year to ya'll! I hope that this finds you all in good spirits for the start of 2008. We have had a great time yesterday and today. We had originally planned on going to New Bern or Swansboro for dinner while leaving Kendall at KidzBiz but since she is still sick we decided not to spread the germs! So the three of us ate at "Duck's" here in Jacksonville. Our anniversary/new years was very calm compared to the past four. We normally are with Ben's family so it was a little weird to be all alone but a good change. Our dinner was yummy but of course couldn't compare with the greek resturant with belly dancers that we went to last year in Missouri. I fell asleep on the couch but amazingly Ben managed to stay awake and get me up about 5 minutes before the ball dropped. We watched a few fireworks off in the distance then went to bed! Today we have started to organize the garage & house plus take down all of our Christmas decorations. That about sums it up. I have attached a few pictures (imagine that me with pictures?!?!) for ya'll to see us :-)Hope that 2008 brings you all the health and happiness that you can have.Love,Ben, Jamie, Kendall, & the 4-leggers
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
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