Pay day and the commissary

Like most enlisted (especially lower ranks) military, payday is a huge deal to us. It means we've got the money to pay bills, grocery shop, and even go out to dinner (something that still almost never happens). Well, today was that day. We needed just a few essentials, and since the Commissary (the base grocery store) has the best prices, it's always a good idea to get stuff there. Plus, we were going to be on base anyway. Well, we pull into the parking lot and it's packed. I mean packed. Thank God I'm pregnant so I got my maternity parking, otherwise it would have been quite a barge across the snow/ice covered parking lot. Especially with a toddler who wants to walk everywhere.
So, anyway, we get inside and it's just miserable. I find out that not only was today payday for the active duty folk like ourselves, but it was also the day all the retirees get their monthly check. So, every old person in the greater surrounding area who served in the military is SLOWLY walking muttering to themselves as they try to do math on their calculators. Then of course there are the couples who have lost each other on the same isle and just look completely lost for a few moments until they spot each other. You feel a little bad for them, but at the same time, you're too busy trying to maneuver your cart (and toddler) around to really care. Anyway, you're constantly saying "Excuse me. EXCUSE ME." Until the person hears you, and moves.
Then finally, you have made your way around the store, and it's time to check out. So, you head to the front and go to get in line, when, what's this? You cannot find the end. You begin to follow the winding line of carts, children, and adults until you find yourself back in the frozen foods section in the opposite side of the store saying "Oh my... what do I not need? Can this pass for under 15??" Luckily today, I had John with me, so, I ran and got a hand basket, gave him about 10 items, and we both stood in the express line. I should mention this was also extremely long, but, it went an awful lot quicker since you didn't have the people pushing two fully loaded carts along and attempting to check out with them. So, we pretended to not know each other, checked out, and then met back up at the store exit.
Quite an ordeal. But, I got everything I need to make John my steak and egg rancheros with homemade salsa for breakfast one of these days, cream for the ice cream I'm going to make tonight, and cleaning supplies to thoroughly cleanse my house from the damn mice we've been dealing with. I should mention there is at least 1 still here since I keep finding poop. I am determined to catch the bastard, even if it means I have to cut it in half with one of those old school mouse traps. Not my idea of a good time, but, hey, it saves me from having a contaminated, mouse poop, house.

One more week

It seems like just a couple weeks ago we found out John was going to be deploying to Afghanistan, which makes it all that much harder to think that in just one week, he will be boarding his plane leaving Tori, Ozzie, and pregnant me behind. Luckily, it will be a short deployment (thank you Air Force!!!) of about 120 days, so hopefully he'll be back early to mid May, about 4.5 months. Which means he'll be back right after the baby is born, such a relief. I keep worrying he'll be delayed and I'll be here in the snow alone for weeks with a newborn and toddler. Not exactly my idea of a great time.

While John's deployed he will be living in a dorm with 4 other people in his room. Yes, you heard me. 4 men SHARING a dorm room. If you were one of the lucky few to experience dorm life in college, you understand just how crazy this seems. If not, a dorm is about 200 sq feet. I'm not sure if these are larger, but I sure hope so. In order to create privacy, they tell you to bring an extra sheet or blanket so you can hang it up to create a makeshift wall. And one guy was telling John that his mattress was up against the wall in his section, so when he would sleep either his head or his feet were always elevated. Crazy. The good news is, the bathrooms and showers are in the same building, and the dorms are heated. Or at least right now they are. I guess the heat was just fixed, lucky for John. And hopefully they'll stay fixed since Afghanistan is having their cold season right now, which is similar to Utah weather, without the snow.

So, anyway, we're trying to get the last minute supplies and spend as much time together as possible. So, for those of you I still need to contact to thank you for your Christmas gifts, please understand that although the holidays may be over (sort of, New Years is in a couple days) we're still running around trying to get everything we wanted to get done. So, hopefully I will have time this week to call you. Thanks for your understanding.

