Christmas things

I’m a little scared to say it, but….

I have a new baby.

A happy one.

One who only cries when he wants his diaper changed, fed, or his beauty rest.

Today, I’m thankful for modern medicine!

And time to peruse Amazon.com. I just keep finding so many things I want! But I promise I’m only shopping for others, though 😉

Still, I’ve got my eye on these things:

Nikon COOLPIX L120 (so that I can take more pictures of my sweet boy!)

Sewing Machine (Does that come with someone who knows how to use it? )

and the Kindle Fire (because it seems like the affordable, awesome alternative to the iPad2.)

Why is everything I want expensive? I might just treat myself after Christmas to one of these items with the birthday money or Christmas money I have left over after I purchase gifts for everyone else. We’ll see. For now, though…I’ll just visit them online every now and again.

This weekend was nice. On Saturday J, K and I went to the local parade for a few minutes. It was sprinkling so we didn’t stay long because I was worried about Baby K’s little ears. I didn’t want him to catch a cold (even though those two things aren’t really linked. lol). Still, we saw enough to get into the Christmas spirit! Then yesterday I went to a presentation of the Living Christmas Tree at a friend’s church. It was awesome! I spent much of the service intrigued by ‘how they got the lights to do that!’ It doesn’t take much to impress me. Anyway, the Christmas music put me in the mood and I wanted to hop in the car and drive to Tennessee right then and there, but we still have a few weeks left before that can happen.

Who else is pumped about Jesus’s birthday??

Food Festival

Hello, world.

In the midst of cries, diapers, recording All American Muslim, 19 Kids and Counting, Sister Wives and The Walking Dead, and giving little man a bath I found some time to come back to my blog. This weekend has been rough at times, but fun, too. Captain J is rarely home these days as he is working hard and sometimes isn’t able to come home from “the field”. I have parented alone most days the past few weeks and boy, is it tiring! I have enjoyed my snuggles with Baby K, though and it’s refreshing to be so aware of the connection we have. I love being a mom.

Yesterday, a friend and I headed off to the food festival here in town. Louisiana food with all its spices and glory was abundant. They even cooked up a gator!

I pulled up to the event with a massive jogging stroller packed into a compact German car. After finally dragging it out of the tiny backseat, I struggled forever trying to get it unfolded. Husbands are good for figuring out folded up strollers. My own hubby wasn’t there, though because he had to work. Thankfully, I saw someone else I knew and her husband helped us figure it out. Shortly after it was unfolded, I took my eye off of it to go get Baby K and it slammed into my car. I just knew it was going to be one of those days.

Except it wasn’t.

It was a good day.

The food festival was quite popular among the residents in our tiny little town. The streets were blocked off to make room for tons of good food, sidewalk chalk fun, and music! The line meandered around the tents set up and ready to serve and the food wasn’t all that was hot. Try as I might, I can’t make fall weather here. Every morning, I dress Baby K and myself in pants and long sleeve shirts only to quickly realize that it’s not quite time for them here. Some people were dressed in coats (Coats!?!) in the 70-80 degree weather while others donned shorts and flip flops.

After tasting the food, my friend, her daughter, K Baby, and I went to our favorite only local hangout for some coffee. I ordered a hot chocolate. The girl working asked me if I wanted it hot. Hmm.

It takes all kinds.

That statement pretty much sums up the festival, too. A good time was had by all, though. 😉

The Halloween Hustle

Tom Sawyer, Curious George, and (Where’s) Waldo hopped in the car this morning at 7am and sped off into the day. At least that’s who we were trying to look like. Perhaps my costume this year was a fail. Anyway, we pull into the parking lot where the Halloween Hustle 5K was taking place in our little Louisiana town. It was quite chilly for us so we didn’t get out of the car immediately. While we’re hanging out in the car, we begin to realize we’re the only people dressed up. Like THE ONLY PEOPLE. The registration form clearly stated to be creative and wear your costumes!

