Pictures from the far East...

Over the last couple of months D has sent a few pictures of his grand adventure in the great big sand box. Unfortunately he can't log into our blog himself or otherwise I'm sure he'd have much more interesting things to say with these pictures (and probably more pictures) than the captions he sends to me. For the time being I'll do the best I can. Maybe when he gets home I can convince him to sit down and do a post all about his trip.

The dates over the photos are the dates he sent them to me, not necessarily the dates he took the picture. For the ones with dates and locations - again it's the date he sent the picture to me and the location he says it was taken. If it happens to be the same date as another picture that has a location attached, please don't assume it's in the same location! I have no idea and if D didn't specify it's probably not the same location!

5 May

landed at Ranah

24 May

24 May

24 May
"Me after a long flight in Tal Afar"

24 May

30 May

30 May

10 June

"Me after 7 hours flying at 43 degrees C"

(109.4 degrees F)

10 June

17 June

"Seemingly typical day at around 1700"

Luna and T updates...

Luna - bloodwork came back and she can't safely undergo surgery, just like I kind of thought. So I can stop feeling guilty about not being able to afford it and debating whether we'd have it done even if we could afford it. So for the meantime we're going to keep her on anti-inflamatory meds to help with swelling and hope that nature helps her little knees grow some scar tissue that will actually aid in her ability to walk as normal as she possibly could. The vet would still like to address her heartworm issue, but at least is understanding that 1. can't really do that expense either at the moment and 2. even if we could life is going to be too hectic over the next couple months and heartworm treatment requires an animal to be completely immobile for several weeks. Depending on the treatment cost, it may be possible once life settles down into a "routine" of sorts. But in the mean time, we'll just continue to give her Heartguard and hope for the best. She seems to be as happy as she's ever been since I've been paying her even more attention than she normally gets. :-) Not to mention all the extra treats so I can hide her meds in them.

Baby T - I went in for my 36 week appointment on Tuesday and T is just about as head down as he could possibly get without making his grand entrance! I was pretty excited to be able to relay that news to D and nervous since this means that we're really hitting the home stretch now!! I keep having discussions with him about timing...any time after July 16th is okay with me. We'll see how well he "obeys" mommy's first request of him!

The Nursery!

Hopefully I took enough pictures and posted enough to satisfy all you curious minds out there! :-) Enjoy!

View from bedroom door.

Crib and bedding set. The mobile is handcrafted by D, finished just before he left. There is a different version of the CH 46 helicoptor representing each of the four military branches - because we're fair people. :-) Each is a scaled replica model of an actual helicoptor - D pieced together each and painted them. He'd want me to be specific about the different helicoptors but I can only remember the CH 47 (Army) and obviously, the CH 46 (Marine Corps).

When I saw this crib bedding set in the store, I knew if we had a boy I had to have it!! I chose to focus on the "Adventure Around the World" as the main theme of the room, not just helicoptors and airplanes...

Baby bag slowly getting put together for the big trip to the hospital!! And a couple puppy dog friends and T's "First Mickey Mouse" that I picked up for him at DisneyLand. When you pull his pacifier out it plays a lullaby.

View standing in front of the closet door. Slightly better picture of the mobile. It's not motorized but with the fan on and the window open it gently moves around which is really cool. The picture on the wall is of several Land Rovers chilling out in the African desert on safari. See, that's where the "Adventure" comes in...that and D is pretty excited about his Rovers. ;-) Oh and that is a little palm tree in the corner. I'm trying really hard to keep it alive...so far, so good!

Another view from the closet door. Second Rover picture, rocking chair, super awesome National Geographic map I had framed and mounted so we can stick little flags in it of all the places we've lived and visited (I haven't picked up the flags yet). And the wonderful "bookcase" my friend and neighbor H basically stained for me (I helped a little.) It came out matching everything so well considering none of his furniture is an actual "set" of any kind!

Better picture of the rocking chair and glider - a gift from my daddy.