Merry Sickmas

I went to bed late last night after cleaning, baking, stuffing stockings, and making sure everything was perfect for this morning. I couldn't sleep, and just assumed it was the 10 year old in me getting excited for Christmas, but when I woke up at about 7 and realized my breathing was a little more labored than usual, and not to mention painful, I knew I had come down with a cold. So, after taking a shower and some Tylenol cold, I decided it was a lost cause, and since John was feeling the same way, we would just have to trade off all day watching Tori. So, I made my Swedish Tea Ring breakfast while John took a long bath and a nap, then when he came out, I laid down on the couch and rested, eventually falling asleep at some point. Now we're both awake and just wanting the day to end so we can crawl into bed and pass out. Not my ideal Christmas, but, it beats the alternative of not having one at all.
I think the worst part is that I can only take Tylenol since I'm pregnant. Otherwise I would be chugging DayQuil (my cold medicine of choice) like John has been and probably feeling a lot better. Then some NyQuil to help put me to sleep. I have heard pregnant women can take Tylenol PM, but I don't think I'd risk it. Hopefully I will be so exhausted come 9PM that I won't need it and hopefully by some miracle, the exhaustion carries me through the whole night.
Anyway, in a merrier note, Tori loved everything she got. Luckily I got her toys, and everyone else got her clothes (something that kid ALWAYS needs) and shoes, so, she's set. Her big present from Santa was this dancing Mickey Mouse, and she's been dancing with it all morning. It's super cute. I can't wait till next year when we can actually make cookies and give the reindeer carrots. And she'll understand that there is a happy, fat, little man who likes to sneak into people's houses once a year, eat their food, drink their milk, and leave presents. Sounds like a good deal to me. After all, we cook for friends all the time, and they don't leave awesome, wrapped, presents.
To everyone that sent us gifts, gift cards, and money, I cannot thank you enough. Because of you, our tree had twice as many presents under it and Christmas didn't seem like such a failure. I really need to start a Christmas savings account for next couple years. Not working and surviving from paycheck to paycheck hasn't been easy, but especially come the holidays when we're trying to find extra money, it's just miserable. Another reason I'm glad Tori is still young, so she doesn't have to realize just how broke mommy and daddy are. Haha. Oh well, I think it comes with being young parents. For being 22 year old parents I think we are doing a damn good job raising Tori. Once we sell our house and either move back on base or to a different base, things will be a lot easier. Coming up with the extra money for a mortgage and utilities hasn't been fun.

Christmas is almost here!!

When I think of all the things I wanted to get done before Christmas, and then look at the list of things I actually did get done, I laugh a little. I did do Christmas cards, we did get a tree and decorate it (which is now dead and will be leaving Saturday morning before it burns the house down), and I did get everyone some presents. Mainly Tori, since I don't "need" presents, and John is leaving in a little over a week and can't really use many things. We are going to order him the Barnes and Noble "Nook" which is their digital reading device (similar to the Amazon.com Kindle, but with the rights to thousands more books) since he will have access to internet and will be able to down load new books whenever he finishes the one he's on. But, they are back ordered until the 21st, so, I'll have to ship it out to him with one of his care packages.

The things I didn't get done were take pictures with Santa, build a "deployment" album (this will hopefully go into his first care package now) with pictures of Tori, me, and then the few pictures we have of the whole family, and go shopping/plan for a Christmas dinner. I do have a steak in the freezer I can defrost... Haha. I suppose that will have to do. And I can make a Swedish Tea Roll for Christmas morning, but, other than that, my family is out of luck. There just isn't enough money to do everything. I'm thinking about putting $20/month away into a Christmas fund for next year. That way we're not scrambling around trying to budget an extra couple hundred dollars out of the final months of the year. Since, well, that money just isn't there.

Either way, Tori still isn't really old enough to remember EVERYTHING, so, if we are still acting like our age (AKA irresponsible) this year and haven't figured it all out yet, she won't know. Starting this next year though, I'm going to have to be on top of things a lot more (including housework, shoot me now please). I'm not sure how I feel about that. It will be fun to make cookies for Santa and give carrots to his reindeer, but, it makes more work for me. Since, we all know John won't be the one baking cookies.

