Nate-Nate!

Nate turned three this month! He has been such a blessing to our family, and we are so thankful for him! It's hard to believe how big he has gotten in what seemed like such a short amount of time!

Here he is before we even met him. This is me at 37 weeks pregnant, and Nate was born about 5 days later.


I had come home from work the night of October 2 and wasn't feeling very well. Eric had just had staff duty the day before, and then had had to take care of Caleb while I was at work, so he went right to bed after he picked me up from work. I stayed up and sat on the couch watching t.v. and timing what I assumed were Braxton Hicks contractions. After a few hours, I started feeling nervous and found myself pacing around the house and stopping to lean on things when I had a contraction, which was about every 5 or 6 minutes. I was still telling myself that it was probably Braxton Hicks, though. At about 2 am, I felt a contraction coming on and leaned on the t.v. stand to try to breathe through it, and it was so bad that I started crying and shaking, and when it was over I looked down and saw my sweaty footprints in the carpet, so I decided to give L & D a call. They told me to come in and get checked, so I got Eric up and on the way there I still kept telling myself that it was probably just Braxton Hicks and hopefully they could give me something for the pain until real labor started.


But I was wrong! We got to the hospital and were told I was at almost 5 cm, and they checked me in, took me to a room, and gave me my epidural (yay for epidurals!) About 6 hours later, it was time to push, and Nate was born about 7 minutes after that. I will never forget that first moment I saw him. He was born in a teaching hospital, and instead of giving him to me right away, they took him over to the warmer for some students to look at, and I watched them carry him across the room with this really angry look on his purple, goopy face, and I just felt so happy! They dressed him and put a little hat on him, and finally gave him to me, and the picture above is of that very moment.

He was 8 lbs 3 oz, 21 inches long. Born at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda in Maryland on October 3, 2007 at 9:07 am.

This is the picture we used for his birth announcement.

Fast-forward one year! We were still living in Maryland. This picture is of what we liked to call the "Nate Mouth". He made this face all the time for the first 2 years of his life. It was kinda his thing. :)



And here he is at his first birthday party! We went to Rocky Mount and had the party at my mom's house. This picture was taken in her backyard, and that is his birthday cake all over his shirt.

Fast-forward another year, and Nate is about to turn 2! We had been in Alaska for less than three months. He was enjoying having a yard, getting to know his first little friends, and getting ready to be a big brother!

Cute, right?

And yet another year later, our Nate-Nate is three! And he still makes his mommy just as happy as he did that first time I held him. He loves all things Buzz Lightyear and Super Hero Squad (especially Iron Man). His favorite food is either Ritz Crackers, chips, or hard-boiled eggs, and his favorite drink is milk, no contest. Except for maybe juice, and water :). And all cups are called "bobo" by Nate. If he wants milk in a cup, he asks for "bobo-milk" He loves playing with his brothers and his friends, and has a spirited, individual and hilarious personality. He makes us laugh every day.

Love you, Nate!

Check this out!

So this is my new purse, and I LOVE it. How cool is this concept? I had never seen one before we moved to this duty station, and then one of the other FRG volunteers had something similar to this and I HAD to find out where to get one. I am shy and a dork, so I didn't do the sensible thing and ask her, but I googled around til I found a woman who sells them and I ordered it while Eric was in the field last month. It just came in the mail today.

In case anyone is curious, I got it from this lady.

And this is my new 3 year old! He's not technically 3 for a few more days, but I had this cute picture of him and I thought I'd share. Right before I took it, he said, "Mommy, take a picture of me!", and then he struck this awesome pose. He will get his own birthday post very soon!

And this is my beautiful new 10 month old! He was 10 months yesterday. It's hard to believe how fast the time can go by! Look at him, standing up all by himself, eating toys and getting into the dishwasher!

He sure knows how to make me smile!

I am so thankful for 10 wonderful months with my sweet little Sammy!

September

September has come and gone! It seems like it went by quickly now, but it felt really slow while Eric was gone.



We were dreading the time apart, like we always do, but we were also pretty excited for the awesome training opportunity we knew Eric and his unit would get. He learned a lot and it went really well-I am so proud of him and the soldiers he works with!



The last 2 weeks of the training were the hardest on me because we had almost no contact with each other. Eric has had to leave for months at a time before, but we have always had reliable communication, and it was very different to not be able to speak to him. It started feeling wierd after a while-to have no idea where he was or what was going on with him, or how he was feeling. To not be able to share with him anything that was happening here. I started to feel disconnected, and it was a little scary, because one of the best things about our relationship (I think, anyway) is how connected and in-tune with each other's feelings we are. I wouldn't say we've been that way through our entire 9-year marriage, since it was something we had to work very hard to build up, but it has been that way probably for at least 4 or 5 years. Our closeness is something that I really cherish because we worked so hard for it, and I didn't like the feeling of it changing.



