Sweet Kisses

It's so amazing how much of a "little boy" Garin has become. He understands so much of what is said and wants to know about everything. Everywhere we go he points and chatters. He has his own little language, and I just can't wait until he's able to enlighten us about his world!

At meals, he's learned to sign "more" while saying "moh!", he also signs "drink" and "all done". This definately helps us figure out what he wants! Although sometimes "moh" doesn't mean he wants more of what's on his plate!

What I love is when we're ready to go outside to play, I tell him to go get his shoes, and he runs and gets them! He'll grab them and run straight to the chair where I put them on. And sometimes, I don't need to tell him. I'll just say, "time to go outside!" and off he goes for his shoes! Or if HE decides it's time to go outside, he'll run and get them.

My favorite, though, is that he knows what kisses and hugs are, and he loves to give them to his momma! Sometimes it's a good smack, but he still gets that mouth wide open from time to time, as you can see from the picture!!

Just a few tidbits from everyday life!

God bless!

Missing Daddy

Everytime I look at this picture, it just makes me want to cry. This is our first "family" deployment - B was deployed twice before Garin was born, but it adds a whole new element once you throw children in the mix. It's easy for adults to understand and deal with being separated, but children don't understand why mommy and daddy are gone. Living with my sister and her children, ages 6-12, I realize that even being 12 and able to "understand" doesn't make it any easier. My brother-in-law has been gone for 7 months - and it'll be 3 until he's even back for a visit, 8 until he's home for good. As much as "for good" means in the army.

It's a little bit easier for B and I than my sister. B is gone for 12 months, not 15, and Garin really is too young to "miss" his daddy. I think it's probably hardest for B. He's so concerned that Garin will forget who he is while he's gone. It's so hard for him to hear me tell stories about what Garin is doing. On one hand, he loves to hear about his son and how much he's doing. But on the other hand, it's killing him that he's missing these precious moments. What keeps him strong, is knowing and really believing that he is doing what God has called him to do, and that what he's doing is making a difference.

I know that Garin won't forget his daddy. When I put the phone up to his ear and he hears his daddy's voice, a HUGE grin covers his face. Hopefully he'll soon figure out that he should talk BACK to his dad, not just listen. He'll pick up the cell phone when no ones on it and chatter like no one's business, but put dad on the other end and not a peep! Fortunately with my computer back up and running, we should be able to do some video chat so he can see his daddy, and B can see him.

It's going to be rough knowing that Brianna will be four months old before B gets to see her on his mid-tour. I think that's going to be really difficult. She'll be almost 9 months old when he gets home. On the bright side, that's the age where they really start to show more interest in their fathers anyways. I remember how disappointed B would be when Garin was a few months old and only wanted his mommy. Hopefully Brianna will welcome her daddy home with open arms.

I just stay strong, praying for my husband. I know it's rough for him there. I don't think we realized just how hard it would be for him to be away from his family so long. On the bright side, this should be the only time in his career we'll be separated for a year - shorter deployments yes, but probably not a year. I feel so bad for families like my sister's who serve in the army, where they're gone for 12-15 months, home for 12, almost half of which is spent at training, before they're gone for another 12 months. It's no wonder that the divorce rates in those units is as high as 80%.

Please keep our military families in your prayers. And thanks for listening.

God bless.

Back in Action!

Wow, finally! I've been offline so long because I had some major internet issues in my room. Turns out my wireless adapter was wonky, so I finally went out today and bought a new one, so I'm back in action!!

Not that I've just been sitting around! Wow, it's been a busy summer. Living in such a houseful is definately not dull! My sister's been going crazy getting all the homeschooling stuff ready for the year. The final shipment arrived today, she's got it all organized out in the homeschooling room (AKA, the garage) and on the kids' desks and they "officially" start school on Monday, though she's been having them do assessments to see where they'll start. It's really quite neat, it's actually a public charter school using K-12 curriculum, but they do it at home. So it's kind of a mix of benefits, they all have a teacher assigned that they meet with once a week to go over problem areas, the rest of the time they work at home with their mom and online. The curriculum seems really neat. Almost makes me wish I had kids in school! But I'm not quite ready to rush there yet!

Well, I'm 32 weeks pregnant as of today. I can't believe I'm in the last 8 weeks...well, 6-10 weeks most likely! It doesn't seem like I should be almost ready to give birth again! But then, I think of how much has happened in seven months, and it seems like longer! Plus, I really don't feel as big as I did with Garin. I don't know, what do you think? The top picture is me at 30/31 weeks this time around, and the bottom is me at 30 weeks with Garin. I feel like I'm not as big right now, but maybe I am!!

