Nothing and Something

I know it has been a while, but it seems like there hasn't been a whole lot to tell.  I do realize that the blog atmosphere is one to just 'say what is going on' and 'thoughts in my head' but for some reason I can't get myself to put things on the computer.  No reason really other than I'm being lazy I guess.

Sitting on the porch waiting for Daddy to get home from work

Samantha has started pre-school and I think she likes it.  She goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:30-11:30.  It is a Lutheran pre-school so there is built in chapel time where they learn about Jesus.  They call this "Jesus time".  I wish I could tell you what she does specifically when she is at school and at Jesus Time but getting information out of her when you pick her up is not easy.  Questions like, "Who did you play with today?" and "What did you do?" are always answered with, "I don't remember" or "I don't know."  I can't even imagine how these conversations will go when she is 10.  If I ask more specific questions like "Did you talk about Jesus today?" or "Did you play outside?" I usually get some sort of answer.  The Jesus time questions have been interesting.  I ask, "Did you talk about Jesus today?" and sometimes she says no but mostly she will say yes.  The first time I asked her she said, "Yes, but he is isn't real."  What?!.  Once I thought about it, I think what she meant was that you can't see him.  But to her you are a real person or a pretend person (thing) and your category is assigned based on whether she can touch or hear you.  So we talked about the fact that Jesus lives in our hearts and just because we don't see him in front of us doesn't mean he isn't there.  We also talked about Mary being Jesus' mother which for some reason she understands and doesn't question real or pretend.  Maybe because she has a Mary figurine.  Last week I asked her about Jesus time and she told me that Jesus is behind your back.  I said, "Really?  What does he do behind your back?" Her response, "Nothing, he just sits on the couch." So Jesus time isn't sinking in just yet but hopefully soon it will be a little more meaningful. 

We took Samantha to her very first college football game on Saturday and she really had a great time.  She loved the music and the players but didn't care for the EIU mascot Billy.  Billy is a panther and apparently very scary.  Samantha has a thing about mascots or people dressed up in costumes with their faces covered.  She spent a good deal of the game talking about where "Bill" went and what he was doing.  Although I wished it could have been a Longhorn game that she went to, she had a good time.  There were jumping houses for kids during pre-game and she thought that was the best part I think.  Too bad the football team didn't play better.

Waiting for the band to march to the stadium

A nice drummer named Matt gave Samantha a pair of drumsticks to play with.  I guess these sticks were not going to make it through a full game so he gave them to her.  Very cute.

Pre-game fun!

This evening we started tumbling class and Samantha really liked it.  It was for 3 year-olds only and there were four other kids in her class.  She was a little worried about the class because the parents are not supposed to stay in the room while class is going on.  We are a distraction but I peeked around the corner and she was having a ball.  I was proud of her though.  She sat where she was supposed to and followed directions very well.  I can't wait until the next class!

Next week, she and I will travel to Houston to see Mawmaw and Puff as it has been almost 9 months since she has seen them.  It stinks that air travel is so expensive and without me having a job that makes it harder.  I haven't told Samantha yet because she will destroy me with her constant question of, "Are we ready to go to Mawmaw and Puff's?"  When I say no or we are going later, she responds with, "No, I want to go now."  I will tell her on Friday morning so that I only have to endure about 24 hours of the madness. 

Andy's job is going well and he likes EIU.  He's almost finished teaching his portion of the Jazz/Rock class which will free up more of his time for practicing.  He has a great group of students and the faculty all seem very supportive.  Samantha and I have met quite a few of them and all were very welcoming.  I still don't have a line on a job and the prospects here are pretty bleak.  I'm seriously considering going to nursing school now as that seems to be the only open job anywhere.  This isn't something that I just thought of today but is something I have toyed with since our Rochester days.  Part of me really wants to jump right in and the other part is afraid of going back to school.  Not only is it a drain on finances but it will take time away from Samantha.  I actually like staying home and going to the library/playground/story time but I just wish you could make a career out of it.  But seriously, I'm really conflicted as to what to do.  I've done a lot of thinking (and praying) and I just wish a big sign would fall in front of me and say 'Do This...'  Life would be so much easier if that happened wouldn't it?

Bad case of bedhead.