Parenting Lectures

As a mother, and now pregnant with our second child, I get these "helpful parenting tips" from everyone. Their way of raising kids is the right way, and I NEED to know it or else my children will turn out terribly. I do listen, and nod, and I am polite when they finish, but really? Children today go through so many different things than say the children of the 60 year old woman standing in line behind me. Sure I bet a little brandy on a child's gums won't kill them, but I'd rather use something like Orajel that was made for children's gums instead of her husband's favorite drink. And if I don't feel like spanking my child to discipline her, that is my choice. Do not tell me I am doing something wrong unless I am jeopardizing my childs saftey and well-being. Counting to 3 and putting her on time out serves the same purpose without terrifying her.
My favorite lecture was one I recieved again today while at the doctors for an infected toe. How it went from my ingrown toenail to me breastfeeding, I have no idea. I wasn't even wearing a low cut top. But, regardless, the male doctor wanted to make sure I was going to. I thought he was going to make me sign in blood at one point.
Since I breastfed Tori, I was definitely planning on doing it again. It helped me loose the extra weight, helped me bond with Tori, and was a heck of a lot cheaper than buying $10 cans of formula. BUT, my issue wasn't the helpful suggestion of breastfeeding, it was the fact that a male, who cannot, and will not breastfeed a child was all but forcing me to tell him my unborn child will also be breastfed. Since I have gone through the process before, I am familiar with how big a pain in the butt it can be. Not only do your nips hurt for weeks in the beginning, but if you are unfortunate like me, even months later, when your body should only be producing the amount the child can drink, it's not. If I didn't wear some sort of absorbent cotton pad in my bra day and night, I would have been that woman everyone laughs at on tv sitcoms soaking through her shirt in public. The worst was at night when Tori began sleeping through the whole 8+ hours. It meant I had to have sore, HUGE, boobs from when I fell asleep until she woke up. Not fun. Especially since if I laid on my side, it meant I would leak everywhere. And forget laying on your stomach unless you are bone dry. They are too huge and swollen to allow you to get comfortable there, plus, once again, you leak.
Anyway, what I am trying to get at here is that men should not have the right, even holding a medical license, to tell women what they should do with their bodies. If you can't breastfeed, or choose not to, that is your choice. Formula these days has many of the same nutrients in it that breastmilk does, and formula children will grow up to lead healthy and successful lives like any breastfed child. And berating a poor woman to breastfeed only makes her feel that much worse if for example, she medically has an issue that makes her unable to, or because of work schedules cannot pump milk during the day.
So, to all you men out there who feel the need to tell women to breastfeed: don't, until you have had to do the same. No one likes a hypocrite.

Sleeping Beauty

After a long night and early morning (Holiday party, and then driving John back on base to his car so he could go snowboarding), I came back home, looked at the laundry and dishes, and decided not to do them right away (big surprise, I know). Instead, I sat on the couch with my beautiful little girl and fell asleep watching Handy Manny, a cartoon about a handy man and his talking tools, very cute.
Anyway, I was woken up about 30 minutes later by my daughter in my face. At first I had NO idea why she was so close, and to be honest, it definitely startled me. Then she leaned in even closer and kissed me and sat back up and giggled. It was cute, and I had no idea what had given her the idea. So I just decided she was being affectionate, and "accidentally" fell back asleep. After all, her cartoons are entertaining, but not enough to keep me from napping when I know I can and she is safe.
Another 15-20 minutes later, I'm woken up in the same cute way. I finally sit up and decide to figure out what the heck she is trying to do. Then I remembered we've been watching Sleeping Beauty a lot lately. Well, it seemed like John and I were watching it more than her. Her attention span with cartoons is about 30 minutes long, then she runs around and plays with the dog and her toys. I'm not complaining at all, I'd rather her not watch a ton of tv anyway.
But anyway, she has been paying attention a lot more than we thought, and must think the best way to wake someone up is to kiss them. It's too adorable and just had to share.

