Lynnwood Park Zoo

Benny took the day off of work for his "birthday day." The guys get the opportunity to take a day off in honor of their bday if they want to so we decided to do something fun. There is a little zoo here in good ol' Jacksonville that we have never visited so we took a few hours to explore there today. Now it is not the typical city zoo but the owner was super friendly and there was some cool animals to look at and feed. It was a little run down but all of the animals looked well taken care of and the owner pulled us aside at one point to let Kendall pet 2 birds, a prairie dog, and a turtle. All in all, we had a great time there. I must say that I think that all of our favorite animal today was the pygmy goats. They were pretty funny with their crazy playing and head butting. Afterwards, we got to go to Smithfield's. Now I love Texas BBQ but I also have a very special place in my stomach & heart for NC BBQ. Smithfield's has the best BBQ sandwiches and I was really craving them today! Well stay tuned later on this weekend for some pictures of our adventures today!

Sneak Peek......

...of the new decor for Kendall's new big girl room. I am sure it comes as no surprise since we call her "bug" all the time & that she was a lady "bug" for Halloween that this is what her new room will entail.

Thoughts about brand vs. generic products

So here I am finally sitting down after a massive grocery trip to the local Walmart.....those of you that have visited me know how very much I like to be there around payday but we were running super short on everything.

Anyway to get to my point, I started thinking about grocery shopping with my parents when I was younger and in my teenage years. I HATED getting generic vs. brand name products. It embarrassed me to have any of my friends see those products and no matter what my parents did to try to convince me.....it just didn't taste the same! I now find myself cutting coupons and studying the shelves to see what the best bargain is the same way that my dad did. Kind of crazy to think that we come full circle and turn into our parents right? I figured out in all of my rambling time through Walmart today that I probably ended up saving between $50-$100 just by getting the "generic" products. I guess it takes having your own family to understand why saving .05-$1.00 on each product is really worth it!

In my reminiscing trip, I also began to think about the many different products that I was buying that never in a million years did I think would be in my cart. For example, mushrooms, refried beans, olives, and some other funny things for Ben. My how times change a person and their perspective on how the way the world works!!

Semper Gumby

Tonight I am just here to update you on our current situation with Ben's orders. Johnstown, PA is now completely out due to the person that was supposed to be leaving is now staying. Both jobs at Cherry Point, NC are out. The depot job because it requires someone with a little more experience than what Ben has and it looks like the monitor doesn't want to work on 467 (the new squadron that they are putting together) because right now it is not a priority.

Ben emailed him before he left today about a possible FAC tour. (Forward air control.....for those that are civilian. It would mean that Ben would be on the ground side calling the air strikes in where they are needed.) I guess there is also a possibilty of going back to Pensacola, FL for flight school. Far, far, far in the WORST CASE Scenario, we could be headed back to CA for the training squadron. So back to my title, in other words we are trying to be very flexible. Your prayers in getting us where we are meant to be would be much appreciated.

I think that what we are leaning towards (if we can get it is) the FAC. One because it will be good for Ben's career. Two because it keeps us in the house for longer which is desirable for us. The only drawback is keeping Ben here for the baby's delivery and another deployment. I guess for whatever reason I feel safe with him in the sky but when you are talking about the ground.....I will have to color my grey hair! Like I have said, I will keep ya'll updated as we find out information!
Love you guys

Update on Kendall

Thanks for the inquiries on Kendall.....
she is doing GREAT on staying in her big girl bed. Most of the time we still have to get her out of it since she waits there for us. She has her own step stool to get in and out but has only done so twice since she has been in it.
Potty training is going ok. Sh seems to like Ben more than me about it. She tells him "potty" and "poop" but doesn't mention anything to me. She loves to sit on the "big girl potty" not hers but ours. We are just encouraging her interest not really full swing potty training.
Her vocabulary has EXPLODED and she says something funny nearly every single day!

Here is my help in the kitchen!

Better late than never!!

Ok, ok so now that we are at the end of Feburary.....I am finally posting the pics from Ben's bday present and Valentine's day! Hope you guys enjoy.

Surprise BeeGee!!
I made a card from all of us :-)

Valentine Day traditions from our family and some of Kendall's loot from her V-day party at PMO.

Kendall before her party

Relaxation

My BeeGee sure knows that right now I need lots of down time and has been good about providing that even while encouraging me to do some other things!
That being said......let's see our weekend consisted of.....

