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.....