Christmas Letter

Today I am writing my christmas letter to all my friend and family. In a week or so I will probably post it on here in case it didnt reach any of you. Sorry I kinda fell out of doing my days of thanks on here. I will try to start doing it again :P

Days of Thanks : Days 6-13

Yes I have a lot of catching up to be doing right now... the posts from facebook will be italicized and i will elaborate if i feel like it lol.
Lets start with Day 6:

I'm thankful for my family's, friends' and coworkers' impeccable sense of humor. Oh my goodness this is going to be a fun week. Thank you for making my life full of laughter!

(Alexus) I'm thankful that my mommy and my Grandma  and my Uncle can make me laugh. And that we laugh often :)

Now, I posted about sense of humor because i know a lot of jobs in the air force, they don't really joke and have a good time at work. they sit there all day with their face stuck to a computer being bored and not communicating with anyone at all. I personally could NEVER stand that. i need to be able to joke with the people i am around or i will lose my mind. life was not meant to be boring. so don't let it be that way. LIVE LAUGH LOVE. Now for Alexus's part it kind of played off of mine obviously. But i tried to make it make sense for a one-year-old.


Days of Thanks : Day Seven - I am thankful for the freedoms we have in this country even though I can't fully participate in some of them. I am very thankful though, that my daughter can participate and I intend to encourage her to participate in those freedoms to the fullest. I am thankful for the founding fathers and for their hard work in setting this country up. Still, I would imagine they might be disappointed in how things have evolved today in terms of government. Oh well. I'm still thankful for what we have, as compared to other, more oppressed countries.

I think that one stands on its own....


Day Eight- Today we are thankful for good food to eat, from basic stuff like milk eggs and bread to the fancier stuff like steak salmon and shrimp. Desserts and breakfast food. Sandwiches pasta and cereal. Fruits and veggies especially. Yummy! Thankful also for the ability to taste all these yummy things :)

This day i think i ate something i really enjoyed but i don't remember what it was. I am such a foodie i don't know what i would do if i couldn't taste it!

Days of Thanks : Day Nine- we are thankful for music today. Good music, good beats, good bass. Wish we could get some quality back into our music that's being put out these days though. 
I was listening to a really good song this day that I had recently rediscovered in going through my iTunes. I love music and i love a good beat. but i hate what a lot of music has become.. Nikki Minaj --STOP TRYING TO MAKE MUSIC YOU ARE HORRIBLE AT IT.... that goes for a lot of other newer artists coming out today too but she is in like every remix and every song and it drives me bonkers.

Day Ten- today we are thankful for mommy having a working vehicle that can take us everywhere we need to go.

Even though i don't really like the car i have right now i am thankful that it gets me to work and back as well as across town to do fun stuff now and then. and even though i am about to have to replace some decently costly things on it... at least i have one and it runs.. a lot of people don't.

 Day Eleven - today we are thankful for all the men and women who have fought and currently fight for our country by serving in the military. No matter if they deploy or not, each person has a vital role and a greater purpose than what they may think. I only realized this after listening to a speech from a commander after our big inspection. It went a little something like this :
We may get poked fun at because we are a test and training base, but you need to realize that if we didn't test and train we wouldn't ever issue out bigger and better things. We would be stuck with the same stuff we had in the 1940s. So take pride in your work at this test and training base. Its because of all of us that we are the best air force in the world.

So yes I take huge pride in my job. No we don't always do the right thing or do things the right way but where would we be if no one served and no one cared?

Again... this DEFINITELY stands for itself.

Days of Thanks ~ Day 12 that I missed- I am thankful for a brain to think eyes to see a nose to smell ears to hear and a heart to love. 
Even though this one is short i don't think it really needs elaboration either. sometimes the most simple phrases carry the most meaning. 

 Day 13 ~ I am thankful for true, faithful friends. Friends who love me for who I am even when I mess up in a big way or a small way or in between. I am thankful for their honesty and compassion. I am thankful for the love of those who love me


this is the post from today. maybe I'm just getting lazy from typing all this but i think that one is pretty solid too.

Thanks for reading :)

Days of Thanks : Day 4 and Day 5

I know I missed out on posting yesterday... I only posted it on my Facebook.
Day four was giving thanks for my job that provides a comfortable lifestyle for Alexus and myself.
Day five has been about being thankful for my and Alexus's health. We have both been very blessed throughout my pregnancy up until present day there have not been any major health issues and for that I am so very grateful. Sorry this is so short. I'm really tired... first day back to work.... yuck!