My sour mood Thursday

I woke up crying. The reality of my husband, my best friend, and my soul mate, leaving me to go off to war is just hitting me all too fast. I know he will be safe; he is an anaylst, who will be sitting at a desk, in the middle of a well protected base, after all. But, will I end up being okay? Self doubt is just taking over my esteem, and I can't handle it. I know I can survive without him. We've done this before. But, never have I been pregnant, with a toddler, and had to bring a child into this world alone. I know in the past, men weren't allowed to be in the room when children are born, and that's not what I need him here for. He can't help with labor anyway. No one can, except for Mr. Epidural. What I do need him for is to see him hold our daughter and help me bring her home. I need him to help me introduce her to Tori, who's world is about to change more than she could ever imagine. I need him to help me raising Torin because she's getting close to the age of a lot of huge milestones; potty training, switching to a big girl bed, getting herself dressed, etc. Without him being here, I know she will refuse to do anything new, and the extra stress is just something I cannot deal with.
With this new pregnancy came a lack of patience. What I used to be able to handle has been halved. So, not only do I feel like a bad parent for having such a short fuse, but I'm worried without John here to save me at the end of the day I will end up tearing Tori and I further apart. Numerous times I have just flat out yelled when she made me angry, I've picked her up with a little more force than usual, and have begun to just ignore her so I won't have to deal with putting her on time out over and over again.
Time outs are apparently not working, but I don't know what else to do. I refuse to hit her since she's not old enough to understand why and when I was a child, spankings only made me more afraid of my father. Because of it I never really got to know him, and now it's too late to try and make amends. I refuse to be that parent. But, it seems like there is no middle ground. Victoria doesn't listen to me when I count to 3 anymore, when I put her on time out, and bring her back out, she continues to do the same thing that got her the time out in the first place. And the whining is only getting worse.
I am just at a loss. And of course, because of the deployment, John and I have become more and more distant. We're afraid to leave each other, and because of it, we've just been on edge, and have almost been all out avoiding each other.
Why did I marry a military man? I may be a strong woman, but I'm beginning to think I am just not strong enough. No one should have to go through having a child alone when they are married. It's not right. These things need to be experienced together, as a family. When families are ripped apart and placed halfway across the globe from each other, it's bound to cause issues.
I just want June to be here so we can be a family again and getting back into our old routines.

A blog I can totally relate to

I follow this blog called Momicillin. It's hilarious. The new blog today was one I could TOTALLY relate to since we recently bought Tori gummy princess vitamins. If these are visible at any point in the day, or she remembers how wonderful they taste, she takes my hand, leads me to the bathroom, and points to where we keep them. Then she begins her demands for her candy vitamins, including hand gestures, change in voice tone and pitch, and even pulling on my pants pleading with me to get some. And as cute as it is, I try not to give her one because I have no idea what the overdose is, and really don't want to find out. It is the same way with the delicious tasting Motrin and Tylenol too.
And, to let everyone know, her vitamins do taste like gummy bears. John thinks I'm crazy for trying them, and LIKING them, but he has yet to discover their deliciousness. And despite all my efforts, he refuses to try them.

Here is the blog:
Scurvy on You

My new Arch Nemesis: The snow plow guy

The weekend was really great, until it kept snowing and snowing, and our cul-de-sac was not getting plowed. The streets around our cul-de-sac were plowed, but alas, ours was apparently invisible. Finally, Sunday afternoon, the snow plow man put on his glasses and SURPRISE! Discovered a cul-de-sac and houses under all that snow. Unfortunately, our house was still invisible to the man because he decided to plow all the snow into our driveway. So, between shoveling our own driveway and carving out a place for our driveway, our Sunday was pretty busy.
We must have gotten about 2 feet of snow over the weekend, and the snow on Sunday was wet and heavy. I was being a helpful wife and shoveling the driveway with John. I was doing alright as long as I didn't fill up the shovel like I usually do with the nice powder. But, I got a little overzealous and tried to push as much snow from one side of the driveway to the other and ended up loosing the battle. I came to a halt, and decided to just start running to push the shovel. WORST IDEA EVER! Apparently my weight, at a run, was still lighter than the amount of snow I had accumulated, and I went down, face first. It was over so fast! One minute I was standing, well vertically leaning, and the next I was face down in the ice laughing. "Luckily" I landed on my hip and not my enlarged uterus because I think it would have ended in an ER trip. My hip on the other hand was not all that happy.
So, moral of the story, if it's wet heavy snow, DO NOT push more than you can handle. And also, call to complain to your city public works when they aren't doing their job. Hopefully the woman I spoke to today will relay the message onto my nemesis, and we will not not to deal with him and his hatred for our driveway again. Otherwise, I'll have to start listening for him and run out of the house and get mad at him myself.