We can’t be the only creative people who like to run in Deridder, can we?

Captain J begins to flip. He’s all, “I can’t believe you talked me into this”, “What was I thinking?” , “The things I do for love!” And I’m all, “Oh well, we’re festive, dear. It’s okay!” I crawl in the backseat to begin feeding my little monkey. Meanwhile, J is saying how he is not getting out of the car to get our tshirts and race numbers. Then he tells me, “Hey, can you unlatch him and buckle him back in? I’m going home to change.”

Bah (Halloween) humbug!

We sped home because the race was starting in 9 minutes. 9 minutes!

Captain J runs inside and comes back out donning a Kurdish football uniform and I smile inside knowing that he does, in fact, love me. He dressed up! Hip hip hooray! I guess Tom Sawyer was a little much for him. Anywho…

we make it back to the starting line just in time and I get in the very back because I’m pushing a stroller and I just know I’m going to be slow as Christmas. The facilitators of the race are snapping photos left and right and some guy with a wig on shouts, “Why am I the only one dressed up?!”

Umm.

Yeah, I look like this every day.

Long story short,my army man and I looked like a bunch of weirdos running the streets of Deridder this morning. Good thing Baby K is still small, otherwise I fear he’d be quite ashamed. But all hope for the day was not lost. Ya see…this Mama (all worried about her out-of-shape self, disgusted by the 6-7ish extra pounds still lingering from the pregnancy) came in 2nd place of the 20-29 year old female division. Totally wasn’t expecting that! There weren’t many people in that group, I’ll admit, but as my dear friend Laura Faye said, “A win is a win!”

Baby K says, “Give me that medal, Mom!”

And I least I wasn’t dead last. Honestly, I thought I would be.

Have a super, fantastic, spooky Halloween y’all. I’ll be giving out candy with Baby K Curious George.

P.S.- Monday is the last day to enter my giveaway!

No Place Like Home

Hello, blog. It’s me again.

It’s late and I can’t sleep. My brain won’t stop. There’s too much on my mind. Too much to do. But all I want is to have my mom, or sister, or step-mom beside me to cry on talk to. They are all about 13 hours away so you will have to do. Don’t worry…you’ll get a shorter, edited version.

This Army life is hard, ya know? I am just not cut out for it. I was a mess during deployment- a shell of myself half the time, wondering around Walmart with my bestie with my computer and skype attached to my hip just in case. Who does that? I complained in Alaska because I was so far away from my family. It took money to get back in their neck of the woods, something we don’t really have that much of. Now, here we are…in Louisiana. Still, we’re a plane ticket away from family and I’m complaining yet again. Maybe I just thought I wanted adventure. Maybe my adventure was in raising this child, not moving from place to place. In the past year, we’ve lived in Alaska, Georgia, and Louisiana. One year. Three homes. I’m tired.

If only I had a pair of these to click together:

Roadtrip!

May I start by thanking you? Thank you oh so much to all of you who read my last post and commented, texted, sent emails, or facebooked me with encouragement on the matter. It warms my heart to hear that you all care about what’s going on in our little world and it reminds me that I’m not alone. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

I promised some happy things, didn’t I?

How ’bout I tell you about our quick weekend in Home Sweet Tennessee?

We hopped in the car on Wednesday and set out on Baby K’s first ever roadtrip. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us and that’s not counting stopping to feed/burp/change little man along the way. I was pretty sure we dropped our marbles somewhere when we set out on this adventure, but Baby K was such a little gentleman. He is a good little traveler. His grumpy moments were few and far between on our drive. In fact, his daddy was much more irritated than he was.

Captain J was in a poopy mood. At one point, I asked him if he needed me to help drive. His response? Without even the slightest tilt of his head, he said, “That’d be a death sentence.” Still trying to lighten the mood, I told him I would sing to him to keep him awake if he’d like. For some reason, he declined that, too. What’s up with my boys not adoring my singing voice? Earlier today Baby K puked after I sang him a song. I digress.