Day of Thanks : Day Three

I figured that since I had my solo thanks today that I would try to make one up for Alexus. I gave it my best shot...

I am thankful that I have a mommy n daddy who love me. Even though I stay with my mommy most of the time I know my daddy still loves me because he gets so excited every time I get to go see him. They teach me new stuff every day and make sure I have everything I could ever want or need. They may not always know what they are doing or if they're doing it right but it works for me either way. The most important thing I think they have taught me is how to love, and because of that my love is strong and unconditional and I forgive them quickly when they mess up. Thanks mommy and daddy! I love you both :)

Day of Thanks : Day Two

Today I am giving thanks for my beautiful daughter. She inspires me and motivates me to be a better person. She keeps me going on the days I feel out of energy. She's my bundle of giggly joy. She will be 13 months old in 6 days. Oh how the time has flown. She has taught me a new way to love. She has taught me something's about how to raise her. A lot of the time I am just fumbling along but she loves me anyways. She's the sunshine peeking through the clouds. My rainbow after the storm. She reminds me every day that when events or people in life try to knock you down you wiggle around to keep your balance and if you do by chance fall down you get right back up n keep going as if nothing happened. I love my daughter with all my heart and soul. She's the love of my life. Thank you God for my baby girl Alexus Jade Elise.

Days of Thanks : Day One

So a lot of my friends on Facebook are doing this thing called the days of thanks for November. I thought I would join in and also to a version on my blog. Hopefully I can remember it every day :)

So for day one I am giving thanks for all my friends and family.. they have shown incredible support for me and Alexus these past few months and some of them don't even know what's going on. Its been pretty rough for me some days and there has always been a friend or family member there to offer an encouraging word. And the ones who don't know what's going on usually have some really good timing as do the ones who know.

I've had my days where I felt I had no friends or felt my family had totally forgotten I existed. But before the day is out someone shows me I am loved. Be it through a text, a call, a like on a Facebook post, a comment, a message, or even a hug for the ones I have here in NV and the ones I just visited in VA. You all may never know how appreciated you are. Words can't do full justice.

For the new friends I made, you guys may not read this but if you do I am thankful for you guys as well..

Well this was a quick note before I head to the gym. Sending love from Vegas from Jean and Alexus! XOXO

Updates

Well i think it may be high time for me to do a new entry in here. i want to start off with the negativish stuff to get it out of the way. I don't want to give a whole lot of details but i would like to inform people to an extent just to hopefully avoid awkward questions.

First of all, Chris and I have gone our seperate ways. The way things are set up right now, he has visitation with Alexus every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. I have her the rest of the week and have been rather blessed in terms of finding childcare. Aside from my mom and AJ, one of my best friends here in Nevada, her mom watches her on occaision, a couple other close friends of ours watch her. Chris watches her while I am at work on his days.
Second of all, I lost 2 of my grandparents this year. Within a few weeks of each other. One on my mom's side and one on my dad's. I made it to the memorial for one and the last few days for the other. I sadly will miss the memorial for the second one but I will be there in spirit. I miss them both terribly. They were great assests to this world and will be missed by many.

Now on to happier things.

First: Alexus is now 11 months old. Hard to believe how quickly time has passed. She is walking, knows up mama and dada. she knows what "not for Alexus" means as well as "be nice to Tom" (our cat.)

This is Alexus's gift from Nana. She absolutely LOVES it. I'm thankful that she was able to meet both Nana and Grandpa before they passed. Even though she won't really remember, she will have pictures and know who they are.

Second good thing: I got promoted :) making 200 a month more now. helps a lot more than i thought it would. have a plan to put it into savings and create a cushion for emergencies. Hopefully get my debts paid off soon. kinda tired of having those around!

And of course I have all the normal things to be thankful for. House/home, family and friends who are always there for me no matter what, food, clean water, a career, good medical care, the opportunity for furthering my education and most importantly the love of God and his watchful eye over me. I have learned alot in this past year and have found a renewed dependency on Him. I may not always understands the events that happen in my life but I know with His guidance I can make it through anything. I am thankful for all the prayers that have been and will be said for Alexus and myself, as well as Chris.