Oh where, oh where, could my little phone be...

As much as I love my daughter, her memory could be a little better. Yes, I know, children have short memories and attention spans. Well, that shouldn't apply to helping mommy find her phone which was hidden from her. The best part is, I ask Tori "Where's mommy's phone?" and she looks around for a minute, throws her arms up, and attempts to say something, which only sounds like gibberish to the rest of the literate world.

So, after searching her usual hiding places, shoes, toys, Tupperware, drawers, etc, all I find is chex cereal, lint, random toys, her missing forks and spoons, a twig (where did that come from?!?!), and the dog's favorite chew toy. Excellent. No phone.

My next option was to beg a friend of mine to call my phone. He does. Five times. Do I hear anything? No. Apparently this time Tori decided to hide my phone in the black hole in our house. I was unaware we had such a thing, but, now it explains where all our socks end up.

Looks like we will not be running our errands today after all. Instead, I will be tearing up my house trying to find my bright pink phone. I thought getting a bright cover would help me find it in cases like this, but, I was wrong.

It's over, for now

Last night, I stumbled in the door at 8:30 to find my daughter still awake with a poopy diaper, and the husband playing video games. For once, I didn't care. I had just finished my last final after waiting 2 hours for a computer to open up (with an appointment, mind you) and freezing my butt off in the 5 degree weather. I was thrilled to be done. If only I knew I don't have to go back eventually to finish school.

It seems like a never ending battle. I get time to take classes, only to find out that I have to take another semester off, perhaps two, because my husband will be gone, and we can't afford to pay for child care. The school offers child care, but not for children under 2. The base offers child care, but it's at least a year wait, and if you cannot put your child in day care the moment they get to your name on the list, you are never allowed to use them again. Stupid? I think yes.

But, regardless, even with my college and books being paid for (thanks to my grandparents), we just cannot shell out about $500/month, maybe more (that is half our mortgage, to put it in perspective) to put Tori and her new sister in daycare. And if I worked instead of going to school, I may be able to make that much money, but, it defeats the purpose of putting them in there in the first place since I would be working, not taking classes. So, it may be awhile. I'm thinking of waiting until the GI bill covers my school in 3 years, because then they give you a small housing allowance, money for books, as well as pay for your tuition. So, hopefully the housing allowance will be enough to afford day care. Otherwise, I guess we're in the same situation as before.

My only dilemma with waiting is that some of my classes I have worked hard in may expire. I don't know what the rules are on that, but I have heard math and english expire after so many years. This sounds a little ridiculous to me because unlike the sciences, math and English haven't changed much in the past couple hundred years. Sure, new words are added to the Webster Dictionary every year, but, is that really relevant to the essays we're required to write? No. It's all the same, just different teachers and methods. And math is the same way. Sure I don't really remember the quadratic equation or how to figure out the sin and cosin or a line (is it a line those are even used for?) but, I can use a calculator, and do basic math in my head and paper, and in life, that's all that is really applicable. Despite what you high school math teachers tried to convince you.

So, moral of the story is, I may have to start from scratch, but, it will be completely paid for, and I will have daycare available, if not kids starting school. I'm not looking forward to having to start over, so I'm pretending like it's not an option. Maybe I'll just cry when the advisor tells me that, and he'll help me out. It never works with speeding tickets though. Don't try it. They just get more mad.

