Veteran's Day 2012: Sacrifices

What does Veteran's Day mean to me, you ask? Well, I can tell you that it packs a lot more meaning today than it did a year ago. This year I am really aware of the sacrifices that Veteran's and their families make.

So, what exactly is this sacrifice?

To me and our family this sacrifice is....

A husband who has to leave the arms of his wife. It is a daddy who has to leave his baby boy, his first son, his first child. It is hearing his first words on a video and not in person. It is seeing his child learn to sit, to grab objects, to hold his bottle on his own, and to stand on a video or in pictures rather than teaching him in person. It is someone who spends Thanksgiving and Christmas looking at pictures of his family, his heart hurting from missing them. It is far and few between phone call dates and delayed video "I love yous" rather than whispering it your ear. It is closing your eyes and imagining you are touching your loved ones instead of being able to touch and hold them for real.

A wife who had to watch her husband drive away, praying for his safety. It is nightmares at night that stem from your worry. It is an e-mail instead of a real conversation. It is raising a child alone. It is missing your partner with every single ounce of your body and soul. It is being terrified to watch the news but the inability to pry your eyes away. It is hiding your pain with forced smiles. It is keeping yourself as busy as possible to keep your mind from thinking of how much you miss him.

Each and every Veteran and their families have a different story. So please, go out of your way this Veteran's Day to thank a Veteran for their service and for their sacrifices.

June 21, 2012 - Saying goodbye.

Happy Halloween from Gavin the Lion!

Look at me, keeping up with the blogging...I think I deserve a piece of Halloween candy ;) HA!

Happy Belated Halloween! This was Gavin's first Halloween and it was so nice out that we even did a little "trick-or-treating!" And by that I mean I drove Gavin around to show off how cute he was in his costume and if I scored some candy it was a bonus!

I have been thinking about his Halloween costume for months. Literally. I'm not even kidding, I was probably thinking about it before he was born. I had gone through several ideas, some better than others. I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to find the fluffiest, most obnoxious costume out there. I finally came across the perfect one, a lion costume! Gavin actually tolerated it pretty well. I tried it on him after it arrived in the mail, and at first he was just confused about it. He tried to eat the mane (shocking and he eats everything these days) and looked a bit terrified. When we put in on the day of Halloween though, he tolerated it pretty well. I think he knew that he needed to put a show on and that he was the cutest lion out there!

Here are some pictures from Halloween, 2012:

9 Months

This month has been one of very big mile-markers! Gavin is full blown straight up crawling and starting to pull himself up to standing! He also got his first tooth last week, I just can't believe how big he is getting and how fast he is growing.

I started substitute teaching at the school this month which has been great, which also means that Gavin has been spending more time with the Grandparents! Now that he is on the move, he totally wears me out during the day! He is constantly on the go, even if you are holding him, he is such a wiggle worm.

We had a check-up with Shriners on his foot and everything is still looking good. Gavin will be wearing the boots, 23 hours a day until December, and then from there it will be at night and nap time. I am not sure how long he will have to wear them at night for. I will be asking that question in December. We might have to find a doctor down in California for him to get follow-up treatment with, but we also might be able to see our doctor at Shriners when we come up for visits to see family. That all depends on how his progress is going and whether or not they can teach me how to measure him for new sized boots...

Ryan is doing good, nothing too new to report, which is also good! We are over the halfway mark and him coming home seems to be the only thing both of us can think of. I know that the time will go by fast. We have started our process of getting our housing set up for when we move back down. We have decided to live on base this time around, as we can get really close the ocean! I think that it will be a better drive to work for Ryan too. Mileage wise, I think it might be farther for him to drive to work, but traffic/time wise, we are thinking it might be about the same if not a little bit better.

On Thursday night, I had my first encounter with an unwanted creature in my house (other than bugs). I was watching TV that evening after Gavin had gone to bed and I saw a small little brown thing scurry from our office into the living room. I knew what it was instantly but I kept telling myself it wasn't what I thought it was...then it moved from beside the couch to under the TV and I got a full view of it. It was a mouse. Gavin was sleeping, so I was telling myself not to scream and mid thought I scream came out, as I was mid-air jumping onto the coffee table. I didn't even know what to do. I didn't have any mouse traps set up in the house and one, even if I had the guts to try and catch it myself, what would I catch it with? Well, since Ryan was conveniently in Afghanistan, I called my dad to come up with a solution. He came up (at 11:00pm at tonight mind you) to try and catch it, but it got away from us and was hiding in the unknown. Well, the only thing worse than knowing you have a mouse in your house is not knowing where the mouse is...I packed up shop and Gavin and I went and slept at my parents house until we had the appropriate game plan. The next day my dad set up traps and we caught it the next night! When I came back up to the house I saw that it had been all over the house, there was mouse poop in Gavin's room, the living room and kitchen ( even on the counters.... GROSS!). So I spent most of the day Saturday cleaning and disinfecting the best I could.