Our lives have changed so significantly in the past year. Eric used to have a "day job", with occasional TDY or schools. The amount of time that he's had to be gone since we moved here is completely new to us, and it's been a huge adjustment. What makes it harder to adjust to is that I know it's just the tip of the iceberg. The deployment will be 100 times harder. And it's very likely that we will go through several deployments in the time that Eric has left in the Army. It's our new reality, and I'm struggling to accept it. Every day I have at least one thought of "why can't we just go back to the way things were" or "why can't he just be a banker or something".



But he wouldn't be Eric if he wasn't doing what he's doing, and I love Eric just the way he is. And God has led us to this point in our lives, and if it's what he wants us to do, then we are going to do it the best that we can. We were talking last night, and it occurred to me that the decision we made together to come to this duty station, knowing he would be deployed, was the first time in my life that I have ever chosen to do something that I was absolutely terrified of and didn't want to do. I told Eric I wish every day that I could take that choice back, but if I actually had the option in front of me to take it back, I know that I wouldn't. It's right. I just know that it's the right choice, so we keep moving forward, doing what we can to prepare and trying to trust God when he says that He has a purpose for us--a good purpose.



We are looking forward to having more time together for a few months before he has to leave for more training, and then for deployment. There are some long weekends coming up, and I can't tell you how awesome those sound to me right now!



Time with my husband...there's nothing better. :)

What's Up?

Well it was a nice, relaxing, restful, and RAINY weekend! We got in lots of good family time, which was wonderful after Eric having to be gone last week.

We are planning to enjoy this coming week, since our family will get to spend it together-at night anyway :) And it's a 4-day week, and then Eric will be off Friday through Monday! Yay! We plan to squeeze every ounce of family time out of that long weekend that we possible can, because family time will be pretty scarce in September. It's going to be a long and probably frustrating month, but I am ready to do it and get it behind us. And maybe to test myself a little for the upcoming deployment-how well will I do by myself with three kids when it's more than just a week at a time? We'll see!

I'm also pretty excited that Eric won Apache of the Week this past week while he was gone (for being awesome, of course), and he now has a four-day pass to take in October. We plan to enjoy that as well!

It's definitely cooling off outside! The trees are starting to turn gold, too. It's been raining a lot and the temperatures are staying in the 50s and 60s. Won't be long now before that rain turns to snow. I'm kind of looking forward to it! I know that sounds crazy, since we have snow on the ground for more than half the year here, but after the beautiful summer we've had, I just feel ready to enjoy the winter, too. I'm especially excited that we will be able to spend a lot more time outside this year, since I won't be pregnant for the first half of winter, and then worrying about a newborn getting too cold for the second half.

Speaking of cooling off, Caleb got a package in the mail from my mom with a lot of fall clothes in it, which was really nice, since none of the boys really had any warm clothes that fit. So this weekend we went shopping and only had to get stuff for Nate and Sam. We went to Once Upon a Child and bought them each a fall wardrobe for a total of $46, even. I love that place! If you have kids, you should definitely find the closest one to you and shop there. It's such a savings, even over Walmart.

So, I guess that's all for now. I know this post is not written that well, it's just kind of a hodge-podge of what's been going on lately. I'm sure I will have something more profound to share soon. :)

Nine Years!

Tommorow is our ninth wedding anniversary. Eric had to be gone this week, so he took THursday and Friday off and we celebrated over a long weekend. It was really important to us to get to do something special this year, since Eric will deployed on our tenth anniversary.

So we decided to take a mini-tour of Alaska to the south of us! We left Thursday morning and drove down AK 3 through Denali National Park. We got to the southern viewing area for Mt. McKinley a little after lunch time, so we had a little picnic and spent some time looking at the tallest mountain in North America!


After that, we found a nice spot on a creek called Troublesome (appropriate for a family of three boys, yes?), and we let the boys throw rocks in the water, which I believe has become their favorite pastime.

Later that night, we went back to our hotel, and found that the sun was setting behind Mt. McKinley. I took a couple of pictures, and we talked about how pretty it was, just like most other mountain sunsets. And then we went to our room and started getting the boys in bed. We were getting them tucked in when we glanced outside, and this is what we could see:

We were blown away. We've never, ever seen a sunset like that. I don't even know what else to say about it except that it was incredible, and if anybody knows that new song "You Light Up the Sky", that's what it reminded me of.