Someone needs an attitude adjustment

My hellacious child (can you feel the love oozing?) has decided to make today the worst day ever. On top of having to have 2 finals to complete by Thursday, a mountain of laundry to wash and another to fold, dishes and wiping down the countertops, sweeping and vacuuming, and a scattering of toys across my house to put away, my daughter has decided to throw tantrum after tantrum. The total for timeouts is now up to 5, and it's not even noon. I know she got plenty of sleep last night, but whatever the case, she is not in a good mood.

• I tried to have her help me pick up her toys, and put all the letter magnets back on the fridge, but instead she threw them at me. So, that was a time out.

• I asked her to not unfold the blankets I had just folded and put away on the couch armchair, and while looking at me, she slowly pulled the bottom blanket out, unfolding all three of them. Time out number 2.

• I asked her to come out of my room so I could shut the door (she's not allowed to just hang out in there), and she just continued to play in the dogs bed. Time out number 3.

• I handed her some books to put away on her shelf, and she ripped out a page. Time out number 4.

• I sat her in her chair for a snack, and instead of eating her banana and oranges, she threw them at the dog, who wasted no time engulfing them like I hadn't already fed her. Time out number 5.

Needless to say, I will not be able to run my errands today before a friend stops by at 3. I may not even have time to take a shower because instead of having the house picked up before nap time so I can shower, I will be using her nap time to clean.

Baby name updates

Well, it seems that agreeing on a name with my husband was not as difficult as I thought. I mean, we did go through A LOT of names, but we have both agreed on a very pretty name. Annelise. It's a German name that is originally spelt Anneliese, but I think I prefer the American spelling leaving out the extra "e". I don't want to give her some odd spelling that no one can spell. I remember a lot of people in school having odd spellings, and they were constantly annoyed with people spelling their name wrong. Although, my name is spelt "correctly" and it was still spelt weird at times. I mean, come on, how hard is Tiffany to spell? Haha.
Anyway, now the battle is over the middle name. I think John likes Annelise Mae the best, which is good since the other option was to give her my middle name, Nicole. I don't know if that's a good idea or not. I mean, it is passing it down, which is neat, and since it's not a first name, it's not going to cause any confusion. But, I would like to give her her own unique name, like I did with Victoria.
In other news, we are all doing well, and trying to study to finish our finals this next week. Both of my classes are online, so I have to finish my finals by Thursday. I have to write a 5 page essay, which I have given very little thought on since I still have NO idea what I'm going to write about. It doesn't have many requirements, we just had 3 different styles available. And, none of them have called out to me as something I'd like to write. I like how there isn't many guidelines, but at the same time, guidelines do help you narrow down all your ideas. So, hopefully today and tomorrow I can figure something out and have it done before Thursday. I don't want to wait until the last minute.
My other final is an art test with 50 accumulative multiple choice questions. It's open book, so I just want to browse through the book and take it as soon as I can since I've been working on art the last couple days. I surprisingly really liked my art class. It opened my eyes a little to not only the history of art, but how it's created, and how it's critiqued. And the book was surprisingly interesting. It had a lot of pictures, which really helps explain the different types of art and shows you the variables in each style.
And John has already taken his Chemistry final last week, but he has his math final on Tuesday. So, he's been studying a couple chapters a day to make sure he understands all the formulas and things that could show up on the final. I am SOO glad I finished all my math requirements. I hate it. Mostly because ever teacher teaches differently. I've only found one teacher that I REALLY was able to understand math from. I actually enjoyed that class, and since it was an algebra class it did help me out a lot. But, for the most part, since I don't use any math in my daily life besides calculating out how much 2.5 lbs of apples will cost at their set price. Haha. Not too difficult. ;) Plus, cell phones have calculators on them, so if ever I don't even feel like doing that, like Tori won't stop talking, and I can't concentrate, I can just do it on my phone. My phone even turns into a scientific calculator. In case I ever wanted to calculate sin or cosin, I'm set. Haha.
And of course, Victoria is doing really well. Running around, throwing her toys around the house, playing with the dog, and eating lots of carbohydrates. it's her favorite food type. Bread, plain pasta, dry cereal, etc. And she just discovered vanilla and chocolate ice cream. At first she refused to eat the vanilla ice cream with the chocolate syrup because she didn't recognize it (that's how she decides what to eat these days, only recognizable food), but John outsmarted her and she decided she liked it. Although I don't know if it was a good idea. Haha. Now she LOVES ice cream.
Oh yes, and it's snowing today. FINALLY. It's been super cold (like high's of 30, at best) but we have no snow on the ground. The little we got a week or two ago melted during a slight "heat wave" of 40 degree weather. So, anyway, time to actually go out and buy Tori her snow suit. I bought her shoes already. I just need to get her some snow proof clothing. Hopefully Walmart will have some cheap options. Although, if I get a better quality one, it'll last for this next kid. But, with the holidays upon us, money isn't exactly abundant. We'll see.