We're settling in!

We have finally started settling in to our house.  There are only two boxes that exist inside the house at the moment but if you look in the garage you will find a ton more.  It really is amazing that we have as much stuff as we do even AFTER the flood.  If we only had an attic/basement...  The house has some issues that need addressing and the landlady is working on it.  The worst probably we have is the wiring in the laundry room is corroded and if you turn on the light, it 'POPS' and trips the breaker as showers the room with sparks.  That was a lot of fun to figure out!  The rest of the issues should be easier to fix like bathroom faucets that were put on upside down (to get cold you turn it to hot) and the shower faucet is broken and needs to be replaced in the master bath.  There's no pointer to tell you where you are in the grand scheme of 'getting warmer'.

The past week really has been a blur but at least the movers showed up on time and were very nice.  It took them four hours to unload and place all of our stuff in the house.  For those of you in the military or have used movers you are familiar with the Household Goods BINGO game.  For those of you who are not familiar it is a a piece of paper with about 1000 numbers on it that correspond to stickers on your boxes and furniture.  If you are lucky, you get to play two cards because the packers have one color and the movers (the heavy lifters) have another.  Honestly, I'm sure this is just a way of placing the blame on someone for what is broken inside.  So Household Good Bingo is a fun game because the moving guys like to bring in 2-3 boxes on a dolly each time and they call out the numbers as they pass and ask you where each piece goes.  You don't want to halt the progress so you make a quick decision, and cross off the numbers that they called out only to find out that they meant WHITE 287 and not ORANGE 287.  Add on top of this the constant, "Mom what's in there? and What are they doing?" from the 3 year old and Household Good Bingo can only be won by a Mensa Society member.  The other fun game we got to play was, "This box doesn't have a tag anymore and they didn't label it game".  Every box was an adventure and we had to stop and open it to determine where it would go.  I will stop harping on the moving part (because it is in the past and I'm letting go...) as soon as I tell you that the packers were one sandwich short of a picnic.  My favorite 'labeled' box was one marked paper towels.  This box weighed about thirty pounds so I was assuming there was a case of paper towels in the box.  No, just one roll (on the top).  The game that the packers like to play, but never invite us to play, is that they throw a bunch of random stuff in the box and whatever the last thing in the box is, becomes the label.  The box I just described held odds and ends like an Iron, spray bottles, etc.  But it was labeled paper towels.  Very helpful. 

It has taken about a week to get settled in mostly because it is extremely difficult to unpack, organize, come up with a plan when a three year old wants attention and to 'do something fun'.  Doing something fun, apparently, does not include unpacking all of her toys and setting up her room.  Nor does it include such things as cleaning bathrooms, organizing the spices, or buying groceries.  So time is limited to what can be done during Toddler waking hours.

This was at about hour 3 of the movers bringing stuff in the house.  Samantha had already exhausted the options of stickers on the boxes so she decorated herself and laid on the floor.  She had to stay in the kitchen while the movers were here.

So our 'something fun' has consisted of going to a pretty awesome playground, the library, and the swimming pool.  Unfortunately, the last day of the pool season was on August 22nd which just happened to be the first day that we went.  I can see that we will be spending a lot of time there next year!

Great kid area!

We do spend at least an hour a day at the playground where Samantha has learned to climb just about everything.  She has really taken to the fireman's pole (though she still needs a little help) and anything that looks like a ladder.  This morning she found the rockwall and jungle gym and was at the top before I could get to her.  It made me nervous but she was very proud of herself!

The weather is beginning to cool off a little and the humidity has gone way down.  It was so nice the other day that Samantha and I took a lunch and ate at the picnic table after  we played.  The playground has been an interesting learning environment for the both of us.  There are always other kids around, some younger and some older, but the kids usually come with friends.  Samantha has tried to make friends, both successfully and unsuccessfully, while at the playground.  The easiest friends she has made have been with little boys as they don't really seem to care who they play with as long as you can keep up.  The little girls are very clique-ish and will often ignore Samantha when she asks them their names and one even told her NO! when Samantha asked if she wanted to play with her.  That just about broke my heart but I didn't step in (notice this is my learning environment too),  She came back to me and said, "Mom there aren't any friends here today" even though there were at least five other kids on the playground at the time.  Fortunately, about 5 minutes later another little girl named Emma came to the playground with her Grandmother and Samantha and Emma were able to play.  I was so thankful for Emma (Grandma helped push things together too!) and proud of Samantha for trying again with another friend after being rejected a couple of times that same day.  It was a good lesson but hard to watch.  On Tuesday, when we went to the playground we met a little boy named Isaiah and his little sister and his Dad.  Isaiah is Samantha's age and had a lot of fun playing with her.  However, he couldn't remember her name so he kept calling her Cowgirl Jesse from Toy Story!  It was so cute.  Hopefully we will see them again soon.