I've gone so long between posting on here that I have forgotten so much that has happened this month...I'm sure that I will be coming back to update this and also to add photos!

Wedding Weekend

Gavin and I spent the past long weekend in Ellensburg for my brother-in-law, Chris' wedding, to my now sister-in-law Amber! [Update: by last weekend I mean the weekend of October 13th]

The wedding was amazing, so personal and unique! The officiant was hilarious and luckily the rain held out until everyone got inside for the reception. Amber was a beautiful bride and Chris was handsome in his dress blues (are they called that in the Army?...I'm not sure).  As at every reception, I probably had a few too many drinks, but at least I wasn't alone... :) There was lots of dancing and lots of catching up with family and friends.

The highlight was to see all the family that I haven't seen in forever and many of those Gavin hadn't met yet. I also got to meet the newest baby on Ryan's mother's side, baby William. He is five months old and I believe weighs more than Gavin, and he is SO FREAKING CUTE. I'm not kidding though, he is cute enough to eat. Hmm, although, another moment was a certain someone performing the moon walk... ;)

Gavin was a champ the whole weekend. He willingly was held by anyone and everyone. He was happy and had a blast "dancing" at the reception. He slept pretty good for the most part...it is always difficult to keep routine when traveling.

We tried really hard to get a live stream of the wedding/reception to Ryan but unforuntetly it didn't work out, at least for very long. But I took video of the wedding and sent him video as soon as the ceremony was over.

I'll be uploading photos all at once and will add them back to this post later!

Gavin Jump-Up

Ok, so first of all, forgive my embarrassing laugh...I couldn't control myself.

Second of all, this is the funniest, cutest thing that Gavin has done to date. I have never laughed so hard at something he has done until today. He was looking at me like I was crazy. But seriously. SO FUNNY!

Enjoy:

http://youtu.be/WqyukclYtvs

Just another week...

Look at me! I am actually posting within a week instead of like...oh three?

This week has been a much slower pace which has been really nice! I have only left Odessa twice!

On Tuesday I went up to Spokane to get fingerprinted so that I could work at the school. I am going to substitute teach at the elementary and high school, which will be a very different experience but I think I'll like it! Before coming up to Odessa I knew that I wanted to find a job, part-time, just so I could feel like I was doing something and being productive. Don't get me wrong, I love that I am able to stay home with Gavin, but I also like to feel like I am contributing...after working basically since I was 15, it's very difficult not to. SO my last step to get my certification was to go up to Spokane and get fingerprinted at the ESD (a division of the Washington Superintendents office?) and so today turned in my application, hopefully I get some subbing jobs soon!

Gavin has been adjusting really well to his new boots. This time around has been MUCH more successful! They might delay his mobility slightly, but he is really getting around well! He is able to "Army" crawl from one side of the room to the other. Baby-proofing here I come!!

Ryan is doing very well. He recently switched shifts so that he is now on night crew. So far so good. Obviously it is hard to adjust and there are sleepless days/nights, but overall it sounds like he is enjoying working the nights a little more than the days. I believe this is because it is a little more relaxed during the nights than it was during the days. He says that they can work at their own pace and on their own time, which makes things much more enjoyable. We are nearly halfway through the deployment!

We are getting ready for Chris and Amber's wedding, which is in a few weeks! I got Gavin's outfit and it is SO AWESOME, I can't wait to put him in it. I'm pretty impressed with my idea, not to brag or anything...Mine on the other hand...we're still working on it...

I don't really have much to write about this week, as we have just been relaxing and finally taking a little break from running around! I'm not going to lie, I am already getting stir-crazy. I might need to go buy some art supplies and start crafting or start making my Christmas gifts for people because I am gonna go a little nuts! I have found that the only way I keep from going mad and missing Ryan is to keep extremely busy. When I don't have time to think about how much I miss him, the easier it is for me to deal with.

Well, anyways...that's been our week!

Here is a link to some pictures from this week...they are on facebook, but hopefully you should be able to view them even if you do not have a facebook account (if you can't, just let me know and I'll upload up onto here, my phone is just being a bit slow on the upload today).

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.707122868390.2109216.44903369&type=1&l=214a419b8d

And here are some pictures from last week: I went over to Tacoma for a Benefit Breakfast at WWEE and the smoke near Ellensburg was horrific. I couldn't believe how bad it was! These pictures don't even do it justice as to how bad it was.