The next day, we went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which I think used to be called Big Game Alaska. What a cool place! You drive in and they have these huge pens for all of the different kinds large Alaskan wildlife. You can drive through or walk through, and you can get our whenever and wherever you want to. We parked the van and walked through, checking out all the big game. We saw elk, caribou, black bear, grizzlies, musk ox, bison, moose and bald eagle. All very close up! And then we went to the cafe and gift shop, and they were selling reindeer sausage, hides, and had taxidermy of pretty much every kind of animal in the conservation center on display, including a huge grizzly! Ironic? Not really. This is Alaska, after all. :)

After that, we went to see Portage Lake, which is a huge lake that was created by a glacier. We brielfly considered taking the cruise to see the actual glacier, but it would have been over a hundred dollars for the family, so we just admired the lake. I would love to see this lake in the spring time, when the ice is melting. I saw a picture online, and it's looks amazing!

We spent that night on the air force base near Anchorage, and got up early the next morning to drive down to Seward to see Exit Glacier and the Alaska Sea Life Center. Both of those activities were a lot of fun. The boys wanted to throw rocls in the glacial melt that was running out of the glacier like a river, which was pretty funny to me. And they really enjoyed seeing the seals, sea lion, all different varieties of fish and sea birds at the Sea Life Center.

And then we drove back up to Anchorage, which was a beautiful, amazing scenic drive. We spent another night on the AFB, and headed home the next morning. Alaska is an incredible place, and we are thankful we had the opportunity to see a little bit more of it together!

Always love a rainbow. :)

Sooo...

We went to the fair today. TONS of fun, but I am too lazy to upload the pictures tonight, so I will blog about that later.

Speaking of lazy, I have all but stopped fixing my hair. It's kind of sad. I do it maybe once a week. Usually for church or when I know I'm about to see Eric. I used to do my hair every other day, at least. Of course, my husband used to be around a lot more, too. :)

And I was doing laundry the other day, and when I was putting my clothes away, I realized I was putting everything into the drawer I keep the clothes in that I wear when I don't care what I look like.

Does this qualify as "letting myself go"?

I would say "poor Eric", but he doesn't care, because I usually try not to let him see me in train-wreck mode. And I'm lucky enough to be married to someone who thinks I'm hot not matter how shlubby I actually look.

Anyway, I was just wondering how long before my friends nominate me for What Not to Wear...

Because I wouldn't mind that shopping spree......

:)

Verses

Oh, snap! She's blogging two days in a row!

Anyway.....

These are some Bible verses that I came across this past week. I have an NLT Bible that is divided up into daily sections so that you can read the whole thing in a year if you want to. I opened it on Monday to the section for that day, and I came across this:

Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress. My
problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! Feel my
pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins.
--Psalm 15:16-18

It stuck out to me that it was one that I should definitely hold on to, since I feel sure there will be plenty of times when I will feel exactly this way. I didn't know I would be pulling it back out by the end of the week! When I would start to feel totally overwhelmed and frustrated and just couldn't stand how mad I felt, I would read these words. "My problems go from bad to worse", and mostly "have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress".

And I know that-at this point in time-I am not going through anything that qualifies as "deep distress". Certainly not when compared to watching my husband head off into a war zone less than a year from now, and knowing that he won't be back for at least a year. Maybe not at all....

But what you have to remember is that every single situation that comes up in my life has this huge, scary, dark and horrible shadow hanging over it. Deployment is coming. It's going to be miserable, hard and lonely for me and the boys. And it's going to be very dangerous for Eric. When he goes out in the field to train, I know that he's training to fight people who are going to be trying to kill him. He mentions things to me, like some medic training he had to participate in where they filled a stryker with a lot of fake blood and had them run up and look inside, not knowing what to expect. When I asked him why they had to have the fake blood, he basically said to take away some of the shock in case he comes up to one like that in Afghanistan.

Stuff like that doesn't seem to bother him too much, and he just says it like, "Oh, yeah, and I had a ham-and-cheese for lunch....". Maybe it does and he just compartmentalizes it well...I don't know. But when I hear him say that, I get this sick feeling, because he rides in a stryker. What if somebody else comes up to a stryker and opens the door and his blood is all over the inside of it?

And then I start thinking, "they are training for that because it happens. It could happen. This could be the last year we ever spend together." And that phrase, "this could be the last..." is the one that really makes stupid little problems seem so huge. "This could be our last summer together, and he's spending the whole thing in the field", or "This could be our last anniversary, and he's going to be in the field for it". And it goes on and on...Name a situation, and it could be "the last".

Anyway......I was curious how my NIV Bible would phrase those verses, so I opened it up and read them, and then my eyes drifted over across the page to these words:

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to
help.
--Psalm 22:11

I don't know exactly what my trouble will be, but I do know that it's near. It gets nearer every day. Remembering that God is not far from me becomes the challenge. He has proven himself to me before on many occasions, and I know I should trust Him more. Maybe someday I will be able to. Until then, I hope that He will forgive my weakness and be near to me, because He is the only one who can help.