The library has been fun and Samantha has enjoyed the kid area mostly because there is a huge doll house and a train set.  We  read quite a few books while we are there but we also check some out.  Samantha was excited to bring home books and her first three selections were: Ducks Don't Wear Socks, How Do Dinosaurs Go to School, and I Feel Silly.  She was very disappointed to find out that she was not allowed to have her own library card and had to use mine.  She has to wait until she is five.  :)

Andy's job officially started on Monday and he is swamped already but I think things are going well.  The beginning of any semester is rough and it is especially tough when it is your first semester at a new school.  Not only do you have to get to know new students, but you have to become familiar with school policy, paper work, and co-workers.  Starting a new job is always stressful because you have to figure out a flow that not only works for you but those you are teaching (or managing).  However, it always works out in the end and I suspect things will begin to even out and quiet down in a couple of weeks.  Once the newness wears off.  Still no news on the job front for me so for right now, my job as Stay at Home Mom has started (and it is a lot of work!).  It's been a transition for me as well as Samantha because we aren't used to being together all day.  I think we are working out the kinks and I'm getting better at balancing "something fun" with "boring mommy stuff". 

Samantha dressed herself for the playground which included sweatpants and a purple flower in her hair.  The flower is courtesy of Miss Mary Lee.

The hair returns and it is getting ratty!  However, if you will notice she has added barrettes and other clips to fix it up.

Today is the day

Today is the day that moving and starting a new life becomes real.  Until today it just felt like we were on vacation.  Last night as we began to load the cars, the permanence of the situation settled in and I have to admit I'm a bit nervous and excited about the move.  The idea of a new adventure in meeting people, finding your way around town, and for me, finding a new job is exciting.  Sort of reinventing ourselves in a way.  I think the biggest concern I have is getting things started for Samantha.  To her, it feels like we are on vacation and I don't think she really understands what 'moving' means.  We talk about going to our new home, how exciting her new room will be, and the fact that there will be TWO full bathrooms and one of them is hers (and for guests).  She says she is excited and just when you think she starts to understand she asks when we are going to our other home.  "Which home?" I ask.  "The other one." she says.  "The one in Illinois?" I ask.  "No, the one at Fort Unroe." she says. So, I'm sure there will be many more conversations about where 'home' is.

Finger paints with Grandma

Andy starts new faculty orientation tomorrow and our stuff arrives on Tuesday (sometime).  Cable/internet/phone will be hooked up on Wednesday so we will be out of touch (except what we can get to on our phones) starting today around noon.  I will update as soon as possible!

Messy shaving cream art!

Haircuts, light switches, stairs, and storage

This is the princess hair that is worn constantly and is now a bit ratty

Did you know that a simple light switch, at toddler level, is a fun toy?  Did you also know that carpeted stairs are an amazing distraction?  Were you aware that fake princess hair attached to a headband can provide minutes of entertainment?  If you answered yes to all three questions then give yourself a pat on the back.  I was not aware of these things until we landed at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Samantha is enjoying her time here with Grandma and Grandpa and their house has provided all sorts of new opportunities for toddler hands.  At The Fort, all of the light switches were at least a foot above her head - a feature I did not appreciate until we came here.  Light on, light off, light on, light off.  I'm hoping that this particular phase will end soon.  The stairs have also been extremely fun for two reasons.  The first is they are carpeted and not steep.  The second is Grandpa works downstairs and Samantha MUST check on him.  I've relaxed my stair restrictions while we are here because they aren't nearly as treacherous as the ones at The Fort.  Plus, it is giving some needed exercise for her as the temperatures and humidity are way to high to go outside and play.