Anyway, we eventually pulled into my parents’ house in my small, sleepy little East TN town at around six in the morning. Our arrival coincided with my step-dad leaving for work, my brother getting up for school, and my mom anxiously waiting to get her hands on her newest grandson. Within an hour, they looked like this:

I’m so glad they’ve had some precious moments to bond.

Yaya had to go pick up another cute grandson of hers to take him to preschool so Baby K and I hung out while Daddy slept. We posed…

and made funny faces…

and had a grand ole time! It felt so good to be home and finally be able to show off my little bundle of joy to friends and family who hadn’t met him yet. While we were in town, we went to my former high school’s football game. My sweet boy must be athletic–he caught his first football!

Just before the game, Baby K was overloaded with a host of new (and old) admirers. He met his extended family and my very best friends. Here is my little man with his great-grandmother, aka “Mimi”:

Perhaps he got spoiled with all that attention and that’s why he has been acting totally insane the last couple of days?!

Anyway, we had a ball. We visited “JuJu and Pap” at their boat. We hung out with “Lolly and Pop” at their yacht club party. We I ate at Carl’s a lot. And by the end of the weekend, we decided it just wasn’t enough. Captain J started to re-think his whole military career, but that is another post for another time…

We drove home with a blanket of sadness over us. It’s hard to drive 12 ish hours in the opposite direction of the ones you love when you know you won’t be returning for awhile.

The good news was that we only crossed the Mississippi once on the way back…

I can’t say that’s true for the way there. SOMEbody made a few wrong turns. I won’t mention any names, but it might be the one who claims to be “a master of land navigation”. Maybe.

Anyway, all went well so long as the paci was firmly in place-

and our little Louisiana town never looked so good as it did when we pulled in our driveway. “Home” at last.

Sickos.

When I started this blog, back when we lived in Alaska, I could regale you with all sorts of tales of the land. I could discuss things that intrigued you about Alaska, like sixty below zero temps or how for fun, Alaskans build outhouses and race them down the street. I could blog/vlog about our adventures in hunting in The Arctic Circle. Perhaps you were surprised when during a bonfire with friends, a moose walked right up to our party. Now, that was entertaining. There was always a bear, dall sheep, or something to write home about.

Here in Louisiana…

There are the love bugs.

(Not my image)

Not nearly as exciting.

But this is my life now and I should document it.

Is anyone else offended by these nasty little creatures? I mean, could you procreate somewhere other than my car, front door, and mailbox please?

They. are. everywhere. Just the other day, I endangered my life as I drove to Lake Charles because of one (err, TWO) of these suckers. They were on the driver’s side window, just enough to where I could see them in my peripheral vision. I tried to ignore them, but…

umm…

GRODY!

I pushed the pedal to the metal, aiming to get those little black bugs out of my sight. I even gave them a pep talk about going to fly with their friends (who were mating nearby, the sickos). They just wouldn’t leave and I was inching close to 80 mph and I wasn’t on the interstate. Luckily, they let go and left me to finish my drive in peace.

For such a sweet, cute name they are some ugly creatures.

 

What’s Up With Us Wednesday

It’s four o’clock pm and the second cup of coffee I’m sipping on is finally making me feel like a person again. Who knew motherhood was so tiring? Oh, wait…everyone and their sister knows that. Well, I’m really feeling it this week. It is days like these that I wish we were living a little closer to home. It sure would be nice to be able to take K Baby to the grandparents! 😉 If I had that option, I would do things like laundry and school work or perhaps I’d just sleep (I would never waste that opportunity by blogging).

I shouldn’t complain. Little man only woke up once last night to eat! It didn’t matter much, though because I still woke up wondering why he wasn’t waking up. Ha! Oh, the joys of motherhood.

I had to take him to the doctor today because he has some eye goop. Apparently, it’s not a big deal and with the help of some gel, he’ll be good to go in no time. If only I could figure out how to get it in his eye. I wish I could say this is the last of our hospital visits for awhile, but I have to return tomorrow. We should probably just rent out a room in the basement as much as we’re there.

