Falling Behind...

Wow! Is it Monday already? I’m having a hard time keeping up! =) Please accept my sincere apologies for falling behind (not only on the blog, but with my e-mail and phone calls as well.) I have indeed fallen behind – please forgive me! Things have been especially busy lately.

Speaking of busy, I sadly don’t have much time this morning, so I’m going to type really really fast and try to hit all the highlights on what’s going on. Maybe once we get to Germany (if we are able to afford Internet – I hear it’s expensive to have phone or internet there) things will slow down and I’ll be able to catch back up again. =)

Tomorrow we are getting our passports. Thankfully, the Army provides them to us for free. Otherwise it would be almost $300 for all of us! Yikes! So, anyway, we have an appointment for that tomorrow morning. I still need to gather all the items they require you to have in order to submit the passports, which may be a fun thing to try to do since we have never really settled down completely from moving in January. I do hope I can find everything they want! The funny thing to me is that Luke has to get his picture taken for the passport. When he’s like 8 and we fly somewhere overseas – he’s not going to look like the toddler he does now! =) And had I known we would be taking passport pictures, I may have waited to dye my hair until after the photo’s were taken. Will they believe I’m really a blonde? Hehehehe…

In addition to getting our passports, there is an overwhelming amount of meetings and appointments and briefings that need to get done/take place before we leave. There are medical/dental appointments for all of us, deployment briefings, transportation meetings and appointments, finance, JAG, out processing, contacting the unit, finding a sponsor – and the list goes on. On the civilian side, we need to figure out what we’re doing with all of our stuff, our cars, our pets, ourselves! =) We may need to negotiate our lease here, and then of course all the fun of canceling the electric, gas, cable, water/trash/sewer, cell phones, and the list goes on…We also need to figure out where we’ll fly out of? How long will we be in Germany before Chris’s unit deploys? Will we need to ship a car and some household items? Will we live on post or look for something off post? And still the list goes on – I must stop typing it all because I’m starting to twitch! =) I guess the hard part of it all (I know you’re all tired of me complaining, sorry…) is that there is still so much unknown…and so much of the above depends on that unknown. It’s hard not to think “If only we knew when we were flying out so we could start looking for good ticket prices now…” or “Since you’ll be deploying on this date, this is what we will need to take with us…” But I’m learning (over and over again) that we cannot dwell on not knowing, we need to do what we can now and we’ll know when we need to know. It’s a daily surrender though. God must be teaching me patience! =)

This weekend we’re going to try to make another trip to Maryland, as long as everything works out with Chris’s class schedule and we’re able to get the car worked on (it’s time for a much needed brake replacement.) We really really hope we can go though! My parents are coming to visit us at the end of May and I can’t wait! I haven’t seen them since December and I am SOOOO excited to be able to visit together again!

Luke is doing well – growing daily as usual! =) He has turned into our little toddler. I can’t believe that in a month, he’ll be a year old! Where has the time gone! We’re not sure exactly what we’re doing for his first birthday yet, but I do know I’m getting a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, stripping him down to his diaper, putting a drop cloth on the floor and taking lots of pictures with him covered in his birthday cake. =)

He is almost solely walking now and rarely crawls anymore. I need to figure out a way to convince him to crawl so I can at least get it on video! Just a few days ago, he discovered the game of chase. It’s pretty funny. Chris or I will run to one side of the room, and he’ll waddle-run after us. Then we’ll turn and start chasing him and he’ll do a 180 and book it away from us laughing all the way. Even Riley has played a riveting game of chase with Luke - which is good since she’s always been a little skittish around Luke. They both seemed to enjoy it immensely though. It’s amazing how quickly they learn. A week ago, I tried to play this chase game with him and instead of waddle-running away, he would run towards me. =)

Now that he’s walking consistently, we’re letting him walk (while holding on to one of our hands) to the car, or on the sidewalk, or in the store, etc. Before he would take a few steps and instantly drop down to his knees to crawl. If we were inside that would be fine, but I didn’t want him to scratch up his little knees. And since there is more sand and cement here then grass, we just carried him when we were all outside. Now though, he loves walking around. He’ll find a leaf or stick and just stomp on it over and over – I don’t know why he does it, but it’s pretty funny!

Still no teeth. He’s becoming our toothless wonder. Surely he’ll start teething soon? I’m ok with him waiting until we’re done with nursing…but still, not a single sign of a tooth.

He’s picked THE stuffed animal. He takes it to bed, to his play area, to his highchair…and don’t try to take it away from him, or he’ll throw a fit. He’s chosen a cute little bunny that Grammy and Grandpa Scott sent him for Easter. I go in to get Luke after his nap, and there he stands in the crib clutching Bunny. When he goes down for a nap or for bed, he reaches instantly for Bunny and hugs him close. When he’s in his play area he carries him around. So far, we can still go to the store without Bunny, but I don’t know how long that will last!

Last week, Luke and I went to the mall because I was in desperate need of a few light-weight summer clothes. Blue jeans in Georgia’s 90 degree weather just wasn’t cutting it. And I realized that all of a sudden I’ve become the women in the dressing room of a store saying things like, “Put that hanger down,” “Stop licking the mirror,” “Don’t, Stop, No, Leave it there, Put it back, I mean it, Didn’t I just tell you…what are you doing? Weren’t you listening to me? I told you if you climbed under the chair you’d hit your head, don’t put my shoe in your mouth, do you know where that’s been? Fine, take my shoe; just let me try these clothes on real quick…” Of course all the ladies in the dressing rooms around me were either laughing at me, wondering what in the world was wrong with me, or completely was annoyed by my child’s constant outbursts of sounds (happy, angry, sad, excited - there are many sounds that can come out of his mouth over a short period of time) or continuous babble or his need to smack at the door or the mirror with his hands over and over and over again. Of course, after you do this a few times, you realize shopping online may be the way to go…=)

Unfortunately, I think I’m going to have to stop there for now. I need to help find a garage for us to take the car in to, go to the store for some groceries and gather up our passport documentations – not to mention my wrists are starting to hurt from speed typing! =)

I do hope all is well with everyone! You all mean so much to us and we just want you to know that we love you all so much!

Have a wonderful day and a fantastic week!


Luke climbed up on this box and sat down - he was so proud of himself!



What a cutie!


Luke eating a chocolate chip cookie...while clutching Bunny...



I kept trying to get Bunny away from him so he wouldn’t get chocolate all over him...let's just say it took many attempts and a big distraction. But I'm glad I managed, because by the end, Luke looked like this...


Chocolate on his nose from another cookie eating experience. I swear we give him other foods!

Luke and Chris at the swimming pool...

We attended Fort Gordon's Cinco De Mayo Celebration on Saturday...

Luke's first carousel ride...he didn't really know what to think...

Waving on Daddy's shoulders...

Posing for a picture...

Luke loved the band and watching the dancing. Here he is trying to dance himself!

Luke's first funnel cake...

I held the plate up for the camera to show that we had eaten it all, but Luke decided to plop his face down on the plate and get some more powdered sugar!

Luke's first pony ride...he wasn't sure what to think of this either!

Until next time!!!