Swimming wasn't until 11am.  This picture was taken at 7:45am.  The lifevest and swimsuit stayed on until it was time to go.

We have found that a great place to hang out is the ARC and it has an indoor pool complete with a kids play area.  It has been a favorite spot all week and today we actually stayed for two hours.  This is a first and I'm hoping it wore her out.  She is finally getting to the point where she is no longer afraid of the water and actually goes all the way under now. She thinks it is swimming! 

New haircut, with a Samantha alteration.  If you look closely over her right eye (near the hairline) you can see where she 'helped'.

Samantha and I both got haircuts this week and went short!  I couldn't stand my hair as long as it was and the heat and humidity just made it worse. Both of us got professional cuts, and then Samantha decided to cut it again.  It's a long story about why the scissors were out but I left them out and this is what I get.  Fortunately, she didn't do too much damage!

The big story yesterday was that our stuff was delivered to Charleston, IL on Tuesday August 10.  The problem is that we are in Columbia, MO visiting Grandma and Grandpa and that is about 4 hours away.  The movers delivered our stuff THREE days early but because we weren't there they put it in to storage.  And then called us to tell us what they had done.  Oh and they also told us that they could deliver it on Tuesday August 17th.  Nevermind the fact that Andy starts work on the 16th and has NOTHING to go to work in.  So we went shopping today to get him through Tuesday.  We made about 20 phone calls trying to get the situation fixed, but technically the movers fulfilled their part of the contract by delivering our household goods to Charleston in the required time frame.  I guess it doesn't matter that they haven't been delivered to US.  Technicalities really. 

In the grand scheme of things, it really isn't that bad (unless everything is broken or half of it is missing) but it just adds another layer of stress to moving to a new city and starting a new chapter in our lives.  Everything will work out because there is no other option.  I just wish it would have been a bit smoother.  As of now, we will arrive in Charleston on Sunday (air mattresses in tow) and patiently await the arrival of all of our stuff.  At least now I will have plenty of time to decide where everything goes right?

Update 2010 - FINALLY

This is our final drive out of the Fort

It has been almost 9 months since I've update the blog and so much has happened!  I'm going to give you some pictures and the Reader's Digest version of the past months so that we can catch up.  I have promised many that I will update more frequently.

Day 2 of our drive

So, here we go:  Samantha was completely potty trained in about a month which I am thankful for.  So many people have horror stories of long and drawn out potty training but we were lucky, I think.  The biggest news in the past months was our decision to leave Army life and rejoin the civilians.  It was a long and stressful process but after 4 interviews, Andy was offered a job as Assistant Professor of Music at Eastern Illinois University.  He will be teaching trumpet and a jazz/rock class in Charleston, IL.   That pretty much catches up to the last two weeks where Samantha has celebrated her third birthday, we have said good bye to many wonderful people, driven over 1100 miles in two days, and are now waiting for all of our stuff to be delivered to Illinois which we will now call home.  Currently we are visiting Grandma and Grandpa Cheetham while we wait.

Our last play date with Erin and Elliot

Thank you for checking in.  I will update again soon, I promise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the week can fly by but still feel like it is the longest week ever!  It's been almost a week since I last posted and quite a bit has been going on.  First of all, we finally finished our flood claim on Sunday.  What a mess!  In the end the replacement value, by our estimate, is a little over $6000 which is less than original cost.  We lost almost all of Andy's text books, a freezer, a lawn mower, a desk and countless other items that are not too hard to replace.  However, I lost all of my high school and junior high memorabilia which I'm extremely sad about.  I never realized how quickly mold can develop.  It took less than a week to ruin just about everything down there.  On the bright side, the basement is now clean and organized.  Upward and onward right?

Samantha continues to do well with her potty training and rarely has accidents - even at night.  It has been two and a half weeks so I think that is a huge feat for a little kid.  I'm very proud, of course.  Her behavior the last 3-4 days has not been so great and she has even been acting up in school.  That has led to many 'talks' about what appropriate behavior is at school and nice ways to talk to adults.  Trying to make her understand that the emphatic "NO!" is unacceptable behavior has been difficult.  But I am happy to say that her behavior today was better and I think I may have found some of the cause of her obnoxiousness.  She now has TWO bottom molars.  Well, they aren't completely in, but the teeth have broken the skin finally.  So, I'm fairly certain that that has led to some of our behavior issues.  The rest is driven by the fact that she is two and thinks that she is about 14 and can do whatever she wants. 