I can't believe how big Garin's getting. He's definately past the baby stage and is fully a little boy now! He's starting to expand his vocabulary a little more ("no", "dog", "ball", "bird", and "more" making up the bulk of what he has to say), he talks like CRAZY...too bad we don't understand him! He loves pointing out things and jabbering on and on about them. He runs around, trying to keep up with the big kids in the house. It really has been nice to have his cousins around, they are really good with him and he just loves playing with them!

Well, I'm going to catch up on some e-mail and start downloading some pictures now that I'm back online. Here are some of my favorite Garin pictures from the last few weeks!

Playing in the waves out at Bellows Beach Park

Family pictures on Independence Day - my mom, nephew & his girlfriend came out to visit for 2 weeks...Aren't the boys cute with the matching shirts???

Hey, I'm a big boy!!

Family picture up on Kole Kole pass

That's all for now, I should be keeping updated with more posts!! God bless!

Went a LITTLE Crazy

Okay, so girls are SOOO dangerous to shop for. We've got a gymboree outlet here and I went NUTS. I could have bought the whole store! Oh my gosh, I had to remember she'll only be wearing the outfits for a couple months. I'm REALLY in trouble when she gets to Garin's age and is wearing outfits for much longer!

I bought five 0-3 month outfits and five 3-6 month outfits. Tell me I'm not TOO crazy. ;)

So here are all the cute little outfits I bought yesterday!

And I've replaced my desk chair with a balance ball. I figure it'll help me work on my posture and get that little girl in the right position. Hey, anything to make labor easier, right? September 24th is looking closer and closer!

SO much catching up to do

Story of my life. Well, I've definately been busy lately. B came here for what was supposed to be the holiday weekend before he deployed. We had a wonderful weekend, went to the beach, watched the sunset, played with Garin. Garin and I took him to the airport on Tuesday for his 10:55pm flight and said goodbye. It was very difficult, knowing it would be at least 6 months before I saw him again. Little did I know...

At 2 am I got a call from B telling me he was back at the airport because an hour into the flight something went wrong with the door. Well, I happily went and picked him up at the airport. Since that was the last flight of the day, and it wouldn't be until the next afternoon before another flight was heading out, he missed his deployment flight. His unit got everything figured out and, oh bummer, the next deployment flight wouldn't be for another week! So we got an extra six days together and made the most of it!!! I got to show B most of the island, spent an evening walking around Waikiki together, and got some great ideas for what we'll do when he's home on his 2 weeks R&R.

Here are some of the highlights of our time together:

B & Garin playing on the sand at Bellows Air Station on the eastern side of the island:

These pictures are all from the north west corner of the island - that whole area is without road access, they do a lot of filming there for movies and tv. Jurassic Park was filmed in that area, and much of Lost is filmed around there. We parked the car and hiked a little ways to take some pictures.

Beautiful, isn't it?

B was also in town when I went in for my ultrasound, and to our great joy, we found out that Garin is going to have a little sister! Brianna Alette is due September 24th and is looking to be as beautiful as her brother! Here are the pictures!

Waving Hello!

These pictures are from Kokololio Beach on the northeastern shore area of the island. Amazing what you see just driving around!

My next post I'll talk about saying goodbye...

God bless you, friends!

Two Moms for Mother's Day

What a day. As you may know, my sister and I are living together for the next year while our husbands are off to war. So there are two mothers, five children (six in a few more months), and one house. It's an interesting dynamic. Garin's cousins are Lauren (six), Adam (seven), Nathan (ten), and Austin (eleven).

Needless to say, there's some culture clashing as we test out the territory. Heather and I come from very different household management styles. I like things orderly, clean-as-you-go (aka - pick up after yourself), and clutter-free. She's a little more relaxed. Having four children close in age and moving I think eight times in six years admittedly makes it very hard to keep a system. But then, this is the girl who would pay me five bucks to pick up her room when she was a teenager. =) It's simply a case of different priorities - she doesn't want to be constantly cleaning and she wants her children to take responsibility for their chores. I tend to be more active and if there's something to be done, I do it, and I also want children picking up and doing chores - but I want them to be doing things correctly, not haphazardly.

So of course there's going to have to be some compromising and feeling out what the best system is. I understand that she doesn't want me to be either constantly picking up after her children (and her) or being the "bad guy" and getting after them. But I need to feel like that if I'm not going to do it - it's going to be done. I can't just leave dishes in the sink all day. Just not in my nature. ;-) Plus the whole nesting/pregnancy thing doesn't help matters. Seriously, I'm like the energizer cleaning bunny. If I take a step back, I have to admit, I probably look a little frantic picking up everything all the time. It's probably pretty funny. Me running around in a dress, barefoot, pregnant, washing dishes and folding clothes. Fifties flashback anyone?! I can see how she doesn't want that picture stuck in her three sons heads!

So anyways, it was an interesting mothers day. I talked with "B" on the phone quite a bit today. He was having a rough day. Sundays were always a relaxing day for us - a family day. He misses going to mass with us and playing with Garin. I miss having someone help me herd Garin in mass! But seriously, it's really hard without him.