• Tokyo Express Japanese food that I was craving on Friday night then relaxing on the couch with my 2 favorite people in the world.
• Saturday we put together our gazebo for the back porch. I am excited that we will have a little shade in the hot months (If we are here in NC!) and it has tons of places for some plant life so I have some gardening projects in mind once the weather is steady with no more cold!
• Ben also got the grill fixed on Saturday so that was a plus.
• Benny tried to be sweet and make supper on Saturday night but the smell of fresh garlic sent me to the bathroom then to the couch with my saltines.
• Sunday was a good service at church, again with a guest speaker. We got to hang out with a few friends before picking Kendall up from the nursery.
• We finally made our Valentine's cake too. I had bought all of the ingredients with the intent of surprising Ben on V-day only to forget that I had all of the stuff until I was cleaning out the pantry the other day.....gotta love pregnancy hormones.
• To complete the evening, we rented 3:10 to Yuma. It was ok but nothing to really light your fire. The last one that we rented was The Kingdom and it was awesome so I guess it can't really compare to that!
• Alas, Ben had to go to work today but he is going to take his bday leave day on Friday so I am praying for good health and weather so that we can do something fun together!!

Rundown of our busy week!

So for our faithful readers, I am sorry that I was a big slacker this week but time just got away from me! Let's see some highlights......

• Yesterday, I went kicking, screaming, and not very willingly to a class called L.I.N.K.S. (which is a class on the Marine Corp and how it works) It actually turned out really AWESOME and I am so thankful that it was "mandatory" for us to go. I got so much new info that I wish that I would have had 4 years ago when we first got married. Lots of tips that will turn out to be so helpful. Ben got the day off to provide "childcare" and I think that he and Kendall had a great time! He also got a lot of errands done like grocery shopping, the dog's grooming, post office etc. Weird to switch roles for the day!
• Thursday, I worked. Very strange since I am so used to my Tuesday patients. Chemo's have really picked up and are averaging between 15-20 per day. I feel bad for Janice who is the full time nurse on the days that either myself or the other nurse who works one day per week isn't there!
• Wednesday, we had Laptime at the library and then the Rec center. I invited a friend to the Rec to see if she and her son would like it so it was fun to get to visit with Alyson.
• Tuesday, we got to hang out as a family since Ben still had off for Presidents day 96. We got some errands done and work at the house.

Other than that.....Ben has still been talking to the monitor (who helps make his career decisions) We are still not 100% sure that we will be staying here or if we will be moving. I guess that Johnstown, PA is still in the mix for us. I will try to keep ya'll updated as we know more....please keep praying that we will end up where God needs us to be!

Pizza Night

Tonight was pizza night in the Beach household. As you can see, Kendall had a blast eating and wearing hers! We had a nice relaxing, rainy day here at the house. It's been so nice to have Ben off on his President's Day leave. I think that tomorrow we will complete our Valentine's Day project!

First Successful night in the toddler bed

Kendall was super excited to play in her big girl bed when Ben put it up yesterday but we were leery of how she was going to do in it to sleep. She was a big helper yesterday and kept trying to get Ben's tools to fix the bed up her way. She only got up once about 1 am and that was because she was hungry for a bottle. Once she had her bottle she went back to sleep and didn't get up until this morning! Let's keep our fingers crossed....some pictures from yesterday.

Weekend happenings

What a fun filled weekend!!

• Friday morning breakfast with my friend, Stef, and getting to hold Greyson for the first time!! Kendall did so good with him as well so that was a big bonus!



• Getting Kendall's new 3 in 1 so that we can start working on sleeping in the toddler bed.



• Ordered Kendall's new bedding for her big girl room.



• Ben had his Kangaroo court on Friday afternoon (something fun for the guys in his squadron)



• Maddie's bday party where Kendall's behavior was a little bit questionable but she started to enjoy herself right at the end.



• Lt.Col Braatz's wetting down on Saturday night

Update for our family

Hello everyone!
So here I am finally sending out a mass email after the last one back before Christmas :-) Guess we have been a little bit busy. Let's see I am going to try to answer everyone's questions and not be verbose about it.

For our biggest news......Yes, we are pregnant with #2. I am 9 weeks and 5 days so almost 10 weeks. For those of you that spotted the picture of the pregnancy test on Snapfish and emailed about it.....WOW eagle eyes! LOL. We are due on September 18th. I know that there are several b-day and anniversaries about that time so go ahead and put your wish list in! I have been ok. I had a horrible sinus infection with sore throat and vomiting that kept me down on the couch for close to 3 weeks. I now feel good minus being so tired that sometimes I find myself drifting off to sleep in crazy places! We have seen the baby and heard the heartbeat so that really made it seem real.