Until next time I want to leave you with some quotes.. they are kind of my new thing :)

"Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius."
                                                   George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
                                                  Roald Dahl

Videos

This used to be one of my favorite noises to make when I was younger :)

Just a ball of energy :)

For more videos visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/CDRnJMCalways?feature=guide

Memorial Day: Coming Soon on a Calendar Near You

Well summer has begun, maybe not officially according to the calendar, but Summer starts early for us in the desert. Temperatures are already well on their way up. Pools are open, and the smell of baby sunscreen is in the air. We bought an above ground pool that's a decent size so that we could take Alexus any day, any time. We also bought a bumble bee floater so she can freely kick to where she wants to go. We went to the river and the lake as well. She loves the water.

A few other new things she has picked up since our last update. Picking herself up, crawling EVERYWHERE, walking if you hold her hands, drinking water from a cup, and more things I'm sure I didn't mention. She is growing so fast. She babbles until she can't stay awake anymore, she gets excited when mommy n daddy come home from work, she will be standing up in her crib by the time you get in there to pick her up from a nap, and she weighs over 16 lbs and is over 2 ft tall now. She's learning to be more gentle when she pets Tom instead of pulling all his fur out :) She is getting pretty close to being too tall for her car seat. She gives hugs and kisses. She won't take things from strangers and half the time won't smile at them anymore. She gives them the "who are you and what makes you think you have the right to talk to me" face. She loves the camera, video or still. She smiles back ALL the time, unless she's already upset.

Daddy (Chris) still has his job at O'Reilly's but is searching high and low for another job. Apparently his boss intends to write him up for taking 2 days off to stay with me in the hospital and every other time in the past that he has taken time off to be there at the hospital with me. Ridiculous. Especially since Chris always made sure someone could cover his shift. Other than that, he's enjoying the nicer weather for riding and getting to do more things outdoors.

Mommy(me) is now short a gall bladder. But for the better. The constant pain after eating ANYTHING was just too much. We found out during/after the surgery that if i hadn't gotten the gall bladder and stones removed when i did it could have killed me within a month. So I'm thanking God on that one. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. Anyways. So I have a week of con-leave and a month of no lifting pushing pulling jumping running...pretty much anything beyond walking. Which probably means I will be back up pushing papers for at least another month. I did achieve my 5-level though and that's what I really wanted. Whatever they assign me to, I will as always do it to the best of my abilities.

first time to catch her eatin cereal on video :)

3 months

Can you say mini-Chris? :)

bein silly with Daddy



priceless face to me



She is such a G

aaaand we have found our feet

O.O Daddy got me!

In a hat borrowed from a new friend :) too dang cute <3

I cant believe its already been 3 months. 4 months in just about a week and a half. She's been nothing but a blessing to me. I love her more and more every day <3

Life Til Now

(((  Even though this blog was created primarily to update friends and family about life in the Air Force, Las Vegas and also about Life as a new Mommy, I will probably end up ranting and raving about things and asking for input from other people on issues I feel strongly about. So now that I have that little disclaimer in there I'll continue on with life updates. )))
I guess I could probably give a rundown of life since right before I joined the Air Force.
In the summer of 2009, Chris and I had started plans to get married but the jobs that we had weren't getting us anywhere. Because he had pins in his hip and lower back he wasn't able to join the military like he really wanted; I told him I would give it a try. In the fall of 2009, I started talking to a recruiter in the Richmond area about joining the Air Force. When looking at the military branches I had ruled out all but the coast guard and the Air Force. Having more interest in planes than water, I chose the latter. My recruiter was SSgt Bennett. She gave me all the necessary information to set me up for success, such as PT requirements, some important regs, the rank structure,  as well as the Creed and Song. I went to MEPS a few times and almost didn't make my ship date because I was JUST within the limits for my weight. I acutally had to gain weight to get in! Imagine that... Anyways. So I got my ship date and it was the 27th of April. Chris and I decided to still get married before I left.

March 19th, 2010 was the date. It was small, on the beach in North Carolina. Everything about our wedding was perfect. The weather, the beach, the ceremony. We both cried but it was good times :) Everyone that was there was family, maybe not by blood but they were still family. Some people weren't able to make it because it wasn't local but the people who did, helped to make our day that much more special. After the wedding we had a pseudo-honeymoon... it was only in a hotel down the street but it was a small getaway We enjoyed it and I think that's what was important.