Close up of the "bookcase" and map! The picture is one S took of D and I at the lake before he left; there's a little grey/black puppy dog bank I painted for T at the base hobby shop; the stuffed monkey is one I got at Disney's Animal Kingdom back in high school; the panda bear and teddy bear were D's when he was little; and the lamp was actually a wedding present that used to be in our room but had to move when I pulled the pack -n - play into it, so I figured it'd be a nice "night light" for the time being. :-) Some of the books are new and some are actually D's when he was little. Somewhere in our garage is box full of my old Dr. Seuss and Little Golden books that I'll have to pull out in time. The containers are full of more stuffed animals and some little toys and I think one of them has bath towels. I have a couple more containers he can use for toys later when he's bigger if he wants to move the books somewhere else. Gotta say, love IKEA for their innovative storage ideas!

Little wall space between the bedroom door and closet door. I'll be honest the little table is one that I couldn't find any other place for it and it used to be the bedside table in our guest room so...I decided to leave it in the room and it works for holding picture frames and T's first rosary, which I believe was D's first rosary. The framed picture is of D's grandfather flying a plane - I forget what kind, during his time in the MC back in the day. Pretty cool, huh?

And this is how exciting Luna and Boo thought finishing the nursery was! Luna actually has taken to laying under the dresser/changing table while I'm in the room and Boo tends to move from in front of the crib to just outside the door. I'm curious to see where their "spots" will be once T arrives!

And arrive he will any time between now and hopefully 4 weeks from now (let's all pray for nothing more than 4 weeks!!) Here's his "coming home" outfit I got from Strasburg Children! Just because my son will be born in California doesn't mean I can't dress him as though we were still in Charleston!

Cotton onesie with overcoat, little booties, hat, and blanket. And even if I have to leave the bottom unbuttoned, he will come home in this outfit, despite whatever size he may end up being! I'm getting really excited now!!

Quick Update...

I am not purposefully neglecting this blog! I've been having problems uploading my pictures to the posts. I'm working on resolving the issue and then there will be several posts probably all done on the same day!! It's been frustrating but I haven't just stopped posting, I promise.

The sweetest man ever!

My husband!! He has truly amazed me with all the ways he's found to be wonderful even from thousands of miles away...

I'll back up a little bit. A little over a month ago Boo and Luna had a bit of a run-in, literally and Luna was left with a limp leg. I gave it a week or two to heal and it never really did. While she did eventually start putting some weight on it, she still favored the hurt leg and usually would hold it up while she walked or ran. I kept putting off a visit to the vet for one reason or another, mostly because I knew it would be a few hundred dollars, at the very least. She didn't seem to be in a lot of pain so I consoled myself with that.

Then the night that I went for the 3D ultrasound I came home to discover that Boo had an apparent upset stomach. Never a good thing for two dogs in a kennel together. While bathing Luna she slipped. I knew it was because her balance was still off from the injured leg but didn't think much of it until she was out and all dried up and I placed her back down on the ground. She couldn't walk. Both of her rear legs were obviously hurting her and she couldn't decide which one to put weight on. I felt horrible and knew I had to take her into the vet, which I did the next day.

Diagnosis: she has two dislocated knees and two torn cruciate ligaments (the doggie ACL, essentially). Ouch. There's really only one solution to fix these problems - surgery. Very, very expensive surgery...

Needless to say I've been really upset because I know Luna is getting on in years, she's at least 10 if not older and I would love to do everything necessary for her, but with a baby coming, it's just not possible. Knowing that I have to make that choice makes me feel even worse. Not having my bestest friend and the one person who truly understands how I feel about my Luna here to console me...I can't even describe how much I've missed D these last couple weeks.

Lucky for me, he knows me well enough and loves me so much he's done everything he possibly could to help console me and simply be there for me. He emailed me research on her injuries that gives hope for her to have a decent activity level even without surgery, he called more than he had the whole time he'd been gone so far and he set up a wonderful gift for me:

A pregnancy massage!!