Onward to Ben.....
No he is not going back out on deployment.
No we still do not have definate orders but Ben talked to the XO yesterday and it seems that he will be placed in 1 of 2 places in Cherry Point. (I want the hard copy of the orders before I will rest easy.)
Yes, he will be commuting to Cherry Point. (There is a back road that he can possibly take which would make the commute 40 minutes.)
Kendall......
What a girl!!! She has been keeping us laughing as usual.
She continues to do Parents Morning Out on Monday & Thursday mornings which allows me to get errands, cleaning, doctor's appts, and other things done.
We have a play group and Laptime at the local library on Wednesdays.
She is starting to put little 2 and 3 word sentences together & has the Heider withering stare down pat.
We just got her 3 in 1 this week so we are going to see how she transitions into her toddler bed since she will be in her "big girl" room hopefully May or June.
I have been continuing to work my one day a week on Tuesdays. It has been going well. The normal drama but that is to be expected I guess. I had a very scary experience this past week but the patient is fine so that is all that matters.

****For our Heider/Lucas/Spencer/PA friends and family......we are going to try to make it home around Memorial Day. Obviously, if we are able to make that trip we will be at the reunion and we want to try and see our friends as well.
****For our Beach/Schwalbe/Denton family......we are also planning on coming to Missouri in July for that reunion. We got the update on the activites that are planned & are super excited.
****For our Pensacola friends.....we are still up in the air about whether or not we are going to come to Dana's wedding. We will have to see how old the baby is and what is going on. I hope to be able to see ya'll though!

Other than that it is life as usual. We have been doing household projects and some home improvement stuff. We are starting to get some grass so those of you that know our frustration with that should be glad!!

Hope all is well with you guys and we hope to see/talk/email with you soon.
Take care and God Bless.
Love and miss you all!
Ben, Jamie, Kendall, and the rest of the family

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Birthday Share-Bear!!

Valentine's potluck

Kendall and I went to her playgroup today which was also a Valentine's potluck for the mommy's or parents since there were a few dads there today.
We had a blast hanging out with some old friends and some new ones. It is weird seeing Kendall be so clingy when she is normally Miss INDEPENDENCE. I think that her other activities don't invlove me being there so when I am here at the rec with her she decides that I need to stick to her side like glue.
Tomorrow, I will be going to a "mom's morning out" breakfast at a local coffee shop called Beans to start off the Valentine's day celebration. I tell you I am not used to all the activities in one week and this week has definately been packed with them! It is taking its toll on this poor tired mommy :-) It is great to be out of the house with friends though!
Happy Birthday to Nancy today!!!

Dedicated to my BHOT gals! (Memories from P'cola)

This morning I was reading my friend, Andrea's, blog from yesterday. It really had a profound impact on my thought processes today. To make it short and sweet, she was talking about having problems making friends and about having friends that were in the military that have left the past few years.

I must say that I count myself blessed as I have never really been terribly shy and I love getting to know new people so I have had and still like to count a lot of people as close friends. I guess I never really thought about how it must feel to live in a military town full-time and to be the one left behind all the time. We definately know how it feels to say good-bye as we have had to do it with many friends but seem to "collect and keep" friends as we go along. (Those of you on my mass email list can attest to that!)

So today I wanted to take the time to remember all of the fun friends that we have met along the way and have had to leave behind.

Andrea was part of a solid group of girl-friends that I had in Pensacola, FL. BHOT....Baptist Hospital Oncology Team. Besides Rebecca, Liz, and a few friends from 4-West, the BHOT girls were some of the greatest girls that I have met. They helped me through several rough patches in FL and stuck by my side through thick and thin. They were there for me when I first met Ben and helped to guide me in the choices that I made about him....which by the way were some of the best that I have ever made in my life! Thank-you girls :-)

We count ourselves lucky to have gotten to know so many wonderful people in our travels and I hope that it continues to be such a rewarding journey.

Miss and love you girls!!

Fun with the dog beds from Gma/Ma Beach

In a nutshell.....

The past weekend that is.......

• Ben indulging me in Domino's pizza that I was desperately craving on Friday night.
• A beautiful NC day on Saturday that included Ben's flag football and softball game.
• Shopping for some new house remodeling ideas.
• YUMMY chocolate covered pecans from a dear friend at church. YUM!!! Did I tell you how good they were?
• An engaging guest speaker that was pretty darn funny at church.
• Cuddle time with Benny on a Sunday afternoon then shopping for our Valentine's Day craft project.
• Even though it isn't the weekend.....today we saw the baby for the first time!!! She/he is an inch long with a heartrate of 189 beats per minute.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE ANTHONY!!!