 Just west of Ellensburg near Indian John Hill. 

 Right before Canyon Road, you can hardly even see the town. 

 Who's sleepy? This boy!

 Finally getting quite a bit of hair!

I couldn't remember if I posted this last week...Gavin's first football game!

Gavin's Surgery...& Much more! A little overdue. Oops!

Well, here we are, three weeks later and I am just now getting to updating on Gavin's surgery. He already has his cast off, which he had on for three weeks after the operation. He is wearing the "boots" that have the bar connecting his to two feet. He is tolerating them a lot better than the first time, however it is still is an adjustment for him. He doesn't love them, that his for sure!

But, just a run down of the surgery...

We arrived at 6am to check-in, Gavin got his little hospital gown. Luckily, Ryan was able to call and Gavin got to talk to daddy for a little bit before the surgery. There was one little baby that was scheduled before Gavin, so they called for Gavin around 10:00am. I was able to go back to the holding room to hand him off to the surgery nurse. The operation lasted around 20 minutes and he was in recovery for another 20 min. When he came back, he was very confused and scared. As soon as he saw me and the grandparents he started to calm down a little bit. It was pretty heartbreaking though, his little cry was so hard to listen to without crying. But I held it together!! After about another 20 min, he had a bottle and was feeling MUCH better. We were out of there by 11:30am. He was a little bit cranky the first day but then after that you would have no idea that he had just had an operation.

This Thursday we took him in to get his cast off and then to get his new boots! Those three weeks went by REALLY fast!

The week after Gavin's surgery, September 5th-11th, Gavin and I went to Texas to visit a good friend that I met down in California! We met at work, and her husband is also in the Marine Corp and was also deployed to Afghanistan (they didn't know each other before Sarah and I met and do not work together and are stationed at different bases in Afghanistan). She is staying with her parents while her husband is gone and they live in Temple, TX. We flew into Austin, TX which is a pretty cool town! It was shockingly liberal which I didn't expect in Texas. The first day we went and toured the Capitol building, it was huge! Also, part of it is underground which is unique. I also got to see the campus of University of Texas which was also pretty cool. That night we went out to eat at a really cool Mexican restaurant that had an amazing view of a lake. Unfortunately however, I got food poisoning and was completely wiped out the entire next day. I have literally never been so sick in my entire life. I couldn't move without throwing up, I didn't have the strength to hold Gavin and I was so sick I couldn't sleep. All I could do was lay on my back. It was so miserable. Thank goodness Sarah and her mother were there to help with Gavin!!!

We drove down to San Antonio and we got to tour the Alamo! It was pretty cool however a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. We also walked around the River Walk and got a tour on the water. That was really awesome. The river is below the street level, so it stays really cool, and there are a ton of restaurants and shops to check out. So cool! We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. On our way back up to Temple, we picked up some really yummy Texas BBQ for dinner. They definitely know how to do it down there :)

I had such a blast. It was also really nice to talk with someone who is going through the same thing that I am now. I've missed her, and we had such a good time! The only bummer was that I was so sick! Oh and that it was SO FREAKING HOT! It cooled down half way through, to the 90s from the 109s....Haha! I couldn't live there, in that heat, that's for damned sure!! It was fun to visit though, I can now check that off of my bucket list.

When we got back, we had Deutchesfest right away. That was fun, but obviously I was pretty wiped out come Sunday. Then, that next Wendesday (the 19th) I went over to Tacoma to help my friend Sophia with a fundraiser at the place I used to work (where she now works). It was their benefit breakfast and 30th anniversary celebration. The fundraiser went well, I believe they raised around $57,000 (in less than one hour!) and it was so awesome to actually enjoy the event this year, rather than be the one planning and running around like crazy! I then headed right back home, and the very next day I was back in Spokane for Gaivn's cast removal.

Needless to say, I am not going to be in a car for as long as I can! I am SO wiped out!!!!

Now...if I can stay awake long enough to post pictures from the last three weeks.

 Gavin got to talk with daddy before going into surgery.

 Gavin was being a serious mommy's boy before surgery. I think he knew something was happening.

Gavin right after he got out of surgery. 

 Gavin and his long horns!

 The UT stadium!

 The view from the restaurant in Austin, TX (before the sickness of 2012 happened)

 Haha! How Texas views itself...

 Our hotel in San Antonio was just across the street from the Alamo.

Gavin and mommy at the Alamo.

 Gavin's version of brass knuckles.

 Gavin and I at the Alamo.

 Gavin and I at the Alamo (the front).

Sarah's dog, Dallas, LOVES Gavin. So Gavin was taking a little "pony" ride on him!