After the wedding we had a little over a month to spend together before I had to leave. I still remember the night I left. I cried. A lot. I didn't want to spend 2 months away from my new husband. I wasn't sure I would make it through Basic without him and many times during Basic I just wanted to quit and go home. But that last month before I left was a little hard and the day for me to leave came much to soon. We stayed at a hotel near Fort Lee. I had to stay in a seperate room from Chris. I think that was to make sure we didn't do anything crazy before I had to leave in the morning but I'm not really sure. I woke up extra early to make sure I could go kiss him good bye one last time. I wanted our last minutes to be happy because that was the last time I would see him for 8 1/2 weeks.

{ ewww poison ivy :/ }

The beginning of basic is a little hazy. I do remember it was dark when we got to Lackland and I remember getting off the bus at my squadron (324 hu-ah). The first few days are hell on you and thats the way it's supposed to be. Basic isn't comfortable, it isn't a walk in the park or a vacation. Its made to break you down so you can be shaped into the Airman our Air Force needs you to be. The first week is probably the worst by far. You are allowed to make one VERY short VERY painful call home. I think our limit was a minute or two. We had to read a script from a card that we would eventually send out to our family. When I called Chris to read mine, I was crying so hard he couldn't even understand me. I basically blew through the script, told him about 3 times that I loved him and had to hang up the phone. I remember how confused and upset he sounded. He even tried to call me back but I couldn't answer. As time went on I had to train myself to keep focused on anything but home. Thinking that way only made me weaker and I knew now that I was there I couldn't give up. So I kept on. I went back to church for the first time in .... well I don't even really know how long. I went every Sunday except one when I stayed behind to wax the dorm floors. My biggest challenge other than keeping my head in the game throughout all of basic was PT. I've never been a good runner or had much upper body strength to do pushups. But my MTI's pushed and pushed and pushed until I made it. Graduation finally came and we got to spend the days with family before we headed off each to our respective tech schools. I was really hoping to get out of Texas by this point. BUT of course I ended up staying in Texas, just at a different base.

My next base would be at Sheppard for about 5 months for my tech school. About halfway through Chris was able to come see my. I was so excited to see him :) He spent the weekend at the hotel near base and I would go see him when I didn't have to be signed in to the Squadron. While I was gone we had a lot of issues again. Seperation was really hard on our relationship. I think we both learned a lot about ourselves on that one.

I went to Tyndall for follow on for my jet so I could get a little bit of hands on experience. This was probably the best part of tech school for me.


I spent 10 days on leave visiting in Virginia and saying my final goodbyes...at least for a while. I was assigned to Nellis as my first PCS. All the way on the opposite side of the country from all of my family, friends, "enemies," everything I had really ever known. Away from the trees and normal looking deer, colorful flowers and home-cooked meals. It was really hard on me mentally.

Well in December, Chris and I packed everything we could fit into his RSX, with all our other larger belongings already headed across the country in a freight truck. So we set out to the great unknown and arrived in Las Vegas in mid-December. I didn't come in for my first actual day of work until January 3 2011. I did all my inprocessing stuff and started working the line. Well, to say the least the line didn't last long on February 12, we went to CVS to get pregnancy test. I was on BC but hadn't had my cycle, so I wanted to check just in case, even though Chris also wasn't supposed to be able to have kids as well. And as everyone knows now :) the tests were positive! And so was the hospital test I took on February 14th! I spent the rest of my work days in the snack bar until I finally delivered on October 8th.

Now that I'm breastfeeding I am working in the office with the flight chiefs, thankfully. I would rather office work over the snack bar anyday and I have TSgt Dittmer to thank for that. I help him with training stuff and keeping on top of the flight schedule. Getting people training they need. Makes me feel good that I am actually accomplishing things instead of just sitting around. One good thing about being in the snack bar is I was able to concentrate solely on my CDC's I finished them in 5-6 months and we have a year to do them. I didnt' score as well on my EOC as I would have liked but at least I passed.

So I think that pretty much covers life up until now. Anything I missed leave a comment and I will try to elaborate!

Thanks for reading :)

Sunday Morning

so today alexus went to church with Grandma. She said she loved the music which was mostly acapella. but i wanted to share the picture of her heading out. I cant stop taking pictures of her :) she got back a little bit ago and kept dozing off but now we're awake! off to take more pictures.....

Videos of alexus

This is her first successful trip into her bouncey chair. Enjoi :)

and part deux

And it begins....

So now I'm here. My sister convinced me to create a blog so that I could more easily share what is going on in the lives of our little family here in Las Vegas...for now. YAY :)