Anyway, we started cloth diapering yesterday thanks to a pal I met here in Louisiana. She let me borrow the diapers she made for her daughter to see if we like doing it and if it’s something that will work for us. Yeah..you read that right…she made them. I was impressed, too. Domestic goddess. 🙂 Her first time sewing…EVER…and she made diapers. Brave woman. We like it so far.

I got a little love from Alaska yesterday when I checked the mail and found this waiting for us:

A bib for Baby K from a bloggy pal- Thanks, lady! My blog has allowed me contact with people all over the country and I’m happy to call you all friends. It means a lot that you all keep up with us which is why I’m writing to you right now, instead of writing a case study for class. It’s called priorities people…I got em!

And just for cuteness sake-

Now, I must run. Other priorities are calling my name (Read: my husband wants Ramen Noodles). I’ll be back before too long…hopefully with more interesting content. It’s just that my brain is barely functioning right now. Forgive me?

Dog Days of Summer

Ruff, Ruff!

That’s what our lives have been since we’ve moved here in LA. This is Drifter speaking. Let me tell ya…it’s hot. I like it here, though. There’s lots of room to run and play!

My sister, Holly and I get lots more positive attention here because I’m not constantly destroying the house and yard anymore. There’s too many other things to do! Like pick fruit and chew it!

Or wrestling with my big sis…

Yes, Louisiana is alright with us. We like it here-

How could we not?

P.S.- I keep hearin’ about having a brother around soon, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Mom just looks fat to me.

XOXO,

Drifter

Divine Intervention

I suppose you could say that the way to my heart these days is through food. Every nice thing someone has done for us since we arrived here has been evidenced through the giving of some sort of treat. I’m loving Louisiana! One neighbor brought over boudin,  a Cajun type of sausage popular ’round these parts. I wasn’t too keen on eating it in the form that it was presented to us (tubular dude) so we chopped it up and threw it into some rice and spices for a tasty meal. Later, more neighbors gave us more pound cake than I can eat. Sweets are my fav. You probably already knew that.

Sunday we tried a new church out. The Methodist church in town has an early service, as well as an 11 o’clock service so we decided to go there. My army man enjoys waking up early and I guess I’m going to have to get used to that. It’s ingrained in him now. We stayed up pretty late for a very pregnant gal so we decided to attend the later service. We loved the welcoming we received there, the message, and the more traditional service was refreshing. For the past few years, we’ve gotten accustomed to worshipping with contemporary music and a younger crowd, but our roots have always been missed. Singing those old hymns last Sunday was like visiting home. That feeling didn’t stop there. That night, the pastor stopped by with his card, a coffee cup, and M&Ms to welcome us. I was craving chocolate and with none in the house, you could say it was divine intervention when he knocked on the car port door. We plan on going back to this church to see what the early, slightly more contemporary service is like, but I think we’ve found a place we’ll return to quite a bit. Everyone is so nice. Yesterday, someone else from the congregation stopped by with yummy smelling banana bread and information about the surrounding area. I just love small towns. I’ll never want to live anywhere else!

 

Won’t you come in?

As we try and fail to figure out which light switches go with which lights, we do have something to rejoice about- The house is totally unpacked! Isn’t that glorious? Now, watch them deploy J in two months and we’ll have to pack it all up again. Such is life, I suppose.

I’m feeling pretty good about a clean house, though. Won’t you come in?

Just follow me this way and you can have seat…

Look, I even unpacked our bedroom today.

We have been sleeping in the spare bedroom because I didn’t want to face the boxes of clothes inside our own that don’t fit me anymore. As I lovingly dumped the mounds of clothing on our bed to sort, I made a deal with myself that I shall wear them all again. I have begun thinking about my workout plan after the doctor gives me the okay to start exercising again. Perhaps P90x? I’ll definitely be taking my little man out for strolls 🙂 I can’t wait.