And the gender is...

A girl! Good news is, I don't have to spend a trillion dollars on clothes for the next few years. I'm sure as soon as this next one starts catching on that she's not getting "new" clothes, I'll have to start supplementing the used ones, but hey, she'll probably hate me at some point anyway, so, why not make her wear clothes she hates while I'm at it!! Haha.
Anyway, since I named Victoria, I am being reminded I promised John he could name the next one. The only problem? He wants to name her Maylene. It's not the ugliest name I've ever heard, but I definitely am not a fan. Especially when her older sister is named Victoria Elizabeth... I mean, I'm jealous of her name, so, I can only imagine what a younger sister would feel like if she was named Maylene. And it's not even a family heirloom name. It's just a name he pulled out of his butt. So, anyway, hopefully I'll be able to persuade him into changing his mind. The only problem? Every name I come up with, he hates. I literally shout it out, and before I can even take a breath and wait for a response, he shoots it down.
So, if anyone would like to help me find a name for our next child, I will be taking suggestions. Hey, I may even try to figure out how to create a poll on here. I'm sure it's do-able. Maybe in a couple weeks of narrowing down names, I can take a formal vote. We shall see. Wish me luck. ;)

Thanksgiving

This year, our household hosted Thanksgiving. Originally it was only supposed to be us and 2 other couples. A very calm Thanksgiving with 7 people, including the 2 toddlers (Tori and her friend Claire). Well, a few days before the big event, I found out that it wouldn't just be 7 people, but more like 16. Luckily I always plan on making TONS so everyone gets to take home lots of leftovers, so I only had to run to the store to grab a few extras. Anyway, we cooked our 20 lb turkey over night like my grandma Carol does, and it was absolutely delicious. I had to scrap the bones for some extra meat once everyone left since there wasn't much left. Just a drum stick and a wing. Luckily I had a friend make another smaller turkey so we stole some breast meat.
Anyway, it was an eventful day/evening which ended in a lot of cleaning. Luckily since we definitely don't have seating for everyone, we used paper plates and called it a day, so that made it a lot easier. And we're still working on leftovers of the quadruple batch of potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing. So, it's been a nice weekend of not cooking or doing much cleaning.

Other than that, I'm still pregnant. This week I have my next appointment, so more to come on that. I'm hoping it's a boy, but I have this bad feeling it is going to be a girl, again. Not that we won't love her. I just really don't want to deal with 2 girls and all the drama that will inevitably ensue. Not to mention that they are so close in age that it will constantly be a battle.

And John deploys in about a month. I'm not excited. It finally hit me last night that not only will Tori and I be without him for 5 months, but I will be very pregnant, and delivering our next child alone. Hopefully my mom will make it out here in time (I'd like for her to just stay for a month or two), since I'm freaking out that my friends around here won't get me to the hospital in time. Since they'll have to drive from their house, one to watch Tori, and one to take me. I guess if worse comes to worse, I can just drive myself as soon as labor starts. It's not so bad in the very beginning. But, it's a lot of waiting in the hospital... anyway, I will miss my hubby a lot. And I'm really not looking forward to this next year. At least not before May.