Garin slept until 6:30 today, which is amazing - he's had a very gradual adjustment to the time change. We snuggled in my bed for a bit and then went downstairs for breakfast (banana, oatmeal & yogurt for both of us), and then played for a while. Then his 9 am nap. We were about 20 minutes late for mass, which I HATE, but I am not willing to wake the sleeping baby from his nap. It's been such a struggle to get the nap routine on track. And unfortunately, there's no other Catholic parishes nearby that I can hit a later mass when it happens. Such is life.

Today's mass was good - it is pentacost sunday. The readins were: Acts 2:1-11; Psalms 104: 1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; and John 20:19-23. I find myself wanting to do a closer study of Acts - it's been such a long time since I've really read it. What an amazing time in the church's history. Can you imagine how it much have felt, to be receiving the Holy Spirit in such a physical manner - seeing the tongues of flame and realizing you could understand everything, no matter what language you spoke?! Despite all the persecution, the church really grew. And the reading in John was when Jesus first appeared to the disciples - on ressurection Sunday. They were at their lowest point, wondering what to do next. What a change! In just a few short weeks these men and women went from fearful followers hiding in a room thinking that their savior was gone, to being passionate and fearless professors of the Good News! Certainly Christ changed these men.

My prayer today is that I will have the pentacost passion for serving God. 1 Corinthians speaks of how there are many parts, but we all serve one God, and one Holy Spirit runs through us. I know I have the Spirit of God in me, and he has called me for a great and wonderful purpose.

And this mother's day, I know I have the greatest purpose. Right now I have two lives given to my care to raise for God's glory. As I watch my son grow and discover the world, and feel the life within me begin to move, I know that God has given me a very awsome responsibility - to help shape and mold these lives to know and serve him.

I always thought I understood a mother's (and parent's) love. I though I knew what love is. But only when I became a parent did I really start to understand God's love for us. When I hold that little boy in my arms, and kiss his head, I would give the world for him. He's so incredibly precious to me. I've never known love like that, even in the greatest stretch of my imagination. My appreciation for God's love for ME, has really become truer as I start to understand what unconditional - agape - love really is. It really is humbling.

Eclectic thoughts today, I know. But hey, this is what life is really about. And isn't it amazing? God bless you, my friends.

Starting from Scratch

Wow - so there's been SO much going on in our lives lately! I started a new blog from scratch (some of you probably wondered why the other one got wiped out - LONG story). Basically I'm just focusing on Garin and I since my dear husband doesn't like to have any personal information on the web. =) So hence, no last names and nothing about what he's up to. But lots about Garin and I! Which is probably all you're looking for anyways. ;)

So it's been a WILD ride the last few months! We started out our cross-country trip after packing up our house in February intending to visit lots of friends and family. We got a few weeks into the traveling and my husband's job timing got changed, so we had to make some adjustments. And Garin decided that he was sick and tired of traveling (literally, we drove out to California - for the second time in less than a month - and he was running a 102 fever). It was WAY too much car seat time for him. We realized it was a little much to expect him to survive another 6 weeks of driving and visiting, so I decided to head on out to Hawaii instead of finishing my visits.

I was REALLY bummed about that - I hadn't gotten the chance to visit my dad and my friends Carolynn and Alicia like I planned. =( But if there's one thing you learn about being a parent - it's flexibility!!

So boo-hoo, now I'm in Hawaii! It's been a pretty wild ride. I'm living with my sister and her four children while our men are away, so there's always some excitement! It's REALLY good for both of us though. It's tough enough being alone - I'm so glad we have each other to help and support!

And especially with the biggest news! Garin is getting a little brother or sister sometime in September! We think... I have my first appointment with the doctor tomorrow - I'm REALLY hoping to get into the midwife program here, but it really depends on if they have slots open. Hopefully she'll be able to narrow down my due date a little. Our ultrasound isn't scheduled until June 2nd! I'm so impatient! I'm really excited to find out if we're having a boy or girl! Because I'm ready to start shopping!! lol

So that's pretty much the big update - packed as short as I could make it! I promise next time they'll be more pictures and less words!

Meanwhile, I'll share some pictures of our trip to the beach. I LOVE Hawaii! My little guy is going to look like such a tan little surfer dude by the time we leave!

Our Little Surfer Dude with his hair blowing in the wind!

Yeah, that's right, I built this castle.

This next sequence of pictures is HYSTERICAL!!! At least I think so! =)

Let's see what my cousins are doing...

Whoa!

Hmm, maybe I'll just lay here for a while and watch the waves...

That just cracks me up!

My favorite picture!!

Now THAT was fun!

Alright, that's it for now! I'm sure I'll have many more pictures in the weeks and months to come!