Shadow Games

Yesterday afternoon when I was picking Kendall up from PMO she just tickled me pink. I am sure that it goes unsaid that every parent loves the fact that their child repeats a new word, understands a new concept, or does something new everyday. I try to write down some of the major things that Kendall does so that I can remember them when she is older.
We were walking out of St. Anne's and Kendall kept tripping. Not normal as she is normally running without difficulty. I stopped to check her shoes and make sure that I put them on correctly, all while talking to her about her day. I look over to see her bent over patting the blacktop and talking to it. I watched her for a few more steps and she was pointing to her shadow. Kendall was fascinated with it unlike her friend, Ally. I told her "shadow" which she repeated then tried to chase after it. I finally had to bring her over to the car since she was running all over the parking lot trying to touch her new found friend. She said, "bye-bye shadow." I hope that maybe today we can find her shadow pal again!

Teacher Appreciation

I got together with Linda today to complete the teacher appreciation gift for the teachers and help at St. Anne's where Kendall goes to PMO. They do something for the teachers every month which I think is neat. It was pretty fun....we decided to buy vases, place little cards with ribbon around them and fill them with some special treats for those hard-working souls. Unfortunately, Catherine wasn't there with the treats so we just had to picture what they will look like tomorrow :-) Fun to do a little crafting. I will post some pics when Ben gets the other computer hooked up so that I can download off the camera.

Congratulations Scott and Andrea on your new baby girl, Arianna!!!!

A fun time!

Kendall and I tried out something new today. She has recently been doing kindermusik and a few months ago sign & sing at the local dance studio. I could tell that kindermusik just wasn't satisfying her urge to run and be herself but I am too tired and sick right now with this pregnancy to do mommy and me gymnastics so I had reached a crossroads of trying to figure out what I was going to do for her.
My friend, Linda, invited me to go with her to the local rec center where on Wednesdays they have a toddler play group. How wonderful it was to let Kendall run free with plenty of toys, kids, and other adult supervision plus a snack! (Kendall's favorite time of the day~) I signed us up at the end because it seems so perfect. It is only $40 for 5 months and that was what we were paying per month for kindermusik!
Just thought that I would share our excitement! Oh and I have hardly been nauseous today so that is also cause for celebration :-)

Insomnia

So here it is 0230.......I haven't been sleeping since Kendall was up at o1oo. I had this problem when I was pregnant with Kendall as well. I think that I am going to try to take my prenatal vitamin in the morning and see if that helps but besides that any other suggestions? I hate not sleeping then being so sluggish all day!
Well Ben's bday dinner didn't go off quite as planned last night.....He loved his air compressor that we all got him. I guess it was bigger and with more tools than what he was anticipating but I guess that was better than getting one that was too small! After presents, we thought that we would go to Olive Garden early (5:30) to beat the crowds. It was a 45 minutes wait which wouldn't be so bad for adults but Kendall started to lose it about 25 minutes into it. We decided to get take out.....that was going to be another 3o minutes so we ended up going through the drive through at Chick fil A. Poor Benny. We went there because I had been craving it earlier in the day only to discover when we got home it didn't taste that good to me. Gotta love pregnancy hormones! We are going to attempt going again tonight so we will see how that goes. I will post pics later on this weekend!

HAPPY 31st BIRTHDAY BENNY!!!

Happy Birthday to my BeeGee! I can't believe that another year has flown by already! Ben said yesterday that he still felt 25 so I guess that is good. He will get his present later on tonight so I will post pictures of that when we get them. It was a combined effort this year from my parents, Ben's parents, and some of our siblings. He has been hankering after something for quite awhile so I just had to get it for him :-) I won't ruin the surprise by telling you what it is!! just tune in later to see.
We had a great surprise package yesterday from Ben's little brother Daniel. We got all kinds of fun trinkets from Japan and Hawaii. Thanks to Daniel our house has many items from all over the world. It was pretty neat to go through all of the stuff and see what was buried in our box! Ben's mom also made us some new dog beds that were included. Now all we have to do is get the stuffing for them and hopefully the doggers will stay off the beds. Yeah right!
Thanks to all of you that have been asking about my health. I have finally started to feel better after my trip to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon. It is embarrassing to admit how bad my sinus infection had become. I ended up on antibotics, vicodin, sudafed, afrin, and a few other things. All safe for the baby but I don't like taking anything this early on!