Grandma and Grandpa arrived at the 'hairport' on Tuesday and are now 'biziting' us.  For those of you that don't speak toddler, she said that Grandma and Grandpa were at the airport and they are visiting us.  She is so excited to have them here!  She is very interested in Grandpa's work (composing on the piano) and when he gets up she sits down on the piano bench and starts pressing keys.  Then she tells everyone that she is 'working' and that she will be done in a minute.  She has also been Grandma's shadow and they spent most of the day going on walks and playing tea-party with the stuffed animals.  She also helped make tonight's dessert and it involved quite a bit of cool whip.  I hear that she helped herself while Grandma answered the phone!

Tomorrow of course is Thanksgiving and there are so many things to be thankful for.  I am most thankful that my family is together and that we are healthy.  We are thankful that we get to spend this time together when many families are separated.  We are blessed to have wonderful friends and we look forward to seeing the rest of our family during the Christmas holiday.  I will ask that you keep my little cousin Samuel and his family in your thoughts and prayers as he is battling a nasty central line infection and is in the hospital.  He and his family will spend Thanksgiving at the hospital but they are surrounded by caring and dedicated medical staff and for them I am thankful.  My heart is with the family I will not see this Thanksgiving but I will see you soon.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

3yr old Template

The above picture doesn't have anything to do with this post, but I thought I would show you some of the sights on base.  This is one of the oldest 'working' lighthouses in the US.

I know it has been a couple of days and I can honestly say that there really is no reason for it.  EXCEPT that I had to catch up on House and Grey's Anatomy that has been on the DVR for a while now.  So I have vegged out on the couch the last couple of nights watching recorded prime time TV and fast forwarding through the commercials.

Not a lot has been happening around here now that things have returned to normal.  Things are finally starting to get cleaned up on Fort Monroe and when I got home this evening, all of the old hot water heaters had been removed!  We look less like a junk yard now.  :)  We have also found out that our renters insurance will most likely cover the flooding in the basement and we will file a claim as soon as we figure out what is down there.  I know there are quite a few book boxes down there but other than that, who knows.  It will be like opening presents on Christmas only more damp!  We were also informed today that they will move the fuse box out of the basement and into the kitchen and that we should move things away from the wall so that the contractors can get in.  Won't this be a pretty addition to the kitchen?  I will definitely post a picture once the remodeling occurs. 

On Monday I had a parent-teacher conference with Samantha's teacher, Miss Victoria.  Samantha is doing very well and has mastered almost all of the two year goals and milestones for her class.  So beginning this week she will start the three year old template!  You are probably wondering what she is still working on and the main thing is potty training.  Her other challenge is completing a task even when there are distractions.  If you have been around Samantha for any length of time you know that she wants to know what is going on in all areas of the room at all times.  Curiosity is good but 'focus' has to be practiced.  All in all her teachers are very happy with her work and so are we.  They are very good to her at the CDC and you can tell they really care about her which is comforting to us.

Andy is coming home tonight and should arrive here in Newport News at about 10pm.  It will probably take another hour and a half to get him here but at least he is back in the continental US.  Samantha is very excited and has asked many times if Daddy is in a 'hairport'.  She wants to know if he landed in the sky, which is much better than her asking if he would land in a tree. 

The only other development this week is that my cousin's son Samuel went back into the hospital on Wednesday with a suspected central line infection.  Fortunately he is doing much better and if you have the time, please say a little prayer for Samuel and his family.  They have been through a lot this past year and this visit to the hospital was a very scary reminder.  If you would like to read about Samuel and family, you can go to www.missyknight.blogspot.com. 

I look forward to tomorrow morning when Samantha figures out that Daddy is home.  She has really missed him (me too) and we are looking forward to the weekend!  Grandma and Grandpa are coming on Tuesday and will be staying with us through the following Tuesday.  Samantha is going to have a full week ahead of her.  More soon, I promise.