This gift was two fold as he's convinced that a relaxed me will help the baby to settle into the "perfect" head down position AND obviously I've had some stressful weeks so nothing like a massage to make a girl feel better!

I was able to take a friend along to enjoy the spa while I got my massage and then we got lunch afterwards...it was all in all a completely relaxing day! I was so relaxed, in fact, I came home and passed out until 9 p.m. when I woke up on the couch and decided to relocate to bed! Before I did finally make it into bed though, D called to see how the day had turned out and because of his call the day ended just as perfectly as possible! Here's a picture that L took of me in the Resort/Spa lobby - I'm just shy of 35 weeks here:


As for my Luna? I'm taking it one day at a time and we're going to get her some blood work done to see if she could even safely have surgery. There's no reason for me be upset over something I can't afford for her if she couldn't even have the surgery anyway. In the mean time I'm just protecting her as much as possible from Boo and pampering her a little more than usual. ;-)

Our New Addition!

A 1980 Land Rover Safari!!

I asked my friend L's 4 year old son which car did he think was Mr. D's? He said "the blue one...and the white one's yours." Yes, yes that would be nice wouldn't it? It's a Lexus. *sigh* Doesn't matter...if and when I get a new car (and I do mean I, not D) it'll be a new Range Rover or Land Rover of some sort...you know. When we hit the lottery we never actually play!

The story behind this totally cool vehicle: it's long and complicated so I'll save you all the many details. Let's just say that D found this exactly 10 days after deploying. It finally just arrived today. I have learned many lessons in Power of Attorney's, purchasing a vehicle, attempting to sell a vehicle, registering a vehicle, etc...etc...

I can sum up the 2.5 month crazyness in two statements:

1. I love my husband very, very much.

2. Happy Birthday D!

34 Week 3D Ultrasound...

A couple weeks ago at my 32 week appointment I found out that Baby T was in a breech position. While this wasn't the end of the world, it's always best for baby and mom if baby comes out head first. My nurse/midwife told me not to worry, he had plenty of time to flip around but I should do some "Breech Tilts." Well those consist of laying at an angle upside down to encourage the baby to flip. They're not comfortable. I can happily say that until now I really haven't had any serious discomfort in my ribs because of Baby T. Flipping myself upside down for 20-30 minutes at least once or twice a day for the last couple weeks has caused some pain in my ribs! My nurse/midwife told me it'd feel like the baby wanted to come out of my throat...he wasn't kidding (and I did doubt his knowledge in this area as he's a man and obviously has never experienced it firsthand.)

Anyway I decided that I was going to go ahead and see if Baby T had flipped back over. If he had, I could stop doing something uncomfortable and all stress over a possible c/section could cease. I knew I would get a discounted visit at the same 3D ultrasound place D and I went to when we found out T was a boy so I took them up on their "return visit" offer.

In addition to finding out T is mostly head down, he's a little off center still but in the general "correct" position, we got these images that I'm really excited to share - provided any of you actually read everything above before looking at his chunky face!!

Apparently he's comfortable like this since it took a little bit of proding to get his foot and hand out of his face so we could see it!

There it is!! Look at those CHEEKS!!

It's harder to see on this still b/w but on the DVD I got you can actually see the hair "waving" around when she proded my belly...it was really cool. I decided that, for me, the old wive's tale that a baby with a lot of hair causes more heartburn/acid reflux must be true! I can't wait to see what color it is!

I invited my friend and neighbor H and her daughter M along to see Baby T with me. I thought it would be something nice to share with them since they've been a big help getting T's room together! I was really glad I had good friends with me!! It was amazing to see his face and how much he really is a baby now! And it was a little scary seeing that he appears to be a bit of a chunky monkey...the ultrasound tech said that all babies look a little chunkier on the ultrasound than in person but I think she was just trying to be nice. :-) We'll just have to see in a few weeks!!